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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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.

I win. He had more information, and Marcus was angry. He didn't need to push him any further yet.

And it was so amusing how badly Marcus had failed at his initial attempt to act enigmatic. Recluse closed his eyes again, his headache a little less painful.

He would really need to control his temper better. Hopefully he wouldn't have to be on the bus with Recluse too much longer. Statesman wanted to check up on the kid Logan had brought last night, and Logan himself.

The bus started with a lurch, jolting him slightly in his seat. Recluse opened his eyes to look past Marcus out the window at the scenery moving by. It looked fairly like New England in autumn, but he'd rather not follow that guess for farther than he had to. If they were being allowed out into this town, then it was going to be as much of a totally controlled environment as the institute itself.

It was good that they were finally moving, Marcus hated waiting. He also stared at the passing scenery.

"What are you going to do in town?" Marcus might need to keep an eye on Recluse there, despite what he wanted to do himself.

"See if there's anything useful to steal." This wasn't the best outfit for it, with the fairly tight sleeves on the jacket, but he was very good at this. The only complication might be searches at the end of the day. Well, details like that never stopped an evil overlord from trying...

Statesman had been thinking along those lines, but it was better if Recluse suggested it.

"They'll probably search us at the end of the day... but if someone gets sent back to the bus for bad behavior they might not be searched," Marcus was just barely whispering now, just loud enough for Recluse to hear him over the sounds of the bus and other people talking.

Recluse made a slightly irritated noise. "And are you suggesting I volunteer myself for this role? I might already have a bad mark for breaking up a fight, of all things." He sighed, looking back out the window. "They might be less likely to search me if I do that ever-humiliating Benton act." He hated forcing himself to think like an idiot.

"I didn't suggest that," Recluse breaking up a fight? That was interesting, he would need to find out what circumstances had lead to that, though there weren't many guesses.

He just needed to figure out which patients were Recluse's minions. While Recluse didn't form emotional attachments, he probably didn't want his minions rendered useless by sedation.

"But you do have the point about the Benton act," It would probably be better to have Recluse be the one sedated, even if that meant that Marcus had to be the one that got punched... if they did it near the end of the day, they could both potentially smuggle things back.

"If we do it near the end of the day, we could both get sedated and bring things back, but that might eat into our time tonight," So, what was more valuable, outside items or time at night? It did not sound like a difficult question to Statesman.

"We'd need a reason for the fight to have started." Recluse had so many valid reasons as to why he would jump at the chance to smash Marcus' face in, but none of them would be really appropriate for this case. "Some sort of personal slight or repeated taunting." In the Benton act, it had always taken quite a lot of work for someone to provoke a violent reaction.

"It depends on what's reasonably available to steal." It it was just a couple of small things, it might not even be necessary to try and avoid the searches.

There were plenty reasons for the fight to have started, just none that the staff would believe. Marcus was still surprised that there hadn't been a fight yet.

"I'm sure I can manage something," Marcus offered. These plans were all assuming they found things worth stealing, but there was really nothing else they could do on the bus ride over.

"I'm sure you can." And Recluse needed little provocation to attack him. "But it would be best to come up with such a reason now, so that we can have consistency for any questions that might be asked."

All that the Benton act would need was one major slight to get fixated on. Then semi-incoherency and stupidity would make it too difficult for a nurse to get any more information. But he'd really not go rambling on about something when he had absolutely no idea what to do. Or if Marcus picked a bad excuse for the fight.

"I could insult your family," Not that such insults would bother Recluse. But it would be a good excuse for 'Benton'. They could work out the details from there if that was going to work... he just hoped that none of his Hero recruits were around to witness what was going to happen.

...Oh, that gives me the most excellent idea. Recluse didn't grin, as much as he wanted to. "...Actual reality asside, Benton could easily get overprotective when it comes to family. Such as... his sister."

This could yeild amusing results... But if he wasn't careful, he might give Marcus an actual reason to start a fight.

Marcus immediately narrowed his eyes at Recluse. Recluse was doing this on purpose, there was no way this was unintentional.

"What did you have in mind?"

Monica was dead, but he was sure that was not going to stop Recluse from digging at an old wound. They both knew exactly what sister was being discussed here.

And now it was time to pretend to be tactful, because continuing on this course would send him head-on into a catastrophe. "You've only just arrived. There's enough time for events to have occured without 'Benton' being around to hear about them." Of course he wasn't going to just spell it out, he didn't want a black eye before they even got off the bus!

"So Benton would be pretty mad that I had married his sister while he was gone," Marcus kept a very neutral expression, doing his best not to get angry at Recluse. Or, at the very least, not to express his anger.

Marcus really wanted to punch him, it would be a great way to relieve the stress that had been building since he had arrived.

"I think the better adverb to use would be 'completely'. Benton would be furious, if he felt it was... wrong, in some way." And so, he now had a good reason to attack Marcus. What a wonderful day this was turning out to be!

Marcus continued to frown. He had the feeling that the fight would be very, very convincing. They would both probably walk away from it with bruises, and that would hopefully convince the nurses not to search them when they went back to the bus.

Of course, this was all only if they found things worth taking back. Marcus hoped the nurses weren't too quick resolving the fight.

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Day 28: Bus 1

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