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drownedinlight) wrote2011-04-16 10:51 pm
drownedinlight) wrote2011-04-16 10:51 pm
Entry tags:
Atalanta: Superhero part 4
This hurt to write. Well, not literally, but the action was very difficult for me. Luckily I had a friend to help me brainstorm and I persevered.
Walking around the city to look for crime took some getting used to. Especially in an almost skin tight royal blue suit, with a bear rampant emblazoned on the back. Whenever Charlotte could, she also took to wearing it underneath her clothes. But as the weeks followed, she learned an astounding fact. Crime it seemed did fear justice, or at the very least superheroes, because once she made her debut, crime in the city almost dropped off of her radar. She gave up almost entirely on patrolling by the end of the third week.
And then it hit her. Almost quite literally, except for it was a gas that knocked her out and nothing to the back of her head. The canister had bounced in front of her as she walked down an alley at night, and when she thought it would explode, it emitted the foulest smelling smoke. Once she began coughing on it though, Atalanta could feel her body being taken over by the gas, and falling into a dark sleep.
As she began to wake, she could feel the restraints against her gloved wrists and booted ankles.
“Have you been able to get the mask off?” a woman asked, tugging at it a little bit. Natalie had finally found a kind of medical glue that would only come off with a certain kind of solvent, to keep the mask securely on her face.
“No,” replied a man. “None of the solvents we have will take, and I didn’t want to ruin her face by ripping it off.”
“She’s the super girl isn’t she?” the woman asked, tugging harder. “She should be able to take it.” Something came up against Atalanta’s face and tried to force its way between she and the mask.
“I tried that too, and was not quite able to work at it,” the man replied, “but if you would like to try for a time. I can have some of my people get me a solvent if you would prefer to wait though.” The woman huffed, and the cold metal was removed from Atalanta’s face.
“How long should she remain asleep?”
“Another two hours at least,” said the man. “I was quite surprised when it took. It never had before against Alcaeus.”
“Well, if it didn’t work against him, then maybe it didn’t work against her?” the woman suggested. “Did you check to make sure?”
“Riko, I checked, all of her vitals are down to the point of REM. There is no way she could be awake. Look.” Thick fingers reached out and pinched her thigh. Atalanta, still feeling the effects of whatever they drugged her with, did not move but continued to listen. “Do you still think she’s awake?”
“She could be meditating. We’ve pulled such stunts before.”
“Riko, why would she let herself be captured?” the man asked. “Can you honestly find a reason why this amateur girl would let herself be kidnapped?”
“…She could know,” Riko said slowly.
“Know what?”
“About his plans. She could know that they didn’t choose to go missing, that he’s got all of them somewhere. Maybe she’s looking for information on the Collective, and let herself be brought here to find it.” The man scoffed.
“Now, you are just making things up. Riko, darling.” There was the rustle of fabric on fabric. “I love you, and you are the best assassin and bounty hunter I know, including out of me. But there is no way this girl knows anything about how he hid the Superhero Collective away. You are over estimating her knowledge. Now I will go make contact with him, and you can arrange for some of the men to guard her if it bothers you so.” The man walked away, his footsteps echoing off of concrete.
“Maybe I overestimate her knowledge, Kenji, but you underestimate the spirit of a woman, and perhaps even this one’s ability.” Riko tugged on the straps that held Atalanta up, before her foot falls began to trail away from Atalanta.
Atalanta tried for a number of minutes to force open her eyes, but it seemed her body was not as awake as her brain. After many times of trying, her eyes opened wide enough, and stayed open long that she could see around her before they closed again. She was in a concrete room with a large floor and a high ceiling, there was not much around, but she could see at the top of the room a look out with one way glass. The room itself gave no indication as to where Riko and Kenji had taken her, and the glass on the window above let her have to way of telling if anyone was watching her.
She tried to stay as still as she could, not that it was much of a problem to do so, and think of a plan. If she got out of the room, which would not be much of a problem when her body finally woke up, she would need to find her way out and quickly before her kidnappers returned to find her cell empty, if they did not already have someone watching, that is.
Her mind reeled with the information as she tried to think of the plan, and in the middle of escape, the Superhero Collective popped into Atalanta’s mind. Riko had mentioned that they had not gone into hiding willingly. Someone had forced them there. From what it sounded like, Riko and Kenji also knew who that someone was, and perhaps they had information on him somewhere in their strong hold. So that was her choice between saving herself, and getting a chance to save the whole Superhero Collective. She would have to risk it, but if she comprised herself completely, it would not matter if she had the information or not.
Prick points of feeling began creeping all over her body, especially in her extremities, poking her awake. She wondered if she should move herself to help her body regain some of its blood flow, but decided not to, for fear that someone was watching. But soon, she knew she was going to have to move, to break free and get out of that room, no matter what she did after.
