Author's Notes: Welcome to Twins vs the Unexplainable! This is the newest addition to what I call the 'Twins Series' which includes 'Spies vs Cons' and 'CIs vs Agents'.
This collection revolves around stories with mutations, magic, fantasy, the supernatural and sci-fi elements. If it's marked Incomplete then there are prompts in the queue which will be posted here when complete. If it's marked Complete it means there are currently no prompts in queue to be posted here.
Life on the Other Side
From Saj_te_Gyuhyall at AO3:
And have you considered an X-man style fic with the twins as mutants? They have different powers, though. And maybe funnily opposite? Like Neal's power is on the more potentially violent and/or offensive side of things, while Bryce's is a passive or at least not particularly useful gift in a fight?
Notes: The inspiration for Bryce's mutation comes from a manga called 'Iris Zero' where starting 25 years before the story children began to be born with a power to see something beyond the ordinary; like people growing a tail when they lie or butterflies surrounding things near their death, this power is called an 'iris'.
Neal.
Neal sometimes wished that, if he had to be what he was, he could at least have a mutation like Bryce's. A mutation which could came in handy when searching for a mark. But, no, he was stuck with his own. A power he never wanted.
Thankfully, being in WITSEC meant those incidents when he was young, where people ended up in hospital, were covered up. Neal's mutation, his X-gene as they later named it, was hidden for his own safety and the safety of his family.
Even when Peter caught him and he was locked up in prison, his secret was kept. He watched as the X-gene was exposed to the general public and met with fear, then worry, and some reluctant acceptance. By the time he escaped, most people figured that the X-gene and mutants were here to stay and they were met with acceptance in some places.
Even so, when Neal made his deal with Peter and the FBI, his mutation wasn't revealed.
Neal had been surprised the morning he walked into the Burke house to see El moving through the kitchen as a blur, fast and controlled. She didn't notice him for a few moments, during which seemed to make a bowl of cereal and fill it with milk from the fridge in only three seconds.
"Neal!" she gasped, dropping the milk as soon as she spotted him standing there. Neal's mouth was open and he obviously shocked; there was no doubt that he had seen her. "I'm sorry I never told you," she added, "but, it's not something that I like to share, you know?"
Neal nodded but his mouth remained ajar and he didn't really comprehend. He was stuck on the 'El is a mutant' train of thought. There were no signs, nothing odd about her until now, and she was a wonderful person. How could she be one?
He selfishly thought that he should have noticed and he wished that he had a mutation like hers, able to move quicker than normal; now that would come in handy.
"Neal," Peter sighed from the doorway, ready to launch into another 'Sunday is a Neal-free day' speech. But he noticed El's slight distress and the way Neal seemed to be frozen.
"He saw me," El informed him, pleading Peter with her eyes to do something. He knew that El had lost jobs when people found out about her X-gene and even he had been asked how he could have married 'a mutant' right in front of her. He had been there when she fought her last unfair dismissal, right before using the money she wrangled out of it to start 'Burke Premier Events'.
He nodded to his wife and she left. It would have been hard for her to stay and hear whatever, possibly hurtful thing, Neal was going to say. Not that Peter thought Neal was like that, but he had found that when it came to the X-gene, people always managed to surprise him and not in a good way.
"Neal, is this going to be a problem?" he asked.
Neal shook his head.
"Have you been tested?" Neal asked.
Peter nodded.
"All government agents are tested. I don't possess the X-gene."
Neal nodded but gave him a strange look Peter had never seen before. It was possibly a mix of interest, awe and... fear? Sadness? He noticed the Neal would give him that look a lot over the next few months, when he thought Peter's back was turned.
Neal thought that El was somewhat lucky. Sure, she had the X-gene but her mutation wasn't destructive and was actually useful.
And she had Peter.
Neal had never mentioned it to anyone but, he knew why Kate had broken up with him that day. In her coded letters to him, she said had found out about his X-gene from one of the few people who knew about it; Keller, and she had a few choice words about it. Unfortunately, Keller only knew he possessed the X-gene and not what his mutation was. She made a few good guesses, all being empathic-like abilities or something to do with his eyes, but she was wrong.
