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Iceburn wasn’t happy. For everyone in the base, this was probably a new look on her. Her hair was still temporarily dyed dark blue, though the white underneath was beginning to show through in some places. Wearing an off-shoulder blue t-shirt, leggings, and sneakers, Pei had resorted to pacing after failing to outrun her anxieties.
“D’ohhh…” She groaned.
This mission is over…
What did that mean? Of course the mission was over! We did everything!
This mission is over…you’ve all disappointed me.
Was it like that? It wasn’t our fault, right?! We saved the day. It was just some infighting, it won’t happen again!
This mission is over…as in I’m disbanding the team.
No way! There was no way that was it! The mission was never over, not until we saved all the days that will ever day!
I may have a no-kill rule, but for your hopes and dreams, Iceburn, I’ll make an exception!
“NOOO! Damn you and your perfect jawline!!!” Pei shouted, elbowing herself in the gut out of dismay.
“What happened?!” She shouted, throwing her hands up into the air. “Is this an everyday thing for you guys?! We made ourselves look STUPID in front of BATMAN! BATMAN! I won’t be able to sleep at night until we make this right! What went wrong?!” She finished shouting, breathing heavily, setting a hand on her heart.
Viktor had been seated on one of the couches in the lounge, touching up a small wood carving of a… shipping container. He had only been stealing glances toward Pei and her pacing until she abruptly shouted upon reaching some sort of breaking point. He sighed putting his full attention on his liveliest teammate.
Zach was there too. “Everyone in this group has made themselves look stupid in front of Batman. Even me! I’m pretty sure the only reason he tolerates me is because of my cousin.”
“That doesn't help, Zach. She wants to conduct an AAR. Right, Pei?” Viktor asked with his ever so full expression on his face.
Turning her glare away from Zach, Pei slapped her hands together and pointed at Viktor. “Yyyes. An…” She looked up and to the left. Then back at Viktor. “After Action Report! The Action is over, I wanted it reported! So nobody gets damaged torsos on the next mission!”
“Perfect. I agree with conducting this. We cannot repeat what occured.” Viktor set his carving knife and nearly-finished shipping container between his feet. “Seeing as Pei and I were dealing with the gang and a casualty. I think it's best if we hear of what occured from those that were present, yes?”
“From my point of view, Kila, Ja, whatever he’s calling himself… Went nuts… and started attacking the rest of the team.”
Vincent, after sneaking out of the infirmary, had been walking past the lounge, uncharacteristically lost in his thoughts, and stopped when he heard everyone talking about what had happened. With a shrug, he walked into the room and took a spot near the door as he quietly listened.
“It’s the same thing that happened at the bank robbery. Suddenly, he’s asleep at the wheel and someone else is in charge…” Cora was floating back and forth, laying sideways like she was asleep. She lazily drifted past Pei and over to Zach, and then past him. “Maybe there’s a link there? Metamorph is in the middle of something, on a mission, and something happened on both that caused it. Anyone have a clue?”
“No! Well, I don’t.” Pei crossed her arms. “I left him alone for two seconds in the bank. I think he got shot? Not even injured by the looks of it. How can we count on Kila- on- Metamorph? He attacked two of us!” She held up two fingers. “Two! In front of Batman! Sorry.” She covered her face. “Let’s keep AARing.”
“I don’t know what happened to him, either,” he said, his voice unusually quiet, due in part to his cracked ribs and in part to the unfamiliar doubts now racing through his head. “All I know is that I tried to talk him down, but Cora fell from the sky before I had much of a chance. Then he was on the attack and I…” He winced at the memory, gingerly rubbing his ribs.
“Faltered.” Viktor cut in. “I should have been there. I wanted to be there. This other is a recent change in him. Normally there is ‘Ja’ and ‘Kila.’” Viktor put up two fingers himself. “Two personas inhabiting our teammate that swap with slight effect on the team's objectives.” Viktor then raised his other hand with one finger up. “This third persona is the issue. I'm unsure if it's new or just laid dormant until now… but I believe it makes him unfit for any future missions.”
