//------------------------------// // Episode 8 - The Traitor // Story: Kamen Rider Bass // by Noise //------------------------------// “Sorry, just needed to deal with him for a second. Now I can answer a few questions.” “Who are you? Where did you armored vigilantes come from? What are you planning to do? Where are these monsters coming from!?” “Yeesh, talk about talkin' a mile a minute. The name's Armored Hero Blitz. I can't exactly say how I got these powers. That's kind of on the down low, ya know? As far as these monsters, from what I've figured out, someone or something is turning people into monsters. Not really sure about all that. But I'm here to put a stop that! No monsters are gonna be runnin' for free in my city!” “Excuse me! Blitz! We have a few questions we'd like to ask you!” “Sure, I got time for one more question. Make it good, I gotta jet.” “Are you and the white armored vigilante a part of a crime fighting team?” “Oh her? Naw. I mean, I don't mind her helpin' out, but I mostly work alone.” “Blitz, a few more questions!” “Sorry, I toldja that was the last one. Maybe next time though! Peace out!” Attempts to find out more about this armored vigilante have proven fruitless. Blitz has opened a Twitter account but no personal information has surfaced as of yet. Police are still working to figure out what is going on and uncover the true identities of these armored vigilantes and how they came to be. We'll be having a live discussion about the issue after the break, so s- The Doctor rewound the footage and paused it on a full body image of Blitz. “So. This is 'Armored Hero Blitz', eh? It's a shame we couldn't view any footage from the fight. I can't believe a place like Town Hall wouldn't have more cameras up. Well, I guess it's not as worthwhile to hit as opposed to a bank or someone's house or something. But still!” Ditzy shrugged. “Tracking her down should at least be easier than tracking Noise, Claw or Music.” The Doctor made a slight audible growl at the mention of Music. “That one still pisses me off.” “Oh! By the way, did Twilight tell you about yesterday?” “Yes. Apparently, Vinyl isn't Noise. I'm a little surprised myself, but all we can do from here is move forward. We'll focus on trying to get in contact with Flight, and Noise if possible. Meanwhile, I'll have Trixie or Big Mac on standby in case Claw decides to do something.” “Roger! I'll let them know!” --- Vinyl woke up to the sounds of breakfast being made. She shuffled out of her room to see Trixie in the kitchen. She called out to her after a loud yawn. “D'ja grab the money I left on the table?” “Yes. Next time, don't wait so close to the deadline to show up.” “Yeah yeah, relax. I toldja I had it covered. Have some faith in me." "Also, we have a guest coming later today. He'll be staying in your room." "What!? I'm sorry, that's not happening. If you're gonna have someone staying over, than it's not my problem!" "Your fault for waiting til the last minute." "Dude, that's bull! He's staying in your room!" Trixie didn't respond. A usual sign that she was done discussing the matter. "Trixie! He's not staying in my room!" She continued to ignore Vinyl. "Ugh, fine. I'll just tell the guy myself. Friggen moody little pain in the ass..." She muttered her last sentence as she slumped down at the dinner table. Vinyl spent some time relaxing after the last few days. She read up on her novel while checking for gigs and spent a little time screwing around the internet. She decided to leave the apartment after a few hours and visit the Starry Brew cafe after receiving a text from Lyra saying she would be on break soon. She wandered a little more on the internet on her phone as she waited for Lyra. She was completely oblivious to her when she finally sat down across from her. "So, did you see the news?" Vinyl's head jolted up and she quickly put her phone away. "Yeah. I went to sleep after yesterday, but I caught a video earlier. I was there too." "You were there? I guess the fact that you didn't show up is a good sign. What happened there?" "Basically, that Changeling went into Town Hall threatening people, I ran in and tried to stop him. Then that girl showed up. She's looked a few years younger than us. I asked her where she got her Driver and if she wanted to meet up with us. She said she worked alone. I don't think she's one of them. If anything, she thinks she's a real super hero." "I mean, if you think about it, we kind of are." Vinyl glared silently at Lyra for a second. "You know what I mean. She actually wants to go around being the big hero of justice. I just want to take out that chick making all the Changelings." "Then why'd you show up yesterday?" "Ugh, that was just coincidence. I was nearby and I saw police everywhere and I didn't want anyone dying or anything...I couldn't just walk away man." "That's good though. No need to worry too much about that. We can only do what we can. If that woman doesn't show up, then oh well, we just keep looking until we find her." "Yeah, I guess." Vinyl closed her laptop after realizing she probably wasn't going to be using it for a bit. "I just wish she'd show up already. For everyone's sake." "By the way, where'd you go yesterday that you were near there anyway?" "Oh...yeah. Believe it or not, I was actually