Bracelets for the soul

The fighter waved at Cyrus as he entered the room, and turned back to Alraada. They gave her a thumbs up as well, trying to put on the cheeriest voice possible despite being terrified of what was to come between her, Vale and the rest of the experiment members for that matter. After a fight like that? A fight that made the first day look like a fucking slumber party?

"Of course I showed up for you!" They said, cheerily. "What are friends for, right?"

---

Amil nodded as Nace grabbed onto him, the man giving his partner a weak smile. "G-good. Glad to hear it." He sputtered out as he trudged into the elevator. "Yeah, I don't think I could do anything else if I wanted to, tonight. heheh.." He chuckled as the doors closed and the elevator began making its ascent to their floor. His smile faded during the ride, and once the doors open, he spoke up again.

"Uh, Nace...."


"Maybe a little quicker on the draw with that ring next time, okay babe?" He said in a somewhat betrayed tone. It was made ever clearer from today's fight that Nace still wasn't over Vale, and that he would be less than reliable should Vale and Amil ever get into a fight again. And he was sure they would.

He grazed his hand along the hallway wall as he finally made his way back to their designated bedroom. He unlocked the door and slowly began stripping himself of the costume, the latex sticking to the man's sweaty body. Upon removing the clothing, he walked into the bathroom. "Uh, I'm gonna go ahead and take a shower... You can join me if you want.." He said, softly as he stepped onto the cold tile of the bathroom floor and turned the shower on.

Nace could feel his face grow hot at his partner's tone. He covered the ring with his other hand, almost in shame. "Um, yeah. Of course man. I'll be on that shit." He tried to sound like his normally cocky self but his words came off flat and dead. 

The moved into the hallway and then back to their room. Nace stripped as well with his partner, with no intentions of doing anything really since they were both exhausted from whatever...THAT was. He seemed a bit surprised that Amil offered for him to come in. But he took the offer. They need to talk.

He walked under the water, soaking his hair before leaning against the wall. "Hey, uh. I know that was bad back there. I know I fucked you over." His voice was almost a whisper. This apology thing was surely a rarity for him. "This whole thing is a mess." He sighed and pinched his brow between two fingers. "It was all dumb fucking luck. He's here. I'm here. Stupid." He rubbed the sides of his cheeks with his thumb and forefinger before looking back over at Amil. "We found him because of this experiment. I had to dig the letter I was sent out of the trash. And here we are. All dumb fucking chance, coincidence, fate, who the fuck cares anymore." He slapped his hand against the wall in exasperation. "But I chose you, okay? And if it came down to it, I'd chose you again in a heartbeat. I thought I was ready for that. I SHOULD be ready. Maybe I was more ready years ago and this decade made me soft..." He rolled over so his back was completely again the shower wall now. He stared up at the ceiling as water dripped down his face. "I don't...want to kill Vale." He spoke the words almost too loud. They echoed around the space as the first heartfelt truth he'd spoken. "...But I have to." He closed his eyes. "It's what I came here to do. And if I leave before that happens, it'll be me instead. So I have to."

---

Vale made his way into the hospital, a place he'd never wanted to go again, but for different reasons than a certain scientist. He visibly tensed as he entered the cold, brightly lit halls, a shiver traveling down his spine all the way down his torso. He had forgotten about it all. Or at least he'd tried to.

"Sir!" A worried looking woman at the front desk called to him when she noticed the torn remains of where his left arm had been. The shock seemed to distract her from the fact there was no blood coming from the 'wound'. "Oh my god, I'll call a stretcher right away--." Vale didn't even stop to acknowledge her. He simply went right behind the desk, scooted her a bit to the side as she screamed, and checked the recent patients admitted. He found Alraada's room number and started that way. "S-Sir! You need a doctor!"

Vale walked faster in hopes of reaching her room before he could be stopped again. His heart had started pounding again, both from the hospital and from the impending doom at what he would find when he finally got to her. 


