DAY 52: BREAKFAST

[nobleobliged]

How one's body could maintain a waking schedule when sleep came unnaturally and in a room without windows, must surely be a mystery. Yet, as if working on cue, Natalia stirred well before her nurse arrived. That was normal. Less so, the weight that sought to press her eyelids closed again, the heaviness of her limbs that made lifting her hands to

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[unheroed]

If the Head Doctor had had any choice words for them when the night had ended, Harvey had strayed way too far from the building to hear them. And yet he didn't regret it when he woke up to the coughing of the head nurse. Whatever Landel had had to say, it probably wouldn't have done him much good. That wasn't to say that finding those mines would benefit them in any way, but at least they hadn't been forced to wander the same hallways

[vsyourface]

Scott woke up with a headache, the kind you get from oversleeping. That made sense, he guessed; he and Knives had only just made it out of the patient block before that familiar blackout came over him. When was the last time that had happened so early on? Way back when he and Indy first saw that monster chick trying to snack on Keman? He couldn't remember for sure. Blggh. Too tired. No thinky please. Scott squeezed his eyes and pressed a hand against the side of his head, willing the throbbing to go away.

Eventually, he found himself in the cafeteria, a nurse leading him in by the shoulder as he drifted in and out of varying states of grogginess. Crap, he thought as the woman helped him fill his tray. What was he going to do about Knives? What if they conked out early again on another weapon run? He knew he couldn't put off another basement attempt forever, much as his man nipples supported that idea (he was totally happy not having breasts thankyouverymuchnoreallyseriouslynocuriositywhatsoever). People dropped out of the Institute

[unheroed]

On the one hand, it was good to see that the kid was back to normal. Even though he'd seen that confirmed over the bulletin the day before, it was different to see it with his own eyes. And while Harvey hadn't gotten to see much considering how hectic that fight had been, he was pretty sure that Scott made a better guy. He got the feeling Scott would agree with that.

Seeing the kid like this, it was almost as if that had never happened; like some sort of bad dream after eating the wrong thing before sleeping. But Harvey knew that wasn't the case, and he was just surprised to see that the kid didn't seem too traumatized. At least it had only lasted for that short period of time, but even that had probably been too long

[vsyourface]

Scott's head jerked up. "Wait, Harvey

[unheroed]

The sudden recognition in the boy's eyes, almost like a light bulb had gone off in his head, gave Harvey pause. Did this kid know who he was? And if he did, was it from reading the odd note of his on the bulletin, or because he was from Gotham? Luckily, even if Harvey did narrow one eye, his suspicion wasn't immediately obvious. The bandages tended to mask most of his expressions, which worked to his advantage

[vsyourface]

Hrkrgh!

It figured. Right away and Scott was already running headlong into another point he had to swerve around. He had to spin this real quick or risk crashing into the fourth wall in a fiery ball of death.

"He's, uh. Uh..."

Think, Pilgrim, think! "Beloved childhood icon" and "he looked like Han Solo" are not acceptable answers!

"Well, yeah, you know. You know how things go in this Institute, right? Different people getting thrown together, no rhyme or reason, random encounters - that kind of thing. It just kinda happened, really. I ran into him on my first day here, we talked a bit, and he offered to help me out during the night. We just kinda started hanging out after that."

There, Scott thought with a breath of relief. That had been almost entirely true, and it had even started to get a bit coherent toward the end. Pilgrim, you've done it again. +1 Smarts.

