The Great Warrior, Purity

I didn't know a thing about magic until my grandmother gave me the Key of Purity. It'd been in the family for generations and by this point was just an heirloom, but only days later, all of the old artifacts awoke, and I was learning to change into my alter ego to stop the criminals who were abusing the powers of other magic items.

I was absolutely unprepared. Of course, as the great warrior Purity, I had the magic armor and the ability to bind spirits and such, which was enough power to get things done, but I wasn't even out of high school. Until the first crack of thunder from city hall when the Dread Lord used the Rod of Lordship in an attempt to take over our city, I was totally fixated on how to confess my feelings to Brian. Fighting occult threats ended up being a lot easier than that.

When the Minotaur was released from his mystic, labyrinthine prison to wreak havoc, I was trying to study Brian while he tried to study my chemistry notes. I felt the hum of the Key in my pocket and pretended to get a call on my cell, not the summons of duty, and I excused myself. The armor made me strong, but not strong enough to take on the Minotaur head on, so it was actually my chemistry lesson on liquid nitrogen that saved the day then.

When Dr. Gremlin revealed the Inference Engine to the world and attempted to steal control of every other artifact, I was re-typing the same secret admirer note that I never worked up the courage to send to Brian. Losing control of the Key, I had a week in which I could have tried to lead a normal life, but in the end I couldn't let it go, and I had to sneak up to destroy the engine without supernatural aid.

When the Dragon Tamer used his artifacts to burn down half of the city, I'm ashamed to admit that I made sure that Brian was safe before going to confront the villain. For ages I wasn't sure if he'd recognized me in the armor or not that time. By that point, though, I was able to put that part of me aside when I fought, and the Dragon Tamer was just some chubby dude when his enthralled fire spirits were banished.

When the Key called on me to fight the Androsphinx, a powerful new villain who was robbing a bank downtown, I was laying awake in bed, telling myself that I'd finally let Brian know the next day how I really felt about him. That was a difficult, drawn out fight, because the Androsphinx had armor much like mine, plus it gave him telekinetic control of a set of chains. I was near exhaustion by the time I finally pinned the chains and knocked him unconscious. When the helmet left him, the power went, too, and he ceased to be the Androsphinx. When the police moved in, he was only Brian.

Today I looked at him through prison plexiglass. He seemed smaller in his prison uniform, like he'd shrunken since his sentencing all those years ago, but when I looked into his eyes, they took on a light that made him look like his old self for just a moment.

He didn't recognize me as Purity at all. I was just his old friend. We each picked up the phone and shared a long silence before he spoke.

“You know... I always had the biggest crush on you?”