at some millionaire's house. His name's Fancy Pants. He's a pretty cool guy." Lyra's eyebrow shot up. "What? Why and how?" "I saved his life the time that Changeling attacked and he said he wanted to pay me back. I uh...he might know that I'm a Rider now. But it's cool! He won't tell anyone! I was there cuz I wanted to see if we could get him to get the media off our backs. He said he couldn't do it, unfortunately." Rarity approached their table and handed Lyra a small bag. "Here are you fresh cookies dear. Enjoy." Before she could turn and head back, she quickly spiraled back towards Lyra. "OH! And mind the clock this time. I let Fluttershy have the day off due to some...personal issues and I'd prefer to have you back as soon as possible. We were very busy this morning and it's only going to get even busier in just a little while." Lyra responded with a thumbs up as she dove into her chocolate chip cookies. She waited until Rarity was back behind the counter to speak up. "You've got to try our cookies sometime. They're amazing when you eat em right out of the oven. Anyway, m'gonna cut my break in half. I'll take the rest later. Don't worry too much about dealing with the Changelings if that Blitz gets to them first. If she's good enough to handle them on her own, then you don't have to worry about anything, right? It works out for both of you." She quickly annihilated her last cookie. "Mmmmph, nexht tyme 'ou come her'." She swallowed the last of it down. "Sorry. Next time you come here, I'm getting you some fresh cookies. The best!" She crinkled up her bag and took it with her as she returned behind the counter to return to work. Vinyl shrugged and opened her laptop back up, resuming her seemingly aimless perusal of the internet. "Excuse me. Do you mind if I sit here?" She looked up at her new guest. A purple haired woman carrying a cup of coffee was looking down at her. "Oh. Uh, sure. Go ahead, I guess." "Thank you." She sat down and placed her coffee to the side. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. If you don't mind me asking, might you be, Vinyl Scratch?" Vinyl begrudgingly tore herself away from her laptop again. She closed it again, slightly annoyed at having been torn away from it so quickly. "Yes? What's up, you havin' a party or something?" She shook her head. "No. I'm not here to solicit your services. I'd actually like to ask you a few questions." Vinyl felt herself tense up slightly. "About what?" "I'd like to ask you about the incident at the Cover Page comic book shop." "I told the police everything I knew. If you've seen or heard anything about that, then you already know everything." She responded quickly. She mentally cursed herself for getting so defensive. If this person was on to her for any reason, then acting suspicious was only going to make things worse. "I see." She took a small sip of her coffee and went back to looking Vinyl straight in the eyes in an almost intimidating manner. "There's something concerning me about that though. You may have recently heard about a recent incident in Town Hall over in Upper Manehattan. An incident involving a monster terrorizing citizens." "Yeah...I heard about that awhile ago. What about it?" "I happened to be nearby while that was happening and I happened to catch a very interesting sight after that Blitz character came out." Vinyl could feel her heart pounding, threatening to burst out of her chest at any moment. All she could do was continue to keep a straight face and answer her questions. "And, that would be...?" "Well, you see..." She calmly took another sip of her coffee and set it aside. "...I saw you." Twilight observed Vinyl like a hawk. She could see Vinyl was getting nervous. Her body was almost quaking, just barely. "You saw...me?" "Yes. I'm curious as to why you were there. Town Hall is rather out of your way and you seemed to be taking pictures and calling someone as you left. The incident in question is very similar to the one at the Cover Page comic shop. Being at the scene of multiple, very similar incidents starts to make one look very suspicious, Miss Scratch. Would you care to tell me what you were doing there?" Vinyl saw her golden opportunity. She didn't to point out her window escape and seemed to believe that she was somewhere also on the scene at the time. She relaxed slightly, if only for a moment, and let the conversation continue. "I wasn't there. What are you talking about?" "So, you're denying being at Town Hall yesterday during the incident?" "Heck yeah I am. I wasn't there. If you're gonna accuse me of something, then show me proof." "Gladly." Vinyl seemed to become incredibly confused. Twilight pulled out her phone, fiddled with it for a few seconds and the placed it in front of Vinyl. Video footage from what appeared to be a cell phone camera was playing, a voice of some male could barely be heard over the crowd trying to speak to his phone. "Don't worry about what he has to say, the important thing to note is here. Right about...now." Vinyl Scratch emerged from the crowd with her phone out and slowly started to walk away. Vinyl was staring at the footage intently. "That's...impossible. That...that's not me..." "Really? Are you saying you have a twin? A doppelganger perhaps?" Vinyl rewound the footage to