7 6: Kelsie

Eighteen Years Old...

Kelsie walks into her father's office holding a letter in her hand.

"Father, I have some news for you." She says.

Richard looks up from his laptop. "What exactly is it? Have you found the girl yet?"

Kelsie looks down in disappointment at the last question. Her efforts to find the girl that might be her sister have brought in no results. "I have not found her yet. If she is anything like me she will have an uncanny knack for keeping her head down. She seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. But the news I have is that I will be able to stay here for college!"

"You are?" A rare genuine smile covered Richard's face. "That's great sweetie! So I take it you got in?"

"I got into Georgia Tech!"

"I'm so proud of you! I've always known you would do well in your schooling."

RIchard's last sentence caught Kelsie off guard. She always knew she was expected to be better than others but she never knew just how high the bar might be.

"Are you going to make sure you are unrecognizable on campus? You never know who you may have encountered in the past," he remarks.

"I have thought about that a little actually. My hair is starting to get a little too long and I think I'm going to cut it before the semester starts. That and it will be easier to put under a wig for missions," She tells him.

Richard makes no acknowledge of what Kelsie says until she mentions going on missions. Then he just nods and goes back to what he was doing.

She makes a beeline straight towards her bedroom. Pulling out a pair of sharp scissors, she moves over to her mirror and takes a deep breath. Reaching up, she brings the scissors to her face and begins to cut her hair.

'At least one thing I do is good enough.' Kelsie continues trimming her hair so that it falls in layers around her face, the cut hair falling around her feet.

"There we go." She smiles when she sees the new look she's given herself. "Now I can do my next job."

...

"Krisma Milati." A file slams down on a table.

"I'm sorry, who?" Violet looks up confused.

"Krisma Milati. Someone who's starting to find out too much about our work in Indonesia," Kelsie explains. She sits down across from Violet and snags an apple slice.

"Why are you going after her? She could actually know nothing about us. Also, I like the hair."

"But she could still know something. I also need to make Father proud of me." Kelsie ignores the remark about her hair.

The thirty two year old sighs at Kelsie's words. "You are sometimes to violent for your own good."

"I'm not violent!" Kelsie's fist hits the table. "I'm a hunter. My job is to protect everyone here and our secrets. Anyone who threatens us is immediately eliminated!"

"But what if one day eliminating someone isn't the best choice."

"Why would you even think that? Eliminating someone is ALWAYS the best choice we can make!"

"No, it's not. One day the person you would have to take out could be the president. Or an actress working on a new movie. Do you want to throw the world into chaos? Or do you want us to continue doing what we do?"

"I want to do what's best for the Underground. I don't care who I have to kill as long as it protects us." At this point, Kelsie was standing up with her finger pointed straight at Violet.

"Kels, please. Rethink what you're about to do. You may not regret everything you've done now, but you will later on. Trust me," Violet pleads. "This looks good to you but to the rest of the world, it could be devastating."

"If that's what you think, then keep thinking it. I'm going to complete the mission anyways." Kelsie turns away and storms out of the common area.

Once she reaches her room, Kelsie grabs a wig, her makeup, some clothes, and throws them in a suitcase. The wig she goes ahead and puts on along with some colored contacts.

Walking out of the Underground, Kelsie pulls out her phone and calls an Uber to take her to the airport.

After waiting for a few minutes, the Uber pulls up in front of her.

"Are you Miss Astra Wilkins?" The driver asks out the window.

"Yes sir, that's me!" Kelsie puts on her sweetest smile and pulls out the southern accent.

"Alright, you can go ahead and hop on in. You aren't a meta, right?"

The question took Kelsie by surprise. She knew there was anti-meta protesters out there but she had never met one in real life.

"No sir, I'm not. Why do you ask?" She asks while climbing in the back seat. Playing the innocent card always works in her favor.

"I don't drive those nasty abominations anywhere. They shouldn't be allowed to walk on the Earth."

