"So basically, we found the device in a cave-like structure." The tall lean owl in a lab coat looked nervously down on his clipboard. "We are still unsure about its use but we suspect…"
"I know what it is…" Hobbs held the monolithically looking long white device like a baby in his arms as he broke into cold sweat. The dreams that haunted him lately and got stronger every day since he was released from the hospital.
At first, he thought it was just some kind of PTSD, a trauma that his mind needed to wrap itself around. But a few days ago they had manifested into tangible images. He had seen the device he held in his hands. He had seen it destroy creatures like the advisor. Eagerly he changed his grip and held it like a rifle, aiming at the scientist.
"They are always the same. They always look like this…" He mumbled and continued taking aim at his subordinate who nervously tried to step out of the line of fire, but Hobbs kept aiming and a grin formed on his face.
"Calm down boy, I don't have a clue how to fire it, yet." He slowly put down the rifle and, even if it felt like giving away a shield right before a hail of errors would come down, he handed the rifle back to the scientist. "If you are able to get this running, we might finally have a weapon against our enemy."
"We are on it, Sir," The sweat-drenched scientist said. "Based on the results of the last artifact we should be able to soon make a new breakthrough."
"On the shoulders of giants." Hobbs patted the owl's shoulder approvingly. Everything went according to plan. If this nerd was right, they should crack the enigma around the weapon soon. What he remembered in half-lucid pictures was an unreal amount of energy stored in the device.
A shot from it could kill everything they had built, he supposed. A shot could probably even kill whole armies. The proof for that the scientist had to bring though. After all, why was he pouring about 80 percent of their budget into research and development?
"You got anything else for me?" he asked, and the scientist nodded. He pointed at a metal case, about the size of a gun case for an M16 but twice the height.
"We still trying to figure out what it does exactly it…" the scientist started talking about emission spectrums and results of radiation measurements, but Hobbs was already over the case opening it slowly.
He wanted to savor this moment. It was like getting a two-for-one. A weapon and a new artifact. The lock's cold black metal clicked when he eagerly opened the case. In there, bedded into a perfectly fitting notch in the aluminum, lay a rather nondescript-looking rod-shaped device. Hobb's grin widened, yes, it matched the style the other artifacts had.
Cautious fingers spread out to firmly grasp the artifact and as Hobbs held it in his hands he could feel the raw power he was handling. A bent image of a night with barely sleep flashed before his eyes before it nested back into his subconscious.
"What is its purpose?" Hobbs whispered feeling the crackling of energy from his hand.
"We are not completely sure but… but it… it warps space." The scientist stared horrified at the device in the general's hand.
"It wraps sp… How?" Hobbs looked down at the rod in his hand. He turned it searching for some kind of button or mechanism.
"You need to hold the device at both ends just with your fingertips."
"Like this?" General Hobbs followed the given instructions and before the scientist could voice a word of warning the room seemed to expand into infinity.
The massive 10-centimeter-thick oak door of the room seemed miles away, almost not visible anymore from his vantage point. Mouth agape Hobbs looked at the stretched-out vastness. He needed moments that felt like days to wrap his mind around what happened. He controlled space just by holding the device in a certain way. Slowly his eyes moved from the faraway walls back down onto the artifact.
Was the key to using it maybe just the way you held it? Cautiously Hobbs moved his hands together holding the rod just with his two thumbs and forefingers in the middle. Again, the room reacted by wrapping itself into a toroidal shape. For the first time in his life, Hobbs had the chance to look at his back without a mirror as, just a few meters down the torus he himself stood holding the rod.
"Sir please…" The scientist's words were barely audible for Hobbs as his new toy seemed to overpower his mind.
"The lightnings in our hands." He gasped reverently and laid the artifact back into its aluminum sarcophagus. The room relaxed again and found its comfortable normal shape once more.
"We need to run more tests on that. I bet this has other functions." Hobbs looked over to the scientist who terrified looked at the case. "What are you waiting for? Go!"
With a start, the owl grabbed the case and dragged it out of the office panting. Hobbs waited until the door fell into its lock before twirling on his feet.