”I don’t. You make it sound like he’s just downright irredeemable. That’s shitty. Sure, this is a problem, but it’s a problem he’s going through too. Metamorph’s still our friend. I really doubt he just let this third personality out without a fight.”
Pei scoffed. It was a cynical noise so alien to her she put her hand up to her throat and cleared it. “That’s nice, but he can’t be on any more missions. Obviously. Not until this is actually fixed. We can be his friend while keeping him from hurting us. Vincent’s hurt and Will is literally in the hospital.” She said. Then she glanced at Vincent. “...Shouldn’t you also be in the hospital?”
Vincent shrugged at Pei’s question, but didn’t offer anything more for an answer. Instead, he said, ”I agree with Cora. I get wanting to bench him, but punishing him for something he didn’t do is like throwing the victim in prison. And whatever that was, it definitely wasn’t him.”
Pei blinked, and looked at Viktor for reassurance before continuing. “Yeah, but- okay. Inviting him would be like…bringing the perpetrator along. We have to bench him. If we had two twins on the team who were bound at the hip, and one was good and one was evil- I’m not bringin’ em along just to spare the good twins' feelings! In fact, I’m sure the good twin would be understanding! That analogy makes sense, right?” Pei nodded quickly.
”And if excluding him puts him in some weird mental state that makes whatever that was take control, again?” Vincent asked. ”We don’t know what triggers that change, whether it’s tied to his emotions or something else.”
”I'm with Vince. We need to think about how he feels. He’s still a person. It’s not fair to throw Metamorph under the bus just like that, we should at least ask him how he feels before we make some kind of decision.”
“So, what we’re just going to walk up to him and go hey Metamorph, we’re gonna bench you for a bit. How do you feel about that? Can’t imagine that will go over well. I dunno… maybe we can actually help him somehow?”
“Him sitting out on missions is the best option until we can figure out his problem. It doesn't have to be permanent. It's too much of a risk to put him out there in the state that he's in.” Viktor looked at each and everyone present. “If he needs help, bringing him on missions is not the answer.”
“Thank you!” Pei said, having started to look a little exasperated.
“God, I wish my magic could affect people. Then I could actually do something useful.”
“Can’t we just ask him what he thinks is the best thing to do?” Vincent asked, his voice raising as he felt his temper do the same. “We keep talking about this like how he might feel or think doesn’t matter when he’s the goddamn topic!”
“Because it doesn’t matter how he feels!” Pei said, eyes wide. “Why would it? If he says everything is fine and we should just keep going on missions with him, that’s bullshit! I already bought into it once.” Pei pouted and turned away, lowering her gaze. Viktor was looking between Pei and Vincent, silently watching the tension swelling between them.
Vincent could feel his anger rising, his current mental state doing no favors to quell it. ”Fuck this,” he growled as he turned away. ”You guys do what you want. I’m done.” With that, he turned and stormed off to relieve some of his anger.
“Y-you should go to the hospital!” She called out after him.
”I think there’s a misunderstanding here. Kila, Ja, they’re both our friends. The third personality hurting any of us doesn’t change the fact that there’s two other people trapped in there with it. Those two need our help, and I can guarantee KJ feels awful about how this happened a second time. So yeah, Pei. It absolutely matters how he feels. How would you feel if you were hurting people without being able to control yourself? Would you just think your feelings don’t matter? Or would you think something else? And if you do, then what’s the difference?”
“I would feel like I should not go on important missions of life-and-death!” Pei exclaimed, raising her hands.
“Feelings should be considered, yes but we aren't imprisoning our friend. Just removing him from missions until there's a remedy to his situation. At the moment he's unfit. Anyone of us, if unfit, physically or mentally, should not participate in missions that require our level of fitness. We wouldn't take Quiver on a mission right now, would we? It's the same. Ja and Kila need help. Healing. Something. Anything. If he kills someone, then what? How do you think Kila and Ja would feel? I at least have an idea. I saw him at the end of the mission. He couldn't believe what he had done. He was devastated.”
