Of Monsters and Men (Jon Hawkins)

[Janus]

"I was thinking of inviting you back to my place. Come on." Says Captain Dyre with a smirk, picking up a motorcycle helmet from beneath her desk.

She makes her way outside to where her motorbike is kept and swings her leg over the saddle.

"We'll save some time if you teleport us to the corner of 58th and Riding."

58th and Riding, that means uptown. Its filled with sky scrapers, corporations and millionaires.

[RidiculousNinja]

Following along behind the Captain he was wondering if he was right about her... with all of her talk and what he could ascertain.. was she some kind of demi-god? Her strength and long life made any chemical mutations unlikely, she knows something atleast of the gods. He was pretty sure, though not entirely in belief, that she was some kind of demi-god or got her own abilities from some "divine" source. unless she had some kind of amulet on her hadn't seen.. yet. He grinned at the sense of adventure.. and possible revenge.

Also did she expect him to teleport the motorcycle? Granted he can obviously teleport clothes and gear but he's never done anything as large that was inorganic. Well worst case scenario they die in a horrible fiery ball of metal and fire... well he would.

"Maybe not 58th but I've been to 55th.. Do you bring a lot of troubled souls bent on revenge back to your place?" he asked in amusement as he prepared to cast them through space and time into the bowels of the elite, though curiously intrigued to how vigorous her social life was.

[Janus]

"More than you might think. " She says as you swing on behind her. She hands you the helmet.

"Put this on. You're probably easier to damage than me."

The teleport is difficult. Picking up a motorbike should be impossible. Picking up a motorbike and a person, see above. But you manage it, somehow it works.

"There's always more to learn." Says the captain gunning the bike into life.

At this point in the morning the roads are empty and the three blocks pass with barely a sign of life. The corner of 58th and Riding holds a large expensive looking apartment building. Large garage doors rise rapidly upwards granting access to a basement car park and she drives in.

The entire building appears from the inside to have been designed with security in mind. The garage doors when in place would probably stop a tank, which given Gotham's history is actually a realistic prospect.

Two ramps down, the garage itself is well lit, airy and filled with expensive looking cars. The Captain rolls her bike into a custom bike park and kills the engine, waiting for you to dismount before she does.

[RidiculousNinja]

Hawkins slowly dismounted the back. Being so close to the Captain made him well uncomfortable. Or too comfortable. He couldn't decide. He concentrated on his surroundings attempting to fit more clues together about what they were doing at her place. Coulda easily just had the info at the precinct, right? He wasn't complaining, just curious.

[Janus]

The captain swings her leg off the bike and kicks a lock that appears attached to the floor into place.

"Come on." She says simply and heads toward the elevator.

Pressing the button the door slidss noiselessly open and she steps inside.

It looks like the inside of any elevator anywhere. A mirror on the back wall gives the impression of space, but the rest is decorated tastefully if blandly in metal and wood.

"Mind yourself, this drops a bit faster than you might be used to." She says and places a hand fully on the glass of the mirror and you see clearly the laser impression of a scanner run quickly over it. Then she turns and presses and hold in the button for the basement, the floor you are already on.

The doors close more quickly than you might expect and the elevator starts to descend. From its speed you'd guess again it is moving quicker than a normal elevator would consider safe but is slows down gently enough that you are not injured.

You would guess that the drop took you at least 3 floors down.

The doors open to a well lit lobby area with a table against one wall and in the opposite wall a door that would look more appropriate on a bank vault. At least a floor thick and made of metal its edges have the thick metal rods you see in bank vaults around the world. Through the door you see what looks like a living area.

"This is what you might call my panic room. I'll explain everything once we're inside."

She takes her side arm and places it on the table, then bends over and takes a similar gun from an ankle holster and puts that on the table.

"Leave your weapons with mine. Trust me, it's necessary."

And with that she stands and waits by the door.

[RidiculousNinja]

Hawkins dismounted the motorcycle without a word. Captain will explain in her own time. With hands in his trench coat pockets he stepped into the elevator, though for some reason it did make him uncomfortable to be in the small box.

"Ya know I always wanted to have sex in an elevator." He said matter of factly but with a grin.

As they exited the elevator and the Captain removed her weapon and asked him to do the same he raised an I brow and took it out of its beat up hip holster. The familiar steel feeling cold and heavy. "I'm really hoping your not the black widow type." He made another pass at her. Though to be honest he was was just nervous.

Social Skills 3 (seduction)

[Janus]

The Captain smiled and shook her head.

"Jon if I wanted to kill you we'd never have met. This is going to be difficult for you but I am trying to help you."

She ushers you through the doorway and into the room beyond. The single room is large and plain, like a room that has been emptied of all its furniture.

