This is spinal tap.
There is no knock on the door before it swings open, and there is no greeting from the men who enter as they step toward Leonardo. There is simply a grunted order - "Up." - and an expectant gaze. Both look as if they'd love an excuse to /make/ him get up.
Leonardo stands, giving them a casual smile. "Of course, though you could say please." he suggests, then holds his arms out to the men. "So where are you escorting me to today?"
How very kind of him. A man closes in on each side, taking his arms with rough force as they manhandle him from the room. They do not reply.
"You're quite rough, I hope it wasn't the death threats. You hired muscle are the last people on my list, I mostly want the scientists. You know, if you help me out, you'll be paid a lot more than they're giving you." Leonardo offers confidently, tensing up trained muscles since the last thing he wants is a spontaneously snapped arm.
One of the men turns to Leonardo with a quick snap of patience. Beefy fingers grip painfully hard at Leonardo's arm. "Shut the fuck up, you mutie traitor. Don't think we forgot that you was on the other side of the glass two weeks ago."
"Well all was fine until your superiors revealed themselves to be -mad- scientists. And don't think for one second that I would blindly agree to something so insane, I was simply attempting to see what their true intentions were." Leonardo explains with a slight head shake, trying to stay at their pace to lesson the pain from them jerking his arms. "I wasn't aware bigotry had an effect on greed, learn something new every day."
"What'dya think you were agreeing to fund, to the tune of fifty thou, you mutie moron?" The man has turned Leonardo in the hall, pressing him back into the wall between two cells. There's danger in his eyes, and his companion looks no less ready to take an excuse for violence. "Sure as hell didn't raise up no fuss about the Madrox, didya? Sure as hell liked to see /him/ at the end of our tests. Right nearly peed yer pants with excitement, from what I hear."
"So? These are only duplicates, the real Jamie Madrox is safe and sound back home. I've always said and always will say that he has great potential to help the entire world, if he'd only let his duplicates be researched." Leonardo doesn't move, and certainly doesn't give them an excuse for violence. "If you help me and tell the rest of your friends, I'll pay you all very large sums of money when we get out of here, more than you'd ever make from these scientists. Remember, they came to -me- asking for money. Do you honestly think fifty thousand is a lot to me?"
"Had a lot more lined up down the road, s'what I hear," the man answers, and Leonardo's words seem to be excuse enough for violence, because Leonardo's yanked forward and then slammed /hard/ into the cement wall. His head might bounce a little.
Leonardo winces when his head bounces, now speaking in a slightly pained voice. "Y-yeah, but I cut them off after the first payment. You and the rest of your friends can have everything else the scientists were going to get, I just need you to do two things..."
"Give you a Madrox or two all of your very own?" He wonders in a sneer.
Leonardo almost shakes his head, but it hurts a bit too much for that at the moment. "I need you to get metal for both me and the green haired woman within a week's time, just enough metal for us to hide, but enough to also be useful. It can be forks or metallic marbles or anything that can be magnetized. After that, I want you to make sure that we can't be gassed when we make our escape, or at least get us a hostage."
A meaty fist finds Leonardo's nose, and then rough hands jerk him forward and down the hall in time to a growl. "We aren't all back-stabbing traitors, you fucking worthless piece of shit."
And Leonardo's nose finds itself bleeding when he lets out a loud, "Damnit!" and stares at the ground as they begin moving again. "Guess you're not in it for the money..." he idly comments, wobbling a little from both getting punched and knocked against a wall.
They pause just long enough for the other orderly to slam a hard fist into Leonardo's gut. Maybe he'll find it hard to breathe - and thus to talk.
Leonardo spits a mixture of saliva and blood when he gets punched, groaning and, yes, being quiet as he tries to get his stomach to adjust. He's not stupid enough to see what else they'll do, yet.
Look, Leonardo /does/ have brains. Some, anyway. Rough hands shove him down the hall and through several doors, until he's finally admitted to the shiny sterility of an operating room. The petite Asian doctor who stands there lifts her brows at Leonardo's bloody appearance. Whatever she sees in response is apparently explanation enough, because she ushers them forward. "On the table, please."
Leonardo walks to the table, taking a seat and just staring at the woman. He doesn't stop staring directly into her eyes at any given moment she's facing him, but he's also still completely quiet. His stare is a lusty seductive one, possibly trying to activate one of his self taught powers, you know, the one that never seems to work.
