'Alex, wake up.'

Karis poked at his arm for the third time, threatening to pull him out of dreamland, where at least nobody tried to shoot him dead...well...

"Come on, we won't be able to kill Winchester if you're asleep." Karis poked Alex's arm again, and again, and-

"Okay, fine! God forbid someone actually gets some shut-eye! What time is it anyway?!" Alex asked, flustered and drowsy from yesterday's several encounters. Alex killed a dragon alongside Rainbow Dash, and like an hour afterwards, got chased out of town by Winchester's goons.

"If I'm right, it is... About 0600 hours." Karis answered, looking through a hole leading to the outside world.

"You woke me up at 6 a.m?! Need I ask?"

"We'll be meeting up with one of my contacts in about a half hour, I advise getting on some different clothes. I have some here." Karis tossed him a small bag, they seemed to contain some olive colored cargo pants, a t-shirt, a camo jacket, and a balaclava. Alex acted accordingly, fear of Karis killing him if he didn't overriding the general awkwardness of changing in front of a girl, lord knows he's had plenty of that when Rarity sized him for clothes.

"Who is this contact, anyway?" He asked.

"She's sort of the treasure hunter-y type. She would do anything for whatever you have in that 'pocket-dimension' of yours." Karis replied.

"Where do you find these people?" Alex felt like he shouldn't even need to ask that.

"Everywhere, you meet a lot of weird people in the CIA." She replied, almost casually, as if that sort of thing happened all the time.

A dark thought crossed Alex's mind, Applejack lived around here, what if she found their hideout?

"What if someone, or worse, some pony, sees us walk out from the underground?" He asked.

"I've got you covered." Karis said.

She led Alex down a hole, and a tunnel that seemed to go on forever and ever. Barely able to see anything.

"Where the hell did this come from?"

"What do you think I was doing while you slept?"

"Planning the best time to slit my jugular?" He asked.

"You really aren't the trusting type, are you?" Karis asked.

"Weren't you with that Winchester psychopath?" He retorted.

Karis didn't say another word until they reached an incline, pushing up on whatever was there, Alex was nearly blinded by Celestia's piercing light.

"Ah! My eyes!" Alex yelled, unable to see much with the sudden change of light.

"Your eyes will adjust, you big baby." Karis seemed annoyed with Alex's noobishness.

Karis and Alex must have waited for hours until a yellowish Pegasus with a monochrome mane and tail stalked out of the Everfree before them.

"Hello, Daring." Karis introduced calmly.

"Well, well, well. if it isn't Ms. Karis Thorne, I was wondering if you'd show up at all, who's the kid?" 'Daring' asked.

"Don't mind him. Remember the deal?" Karis asked.

"I believe it was '500,000 bits for 500 five-by five sheets of pure Equestrian Steel'. The most top quality metal I could find." Daring replied.

"Show me the goods, first." Karis demanded.

"Okay, miss. Brutus!" Daring yelled.

A large Minotaur the size of a two-story house started piling the metal sheets before them, putting a small one foot by one foot square at an angle. The metal was almost a gold-ish copper mash up. From what Karis told him, the stuff was very malleable when heated up, and very difficult to punch through at room temperature, making it ideal for armor and weapons.

"Kid, can I borrow your gun?" Karis asked.

Alex handed Karis the SCAR-H that he still carried with him. Karis then clicked off the safety, loaded a mag, and fired the whole thing into the little metal square. The bullets flew off the metal like raquetballs, bouncing off the metal square and hitting the dirt around it.

Karis handed him back the SCAR, quickly placing it behind his back once more.

"You've got yourself a deal, Ms. Do. Kid, the pocket thingamajig!"

Alex opened up the pocket dimension, the portal opening an 8 by 4 foot rectangle, looking like the night sky inside the pocket dimension, and, of course, the massive amount of gold, jewels, and other assorted riches inside.

Daring pulled out a large bag and walked inside the dimension, hearing the clatter of coins filling up the bag, Daring walked out after about two minutes of being inside.

"Glad we could do this without much trouble, Brutus, you and Karis' little friend get the metal inside that hole!" Daring ordered.

