damned_institute | Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

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"New Jersey?" Vlad frowned and drew his eyebrows together. "I've never heard of any Doyleton. Why would... whoever is responsible for this drag us to New Jersey?" New Jersey didn't even have a pro football team.

Daniel was sulking, but it was an improvement over having a fit. Vlad took a dignified taste of his yogurt before answering. "I realize we are not precisely on the best of terms, but it seems to me that calling at least a temporary truce would be more useful for both of us than arguing. You have some information I do not, and I have resources you do not." Nevermind for now how accessible those resources were in these circumstances. "Pooling these together may make this quicker and more painless for both of us, and once we have dealt with the individual responsible and left this place, you're welcome to go back to your usual..." Now, now... "daily life, and we can address any future disagreements in a less stifling environment. And better clothing." He frowned down at the smiley on his shirt yet again.

He shrugged simply. "You think I'd know? It might not even be New Jersey. But I was in Doyleton a few days ago," he said. He was starting to relax a bit more now, but he wasn't going to let his guard down entirely. They allied once to save Amity Park from the Ghost Zone, true, but that had been before he made clones. Speaking of which...Danny couldn't help but raise his eyebrows worriedly at Vlad's words, unsure whether to laugh or actually wonder what he meant. 'Resources'? What sorts of resources were those? It wasn't as if Vlad had his entire stash of ghost weapons with him, was it?

"You have resources here?" he asked incredulously. "It's not like you can make any more clones here," he said, eyeing the older man cautiously.

After a moment, he sighed. "Fine, temporary truce. But!" He stared Vlad in the eye directly. "Once we get out of here, it's off."

Daniel's agreement went right in one ear and out the other, as Vlad stared back at the younger man with unquestionable shock.

How did he... the clones...! "Pardon me." His voice practically grated out of his throat, not angrily, only forced. He shouldn't know of that yet. He must not know of that yet! Not until... "What do you mean, clones?"

A last resort, an ace in the hole. Vlad always had a spare plan, a back-up, in case of unexpected trouble. Such as finding it at last assured that the boy truly, genuinely never would come to appreciate what Vlad offered him, that there would never be anything but hostility between them. Finding that the boy was a lost cause. The clones should all be sealed up for now, safe and waiting in stasis, each stage in the testing process slightly more like Daniel until the near-perfect clone needing just some more time and a few more DNA samples had been created. How could Daniel possibly..?

"You've been spying on me." It was more in surprise than an accusation and lacked any heat, but it was the only explanation he could think of. True, it would be hypocritical of him to blame the boy, but he didn't blame him; it was an intelligence that Daniel had never shown before, to look ahead and peer into Vlad's labs uninvited. Frankly, it would be a bonding moment, if he didn't have the sudden dreadful feeling that this would be the turning point from 'possibility' to 'impossibility' in young Daniel's heart for a half-ghost father.

At least that explained the boy's violent hostility.

Danny stared at the billionaire, his eyes wide and curious. Vlad shouldn't have been acting this way...he seemed to be pretty mean (or meaner than usual) when it came to the clones. Not...shocked. There was no other way to describe it.

"Uh...I mean clones. You know, genetic copies? Corny sci-fi movies?" He tried mustering up more terms to give Vlad a better insight on what 'clones' were, since it seemed that he'd forgotten, but his mind was drawing a blank. He wasn't sure about a sci-fi movie that had clones in it...but he knew they existed.

It was in the middle of this musing that he was accused of spying Vlad. He stared a few moments, unsure of how to react. Danny, spying on Vlad? What kind of kid did Vlad think he was?! Well, obviously not a very good one, he knew that much, but he wouldn't spy on anyone. That was waaaay too creepy for him.

"Excuse me?" he said. "I've been spying on you? I'm not the fruit loop here!" he replied, throwing his arms up in the air again. "And what even makes you think I've been spying on you?" He folded his arms defensively.

