A/N: In this chapter we'll see Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl face off against their first supervillain.
Two months have passed since Ace Savvy met the mysterious hero known as Roulette Girl. Despite teaming up a couple more times over the last two months, Ace barely knew a thing about her. The only thing that Ace knew for certain is that, just like him, she had a partner that was good with technology. But despite the two hardly knowing a thing about the other, they made a very good team. In just a short time they've worked together, they managed to bring down the crime in Royal Woods by an amazing five percent. But could they handle a new class of criminal?
1 Year Ago/Year:2015
We begin a year prior inside VISION LABS, a research lab located in Royal Woods. Here we see a twenty-eight-year-old female scientist named Carly Thomas, along with her partner Desmond Pace who was also twenty-eight years old. The pair had been working on their 'pet project.' They were working on a device that could accelerate the process of crystallization. And right now, they were showing their device to their boss, Adam Jones. A forty-five-year-old who was head scientist at VISION LABS.
"Explain to me what you're doing again Dr Thomas." Dr Jones requested impatiently. "Right sir. As you know, we've been researching on how to accelerate the process of crystallization. Me and Dr Pace have now finished a device we believe that can do just that." Dr Thomas explains. "Very well, show me this device of yours." Dr Jones tells them. "Yes sir." Dr pace replied. He and Dr Thomas then walk across the room over to a white sheet. They remove the sheet to reveal a device that looked like one of those death rays you'd see on a cartoon on Saturday morning.
"Well, it certainly looks... imposing." Dr Jones says, a bit put off by the device's design before adding, "But does it work?" He questions. "The thing is... This is our first proper test." Dr Thomas sheepishly admits. "But we're very certain that it will work." She adds with optimism. "Very well then proceed." Dr Jones says with a sigh. Dr Thomas and Dr Pace then begin to prep their device for use, as well as set an ordinary stone on the experiment table. "And now Dr Jones, watch in amazement as we turn this ordinary stone into a ruby diamond." Dr Pace states confidently.
He then gives the thumps up sign to Dr Thomas, who nods and proceeds to power up the device. After a moment or two of charging she points the ray at the stone and fires at it. The ray shoots a red beam at the stone. After a few moments the stone change into a ruby diamond. "Haha, success!" Dr Thomas exclaimed. "Well, I'm impressed." Dr Jones complements. Dr Thomas then went over to the diamond to pick it up, but as soon as she did it dissolved in her hands.
"What? How can this be?" She questions. "I don't understand, it shouldn't be dissolving." Dr Pace said scratching his chin, he couldn't believe what had happened. "Don't fret you two. It was a valiant effort, maybe you'll get it soon." Dr Jones says as he puts a hand on Dr Pace's shoulder. "Right sir." Dr Pace replied defectively. Dr Jones then leaves the room, leaving the other two scientist by themselves. "This... This shouldn't have happened. Our calculations... We've planned for this, there shouldn't have been any malfunctions." Dr Thomas says feeling dishearten. "Maybe... Maybe we need to go back to the drawing board, maybe there's something we missed." Dr Pace said, trying to be hopeful. "Perhaps your right." Dr Thomas says. "I'm going to go on break, are you going to be alright Carly?" Dr Pace asked with genuine concern. "Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine Desmond." She tells him.
Reluctantly, Dr Pace then exits the room, leaving Dr Thomas by herself. Dr Thomas looked back at her device before she got a determined look in her eye. She has worked too hard for it not to be successful, and she WILL fix it. She got some of her tools and went back at work on the device, trying to improve it. But as she did, something happen. The device began overloading. "What?! No! It can't be overloading!" Dr Thomas yelled. She then tries to run to the door and leave the room before the device could explode but she wasn't fast enough and got caught in the blast.
1 Year later/Present
We flash forward to the present day where we see Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl taking on some thugs on the cargo docks. The two heroes were back-to-back, with Ace taking on two thugs on the right and Roulette taking on two thugs on the left. Ace swiftly dodged to his left to avoid a punch to his face, then countered with a kick to one of the thugs' gut, which knocked him back into a crate. He then dodged another punch before giving the second thug an elbow strike to the face, then grabbing him by his arm and tossing him into a cargo container.
