Certain parts of this chapter were inspired by A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Magical Railgun. If none of you have seen any of those, go watch them right now.

The Admiral groaned as he fell out of his crash couch. The pod’s door had slowly cracked open and he fell onto the floor, sore as hazed college student. The rest of the bridge crew and senior officers were falling out of their crash couches and onto the rubbery floor.

Ajax appeared.

“Well?” he asked.

The A.I. sighed, “It’s done. Complete success, one hundred percent. No survivors on their side.”

“Not even a single ship?”

“No. Not one. In this case our weapons were too successful. I doubt they even got off a transmission before we got to them.”

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me what we did to them.”

“Yes sir.”

A holographic screen appeared before him. The footage was from a distant vantage point, most likely from one of the farthest sentinels. The ships were just small objects against the dark vacuum. Flashes of light came from the cluster.

“Thank you Ajax that’s enough.”

“Yes sir,” the A.I. said solemnly.

A medical technician ran over and helped the Admiral to his feet.

“How long were we in those things?”

“Deceleration took several days,” Ajax blinked, “Gave enough time for our fighters and gunships to catch up with us. We should be expecting them by tomorrow.”

“Good.”

“Do you need any assistance Admiral?”

“No thank you Ajax. I think I’m fine. Just… take care of the others. Make sure the fleet is fine.”

“Yes Admiral.”

She quickly vanished in a flash. The Med Tech opened a case and removed a small scanning device.

“Well sir you survived alright. No broken bones or lacerations. Rather fortunate considering what others went through. But overall we have no casualties.”

“What have we done?” George asked himself.

“Sir?”

“Nothing. Very good Ensign. Tend to the others. I’ll be fine.”

“Yes sir.”

***

“… Skies?” Jett asked.

Starry Skies disconnected her mouth from Charger’s and pushed him off of herself.

“Oh! Uh, Jett, fancy seeing you here, huh?” she said a bit awkwardly standing up.

“Babe? Who’s this?” Charger asked.

Jett’s face twitched slightly before calmly smiling again and aiming his black irises at the Shadowbolt.

“I’m her boyfriend. And just who may I ask are you?”

The shadowbolt stood a full six inches taller than Jett and calmly strolled over to him.

“Well ain’t that the coincidence hot boy because so am I!”

“Guys, uh, I think you two should seriously take a chill pill an-”

“You’re cheating on me?” Jett asked looking past the one hundred and eighty pounds of muscle and at the girl, “With him?!”

Charger put a hand to his chin, “You know, that’s pretty funny you say that because I was just about to say the same thing. Babe, you foolin’ around with robot boy here?”

“What?! No! Charger we’re just friends.”

“Oh wow, that’s really interesting. Just friends huh?” Jett blinked before giving an uneasy smile, “Wow, you know we must have been one hell of a pair of friends then for you to fucking kiss me like that every time we met.”

“Now wait just a minute-”

“You fuckin’ kissed this robot fuck?! What, I, uh, ju- was he fucking you too?!” Charger asked.

“Well now that this fucking curtain’s been called I’d say I’m glad I didn’t. I mean who knows how many other guys the slut’s been sleeping with? I could have gotten some sort of alien STD!” Jett laughed.

“Hey shut the fuck up asshole! That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about!”

“Oh really? Well you’ve obviously scored a great catch there, you git. You know what, you can have the bitch!” Jett laughed.

“Excuse me?!” Starry Skies began.

“We’ll talk about this later babe. As for you, stay the fuck away from my girl!”

“What gives you the fucking idea I would want to even share the same fucking planet as her at this point?! I said you can have her because at this point I don’t care!” he turned to Skies, “What is it with you?! I fucking trusted you and you go behind my back and do this?!”

“He was first, genius,” she snarled.

“Oh! Even better! So what was I to you?! Just your fucking play thing?! A fancy toy to be fucked with?!”

“I told you to get away from her!” Charger yelled shoving the android.

“Excuse me you dense collection of protein, I’m trying to question your bitch over there so if you could get out of my way that would be fucking great.”

