Ranger
Chapter 202: Eerie
By Wanderer D
"So, what y'all are sayin', is that this lady here is not actually Laetitia, but actually a princess from another dimension, currently controlling her body through some sort of quantum entanglement?"
Shen blinked. "Well… yes."
"Huh." Applebloom shook her head. "Y'all are crazy on this ship. Ah knew Ah was signing up for some random things, but this takes the pie."
"You mean cake?" Shen ventured.
"No," Luna spoke up before Apple Bloom could, "Mechanical or not, it seems Apple Family will be Apple Family regardless of the dimension."
Apple Bloom nodded, and the others could tell that she would smile if she could. "There's Apples in your world too? Ah don't think Sunset ever mentioned that."
"I have only been able to meet them recently," Luna said, "But they are indeed Apples to the core."
"Haha," Shen said. "A funny. Anyway, Bloom, what are you working on right now?"
Apple Bloom stood up with a slight whirl of servos. "Dr. Borislov and Ah were tryin' to figure out the Specter nanites so Ah could have a real face, but that can wait."
"Thanks," Shen said, putting down the box of stuff she had with her. "These are all the electronics that were password protected or immediately inaccessible that Sunset Shimmer owns. I want Scootaloo to work on these."
"Sure." Apple Bloom said, shifting through the box. "Ah think she's somewhere around here… she should be done soon, unless Sunset was using some sort of magical seal on them... huh."
"Huh." Shen echoed, "Is that a cell phone?"
Apple Bloom nodded. "Yeah, it looks familiar too…"
"You must excuse me," Luna said, "but I do not understand what this… cell phone is."
"Oh! It's just a device we used back when Ah was a kid," Apple Bloom said as she carefully removed the casing. "They were the communicators of the day. Most kids had one, and they allowed you to call other people, record things, take pictures… but these haven't been used in two decades. Ah wonder how Sunset got her hands on one."
"Well, I'm sure you'll have time to find out," Shen said. "but that's not the only thing I'm here for."
Apple Bloom nodded, standing up and stretching. "Ah was gettin' bored only workin' on my own projects. What's next?"
"The commander said you and I were going to follow The Ghost," Shen said, shaking her head. "I'm not sure what she meant by that but—"
"Ah know."
Luna and Shen shared a look. "What?"
Apple Bloom's face was unreadable, but more than that, her body-language, which had been so expressive up to that point was completely still.
"The Ghost," she said eventually, "Ah know what the commander is talkin' about… once Ah became this and Ah was connected to the ADVENT Network to hack Julian." She turned, walking over to the computer. "The Ghost is… a voice. One of two. Or maybe just the one, just soundin' different. You can hear her shouting sometimes, other times pleading… sometimes… you can hear her singing."
"How appropriate," Luna said.
"You're thinking the last siren is the ghost?" Shen asked the princess.
Luna shrugged. "Why else would the commander want to suddenly hunt this so-called ghost? The fact that it sings, apparently, fits what a siren would do."
"It's a catchy song too… how did it go?" Apple Bloom said, humming a little. "Like a madman laughing in the rain…?" The cyborg shook her head. "Ah haven't heard her sing myself, tho. Ah heard a recording that Julian had made, and it was incomplete. When Ah connected ah could just hear her pleadin' and shoutin'... but was like, far away, and very… are you okay, Shen?"
Luna turned to face the engineer, who had gone deathly pale. "Shen?"
"I uh," she gulped. "I need to talk to Bradford." She turned around. "I'll let you know when we're ready to start, alright?"
"Sure as sugar," Apple Bloom called out as Luna followed the engineer. "Ah'll get Scoots workin' on these!"
Luna nodded over her shoulder, and was about to respond when she felt something, she staggered, holding on to the door to keep her balance, and looked around. People didn't seem to notice anything, but she still filed it away.
Either the ghost story had gotten to her… or there was a lot more going on than anyone knew.
Jane sat up violently on her bed, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Her eyes looked around wildly, taking in the dark, but familiar surroundings of the barracks. She was currently the only one there, but she had sensed that something had woken her up.
It was a dull, almost echo-like sense. As if something had just screeched on the edge of her subconscious mind while she slept. Her heart was beating fast and hard, she could hear it—slowly calming down as she forced herself to control her breathing.
She rubbed her face and drew up her legs, sitting on top of her bed, hugging herself.
Get up. You've slept enough.
Her body refused to move. At least for that. Her arms simply tightened around her legs.
Come on. What are you? Six years old, too early to go to school, mom? Get up!
She slowly raised her head, looking around once more. Her breathing was calmer. Even. Her skin was cooling down now that the blankets were off. She felt groggy, dirty, sticky and detached.
Come on, Jane. Come on.
She buried her head on her knees again. She wished she could sink into her bed forever. There was no point. Nothing to do until she was sent out.
Get up. Get some shooting practice. Take a few laps around the training area. Don't let yourself get stuck here. Get. Up.
How pathetic was she, having to talk herself out of bed. This had never been an issue before.
Shit never hit the fan like this before.
People had died in front of her. Friends hadn't come back.
But you have. You've survived all of that. You'll survive this. Get up.
But could she? Really? She had never been…
Get. Up.
What was wrong with staying longer in bed, anyway?
It's two PM. You shouldn't be in bed feeling sorry for yourself!
"Then how am I supposed to be feeling!?" she snapped into the silent room. This time, the nagging voice in her head stayed quiet.
After a few moments, Jane let herself fall on her side onto the bed again, still curled up in a fetal position, and closed her eyes.
Estella pushed herself away from the machine holding the pendant, and over to her monitor. THEMIS, GRS, REM, PRS. All spectrometers were working as expected, but so far nothing showed up despite the fact that the damned thing they were 'monitoring' was actually glowing.
