//------------------------------// // Episode 10 - The Threat // Story: Kamen Rider Bass // by Noise //------------------------------// "I would like to ask a favor of you, Diamond Tiara." "Hmm? I'm listening." "I have an acquaintance that I would like you to house as well. Would this be okay?" "As long as this acquaintance abides by my rules, then I don't see why not. I expect you to make sure that this person does." "I appreciate your hospitality. I shall find her and bring her here as soon as possible." --- "How's your arm doing?" Twilight sat up in her bed, moving her arm around a little. "It's feeling a lot better now. I'm surprised it wasn't broken. Bolt gave her arm a quick, light slap. "You'll be fine. I'mmah raid your pantry and make you something. Get out o' bed and stretch that arm a bit." Twilight pulled herself out of bed after a few minutes. She took a quick glance down at the bandages across her chest. She could still feel a bit of lingering pain. She decided to stay in her pajamas and left her room, making her way to her living room. She turned on her TV. Bolt peeked around the corner as he heard the television. "Oy, I said work your arm a bit. Flipping channels doesn't count as exercise." "That's what I'm going to do." She tuned to a fitness channel. A young woman was currently on screen, going through a few stretches and poses. Twilight took a deep breath and started following along, mimicking the instructor's poses. Bolt put a pot on the stove and tossed a package in the trash. He took another peek around the corner to monitor Twilight. She was balancing on her right leg as her left leg was lifted straight up in air. She held her left leg with both arms. "Damn. I said work your arm, not bend like a rubber chicken." "I do this all the time. I picked it up from a close friend of mine a long time ago." "Was your friend as flexible as you?" Twilight chuckled a little. "Possibly. She used to stretch like this to keep in shape. When I was young, I just started copying her and next thing I knew it just became a thing I do when I'm bored or if I feel like I need to move around a little while I'm reading." "You, 'just copied,' that?" "Yes. It wasn't perfect at the time, of course." Bolt walked over to the couch, grabbed the remote and flipped through a few channels, landing on a kung-fu movie. "H-hey!" "Try just copying something that'll help you not get your ass kicked again." He laid down on the couch, keeping the remote under his back. Twilight glared at him for a moment and looked back on the screen. She abandoned her current stretch and started observing the fighters on screen. Twilight watched for a few minutes before starting to mimic one of the fighters, her actions only a second or two behind the action on screen. She continued for awhile until her movements started moving her dangerously close to the television. She stopped and gave her arm a quick rub as she returned. Bolt was extremely interested now and got up to give her a pat on the shoulder. Twilight mimicked another move she observed earlier and quickly grabbed his wrist with her left left hand, pushing it to her right, pivoted around on her left foot and thrust her elbow towards his lower back, stopping it just before making impact. After holding that pose for a few seconds, she let him go and smiled. "That's for changing my channel." Bolt just stared at her, dumbfounded at her near perfect execution. "...how'd you do that?" "The same way that martial artist in that movie did it. I can show you if you'd like. It just requires getting good wrist control a-" "Is this your first time doing that move?" "Yes. I'm not a particularly huge fan of those kinds of movies, but I can appreciate the skill and choreography put into them. It's pretty impressive." "Twilight, you incredibly dense nerd. Why have you never thought of using that!?" "Th-thought of using what?" "You can copy just about anything you see, perfectly." "Well, I wouldn't say perfect." A loud beep emanated from the kitchen, cutting off of Bolt's response. He nodded at Twilight and made his way to the kitchen. "I'm gonna make us some snacks too. We're having a movie marathon." "What? Why? We more important things to do today." "Training!" --- Vinyl was surprised she hadn't been woken up by something. No noise from her phone and her brother wasn't messing with her in some way. She quickly remembered her brother and sat up quickly to look around her room for him. Longplay came into the room with a piping hot mug almost on queue. He quietly sat down at her desk and took a quick sip of his drink. Vinyl pushed the blankets off her. "Is Trixie still in the kitchen?" He shook his head. "She already left. She has a show to do." She nodded slowly. Neither moved for awhile, save for Longplay taking the occasional sip of his coffee. He set his mug to the side