"Hang in there, kid!"
Team Chaos were huddled in a room, surrounding Cold Snap as Twin and Ferry administered first aid. They cleaned the wound with a cloth doused in rubbing alcohol, then wrapped strips of an old T-shirt around it, holding the makeshift bandage as tight as possible as they tied it off.
"What in the big blue sky was that?" Shell asked, huddling in a corner. "Ferry, do you have any clue?"
"Never heard anything like it," she replied, wrapping another strip of cloth around Cold Snap's arm. The wound was near her shoulder, and bleeding more than any wound any of them had ever seen.
"Twin...am I going to die?" Cold Snap asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. "It hurts like hell. And can I afford to lose this much blood?"
"We're going to do our best," Twin replied firmly. "I know just enough about this stuff to be pretty sure that you won't die from this. Recovery might take a while, but we'll take care of it. You'll be fine."
"What exactly happened?" Paris asked, looking to Shell for answers.
"I don't know. We were fighting the Legion, and then suddenly there was a loud noise and she was bleeding."
"What kind of noise?" Paris pressed, glancing anxiously at Cold Snap.
"I don't know! Like...a loud clap or something? Or a pop? I don't know! I just know that one minute everything was fine and the next she was hurt." Shell curled in on herself, shivering.
"I'll find out what it was," Twin said. "We need countermeasures, whatever it was."
"What kind of Miracle could do this?" Paris muttered. "It's similar to Scattershot's power, but does anyone ever get an identical Miracle to someone else?"
"It may not even have been a Miracle," Twin said. "We just don't know."
"What could it be other than a Miracle?" Paris snapped.
"I'm just saying we can't jump to conclusions. Someone could have made some kind of weapon. Someone without a Miracle."
"Jase," Paris spat. "Had to be him."
"Or it could have been the same people who attacked us last time. Give me time and I'll figure it out," Twin insisted, finishing up with Cold Snap's arm.
"Now we need to make sure she rests," Ferry said softly. "Shell, can you take her to her room? And someone make sure she gets nutritious food that's easy to digest. I don't know how much this injury will affect her, but I don't want to take any chances."
"The rest of you clear out too," Twin said. "Ferry and I need to talk."
"If it has to do with our future plans, I need to be in on it too," Paris said coldly.
"Fine. But the rest of you need to clear out. Shell, keep an eye on Cold Snap. Corrosion, stay out of trouble."
When the other three had left, Twin sat down on a chair and groaned.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ferry asked carefully.
"What are we thinking?" Paris asked. "Legion?"
"No," Twin replied. "They aren't sophisticated enough. If Ferry and I are thinking the same thing, then..."
He trailed off and looked at Ferry, who nodded and finished his sentence.
"They were probably after me."
Twin leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.
"Getting info from Double over there. The military found what looks like a weapon not far from the scene. They're checking security footage to see if they can figure out who planted it, but we'll see if that turns anything up."
"They could have probably just gotten Portal to drop it in the area," Ferry added.
"Wait, who's Double?" Paris asked. "Have you been skulking around doing things behind my back?"
Twin smiled darkly.
"Do you know why I'm called Twin?" he asked.
Paris looked at him dumbly, then glared.
"My Miracle allows me to create an exact duplicate of myself. The duplicate and I can share information easily, which allows me to both be here handling Team Chaos and out there gathering information."
"And since Twin's a military lieutenant, he gets privileged access to info," Ferry added.
"Wait, what?" Paris asked, glaring even harder at Twin. "You're military?"
"Call me a spy. I truly believe in our goals. I just happened to be a lieutenant before I got my Miracle. And, now that I have one, it's more convenient to have Double continue to act for the military while I operate Team Chaos from down here. How do you think we can infiltrate the prison so easily?"
Paris slowly leaned against the wall, chewing on the information.
"Anyway, the weapon they found definitely looks like a gun. At least, part of it does. The bottom half is probably for stability while it fires, but since it collapsed from the recoil, it probably can't be used more than once without someone to fix it.
"And based on the location and position of the weapon...it was probably aiming for you," Twin said solemnly, looking at Ferry.
"I'd presume Cold Snap accidentally got in the way."
"Most likely. It was pointed towards the window where you were sitting, and Cold Snap moved suddenly into that space."
"Damn it all." Ferry punched the wall with a growl.
"This is one step too far," Twin said coldly. "Capturing you and Cold Snap was forgivable since you were able to fight back and escape, but if they're willing to go this far..."
"We're taking the fight to them?" Ferry finished.
"Wait, do we have any idea who these people even are?" Paris asked, glancing between the two of them anxiously.
"Not really," Twin replied. "Military has no data. All they know is that Jumper and Lightning could be in league with them. And maybe some criminal called Jumbo."
"But I know where their base is," Ferry replied with a smile.
"We'll need to prepare carefully," Twin said. "Who knows what kinds of traps they'll have waiting for us? Our group is small enough that we can't afford to lose anyone - especially you, Elisa."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm the transport," Ferry said, rolling her eyes. "What are we doing in the meantime?"
"Lay low for a week or two. If anyone can't handle that, they can go out and play at their own risk. I'll see what I can find about anything underneath the Subways."
"Wish I could scout," Ferry said with a sigh.
"I am not risking your life on that," Twin replied firmly, standing and grabbing her by the shoulder.
"I said I wish. I'm not actually going. And if I was, you couldn't stop me anyway." Ferry stuck her tongue out at him, then spun around and left the room.
Twin stared after her for a moment, then sighed.
"What a whirlwind of a woman. Paris, can you handle keeping everyone alive and in line while I do some research?"
"Fine," Paris replied with a shrug. "Just schedule some time for my next duel with Achilles."
With that, he followed Ferry out. Twin heaved another sigh.
"Quite the tunnel vision on that one, isn't there?"
Not that it mattered as long as he did his job properly. Twin hopped on the computer and started doing some light research.
