Night 59: M-A Block Hallway

[stray_shinigami]

Renji walked with purpose down the hall, though he wasn't in enough of a hurry to flashstep yet. He had to have somewhere he wanted to go first. Of course the idea that sprang instantly to mind was easily summed up as an equation: INSTITUTE + HIHIOU ZABIMARU = BOOM = :-DHowever, that would need to wait until, for example, there weren't people he

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[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

The air smelled weird. That was a highly-trained professional assessment. Ionized, except not the usual post-storm ozone. Something else. Something he hadn't smelled before, which wasn't good news. Either the stuff they'd shot him up with had more effects than he'd found, or whatever was in the air, it was some new compound.

Both meant exposure to Landel/Aguilar's definition of experimental standards, which would make an anarchist blush.

He was already marinating in it, so he stopped for a moment, taking a deep sniff.

[Raphael]

[meanandgreen]

[from here]

If the air smelled weird before, just you wait. A turtle-make that ex-turtle- who spent most of his life in the sewers don't exactly smell like a garden of roses.

Still shaken and cagey from his little surprise, Raph's nerves were humming with adrenaline, aching for something to punch that wasn't the world's most unbreakable door. Yeah, the thing had been unlocked, but that's not the point. Some wackjob turned him freakin' human, and they were gonna pay.

Even worse, Raph was yet to see a single sign of his brothers. Did they get turned human too, or was he just that friggin' lucky? And how the heck was he supposed to find them if they all had different bodies? Unless he really was the lucky one. The thought of dissection tables and bone saws flashed through his head, and Raph silently relented that switching species was better than the alternatives. He just hoped he could find them and bust out of here before their captors got too curious. Hopefully after they turned him back to normal

[toxicspiderman]

There was a guy in front of him, round and squat like a municipal combined storm/sewer outflow pipe and smelling about as sweet as one on a good day. Which was better than a bad day, when the turds and soap bubbles glistened like rainbow jimmies on an ice cream cone.

The guy could take S.T. with one hand tied behind his back and fighting clean. So he stayed back. "Hey, man, what did I ever do to you?"

He didn't recognize the face, and he hadn't been an asshole to anyone over the bulletin today, which might be a new record. Not under his own name, at least, and baiting "Lars" didn't count. That added up to either he was a hired gun from back home who'd gone to way too much trouble, or a new guy. "You want a fight, or do you want to know what the fuck is going on?"

[meanandgreen]

Great, he mentally cursed, so much for stealth. Maybe he could take this guy on a good day, but the way things were going, this had been by far one of the worst. Without the advantage of surprise behind him, Raph couldn't trust this body in a fight. But he was running out of options. He had to find his brothers and get out of there before crud really hit the fan.

Slowly, he straightened from his crouch. A menacing fire burned behind his eyes as he lunged forward on unsteady legs, intent on gathering a fistful of the guy's shirt and slamming him backward into the wall behind them. If he couldn't have surprise, he'd have intimidation. If that didn't work? Well. Things could get messy. "Where am I!?"

Respect for personal space never was Raph's strong suit. He would gladly scream in this guy's face until he got some answers.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. stepped back, and his knee twinged. Good thing there was a wall behind him.

"Hell. What passes for it, at least. Welcome to the Institute." Specifying whose institute it was would be like calling a revolving door closed or open, so he didn't. "I take it you went to bed somewhere other than this shithole last night."

S.T. didn't have to remember that feeling. It didn't wear off after three weeks of waking up to the same walls. Even if they looked simply radiant tonight.

He tried to look meek. He wasn't very good at meek. Nonthreatening was easy. Useful on T.V., when there'd been too many exposés about Boone snuggling up to features on GEE's friendlier actions. Not that the crap about Boone had been true, either, but S.T. hadn't known that then. But meek just looked like acid indigestion.

"We're all stuck here." And if you kill me, there's a dozen more saps you can shake for information. Good going, S.T. You didn't throw someone into a wall to kill them, though, you did it to scare them, so he was

[meanandgreen]

Stuck here. Man, was that familiar. As much as Raph didn't want to trust the guy, he had no other choice. The death grip on S.T.'s shirt relaxed and Raph took a step back, quickly squashing the thick dread that flooded his stomach with another spark of anger. The muscles in his arms bulged as he wound his hands into fists.

If there's one thing Raph hated more than anything else, it's a cage. He's been in prison before, and he had a feeling this so-called "Institute" was probably worse. At least the Triceretons had better taste in decor.

"Yeah?" He snorted, planting a fist into the palm of his other hand with a meaty sound. "So who do I gotta beat to talk to the supervisor around here? He and I gotta have a little chat."

[toxicspiderman]

"Guy named Harrington, or another guy named Berg. But you'll have as much luck finding them as tracking down Aguilar himself. That's the current Head Asshole."

"Before that it was a guy called Landel. He's hiding out playing would-be hero with some of the rebellion, but fuck if I know where to find him, either." They'd been playing it too safe. Indy dying, even if he came back, and it was all part of the big joke. But what else was an ordinary everyday superhero supposed to do? Where Sangamon came from, radiation didn't give you the ability to fly and bend steel with your mind, just cancer.

"Trust me, if we knew where to find them, there'd be a line around the block to do the honors." S.T. included. Then turn what was left over to what was left of the Institute's lawyer population, and watch the second round get going.

[meanandgreen]

"Figures," he growled. It was never that easy. But they'd find a way. Donny probably had a plan all mapped out. They just gotta find each other and they'd be busted out of there by morning

[toxicspiderman]

There was bravado and the usual male practice of not asking directions. S.T. might have been guilty over it once or twice, when he was younger and less secure in his masculinity. But that was on the Expressway with a gas station every five minutes and all you were wasting was your time and your girlfriend's patience. Then there was this idiot.

"Wait up, man. There's a world of hurt out there with your name on it, and you're just going to waltz in?" S.T. let the scorn ripen, fall off the tree, and start stinking. He jogged in front of Raphael and stood his ground. It was more a philosophical challenge more than a physical one, given that he'd had to use the piece of pipe he carried as a cane to move that fast.

"Your buddies might not be here. Or they might be, but they won't be expecting you." He hefted the pipe. "You're not even armed, and you're going out there? If you have a death wish, go on. I won't detain you any longer. If you want to survive, listen."

[meanandgreen]

Ah, jeez, Raph mentally winced as the man limped toward him. I just roughed up a cripple. Definitely not one of his shining moments, but to say he was feeling insecure stuck in that strange and vulnerable human skin was an understatement. So maybe he overreacted. But with the way things were going, he still couldn't be too careful.

Raph paused at the edge of the hallway and waited for the man to catch up. He was the picture of cocky incredulity; one eyebrow raised, arms crossed stubbornly over his chest. "Let me guess," he smirked, eying the pipe, "you're gonna protect me."

He knew now was not the time to be a smartass, but sometimes people made it way too easy. Still, if this guy was gonna try to help, he'd just end up slowing him down. "For one, I don't need a weapon. For two, I know that," he said, jutting a thumb over his shoulder again at the dark hallway, "ain't the way to the bake sale. I can handle it. And trust me, my brothers're lookin' for me. I just gotta find 'em

[toxicspiderman]

"Naah. I'm going to tell you what's out there, so you can protect yourself." He couldn't, any more than S.T. could protect himself. Two good legs and a chest like a toxic waste drum didn't mean jack shit out there where the competition cheated.

He followed Raphael's thumb out the door, still using the pipe as a cane, though he was putting less weight on it and more on the leg with every step.

"If I told you everything, you'd think I was crazy. So I'll start small."

[to here]