#escape?

[evilhorse]

You will not stop me!

(Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II #6)

[likeit-or-whumpit]

escape | Tom at he Farm

[lady-wallace]

The Best of All Possible Worlds Chap 6

Cas and Crowley are in serious trouble. Will they get away or perish at the hands of their captors?

Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

[evilhorse]

Well, let’s just say I’d like to live to subjugate another day!

(Justice League America #55)

[finaldreams1106]

Royal Blue Part 9

Tag list: @lost-writer-on-the-loose, @professional-idiocy

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8]

“Take deep breaths,” Jamie said, still smiling, “close your eyes if you need to.”

Villain squeezed their eyes shut, trying to focus on the calm voice, trying to ignore what they were sure would soon follow it.

“Let’s start with something easy, what’s your name?”

Villain’s throat closed, wanting to ignore the question more than almost anything. But they wanted to avoid the pain more, they hated their own weakness, but they knew. They knew they would shatter. “Vex,” they said.

Jamie clicked his tongue, “we all know what the media has decided to call you. What we don’t know is your name.”

Vex cracked their eyes open, studying the man. Should they just make a name up? “My name is, John.” They could hear their own hesitation as they stuttered the name out. Their fingers suddenly felt cold, followed swiftly by a sharp tingling.

“What you just felt was blood leaving, then reentering your fingers, Vex. I would suggest not lying.” His voice was cold, flint.

They could hear their heart pounding, the blood racing through their veins, a dull roar in their ears. Vex looked to Royal, seeing their confusion for the briefest of moments before refocusing on James. “I don’t have a name,” they said, their voice dropping to a whisper so quiet their interrogator had to lean in.

Nothing followed, no cold limbs, no rush of blood to reclaim. They blinked, daring James to contradict them, call them a liar again, react at all. But he merely scribbled something down on the little notepad in front of him. Vex shifted in their seat, grinding the edge of the glove against the armrest to see if there was any give. But it didn’t slide, just rubbed back against their wrist.

“What do you want us to call you?” Jamie spoke returning to his conversational calm tone, though he didn’t look up from his notes.

“Call me?” Vex started, “I told you my name was Vex.”

“You wish to be referred to by the moniker given by the press?” Now Jamie looked up, an eyebrow raised.

Vex looked away, shrugging one shoulder. “You wanted a name, that’s the only one I have.”

“Very well, Vex. Please describe the events of the last year.”

Suddenly, a question about their name didn’t seem so bad. With a tightening chest, Vex struggled to form a word, a plea to discuss something else. Something other than that room, that chair, the drain. The chair, they were in the chair. Covered in wires, but they were in it again. They couldn’t move. They jerked against the restraints. Escape, they had escaped once. They had to again. Royal, Royal had saved them, helped them Royal would help them.

Vex looked up, staring into the crowd, trying to find a glimpse of the blue mask that had been salvation. But there was nothing, just a blur of tan and green. They moaned, pulling at the restraints again. “Out!” they shouted, or sobbed, they couldn’t tell, “let me out of this chair.”

Sounds all around them, shouts grumbles, laughter?

They felt a scream build in their throat, their ever-tightening chest forcing the air in their lungs. Their fingers tingled, their feet tingled, bile rose in their throat. Stinging the already raw skin.

Then the pressure was gone, and they fell forward to the ground. Ripping the glove free of whatever wires it had been attached to. Immediately, their power bubbled up. Fighting to free itself, protect its master from the stress. Vex gagged, spitting the acid from their mouth. They coughed against the burning, trying to focus on it. On the internal. There was no threat, not anything worth their power. It must sleep. Sleep.

They took a deep breath, still huddled on their hands and knees, staring at the little yellow pool in front of them. A hand was on their shoulder, a warm weight they wanted to throw off and lean into in equal amounts.

“Vex?” a voice, Vex knew that voice. “What happened?” it was Royal’s voice.

“Get back in the viewing area.” Jamie, stilted, cold. “You are not authorized to interrupt.”

“But-”

“Back!”

The hand disappeared and Vex had to stifle a whimper. They blinked away their blurred vision and wiped the tears that had streaked down their cheeks.

“Vex.” Jamie was speaking to them, his voice hard, “Vex I want you to tell me why you wanted out of the chair.”

They leaned back, forcing themselves out of their huddle and into, well into a different huddle where they could at least see the interrogator. Vex clasped their arms around their knees and drew them close. Not leaning against the chair, though they could feel its presence centimeters away. Their mind stilled, lucidity returning as they moved of their own accord. Sat of their own accord.

“I,” they started, searching for an explanation. Anything that would explain their, their whatever that had been. “I, don’t like chairs.”

“No name, and doesn’t like chairs,” Jamie answered, disbelief in every syllable. “You are an interesting individual, Vex.” There was silence for a few seconds, “let’s get back to the basics. If you answer honestly I won’t make you sit in the chair again.”

