Katy Takes Maretropolis

by Pen Dragon

Act I: The Plan

Act I: The Plan

It had been less than twenty four hours and Dyspo was already back on his feet and had begun training in the new facility. But he wasn’t training by himself exactly. At first, it was just him trying to make sure his arms and muscles weren’t so strained unlike before. But, in doing so, he caught the attention of one of QUILL’s members, Stella. Also known by the hero name ‘Killer Queen’. When he asked how that was her hero name, she told him that the idea came from an old song that Gunvolt knew back home.

And that the lyrics of a song by a group called ‘Queen’ fit along the lines of the kind of powers she had. Especially now since they were trying to figure out the mechanics of his new technique. And there seemed to be only one way for him to do that.

Have Dyspo be target practice. “Look alive, jackrabbit!!”

“This is not what I meant by training!” He shouted, dodging an incoming blast.

“Well, the only way I know that you would be taking this seriously is that if we treat it like the real thing,” She smirked, before picking up what looked to be a ceramic plate with one of her wings and throwing it like a frisbee. “This whole thing is to see what you can do with that technique of yours and figure out what your limits are. Better to know here than for it to happen in the field.”

“It’s not hard to figure out! I can go faster, done and done.” He commented as he vanished in a blur and reappeared behind Stella. However, all she did was back up and tossed up what looked like several small rocks. Rocks that glowed right in front of his face as if they were miniature bombs, but he had once again vanished and appeared right in front of Stella again and grabbed both her hooves and placed cuffs on her. “I’m pretty sure I’m getting better at controlling my speed.”

“And that is shown through what you can do…” She smirked, before surprising Dyspo when she freely moved her hooves out. When Dyspo looked back at his cuffs, he soon saw that the edges of the cufflinks were melted enough for her to slip out. “Fair warning though, regular cuffs don’t work on ponies with powers. Normally, you would have a device to try and cancel it out first.”

“That’s why the police force is planning on creating new power suppressant cuffs to deal with ponies with powers or other criminals with unique abilities.” Dyspo explained as he took as seat against the wall. “So what are your powers exactly Queen?”

The pegasus took a deep breath for a moment… but then decided to answer it. “My powers involve manipulation of Neon Light… and if I touch particular surfaces or objects with my wings or hooves, they become explosives. When I first got them… I was afraid of them because I thought I would seriously harm my family and friends… But Lance has helped me learn how to control them and use them to help others…… Also, don’t call me Queen. That’s my hero name, not my real one.”

“Well I ain’t exactly ready to know your real name and neither are you. So I’m gonna call you Queen for the time being, but that is impressive and you shouldn’t be afraid of your powers. Embrace them and you’ll be able to do a lot more good than you think.” Dyspo explained as he stood up and began to stretch his limbs.

“And I thought Lance told you my name when he first introduced us to you and Phantom… Geez, I wonder if your memory was affected alongside your body.” Stella chuckled.

“It isn’t my style to call a hero by their real name unless I’ve gotten to know them. It’s not that I’ve forgotten, I just choose to call you queen. That isn’t a problem is it?” He replied, finishing his stretches and began to make his way out the training room with Stella following after.

“Nah… Though, at QUILL, everyone here is like a small family. So, we address each other by our real names here while we use our hero names in the field. Besides, you haven’t even met everyone yet.” She smirked.

“Well don’t get your hopes up… I’m just staying here until Commander Shepard and the Masked Killer is caught. Once that job is done, I’ll be heading out to Baltimare to find out who those two were working for… So for now I’m gonna call you by your hero name.” Dyspo explained. “Also I talked with the detective and he’s alright with my decision.”

“Alright then… though, the detective does want you to make sure to behave yourself,” The pegasus said as she passed him on the way out. “His daughter’s part of QUILL too, you know.”

“Well I ain’t gonna cause any problems for any of you.” He commented.

“Sure… I wonder what Aurora will think of you when you meet her.” Stella chuckled, trotting over to the center of the room and sitting down for a moment. All that as Lance came out of his room in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as he noticed both of them.

“Good morning you too…” He replied, before turning to face Dyspo and noticing that he seemed tired out. “Looks like Stella gave you a workout now, didn’t she?”

