Beta Warriors

Ever since yesterday afternoon the girls haven't even given me the time of day. My guess is............it's about the photos.

"Geez Dash I apologized already!" I said trying to get Dash to look at me.

"Um-hum." She replied as the others mimicked her and just faced away from me.

I took a deep breath and realized that I might have to pick up a few jobs because I feel a disturbance.......in my wallet. "Ugh.....I know the only way you all are gonna give me the time of day is that I buy lunch, Right?" I asked.

"YUP!" They announced happily.

"Thought so."

We went to a restaurant not far from Canterlot high. The girls were all excited to get a free meal, however, I was tearing up at the thought of all my hard earned cash vanishing into thin air.

"My funds........their vanishing before my eyes," I said while lagging behind the rest of the group.

"Oh quit your crying!" Butch said walking beside me.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow Butch decided that he wanted to come along and the others didn't seem to give it a second thought at all!

"Need I remind you that it was YOUR fault I wound up in this mess to start with!" I explained with a scowl.

Butch dismissed my claims and just kept staring at the girls. "Look I'm paying half of the bill, just get over it!" He shouted.

We continued to argue with each other until we heard the girls giggling at our display, we just sneered and turned from one another.

"Guys can be such idiots," Dash exclaimed.

"But hey at least their profitable!" Pinkie shouted as the others to burst with laughter.

As we made our way into the restaurant the girls were all buzzing with gossip and talks of the friendship games, which still confused me. Butch and I just shrugged and waited for someone to greet us, and luckily that didn't take long as a waitress wearing a maid uniform walked up to us.

"Hello and welcome to Big Papa's Grill! How can I serve you today?" The waitress asked as butch and I showed her our BETA registrations. She gasped and suddenly ran off in a panic towards the kitchen.

"What was that about?" Sunset asked as Butch and I just signaled the others to wait.

Like clockwork, the manager/chef of the restaurant came out to greet us. "Welcome everyone! My name is Big Papa and I am honored to have you in my restaurant." He exclaimed.

"Oh no! Thank you for serving us," I said as he showed us to our seats.

As we took or seats we all looked over the menus. I decided on a simple burger and fries would be enough because it looked like the cheapest on the menu. We made our orders and the waitress speed out of sight.

"Ok start explaining you two! What was with that show earlier?" Dash commanded as the others waited for our response.

"So do you want me to explain or do you want to?" Butch asked which I only shrugged in response.

"Well, It's like this," I said while trying to gather my thoughts. "Being a BETA warrior means you have certain influences depending on your rank. My rank is F-class," I explained.

"And my rank is E-class," Butch exclaimed.

"Depending on your class you can have all kinds of privileges!" I explained.

"Not only do those of Higher ranks get better privileges, but they also are allowed to get away with a lot more than an average citizen. Basically, if you're a BETA player you have personal ties with the government, and can do just about anything and get away scot free." Butch exclaimed as the girls glared at him.

"So we can't have you arrested for peeping!" Dash asked while the others nodded in agreement.

"Well yeah you can but Butch can just buy out his Punishment before they even slap the cuffs on him!" I explained as the others stared in shock.

"Seriously!" The girls shouted.

"Wait if that's the case where do you get all the cash from!" Dash asked with a stunned expression.

"We get it for deleting viruses found all around us, or we can pick up a job and hunt down specific viruses based on our rank," I exclaimed as I pulled up a Job list on my BETA pack and showed the others.

"How much do the two of you have?" Rarity asked.

"Umm, last time I check I got two thousand on a from a job I did recently, and I already had four hundred and fifty-six bucks in my account so about two thousand four hundred fifty-six dollars," I explained as all the girls jaws dropped on the table.

"And I Have about three thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine dollars," Butch said as the girls went dead silent.

Suddenly Dash slammed her hands on the table. "AND HOW EXACTLY IS THIS GONNA HURT YOUR FUNDS!" Dash yelled at me.

