Chapter 2 – A Day in the Labs

Everything went back to normal after the moment I spent alone with Fitz talking to him. He seemed to be more calm as well as more accepting of the fact that maybe things would be alright after all, which by itself was a huge progress, at least in my eyes, but I was not exactly the most cheerful person in the world, so who was I to say? Exhaling a short lived sigh, I made my way down the hallway of the facility I worked at, there weren't many people at the time, but there were still enough to disturb my peace. I had a report in hands, which I was supposed to deliver to my boss, but apparently the few people in the room thought the hallway was some kind of playground for they were all there being silly and making stupid jokes.

After having to stop on my tracks for the third time in a row, I finally lost my cool, and that was showed to my fellow co-workers by the form of a fist slamming against the wall on the said. My features were already twisted in an expression that could only be described as anger and annoyance. "Everyone get out of my way, if I have to stop one more time…" My voice was menacing and the threat was left in the air, but I knew it would work; no one ever dared speak up to me when I went into my authoritarian mode, what actually happened pretty often.

As the hallway finally cleared and people returned to their work, I resumed my steps, leading myself to my boss' office. Of course the man wouldn't be dare, but he certainly had a way of knowing if we delivered our reports in time, and mind you, I was not a fan of being scolded by some geriatric CEO.

Placing the yellow folder onto the marble table that was located in the middle of the room, I quickly exited the office for I still had plenty of things to do, and on top of that list was testing the new weapon Fitz' had invented. The male had said something about it being a gun, but I pretty much got lost after he gave me the 'expert' talk and began using terms I didn't even know existed until they were leaving his mouth in a rushed tone; every time Leo did that I would simply keep staring at him and nodding until he was done, even though I was not understanding a single thing he was saying, or I would ask him to speak English, to which he would sarcastically ask me if I'm mental and reply that he /was/ speaking the 'Queen's bloody English', and then I would be forced to confute that I meant normal English and not nerd English, to that he would either slap me across the chest or glare. It was the same, every single time we had the discussion, but I was quite fond of our light bickering, it improved my mood.

-x-

"Heard that you shouted at people in the hallway today," Of course that would be the first thing Fitz would bring up when I entered his lab, but as per usual I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't even know why he'd bring it up if he knew just how ill-tempered I am. "They were blocking my path." Fitz didn't exactly give me a response; he simply hummed in agreement and dropped the subject. Good boy. Maybe he was beginning to understand that it was pointless.

Luckily for me, I knew just how Fitz worked, so it would be easy to take his mind off of it. "So, where's this new gun you were talking about?" Leo's eyes sparkled with the question, he was very passionate with his work, which was a rare trait nowadays, and I liked that about him, it was one of the things that drew me to him, that and the fact that he was easy to talk to. "I call it ICER. It fires non-lethal bullets with heavy stopping power that break up under the subcutaneous skin, and from there, the bullets are supposed to deliver a tiny amount of dendrotoxin, incapacitating the target long enough for them to be secured with no harmful side effects. Also if your hit a person in the heart or brain it should put them in a brain dead state for a day or so, we still have to run tests, though." Fitz' voice was rushed as he explained to me what the weapon had in store for us, but from what I collected it sounded genial.

"I can't wait to put my hands on it," Once again instead of replying Fitz only hums in agreement, and next thing I know I'm being dragged into the testing room where one of our voluntary guinea pigs was already waiting for us. "Here," Fitz said, placing his newest invention in my hand. "It has .45-caliber cartridges, semi-automatic. Each mag contains eight therapeutic rounds of dendrotoxin." He completes, and I only nod, wrapping my fingers properly around the gun. "It's an ounce too heavy, Fitz." I say, only to bother the man, and that earns myself a slap across the chest, to which I reply with a small smirk.

The next step in the process is to shoot the guinea pig and that was one of my favourite parts, not that I was a bad guy or anything, but there was just something pleasurable about successfully shooting someone. As I stood in place, getting ready to fire at the target, Fitz took a few steps backwards just in precaution, that was how the tests went. Stretching my arm almost all the way forward, I dropped a singular ailed, so I could aim at the voluntary. He didn't look scared at all, what made me think that he had probably been through it at least enough times to grow accustomed to it, though I didn't really remember ever seeing his face before. Rolling one of my shoulders slowly to relax my muscles, I the prepared to shoot, shifting my stance to one that was more suitable to the action, and then I fired.

The gun did not make much noise as the tranquilizer bullet flew towards the target, hitting him on the left shoulder on the exact spot I had been aiming. The man flinched backwards with the impact and then his body fell to the ground, collapsing with a thud as it hit the floor. That was usually when Fitz would walk towards the guinea pig and start running his own tests, and as expected, that was exactly what happened. Leo lowered his elfin physique beside the man in a crouching position, one of his knees was pressed against the ground and one of his palms was located at the man's neck, the other on his wrist, feeling for a pulse. Briefly retracting his appendages to take notes on his tablet, Fitz then descended his head to the level of the voluntary's face on the ground to check if he was breathing properly, and once again he took notes.

Once he was finished with the whole checking process, Fitz stood up and stalked towards me, tapping my shoulder with a huge grin on his lips. "The test was a success." Leo always got excited when one of his inventions worked properly, but I knew that the real reason behind his grin was the thought that maybe he could propose the chosen weapon to the chief of the peacekeepers, so the ICER could be used to control the citizens instead of the fire guns they usually used. In his own manner Fitz was trying to change Panem, make it a safer place for the people even if he could not do much. I admired him for it.

"Do you have another voluntary you want to shoot on the heart to see if he'll get into a brain dead state?" The expression upon my features seemed to be serious and all business, but Fitz knew I was just joking, so he simply shook his head and sat on a chair that was located in the corner of the room, staring at me with a faux stern look, and that's exactly how our testing sessions usually went. Soon someone would come pick the man from the ground and take him to a more comfortable place, so he could be monitored until he awoke, but Fitz and I would stay in the testing room, joking and talking. It was the only way to keep my mind off things.