Anise was actually sleeping well for once. When morning came, she was curled up on her side, her arms tightly hugging her pillow in the same way they would usually hold Tokunaga
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Peter felt some relief when Depth Charge immediately responded to him and didn't exhibit any signs of being in pain or having a headache. Usually it was pretty obvious; eyes might be out of focus and there was just a general look of misery about a person who was suffering from one.
No, it turned out the man was just beating himself up for having slept through the night. "To be honest, I kind of wish I'd done the same," he said with a small, crooked smile. He hadn't accomplished much beyond being annoyed by Sylar, so what had the point been in the end? It would have been more worthwhile to get caught up on sleep.
Still, that would have meant he'd have missed the radio announcement, which was what he needed to catch Depth Charge up on now. "You did miss one thing, though," he said as he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening, though it was really just an automatic reaction by now; Peter wasn't even sure if it was necessary at this point.
"There was a radio broadcast, but it wasn't just Marc. Landel was there too, and... well, he basically said that the people who had been through the basement now had access to something else." He shrugged, realizing that it could be a load of crap or it could be completely true. It didn't matter too much to him because he'd never decided to explore the basement, but it might mean something to Depth Charge. And if anything, it confirmed that the man wasn't dead and that he had a hold on the one person who'd been trying to help them.
That didn't sound too promising, especially not when the smile it came with sent Depth Charge's memory core into overdrive once it clicked that he'd seen it before. When they'd first met out in the courtyard- was that more than two weeks now? Primus, that felt like an age ago- he'd wore the same troubled half-smile before they'd launched into a conversation on death.
And Forte. Forte had turned up in there, too.
It was probably a good idea to tackle the radio first- and it wasn't like that wasn't an endless fountain of conversational drama by itself, anyway. "No kidding?" he answered, disbelieving. "Of all the people to team up with. Man, I don't know how I feel about that." He shook his head, as if it would help shift things into perspective. "That Marc guy... he's smart, yeah, but when I talked to him a while back he seemed like a real green horn. The idea of Landel getting his chromium-plated claws into him isn't pretty."
It wasn't a situation he liked the idea of, no question about it, but even so, the thought of something beyond the basement was pretty promising. Gave it all a point besides some kind of misplaced sense of justice at being able to play Landel at his own game- a sense that was all the more misplaced now that Landel wasn't even here.
"But I guess we'll have to see, huh? Should be heading out to the basement tonight, so who knows? Maybe I can report back on that." There was a little pause while Depth Charge cleared his throat, awkward at the prospect of changing the subject back. In the end, he settled for screwing subtlety and just biting the bullet. To Pit with it, he wanted to know. "Anyway, what happened to you? Doesn't sound like you had an easy night."
The whole situation with Marc and Landel wasn't one that was easy to accept in any way, so Peter didn't blame Depth Charge for struggling with what he thought of it. While he had never met Marc face-to-face, it seemed like Depth Charge might have. That was interesting, although from the sounds of it the guy might be in over his head. Well, that was more or less confirmed now that Landel had managed to weasel his way in there.
"Yeah, it doesn't seem good," he admitted with a shake of his head. "I don't think that Marc has any way of fighting back." Not when Landel apparently had the power to severely injure someone at his fingertips. It didn't seem that getting tossed out had caused him to lose any of his abilities, which also made Peter wonder why the man couldn't fight back against the military.
It was just as surprising to hear that Depth Charge had already started making his way through the basement. Peter raised both eyebrows and then nodded, looking grateful. "Yeah, if you could let me know how that goes, I'd really appreciate it." The basement hadn't really been on Peter's radar thus far, but now it was pretty hard to ignore. He was lucky that he knew someone who would be willing to keep him in the know.
As for last night, there really wasn't much to say. Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No, it was just that I didn't get much done. I ran into someone I didn't like" -- he wasn't sure if he should mention that it was the person who he'd discussed with Depth Charge the first time they'd met -- "but we didn't even get anywhere. That's why I said it would have been better if I'd just slept through it."
Now there was something he hadn't thought about. Did Marc have any sort of weapons? Depth Charge combed his memory of the man's mountain bunk for any sort of guns or blades or weaponry, but he hadn't really been concentrating on his surroundings too hard that night and he couldn't build up a satisfying enough picture.
"I don't remember seeing any sort of weapons," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "but knowing Landel, there's only so much good those'll do anyway." There were the mind games to consider still, the Head Doctor's forte- and unsteady Marc, all on his own out there, seemed like a worryingly ripe target.
Still, if there was one thing they could do, it was find out just how genuine the Head Doctor was being to them. "Got it. If he's lying to us, he's probably lying to Marc, too. There might be some way we can get the message to him." Did he sound unconvinced? ... yeah, he was unconvinced. But it was something, and he'd managed to turn clinging to pathetically tiny odds into an art form over the years.
