Episode: 6.7

--- Prosperity ---

---(Three Years Ago)---

(What am I supposed to do?)

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

She’d been on her way home from school when a series of explosions and screams went off just a block away from her, dragging her attention to a number of Sanctuary vehicles speeding by on their way to deal with whatever was going on.

The smart decision would’ve been to ignore the entire mess and continue on her way home, because while whatever was going on was technically blocking her way, there was no reason she couldn’t take a block, or two, detour to circumvent whatever was happening.

The decision she made instead, was to investigate after all it wasn’t every day Baskerville saw a Deviant attack, and she doubted it would actually be all that dangerous, (the ‘explosions’ are probably just some Sanctuary soldier who got a little trigger happy with a grenade or two.)

Unfortunately, it turned out explosives were most appropriate given the way the violet clad woman was tearing through the scenery and tossing around the soldiers like ragdolls, both clear signs that this was a higher-ranking Deviant than she’d been expecting.

And as she watched fire deviant toss around flames and Sanctuary soldiers as if they were nothing, she found herself wondering (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 to help on the rare occasions when Sanctuary actually needed it.

(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 decision slowly cementing itself in her mind.

Even if she didn’t have the most useful Deviancy, there had to be something she could do to help, she refused to be the kind of person who had the ability to help and still did nothing as innocent people were put in danger.

With that idea in mind she began moving forward, she knew there wasn’t much she could do but given how destructive this mask was being, how many people were in danger, she knew something was better than nothing.

Sneaking past the Sanctuary line and closer to the Mask was a lot easier than it should’ve been, even if Sanctuary was focused on the Deviant throwing fire everywhere, but it let her get in close enough that her butterflies could reach the Mask so she wasn’t going to complain just yet.

She knew she couldn’t risk a straight fight with the Deviant, not with the way the Mask was throwing people around. So instead, she stayed on the outside of the fight, away from everyone’s focus, as she moved to take cover behind an overturned car.

Taking a slight risk, she peeked out from behind cover to try and get a handle on the scene, watching as the Sanctuary soldiers were slowly pushed back by the Mask they were fighting.

A mask, she was now close enough to, to make out the fact that the purple leather of the masked Deviant’s costume wasn’t so much leather as it was a hardened sort of carapace or scaled hide, and that several of the features she’d attributed to the woman’s mask, such as her fanged maw and the scales around her mouth, were actually parts of her face.

(That’s different… maybe she’s a Shifter of some kind?)

Shaking her head from that stray thought, she began making more of her butterflies before directing them towards the hostile Deviant in the hopes of distracting her and giving the Sanctuary agents a shot at taking her down.

The first few did little to distract the dragon lady, as she idly swiped the butterflies out of the air while throwing fireballs at the Sanctuary soldiers, but as dozens started swarming her she began to actively attack the butterflies instead, even going so far as to try and bite them out of the air.

(She’s… she’s almost acting feral…)

As this thought passed through her mind, she noticed Sanctuary taking the opening to start firing everything they had the mask, getting the woman to at least flinch as bullets continued to pelt her skin.

Of course, any hope for victory that brought her as the woman unleashed an ear-splitting roar that had her covering her ears and wincing as all of her butterflies were shattered into dust.

“Who’S THerE?!” The Deviant screamed with her distorted voice, having realized there was someone there other than her and the Sanctuary soldiers she’d been fighting.

(That’s not good…)

“YoU tHINk yOu cAn StOp Me WiTh BuTTerFlIeS?! mE?! I’Ll bURn yoU tO hELl!!!” The dragon lady wailed as she began to randomly throw fireballs around, not even noticing the bullets still pelting her scale coated flesh.

(Damn it…) She cursed watching the mask’s rampage as she risked another peek out from her cover, before promptly ducking back and hoping she hadn’t been seen.

(Nothing they throw at her is hurting her! We need something that can hit her hard enough to get through her hide, but what?!)

She banged her head against the overturned car in frustration, before feeling something oily on her hand.

(Eww, yuck!)

She jumped pulling her hand from the muck, and trying to flick the substance from her hands, before pausing as she realized the substance was gas leaking from the car, something that made her glance at a nearby fire still burning.

(That can’t be safe, I should-)

She froze.

Her eyes flickered between the gas, the fire, and towards fire Deviant as a plan started to piece itself together in her mind.

(That… might work… but can I even do that?)

She took one more glance at the scene, as her butterflies distracted the woman, giving the Sanctuary soldiers a chance to try and fight back.

Glancing at a nearby car that hadn’t been overturned she sent out a handful of butterflies, directing them towards the car’s fuel tank, hoping her little constructs were stronger than their more physical counterparts as she had them slowly pry the fuel door open.

(I guess whatever these guys are made of is a little sterner than actual butterflies.) Which was a good thing, especially as she had one dive into the fuel tank before flying out, somehow keeping afloat despite now being doused in gasoline.

(Alright, I can work with this.)

Nodding to herself, she sent out half of her swarm to keep distracting pyra, before sending the other half out to every car she could see in the area. Getting her butterflies to repeat the trick she’d done a moment before, turned out to be both easier and harder.

