Note: Hello everyone! It is time for us to take a look at what August and his friends are doing. And I am sure it will please many of you greatly that there is a fair amount of action that will transpire throughout the course of this chapter. Now on to answering some reviews! To Russet Burbanks, there is actually no such things as "Flaming Helicopter jokes." And I agree, I could spend more time elaborating on Mattimeo, perhaps I should dedicate a section of the guide to it. As for the confusion surrounding the dimension of Summer's Dreamscape, there technically is no such dimension. I just put them there to elaborate on the fact that Summer was, indeed, unconscious. To Super Vegito, you want a Dragon Ball Z reference? Okay! I think I can do that. To Rainbow999, it pleases me so much to know that you are trying to do that. Hmmmm... I will PM you. To AdorkableDerpy, if there were those types of plushies, I would buy them all as well. Now we are moving on... to the story!
Dimension: Rerenhaw
Planet: Rerenhaw
Specific Location: The Council Room
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
Meadolax poked his head into the Council Room, where Doxia and Firestar sat together slaving over some project.
"Yo, peeps," he piped up, "What are you guys doing?"
Firestar turned his head slowly to glance at Meadolax and say, "We have been retracing the steps of August, and we found some rather interesting information. Care to join us?"
Meadolax strolled up to the two and looked at the holographic projection. "Right-o. However, I can only spare a minute. I am meeting Celestia for lunch. Then I'm going to take her to a movie in the Last Starfighter dimension."
Firestar blinked. "Celestia? She is the ruler of the nation of Equestria in the Harmony Tree dimension, is she not? What business do you have taking someone like that to lunch?"
Meadolax snorted. "I could totally date her if I wanted to."
"If you marry her, I will kill you," commented Doxia airily, "Now if we could get back to the problem at hand?"
Firestar and Meadolax turned to look at the holographic projection.
"Three days ago, August and his team were attacked by Deep Coal Cellar sentries under the control of Orion," said Doxia bringing up several more holographic projections.
"Weird," said Meadolax, "No one can reprogram sentries. Their coding is based on on/off Imagination Energy sequences. No one can control Imagination Energy."
"Perhaps not, but somehow Orion managed to take control," said Firestar.
"Yes…" murmured Doxia, "But perhaps we can turn that achievement to our advantage. Whenever you handle or deal with Imagination Energy, a little bit of your own personal Imagination Energy is mixed into the stream. Firestar… access the top-security Deep Coal Cellar database. That is where we can check the status of the Imagination Energy engines of the sentries. It will detect iniquities in the stream, and we will be able to isolate those iniquities. If indeed one of those iniquities is an alien Imagination signature, we will be able to trace it to wherever the source is in the whole multiverse."
Meadolax clapped his hands. "Abasaballyloutly awesome! We've got him!"
"It seems like this just might work," said Firestar as he pulled up yet another holographic projection, "I have the database up. There is indeed a foreign Imagination Energy signature interfering with the base stream. I've isolated it. I'm sending the information to your HUD."
Doxia tapped his helmet, bringing up a small holographic projection which hovered in front of his visor. After a moment he said, "I'm tracking the personal signature… I have it locked. I… Oh no."
Meadolax cocked his head to one side. "The last time you said 'oh no' was when you realized you accidentally sent a package of freshly caught fish to Fluttershy instead of Jayfeather the cat from the Warriors dimension."
"The location is leading straight to the Provistorian dimension. Last time I checked, August was there," sighed Doxia.
Meadolax leapt up to pose dramatically. "Oh noes! Quick! To the Batmobile!"
Doxia whirled around, conjuring up a black cape with the bat insignia plastered across it with the motion. "Robin! The Joker is attacking Gotham City! Let's go! Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na BATMAAAAAAAAN!"
"If you two are done playing around, a valuable operative is potentially in danger," said Firestar quietly.
"Oh! That's right! Meadolax, you go back to the Reset Dimension and do whatever it is you do there. I will go and track down the Imagination Energy signature," exclaimed Doxia.
"Right-o," said Meadolax, "But… but what if it is a trap?"
Doxia snorted. "Impossible. Imagination Energy signatures are absolute. We have the mastermind now."
