Day 34: Breakfast

[screwthegods]

[starting off in M13]The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves

Comments

[transgenix]

"Mouth to mouth isn't related to healing procedures involving broken bones. But I can drown you in your orange juice first, if that's what you're aiming for," Max offered sweetly, although mischievous amusement glinted in her gaze as she teased him.

While he slipped away to fill up on more food, she wondered about the women he knew. That was a claim not many males would make, especially considering Wally looked like he wasn't much of a stranger to fighting.

When he sat back down and started explaining his 'idea', her expression turned somewhat skeptical again.

"Umm, I don't know who the Justice League or Doctor Destiny is, but there's probably something else you should know. Wherever you're from? It's most likely not the same universe you're in now. All of us have been brought from different... worlds, or different versions of worlds. Not to mention times. We're one big melting pot of contradictions and varied enough that I'm surprised we haven't caused some sort of next-dimension-explosion or whatnot."

"Most people here seem to be from between the 1990's to the early 2000's before they woke up here, but I've heard there are a few from way earlier than that. Me, when I went to sleep in my bedroom back home, it was in a hotel room a day's drive outside of Seattle, Washington in the year 2021. And let's not even get started on the people who aren't even from earth that are here. Yeah, there's those, too. There's a couple aliens around, some elves, a dragon or two. Oh and vampires. Watch out for them, I heard things have been messy the past couple of nights."

[scarletspeedstr]

"Hmm, death by orange juice followed by mouth to mouth from a beautiful woman... Tempting, though I might have to skip this time. Maybe on the second date though." Wally winked before starting on his second pile of food, trying to find a balance between as fast as he wanted to eat and as fast as was polite in company. Maybe he could even find time to grab another plate before they had to go, though he wasn't sure if Max would get suspicious of the amounts he was eating.

He paused when he heard what Max had to say next. Alternate dimensions and time travel weren't new to him, though this would have been the first time it would have happened while he was sleeping. Though it would explain why nothing had tried to kill him yet. And, now he thought about it, why the dream food was helping to fill him up.

"You've never heard of the League? At all?" Wally questioned. That was bothering him too. He hadn't expected Max to not know about them. He wrestled with the idea of just letting her know his complete theory, finally deciding that it couldn't hurt either way. Either he'd be right, and it wouldn't matter in the end, or she'd be right, in which case it still didn't matter.

"Well, Doc D is this guy who can control people's dreams. Locks them inside and takes his time killing them with the dream." He poked his pancake stack and sighed. "Guess I thought this had to be him, even if it does seem a little tame."

[transgenix]

"Wise choice," Max laughed, shooting him an impish grin.

She could tell her words confused and bugged him, but there wasn't much about this place that wasn't unsettling, especially to a newcomer."As far as I know, it probably doesn't exist in my world. Then again, not much from other people's worlds does anymore, where I come from."

As he explained about this doctor person, Max just gre more skeptical. "So you're blaming all this on some sort of bent hallucination? God, do I wish. You might try pinching yourself, though. This ain't no dream. And if it were, you've got a pretty screwed up imagination."

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally frowned and rubbed his temple. This whole thing was starting to give him a headache. Everything had been easier to cope with when he was certain that Doctor Destiny was behind it all, then all he needed to do was wait until J'onn showed up. Now... If Max was right and he was in another dimension, maybe even another time as well, things got a lot more complicated.

"Well, maybe if you're from the future, you wouldn't have heard of the League. I'd kinda like to think people would remember all the times we've saved the world though, you know?" He smiled weakly. More likely was that people would remember the times they'd failed, but there still should be something, right?

"I wish pinching yourself was enough to get out of his dreams. Once you're in, it's almost impossible to get out again unless you've got outside help. The doc can take complete control over the dream too, I guess I thought that since he'd been in prisons and asylums a lot, he might have thought it was funny to put me in one too."

[transgenix]

"Well, that might explain you, but that doesn't explain how I'm here, or anyone else, for that matter. Unless your doctor's in league with the doctors here, and Landel. But I think he'd like to be the mastermind of this all himself, I don't think he shares very well. Although your doc doesn't sound like he's all that pleasant, either."

Finishing her own plate of pancakes, Max returned his weak smile with a sympathetic one of her own. "It's possible. There's a lot of things I never knew about that existed before the Pulse." Which was true, but that didn't make her believe that this was all happening in his head.

I have a complete lack of sad Flash icons D:

[scarletspeedstr]

"Well, uh," Wally flushed, a little embarrased now. "I kinda thought you were just a part of this crazy dream, like everyone else." Of course, he didn't want to point out that he still wasn't sure that this wasn't the truth. After all, trapped in a dream made about as much sense as somehow winding up in an alternate dimension, at least in his experience. Which was to say that it happened on a disturbingly regular basis.

