Day 37: Breakfast

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

Comments

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

Forte practically jumped in his seat. At least he liked the sound of 'infamous.' "I, uh... yeah... he's in the same situation we are. So he's really an emperor where you come from?"

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

Depth Charge snorted. "An emperor? He's been telling people he's an emperor?" He leaned in closer, shaking his head. "We're from different eras- my time's a few hundred years ahead of his. Where I'm from he's known as a traitor and a coward." He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms knowingly. "Hindsight's a beautiful thing, kid."

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

The other bot chuckled, "He sounds like my kinda guy. Someone told me there's people from different worlds trapped here, but I had no idea there were people from different times. What'd he do, anyway?"

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

"I'm not much of a history buff," he said, "but he's a real legend. Kicked his commander while he was down, left him for dead and tried to take over himself. He got a cannon to the face for his trouble."

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

While Depth Charge was telling him of Starscream's crimes, he noticed a plate flying over the sea of heads (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/509905.html?thread=41068753#t41068753). He saw it was going to fly right over him, but watched almost in slow motion as a strip of bacon detached itself, and came right toward his head.

The comment ...to the face... was accompanied by a loud SLAP and Forte jumped to his feet. "Wha- who- HOW DARE YOU!?" Having long since finished the meat on his plate, he grabbed a handful of the moist, sweet cubes and flung them fruitlessly into the crowd.

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

"Basically, he's the scum of Cybertr- what the slagging--?!" Depth Charge gave a spluttering 'guh?' sound and hit the deck in time to be caught with a spray of sugar and syrup. "What in the Inferno is going on?" he hissed, peering up over the edge of the table incredulously. His hair was dusted with white powder and a sticky trail of syrup had splattered his cheek.

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

With the nurses glaring at him as well, and confident that the original attacker was being dissuaded, Forte sat back down. "I swear, some of these humans act like... like animals."

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

Depth Charge raised an eyebrow skeptically but didn't point out the hypocrisy. "Animals? I know animals- I was one for a while- and I can promise you that humans are a different crazy mess altogether."

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

Forte raised an eyebrow as well. He assumed that he'd meant a robotic animal, but it was still an odd thing to say.
There was nothing wrong with that, of course - some of his best his only friend was a robot animal, after all.

"Well, for now at least, we have to put up with humanity. Some of these prisoners have been here for a long time, and all trying to escape."

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

"Then they must know a few things about-"

Suddenly, Depth Charge seemed to give a strange jerk. It was as if he'd been struck by lightning- as far as Depth Charge was concerned, he might as well have been. In a moment of painful realisation it had occured to him that he might not be alone here: that somewhere, trapped between these walls, X might be waiting for him. He could've blasted himself for almost forgetting.

When he spoke again, his voice was low and hoarse and he spoke almost too quickly to hear. "The other patients. How many do you know? Is there a Protoform X here? He might be going by the name 'Rampage', but..."

[runner-up-robot.livejournal.com]

Forte was a bit surprised by Depth Charge's sudden reaction to... something. Apparently, to the possibility that this 'Protoform X' was here. But he just shook his head "Well, there's a lot of people here and I've only met a handful. Mostly other robots, and none of them used either of those names."

[scalyfishman.livejournal.com]

Depth Charge's fists clenched tighter than ever. The absence of a circuit-driven processor resonated all the more painfully within him; without it, he had no way of tracking X's energy signature.

"So he could still be here, right under my nose, and I'd have to track every single patient down before I would know..." But now he seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone, speaking at a barely audible growl. "Perfect."