Hydros woke up with the sun, ready to set his new plan into action. He began his day by hopping onto his phone and searching, ‘Information on the frozen village’, and read what came up.
The village frozen over was Coco Bud Village in New York, North America. The day before the attack, a Shadow Alpha One was taken prisoner. It is thought that she had something to do with the attack, as when the prison was searched, the Alpha One had disappeared. When the survivors of the icing over were questioned, they said that the prisoner was an ‘evil being of shadows and death’ named Deadly Nightshade. Nobody knows where Deadly Nightshade and the person who froze over the village went, or where they are now.
Well, shoot. It appeared that he wasn’t up against one person; he was up against two, perhaps even more. And both were Alpha Ones. Just his luck, it appeared.
Well, that information was both helpful and worrying.
His stomach grumbled, and he sighed. He needed breakfast. Then he could adjust his plan as necessary to overcome this new obstacle.
Hydros closed his eyes and leaned his head back onto the wall of the abandoned building. His belly was content and full of waffles, and a stash of water bottles lay in the corner of the building. He had shelter, food, and water now: the basic things he needed before putting his plans into action.
First, he needed to search Tilted Towers for anything unusual. That might be his first clue for locating his opponents, if they were even in Tilted Towers. And on the list of unusual things was magical interference. And magic was easiest to detect at night.
The night was cold and windy. Hydros wrapped his jacket around him tighter.
He was searching for wards–magical runes that are created to divert attention to a specific place.
Wards were easy to spot if you knew what you were looking for–they could be strange carvings in a wall, covered by graffiti to hide the ward; they could be present when you walk in mud but leave no footprints behind; or the best hidden wards could barely be detected, and just a slight shimmer in the air around where the ward was placed.
So far, he was seeing nothing of that sort.
He walked down an empty street, eyes peeled for anything unusual, when something purple suddenly glowed in a nearby alleyway. He paused, then tiptoed to the alleyway, and looked around the corner.
It was the ward he saw first: after all, how could you not spot a half-carved ward that was glowing bright purple? He studied the runes of the ward: It looked a bit like a ward of pass without trace, but much more complicated. A stronger ward.
Next he saw the dragon. His blood chilled in shock. The dragon would have just looked like shadows in the darkness, but in the glowing light of the rune, it was a solid form, with glowing yellow eyes and scales as black as night. A dragon made of shadows. Shoot.
Then he spotted the figure. They were cloaked, and their hands quickly traced the ward on the stone wall of the alleyway as if they had carved wards a hundred times before. He couldn’t see the face of the person, but he noticed the way the shadows seemed to wrap around the figure, cloaking them, hiding them. Whoever they were, they were an extremely powerful shadow alpha.
And they would know where his opponents were.
Shade quickly finished carving the ward, and the purple glowed brighter for a second before fading into darkness. Shade sighed in relief and turned to her dragon. “Alright, that’s the last one. Time to return to the Tower.”
But she noticed that her dragon wasn’t looking at her. The dragon was staring at the entrance of the alleyway, and letting out a low growl, so quiet that Shade could barely hear it.
Shade turned around, expecting the worst.
It was a boy about her age, wearing a blue coat and black jeans. He yelped when she spotted him, and then took off down the street.
“Hey, get back here!” Shade yelled at him. He just continued running. “Coward,” she muttered to herself before hopping onto her dragon. The dragon took off, scanning the streets for the boy who had just ran off.
There. Already a half block away, sprinting down the sidewalk. Shade urged her dragon forward, and her dragon dived down in front of the boy. The impact of the landing caused the boy to fall on his butt, but he still tried to scramble away.
“Not so fast,” Shade purred, and her dragon wrapped its tail around the boy and lifted him off his feet. The boy punched the tail, perhaps hoping that Shade’s dragon would let go, but the dragon just growled and held the boy tighter.
“What do you want?” The boy gasped, and Shade wondered if he gasped from the fact that he had just been running or if it was from how tightly her dragon was holding him. Perhaps it was both.
“I think the better question is, what do you want? You were the one spying on me, after all.” Shade said.
“Ummm…” The boy said.
“Yeah, I guessed you wouldn’t answer that.” Shade said. “Well then, what’s your name?”
“Hydros,” the boy said.
“That’s a pretty name.” Shade said. “I’m Deadly Nightshade, but just Shade for short.”
Shade didn’t miss the way Hydros’s eyes widened when she said her name. Had he somehow recognized her name? And from where?
“Will you let me go?” Hydros asked.
“Phttt, no.” Shade said, stifling a laugh. “You were spying on me, and I get the feeling you have heard my name somewhere. No way I’m going to let you go with that information, not until I know your intentions.”
“I should have guessed,” Hydros said glumly. “Well, what are you going to do with me, then?”
Shade patted her dragon. “Well, what do you think, dummy? Bring you to the other Misfits, of course.”
This was not going the way Hydros had hoped. He had just run straight into the Shadow Alpha One, seemingly angered the shadow dragon, and had gotten himself thrown into a prison in an abandoned tower that Deadly Nightshade had called, ‘the Tower.’ Not a very creative name, in his opinion.