”Right… I guess. Fuck, I dunno. I’m just scared we’re gonna make this worse if we don’t take him seriously when we actually do something. I get that he could seriously hurt someone, but I’m worried about him still.”
“Could seriously hurt someone…pfft.” Pei ran her hands through her hair.
“So what do we do then?”
“Exclude him from missions until his condition improves. If it can't be improved, I don't see him having a place on the team. It's not something I want. It's just what is best. For everyone.” Viktor crossed his arms over his chest, standing on his words.
“Yeah! We either get him fixed, or we get him off the team.” Pei said with a nod.
"What did you just say, Pei?" Kassandra's voice seemed to come out of nowhere. Pei startled, bringing one of her legs up and doing karate chop motions. Kassandra stepped into the midst of the group, the young Atlantean looking downright exhausted.
"Fixed? Please tell me this is just… me misunderstanding the language again." She stared straight at Pei, no trace of the nervous guppy from months ago present. Everyone's attention was drawn to her now.
“Y-yes you, I mean I, That’s not- Wh- um, I mean like, y’know-.”
“Her word choice is poor, Kass. We're thinking it's best for Ja and Kila to sit out on missions until their condition is resolved… If it can be resolved.”
“Y-yeah, that! That.” She nodded at Kassandra and pat Viktor on the arm emphatically. He made a sour face toward Pei's touching but kept silent to listen to what Kass might say next.
"Mm." She made a non-committal noise before slumping onto the nearest empty seat. "I can agree with that point, at least. He's asleep, finally." And hopefully KJ would stay asleep, for longer than an hour or two. "I just wish I knew how to help him."
“You look like you need a nap.” Pei said, scratching her head. “But yeah. There’s gotta be a medicine for it. Or maybe a guru on a mountain somewhere. But until then.” She shrugs meaningfully.
“Now we just gotta see what Quiver thinks, right? Unlike Vince he should actually be in the infirmary.” Pei added. ”I think I need to improve on my meeting calling skills.” She said, a little embarrassed that this whole thing started because she was very frustrated. ”Daphne’s not even here, either.”
“I think your shouting works well enough as a meeting summons.” Quiver was leaning against the entry way of the lounge. It was clear he was in some pain, although he was through the worst of it. A large bandage was wrapped around his torso. The layering of bandage couldn’t hide the dark stain, the sewed up wound sustained from Metamorph’s outburst. Quiver made his way over to a seat and carefully put himself down on it. In spite of the pain he felt humming through his painkillers, he wanted to take part in what his team was talking about.
“There’s no could in this conversation. Metamorph would have killed any of us, had he the chance. That’s less of a hindrance and more of a liability.”
“Oh, good!” Pei said, seeing Quiver. “Wait, you too? We were just about to- I guess you’re already sitting down.”
“Liability is a perfect way to put it.” Viktor remarked as his eyes scanned over Quiver's injuries.
Quiver sat forward and looked at Rain, but was addressing everyone in the room.
“Having said that, people are going too easy on him. He isn’t whillingly doing this, but he’s still infected with whatever it is. If he had a cold, we’d quarantine him. I don’t think it makes sense to walk on eggshells around him. Especially if he isn’t even aware of what his condition is. It shouldn’t be put on us to cater to him.” He felt a light sweat dampen his forehead with the effort he was making to speak.
Kassy looked at "Quiver" with a worried glance. "I apologize, especially considering the extent of your injuries, but… I don't think that's exactly right. If he wanted to have killed anyone in that state, I would probably be as injured as you are." She'd made a target of herself on purpose. And crimson eyed Ja could have taken her down without losing a breath.
“So his targets were intentional and not circumstantial. Interesting… It lines up with the incident at the bank but what do gun carrying bank robbers have in common with Quiver and Vincent? Why would the ‘other’ perceive them as threats?” Viktor was staring right at Quiver. “Hm?” He forced the question.
Quiver smirked at Rain in spite of himself.
“Isn’t it obvious? He’s threatened by us. Probably why he didn’t swing at you.” Viktor let out a low grunt as he raised an eyebrow, refraining from saying anything.
