As the villain fell to the ground, shadow creatures tumbling down around them, Hope found one fear leaving her in exchange for another.
The sidekick carefully watched her hero, remembering what happened to the first one they beat permanently.
Hope would never tell him who really delivered the killing blow each time.
Supes floated in the air for a minute, shivering. Hope frowned and stepped forward, afraid he had lost himself again.
"Did we win?" Supes suddenly questioned, Hope stopping just behind him. "Hope? Is...do you think it's over?"
The city held its breath for the much more perceptive sidekick's verdict.
"Yeah. It's over, Sunshine." Hope assured him, her glasses reflecting the sun's bright light. The city hesitated for a moment before Supes relaxed and everyone let out a cheer, crowds rushing over to Supes.
Hope braced herself as she was shoved away, her Sunshine not really noticing the sudden distance between them. Hope just smiled, knowing the two of them would just celebrate privately later, and contented herself with clapping.
She glanced over to the fallen form of Darkener, her features slightly losing her soft, happy glow for one of fear. She looked back at Supes, the fear growing as she watched him smile and laugh and bask in the love of the people.
She looked at the ground, her one visible eye clouded with uncertainty. They had done this before. Beat the villain, get the girl. Neither had lasted long. Angela and Supes didn't even have a second date and Darkener arrived, taking Hades' place as Station City's villain.
It was almost too clean of a transition....
Hope did some research and found evidence to believe that there was an organization of some kind behind all of this. But suddenly she was getting approached by job offers and power and money and 'anything you could ever want'.
Apparently, if you look for them, you want to join them.
But their interest in her interest in them and her own natural abilities gave Hope a window to a world previously unseen. And this world did not mean well for her Sunshine.
Three cities. Hope had lived in three cities before Station City and they had all been destroyed, heroes crushed easily underfoot, and all by the same woman.
If a new villain didn't volunteer to take this city as their 'territory', they'd send her in. There was a reason she was always available; she didn't want to rule. She wanted to destroy.
Hope couldn't let that happen. This was home, her home, and she'd be damned if she let anything bad happen to it.
That's why she had to do this. That's why. She was doing this for Supes, for the city. Even if they hated her, at least, they'd be alive. That was enough.
Hope smiled sadly as she said goodbye.
"I'll be gone for a month." They always leaned too close for just friends, always too comfortable. "Just a month. I'll be back. Don't die on me, alright?" A playful boop on the nose, act normal, stand close. How was she going to give this up?
Just act like you're okay, act like everything is fine. Walk out the door. Don't act like your world is ending and you're killing it yourself.
"See you soon." The first of many lies and the last of many truths.
Hope walked out that door, dying with every step she took away from the place she called home.
pixelskylines
titsay
andulkaphoto
gummygunk
discoholicmusic