Episode: 6.3

--- Tempest ---

“I am so glad you could make it this year, Tempest.” A politician she vaguely recognized as the new mayor said as he ran up to shake her hand.

“So am I.” She smiled in half-truth, something she’d gotten a little too used to over the years.

“Yes, we have everything set up, fireworks, food stands,”

She slowly tuned the politician out, not really caring about any of the festivities they were using as a tourist attraction, but unwilling to ruin anyone’s fun so long as it didn’t mess with her actual reason for attending the ceremony and the little festival they’d tacked on.

“All of that sounds lovely sir, but shouldn’t you be getting ready for your speech? I know those can be stressful even on a good day.” She cut in the moment the mayor paused for breath, trying to get rid of him as kindly as possible. (Really wish I could pull off Ariel’s kind bluntness.)

“Oh, of course!” The mayor nodded as if he’d forgotten he had his own things to do, before gesturing to a nearby young woman who was clearly looking stressed. “My assistant here will take you to the reception area so you can get yourself ready for your own entrance.”

The mayor’s assistant jolted at the sudden attention as she looked up from a tablet with a number of documents open.

“Oh, no that won’t be necessary.” She waved off the offer, not really in the mood for making someone else’s day worse. “I’m sure she has more important things to do, than show me around.”

The assistant gave her a slightly grateful look, before turning a resigned look on the mayor as he began to go on about how it was no trouble at all and that his assistant would be happy to help.

She barely managed to hold up a smile as she nodded along, all the while glancing around the room for some viable ‘out’ to this situation. And as she looked around the room, she finally managed to notice an athletic dark-skinned woman in jeans and a blue police jacket leaning against a nearby wall, turning her smile into something a little more genuine.

“I would be happy to have her help.” She finally conceded to the mayor, before waiting until he was out of hearing to turn back to his assistant.

“I-I’m sorry amount that m-ma’am, but the mayor c-can be a bit pushy and…”

She held up a hand stopping the overworked assistant for a moment, “It’s no problem,” She paused. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s M-Mindy ma’am.”

She nodded with a smile. “Like I said Mindy, it’s no problem, you’re having a stressful day and it’s not your fault.”

She gave the mayor’s assistant a once over, while using her powers to take note of just how much stress and anxiety was going through the poor girl.

(‘A hero helps people with their problems, no matter how big, no matter how small, a true hero helps with them all.’)

She put a hand on the other woman’s shoulder before looking her in the eye. “Look, Mindy, you have a stressful job, but I can tell just by looking at you, that you’re good at that job. So just remember, that no matter how bad it gets, you’re good at what you do and if you need to you shouldn’t be afraid to take a step back and take a calming breath, because at the end of the day I know you can to do this.”

Something shifted in Mindy’s eyes, and slowly she returned Tempest’s smile. “Y-you’re right. Thanks.”

She gave Mindy another smile and patted her shoulder, before sending the woman off to do whatever it is mayoral assistants do, and while she hadn’t planned on giving Mindy that little speech, given the way the over-stressed woman seemed to lose at least a little of the weight on her shoulders, Tempest felt it was worth that extra bit of effort.

“Hm, always got to be the hero.” A familiar voice laughed from behind her.

“Anyone can be hero, so long as they’re willing to try.” She pointed out turning to the dark-skinned woman she’d noticed earlier.

“True.” The woman nodded, before gesturing for her to follow as she started walking. “I’m honestly surprised you decided to come out to this after the disaster last year.”

“Personally, I’m just surprised I’m not the only one who saw it as a disaster.” She admitted with a sardonic smile.

Amethyst Brown shrugged, “Ariel and I may not ‘ve always seen eye to eye, but he was a good kid, no doubt about that.”

She nodded, she’d known Officer Amethyst Brown for years, since she was her and Ariel’s mask liaison, a position that commonly opened up whenever a more heroically inclined Deviant appeared in a police district, and was the main reason the police didn’t try to shoot or arrest said independent masks.

“So, how bad do you think this is going to be?” She eventually asked, once Amethyst had led her to a place where they were out of the way of any staff still getting things in place, but still able to see the main stage where the mayor and her were supposed to give their speeches.

“Well, I know for a fact the mayor,” Amethyst practically spat the word, “took a hit to his reputation last year, with the friends and family of the corrupted-victims, so I doubt he’s going to go that far again.”

“But odds are he’s not going to try and fix the damage from last year either.” She frowned picking up what the former Corrupted wasn’t saying.

Amethyst shrugged. “Well, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“Right…” She nodded, before turning her attention to the stage as the mayor started his speech.

“Hello people of Baskerville,” The mayor began, “I would like to thank all of you for coming out today to celebrate the day the Dark Corruptor the worst monster in Baskerville’s history was defeated by our town’s own heroine Tempest.”

She rolled her eyes at the mayor’s words even as the crowd applauded, sincerely wishing Alexander was still in charge, because even if his daughter was a bit of a bitch, he was still a good mayor who kept the city in one piece while Gene was trying to tear it down.

(Really wish he’d actually ran last year…)

She had no doubt Alexander would’ve won, but the stress from dealing with the corrupted and the fall out of finally being rid of them had done a number on the man, leading him to retire at his highest approval rating, and unfortunately leaving the city in the hands of the (jackass) in front of her…

“And today is a celebration of our liberation from the nightmare that was the Corrupted, the monsters who tormented our fair city, and to this day leave scars that we are all forced to bear.” The mayor continued his speech, while blaming the Corrupted for the city’s various problems.

