Gus looked bad. Terrible thoughts crossed UC's mind: Is she alive?! Did the Grey Knight do this?! The air almost stood still. Before anyone else could say anything, Kai screamed. "GET AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" She produced her {Dark Aura} in full and launched it at the Grey Knight.
"HEY!" He shouted defensively. "I SAVED HER!" The attack that made grown man wet themselves in unbridled fear hit full on, but Grey Knight seemed more irritated than afraid.
"Doesn't matter!" Shiro shouted back. "Five Fang Formation!". His group lunged at the Grey Knight; blades drawn. The Grey Knight materialized a shield and short sword. He blocked and parried each strike from the heroes, sparks flying.
"Hey! Watch out!", Piston shouted a moment too late. With swift precision, the Grey Knight disarmed and knocked out each of the Knights with the hilt of his sword or the butt his shield.
"Rangers!" Nix shouted, "Get the wounded and injured to safety!"
'{Flare spray}' Nix launched a volley of fire magic at The Grey Knight. Hearing her command, UC and the others rushed in to grab Gus and the downed White Knights. As The Grey Knight dodged Nix's blast he looked directly at UC as she pulled up Gus from the ground. He didn't move. While UC was moving away, she noticed the Knight trying to take off, away from the heroes, but he was quickly blocked by Un-man and Angelic. As UC set Gus down and start a quick examination, she saw Un-man hit The Grey Knight, sending him crashing into a car on the side of the street.
"Light burning on the neck. Entry and exit points of electrical burns." UC said to herself, "Nothing too bad. Basic healing should be okay for now." She placed her hands on Gus '{Heal!}', making sure to keep her eyes on the battle as she helped Gus.
Piston jumped into the air towards the car the Grey Knight had been hit into.
"Piston Punch!" he shouted with glowing fists. On contact there was an explosion that caused nearby windows to shatter.
"Piston! Watch the collateral damage! Dunce!" Whimsy shouted at him.
"Come on, 'Whims'." He responded, brushing some fire from his pants walking away from the now exploded car. "When we capture the Grey Knight, who's gonna care about a few cars and windows?"
"Umm, boss?" Chic Fighter said, in a concerned voice, looking past Piston, "I don't think he's captured yet."
Everyone followed Chic Fighter's gaze, and in that moment, everything, the world, time, everyone's heartbeats, seemed to stop. A flame engulfed the area around the Grey Knight, but his shadow remained. The flames burned away the cloak and scarf, revealing sleek grey armor. The helmet, jagged at the top, the elbows and shoulders slightly pointed, but that wasn't what froze everyone in place. Normally, no facial features could be seen through his helmet, even the eyes were covered by a thin veil. However, instead of any covering or eyes, all there were grey flames. Even surrounded by fire, the flames of his eyes shown brighter.
"T-that's new…" Nix stuttered.
"What do you mean?", Piston looked behind. "Oh? I guess someone doesn't know when to stay down!" He jumped again at the Grey Knight.
"Wait you fool!" Un-man shouted. But it was too late.
"Piston Punch!"
They could only watch as Piston threw his punch. The Grey Knight caught it, but that didn't stop the explosion.
"AGH!!" Piston screamed, He was launched back, blood flying from his own attack and crashed near the Rangers. Angelic rushed over and frantically began healing him. UC could hear the audible 'cracks' of bone and joints realigning, followed by grunts of pain from Piston.
"What the hell did he just do!?" Whimsy shouted in confusion. "Grah!" she let out an angry scream and summoned magical lightning, fire and water, behind her. '{Current Steam!}' she yelled as the magic combined and rained down on the Grey Knight in a cloud of steam and electricity. Even through the haze, UC could still see the grey flames of the Knight's eyes, undaunted. The flames then flashed, and the hazes blasted away in all directions. As the haze hit the heroes, the steam burned, and electricity shocked them, causing them to stagger until it passed. Whimsy stood her ground but was visibly shaken.
