514A checked the text as it came through, reading it quickly, before switching his phone off. Another message from Howard: among the last people 514A wanted to even think about at that moment in time.
He tucked his belongings in his bag, eyes on his target, and took a deep breath. The clone’s blank expression flicked into one of fear and caution, and he shouldered his bag up to scuffle into the throes of people. Picking up his pace and deepening his breaths to mimic that he had been running, 514A reached out at the last moment to grab the wrist of an older man as he pushed his front door open.
Immediately the other tried to brush him off.
“Please!” 514A gasped, peering wide eyed up at the man. “Dr. Read, please”
514A waited, shaking and wary of what the man’s reaction would be, flicking his head slightly to whip his hair aside. When his face was revealed, Dr. Read’s face flickered with recognition and 514A could hear the man’s heart beat steady. He let go.
“Subject 514A?”
“I call myself Calvin now” 514A twitched a smile, which Dr. Read returned, looking mystified. “Calvin Rose”
“You, you call yourself Calvin?” Dr. Read repeated, his smile widening when 514A nodded earnestly. He darted a glance around at the public, drifting by without giving them a second glance, and beckoned 514A in.
Keeping his posture hunched, 514A followed Dr. Read through the threshold and made sure to flinch when the door closed. Dr. Read whispered an apology, looking at the clone as if he were going to make a break for it, a frightened animal, even though 514A had come to him.
“Calvin is a nice name” Dr. Read said after an awkward pause, during which 514A took in every inch of the man’s front room. The stairs, 14 steps. Three pictures of family members but only one coat on the hanger. “Rose. Is that after-?”
“Kelly Rose, yes” 514A interrupted, then bashfully looked down. “She was nice to me”
Dr. Read looked sad for a moment. He’d heard about Kelly’s death from another colleague, who still hadn’t got back to him on when the funeral was. To think of dying alone like that...
“She always hated what we did to you all, kept saying it wasn’t what she signed up for” Dr. Read reminisced, leading 514A through to the kitchen to put out drinks for them. He checked that hot chocolate was okay, and at 514A’s nod began boiling some water. “Some of them were able to see you all as things but not her, not me. I testified against the others you know, got witness protection out of it but that... that doesn’t save me from my own punishment. I’m so, so sorry for what we did to you, to all those other poor souls.”
He turned to 514A, tears in his eyes, and laughed faintly. “I can’t believe you’re alive. I heard they ‘terminated’ so many of Indian Hill’s victims, wanted to keep it quiet. Should have known you’d get away. You always were remarkable, Calvin”
514A dipped his head at the praise, whispering a thank you when Dr. Read handed him his drink.
“As talkative as ever” Dr. Read guffawed, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe 514A was really in front of him. “They should have made you more talkative, but then that wouldn’t fit your Template”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m a character in a Play Station game” 514A looked up, expression pained. He wanted to ask who his Template was. But that wasn’t why he was there. He was not his Template. He was Talon.
Do not stray.
Dr. Read looked abashed, putting down the kettle and switching off the gas. 514A’s narrowed in on the extinguishing flames. “Sorry, Calvin. There’s no excuse for that... Can you tell me how you got out? Where you’ve been? Did other’s survive?”
514A took a sip of his hot chocolate, tucking himself into one of the bar stools, which made Dr. Read smile and join him. Elbow to elbow, 514A spent an hour or more telling Dr. Read all about how he crawled out through the vents and ran, how he caught a ride in the back of a truck and made his way over weeks to Central City where he lived for some time, before he was encountered by Kelly, who’d been placed there as part of her own witness protection. The rest was history, 514A said, falling into Kelly’s old sayings.
“I’m sorry for your loss” Dr. Read offered after a quiet moment remembering her. He patted the back of 514A’s hand. “If you don’t mind me asking, but where were you when she..?”
514A didn’t answer for the longest time. They sat in companionable silence in the simplistic kitchen, sipping their respective drinks.
It was dark outside, the last rays of sunlight passing away through the curtains, and 514A shifted his wrist as he put his drink down, finished.
“I was there”
Dr. Read hacked on his last dregs of coffee. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Calvin”
“I broke her neck”
It was fascinating, this part. Sensing how the target froze and their body shifted between fight or flight, and most simply... stayed frozen. Kelly hadn’t had time, but 514A found most of the scientists had tried to flee or stayed frozen. Every one of the experiments had tried to fight him.
