Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 1

[forgot_my_life]

Oh yeah. This was bad. Grabbing a chair and ignoring the woman who had brought him in, Takaya crossed his arms and glared at the wall. He wasn't going to participate in this bullshit. Being told he had 'company' and that he should he happy about it had ruined what was otherwise an okay day

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[scarletspeedstr]

Wally had waved ZEX off and settled back against his couch, intending to try and relax some more before getting a snack, when a nurse came over and told him that he had a visitor waiting for him. He was surprised, but at her insistence retrieved his crutch and followed her into a waiting room, where he was seated and left to wait.

He looked around the room, trying to spot who would visit him in this place. Who would actually know he was here for starters? Any of the League would be more likely to fight their way in to stage a rescue... unless they couldn't for some reason. Maybe whatever was affecting his powers was having the same effect on any rescue operations. In that case, maybe they would send someone like Bats, who was used to dealing without powers, in undercover to find out what was going on. He craned his head more, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of any Batman-like people. Nope. But that didn't mean much if Bats was undercover.

Wally sighed, shifted to try and make his leg more comfortable and fiddled absently with his crutch as he waiting. Sitting quietly had never been one of his strong points. He resolved that if someone didn't turn up soon, he'd try and slip off (well, as much as you can slip off with one injured leg) and find those snacks.

[damned_visitors]

[[Way to keep an eye on the WRONG ROOM. -_- Sorry!!]]

"I'm fine, thanks," John told the nurse at his side. He shouldn't have too much trouble finding his old friend--this was Wally. Besides his natural exuberance, they ran into each other a lot... enough so John wondered if the Universe was trying to tell him something. Possibly along the lines of "you know SOMEONE needs to keep an eye on him."

Aha, there he was. Considering what had been going on lately, John wondered if he should be glad to see Wally sitting calmly--for him, at least. Honestly, he'd be worried if the guy wasn't fidgeting at least a little; he wasn't sure he wanted to know how Wally had gotten hurt enough to need crutches, though whatever the answer to that was probably wouldn't surprise him all that much...

"Hey." John went over and sat across from him, glancing Wally over to see if he'd managed to acquire any other injuries. "Been doing all right?"

[scarletspeedstr]

[XD No problem!]

Wally had been looking around to see if any of the nurses would notice if he snuck away when an all-too-familiar voice brought his attention back to the person in front of him. "John!" he said, both surprised and pleased to see the older man. "Dude, you're a sight for sore eyes, how did you find me?" He didn't want to say that he'd been beginning to think that the League weren't going to show up after all. It was a huge relief to see that he'd been wrong.

He couldn't keep the grin off his face as he impatiently waved John to take a seat, wincing slightly as his knee throbbed again. "I'm okay, but this place could really use some of our brand of pest control, if you know what I mean."

He paused, there was something off about John that he couldn't quite place, something nagging at the back of his mind that was trying to get his attention despite his happiness at seeing his friend again. Wally wasn't sure what it could be though, so did his best to ignore it for the time being.

[damned_visitors]

"Uh, by asking the nurses which room you were waiting in." He raised an eyebrow slightly. He had mentioned this place by name the last time they talked, even if he'd been half-joking when he said it.

Pest control? Was he reminding John he still remembered his friend was a cop? "Huh. There's a few criminal types in there?" That had to be weird, if nothing else... and hey, it was a plus that Wally could still identify what was out of the ordinary. "At least you and I don't technically have any professional connections, I guess.

"So, them aside, this place treating you all right?" It would probably take a while to find the right medication that actually worked on him, Wally being Wally, and his metabolism couldn't help either, but being in-patient was supposed to speed the process up a little. He could imagine hearing the process compared to a sloth versus a snail, but--seriously, Wally needed to learn patience anyway.

[scarletspeedstr]

"Huh? No, I mean how did you find this place," Wally clarified, gesturing around at the institute in general. "I was beginning to think you guys didn't want me back," he joked.

Wally shook his head and leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "No, not criminals, but definitely something that could do with the League's attention. I've been seeing some pretty weird stuff since I got here. I don't know who's behind it all yet, but I guess we can figure that one out after we take this place apart." He grinned; though something about John was still throwing him off, it was still great to see him again. Even if it was a bit of risk for him to be here; while John was right in that Wally West didn't have any professional connections to the League, Green Lantern didn't have a secret identity to hide behind. Hopefully he knew what he was doing though.

Wally snorted and rolled his eyes. "If 'all right' means 'fanged monsters trying to eat me at night', then yeah, I guess they are. Otherwise, the food is good at least? But that's not enough to stay. So, what's the plan anyway? I should warn you, something about this place is throwing my powers out of whack, so I don't know how much help I'll be."

[damned_visitors]

"The... League." Not this again... John sighed and looked at his friend. "Wally, we've been over this. Neither of us is part of any secret organization, remember?" He tried to put a light note into his voice. "Not that I know all of what you were up to in college." They hadn't even been in the same graduating class; if Wally couldn't remember that, all he needed to do was glance at the text surrounding the emerald in John's ring.

