damned_institute | Day 49: Early Afternoon

[ Continued from here. ]

The damn burger place was actually the last place Haseo would have wanted to revisit after the previous week, but there was little other choice when practically dragging the distraught Endrance along with him and trying to find an appropriate shelter: he couldn't be certain anywhere else close would have somewhere to sit down, and the only other place he'd actually been inside of - the grocery store - had been somewhere Endrance had also been in when the town had been full of zombies.

This was where Haseo had been with Leon and Kibitoshin when the nightmare started, but... well, he couldn't remember if he'd ever mentioned that particular piece of information to Endrance or not, and at the moment going somewhere that wasn't as bad to Endrance, even if it was more unsettling to Haseo, was more important. Most of the places were enough to make Haseo feel secretly sick to his stomach anyway.

Hurrying through the door, he immediately guided the Blade Brandier to the side, behind a dividing booth and by a window sporting a display that mostly blocked it. He couldn't keep from staring around a bit (was that chair over there the one he'd used as a weapon?), and his mind was strangely blank, but he'd gotten alright at doing things without thinking. If only that could work all the time.

"Sit," he said seriously, and made to do the same.

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Well, the old guy didn't seem too bothered. Logan by name, and someone Kurt definitely trusted. Maybe he really had been one of those missing faces; Terry certainly wouldn't be adverse to some good news, all things considered. "Nice to meet you."

Hands full with the tray, Terry decided against playing the balancing game and offering one for a shake just yet. Instead, he claimed the spot next to Kurt, and started unwrapping his cheeseburger. Serious talks or not, Terry still had the appetite of a teenager. "Well, he's someone you trust, right?" Had to be, if Logan was one of the leaders.

"Sorry if Kurt seemed evasive. He's told me you guys don't really hide you identities so much." Of course, Logan might be a bit more experienced when it came to working with masks, so who knew? His attention fully on the guy across from him, now Terry held out his hand. He hadn't completely ignored what his father had tried to teach him growing up, after all. "My real name's Terry McGinnis, but around here I'm going by Alex Matthews. I know it's a pain, but it's one of those necessities for me."

It had been a while since he hadn't had some official or unofficial position of leadership, but his gut reaction was to set Kurt right - fearless leader made it sound like he did it out of some predilection, and not because Cyke really desperately needed him to.

He let it go and gave his full attention to the kid. Straightforward and honest; that put him up there with the guys who saved the world because they felt it was the right thing to do, not because they just happened to have claws or wings or whatever else.

Logan shook the kid's hand and committed both names to memory. "Nah, it's nothin'. Half of everybody I know's in the same boat." Now to find out what he did, and what he had planned: Reed Richards shit, with a lot of luck, but Logan suspected the universe wasn't feeling that benevolent. "So Kurt says you guys're looking for chemical storage. Any particular reason?"

Kurt smiled to himself when Logan and Terry shook hands, glad that their first meeting was going so well. It was definitely awesome to introduce people and have them hit it off right away. Given the current anti-mutant sentiment, and the charged atmosphere at the high school, it didn't always work out that way. Even between fellow mutants.

He'd let their conversation play out for now--it sounded like they had business to talk about... and honestly Kurt didn't know why they were heading for the chemical storage other than to make things that inevitably blew up. He sucked on his shake and looked at Terry to signify he didn't know Terry's 'particular reason', so the other teenager might want to provide it.

Wait, Kurt hadn't told Logan about that? A quick glance to his side revealed his roommate innocently slurping milkshake, which left the explanation to Terry. "You know Peter, right? It's pretty much to help him out. I wish I could say I was an expert, but..." The Batman who knew all about that had left the building. "I'm pretty bad about sleeping in chemistry class." And a few others, but Terry didn't want to give the impression of being a complete slacker right away.

Of course, if he were really honest with himself, Terry had to admit that he really hadn't had much of a direction during the week--slag, had it really been that long--he'd been trapped. How much of it had been due to the old man's presence, he wasn't sure. But Wayne was gone now, and Terry couldn't keep literally fumbling around in the dark. He needed to focus, get some ideas for how to shut down Landel's and get everyone back home, especially before anyone else he cared about went missing.

"I'm not going to say it's a total waste of time, but it's been a good way to avoid facing reality." That Wayne was gone, and trying to get into that circle wasn't going to happen. And really, Terry should've known that from the start; he wasn't the Batman Bruce Wayne had been, and he never was going to be--maybe never wanted to be. Bruce had literally given up everything for his cause, but Terry didn't want to isolate the people in his life so completely. And that meant doing things differently: his own way. "It's probably time to start doing something more geared toward actually taking this place down, though I'm not sure where to start." He moved his gaze from Logan to Kurt. "Any ideas would be welcome."

Great, so Peter was still the only brain. It was kind of funny that the kid even bothered to look at him for ideas - in a room full of people who knew him, they'd have looked right at Scott, or whoever; Logan was universally understood to be nothing more than muscle (more like a walking guillotine, these days). No time like the present to make that obvious.

"You want ideas, you better find yourself a genius," he said. "All I know's there's a trap door in the kitchen that leads to a big room with a fucked-up guard dog that shoots fire, and it ain't down there for no reason." Probably. A lot of things in life weren't based on logic.

Day 49: Early Afternoon - Tasty Burger

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