"Wait a minute, who's Landel? And what's this Pulse? Geez, I'm starting to think we should trade history notes or something. Am I going to have to do this with everyone?"

[transgenix]

Max laughed and shook her head. "Don't worry about the Pulse, it not something that applies to here, and I'd hate to create a paradox, just in case. And Landel's the doc running this place. Martin Landel. He's the one you'll hear over the intercom during the day, and the one taunting us at night. He seems to be the one behind what goes on here, but none of us really know how or why yet."

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally perked up. "So all we have to do is find this Landel guy, get him to explain what's going on and how to get home? Should be a piece of cake!" Feeling better now, he resumed his attack on the food in front of him.

[transgenix]

Max shook her head ruefully at that. "Good luck with that. I know people who have been here for weeks so far, and as far as I've heard, no one's ever found him. He'd be a very dead doctor if they had, the way he's screwed with some people here."

And she still owed him one herself. Landel was one person's death she would never mourn or regret, she was certain.

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally shrugged. He doubted anyone else would have been able to search the entire institute at super-speed like he could, so he figured it would only be a matter of time until he could slip away, find this Doctor Landel and get to the truth of his situation.

"Well I'll take your word on that, though frankly he's already in my bad books by not having any coffee on hand. Even some instant would really hit the spot." He realised he'd finished off his plate again and considered getting more before deciding against it. He'd be out of here in no time and then there was appearances to think of. Two stacks of pancakes could be written off as being really hungry, three was pushing it. He pushed his plate aside and flashed a smile at Max.

"So, if I've been abducted, does that mean my stuff is around here somewhere? And how many other people are in the same situation?"

[transgenix]

"Everyone," Max replied with a rueful shake of her head. "They've nabbed all our stuff, and... well, there are people who can do things normal people can't. Most of them have found they either can't do their thing anymore, or their abilities are greatly limited. We're basically left here, little better than normals, and stuck with these ridiculous pajamas."

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally was suddenly glad that he'd just finished his breakfast because otherwise he was sure he would have choked on it. As it was, he gave a kind of strangled cough that he tried his best to cover with a gulp of orange juice.

"Abilities? Like super powers? Wouldn't they just be able to break out of here? A lot of the Justice League have powers and I can't see them having much trouble just leaving if they wanted. No offense." Not his best cover, but maybe Max wouldn't find it too odd. He hoped.

[transgenix]

"None taken," Max replied with a casual shrug. "If I were back home, I don't think I'd have had this much trouble either. And yeah, some of it's like super powers. Some of it's like magic, too, I guess. But since they've taken all or most of that away from us, too, it makes everything a lot harder."

[scarletspeedstr]

"So, what did you used to do, before you got here I mean?" Wally asked. "You make it sound like you had some kind of special powers like the League does. Does your world have something similar?" He hoped that Max was just talking about what other people had told her in relation to their own powers, and that maybe they were just trying to cover up their abilities. He didn't think his speed had been affected by being here, but he hadn't had a chance to check anything outside of the ever-present sense of things moving slightly too slowly.

[transgenix]

"Me? No, I don't have any superpowers, sorry," she apologized with a wry grin. That was mostly true. "I'm just very handy at kicking ass, is all. Military training, mostly." At least that was true. And there were lots of soldiers here, from lots of different realms. While she was a bit more relaxed about admitting her abilities in an institute full of people with weird secrets, she was still reluctant to go into too much detail. It wasn't so easy to go back on a lifetime's worth of training, instinct, and conditioning.

"But I know there are people here who speak of losing their abilities. Most of it sounds more like magic to me, but we don't have anything like that in my world. People that have super strength, or can change forms, or can fly. People that aren't entirely human now finding themselves in a human body and stuck that way. That sort of thing. If you want to know more, the best place to look and ask questions is the Bulletin Board in the Sunroom. That's where everyone leaves notes for people and asks questions of the institute as a whole. Be careful if you do, though, the nurses and orderlies do keep an eye on it."

[scarletspeedstr]

"Military training, huh? Should have guessed," Wally said with a wry smile, massaging his wrist again. "Remind me not to try and get between you and your food come lunch time."

He tried to keep his face as neutral as possible when Max talked about other people losing their abilities, but it was difficult with the sudden sinking feeling in his stomach. He was still hopeful that his own powers had been unaffected, but it was sounding more and more unlikely. That Bulletin Board sounded interesting though.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out when I next get the chance." Wally took a few moments to think over what Max had been telling him over breakfast. "So, how long has this thing been going on? People getting kidnapped to this place? The way you've been talking about it... How long have you been here?" he asked, suddenly afraid of the answer.