With that, Doxia opened up a portal to the My Little Pony dimension. Before he struck, he needed to talk to Derpy.
Dimension: Provistorian
Planet: Averthon Magnum
Specific Location: Peak of the Scriptorium, Aldgitess's Fortress
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
"Soooooooo… Now what?" said Jefferson.
Gene sighed. Then he facepalmed. "We need to find him before Blue takes him over again and razes the whole place."
Reaching under his overcoat, Jefferson pulled out two long dirks. Twirling them, he ran off towards Aldgitess's former fortress. "We need to get in there and find Blue."
Sighing, Gene conjured up electricity balls about his fists. He then dashed off after Jefferson.
Unfortunately, due to the bubble protecting the fortress from the elements outside, the sentries on the fortress's walls could clearly see the duo running at them in an aggressive manner. Shouting, a dozen leapt from the walls. Spreading their bat wings, the guards zoomed down to assault the attackers.
Jefferson leapt through the air just before two reached him. Spinning in midair, he turned about and buried his dirks in the back of the skulls of the two attackers, dropping them. Kicking off of the backs of one of them, he twirled even higher into the air. As he did so, he hurled four thin throwing daggers. The blades found their marks in the throats of four more enemies. Jefferson attempted to retrieve his dirks, but yet another guard rammed into him. The two fell to the frozen earth, grappling with each other.
Gene ducked coolly beneath his first attacker, electrocuting him as he passed over him. Two more landed next to him, their spears at the ready. They jabbed at him, but Gene quickly parried the attacks, using his proximity to them as an advantage. With a sweeping movement, he disarmed one and knocked back the other. Tossing the spear aside, he blasted the disarmed enemy to smithereens with a plasma discharge. Performing a quick backflip to dodge a spear jab from the last attacker, Gene snapped a finger. The earth around the attacker exploded, blinding her and setting her off balance. In the instance the enemy was confused, Gene vaporized her with dark matter bolt.
"I've got mine taken care of now," said Gene, glancing over at Jefferson, who was still grappling with the last attacker.
"Awesome… give… me… a… second…" growled Jefferson. Rolling over, Jefferson flipped his right hand's wrist. A hidden blade sprung from his coat's right arm sleeve. He then proceeded to ram the blade into the bad guy's throat.
"You have a hidden blade?" asked Gene incredulously, "So let me get this straight, you've gotten stuff from the Dishonored dimension, the Tron dimension, and the Assassin's Creed dimension?"
"I've been places, that is all you really need to know," said Jefferson, "Now I think we've gotten all the wall sentries, but that does not mean there aren't more bat-winged bad guys."
"That's right," mused Gene, "There was a lot of shouting, so why haven't there been any more reinforcements?"
Jefferson opened his mouth, but his reply was drowned out by an explosion. The front gate of the fortress was blown down by a blast of heat, sound, and light. With a crackling roar the red-hot metal portcullis and the heavily splintered double door was blasted away. The two objects were soon followed by at least a score of slain bat-winged humanoid guards, hurled from the entrance like rag dolls. August slowly strolled out from the gateway to stand in the flaming hole that was once the front door of the fortress.
August reached down and seized the throat of the nearest downed guard who, by some miracle, was still alive.
"Let me go!" the female sentry screamed as August squeezed her throat.
August shot her off half of her right wing. Her scream of anger transformed into a heart-rending cry of pain. Gene attempted to rush forward to stop this horrendous torture, but Jefferson grabbed his shoulders roughly.
"Don't get in his way. Remember what Doxia said?" he snapped.
"To hell with Doxia!" yelled Gene, "He's hurting her immorally!"
"Damn you!" screamed the captive sentry, her wings flapping wildly. August promptly shot off the halved wing. Her screams echoed throughout the mountain top.
"Where is the treasury room?" asked August calmly. His voice sounded different. It no longer sounded like an energetic, adolescent boy. It was deathly quiet, deep, and venomous.
"I'll never tell you!" yelled the sentry. August shot off her other wing. She screamed again.
"Pllleeaaassseee! Please stop!" she sobbed, "It's in the secondary observatory… behind the bookcase! The code is red… red… blue… green… yellow…"
August threw the sentry down. He then turned about to stroll away. However, before he could go two steps, the sentry spoke once more.