As for Roulette Girl, he two thugs she was fighting were relentlessly throw wild punches at her, but she easily avoided them. She then kicked one of them in the shin before grabbing his face and hitting it with her knee. She then delivers a one-two combo attack to the second thugs' stomach followed quickly by an uppercut which knocked him out. After that, the two heroes reconvene. "Well, that takes care of that." Roulette Girl says with satisfaction. "True. Although, this is the second time we've had to stop someone trying to smuggle something through the docks. I wish we knew who was behind it." Ace says with concern as he places his hand on his chin. "I know what you mean. Who knows, next time we might find a clue." Roulette Girl said optimistically.
"I hate to interrupt the conversation brother, but you need to hurry back home." Lisa tells Ace over their radio link. "Yeah, yeah. I'm on my way." Ace replies. "Let me guess, that 'friend' of yours." Roulette Girl replied knowingly. "Yeah, looks like my night is done." Ace responds. "Hmp, I know the feeling. Anyway, catch you later." Roulette Girl tells him as she takes out her grappling hook and grapples away. Ace then presses a button on his utility belt and a moment later the Ace-Cycle appeared. He quickly hops on and drives off.
Twenty-five minutes later Ace arrives back at the Ace Fortress. He quickly changes back into his civilian clothes before greeting Lisa. "Another successful mission Lincoln?" Lisa asked rhetorically. "Yeah, me and Roulette Girl managed to stop those guys from smuggling whatever they were trying to smuggle. Although, I wish we knew who they worked for." Lincoln admits. "I've been meaning to talk to you about that actually." Lisa says.
"Huh?" Lincoln questioned, unsure by what Lisa had meant by that. "Are you sure you can trust this Roulette Girl; we have no idea who she is and her true intentions." Lisa remarks, emphasis on the word true. "Yes, I trust her Lisa. I understand why you're skeptical, but I just have this feeling like I can trust her." Lincoln says with confidence. "Alright brother. If you trust her then I trust your judgement." Lisa responds. "Now let's head inside before Lori tell mom and dad we weren't in our rooms." Lincoln said with a bit of a joking tone. The two proceeds exit their secret base and head inside the Loud House.
The next day Lincoln woke up at seven o'clock. He did a quick morning stretch before heading downstairs to take out the trash as that was his chore for the day. As he was taking care of that he thought about what Lisa had asked him last night. He didn't know why, but he truly did trust Roulette Girl. They worked well together, plus there was something about her that Lincoln really liked. He didn't know what exactly what it was, but he just did.
After taking out the trash Lincoln went back inside, he saw Lana and Lucy sitting on the couch. "Oh, Hey Luce, hey Lans. You two are up early." Lincoln notes. "Sigh, Lana woke me up so that I could read her fortune for today." Lucy tells Lincoln. "Why do you need your fortune read today, Lana?" Lincoln asks her. "I'm working on Bobby Fletcher's pit crew today and I want to make sure I have some luck for the race." Lana excitedly and anxiously tells him. "Okay then." Lincoln responds.
Although Lincoln didn't say it, he thought it was kind of silly that Lana was trying to assure her luck. The last time one of his sisters gotten into 'luck' troubles he had to pay the price. But he's over that. Lincoln then took a seat in the chair to the let of the couch before turning on the TV just as the rest of his sisters entered the living room. And the TV just so happened to be on the news. "And in other news, it's now been one year since the disappearance of Dr Carly Thomas." The newswoman announced. "The young doctor worked here in Royal Woods at VISION LABS. She and her research partner Dr Desmond Pace were working on accelerating the process of crystallization when she suddenly disappeared." The newsman added.
