Part Three: 4

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Agent Jinx

Jinx was repulsed at the creature sitting in the corner of the cell behind the tempered glass. Overseer Sickle, who stood next to her, told her its codename was 'the Skinny Man' and she could tell why. The porcelain-white skinned humanoid figure sat with its spindly legs crossed, yet it still had to stoop its extremely long neck to avoid the ceiling. Worse yet, its thin and lengthy arms played with a small doll with long black hair that mirrored the creature's own. It looked like a scene right out of a nightmare.

"It really isn't dangerous," Sickle said. "They found it in the ruins of some castle in Europe. Its first reaction was to hide from the Agents, it didn't attack. We had to bring it here because it almost scared some potential property buyers to death. Messy stuff, took a while to Gaslight them. Had to get a whole Mind-Crew in there."
Sickle hummed an uplifting tune as he plugged a cord from his arm into a small terminal. "Vitals are fine. It's emotion... it's feeling a bit depressed. A little bit of serotonin and dopamine will get 'em back on their feet, so to speak."

Jinx watched as a few of the white-grey panels of the cell's ceiling flipped inward as a sprayer popped out. Green and orange gas spilled out, visible for only a few seconds before it bonded with the oxygen in the air. The Skinny man smiled, showing missing teeth, and looked toward them even though Jinx knew it couldn't see through the one-sided glass.

"Alright, on to the next!" Sickle shouted buoyantly. Jinx could tell he enjoyed caring for these creatures. They left the viewing area of the Skinny Man's cell and went to the next. Two security Agents passed by, and one gave Jinx a wink, causing her to blush against her will. As an Agent, they swore off any love of any sort, but that didn't stop the feelings even if they removed an Agent's reproductive system.

They went to the next cell and entered what felt like another world. The temperature had to be in the minuses, Celcius or Fahrenheit, and the walls were covered in frost. Jinx saw that the glass had been reinforced with crisscrossed bars since the glass was probably much more brittle.

"This is the Amnesiac!" Sickle said, pointing through the bars at the divergence on the other side. It was flying around the icy cell's walls, and Jinx realized that it was in fact a shadow.

"To the naked eye, it's entirely invisible," Sickle explained as he checked the terminal, "but its shadow is always visible. In colder temperatures, it moves at a slower speed."

The Agent watched the shadow of the Amnesiac bounce around the walls extremely fast. She wondered what its speed was normally if this was considered slow.

"When it starts coming toward us, tell me." Sickle warned as he looked at his metal arm.

Jinx watched the divergence, and it seemed to be unaware of the two humans' presence.

"Vitals are fine, but it's really agitated."

"Is that usual?"

"No, the last time it felt agitated was the Only Incident."

The tone in the room got dead serious for a total of a minute before Sickle unplugged his arm. "Let's go. If its shadow passes over you, you start to forget a lot of things. The cold negates its ability to sense human presence, so it's safe to say that chances of survival in the cold when it's slower and doesn't know you're there is much higher than if it were hunting you anywhere else." They began to walk to the next cell after Jinx locked up the exterior cell in the hallway.

"Sir, you don't have to explain every divergence to me, I'm just a security Agent."

"Yes, I'm aware of that, but you show interest in the creatures, like me. Agent Nuke never really cared for them like we do. I enjoy telling others about these amazing creatures."

At the next cell, Jinx began to unlock the door, the same way as almost every cell door in the station. The Nebulium hand goes on the scanner, then they awaited confirmation from the head of security.

"Keep this up," Sickle patted Jinx's shoulder, as the door slid sideways, "and Agent Nuke just might be replaced."

The next cell of Cellblock D housed a cat. Of course, it was a black cat with one large red eye in the center of its head and at least a 15-foot red striped tail that it had curled up and used as a bed, so it was far from normal.

"And what is this?" Jinx asked as Sickle checked the divergence's vitals and emotions. She felt her hand go into gun mode, even though the animal was still behind some tempered glass. It was common practice for an Agent to accompany an Overseer as they checked the divergences because as much as a monster had never escaped their cell, certain anomalies have... distracted, hurt (mentally or physically), or otherwise given an Overseer something to worry about. Especially if an Overseer had to step into the cell for any reason.

"A 'what'? Agent, this is a living being! It thinks for itself, hardly to be considered an object in my books."

Jinx rolled her eyes but smiled. "Let me rephrase: Who is this?"

"Much better. This is Katnip. I named her myself, along with most of the creatures in Cellblock D. I do kind of run the place."

