//------------------------------//
// Chapter 09: Patrol 
// Story: Young Amazons 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//










 

Young Amazons
By Ackbarfan5556
Executive Produced By Wanderer D
Chapter 09: Patrol

 
After several hours of sparing with Dinah, Sunset found herself on the heroine’s couch while the woman had left to go out patrolling Star City.
 
Meanwhile, Sunset was having to deal with the several ice packs on the multiple parts of her body that were lightly bruised. Dinah constantly kept apologizing for them as their training got slightly more physical than what it probably should’ve have, but Sunset assured her that it was all good.
 
The phrase ‘No pain, no gain’ was being taken to heart by the former unicorn. She knew that she had to be tested if she wanted any chance of being able to go out and be a super-heroine. While the pain was a nuisance; it was necessary to prepare her. After all; it was only a few hours of training, but Dinah was saying that Sunset was making great progress. She had made the mistake of thinking her fencing experience from Canterlot High would give her an edge against the Penguin, after all, and she had stood no chance.
 
The down time from training with Dinah gave Sunset a chance to look over more books and spells. She was just about ready to finally being able to create a portal that she could use to get to the Tower of Fate, and stop having to call Zatanna to do it for her.
 
However, all the training had come at a slight cost. With all the time she was taking with both her schooling and her hero training; it gave her almost no time to try to pinpoint where in the multiverse Equestria or the world that contained Canterlot High resided.
 
Thinking about that actually made Sunset pause. Was this really the right choice for her? Or did she accidentally let herself get swept up in everything? It was true that she knew that she probably had considerable power that could truly be used for good...
 
But was it what she truly wanted?
 
Sunset was honestly surprised she was thinking this after getting this far, but she was still at a point where she could turn around and decide to just live a more normal life; or a normal one for the most part as she focused her efforts on trying to find home.
 
"But ask yourself: would they want you to spend years isolated, without friends, without a chance at life for the slim possibility of returning home? Or would they happily embrace you back and be proud of your success and growth in another world while you figured out how to go back to them?" Zatanna’s words from the first day Sunset met her rang through Sunset’s mind.
 
Sunset took a deep breath and leaned back. She just needed to put things back into perspective. She knew what she was going to do, but it didn’t hurt to get a reminder every now and again.
 
Zatanna was probably right; the odds of Sunset finding a way back home were not in her favor, but it was better to lay the foundations of a new life rather than wasting all of it trying desperately to get back to the old one. Of course, if she did find a way back, she probably would be more likely to say her goodbyes to this world and return to Canterlot, although, she had a slight feeling that the longer she stayed in this world, the more difficult it would be to make the decision to go back home.
 
Sunset groaned as she realized that she needed to take a break from all the thinking, so she leaned over to grab the remote to the television that Dinah had and turned it on.
 
“Hundreds of channels and there’s nothing to watch,” grumbled Sunset, "I guess that some things don't change regardless of where you are in the multiverse."
 
She flipped channels until she finally caught a news story involving Gotham. It must have been a pretty big story if local Star City news stations were talking about it. The TV showed this Goth-looking man being led onto the back of a police van, and Sunset could just catch a glimpse of Detective Yin sitting in the back of another van with a blanket and a hot drink in her hand.
 
“The terror tonight has been dealt with by the GCPD. The criminal who was responsible for leading the police on a wild chase across the city is now being sent on his way to Arkham Asylum," the voice of a reporter informed as the video progressed, “Police are not giving out too much information, but it appears that the man refers to himself as the Riddler. He had been placing bombs all along the city which we are now told were canisters filled with—not nitroglycerin or any other explosive substance—but store-bought green gelatin. It appears his true target was hacking into Gotham’s infrastructure to steal cash and information from the city’s databases.
 
“Thankfully, the GCPD was able to figure out his plan and put an end to his short reign of terror. I’m Vicky Vale, reporting live from Gotham Central Bank, Channel 5, WMAQ.”
 
“Now, then,” The TV cut back to a man in a studio. “Back to more local news. Today was a crosstown interleague rivalry game as the Stars and the Rockets went up to bat.” Sunset turned off the TV a moment later.
 
Her mind was more focused on the man that was recently caught. “Great,” She muttered, “Probably going to have a run in with that weirdo sooner rather than later.”
 



