Episode: 6.2

--- Prosperity Jones ---

“Today marks the two-year anniversary of the day Tempest, the hero of Baskerville, defeated Geneticist, the Dark Corruptor, saving Baskerville from the villains plan to corrupt Baskerville into the next plague town by-”

She turned the tv off and tossed the remote on the café counter holding back a snarl, at the half-truths the news was content to spread.

“You alright sweetie?”

“Yeah…” She lied, turning to her mother, a woman in her early forties with half-Asian features visible beneath her dark hair.

Her mother gave her a look. “What did we say about the lies?”

She couldn’t help but wince, before letting out a sigh.

(Really wish the secret identity thing didn’t cost me so many lies…)

“It’s just I hate the way they treat Ariel after that mess way back, I mean even with everything else, he did as much as Tempest. Heh,” She smiled thinking of her wayward partner. “more in some ways.”

Her mother gave her a look before rubbing her shoulder, “I know, he was a good boy and didn’t deserve the way the city turned on him. He was as much one of the Corruptor’s victims as anyone else.”

She didn’t feel like correcting her mom on that misconception as she was pulled into a side hug.

“Look I’m sure even after all this time Ariel knows that there are at least a few people in Baskerville who miss him, and know he was a true hero.” Her mom tried comforting her, as she rubbed circles into her back.

“It still doesn’t sit right with me…” She mumbled into her mother’s shoulder.

“I know sweetie…” Her mother shifted glanced at something over her shoulder. “Oh, weren’t you planning on going to the ceremony this year?”

She nodded, as she took a step back.

Her mom gestured to the café clock pointing out that the ceremony was maybe an hour away. “Then you’ll want to be leaving soon, so you can make sure you get there in time for everything.”

“Right, just got to grab my jacket and I’ll be off. Love you.” She waved making her way up the stairs, and towards

“Love you too sweetie!” She heard her mother call as she ran up the stairs.

As she ran through the door separating her and her mother’s home from their café downstairs, she swiped a blue cotton jacket that fell to just above her knees off of a hook next to the front door. With her jacket in hand, rather than turning around, she continued forward, past their kitchen and living room and up another flight of stairs.

Moving past the building’s main rooms, she made her way into the attic she’d converted into her own studio several years prior, before pulling on a string attached to the ceiling and pulling down a ladder leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling.

Once through the trapdoor, and onto their rooftop deck, she ran her hands through her hair as she walked across the deck, her shoulder length hair changing color from it’s natural brown, and into a more vibrant blue that grew darker closer to her roots.

Her fingers drifted over her eyes, a slight twist of reality changing the color around her eyes into something resembling a blue butterfly mask, with her eyes in set into the lower wings, and with a number of white dots near them.

She took her blue jacket and flipped it right-side out, so that the black leather-like material was on the outside and the soft blue cotton-y material was on the inside. Pulling the jacket on, she was once more thankful that after a few modifications the jacket zipped both from the collar down as well as the waist up, as she zipped the top half of the jacket down to just above her waist.

Reaching into the pockets on the leather side of her jacket she pulled out a pair of black fingerless gloves with a blue butterfly on the back of each hand, and a very subtle padding over the knuckles, before slipping the gloves onto her hands.

And with that final change done, she slipped her black hood over her head, fully completing her transformation into Tempest, the Dreamweaver, as she stepped onto the roof’s edge.

She kicked off the roof’s edge launching herself over the building next to her family’s café, a trail of thin black cracks in reality trailing behind her, along with the occasional dark blue butterfly, before fading as she got too far away, for them to passively sustain themselves.

Her feet hit the next roof over, leaving behind faint cracks in the roof as her powers cushioned her fall, before sprinting on already knowing from experience that the damage was merely exaggerated by her power and would mend itself soon enough.

For her next jump she turned slightly, aiming for a building on the other side of the street as she soared through the air. She already knew she was falling too fast to make the jump cleanly, so instead she let herself drop and extra meter or two before pressing her boots against the building’s walls and running along them as a faint blue aura wrapped around her.

Since she could only defy gravity for a few moments before it started actually draining her, she counted to four in her head before leaping at an angle so that with a swing of her leg she’d land on the roof of the building next to the one she’d been running.

A series of tricks that were significantly better than anything she could pull off back when Ariel first got her started three years prior.

---

“Alright, I’m here, what did you want to talk about?” she asked

“What no ‘hello’?” Ariel asked with a faux-hurt expression, the twitching at the corners of his mouth giving away his amusement.

“Look, if this isn’t important, I have better things to take care of.” She glared, wishing he’d just take a hint.

“So confrontational.” Ariel rolled his eyes, something more prominent given the way his glowing pupils stood out against his black sclera.

“Okay, so straight to business.” Ariel clapped his hands before leaping onto a nearby streetlamp with ease and taking a seat on it. “Now, while I personally don’t mind carrying around such a beautiful gal, I get the distinct feeling you’d rather I not do that.”

She bit back her less positive response and instead asked, “And your solution is?”

“I teach you mobility.” Ariel answered kicking off the streetlamp and landing on one behind her in a crouch. “Something you sorely lack at the moment.”

“And how do you intend to teach me mobility?” She asked keeping her eyes on the boy. “I mean I don’t exactly have a tail.”

Ariel stopped with his acrobatics, before hanging from the streetlamp with his legs and watching her upside down. “How much do you know about your Deviancy?”

She raised her hand, brought a glowing blue butterfly into existence. “I make butterflies, and if I focus on them, they can do things.”

Ariel watched her with his star-like pupils before giving her a smile with just a few too many teeth. “Oh, you are capable of so much more than that, princess.”

---

As she drew near to a rooftop, she shook her head clear of the memories drifting in and out, before landing on a rooftop on the edge of the city square, they were going to hold this… (thing) at.

Her eyes drifted across the already growing crowd, part of her feeling a warmth in her chest knowing how many of those people were there in a show of support and gratitude for everything she’d done over the years, at least until she noticed a statue of her Tempest persona in the center of the square, just her Tempest persona.

(Remember, you’re here for him.)