Chapter 2: The First Steps

Part 2 of 2: A Bold New Direction

A large series of explosions sent vibrations through the ground and the walls, knocking Tara and Rachel to the floor. Each of the hostages was planted with the small explosive, and each of them promptly exploded when the devices were triggered, taking out the cops and most of the surrounding area. They didn't have time to scream before they were blown apart. But luckily, thanks to quick thinking, Tara and Rachel were relatively alright, although they were quite shaken and terrified.

"Dear God!" shouted Rachel. Tara immediately covered Rachel's mouth.

"We can't let them hear us," whispered Tara. She was secretly panicking on the inside, but she tried to put on her calmest expression for Rachel's sake. "We just have to stay calm until someone comes for help. Right, AJ?" Tara turned to her southern friend for a response, but received none. In fact, AJ wasn't even next to her. Tara and Rachel looked around, but AJ had run off somewhere.

Meanwhile, Discord was laughing hysterically at the piles of assorted limbs lying before him. Several police officers struggled to rise to their feet, but they were quickly shot down by the psychopath. He fired off his six shots, before turning to his men.

"Don't you just love it when there are multiple innocent casualties of a random act of violence?" he asked his men. But when he looked towards Clyde and Lloyd, Clyde was lying on the ground and clutching his head, while AJ was holding her arm around Lloyd's neck and pointing her sidearm towards Discord. To say the least, he was rather confused.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Discord asked. He didn't show any true signs of concern, but rather curiosity. AJ ignored his behavior.

"Put ya gun down, now," AJ ordered. "I will not hesitate to shoot ya."

"You're really going to shoot me with that thing," sighed Discord, motioning to AJ's gun. AJ shot near Discord's feet, causing him to jump slightly.

"I said, put the gun down," repeated AJ. "I will kill you."

"First of all, you won't kill me," said Discord calmly. He made no effort to put down his weapon. "You want to bring me in alive so you can ask me questions about my organization. Secondly, if you were to kill me, I hope you'd at least use a better gun."

"What are you talking about?" said AJ. She had no idea who this man was, let alone who he was working for. He smiled at her.

"You don't have any idea who I am, do you?"

"I don't need to know who you are," AJ said. "And I'm not police. I don't need to keep you alive."

"Well, for the sake of formalities," Discord took off his hat, and politely bowed to the woman before him. "I am the Lord Discord, head of the Smiling Dragons. And if I were you, I'd kill me within the next, say… thirty seconds."

"Why?" asked AJ, readying her weapon.

"Because in thirty seconds, I'll escape."

"And how do you suppose that'll happen?" said AJ. She smirked at him, knowing full well that he couldn't move before she fired at him. All variables were accounted for, and there was no chance for a sudden escape.

"FREEZE! Get on the ground now!"

AJ and Discord turned towards the door, and AJ suddenly felt very confused and annoyed. Tara and Rachel were standing in the doorway, trying their best not to let their fear show. They were holding firearms that were taken from the corpses outside, and were pointing them at Discord. Discord was now even more confused than he was sheer moments ago.

"Who the fuck are you two supposed to be?" he asked.

"Girls get back, y'all shouldn't be here right now," yelled AJ.

"You just abandoned us back there," said Rachel, who was nervously shaking, causing the gun to wobble in her hands.

"You guys know each other?" asked Discord, looking back and forth between the ladies. His question was ignored as AJ continued yelling.

"It's too dangerous for you to be here," she yelled.

"This is what we're being trained for," Tara reasoned.

"No. Y'all are not ready for this," AJ said. Discord was constantly turning around to witness the argument unfold.

"I'm in the middle of something, aren't I?" Discord joked. "I mean, you don't usually see a bunch of teenagers holding a criminal mastermind at gunpoint that often, right?"

"You two are going to get yourself killed if you act this recklessly," AJ warned.

"You're the one who ran off by yourse-"

Tara stated to argue, but was soon cut off when she heard the sound of a fast moving car rapidly approaching. A white SUV screeched down the road, before coming to a stop in front of the bank. Two men jumped out of the vehicle, and started firing their machine guns towards the bank. Tara and Rachel quickly dove for cover out of the range of fire. In the chaos that followed, Discord quickly took aim and shot the gun out of AJ's hand. Lloyd grabbed on to her arm still wrapped around his neck, and rolled AJ over his back, sending her crashing to the floor in front of him. Clyde stood up, and the three criminals quickly ran out of the bank and into the car. But before they left, Discord politely took of his hat to bow to Tara, who was pressing herself to the inside of the bank wall. The car hurriedly drove away from the bank. AJ recovered fast enough to run outside and see the vehicle in the distance.

"Fuck," she muttered to herself. She rubbed her ribs, which she poorly landed on when she fell. Tara came out of the bank and ran to AJ. "You know, I had that situation under control."

"But we didn't know that. We thought they killed you. You didn't tell us that you were going to single handedly take out the bad guys," said Tara, very annoyed. AJ sighed in disappointment.

"Well, their gone now," AJ somberly said. "There really ain't much we can do about that."

Suddenly, they heard a car rapidly approaching them. Soon, a small, blue car zoomed past the girls, nearly running them over, and headed towards the direction of Discord's car. Tara was shocked by what she saw. AJ however, didn't understand why.

"Um, Tara, are you alright?" AJ asked her. Tara's mouth was hanging open as she tried to explain what she had seen.

"I… I think that might have been Dash driving that thing."

__________

"Dash, slow down," Fiona begged from the backseat of the car. Dash was in hot pursuit of the criminals using a car that she hotwired outside of the pizza place. So far, the criminals had not noticed that they were being tailed. So, Dash was trying to get as close to the other car as possible, even if it meant breaking the law by going thirty miles over the speed limit.

"Calm your tits, girl," Dash shouted. Dash turned on the radio and started blasting rock and roll music through the speakers. Pinky, who was sitting in the passenger's seat, started to play an imaginary guitar to the tune of the music.

