A/N: I think this could technically count as the prequel to Chapter 2. It's the same "Butters-doesn't-know-Mysterion's-identity" AU. I can't write action-y scenes to save my life, but let me know what you think!
Mysterion shivered underneath his cloak as a sudden gust of wind blew past his hiding spot on the roof. Fucking shit, it was cold. He was definitely wishing that he had sprung for the thicker fabric when he was making his new costume, but the one he'd gotten was five bucks cheaper and he really couldn't afford to splurge this time around. The costume did its job well enough, it kept his body covered and his identity a secret, but damn did he miss his parka during his stake outs.
He grit his teeth and bared through it. He was currently on the lookout for the drug dealers that frequented the alleyway the roof he was on overlooked, and they would be arriving any minute. These losers had given him the slip twice now, and there was no way in hell that he was going to let them get away this time. One of them had approached Karen to be a drug mule yesterday. She of course said no (he was raising her right, dammit!) but the fact that it had happened pissed him off beyond belief.
He heard something moving to his left and immediately snapped his head in that direction. Instead of seeing those two thugs though, he saw a girl. The absurdity of it threw him off for a second. What the hell was a girl doing walking down a dangerous alley at one in the morning? He watched her, suddenly feeling concerned for her safety.
She was wearing a coat that looked warm enough, but the skirt she had on was short and exposed a lot of leg. Her heels didn't look very high from his vantage point, but they were definitely not the kind of shoes you wore on a cold night like tonight. She looked like she was shivering harder than he was. She must have been crazy to pick THIS place to walk through, since the only light came from the street and even then it was pretty dim.
Another sound to his right made him look away from her, and the sight made his eyes widen. There they were. The drug dealers he'd been waiting for were coming into the alley from the direction that this girl was walking towards. She didn't notice them until after they'd already noticed her, and by then it was too late for her to turn back. He couldn't see her face from up here, but the way her body tensed let him know that she had just realized the danger she was in.
He cursed his rotten luck as he watched the two drug dealers, Skull and Dice (that's what they liked to call themselves, but their real names were Mike and Rodger; he had done a little research beforehand) approached her in a predatory manner.
"Hey there pretty girl." Skull called, his low-pitched voice going an octave lower as he eyed her up and down. "What are you doing in such a dangerous place so late at night?"
The girl stopped walking, probably in an attempt to put some distance between her and the two men, but it didn't do her any good. They kept walking towards her.
"Don't be so shy." Dice said, his voice significantly higher than Skull's. He almost sounded like a prepubescent boy. "We just want to talk."
The girl looked between the two of them, and though Mysterion couldn't see her face, he knew that she was probably wide eyed and scared. Her voice shook when she spoke. "P-Please, I-I don't want any trouble."
The drug dealers gave each other a look and started laughing. Mysterion felt his hand involuntarily turn into a fist at their strident laughter, but he didn't move. If he gave away his position too early, he'd lose the element of surprise, and even though he was fairly confident that he could take the both of them in a fight, he didn't know if they had any weapons on them. He could handle getting shot or stabbed, no problem, but he couldn't risk letting this innocent bystander getting caught in the crossfire.
So he watched and hoped that she would be okay as he tried to figure out a plan.
"I-I have money, if that's what you want." She said, reaching into her bag.
The drug dealers gave each other that look again. Skull was the one to answer her, taking the lead. "I think there's something else that you can give us, don't you think?"
"M-Maybe." She whispered, still searching through her bag. Mysterion was just about to leap down, even though he still had no plan, when the girl pulled out a little tube and brought it up to Skull's face. He heard a weird hissing noise and Skull screamed in agony, and it only took a second for Mysterion to realize that she had just pepper sprayed him.
He had to admit, that was impressive.
"You bitch!" Skull roared, taking a swipe in her direction. Too bad for him, the girl was already taking off in the opposite direction. Now that he was sure that she was out of harm's way, Mysterion expertly made his way off the roof and down into the alleyway with the two thugs.
"How about you try messing with someone who can take you on?" He growled in his deepest voice, the one he reserved for when he was in costume.
The two thugs looked away from the girl at the sound of his voice. He could see a hint of fear in Dice's eyes, but Skull was still squinting from the pepper spray. Mysterion knew that Dice was the more cowardly one of the two of them, and knew that he had the best chances of taking him out first. But he couldn't have Skull, disabled as he was right now, at his back. He knew what he was going to have to do, but he wasn't sure if he'd come out victorious.
But as long as he fucked them up, he supposed that it didn't matter what they did to him.
