do you like how my face disintegrates into chalk?

This was always the most tedious part back in training.

Iris leans against what’s probably a wall- she can’t see it yet- and busies herself with fidgeting. Nobody told her there’d be so much waiting in the theory of her training, and in the practical she’d at least had her instructors to talk to. This time it’s just Iris, a universe that hasn’t loaded in yet, and…

Peony. 

The higher staff of the Wrong Era Collective work in mysterious ways, so there’s probably a good reason why two rookies were set out on a mission together, but did her partner have to be so annoying? Even if she was interested in making conversation, Peony is too busy pacing in circles, whining about how long this world is taking to materialise.

She doesn’t know anything about her, other than the fact that she talks too much.  It doesn’t make sense- Iris thought she’d at least recognise the name. No, the codename. At least Peony’s a functional enough agent to stick to that rule? Iris had never learned another WEC member’s real name, and had no intention of doing so.

She probably had a real name, at some point.

Carnation told her the story, after she’d had a bad nightmare and refused to go back to bed once when she was very small. A particular timeline they’d travelled to was beyond saving- the agents working on it couldn’t do much but control the implosion when it finally came. One of the very last to return to headquarters- Dahlia, she thinks their codename was?- entered moments before they were going to seal it off, panting, a tiny bundle clutched in her arms. At this point taking more survivors wasn’t that feasible, but they couldn’t bear to leave her behind. That baby was passed from agent to agent over the years, and eventually grew up into an aspiring WEC member herself. Iris had always been given the choice- she didn’t have to do this if she didn’t want to. When she was old enough to live alone, they’d find a nice universe for her to live in and rewrite a few things and she could have a normal civilian life. It was never an opportunity she’d been interested in- all the opportunities to shadow, the tales from her caregivers. Why would she even consider leaving all that behind? The choice being there was always good- it just never appealed to her. 

Training was a breeze, and here it was- her first mission as a fully fledged agent of the Collective. She could finally prove how-

“AH-!”

There’s an undignified squeak as a lamppost renders, interrupting Peony’s pacing. Why did Iris have to be stuck with her again?

She’ll try to be civil. Iris offers her teammate a hand up, and the other gives a flustered laugh as she takes it.

“Thanks, Rissie! That took a long time, didn’t it? Thought we’d get stuck, heh..”

Iris’ only response is a death glare at the nickname. The first step to repairing something is to find where the damage is.

It’s a quiet town centre under a grey, overcast sky. The distant sound of cars and the rustles and sqwawks of a few gulls fighting over litter, and Peony continuing to whine about the wait. Nothing really seems out of the ordinary. 

“Are.. you sure we’re in the right place, Iris? Looks pretty stable to me...”

“We should be. They wouldn’t send us to the wrong place.”

“...But what if they did?”

She’s about to give a response when she realises what’s happening. It had never been overcast.

Iris raises her head right as the sky finally comes into view. Even if it’s still pale, it’s noticeably bluer- and shattering. A fissure cleaves through the clouds, reaching off into the distance.

Peony snaps out of staring blankly at it. She turns to Iris, head tilted.

“Is it.. meant to be that bad?”

Iris takes a moment before she speaks.

“No.”

Hadn’t Foxglove said this was a basic mission since they were so new to it? It looks like there’s so much damage already… No time to dwell on it. They have an objective and it is not the ominous-looking crack in the sky. They could probably ask her about it in the briefing.

Speaking of the briefing, isn’t that due at any moment? Something vibrates inside Peony’s pocket.

“Like, should we get someone or- can you hear something?”

Peony feels around for the phone and answers it. Technically they should be referred to as communicators, as per WEC policy, but everyone who knows what a phone is calls it a phone.

“Hellooo? Am I coming in clear?”

Mission control. 

“Loud and clear,”

“Mhm!” Peony gives an enthusiastic nod. A+ for effort, even if this is audio-only and Foxglove can’t even hear them.

“Good. So! This shouldn’t be too tricky for you two, but if there’s any trouble let me know, alright?”

“Will do. What are we… actually doing..? The pre-mission briefing didn’t say much.”

There’s the sound of rustling papers- probably Foxglove checking the details again.