Jinx looked at the cat, who stared right back at her through the glass. She stopped thinking of it as dangerous and more... cute
.
"Oh," Sickle peered over his glasses at Jinx, "and you should be aware that Katnip strangled over a dozen people before we could catch her. Each was drawn in by looking into her eye."

Jinx turned her head sharply away from the creature. "You could have said that before we entered, y'know... as a warning?"

"I don't think she's dangerous!"

"You said it killed over twelve people!"

Sickle cringed. "Probably in self defense,"

There was a beep as the bio-scan was complete, and Sickle looked down at the terminal in dismay.

"What'd the beep mean?" Jinx asked, knowing the answer was probably unfavorable, judging by Sickle's face.

"Means she's sick," The Overseer took a syringe out of a small container beside the terminal and flicked the orange liquid in it. "I need to administer this to her."

"What?! You can't go in there, the three other Overseers always send someone else in to help the divergence, don't they? Doesn't Agent Nuke ever go in for you?"

Sickle cringed again. "Absolutely not. He may be a tough guy, but his care for... er... little things is.... um... practically nonexistent."

"Fine, I'll do it." Jinx furrowed her brow, wondering why Sickle had begun to act weird.

"Remember... only retaliate if she's about to kill you,"

Jinx looked at him, bewildered. Sickle only shrugged.

"I don't want to hurt her, that's all!"

Jinx turned to the inner cell door and placed her metal hand on the scanner. The door to the cell was glass, so she could see Katnip turn her big red eye on Jinx, staring. The Agent tore her eyes away and held a hand out to Sickle, who put the thick syringe in her open palm.

"Make sure to put it right below her shoulder, the virus she has affects the legs."

Jinx steadied her shoulder against the door, ready to slide in the moment she pressed the 'open' button. "Do I have to be worried about the virus being contagious?"

"Oh, no, of course not. It doesn't affect humans at all."

Jinx took a deep breath and held the syringe up. She muttered something, a prayer, maybe, and opened the door.

At first, Katnip showed no interest in the Agent's approach, but eventually got up and began to walk around the outer circular wall of the cell, tail trailing behind. Jinx knew her armor was tough, but everyone who's owned a cat before knows that feline claws are as deadly as a knife, and nothing can fully protect someone from their sting.

"Here kitty-kitty-kitty, got a treat here." Jinx noted that four cuffs were on the cat's leg, but Sickle had unchained her for obvious reasons. The Agent reasoned that she could ask to chain Katnip back up, but ultimately decided against it and slowly continued her approach.

The cat fixed her red eye on Jinx, but the Agent focused on the spot below the shoulder, where you could see a bony protrusion through the black fur. Suddenly, the tail swung around and coiled about Jinx's legs, but didn't tighten. She went rigid as the tip of the tail slithered past her knees. Did she shoot? It didn't seem like Katnip had any malicious intentions, it just seemed like the divergence was testing the waters.

Jinx began to shuffle her legs forward with what little room the tail gave her; the tip was now circling her waist like a living belt, and the cat was still at least three steps away. Through the glass door, she saw Sickle giving her two thumbs up in encouragement, which seemed nice enough but really did nothing to cease the panic now growing in Jinx, because the tail had begun to tighten.

"Now or never," She grunted as she spread her legs as far as she could. Katnip hissed, her eye contracted into a single slit. Jinx, with the syringe held high, waddled forward and predictably tripped as the tail pulled tighter. But in quick succession, she thrust the syringe forward before face planting into the cold white tile that smelt like cat, unsurprisingly.

The needle broke through Katnip's skin. She hissed and bounced backward, loosening the tail a little bit, giving Jinx the edge she needed to make her hand into an Indexer and aim at the tail before realizing the chance of hitting herself instead of the red-striped tail was higher than she would have liked. Quan suddenly flashed in her head, handing her the toolcaster for exact situations like this. Did she want to hurt Katnip? No, Jinx just wanted to survive. And when you're in fight-or-flight mode, and you can't run, the only option is to fight.
She canceled the Indexer and reached into her pocket, hand grasping the silver tube like a lifeline as the tail began to tighten. When she tried to pull her hand out of her pant pocket, she found that the tail was pinning her wrist to the side of her leg. In simple terms, she couldn't take the toolcaster out, and it was getting hard to breathe.

Aiming both tips of the silver pen away from her, she put all her oxygen-deprived mindpower into one last word: spear.

She heard a cat cry and promptly blacked out.

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