35 - The Sisters//Lea

"Alejandra!" Nora shouted, a neon rope at the ready. The rope quickly coiled around itself, becoming a long green staff. As soon as Nora called out her name, the rose gold phantom jumped backward.

But she didn't get far; a large blue trumpet appeared right behind her and blew a gust of air in the opposite direction. In the middle of the jump and with nothing to hold on to, she was flung forward. Right towards Nora.

Nora's rope wasn't done transforming yet. As she began to glow a blinding green, the rope quickly sowed itself into a flag. As the rose gold phantom flew at her, Nora took the flag into her hand and planted it deep into the ground. Without any more input, a dozen ropes appeared all around her, all trained on the rose gold phantom.

There were so many of them that they wrapped around her in a cocoon, completely obfuscating her bright pink light from view.

"Wait, Nora!" Lea said, feeling whiplash as her focus changed from an overcharged Paxton to an angry Nora. The chorale coming from Nora's flag was so loud she could barely hear her own Europop music any more. Again, something was off about Nora's music, and Lea knew she needed to stop it.

"You'll kill her!" she shouted, grabbing Nora by the shoulders.

"Not today," Nora said, pulling the flag up. A loud explosive drum pierced their eardrums as a faint rose gold light shone through Nora's neon green whips. A few seconds later, the ropes quickly retreated.

Alejandra Kaikos, a tall girl with a mess of dirty brown hair, fell to the ground in a heap.

-HEIST_ON-

"Will she be okay?" Lea asked as they set Nora's sister on her bed. After making sure she was steady, they all released their transformations.

They couldn't take her back to Paxton's apartment; Navy had let it slip that Deanney Lacombe and her men had searched it. Paxton was sure it was still under surveillance. Under Nora's guidance, which was much colder than before, they'd circled a few times before coming back to the Allis' house.

"She has to be," Nora said angrily, pulling the pink Noiz from her sister's neck. She held it up to the light, examining it. Lea and Paxton couldn't help taking a look over her shoulder. Compared to theirs, the metal around hers was thicker and wild, and it had a simple string instead of a sturdy metal chain.

"She has to explain what's going on," she said angrily.

"We don't know how being forced out of a transformation by another Phantom works," Paxton said. "Lightning or excessive electrical energy takes ten to twelve hours to wear off, but that's as just an estimate in this case."

Lea was almost surprised to see Paxton speaking so nonchalantly about his experience with electrocution, but after everything that had happened today it would take a lot to surprise her from now on. The other Phantoms had been at it for almost a year.

"I know you're angry at her," Lea said to Nora. "But she's family, you should hear her out before being rash."

"Why?" Nora said angrily. "She ran away from home and then kidnapped Paxton!"

"She didn't kidnap me," Paxton said. "Navy and Deanney had no idea who she was."

"Then why did she run from us!" Nora asked, Alejandra's Noiz swinging wildly in her hands. "Why didn't she just come and talk to me?"

"Because she was scared," a quiet voice said from behind them.