“You know I think I have an even better idea. How about you turn your mechanical ass around and get away from us before I rip your fucking robot head off? Sound good?”

Jett started laughing, “I’d like to see you try! Fucking jock strap!”

Charger’s face twitched.

“Call me a jock strap… one more time.”

“What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

“Whip the fucking ground with you.”

“Do it, you fucking cock bag. Or would you prefer I call you a jock str-”

Charger gripped his head and threw it towards a nearby tree. The back of Jett’s head hammered the stub of a branch before he started falling to the ground. Charger quickly ran up and kneed him in the face, slamming his head against the rough bark again.

Jett fell to the ground limp. Charger began kicking him.

“Hey! Stop!” Starry Skies said.

Charger continued. Jett’s body rolled over onto a bed of stones. Charger walked up and stomped on his head before kicking him again in the gut.

“Charger! He’s had enough!”

He stopped and turned. Jett lay limp on the ground; unmoving.

“You’ve proved your point,” she sighed.

“Really? You know because I think I saw him talking shit about me and you.”

“He deserved that but that just went a little too far.”

“Oh really? How long have you been cheating on me for?”

“Charger-”

“HOW LONG?!”

“A month and a half,” she sighed crossing her arms.

“Wow, that long. You ever kissed him? Oh wait that’s a yes. He ever kiss you?”

She rolled her eyes, “What does this have to do with anything.”

“I don’t know, you tell me since he was your robot fuck toy. Plus it’s for how long of a talk we’re gonna have when we get ba- AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” he let out a blood curdling scream. The sounds of electricity arcing as well as the loud crack of sparks were heard. Charger’s body curled as every muscle in his body fired off at the same time. His face was frozen in electric pain.

Starry Skies leapt back and put her hands to her mouth. Finally after almost a minute the shocks stopped and Charger’s body went limp. Jett stepped out from behind him, gripping his neck in a vice grip in his right hand. Electrical arcs flew across his forearm. The sapphire in his eyes was back.

His face bore the marks of a heavy beating. Heavy cuts that would normally leave nasty scars on a normal person littered his face. His clothing was torn in several places and blood mixed with blue hydraulic fluid stained his shirt. He sighed, blinked and quietly tossed Charger’s body to the ground before kicking the unconscious jock in the ribs with a sickening crunch.

He cracked his neck, “God I couldn’t stand that fuck.”

Starry Skies still had her hands to her mouth.

Jett stretched out and sighed, “You know, I really don’t know what you see in that guy. But then again I have no idea what he sees in you. I don’t even know what I saw in you.”

“I, uh, is he, I don’t-”

“But again, all that’s kind of expected I guess,” he said casually, “I mean I did have to lose sixteen years of memories just to get stupid enough to try relationships but, I suppose this is what I get.”

Jett turned and looked down on the body of his opponent, “What a fucking Muppet. I mean, goddamn. What a useless little fuck!”

Starry Skies found her voice, “W-what did you do to him?”

“Please, is it not obvious?” he said unamused looking at his right hand, “I wanted an extra gadget so this arm wouldn’t be useless. I shocked him with a just over one million volts. Applied the right way it’s not enough to kill him…”

He smiled and touched his fingers together and watched the electricity arc before clenching his hand in a fist, “But applied correctly, it’s enough to KILL.”

He grinned. The smile of a maniac danced across his face, “Wow my head hurts.”

He stopped and leaned against a tree, “Wow, this is certainly painful.”

He held his head as his eyes flickered from blue to brown and back again.

“Oh wow, this is, I don’t know, I-aaaahhhh!”

He shook his head and the blue returned, “Wow your friend seriously fucked me up. I’m going to have to get that looked at later. As for you…”

Starry Skies began backing away, “What are you going to do to me?”

“You know I should really thank you,” Jett smiled ignoring her question, “Because without you I may never have recovered my lost memories. But now… I remember everything; including how to make you feel like you’re dying without even killing you.”

She turned and went to take off, spreading her wings and getting a few feet off the ground before Jett caught her and slammed her against the ground.

