damned_institute | Day 28: Bus 1

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Day 28: Bus 1

Zelgadis was not happy, at all. Not that this was any change, but the events of the past few hours had given him more to angst about than usual. Nightshift had been dreadful: first he was attacked by a small green man and then covered in leeches, neither of which lead to warm fuzzy feelings.

And now this.

When the nurse had come into his room with new clothes he had a small glimmer of hope-- some thief had taken his normal Landel's wear in the night, so perhaps this was a change in luck. However, it was not the godsend he had hoped for. Minus the threat of sedation, there was nothing in the universe that could make Zelgadis wear a bright lemon-yellow shirt. There was a jacket of a slightly more tasteful variety, so Zelgadis made good us of it-- he put all his coupons in a pocket and pulled up the hood. It was almost as good as his cloak. Well, no it wasn't, but it would have to do.

With mild protesting, Zelgadis was lead to a large yellow vehicle. He climbed the stairs, took a seat towards the back, and readied himself for another frustrating day of being attacked and threatened with spoons.

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"Timothy Benton," The name Recluse had used while they had pretended to be cops back in the late twenties. "You were an irishman and one of the best coppers in London for three years. Don't tell me you don't know how to be convincing," Marcus knew first hand how good an actor Stefan... Recluse was.

Of course, he still had no idea if this was all an act or not, but his money was on the 'act' part. Statesman did not want to make the mistake of trusting Recluse.

"I can be. However, my only goal at the moment is escape. As long as you are willing to work with me, I don't care if you trust me or not." Being blunt to the point of rudeness sometimes backed up an act quite well... Maybe it would this time, as well.

"As long as you are only trying to escape we can work together. But I do not approve of you making chemical weapons," Since Recluse probably didn't have the proper things to contain it and use it safely. Not that there was ever a truly safe way to use chemical weapons.

Statesman was not desperate enough to consider chemical weapons an option.

"Of course you don't approve of it. It isn't exactly a heroic thing to do, is it? I'm using what materials are available." When it came to being a villain, those with morals need not apply. "I've already made thermite here, among other things." And he had a plan for a viable way to set it off at a lower temperature than would normally be possible. It just meant producing a chemical through an absurdly simple process...

Thermite. For some reason, Marcus was not surprised. The people running this place must not have known what they were signing up for when they brought Recluse here.

It would be a better idea to keep a close eye on Recluse and risk being betrayed than to let him wander on his own.

He needed to make sure Recluse didn't hurt any innocent patients when he set his plans in motion.

Recluse decided not to say anything more unless Marcus really wanted to talk, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes. Not only did that mean that he didn't have to deal with the full force of the sunlight, but he also didn't have to look at Marcus. Which was always a plus.

Statesman tried not to notice the reflection of Recluse any more, paying it only the smallest amount of attention.

He looked so much like Stefan again, and Marcus once again had to wonder why Stefan had turned on him like that. Had it been Tartaros that corrupted him like this?

Then again... Marcus had to admit that he could very well have ended up just as evil as Stefan had. He had even come face to face with that darker version of himself.

"You couldn't have been missing that long. You're probably the Recluse of another dimension." One that was only slightly different than his own.

Recluse sighed. "Why would it matter? only minor details would be changed." He opened his eyes slightly, gaze flicking over to Marcus before starring at the ceiling. "In any case, I could list off the coordinates for Primal Earth, and the future opened up for Operation: DESTINY."

He didn't mention again that he could be gone for that long without anyone's notice. No reason to say anything more.

"If I'm right, your Statesman is still out there, and my Recluse is as well," While that would be a good thing for the other Statesman, he was concerned about his own dimension if they were from different dimensions.

Or that they were both being held somewhere else. After a moment Statesman decided that it did not matter that much to their immediate situation. Their dimensions were probably similar enough not to make a difference.

It would be of more concern when they found a way out of here, though.

Statesman took a bite out of his muffin, leaving only half of it.