Not that Neal cared. Let them guess; their inaccuracies were better than the truth.
He did wonder if Peter would accept him and his mutation, even though his was far more dangerous than El's. It was nice to dream about.
Neal was surprised that Keller didn't expose his X-gene to the FBI for leniency when they caught him. Keller had told Kate, Wilkes and Mozzie. What Neal didn't know was that Keller had another plan up his sleeve. He let them think he was all out of moves and confessed to stealing the treasure, even while he had another plan in the works.
A plan for revenge, enacted while he was in Russian custody awaiting trial.
It was a crude but effective plan. Guns pointed in Peter's face as he pulled over to drop Neal off at June's and an order to drive as hired goons got into the car. None of them appeared to be mutants, but looks could be deceiving.
They guided them to an abandoned warehouse and ordered them out of the car. Their hands were tied with zipties and they were searched for hidden weapons. Neal's anklet had been cut and thrown out the window during the drive but now, they brought out something to replace it.
Neal shivered at the sight. He didn't need Peter to tell him what it was, he knew already.
"A suppression device?" Peter questioned.
"That's right," the leader of the group said, "we figured that you're little pet needs sometimes to replace his leash."
"Neal?" Peter glared at the group. "What's the point of putting a suppression device on him?"
"Peter," Neal said, urging him with his voice to drop it. He didn't like the smile that grew on the leader's face nor the way the other hired goons seemed to smirk at him. And that's when he realised; these weren't other mutants hired by Keller to teach him a lesson, his was a gang of haters who Keller gave his information to and let their blinded opinion of mutants being monsters do the rest.
And that was terrifying. Hired goons could be reasoned, even bargained with. But, people in it for the thrill of destroying those they didn't see as people and blinded by their own fear-born and mistaken opinions, those kinds of people couldn't be reasoned with. They wouldn't hear anything Neal had to say and anything he did say would only rile them up more.
"Of course he didn't tell you," the leader said, "he's not human. He's a mutant."
"What?" Peter gasped, looking over at Neal. "You have the X-gene?"
Neal couldn't meet his gaze. He kept his head bowed, low enough to appear cowed but high enough to allow him to monitor where everyone was. He couldn't afford to take his eyes of the leader and the gang.
Guns cocked and the sound of blunt objects hitting the ground thudded in Neal's ears. The group was getting restless. He knew that this would end in his death, just another statistic added to the group of X-gene carriers who were attacked and either injured or killed.
Peter seemed to realise it too.
"Leave him alone," he ordered, stepping behind Neal as one of the group stepped closer to Neal's back. They were surrounded, weaponless and the suppression device was dangling too close for Neal's comfort.
"We want to see what he can do," one of the group jeered as they hoisted a crowbar up like a baseball bat.
"Yeah!" some of the others agreed.
Neal swallowed.
"You don't know what you're asking," he said. There was a smack from behind and he flinched, expecting pain. Instead, Peter grunted and his warmth dropped away from Neal's back. It took him a moment to realise what had happened. "Peter!"
He got a groan in response and the sound of another whack filled the air.
Neal screamed; if they wanted to see it, well, he was going to oblige. It wasn't a 'scream', per say, more like a blast. Humans didn't hear anything, although some heard high-pitched mosquito sounds moments before the blast, but they could feel it.
Neal mutation allowed him to use his voice as a weapon, a soundwave blast which blasted through anything before him. Instead of sounds coming out of his throat and mouth, ripping shockwaves escape instead.
They threw the men back and knocked them unconscious. They blasted through the windows, walls and doors of the warehouse.
Neal turned, and in a blast which would be a whisper in his voice as any louder would be equivalent to the force of a bomb, he knocked the men away from Peter.
They would probably have broken bones or something else and Neal was going to call an ambulance once he got Peter away. Thankfully, he had enough unconscious control to hold back when facing humans, so he hadn't killed anyone with his mutation but, there were a few teenagers who had significant hearing loss and other permanent injures of varying severity because of him.
He hated it.
Peter had seen it all from the ground. Neal's blasts missed him because he was lying at the other man's feet but, he saw the effect they had on the surrounding area.
