Overtime

two ✧ || briefing

The peace, the little they had, instantaneously shattered.

The metals doors violently swung open, the hinges snapping back into place as The Professor and his guest stormed in.

"Line up." The professor's voice was cold and emotionless, not different from what the group was used to.

Huddled on the ground, with Chaos laying a few feet away doing chest exercises, they slipped to their feet. A handful of the group flinched as they did so, the way their constraints tugged on their skin while pushing themselves upwards stinging. They all knew that the pain was normal and mandatory, so they dealt with it.

A haunting silence hung above the group, the two men staring them down like bugs, waiting to see which they should squish first.

"We have been given clearance," The Professor began, an eerie smile dancing across his lips. "And now we're able to proceed onto our next step of the experiment."

The group of six remain still: their expressions neutral, their stances still.

Removing a remote from his pocket, The Professor pressed down on a button, a projection flickering to life on the cement behind him and his "guest-of-honour".

"Let's brief you." The Professor cleared his throat and pressed another button. A picture of a brick building suddenly popped into focus. "This school has the highest rates of violence, hospitalization, drug use, and dropout rates in the district." He explained, sauntering to the side of the frame allowing the group to study it.

Upon pressing the button again, a flurry of news article headlines came into focus:

'3 teens stabbed in Oakland high school'

'Oakview High on lock down for 4 hours following bomb threat'

'Statistic show 67% of teens in single Oakland high school do drugs'

With another click, the screen went blank.

"Your job is to try to fix that."

"Thanks to me, you all have permission from the school and city to attend undercover as regular students." Glendhall claimed, hands folded behind his back. His smile was smug and filled to the brim with pride. "From the moment you walk onto the premises, you are our school's security."

"Professor?" Ace began softly, unsure if they were able to speak. While at first he was shot a daunting look from the man he called to, Glendhall offered a forced smile of consolation for him to continue. "How are we supposed to deteriorate crime rates?"

The Professor's cold look turned to one of absurdity. He caught the sight of Glendhall's interest in the statement and withheld his bitterness. "You all have been modified to be machines that can take down any person, let alone multiple." Their creator claimed with a scoff. "This experiment is to see if you have been operated on in a manner that's successful, and that has enabled you to fight crime on a lesser scale."

"So, this is our trial period?"

Fury's words brought a genuine smile to Glendhall's face. One of pride. "Correct."

"So," The Professor began almost instantly after Glendhall's spoke. "Let's go over your guidelines."

Another click to the remote.

The slide displayed a fist fight taking place on the front lawn of the building previously shown. Quite clearly, it was a student-taken photo displayed alongside its news article.

"You are trust no one other than your fellow Overtimers and myself." Glendhall began coldly, as if scolding a puppy for misbehaving. As he spoke, he paced the front of their lineup. "You are not to release any information about this assignment to any other students, faculty, or staff. You are not to refer to each other as your agent names, instead, your newly assigned ones."