Episode: 6.1

--- ??? ---

(What am I supposed to do?)

Her eyes watched the chaos unfolding before her, wondering what to do.

Sanctuary was fighting as best they could, but they didn’t have the numbers or power necessary to put down the (at least) A-Rank Mask in front of them.

(What am I supposed to do?)

Given the local Sanctuary outpost’s massive presence and treatment of Deviants, most Deviants in the city kept their heads down like her or moved out fast. Hell, not even the Deviants working for Sanctuary were willing to work with this city’s outpost.

What all of that meant though, was… Baskerville had few to no real Masks.

(What am I supposed to do?)

Sparks danced over her clenched fingers, before something clicked inside her and a purple Butterfly pieced itself together from non-existent glass before flying towards the chaos.

She pulled her jacket’s hood up and stepped forward, as more butterflies formed around her.

---

The boy smiled brightly at her, his glowing white eyes twinkling like stars under the cast by his hood.

“The name ‘s Ariel. Ariel, the Shadow Knight.”

She stared at the hand before her, and at the boy who’d either just saved her life or put it in twice as much danger.

“Um, Tempest…” she offered taking his hand.

His smile grew even brighter, enough to draw a smile to her own face, despite the traumatic day she’d had.

---

“Okay, so how’re we doing this?” Ariel asked, crouched on the roof’s edge as his tail flickered back and forth.

She turned her attention from the mask below, and to the one at her side. “Why’re you asking me?”

Ariel shrugged. “You look like one of those people who’s good at making plans.”

“Well, I’m not.” She shook her head, before turning back to the villain who was wrecking things in search of their prey.

“Not with that attitude, princess.”

She turned to glare at the annoying boy, only for him to wink at her before leaping off the building and towards the villain. “Join in when you’ve got a plan!”

---

She stared up at the pale-faced villain, (because what else could he be?) dressed in a black lab coat.

“Who… who are you?” she managed to gasp through wheezing breaths as she clutched her bleeding left arm.

The man stared at her in such an intense way, she felt her three-layered costume did little to cover her, let alone protect her.

“You likely know me as Geneticist, the Dark Corruptor.” The answered, reaching towards her with a pale white hand, that seemed to drip some dark substance from the finger tips.

“And you… YoU’Re mY NeW teST sUbJeCT…”

---

“You okay?” Ariel asked, from her perch on the roof’s edge.

“Yeah, just… just a rough couple of days…” she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

“You… uh, you want to talk about it?”

She paused, glancing at the boy who time and again risked his life right beside her as they tried to save the city form Geneticist and his corrupted. Despite his constant joking and flirting, she doubted there was anyone she trusted half as far as the heroic Malcontent.

“If… If you don’t mind.”

He gave her a soft smile, before taking a seat next to her. “Not at all.”

---

The woman in front of her had the signs, black markings across her skin, glowing eyes, and a sense of wrongness that just couldn’t be abated.

“You’re, you’re one of the Corruptor’s experiments.”

“YeS…” the Corrupted admitted, swaying with off kilter balance that made it look like if she took two steps she’d fall to the floor.

“Look, I…” She wasn’t in costume, she couldn’t admit she could help her, especially since the Corruptor could see through his victims’ eyes. “We, we can find you help, I’m sure if we look for them, Ariel and Tempest will be more than happy to help you.”

The woman’s eyes that had been drifting around suddenly snapped to her. “BuT I dOn’T wANt To bE fIXed…”

“You, you don’t?” She asked, stumbling a half step back because the ‘willing experiments’ were always the most dangerous.

“ThAt SaID, I WiLL UsE yoU’Re HeLP To FiNd thE HeROeS…”

Shadows began to spin around the corrupted woman as the sense of wrongness in the air seemed to intensify, making it harder for her to breathe as she tried to back away from the twisting mass of black flesh growing from the woman.

From the shadows shot out a massive black claw the size of a car, and ready to crush her like an insect. She flinched, just managing to weave some half-assed form of defense that would do nothing to actually protect her from the Corrupted’s unnatural strength.

She was full expecting the blow to send her halfway out the alley only, after a moment, she realized there was no impact.