"Well in order to be able to get more cash we have to upgrade our warriors and It cost over a thousand just to be able to buy a single level," I Explained as Dash tried to do the math in her head. "Basically I have enough for two more levels and the rest is for cards I can use."

"Arent the cards you have already good enough?" Fluttershy asked hiding behind her hair.

"Well, not really, see, we have to battle an A.I. system so advanced that it learns our fighting styles even if were not fighting them. It's like they have a hive mind that gathers information on every battle they engage in or watch and store it for later use." Butch explained as the girls seemed to understand the gist of what was said.

Finally, our food arrived and we all dug in. While we were eating, we just talked about stuff happening at CHS. After we finished our meals Butch and I paid the bill and thanked the chef for his hospitality.

"So maybe we can see where you guys get the new cards and stuff?" Dash asked while the others seemed to shrug.

"Sure I don't mind! what about you?" I asked.

"Sure I need some new cards anyways," Butch replied

Butch guided us to a small store in the heart of the city. It was small, but you could definitely tell it was a BETA shop just by all the flashy designs of digital warriors battling..........that and the flashing BETA neon sign on the roof.

"Welcome to the Mark enterprise!" Butch announced.

"Mark enterprise? Why did they call it that?" I asked.

"The owner of the store thought it sounded more official that way," Butch explained with a sigh, I couldn't help but laugh a little at his explanation. Still it was the only BETA store in town.

As we walked in I saw the store had a pretty good bulk of cards to choose from. Not only that but they even had some software boosters and even a few BETA packs for sale.

"Well, well, well, I never thought I'd see the day were Butch walks in with a bunch of pretty girls!" We heard someone say from behind the counter. A man, who looked to be in his mid 30's, stood up from behind the counter and looked at us. He wore a baseball cap and a simple button-up T-shirt.

"Mark could you just not?" Butch asked as he facepalmed.

"Hey, I have to give you hell somehow! Welcome everyone to Mark enterprise! Have a look around and see what you like! My real name is Question Mark, but most of my friends just call me Mark." He exclaimed.

"Nice to meet you," We announced.

As we spread out all over the store I went over to the card station and started to look through their stock with little to no success on finding any useful cards.

"Mark, why don't you have any recent cards? A lot of these cards are at least 7 months old?" I asked as Mark rubbed the bridge of his nose at the question.

"To be honest we don't have many BETA players around here, so we don't get many shipments of recent stuff. Heck, new shipments only come in every six months." He explained.

"Wow! That sucks!" I said which mark laughed at. I kept looking through different cards for sale but suddenly found a silver card, which are super rare cards, and I quickly reached out to grab it only to suddenly find someone else's hand reaching for it as well.

I looked over to find a guy with pale skin wearing a reddish-purple blazer with dark blue slacks and a necktie with purple hair and blue eyes which were glaring daggers at me.

"Woah sorry about that man!" I said as I quickly slipped my hand away from him.

He continued to stare at me for a brief second in complete awkward silence, suddenly he took the card and tossed it to me. I couldn't help but be confused.

"Umm, don't you want it?" I asked.

"No, but seeing as you have an eye for quality cards I'll let you keep that one," He said walking past me and towards the front door.

"Hey wait a sec!" I said chasing after him.

He turned to look at me with a bored expression. "What is it?" He asked as Butch and the others walked around to see what the commotion was.

"What's your name?" I asked.

He stayed quiet for a while for chuckled soon after. "My name is Crystal," He said.

Butch suddenly looked like he was about to puke and Mark looked as pale as a ghost at the mention of this guys name, But I really didn't pay it any mind.

"Thanks, you're a pretty nice person!" I said with a grin.

He turned around to face me and with no expression or hesitation at all........ he slapped me as hard as he could. I held my face and looked at the guy in shock.

"You are a complete fool," He said bluntly.

"HEY YOU JACKASS!" Dash shouted as she ran over to us.