Could the day get even better? A weapon and a new artifact and soon a way to be done with that advisor creature. What then? Well, there were still a lot of subversive elements Hobbs liked to have a word with. Step by step he would make the world a better place by projecting the newfound power all over the globe.
There were a lot of states that needed a friendly reminder that the US government was the one calling the shots. For a moment Hobbs had doubts if he maybe thought too little with the power given to him. Why just project power if you can simply take it? Of course, the current administration was all about peace here and good relationships there all for the economy's sake.
Hobbs missed the time when he was a recruit, back then when the aggressions were macro and the only thing to fear was complete nuclear annihilation. Good times, he never felt more alive. Deep inside of him, he wished he could bring it all back, or even make it better with the fear of just being on the other side. Every piece of the not first-world would fear his might.
But for now, the main goal was the advisor, if the world was safe from this threat, everything else would be a piece of cake.
The almost silent sound of knocking on the door brought his power fantasies to a quick halt. "Come in." He ordered as his body returned to the known militarily stiff pose.
A bunny entered. He was tall, had pale yellow fur, and wore a black suit with a black bowtie. Though a little too slender for his taste Hobbs would have called him handsome.
"Ah, Mr. Rabbit, what do you have for me?" Hobbs asked while giving Rabbit a quick salute. The other lagomorph replied with a gesture that looked more like a wave before handing a manila folder over to Hobbs.
"Surveillance has something interesting they said." The bunny crossed his arms and grinned widely.
"Ah, splendid." Hobbs opened the folder and started skimming the documents. "So, you got settled?" he asked while his eyes were occupied.
Rabbit shrugged languidly. "It's my second week, I haven't met a lot of people besides Katswell."
"There's no excitement working with your old partner?"
"There is but regarding other things." Rabbit grinned and Hobbs would have probably been tipped off by the grin if his eyes weren't glued to the file. The last bit of focus dedicated to the conversation with Mr. Rabbit shifted to the folder and what had been written there.
Suspect's whereabouts correlated several times with energy readings.
Suspect dwells for several minutes at the locations.
Suspect leaves the location shortly before or after the energy readings fade.
Suspect's demeanor is mostly nervous or stressed before and after energy peaks.
High probability of collaborating with alien forces.
"Yeah but who…" thought Hobbs and turned a few pages until he arrived at a person's description with a photo. Someone in the surveillance department had put it in the back of the file and probably slipped it in at the last minute. Hobbs's eyes widened he had seen the collaborator, he had shaken his hand.
Hurriedly he closed the file and looked at his agent who still stood there and watched him grinning.
"Get Katswell, emergency meeting in 2 hours." He ordered sternly.
As Hobbs slammed his manila folder shut, Dudley, sitting in his office, was far from closing the file in front of him. He was checking the paperwork from recent cases, the chief had told him about some irregularities and asked him to check on them.
It was tedious and soul-grinding work for him and he knew that the chief just gave him this task to make him stop nagging about the T.U.F.F. prison wing he was advocating for. Dumbrowski had some resentment against the idea that Dudley couldn't understand and the chief couldn't pack into words. So instead of talking it out, they were playing this game.
Dudley sighed and looked up from the paper stack. Lately, he had problems reading longer than 5 minutes without getting a headache. He had told that to Keswick and he had suggested a visit to an ophthalmologist. His appointment was later that day and Dudley hoped he wouldn't have to resort to glasses.
It maybe was vain, but he feared looking dorky with a pair of glasses. Contact lenses were an option of course but he hated the idea of putting something into his eyes, he was quite touchy when it came to them.
A knock on the door gave his unfocused eyes some more time to rest as they could easily look at Agent Rodriguez who entered Dudley's office wearing a frown on her face.
"Agent Rodriguez?" he enquired tilting his head a little to the side.
"Dudley." She said and closed the door. Dudley rolled his eyes, he made an effort to be more professional, to grow into this role that was given him, but Karla had none of that.
She clung to the past and made this whole transition a lot more difficult for him.
"I think I was clear about…" A stab of headache made him give up on the sentence's initial path resulting in a simple: "What is it, Karla?"
