The search team was more determined than ever to accomplish what they had come to in the first place and now they at least had a good idea of where to go about looking for their subject. Big Macintosh had remembered that the strange energy beam allegedly emitted by Radius had come from a tower just to the West of the bank of the fourth reactor's cooling pond and he was now leading everypony right to it. This time however, the group was ready as they were all fitted with their hazmat suits since their destination was nearly directly on top of the nuclear reactor that ruined the life of a brilliant scientist thirty years ago. With time running out and no authority figures present to tell them otherwise, everypony had their minds set on leaving Chernobyl with Radius weather anyone approved or not.

Everypony had packed what they needed and left the base with much haste so they had made it to Chernobyl's industrial yard in good time and the tower they sought after was coming up close. With only a few hundred yards to go, the team pressed on and searched for the nearest entrance to the building. Not long after, they found their way into the facility in the form of a set of double door that were unlocked much to the groups fortune. As they all filed into the building, Big Macintosh took one final glance up at the tower where he could see the very window where the strange shot came that saved his and Daring Do's lives just a few days prior.

"Okay, everypony." Twilight said over the hum of her suit's breathing system. "I have a map of the entire facility here. Sooo...according to Big Mac, we need to get to the East tower...which is, um...that way!"

"Yeah, that looks about right." Big Macintosh said. "It ain't far from here."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Daring Do asked. "Let's head up there find our guy!"

"I'll second that!" Spitfire added.

After a few minutes of following the map of the building, the stairs to the tower were found and the climb had begun. Since there was not a single working elevator within the facility, the several flights of stairs would have to suffice. The team had been searching the city for over a week so their sore bodies were extremely tired but their collective will and fiery determination was keeping them all going strong. There was no telling who or what they would find once they reached the top but there was only one way to find out.

Slowly and steadily, a bulky but short, gray bus sluggishly made it's way towards Pripyat with half a dozen Ukrainian Army trucks in tow, Fredrick's Jeep and Dmytry's Land Rover in the very back of the line. A short, chubby man nearing his retirement known as the cheerful and friendly security guard Denys was once again behind the wheel of the old bus that he called the slate buster. Though normally being in an upbeat mood for simply being alive, Denys was not as happy go lucky as usual as he felt saddened by the news of the lack of positive results of the search that everypony had worked so hard on. Still though, he had a job to do as his destination was right where he had dropped the group off over a week earlier and he drove over the bumpy, crumbling remains of a road as he sipped his coffee and wiped the leftovers out of his thick mustache.

Celestia now had something else to worry about as she explicitly remembered radius informing her of his original plans to take his own life by means of threatening armed soldiers. Now, the Ukrainian government had actually begun sending in armed militia and the worst part was that they were going in with permission to use deadly force on anything deemed a threat. After more than a week of hard work searching for him and he spending thirty miserable and lonely years in the exclusion zone, Radius's plan could very easily be carried out should he decide to put it into action and pretend to attack the soldiers.

To say that the Princess was a nervous wreck would be a massive understatement and if tension were radiation, she would have enough emitting from her to split a Geiger counter in half. As she sat in the passenger seat of Fredrick's Jeep once more, her mind raced with the horrors of every possible unwanted outcome and her options that she must take advantage of in order to avoid them. Much to her dismay, she merely had one option and that was to find Radius before anyone else could and convince him that there is hope. The latter part she know would be easier said than done but much to the misfortune of her, Radius, Denys, and the entire search and rescue team, a new obstacle was about open up and nearly swallow the operation whole.

Honk! Honk!

Without any warning whatsoever, Denys laid his hand on the horn button of the bus with all his might as the big, gray machine seemingly disappeared in a thick cloud of dust on the road in front of the rest of the convoy. Naturally, every other driver slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt just before the next truck in line could make it to where Denys had disappeared. The drivers and other occupants of all the vehicles could do nothing but watch in shock as the cloud slowly dissipated revealing the aftermath in the form of Danys's bus with its back end up in the air and the front stuck deep in a ditch that formed when the road collapsed.

"Jesum Crow, somebody get me out of here!" The shocked and dazed Denys shouted over the radio.

Denys was not a fan of profanity and preferred to refrain from using it but he was now closer to going against his usual nature than ever as he was strapped to his seat with seemingly no way to escape. The rear end of the bus being high up in the air rendered it completely stuck as its driving wheels were nowhere near close enough to solid ground to grip onto. As the soldiers along with Fredrick, Celestia and Dmytry jumped out of the vehicles they occupied to assess the situation, the true seriousness of what had happened was as plain as the enormous hole in the road. Not only were the rear wheels of the bus high off the ground, the large steel shaft that connected the rear axle to the transmission up front was supporting it which would make it much more difficult to be pulled out.

"Everyone, I just got word that all other roads that lead into Pripyat have also caved in!" One of the soldiers announced.

