Chapter 62

Fix It lead the two guards to a boarded up building, some efforts at renovation were obvious but seemed to be abandoned as well. “Alright, there is a tunnel in the basement that takes us a few streets along… I think”

“Ok, Matrix, you take up the rear whilst Fix It stays in the middle,” Night Stalker waited for both the stallions to nod before he opened the door and stepped into the barren house

The stench of chemicals and damp wood instantly rushed to meet the ponies’ noses. “Woah, you didn’t find it odd that somepony lives here?” Matrix covered his nose with his hoof

“Ponies can live however they want,” Fix It rubbed his chin. “Besides, he said he would pay handsomely”

“Oh now it makes sense,” Night Stalker walked down the damp corridor as he looked at the peeling wallpaper. “This is just a front and you assumed that you were going to fix his lights?”

Fix It shrugged, “A pony has to eat”

“All I want is for us to get the hay outta here and get this bomb out of the way,” Matrix sneered at the broken stairs and woodlice that crawled away from the ponies. “You do know how to defuse a bomb right?”

“No strangely enough,” Fix It rolled his eyes. “My specialty is in fixing things not defusing things”

Night Stalker pushed open the door to the basement and flicked on a small switch. A row of lights flickered on and revealed the small basement with a large hole in one of the walls

Matrix groaned as he looked at the dirty basement, “And my specialty isn’t being a mole but we are all making exceptions today”

“Come on let’s just get through this tunnel,” Night Stalker walked over to the hole and flicked another switch. One light flicked on and revealed another larger basement on the other side of the gap. A few cardboard boxes were stacked in one corner

“Wow,” Matrix and Night Stalker both stared at the unicorn as they looked at the short tunnel

Fix It rubbed the back of his neck, “Well I was worried about the bomb that was referred to as ‘rubber ducky with an explosive personality’!”

“Ok whoever built this thing sounds mad,” Matrix stepped through the tunnel and into the other basement

“I prefer the term bonkers, it makes me sound like a funny guy at a party,” the black unicorn smiled at Matrix, his slightly frazzled mane was a mix of white and black

Fix It looked past the guards and smiled, “By the way I fixed your taps… about the bits we talked about”

“Ah yes, here they are,” The unicorn’s horn glowed as he threw a cluster of coins at the other unicorn. “I would have put them in a bag but I kinda used them all up with my samples”

Fix It levitated the coins and placed them in his own small bag before stuffing it away in his tail. “So I have my money and I will take my leave”

“OH you aren’t going anywhere,” Night Stalked used his wing to grab the slower unicorn. “We have a bomb to defuse”

The black unicorn bounced on his hooves with a large smile, “Oh can I help? I would love to be a hero!”

Matrix took a few steps around the strange unicorn, “So what is your name?”

“Oh yes I haven’t introduced myself,” the pony swept his hoof over his cutie mark of a mechanical arm. “I am Shadow Tech! The greatest inventor of snowglobes! And other seasonal items! And items that aren’t seasonal!”

Fix It tapped Night Stalker’s shoulder, “Yeah he is a mad scientist… mad is an understatement though”

Night Stalker pushed Fix It through the hole as he stared at Shadow Tech. “You two go see to the bomb in the tub, I will make sure this strange fellow stays here”

“Wait, defuse ducky?” Shadow Tech shook his head. “Ducky is going to make me famous, he is going to walk into an orphanage and I will save everypony with my power suit!”

Matrix grabbed Fix It and pushed him towards the stairs. “Come on let’s go see to the exploding bath tub”

Fix It and Matrix ran up the steps, hopping over the broken pieces of wood before they charged into the bathroom. They both gawped at the large mass of wires and plastic explosives that filled the bath and pilled to the roof

“Well no pressure,” Matrix tapped Fix It on the back. “Just be careful that this duck doesn’t… kill us all”

The deep purple unicorn gulped as he began to poke at the wires. “Alright I will try my best but if you suddenly turn into tiny pieces then I made a mistake”

Meanwhile…

“You wanna see my power suit?” Shadow Tech smiled as Night Stalker began to walk towards him. “It operates with a variable rotation system that allows for maximum strength”

Night Stalker narrowed his eyes, “I would like to show you the inside of a prison cell, complete with prison food”

Shadow Tech hopped over to one of the large cardboard boxes. “If I go to prison then who will save the orphans?”

“We can save them from you right now,” Night Stalker extended his wings. “You have the right to remain silent”

“And you have the left to be crushed!” Shadow Tech threw the cardboard box aside and revealed a large gold chest plate. The unicorn levitated the armour onto himself and green lights flickered on around the neck and sides

More armour pieces fell out of boxes and were levitated onto the mad scientist, his size increasing with each new section. The parts appeared to be made from everything from scrap iron to shining aluminium

“Oh buck,” Night Stalker took a few cautious steps back as the helmet slid into place and four green eyes span to zoom in on the Pegasus. A chuckle resonated out of the suit of armour as a megaphone appeared in the mouth of the armour. “Your armour is not worth the metal it is made from”

“And your brain cells have been wasted,” Night Stalker glared as the golden golem slowly advanced towards him. “Let’s see if I can’t defuse you”

The giant hoof of the power armour raced at the Pegasus. The guard rolled to the side and dashed at the suit’s rusty legs, preparing to buck the weaker metal but Shadow Tech jumped aside

“A slippery one eh?” The suit chuckled as its wearer studied Night Stalker. “You are like a frog in the bath… once I dropped the hairdryer in, very messy”

“Well you have a very terrible hobby,” Night Stalker saw the exposed clamps on the suit’s chest. “Have anything else you want to get off your chest?”

