What Is Past Is Prologue

[Shade]

((Set a few weeks after „Don´t bother none”)) ((Closed))

It had been quite a while since Shade had last used her powers for something as simple as skipping fees on a bus. Not because she couldn´t avoid a couple of dollars, but because wanted to avoid being seen. Busses at this hour weren´t too crowded, it had been easy to stand clear from the passengers and follow the two or three people that had left at the bus stop she had gotten out at, slipping through the doors after them but before they closed. The bus had rushed off towards the centre again, leaving her in one of those quarters she wouldn´t usually choose to take a walk in.
Shade didn´t have any clear idea of where she was. It didn´t trouble her. It would be easy enough to find back into Manhattan, there was nothing she immediately had to fear while using her invisibility. She wasn´t so naïve as to think her powers made her invulnerable, she knew far better than that, but she found what she was doing a necessary thing to do. It was getting dark already when she left the bus stop, following the street by memory.

It had been a long while since she had last been here, or at least she guessed this was roughly the place. More than a year and a half since she had found Shona in this alley somewhere around, not too far away from some park with a name she wasn´t sure if she could recall it. She had to rely on her intuitions and faint memory as she walked along, hands in the pockets of her jacket, sneakers barely making a sound on the street.

The area she soon found herself in was run down. Narrow streets, even more narrow alleyways, rimmed with shabby hotels and apartment buildings no one who could at all afford it would choose to live in. Not a nice place for an evening walk, but this wasn´t the reason Shade had come here. The reason was Shona.

It had been months since the other woman had left and Shade had not had a sign of life from her ever since. Her bad conscience had started to nag her, called her a lousy friend and even though there had been no bad news reporting there were more activities of the dark part of Shona´s personality she had come to call the Dark Angel, she had felt increasingly restless these days. Restless to a point that had her decide to take a bus to this area of town to have a look around. It was probably something like looking for a needle in a haystack, but truth be told, even though she had no idea where to start looking for Shona or whether she even had the faintest chance of finding her, she felt she had at least to try. And when thinking about where to start, places she had been with her had come to her mind. Maybe here. Somewhere where she, as she had told her, had been held captive before. There was no specific reason to start looking at this place, but it seemed as good as any and more likely than the roads of Manhattan or some shiny suburb. If Shona was maybe in trouble, maybe here…

Shade had not told anyone where she was off to. There was no reason to. With it being in the middle of the semester and with Gambit not having an apartment at the moment, she would spend her time either at the Hellfire or of course at the mansion. She didn´t expect this to take longer than a few hours. Try, satisfy her restlessness, at least have a look around, then catch the bus home. No reason to make it a big deal or have anyone worry. No reason to tell anyone and no reason to tell Gambit she was sneaking around in some shadey areas of town. That’s what it was planned as: sneak around, leave again. Stay unseen. It was easy.

It was getting cold when darkness slowly settled between the shabby houses. Somewhere she could hear a dog bark, now and then a car would drive by. Shade took a right hand turn into a side street, thinking it might look somewhat familiar, but not being too sure. So why not start here…

[Somebody?]

Steven walked into the hotel room with two bags in his hands. He had taken some food from Mc Donalds for him and Harry. Of course, he had not bought anything for the mutant. Steven gave the strapped and gagged mutant on the chair in the living room a short look, before he placed the bags on a table nearly the front door.

It was not a very nice hotel room, but the best they could get in the city. He and Harry did not want to attract any attention. For that reason they chose that cheap hotel. It was a room with two big size beds and some cupboards were parting it from the rest of the room. There was a small sofa nearly the cupboards and a table with two chairs right in the opposite of it. Nearly the front door and across the table with the chairs was the door to the small bath. It was only a toilet, a small shower and a washbasin in it. Nothing sensational, but very dirty as nearly everything in the room. It looked like the cleaner was not in the room since ages.

With a sigh, he set down on a chair and opened one of the bags to get out two cheeseburgers with some fries and a coke. Steven always wondered what Harry was doing so long in the bathroom and nearly yelled "Damn! Harry! Get out there and get your food!"