“Please!” she cried out.

“Oh what’s the matter?” Jett asked smiling, “I never said I was going to physically hurt you. But I will drop you a warning. Come near me again; threaten me again, if any of your friends come after me in any way… I’ll fucking kill them. And then… I’ll come after you. Understand?”

She nodded.

“Good. On second thought,” he blinked picking her up by her collar, “I lied about the first thing.”

He raised his left arm and swiftly punched her in the face, knocking her unconscious. He dropped her body and held his head.

“Aaaaahhh!”

He struggled to regain control before he shook it off and stood up and calmly began walking out of the park, twitching ever so lightly every now and again.

As he left the park his face twisted into a contorted grin as he began heading back to the HQ. He stopped again and fell to the ground, gripping his head in pain.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!” He screamed.

Images flashed across his eyes and he couldn’t stop it. They looked like memories only…

They weren’t his.

He tried to shut them out, override them in some way, delete them even but nothing was working. The pain became excruciating. Suddenly something snapped.

“Oh… wow…” he began, “I… I get it now…”

Suddenly he stood up, blood from his cuts still covering his face. He started to laugh before walking down the street towards the underground.

***

Spitfire and Dane were sitting at the cafeteria table waiting. Waiting was not fun for Spitfire mainly because that was just the way she was. Fast paced and impatient. For Dane however it was almost torture. Performing trillions upon trillions of calculations per second made each one drag on for an eternity. However they couldn’t do anything.

Jett had to come home before they could even think about doing anything.

Dane sighed, “Alright, it’s been more than half an hour now. This is getting ridiculous. What’s he doing?”

“Maybe this whole thing is taking longer than expected? I don’t know,” Spitfire sighed.

Silence again filled the room.

“Do you think we did the right thing?” Spitfire asked.

“You’re having second thoughts now?!” Dane blinked.

“No-yes, maybe, I don’t know. I mean, she did make him happy.”

“And so will you, only you’ll make him happier so get that through that thick skull of yours.”

“Alright, alright. I’m still worried though. I mean, he hasn’t come back yet.”

“I know… Just, let him be. Sometimes these things take time with people.”

“I know it’s just that I’m worried when he comes back all those walls I knocked down will be built back up again.”

“Sometimes it's good to build up walls, not to keep anyone out. But to see who cares enough to knock them down.”

“Who said that?” Spitfire blinked.

Dane sighed, “Old friend of ours. Probably dead considering what we know but… still. Enough about the past. I think we should just give him a day or so to come back and if he’s not back by then, we’ll go looking for him. Sound good?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Alright then. So now we go on waiting.”

…

“Fuck this I hate waiting.”

***

Ajax sighed, “So what’s the problem.”

The medical Tech walking next to her glanced up from his pad, “She’s been in a catatonic state for days now. The crew said that she ran into the bathroom and came out a few minutes after and just sat in her chair and did nothing for the entire trip back.”

“Nothing?”

“She hasn’t eaten in three days. They’ll be arriving soon.”

“Alright.”

The heavy gunship entered the hanger. The docking arms latched onto it and the airlock extended. The door opened and a medical crew with a stretcher walked out. Ensign Kana Misaki was laid out on it, looking sick as a dog.

Ajax moved her avatar up to the stretcher, “Hey there friend. How you feeling?”

“…Awful…” Kana muttered.

“I thought you said she was catatonic,” Ajax said turning to the medical tech.

“That’s the first word she’s said since we left.”

“Get her to the medical bay and try to see if you get her to eat anything. I’ll be there soon.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ajax vanished and reappeared back in the Admiral’s office.

“Well?” he asked.

“That’s the one thousand fifty sixth one reported so far,” she sighed.

“So it’s not just isolated to the pilots.”

“No it appears that anyone who was involved in it can be affected.”

“Guilt appears to be getting to them. I can’t say I don’t understand either. We just ordered them to kill millions of their fellow man. It was bound to happen.”

Ajax frowned.

“Something the matter Ajax?”

