Chapter 157

Grumbling quietly to herself, Black Prism made her way down yet another long, empty hallway. After spending several minutes banging frantically on the steel door when she’d been locked out of the reverend’s lair, she received a number of garbled messages from Midnight Sparkle, from which, after several repeats, she managed to extract small fragments like: “find Pinkie,” and “get out.”

So, as instructed, she left the door to try to find another way around. It became apparent rather quickly that she would not be able to rejoin Knight Mare and Alphajack, as every turn she took led her farther from Father Tirek’s office, eventually leaving her no choice but to take the stairs down the next level, and then the next one after that, and so on, after giving up on finding the other two.

Sugar Shadows was last seen on the eighteenth floor anyway, so she continued downward, taking a quick --literally-- look around each level for her comrade, whose location had been unknown for the past while. Poor signal to her phone made checking the cameras next to impossible, but the lack of personnel indicated that they’d been attracted to something, which meant that the pink-haired girl must have been doing her job quite effectively.

Now on the nineteenth floor, Black Prism had found her path blocked by a large hole in the floor, which provided a window to the floor below. Looking down into the cavernous opening, she could see what appeared to be the ruins of a lounge or sitting area; shattered tables and chairs were strewn about, and a web wires and ductwork hung across the gap.

She drew a deep breath, realising this must have been where the ‘distraction’ had started when she heard the distant crackle of gunfire, making her look up across the pit, listening quietly.

A click sounded just behind her, the distinctive sound of a pistol being cocked. “Don’t move,” a male voice warned.

Black Prism turned slowly, peering over her shoulder to find a suited man pointing a gun at the back of her head.

“You and your friends think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?” he asked, to which she simply stared back for a moment. Then, with a sudden flash of colour, she disappeared, after which he felt the impact of a boot slam into the small of his back, sending him flying into the gaping hole to the level below, becoming entangled in the exposed wires on the way down.

Black Prism stepped up to the edge as he crashed into the rubble, leaning on her knee as she looked down to see where he’d landed. “Yeah, I do,” she said with a smart-assed smirk.

Again, the report of gunfire sounded again, followed by a loud boom, this time much closer, coming from behind. She spun around to look, just in time to see several suited men fly past the end of the hall, followed by the familiar screech of her friend’s voice.

“Cummon, cummon… CO’E TO ME!”

Another explosion, this time rumbling the floor under Prism’s feet. Two more screaming henchmen flew past the opening.

“Who jou think you fuckin with, mang!? I’ TONY MONTANA! JOU FUCK WI’ ME, JOU FUCKIN WITH THEE BEST!”

Black Prism’s eyes widened when she saw the sleek, curvy figure of Sugar Shadows enter her view, her hair frazzled and blow askew as she shook her fists in the air. “Pinkie?” she said incredulously to herself.

The other girl turned in her direction just as she spoke, spotting her through that black mask with her bright blue eyes. The arrogant sneer she wore disappeared suddenly, replaced by a bubbly grin.

“Oh hey! What’re you doing down here?”

“Looking for you,” Prism replied as she began to make her way over to meet her partner.

Sugar Shadows cocked her head, confused. “But… aren’t you supposed to be upstairs with the other?”

Black Prism paused, her eyes darting back and forth. “Uh… I, uh… kinda fucked up. I went after a couple guys instead of going for Adagio and I ended up getting locked out,” she explained, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Aww, poops.” Sugar Shadows folded her arms and sighed. “So what happened? Were they able to get her out without you?”

Black Prism shrugged. “I dunno. My phone reception has been shit. I assume they did, because I got some bits and pieces from Midnight telling me to find you and get out--which is why I’m down here.” She paused for a moment to glance over her shoulder at the massive hole behind her. “Speaking of which: it looks like you’ve been having fun down here. You know, all you needed to do was distract them, not destroy the place. This is, like, some nine-eleven shit right here.”

Sugar Shadows giggled. “Hehe! Yeah, I went a little overboard, didn’t I?”

“Heh! Yeah…” Prism stepped closer, smirking. “I see you were doing the ‘Scarface’ thing; Haha! What’d the bad guys think of that?”

“Uhh…” The pink girl paused for a moment. “I dunno… most of them seemed to scared to notice. I’ll tell ya one thing: getting shot is crazy!”

Prism’s eyes widened. “You got shot!?”

Sugar Shadows nodded. “Yeah.! Like a lot. Actually…” She began to shift her shoulders around, scrunching her nose as she slipped two fingers between the massive pink pillows that squeezed from the front of her outfit. Her tongue poked from the corner of her mouth while her fingers rooted around in that deep cleavage until finally, she withdrew to hold up a small, metallic object to show her friend.

Back Prism squinted at it for a moment, and then let out a hearty chuckle. “HA! You had bullet stuck in your tits!?”

Sugar Shadows giggled back, causing the boobs in question to jiggle.

“That’s awesome,” Prism smirked, holding her hand out for Sugar Shadows to drop the bullet into her palm. She smiled as she studied the object, rolling it around in her hand before facing her friend again. “When we get out, you should put this on a plaque with an inscription hat says: ‘I caught this bullet with my tits.’”

The other girl laughed as the round was handed back to her, and she placed it in her pouch with her marbles.

“Anyway…” Black Prism said, looking back and forth to survey the halls that branched off from their position. “Like I said, we’re supposed to get outta here. The problem is, there’s quite a few security doors; I had to take the stairs to get down here cuz I couldn’t get to any elevators.”

Sugar Shadows shook her head. “The elevators are crazy anyway; everyone’s been using them to come to the eighteenth floor, so we kinda have to steer clear of them if we’re trying to sneak out.”