As Deadly Nightshade closed (and locked) Hydros’s cell door, he said, “You still haven’t answered my question of who these Misfits are.”
Deadly Nightshade laughed. “What do you think we are?” She asked. She didn’t give Hydros time to respond, as she said, “We’re a group of runaways that don’t fit into society because of our powers.”
“Oh,” was all that Hydros could say.
Shade then said, “Stay here,” as if he was going anywhere, then disappeared up the staircase that led out of the prison. However, the shadow dragon did not follow her.
Hydros turned to the dragon, which was sitting down and resting its head on the ground. “What exactly is going to happen to me?” He asked it, but the dragon just turned away as if it found Hydros boring.
Well, fine then. He would sit here patiently until what was coming for him happened.
Vida woke up when someone shook her. She yawned and stretched before opening her eyes to see that Gardien Du Temps was standing above her.
“Come on, sleepyhead, Shade’s calling an emergency meeting,” Gardien said.
Vida stood up and yawned again. “What could she possibly want? It’s the middle of the night.”
Gardien shrugged. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
The meeting hall was full of tension, which seemed to mostly come from Shade and the two dragons that sat behind her chair. Across from Vida, Winter sat, looking as tired as Vida felt. Vida wondered if she could get away with sleeping through this meeting.
“You probably are very grumpy at me for waking you up in the middle of the night,” Shade started, beginning the meeting, “but don’t fall asleep this time,” – Vida wondered if Shade had somehow read her mind – “because it’s actually important this time–”
“You think everything is important, Shade,” Winter pointed out, but Shade ignored her and powered on,
“I found a spy.”
The room went silent. For once, Winter had nothing to say to break the silence, except a simple, quiet, “what?”
“This spy attempted to run away when I spotted him, but me and one of my dragons caught him,” Shade continued. “This spy is currently in our dungeon. He claims his name is Hydros, and he seemed to recognize my name when I told it to him. Point is, we caught a valuable source of information, and we now know that we are being watched. We must plan our next moves carefully.”
“So, then. You always have a plan. Tell us what to do,” Winter said.
Shade nodded at Winter. “Winter, I want you to guard the dungeon and attempt to figure out what information he was given, how he figured out where we are, and who he works for. Without harming him.”
Winter sighed. “I guess I can do that.”
Shade turned to Gardien. “Gardien, I want you to take Winter’s spot on scouring the news to find out what the outside world is doing, and make traps.”
Gardien muttered, “At least that’s better then ‘practice your magic.’”
Finally, Shade turned to Vida. Vida felt her stomach do little flutters as she waited for what she was tasked to do. Please be something useful please be something useful, she thought, squeezing her eyes shut.
“Vida, I want you to take over control of both the animated objects and my dragons.” Shade said.
Vida was shocked. Shade trusted nobody to take care of her dragons–the dragons had been Shade’s first friends, the first living thing to remotely care about her. Shade must trust Vida more than Vida knew.
All Vida managed to do was nod through her shock.
“And what will you do?” Winter growled, her usual question to end the meetings.
Shade turned her gaze to Winter, who somehow didn’t flinch under that glare. Dang, Shade must be sick with being asked ‘what will you do?’
“I’ll keep an eye on the city from the shadows,” Shade said, glare unflinching. “This meeting is closed.”
Shade stood up, petted her dragons, and then disappeared down the hallways to do whatever Shade did during the night.
The Misfits dispersed to do their new jobs, and Vida turned to the dragons and said, “Alrighty, let’s do whatever shadow dragons do!”
Hydros was already sick of staring at the same four walls, and the dragon wasn’t much company. He was almost relieved when he heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. He turned to the stairs, expecting to see Deadly Nightshade’s cloaked figure, but that was not who appeared in the entryway.
She was a girl, about his age, with blonde hair, fair skin, and sky blue eyes. She was wearing a white dress, and she radiated with the cold of ice.
Hydros instinctively stiffened. Even he did not have an aura that powerful.
The girl in front of him must be the Ice Alpha One.
At first, the Alpha One didn’t even look at him. Instead, she turned to the dragon and said, “Shade wants you.” The dragon instantly perked up and then scampered up the stairs, melting into the shadows.
Then the Ice Alpha One turned to him. Hydros flinched under that piercing blue stare.
“Shade told me that your name was Hydros, yes?” She said. It wasn’t really a question, but Hydros answered it anyway.
“Yes.” He said. “You?”
The Alpha One hesitated, as if unsure she should give that information. Finally, she answered. “Winter.”
“That’s a pretty name,” Hydros said, hoping that perhaps if he got on Winter’s good side, she’d stop glaring at him like that.
Winter snorted. “Don’t try to be nice. I know you don’t mean it.”
Well then, being nice wasn’t going to stop that terrifying glare. Maybe Winter was always sour.
Before Hydros had to come up with a sharp retort, Winter spoke. “Shade told me to figure out why you are here. So spill it.”
Hydros hesitated. Should he tell Winter the whole truth, part of the truth, or do a straight-up lie?
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then said, “You got me kicked out of my home.”
Winter seemed interested. “Do explain,” she purred, like a predator hunting down prey.
Hydros summoned up all his courage, then told Winter the whole story.