“No sir, it’s just that, this one is a little more personal.”

“A friend of yours?”

“Yes, she’s the one who designed your program for you in fact. She hasn’t eaten anything in days so they’re gonna try to get her to eat something and if she refuses then it’s onto fluids.”

“Well I guess it’s expected. Try to keep everyone sane. Report back to me later.”

“Yes, sir.”

***

Friday.

Spitfire floated calmly on her back on the cloud. Sweat that had been pouring off of her like water over a fall had evaporated off her skin in the hot sun of the day. Training had been hard today. Her self-punishment involuntarily extended to the entire team but they didn’t complain. In truth everyone was pretty much preoccupied with the same thing that was keeping Spitfire awake at night.

Jett had been missing for three days now.

Spitfire wasn’t the only one that was worried. Dane especially had been worried sick though he kept his cool persona on him at all times like a security blanket. Gin had taken to breaking as many punching bags as she could to cover a certain corner of the gym with sand from the broken things as well as a pile of spent bags. The rest of the team was… off. Since the arrival of the strange outlanders they’d almost become a staple of the team. Jett and Dane were the mechanical architects behind some of the team’s latest tricks while Gin almost became a sort of therapist of sorts who heard out everyone’s individual problems (or at least everyone who drank) and helped them solve them the best she could. All from behind the safety of her bar.

But with one of them missing things hadn’t been going too well. No one could properly focus on training and near misses and minor accidents were common.

When Jett didn’t come back the following Wednesday morning Spitfire called the royal guard to report him missing. Shining Armor was intrigued to say the least. The guard had been looking for him, putting up missing person signs even before going to question the Shadowbolts but they weren’t able to be reached for some odd reason.

She sighed. None of this had gone according to plan.

A ringing noise got her attention. Her phone. Her crappy phone.

She removed it from her pocket, “Hello?”

“Good news,” Shining Armor said, “We found your friend.”

***

Jett walked up to the counter and collected his winnings with a twisted grin. His face was scarred from partial healing and his face gave the impression that he was not in the proper state of mind to be fucked with at the moment.

He hadn’t seen heads or tails of the shadowbolts since he last electrocuted one half to death and struck the rich girl bitch that was now his ex.

For the past several days he’d been walking around outside before coming down here during the day to beat people up for money. It was great too because at first everyone bet against him. Several people had broken their hands hitting him in the head too hard and for most of the fights all he had to do was just sit there and take the hits until his opponents took themselves out. Still, sometimes he got something interesting.

That last man he’d just beaten did put up a bit of a fight. His friends here not all too happy to see him lose.

“Hey you!”

Jett blinked and kept walking.

“Hey asshole!” a glass bottle smashed against the back of his head. Okay, attention gained.

Jett turned. Two guys were holding onto a rather muscular man who had certainly seen better days and a third was giving him death eyes.

“You owe my friend some money and an apology.”

Jett blinked, “Why?”

“People don’t take that kind of punishment and dish it out without some kind of magic. We’re supposed to believe that a scrawny kid like you beat him?” he pointed to his friend.

“We-I don’t give a shit what you believe. What I expect is for you to accept the fact your friend is unconscious in your arms and that you should probably get him to a hospital. Have a nice day.”

He turned and began walking away, heading over to one of the concession stands.

“Hey man, maybe we should just walk away from this. Steel did get pretty fucked up,” one of the guy’s friends said.

“Not until we get our money. Can’t you see he cheated? Come on. If we catch him off guard without whatever magic he used we can get our money.”

“Nah, man. You can go ahead.”

“You’re both pussies.”

He left his friends and ran up to the android ordering a pastry from the stand and punched him in the face.

***

Spitfire frowned, “He’s been down here the whole time?!”

Shining Armor said, “Yes. Apparently a person matching your description of him has been winning a series of bare knuckle matches all week. Why?”

“Just, I used to come down here a lot before I disappeared.”

“What the hell is this place?” Gin asked looking around the large open chamber.

“The Canterlot Underground,” Fleetfoot replied.