"Hmm, very peculiar." Lisa mutters to herself. "Police have yet to discover a trace of the twenty-nine-year-old but have yet to give up the search. If you have any information on Dr Carly Thomas whereabouts then please contact the police." The newswoman says. "Bummer dude, sucks that doctor lady is missing." Luna remarks. "I concur, it's a shame that someone in the science community has seemingly vanished." Lisa adds. "Like, what do you guys think happened to her?" Leni asked. "You think she was kidnapped?" Lynn suggested. "Nope. Someone would have made a ransom demand by now." Lincoln says. "Well, if you know so much Stinkon, then tell us what you think happened." Lynn says a tad aggressively, annoyed by Lincoln's 'smart guy' attitude.
But before Lincoln could reply the news switched to another story. "And in other news, vigilantes in Royal Woods? That's right citizens, over the last few months two vigilantes have been spotted throughout the city. Not much is known about them except it's one male and one female who use a playing card theme. Police have warned that the two are considered armed and dangerous and that you should immediately contact the police." The newsman said as Lincoln turned off the TV.
"Just great, now our town have some crazy vigilantes." Lori says with a begrudging tone, which Lincoln took offense to. "C'mon Lori, you don't know if these vigilantes are bad people. They could actually be trying to help the city." Lincoln argues. "Really little brother, you're being naive. No vigilantes are ever good people." Lori states. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with Lori on this one little dude, these vigilantes' dudes could be trouble." Luna says. "C'mon guys, Lincoln may have a point. These vigilantes might be good people." Lana points out. "And we have had lots of crime over the last year." Lucy says in her monotone voice. "My question is, do they like playing poker or fifty-two pick up." Luan joked as the rest of her siblings rolled their eyes. "Guys, let's just agree to disagree." Lincoln says as he gets up to leave the room. "Where are you going twerp?" Lori asks. "There's something I need to take care of." Lincoln lied as he exits the house.
We transition inside of the bunker where we see Lincoln sitting in a desk chair. He was just sitting there thinking to himself. He soon however was pulled out his thoughts as the hatch for the bunker began to open and Lisa began to enter. "I assumed you'd be down here." Lisa says to Lincoln. "Hmm." Lincoln murmured. "Honestly Lincoln, you shouldn't be surprised." Lisa tells him. "Which part? The fact that some of my sisters think what I do makes me a dangerous criminal. Or that the police are now going to be hunting both me and Roulette Girl." Lincoln replied sourly.
"Both actually." Lisa simply states before continuing. "It's been months now brother, the police were bound to catch on to our activities. As for our siblings, like you once told me, they would not be able to comprehend why you feel compelled to do this." Lisa reminds him. "I know." Lincoln replies. "At least you have my back Lisa." Lincoln says as he adds a genuine smile. "You're welcome brother." Lisa replies as she also smiles. However, all good moments like these must come to an end as an alarm began sounding off on Lisa computer.
"Well, back into the fray again." Lisa whimsically says as she walks towards the computer. Lincoln gets up from the desk chair so Lisa could see the computer screen. "So, what's the stitch?" Lincoln questions. Lisa checks the alert before answering, "Well this odd, apparently there's someone has broken into the local hardware store." Lisa states. "That is odd. What would some random thugs want at a hardware store?" Lincoln pondered aloud as he went to change into his suit. "Nothing good. You better hurry over there." Lisa says. "On it." Lincoln replied as he finished changing into his suit and hopped on the Ace-Cycle and rode out of the bunker.
A couple minutes later Ace Savvy had managed to reach the hardware store, and he happened to notice the police haven't arrived yet. 'I guess that's just make my job easier.' Ace thought himself. Ace then notice that the entrance was forced open. 'Whoever did this must have had some serious strength.' Ace notes to himself before entering. As he carefully traverses the store, he happens to notice a *crash* sound coming from an isle nearby.
