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Displacement

by hornethead

Chapter 50: High Tower

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Chapter 50: High Tower

Leaning against the railing of the stone balcony in the early morning light, James surveyed the mountain peaks around him. He was in a High Tower apartment far up in the foal mountains. He had been in awe when he arrived. Days ago, as the Clipper crested a ridge, a looming pillar of stone sprang up into his view, demanding the attention of onlookers for miles. Admiral Darkwing, or Silus as James had become accustomed to calling him now, explained to him that when Celestia first granted the griffons' permission to start a colony, this site was at the top of the list. An enormous natural formation of granite standing resolutely above the mountain peaks. Construction began a year later, the griffons digging out miles of tunnels and making nests and homes all along the sides of the rock formation.

"Hey, there's somepony at the door for you."

James turned around, facing the interior of his quarters, "Thanks Dash, I'll be there in a second."

He turned back around and reached an inside pocket on his jacket -- even in spring, it was cold at such high altitudes -- and pulled out a flask of rum, taking a swig before replacing it. It helped warm him up, but that wasn't the only reason for it. The nightmares were returning. It had been little things at first. Gunshots, explosions, feeling the splatter of blood on his face as he ripped the throat out of a target with his old knife. But then, the next dream, the one he had the night before, included his current teammates. Each of them being slowly tortured by the child, the child that would just not leave him alone. That didn't bother him so much as the fact that he had nearly kicked Dash out of bed when he woke up and started flailing.

She was just as surprised as him. And twice as worried. It was the first time she had seen him that way. It was the last time he ever wanted her to. James got up to splash some water on his face as it was covered in a cold sweat. She had made a fuss at first, but James had convinced her to calm down and go back to sleep, assuring her that he would return to bed soon. However, no matter how he tried, he couldn't get back to sleep, so he spent the night out on the balcony, just looking at the moon and the stars, which never ceased to amaze him. It was close to sunrise anyway so he wouldn't fret about tired for the next day's work. Which brought him to his current situation.

With a huff, James turned on a heel and entered the room, crossing the space to the door. Still retaining some of his old paranoia, James cracked the door, using his foot as a door stop to deny entry in case the visitor was unwanted. What awaited him instead was a pair of officers he had been expecting that morning.

"Shining, Silus. Good morning, I'll be out in just a sec."

"Please, take your time." The black feathered griffon replied to him.

James ducked back inside to brush his teeth real quick. He entered the bathroom to see Dash was already doing the same thing. She moved to make room for him at the sink as he reached for his toiletries.

"Mmmflmmn rrmmndm?" Rd mumbled through the brush and toothpaste.

"What?"

Dash spit the froth of the toothpaste into the sink, "I said, who was it?"

"It was Silus and Twilight's brother. Time to get to work."

"Aw really? This early?"

"Yup, nature of the beast."

"Just don't forget dinner tonight."

"I won't." James said confidently.

Together, they went about their morning routine. James finished brushing and shaving and quickly got dressed in his digitals before heading out the door to the two officers who were patiently waiting for him.

"All set to go, I see." Silus said in greeting.

"Yes sir, I am. What's on the agenda for today?" James replied.

"We're going to check up on the progress of the trainees." Armor interjected.

"Alright, where to?"

"Top of the Tower," Silus said, "today they're practicing insertion techniques. I must say, what he have go show you should be quite entertaining, we've crossed your 'HALO' jump with an old hunting technique favored by our ancestors."

"Sounds interesting." James mused.

The trio ascended ancient stone steps, cut and scratched by the multitude of talons and claws that had tread upon them over the long years. It was a lengthy and strenuous climb, but after a time, they emerged out into a large craggy space, open to the sky. Here and there were buildings and shops cut directly into the hard cold stone, tall spires all around, dotted with holes, rose to touch the sky. High overhead, a large airship dominated airspace above.

"Welcome to our marketplace and aviaries for our messengers," Silus explained, pointing to the shops and the tall spires respectively, "and the display grounds for our demonstration are over here, to the north sector." Silus led them out of the marketplace and to a wide, flat slab of stone that hung out over the side of the tower.

Here and there around the surface, bipedal straw dummies bound with twine were set up in various formations. As James looked them over, he thought he could count almost a hundred of them. Suddenly, a shadow crawled across the stone platform, blotting out the sun.

"Ah, the demonstration is about to begin!" The Admiral said merrily.

James and Shining looked up to the airship above. About twenty dark shapes appeared at the edge of the railings. Then all at once, they launched themselves into the air, aiming at the great stone slab and falling fast. As they lost altitude, James could see that each shape was actually a griffon, wings tucked close to their bodies and swords clutched in their talons. With lethal precision, they fell upon their targets, flaring their wings at the last moment, stopping their fall, slashing and cutting down the dummies.

It happened so swiftly that James could barely follow it. In no time at all, the winged warriors had slain every single last dummy. They all sheathed their weapons and produced several decrepit looking firearms from their sides, snapping them up to the ready, facing out in a large circle. James had to admit, he was impressed.

