Reality Crisis

Bane was entirely unhappy about the turn of events. The sudden disappearances, the loss of life. Mostly he was displeased because there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing Erik could do about it. They were all helpless and useless in the face of what this world threw at them. Bane did not like feeling helpless.

It soured his mood considerably.

Talia had shown up, and that added to his feelings. He had an inherent need to protect her. He had taken her in, given her his bed, slept on the floor so that she could live in the relative comfort, he had made sure that she was fed and well. All on instinct alone. Just as he had protected her long ago in the Pit, so he would protect her now.

But how could he, in the face of the world veritably imploding on itself? What was he to do?

The large man was returning to the hut after patrolling the settlement, taking stock of what had gone missing, and what was in place of it. Trying to discover if faces were gone for good, or if they were in hiding for fear of what might come next. This was not his place to command, though he deeply wished it was. He wanted to give orders, he wanted to make arrangements.

While he was relatively happy in Sanctuary, and he would remain loyal to Erik and abide by his rules whilst there, Bane was giving serious consideration to the idea that perhaps he was not made to follow orders, only give them. He would not abandon these people while they had need of him. But once this was over, he might not remain.

Talia's meeting with Dr. Crane in the forest had been somewhat enlightening. By whatever method, it would seem that she'd been shaken free of the very fabric of her own reality -- and not a moment too soon, either. She was very certain she'd been seconds from death. It would have been a good death. A death she'd have been proud to fall under. But now she had a second chance. And apparently, also, a second Bruce Wayne to see to.

The way to Sanctuary was clear enough. She didn't allow her approach to be noticed, choosing instead to stay to the trees and watch the comings and goings, the guard's patrol patterns, the overall seeming of the place. It appeared to be a hard life, living in this establishment, but perhaps not so much a bad one. This Erik Lehnsherr.... She wanted to know more about him. A man's city would tell much about the man.

She'd climbed a tree and was sitting motionless between two sheltering branches. Her vision was slightly obscured, but then, that meant that her own shape was also obscured to anyone looking up. It was as good as one could get, in daylight hours.

Selina didn't quite understand what was going on. The atmosphere in the Sanctuary seemed to have shifted a little after the Earthquake. Of course there hadnt been much damage to the area, for which Selina was grateful. She felt safe in the Sanctuary, safe with Jonathan to keep her company.

Despite his shift in mood.

She wasnt complaining exactly it just wasnt something she was used to seeing when it came to the Doctor. Crane was usually the type to toy and gas, but he seemed different lately. It was nice, but it made Selina uneasy. She didn't care too much for that. She felt a little bit helpless, as well, like she didn't have a solid foundation to stand on when it came to things in her current life.

She had yet to exercise her skills, not seeing any opportunity. Sam had mentioned Belia holding on to books, things that might prove valuable but Selina was done with die Festung for the moment. Returning seemed pointless.

Instead the cat-burglar found herself sitting just outside the Sanctuary, back propped against the large base of a tree. Her legs were drawn up against her chest and her arms were curled around her lower limbs, holding them gently. It was a position she found familiar. It was comforting despite the memories of her past it recalled. Often she sat that way when she was young, in the facility she'd been sent to after she'd run away from her foster parents house and she felt lonely. Abandoned.

Not that Selina minded being alone, she worked better when she only had herself and her skills to rely on, but that didn't mean she didn't want companionship. Even a friend other than Jonathan would do. She had grown to like Jonathan in their time together since her arrival, but she hadnt really had the opportunity to branch out further than Dinah and Bruce Wayne. Her list of people she could count on was short and she didn't care much for that. Sure, she wasnt exactly reliable when it came to picking a side (whichever benefited her most was often the one she chose) but out here in a world where she was unfamiliar, a friendly face was almost a reason to celebrate.

She sighed, and listened, hoping nothing dangerous dared to cross her path. Her bullwhip was tied around her waist, and a gun was sitting on the grass at her side in case she needed it. She had hated guns before, but here...oh, here she was fighting more than a circus clown or a Dark Knight. Here it was kill or be killed. No mercy. Only pain.