Meekly she opened her eyes and caught sight of Ariel holding the utterly massive Corrupted’s hand back with a mix of his shadow-gauntlet on one hand and his blade in the other.

Ariel glanced over his shoulder at her. “I’ve got this, you just get somewhere safe, miss.”

She watched her partner unknowingly protect her before turning to run, she needed to find someplace to change so she could help him.

---

“So, you want to learn how to sword fight?”

“Yeah, now that I’ve got my dreams to the point where I can weave more than butterflies, I figured it’d be a good idea to know how to hit hard when I have to.”

Ariel gave her a hurt expression with a hand over his chest. “Ah, Tempy, at this rate I’m going to start feeling like you’re trying to take my job.” His frown immediately twisted into a smile. “Got to love an independent woman.”

She just rolled her eyes at the flirt’s comment.

“So, are you helping me or not?”

His star like pupils sharpened in that way that told her he was taking her seriously, even if his tone was light-hearted. “You know, I’m self-taught despite how easy I make it look.”

“Given how you handle Creeps and the Corrupted, I doubt that’ll be a problem.”

Ariel flicked his thumb off something in his hand, and a meter-long blade erupted from his hand. “Alright then,” The shadow-knight smiled before pointing his blade at her. “Show me what I’m working with whirlwind.”

---

“No, no, no, no.”

She pressed her hands onto the wound, trying to stop the bleeding, even as the flesh around it began to spark and turn black.

“Don’t… worry…” Ariel tried to reassure her between gasping breaths. “I’m a bit… tougher than that… Do this… kind of thing… knightly… heh.”

“Damn it, Ariel!” She cursed glaring at her (dying) friend. “Now isn’t the time to be joking!”

Ariel gave her a smile. “It’s laugh… or cry… Tempy… and you’re… too pretty… to cry…”

---

The Corruptor’s latest victim laid unconscious on the ground, as the malice residue began to dissolve into nothingness.

And with the latest threat taken care of she was free to take care of more important matters.

“What are you doing!” She shouted rounding on the (suicidal) boy in front of her. “It hasn’t even been a month since you were hospitalized!”

“Oh, come on whirlwind, you know I’m a fast healer.” Ariel disagreed with that annoyingly cocky smile of his.

She shook her head. “I don’t care, you shouldn’t be fighting until you’re at one hundred percent!”

“Glad to see you still care…” Ariel admitted quietly enough that she knew he didn’t intend her to hear.

She glanced at Ariel, noticing the way he seemed more stressed, than by his simple injuries. She had a fairly good idea of what he was talking about, even if she didn’t know how to talk about it.

“Of course, I care.” She told him softly.

Ariel watched her for a moment before smiling just as softly.

---

Ariel caught the bottle out of the air before tossing it in the trash can next to him with a kind smile, “Watch it, you might end up hurting someone.”

“Fuck you!” the man yelled back.

She couldn’t help but glare at the guy who was giving her partner such a hassle.

“Don’t worry about it Whirlwind.” Ariel told her, tugging on her arm to get her moving again.

She frowned at him. “It’s not right the way they’re treating you.”

Ariel waved her off with a shake of his head. “Don’t worry I’m more than used to it.”

“You shouldn’t be.”

---

Her last dream shattered as she hit the ground in a tumble.

“Tempest!” Ariel called back in a panic, his glowing eyes cutting through the shadows of his hood.

“I’m fine!” she called back forcing herself off the ground, even as her hands began weaving a new construct into existence, her butterflies fluttering through the air.

She blatantly ignored the screaming pain coming from her ribcage.

“AfTeR sO LonG… i eXpecTed… mORe frOM yoU tWo…” The dark geneticist sighed, his voice shifting unnaturally as his corruption finally began to eat away at him.

“We aren’t done yet!” she cried, sending a swarm of her little dreams at the villain.

Geneticist shook his head, before sweeping his hand through the air shattering every construct that cam near him in an explosion of glowing glass and dripping darkness.

“paRlOr triCKs… wIll onLY gET yoU… sO fAr…” the corrupted sighed, even as black tar continued dripping from his eyes and mouth.

“They got us this far!” her partner shouted as shadows began to swirl around him, reforging the dark metal of his armor and blade.