[Everyone Else]

::Like many days recently, this one had gone awry for Manuel de la Rocha. Humans hated empaths; some mutants hated empaths; that was usual for him. Running into a mutant-hating group was less usual. Being kidnapped was a new low, but here he was. Bound to a chair, in some forsaken motel in who knows where? He had been unconscious when being brought; for all he knew, they had left the city all together.
Not that he could ask, with the cloth gag shoved in his mouth.

Steven, he'd learned the names of his captors quickly, had just returned with food. Harry had been watching him, the cruel, overly-aggressive man he was. The smell of french fries wafted in, and Manuel drooled around the gag. He was so very hungry; he could not remember the last time he had eaten. A look from Steven, however, told him that the pattern would continue; there would be no food for him. If he could spit at one of these men, he would.::

[Everyone Else]

((taking over for Nimrod for now till he gets to post just to get this rolling))




It had been hours since they had come to this place in the early morning, renting this run down room with a few dollars extra and with no questions asked and even if that made it a near perfect hiding place for business, Harry had never had too much of a liking for places like this one. The hotel had definitely seen better days and probably wouldn´t even stand a chance if some controls ever bothered to have more than a lazy glance at it.

He had been in the little bathroom, trying to make do with what the place offered and fighting down disgust while whiping a bit of water into his face and spending a moment to stare at his reflection in the half blind mirror. The kid had been an easy prey and he wasn´t the first. They weren´t sure yet about what to do with him, but that was nothing new. Their group was small which was yet another thing that irked him, since it didn´t leave too many options to do things big scale. Likely the mutant had friends of the same sort, probably he would give away some names if they used the right means, if not, well, one less of them wouldn´t be a tragedy. He wouldn´t be the first one.

He could hear the door open and a moment later Steven´s voice barked through the hotel room. He didn´t seem in the best of moods after trying to get information from the kid for hours, but neither was he. His patience was about to run out. He exited the room and walked over to the other man, he grabbed for his share before settling on the last vacant chair. "About time." he said before starting to eat, pointedly ignoring the mutant for now. "Didn´t get yourself into trouble I hope. Any friends of this one lingering around outside or something?" It was important to make sure they stayed secret and even though that one wouldn´t be the first deserted mutant noone seemed to care about, one could never be careful enough.

[Shade]

Unknown to the three men, there actually was someone sneaking around. Even though Shade was unaware of what was going on in that hotel room in the very street she was having a closer look at right now.

The hotels around weren´t actually modern enough to have sliding doors or anything of the like which was something of a problem. Since Shade wasn´t too eager on strolling around in a place like this, and the group of three or four men lounging around at one of the house corners she passed by proved her point, she could on the other hand not do stuff she would usually have done without this seeming weird for possible observers: magically opening doors were one of those things. Therefore she had to make use of her usual tricks: wait and follow. She had followed two women when they entered a hotel, taken some time to look around and left again after about 20 minutes. The place had been small. Looking around the street, she had wached a man approach carrying something that might be food bags. She had silently tailed him since she had seen he was heading towards another hotel and had slipped in through the door after him. The man had headed for he stairs, she had taken her time to have a look around.

There were about half a dozen rooms downstairs, she saw light under two of them, tv noise blaring out onto the corridor. Knocking, she stood clear of the door only to be able to have a look into the hotel room when a feisty man around his 50s opened and looked around only to notice there was apparently noone there before he closed the door again with a muttered curse. She wandered on and took the next few minutes to make sure if Shona was to be found in any of these rooms. Looked like this was going to take some time, she sighed inwardly.

[Somebody?]

Steven gave Harry a short glare as he came out the bathroom, before he got a big bite from the first cheeseburger. He did not answer to Harrys question till he ended his cheeseburger, then he took some fries and said "What do you think? That I am so stupid to get in trouble? Hell! I know it is important to keep hiding with this THING!" The last word was filled with disgust and he moved his head over to the mutant as he said it. Grabbing the coke and taking a sip, before he asked "Any problems with him?" Quickly, he unwrapped the next cheeseburger and started to eat. Steven was not in a good mod and he really did not like to be around a mutant. That made him angry and he simply wanted to punch them to death, but he know that he had to hold himself back and that was something he could really good.

