"Timber Wolf hasn't been responding, and I heard a scream through Saturn Girl's comlink. There was the sound of an explosion as her comlink cut out. I need you and a team of Legionnaires to go out and find them."

Luornu couldn't help but bite her lip nervously as she listened to Tenzil (M-E Lad) relay the situation details to Brainy via comlink. She was supposed to be monitoring Brin's signal, but there had been no change for the last ten minutes.

Once Tenzil turned off his comlink, he turned to her. "Any change?"

She shook her head. "Evidently, they didn't destroy his comlink like they did with Saturn Girl's, but they must have found a way to take it off him. There's a small possibility that he's just keeping a low profile while keeping an eye on something, but I would think he'd have responded by now if he were doing that."

Tenzil nodded while running a hand through his hair. He let out a long sigh. "I really hope this is just some minor criminal group that feels like being a nuisance. I don't want to be looking at facing something Imperiex-scale for a while. Preferably never."

Luornu hummed in agreement as she checked all of her assigned monitors. In the cafeteria, most of the Legionnaires were still playing games for their Game Night. A few had left after the first game, and another handful were on their way to the control room to receive further details from Tenzil about the new situation. Luorno hoped that the rest of the Legionnaire wouldn't be needed to resolve this. She dearly hoped, like Tenzil, that this was just a rag-tag group of nobodies wanting to stir up some trouble.

But a nagging feeling in her gut was telling her that that wasn't the case. So far, no one who had seen this new group was present, and the fact that they captured two Legionnaires without provocation made her think that whoever was behind this had sinister motivations. Additionally, they had somehow managed to cause an explosion without being seen and had taken both Imra and Brin's comlinks out of commission.

She shook her head, trying to clear it, and rubbed her eyes. The more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed like this was going to end anytime soon . . . or end well.


Tinya woke with a start. Her room was colder than when she'd fallen asleep––only an hour ago, according to her bedside clock––and now she was shivering.

As she got up to check her room's thermostat, she grumbled about how she was sure she had set it to a pleasant 65 degrees Fahrenheit [18.3 Celsius] before she went to bed. She felt along the wall in the dark until she found the small light emitting from the thermostat. She hit a small button on its side and the screen lit up brighter, allowing her to check the temperature.

She clucked her tongue and frowned in confusion. It said it was set to 65 and that the room was indeed at 65, but it felt much colder than that.

She shivered violently as a sudden burst of cold ran down her spine. An icy hand clamped over her mouth and a second arm wrapped around her arms and waist, pulling her backwards.

Her eyes widened and she tried to phase through the arms trapping her, but somehow she was unable to go through them. And she was held in such a way that she couldn't phase down through the floor.

Fear gripped her.

Whispery laughter broke out around her, and her blood ran cold. She tried again to break free, this time by jostling, and jabbing, and kicking, but to no avail. The hand over her mouth moved up slightly to cover and pinch her nose, cutting off her air completely.

Panicking, she thrashed about even more desperately. The hand clamped down harder, taking the pressure from uncomfortable to painful. Her lungs began to scream for air, and her struggling was only making it worse.

The laughter died down. Tinya stopped struggling, unnerved by the silence. All she could hear now was her own blood rushing in her ears.

Abruptly, the hand over her mouth fell away, but before she could subsequently scream for help, she felt a cold tube pressed against her chin. As she gasped for breath after her near suffocation, she smelled the vapor that wafted up directly into her nose from the tube. It smelled sharp and toxic, and immediately she felt its numbing effects. She began to feel lightheaded, her thoughts became muddled, and her body grew heavy.

The faint sound of knocking reached her ears, but shortly after that, everything went black.


"Tinya? Tinya, are you awake?"

Garth frowned as he waited for her to either respond or open her door. She had mentioned an hour ago that she was tired and wanted to head to bed, but he figured that this early in the night she might still be easy to wake.

Tenzil had requested that Tinya be part of his investigation team, having not known she'd gone to bed, and now Garth, regretfully, had to wake her.

He knocked again. Still nothing. After a moment, he called, "Tinya, I'm coming in." To the door's AI panel, he said, "Override lock on door. Clearance: Lightning Lad, A02."

The door hissed and then slid open with a small whoosh sound. Inside, the room was completely dark. His frown deepened. Was she really still asleep?

Hesitantly, he commanded, "Lights on."

The room became flooded with light, but a moment later everything went dark again.