Most of the time, though, cynicism got the better of him; it came as a relief to hear that he'd been off-base with it this time around. "No kidding? Nearly scared me there, Peter," he said, giving a little laugh. "For a moment I thought there was something seriously wrong." Even if he'd laughed, it was true. Maybe he just wasn't great at reading people in general- okay, scratch the maybe- but most of the time Depth Charge figured he wouldn't have the first clue about what was really going on in Peter's head. He wasn't convinced he'd say if there was something going on.
The more that Depth Charge talked, the more it became clear that he'd seen Marc's hideout with his own eyes. Even if the man was now under Landel's thumb, Peter was still curious to hear about all that. "So... you met him?" he asked, figuring that the rest of it was just speculation and didn't require much of a response. They both already knew that Marc was probably in danger and that Landel was probably lying, so at this point Peter decided to gather what information he could.
Besides, as far as Peter could tell, Marc could only get messages to them; it didn't work the other way around. It was a shame that it wasn't easier for them to communicate, other than the implications Marc had made about how he sometimes went wandering around the grounds. Even then, the chances of running into him were not in their favor.
Hearing Depth Charge laugh was, if he was honest, pretty rare. More so this time because it didn't seem to be all that sarcastic. The guy sounded relieved that Peter hadn't had a terrible night, and that small amount of consideration put a smile on his face. For once he didn't have bad news to give -- besides the fact that he hadn't accomplished anything, anyway.
"Thanks for the concern," he replied, a bit awkwardly. He definitely couldn't bring up that it was Sylar who he'd run into now.
Oh, yeah. He hadn't told Peter about that run-in, had he? Depth Charge had figured it would probably be best to limit who he told about Marc and where he and Hime had found him- you never knew who might be giving away details to, or where those details would go afterwards- but Peter was the last person he couldn't trust with those details.
"Yep. It was on the night the doors messed up- me and Hi-" a quick correction, "the person I was with ended up at this bunker, and there he was. In the flesh. Seemed kinda young, but what do I know? At least we can trust him." And really, he did. It was stupid of him, maybe, but he so rarely let himself trust anyone that maybe it was worth listening to his instincts with it.
Or maybe he was just stringing 'em along and he was making it worse by making the guy seem legit. Who knew, around here?
And speaking of trust- Peter smiled, but even Depth Charge could see that he'd surprised him a little. He coughed. "Hey, don't get the wrong idea, I'm not trying to babysit you." Now it was his turn to look awkward. "I'm just... glad to hear it."
A bunker, huh? Well, it made sense to Peter that it was only possible to actually get to Marc when there was no control over it, though that meant that finding him again was likely to be either impossible or very difficult. He wondered if Depth Charge had been trying, or if he'd just decided to turn his sights to the basement after that.
Someone young and easily trusted, though. Marc was hiding out there somewhere and Landel had found him somehow and now it was difficult to know if he'd actually be able to help them again. Maybe he would sneak messages to them when he could, but Peter wasn't going to count on it.
Either way, he'd noticed the way Depth Charge had refrained from speaking the name of the person he'd experienced this with. Another one who'd disappeared, maybe? If so, then he really felt for the other man.
Though when Depth Charge moved on to clarify, Peter quickly shook his head. "Believe me, I wouldn't want that. I can take care of myself." Especially considering he had a connection to a girl who could almost fully heal him in the space of a night. Not that he was planning to take advantage of Claire; he knew he needed to be more careful. Still, it was a nice safety net to have.
"Hey," he said, leaning closer to Depth Charge as he decided to change the subject, "I had a question. Do you know any healers around here? Not for me, but... I was just thinking about working with them."
Depth Charge had figured as much- even if he had his doubts about Peter being too much of a nice guy, it was pretty obvious by now that there was something more than just plain dumb luck keeping him alive. You didn't skirt by on coincidences here; the only ones of those you were likely to run into were the ones that offed you in ten nanokliks flat.
So obviously there was something he was missing here- maybe he had some of those flashy magical powers he'd seen people showing off in the hallways and just wasn't too vocal about it, or maybe he'd been trained in some sort of lost martial art. Or maybe, just maybe, he represented one in a million and actually had a good head on his shoulders and knew how to stay out of trouble.
As Peter changed the subject the Maximal found that it was a mixture of the two. "Healers?" he repeated, blinking. Oh, yeah. The guy was a trained medic of some sort, from what he'd heard. That probably helped. If there was one skill that was just as useful as being able to get out of scrapes, it was being able to clean up after them- and as much as Depth Charge hated to admit it, with the kind of do-or-die attitude he had, he'd relied on technicians more than he'd liked over the years. There were only so many loose screws some basic first aid training could tighten.