"Oh, okay then. Can we just get to the airport? I don't want to miss my flight."

"Of course."

...

Present Day...

She turns and walks out. "I swear he only cares about the Underground's work." She fumes. "If I left then this whole place would fall to pieces. He needs to change his viewpoint of getting things done. We need a building that we will have easier access too. Sneaking past anyone that comes down here is starting to get a little tedious."

"You're finally starting to see what I've seen about this place." A voice says from the shadows.

Kelsie jumps back at the sound of someone else. She shoots a stream of light in the direction the voice came from. It lights up nothing.

"Who's there?" She asks. This was not right. No one sneaks up on her like this.

"Don't you remember me? We met last week at The Varsity." The voice was now identifiable as a male. It had also shifted to coming from behind her.

'Shit,' she thought. 'I KNEW that guy was a little too interested in me.'

"How did you get in here?" She demands. "This is the best hidden place in the city. NO ONE has ever gotten in here!"

"How did that magic stream of light almost kill me? I know you're a meta and I know much more than that." He says. The man steps out of the shadows to her left, the one place where she couldn't see him. He was wearing a dark green jacket and blue jeans. The little bit of light that was in the hallway glinted off of his hazel eyes.

"That still doesn't answer my question. And also, what's your name? I like to know my victims before I kill them." Twin blades of light appear in Kelsie's hands.

"Marin Hopper at your service Miss Mortem." He does a mock bow towards her. "As for my little party trick," Marin disappears into thin air. "That is much easier shown than said." His voice still comes from where he was standing.

"Why did you follow me here and how were you not noticed? We have meta security measures at every entrance!"

Marin reappears against the wall behind where he was standing before. "Correction, you have security measures for MOST metas. I'm not most metas. I was also able to get through when you went in." He lets out a little laugh. "I'm surprised you haven't noticed me sooner. I've been trailing you for days."

"Oh, so you're just some weird stalker?"

"No. I am someone who has kept up with your adoptive father's work for a while. You just gave me the perfect opportunity to get in here and see what's been going on."

A flick of her wrists sends the blades of light straight at Marin's jacket, pinning him where he stood. He just laughed at her movements.

"Ya know, for being one of the best assassins out there, you really are predictable."

"I don't want to hear it. You have one minute to explain what you want with us before I kill you and dump your body in the middle of nowhere." She walks over to him and starts checking him for weapons.

"I want to help you. Your father, if you could even call him that, killed my parents. Fortunately, they were huge problems and I was glad to see them die."

Kelsie looks up at him in shock. This was one thing she was not expecting. Anyone who had family killed by them typically didn't hunt them down just to join the Underground.

"When I found out that there was a girl that had connections to this place, I knew I had to find her. I know that there may be some shady things that go on here but y'all have a good mission overall. You want us to be treated fairly. Metas have always faced discrimination and it's only getting worse as time goes on. The largest group of metas united under one cause are in this place. And I want to add one more to your fine organization."

Kelsie scoffs at his use of 'fine'. This place was anything BUT good and she's known that for years.

"Your story sounds legit but we're gonna have to get it checked out. I'm taking you to my father."

"Oh great. I've always wanted to meet the esteemed Demon Lord face to face." Marin pauses for just a second. "Without him killing my family of course.

"Of course." Kelsie grits her teeth together. 'Can this guy get any more freaking annoying?'

The light holding him to the wall dissolves leaving two holes in his jacket. Kelsie uses a rope of light to bind his hands behind his back. Unbeknownst to Marin, she placed a tracker in the rope that will be slightly burned into his skin.

"Aww man," he whines. "I really liked this jacket."

"Don't worry your pretty head over it. We have someone here who can fix it in a heartbeat."

"So you think I'm pretty?" He raises his eyebrows at her.

Kelsie turns her head away from him, her face turning eight shades of red. "You just have a very nice face is all I'm gonna say."

"Whatever you say sweetheart."

"Oh just be quiet." She commands.

