The Sleepwalker

Part Three: 6

Overseer Sickle
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The Overseer watched Jinx's sleeping body in the medbay. Bandages covered her torso, where Katnip had broken a few ribs. But honestly, Sickle thought that Katnip got the raw end of the deal, losing her life where the Agent didn't even lose any bones. Sickle remembered the way that they euthanized her, when she wasn't even fully dead yet. They said she had been suffering, that it was easier this way. Sickle wasn't having any of it, his job was to protect these creatures, how is he to do that when they're just killing them all?

He was aware of a nurse tapping his shoulder, so he spun and was surprised to find himself face-to-face with Agent Nuke, who was Sickle's guard before sustaining a complete memory loss from the Amnesiac divergence. Thankfully, the Society managed to cover it up, telling everyone that he broke his leg instead (Which he technically did, but it was very minor. The Society didn't exactly tell the whole truth)

"Do... I know you?" Nuke said slowly. Sickle remembered how Nuke had pushed the Overseer out of the shadow and took the full brunt of Amnesiac's power. But Sickle also won't forget how Nuke tried to shoot the divergence; he almost hurt the poor creature.

"No, I don't think so." Sickle lied. He had originally wanted Jinx to be his new guard, since she cared about creatures, but now after she practically murdered Katnip? He dispised the Agent, alongside Nuke.

"Nurse? You might want to take this patient back to his bed."

He turned back to Jinx as a woman and a man, both dressed in blue garb, took Nuke by the shoulders and pulled him back to one of eight beds, three of which were occupied by Jinx, an unnamed Agent that had been stung by a swarm of Red Bees, and in the far corner sat Hazard, whose hands were chained to the bed.
Sickle thought abot going over to see her, but then realized it was she who gave Warden the idiotic idea of putting two dangerous divergences together. Sickle seemed like the only Overseer who cared about whether they killed each other or not.

The door to the hallway slid open and a man in white armor came in, bekoning for Sickle to follow him.

"The Expanse is ready sir," he said once Sickle was near, "Warden is about to inform everyone what's happening over the loudspeakers; he sent me to collect the Overseers and tell them to go to the control room."

Sickle nodded and they stood to the side as Agent Quantum, Infinity, and Key all came into the Medbay, here to see Jinx no doubt. Each gave a little head bow when they saw the Overseer and continued along. Sickle began to follow the white-armored Agent, trying not to think about Katnip's body being placed into the metal casket.
They were inside an elevator as the Warden came on the speaker, telling everyone about how they were transferring the Polybius Machine and the Sleepwalker to the Expanse, and why, so Sickle never got to see everyone's reaction to it.

The prison was built like a huge box, with Cellblock A, B, C, and D being the corners attached to a central cylinder. The Dark Chamber was at the bottom of the cylinder, and in an emergency could detach from the main prison to float out in space, just like any of the other Cellblocks, should a creature ever escape.

There was one Expanse, right in the middle of the cylinder, with the control room right above it. The Expanse was a modifiable chamber that could do practically anything a Warden needed. One could build a ring of turrets around the edge, split the cell into four parts, or make it fire-proof if they had a particularly difficult-to-handle divergence. Or, in this case, put two extremely dangerous divergences together to see if one could quell the other's powers.

The elevator stopped and Sickle stepped out onto the catwalk above hundreds, if not more, of Agents working at computers, each facing a big window, which Earth could be seen through. The sound of fingers on keyboards was deafening, each echoing in the large room.

Smack dab in the center of the big room, a smaller circular room was connected to the room and adjacent catwalks. This was the 'Master Control Room' or whatever. The Overseer didn't see the reason to have a 'master' control room inside the bigger control room, but he honestly didn't really care (all that much).
Sickle made his way there now, watching Earth as he went. It'd been years since he'd been on solid ground, so he couldn't exactly wish for it because he didn't remember it anyway. Overseers got twenty-plus years, rather than an Agent's five and optional department switch.

The door to the 'Master' control room slid to the side without Sickle even scanning, and Pilgrim welcomed him inside with a single nod from across the room.

Agents and fellow Overseers watched one of the many holograms that littered the wrap around window. Right in the center, on an elevated platform and surrounded by holographic screens, stood the Warden, taking it all in.

"Sickle, nice of you to join us," He said without even looking at the Overseer, "The Expanse has been built and the two divergences placed. Care to see?"

Sickle nodded. "Of course,"

With a wave of his mechanized hand, the Warden sent a holographic screen flying toward the Overseer, so fast that Sickle almost gave a jump. But he knew Vindicator would never let him live it down, and Sickle knew he was watching from across the room.

The screen, once Sickle actually looked at it, showed a huge circular room made of interchangeable white tile. It was divided into two sections by a black wall, and the screen showed him two points of view from other sides of the Expanse. A blue arcade machine stood on one side, with multiple chains leading from it to the walls, and on the other, a boy with a metal orb on his head. Well, using the term 'boy' was perhaps misused. The divergence inside him had ravaged his now thirty-year old figure, making him skinny and short. He shook violently, making the chains shiver silently.

Sickle tapped the screen with his Nebulium arm, triggering a wheel of options to appear. He pressed the one shaped like a speaker.

The man was crying. Full out sobbing, it filled the master control room. It sounded tinny, of course, coming through the metal orb that was pumping pumpkin up his nostrils, but it still caused the Agents working at the ring of screens to give a pause in shock.

"He's in pain," Warden said slowly. "The Sleepwalker is hurting him... this is why we need to do this." He looked around at the Overseers, each of which looked back at him. Pilgrim, the scientist and analyst, was rubbing his hands nervously. Invoke, the thinker, was twirling a pen, like usual. Vindicator, the unrelenting, had his arms crossed. Then there's Sickle, who was the creature-lover. Each knew the stakes, each knew what would happen if it didn't work. The Sleepwalker would be able to escape if he fully charged his power. They had one shot, Sickle just hoped no creatures would be harmed.

Warden let out a shaky breath. If this were to go awry, he'd be the one taking the blame. He raised a finger to a screen. "The wall in the middle will slide upwards, both divergences will be seen by the other. I give it five minutes then we slam the wall back down, kapeesh?"

All nodded. So Warden opened the wall.