"Please… help… me…" the sentry groaned in a pain-induced trance. She dragged herself through the blood of her fallen comrades.
August turned around. Placing a foot on her back, he pointed his Inquisition Blaster at her head to execute her.
Jefferson pulled out a throwing dagger as he muttered, "Okay that is going too far."
He threw it accurately at August's hand. However, thanks to his Inquisition intuition, August drew his hand back in the nick of time. He then pointed the gun at Jefferson and fired. By some miracle, Jefferson managed to duck out of the way. The bullet hit a boulder behind him and turned it to less than dust. The shockwave sent Jefferson reeling away.
"August! Please!" yelled Gene, "Get a hold of yourself!"
August looked at Gene for a moment. Then he turned about and strolled into the fortress to retrieve the piece of armor he was seeking.
Gene dashed through the flaming debris of war to the fallen sentry. She was lying on the ground, unconscious.
"She's alive!" he gasped, "Jefferson! We need to get her help!"
Rubbing his cheek, which had been badly singed, Jefferson staggered up the sentry. "Wow. I am surprised that she has not died from blood loss. I'd give her about two minutes."
"That is callous, Jefferson," snarled Gene, "Get over here. You helped keep August from killing her, so you are also going to help me save her."
Gene quickly conjured up large swathes of bandages. Wrapping them around her chest firmly to cut off the bleeding from the two holes in her back, Gene worked quickly to keep the sentry alive. As he worked, he said, "I am not a Designated Healer, so I will be unable to heal any internal bleeding. Jefferson, you have basically everything in that overcoat of yours. Do you have anything that could help?"
Jefferson rolled his eyes. Despite the fact that someone was dying before him, he really could not bring himself to care very much. "Why do you assume I have everything here? What if I only carry weapons? I do know that I carry that one fork I found in the Deep Coal Cellar, though. Hmmmm… I have not yet ruled out the possibility it could be the Fork of Truth from the Looking For Group dimension."
Gene's eyes narrowed. Holding out a hand, he said, in a deathly quiet voice, "You're lying. Hand over the healing vial now."
Jefferson rolled his eyes again. "Wow. Am I really a terrible liar? Fine."
Reaching into a voluminous pocket, Jefferson pulled out a small vial of strange glowing fluid. Gene snatched the vial from Jefferson and uncorked it. In one swift movement, he poured the whole contents over the sentry's back.
"Really? Your just wasted the whole thing on her, just like that?" snorted Jefferson, "What if the first thing she tries to do is kill us as a form of 'thank you?' Or what if I accidentally gave you extract of llama from the Emperor's New Groove dimension?"
Gene promptly ignored Jefferson. "She's a sentient being in trouble. No matter who she is, she deserves a chance to decide for herself if she wants to go back to killing us. We are heroes. We know when to be fighters, and when to be healers."
He sighed in relief as the liquid from the vial sunk into the sentry's back and vanished into her skin. Her breathing became less labored, and it seemed that the infection that was working its way into her wounds was backing off.
Jefferson, however, was not impressed. Instead he muttered, "I'm not a hero. I'm a mercenary."
This time Gene just shook his head. "God help me," he murmured, "My team consists of a friend being mentally and physically controlled by a heartless killer and of a mercenary. Where has the honor in this multiverse gone?"
As if the multiverse decided to blatantly disregard Gene's remark, a massive explosion rippled before Gene. The explosion then abruptly morphed into a giant portal… and Pictor stepped out.
Jefferson groaned. Readjusting his large top hat, he took up a fighting position. Gene stood up as well and charged his fists with plasma.
Pictor looked at the two almost complacently. Then he said, in guttural tones, "Gene Grayson. Jefferson Madigan Hatterus. It is my pleasure to meet you… and kill you."
Dimension: Provistorian
Planet: Averthon Magnum
Specific Location: Peak of the Scriptorium, Aldgitess's Fortress
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
Inside Aldgitess's fortress, August strolled down the halls as if he owned the place. Whenever a guard rushed out to attack or challenge him, he would shoot them in the face with incredible speed and accuracy. Using his Inquisition intuition, he worked his way upwards through the fortress to the secondary observatory.
