A Complex Reaction [Murphy Banks]

Spiro Sendivoge woke up. On the whole, it wasn't one of his better forays into consciousness. The last thing he'd remembered was being surrounded by agents, shot full of what he was now certain were tranquilizer darts, and being carried of to parts unknown.

What made matters worse was that he was still in parts unknown. Spiro had long ago gotten in the habit of losing conciousness in strange places, but at least he'd known where they were. He hadn't prepared well enough, and they'd gotten him. Only he wasn't in some shady testing lab. He was--he was in a bed? The furnishings in the room were pretty posh, too. Spiro did the customary pat down of the various drugs he'd had on his person before the tranquening. Everything was still there, even if it wasn't much. It had been so long since he'd had access to a proper lab, and even he couldn't properly mix chemicals over a campfire. The heat was just too hard to get consistently even. He could see the FBI missing one or two small things he'd hidden in the several pockets, hidey-holes, and folds of his coats, but leaving all of them?

Something just wasn't right here. Spiro lit a partially spent cigarrette. This particular blend would make the shadows more alert, and it would do the same for him. He'd only be a little jumpier than normal, and that could only help in this situation, right? It'd take a little while for the little dog-end to take effect, but he couldn't stay here. Choose your own ground, he'd always thought.

He hurried out of the room into the hall outside, and didn't even notice the note on the end table inviting him to the master's program at Starlight.

@"Omino"

Spiro had just run into a man. That should never have happened. His shadows should at least have been on the lookout. Had he even asked them? Those tranquilizers must still be affected him. And then the figure--he was over a foot taller than Spiro--read his mind. "Lemme guess, you have no idea where you are nor why you're here, and you're looking for answers?"

Oh, hell no. Spiro started muttering to the man's shadow, "Encase him so he'll be disoriented, and I promise I'll break you free for a night with a nice shady patch." He hoped it would work, and those tranquilizers hadn't screwed him up too bad. He didn't have time to do proper wheedling with the dark patch, anyways. To the man, he wheezed around his smoke, "Like I'd trust your answers, copper!"

He had to get out of this place. Prison? It didn't matter. The hall wasn't working out. A few seconds and he'd already been caught unawares.

Spiro tackled his way past the giant yellow beanstalk back into the room he'd woken up in, and made to dive out the window.

The window latch was rusted.

Why did the world decide to piss in his flask today?

@"Omino"

"The FBI doesn't take people to school! Yer tranqs didn't muddle me up that bad, spook!" Spiro screeched as he fumbled with the latch. Then, he noticed the reflection in the window. Now there was fire. Oh, fantastic.

He had something for fires, right? A neutralizing agent for when things went very, very wrong in the lab? It was somewhere in his coats, because it was also his emergency stash for when bottles broke on him unexpectedly.

"What kind of school is it where the first man you meet tries to burn you alive!?" hissed Spiro as he went through the methodical pat-down for bottles.

Ah, there it was in pocket #24. He thought. This was either the neutralizing agent or the alcohol based hallucinogen. Too bad the labels had worn off. He threw the bottle hard into the little fire.

"Tʀʏ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ɴᴏɴ ʜᴀʟʟᴜᴄɪɴᴀɢᴇɴɪᴄ ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ!" Death yelled. Death also looked far more yellow than he'd imagined. And wasn't he supposed to use his scythe? Death wasn't supposed to cover you in spiders that leaped out of smoke.

ohgodwhy

Spiro flung himself to the floor like a neglected gym bag, and frantically rolled to get the spiders off of him. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. At least with the agents he'd known where he stood. Spiro muttered incomprehensibly and desperately reached out to the shadows. The shadows, in turn, went absolutely berserk. The fire and smoke had thrown up more dark in the room than there was previously, and it gave them more to work with. Squid-men sprayed ink that evaporated as it touched the intense light. Morph. Fire extinguishers with human faces spewed foam from their mouths. Morph. Then they morphed into tidal waves that were edged with fingers, crashing against the fire. Morph. Morph. Morph. Morph. The shadows didn't do much to the fire directly, but they did send Spiro rolling through the flames repeatedly, smothering the flame.

He lay there muttering, his outermost layer singed, along with the remains of his eyebrows and an inch or two of hair.

Spiro lay there smoking for a while, and not in the fun way. "You all right there, buddy?" Said Drose, Spiro's shadow. He could always talk to shadows better when intoxicated somehow, and Drose had always been there. Now that the imminent danger of the fire had gone, Spiro had begun to calm down.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm getting there." He mumbled, slowly sitting up, steadfastly ignoring the strange shapes and colors flashing melting in and out all the while. Rustling around in his coats for a bit, he pulled out a cigar.

"You should offer one to your companion there, too. I'm sure he'd appreciate the sobering effects of this blend."

"Why should I? For all I know, he was in on the abduction" Spiro slurred around his cigar as he performed the familiar ritual of biting off one end and lighting up.

"Well, he's not a cop or anything like it, or he'd be arresting you right now for whatever just happened. He's the only one you've met, and he hasn't run away screaming yet. Your flailing was pretty terrifying. I was along for the ride, too, you know. Mine the man for information. It could be life-saving, and you know it."

The illusions were easier to ignore if Spiro closed one eye. With the other, he fired a glare at the beanstalk looming nearby, and brandished his lit cigar in a hand.

"Want a smoke? These do wonders for sobering you up. Needed to come up with a good blend after a few unfortunate accidents in the lab. Neutralizing agent for your body and all that. Makes the demons go away right quick."