"It's that caped fucker." Skull said through gritted teeth. He reached into his jacket, but Mysterion wasn't about to let him get the first shot in. He ran over to him, quick as lightning, and punched him in the face. Skull stumbled back a few steps, and that afforded Mysterion the chance to reach over and pull the weapon (a gun, fucking coward) away from him.
He didn't want to use it. As much as Mysterion hated these two fuckers, he wasn't about to kill them in cold blood. God knows why, they were drug dealers and scum under his boots, but he couldn't just end their lives in a shot. Maybe it was because, after all the different ways he had died, he didn't want to be the one dealing that out. Or hell, maybe it was just because he wasn't in the mood. For whatever reason, he tossed the gun over his shoulder and glared at the two of them, daring either one to try and go after it.
It seemed to be enough, for the moment. Skull returned his glare, but Dice was already starting to back up.
"I-I didn't sign up for this." Dice mumbled under his breath.
"Too fucking bad." Skull hissed at him, cracking his knuckles as he sized up Mysterion through his stinging eyes. "If you're too much of a pussy to help me, you might as well go after that bitch who pepper sprayed me."
Mysterion felt his blood course hot through his veins. No. No fucking way was he just saying that. After all the trouble he went through to keep her safe, he was still going to say something like that?
He almost wished he still had the gun in his hands. Almost.
"Why mess with her when you can have me?" He mocked, smirking when Skull scowled at him. "Or are you not man enough to handle me?"
His jeers had the desired effect. Skull rushed at him, too angry to think that this was exactly what he wanted. Mysterion easily caught him off guard with a foot jammed in his stomach. Skull reeled back from the pain and Mysterion was glad that he had been working on his lower leg strength recently. He didn't let the drug dealer recover from that and once again punched him in the face. Skull went down and Mysterion knew that he wasn't going to be getting off that floor anytime soon. He turned his attention to the other drug dealer he came here for, only to see that he wasn't anywhere to nearby.
"Fucking hell." He muttered under his breath, scanning up and down the alley. He didn't want to believe that Dice actually went after her, but he couldn't risk otherwise. He gave Skull a final kick, this time in the head sot that Mysterion was sure that he wouldn't be following, and ran in the direction that he remembered the girl going.
He kept his ears open when he reached the end of the alley, hoping that he would be able to hear her footsteps, or maybe Dice's, but the only thing that he could hear was his own slightly-heavy breathing. He held his breath for a second, hoping that it would help, and he heard the faint sound of footfalls over to his left. They weren't very far off, and he took off running in their direction.
"No please!" He heard just ahead of him in another alley. The voice sounded a little different from before, a little deeper, but it was still undeniably the girl from before. Mysterion quickened his pace, worried about what Dice might be doing to her. When he rounded the corner, he saw that Dice had, in fact, reached her and was holding her in a tight looking grip. He looked up when he saw Mysterion and brought out a knife and held it to the girl's throat.
"Don't you come any closer you caped freak!" Dice said, his voice shaking as hard as his hand. "Or the girl gets it!"
"Help me." The girl whispered, looking at him with frightened blue eyes. There was something about them that seemed strangely familiar to him, but Mysterion didn't have time to think about that right now.
"Let her go, Dice." Mysterion said, standing absolutely still. He wasn't about to rush over there and risk her getting hurt. He had to think, had to keep Dice talking. The longer he talked, the longer she would be safe. "You don't want to hurt her, do you?"
"I'll fucking do it!" Dice said, tightening the arm that was around her. He looked more than a little crazed, and Mysterion knew that he had to calm the drug dealer down before he did something to the girl.
"Do you know what cops do to murderers?" Mysterion asked, holding his hands up and creeping just a little closer. "Huh, Dice? Do you know?"
"N-No." He muttered, distracted by the question. "What do they do to them?"
This was good, he was getting a conversation going. "They treat them a lot worse than they treat drug dealers for one. Have you ever been to jail, Dice?"
"Yeah..." Dice muttered, his eyes becoming a little unfocused at the memory. This let Mysterion get a lot closer. He was maybe ten feet away when Dice started talking again. "Yeah, I've been. It wasn't fun. And there's no way that I'm going back there!" He shouted, tightening his grip on the girl again.
"Fuck." He whispered under his breath. He was going to have to do something soon. Dice was becoming more unhinged by the second, and he couldn't afford to keep stalling. He looked back at the girl and locked eyes with her. He wanted to tell her not to worry, that he was going to get her out of this, but he couldn't say that in front of the dealer. But he made sure she saw the confidence in his eyes, and he saw a spark in her own eyes (goddamn it, why were they so familiar?) that let him know that she understood.
