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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Zuko kept his eyes on the suspicious newcomer, but continued eating without bothering to greet him. Like the people from last night the man seemed like he was used to battle. Zuko wasn't in much of a mood for making new friends, but as he finished his muffin he decided it was worth opening his mouth to try to get more information.

"Does night always end so abruptly in this place?" he asked, uncertainty creeping into his voice. Zuko hoped the man knew what he meant, he would rather sound vague than crazy.

"Yes," SubZero decided to hold his muffin in the hand that was less painful when he moved his arm. There were very bad looking bruises from where he had attempted to block the creature they had fought last night.

"Even if you're in the middle of a fight."

"Great." Zuko absentmindedly used his forked utensil to tear apart the second muffin on his plate. Were they all brainwashed before being brought here so that could be instantly knocked out by trigger words? That meant even with all the doors unlocked and guards gone all of the prisoners could be easily controlled by that voice box Sanosuke was talking about.

"Is it true they release animals at night?" Zuko couldn't help glancing at the man's bruises.

"Animals, monsters, brainwashed patients, demonic nurses," SubZero just shrugged as he finished, really the most challenging thing he'd fought so far was another patient... though, the thing he'd gone up again last night would have been very bad to fight alone. "They seem to have a little bit of everything here."

It was really a good thing HK had been around to distract it.

The man's nonchalant answers were beginning to grate Zuko's nerves.

"So then... any plans to escape?" he asked with slight annoyance.

No one was taking this seriously enough! The rational voice of his uncle in Zuko's head would have told him that escaping could be a slow and steady process that involved seemingly meaningless tasks. But to Zuko's raging impatience it seemed like people were more interested in running stupid errands and talking. He would escape on his own if he had to... except the part of him that had grown these past weeks still told him that would be impossible.

"Yeah," SubZero grinned as he spoke. Mr. Radio had told him where to find the Head Doctor. Not exactly, but he did have a general location now. All he had to do was get into the basement and figure out where exactly he was down there.

He'd take HK and Arlene, maybe Logan, but certainly no one else. They could all get out after he was done with the head doctor, but he didn't need dead weight slowing him down.

"... how nice for you," Zuko muttered-- mostly to himself, after the grinning man didn't elaborate any further. The prince stared apprehensively at him as he tried to figure out whether or not SubZero was kidding. I'll keep an eye on him, Zuko decided as he continued to poke at what was left of the muffin. If escape wasn't in his immediate future then he would have to watch and figure out which person or group seemed most likely to break out first.

"What did you do before you came to this place?" SubZero doubted the kid would be useful, but he might as well ask just in case.

That, and he didn't want to sit there and answer questions all morning either.

That was a loaded question.

"Traveled. Through the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation." The latter part of Zuko's answer might be meaningless to SubZero, but he still looked for any glint of recognition in the man's expression. "I faced waterbenders, earthbenders, firebenders..."

SubZero listened quietly. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was talking about. 'Waterbenders, earthbenders, firebenders'... he was talking about people with elemental ability.

"What about ice?" SubZero asked curiously.

""People of the Water Tribe control all aspects of water..." Zuko answered slowly, disappointed that the man's ignorance about waterbenders meant that he was either stupid or not from Zuko's world. "So they're able to bend water into ice."

"So they can turn water into ice, but they can't create ice without water," Well, SubZero did use whatever water was in the air to help create his ice, but he knew there was no way he could get enough of it fast enough to create his own ice, it solidified out of his energy, and often left very little water behind when it eventually melted.

Zuko shook his head. "They are completely powerless without water." The prince remembered the waterbender and earthbender prisons, at the time he'd been impressed by the Fire Nation's ingenuity, but now it only seemed cruel.

The man's curiosity about waterbending made Zuko curious as well. "Are you a... uh... bender?" he ended lamely, unable to come up with another word for it.

"I am a master of ice, and unlike the waterbenders you know, I do not need water to use my element to its full effect..."

And now it was SubZero's turn to ask a question again.

"I've told you about what I can do, so what element do you use?"

Zuko gave the man an incredulous look. Bending ice without water? All things considered anything was possible in this dump, and at least it was a power he was familiar with, unlike the other things he'd seen...

"Fire, but I'm in no position to use it." Zuko considered lying, but there was little to gain from it if SubZero was truly unaware of the havoc the Fire Nation had wreaked over the past one hundred years. "Should I assume the same is true for even a master of ice?"

"I am quite capable of still using my power," And there were a number of patients fighting the staff not too far away. SubZero would jump in if it got bigger, but for now he was willing to sit out. He might even demonstrate the fact that he still had his power by sending an ice blast at a nurse.

"Not quite at the same level I was outside this place, but I still have some of my power left." He would let the kid guess how much, there was no point in spelling out his limitations.

"Is that so?"

Zuko felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Why was he the only one completely powerless?

Thoroughly annoyed with SubZero Zuko turned his attention to the fight playing out. He'd just been wishing for the prisoners to take more action, but this didn't exactly look like a well executed escape plan so much as a bar brawl.

"Do you know any of those people?" Zuko asked, eager to change the subject now that he was at a disadvantage.

"Hey, at least you had some powers to begin with, and there are more useless people here," Since anyone with combat experience was less useless than someone with no combat experience.

"I don't know them, but if more people join in I might get up and fight as well. Not much to do during the day anyway," But he would have to be sure he wasn't injured. It would be worth being sedated to punch one of the nurses while they weren't monsters.

Zuko began to open his mouth to snap at SubZero and inform him that the prince didn't need any pity, but instead he turned back to glare at the fighters.

"What are the guards armed with?"

"Sedatives. They inject you and then you can't really do anything anymore," He wondered if it would make a difference if they all got up and fought at once.

Could the staff handle that many patients attacking during the day?

Zuko continued watching as SubZero spoke. Another man had joined the first fight and now there were mini ones sparking all over the cafeteria.

"Will that even be effective with this many people?" Zuko wondered, echoing SubZero's thoughts. The prisoners didn't seem to be working as a single unit but there were still many more of them than guards in the room, but if he was correct about the conditioning that might not matter at all. He pushed his chair back away from the table and kept his eyes on the closest guards.

"If they have enough nurses," SubZero shrugged, noticing fights breaking out in other parts of the cafeteria now as other patients decided to attack.

SubZero was also moving back from the table, his arms and chest hurt, but the nurses were push-overs at night.

"This is probably the only chance we'll get to attack during the day." He started easing himself up out of his chair, ready to attack.

"Then it's worth taking advantage of."

Other prisoners were calling out battle cries, urging people to join in. Zuko watched the door, more guards were beginning to enter the cafeteria to diffuse the situation. He slid his leg out from under the table and into the path of an orderly charging towards another fight. It only caused the man to stumble, but Zuko sent a kick towards the orderly's stomach that knocked him into the next table. A second orderly stopped in his tracks and aggressively rushed towards the prince.

Well, the kid had beaten him to the punch, but SubZero was not going to be outdone. When the second orderly attacked Zuko, SubZero rushed in, using the charging man's momentum to throw him onto a nearby nurse, effectively eliminating both of them as opponents for a few moments.

With the second one down Zuko turned his attention back to the first orderly who was picking himself back up. But before he could advance on the man, someone grabbed Zuko's arms from behind, putting him in a headlock. The firebender focused his energy with a loud growl as he tried to summon flames to separate himself from his attacker-- except that in the heat of battle he forgot that that wasn't possible in Landel's. Before he could physically shake the orderly off he felt the pain of a needle and a foreign fluid being injected into his veins.

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