"Now that's awesome!" The human complimented.

Silus had a cocky look about his features, "That's not all, keep watching."

James returned his attention to the airship and was surprised when large bay doors began to open on its sides. He hadn't noticed them before as the doors were well crafted and constructed, the edges blending in seamlessly with the rest of the hull. He was even more surprised when out popped a couple of small Clipper class airships.

"And there would be the members of your Task Force, James. While my soldiers keep the area secured, yours will provide close air support until it is deemed there is no longer an immediate danger, at which time they will descend and remove any wounded. It's all very exciting!" Silus explained.

"I see that Celestia has lent you some of our weapons."

"Yes, a gift that I was most happy about. At first, they were a bit out of commission, but the engineers you employ in your teams proved to be highly adept at restoring them to working order, as well as providing proper training."

"I'm extremely glad to hear it. Just one other thing, what gave you the idea for the airship?" James asked curiously.

"Oh ho! I'm astonished you don't know! I was so taken with the stories of the grand warships of the sea you've regaled me with, I simply thought that we must have something to match. I took the idea to our finest shipwrights and what you see before you is the result! They did quite well, If I may say so." The raven colored griffon gloated.

"I gotta say human," Shining began, "you may be unorthodox, but this is shaping up to be a fine fighting force."

"Thanks brother, that means a lot to me."

"Honestly, if you weren't a good friend of my sister's, I might not be so nice."

"Well, at least you're honest." James replied flatly.

The entire visit, the two had been butting heads. The Captain wasn't a huge fan of deviating from tradition. It was something James could admire, but it wasn't something he could entirely agree with. As such, they had been contradicting each other left and right over how best to proceed with training. Soon, they were about to spend a week together surveying the western coast, something James had not been looking forward to. Especially since James had yet to introduce the Captain to the latest member of his team, who would be accompanying them on the trip. It was something James didn't exactly know how to handle. He figured he would just do the big reveal while they were already underway.

"You got any other surprises?" James asked the large griffon.

"Oh, terribly sorry, but that is all we have at the moment. Perhaps if you gave us some time, we might come up with something equally... exquisite."

"I look forward to it."

"Well gents, that will be all for today's demonstration. Please, feel free to enjoy yourselves here in my humble home. Please do be careful though, every city has its bad apples." Silus said with a short bow.

"Don't mind if we do."

=====================================================================

James patrolled around the marketplace, looking for something nice to get for RD. She had given him the neat little gem a while back, so he figured he should get her something too. Unfortunately, the only personal items he owned were either too sharp or too explosive or too dangerous in general to just give away. So now he was canvassing the market for something that showed how he felt while accurately representing the pegasus mare's personality. Not an easy task.

So now here he was, looking into every shop possible for that special little trinket that would be just right. He wanted to find it today, as tomorrow he would be setting out on his journey to the west coast. For this task, it was made clear that Dash would be unable to come with him. Something that did not please him, yet he wholly understood. The defense of a nation was something they all needed to focus on without distraction.

Ducking into what had to be the hundredth shop he'd visited in the morning, James continued his inspection of the various wares touted about for sale. His eyes played over the many odds and ends that filled the shop as the merchant that owned it watched in earnest, waiting for the human to pick something out to buy from him. For almost half an hour, James looked, but still could find nothing suitable. Just as he was about to give up and leave, out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention.

Far in the back of the stone room,buried under a pile of seeming old and un sellable goods, a dark yet shiny glint snagged his interest. Walking over to the pile, James took a closer look and began to dig through the items until he pulled out what he was looking for. He brought it up to his face and marveled at the object, wondering how such a thing could have gotten here. With interest, James took the item over to the merchant.

"Excuse me sir, but would you happen to know where this came from?" He inquired, holding up the item for the griffon to see.

"Ah, that thing? Some 'unter brought it in, said he found it in the woods down in the mountains. Looked intrestin' enough, so I took it off 'is claws for 'im. Couldn't find a buyer for it though, so there it sat, gathrin' dust. You wantin' to snatch it up yourself, eh?"

"Sure, how much you want for it?"

"How's about jus' five bits?"

"Just five bits? Deal." James reached into his pocket and took out the five coins, "Thought it would be more than that."

"Nah, glad ta be rid of it. Looks right ugly if ya ask me."

The griffon placed James' purchase in a small box and wrapped it with indistinct brown paper. James thanked the merchant and left the shop, eager to present his present to RD before he had to give her the bad news of his imminent departure. However, as he tried to find his way back to the passage that had brought him up to the market place, he became very aware that he was in fact unaware of his whereabouts. The streets of the markets were cut directly into the stone, creating what was ultimately a large maze of rock walls. This was not at all a problem for the griffons who had wings with which to fly, but for a human, this presented quite a problem. With a sour mood, James realized that he was lost.

