Chapter 19 – Fearful Reunion
After two more days and nights of traveling, Nyx and G were finally starting to make some real distance. It was again early morning and Nyx was already awake, having decided to go light on meals for a while, Nyx had already eaten her piece of morning fruit and was at this point giving a little something to the only other Equine in the group.
"Here you go Myrtle, a little treat," she said with a smile as she levitated an apple towards the bigger horse's muzzle with her magic.
Satisfied with her treat, the horse then nuzzled Nyx's cheek as a gesture of thanks, it may have been more than awkward to see a member of her own kind in this particular sated but none the less Nyx still smiled at the content horse. However her smile quickly faded into a frown when she turned her head to see G still snoring like an elephant, however this was easily rendered when she once again gave him a small zap of magic to jolt him awake.
"Honestly G, do you ALWAYS sleep in?" she asked, rolling her eyes as she remembered the fact that this routine seemed to happing every morning since they left Rivendell.
"Hey, I'm not used to waking up so early okay?" G retorted, shacking off the remaining magical sparks in his hair.
Once again rolling her eyes at G's lack of morning energy, Nyx then smiled and proceeded to help him pack everything up again. Before long G and Nyx were once again on the road, riding upon Myrtle as she made a slow trot across countless valleys. About another hour or so after leaving Nyx decided to start up a conversation to pass the time.
"I guess you've had quite the life back in your home dimension before this whole mess started, huh?" she asked, grabbing the Living Genre's attention instantly. "Waking up every day, never knowing where you're going next?"
Upon hearing this, G couldn't help but give a hearty chuckle.
"Something like that," he replied. "Though I must say, despite all the drama, it has been nice having some traveling time with friends for once."
Nyx smiled at that, happy that G openly said such a thing.
"So how close are we now?" she asked, curious as to how much longer they needed to travel before meeting some potential new friends.
"Well after all the riding we did yesterday, I'd say we're another couple of days before we reach where we're going," G answered, taking another deep whiff of the air. "I'm just hoping we don't run into anything else along the way."
It was then that Nyx's smile faded slightly, as the two of them rode Myrtle through a series of sharp rocks that riddled by a nearby forest, making the atmosphere seem slightly more eerie to the young Alicorn, Nyx couldn't help but ask another question.
"So… who exactly are those guys chasing us?" she asked hesitantly.
This caught G off-guard as he looked down at Nyx with concern.
"Pardon?" he asked, making sure he heard right.
"Well I may have seen what they look like back in Edward's Dimension, but… well I don't know anything about them," Nyx explained, much to G's dismay. "But I think YOU would know, given what you can do. Wouldn't it make more sense to know who the enemy is so we can defend yourself from them?"
As much as G had to admit it, Nyx did bring up a valid point, plus after everything that's happened, G did owe her that much.
"Fair enough," he finally said with a sigh, before tapping his chin as he thought back to the specific characters that he had encountered at Edward's Mansion. "Well, as I may have mentioned before, the pirate who started all of this was with them, he was the stubby one with the big nose, anyway he's not that dangerous on his own, though that Slow-Slow beam is pretty annoying, you've seen what that does to someone."
Nyx did have a strong memory of that, granted there was a lot of adrenaline pumping through her at the time but she could clearly recall catching a glimpse the strange light that made Foxy and Rocksteady slow down once it backfired.
"And the others?" she asked, wanting to know more.
"Well the giant pig and rhino were a couple of goons named Bebop and Rocksteady," G continued, recalling each and every detail he could remember from his filing system back home. "Used to be human until they came in contact with some ooze called Mutagen, which turned them into the beasts they are today. Not big on brains but Bebop makes up for that in his skills as a former Master Thief, such as invisibility, and any other gadget his suit provides, and of course Rocksteady has strength and some heavy artillery to go with it. Then of course there's the red-skinned girls, the Demon Sisters, Scanty and Kneesocks, as sadistic as they are drop-dead gorgeous."
Upon hearing that last part, Nyx couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, especially since she was now seeing a sliver of drool escaping from G's mouth as her thought back to his encounter with the sisters.
"You think they're gorgeous?" she asked, not even bothering to hide her smirk.
Seeing that he was clearly looking like a goof at this point, G quickly shook his head as he regained his composure to speak again.