Two winged guards stood at the ready. The moment they saw August, the tensed and pointed their energy spears.
"Halt!" snapped one, his energy spear crackling with lancing lightning bolts, "Who goes there-"
That is as far as he got. In an instant August had whipped up his Inquisition Blaster and shot him and his comrade in the head, dropping the two within seconds of each other. Walking up to the door, August punched it with his right fist (the armored one). The door's molecules literally drifted apart from the force of the punch. The interior was abandoned. A small telescope stood unattended by a large slit in the wall that exposed the night sky which was visible through the snow storm outside of the fortress's bubble shield.
Aside from the telescope, a couple of tables and chairs, and a bookcase, there was not much.
August turned to look at the bookcase. It was jam packed with books of many colors. In an instant he remembered the code he had squeezed out of the sentry.
"Red… red… blue… green… yellow," murmured August as he pulled respectively colored books off the shelf. The bookcase suddenly lurched in place and began to slide to the right, exposing a hole in the wall.
The hole was an entrance to a small hallway. Nodding to himself, August strolled down the hallway purposefully. At the end of the passage was a small door. August kicked it down without breaking his stride. Behind the door was a massive room. It was jam packed with strange articles and treasures. It was the ancient treasury of Aldgitess.
Without even looking about, August walked to a specific corner or the hall, disregarding the strange wonders that filled the room. Packed neatly in the corner he was approaching was the armor. It was the left shoulder plate and left arm armor.
August walked up to it and gently brushed it with his left hand's fingertips. The armor flared to life. It shot through the air in an arc and slammed into his left arm. The shoulder plate secured itself snugly against his left shoulder, and the left arm armor extended over his arm to end in powerful gauntlets. Now his left and right arms were covered in Blue's powerful armor.
August sighed. In a moment Blue's influence lifted from August. August retched violently as Blue's conscious left, and he reeled backwards as if from a physical blow.
"What's going on?" he murmured, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up from a nightmare-filled nap, "I really, really hope that… Oh my God… that sentry. I hope she is okay!"
August nearly tripped as he turned around to run back down the hall. But before he could even get to the stairs at the end of said hall, a massive explosion echoed outside. It was Pictor.
"Explosion? No… my friends! Nononono! Blue! You… are not… taking… me… this time!" growled August as he forced down the rising cloud of Blue's influence that threatened to envelop his brain in the face of danger.
With a yell he pushed Blue's conscious away. But the moment he did that he tripped and fell straight down the stairs. Fortunately the armor protected him as he fell, and the stairs suffered the most damage of the two.
August straightened up and looked about frantically. With Blue no longer controlling his mind, he could not utilize his Inquisition instincts effectively. In short, he was lost.
"Well, I know one way to get out," sighed August. Whipping out his Inquisition Blaster, he shot the wall, blowing a hole in it. Through the gaping hole he could see an all-out war tearing apart the mountaintop below.
Down on the ground, Jefferson and Gene were basically holding on to their lives by a thread. The only plausible reason they were still alive was that Pictor was finding the battle amusing.
"So, tell me, where is your friend, August, anyway?" laughed Pictor. He quickly diverted a hail of throwing knives and a bolt of plasma with a simple gesture. Then with a snap of a finger he commanded the earth to rise up in clawed hands to crush his gnat-equivalent adversaries.
"Maybe we should tell him!" shouted Jefferson. He pulled out a magically-charged sticky bomb as he dove under a massive rock hand. He then flipped over another before tossing the bomb. It landed on the rock hand he had jumped over and detonated, blowing the thing to smithereens.
Gene simply vaporized the rock hands attacking him with a shockwave of seismic power. At this point, Pictor had grown impatient. He had had enough.
Pictor snorted and gestured quickly again. Time froze for a moment. Then, an instant later, the entire area was flash-fried with countless blasts of lightning. With time frozen, Jefferson and Gene could not dodge the attack. Lightning lanced through them, searing their flesh terribly. With that, time unfroze and the two dropped like rocks, stunned.
Pictor laughed sadistically. Then he conjured up two long lances of pure energy. He hoisted them above his head and prepared to stab the unconscious forms Gene and Jefferson.
