If there's trouble, all us freaks have is each other.

[thefuzzyguy]

Kurt had proved very hard to control for such a little guy. His teleporting could be controlled with stolen MRD technology, modified so as to be a bit less safe and a lot more punishing if he tried to get the collar off. But the mild, frightened kid they'd caught had turned into a determined little terror, and his various infractions had gotten him condemned to increasingly unpleasant confinement. A cell large enough to climb around in let him try to ambush the scientists coming to look at him. A confined space left him at an advantage over anyone without night vision, a prehensile tail, and a wicked kick. In the end, they'd settled on a modified version of the heavy-duty manacles that kept the most dangerous subjects spread-eagled against the wall. He didn't fit perfectly and might have found a way to slip even that, so they'd turned it upside-down. His physiology kept it from being agonizing the way being held that way would have been for a normal human, but it did leave him light-headed and dizzy, and he finally seemed subdued.

What the great minds of Hydra had missed was that Kurt had never intended to hurt anyone. He just wanted to get out. What came after that he didn't know. If he went home they'd find him again. They might hurt his parents. But the one thought he could keep clear under the muting influence of the collar and being held like a giant blue bat all the time was that he needed to get out.

The thick walls and the constant blood pounding in his head made it hard to pick out, but there was suddenly enough noise in the hallway to catch his attention. He groggily lifted his head, squinting toward the bars in the door.

Comments

[mightiestgreen]

"S'alright..." he could talk till they put him out. Bruce really didn't care one bit at the moment. "I can guess. You're a mutant, right?" He'd heard of them a bit through the media, of course nothing good, but they never had anything good to say about the Hulk either.

[thefuzzyguy]

"Ja, we guess? The ones on TV only get weird when they're my age, though. I always looked like this." Not that he has any idea of what he could be besides a mutant. Leaving aside the theory that he was a baby krampus, anyway, which he'd considered the best available idea when he was four.

[mightiestgreen]

"It's not a bad guess." Aliens, maybe but who wants to open that can of worms? Not Bruce.

He lapses into silence, feeling very much a prisoner right now. "How long have you been here?" he asks quietly. Bruce really shouldn't be asking such depressing questions.

[thefuzzyguy]

There aren't any other questions, though, are there? "I've kind of lost track. The collar und hanging like this all the time make it so they don't even have to drug me. Long enough that even my tail feels atrophied." The restraints do provide mild muscle stimulation to keep from leaving the prisoners crippled, but Kurt's used to constant motion. He might already be going insane. It's hard to tell.

[mightiestgreen]

Bruce is practiced at staying calm. But with the blood Hydra just took from him, he's no doubt, given enough time, they will figure out how to make more gamma monsters.

And he's not having that.

"No way to slip out?" Bruce tries to crane his neck so he can see better. Was his tail restrained too? His initial thought being to put it between the collar and the neck to give it a pulse to track. Then he could slip out of it unnoticed.

[thefuzzyguy]

He's apparently allowed to talk when he's being pessimistic and assuring his fellow prisoner that they're trapped forever. "Nein, everything's locked up but my tail, und it doesn't do me any good when I can't move anything else." Kurt has just enough knowledge of ordinary technology to kick the TV until it behaves. When it comes to crazy secret superscience, it might as well be magic. He tried hitting it when he first arrived and it just hurt. He hasn't really had any ideas since.

[mightiestgreen]

Now that he was less drugged up, Bruce's scientific brain was starting to click it's gears together again.

He was going to have to tell this guy...

"Er, sorry this is late but what's your name?" He hadn't even asked.

Bruce was going to have to find a way to communicate his ideas without letting their captors know.

[thefuzzyguy]

"Das macht nichts. ...Er, no problem. I'm Kurt." He'd conceal that, but he let it slip when they first caught him. At least his last time is still a secret. He's mostly sure they know exactly who and where his parents are, but on the off chance they're bluffing, he's not giving them anything. Fortunately, Kurt's just an ordinary name.

[mightiestgreen]

"Kurt...I'm Bruce." His last name was definitely known but no need to bring it up just yet.

He made as if he was just looking idly at the floor again but very quietly, below a whisper, he plays a hunch. "How good is your hearing?"

He had noticed the pointed ears.

[thefuzzyguy]

He's never been a fan of the Hulk stories, anyway. The news, as a rule, is depressing and, up until a few months ago, never had any effect on him.

Kurt jumps the very little bit his restraints allow him to. He can just barely catch the words, but he gets the idea. But there's nothing to suggest his co-conspirator has equally good hearing. "Uh, pretty good." He pauses as long as he dares to make it clear he's trying to answer. "Name. Good name." Babbling nonsense, but he's pretty prone to nonsense anyway. Hopefully their captors won't pick up on it that fast.

[mightiestgreen]

Good. The kid was quick for being hung upside down for who knows how long.

Bruce waits a moment before asking another question aloud, "When do they eat around here?" and then the second one very quiet, "Alright, I can't promise this will work. Just keep giving me stuff to answer."

[thefuzzyguy]

He's no supergenius, but he's sneaky. "Um, it's hard to judge time like this. I don't get hungry fast when I'm not moving. Do you?" It's... well, it's something to answer. He's trying his best to focus, but there's going to be a lot of uncontrolled blather.

[mightiestgreen]

Hopefully Hydra will get confused by the blather while they're trying to do something else.

"I'm always hungry. Higher metabolism. I guess you teenagers know something about that, huh?"

"This will sound strange but can you spit at your restraints?" Bruce knows these types of restraints are for holding people but their downside is being electronically controlled. Enough moisture and they would short out like a fuse.

