The Most Adorable Creature

Not the Only One

Working with Killjoy could never be boring, all feelings aside, the German was one of the most brilliant in the entire world. She never ran out of ideas or things to try. If something didn't work Killjoy could be trusted to think outside the box and find a solution no one ever thought of. She was an engineering powerhouse; fluent in more programming languages than Viper could name and completely aware of every part of their project.

Viper on the other hand, was a fish out of water. When brainstorming ideas and concepts for blueprints, she had played a part. But now when actually assembling the project, she felt useless. Her scientific specialties were always on the biology and chemistry side, and less on the physics and engineering side. But engineering inaptitude wasn't the only thing that the chemist left like she was lacking. She truly felt disconnected from her lab partner. Killjoy wasn't treating her any different, but now every action had to be triple checked.

She was stupid to think that it would be that easy. The engineer didn't need feelings on her plate of things to figure out. Killjoy had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and as much as Brimstone and the others wanted to let her know she wasn't alone... she was. No one else in the protocol would be able to stop the spike. No one in the world would be able to make the spike. No one in the world was like Killjoy.

For as long as Viper had been working from her lab, she had never gotten as many visitors as she had these last few weeks. The German was like a magnet. It was as if every agent in the protocol needed to talk to her about God knows what. A crowd of duelists would follow the scientists from their rooms to the cafeteria and then to the lab every day... every single day. But Viper would be lying if she didn't find the company entertaining. Sage joined their table most mornings, sitting right next to Jett and sipping on tea.

The duelists would usually wander off after about 5 minutes of scientific talk, and then Viper would have Killjoy to herself for a good hour or two. If the chemist got lucky, she would hopefully have a full two hours before a pest would come in whining about wi-fi speed or something trivial.

But the controller was not so lucky and today's pest was none other than–

"Reyna?" Killjoy sounded confused at the duelist's sudden appearance.

Viper looked up from her vials of poison. "What are you doing here Reyna, surely you're not bored enough to try lab work?" she teased.

The Mexican woman laughed, walking through the room and right up to Killjoy to examine what she was doing. "I'm here to ask you two something."

Both scientists glanced at each other, only getting more confused. It was unlike Reyna to need anything from anyone.

"Go on," Viper stated skeptically.

Reyna stopped examining the defuser and straightened her posture. "My sister, Lucia, is turning fifteen in a month."

Eyebrows raised in the duelist's direction.

"I want to give her a quinceanera."

"A what?" Killjoy looked even more confused than before.

"It's a Mexican 15 year old girl's birthday party," the controller said plainly.

"It's very formal, comparable to an American wedding," Reyna explained, "Lucia always wanted one. She doesn't even think it's possible, but I want to do it for her."

"Awww," the German grinned, "You're such a good older sister, Reyna."

The duelist momentarily blushed at the comment before catching herself. Scowling at the scientists, she stalked out, "I will email you the details," she called out behind her.