They had all lost.
“She fell down the stairs” Denial. Shock.
514A nodded. “She did. After I broke her neck I pushed her down the stairs, then I tore the carpet so it appeared as though she had tripped”
Flee. Again. Dr. Read was predictable, just like the other scientists. Easily led by their guilt and desire for some kind of forgiveness. They all had the same claims too. I regret it. It was wrong. We shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t really want to, it was the others. I felt too scared to speak up and stop it.
Liars.
514A flicked his wrist, faster than regular eyes could track, darting a blade into the man’s jugular and slashing to a halt the man’s attempt to rise from his seat. His hulking old body dropped to the floor, and face splashed with ruby, 514A watched a plane glint past in the night sky as red life gushed from his target.
When the man stopped fitting on the floor, 514A slipped down from his stool and walked over to the stove, flicking on the notches.
.
“Please! Dr. Lau, please help me!” 514A begged, huddled in the archway of the woman’s drive. She was the last one. The last one before them.
After her, 514A had only more two names left on the Clean Up assignment.
“—–there. You see that slight twitch, the wrinkle in the forehead, surprised about his own words. He’s lying and doesn’t even realize it,” he stated aloud, mostly to himself or perhaps the person next to him. It was a public space after all, he decided to end his discussion early simply to— people watch.
514A could see it too. Micro expressions. But what stumped him was how someone could believe such a strong lie. His eyes trailed to his target, in the background lined up behind the speaker, and counted her breaths as she took them, splitting his analysis from the speaker to her and back again.
“How can one lie to oneself?” 514A inquired, inclining his head at the stranger.
Looking up from the novel in her hands she glanced at the person to her left and noticed something, ‘Excuse me. You have a piece of fuzz on your shoulder.’ Rachel returned to gazing at her book.
Fuzz. A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.
514A looked to where the stranger said and plucked it off between his fingers, studying it before letting it go in the breeze. He cast her a brief look.
5 has literally punched more people than he's smiled at. He's statistically more likely to deck you than even speak to you. He has a very sharp, clear view on people he gives a shit about vs people he can't be bothered to pretend to be nice to, and the ratio is very uneven.
‘ i’m trying to have a GOOD DAY and be a GOOD PERSON but you ruined that! ‘ duela yelled at the unconscious body. ‘ i’m trying to be what other people think i won’t be! and it can’t happen with people being sketchy and FOLLOWING me around! ‘
He tried to see where she was looking, but couldn’t see anything there. The clone quirked his head at her. Whatever the problem was she was clearly distressed, and 514A didn’t care, it was her words not her mood that brought his attention.
There was something different about 5 that she couldn’t quite figure out but between the lack of sleep and her lack of nutrients, she wasn’t as quick to make observations. Everything around her had slowed down while her heart rate seemed to have picked up–an unusual combination and terrifying too. She wasn’t sure what was going through 5′s mind but she did look on with great interest and tried holding on as much as possible.
When 5 mentioned Eliza,she remained quiet,expression softened. She knew by now how much the girl had meant to 5. She listened to the possibly ways she could die,unfazed by most of the ideas simply because they had replayed in her mind before. She had prepared herself to die in front of the Joker before and when she arriving during the invasion, Jubilee knew there was a possibility she wouldn’t come out of it. But there was a reason why 5 was saying these things and the more she thought about it, the less she made a connection. She blamed it on how ill she felt. “That’s true.” She whispered, trying to keep up with the young boy.
“Again, all true…”Her words drifted, the back of her eyes aching for her to lie down somewhere and close them for a while. As he spoke about her dying in the hands of a friend, she hung on longer, taking a deep breath and struggling to determine why this was being said. Those last two are synonymous. The sentence played in her mind several time as Jubilee gathered her thoughts.
It wasn’t until it clicked that she noticed the different knives now on the table and she looked up to take a glimpse of the vial in his hands.
She froze.
