****Gotham Team****
"Where are we going, Dick? We're heading south, don't we need to pick up more people?" asked Sansa.
"The Library of Congress." replied Dick vaguely. Sansa's eyes popped open. "In DC? Don't we need to rush to-?"
"No. We need information on something first before we can go anywhere. Connor's already talked to May Rin, they'll meet us in England."
"Oh." Sansa said before leaning back down in her seat. Damn, she wished she could have least brought a book or something… her phone rang in her pocket, the tune of "My Baby" by Hands Up, her favorite group, rang through the bus. She blushed and opened her open.
"Privet, govorya Sansa." She said in Russian, then waited. "vse v poryadke…. vse v poryadke….. "Grimore?"" she tried out the name.
"eto khorosho, spasibo, chto soobshchili mne znat Zoya." She snapped her phone shut. "The group is called Grimore Heart." She said.
Barbra looked up from her book. "Grimore Heart? Weren't they that radical, self-styled left-wing revolutionary group?" she asked. Dick nodded, as though he knew this.
"Yeah. In the 1900's, and they haven't gotten any new members since then." he said.
"But doesn't that mean?" asked Sansa.
"They should all be dead, or very old. Something is wrong. In order to stay that young…" he trailed off, then shook his head. "Immortality. We're going to the Library of Congress to get information."
"You can't take anything out, right?" asked Sansa.
"No."
"Then how are we even going to get it? How are we sure information is even in there?"
"It have more than 34.5 million books and printed materials, as well as more than 117 million maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints and drawings."
"How are we going to get it?"
"We'll figure out that when we get there. We're going to enter DC in a little bit. The library isn't open this late, so we can eat then sleep until we go in the morning." Dick said.
Sansa sighed and rolled her eyes. Barbra went back to her book, and Dick went on driving. Sam was dozing off peacefully, leaning on the window. All the way in the back, Connor fiddled with his arrows. He ran his fingers over the smooth surfaces of the very tips. Of the bows. He had heard everything.
DC. Washington DC, the nation's capital. He felt a wave of panic wash over him. He could still smell the chemicals, he could still see the very last thing he saw with 20/20 vision. An oxygen mask on his face and a masked man leaning over him, a heart monitor and an IV drip with other machines next to him.
Washington DC, his hell.
He smoothed over the tips of his sharp pointed arrows with lines attached to them. He lightly touched the top and felt a sharp prick in the middle of his right index finger, and felt blood running down his finger. He wiped the blood off and stuck his finger in his mouth until it stopped bleeding.
How he escaped, he can barely remember. Blindly stalking around, running, running, shoving away anyone who got in his way, and running endlessly until he felt the sunshine. Even then, he didn't stop until he was finally free. Until he stopped hearing cars and people, until he was alone.
His mind wandered to places of him that he hadn't seen in years, until finally…
"Connor? We're here." Sansa said. Connor looked at the sound of her voice.
"Okay." He said, sitting up. Dick had parked the bus on a street. "We should go eat." He said.
"I'll go buy some food." Connor said. Walking up to front of the bus. "But-." Sansa started. "It'll be fine. If one messes with me I have my bow." He said, waving his bow.
"You should get some sleep before we eat." He said, looking at Dick. "And Sansa, you and Barbra should take care of Sam.
"Connor-." Tried Barbra,
"This isn't open for discussion." He said and walked off the bus.
Dick sighed. "I guess he's right. Sam needs that bandage changed." He ran a hand through his hair. He looked extremely exhausted , and had dark circles under his eyes.
'You go to sleep for a bit, Dick. We'll handle Sam." Barbra said.
Dick nodded and went towards the back of the bus and sat down in the window seat next to the bathroom.
Barbra and Sansa slowly changed Sam's bloody bandage. She winced a lot, but didn't say anything. "How are you feeling?" asked Sansa after they changed it. "Well, you know, getting impaled with a blade in fact, I actually feel pretty crappy."
"Huh, I wonder why?" Barbra replied in an equal term, smiling. Sansa smiled too, and they were all just setting there, smiling like idiots, when all three burst into gales of laughter. Finally they all quieted down after realized Dick was sleeping. It wasn't just random laughter, it was the thing that broke the ice between them, it said, "I'm on your side, We'll be okay."
Sam sniffed and checked her watch. "It's really late, how long ago did Connor leave?" Barbra grabbed her wrist and looked at the clock.
"2 hours ago." she said, concern growing in her voice.
"Did it really take that long?" asked Sam.
"You were all loopy from the pain meds, Sam. It took a while for you to hold still. But Connor should be back by now." said Barbra. "Maybe he tried to look for a place that was open?" asked Sansa hopefully. All three girls looked outside of the window.
What if something really had happened to him?
He was blind after all, and with the meta humans and powered-freaks disappearing… They should have never let him go out alone.
"Do we go look for him?" asked Sansa.
"No. I mean, uh, yes." Barbra said, torn.
"I suppose we could just wait until it gets light out. We can see him better." suggested Sansa.
The girls nodded in agreement. So they waited. And waited. And waited. An hour passes, two, three, four.
Finally, after dawn is just being to break over the sky, Barbra popped up out of her seat. "That's it, I'm looking for him." She said. Sansa jumped up
"But Barbra-." She stopped in mid-sentence. The door to the bus opened. It was Connor.
He was beat up.
