Paris impatiently paced back and forth across the room. Manifest watched him anxiously while Itera and Jase talked quietly in the corner of the room. The new girl, Meadow, who he'd dubbed Scattershot, was elsewhere at the moment. Jase had her on some other mission, but she'd be back sometime in the next couple days.
They were waiting for Mist. She'd snuck into the military complex, using the ducts and her Miracle, in the hopes that she could get ahold of Phantasma's autopsy results. Jase had given her a simple thumbstick she was to use to extract the files and they'd be analyzed back at base. If she couldn't steal the files without causing a big stir, she was to just try and read them and report back. Preferably by spying over a military officer's shoulder.
It had been five hours since Mist had left. What in the big blue sky could be taking her so long? Paris had been impatient for the results, but he couldn't do anything until she returned. Had Mist gotten captured? Was she okay? Was there some kind of complication?
The spinning thoughts drove him nuts. Phantasma had to be avenged. And this was the first step towards that.
"Paris, wearing a track into the floor isn't going to bring Juney back any sooner," Jase said lazily, glancing at him.
"How can you sit there so calmly?" Paris snapped back.
"I trust my Juney. She won't let us down, even if it takes her a while."
"But what if the military caught her?"
"She's never been caught in the five years since I took her in. She's my best," Jase replied. "Besides, she's got her Miracle now. Nothing and no one can contain her."
"What if they shot her in the back of the head when she wasn't looking? That girl is so flaky." Paris clutched his head at the idea, trying to stay calm.
"She's plenty aware of her surroundings. Even if she looks like she's half-asleep most of the time."
"Does she have eyes in the back of her head?"
"Might as well. I dunno how she got such good spacial awareness."
"Is there no worry in that head of yours?" Paris growled loudly and flopped down next to Manifest.
"Don't worry, Paris," Manifest said with a wry smile. "June's a lot more trustworthy than she looks."
"You sure you aren't putting too much faith in her? She's about as aware as a fish!"
"She got you out of a military encirclement, didn't she?" Jase grinned triumphantly at Manifest's point.
"That was a fluke," Paris replied. "She couldn't even occupy one of Achilles' goons during our last fight!"
"Hey, Juney did her best," Jase replied. "She's more suited to this kind of mission anyway."
"She won't even manage it. She'll get caught and they'll torture her and pull our hideout information out of her head and then we'll be at war with the military," Paris mumbled, his thoughts continuing to spiral darker and darker. "Do you have any other good fighters? Scattershot, Manifest and I can't hold back the entire military."
"You don't need to worry about that," Jase said confidently.
"How can you be so certain?" Paris snapped.
"I'm tired."
Mist's voice floated through the air as she came through the wall and landed in Jase's lap.
"Good job, Juney. Get the information?"
In response, she held up the thumbstick as she buried her face in Jase's shoulder.
"Excellent work." Jase grabbed the drive and tossed it to Itera. "Pop that in the computer and see if Niko can't get anything out of it."
"Password's in a text file," Mist muttered. "I had to hostage an officer. Stupid military and their stupid cameras."
"What?" Paris asked, anxiety making his heart rate spike again.
"They already know she exists," Jase said calmly. "Might be a bit problematic if they know we have the information, but it wouldn't be the first time they've been made aware of the Phalanx."
"How'd you hold them hostage?" Paris asked.
"Stranglehold. Now let me sleep. Jase, be my pillow."
"Sure thing, Juney. Good work. Where's Niko at?" Itera put her phone away as she left the thumbstick on the computer desk.
"Just texted him. Should be here in a couple minutes."
"Holy crap, we did it," Manifest said. "June, you are seriously amazing."
"Amazing wants to sleep." Mist drew out the last three words as long as she could.
"We told you she'd pull through, didn't we?" Manifest asked, giving Paris a rough hug. "The Phalanx strikes again!"
"Yeah yeah, great," Paris replied. "Where's the computer techie guy?"
"On his way. Seriously, do you have any patience?" Itera asked shortly.
A few minutes passed with Manifest in celebration mode before a lanky guy with long hair hanging in his face walked in.
"Niko! Great to have you," Jase said with a smile. "Can you extract info from the little thumbstick Juney brought back? She said the password's in a text file on it."
"Not bad, Juney girl," Niko said with a grin. "Our ghost strikes again."
"Ghost got caught this time," Mist mumbled. "Had to strangle a guy for a bit."
"Hey, you find the ghost, the ghost messes you up," Niko said with a shrug. "Now let's see what the military has on Phantasma's unfortunate demise." He plugged the thumbstick into the computer and started clicking through the files.
Paris waited impatiently as Niko glanced through everything. Manifest looked eager, while Itera was completely unaffected as usual. And Mist was still taking a nap on Jase's shoulder. Seriously what kind of operation did she think they were running? This wasn't a preschool!
"Ok, found the summary," Niko said. "Looks like...the conclusion is she died of a sudden heart stoppage or something. I can't understand these medical terms. But considering everything, this could easily be a cover-up, so you'll want to have a real doctor look at the rest of these, Jase. I can't figure out what most of the files mean since they're so technical."
"Thanks, Niko. Is everything unlocked?"
"One minute. I can remove the password requirement."
"Fantastic. And since we don't have a doctor on board..." Jase grinned deviously. "Why don't we ask the rest of the city for help in deciphering her cause of death?"
"Wait, you want me to release it publicly? These are confidential military files," Niko said, startled.
"This is a very public inquiry," Jase replied. "Shouldn't the public know? And if the military really has nothing to hide, it won't cause them any major trouble. Really, they should have released the information themselves." Niko grinned back.
"On it, Boss. They'll be available on the web by tomorrow morning."
"Is that it?" Paris asked. "We're just releasing the files publicly and not analyzing them ourselves?"
"We don't have any doctors here," Jase replied. "Or anyone in a medical field. It'd be better to release it into the wild and see what the fallout is. Best case scenario for us, an actual doctor looks at everything and publicly posts an analysis. Worst case, nothing new happens and we move on."
Paris held himself back from getting angry. What kind of criminal organization didn't have specialists in every field? Was Jase really as big as he pretended to be? But he couldn't go against him for now. Everyone in the Phalanx had made it clear they were his people. Not Paris's.
Now wasn't the time to usurp power from Jase. He'd have to go along with everything quietly for now. At least they had taken the first step to avenging Phantasma.