Quiver half groaned at the pain the effort of joking at Rain’s expense did to his injury. He wrapped an arm around his bruised ribs.
“Mirage I understand that you want to give Metamorph the benefit of the doubt. And I appreciate your help in the infirmary last night. But think about it, are you putting your biases aside? We shouldn’t be engaged with a teammate who would aggressively try and kill anyone. Whether that be them out there in the world, or anybody on this team. The fact that he only gutted me, that an expendable move to you? Or anyone else here? Or was I asking for it because I don’t have Atlantean physiology or a cybernetic body?” At this last point Quiver had let his own hurt feelings start to slip. He had heard what the others had said while he was making his way over from the infirmary.
“You say that, but believe he's threatened by you? What's obvious is that he doesn't trust you or Vincent. It's understandable. You're both new to the team. Strangers.” Viktor deduced.
"Well. Vincent's a stranger." She flicked a dull orange gaze at Will before addressing the room in general. "I think Viktor is on to something. I think… I think whatever is within KJ is triggered by…" Her hand ran through her dim curls. There was no way this was going to go well. "Look, I'm sorry for bringing this up now. Instead of… months back." No sense in drawing it out.
"In Atlantis, I saw it happen. We were fighting the Deluge, he and I. I got hurt, and he… changed." She picked at the hem of her borrowed scrubs. "I had to keep him from killing the person who hurt me." Forcing herself into his mind was never going to sit well with her, no matter how KJ felt about it.
Viktor leaned in, almost glaring at Kassy upon hearing her revelation. She knew about this?
"But here's the thing. He only changed when I got hurt. He went for the one who hurt me, none of who hurt him." Pick, pick, pick; the thread started to loosen. "I never put the pieces together until now. I'm not quite sure that I have."
Cora stopped floating around, and looked up over to Kassy. “But at the bank, he wasn’t with you, was he? You were on different teams, he had no way of knowing if you were hurt- Wait. Hold on a minute…”
She floated up onto her feet, “The robbers were using some weird weapons. Me, Quiver and Daphne were together when I got blasted by one of them with some sort of repulsor glove- It shot you with kinetic energy and just sent you backwards. I rounded up at least ten or more of their weapons- Viktor saw a couple of them. They were laser rifles, launchers for electrified bola things, and some weird signal emitter thing. That last one’s the only weird one out of those…I took it apart and learned it could cause someone to get real nauseous and disoriented real quick. Like scrambling someone’s brain. Maybe at the bank, he was hit with that?”
“Pei? Can you confirm or deny that?” Viktor posed to her with raised eyebrows before shooting a glare at Kassy again. He wasn't going to let what she said just seconds ago slip through the cracks.
Pei scratched her jaw. “The robber had a weird looking gun. I wasn’t in the room when he left. Only the civilians were. Not like he came after me or anything- he only went after the robbers. To be honest, I just thought he got really mad. When I walked to him afterwards, he said he could guide his anger. But to turn on his own teammates like that is downright… feral. There’s no way to control that.” Pei said, her voice solemn.
Kassy narrowed her eyes at Pei. "Feral." She pulled her phone from her pocket; the battery was about as drained as she was. Still, she had enough energy to look up the word. "...Are you fucking kidding me, Iceburn?" She spat the curse like a bone stuck in her throat.
Silently, Cora was thinking to herself, Well, she’s dead.
Pei blinked. “What? Sorry.” Sorry that she offended Kassy somehow. “Wh- what word would you use?”
Kassy raised her chin. "Uncharacteristic, perhaps? Unusual? Maybe something that doesn't treat him like a mindless monster?" There was a bite to her tone that only Viktor would have been truly familiar with. The voice of a soft soul at the end of her limit.
Pei was flustered. “Well, geez, lady. He only put two of us in the hospital. They’d be here right now if they weren’t so silly.” She laughed nervously, trying to lighten the mood to get that bite off her.
“Mirage why don’t you give Iceburn half the amount of grace you’re giving Metamorph?” Quiver said, at this point laying back in his chair with his eyes closed. It took an effort to speak up more but he was getting angrier at the situation by the second.