"Don't know if I can help much. I ended up at the room for those St. Francis medics a couple of nights back," he said after a moment, shaking his head. "but my guess is you've already tried those. Having trouble finding volunteers?"
It wasn't that much of a surprise to learn that Depth Charge didn't know much. He didn't seem like the healer sort and probably didn't make a habit of associating with them. Peter imagined that when Depth Charge got injured he tended to just deal with it instead of seeking out help.
Although it sounded like he'd been to the old healing "club" at least once in the past, and that was a good point to jump from if nothing else. "That's the thing," he said in reply. "There used to be that healing group, but now I'm pretty sure that everyone involved with it is gone." It was definitely a bad sign when all of the healers were disappearing, but Peter knew for a fact that there were more out there. He just didn't know why they refused to reveal themselves; at the least, they could have made it so they were easier to get a hold of.
"I'm hoping to either start something similar or organize a group where we wander the institute at night in search of injured people. It can be pretty hard to get back to the rooms depending on where you get attacked, so..." But now he was just babbling. He didn't even know if Depth Charge was interested in any of this, so it was probably best to just cut this short and get to the point.
"Anyway, um... if you meet anyone who you think would be interested in that, could you point them my way?" He gave Depth Charge a nervous smile, though he already knew that the man would do what he could to help. "Thanks."
No, it turned out the man was just beating himself up for having slept through the night. "To be honest, I kind of wish I'd done the same," he said with a small, crooked smile. He hadn't accomplished much beyond being annoyed by Sylar, so what had the point been in the end? It would have been more worthwhile to get caught up on sleep.
Still, that would have meant he'd have missed the radio announcement, which was what he needed to catch Depth Charge up on now. "You did miss one thing, though," he said as he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening, though it was really just an automatic reaction by now; Peter wasn't even sure if it was necessary at this point.
"There was a radio broadcast, but it wasn't just Marc. Landel was there too, and... well, he basically said that the people who had been through the basement now had access to something else." He shrugged, realizing that it could be a load of crap or it could be completely true. It didn't matter too much to him because he'd never decided to explore the basement, but it might mean something to Depth Charge. And if anything, it confirmed that the man wasn't dead and that he had a hold on the one person who'd been trying to help them.
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And Forte. Forte had turned up in there, too.
It was probably a good idea to tackle the radio first- and it wasn't like that wasn't an endless fountain of conversational drama by itself, anyway. "No kidding?" he answered, disbelieving. "Of all the people to team up with. Man, I don't know how I feel about that." He shook his head, as if it would help shift things into perspective. "That Marc guy... he's smart, yeah, but when I talked to him a while back he seemed like a real green horn. The idea of Landel getting his chromium-plated claws into him isn't pretty."
It wasn't a situation he liked the idea of, no question about it, but even so, the thought of something beyond the basement was pretty promising. Gave it all a point besides some kind of misplaced sense of justice at being able to play Landel at his own game- a sense that was all the more misplaced now that Landel wasn't even here.
"But I guess we'll have to see, huh? Should be heading out to the basement tonight, so who knows? Maybe I can report back on that." There was a little pause while Depth Charge cleared his throat, awkward at the prospect of changing the subject back. In the end, he settled for screwing subtlety and just biting the bullet. To Pit with it, he wanted to know. "Anyway, what happened to you? Doesn't sound like you had an easy night."
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"Yeah, it doesn't seem good," he admitted with a shake of his head. "I don't think that Marc has any way of fighting back." Not when Landel apparently had the power to severely injure someone at his fingertips. It didn't seem that getting tossed out had caused him to lose any of his abilities, which also made Peter wonder why the man couldn't fight back against the military.
It was just as surprising to hear that Depth Charge had already started making his way through the basement. Peter raised both eyebrows and then nodded, looking grateful. "Yeah, if you could let me know how that goes, I'd really appreciate it." The basement hadn't really been on Peter's radar thus far, but now it was pretty hard to ignore. He was lucky that he knew someone who would be willing to keep him in the know.
As for last night, there really wasn't much to say. Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "No, it was just that I didn't get much done. I ran into someone I didn't like" -- he wasn't sure if he should mention that it was the person who he'd discussed with Depth Charge the first time they'd met -- "but we didn't even get anywhere. That's why I said it would have been better if I'd just slept through it."
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"I don't remember seeing any sort of weapons," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck, "but knowing Landel, there's only so much good those'll do anyway." There were the mind games to consider still, the Head Doctor's forte- and unsteady Marc, all on his own out there, seemed like a worryingly ripe target.
Still, if there was one thing they could do, it was find out just how genuine the Head Doctor was being to them. "Got it. If he's lying to us, he's probably lying to Marc, too. There might be some way we can get the message to him." Did he sound unconvinced? ... yeah, he was unconvinced. But it was something, and he'd managed to turn clinging to pathetically tiny odds into an art form over the years.
