Act I: Katy Makes a Stand
Dyspo and Lance kept running as fast as there legs could carry them with the masked killer in pursuit. Even knowing that he could use Instant Transmission, Lance knew it would be ineffective against the killer since he could also use the same technique. Before he could even think of a plan, Dyspo turned to him.
“Gunvolt! I don’t think we’re gonna get away from him easily… We’re gonna have to stay and fight him-” Right before he could finish what he was saying, both the adept and officer were struck by a large blue orb of energy and soon were lost in a field of smoke. Just as Dyspo was about to leap out of the smoke, the killer had grabbed his leg and pulled him back in before backhanding him and sending him crashing through a metal fence.
“Dyspo!” Lance shouted, trying to find make his way over to the injured officer, but was met by a large hand grabbing hold of his face and slamming him towards the wall. Lance then attempted to break free from the opponent’s hold on him, only to receive multiple punches to his stomach before being tossed to the side. “Gah!”
Breathing heavily, he tried to see where the Masked killer was until he finally emerged from the smoke, slowly making his way over to the adept as he formed another ball of ki within his palm. “That can’t be all you’ve got?” He said, cracking his neck as he aimed the orb of energy directly at him, but just as he was about to fire, Lance’s eyes widened as the Masked killer was met by the Officer’s foot and sent crashing into the walls of an apartment complex.
“Damn, that guy is a lot stronger than the last time I fought him.” Dyspo said with a chuckle, holding on his left arm. “We don’t have much time… We need to come up with a plan to lose him, otherwise we’re gonna be sent home in body bags.”
Thinking quickly, the adept then attempted to test a theory of his. He had been working on a series of bolts designed not for tagging enemies, but for trapping them. So, using his weapon, he fired 4 bolts at the ground to where there was a box on the ground before aiming for another four on the ceiling. All while hoping that this could somehow work.
Just as the Masked Killer climbed out of the rubble, he attempted to charge at his enemies with two ki blasts in his hands, but before he could reach them, he had walked right into the trap that was set by the adept. Immediately after stepping in, the masked killer was shocked with a massive amount of electricity. While also containing their opponent in a cage of lightning. Any attempts to try and break out would lead to him getting repeatedly shocked over and over again, since the original bolts that Lance had fired landed where there was electric wiring along the sides of the alleyway.
“Let’s go… Even though that’s enough electricity to power an entire building, I don’t think that will encage him for long.” The Adept told the officer, before both of them began to ran off further into the alley. Simply nodding, Dyspo followed Gunvolt as the Masked Killer struggled to pull himself free from the electrical field that Lance had created.
‘Very clever… Gunvolt… Your reputation precedes you. However, this will not work against me a second time when we cross paths again.’ The killer thought as he chuckled underneath his mask as his opponents made their escape.
After a while, the two of them soon stopped for a moment in order to catch their breath. Personally relieved that they were able to make it out of their with their lives. Yet, it was as they were resting that they heard another set of frantic footsteps rushing at them. “Did you… hear that Gunvolt?”
“Yeah… I-” When he finally saw the figure and realized who it was though, that it looked like Dyspo was acting on instinct. “Officer, wait-”
“I’m… not even moving… What is it?” Dyspo asked, still trying to catch his breath.
“That figure we heard… Over there…” Lance told him, looking back as he was catching his breath. “I think that’s Phantom.”
“Well, we better… head over there, but I doubt we’re gonna be of much use in our current condition. If she’s in trouble… I suggest we stick with long range until one of us can recover.” Dyspo suggest as the two of them struggled to stand on their feet. “Sound like a plan?”
“One of us has to get close in order to see if it is actually her…” The adept pointed one, tapping one of the cards on his bracer as it emitted a healing pulse throughout his body. “Fortunately, I opted for saving my skill cards for if I need to patch myself up… Now, one of us should go up there to verify that it is her while the other one should cover them from long range just in case it’s a set up. You up for the latter, Officer?”