Breathing. That was the ticket. Nice, steady breathing. Let the boy rattle on about science fiction movies as though Vlad somehow didn't know the meaning of the word clone and this was the problem here.

"Yes." He answered, still taking even breaths. "Your sister distracted me before, as you attempted to pry into my business and were stopped by Skulker. I shouldn't have assumed you'd pause there, having learned a lesson... but checking under the Colorado villa was very good, Daniel." More deep breaths. The last thing they needed was more shouting and arm waving. Daniel was doing enough of that as it was. But something about Daniel's denials was odd, and not just because Vlad was feeling the tiniest bit dizzy with shock. He grit his teeth for a moment. I am not a fruit loop. "How else do you explain your knowledge of them, then? I've checked on their status more recently than I've checked on yours, and all were accounted for. Even Skulker hasn't got advanced knowledge of this project. The only way you could know of it is if you'd been in the lab yourself."

All perfectly reasonable and even tones. No use in getting excited over this, no, it was merely a setback...

What...what was Vlad doing? Was he talking to himself? It sounded that way...It was definitely a first, and it was really starting to creep him out. Or, creep him out more than Vlad usually did. He mostly hated the man, but every once in a while, he did something that just made him question his sanity a bit more.

"What are you even talking about?" he said warily. "You sent the clones to get me! All four of them, including Dani!" It still weirded him out that the Hulk-like ghost, skeleton-ghost, and little pea-sized thing had all been failed projects to try and recreate him. Dani was, at least, visibly similar. Which was both relieving and a problem in many cases. "How can I not know about them? You made it pretty obvious when you shoved me in one of your torture-pods!" Or so he'd come to call them. "You're even crazier than normal."

What was wrong with Vlad today? Did he just happen to have some sort of amnesia or something? Or was he just playing dumb? Danny couldn't see why he'd do something like that, but he never did catch onto plans too quickly. Something had to have happened, because Vlad wouldn't have forgotten about something like that.

Vlad stared at him a moment longer.

Yes. If all were considered a loss, the other clones would be useful in gathering Daniel to get any last bits of data needed to stabilize the perfect clone. It made sense, aside from the 'torture pod' part; well, doubtlessly something had hurt and Daniel had decided to take it personally when it was strictly science.

All of it made sense now apart from the fact that none of it had happened. "I have no idea what you are talking about," he finally answered verbally, still staring at Daniel's face. The boy wasn't clever enough to lie about something like this. And if Daniel knew about the clones, it wouldn't be like him to simply leave things be--if he didn't just blindly destroy the clones in their pods without considering their relationship to him, he'd at least have come after Vlad for revenge.

"The last time I saw you, you were with your sister Jasmine destroying the perfected ectoskeleton." That was the honest truth, and could not be blunter, simply because he did not want the situation to become any more complicated than it was. Twists on what had or hadn't happened could be added later.

Jazz...? Ectoskeleton...? Danny racked his mind to find the particular incident and found it. It was that one time that Danny had been kidnapped and Jazz came to rescue him...it was a stupid move, but it ended well enough. Was that the last thing Vlad remembered? Did that mean Danny knew more about his plans than Vlad did himself?

...Sweet.

He shrugged, grinning at the other man, for once. He had a reason to smile at him--he knew more than Vlad did, for once!! This was great, he could mess with Vlad as much as he wanted. He could easily say that Vlad ended up on a random meteor in space with no way to get back to Earth! Or...maybe not. That sounded a bit too far-fetched, even for the Ghost Zone. He'd have to come up with a good lie to tell Vlad, then...but for now, he could easily tell the truth.

"Really? Last time I saw you, you were stuck in the ruins of your lab while we flew off with the clones. By the way, they hate you now," he said, with a smirk. So it was a little lie when he said the "clones." But hey, it was close enough to the truth for him.

Vlad blinked at the smirking, then scowled at Danny's statement. His memory might be faulty--or Daniel might be somehow remembering things that hadn't happened yet; was Clockwork involved in this? Heaven forbid--but he wasn't stupid.

