"Mysterious portal master indeed," Twin muttered, staring at his computer screen. Whoever it was had screwed things up for them yesterday, nearly getting Cold Snap stuck in prison. Luckily, Ferry had been able to get her out before anything irreversible happened.
It had given him quite a fright. Sure, they'd dealt with the Legion's portal manipulator before, but it hadn't been nearly as close a shave. Whoever it was, Twin would have to deal with them to ensure the safety of his people. Just as Ferry gave them an advantage against the Legion and the military, this new portal manipulator would negate said advantage.
They had to be someone in the crowd. Twin poured over the footage from the fights, looking for anyone who had been in both places.
No good. The footage was too messy for him to really make out enough of the faces in the crowd. Most of it was just shot by people with cell phones, so a couple of the videos were downright nauseating to look at.
In that case...
He'd have to keep an eye out for the next time this portal person showed up. If they sent the entirely of Team Chaos, with a mind to take out as many bystanders as possible, they might just hit the incognito Legion hero.
Hero. As if they deserved a title as lofty as that. Team Chaos would show them.
There was no such thing as heroes. Only manipulators and deceivers.
Shell ducked behind her shield as Rose swung a thorny vine towards her. Twin's assignment for the week was to cause as much trouble as possible without getting caught. Cold Snap had almost failed on the second objective yesterday. Something about a portal Miracle in the Legion.
Not that Shell cared much. Her life wasn't worth anything to begin with, so if she died it wouldn't matter. She was only alive because Twin wanted her to be. The day he asked her to die, she'd do it without a second thought.
She vaguely wondered if the portal person would show up again today. If so, Team Chaos had new orders: Incapacitate as many bystanders as possible. Twin reasoned that the Legion portal manipulator had to be in eyeshot to make the portals, so they had to be nearby.
Shell didn't care much, but orders were orders.
She ducked under Rose's vine, bashing it away with her shielded arm. Today was her 'play day' so she'd tried to hurt a few bystanders. Didn't take long after that for Rose of the Legion to show up in his weird floral costume.
The people she'd injured were now tied up in vines and dangling off to the side, waiting for medical aid. Somehow Rose had managed to do that while keeping her busy.
It just wasn't fair. Why did everyone else get the cool powers and she just got the ability to make her skin tougher? Paris could envelop an entire crowd with his poison, Cold Snap could change the very environment she was in and Corrosion was able to cause immense destruction with a few drops of his superpower. Heck, Ferry was considered the most valuable member of the team for her teleportation ability.
Shell, on the other hand, wasn't good for much beyond being a meat shield. At least, that's how her cousin would have put it.
She punched Rose, putting as much of her strength into it as she could. He hadn't gotten away fast enough, so he gasped for breath as he fell to his knees.
Huh. Maybe she could take out one of the Legion goons right here, right now. Twin would be pleased by that.
She reached back, ready to hit him in the head. If you did that enough, a person would die, right?
Somehow he barely caught her fist, grunting as she wrestled him to the ground. She aimed for his throat next. Her punch landed home, and he gasped for air again.
Shell grinned under her mask. Once you got close enough to him, Rose was really pretty useless, wasn't he?
He struggled to get her off of him, but she grabbed his throat with both her hands, squeezing as hard as she could. This would work too, right?
As Rose wheezed, he moved his hand in front of her face. What was he trying to do now?
Then the giant flower popped up in her face. Massive, each petal probably the length of her arm, all red spotted with white. The center was a gaping hole, almost looking like she could fall into it. And the smell! She gagged, feeling like she was about to vomit and fell away from Rose.
Both of them knelt on the ground for what felt like an eternity, gasping for fresh air. By the time Shell dragged herself up again, the flower was gone and Rose was stumbling to his feet too.
What the heck had that been? Weren't flowers supposed to be small and smell nice? Where in the big blue sky had that monstrosity come from? Could he make up plants that didn't exist?
Seriously! Why couldn't she have gotten a cool power like that? She'd use it so much better than this wimp!
"Rose!"
Great. That was her cue. Knight was running towards them, sword at the ready.
Shell took a step back, glancing around for Ferry. Any more time spent here would be more risky than worth it. Twin had made sure to stress that nobody was to take unnecessary risks. Their team was small enough as is.
Rose threw a thorny vine towards her, but Shell knocked it away easily with her hardened arm. Where was Ferry?
"Sorry for the wait, darling." Shell spun around and grabbed Ferry's hand just in time to vanish before Rose's next attack hit.
She'd have a rematch with Rose again. And she'd win that one.
When Shell disappeared, Fiore gasped and sank down to the ground, gingerly poking the areas she'd hit him. His throat still hurt, but his abdomen seemed okay now. Hopefully. He'd get Jo to check him over and give him a potion or two when he got back to HQ.
"Rose." Knight knelt down in front of him. Fiore couldn't tell what Knight's face looked like, but his voice sounded concerned.
"I'll be fine," Fiore tried to say, but a couple coughs cut him off. He tried again and managed to say it, but Knight sighed.
"You're not fine. Look, I know you're on patrol for another hour, but get back to HQ and have the Alchemist look at you. Looks like Shell did a number on you."
Yeah, she had. Fiore was glad his Rafflesia gambit had worked. He'd spent some time looking up unusual flowers and came across that one. It was the first time he'd made one, and he didn't want to have to do it again any time soon. He might have been imagining that the stench still lingered in the air.
Wait, nope, based on the way Knight was wrinkling his face up, the smell was probably still here.
He wasn't sure if the same trick would work twice, though. He had to get better. Maintain distance so he'd have time to react to things.
It took some convincing, but eventually Fiore listened to Knight and made his way back to Jo. When he got there, he collapsed onto a couch and started shaking uncontrollably.
Right.
He could have died there. If he hadn't found the Rafflesia, if it hadn't worked, if anything had gone wrong, he would be dead now.
The realization was too much for his weak little brain.
At some point Jo came out because she'd heard him. She ran back for a potion, then treated him as he gasped out the story to her.
When he was done, she held his head on her shoulder, whispering to him like she would a small child.
Eventually, once he'd cried out everything in him, he fell asleep there.