“Geez this place is huge,” Dane blinked, “It’s like a small town down here.”

“Come on guys. Let’s just fine him and get out of here,” Spitfire blinked.

Two guards ran up to Shining Armor.

“You find him?” he asked.

“Yes,” one replied nervously.

“Well then why don’t you have him with you then?”

“We’re not getting involved in that,” the other guard pointed.

“Huh?”

“Follow us.”

The two guards led the group over to a square with a boxing ring in one corner and a crowd gathering in another. Though they couldn’t see what was really going on through the mash of people it was obvious from the noises that a fight was going on.

“Missed,” a certain voice said.

The grunt of someone throwing a punch was the response.

“Missed again.”

Swing again.

“Your aim is improving greatly,” was the sarcastic reply.

“Is that-” Dane began.

“Jett?” Spitfire ended.

They cut through the crowd towards the interior of the circle. What they saw raised more questions than it answered. Jett was just ducking and executing a series of simple dodges to avoid getting punched by a rather angry looking man. A bruise was on the android’s face as well as a series of fresh scars decorating his face and body.

Jett sighed and looked at his watch, “Okay now I’m bored.”

The man threw another punch that was caught by the android. The man looked at his arm and then at Jett who cocked his head before sending one million volts of electricity through the man. The man screamed while the crowd, including Spitfire and company, let out an audible gasp. Jett threw the man to the ground.

“Are you not entertained?!” he called.

No answer.

“Hmm, bad joke,” he frowned before grabbing his pastry and walking through the crowd that was now crowding around the unconscious man. He had just cleared the crowd when he was stopped by a certain flame haired flier.

Spitfire.

She and the rest of the group stood in his way.

“Oh hello,” he turned, “Wonderful to see you all aga-”

SLAP. The pastry went sailing through the air and onto the ground.

The android had a large red mark on his face, “What did you do that for?”

“What did I do that for?!” Spitfire asked angrily, “I’ll tell you what I did that for. YOU WERE MISSING FOR THREE DAYS!”

“And? We took a few days off to sort out some problems of ours-err mine.”

“We?” Dane asked, “And what the hell happened to your face?”

“Nothing particularly interesting. Suffice it to say Ms. Starry Skies and myself are no longer seeing each other and we left on excellent terms!” He smiled.

Blaze leaned into Gin, “Who do you think died on this one?”

“Good terms?” Fleetfoot blinked, “That’s what you call good terms?”

“Well you haven’t seen much of your rivals recently, have you?” Jett asked with a smirk, “That’s what we thought.”

“So you broke up with your girlfriend and came down here?” Spitfire asked. There was still some venom in her voice, “Why would you not come back home?”

“Uh, why would I have to? You know we seem to recall me being in a not sound state of mind, i.e. Severe head trauma that caused several of our-my memory engrams to be dislodged, when I signed that contract of yours.”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh come on now woman. You all knew we’d lost our memories as well as a pretty large portion of our-my calculating prowess.”

“Wait. Do you have your memories back now?” Spitfire asked.

“Where do you think these scars came from? Of course we do!”

Dane blinked, “Okay, dude, what is with the whole talking about yourself as though you’re multiple people?”

“Well Dane, when you get your head kicked into the stub of a tree branch a few times it’s bound to do something to fuck your shit up!” he blinked before holding his head, “Damn that hurts.”

“Still. Why didn’t you come back to me-us?” Spitfire asked.

“Because we didn’t want to,” he replied tersely.

“W-what?”

“You know, I get the feeling you feel like you have some sort of monopoly on us. Lately you’ve come off as bit overbearing and possessive,” he frowned before grabbing his head again and grimacing, “You know Ezri was never this possessive and she was our girlfriend!”

Spitfire was hurt, “Well, uh, I didn’t mean-I just wanted you to be-”

Dane interjected, “Okay we’ve clearly established he’s suffering from some kind of aphasia here but just who the hell is Ezri? Don’t you mean Starry Skies?”