Garth's eyes widened in surprise. That had never happened before. He activated his comlink: "Control room, this is Lightning Lad. I'm in Phantom Girl's room because she didn't come to the door. Something weird just happened. I turned on the lights, but they went out. Ask Brainy to check the system. Maybe there's a bug going through it."

A few moments later, Brainy replied, "The system is fine, but there seems to be some interference going on in her room. I suggest you both exit the room until we can figure out what's going on. If there is a malfunction, we wouldn't want to risk the door locking you both in."

"Got it." To himself, he smirked. It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world to him to get locked in Tinya's room with her, but right now they were needed elsewhere and he had to stay focused.

He tapped twice against the front of his flight ring, and a small beam of light emitted from it. He pointed it toward where he thought Tinya's bed might be and inhaled sharply when he saw that the bed was empty.

If she wasn't sleeping . . . where was she?

He activated his comlink again and spoke more urgently this time: "Control room, I'm still in Phantom Girl's room. She's not here. Activate her tracker. Something's wrong. She said she'd be here and––mmph!"

An icy hand clamped down over his nose and mouth, cutting off his words and his air. Several pairs of strong hands pinned his arms behind his back. His assailants then applied their weight, and he was forced to his knees, unable to do much to resist. He couldn't attempt to fry them with his powers because he couldn't risk hitting himself with his own lightning bolts. Nevertheless, he thrashed as best he could.

Both Brainy and Tenzil's voices sounded through his comlink: "Lightning Lad? Lightning Lad! What's going on? Lightning Lad, respond!"

Garth felt one of his attackers pull his comlink out of his ear, and he grimaced when he heard the subsequent quiet crunch.

Just as his lungs were beginning to really burn from the lack of air, the hand over his nose and mouth was removed. And as he took in a ragged gulp of air, he smelled something he'd never smelled before. He could feel the coldness of the vapor right under his chin and could tell from its painfully sharp smell that it was a strong, toxic, and illegal sedative.

Too late, though, did he react in trying to hold his breath. He could already feel the effects of his first breath of it starting to take effect. His entire body suddenly felt incredibly tired, and he struggled to keep his eyes open. In the darkness of the room, it was difficult to tell if they were still open, and soon he felt them close under the weight of his heavy eyelids.

His thoughts began to cloud, but he could've sworn he heard whispery laughter commence all around him. Unable to concentrate, he felt himself draw in a shuddery breath, and with that added breath, the sedative fully kicked in. Everything went black.


"Something's blocking the signal. The system isn't getting any information from Phantom Girl's room."

Luornu continued chewing her lip even as it began to bleed. She'd heard Garth's comlink cut out and Tenzil and Brainy's subsequent frantic reactions. By now Tenzil had sent the team intended to go out and search the city to immediately head to Tinya's room to find out what was going on. Meanwhile, Tenzil and Brainy were plucking away at digital keyboards and holographic screens trying to reboot the system.

"Triplicate Girl," Tenzil said, glancing up from his work to address her, "do you think you could round up a new team to go out and find Timber Wolf and Saturn Girl?"

Luornu looked up at him from her monitor with surprise. "Oh! Uh, sure. Of course." She got up stiffly from her seat and headed towards the cafeteria.

Just as she was reaching the doors, they opened and Bouncing Boy flew out. He stopped when he saw her. He began to raise his hand in greeting, but then he noticed her distraught composure. His brows furrowed in concern. "Hey, Luornu. What's wrong?"

She briefly told him what had happened and that she needed to form a new rescue team. Chuck listened to her quietly and patiently, growing more and more concerned.

When she finished, he let out a slow breath. "Woah! It sounds like the two situations are connected somehow. I'd say we need to find the criminals behind this and figure out what their motives and plans are."

Luornu's shoulders sagged with fatigue. While she had taken a nap earlier in the day, these new developments were becoming very draining. "Except that we have to put our teammates first. We can't go looking for the criminals until we've rescued our missing Legionnaires."

Chuck rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he turned his attention back to the cafeteria. "Well, if we recruited everybody participating in the Game Night and separated them into two groups, we could accomplish both."

Luorno's eyes widened, and for the first time that night she felt a loosening in the noose around her heart. Beaming, she said, "That's a great idea, Chuck!"

As she headed into the cafeteria and split into her three counterparts to begin recruiting Legionnaires, she missed the way Chuck blushed at her enthusiastic compliment.


