Stasis

Chapter 6: Burning The Fuse

By: Stillmatic

"Well well well, what do we have here? Another American dog? You've strayed far from home, no? Maybe I should call the pound on you…" The large Russian walked behind the American agent sitting in the chair, arms and legs strapped down. The Russian lifted a cigar from his mouth and pressed it into the back of the American's neck. He yelled loudly; the burning felt so painful, but it was nothing for what was to come. The Russian removed the cigar, leaving a nice burn mark into the skin.

"Ready to talk now, or do I have to get help?"

The American looked up to the Russian and spat in his face, "Fuck. You."

That had earned him a quick punch to the cheek. It wasn't the hardest he'd ever been hit, but a punch was still a punch. It stunned him for a second, as the Russian moved in front of him, grabbing him by his chin.

"You really want to make this hard don't you? All you Americans think you're big shit, trying to keep your secrets and protect your country with your fake patriotism. It disgusts me how you can lie to yourself like that. Please, do give up before I have to call in some help, save us both some trouble."

The American looked directly into the Russians eyes and said, "Bring out your best."

"Very well," the Russian turned and yelled to the reinforced door in front of the chair. "Doctor, I could use some assistance for a moment. Would you kindly come in and help?" Inside the bleak room with only a single light, there was silence. Then, the door swung open, slamming against the concrete wall it was attached to. Both men were caught off guard by such a sudden movement and sound.

Out of the darkness, a man in a white doctor's coat and military boots walked in. He stood slightly shorter than the other men, but still had a strong demeanor on him. He wore a stethoscope over his neck, which was purely cosmetic most of the time, and kept his black hair combed back. He carried a large medical bag in one of his hands, and it looked positively ancient in age.

"Guten morgen, guten morgen, my friends. I've come to assist in," he pointed to the Russian, "Information acquisition," then pointed to the American, "and keeping ze 'patient' alive. Very well, shall we start?" He pulled out two thick rubber gloves from his bag, and put them on, letting a loud snap sound as he pulled them farther than they were meant and released them. He grinned widely, and it made the American shiver.

"What's wrong, cold? How about a smack to keep you warm?" The Russian pulled his hand back in a wide arc, but right before he could, he was grabbed from behind. "What th-"

He was being held in a choke hold by the German doctor and had a handkerchief held to his mouth. He slowly started losing consciousness, and soon stopped struggling. The doctor reached down with a free hand pulled out a small, silenced pistol from his bag. He pushed the limp body of the Russian forward and onto the floor, landing with a thud. He kneeled down near his head and fired the pistol against it.

"Hah, oh god, Tobias you crazy asshole, you almost had me going for a second there."

"Ja, maybe I should be on one of ze hospital dramas in America. I could be famous with my acting skill!" He gave a grin, knowing full well what a joke that was. "Anyway, let us depart, no?"

"Right, don't want to be here when they come looking for this guy," the American said as he pointed to the body on the floor. He shook his arms and legs, indicating he would need help. "Doc?"

"Of course my friend, let me just," he went into his bag and pulled out a bonesaw, "get some tools."

The American's eyes widened at this, "Doc, get something else! I want to keep my body parts!"

But the doctor started anyway, cutting the restraints with no damage to the other man. The American got up from the chair, rubbing at his wrists.

"Next time, find a knife."

"Ja, wonderful, now let's leave."

"Cool, so what's the plan?"

"Plan?"

"You came to rescue me without an escape plan? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing to worry at all, we shall take to the sewers! Quite ironic how I promote that idea, being a doctor, no?"

"Yeah, super. Let's just get the hell out of here, we probably have only a few minutes before they realize he isn't checking in."

Both the men walked out of the room, making as little noise as possible. They moved into a dark corridor, the only light being a few dim lamps every 20 feet. They continued down the corridor and turned right, towards a custodian's closet. It was dusty in there, as if no one had cleaned down here in years. They heard what sounded like yelling and doors being kicked in.

Suddenly, stomping and shouting was heard outside the small closet. Both men looked at each other and the doctor lifted a grate from the floor. The shouts were getting closer now, almost near the door.

"Go, now. I will hold them for a few moments. You must make it to ze end of ze tunnel to ze sewage dump. It may take as long as a few hours depending on how fast you travel. But do be cautious, they will surely send some search parties for quite a bit of time. I recommend finding Hadrian, he'll get you out lickety-spitz. Tell him Tobias sent you."

The German doctor pushed the man down the grate. He reached into his bag and pulled a small submachine gun out, loading it. He tossed it down to the American and closed the grate. He went into his bag again and pulled out another of the same weapon.

