Chapter Text
Just like everything in her wonderful life, it started as an annoyance.
So Fright Zone City suffered twice the amount of property damage within the last month alone. And sure, some cops beat up and sent a couple of harmless drug users behind bars. She also missed meeting a whistleblower after being two freaking hours late because of traffic.
Catra didn’t want to give a damn but, at the center of her apathetic black candy coating, she did. She cared a lot.
The traffic jam from Thaymor Square would have been great news material for an article, too, since a Senator's son seemed to be the reason the gang got into a violent brawl that caused the jam. A pampered kid like that, letting the first bullet loose? Damn, that was the kind of exposé-fodder vultures like her would kill for. Catra would've been a significant lead on the piece too if the carnage hadn't included her pristine black Yamaha.
The first thing she bought with her first paycheck. The one thing she loved most in the entire world. Her baby.
Damaged by a flying car.
She will never get the dents off without spending a ton of money. And she hated the jagged scratch on its side with a seething passion.
But no.
It was okay.
She tolerated it.
It was fine.
Until it wasn’t.
Catra stared at the video playing on her phone, her face neutral. Dispassionate.
“How did she do that?” Scorpia’s voice came from over her shoulder, breathless and in awe.
Catra didn’t respond, seeing too much red to piece out a sentence. She looped the video with a brisk swipe of her thumb and watched it again.
“What's up with her eyes? It got all weird.” Scorpia turned to Entrapta who remained busy fixing a computer tower over her desk, engulfed by the wires exploding from its chassis. Along with the half-naked tower, Entrapta’s office space was a mess of computer tech parts and random power tools -- something that would be concerning if Catra didn't know she used to be a Dryll Robotics Tech student.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if x-ray vision is part of her repertoire,” Entrapta said. “She’s fascinating, isn’t she? A wonder of modern-day science.”
She was also a traitor.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but one of our boys is in prison because of her.” Mermista chimed in from behind her desk, her right foot propped up against the edge, drying her painted toenails. If it wasn’t for the cold inflection in her voice, lower life forms might think she was just giving her two cents. “That’s usually a no bueno, E.”
Catra’s shoulders relaxed at that. At least someone was making proper sense in this room.
“What did Lonnie say again?” Scorpia asked, pulling away from Catra, leaving her to loop the video again for the fifth time.
“It was all a misunderstanding,” Mermista waved her nail brush around. “Things got heated, some stuff was said, one of the pigs dissed Lonnie, and Kyle and Rogelio got rightfully pissed off…”
‘-- is police business -- ’
‘ -- not what it looks like! He -- ’
“... wondergirl over there scanned them all and found an ounce stuffed in Rogelio's bag.” She shrugged. “At least that’s what the video description said.”
Scorpia shook her head. “Lonnie found the dealer who slipped the powder in, right? What if we find him and make him confess?”
“Scorpia, I’m not sure if the rock you live under is legit,” Catra said. “But Rogelio’s a 'big scary guy' from the Fright Zone while the drug dealer's a fucking Prime boy yuppie. Try explaining that to the authorities. Nope, no dice, it won’t be as easy. Not with our police records.”
“We can always try?” Scorpia said. “We’re the vigilante squad! If we can expose some jerk guy’s dirt, it’s us, right?”
Catra raised an eyebrow, frowning at Scorpia's hopeful expression.
“Right?” Scorpia tried again, her smile wavering.
“You’re over-inflating our job description here, Scorp. We’re journalists, not vigilantes.” Catra said, lowering her phone. “We don’t incite mobs to get a person out of police custody. At least, not without leaving a huge mess behind.”
“I think it’s at least little bit possible?”
“Okay, I don’t wanna be, y’know, more of a bummer, but she’s right. Rogelio’s one of us,” Mermista added. “What if people connected the dots and found out we’re behind The Eye? As your official marketing person, it’s my job to, like, put my foot down on all this. Figuratively.”
“Oh,” Scorpia said. “I think we have another problem.”
Catra sighed and closed her eyes. “What now?”
“What if this super person works with the FZPD and uses Rogelio to sniff us out?” Scorpia asked. “It’s not far-fetched to think she’s telepathic too, right? Maybe she can read minds? Oh, that’d be so cool.”
Entrapta gasped. “That would be cool.”
Mermista started blowing on her drying nails. “You guys are so not helping here.”
Catra watched the video again. This time Entrapta joined Scorpia when she peered over Catra’s shoulders. They held their breath as they watched Rogelio punch her face. The golden figure hardly even flinched.
“Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. We’re not sure what other abilities this meta-human has, but I’m excited to find out more. Imagine it,” Entrapta’s jaw grew slack, her eyes shimmering as she continued: “Someone of our species. Human. A Homo Sapien with superior genetics...”
