[Disclaimer: I do not own the PPC. That is the property of Jay and Acacia. Also, there is a lot of exposition in this one, so if you wanted to figure out exactly how the events of the last couple of things I’ve done got set in motion for yourself, I’d recommend that you read my Permission Piece, found here. Thanks goes to Caddy-Shack, Miah, EllipsisFlood, and gaijinguy for beta work.]
Agent Lucius sighed. It had been about a day since his partner, Agent Drew Charles had been released from Medical. Since then, he had spent most of the time sleeping. This was unusual for Drew, for several reasons.
He drummed his fingers on the console. They had a new mission. Lucius didn’t recognise the continuum, but he figured Drew would wake up on his own time.
Suddenly, he felt a tight grip around his chest, accompanied by his partner’s familiarly low voice. “Grah, bearhug!”
Lucius sighed, part in jest, part in relief. “Hey mate. How are you feeling now?”
“Mmm. Mildly better.”
Lucius paused. “You’re getting aroused by this, aren’t you?”
Drew giggled. “Maybe a little.”
Lucius wormed out of friend’s grip. “Well, it’s good to see you’re back.” He paused again. “We’ve got a new fic up, and I’m not entirely familiar with the continuu-”
Drew put a hand over his partner’s mouth. “It can wait. First, I need to explain everything to you.”
“Didn’t you already do that?”
“Not fully, or completely.”
Lucius nodded tentatively. “Are you going to be able to handle it?”
Drew stared at his friend. “Yeah. I think... I think I’m feeling up to it now.” He sighed. “This is going to take a while, though. I probably won’t shut up for a little bit. You okay with that?”
Lucius grinned weakly. “Of course I am, mate. I’m more worried about how okay you are with it.”
“Alright. Well, brace yourself.” He took a deep breath. “Alright, so, I was infected shortly before I was recruited. There’s a couple of possibilities for when that happened.” He looked up. “Do you remember, back when you first got to the RC, how I mentioned that it was good to have a partner again?”
Lucius blinked. “Drew, that wasn’t that long ago.”
“Yeah, well, it feels like it’s been a few months.” He sighed. “Anyways, you asked me whether or not I was a new agent, and my reply got cut off by the console.”
“Drew, I know all of this.”
“Shut up. I’m explaining.” He scowled at his partner. “As I was saying, I wasn’t exactly a new agent. I’d been waiting on a partner for... I don’t know... Four or five days, maybe?” He sighed. “Anyways, back in my continuum, before I left, I’d had a partner, by the name of Tom Reynold. He was from New York.” He paused. “I’m not entirely sure what he did before the outbreak, but I’m pretty sure it was illegal. That’s irrelevant now, though. I ran into him, and after a rather tense stand-off, we decided to team up. It’s safer that way.” He sighed again. “I’m not going to lie, I had a bit of a... thing for him.”
Lucius nodded. “I can see that happening with you.”
Drew waggled his eyebrows. “Can you see that happening with us?”
“No. I most definitely cannot.”
“Your loss. Anyways, we had many epic adventures. We killed zombies, and did some other stuff. It was very... I don’t know. It was a thing.” He sighed. “It wasn’t anything particularly special, just two random guys who got by more on luck than on skill.” He tilted his head. “Actually, Tom seemed to know what he was doing...” He shrugged. “Whatever. Anyways, at one point, we found an abandoned watchtower. Long story short, Tom got bitten.”
Lucius stiffened. “Oh. I think I know where this is going.”
Drew snorted. “You don’t know the half of it. I got a bit of a scratch at the same time. It wasn’t anything major, not enough to be infected. That came... later. Anyways, he... well...” He wiped at the corners of his eyes. “He shot himself.”
Lucius walked over to his partner and stood by him awkwardly. “Do you need a...” He trailed off into silence.
“No, I’ll be fine.” Drew swallowed heavily. “Anyways, well, after he shot himself, I guess I got some blood into the scratch from earlier, and, well...” He shuddered. “That’s how I got infected.”
Lucius stared at Drew. “Screw it.”
“Wha-”
Drew was cut off by an unexpected hug. “Quiet. I suspect you need this.”
“This isn’t going to get... interesting, is it?”
“You are not going to get laid, no.”
“Damn.” Drew sighed. “Anyways, now that we’ve got that bit out of the way, onto how the infection process actually works.”
“You already explained this to me.”
Drew shook his head. “Not all that well.” He made a vague gesture. “So, I guess how it works is that HQ has a certain... effect on the process. Part of it has to do with how space-time is all messed up here, so I won’t reanimate fully. Just as I get damaged.” He gestured at his stomach. “So, right now, the only part of me that’s actually turned is my digestive system.”
“What’s the other part?”
“Well, this isn’t official, but, I’m pretty sure that at least part of the process is based on how I perceive it as working. So, I guess my reanimated bits will work the same way as a normal zombie, and everything else will work the same way as a normal human.”
Lucius nodded. “I will take your word for it.”
Drew grinned. “Well, I think that’s about it for explaining. At least, as far as relevant explanations go.” He gestured at the console. “Now, you mentioned a mission?”
“...Drew, are you sure you’re up for a mission at the moment?”
“Oh hells no. I’ve still got a gaping hole through my abdomen. I’d imagine it’d take a couple of days for something like that to heal up.”
“A couple of da-”
Drew cut his friend off. “Reanimation works the way I interpret it to. Don’t try to talk to me about it, otherwise I’ll start to think about it. And once I think about it, it will actually work that way. I like it working this way. Best case scenario, really.”
Lucius paused. “Alright. I really don’t get what you mean, but I’ll go with it.” Another pause. “Wait, if you’re out of commission, what about missions? I can’t imagine I’d be allowed to not do anything...”
Drew shrugged. “I’m sure there’ll be something for you in the meantime.”
[BEEEEEEEEEEP]
“See? Told you so!”
Lucius sighed, and wandered over to the console.
[A/N: Whelp, I guess that’s about it for the exposition. I’ve not really got much to say for now, just that the next mission I had planned was going to be an Evil Dead fic. I’m probably not going to do that, as I honestly can’t make heads or tails of it. Also, I’m still working until September. So, no new missions for a while.]