"Man, this is really cool; traveling down the streets in a super cool chase scene while listening to some freaking cool music. Who is this band, anyway?" Pinky asked Dash. Dash shook her head and laughed.

"I don't even fucking know! But, yeah, this song kicks ass!" Dash shouted over the music. Soon, she found herself right behind Discord's vehicle. Dash was extremely excited to say the least. Fiona was hugging the seat in front of her for protection, feeling rather certain that she was about to die. Pinky got slightly more serious for the moment, as the threat seemed to reach her on a subconscious level. Dash took one hand off of the wheel, reached into her back pocket, and pulled out a pistol.

"Pinky, when I say so, shoot the car in front of us," said Dash, grinning. "We'll show those bastards what we can do."

"Where did you get that?" Fiona said in a panic.

"Stole it from the base," responded Dash, handing her gun to Pinky. She rolled down the window on Pinky's side of the car. "Get ready to fire."

Pinky took the gun and readied her aim. When Dash gave the command, Pinky leaned out of her open window, steadied her aim, and shot at the back window of the car. But instead of passing through the glass, the bullet merely wedged itself into the back window. In the other car, Discord and his men heard the impact of the shot.

"I think that car is shooting at us," Lloyd said to his boss.

"Nice observation," Discord said sarcastically. "Anything else you want to mention? You know, the sun is bright, the grass is green, THE GODDAMN MOON FLOATS IN THE SKY?! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He turned his attention to his driver, regaining his composure. "Manny, lose these fuckers." The driver nodded, and he turned on the next corner, driving now in the wrong direction. Behind him, Dash made a sudden turn to follow him, causing Pinky to lose her balance and nearly fall out the window. But she remained in the car, and started to take shots at the car's tires. The SUV constantly swerved to avoid incoming cars, taking sudden turns to try to lose the girls. But Dash remained in hot pursuit, managing to avoid incoming traffic, albeit without the grace that the gang members had. The constant turning prevented Pinky from achieving her goal: shooting out one of the tires on the SUV. Before she knew it, she was out of ammo, so she turned back to Dash.

"Dash," she shouted over the heavy metal song that was now playing. "Need another clip. This one's empty."

"Don't got one," admitted Dash, trying to focus on following the criminals. Pinky was dumbfounded.

"You mean you grabbed a Beretta 92FS without getting any extra ammo for this thing?!" Pinky shouted. "That's standard military procedure. That be like a cupcake without sprinkles, or chicken without feathers, or-"

"I get it! I fucked up," said Dash. "You can complain later. For now, let's think of another way to kill these dipshits." Discord's men, however, had already taken notice of the fact that they were no longer being shot at, and were coming up with a plan for a counter-attack.

"They stopped firing," said Lloyd. "What do we do now, boss?"

"First of all, stop telling me 'bout shit that I already fucking know!" complained Discord. "Now, my plan is simple. You still have that grenade launcher, right Clyde?" Clyde smiled at him. The sun roof of the SUV slid open, and Discord stood up through it. The P.O.N.Y's were unsure of what he was going to do. Then, he pulled the grenade launcher through the sun roof, and aimed it at the car.

Fear ran through the girls as they realized what was about to happen. Dash didn't say anything, too afraid to speak. Pinky too was silent, and Fiona gripped the seat even tighter, hoping that everything would be okay. Discord laughed, maniacally.

"YIPPEE KI YAY, MOTHA FUCKA!" Discord shouted gleefully, as he pulled the trigger.

Click

Discord waited for something to explode, but nothing did. He pulled the trigger again and again, trying to get the weapon to fire, but nothing happened. He was out of ammo. As the girls realized the luck of their situation, Discord grew annoyed. He angrily tossed the launcher to the side of the road, and pulled out his revolver. He expertly twirled the gun in his hand, even doing tricks with it, such as tossing it in the air and rotating it sideways. While Dash was busy watching the road, Pinky was watching his skills with the weapon. Without warning, he stopped twirling and fired off three rounds into the front right tire of the girls' car. They swerved off of the road, before crashing against a nearby building. Discord was contempt with himself, as he drove away, making his escape. The girls were left relatively unharmed by the crash, but they were still shaken from the experience. They stayed in the car to catch their breath, as they watched Discord fade into the distance.

__________

"You all nearly got yourself killed with your behavior out there," Celestia scolded. They returned to the base, tired and defeated. They were now sitting in a room filled with computer monitors and large pieces of government technology, as Wilson and Celestia discussed their actions.

"But we almost got 'em," argued Dash.

"You almost got them, but didn't," Wilson added. "The amount of rule breaking and misbehavior you demonstrated is unacceptable. You're all lucky to be alive."

"The problem is that you are trying to work individually, instead of working as a single unit," said Celestia. "Rebecca, you hijacked and totaled someone's car. Rachel, Tara, you both ran into a hostage situation with no battlefield experience. You didn't even know how to operate the firearms that you were holding." Tara and Rachel felt shameful for their actions, but Dash took Celestia's words as a compliment, and she smiled to herself.

"Patricia, you displayed no ability to adapt to your situation, and you went along with Rebecca's suicidal plan. And Fiona, you could have prevented the entire hijacking, but did nothing," Celestia continued.

"It's not their fault," said AJ. She knew that her friends would be unable to defend themselves against the onslaught of the Chairmen. But she knew that she could. She had done so before. "We could attest all of our problems to two key factors. One: we didn't have a strong line of communication. And two: they're not ready for stuff like this yet. They don't have the proper training or experience.'

"That's an excellent point," said General Wilson. "But unfortunately, that brings us to our biggest problem; you." AJ was confused.

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"What did I do?" asked AJ, feeling insulted.

"A great many things," said Celestia. "You were supposed to be looking after the rest of your team. Yet in the time of crisis, you took matters into your own hands and left them alone."

