trans_9 | In the jungle, the quiet jungle [Closed]

Iniss was beginning to regret his choice of corners. People kept stumbling upon him. But moving deeper wasn't really an option. He glanced up from his data pad cautiously.

"I suppose that depends on who might be asking."

Tom made a faint noise in the back of his head, displeased by the naming. He thought the host was becoming a little taken with the idea of them being considered separate beings and not being refereed to by the same name.

Unfortunately, he didn't have another name as yet. Tom was the only one he knew, therefore he was using it. For the moment, at least.

Nightwing turned, following the sound of the voice. "My name's Nightwing," he said as he came into sight, stopping a dozen feet or so away. "I'm from Security. Who am I speaking to?" Because he was fairly certain it wasn't actually Tom. Just judging from what he'd heard about Yeerks.

Security. Great. Just what he needed. "Nightwing?" Odd name.

< NIGHTWING!? YOU'RE KIDDING ME!! >

He shook his head, trying to settle it. "I assume you know then, you're speaking to the yeerk, my name is Iniss. Is there something I can help you with, sir?"

< HOLY CRAP! ASK HIM FOR HIS AUTOGRAPH!!! ASK HIM IF HE CAN GET BATMAN'S AUTOGRAPH! >

< I'll ask him no such thing, now be quiet. >

< THEN LET ME! I'LL ASK HIM!!!! >

If Nightwing could overhear the conversation going on in Tom's head, he'd probably laugh. As it was, though, he crouched down a bit, putting him more on level with the boy. "Iniss. Thank you." Having a proper name to use made him feel a bit better. "In all honesty, I'm mostly here because I told Jake I'd do everything I could to find you and make sure Tom's safe. Because there's a lot of stuff that's happened on this ship that you may not know about."

"There is a great deal going on in the universe that I don't know about." He waved the data pad. "I attempt to rectify the situation."

< Please, please please???? THIS IS SO COOL!!! >

He sighed a bit. "My host wishes to express an over abundance of enthusiasm and respect."

< Now ask him for his autograph. >

< You can make that social misstep on your own. >

He crossed his arms, tucking the data pad into his pocket. "But please, enlighten me."

Nightwing chuffed out a soft laugh before smiling. "Thank you, Tom. But I'm really nothing that interesting." Well, to him he wasn't. That was just sort of how things went.

"You have a lot of reading to do, then," he agreed before sitting down. If the Yeerk attacked, he was fairly certain that he could handle it. And he already had earplugs in. Ones that allowed him to still hear while protecting himself from sonic attacks or anything trying to crawl in.

"You aren't the first Yeerk that the crew's had to deal with," he said, hands on his knees. "I wasn't awake when they tried to take over the ship by possessing those they thought were useful and killing those they couldn't control, but as you might imagine, it sort of soured the crew toward Yeerks. To the point where a fairly large number of them would really rather see you dead."

There was no point in pussy footing around it. Iniss had the right to know that much.

< That is a lie, sir. A dirty dirty lie! You're NIGHTWING you WERE Robin! >

"Yes, I do." He glanced down at the data pad. "Fortunately, it's a subject that interests me." Iniss kept his stance relaxed, leaning back against the tree he'd been using as a backrest.

"I was made aware of the other yeerks, I'm not a part of that at all. My host was taken infested and I woke up after as well." The look of disgust on his face at the thought of shooting hosts would likely be hard to fake. "And I can tell you now I think they're cowards who deserved what they got. Killing hosts? Disgusting." His lips twitched into a wry smile. "I was also aware that they would try to kill me, which was why I was attempting to keep a low profile while I worked on something with command to make that a little less of a problem. Unfortunately, someone knew and went out of their way to try to kill me and then told everyone when that failed. It's difficult to keep secrets that everyone knows."

He watched Nightwing for a long moment, thoughtful. "So, what does security want with me? If it's just the warning, thank you, but I've spoken to the ship and as best as I can figure, staying within certain parts of the ship offers me protection, and Dani has been making sure no one shoves me in a closet or shoots me."

It's not a LIE, per se. Just that Nightwing is a bit modest. Or can be, at least.

"I understand that you aren't. From talking to Jake, I figured that you were already there when Stacy was grabbing people up from your world." Also because they'd been very good about eradicating every trace of the Yeerks that had been on the ship before Nightwing had ever woken up. "Might I ask what you're working on with command? I might be able to assist."