“Yeah sure… Show-off.” He whispered that last bit, thinking it was unfair he gets a shortcut to recovering, but he’d worry about that later. “Let’s just get going.”
“After you, Officer.”
Meanwhile
Katy didn’t want to help Lance or Dyspo knowing that she was so close to finally capturing the killer, but she still couldn’t help but feel a little bit of guilt for leaving them to whatever fate the Killer had in store for them, but right here and now, she could finally put an end to all the killing and maybe the city will see her as a hero and not some second rate vigilante.
She continued to pursue the killer as the two leaped from rooftop to rooftop until the killer had finally stopped at the edge of the roof, leading down towards the streets of Maretropolis. He was trapped and this was Katy’s chance to finally capture him. “You have nowhere left to go! Put your hands behind your head!” She shouted as she pulled her assault rifle from her back and aimed it directly at the killer.
But the killer only turned around, chuckling as he placed his hands behind his head. “Hehehe… So, you’ve caught me? Now what?” He asked as Katy continued to approach the killer cautiously.
“On your knees! I’m taking you in!” She demanded as the killer did so slowly, still holding his hands high in the air. But just as Katy was about to pull out her handcuffs, the killer, grabbed hold of her assault rifle and elbowed her in the face before kicking her to the ground. Before he could use her gun against her, she pulled her pistol and fired directly at the gun’s barrel, causing it to short out in the killer’s hand right before she hopped back onto her feet and performed a roundhouse kick, sending the killer tumbling backwards. “Your gonna have to try harder then that you sick Bastard!”
But the killer was unfazed by Katy’s words as he got up on his feet and tore off his trench coat and threw it to the side, revealing a man wearing black armor, similar to that of Commander Shepard, but the only difference is that he had a helmet on and it was difficult to tell from the sound of his voice. “Perhaps your right… Phantom right? Well I hate to break it to you, but you don’t have a chance against me.”
He then pulled out a pistol of his own and began to open fire, striking Katy’s energy field she has around herself as she took cover behind a nearby chimney stack and began to return fire, but his armor simply deflected the bullets before he came around the corner and grabbed her by her suit and threw her across the roof and aimed his gun at her, but Katy simply dodged them and dashed towards the killer and kicked him in the chest, causing him to drop his gun, but before Katy could attempt to shot him, he grabbed her gun and threw it to the side and his right arm was surrounded by a orange hologram that had formed a blade.
Katy instantly recognized the device, it was similar to her Omni-tool and despite pulling out her own, she was instantly knocked to the ground by the mysterious killer. “You should have gone with your friends… Now your friends are dead and your gonna die alone on this rooftop.”
Though… that was when they both heard someone else speak. “What was that about us?” The figure turned to see none other than Gunvolt looking directly at him, weapon drawn while Dyspo was not far off to cover him from a distance.
“I see that two lost my partner… Well done.” The Killer said as he stepped away from Katy and folded his arms.
“It’s going to take a lot more than sending the same person responsible for the murders of several other officers in order to put us out of commission.” The adept growled. “Now… don’t make any moves or else we will shoot.” That was the cue for Katy to get up so she can be able to detain the killer before he made any attempts at escape.
But before Katy could even make a move, the Killer had pulled out a round object and threw against the ground and a cloud of smoke had appeared, concealing him and Katy within it, but just as Lance was about to leap in and help Katy, he was soon struck by what looked like a Kunai with a chain attached to it and was pulled into the smoke before feeling tremendous pain to his chest and fell to the ground. “You should have expected to see me again, Gunvolt.”
Lance was once again face to face against the Masked killer, holding a long chain in his hand with a kunai attached to it and threw it to the side. “I’m gonna enjoy crushing the two of you.” He said as he placed two of his fingers to his forehead and used his instant transmission to appear behind Dyspo and kicked him over to where Lance was laying.
“How the hell did he find us?!” Dyspo asked.
“I-I don’t k-know-. Agh!” Lance grasped in pain, glaring at both the Masked Killer and the killer that Katy was trying to capture. All three of them were on the ground now… and at the mercy of both of them.