When Neal realised that, he froze.
"We need to get out of here," Peter told him, grabbing his hand. Neal automatically pulled away. He looked at the unconscious men around them. "Yes, we need to grab them too," Peter said, "this place could come down any moment."
Neal nodded and reached for the nearest man. He helped Peter drag them outside and lifted one of their phones in the process. As Peter went back in to grab the last man, Neal took his chance to crush the suppression device under his feet and took pleasure in hearing it crunch.
"That's the last of them?" Peter questioned. He was worried about Neal as he wasn't talking or responding verbally to any of his questions.
Neal nodded and held up a phone screen for Peter to see.
[You need to call for EMTs,] he had typed.
"What?" Peter responded, "Neal? What's wrong?" Neal gave him a quizzical look as he didn't understand the question. "You haven't damaged your voice or something?"
Neal's face lit up with sudden understanding and he typed another message on the phone and then showed it to Peter.
[If I speak, it'll create another blast. I won't have my voice back for a while.] He could feel the tingle in his throat the meant his mutation was still active. He pulled the phone back and added, [there's no 'off' switch, we have to wait for it to stop on its own,] showing his message to Peter again when he was done.
"Oh." That explained it. Peter held his hand out for the phone and called the emergency services.
It was different to how Neal dreamed it. In his dreams, Peter kept it a secret and everything stayed the same. In reality, Peter insisted on telling Jones and Diana. They were a team and they needed to know in case there was a reason for Neal to use his mutation again.
Jones told Neal a story about a friend he knew back when he was serving. He also had the X-gene and was able to make himself invisible. He had used it once to save Jones but had been unable to save himself from the harassment and contempt he received from everyone else. Jones had been unable to help him, hadn't realised there was a problem. He ended the story by saying that he had Neal's back.
Diana started off by saying the same; she had Neal's back. She didn't probe except to ask how he had managed to keep them from finding out since there was mandatory testing for prisoners. Neal responded with a joke about how he was a 'highly classified secret' and she dropped the subject.
Peter was still Peter, which mean he insisted that Neal be the one to tell his wife because he couldn't keep a secret from her.
El was surprised, the most surprised of everyone. They joked about how they should have recognised each other, both being mutants, and had a good chat about how it affected their lives. Neal told her about Kate and she shared a story about some guy called 'Jack' during her teenage years, who not only dumped her when he found out but tried to break into her house and her father had to scare him off.
In Neal's dreams, everything remained the same. In reality, Jones kept a watchful eye on him and always asked how he was, Diana shared news about her nights out with Christie and, ironically enough, Peter seemed more trusting of him.
Bryce.
He was not an accountant. Being a spy, he had little use for money as whatever he needed was supplied by the CIA.
Who ever heard of being able to see how much money someone had access to? It was a ridiculous mutation that had the potential to clutter his vision with numbers when he was in a crowd.
Why couldn't he have something like Neal's? At least that would come handy when surrounded by angry gunmen or locked in a dungeon. However mutations were decided, Bryce held the belief that his and Neal's were mixed up.
Chuck had been surprised when Bryce told him. He didn't react with hate, anger or fear. He reacted with quiet thoughtfulness. He commented that he understood Bryce's reasons for not telling him and was surprised Bryce told him. There were a few tense days as Chuck thought about it but, in the end, everything returned to normal. It wasn't like Bryce's mutation was able to affect others.
Chuck was the second person; the first being Neal, to ask if he could use his ability to find money lying on the street. No, his ability didn't work like that, probably because it relied on him being able to see his target.
The CIA hired him even though his mutation wasn't really useful to them. Not when Bryce's strengths lay elsewhere. It did provide inspiration for his cover as an accountant, though.
However, with his mutation, being around spies bugged him sometimes. Even with Sarah Walker. The numbers on them were numerous and always changing but he leant to tell when the money was from the CIA for a mission. A lot of spies had other accounts, other ways to access money for a 'just in case' scenario where they couldn't rely on the CIA. Sarah Walker had several as did Daniel Shaw. So did he.
And he saw them all. It was really annoying.
