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 Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 2:18 pm
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Topher went quietly with the men that escorted him out of the country. Of course it was a black bag operation though the Chinese knew he was being escorted out they just didn’t know exactly how or where, though some probably did, but taking any offensive attack on them would result in worse things, getting him out of the country was their best option at the moment. He at the moment was in front of some government official listing all the charges against him as they carted him off from espionage, acts of treason to acts of war. Matt was in the same room being debriefed in his own way and just glared at Topher from his corner who just shrugged. ”Mr. Hale, at the moment, we know Chris contacted you, you didn’t act willingly, Topher forced his way into the compound and acted on his own so for your sake just go with that, otherwise you’ll be charged with aiding and bedding a war criminal.” ”Sir?” Matt looked at the General who was talking to him confused, he was sure he lost his position and was probably on his way to some s**t job thanks to Topher. ”You do good work. Topher coerced you into helping him. You’ll be on a probation status but I’m sure you’ll fly by it fine.”
After that Topher was handed off to special forces to take him back to the US. Of course he was handcuffed and everything the hardest part was the Sec Def made sure the nanobots disabled his abilities only so he was slow on his feet ungraceful and felt just odd being pulled along. Some of the people he had actually worked with just glared at him as they carted him along and he just kept his head down and stayed to their plan and out of trouble. He didn’t want to go through the pain of dealing with the stun from the nanobots again. As soon as they were back on US soil he was passed off to another group and yet another. Finally back in his hometown he saw someone familiar but wasn’t to happy to. Frederick, not in uniform anymore glared at him as well. ”God damn it, why you?” ”Because they trust me to get you where you need to go without trying to pull s**t.” As he came up to Frederick the old man punched him in the stomach and Topher winced and nearly doubled over. ”That’s for putting me and your family through this, you think I like being on that end of the stick again. Of course I knew you were doing this s**t and your mother went off on me but Chris stopped her because I didn’t have full details myself.”
”Sorry…” ”Sorry isn’t enough this time Topher, you’re going to explain to them, everything.” ”I plan to.” ”Good, now get in the f*cking car.” Topher held up his hands so Frederick could uncuff him but the man just walked away to the car so he followed, well great. The ride back was silent and when they got to the tower he could that everything was tense. He had forgotten that he told Chris to get things on high alert for his return so he wouldn’t kill Kaleb but right now he was calm enough that he didn’t give a damn about the boy. Toni? He found his daughter quick enough in the tower and felt her confusion then despair at his return and sighed Yes, I know, I’m not angry don’t be afraid ok. I want you to do me a favor, can you do one for me? What? Dad, why… do you feel scared? Topher started to tear up at that, he hadn’t realized he had been but of course he was. I am, I will explain when we have the family meeting, and yes I know we’re having one. Do me a favor and disable your and Tobi’s time tech for today.
WHAT WHY?! DAD?! Just do it, I don’t want you two doing something you’ll regret, I know you can since you work in Chris’ lab. PROMISE me you’ll do it. Ok, I promise, I’ll do it now. Topher sighed and wiped his tears just before pulling to the gate to deal with Chris, he could sense she was there. He stayed quiet the whole time after attempting a joke as she talked after getting in the car but kept egging her subconscious to do what it wanted which was to slap him, just get it f*cking over with and out of your system. C’mon Em, do it… But she was done and got out of the car. Frederick had tossed him the key before she had gotten in so he was already unhandcuffed and stayed seated for a minute contemplating everything that was said, watching Frederick watch him. ”Nate’s going to beat me?” ”Likely. Tonya broke his nose when he went to get her.” Topher winced and sighed and finally got out.
He was walking in shortly after Chris who went another way heading to the offices as he walked to the living quarters section and stopped just before a corner. ”Keep coming a*shole.” Nate stepped around the corner carrying a metal bat and glared at him, nose bandaged and face still bruised. Topher just stood there and stared at Nate who started to sputter a bit and walked towards him lifting the bat up to swing at him. Topher didn’t even move the bat was a inch from his face when Nate stopped. ”It’s not worth it if you’re not going to make it a challenge.” The bat dropped with a clang and Topher sighed. ”I owe you. For being there for Chris when I should have been. Yes you’re her husband but I’m her brother, her twin. I broke things that you bought, that I shouldn’t have, I’ve done stupid s**t that I shouldn’t have and I can’t take back. And actually right now, my reflexes are s**t at the moment so feel fr…” Nate grinned and threw a hard right as he said that not allowing him to finish. ”Ow… F*CK! I think you broke my nose.” ”Was the plan… ow your face is hard.” Nate held his right hand while Topher held his nose and the two just stood there then just slightly laughed. ”Feel better? ”A bit, you put Chris through hell, worse you lied to Tonya you shithead I owe you a f*cking beatdown.” ”I have three days, can we reschedule till after the family meeting?” Nate stared questionly at him then nodded and walked off.
Topher’s first thought was to go to the medical area but he headed to the reception desk who just stared at him wide eyed as he grabbed the box of tissues. ”What, the family hates me, don’t want the janitor too as well.” He headed back to the elevators and when they opened blinked as Tonya was there and glared at him but stopped seeing his nose. ”Nat…” ”Good, I don’t have to hurt my fist again.” ”Tonya I’m…” She just glared at him and he stepped into the elevator while she pressed the button to their floor. ”Don’t stop me from saying it cause I need to. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying, I’m sorry for leaving. I’m sorry for leaving the kids on you and mom dad. I’m sorry for putting you in this.. situation. I’m sorry that I…” He choked up and she turned to him. ”That you what?” He hugged her and forcer her to be close to him not letting her push him back. ”I’m sorry, they’re sending me awa…” ”Wait WHAT?!” She shoved him back and looked at him. She had never seen him break like this, she was angry but now, ”Christopher…” ”I’m telling you now so you wont have to hear it in the meeting. I know you know that I did spy s**t cause Chris probably told you. Well half of that was because they were going to fire me for what I did on the job.” ”What you did was illegal, vigilante s**t Topher. I should’ve turned you in myself.” ”And I love you for not doing so. They know I did it. THEY gave me a ultimatum Tonya. I was being fired anyway. I would’ve faced time for that so either I work for them or face federal prison. So I did what they wanted so I didn’t have to be away from you. Turns out I was good at it, a little too good and they never let me go. It was supposed to be only a few missions but the current a*s… Sec Def denied every time I mentioned I was supposed to be done.”
”That’s harassment.” ”He was going to toss you in for not throwing my a** in jail in the first place.” Tonya punched the wall and stopped the elevator so they could talk. ”That’s blackmail, that f*cking a*shole. We need to..” ”No. I can’t run. I’ve done so much s**t in other countries that if I were to I couldn’t run anywhere.” Tonya raised her hands and growled in anger and smacked him making the tissue he shoved up his nose and some blood go flying across the elevator. ”GOD DAMN IT CHRISTOPHER!” ”Six months, after three days to get things straightened. I can’t leave the tower though. If I do anything to deviate or try to escape they’ll add more and I can’t be there for Toni, I’m not making you or her go through this alone.” ”You know then, of course you do.” Topher nodded and held onto one of the handles of the elevator to keep from collapsing under the emotion pressure. ”A boy came back in time to help me briefly, had he not, I probably would’ve been capture, tortured, or killed, or all three.” ”Hey, where’s your brother?” ”Probably in the training room punching something.” ”He’s been upset lately at EVERYTHING.” Topher nodded but then pulled closer to Toni. ”I know I only allow you to use it on us for training, but if you feel me getting tempered during the meeting promise me to use your empathy to keep me calm? I want it to be civil, ok..” He pulled back and noticed she was crying after that but she nodded and he hugged her again. ”Sorry I keep asking for so much but You know how I can get. I’m calm right now but with everyone there tempers might fly. I don’t care if they do at me but I don’t want to throw it back at them. I DESERVE the onslaught, you guys don’t deserve anything back from except answers.” Tonya had been close enough to hear what he said and stared at him as he stood back up. ”The meeting is in half an hour, go get a shower cause you stink like hell. I’ll go talk to Toby.” ”Yes ma’am. Also, I want him to be there for the explanation cause this pertains to family. That goes for Liam as well I know he’ll be bored as hell and not care to be there so once I’m done with my first explanation if they want to leave, let them. I’m not going to force them to be there. Pass that along to Chris, though she probably knows.”
