damned_institute | Day 40: Recreational Field

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Day 40: Recreational Field

Kio's breakfast ended on a much happier note than it had started. However, for once the announcement truly surprised him. He blinked as his nurse came to pick him up. Recreational Field? But.. but if they had a greenhouse, he wanted to go there. The prospect of gardening was a truly liberating one, an island of joy in this hellhole. He thought about going to the Sun Room and lying down, but it occurred to him that he hadn't had proper fresh air since being here. With a cheery goodbye wave to Honey, he followed his torturer outside.

It was much better than he had expected. The sun wasn't too hot (what time of the year were they in, anyway?), so he walked slowly along the walls, fascinated by the size of the field. He wondered if Sou-chan was alright. He hadn't even checked the board. Well, if Soubi wanted to apologize, Kio would be willing to listen. The place was so crisp and clean. He had to think if anyone had ever gone over the walls. What was out there? Freedom? Or a different sort of monster?

Leaning against one of the walls, Kio took as much advantage of the sun as he could. He desperately wanted a lollipop. One was quietly nestled in his pocket, but he would need to wait until the nurses were busy with other patients before he tried anything. Soubi had gone to some trouble to get them, the least he could do was make sure they didn't get confiscated. So with bated breath, Kio waited for a shift in the mood. He was, for once, content. Not happy, but not going crazy either.

[Sou-chan! Team Loveless deploy!]

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Matt had to laugh again at the sheer horror Peter managed to convay at the idea of him as a teenager. "Hey, I don't think I was that bad of a kid," he said with a shrug and a shake of his head.

"No," he answered. "I haven't had a chance to speak with Logan, but from what I understand, he's an adult here." He didn't think he could handle any more teenagers running around with the voices and scents of his old friends.

"Well I wouldn't know. I can only imagine."

He liked this Matt. Enough to start calling him by his real name. Maybe when they all went back home, he and Steve could swap? Just for a little bit.

Peter deflated at the news of Logan, however. So, from the sound of things, nobody had seen him for a while. "I'm just worried about him. If he's taking this long to heal, then he must be in really bad shape."

Now seemed like a good opportunity to ask for Matt's help, but Peter was at a loss for where to start. He didn't work with people that often, and when he did, it just sort of came out of the blue. Like, something exploded in your face or you were getting shot at and the two of you had to run for it together. Plus if Matt's senses weren't up to par, he might not be able to fight at all, which was a very, very bad thing. It made him a target: these creeps obviously liked picking on people who couldn't fight back, and if Matt was like a regular blind guy here, then he fit the bill perfectly. Having all the skills of a triple black belt was useless when you couldn't tell where to aim.

Peter fussed over his words for a bit, but in the end, blunt and direct won out. "There are people here who are attacking the other patients. That's what got Logan. Two of them nearly killed my roommate last night." He looked Matt square in the eyes. It was pretty much a useless gesture to the other man, but it helped Peter to steel himself nonetheless. "We have to do something about it."

Matt shifted slightly so that he was facing Peter directly and focused nearly all of his attention on the ... young man. How strange to think that.... "I've heard that it's something of a common occurance," he said. He wasn't invalidating what Peter was saying, but he wanted to find out if this was different.

"Were they part of the brainwashing I've heard about? Or was this different? If it was part of the crap they pull here, it's going to be a lot harder to figure out what was going on and how to stop it. But if this was something different...."

[Guh! Sorry for the tl;dr. Peter never shuts up, I swear.]

"I don't know much about that. I know Eddie was brainwashed when he attacked Harry and Logan, but he's dangerous even by himself." Peter realized that apart from Logan, Matt probably had no idea who he was talking about. Hastily he added, "Eddie's one of the guys I fought back home, and Harry was my best friend. Is, I mean. He's my friend."

He sighed wearily, still checking the field for somebody who looked like Grell. Rotten luck he was having at that; you'd think long red hair would stand out a bit more. "As for the other two, I'm not sure. I know that they broke into our room to get at him, and one of them has come after him before or threatened him or something. He said that he had gotten on their bad side, so I don't think it was brainwashing that made them do it. And another guy I met was stabbed from behind last night. He has no idea who did it, either, so...I don't know."

But if there are people like you and me here, then who's to say that there aren't any psychos too? And not just the ones that we know, people from whole other worlds with powers and things. They're not going to stop being crazy just because they got zapped into this hellhole. You know what I mean?"

Matt nodded. "I do understand what you mean," he said. "But what is it that you want to do about it?" He frowned thoughtfully and tilted his head slightly, listening to an argument a bit away. It wasn't loud, but it frustrated him that even at a distance, he couldn't make out all of the words. He could make out some, and it was far enough away that he guessed that Peter couldn't hear it at all, but ...

"We know the ones from our worlds that are that dangerous, but at the same time, how will we know who's dangerous from other realities? Or who's to say that the same person you know as dangerous in your world isn't, say, a saint in their own? Or vice versa?"

"Well, I know there's this guy named Statesman on the board who was talking about hallway patrols. It sounds like a good idea, but honestly? I'd feel a lot better working with you guys. And I know it's impossible to catch everything by just walking through the halls, but we might be able to help some people at least."

Peter picked at the grass, dejected. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "The only thing I have to go on is what I've been told and a boat load of people in casts and bandages. I guess talking to them is the only way to go. I mean, if you're diff-" he choked, swiftly changing his tune, "- if some people are different than they are back home, you just have to get in there and figure out what's what, right? More detective work. Which, admittedly, is really not my specialty, but I'm willing to give it a shot if it'll help."

