//------------------------------// // Act I: Their Story Begins // Story: Katy Takes Maretropolis // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Act I: Their Story Begins Most people say that being a hero can lead to consequences and even though that may be true. It didn’t stop a young teenage girl from dreaming that one day she could become one. It may have seemed childish, but it was something she always wanted. But the problem was that in her old life, she couldn’t make that a reality. At least that was before she encountered a man who was selling games for a decent price at a stand. Normally no one would buy that crap from anyone, but on the other hand, the young girl only had one game and it was a very old Pac-man game that no one really plays anymore and figured it was time to get something new for her game console. She approached the stand cautiously and held twenty dollars in her hand. The man smiled at her before taking a sip from a red bull can. “Ah, gotta love Red Bull… How can I help you today?” “Yeah I was just… looking around and noticed your stand. Was wondering what you had was all.” She replied, looking at all the games that were spread out and a lot of them were a bit out of her price range. “Do you have… Any games that aren’t as expensive as these games?” “Well… I do have one game I’m selling for about… Twenty bucks, but I don’t know if you can handle the violence and gore.” He said, pulling out another game from a box he had on the side. “It’s called ‘Mass Effect’ and it’s a great game with amazing characters and a decent story. It’s twenty dollars, but surely you want a game for girls don’t you?” “And what does that supposed mean? You think I can’t handle it?” She rebuted at his statement. “How old do you think I am?!” “No, it’s just that… normally, when I sell copies of these kinds of games, more boys tend to purchase them than girls,” The salesman replied back, looking around for a moment before looking back at her. “But if you’re sure that you are up for it, then why should I try to stop you…” “Look I’m gonna level with you… Just take my money and give me the game. I’m pretty sure I can handle a little blood and violence.” She said, placing her twenty dollar bill on the stand, which the stand owner gladly took. “Very well… enjoy your game… Katy.” He said quietly as she walked away with her new game in hand before looking at the twenty dollar bill and noticed it had a tear in it. “Wow… this bill… is shit, but it’s definitely a lot better than that other one that boy gave me a few months back. Who knows, I might even let her enjoy her game for awhile.” Two Hours Later After buying the game, Katy had finally made her way back home and immediately made her way up to her bedroom and began to play her new game. Her room wasn’t anything fancy, just had a few posters of her favorite anime shows and a few books laying around. People at school would refer to her as an otaku or weeb, or the girl who dreams. But it never bothered her even during her time in highschool. She was now eighteen and going into her final year of highschool. She had long beautiful brown hair and brown skin and was almost 5”6. Katy of course, wasn’t looking forward to it, she prefered to continue reading her books and watching her shows at night, but the deal she made with her parents involved going to school if she wanted to live on her own. But at this moment in time, it didn’t matter to her as she was slaughtering dozens upon dozens of abominations in the new game she was playing. “Ugh… Why did I set the game difficulty so high? I’m an idiot!” She said aloud as she set her controller on the ground and turned off the tv and laid down on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. “The game was fun though, but I shouldn’t have uploaded that stupid reaper code! I didn’t think it was going to kill Tali’s people, let alone make her commit suicide!” ‘In every game, you have to make a choice and live with those consequences.’ A Voice called out, alerting Katy as she climbed out of bed and searched for where the voice was coming from. She continued to look around, thinking that no one was there. But immediately, when she turned around, she found her staring at what was a man in a black robe that had white spiky hair and a metal mask over his face. A pair of what looked like dice floating in one of his hands. “Good evening.” “What are you doing in my room! You creep!” She yelled, picking up the nearest book she could find and threw it at the man. “Get out of her or else I’ll call the cops!” However, to her surprise, the book stopped in midair at the motion of the man’s finger, all as she saw his only eye close for a mere moment. “I only just wanted to talk to you. I mean no harm.” The man told him, motioning