and clasped his hands together, "So. What do you know about this kid? The footage on his phone or he back it up somewhere else?" Vinyl was caught off guard by his question. "Wh-what?" "You heard me. Answer the question." "N-not much, and he said he has the footage on his computer at home." "Not much is something. How not much?" "His name is Featherweight. He's a high school student. That's about the most I got." "M'kay." He nodded, picked up his mug and left the room. Vinyl quickly changed into a pair of suitable clothes and followed after him, finding him at the dinner with his laptop out. "What's goin on? What're you doing?" "I'm going to try and fix your screw up." "How?" "Well I can't just go up to his house and delete the files from his computer, now can I? I got a more subtle plan. I'm going to get a friend of mine to help me and we're going to write a program to corrupt and delete that footage for you." Vinyl was a little surprised by his answer. "Y-you're gonna help me?" "Yes. I'm going to try to get you out of this stupid mess. Don't ever screw up like this again." He noticed something on his screen and started typing in response. "Sit down real quick." She reluctantly sat across from him, expecting him to pull the same trick he did yesterday. He slid his laptop aside. "I'm not going to try and tell you what to do. You're more than old enough to be making your own decisions and dealing with the consequences. Just promise me that you won't do anything stupid and get yourself killed." "I already told you. I'm not trying to be a hero or anything. I just have one thing I need to take care of and that's it. I promise." The two stared deep into each others eyes for a moment before Longplay nodded, his expression unreadable, and went back to focusing on his laptop. --- "Welcome back, Doctor." "Don't tell me you've been up all night Ditzy..." Ditzy shook her head. "No. I went to bed. I just woke up and got right back to it. More importantly, I got a call from Trixie earlier. We've figured out who Blitz is!" "Fantastic! Who's our mystery girl!?" Ditzy pulled up a window on her monitor containing a picture of a young teenager with rainbow streaked hair and various bits of information. "Her name is Rainbow Dash, Daughter of the late, Rainbow Blitz. She's currently being put up for adoption at a small orphanage in Lower Manehattan." She took a deep breath. "Now here's the bad news..." "Oh of course, it can never be that easy can it." "I made a quick call before you got here. She hasn't come back to the orphanage in days. I suspect that she's been using the Flight Driver to get around and keep herself safe at night. There's also a mention on her profile here about emotional problems stemming from her father's death." "It'll be fine. Assuming she keeps up her little super hero streak, she'll eventually come to us. We can talk to her when the time comes. For now, looking for her isn't a priority. Just let the Riders know when the Changeling decides to show up. If any of the other Riders show up anywhere nearby, let them know about that as well. Applejack will be here eventually. She's currently visiting a relative in the hospital. As it turns out, the previous Changeling was her cousin. Fancy that bit of bad luck. Anyway, I have a bit of phone calls to take care of with the top brass. It seems our candidate for the Flight Driver is getting restless, among other things...though that first bit's not important. Anyway! You know what to do Ditzy. I'll see you later." Ditzy smiled and saluted. "You can count on me Doctor! I'll see you later too!" --- Hours had flown by and Vinyl decided to visit the Starry Brew Cafe. It was slowly becoming a usual hangout for her. She got herself a hot chocolate, settled down at a booth and called Lyra. "Sup, Lyra. Don't suppose ya got anything for me?" "Nothing that'll really help you. I did a little asking around. It seems that Featherweight kid isn't well received. He has a tendency to sneak around, taking video and pictures of people's private affairs. He's got a blog up where he posts them for everyone in Manehattan to see." "Tch, surprised the little bastard hasn't gotten his ass kicked already." "Oh he has. Vinyl couldn't resist bursting into a fit of laughter. "Many times actually. Apparently three other students from his school in particular even destroyed a few of his cameras because they were sick of him." "Oh man, please tell me someone got that on camera." "Focus Vinyl, you can worry about getting back at him later. Were you able to find anything since yesterday? "Ugh, no. But I'm working on it." "Well, work fast. I have a bad feeling I know what he's gonna make you do. We need to get you out of this before he decides to make his move." "Yeah. I guess I'll talk to ya later. Oh wait! This might sound weird...but I need you to do me a huge