Imra groaned as she lifted her head off the cold, concrete floor. Her sides still ached, her left arm was numb from being trapped under her against the hard floor, and her head was pounding with a vengeance. As she blinked open her eyes and stiffly, painfully sat up––finding it rather difficult to do since her arms were chained up behind her back––she noticed that she was in a dimly-lit circular room. Every centimeter of the walls seemed to be made of the same concrete as the floor, and the only door in sight was well out of reach.

The quiet clanking of chains off to her right caught her attention, and she turned her head to find Brin chained to a pillar in the inner portion of the room just like she was. He looked like he had been sitting the way he was for a long time, his golden gaze fixed on the room's door. His pupils were mere slits in his eyes, smoldering with silent anger.

Just as she was about to say something to him, he shifted again, his posture straightening, his muscles stiffening, and his eyes staring more intensely at the door. She followed his gaze to it just as it began to open.

Light flooded the room, and both Legionnaires immediately shut their eyes.

After blinking rapidly, Imra managed to catch a blurred image of shadowy figures carrying an unconscious woman into the room. They set her down roughly against another pillar and promptly chained her to it. As they were returning to the door, Imra's vision began to clear and she realized the woman they'd brought in was Tinya.

A couple meters away, she heard Brin inhale sharply. She turned to see that his expression had morphed into one of deep concern and desperation to go over to Tinya and see to it that she was all right. And, after a few moments, when it began to set in that he couldn't, his expression returned to one of seething fury as he pinned his gaze on the door once more.

Imra looked over at Tinya again, but her friend was completely still aside from her shallow breathing. Her head was slumped forward with her chin resting over her collarbone. It appeared as though she was still in some sort of nightgown, and Imra came to the conclusion that she must have somehow been captured in her room at the HQ.

Her blood ran cold at the thought. These criminals had infiltrated the Legion HQ? That sounded very ominous. She turned to Brin to discuss this, but the opening of the door interrupted her again.

This time she saw the blurred image of the shadowy figures dragging in an unconscious man, clearly not bothering to show as much meager curtesy that they had shown Tinya by carrying her in. They dragged the man off to Imra's left and chained him to a pillar a couple meters away. Once the door closed again and her vision cleared, she couldn't help but gasp.

It was Garth!

How could this have happened? How could one of the most powerful and experienced of Legionnaires have been captured? Where was he when they nabbed him? Was he alone? Did they ambush him? Overwhelm him with numbers?

The questions burned inside her mind, but she knew from the stillness of his body that she wouldn't be able to get answers out of him anytime soon.

To her right, Brin growled, "It's been like this ever since I woke up––first you, only ten minutes after I sat up, and now Tinya and Garth, a few minutes apart, hardly an hour later. A steady trickle."

Imra paused to consider this, then asked, "What do you think they want?"

His gaze briefly flickered to her face, but then returned to the door. "I don't know, but I don't like it. There's not a mark on any of you three, and only the barest trace of sweat, which means none of you had much opportunity to fight or escape. And as far as me goes: I don't even remember being attacked. I was in an alley, had just gotten a whiff of those creatures again, and then the next thing I know I'm waking up here. Somehow they got the drop on me and knocked me out." He lifted his arms a few centimeters, letting the chains clank against each other. "These are regular chains, which shouldn't be strong enough to contain me." His gaze turned to hers and sharpened with an intensity she had not seen in a long time. It scared her. The last time his eyes had looked this, he'd been on the verge of going into his feral mode. "Imra, try using your power to read my mind."

Imra frowned, not liking where this was going. Nevertheless, she tried to activate her telepathic ability, but found that she couldn't. Her eyes widened, and her breathing quickened as she began to realize what Brin was getting at.

He silently watched her come to the same conclusion he had. Even so, he stated it aloud: "Grimbor's anti-powers weapon. Either these criminals have it or have created something like it. They must have zapped each of us while we were out, or maybe even when they initially attacked us."

Imra bit her lip. "If that's the case, I really hope the Legion figures out what's going on soon." She grimaced as she changed her sitting position. "Otherwise, we're gonna be in for a very unpleasant and very long stay here."


Author's Note: So the fifth couple, as you can see, is Triplicate Girl (Luornu) and Bouncing Boy (Chuck). They will eventually have a romantic scene, but it will be later. Meanwhile, their relationship, as well as the other couples' relationships, will develop as a side plot to the overall story, which will be the Legion's fight to bring down these new mysterious criminals that have made a public entrance in the galaxy.

Thanks for reading! :)