During these events, August was standing in the fortress, looking through the hole in the wall. He had not yet jumped because he feared he could not make the jump, for he was rather high up. But the moment he saw Pictor standing over his fallen friends, Blue emerged with a will, and August was lost in the tide of consciousness.
August stiffened, then, without a nanosecond of hesitation, he threw himself from the building. He landed with an explosion of frozen earth, but was unhurt as the dust began to clear. Even before the clods of earth had fallen from the air, August had readied his Inquisition Blaster and fired two shots within nanoseconds of each other with perfect accuracy. The attacks blew off the hands of Pictor which he was using to heft the lances of pure energy.
Pictor roared with pain and reeled away. In a second he had recovered, though. Holding up the stubs of hands that were now oozing Dimensional Lord lifeblood, he sneered at August defiantly. In another moment new armored hands had grown in place of the ones that had been destroyed.
"You are going to have to try harder than that to kill me, Blue," snarled Pictor.
By this time, Gene had recovered. His flesh still smoking, he sat up slowly. But no matter how battered he was now, he could not help but yell, "He's August! Blue no longer exists!"
Pictor ignored him. "So, Blue… Tell me… Are you as great as they say? I know I was alive during your first reign of terror, but I never truly saw you in action."
August was completely gone now. Blue had completely taken over.
"Pictor," murmured Blue, his voice barely audible above the crackling of the flames, "It is not wise to fight me. Return from whence you came. You were once an E.D.D. Dimensional Lord, and I am somewhat averse to kill you."
Pictor laughed. Then he hurled a massive blast of energy he had been charging up especially for Blue. The terribly powerful beam of power bent time and disrupted space as it seared through reality towards Blue. Blue simply turned his shoulder to the attack. The blast struck the shoulder plate and dissipated without even a shockwave of rebounded power.
Blue then ran towards Pictor, firing with perfect accuracy the entire way. Pictor held up his hands, rerouting the kinetic energy of the Inquisition Blaster's bullets and sending them spinning away from him. Explosions tore through the ground all around them as the bullets struck patches of earth. Pictor then clapped his hands together, causing a shockwave of dark matter to ripple towards Blue. Blue deftly leapt over the attack with a tremendous leap, still shooting as fast as he could. Pictor shimmered in nothing as he teleported out of harm's way. A moment later he teleported in behind Gene. Holding Gene with one hand, Pictor conjured up a poisoned dagger with the other and held it to Gene's throat.
"If you move, Blue, Gene gets it," hissed Pictor.
Blue shot without a moment of thought. The bullet blew apart Pictor's right shoulder. With a yell, he stumbled back. Blue kept firing, the bullets striking the same bullet hole over and over again. Soon the damage was too great and he could not heal the damage in the shoulder quick enough.
With Pictor distracted, Gene hurled a light energy flare into Pictor's eyes. Shocked, Pictor dropped Gene. The Dimensional Traveler hit the ground running. Dashing over to the sentry, he dragged the unconscious women out from under the fortress's gateway. Just in the nick of time, as well, for the gateway collapsed with a roar, the battle between the travelers and Pictor having destabilized it beyond any bearable point.
With the sentry now safe, Gene attacked Pictor again. With a yell, Gene hurled a long streams of lightning. Pictor bobbed his head slightly, causing the streams to whirl around and lance away harmlessly. Jefferson had recovered now as well, and he followed up Gene's attack by unveiling a steam-punk like handgun with an outlandishly large barrel. Holding the weapon with both hands, Jefferson fired massive flaming balls of iron. Pictor snarled as he found himself under attack from three sides. He even started to feel nervous as the attacks came in thicker and harder. But, in a hideous epiphany, he decided to press the one weakness of his enemies: the sentry.
Ducking under an attack from Jefferson, he threw a thick globule of plasma at the sentry who was still lying, unconscious, on the ground. Neither Blue nor Jefferson flinched when they realized what was going on and did nothing to stop the attack, but Gene hurled himself in front of the blast to protect the sentry. The blob of superheated matter blasted into his chest and sent him spinning away. The sight of this caused Jefferson to pause, but this was still not enough for Blue to even come close to flinching. However, it was enough to get him to speak.
"Jefferson," said Blue calmly, "You have throwing knives. Use them all."
