“There’s no divergent-born in this AU, at least not one that I can tell.” the man spoke, examining his data tablet with a frown to the new dot that appeared “but we need a gifted. Should we just do a flash and grab one of the younger ones?”
“Flash and grabs doesn’t work in magical rooms, dipshit.” The second man spoke, “The Casita will raise the alarms immediately as soon as we step foot out the short-ranger teleporter anywhere else. Have you seen the Casita be creative in the name of defence?”
“No?”
“You don’t. I once watched one Casita fire a tile off like a bullet to take out a man who had a Molotov. It didn’t just kill him, they had to bury the poor soul with the tile in his back.” The second man shook his head, “Look, the best option would be to go to the nursery.”
“We don’t need a Mirabel. She’s useless.” The first one complained, “Nothing special about her in this world. There’s an AU that had baby triplets, we could get them? Leave the red-head baby behind but the healer and the seer would be more useful for Mimic and Sway.”
“I’m not dealing with new-born babies.” The most likely case was he’d probably end up dropping it on it’ head given he wasn’t at all paternal. Babies were easy targets but delicate and these sorts of missions there would bound to be mess; he didn’t need infant-blood on his hand…or puke or shit on him either. At least kids had some control over themselves.
Kids were useful for Mimic and Sway.
The man knew this would ruin the family but… he didn’t feel too much to care. The Watchers had pruned his own world into nothing. Few survivors. It wasn’t fair some worlds got a proper evacuation or… that the magic just protected madrigals. So what if a child or Madrigal went missing for the greater good? No worse than what the Watchers did to recruit for their numbers. He had seen how a loving warmth of motherly love: Julieta Madrigal was turned into a soldier—a weapon of war. The Watchers were far worse because they made their new recruits think they had a choice.
This was kinder.
“So what? We use that world? This world isn’t fully registered yet; it’s unsafe to travel to and from without proper configuration of the quantum signature.” They did have a short window to intercept before the Watchers sent their own data collection done for Intel on the nature of this AU.
“I know,” the second man replied, “We use a portal entry way to get assess and get reconfigured to leave which will take time, I can do that since it’s my speciality. To get the gifted, you use a short-range teleport into the nursery, grab the kid and be out back to our spot before anyone else gets to the door.”
“Which kid would it be?”
“Hopefully the shifter kid, that’s an incredibly versatile gift to have in our job.” He couldn’t stop the slight envy in his voice; the Madrigals got to have magic and gifts; he wished he could have that as well. “He and Mirabel are twins, so it’s likely they still share that space”
“We don’t engage the strong girl at all.”
“Agreed.” The near-adult with super strength was the one they knew to avoid; it wasn’t worth it without the appropriate weapons.
The first man rose to his feet, setting the tablet down and plucked up the rifle before putting it back down in favour of the glock. Far smaller and didn’t need both hands. He pulled out the magazine, double checking the bullets before securing it back in and clipped the security back on.
“Let’s go and set up.”
-
It was a dark night in Casita, lights were blown out and the Madrigals were all asleep before the clock hit 3 am. Casita didn’t move in almost a form of slumber itself, the candle twinkling in the night and barely the wind shifted the shutters. Encanto was dark as well, a few lights on for those still awake but not uncommon.
In the nursery, Antonio’s bed laid empty with his blanket half off the mattress while the toddler having escaped his new bed in favour of his cousin’s; enjoying the warmth of her arms and the comfort of being held that kept him in the world of sleep.
Peaceful.
Normal, even. It was often his mother would find him in Mirabel’s bed and take effort to untangle the thirteen year old and three year old away before she had to get him up for the day but it was always an adorable sight to behold, even if the wake-up made the toddler grumpy.
The peacefulness didn’t last for much longer before a bright flash filled the nursery before heavy feet landed upon the wooden floor and immediately went to the smaller bed before realising the owner was not in it and spun unevenly as Casita’s floor began to rattle at the intrusions, tiles shifted and doors began to clatter.
“What-casita?” The voice of the girl pulled the man’s attention around to see the thirteen year old siting up awake and alert before she gasped out. “No!”
Mirabel dove from her covers towards the direction the opening door, a younger child in arms that was the target but the man reacted faster to his holster, his gun raised and his finger squeezing the trigger before the echo clapped like thunder making the intruder’s ears ring… but the girl dropped off the end of her bed, barely getting far at all. Blood pool from her head and lay unresponsive as the toddler began to scream
“No you don’t!” The man yanked the kid up into his arms, impressed at the toddlers attempts to wiggle free before he shoved the kid head first into the bag he had over his shoulder and grabbed his ticket out of there.
“ANTONIO!”
“MIRABEL!”
The dual cries of the first two to reach the nursery were gone as he threw down the teleporter and was swept away before they could make it two steps in.
