bigapplesauce | Exploring the city [OPEN]

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Exploring the city [OPEN]

It's Christmas Day and Bruce could use a miracle or two. He doesn't know how he got here or how to get back. He can't find Tony or Avenger's Tower. To be honest, Bruce is a bit disgusted with himself at how easily he got used to having a team to rely on and a home to go back to. He's been living in a homeless shelter, looking for work. Naturally, he's missing some important papers, so he needs under the table work. That's all right. Bruce has experience at this sort of thing. Right now, he's heading for the docks, to see if he can get some work there.

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Bruce grimaced. "Never mind that the people coming through couldn't help it and still needed to be able to work and eat. What sort of work does ROMAC usually allow? Do they take people's abilities into account?"

"They do," allows Blythe. "Usually. Supposedly they're doing all of us a favor by placing rifties in housing and work, but you wouldn't necessarily get much choice about either."

"No. It'd be better to integrate them and treat them like any other citizen," Bruce admits, sighing. "I'm surprised these laws are allowed. What about the federal government? Are rift victims granted any sort of citizenship?"

"Most of it isn't official," shrugs Blythe. "They're trying to keep it as quiet as they can, and most people outside Manhattan either don't know or don't care."

"How can that be? Why haven't you petitioned the White House or gone public?" Bruce asks, confused. In his reality, the media would have a field day, with a story like this.

"Do you think no one's tried?" asks Blythe, scoffing right back. "There are some people outside who know, alright, but you just try alerting the media and see how far you get -- or how far any reporter who listens to you gets."

Bruce winced a bit, both at being snapped at and the implied threat. He sighs, shrugging, his shoulders hunching, as if he could hide.

"I'm not accusing anyone of not trying," he responds softly. "It just seems like ROMAC would need outside help, very powerful help, to keep something this huge quiet. Leaking information to the press, to the public, is becoming easier and easier. How can so many people be kept silent?"

She's sorry she was so sharp with him as soon as she sees his reaction. Blythe sighs and lays a hand on his arm. "This isn't the only rift, and this isn't the only branch of ROMAC," she tells him a bit more gently. "They have the government's blessing -- they won't kill you or torture you, but they can make you disappear."

Bruce nods, his mouth tightening grimly. He shivers at the idea of people disappearing.

"If they disappear, how do you know they aren't tortured or killed?"

"Because they don't always stay disappeared," replies Blythe with a grin. "There's a benefit to banding together, you know."

"Yes, I do know," Bruce agreed, smiling a bit thinly. "What about the ones who don't reappear, though?"

Her grin dissipates as she pays their way through the turnstile. "We don't know," she admits.

"You might want to find out," Bruce advised, his tone grim. "And what about your side of the equation? What do you do?"

"If you're volunteering to infiltrate Romac, I'm sure we'll be glad to have you," she replies, frustrated by his assumptions that they're not trying. "We help the new arrivals find their places, and we try to limit Romac's power."

Bruce gives her a tight smile. If and when he decides to ally with the rebels, he'll tell them about the Hulk.

"That wouldn't be a good idea. I'm not good at stealth, but "we don't know" isn't a comforting answer, ma'am. How do you limit their power? They seem to have the law on their side."

Blythe gives him a curious look, surprised less by what he's said than by the fact that she can tell it's not a lie just to get out of it. What, she wonders, would make it such a bad idea?

"For starters, we keep new people out of their hands," she explains. "And we sabotage them when we can."

"Sabotage," Bruce repeated, unhappily, his hands wringing together. "Sabotage them how?"

"Take their supplies, disrupt their communications," replies Blythe blithely. It doesn't occur to her for a moment that Bruce might think she means they try to hurt or kill people.

"So you only damage equipment and cause inconvenience?" Bruce asks, not quite ready to feel relieved, but close. "Who do you answer to? For that matter, who does ROMAC answer to?"

"We answer to the people who make up our group," shrugs Blythe. "As for Romac...we're working on that."

Bruce sighs.

"It's not usually healthy, when a group answers to no one, but themselves. How do the people in your group maintain control? Voting for their leaders?"

"Mostly," nods Blythe. "Seniority has something to do with it as well."

Bruce nods, not really surprised.

"And, what about the other way around? How do your leaders control the group?"

He really wants to know what hold the rebels have over their followers...how punishments, if any, are handed out.

"Wouldn't be much point in having leaders if we didn't listen to them," replies Blythe, not answering. Bruce's pointed questions might be reasonable for someone afraid of committing to a group that sounds dubious to him...or he might have more nefarious motives, with the way he's probing at how the rebels organize themselves. "Why do you want to know?" she asks.

"Don't you think it's reasonable that I'd want to know how I'll be treated, if I join your group?" Bruce asked. "Even the best leaders can make terrible mistakes and I don't intend to trade my morals and conscience for theirs. I'll tell you what, though," he stops, giving her a wry smile. "Let's table the question for now. You show me the proof that ROMAC needs to be stopped. If I decide to join, I'll explain why I'm so interested in your ideas of discipline."

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