It was night time as Augustus flew through the sky, looking over the city he loved. Tonight he was patrolling while wearing the new costume he got, his uncle told him he should at least look fashionable while fighting crime.
The Italian was wearing his signature helmet, a big persian red scarf with the same colored cape hanging on his back right now. He wore a shiny chest plate with the strap of his cape across his chest, of course the brunette wore something under all of this, a red sheet of fabric wich he made it into his very own toga.
But enough of that, the wind was strong tonight and it made Augustus shiver. Since the snow was still falling it made it a bit hard for the hero to fly and look out on the streets for something suspicious.
Just then, he saw a large unsettling shadow run through the streets of Yorktown, it was something new for the brunette, so out of curiosity he flew lower, near the buildings just to keep track of the shadow.
The shadow stops and goes to an alleyway, Augustus quietly lands on the thick snow, trying his best to not make any sound. He enters the alleyway, it was a close space with only garbage scattered around, and even though it was very dark tonight, he sees a girl rummaging through the garbage.
She had plum purple colored hair with those horn buns hairstyle, as well as long pigtails hanging down, almost reaching the ground. It looked like the hairstyle the Wicked Lady had in Sailor moon.
The hero takes another step to look at the girl better, but the snow crunches, making the girl quickly look back at her “Crap!” they yelp, before a large shadow eats her up and they disappear. Augustus looks around him and sees a shadow quickly running past him and farther away from him.
“Cacas! huc redi!” he shouts, the hero starts flying as fast as he can to try and catch up with the large shadow.
As he keeps following the shadow, he sees it heading to the forest, and of course the hero follows. He tries to track the shadow but sees the girl again, just standing in the forest. They were panting, she seems to be out of breath and Augustus thought that he could use this as a chance to capture her.
The hero tries to walk quietly, he takes a step closer and closer to them, the brunette takes another step but he hears the snow crunch once more, he looks down to his feet and quickly look back at the girl, who was now looking at him. The lady ran, and so did Augustus.
“Get back here!” he shouts, as he tries to keep track of them, Augustus was trying to avoid the branches in his way whilst still running. The mysterious person looked back at him and yelled “No way! I'd rather go with the Explorer than with you!”
The girl runs faster and Augustus does the same. They fortunately end up at the end of the forest, a big and steep hill serving as a dead end for the young lady, Augustus smirks “Tell me who you are and how that shadow made you disappear!” the hero demanded.
The lady turns around, the moonlight illuminating her and it gives Augustus the perfect chance to look at them, they had black skin with lime green eyes that stuck out. She wore a choker necklace as well as an off-shoulder crop top with dark purple leather straps. They wore an evening glove on the right hand and a long fingerless glove on the other hand. They were also wearing a purple half-skirt made for punks, but what really stood out to Augustus was that the lady standing in front of him looked like a teenager.
“You know it's still snowing and you choose to wear a crop top?” he asked sarcastically, this seemed to annoy the teenager.
“I would be careful who you're talking to Octavius.” she said in a sinister tone, as she wore a menacing smile. The hero's eyes widen in surprise, he surely did not expect her to know his secret identity.
“How– how do you know?!” he asks exclaiming. The teenager chuckled to themselves, “I know everyone's secret in this fucking town. ” she said in a bitter tone, before continuing “I know who the Explorer is, I know who you like. I also know who the Pharaoh is.”
Augustus becomes wary of what they just said, she knows who the Pharaoh is and this could definitely help him and the police force track him down and lock him up for good. But something bothered him, Augustus connected the dots and suspected that this person had some sort of powers. But something still made him think that there was more to this kid than her just having powers.
The brunette raises an eyebrow “What are you?” he asks, the teenager in front of him smiles sinisterly, “I don't know, you tell me.” she answered.
Just before Augustus knows it, her long pigtails come attacking him, it serves as a tail of a scorpion. The hero quickly dodges it, the teenager smirked and chuckled “Be careful hero, it may look like harmless pigtails but those actually work like a real scorpion's tail.”
Their pigtails moved again, trying to hit Augustus quickly, but the hero was quick to dodge them “We do not have to fight! Please!” the teenager furrowed their eyebrows and the pigtails quickly stopped attacking.
