I rolled out of bed and got dressed. I didn’t know if anyone else was up so I made it a priority to be extra quiet. Not exactly hard for me since I was an assassin. I went to my bathroom to trim up my beard and comb my hair. Then, I put on my backpack, grabbed a protein bar, and left the apartment.

The reason I want to go to school early is that Rarity went to the school to prepare the Home Economics room. Rarity was the assistant to the teacher since she could sew and cook. Rarity was supposed to be in the Home Ec room but that wasn’t the case today. I looked for her in the classroom but she wasn’t there. I decided to go look for her at her locker, and she was there like I predicted.

I walked up to her but her locker door was blocking her view. She was putting on make-up. Five minutes later, she finished and closed the locker door.

“‘Sup,” I greeted.

“Aaah,” she screamed“A little jumpy this morning,” I chuckled.

“I didn’t see you standing there. What are you doing at school so early? You’ve been late to school all last week.”

“The war against the Black Snake has been taking a toll on me.”

“I can tell. So, what brings you here to my locker.”

“Remember when you told Devin and me you owed us one for saving you?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“I need to call in that favor. It's a big one.”

“What is it, Matthew?”

I scratched the back of my head and sighed. One of my characteristics is that I hate caving, and I knew Rarity would milk it for all it was worth. My stubbornness has a lot to do with it.

“The team and I need suit upgrades,” I requested.

“What’s that? I didn’t quite hear you,” Rarity announced, trying to annoy me.

“The team and I need suit upgrades,” I repeated.

“I still couldn’t hear you. Can you repeat what you said?”

“You heard what I said, Rarity.”

“I’m messing with you. Can’t you mutants take a joke?”

“Yes, we can. So how about it?”

Rarity reopened her locker and dug around in it. She pulled out a folder filled with paper. She handed it to me. I opened it, and I saw a bunch of suit designs. Each page had three designs on it.

“You already knew I was going to ask you about the suit upgrades?” I asked

“Orange Bunny was the one who knew you would. Orange and Dalton have been working together on some technology for you all,” Rarity responded.

“I’m somewhat ticked about being kept in the dark but I’m more impressed with the initiative to start on this.”

I started thumbing through the designs. All of the designs were very nice. Some of the designs had armor. Brody had a symbol on his suit. Then, I noticed something about Devin’s suit design. Unlike the rest of us, his suit was sleeveless.

“Can you explain why Devin’s suit doesn’t have any sleeves?” I asked.

Rarity blushed. I groaned and rolled my eyes. She was smitten with Devin Cochran. My question was why Devin of all people. He was not exactly the dating type. That was just the way he was. Not only that, he wasn’t even her type.

“Well...umm...I thought it would be beneficial since...you know, he uses a quarterstaff and he needs to be flexible,” Rarity explained, obviously lying.

“Sure, Rarity. Your blushing is a huge indicator that you have a crush on Devin and you just want to see him in a sleeveless suit.”

“Devin? Matthew, you’ve lost your mind,” Rarity replied.

"Indirect eye contact and dilated pupils are a huge indicator that you are lying. So do you or don’t you?”

Rarity sighed. “Yes, I do, but please don’t tell him. I want him to find out on his own.”

“Fine. Just a fair warning, he isn’t boyfriend material.”

“Oh. That’s unfortunate.”

Rarity had a look of disappointment come across her face, but she quickly shook it off.

“Anyway. You show the rest of your team those designs and they can pick one of the three designs. I can get them done within a week.”

“Good. I’ll show them during Break. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I slipped the folder into my backpack and walked away. The Physics room was on the second floor. Eventually, I arrived in the room. Dylan was in there talking to Brody. Brody didn’t even have Physics 1st period. I sat in the seat next to Brody.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I got my schedule changed. I dropped out of Art because ‘my talent lies elsewhere, as Mrs. Pastel put it,” Brody explained.

“So...she basically said you that you suck at art.”

“Yeah, to put it rudely.”

I pulled out the folder that Rarity gave me. Dylan and Brody gave me a confused look. I pulled out the pieces of paper with “Shadow Charger” and “Blitzing Knight” written on it. They seemed interested in the designs.

“Pick a design, so I can give it to Rarity later,” I instructed.

“It’s so hard to decide. All of them look awesome, but I guess I’ll go with option two,” Brody stated

“I noticed that the suits resemble Spider-Man’s black international suit, but minus the mask,” I added

“It’s going to be hard to let go of my old suit. I have had that since my first mission,” Dylan announced.

“I remember that. The mission to Zhytomyr,” Brody recalled.

“Remember when we had to chase the weapons truck to Odessa?” I asked Dylan.

“Yeah. I ran out of gas twice. Then, we had to go to Bulgaria. That mission took way too long,” Dylan replied.