 
“I thought I gave the order for you not to get caught up with the whack jobs when they showed up.” Chief Rojas sighed as he leaned back in the chair in his office while smoking a cigarette. Detective Ellen Yin sat across from him after he finished speaking.
 
“I didn’t mean to, sir. I thought I was just going in to assist the bomb squad in defusing the bomb.” She paused. “Guess I should’ve expected something crazy when I saw the giant hourglass.”
 
“Yeah, a perfect sign that this was the work of someone who’s out of their mind.”
 
Yin’s mind was running a full replay of what had happened yesterday. It seemed like it was just a normal day until there was a bomb threat at the Gotham Central Bank. She offered her support to the bomb squad as they were disarming it; however, the way to disarm it was the answer to a riddle.
 
That was how she ended up running all over Gotham City playing the Riddler’s sick game, and it wasn’t even meant for her. Throughout the whole night, she had the Batman secretly helping her solve all the puzzles and word games while also saving her life a few times; like when the Riddler’s van drove off the Gotham Bay Bridge.
 
The true reason behind all the tricks was to distract the police so he could try and steal much of Gotham’s data on the city’s hard drives. It was also so he could solve ‘the greatest riddle of all time’: the identity of The Batman. She and the Dark Knight were captured and were forced to play a deadly game of Twenty Questions.
 
The game was deadly because while the Riddler tried to guess the Batman’s identity through the game, each lie he gave would result in Yin getting electrocuted. She was thankful that the only shock she got was not that severe; any higher and she was probably sure she wouldn’t be sitting in Rojas’ office today.
 
The two of them were able to get the jump on Riddler and helped take him down before leading him away. Of course, he blew the lid on her secret partnership with the Batman by directly telling Rojas, in the form of a riddle that she answered.
 
Thankfully for her career, Rojas just thought he was crazy and making it all up considering he never saw the Batman once during the night. Plus, the rumor was going around that Riddler was just driving Rojas nuts. Apparently he was completely stumped by the riddle ‘Everything inside me is ancient,’ which the answer was simply the Natural History Museum of Gotham.
 
“Well, at least he’s in Arkham now, and out of our hair.” Rojas blew a puff of smoke from his cigarette.
 
“Didn’t know you were a smoker, sir,” Yin said.
 
The mustached man grumbled before putting it out. “I tend to only smoke when I’m stressed out. The bad thing is I’ve been doing it a lot lately with all these crazy criminals coming out in force. Every time we put one of these so called ‘super-criminals’ either in Blackgate or Arkham, a new one just makes an appearance.”
 
“Well, we’re certainly trying our best. Trust me, Chief, I know it doesn’t look good right now, but I’m sure things will probably get better,” Yin tried to assure him.
 
“Yeah.” Rojas sighed, “Wake me up when you do that. Anyways, let’s get back to this guy we just caught. Got any information about him?”
 
“Early records just came in.” Yin pulled out a folder and started looking over it. “He calls himself the Riddler but his name is actually Edward Nigma.”
 
“E. Nigma? Oh for the love of…” Rojas nearly slammed his hands on his desk but managed to restrain himself.
 
“Yes, I know. It’s all probably just part of some sick joke. That isn’t his true name though; he had it legally changed from Eddie Nashton.”

Rojas stood up and walked to the window. “What do we got on him then?”
 
“A couple of arrests over the past fifteen years. First priors were when he was seventeen for a domestic dispute. Says here he was raised alone by father and there was a history of child abuse. The arrest was actually dropped when it was discovered he was acting in self-defense when his father tried to beat him with a shower curtain poll.
 
“After that, he attended the Gotham University and graduated; that’s when we start getting multiple arrests, like a few assaults and even a kidnapping charge.”

“So, this was apparently all this should’ve been seen coming, am I right?”
 
“Well, he certainly should’ve been in our sights, but the whole Riddler persona is new.”
 
“What about those that were arrested with him?” Yin remembered that the Riddler had some henchmen that were assisting him. She actually beat them all up while the Batman went after the Riddler himself.
 
“Actually, that’s two cases that were solved.” Yin pulled out a separate file and placed them on Rojas’ desk. He sat back down and looked over them.
 