'H-how!?" she stammered out. "That was a High-Level Combo Magic, and he just…"
Almost too fast for UC to see, the Grey Knight moved towards Whimsy. In an instant he picked her up by the neck and slammed her straight down to the ground knocking her unconscious. The Grey Knight stood over her, eyes flickering. Suddenly Chic, Angelic, Kai, Nix, Frosty, Hooves, and Un-man all threw a torrent of magic and NRG directly at the Knight. The blast only lasted for a few moments, but even a distance away, UC felt an incredible heat from the combined blasts and had to hold herself and Gus down to not be blown away by the force. The dust settled and the heroes were dumbstruck. The Grey Knight was still standing, bearing a shield that was glowing red from the blast, seemingly untouched.
"YOU SHOULD WATCH WHERE YOU'RE ATTACKING.", he said coldly. His shield dematerialized, revealing the unconscious Whimsy he'd shielded.
"Coward!" Nix broke the silence, "Using a hostage?!"
"Release her, you bastard!" Angelic raised her voice for the first time.
"TAKE HER THEN." He said, carelessly tossing Whimsy towards Angelic.
Angelic caught her and then immediately turned, bracing herself for the Grey Knight's attack. Nothing happened. She backed away to her other downed teammate and began healing.
"What do you want, Grey Knight!?" Un-man barked.
"CURRENTLY? TO LEAVE." He snidely responded
"Don't play coy! You kill and hurt wherever you go, no matter who gets in your way. Why?!"
The Grey Knight stood there for a moment before answering. "BECAUSE, YOU HEROES ARE EITHER TOO WEAK OR TOO DUMB TO STOP EVIL."
"How dare…!"
"YOUR 'JUSTICE SYSTEM' PROTECTS THE VILLAINS. I END THEM!"
"Are you really claiming the moral high ground?!"
"NOT REALLY. I'M A MONSTER, I GET IT. BUT I'M AT LEAST MAKING A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE. UNLIKE YOU 'HEROES'."
Un-man's whole body began to glow and he grew to almost double his already large size. With one step, the concrete below his feet shattered. Un-man barreled towards the Grey Knight, smashing him upward with a punch. The Grey Knight made no attempt to block the strike and was sent up through the nearby building, Un-man charging after.
After the two left, the air, which had been carrying so much pressure, lifted. A few of the White Knights began to wake and UC and Angelic focused on healing Gus, Piston and Whimsy. Chic was sitting by Angelic and his downed teammates, considerably less suave than before. A minute later, Un-man descended from the sky, back to his normal size, but angrier than when he'd left.
"Coward somehow escaped into some clouds. All I found was this." He tossed a broken sheet of ice to the ground.
UC noticed burns going up Nix's arm as she stumbled over to see it.
"Where did he escape?" Nix asked
"Like I said, the clouds."
"And he threw this at you to distract you or something?"
"No. I hit him into the cloud, and as I went to hit him again, this ice was there, he wasn't."
"But it looks like you're okay." The female officer from earlier pointed out as she approached, smiling.
"Yes. I'm fine." He responded, sounding rather annoyed.
"Well, that's just terrific!" After everything that had happened, that smile was turning UC's vision red. "Though, it looks like you were only able to subdue about twenty or so villains from that building, and it looks like the rest escaped," she pointed down the street to the building Divinus an Un-man had been in, "and since y'all abandoned this one," pointing next to them, "we haven't sent anyone into it."
"It should be fine to enter that-" As Nix was about to finishishing her sentence, the building next to them let out a huge 'GROAN' and began to collapse. UC grabbed everyone near her that she could carry and pulled them away. looking around, it seemed as though all the officers and heroes had gotten safely away, but then she realized…The villains we caught!
"There were still people in there!" Frosty shouted.
"We…we left some of them tied up..." Hooves choked out through the dust.
Gus began to stir. Nix noticing this, walked over and put her hand on UC's shoulder.
"Looks like she's coming to."
"Huh?" UC was overwhelmed. "Oh yeah."
"I'm glad she's okay."
"Ya…" UC looked over to see the tears welling up in Nix's eyes.
Soon after, Un-man walked over to the girls.
"I talked to Angelic and Chic, and we decided we'll help with search and rescue, then clean up and handle the pressers. You should all get out of here before the vultures show"
"We can help." Nix argued back.
"You could, but when the pressers show up, if there are this many heroes here who still let this," he opened his hand towards the rubble, "happen, the optics will be bad for us all."
"But it did happen!" Frosty shouted at him. "We lost and… and a lot of people died… because of… us." She hung on the last part.