Estella growled, watching the gem slowly lose its glow, and took a moment to calm down.
If she was going to equalize the playing field with the aliens, she needed to keep her cool, and this… magic was definitely one way of achieving her objective. She had support of experts and an inter-dimensional team studying the subject. She was—arguably—the human authority on it as of this point in time, with everyone else she knew as an expert being aliens themselves. Tygan was versed but even he had acknowledged her as the go-to scientist.
Why, she should—Estella cut the line of thought, standing up and breathing slowly. She went over to the lavatory and splashed water on her face, drying it carefully and looking at herself in the mirror. "Chill, Starlight. Those days are long past."
She sighed, returning to the lab with a clearer mind. The gem was inert now, but for a moment, it had lit up. And her equipment had been recording everything it could. Maybe she had missed something.
It was time to double-check.
o.0.o End Chapter 202 o.0.o
Well obviously, you're not observing the right "wavelengths", so to speak. You need magic to detect magic.
9343752
I thought Twilight already taught them how to detect magic?
It will Take a long Time for Jane to Recover From the Trauma but she can do it
Siren magic is a different wave length than normal magic. So she just wasn't looking at the right thing, would be my guess. Its also possible it's not magic at all but 'soul". It might be Aria's gem, but Adagio, Sonata or even Fugue could have tripped it.
Why did Shen react to the song like that?
9343799
Did she? I honestly cannot remember.
When I saw the title I cannot resist:
90's nostalgia for the win!
Wait, what was The Ghost and why is Lily freaking out? It's been way too long for me to remember.
This just got very interesting.
It's good to be helping?
9343832
I'm thinking that she was connected to the network for a while and could hear the voice singing sometimes. No matter what's true though, one thing is: that song really fits here. One could say it's... Eerie~
9343918
The Ghost is the one controlling this
cdn.2kgames.com/xcom.com/XCOM_2_Codex_hero.jpg
As for the second half of your question, we don't know yet, there's only speculation right now.
The plot thickens at every angle. So many questions, so little time...
I'm forgetting that cell phone if it has shown up before. Original Sunset's, perhaps?
Adagio is the Ghost in the Network, that's interesting.
You can do it, Starlight! Also, stay good, Starlight!
"Says the uploaded android."
"I'm on this ship, ain't I?"
Huh. Something paranormal just happened. Most curious.
Poor Jane. She's going to need some more sessions with Dr. Luna at absolute minimum.
And human Starlight apparently has an interesting past. I look forward to seeing how that plays out.
Is Adagio somehow on board of the Avenger ?
Something tells me that the pendant react the moment Starlight started to feel angry. This was originally the purpose of the gem, absorbing negative emotions. And not sure if this is a good thing, cause she might become her turn a liability.
I wonder if the gem Estella is studying is what made Luna feel funny there...
So nobody else noticed Estella just called herself STARLIGHT, and was having a brief megalomaniacle moment?
9344661
Estrella in Spanish mean Star? Did she even said her surname?
9344945 Estella Marilla. It's Italian.
9344661
well it was mentioned or at least alluded to in her debut chapter (around the time Twilight had just returned to Equestria) that Estella is Starlight Glimmer, so it's not really that big of a deal at this point
- Thunder
9345018
Or latin, same origins. So her name is Star of the Sea.
Not many people today think that our names have meaning.
OHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIII
9344661
This was mentioned ages ago when Twilight went back through the mirror.
Old news and looking at her character.... It really was kinda obvious.
There is a Ghost in the Shell joke somewhere in there I'm certain.
9345029
I'm more interested in that it seems she decided to change her name. It's not really confirmed here, but I guess that Starlight was her actual name in the past, and not a call sign or nickname. If that's the case, what's she running from that made her change names?
9345525
Again, this was all but spelled out in Estella's debut chapter. She was from around the Canterlot area, she moved overseas to study, changed her name away from the Canterlot area's weird convention to something more internationally normal, became a scientist, and now she's back near Canterlot she muses that even after all this time she can still see the starlight glimmer. It wasn't completely explicit, but it was not especially subtle. And her character absolutely fits
The eerie jolt that affected Luna, Jane and Shen, of all people, is indeed pretty weird. My first thought was that is something Fugue is doing, but I can't see why that would shake Lily, so I think it's probably something else.
9345783
The story inspired me to get back into the first modern Xcom.
Then I proceed to not play it again for two weeks, really need to get back into it.
9345990
At 200+ chapters in, I feel no shame in forgetting a detail like that. It's still obvious that there's something in her past that she regrets. With no EQG basis to build from, I'm interested to see what exactly that will be.
Hmm. Didn't realize that when Starlight was first mentioned, she was implied to have become her name to Estella.
Should be an interesting conversation if Twilight finds out.
9350014
You do realise that Twilight hasn't met pony Starlight in this universe yet, right?
- Thunder
9343752
Obviously she needs to set the scanners to register what it can't detect and then invert the image, she'd probably get a couple of Malcolms, maybe even a Bernad.
(Credits to those getting that reference)
Also love the story so far, I am on edge!
9351783
Oh, that sounds so familiar, where have I heard that? Slang?
Slang.
Slang for what? Exotic particles? Who was looking for exotic particles... something about Higgs bosons. I'm going to guess, John Ringo's Looking Glass novels.
As it turns out, detonating a Higgs boson unleashes a slew of interplanetary "looking glass" portals. And an alien invasion. Such science! Much explosion!
Damn I’m almost caught up. Now what do I do. Guess now it’s time to read stardust.
I wonder if the Gem isn't as empty as expected?
Madman laughing in the rain
That sounds like the song “runaway train “
Maybe a Empty Gem can bind to other? Imagen human Starlight Glimmer as the next Siren