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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"Exspheres?" Archer repeated, somewhat confused with the strange term. "What is it? Something from your world?

"Yeah," Sheena answered. "They're these glowy jewel-things that enhance a person's natural speed and strength as well as sometimes doing something special. The Desians make them in human ranches, doing something to the humans to force their bodies to grow the exspheres inside them."

It was quite clear how much this concept bothered her. "They make the human really sick and if it's not harvested in time, the human turns into a monster. Even so, I'm pretty sure the human is killed during the harvesting. So, the exsphere is kinda like hat particular human's life-force crystalized into a sorta living gem. People attach a special kind of crest to the exsphere after it was harvested to utilize its power without getting sick."

She fidgeted a moment. "I'd show you the exsphere I have, but... I-I can't," Sheena said, face flushing.

It sounded like an interesting tool, like a Mystic Code or Noble Phantasm, but derived from human experimentation. It was really quite appalling.

"That's terrible." He stated simply. Archer had seen plenty of terrible things, but they never failed to disgust him.

When she mentioned her exsphere, he was a little confused, not knowing the exsphere was placed directly into the skin or its location. "Did they take it from you? They don't seem to let anyone keep their equipment."

It was a logical move, considering they were supposed to be prisoners. Not that Archer needed to worry. Everything he needed was forged through mastery of his Reality Marble. It was really convenient.

"Oh no... they didn't take it from me," Sheena replied, fidgeting again. "It just... doesn't work anymore. It's like it went into hibernation. I can feel it - it's just not doing anything."

"That's not surprising. It probably has something to do with the limit they've imposed over our abilities," Archer said, barely noticing her fidgeting. He wasn't blind, but he didn't understand why she was uncomfortable. "Though I am surprised they didn't just take it from you. From what I've heard, most of the other patients weren't allowed to keep any of their belongings."

In the case of Dante, it was his swords and guns, but it was obvious the Institute wouldn't let him keep those.

This was getting ridiculous. Archer pressing the whole I can't believe they didn't take it from you bit and Sheena kept trying to dodge the whole issue as to exactly where her exsphere was. She almost wished hers was in a place like Raine's so she could just hold her arm out and go here - look but she COULDN'T do that with hers. It made perfect sense why she'd chosen the location she did for hers, but it made things really difficult at the moment.

"They can't take it from me," Sheena finally said with a bit of exasperation. "It's stuck to me. Okay, that's not entirely true since I actually do know a way to take it off if I want it removed, but I'm not going to do that with it all non-glowy like it is now. I don't know what would happen."

"Oh, I see," Archer gulped somewhat awkwardly, understanding finally dawning on him. He was kinda embarrassed he hadn't come to that conclusion earlier, but he'd assumed the exsphere had been worn like jewelry. The fact that Sheena didn't want to show it to Archer told him it was probably located somewhere private. "Sorry. When you said it was like a jewel, I thought you wore it like an accessory or something."

"I suppose it can kinda be worn like that," Sheena replied, her cheeks a little pink now that Archer seemed to get what the whole fidgeting had been about. "You've probably seen Raine's and just thought it was a pretty bracelet. Each one's unique, so one exsphere's color may be different than another's - same with shape and key crest."

"I'm Mizuho and with how I received mine, it was better to not have it someplace easily visible." She was the only one out of her friends whose exsphere wasn't out in the open. Well, Regal's wasn't, but she didn't exactly count being under his shackles as counting for concealment.

Sheena's reaction confirmed his suspicions and made him feel a little more flustered. When she mentioned Raine, he tried to remember if he'd seen hers. "I'm not sure. I think I saw it the other day but didn't make anything of it."

He could understand the need for secrecy, concealing one's advantage. Back at home, mages did it all the time, hiding themselves from normal society's eyes. He suspected it was the same with Sheena's clan. "You mean because you're a ninja."

"Yup, but also because of the specific mission I'd been assigned to at that time." Deciding she didn't want to eat her granola bar, Sheena shoved it in her pocket.

"Next time you see Raine, look at her wrist, but don't go asking her about it or being too obvious what you're looking at," she said. "Raine gets a little... weird about some things." Weird about personal things in one manner and even weirder about research things in an entirely different manner. Sheena wasn't sure which category exspheres fell into. Maybe it fell into both.

No, that couldn't be possible. The half-elf might explode if she had to deal with talking about something that she found fascinating, horrifying and way too personal all at once.

...was it bad that she kind of wanted to see what would happen?

"Yeah, I noticed Raine has her quirks." Even though Sheena told him to be indiscreet about looking for Raine's expshere, her expression was a little different, more mischievous. At least it seemed that way to him, and while Archer prided himself for his sharp eyes, understanding the female mind was a whole different story. Rin was physical proof of that.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Now that was something he could do.

"Thanks," Sheena replied.

She looked out the window for a bit before speaking again. "So what did you and her talk about.

Day 35: Bus 2

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