The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 164

Chapter 164: The Insane Plan
“What did it find?” Reid asked.

They were all currently in his dorm room and the air in the room was heavy due to their current moods.

Whatever Clara’s ferret found, was not good.

“Just like we suspected” Clara started “Voss is connected to the cult.”

________

—–a couple of hours ago, while Vivian was in the rift—-

Commander Voss walked into his office, closed the door and windows, proceeded to put on a black cloak with a logo of another cloaked figure with shadows covering their face and a single glowing red eye.

Before he tapped twice on his desk causing a holographic projection of a cloaked figure to pop up.

“You disappoint the Master, Voss” a voice, clearly a disguised one, spoke up.

“B-but he gave the order! I followed it to the letter!” Voss’s voice came out panicked and strained.

Clara’s ferret remained in his shadow, unnoticed by both figures.

“Failure is still failure. The target survived. The others suspect you.”

“I covered my tracks. They have no proof,” Voss hissed. “Even if they suspect, they can’t act without evidence.”

A long pause followed. Then the disguised voice spoke again in a chilling tone.

“The boy is more dangerous than anticipated. The Master is displeased. He wants you to rectify the mistake.”

“How?” Voss asked.

“One of our scientists is working on a serum that’ll put the boy under the master’s full control and your job will be making sure the boy takes the serum.” The cloaked figure took a small pause before adding,

“Until then, keep your position and lay low. Do not raise suspicion. Do not act without command. Understand?”

“…Understood.” Commander Voss answered as respectfully as possible.

“Good,” the cloaked figure said “and remember, the master doesn’t hesitate to get rid of useless pawns.”

“And don’t worry about his mother,” the figure continued “she just willingly walked into her death.”

“I understand ” Voss nodded again.

With that, the hologram flickered once before the figure vanished completely, leaving Voss alone in his barely lit office.

For a few seconds, Voss just stood there, hands trembling slightly before he clenched them into fists.

“Stupid kids… always in the way,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

Then, more calmly, “No matter. Soon, he’ll be the Master’s puppet… and the rest will soon follow.”

His watch suddenly beeped with information that Vivian had made it out of the rift, which came as a shock since the master’s plans rarely fail.

But then his face darkened as he muttered “the mother is just as annoying to deal with as the son.”

“But all that won’t matter soon” he completed a grin appearing on his face.

But while he continued muttering to himself, he didn’t notice the shift in his shadow as a part of it detached and attached itself to another, silently moving outside the office.

_______

Reid’s fists clenched but he just sighed and calmed himself down.

“So what do we do now?” Marcus asked.

“I’ll take the serum” Reid suddenly said, which caused everyone in the room to go quiet.

It took a second for them to process his words before Lisa spoke up.

“…Are you out of your mind?” She snapped, “You just heard what it does, right? You’ll be under their total control. Not ‘maybe’—total.”

Reid took a breath and leaned forward. “We can’t destroy the serum without exposing the cult first. If we act too soon, Voss vanishes and we lose our only lead.”

“But if I pretend to fall for the bait, we can lure them in, find out who the ‘Master’ really is or maybe where the other spies in the military are.” He finished.

“And how exactly do you plan on faking the effects when they need to see you taking the serum in the first place” Clara asked.

None of his teammates agreed with his insane plan, heck, even Evo didn’t approve but for some reason, he was confident it would work.

Before he could explain his reason further, he was suddenly pulled in a void like space, almost like the one he previously met the Watcher but only a lot less darker.

“Before you start panicking, just know that I’m the one who pulled you here” a voice came from behind, causing him to immediately turn towards it.

The speed he turned with wasn’t because of a voice suddenly heard behind him, but due to how familiar the voice was.

Of course it was familiar, after all the voice was his very own, which was strange since Reid knew he wasn’t the one speaking.

Reid faced the figure that spoke, and to his surprise, the figure was…him?

It was almost like looking into a mirror… Almost.

But there was a couple of differences between the two. Firstly, the other had red eyes which was different from Reid’s blue ones.