"But I-"

"You also let your guard down in a hostage situation," added General Wilson. "You had no means to take the criminals alive even if you wanted to, so why not kill them and save lives? It's almost disgraceful that someone with your training would make such a simple mistake."

"I'm sorry, sir," AJ bowed her head in shame. "It won't happen again."

"Of course it won't," said the General. "Because we're demoting you."

AJ was shocked.

"You're… demoting me?" she asked, stunned.

Celestia nodded. "As of this moment, you will relieve your duties as Field Leader for the P.O.N.Y unit."

"But I-"

"It's final," Celestia said sternly. AJ stopped speaking, her anger turning to humiliation. "You faced dangerous people today. If you're going to beat them you need to learn to be part of a team before you can lead one."

"Um," interrupted Tara. She had many thoughts that needed answering, all of which she had been pondering since she came back to the base. "I have a question."

"Speak your mind," said the General.

"Well, it's just," mumbled Tara. She couldn't think of the correct wording for her question. "Who were those guys? I read the news every day, and I never heard of any group called the Smiling Dragons before."

"Of course you haven't heard anything," said Celestia. "The Smiling Dragons run the press. And the banks. And the cops."

"The cops that were dispatched were probably members that Discord couldn't get along with, so he cut them loose," added Wilson.

"We've been tracking this 'Discord' for about a year now," said Celestia. "He's been involved with countless acts of terrorism, homicide, gang violence, drug trafficking, rape, you name it. And every time we think we have him, he manages to escape. From what we've gathered, he's only doing this for the sake of causing as much pain as possible to the people around him."

"That's fucked up," muttered Dash. Celestia heard and smiled slightly.

"You could say that," she said. "The point is that it's a miracle that you girls survived. If you weren't so lucky, he'd probably have you skinned and eaten alive." The girls shuddered. Celestia checked her watch. "Anyway, if that's all of the questions, then-"

"Wait," said Tara. "One last thing."

"Yes…" said Wilson.

"If AJ's not going to be the field leader, then who is?" asked Tara. She believed that if she were to charge headfirst into combat, she should at least be given the decency of knowing who would lead her.

"Well," said the General, as he and Celestia walked towards the door. "I think that would be for you girls to decide. After all, we're not the ones doing the field work." Wilson and Celestia left, leaving the girls to themselves. Now, there was simply one question on their minds:

Who should lead?

"So, I'm going to be the leader, right?" said Dash. Rachel immediately objected.

"Why do you think that we'd ever follow you?" Rachel said harshly. Dash grinned.

"Because I'm the coolest fucking one here," Dash said, with no hint of modesty. "I'm the most athletic, I'm the second best shot, I'm the one who took initiative and drove after the bad guys, and I could kick all of your asses." Dash paused. "Except for the cowgirl's."

"But no one want to follow you," Rachel snapped back at Dash. "You don't have a sense of responsibility. You just follow your own way without caring who gets left behind."

"Oh, like you would do any better," said Dash with a sneer. "You would be so focused on not breaking a nail or bursting a balloon that you wouldn't get anything done. Just like the selfish bitch you are."

Rachel stomped right up to Dash's face and looked her in the eye.

"I'll break your skull, you filthy little-"

"ENOUGH!' shouted AJ, who was now stepping between the angry girls. "You two need to calm down, now!" Dash pushed AJ away.

"Shut up," she yelled. "You're not the boss of me. Not anymore, at least." AJ nearly slapped Dash across the face, but her self-restraint held her back. However, Tara decided to defend her friend.

"Don't insult AJ," Tara said to Dash. "All you seem to do is insult people. Just stop it. Now." Dash was unfazed by Tara's comments.

"Be careful what you say to me, Spark," Dash said. "When I'm leader, there's going to be strict punishment for speaking against your all-knowing commander."

"Oh please," said Rachel. "Even Pinky would be a better leader than you." Pinky, who until this point had stayed out of the fight, was now feeling rather insulted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she said, almost angrily. Dash laughed.

"You know exactly what it means," said Dash. Pinky suddenly started to turn on Dash, and soon, the five girls had descended into a mess of insults and arguments, all of which served no other point than to continue the fighting. This kept going for what seemed like hours, until one soft voice drew the attention of the arguing team.

"I think Tara should be the leader."

Everyone stopped and turned towards the voice. Fiona felt their gazes upon her, and hid her face under the hood of her jacket. She didn't mean to attract attention. In fact, she hated it when people looked at her. But she felt like something should be said, and her opinion should be known. Fiona took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. After all, they were her friends, and they would respect her opinion. Or at least, that is what she hoped.

"I mean," Fiona tried to elaborate. "She is the smartest one out of all of us. And she was really good with that strategy training that AJ gave us. And she was the head of a bunch of clubs, or at least I think she was. And she always prepares ahead for pretty much everything. And… well… I don't know…I just think it's a good idea. If you don't think so, though, that's fine." The thought buzzed through the minds of everyone. It did seem like a rather reasonable idea. None of them could truly say that they had any issue with it. But Dash, still seeking a role of superiority, disagreed entirely.

"No way!" Dash exclaimed. She was still hoping to change the minds of her peers. "I mean, Spark as leader? Come on, that's crazy! She has no physical abilities." Rachel came to Tara's defense.

"Well, I'd much rather take orders from her than you. At least she will come up with some form of strategy," claimed Rachel, now wrapping her arm Tara's shoulder. Pinky chimed in as well.

"I think she'd do a pretty good job," Pinky admitted.

"Well," said AJ, considering the possibility. "She is pretty darn smart. And I've seen the schedule she had at college, and damn was that thing extensive. I think you should do it, girl." Tara was quite stunned from all the praise she was getting. She was used to people saying good things about her, but this was a completely different experience.

"You-you really all want me to the leader?" Tara asked in astonishment. All of the girls replied honestly.