“What good is having powers if you don't even use them!” they exclaimed, as she summoned a giant hammer made out of shadow, just like how Augustus can summon weapons with the energy he has.
They come running towards the hero, hammer in their hands as she swings it and it hits the brunette, making him fly through the woods. Multiple trees were breaking as he kept flying through the woods.
After a few more moments, his body lays tirelessly in the middle of the woods on broken branches and twigs with snow falling down to cover him. The villainess suddenly appears, a large shadow opening like a flower to reveal them standing inside, a victorious smirk on their face as she stood with a hand on their hip.
“Y'know, everyone always thinks that you're a strong hero. But in reality, you're weak.” she laughed, the hero couldn't do anything but watch. His body felt weak again, even after a staying a few weeks at the hospital, it now felt like his efforts of trying to recover only failed.
The teenager walked closer to him, still smiling “I'm proud of myself to be honest, I managed to beat this city's hero on my first encounter.” they step closer and closer to him, then she stops as they stand Infront of the hero. Augustus groans in pain “You'll never get away with this...” he mumbles, she chuckles to herself.
“I already have.” she said, as the shadows eat them again and they descent to darkness.
The brunette stays there for a while, laying down the ground. He groans to himself “I should get up...this hurts like hell.”
––––
Cruz pinches the bridge of her nose as she exhaled a long and tired sigh, “Not another one..” she muttered. Augustus stands awkwardly in her new office, fidgeting with his cape that was kind of wet because of the snow.
Cruz pushed back the curly black hair that was coming loose from the ponytail she tied earlier. “Did she tell you about herself?” the cop asked, Augustus pauses to think for a minute, his face lights up with worry “Well not really, but I've seen what she can do.”
Octavius pauses, “That girl can travel using shadows, her hair can move quickly like a scorpion's tail, and she can summon weapons out of shadows. And I remember her saying that she knows everyone's secrets.”
“Ay putang ina...Lagot na tayong lahat..” Cruz said, cursing under her breath. Augustus furrows his eyebrows “We need to find that teenager and get her to tell us what she knows.” he said in a calm voice.
Cruz looks at him, her eyes filled with worry “Yeah... You're right. I'll tell the chief about this immediately.” the cop said, as she went out of her office, leaving Augustus there to look around.
“I like what she's done with the place.” he said to himself. Her office was decorated with pictures of herself and her brother, shelves with different books about criminology, the brunette rests his hand on the table in front of him. His eyes wander from the table to the window behind that was Infront of him.
There were blinds covering the window, but he sees pink eyes peeking at him from outside. His gaze meets the pink eyes and they stare at each other for a while until the hero blinks and the pair of pink eyes suddenly disappeared, leaving the brunette confused and frightened.
“To think that this town might get even more crazier..” he mumbles to himself, as he reaches for the door to follow after Cruz.
––––
Octavius walks home in the snow, wearing a jacket, a pair of gloves, a pair of jeans and some boots. He was very tired and his body felt like collapsing on the middle of the sidewalk, but he couldn't do that since his father was still expecting him to get home. He also needs to feed his cat.
He sighs to himself, “First a new villain who's a teenager..then pink eyes looking at me from the window blinds...what else?..”
The Italian continues walking, after a few minutes, he's suddenly getting dragged into an alleyway. “What the!–” before he could shout, someone covers his mouth, “Shhhh! Please don't shout, I need to talk to you!” a voice whispered behind him.
The brunette hesitates, before nodding in agreement. The person behind him lets go of their hand and Octavius turns around to look at them. Even though there wasn't much light in that alleyway, the Italian could see a teenager in bright steampunk goggles with pink lenses staring at him.
“Who are you?” he asked in a whisper. The teenager sighs “I'll tell you in a moment, but we need to move. She could be here listening to us.”
The teenager rummages through a– what Octavius could assume was a utility belt. They hand him a round device that he isn't familiar with, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Put that on you and it'll make you disappear, trust me.” the younger person said, as they held Octavius’ arm tightly, before disappearing, leaving Octavius shocked.
The brunette puts the round device on his clothes and after a few seconds, he couldn't see his hands or the lower part of his body. “Oh wow I'm invisible.” he says in amazement.
“Yeah, cool right? Anyways, come on, I'll show you where we can talk safely.” the teenager said, gripping on the grown man's arm, leading him somewhere else.