2012-09-22: Cell Time

Players:

Connor_icon.jpg Nicholas_icon.jpg Quenton_icon.jpg Warlock_icon.jpg

Summary: The four talk about getting through this together.

Date: September 22, 2012

Log Title: Cell Tell

Rating: PG-13


Small Church - Holding Cell

Dim lights hang from the high ceiling giving just enough light to see decently, not that there is much to see in the concrete room. The tall ceiling goes up at least twenty feet and the blinking red lights of cameras in each corner are visible, there is no privacy here. There are no windows and the only door into room seems to be a solid sheet of steel from this side. The sent of stale, musty air, hangs about the room. Bolted against two of the walls, at a height of two feet, are steel benches, which seem to double as the only thing to sleep on as well. A steel toilet, with a sink on the top, is situated in the corner for those who need it.


The first time you all saw him was late last night, brought in unconscious and with half of his face looking like it had gotten in a fight with a truck bumper… and inevitably lost. He was not conscious when he was hauled out of the room the following morning, but some yelling could be heard from where he was, and then some screams as the power in the single light in the room fluctuated from brown to full several times. This time when Connor is brought in, he is shirtless and in a sweaty heap, his shirt tossed on top of him by the guards as he curls there for a moment. Coughing several times, he pushes to a stretch, and then touches the device on the back of his neck as he says, "Okay… that sucked."

Readily apparent on the underside of Connor's arm is some kind of little patch, it's one third of the way red on a small chemical indicator bar on it, with some rather long pharmacy name on it.

Quenton himself was on the ground, doing push-ups when Connor was brought in. He pauses, watching the older mutant for a moment, then looking over him. Quenton himself has changed, the crimson in his eyes seems to be faded and there's a bloody bandage over his face and others scattered about his torso. His shirt lies somewhere, he's decided to lose it, apparently. Still, despite the fresh wounds, his features seem softened however, and he even asks, "You alright?"

Nicholas has been sleeping on and off for most of the day, the problem is moving hurts. He's using his shirt as a pillow as his back has a few blood soaked bandages on it and there's a bruise on one side of his face. He opens his eyes when Connor comes in and tries to sit up. "Understatement of the year. What were they trying to get out of you?" He figures it's Xavier's information but isn't quite sure. "I can't believe they got you too you're….you're good."

Other than heavy to severe brusing on his face and torso and some on his throat Lock is doing better than the rest having been knocked out before the real damage began yesterday. The only one left in the room with his shirt on Lock is sitting against the wall he's spent most of his time leaning against since he got here, "You need help?"

"I… I'm fine." Connor pants out as he rolls onto his back and stares up at the ceiling for a moment, "They knew where I lived… so I did the only sane thing. I surrendered." Eyes close, and he then sits up with a groan, his abs shaking as he touches the side of his face that is alternately purple and brown, "They wanted to know what the security measures of the Genoshan Embassy… They didn't appreciate me giving them the email and contact information for the Embassy's PR person." Then he coughs a few times, rubbing at his throat, "Anyways… SHIELD, the Mansion know… we just have to wait it out. Which for a teleporter? Sucks. Massively. Horribly. Unendingly… Sucks."

"Yeah. They don't like runarounds. Who'd've thought? Have you been to the mansion since I got caught?" wonders Quenton hoarsely. "Have you seen Shane? They got me before I could get her out." His hand lifts up and he drags his fingers through his hair. The only hint he was once a rager is the red vein in his temple that throbs over and over again. He doesn't know what he thinks about the Mansion coming to save them. "Right about now? I'd prefer the Genoshan military. These people don't deserve mercy."

Nicholas pushes himself up a bit in anticipation of Connor's answer in regards to Shane. "Please say she's alright. And I don't understand, you can teleport, you could have just gotten away…" He just sees Connor as someone whose above them all when it comes to powers, someone better than them. "Wait it out, do you really think someone's gonna come?" His eyes then move over to Warlock and his throat. "You okay Warlock, you scared me last night."

"Yeah, they're a tough crowd, not fans of smart answers", Lock rubs the back of his necks, "Yeah, hows things back at the mansion? and what do they know about this place?". He nods at Nick wincing from the brusing, "Yeah I'm ok, gotta stop doing that but ok. What about you and Quenton? From the looks of you guys I got off easy".