"Thanks, Doc. I really appreciate this."

"No problem, my friend. Just don't expect to hear from me any time soon!" He laughed loudly at this, getting the attention of FSB agents outside of the door he was near. "Now schnell, before zey notice you!"

"I won't forget this T."

"I should hope not, you seemed to be remembering it quite well right now."

"Yeah, well… What was that?"

"I said you're remembering it quite well right now."

There was a loud banging and some angry Russian "negotiation" thrown at the door.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know, I'm just a figment of your imagination. Well, it was nice reliving zis, don't you think?"

"No, I don't think. What are you talking about?"

"Ugh, just wake up. You already know how this ends."

Suddenly, the world seemed to be zooming out, as if his vision was receding. Everything was flowing backwards; time seemed to go out of control. He looked at the doctor, who only wore a grin. 'What the fuck is happening!'

Everything was crumbling around him, the walls, the sewers, the ceiling, everything. It all fell into a dark black void, where they fell for an eternity. The area he was standing on was the last spot to fall, and soon, he too was in the void. Looking up as he fell, he screamed at the top of his lungs. He was panicking hard now, and he thought he was going to fall forever.

He then remembered what the doctor said, 'Just wake up.' He forced himself to try and wake up, but couldn't. There was something keeping him in, and it wouldn't let him out so easily. Trying to break out was near futile.

"Fuck, what do I do?" He looked over to his right hand; the submachine gun was still there. He had a difficult choice to make; to try and wait it out, or kill himself in an attempt to wake up. He decided that the waiting was unbearable; it was eating away at his mind. He looked over the gun one last time, as he held it up to his temple.

"Peace out." Without another thought, he pulled the trigger. Everything went black as soon as he did, and existence stopped entirely.

"Recipient successfully reconstructed. Ejecting current occupant now. Please stand by."

Hissing, he could hear hissing. What did that mean? Was there a snake around? No, it couldn't be something living. He felt slow, like something was dragging him down. What was it that could be doing this to him? He couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't even breathe. What the hell was happening? The hissing stopped, that meant something was happening.

He heard a few clicks, and this time it wasn't a gun. The next sound was like a whooshing, as if someone opened one of those doors on those sci-fi shows that he saw on TV sometimes. Something felt all too familiar, and yet he couldn't place it. He felt warm air, something he thought he'd never feel again. It was amazing; it warmed his cold body and didn't leave him.

Suddenly, it dawned on him, and a flood of memories came rushing back. He had died, and yet here he was. 'It was this thing; I completely forgot that it did this for me. I'm lucky to have gotten one, unlike any of those other poor bastards.' He opened his eyes to a bright light, and started to adapt to new surroundings. Except, they weren't new at all, he was in his shuttle.

"So that's reconstruction? Felt like regular stasis to me." Rick looked at himself, and noticed he wore nothing at all. He also noticed no holes in his chest, but he still needed a pair of clothes. He started to slowly get out of the tube, restarting his systems and muscles. After roughly ten minutes of various stretches and other workouts, he was back to a sense of normalcy with his body. He walked over to a bin next to the tube and pulled out his previous clothing. Funny, reconstruction could take everything you were wearing and preserve it, but you still needed to deal with the holes in them later.

He started putting the clothing on, and noticed a few things in the bin with the clothes. He reached in as he finished putting on his shirt, taking out two tusks. He moved them in his hands for a bit and laid them on the floor. Going in again, he pulled out his wrench. He chuckled, "Good times…"

Lastly, he pulled out part of a horn. He inspected it, deciding what to do with it.

"When the hell did I pick this up? I should put it on the front of my Aston Martin… Better yet, it would look good on a chain." He pocketed it and looked at the empty bin. Where the hell was his suit?

As if it were reading his mind, there was that same toaster ding coming from the suit chamber.

"Suit repairs complete, have a nice day."

"Quick work, I like that."

Rick moved into the chamber once again to don his suit. He may not have needed it to survive outside, but he wouldn't take any chances. Settling in, the same process as before took over, with each piece coming together onto him. As it finished, it dinged again, slightly annoying Rick. He climbed out of the chamber and the diodes attached to his forehead, with the back veil coming up with it. Soon, the visor formed over the front of his face, giving him an alien look if he were seen by any other human.

"Still fits like a glove… At least the glove parts still do."

Now that he was fully equipped, he decided his next plan of action. Over the next hour, his options were limited to two only. The first was that he find a way to reach Earth, and the agency. The second was he stay and wait for a rescue team, which he doubt would come. Given no other real option, he opted to find some way to get the shuttle up and running towards Earth.