"I am just wondering why you feel obligated to check my paperwork?" She walked up to his table and slammed both of her hands down on it, leaning over Dudley like she wanted to herald the day of judgment. Dudley never felt more like a pencil pusher as he calmly looked her in the eyes and said. "You mean Rick's paperwork."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Look, I read a lot of reports now and Rick's work is… how should I put it, tidy to a pathologic degree. It even beats Kitty's paperwork in accuracy and detail." He pointed down at the open folder. "I read some reports written by you and you're not nearly writing that soberly."
"That's no proof." Karla had stepped away from the table and crossed her arms averting Dudley's gaze like a stubborn toddler.
"Do you want me to get some expert here to prove that?" He stood up and walked over to her. "Look, I personally don't care if Rick is helping you out with your paperwork, as long as everything is in order."
"So? Something wrong then?"
Dudley simply shrugged. "Haven't seen anything yet, besides Rick doing your papers. So, relax, would you? I have enough problems I do not need a paranoid agent."
Karla took a deep breath and her shoulders slumped down. "Sorry, lot of stress lately."
"Indeed." Dudley nodded. "And speaking of that, I got more things to do so is there anything else I can do for you?"
"You can but…" Karla said hesitantly. "It's more of a private matter."
"Just shoot."
"It's about Kitty… she's lately not answering my texts, is she alright?"
Dudley froze for a moment when her name was dropped. The information that she now was ghosting her friends felt in a way relieving. At least her behavior wasn't just avoiding him for the sake of avoiding a conversation. But the consequences of it were unnerving. Was she cutting herself loose from everything she knew?
"I…" he started trying to compose himself. "I think physically she's alright."
Karla stared at him for that answer replying with a simple "What?" which loosened up his tongue more.
"See she… She hasn't been there a lot lately. The only words she said to me yesterday were 'Good morning'."
Karla's stare now turned from confusion into shock. Big eyes fixated on Dudley as she asked. "Have you two… broken up?"
"No, at least not as far as I know…" He tried to soften his words with a chuckle but it must have sounded rather sad, at least that's what he read from Karla's face.
"Damn Dudley, I'm sorry, I always thought you two kind of complete each other."
"Hey, we are not…"
Karla walked up to him and hugged him jamming the last few words on his tongue. "If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm there, okay?" She said as she released him from her embrace.
"I am fine I…" he stammered but was once more interrupted.
"I know I know…" She said as she opened the door. "Just know, I'm there." And without waiting for further response, she left the office leaving Dudley with a stomach of stirred emotions.
"Great…" he sighed and followed a habit he had every time he thought about Kitty. He pulled his cell phone out and checked for messages.
Usually, he looked at the device a few dozen times a day, but especially after thinking about her he searched every communication channel for a message he might have missed. But as always, nothing new, at least not from Kitty. But 12 missed calls from his mother. He sighed again and dialed her back.
A few missed calls were nothing special, if his mom tried to call him she usually tried not less than ten times to get through. She couldn't really understand the concept of being occupied when it came to him.
The phone just rang twice before she took the call. "Hello?"
"Hi mom, you called?"
"Dudley!" His mother's words emitted pure joy. "Sweetie, why haven't you taken my calls earlier?"
"I'm at work, mom." He sighed and in response heard a gasp from his mother.
"Still? It's 8pm! You should go home and rest sweetie, you're working too hard."
Dudley sighed once more, conversations with his mother over the phone were an experience so draining that he peered over to the pile of files on his desk. "What can I do for you, mom?"
"Oh sweetie, I have exciting news! But I don't want to tell you over the phone, why don't you come for dinner tomorrow, let's say 7pm?"
Knowing full well that a 'no' would escalate the talk into an hour-long discussion Dudley quickly agreed. "Yeah, sure. But I got to get back to work mom."
"Okay sweetie, just don't overstrain yourself."
"I won't mom." He said with his finger ready to end the call.
"Okay sweetie, bye." In the end, to Dudley's surprise, she ended the call which made him stare on the phone in disbelief.
"That's… odd." He mumbled to himself before sitting back down on his desk. The night would stretch on until 3am.
Dudley typed a last message into his phone before he decided to call it a night and sleep on the futon Kitty had left in the office before quitting. It would be a short night and an uncomfortable one but he knew that sleeping here was a lot less painful than in his empty apartment.