“anD YeT… yOu sTIll… HolD bACK…” the villain growled with a mouth full of inhuman fangs, before snapping his fingers.

Her partner gasped, before clutching his skull and falling to his knees.

(No… not now…)

Her eyes jumped between the villain and hero before her, a scene far too similar to the one she’d seen earlier.

“Your days of attacking this city are through.” She cried as her swarm grew ever larger, pushing away the darkness around her as well as the creeping forms that seemed to dance with the shadows.

The Corruptor glanced at her before shaking his head, “you still… think this… is about the city…?”

“There were other ways to do this!” her partner cried, as black mist began pouring from his hands.

She glanced at her partner, she knew this wasn’t easy for him, but he had to know the corruptor was too far gone at this point.

Her heart ached, knowing he still hoped for a better ending, one she wished for with all her power to turn dream into reality.

(Please… Don’t make us do this…)

“Perhaps…” the corruptor admitted sadly, “but we both know… they weren’t for me…”

The villain snapped his fingers and the shadows poured out in a flood of demented shapes, as he gave them no other choice.

Her partner’s breathing became ragged, before he glared at the Corruptor with hellfire red eyes, “Then I guess this is how it has to be.”

---

“Would you… would you mind… if I pretended you were my daughter… just for a moment…” the father asked staring at her with blind eyes, as a trail of black still streamed from the side of his mouth, “I miss her… I miss my kids so much…”

Tears ran down her face as she held onto the dying villain’s hand even tighter.

---

“Hey… Whirl- uh, Tempest?”

She stopped, her partner’s unsure voice catching her off guard.

Her eyes drifted over the city lights ticking on as the new morning’s dawn finally began to rise, taking all the darkness and sin of the last year away with it.

She gnawed on her lip. After the night they’d had he needed to decompress. They both did. The only problem was… after everything that happened with the Corruptor…

She knew what he needed to talk about, the problem however was that… (I don’t know how to help him…)

“What’s up, Ariel?” she finally asked, giving him an encouraging smile, as she tried to cover up the fact that she’d let his words sit for just a little too long.

Ariel watched her for a moment, the sharp white pupils she’d come to see as stars shining through the dark, cloudy around the edges in a way that seemed heartbreakingly dull.

“Some… things have come up recently…”

“What… kind of things?” She already knew, she just couldn’t help but wish she was wrong.

“After… after the stuff with… with the corruptor…” Ariel looked away before shaking his head. “Sanctuary… they, they’ve been giving me a lot trouble…”

“What kind of trouble?” She pressed, knowing Ariel was usually more direct than this.

“The kind that…” Ariel took a deep breath and let it out, before meeting her eyes once more. “It might be best for me to leave town for a while.”

She blinked. “What?” She shook her head. “No, you can’t, you-”

“They’ve been after me since I was outed!” Ariel cut her off, his voice missing any of his usual cheer.

“But, but that was months ago!” Surely, they would’ve done something in that time if they were going to do anything.

“And they needed me to help fight the Corruptor… they knew only his magnum opus had a chance of beating him…” Her best friend explained with an exhaustion that she could practically feel.

“But that’s…”

Ariel gave her a bittersweet smile. “Don’t worry about it, Tempy, I’ll be fine.”

She tried to speak but nothing would come out.

Ariel gave her one last smile before letting her go, turning, and walking away.

(No, don’t let him go… Tell him to stay…)

She reached out towards Ariel’s retreating form.

(Tell him you’ll help him…)

She tried to take a step forward but found her legs half frozen to the ground.

(Just… Just don’t…)

She fell to her knees as Ariel faded from sight.

(Don’t let him go…)

--- Prosperity Jones ---

Her hand on the alarm blaring at her side, almost wishing the thing would’ve gone off five minutes sooner, that way she wouldn’t have to have the ending to that dream again.

She forced herself to sit up, while stretching out her muscles and trying to ignore the various memories her dream had brought to mind. As she did so her eyes drifted to her calendar wondering if she had anything scheduled for today, and she couldn’t help but frown as she read ‘Two-year anniversary’ written in angry marker strokes.

“Right… today’s that day…”