“Whether or not Metamorph was conscious of it or not, he DID those things and he had no control over it. And those actions by definition were feral. Let’s not pretend there’s some high ground in this situation when you’ve kept the fact he’s done this even BEFORE the bank. And YOU-“ Quiver turned to Rain, pointing a bandaged finger at him.
“YOU even knew he had some sort of dual personality. Apparently before even HE knew. Don’t you think you owed it to him to tell him? And now there’s potentially this third person, who has no issue with going into a bloody rage and attacking anyone who isn’t a romantic interest?”
“I'd correct you but I'm sure everyone else knows you have no idea what you're talking about.” Viktor shot back.
"Why are you all treating KJ like a child?!" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "HE KNOWS! He's the smartest of all of us, by far, of course he knows!" Her eyes were growing dark with fury. "I thought he had lost his temper in Atlantis! That's all, and given my own fuck-ups, I forgot about it until the bank." Her voice was trembling, as well as her fists. "And do you know why I didn't say anything, hm?" She glared between Viktor and Will. "Because I trusted him to handle himself, more than I trusted any of you to handle it!"
“Um… He-”
“Doubt it.” Viktor's eyes met Kassy's, his expression unwavering. “You didn't say anything because you were afraid. We both know what happened when you lost control. We both know what the League let happen to you. I said my piece on this matter.” Viktor reached down to grab his things before standing up. “It's clear that none of you have additional answers to Kila and Ja's problem, yes?” He asked, swiveling his head around to see if anyone had anything new to add to the conversation.
“Is that what this is? You’re looking for us to give you answers?” Quiver eyed Rain now standing as if to leave the lounge.
“Or is this getting a little too tough for you, worrying you made a bad judgment call? You’re quick to point out lapses in the rest of us, but what about yours?” Quiver struggled to his feet, just about the time when Mirage spoke up again, pulling his and Rain’s attention back to her.
Kassy's fists trembled. "Of course I'm afraid for him, you fool, he doesn't deserve to be treated like…" A barely audible whine from her bracelet stalled her tongue. "...Look. Forget everything else but this. I don't think it's feral, or out of control. He's doing that in response to something. What, I don't know."
Viktor shook his head at Kassy. He couldn't speak to her like this. Not when her guard seemed so high against him. He would have simply left, but Will's words pricked at him enough to bring a response.
“You have no place to talk. Coming from someone who left the team
when things got tough. It's easy for you to discard any one of us. It's who you are, Quiver.” As tense as it was between the two, Viktor and Will's spat was just the eye of the storm that was to come.
Pei glanced back and forth between the three of them, nervous, making some mental calculation. She stepped towards Kass. “Kass, you’re tired.” She said, trying to be helpful. “You should probably get some sleep? We can figure it out.”
”That wasn’t Kila…”
Kass snorted, her ire choosing a new target. "You want me to leave him alone with someone who keeps treating him like he's broken? No thank you."
“No, I just- think you should get some sleep.” Pei said. She glanced at the two guys who were really getting into it with each other and frowned.
”Stop it. All of you- Just STOP IT!” Cora shouted, and her hair started floating as if it had a mind of its own. ”Aside from me, Pei and Vince, you all have known each other for what, a year? Two? Something like that? You’re all friends and you’ve risked your lives together, and you’ve saved each other probably a hundred times, but now you’re all acting like you’re ready to kill each other! Kassy’s just trying to tell you that Metamorph’s not a fucking animal! He’s our friend, so why’s this the time when you guys start hating each other?!”
And now, her hands were shaking too.
Viktor simply sighed before walking from the lounge but deliberately made his way by Kassy.
“We'll talk after you rest,” He declared as he passed her on his way out.
Kassy cast Viktor an icy look, but there was nothing she could say to him at the moment. Instead, she nodded to Cora. "Thank you, Cora. I'm glad someone here has proper hearing." A ghost of a smile played on her lips. "...I need a bath." With that, she exited, not bothering to mask her steps.
“Good talk everyone.” Zach finally said. Then he pulled out his phone and started texting Mateo.