Topher gave Toni a quick hug before she left to let her know everything was fine and nodded to Tonya. For now everything was fine, his temper was in check which was unusual. Before the first thing he wanted to do when he got back was kill Kaleb or at least make him wish he were dead but then that’d leave Toni without anyone to be there and the kids. He shook his head, Chris hadn’t said it but she didn’t need to cause his anger made him a monster In some eyes but he needed to deal with s**t and control it. Right now, something was keeping him calm, probably not being connected to his abilities fully but as well he was probably more connected to them mentally and Voy kept talking to him mentally and telling him things. His abilities weren’t gone just heavily distorted at the moment and coming back slowly for now, but he was sure that the Sec Def was keeping them tapped so he couldn’t do s**t and try to plot an escape. When he got to their apartment he paused in the doorway for a moment. It had been, well not really that long but it seemed like it felt so long ago since he last stepped foot in here. And now he only had three days to be here. He took a ten minute shower to get off all the grime and stink then changed the bandage from the stitches that Matt actually gave him. Apparently being overseas required a bit more training or Matt just got more.
He walked into the living room after getting dressed and paused at the grand piano running his hands over the keys. Their apartment was one of the larger ones so they were able to have it but he didn’t have time to play now even though he wanted to as it’d probably calm a few of his nerves. He had bandaged his nose up after resetting it and cursing Nate a bit but luckily it didn’t bleed too long after that. He grabbed a suit jacket and made his way down the main hall to the gathering area where everyone would be, probably a bit area since they’d be waiting on him. Once he was there he got a quick hug from his parents and hugged Toby then motioned for everyone to sit or stand but wanted to get started. ”First off, I owe you all more than this, Nate started it off.” He pointed at his nose and a few grinned at Nate but most just glared at him and he sighed. ”Secondly. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being a complete a*****e to all of you and going off on my own thing. I didn’t have a choice in the matter really, though I put myself in that situation to begin with. You all know I got fed up with having to deal with the constant need for having actual evidence for certain assholes I knew were guilty but hid the evidence too well for regular inspection or destroyed it all together.”
“So I started going out on my own and bringing them down. Mind you it wasn’t always legal and I did kill a few.” Tonya glared daggers at him and he pointed at her. ”I should’ve been brought in, I know. I wasn’t, thank you and I’m sorry. But that’s what caught up to me. They found out and fired me, I didn’t quit. THEY, gave me an ultimatum. Quit and do a few things for Uncle Sam or face federal prison. So like a good dog I caved and went to work for them. Though I did it so well I couldn’t get out. One thing led to another and eventually we were investigating a person of interest who also popped up on the time tech scanners under a company. Well, her name is Melina Servov, aka Melina Simms.” He looked directly at Jack at that and noticed the whole room stiffen at the last name and held his hand up so he could continue. ”Alternate Maxwell’s daughter. She was the reporter woman back from my elementary mishap if you recall. She disappeared with no trace. Well that’s because she can time travel as well, and wanted to gage me particularly at a young age because she witnessed me kill Maxwell at a young age herself, and went through hell because of it.” ”That doesn’t give her the excuse do it you.” ”Yes it does.” ”Chri…” Topher started to pace and felt a calm vibe come from Toni and was grateful he asked her to do it. ”You lost Gram and Gramps but you had mom. What would you have done if you hadn’t?” Jack opened his mouth to say something but stopped, sighed and nodded in agreement seeing his point.
”We’re only monsters if we let ourselves become them. Tonya anchors me. I nearly lost myself after that incident, but had she not started to be around I probably would have. Yes Chris does too I don’t doubt that but I believe that Tonya has some empathy or something that linked us which is why Toni has it. And yes Nate, that’s probably why when Tonya or Toni are near I’m ten times calmer.” Nate looked like he was about to say something but stopped when Topher just blurted that out and glared that “f*cking telepath” stare at him. So apparently some of his abilities were still there just dampened. ”And she cause the China incident, breaking my whole cover making run to the embassy where Matt happens to work. I happened to get help from a certain time traveler in the family to escape her during the whole thing but only a small help before he was pulled back. Oh…” He tossed Chris a zip loc bag with a bit of powder from the pill since it had crushed anyway. ”Have your lab examine that, that’s what I was on. I’m pretty sure you make it anyway. So back to China. They were…” ”Less than happy.”
”Ready to start a war pissed, but considering they decided not to I think there were some strings pulled.” ”Get to the point Christopher.” Frederick already knew all this so Topher just glared at him when he said that and Frederick just motioned for him to continue. ”I got forced out, after doing major damage and…” ”Killing ten cops, about forty mafia types and injuring over fifty others…” Topher gritted his teeth as everyone looked at Frederick then glared at Topher, especially Tonya, he had left out that little detail about killing people. ”Things got hectic, what can I say, Mafia were working with the cops, then started using them as shields when they noticed I was only injuring the cops and flat out killing them, f*cking a*sholes… SO I got to Matt who UNWILLINGLY helped me then was about to start on the project we have for Melina but was interrupted by the Secretary of Defense before we could vet Matt in on the intel.” ”Apparently they got Topher to drink some cocktail mixture that had nanotech that not only disrupts abilities but stuns him as well.” ”Disable it then, I’m sure our techs can.” ”Nope, any attempt to override it will outright kill him, hence why I quit, they went behind my back on that one, f*cking a*sholes.”
Topher stopped and his heart started to race and Toni tried but had to come over and grab him physically to get him to calm down. ”Dad, sit, jesus.” Tobi was standing now and was about to say something and do something but stopped and glared at Toni. ”I told her to, no one go back in time to fix this, we don’t know how it will effect the timeline and I don’t want to f*ck it up anymore. I’m not running away from it.” Tonya came over and put her hand on his shoulder and leaned in to whisper, ”I don’t think Toby should hear the rest, he looks like he’s ready to kill someone.” ”They’re sending me to Genesis. A prison I pretty much designed. It’s for psychics.” At that his mother walked over and slapped him, HARD. She had worked hard to get rights for psychics and him designing a prison for them was the exact opposite of her goal. He took a moment to compose himself and watched as she walked back over to his father who was silent again but glared at him as well. ”I know…” His voice cracked a bit and he cleared his throat. ”It’s the opposite of what our family is doing, but there’s always bad in this world.”
”That’s why you’re scared. What exactly is it?” Topher looked over at Toni who was still holding his hand to keep him calm and nearly broke there. F*ck…”It blocks all powers, out and in. No seers can help, sorry Chris.” Chris shot him a death glare and he sighed. ”I only have six months, I would’ve had more but thanks to Frederick pointing out family issues they lessoned it. I don’t know why but I believe there’s alterior motives at play so I’m going along with it for now, so no one do anything. I can’t run.” ”F*CK THAT!” ”Toby no. I can’t run. Don’t do anything to get in trouble. I can’t add any time to my sentence. I need to be here for Toni. You…” He stared right at Toby, ”Need to be here for your sister, not saving a fool who got himself into this mess to begin with.” Toby cursed under his breath and turned and headed to the door quickly. Jack was about to turn to stop but Topher shook his head then looked at Liam who looked bored as hell and nodded at the door saying he could go as well now if he wanted.
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:03 pm
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Chris was leaning against the gate, arms crossed. She’d only been there a couple of minutes, waiting for a car to pull into the driveway. It might have seemed odd to anyone who passed the drive that she was standing there in her full business suit but no other cars passed by. When the car did pull into the drive and stopped to wait for the gate to open, she opened the back door and slid in the car, face completely serious. She didn’t speak for a few moments and the tension in the car was heavy. Her emotions were hard to read but it was easy to tell she was unhappy. Upset and pissed were also likely.
When she did speak, she was all business, none of the excitement she would normally have upon seeing her brother. ”I swear to god Topher. You have to make things more difficult than they should be.” He started to make a joke, a comment about how she was becoming mom but she stopped him. ”Christopher stop. I’m not your f*cking babysitter. Its not my job to make sure you are okay. I do it because I love you. But there are others in this family beside me Topher. Just because I happen to know the future does not mean you can go off an do whatever the f*ck you want just because you think you can. Your f*cking wife deserves to know that you are going out to risk your life doing whatever the f*ck it is you do. Especially if it is going to endanger the rest of your family too. Because as I’ve recently been reminded, I don’t know everything, Topher. And you aren’t invincible.”
