Work Text:
“ Norton,” Gentle hands shook his torso as he shifted and felt the hands shaking him once again. “ Wake up,” He groaned in response and slowly let his eyes flutter open, the gentle hands patting his head. At first, he winced from the bright light however his eyes finally adjusted after a few seconds.
“ It’s half past 4,” A slightly tanned lady with medium length black hair stood in front of his bed. “ We’re almost there.” Her chestnut brown eyes curved as she smiled. Norton hummed and slowly sat up. “ Quickly get ready, we need to finish this as soon as possible.” She walked towards the doorway and glanced at him.
“ Alright,” He mumbled. She nodded and opened the door to leave, “ Wait- Patri,” She quickly halted, humming in response. “ Could you bring the items downstairs to the lab?” She chuckled and gave a subtle nod.
“ Of course,” She left, but Norton could hear a soft “ As always.” from behind the door. He smiled softly and did what his daily routine was made up of. He looked into the mirror to see his reflection. Curly black hair and ochre brown eyes, with the burn scar on the left side of his face. He sighed and went downstairs towards the laboratory.
Norton and his assistant, Patricia, had been working on a project for almost a decade, based on a disturbing dream they both had from their youths. Quite silly to be shaken up from a simple nightmare, but that nightmare was too realistic to be fake. The dream could’ve been a prophecy, but only God knows whether that’s true or not.
Norton arrived, to see Patricia crouched down and goggles on, as always, working on two white pods which seemed to be heavily modified to be seen in Sci-Fi novels and films. Both pods were identical, with what seemed like heavy mist within.
“ You know what,” Norton chuckled. “ They seem more like hibernation pods than time machines-” Norton got cut off by a sharp glare from his partner, feeling his face pale slightly. She turned back to finish up the machine as he chuckled nervously. “ Yeah…sorry.” Patricia simply hummed in response and finally got up, dusting her heavily dusted knees.
“ I’m done repairing, you may go take a look if it’s going to work,” Patricia responded as Norton nodded.
“Thanks, Patri. You know I can do it instead, right,” Norton sighed as he proceeded to inspect the pods. “ I work with machines for a living.” Patri hummed and simply watched as Norton continued his inspection.
“ I know,” Patricia finally spoke after a few minutes or so. “ That’s why I’m doing it.” Norton stopped for a second, before continuing. That was an answer he didn’t expect from his tight-lipped partner, so all he did was continue the inspection quietly.
“ It’s done!” Norton sighed in relief. Patricia glanced at the pods and nodded.
“ So all that’s left is,” Patricia looked at Norton. “ We have to go in and test it out, right?”
Norton nodded. “ But first I need my breakfast.” He chuckled. Patricia stood there, shunned at what Norton said, but a slight chuckle escaped from her lips as she smiled.
“ Alright, I’ll go get breakfast ready,” She took off her goggles. “ After all, we’re working hard for humanity’s sake.”