CREWSADERS - THE NOVELIZATION OF A GAME THAT DOESN'T EXIST

The Capital City

The young man took out a pair of futuristic-looking guns, and his body began to vibrate furiously until dozens of electrical clones filled the sewers. Sparks flew across the walls like some kind of static web.

"Fuck," Sun Stone muttered bitterly. Not only had he gotten away again but he made it all the more harder to find him again. She needed to rescue her partner. No matter what.

Sun Stone took off the moment her arms regained feeling, filling the narrow hallways with flames as she tried to dodge the countless laser beams. She just had to destroy the original guns, she thought. If the Akuma wasn't in his visor it definitely had to be in there.
It all was just like a normal agility training course she'd done countless times as a civilian: avoid the pretend lasers as you try to reach a certain spot, except with much higher stakes. Her specific necklace may not have given her any kind of additional movement options, but she still had the same super-human speed and reflexes as most heroes in her world, letting her dodge most of the blasts with ease. She blasted each clone with a small flame as she breezed by them, hoping to find the original.

But they all vanished.

One by one she took the clones out and yet the real DJ was nowhere to be seen. He'd run off, she concluded, probably to continue living his twisted fantasy pretending to be a hero using stolen abilities offered by the same force that had been giving normal people superpowers as leverage. But she couldn't let him escape, not while people's lives were at stake.. Not when Moon Talon was missing.

And so after taking a deep breath, she dashed through the sewers, trying to leave no stone unturned as she looked for-

She found literal light at the end of the tunnel.

She came to a halt as she saw a faint light and heard DJ's heavy breathing and footsteps echoing not too far away, he was nearing the exit. Not on her watch. Sun Stone spawned a flag in her left hand and used one of her powers to detach a large manhole cover from its spot and another to carry it in front of her as a shield. If DJ repeated any of the moves he'd tried on her before, she'd be ready.

She sprinted after the footsteps, catching up to DJ just around the bend. Without saying a word, she threw her flag at his back to halt him in his tracks, though not hard enough to impale. As soon as it hit him, DJ sharply turned around and screamed in despair.

"STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!"

A giant, powerful laser spilled from his hands and shook the whole sewer system. Sun Stone barely had enough time to hold up her makeshift shield, but it was no match for the sudden beam of fury tearing through it as well as the ceiling above her. As the system was damaged more and more, the structure couldn't take it anymore, it crumbled.

https://youtu.be/YAwhc-_jCOA?si=95QQ4TxwBerDcfkM

DJ stood there, breathing heavily as he looked onwards. The light faded away and the rumbling had stopped, not a single soul in sight as his tense stance and scowl quickly shifted into a look of undeniable regret.

Érica laid motionless underneath a pile of rubble.

Panicked that he let his anger get the best of him, DJ darted over to the rubble and started to pick away at the smaller rocks. It was no use, the bigger slabs wouldn't budge when he tried to move them. Shaking at the thought of what he might have done, he backed away and stared at the mess. DJ stood there, completely frozen from his mind taunting him that his powers hurt someone again, but this time possibly something that couldn't run away from.

DJ's stunned silence was broken a few minutes later and he was dragged back into reality as the rubble began to glow a faint yellow. The rocks began to return to their original places, revealing a weak, shaking Sun Stone in the middle.. if one could even call her Sun Stone anymore. Her helmet had vanished, leaving only a head of muted red hair and nothing to hide her identity, revealing an old scar over what was left of her left eye, seeming to be able to focus but faded in appearance. All of her protective gear had vanished as well, leaving only the layer of practical black clothes as well as a now-muted-golden necklace with a black pendant that vaguely resembled the crest of a rooster.