“You’re not going to take pity on your poor brother? Even after your vicious cat mauled him?”

“You’re being dramatic.” / “Which is exactly the problem. If you’d just give Lady her medicine without making a production of it, you wouldn’t get scratched.”

“I medicate her exactly the way you do. Sneezy just has a vendetta against me.”

“Maybe it’s because you keep making fun of her condition.”

“She’s a cat who’s allergic to humans. You expect me to ignore that? Who do you take me for?”

“You’re Emmet.” /“And, somehow, we love you in spite of it.”

—

“Are you guys going on the mission to retrieve Helmut’s body? Lizzie was talking about how they needed a cryokinetic and–”

“No.” Emmet said immediately, “We’re not. Nobody fills out the mandatory requisition forms if we’re not here to enforce the rules.”

“Plus, it would be a good experience for Agent [Natividad?]; it’s a rare opportunity to see field work in such a secure environment, and I suspect she would… resent our presence.”

“That’s not why you’re staying back, is it?”

“No. I will repeat. Nobody takes the transportation department seriously.”

—

[something re: twin switch nonsense]

“Hm. No. It’s no fair if we can’t give a decisive answer.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve been playing that joke since we were verrrry small. We may have become the butt of it.”

“All that’s to say that, technically, I may be Emmet, and he may be Ingo. We have no idea which of us started out as which; it was just easier to pick and be done with it.”

“It balances out. Ingo is older, but Emmet comes first alphabetically.”

—

“Wellllll…” Emmet drawled, and though Raz couldn’t tell what shifted between the two, he was sure there was something. Palm turned upward, instead, Emmet pointed to the sky, causing the water to jump in a choppy, unnatural splash.

“But.. hang on.” / “If you’re hydrokinetic, too, why’d you [comic book reference]?”

There was a stifled laugh to the side, though any physical evidence of amusement was nonexistent when Raz looked. “Yes, Emmet, tell me, why did you do that?”

Emmet balled his hand into a fist, and the water [falteringly] loomed over Ingo; without looking back, he waved it away. As an apology– or, perhaps, a concession– he flicked his wrist and pointed to the ground, where a small bubble of fire sparked to life.

Raz felt his brows furrow as he considered the relatively feeble displays.

“On paper,” Ingo began, smothering the fire and crossing the distance between himself and his twin, “Our [specialty] is electrokinesis. That is because we specialize in a skill called duality, which is not so easily defined. Many psychics use it a grounding technique or in the pursuit of self improvement.”

“We do not.” In unison, they swapped gestures, and whatever had changed before went back to normal.

“Truth be told, Emmet and I are both capable of performing pyrokinesis and hydrokinesis, but we lend each other our ability to do so through duality.”

“I give Ingo my ability to use hydrokinesis and his becomes stronger. He gives me his pyrokinesis. My abilities are enhanced. Give and take. A winning combination!”

“So it’s like… letting someone borrow your psychic power.” / “I’ve done that before! Or. Well, someone’s done it for me, so I could beat up some nasty [idk].”

The twins blinked at him in perfect unison. Though their expressions didn’t betray it, Raz took that to be surprise.

“Verrrrry interesting.” Emmet said, affectation flat.

Slowly, Ingo inclined his head, “That’s… also a [viable] application. It’s not nearly as sustainable, however, and I can only recommend that track if there’s no other viable option. No, what we do is on a much smaller scale, and can be maintained indefinitely.”

“You guys are doing that all the time? Don’t you get, y’know, tired?”

“Do your mental defenses drain you?” Ingo asked, humoring him.

Raz shook his head.

“That’s because it’s a subconscious act. This is an ability we’ve exercised for quite some time, Agent Aquato– long enough that it, too, has become routine.”

—

“Do you happen to remember our conversation about duality?”

With a badly hidden air of anticipation, Raz said, “Yeah…?”

“Duality, in its intended application, is a skill often employed by telepaths. I’m unsure if you’ve experienced it, but if one spends too much time outside of their body, they become prone to dissociation. If you apply duality in such a situation, it helps to sort out foreign thoughts or find mental stowaways.”

“Don’t Censors already do that?”