Bane was busy helping the people of Sanctuary after the quakes. They were lucky that they had Erik around, and they were lucky for Bane, as well. Even with all that luck, there were still individuals that needed assistance. So he was doing his part.

It was during this work that he came across the fissure in the ground that was pouring out a strange gas. It didn't seem to have an odor, at least not something that he could detect through his mask. Still, he was wary of it. This wasn't exactly a normal place, and the gasses that might have come out of the Earth that he'd known may not even be present on this planet. He'd seen strange animals that shouldn't exist, met extraordinary people. There was nothing to say that the elements on whatever would have passed as the periodic table here would be the ones he knew.

After watching somebody stumble through it and come out unharmed, Bane put it out of his mind and went about his business. Only vaguely recognizing when he started to feel different.

Soon enough, however, he was walking out of the gates of Sanctuary, in search of something that wasn't quite so depressing. All those people, fighting for their lives. Living in shacks and having to suffer. It was too much for him to take.

Bane walked through the forest, delighting in the sounds and the sights that he found there. Picking bundles of flowers and laying them in the crook of his arm. Happier now that he wasn't in the midst of those others. He smiled at a small bird - something that looked remarkably like a hummingbird, but somehow different - as it fluttered by in front of him, hovering for a moment by the blooms and then swooping off again.

Without realizing it, Bane eventually broke through the edge of the trees and found himself looking out on the ruins that lay between New Troy and die Festung. The sight saddened him.

Erik had been unaware of the attack on Bruce Wayne from Bane. As little as he liked Wayne the man had clearance to be in his settlement. It disturbed the peace to have another with permission to be in the settlement attack another. Bane might not have known that Wayne had clearance to be there. Or it might be that he didn’t care.

That was the first thing that Erik would find out from him.

Bane was nothing if not easy to find. His mask and equipment created a unique magnetic signature when Erik looked for him. Bane didn’t try to hide. He wasn’t the hiding type but that wasn’t a drawback to Erik who also wasn’t the type to hide.

“Bane, I need to speak with you.” Erik waited until he wasn’t working or busy with anything to approach.

( Read more... )

As night fell around the traveling band, so too did the rain - cold and uncomfortable. The jacket she wore was too large to protect her from the worst of it; the wetness trailed down her neck and went straight under the leather. She was chilled to the bone -- but there was a promise of shelter just ahead, rising in the gloaming.

There were only a few who had come with her to Sanctuary, the stopping point between die Festung and New Troy. Evey had never seen such a place before. She took in the establishment briefly, before her traveling companions led the way into the place. The way it integrated with the trees reminded her of a long-ago book she'd read, back in London. Evey was too tired to smile at the whimsical thought that she should look for small humanoids with fuzzy feet.

The two who walked into Sanctuary with her seemed to have dissolved. Evey looked around, surprised that she'd let her tired thoughts wander so wide as to completely miss where her companions had gone. She swallowed and turned in a circle in the rain. But they were gone. They were gone. She swallowed again.

Bane slept.

He had not expected to sleep, as it was not his scheduled time to do so. He could only be grateful that he'd passed out within his own quarters in Sanctuary and not somewhere outside the walls.

While he slept, he dreamed. The images before his eyes in slumber were oddly vivid. Bane was a lucid dreamer, capable of controlling what he saw, and experiencing dreams in full color, sound, and feeling, but this was a step beyond even that. Though he experienced every sense clearly, he could control none of it.

He stood in deep snow somewhere outside the gates of Sanctuary. He knew that there were more people within that place than there ever had been before, but could not call up the reasons why or when it had happened. He knew only that he took these trips outside the wall more and more often for the solitude it allowed him. He had the vague sense of not participating in something quite significant, and the nagging feeling that his sitting out hadn't gone over so well with somebody. Perhaps more than one somebody.