He shifted his stance slightly, doing his best to look more relaxed while still ready to move quickly if he needed to. "Like I said, a lot of people on the ship would rather see you dead. Most of them would do what they could to save Tom, but I don't doubt there are a few who would kill him as well if it meant making certain you were dead." He shook his head. "I'm not a fan of mind control, but I would really rather find a way out of this without anybody being hurt. The Head of Security wants me to bring you in to protective custody. To be certain of your own safety."

Oh lovely. Just what he wanted.

Jail. For existing. His reaction to the suggestion was obviously not favorable.

"I'm working on an artificial host body. You can contact Allen." He watched him for a long moment. "At the moment, I need some sort of indicator for who's in control, the best thing I can figure is something that monitors brain fictions, but I'm an information guy, not a scientist. So I'm frankly at the mercy of the tech guys."

He kept the scowl on his face. "I have no interest in protective custody."

In all honesty, Nightwing agreed with Iniss. It didn't make a lot of sense to put him in jail just because other people wanted to kill him.

He managed a half smile, though there wasn't any amusement in his expression. "I didn't think you would, honestly. But you're not going to be able to hide forever and I promised Jake that I'd do everything in my power to keep you both safe." Okay, to Jake it was mostly about Tom. To Nightwing, it was about them both. "If your host knows so much about me, you know I don't take my promises lightly. And that I will do everything I can to save lives and protect those around me." It was just part of being a Bat. And even if he'd failed with Blockbuster, that wasn't happening again.

"I hear you about being at the mercy of the tech guys, though." That was slight amusement, mostly at his own failings in that regard. "I'll contact Allen and see what's happening there. But it might still be in the best interests of not only your safety, but the safety of your host, to at least come down and talk with Security."

"So, allow me to make sure I understand this. For my own safty, because people are trying to defy the rules and kill me, I should allow you to stick me in a jail cell. I've committed no crime, I am the victim of an attempted homicide and am doing my very best to both abide by the rules and make others more comfortable with my existence. Tell me, Nightwing, does that sound fair to you? It sounds more like species selective racism to me than something to be done 'for my own good'."

< He won't break promises....not at all. >

"In all honesty? No, it doesn't." Nightwing was going to be honest about this. If he wanted Iniss to go with him, he needed to be. "It's not fair in the least that there are people who want you dead for something you weren't involved in and had no part of.

"However, it's equally unfair to leave you on your own to deal with this." Tom didn't look like much of a fighter and Iniss had said he was an information guy. "It's a crap situation, one of the highest order and I'm sorry that you have to go through it. But at the end of the day, it's easier to keep you safe in one place than for you to need to look over your shoulder all the time."

He leaned forward slightly. "You don't have any real reason to trust me, I know. But I hope you do, anyway."

"I've accepted the challenge of trying to stay alive on my own and with the support of my friends and allies." The tone was soft, he didn't want to get security angry with him. "But I'm not being given the option of saying no, am I?"

His hand found the tiny communication device in his pocket, withdrawing it after a moment and messing with it briefly before returning it. "You're right, Nightwing, I have no reason to trust you."

< Except because he's awesome. > Tom corrected. But the yeerk ignored him.

"Why should I trust that you and your friends, after all, not to do the same things the last humans who took possession of me did? It would be an easy thing, to make it legitimate and lock my host in a cell until I starved."

"Because if that actually happened, I'd break you out myself." Nightwing reached up, flipping something on his mask. The protective lenses slid out of the way so that his eyes showed. Taking the mask off except around family just...didn't really happen. It was a thing and he was here as Nightwing, not Dick Grayson. Dick Grayson might have had an easier time of it, though.

"You said that your host knows me. Or at least knows of me. So he knows that the one thing I value above pretty much everything else is life. I don't kill." Memories of Blockbuster's death flashed before his eyes, but Nightwing pushed them away. Not now. "I don't condone the taking of a life, not even the life of the man who killed my family." Zucco, yes, but the Joker too. When he was thinking clearly, at least.

"I'm not saying this is going to be easy." Honesty. Always honesty. "You don't have to like me. You don't even have to entirely trust me. Just...believe your host. I'm not the kind of person who would leave someone in that sort of a situation."

< You can trust him. >

< Excuse me if your faith in someone isn't a ringing endorsement. You would have me trust Marco too. >

< He's telling the truth, Iniss. Find my memories. You might not be caught up, but you'll still... Batman doesn't kill, and none of his students do either. >

"He thinks you're a hero." His brow furrowed a bit when Nightwing flipped off the mask. "He's rather confident that you're a hero, actually. But my experience with people wanting to take me places on this ship has been less than favorable. Even if you went into it with the best intentions, can you go against an entire ship howling for my execution? Throwing me in a jail cell, after all, is the best way to lead into a trial. And I know how well that went for the last yeerk that was held in your possession."

