damned_institute | Night 41: M81-M90 Hallway

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Night 41: M81-M90 Hallway

S.T. woke in a rush from a dream involving playing referee to a wrestling match involving two topless girls and a leviathan-sized octopus waiting for a rematch with the Nautilus or the world's largest deep-fryer and dish of butter sauce. His fingers were in his mouth and he was trying to whistle, when the intercom took over the job.

He'd slept through dinner, and the smell of uneaten fish hung in the air. That explained the dreams, at least the parts involving sea life and condiments. He made short work of the potatoes and asparagus, washing them down with the ubiquitous and still-over-chlorinated, now-lukewarm tap water.

Opening the closet doors let out a gentle wave of aromatic brewing by-products; the beer was progressing. He picked up one small bottle without agitating the breadcrumbs off the bottom, and poured a small amount into the glass. Looked like beer, smelled like beer, tasted like flat beer and stale bread. He screwed the caps down on all of them, since it seemed like the time for explosions had passed.

Then he hunted down his toolbox and repacked. The syringes went back in the trash can, labeled and sorted. A spare t-shirt went in the toolbox, pre-emptive protection against bottle-rattling. The flashlight got a new layer of tape, and the glass cleaner went in its holster. Everything ship-shape, which meant it was time to shove off.

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Tim followed him over to the bed, standing closer than he honestly should have, closer than he meant to. But there was no one here, and there couldn't be any further harm. What could happen? Kon would walk out and he'd be alone, just like he'd been alone every stupid night since Batman disappeared.

There were a lot of nights, a lot of days, that he was alone. If Kon got up and walked out, he probably wouldn't stop him. But he wouldn't be happy if that happened, either. Hopefully it wouldn't.

Hearing Kon talk like that made him want to scream.

I mean, the world's safe, isn't it?

Sure. Superboy dies to save the world. What a fucked up philosophy that was. Why the hell did Kon have to die to save the world? It was selfish to say he'd pick one person over the whole world. And maybe he wouldn't, if the person in question were himself. But...he'd been so angry when Kon died. Angry at Superboy Prime for killing him. Angry at the JLA for not being able to stop him. Angry at whatever caused Superboy Prime in the first place.

Angry at Kon, though, mostly.

Without thinking, he reached out and put a hand on Kon's shoulder. He was tense, even moreso than usual, and didn't dare move closer. But he managed that much.

"God, that was so long ago, I can't even..."

He looked up, finally, and stared into Kon's eyes. He didn't know what he wanted to find there. Some validation for all his anger, maybe. All the loss that had occurred over the past two years of his life had to mean something, didn't it?

"No, that's not it at all. You remember what I said on the board, right? About the other Superboy?"

His voice sounded strained in his ears, but he'd started this, and he was going to finish it - for better or for worse. He'd gotten through the conversation with Bruce at lunch. He had to get through this one, too, or he'd go crazier than the Landel's staff thought he was.

Kon jumped when he felt Robin's hand on his shoulder. He really hadn't been expecting that, Robin didn't normally appreciate being touched as much as he did, although that didn't stop him leaning into the contact. He felt kind of like Robin was trying to to tell him he had some sort of terminal illness or something. Which he maybe kind of was.

He blinked up at Robin when he said that his going into hypertime had been a long time ago. Just how far in the future was Robin from, if something that had just happened for Kon was a long time ago for him? And if he hadn't gotten lost in hypertime then what had happened?

He wasn't sure if he was relieved or not when Robin started to answer that question.

"You said he killed someone." Kon replied quietly, trying not to guess where this was going. Robin's best friend. The other Superboy had killed his best friend. Some alternate reality version of him had killed someone, someone Robin cared about and now Robin was bringing it up again. What did that have to do with him? It couldn't be what he was thinking. It just couldn't be that.