"Well, then let's call in some gravel trucks!" another hollered. "We've gotta get into Pripyat!"

"That could take hours! Maybe even a day or two!"

"If you've got a better idea, let's hear it!"

While the soldiers quickly got to work and began rigging a chain to the back bumper of the bus and the other end to one of the army trucks, Fredrick and Celestia stared in awe into the large hole in the road before them. Both the Princess with millenniums of experience and the hardened soldier that Fredrick was knew very well that these were no sinkholes but rather precisely laid traps to prevent anyone else from gaining access to Pripyat. Now, what needed to be figured out was why they were not wanted there and whom it was who so badly wanted to keep them away. Though a convoy of vehicles was unable to cross the remainder of the road until the hold was filled in, a set of feet and hooves could very easily proceed down the path. According to Celestia, for the sake of Radius and her subjects, she was about to plunge into the fight weather the nation of Ukraine approved or not.

"I'm going in!" Celestia said firmly as she spread her wings.

"What!? Wait, you can't!" Fredrick worriedly shouted. "You're the ruler of a close ally! If you get hurt on my watch-"

"Well that's just too damn bad, Fredrick! If you're that worried about it, why don't you jump in there with me and we can both kick some ass?! Until you make your decision, you'll have to excuse me."

With that, Princess Celestia with her saddlebags full of her supplied flapped her large wings jumped high off the ground and sped off. As Fredrick watched the alicorn fade off into the distance at a frightening pace, he for once actually put serious thought into what she had just said to him. Fredrick was never one to run away from danger but rather barrel his way into it with guns blazing and judging by the trap that was left for the now stuck convoy, he knew that soon something serious was about to blow up in the faces of everyone involved. Upon making his decision, he ran back to his Jeep, grabbed an AK-47, a .45 pistol, several extra fully loaded magazines, a pack of cigarettes, and a full bottle of Bols.

"Alright, Princess!" Fredrick hollered as he sprinted up to the hole in the road and leaped across, landing on the other side with space to spare. "You had me at the ass kicking part!"

"Yup, this is his place, alright." Rainbow Dash said as she and the others reached the zenith of the tower and stared in awe at Radius's home away from home.

Much like the other two now vacant locations Radius used as a dwelling, the large room everypony found themselves in was absolutely spotless and so well organized, it made Twilight Sparkle well up with tears. This room in particular had a few more amenities as well including a bed with perfectly folded blankets on it, a stand with a television across from it. Just like the last, this television's cord was cut and the copper wires that frayed out from it appeared to have previously wrapped around a horn as Radius used his own as a power source. On the other side of the room were several tool boxes and chests, all of them labeled according to their contents and what appeared to be some sort of work bench to the right of them.

Aside from his sleeping and working areas, there was a large office desk in the far corner for the more white collar activities Radius enjoyed. Every type conceivable type of piece of office supplies sat atop the desk including staplers, paperclips, rulers, pencils, pens, and a typewriter, every single one of them perfectly organised. Not even the smallest of items were out of place as even the paperclips were all arranged in a line according to size. Lastly, on the window side of the room sat a table with a heavily modified ham radio, its cord in the same cut and frayed state as the television. This room that the search team had just discovered was much like the others before but different in that every existing surface appeared to have been freshly dusted moments ago. Truly not what most would expect to see in the home of the psychotic killing machine Radius makes himself out to be.

"He's not here." Rainbow Dash said in disappointment. "We've gotta find him, guys."

"Where ya reckon we oughtta look?" Big Macintosh asked.

"He could be anywhere." Spitfire said. "I don't know about you guys, but I think splitting up like we have been would be best."

"Yeah, it'd help our chances of finding him quite a bit." Soarin agreed.

"I dunno, guys, at this point, splitting up is the last thing we should do." Daring Do interjected.

Twilight and Shining Armor stood next to each other and watched nervously as everypony bickered among themselves about the next proper course of action. Being as resourceful as they both were, the two siblings were usually able to find a solution to any problem they had ever encountered however this particular conundrum would require serious critical thinking. Unfortunately for Shining Armor, he would have to be the one to take over the role of decision maker as his sister would soon have her own task at hoof that she would need to attend to.

"Uh, BBBFF?" Twilight said quietly. "It's time..."

"Time for what?" Shining Armor asked confused.

To answer her brother's question, Twilight levitated what appeared to be a small electronic device with a tiny screen on it resembling a calculator. The device in question was a small, pocket sized pager and its screen was lighting up as it had a message for the Princess that she was about to share with her sibling.

The drug is ready... Meet us at checkpoint...

"Good luck, Twiley." Shining Armor said as he hugged his sister. "Stay safe out there."

"I'll be back soon, Shining." Twilight replied. "Whatever you do, make sure you stall Radius and keep him from going far if you find him."