Well. One of his students, but Jason was...well, Jason.

"I do my best. It's not always good enough, but keeping going even when you fail is part of what being a hero is about." Nightwing raised one shoulder and let it drop. "I have before. I would again. The last yeerk was a special case in that he was the last of the colony that attempted to take over the ship. And he's still alive. Just in stasis." Nightwing frowned slightly, then shook his head. "I'd find a way. Between Batman and me, I figure we could manage." Somehow. He was pretty certain at this point that it wouldn't come to that, though.

In Tom's opinion, Jason didn't count.

"Would you want to go back to stasis, Nightwing? Back to not knowing if you were going to live or die, your very existence at the mercy of people who would gladly have killed you? I don't have the same faith you have in humanity. Or in their ability to look past my race and see that I wasn't involved in any of the rather foolish and destructive issues others of my species caused."

< You can trust him. I mean it. He's Nightwing >

"If you fail, I die."

Don't let Jason hear that, Tom. Or Dick, mostly because Dick DID count Jason.

"I know." Nightwing's face was absolutely serious as he said it. "But they would physically have go through me in order to get to you. Which probably means I'll be living at the precinct for a while." He'd do it. To make sure he didn't fail Tom and Iniss, he absolutely would.

Iniss stared back at the 'hero' face equally serious. "Am I a prisoner, Nightwing? Or the victim of a crime?"

He wasn't allowed to say no. They would take him regardless. "I have no rights as a crew mate, or so it seems. Only my host does. You can hold me, even though I have committed no crime and have no intentions of doing so...And even if I tell you no, and try to leave, you'll take me in anyway, won't you?"

His mouth twisted into a grimace of distaste. "I've been told to bring you in, no matter what it takes," Nightwing said ruefully. "And I'm pretty sure I've annoyed the hell out of Kennedy by questioning him.

"I will say that whatever else Kennedy might be, he is fair. He knows the security team and if he wanted you dead, he'd have put somebody else in charge of finding you." Because as much as Leon probably disagreed with the Batfamily's non-lethal methods, in this instance, it probably came in very handy. "I'd rather you came with me of your own accord."

"But you have no problem taking me by force." His lips pressed into a thin line. "And your commanding officer wants me alive, for whatever reason."

Despite popular belief, being wanted alive wasn't always a good thing. At times it was the worst thing possible. A quick death verses torture for information and then quite possibly death, a slow, lingering death of starvation, a trial, or the farcical representation of one, verdict decided before the court even assembled... none of them were favorable options.

To walk into his prison and wait for the dice to fall or to resist?

Obviously, if it came down to it, giving the appearance of cooperation would look better for him. "I'll go. I just escaped the last jail cell someone tried to kill me in, why not accept another one?" And if his voice was a little bitter, who could blame him. "Would you like to frisk me too? Or am I allowed to keep my possessions this time?"

Nightwing certainly didn't blame him. Not in the least. "I never said that I wouldn't have a problem with force." Just that he'd use it if he had to.

He looked Tom over before meeting his eyes again. "Do you have anything that could be considered a weapon?" He wasn't worried so much for himself, but it was a good question. "Other than that? You're not a criminal. I don't see a reason to keep your belongings from you. Kennedy might see it differently," he warned. Because Kennedy was...not Nightwing. Or Batman. (No matter how much he sometimes REMINDED Nightwing of Batman.)

"My side arm was taken by the last group that took me prisoner." His voice was dry, but he stood up. "I don't even have a pocket knife on me, just the com devices Stacy gave me and the data pad." He hefted the flimsy thing briefly, lips twisting with wry humor. "I think I might be able to use it to squish a bug."

He stuffed the thing in his pocket, and considered briefly extending his wrists in a gesture of submission. He settled on stuffing his hands in his pockets, looking at Nightwing briefly. "Where are we going?"

That was something, at least. Nightwing nodded, leaving the lenses up on his mask for the moment. "The City," he said. "Security headquarters, more exactly. That's where Kennedy will be. It's also the most secure building down there, as far as I know."

Which didn't mean that there weren't people who could get in there. The building was hardly going to keep out Superman or some of the others. But it was safe enough from the normal, unpowered folk. Except for Batman.

The City. His face twisted briefly in a grimace, but he nodded. "Lead the way then, I don't know my way around well enough to say where that is. Do you know what your boss wants with me?"

He didn't think he'd get the answer, and even if he did, he didn't think he would get the true answer. Just the one that seemed the most PC to give.

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