"I have a thing for bad-girls, sue me!" he retorted, before clearing his throat. "Anyway, those two are most likely the most dangerous, they're smart, they're brilliant tacticians, and they both carry weapons straight from the underworld itself, easily disguised as pieces of… lingerie when not in use."
Nyx may have had absolutely no idea what "lingerie" was, but still those Demon Sisters sounded like extremely bad news. However there was still one villain that G had failed to mention.
"What about the last one?" Nyx asked. "The redhead girl?"
However much to Nyx's surprise, G couldn't help but laugh at that last question.
"Her you don't need to worry about," he chuckled. "SHE is actually someone we can trust."
Needless to say Nyx was shocked to hear such a thing.
"What!?" she gasped, thinking back to how savage the Daughter of Aku was when she was shooting at them a few days ago.
"Chi may be a bit of a brat at times but she's got a good heart," G explained, trying to reassure the filly. "And right now she's risking her life by being my mole in the villain's ranks. Every time the villains make a move, we'll know about it."
At the very least, that seemed to have calmed Nyx down a bit. In fact now that she thought about it, the girl did seem to miss every time she took a shot at them while they were trying to make an escape, was she missing them on purpose? Either way, it's nice to think that there was another person on the side of good, hiding themselves within the villains' ranks to help them out. Suddenly Nyx was pulled out of her train of thought as her ears picked up the district sound of vibrating from G's vest pocket.
"Speak of the she-devil," G chuckled as he took out his phone and read the text aloud. "TURN BACK NOW!"
Needless to say the text made G feel uneasy, in fact upon reading it his blood ran cold for he knew exactly what it meant, especially since the knowledge of Kneesocks tracking system was still fresh in his head.
"W… what does she mean by that?" Nyx asked nervously, only to receive a look of terror from G as he looked ahead of them.
"Maybe you should ask THEM!" he squealed, pointing a bony finger straight ahead.
Suddenly as if on cue, a small pack of Wargs jumped out from behind the rocks and started surrounding Nyx and G like wolves stalking their prey. However it wasn't the Wargs that were the main issue but rather who was riding them, mostly it was nothing more than another assortment of orcs, but there was also a glowing pig and a skeletal wolf-man, both of them seemed to be growling in G's direction.
"HA! Told you my Piggy-nose would lead us to him!" Bebop quipped.
"You must be G," Rahzar growled, ignoring the Pig-mutant's humour and brandishing his claws. "You seem to have a knack for causing us trouble, perhaps we can cause a bit of trouble for YOU in return."
Upon hearing this Nyx whimpered into G's chest for comfort, something of which caused G to snarl at Rahzar in response for causing the filly such terror from his appearance alone. He knew that Bebop and Rocksteady were members of the villain's group, but now Rahzar too? And from the smell of it, he came from the same dimension as well, just how many villain are skulking about in his home!? Seeing that things were going to turn bad quickly, G tried to aim his cybernetic arm at Rahzar, however in response Rahzar let out a loud snarl, which caused a domino effect amongst the Wargs who in turn snarled as well. This of course spooked the horse G and Nyx were riding on enough to rear up and throw them to the ground before taking off, seeing no interest in the horse, the orcs simply let it pass by them, leaving G and Nyx along in the centre of a ring of enemies.
"Well… this could have gone better," G said sarcastically.
"What do we do now?" Nyx whimpered, huddling as close to G as she possibly could, hoping for any form of protection from the beasts that surrounded them.
It certainly was a terrible situation, granted G had gotten out of worse scrapes than this but all those times he didn't have anyone with him, now he had a filly clinging onto him because she depended on him to protect her. Seeing no other way out, G saw only one path to take.
"We surrender!" he declared, raising his arms in defeat.
#
Two days had passed since her fight with Scanty and now all Ranamon could do was ask herself, how could she have stooped so low? Before she was a powerful leader of a pack of orcs that followed her every command. And now here she was, giving the red bitch a manicure, all because of her loss.
"Good girl," Scanty mocked as she admired the job the blue girl was doing. "Now be sure to make these nails sparkle, I want to see my face in each and every one."
