"So... Any idea where the zombies came from?" Twilight asked me.
"I dont know. Sometimes, though, zombies would attack both teams, back where I am from." I responded.
"Wait... You had to put up with zombies, AND war?" she asked, obviously suprised. "We actually had to, for our employer was not the sort to argue with." I informed.
"Ja. Vun of our Spys complained once... Never seen him since." Schadenfreude added.
"It wasnt much of a problem, especially for our Pyros, but zombies can see through invisibility." "I have a theory for zat. My theory, is that ze zombies have better perception, to track targets through walls." "It seemed far-fetched of a theory, at first, but then one of our Demos got ambushed by a horde of them."
This last part was spoken out, and coincided with some survivors poking their heads from everywhere.
"No more zombies! This calls for a party!" rang out an instantly recognizable voice.
"How did you know those were zombies, Pinkie?" I asked, mildly confused. "You mentioned them in the previous chapter of this book, silly." was about all the response I got.
"MPH PH PHH!" cut in a muffled shout.
A nearby wooden wall burned down, and someone I had not thought was here stepped over the ashes.
"Scorch*?" I asked the pyro, not daring to hope...
"MMPH." came the muffled confirmation. "How did you get here?" I asked Scorch, relieved that it was him. "MPPH MH MPH MMPH. MPH, MPHH MPHHPH FMMH MPHNPHHH." "Would you mind taking that mask off? Even I didnt understand that."
Scorch peeled off his mask, and looked at me with eyes, eyes which almost seemed to burn.
"What I said was, I took a teleporter to the BLU base, courtesy of our resident ninja engineer. When I got there, this rainbow explosion thing hit me." he explained, 100% more understandable now. "Guess we had better update one another on the situation, while the ponies have a party." I questated**.
"Yep. Things were like an outhouse in a tornado trapped in a letterbox on my end, only loads harder to explain." "That description made very little sense." I stated.
"Do I, in general, make any sense?" he asked, obviously a rhetorical question. "Good point." "Here probably isnt the best place to say my part of the story." "Well really?" I asked him, my voice almost liquid sarcasm.
Me, Scorch, Schadenfreude, and Rainbow Dash (no idea why she decided to follow) went to "The Fort" to say our bits of the story, and to get some food (I didnt bring anything to eat with me, because who brings food to a zombie killing festival?), each of us racing the others to get there first. It was pretty much a tie between me and Rainbow, with Scorch coming in 3rd, only a second before Schadenfreude got there.
"So, you built your own place to live in?" Scorch asked, quite suprised. "Yes, we did, because firstly, there were no houses near this forest, and secondly, we need the practice on the monsters that lurk there." I confirmed, and also informed. "You are kidding, right?" he asked. "!" I replied, in typical video reference style.
Entering "The Fort", we found a place to talk about things.
"Suprisingly roomy in here, I must say." Scorch noted. "We had a lot of stuff to build with." I explained. "Now, to my story." he said, cutting to the chase quite quickly.
(Note - This next part will not be delivered in speech, but directly from Scorchs memory.)
2Fort, between chapters 2 and 3.
"Scorch, you got any idea how hard it is for us to get anywhere?" questioned a Scout, who had, only moments ago, been headshotted by a Sniper, and had respawned just then. "I know, but Ninjie is working on it, only, even he cannot get a teleporter behind them without us taking fire." I replied.
(For those that somehow didnt notice the earlier brackets, this is Scorchs memory, not mine.)
"Wish that hardhat would hurry up. They have taken our best Heavy out 10 times, already!" "Bear with his plan. It will work." I replied, trying to convince everyone, even myself, that it was true. Ever since our best Soldier, Veteran Mercenary, had turned up missing in action, we had seen a severe nosedive in win/lose ratio.
The Scout rushed out, and was promptly bashed in the face by a fists-of-steel wielding heavy. After what seemed like forever, Ninjies teleporter turned on. Without even a second thought, I walked on it, teleporting into the BLU base.
"He actually did it. Remarkable what he can do." I said, mostly to myself, but also to a Spy on the same team. "Indeed. There must have been at least 5 sentries in this very room at one point." He replied.
Something shining out the corner of my eye, I whipped around, only to be met with a rainbow passing through me, and the mysterious feeling of teleportation.