Vex nodded, tightening their grip.

“How old are you?”

Vex almost laughed, “I don’t know.”

“Where are you from?”

“I don’t know.”

“Vex,” Jamie said, “I might believe you don’t know where you were born. Or where you spent your early childhood. But what about your pre-teen and teen years? Where were you for those?”

Vex shivered, “I don’t know.” They said again, braced.

“Alright, I believe you.” Jamie sighed, and Vex could hear more pen on paper. “Okay, here’s my next question. How can we approach the topic I want to know about?”

Vex stiffened slightly, but this time there was no overwhelming slew of images, feelings. Just a vague dread. “I was captured. I didn’t give the information desired. That made things unpleasant.” They spoke in quick, biting sentences. Ending with a snap of their teeth, as if they were cutting off any words that might have otherwise escaped.

They didn’t think about it. They thought about the room they were in now. About what the next question would be.

“You didn’t give any information”

“I didn’t say that. I,” again their jaws clenched, but they forced themselves to finish, “I’m sure my home is gone now, along with any technology or information that was in it.” The words were strangled, but if Jamie noticed he didn’t react.

“Fine, how did you escape?”

Now Vex paused, they didn’t know if they should say Royal rescued them or not. They wanted to look to the young hero for a hint, some sign, but that could implicate Royal in a conspiracy. Again, their heart began to race. Vex gritted their teeth, sure that some sort of cardiac disease was going to come from this.

“I asked you a question Vex. How did you escape?”

Vex’s chin snapped up as they met Jamie’s eyes. They weren’t going to put up with this. They wouldn’t.

In a single fluid movement, they were on their feet, lips twisted into a snarl, “why don’t I show you?”

[thequantumlyunstableman]

Top Floor 7-13 Dec

"Every one of your little adventures goes off the rails because you keep trying to help people," Kink said. 

 "My adventures go off the rails because of people like you," I replied "who keep trying to do crazy stuff instead of letting things be."

"This is...interesting?" The inhabitants of this place said, "but perhaps we should all get moving? I'm sure you can continue your argument wherever it is you claim to be from." 

We looked at each other and nodded. Yes, we could go.

We loaded back into the elevator and ascended to the top floor. It took some time to get there. We had quite some ways to go. But we were happy to have a direction we knew could get us out if here, so we were willing to wait.

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened to a dimly lit room. The room was fairly large and almost entirely empty it was cold up there as if it was poorly heated. "This is it?" I asked. 

"Top floor," they replied. "Everyone out."

We stepped out and looked around. "Is there a hatch," Kink asked, "or do you want me to just blow a way out?" 

"There is a exit just over there," one of the locals said, pointing up ahead. 

Kink led us toward it. "All right, I'll go out there and guys wait in here. If everything is ok, I'll come back and get you." 

"How will you know everything's ok?" G'Fon asked. "You going to time jump without us? What if you can't jump back?"

"Then we're going to be trapped here and you're going to be free.”

"So what do you want me to do?" Kink asked. "You want us to all go out there together and hope that I can save us all?" 

"Wasn't that what the plan was?" 

to be continued here next week

or follow every day on @QuantumUnstable

[thequantumlyunstableman]

Out of the Big Room and into a Smaller One 19-25 Oct

"Fine," Kink said grabbing the two of us. "Let's do this the easy way." 

And then we just stood there like that. 

"Was something supposed to happen? " I asked. 

 "They blocked my time jump, Frank. I can't get us out of here. We're stuck.”

"Blocked it? Can they do that?" 

"Looks like it.”

"We time jumped in here." 

"I think they didn't like my little backwards skip to beat their guy, " she clarified. 

"Does it matter," G'fon said. "We still need to get out of here. "

"He's right," I said. "We need to move." 

All three of us moved quickly out if the room, but we weren't expecting to enter a much smaller room. I was hoping for a hallway and then maybe some stairs or a door outside. "Now what do we do?"

"Find a door," Kink said. 

 "What about these?" 

"Those aren't doors, G'Fon. We can't sneak out of those little things. " 

"No," I said. " I think those are controls." 

"Controls for what?" 

"I have no idea."

"Ok," G'Fon said, pressing one. "Let's figure do out. " 

Suddenly we were moving up at a quick pace. "This is an elevator?" I said. "

Looks like it," Kink said, knocking G'Fon's hands away from the controls. "Now let's see if they can get us out of this place."  

Kink pressed a button and we were no longer moving, but we weren't moving down either. We were moving laterally. "That's not the way elevators are supposed to go," I said. 

 "This is your future, Frank. Everything works differently than you expect."

"You expected this? An elevator that goes sideways?" 

"I expected much worse things to happen than this. If you weren't freaking out about it, it would've barely registered. I'm just waiting for the next horrible thing to happen." 

to be continued here next week

or follow every day on @QuantumUnstable