Cora turned and practically balked at Zach for tuning the entire fucking situation out. Between that and the others just walking away… She was a little frustrated.
”Okay. Yeah, sure, good talk. If everyone else is gonna throw shit fits and try to lock their friends up like they’re circus animals, then I’m gonna go and do something productive.” Cora spun around and stormed out of the room. She wasn’t going to talk to Batman about this, her time around Viktor made her doubt the big guy. But she was going to figure this out somehow, for Metamorph’s sake first and the team’s sake second.
Pei tossed her hands up, looking around. It was just her and Quiver now. “That wasn’t a good talk at all!” She sat down on the floor next to her teammate.
“I don’t know why people are getting more worked up about the idea of Metamorph getting benched than the fact of you nearly getting gored.” She laid on her back, setting her hands on her forehead.
“I used to be a firefighter.” She said. ”If I had a teammate who was the most helpful, bravest, most courageous and talented firefighter in the world, but every once in a while he had the chance to burst into flames? It doesn’t matter! It shouldn’t be personal to…do something about that, right?”
Quiver looked down at his teammate. So far, he was impressed with her abilities as a superhero. And her appearance was striking from the get-go. Her pale blue skin, and her ever changing hair color. Team reports described her as loud and brash, but in this moment among the whole team, Quiver felt that she was demonstrating a real maturity, even if she didn’t feel like she was getting her words out the way she wanted to. He was impressed with her as a hero. Using her abilities to do good as a firefighter in a past life? Not all heroes did that. That said a lot about her as a person.
“Maybe his feelings are more important to them. I guess that’s just the way it goes sometimes. They know him better than they know me, they are a lot closer. I don’t really know how to say this. I feel crossed up. It’s like I understand why they would feel that way. He’s their friend. But at the same time, it doesn’t make me feel…good?”
Quiver tried to smile, managed what he thought was something of a successful one. Pei smiled back; It came easy to her.
“Yeah, I can imagine that doesn’t feel great. Cora and Vincent are new like me, but I don’t think they’ve been on teams before.” She mused. “Trust is the most important thing. Of all of us, you had that trust broken the most. It’s a really big deal, we can’t just brush that off.” She rubbed her face, sighing. ”This isn’t how I pictured it at all, to be honest.”
“A-anyway. You need help getting back to the infirmary, Quiver?” She stood up.
“Help? Me? You’re talking to the guy who went one on one with Kill-Mode Kila. I can handle mys-”as he tried to stand up he immediately felt woozy, a rush to his head, and had to grab the back of the couch for support.
“You know on second thought, I think I may have opened up a stitch or two.”
Pei went in to grab and steady his shoulders for support. “Whoopsy!”
“Err, I mean…oh, shit!” She laughed a bit. “Let’s get those stitches back in so you can get back to handling yourself.”
“You all done yelling at each other yet? You people need a snickers.” Zach said without looking up from his phone. “I’m concerned about Kila too, but we’re not going to accomplish it by arguing with each other.”
“Well, Zach, we’d get even less accomplished if we just ignored the problem. The arguments’ll happen either way. Clearly!” Pei indicated the now mostly empty room around them with the arm that wasn’t on Quiver.
“Not like I wanted that to turn into an argument…I just had to do a little shouting. That’s not weird, right? Sometimes you just gotta yell your feelings? Ah, damn it.” She murmured to herself, though Quiver could definitely hear her.
beans
Quiver was grateful for the support, both emotionally and physically. Hearing Pei work out her own thoughts and feelings out loud reminded him of himself, back during his struggles for communication and otherwise.
“Shouting is acceptable in this line of work. There’s a lot to yell about. The others were too hard on you for being concerned. For what it’s worth, I didn’t think you were being unreasonable. I don’t even think you were insulting Metamorph himself. The whole thing is just fucked. And a lot of this team is walking a thin line between supporters and enablers. Or don’t know the difference between the two.”
She smiled at Quiver, but at that last sentence her mouth formed a small ‘o’. “Woah…that’s deep.” Pei said, guiding him out of the room to where he could get some rest.