The black Pegasus ran at the large golden pony, leaping over a hoof that shot out to crush him. Shadow’s head followed Night Stalker as he flipped through the air and kicked at one of the chest attachments

The clamp broke and the chest opened slightly at the base of the neck. Shadow growled as he looked at the Pegasus. “You do realize that I made this myself?”

“Yeah, only somepony completely mad would waste his time with such a… ridiculous machine,” Night Stalker leapt to the side as Shadow lunged forward and rammed into the wall, leaving a large crack

“This isn’t ridiculous!” The scientist wined. “It has cup holders and a glove box!”

“A what box?” Night Stalker ducked under another swipe before flapping his wings to get some distance between him and the armoured pony

“It doesn’t matter!” Shadow yelled. “All that matters is that I will save ponies… from myself… some other stuff… and then PROFIT!”

“Oh shut up!” Matrix yelled as he dropped his rear hooves onto one of the other chest clamps, the gap widening a bit more

Shadow turned to swipe at the newcomer but Night Stalker used the distraction to finally buck the rear hooves out from under the scientist’s body

“Fine, playing dirty will only mean your bath will be longer!” Shadow snarled as his power armour began to make noises. A large barrel poked out of his back as it scraped the roof of the basement

“What is that?” Matrix pointed a hoof at the large weapon

Shadow Tech pointed to the cannon, “Oh this is just a rapid delivery device!” He said happily, “It is going to deliver metal to your face”

“That doesn’t sound too good,” Night Stalker sighed as he pushed Matrix aside and jumped into the air, narrowly avoiding the spearhead that whizzed through his tail

“Hold still, the lock on won’t work if the stripy one acts as a flare!” Shadow rolled his eyes as he began to aim his gun again

Night Stalker looked at Matrix, giving a reassuring nod as both the guards prepared themselves. “Feel like doing something stupid?”

“I have already joined the guards,” Matrix smirked as he narrowed his eyes at Shadow Tech. “Is it safe to assume that his magic is powering the suit?”

“Looks that way,” Night Stalker used his wing to pull out a metallic cylinder from his armour. “Ready?”

Matrix smirked, “You know it”

Shadow Tech lunged at both the guards, his hooves aimed for their heads as his gun tried to lock on. Matrix and Night Stalker hopped onto the outstretched hooves and ran along to the body

Matrix wrapped his striped wings around the suit’s eyes, causing the gun to fire blindly into the wall. Night Stalker began to hit the neck joint and eventually the head became limp and Matrix lifted the metallic head and threw it aside

“Time to shut down your operation!” Night Stalker yelled as he stabbed the cylinder into the neck of the power armour. The cylinder glowed and the suit suddenly fell silent, the large body slowly tipped to the side and fell to the ground

Matrix and Night Stalker tapped hooves as they heard Shadow Tech groan inside the armour. “Oh you crafty blighters, a magical dampener?”

“Standard issue,” Night Stalker left the armour as he followed Matrix up the stairs and into the bathroom. Fix It was covered in pieces of wire and was carefully pulling pieces of wire out and poking at the black box that was connected to the front

“Hey guys, it turns out that I am still not a bomb defusal pony,” the unicorn tapped the box. “I haven’t figured out how to stop it yet and we are running out of time”

“Running out of time?” Matrix looked around for a timer. “How do you know?”

Fix It reattached one of the wires and red lights appeared on the red box. “Yeah I turned the lights off because they were unnerving me”

Night Stalker sighed, “You have to stop this, we are relying on you”

“Oh no pressure then,” Fix It groaned as he lifted the lid of the box and revealed even more wires. He hummed as he tapped his hoof against each wire, tracing the connections as he began hearing bleeping

“What’s that?” Matrix took a step back from the bomb, his nervousness obvious

“I’m guessing we have ten seconds left,” Fix It began to sweat as he hummed faster, eventually wrapping his hoof around a large red wire. “If we die…”

The stallions all exchanged glances

“…I’m blaming you guys”

Fix It pulled the wire and slammed his eyes shut, cautiously opening them to see the timer had stopped with only a few seconds to go. Matrix fell to his flank as he breathed a sigh of relief and Night Stalker rolled his eyes

“Good job everypony,” the charcoal Pegasus nodded. “Now all we have to do is carry Shadow Tech to the castle and send disposal guards down here”

Matrix nodded, “Alright, Fix It, can you stay with the bomb?”

“Yeah I would love to stay with the huge bomb that could kill me before I could blink,” the unicorn groaned sarcastically as he rubbed his eyes with his hoof. “But I just want to… oh so you just leave me talking to myself!” Fix It called as he was left alone with the bomb