Tim nodded once. He was pretty sure Kon had caught on, but...well, he wouldn't exactly have been receptive if someone was trying to tell him he was a dead man, either. He wondered if he should make it clear that Superboy Prime was really another version of Clark, not of Kon. The only other versions of Kon he'd met were those asshole future versions that he wanted nothing to do with. Apparently, they all grew up to be immoral and completely cracked. Well, not on his watch. Anyway, he didn't really count those versions.

In the end, Tim didn't know how to come out and say it. To say it outright was too harsh. He wasn't in the habit of being anything but too harsh these days, but...he just didn't have it in him. He wasn't Batman, and that was more obvious right this minute than it had been for weeks.

"He killed my best friend," Tim said, slowly. God, just let him understand, I don't want to say it out loud, I don't want it to be real anymore.

Why was he doing this, anyway? Why couldn't he just accept that Kon was here and alive and perfect?

Maybe because things between them weren't perfect. So much had gone on, so many things that this Kon didn't know. But he'd been ready for that, hadn't he? Ready to build on memories that didn't exist, so that he could make it the same once he figured out how to re-clone Superboy. He hadn't succeeded, but he'd told himself so many times what he'd do, how he'd do it.

And now he fell on his face. It was almost typical, but that didn't make it less frustrating.

Who would Robin say was his best friend? And why would he be telling Kon this now? It wasn't like Kon really knew who Robin spent his time with when he wasn't with Young Justice, so why should he know who he was talking about? It had to be someone he didn't know, 'cause it couldn't be-

Geez he couldn't-

A version of him couldn't have killed-

That was just messed up and he didn't want to kill anyone ever! Even in another world, a different him but-

He grabbed Robin's arm where it rested on his shoulder, not trying to move it or anything but he just.... needed something solid. This was just too much to take in. He didn't want it to be true.... it couldn't be true!

Kon glared up at Robin, grip tightening on his arm. Why did he have to say anything? Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut? Where did he get off saying things like that?

He opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a strangled sound. Scowling, Kon shook his head and clearing his throat he tried again, forcing the words out. "What- What the hell! That's total bullshit! I don't- You're making it up!" His voice rose in volume, till he was shouting and standing up to shove Robin back and away from him.

Well, at least Tim knew how to deal with Kon this way. And it gave him an excuse to just be mad. It was kind of a welcome change from being depressed all the time. He hadn't been able to get mad at Bruce, because he hadn't had the chance. With Kon, anger came easier for one reason: Kon would react, whereas Bruce wouldn't.

Tim stepped back, moving with the momentum.

"Why the hell would I make it up? Oh, right, because I love the fact that everyone I care about has died in the past two years. I love waking up and knowing that I can't ever see half the faces I got used to seeing. I think it's great how every time I see that goddamn statue of you, I want to tear the whole world apart just to get back at it for what happened."

He shook his head, and everything that happened hit him again, all at once.

Stephanie had been tortured and shot. He'd spent over a year thinking she was dead. He still hadn't forgiven her for not telling him. His dad, that same month, killed by Captain Boomerang. He'd never stop seeing that when he closed his eyes, no matter what he did.

Six months later, time fucked itself all up and Kon had paid the price for the mistakes that had been made before the seperate worlds were smushed together. Cassie hated him for leaving afterwards, but he hadn't been able to do anything about it. And who even knew where he stood with Cassie now.

Then Bart had gotten not only lost in the Speed Force, but killed by rogues for no real reason.

And Bruce...

"Yeah, Kon, I thought it would be great to drag you all the way back here in a mental hospital just so I could piss you off. Maybe I shouldn't have told you but you have no idea what it's like!"

He was yelling, and he knew it. But so what? No one would hear, and if they did, they wouldn't care. They were off fighting monsters and trying to escape - like he should be doing, some part of his brain noted.

It wasn't supposed to go like this. He wasn't sure how it was supposed to go.

"The other Superboy I mentioned, he...he wasn't you. Or even some other Earth's you." He didn't know why he said it. To patch things up? To be convincing? Maybe. Maybe it was just that he couldn't really keep himself from talking, now. There was too much.