"The clones aren't stable enough to be a threat, Daniel. If you encountered them, you must have realized their average lifespan outside a pod could be measured in days at best. And few of them have the mental capacity to hate anything."

Admittedly, that was saying a lot about the clone's construction, but Daniel knowing of them at all was a disaster; knowing the details would at best be an inconvenience by comparison.

"Whatever you believe happened, it has not occurred to me. The clones are unstable; freeing them from their pods now would make no sense." Apart from sending them to attack Daniel. "Have you dealt with Clockwork recently?"

Danny blinked for a few moments, clueless. He knew that most of the clones were unstable (or had reverted to some really, really weird form to stay stable, or something), but if Vlad had only been from when he and Jazz had escaped, did he already have the clones in the making? He thought he hadn't even started on the clones yet! When did Vlad get the chance to grab his DNA?

No--he wasn't going to think about that. That was way beyond creepy, and he didn't want to venture there at all.

"Well, they were stable by the time I met them," he said, nodding to make it seem more realistic. Somewhat. Danny just couldn't help that he was a bad liar. "And they were doing just fine." Except for the obvious facts, like how one of them was a girl.

"You're not making any sense either. It's been months since Jazz and I fought you. As for Clockwork..." He paused and thought for a moment. He hadn't spoken to Clockwork about anything pertaining to the clones. "No, nothing to do with Clockwork."

"Come now, dear boy, I wasn't born yesterday. They cannot be 'doing just fine' because most of them barely keep their shape even while contained within the pods. Or would you like to elucidate on how this fact was changed?" But the boy wouldn't be able to, he was bluffing, enjoying having some imaginary upper hand over Vlad. Insufferable...

"And why the pause, Daniel? Either Clockwork is involved or he is not, it shouldn't take any thought. Considering how unwilling I am to accept the premise that your sieve-like mind has miraculously retained memories of events I do not recall, the answer is either Clockwork or that you are lying about something else. Aside from the outcome of the clone incident, which I know you are lying about."

What did this mean? In that timeline, assuming they were dealing with alternate timelines which was more acceptable than believing he'd forgotten the last few months, he'd decided to give up on Daniel altogether. Death for the boy and a new life that hopefully would not be so overcome with these smug self-righteous superhero fantasies, a life he'd mold personally... But the boy was still alive. Fudge buckets.

He knew that Dani was pretty much a test-tube baby and had been made from his own DNA and everything. That was old news--but now, he was imagining her actual creation, as a little blob of ectoplasmic goo that was supposed to somehow become a half-ghost teenaged boy. At least, that was how he'd imagined it. The image wasn't particularly pleasing. Shaking his head to get rid of the image, he stopped zoning out and focused on the conversation again.

"He wasn't, alright? He had nothing to do with it! You sent the clones after me, I woke up and you were trying to get more DNA from me, and then I beat you! Plain and simple! And I'm not lying either, the clones did end up escaping!" Not like he expected Vlad to believe him. Vlad never believed him, and Danny couldn't exactly say he cared most of the time. It did come in handy every once in a while when he was stuck in a rut with the older hybrid, but for the most part he couldn't care less.

In a quieter tone, he admitted, "Some of them, at least..." He was too stubborn to say it outright, but his lie had already been exposed anyway.

"... I suppose..." ... you think you've done something good. That you saved them. But they're going to melt away. It's only a matter of time. 'Escaping' indeed. The pods were the only place they could be safe. He sighed and shook his head. "I suppose that saying I don't remember it, yet again, will do neither of us any good. Fine. I concede that I was working on such a project... and you have told me it will fail."

He leaned back, sighing again, a great deep grieving sigh. "Then perhaps at least I have avoided a mistake, thanks to your accidental forewarning. In which case I owe you a measure of gratitude, Daniel."

This had Danny reeling. His first stage was confusion. Vlad was giving up on a project? Vlad was thanking him? It seemed too weird for Vlad to be nice, even in the least bit--and no, the alternate future didn't count. That had been an entirely different set of circumstances. Danny thought this could be a victory unless Vlad was pulling his leg right now. He'd have to find out--this was pretty suspicious.

