Chapter 4

"Do you ever think of your life before you were Legion?" I broke the silence between us.

"Hmm?" He cocked his head. "What do you mean 'before I was Legion'?"

"I mean before you got recruited by the Agency, before you realised your powers."

He frowned. "Funny you ask me that. I've actually been thinking about my powers for a while. It's strange," he paused, "how I got them. Mind reading isn't in my family, and my parents are so in love you wouldn't believe it. The weirdest part is how they just appeared one day, as if out of the blue."

Now it was my turn to frown. "What do you mean 'out of the blue'? That's not how powers work. They take a while to manifest, and it's hell controlling them at first."

He looked surprised. "I didn't know that," he mumbled. "My family and I had gone camping, and I wandered off exploring. I got really thirsty and asked one of the other campers walking the other way if he had water. He had this weird look in his eyes but gave me his bottle. The next morning I woke up and could hear my mom talking about us all going on a hike, except her mouth wasn't moving."

"They actually took me to the doctor in town to see what was wrong, seeing as nobody in my family can read minds. He gave me the first blocker I had, but he had the same look in his eyes as the man with the water bottle."

"Struck by lightning," I muttered.

"Pardon?" He turned to face me.

"It's like how I got my powers," I elaborated. "I was struck by lightning, literally, and in the next few days I found out I could shapeshift. That power didn't run in my family either." I shrugged. "A few years later the Agency found me, and that's actually how it was founded. They never told me how they found me, and I never told them my real name. The Director has been on my ass about it for years." I let out a humourless laugh. "I wasn't this secretive before I was Chameleon. I was happy, I was free. Then the Director and his Scientist showed up and told me they're the reason I was struck by lightning. By that point I wasn't even using my real face. You know," I continued, "they didn't even apologise for the pain they brought me. They just said it was an experiment they were doing, and that I was meant for something bigger."

He looked horrified. "How old were you?"

"Not old enough to sue them, but old enough to not tell them jack about who I am. They can't do shit about it though, they ruined my life. I'm entitled to my privacy. The only upside at the time was learning all the secret codes for the cave, and some others."

"I keep forgetting that you were here before Waya." He mused.

"Not publicly, which is actually a little annoying. All the newbies get stingy when I'm in on the Senior meetings, because to everyone else I was only inducted three years ago. Some of the other Senior members even question it behind my back."

"Remember the induction party two years ago?" He asked.

"God who could forget that disaster," I chuckled. "All the other newbies were just in awe, and then we get a call from the Director, and of course it's a 'Seniors only' situation."

He started laughing. "The kids looked so confused and then the Seniors all get up to leave and Arctic, the absolute fool, started questioning why you were part of the Seniors and Rebel wasn't."

"He wasn't even inducted that long before me!" I protested.

"We all know that Cammie," he said between laughs. "Even Rebel didn't question it. Although, that might've been because he was a little scared of you."

"It felt so good to put Arctic in his place. He was annoying before he joined the Agency, and I finally got to straighten him out. I also got to answer the questions all the newbies and Juniors had."

"Yeah, you did kind of walk around like you're the queen of the Agency, which now that I think about it, you kind of are." He thought out loud. "Even Waya doesn't know how long you were here before him. You've said the Agency started with you, but the Director never told us when he founded it. As far as we're concerned, the Agency has only been around for five years." He gave me a strange look. "Now that I think about it, you were in the cave and going on missions for two years before you were officially inducted." I leaned back in my seat, revelling in the status I have.

"Told you, I'm the queen of the Agency," I said smugly. "I know every secret this cave has to offer. If we played hide and seek, I would always win, even if I was the seeker."

His face went slack. "That actually isn't a bad idea. The new inductees, we could play hide and seek, powers allowed. It would give them a way to familiarize themselves with the cave and the rest of the team's powers."

I sat up. "I think you're onto something buddy. I can bring it up at the next meeting. We should be doing another recruitment soon."

"Speaking of," he said, sitting up and grabbing a laptop off the table. "I'm pretty sure the Director, Mayhem and Oracle put some suggestions in."