Kon scowled as Robin started shouting back at him, trying to hold onto his anger. He didn't want to have to deal with this! He didn't want to have know that- And what did Robin expect him to say or think anyway? Was he supposed to be happy? To thank Robin for telling him-

Telling him-

Telling him that 'oh, by the way you're going to die in a few years'? It had always been possible, he'd come close to dying so many times already it shouldn't be a surprise that one day it stopped being 'close to'. But it was. He'd thought- He'd been afraid that he'd get left behind, that he'd be stuck watching all his friends grow up, move on, maybe die and he'd still be sixteen. But it was the other way around and that wasn't any easier to deal with and just what was he supposed to do!

He blinked uncertainly at Robin as he reassured him that the other Superboy - the other guy who called himself Superboy - wasn't him. Which made the whole thing a little less messed up but not by much. But it meant something, that Robin was trying to make the whole thing less screwed up.

Kon sighed, scrubbing at his face. Letting out a shaky laugh he said, "Do me a favour Rob? Don't ever become a comedian. You have the worst sense of timing ever."

He didn't know what to do or say so he just wasn't going to think about it. Or anything if he could avoid it. Except he couldn't avoid thinking entirely. Robin had said other stuff, about how everyone he cared about had died. Which just - geez! It just couldn't be true either. It shouldn't be true. But.

"What else happened?" he asked quietly. "You said- Geez, Rob, what else?"

"You could be different," he said.

You don't have to die, he didn't say. Even assuming they were from the same world, time wasn't...time didn't work like that, did it? Maybe this Kon would never have to make a decision that saved the world and lost him his life.

Tim laughed, just a little. Yeah, he'd never make it as a comedian. He'd been more prone to jokes that were actually funny when he was younger, before he realized that everything good ended too soon. He still had his biting wit, and sometimes he was probably entertaining as hell. But he hadn't felt anything but bad lately. Sometimes he just wanted to scream until his voice gave out, just to get some of the tension to go away.

He looked right back at Kon, and he didn't know if he could answer the question. Maybe, at some point. He just...he just wanted to breathe for a minute.

He crossed the distance between them again and just looked up into Kon's eyes again. God. It felt like a million years since he'd just done that, with no mask between them, just looked. He felt his throat get tight again. How was he supposed to go on with this, anyway? He really did not know.

Instead of speaking, he reached out and wrapped his arms around the other boy. Kon would probably push him off, and that was okay. He could live with that. It was kind of a dick move to tell him he was probably going to die, anyway, wasn't it? Yeah, probably. So for now, he'd just...do this, and have one second, and take the rest from there.

Kon pounced eagerly on Robin's words. "Right, gotta be! 'Cause you're telling me this now and that's got to make a difference!" He wasn't going to die. He'd be fine, 'cause Robin would tell him what to do to make it that way. He wasn't the same person Robin knew and sure, the other Superboy must've been a great guy, but he wasn't Kon. He just had to get all the details from Robin so he knew what to do. Then it'd be fine. He just couldn't believe he could just- Anyway, everything would be just fine.

That meant he had to actually get Robin to tell him what had happened. Kon wasn't sure he could handle hearing that right now though. He was still going with the 'avoid thinking' plan of action until he could convince himself he wasn't going to be sick if Robin started talking again.

It was easier to think about the - kind of unnerving way - way Robin kept staring at him. But it made sense if- Well, with all the stuff he'd said - or not said.... A year. It made sense.

Robin hadn't answered his question yet and if he was still keeping more bad stuff secret Kon wasn't sure he wanted to know. Or he did, 'cause that's what friends were for but he didn't want it to be true. But maybe that could wait too.

He didn't think anything of it as Robin moved closer to him until he was- Was.... hugging him? Kon froze, making a sound that was totally not a squeak, not even close to it as he stared at Robin. He was expecting a joke or insult or for Rob to hit him with a taser or something. 'Cause Robin didn't do this sort of thing. Ever.

