mimikilstories

After heading home for supper and playing games with Ned for a bit, Joey headed out with the excuse that he was meeting up with some work friends. Not entirely a lie, but he didn't like the deceit. Anyway, he changed into his costume about halfway to HQ and hurried the rest of the way, hopping down levels instead of using the stairs. People took pictures of him, gaping at him, but Joey ignored them. He took a roundabout route to HQ, making sure no one was watching him as he knocked on the door. A few seconds passed, and just as he was taking out his phone to text Courtney, the door opened for him. "Yeah, it's Jumper," the guy called back into the building as he let Joey in. Who was this guy again? "Thanks, Fiore," Courtney said, walking into view. Right. Fiore. "Is everyone here?" Joey asked. "Except Achilles and Kiddo. Oh, and Jo's in her lab, but I'll let her know what happened later. Come on." Courtney led the way into HQ, with Fiore walking beside Joey. In the main area

When they got outside, Cleo led Joey to an alley with no other people in it, then opened a portal to the Top. Joey was amazed at the apparent simplicity of it. She could go anywhere she wanted without accounting for travel time. When they went through the portal, it closed behind them and Cleo slumped onto the ground, her hot chocolate in one hand and the container of cream puffs in another. "Wow," Joey said. "That's like some kind of ultimate Miracle for traveling." "Except I can't use it if other people are going to see," she replied, mumbling into her knees. "Right. I can't exactly jump up and down five levels if I'm not dressed up as Jumper." Joey sat next to her and took a sip of his hot chocolate. "At least the visions let me see if there was anyone here before I ripped a hole in reality." Cleo lifted her head and popped a cream puff into her mouth. "So you saw the purple person too?" Joey asked. "I don't remember it very well, but I've heard Achilles mention it."

Joey could only stare in shock as the girl's eyes filled with tears and she curled up, shielding her face with her arms. Her breathing was gaspy and unsteady, her body heaving with the effort. No, were those sobs? "Are you okay?" Joey asked carefully, sitting up and reaching out to her. He carefully put a hand on her back, not sure what was wrong or how she'd gotten here. A squeak came from her, and she pulled away, scuttling back. Tears streamed down her face and she looked terrified. She put her head in her hands again and took several shaky deep breaths. "Joey? Everything okay up here?" Anahi asked. She wasn't in eyeshot yet, but she'd probably heard something. "Yeah, it's fine." Joey stood and moved to help the girl up. "I just tripped." The blue-haired girl looked at him warily, then stood and roughly wiped the tears from her face. She still looked shaky, but at the very least she was composing herself. "Seriously?" Anahi laughed as she walked into view. "Oh, hey.

Exhaustion washed over Cleo as the professor droned on about electrical systems. She fought to pay attention, but she hadn't been sleeping well at all. And that was when she could sleep in until 2 p.m. if need be. Today, she'd had to force herself up for classes. Since they were at 8:30, she really had to get up early. Coupled with the fact that she'd been kept up until three the previous night trying to not tear a hole in the fabric of reality, she could barely keep her eyes open. She bookmarked the textbook pages dealing with the material the prof was discussing and did her best to keep taking notes. Unfortunately, her handwriting was an illegible scrawl and she couldn't seem to find the keys she needed to use to type. It's fine. I'll rewrite it all later. After a nap. Cleo focused all her remaining energy on getting as much of the information recorded as possible - no matter how messy or incoherent her rendition might be. When the lecture finally finished, Cleo mentally

Joey found himself lost in case after case of product that had to be put on the shelf. He'd asked for menial stocking tasks today, and Anahi had waved him off to do them while she watched the register. Courtney had texted him a couple days ago to tell him about the situation with Louise. Apparently she'd been attacked by Paris. And not as part of a random attack either. He'd targeted her. Now Louise was staying with the Legion. A couple members had helped move her sewing stuff into Legion HQ so she could at least keep working. Apparently Louise felt more at ease if she had stuff to do. Joey only had sparse details, but Courtney had told him since he was friendly with Louise and the Legion in general. Something about Paris and Achilles knowing each other. She'd said it was pretty rough on Achilles now that they knew about it. Now he'd spent the past two days at work trying to sort out his thoughts. Paris was becoming a bigger and bigger threat. Sure, the Legion had plenty of

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

When Achilles got back to HQ after his early afternoon patrol, Lightning was waiting for him. At first he dreaded the conversation, wondering what she could possibly have found to complain about now. He told her to wait until he'd changed, with no intentions of ever coming back. At least, not until enough time had passed that she would have definitely left. Then Knight came to find him, saying that Lightning was getting impatient. Apparently she had said, quote "Tell that jerk if he doesn't get his damn behind out here in the next ten minutes, I will sic the entire military on this building. It's about Louise and he had better deal with it now." End quote. Louise's name confused him. Was there a problem with the costumes? Begrudgingly, he went to talk to Lightning, where he learned that Little Fancy had been attacked by Paris earlier in the day. And Louise knew something about it, which she needed to tell the Legion. By 5:00, Achilles had gotten supper put together and Louise was

Fiore looked anxiously at Louise when she and Courtney returned to Little Fancy. They'd brought drinks for everyone. Louise's had a sweet strawberry smell coming from it, while Courtney's just looked like a plain latte. They'd gotten Fiore his usual iced latte, one that was more milk and sugar than actual coffee. The ice cubes clinked together as Courtney handed it to him. "Thanks for the outfit, Louise," he said with a smile. She looked at him, the gloom temporarily dissipating from her face. Fiore was glad it made her happy. He knew just how hard she worked on everything. "You like it?" Louise asked, forcing a grin onto her face. "It's way cooler than anything I could have imagined. The detail on the sleeve is incredible." Fiore held it up, wanting to brag to the world about Louise's talents. "Thanks. Only took me a couple all-nighters." "You don't have to do those for me," Fiore sighed. "And Hot Rod's should be done by the end of the week, right?" "Unless something goes

Louise worked on putting the finishing touches on Rose's hero costume. After this, it would just be Hot Rod and she'd be done. Fiore was supposed to come by around noon today, and she wanted to have the outfit finished by then. She was sure he'd be pleased with it. The other Legion members had all gone back to their headquarters. Fiore was the only one who still came by to help now that the job was wrapping up. Apparently Barrier Maiden had made an arrest with Achilles the other day. Good for them. Knight Errant had made his debut as well. He hadn't done anything major yet, but there was speculation around the city about what his powers might be. Honestly, people just couldn't resist feeding the various rumor mills. When she finished the last bit of embroidery on the sleeve, Louise sighed and checked the time as she put away her needles. Just about eleven. A bit early, but her hand was a bit cramped so she decided to take a break. She'd packed a few things for lunch, so she

The morning lights hadn't even been on for two minutes when Sawyer heard his door opening again. When he looked, the man from yesterday was there. Just as he said. "What's with the look?" the man asked, his expression still eerily blank. "Dunno. Didn't expect to see you first thing in the morning. I haven't even had breakfast yet." Sawyer frowned and thought about what he hoped they fed him today. An omelet would be nice. "You'll have a lovely breakfast once we have you out of here. Now, what would you prefer I call you?" "Don't care. If I'm gonna be your mook, though, I'd like to go by Jumbo. May as well. But what the heck am I supposed to call you?" "Fine. Jumbo, it'll be good to work with you and all that. You can call me...hm. I suppose I could be the Executioner. That's what I told Phantasma. Or you can call me what - actually, let's have you call me Boss. You don't need any personal information of mine. All you need is this." He pulled a cell out of his pocket and