On a String [closed]

Gabriel was a snake. A serpant. A thief of happiness and a saboteur.

His morning, however, was just as sunshiney as James'. There were no waffles, instead, thick rashers of bacon, french toast, scrambled egg and coffee. There was no family, instead, organisation members and his beloved dogs, snuggled on him as he prepared himself for the day. But Gabriel Underwood had a plan, and it was one of his better ones, as far as he was concerned. Sure, that incident with the boat in South Korea had also been a rather fantastic plan, but this really took the gold medal in unpleasently incredible plots. In fact, as he buttoned his suit, he had a smirk on his face, eyes slightly slitted as the smile reached higher. Oh yes, Gabriel was in a good mood.

But this was not a day for flashiness. As he pocketted a set of car keys and headed to the large garage, he picked a surprisingly plain car. It was neither expensive looking, nor caught the attention of any he drove past. In fact, even as he pulled into the Hammel car park and began to set this little plan up, no one seemed even half interested in the little runaround car.

Swinging round into the backseat, and reaching for a pair of binoculars, Gabriel began to scan the windows of the Institute. He knew who he was looking for, and though a map sat on his lap, he had a little trouble finding the poor soul he was about to completely use for a few hours. Turning the dial on the top of the binoculars, he eventually homed in on a strangely familiar face. James Campbell, Head Recruiter of Hammel, and previous classmate to himself. It was at this point that the man had to check the windows of the car were dirty enough to make seeing inside difficult, and he glanced around with the same confident smirk on his face. Sure enough, the car was gloomy on the inside, and this suited Gabriel a great deal. His stealth mission could begin.

Raising the binoculars to his face again, Gabriel peered up through them into James' office once more. He stared at the man impassively for a few minutes, then chuckled low in his throat, took a deep breath, and threw his consciousness forward, into the recruiter's mind. The sensation was uncomfortable for a moment, as his thoughts whizzed through the air, unconstrained by his body, but then they landed, target reached.

I suggest you let me in. Gabriel thought, pushing James' current thoughts, feelings, and emotions, to the back of his mind. It was irritating, the recruiter clearly had a handle on his own consciousness. Much like stuffing an extra sock into an over full suitcase, the man eventually gained control, and slammed the "suitcase" shut.

Now, we're going to have some fun.

Gabriel had very little experience with James' particular power. He knew what it was from quietly quizzing his tutors when he was younger, but as for a body to puppet? This was complicated and unusual. Moving the fist that wasn't his, the man looked around and surveyed the office. It was tidy, and for some reason, this pleased him more than usual. Glancing down on the desk, he gave himself a few moments to settle in, before cracking his knuckles and getting to work.

What am I doing? I'm afraid that's none of your business. The man thought to James' unhappy voice in the back of his head, turning the chair round to the computer on the desk and flicking lazily through files. He knew what he was after, yes, and it took him a while to locate the large database he'd been searching for. Potential Meta-Humans. Double clicking and chuckling darkly to himself - a sound that was strange coming from James' mouth - Gabriel flicked through the people, eyeing down the list. This was like Christmas come early, truly. Moving the mouse up to click print, Gabriel spun on the chair, folding his arms behind his head.

James' memories occasionally flicked across the surface of his mind, which irritated him. Shaking his head as if to clear the thoughts away, Gabriel folded up the printed paper, pocketted it, then rose out of the office and out towards that car. But there was something the man hadn't counted on; how James' power affected everything around him. And GOD wasn't the corridor wonky? There was a slight skew on one of the picture frames, and a part of the carpet was a darker colour than the rest of it. The staircase had a chip out the bannister, and everything felt chaotic. He could FEEL his hands twitching to change everything, right the picture, clean the carpet, do SOMETHING with that damn bannister.

"Fuck." Said Gabriel softly, moving his hands into fists for a moment. "Stay in control." He added, pushing through the corridor and downstairs, through the corridor and down through the students. So many students. The man had to make sure he didn't smirk as he looked at all that miniature potential buzzing all around him. But now he had another idea (if he could just ignore that lump of chewing gum glaring at him from the wall) and he frisked himself for his phone, pulling it out as if he had a call, and answered, making up some inventive dialog in front of the children.