favor." "Yes? "I think there might be another me running around." "...another...you?" "Yeah. Look, I can show you footage, but there was another me walking away from Town Hall during the last Changeling incident. Like, dead on clone of me. I saw her yesterday too. Anyway, if you ever see me where I probably shouldn't be, I want you to talk to her and call me immediately." "I won't believe til I see it, but okay. I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled. See you later." "Later." She sighed and put her phone away. She slowly drank her hot chocolate and glanced around the cafe. She noticed Lyra's friend Rarity behind the front counter, tending to a customer. Seeing nothing of particular interest, she turned her gaze to the front door straight ahead of her. She had hoped she would see her clone again. She shrugged, pulled her phone out again and began browsing the internet. She went to her FacePage account and started catching on new posts from her fans. As she read a post, she took a casual glance out the window next to her. Leaning against the window and staring down at her, was her clone again, wearing her trademark large purple shades. Vinyl froze in place. The doppelganger turned her head slightly, glancing in the direction of her phone, and nodded approvingly. Vinyl continued staring at her clone in sheer disbelief while remaining motionless. The doppelganger stared right on back for a minute before shrugging casually. It took out it's phone out it's pocket. It was the exact same phone as Vinyl's. It fiddled with the phone for a second, and stared at the screen before looking back at the real Vinyl. The fake Vinyl held her hand out towards the window, her fingers pointing outward. Vinyl slowly moved her hand up, reciprocating the gesture, not entirely sure what the clone was up to. The fake Vinyl pulled her pinkie in towards her palm, then proceeded to do the same with her ring finger. Vinyl quickly realized she was counting down. She was done watching the her clone, abandoned her drink and dashed towards the front door. She burst through the door and ran around to the side of the restaurant, feeling her phone vibrate and emit a jingle along the way. The clone had vanished again. She cursed loudly to herself and took a glance around the area in hopes of finding her. Getting a little fed up, she realized her phone had made a notification tone at about the same time her fake would have finished counting down. She quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened a new text message she had received. It was from Featherweight. Make your way to the neighborhood basketball court in White Woods in Middle Manehattan. I'll have your first assignment in about one hour and thirty minutes. If you're not there, I'll leak the footage. "Shhhhhit!" Vinyl ran to her motorcycle while calling Lyra. "Lyra! You have an hour and a half to figure something out! He just sent me a text telling me to go to White Woods! I'm heading over, I'll send you a text if I can when I get there!" She hung up immediately and drove off. Her mind lingered on the fake Vinyl as she blazed as fast as she could down the streets of Manehattan. She wasn't sure if the fake was trying to help her or mess with her. While it did protect her from being discovered by the other Riders, it seemed to be following her now for some reason. What concerned her the most was the fact that she knew the text was coming. She wasn't sure why the fake even did that. Was it trying to prove something to her? Thoughts swirled around her head for an hour and not a single possible conclusion was reached. She curbed her thoughts for the moment as she parked on the curb and stepped off her bike. There were three young male teenagers, about Featherweight's age, playing basketball together. She took a quick glance at her phone. Judging from the time of the text, she had about a few minutes left over until the next message. She approached the teens, holding a hand up to make her a little more noticeable. "Ey. You guys got a minute?" The three stopped and glanced at the older woman coming their way. "Look, I'm going to be incredibly straight forward, cuz I'm on a time limit. Do you guys know anything about some kid named, Featherweight?" Judging by their reactions, they all seemed to recognize the name. One of the teens responded in a cockney accent. "Of course we do. We hate him. Why do you ask?" Vinyl recognized his accent as one originating from Trottingham. "I'm trying to get some dirt on the guy. Believe it or not, little bastard is blackmailing me." All three of them seemed to cringe slightly, a sympathetic look adorning their faces. "Oy, I'm sorry miss. We can't really help you there. We don't got anything on him. Personally, we're sick of the little blighter. We've tried everything to get him to stop. We've even broke his camera