(This is the part where we return to "The Fort", and the person we are following resets to normal.)
"Quite an interesting series of events." I remarked, glad that at least one of our better troops was still helping our team win, but also, at the same time, dispirited by the fact that we had to suffer such losses. "Ja, that is a very interesting story, but how do we know it is true?" Schadenfreude voice rang out in question. "Explain this." Scorch responded, pointing to something I had not seen before, hanging around his neck. "You first." I responded, not knowing what it was meant to be. "To be honest, I dont know myself, but watch this!" he remarked.
What happened next, I will not forget. Whatever the thing was, perhaps a necklace, began to glow red. As it did, I noticed a burning sound, which was coming from the necklace, then, Scorch himself burst into flame. Quite suprised, I fell over the back of my seat in suprise, then picked myself up, and looking at where Scorch was, to find that he was flying in the air, and that fire was sprouting up, apparently caused by Scorch.
"That is incredible!" I heard 3 voices, including my own, exclaim. "That is nothing. Check this out!" Scorch responded, then threw a fist upward, sending fire high into the air. After doing this, he kicked out with a foot, almost too fast to see, throwing out a missile of lava, which then exploded in a pool of water, evaporating the lot in one go. Rising high in the air, almost too high to see, he then flew downwards, increasing speed rapidly, breaking speeds which would normally tear metal off a plane, then, at the end of his dive, an explosion rang out, and a ring of fire and lava burst out in all directions.
"Howzat?" he asked, now with both feet firmly on the ground.
I think he didnt really need an answer for that, as all 3 of our expressions (obviously not his) told the full tale.
"Now for your story." Scorch said, directly adressing me to tell him. I ended up telling him the contents of this story, up until the point where he came in. Once I had finished telling my story to him, he looked quite amazed, especially the bit where I fused with Rainbow, and Schadenfreude fused with Twilight.
"Do I even need to start on how amazingly hard to believe, yet how incredibly awesome that sounds?" he asked. "No, as a matter of fact, because the hard to believe part..." I said, before me and Rainbow Dash fused into Rainbow Mercenary. "Is now invalid." we completed. With us unfusing into Veteran Mercenary and Rainbow Dash again, Scorch then brought up the topic of food.
"Not this again..." 3 voices, Scorchs voice not included, said together, with unearthly precision.
That is how we exchanged tales with Scorch, discovered his newfound powers, and how we proved to Scorch that our tale was true. How fitting a name for this chapter, considering who the added character is.
*Information on Scorch.
While not initially being a very pleasant character to meet, Scorch is quite a friendly chap, and while he is not a fusion form, he has a power level comparable to one. He has a very appropriate name, as he loves fire more then most other things, and is a very nice person to have as a friend. Some think of him as a living fire, but he is merely a human, with a major love of fire.
Attack capability - Brilliant. Scorch, while not being one for direct combat, has some incredibly powerful methods of attack. When he got teleported into Equestria, he somehow gained incredible power. This power boost now lets him punch out fire, kick lava missiles similar to rockets, fly incredibly fast, and conjure fire out of the air. These attacks can be devastating, particularly against vulnerable targets, as the temperatures of the weakest fire, the flames that surround him, can reach up to 5500 degrees celcius. That is hot enough to outburn most flames in existance, and could feel like at least 15000 celcius in very humid conditions.
Defence capability - Brilliant. Scorch, when he received his new powers, has a natural fire shield, as well as flight. He has cast off the boundries that plagued him once, as he can summon up a very strong fire out of nowhere. Lava missiles are lethal, exploding with a powerful blast on contact with something as nonresistant as water. Fire punches let up flames powerful enough to melt through solid rock, which, on top of Scorchs hand-to-hand combat skill, mean that anyone who attacks him will have a very hard time just staying alive.
Strengths - Very strong fire attacks. Capable of taking a strong beating. Shielded by fire. Fire proof.
Weaknesses - If his enemy is fire resistant, or immune to fire, he will not have such strong effects. Heat seeking missiles, fired by anyone, will automatically home in on him, unless he destroys them with a lava missile. Vulnerable to very strong ice attacks.
**Questating = Combination of telling and asking.