Most of the time, though, cynicism got the better of him; it came as a relief to hear that he'd been off-base with it this time around. "No kidding? Nearly scared me there, Peter," he said, giving a little laugh. "For a moment I thought there was something seriously wrong." Even if he'd laughed, it was true. Maybe he just wasn't great at reading people in general- okay, scratch the maybe- but most of the time Depth Charge figured he wouldn't have the first clue about what was really going on in Peter's head. He wasn't convinced he'd say if there was something going on.
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Besides, as far as Peter could tell, Marc could only get messages to them; it didn't work the other way around. It was a shame that it wasn't easier for them to communicate, other than the implications Marc had made about how he sometimes went wandering around the grounds. Even then, the chances of running into him were not in their favor.
Hearing Depth Charge laugh was, if he was honest, pretty rare. More so this time because it didn't seem to be all that sarcastic. The guy sounded relieved that Peter hadn't had a terrible night, and that small amount of consideration put a smile on his face. For once he didn't have bad news to give -- besides the fact that he hadn't accomplished anything, anyway.
"Thanks for the concern," he replied, a bit awkwardly. He definitely couldn't bring up that it was Sylar who he'd run into now.
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"Yep. It was on the night the doors messed up- me and Hi-" a quick correction, "the person I was with ended up at this bunker, and there he was. In the flesh. Seemed kinda young, but what do I know? At least we can trust him." And really, he did. It was stupid of him, maybe, but he so rarely let himself trust anyone that maybe it was worth listening to his instincts with it.
Or maybe he was just stringing 'em along and he was making it worse by making the guy seem legit. Who knew, around here?
And speaking of trust- Peter smiled, but even Depth Charge could see that he'd surprised him a little. He coughed. "Hey, don't get the wrong idea, I'm not trying to babysit you." Now it was his turn to look awkward. "I'm just... glad to hear it."
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Someone young and easily trusted, though. Marc was hiding out there somewhere and Landel had found him somehow and now it was difficult to know if he'd actually be able to help them again. Maybe he would sneak messages to them when he could, but Peter wasn't going to count on it.
Either way, he'd noticed the way Depth Charge had refrained from speaking the name of the person he'd experienced this with. Another one who'd disappeared, maybe? If so, then he really felt for the other man.
Though when Depth Charge moved on to clarify, Peter quickly shook his head. "Believe me, I wouldn't want that. I can take care of myself." Especially considering he had a connection to a girl who could almost fully heal him in the space of a night. Not that he was planning to take advantage of Claire; he knew he needed to be more careful. Still, it was a nice safety net to have.
"Hey," he said, leaning closer to Depth Charge as he decided to change the subject, "I had a question. Do you know any healers around here? Not for me, but... I was just thinking about working with them."
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So obviously there was something he was missing here- maybe he had some of those flashy magical powers he'd seen people showing off in the hallways and just wasn't too vocal about it, or maybe he'd been trained in some sort of lost martial art. Or maybe, just maybe, he represented one in a million and actually had a good head on his shoulders and knew how to stay out of trouble.
As Peter changed the subject the Maximal found that it was a mixture of the two. "Healers?" he repeated, blinking. Oh, yeah. The guy was a trained medic of some sort, from what he'd heard. That probably helped. If there was one skill that was just as useful as being able to get out of scrapes, it was being able to clean up after them- and as much as Depth Charge hated to admit it, with the kind of do-or-die attitude he had, he'd relied on technicians more than he'd liked over the years. There were only so many loose screws some basic first aid training could tighten.
"Don't know if I can help much. I ended up at the room for those St. Francis medics a couple of nights back," he said after a moment, shaking his head. "but my guess is you've already tried those. Having trouble finding volunteers?"
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Although it sounded like he'd been to the old healing "club" at least once in the past, and that was a good point to jump from if nothing else. "That's the thing," he said in reply. "There used to be that healing group, but now I'm pretty sure that everyone involved with it is gone." It was definitely a bad sign when all of the healers were disappearing, but Peter knew for a fact that there were more out there. He just didn't know why they refused to reveal themselves; at the least, they could have made it so they were easier to get a hold of.
"I'm hoping to either start something similar or organize a group where we wander the institute at night in search of injured people. It can be pretty hard to get back to the rooms depending on where you get attacked, so..." But now he was just babbling. He didn't even know if Depth Charge was interested in any of this, so it was probably best to just cut this short and get to the point.
"Anyway, um... if you meet anyone who you think would be interested in that, could you point them my way?" He gave Depth Charge a nervous smile, though he already knew that the man would do what he could to help. "Thanks."
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