“We should probably stick to the stairs, then,” Prism replied, rubbing her chin. “The problem is, the ones on this side will take us to the front lobby; we want the ones that go to the underground parking so we can go out the way we came, but on every floor there’s a security door keeping us from them.”

The other girl smirked and patted the small satchel on her belt. “I could always blow them open,” she suggested.

The rainbow-hawked girl chewed her lip thoughtfully. “No… that would make a lotta noise; they’d be all over our asses then. We gotta be quiet.” She let out a sigh and faced her comrade. “What need to do is take someone’s security card so we can get through those doors.”

They turned and looked at the pile of unconscious bodies beside them.

“Bingo.”

After a quick search of the men, however, the vigilantes came up empty-handed. A card could not be found on all of them, and the ones that were found were damaged in some way, either cracked, burnt, or otherwise destroyed and unusable.

“Crap,” Black Prism sighed as she stood again. “You couldn’t have gone a little easier on these guys?”

Sugar Shadows shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on taking their cards.”

Prism surveyed the bodies once more, scratching the back of her head. Then she shrugged, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Oh well. We’ll just have to find someone else.”

*****

Moments later, Black Prism and Sugar Shadows found themselves on the sixteenth floor via the stairwell. After opening the door a crack and taking a peek to make sure the hall was empty, they stepped out and jogged quietly to the right, stopping at the first opening on the left.

Placing her back against the wall, Black Prism leaned out slowly to peer around the corner into the next hall. Seconds later, she leaned back to face the pink-haired girl. “OK, there’s two dudes standing guard down there,” she whispered. “There’s a door about ten feet past them; it’s not a security door, but if this floor is like any of the others, there’ll probably be one after that.”

“So what’s the plan?” Sugar Shadows asked. “We take their cards and head through the doors to the other stairwell?”

“Yeah, but we gotta do it quietly,” Prism replied. “They’re pretty far away; even if I use my magic to rush ‘em, they’ll probably yell out and make a bunch of noise before I can take them out. Maybe if we lure them to--“

She paused suddenly, staring past her partner at the hallway beyond the stairwell door they’d just exited.

“What is it?” Sugar Shadows asked as Black Prism turned to look the other way.

“Hey… how long do you think this hallway is?” Prism asked, looking past the pink-haired girl again.

“Huh?” Sugar Shadows glanced both ways. “I dunno; pretty long. Why?”

“I wonder if it’s long enough to let me go into speed mode,” Prism replied as she turned to walk past her friend, heading back in the direction they came from. “Come on, let’s find out.”

“Ooh!” Sugar Shadows bounced after her. “You’re gonna try your super-speed thingy?”

“It’s the only way to do it without them making any noise,” Prism replied. “I’ll have to be careful with the card though; if I move it too fast it’ll fly apart and we’ll be fucked.”

“We could just find someone else,” Sugar Shadows pointed out.

“Yeah, but we don’t have all day. We gotta get outta here as fast as we can.”

Once they’d reached the far end of the hall, Black Prism peered through the narrow window to the door to check for more guards. Satisfied that there were none, she peeled one of her gloves off, stuffed it into her cleavage and then reached out to her friend.

“Here, I wanna try something. Take my hand.”

The pink-haired girl looked down at the bare hand for a moment, and then reached out to lace her chubby pink fingers with the blue ones of her friend. “What are we doing?”

“I’m gonna see if you go into speed mode with me,” Prism explained. “Anything that’s touching me when I go through comes in with me--which is a good thing because my clothes would rip off if they didn’t. That’s also why I had to stop wearing socks because my shoes kept flying apart.”

“Ohhhh! Because they’re touching your socks and not your feet?”

“You got it,” Prism said. “I’m kinda hoping that if I’m touching your skin, everything your touching will also go if it’s also touching your skin--buuuuuuut then again, I’ve never tried this, so I dunno. These suits are pretty tough, so hopefully they’ll stay in one piece if that’s not it works.”

“Here, what about this?” Sugar Shadows reached down with her other hand to move her friends hand so it wrapped her wrist, half on her sleeve and half on her skin. “Now you’re touching both!”

Prism Pointed at her face. “What about your mask?” she asked. “And your boots. I can’t hold on to everything, especially if we’re running. By the way, if you’re wearing socks, you should take them off.”

The other girl shook her head. “I’m not. They make my boots too tight. Hey! What about my marbles?”

“Oh shit, I never thought about that.” Prism rubbed her chin for a moment. “OK, just take your belt off and leave them here for now.”

Sugar Shadows looked hesitant. “You think it’ll be OK here?”

“Yeah. We’re literally gonna be a second--less actually.”

After a pause, the pink-haired girl nodded and unclipped her belt, rolled it up and then set it in the corner.

“Good.” Black Prism nodded. “Hopefully this works. The last thing we need is for your mask n’ shit to fly apart.”

“It’ll be fine. Like you said, this material is tough. It’s already been shot like a billion times, so…”

“OK, good.” Prism leaned forward, positioning herself for takeoff. “You ready?”

Sugar Shadows saluted, but remained standing upright, not considering the fact that she was about to get yanked off her feet.

Black Prism nodded. “Alright. Just don’t scream, OK?”

The pink-haired girl opened her mouth to draw a big breath and then hold it, her cheeks puffed out after pursing and sealing her lips.

The rainbow-hawked girl faced forward and drew a breath. “Here we go.”

She took off like a shot with a trail of colours in tow --as well as a friend whose feet barely touched the ground-- and raced down the long corridor like a streak, the end of which rushed up on them at an alarming speed.

See this, Sugar Shadows let the breath burst from her mouth and covered her face, about to shout at her friend to ‘look out’ when she was stopped by a loud noise that sounded like a thunderclap.