His best chance of getting the shuttle pointing up was using a dynamic winch that was near the back of the shuttle. The problem with that however, was that it made enough noise to wake the neighborhood, and despite there not being any houses around, he felt like he was in quite a hotspot for aliens. Nonetheless, it was the quickest and most efficient way of dealing with the problem at hand, and he couldn't think of any other way to go about fixing it. He would be forced to defend it until the shuttle was upwards, at which point he'd grab it and make a mad dash for the shuttle, and force the shuttle from the Moon. Seemed easy enough.

Putting the wrench on his back, he walked to the farthest and most rarely used end of the shuttle. On top of a few large crates laid an odd generator/pulley combination that seemed quite sturdy. Looking it over, he nodded and lifted it up in front of him. He didn't remember it being this heavy, but at least the suit would supplement his strength, which allowed him to actually carry it. Walking over to the hatch, he held the winch to the wall, using a free hand to open the hatch. Looking outside, he turned both ways to ensure nothing was near him.

Satisfied, he continued out and to the rear of the shuttle. He set it down at least 10 feet from the rockets, and set up the magnetic spikes that held it firmly in the ground. Hearing the buzz from its activation, he grabbed the hook and cable off the winch, and proceeded to climb on top of the shuttle, towards the front. Soon, he was setting up and attaching the hook to a compartment that revealed metal ring the perfect size for the hook. Placing it in, he gave it a few tugs and nodded.

Rick closed the compartment and slid off the side of the shuttle, creating a cloud of moon dust and some large footprints as he landed. He walked over to the winch and decided it was now or never to start it. It sputtered for a few seconds as the crank slowly turned, pulling the cable. He was lucky he was on the Moon; the lower gravity would make it all the more easier. He pulled his wrench and held it steady as the loudness of the winch echoed throughout the Moon.

He stood there, not sure what to expect. As the winch started to pull the shuttle in an upwards position, he noticed that nothing seemed to come. Like the place was dead or something. He went over to a moon rock nearby and sat on it. Better to wait it out than just stand for no reason.

It had been at least a few minutes, because the shuttle was nearly in position. He moved over to the winch, ready to turn it off before it pulled too far and knocked the shuttle over onto its other side. As the shuttle quickly fell into place, he hit the kill switch and released the cable, not being able to unhook it from the ground. Now was the annoying part, getting the winch back into the shuttle.

Lifting it again, he moved over to the rockets and set it down to inspect the small area between them. There was a rarely used maintenance hatch in between the rockets, and it seemed it could be opened from his position. Unlocking it, he opened the hatch and looked up into it, seeing nothing but a red light illuminating various pipeworks and circuitry. He could definitely fit in, and maybe take the winch too, problem is that it was damn heavy.

He sighed, "Shit just can't be easy, can it?"

He ducked out from the hatch and dragged the winch under the hatch. He lifted himself through and pulled the winch with as much of his strength as possible. After a few moments, it made its way up to him, where he pulled it next to him, setting it down. He closed the hatch and locked it accordingly, right before taking the winch over to a small area, where he strapped it down into a small cubby designed for holding onto power tools.

He looked for a nearby ladder, and climbed it and went through another hatch to the normal area of the shuttle. It seemed different vertically, but he ignored it and climbed the rungs embedded into what was the floor earlier. Moving upwards, he reached the reinforced pilot's seat, quickly sitting down. He sure wanted to get off the Moon quick.

He started the rockets up; everything seemed to be in working order. It took around 15 minutes before the shuttle was fully ready. He flicked a switch; it was time to get going. Everything was ready, and now was the best time to leave. Soon, there was rumbling and shaking coming from the bottom of the shuttle followed by a deafening roar, and he slowly felt the force of ascension take him from the ground. He was moving up, and nothing could stop this rocket man now. He must have been hitting the atmosphere that shouldn't have existed, because the shaking was getting more intense.

However, he was soon in space fairly quickly. It seemed that the crater he was in was on a particularly high area of the Moon. Nonetheless, he was headed for Earth. And because of that, he didn't care how long it would take for him to…

"Where the fuck am I going to land? Shit, this is not good."

He considered landing in any nearby ocean, but depth he would need to simply not crash into the ground underwater would mean he would be too far out to get back to New York. An idea crossed his mind, something he noticed earlier. If stasis could slow him enough to stop nearly all movement, could he apply the same thing to the shuttle? It would take some serious work to get it working, let alone usable. But he had time; it would take at least 8 hours to get within Earth's orbit. He soon got to work, keeping the idea of crashing into tiny little bits as fuel to keep the "stasis cushion" a working idea.