“Get up you idiots! I can’t fight the two of them!” Katy shouted as she hopped back on her feet and attempted to pull out her knife, but the killer had threw a right hook and an uppercut, sending Katy tumbling backwards before kicking her opponent in the chest and reached for her knife. But trying as hard as she could, the killer simply avoided the strikes even though it had left a scratch on his armor. Just as Katy was about to kick him again, he had grabbed her leg and raised his arm into the air and brought down his elbow at full force, breaking the Phantom’s leg, causing her to scream in pain as he continued to strike her leg multiple times before relieving her of her knife and stabbing her in her arm.
“You don’t deserve to be a hero… Your better off dead b*tch.” He said pulling the knife out of her and throwing it to the side and reached for her other pistol that was on her hip.
However… bearing witness to this… left one particular hero enraged… “You… BASTARDS!!!!!” Immediately, electricity began to violently crackle throughout the rooftop as some of the bolts took form into the size of huge chains. Entangling themselves around the arms and bodies of both of the killers while also surging throughout the rest of the rooftop. “I AM NOT LETTING YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!!!”
From the perspective of Dyspo, he had never seen Gunvolt be driven to this point… and yet, with the amount of of his septima that he was putting into this one attack, it meant that he was putting all of his energy left into one last single attack. One that would leave him exhausted and vulnerable if their opponent happened to get back up from it.
As for Katy though, some of the lightning that was striking her… seemed to trigger more of the memory like flashes from before. While the energy itself was somehow mending her injuries… but before she could react, that was when Gunvolt unleashed his fury.
The multiple chains surged with enough force to almost annihilate the roof, causing part of the Masked Killer’s mask to crack while having the helmet of the other killer being blown clean off due to the sheer raw power of the adept. However, when the attack subsided, all Katy saw afterwards was a passed out Lance lying face first on the ground. Drained of everything he had after that all out attack just now.
And the killer was finally unmasked and who she saw underneath that helmet was none other than... “Commander… Shepard?”
“Ugh… Hehehe… Gonna be feeling that in the morning… Hehehe.” He said, laughing as he got up immediately as the energy field around him began to subside. “Damn… if I didn’t have my energy field up… I probably would have been out cold. Too bad Gunvolt is out of energy… Poor bastard spent it all in that one shot.”
“B-But why? Why are you doing this?” Katy said, trying to stand but is quickly kicked back down by the masked killer.
“Hehehe… You know… It’s so funny that I knew you would ask me that, but that’s not the funny part about all of this. The funny part is you actually expect me to answer you?” Shepard said, laughing as the Masked Killer continued to crush Katy’s healed leg again until the commander raised his hand, ordering him to stop. “You know… I didn’t think anyone would be on our trail since… none of those Heroes were able to notice, especially Gunvolt over there. The one who solved the murders at that… Pizzaria a few months back. Not to mention the police force were too stupid to even figure out what the hell was going on. But then you came along and started tracking us down.”
“At first I thought that a rookie… a amateur playing dress up couldn’t find out it was me let alone two killers, so I let you be, but then you started figuring out our pattern. I was beginning to worry, but after two months, you didn’t find me or my partner and you refused to work with anyone, but then this asshole jumps in one day. Treating you like your his girlfriend-”
“I’m not… with him you moron!” She shouted before getting kicked once again.
“Don’t… Interrupt me! Hehehe… It’s funny, why am I even getting mad… You can’t do anything in your current state, Gunvolt is out cold and Dyspo… well it must come as quite a shock to him to find out it’s me. His oldest friend, the one who helped him get into the police academy back in Baltimare.” Shepard said, turning his head to see Dyspo’s expression of sadness, but he was met by something much different.
“Y-You… Asshole! I trusted you! And now your gonna pay!” Dyspo shouted, as his body was now surrounded by a red aura and he vanished, striking the Masked Killer in his stomach with his leg and sent him crashing into the chimney and fired off a ki blast at Shepard who evaded it with ease. “Phantom! Wake up Gunvolt! I’ll hold them off!”
