mistconduct | Issue #30

Issue #30

[Private to Barbara Gordon]

How do you take this shit, Barb? How the fuck do you keep going?

[Private to Infirmary Staff]

So what's the plan, Docs? I'm getting fucking bedsores. I want out.

[Private to Vesper]
Hey. Can we.

Look, pick up the phone. Just.

Can we talk?

[Later, public]

[He's still getting drugged every night, as much for his mental health as his physical. It's easier to get through the days when you're on a cocktail of anti-depressants.

This, however, has its disadvantages. Mainly that Chris is so exhausted that he sleeps through the night, unaware of his warden item beeping underneath the bed. The teddy bear - yes, his warden item is a slightly charred teddy - is recovered in the morning, still beeping, when Chris wakes up.

It's alarming, how he can go from sleepy and lackadaisical to fucking pissed in a single instant]

Who the FUCK killed Slevin?!

You assholes, I swear to FUCKING god, I will fucking come out of this bed and murder the shit out of you! Where the fuck is my inmate and who the fuck is responsible for this bullshit?! You think just because I'm in the infirmary doesn't mean I won't come there and murder you back, you utter shithead?!

Fuck. Someone get me a fucking wheelchair, or crutches, or whatever. Who saw him last?!

Jesus christ, you're a fucking pack of animals!

[After Slevin's been found]

Call off the search, his body turned up in the inmate showers.

Whoever did this; you're fucking dead. You hear me? You can't fucking run on a ship, dumbass. I'm coming for you.

Fuck everything.

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Hey, new kid.

Meet me by the inmate showers, okay? Chris wants us in the buddy system, and since we've already kinda talked...

Oh. Okay, sure. I'll be right there.

[ Megamind is waiting outside the showers, quiet and tense. Its not his natural state -- he's trying so hard to get back to normal, but normal is so skewed these days on the barge... ]

[ He's short, slender, blue, and big headed. Hopefully Scott won't be too weirded out since he's seen him on the network before. ]

[Normal is complete crap on the Barge, but then, Scott's a freaking werewolf, so how can he really judge? Same goes for Megamind - he knows what he's looking for, but it's still weird to see in person. Scott's still expecting him to be a hologram, or a special effect or something.]

Uh, hey, [he says, and eyeballs the bathroom door.] So...let's go, I guess.

[It can't be worse than being trapped in the school with the Alpha. He hopes. And reaches out to push the door open.

There's nothing inside of note, it looks normal. Scott's looking at everything, because this is the first time he's set foot in here, but to Megamind, it will look the same as always. A public pit stop. Not very clean, not very dry, not very pleasant smelling, but not foul. Scott scratches his nose, because he smells something - but he can't place it. There are too many other scents.

It's easy to miss for someone just using the shower and getting out, but in a corner, behind a drawn curtain, Slevin's body is propped against the wall. His eyes are plucked out, but the eye lids are closed so it isn't immediately noticeable. The bloody streak has been carefully wiped away, so that it seems as if he's crying blood from one eye. He's posed modestly but almost comfortable, with his legs crossed. His skin is pale from blood loss, and pruned from the water. There's still a pool of it beneath him, though it's clean.

His chest, though, is the first thing to notice. It's carved open, not surgically or precisely: his heart is on display, flaps of skin pulled back, ribs broken and pulled out of the way. There is no way to tell, on the Barge, but forensics would say he was alive when the cutting and breaking began.

And though his heart is left, his thymus is gone, though it's not the first thing of note. Lower, there is a surgical incision, where the liver was removed. Slevin's arm is settled to hide that on first glance.]

[ Megamind nods once; he draws his DE-Gun and flips it to the DE-Stroy setting, because the DE-Hydrate would be useless in the wet of the showers. But he remembers Two-Face bringing Cassel here, and it has him on edge. ]

[ He starts checking showers, one after the other, before he startles once upon finding Slevin's body -- he recoils, making a choking noise in the back of his throat. ]

God--!

[ He clasps one long fingered hand over his mouth, fights his gorge down. He's glad breakfast was hours and hours away. ]

Scott, I-- I can't dehydrate him here for transport. And -- we might want someone to look at him. This is definitely too gory to be Two-Face.

Maybe we should bring Banner down here to examine him before we-- uh. Move him.

[Scott was checking the other side of the room, but he turns when he hears Megamind, whipping around and hurrying over. He smells it when he gets close, but there's a period of five seconds, maybe, where his brain can't parse what he's seeing.