Easier because her butterflies seemed to have learned from her previous set, but harder because the of strain dividing her attention between so many butterflies performing so many tasks was giving her a migraine.

(Might want… to work on… multitasking… ugh.)

Pushing through the pain, she began to gather a swarm of her gasoline doused butterflies high enough in the air that the fire Deviant would hopefully miss them as… (she incinerates my distraction.)

She couldn’t help but swallow in apprehension as the flame Deviant wiped out her basic butterflies in a small twister of flames and rage.

“WhERe aRe yoU?!” the dragon lady roared, as her flames began to spread around her making it difficult to keep track of the fire deviant through the cinder and the flame. “YoU tHiNk thESe bUTteRFlieS wIlL pRoTEct YoU?! I’lL EaT yOu AlIvE!!!”

(I don’t think I’d put it past you either heh, heh…) She thought grimly, as she pressed her back even further against the overturned car, just in case some part of her was still visible.

Taking a moment to forcibly calm herself down, something that was proving difficult given the various bouts of gunfire from the Sanctuary soldiers and the insane screaming from the dragon woman, she reached out to her swarm trying to find a non-soaked butterfly capable of tagging the mad mask through all the smoke and fire.

It was while doing this she realized an inherent flaw of her powers.

While she had a general sort of ‘sense’ around her butterflies, she had no actual awareness of where they were in relation to things outside of her control without actually looking.

A defect that hadn’t been as prominent when she already had butterflies near the mask, at least not until the fire deviant incinerated part of her swarm, something that was making her very reluctant to stick her head out to find the angry dragon lady she’d already pissed off.

(Shit, shit, shit!) She cursed, clenching her eyes shut as she focused on her connection to her, less flammable butterflies. (There’s got to be something I can do, come on…)

A pounding began to fill her skull as she focused on her butterflies, willing them to see more than they could, until finally… The energy inside her shifted, a maddening tune played on the edge of her hearing, as something in her head clicked.

(“It’s all a matter of perspective really.”)

(Huh?) She blinked, suddenly fully aware of her regular butterflies, a change in her perception that made her want to vomit the moment it hit her, though only an odd giggle bubbled up her throat as grin spread across her face.

(And we can have any perspective we want.)

She blinked once more as her mind finally began to think again, the sudden influx of information from the location of that handful of butterflies, to the objects in their nearby vicinity, and even the temperature of the air around them all flooded into her mind.

(Must ‘ve… must ‘ve gotten past some mental block… or something…)

She ran a hand down her face at that thought.

(But why only these few? Is it like… an instinctive avoidance of sensory overload?)

Deciding to pursue that train of thought later, she sent her upgraded butterflies into the smoke to find the dragon lady on their own, a task they completed relatively quick compared to her usual butterflies more fluttery nature.

(That’s… different…)

She shook her head, pushing past the changes to her butterflies as she reached out to all of her gasoline drenched butterflies, before sending them all down towards the rampaging mask.

“MoRE bUTteRfLieS?!” the fire Deviant roared as the butterflies swarmed her, fire flickering in her hands.

At first nothing happened, then she felt the energy in her twist like punch to the stomach, followed by an ice pick through her skull as she heard a dim explosion coming from somewhere, all of this combined drove her vomit up her empty stomach, a mouth full of spit and bile forcing their way out.

After dry heaving a few times, she began coughing until another drain hit her energy, this one much more gradual than the brutal blow of the last, slowly siphoning off her already half-empty reserves as her breathing evened out, and the pounding in her skull became a dull throb.

(Let’s… let’s not… do that… again…)

Propping herself up against the side of the car, she forced herself to try and stand, to see if her attack had actually done anything to help the situation, only to freeze as she saw just how much damage she’d done.

In the middle of the street, where the dragon lady had been hiding in the middle of her smoke cloud, was a large crater spanning half the street. Rubble and debris were scattered all over, with vehicles overturned and the windows of all the nearby buildings shattered.

All in all, the entire street looked like a disaster zone.

(Yeah… probably shouldn’t do that again…)

After taking in the scene a second time, she finally noticed the dragon deviant half buried in the crater and twitching as if barely conscious, the perfect condition for Sanctuary to come in and finish her off, only…

(Why isn’t there any gunfire?)

She turned to where she last saw the Sanctuary soldiers, before watching as rather than pressing the advantage they fell back behind a line, where they aimed their guns forward, less in a manner of support so much as it was securing their line of defense, ready to shoot her or the dragon lady if either of them got too close.

(What are they doing?)

Her eyes darted between the fire Deviant picking herself off the ground, and the line of Sanctuary soldiers, trying to understand what was going on.

(They expect me to beat her…) She suddenly realized, the revelation making her heart stop. (I… I can’t…)

She couldn’t help but flinch as the dragon lady spat something red and black on the ground before turning a pair of glowing yellow eyes on her, the woman’s pupils two narrow slits as they locked onto her. "YoU!"

“Oh, shit…”