Discovery, Exploration
Summoning up every ounce of their courage, Rue makes their way into the secret underground bunker that once belonged to Dr. Oslac Quade and are confronted by the horrifying truth of their origin.
Urging their unsteady legs to carry them once more, Rue slowly creeps closer towards the entrance of 18215 Everbrook Hill, keeping one hand to the wall for support. Would anyone look at them now, they would almost certainly reinforce the rumours about the place being haunted, their skin deadly pale as they gradually inch closer. Using their heightened senses, they look through the wall to see two figures not too far from them on the opposite side of it. The internals are mangled but recognisable, and Rue knows that hidden under one of the piles of debris is a secret hatch to the lab. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing then, that neither Alec nor Rachel seem to notice the hatch beneath all the detritus, remains to be seen as Rue manages to calm themself down enough to remain concealed. "I guess I'll try and organise a forensics team to come down here in the morning," Alec says, dejected, "Maybe they'll be able to dig up something among all of... this." he kicks some of the rubble that skitters along the floor and into a wall. Rue wonders if the lab has fared any better than the space above, or if Quade has destroyed everything he could on his way out. The underground area is too far for them to see even with their powers, and so they wait quietly for Suplex and Upton to move on, finding a pitch-black nearby alcove to hide away in the meantime. "Alright, Alec. We'd better get going then," Rachel says, seemingly just as frustrated, as the two begin to make their way back out of the ruined warehouse, "You heading out tonight?" "I dunno," he replies, stepping carefully through the hole in the debris, "What about you?" "There's a drug ring I've been tracking down operating out of the docks. Wanna join?" "Hmm..." Rue witnesses with wide open eyes as Alec Upton's clothes quickly folded into his body and his flesh took on an almost semi-solid consistency. His facial features quickly disappeared, leaving his face an expressionless mask, and a new outfit of light body armour covered by a long white jacket emerged and wrapped around his form. Within a moment, Rue could tell exactly why the Detective had smelled so familiar and why his very presence set them on edge for the man who stood not thirty feet from them was the renowned hero; Blue, "Yeah, let's do it." As the hero pair disappears into the direction of the docks, Rue stays firmly in their hiding spot, staring numbly at the now empty space. ''Oh fuck...'' They whisper breathlessly after a few minutes. Alec Upton is Blue. As far as secrets go, Rue has just struck gold, but the very thought of revealing this to the Spider makes them gag. Truth is, they kind of liked the detective. He's a persistent pain in their ass, but it amazed them that he would go this far for a cold case that everyone else seems to have given up on. Sharing this with Creel would be disastrous for Blue, and Rue isn't certain they can have that on their conscience. No, they decide, this is a secret that's best left untouched. They would have to find something else. Turning their attention back towards the building, they ponder their next move. If there's any evidence still in the lab... They don't move. No matter how much they try to convince themself that it would only take a couple of minutes, Rue cannot get themself to step across the threshold, their head throbbing as the adrenaline courses through their veins. "It's okay," a voice calls on the wind. Rue looks around and even with their enhanced senses can see no-one in the vicinity, "You're okay, Rue... You can do this... You're not alone..." “Okay, definitely losing it…” Rue chuckles, running a hand through their hair. Still, the voice has brought a strange sense of calmness with them, and after hesitating a moment longer, they take the first step. "Not lost, Rue. Found..." After the first step comes the second, and the third, and before long Rue has found themselves just short of the debris covering the hatch. It appears to be near-enough the epicentre of the long-extinguished flames, but maybe something of the lower levels survived. Moving the debris with their telekinesis, Rue can see the hidden handle under the layers of ash and dust. Their fingers tremble as they crouch down, taking a deep breath before they open up the hatch. They remember being guided down the stairs in front of them before, through a narrow corridor to the lab at the far back. They remember the cold metal slab in the middle of the room, the leather straps to keep them in place during the examinations and experiments. Their screams of sheer terror… If this place hadn’t been burned to the ground yet, they would’ve done so themself. Slowly, Rue makes their way down the steps, keeping their senses on high alert as they walk towards the door at the end. With their enhanced vision, Rue has no trouble navigating the dark underground passageway. The same one that their parents had directed them down so many times before. The place was originally built like a bunker and to this day, the walls are thick enough that they stop them from being able to see through them clearly. It doesn't matter though, because Rue knows that at the end of a tight corridor was the office of none other than Oslac Quade, the man who'd both saved and ruined their life, "Monster..." The voice was getting louder as they descended into the bunker, and they could see the blackened char of the fire expanding outwards from the storage room to the left, opposite the old operating theatre. Glancing into the storage room revealed that it had been thoroughly destroyed, only the half-collapsed metal frames of the units remaining. They turn towards the door opposite, their knees almost buckling as they take the final step towards it. Rue remembers the little office at the back of the theatre, the one that the doctor had used for so called “consultations”, which were