Dice was still muttering about how he wasn't going back to jail, that he wouldn't be taken back alive and for a moment, he loosened his grip just a little as he was focused on what he was saying to himself. That moment was all that Mysterion needed though.
As fast as anything, he rushed over and grabbed the wrist holding the knife and twisted hard. Dice cried out in pain and instead of letting the knife go, he let go of the girl. She jerked herself out of the way and now Mysterion didn't have to worry about her getting hurt.
He felt a sharp sting on his upper arm, but he ignored it as he curled his hand into a fist and punched the dealer in the stomach. Dice groaned and Mysterion quickly followed this up with a punch just under Dice's chin. It sent the creep sprawling to the floor and Mysterion saw that he was out cold.
He could feel his breath coming out a little labored and harsh, and knew that he had gone a little overboard this time. He usually didn't have to take on two guys in one night, and even in the cold night air he was feeling a little overheated. Well, he definitely wasn't complaining about it being cold now, at least. He looked away from the thug he'd just knocked out and turned to look at the girl who he'd just saved.
She was still around, which he guessed was a good thing. Better than running off and encountering another group of jerks out to hassle her. She was looking a little ruffled after her ordeal, but more or less okay. Her skirt had ridden up a little, and Mysterion pointedly looked away from the exposed skin and up to her face. He wasn't about to make her more uncomfortable than she already was.
She had a lot of make up on. Lipstick, eye shadow, eyeliner, and who knew what else that girl always put on their faces. It looked good on her, but the excess of it let him know that she hadn't been coming home from a church meeting. Most likely, she had been out partying. Beneath all that make up though, he had a feeling that he knew the face from somewhere. It was the same feeling he got when he looked into her eyes.
"I… I um…" She was saying, her hands coming up from where they'd been resting at her sides. "Th-thank you for saving me."
"No problem." He said, keeping his voice rough even though the imminent threat was over. Habit, of course.
"B-But you're bleeding." She said, and started rubbing her hands together as she looked at him with both nervousness and admiration in her eyes.
That gesture. It was so familiar that the realization of who this girl was hit him so hard it almost knocked the breath out of him. This was Butters.
He looked at his face and saw that the long blonde hair on his head was too shiny, too stringy to be natural. It was very obviously a wig though, the same one that he'd seen poking out of Butters's locker a few times, along with a few tubes of lipstick. Butters had made him swear not to tell anybody, and of course he promised that he wouldn't. There was no shame in dressing up like a girl.
He couldn't let him know that he knew though. Butters didn't know that he was Mysterion, and he wanted to keep it that way.
He looked at his right arm, and sure enough, there was a thin stream of blood flowing from a wound on his bicep. He must have gotten it during the struggle with Dice. It stung a little, but it was a scratch compared to some of the other injuries he'd gotten. The way Butters was looking at it though, you would have thought that he was on the verge of dying.
"It's nothing." He said, shrugging his shoulders. He was ready to turn and make a escape, when Butters spoke up again.
"You shouldn't leave it untreated!" He exclaimed, stepping closer. He reached up, as if to touch him, but hesitated just before his fingers reached the bloodied material. He looked into Mysterion's eyes, face a little pink. "I can, um, patch you up if you want me to. I don't live very far, and it wouldn't take long."
Mysterion blinked, feeling as if he should be surprised. But this was Butters, of course he should have expected an offer like that. "I told you it's nothing. You don't have to—"
"It's my fault that you got hurt though." Butters said, biting his lower lip nervously. "Please? I don't want it to get infected…"
Mysterion knew that he shouldn't risk it. The he cops were probably on their way, and he needed to be around to make sure they didn't fuck up when they took them away. But the way that Butters was looking at him, he knew that the guy wouldn't be able to rest until he saw for himself that he was fine.
"Alright, if it'll make you feel better." He mumbled, looking down at the drug dealer at his feet. "Just give me a second to tie them up, okay?"
Butters smiled, and although it was still worried, Mysterion felt that it was genuine. "Okay. Oh, I'm Butters by the way."
He felt the corners of his lips turning up as he reached into his pocket (he couldn't afford a utility belt unlike some OTHER caped crusaders) for the zip ties he carried around for these types of situations. "Nice to meet you. I'm Mysterion."
/
They had to sneak in through the window because, as Butters had put it, "If my parents caught me walking in through the front door looking like this with a bloody man in tow, I'd be grounded until I was old and gray!"
Mysterion couldn't help grinning at that. Even after all that he had gone through, Butters was still more worried about getting grounded than anything else. It was reassuring in a way.
