(Untitled)

[ourlastbesthope]

Who: Capa and Hayley and Azteeeec!
Where: Corridor on level four
When:  Afternoon
Warnings: Mild violence

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[victimofnoone]

Hayley gave the sort of dismissive nod that said she would begrudgingly agree. The girl wasn't fond of what was going on around them, sure, but she wanted to help. In some weird way, this seemed like the way she could make up for letting Joker get away and put herself back even in the universe's mind because, beyond justice, she was all for helping people. Given how much she had been wandering around without getting caught, she wasn't as worried as Capa about staying out of sight; she was clearly not someone the guards were looking for.

When Capa wandered off, Hayley folded her arms to wait less than patiently for him, even though she knew he was right in what he was doing and she appreciated the consideration. The girl was minding her own business and actually listening to her friend and warden when she caught sight of a few of the Aztec guys dragging someone out of their room down the hall. She couldn't catch sight of who it was, but it made her angry to have to stand there and watch, knowing she could do nothing against the three.

But then the two left with the prisoner and there was only one. Hayley might be able to do something about one.

The inmate slid the taser carefully from out of her pocket, holding it behind her back as she moved slowly and quietly down the hall to attack the thing. As soon as she got close, her thumb clicked the item on and she shoved the taser into its side, smiling at the telltale sound of electricity. That smile was immediately converted to a frown when the Thing seemed unaffected, beginning to turn simply to stare at her.

[ourlastbesthope]

He heard heavy footsteps at the top of the stairs and so Capa headed back down quickly, slipping and sliding as best he could without breaking his neck. As long as he got to the bottom without incident, a few bruises weren't going to kill him. He had to admit that this was actually a little...exhilarating. It wasn't particularly fun because he didn't relish the thought of these "gods," roaming around, but it certainly beat sitting around, having too much time to think.

In a strange way, this was helping him. He was doing something to help. He might not be at home with his sister and he might never be able to return to her, but he could help Hayley. He could protect her, as he would his sister or her children.

And that's how he was going to see it.

When he didn't find her where he left her, he gave an almost panicked look down the corridor. He found her...but when he saw what she tried to do, his eyes went wide and he set his mouth into a line.

"Hayley!" he called out and started running towards her. Trying to create a distraction, he headed straight for the Aztec and knocked into him, feeling like he was hitting a brick wall. "Go!" he said to Hayley.

That's a really pretty icon.

[victimofnoone]

"Sorry, I didn't mean--" She began to the god, already backing off and beginning a complicated escape plan in her mind, before realizing Capa was already returning. Her warden's presence made her feel slightly more at ease despite no real justification for it. The last time this had happened, Capa had been injured for her and she had died anyway; then he had died trying to save her. She hated that memory and wanted to get as far away from it as possible.

Hayley clicked the taser off and turned to run when she caught sight of Capa running past her, effectively causing her to turn in a circle of confusion. The inmate returned the taser to her pocket as quickly as she could and was about to move forward to interfere when Capa yelled at her to go. She froze there, torn between what she would normally do and what he was telling her to do. He would feel better about the situation if only he died instead of both of them, but she wouldn't. It was her stupidity. Then again, no one had been killed yet, to her knowledge, so maybe he had a chance. "Capa, I can't leave you here to.."

The guardian was already starting to react.

It's one I rarely get to use, unfortunately.

[ourlastbesthope]

He looked up to the silent man and then chanced a glance to Hayley. "Go!" he urged her again and then finally focused all his attention on the guardian who seemed so much different than anything else he had ever encountered. He found himself thinking that they had all been sucked into someone's dream...the goddess' dream. Of course, that wasn't really plausible, but it still made him worry.

He didn't have time to consider it now, though. He took a swing at the man, knowing that it was futile but, again, meaning it to be a clear distraction, rather than a takedown attempt. He was going to be as annoying as possible, despite realizing that it was a worthless attempt.

Sad times. Clearly it means we need to beat up Capa more. :]

[victimofnoone]

Hayley took that last glance as a desperate confirmation of his logical thoughts and trusted him to know what he was saying. She flashed a hesitant expression of not understanding before she turned to run. "Hang in there!"