Like, really bad. His hands were bleeding and bruised. He had a black eye, and his lip was cut on the bottom. He had scratch marks, no, like deep nail marks, like some had been digging their nails into him, around his face and neck. His throat was cut a little across. Not to deep, but it was still a cut. His long sleeved shirt was ripped.
"Connor, what happened!?" asked Sansa in shock. Conner didn't say anything. We walked to them, and dropped a brown bag on the floor, then walked down the aisle to the very back of the bus.
"Connor?" asked Barbra slowly and confused. He stopped. "I'm fine." he said with his teeth grit. He opened the door to the on board bathroom and walked in, shutting and locking the door behind him.
Sansa looked at the bag. "It's food, but…" she looked over at the bathroom. Dick sat up blearily and rubbed his head. "What just happened?" he asked. Barbra and Sansa both ran to the back of the bus, while Sam stood up slowly and wincing, walked down to the end.
Barbra knocked on the door.
"Connor? Connor what happened are you alright?"
"Go away." he said through the door, his voice muffled and oddly stiff.
"Connor, those wounds need to be treated we need to get the person who did this." Barbra said. She waited. No reply.
"Connor?" asked Barbra. Connor didn't reply.
"I'm fine. " he said.
"You are NOT Connor. You can stay in there if you want, but you need have those injuries cleaned." Barbra said.
Connor said nothing. "I'm not coming out." He said finally.
"Then I'm coming in, unlock the door." Sansa said. She had grabbed the first aid kit. They waited for a few more minutes, then finally, the door's lock clicked. Sansa looked at Barbra before opening the door, then going in, locking it behind her.
She flicked on the light. Connor was sitting on the toilet seat with the lid down, his knees pulled up to his chest. He looked up at her, his pupils dilated hugely. "The room is spinning." He muttered to himself.
"Okay, um… here." Sansa said. She opened the first aid kid and took out a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol. She leaned and started to dab it on the nail marks. Connor didn't move an inch, he just keep a rigged grip on his knees, his arms wrapped around them. He didn't flinch or wince at all.
Sansa found it a little creepy.
What was going on with him?
She put down the bloody cotton ball and started to place Band-Aids on the deeper ones.
Was he alright?
She cleaned off the blood from his lower lip and studied the cut. It wasn't that bad, it had stopped bleeding already.
What did he do?
She wiped the blood clean from his neck and bandaged so it would stop the bleeding.
How?
She inspected some deeper cuts going down to his neck. "Take off your shirt." She ordered. He obeyed a few minutes later, stiffly taking off his long sleeved shirt.
Sansa gasped.
"Connor! What…? How?" Sansa muttered, utterly shocked. She almost gagged. She put both hands up to her mouth.
"OhmygodConnor!" she said quickly, in one breath. She could breath, she was suffocating in the small room.
Connor looked at her hazily, totally out of it. "It wasn't me." He muttered.
His right arm had a band tied around it, and had a blue and black mark on his arm. His arms were riddled with scars and there were deep gashes and welts and bruises on his arms, fresh scars mixed with old ones, it was gruesomely bloody, with ripped skin on his right arm and tissue, the gash with the black blue mark on his right arm near the band was green and sickly, and leaking out yellow puss and…
Sansa took a deep shuddering breath. It all added up now, the band on his arm, the scars, the dialed pupils, he was sweating like crazy, and how the room was spinning.
"Connor, what… how… when?" she stuttered out, trying to say it. She remembered it from health class in the East End, the teachers warning them about it. It was pretty easy to get, and it still was, in the East End, her mother raiser her well enough not to use it but Connor…
"LSD. Drugs." He said quietly.
Sansa could breathe. She was going to die if she didn't go out soon. He…he was doing drugs... but he said he didn't do it… it wasn't him… how? When? Her brain couldn't compute everything.
"It's what I get when I'm a Fink." he said quiet and sad, as though it had happened before.
Sansa backed up against the door.
"Sansa? Connor? You okay?" asked Barbra knocking on the door. Sansa had almost forgotten where she was. She took a deep breath. "Yeah, Yeah, we're fine." She called, all the while staring in horror at Connor.
She stared at him, at his injuries and his scars, and his welts and bruises.
"This is who I am, Sansa. Who I will always be. There's no escape. Not for me, at least... Not anymore."
BOOM, your mind was just blown. Do you think I did well? Give me a real, honest opinion, not just the sponsor question answer. I got inspired by "Go Ask Alice" to do this chapter, and it fit in well with Connor's past (Thank you ppgzmlpfimlover!) This next Q will be the LAST ONE. The one in first place is Cahayafosc with a total of 18 WHOLE POINTS! They submitted a two tributes and an escort, with the Sponsor answers. If you don't catch up soon, It'll go to them! The 100th Annual Hunger Games, written by Team Cato, if you submit a tribute for her, and tell me you did, it's a points for your character. I have a link on my profile, so please do submit and catch up!
First to answer right- 2 points
Everybody else- 1 point if you answer right OR wrong
If you submit a tribute- 5 points for female, 6 points for male, 3 points for an escort. (No Limit)
Sponsor Question Chapter 5
In the movie Anchorman, Ron Burgundy says that what superhero was denied a bank loan?
Last Sponsor Question answer,
Q: Which Batgirl was drugged by Deathstroke and forced to fight the Teen Titans?
A: Cassandra Cain
First to answer was Cahayafosc, (*gasp* SHOCKER!) Don't forget to submit those tributes and escorts, and there are NO limits! Until next time,
Peace and Mist,
Rlb190
P.S- Thank you InsertDecentNameHere!