“No, Ezri is correct,” he said still holding his head, “Gah! This hurts a lot more than it looks.”

“You know I think your friend has a few issues he needs to resolve,” Blaze said to Gin.

“This is worse than normal,” she replied.

“You need to come home, Jett,” Spitfire said kindly, “You’re hurt and you need help.”

“You know I think the guy back there needs your help a lot more than I do.”

“Speaking of that guy,” Dane said, “Just where did you get that ability from?”

“Programed it. And why should I go back? You know I was perfectly content to stay here and beat up assholes all day.”

“Because I said so,” Spitfire said, “Just look at yourself! I know she was cheating on you and I know that probably hurts a lot; to have the person you’re supposed to trust just slap you in the face like that. But you have people here that care about you, you block head!”

Jett blinked, “What?”

“Why do you think everyone came down here looking for you?”

“Come on man,” Soarin’ smiled, “What’s the team gonna do without our best mechanic?”

Jett cocked his head.

“You had us all worried there,” Misty said.

“Come on Jett. Just come back with us and we’ll sort out everything like we always do,” Spitfire smiled.

Jett frowned in thought.

“Thanks but I think we’re gonna stay here for the weekend. We still have some things to think about here that I’d rather do alone.”

“But I-”

“Please Spitfire just give us the weekend. I didn’t save you from being crushed to death just so you could get caught up on me.”

She frowned.

“But I mi-”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. We’ve got all my memories back now so you can be happy about that my little angel girl.”

“I, uh, alright,” she sighed.

“If we’re leaving you down here for the weekend,” Dane said removing a small device from his pocket and tossing it to him, “You’re wearing this.”

“The hell is it?”

“Cognitive reinforcement device. It’ll keep your memories locked safe and sound in the event you get knocked upside the head again. It goes on the back of your head.”

“Thanks,” he said placing the device on the back of his skull just where his spine met his brain.

“So you’ll be back on Sunday?” Spitfire asked.

“Sure. We-ah fuck, I promise,” he said.

“…Okay. If you’re not back by Sunday I’m sticking my boot six feet up your mechanical ass,” she laughed.

“Sure.”

“Wait, do you have a place to stay at least?” Misty asked.

“We don’t sleep,” he said, “I’m fine.”

“Alright,” Spitfire sighed. She still couldn’t shake the worried expression from her face, “We’ll leave you be for the weekend. But please just return home without any unnecessary trouble following you.”

“Me?” he laughed; the slightest hints of insanity creeping into his voice, “Since when have we ever gotten into trouble?”

Spitfire involuntarily twitched.

“Relax, we’re just joking. Poor one at that. But whatever. We’ll see you all later,” he said turning and walking back towards the center of the town, disappearing into the crowds.

Spitfire turned to Dane, “What the hell is wrong with him? I know he went through a messy break up, that much is obvious, but why would him getting his memories back fuck him up like that?”

“Beats me. From what he said it sounds like he got his head smashed into a tree branch,” Dane replied as they started walking towards the exit.

“What do you think even happened there?” Fleetfoot asked.

“From the looks of things, our plan worked only not exactly as planned. Seems like he went to the park, figured out just what was going on and then got beat up a little bit but I would venture to guess he won the fight in the end. After all no one’s seen or heard of the Shadowbolts in days.”

“Yeah, I just got a bad feeling about that,” Spitfire said.

“Do you really think it was the best idea to leave him down there?” Gin asked.

“What would you have us do? With that new trick he learned, dragging his ass out of there would be next to impossible.”

***

“So?” George asked from his desk.

“Well from what I’ve gathered, these people seem to be suffering from a sort post-traumatic stress disorder mixed with survivor’s guilt,” Ajax replied.

“Survivor’s guilt? If I recall correctly the operation was literally a one hundred percent success. No loss of any friendly ships at all.”

“It would appear to be simple. They had a front row seat to a massacre they were meant to survive.”

“So what else have you got? Most of our psychologists are days ahead of us in the civilian fleet running observational studies of the effects of extremely long term space flight to be of much use.”