After letting go of her brother, Twilight then used her magic to remove her protective suit, quickly spread her wings, and took off out the open window from where the cooling pond and the infamous catfish incident could be seen. Though everypony was still busy bickering and disagreeing about what they should do next, Spitfire and Soarin noticed that Twilight Sparkle had flown away for some reason unbeknownst to them.

"Hey, where's Princess Twilight going?" Spitfire asked as she watched the lavender alicorn fade away in the distance.

"She's got some business to take care of." Shining Armor replied. "Remember what she said earlier about that drug she was having made?"

"It's ready?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Wow, that was fast."

"Look, these guys seem to be the real deal." Shining Armor replied. "Now, let's just leave her to it and keep looking for Radius. We've gotta find him before something happens. The guy's suicidal after all."

"Hey, you're the boss." Spitfire said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Huh?"

"Well, Princess Celestia isn't here and now Princess Twilight is heading out somewhere so the way I see it, you're next in the chain of command."

"Oh, right. Uh, wow it's been a while since I've lead a squadron but it does feel pretty good to be back in the saddle again."

"Alright, Captain." Daring Do said with a salute. "So what's our next move?"

The following course of action was something that would indeed require a great deal of careful consideration as the costs of the wrong move would surely be too great. Not only that but the team was running short on time so the next decision would need to be the correct one and made rather quickly. It had been a fairly long time since Shining Armor was making administrative decisions as Captain of the Royal Guard but as he tapped his chin while slowly pacing back and fourth, he would find that it would seem to come back to him.

"Okay, everypony..." Shining Armor began. "...here's the plan. Big Mac and A.K. Yearling, you two stay here and wait for him in case he comes back. He can't be too far away."

"You got it!" Daring Do said with another salute.

"Soarin and Spitfire, I want you two to keep your focus on the industrial yard but don't go too much further out than that."

"Can do!" Soarin replied as he and Spitfire headed for the staircase. In order to fly, they would need to remove their hazmat suits so they would need to get a safe distance away from the reactor in order to do so.

"Rainbow Dash, you and I will head West, take the main road, head Southeast and circle back. After that, we'll all just meet back here and wait for him."

"Alright, let's go!"

With much haste, everypony did as instructed and put their interim leader's carefully constructed plan into action and headed out to their destinations while Big Macintosh and Daring Do waited for their target to return. Once they were a safe distance away from reactor number four, Spitfire and Soarin quickly removed their hazmat suits, placed them in their saddlebags and took to the skies once again. Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor headed to the nearest street to the West where they would the patrol their way to the Southeast until they found Radius or nightfall, whatever came first.

Rainbow Dash's wings were still sore due to the events a few days prior so she and Shining Armor trotted side by side while still wearing their hazmat suits. Both search partners were nearly fully convinced that they would indeed need to regroup once the sun began to set which would not occur until several hours as it was merely eleven in the morning. Though there was no wind and the journey on the road the duo trotted upon was as quiet as ever, the faint rumbling of an engine could be heard on a parallel road on the other side of a heavily wooded area. Though heavily overgrown with foliage, the other road could be quite easily seen approximately one hundred yards away along with what appeared to be a Ukrainian Army truck much to the duo's confusion.

"Hey, who sent those guys in here?" Rainbow Dash asked as she observed the truck slowly coast down the other street.

"Oh no." Shining Armor said. "Rainbow, it's true. They were gonna pull us out and take over the op. We better get over there and let them know they can't just shoot first and ask questions later.

The occupants of the army truck were quite obviously on a patrol of sorts rather than headed somewhere in particular as they had to have been going no faster than ten miles per hour. Fortunately for Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash, that would make it all the more easy for the the two to catch up in the hopes to talk to these soldiers and inform them of their target's suicidal intentions. On the other hoof, it would seem that said target in question may have already beaten them to it and if the two search ponies were not able to reach these men in time, the entire operation would be rendered a failure.

Unbeknownst to Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and the soldiers in the truck, the latter were being watched by a dimly glowing figure hiding in the thick foliage. Peeking out from the bushes with his catlike eyes was their primary target himself. Radius watched in anticipation as the army truck inched closer to where he was hiding waiting to confront them and do what he planned to for so long. The realization that his thirty years of suffering could finally come to an end right there and then rushed through his mind to the point where he began to salivate. As his corrosive spit leaked from his lips and burned the ground beneath him, he waited until just the right moment, calculating their speed versus the exact distance they were away from him before he finally went for it and jumped into their path.

"Whoa, stop, stop, stop!" The soldier in the passenger seat gasped at the sight of a large, glowing horse-like creature with two under developed legs jutting out of his chest.

"Ohh boy, that's him, alright." The soldier driving the truck said as he and his comrades slowly and cautiously stepped out. "Wow, that poor bastard. Thirty years living here and now look at him."

