An anonymous net post indicated the next meeting for Achilles' Legion. Olivia would have liked to be able to dispatch Achilles without interference, but the public nature of the post pretty much guaranteed Paris would show up again.
That would just cause problems for her. Damn him!
Was it too much to ask for her own vengeance? She'd failed twice - once at the movie theater and once at the first Legion meeting. Was Paris stupid? Such direct methods wouldn't work. She'd tried. As long as he was with his Legion members, he'd be hard to take down.
Based on the last encounter, Jumper and Lightning seemed especially troublesome. Light Master - that snot-nosed brat without a clue - wasn't worth mentioning as a threat. So she'd need to get Achilles alone, in a way that wouldn't draw attention and wouldn't let Paris get in her way.
He patrolled regularly. That would be her chance. Sometime before the meeting, which was a little less than two weeks away. She'd already mapped out all his routes from her first attempt, but he'd changed things up since. Some days he wasn't spotted at all.
So Weaver would have to patrol. And conveniently run into Achilles, then ask him for a private meeting. And once he was alone, she'd end him.
How exactly? Would poison work on him? Paris' ability seemed to imply it would, but getting her hands on it would be tricky. She could use rubbing alcohol again, but it probably wouldn't work as well as it had with Xavier. A cleaner could also work. It would be like leaving a giant neon sign that he was murdered, but that would be fine for her purposes.
Yes. If she didn't care about getting caught, so many more possibilities opened up. She was restricted with Xavier because it had to look like an accident. Olivia couldn't afford to be locked up back then, but this time she had no such restrictions.
So then...could she strangle him? No, it would be hard to exert the necessary force while maintaining eye contact, as much as she would love to squeeze the life out of that bastard with her own two hands. The oxygen deprivation illusion would work as a substitute, albeit an unsatisfying one.
Would an illusion of being sliced by a million tiny blades work? Or would his Miracle nullify it? She could manipulate reality, but to what extent? No, best to avoid risky experiments for now. If this plan didn't work, she could experiment on someone else. Maybe Paris.
Ah the delicious power she'd felt when she brought him to his knees in that elevator. It gave her a certain thrill, having that much influence over someone. That's what she wanted to feel from Achilles. She wanted to break him, subject him entirely to her whims and then end it all with one motion.
So how to do that?
"Their next meeting is the 24th. Plenty of time for us to prepare." Paris slowly walked back and forth at the front of the room. Seated before him were Manifest, Itera, Magnetic and Mist, with Jase at the very back, watching with interest.
"It'll just be those five? Or will different people show up?" Itera asked.
"Good question. It could be either. We know for sure Achilles will be there, and Jumper seems like a sure bet as well. I would also assume Lightning will be there." Paris wrote the names on the board behind him.
"So at least three." Manifest folded his arms and frowned. "With Weaver and Light Master being uncertain elements."
"I wouldn't worry about Weaver," Paris replied. "She didn't do anything to fight me last time." Though, if she was Phantasma as he suspected, she had come after him once the fight was over. But the Phalanx didn't need to know that just yet.
"Then it's just Light Master. According to our info, he's been grounded. I'd say he's got a fifty-fifty chance of showing up."
"Manifest, you'll handle him if he shows. Otherwise, I want you taking care of Jumper. Mist, you'll work with me since my poison won't affect you. I'd also like you to prioritize Lightning. Dodge as long as you can to draw her attention."
"Yup." Mist's sleepy eyes were concerning, but Paris decided to trust her.
"Itera, you'll be on standby for a while. Magnetic, handle either Jumper or Weaver. If Light Master's there, you'll deal with Jumper instead of Manifest."
"Whoa whoa whoa pal. I ain't a fighter." Magnetic glared at Paris, but it wasn't a big deal.
"Jumper's not an overly good fighter either. Restrain him, though. No matter how many times I hit that kid, he didn't seem to feel it. Watch out for that. As for you, Mist, don't let up on your ethereality for a moment. Lightning's just as fast as her name implies."
"Yup."
"Please say something else."
"What else is there to say? Can I take a nap now?" Paris resisted the urge to facepalm.
"Sure thing, Juney. Unless Paris has other orders for you," Jase said. Mist looked to him for confirmation.
"Shouldn't you know what everyone else is doing? That way we can all coordinate."
"I fight Lightning, someone fights Jumper, Itera hides, you fight Achilles. I gotta keep Lightning distracted as long as possible, yeah?"
Dang. She knew the whole plan. But they were supposed to refine it together! Before Paris could protest, Mist had sunk through the floor while Jase laughed.
"Don't worry about Mist," Manifest said. "She'll hold up her end when it comes down to it. It might be best to have me handle Jumper if we just need him restrained, then Magnetic and I can take out Light Master and Weaver. I can just pop up a cage to take him out."
"Please. I don't wanna do stuff on my own. I'm a thief, not a warrior." Magnetic threw his token across the room before recalling it to his hand, as if to demonstrate the point.
"Good plan, Manifest. Itera will back you two up if things start looking sketchy. Magnetic, there's gotta be some creative way to use that Miracle in a fight. Could you transport a person?"
"Never tried."
"Then try now. Move me." Magnetic heaved a sigh, then tossed the token at Paris. He caught it and after a few moments, Magnetic sighed again.
"No good. I could take your clothes off, but that isn't what you want. Apparently I can only transport inanimate objects."
"Then...if you used the token to steal a raygun from the military - I'm sure they'll be there - you'd have a solid weapon."
"And then the military are gonna shoot me. Thanks for reminding me we'll all get shot."
"We will not get shot! Itera, you can undo the blasts, right?"
"Huh? No way. Maybe if it was just one, but it won't be. And I can't exactly react fast enough to a ray beam."
"So we need to take out the rayguns too," Manifest muttered. "Mist won't have any issues, and you can use Achilles as a shield again, but the rest of us will have to get creative."
"I'd say you should use your power to make a protective wall, but then we'd have to find another way to restrain Jumper. His mobility is a huge problem."
"Couldn't I make a wall with chains attached, then Randy and I can lock Jumper there? That would handle both purposes."
"Can you do that?"
"Watch me." Manifest reached his hand out to one end of the room, and a sort of wall appeared, with cuffs set into it. As Paris clapped, Itera walked over and kicked the partition over.
"You'll need to fix that part," she said flatly.
"Easy." Manifest removed the object, then replaced it, this time with triangular supports along the bottom to keep it from toppling.
"Perfect." Joy welled up in Paris' chest. "Then we'll meet up again next week to refine this a bit more. Until then, practice. Train your hand-to-hand skills, and Manifest, I want to know how long you can keep that wall up."
"Right now I got five minutes. I've been working on lengthening the time, so hopefully I can get up to six or seven minutes before it's go time."
"Hopefully that's enough time." Paris waved his hand dramatically. "With that - dismissed!"
