runningstart | MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

WALLY WEST
"You've reached the personal voice mail of the Wall-man. The honor is yours! Leave your deets, I'll holla back atcha."
[ BEEP. ]

KID FLASH
"This is the contact for Kid Flash. If it's an emergency, call Robin; he'll know where I am. Otherwise, leave your info and I'll get you back ASAP."
[ BEEP. ]

[ voice | text | email | action ]

( Please specify in tag subject line if the contact is for Wally West or Kid Flash! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They told us space, but it's weird. [She misses talking to him, spending the time talking about nothing particularly important. Showing off little things. That was the problem, wasn't it? She could use the reassurance that everything was okay, but it's not and she'd asked for far too much of that from Wally in the last months.

Easier to talk about the logistics. The discrepancies. About other people.]

[A lot easier. But now, hearing Gogo's voice, knowing she's with Robin and Jaime and Bart and all the others, he wishes he'd talked to her before all of this.]

Weird how? Do you remember anything about getting snatched?

No, I woke up feeling hungover. [Or what she assumes a hangover feels like.] But their strategy isn't sustainable.

Their technology is great in this world, but it can't be that much better than our space program back home, otherwise why keep us in orbit around Earth? This is still a Cold War era universe. They've focused their tech on so many other things. [Like hover technology.]

While porting us up here isn't entirely unreasonable, how are they keeping us? There are at least fifty of us here. Even the little bit they're feeding us, it's still that many people a few times a day. [There's a moment where she idly thinks about the equation necessary to calculate that, numbers jumbling up over the connection before she gets back on track.]

They can't keep us here, even on low rations, for long before having to restock their supplies. Plus, they gave us oxygen tanks, but nothing else. If there's ever a breach we're going to be screwed.

[She wishes she focused more on shuttles back home. She hadn't gotten to advanced mechanic designs like that in class yet.]

Not to mention, the guards are in uniform, with no protective gear. I don't know if they have supplies just around the corner, or what, but I couldn't see anything within easy reach for them from the door.

Huh.

[Kid takes a few seconds to absorb all that.] That's pretty self-assured of them, not wearing any body armor. It must be someplace they're sure won't be found or broken into.

It'd be hard to break into a space shuttle.

That's another thing. Water should be in short supply here. Our...accomodations don't really lend to recycling very well. [She snorts in disgust.]

Never thought I'd be a prisoner of war.

One of our guards had a damp uniform. Somehow I doubt the shuttles driers don't work in one cycle.

[It occurs to Kid suddenly, like a lightning strike.] ...you're underwater.

Gogo, I think you guys are in a sub.

[There's a heavy silence.]

What.

[Less a question and more of a hold as she follows his line of thinking.]

Can you hear anything when you put your ear to the wall? Like an engine or anything that might feel like you're moving?

There was something the first night that sounded like an engine kicked on. I haven't felt it since, though. It was some kind of propulsion, now that you said that.

A sub would be the perfect place to keep us. You would have to have an idea of where we are to even know where to start looking. Who knows what else has changed since the sixties?

Well, they put oxygen tanks in there with you, so you at least know they'd like to keep you guys alive even if the sub gets sunk. ...though the pressure would probably kill you first.

[Dryly.] Well that's reassuring.

So they don't want us dead, but they clearly don't want us at peak condition, either. Too much time in these conditions and I don't know how any of us are going to be able to fight back if an opportunity came.

Guess the question is: are we just leverage or is there something else they've got up their sleeve?

If this is a kidnapping to get new 'weapons,' then... [Kid doesn't want to say it but she had to have thought of it already. Or if she didn't, someone else will think of it, or they'll actually do it-

Urgh.] If they're planning to use you guys, there's gonna be brainwashing. No way around it. This is strong arm tactics to the max, here.

[There's silence for a moment as she digests that. It makes sense.

What the hell is with people and brainwashing? Crane, Pan, Russia. What do they expect to gain?!]

No. Hell no. I've been through enough of this. I refuse. They can try whatever they want. I'm not going to let them take my mind.

If you want help knowing how to withstand the standard stuff, talk to Robin. [that's all he's got for that] Apparently the US is all pissed off about this 'stolen property' business so at the very least, the military's working on getting you guys back too.

I'll probably just get told to stay out of the way and trust the 'real' heroes to save the day. [There's a long enough pause for her to shrug off her own bitterness and return to the problem at hand.]

Good to know that my home country doesn't want to lose its toys, at least. [I'm sorry, did I say lose the bitterness? I mean replace it with salt.]

I tried talking to the AI that's keeping us here.

[YEAH a stony uncomfortable silence there because he's gonna get in a fight with her if he opens his mouth.]

Yeah? How'd that go?

Poorly. Their programming is very young. I don't know very many AI, but Baymax was created to learn. LACKEY...was created to do a job. I don't think we can convince them to let us go. I couldn't even get them to choose a name that didn't imply servitude.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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