THE MARTYR COMPLEX

HOW IT ALL BEGAN AKA HOW I GET CAUGHT. (PART II)

Phantom Appreciation Central Chatroom

MayTheWorldDie : our lord nd saviour, phantom spotted near bridgetown. Picture.

INeedsleep : wat case is going on der?

RandomUser1 : organ trafficking, I think. Of street kids.

ThrivininChaos : damn, she works fast. still cant believe she cud b our age, u kno?

Haikyuuboyz : she kinda nice tho. Saw a YT video the other day where shes literally just helping local civilians with groceries and playing with kids in the park. And the video was for like, 28 min. Tf?

Power4eva : long live phantom.

Belliabro : she also seems fake tho.

Belliabro removed from Phantom Appreciation Central Chatroom.

Richyy : good riddance.

MayTheWorldDie : good riddance.

Power4eva : long live phantom

ThrivininChaos : long live phantom.

👻👻👻

The waitress hardly bats an eye when she sees two people with full on battle gear as we take our place in the coffee shop.

Thank fuck for cosplayers. Their service will be appreciated forever.

We sit in silence until we're served our coffee (ahem, tea), assessing each other. Casey isn't in her full Present costume, but I cannot go as far as to say she doesn't have any weapons on her. I count 12 knives and suspect she has more on her person.

I bite first, my curious brain needing its fill. "How can I help you?"

Present smirks. "Bold of you to assume I need help."

I take a sip of my coffee. "Okay."

My disinterest gets to her. I can see her well trimmed eyebrows scrunch together in displeasure.

My brain, without my consent, starts overworking. She puts a stop immediately enough.

"I'm here to offer you a deal."

I lean back, and cross my leg. "I wasn't aware I was in a pinch."

She sneers. I can feel the air of superiority radiating out of her. Interesting. "Oh, you are."

I place my cup down. "No, I'm not," I state simply. "I wasn't intimated."

Her eyebrows raise in surprise. "You have contacts within the Global Hero Institute."

"A natural assumption. Fair," I acknowledge.

She takes it quietly. I can see the gears in her head working. I try to find out why.

She doesn't know my real name. She thinks my name is Phoenix because of what I told Kira. She's been following me for 3 days. She knows where I live. She wants to give the impression that she has the upper hand, here. She implied that I was in a pinch. The only pinch I can be is getting arrested. She wants to imply that the GHI wants me arrested for my acts of vigilantism. Which is a lie. She wants me to do something for her. What?