She huffed. She wasn’t done by any means but she needed a moment to collect her emotions. ”Speaking of your family, when you go in there don’t you dare f*ck this up. Your daughter is scared, not just of how you are going to react but just about the whole thing in general. It sucks you had to find out this way but she literally just found out before you left. And you have to remember, Topher, you haven’t been here. You don’t have the right to be upset at them for keeping secrets when you’ve been doing the same thing to them. What Toni needs right now is her father. Not a lecture, not protection. Comfort. Whatever anger you have and how much you want to kick her boyfriends a** does not matter right now. He doesn’t even know yet. Give him a chance, he’s a good kid. They made a mistake they will have to live with so they don’t need your anger giving them more guilt than they already have.” The car had stopped in front of the building during her rant and now she took the time to get out of the car. She wasn’t done but she didn’t have too much left to say.
”Go spend time with your family Topher. I’m not going with you to keep you calm through it either. You have to do all of that on your own. But keep in mind the things I’ve said. We have a family meeting so you can explain all this to them, but when you are done there will be a debriefing in my office. We have a different problem we need to discuss.” And with that last sentence she walked inside with a wave. It took everything she had not to hit him then and there, but this wasn’t the time for it. Besides, there were others here who deserved that honor before she did.
Chris made her way back to the apartment to make sure Nate and the kids were ready for the meeting. It was a family meeting therefore all the family needed to be there. The only one in the apartment was Liam, who was studying in the living room. He looked up when she came in and then went back to reading his book. ”Liam, do you know where your sister went?” He sighed, never wanting to be his sister’s keeper. ”Probably down in the lab. She mentioned helping Toni with something then left. Why?” Chris shook her head. ”Topher is back and the meeting is soon.” ”Have fun with that…” ”Liam, it's a family meeting. You have to go for at least a little bit. This is important.” She sighed. Liam shrugged. ”Fine.” Nate walked in the apartment at that moment. ”Your brother’s face is still just as hard as ever I noticed.” He was still kind of holding his hand. Nothing was broken but he’d probably bruised a few knuckles and there was some blood, Most of it not his. She gave him her disappointed stare and pointed to the kitchen chair. He took a seat and she grabbed the first aid kit they kept handy. ”Can you blame me? He was wide open. Didn’t even have the decency to defend himself either!” Chris just nodded and listened to him complain, cleaning and wrapping his hand carefully. She didn’t say anything and Nate didn’t ask. He already knew how upset she was and at this point no amount of talking was going to fix it.
Lexa met them down at the meeting place. They were there before Topher, Liam walked over to where Lexa was with the twins and Nate found a cozy spot near Tonya. Chris stayed towards the back, leaning against the wall in a spot where she could make a quick getaway if she needed. Liam threw her a questioning glance but there was nothing to say. Topher started his explanation, there were things she didn’t know. The things with his job and his actions. She could already tell this was going to be bad, she could feel everyone’s emotions changing even through her block. Especially when he mentioned the name. Melina. Chris didn’t even look surprised since she figured this out already, but it was still somewhat of a shock to hear it said out loud.
She caught the bag he threw and nodded, it was already on the list of things to research in the lab. Though it was nice to have a sample to go by, it was still going to take a while. She stuck the bag in her pocket to hand over to the lab later. Topher continued to talk about the things she’d seen in her vision. Those f*cking nanobots. She already had planned to take a blood sample of Topher for them, and the drug, but hearing that disabling them would kill him threw an extra challenge into the mix. That didn’t discourage her from looking into it though.
Now it was official, emotions in the room were running too high and Topher hadn’t even gotten to the worst part yet. She braced herself as he said it but there was still an explosion of anger and confusion from all across the room. As expected Jenny jumped up from her seat and smacked Topher so hard, Chris swore she could feel the sting on her own face. ”What the f*cking hell were you thinking!?!” She was beyond pissed. Chris clutched her fist to her chest. She knew she was getting close to her limit with Empathy. He mentioned that no seers could help and she glared at him slightly, deciding this was her time to duck out. Luckily she was able to sneak out just before Toby’s outburst so no one really noticed her slip away.
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Liam met eyes with Topher after Toby stormed out. The whole time he’d been still. He was the youngest in the room so he wasn’t always very aware what they were talking about but he knew a few things for sure. Everyone was pissed. His mom was struggling, he could see it better than everyone else. Other than Nate but he wasn’t watching her on purpose. So instead of taking Topher up on the offer to leave, he marched straight up to him and punched him in the jaw. ”That’s for mom.” He spoke it calmly like always but there was a hint of bite behind it. Then he walked out of the room, flipping of Lexa who was videoing it. He didn’t feel the need to be there for the rest of it. Lexa put away her phone and clapped slowly. ”Wow I’m impressed. I didn’t know Liam could even show emotion like that. Great job there Uncle Topher, making the one person in the whole room who doesn’t have the capacity for emotions, hate you. G ******** G. Well played.”
Aurelia rushed into the room with a gleam in her eye. ”Oh My God. You have got to see this video I got my hands on.” She met Topher’s eye and smiled mischievously as everyone kind of gathered around to see what she was talking about and she hit play. It was video from his “adventures” in China. ”Wait… Stop it there and zoom in…” Zoomed in right on Topher’s face, eyes clearly glowing a bright white color. Jenny’s head snapped towards Topher. ”I’m going to F*CKING KILL YOU.” Jack had to hold her back from seriously wrapping her arms around his neck and strangling him. Aurelia gave him a deadpan look that said “You deserve worse than this, you little s**t”. She wasn’t one to hide what she was thinking. But she also wasn’t going to say any of that out loud with Jenny there. ”Oh and when you are done taking care of this mess, Chris said she’d be waiting in her office for you.”
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Chris made it to her office and closed the door behind her. She needed some time alone before Topher came to talk. She didn’t have a good outlet for her Empathy in her office and she would rather avoid having everyone know what she was feeling. She paced her office while she waited. She only stopped when she got a series of texts from Lexa. One was a short video of Liam punching Topher in the jaw. It was oddly satisfying to watch. There were also a few images of Jenny struggling really hard to get at Topher. Something must have happened after she left. She sighed. There really was no hope for their family.
After a while Topher finally made it to the office. He came in complaining about having to go through all these meetings after just getting here. Chris turned sharply to stare at him. She had been debating this whole time how to greet him but if he was going to be an ungrateful brat about it, she wasn’t having it. She marched right up to him, eyes glowing for only the third time in her life, and smacked him probably harder than Jenny had. Without realizing it, she let him have all of her Empathy in that moment, all of her frustration and pain but most of all her fear. She exhaled in a huff, eyes going back to normal.
The next second she hugged him more tightly than she had since they were kids. Somehow it still didn’t feel like Topher was home, mostly because she knew he was just going to be gone again in a few days and there was nothing she could do this time. She didn’t even realize she’d started crying until she started to speak. ”I’m so scared Topher. I can’t lose you.” She gripped him tighter. ”If the past two days are anything like the next 6 months will be like, I don’t know if I can handle it.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2018 8:02 pm
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Topher noticed that Chris had left, that was good, he could tell by her motions that she was having a hard time with dealing with everything going on right now. Though he didn’t expect Liam to come walking up to him. Nor was he expecting the punch to the jaw, though he kind of figured something was up Toni kept his other hand down and he didn’t try to dodge, not that he probably could have. Damn that kid could throw a punch, he’d have to mention that the next time they spoke. He kept his head down as Liam spoke to him. And didn’t bother to look up while Lexa made her proclamation but as soon as Aurelia entered the room he knew something else was coming. A video, ******** no.. he tried to get up but Tonya grabbed his shoulder so hard that he thought she wanted to try to pull it out of the socket. ”Stop running…” She said under her breath as he watched his mother watch the video, her expression darkening every minute and Aurelia’s brightening. He glared right back at Aurelia with a “F*ck you” stare knowing if his dad hadn’t been there to stop her he probably would’ve been on the floor, or in the next room, you never knew with their mother.
