For a second all Hydros could see was storm clouds, dark grey and whipping at his face angrily, trying to push him out of the storm, and Hydros wondered if he hadn’t made it through the thick cloud wall. But then he pushed forward and broke through.

He hadn’t known what he was going to find in the storm, but at the same time he had sort of known from how injured Shade was when she had come back from the storm.

The sight still shocked him, though.

The opponent was one person. They were wearing a cloak, the hood casting a shadow over their face, and they were shooting bolts of lightning from their fingertips onto the Misfits. The three dragons he had seen earlier soared overhead, raining balls of shadows on the hooded figure, and one dropped from the sky, screeching in pain as a lightning bolt hit it. Winter had been knocked unconscious, the ground around her covered in a thick sheet of ice. The two Misfits that Hydros didn’t know the names of were working together, one making stones on the ground come to life and attack the hooded figure, and the other seeming to teleport around the eye of the storm as she collected stones and rocks for her friend. Shade joined the fight, drawing her dagger from its sheath and leaped at the hooded figure, claws of shadow reaching out.

The figure deflected all of the attacks with shocking ease, shooting lightning at the balls of shadow and the stones, causing them to explode, and he knocked Shade and her shadows aside as if they were as light as feathers. 

Shade landed on her feet, hissing with rage. The hood of her cloak had come down, and for the first time Hydros saw what Deadly Nightshade looked like.

Shade’s eyes were an eerie, pure black, as if her pupil had swallowed up the rest of her eye. Black veins showed on her cheeks, displaying the fact that she had shadows in her veins instead of blood. A scar ran from her forehead to her left cheek, cutting through her left eye.

No wonder Shade lived in an abandoned skyscraper away from the rest of the world.

She was absolutely terrifying.

Hydros attempted to ignore the dread those pure-black eyes stirred in him and focused on the fight. He summoned his power and shot a bolt of ice at the lightning-alpha.

They didn’t expect the attack, he could tell. They turned to deflect the bolt of ice, but they were too late. The ice hit the lightning-alpha’s feet, freezing him in place. 

Shade took this as her chance to strike. She leaped at the hooded figure again, her shadows lashing out. The strands of shadow wrapped around the lightning-alpha, binding their arms to their sides and canceling out their lightning power.

“Noooo!” The lightning-alpha yelled, realizing that they were defeated. Their voice was scratchy and somehow familiar sounding.

The fight was won. Shade pulled the hood of her cloak back up again, casting her face once more in shadow; one of the Misfits Hydros didn’t know ran over to Winter, checking if she was okay; and the other Misfit Hydros didn’t know walked over to Shade, murmuring something to her. Shade nodded at whatever the Misfit said, then whispered something back.

“Let’s see who’s behind the mask,” Shade growled, and then walked up to the lightning-alpha and pulled his hood down.

Hydros felt shock run through his bones when he saw who it was. No. It couldn’t be.

But it was.

“Headmaster?!” He gasped in shock and at the same time Shade cried, “Farosh?!”

The Misfit that wasn’t checking on Winter glanced at first the Headmaster, then Shade, then Hydros, and back again to the Headmaster. “I feel like there is a lot of explaining to do,” she said, and she was absolutely right.

The five of them had ridden on Shade’s least injured dragon as they flew back to the Tower. Unlike when Hydros had been taken to the Tower, Shade took extra precautions and made a blindfold of shadow which she wrapped around the Headmaster’s face, just so that he couldn’t cause as much trouble as a prisoner. 

The flight had been dizzying. When Hydros had been taken to the Tower, he had been safely locked in the dragon’s talons, with ro risk of falling. But up here on the dragon’s back, the wind whipped at him in anger and threatened to pick him up and drop him onto the ground a dizzyingly long way below. All over the Misfits looked as sick to the stomach as he felt, except for Shade, who had probably rode on her dragon like this many times.

Once that terrifying ride had ended, and they were all safely back in the Tower, they locked up the Headmaster, then Hydros was introduced to the other Misfits. Vida was an Unknown One who animated objects, and Gardien Du Temps was an Alpha Unknown who could freeze time (but not rewind it or speed it up).

Then they did the explaining.

“That person was the Headmaster of the school I used to go to. Rain View.” Hydros said.

“The same Headmaster that kicked you out of that school?” Winter asked, and Hydros nodded.

“I met that person yesterday night,” Shade said. “He was the one being attacked by a trio of thieves. He said his name was Farosh. I don’t think he knew who I was though, because I didn’t tell him my full name. He probably knows now though.”

“Yes, because you are a badass Shadow Alpha One,” Vida said, and Shade blushed and said, “Thank you.”

“Well, what are we going to do now?” Gardien asked. “This Farosh person is known by a lot of people. Someone’s going to report him missing if we keep him captive.”

“But he attacked us. We can’t let him go, either,” Shade said, and the room went quiet.

“Well, what are we going to do about him?” Winter said, tilting her head toward Hydros.

Hydros felt a pit grow in his stomach. They’re going to lock me up again, he thought.

Shade looked Hydros in the eye and said, “He can do what he wants. He proved he is not an enemy to us.”

Hydros felt relief and gratitude warm that pit in his stomach. “T-thanks,” he stammered.

Shade shrugged. “It was the least we could do. You helped us when you could have just run, or made the problem worse.”

Winter growled, just as grumpy as ever.. “Stop wasting time on complementing each other for little things. We need to figure out what we are going to do now.”

Everybody paused as they thought of what to do. Then Vida said, “We could turn Farosh in to the police.”

Everybody turned to face her, and Vida continued on nervously, “By turning Farosh in, we can expose what he’s done and get him into a more secure prison where he has less of a chance of escaping.”

Shade tilted her head in consideration. “That could work,” she murmured. “But we would be putting ourselves at risk too. Winter could get locked up and I would be sent back to the prison in Cocoa Bud.”

“Speaking of Cocoa Bud Village, what exactly happened there?” Hydros asked. Shade flinched and Vida glared at him.

“Long story short, Shade’s family hates her and believes that she is a demon, and Shade thought she could prove to them that she wasn’t evil.” Winter said.

“Oh,” Hydros said. Shade stayed silent. 

“I could turn Farosh in,” Gardien said, changing the topic. “If worst comes to worst, I can freeze time and get out of there.”

Shade shook her head. “We can’t risk that, Gardien. The police station could have anti-magic wards, and I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“How about I do it?” Hydros asked. 

Shade shook her head. “You’re reported missing and they will question you. How exactly do you justify turning in the headmaster of your school to the police after you went missing without getting the rest of us into trouble?”

“I can say that I was kicked out of Rain View,” Hydros said. “And that I found shelter in an abandoned building.” He thought of the abandoned building his possessions were at. He could use it as evidence. He continued on, saying, “But the Headmaster tried to attack me one night.”

“And we can let Farosh go,” Shade said, catching on Hydros’s plan. “And the police will find him, and then they’ll deal with Farosh for us.”

Hydros nodded. “Exactly.”

“It’s risky,” Winter said, “But it just might work. Let’s do it.”