damned_institute | Day 37: Breakfast

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Day 37: Breakfast

[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.

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"I don't mind at all," Sylar replied, his eyes following Wally as he went back to his pile of food. This guy was trusting – conveniently trusting – Sylar could tell from his immediate proposing of a nickname and his generally friendly, joking demeanor. He also seemed to eat a hell of a lot, especially for someone so skinny.

Of course, the best thing to do with a trusting man who wore their emotions on their sleeve and who was distracted by large amounts of food was to ask questions. Sylar smiled and picked up a forkful of french toast himself.

"Yeah, doesn't sound like you've gotten much further than me," he chuckled, chewing on his food and then glancing up at the other man. "Though I guess you've at least met some people if you were waiting for someone last night."

"Yeah, but even with how many people I have met, it seems like there's a lot more I haven't," Wally said regretfully. He'd always prided himself on getting to know practically everyone by at least a first name basis in whatever group he found himself - something that was particularly apparent in his home city, where the Flash was known for doing everything from stopping by to check up on you when you were sick to offering to help out with chores - but here it hadn't been as easy, thanks to the strict structure of the days and the fact that he had to keep his powers to himself.

Still, he was hopeful that he'd make a lot of new friends here while working out how to get everyone out of this place.

"Well last night I was waiting for this guy ZEX, but we only met yesterday. He seems like a pretty cool guy though. I've made friends with a few other people though, like my roommate Tony and Seiya and Clark and Zelnick... What can I say? I'm a pretty friendly guy," Wally said, laughing at the last part. As he spoke he continued to plough through his breakfast, having long since perfected the art of eating as rapidly as he could get away with and still maintaining a conversation.

"So, Zack, what about yourself? What kind of stuff did you do before you got here?" he asked with all the genuine interest that the Flash was known for.

Sylar nodded and watched Wally eat as he himself slowly chewed on some sausage. He was paying attention to the man's words and the names he was giving: Tony, Seiya, and... Clark? Wasn't that the name of the kid who'd met up with the cheerleader?

Still, it'd be suspicious if Sylar suddenly jumped on getting information, so instead of immediately asking for clarification, he smiled and answered Wally's question instead.

"Lots of things," he said, tilting his head slightly as he recalled some of his favorite activities: telekinesis, super-hearing, cutting through a victim's skull without a knife – all things he missed and all things he would get back. He laughed slightly and shook his head, looking back to Wally. "I was mainly a watchmaker, though. I had... have a knack for seeing how things work."

After a second, he paused and frowned a little.

"Clark..." he muttered, tapping the handle of his fork against the table before his eyes widened in what was supposed to be realization. He glanced up at Wally. "Is he a brown-haired kid? Tall, blue eyes?"

"A watchmaker, huh?" It was out of his expertise, but that had never stopped him from talking about things before. "So you'd be good with your hands too, repairing watches and things? Man, that has to be kinda off-putting, to go from that to here. Not to mention with all the aliens and powered-types around the place... It can get pretty overwhelming. But still, maybe if you're good at seeing how things work, you can try and figure out how they got us here in the first place? I know I'd like to know that one. Then maybe we'd stand a chance on getting out of here."

With a few more rapid bites Wally finished off the last of his French Toast, but thanks to his metabolism he was still pretty hungry, so he automatically reached across to skewer the remaining sausage from Zack's plate as he continued talking.

"Yeah, I think so," he said at the description of Clark. "Kinda nervous a lot too? Like he really just needs to sit back and relax for a bit? I met him on my first day here. We, uh, had a few problems, but we ended up working them out. He gave me a hand on my first night."

This guy talked almost as quickly as he ate, and while that made it a little hard to respond to everything that came out of his mouth, it certainly made it easy to get information from him. Though Sylar's smile faltered slightly when Wally mentioned how off-putting the powers of others were in this place, it only widened when he mentioned how 'Zack's' one remaining ability could be useful. If the man took this much pity on weaklings, it would be very easy to become his friend without him suspecting the danger of it.

While another man might have snapped at Wally for grabbing something off someone else's plate, Sylar just watched and noticed how Wally didn't seem to apologizing for it, which seemed inconsistent with the rest of his friendly personality. He must have not realized he was doing it, which meant... that his hunger was truly insatiable? Maybe it wasn't just his appetite that was keeping him hungry – maybe... there was something to it.

