Totally Worth It

[twocoolforschool]

[That helpful fellow from the mission at the mysterious dome is at Sakihama now! In a cell. Shackled. Under guard and extensive surveillance. Negotiations between Dr. Saotome and the several groups interested in throwing the guy into a deep, dark hole and letting him rot are ongoing.

So yeah, he tried to steal the Getter and attack Saotome Labs as a distraction to cover his escape - while everyone else was already dealing with the dead and wounded from the bizarre flesh-doppelgangers' attack. And yeah, even before that his terrorist squad killed several guards on their way up the mountain to raid the Labs. And yeah, if you have any access to official security memos or the like, you may be aware that said raid was the culmination of a campaign that started with radicalizing a fair chunk of a university campus and led through multiple bombings and an attack on a government ministry in which many public servants were gunned down in cold blood - and one of his own subordinates was left behind with life-threatening injuries and most of his face missing.

But surely an eloquent appeal to common decency and human compassion will set him straight!]

Comments

[no99]

[Human compassion? Naaaaw. Have a visitor.]

What is your relation to Getter Robo?

[twocoolforschool]

[A familiar voice. One of the Unity Group pilots at the dome. A mech he hadn't recognized.]

I was forced into its cockpit at gunpoint.

[no99]

You didn't sound disappointed to be piloting it. I confess that I'm very interested in it myself.

[twocoolforschool]

Adrenaline does funny things when you're thrown into a life-or-death battle against your will.

What do you know about it?

[no99]

I know what I saw, and little else. It's an incredible machine, perhaps enough to drive one mad... or were you mad from the start?

If you are released from this prison, will you return to it?

[twocoolforschool]

Trying to escape being shanghaied into risking my life seems a low bar for madness.

Tell you what. Let me out, and I'll send you a postcard to let you know where I go.

[no99]

No. If you escape from here, it will be through Unity's whim or your own power.

But if you don't return to Getter Robo, I've half a mind to try it out myself.

[twocoolforschool]

[A spectator type, then. She wants to watch him perform for her.]

Seems to me they have an opening right now. Afraid to fill a dead man's shoes? Or to ride with me?

[no99]

Just a feeling. The Getter has a plan, and I don't think I'm a part of it. So, I'm giving it a chance to make its will known.

Besides, if someone else takes the seat, I already have my own weapon.

[twocoolforschool]

[A mystic, then. Pity - if she hadn't admitted to only knowing what she saw during the battle, Hayato'd be curious just what she might be basing this on. As is, he has his own curiosity to sate, rather than acting as the canary for someone else's.]

Yes, I saw. Not a machine in any recognition manual I've read.

[break_the_nine]

[It might! However, Leos wasn't going to even bother. Because what was in front of him was a murdering terrorist piece of trash from what he heard, and he endangered people from the Unity group too - he didn't know anything about the other stuff but if he did it'd just make him try harder. Sadly he can't do anything to kill him, Lana immediately confiscated his sidearm when she heard Hayato was tossed into a cell at Sakihama. What he can do however is inconvenience him.]

-Click.clickclickclickclickclickclick.click-

-PREEEEEEEEEEEEEET-

[Admittedly the double whammy of consistently flicking a flash light on and off at Hayato's face with the switch being loud enough to be heard and blasting a vuvuzela out... well... its only a matter of time before the guards themselves get tired of his shit and boot him out of the brig after beating him up.]

[twocoolforschool]

[Well, it's not like it's the first time Hayato's been subjected to sleep deprivation and disruption tactics. Never at the hands of someone so... childishly happy about it, though.

He closes his eyes and does his best to ignore the jackass. Exercising forbearance is definitely the best option for the impression it'll make on his captors.

...After a while, his eye starts to twitch.]

[break_the_nine]

-PREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET-

-clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick-

[And now the light is bouncing around and being shone at Hayato's face from different angles. Was Leos bouncing around to a jaunty tune only he could hear in his head? PROBABLY.]

-PREET! Preeet! PREEEEEEEET! Preet!Preet!PREEEEeeEEeEeEEEEeeET!

[Laughing Maniacally internally.]