"We can't let that stop us from being heroes and helping!" UC declared. "If we let this stop us from helping… the villains win, or worse, the Grey Knight gets away with this! Then we'd be…" she teared up, "worthless."
"You were not 'worthless'." The monotone voice of Angelic spoke out. Her appearance was dirtied and dusty from battle. Even her wings were tinted a brown color from all the dust. "Due to your efforts, none of the White Knights were lost and we all made it in, mostly, one piece." She turned to Nix. "Phoenix, was it? You showed great leadership, strength and unity with your team."
"Thank you."
"However," Un-man interjected, "This isn't the time for pats on the back. Your team needs to leave, now, please. And Unicorn, I know you may feel a grudge towards the Grey Knight but remember he's a taboo subject. So don't talk about him so openly."
Kai put the still exhausted Gus on her back, and they snuck off from the scene as quietly as they could. The walk back was much longer than trip there, the sun touching the horizon as they left downtown. A few blocks from Eda's, the girls transformed back. Nephele's knees buckled as she reverted. Lailah and Masuyo caught her as she fell. All three just laid there silently. Alessia and Eda sat next to them, and they simply stayed there silently. Thea was standing and looking towards the downtown area. It was dark enough you couldn't see the smoke or dust, but even this distance away, they could still hear multiple emergency vehicles and helicopters.
Masuyo finally stood up and walked towards Thea. Reaching out to her friend to try and comfort her, she could feel the heat around her.
"Please don't try to say something heroic or cheesy to try to make me feel better." She coldly stated. "We failed. I failed. I failed you, as a friend, as a leader…"
"You didn't…" Lailah tried to stop her.
"SHUT UP!" Thea shouted. "People died because I was…I am weak. Villains or not, they were my responsibility, and so were you." She looked at Nephele, then turned and punched the tree beside her. The bark was charred where she punched, but they could all see a trickle of blood come from her hand. "You guys go back to Eda's. I have to cool down."
Without another word, Masuyo and the others left towards Eda's while Thea walked into the night by herself.
Thea wandered around aimlessly and soon found herself near her home. She made it to the gate when she saw their cars. Her parents were home. The downstairs lights were on and she approached the door. She could hear them downstairs making a lot of noise.
They're probably shitfaced already…I can't deal with them tonight.
To everyone around her, Thea's parents seemed like very nice, though distant, parents. Almost every week they were on business trips out of town, but Thea was so responsible that it had to be due to great parents, right? Wrong. Her parents were terrible people. Not terrible parents. Pretty neglectful parents, but they never did anything to hurt her directly. No, they were terrible people. They, well, they were villains. They didn't do street level crime, but they broke the law. None of the other Rangers knew this, because if they did, her life as a hero would be over. The Counsel would, for sure, remove her from duty, and without that income, she'd have to quit school to support herself. Her parents put a roof over her head, but she payed for everything else in her life. When she moved out, she wasn't even sure she could turn them in then, as she'd known about their wrongdoing for so long, she was sure they'd throw her under the bus to save their skins or at least take her down with them. Only one person knew about the 'villain side' to her parents.
Daniel!
She didn't live too far from Masuyo's new place. It was pretty dark outside, but it was only about 10 in the evening. He might be up. She needed someone to talk to. No, not talk to. Someone she could lean on. Soon enough she arrived at Masuyo and Daniel's home. All the lights upstairs were out, and Daniel's window was closed. She climbed up to Masuyo's window and slid it open. After navigating her way through her friend's room, and into the hallway, she stopped in front of Daniel's room. She'd visited him a few times before so it shouldn't surprise him too much, but even so, her stomach felt a flutter as she softly knocked on his door. A minute later the door opened, and Daniel was standing there.
"Tea?" The nickname he'd given her made her heart happy when she heard it. "What's going on? I thought you guys were hanging at Eda's today?"
She slid her way into the room and paced a bit at first.
Everything that had just happened was piling on her mind more and more. She needed something to release the pressure.
"Are you o…"
Thea kissed him, stopping him mid-sentence. She held him tight but could feel him trembling a bit through her lips. She was aware that physical contact really bothered him, but she needed this. After a moment, he softly pushed her off. She stepped back and landed on his bed, accidentally turning on his television. The light gave a glow to the room, and Thea could see Daniel still standing at the door, frozen. She covered her eyes as she laid back on his bed.
