What Is Past Is Prologue

[Everyone Else]

::The moment Manuel's hands were free, these two would pay; he simply had to stall until he could slip from the binds. He would not information to either of the men: one was certifiably psychotic, and the other he could not trust as far as he could throw him. After all, they had kidnapped him, and were keeping him tied to a chair in a filthy room.:: "I don't know other mutants. I was raised by wolves, you see, and you two are the first other people I ever met. I cannot say that I'm impressed."

[Shade]

The door muffled the voices she could hear and Shade was too late to catch what Steven said. When she moved closer to the door, this came just in time to hear Manuel´s reply. She scowled at the sight. Even with her vision being partly hindered by one of the men standing a bit in the way, she could at least get a grasp of what was going on: two men (as far as she could see) were standing close to a chair on which a third man was sitting. He was tied and Shade guessed one of the men had just removed the captive´s gag or at least this is how she interpreted Harry´s movement. She narrowed her eyes in a meek attempt to see better. don´t know any mutants. ... raised ... wolves... even close to the door, she could not make out the voice too loudly. What the hell was going on here?

Something in the back of her mind instantly switched on a tiny warning lamp. Get out of here Shade, go get some cops or something...But she didn´t. Not now. Not yet. Had somebody asked her, she wouldn´t even have been able to tell why, but what little she had heard told her, the tied up guy was a mutant. The others probably weren´t. And even though she didn´t know him, part of her was starting to plot. Use your powers, they´re no danger to you. Do something... But what? There was the dim idea that maybe she had found trail that would lead her to Shona. She had seemingly disappeared and now there were these two people keeping a mutant captive. Could that be a coincidence? She clenched her fists trying to keep her palms from getting sweaty and just stood there for now, transfixed, staring into the room, half focussing her powers, half turning her head to hear better. It worked a bit. The voice became more audible. ...can´t say I´m impressed.

[Somebody?]

Steven gave out an evil laugh and turned around. "Ah yeah, you are doing a good job!" he said to the mutant as walked over to the wardrobe nearly the bed. "Harry?! I guess you agree to the simple fact that this subject is lying" he continued talking as he opened the wardrobe and took out a bag. Then he walked back to the table and placed the bag on top of it. "Maybe, he needs a small kick in the right direction to get back his memories" Steven said with a happy smile on his face as he took out a sprayer and walked back to the mutant.

[Somebody?]

Herry gave a small smirk as he turned to glance at his partner and then back at the scum sitting infront of them. "Yes, I think he needs some insentive considering he's not taking us seriously" He looked to Steve and at the bag. "I think it's time he sees the job you enjoy so much" He hated when the muties played games with them. They should just answer the questions instead of beating around it. Steve's job of physical force was an effective one, something that would make the mutant talk. He was sure of it.

[Everyone Else]

::Manuel glared up at the human called Steve and shook his head to himself. He knew this would get violent, but he had already resolved to give them nothing to work with.:: "Who says I wasn't taking you seriously?"

[Shade]

With her ear pressed against the worn out, rather thin wood of the door, Shade would have been able to follow the conversation far better, even at the momentary cost of being able to observe things through her self made observation hole. But she didn´t hear what Harry and the mutant said, or rather, she did hear it, yet the words did not seem to make any sense to her. Maybe, he needs a small kick in the right direction to get back his memories... That voice... she knew that voice. For a few painfully uncomfortable seconds her brain was trying hard to sort it in, as if it had decided this sort of knowledge really mattered. The other men´s words passed her by when her mind started to race ... until realisation kicked in with brutal force. She could place the voice now. Not the face. None of the two. This man had been wearing mask as had the other two who had broken in. He had only barked a few short commands, but his voice, this cold sneer of a man whose voice alone told a lot about how he saw those different from him, was unmistakable. Shade had believed those memories mostly buried, but now she knew they weren´t.

The realisation made her jump slightly like under an electric shock and her hand that had been losely against the wood, bumped against it lightly, giving the dull sound of an almost knock that sounded awfully loud to her own ears and that was surely audible from within. Cursing inwardly with her heart beating wildly, Shade hastily stepped away from the door, pressing her back against the nearby wall, trying to calm her racing thoughts and just in case any of them had heard the bump and came to investigate. Calm down, her inner voice told her, it´s more than two years ago, you can´t be certain it´s the same voice. There was no reply to that innr debate, mostly because the other part of her was almost scared to contradict.

[Somebody?]

Steven gave out an evil laugh, before turning around to grab out a scarf. Without saying a word, he walked behind the mutant to gag him again. As Harry had done before, he was careful enough not to touch him. Then he walked beside him and whispered into his ear "I say you are not taking us serious!" At the same time, he heard something at the door and looked over there. It sounded like a knock and moved up his hand to show Harry to be quiete. Without making any noise, Steven sneaked over to the door. Waiting there for a while, before he opened it and got one step out. Nobody was out there, but he was sure that he had heared something. He looked down to both sides of the corridor, but there was nothing.

[Somebody?]

Harry gave a less then aproval look when the mutant played stupid. It made him mad, but it would be worse for the mutant not for him. He remained standing with his arms crossed only following Steve with his head. Turning in the direction of the door when hearing something that sounded like a knock, he remained still while Steve investigated. "See anyone?" The last thing they needed at the moment was someone causing problems for them due to this mutant sitting in the chair.

[Everyone Else]

::When the men holding him captive turned their heads at the sound, so did Manuel. Who could possibly walk into as absurd and horrible a situation as this? Someone with worse luck than he had, if that were even possible.

