damned_institute | Day 34: Lunch

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Day 34: Lunch

Yuffie bounced all the way through collecting her lunch, all the way to a good seat- one with a nice view of the whole cafeteria, which was something she'd been missing out on during the past day or so that she'd been stuck in the Institute- and hell, she even bounced into her seat.

A good mood? No, really?

Despite the occasional blip, talking to Sagara had been awesome. He was a fun guy; he wasn't a prude, didn't have a stick shoved so far up his ass it was poking out his eyeballs, and he'd actually had a conversation with her. One that hadn't revolved around doom, gloom or how much life sucked. If she could find other people like that and keep in touch with Sagara, maybe there was a little hope for this place.

After a quick gulp of pink lemonade, Yuffie settled to munching through her food and keeping an eye on the door.

[Waiting for Dean, I think? :x]

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Marcus just gave Wally a level stare, he didn't buy the hasty denial of powers at all. "Central what?" He asked, curious, and ignoring the rhetorical question about where he'd get powers from.

"I'm from Paragon City... You know, you remind me of a friend, he calls himself Synapse. Eats a lot of food all the time because of his fast metabolism," Marcus said, wondering if Wally had similar abilities. Synapse's fast metabolism was part of his super-speed, so maybe Wally was the same way? It was a shot in the dark, but he was fairly convinced that Wally did have powers after his less than convincing act.

Wally flushed slightly under the stare, but glared back without flinching. He'd gotten into eye-balling matches with Batman, so Marcus wasn't even close to intimidating him. He broke off at the question, blinking in confusion. "Central City, where else? You know, sister-city to Keystone?"

He took another rapid gulp of soup to hide his shock when Marcus continued. He didn't know what was more surprising though, that Marcus seemed to have guessed his secret straight away or that there might be another speedster out there somewhere. Wally had never met anyone with powers quite like his. Sure, Supes could move when he wanted to but he wasn't anywhere near Wally's top speeds. No one was.

"No, I, uh, just have a dietary condition. Means I have to eat more to get the same amount of nutrition," he said, hoping that Marcus would just accept that and leave him alone. It looked like he'd have to forget about that third helping though, if he didn't want to raise suspicion. "Paragon. Never heard of it. What's it like?" he asked, trying to sound enthusiastic. Anything to get the topic away from Wally-having-powers.

"Never heard of Central City," Marcus said, still looking Wally over carefully. A lot like Synapse, really, but it looked like he was going to have a hard time getting him to admit to it.

"It's a nice city, they call it the 'City of Heroes' because so many people with powers live in the city, or head there once they find their powers," Marcus said, it was a real hot-spot for superpowered activities, and attempts to take over the city by Super Villains, especially Recluse. With the Rikti attacking again there would probably be even more activity.

"Though we have our fair share of costumed heroes with no powers at all."

"Well you did say you were from a different dimension," Wally pointed out. Marcus was giving him a contemplative look that was making him uncomfortable and to make matters worse, he'd already polished off his lunch and it looked like he wouldn't be able to get seconds without raising suspicion.

He sighed and pushed his tray aside. "City of Heroes, huh? Must be kinda hectic. I can't imagine what Central would be like if it had more than one guy with powers in it. Insurance costs are high enough, you know? Besides, even with the Justice League, it's hard to get people to trust those with more power than them." Geez, now he was starting to get depressed. Which made him hungrier. Which made him more depressed cause there was a huge buffet right there but he couldn't even go over there and grab a snack.

He caught himself staring hungrily at Marcus' tray and forced himself to concentrate on the conversation. It wasn't as if this was the first time he'd had to put up with being hungry to keep his identity safe. "So were you on a team or anything in Paragon?"

"Oh, there are usually more than enough villains to keep everyone occupied unfortunately; with our proximity to the Rogue Isles and with the nice target the city makes, but the FBSA keeps heroes fairly well organized and in hand," Marcus caught Wally staring at his tray. He'd had enough to be full, so he pushed it towards the other man, if only to confirm that he had a very abnormal metabolism.

"I've had a couple teams over the years," Marcus considered them to be two separate teams, despite having shared the same name and symbol both times.

"Supervillain huh? I've seen a few of them around. On teevee, I mean. I mean, Central has a few show up sometimes, but it's not that big a deal. So I've heard." Wally cursed his big mouth again, he'd never had to cover this much in Central. Not even that one time he'd come back from lunch missing his eyebrows and smelling of smoke.

"So, ah, the Rogue Isles, they sound, uh, interesting." He had to find something safer to talk about, or he was going to lose it and end up telling Marcus everything. He dragged the tray closer and started to make short work of what was left. "So, have you been in this place long? Got any tips?" Wally blinked and looked sheepishly down at the food he'd just swiped. "You didn't want this, right?"

"Don't go out alone at night," Marcus suggestion as a tip. "I'm finished, you can have it." Certainly an abnormal metabolism if he was still eating.

