[PRP] Belly of the Beast

[Natsuko-neko]

Xander had fallen quiet when the talk had turned to more sciencey things, just listening for a while. When the food came he politely thanked Aulus for distributing it then got to eating thoughtfully. They might be able to attempt an escape he supposed if ever the right time came up since it was clear they had at least one person who could understand the ship. Maybe anyway.

Thankfully when the Galactic's came for him and Tambrey he had finished eating. Didn't stop him from wishing they had come later of course, if only to postpone what was going to happen. He got to his feet and shared a look with Tambrey before they started walking. When he felt her take his hand he gently squeezed it back, trying to comfort as much as taking it. The blond gave the Galactic's a mild stare and unlike Tambrey, who couldn't think of anything to say, he just held back on the chance they might hurt his friend more if he smarted off.  

[Loreven]

Lore looked up from stabbing his juice packet with the flimsy excuse for a straw it'd been packaged with. He was still flopped in his corner, thankful to Aulus for distributing the meals so he didn't have to move.

They were taking Xander and Tambrey. He stared helplessly as more of their teammates were led away. The inability to help was getting harder with each round. No amount of good humor was going to make a difference where they were going. All he could think to do was offer an encouraging smile to the departing pair.  

[TawnyAngel]

When the guards returned Aulus went rigid, panic tying his stomach in knots. Not again. What would he do if they were going to hurt Hayes again? He couldn't let them do it, but he couldn't tell them anything. It was the same cycle of useless thoughts as before....

But it wasn't their turn.

Aulus looked up at Tam as she got to her feet, glancing at Xander but quickly turning his attention back to the young woman he knew better. She was coming on pretty well in their classes so far as he could tell never having taught before to have a benchmark. He enjoyed the time he spent with her. They were taking her away to hurt her, and he couldn't stop them.

As the cell door clanged shut behind Tam and Xander like a death knell Aulus' shoulders slumped and he looked down at the floor.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome was hungry, but he didn't have any particular interest in getting to his feet and going to get the food just yet, his arm had only just barely stopped hurting.
Scars seemed to have taken the initiative to get the food out to everyone, Jerome was grateful when he was passed his, and mumbled a thanks and a jerk of his chin to the other man as he took his own.

Even with one hand, Jerome didn't seem to have to much difficulty eating.
He found rather quickly though, that instead of feeling better, he was feeling a little sick.

once done he settled back against the wall, head head tilted back, watching the ceiling as he listened to the conversations Scars and Star Wars were having.
It wasn't till the new voice joined in and the gates opened.

Jerome dropped his head down again, watching with a growing scowl when the women who he had been talking to and the blond boy were pointed out and told to come over.
His eyes narrowed, but he didn't move from his spot, knowing it would just cause them more trouble.

when the door closed again and the Rockets were taken away, a string of vulgarity and insults growled from Jerome's low voice.  

[Dante-Sayre]

The doors to the brig swung open abruptly. What had become the natural expectation of their friends returning was dashed when two unfamiliar Galactics wandered in. One was a woman, dressed in white uniform with black hair cut in an angular bob. The other was a man. He wore a dark labcoat and goggles. Most of his face was obscured.

Lore lifted his head, watching them enter. Disappointment that Tambrey and Xander hadn't returned was evident on his face.

"That one." The woman pointed at Jerome. Her voice was as blunt and humorless as her haircut.

Lore frowned and sat up, "Hey.. you can't keep taking more of us, you haven't returned the others yet. When're they coming back?"

"An excellent question." She answered, watching two guards approach the cell, where they unlocked the door and beckoned Jerome with their guns.

"Y'know, I'm not gonna lie.. the communication here really leaves something to be desired.." He eyed Jerome, uncertainty creeping into his weakening attempts at humor.  

[Blood_Goddess]

It had become habit to lift ones head when they heard the doors opening.
He found himself expecting the Rockets to be returned, instead he found two different Galactics, with one of them pointing to him, causing the ex-gangster to tense.

He might have no been as obliging as he was if there had not been guns involved.
As he brought himself to his feet, he glanced over at Lore when he asked about the missing Rockets.
"N'kiddin'" He grunted back at the brunette, jerking his chin out sharply.

The tattooed man made his way toward the Galactics, eying them with a rather calm demeanor, though his eyes reflected caution.
He knew abouts what to expect.  

[Dante-Sayre]

"If you'll follow us." The woman stated curtly, turning to leave. The goggled man walked with her and one of the guards followed behind Jerome, keeping a gun on the larger man.

[RP continues here.]  

[TawnyAngel]

Of all of them, he was most confident of Jerome’s ability to cope. That didn’t mean he was pleased to see him taken. As the tattooed man stood up Aulus nodded grimly to him, not knowing what else to do and hoping that his acknowledgement would... What? Just mean something, he supposed.

Where was Tam for that matter, and that Xander kid? He supposed he shouldn’t have expected the Galactics to let a routine they could count on build up. Drawing his knees up to his chest Aulus stared at the door, trying not to think about the fact that he was thirsty again or that his student and perhaps almost friend was probably being hurt right now.

Think about something else, anything else.

“I wonder what was with that explosion.”

He hadn’t speculated too much at the time, he’d been too busy panicking about Hayes, and about whether or not the ship might explode. Had the accident caused a weakness that Team Rocket could exploit, if indeed it had been an accident? What else could it have been though, he was sure it couldn’t have been their allies trying to save them because if it had been somebody would have been along to gloat about the failure by now....

Where was Tam? What was happening to her?  