“Yeah she did… But I think it was worth it. I’m getting the hand of using my speed more. Who knows, I could be faster than the Flash someday.” Dyspo joked as he took a seat beside Lance. “But enough about me… So when do you plan to do on your little date with that griffon?”

“You mean tonight? I’m still going. I’m just waiting on her in order to tell me where,” The Adept replied. “We traded contact information with one another so we could stay in communication with each other. In the meantime though, I’m planning on making sure that everything here is good on this end before I head off anywhere.”

“You know… It’s usually the guys job to plan the date out or both parties plan it out. Not the other way around.” He replied as he picked up an empty glass and noticed the Orange juice across the table and reached for it, only for Stella to grab it first and pour herself a glass.

“True… and I did tell her that, but she insisted anyways,” He replied back, before getting a ring on his phone. “And now we got a location. Everything’s all set.”

“Good, try not to screw up on your date, I could tell that girl has it bad for you… Especially after finding out about her collection of you.” He whispered that last bit only for Stella to hear and giggle.

Lance was going to ask about the last part, but Dyspo soon picked up the phone and was on call. “Hello…? Hi Detective… Uh hunh…… You’re serious? And this was where? At the Wonderbolts stadium? The Phantom and I will be there as soon as we can.”

“Um… what was that all about?” The adept asked once Dyspo was off the phone. “Did the detective find out anything?”

“Yes, it’s those two… They’re back and were spotted by the Wonderbolt Stadium downtown. The Phantom and I can take care of them, but as for you Gunvolt… Your staying here to prepare.” Dyspo said.

“You forgot about the date.” The adept deadpanned.

“That’s what I meant dumbass!” Dyspo said, giving him the same expression. “I said to prepare as in ‘Prepare for your date’, duh!”

“I originally thought you meant something else. My apologies…” He replied back to him. “Besides, I was going to change clothes in an hour anyways… though, I do hope that you two aren’t doing anything too crazy……”

“Lance… would you care to clarify what you mean by that?” Stella asked. Which, caused the Adept to sigh.

“Gabby wants us to go to a restaurant… the only thing is that it’s actually in the downtown area and a few blocks away from Wonderbolt Stadium.” He explained now. “And the last thing I think either of us would want is for a clash between heroes and villains to crash the place.”

“This is why you should have been the one planning instead of her. Look, here’s what your gonna do. You will take her to this restaurant… It’s called-”

“I don’t need you to give me dating advice, idiot…” Lance groaned. “Just… let me take care of my thing and I’ll leave you and Phantom to do yours. If anything goes sideways, my team will contact me.”

“That wasn’t a dating tip… That was for you to take her somewhere far from the action. Take her to this restaurant… They know how to make fancy foods and stuff.” Dyspo deadpanned before turning over to Stella. “So Queen, do you want to help us with these maniacs? Or do you prefer sitting behind the scenes and watching everything go down?”

“Well… based on what I heard Lance say, I believe that QUILL’s going to be on standby and if anything comes up, we notify him immediately,” Stella replied back. “Hell… I like patrolling around, but I’ve been kicking so many flanks and destroying the stashes of many drug dealers that I feel like I need a break.”

“Alright then… Guess it’s just me and the Phantom.”

That was when a thought crossed Lance’s mind as he looked back at Dyspo. “Just out of curiosity… Did Detective Whooves ever tell you that he had a daughter?”

“I’ve heard of her a few times, though I never met her. There was this one time I thought I’d met her, but then the Mane-iac came into town. Wrecked town hall… twice now, and you know… Gets on my nerves. So no I haven’t met her.” Dyspo replied.

“Just thought I would ask. If everything's going well with her current assignment, she might be back here tonight… If you do come back here and meet her… Well, you’ll be in for a surprise.” That was followed by Lance going in his room to change for his date, leaving a confused Dyspo to stare back at Stella as she just shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay then… Anyways, the Phantom should be here in a few minutes, but before that, I figured I’d at least go over the plan with some of you here, but it looks like it’s just you.”

“Uh, was there supposed to be a memo?” Asked a mare with a dark cyan coat and light green mane wearing a nurse’s traditional garb.