The echo of one of Nace's earlier threats caught up to him, and his breathing hitched at the thought that HE would be the one to have ruined her in the end. He should have left her then. He shouldn't have come here at all. It was a mistake. It was far too early to come back to the real world--.

"Oh my God!" The sound of a terrified nurse passing by entered his ears. He was going to just keep walking again, but she held out her clip board to stop him. "Sir, we need to get you the the emergency room."

"Move," Vale spoke shortly, not in the mood to try and explain his lack of limbs to a stranger.

"I insist, you must be in immense pain--." She place a hand on his shoulder where the arm was missing. Her hair startled to rustle and her eyes narrowed in confusion for a moment before her face suddenly contorted into one of panic. She let go of him, struggling to grab at her throat as her face turned red as a cherry. "S-S-," She couldn't speak at all. It wasn't until her feet moved off the ground that Vale seemed to regain his sanity, letting out a choked breathe as though he'd been holding it with her. She dropped back suddenly as the wrestler backed away in horror. 

"I didn't--I told you to--," He grabbed at his missing arm, appearing to make contact with something that wasn't there. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, please leave me alone. Please." He turned and started running down the hall, leaving the nurse still gasping for breath.

"ALRAADA!" He screamed, looking into different rooms in a panic. "ALRAADA!!!"

Nace let out a small gasp as arms wrapped around him. He just kind of stood there, unable to respond to the physical touch of his partner. When Amil finally stopped speaking, he slowly lifted his left hand and put it gently between Amil's shoulder blades, taking another moment before placing his remaining hand on the man's hair. "I'm sorry." The words he'd been avoiding finally came out. And they were genuine. He knew all too well what a grave mistake he'd made today, letting Vale live through that attack. "Fighting sucks ass, and not the good kind of ass sucking." He let out a dry laugh before reaching over towards the faucet and twisting it off. "Enough of that."

They stood there for a moment longer until Nace started to feel cold from the evaporating water. He grabbed two towels off the rack and gave one to Amil. "This is going to get pretty tough," He spoke seriously. "But I can do this with you. I've done it a thousand times, what's one more psycho down the drain? But before we go head to head again, some more...strategic measures should be in place." He glanced at Amil with a glint in his eye. "This experiment is crawling with supers, and as much as I absolutely DESPISE saying this, it's better if we all have a common enemy. We don't have to like each other. We don't have to be 'friends'. But just by BEING a super, Vale has a connection to those people we can't really understand. They can't just be 'afraid' of him to want him dead. They have to hate his guts too." He smirked despite himself. "If we want Vale out of the picture, no loose ends, and trying to keep my personal feelings out of this shit show, then the only way to do that is to snuff out all the good people see in him. So that he doesn't have a single ally left to fall back on when shit hits the fan again. And we're well on our way there after that little display." The smirk turned to a full-out grin. "It's about time people start seeing that guy for what he really is. Not a misunderstood super. Not some crazy washed up wrestler. No, no. Vale is a villain, and everyone is going to agree with that by the time he's six feet under."

Nace exited the bathroom, going to put on a pair of shorts to sleep in as he spoke. "True, he's on his way there. My presence alone has helped with that, he's a fucking mess if we're near each other for more than a few minutes." He went back to the bathroom and rung out his hair, squeezing the water into the sink. "I did check around before we left. Besides Alraada and a few broken bones from some idiots, no one really got hurt. Looks like the guy still has some self control. So that's part two. Get rid of that."

He towel dried his hair one more time before brushing it out. "If he was still at the same level as when I first met him, oooooh boy would there be a body count. But he's honed his skills over the years. I may have helped with that, unfortunately," He made a slashing motion like he was holding an axe, "Since I was the one who cut off his limbs. Seems to have helped him have an outlet for those powers of his. He used to have a surplus of it just ready to lash out, but that's given him some discipline. Breaking that concentration will certainly be dangerous on a day to day basis, but he'll be weaker in battle if he's spending too much time trying to make use of that rag doll of a body. Plus him breaking shit wherever he goes will add to the whole 'loose cannon' vibe he's established for himself all so well. But then we have part three."