"I actually put in a suggestion last night too," I added. "Spotted them while on patrol and they actually talked to me, unlike Ang." I muttered the last two words.

Legion let out a short laugh. "Still not over that?"

"He ran away from me before I could introduce myself three times in a row! He never even apologized for being rude."

"To be fair," he answered, still fixated on the laptop. "You hadn't been made official yet. He probably thought you were some weirdo."

"Still," I muttered.

"Okay, got the file." He pushed the laptop between us on the table. I leaned closer to get a better look.

"Most of these suggestions are just teenagers. We don't have a single adult and two young adults."

"That's gonna be a problem," he murmured. "Parents aren't the most understanding when we show up on their doorstep."

"Plus teenagers aren't the best to train."

"And they have school and extracurricular's," Legion added. "Besides, they don't fully understand what they're getting into. All they think about is the good things; they forget all the bad that comes along with it."

I leaned back into the couch. "Well that's partly because of Aerglo. He decided the 'superhero discount' was worth revealing himself. To be fair, he has managed to balance both lives quite well."

Legion laughed. "He should be graduating soon right? Wonder what university he'll go to."

"He might decide not to go," I pointed out. "He does work for the Agency, and he likes what he does."

"He should still have a backup plan, just in case he can't continue being a superhero." He glanced up at the Wall of the Fallen, muttering: "You and I both know this career doesn't always work out in the end."

"At least you weren't there," I let out a mirthless laugh, "when Matthew died."

"You think that makes it better?" He asked. "He was my partner, my best friend, and the one time I didn't listen to him, that's what happens." He became lost in thought.

"As terrible as it was," I shifted closer to him. "At least you had a body to bury."

He looked up at the Wall, pressing his shoulder into mine. "What happened to Aella wasn't your fault Cammie. She was here at the same time as Waya, she knew the risks of every mission."

"Try telling that to her family," my eyes locked on the picture of my first partner. "That was the first time I actually considered quitting. She meant the world to me, and we couldn't even bury her. I still don't know how to deal with it, and it's only been a few months. What am I supposed to do, how am I supposed to act?"

"You're not supposed to get over something like that," Legion said. "I still think about Matthew every single day and it's been three years. It's gonna stay with us forever, and it'll be up on the Wall even after we're forgotten. That's why the Wall of the Fallen was created; to remember everyone."

For a while we just sat in silence, shoulders pressed together, minds filled with memories of our old partners and our other Fallen friends. People who were like family to us. People who fought with us. You can see why I don't like sitting in the Hall of Memories. Sounds filled my ears. Sounds of the past, of the Last Fight, of my friends. Too many memories. There were too many ghosts.

Waya walked in, sometime later. "Should've guessed you two would be in here," he remarked. He tried not to look at the Wall. Legion and I glanced up, too wrapped up in our own minds to react properly. "C'mon, we're having the recruitment meeting now." He turned on his heel, wanting to spend as little time as possible in the Hall of Memories. Legion and I silent stood up to follow him, joints groaning. I leaned down to grab the laptop before following them. Waya led us to the Briefing Room, pushing open the door and heading over to our seats. No surprise, we were the last ones there.

"Alright team," Waya started as soon as everyone was settled. "Let's commence. A few of you put in suggestions last night so we'll pull up the updated version. We're looking at picking a minimum of three people, hopefully not all teenagers. We all know how that turns out."

A collective groan is heard in the room. Not only are the parents angry when we come knocking for their teenage kid, the press has a field day. We can never seem to win.

"Alright everyone, settle down." Waya pulled up the list. "Let's see who our newbies are going to be." The list appeared on the screen and a few of us immediately frowned. "Well then," Waya filled the silence. "I guess the Director didn't like one of the suggestions. And since we have to induct a minimum of three candidates, all of them have made it." He turned off the screen and leaned back in his chair. "So who wants to talk to the parents of the teenagers?"

An even louder groan echoed throughout the room and I smiled. Our real enemies weren't the villains. No, our enemies are parents.