It had been nearly 7 hours before the "stasis cushion" was complete, well, as complete as a hashed together machine could be. He added a special feature other than slowing it down; at a certain point, it will kill off any momentum. That point is reached when stasis takes a full hold of the shuttle, literally stopping it in mid-air. It seemed ideal, he wouldn't want any significant damage done to the shuttle, at least not until he was far away from it.

Exhausted after working so long without break, he decided it was time for what could be his last meal. He floated through the anti-gravity towards a pantry near an obsolete cooking area. He opened it and took a look at what MRE's they'd left for him to eat. Apparently, Aden was the one in charge of stocking the pantry.

"Oh, you fucking asshole."

It seems Rick's co-worker Aden, another engineer, stocked the pantry with only vegetarian meals. Most of Rick's co-workers knew that he was keen on having some sort of beef, chicken, turkey, lamb or other meat with each meal. It was something he developed during his time laying low in Azerbaijan as a young adult, where he was forced to live at a farm while trying to escape authorities. It wasn't a habit to die on him anytime soon and yet his friend purposely attacked it with his "healthy" food. What kind of cruel joke was that? As soon as he landed, the first thing on the list of what to do was find a steakhouse. For now, he'd have to settle for this stuff.

It was night on the side of Earth he was planning on landing on. But now that he had a better look at the planet, he noticed that the continents seemed to be shaped differently. Maybe he had been gone for a few million years and the plates shifted. He chuckled at that, it was probably just some kind of discrepancy with the atmosphere or something. The chances of hitting a few million years of sleep in stasis were next to nothing. Well, he would be entering the atmosphere any moment now, and soon, turbulence and pressure would take over and shake the shuttle so badly it was like he'd been in the middle of an earthquake.

He sighed, and raised his voice dramatically, while throwing his arms into the air, "The moment of truth is ahead of us, Brothers! Hah!" It seemed like the chance of dying in a blazing inferno hadn't stifled his humor.

Twilight Sparkle had been personally asked to watch the night sky for Princess Luna. They would both observe, but take on different spots and areas of space. It was a simple measure that would warn them of any possible return of Nightmare Moon, but Twilight still didn't understand why it was so necessary, due to having defeated Nightmare Moon a year ago. She had been permanently stuck on the Moon ever since, not able to leave her domain.

Still, if Princess Luna asked for it, she would abide. She moved from her study on the second floor of her library to a balcony with a telescope on it. She decided to take a look to see if much has changed in the hour she's left it. Peering into the lens, she observed an odd anomaly among the sky. It appeared to be a comet, fiery and hurtling towards Equestria at break-neck speeds. She couldn't tell much about it, other than its odd shape.

She decided writing a message to Princess Luna was imperative, as she had the right to know before anyone else.

She began, "Dear Princess Luna,

I've seen something odd in the sky, and from what I can tell, it seems like a comet of sorts. It seems to be heading away from nearby cities and towns. I hope no animals get hurt from it hitting down to the ground, I'd hate having to see Fluttershy so sad and anxious over them. If there is anything else you'd like me to do, please, do ask.

Yours Truly,

Twilight Sparkle"

She rolled up the scroll and sealed it. She was going to wake Spike, her assistant, up and get him to send the letter immediately. But as she walked over to him sleeping, she felt a pain of guilt at waking up something so young. He was still developing, and Princess Luna would understand her if she said she didn't have the heart to wake him. Whatever this was, it could wait until morning, where she would be able to send it at a much more convenient time.

She had been lost in thought for around 15 minutes before she noticed that she was still standing over her assistant. She moved over to the telescope again, taking another look. She gasped, the object was closing in quicker than she realized. Something was different however; as it reached lower and lower to the ground, it glowed a light blue, slowly turning darker every second. Flames were still somehow coming out of the bottom of it, and it still became darker. This is not what she expected; she would have to make plans immediately on the next course of action. Suddenly, she heard what sounded like a burp and a green light come from inside. Walking back in, she moved towards Spike to find two things: that he was still asleep, and a letter with an emblem of the moon on it lay next to him. She quickly opened the letter, already knowing who it was from.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I'm sorry to send this so late, but I do hope you are awake. It appears something is in the skies, and moving quite fast at that. It slowly becoming darker and darker, to the point I can't make it out anymore. From what I can tell, it'll crash into the Everfree forest, not too far from the old castle my sister and I used to share. It is imperative we arrive on the scene as soon as possible, and before anyone else. I'll need your assistance on this, and we must meet up soon, there is only so much time before it crashes. I'll explain all of this later, when we meet in person.