Alex moved over to the pile, where he and the Minotaur started lifting the steel. They came in reams of, like, fifty. And even though it was supposed to be lightweight, it was still rather heavy.

This went on for about five minutes, by the time they got the last ream of fifty inside, Alex felt really tired and sore.

With both parties satisfied, Karis and Alex left. Going back in the hole.

"So, kid, you knew a blacksmith, right?" Karis asked.

"Yeah, I think his name was Hammering Sickle, or something."

Alex responded.

"Was he at that party?" She asked again.

"Actually, no, his anniversary was that night, he couldn't make it."

"Good. I need some tools to get to work on this armor."

"You're building the armor?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I already know all of your sizes in clothes?" Karis responded.

"How?"

"While you were whining like a wuss at the tunnel, my A.I did a diagnostic on your dress sizes."

"A.I, why do I feel like this is turning out like Red vs. Blue?" Alex asked.

"Red vs. Blue; a web series developed by Rooster Teeth, starting out in 2003 after the release of Halo: Combat Evolved and still on-going." A small voice coming from Karis' wristband said.

"Who is that?" Alex asked.

"I am the A.I program known as Veil; developed by the Central Intelligence Agency and designed specifically for Field Operative Karis Victoria Thorne on September 25, 2015."

Alex was astounded. Sure, they had things like Evie or Cleverbot, but nothing as advanced as this.

"Veil, why isn't Karis getting any armor?" Alex asked.

"Agent Thorne's position is in Logistics, Weapons design, and assassinations. Not for active combat. You, however, seem to have a natural ability to fight, and will benefit the most from wearing this armor." Veil said.

"Karis Victoria Thorne? That's your full name?" Alex asked.

"Yes." Karis says.

"Notable Missions on Agent Karis V. Thorne include overseeing the assassination of former Kahn Militia leader Viktor Rutherford Kahn in 2014, assassination of Syndicate leader Anthony Vincent, and-"

"That will be all, Veil. Alex, get to Hammering Sickle." Karis orders.

"Will do." Alex said, getting back in the main hole and leaving.

----

Alex got to the Forge a while later, panting in exhaustion, he had to run, for fear of being discovered.

"Hammering! I'm here!" Alex panted.

A heavyset stallion with a black goatee walked out of his office.

"Ah, Alex! You are here! I did not expect to see you! I thought the humans killed you!" Hammering said in a thick Russian accent.

"What, you heard about that?" Alex asked.

"Da. Do not worry, I do not trust the Agent or his men." Hammering said.

"Thank you, listen, there's this girl-" Alex began.

"Listen, when Mare and Stallion love each other very much-" Hammering interrupted.

"Not like that! She wants to use the forge!" Alex yells, in embarrassment.

"Oh! My bad! Of course she can use forge! You are nice guy, she probably nice too. What will she work on?"

"She's building a suit of armor with Equestrian Steel." Alex said.

"My! How expensive! But if she need help, I will not hesitate to assist" Hammering assured.

"Thank you, sir." Alex said.

"No need to thank me. I am just doing my job." Hammering said.

"Okay, her name is Karis, she's got incredibly black hair, a bit taller than me, and a bit of a- never mind."

Alex didn't want to finish that last part, she was apparently some kind of master of stealth.

"Okay, Karis, beautiful name." Hammering says.

"Thank you." A voice says from above.

Karis dropped down between Alex and Hammering.

"So you are girl Alex is talking about! Very nice to meet you!" Hammering says.

"Likewise. Alex, we have to go, someone called Crimson, we gotta go!"

"Oh, crap! The Task Force!?" Alex asked in bewilderment.

"Go out back, I handle Agents." Hammering says.

Karis grabbed Alex's hand and they ran to the back, the door led to an alleyway that they would easily escape into.

"Hello, newcomers! Would you like to work in shop? Maybe an extra something for your boss?" Hammering asks, distracting the Death Squads.

--POV Shift: Vinyl--

Vinyl continued tinkering with Alex's weapon. Beautifully designed, but left wanting in firepower. Vinyl then thought of something, suppose this called for a new propellant entirely, and she knew just the one. Sound.