"Yep."

"Absolutely"

"Of course."

"Yeah yeah yeah!"

"Not really…"

"Okay then," Tara stated proudly. "I guess I'm the new leader!" Cheers of praise and joy filled the room, except for Dash, who just groaned.

"You better not fuck this up, Spark," Dash said with a sneer. Tara just smiled at her.

"Don't worry," Tara said happily. "I'll make sure we won't fail again."

An awkward silence then filled the room. No one was really quite sure of what to do next. Tara turned to AJ.

"So… what do we do now?" Tara asked, awkwardly.

"Now," said AJ, pulling her cell phone out of her back pocket. "We figure out how to break into this place." She turned on her phone, and soon, a map of the city popped up, with a bright red dot placed on a random building. The girls huddled around the phone, and looked at the marked address. It wasn't their current location, but Tara had a feeling she knew where it was.

"Is that…"

"Yep," said AJ, knowing full well what Tara was thinking. "That's Discord's hideout. I placed a tracer on one of his henchman back at the bank. This must be where he went to."

"Great," said Pinky. "Now we can stop the bad guys, and be heroes and get presents and happiness and-"

"Um, Pinky," Fiona said quietly. "We don't know how to get into his hideout. It probably has a bunch of guards and traps."

"Well, let's take a look," said AJ, walking to the nearest computer in the room. After some fiddling around with the settings, she managed to gain access to images detailing Philadelphia from every angle. She typed in the address, and before she knew it, she had a full 3D profile of the target building. Tara looked at the images, and thought hard.

"Guys," she said, taking a seat at the computer. "I might need some time alone with this to think of something. Can you leave the room for a few minutes?" The girls nodded and left the room.

They patiently waited outside. It was approaching 3 o'clock, yet everyone was feeling tired. After thirteen minutes alone, Tara entered the hallway, happy with her plan.

"Do you think we can do it?" asked Rachel anxiously. Tara smiled at her.

"Oh, I know we can do it," Tara said confidently. "But we have to do it tonight." The girls grew worried, AJ in particular.

"But Tara," she reasoned. "Wilson will never give us the permission to complete something in just a few hours."

"I know," said Tara. "Which is why he'll never know." The others gasped.

"You mean we're gonna have to completely disobey the high authority, and go all stealthy on this motherfucker?" said Dash. Tara nodded. Dash grinned. "You may not be so bad after all, Spark."

"Oh, and one last thing," Tara added. "One of you is going to have to be a distraction for the guards." The girls looked at each other. Rachel was curious about the plan, and spoke up.

"What do you mean 'distract'?" she questioned. "Do you mean like, we have to shoot at them, or just draw their attention. Because if so, then how do we attract a bunch of psychopaths to-" Rachel paused, and looked around at the others. They were all smiling at her.

"Why is everybody looking at me like that?"

__________

It was now eight o'clock. If all went to plan, the attack would occur in two hours' time. Still, there a few loose ends to tie up. AJ had left to get the proper clothing, leaving the rest of the girls alone in the base. Rachel was nervously waiting for AJ to show up with her attire, but as that was still far from occurring, she decided to practice hand-to-hand combat with Fiona. Pinky was happily distracting General Wilson with a long, complicated story about the time she thought she saw a UFO. By the time it was over, the General would hopefully be retreating to his quarters for sleep. But Tara had a much more difficult task. She was standing at a gun range, holding a weapon in her hand. She raised the gun to take a shot. She knew she would have to take lives in this job, and she was prepared to do so. But when she raised the gun to the target, all she saw was a man staring back at her, ready to kill. Instead of giving her drive, it made her put the gun back down and briefly walk away from the shooting range. She couldn't do it. She didn't know why, but it just felt wrong to her. The idea of killing someone, no matter who they were or what they had done, disgusted her. She supposed that deep down, it was actually quite a good thing. It proved that she wasn't a psychopath, or that she was going to turn into a deranged lunatic. But she was in the unfortunate predicament of having to kill people on a regular basis.

She walked towards the wall of weapons, and took a look at the large assortment of weaponry placed on the walls. She noticed that not just guns were hanging from the wall, but a large variation of knives, explosives, blades, and other practical ways to kill. Tara distasted the guns. She could only imagine the innocents brought down by such horrid weaponry, living happy lives before they were immediately torn apart from the inside. She had never truly examined such guns up close before. She believed that they should be kept around, of course, for the sake of protection, but she also felt that she would become extremely ill if she were to ever use such a device on someone. She examined the wall, feeling slightly sicker with every piece of equipment she saw.

But then something caught her eye. Out of all of the exotic equipment, there was one standing out. It was suspended far away from the others, in the far right corner. And unlike the other guns proudly displayed for all to see, this object was displayed in a long, grey box. It was just within Tara's reach, so she grabbed it and pulled it off of the shelf. She carefully placed the box on the ground, and removed its lid. She gasped at what she saw. Inside the case was a sword placed within a sheath, decorated beautifully. The dark red wood was elegantly carved with dancing animals, encircling each other as they ran along the length of the sheath. Tara had no idea how long it would take for someone to make that kind of detail. Everywhere she looked, there was some new thing peering out at her. A hidden tiger face, a family of lions. It completely astounded her.

"Isnt it a beauty?"

A voice from behind her made Tara jump. She turned and saw Celestia standing behind her. Celestia picked up the sword, still in its wooden holster, and examined it.

"Now this," explained Celestia. "Is from a long time ago. Roughly, about one thousand years ago. This was made by some blacksmith in Japan, whose name has been lost to time. It was actually found by me back in the ninety's. This beauty survived a flood, and I found it in wreckage along the beach. It was practically unharmed. So I took it back with me. There's not much use for it now, but I like to keep it around for decoration." She unsheathed the blade, revealing it to the light for the first time in years. Time had been kind to it, as it looked almost brand new. Tara was stunned by the beauty of its craftsmanship.