Too bad rationale wasn't working yet. "Um...okay?" he said, unsure of how else to respond. How was one supposed to respond to something like that when the person saying it was a mad scientist-type going after his mom and out to kill his dad?

"There. That wasn't so terrible, was it? I think our new alliance is off to an acceptable start, Daniel... despite confusions." True, calling it an alliance was rather pushing his earlier suggestion of truce, but he had Daniel off-balance for the moment and might as well take advantage of opportunities.

"Now, why don't you tell me what you've learned thus far? Doyleton, New Jersey as a location is a helpful start. You said you've met some people here... have you noticed anything similar about them, that might have caused them to be picked up in the same unusual manner we were?" Solicitous and friendly, as though nothing unseemly had happened at all.

Danny didn't respond about their 'alliance.' He was still weirded out by the fact that Vlad had just thanked him. That was probably the first time he'd ever done that, ever. He'd never heard the words "thank you" or anything similar come out of the man's mouth unless he was talking to his mother, and that didn't count.

"Oh, right..." he muttered. "Well, none of them are normal," he said idly as he chewed on what seemed to be his third muffin, the previous two still unfinished.

Well, Daniel was following right along, wasn't he? Considering that he must have tried to kill the boy (sincerely that time, no silly games with underlings and traps and no parents to hide behind) that was rather forgiving, but perhaps Daniel simply hadn't noticed a difference. Or perhaps he was willing to accept that he had met some sort of 'other' Vlad who had not performed those acts. That seemed the best way to continue this dialogue, at any rate.

And how had Daniel managed to survive a sincere attack, anyhow? Doubtlessly by playing some trick or another, as usual. Time to think about that later.

"Not normal, you say." Vlad glanced around the room. "Now when you say 'not normal,' could you... give me a few specific examples? Some detail?"

He paused to think. Was he correct in saying 'not normal'? Sure, the people he'd met so far seemed to be involved somehow in the supernatural (excepting Artemis, that Robin person, and Bridget), but maybe they were like Sam and Tucker? They were normal enough, they just happened to be experienced ghost hunters. To be honest, he couldn't speak for all of Landel's, just the small circle of people he'd met so far.

"Well..." He paused to take another quick bite of a muffin, trying to word his thoughts. "The people I met so far mostly have powers or something like that. There was a girl who could turn into a weapon, I think. But there are others, too." He wasn't entirely sure how to describe it, really, and he didn't even know about half the people. Bridget, for example, looked normal enough (if confusing when it came to gender), but it wasn't like he knew if he had any powers or not. Kind of like if someone looked at him, they wouldn't know he was actually a half-ghost hybrid.

"I see. That is rather unusual, isn't it." Vlad finished his muffin neatly.

A person who could turn into a weapon, and others with powers--but no one here Vlad recognized apart from the boy. Some sort of odd time or dimensional skip, such that Daniel remembered events which plausibly could happen but which had not yet happened to Vlad.

And the moon was falling down, and everyone knew about it, of course...

Vlad leaned his head on an arm casually, still keeping a very polite and unaggressive distance from Daniel as they spoke. That he even had to ask this after the little disagreement they'd had was absurd, but of course, Daniel tended not to notice things until his nose was being rubbed in them...

"I don't suppose you've overheard anyone speaking of alternate timelines or dimensions or other such things here, have you? I don't mean the Ghost Zone, of course, but alternates to Earth itself." The Ghost Zone was really more an addition to Earth than an alternate in Vlad's perception, the two coexisting nearly atop each other and leaking into each other frequently enough to qualify as part of a greater whole.

He racked his mind for references to alternate timelines or dimensions. Nothing came up, really. More just things about their 'homes,' but no mention of home timeline or home dimension. Danny had just assumed everyone came from really obscure countries around the world. It was a viable excuse, he thought. Just the fact that everyone spoke English boggled him a bit, because as far as he knew, America wasn't too varied from one state to the next.

