Louise sighed as she glanced around the cramped sewing studio. Even more cramped than usual. Not only did she have the exact same amount of fabric piled up along the walls, there were five - five - other people working on stuff.
When Achilles had phoned her the other day asking for a rush to be put on the uniforms, she'd almost blown a gasket. Without thinking about it too much, she'd yelled at him and said if he wanted a rush on them, he should send some labour over.
And he did. Now her studio was full of wannabe superheroes, and she only really liked two of them. Knight and Alchemist seemed alright, but that Haven girl weirded her out. At least Courtney was doing most of the directing (under Louise's direction of course). If Louise had had to deal with all those amateurs by herself, she might have blown a gasket for real.
"So Louise, how long have you known Achilles?" Haven asked, looking at her sweetly. Louise glared in response.
"Too long. He was such a brat in college."
"Wow that long? What was he like back then?"
This Haven girl was not getting the message.
"He'd drink himself silly at parties, then go try and find someone willing to help him get his assignments done on time. I doubt he did much of those assignments himself actually."
"Wow that doesn't sound like the Achilles I know at all," Knight replied.
"People grow in their twenties - usually. Sometimes I wonder if that idiot's changed at all since high school."
"Were you in high school together too?" Haven asked.
"Unfortunately. There were four of those fools and somehow I ended up stuck with them."
"Four?" For some reason two of her Legion helpers had paused their work.
"I'll tell you if you keep sewing, how about that?" Louise growled. Knight and Haven jumped and got back to work while Louise thought.
How to describe those long past days? Would she tell them about Dustin? Or would it be better if they didn't know? Actually, did James even know?
Yeah, best to keep that tidbit under her hat for now.
"Well, first off there was James. Kind of an idiot, but one most people couldn't help but like. Then there was Dustin, his best friend. Gosh, those two were something. Always bouncing off of each other, always seeming to know what the other was thinking. Like the two main heroes of a story. Kind of a shame they drifted apart eventually."
"Do you know where Dustin is now?" Haven asked, her eyes sparkling. "Maybe we could get him and Achilles to meet again."
"Uh..." Louise laughed awkwardly. "Maybe another time."
She glanced at Courtney, who didn't seem to know what she was talking about either. Maybe Louise's military tip hadn't reached her. Just as well. That could only lead to trouble.
"Anyway, you then had Tim. The one level-headed member of the group. I guess he'd be the smart one. Whenever we played TTRPGs he was the cleric who struggled to keep all the idiots alive. Last I heard, he opened his own bar.
"The fourth one was Leo. Kind of a lovable dork I guess. His grades were always pretty bad, but I think he managed to land a good job eventually. I didn't really talk to many of them after high school, so what I know is mostly hearsay."
"Why didn't you stay friends with them?" Haven asked. "Wait, if you lost contact with them, why are you friends with Achilles again now?"
"We are not friends," Louise said with another glare. "As for why, well, they always talked down about what I wanted to do. None of them thought I would manage it. And yet, here I am. A determined entrepreneur with a successful business. I got sick of it, sick of them, and lost contact. Then about a year ago James waltzed in here talking about becoming a superhero and asking me to make him a costume."
"Uniform," Haven corrected. Louise just rolled her eyes in response.
"Sure. Speaking of, you sure you're okay with showing that much skin? It'll make it harder to conceal your identity."
"Of course I am! This design is cute." Haven held up the skirt she was working on and grinned. "Besides, I'm gonna do this full-time. I don't care if anyone knows who I am. I live at Legion HQ and I work there too. I'm gonna become Barrier Maiden the way Achilles became Achilles."
"Oh boy," Louise sighed. Courtney shot her a wry grin.
"You might not be able to go out anywhere without people swarming you. Or something," Fiore said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"So what? That just means they love me." Haven grinned and struck a pose. "At least I'm not a moody teenager like you, Rosie."
"I'm not a teenager," Fiore sighed.
"True. He is twenty-three," Courtney added.
"Wow. I totally pegged you for like fifteen or sixteen," Haven said in surprise.
"Because we let underage people into the Legion," Fiore grumbled.
"Anyone who's been chosen, right?" Knight replied. "Against jerks like the Phalanx and those new goons, we need all the help we can get."
"Speaking of help," Louise said, "your hands have stopped moving again. Seriously, I'd get more done with just Fiore."
"Sorry ma'am!" Knight said, refocusing on cutting fabric according to her patterns.
"How're the masks coming?" Louise asked Jo.
"Pretty good I think. You can take a look."
Louise glanced over Jo's work and her eyes widened.
"Wow. I don't think I could have done better myself. Want a regular part-time gig?"
"No thanks," Jo laughed. "I'm going straight back to my research once this is all done. But thanks for the compliment. It's been a while since anyone praised my work."
"I give out what is deserved. If you ever want a job here, lemme know and I'll see what hours I can get you. You and Fiore are great at this."
"Hey, Knight, if Fiore's 23, how old are you?" Haven asked.
"Uh...22," Knight replied sheepishly.
"What? Gloomy Fiore's older than you?"
"Could you quit calling me gloomy?"
"But you're totally like a moody teenager! You could at least comb your hair back. Or if that's not possible, you could just cut it."
"You sound like my mom. Please stop."
Haven looked startled at Fiore's response, but complied.
"What about you Haven?" Knight asked. "How old are you?"
"Don't you know you shouldn't ask someone their age?" Haven replied, sticking her tongue out.
"25," Courtney replied.
"Hey! How do you know that? And why are you telling everyone?"
"Don't ask questions of other people you aren't willing to answer yourself. As for how I know, I've read everyone's applications and have a rough idea of your birthdays. You were born in October, right?"
"Y-yeah. October 18. How do you remember all that? Have you been secretly memorizing our personal info?"
"No. I just have a good memory. I read everything over once to make sure there weren't any issues Achilles had overlooked."
"Can we please just call him James?" Louise asked, sighing.
"Issues like what?" Knight asked.
"Like more underage heroics. I do not agree with letting Tanner into the Legion. The only reason I tolerate it is because he's likely to do something stupid on his own if we kick him out. Better to keep him within arms' reach where we can protect him."
"So that's why he hasn't been kicked out," Fiore said.
"No. The reason he hasn't been kicked out is because Achi - er - James. James is insistent that Tanner is a valuable member of the Legion we cannot go without. The reason I don't fight him on it is what I just said."
"You're in a really tough position, aren't you?" Fiore asked.
"What makes you say that?"
"Balancing all the Legion stuff. You seem like the one who keeps everything in line."
"I try. Ask me how successful I am."
"How successful are you?" Haven asked playfully.
"Moderately. I don't think an army could hold those two back."
Louise stifled a laugh at Courtney's matter-of-fact response.
"Okay, people," she said, glancing at her watch. "It's 12:00, so let's take a half hour break for lunch. After that, back to work. If we're lucky, we'll have some of these finished by the end of the week."
She glanced at the somewhat-complete stuff on the mannequins. Progress was moving steadily, so hopefully James would have his stuff in time. As much as she hated to admit it, the Legion was seeming more and more necessary.
Who else could fight off these super-powered jerks that kept popping up out of the woodwork?