The men temporarily distracted, he began struggling against his bonds with renewed vigor. All he had to do was free one hand...::

[Shade]

Their eyes met for a split second, but of course it was only Shade who noticed this was happening, the man looked right through her, piercing, cold, blue eyes seeking for an intruder he could not see. The way he reacted, the fact that he did not fix the place where she was standing told her he did not have any extra tools on him that might have helped him to sense her and that was a calming thought which however did do little to calm down her racing thoughts. Was this the man who had been in her apartment. Had he been the one who had shot at Jimmy and left him bleed to death? Her gut seemed to have an answer to that but she forced herself to listen to reason. And reason told her two things: 1) get that poor guy out there and 2) Are you mad? Get your butt out and call the cops! Option 2 seemed far more logicaland reasonable, but Shade would not have been herself, had she listened to reason alone. Her gut feeling told her it needed to make sure. She wanted to know if she was right, wanted some sort of proof this way or the other and the only way to get it was best connected to the option of helping the young mutant that was strapped to his chair. She needed a plan. A plan to distract those two. Her mind was racing, playing with options ... get them away from the guy inside, distract them long enough for her to free him, but also to get information on those two and if they were the ones she dreaded them to be.

Thinking, she remained standing pressed against the wall, her head turned, her breath almost held, waiting for the man in the doorframe to retreat again so she could think more reasonably. It would have to happen quickly. She hadn´t been able to hear everything but it didn´t actually look as if those two were meaning to play nicely with their tied up prisoner.

[Somebody?]

Steven did not answer to Harry and simply took one step forward. Now, he was standing in the middle of the floor and checked both sides with a long look. There were nothing and nobody. But, he was sure that he had heard something. He waited some more seconds and listened without any result. No sound were coming to his ears, nothing. Then he shrugged and finally turned around. "Nothing" he said to Harry, before Steven closed the door and walked back to the strapped mutant who was trying to get free again. Steven was sure that he could not, because they had checked his bonds and they were good.
"So!" he said and stepped back to the table where he had left the sprayer. "Lets see if we can get you a nice kick" Steven told the young man with a grin and grabbed the sprayer, walking over to him. Without any warning, he sprayed directely into the mutants eyes. Pepper spray was always a good helper when he could not touch a mutant. The pain was horrible and Steven could do it again and again how often he wanted.

[Somebody?]

Not saying anything when Steve stepped in the room, Harry kept his eyes on the mutant. He took a step over and back when Steve went for the pepper spray as a small curve formed on his lips. "You better talk before it gets worse," He told their prisoner. Harry made a causal glance at his feet before looking back up, his hands still crossed over his chest, him slowly losing his patience. Harry was a calm and collective guy but only to a point. He could be pushed to far and this mutant might actually do that to him.

[Everyone Else]

"Son of a-" ::Manuel began, but the profanity was cut off by the agonizing scream torn from his throat. That was, without a doubt, the most painful experience of his life; and considering his life, that was a tall order. His attempt to free his hands for malicious purposes was forgotten. He shut his eyes tightly and bucked, his body's natural instinct to protect itself.::

[Shade]

Shade had been trying to structure her thoughts. She wasn´t good at strategy, she didn´t know how to precisely deal with dangerous situations like these and therefore her thoughts had been rather jumbled, ranging from causing a fire alarm to knocking again and getting those guys out and distracted somewhere so she could get in and slam the door. But what then, Shadey? The idea to knock again, but be visible this time she ruled out from the very beginning. If these people were really who she suspected them to be, they might recognize her face and that would make things worse most likely. Also, they might remember her powers and this would take all the advantage she had, because not only were they probably armed, but also did she know she was not a particularly skilled fighter. She had to distract them long enough, she had to get them out of and away from this room for a while, both of them, and maybe this worked if…

She flinched when she suddenly heard the young mutant scream, or at least she figured it had to be him. She had no idea what was going on in there, but it sounded painful and told her she should definitely not wait any longer. Either do something or leave, but she had to decide now and leaving was no option any more for several reasons. Without further thinking, she pushed herself off the wall and dashed down the dimly lit corridor. The cops… she thought. But calling them was out of question. They would arrest those guys and confiscate everything in this room and then she wasn´t ever going to find out anything. There had to be another way.

When she reached the hallway, she still didn´t know what to do. She was still invisible and stared at the woman behind the reception for a moment, wondering whether she could be of some help in her plan. And slowly she started to have an idea. She inwardly prayed it would work.

It took more time than she wanted it to take though. It only was two minutes later that the receptionist left for a moment, but for Shade it felt like an eternity. Once the woman was gone, she walked behind the reception and soon found what she was looking for – a list of telephone numbers that matched with the rooms. Run down as this place was, at least the rooms had telephones. With flying fingers she went through the data for the room she knew the three men were in. There were only two names, not three, so they had probably brought the mutant here and no one was supposed to know. The names she found were Smith and Miller – that sounded random and was most likely an alias, but she didn´t care. It was all she needed for her purposes. She stared for the number for a long moment to memorize it, then left the reception and looked for a quiet corner near the restrooms, making sure there was noone else around. With shaking fingers, she dialled the number of the hotel room.

[Somebody?]

Steve started laughing as the mutant screamed out in pain. He shook his head and leaned against the table behind him. "Are you taking us serious now?" he asked with a dangerous voice and set down the sprayer right beside him. It would take some minutes for the mutant to get the spray out of the eyes. Steve would not need the spray for the next time, but he would. If he would not get the right answers, the mutant would get another spray into his eyes.
After some seconds, Steve pushed away from the table and walked behind the young man to carefully took off the gag from his mouth. As his fingers started to unknot the gag, the phone started to ring. He stoppedin the middle of his movements and stared over to the phone. Nobody knew that they were here and he continued staring over to the phone till it rang again. He tightened the knot and slowly walked over to the phone. "Did you tell anybody, that we are here?" he asked Harry and stopped in front of the phone, which rang again.