“Those missing persons reports that we got the past few days this week? That was all of them.”
 
“I can’t believe this,” Rojas read the file, “How did he get them all in his plan?”

“He didn’t. We found them all with those strange devices on their ears and eyes. These people have no recollection of what happened, but there’s a theory going around that he used hypnotism and mind-control on his victims.”
 
Rojas gave out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness we stopped him then before things got worse. Who knows what he could have done if left to his own devices. Still, I’m a bit concerned about that whole thing involving the Bat… what did he mean by all that?”
 
Yin shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I can tell you right now that we still don’t have any leads on who he might be.”
 
Rojas nodded. “I swear, we can’t even get close to this guy… and now there’s starting to be some support for him.”

“Some do see him as a sort of hero, Chief.”
 
“Yeah, well, truth be told, I wish we had a dozen Batmen, then this city would be pretty good.” Yin raised an eyebrow upon hearing that from Rojas. “The problem is that he’s uncontrolled; we don’t have anything on him to keep him straight and…”
 
“And what?”
 
“He’s not the first vigilante I’ve dealt with,” Rojas said as he sat back down.
 
“Sir?” Yin questioned.
 
“This was in the late eighties when I was still a Sergeant in the 4th Precinct. There was a man, Lance Bergmann, seemed like a normal, mild mannered person but that was before...” he paused, “...his mother.”
 
“Lance Bergmann? That name sounds somewhat familiar.”
 
“It should. You see, Lance’s mother was walking around the south side one day when three homeless men attacked her. They mugged her and left her for dead. By the time an ambulance arrived, she was already gone.
 
“There were a few witnesses to it so we were able to identify and arrest her attackers. Two of them got ten years while another received twenty. That should’ve been the end of it.”
 
“Let me guess,” Yin interrupted Rojas’ story. “Bergmann didn’t think that was enough?”
 
Rojas nodded. “Once again, you show why you’re probably the best detective I have in this city. Bergmann wanted revenge because he thought the court was too… soft on the crime. I ended up encountering him several weeks later. However at that point, he decided to take the law in his own hands.
 
“I was one of the arresting officers to the Underside Slayer; Bergmann was responsible for the murders of thirteen homeless people before we finally got cuffs on him.”
 
Yin silently nodded as now she realized why the name sounded familiar.
 
“That’s the reason, Yin, why I have an issue with all these vigilantes; not just here, but throughout the nation. Many people do see them as some sort of heroes, but how long until they reach a breaking point and end up becoming the very monsters they try to stop?”
 
Yin leaned back in the chair across from Rojas. He made a solid point. There were laws regarding vigilantism and yet here she was currently assisting one under her superiors’ noses. Still, could she continue to trust the Bat, or did she start needing to make a plan to take him down for that day where he might end up turning on Gotham?
 



 
The next two weeks for Sunset flew past like a blur. At school, it was as normal as it was back in Canterlot High with a few exceptions. For one, on the Monday of the second week of school, Sunset found that she made the gymnastics team, much to both her and Barbara’s delight.
 
There was also the growing friendship between Sunset, Barbara and Pamela. The three girls were almost always seen together throughout the day, and they certainly acted like they were the oldest of friends instead of just having met only a few weeks prior. Having had to struggle to build her friendship with the Rainbooms due to her past actions, the speed of this friendship had really surprised Sunset, even though Princess Twilight had told her in their journal writings that she and the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony had become really close friends within the first week of her moving to Ponyville..
 
Given that endorsement to fast and true friendships, Sunset felt at least comfortable enough to relax more with her two new close friends. They were now even calling each other by nicknames. Pamela was now ‘Pam’, Sunset was now called ‘Sunny’, and Barbara was referred to simply as ‘Red’.
 
That wasn’t the only thing that was going on in Sunset’s new life, however. She had also used the past two weeks to hone her understanding of magic and train for her eventual career as the superheroine known as Alicorn. May the princesses never find out.
 
Sunset’s prowess with magic in this world was now far greater than when she had started; she still had much to learn, but Zatanna said she was progressing faster than what she expected. She had even managed to finally learn how to open a portal to the Tower of Fate, so she no longer needed to interrupt Zatanna with whatever she was doing to get there.
 