a few times, he just keeps coming back. His like a little plague, he is." Gears were starting to turn in her head. She had a bad feeling she knew what was about to happen. "W-well, thanks for the help anyway." She shrugged and made her way to a nearby bench as the three went back to their game. She pulled at her phone and started typing up a text as fast as she could to Lyra. Before she could finish, her phone started to ring. The screen was displaying Featherweight's number. She held back numerous attempts at cursing to the heavens and slowly placed the phone to her ear. "I trust you've arrived." "If you're about to ask what I think, then you can piss right off you little prick." "Well that's just too bad. I was just going to ask you to rough up those three. Trust me, they're real assholes. I've been bullied enough by them to know this." "They've only messed with you because you keep poking your stupid nose into other people's business. Ever heard of privacy kid?" "I care about one thing. The truth." "Well that doesn't mean you can just go around posting everyone's personal drama!" "I don't feel like arguing this, Vinyl Scratch. Now I want you to send them to the hospital. You know what will happen if you don't. If I don't hear ambulance sirens soon, then it's over for you." "Y-you can't do this! I can't do this!" "Not my problem. Put the phone on speaker and do it so I can hear it. No more talking." Vinyl got up from the bench and slowly made her way back towards the small basketball court. The three noticed her but decided to ignore her and continue their game until she address them. Her breathing was getting heavier. "D-dude, I'll do anything else, just don't make me do this man. This isn't right." "Put the phone on speaker and do it." She put her phone on speaker and slowly brought her hand up to her headphones until it was over the button. She held her hand their for what felt like an eternity. Her hand was starting to tremble. She knew what was at stake for her, but she wasn't able to bring herself to do it. "You have thirty seconds to put your phone on speaker right now a-" The sound of breaking glass suddenly came from his end. "What the!? What the hell are you doing breaking my window! You're paying for that! I'm calling the cops!" "Cast Off." Vinyl's eyes shot wide open, recognizing that phrase. She could hear Featherweight scream. "You are guilty of threatening a fellow hero of justice! You shall pay for your crimes with your life!" Featherweight screamed again, his voice sounding more distant. She could only assume he dropped his phone. "N-no! No, PLEASE! HELP M-" She could hear the sound of something loud breaking moments before the call was abruptly cut off. Vinyl looked at her phone's screen to verify the call had been cut off. She quickly scanned through her list of messages with Lyra, copying the address to Featherweight's address and putting it into her GPS. The trio had stopped their game again, overhearing the last bit of her conversation through the phone's speaker. "Was that Featherweight? Something bad happen?" The teen from Trottingham asked. "Yeah. Little bastard's in trouble with one of those monsters." "One of those monster's is after him? Why in Equestria would you risk your neck for that creep? Wasn't he blackmailing you?" "Cuz I wouldn't be able to look at myself in the mirror anymore if I just walked away and let someone die!" She sprinted to her motorcycle and sped off again. Luckily, his house was only minutes away from her currently location. She quickly parked in the driveway and ran around the side of the house, remembering that the window to his room had been broken. She could start to hear the commotion from the back of the house, and leaped through the broken window. She took a quick glance around the room and took a small glint of joy as she noticed his computer had been totaled. She quickly left his room and followed the sounds of panicked screaming into his living room, where she found a woman passed out in the corner and Featherweight on the floor, backing away as quickly as he could from the humanoid grasshopper from yesterday. "Hey! Leave him alone!" "V-Vinyl! Y-you came to save me!" The terrified Featherweight exclaimed. "You shut your damn mouth you little weasel!" The monster turned to face Vinyl. "You again? I told you not to interfere again." Vinyl put a hand up to her headphones. "You're going way overboard again! I know this kid's garbage, but that's not worth killing him over!" "He was threatening a fellow hero of justice. Such actions can not be allowed to go unpunished. For repeated obstruction of justice, you will also pay with your life." "Sorry, I already promised someone that I wouldn't die anytime soon." She held the button down. "Transform!" "Y-you! You're the white armored hero!?" Vinyl summoned two records in her