Ace runs over there to find a woman with blond hair, a red helmet with a ruby stone covering her face and wearing a black leotard and red gloves and boots. "Stop right there!" Ace told the woman who turn to meet his gaze. "You must be one of those vigilantes I heard about. No matter, you won't stop me." She says to Ace. "Good to see my reputation proceeds me. And I hate to break it to you lady, but you're going to jail." Ace confidently states which causes the woman to frown. She quickly takes out a handgun and points it at Ace, who was ready to dodge out of the way, but he didn't need to as the gun was quickly knocked out of her hand from a red and green throwing star. And from the ceiling Roulette Girl descends and lands next to Ace Savvy.
"You know, I've seen my fair share of criminals, but you certainly dress the weirdest." Roulette Girl commented. The woman just scowled before responding, "You've force this upon yourselves." Ace and Roulette however worried about her threat as they move closer to take her down. However, before they do they notice that her hands begin glow red. "Uh, what are you doing?" Roulette Girl questions the woman. "This!" She exclaims as she fires a red beam from her hands at Ace who barely dodges out of the way. "What the?" Ace questions aloud before having to dodge another blast. The woman then tried to blast Roulette Girl, but she dodged as well. Both heroes dodged another blast by grappling atop one of the shelves.
They then did a double drop kick that knocked the woman into a wall, it also knocked her helmet off. "It over lady, you aren't stealing today." Roulette Girl declared. But then, Ace happened to get a good look at the woman's face. "Wait a minute... Dr Carly Thomas?" Ace says confused. "You mean that doctor that went missing?" Roulette Girl asked. However, this distraction was just what Dr Thomas needed as she fired another red beamed blast at our heroes' legs, encasing their legs in ruby diamond crust, causing them to fall over. "Haha!" Dr Thomas laughed evilly. "Why? You're a respected doctor, why become a thief?" Ace questioned her. "Simple, I've transcended being a simple human. I... Am... THE RUBY DIAMOND." She says manically before leaving.
"Great. We just got our buts kicked by a mad doctor." Roulette Girl said aggravated. "We just need to focus on getting out of this." Ace tells her pointing at ruby crust that has them trapped. "Well, I'm open to ideas." Roulette Girl replied. Ace thought for a moment before coming up with an idea. "I have an idea but you're not going to like it." He tells her as he takes out a throwing star for his utility belt. "Your plan is to chip us out using that?" Roulette Girl says unimpressed. "Not quite. These throwing stars are charge with explosives." He tells her. "Woah, wait a minute, that could blow your legs off." She warns. "One way to find out." Ace says as he sticks the throwing star into the ruby crust before activating the explosives.
*Boom*
A small boom goes off and luckily for Ace, he was freed from the ruby's grasps without any harm done to his legs. "Phew, almost thought it wouldn't work." Ace says as he stands up. He then turns to Roulette Girl and says, "You're turn." "Still think this a bad idea." She tells him in a worried tone. "You'll be fine, trust me." He replied with a chill attitude. He then takes a throwing star and sticks it between the ruby crust trapping Roulette Girl's legs before activating the explosives. And just like with him, she was freed without any harm. "That was not fun." Roulette Girl remarked. Before Ace could respond the two heard police sirens just from outside. "Let's get out here before they think we did this." Ace tells Roulette Girl. She nods, and the two both threw down a smoke bomb to hide their presence from the cops before making their way to the ceiling and escape threw the vents which led to the roof.
After that they grappled away towards a nearby water tower. "You know what's one of the few things you never see in superhero comics?" Roulette Girl asks Ace. "And what might that be?" Ace says indulging her question. "The heroes fleeing from the cops." She remarks. "True, but right now, we need to focus on dealing with an actual superpowered villain." Savvy responds. He then activated his radio link to contact Lisa. "Hey Card Counter, you there?" He says to Lisa. "I wish you would not call me that brother, it's not an endearing name." Lisa responds. "Best one I could come with, anyway, me and Roulette Girl found your hardware store thief, turns out it was Doctor Carly Thomas." He informs her.