watch the impostor again. "I swear that that aint me!" She replayed that part of the footage multiple times, scrutinizing the impostor for any odd details. No matter how many times she replayed it, she looked exactly like her. Twilight was also watching Vinyl's reaction closely. Her nervous posture was completely gone now. Twilight wasn't sure whether or not if Vinyl was being truthful, but she appeared genuinely confused by the footage. She decided to not press the matter any further for now. She took the phone back and put it back in her pocket. "I see... If you don't mind, I have one more question. I'll be as direct as possible. What do you know about that white armored vigilante that's been showing up recently?" This was the one line of questioning Vinyl had actually prepared herself for. She responded calmly. "Not much. She's got white armor. She fought some monster dude. S'about it. Why?" Twilight hesitated before standing up and bowing. "I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. We may see each other again in the near future. Until next time." She left the store. Vinyl let out a long sigh of relief. She pulled out her phone after a moment of relaxation and looked up the footage on a popular video hosting site. She resumed replaying the moment of her clone appearing. --- Twilight drank the rest of her coffee, tossed it in the garbage and made her way down the street. Though Bolt had dropped her off, she left him a text as she made her way to the nearest bust stop that she would be taking the bus home. She wanted to try out public transportation in a city like Manehattan, if only once. She also wanted time to sit and think about the information she had now. If Vinyl wasn't there and was genuinely confused about a doppelganger, than what did it mean? She texted Rewind about the issue, though she wasn't expecting to get a response. She finally put her phone away and stopped at an intersection, waiting for her chance to cross. As she took in her surroundings, she noticed something odd. A person in a hoodie not to far off was staring at her. She looked around and back at the hooded person, who had slowly started backing away. Obeying her curiosity, she started to approach the figure rather than cross the road. The hooded person turned and started to walk off. Twilight increased her speed to a quick power walk. The figure continued to walk away into a large underpass. Twilight started running to catch up to it. The figure finally stopped as Twilight got close. She slowed down, not wanting to get too close to the stranger. "Excuse me, were you watching me?" The hooded person didn't respond. "Excuse me! Who are you?" The figure let out a feminine giggle and slowly removed it's hoodie, callously tossing it to the side. A woman in a biker jacket turned to face Twilight. "It's been a long time Twilight. Do you regularly follow strangers into secluded places?" "Sunset Shimmer? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Canterlot right now?" Sunset leaned against the wall folded her arms, glaring at Twilight with a confident grin. "Do you know how a Changeling is created, Sparkle?" "We have a general idea. She injects the person and are slowly converted into a Changeling. Why th-" "Close, but not quite. It's not just the venom that does it. The Queen's venom is pretty impressive actually. She can alter it's properties at the moment of injection. There are actually two types of Changelings. Maybe even three now. The first type are the ones you've seen up until now. They're simple runts created by removing all of a human's emotions. They're empty shells that crave a human desire. They pretend to act on whatever desire they had up until the moment of conversion, but it's simply a hollow instinct. There is no real emotion in it." She pushed herself off the wall and began slowly sauntering towards Twilight. "The second type is one the Queen learned how to create just recently, thanks to a certain benefactor. A human's desire, their drive, only exists because of their emotions. If they have no emotions, they have no drive, no desire. The more strongly a human feels about towards their desire, the more willing they are to do whatever it takes to achieve their desire and the more they will fight to eliminate any obstacles in their path. The Queen injects her victims with her venom and amplifies their negative emotions. This leaves the human partly intact, however, with their amplified negative emotions, they'll do whatever acts of atrocity to achieve their desire. Their drive is warped and fueled by all their negative emotions. The man you may have seen yesterday is of the second type. Their strength is much greater than the first type due to these changes." She came to a stop beside Twilight. "And then, there's the third type. Me." Sunset thrust her hand around Twilight's throat and slowly began to lift her up off the ground. "S-Sunset!" "Ahahaaaaa, that's right, Sparkle. I'm a Changeling now. I'm also the one who gave the Queen a friendly little nudge and told her how to make the second type of Changeling. I'm a little different however. Unlike the second type, all of my emotions have been amplified. The power this gives me is...well, you can tell can't you? I don't even have to cast off my human shell to break