He'd never realized that Butters was so mischievous either. He cheerfully told Mysterion how he used the tree by his window to sneak in and out of the house all the time.
"I know that it's not honest." He said, letting Mysterion climb up first. Understandable, since Butters probably didn't want him to look up that short skirt of his. "But sometimes I just want to go out dancing with my girlfriends and I know that they wouldn't let me go out so late. I don't do it often, just once or twice a month." He added, as if Mysterion was judging him for it.
"I understand." He said, reaching down and helping him up to the next branch. It wasn't an easy climb, and he was impressed that Butters claimed to do this at least a few times a month.
Butters smiled and reached over to pull open his window. Once there was enough space for him to wriggle through, he put his hand to his mouth and made a shushing motion. "The walls are pretty thin, so we can't talk above a whisper, okay?"
"Okay." Mysterion said, pretending to press a key to his lips and throw away the key. "I'll be as quiet as a mouse."
Butters went in first, and Mysterion managed to catch a small glimpse of the underwear that he was wearing underneath. He resisted the urge to tell him that his panties were cute and climbed in after him.
The room was familiar. He'd been in here a few times, when he and Butters were in the same group in school and they had to work on whatever project at home. But he hadn't been here at night and under these circumstances, so it looked different to him. A haven of silence amid the hectic chaos of the outside world.
Wait, when did he become a freaking poet?
"This is a nice place you have here." He whispered, trying to sound like he'd never been in this room before.
"Thank you." Butters said, walking over to his bed. He motioned for Mysterion to take a seat. "You can sit here while I go get the first aid kit."
"I'll try not to bleed on your bed." Mysterion joked as he went over and sat down.
"You don't have to worry about that." Butters said, looking like he wanted to laugh. "It's my turn to do the laundry tomorrow, bleed all you want."
Mysterion was about to say that he'd been joking, but Butters had already left the room. He shook his head, wondering again how Butters could be so completely normal about almost getting killed tonight. He wasn't like Mysterion, who had to deal with this kind of a thing on a nightly basis. He was just Butters, a sweet guy who had a relatively normal life.
Then again, he could have just been hiding how freaked out he actually was.
It wasn't long before Butters was back, first aid kit in his hands and wig off his head. Mysterion looked at his face carefully, to see if he'd been crying or something. But his eyes were dry, and they looked as bright as they usually did. He watched as Butters rolled up his shirt sleeve to get at the injury, which actually was a little bit more than just a scratch, and cleaned up all the blood that had dried on his arm. It wasn't bleeding as badly as it had been out there, and as soon as Butters had finished, he reached down and grabbed a roll of bandages.
Butters did all this expertly, as if he'd done this before, or maybe seen it done. Mysterion wanted to ask how he knew so much, but this whole time Butters hadn't said a word. He was entirely focused on the task at hand and he found that he didn't want to disturb him. And okay, it might have been because Butters's concentrated face was really cute.
Once the bandage was secured tightly (but not overly so) on his upper arm, Butters finally looked up from his work and smiled.
"That should do it." He said, nodding to himself. "Does it feel alright? I could always retie it if you want me to."
Mysterion shook his head, flexing his arm a bit to make sure it felt right. It did, of course. "It's fine, Butters. Thanks for patching me up."
"No problem." The shorter teen said, putting away the left over supplies back in the first aid kit. "You're always welcome to come here if you get hurt again."
Mysterion felt his eyes widen. "Really? You don't have to feel obligated to offer, you know."
Butters tilted his head, looking adorably confused. "Obligated? Why would I feel obligated?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted you to know that you're not, okay?"
"Okay." Butters smiled warmly. "But I mean it mister, if you get hurt and need someone to take care of it, you just climb up that tree and knock on my window. Softly though, remember my parents."
"I'll remember." Mysterion said, smiling right back. He couldn't help it, Butters's smile was kind of infectious. He cleared his throat and schooled his expression back into his familiar stoic mask, heading over to the window. "I should go now. Until our paths cross again."
He climbed up to the window pane and gave one backwards glance before leaping towards the tree's branches dramatically. He caught one above his head and planted his feet securely on the one beneath him, and quickly climbed down the tree.
Butters poked his head out his window, as if worried that he might not have made it. Mysterion caught the look of relief when he saw that he already had his feet planted firmly on the ground and waved cheerfully.
"Goodbye, Mysterion." He whispered, barely audible from the ground.
"Bye." He said under his breath, knowing that Butters couldn't hear him, and took off for the cover of the night.
He had a feeling that he wasn't just going to be coming around for the free first aid.