[Everyone Else]

::Manuel felt the anger rise in his chest at the particularly dehumanizing (or demutanizing) treatment. The capture was bad enough; he did not need the verbal abuse, the literal adding of insult to injury. Unconsciouly, he worked his wrists, as htough that might undo his restraints; although it had not worked up until this point...::

[Everyone Else]

"No." Harry replied curtly, before devoting more attention to his food. He wasn´t less of a fanatic in comparison to Steven but knew he could better control himself. They both shared a deep hatred for mutants, a hatred that did not exactly result from bad experience but more from ignorance and disgust combined with an upbringin in an environment that had nurtured such views. Still, sometimes Harry felt like Steven could need a good punch to stay more focussed. When being on a job with him he usually had the slight feeling of having to have a look out on the other man as well. Harry was a perfectionist, messing up a job was something he couldn´t stand. Yet there had been occasions when just that had happened. It was the reason why he preferred working in very small groups or alone. The mistakes made would be his own then.

They didn´t realy have much of authority ranks in their small groups even though he saw himself a little superior to Steven. "Nothing." he continued after taking a bite. "but I´m sure he´ll tell us the one thing or the other later." He was of the opinion that there were several ways to act against mutants. Violence and more subtle threats. Psychologically, silence treatment and also letting a captive hear everything, witness everything they planned to do with him, or considered, coud help to be more of a torture tha actually trying to physically break someone. Eating while he had to stay hungry was just part of this treatment.

This one didn´t seem stupid and apart from that, one had to be careful around him. He didn´t know what powers the young man possessed even though the records were correct, he was an empath. They usually did research before setting a trap. It made things easier. Harry had his own books, his lists on jobs and their outcome and he usually took it with him just as his other stuff. Right now it was in one of the nightstand drawers.

[Shade]

Figuring that she would rouse suspicion with knocking at every door and waiting for the inhabitants to come out to have a look inside, Shade got a new idea. By far not all the rooms seemed to be occupied, so she focussed on those that seemed to have light inside, took a moment to listen if she could hear voices and then stepped close to the door to vanish a hole the size of a coin into it. With herself being invisible all the time, it took a little focus but worked rather well. She would peek through then and try the next room. Luckily, the hotel was not in any way luxurious, the rooms indeed being just rooms, not apartments so she guessed her little trick gave her enough of an insight. But apart from someone lying on a bed watching TV and a woman that judging from looks, could have been a hooker, she did not spot anyone in any of the rooms downstairs.

She made her way to the first floor, her sneakers giving little sound but one of the steps creaking slightly. She halted for a moment but apparently no one noticed since there was no one out on the corridors, so she just continued on her way. Reaching the first floor she found the same amount of rooms here as well, three doors on either side of the sparely lit corridor, wallpapers hopelessly yellowed and blotched and partly coming off. The carpet had seen better days too and had seen so many feet that it was flattened to an extend that her steps didn´t leave an imprint. Walking along the corridor slowly she made out that, if there weren´t some people sleeping already which wasn´t too likely since it had only just gotten dark outside, there was just one room inhabited here, the one at the very far end of the corridor, to the left. She could hear blurred voices coming from inside, male voices, one or two as far as she could guess for now and slowly made her way towards the door.

[Somebody?]

"Good" Steven answered with a nod and continued eating. Taking another sip from his coke and looked to the mutant then back to Harry. He knew that he always done a good job including research about the subject. Steven was not a man for such things, he prefered to do things right now. Capturing, torturing, simply doing things with his hands. At least, he knew a bit about this mutant. One of the important thing was to know the mutants abilitiy and he knew that he was an empath. "Yeah, later ... he will talk with us that is true" he said with another short look over to the mutant. Then he finished the cheeseburger and grabbed the small paperbag with the rest of the fries. Looking over to the mutant, he got up and walked over to the mutant. Munching some fries as he walked around the subject and looked over it to simply check all straps. "What do we have? And do not tell me you did not do any research for that job" Steven asked, because he knew Harry a bit too well. Before they started this job, they already worked together for a few times. They were not the best team, but in a special way not to bad. They had arranged how to work with the other and had done a good job before. One of the reason, why they got choosen for this job again.