"And watch out for brainwashed people with powers... while some patients here have clothes that aren't the hospital uniform, most of the people at night wearing something other than patient clothing will attack you. Though you might just want to stay in bed, since you don't have any powers," He wondered if that would get any sort of reaction. Wally didn't have much in the way of a poker face, and he clearly didn't think much before acting or speaking.

"Heard that one before," Wally commented, well on his way to finishing off Marcus' plate and, from the looks he was giving it, contemplating licking it clean.

"So, let me get this straight," he said between bites. "There are monsters at night, the staff are also monsters and some of the patients are too? Is it just me, or does that seem like, I don't know, overkill?!" Wally sighed heavily. It seemed like getting out of here and getting word to the League was going to be a little trickier than he thought. Even if his powers had been unaffected by whatever was affecting everyone else, it still sounded like he was going to have to fight his way out. It was looking like his best plan would be to forget about finding Landel and just get out and call for backup. He could worry about who was behind everything when he had the full strength of the League with him.

Marcus was still talking. "Wha? Oh. Nah, I can handle myself. Thanks for the advice though," he said and flashed a huge grin. "Besides, it's sounding like having no powers in this place is a given."

"Even without their full powers, a lot of the people in this place are still very capable... surely there are heroes in your dimension that don't have powers but are still very formidable?" Marcus asked, curious about the heroes in Wally's dimension

"It's not that we have no powers anymore, just reduced powers. I have some of mine, as does everyone else I've spoken to, with the exception of one person, who claims to have lost all of them," Marcus paused for a moment and shrugged. "Though he may just be lying about it..." He wanted th change the topic off the monsters and brainwashed patients. What he'd had to do last night was still a little too fresh in his mind for it to be a comfortable subject to speak about for long.

"What heroes are there in your dimension. You mentioned a Justice League earlier," Marcus was curious how similar it would be to his own, and what variety of powers and costumes there were.

Wally reluctantly pushed the empty plate away from him. "Man, I'm stuffed!" he exclaimed, trying to convince himself as much as Marcus. His stomach wasn't buying it though. At least it was being silent about the matter, and he could always zip back later for a snack or seven.

He turned his attention to Marcus' question. "The Justice League is the main force I guess. They're U.N. sanctioned and basically help out with disaster relief, world crimes, you know the drill. They have this satellite base called the Watchtower where they keep an eye on things." And up until recently had a giant laser, he didn't say. It wasn't something any of them were proud of.

"They expanded a while back, so they've got a lot of members. As for guys with no powers, they do have Batman. He's got no powers, but you really don't wanna mess with him. Oh, Hawkgirl doesn't have powers really. She's an alien. And trust me when I say you do not wanna mess with her either. Green Arrow probably counts in that too. Otherwise you've got some of the well known powered types; Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, J'onn, Supergirl... Seems like there's more and more of them every day."

"And they put all that information in the news?" Marcus asked, absorbing it all. So they did have legitimate government ties, but it sounded like their world was still different in terms of the way hero organizations were handled. But if that sort of information was publicly available, perhaps they weren't so different after all.

"Do heroes still keep their identities secret in your world?" Not everyone in Paragon had their identities public, but it was policy for the Freedom Phalanx, even Justin was known by the public now.

"Well, yeah," Wally answered. "It's kinda hard for people not to notice a giant satellite orbiting the planet, after all. And the League is in the news a lot, specially recently. Though, it's not always good." He stared down at the table, shoulders slumping a little. He really didn't want to think about all the stuff that the League had done recently. Nor about their fight with Brainiac. Luthor. Whatever they'd been called then. That train of thought lead to speed and the feel of the world slowing around him while something called him ever onwards and it had just been so... perfect.

For a moment he felt an overwhelming sense of loss, but he quickly covered it with a huge smile. "Some of them do. I think it depends on what they want and why they're in the whole hero business in the first place. At least, that's what I'd think," he added hastily.

Watching wally was certainly interesting, the way emotions rapidly played across his face. "The heroes on my team don't really have secret identities anymore," Marcus explained. "People have known who I am for decades now. I think it's a lot easier, though sometimes I do miss not being recognized as Statesman on the streets."

It was nice to not have to worry about keeping his lives separate, though. Marcus hadn't had too much trouble with it at first, but once he'd really become famous it had been harder to keep his private life to himself.

"Doesn't that cause problems for their families?" Wally asked with interest. "I thought that was half the reason the League kept their identities secret. Least, that's what they always say." It sounded to Wally as though Paragon City could have easily fitted into his own world. There didn't seem to be that many differences at all.

"Everyone in my family is a hero, and my powers got passed down, so not much can even scratch my granddaughter," He still remembered when she'd first shown him that she'd inherited his super strength, lifting up the car they'd been riding in after they got out.

"And in fact, two of my team mates are going to be married soon." Manticore and Sister Psyche were a good match. And it was fitting that he'd end up with the only person that knew what he was planning half the time.

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Day 34: Lunch

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