[thefuzzyguy]

It certainly does, but he's willing to try anything and making sense isn't a big priority since he's been living with a constant headrush. "Ja, probably. About being hungry, I mean." He hopes this is going somewhere. It's a real strain on his limited faculties to come up with halfway plausible responses.

[mightiestgreen]

"What's that accent, German?"

"If you get it wet enough, it should short out and let go. But you won't have much time when it does."

"I shouldn't say anything, you should hear my spanish."

"If you can get your tail between your neck and your collar, that could block the sensor for a time too."

[thefuzzyguy]

"Ja, Bavarian," he says distractedly, trying to get that straight in his mind and picturing the collar. He knows what Bruce doesn't. He doesn't need to get out of his restraints, just to get the collar to stop blocking his powers, and then he can get them both out. (And, considering the man doesn't know that, helping an apparently useless kid is quite good of him, under the circumstances.)

"I'm pretty good with languages," he finally remembers to say, as he brings the spade-shaped tip of his tail to his mouth. Transferring spit and cutting off the sensor at the same time seems like the best call.

[mightiestgreen]

Bruce kept steeling himself for alarms, people running, or the influx of tranquilizer that signaled they had been found out. But so far, no such occurrence had happened.

"I'm fair...better with math, really."

He doesn't say much else, letting Kurt work on what he'd told him to do. Even if he does get loose, Bruce knows it's a slim to none chance that he can get out of the contraption he's in without disabling the computer.

He doesn't know Kurt's teleportation trick would be able to get them both free in a jiffy.

[thefuzzyguy]

"I stalled out on algebra," he says absently, getting his tail as wet as he can so the words come out even more garbled than a German accent would usually do. It's a bit gross, and he's annoyed at himself for even caring when he might be able to get out of here.

It doesn't look like much, but it's apparently odd enough to earn him another shock. It hurts plenty, but he doesn't care, because he manages to slip his dampened tail in and short the whole thing out. Disrupting the circuit burns his tail, but he'll worry about that later. His collar's only out for a second before the backup kicks in, but that's all he needs to port out of it, straight across to the other cell. He lands upside down in front of Bruce, his entire sense of the world scrambled by being wrong-side-up so long.

[mightiestgreen]

...he definitely wasn't expecting that.

"What in th--!" Bruce is startled by the sudden arrival of his cell neighbor, who he was PRETTY SURE was over in the other cell a moment ago. Even if he is upside down, he really needs to right himself quickly before he's found out.

"Quick, hurry, you've got to...run..." Bruce trails off, falling asleep again as one of the red alarms sound overhead. They were making sure nobody was getting out that had already slipped their bonds. Bruce mumbles, trying to stay awake as he sags against his restrained wrists, "...go, get out..."

[thefuzzyguy]

Kurt's had his teleporting for a few years, and being both naturally curious himself and with a couple of academics for parents, he's tested it as best he can. He can make it outside this building, at least, but he's not sure what he'll be up to after that. He can take a passenger normally without too much trouble, but the condition he's in now doesn't make it likely that he'll be able to do a second jump outside. And he was only half conscious on the way in, so the door is about all he knows to aim for. And he'll be bringing an unconscious guy along. This is the worst plan ever.

He's still doing it. He lurches halfway to his feet and leaps for Bruce's arm. He could just as easily grab the man's leg and port with much less trouble, but he's terribly touch-phobic and not thinking too clearly. The arm is a lot less personal. "Sorry, this is kind of a rough trip," he mutters as he grabs hold, and makes the long jump that dumps them onto Hydra's back porch, so to speak.

It... might be called an improvement.

[mightiestgreen]

There's a dizzying black nothing that Bruce is gratefully not fully conscious for. And then he lands on his stomach with a whoomph of air out in a groan, wondering vaguely how he's fallen out of his bonds. Even if he's dreaming it or its the drugs, he'll take the chance and struggles to try and get himself off the floor. He's not making much progress yet. "wha'happ'ned?" Bruce tries to ask.

The sirens are still going off but slightly muffled now that they're out of the building.

[thefuzzyguy]

"Poof," Kurt says dazedly, exhausted by just two ports and all over pins-and-needles as blood returns to his extremities in its normal portions. "But there's probably a million guys coming." Not to mention this facility is surrounded by scary walls. "I can get us pretty far away, but they'll probably be right behind und, well, I might pass out." He's not trying to be pessimistic, but Bruce has a right to know this is the lousiest escape ever planned.

[mightiestgreen]

There's a funny sound coming from Bruce. It sounds like he's...laughing? Maybe it was the ridiculousness of the situation plus the drugs, but Bruce felt much better now that they were out in the open.

He puts a hand up to the guide rail to drag himself up onto his feet, wavering a little. "Million guys...good." His eyes flashing green for a second. He really didn't like changing, letting the Hulk have the upper hand, but in this circumstance...Hydra had pushed enough buttons to get him ticked off. And you wouldn't like Bruce when he's angry.

"I owe you so I'll take this one. You take it easy."

[thefuzzyguy]

"Ja, okay, sure..." He's just glad he doesn't have to take them to the top of the wall and then as far away as he can see, because, well, he might die. His nose might be bleeding and his vision is swimmy, though that might just be his head facing upward again. "So you don't need a lift to the top of the wall?" Just so he was clear. He thought he might be able to do that one safely.

[mightiestgreen]

Bruce takes a slow breath, feeling his own head starting to clear. "Give me a moment and there won't be a wall."

He has an inner conference with his monster, something like this.

You hear that? A million guys all coming to get us. Are you going to let them lock us up again?

There's a resounding NO and Bruce winces, almost falling back on his knees as he holds the sides of his head. With a yell, his body starts morphing into something very different than a skinny physicist. His arms bulge, his skin tints darker and darker to green as he grows in height and bulk in a matter of moments.

The Hulk is loose!