Of course the inmate wouldn't just leave her warden stranded, but she also knew she had nothing on her to help. The inmate planned on running down to her room as quickly as possible to grab something to intervene with. Of course, the stupid stairs made everything more difficult, but she basically lifted her arms to cover her head and threw herself down them, rolling awkwardly until she hit the bottom. It took her a second to be able to stand back up, glad that the guardian nearby didn't seem to care, but she began limping over to her room. She had to figure out something to help him.

CLEARLY

[ourlastbesthope]

Once Hayley was gone, Capa treid to just give up, but he was in too deep then. He had been enough of a nuisance to venture into annoying territory, so he was going to pay the price for it. Before he could scramble away, though, the guardian took him by the arm and kept him from moving, grabbing his hair quickly and running a knife across it. Capa struggled to get away after that, managing to escape and sprint down the hallway.

He headed down the way he saw her go, calling out her name down the corridor. Thankfully, he wasn't being pursued anymore, so he didn't break his neck going down the stairs. He wasn't really sure where she had gone, but he was determined to meet up with her again.

[victimofnoone]

Hayley bolted out of her room, now with a messenger bag, when she heard Capa's voice. The smoke bombs Dick had given her were both in the bag, as well as a few miscellaneous things. Her expression of determination and urgency was almost immediately replaced by relief when she caught sight of him at the end of the hall. She quickly locked her door and closed it behind her, moving forward to get to him as fast as possible. There were bruises on her legs and arms, but none were visible beneath the jeans and jacket, so she hoped he wouldn't realize how reckless she had been. After all, she should have had more faith in him to get away.

The inmate didn't stop when she approached him, nearly knocking him over with a hug around his waste. Her face flinched against his chest at the pain, but she didn't care. She had been so afraid of him dying for her again.. Hayley took a step back after a moment, looking up at him. Then her brain caught up with what she knew had been off about him. "What happened to your hair?"

[ourlastbesthope]

The embrace caught him off guard, but he welcomed it warmly, wrapping his arms around her in return. He was a little bruised, but not too injured. Nothing to complain about. Pulling away, he glanced down the hallway. "Come on...we've got to get to either your room or mine now. You just...can't fight these things." He had forgotten about the question of his hair until he reached hand up for it again.

"The...thing...cut it all off." And it was a jagged mess, really. He knew enough from living in space to be able to fix it, but that was the least of his worries now.

Since they were on the right floor, he started towards her room. "Just for now," he explained. We need to...regroup. Which meant that he needed to calm himself down and think over things clearly. Obviously, they weren't after the two of them...but it still wasn't safe to be wandering around.

[victimofnoone]

Hayley opened her mouth to protest hiding and not trying to fight, but his limit of time for the action made her stop and take a deep breath instead of arguing. Logically, he was right, even though she disagreed. The inmate began following him to her own room, staring at his hair. Even though she could still tell he and Crane apart with relative ease, the length of his hair was uncomfortably reminiscent of the other man. Of course, she was wise enough not to tell Capa that right now.

Returning to her room, she quickly stepped forward to unlock the door for them, letting herself in and then holding the door open for Capa before closing and locking it behind him. Her warden had been in her room before; the only noticeable difference was the blood and medical supplies in her garbage and the magical ray of sunshine that rested on her sunflower in the corner of her room.

"Now what?" She asked quietly, exasperated by the situation but unwilling to give up.

[ourlastbesthope]

Capa wasn't perceptive enough to notice the blood in the garbage, but he did notice the sunshine and shied away from it. He didn't like the fact that it was magic, for one thing. And he didn't like that it had come from Loki. He didn't trust that god at all. Not since their first encounter... That had not been an issue, though. Not until he realized that the man who called himself a god was friends with his inmate. But, at long as Loki didn't harm her or anyone else, then he couldn't get upset.

"Now we wait for a bit," he told her softly and pulled out his communicator, flipping through the entries. "It looks like people are fine when they get to zero. There's...really nothing that we can do. It's heavily guarded." He chewed at his bottom lip.

"I don't exactly know what the ending of this is supposed to be. Or where the Admiral comes into play."

[victimofnoone]

Hayley moved forward when they were both comfortable in her room. She removed the messenger bag carefully from her shoulder and laid it on the ground, then removed her taser and the one smaller smoke bomb, with Batman emblem, from her pocket and set them on the table beside her bed. The girl fell back onto her bed then, sprawling only over half of it to leave room for Capa if he wanted to sit. She sighed at their lack of information as she listened.