"Don't think I've heard anyone talking about them..."

Alternate timelines was a pretty good substitute for his own theory, though, and wasn't even far-fetched, considering he'd met with Clockwork on many different occasions. As for alternate dimensions...well, when you wrapped your head around the pain of alternate timelines, alternate dimensions wasn't that big of a jump. He was sure Clockwork had something to do with them too.

"No one's mentioned anything else, though. It could be alternate timelines or dimensions," he continued, adding a bit more to the information.

That wasn't exactly useful, but at least Daniel was thinking down the same lines as Vlad now. Catching up. "Then, have you noticed anyone speaking of things you thought at the time you should have heard about? Odd events or circumstances? Or perhaps stating things as a fact of life which you yourself had no experience with?" Such as moons falling. Or clones being freed.

New Jersey suddenly seemed rather unlikely... or at least, a New Jersey which would be a direct flight to home. Vlad was no astronomer, but the stars last night hadn't seemed off in any way, though all that told him was that he was possibly in a location which was on some Earth around North America at some point in time. Then again, his companion had seemed equally satisfied with the sky, and had never heard of Brazil or Wisconsin.

Danny paused to think again. What was Vlad aiming to find out by asking that, anyway? He tried to figure out what his purpose was in asking that, and as close as he felt himself to a conclusion, he didn't quite get there. Instead of stretching his mind on the subject of why Vlad was asking something like that, he went back to thinking on the question itself.

"No, I don't think so," he said at last. "I heard something about a group called AVALANCHE, though. I think they were supposed to be trying to grind us into meat? I don't really remember." He shrugged a bit. It seemed like it was hard to remember conversations just a few days ago. He didn't know if he was just being inattentive, or if that was something else here. He remembered being a bit disconcerted by the talk of AVALANCHE, but the details of the conversation itself were blurry, and that was only three days ago or so.

"Meat. That seems rather unlikely." Vlad supposed it could be like the moon, perhaps a danger in another world that was irrelevant at home. Or here. Wherever and whenever 'here' was. "But I'll keep it in mind."

Now, then, to try to talk to a fourteen year old about this sort of thing. At least Danny knew who Clockwork was, that should mean he'd at least had some passing experiences with alternate timelines or worlds. "Daniel, at the moment, just based on the evidence at hand, I don't believe we are on the same world we know from home. It resembles our world, but the odds of it actually being our home are slim. The other individuals you have met... as well as one I've encountered... likely also are missing from their own homes and have been taken to this particular rendition of Earth."

"Hey, I'm just repeating what I heard," he said in his defense. It wasn't his fault that Vlad asked the question in the first place and that that tidbit of information happened to fit his 'requirements.'

As Vlad began to explain more things, Danny picked up another half-eaten muffin and ate it, not out of hunger, but more out of a lack of anything else to do. A different world? He could believe that. Maybe in this world it was normal to be kidnapped randomly, and put in random places called mental institutions by day, barbaric prisons by night. Danny had no idea what could be considered normal about this, different world or not, but hey, anything was possible.

"Maybe," he said. "So if it's a different world, how are we supposed to get home? It's not like the Ghost Zone connects different worlds...is it?" He'd never checked that, nor did it ever become a concern for him. Maybe Vlad knew, though, since he had connections in the Ghost Zone.

"Not to my knowledge. The Ghost Zone is more of a dimension connected to our human world. This would be a far more removed prospect, if I'm correct." Daniel seemed to take the whole thing rather calmly, but perhaps he'd suspected all along. Or was just not bright enough to realize the enormity of it.

"I imagine the quickest way to return home would be the way we were brought here. Discovering that may require some effort." He frowned around at the room. "And the creatures I saw attacking 'patients' last night... is that a regular occurrence?" And he still felt weakened. This was absolutely unacceptable. Granted, the boy had stayed alive a few days here...

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