Granted she could have easily have taken her out by now, after all she still had her watery abilities and still retained Ezekiel's loyalty, but even so Scanty still had a number of followers including her own orcs. If Ranamon tried anything now, the rest of them would swarm and she would be outmatched by sheer volume. She had to be patient for now and strike at the right moment, after all there was no way she was going to let some horn-headed hussy steal her things and get away with it. At the very least, Porche seemed to be sharing in her misery as she worked on Scanty's right hand while Ranamon worked the left. They were just about finished with Scanty's nails when Grishnakh burst into the tent, his face plastered with an ugly smile.
"Mistress Scanty," he said, quickly grabbing the Demon Girl's attention. "Squad B has returned… with prisoners."
Upon hearing this Scanty beamed with delight, in fact she was gaining so much excitement that she was bouncing with delight, almost stepping on Ranamon in the process.
"Excellent!" she declared. "Finally all our hard work is paying off! Where are they now?"
"They await your presence, Mistress," Grishnakh replied, giving a small bow and earning himself another huge smile from Scanty.
"Then lead on Commander," she said sinisterly. "Lead on."
Upon her command, Grishnakh then bowed again and led Scanty out of the tent where she saw G and Nyx bound in chains and waiting on their knees in front of one of the fires, surrounded by Rahzar, Bebop, and Hamburg, who had just returned with his own hunting party with Rocksteady.
"THIS freak is what you failed to get the first time?" Smacking Bebop and Rocksteady across the back of their heads. "How pathetic can you two get?"
Needless to say Bebop wasted no time in trying to defend his actions from the first encounter with G, obviously Rahzar had no idea as to what g was truly capable of yet, and for now G had to make sure it stayed that way.
"You better have a plan G," Nyx whimpered, huddling as close to G as she could in hopes of staying out of Rahzar's line of vision, who at this point was looking at her as though she were some kind of snack.
"Working on it," G replied bluntly, keeping his voice tone so that he wasn't heard by anyone else.
The Villain's camp was of course as horrid as G could have imagined it would be, granted an orc camp was no picnic on its own but with the added villains in tow in seemed all the worse. Suddenly a familiar scent entered G's nostrils, one of which caused his eyes to shoot wide with panic, in fact he became so scared that downpours of sweat quickly began to run down his face in a comedic fashion. Something of which Nyx was quick to notice.
"What is it G?" she asked, in a hushed tone. "You smell something?"
"Oh yeah," G replied, keeping his panicked expression. "But it's NOT any smell I want lingering around."
That was when he saw her, the very woman who has haunted his nightmares ever since they had first met, the Queen of the Seas, the Darling of the deep, and the she-devil of the Digital Oceans… Ranamon herself. As she left the tent with Porche, following Scanty towards the fire pit where G and Nyx were being held, Ranamon couldn't help but gasp upon seeing the Living Genre at Scanty's feet, the very same creature SHE had been looking for. Before Scanty could get a word in to gloat, Ranamon quickly shoved her out of the way so that she was face to face with G.
"Well, well, well," she said with a sly grin. "We meet again."
As she leaned in closer towards G, he couldn't help but gulp as her burning red eyes became level with his own mismatched ones, in fact upon seeing them even the skull that made up his right pupil was shivering in fear.
"H… hello Ranamon," he stuttered, the sweat continuing to run down his face. "Y… you're looking lovely as ever."
Needless to say the other villains were shocked by this sudden realisation, of course Ranamon never told them that she was looking for someone matching G's description before they even arrived, after all she felt like it was none of their business. However now that the truth was out, so many questions began to arise.
"Wait!" Scanty exclaimed, ignoring Ranamon's recent shove. "You KNOW him!?"
Of course everyone else was shocked to hear this, all except for the orcs of course, who already knew about what G looked like from before. Even Nyx was surprised at the sudden revelation, so much so that she was looking at G with her jaw dropped. However the worst reaction came from G, just as Ranamon grabbed him by his vest and pulled him close, he felt the need to let loose a few comedy tears.
"Know him? Of course ah know him," Ranamon replied with a sinister smirk, before her expression quickly changed and hearts suddenly replaced her pupils in a comedic anime fashion. "He's… MY MAN!"
Upon hearing that the entire camp went silent, no one believing a single syllable of what they thought they had just heard come out of Ranamon's mouth, for the next minute or so no one could speak a word and the only sound audible to everyone's ears was the crackling of fire and the gentle breeze of wind. Finally everyone, including Nyx and the villains, all said simultaneously the exact same thing.
