Phantom Girl's soft voice trembled as she related her tragic tale to the Legionnaires assembled at the Mission Monitor Board, three of whom – Mon-El, Shrinking Violet, and Chameleon Boy – lay dead on operating tables.
"There were four of them," she said, "a craggy mutant behemoth who looked vaguely Czarnian, a teenage boy with a massive deformed skull, a Tharrian with the same powers as Polar Boy, and a dark-haired woman who was beautiful but had the scariest eyes you could ever imagine.
"She seemed to be the leader, and the most powerful. She...she took down Mon-El with a single cosmic blast from her eyes!
"Then the teenager used telepathy to...completely discombobulate Chameleon Boy's mind and make him lose control over his transformations until his brain shut down. It was horrible! Poor Reep."
Phantom Girl choked back her tears, and continued.
"Vi was taunted by the mutant into fighting him, when my powers would have been much more effective against him. But Vi could be so reckless sometimes...and...and...she fell to the mutant's killing blow!"
Phantom Girl took a deep breath before concluding.
"The Tharrian tried to trap me in a block of solid ice, but luckily for me, he laid it on too thick and the block was too big and too opaque for them to notice that I had phased through it and escaped to safety and then made my way back here."
Her story now told, Phantom Girl put her head in her hands and began sobbing uncontrollably. Saturn Girl put a comforting hand on her shoulder and gently eased her anguish with her telepathy.
Legion leader Polar Boy was rarely at a loss for words, but anyone would have been silenced by such a tale. Mon-El and Vi's lovers, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lass, were stoic while Cham's best friend, Colossal Boy, had turned his head to hide his tears. The rest of the Legion was similarly quiet, until it fell to Brainiac 5 to break the silence.
"Based on Phantom Girl's description," said Brainiac 5, "it sounds like confirmation of my theory that Forza Quattro are not an urban legend after all."
"What in the galaxy is Forza Quattro?" queried Polar Boy, the youngest and least worldly Legionnaire despite his status.
"A vicious band of space vigilantes," replied Brainy, "who work outside the law and make up their own rules. The few to have survived an encounter with them tell tales almost identical to Phantom Girl's."
Brainy sighed, then abruptly went off on a bizarre tangent. "Say, Polar Boy, who do you favor to win the Venus-Jupiter game tonight?"
"Huh?" said a startled Polar Boy, before regaining his composure. "Oh, uh...Jupiter for sure."
"No," said Brainy, "it's Venus all the way. Wanna bet?"
"Yeah...sure," answered Polar Boy, "I'll see you in my office later."
What none of the other Legionnaires knew was that Brainy and Polar Boy had been speaking in a code known only between the two of them. Roughly deciphered, it meant that Brainy's brilliant mind suspected that there was more than met the eye, and this mandate a private conference.