"It's kind of weird to see it placed here," sighed Tara.

"What do you mean by that?" Celestia questioned her.

"Well," said Tara, trying to explain herself. "It's just that looks so beautiful, and yet you put here next to all this death. It just doesn't really seem like it deserves to be here." Celestia sighed.

"You know," she said sadly. "Sometimes I wonder that too. When you're in this business, you see a lot of death. A lot of good people dying for a good cause. But it's all so brutal. Back when this sword was made, death used to have some honor to it. To die by a blade was the considered the best way to go. You were guaranteed a place in heaven for your courage and your heart. But not anymore." By this point, Celestia was more talking to herself than to Tara, but Tara was still following along with every word. Celestia the handed the sword over to Tara, who nervously accepted it. The blade was thirty inches long, yet was surprisingly light in her hands. She even took a few practice swings with it. She firmly held it in her hands. Compared to the other weapons hung from the wall, the sword was like the Mona Lisa. Celestia started to walk away from the girl, but stopped and turned back around.

"By the way," Celestia said. "I notice you're having trouble handling a weapon. Think of it like this: for every man you may strike down, a hundred more lives will be saved. Families will stay together, and great heartbreak will be avoided. Think of it as the beauty in death. When you are in this business, it's the one thing that'll keep you going."

And with that, Celestia left Tara to her own devices. And yet, Tara continued to hold the blade in her hands, mulling over Celestia's words in her head.

Beauty in death, thought Tara, gazing at the blade. Beauty in death.

__________

Despite being the cover for a massive drug operation, and being the headquarters of one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, one could not say that 63 Worthington Street looked well protected. Of course, it housed many criminals and murderers alike, but none of them were ever left to actually guard the building.

"If we put a shit ton of guards out here," once spoke Discord in a speech to his men. "Then we're not really livin' on the edge. Chaos, boys. If we don't uphold it, then no one will."

However, several men had taken it upon themselves to stand guard outside of the building, just in case trouble arose. It was a simple setup. Two men stood by the doors, weapons concealed in case of cops suddenly showing up, and two snipers located on the roofs of the buildings from across the street. With their eyes sharply locked on the doorway, no one stood a chance of getting by them. Although the night was cold, the men had no trouble entertaining themselves. This was due to the many young ladies who happened to pass by the building every evening. Staring at the young beauties could occupy the men for hours. But tonight was cold, and few women passed by the building at the late hour. Still, the men hoped to be entertained tonight, and soon, something unusual happened. It was a combination of all the right things. Her violet hair brilliantly flowing behind her, the dark red lipstick, the black eyeshadow, the rather light amount of clothing she decided to wear. They should have thought it unusual that someone would be wearing incredibly small shorts, an expensive purse, and a very low cut top in the current weather, but they didn't care. All they could focus on was the barely-legal teen strutting by them.

"Damn, girl, you're looking pretty fine!" called one guard out to her.

"Hell yeah, baby!" called out the other guard. The stunning girl smiled at them, and then blew them each a kiss, followed by a wink. As she was walking away from them, the guards went back to their job of waiting for trouble. But trouble found someone else. A figure wearing a black hoodie was approaching from the opposite direction. Without warning, she burst into a full sprint, knocked over the violet haired girl, and snatched her purse. As the girl fell over, she let out a yelp. The guards noticed her predicament, and without truly thinking, one of the guards pulled out his gun and shot the assailant in the back. While it didn't seem natural to him to help people, he felt like he would do anything for the beauty that had caught his eye. The robber let out a cry and collapsed to the ground, the purse rolling onto the floor. After a brief pause, the men raced over to help the beauty to her feet. As they helped her, she immediately hugged one guard very tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she shouted as she clutched the man tightly. He felt as if he was in heaven, having such a lovely lady pressed so tightly against him. The other guard ran over to the robber's body. He pulled back the hood, letting a multi-colored mess of hair fall to the ground. He noticed that she was groaning.

"Hey," he shouted to his friend still being crushed in a tight grip. "This bitch is still alive. What do we do with her?" The other guard thought about this.

"How about we send her up to Discord? That'll teach this cunt not to mess with the beautiful ladies of the city." The other guard chuckled at the thought. He grabbed onto her limp body, and carried her to the entrance of the building. He opened the door, and tossed her inside. Three more guards stared at the body now lying before them.

"Take her to Discord," simply said the man, not wanting to spend another moment away from the girl outside. The men simply nodded, and began to drag her body deeper into the building. The guard returned to his friend.

"Don't worry," he said, trying to act heroic. "That bitch will be taken care of." The girl smiled kindly at him.

"Oh, thank you ever so much," she said happily. "You two are the best gentlemen I've ever seen." She pressed her chest into the other man, making him feel very comfortable.

"Oh, anything for a lady like you," he said nonchalantly. Suddenly the girl started to rub circles on his chest sensually, as a sly smile spread on her face. The two men looked at each other, wondering if what they actually thought was happening, was in fact reality.

"You know," she shyly said, drawing the men in. "Since you two did so much to help me, I think I should find a proper way to… repay you." She giggled softly to herself; the sexual tension so thick that it could be cut with a knife. The two men grew giant grins on their faces, as the girl removed herself from the grip of the man, and beckoned them to follow her into an alley way. They eagerly followed her into the dark alley, thinking of all the possibilities that awaited them. Meanwhile the snipers had been watching carefully from their vantage point, following the movements of the people below. When the men disappeared into the alley, out of sight, they turned to face one another.

"Those lucky motherfuckers," said one sniper. The other one sighed.