Everything went quiet. The girls were no longer rocketing forward; Black Prism skidded to a halt while Sugar Shadows stumbled clumsily, falling to her hands and knees.

Wide-eyed, she looked up at her friend. “What happened? Why’d it stop?”

“It didn’t stop, Pinkie,” Black Prism replied, reaching down to help her friend to her feet.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to use my name!” Sugar Shadows complained as she rose to her feet.

“Relax,” Prism said, giving her friend’s arm a little bump. “No one can hear us. Listen…”

The pair stopped for a moment. It was dead quiet.

“I can’t hear anything,” Sugar Shadows said, looking around.

“That’s cuz everything’s going to slow for us to hear,” Prism explained. “Come on.” She turned to head back to the hall where the two guards stood, dragging the other girl along by the wrist.

Black Prism dragged Sugar Shadows into the center of the opening to the corridor, standing brazenly in plain sight of the guards, who continued to stare straight ahead.

“Look. They haven’t even turned to see what few by yet,” Prism explained. “Let’s go.” She led Sugar Shadows down the hall straight toward the men.

They stood right in front of them, and Prism waved a hand on front of their faces to demonstrate to her friend that they were indeed trapped in a much slower time flow.

“See?” Prism smirked. “They don’t even know we’re here yet.”

“Ooooooooh!” Sugar Shadows leaned in close to stare into his eyes. “Time warpy!”

“OK,” Black Prism said, pulling her friend back. “I gotta search these guys for a security card, OK? But I gotta do it really slow, and I need both hands to do it.”

“You’re gonna let go of me?” Sugar Shadows asked, looking somewhat fretted.

“Yeah, but hear me out: your boots and mask are still in place, so my guess was right. Since you crossed over with me this time, you have my magic, too… for now, anyway,” Prism explained. “My guess is that if I let go of you, you should stay in here with me.”

“You think it’ll work? What happens when you take your clothes off in here?”

“Don’t know; never tried it. We’re about to find out, though. You ready?”

Sugar Shadows sighed. “Eh… I guess,” she replied hesitantly. “What if it doesn’t work?”

Black Prism shrugged. “Then you just knock these fuckers out! But I’m pretty sure it’s gonna work.”

The pink-haired girl let her head fall back to look up at the ceiling. “Ugh! Fine. Let’s do it.”

“OK. Here it goes,” Prism said as she opened her hand, releasing the other girl’s wrist. As soon as she did, Sugar Shadows went perfectly still.

Black Prism held her breath immediately, and she looked up into her friend’s face to watch her eyes. “Pinkie? … Pinkie? Hey!” She waved her hand in front of the other girl’s face and then snapped her fingers three times. “Pinkie!”

No response. Not so much as a blink.

Sighing, Black Prism placed her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Fuck. It didn’t work.”

“Yeah it did!” Sugar Shadows replied, making the other girl recoil.

“What the… PINKIE!” she hollered angrily . “Why didn’t you move?!”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “I was just letting you do your thing!”

“My-- … how am I supposed to tell if it worked if you don’t move!?”

“Hahaha! Sorry, Dashie!”

Shaking her head, Prism let out a frustrated growl. “I swear to--UGH! Forget it. Let’s just do this and get the fuck outta here.”

She faced the first man, rubbing her hands together. “OK, bro. Let’s see what ya got for me.” Lacing her fingers, she turned her hands inside-out and cracked her knuckles. Then she reached in slowly, glancing up at his face to double check that he hadn’t moved. This was a difficult instinct to ignore.

Very slowly, she slipped her fingers inside the lapel of his suit jacket to move it aside. The fabric began to tear, however, making her pause for a moment.

She was going too fast.

After a deep breath and an exhale through pursed lips, Black Prism continued, making a conscious effort to take her time. Once the jacket was moved aside, she found a swipe card hanging against his chest by a black lanyard.

“Bingo,” she said aloud. “Now… I just gotta pick that card up without breaking it. Easy does it; not too fast.”

“You can do it, Dashiiieeeee!” Sugar Shadows whispered, shaking a loose fist in the air. She watched patiently as her friend slipped her fingers under the card with an extreme level of care, but, as always, being a person with a chronic shortage of patience, she lost interest and soon turned her attention to the man on the right.

She positioned herself so that his eyes were locked with hers--not that he’d had time to see her yet. She stuck her tongue out. Then she curled her upper lip and crossed her eyes. Then she projected her bottom jaw forward to create an exaggerated underbite while furrowing her brows. “Guuuuuuhhh… Hehehe!”

After clutching her gut for a little giggle, she brought on finger up and thrust it into the center of his forehead. “Poke, hahaha!” To her surprise, however, her finger sank into his forehead, two knuckles deep. Gasping, Sugar Shadows quickly withdrew her finger and looked over at Black Prism, eyes wide with shock.

Black Prism hadn’t noticed; she was too busy with the card.

Sugar Shadows faced forward again, peering into the new hole in the man’s forehead. She looked down at her finger, rubbing it together with her thumb. The sensation was strange; when her finger sank into his head, it didn’t feel hard at all. It felt soft, like a marshmallow.

It felt kind of neat, she thought.

She brought her eyes up to look into his face again, and after a short pause to ruminate further, she shrugged dismissively and brought her finger up again.

“Poke! Poke! Poke! Poke! Poke! Poke! Poke! Poke!” she chanted as she peppered his forehead with a slew of new holes.

This captured Prism’s attention, and she glanced to the right to what her partner was doing. Horrified by what she saw, she gasped, released the card and then reached over to slap the other girl’s hand down. “What the fuck are you doing!?” she shouted, to which Sugar Shadows returned a sheepish glance. “You totally just killed that guy, you do realise that, right!?”

