Day 35: Bus 2

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

Comments

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"Certainly." It was good that she had the passion, the drive; nothing good could be accomplished with half-hearted sentiments.

Talk of people from their own worlds reminded him of Saber, and the fact that she was gone. Reinforce was gone as well, and Hisoka had been taken. He glanced away, allowing a soft, sad look to pass over his eyes. When he turned back to Sheena, it was gone.

"Yes. I've talked to her a few times, and we've exchanged some ideas about her clinic group," Archer answered.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Ah." Sheena tilted her head a little. "So what do you think of her? The Professor is kind of an acquired taste."

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, she is," he chuckled. "But she seems like a good, decent person."

There was the issue with the ears, but Archer didn't know if he should mention it, so he remained silent.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"As long as she doesn't see you as a possible research subject, she is a good decent person, aside from her cold-hearted bitch moments," the summoner said lightly with a grin. "Otherwise, you better run for the hills. If you ever see that overwhelming crazy kinda glint in her eyes... back away slowly and be prepared to escape."

She nodded sagely. "She can be scary when she gets really focused on something."

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I kinda saw a glimpse of that," the former spirit replied, thinking back to their meeting.

"It sounds like you experienced it first hand. I'm sorry to hear that." A grin teetered on the edge of his lips at Sheena's description. "Thanks for the sage advice. I'll take it to heart."

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Well, I am the first summoner to be born in 4000 years, not to mention my first summon spirit was created by humans," she explained.

"Umm... I don't know how they made Corrine, so don't ask me," Sheena said, a little defensively.

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"You must have made an excellent guinea pig in Raine's eyes. My condolences," he stated solemnly. "Who is Corrine, one of your summon spirits?"

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena immediately looked down, deep sorrow in her eyes that she couldn't even make an attempt to hide.

"Yeah... he was." She put a hand to her chest. "He sacrificed his life to protect me because I was too afraid and too frustrated to think properly."

The pang in her chest was intense as she didn't have her dear friend's bell. The realization that they'd taken that from her brought a flash of red hot anger that overtook the sorrow.

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

Archer wanted to say or do something to comfort her but didn't know what he could do. As he watched her recall painful memories, Archer found the words in him. "He was a very good friend, wasn't he?"

He must have been. After all, giving up your life for someone else was no small feat. Note to self: don't bring up Corrine in the future. Fortunately, she didn't stay depressed for long. Archer got the feeling Sheena was a very emotional person.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Sheena said through gritted teeth. "My best friend and the only one I had for years." She just couldn't believe they taken the bell. How did they know to take it? What purpose would it serve?

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

He could clearly see she was angry, so Archer remained silent. Sometimes there was just nothing you could, and in this case, he could only wait until Sheena calmed down.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much that Sheena eventually calmed down as much as it was she simmered down enough to stuff the hurt and anger away for the time being. Corrine wouldn't want her to get so upset about the bell, even if it was the only thing she was more terrified about not having when she left this place than her losing her pacts.

She leaned her head against the window and looked outside. "Sorry..."

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"It's fine." Archer merely watched her. He understood the pain of losing a loved one: Saber, Ilya, Rin, Sakura, the list went on. He also knew that it would never get easier.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Yeah... great conversationalist - that's me."

Sitting up, Sheena peered into her paper bag again and extracted the orange juice box. She peered at it for a moment before going to stick the straw into it. Unfortunately, she squeezed it a little too much, not familiar with the concept behind it.

"!!"

The orange liquid shot out and Sheena accidentally dropped the container in her haste to get out of the way of the spray where it was well on it's way to landing in Archer's lap.

"Aah! No you stupid... stupid... box!"

Sheena was half perched on the seat, some of the juice having gotten on her pant leg but most of it on the seat between her and Archer. "Where'd it go?"

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"That's fine. Talk is seriously overrated."

As Sheena try to pierce her juice box with a straw, Archer saw it slip out of her hands, almost in slow motion, spraying juice all over the place.

"Whoa." He quickly moved out of the way, but there was only so much room. The side of his pants leg got the worst of it, which wasn't really that bad, compared to Sheena.

"Uh, right over here," he said, picking it up with his forefinger and thumb from the floor, where his feet had been. Archer was very lucky. If he was split second slower it would've been all over his pants. That would've been an embarrassing sight.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena's eyes widened as she saw the mess. "Crap. Uh... do you have a napkin?"

Figures, she spits water all over Kratos the day before and she ends up orange juicing Archer. If she kept this up, no one was going to want to sit with her during mealtime.

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"Let me check." Archer opened up his paper bag, sifting through the contents in search of a napkin. After a few moments, he had almost given up hope when he found it.

"Here," he said, handing out a few napkins to her, wondering if there were any left inside his bag.

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Sheena said, taking the napkins and hoping her face wasn't as bright red as it felt it was.

The summoner started mopping the mess up on the seat first and then tried to do something about the juice on her pants. "Damnit. Why do I have to be so clumsy," she muttered.

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

Archer smiled, completely stifling a good natured laugh as he tried to look for some more napkins. "Do you have some napkins in your bag?"

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Uh... I dunno." She tossed the bag to him. "Take a look."

Damnit. It looked like she was going to have an orange stain on her pants. "I swear, they made those boxes like that just to see how many people can make them go all explodey on accident."

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

Catching the bag, Archer glanced inside. It took him a few moments, but he found them. He reached over to help her but paused mid-way, catching himself. Whoa, almost forgot I wasn't dealing with Ilya there. Shaking the thought off, he handed the napkins to Sheena. "Here they are."

Smiling, he remembered when Ilya first tried to drink from a juice box; she'd suffered the same fate as Sheena and blamed the makers for purposely designing it that way. He remembered telling the winter fairy that the makers were just evil, and she had agreed. Thinking about the young girl made him realize just how much he missed her. "Yeah, a friend of mine would agree with you that it's a conspiracy."

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

"Smart friend," Sheena replied, taking the napkins. After a few more moments of scrubbing, she gave up and plopped back down on the now-dry seat. Putting the granola bar between her teeth, she shoved the wet napkins and the offending drink box into the paper bag.

"have you been to this town before?"

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, she was," Archer answered after sitting down. They'd been driving for awhile, causing Archer to wonder just how far town was? At any rate, it seemed unlikely they'd be able to reach the town from the institute by foot, and if they did it would probably take all night. "I've been here, at the Institute, for a few days, but this is my first time coming to town."

If Landel was letting them out into the populace it meant he was sure of his control over them, or that it didn't matter even if they were in town. There wasn't much they could do. It's not like they could go to the police. What would they say? The head doctor's a lunatic and performs hideous experiments every night? Yeah, like that would fly. Besides, they were supposed to be mental patients, which didn't exactly lend a lot of credibility. "What about you? Have you been to town?"

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

Sheena shook her head. "Yesterday was my first day here." She wasn't quite understanding why they were visiting a town at all. As far as she knew, human ranches were isolated and no one was ever taken outside the walls to be paraded around. It was all too weird.

[spirit-forge.livejournal.com]

"It's strange," Archer said, unknowingly voicing similar thoughts. "Why is it necessary for them to go so far with this farce?"