Unmasked

Matt kept his distance from Audrey as much as he could, but also kept an eye on her from afar. He offered her something to eat but she glared at him like he’d insulted her. So, he kept to the couch with a bowl of popcorn, flipping through tv channels and trying to take his mind off of Audrey as best he could. He wasn’t doing a very good job of it, though.

Eventually Audrey emerged from the room, walking past him and towards the front door. Matt eyed the doorknob and made a nice layer of ice to freeze it shut, while Audrey furiously tried to shake it open.

“Let me out, Matt,” she growled.

“It’ll melt eventually,” he said. “When it melts, you can go.”

“You’re not my boyfriend. You have no control over me.”

The way she said it stung, but Matt tried to stay cool and calm, eye glued to the tv.

“Fine. If you’re not my girlfriend anymore, then I don’t have to listen to you and your constant complaining, either. I do suggest that you go back to bed.”

“Complaining?” She scoffed. “I don’t complain.”

“You most definitely do.”

“Well, good thing you don’t have to deal with my complaining anymore,” she snapped. “And I don’t have to deal with your fucking snoring.”

“I don’t snore,” Matt said defensively.

“You do snore,” she argued. “Loudly. I should’ve just smothered you with a pillow in the middle of the night so I could’ve gotten some fucking sleep.”

Matt was about to snap at her again when there was a frantic knock at the door. He and Audrey both tensed, remembering Nichelle’s warning and staring at the door. There was another knock, and then a voice.

“Matt? You in there?”

Matt frowned, exchanging a confused look with Audrey.

“Leon?” He asked in disbelief.

Sure enough, when he opened the door, Leon was standing there looking like he was having a hard time catching his breath. His bike was lying in the driveway like he’d thrown it aside running to the door.

“Did you bike all the way here?” He asked. “How did you even find out where I lived.”

“I asked your boss,” he panted. “I told him it was your birthday and I needed to give you a big hug and I even cried a little bit and-”

“Leon, we’re busy right now,” Matt sighed.

“Wait,” Leon said quickly, catching the door before Matt closed it. “I need you to take me seriously for thirty seconds. And Audrey, too. I saw her trying to hide back there. It’s an emergency.”

“What is it?”

“Is it true that you guys are Cryogen and Phantasma?” He asked, startling Matt.

Matt didn’t answer, but the look on his and Audrey’s faces seemed to give Leon the confirmation he needed.

“You guys started some crazy fight,” he said. “You can’t even tell the difference between the ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ right now. The hero organization has completely fallen apart. Something about the government taking control or a double agent.”

“How do you know so much?” Matt questioned.

“My cousin is a cop,” he said. “Someone tipped off the police about the attack at the sunflower festival, and they got a hold of files. Including identities. If things go bad, your identities could be released to the media and public as wanted felons. They can’t tell good from bad. The tip was sent by someone called MT. Does that ring a bell?”

“Melanie Taylor,” Matt mumbled.

“Why would business Barbie want to fuck up her own organization?” Audrey questioned.

“Because it’s not in her hands anymore.”

Leon nodded quickly, then looked at the both of them. “Look, I know you guys are capable of taking care of yourselves, but I need help for someone else. But first you have to promise not to get mad.”

“Leon.”

“It’s Cal and Mikaela,” Leon told him. “They’re the two new supers that have been showing up places. Like that elementary school hostage situation last year? Remember?”

“No way,” Matt said, shocked. “IHC has been trying to track them all year. It’s been those two this whole time?””

“I told you not to get mad,” Leon reminded him. “Anyways, they went out there to try and help, but they got abandoned by the rest of IHC since they weren't part of it. They're way out of their league and they're going to die.”

Matt pursed his lips, reaching into his pocket to get his mask.

“Stay with Audrey,” Matt told him. “I'll get them out of there.”

“But I want to come too,” Leon frowned.

“Stay.”

Audrey didn't get a chance to argue before Matt left, heading towards the ruins of what used to be the festival. It was still chaotic there, with injured and possibly dead bodies scattered around. Some being people Matt knew. He didn't know what to look for, but assumed the two teenagers in homemade outfits and cheap masks that were trying to fight off Fade together, but getting cornered. Right as Fade was about to strike them, he found his feet frozen to the floor. Matt took the moment of his confusion and frustration to get in there and shove Cal and Mikaela out of the way.

“Get the hell out of here,” he snapped.

They did as he asked without questioning him, but Matt got a nice punch to the gut from Fade.

“I was wondering when you were going to make an appearance, Princess Elsa,” he snarled.

“Elsa is a really well-developed character,” Matt said, shoving him back and creating a sheet of ice to make him slip. “And she's not a princess, she's a Queen.”