”Wouldn’t be the fi…” At a glance from Jack Topher shut up, Tonya still smacked him hard on the back of the head. ”Not helping.” ”Alternate timelines can f*ck with you, ok… f*ck leave me alon, at least the building is still f*cking standing this time.” ”Mostly.” ”Shut up Frederick.” ”No, as someone who has HAD to fill out collateral damage reports thanks to you, you have no say.” ”Fine.” Topher sighed and lowered his head. Toni was trying her best to keep him calm but everything going on she was using up what she knew. She glared at Aurelia who just made things worse, though it was going to happen anyway, they cant keep captured video from Grandma a secret for very long. ”I’m sorry, I’ll just go sit in our apartment and be by myself un…”
Tonya smacked him hard again, ”You didn’t listen did you. Aurelia just said that Chris wants you to go to her office, YOU. ARE. NOT. AND I REPEAT. NOT. DODGING HER, or so help me I will help Nate do whatever he wants to you and worse.” Topher looked up at Tonya and sighed. ”And when you’re done, we need to have our own meeting, just you me, Toni and Toby, in our apartment, possibly with Kaleb, if Toni wants it.” ”Not yet, I think I’d rather sit down with you two, Kaleb and his parents before we bring them into any family meeting.” ”Probably better.” Topher stood and walked to his mom and hugged her. Something he hadn’t done in, years, she could still smack him in that proximity and he wouldn’t care if she did but he needed to. ”I’m sorry mom. I’m sorry for putting everyone through this, ruining everything, causing stress, hurt, everything, most of all lying and going behind everyone’s back about it.”
”I don’t think I can do that anymore, that work.” ”Not out of country if they still let you, if you, the family is willing to put up with it, no. The minute you’re out of the US, you have a price on your head in several countries, with treaties they won’t act on it usually here but the minute you leave you’re open game.” ”They’ll use family as bait to draw me out…” ”Likely, I’d advise no out of country traveling unless necessary and highly secured.” Topher sighed, f*ck, not that it was easy for the family to travel at this stage anyways. Their tech and other companies were one of the major players in many fields not to mention Jenny still had some political pull with psychic movements that needed her advisement, as well as Chris being a Supreme Court Judge. He stepped away and walked out to go to Chris’ office but spoke under his breath before they couldn’t hear him. ”Sorry…for everything.” Toni wanted to get up and go after him, she could tell at the moment he was beat up, Tonya sat down next to her and hugged her, ”He needs to talk to Aunt Chris. This will be hard for them, you know with Toby yourself that you share a twin bond, it will hurt her being disconnected and he’s killing himself inside over this for it as he should.” ”I.. can make it go away…” Toni was crying by now but Tonya held her, ”They have to do it in their own way.”
----
Topher made his way to the office sections. Everyone seemed to avoid him or at least know not to bug him. They had noticed he had been gone so there were questions as to why he looked like hell, he could tell by the surprised looks but no one stopped him. He was on autopilot at the moment moving around as he was, not really noticing where he was until he was at Chris’ door. ”I just got done with a long a*s flight, not to mention however many f*cking angry debriefings while being handcuffed and pretty much sedated, then to have my nose broken by Nate and tossed into that. And to top it off Aurelia had to show that f*cking vide…” He stopped as she smacked him, the hardest anyone had so far today and it stopped him dead in his tracks. Almost to the point he felt like falling over but he noticed her eyes, glowing. ”Chr…” He started to say something but she calmed herself, then hugged him.
Now he wanted to fall over, f*ck. He sat down and pulled her with him as she spoke to him. She did have nice chairs in this office since her work required dealing with some higher ups. ”I’m not going to be completely gone. It will be hard, and I know for a fact when I get out you’re likely to do worse than smack me when I come back.” He smirked at that and wiped away her tears a bit. ”Do…” He started but stopped as the memory flooded him and he had to control himself, Chris probably sensed his emotions flip flopping from trying to joke with her to heavy concern so he wasn’t really helping her. He took a deep breath and sighed. ”Remember what mom taught us about control. When I’m in there, don’t lose yourself ok. Promise me that, there can only be one black sheep of the family. Sure you can be angsty and angry at me all you want, but don’t put the family through anymore. PROMISE ME.”
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:10 pm
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She wasn’t expecting him to sit down suddenly, nor pull her down with him. It shocked her enough that she stopped crying. She turned so she was sitting in his lap instead of laying on him, placing her head against his chest as he spoke. Listening to his heartbeat she knew he was scared. Probably more than she was. He would have it worse than her, disconnected from his powers entirely would be worse than whatever she had to deal with.
His emotions jumped around a bit and while she wanted to ask what that was about, some part of her told her to let it go. His words confused her a little and she sat up, glaring at him for thinking she had control problems. That was his deal. ”Of course I won’t, Topher, I’m not you…” As she said it, she actually thought about it and she really hadn’t been in control of herself exactly all day. So he had a point. Her voice dropped though when she spoke next. ”I promise to try my best.” It's not like they knew what was going to happen. This had never happened to them before and she wasn’t sure it had happened to anyone ever. Something else to research later.
”Besides, f*cker, She poked him in his chest, ”You better promise as well. Your temper and control are worse than mine so I’m more worried about you. Don’t do anything stupid Topher, or I promise you, I very much will do something worse than smack you when you get out.” Now she was starting to feel more like herself. That meant it was time to get back to business. The whole reason she called this meeting in the first place. But first there was a slight knock on the door. Chris stood, straightening out her suit before calling for them to come in.
The door opened slowly and a familiar face entered. He was nervous and fidgety, which was kind of understandable… So he already knew then. ”Your mom found out I take it?” Chris was aware of the abilities of everyone who worked in the company, even though she wasn’t always around as much because of her actual job. She still took pride in knowing who worked with them and what they could do in an emergency.
Kaleb nodded, keeping his eyes down. Probably expecting Topher to yell or something. ”Its okay. He’s not going to kill you.” She glared at Topher, knowing his smart a** was going to say something. ”Anyway,” She said interrupting whatever banter they might have started. ”Kaleb is here to take some blood, Topher. Mostly so I can see how the drug affected your system…” She paused but knew he would guess the rest so she sighed. ”And also for the nanobots.” Her expression darkened just a bit but went away just as quickly. Paul was lucky she was more worried about getting Topher home to properly lay into him for those things.
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2018 8:12 pm
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Topher relaxed as Chris spoke and laughed. ”I figured you’d make me do the same, so yes.” Though deep down, with the memories going about in him and that Alt b***h throwing fits he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it. He watched as she stood and went to sit back behind her desk as there was a knock at her door.
Topher stiffened as Kaleb entered but relaxed, though he had already decide he was going to be nice to Kaleb, or face Toni and Tonya’s wrath. That and from what Chris said something about the way he looked they already knew what was going on. ”My mom gets dreams, I guess like your mom. I had the unfortunate morning of being woken up to by being smacked.” He showed Chris his arm where there was still a strong mark there Topher turned to look and winced. ”Ouch.” ”Yeah she thought you were going to kill me.” Topher smirked and coughed a bit covering a laugh. ”Thought had crossed my mind, but I wouldn’t get anywhere.” He was going to get kicked by Chris for that one. He sighed and motioned for Kaleb to use the kit he had in his hand. The poor kid looked very nervous, if Topher was right this was probably his first time doing this alone. ”Not worse than being interrogated by the father who is a cop right?” Kaleb laughed a bit at the mention of their first meeting and shook his head. ”I guess not.” ”You’ll be fine.”
The whole procedure went fine as expected and Topher nodded. ”See. Before you go, please go talk with Toni sometime today. I believe she wants to have a dinner of sorts with your parents, you, myself and Tonya.” Kaleb stiffened as the dream his mother mentioned was coming true and Topher just smiled. ”It’ll be fine. I promise I wont be the a*shole I normally am as long as you promise me one thing.” ”What?” ”Be there for Toni, don’t be like me… be a good father to… them.” ”Them…” Kaleb frowned but then smiled and nodded, ”Was already planning on it.” ”Good.” The boy waited to see if there was anything else then left to go drop off the sample to the lab. Topher put his head in his hands and just stayed that way for a bit. ”I’m scared Chris. The rumors I’ve heard of that place. I f*cking designed it not expecting that but… I might not be myself when I get out. That and we’ve never been… separated.” He knew of what happened in the Alt timeline and was worried that both of them would be too far gone before they could reconnect. ”How… long, can we do it? I don’t really want to.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:33 am
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Chris stared at Topher as the two of them talked, kicking him only because he deserved it. While it was true, it didn’t have to be said out loud. Her gaze darkened just a tad as they spoke. Just because Topher was a bit of an a*****e didn’t mean he wasn’t a good father. But before she could lay into him for thinking that after Kaleb left, he started talking about his fear. She tried to look neutral, but she knew her face was showing just as much fear as his. ”How do we always get ourselves into these situations…” She stood again and walked over to him, gently lifting his face out of his hands so he would look at her.