The gymnastics training, along with the combat training she was getting with Dinah was violent, but necessary. She was sore most of the time, but the results could not be disputed, and she was slowly feeling more and more confident overall with her fighting abilities. All the pieces were coming together.
 
The final thing that Sunset needed to be ready to fight crime would be her outfit. While she was struggling before with coming up with an outfit, she got inspiration from Dinah’s outfit.
 
“Maybe I should’ve used the name Phoenix instead of Alicorn. But it's probably taken.” Sunset thought, which made her chuckle. If any of the girls back in Canterlot High saw her right now, they would notice that Sunset was wearing almost the exact same clothes that she wore when she had the entire school in her hands; back when she was obsessed with getting her revenge on Celestia. Now, they were her crime fighting outfit. When it all came down to it, both Dinah and Zatanna had kept it simple, and if she was being trained by them, certain similarities in their attire would also help enemies think that Sunset, or rather Alicorn, had come from Star City. It also helped that Alicorn had been spotted fighting alongside Black Canary the previous week; all more efforts to keep up the disguise.
 
She was looking into the mirror in her apartment bathroom as she was making the final observations. She adjusted her black boots with purple-ish flames on them. She then patted out any of the creases on her skirt which was a mix of purple, yellow and orange. She was wearing a purple leotard with a black biker jacket over it; both of them lacked her cutie mark but that was understandable. She was honestly surprised that these clothes that looked almost exactly like her old ones even existed.
 
All the clothes had gone through multiple spells and runes that gave her better protection. Some Sunset applied herself, while more advanced ones were added by Zatanna. However, given the materials used, the protection wasn’t going to last forever as the spells would wear off eventually or be worn down by intense fighting. Sunset made a mental note to not let herself feel too confident on surviving hits; the clothes might be able to weaken the force of a punch, but they didn't make her invulnerable.
 
Finally, she leaned over onto the sink counter and held up the final piece of her costume: her eye mask. It was a large red one that would cover her eyes. It too had been infused with several spells like ones that would keep her vision clear even if she walked into smoke and other disorienting or blinding effects.
 
It also would magically stick to her face so she didn’t need to worry about it slipping or coming off in a serious fight. It would only be removed by either herself or someone powerful in magic like Zatanna; though it was likely the clothes, as well as the spells, would need to be recast occasionally. She snapped her finger and saw her hair changed from its yellow and red mix to straight red.
 
Sunset took a deep breath and nodded into the mirror before she put on the eye mask and walked out into the living room where Zatanna was sitting on the couch.
 
“How do I look?” Sunset asked as she showed off her costume.
 
Zatanna’s eyes lit up and a proud look crossed her face. “Brilliant, you look absolutely brilliant.”
 
“Thanks,” Sunset started to do a few stretches. “I’m a bit nervous about tonight.”
 
“Listen,” Zatanna stood up, “I’m positive you’ll do well tonight, but I want you to know that you don’t have to do this if you’re not ready. We can train more until you’re really prepared.”
 
“I understand. There’s still a lot I know I need to learn but I think I should at least get some practice at least. Hands on experience is the best way to learn, I hear. After all, I got a good amount with Dinah already. Only difference this time is I’m going alone tonight.”
 
“That is true, but the downside is that you won't get any brakes if you do run into some sort of criminal. It’s not going to be like fighting me or Dinah; you’re going to be pushed.”
 
“I know,” Sunset poured herself a glass of water to have a quick drink before heading out. “I’ll try not to push it. Keep myself from biting off more than I can chew, you know?”
 
“That’s smart,” Zatanna sat back down. “I’ll be waiting here while also using some magic to keep an eye on you.”
 
Sunset nodded and headed for the back window where she would sneak up onto the roof.
 
“Oh, Sunset?” Sunset turned to look at her mentor. “Good luck.”
 



 
For the next few hours, Sunset found herself slowly making her way along the rooftops of Gotham City. She was careful about where she was going as she still wasn’t full trained to perform more elaborate acrobatic moves nor the magic to do something similar.
 
It was getting close to midnight on a cloudy night before she heard some scuffling in an alleyway. She jumped a few ledges before she was right above the alley where she saw two large men pushing a smaller guy against the wall.
 
