Darkness Englulfing

Chapter Two

Josephine

Josephine hadn't been expecting to return to DC so soon. She'd been there a few times after leaving Katherine just to check up on her, but for the most part she was focusing on her new job of teaching kids the importance of missions and why the officials do what they do.

It was a fulfilling job. Josephine, despite her temper, had always wanted to work with children. This way, she could travel around the country and interact with as many of them as possible. It was as close to a dream job as Josephine was ever going to get, considering the circumstances.

Her wedges clicked against the tile of the school building as she made her way toward the gym. Katherine's haircut before heading back to Kat's universe had inspired her to get her own, though it was still much longer than Katherine's hair was. Josephine wondered if she had cut it again or if she had let it grow out over the past year.

The white walls and floors of every school building she entered made her think of Katherine. She tried not to, as Kat was fitting in perfectly as Katherine, taking over her job flawlessly, almost better than Josephine would've expected Kat to. People did talk, they definitely did, after hearing about one of GenU's own staying in a different universe. It was unheard of. After all, why wouldn't they want to return to the perfect world that the leaders of GenU had created? Josephine had a hard time deciding whether she believed that GenU was perfect or not.

She smiled as she walked into the gym, her outfit sitting beautifully against her dark skin. Josephine stood in front of the microphone as the principal and other faculty of the school tried to get a projector going behind her.

"Hello!" She greeted cheerfully as the large group of kids in the bleachers quieted down. "My name is Josephine Moore, and I am here to talk to you all about missions." The kids began whispering at the mention of missions. Josephine would've too if she was their age.

"I work for the agency, and I am an official myself. I have completed three of my own missions, and I have been an accompanying member of one other mission." The whispers only grew louder, to the point where Josephine had to wait for the principal to quiet the children down. A big picture appeared on the screen behind Josephine: the agency's building in DC.

"That is the headquarters of the agency, in DC. If you ever have a mission, that is where you'll be taken." Josephine waited for the whispers to start up again, and she nodded when they didn't, continuing. "The whole point of missions is to make sure that all other universes don't get messed up, or mess up our own. The discovery of multiple universes was made by Gary Freeman in 1986, and ever since then we have been broadening our technologies to try and keep these universes on track and not let them be destroyed. I guess you can think of us like superheroes." She smiled at the children, and some of them smiled back.

"You're probably too young at this point to get a mission, but it is not unheard of,

so we try our best to educate as early as possible. In all of the other universes, ours not included, there is a story that is meant to be told. All people that are born, all decisions that are made, all historic events are based around creating the perfect environment for these plots to take place. That is why we, the officials, and you, future officials, will usually take the place of side characters to help keep the plot on track. If a member of a different universe wishes to leave, or tries to commit suicide, it is our jobs to bring them here and make them realize how important they are to their universe. But we can't have people realizing that we're doing this, so we must replace them.

"We learn everything important about their lives and try to blend flawlessly into their role until they return, usually after a few days. There are some exceptions to that rule, but you will learn more about that if you need to during a mission." She stopped for a moment. "Any questions before we talk about how it all works?"