Sugar Shadows gave her head a sly shake. “I don’t think so, Dashie,” she said quietly, eyes darting side-to-side. “Are you ready for this?”

“No.”

“I think… he’s actually made… of COTTON CANDY!”

Black Prism stared for a moment before closing her eyes and shaking her head. She brought her hand up to rub her forehead, groaning softly in frustration. “Ugh. How the hell did you even come to that conclusion? … HOW!?”

“Cuz is head is super-soft! Look!” She reached up to give the man’s head another jab, but Black Prism stopped her.

“It’s not soft, Pinkie!” Prism shouted. “You’re going super fast right now, remember? Your finger’s moving faster than a bullet when you do that; it’s like he’s getting shot in the head over n’ over!”

Mouth hanging open, Sugar Shadows faced the man again, his forehead now resembling Swiss cheese, thanks to her. “Oohhhhh! … Oopsie!”

“Ugh…” Black Prism rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Just… stand still, OK? And keep your hands to yourself! I need to concentrate on this.”

With a quiet huff, the pink-haired girl folded her arms and stood still, watching her friend do her thing.

After blowing a lungful of air from between her lips, Black Prism wiggled her shoulders around to loosen herself up. Then she reached out to cup her hand under the card, which was still suspended in the air, having not had the chance to fall back down to his chest. Once it was resting in her palm, she reached out with her other hand to flick the straps of the lanyard, cutting them off clean.

“There,” she breathed as she began to move the card closer. She quickly stopped, though, when she noticed the card had begun to flex and twist in her hand. “Shit.”

“Craziness!” Sugar Shadows proclaimed. “It looks like jello!”

“It’s cuz I’m going too fast,” Prism replied. “I gotta figure out a better way. I wonder if I…” She trailed off as she brought her other hand up to put it against the other, sandwiching the card in between. “Yeah… Gotta go super-slow, though,” she muttered, “don’t wanna break it.”

Sugar Shadows grew increasingly impatient watching her friend move with all the swiftness of the hour hand, and then this graduated into boredom that she announced with a sigh as she glanced at the sieve-headed man in front of her.

It was a strange sight, seeing a real person so still. It was like standing next to a mannequin--one with far more detail than usual. She pursed her lips and cocked her head to the side, taking more of this dead-but-not-yet person; he appeared to be middle-aged, as indicated by the white wisps in his sideburns, as well as the crow’s feet lining the corners f his eyes.

“Hm.” She looked him up and down once more; he was not overweight or unhealthy looking by any means, in fact he appeared to be in rather good physical shape.

She figured, since no one could see her anyway, that she might have a peek at his behind. What could it hurt? Just an innocent peek--after all, she did have a thing for older men, either with salt and peppered hair, in a uniform, or both.

Stepping to the side of him, she leaned over to have a look, but was quickly distracted by a strange shape on the back of his head. It caused her to pause for a moment, watching closely; there was a split separating his hair, lined by a thin red layer with a thicker off-white underneath, opening outward in pointed shards like an aperture of sorts. Amongst that was a red and gray mass, and as she watched it became apparent that it was moving outwards while the back of his head slowly opened like a flower.

Sugar’s eyes widened as she watched the mass inch its way outward, and she waved frantically to get the other girl’s attention. “Hey… Dashie? Dashie!” she called, becoming more flustered by the second. “DASHIE!”

“GAH!” Black Prism growled and separated her hands to release the card. “WHAT!?”

“Something’s happening!” Sugar Shadows screeched, bouncing anxiously on her heels. “This guy’s head is doing something!”

“What?” Prism sneered as she leaned in between the two men to see what the other girl was talking about. Once she saw it for herself, she immediately slammed her eyes shut and turned away. “Gah!” she cried, sticking her tongue out. “Ugh… huuugh!” She gagged violently, and then quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. “Nasty, man!”

“What is it!?” Sugar Shadows asked, standing out in front of him again.

“The back of his head is blowing out,” Prism explained as she kept her eyes facing the other direction, rubbing her temple.

Disgusted, the pink-haired girl grimaced. “Ew… WHY!?”

“Oh jeez, I dunno!” Black Prism replied sarcastically. “Maybe it’s got something to do with you poking a bunch of holes in his fucking forehead?”

Sugar Shadows paused, looking rather sheepish. “I… really?”

“Well, yeah!”Prism said. “Haven’t you ever seen what happens when some gets shot in the head? It creates, like, a pressure spike or something --I dunno, Sunset could probably explain it better than me; basically the JFK video-- so after what you did, jamming your finger in his head a bunch of times, especially that fast, you can imagine how much force you pushed his brain back with.”

“Uh… enough to blow the back of his head out?”

“Duh!” Prism shouted, before turning back to the card, which was suspended in mid-air. “Now for the last time, just be still and don’t… touch… anything!”

Sugar Shadows watched anxiously as her friend closed her hands over the card once again, clasping it between her palms with the utmost care and patience. Still bouncing on her heels, her eyes darted over at the man, trying to ignore what was happening. Curiosity soon got the better of her, however, and she leaned forward to take a peek at the back of his head.

“OOOH! DASHIE! IT’S LIKE HALFWAY OUT NOW!”

“Pinkie, shut-up!” Prism gritted her teeth, trying to keep herself steady.

“WHAT’RE WE GONNA DO!?”

“Nothing! Just leave it!”

“BUT… BUT IT’S GONNA COME RIGHT OUT!”

“Pinkie, I swear to god…”

“Ooh…” Sugar Shadows pranced on her tiptoes, rapping her knuckles together anxiously. “I can’t… I… I…” Panicking, she reached out with both hands, hesitated for a split second, and then reached round to the back of his head to push the brain back in.