“We know what humans are, Entrapta,” Catra’s words were unfortunately ignored as Entrapta left their plane of existence:
“Someone out there who exhibits so much endless capacity for power. What else can she do? Where did she come from? What’s her source of energy? Did she gain her powers gradually over time, or was she born with it?”
“I’ll find out.”
Everybody, even Entrapta, paused and seemed to wake up from the spell they were in.
Scorpia cleared her throat. “Uh… What?”
“I'll find out who she is,” Catra said. “And I’ll make sure she knows who exactly she just fucked with.”
Scorpia shared a worried look with Entrapta. “Um.”
“By being an enormous, big-headed, glowy -- ”
“Okay…”
“.. goddamn sonofa - “
“Catra?”
“... giant asshole .”
Scorpia was the only person in the room staring at Catra with a hand over her face. Entrapta shrugged her shoulders and went back to soldering motherboards. Mermista mumbled to herself, wondering if she should use another shade of blue for her other foot.
“Aren’t you taking this a bit too personally, Wildcat?”
Catra settled an unenthused sneer in Scorpia’s direction and crossed her arms. “Says someone who works in The City Eye?”
The larger woman looked sheepish to receive it, at least.
Because the City Eye was, of course, all about taking everything personally.
They founded the anonymous cyber-journalist's wet dream in the middle of political unrest. When the Etherian State office almost collapsed, someone had to let the truth out. It was just supposed to be a project. A one-time thing. But after a month of constant online posting -- following rallies and protests, covering and predicting raids, interviewing members of head parties, they had a running company with an outstanding audience hanging on to their every word. Overnight, The City Eye became a major player in the online news outlet business, rivaling the Daily Moon.
And their team was only a quarter of the Daily Moon’s entire office staff.
Now, one was in police custody because of golden girl.
“Besides, bitch ruined my bike. I need compensation for that shit.”
“She also got Rogelio behind bars?” Mermista prompted.
“And she fucked with our team.” Catra said, “We’re still paying Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle while they’re figuring this shit out. No, I want blood. I wanna know who she is, expose this asshole, and show her she’s not as invulnerable as she thinks.”
“I think you’re missing a small, tiny little thing, Wildcat.”
Scorpia gulped as Catra sent her a 'don't even with me' glare.
“All valid! Valid feelings. I love your honesty. A part of me super agrees.” She said. “But counterargument: she’s been doing a lot of good stuff, too. She did save a bunch of people off a falling building yesterday.”
Catra threw her phone on her cluttered desk, scoffing in disbelief. “And who do you think caused that building to fall, Scorp? The only thing strong enough to topple an entire building sure can’t be Fright Zone’s crisp winter weather.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. At least Scorpia was looking more thoughtful as she processed Catra’s rebuttal. “Look, I know she’s done good. A lot of good. Whatever. But who is this person? All we know is she used to be in Brightmoon,” She growled the last word, spitting it out like a foul thing. “And now she’s here, on our turf.”
To Catra's surprise, Entrapta was the next one who piped in. “I agree that someone with unimaginable power is cause for concern.” She said, swirling around a glowing chemical flask with abandon. “A volatile energy source still needs to be contained for it to effectively achieve its intended purpose.”
“And what if she goes crazy with power?” Catra said, “What if this whole thing’s a huge lie and we’re falling for it? She does a complete one-eighty the moment we turn our backs on her, and she starts juggling people for fun?” She grabbed her phone back from her desk and searched for a timestamp on the video. Catra paused it and showed the image to her team:
A police officer complimenting the super idiot for clout.
“What if she ends up working with the wrong people?”
Scorpia nodded slowly. “Okay, yeah. Point. A lot of points, actually. So,” She looked around expectantly. “What’s next, chief?”
Mermista relaxed back in her seat. Her painted toes wiggled on her desk as she regarded Catra with something akin to admiration. “Think you can figure out her secret identity, Vasquez?”
“Watch me,” Catra said with a smirk, sitting behind her desk and firing up her laptop. “I’m the fucking best.”
==THE CITY EYE==
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> (FRONT PAGE)
>> TITLE: Fright Zone City Under Brightmoon Invasion!
>>> For the past few months, The Golden Child of Brightmoon City was spotted within Fright Zone City limits, mostly heading fist-first towards danger and getting involved in FZ City’s turf wars. Now is it just me, or maybe she should mind her own damn business?
>>> WONDERTIGHTS have undeniably saved many lives while destroying a couple of buildings along the way -- causing both property and collateral damage.
>> >But what is her intention of running around and saving the people in our city?
>> >As anyone would know of Brightmoon’s disposition towards us ‘lowly’ dwellers of Fright Zone, there has always been a price to pay whenever they decide to associate with us. And this seems like a direct action to involve themselves with our so-called 'Law Enforcement' agency, the FZPD …