Hissing enveloped the room, and Atalanta’s eyes flew open to see the sickly, green gas which had knocked her out before fill the room. Shit, well, it was now or never, she thought, pulling against the restraints. By the time she garnered enough force to pull one of her arm restraints out of the wall; the gas almost completely filled the room. Atalanta could not help but take a deep breath of the smoke. To her amazement, she did not feel the least bit drowsy, but even more awake. She pulled against the other restraint on her arm, then the next two around her feet and was free from the wall and running for the door under the cover of the thick gas.
The door was locked, and she did not have her pouch of lock picking tools, so she pulled hard, and the lock snapped allowing the door to pull open freely and swing shut behind her. Atalanta looked around at the concrete walls, picked a path and began to run. She did not know where she was running too, only making turns when she ran out of room to run, and ducking behind walls whenever the occasional guard walked by. Mostly the fortress in wherever seemed understaffed and very quiet for an assassin’s place.
A voice hit her ear drums making her stop in her tracks.
“Yes, she’s bolted to the wall, completely passed out,” Kenji said, making Atalanta set a new course for his voice. “I have some guards monitoring her progress and they know to radio should anything go wrong. They gassed her again a few minutes ago…Unfortunately, I was unable to secure any samples of her DNA, sir; she remains quite invulnerable. Yes sir, I do understand. And I will keep trying until we hand her off to your people.” Atalanta pressed herself flat against the wall a few corridors down from the one where Kenji’s office was, listening, as a guard ran up to his door.
“Sir!” He panted. Kenji snarled,
“I am busy!”
“But sir, the guards in her room are knocked out!” Kenji dropped the phone onto the receiver and stood in a flurry.
“What?” he hissed.
“When we went to switch rotations, we found them knocked out,” the guard explained. “And when the gas cleared, she was missing.”
“Radio to all of the guards and begin searching that side of the compound. If the gas got her even a little, she wouldn’t have made it far,” he said, stalking out the office, the guard not far behind him. Atalanta held her breath and counted to sixty before she raced from her hiding spot into Kenji’s office. First she would need to find a map to get out of this place, and then she would need whatever she could carry on the man he had been speaking to and what they knew about the Superhero Collective.
She rifled through the papers on the desk, looking for what she needed. Beneath a few bank statements, she found a few files on various different people, none of them with real names, and none of them in the Collective. And there, underneath all of the papers on the desk, was a blue print with the compound outline. She slid it out of the protective covering and grabbed the thin files and turned to leave when she saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway.
“Going somewhere?” Riko asked.
Walking around the city to look for crime took some getting used to. Especially in an almost skin tight royal blue suit, with a bear rampant emblazoned on the back. Whenever Charlotte could, she also took to wearing it underneath her clothes. But as the weeks followed, she learned an astounding fact. Crime it seemed did fear justice, or at the very least superheroes, because once she made her debut, crime in the city almost dropped off of her radar. She gave up almost entirely on patrolling by the end of the third week.
And then it hit her. Almost quite literally, except for it was a gas that knocked her out and nothing to the back of her head. The canister had bounced in front of her as she walked down an alley at night, and when she thought it would explode, it emitted the foulest smelling smoke. Once she began coughing on it though, Atalanta could feel her body being taken over by the gas, and falling into a dark sleep.
As she began to wake, she could feel the restraints against her gloved wrists and booted ankles.
“Have you been able to get the mask off?” a woman asked, tugging at it a little bit. Natalie had finally found a kind of medical glue that would only come off with a certain kind of solvent, to keep the mask securely on her face.
“No,” replied a man. “None of the solvents we have will take, and I didn’t want to ruin her face by ripping it off.”
“She’s the super girl isn’t she?” the woman asked, tugging harder. “She should be able to take it.” Something came up against Atalanta’s face and tried to force its way between she and the mask.
“I tried that too, and was not quite able to work at it,” the man replied, “but if you would like to try for a time. I can have some of my people get me a solvent if you would prefer to wait though.” The woman huffed, and the cold metal was removed from Atalanta’s face.
“How long should she remain asleep?”
“Another two hours at least,” said the man. “I was quite surprised when it took. It never had before against Alcaeus.”
“Well, if it didn’t work against him, then maybe it didn’t work against her?” the woman suggested. “Did you check to make sure?”
“Riko, I checked, all of her vitals are down to the point of REM. There is no way she could be awake. Look.” Thick fingers reached out and pinched her thigh. Atalanta, still feeling the effects of whatever they drugged her with, did not move but continued to listen. “Do you still think she’s awake?”
“She could be meditating. We’ve pulled such stunts before.”
“Riko, why would she let herself be captured?” the man asked. “Can you honestly find a reason why this amateur girl would let herself be kidnapped?”
“…She could know,” Riko said slowly.
