Out of the Sky, Into the City

Chapter 8: Chaos

"Is the truth potion ready?" Chaos looked over at the Skyling lazily leaning back in their chair. Despite their relaxed position, she could tell that their eyes were alert and searching for dangers or perhaps ways to escape. The other hero turned to her and nodded. There were many classes at Hero Central, and the one right in front of Chaos right now was the teacher of the chemistry class.
"We'll see how this Skyling reacts to it." the Nautilus nodded. "It should be safe enough this time. Last time, the subject got a bad case of food poisoning."
"Well then, let's hope we get the truth out instead of puke on the recently-cleaned floor." Chaos stepped back and watched as the Nautilus walked over to the Skyling and placed the vial before them.
"You will drink this, or we will place force upon you." he said.

The Skyling looked at the vial with caution, slowly picked it up, and drank it with a reluctant look on their face.
"Did you make this? It tastes like my attempt at burgers from yesterday. Maybe I shouldn't have added that much water." they grimaced.
"State your name and anything else we should know about you." the Nautilus ordered at the Skyling. They paused.
"Asterope Starclimber, age 17, pronouns are they/them, I was chosen on the raid of Inkopolis, and I happen to be an assassin-in-training."

At those words, there was a collective gasp from a few heroes.
"Assassin?"
"They only said that they were in training, though."
"Inkopolis was raided?"
"Let's gather more information." At those words, Chaos watched as the Nautilus remained calm and straightened up from the notebook where he was recording answers.
"Tell me your ruler's name, and things about the Skylings." By then, Asterope seemed to have realised that they had drunk a truth potion, though the answers still came out of their mouth.

"Her name is Queen Calliope, and she planned the raid on Inkopolis that happened last night. She can pry into each and every one of our minds at any time and can give us orders when necessary. Her Majesty's rule has lasted for two years after the mysterious disappearance of our former ruler, King Cyclone." After the last sentence, Asterope slammed their hand over their mouth and didn't take it off until they had stopped speaking. Chaos noted the glare that the Skyling had started giving the people there as they remained silent. It wasn't very threatening. This Skyling... they weren't even an adult yet and were still being sent on missions to kill others.

Meanwhile, the heroes were talking amongst themselves, not bothering to hide the fact that their conversations were about Asterope.
"Into their minds..."
"The queen..."
"She sounds dangerous..." The Nautilus silenced the rest again.
"Tell us any information about the rule of this... Calliope."
"She's old and really, I don't know her plans. Nobody does. However, I can't disobey her in any form as I am a loyal follower to my queen, as she has united us and led us for the past two years under a strong hand. She will eventually take over the rest of Inkopolis, as our forces are great. Long live the Queen."
"You just said she was old." Chaos rebuked the Skyling. "And when someone says 'long live the king or queen' in any piece of fiction I know, it usually means their ruler ends up dying."
"She's old, but not that old! Her Majesty is only over 40 years old."
"That's older than my parents."

The rest of the heroes gathered simply watched as Chaos argued with Asterope. It was childish and petty, but the Pencil Squid didn't care. If she would face the wrath of the Skyling queen, she would. It would be scary, but she wouldn't flinch. Chaos was sure that this queen was the type of coward who did everything from her throne and threw temper tantrums when she didn't get her way, judging from the way that Inkopolis was attacked and what Asterope was saying about their ruler. Loyalty at the blink of an eye, near-endless praise... and yet Asterope called their queen old and said that they didn't know her plans. Overconfidence in her army, and then the fact that the Skyling had said that they couldn't have disobeyed their queen in any way. Chaos put down what she had observed in the notepad she was holding. She would have to give those notes to Hurricane later. The Cuttling was the trait of wisdom, after all.

(A/N: It's been too long, and I've been writing some things in 700 word chunks in 5 minutes, but those things were planning for other things and this isn't cake mush, so I've been having more difficulty writing this. Also, since now I'm on holiday, I'm writing and drawing all day.

Also, a note about the last chapter in which the hero that came up to Asterope and knew Queen Calliope's name. The hero wasn't there for the interrogation, and the ones who were there didn't know of her.)