She heard of nerds at home making ridiculously small speakers and condensing them into one super speaker, Vinyl herself used that technology, and the holes the bullets were meant to go into were just big enough to place six into them, but something like that required mass quantities of power to make a bullet fly fast enough to do some damage. So maybe in the middle, she could condense some of her own magic into an infinitely producing power source, though it took some very powerful unicorns to pull that off. No matter what, this gun was going to be badass by the time she was done!

Looking back at her unfinished masterpiece, she had spray painted an eighth-note logo in white on the grip, added some glow-in-the-dark purple lighting for the rear sights and some thing similar in yellow towards the front. The cylinders were also painted in luminescent, light blue paint. The barrel was also switched from a 6 inch barrel to a 7 inch barrel, to improve accuracy. Looking back at her sketches, the cylinders would have the setup in the back, the high powered speakers in each cylinder, and the generator right in the middle, for this to work, there wouldn't be any casings, just the bullets, so whenever one needed to reload, Alex would only need to drop six bullets, or 'caps' as she called them, into the front of the cylinders, where they would be magnetically held in. Oh, yes. Things were certainly coming together.

--POV Shift: Karis--

Karis entered Hammering's establishment, it was dark now, and Alex was so chock full of questions, they talked all day, about her occupation, her partner, everything! He was rather inquisitive to say the least, unfortunately for her. He had no idea about what really was going on. She pitied him, she really did.

"Hello, Ms. Karis, ready to get to work? May I help?" Hammering walked in.

"Huh? Oh, sure, I just need to know where everything is." Karis innocently replied.

"Oh, sure! The blowtorches used for Equestrian steel are over there, the hammers by the iron bars, and the protective gear is right by my office."

"Thank you." Karis said.

Grabbing everything she needed, Karis set out to work.

"Veil, put up model...5." Karis ordered.

"Right away, ma'am." Veil said.

A hologram instantly popped up in front of her, a perfect scale on Alex's physique. Also in front were the several pieces making up the armor. This, according to Veil, was the best jack-of-all-trades armor. Good maneuverability, brilliant all-round protection, and looked pretty damn cool to say the least.

Karis suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder blade, interrupting her intense focus. She turned behind her to see a white unicorn with an electric-blue mane and tail with purple sunglasses.

"Can I help you?" Karis asked.

"Do you know what the best metal is for, say, projectiles?" She asked.

"Well, Lead is a perfectly suitable projectile metal."

"Anything else in mind? I need a magnetic metal that can fly really far when shot out of a gun." She said.

"How about iron, it's magnetic, cheap, and pretty easy to manipulate." Karis said.

"Wow... Thank you. Alex is really going to be happy when he sees this."

"Alex, as in, Alex Walker?" Karis asked, thunderstruck.

"Yeah, he paid me for a gig at his welcome party, well, before it all went to hell." The unicorn said.

"I'm helping him too. Mostly because he's helping me with something." Karis said

"What?" The mare asked. She seemed a bit nervous, as if she hadn't been expecting to talk this long.

"It's a long story." Karis responded.

The two talked for a little while more. Vinyl, as she was called, had made a few hundred metal caps that looked like bullets before fitted with the cartridge. As for Karis, she finished making the boots and greaves, nearly done making the codpiece.

"It's been nice talking to you." Karis said "But I really need to get back."

"Same here, it's almost sunrise already." Vinyl groaned.

"Bye."

"Oh, uh, see you around." Vinyl waved her goodbyes and walked out the door.

Karis herself had a bit of time to think. Alex had a difficult time trusting people, and for good reasons, her old comrade had tortured the poor kid for a month after killing his parents so he wouldn't look bad, the Militia betrayed him for their own ends, seeing him as merely an expendable kid with nowhere else to turn. And when he was closest to actually being accepted, Winchester screwed him over a second time. Alex was not ready to know what is actually going on, and he may never be ready, but at this rate, it's just a matter of when. She knew that killing Winchester would not solve everything for him, there is too much going on behind the scenes. She just hoped that the CIA would at least do this final favor for her.

--POV Shift: Unknown--

"Ugh... Where am I?"

A man in a red and white leather jacked groaned as he stumbled up from the dirt. Pulling out his AP Pistol and aiming it anywhere that felt unfamiliar.