Instead, his entire head mashed down into his neck, squashed as easily as cigarette smoke.

Her eyes bugged open, and she covered her mouth with her hands, drawing the longest, loudest and deepest gasp she’d ever drawn. “Oh… my… GOD!”

Prism did a double-take when she glanced over, seeing little more than some blood-soaked hair sitting inside his shirt collar. “Pinkie, FUCK! STOP TOUCHING HIM!”

“Holy crap, that other guy’s totally gonna freak out when he sees this! His head’s inside his CHEST!”

“Ya think!?” Black Prism barked, throwing her hands in the air. “Gah! You know what? We’re dropping out!” She reached over to grab the other girl’s wrist, and with a bright flash and a whoosh, everything returned to normal.

The headless man toppled to the ground, his blood and brains spattering the wall while the man with the card gasped, startled by the sudden presence of the masked girls. Black Prism wasted no time in planting a fist on his nose, knocking his head against the wall before reaching down to catch the card as it fell to the floor.

“Come on!” she shouted, grabbing Sugar Shadows by the wrist and zooming off with her, leaving a trail of colour filling the hall. “Get you shit!” she shouted after they stopped at the end of the hall so the pink-haired girl could pick up her belt and put it on. Then they zoomed back to the stairwell door, kicked it open, and took off down the steps to the next floor.

*****

After crossing the fourteenth floor to gain access to the rear stairwell, Sugar Shadows and Black Prism made the long trek down to sub level one and were now making their way through the halls in search of the underground parkade. It was quiet, eerily so; not many Ministry members could be found, and the place had an overwhelming feeling of impending doom about it--not for the girls, but for the place itself.

It was as if something catastrophic had happened, like the death of a king.

Staying close to the wall, the pair of masked girls wisped along in silence until they reached yet another corner, this one leading to another hallway on the right. They stopped for a moment to listen, and then Black Prism turned back to Sugar Shadows when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching.

She placed a finger to her lips to signal Sugar Shadows to be quiet, followed by the raising of three fingers, which meant there were three of them approaching, based upon the frequency of the footsteps. Sugar Shadows nodded, and then brought one fist up to drive it quietly into her other palm, suggesting that they go on the offensive.

Prism replied with a nod of agreement, and so they both approached the corner to listen, ready to pounce. Raising her hand, Black Prism counted by putting one finger up, then two, and then three, after which she whispered: “now!” And the pair of them lunged around the corner to attack.

They skidded to a halt, however, when they came face-to-face with Knight Mare, Alphajack and the Dark Mistress.

The five of them stood for a moment, wide-eyed, having not expected to run into each other like this.

“Oh… it’s you,” Prism said, standing easy. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Heading to the underground parking,” Knight Mare replied, before gesturing to the pair. “Which is where you two are supposed to be. What are you still doing here?”

“We were just on our way out,” Prism replied, her eyes shifting onto the Dark Mistress. “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to meet us at the checkpoint after you were done at the church.”

“Slight change of plans, darling,” the Mistress replied. “I was forced come here after hearing about your little… ahem, mishap?”

Black Prism sneered. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’!?” Knight Mare bellowed. “You were fucking around and you got locked out!”

“So? I--“ Prism stopped suddenly, noticing that someone was missing from the group. “Wait… where Adagio?”

Knight Mare threw her hands in the air.

“You guys don’t have her!?” Prism shrieked in surprise. “How fucking slow are you guys?”

“They got away,” Knight Mare explained. “There was a hidden elevator at the back of the room that we didn’t know about.”

The rainbow-hawked girl stared for a few seconds, then she threw her head back and groaned. “Awwww, shit! So now what?”

“We’re heading down to the underground parking to look for them.”

“How do you know that’s where they went?”

“We don’t,” Knight Mare replied. “But we already went to the roof to check the helipad and they weren’t there, so the only other option was to see if they were gonna get her out by car. That’s why you and Sugar Shadows were supposed to meet us down there; we need everyone’s help if we’re gonna find her.”

“I beg your pardon,” the Dark Mistress said, raising a finger. “Sugar Shadows?”

The pink-haired girl smiled and threw a hand up. “That’s me! Whaddaya think?”

The Mistress drew a breath, slowly. “I think… we need to work on a new name, perhaps.”

Sugar’s arm dropped back to her side. “Aww.”

In the meantime, Black Prism had narrowed her eyes, looking somewhat confused by something. “Wait… why was Midnight telling us to get out if we were supposed to keep looking for Adagio?”

Knight Mare shook her head. “You weren’t. You were supposed to get Sugar Shadows and meet us down here.”

“But she said…” Prism paused for a moment before deflating slightly. “Actually, my reception was pretty shit. I might have heard wrong; I thought she was telling us to get out, so I assumed you guys had Adagio.”

“No!” Knight Mare blurted. “We couldn’t get--“

“Listen, darlings,” the Dark Mistress cut in, hands raised. “We must keep moving if we hope to find her. Once that is finished, then you two can discuss whose fault this is until you’re blue in the face.”

Black Prism cocked her head at this, giving the Mistress a deadpanned look.

Knight Mare sighed and pinched the bridge her nose. “You’re right. We gotta keep moving.”

“Aw, hooey!” Alphajack waved dismissively, catching everyone’s attention. “Whut difference is it gonna make? They’s probably long gone with her by now! We already wasted a ton a’ time goin up ta the roof, and you guys are just getting down here now--“

Knight Mare cut in, facing Black Prism again. “Hey, yeah! What took you guys so long, anyway?”