With that out of the way, however, a thought was free to strike him square in the middle of his noggin. Hey. Wait a minute... Two-Face is a bad guy! That might have

[unheroed]

While Harvey thought it was pretty odd how the kid was on the nervous, space-case side of things, he didn't question it too much. For the most part, he could assume that he was still disoriented from the other night; it was either that, or he was distracted by what he knew was behind his bandages. At least Scott wasn't staring quite so much anymore. That was more or less the only good thing about having to be wrapped up like a goddamn mummy during the day

[vsyourface]

So it was humble pie keeping Indy on Two-Face's good side? He guessed? Did that mean the same thing (in combination with Adventures in Genderbending) was going to keep Scott his good side by extension? Well that would be . . . weird, for lack of a better word. Who would he be fighting alongside next? The Penguin? Mr. Freeze? Catwoman? Actually Catwoman would be kinda hot. Please let it be Catwoman.Somewhere in the universe, Ramona Flowers was glowering

[unheroed]

It was hard not to notice that the kid seemed wound up about something, though Harvey couldn't really pinpoint what was causing it. He'd figured that Scott would get used to the bandages after a while -- most people did -- but something was clearly bothering him. Maybe he had something else on his mind. Whatever the cause, he couldn't really ask without it seeming strange, and so he left it alone. He'd just have to try and quietly watch for when the kid's demeanor changed

[vsyourface]

Scott wondered why he hadn't ever noticed a man with half his face in bandages before. That seemed like a pretty hard thing to miss. Then again, his days were chock-full of pop-culture-type sightings now, especially since his fourth wall cherry had been popped. Everything just blended together into one long string of "cooooooooooooool" after a while. He could have thought, "Oh hey, Two-Face!" at any time and then forgotten it in the five seconds it took to spot another character. When he thought about it like that, it was actually kind of sad; Scott could have been jumping up and down on the table for the chance to get this famous comic book character's autograph right now. Instead, he was more worried about less important things, like, say, whether Harvey could actually be trusted or not.

Stupid life or death situations suck all the fun out of everything."No, I made it down with this one guy before," Scott answered for now, not keen to give away Logan's identity to a potential villain. "We only got to the first room, though. There

[unheroed]

"One guy" was about as vague as you could get, but Harvey wasn't going to judge the kid for watching what he said. It was a good philosophy to go by in this place especially, and it wasn't as if Harvey had made it clear that he was a squeaky clean, boy scout type. He'd spent a long time trying to promote that sort of image, and it was almost freeing not to have to do it anymore. Even if it meant that people tended to withhold information from him, he usually returned the favor.

So Scott had only seen about as much as he had of the basement, plus the legendary fire-breathing monster that he'd heard so much about. Though when Scott talked about it, Harvey got the distinct feeling that part of him thought it was cool. Well, that was how kids were raised these days. While Scott didn't look like he was a teenager, they had at least fifteen years between them. That was one hell of an age gap, large enough that he was completely within his right to refer to him as "kid

[vsyourface]

"No kidding," was about all Scott felt was needed on that last point, offering another shudder after that as the memory of his body shifting and squelching around that night flashed back in his mind. If they had gone in smaller groups, maybe he wouldn't have felt so compelled to go after TCITD as hard as he had. Then maybe he, Peter, and all the rest could have avoided the horrors of that night and gotten closer to their goal, too. Note to self for next time: RUN.

He could hear the sounds of people starting to get up as they finished eating, followed not long after that by the sound of the intercom over their heads. Finishing the last of his breakfast, Scott rose from his seat and put an awkward hand on the back of his head. "Anyway, thanks again, man. Dude. Harvey." Whatever. "If you ever need an extra guy or anything, uh, hit me up, I guess?" So long as it doesn't involve shanking Batman or anything.

[unheroed]

All in all, the conversation had been pretty harmless and at least a little informative. Which counted as pretty good in his book, considering how badly his chats with the younger patients tended to go. Harvey still thought Scott was a bit impulsive, but that wasn't always a bad thing. And even though he didn't want to admit it, Harvey did feel kind of bad about what the kid had been put through during that past nightshift. That wasn't something anyone needed to experience.

He was a little shocked when Scott offered himself for any upcoming treks to the basement or wherever else, but what was there really to be surprised about? The kid had already established that he respected him for sticking around that night, and an extra pair of hands (or an extra baseball bat) was never something to turn down, so long as the group didn't exceed about three people. "I'll keep it in mind," he said with a short nod as he stood from his chair. "And the same goes for you." If anything, Harvey was a man who liked for things to be fair.