The first radio frequency they acquired was, oddly enough, an enclave station's. It barely had any signal strength under St. Michael's. When their party exited Saint Michael's, they were treated to the beautiful view of gloomy skies and a murky lake not meters away from the entrance. That very same lake had a thin layer of frost over the surface. Silent Hill shivered when spotting just how expansive the water really was. A soft tension took her knees and threatened to freeze her. All that water meant it must've had a deep, muddy volume. What could possibly be inside. The very concept of something crawling out on eldritch pseudopods and winding, slinking effluvium sent her trotting away. Even though she knew it wasn't possible, something was wrong with that lake. She just knew it.

Brown trotted to her right and kept pace. His steps were winding and jingled his coat pockets with bottlecaps and presumed trinkets. He started talking when he fixed his oval reading glasses.

"Miss Hill. You should really be listening to that radio station. We need to deal with this outstanding obstacle before it becomes even larger. I suggest you locate the enclave station with the strongest signal. It's likely we'll find it by proximity and have a better chance of not being blown to smithereens."

Silent, still unsure of his motives, trotted slower and made sure her friends could follow. A lone, wandering question made her head swell. It had to be answered. Doctor Brown needed to confirm her hypothesis.

"You saved my life. After learning about my past, you're still here. Why? You could walk away and never be in danger again. But you're not at home. Or off to live in Las Pegasus. You're right here trotting by my side like we've served for years. Why do you care about me?"

Hot Brown slid his glasses up.

"Damn it First Airmare, I'm a doctor, not a mercenary. It's my duty to help the disenfranchised. And you are disenfranchised. You are the target of witch-hunting, angry cowboys with advanced T-42D power armor. If that's supposed to be the herd I follow, I'd be a sorry excuse for a doctor, now wouldn't I?"

Doctor Brown flicked his tail up and glanced sharply over his shoulder.

"I care about you because I am not just a doctor. I'm the doctor." Brown concluded, only to hold a hoof up to signal 'stop.'

They were still travelling on the road when coming onto an intersection between a big road and their current road. A dented, painfully bent sign said 'ES-51' just before it started, right where a carriage or hover vehicle might enter. He spent an unbearable amount of time shuffling through his bag and staring at the highway with a folding telescope. An impatient snort started in Silent's snout, her wings ruffling and shifting about in restless twitches. Just as she furrowed her brows and moved her lips, Doctor Brown handled a baseball-shaped object out his pack. It had no grip and consisted of a smooth, shining material she could only assume to be aluminum. It came with a pin, which he yanked out with his teeth and pitched onto the road not taken.

Before she knew it, Silent Hill shielded herself from the explosion.

The entire freeway lit up and washed in flame. It's galloping blaze stretched on as far as the eye could see, leading to sharp, stabbing ripples against her gut. She couldn't process the amount of sickly, corrosive pain pumping into her stomach. Her ears would've bled, if Doctor Brown hadn't cast a bubble of silence over her. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky and suffered bleeding out every orifice. And despite the horror on his friend's gaping lips, he returned a warm smile and doubled over, vomiting blood against the pavement. Silent Hill scrambled toward him and knelt over her friend, injecting him with two stimpaks and a buffout.

"Brown?! Brown, you idiot! You should've brought us away o-or put a shield over yourself!"

"Non...sense, Senior Airmare Hill. You see these mines were planted. They were set just for us, you winged hooligan- I-I deduced this sighting a cluster of out-of-place feathers down the freeway- and- hurk! I-I'd have shielded myself, but they're about to swoop down a-any minute now!" He raced, hacking red into his hooves.

Swoop... down?