you." Twilight was trying in vain to pry Sunset's hands off her neck. Sunset's response was to slowly increase the pressure. "I can finally have my revenge, Sparkle. You took everything from me you prissy little bitch! And I intend to pay you back in full!" She gave her one more quick squeeze and threw her to the floor. Twilight screamed out in pain as her arm took the brunt of the impact. She rolled on to her back, clutching her arm to try and reduce the pain. Sunset stomped her foot on Twilight's chest and slowly ground into it. "Now, first order of business. Where's your little partner, hmm? I'm well aware that the Solar Driver already has a user. I know you two have already gotten together. Call him. Tell him if he doesn't show up, I'll break your neck right here." Twilight didn't oblige, and continued trying to fight the pain. Sunset applied more pressure to Twilight's chest. "I said, bring him here. I want the pleasure of killing him in front of you." "Y-you won't kill m-AAAGH!" "What was that?" "I know how this wo-NRGH-works...you won't kill me-NGH-until you get wh-GAGH-what you want!" Sunset stopped applying more pressure and laughed. "Clever girl. But that's okay. I'm a patient girl. I can wait. I'll enjoy destroying everything you love in front of you, Sparkle. Consider this my resignation letter. I'm done with G.U.A.R.D. I look forward to seeing you again. And before I go, have a parting gift, just between friends." Sunset removed her foot from Twilight's chest and allowed her a moment to catch her breath before swiftly kicking her injured arm. "Catch you later, Sparkle." Sunset casually walked away, leaving Twilight to cry and writhe in pain. She slowly sat up against the wall and put a hand to her earpiece. "D-Ditzy...s-send someone to p-pick me up. Ngh..." "What's wrong Twilight? Are you okay?" "No. I'm in a l-lot of pain r-right now." "O-okay! I'll send Bolt over to pick you up! "N-no! D-don't send him! Nrgh! S-she'll be l-looking for him!" "O-okay! S-sorry! I'll send someone else then! ...Okay! Applejack is on her way right now! Just hang tight! --- "Over here! Hurry up!" A young male high school student called out to his friend. Another young male student took his time making his way to his friend. "I'm coming Featherweight, jeez. What are you so worked up about?" Featherweight could barely contain his excitement. "You saw the news, right, Rumble? About those heroes, right?" "Yeah, I've seen it on the internet." "I got footage of one of them! I know who the white one is!" Rumble stared in disbelief. "N-no way! I don't believe you! Prove it!" "Sorry, I can't just show you the whole thing. This is my meal ticket." "Meal ticket?" Featherweight started to pace back and forth slowly. "Don't you see? This person is trying really hard to hide her identity. All I have to do is show her the footage, and I can get her to do whatever I want!" "...You...want to threaten a super hero? Okay, why would you even do that, and second, why would you even do that!?" "Easy. Having a super hero at your beck and call who will do whatever you want for them? What more do you need? I've got back ups of this footage at home. I want to see how much mileage I can get out of this." Rumble was shifting about nervously now. "Featherweight, I really hope your joking. That's not cool at all. You can't be threatening a super hero like that. It's...it's just not right. They've done nothing wrong! "I don't care! I'm sick and tired of getting pushed around! I've lost three cameras! Do you even know how much money I spent on those!? I don't care if I have drag her ass through the mud for it, I'm getting my dues." Featherweight turned and walked off, leaving Rumble behind. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna make her do too much. I'm just getting a little payback that's all." "Mmm, what an interesting drive you have. I wonder what you will do..." --- Vinyl returned home earlier than would have liked. She would have preferred to be later than ten at night, but she had to make sure Trixie's guest wasn't hijacking her room. She mentally prepared herself for war as she opened the door. "Trixie. I'm home. There better not be anyone in my room or I'm going to murder you." Trixie was sitting on the couch watching TV. Vinyl noticed her room light was on through the crack under the door. "Dead. You're dead. I'm gettin' this guy out, and you're dead. That is seriously not cool!" She stomped towards her room, glaring at Trixie on the side. Trixie didn't even seem to acknowledge Vinyl's presence, which pissed her off even further. She pushed her door open. "Okay, dude, I don't know what crap she told you, but you are not stealin' my room! Sorry about that, but I never agreed to this!" She yelled at the bulge she saw under her blanket. She was about to explode about the situation when the person underneath pushed the blankets off. "Aw come on. Your blanket is so soft and comfy. I keep forgetting to get off my ass and by me a good one like this..." Vinyl's fury quickly faded. "LONGPLAY!? What're you doing here!?" He grinned. "I just wanted to visit my little sister. I called your roommate about it to keep it a secret." "YOU'RE WELCOME!" An irritated voice yelled from outside. Vinyl leapt on to the bed on next to her brother. "I'm gonna