Suddenly, the inmate sat up, sitting on the edge of the bed only moments after laying down. Her expression twitched into an uncomfortable frown. "'Sacrifices.'"

It was the one useful piece of information that Loki had given her before kind of being a jerk. Though she had resolved to deal with him later, that bit about sacrifices being involved somewhere definitely worried her. They were collecting people for that; she was pretty sure of it. "I think they're going to sacrifice them.. What do you know about Aztecs or Mayans or whatever? Anything?"

[ourlastbesthope]

He looked to the table when she pulled the items from her bag. Great, he thought to himself. Now she was getting even more weapons. However, he knew better than to berate her for it. Especially now. This was a special circumstance and...he really just wanted to know where she got it from. Before he could ask, though, she brought up the idea of sacrifice and he turned towards her quickly, thinking it over.

Capa really didn't know much about the culture or religion, just what he saw on the Discovery channel as a kid. Sitting down beside her, he shrugged. "Not a lot," he confessed. "It wasn't exactly something I studied in school."

He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, still obsessing in his mind about his hair. But sacrifice, at least for the moment, trumped fashion.

[victimofnoone]

Hayley tried to think about everything she knew about whatever the people outside were, the things she had learned in school. She was oblivious to Capa's reactions to her weapons, glancing around her room and then looking back to him. "Weren't they super religious? I mean, obviously there are gods and everything walking around? But I mean, there has to be some kind of ceremony, right? Like Indiana Jones and that guy that ripped out hearts.. They won't just kill them."

She pressed a knuckle to her lips in thought, staring at the floor for an extended period. Her mind was caught up with her argument with Loki, Cooper's being in Zero, Dick being injured, Martha having disappeared entirely, Rex being a goddess, and every other person she knew seemingly in a bad place right now; then it occurred to her that she hadn't even checked on Merlin. The worry about being a terrible friend made her glance up to Capa and his hand on his neck. It was a gesture she wasn't used to seeing and it took her a second to think why he might be doing it. "Do you want me to try to cut it a little more even or something?"

[ourlastbesthope]

As she explained it, he could only nod. Yes, they seemed religious and yes, they thought themselves gods, but that wasn't always a reason to assume sacrifice. But Capa knew that it was a logical jump. But his brain just wasn't ready to accept the notion of a religious sacrifice. Not in this day. He frowned to himself and looked down, moving away to pace a bit more before he sat himself on the bed.

"If you think you can," he said, distracted. It wasn't something he would normally have allowed, but it might give them both something to focus on other than the strange warriors outside. "It just needs to be short..." Meaning shorter than Crane's.

"Do you really think that they're going to resort to something like that?"

[victimofnoone]

Hayley gave a small nod and moved over to her desk, rummaging around through a couple drawers before she found the short safety scissors the Admiral had let her keep. The girl moved back to the bed, as distracted with thought as he was as she did. Cutting his hair was exactly what he thought it would be: a distraction. That was what she needed more than anything else, a chance to take a breath before getting overwhelmed. It was the same reason she had insisted on bandaging Dick.

"Loki told me, about the sacrifices," she admitted quietly as she climbed onto the bed to kneel beside him. The inmate didn't start cutting yet, just in case Capa decided to turn his head. Her tone suggested she was not as fond of Loki as she had been a couple days prior. "It's not his fault and he's not helping her or anything, but I guess there's some kind of mutual respect? I don't know."

She let out a small sigh, not entirely pleased with that herself. "Now hold still. It won't be great, but it will at least look different." She knew he understood what she meant. Different than Crane's.

[ourlastbesthope]

Capa couldn't help but feel a little pleased with her new response to Loki. However, he said nothing that would give it away, and instead focused on the essence of what she was saying. Loki was a valuable resource of information, it seemed, and Hayley was wise to find that out. But he couldn't read her mind. He had only his hopes and his assumptions about the situation.

When she came over with the scissors, he went still and just put his hands in his lap to wait. "Thank you for telling me. I just...hope that it doesn't come to that." Or a lot of people would be killed.

"And I'm not in this for the fashion. I trust you."