"How come they get the pussy and we don't?" asked the other sniper, disgruntled. "I mean, we work just as hard as the-"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence, as a bullet tore through his skull in a split second. The other sniper felt one second of confusion, followed by a brief moment of panic, before he too was shot dead from afar. From two buildings over, Pinky observed their corpses from the scope of her own sniper rifle, checking to see if they were dead. After the confirmation, she realigned her sights to check into the alley way. What she witnessed was Rachel, muttering to herself about her clothing, and standing over the bodies of two unconscious guards. Pinky checked on Rachel's status over an earpiece, connecting to all members of the team.

"Everything good from down there, Rachel?" asked Pinky from over the radio. Rachel groaned in response.

"Yeah, it's fine," responded Rachel, clearly annoyed. "I can't believe I have to wear this sluttish thing. This all better be worth it, Tara."

"Don't worry," responded Tara over the earpiece. She and AJ had just finished climbing the building on which the corpses lay, and were now setting up equipment. They were careful to avoid stepping in the remains that now were splattered over the roof. It made Tara feel rather uncomfortable, although AJ didn't seem to mind. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen gore before. "Phase One of the operation is a success, ladies. Now, Fiona, are you ready?"

"Uh… yeah," responded a soft voice over the radio. "I think so…"

"Good," said Tara, watching AJ set up a powerful weapon that AJ had brought along with her. It wasn't entirely unfair though, as Tara did bring along her own little surprise, as well.

"Let Phase Two commence."

__________

As she was being dragged around the building, Dash opened her eyes and took a look around. The force of the bullet stung, but she could live with. After all, she could have forgotten to put the Kevlar vest under her jacket. But she was fine, which was unaware to the guards as they moved her to a staircase. She was in a large, open lobby, surrounded by men busy working. Some of them were walking around with guns as a small security force. Others were beating someone to death in the corner, as they stomped around in a pool of blood. But most people were standing around four large tables placed along the left wall. Large piles of white powder were covering the tables, as men were scraping bits off and shoveling them into bags, before throwing them into the corner of the room.

Heh, thought Dash. Pinky would love it here.

Eventually, the criminals came to a main stairwell, and dragged Dash along up the stairs, which she could not say was a comfortable feeling. She felt each step bang against her chest and legs, but she sucked up the pain and told herself to quit being so pathetic. They were now on the second story, which was actually the second highest floor, as the building was rather short in height. This floor contained many large generators, all of which completed goals that Dash didn't even know existed. The many cables all ran to a set of monitors at the end of the room. Several men were looking over the monitors, carefully checking over the many items listed on the screens. All of the drug shipments, assassination contracts, political records and more were being scrolled through methodically, making sure everything was in perfect order. Eventually, Dash was dragged to a simple wooden door next to the monitors, which led to a small stairwell. After being forced up more steps, Dash eventually came to Discord's chambers.

And what bizarre chambers they were.

A long red carpet had been laid out from the door, leading to a large rocking chair. Discord sat comfortably on his chair, twirling his gun on his finger, more occupied with doing tricks than the girl being dragged before him. The rest of the room was empty, save for Lloyd and Clyde, who were having a deep conversation about the most recent murders they had committed. Two of the guards left, as one stood beside Dash, and held up her head for Discord to see.

"Lord Discord," said the guard. "We have a new play thing for you." Discord sat up from his chair and walked towards Dash, creepily smiling at her.

"Here," Dash muttered. Discord rolled his eyes.

"Of course you're here," said Discord. "You've done something very bad. We're going to have to punish you." He spoke as if he were scolding a small child, saying each word very clearly so that Dash would understand. "Now, we're going to play a little game. Do you like games?"

"Here," Dash repeated. She really just wanted to punch Discord in the face, but she knew she had to follow through with the plan. All she could do was get the message across to the others as she bided her time. So for now, she continued to play near-dead, pretending that she was wavering out of consciousness. To her, the acting was phenomenal, and Discord didn't seem to notice anything. He ignored her comments, though, and continued on.

"We're going to play a fun game," Discord began. "First, I'm going to cut all of your limbs off. Then, I'm going to dump you into boiling water, to clean up that pretty little face of yours. And after that lovely display, I will slowly cut a-"

Discord paused. Something about the girl in front of him sparked a memory in his mind. She looked extremely similar, although he did not know why. He felt like he had seen her somewhere before. But where? He grabbed her face tightly and examined it, taking in the details. Her eyes, her teeth, her hair, her voice. Everything felt so familiar.

Then it hit him. Two memories at once. The first was of the girl's face. He had seen her before. In fact, it had been just this morning that he saw her. She was driving the car that was chasing his men today, and he nearly killed her. Nearly. She had barely escaped with her life, due to a weapon malfunction. And now, she was kneeling right in front of him, trying to stay alive.

The second memory was more troubling. It was a message from his boss, a warning about a group of girls that were investigating the many acts of terrorism that he helped commit. He put two and two together, and came to a very nasty conclusion. He angrily turned towards the guard.

"You brought her in here?" he snarled. The guard was confused, seeing no problem with Dash being present in the building. Without allowing time for the guard to respond, Discord took aim and killed his guard with a quick shot to the head. And after a brief look at Dash, he shot her point blank in the chest. The force of the gunshot sent her flying backwards. She screamed, but her cry faded as her body grew limp. She stopped moving entirely, as Discord turned to yell at Lloyd and Clyde.

"If she's here," he explained. "Then the others may not be far behind. We need to get this place fucking locked down! There's no telling wher-"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

A sudden explosion rocked the building, sending its occupants to the ground. A sense of panic flew through the criminals, unsure of what to do. As panic spread throughout the building, Discord realized that he had to have been tracked back to the base.

"FUCK!" he shouted. He pulled out his gun and moved towards his chair at the back of the room. "Man, the boss isn't going to be happy about this…"

Boss, thought Dash, who, despite a stinging pain in her chest and loud explosions shaking the building, was able to focus on Discord's words very clearly. Who the fuck is he talking about?