Then it stops being a mush of play dough, a Rorschach test, and becomes a person, and] Oh God, [he mutters, lifting his arm to press against his nose. He can't stop smelling it, now. He's seen the pieces of a girl ripped in half, he's seen a werewolf destroy a man, but this, this is just...

He backs away, swallowing hard.]

Oh my God, this is, that's just - who'd do that?

S-somebody sick. Very sick.

[ Megamind pulls up his communicator, firing off texts and talking, briefly, to Chris -- whose outrage can be heard over the communicator a moment later. ]

Normally I'd de-hydrate him, and we'd move the body that way, but it's so wet....

Jesus he's barely older than Chris. Just a kid...

[He presses the heels of his hands against his eyes, but he can see it against his eyelids. His heart is pounding, but not enough to lose control, even though it feels like he could. This is gross. It's awful, it's - sick.

So he takes a moment, then drops his arms and draws the curtain. It just seems - wrong, to stare at him like this.]

How are we going to move him? [He doesn't sound calm or totally in control, but he sounds less like he's freaking out.]

Stretcher. Dr. Banner is coming down. Won't take long. It's-- he's in the infirmary, just one floor up.

[ He can't really tear his eyes away from Slevin's corpse ,for a long moment, before he finally walks away,grabs towels, and -- covers him as much as he can. There's a strange tenderness to it -- like he's trying to be both gentle and polite. ]

[He looks away when Megamind ducks back behind the curtain. He doesn't want to see - doesn't want to see it.]

Okay. [He's repeating it to himself, what he told Cassel. It's going to be okay. And he didn't wake up somewhere other than his bed last night, so this wasn't him. A wolf wouldn't do this.

Would a werewolf?

No, no way. No chance it was him. Those fears are still new enough to make him cringe, and he scrubs at his face.]

Chris is going to freak.

I know. Chris and I, we're-- [ family, close -- ] neighbors.

[ There's a lot in one word that says it has more meaning than that. ]

He'll be.

Well.

Let's just say the noise is going to be nonstop for days.

[Scott just nods mutely, then looks back at Megamind. He's trying to keep calm, keep it together, but underneath he is really just a sixteen-year-old kid who has been in over his head for months before this.]

So there's - a death toll, right, he's not actually...gone?

[ Megamind nods. ]

He'll revive, and be weak and in pain, but it'll pass within a week's time.

[ But then Bruce arrives, with stretcher, working it's folded up form through the area until he finds them. ]

I'm here. Let's-- [ He looks to Scott, on the verge of freak out, and Megamind, who is coping but not well. Well, alright. Executive choice. ]

Scott, why don't you go ahead and get the elevator and hold it for us while we get Slevin's body situated?

[He takes in a breath to say he can do this, he's fine, but - he's not fine. He doesn't want to see it again. He wants to help, but he wants to get this done.

Still, Bruce hasn't seen it yet. So he swallows hard, and hesitates.]

It's bad. [He's still got it. He's good. He presses his nails into his palms, and they still feel human. He's okay.]

I'm prepared, Scott. It's alright.

[ He smiled, faintly, for Scott and reached out to grip his shoulder, to steady him. ]

You don't have to stay. We've got this.

[ Megamind's nodding slowly in the background, pale blue and grim. ]

[He should stay. He should be stronger, or - something. But he knows the second Bruce's hand comes down on his shoulder that he's not going to.

He nods, running a hand through his hair as he turns to go.]

I'll hold the elevator.

[He looks, as he's heading away, a little like a dog with his tail between his legs.]

[ Faintly, echoing on the tile, Megamind's voice reahes as Scott goes his way: ]

Gonna go puke now that the kid's gone.

[ Bruce's voice, deeper and gentle, ]

I can handle this if you need to have a minute.

[ Megamind's response is lost to the clatter of the stretcher being moved-- but they'll get the body up, covered, and out in a few minutes, both men wet and weary looking as they head to the infirmary. ]

[Scott hears it. He can't not hear it, and it makes him feel a little better, that he's not the only one. So he goes and calls the elevator, stands in the doorway to keep it open with his eyes closed and his forehead resting against the cool metal. He's there when they come out with the body, and he doesn't try to run off. He'll see this to the infirmary, at least. Then he'll go puke.]

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Issue #30

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