POV Rio
After the intruder is incapacitated, I look towards Cadenza and smile at her.
"So, how's it hangin', princess?" I ask.
"W-What? What just happened? Who are you?" Cadenza asks with complete befuddlement.
"Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess. I should think you remember me, we only met a few days ago," I reply cheekily.
'Huh, I feel a little more... loose? Strange. Must be the transformation.'
As I was thinking about this, I heard something strange, and then I felt a drop of water hit me. I touched my cheek, and sure enough, it was wet. I look up and see the ceiling is covered in storm clouds. I was a little confused.
"Oh no!" Cadenza says before going stock still again as she reinforces the shield.
"Oops. My bad," I say before the clouds all converge on the unconscious intruder.
I run towards them, but I run right through the clouds. Then the ground freezes over, and I have to avoid slipping.
"Damn you, Slippy!" I yell at the cloud.
The clouds start to form into the pony I was fighting, but this time, they look quite a bit different. They look. Corrupted. For a lack of a better word. Like someone mixed a Unicorn with a zombie, a ghost, and a pegasus. In fact, she now had wings and a horn.
[Images Here] (You can use these as a bit of reference, as finding an example of what I was imagining wasn't possible)
"Well, that's an ugly new form. You couldn't grow golden hair and have an impressive aura?" I quip while thinking about how to get out of this mess.
"Foolish interloper. You will die like the rest of your kind," says the mare in a very ethereal and also spirit-like voice.
"Hmm, you're not the mare, are you?" I ask with squinted eyes.
"No, and yes, I am what she always wanted. She craved power, and now she has it," the monster possessing her body says, and I open my pip-boy to get some time to think.
Many things made this situation troublesome. First off, this creature knows I don't belong here, and the talk about the mare makes it highly likely they have been working together. But the mention of my kind makes me more suspicious. It could mean humans, but I highly doubted that. First off, they are a ways from going extinct. They might be endangered, but not quite extinction level yet. If he were instead referring to Alicorns, that could change things. Technically, there are maybe three left if we count the monster in front of me.
'Semantics, that's not important.'
The important part was how I was going to defeat this foe. The ice wasn't that big of a problem, as I am no idiot. I have Ice Shoes I can equip. I also resist Ice Magic, so that wouldn't be a massive issue. The issue is how to defeat them. If they are as noncorporeal as they seem, that will make things very annoying.
'Well, I guess I should just try and find out.'
I equip the ice shoes and start running at the enemy. I had to admit the ice didn't stop me, but it did make me a bit slower and made moving a bit more annoying. The tricky part was that as I went in for a punch, I had to dodge several attacks as it seemed the enemy could track my movements. And even worse, my punch phased right through them. After trying a few more things and even a spell, I found nothing was working.
"You cannot harm me. I have ascended beyond even magic's ability to control," the monster says with a mocking tone.
"Hmm, nah," I reply.
"What?" the monster says in confusion.
"It's time for the kiddy gloves to come off," I say with a serious tone.
I crack my knuckles and then tap into the Flash's true power. I didn't do so yet, as I could tell it would have some consequences. But I needed to deal with this enemy, and my magic was having literally no effect. So that meant I needed to show them why Speedsters are terrifying and why the Flash is even more so.
(AN: Play Justice League Unlimited: Original Soundtrack - Vol. 1 "League Defeats Chronos" Video on YouTube to get some background music. )
My body started to vibrate at immense speeds, and the ice in the area was instantly vaporised. But even with that, I realised I needed more speed, so I ran. I ran faster than I have ever even thought possible. Things and places just appeared and disappeared in a flash, no pun intended. Once I felt I had the needed speed, I ran right back at the monster. My first hit phased through, but not completely. I could feel a bit of the monster, and that made me pick up even more speed. I had long since broken past the normal laws of physics. I even entered the Speed Force for a moment, and the place was... beautiful.
But I had to force myself out of the Speed Force and back into the battle. I ran up to the monster and impacted it with my full speed. The damage was instant and brutal. But the creature was still stubbornly holding on, so I grabbed it and started to try something I felt might work. I started to vibrate at a speed that even time started to get messy. I was tapping into the fundamental forces of this universe to manipulate temporal reality and the sequence of time.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!" the monster screamed in agony as I forcibly separated the two beings and further slowly erased the creature that I now knew was a Windigo. The last of its kind, no less.
At this time, even Cadenza and my companions had arrived and were watching my fight. A few seconds of this attack, and the Windigo was vanishing from existence. Once it was gone, I had time to think, and I realised the consequences of going so fast.
"Rio, are you alright. You look a little blurry," Cait asks.