Fade seemed unsure of how to respond, and Matt noticed that he already appeared to be injured. It would have been easy to get him had Matt not been tackled to the ground by the literal beast of a man that was Titan. He hadn't even seen him coming.

“Jasper, you're supposed to be on my side!” Matt yelled.

The creature just growled and slashed at him, leaving a nasty claw gash across Matt’s right shoulder.

“Your fight with me isn't over yet, Titan!” a new voice said.

Matt and the beast looked up to find that Audrey had made an appearance, with Leon sheepishly lingering near her. Titan released Matt and pounced towards Audrey, but she swiftly shoved Leon to the side and rolled out of the way.

“Leon! You were supposed to stay with Audrey!” Matt yelled.

“I did stay with Audrey!” he said. “She just decided she wanted to come here! She stole your neighbor’s car and everything!”

Fade suddenly appeared in front of him and delivered a roundhouse kick to the face and knocked Matt back again. Matt managed to kick out his leg and knock Fade off his feet as he went down, pinning him down.

“Get out of here, Leon!” Matt yelled again while wrestling to keep Fade down.

“Do you want me to help? I can help!”

“Out, Leon!”

“I'm gonna help!”

Fade kicked Matt off him again, and this time, Matt wasn't able to speak. He turned in time to see Audrey mixed up with Titan, clearly injured more than she was before, but definitely not holding back. He tried to watch her while mixed up in the fight of his own. He'd never seen her with so much rage against someone. That rage was certainly fueling her. There was no shortage of gadgets hidden in her coat that she was trying to use against Titan, but they only slowed the beast down. She used some kind of electrocution device against him, and he shook violently for a few moments before shrinking slightly in size. That's when Matt realized that Audrey had figured out how to put Titan back in his human form. Jasper would have been much easier to beat.

While he was distracted, Fade attempted to pounce on Matt again, but this time, he was knocked back by a vase from the festival that had gone flying towards his head. Matt whipped around to find Leon standing triumphantly with a handful of sunflowers he'd taken out of the vase before throwing it.

“I call that one a face in your vase,” he announced. “Wait no, I meant vase in your face. Vase to the face. That sounds better, let me try that again-”

When Fade got up and turned on Leon, Matt froze his feet to the ground again, picking up a second vase from the booth and forcibly smashing it over Fade’s head. He wobbled, then fell over, unconscious. Matt took a few moments to stare at his unconscious body as Leon ran over.

“Hey if someone asks, can you say my ‘vase to the face’ was what knocked him out?” Leon asked.

Matt bent down and patted down Fade’s pockets, finding a foldable knife in one of them. He handed the knife to Leon.

“You want to be helpful? If he wakes up, knock him back out. Until the police show up.”

“Yes, sir,” Leon grinned, delighted with having a job to do.

Matt then ran towards where Audrey was still fighting Titan, who was noticeably smaller now. Her gadgets were being tossed aside during the fight, and Matt recognized her gun on the ground. It was a gun that had been pointed at him many, many times. Her only completely lethal weapon, more likely than not. As well as she was doing with slowing Titan down, the only way to beat him was to kill him, and Audrey wouldn't be able to do it with her bare hands. As Titan started closing in on her in the corner, Matt whistled to get her attention. She noticed the gun in his hand, doing a sudden dive out of the way to catch the gun when Matt threw it to her. A layer of ice appeared beneath Titan when he turned to face Audrey and he slid, focusing on digging his claws into the ice so he wouldn't slip. Audrey then fired a shot into his shoulder blade, and he howled in pain as he shrunk down nearly to his normal size. She fired another shot into his chest and Titan fell back, once again in his human form. With a third shot, he stopped moving.

Everything had gone still all of a sudden as they all stopped to catch their breaths. No one but Leon was around, so Matt took off the mask and let the rest of the suit melt off. Audrey didn't do so right away, but she took off her wig as mask a few moments later. The pain from Titan’s scratch and Fade’s kicks started to catch up to Matt, and he winced lightly. Around the same time, Audrey almost fell. Matt caught her, and while she tensed, she allowed him to set her back on her feet.

“I'll take you home,” he mumbled.

“I don't want to go home,” she said bluntly. “I want to go to that place we went when we first started- Well, the diner. The one with that nice girl and the good burger.”

“Audrey, I don't think-”

“Fine. I'll go alone then.”

“You have to return my neighbor's car,” he sighed.

“I want that burger,” she protested.

“If you let me take you home, just until your wounds are a little bit better, I'll order the burger for delivery. Deal?”

“Fine. Deal.”