[Shawn Darrow]

Sitting quietly in the darkest, most obscure corner of the cell, away from the guards and the door, was the teenage boy. He hadn't really moved much since the Galactic leader had made his appearance, apart from having been thrown about by the motion of the airship. Even when Xander kindly inquired about his state, he could not answer. Shadow's sepia eyes were dark and dull; almost as if he were dead. His gaze stared into nowhere and nothing, unseeing. Not once did he appear to sleep, though.

He didn't look up whenever the Galactics came in, though he did utter a sound of discomfort as the air was knocked from chest in the explosion, when he was slammed up against a wall. Though he made no indication of registering any of the activity going on around him, he was quite aware of it. He had merely just withdrawn into himself as a defense mechanism.

This isn't happening. I'm not helpless. I'm not. We'll be fine.

As time passed and more of their members were taken, however, Shadow seemed to recede deeper and deeper into himself. He had a hollow look about him; vacant, like one lost in a stupor, but it was not a pleasant daydream like the school years Aulus and Hayes managed to chat about.

The teen had never been a very optimistic sort, and though his childhood paranoia had been somewhat subdued by the experiment performed on him in the TR labs, it still remained dormant within the recesses of his mind. He did not cope well with fear. It consumed him from the inside out and the only limits to his terror were his imagination.

By that time, he was almost completely gone, not wanting to think about what was going to happen to his taken teammates or what horrible things had already happened to the ones who had been taken prior. All he could do was curl up and hug his knees as his body involuntarily began to tremble - faintly at first, then more violently. Could he do nothing?! He would go mad here. Surely he would. Even if they didn't kill them, he would go crazy with the psychological torture of imagining what his fellow Rockets were being put through. Possibly at least partially because of him.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Eventually the Rockets were brought back by the guards. Xander first, without the company of Tambery.

It was about a half hour later that a few guards with guns returned with the remaining two Rockets. Having met at the doorway before entering.

Jerome was looked pale, his arm no longer in the sling, but laying limply and swollen as his side. His face looked hard, though he kept his eyes on the ground, glancing up only when he noticed a fellow Rocket being led back into the cell with him.

"Books." He said, in a low tone as he was pushed up behind her.  

[Gwennythe]

That had not been fun.
She could barely think- paradoxically remembering everything and not able to remember anything properly- and thus ending up with a mindful of something akin to static, interspersed with random flashes of thoughts and feelings.

Her clothes were bloodied and several nasty bruises might be visible- the shocks had left her a bit numb, at least, for the moment, but meant she really couldn't walk.
The guards, not the gentlest at the moment, had chosen to simply drag her along backwards, lifting only when they had to.

At the somewhat familiar voice, Tam's eyes, slightly unfocused, sought out Jerome with a curiously dazed expression.
"... N'h?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Tambery had been one of the few who had been unharmed, but what Jerome was seeing now caused the gangster to shoot a weak glare at them men dragging her.

He didn't have time to say anything, or react, even if he could at that moment, his mind fuzzed over with blinding pain that just didn't stop along his arm.
He was jabbed into the cell. The dark man stumbling in, but remaining on his feet.

Not for long though, as soon as he was in, he slumped to the side, pushing his good shoulder onto the bars and letting his legs fall from under him, sliding down the bars where he sat, breathing through bared teeth, trying not to move so that his arm would hurt less.

He looked back to Books when she was dragged carelessly in and left at the first place they could drop her. <********." He hissed, glancing at the closing door, before looking back to her, unable to move to check on her, though he knew there were others here who could.  

[Gwennythe]

Hey, where'd Jerome go? Wasn't he here a moment ago or... or was that a long time ago or... something?
What the grunt saw currently was the patch of the cell floor she'd been discarded onto.
"..Hey." She told it, then turned her head in the limited amount she could. The blur across the room could be Jerome...
Oh, right. Cell floor. That meant cell.

She stared at the Jerome blur, wondering why he'd been 'returning' to the cell at the same time... That meant he'd been out for his own session...
Oh Arceus, that meant he was probably hurt too...  

[Natsuko-neko]

When Xander had been escorted back in he had stayed silent with a blank face but angry eyes. He moved only a bit away from the door to the cell, just enough that the Galactic's couldn't complain then crossed his arms and waited. When they finally brought Tambrey and Jerome back he looked them over as they were shoved back into the cell and frowned. They had clearly not held back in making sure the two were hurt severely. He gave Jerome a worried look when he passed by then turned his attention back to the sprawled Tambrey.

A flicker of guilt passed his eyes but he pushed that a side as he moved over to help her. The blond knelt by her and gently put an arm under her shoulders to help her sit up a bit before giving her a small reassuring smile. "I'm going to move you back towards the wall Tam, alright?" He asked, ready to scoop her up and move her way from the bars.  

[Blood_Goddess]

At least she was still moving, even moved enough to look over at him.
His eyelids fell slightly, but he didn't look away from her.
He could tell she was out of it, just like someone who had been beat too hard, he'd seen it plenty of times.
He knew what it did to people.

Everything was swimming, Jerome was still feeling the intense pounding and stabbing from his arm, pretty sure that it wasn't shaped right with how hard Labcoat has twisted it.
But with it he was feeling like.. nothing was real, like it was happening in a dream.
He knew better then to believe that.

Thankfully, as soon as they were in someone was stepping forward to help Tambery.
Jerome didn't think he would be able to help Books sit up at this second, let alone get her up off the ground and to the other side of the cell.

Jerome didn't seem to acknowledge Xander's look to him, by the time he was talking to Tambery the Gangster leaned his head back, settling back against the bars to just wait out and hope the pain died down.