Dark History - Tzeitel vs Psychic

Almost one year before Tzeitel's Escape from MegaCorp. (Six years ago)

***

Tzeitel was exhausted from being shocked by her collar and the beating she received for failing to scare the meta into surrender the other day. So she did not wake when her cell door was opened or her team leader entered the cell.

His slap across her face woke her.

Tzeitel’s eyes snapped open and she shrank to the further side of her cot.

“Wake up. You have another mission.” He said and left the cell.

Tzeitel got out of her cot. She quickly got dressed. She was surprised, usually she had at least a few days between missions. Usually more. She wondered if the meta from last night had been located again. There was a dense forest where the meta was last seen and last Tzeitel had heard no one had seen any sign of her since she crested the cliff.

***

Tzeitel joined another capture team. She had worked with this team in the past. They were exceptionally incompetent.

The target was a powerful psychic who could read the minds of everyone who came within 20 feet of him, probably even further.

The plan was to have Tzeitel stay at least 100 feet away from him, send out calming pheromones until he could be tranqed and collared.

Tzeitel did not like this plan. She was still tired and sore from her last mission. It was going to take a lot of pheromones to affect someone so far away from herself. She had never used her power this hard before. The target was located in the basement of a library so Tzeitel really had to push hard to send her pheromones through the cracks in closed doors, watching her target on a surveillance monitor.

The target was a young man, around her age, maybe even a year or two younger. Very pale, very nervous. He wore headphones that he often clutched to his head. From what Tzeitel understood the boy had no control over his power, it looked like he did not read thoughts on purpose- they were forced into his head anytime anyone got close to him. She felt bad for him. He was crying and looked like someone who cried often. It took a while but gradually he began to look calmer. A while longer he sat on the floor, his head nodding. Tzeitel wondered how long he had been awake. Finally the boy relaxed enough that he fell asleep where he lay.

“Go go go!” Soldiers charged by Tzeitel. She watched the boy in the camera, sleeping until the door to the room he was in burst open. He sat up, then was shot with a tranquilizer dart and went limp. A collar was placed around his neck.
Tzeitel sighed, letting up on her power. Her head ached. She felt strangely empty and tired. The mission was a success so at least she would not be punished. She hoped she would get a long break before her next mission, all she wanted to do was sleep.

***

The target regained consciousness in the van. He looked around himself. “What happened? The voices are gone?”

Tzeitel knew no one else would talk to him. So even though she had a killer headache, she explained. “The collar is set to repress your powers.”

The boy’s eyes filled with tears. “It cured me. Thank you.”

Tzeitel felt guilty. He was not cured, just repressed. He had nothing to thank her or the rest of the team for, they had captured him. He was enslaved.

“You have a collar too. Are you like me? What did your collar cure?”

“Sorry, I’m really tired right now.” Tzeitel said and closed her eyes.

The mission was a success but unnecessary. They did not need her powers to catch him. All they had to do was tell him what the collar did and he probably would have put it on himself. The way MegaCorp worked was stupid. She was so tired. She had never had such a headache.