“This time’s anomaly. His name is Kennedy Smith. 24 years old. Found a crack in the space-time continuum in his basement and developed a god complex. Pretty textbook. He;’s only been making subtle changes so far, testing the waters but it’d be best to nip things in the bud, y’know? You two are just scouting for now- try and get as close as you can, assess the damage.”

“Right.”

“...”

“...”

“Oh! The tracker! Sorry, girls, let me get that set up for you.”

“.. Thank you.”

Something beeps from inside of Iris’ bag.

“I’ll leave you to it, then. You’ve been on enough practises to know the drill by now, I think. Be safe, don’t try to fix anything that isn’t already broken. Good luck~!”

Before Iris can bring up that the basement hole probably isn’t the only crack in reality here, the call cuts out. She turns to discuss the situation with her esteemed colleague…

Who turns back, head tilted.

“Hm?”

“Were you listening to the briefing at all!?”

“Oh- uh- Yeah! Definitely. Absolutely. Ready to follow everything Ms Snapdragon said to the letter.”

“...”

“Are you even taking this seriously?!”

“You’re taking it too seriously.”  She folds her arms, almost pouting.

“What does that even mean? We should at least listen to what we’re meant to be doing..”

“I don’t understand how that’s really meant to help. Isn’t stuff like this going to be super unpredictable? How can they just like… say exactly what’s going to go on and how to deal with it?”

“It’s always been accurate.”

“Yeah, in training exercises.”

“Why can’t you just-”

“Hey, hey, let’s not bicker.”

They stop mid-sentence. Apparently, Foxglove hadn’t completely ended the call yet.

“Much better! Do you think you could at least try to be civil for now..? We can arrange.. changes in pairings after if it really doesn’t work out?”

They stay quiet. Foxglove makes a little humming noise.

“Good. Be careful, alright?”

This time there’s a definite click. Iris exhales.

Be civil. She can do that.

The little device whirrs for a few seconds, Iris watching it expectantly. A light blink on, and it begins to make the occasional little click. Right.

She places it to her ear, and takes a step forward, listening intently. The clicks almost immediately slow down. Not this way, then. The other direction has similar results- east or west, then? She approaches the east.

There’s a crackle, which fades into a regular click, click, click within a few seconds. Success. 

“This way.” Iris beckons Peony towards her as she walks in the right direction. The other follows, nodding.

“Got it!”

The little game of hot-and-cold with the tracker leads them away from the town centre. Suburbs. They were always really annoying in training- all the identical buildings, stuck-up residents. They’re being pointed in the right direction constantly and she's still never really certain they’re going the right way-how do people even find specific places in them without getting lost normally? It’s disorienting.

“Iris? You look a little nervous..”

“I’m fine. Just getting my bearings.”

“Ohh, I get that..! Do you wanna swap places? I lived somewhere like this when I was little- might be able to figure out where we’re going a little easier.”

Sometimes Iris forgets that most members of the WEC didn’t grow up there. She gives Peony a nod and stops moving to let her overtake.

 At least it’s quiet- there are a few lights in the windows and cars on drives, but nobody actually on the many identical streets. 

By the time they find themselves standing outside one of many, many identical houses, the clicks of the tracker are a constant drone. This one must be it, then.

Peony knocks on the door.

“Hello? Anybody home?”

She pauses for a moment, thinking.

“We- uh- just moved in! Wanted to greet the neighbours. Sorry if it’s a bad time..?”

Iris gives her a nod of approval. 

…Not that tact helps much when you don’t get any sort of response. Iris steps forward, giving a small knock of her own. Silence. The door swings open without resistance when she tries the handle, unlocked.

That silence persists further inside. The tasers they’d been given are the closest they have to weapons- causing any damage wouldn’t be a great idea. Peony keeps hers in hand. As she glances at Iris, walking a little ahead, she notices a hand in a pocket, probably holding onto something inside.

Maybe it’s how normal the place is that’s putting them so on edge. Decor you could find at any decently sized furniture store, neutral colours. Clean enough to not look abandoned, but not clean enough to look like a lifeless show house.

Still, if the tracker hadn’t already been turned off to avoid making too much noise already it’d be screaming. 

“...Still warm.”

Peony looks up from staring at a wooden sign engraved with some generic quote. Iris’ eyes meet hers, raising her head from the mug she’d been pressing the back of her hand on.