[twocoolforschool]

[Okay. Options. He's pretty securely bound, on his knees with his hands behind him. He doesn't have anything he can throw. He can wait for the guard, but that means balancing the guard's enjoyment of this spectacle against his annoyance with it, and watching Hayato suffer may be worth putting up with a lot of irritation depending whose watch it is.

He's going to have to talk. Chances are that pleasantries will be laughed off, though. So:]

How did they die?

[break_the_nine]

PReeeEET?

[Leos slowly lowers the offending instrument to give Hayato a twitchy smile.]

How did who die?

[twocoolforschool]

[Oh blessed relief. Given what he's seen today, Hayato's revising upward his estimate of the chances that instrument was literally devised by a demon from the depths of hell.

And, hmmm. Looks like he hit close, but hard to tell which direction. Still, he just needs to provoke this guy, not wow him.]

The one you blame me for.

[break_the_nine]

Oh you didn't kill anyone I know. I'm just doing this because you're a murdering scumbag terrorist.

I just can't stand people like you really.

[twocoolforschool]

[Well, he's stopped the noise, at least.]

And it's just a matter of principle for you. No personal element at all.

[break_the_nine]

Oh, its just that people like you pretty much took everything from me. Of course the ones I really hate have all sorts of people keeping them safe and sound with their fancy money and sponsorships and private armies and legal teams.

[twocoolforschool]

And you let that stop you?

[break_the_nine]

Oh no, I'm not. I'm just making sure that I'm ready to take him down when I see him. But it never hurts to kill a few more scumbags on the way to keep me satisfied.

[twocoolforschool]

So you've done that before. You're practicing. Starting small and working your way up.

How did the first one feel?

[break_the_nine]

How did it feel? I was only disappointed I couldn't hear anything from his end but I'm pretty sure he died screaming.

But other than that, it was amazing.

[twocoolforschool]

It's good to have a cause, isn't it? A justification to keep the guilt quiet. A little righteousness really adds spice to that amazing feeling.

[break_the_nine]

What guilt?

[twocoolforschool]

You're more honest with yourself than I expected.

[And there Hayato had just wanted to provoke the brat into an outburst the guards would be forced to remove him for. Instead this is proving surprisingly interesting. Of course, just being unabashedly eager to kill doesn't guarantee he's any good at it.]

Who are you gunning for, kid?

[break_the_nine]

Hustler One. Nineball

[Raven's Nest Number One Merc? The Arena Champion? The Red Death himself? The unbeatable murderer who would take any job at all and leave nothing but death and suffering in his wake? Leos has some high aims.]

Maybe after him I can get around to collapsing the Chrome and Murakumo Millennium Corporations too.

[Ah yes, two major names in the biotech and weapons development industry. Both known for their highly questionable ethics.]

[twocoolforschool]

You're coming at this backwards. If you want a guy like that dead, go after his support first. Undermine the corps, then target him when he's cut off.

[way_of_vengeance]

Mister...Hayato Jin, was it?

[A young, rather busty woman in a military uniform awaits outside his cell, carrying some files.]

I understand you've been quite busy.

[twocoolforschool]

Idle hands.

[GHQ. Fairly extensive access, then. Likely more dangerous than she looks. What does she want from him?]

[way_of_vengeance]

Troublesome things, aren't they. I am Lt. Kanae Ootori, at your service. [She does a short little curtsey.]

The doctors are quite interested in your...unique mind. So, I was hoping I could get your "unique" perspective on these surveys. [Kanae holds a stack of papers to him through the bars of the cell. Her hand remains on the free side, though.]

[twocoolforschool]

[Hayato shrugs at her, to rattle his chains. Hands still cuffed behind his back, here. If you want surveys, you're going to have to take a chance on changing that.]

Your doctors?

[way_of_vengeance]

Something like that. They have an interest in odd people.

Hmm...I suppose I can undo those handcuffs, just for while you're filling out the surveys...

[She holds up a key.] Please step closer, if you would.

[twocoolforschool]

"Odd people". That's one way to describe their reputation.

[...If his official captors wanted to interrogate him, even indirectly via 'doctors', he'd have expected them to send actual guards along. Is this an attempt to lower his defenses? To convince him that their security is lax, to bait him into rash action? Given the paranoia they displayed in their preparations for his arrival, Hayato can't quite believe they're actually that unconcerned.