hands. "I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda glad you wrecked his computer. But there's no way I'm going to let you kill anyone! I'm no hero, but I know that no hero would ever abuse their power like this!" The Changeling clenched his fists. "So be it. Then let's settle this outside!" He made his way to the front door, kicking the door off the hinges and continuing outside. "Th-thank you so much! I'm so sor-" Featherweight blubbered again, now that the Changeling was out of his house. Vinyl quickly turned and threw a record at the wall he was sitting against, cutting into it just an inch above his head. She shot him a death glare and turned to follow the Changeling outside, leaving Featherweight alone to whimper on the floor. The Changeling was waiting for Vinyl on the roof. "I shall make your defeat as quick as possible!" "Just shut up and get down here! I wanna finish this off so I can finally go home and relax!" The Changeling growled and leapt off the roof, coming down towards Vinyl with a dive kick. She was ready for such an attack. She took a few steps back and lunged forward as it hit the ground, burying her fist into it's stomach. The Changeling fell to it's knees in pain, but Vinyl picked it back up by the shoulder proceeded to pepper him with more gut punches. She finished her assault with final haymaker to the face, sending it careening down the street. It quickly brought itself to it's feet as she continued stomping menacingly towards it, ready to deliver more punishment. It held it's arms above his head, crossing them to form an 'X', and cross slashed the air, sending a wave of energy at Vinyl. She quickly formed two records, tossed them out to the side and took the wave head on. The Changeling laughed as it approached the down Rider, his arms crossed over his head for another shock wave. "You fought well, but now it is time face justice. Any last words?" Vinyl wasn't remotely fazed. "I'm looking forward to shutting you up in a second. Next time, try fighting instead of talking." "Bold words coming from a lowlife currently on the gro-GAGH!" The records flew across the Changeling's arms and legs, cutting deep and causing it to fall to the ground. Vinyl casually picked herself up. "I had them bounce of those houses before you hit me. Next time, pay attention. It's time for the Final Remix!" She summoned her large blue and white record. She threw it down into the Changeling's back and took a step back as the record embedded itself into it. She pushed all the sliders up on the mixing board on her right arm. "Audio Overdrive!" The Changeling convulsed wildly for a second and exploded. Vinyl waved her hand around to clear the smoke in front of her. Lying on the floor, was another male teenager. She knelt down and turned him over, shaking him a little. "Hey, you awake kid?" The teen opened his eyes. "Wh-what? Wh-where am I? Wh-why am I in so m-much pain right now?" "Relax and hang tight buddy, it's a long story. Basically you got turned into a monster and I had to beat you up a little to turn you back to normal. I'll get you to a hospital, alright?" "Y-you...y-you're that superhero..." "Yeah yeah, sure. Look, I'll see if I can get someone around here to dr-" A voice called out from further down the cul-de-sac, "Nice work, Noise." Vinyl looked up. A group of two riders, one of which she recognized as the yellow Rider from before, and a nerdy looking purple haired girl were making their way towards her. "Oh shit. This is bad. This is the worst possible thing. Sorry kid, I'm gonna have to carry you, it might get rough!" The girl held her hand out. "Hold on a moment, please. I promise, no matter what happens here, we won't attack you. I just wanted to talk to you. We'll also take Rumble there to a hospital. We will cover all of his medical expenses and notify his family. Just hear me out." Vinyl cautiously watched the three. "Maybe. How do I know I can trust you?" "Whatever puts you at ease. If you would like, I can stand next to you as a hostage. My Driver is not on me at the moment nor do I have a weapon on me." "N-no, that's fine. Just take the kid at least." The girl nodded and glanced over at the red Rider, who nodded back and slowly walked towards Rumble and carried him back to his comrades. "Now then, I hope I have your full attention now. My name is Twilight Sparkle. We work for a special organization dedicated to eliminating the Changeling threat. I don't know what your current knowledge of the subject matter is, but allow me to fill you in anyway. These monsters known as, Changelings, are born from one source. The Changeling Queen. She converts humans by injecting them with a fast acting venom that infects the brain. Put simply, it completely eliminates their ability to feel and emote. It also converts them into them into Changelings, beings of great