“Censors cannot be controlled. They dispose of what they see with no regard for [priorities]. Duality allows you to prioritize a problem.”

[…]

“I think– yeah. I think that’s happened to me before. Sometimes it gets all fuzzy and I think I’m someone else.”

The twins shot each other a wry look.

“That happens.” / “We’ve been informed that you visited a great number of stations over a comparatively short commute. Was that when this occurred?”

Raz nodded, “In Edgar’s mind. He taught me confusion, though, so I thought maybe it was just… y’know, normal for him?”

“Edgar…?” / “I don’t believe we have any Edgars on staff at the moment. If this was an untrained teacher, that may very well have been the case.”

“He’s, uh. Yeah. Let’s go with untrained.”

“We will revisit confusion.” / “It is not a standard issue psychic power. However, it is important to have a proper handle on your abilities. Safety first!”

“Are there any other powers you learned in an informal setting?”

“…does it count if one of the Psychic Six taught me?”

“We will allow it.”

“Then just clairvoyance and shield.”

[…]

“Is clairvoyance another one of those powers that makes you go all,” He wiggled his fingers without concluding the question.

“It can be, especially if you weren’t taught the basics. Did you want to discuss it further?”

“Well I was in this whale’s head once […]”

[‘Yeah, that sounds right’/Raz concludes with admitting that he just thought it was him going loopy in the Rhombus of Ruin again.]

The [adj] atmosphere all but evaporated, along with any ambient moisture in [the area]. Though the brothers were silent, impassive, they were clearly in some kind of heated mental debate.

“That is enough.” Emmet eventually said, aloud, locking his arm with his twin’s.

“Why… why were you anywhere near that station?” Ingo asked, ignoring the declaration.

[Raz tentatively starts, thinking it might calm whatever just started. Is interrupted.]

“No. We will not be continuing on this track.”

[…]

“No, it’s okay! I can help!”

“Respectfully, Razputin,” / “It’s neither your responsibility nor your place. We understand that you’ve helped a great many people, some of them even colleagues, but you’re failing to see the distinction.”

“They were lacking a support system. We do not. Support is our system.”

[…]

“You are familiar with outpost Charlie Psycho Delta.”

[nods]

“We were not on staff when it was established. But we were stationed at the base prior to its [decommission?].”

“Just prior to its [decommission]. We were there for two months before the entire [outpost] was deemed too hazardous to warrant pouring resources into. In part, our station there was one of convenience; many agents were assigned to, and then requested transfer from Charlie Psycho Delta, so it was common sense to have someone from the transportation department on hand.”

“We were also meant to remove the train. Sunken boats and aircraft could be explained. A boxcar was more difficult to justify.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that…” [Raz]

“We did not remain there long enough to plan an extraction. Together, we were able to withstand the psilirium’s effects better than our coworkers. It was still uncomfortable.”

“We’re used to enclosed spaces, but the outpost was built by minds under constant exposure to a psychoreactive substance. The safety measures weren’t up to code and the contingencies were incomplete–”

“They had to remind employees not to consume an active psychohazard.”

“–even without taking the psilirium into account, it was a disaster waiting to happen.”

“As a hydrokinetic, being the final fail safe also made Ingo uneasy.” Emmet said for his twin, seemingly unable to resist getting a light jab in.

“And Emmet had a tendency to start sparks when he got excited, or upset, or stressed. It wasn’t an ideal situation for any of the parties involved.” They spent a second staring at one another, daring the other to either escalate or back down. Ingo sighed.

“Even though it wasn’t our responsibility anymore, the boxcar became a personal project. When work permitted, and we were mentally able, we would requisition use of a research vessel and try to decide how best to remove it from the psilirium deposit.”

“Okay, but why? Your introductory issue explained that Truman recruited you guys as conductors, so do you just like trains that much?”

“We mistakenly teleported the train there.” Emmet declared, unabashed. “It was only right that we remove it.”

“You– wait.” / “A whole train? You accidentally teleported an entire train?”

“There was a mechanical failure. To pool information, I attempted to teleport to Ingo. He attempted to teleport to me. We are still unsure where the Rhombus of Ruin factors in.”