"Okay. Lead the way to wherever you're taking me."

Grabbing Marin by the shoulder, she leads him back down the way she came from a few minutes earlier. When they reach the door to Richard's office, Kelsie squares her shoulders and knocks.

"Who's out there?" Richard says in a gruff voice.

"It's me Father," Kelsie calls back.

A loud sigh could be heard from the other side of the door. "Come on in then."

"I have something that might be of interest for you Father." Kelsie says walking in the door. She leaves Marin out in the halls with a threatening glance reminding him not to do anything stupid.

"And what exactly might that be?"

"Someone came to me saying they wanted to join the Underground." No emotion crosses her face while she faces her father.

"And how would they have gotten to you? No one outside of here knows who we are or even how to get down here without being detected."

"Actually, one person knows how to get down here and we would never have noticed him," She explains. No matter how smart Richard was, he was still stupid when it came to certain things.

"Well, who is it? Who 'made it in here' and came to you?"

"Marin Hopper." WIth those words, Kelsie pulled him into the office where he promptly disappeared.

"So he's a meta," Richard deadpans.

Marin reappears. "I'm not just any meta sir. I'm an invisibility meta that can also handle weapons in a highly skilled way. Also, it is an honor to meet you sir." He takes a step forward as if to shake Richards hand but stops when he remembers his hands are tied.

This definitely caught Richards attention. "So that's part of how you got in here. You still would have gotten caught by our meta security measures even if you were invisible."

"With all due respect sir, your security measures aren't exactly set against ALL metas. Most invisibility metas have trouble sneaking in places because they don't have full control over their powers. There is always one small part of them that is never fully invisible. One flaw like that allows them to be detected by all meta security measures," Marin begins to explain. "However, I've trained for so long with my powers that I can turn fully invisible and stay that way for very long periods of time, even when I'm asleep."

"Impressive."

"See Father, I told you I had someone who would be a valuable asset to us."

"Well, if you think he can do so well here, you can be the one responsible for him."

"I'm sorry, WHAT?" Kelsie asks in shock.

"You heard me young lady. If you want him to be here, you can keep an eye on him," Richard is no happy with repeating himself. "I can't be sure if I can trust him quite yet so that is your job. Now, I have some things to take care of and would appreciate being left alone." He gestures for them to move out of the office.

Grabbing Marin's collar, Kelsie leads him out of the office and down the hall.

"I need a drink now."

"Then why don't you just get one?" Marin questions.

"Because, there are some in my room. Well, I guess it's our room now. I have extra space for your bed and Father's forcing me to keep an eye on you," Kelsie grumbles.

"So that's the best you can think of?"

"Well, given the circumstances, yes. But you still have to gain our trust."

"That shouldn't be too hard."

They walk in silence for a minute or two, only passing a few people in the hallway. Eventually they stop in front of a door.

Kelsie opens it to reveal a rather large bedroom with weapons scattered all over the walls. Marin's jaw almost falls to the floor when he sees her bedroom.

"What? It's just a room. Don't act so surprised." Kelsie pushes him into the room and closes the door behind her.

She dissolves the rope and Marin immediately rubs his wrists. 'Why did that have to be so hot?' He thought.

"You say it's just a room. This place is MASSIVE!"

"Yeah yeah. I'll get a bed in here by tonight. Tomorrow at the latest," Kelsie assures him.

"So what happens if you don't get a bed in here by tonight?" He asks.

"You'll sleep on the floor," Kelsie deadpans.

"No way. That's not happening."

"I'm joking. You'll just have to sleep in my bed."

'Not like that would be a bad thing,' she thinks.

"Okay then. Wasn't expecting that answer."

"Hey! We're not complete animals here. Besides, welcome to the Underground. All your loyalties lie with us now." Kelsie holds her hand out for a handshake.

Marin takes it. "Thanks for taking a chance on me."

One last thought crossed his mind before falling asleep. 'My loyalties will never lie with that monster or this organization.'