.....But this wasn't his Robin. He was almost too different from the one Kon knew for him to believe they could have ever been the same person. But he was still Robin and still his friend and like the staring it was something Kon could understand. So, after several long moments, he hesitantly rested one hand on Robin's back, unconsciously sending out his TTK to pet him soothingly.

"Have I mentioned you're freaking me out here Rob? I mean, are you sure you haven't had any encounters with brain slugs lately?" he said with a nervous chuckle, just trying to get Robin to laugh or relax or something.

Tim almost let go, but...Kon hadn't pushed him away. Tensed up, maybe freaked out. This Kon, well...they didn't have anything special. They probably wouldn't, couldn't, whatever word you wanted to use. They were so different. He knew he wasn't the same person he'd been when he was fourteen. Too much loss, too many fights that he couldn't win.

He wished things could stop being so fucked up and just be all right for awhile. But the world didn't work like that.

He rested his forehead against Kon's chest, not realizing he was doing it. Kon was younger, maybe, but still familiar, still a safer place than Bruce-who-kind-of-wasn't.

"If I'd run in with brain slugs, wouldn't you think I'd deny it forever anyway?" he asked, with only a little bite to his words. Subject change was good. Any subject change was good.

"I don't know, maybe you'd pull a 'help me defeat the evil brain slugs Superboy!' so you could infect me too. No one would expect brain slugs to want to go near your creepy brain so I might buy it." Joking was good. Joking was normal and meant he didn't have to think about other Superboy's and people getting killed.

Robin leaning against him like that was also a good distraction but in a completely different way. Kon was happy to do whatever it took to reassure a friend but this was starting to make him really uncomfortable.

Time to close the clone petting zoo for the day then. Placing his hands on Robin's shoulders, Kon pushed him away, taking a step back as he did so and just trying to get a little space here.

"So," he said awkwardly. 'You were totally hugging me and I thought that'd never happen without like, drugs or something and I'm not sure what to do now.' Yeah, totally not going to say it but he probably didn't need to. It wasn't like Robin wouldn't be able to tell he was uncomfortable. Maybe he'd get lucky and Robin would actually cut him a break for once and not make fun of him for being awkward?

Right, and then the head loser would have a change of heart and let them all go home. Keep dreaming Kid.

Edited 2009-06-13 08:48 (UTC)

Tim let Kon push him away. He'd been wondering how long Superboy was actually going to put up with it, anyway. Even if he never got up the nerve to hug him again, at least there was that brief contact between them. It was hard to admit that he needed it, but...

Well, who said he had to admit anything, anyway.

He crossed his arms and stared off at the wall. "Yeah, well, brain slugs, remember?" he said, but there wasn't really any humor in his voice. He couldn't really tell Kon why he hugged him. He couldn't really tell himself why he'd done it, because he was too good at denial after all this time.

He settled for changing the subject.

"How long have you been here, anyway?"

Kon wasn't sure if he wanted to hit Robin or shake him now. First the hugging, now staring off at the wall and being all closed off. Seriously, what the hell was he supposed to do here? Maybe he was being a little unfair - it was probably just as uncomfortable and hard for Robin to deal with all this stuff as it was for him but even knowing that didn't help.

Fine, Robin wanted to change the subject. He could do that. "This is my... sixth night here. I woke up in the middle of the night after they snatched me out of hypertime. Bart got in a few days after me but he's from a couple of months ago." Kon shrugged, not sure what else to say. It was weird. Robin was weird and from a crappy future world. That was pretty much all you could say.

Bart being from a different time from the rest of the universe wasn't really that out of the ordinary, but Tim wasn't sure if he was ready to deal with Impulse just yet. He'd gotten used to Bart having at least some level of maturity, but if he was still Impulse, well...

He decided it was easier to not think about it.

"Have you found anything out? Fought a monster? Something? Hard to believe they can keep you here like this without you just breaking out through the wall or something," Tim said, looking back at Kon. He was mostly just making conversation, of course; if they were able to somehow suppress his TTK, who knew what else they could accomplish.