"What a waste, guys." A third soldier sighed. "A brilliant scientist being reduced to that. Makes you think about how radiation can just ruin everything."

"Now, hold on, we don't know if he's too far gone yet." The driving soldier said as he readied a megaphone. "Still, can't let our guard down."

As the uniformed men in the truck prepared to communicate with Radius who was standing fifty yards away from them, the trembling creature continued to really comprehend the events that were about to transpire and the outcome of such events. These men were armed and though their rifles and pistols were on their backs and in their holsters respectively, they would only need a small amount of simple persuasion to draw and use them. The more Radius thought about it, the more his heart began to race. His constant bodily pain, his mental and emotional agony, the fact that he can not trust himself to be around others without the risk of him murdering them. All of that could at long last come to an end and all he had to do was to frighten these men enough to put him out of his misery.

"Mr. Radius!" The soldier hollered over the megaphone. "Just stay right where you are! We're here to help! Just sit on the ground and we'll get some more guys in here to get you out of here!"

"All over..." Radius whispered to himself, ignoring the soldier's instructions. "Just...shoot me."

Knowing for absolute certain what he wanted these men to do, Radius put his plan into action and snorted as he pawed at the ground with his hoof and lowered his head like a bull ready to charge. In response to this, the soldiers quickly placed their hands on their guns and they were ready to defend themselves should the need arise.

"I said don't move!" The soldier shouted, giving radius plenty of warning. "If you resist, we'll be forced to open fire!"

"Shoot...me..." Radius huffed between breaths.

Again, Radius ignored the demands of the soldier with the megaphone and continued to snort while pawing at the ground but this time while barring his large, sharp teeth. For good measure he even began putting his salivary glands to work and allowed his spit to splatter to the ground and burn holes into what remained of the paved road. By this point, the soldiers' weapons were now drawn, cocked with the safeties off and aimed directly at Radius's face. The mad creature did not appear interested in cooperating and due to his aggressive behavior, the soldiers were genuinely fearful for their own safety. To make matters worse, they had also been informed of the road collapse which meant that any help from their fellow soldiers was hours or even a whole day or two away.

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife as Radius just stood there snarling and drooling while the soldiers aimed their rifles and pistols right between his eyes. For the mere seconds that felt like an eternity Radius and the armed soldiers continued to stare each other down while the former made his usually kind and gentle self seem as vicious as he possibly could until finally, he made a run for it. With his head lowered, and his horn ready to impale, Radius charged after the men with the intentions of ending his own life.

"Stop or we'll shoot!" The soldier shouted with the megaphone in one hand and a high caliber pistol in the other. "I SAID STOOOOOOP!!!"

Radius was so close to freedom in the form of hot lead piercing his skull he could almost taste the the sulfur from the gunpowder that would propel the bullets into him. After thirty painful, lonely years of hating himself and what he had become, he would finally be free. His body's dependency on radiation, his waking up every day not knowing what kinds of horrific things he may have done the night before, all finally brought to a well deserved end. All he had to do was frighten a group of men armed with rifles.

"Fire!" The leading soldier yelled, causing the others to pull their triggers in response.

Within a fraction of a second which seemed to go by in slow motion, Radius would get his wish that he longed for all along and his nightmare would come to and end. His adrenaline was pumping to a point where he could actually see the bullets flying through the air as he galloped towards the barrage of blistering hot lead. As the distance between his skull and the ballistic projectiles quickly dwindled, Radius closed his eyes for what he hoped was the last time and waited for the serenity that only death could offer. It would all be over and this time, nothing could get in his way.

"Nooooooooo!" A unicorn in a hazmat suit screamed as he bolted out of the bushes and tackled Radius with every last ounce of his strength.

Much to Radius's dismay, somepony had managed to get in his way and hit him like a brick wall before the two tumbled out of the path of the barrage of bullets. With his horn aglow with his pink aura, Shining Armor then did the same thing he did when he and Rainbow Dash had to jump out a window a few days prior and teleported himself along with Radius in a bright flash. Much to the soldiers' confusion, the bloodthirsty creature that was attacking them had suddenly disappeared and the most frightening thing for them was the fear that he could strike anywhere at anytime.

"Where the fuck did he go!?" One of the soldiers asked as he and his comrades frantically looked around for any sign of their attacker.

"Calling all units, this is truck twenty-five!" Another soldier said as he dispatched for help over his radio. "We've got a hostile mutant at large and it is to be considered an immediate threat! You guys better fix that road and get in here! Now goddammit, now!"

Author's Notes:

The image you see is courtesy of my good friend and loyal follower Mix-up. I Like to think I'm a fairly decent writer but he certainly helps make this story that much more interesting. The following is a link to his deviantart. http://amalgamzaku.deviantart.com/art/Action2-667559773?ga_submit_new=10%3A1488851063