strength that can walk among humans and transform into those monstrous forms by casting off their human shell. As of now, there are three types. The first is the one I already mentioned. The second type of Changeling is the one you just fought. They are created by instead, amplifying a person's negative emotions before conversion. We're not entirely sure what other effects this may have, but we know that it makes them stronger, and fortunately, when defeated, they revert back to a normal human. The first type, as you may have noticed in your first encounter at the Cover Page Comic Shop, are remotely killed after being defeated. The Changeling Queen forces them to kill themselves via a hive mind. At the moment, we believe the second type is immune to the Queen's hivemind, a possibly side-effect of retaining their emotions. I cannot say much about the third type, but I can say that they are incredibly dangerous and are capable of super human feats in their human forms. Here's a photo of the only known type three Changeling. If you see her, I highly advise you do not engage her." Twilight slowly made her way towards Vinyl, pulling a picture out of her back pocket and holding it out towards her. She quickly backed off as Vinyl took the photo, holding her arms up to make sure Vinyl was at ease. "Nice hair. She use bacon flavored shampoo or something?" "Now for the reason we came. We'd like you to join us. We work to find and eliminate the Changelings whenever they appear. Our main goal is to locate and ultimately, eliminate the Changeling Queen. In exchange, you would be free to hold on to the Noise Driver without fear. Feel free to relay this information to your friend, Music, as well." "Music? Wha?" Twilight shook her head. "S-sorry. We've been referring to you and Music simply by the codenames of the Drivers you hold. We're already more than aware that the two of you have come into contact with each other and informed you on how to evade our tracking capabilities. To us, you are simply, Noise. We are also currently tracking the other one, Flight. I have already figured her true identity thanks to her open showboating. I plan to extend my offer to her as well." Twilight held out her hand. "Will you join us? We could really use your help, seeing how you have already adapted quite well to the Noise Driver." Vinyl sighed. "Sorry. I want to eliminate that Queen as well, but I don't care about dealing with those other Changelings. I had circumstances with this one and the last one I dealt with. I have enough to deal with as well, and career to balance. I ain't got time to play super secret agent on the side." "You are sure about that?" Vinyl nodded while backing away slowly. "That's a shame. I was really hoping we would be able to work together. I guess I can't helped." Twilight shrugged. "Like I promised, we will leave you alone today. Next time, we will be taking those Drivers back." Twilight bowed to Vinyl and turned and left quietly with her Rider escorts. Vinyl waited until they were out of sight and made her way back into Featherweight's house. She went into his room and double check the wreckage that was once his computer, making sure his hard drive was thoroughly destroyed. She gave the remains of the ruined machine a quick stomp and headed back out to the living room, where a sniveling Featherweight was still backed up into a corner. "P-p-please d-don't hurt m-me!" Vinyl shook her head. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna waste my breath on garbage. But..." She grabbed the camera around his neck, yanked it off and slammed it into the wall. "N-NO! N-not another one!" She tossed the remains aside. "Look you little prick, get used to it. You wanna keep toying with people's lives like this? Then hope you're not too attached to these things, cuz you're gonna be breezing through these things like candy. And have fun being sad and alone, because I guarantee ya, when life takes a dump on ya and you just can't deal with it alone, you're gonna have no one to help you, but you'll sure as hell have more than half the city ready to stomp your ass further into that curb." She wanted to say more, but decided to leave it there and get out while she still could. She turned and quickly raided his fridge, grabbing a bottle of soda and disengaging her transformation while she had the cover and knew that he couldn't record it. "Sorry about the wrecked house. Sucks. This drink's mine now. I'm not helping with any of this cuz I hate you. Peace out." "W-wait!" Vinyl stopped at the doorway. "I-I'm s-sorry. I p-promise I'll n-never do a-anything l-like this a-again." She took a deep breath and turned around. "First of all, screw you. Second, you wanna do some reporting or whatever? Investigate something worthwhile, not some small neighborhood bullshit that'll get your ass kicked. Do