nothing more than him writing out cheques to their parents. Holding their breath in anticipation, Rue uses their telekinesis to open the door. Behind the door was no scary monster or secret evil. Just a dark, burned out office, with what was once a wooden table and chair, some bookcases, a few light fixtures, and a safe, "For precious things..." They could've sworn that the place seemed so much bigger once, but now the sheen of fear was gone, and the only thing that remained mysterious to them was the last door, to Quade's back room. The only place Rue had never been allowed to see. Their curiosity was always with them, but as the years went by, the room started to feel like a specter hanging over their consultations, watching, waiting to drag them away to who-knows-where, "Make sure you're ready, Rue. Once you open the door, the bubble bursts... no more denial... only what you already know is true..." “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready…” Rue mumbles sadly. “But I need to do this.” They move towards the back room first, making a mental note to check the safe after. The metal door that separates the back room from the office has bent and buckled under the intense heat of the fire, and Rue has to use their telekinesis once more to wrench it free of the frame, revealing the room beyond. The floor is littered with half-burned bags and metalic tables on wheels that seem to have survived the blaze a little better, but the centrepiece of the room, overlooking the area and seemingly watching Rue as they intrude upon its solitary domain, is a large industrial incinerator. At first, Rue is confused as to why a man masquerading as a doctor would need such a big oven, but as they draw closer the reason becomes abundantly clear. "Once he was finished with us, he put us in there," comes the voice, but not from inside Rue's head this time. As they spin around they finally catch a glimpse of the once-blonde locks of Kate. She's barely recognisable in her current state, her skin is grey and covered in soot and she looks to Rue with a profound sadness that they can almost feel. Eyes wide, Rue looks at the translucent form before them, their heart sinking in their chest. They place a hand over the scar on their lower abdomen, and they have to make an effort not to be sick, “He killed you for his experiment…” they stammer weakly, clenching their teeth as the reality hits them in full force. “He killed you so he could operate on me.” Their eyes darken dangerously, their feelings overwhelming. Creel’s betrayal of Kate, the horror and despair and fury for lives taken too soon are all threatening to overflow. "She's not the only one." another voice chimes in, and Rue turns to see a man with the same translucence as Kate, sat against the nearby wall with his eyes missing. "He did this to all of us." called out a third voice, and before Rue could even look, they saw that they were effectively surrounded. At least twenty different people with various signs of mutilation and ash coverage. Rue spins around slowly, taking in each face, feeling their sorrows as their own. They’re shocked to find that some of the faces are familiar, as they remember some of them as vagrants from the Railyard. People had assumed that they’d moved on to better places, that they had left the Railyard and its people behind, when in reality, it had been them who had been abandoned, forgotten by most. “I never wanted any of this…” Rue growls, the rage within them fuelling the fire blast taking shape in their hand as they turn towards the incinerator. "Go on! Blast it!" one of the voices cheers, a young man with spikey hair, while the others roll their eyes, if they've got them that is. "Come on, Kenny," a different, mellower voice chimes, a tall, thin woman with glasses atop her large nose steps into frame, "That won't solve anything." Before she'd even finished her sentence, the fireball whizzed past her and into the body of the furnace. Whether through age and damage, or sheer emotion funnelled into the act, the blast proceeds to blow open the fuselage. After a long moment, the front panel tips forward and slams to the ground with an almighty clang, kicking up dust and ash all over the room. "Well, that was quite the display," the woman in glasses remarks, "Seems you are getting the most out of Kenny's... firepower, at least..." "Awww yeah, that was awesome!" Kenny continues, seemingly enamoured with this course of events. "Guys, we're trying to have a conversation here," Kate reminds them, stepping towards Rue and giving her a soft smile, "We're glad you're here, Rue. You needed to see this." “You’re glad I’m here?…” They ask incredulously. “Why would you be glad to have anything to do with me? He killed you, all of you, so he could experiment on me!” The tremor has returned to their hands, their shoulders slumping in defeat. “If I were you, I’d probably want to see me dead too. Why would I deserve to live?” "Exactly!" Kenny says, as the whole group slowly approaches while still keeping a comfortable difference. "You were as much his victim as we were, Rue." the bespectacled woman continues. "We've been down here a long time, Rue," Kate says, "Incomplete, but together. We've long since gotten over any animosity towards you. We've really come to see you as one of us, whether you had to die for it or not." "And more than that," the eyeless man says, "So long as you live on, in a way, so do we." "Whether it's Kate's kidney, Kenny's pituitary, Ralph's eyes, or any other part of any one of us. We're a part of you, Rue. We're with you." The voices are starting to blend together as the ghosts speak over each other, "You may or may not deserve to live more than anyone else, but you are alive. And while that remains true, we're rooting for ya." Pursing their lips, Rue listens to the spirits of Quade’s victims. Though not entirely convinced, they accept their words, “So now what?” They ask hesitantly. “Am I going to be seeing you all the time? Will others see you?” "Well, that's the other reason we've been waiting to finally meet you," Kate