“What?” Prism gestured to Sugar Shadows. “I had to find her, first of all, and then we had to get through the security doors…”

“UUUGH!” The Dark Mistress threw her hands into the air and marched off, heading down the hallway on the right. “I’m going. You’re welcome to follow me if you wish.”

The rest of them stood and watched her go, her hips swinging as her heels clopped along the tiled floor. With a deep breath, Knight Mare rolled her eyes and groaned. “Ugh… she’s right. Let’s go.” She then stepped away to follow the Mistress, waving the others along.

*****

The building, as large as it was, provided them with a longer than expected walk, but the smell of moist concrete and vehicle by-products eventually filled their senses, indicating that they were close. The hallway was now carpeted, which made moving along quietly a much easier task, not that they came across any Ministry members along the way--that is until they reached a point where the hallway floor took on a slight incline downward, leading to what they assumed was the entrance to the parkade.

After rounding a slight curve, however, they were forced to retreat and crowd the right-hand wall to hide behind the curve they’d just passed. About fifty feet ahead was a four-way intersection of hallways, at the center of which stood several men in suits, talking amongst themselves.

“So what happened? The boss is dead?”

“That’s the word going around.”

“At the church,” a third one said. “Right in front of fucking everybody.”

“Who did it?”

“Who’d you think? One of those masked bitches.”

Hearing the conversation, Black Prism reached ahead to top the Dark Mistress on the shoulder, prompting her to turn back to face her. “At least your job went off without a hitch, by the sounds of it,” she whispered.

“Ah. Yes, everything went as planned,” the Mistress replied.

“Sounds awesome; I’m sorry I missed it. Good job!” Prism said, offering her fist for a congratulatory bump.

After a glance at her friend’s hand, the Mistress gave a little smile. “Oh, why thank you!” she said, giving those shiny, black knuckles a soft pat with her fingertips before turning back to face the hallway again.

Black Prism paused for a moment and then rolled her eyes, letting her hand drop to her side.

Knight Mare, who was at the front of the line, turned back to face the others. “I say we take these guys out,” she whispered. “We don’t have time to sneak around anymore.”

The other girls nodded in agreement.

“Let’s kick their sorry asses!” Black Prism whisper-yelled, driving her fist into her palm.

Knight Mare nodded. “OK, let’s do it. On three. One… two… THREE!”

On cue, the girls lunged from their hiding spot and charged the unsuspecting group. The men were facing the other direction, so they were not immediately alerted to the attack, especially with the carpet padding their footsteps.

The team of girls had barely gone ten feet, however, when one of the men happened to face the hallway on the left and then gasped, shouting: “Holy shit!”

An instant later, a tall, slender figure in black emerged from the left. Brandishing a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other, the masked woman unleashed a whirlwind of flying heels, point-blank headshots and slashed throats onto the hapless gang of suits.

Seeing this, Knight Mare skidded to a halt and threw her arms out to stop the others. The girls stood there, wide-eyed and open-mouthed as they watched the nimble figure level the entire group within seconds, after which she stood quietly with her back facing them, amongst the bloodied corpses, surrounded by walls that’d been splattered in crimson like some kind of morbid abstract art.

After a quick survey of the scene, the figure disappeared to the left, into the hall from which she first appeared.

After blinking several times while trying to decide if she’d hallucinated the entire thing, Knight Mare slowly turned to face the others, only to find a sea of shocked faces, their many different coloured eyes staring out from behind those black masks.

Every one of them recognised that figure; that custard skin, that soft, pink hair. They knew exactly who it was, despite their logic trying to force them to deny it.

“Dang…” Alphajack muttered in awe.

After chewing her lip for a moment, Knight Mare finally spoke. “So, uh… is that who I think it was?”

The Dark Mistress nodded slowly. “I believe so, darling.”

Sugar Shadows pointed suddenly. “Look!”

Knight Mare spun around again. The girl had emerged from the left again, this time led by a pair of large dogs along with a companion, whose arm was slung across her shoulder as she limped along rather slowly. This companion also happened to have a very large head of curly, orange hair. The red-head’s eyes widened, gasping loudly. “Holy crap. HEY!” she shouted, waving a hand in the air.

The pair turned to look over their shoulders and then stopped, the dogs following suit soon after. “Oh… hey,” she replied, her soft voice barely making its way to them as she helped the other girl turn around to face them.

The group broke into a quick jog to catch up, but then slowed down to step through the scattered bodies and pools of blood before meeting the pair face-to-face.

Knight Mare dug her fingers into her hair, laughing incredulously as she approached. “Holy crap, you found her! How… how did you know where to look? What are you even doing here!?”

“It’s good to see you too,” FS1 replied with a warm smile. “But, um, we really need to--“

“Man, that was so… AWESOME!” Black Prism hollered, hands in the air. “Did you see how fast she took those guys out!? WACK! Fucking BAM!”

“Sure did, heh heh!” Alphajack replied. “And do even need ta ask where ya got the dogs from?”

“Pffft! Are you kidding?” Prism laughed. “Look who we’re talking about here!”

“Um, girls?”

“Oh my!” The Dark Mistress began fanning herself. “You simply cannot understand how delighted I am to see you here, wearing your suit!” she swooned. “You look absolutely stunning; even better than last time!”

“Thanks, but, um--“

“We’ve assembled an unstoppable team!” Sugar Shadows giggled. “Just like every eighties action movie EVER!”

“Girls?”

“Man, I can’t even,” Knight Mare continued. “How in the hell did you find--“

“GIRLS!”

Everyone stopped suddenly when the shy girl’s voice thundered down the hall with surprising weight, and each of them locked their eyes onto the shy girl, who gestured to Adagio.

“She’s in really bad shape,” FS1 explained. “We have to get her to the hospital, quickly.”