“We did all agree to meet here to plan how to get Shepard to confess everything.” Dyspo answered, but sighed anyways.

“Well Firearm and Flash Freeze have been on leave, Esper’s meditating in her room, Sting’s fixing Aurora’s terminal and Vixen’s asleep…” The mare said timidly.

Taking a deep breath, he simply sat down in the chair. “So much for planning… Oh well, I guess since your the only one here… You can fill everyone else in when they get back.”

“I can go get Esper quickly.” The nurse said in response. “She’d be the first one here and is kind of Lance’s left… hoof?”

“Alright, go ahead, I’ll be here waiting.” Dyspo replied as he grabbed his empty glass from before and reached over for the orange juice again, but Stella once again picked up, but this time however poured for him before taking off to find her friend. It wasn’t long before a pink mare wearing a white hooded cape over a greyish fur tight suit that covered most of her lower body. Her face’s left half was covered by a white mask while the left had nothing blocking it, as if proudly showing off the large scar that adorned her right half.

“Esper, reporting for duty.” She said in a calm, professional yet distant manner.

“So you’re Esper? It’s nice to meet you… Anyways now that we at least have three of us here. We can start planning how to get that bastard to confess his crimes for the murders.” Dyspo said. “Any suggestions?”

“I’m a trained telepath. I could either extract the information or intimidate him with personal things so he’ll give an outward confession.” Esper replied, straight and to the point.

“Well I doubt that would work on him… He’s usually calm and collected and not to mention is skilled interrogation. It would be pretty hard to get him to confess, but if you are a telepath, then extracting all the evidence we need from him could work.”

“It might be possible that both him and the Masked Killer guy aren’t working alone, so maybe get some information on who they’re working with or if they have some kind of boss?” Stella suggested to them.

“I’ve been a cop before. I know what to ask his head.” Esper sighed, scratching her scar with a hoof. “It’s been awhile since I outright took information, so it’ll be fun.”

“Really? I didn’t think you were a cop?” Dyspo asked, taking a sip from his glass of orange juice.

“My father’s a detective, so when Lance offered me a chance to redeem myself, I took it and joined him for a month before quitting and joining QUILL. It was a good learning experience, plus I got to spend time with my parents.” Hearing that… almost caused Dyspo to spill his glass. Especially at one… important part that she said.

“Wait… You mean to tell me… Your the detective’s daughter?!” He shouted, slamming his hand on the table as his glass fell off. Esper’s hidden horn lit up and caught the glass.

Esper gave Dyspo an annoyed look as she set the glass back on the table while the nurse tried to clean up the mess. “Yeah, so what? They only have the same blood as me...”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know… Please don’t tell him about me being rude?” He begged. Just as Lance happened to walk out in more formal clothes.

“Oh hello Esper… I see that you met your father’s partner on the force…”

“Dear Celestia…” Esper groaned. “You know, I’d like to have at least a little secret identity… Would you quit spouting out things that could give me away?”

“Again I’m sorry.” Dyspo replied, not acknowledging the adept behind him. “I didn’t think I’d be meeting my partner’s daughter like this is all.”

“Can we focus on the plan? What happens after we get the info?” Esper asked, prompting Lance to leave them alone and let them continue their conversation.

“Ah, right… Anyways about your abilities, will you be able to use them from here or do you have to be close to them to extract the information from them? Or is your abilities different from what I’m thinking of.” He asked as he sat back down and waited for Esper’s response.

“I have to see my target.” She replied.

“Alright… Well there, anything else I need to know?” Dyspo asked.

“Maybe you should tell Esper where they might be…” Stella advised him. “That way she could find some kind of tactical advantage?”

“Well all we know is that they were spotted at the old Wonderbolt stadium. That’s as much as your father knows right now… But I think that they’ll know that we’re coming, but what they won’t expect is you there Esper… The Phantom and I will incapacitate them and you will extract all the information from them.” Dyspo explained to them, just as the phone began to ring once again. “Hello?”

“Dyspo, we need to head out now... We’ve got a couple of criminals to catch.” The Phantom responded.

“Looks like that’s our que!”