"I'm not. I'm not okay." Thea began to cry.
"Thea, if you need help, or anything, you…you know you can talk to me." Daniel finally moved and sat at the foot of the bed, next to her legs as she stayed there. "I'm here for you. Always."
"I'm sorry." She sniffled. "I shouldn't have forced you like that. I-I just, I feel so pathetic, and wanted someone to… and I knew you wouldn't reject me if I pressed you."
Daniel took a deep breath, "Thea, 'Tea', you know how I feel, about you about everything, and I stand by that…but I also told you why we shouldn't get too close and…" Daniel stopped, having noticed the TV was on, for the first time and it was showing a report from the incident downtown.
[Currently 86 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, with at least 100 in total expected to be found. Outside this tragic loss of life, this is the first building collapse our city has experienced in 3 years. The cleanup will also put a halt to much of the business district, over the next few days. On the scene reports indicate…]
Thea saw the horror her actions had led to and everything around her disappeared. She saw the faces of the villains she'd left behind. Each one a fresh horror in her mind.
[…again, initial reports from on scene officers, state that a massive territorial dispute between gangs turned tragic as a massive explosion downtown caused a building collapse. Divinus and Un-man were called on to the scene but unfortunately were unable to prevent the collapse. Though, heroically, they were able to save over 10 civilians from the incident. Unfortunately, estimated casualties are expected to be over a hundred. It is still unknown what caused the explosion that…]
Thea snapped to her senses and shut the TV off. Tears were streaming down her face. "A hundred?" She squeaked out.
Daniel looked concerned at her, placing his hand on hers, trembling a bit as he did so. Thea was distracted by her thoughts, not noticing his efforts. Her mind was trying to place blame. She wasn't sure what had caused the accident. Modern buildings are built to last. Sturdy and resistant to collapses. They were designed with the idea of heroes and villains fighting.
"Wow… That's rough." Daniel exclaimed, seeming unsure how to respond.
"I... I just don't want to think about that stuff right now." Thea moved her hand and put her arms around his shoulders. Daniel.
"What happened to your arms?" There were burns and a few blisters that had been caused by her over exertion earlier. Thea quietly looked at them, then pulled Daniel closer and kissed him again. Not letting go, she pulled him below her on the bed. As she became more and more aggressive, he resisted less and less, until he surrendered to her.
Thea gathered her clothing and left after they'd finished. Without a word, she used his window this time and left. Daniel was sound asleep, and after what she'd just done, she'd have nothing she could say to him anyway. They'd been open with each other about their weaknesses. Thea's family, and Daniel's trauma. Daniel had always respected Thea's desire to keep her parent's wrongdoing hidden, but all she ever did was take advantage of his inability to stop her. But in the afterglow, having been so close to him, she only felt relief from her horrible evening.
I'll make it up to him. I swear.
+++
After Thea left, Daniel turned over, having faked sleep. He stared at the ceiling for a while as his heart rate eventually slowed back to normal. What was bothering her so much? He pondered as he laid there. He attempted to actually sleep but for the rest of the night only found those horrendous nightmares he calls 'memories.' At age 8 Daniel's mother began his training to be stronger. Trusting her, Daniel agreed. At 10 years old, Daniel is chained to a wall, forced to endure pain and abuse. Beaten, cut, assaulted, by the person who was supposed to protect him, and her followers. All this in her pursuit of control and dominance. To her, his cries of pain only signifying weakness. Something to be removed. His father and sister didn't know, and she keeps her 'training' well hidden. She dissects his very mind to ingrain her authority. Unable to resist, unable to ask those around him for help, even when she wasn't around. He was trapped in a continuous hell. Unbeknownst to the others, this is repeated day after day, until days turn to weeks, and weeks into months. Carving into his flesh repeatedly to 'make him stronger'. One day, she went too far in a maniacal fit and left his back flayed, unable to be healed properly, scars now adorned his back, a permanent reminder of her hatred of him, but by then he was too broken to even react properly to the abuse. She forced him to keep the marks hidden. Then, when he turned 12, it happened. He was taken into the forest by the village elders and his mother. The two days he was kept there is a blur, but he will always remember the searing pain worse than anything he'd ever experienced. Then at the end, a cold voice spoke and grabbed him to his very core.
Feed…