But Sylar would leave that for later. Right now, he wanted to know more about the cheerleader's little friend.

"Sounds about right," Sylar said, keeping his eyes on Wally to continue gauging his reactions. When Wally started talking about 'problems', he gave what looked to be a frown. "Problems? What kind of problems? You see, I think he knows a... close friend of mine, and I hope he isn't causing her any trouble."

Wally paused, finishing up the sausage in a couple of bites before... Wait, sausage? He didn't remember getting any of those for his plate (there hadn't been room)...

"Oh, sorry," he said to Zack, figuring out what he must have done. "You weren't going to eat that, were you?" He should probably try and keep a lid on the appetite more, but it was mostly instinctive. And besides, there were perfectly normal reasons that someone might eat a lot more than what other people might call 'normal', it didn't have to be based around the idea of superpowers or anything. Not to mention no one here seemed to know about the Justice League, so it wasn't like they would know about the Flash's hyperactive metabolism.

But still, anything more than two servings was probably asking for trouble. Good thing he'd only had one so far.

"Huh?" He'd zoned out a little when Zack had asked him something. "Oh, Clark? Nah, I don't think he'd do anything to cause your friend any trouble. She'll be fine. Better than fine, with him around. My problem was more to do with how... Uh, this whole other dimension thing? I know a Clark Kent where I'm from too, except they're not that alike, so I kinda got in a fight with this Clark, thinking he might be trying to impersonate my friend. I mean, I don't know why he'd even want to, 'cause Clark's just this reporter from Metropolis, nothing big, you know?"

He drained his juice in one quick gulp and flashed a huge smile at Zack. "I'm still a little hungry, and the sausage was pretty good, so I'm gonna see if I can grab a bit more to eat. You want anything?"

"It's fine," Sylar smiled in response to Wally's apology, though he paid more attention to what he had to say about that Clark kid than what he had to say about the food. So he was probably as gullible as he'd seemed (almost as bad as this Wally), which meant he could prove a useful tool to get to Claire Benn...

Wait.

Sylar's eyes narrowed in sudden interest at that name – Clark Kent... and Metropolis... Sylar had never been big on comic books, but he'd had to have lived in something even worse than even a time piece workshop all these years to miss information like that. He'd heard of fictional characters showing up from different dimensions on the bulletin board, but this... this could be promising...

Sylar glanced up at Wally as he asked his question. He laughed a little as he realized something else – that Wally must have been from a universe similar to "Clark Kent" if he knew him personally, which meant that he too might be... of more interest than Sylar had initially thought.

"It's all right," he said, a small glint in his eye. "I'm not really hungry for food right now."

Wally nodded and awkwardly rose, collecting his crutch and carefully making his way to the buffet where his wasted no time in piling some of the eggs, sausages, and bacon onto his plate before heading back to the table and Zack.

"Say one thing about this place," he commented, "at least the food isn't bad. Otherwise I don't know what I'd do." He set the plate down while he leant the crutch back against the table and swung into his chair. He settled back comfortably and flashed another huge grin at Zack. Despite only having just met him, Wally felt pretty comfortable around the other man, like they'd really hit it off. He'd have to keep an eye out for him in the future, he decided, just to make sure nothing bad happened to the guy. Which was unfortunately likely in this place.

"So anyway," he continued, already getting to work on demolishing the new plate of food. "Who's your friend that knows Clark? I mean, if you're worried about them, I don't mind keeping an eye out for you. Or if you ever need a hand..."

The gears in Sylar's head turned steadily as he watched the other man leave the table and grab his new load of food. This "Wally" had said that "Clark Kent" was a friend of his, and while he claimed to not know him as anything more than a reporter, Sylar wasn't sure if that was the case given how the other man had emphasized that particular point so much. Still, Sylar now had a solid advantage over Wally in terms of information, which made him even easier to manipulate. If he was careful, Sylar would be able to turn this into an alliance he could truly... harness.

"Her name's Claire," Sylar immediately replied to Wally's question, loosening his body language as he leaned back in his seat; he'd caught a whiff of something much more appetizing than french toast. "A very special teenage girl, which unfortunately means that..." he sighed and shook his head, "she's usually in danger."

