Chapter two: loaded question
I awaken in a lab of some sort with a cage around me, maybe a modern torture chamber. Electricity can be heard buzzing throughout the room. It's obvious what kind of nefarious torture method is utilized here. My body has been strapped down, my clothes removed. The thug that found me walks out of a doorway.
"You know, you are a hard man to find." I stay quiet. "Well I guess celebrities like their privacy. Alright doc, he's all yours" he leaves the room.
A man in a lab coat walks in, "my, my, what an interesting specimen, I may have some fun dissecting your brain when this is all over" he smiles at me eerily, though he could have done better than a cliché as idiotic as that. He pulls out some sort of handheld scanner, I do nothing. "Already submissive? Well that's no fun. OH! It seems that you have some sort of technology inside of you, a beacon maybe? Well let's take care of that." He pulls down a telsa coil, and walks behind the fence. "How about we start at 70 milliamperes?" an electric current hits my body, and agony; I can't help but scream. The stream lasts for about 20 seconds. It ends and I suddenly have trouble breathing. I pant then begin to laugh, "What is it?" the doctor says calmly.
"It's just; you seem to assume this is the first time I've been through this sort of thing." I continue laughing, obviously unnerving the doctor.
He looks at me then says, "I guess we'll have to make this special then." He turns the amperage up, probably at 100 now. The bolt hits me and I scream, the doctor becomes preoccupied with the console, now is my chance. I dislodge my shoulder, and slip out of my binds, and stand up stiffly, still being hit by the current. The pain is almost unbearable, but I sprint at the gate to this fence and burst through, allowing the electric current to sufficiently destroy the equipment, and it stops suddenly. I get up slowly as the doctor is rushing at me with a scalpel. I go left, he hits my right shoulder, but I have his right arm, I ignore that pain and push until I hear a cracking noise come from him as he screams. The thug runs back in. This time he is brandishing a pistol, he fires once and it misses my head by millimeters, slightly tearing the skin. I pull out the scalpel from my shoulder, and throw it at the thug hitting his arm with the gun. He drops it and I rush at him, knocking him into the machinery behind him. He lands a blow on my face as I put him in a submission hold. I am no longer impeded he stands no chance. He passes out right before I hear a gunshot. He hit the man I am holding, I'm lucky, he isn't. I throw the man at the doctor, and he fires off a couple more shots. He is knocked over and drops the pistol, I walk over to the doctor and pick him up by the neck.
"You are going to tell me what I wish to know, is that clear?" I say, he nods vigorously. I walk him over to the chamber I was in, and strap him down.
"I told you I would talk!" he says.
"Call it a precaution." I say flatly, "You weren't after me were you?"
"No." he says
"Then why take me, I am after all only second string."
"It wasn't about you; it was about your knowledge."
"My knowledge of what?"
"I can't say."
"Hmmm… of Cadmus?" I ask.
"No, Cadmus is old news; they had been informed you knew something bigger, we couldn't take the chance."
"What then could I have known?"
"I can't say, they'll punish me if I do, I won't even exist anymore." I'm getting closer to an answer I didn't even ask a question about; maybe I should follow that lead.
"What do you mean you won't exist, nothing could just pluck you from existence?"
"You don't know their power, they can make galaxies disappear. I'm an ant, less than that in their eyes. My existence is circumstantial to them, I have to be useful. They can change the fabric of reality."
"Reality in itself is circumstantial though isn't it?"
"You don't understand, their power is immeasurable, they have already made changes to this universe, can't you see the connections? They are the puppet masters of the human race. Even the justice league can't win this fight, it has already been decided. They are gods."
"Power does not a god make; I've fought alongside some proclaimed gods. They are arrogant, easily brought down by their own overinflated egos."
"You cannot win, their victory is inevitable."
"How cliché, a servant loyal to his masters."
"And what are you loyal to Question, or should I call you Victor now?" he cackles
"You know vanity is the worst sin man has ever been guilty of, try not to gorge yourself on it." I walk out of the room, stepping over the body of the man who caught me, an unfortunate loss.
I exit the building, a small abandoned shack. Walking outside I remember the wound in my shoulder, I look over and blood has stained my whole right side. It drips from my glove, I stare at the puddle it is slowly making, seeing it makes my body react faster to the blood loss. I become woozy and my vision blurs. I can say only a few words, "watchtower, emergency pickup." And then I black out.
