Time Child

Vases and Vents

  Greta gets to the captain's room. 

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The guard yanked the door open and with force threw Greta inside the room, the young woman felt the world spin as she stumbled forward, her bare feet tripped over one another and she felt the floor rise up to meet her as her knees bent and she crashed against the floor painfully; barely managing to cover her face with her arms before she fell.

"You can change in the bathroom, the captain will be up to meet you in a few minutes" spoke the man, but Greta only managed to grasp a few words; her ears were ringing again.

She pushed herself up to a sitting position, her arms were shaking and she felt like she could barely breath, her heart was racing in her chest but she could only think about the words he had whispered against her ear, the way he sounded so proud of himself; how had this happened?

Greta pushed her hair away from her face and behind her ear, instantly feeling something stick against one of her ears, she looked down at her hand and found fresh blood; she frowned, and reached out to touch her ear once more, the blood was coming out of her ear, how had she not noticed this before?

With great effort and her legs screaming in pain, Greta pushed herself up to her feet, her knees were shaking and the way her heart was racing was making it hard for her to breath; still she stumbled towards a closed door at the other side of the room, dragging her feet behind her, she had no idea who the captain was and why he wanted to see her but she wasn't going to stay around to find out what in the holy hell was going on.

She leaned over the sink, staring at her reflection in the mirror, she looked like a nightmare, her face had cuts and dried blood and her dress was ripped at the chest and her hair looked like a bird nest with dried blood sticking at it. Greta looked down at the sink and turned on the water, she had to wash her face and maybe then she could think of a way of getting out of that room and go look for Rip and Kendra.

It took her a few minutes to clean her face completely and pull her hair back into another ponytail, but when she was done she noticed the clothes over the toilet seat and without much thought she stripped from her dress; jeans were much better than a ripped dress. She pulled up the jeans and gave them a quick inspection before she pulled them on and did the same with the white shirt and the flats that lay next to the toilet; she turned to look at herself in the mirror, her face still looked like hell and her dark brown bra could be seen under her shirt but at least the blood from her ear was gone.

"What is happening?" she whispered as she walked out of the bathroom "What is going on?" she looked around the room; since she was assuming it was a time traveling ship like the Waverider, she wasn't surprised to see that there were no windows in the room, only a pretty big and nicely made bed with a night table at its side that had a vase with purple flowers in it and that was it. "Fuck" she whispered "Fuck"

Anxiety and fear were racing up her body as she looked back to the door, there was no way she could just pull the door open and walk out; whoever was doing this would certainly not be that stupid. Greta forced her breath to calm down, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them again, she was better than this, she was better than allowing fear to take over her, she had done reckless things, she could get out of here.

And with another and more calm inspection of the room from her place near the bathroom, she saw the vent just above the night table.

"That could work" she nodded as the ringing in her ears seemed to disappear.

She walked towards the night table and grabbed it by the sides, tugging it towards her a bit and away from the wall just a few inches. The young woman grabbed the vase and placed it down on the floor before she stepped over the table and looked up at the vent, the thing seemed to be really well fixed into the wall but she looked down at her hand and the baton that Ray had made for her shined as she smiled down at it.

With a swift move, the baton stretched out and Greta pulled back her hand before she slammed the metal stick against the vent with all she had, she grunted and pulled back, the vent partially bent, she took a deep breath and hit again and again and again with that mindless pull that her mother worried about because it sometimes overpowered the young woman until she didn't know when to stop hitting.

Her mother had figured out that usually external factors where the ones that snapped Greta out of her brute force; sounds or something moving in front of her, but mostly being touched brought her back instantly. Her mother had learned that at the police station when she had to pick Greta up after mindlessly beating on a guy from her school who had been harassing one of her friends, the officer had told her mother that Greta had only stopped when another student had grabbed her shoulder; but this time, as she hit the vent, what brought her back was the sound of the doorknob being pulled and pushed.

Greta stopped and turned over her shoulder to look at the door, and sure enough the doorknob was moving; the young woman sucked in air and turned to the vent, she had twisted and bent the thing but it would take her a few more minutes to pull the thing out of its hinges; minutes that she was realizing she didn't have.

Her mind rapidly jumped towards the next best thing, if the door was to swing open and someone rushed in, and if she had the benefit of a surprise attack, she was almost certain she could make a run for the door and out of it.

She jumped off the night table and without retracting the baton, she picked up the vase with her free hand and walked a few feet towards the door, raising the vase; she had good aim, she could hit the person with the vase, hit them afterwards with the baton and make her escape.

The doorknob stopped moving and she heard something behind the door she wasn't sure was a good thing or a bad thing, her brain deciding it wasn't worth it to find out, and the door swung open.

Greta's arm threw the vase with strength as the figure stepped into the room, the purple flowers flying out of it magically as the crystal ornament smacked the person on the head; or at least what would be the head if it hadn't been covered with the hood of a coat.

The figure turned around, balance partially lost from the hit of the vase, gun up and pointed at Greta as the woman had been about to rush to attack and she sucked in the air painfully.