“Foxglove said it was in the basement, didn’t she? Let’s make this quick- remember, we’re just scouting. Don’t touch anything”

The basement isn’t too difficult to find- it’s not locked, either. Either someone was a little lax with their security- or they were in too much of a hurry to change anything. Iris flicks on the tracker.

It practically screeches, then falls silent, shorted out. Ugh, getting a replacement is going to be annoying.

She places a hand on the door and looks back at Peony.

“Ready?”

Peony nods.

“Mhm. Lead the way.”

Iris does so, starting to make her way down the stairs. The other follows- and almost walks into her at the bottom. Peony gives an awkward giggle. 

“Why’d you stop there? I almost ran into you, haha-”

“Don’t go past me.”  Iris does her absolute best to hide the shake in her voice. Peony realises why the second she leans a little to the side to see.

It’s not even recognizable as a body anymore- if Iris squints, she can maybe make out a hand? The rest of what remains of Mr Smith just makes her head hurt to look at, some sort of oil-spill of flesh. You can tell it used to be a person, but it’s hard to make out any features. It’s not a common result of screwing with the space-time continuum, but it’s not a new one. She’s read case studies about this sort of thing. If this had come up in training her supervisor would have strategically turned their charge’s head away and called for backup by now. This time it’s up to her to turn away and call for backup, then?

She turns to her partner. Peony looks down at her hands, slowly backing away.
“...I- I don’t think-think we’re supposed to be doing this sort of thing-”

Iris doesn’t respond. What does she even do here? They were supposed to be just assessing things. She’s about to reach for her phone when there’s a noise- a crack. The growing hole in the basement floor just reaches her as she realises what it means and steps out of the way.

“We can’t stay here-”

She notices Peony hasn’t moved. No time to call her out on it- she takes the other’s hand as she steps onto the second basement step, pulling her onto the first. With that, she comes to her senses just enough to make it outside.

The basement door slams behind them. Iris leans against it, trying her hardest to steady her breathing. That was close…

Peony stares into space.

“...Does it always look like that, Rissie?”

Of course. Peony had said she used to live somewhere like this, hadn’t she? How else does anyone end up part of the WEC? They try to save what they can, and if they can’t save, they salvage. She’d never asked, but she looked around the same age as Iris- wherever she came from, it must have ceased to exist fairly recently if she’d been in training for as long as she had.

She’s not sure what to do- it’s dangerous for them to stay here, but getting more involved right now seems like a bad idea. Ask Foxglove to pull them out, maybe? She takes out her communicator. Nothing but static. …She’s starting to understand why they’re put into pairs for things like this. If things were the other way round Peony probably would have already been able to calm her down by now. 

Iris places a hand on Peony’s shoulder and gently slides her into a sit, leaning against the basement door. She glances at the nearest window, the crack in the sky widening and splitting, then returns her gaze to make eye contact with Peony. A wordless whenever you’re ready.

It takes a few minutes before there are voices outside. Peony raises her head, nudging Iris to follow. There’s a crowd in the suburbs. Iris has seen most of the other agents here before, even if it’s just a face to a codename. Looks like Foxglove’s called in the cavalry.

They’re going to be okay. If not this timeline, its residents.

“There you are…!”

Foxglove stands in the doorway, brow raised in concern. Does she usually come on missions in person? She stands with another agent, one Iris vaguely recognises.

“We didn’t think things were.. this bad here. Sent in more forces as soon as we’d picked up something was wrong. Sorry about that- are either of you hurt?”

“Not physically..?” Iris figures this is something Peony would want to talk about in her own time.

“That’s good!”

She pauses to think. A faint crackle of electricity fills the air.

“...We shouldn’t stay this close to the epicentre. Do you two want to come outside with me?”

The crowd looks even bigger from the outside- as well as those in the surrounding area, there are agents heading further out- evacuating the locals, perhaps?- down the paths of the suburbs. Iris traces the crack in the sky down to the house they’d just left.

“Right then… Do you want to be part of this? I understand if it’s… a little too much for your first mission, but…”

“We can do it-” they. end up saying at the same time. Foxglove giggles.

“My, you two are a great team already,  aren’t you? Reminds me of my first partner and I.”

Iris notices she’s staring at something between them, a wistful look in her eyes. Peony notices, too, and follows her gaze.

Iris had taken Peony’s hand when they left the basement. Without thinking, she’d never let go of it.