It did make identifying spies easier, criminals too.
When Casey shot him, he couldn't help thinking how he wanted Neal's mutation to blast the guy onto the wall instead of seeing how much money he was making from shooting him.
He was worth more than that, for sure!
When he woke in the CIA holding cell, the first thing he noticed was the lack of numbers floating around the one or two people who came in to check his vitals. It took a while but he become conscious of the metal of a suppression device around his ankle.
He needed Chuck. But, when he appeared, Bryce couldn't tell if it was him or not. He couldn't tell if he was being paid to be here or if this was some kind of double, not without the numbers.
At least he had another way to confirm Chuck's identity. Few spies studied Klingon and even less would be able to speak it as fluently as Chuck could. His plan worked and he managed to escape and prove his innocence. Chuck helped a little.
The numbers came back when he removed that device from around his ankle. He had stared at it for a few moments before cutting it off, wondering what it would be like to just keep it. No more mutation and no more money numbers floating around, constantly changing as the person's accounts and access changed. But, it was a part of him. It was normal for him as he had been seeing these numbers since he was eleven. Although, he wasn't tested until he was twelve when Neal's mutation had revealed itself by spectacularly destroying the neighbour's house as the kid who lived there attacked an innocent bird that landed in their yard. Neal's mutation was obvious when he used it, Bryce's wasn't.
It couldn't be used to identify Fulcrum and Ring agents like how he used it to indentify spies, unfortunately. Even though they received extra pay and access to wider funds, it was mixed in with their CIA pay and, depending on the skill of the spy, could be hidden in multiple ordinary appearing spy caches.
He wondered how the Intersect might affect it but, he didn't get a chance to find out. Before he fainted from blood loss, he noticed that Chuck had begun keeping a hidden cache of funds like a real spy.
He opened his eyes an unknown amount of time later in a CIA medical ward and with Sarah's voice in his ears, calling his name.
He spent the next six months or so recovering. And, one day, he received a call from Neal. It wasn't a surprise as Bryce had been keeping tabs on his older twin. His idiotic older twin.
"What did you do?" he demanded to know as Neal had been arrested, again. This time, it was for stealing a jewel necklace.
"It wasn't me!" Neal insisted. And if he said it wasn't him, then it probably wasn't. "I've been framed."
"What?"
Neal quickly explained about the FBI agent, Fowler and how he wanted Bryce to look him over.
"Can you see if he's working for someone outside of the FBI?"
"Of course," Bryce responded, "but my, 'you know', only lets me see the amounts he has access to; in his wallet, in the bank, hidden away, that sort of thing, it doesn't let me see where the money is coming from or what he spends it on."
"See Mozzie," Neal said, "he should have a record of Fowler's pay. Compare that."
Bryce smirked at the authoritative tone in his brother's voice. They both knew he would do it and there was no need for him to say so. But, Bryce couldn't resist a tease.
"So, investigating the FBI, are you finally thinking about joining me 'on the dark side'?" As Mozzie liked to say.
"No," was the flat response. "I'm not going to do anything that requires me to carry and use a gun.
"I guessed as much," Bryce said, "do you need any help proving your innocence?"
"Nah," Neal responded confidently, "Peter can help me."
Neal said it with such certainty that Bryce was stunned. He didn't need Bryce's help because he was sure the Peter, the FBI agent who arrested him, would help him.
Bryce hung up and muttered a little, "I hope you're right," into the air. In his experience, the FBI was very narrow-minded and inflexible. Since finding out about Neal's deal with the FBI, Bryce had often wondered how his flexible and intelligent brother would handle being there.
Someone with Neal's skills would be much better suited to the CIA; it was too bad he kept refusing Bryce's offers.
Bryce called the General and put in for a week off.
There were only a few discrepancies in Fowler's accounts and nothing to suggest that someone else was paying him to meddle in Neal's life.
But, there were other ways to get someone to do what you wanted without paying them...
Years later, words that Mozzie said during the investigation into Fowler; words about standing by those you trust, brought Bryce to Chuck's door. Chuck's new door. A red door attached to a white house complete with a white picket fence.