“Listen, I’m telling you guys, the money is coming! There’s just a snag and all with it coming, I need more time!” The man that was being pressed to the wall whimpered out.
 
“Yeah, well, the way Umberto sees it, you don’t have the cash now, then it’s not coming,” One of the large men said.
 
“And if it’s not coming, then that means we’re going to have to… make it show up.” The other man pounded his fists together.
 
“No, please!” The small man begged. Sunset could see that she was needed and started to slide down several fire ladders as she moved her way down to the street level.
 
The sounds of the metal shaking she made quickly unnerved the two men.
 
“Wha… what was that!?”

“Shoot, you think that was the Bat?” They were greeted by Sunset who landed right near them. “Hey, wait a second, that ain’t the Bat. It’s just a little girl!”
 
“Heh.” The other man chuckled. “Playing superhero are we, sweetie? Shouldn’t you be in bed right now?”
 
Sunset shook her head. “You boys might wanna back off before you get hurt,” Sunset teased. The man that was being threatened bolted as fast as he could behind her, leaving only her and the two thugs alone in the alleyway.
 
“Last chance, girl. Get out of the way or we’re gonna have to take our aggression out on you,” The slightly taller of the two men threatened while the other one cracked his knuckles.
 
“Well, then, let’s have some anger management right now.” Sunset smiled before she charged forward and threw a double kick right into the tall man’s gut; knocking the air right out of him.
 
His comrade tried to grab Sunset but she ducked down and kicked his right ankle which dropped him to one knee. Now at eye-level with him, she threw a quick punch right to his face with a little magic added to it. Sunset’s knuckles didn’t feel a thing while her opponent had his nose broken.
 
“Ah! You little-” The other man caught his breath and reached out to try and get his hands around Sunset’s neck, but the former unicorn wasn’t having that. She jumped up and managed to backflip over the him before landing and giving him a swift kick right into the lower spine. The man cried out in pain before landing on top of his partner.
 
“So, you boys still think I’m playing super-hero now?” Sunset dusted off her hands before she heard the cocking of several guns. She turned and looked down the alley to see three men aiming their weapons right at her.
 
Two men that stood to the side of the man in the middle were carrying small submachine guns while the more well-dressed black haired man in the middle had two pistols in his hands.
 
“I send you bozos to get the cash out of Woznick’s hands and you end up getting beaten up by a teeny bopper in a biker outfit? Pathetic.” The man, who was probably the infamous Umberto, shook his head.
 
Sunset knew she was in serious trouble as the men all aimed… just before smoke exploded around them and then her.
 
While the thugs were all coughing from the smoke, Sunset felt someone suddenly land behind her and wrapped their arms around her before she felt herself being lifted up.
 
A moment later, when she was let go on the top of one of Gotham’s roofs, she turned around to find herself staring at the Batman.
 
“Uh, thanks for the save…" Sunset said with a nervous chuckle. "...didn’t know those guys were there.” She could hear the sounds of the goons all running down the alleyway; opposite of where the man they threatened earlier ran.
 
“So, it’s finally good to meet the watchful guardian of Gotham, Bat Man?”
 
“I’mBatman,” He replied. “And you shouldn’t be here.”
 
“Hey, I’m just starting out, I’ll get better. I just will be a bit more observant if more guys come down an alleyway. I handled those first two guys pretty well.”
 
Batman turned around to look out towards the city, eyes narrowing as he glanced her way. “Here’s a piece of advice. Gotham City is a whole other animal compared to where you were before. This is no place for someone wanting to play hero.” He coldly stated.
 
“But I-”
 
“No,” he interrupted her, stalking forth to stand right before her. “This is not fun and games. You’re just gonna end up getting killed if you try something like this again. Trying to be a hero isn’t going to have a happy ending. You think you’re just going to show up and fix everything?” He asked, looming over her. 
 
He turned away, walking to the edge of the roof and looked back to her. “Head back to Star City; it’s a lot easier there.” He then jumped off the roof and soon was gliding away from the building he left Sunset on.
 
Sunset stood up there for a good few minutes as she just kept looking on at the city before sighing and deciding to go back home, but not before looking one last time at the direction she saw the Dark Knight fly off to.
 
“Well, word certainly does travel if you know I’ve been training in Star City,” she muttered into the darkness.