"What was that for!" Applejack said crossing her arms with a scowl.

Crystal watched as the girls glared at him, even Butch looked like he was about to throw the guy out the window. "If he is so foolish as to trust everyone he comes across then he'll never get to a higher rank," He explained.

"Thats no reason for you to just hit someone!" Rarity shouted.

"Star Dust, son of Rising star who was one of the major scientists of the BETA project. An F-class player with a simple BETA pack he got from his father after his passing, and with a weak warrior without an element class or a-" Crystal explained before I ran over and grabbed him by his collar.

To be honest, I wasn't pissed that this guy mentioned my dad, but I was more pissed that he called my dads warrior weak. My father poured his heart and soul into his BETA!

"Listen.......I don't care about my rank or any of that crap! But if you ever call my dad's warrior weak again!" I exclaimed while I glared daggers at him. "I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!" I threatened.

Crystal didn't show any emotion and threw my hand off of him and walked over to the counter. "Allow him and his friends to buy whatever they want. Just put it on my family's tab," He said.

We stared at Crystal in shock and watched as he walked back towards us. "However, as payment for this you must face me in a BETA match," He explained much to everyone else's displeasure.

"Fine!" I said which caught everyone's attention. "But you better get ready to lose!" I exclaimed.

"Meet me in the park in an hour," He said as he walked out the store. "Thats where I'll see who you truly are." was his final words before leaving the store.

Everyone stared at the place were crystal once stood and then to me, Surprisingly it wasn't Dash who got out the first word.

"Ugh, why can't that kid ever play nice with people?" Mark asked as he walked over to the back room.

"What were you thinking challenging Him!? Do you have any idea who that guy was!?" Butch shouted as I tried to defend myself. "That was the Crystal King! He's a B-class Beta player! And you just challenged him to a match!!" He explained in a panic.

Just then Mark walked back out with a tool kit and a deck of cards. "Butch is right, that guy is known as the Crystal king because he has a personal deck filled with crystal cards made by his family," He explained while we stared at him.

Mark motioned me to come closer which I did without question. "The way you're set up now, you will definitely lose! The only way you can win is if you upgrade your pack." He explained.

"Wait you want to upgrade my BETA!" I asked. He nodded and motioned me to hand over my pack. I was a little hesitant at first, but Reluctantly I handed it over.

"I do some Minor software checks and upgrade the hardware. I'll also do some modifications to the slot system for your cards, this way you don't have to swipe multiple cards and you can just swipe them through in one go!" Mark explained As he looked over my Beta pack. "Also I have some new ideas I want to try out, so if you don't mind?" He asked.

"Sure, just be careful with it," I said.

"While I fix this up take a look at my personal card collection. All of this is on his tab anyways so just give me a sec." Mark said as he got to work.

"Wait I can't just take your cards!" I said only to have Mark shush me.

"I have mad respect for your old man! And even I could tell Crystal was being an ass." Mark exclaimed with a chuckle. "Just promise me that you'll teach him a lesson!" He said with a grin.

I looked at his cards and I finally made my choice. "Yeah no sweat!" I said as the others and I got to work looking for other cards I could use for the match.

Above the city, The beast made of lightning was watching the humans beneath it go about their daily business. Ignorant to the creatures that surrounded them.

As he was about to leave a familiar laugh echoed from behind him. He turned to see the same figure from before laughing at him.

Once again he sprinted towards the beast who disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind him and with a single blow slammed him into a wall.

"I grow tired of this game fool!" The beast shouted as it drew electricity from the surrounding area and it grew to a giant ball of electricity.

"DIE!" It shouted as a beam of light that covered the laughing figure.

However, the laughing continued and now the figure was in full view. He was a creature wearing a smiling mask with multiple curved blades, like scythes, were coming out of his body.

The beast scoffed and prepared to attack again. "I'm tired of dealing with you!" It shouted as he charged at his opponent who only continued to laugh.

"To be continued!"