The Conversion Bureau: Gentek's Solution

“Yeah it is.” She idly commented, leaning her head back against the wall. They’d been waiting for almost an hour now, longer than it should’ve been according to the conversion doctor or whatever was the term for them. “You have any family?”

He didn’t even look up from his magazine. “They quit talking to me after becoming what I am.”

She grimaced under her mask, maybe that was why he was willing to help. “Sorry to hear that.”

“S’all good love, I am what I am, nothing’s changing that.” He put down the magazine and rolled off the bench he’d been laying down on. Stretching like a cat he said, “What do you say we stretch, sitting down too long isn’t good for the muscles. If you still have any that is.”

Oddly enough despite sitting in more or less the same position for an hour she didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable and declined. Though that did make her wonder as to what she was, she’d done things that, even if she was superhuman, would have at least made her feel a bit tired.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and kept stretching, not really caring if she saw some more explicit bits. She averted her eyes respectfully by picking up one of the magazines and skimming through it, something about magic. There was a lot of pony magazines in the pile in front of them and hardly any human magazines. Go figure.

Her skimming and his stretching was interrupted by an ear-piercing shriek from deeper inside the bureau, making her snap to attention. “The fucking hell was that?” Her question was answered by another shriek, but with less fear and more pain.

Jeremy looked at her once, then down the hallway it came from. “I have a distinct feeling it might have something to do with your brother.” She mirrored that sentiment with a nod and sprinted past him, everything becoming a blur thanks to her new speed. There was the occasional colored streak signifying a pony or a distorted voice thanks to her running.

But her speed didn’t help her as she skidded to a stop in the middle of a hallway intersection, wondering where to go, all three of her optional paths decorated with doors to keep her from just glancing down one way. That dilemma was solved instantly when one of the doors was busted open by one the ponies working there, eyes wide in terror and mouth gasping for breath as said green pony ran past.

Well that’s the way she was going then, she thought to herself going in the opposite direction of the fleeing pony. Down the hallway she ran, the lights above flashing as if they were turning on and off, ears listening for her brother or whatever was making all the ruckus. It didn’t take her long to hear the raging voice, screaming at the top of its lungs, voice somehow alternating between female and male.

And the male voice sounded a lot like Alex. Swearing under her breath she ran towards the screaming, slamming through the doors as they got in her way, getting closer to the screaming, hearing a new sound accompanying it. The sound of something meaty getting pummeled by a hammer.

Slowing down slightly, but still keeping at an inhuman run she briefly wondered why they’d need such a huge facility before she slammed another door open and came upon a more horrific sight than the screaming voice of her brother and unknown woman. On the floor was a massive pool of blood, sickly red, reflecting the world around said pool and her as she slowly approached it, eyes not on the pool but the body wedged into the wall. The pony’s legs splayed straight out from the hole in the wall, blood dripping down through the cracks running all the way to the floor, straight into the pool of blood.

She gagged at the sight and looked away, not wanting to know what did that. It was as she skirted the pool of blood, she noticed the screaming and pummeled meat had stopped. She was very conscious of the fact she didn’t exactly know where she was and what did this atrocity. In the room opposite of the body, one that she was about to pass, a faucet turned on along with a humming voice.

Licking her lips she backed up away from the door slowly and against her more rational thinking she called out in a cross between a whisper and a whistle, “Alex?” The faucet snapped off and the so did the humming. The air grew tense and thick with her fear about who or what was behind the door, so she slowly backed up, eyes on the door ready to run at a moment’s notice. The handle turned ever so slightly and she tensed, leaning backwards and away from it.

It opened ever so slowly, inch by inch eventually revealing, “Alex?”

Clad in the same exact outfit as when she last saw him awake he smiled at her, seemingly not noticing the blood or dead body in the wall and strode towards her, seeing right through her disguise. “Hey ‘sis I heard you can jump over buil--” He cut off as she tackled him in a hug, making him half-stumble backwards before he lifted her up via his own hug and moved them farther down the hall, before letting go of her and twisting her around to face the way she came from. “Somebody’s happy to see me, something happen to me?”

Instead of walking with him she re-hugged him again, crying into his shoulder while he simply smiled at her. In between sobs she talked about how Gentek blew up and that Blackwatch had tried to kill her, how Jeremy the pony helped her and how they brought him to a Conversion Bureau. With her face in his shoulder she didn’t notice his scowl or how one of his fists tightened, but instead felt him patting her reassuringly on the back. “While I can’t agree with the way you tried to wake me up, but I do appreciate your concern. Come on let’s get out of here and we can talk, because there’s some things you need to know.”

He felt her nod her head against his shoulder and he walked forward keeping her close as her sobs grew quieter and quieter. In only a few moments they had walked past the hallway of blood and he’d placed his arm around her pulling her in as they walked. “You may look all grown up, but you’re still my little scared sister.”

She sniffed, “Shut the fuck up okay, I was worried about the fact you were on my back getting shot.”

Alex chuckled and said nothing, feeling the time wasn’t appropriate to ask more questions or explain things to her. But the comfortable silence was broken by the sound of hooves hitting the floor, from straight ahead behind a set of doors. Dana looked up confused slightly, until Jeremy ran through with a worried look on his face. He skidded to a stop in front of them and gave Mercer a quick smile before looking at Dana. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but if you want to continue your family bonding you need to do it elsewhere, there’s military men outside. So you’d better run and I should go hide.”

He saluted them and dashed on past them, leaving Mercer confused. “I take it that was Jeremy?” A nod from Dana as she finally pushed off of his shoulder and rubbed her eyes, to rid the evidence of tears. Mercer took a moment to think things over, explosion at Gentek, superhuman sister, Blackwatch shooting her. They probably thought her a runner and so to an extension he would be considered one too, so it was best to not talk to them yet until he had all the facts. “Alright come on let’s not go through the front entrance.”

He gestured his sister to follow and started running down the halls, noticing the fact that everything around him seemed to be going by faster than normal. Everything was blurrier than it should’ve been, like he was inside a slow-moving car, instead of running, his sister didn’t comment on it. She merely kept up with him as they ran down the halls together, not turning any corners and just keeping straight so as to reach the walls on the outside of the building.

It took them not even ten seconds to reach the end of the Bureau, where they both stopped and looked at it. Alex took a moment to look at his hands, his sister and finally at the distance they both covered. He walked up to the wall and ran his hands over it, pushing slightly on it.

“So genius what do we do now?” Dana asked sarcastically as he kept feeling up the wall. She didn’t know what to expect from him but when he decided to literally kick through the wall, easily busting through it she commented, “Holy fucking hell Alex what’d you do?”

“I’ll explain when we get somewhere less likely to be shot at.” Alex replied as he used his arms to finish making a hole in the wall. He walked on through his hole and into the next building, a lifeless office building.

Dana climbed in after him and was proud to tell him about her home. “I do have a safe house set up in New York City, the only problem is that we have to get there without being seen.”

Alex simply laughed and resumed his walking through the office building. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with that.”