“What mission?” someone asked.

I turned around and Flash Sentry was standing behind us. He sat down in front of me. I didn’t want to tell him about the mission, but Flash seemed interested.

“It was Dylan’s first mission. We had to go to a country called Ukraine. Specifically, a city called Zhytomyr,” I explained.

“What happened?” Flash asked.

“There was a Ukrainian mob boss that was supplying weapons to socialist rebels in a country called Bulgaria. The rebels were closing in on the nationalists. We had to shut down the supply of weapons in Ukraine. Later, we found out the last supply came from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. We finally intercepted it in Bulgaria, around the town of Plovdiv. I accidentally shot a box of mortars instead of a Bulgarian rebel that was shooting at me. The truck exploded and killed an eleven-year-old girl. About an hour later, Dylan and I were on our way back to the United States.”

“Besides the dead little girl, it sounded like a cool mission.”

“Not really, but Dylan held his own very well for his first mission.”

We talked for about another ten minutes until the bell rang and kids began to come in, but the Physics teacher, Mr. High Frequency, didn’t show up at all. We sat there for a little bit until Vice Principal Luna arrived.

“Attention, students. I have some bad news, Mr. High Frequency had a heart attack this morning and he is in ICU at Canterlot General Hospital. I don’t know if he had any work for you to do so don’t do anything stupid. Study for a test, read a book, or go to the library right after I take attendance,” Vice Principal Luna announced.

She pulled out her phone and took attendance. When Luna left I turned to Dylan and Brody and began talking about last night.

“Dylan, het iemand anders gisteraand 'n dwelmbussing gehad?”
(Afrikaans) “Dylan, did anyone else have a drug bust last night?” I asked

“aelv Hannah lae Devin daihed phuakkhao thangsong daichab kummangkon dam thi khai okhkhen.”
(Lao) “Yeah. Hannah and Devin did. Both of them caught a cell of the Black Snake selling cocaine,” Dylan replied.

“Sizinandidabwitse ngati iwo anali kugulitsa zochuluka kuposa cocaine ndi chamba.”
(Nyanja) “It wouldn’t surprise me if they were selling more than cocaine and marijuana.”

“Mod wieħed biss biex issir taf.”
(Maltese) Only one way to find out.”

“ich weiß.”
(German) “ I know.”

I texted the rest of the Teen Mutant Alliance to meet me in the library during Break for “something urgent”. I received nine text messages asking me “why” or “what for”. I simply replied with “just be there”.

Eventually, 1st period ended, and I went to the band hall. Most of the band was missing because of a field trip for something. Mrs. Treble Clef got mad at Hannah for disrupting class because she was trying to get my attention. I assumed she wanted to talk about my text message.

Eventually, Break arrived and went to my special spot in the library. The team arrived a little bit afterward with irritated looks on their faces.

“Okay, Matthew, we’re here. What do you need us for?” Lance asked.

“Some of you may be aware of some changes I’ve decided to make to the TMA. For those who are unaware, we are getting suit upgrades,” I informed.

“It’s about time,” Devin said

“Thank God. My suit sucks,” Levi announced.

“I don’t think I need a suit because of obvious reasons,” Daniel added.

“Rarity didn't have a suit design for you, so I guess she considered your abilities. Hannah, what about you?” I asked.

“I could use a suit redesign, I'll coordinate with Rarity about the materials that are used in my suit,” Hannah replied.

I passed out the suit designs. Everyone looked at them, and they seemed intrigued. Some made their decisions quicker than others. I decided to go ahead and choose my suit while we were at it.

Honestly, all of the designs were amazing but I ended picking the third option because it looked casual. I wasn't interested in something fancy. Everyone finished picking the designs they liked and handed the pieces of paper back to me. After placing the sheets in the folder, I placed them in my backpack. The bell rang and the team. I stopped Lance before he could leave to go to class.

“Hey, Lance, walk with me. I need to talk to you,” I said.

“Sure. What’s up?” Lance asked.

“I wanted to tell you that you will semi-spearhead this drug war thing we’ve initiated,” I informed.

“Seriously?”

“Yes. I thought about fighting a drug war and thought it was a bad idea.”

“What changed your mind? Usually, once you make your mind up, you don’t change it.”

“Consider this one of the few times where I do change my mind. Anyway, I had some ‘motivation’ that persuaded me.”

“Motivation?”

“I wasn’t sure I could do anything with this drug war, decision-wise, that is. Do you think we can do it?”

“Yeah. The team has the capabilities to take on both the Black Snake and the drugs.”

“I guess we can give it a shot.”

“That sounds alright to me. We’ll talk after school about what we’ll do.”