He walked backwards and felt his leg scrape against something. Turning around, he picked up a brown and white owl mask, complete with large, yellow eyes and a sharp-looking beak. He put on the mask, looking for any of his friends.

"Ow...shit. What the hell kinda glitch was that?" A man in a light blue hoodie wearing clown makeup grumbled in pain. He slowly staggered upwards, slipping on a hockey mask, complete with red markings that looked like lightning bolts on the cheeks and eyebrows of the mask, pulling out a hatchet.

"Delirious, where the hell are we?" He asked, looking around at the mess of unconscious bodies.

"I don't know, Vanoss, when the hell did GTA 5 turn into freaking H1Z1?" Delirious asked.

"Oh, yeah, I just remembered, 'my name Jeff'." Vanoss said, laughing as he remembered that game.

"Yeah, but seriously, we should build some shelter, before zombies come and eat our faces or something."

Just then, out of the darkness, a voice that sounded like it was coming from above them landed just out of sight.

"Hey, who are you?!" A brash, angry voice asked from what seemed like nowhere.

"AAAAAAAH!!! ZOMBIES!!!" Delirious screamed, running around until he hit a tree.

"NOOOOO!" Vanoss shrieked as he put a pistol up to his head and shot himself, before his corpse blinked three times and disappeared.

A few other humans, obviously soldiers, walked around, getting a good look at the scene before them, eight men were unconscious in the forest and the other two...reappeared right in front of them.

"Stay where you are! Put your hands up!" One soldier ordered, the man had a two patches on his right arm, one a red hawk-like bird, and the other a cloud, shooting out a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt.

"Hey, what do you call a magic owl?" Vanoss asked the soldier in front of him, the yellow eyes staring daggers into the man.

"God damn it! I already have thousands of that joke on my twitter, you dick!" Delirious groaned, knowing full well what was about to happen.

Vanoss himself pulled an AK-47 from out of nowhere, and finished his joke.

"HOO-DINI!"

The soldier was completely unprepared for the onslaught of gunfire that ripped through him. Vanoss shot a full extended mag's worth of bullets into him, reloading as he fell to the ground, dead.

Delirious pulled out a hatchet, burying it into another soldier's head before violently yanking it out and repeating the act two more times.

"I'm the real Delirious, bitches!" He yelled as he yanked the now bloody hatchet from the corpse.

"Uuugh... What are you two idiots doing?" Asked a man wearing a pig mask and a white motorcycle helmet, as well as a fluorescent green hoodie and similarly colored undergarments.

"Aaaugh. Arnold needs a nap really bad." Another man groaned, in an obviously bad Austrian accent.

"Zzz. Cockatoos..." Snored another man, wearing a pink polo shirt in an albeit extremely racist accent himself.

The remaining soldier had to stop himself from laughing his ass off, but still terrified of what would happen to him.

"Honestly, can you guys shut up? I'm trying to sleep you fockin' pricks." A man wearing a paper bag, a green button-up shirt, and an adult diaper whisper-yelled.

"Okay, fine, Jesus." Vanoss nonchalantly pulled out an RPG and aimed it at the last soldier.

"This is how we do it in Team Canada!" He yelled again, blowing the soldier into a pile of ash.

"Good job, Evan, now can we go back to sleep?" Another man asked, agitated beyond belief.

"Okay, fine, Marcel." Vanoss relented, passing out after finishing that sentence.

Only one other pony now knew of the existence of these men. That mare hid behind a cloud, peering into that scene, unable to look away.

The one, the awesome, Rainbow Dash.

She knew of other humans. The first one seemed scared to death, none of them knew why, the others, they were after him, and they wouldn't say why.

But these guys, they were something else entirely. She knew she was supposed to let Agent Winchester know about these men, but she figured she should only entrust Twilight with this information. It wasn't treason, it was just... She didn't know what this was anymore. The job for her was simple; be awesome, zap villains with her combined strength with her friends, maybe reform them, but now, with all this...complexity, all this being kept in the dark. This was too much. Now Rainbow herself had her own secret.

And she was not above keeping it.

Author's Notes:

Yeah, remember when I said the crossover tag was for future events in the story?
This is only a glimpse. I may lose a huge amount of my audience in doing this, but there is also a chance this could help things. We are dealing with multiple universes after all.