Her teeth ground together as she was forced to listen to this (asshole’s lies…)

She nearly jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and had already half-way weaved a blade into existence as she turned, only to stop when she realized it was Amethyst.

“S-sorry…” She apologized, letting the blade dissolve into a small flurry of pale blue butterflies.

“It’s alright,” Amethyst assured her, “just keep your head on right, you’ve still got to go up there yourself.”

“Right…” She nodded to both Amethyst and herself, “Right.”

“And as a special treat, this year our festival has a very special guest, the heroine of Baskerville herself…”

Amethyst gave her shoulder another squeeze before gesturing for the stage. “We both know this can only end in disaster, so make sure it’s a disaster they’ll remember.”

She gave her friend a soft smile and a nod, before turning towards the stage, her fingers twitching as she weaved together a number of simple dreams to give herself a proper entrance to the ceremony.

“…Tempest, the Dreamweaver!”

At the Mayor’s introduction she unleashed her dreams, a veritable hurricane of blue, violet, and white butterflies that she had sweep out from behind the stage, before spiraling through the crowd in gale several of the butterflies exploding into a flurry of lights that drifted over the crowd. This display continued until the mass majority of the butterflies swirled together into a spiraling vortex before crashing into the stage and exploding into a rainbow of lights, that faded to reveal her bowing before her audience as they erupted into applause.

(Guess that showoff really did rub off on me.)

She couldn’t help but smile at that idea as she stood, taking note of the various fans who were trying to offer their moral support standing behind the rows of reporters who wanted to do just the opposite.

As she made her way to the podium she pulled down her hood, and let her eyes drift across the crowd, and their flashing cameras, all the while wishing Ariel was with her, because while she was better at dealing with actual people, he was always better at dealing with the media.

---

Ariel rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about them Temp-y, you’ve faced scarier things than a bunch of glory-hounds looking for the next big scoop.”

“But why can’t the mayor or someone else take care of this?!”

Ariel shrugged looking off to the side. “We’re the ones dealing with the Corrupted, so when we explain this kind of thing to people it has a little more weight to it than when someone else tries to warn everyone about the Corrupted…” Ariel paused before turning his gaze back on her. “Unless, you want Sanctuary to be the one to explain everything in their… special perspective.”

She frowned, thinking of how Sanctuary had tried to arrest and quarantine the Corrupted they’d helped, all because the were victims of a particularly insane Bio-oriented M.A.D.

“No, it’s better we’re the ones who deal with this.” She finally admitted, drawing a wild grin from her partner.

“Ah, come on whirlwind, don’t make that face.” Ariel pushed up on the sides of his cheeks to make an exaggerated expression. “Put on a smile, smiles always make people feel better. Sometimes even the one who’s smiling.”

---

With a subtle shake of her head, she firmed her resolve before giving the masses a soft smile, remembering that she was talking to the people supporting her not the reporters themselves, and that she actually had no reason to care about what the media said.

“As we all know I’m not particularly good at speeches,” She started the speech she’d spent the last two weeks rehearsing. “First and foremost, I just want to thank everyone for all of the support you’ve shown me and Ariel over the years.”

While a fair portion of the crowd applauded her, her powers let her pick up the subtle shift in the rest of the crowd’s demeanor easily enough, a shift that she was more than expecting.

She wasn’t one for public speeches, but she knew that she had to fix at least some of the damage the (idiot) mayor had done, unless she wanted all of those victims, she’d helped save from Gene’s madness to suffer and blame themselves for what happened. Something she’d witnessed several times over the last year, due to the mayor’s callous words.

“That said, today is not just a day to celebrate the end of Geneticist, nor is it a day to thank me and my partner, no today is for all of the victims of the Dark Corruptor. Today is the day where all of Baskerville proves that regardless of the traumas inflicted upon us, we are healing. That regardless of what trials we face, we will make it through, and we will be all the stronger for it, because we did not simply abandon those who needed our help, but rather we helped each other rise through our darkest hour.”

The crowd applauded at that, and some part of her would like to think their cheers were louder for her, than for the mayor’s previous speech.

After a moment, as the crowd’s cheers began to die down, she gestured towards the reporters towards the front of the crowd, using her powers to pick out the ones whose emotions best gave away their intentions. “Now I’m sure there are a few questions people would like to ask, and I have no problem answering whatever questions I can.”

To prove this point, she pointed at one of the reporters, already knowing this one was going to ask something that would piss her off, but also knowing that question was the best way to get at least one of her points across.

“Tempest, are you saying even after all this time you’re still supporting Ariel, even after the scandal of his involvement with the Dark Corruptor?” The reporter asked

“Yes, I am.” She admitted firmly. “Ariel, may’ve been one of Geneticist’s early…” she swallowed before forcing out the words, “‘test subjects’ but that does not change the fact that no matter what kind of threat this city faced, he still stood by my side to help protect the innocent. It does not change the fact that if not for his aid in the final battle against the Dark Corruptor, I would not have won that fight. It does not change the fact, that Ariel, the Shadow Knight, is my partner.”

“And what do you have to say about the fact that Ariel hasn’t been seen in the last two years?!” A reporter from the side asked without prompt.

(Because you vultures ran him off.)

Rather than letting her own ire show, she took a deep breath and looked into the nearest camera. “All I have to say to that, is that as far as I’m concerned Ariel will always have a home in Baskerville, and that I hope wherever he is, he’s found some semblance of happiness.”