Her round, circle eyes felt ready to burst out their sockets. Above them, a circle of gryphons hovered just in-place to snipe or carpet bomb them. A series of round, hoof-sized objects fell from their talons. It didn't take a genius to know what they were planning. Silent picked her comrade off the pavement and onto her back. She sped off with Bubblegum, who readied their plasma offender mid-gallop, spotting a cluster of makeshift shacks. It was do or die. Bubblegum grins did her best to slip the laser fire raining down on them. Countless streaks of red and blue magic charred the snow around them. Tiny clouds of ashen white and grey blanketed their trail. It was then that Bubblegum crashed into the nearest shack, ripping the door off it's hinges. Inside was a ham radio, a table for that radio, a terminal for the table and steel lockers spread over each wall.

Doctor Brown watched the door as he slipped off his friend and readied another grenade.

"They'll bomb this place to the ground, believe me, Ms. Grins!" He warned, glancing back in quick flashes.

"That's what I'm counting on~" She answered, bobbing her head rhythmically and humming Yankee Pony to herself.

In one of many lockers was a plasma rifle, which handled smoothly in the teeth of an old enclave operative. A nice, cheery grin slipped out her lips. Before Silent knew it, a standard issue ID-107 rifle was between her teeth. One, hopeful glance slipped toward her grinning confidante. They shared a moment of unbroken eye-contact before the shed fell to scrap. The gryphons hovered lower when they couldn't see any movement beneath the rubble. Four of six stayed about two meters above ground. When two of their own landed, the remaining Talons kept their trigger... talons ready.

"Bomb it! We can't be too sure this time. Grins is not easy to put down. Hill is weak but she's not a regular pegasus. When you see either of those bitches, shoot!" Barked their leader, who wore little more than standard issue Talons Combat Armor and a pair of shades.

Their eyes were a harsh, sun-bright orange and went well with gold-tipped feathers atop her head. It contrasted wildly from her normally white, brown and grey-red plumage. The reddish hues were around the base of her neck. It culminated in a single, gold chain running down her chest piece. And on her left ear lay a single, sparkling diamond earring.

"Daniela! We ran out of pineapples...!" One of the recruits called, not even noticing the rubble as it shifted.

"You dumbass! Watch the rubble-!"

Doctor Brown expanded his spacial anomaly bubble and unleashed a shockwave of yellow, pink-striped

mana. It tossed the scouts skyward and suspended them someplace anypony would regret. Silent Hill took aim with her MK II ID-107 plasma rifle. Her vision grew a soft grey and reality itself seemed to halt time down to milliseconds between milliseconds. Even random particles of snow fell around her in indescribable vividness. Every twitch and twist of the gryphon in front of her spoke words a split-second expression never could. She aimed for his beak and pulled the trigger. It cooked his feathers black, roasting the place his cranium used to be. Instead, supercharged, lime-green plasma melted a hole through his head.

Silent Hill zipped to her left and trotted right up to her next target, firing point blank into his throat. A mess of fresh, iron-drowned flavors spurted against her muzzle. A warning in bold, red text appeared over her HUD. It read 'Action points low', referring to a sizable, yet draining bar at the bottom right of her vision. For one last shot, she downed one of the airborne Talons. Whoever that mark was, her left wing oozed open, eaten by caustic goop. B.A.T.S deactivated and left Daniela stunned, completely in awe of what short work they made of three Talons.

"Talons! Fall back!"

"What about Rodney?!"

"I said fall back!" Barked Daniela, charging off herself before all her squadmates.

It was no contest. Eat or be eaten. Stop and die. That much ran through the Talons' warped psyche. Because they left their squadmate to die. It birthed a groaning, melting mess of a femboy begging them to just put him out of his misery. His eyes had untapped, wine red coloration to them. As if he hadn't lived at all and was ripped straight from the womb. Bubblegum Grins stepped right over him and smiled brightly when his face became a gaping pit of melting sinews and pink, chunky lipid clusters. Her bright and sunny smile faded as Doctor Brown muffled his lips in disgust. He stumbled elsewhere and spat out lingering gore scents.

Shrugging it off, she turned to face Silent Hill, who fell on her ass from collective exhaustion.

Bubblegum took a look at the mare's WristBelle, finding her clock.

"Well, it's half past twelve. Who's up for lunch?" Next Chapter: Evolution Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 5 Minutes