He looked back at Amil, his eyes softening a bit. "If we really want everyone on our side, Alraada included, then there is one person I don't think we'll be able to persuade, and that's too much of a risk. Especially since she's one of the nicer people here." The soft look in his eyes hardened. "The death of an innocent draws people together. No one can forgive something like that. Not even Alraada. So to make 100% certain we have everyone as an ally, and no loose ends," He slowed his speech down so that he was sure Amil would get it.

Amil hung the towel up on the rack and followed the man through their hotel room, listening as he went through the details of his plan to further destroy Vale's reputatuion among the other experimentees. For most of the plan, Amil was on board. Sending Vale into spiral after spiral would be easy enough, given the man had almost as hard a time controlling his emotions as Amil did. He liked the idea, until Nace explained the third part of his plan.

Amil's eyes widened in disbelief at what his partner had just said. "Piami!?" He reiterated, seemingly perplexed despite the reasoning behind it being clear as day. "Y-you can't be serious?" He stood their in silence for a moment more before taking a deep breath. He turned away from Nace, leaning up against the wall and mentally kicking himself for what he was about to say.

"I think I'd be better suited to make that happen." He said. "With you going off and starting a fight at nearly every turn, this is the only time I've been outwardly aggressive. And given Galystris and Piami were no where near the fight, my reputation with the two can still be salvaged." He looked towards Nace, a serious look on his face. "I can bond with the two, and when the moment is right, and Vale tries to attack me again, it'll be like leading a pig to the slaughter." He chuckled, dryly, a knot forming in his stomach due to the plan's main focus.

"If we play our cards right, and Vale will have killed the girl by the end of the month. And in that moment of confusion and disbelief, you and I go in for the kill against Vale. Hell, everyone would see us as heroes! I can hear them already. 'How could he kill that innocent girl!' 'Serves him right, he had it coming!' " Amil snickered again, letting out another sigh in an attempt to calm his nerves.

"If we want this plan to go through without a hitch though, I need to make a deal and soon. And with the current situation, I think I might have the perfect candidate." He grinned as he turned to Nace. "We should go to the hospital tomorrow morning."

Amil's gulped nervously at the sheer magnitude of the consequences should he and Nace fuck this up. He took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves, looking towards the door. He couldn't help but wonder if the two had returned from the date yet, or if they were at the hospital as well. He turned back to Nace an smiled.

"I appreciate it. And same goes for me. You ask, I'll tell. Just be sure you want to hear it." He winked at his partner as he walked over to his suit case and pulled out a pair of booty shorts and an extra long shirt. "I want you at the hospital, though. Maybe not IN Alraada's room, but there in case anything goes down again. Like I said, we're a team." He smiled at his soulmate as he got dressed. "And if this deal goes through with Alraada, the rest of the plan will be a cake walk."

He looked towards the door again and scratched the back of his head. "Do you think Galystris and Piami are back yet? Without Vale's side of the story, it'd be reeeeeal easy to paint him in a bad light right about now." He chuckled.

Alraada waved to the purple blur she identified as maicy.
"Thank you for coming. And yeah, I'm fine for now. Don't worry." She said with a smile.
She heard Vale's yells and suddenly snapped from her smile.
"Vale....?" She whispered to herself.
She scared, guilty, and relieved at the sound of his voice.
Aberdeen had asked Alti already to protect her.
"You guys, you don't have to do that...he can come in." She spoke quietly.
She looked around the room and sighed.
"Besides, I have to apologize to him. For jumping in the path of the fountain. Remember that it's my fault I'm in here, ok?" She said, smiling weakly.
"But...I couldn't ask for better friends. I haven't had anyone want to do something like this for me before, so....thank you."


((MonkeyandMooseInc LadyAurablade ChibiGissy))