Tim wondered what kinds of drugs they could find if they managed to break into the pharmacy area. There had to be something like that here, although he hadn't seen them actively giving medication to the so-called patients. That in and of itself was atypical of a mental institution; he would have thought they'd be dishing out drugs like candy, considering all the disorders they'd have to pretend to pin on everyone here.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kon snapped defensively, crossing his arms to glare at Robin. He never stopped did he? He'd been the one who'd dragged him here and been all thing at him and now he just started acting like Kon was just some big useless moron who couldn't do anything on his own.

"I told you my powers aren't working right! That's why I haven't broken out yet! And I've found out plenty of stuff about this place! And fought Big Foot and a freaking huge squ- animal." He was not telling Robin he'd gotten chewed on by a stupid squirrel his first night here. He'd never live that down, even if it had only happened because he hadn't know his powers weren't working.

"And I found out they take people for experiments some nights - I went with this babe to try and rescue them only we got attacked by a giant spider. And the nights just sort of end without any warning - one minute you're doing something and then you're waking up back in bed and I don't think anyone knows how it happens. And they brainwash people and make them attack other prisoners - I ran into the girl who'd had it happen to her and she had all her powers back at the time. And my tactile telekinesis doesn't work right and.... it can hurt me sometimes."

Kon stopped to draw breath and think what else he could tell Robin to prove he hadn't just been sitting around the whole time waiting for someone to come along and tell him what to do. He was Superboy, he didn't need someone bossing him around. Even if he was maybe sort of glad to have Robin here too it wasn't because he needed him to tell him what to do.

Edited 2009-06-18 08:30 (UTC)

Tim rolled his eyes. "It's not an accusation, Kon, it's an inquiry. It doesn't make sense to me that they can suppress your power so much. I believe you, I do, because I don't think you'd even be here if they didn't have some control. But they're not using Kryptonite, or you'd be worse off. And Kryptonite wouldn't explain how they make Kurt feel like he doesn't have a tail, or where the damn monsters are coming from."

He was frustrated, and it showed on his face. It also made him irritable; he hated when things were out of his control. He'd had so little control lately, as it was, and he just couldn't take this.

"They experiment on people? What? What do they do, do you know?" That set off serious alarm bells for him, but it also made him wonder if that was the real reason they were here. Was this just some cosmic science experiment? He couldn't readily think of anyone that would have this kind of power. Some of these people allegedly weren't even from Earth, so he couldn't apply the alternate world theory to all of them. Plus the differences in timelines, that was something else entirely.

What the fuck was going on?

"...did you just say that using TTK hurts?"

"I could've told you they're not using K," Kon grumbled. He wouldn't ever forget what it felt like that time Robin had used the stuff on him and it wasn't the sort of thing he could not notice.

"I don't know what sort of experiments they do, just that they do it and where. I don't know if anyone really talks about what happened to them." He'd only gone to help out that one night with Tsubaki and they hadn't gotten to help anyone, before they got attacked by the giant spider and then the night had ended.

Looking at the floor, Kon folded his arms more tightly, saying in a subdued tone, "It only hurts sometimes. It's.... actually kinda like K only my head really hurts and I can't use my powers at all and I can't tell when it's gonna happen. I know they gotta do something to people's powers so we don't just bust out but I don't know why mine hurt sometimes." It was still wrong, his TTK being painful to use, no matter what sort of prison he was in.

Tim thought for a minute. This whole thing just got worse and worse.

At least he had something to focus on, a job to do. Yeah, they had to get out of here. But first, they had to actually have a plan. Just getting past the guards wasn't going to be enough, from what he'd heard about it.

"All right," he said, and straightened up. His voice was back to normal, no more overemotional teenager, no more uncertainty. He was Robin, after all. He had a job to do, and for now he had a team to lead - at least in his own eyes.