And he still thought he had powers--at least he was noticing that he couldn't do everything he said he could. It was a start, and not a bad one, considering Wally hadn't even been here long. Though the mention of fanged monsters... that was kind of a new one. Maybe he'd ask one of the staff here about that; he supposed it was good that Wally's hallucinations weren't making him freak out, at least.

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally stared at John for a few seconds before bursting out laughing. "Right, sure. We're just a couple of normal guys," he said around the giggles. "But seriously, what's the plan to take down this place? I know Bats has got something in mind, so what have I gotta do?" He glanced around at the nurses; his laughter had attracted some attention, but not enough that anyone was actually listening in to what they were saying. "And what's up with your..."

Ring. John's power ring. It looked different, wrong. As he realised that he also realised the other thing that had been bugging him, John's eyes were brown, not the unnatural, glowing green he was familiar with. "John? What happened to your ring?" he asked, concern obvious in his voice. "And your eyes... Have you lost your powers here too?"

[damned_visitors]

Hallucinating and confused. Geez. "Wally, you're in here because you're not connecting with reality--even less than usual. You are a normal guy, no super-powers. The world is weird, I'll admit that much, but I've still never seen any proof of magic."

He didn't really think reasoning would work, but hearing it from him might be better than from the staff.

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally stared at him, starting to get angry now. "Knock it off, John. We both know that's not true. Geez, why are you doing this? I'm keeping everything a secret, promise! No need to freak out and go overboard with the secrecy stick." He really had been careful, honestly! The only person he'd said anything about his powers to had been Clark, and that was Clark, surely that was a special case! Sure, he'd talked about superheroes and magic and stuff, but it wasn't like those were rare things in his experience. Well, maybe the magic was rarer, but not so that no one knew what it was.

[damned_visitors]

Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to come this early. "Calm down," he ordered. "There are no secrets here; I know being cooped up is harder on you than pretty much anything else, but it's just until they get you stabilized. You'll feel a lot better once the treatments start working.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm told Landel's is one of the best psychiatric hospitals around. From what I've seen so far it's a hell of a lot better than Irongate."

[scarletspeedstr]

"Treatments?" Wally said, surprised and suddenly nervous. "What for, there's nothing wrong with me! And I'd fell a lot better if I could just get out of here!" John wasn't sounding like himself, and it was getting to him. He wanted to reach across and shake the guy until he started making sense. Wally shifted nervously in his seat, wincing at the pain that caused in his knee but unable to keep still.

"Irongate?" he said, even more confused. "Is that like Iron Heights, that new prison outside of Keystone City?" He'd heard some bad things about that place, but nothing concrete he could actually use to check it out. The idea that he might have ended up there for some reason sent a chill down his spine. "John, why would someone send me there? And why do you seem to think I'm here for a reason?"

[damned_visitors]

"Uh, not sure." It didn't ring a bell, anyway.

"Wally," he said, speaking a little more slowly but with more obvious concern, "I'm sorry, but you are here for a reason. Look, everyone needs a break sometimes; you just managed to take it to one of your usual extremes. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Sigh... John looked away, hating what he hadn't said almost as much as what he had. Finally, he looked back. "You don't even remember getting taken in, do you?"

[scarletspeedstr]

Taken in? Needing a break? If he hadn't already been clued in by John's lack of green eyes and power ring, that would have tipped him off that something was up. "Uh-huh, well if 'taken in' means something like 'kidnapped against my will', then no, I don't really remember it happening, just being here when I woke up." He folded his arms and glared at the other man. "Why, what do you think happened?" There had to be something wrong with GL that would make him act like this after all. Maybe mind control or something.

[damned_visitors]

"You were in a completely manic state, Wally--I wasn't sure you knew who I was at first. Too high to recognize when you were putting yourself or others in danger, and talking so fast you were pretty much incomprehensible. I thought you had to be on something until all the drug tests turned out clean. Maybe when you 'crashed', you forgot, but if you hadn't been brought down with medication I don't know what would have happened." It had been kind of scary even for John, and he wasn't exactly a rookie.

"You were totally out of control, too high to understand your actions might have consequences, and you needed help. You're getting it here; you're a lot calmer now, mostly back to your old self. Just a little longer and they should have you good to go."

[scarletspeedstr]

"Uh-huh. Right," Wally said, his tone indicating he didn't believe this for a second. Sure, he had a tendency to act without thinking and sometimes get carried away so much that he needed to be reminded to slow down so that people could understand him, but that was because of his powers and stuff. He wasn't manic or whatever. Besides, he doubted mania would account for how he could move faster than any sprinter could hope for.

"Look, GL, are you sure you're okay?" Scratch that, it was obvious that he wasn't okay. "What happened to you?"

[damned_visitors]

He raised an eyebrow. "Might I ask what that stands for? And I'm fine, it's what's happened to you that's... troubling."