"The same one that went missing a year ago?" Lisa inquires. "That's the one." Ace replies. "Hmm, interesting." She notes. "What do you mean?" Ace asks. "I started to look into her disappearance, and it turns out there was an accident in her lab the day before she went missing." Lisa informs Ace. "Then we'll start there. Ace out." He says before ending the call. "So, I'm guessing your 'friend' had a clue for us." Roulette Girl assumed. "Yeah, we need to check out her lab." Ace says before pressing a button on his belt. Moments later the Ace-Cycle appeared. "You don't mind sitting behind me, do you?" Ace asks with a smug smile. "Let's just go." She replies dryly. The two get on the motorcycle and begin to ride of towards VISION LABS.
We now transition inside VISION LABS where we see Dr Pace working on an experiment as he was looking through a microscope to see the results. "Hmm, intriguing." He remarked examining his work. He then tried reaching for something to his left, but it wasn't there. "That's odd, I could've sworn I put it right here." He says as he looks around his desk to no avail. "Looking for this?" Someone from behind him asked.
He turns around to see both Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl standing there. "We need to talk." Roulette Girl tells him ominously. Dr Pace was about to make a run for it until Ace blocked his path. "Dr Pace, we're not here to hurt you." Ace assures him. "Then what are you here for?" Dr Pace asks feeling wary. "You're lab partner, Dr Carly Thomas. We've found her." Ace tells him. "What? You did? Where, where is she?" He questioned. "That's the thing, when we found her, she was trying to steal some supplies out of a hardware store. And she was also calling herself 'The Ruby Diamond'." Roulette Girl says. "Then we found out there was an accident in her lab the day she went missing. We were hoping you had any clues for us." Ace tells Dr Pace.
Dr Pace sighed. It was hard for him to believe that his friend that he's been missing would turn to crime. "The day of the accident started normally. Me and Carly were showing off our newest invention to our boss, Dr Jones." Dr Pace explains. "And this device supposedly was made to increase crystallization." Roulette Girl adds. "Yes. But when we tested the device, something went wrong. Instead of accelerating the process it instead dissolved the stone we tested it on. Dr Jones told us not to worry about it, but I could tell it really bothered Carly. I told her that she should take a break before leaving the room myself, then minutes later I heard a loud boom come from the lab. When I went to check on it, I fund the lab in ruin and Carly was nowhere in sight." Dr Pace informs Ace and Roulette. "Hmm, she must have tried to fix the device after you left and it malfunctioned, causing it to explode." Ace deduced. "That would be my guess." Dr Pace agreed. "Hmm, that explains much actually. Her sudden powers, and why she stole those supplies from that hardware store." Roulette Girl concluded. "She wants to turn Royal Woods into a ruby crystal wonderland." Ace deducts.
"How come you never told the police this?" Roulette Girl asks Dr Pace. "I... Was scared. They might have assumed that I sabotaged the project, and I would never done that to Carly. Me and her have been friends for years." Dr Pace says with a sadden tone. "Don't worry Dr Pace, we'll find her and hopefully snap her out of it." Roulette Girl says in an attempt to comfort the man. "Do you know where she might be? I mean there's only a few places she could go in order to pull off her plan." Ace asks. Dr Pace thinks for a moment before coming up with an answer. "Well... There is one place..."
We now see Ace and Roulette racing towards downtown on the Ace-Cycle. "Excuse me dear brother but where are you going?" Lisa asks over the radio link. "We confronted Dr Pace, and he gave us an idea where Dr Thomas may be. We're on our way now." Ace tells her. "Then I have the perfect tool in order to assist you, but you'll need to pick it up first." Lisa tells him. "Roger that." Ace replies. "What is it?" Roulette Girl asks. "My 'friend' Card Counter has something for us that might help against Dr Thomas." Ace says as he veers the Ace-Cycle towards a random alleyway.