Over his shoulder was a bag, within the bag, bundles of a plant. Nothing that he could identify from his many books and studies. Something of this planet. He had a lot of it. The bundles filled the bag so completely that bits stuck out the top of it. He felt protective over the plants he carried, like they were detrimental to his life. Like he might kill anybody who tried to take them from him. He felt that he had secret stashes of them hidden here and there in the fairy forest, and that when spring came, he would have hidden crops. But he had no idea what use they would be to him.

On the ground in front of him lay a dead deer. There was rope tangled about its legs and another around its neck. The neck itself was slashed and bleeding, and he held a bloody knife in his hand.

Bane carefully released the animal from the ropes and reset the trap. He hefted the carcass over one shoulder easily, and turned to trudge back through his own footsteps to return to Sanctuary. He couldn't just cart this thing around forever, unfortunately. And he couldn't leave it out here and come back to it later.

Sylar had directed Bane to die Festung to find Bruce Wayne. The Batman. It had annoyed Bane to discover that there was a version of this man out there who was summarily unbroken. He had yet to discover the why behind it, but he would.

He had not yet left Sanctuary to go to this city, since had yet to discuss his temporary leave with Erik. Bane did not want the man to think that he was just abandoning everything that he had been given, but he could not let this Bruce Wayne thing go.

Bane stalked through the center of Sanctuary, formulating a plan. Heading out without one would have been foolish. He only had a general direction to go toward, not a definite hiding hole that the Bat had stored himself in. He didn't think that the people of die Festung would let him just waltz in and do as he pleased with one of their own.

There was no pausing to talk to other members of the community, not only did he have things to organize, but he had jobs to do in order to retain his spot here.

Peter was not only alive, but Sylar now knew where he was hiding. Then again, Sylar didn't expect Peter to stick around for long. The time had come to seek out the other man and put an end to this once and for all. Since Peter most likely knew he was coming, this would have to take special care.

Sylar reached the small little sanctuary but didn't try to get past the walls. Not just yet. Instead, he settled for searching the perimeter. He was trying to get a feel for the place and the people within. He was able to catch snatches of conversation, trying to glean as much information as he could.

If he had to burn the place to the ground to kill Peter he would. He had no qualms about that.

The forest was thick, and Bane kept hearing sounds that he couldn't explain. But the wall told him that there was somebody in here that was surviving, so he continued. He had a vague idea of how far he'd come since appearing in this world, and the direction he'd ventured from, but since pushing into the thickness of the trees, it had become difficult to know what time of day it was or how many minutes had ticked by.

He studied his surroundings as he moved, and kept a running tally of what the wall was made from. He'd noticed fairly quickly upon approach that it wasn't constructed of bricks and mortar alone. Rather, it was pieced together. As if salvaged. He had to wonder what kind of place needed a wall so badly that the inhabitants would take whatever it was they could find to make it.

Finally, he discovered what had to be the entrance, and he stood before it for a long while before raising a hand to knock. Bane thought he could force his way through, but that was no way to get information in a new place. He could play nice until it stopped suiting him to be so.

This place, it wasn't Gotham City. Not as he knew it. It might have been Gotham after he was finished with it, Gotham after the people had their way and he'd done everything possible to bring it to its knees. But the layout of what remained was incorrect. The streets in Gotham just didn't twist like this here, or bend like that there. These were things that he knew because he'd taken so much time to study the city and know it from the inside out. It was integral to the plan. One could not utterly destroy something without knowing it through and through. One could try, but the job would be half-done. Bane was not the kind of man to leave things half-done.

He didn't know how he'd gotten here. Which was the problem. He recalled very clearly what he'd been doing just moments ago. None of it revolved around a scenario where he might have been drugged and brought to a place that was unknown to him. He didn't think that there was any body within Gotham who was capable of sneaking up on him without his knowledge, and he was sure that there wasn't a single one of them who could take him out physically. This left a gaping hole in his knowledge, and Bane did not like such things.

There was a wall that he could see, not too far off in the distance. A wall which looked to him to be sound. This dictated to him that there were other people there to care for it and see to continued maintenance. He would head in that direction because, from what he could see of this world, he had no idea what he was up against. The only choice he had was to find out everything that he could, and then discover if he could return. And survive.