“Know what?”
“About his plans. She could know that they didn’t choose to go missing, that he’s got all of them somewhere. Maybe she’s looking for information on the Collective, and let herself be brought here to find it.” The man scoffed.
“Now, you are just making things up. Riko, darling.” There was the rustle of fabric on fabric. “I love you, and you are the best assassin and bounty hunter I know, including out of me. But there is no way this girl knows anything about how he hid the Superhero Collective away. You are over estimating her knowledge. Now I will go make contact with him, and you can arrange for some of the men to guard her if it bothers you so.” The man walked away, his footsteps echoing off of concrete.
“Maybe I overestimate her knowledge, Kenji, but you underestimate the spirit of a woman, and perhaps even this one’s ability.” Riko tugged on the straps that held Atalanta up, before her foot falls began to trail away from Atalanta.
Atalanta tried for a number of minutes to force open her eyes, but it seemed her body was not as awake as her brain. After many times of trying, her eyes opened wide enough, and stayed open long that she could see around her before they closed again. She was in a concrete room with a large floor and a high ceiling, there was not much around, but she could see at the top of the room a look out with one way glass. The room itself gave no indication as to where Riko and Kenji had taken her, and the glass on the window above let her have to way of telling if anyone was watching her.
She tried to stay as still as she could, not that it was much of a problem to do so, and think of a plan. If she got out of the room, which would not be much of a problem when her body finally woke up, she would need to find her way out and quickly before her kidnappers returned to find her cell empty, if they did not already have someone watching, that is.
Her mind reeled with the information as she tried to think of the plan, and in the middle of escape, the Superhero Collective popped into Atalanta’s mind. Riko had mentioned that they had not gone into hiding willingly. Someone had forced them there. From what it sounded like, Riko and Kenji also knew who that someone was, and perhaps they had information on him somewhere in their strong hold. So that was her choice between saving herself, and getting a chance to save the whole Superhero Collective. She would have to risk it, but if she comprised herself completely, it would not matter if she had the information or not.
Prick points of feeling began creeping all over her body, especially in her extremities, poking her awake. She wondered if she should move herself to help her body regain some of its blood flow, but decided not to, for fear that someone was watching. But soon, she knew she was going to have to move, to break free and get out of that room, no matter what she did after.
Hissing enveloped the room, and Atalanta’s eyes flew open to see the sickly, green gas which had knocked her out before fill the room. Shit, well, it was now or never, she thought, pulling against the restraints. By the time she garnered enough force to pull one of her arm restraints out of the wall; the gas almost completely filled the room. Atalanta could not help but take a deep breath of the smoke. To her amazement, she did not feel the least bit drowsy, but even more awake. She pulled against the other restraint on her arm, then the next two around her feet and was free from the wall and running for the door under the cover of the thick gas.
The door was locked, and she did not have her pouch of lock picking tools, so she pulled hard, and the lock snapped allowing the door to pull open freely and swing shut behind her. Atalanta looked around at the concrete walls, picked a path and began to run. She did not know where she was running too, only making turns when she ran out of room to run, and ducking behind walls whenever the occasional guard walked by. Mostly the fortress in wherever seemed understaffed and very quiet for an assassin’s place.
A voice hit her ear drums making her stop in her tracks.
“Yes, she’s bolted to the wall, completely passed out,” Kenji said, making Atalanta set a new course for his voice. “I have some guards monitoring her progress and they know to radio should anything go wrong. They gassed her again a few minutes ago…Unfortunately, I was unable to secure any samples of her DNA, sir; she remains quite invulnerable. Yes sir, I do understand. And I will keep trying until we hand her off to your people.” Atalanta pressed herself flat against the wall a few corridors down from the one where Kenji’s office was, listening, as a guard ran up to his door.
“Sir!” He panted. Kenji snarled,
“I am busy!”
“But sir, the guards in her room are knocked out!” Kenji dropped the phone onto the receiver and stood in a flurry.
“What?” he hissed.
“When we went to switch rotations, we found them knocked out,” the guard explained. “And when the gas cleared, she was missing.”
“Radio to all of the guards and begin searching that side of the compound. If the gas got her even a little, she wouldn’t have made it far,” he said, stalking out the office, the guard not far behind him. Atalanta held her breath and counted to sixty before she raced from her hiding spot into Kenji’s office. First she would need to find a map to get out of this place, and then she would need whatever she could carry on the man he had been speaking to and what they knew about the Superhero Collective.
She rifled through the papers on the desk, looking for what she needed. Beneath a few bank statements, she found a few files on various different people, none of them with real names, and none of them in the Collective. And there, underneath all of the papers on the desk, was a blue print with the compound outline. She slid it out of the protective covering and grabbed the thin files and turned to leave when she saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway.
“Going somewhere?” Riko asked.