Carrying his parcel tucked under one arm, the human made his way down the myriad passages filled with awkward twists and turns. This only got him more confused and lost than when he began. With frustration, he started running about, picking directions at random. He tried climbing the walls to simply jump over the obstructions to his destination, but the stone was too high and too smooth for him to get a grip. Defeated, James was reduced to wandering the enclosed streets aimlessly, hoping he would run into Silus or stumble across the stairway he had first emerged from. He hoped he would find it soon, as it was getting late and he had dinner plans with a certain sky blue pegasus.

Turning into another dark alleyway, James stopped and listened. His gut had abruptly told him he was being watched. And when his gut told him to stop he listened. Especially in a city comprised almost entirely of apex predators. He could just as easily be being hunted. James cautiously looked around, scanning the tops of the walls for movement. He heard a scrape on the stone deck behind him and whipped around. A griffon stood there, blocking the way. Another sound behind him, the ruffle of feathers on folding wings. James looked over his shoulder and saw that another one blocking his exit.

"Well well, what have we got here?" Came a voice from up above.

James snapped his head up to see yet another griffon perched on the edge of the wall above. She was looking down at him with hungry eyes, but not the kind James would have preferred. The griffon had a brown hide with stark white feathers covering her head, a few extending over her eyes had purple highlights at the ends. Her eyes were a golden color. At the moment both of them were focused on James' little brown box.

"What's that you got under your arm there, wouldn't be something valuable would it?" She asked in a mocking tone.

James looked around at the two griffons blocking his way out on either side. They were slowly getting closer.

"I really don't have time for this, is it alright if I can just go? I'm hungry and I got a dinner date to get to." He replied in a bored tone

"Oh, what's that, you just wanna go home? Well you're in my street in my city. So there's a toll bub." The female perched above said menacingly, eyes narrowed into slits, lion's tail lazily whipping about.

"C'mon, I really don't want to do this. How about a rain check?"

"How about you hand over that box ant the contents of your pockets?"

"No." James said simply.

"I actually wasn't asking." The griffon on the wall said, giving her two cohorts a subtle signal with one of her talons.

James dropped into a defensive stance and put his back against the wall opposite of the ringleader as the two griffons in the street with him began to advance upon him. His eyes darted between them, wondering which would be the first to strike. He assessed his opponents, all were naturally armed with talons, claws and sharp beaks. Meanwhile, he had only his fists, having decided that walking around armed all day would not be necessary.

The griffon on his right looked about ready to pounce, James braced himself for the impending fight. The griffon made his move and leaped at the human, but was smashed to the hard stone ground in mid air by a cyan blue blur. Fast as a flash, the blur shot over to the other griffon and delivered a debilitating kick to his beak. The first griffon dizzily got back up and shook his head. With anger, he charged at what he could now see was a pegasus. He swiped at the pony with his sharp talons, but the pegasus ducked each attack, stepping into his guard hitting him hard in the throat with her right hoof. The griffon fell back, clutching his neck and gasping for air.

"Rainbow!?" The female griffon exclaimed in astonishment.

Dash looked up to the top of the wall, "Gilda!?" Her face went from surprised to contemplative to angry. "What the hay is going on here!?"

"Oh nothing," Gilda said with a huff, "we were just having a nice chat with this... uh, this... guy here. What does it matter to you what I'm doing anyhow?"

"What matters is it looked like your goons were about to mug my coltfriend!"

"Coltfriend!? Wow, whatever. I'm totally over you anyway."said Gilda as she rolled her eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" James interjected.

"NOTHING!" Both girls yelled at him.

At this point James decided whatever it was, he should probably stay out of it. So he leaned back up against the wall and calmly waited.

"Listen, what's past is past. I tried to bring you into my new group of friends, but you obviously didn't want to be a part of that, so we went our separate ways. That said, James is off limits if you know what's good for ya!" Dash finished vehemently, stomping the ground with a hoof.

"Whatever, you two can both be lame together. C'mon fellas, lets blow this joint."

With that, all three griffons took off into the sky. The confrontation over, James pushed his back off the wall and walked over to RD, who was still a little tense.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be ok." RD said with a bit of melancholy.

"Who was that?"

"Just an old... friend."

"Had a falling out, huh?"

"Yeah....."

James could understand that. He and Jackson had fought countless times before. One time, after a small incident with Jackson's then fiance, they hadn't even spoken to each other for a week. Their two teammates, Nix and Feng, had to act as liaisons. Eventually, they had worked through it.

"You try talking to her? Maybe you two could do lunch or something while I'm gone." James suggested.

"It... it's not all that simple. We used to be a little... more... than friends."

"Oh. Oh... OH...." James finally realized what she meant, "Well still... It might be good to at least clear the air."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Dash said, perking up a little with a little smile.

"Nice. Now c'mon, dinner's on me." James said with a smile while rubbing her shoulder with affection.

"Heh heh, you treat me too well." Her smile grew wider.

"Ha, you just kicked two griffons' asses for me, not well enough!"

"Shut up and take me to dinner."

James loosed a chuckle and smiled, "Yes ma'am."

Next Chapter: A Chance Meeting Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 23 Minutes
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