and still in his underwear. He barely notices that I'm there.
"What are you still doing home? Shouldn't you be on your way to the office?" I ask.
"Huh? Oh. I called out. Working from home again," he says, not bothering to even look up from his laptop.
I stare at him, waiting for him to notice. He doesn't.
"What are you looking at?" I ask. This finally grabs his attention.
"Oh my God. You haven't heard? There was this absolutely insane meta fight last night! The footage is all over the place. The one guy threw another guy right through an entire city block!" he exclaims.
I do my best to hide a smirk. It doesn't matter anyway, Derrick is too engrossed in what's on his screen to notice.
"Wow. Sounds like this guy's pretty incredible."
Okay. Maybe now I'm laying it on a bit too thick and consider pulling back a little bit. Derrick would never, ever suspect me in a million years, but that doesn't mean I should be a cocky idiot about it.
"Yeah, he's all right but not really all that interesting," Derrick says.
Wow. Okay. Never mind then.
"What's really interesting is the thing he was fighting," Derrick says.
"Thing?" I ask. "I thought you said it was two metas fighting."
"That's the craziest part. This other thing wasn't actually a meta," he says.
"How do they know that?" I ask, doing my best to feign ignorance.
"Because the meta that made him, uploaded a video about it to ViewNow," Derrick says.
"What."
I try to process what Derrick has just told me. The old metas could do a lot of incredible things. Some could fly. Others possessed super speed or super strength. There were even some who could teleport or project pure energy in the way of a projectile. But they couldn't ever "make" something. Not something like the thing I saw last night.
"Here, watch this," Derrick says while swinging the laptop around so I could see it.
He clicks play and the video on screen begins playing. It's a webcam single shot of a person, presumably a meta, wearing a black mask covered by a dark green cross that splits his face into four quadrants. There's nothing discernible about the person himself, and the rest of the room is too dark to actually make anything out. He leans in towards the camera and begins to speak.
"What you've witnessed today is only the beginning. Where there is danger, I will create chaos and no one will be safe. I will finish what Jones started."
The video ends and the screen goes blank. This is the second time now that I've thought about Jones in a very long time. This surprises me, considering everything that has been happening. I suppose it's still just too much to handle thinking about; the man who killed my parents. How he used the same type of devices I have invisibly strapped to my wrists right now to do it.
"I don't understand," I barely manage to squeak out.
"He calls himself The Controller," Derrick begins to explain while pulling up other windows on his laptop screen, "and he's been around for a while."
"What? What do you mean he's been around for a while? These new metas are the first ones anyone's seen in like ten years," I say.
"He wasn't a meta, but he's been around. Here, look." Derrick says as he shows me an online forum. There's a lot of information on the screen, but from what I can gather, I'm looking at the profile of someone with the screen name 'The Controller' who has posted to this particular forum 14,324 times.
"That's a lot of posts," I say.
"Hell yeah, that's a lot of posts. You don't understand. This guy, this meta, rather, he's an obsessive," Derrick says.
"Aren't you kinda an obsessive about this stuff too though, Derrick?" I ask.
"Not like this guy. There's thousands and thousands of pages of these rants. Everyone in the community knows this guy, because he usually winds up getting himself banned sooner or later because of his
"What are you still doing home? Shouldn't you be on your way to the office?" I ask.
"Huh? Oh. I called out. Working from home again," he says, not bothering to even look up from his laptop.
I stare at him, waiting for him to notice. He doesn't.
"What are you looking at?" I ask. This finally grabs his attention.
"Oh my God. You haven't heard? There was this absolutely insane meta fight last night! The footage is all over the place. The one guy threw another guy right through an entire city block!" he exclaims.
I do my best to hide a smirk. It doesn't matter anyway, Derrick is too engrossed in what's on his screen to notice.
"Wow. Sounds like this guy's pretty incredible."
Okay. Maybe now I'm laying it on a bit too thick and consider pulling back a little bit. Derrick would never, ever suspect me in a million years, but that doesn't mean I should be a cocky idiot about it.
"Yeah, he's all right but not really all that interesting," Derrick says.
Wow. Okay. Never mind then.
"What's really interesting is the thing he was fighting," Derrick says.
"Thing?" I ask. "I thought you said it was two metas fighting."
"That's the craziest part. This other thing wasn't actually a meta," he says.
"How do they know that?" I ask, doing my best to feign ignorance.
"Because the meta that made him, uploaded a video about it to ViewNow," Derrick says.
"What."
I try to process what Derrick has just told me. The old metas could do a lot of incredible things. Some could fly. Others possessed super speed or super strength. There were even some who could teleport or project pure energy in the way of a projectile. But they couldn't ever "make" something. Not something like the thing I saw last night.
"Here, watch this," Derrick says while swinging the laptop around so I could see it.
He clicks play and the video on screen begins playing. It's a webcam single shot of a person, presumably a meta, wearing a black mask covered by a dark green cross that splits his face into four quadrants. There's nothing discernible about the person himself, and the rest of the room is too dark to actually make anything out. He leans in towards the camera and begins to speak.
"What you've witnessed today is only the beginning. Where there is danger, I will create chaos and no one will be safe. I will finish what Jones started."
The video ends and the screen goes blank. This is the second time now that I've thought about Jones in a very long time. This surprises me, considering everything that has been happening. I suppose it's still just too much to handle thinking about; the man who killed my parents. How he used the same type of devices I have invisibly strapped to my wrists right now to do it.
"I don't understand," I barely manage to squeak out.
"He calls himself The Controller," Derrick begins to explain while pulling up other windows on his laptop screen, "and he's been around for a while."
"What? What do you mean he's been around for a while? These new metas are the first ones anyone's seen in like ten years," I say.
"He wasn't a meta, but he's been around. Here, look." Derrick says as he shows me an online forum. There's a lot of information on the screen, but from what I can gather, I'm looking at the profile of someone with the screen name 'The Controller' who has posted to this particular forum 14,324 times.
"That's a lot of posts," I say.
"Hell yeah, that's a lot of posts. You don't understand. This guy, this meta, rather, he's an obsessive," Derrick says.
"Aren't you kinda an obsessive about this stuff too though, Derrick?" I ask.
"Not like this guy. There's thousands and thousands of pages of these rants. Everyone in the community knows this guy, because he usually winds up getting himself banned sooner or later because of his
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