Unless this woman has enough pull that they have to indulge her, even in something like this. In which case he wants to know what she wants to know.

He doesn't let any of this show on his face, of course. She may well be blind, but there's no sense in taking chances. Instead he knee-walks toward the bars, turning to present his hands. His ankles and wrists are all chained together, but with one lock released he should have enough slack to write with one hand.

He watches her carefully over his shoulder.]

[way_of_vengeance]

[She takes the key and undoes just the one lock, giving him free use of one hand. And she hands him a pen, while she's at it.]

Now, let's get started on those surveys!

[She'd be making eye contact if her eyes weren't closed.]

[twocoolforschool]

[A pen and everything. There's a lot Hayato can do with a pen, much of it off-label. Still, no reason to push his luck too far just yet. He takes the pen, and the surveys, adjusting his chains to give himself enough freedom of movement to do so - and testing how much else he can expect to manage, too. They were careful, but it's easy to underestimate Hayato's flexibility.]

Much obliged.

[So just what kind of questions does Kanae have? He's well used to giving "normal" answers when he needs to, after all.]

[way_of_vengeance]

[The questions are standard mental health examination things. Tests for schizophrenia, sociopathy, ADD, that sort of thing. Later ones start to ask about educational history, place of birth, and-wait a second, someone seems to have snuck a few enlistment forms into the big packet of mental health information.]

[twocoolforschool]

[Has he not noticed? Hayato fills the whole thing out quickly and efficiently, expression neutral, seemingly intent on the task. He doesn't go quite so far as humming thoughtfully, but he seems like he could start at any moment.

When he hands them back, once Kanae's able to analyze them - if she bothers - it'll turn out Hayato is a textbook paranoid, schizophrenic, narcissistic sociopath with more compulsions than you can shake a stick at and ADD too severe for him to possibly have finished the test. His personal information identifies him as someone called Sugiyama.]

Is this your regular assignment, Lieutenant Ootori? Human Resources?

[way_of_vengeance]

No, I have Sayo do that.

[She flips through the papers.]

Well, I'll be sure to report to my superiors on this...Mister Sugimiya.

[A long pause.]

...Are you...a spirit medium?

[twocoolforschool]

And yet here you are today. I'm honoured.

[What the - no, Hayato refuses to allow a reaction to show. Instead he lets the question sit for a moment in silence, then slowly raises a finger - he has just enough slack for it - to his lips.]

Some things shouldn't be spoken of openly.

[onewalksintomordor]

[Not long after Hayato is detained...]

Awake already? No wonder you can handle the Getter.

[Ryoma normally doesn't punch anyone that hard, because he doesn't like to murder people if he can avoid it. He'd had a feeling Hayato could take it, but still, he came out of it shockingly well. He's not in a great mood about it rght now, though.]

You can see why we want you on our side, right? Not just anybody can pilot that thing.

[twocoolforschool]

Obviously not.

[It's almost like a compliment, Ryouma!]

It was made to fight them. Made with that kind of power, to chew pilots up and spit them out.

What are they?

[onewalksintomordor]

Tch, hell if I know. The Doc says they're the enemies of mankind.

[Saotome has his theories, but there's no proof yet.]

A couple of them got the drop on us when he came to recruit me, too. They're dangerous, but they're afraid of us.

[twocoolforschool]

That doesn't make them stand out, these days.

[Enemies of mankind are a dime a dozen, but Saotome thought these ones called for that... thing Hayato briefly had control of. The memory of it still resonates in his bones.]

But he wasn't recruiting you to fight an enemy no one knew about. They've been keeping this secret. Kaiju and PRAYERs and Noise, and this needed to be secret.

Which means you want me very badly.

[Which means Hayato's in a good bargaining position.]

[onewalksintomordor]

You wanna pilot it just as bad, don't you? You might not have my nice personality, but I think we've got something in common: we can't turn down a challenge.

[twocoolforschool]

[He's not wrong, but Hayato'll be damned if he'll admit it. The sheer ordeal of piloting that thing was more of a challenge than anything else Hayato's dealt with in years, and the power trip that came with it matched. More than the challenge, though, is the mystery.]

I'm no slave to my ego. That doesn't mean I like having unanswered questions.