His lustily seductive stare appears to have no effect whatsoever, save for the part where Dr. Saito orders a brief, "Strip."
"I've never had a plan that actually worked before, until now." Leonardo taunts, removing his scrubs and throwing them on the floor in front of him. He smiles at her, wiping the blood from his sore nose on his scrubs before he actually throws them. "What do you think? Is it everything you imagined? I train every day."
"On the table," Saito instructs sharply. She turns her back on him, busy fussing with instruments on the counter behind her. Here is the only metal in the room - a long, sharp needly, far larger than that needed to draw blood.
Leonardo pulls his legs up on the table, raising an eyebrow at the needle. "And what do you intend to do with that?" he asks while looking for the positions of the other men.
"Lie on your side, Maxwell, and pull your knees in to your chest," Saito instructs. The men clearly notice the look, because there's a low growl, which earns a glance from Saito. She frowns and looks back to Leonardo. "Do not make me break anything."
"Just hold on a moment, tell me what you're going to do and I'll fully cooperate. It's not that I don't want to, but if you go blind sticking a needle in me, my mind is going to defensively bend the hell out of the needle, I can't really help it." Leonardo explains, and doesn't turn over on his side quite yet. "I have to be mentally prepared, so help me out here."
"We owe you no explanation. If you bend the needle, you will be punished accordingly. On your /side/, Maxwell," Saito orders with a sharp crack in her voice.
"I -know- I'm going to bend the needle! I can't help it!" Leonardo exclaims in frustration, turning on his side. "Fuck, I know it's going to bend, it's not something I can just control. Just tell me what you're going to do." he requests again, but nontheless, he's on his side.
"Knees. To. Your. Chest."
Leonardo pulls his knees up to his chest, sighing in defeat. "You're wasting your time, I told you what's going to happen. You obviously don't want to get your experiment done. It's beyond my control..." he says in a sincerely sorrowful tone. "I don't want to be punished for something I can't control..."
Mr. Maxwell clearly does not understand that what he /wants/ has little to do with his current reality. Saito steps forward with the needle and swabs carefully between the third and fourth vertebrae. "Tuck your chin," Saito instructs, "And do not move."
"You're not serious, you're not fucking serious. I'll pay you anything, I swear I'll pay you more money than you'll ever need for whatever you want..." Leonardo tucks his head in, trying not to move. He's not bending the needle, but she might feel a hint of force around the needle from his nervousness. "Please tell me I wont feel a thing..."
Saito has been kind enough to apply local anesthetic. When the needle pierces Leonardo's skin, he feels little, but as it pushes deeper there is clear pain. She takes her time withdrawing the fluid.
Leonardo is quiet for the piercing, of course, but when it goes deeper, he braces himself, trying his best not to bend the needle inside of him. Most of all, while she's drawing fluid, he's yelling his brains out as if he were being tortured.
Saito has little patience with this. Her jaw sets as she withdrawls the needle, and she orders sharply, "Shut him up," as she turns away to deal with the fluid. The orderlies advance on Leo.
When the needle is withdrawn, he sighs in relief and goes quiet, laying limp and staring at whatever is in his field of view. He appears exhausted from the pain and screaming, so right now he's just catching his breath and breathing heavily.
As Leo quiets, the two men halt and study him. And then Sait snaps, "On your back."
Leonardo slowly turns over on his back, wincing at the pain but trying his best not to yell. "It hurts..." he weakly informs, very uncomfortable on his back.
"Lumbar punctures tend to," Saito informs him briefly. "Stay on your back for the next eight hours." With that brief instruction, the orderlies move forward and bend to unlock the table's wheels, the better to take him through the door and back to his room.
"At first..." Leonardo starts, still weak and staring at the ceiling. "At first, I was just going to kill you, quick and painless, but now, well, now I'm going to paralyze you, and cut your tongue out, and I'm going to let you live, if you don't bleed to death or choke on your own blood, I promise..." he threatens, apparently forgetting his previous lessons about talking too much.
A quickly snapped blow breaks Leo's nose. Ooops. It'll probably be hard breathing through that while lying on his back. Hope he doesn't choke on his own blood.
Leonardo lets out another quick yell, then he just lays there and breathes through his mouth. He's had enough talking, now he's just going to use his imagination.
This is spinal tap.