"You're WHAT!?"
After that the next sound to be heard was G's terrified screams and Ranamon squeezed him tight into a loving embrace, all the while smothering him in her chest as he struggled to break free of her grip.
"Oh Snuggle-wuggle," Ranamon said in a disturbingly affectionate tone. "Ah've missed you so much! Don't you EVER leave me again!"
However G continued to resist Ranamon's affections, in fact at this point he tried CHEWING through his chains just so he could make some futile attempt of escape, however even he wasn't able to do something like that in his current state of mind. Never before had Nyx seen G so scared, granted she didn't know him for that long but whenever danger was nearby, he always seemed to have some hidden form of cockiness about him, now it was as though he was genuinely terrified of this woman.
"Uh… does anybody here know what's going on?" Hamburg asked, however everyone else was just as confused as he was so he didn't get much of an answer.
It was only then that Ranamon finally stopped smothering G and dropped him to the ground, quickly regaining at least some of her original composure.
"Oh silly me, allow me to explain," she said, looking towards the rest of the villains with a perky smile. "You see, G and ah are engaged."
At those words, everyone's jaws once again dropped with shock, and once again G's reaction was the most dramatic of them all.
"We are NOT!" he protested.
Ranamon rolled her eyes at that.
"Okay so maybe you've never technically proposed," she admitted, before once again pulling him into a force embrace. "But you were gonna the night you disappeared right!?"
"You had me tied me up and locked in a giant clam!" G argued, remembering the terrifying events of what happened the last time he encountered this crazy blue lady, who at this point only looked back at him with a seductive smirk.
"Now, don't tell me y'all didn't like it," she said playfully, before giving him a small peck on the cheek, causing a shiver to go down his spine.
As everyone watched this confusing display in front of them, a few orcs along with most of the villains found themselves scratching their heads, trying desperately to absorb what was happening here. From what they could gather, Ranamon and G had some form of history and according to Ranamon it was a romantic one, at least from Ranamon's perspective, from G's it was more like a hostage situation that left him mentally scared and terrified for his life judging from how he was trying to crawl away while Ranamon pinned him down by his tail. Once this new information had settled into their minds, some of the villains few beginning to find G's suffering somewhat amusing.
"Geez, talk about clingy," Bebop whispered to Rocksteady, who responded with a light chuckle.
"I thought you said you never went into romance, G," Nyx commented, her curiosity suddenly overwhelming her fear.
However this sudden lack of sense soon turned into a big mistake on her part, since her question seemed to draw the attention of a few villains, the females in particular you looked down at her with interest. Soon enough, Nyx found herself looking up at Ranamon in terror as she walked ever closer to the little filly.
"And what… is… THIS!?" Ranamon squalled, swiftly picking Nyx up like a new-born puppy and holding her close like she did G. "Oh G, you big softy! Ah knew you were charming but ah never thought you'd actually get me a pony! Oh she's so adorable!"
Now Nyx was quickly beginning to understand why G was so terrified, as much as she liked the fact that Ranamon didn't seemed to be interested in harming her, the amount of affection was simply too overwhelming as Ranamon hugged her tight nuzzled her check with her own.
"Help me," she squeaked, though barely audible enough to even be heard by the sharpest of ears.
It was then things began to grow worse for Nyx as she was soon caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Ranamon and Porche.
"Hey, no fair!" Porche snapped as she snatched Nyx away from Ranamon. "How come you get to hold this cute widdle thing?"
At those words Nyx quickly began to regretted being as cute as she was, as Porche too felt the need to squeeze her like a teddy bear and nuzzle her cheek. However this didn't last long due to Ranamon quickly snatching Nyx back.
"Because she's mine, you bimbo!" Ranamon retorted, giving Porche a stern glare. "So back off!"
After that, all that came next were a series of Porche and Ranamon continuing to fight over Nyx, or Ranamon once again pouncing on G to stop him from crawling away like a coward. As the scene continued before them, most of the villains were all now laughing their heads off due to finding everything so amusing, even the orcs and Ezekiel were laughing like a maniacs and clutching their stomachs with delight upon seeing Nyx and G's misery.
"Okay, is anyone else finding this hilarious? Because I sure as hell am," Hamburg asked, leaning onto Rocksteady for support after laughing so hard. "Pupupupupupupupupu!"