Sylar's eyes snapped up towards Wally and he watched him closely; he could use this subject matter not only to make himself seem more credible but also as a segway into whether or not the people from Wally's world were as special as Sylar suspected.

"Claire huh? I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her," Wally said, hooking over the last of Zack's toast - obviously he didn't want it - to join his scrambled eggs. Something in the way Zack had said 'special' caught his attention though.

"Wait, you mean she has powers or something?" Wally asked curiously. It wouldn't have been that odd, as there was a surprising number of humans with extra abilities these days; the more widespread presence of the League had encouraged people to be more open about having powers and League membership was booming. That metahumans might also exist in Zack's world was another thing that didn't surprise Wally as much as it should. The League had travelled to a couple of different dimensions, both of which had contained superheroes. If anything, Wally had been more confused by the people he'd met so far who didn't have them around.

"If that's the case, I get why she'd want to keep it hidden. Not exactly something you want to have out in the open with crazy doctors around the place. Or if she's got some kind of secret identity like the Justice League," he finished, smiling wryly as he set to work on some of the sausages and bacon.

"Yeah, please do," Sylar nodded at Wally's offer to watch for Claire. She didn't know about his 'Zachary' alias, so chances were that if Wally mentioned his name, she wouldn't be suspicious enough to go running in the other direction.

Wally, on the other hand, seemed to be incapable of suspicion in its entirety. Sylar smiled as the other man gave information without even being asked – very intriguing information. So, Wally was from a world where not only powers existed, but also a 'Justice League'? If Superman was apparently among their ranks, Sylar wondered what other powers could possibly be available from that world.

"Powers... yes, but a secret identity? Not so much." Sylar paused and then raised his eyes towards Wally, his face lighting up as if in sudden realization. "Wait... you... you know about powers too?"

"Well yeah," Wally answered around a mouthful of food, "everyone where I'm from knows about them, though not everyone has 'em." He swallowed and continued more normally. "The Justice League are pretty widespread these days, there's gotta be like close to at least fifty members on top of the original seven the group started with."

He smiled, slightly nostalgic at the memory of how things had been back then, before the League had gotten so big and concerned with rotating shifts and making sure everyone got a fair share of time on and off the Watchtower. It had just been the seven of them working as a tight-knit group. Something would threaten the world, and you knew the other guys well enough to know they'd have your back and be able to handle the situation. Now... well it wasn't that he didn't trust anyone he worked with, but there was a difference between trusting them and knowing them as well as he knew the rest of the core group.

"So, I'm guessing powers aren't as widely known about where you're from?" he asked, returning his attention to the conversation at hand. "Is that why Claire wants to keep it secret?"

Sylar watched his newfound "friend" closely and carefully took stock of Wally's words. A world where powers were out in the open? Maybe that meant that Wally would be more willing than most to divulge the identities of those who had abilities; after all, from the smile that spread across his face at the mention of this "Justice League," he probably had some kind of connection with them if he wasn't a member himself.

"No, they're not," Sylar said with a sigh in response to Wally's question. He put on a troubled, almost sad expression. "You see... there's this company kind of like this place – people who capture those with powers and lock them away. Who experiment on us–"

He paused as if he'd said too much, then smiled sheepishly.

"Let's just say I'm kind of in the same boat."

A place that locked away those with metahuman abilities and experimented on them? Wally swallowed past the sudden bad taste in his mouth. It reminded him of some of the shady things Cadmus had done while trying to find ways to take down the Justice League on the off chance they all went rogue. He didn't think they'd actually gone so far as to kidnap people, but they had cloned and created their own metahumans and the Justice League hadn't found out about everything they'd been up to either.

"They experiment on you?" he asked, the concern obvious in his voice. "And you have powers too? Geez, no wonder you want to keep it to yourself. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it, I promise." He smiled reassuringly and, with a little difficulty, reached across the table and clasped Zack's shoulder.

"Your secret's safe with me, and if you ever need anyone to talk to or help out with something, I'll try and do everything I can, okay?" He paused, letting go of the other man and settling back in his chair before continuing.

"I'm not going to be around there tonight, but if you ever want to find me for anything, my room number is M79. Just in case something comes up that you need a hand with."

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Day 37: Breakfast

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