”Christopher James Mizuki, I’m going to remind you the saying mom always told us. The same thing I told your daughter recently. The same thing I tell my children all the time.” She bent down so they were more eye level. ”You are a Mizuki. We are the most stubborn family around. There’s a lot we have done Topher. The first psychic senator, the first psychic supreme court judge. The “first” Empath. The first S rank psychics. The first to travel to a different timeline. The first to time travel period. Just think about it Topher. We’ve done all of this already. There’s nothing we can’t do. We’ll get through this the same way we get through everything. Together.”
She sighed and flicked him in the forehead. ”No matter what you will always be my stupid little brother. Your abilities do not give you strength, Topher. You give your abilities strength. I know you’ll be okay. I know we’ll be okay. Even if I can’t ‘see’ it. You know I’m not the optimist type Topher. Its going to be hard, probably the hardest thing we’ve done so far, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get through it.”
She stood, leaning against her desk, arms crossed. ”You can’t give up Topher. No matter what. Promise me that. Even if you lose control, even if everything sucks and nothing goes right. You have to remember you have something to come home to. I disagree with you on that point you told Kaleb earlier. You are are good father. Just sometimes you need a little reminder how to do the right thing. Okay? You can’t spend your three day’s here moping because things are going to suck in the future. One day at a time.” Some of this she was also for her own benefit. No matter what, they had to keep moving forward. She sighed heavily.
”Mom’s probably on the phone with Paul right now, yelling her head off to get him to change his mind. It won’t help, but maybe it’ll make her feel better. There isn’t a way out of this mess this time. I’m so used to your reckless behavior getting us in some bad spots but I’m always there to back you up. Always found a way to minimize the damage dealt. I see it's finally caught up to us huh?” She was trying not to cry again, but she also couldn’t hold back her tears. There was no way around it so they would just have to go through it. ”Besides, it can’t be that bad… right?”
Chris took a moment to wipe her eyes and clear her throat. Crying and feeling bad wasn’t helping and besides, there was still some business they had to take care of. ”I hate to ask more of you right now Topher, but I want to get this out of the way so you can spend the rest of the time you have here not having to worry about it. I need to know what you know about Melina. Frederick was able to get me copies of what you have, but its all highly censored and unfortunately they didn’t help. I know she’s after you and I can guess why. But I need to be prepared to deal with it in case she decides to do something while you are in Genesis.”
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 9:09 pm
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Topher sighed as Chris lifted his head and at the remark about the family being stubborn though it was true, was pretty much what got him in this mess to begin with. He had to agree that they did seem to have a lot of firsts in the family, not to mention Liam being probably the first Pyschic with double A ranking powers, well as far as they were aware. Not every psychic was legally registered even to this day which is partially his reasoning for designing Genesis, there are always those fringe groups that will be out there doing harm. He flinched a bit as she flicked him on the forehead but let her go on. He wanted to have some input but knew interrupting her at the moment would probably be a bad idea. Wait little? He glared at her for that one, she was older by like minutes, maybe, their mother never confirmed it, he was taller though. He shook his head a bit at her disagreement with what he had said to Kaleb, she’d probably smack him for what he’d say to that.
”Yes and no. I…” He couldn’t think of ways to put into proper words of how he was thinking it, knowing that Toby was most likely beyond pissed right now and he was good with Toni but besides her. ”You’ll smack me, but no. That meeting would not have happened, none of this would have. Yes I can be but I’m not perfect, nowhere near good at the moment.” He put his head back down and knew she’d be glaring at him. ”Toby’s temper runs high like mine but I know if I could be there for him and supportive like I SHOULD have been doing instead of doing my OWN s**t he’d be on a different path. Toni has Tonya to help her and while Tonya helps with Toby he is too much like me to be dealt with alone. I should have been there instead of being gone. I should be HERE instead of having to be there.” F*ck, he knew that Chris was trying to not cry but at the moment he felt tears coming down his own face.
”It is bad Chris, I’ve seen…” While he didn’t have full security clearance for it Frederick had been irritated to find out that Topher designed that place without him knowing prior and showed him personally what it does in rare cases. It was probably more or less Fredericks own way to try to get him to stop being so arrogant and listen or to try and get out, but Topher shoved it away as usual. ”…” He tried to say what he saw in the few small videos he’d seen of psychics going insane in what they call the “Hole” or isolation rooms that dampen abilities even more. At the mention of Melina he stood up to try to calm his nerves and faced the wall so she wouldn’t see his face. ”She’s Maxwell’s daughter, as you know. The only image I can probably pull up would be…” He put his hand on the wall still trying to calm down at the thought of the memory. ”She was THAT reporter, when we were six, that came to our school and forced me to use my telepathy if you remember, that was her.” He wasn’t sure if they had linked that image yet to the files but wasn’t sure if they’d be there or not.
He had been in a meeting for the information regard Melina and sighed. ”If you don’t mind…” He turned back around to face Chris and walked towards her and gently grabbed her hand. Usually he would wait for her say but if she wanted it, he sent a gentle mind push with the meeting memory at her and let go, it was getting that simple for him. That was the meeting they had regarding the company that she owned before they knew it was Melina, they knew her as Black Queen which was her underground name before they were able to correctly put a name to her. He also showed her everything she wasn’t able to see in China that happened between he and her in that room so she could get a more current picture in her mind. ”Sorry for the intrusion but the easiest way to give you information, then also if Paul asks to check your computer you don’t actually have information you shouldn't have on it.”
[[ooc: The company is similar to their families but smaller based so kind of competing but based in like India area]]
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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 7:57 am
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Chris glared at him as he spoke. He was thinking about this all wrong and she wanted to just smack him, but she also didn’t want to interrupt. She clenched her fists, never seeing Topher this way. She could tell he was keeping something from her, she could take a guess at what it was. She’d let it pass, deciding that it wasn’t worth it to try and pry that information from him. She’d probably worry about him more than she already was so it wasn’t worth it to get him to mention it.
She started to reach for him but held back. It was really hard to stand there and let him go through this but hiding away from it wouldn’t help. Her expression darkened when he mentioned the reporter from their childhood. ”I remember, she said bitterly. Though she hadn’t thought about it in a long time, she remembered that day very well. Not that she got a good look at the lady’s face, but she did remember the vibe she gave off.
At first Chris was confused but she figured out what he meant and nodded. She closed her eyes for a minute afterwards, just taking time to sift through all the information he passed over. She blinked and refocused on Topher. ”Smart move. Thanks.” She let the silence hang there for a moment, contemplating if there was anything else specific she needed while they were on this topic. Nothing came to mind but if something did, she’d make sure to ask before he left.
”You are an idiot, Topher… You are right, you should be here with your children instead of a prison you f*cking designed. But that doesn’t make you an awful father. No one is perfect Topher. Just think about it. Mom spent most of her time campaigning and dealing with political drama, did that make her a bad mother? Dad was spaced out for half of our childhood, does that make him a bad father. Hell, Topher, I don’t get to see my children as much as I want to between my job and the lab and trying to keep all this time travel straight… Does that make ME a bad mother? Just because you aren’t always here doesn’t make you bad. Misguided and an Idiot, yes but not bad. Bad fathers don’t wonder if they’re a good father.”
She stood up a bit straighter, not even close to being done with him yet. ”Do you want to know what would have happened had you been here instead of doing what you did Topher? Would that make you feel any better?” Before he could say one way or the other, she was already doing it. She closed her eyes to focus. Technically this wasn’t how Clairvoyance was supposed to work but she wasn’t S rank for no reason. She’d never tried to do this before but she knew it was possible considering it was how she had visions with the time travelers in their family.