Simple strip lights in the ceiling are the only source of illumination. Plain white plastered walls and a light brown carpeted floor are (asside from an electronic keypad next to the door) the only decorations in the room and the only furniture are two plain wooden chairs.

Your senses pick up smells and impressions of where furniture used to be in the room. This has been emptied recently by someone who wasn't the captain, but definitely still someone female. The purfume still hangs in the air, though there is minimal sign of effort. Someone strong and female.

The door closes behind you with a thunk.

"This as I said is my panic room, it can withstand an indirect nuclear strike, is magically protected and is probably the only place in this city you can't teleport into or out of." Says the Captain sitting down in one of the chairs.

"I've brought you here because I don't know how you are going to react to what I am about to tell you and I need to keep you safe. Anytime you want to leave and I am certain you are making the choice of your own free will you can."

She gestures to the chair opposite her.

"If you still want to know what I have found out sit down."

[RidiculousNinja]

"Ah this is the red pill blue pill situation." He sits down and scratches it five o'clock shadow. "Look Cap not sure if you noticed but I ain't exactly great at taking things slow." His seriousness showing despite his joke.
"Whatever it is cant possibly be that bad."

[Janus]

"Red pill it is then." Says the Captain with a rueful smile.

"So, you are aware that a very few of us in the department actively work with the Batman. It is because of him that we have as much information as we do, which isn't that much, on what was done to you."

"He has discovered that in addition to the physical changes Doctor Strange inflicted on you, he also made some mental ones. To put it bluntly he programmed you and the Batman believes that that programming is still there, under the surface waiting to be activated."

"As far as we know the programming is triggered by key phrases, spoken in Hugo Strange's voice. The Batman found one of those key phrases and has given me a recording of Hugo Strange saying it. We think it will simply paralyse you. But we aren't certain."

She holds up the dictaphone she put in her pocket earlier.

"We can try to deprogramme you. Give you a fighting chance at staying in control if you ever come across Hugo Strange but this will be a living hell. You may come to hate me as much as you do Hugo Strange, but if we are lucky you will get your life back."

[RidiculousNinja]

So no matter how hard he had tried it would've come down to luck... to him being faster that Strange talking. Who the fuck was this guy.... who the hell wakes up one day and decides today I'm going to ruin someone's life and enjoy it.. if ever he wanted a hit...

Strange turned him into something. For what purpose. When the incident happened he just wanted to go back to being a cop. Or better yet a Marine. So much more simple than everything now, it was you vs the bad guy. Thats all he wanted. This fairy crap and magic stuff just made him angry. How could he not know... he didn't want to know all the things lurking in the shadows of the world. Maybe.. Strange's programing could make everything go away.
Or it could turn him into something else.

"I guess we'll just have to see....do it.."

[Janus]

"OK, Strange has a lot of techniques he uses. If we are going to beat this we need to know which one he has used on you, so no matter what happens, I need you to keep repeating to yourself, 'this is in my head.' Ready?"

She waits for your nod and then presses play. The next six words hit you like a freight train.

"Subject one six five three. Aquarius."

You hear the words and before you know it the world just seems to fall away from under you.

You are left in darkness. A deep black void where nothing exists. You know there is something in the void, something terrifying, a thing of unspeakable horror. It has found you many times before, and when it finds you bad things happen. But not just bad, terrible things, aggonies that you wish you didn't have to survive. Terrors that reduce you to a whimpering child. Humiliations too intense to be contemplated. Tortures of mind and body and soul. You will do anything to avoid them, but the only way to avoid them is to be still. Still as stone and silent and a mouse. Still and silent or to horrors will come for you.

Time in that blackness has no meaning, there is just the horror and you, all alone.

Then there is something else, something else from outside the darkness. A voice, so faint it might as well not exist. Listening to other voices brings the horror as well, but even so you can hear it.

"John, I know you can hear me. Remember what I said. This is in my head. This is in my head."

You dare not listen, dare not speak, dare not think. The horror is there, waiting for you to make a mistake.

Then you hear another six words, loud and clear this time.

" Subject one six five three, Gemini."

And now you have a choice, you leave the darkness, leave the horror behind. You can forget the horror, go on with your life. Remembering the horror would be devastating, you remember trying it once. Jumping at shadows, terrified of every noise in the darkness. It was no way to live. Forgetting is easier, better. You will be happier if you forget.

[RidiculousNinja]

John tried. Really tried to hold on to a reason to stay but the dark bliss that beckoned him was strong and he was losing it. All he could think about was the loss of his bride to be, the accident that may as well have claimed his life, his drug dependency that had become the only way to deal with the pain that he constantly relived,and the dreams.. no nightmares... yes the dark... it felt so good.. and he was weak.


(I'm going to say Jon is losing this one at the moment. I'm not going to put stones into anything. I see this as more a role play opportunity)