"You know what we have to do? First, I want to see the patient records. Yours, mine, Bart's, anyone we know is here, I want a record. Then we have to get to the pharmacy. There has to be some way to determine trace elements, what they're using to dope everyone. They're not giving anyone pills, so it doesn't make sense. But we're not getting out of here if we don't get answers; that much is clear."

It was a relief to hear Robin finally sounding normal again. Maybe Kon should feel a little bad about that - normally he'd be happy to see that Robin could be a normal guy when he wanted to be but he hadn't exactly been acting that normal. Mostly he was just happy to see Robin figuring out what could be wrong with his TTK and how to get them out of here.

He nodded along with the plan, trying to think of something to add. He didn't have a map so he didn't know where that stuff would be but Robin wouldn't have said anything if he didn't have some idea of how to find it. There was one thing - "OK, but the records could be hard. I dunno what they call Bart here."

Should he check up on Kurt before they went anywhere? He should be all healed by now and maybe he could come with them. That way they could make sure he'd be OK and he'd useful to have around. It didn't look like Bart was going to show but he had said he had other stuff to do tonight. Kon didn't know what that was but Bart could probably take care of himself. He'd been doing alright so far. But Kurt would probably still freak out over being seen, which meant he should come with them so they could make him see he'd fine.

"We should be able to find his somehow anyway. I want to check up on Kurt first but."

Tim pulled the map he'd copied from Jaime out of his pocket and studied it for a minute. "We're a long way from anywhere important," he said, slightly irritated by that fact. Well, they'd manage.

Kon made a valid point, of course. He'd heard the nurse call Raphael something else, so it stood to reason that not everyone got called by their actual name. Why he was an exception, he had no idea.

"What do the nurses call you?" Tim asked, genuinely curious. He was willing to be it wasn't Conner Kent.

They certainly didn't have time to go through all the files. But they could start with their own and see where it took them.

"All right, we can check on Kurt."

[ooc: God I've been so slow, I'm sorry. I figure since NS is officially over, they can be interrupted by the bleeding walls or something?]

"Hey, you were the one who dragged me back here," Kon pointed out. His room was way closer to stuff so it was Robin's fault for making him come all the way here instead of just borrowing someone else's room for a bit.

Before he could say anything else - about what they called him here or what else they'd told him about this Caleb guy he was supposed to be - a thick fog flooded the room, making it impossible to see Robin even though he was only a few feet away. Startled, Kon moved towards where Robin had been, calling out hesitantly, "Rob?"

This hadn't happened before and it was.... worrying. Not frightening but unsettling. As he tried to reach Robin, his foot slipped in something on the floor and, still too used to being able to just rise up into the air to catch himself, Kon stumbled against the wall.

His hands came away wet with something warm and sticky that he was sure hadn't been there before. He brought them in close to his face so he could actually see what was on them, staring uncomprehendingly at the red liquid for several long moments. When he finally realised what it was, Kon shoved himself away from the wall as fast as he could, yelling in shock and horror.

[Don't sweat it, I haven't been too speedy myself. They'll have plenty of time to flail at each other later.]

The fog came in so suddenly that Tim didn't have a chance to notice it before it filled the entire room. He could hear Kon calling him, sounding further away than Tim knew he was.

What the hell, how was there fog inside?

"Just don't move," he called out. He knew where Kon was, of course, unless he'd moved. But knowing Kon, he might have. Well, it was just a room, not a whole city. If they just stayed calm...

But why was Kon yelling like that? What was going on here?!

"Kon! Kon, are you okay?" he asked, though it sounded slightly more desperate than he'd have liked. Even if it was weird and they weren't the same, Kon was still Kon, and Tim couldn't stand the thought of something happening while he just stood there.

Ignoring his own advice to stay put, he moved toward where Kon had been standing before, keeping one hand out since he couldn't actually see anything. The fog smelled weird, and there was some other smell that was familiar, but that his brain refused to place.

His hand brushed the wall, and he stopped. The wall was wet. Warm.

Oh god it smells like blood in here. Someone is bleeding.

"KON!"

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Night 41: M81-M90 Hallway

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