have to apologize to her about that later I guess. But dude! How long are ya staying for!?" Longplay nuzzled into her pillow. "Probably a week. Maybe a little more if you're both okay with that." "Hell yeah we are!" "Do I still have to sleep on the couch?" Vinyl gave him a quick hug. "Naw dude, you can sleep in here. You can chill on the bed. It's big enough for two. As long as we're sleepin' head to foot at least. I don't wanna wake up and find you spooning me or some weird cartoon crap like that. " Longplay shot up and thrust his arms into the air. "WOOO! BED AND BREAKFAST ACHIEVED! AND ALL I HAD TO DO WAS LAY DOWN AND DO NOTHING!" Trixie yelled at the door again. "SHUT UP!" Vinyl laughed. "I missed your dumb ass. So what exactly brings you over?" He flopped back down. "Nothing really. Just had a bit of a dry spell with work. Felt like taking a small personal vacation." He pulled out his phone and held the screen up so Vinyl could see. "See, I even texted my boss to make it official." im goin on vacation jackass c u in lik a weak or sumthin peec out Vinyl burst out laughing. "Did you really text that to yourself?" Longplay smiled like an idiot, putting his phone back in his pocket. "Yep! Back grammar and all. Seemed appropriate at the time. By the way, kickass headphones. Where'd you get those?" "Uh, I dunno. It was a gift from a friend." Vinyl shrugged, quickly writing them off. "Same girlfriend that gave you those shades of yours?" She punched him in the shoulder. "Dude. Not my girlfriend. Just a friend." "Aw come on, you can tell me if you're gay. Big brother won't think any less of you." "Shut the hell up. Friend. That's all. Not gay. And no, not her. I haven't even seen her awhile. I need to get back in touch with her. It's been way too long." Longplay shoved the blanket off him and rolled off the bed like a log. "Sounds like a plan. You should do that later. I'm going to bed for real now. Right after I use your shower." He pulled himself up, walked straight to her shower and closed the door. Vinyl relaxed on her bed for a minute before quickly sitting up. "Wait, please tell me you brought pajamas with you!" "Yeees! I left him in here before you got here, don't worry!" He yelled from behind the door. Vinyl flopped back down and relaxed on her bed. She could only hope there would be no Changelings to deal with for a week." --- Applejack sat on a chair next to Twilight's bed, tending to her wounds. "Alraht, that should do it. Ya sure y'aint hurtin' anywhere else?" "Y-yes. It was just the one arm and my neck for the most part. I'm glad it wasn't broken." "Naw. If y'all had broken yer arm, you'd be pourin' tears left and right. Trust me, sugarcube." Twilight shifted around slightly, a little offput by that statement. "Well, that's reassuring." "Now why couldn't y'all have yer jackass partner come n' grab ya? What wassat all about? Twilight gestured to the bluetooth earpiece on Applejack's ear. "Turn that on so the others can hear." Applejack pressed a button and waited. She looked at Twilight for guidance, not sure whether or not she turned it on or not. Twilight simply nodded and started. "Ditzy, can you hear me?" Applejack nodded after a few seconds. "Okay. Sunset Shimmer's here in Manehattan. She's betrayed us. Even worse, it seems she's met up with the one creating the Changeling's. She's a Changeling now. She nearly killed me too. I'll go into more detail tomorrow, when I can explain it in person, but for now, let the higher ups know about her. Also, she told me some interesting information about the Changelings. Again, I'll go into more detail tomorrow. For now, tell Bolt to avoid going near Upper Manehattan. She might still be in there area. She'll kill him if she finds out he's the user for the Solar Driver." Applejack put her hand on the earpiece for a few seconds and nodded. "She says she got it all. Now how do I turn this thing off. Do I just press the button again?" --- "So. This is all the information we could find on these monsters?" Diamond Tiara asked. Silver Spoon nodded quickly. "No one knows much about them. Rumors are all I could come up with. Some of them seems to be consistent though." Diamond scanned through a few pages, the room going completely silent as she did so. She closed the window, turned off the monitor and stood up from her chair. "Good enough! I'll be heading out for now. Feel free to see yourself out Silver Spoon." She left the room and held her arms out. A butler waiting right outside the door slipped a very expensive fur coat on her as she continued walking. Silver looked at the black monitor for a second and quickly shot out of the room after her. "W-wait, Tiara. You're not seriously thinking of finding this woman are you!?" "That's exactly what I'm going to do. We need to have a little chat." "But-" Diamond Tiara spun around and thrust her arm out, pointing a finger upward. "You should know by now Silver Spoon, I have one unbreakable diamond rule that I abide by. If I want answers, I will get them straight from the source, and no one will stop me. You may stay here for the night if you're afraid, or go home if you wish. It's up to you. I have business to attend to. Ta-ta~" She promptly turned around and ventured into the night, thrusting open the large double doors of her estate.