Paris had no idea how long it had been since he woke up in a cube-shaped cell. The sparse amenities and lack of human contact had driven him insane already, but there was no sign of anyone coming for anything except bringing him food.
He'd spent far too much time just creating poison, hoping that it would spread far enough to cause trouble, but there was no sign that anything had changed. The only thing that happened was that he was tired and grumpy.
The camera stared back at him. If he wasn't so tired, he'd try to break it, but it was a little too high for him to reach. Those scummy military personnel were keeping an eye on him without saying a word.
As Paris slumped onto the bed and prepared to sleep again, a strange sensation made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. When he stood and looked around, Ferry was standing in his cell, coughing from the mist.
"Seriously, how am I - " She started hacking and Paris hurriedly dissipated the poison. Ferry fell to her knees and took a few deep breaths before glaring at him.
"S-sorry..." he muttered sheepishly. He hadn't expected her to show up. In fact, Paris was certain he'd just be abandoned again.
"How the heck am I supposed to save you if the very area around you is hazardous? Y'know, I manage this whole teleportation thing by staying out of danger! If you can't provide me a safe space to operate in, I can't do anything. Teleporting takes a lot of concentration, mister." She stood and dusted off her clothes - simple prison fare like what Paris had woken up in.
"I wasn't sure anyone was coming," Paris confessed.
"As if Twin would let you go that easily. We worked hard to get you and it'd be a waste if one random coincidence wasted all that effort."
"You did?"
"I had to find you in those cramped alleys while military personnel were crawling all over the place. And you'd poisoned the air there too. Now let's get out of here before they send someone to cause trouble."
Ferry grabbed his hand and in a brief moment, the world around him changed to Chaos HQ. Twin smiled as they landed softly on the ground.
"Good work, Ferry," he said. "Paris, it's good to have you back."
"What the heck even happened?" Paris asked. "Did Louise call for help somehow? I don't remember anything."
"She muted her phone after she dialed her friend. Said friend brought in the military. Though..." Twin leaned against the wall and frowned. "Part of me suspects that the friend she phoned was Lightning. The woman who brought the military in was an ex-officer named Courtney Larsen. You were both unconscious by the time the military arrived and Courtney was the only one there other than Louise."
"You think this Courtney Larsen is Lightning?" Cold Snap asked, stepping out of the hallway. Shell and Corrosion followed behind her.
"Larsen has remained jobless since she was fired from military duty. However, her finances show that she still does have an income, from one 'Benjamin Farley'. I couldn't trace anything beyond that, but it seems suspicious. Coupled with this latest incident, I'm inclined to think that Larsen at the very least has a connection with the Legion. By extension, Louise might as well."
"That's why she ratted me out," Paris muttered darkly. "She was already in with the enemy."
"I'm trying to connect anyone else to Benjamin Farley, but it'll take some work since I don't know much about any of the other Legion members, with Tanner Schultz being the exception."
"Who's that one?" Cold Snap asked.
"You'd know him as Light Master. The military has quite a bit of information on him. Unfortunately, the rest seem obscured, perhaps by this very Benjamin. The best I can do is look for people who quit work soon before a Legion member first appeared. The problem with that is I can't do too much digging without garnering unnecessary suspicion." Twin sighed heavily.
"Must be hard to be the guy behind the scenes," Cold Snap laughed.
"But Twin does it better than anyone else," Ferry added. "If it weren't for him, we'd have no power. We'd be directionless and resourceless."
"Thank you, but Paris is our leader now," Twin said gracefully, motioning to Paris.
"Thanks. Keep digging and see what you can find out about the Legion. And..." Paris frowned, looking for the memory itching at the back of his mind. Something Louise had said.
Then it hit him.
"See if you can find any information on a James Flores. Born 2591. October, can't remember the day. See if there's any current connection to Louise."
She'd seemed oddly fixated on him for someone she hadn't spoken to since college. Paris hoped this wouldn't be trouble, but if it was it would be better to nip it in the bud before it sprouted too much.
"Thanks for the info. I'll see what I can dig up," Twin said. "In the meantime, I'd like you to rest for a couple days. Snap, Shell, Corrosion, you'll be in charge of playtime until Paris is back on his feet."
"Can I play tomorrow?" Cold Snap asked, a devilish grin on her face. "I wanna see what kinds of people I can freeze."
"Hey, let me in on that," Corrosion interrupted. "I wanna melt some faces."
"Kids, kids, I can take both of you," Ferry said, shaking her head with a sigh. "Shell? Any requests?"
"Bring me in if the military gets too close. Otherwise I think I'm fine here. Snap and Corrosion can have all the fun they want."
"Sounds like a plan. Paris, I'll take you out on Saturday if you want."
"Please do," Paris replied with a smile. "I have a score to settle. Twin, by then do you think you could find Courtney Larsen's home address?"
"It won't take me more than a few minutes," Twin replied, grinning. "I'll even help you with a plan of attack. Snap, Shell, Corrosion, you'll go with him. No telling what a superpowered ex-military officer can do. And she was good."
"If she was good then why'd she get fired?" Cold Snap asked.
"Officially it was for slander. She accused a superior officer of a crime when there was no evidence. On top of that, her performance in the field was lackluster. Behind the scenes, however, her accusation was the truth. Said superior officer got her out of the way before she could cause more trouble."
"Sounds like our kind of girl," Corrosion snickered. "Abandoned by the military, refusing to play by their rules..."
"Larsen isn't like us," Twin said with a sigh. "She hasn't yet lost hope in the military's mission. She still thinks there's people worth saving. That's why she's in the Legion and not here."
"Then we just need to break her," Corrosion replied. "Show her that there's no one worth saving, shatter her hope, have her learn that the Legion's just as bad as the military. Get her on our side."
"I like your plan. So playtime tomorrow, and starting to break Lightning-Larsen on Saturday?" Cold Snap giggled happily.
"Let's do it. I'm counting on you," Paris said.
"Let's show these miserable people just what kind of creatures they really are," Ferry said.
"I await your results," Twin said, a dark smile on his face.