it on something that people actually wanna hear about. Third, maybe, just maybe, if you can make it up to everyone you screwed over and apologize to everyone, then maybe, I'll accept your damn apology. Until then, don't you dare show your stupid face around me." She held the drink up as she left him alone. It was up to the police and his mother now. She wanted nothing more to do with any of it. The drive back home felt great with the large weight lifted off her shoulders. She entered her apartment, finding Trixie on her usual spot on the couch with her brother. "...hey...what're you two watchin'?" Trixie responded in her usual uninterested tone, keeping her eyes glue to the screen. "News. Your brother insisted on watching it too. We had dinner already. There are no leftovers." Vinyl continued to walk to her room, unfazed. "Whatever, I'm not hungry right now. I'm gonna steal my brother for now. LP, get in here." Longplay closed the door behind him and sat at her desk while Vinyl laid down on her bed. "Our trojan is halfway done. When it's done, it should be capable of downloading itself onto any device that logs on to his website and delete any file that contains that bit of footage. Now then, please tell me you don't have any bad news for me." "I'm free. One of those monsters actually attacked the guy blackmailing me and broke his computer for me. I guess before he got turned into that thing, that kid knew Featherweight or something. Either way, his computer is totaled, and don't worry, I made sure the hard drives were completely obliterated." He took a deep breath and lightly clapped his hands together. "I'm going to not question any of that right now, but I expect full details later. Are you one hundred percent sure that you're off the hook now? No one else to worry about? No more screw ups?" Vinyl nodded. "That's a relief. Except I just wasted an entire day." "I know. I'm really sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you, ju-" "Don't worry about it. I'll always help you out when you need it, sis. Just be more careful from now on." He got up from her chair and pulled out a suitcase from under her desk and started rummaging through it. "Thanks LP. And don't worry, I think I have a solution to the problem. I'll work on that soon." "Good. Now that all of that is out of the way, I can finally enjoy myself. Also, I can finally give you your present." Vinyl quickly sat up at the mention of a free gift. Longplay pulled out a plastic bag full of something and threw it at Vinyl's face. She barely caught it in time, falling on her back in the process. Before she could respond, he threw another one, knocking her flat on her bed again. "Agh. Dick. This better be good." She turned over one of the bags, spilling out a few paperback books. She took a look at one of the covers for a moment, then quickly started looking the others. "Dude!" "A book store near my house was having big sale and I know about your little noir fetish, so I snagged up every book I could find that fit the bill. You might already have one or two of those. I didn't take too much time actually looking these over. Place was crawling people. "Yo! Thanks!" She was looking over her new hoard of detective novels, separating one book off to the side that she already owned. "Aw dude! Hardboiled Delusion Diary! I've been wanting to read this one! Dude! You're the best!" He got up with a smile on his face. "Shut up baby, I know it. Now I'm gonna take a well deserved shower, tell my friend that he doesn't need to work on that virus anymore and then I'm going to sleep on your bed and enjoy it." "Sounds like a plan." "And no reading those in here tonight. I can't sleep when there's light in the room." "Fine. Dick." --- "And she just offered up the place to you for free?" "Yes. I was as surprised as you were. She could be the one I need to put my plan into motion. In the meantime, you are also welcome to stay in Miss Tiara's estate." "Hmph. Sure, why not. Beats paying rent." "I will warn you once however, Miss Tiara has a few simple ground rules we must abide by, and as a guest on my behalf, I expect you to follow them to the letter as well, or you will face severe punishment." "Seriously? We could rip that little runt in pieces and just take her damn mansion and you're gonna play by her rules?" "Indeed. We have been invited into another's home. As honored guests, we must abide by the house rules." "Tch, fine, whatever. I'll play nice for now." "Good. As long follow the rules, you are free to do as you please." "Works for me. I still need to find Sparkle's little friend and break him." "Here we are. I shall introduce you to Miss Tiara. Do be on your best behavior." "Before I trudge through that ordeal, answer me this. I've told you my name. What is your name, hm?" "Why of course my dear. You may call me, Queen Chrysalis."