Lance and I parted ways as I headed to English. We were supposed to finish some analytical questions on a chapter of the books we were reading. It was Equestria’s version of Oliver Twist. It was called Cinnamon Twist. The book was a lot less dark and less violent than our dimension’s book. Anyway, the TMA members and the Rainbooms that were in there had already finished so we talked about the drug busts that occurred.

“Daniel, I heard you stopped a deal last night,” I stated.

“Yes, I did. It took place around midnight in the supermarket parking lot. There was around a hundred thousand bucks worth of coke in four duffle bags,” Daniel responded.

"Can I assume the Black Snake was selling it to the gangs?"

"You'd be assuming right."

"Did the police show up?"

"The police came when someone spotted me fighting the gang members."

“It’s not every day you see a flying guy on fire,” Eric explained.

“Wait. Did I hear you say that the Black Snake was selling drugs to gangs,” Sunset Shimmer asked.

“Yep,” I answered.

“Why are they selling cocaine?” Pinkie Pie asked loudly.

Eric, Daniel, and I shushed Pinkie. I told them that they were to never mention it in public again. Then, Sunset Shimmer changed the subject.

“I heard you guys are getting suit upgrades. Is that true?” Sunset Shimmer posed, quietly.

“Yeah, it’s true. Let me guess, Rarity told you?” I replied.

“Well, it’s about time! You guys look like you live in a dump and decided to fight crime!” Pinkie Pie announced

“Ali kdaj drži jezik za zobmi?”
(Slovenian) “Does she ever keep her mouth shut?” I asked Daniel and Eric.

“Ik denk het niet, Matthew.”
(Dutch) “I don’t think so, Matthew,” Eric replied.

“Je suis d'accord avec Eric.”
(French) “I agree with Eric,” Daniel added.

Once again, I chewed out Pinkie for opening her mouth. Thankfully, everyone else in the class ignored Pinkie’s outburst. The rest of the class period was spent playing video games on our phones and discussing Canterlot’s drug problems. Sunset Shimmer invited me to play video games on her gaming channel on the internet. I wanted to but the video game was a game Orange Bunny made, so I suggested another game. Not that Orange Bunny did a bad job; it was the fact that it was based on the American Civil War. According to Equestrian History, no such civil war occurred.

Lunch came around and I returned the folder to Rarity. She told me that the suits, the new technology, and the rest of the gear would be ready within a week. That surprised me because there were nine of us who were getting new suits.

Three days later, Orange Bunny called me in the middle of school to come home so she could show me something. I ended up telling Principal Celestia that I had an emergency and I need to return home. Thankfully, my story worked, and I went to the apartment. When I got there, Orange Bunny was waiting for me at the door.

“About fucking time you get here,” Orange Bunny grumbled.

“What was so important that you had to call me at school?” I asked as I closed the door.

“Grab your katanas and follow me.”

“For what?”

“You’ll see.”

I grabbed my katanas and Orange led me outside. I was praying no one would notice us because a mutated rabbit was walking in front of me, and I was carrying a pair of Japanese swords. It would give me and the team unwanted attention.

Eventually, Orange Bunny led into the woods that was behind the complex. In the woods was a large metal building with one door and one garage door. The building had no windows, as well. Orange went to the door, which had two keypads next to it. One close to the ground, and the other about four feet higher. Orange Bunny put in the passcode, and I heard the door unlock.

I followed Orange Bunny into the building, and I was amazed at what I saw. There was advanced computer equipment, metalworking equipment, tools, workbenches, and more.

“Where did you find this stuff, Orange Bunny?” I asked.

“Stuff I put together in the past few months. Most of it, I used to make the suit upgrades. But the main reason I wanted you to come here is for you to test out a new piece of equipment I created.”

Orange Bunny led me to the device, which was in the back. It looked like a plasma cutter. Orange Bunny made it very clear that it was not a plasma cutter. I couldn’t tell what she meant until I saw a computer next to it, unlike a usual plasma cutter.

“What is it?” I questioned, examining the machine.

“It’s an engraving device, dumbass. See the engraving needle,” Orange grumbled.

“Okay. Why did you build this...engraving machine?”

“The reason is, you impatient fuckwad, is that I build it to engrave the toughest metals, even adamantium.”

“How?”

Orange got on the machine and opened a small latch and I saw a pink-ish glow within the wires. For some reason the glow began to pulse and make a low, humming noise.

“I used a Chitauri explosive device to power the engraving machine.”

“Where did you get that?! I thought all of that went to the Damage Control Vault.”

“Fuck no. The billionaire shitwad, Tony Stark, kept some. When we went to New York, I jacked one of the explosives from Avengers Tower. Then, I hid it in a lead box.