“Well, in all honesty I don’t know. Some of these people are still having trouble justifying this whole thing in their minds. But I think I want to try something with one of my more personal cases. I’ll get back to you if it works.”

“Please do. Dismissed.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Ajax vanished and reappeared in one of the ship’s computer labs.

She turned to face one of the techs, “Get one of these down to medical bay twenty one.”

“Ma’am?”

“That’s an order. Get one of these hooked up down there now. And while you’re at it, bring some sound analyzing equipment as well.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Hopefully this would work.

***

Sunday. 8:00 PM

Jett walked along the empty Canterlot streets heading back towards the base. Silence filled the city with the only company being the incessant rain that had been falling for the past few hours now. His hair was soaked but that didn’t really bother him much.

He’d stopped for some exotic food items on the way back. He was in the mood for cooking and felt Gin could brew something weird with other ingredients he had bought. A noise got his attention. An old woman in a dress with a basket of food in her hands was walking down the other side of the street.

His thoughts drifted back to Spitfire, though the real difference now being he had a full set of memories. An entirely FULL set. Memories of all their experiences, including his amnesia affected ones filled his head. He was a bit ashamed of himself looking back on it. He should have just gone straight back home but he let his emotions get the best of him.

Anger was something he was no stranger to. Something he needed to master. Most of the time he’d just cage it like an angry beast but he was beginning to question the effectiveness of that technique now.

His thoughts slipped to Starry Skies and… Charger. If he ever saw him again…

His anger began to raise, “Stupid fuckin’ cunt.”

He stopped by a stonewalled terrace. Above it was a garden and across the street were a bunch of closed up shops. This was a rather empty and unvisited part of the city. The kind of part that seemed to be known only to those who already knew about it. His angry thoughts of his ex and her boyfriend were interrupted by a sound. It was something familiar too. Even though from his frame of reference it had only happened a little over seven months ago it was still fresh in his mind. Only this time, the technology was hundreds of years less advanced and this time he was ready. He smiled.

He dropped his grocery bag and braced against the ground just as an SUV type vehicle swerved around the corner at high speeds and slammed into him. The front compressed violently. Jett remained stable as the car pushed him along the ground into the wall. The stone wall cracked under the pressure.

Jett looked up, pinned between the car and the wall. Inside were some familiar looking faces. An unknown man with windblown snowy grey hair was in the driver’s seat, a cut on his head leaking blood onto the dash. He was out. A blue haired guy with a spiky almost dragon ball z kind of hair cut with gold lensed goggles over his eyes was in the passenger seat. He looked a little worried... In the back, vaguely visible was one Starry Skies and her boyfriend Charger. Both looked terrified.

Jett grinned and pushed the car away from him into the street, flipping it onto its side. He looked down at his stomach. His shirt had cuts along the sides and his stomach had an imprint of a bumper.

“I don’t know why any of you are here,” he said approaching the car, crunching broken glass under his shoes, “As far as I’m concerned we’re all even here. She cheated on me, I broke her face. He beat me to a pulp, fucked up my head; I shock him and break his ribs. Even. But then you assholes show up.”

The white haired man stirred.

“I don’t know what your purpose is, be it revenge or just some futile attempt to take out your rival’s secret weapon. Either way,” he grinned, “I’ll kill you.”

He walked up to the windshield and tore the remaining glass away. He grabbed the while haired driver and threw him from the car into the wall, laughing as he did it. The Shadowbolt in the passenger’s seat reared back.

“W-wait a second!” he said, “This wasn’t my idea!”

The android ignored him and tore him and his seat out of the vehicle and tossed it into the road. Starry Skies and Charger were still working on their seatbelts.

“Come on, come on, come on!” she yelled.

Charger appeared to be having a hard time bending his body over to reach the belt and kept cringing in pain each time he moved his torso, “Stupid little fuck!”

Jett grinned making no attempt to hide his unstable state, “So fun!”

He walked into the vehicle through the sideways facing windshield.

Starry Skies got her seatbelt unbelted and escaped out of the vehicle through the trunk and into the street with a visible limp that hampered her progress.