Jubilee held her breath, gaze bouncing from the vial to 5 to the vial again and back to 5 again. Why this was happening she couldn’t be so sure but she refused to believe 5 had poisoned her. Couldn’t be. She’d feel it by now. He said it was a painful way to die after all and the only pain she felt was heartbreak. “I am most definitely not immune, 5.” She replied in a tense tone, hands gripping the side of her chair. She didn’t want to place blame. She couldn’t. Why would she do that to him? Then again, he was right about others being able to hurt her. “5…” She whispered. “What’s going on?”
With a faked sigh, 514A put the vial down and popped the grape in his mouth, chewing slowly. He wanted to tell Jubilation everything was fine and she had nothing to fear from him, but it wasn’t true and he refused to lie to her.
He gave her what he new was likely a useless smile.
“Of course you are not, which is why the content of this vial is in a sealed bottle and not on the grapes you ate” 514A told her. “I have not poisoned you, Jubilation, however there is nothing to say I will not in the future. Or kill you any other way that is convenient”
What was going on? Horrible things, was the definitive answer to that. He had heard about the threats going around but they interested him as far as the colour of his neighbor’s front door did. 514A knew it had the entire city in a panic, and more close to home Jubilation, but other than that at best he admired their tactics. Motivation uncertain, but how they went about it was crafted.
“My time here, being with you, in this building... I have liked being looked at the way you look at me, like I am a person: however the way you treat me has fed dangerous delusions that Isabella Kristen recently liberated me from. I am not a singer or a homeless child, I am an assassin. I kill people, Jubilation. I was created for it. Every tiny detail of my design was specific to that occupation: I was made to infiltrate, mimic and kill” 514A’s hand was shaking, irrationally so, and he dropped both hands under the table in a smooth movement to hide it. The young clone carried on, putting on the voice of the gentleman he saw her talking to. Harry, was it? His posture and expression drifting into that which he observed the man in question using. “From voices to personality, I am designed to copy it all”
Then he flicked back.
“So is Isabella Kristen. We are marvels of biotechnology” He said it with certainty. “We both have very intricate programming and at current her primary objective is Edward Nygma’s whims. Mine are whatever she or Mother commands of me” He paused, watching Jubilee to see if she was understanding him yet. Cautiously, he carried on, voice slow and quiet. “You are placing yourself in a dangerous situation with Isabella Kristen. She and I are weapons, the best the Court of Owls has, and if you continue to display aggressive behaviour to Isabella Kristen’s primary objective then I cannot say for what will happen, only that it will not be pleasant for you”
514A cocked his head. “You have time to, as they say, ‘smooth things over’. My kin is at current distracted by a private detective making the same mistakes you are”
“Na, I don’t think we need to go to the hospital.”
“It’s fireproof.”
“What does this button do?”
“Are you sure the power is off?”
“Which wire was I supposed to cut?”
“I’ve seen this done on TV.
“I can make this light before it changes
“I can do that with my eyes closed
“They can’t hit us at this range!
“No, dude, this stuff is completely natural and safe, man. That’s why it’s called ‘herbal.‘”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s dead by now.
“Oops
“Don’t worry, it’s not contagious.
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing.
“He can’t hear us, he’s miles away
“I’m sure this isn’t the poisonous kind.
“Don’t worry, we outnumber them.
“I’m sure it’s just the wind.
“Of course it’s safe!
“No, I’m sure they cleaned out this mine field years ago.
“No, this tribe is peaceful!
“Hey, what’s this switch?
“Calm down, of course I disarmed it!
“Well, it can’t get any worse!
“C'mon! This CAN’T be the self-destruct button. If it was, they wouldn’t leave it lying around like this where anyone could push it!
“Don’t worry, they’ll never find us in here!
“These pills are awfully small.. I’ll take a few more to be sure they work.
“No, no, these are safe, I’ve seen birds eat them all the time.
“ Watch, I’ll prove it!
“Don’t be silly, it isn’t loaded.
“Trust me, I know what I’m doing.
“Bet you can’t do this.”
“I can’t believe no one has ever thought of this before.”
“Lightning never hits the same spot twice”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
you know what trope pisses me off the most? when the protag is pointing a gun at somebody and they’re like “you won’t do it. you’re too good” and the person holding the gun is like oh shit i am and they slowly lower the gun while the other person laughs. WHAT THE FUCK. if i were there, and somebody told me “you won’t do it” i would immediately shoot them dead without hesitating. who are you to tell me what i wont do. musty bitch