[Everyone Else]

„Where would we be without my brains…“ Harry looked up, his voice bearing a hint of mockery when he focussed on Steven over the bound and gagged boy. Steven, most likely as he had learned over the last three years, was in for this job mostly for the fun of it, for living out his hatred against mutants while Harry, even though he had the same motives, preferred the more elegant way. Plan, be organised. That was the only way to move something. More people as hot blooded as Steven and it would be the end of their little group.

“Manuel de la Rocha.” He said, leaning back on his chair with a nonchalance that didn´t match the scene and came across every bit as arrogant and cold as intended. “his alias, creatively, is Empath. Which, surprisingly, means he has empathic powers. He can alter people´s emotions and the like. However,” he got to his feet and tossed the empty package of fries into the direction of the bin, scoring by accident. He walked over to the chair and within a few seconds loosened the gag and took it out, careful to keep his fingers safe. One never knew with them. “…his powers work touch based.” He continued. “long as he doesn´t get a chance paw you, he´s basically harmless.” He cowered in front of the mutant to get onto eye level. “That about sums it up for now I´d say.” He said, still talking to Steven, but his eyes fixed on the mutant.

[Everyone Else]

::The gag, when removed, was soaking wet; beyond Manuel's control, he had salivated from the item in his mouth. When pulled away, it caused a string of saliva to follow it, which only furthered his humiliation. Against all logic, he hoped that the restraints would follow, and unconsciously, his wrists strained against the binds yet again...to no avail.

Hearing himself described in such a clinical manner, yet with that undertone of pure hatred...it legitimized certain feelings which he had had for years, and at the same time managed to undermine his value as an individual. That was the goal, he knew in one corner of his mind, but it did nothing to counteract those feelings.

The one called Harry stared at him, and Manuel stared back, not willing to give him the ego boost by appearing broken.::

[Shade]

((OOC: back to initial posting order from now on: Steven - Harry - Empath - Shade))

As Shade walked towards the door, the corridor remained empty which further strengthened her supsition of this being the only room that was occupied for now. The hotel had two floors only, so this meant she would only have to peek into this room now and then she was through this this place. The chances that the voices belonged to someone in connection with Shona were small, but so was her chance of finding her by randomly sneaking around the city, so she didn´t bother with the thought.

The voices got a little louder but she couldn´t clearly distinguish them yet. There was a door between her and whoever they were and what Harry said was muffled for her when she halted in front of the door, standing aside a little, just in case to avoid being run into if someone was suddenly coming out. Listening, she couldn´t hear any more as in this moment the gag was being removed and noone spoke. Shade scowled slightly and waited for a moment, before her curiosity took over. Reaching for the door, she tipped it with her finger, vanishing a coin sized whole into the shabby surface before stepping up to it to have a look. She was careful about it and made the whole as small as possible, so it would not be spotted by whoever was inside.

[Somebody?]

"At least not here" Steven answered to Harrys words and walked behind him. He listened to his explanation about the mutant in front of them. "Empath, eh? To alter peoples emotions?" Steven replied with disgust in his voice. Just the imagination what these subject could do with their emotions was making him more angry as he already was. They just had to be careful, that they would not touch the mutant directly. Steven walked beside Harry and gave him an impressed nod "A well done job as always, Harry." It was the truth and he liked him for that, because he never had such informations about their subject. Of course, if he worked alone Steven had to find out more about his subject. Sadly, he was not the best in doing research. Therefore he had other qualities and Harry knew that.

Still munching the rest of the fries, he turned around the mutant once again and looked over him like looking over an insect. As he was at the bin, he threw the empty paperbag from the fries in it. "Then lets go over to the fun part" he said as he turned back to the mutant, before looking over to Harry and added "I guess, it is question time!" Then a smile appeared on his face, which showed pleasant anticipation of what will come next.

[Somebody?]

Harry simply nodded when Steve thanked him. When he memtioned getting started, Harry agreed. They weren't going to get anywhere if they just stood there, with the mutant tied up."Guess so," He said backing away from the mutant not taking his eyes off him. Harry tossed the gag on the floor discussed with the mutant's saliva being all over it. "Let's start off simple," He crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you know any other mutants?" Harry spoke calmly even though he felt differently. Getting information out of this worthless piece of meat was the objective and yelling at him wasn't going to get them anywhere. At least not yet. It felt sort of like the good cop, bad cop routine. Him the good cop, Steve the bad.