says, electing to speak for the group as they all begin to quieten down, "We've been stuck here for quite a while now, tied to what little remains here of us, but we've all felt an equal bond with whatever parts of us are still inside you." The group nods among themselves, smiling as they listen to the conversation, "We're by no means experts on the subject, but we think we can latch onto those parts and leave this place with you... just until we work out how to move on and go... wherever it is we're supposed to go." "And don't worry about seeing us," one of the voices pipes up, a somewhat deranged looking man in a tattered coat, "Beyond the place of their death, spirits like us are only very rarely able to manifest in the physical plane..." "Yes, thank you Professor Longjohn," Katie says, "I suppose you could say--" "We'll be there in sprit!" Kenny shouts, drawing a collective groan from the group before they fall quiet, hoping to hear Rue's response. Looking at the group, Rue can sense the connection between them, a bond forged through their joint tragedy, “I’m sorry for what he did to you all…” Rue answers dejectedly, meeting Kate’s gaze. “I’ll do anything I can to help you find peace.” A cheer erupts from the spectral collective, with some of them even clapping in joy, "Aww, Rue. You've really saved us here," Kate says, barely stifling her own excitement, "I'd hug you if only we could, ya know, touch stuff." As the Crowd quietens down she addresses them, "Alright guys, let's get out of here!" The ghosts quickly disappear one after the other and Rue feels a distinctly warm feeling rising in their chest, a stark contrast from the cold and hollow feeling they've been experiencing while working for the Spider. Despite the melancholy of the area, Rue can't help but smile slightly as their heart feels just that little bit fuller. Within a few moments, the only ghost remaining is Katie, and she smiles at Rue, "If you don't mind, Rue. There's one other thing..." “Name it.” Rue replies. "My necklace. It's back in the furnace and I'd prefer it not lay here in the dark for all eternity," she says, pointing back at the ruined crematory oven, "Just leave it somewhere visible so that when the CSI's come around, they can give it to my mum. At least she'll get closure." With a nod, Rue moves closer to the incinerator, using their powers to help them search for the item. It takes a moment, but they finally see it and use their telekinesis to get it out. Turning back towards the office, they leave the necklace on top of the desk before turning their attention to the safe. “I don’t suppose you know the code for this?” "As it happens, yes," she says, "We had a lot of time to spy on Quade before he burned the place down. It's 13-08-99." "My birthday..." Rue says, their stomach dropping as they key in the code and pull open the stiff old door, dreading what may be inside. Their fears were confirmed however when they looked inside the safe and found dozens and dozens of papers on one subject; Rue themself. While not taking a huge amount of time to look extensively, Rue found a mix of professionally-written experiment logs, personal diary entries and hundreds of photos that made them wince. Phrases like "My Rue," and "little guinea-pig," made them shudder, and the unnecessarily invasive photography didn't help one bit. “Can’t let Detective Upton find that…” They mumble once they’ve moved past the disgust, taking a moment to consider their options. While their best bet would be to burn it all so none of it would ever see the light of day, they find themself taking some of the folders and notes in their arms before burning the remainder. They watch as the edges of the paper start to curl up in the flames before crumbling, making sure that there’s nothing left but ashes. Moving back through the corridor, Rue makes their way up the stairs, making an effort to wipe their prints on the handle, but leaving the hatch open for CSI to find. The folders tucked safely inside their jacket, they pull their hood further down over their face as they leave the building. The wind and snowfall outside seems to have picked up a little since Rue went inside, but their jacket kept them warm as they started trudging out of the Railyard, feeling slightly more comfortable in the area than they ever have before. A light buzz in their pocket reminds them why they came out here in the first place and they check it to see a message from 'Boss': "Anything?" “Crap.” They grumble as they read the text. They would have to track Upton down and pray that he had a secret good enough to exploit, but not quite as catastrophic as telling Creel about his superhero persona. “Nothing yet, I’ll keep digging.” They hit send on the reply, slipping the phone back into their pocket. As they continue to walk, they keep an eye out for their old hiding spots, hoping to find one suitable to store both the folders and the VHS tape. Unfortunately for Rue, the ever-changing nature of the Railyard often finds a way to work against its ex-residents, and the railcar that used to house them and their parents, complete with a space in the chassis perfect for storing small objects, had since been occupied by another family of roaches and Rue is forced to keep looking. Moving past the Railyard, Rue makes their way back to the apartment, walking up the stairs to the third floor. With Doug still at work, they open the flat and make a beeline for their room. They take the items out of their coat, looking around the bedroom. Taking a pillow case, they wrap up the files and VHS tape. They quickly leave the room to grab a roll of duct tape from the kitchen, moving back and pulling out the bottom drawer from their wardrobe.Once the items are firmly stuck to the drawer, they push it back into place, returning the roll of duct tape to the kitchen. They leave the apartment again shortly after, hopeful that Detective Upton has something else they might be able to report back. A secret love affair, an embarrassing hobby, an overdue library book - anything but the hidden identity. To be continued...