his finger again to set the book down on her bed. “If your choice was to try and harm me, the consequences of those actions would be much… different, so to speak.” “What do you want from me? Who are you?!” She asked the man. “Well… since you asked, you may call me Glave,” he replied back to her. “As for your first question, there isn’t something that I want from you… but there is something I can provide for you… a chance for a… ‘do over’ if that’s the proper term.” The last part was where he motioned towards Katy’s new game. “What’s that supposed to mean? Just get out of here already creep!” She threatened again, but he remained unfazed. “What it means is… a chance for you to become what you want to be… what you dreamed of…” He continued to speak. “The chance to become a hero… That is, if you are up for it.” “How do you even know about that? Is this some kind of joke?” “Did you think stopping your book midflight was a joke? A trick of the mind?” He then asked her. “What seems impossible can be possible. But only if you allow yourself to believe that… Do you want to be a hero… Yes or No-?” “Yes!” Katy blurted out, she didn’t know if it was her instincts, but one thing she did know was that she couldn’t take back her answer now. “Well… I was originally going to give you some time to think…” The man sighed, looking back at her. “But if you insist… I can have you be a hero… but I have one more question for you.” “What is it?” She asked, still trying to process what she said. “What kind of hero do you want to be?” “I don’t know, like a Quarian?! Just someone who can help people!” That was when the pair of cubes that Glave was holding was beginning to glow a bit as he looked back at her. “I believe that can be arranged… now, the last thing you need to do is…” At that moment was when he placed a finger on Katy’s forehead as she fell asleep. Collapsed on the floor before Glave used his other finger to create a doorway for him to take her through. “Rest… you’ll need all the energy you can get if you want to be a hero after all.” Two Months Later “Lance, we got a situation that’s at the top of the list right now,” Saffron Masala, the unicorn who was referred to as Vixen amongst her team told her leader, Lance Walker. He was a displaced who had originally arrived in the world two years earlier as the Azure Striker, Gunvolt, but over time, he became more well known as a hero across Equestria and also in other worlds too. “Remember when you told me to look into the whereabouts of Katy like you asked?” “Yeah, what about it?” he asked. “Well, the power ponies had run into someone who matches the description of what we’re looking for,” The unicorn said, passing a tablet that had the exact image that was a picture of what looked like Masked Matterhorn trying to talk to a figure whose outfit would resemble that of Katy’s. Just with a few changes. “However, she doesn’t recall ever meeting them and when Masked Matterhorn tried to ask if she remembered you, she didn’t remember it either.” “Oh brilliant… If it’s not one thing that had changed with the timeline, it’s another…” He thought to himself. “Where did this occur at?” “Downtown Maretropolis. However, it’s unlikely that she would still be there after what happened.” Vixen told him, just as she noticed him putting on his dark navy coat and suiting up like he was going out on patrol. “Hey, where are you going?” “To look for her…” Lance told her. “I’ll be back soon and tell you if anything happens.” It didn’t take long for the adept to get out of QUILL’s base of operations and soon, he was already moving around the rooftops of Maretropolis, trying to find their lost teammate. After all, Katy was… really important to him. And he did not want to lose her like how he had already lost Max. Though, it was around the time that he was investigating the outer edge of the city… and some of the parts that some would consider as mostly abandoned… that something caught his attention. “Listen Lady, I don’t know what your doing here, but this is official police business and a little girl like you doesn’t belong out here.” “Look, I have been on this case for nearly two month now and so far… all of you cops and heroes ignore these kinds of cases. Unless it involves some kind of an explosion or monster thrown into the mix. So I suggest you back off, rabbit! Before you get hurt!” She threatened as she shoved this new officer that Lance wasn’t familiar with. “Yep, that definitely sounds like her,” Lance thought to himself as he quickly dashed over. “Okay, I just got here and there’s already shoving. Can someone care to clarify what the hell is going on here?” “Oh good, I’m glad you got here…” That voice belonged to someone on the police force that Lance did happen to know. Detective Whooves