Yours Truly,

Princess Luna

P.S. Stand away from the letter please, I'm going to arrive soon."

"What does she mean by 'arrive soon'?"

But Twilight soon figured out, Princess Luna would be using it as a spot to teleport. She threw the letter to the floor and backed away several feet. Knowing what to expect, she covered her ears. In a flash of light, a loud pop, and some smoke, there stood Princess Luna with a look of worry on her face. Twilight turned to Spike, who merely snorted and turned away from the light show she just experienced.

"Twilight Sparkle, it's nice to see you, only I wish it were under better circumstances."

"Hello Princess Luna, and what do you mean 'better circumstances'?"

"We have a situation on our hooves right now. As you can see, an object is going to crash into Everfree Forest any moment now. We must get there as soon as possible. I believe it to have something to do with Nightmare Moon, and we cannot let anything happen. Please, come with me and assist me in finding the object."

"Of course, Princess. When do we leave?"

"Now is the best time, as I said, time is of the essence!"

"Uhh, Princess… The Everfree Forest is dangerous enough in the day, will it really be a good idea to travel into it at night?"

"Not to worry, Twilight Sparkle, just about every nocturnal creature won't attack me. It has something to do with the night and how important it is to them. I'm not entirely sure of how it works, I just have an idea. Oh, and please, just call me Luna."

"Ok, Luna, and just call me Twilight, calling me by my full name just seems so formal."

"As you wish, now let's depart to the Everfree Forest."

They had been walking for at least 20 minutes into the Forest before suddenly, a horrible crash was heard. The ground shook immensely, and they soon lost their footing, falling to the floor. A large shockwave passed, pushing all the trees back. They got up, and followed where the center of the shockwave hit. To their surprise, the object landed inside the castle, as evidenced by the large amounts of smoke exiting from the roof.

They looked at each other, than ran in to the very same place Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony had defeated Nightmare Moon the first time. It was almost eerie how they ended up back here again. But as they entered, both Luna and Twilight gasped at what they saw. It was something that didn't seem to make sense. They couldn't tell if it was live, or some inanimate object. It was large, white, and seemed to be on its side, as what looked like its legs weren't on the ground. There was smoke billowing from the backend of it, where odd, metallic cones were attached. It was, in all meanings of the word, different.

"Luna, what is that?" Twilight said in the most bewildered tone possible.

"I'm not sure Twilight, but I've seen it before. I saw it as I was leaving the Moon not too long ago. I didn't think it would be able to follow me back here though!" She kept a face of shock and worry on as she spoke.

They stepped closer, slowly inching their way towards it, to see if it was alive. Suddenly, the side of the object busted open, revealing a hollow inside full of light. They winced at the sudden amount of light as something moved into it. It blocked out a great deal of the light at that point, and they could make out a silhouette of some creature. Luna gasped, that was the exact same one she saw on the Moon! She hadn't seen any of the features yet, but she knew it had to be. Twilight simply stood still, with the most fearful face she could unknowingly muster. She had been frozen in place.

The creature stared at them from its higher point. Then, it jumped out and down to the floor. Landing with a heavy thud, it cracked the floor below it. Twilight was knocked off her feet, but was at least able to get a better look at this fear-inducing creature. It was gray mostly, seemed quite metallic, stood on only two legs, had what she recognized as arms (she's seen some of Fluttershy's animal friends, some had something like these, albeit less advanced). It had some odd appendages at the end of each "arm", but what really amazed her was its head. It shined, and reflected everything around it. It was like looking into a curvy mirror, and it was beautiful.

The creature walked up to them slowly, and came within speaking range of them. Suddenly, Luna stood before Twilight, horn aglow in a powerful manner.

"Princess, what are you doi-"

"You don't know what this creature is capable of Twilight, it single-handedly killed a Nightmare and defeated Nightmare Moon. It was brutish and cruel in serving its 'justice'."

The creature seemed taken aback by what it heard, whether it was that fact that the animals in front of it spoke fluent English, or that it accused it of being a cruel brute. It then walked closer, and Luna's horn grew brighter, which didn't seem to faze it at all. It pointed an appendage at the Princess, and said a single thing.

"You."

I liked this chapter, just wish that it was more eventful. But, unfortunately, I can't have Rick just appear in Equestria. Anyway, I plan going into the conflict between two completely different species, which I thought would be an interesting idea. Until the next chapter, keep it trilla.