She focused specifically looking for a timeline where Topher hadn’t done the spy thing. He was never caught doing his vigilante s**t, which from what she could tell, let him be home more often. But there were other problems. The twins were more watched than before and while it helped Toby’s anger at first there was a catch she saw. Like Topher always does, he got himself into something he couldn’t get out of and it ended badly for all involved.
She gripped the edge of her desk tightly and pulled herself back before she got too deep. It would be bad to get stuck in visions now, particularly of a timeline she wasn’t even apart of. She shook her head before looking back over a Topher. ”Trust me, it's no better. There isn’t a way for it to be unless you were a completely different person. And you aren’t. You are who you are Topher. Besides, its not like Tonya is raising them by herself. Why do you think mom made the Tower in the first place? Sure so the research staff could have a place to stay when they work long hours but really it was for us. So the family could be together. He’s just like you Topher, so he’s just going to have to find his own way. Maybe he’ll learn from your mistakes before he makes them. I… I can’t be positive on that one. Too much can still happen yet. But you are here now. So even if you feel like you’ve failed in some way, fix it. Do something different. You have a few days here, spend that time with them. Sure it won’t change anything that happened or is going to happen, but at least then you know you put your best self forward before being away. You can’t be too hard on yourself Topher…”
Chris paused only for a moment when the door swung open and hit the back wall hard. Jenny marched in, fury written all over her face. She had been so ready to kick his a** earlier but he hugged her and threw her off. She hadn’t even smacked him like she probably would have normally. It didn’t calm her anger but she started to let it go. She got away from Jack, going for a walk around the Tower to cool off, but she happened to wander close to Chris’s office eventually anyway. Drawn to it. She stood just outside for a moment, not sure if she should interrupt. She couldn’t help it, leaning against the door and trying to listen in on what they were saying. Of course she heard things she didn’t want to hear but it pissed her off more to think that Topher was trying to say they were bad parents. Her decision to interrupt was made, timed perfectly with a pause in Chris’s words.
”YOU LITTLE s**t…” She rushed to Topher and wrapped her hands around his throat. ”HOW F*CKING DARE YOU! YOU LOSE CONTROL LIKE THAT AFTER WE TAUGHT YOU BETTER THAN THAT AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO THINK WE ARE BAD PARENTS.” ”Mom Stop!” Jenny didn’t react to Chris’s shouting. Chris moved a bit closer, already trying to get her to calm down with Empathy, but unfortunately Jenny was too pissed to notice. So much for their f*cking office time away from the family. Jenny’s eyes glowed dully, she hadn’t done something like this in a while. Chris wasn’t about to let Jenny just strangle Topher though. It wasn’t easy, but Chris was able to tap into Topher’s Telepathy just enough so when she shouted, ”MOM THAT’S ENOUGH! NO VIOLENCE IN MY OFFICE!” Jenny stopped and let go. ”F*cking hell mother. That’s not okay.” By now Jack had made his way into the room and Chris looked over at him for help because it didn’t look like Jenny was going to stay stopped for long.
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Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:23 am
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Topher sighed, yes he was being an idiot about how he was thinking but he couldn’t change what happened without knowing that it would change something else. That was one of the reasons he always said that time travel was a b***h and after a while, stopped using it unless he HAD to. He was watching her as he talked and realized that it was close to their birthday, and. f*ck… It was the day after they’d be taking him. Though he was sure that Chris had asked for the extended period so he could deal with family stuff, they could’ve just thrown him in the prison once he was back in the country and said to hell with the family. Though Paul was smart and didn’t want to start a mini war. He watched as she started to go through visions after talking about what it would’ve been if he hadn’t done what he had. He already knew a few, he had asked James if he could check when he was forced into doing the spy s**t, James was able to do a few, not as many paths as Chris but it wasn’t good.
”No I just, I need to do more to help her and I can’t. I’m either forced to do something else or in trouble and can’t. It f*cking irritates the hell out of me. If I… “ No, he stopped before he could finish that statement of wanting to go all the way back. That’s when the door slammed open and their mother came in. Topher stood up but she was already choking him. ”A…” He wanted to push her back and FORCE her to move back but he just, stopped. He didn’t care anymore, if she wanted to do this he decided to let her. He felt Chris tap into his telepathy and let her do it and when their mother did let go he slumped to the ground and caught his breath. He kept his head down though, not wanting to look at any of them at the moment. Everything even now, he was a mess and started sobbing quietly.
Jack was trying to find Jenny and walked path Kaleb in the hallway who pointed in Chris’ office direction. ”Figures, thanks.” As he came in he saw Jenny choking Topher and well Topher looked defeated. He looked at Chris who looked at him and he nodded. He didn’t normally do this but things were getting out of hand. ”Jenny sit and calm down.” He spoke calmly, but with a authoritative tone and his eyes were glowing, not normal red but blue. He looked at Chris who would notice. We’ll talk later, don’t tell your mother. He was both moving towards Topher while mind talking to Chris, who he knew didn’t have telepathy anymore and smiled to reassure her. He knelt down and put his hand on Tophers shoulder and was in a mindscape instantly.
--
Topher blinked as he came to and was back at, the cabin his father took him to when he punched his partner and his mother was being angry at him and knew they needed to get out of there. That was when he found out James was a clairvoyant as well. ”The ********? I can’t travel.” ”We didn’t.” Topher turned to see his dad sitting on the steps to the cabin and motioning him to come join him. ”What the hell then?” Jack pointed at his head and Topher stopped. ”When the hell did you learn to mindscape, and how the hell exactly did you pull me in? Last time I checked I’m stronger in telepathy than you.” Jack motioned again for him to sit and Topher just stood there and Jack frowned and put his hands up in a whatever movement. ”You have a LOT to learn. I’ve been doing, what was it you called, Mindscaping since before you two were born. I learned it from a group of monks, who were doing it a long time as meditations. Pyschics have been around for longer than we know, but on different forms. Monks usually use mediation for calming purposes or thinking but mindscaping or even astro projection are a early form for psychics.” Topher finally sat and joined his father. This place was just as peaceful as he remembered.
”Not only that but the true masters have time dilation in their mindscaping, so don’t be alarmed for when we go back and only a few seconds to maybe half a minute have passed.” ”Do what now?” ”I’ll teach you later, I’ve already taught Liam, he’s actually a pretty quick study.” Jack turned to Topher and got serious. ”Now, you seemed defeated, stop that. Get your s**t together, we need you to be here, be whole. We all make choice we can’t take back that we have to deal with. Hell I had to deal with Lexa taking me back to seeing my parents die, then as well Maxwell taking control of me and… just yeah. I’m still here. I got bad but people helped, DO NOT push them away.” Jack put his hand on Topher’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. ”Life is hard, being a parent is hard, move through it, take the help given.”
Topher started to fidget and then sighed. ”I’m worried.” ”The alternate Chris?” Topher froze. ”You wanted to know how I jumped into your mind? Well when your mom was in college and I was tinkering with the time travel device I jumped around time a bit and alternate timelines. One where, one of me was dying, he gave me his power freely, and knew as a I kid you not, full EVERYTHING, that you two would be in my future. He told me if I didn’t want it to give it to you two. He tapped it somehow so I could only access it in emergencies, kind of the same way that Frederick’s ability works. I think he may have popped in and gave mom and dad that little idea when they were asked to do the study on psychic abilities, to make it so non-psychics didn’t have permanent access. Anyway, I did that. When you two were born I gave you the powers, but your telepathy was already so strong I didn’t want to make your life a hell, so I kept the reserve.” Jack shrugged as Topher just stared at him blankly.
”You could’ve picked ANY hobby, so you picked time travel and proved string theory.” ”In my defense I was left unsupervised.” Topher laughed at that. ”I think they have a shirt that says that.” ”They do, Chris got me one.” Jack smiled. ”You good now?” ”Yeah I just…she’ll do things.” ”Give her to Chris then.” ”Dad I cant. In that alternate timeline we were in where you pulled us out. The other me had traveled back and killed himself at a young age. It ruined…m…” Topher choked up a bit. Jack nodded, ”I know, I went back to talk to the alternate Jack, knowing the Maxwell energy would be floating around I gave it to him and her to help fight that pricks resistance and bring some normality back to their little world. When I asked about if there was another set of you two that Jenny just glared at me so I left it alone but she shared mentally with me what happened. I… wish you would give Chris that, but I understand why. She’ll hate you for being protective and hurting yourself you know that right?” Topher sighed and nodded. ”I know, but in there I wont have powers, so what damage can be done other than mentally?”