Charger gave up with the seatbelt and pulled out a heavy revolver type weapon and fired it into the android’s head. The bullets harmlessly bounced off his Tritanium skull.

“WELL DONE WITH THE SHOW,” he laughed, “Now it’s my turn.”

Starry Skies limped as fast as she could away from the car. Flying was out of the question as most of her feathers were out of place as well as one of her wing bones being bent at an odd angle. A scream followed by a sickening snap was heard. Even now she was only several meters away from the car.

She turned around in time to hear the tearing of metal as the android ripped his way out of the car, dragging the unconscious body of Charger with him. His wings were broken at the joints. A trail of blood followed the two. Jett was covered in little splatters of it.

He tossed his body to the sidewalk, “You put me in bad position here Skies. Here I promised Spitfire I wouldn’t get into any trouble but you just had to fuck that up for me didn’t you!”

“You hurt Charger!” she spat angrily.

He laughed, “Which time are you referring to because both of these times are just me seeing how far I can take the self-defense excuse!”

“You’ll be arrested! Thrown in jail to rot,” she laughed.

Jett cocked his head, “Pathetic. You’re so fucking pitiful you deserve a hug. I have no DNA, I leave no Mana trail. And the only witness conscious to observe these events is you. And considering how you tried to run me over with a car and how most of these injuries could have been sustained in the accident I wonder how that will turn out!”

“You electrocuted him and broke his ribs and now broke his wings. If you don’t think there will be consequences for that then you’re wrong!” she spat laughing nervously, “We have friends in high places! WE WERE FORMED BY THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HERSELF. THERE’S NO WAY EVEN YOU COULD GO AGAINST THAT KIND OF POWER!”

She began laughing hysterically, “YOU’LL DIE ROBOT! AND WHEN YOU DO WE’LL BE THERE WATCHING AND LAUGHING AS YOU DO!”

“Excellent speech,” he laughed, “There’s just one problem with your plan.”

He grabbed a lamppost and tore it off its stand and began dragging it across the street. Sparks flew as it grinded against the cobblestone and brick streets. Starry Skies jumped and fell on her back and began to back away as fast as she could. She pulled her own sidearm out. It was silvery in appearance with a few jewels dotting the handle.

“I could kill you all before that happens. You mistake me for one who fears death. In truth I couldn’t care less even if I tried!”

He swung the post and knocked the gun from her hand into the air. She gripped her hand in pain. Jett caught the weapon and bent the barrel out of shape and pulled the trigger, rendering it useless before tossing it to the ground.

“There’s only one way to go from here my lady,” Jett grinned raising the post, “Tremble in fear and pray to whatever heathen god you worship that something stops me from crushing your skull!”

He prepared to swing just as a group of guards flew in and landed in a circle around the pair, rifles aimed.

“Stop right there!” one shouted.

Jett turned and looked around.

“Yes!” Starry Skies yelled, “Thank you! Now arrest him!”

“You’re both under arrest. You for attempted murder and you,” the guard said turning to the android, “for the same. Now, uh, put the lamppost down.”

Jett turned grinning he dropped his weapon, letting it fall mere inches from Starry Skies’ wing, “Yes officer.”

He raised his hands, a grin still on his face.

“Cuff ‘em,” the sergeant said, “All of them.”

“All of us?!” Starry Skies screamed as a guard helped her to her feet and began shackling her wrists.

“Yes all of you,” she said sternly, “An old lady has you attempting to run this boy down with your car.”

She turned to the android, “And she has you borderline murdering them.”

Jett just shrugged, “What can I say?”

“What can you say?” the Sergeant asked.

Jett frowned as his arms were cuffed, thinking. After a few seconds he smiled.

“I just want my phone call.”

“A phone call?”

“Yes. Spitfire’s gonna be pissed at me.”

Well the only question you people have been asking is how many arcs will it take for this story to be complete. And my answer is: One. One more. We're already about a chapter or two into it. It will be coming to an explosive end real soon...