“But how?” She said, struggling to stand.
“I don’t know with a kiss?!” He said sarcastically. “Slap him silly if you have too! We aren’t gonna be able to fight these guys on our own.” Dyspo then vanished from the spot he was at and began to punch the masked killer as fast and hard as he could, putting him on the defensive.”
“A kiss won’t do… Lance is out cold,” Katy heard, seeing Lumen appear on Lance’s shoulder. “He drained all of his septima and is need of medical care… How long do you think you can hold him off?”
“I-I don’t know… Even after it healed, that bastard dislocated it… The best I can do is shoot from my pistol, but that isn’t gonna be enough.” Katy explained. “Maybe Dyspo can hold them off for a little while?”
“Well, I’m trying to do what I can to keep Lance alive… His bracer sends off a warning message to everyone at QUILL if his vitals drop too low and they should be coming,” Lumen told her… before thinking of an idea. “Hold out your hand for a moment…”
“Wait why?” She asked.
“Don’t ask me why! Just do it!!” Lumen snapped, noticing how Shepard was about to do something and Katy did what she was told immediately and held out her hand. When she did, Lumen emitted some of her own power and let it course through Katy’s body. It not only restored a brief bit of her injuries, but it also fixed the dislocation she had. “My powers allow me to help heal injuries and bring Lance back from the brink if he falls in combat. However, since this was something he done on his own, I could only give you part of my strength so I can use the rest to helping him. Now go kick that guy’s ass!! Vixen will be here any minute so you can subdue that bastard!!”
Katy couldn’t help but smirk under her helmet as she stood up again. “You know for a bug, you’re pretty useful. I’ll talk to you more later, but right now. I’m finishing this fight!” Katy shouted and ran towards Shepard and began to perform a roundhouse kick again. Striking him across his face, sending him spinning to the ground, before grabbing his helmet and began to hit him in the face with it. Dyspo himself was also gaining the upper hand in his fight. Especially since he was moving so fast that the Masked Killer could not even see him at times. Leaving him vulnerable to numerous attacks from that of Dyspo, including a knee in his face.
Though, when he noticed how Katy was beating Shepard now, that was what caught him by surprise. “Okay… How the hell are you-?”
“Don’t ask. Please, just focus right now.” He turned to see Lumen, who now looked much different than before as she was trying to focus on Lance.
“Help is on the way, just hold out a little bit longer.” She told him, who just nodded and refocused his attention back to his fight with the Masked Killer.
‘Why am I letting a butterfly tell me what to do?’ He thought as he sent the Masked killer flying into the air, before creating an energy ball in his hands. “JUSTICE CRUSH!” He shouted, firing off the orb of energy at the masked killer while Lumen thought to herself.
‘Geez… Why do heroes always shout the names of their attacks, anyways? It just gives away what in the world they’re about to do’ But besides the names of attacks, Katy and Dyspo were doing their best to hold off the killers until more help arrives.
As Shepard was finally getting back up was when help finally arrived… and that was shown when what looked like an electric eel swirled around Shepard’s neck and knocked him out with an electric shock. Leading Katy to turn around and see Vixen alongside Stella. “Sorry for the hold up! We got Lance’s emergency beacon, are you two alright?”
“No… We’re not, we need to end this now.” Katy said turning to Shepard who was knocked out and was about to cuff him. Until the Masked Killer reappeared in front of Katy, holding Dyspo from his large ears and tossed him at them, while picking up Commander Shepard and placing his fingers over his forehead.
“Until next time…”
With that, they disappeared, leaving the three heroes with two unconscious and severely hurt heroes on the rooftop. Vixen though, looked back at Katy and Stella as she took a deep breath. “Come on, let’s take Lance and your friend back to HQ. We got advanced medical equipment there so we can heal them and treat any injuries you might have too.”
“Fine… Let’s get going.” Katy said as she placed her hand over her shoulder as the two other heroes carried her allies to HQ where hopefully they’ll be able to put an end to all the killing once and for all.