Jack frowned and hugged Topher. ”That’s the thing son, we don’t know if you’ll come back as you.” ”I’ll sure the hell try.” ”Good, if all else fails and she pushes at you, just remind her, her survival relies on you, if she wants to get out, she should let you be, then agree to terms where you give her to Chris once your out.” ”Dad no…” Jack shook his head. ”You can’t hold her, she’ll either agree and play nice or consume you and end up getting you killed.” ”That’s not comforting.” Jack sighed and nodded, ”Regarding her no, but for your family, stop pushing away, closing yourself in. Let us help you.” With that Jack closed the mindscape.
--
Topher looked up and noticed that Jack’s eyes were blue and blinked a bit, normally they glowed red. ”Other energy…” Jack said under his breath and they turned back to normal. Topher nodded and sighed, he was a lot calmer and from the looks of it only about half a minute had passed. He really needed to get his dad to teach him that. Jack offered Topher his hand and Topher took it to get back up but then hugged Jack as well. ”Thank you.” He walked over to Jenny and hugged her and longer. ”I’m sorry, it was… I was going to say heat of the battle but I really have no excuse to do that, I shouldn’t have even been there.” He sat back down in the other chair and sighed. ”I realized I’m going to miss our birthday, what a crappy brother I am.” Jack clapped his hands together and shook his head. ”We’ll just do something earlier. No worries.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:42 pm
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Chris exhaled softly, glad Jack was here to help out. She could feel the familiar tingle of power at Jack’s command and for once Jenny did as she was told. Of course Chris caught the look in her father’s eyes and the unfamiliar glow in them. She jumped slightly to hear his voice in her head like when they were children, expression darkening at the thought that there would be someone strong enough to get through the ‘block’ the twins had put into place long ago. By all rights it shouldn’t even be possible. Oh they would talk later about this for sure.
Chris followed Jenny, who sat down in one of the chairs. Being commanded to be calm did not help her calm down any faster, in fact it probably made the process slower. Chris stood behind her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, rubbing small circles in her back, doing her best to help ease her mother back down from her anger. After a moment she spoke. ”Did you see it…” Chris exhaled softly. ”Not exactly but I know what happened. And you can’t say you wouldn’t have done the same.” Fighting to get home, Chris knew she would have done whatever it took to get back to her children, consequences be damned. ”Topher is fine by the way.” She mentioned to easy Jenny’s worry that she’d actually hurt him. She could hear the two of them moving around behind her now.
Topher hugged Jenny and she reached up and hugged him back this time. ”I’m sorry Topher. I shouldn’t have reacted that way. And you are right… You shouldn’t have been there.” A glare from Chris who had walked back around to lean on her desk again and she continued. ”But what’s happened has happened. Your actions have consequences Topher…” Chris sighed, that was probably the best she was going to get.
At the mention of their birthday Chris frowned. ”I am very aware. But this was literally the best I could do. If I asked for any more time we would have ended up with less. I’ve already got something started. Won’t be fancy or anything but something is better than nothing. It won’t be till the last day to give everyone enough time to prepare.” Not that she ever expected anyone to do anything special but still. ”And…” She stared pointedly at Topher. ”You are not a crappy brother. However I will think of a suitable punishment for missing our birthday. If there is nothing else, I do have other work to do before the end of the day…” And Topher needed to take time to spend with his family. Whether he wanted to or not. Afterwards though she gave Jack a look that said You stay… So she could find out what all of that was before.
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 9:38 pm
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Topher helped his mother up knowing that Chris wanted to talk to Jack and walked with her like he used to when he was little and not being a sh*t. He was taller now so instead of being under her arm she was under hers. ”Come on mom, lets go find Tonya and the kids, maybe Toby has calmed down and we can make lunch. I’m… starving.” He was going to curse there but didn’t want to ruin the mood. He walked her out and let Jack stay to explain things to Chris. They did find Tonya with Toni and Kaleb in their apartment and Topher sighed but nodded at the boy, at least he was being active. Toby was still out somewhere. He looked at Tonya and she just shook her head. He sat down with them and then got up to help Tonya make lunch, least he could right now. ”Did you want coffee, tea, water or something else with lunch mom?” Toni was talking with her about lab stuff since Jenny still had a hand in it, sure Chris did a lot but being a Judge and all Jenny was usually the one there on hand most of the time.
--
Jack just stared at Chris and nodded and watched as Topher and Jenny walked out and smiled at the gesture that Topher made helping Jenny out like that. She had been through a lot and he was probably just reaasuring her that he was ok. When they left he sat down and fidgeted for a bit. He pointed at his shirt and smirked. ”Not really a joke for me.” The stare that Chris gave him back said it all. ”Fine fine, I’ll try to explain but it’s probably better to just show you but I’ll talk first.” He sat back and thought a bit of where exactly to start. ”Time travel, I invented, but I didn’t…” He put his hand up to stop the obvious question. ”Another ME, brought the tech back so I could so did I really invent it? Or did he? That’s the other thing, reason why I’m on retainer for the lab stuff with the military, half the tech isn’t from here in those computers. DO NOT TELL YOUR MOTHER THAT.” He stood up and started to pace.
”Your grandparents were always gone, I was left with shitty sitters, not like you had, though usually it was me, so you had better.” He shook his head a bit and sat back down. ”As a teen, I was much like Topher, always causing problems and getting into trouble. So they got me into computers, and I started building my own, which got them intrigued. Well they were off doing there own stuff as inventors and your grandmother being the lab runner like you was doing other things. I was bored as hell, until one day POP. Another older me was sitting on my bed staring at me. Though first thing I noticed…” Jack paused and pointed at his eye. ”Yep, blue eyes. Like that glow. Of course the smartass I was started cursing at him to get the f*ck out and he smacked me and handed me something. A tech device, took me literally seconds to figure it out. ”Thought so” He told me then POP and he was gone. Well what the hell was I supposed to do after that?” Jack sighed and took a breath. ”It was a computer, like our smartphones now but we didn’t have that stuff then so I was boggled by it. It had blueprints on it, stupid me started building them, led to the time travel device. One thing was put on it in a code which I figured out and when I was done building I put the code in and POP. I was in HIS timeline.”
Jack looked at her he wanted to just pop into that time and show her but at the time when he was young the old Jack looked like hell cause he had been through something so it would be emotional. ”I’ll probably have to show your mother but forcibly since she may not give me the option to speak, but for you, can I show you? It may be hard… emotionally.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 9:47 pm
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 6:34 pm
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Chris waited until Topher and Jenny were well out of earshot before saying anything. ”What the hell was all that?” She stared at him disappointed as he tried to skirt around it by joking about his shirt. She crossed her arms and waited for him to actually start to explain himself. She started to ask but he beat her to it, explaining the headache that time travel gave them all. ”Dad please. You know I won’t…” While Chris was an awful liar, she was still good at keeping secrets. She watched him pace carefully, listening to him talk. Some of this she kind of knew already. She shook her head, this was why they had rules and such. He started to describe the older him. ”Blue…” It was an odd color as far as she was aware but it wasn’t like there was a huge sample size of people to pull data from.
”I admit, curiosity would have gotten the better of me too…” Considering the pill powder currently in the lab and her itch to find out exactly how it worked… She couldn’t blame him. ”But what does that have to do with this…” She frowned. She asked even though she was already starting to connect the dots herself. ”I… You shouldn’t have been able to do those things. Since that incident, no one has been able to get past that block...” Except Topher hung there in the silence. They never actually told Jenny and Jack exactly what they had done, only left them with the vague impression that the block happened because of the alt timeline shenanigans and not because they swapped abilities. Now thinking about it, this made sense in a way she didn’t want it to. If Topher and her had taken powers from an alternate timeline, (albeit on accident) then it was entirely possible Jack had done it too.