a pony on the force and an old friend. “We got a call about a shady character sneaking around out here and when we got here, one of our Blue Bloods began to try and pick a fight with this… girl.” “For the last time… I’m not just some girl! I’ve been on this murder case for nearly a month now and I’ve been catching criminals just as much as theses guys and you still give them all the credit. If you don’t want to help me Detective, that’s fine, just keep the easter bunny here off my back.” She said, shoving Lance as she made her way to examine the corpse. “It’s Dyspo!” He shouted before storming off. Which… gave Lance an idea. “Detective… How about you let me handle this? I’ve handled a couple of cases like this before and I think I might know who she is.” The Detective thought about it for a few moments… before looking back at the rest of his crew and signaling for them to clear out. “Alright… but if this backfires, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The stuff she has equipped is not for show.” “Figured as much,” Lance thought to himself as he walked over to where Katy was… while everypony else was beginning to leave like the Detective had ordered. “Now… if only she could be open to realizing that I’m not a pony and that I am only here to help…” “Three trails… scattered all over the vicinity… Suspects each have… Uh… feet bigger than mine. Which means they have to be… the same species.” She said aloud as she wrote down everything in a small notebook. Not even noticing Lance as she was hard at work trying to determine what could possibly have done this. “There appear to be large bruises on the victims neck. Meaning he was strangled, but that would mean… the killer must have enormous hands, but there’s the possibility that there was more than one person due to the tracks.” Lance himself was surprised to see her come to that conclusion so quickly… yet, she was not using any form of technology or anything to do this. She was solely just relying on what she was seeing… unless of course, there was something on her visor that only she could see and not anyone from the outside. “Damn it… I still need more evidence than this. I wonder who the lucky bastard will be downtown today…” “You’re rather quick to think that…” Lance then decided to speak, leaning against a nearby concrete barrier. “What lead you to make that decision?” “And you’re still here! Look, I appreciate that you think I need help, but I don’t need it. If you must know… for the past two months there have been six ponies who were murdered. Two of them were strangled and another pony was drowned in sulfur water. As for the remaining three, they were beaten to death.” She explained, walking past the adept. “So far all we know is that there is more than one killer and they all wear the same kind of shoes. Meaning they aren’t equines.” “And you figured this out how exactly?” The adept told her in response. “Besides, I’m not assuming you need help at all. In fact, I believe you… however, as the old saying goes, it’s too dangerous to go alone. Especially when a lot of ponies nowadays have control over some form of power.” “Well I don’t need your help and it’s none of your business. In fact I’ve heard quite a bit about you Gunvolt.” She replied with a hint of irritation in her voice. “And even though your supposedly one of the best… the last thing I want is to be anywhere near a creep like you.” “I’m just trying to help you. I’m not trying to be a creep at all, Katy-” He said, before stopping himself in realization of what he said to her. And how she might react to that. Before he could even explain himself, he was kneed to his sternum and sent crashing into a wall before she had her foot on his neck and a gun aimed at his forehead. “How do you know that name! Talk or your gonna be a dead creeper!” She demanded. “O-okay!! Okay!” Lance replied back. “I-i know that name because I know you… I mean, I knew you… something decided to screw up time and… you probably wouldn’t remember my name if I told you.” He groaned in frustration, still in pain from being thrown in the wall as he did his best to try and explain. “Bullshit! I never told anyone my real name! I’ve been going by Phantom for the past two months since I got here!” She shouted, smacking him in the face with her plasma gun and walked off before saying. “I bet you were spying on! You sick pervert!” “Why the hell would I spy on you?! I just found out that you were trying to do the solo hero business and that you were alive a few hours ago!” He coughed, spitting out some blood in response. “Well if I catch you anywhere near me again… I’m gonna do a hella lot more than smack you with a gun.” She said, jumping up to a nearby latter and leaping over to a walkway and disappearing into the shadows.