Loyalties (an Among Us fanfic)

12. Morals

"There you have it, Vermillion," said Lady Juniper on the television screen. Her cape and golden hair swayed gracefully in the wind while her green uniform reflected the sun like a dazzling mirror. "You're the one who fell right into my plan!"

The evil Vermillion, surrounded by special forces all armed to the teeth, could only glare at her in utter resentment. "Curse you to the depths of the underworld and back, Juniper."

My best friend and I watched in awe as the great superhero Lady Juniper stood in front of her despicable nemesis with the same confidence as ever. It was his favourite show, and for the entire day, he had been begging me to come over and watch it. Although it wasn't my type of TV show, I gave it a try, and it wasn't actually that bad. For the past hour, it was just him and I, two nine-year-olds chilling on the couch while watching superhero stuff.

He leaned over in my direction while both characters' confrontation continued. "Lady Juniper's so cool, right?"

I shrugged, taking some grapes from the bowl on my lap and eating them like popcorn. "Meh. I dunno. Why'd she fake her death? I don't like that she lied to the entire city."

"Because she had to! It was the only way they could beat Vermillion. They said he got cocky because he didn't know she was alive."

"But everyone got sad. And scared. And all the bad guys did so many bad things while she was gone!"

He scooped a handful of grapes from my bowl. "I know, but it was only for a short while. They had to trick Vermillion. And I think this will make all the bad guys scared later."

I thought about all the crooks who either stole from innocent people or robbed places after the superhero's fake death. "Lady Juniper didn't have any other ways to win . . . ?"

He shrugged, tossing multiple grapes into his mouth like me. "I don't know. But maybe you have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons sometimes!"

As a nine-year-old, that didn't make any sense, but I didn't think too much about it. Maybe I'd understand it better when I got older.

"Mark my words, you foolish, preposterous, high-and-mighty scoundrel," spat Vermillion. The old man pronounced every syllable so perfectly and clearly. "I'll soon find a way to come back. And I'll soon find a way to defeat you."

"Feel free to try, Vermillion," said Lady Juniper casually, "because it'll just be a piece of cake to stop you again!"

"Being a superhero is great," my best friend commented as the special forces took away the supervillain. "I wish I could be one."

"Me too, but we can't. Going to space is still cool, though."

The episode ended a few seconds later, and an ad came on. Even so, I continued staring absentmindedly at the television screen.

"Vermillion is a cool name," I commented. "I might get famous if I have a nickname like that."

***

After an unbelievably long, tense, and stressful walk throughout the ship, our group of four ended up in Admin. Blue downloaded some data while Brown fixed the wiring. White checked out the holographic map of the Skeld, and since I already swiped my card, I just stood there awkwardly.