The only ones who didn't seem to be revelling in the humiliation of G and Nyx were Rahzar and Scanty, Rahzar seemed to be only getting a headache from all the loud noise from the laughter, and Scanty wasn't going to let her refined composure drop as far as letting out a small giggle. Eventually she grew tired of the delays and pulled out one of her revolvers, with one loud shot into the air, the area once again became silent.
"As funny as this whole situation is, I'm afraid this lovesick nonsense needs to end," she declared, much to Ranamon's disappointment. "G here needs to answer a few inquiries before his… new beginning."
While Scanty may have used big words and tried to dress up her sentence, G knew instantly what she meant by "new beginning", and while Ranamon would certainly be against the idea, G's also knew that wasn't going to stop Scanty from putting a hellish bullet right between his eyes. If he and Nyx had any chance of escape, then G had to think of something quick, fortunately enough the opportunity presented itself in the form of Scanty's next order.
"But first things first…" she said calmly before pointing a finger at G. "Search him! We don't want any more of his little toys getting in our way."
Obviously Scanty remembered the grenades and the Piped Pipers flute from her last encounter with G, and there was no way that she was going to let anything like that happen again. However little did she realise that there was more in G's pockets than just simple explosives and instruments, and as long as he remained patient enough, G knew that eventually something will turn up that the villains will soon regret discovering.
"Ah'm afraid y'all be wasting your time Sugar," Ranamon mocked, laughing at Scanty's order. "My man's pockets are practically unlimited when it comes to goodies."
G cringed at that, of course Ranamon would remember something like that, after all she once tried the exact same thing at one point. Thankfully this statement was only met with a scoff.
"I find that unlikely," Scanty retorted, knowing nothing about what she and the other villains were in for.
#
"Are you KIDDING ME!?"
Of course this would be Scanty's over-dramatic reaction, though given the circumstances, who could blame her for reacting in such a way? As Ranamon had said G's pockets seemed to be endless, it had been three hours since Scanty gave the order to search G and Bebop and Rocksteady were STILL going at it. And what's worse, most of the stuff in G's pockets seemed to be nothing more than random junk, ranging from food to small knickknacks, granted there were a few weapons here and there but still the whole experience was getting really annoying for the villains, a fact of which G and Nyx seemed to be enjoying.
"Big flea-comb," Rocksteady noted as he threw yet another useless item into the massive mountain of junk forming behind him.
"REALLY big sunglasses," Bebop added, adding his item to the pile.
This routine had been going on for so long that Bebop and Rocksteady soon found themselves enjoying the mysteries of G's pockets, both of them wondering what else they would find.
"Handcuffs," Rocksteady stated.
"Cheese Sandwich," Bebop chuckled, quickly eating it instead of throwing it onto the pile.
"Alarm Clock," Rocksteady added.
Nyx couldn't help but roll her eyes at that one, G sleeps in all the time and now she finds out that he had an Alarm Clock the whole time and never bothers to use it? How lazy can this guy get!? Suddenly her train of thought was interrupted when she heard a loud snap.
"YOW!" Bebop squalled as he pulled the guilty item off his throbbing fingers. "Mousetrap."
At first even Rocksteady felt the need to chuckle at this along with G, however that was until he too was caught in something from G's pocket.
"GAH!" he yelled as he pried off the metal contraption off his hand. "BEAR trap!?"
Thankfully Rocksteady's thick hide was enough to make sure the teeth of the bear trap didn't do any real damage aside from a few tiny scratches, however that didn't stop him from growling at G with fury.
"Hey, have you ever been camping in Remnant?" G protested, before the rhino could do anything. "The Ursa there are a total nightmare."
Deciding to ignore what had just happened, bebop and Rocksteady quickly began to once again rummage through G's pockets.
"X-Ray Glasses?" Bebop said, holding up the specs with a raise eyebrow.
Now that item was something G quickly turned nervous about, now they were starting to find some of his more private belongings.
"Uh… I've never seen those before in my life?" G replied sheepishly.
"Hey, can I keep those?" Porche asked naughtily, causing both G to shiver and Nyx to gag whilst still in her arms.
"NO!" Scanty snapped. "Honestly, how much more junk can this guy have?"
"I don't know, but we could have been halfway back to Weathertop by now if we just skipped this whole thing!" Rahzar growled in response.