"What? They attacked?" He said in fake disbelief, noticing a few children paying attention out the corner of his eye. "But she was only 14! Is she okay?" Pushing James' floppy hair out of his face, he paced slightly, ever the actor. "I can't believe those hu- ... people would do that. Okay. I'll be there. Bye." Closing the phone and watching the children look shocked and start asking questions, Gabriel had to hide the biggest crocodile smile from his face. Continuing on his journey, he reached that same, bland little car and circled for a moment, before pushing that same folded paper through a tiny slit in the window.

Mission accomplished.

Now all he had to do was get James back to the office before, oh god, he noticed anything else wrong with what he saw around him.

This was getting irritating.

As Gabriel crunched across the gravel and back up to James' office, the man let out a low, unpleasent hiss. Shut the fuck up, James. He thought angrily, doing his best to ignore everything around him, from the brick that had been picked out the wall, to the one pink flower in a row of white. Gripping the handle on the door, he suddenly hesitated, and his... or rather, James' eyes lit up with malice. Stopping what he was doing entirely, he laughed coldly, and tipped his head back, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Niko? He asked suddenly, trying to supress a few more chuckles. You see, this is the reason meta-humans don't get respect. Because thick, desperate people like you fuck it up for them. Opening the door and walking up to the office, ignoring everyone in his path, Gabriel leant against the office wall and felt that relaxed, ordered feeling flood back over him. But thank you, James. Now I have something extra I can use against you and the Institute. You are perhaps more useful than I thought. Settling back down in the chair, the man turned the silver framed photo round and admired it.

"Aww. What a happy family." He said, touching the young girl's face with a finger. Setting the picture back down for a moment, Gabriel decided to inspect the rest of the office with some faint curiousity, looking for anything that might describe this "Niko" person to him. When he found no such items, he hissed slightly, and knocked the tidily arranged books to the floor. It felt wrong, and his skin crawled, but this was irritating. He NEEDED this lead. Perhaps Jesse would give him the information he needed. Sitting back down in the chair with a low growl, Gabriel eyed that photo again, his teeth grinding together.

You annoy me, James. Was the single thought Gabriel sent to the poor man's consciousness, before he did it.

Setting the frame down, he punched out the glass. Sure, beads of blood trickled down his fingers, and it stang, but this wasn't his real body. He didn't care. Next, he crushed the frame under his foot, picking it up and twisting it out of shape till it barely resembled anything at all. Then, Gabriel did his cruelest thing yet. Taking the picture out the frame, he tore it up, littering James' desk with tiny pieces of shredded photo.

"Fuck you James." He said bluntly, still wincing at the mess. "And I'll be seeing Niko later."

Gabriel knew he had one the second he heard James' desperate thoughts. And though the blood trickled down his fingers onto the desk, and even though the man was twitching to put everything back together, he'd done what he needed to. He didn't need this body anymore.

"Goodbye James." Gabriel said with a finality that seemed to end James' torture. The next few seconds flipped everything back to an almost normal. The intruder stopped squishing James' conscious away, and retreated away, and there, in that dark, dingy little car, Gabriel came back to his body... with a stinking headache. Sitting up in the back, and moving round to grab that important sheet of paper, the man wiggled back into the front seat and took a few deep breaths, checking his hands almost by habit, as though somehow the glass was in HIS fingers, rather than James'.

"Fucking Campbell." He growled as he pushed his fingers to his temples, images and the voice of the recruiter buzzing around in his head. He was going to need a coffee. A really, really big coffee, and some chinese. Dialing Penny and grunting some instructions to her, Gabriel started up the little car and pulled out of Hammel, leaving behind no trace, aside from James and his broken picture frame. When the headache died down, he was going to celebrate, and tell Fifi and Jesse to find this Niko kid.

Mission successful.