Looking between the three, Connor ends up having to look down at his hands, "No… after the attack where Nick and 'lock were taken, I… I drove for a bit, until I was sure I wasn't followed. Then… I called my family, and the line was disconnected… so I got scared… so I called my Uncle Yuri on a secure phone he told me to dial. I didn't get much from him, but he told me just that… to wait it out." Sighing once, he runs his hands through his hair, "Nicholas… yes, I am good in a fight, very good… but there's a time to fight, and a time to not. Not when they could have demolished the entire building with everyone inside. Giving myself to them saved my lives, and gave my friend Rashmi evidence of what was really happening. She recorded the beginning of my abduction before I sent her through a portal. I didn't have a choice. Surrender and save lives, or fight and make more victims and more fodder for the news media."

Connor looks around at the others, "We're being branded as terrorists, being accused of the acts being committed by the Church of Humanity… and they're doing a very good job of twisting what happened. Whoever's riding this pony's got some serious political clout and media connections." Then his head lowers again, "I wish I could give you all more."

"And that's it, then. We're going to wait it out," Quenton murmurs, lowly, shaking his head and then slamming his fist on the wall, where there are already bloody imprints where he's been hitting it. He hits it once, then again, then knocks his forehead against it. "They might have Shane," he mutters quietly, shaking his head. "Or she could be dead. I don't know. I can't wait it out. I can't just let them torture us without knowing." His hand places itself on his face. "Fuck. Fuck."

Nicholas looks a bit crestfallen at the lack of news from Shane and lays his head back down on the bench. "So we have to keep putting up with this until…." His voice trails off, it feels like there's no end in site to him. "They won't hesitate to kill your family if they want to, which I know you don't want to hear but, just, these guys are evil." He turns his head so that he can at least be facing a few of them. "Warlock, do you think they know who your Dad is?"

"We've made it so far, we know people are looking for us, we've just gotta keep it together a little longer like Connor said", Lock's about to comment on more of Connor's information when Nick's question makes all the colour drain from his face, "I..I don't know, I lived with my grandmother before but… why? do you think they'd do something?"

Connor continues to not look up, "The guy who had me today told me if I fought back… if I hurt a guard… they'd kill one of you. They'd do it in front of me. I did hear one of them mentioning a girl who blew some of them off their feet is now on 'the list'. Which I assume means where we are. But that probably means she wasn't taken… yet." His head turns slightly away as he looses a sigh, "I maybe have a day and a half left on my meds… and then I'm going to need everyone's help." Looking back up, there's something akin to real fear behind his blue eyes, no glimmer in them, "I'm going to become listless, repetitively doing things, I won't be able to focus properly, and worst of all… I won't be able to speak intelligently. I'm going to need the three of you to help keep me here. Otherwise I might stop doing important things… like eating."

To Warlock, the oldest member of the quartet adds, "I can't say… but if they wanted that, they'd have done it. They did the research on all of us. They knew my name under a mask. Just… listen… don't focus on the fear. Don't focus on the not knowing. Focus on what you know and what they can't take from you."

"Why are they picking us? Why did they pick us?" wonders Quenton, shaking his head, then hitting it against the wall a little roughly, leaving a bruise. "These collars take away our powers, so it's not like they can study us. It's not like we're the easiest fucking targets, either." He actually sounds more anxious then angry, and his hurting himself seems more out of habit. "What's that?" he then wonders, pointing to Connor's arm.

"Warlock, I don't know. Just, thinking of the worst I guess." When you've had the worst happen to you, you can't help but be afraid it's going to happen again. With a lot of wincing and groaning, Nicholas pushes himself so he's sitting up. "I have this one cut on my back, every time I move I can feel it opening up again. I'll try to do what I can Connor, I'm going to try to do what I can for all of you." He scratches a bit at the stubble starting to grow from his chin. "I don't know Q, I've been trying to think what connection we might have to them, or what we have in common."

Warlock just sits there staring at the floor in front of him, Nick bringing up the worse seems to have checked him mentally out of the conversation, it hadn't occured to him that him being here could mean his family are in trouble. If anything happens to them…

Pushing himself up to standing, using the wall for a balance, Connor gets his shirt off the floor and looks at it for a moment. When the patch is pointed out, he lifts his arm, "Dermal patch for my meds. Slow-release so I only need to replace it every two or three days, depending. I usually supplement with caffiene and carbs… but I haven't eaten since I replaced it." Sighing once, he walks over and puts a hand on Warlock's shoulder, looking to the others before he says, "You cannot focus on the worst… you can't. You have to find something inside, something they can't take away, and hold onto it as long as you can. Everything they do is to get you to give that thing up. For me? It's my friends… it's the people who I know are going to come for us, to save us. We are not alone… and when the time comes, we will get out of here. Together." Then, sort of towards the people behind him, "Believe me… I'm with Quenton. I really REALLY want to break one of this Purifier jackasses."