Knight Mare, who was standing the closest, took a moment to study the siren; her complexion was pale, her eyes glassy and distant, her clothes stained with blood.

“Oh shit,” she whispered as she quickly brought her fingertips to her earpiece. “Midnight? Midnight, what’s your location?”

No response.

“Fuck.” Knight Mare turned and pointed at Black Prism. “Get outside where the reception is good. Tell Midnight to bring the car to the rear garage entrance and that we’ll meet her there. Hurry!”

“Done and done!” Prism replied, before zooming off, leaving a trail of colour in her wake.

“OK, let’s get the hell outta here,” Knight Mare ordered as she stepped past FS1 to lead the way.

This prompted Alphajack to approach Adagio. “Come on, sugarcube. I gotcha,” she said as she gently scooped the siren up into her arms, eliciting a guttural groan from her when her hip flexed. “Sorry, sorry.”

As the group made their way toward the garage entrance, the Dark Mistress took a moment to wrap FS1 in a tight hug, followed by several smooches. “Thank you so much for coming,” she said, backing up a step while holding the other girl’s hands.

“Oh, um… don’t mention it,” FS1 smiled. “I felt bad after not coming for the last mission, so… I thought I’d take a position close by, just in case you needed help. And… um, it turns out you did.”

“We did indeed,” the Dark Mistress giggled, pursing her lips as her eyes slowly dropped to marvel at the plump, yellow cleavage nestled in the front of FS1’s suit.

“Hey…” FS1 said, pointing to her face. “Up here.”

“Oh!” The Mistress brought her eyes up again to meet her lover’s gaze. “Of course, darling! I… er…” Those alabaster cheeks of hers began to flush, partially hidden behind her mask. She glanced down the hall at the rest of the group, which had gained some distance on them. “I suppose we’d better get going, hm?”

With a nod from FS1, the pair jogged together to catch up to their teammates.

“OK, once Midnight has Adagio,” Knight Mare was saying, “the rest of us will go find our stuff, change, and disperse. Then we each call an Uber and head back home as planned.”

“Um… I actually have my car here,” FS1 pointed out, now walking hand-in-hand with the Dark Mistress, flanked by the two Dobermans as they trotted along. “It’s parked a few blocks away. “If one or two of us goes with in the car with Adaigo, then the rest of us should fit in my car.”

Knight Mare looked over her shoulder as she walked, her eyes dropping from FS1 to the dogs. “What about them?”

“Oh!” FS1 covered her mouth and giggled. “These cuties? They can lay down in the back; there’ll be plenty of room for them.”

The Dark Mistress giggled with glee, squeezing FS1’s hand tightly. “Oh god, I fucking love you, darling!”

Knight Mare smirked, then shrugged her shoulder. “Fair enough,” she said, looking forward again.

*****

It was now early evening on Sunday, May the 7th.

The entire group --plus the sirens-- was crammed into a small private room on the trauma floor of Canterlot hospital. The eight of us were either standing or sitting, watching quietly as Aria and Sonata sat on each side of the bed in which Adagio laid, each of them holding one of their sleeping sister’s hands.

Despite all the trouble these three women had caused over the years, their contemptible behavior, their manipulation, their thirst for power, it was difficult not to admit that it was a sweet sight, especially after their confrontation at the theatre. Even though they had a history of infighting, they were, at the end of the day, inseparable; all it took, it seemed, was the threat of losing each other permanently for them to realise it.

Aria and Sonata refused to take their eyes off of her. They were counting every second until she woke up.

She’d been battered and bruised, but there were no broken bones, luckily, so after a good stitching of her hip, she was given a blood transfusion and a slew of antibiotics to fight off infection. Adagio was expected to be fine--after a little recovery, of course.

Thanks to Fluttershy.

Speaking of which, she and Rarity were in a similar state of closeness, albeit with a slightly different undertone. It wasn’t difficult to see that Rarity was completely thrilled about the shy girl donning her suit and joining them on the mission; the two of them were stuffed into a chair together, giggling, nuzzling, and rubbing noses. One could practically smell the hormones cooking.

Sunset was seated in the only other chair available. On her lap sat the large, brown book that she used to write to the princess with. Hours earlier, she had done exactly that, believing that joining forces with the sirens was a newsworthy event. Now she was just waiting for a response.

I was standing next to her, letting her rest her head on my hip while I tousled those fiery locks with my fingertips. Bless her, she tried her best to look relaxed, but every one of us could tell that she was anxious to hear back from the princess.

The rest of the girls were scattered about, some of them leaning against the wall, some with arms folded, some with their phones out to pass the time. Rainbow Dash was apparently the first to tire of playing games, so she clicked the device off and slipped it into her pocket.

“So…” she sighed, folding her arms. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh-oh,” Applejack teased, head down and arms folded, her hat pulled down to cover her face.

Dash ignored her and continued. “I’ve wondering: how many of those guys actually knew who we are? Like, is there a chance that we could get exposed or something?”

Twilight rubbed her chin--thoughtfully, as always. “Hmm. That’s a good question. Unfortunately, there is no concrete answer. Chances are, with the sirens informing them so recently, there’s a good chance that only the higher-ups were privy to that information. If it’d been longer, it may have trickled down through the ranks more completely, but at the end of the day we have no idea who knows our real identities.”

“That ain’t too reassurin,” Applejack said, lifting her hat up with her thumb to look at Twilight. “It ain’t gonna be good if everyone finds out who we are.”

Sunset spoke up next. “I read quite a few of them while we were in there.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t find anyone who knew who we were. I think Twi is right--although I was pretty worried when that guy escaped with Adagio, but when we ran into her and Flutters I figured she had him looked after.” She turned to face the shy girl. “Right, Flutters?”