"I feel weird..." I say as I slowly fade from reality.
"RIO!" Everyone screams in terror as I fully fade away.
Where I was going, I wasn't certain. I realised, to my horror, that I couldn't stop moving. And worse was that time was now a non-existent concept. Time was moving both back and forth in a messy, fluid-like state where I died and undied over and over again. The only thing keeping me alive was the system as it repeatedly loaded a save, but even that was having issues. There were no saves, but there were also an unlimited number of saves. All while this was happening, I was still stuck in the form of the Flash, partially thanks to time being so wibbly wobbly.
I was in a tunnel, the tunnel was made of a spotted pattern of white and black. Gravity felt strange, like it both existed and didn't.
[Image Here]
It was at this time that I felt sleepy. But I fought the sleepiness and tried to tap into any last vestiges of this form's power. I knew if I didn't leave soon, I would be stuck here forever. I refused to be stuck here for eternity. It was at this time that I sensed someone else with me.
"You don't belong here, outsider," says a creature that looks like a zombie flash wearing a black suit.
[Image Here]
"I didn't mean to come here. I only want to go back to where I came from. Once I leave, I will never come back," I reply.
"It's too late for that. You will die here," The creature says as it reaches for me.
"WAIT!" I yell and try to avoid them, but I was nowhere near as fast as they were.
I activate I AM LAW.
"Help me leave this place, and I will never return, and therefore you won't have to harm me," I quickly argue.
The creature's hand freezes, and then for a moment it looks like it is thinking before eventually it keeps reaching for me. I was scared that this was the end for me, but when it grabbed me, it didn't hurt me. Instead, it held my shoulder while running back the way I came from. In mere fractions of a second, I am tossed towards a wall of what I realise is likely the Speed Force. As I hit the wall, I break through it and hear the voice of the creature.
"Never come back or use the Speed Force, or I will come for you," the creature threatens.
I appear back where I had defeated the creature while still vibrating, and slowly, from my perspective, I return to normal speed and fall to the ground in utter exhaustion as the transformation instantly shatters, and I return to my normal form. Everyone runs towards me, and I find I barely have the energy to even move my head.
"RIO! Are you alright?! What happened?!" Cait and Loona both said in fear.
"I-I went too fast. I can't ever go that fast again. Or even use that form again. If I do. I won't come back. Ever," I say with utter exhaustion before falling asleep.
POV Cait
"RIO!" Cadenza say with fear as his head slumps.
"Don't worry, he's only fallen asleep," I reply with a tired sigh.
We all breathe a collective sigh of relief. That is, until we hear a slight groan from the pony that caused this whole mess. She was still somehow alive. Her body was a mess, with her body covered in massive bruises and her legs twisted in unnatural positions. Not to mention the many burns that cover the parts with no bruises. And worst of all, her horn was shattered. With small fragments scattered all over the floor. Loona growled and approached her with her claws ready to rip her neck out. I normally wouldn't stop her, but I had a feeling she would be worth more alive.
"She has info we need. Don't kill her... yet," I say with difficulty.
"Grrr... She killed so many and nearly killed Rio! And you think we should spare her!?" Loona says with lots of anger, clear in her tone.
"For now. We can kill her later. But we need to find out what that thing was and how to kill it. Are there more? What about the storm? And so on and so on. Rio spared her for a reason. Let's just wait until he wakes up and explains why he did," I explain.
"Speaking of the storm, it's let up a bit, but it still hasn't gone away," Cadenza says with clear exhaustion in her tone.
"How long have you been awake for?" Quiet asks.
"4 days give or take," Cadenza says with massive bags under her eyes.
"Fine, we'll wait for now. But only until she loses her uses. Then I call dibs on killing her," Loona says with annoyance before spitting on the intruder's disfigured body.
-----------------
Author's Note:
In case someone forgot, I AM LAW allows Rio to automatically pass any Charisma, Barter, or Bluff check regardless of difficulty. The thing Rio ran into was the Black Flash, or basically the Grim Reaper for Speedsters. It came after Rio, as Rio was technically using the Speed Force illegally. If Rio hadn't used that ability, he would have been dead. Forever. No save loading could help him escape, as the saves kind of broke in a sense, as Rio was basically in the Speed Force for eternity and no time at all. Thus, the saves were all made and unmade in the Speed Force. Without the Flash transformation, Rio wouldn't have survived in the Speed Force, and neither would he have been able to defeat the Windigo. It should also be noted that Rio could have used the Flash form to kill the Lich with similar consequences. But now being the Flash, or any being that uses the Speed Force, is strictly impossible. Until next time, Ciao.