"Then in your dimension I would be seizing this opportunity, and you wouldn't have a clue that anything had happened in mine. It's still not of any immediate importance." Why did Marcus have to be so dense when it came to anything practical? "What might be happening doesn't matter." Recluse looked down at his own breakfast, which was pathetically tiny in relation to his size. It really didn't look all that appetizing, and he certainly didn't want to be seen drinking out of a juice box like a five-year-old.

Hopefully Recluse would be busy trying to repel the Rikti invasion, even though Vanguard had claimed that it was there responsibility. Recluse couldn't enjoy having the aliens invading his islands.

Of course, Recluse continued to insist that no one would notice if he had gone missing, and Statesman wondered what Recluse had planned.

"I can almost hear the cogs grinding in your paranoid little mind, Marcus." Recluse looked over at him, quite distictly irritated. "I would ask that you kindly stop creating these little delusions to fit your hopes. They're all quite wrong."

"You are mistaken, Recluse," Thankfully, Statesman himself could be very convincing as well.

He took out the remaining half of his muffin and glanced down at the juice box, deciding against it.

Recluse chuckled slightly, making it quite plain that he didn't believe Marcus at all. He closed his eyes again. If he was going to be forced to be outside all day, then he'd rather give his eyes a rest now.

"And how exactly was that Rikti invasion going when you left?" He wouldn't get a real answer, most likely, but he could make a good enough inference out of whatever response he got.

Statesman was not bothered by the fact that Recluse had not believed him. It was to be expected, really. Recluse would believe whatever he wanted to believe and nothing would change that.

"It had just started, and a few old friends of mine had shown up. Vanguard was well prepared for it."

"Old friends?" Did that mean more people had returned from the dead? He hated when that happened.

Vanguard was... irritating. And he highly doubted Marcus would be all that enthusiastic to let them take center stage.

Statesman just nodded. "That's what I said." Of course, he wasn't going to tell Recluse what friends.

The less time Recluse had to plan for something, the better. Of course, he had already ruined some of the surprise, but Marcus was sure Recluse would be particularly unhappy to find out which member of the original Phalanx had returned.

Oh, wonderful. Being evasive. Marcus mentioned Vanguard. That wasn't the best piece of information, but it probably was linked to something... But with the Rikti breaking through the inter-dimensional barrier... "Omega Team?" It was the best stab at it that he could make.

It was hard not to frown at Recluse for bringing that up. All that had come back from Omega Team was the monstrous abomination that had once been Hero One.

"You know that was a suicide mission." Marcus said evenly.

"And if the Rikti have invaded again, that means that they've opened up a portal to their homeworld. One thing I've come to dread about dealing with heroes is that they always claw their way back up from whatever pit you've pushed them into." Recluse looked over at Marcus again, watching for any reaction garnered by his words. "So, who came back? Hero One? It doesn't exactly sound like it was a happy little reunion."

"I would hardly call any reunion that involves an alien invasion of earth happy, Recluse," It was difficult to play this game with Recluse, he did not care about anyone. But Marcus did not let any of his feelings other than slight irritation at Recluse show.

Statesman cared about others, and he knew Recluse would use that against him. Still, these guesses were very close. Recluse was smart, but these could just be lucky guesses, or a sign he knew more than he was letting on.

"You completely ignored the point of the question in an attempt to fend off more on a subject you're thinking about." Really, with how sentimental Heroes could be, it didn't matter if there was anything more important going on when they were getting emotional over something.

"So, what went wrong with it? Something must have, or you'd be annoyingly smug right now."

"What went wrong? Omega team gave their lives to seal off the Rikti for good and now they're back again!" It was easy for Marcus to be genuinely angry about that.

The fact that just about everything else had gone wrong was beside the point.

"That could never be proved. An assumption, not fact. And if the Rikti homeworld wasn't sealed off for good as you've mentioned, then some of the more resilient ones might get back through." Really, he was not going to back down out of any sort of politeness or fear in response to Marcus' anger. Whatever was said, it still meant that Marcus was hiding something about this.

Statesman decided to stop responding. All this accomplished was to make him angry, and that would not be good for anyone involved. He might lash out at someone who did not deserve his anger.

Of course, Recluse did deserve it, but they were supposed to be working together.

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