__________

Phase Two was going perfectly. After Dash had confirmed that Discord was in the building, AJ started to launch rockets from an RPG at the target. No one necessarily had to die, but any casualties would not be regretted. As AJ continued to fire her massive RPG, Pinky took the careful time to ensure that no one left the building. Anyone who got close to the doors would be instantly shot dead. This fear immediately caused the entire central base to be locked down from the outside. And, while Pinky guaranteed that no one tried to leave, she also helped provide ample cover for Fiona and Tara to enter.

Ever since she looked at the schematics for Discord's base, Tara knew it had to be linked to a major operating network. It was located directly next to a power hub, and she knew that Discord controlled a massive criminal operation. So, once she knew that she could cripple the entire crime organization from a single computer, she thought of the perfect solution: Fiona.

Now, as Fiona raced past the many gangsters on her way to the second floor, she tried her best not to be seen. It wasn't particularly challenging. She had avoided people's attention for most of her life, and it also helped that most of the criminals were so scared by the rapid explosions that they weren't even attempting to shoot at her. She easily raced her way up the stairs and dashed to the other end of the hall, where the large computer monitors were hanging against the wall. She looked around as she ran, hoping that no one would see her. It appeared that most people had escaped to the bottom floor in chaos, although some of the more unfortunate criminals were discarded on the floor. She tried her best not to look at the corpses as she reached the monitors. She followed Tara's instructions, and pulled a flash drive out of her back pocket.

"Remember," Tara had said to her. "All you have to do is plug the flash drive into the hardware and upload the file. The virus should take care of everything from there."

Fiona felt a surge of accomplishment when she prepared to plug the flash drive into the computer. But then, she froze. There was no hard drive, or processing unit, or anything else near the monitors. She gulped as she turned round to face the thirty or so machines placed all around the room.

And she realized she had no idea where she was supposed to plug in the virus.

__________

Dash kept her eyes shut, to best keep up the illusion of her demise. All she could use were her ears, a process which was constantly interrupted by AJ's RPG. From what she could tell, Discord had retreated to his self-made throne, while Clyde and Lloyd were quickly moving about the room, perhaps in a state of deep panic. Currently, Lloyd had his back pressed to the only door in the room, while Clyde was running around searching for a weapon. All he had was a small knife, and he knew that wouldn't be enough to stop a rocket from striking him in the chest.

"Aren't you gonna help me find shit, man?!" Clyde shouted out to his friend. Lloyd was refusing to move, using the door as a safety blanket to protect him from harm.

"Fuck you, Clyde!" Lloyd shouted back, as another explosion rocked the building. He could hear the screams coming from the gangsters down beneath him. "Every man for himself!"

"You piece of fat piece of shit!" yelled Clyde, desperately running around the room, searching for anything. But the room was bare, save for the rocking chair that was specifically saved for Discord.

"I'm just being reasonable, you asshole!" retorted Lloyd, who thought he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Reasonable?"

"Yeah!" said Lloyd confidently. "I can't wait for you to get blown to pieces! I'll watch you fucking burn! And then, when you're nice and extra fucking crispy, I'll walk over your fucking corpse, and get the FUCK OUTTA HERE! WHAT DO YA THINK OF THAT, YOU GOD DAMN, PIECE OF SHIT?!"

SHNK

Both men froze. Clyde kept staring at Lloyd on shock, unable to think. Lloyd slowly looked down at his own body. A long sword had been shoved through his back, and was now sticking at least a foot out of his chest. Crimson blood poured out of the wound. He didn't feel any pain, just an empty numbness. He looked back up at Clyde, before the blade was retracted from his body, and back through the door. Lloyd died before he ever hit the ground. The door was kicked in, and it landed on Lloyd's body. Clyde looked up at the killer, and was surprised with what he saw.

A teenage girl, wearing a black jumpsuit, with enough pouches and spaces to hold enough equipment to kill every single person in the building. By her side, she was holding a thirty inch-long sword, and she was glaring at him from beneath her bright pink bangs. She raised her sword towards him.

"Get on the ground. Now," she commanded. Clyde didn't listen, being too dumbfounded with what was happening before him.

"What…the…fuck," he muttered to himself.

"I said, GET. ON. THE. GROUND." She started to approach him with the blade outstretched, still covered in Lloyd's blood. Clyde took out his knife instead, and got in a fighting stance. He growled.

"You killed Lloyd, you little bitch," he spat at her. "You want to have a knife fight; I'll show you a fucking knife fight!"

He charged at her fast, and Tara had to quickly roll out of the way. She recovered, and took a swing with her blade. Clyde managed to step back, avoiding the sword. He countered by lunging the knife forward, but Tara sidestepped the attack, and elbowed him hard in the face. The impact caused him to release the knife, sending it sliding on the ground towards Dash. A fist flew up and struck Tara hard in the chest, knocking her off her balance. Clyde then tackled her to the ground, and shoved his fists towards her throat, blocking off her airway. He started to choke her, and he could feel her struggling beneath his own weight. For a brief moment, he was happy. Then, a knife was plunged into the back of his neck, causing him to lose all feeling. Dash shoved him off of Tara, and then proceeded to stab him repeatedly in the chest, as blood spurted from his wounds. Dash plunged the knife into his chest one final time, burying it in his heart. She helped Tara to her feet.

"Thanks," Tara breathed out.

"Thank Kevlar," Dash replied. The two turned towards the rocking chair, ready to fight Discord. But he wasn't there. In fact, the room seemed to be completely empty.

"Where is he?" asked Tara to her colleague. Dash shrugged.

"I don't know, Spark. He was here a minute ago."

The duo walked around the room, searching for Discord. But he was nowhere to be found. Instead, Tara discovered something interesting in the back wall. There was a small gap between the back wall and the corner of the room, just small enough for someone to squeeze through. Tara called Dash over, and the two managed to force their way through the gap in the wall. What they managed to find was a small room, only about ten feet wide. The room smelled of death, and it was no wonder why. Lying before them was the guard that had brought Dash up to Discord's chamber. Although now, multiple knife wounds were located all over his body. Tara noticed a panel in the floor, which she realized must have been a secret exit out of the building. However, she didn't focus on that for long Instead, she and Dash were both looking at the wall, where a message had been painted using the guard's own blood.