Matt managed to keep from pulling a face at the mention of the name. "Yeah, so I've been told. We've met." Kind of. "But we didn't really talk much about the idea of making a large 'super hero' group." The Daredevil shrugged. "It's a good idea on paper, but in practice? I'd also rather work with people I know I can trust."

He heard the dejected tone in Parker's voice and he reached over to lightly punch the kid in the arm. "It's a good idea though," he said. "And you're right. We just need to learn more before any of us take off after some possibly imagined threat." He offered something of a half smile again.

"Detective work is what being one of the good guys is about, right?"

"Yeah. Funny how most good ideas are like that," Peter said quietly. "Guess I'll just stick with Cap and the gang for now. Still, I'd like to meet him. Just to see what he's all about."

The punch in the arm was unexpected. Peter stared at the older man for a few moments, blinking quizzically, before a bashful grin sneaked onto his face. This Matt treated him like he was an old pal. It was really...kind of cool. Most adults (especially other heroes), just sort of shoved Peter to the side, told him to grow up or get out. But Steve had been a lot nicer than he'd expected, and Matt was a complete one-eighty from the guy he knew back home. Despite how crappy things were with Harry and Brainy, he couldn't help but smile.

"Totally. You can't be a hero without busting out some Sherlock Holmes now and then." Peter leaned back on his hands, distantly watching a pair of figures volley a ball back and forth. "Is that why you became a lawyer? To investigate people?"

"I know that Steve's spoken with him," he said. "So you can ask him about his meeting." Matt shrugged. He didn't want to talk about his own meeting with the lunatic.

The next question was something of a surprise, but he shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I'm a lawyer because I'm a lawyer." He smiled slightly. "My father wanted me to make something of myself and since I've always stuck up for the underdogs..." Here he lifted a shoulder. "It just made sense."

"I hear you're pretty good at it, too. Ben Urich always talks about you when there's a court story floating around the Bugle," Peter said. "It's cool though - you get to do your part both in and out of costume. Wish I could get a job like that. You know, if I don't get bludgeoned to death by a guy in a rhino suit before I graduate."

Matt snorted. "Ben's a good guy," he said. "Once you get past the smoking and bad attitude at least.

"I can't begin to count how many times I nearly died before I finished law school. Hell, before I got out of high school even." Matt nodded towards Peter. "You'll do good. If you're anything like the guy I run into back home, you'll do a lot of good in and out of costume."

"Bad attitude? Are we talking about the same guy?"

Right. Dimension-thingy again. Crap, this was annoying. "Sorry, I guess he's different in my world."

Matt had almost died before he graduated from high school? How did that happen? Daredevil hadn't been around that long. To Peter's knowledge, anyway. "So you were a vigilante in high school too?"

The shy grin widened, and he gratefully muttered, "Thanks." Praise like that was pretty sparse, except from his Aunt May. Even if it applied more to the other Peter Parker than to him, he was happy for it. Of course, now that spark of curiosity was getting the better of him. He'd been afraid to ask Harry, to see what he had to live up to as a friend. And he was too astonished at the time to bother asking Steve. But the question lingered, circling aimlessly in the back of his mind.

"The other me - what's he like?"

Matt chuckled at that. "Oh god no. I wasn't anything of the sort back then. Just blind and pretty stupid." Leaping off buildings, taking lessons in fighting from an old blind man.

"The other Peter? He'sa good guy. Honest, hard-working. A real stand-up man that does his best for everyone. Most of the other heroes I know think well of him." He smiled slightly. "Probably a lot like you."

So now he was picturing gawky teenage Matt falling into manholes. Something told him this wasn't what he had meant.

And oh geez, why did this guy have to be so nice? He was going to delude himself into thinking every Daredevil hereafter was a man who threw out compliments like they were candy at the Macy's parade. One day he was going to flounce up to Matt for cheer-up hugs and get the smack down instead. He just knew it. "I guess we'll have to see."

Speaking of doing your best for people, he still had to get Harry to that clinic, didn't he? He quickly scrawled it on his mental to do list. Perhaps after he could catch up with the others, warn them about Grell. He should probably put a note on the bulletin before he decided anything, though. They might have some different plans in mind. Although now that he thought about it, it was weird that Cap hadn't invited Matt along the previous night. He knew he was here.

Quite suddenly, he started. Of course Matt didn't come - the plans were all put on the bulletin, weren't they? So there was no way to get in touch with him unless...

"Uh - Matt? What's your room number?"

(Woo! Souji's turn to FAIL HARD! Sorry. ^^;; )

Matt's eyebrows rose at the question and he had to think about it for a moment. He'd asked his nurse about it the previous night, now what was it...

"M38," he finally recalled. "That's it. Why do you ask?"

[I see your fail and raise you ultra fail!]

Peter nodded, quickly committing the number to memory. "If I don't know what your room number is, I won't ever be able to find you, right? Cap will probably want to know too, if he needs you for missions and stuff. Mine is M71 - uh - second block over. The one closest to the cafeteria, I think?" He crinkled his nose, trying to recall the details of the map. He should have spent more time studying it during daylight instead of squinting at it in the dark. "It's the farthest one down the hall, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

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Day 40: Recreational Field

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