He stood there and wondered if he should knock. Did Chuck really need him back in his life?
"Excuse me," a voice said, jolting him out of his thoughts. A brown haired older lady was walking up the path. She was wearing a dark trench coat and sunglasses. She didn't just look like a spy, the way she snuck up on him and the money he could see she had access to meant that she was most certainly a spy "Do you have business with the people living here?"
He hesitated for a moment. He didn't know whether she was friend or enemy or why she was here.
"No," he responded. It wasn't his business if Chuck had attracted the attention of another spy. He started to walk back down the steps, his heart heavy.
He was there, he should at least find out what this other spy wanted. But, Chuck was a spy himself so he should be able to handle it.
"Hold it," the woman said, pressing a gun into his back. "I think you'd better tell me what you're doing here."
"Is this some kind of robbery or something?" he questioned in an annoyed tone.
"Don't play dumb with me," she said, "I've been in the business a long time and I can spot when someone's not quite right."
"'Not quite right'?" Now, was she talking about him being a mutant or about him being a spy?
"Anklet holster, just to name the obvious," she said, reaching down and flipping up his slacks and taking the gun. So, she was talking about him being a spy. "I really hope you weren't going to walk into my son's house with that on you."
Wait? "What? Son?" Chuck said that his mother had disappeared. He turned around to look at the woman. This professional spy was Chuck's mother? "Chuck?"
"That's right," she said, tucking his gun into her coat and keeping the other pointed at him. "Now, we're going to go inside, nice and orderly and you're going to tell me why you're here."
Bryce sighed and decided to go with the flow. He had been here to visit anyway. She guided him expertly back up the steps and into the house. She guided him into the lounge room, complete with a couch and an empty fireplace, and motioned for him to sit.
"Mum?" Chuck questioned as his footsteps sounded in another room.
"Here," she called back, "I found a straggler outside."
Chuck stepped into the room with a worried frown on his face. Bryce felt his eyes widen at the figure of his old friend. He had cut his hair short and styled it back and gained some more muscle and his accounts were spy-like. It looked like he was still with the CIA but there was something else.
Chuck's jaw went slack when he spotted him. It was like a punch to the gut to see the hurt and fear on Chuck's face as he tried to process his presence.
"Charles?"
"Uh, mum, this is Bryce. Bryce Larkin. Bryce, this is Mary Bartowski."
Bryce felt Mary glance curiously at him. But, his main worry was Chuck, who appeared to be swaying slightly.
"Chuck? You want to sit down?"
Chuck nodded and dropped into the reclining chair in the corner.
"If you want mummy to shoot him, I can," Mary offered, moving the gun to point at Bryce's face.
"No!" Chuck gasped in horror, "just, put the gun away."
"Besides, Casey has first dibs," Sarah commented from the doorway.
"Oh well." Mary put the gun away. "Maybe I'll give him a call."
"Please don't," Chuck said. He took a deep breath and then looked at Bryce, his gaze growing determined. "I think we need to talk first."
Bryce had answered their questions and made his proposition. Once again, Chuck was staring at him, this time in disbelief, with his jaw unhinged. It was an expression that Sarah mirrored.
Okay, it was a stupid idea. But, Chuck had told him about Carmichael Industries and how he was still operating it with the General's blessings, even though they were CIA. And they had talked about working in the same company after Stanford before he joined the CIA.
No matter how embarrassing it felt and how unnerving their stares were, Bryce wasn't going to take it back. He had come this far.
"You want to work with us?" Sarah questioned, "are you sure that's wise?"
"No," he responded, "it's not wise but, I still want to."
"It's not like we're not hiring," Chuck said to Sarah, "and Bryce would make a good addition to the Nerd Herd."
Sarah frowned. Bryce gave his most encouraging smile when she looked at him.
"Alright," she relented.
Bryce cheered internally, not showing anything more than a smile on his face, while Chuck gave a small 'yes' and pumped his fist in the air.
Within a few weeks, Bryce learnt how to use his mutation to tell how much money a shopper had to spend. He set up signals with Casey, Chuck and, later, Morgan in order to convey to them whether a shopper had more or less to spend than whatever they were showing them.