Once in the alley, he gets off the bike and walks towards the brick wall. "Uh dude, what are you doing?" Roulette Girl asks Ace. "Just wait." Savvy told her as he began pressing the wall. He kept at this for a few moments till one of the bricks pushed inwards, revealing a false wall behind it. "There we go." Ace says in cheerfully as he spots what Lisa had left for him. "How did you know this was here?" Roulette Girl says. "Let's just say my 'friend' set up these secret tunnels all around the city. Anyway, let's see what she left us." Ace says as he picks up a pair of boxes. He opens them to reveal two sets of gauntlets, both containing a prism mirror in it, as well as a note. "These should be able to handle Dr Thomas crystal energy blast." Ace reads. "Yeah, that makes sense. With these, we should be able to reflect any attack she throws at us." Roulette Girl realizes. "Speaking of which, we better hurry up." Ace says seriously. The two get back on the Ace-Cycle and ride toward Dr Thomas's location.
We now transition atop the Royal Woods Observation Deck, where we find The Ruby Diamond a.k.a Dr Carly Thomas finishing construction her crystallizing ray she had built a year ago, only now it was bigger and even more imposing than before. "Just in mere moments Royal Woods will be my ruby crystal wonderland." She says as she laughs aloud maniacally. "Too bad we'll stop you before that happens." A voice calls out from above her. She looks up to see both Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl standing on the platform above her, now equipped with the prism mirror gauntlets. They then front flip down in front of her.
"Oh, it's you two pests." She said annoyed. "Please, you couldn't stop me before. What makes you think you can this time?" She says with an overconfident tone. "Cause this time we came prepared." Ace shoots back. "And if we're such pest try and get rid of us." Roulette Girl challenged. Dr Thomas smirked evilly as she accepted the challenge. She quickly fires a red beam at the heroic duo, only for the to not block it with their gauntlets but reflect it back almost hitting her. "What?" She questioned, shocked by the outcome.
"Like I said. We came prepared." Ace tells her. This only angers as she begins firing red beams rapid fire like. Ace and Roulette manages to either dodge or reflect every blast that came near them, but they couldn't get close to Dr Thomas, as she got closer to her crystallizer ray. "It's no use heroes, you won't be able to get close enough to stop me before I fire my ray at the city and turn it into my crystal kingdom." She monologues. "Stop this Dr Thomas this isn't you, that accident affected your mind." Roulette Girl pleaded.
For a moment it seemed as Roulette Girl's words were getting through to the doctor as she hesitated for a moment. But alas, it was all for not as her eyes glowed red as she yells, "This is the real me! The me I was always meant to be! I AM THE RUBY DIAMOND" She then began to charge the ray and got ready to fire it. Thinking fast Ace not only ran pass Ruby Diamond but he jumped off the ledge of the observation deck, turned back around and threw multiple throwing stars at the ray before grappling towards a lower floor.
A/N: Essentially, he pulled a Batman move
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
The throwing stars beeps for a few moments before the explosives inside them set off, causing an explosion that destroyed the crystallizer ray. "No! What have you done?! You've destroyed my-" Ruby Diamond began to say before she was punched in the face by Roulette Girl. "You can talk all about while in prison." Roulette Girl quipped before soccer kicking Ruby Diamond in the face, knocking her unconscious. And with that, the fight was over.
After the fight we see Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl standing on a rooftop across from the observation deck, as the duo watch the police placing Ruby Diamond; who was now in handcuffs, being place in the back of a police car. "Nice work by the way." Roulette Girl congratulates Ace. "Thanks. A moment later and Royal Woods might look a whole lot more red." Ace joked. "Yeah, you're right about that." Roulette Girl said with a laugh.
Her expression does get a bit more serious as she comment, "I wish we could've done more to help her." "Me too, and maybe one day we can. But for right now, she's chosen her side." Ace remarks. "I guess you're right. Well then, I guess I'll see you later Ace." Roulette tells him. "Yeah, and maybe next time we won't have to deal with any mad scientist." Ace joked as the two heroes fist bump before going their separate ways.
A/N: And that's it for chapter 3. Ace Savvy and Roulette Girl have stop the Ruby Diamond and her insidious plan. But who will they face next? And what personal challenges will they might face? Find out in chapter for.
A/N 2: Sorry this took so long guys, but the reason for that is that I'm working on other stories that are attached to this story's universe. So I'll try to have another chapter done within three weeks but no promises.