There was also the fact that the other figure felt a lot more bloodthirsty than Reid himself.

Without waiting for Reid to speak, the other Reid continued “I wanted to do this in your sleep but I guess this is as good a time as any.”

“Now onto why I pulled you here” Red eyed Reid continued “since [delayed time] won’t last long and I don’t want the others worried after seeing our body passed out, so I’ll go straight to the point.”

The red-eyed Reid stepped closer, his gaze locking with Reid’s.

“I’m you—or rather, a single part of a version that will exist… if things go wrong.”

Reid’s eyes narrowed. “Future me?”

“No. Possible future you,” the red-eyed version clarified “but I’ll explain all that later, for now, let’s focus on the cult.”

Red eyed Reid tapped on normal Reid’s forehead and a swirling mass of black energy appeared at the point of contact before quickly disappearing.

“I made the same decision as you are right now,” Reid’s red eyed self explained “and although everything worked out in the end, my actions were irreversible and I killed her.”

He looked down at his trembling hands and Reid could swear he saw blood on them.

“Who?” Reid asked.

“Not now,” his future self answered “and besides, with what I just gave you, history won’t be repeating itself.”

Reid instinctively reached up to touch his forehead where the swirling energy had entered, but there was nothing there—no pain, no warmth, not even a lingering tingle.

“What did you give me?” he asked cautiously.

“Just something that’ll ensure the—”

_________

Reid was suddenly back in his body, and to the others, it looked like nothing had changed.

But Clara was already standing, eyes wide. “What the hell just happened? You spaced out.”

“I’m fine,” Reid said, before changing the subject “as for taking the serum, I just want you guys to trust me.”

Lisa looked at him in both worry and concern but chose to not push him “are you sure there’s no way to uncover the spies without having to risk the cult gaining control of you?”

Even Ethan who preferred remaining silent and almost always trusted Reid’s decision had something to say.

“So, you’re just gonna let them inject some cult mind-control juice into you and hope for the best?”

“I’m not walking into this blind,” Reid replied. “I know the risks. But if we’re going to stop them, we need to be inside their circle. This is the only shot we’ve got right now.”

Damien just sighed and said “fine, we’ll put our trust in you, no matter how insane you sound but if anything goes wrong and you join the cult, I’ll hunt you down myself.”

His words were almost laughable considering the difference in strength between him and Reid but the look in his eyes told a different story.

Everyone could see that he actually meant everything he just said.

“Besides,” his voice took a lighter tone “I wouldn’t want to deal with my sister protecting someone that’s the cult’s puppet.”

The got an awkward chuckle out the ones in Reid’s room since the joke came out darker than Damien expected.

“Alright, so if we’re going with your insane plan” Clara said “how do we go about it?”

“For now,” Reid took a pause “we wait for the cult to make the first move.”

______

While all this went on in the military base, another storm was brewing in the Scrapyards.

Just like any other day in this place, Scrap hunters were going about their daily scrap hunting.

When suddenly a storm started gathering directly above the Scrapyard.

At first the residents thought it was just another storm cloud, until the clouds started gathering into a massive vortex.

Lightning flashed as the clouds continued twisting and turning on themselves before suddenly forming a vortex in the skies.

Panic immediately spread as the residents of the Scrapyards return to their houses, leaving Old man Scrappy and Raio in its unsealed form standing there, waiting for whatever was coming through.

It wasn’t only the scrapyard that was experiencing this, as multiple the vortexes opened up in different spots around the world.

And in a secluded corner of the world, in a continent that has been moved from the others since the eruption.

The biggest rift opened up but instead of the skies, this one opened deep inside a jungle and from within stepped a lone figure.

“So this is what my brother has been hiding” it muttered “the world above.”

He then turned to the rift and let out a small almost silent whistle.

The ground rumbled as the something stomped from within the portal but unlike what was expected, a small three headed puppy exited, its tail wagging in excitement.

“Let’s announce our presence in this world.”

With his words, never before seen primals started exiting the portals, raining unto earth.