It was at this point that Ranamon found herself laughing at everyone's frustration, especially Scanty's.
"Ah told y'all you'd be wasting your time," she said smugly. "Those pockets are just never gonna…"
"Picture of Kneesocks in a Bikini," Bebop declared, cutting off Ranamon mid-sentence.
Needless to say, that last item's declaration quickly drew everyone's attention, particularly that of Scanty and Ranamon.
"WHAT!?" Scanty screamed furiously.
"Uh oh" G whimpered, his eyes widened with terror, he had completely forgotten that particular photo was in there.
It didn't even take Ranamon a few seconds to quickly rush towards bebop and snatch the photo out of his hand, causing the pig a small papercut in the process. Sure enough, it was indeed Kneesocks in the picture, specifically the image of the Demon Girl sunbathing on the beach in a black Bikini. Now if any other person would be caught with this sort of thing a lot questions and accusations were sure to arise, in G's case it was hell of a lot worse since there were now two possible women standing in front of him, looking like they were about to slice off certain body parts.
"Who's this hussy!?" Ranamon snapped angrily, once again becoming possessive. "Who gave you this picture!?"
At those words, Scanty snatched the photo from Ranamon and looked at it with fire in her eyes, her skin turning redder than it had ever been before out of pure rage.
"Sister!?" she screamed, her face quickly turning towards G with a look that could easily kill. "You perverted swine!"
However before Scanty could reach for her guns again, Ranamon grabbed her wrist, her face showing no less fury than Scanty was.
"You keep your hands off him!" she growled. "He's mine!"
As Ranamon edged her way towards G, water already beginning to swirl around her arms as if readying for one of her attacks, Nyx suddenly felt the need to bury her face in Porche's arms, unable to watch what was about to happen, all the while Rahzar seemed to be chuckling to himself as he finally seemed to be entertained by these turn of events. It was then that an idea snapped into G's mind, it may have been a long shot but at this point he had no other choice but to go with it. Shaking his head and putting on his casually smug demeanour, he spoke.
"Geez, I figured you had a sense of humour, Scanty," he said, much to everyone's confusion. "You must REALLY like me to be so jealous."
As G was hoping, Ranamon stopped in her tracks, both her and Scanty's faces riddled with shock at G's statement.
"Wait, what!?" Scanty exclaimed.
Even Nyx felt her jaw drop upon hearing that, did G serious have a death wish or something!? It was bad enough that he had a photo of another girl on his person, a sister of one of the villains no less, but now he was accusing said villain of liking him. If one woman wasn't going to kill him then the other certainly will. However Nyx's fears was soon turned into confusion when Ranamon's anger changed direction from G to Scanty, before anyone had a chance to blink Ranamon had tackled Scanty to the ground and proceed to strangle her with one hand and pull her hair with the other.
"I said he's MINE!" she screamed with fury. "You lousy, horn-headed skank! I'll kill you!"
As Ranamon continued to wrestle with Scanty in a fit of anger, G couldn't help but sigh with relief, the plan had actually worked. Normally he hated playing with people's emotions but this was an emergency, and given the fact that Ranamon was certifiably insane due to her crush on him, she would probably have forgiven him after she had beaten him to a pulp anyway. In any case whatever G did to spark up this fight, it certainly caught everyone's attention, so much so that everyone seemed to be focusing more on Scanty and Ranamon than they were Nyx and G. Finally Rahzar stepped in and pulled the two women apart.
"HEY, BREAK IT UP!" he yelled, silencing them both in an attempt to calm them down. "Can't you see that he's trying to mess with your… where'd he go?"
It was then that everyone quickly turned to see wat Rahzar was talking about, sure enough G had completely disappeared, leaving only his chains in the same spot where he was standing, even Bebop and Rocksteady felt stupid since he was latterly standing in between them before they were distracted. And what's worse, he seemed to have enough time to steal back all of his junk, and swap Nyx with an Alicorn plushy without Porche even noticing she was gone. Seeing that each and every one of them had been fooled, everyone in the camp could only say one thing:
"Son of a bitch!"
#
Author's Notes:
The Character Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke / :iconPenstrokepony:
The Character Laura belongs to :icontwokinds:
The Characters Chi and Mimi belong to :iconbleedman:
