read this one first, then the Notes and Credits. Official studio: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/28836941/ CHAPTER 1 Jay The peaceful stillness of the starry night was abruptly ended by a rat scampering out of a tunnel, closely followed by a girl, both running fast, their eyes set upon the small line of asteroids that connected to the docking point for the space ships. It didn’t exactly appear as though they were out for a short run. I was obliged to chase her when she stopped, retraced her steps, and brought the tunnel’s entrance down by pressing her hand to it. She then took off again, looking only the slightest bit guilty for what she had just done. She paused for a moment, and clenched her fists tightly, and pulled a map out of her pocket. As she studied it, I very slowly inched closer to her. When I was no more than fifty feet away, I reached for my gun. If she didn’t move, I could easily take her out. Unluckily, she moved. That was fine. I liked a challenge, not that this could possibly prove much of one. I stalked closer to her. She stepped closer to the bridge, her face growing darker. She took one more step backwards--her last step, I promised myself-- and put a foot on the asteroid belt. I decided then and there that it was a good time to fire my gun. This girl, whoever she was, wasn’t an easy target. She picked up her mouse and threw it into a tree. I fired my gun at her several more times before deciding to go closer. I pushed my spine against a tree and held my gun at the ready. From my position, I could see her but I doubted she could see me. A police officer charged out of the building, aiming straight for her. The girl took a deep breath, put her arms up, jumped, grabbed hold of the branch of the huge cherry blossom, and hoisted herself up the tree, before disappearing into the mass of pink flowers. Yeah, right. Like I was letting her get away that easily. I wasn’t going to lie, this girl was good at climbing trees. No matter how many times I thought I'd caught up with her, she was far ahead. But the tree was only so tall. And once she had reached the top, there was nowhere to go. Evidently, she decided to throw things down the tree in a lousy excuse to get me to stop following her. I jumped to the side as she threw down, oddly enough, one of her shoes. I didn’t make a sound. I wanted her to think I had either given up and left, or been hit by her heavy black boot.
The girl sighed, giving away her location. I climbed towards where I'd heard the noise. The girl was nowhere to be found. I pulled out my gun and started randomly firing at the branches. Nothing. Where could she possibly be? I continued searching the tree, firing my gun as I went along. After all, when it came to Matter Destroyers, it was kill or be killed. Fire or get fired upon. Hurt or be-- “HEY!” The girl said. “Are you still chasing me, or what’s the holdup?” I jumped and put my back to the tree's thick branch, scanning the area quickly. The girl extended herself down the tree and popped out in front of my face. “Hi.” I aimed my gun at her. “Surrender.” I’d said this many times, but never to such a pretty girl as this. How could she possibly be a criminal? “I know what you’re thinking,” the girl said, “I’m a criminal. But no. You’re wrong. I’m just an average girl living in the city.” Sure. I’d heard that story enough times to know the kid was lying. She batted her eyelashes at me, which infuriated me so much that I fired my gun at her face. She pulled herself up through the branches and yelled down, “Hey! That wasn’t nice! We were having a conversation.” She jumped down from the tree, mouse in hand, and took off sprinting again. Naturally, I chased after her. The girl pulled out a map and set her mouse on it. “Okay, Mousie. I need you to need the way to wherever I’m supposed to go next.” Mousie shrugged. Who knew mice could shrug? The girl picked it up and it squeaked in protest. “We’re being followed, Mousie. We need to leave.” The girl put the map back into her pocket, and while her hand lingered there, I began to fire my gun again. Seemed like the perfect time to do so. I was hoping the girl would panic. She just looked bored, which was insulting. My gun skills were the best in the entire police force, or so I'd been told. I kept firing the gun. I could quite literally do this all night. The girl picked up the mouse. “Mousie, who is this?” and she held the mouse up to her ear. After a moment of odd silence, she said, “Hm. A member of the police force.” I was shocked. I had heard no rumors that Matter Destroyers could talk to animals, and rumors were usually passed around rather quickly once they got started. The girl brought out her map again and quickly traced her left pointer finger down it. “Let’s see, Snow Gardens, Illusion Gardens, or Pond of Death? Heck, those are some weird names. Very uncreative. But pretty, I guess.” I fired the gun again, but the girl didn’t flinch. She took off running, dodging bullets left and right. I didn’t want to have to kill her, she could be used for information, and… she was really pretty. The girl paused in thought. “Are you coming? Or are we done? Did I win?” I chased after her. This was getting boring. And besides, it was three minutes to midnight, when I'd have to give up the chase. Stupid girl. I called for backup. When my one and only best teammate ever arrived, we silently followed the girl. My teammate, Ben Prong, was faster than I was. He was tall and lean, but his aim was off. And best of all, he wasn’t that bad a guy. He had several brothers, 8, I believed. The girl had stopped. I wouldn’t have noticed it, except for the fact that Ben put his arm in front of me, his dark skin glowing in the moonlight. He muttered to stop as the girl slowed down. She pulled out her map yet again. “Okay, Mousie. Which way?” I slowly reached for my gun. I pointed it at her. She didn’t appear to notice. I had less than a minute to stop this evil Matter Destroyer before she collapsed the entire world. A slight exaggeration on my part, but all the same she was an evil girl. The girl’s bright green eyes scanned the map intently. I held my finger at the trigger and waited for Ben’s signal. He slowly moved around to the other side of her. We both understood the plan, without ever having to say a word. Ben pointed his gun at her and waved his other hand in the sign of the signal. He fired his gun, startling the girl. She jumped and tried to run the opposite way, as planned. How predictable. I fired my gun at her. Ben smiled as the girl collapsed to the ground. I blew on the top of my gun, as I had seen people do in action movies. “Bullseye.” Ben laughed. “Let’s take her to the integration room.” I nodded and grabbed the girl’s arm, pulling the taser bullets out. I thought I had just helped the whole world by capturing one of the wicked, evil, monstrous Matter Destroyers. God, was I wrong.