damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 2

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~]

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Wally listened intently, completely absorbed in what Zelnick was saying, though his eyes did stray to the granola bar on more than one occasion. He couldn't help but laugh a little at the names of some of the alien races, talk about a mouthful! "It sounds like your ship really meant a lot to you. I guess it must be kinda disconcerting to find yourself here after all that." It was odd though; he didn't recognise any of the alien names Zelnick had used, so either the future had caused a lot of changes, or Zelnick was from somewhere really far away from Earth as well.

When Zelnick started talking about the war, Wally felt his own smile fade. It seemed like even that far in the future there was still going to be big conflicts and fighting. Maybe it was a little too optimistic, but he'd always held out hope that people would learn to get along with each other and that war would become something of the past. He did glance up in surprise when Zelnick mentioned going to Earth though. There went his theory of the differences being due to coming from different areas. "So, wait. If there's all these aliens and stuff near Earth, how come they haven't made contact with us? Those aliens you were talking about, I mean. Cause we've had some contact us, but nowhere near enough to have an Alliance or anything," he said, hoping that was vague enough that he wouldn't give anything away about how much he knew.

He relaxed a little as the conversation turned to his job. "Yeah, I'm really more of a lab assistant though. The police give me the samples to analyse, I get back to them with what I find, maybe help put away a few bad guys. It can be a little tough sometimes, but it's rewarding in its own way. Plus it helps me put food on the table." And he needed all the help he could get with that.

Speaking of... "Hey, are you gonna eat that or just torture it for a while longer?"

"A lot disconcerting," Zelnick admitted. "Especially some of the technology-- this place feels nearly ancient, sometimes." He hasn't really let it bother him, but this bus was such an emphatic reminder of the era he was supposedly in. "And talking to people who aren't in their real bodies gets strange."

Zelnick shrugged a little at Wally's question. "I've noticed, a bit, that what holds true for me isn't always true for everyone else-- I've talked to people who, apparently, are from thousands of years into the future, and they've never even heard of the War or the Ur-Quan. And I'm pretty sure twenty-five years of the Earth being encased in a big red shell after losing a war to giant green arthropods would be... at least somewhat notable, in some history book, somewhere." He smiled at Wally. "From what I know, though, humanity's had a lot of surreptitious contact with at least one species for thousands of years, and pretty much didn't run into anyone else until we got our brains around Hyperspace technology."

It was Zelnick's turn to nod along, listening with intent curiosity. "It sounds like fun," he said, entirely sincere. Entirely outside his own experience, but fun!

He glanced at the bar in his hand, evaluated how hungry he was-- not very, he hadn't actually gotten a chance to do anything last night except eat high-calorie food-- and handed it off to Wally with a smile.

Wally blinked. "Not in their real bodies? What does that mean?" He was still getting used to the fact that there really were monsters at night and that maybe the other patients were telling the truth about being from the future and stuff. The idea that some people were in whole different bodies was entirely new though. He wasn't sure how to react to that.

"So, you're saying that you're from a different dimension?" he asked. That was something he could deal with, the League had been to alternate dimensions a couple of times before. A sudden thought occurred to him. "How many other people are from other dimensions anyway?" If Zelnick was right, maybe Kal really was... nah. He was waaay too different to be Clark. Right? After all, even in that alternate reality, Clark was still pretty much the same, though maybe a bit... tougher.

"It is fun, though it can also be really time-consuming and irritating. Nothing like a test getting botched and having to start the whole thing over," he said with a wry chuckle.

Wally flashed another huge smile when Zelnick gave him the granola bar. Sharing his food, specially when they couldn't just go and get some more from a buffet, elevated Zelnick to instant friend status in Wally's eyes. "Man, this has just made you my best friend in this place."

"Even though everyone here has a human body," he explained, "the three people here that I knew from before are aliens. Green and scaly and one-eyed, or green and mollusk-like, or a bipedal marsupial-- except here, they look, well, like pretty normal humans." He shrugged. "They're not the only ones-- I've seen a couple posts the the bulletin boards asking what people who weren't human before were. Strangest answer I've seen is 'power plant,' but there's plenty of gods and demon and dragons, apparently."

Zelnick shrugged. "If we are dealing with some sort of multidimensional thingy, I don't think anyone's-- well, any of us," he waved his hand at the passengers of the bus, "I don't mean the doctors or nurses-- anyone is from this dimension. I've yet to meet anyone or see any mention of knowing about this place beforehand."

"That's annoying, no matter what you're doing," Zelnick agreed, with a rueful laugh.

Wally really was infectious, with a rapid onset; Zelnick's smile nearly matched his, after a moment. "Hey, it's no big deal. I'm really not that hungry, and there's no point in letting the food go to waste." Though he did attack his orange juice, now, savoring the taste.

"Huh, I guess that'd be even worse, waking up in this place in a completely different body." At least he was still in his own body and had his powers. Well, sort of. He wasn't sure how he'd feel to not even have that. Probably a lot more vunerable.

"That doesn't mean much," Wally protested. "There's a lot of institutes on Earth, not having heard of Landel's doesn't mean I'm in another dimension." He had to still be in his own dimension. He was going to contact the Justice League and get them to come help rescue everyone, and if they weren't in his dimension, that couldn't happen, so they just had to still be in the right one. His shoulders slumped a little and he toyed with his still unopened orange juice. He'd know if he was in another dimension, wouldn't he?

Day 35: Bus 2

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((The Captain sure knows how to get on Wally's good side~ XD))

((Aww, shucks, he's just being friendly~!))

((...I DON'T KNOW WHY HE SUDDENLY DEPRESSED D: NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID!))