Fear The Unknown, for he does not fear you.

"What the fuck do you think that means?" asked Dash. Tara herself had no idea, and simply shrugged in response. The chaos was finally dying down, and Tara realized that the noise had finally attracted the attention of the cops. Tara simply hoped that the cops in question were at least honest enough to keep the Smiling Dragons under arrest.

"It doesn't matter," Tara said, sheathing her sword. "Discord may be gone, but at least we put a halt to his crime organization. We're done here."

"Uh, Tara," came a low voice over the radio.

"Yeah, Fiona?"

"This might sound bad, but… where do I plug in the flash drive?"

__________

It was almost an hour later when the girls finally returned to the base, but it was a joyous trip home. They had managed to avoid the police, take out a major drug shipment, and cause the arrest of about one hundred criminals, all in one night. The walk back to the base consisted of stories told from each girl's perspective, compliments of the others' acts, and, especially, congratulating Tara for her masterful plan. The girls had finally seemed to be getting on good terms with one another. Even Dash was talking to Rachel about their stellar acting abilities, and Tara had actually thought that things may not end up so horribly. AJ had renewed faith in the team as well, believing that if all operations were as successful as the one tonight, they could actually be quite a functional group. At last, the girls finally reached the base, gleeful that their long day was over. As the girls entered the base, Tara spoke up about something she had been mulling over for the past hour.

"Camelot," she said. The other girls looked at her, confused. "I think we should name the base 'Camelot'. The peaceful, orderly place in times of great distress. I think it fits quite nicely."

And so, it was decided that the name of the base shall forever be referred to as Camelot, and as the girls reached the door to their sleeping quarters, they believed the day could not get better.

They opened the door, and found Celestia waiting for them, an angry look on her face.

"You could have gotten yourselves killed," Celestia sternly stated, glaring at the girls, who were now shocked at this announcement.

"You… you knew?" asked Fiona nervously.

"Of course, I knew," Celestia said, almost offended. "What do you take me for? An idiot? I've been tracking your movements all night."

The P.O.N.Y's didn't know what to say. They had honestly thought that no one knew what they had done tonight.

"You caused mass destruction, fought a terrorist, all with little-to-no experience whatsoever, I might add, and you thought you could fool me? That is shameful, not to mention all of the government funded equipment you wasted, including that virus, which took years of research to develop. We should immediately shut you down for this."

Tara had never felt such shame. She felt as if she let everyone down. She failed as a leader. She failed as a soldier. And most importantly, she failed as a friend. Celestia sighed.

"But," she added, her voice becoming softer. "You also took down one of the biggest crime lords in the world, while having little-to-no experience, and having no idea what you were doing. You did in one day what could have taken us years to do. And you proved to not only be incredibly valuable, but incredibly talented at what you do. And I suppose for that, you're off the hook."

An instant wave of relief washed over the girls, long with a sense of satisfaction. Even Celestia managed to smile briefly, but she soon returned to a more serious tone.

"But there is one thing we need to discuss," she said. The girls to her. "When I was listening in on your earpieces, I heard Discord mention something about his 'boss'. And apparently, he left some message about the 'Unknown'."

"So," questioned Tara, unsure of where Celestia was headed.

"So," Celestia finished. "We thought Discord was a lone wolf, just a random blip on the radar. But now, it appears that there might be much more to this than we think. He might be working for someone, someone powerful enough to control one of the world's greatest criminal enterprises. And whoever this…'Unknown' is, if Discord is willing to serve him, he may be a much bigger threat than we can imagine."

On that somber note, she stood up, and walked out of the room. But before she left, she added,

"Enjoy tonight's victory, girls," she said with a half-smile. "And get some rest. God knows you'll need it." And with that, she retreated to her chambers, leaving the girls alone for the night.

__________

"You failed," said the highest member of the council. Discord felt annoyed with himself. He wasn't one to take things seriously, but he knew that he really wanted to join up with the other members of the council. They were the real deal to him.

"It won't happen again, boss," Discord said, somberly.

"Of course, it shouldn't," said the high councilman. "I should just let Sombra here tear you limb from limb." Sombra smirked.

"The King likes this idea," Sombra said with a chuckle, taking another puff of his cigar.

"Come one, give me another chance to prove myself," Discord pleaded. "I know just how to take care of 'em. Those men doin my drug work, they weren't really loyal to me. They were mostly just in it for the cash. But my true soldiers, now, those are some special guys."

"Ha!" laughed Sombra. "You know that even one hundred of your best men could not defeat someone like me. The King, in fact, is worth more than all of your men combined."

"Now, now, Sombra," said Chrysalis. "I say give him a shot. He can't do any worse. Besides, no reason to waste our power when someone like him will do it for free."

"Excellent point, Chrysalis," said the leader of the villainous group. "Okay, Discord, one last chance. Don't fuck it up."

"Yes, sir," bowed Discord. "Once you see my Hound Dog Unit in action, you won't need any substitute."

"Oh, and one last thing," said the councilman. "That thing you wrote on the wall in your base. The 'Unknown'. Why did you write that?"

"Oh," said Discord. "I thought that you needed a name that people remembered, people were scared of, something that embodied the true feeling of terror. And what is more terrifying than what people don't know about, my good sir?"

"I like it," spoke Moon. "It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Besides, we don't know your real name. You need an alias, at least for common purposes."

The head of the council considered this, and then finally agreed.

"If you all wish that to be my new name, then fine," the councilman spoke. "Discord, go and prove yourself. After all, the people do need to realize that The Unknown is worth fearing."

End of Chapter 2