Jefferson did not even question the command. Grabbing handfuls of his slim throwing daggers, he hurled at least a dozen into the air with a single movement. Pictor deftly negated the attack's usefulness by reducing his density. The knives passed through him harmlessly. With that by him, Pictor began to return his density to normal. The moment he did that, Blue fired. The bullet passed through him the instant he became solid once more. It became lodged in his midriff… then it detonated.
Pictor gasped softly as his nigh-invincible insides were bathed in Dimensional Energy, causing everything to disintegrate.
Slowly he fell to his knees. Then… he fell to the earth, losing all use of his limbs.
"Harold… you… you knew this was going to happen… didn't you?" murmured Pictor. That was as far as he got. Blue fired once more, blowing his head open and splattering Dimensional Lord lifeblood across a massive radius. Pictor was dead.
Blue stood there for a moment, looking over his handiwork. Then, with that, August returned. Falling to his knees like Pictor, August vomited onto the ground. For several minutes, he simply looked at the ground, still in too much shock to even move, let alone speak.
Even Jefferson was speechless for a moment. But it only lasted for about a minute.
"Well… that was brilliant, Blue… Oh, er… August is it now?" said Jefferson awkwardly.
August slowly got to his feet. Then he screamed.
"DAMN YOU BLUE! DAMN YOU!"
Dimension: Provistorian
Planet: Averthon Magnum
Specific Location: Clockwork valley, northwest of Wardrem's Army Base
Time: Six days after Lyric found Summer
A gentle breeze blew over a quiet field. Strange birds twittered, and alien insects buzzed.
However, the serene spell of quietness that resided over the field was broken as a portal suddenly crackled into existence.
Strolling through the hole was Doxia, armed with his longsword. Beside him was Derpy, who had convinced him to allow her to come along.
"So what we are going to do, Derpy, is walk through this portal like this, and then I will attack whatever interdimensional monstrosity we find before us. Are you sure you cannot throw razor-sharp letters and packages? You are a trained mailpony after all! What, that doesn't come with ninja training or something?" said Doxia animatedly, totally disregarding the possible danger he could be in.
Derpy hid behind Doxia a little bit, not sharing Doxia's disregard of danger. "No," she said, "But what are we looking for?"
"Well, we're looking for…" Doxia's voice trailed off. He looked about, his practically omnipresent senses scouring everywhere for a telltale sign of the unknown enemy he was seeking.
Then he saw it. Right at his feet was a plaque of beaten gold. Written in fancy script were the words:
"Dedicated to Doxia, the first Dimensional Lord ever to be outsmarted. Plaque and engravings courtesy of H.D. P.S. Pictor was just killed by August."
Derpy gasped, and her eyes practically widened to the size of dinner plates. Doxia was in shock for a moment as well, but, being Doxia, it did not last too long.
"Well that is not entirely true!" he exclaimed, "I've outsmarted Mattimeo before! And Mattimeo is a Dimensional Lord too! This Harold guy clearly wasn't there when I used to play Capture the Flag with him."
"What are we going to do now?" asked Derpy.
Doxia swept around purposefully. "We return to Rerenhaw and rethink our strategy. We are clearly dealing with an incredibly powerful being. Even we cannot create fake Imagination Energy signatures, so whoever we are facing must be beyond any scope of power we have considered so far."
"But what about August?" persisted Derpy, "Will he be okay?"
Doxia froze. "Oh my golly. August! Quick!"
Doxia swiftly held out a hand. Derpy took it, and then Doxia rocketed into the air towards the Scriptorium.
Note: Yes... that just happened. Pictor is no longer with us, and I am pretty sure everyone just mentally celebrated one way or another. However, the bad news is that, yes, Doxia was just outsmarted by Harold. What will happen now? You will simply have to wait to find out. Now I would like to take a moment to thank you all for reviewing so often! Reviews are most certainly the most efficient way to keep me inspired to continue my writing. Speaking of which... please review! If you give me a review (A.K.A. FEEDBACK) I will give you a 12X12 Swimming Pool! Yes! That's right. However, I did not specify specifically the units of measurements of the dimensions. Thus... 12X12 could just mean 12 nanometers by 12 nanometers. Maybe...