“I can’t believe this. Do you have any idea what it will do if it is exposed to any type of radiation?”

“Duh. There’s a fucking reason why I don’t use anything that is fucking radioactive. Now if you’re done chewing me out the fuck out, I’ll show you how this thing works.”

Orange Bunny told me to lay one of my katanas in the clamp that was under the engraving needle. Reluctantly, I laid it down and I tightened the clamp. Then, Orange Bunny turned the computer on and told me that I could download an image or type something. Then, the machine would scan the object, and you could pick where the engraving would go.

I typed the word “trust” but I translated it into Japanese. The device scanned my katana and it showed a picture of one monitor. I placed the Japanese character near the hilt.

The machine came to life and the engraving needle came down and began engraving. Sparks flew as it engraved “trust” into my katana. In ten seconds, the word was perfectly engraved in the sword.

“Put more than one word on you katana, shitbrain,” Orange told me, “ Why do you have to stick to the fucking basics.”

I put the Japanese characters for “loyalty” and “faith” on my katana. Orange Bunny asked me why I put those specific words on the sword. I said those words were the foundation of friendship and working as a team. Orange Bunny thought it was stupid.

After I finished with my first katana, I put the same words on my other katana. Orange Bunny suggested I put “Nightwatcher” on the other side of my katanas and I did so. Orange handed me some black paint that you can paint metal with and I painted the engravings. The paint made my katanas look a lot better than before. At that point, I was more excited about our upgrades than I was before.

I made the rest of the Teen Mutant Alliance come to the building that evening. As I expected, most of the team complained about it. Orange Bunny got them to shut up. When everyone got quiet, I explained why I wanted them at the building.

“You wanted to show us an engraving machine?” Lance asked

“What the heck, man. I need to finish my homework,” Justin complained.

"No, you don’t,” Hannah snapped, “ You never do your homework. You copy off of Matthew.”

“It’s more than an engraving machine. Well, it is but it can engrave into the strongest metals.”

“Titanium doesn’t count as a strong metal, Matthew,” Levi informed.

“How about adamantium?” I asked.

“There’s no way an engraving machine can engrave into the strongest metal in existence,” Dalton countered.

“It is when you use Chitauri technology, bitch,” Orange explained.

Everyone became concerned when Orange Bunny mentioned Chitari technology. The last time she got her paws on the alien tech, she resurrected about 200 dead Chitauri soldiers. The Justice League had to fight them because the Avengers were in Sokovia. It was a big mess and Orange has been banned from the Avengers Complex.

“Don’t worry. She won’t resurrect any aliens this time,” I informed.

“How does it work?” Lance questioned.

“Let me see your katana,” I requested.

Lance handed me his sword, and I placed it in the clamp. I went through the same process, I did earlier. I typed the words “trust”, “loyalty”, and “faith”, translated them into Japanese, and the machine engraved the worlds into his katana. As I did with mine, I painted the engravings with black paint. I let him engrave “Cloaked Hunter” on the other side of the katana, as well.

For the next hour, the rest of the team engraved these words and their vigilante names into their swords. Later on, Dylan had just engraved his sword and painted it. He came up to me and asked me a question.

“Matthew, why did you want us to carve those words in our swords? What does it do with us?”

“A lot. It’s the keys to friendship and being a team,” I explained.

“Makes sense. Any word from Rarity about our new uniforms?”

“Not much. She only told me they’d be done by the end of the week.”

Devin groaned and walked away. I left the building, and my sister followed me. We didn’t say much except a simple greeting and small talk.

It bothered me that Hannah and I had drifted apart after Mom and Dad were killed. She moved to Central City while I spent some time in Gotham City and traveled the world with my job with the CIA. It seemed like we didn’t even know each other anymore.

About a month after we arrived in Canterlot, I found out that Hannah got a third ear piercing in each of her ears. Jessie called me a “pathetic, older brother” because of it. The only time I set foot in Central City was when the CIA sent me to kill Carmine Falcone’s brother, Mario Falcone. Hannah only showed up to shop my so-called “rampage”. That was after I put a bullet in Mario Falcone’s head.

We walked in total silence until we reached the apartment. Hannah sighed and looked in the direction of the building. She seemed concerned about something, but I couldn’t figure it out.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

“Lance told me about you telling him he could help you lead this drug war and why you let him,” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. So what?”

“He also told me about his brother, David Wallace.”

“The one that killed five policemen and was executed by lethal injection.”

“Yeah him. Anyway, I did some research and I couldn’t believe what I found.”

“And what did you find?”

“David Wallace isn’t dead.”

Author's Note

Hey, everyone. I'm going to do frequent chapter releases since this story was already pre-written. Taking college into account, it will not be consistent release periods.