She was hesitant to answer him at first. It wasn’t the emotional part she was worried about. She didn’t time travel for a reason. But curiosity got the better of her. If this was the only way she’d find out how Jack was able to speak in her mind like that, by gods she might at well. Besides, this wouldn’t be like last time. She just had to keep reminding herself of that. She pulled her phone out. A few taps, a fingerprint scan and a retinal scan later (she was taking no chances) and she stuck the phone back in her pocket and held out her hand to Jack. ”Fine, show me. But don’t let this take too long. I do really have work to finish today.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:16 pm
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Jenny stood with Topher’s help and walked out with him. Memories of an easier time crossed her mind and she leaned into him just a little. ”I am glad you are home safe Topher.” No matter what happened, he was still her little boy. No matter how tall or strong or how much trouble he got himself in, it would always be true. As they made their way to the apartment, Jenny was only a little surprised not to find Toby there. Though with his display earlier, it made sense. Too much like Topher that one…
”Coffee if you don’t mind. And let Toyna make it. I don’t want none of that weak s**t you like to make Topher…” Jenny never had her coffee quite as strong as Chris, but she liked it stronger than most. She looked back over at Toni and Kaleb, appreciative of the girls attempt to calm her down. By now she was okay, at least back to normal levels of anger she always had. She pondered the girl’s question for a moment, usually that was Chris’s call but Jenny knew what she’d say on this topic at least. ”You and Chris seem to know the researchers best, recall only those you think wouldn’t handle a crisis situation well. You, Toby and Lexa are grounded for now… Let the adults take care of things, okay.” She didn’t need to mention Liam because he was still too young to even have time tech and as far as Jenny was aware, he didn’t seem to have any interest in it anyway. Besides, as far as she was currently aware, there wasn’t anything that required their immediate attention that couldn’t be handled by one of the researchers. And with this new threat out there… Jenny just wanted to keep the grandkids safe. They were still so young…
”Enough about lab stuff. How are you doing, Toni? School going okay? Same to you questions for you Kaleb. How are your parents doing?” She felt like she didn’t spend enough time just talking with any of the kids anymore. Going forward she would have to change that. Especially the twins now that their idiot father was going to be away for a while.
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Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2018 3:15 pm
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Jack nodded and paused before he took Chris’ hand. ”There are ways you can transfer power, you and Topher have done that. Don’t look at me surprised, I know you have. I used to sense your telepathy and don’t anymore, the only way is if you gave it to Topher, whose is stronger. That Jack who told me to call him Gray, its what the people there called him, he was power and considered some kind of like profit, gave me I think only SOME of his power. He was if I could gauge, a or beyond in everything, including yes empathy.” He stood up and took her hand and smiled. ”You wondered where it came from, I gave it to you. Well he did. He gave it to me, I couldn’t really control it, it wasn’t something my mind could process or unlock. He flat out told me if I couldn’t my children could. As a teenager, I was flabbergasted by that but listened.” He smiled again. ”I guess a small bit went to Topher, or he came and gave some to Tonya to deal with him, which would actually make sense. I can sense something similar in her but small. And Toni has it, so it either carried from Topher or Tonya or both. I think here, males have a hard time processing that power or just haven’t tapped into like he did.”
He paused and thought for a bit then nodded. ”He went through something before he did the power exchange so he looks like hell. And the power exchange doesn’t help. That’s the reason I warned you it may be emotional. He seems near death and I told him not to if he needs it and…” Jack paused to take a breath, just being near Chris was keeping him calm. ”He told me he needed to anyway, something here was going to happen, likely Maxwell and his kin. If not something else, he said there needed to be someone who could defend, because the government wasn’t likely capable of doing it properly.” Jack smirked a bit at that but frowned considering Topher’s situation. ”Well… here goes… ready?”
--
[[Time = Unknown, Location = Unknown|| People: Young Jack (teenager), Older Alt Jack (Gray), Old Jack + Chris]] Gray: #4997D0 Young Jack: #1464F4
When they popped into the alternate timeline Jack felt a bit queasy. He did then recall his younger visit feeling the same at that time and knew why now. He and Chris were invisible to other but likely Gray knew they were there, he did that sort of thing a lot. When the thought that the even older Jack who was known as Gray made a face, probably feeling the side effects of having multiple versions of ones self in one point and looked his way but turned back to the younger Jack. ”Stay quiet, we may be invisible but with the time tech I’m not sure what all gets filtered. Gray knows we’re here so don’t be surprised if he glances at you.” Jack spoke quietly and still kept a hold of Chris hand, more for him, if he let go he wasn’t sure what he’d do, he hoped she’d realize that and keep a hold of him. Hopefully when he was with Jenny if he had to show her he’d be too distracted or less worried about things to need someone to hold him back.
He sat down and made a motion for Chris to and made sure he stayed close to her so if he got the idea to try to stop anything she could grab him. She was one of the ones who came up with the timeline rules in the first place. He kind of made a few but she and Jenny made up the rest.
>
”I know its strange, but I have a abundance of power Jack, trust me, you’ll need it.” Jack just frowned and stared at the old man, he was feeling better, he wasn’t sure what had happened earlier and would have to investigate later. He had suddenly felt like throwing up but felt better, he could’ve sworn the old man made a similar face but looked away before he could determine. Though if Jack were being honest the old man looked like hell to begin with. Something had happened since the last time he saw this blue eyed older version of himself. ”You’re being hesitant because of my condition, I’ll be fine. Mostly when my empathy gets a little out of whack my judgement can go out the window, and I did this to myself, I’ll heal.” Gray looked directly at Chris when he said that but quickly and turned back to the boy. ”I don’t want to take it. I don’t want it if you need it. What if that’s what you need to heal?” Jack started to pace and got worried. Gray sighed and threw out a bit of calming at Jack who stopped and looked at him and glared. ”Don’t do that. Forcing me to be calm when I’m trying to de…” ”You need the power there is no question. Things are at play in your world that will need people to help with. Your government wont be able to help. There are powers that you can handle and some that maybe you can’t”
Gray stood up slowly but steadily and walked to Jack and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and looked at him. ”If you don’t want it, store it, give the power to your children.” ”CHILDREN?! Wh…” Jack fell back and slammed down hard on his butt before Gray could catch him. The old man was a bit out of his element today. ”Yes.” Gray knelt down and didn’t bother to help Jack up but just stayed there talking to him. ”You know I can see things. When I’m near you I see you with a strong woman, and your children are strong. Most likely you end up giving them power from here. Your daughter will likely have Empathy.” Jack frowned and finally looked up at Gray. ”So more than one?” ”Twins, the boy will be a handful, like you. Your daughter will be determined in whatever she does. I sense that something with your world, most likely sadly females will be the first empaths. She will be the first, and it will be difficult. You will have some, until you give it to her. Your emotions may be difficult to handle but let people help you.” ”I don’t want it then.” ”Sadly I cannot just give you. Here I don’t have that, they figure a way but I have limitations. Rules. Its all or nothing. I’m not just giving you powers out of the blue but some of the others have asked me to to help save your world, since you are me, in a sense.”
They both stood up and Jack started to pace and think about it. ”What happens if I don’t?” ”Sadly, I see you dying first trying to help, your family, there families . The world after. Not just me but others here. You know me, but I’m not the only one.” ”There’s no other way but to take the power?” ”I’m afraid not, but as I said, When I transfer it I will transfer knowledge of how to store it. As well as how to transfer it to your children, for you the rule isn’t the same as you can transfer what you wish.” Jack stopped pacing and turned to Gray, both serious and sad at the same time, a small quiver in his voice. ”I’ll… do it.” Gray took Jacks hand and a bright light glowed between them for a few seconds and then it was done. The old man then hugged Jack and stepped back and looked at him. ”It will be hard, but you’ll have help.” ”I have my family and if not I’ll find… them.” Jack looked at gray then popped out of the time.
< <
Gray turned and looked at Jack and Chris as Jack turned off the invisibility. Jack was quiet for a moment. His heart was pacing a bit and he grabbed Chris’ hand and found her Empathy to tap into it. He knew ways to get it without having to specifically ask. ”Sorry…” He finally choked out. ”Jack and… Chris, right? The Seer, and Empath?” Jack nodded as Gray walked to them, for that he was grateful, he wasn’t sure if his legs would work at the moment. ”Things… happened and I had to use the reserve, she saw and had questions so I sort of explained and decided it would be best to show her as well. Hope you don’t mind.” ”Not at all, likely you’ll have to bring Jenny here too later in your time” ”I figured as much, I’ll pace it so she’s here after Chris the instance thing still makes my stomach do flips.” ”Mine as well so it isn’t just you. Chris any questions before you go?”
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