“Oh, um… yeah. I looked after him. Three times, actually.” She let out a soft giggle next. “And I got two sweet, adorable puppies out of the deal!”

“You think they’ll be OK at the shelter?” asked Pinkie Pie, who was standing behind Sonata with her hands on her shoulders.

“Oh, yes! They’ll make perfect guard dogs!” Fluttershy giggled as Rarity nipped at her earlobe.

AJ shook her head. “They gonna rip someone’s friggin leg off… HEY! You two wanna go find a room, er whut?”

The lovers froze upon being called out by the farm girl, their eyes darting around at the rest of us. Fluttershy’s cheeks quickly turned a bright shade of crimson while Rarity attempted to laugh the remark off.

“Ah, haha… that won’t be necessary, darling; we’ll be quite alright,” she said, clearing her throat as she looked down to smooth her skirt out.

“Yeah, sure,” Rainbow Dash grumbled after an eye roll. Then she faced Sunset. “Any word from Princess Twilight yet?”

Sunset shook her head. “No,” she replied, opening the book to check anyway.

“Hm.” The rainbow-haired girl sighed, letting her eyes wander the room for a moment before settling on the sirens, specifically Aria. Then she cocked her head, furrowed her brow and turned to Twilight. “So… what’s the deal with that pendant? Where’d they even get that thing?”

Twilight paused for a moment, caught off-guard by the question. “Her pendant?” she asked, pointing to the purple siren, to which Dash nodded. “Well, it’s pretty simple really; it has a camera in it, used for spying… or investigative journalism--whatever you want, really.”

“How about blackmail?” Sunset interjected flatly.

Everyone turned to face Aria, who, for the first time, took her eyes from Adagio to look around at us. After rubbing her lips together for a moment, she exhaled softly and looked down at her sister’s hand. “Well, first of all, we got it from someone we knew. It was part of a trade, where--“

“We stole it,” Sonata cut in, quite matter-of-factly, drawing a sigh from her sister.

“Yeah,” Aria said quietly.

“Fer what?” Applejack asked. “What d’ya need somethin like that fer?”

“Yes,” Rarity added, “and I am dying to know how you knew to wear it to your meeting with Father Tirek, since they managed to catch you rather off-guard in the end.”

Aria and Sonata glanced at one another for a moment. Then Aria faced the group once again. “It was a… source of income for us, I guess. So… yeah, Sunset is technically right. And no, we didn’t know to wear it to the meeting with Tirek; we just happened to be ‘working’ that night, so it was just luck, really.”

Twilight was tapping the tip of her nose, her curiosity piqued by this. “Define: ‘working.’”

Aria drew a breath, and then held it for a moment before continuing. “It’s like this: one of us will hit the bars --or clubs, or whatever-- wearing the pendant. We… then look for… rich-looking dudes, basically. Rich-looking married dudes, specifically. We mack up on them, flirt with them, touch them, whatever it takes to get them to take us to a hotel room or something where we can seduce them.

“Obviously, the whole affair gets recorded on the pendant, and we use that after the fact to get them to give us money--otherwise we send the footage to their wives. It worked pretty well, most times--as long as we could get them to sleep with us, or even just do ‘stuff’; got some pretty good payouts a couple times.”

The rest of us glanced around at one another, surprised, but not really surprised to hear this.

“Wow,” Dash snorted. “That’s fucking dirty, even for you guys.”

Aria shrugged. “What other options did you leave us after taking away our powers?”

“Gee, I dunno, maybe ya could try earnin an honest livin?” Applejack shrugged. “I woulda gave ya a job at the farm, if it came down ta it.”

The siren sneered at the prospect. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

“So… wait,” Twilight waved her hand to bring the conversation back on track. “Is that what you were doing when you met Tirek’s men in the bar?”

Aria nodded. “Yeah. They had suits and looked pretty well off, so we approached them, but when the conversation turned you guys, we jumped on the chance to use them to get back at you--and then, or course, they turned on us, and… well, you know the rest. But… luckily, I was able to film everything without them knowing, and they sent me out to do their dirty work not knowing that I had video proof of Tirek acting like a psychopath.”

“Hm… and the rest is history, I suppose,” Rarity smirked. “Though I would have preferred you came to me before you destroyed my boutique.”

Aria shrugged. “I had no idea what I to do. The timing was all messed up, and I was flustered and not thinking straight…” She paused, closed her eyes and shook her head. “Trust me; there’s a lot of things I would do differently if I could go back, and that was no exception. I don’t even know why I came to you, Rarity. It was a total snap decision; I didn’t know what else to do.”

Sunset sat upright and offered a friendly smile. “You did the right thing--for obvious reasons. The Ministry is gone, and the city is now--“

The red-head was cut off when the book began to vibrate in her lap, beams of violet light emanating from between its pages. After a quick glance around at everyone, she opened the book and scanned the pages.

“Is it the princess?” Dash asked excitedly. “Did she reply!?”

“Yeah,” Sunset replied, staring at the page.

“Well what’s it say?” AJ asked.

Sunset drew a breath. “It says:

Sunset gave me a dirty look after reading this part, making me face the other way, scratching behind my ear.

Aria and Sonata perked up immediately and locked eyes with each other first, then they both faced Sunset, listening intently as she continued.

Sunset trailed off rather suddenly, her eyes widening as they darted faster and faster across the page. The rest of us watched, curious as to what the letter said.

Leaning closer, Rarity decided to ask. “Er, darling? What did she say?”

Sunset looked up at the fashionista, mouth open, eyes wide as saucers. Then she glanced around at the rest of us, eventually landing on the sirens.

“Princess Celestia is coming here…” she said.