"I hope they do find my mother and ram a stake through the bitch's heart," Quenton spits venomously, before he calms down near instantly, a feat for the usually rage-inclined mutant. "Connor. While we're trapped in here… can you teach us to fight?" His eyes lift to Connor. "Before you get all… before we have to take care of you, can you teach us to fight without our powers?" "As much as you can," Quenton clarifies.

"I'm sorry Warlock, I didn't mean to scare you." Nicholas says before slipping into his own quietness. He let's Connor and Quenton talk, holding back anything he wants to say, knowing it wouldn't be helpful at all to the situation. Finally at Quenton's question, he looks up at Connor expectantly. "That's a good idea."

Warlock still doesn't move for another few minutes until learning to fight is mentioned, "Yes, teach us what you can. If they so much as touch a member of my family, powers or not I will kill them and that would probaly be easier if I knew how to fight", he gets off the floor up onto his feet wincing from the brusing, "We'll keep you going but until then you can help us".

Looking around at the three, Connor nods once, and then says, "Okay… the body has a lot of weak points if you know how to hit them." And he lifts an arm, "Ribs along the side… a good punch can crack one, or even break it." Then he runs that same hand down a spot his ribcage, "Solarplex. It'll knock the air from someone." Then he taps both knees, "A punch or an elbow to the side of the knee? Brutal." Once more he pans the three, "What I am going to show you has nothing to do about fighting. Fighting means you expect to be standing, able to swing. I'm going to show you how to hurt someone. To inflict the most amount of pain in the shortest time you can. Because that's what you'll need. But if comes to it…" He holds his hand out flat, curling the fingers, and turns it to an angle under his nose, "Aim like this… and punch up as hard as you can. The bones in the nasal cavity break easy, but if you get enough into it? They will come loose and go into the brain."

After that, Connor has Quenton come over, and he then says, "Okay… I'm going to show you how to choke someone… use me. Ready?"

"Ready," Quenton murmurs, moving over to Connor, rolling one of his shoulders and clearing his throat, standing there in a passive stance, waiting for direction. If he learns some of these things right, and if he ever gets his powers back, he promises himself silently he's going to use them on the first Purifier he sees.

Nicholas pushes himself up and walks over to the sink to get a drink of water and splash some of it on his face to hopefully help get rid of the dazed feeling. He walks over to Warlock and offers him a hand. "Come on, we're all in this together, and this will help keep our minds off of this, trust me." He watches Connor and Quenton to try to take pointers and see what they're doing so he can leanr.

Warlock takes note of the points of the body Connor tells them about, while it's odd for him to make a point of learning how to harm someone, his world has no place for pacifism right now, he gives Nick a nod, "It might be better to practise on me, i've already got brusing on my throat so there won't be any odd marks on the rest of you to tip them off to what we're doing".

Connor just nods, and then turns around, holding up his arm, and turning it to the side, "Allright… feel this bone?" Running his finger along the line of his forearm from the thumb, "Movies do it wrong on purpose to keep the actors safe. This is what you want to use. Throw your arm around." Holding it up to demonstrate, "Grab your wrist with the other hand if you can? And then squeeze like a nutcracker." Yanking back hard and stopping, "From there, you do whatever. Wrap your legs on them to bear them down, ram their head into the wall, twist it back and forth… doesn't matter. Get vicious and creative…" He then smiles, "Juuuuust… not on me. Don't squeeze, just get a feeling for the move." Then he waits for Quenton to actually try it on him, lowering his hands to his sides, "A brain deprived of oxygen for four minutes goes dead. Once they stop breathing, they stop moving… once they stop moving… the choice is your's."

Quenton wets his lips needlessly, nose giving a twitch, before he moves behind Connor and then begins to wrap his arm around, his other hand slipping underneath Connor's arm to grab onto his wrist. He doesn't wrap his legs around or anything else, but he does secure his arms snugly there, before lowering them, jerking his shoulders a little. "God fucking help them if I ever get my powers back."

Nicholas points to the ceiling, actually all four corners. "They already know what we're up to." He doesn't know if they transmit sound but he knows they're watching them. "But let's practise on each other." He moves behind Warlock and almost copies Quenton, trying to just get a feel for the move as well and wanting to make sure he has the technique right. He doesn't say anything about revenge or wanting to do anything to the Purifiers.

Warlock nods at Nicholas, "Got it, Big Brother is watching", he stays still while Nick positions himself behind him and wraps his arm around his neck, while learning from Connor much like everyone else he's thinking of revenge on the Purifiers if they harm anyone he cares about.

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