A/N: I really hope I can make this come together like I am picturing it...
EbonyGlow95: You're so nice! I didn't think anybody would like this because it has an original character in it lol. Thanks again =)
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Travis entered Kessler's office. In his opinion, the "office" was definite proof that Kessler was a madman. The massive, dimly lit underground room looked like a paper tornado had gone through it. Books, papers, maps, blueprints, tools, and scraps of metal were scattered all over the place along with... well, Travis hadn't had the time to look. A tangle of wires hung from the ceiling like the web of a giant mechanical spider. A single desk stood in the middle of the chaos, like a tiny island in a sea of paper.
Travis made his way to the center of the room, wading through the paper sea, glad he was wearing pants to protect him from death by paper cuts.
Kessler was standing at the desk, a bloody screwdriver in his hand. Maybe he'd been out slaughtering people with hand tools while Travis had been away. Travis didn't want to know.
"Remind me again why I hired you, Muller," Kessler said without looking up. He was staring at a blueprint of a building, tapping the bloody screwdriver on it. "When you can't even follow a simple order..."
"I investigated the girl," Travis said defensively. He didn't ask how Kessler knew about his fuck up... the guy always seemed to know things that he had no reasonable way of knowing.
"Is that what you call it?" Kessler said vehemently. "I ask you to look into this matter, to find out what must be done about it... and you gun down our little mistake in a back alley."
"It didn't kill her," Travis wheezed. His chest still hurt like hell from being crushed by a dumpster, but the boss was not the person to complain to about that.
"No, indeed... I suspected as much. Still a rash decision on your part, Travis. You let your own desires overtake your common sense," Kessler sneered at him. "Nevertheless... I assume you did witness some of her abilities once you'd provoked her?"
"Yeah," Travis growled. "You could say that... She nearly crushed me to death."
"How?" Kessler said, not sounding at all concerned that his lackey had nearly been squashed flat. He went back to staring at the blueprint. The yellow light overhead flickered, throwing the room into momentary darkness.
"It seems like she controls the air... or she is the air. Or both. I guess that's why she can't be killed... she just rearranges her body," Travis said, shifting awkwardly. This place always made him uncomfortable, like the books were listening in. Then again, the idea of an invisible girl shuffling her body parts around to heal herself was also an uncomfortable thought. Then he shook his head, remembering the girl rambling to herself.
"But she's just about as unstable as the boy... It seemed like she could barely control her power. She kept disappearing at random... She seemed pretty hysterical about it..." he added, privately thinking that she had every reason to be hysterical. Not that he cared.
Kessler twirled the bloody tool in his human hand, his face as stiff as a Halloween mask.
"What else?" Kessler asked after a minute.
What else? There's another unstable experimental specimen running around this city and that's not enough to worry about? We were only supposed to make ONE of those.
Well, there was one other thing actually...
"There's some sort of... attachment between her and MacGrath. I saw them hugging a little while before I gunned her down," Travis said, pressing his hands to his chest. He probably should have gotten some medical attention before coming down here... "I think any failed attempts to eliminate her would... agitate the boy if he finds out. We may have to find another course of action for dealing with her."
Water dripped from the ceiling, staining a map of the city that was laying on the floor. A breeze rustled some papers in the corner, and Travis wondered if the girl had followed him here, waiting for the opportune moment to finish him off, or perhaps to find out more of their plans...
"You don't think killing his old girlfriend... agitated the boy enough?" Kessler said mockingly. "Ah, but that was a necessary task. She pushed the boy to suppress his powers. She needed to be removed. Not to mention broken souls are so much easier to manipulate. This girl, however... since she can't be killed..."
Kessler paused there, gazing off into a dark corner of the room.
"I don't suppose you thought to try a sedative on her first?" the man spat derisively. "Before you attempted to kill her, revealed to her your purpose for doing so, and then let her get away?"
Travis bit his tongue to keep himself from saying something stupid. But Kessler was right... why the hell hadn't he thought of that? Well, after Shane had gotten away he sort of had a lot to deal with...
"Your contamination is spreading," Travis shot back, a hand now on his knife handle. "Those freaks, the Reapers or whatever people are calling them... They swarmed me when I tried to get back here. There's no possible way there should be so many left alive!"
"Avoiding the subject, Travis?" Kessler said, slamming the bloody screwdriver down onto the desk. "Since the girl cannot be killed, we won't be able to use her as leverage against MacGrath to force his cooperation..."
"If you're so smart, Kessler, why don't you just tell me how to get rid of her," Travis interrupted, still watching the rustling papers.
Kessler's metal limb gleamed coldly under his white coat. The madman himself simply chuckled.
"I am giving the orders here, remember that," he said, rolling up the blueprint and extracting another from the mess at his feet. He spread it out... this one Travis recognized. It was one of the first blueprints for the ray sphere. Kessler had built it himself, here in this dark underground room...
"And as for the poisoned ones... they are unimportant. We are making a weapon, yes? Then this city will be his training ground! Let him become stronger, let his power grow! Let him litter the streets with corpses. That is his fate... It matters not how many he kills... not when our future is so close to fruition..." Kessler continued, a savage joy on his withered face.
Travis simply stared bitterly at the blueprint. The answer to his desire was right there... the device that could give him power. Kessler had promised that he'd have power too, but he was beginning to suspect that his boss had no plans to actually deliver on that promise. Kessler tapped his metal fingers on the ray sphere blueprint.
"You see, Travis Muller... our timeline is branching off right now, deviating from the future we are trying to create. The girl was not part of the plan... and if the future I saw is to come to be reality..."
"Then tell me how to get rid of her!" Travis barked, his chest still aching. And make good on your promise while you're at it! I could actually control this power, unlike the two of them!
"I thought perhaps we could use her... but she will merely be a flaw in the plan if we let this go... and you are obviously not intelligent enough to think of a solution yourself, so..."
Kessler opened a drawer in the desk, extracting a small vial of clear liquid.
"Heavy sedatives. A single dose should be enough. Catch her by surprise, use this on her, and bring her to me," Kessler hissed. "No mistakes this time, Muller... or you may not be around to witness this new dawn."
Travis picked up the vial, but the same concern from earlier still bothered him. A breeze was still rustling some stray papers in the corner.
"But what if she's here right now, listening to us?" Travis blurted out. Kessler snorted, his hollow eyes looking coldly out from under his hood.
"Maybe you should think before you speak, Travis," Kessler sneered. "If there is truly an attachment between the girl and MacGrath, would you really expect to find her here? No, if you want to find her, you'll find her with him."
"Fine," Travis snarled, shoving the vial in his pocket. "I'll just go look for him, shall I? And if she's not with him, what then?"
"I imagine you should keep looking, then. Or must I send someone else to do this job?"
Travis ignored the slight to his abilities. No one in their organization was better at stalking prey than he was, and Kessler knew it.
"And if the boy catches on to what I'm doing?"
"I'd get going if I were you," Kessler said indifferently, ignoring the question. "The government is growing more concerned about the fate of this city... they may decide to destroy this place within a week's time... now we must have our weapon ready and our little problem removed before that time."
Travis swore under his breath and stomped out of the room, loose papers clinging to his pants. He glanced back at the door, watching Kessler putting his bloody screwdriver to use as he began to assemble... something.
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