well this means • war [duke]

”He’s not exactly human.” “What am I, a dog?”

”Is this a racist thing?” Duke asked, no less confused than he had been five minutes before. ”Because where I’m from, we try to be a little more obvious.” People in the New England area were always beating around the bush in effort to pretend they were the better person. Duke saw through all the bullshit.

He looked at Rico incredulously when the guy went to get in the van after being told to. ”Why are you taking orders from him? What’s he gonna do?” He wasn't scared of a couple of government jokers. ”Whats your name?” he asked the guy who ordered Rico into the car.

”None of your goddamn business.”

Duke scoffed. ”You want to be like that? Alright. I already memorized your license plate, cars make and model. I got a friend who works who works for the local paper. They’re gonna love this. White man, early 40s. 6’1, about 210 pounds. Accent says you’re from somewhere in New York, so your name’s probably something stupid like John or Richard. You’re married, though you took your ring of for reasons that I’m sure aren’t suspicious at all- bet the wife loves that. Probably have a couple of kids too.” The point was, Duke could find him. 

The man's eyes narrows and he shoved Rico against the car. "You bring back another freak?"

Duke wasn’t going anywhere without putting up a fight. He easily grabbed the arm of the guy who went to grab him, twisting it away, but the other man hit him in the head and he was shoved in the back of a car. ”I have somewhere to be tonight,” he called, before leaning his head back. It was a long fucking drive.

“Pick a channel and turn it on. keep the volume down.” He did, and then he turned it up, and it was an ad for Richards coffee. Duke furrowed his eyebrows, turned it down, and changed the station again. ”Dont look.” Maybe the guy had memorized what was commonly played on different channels. Maybe it was bugged. Every theory Duke had was disproven by the fact the guy could predict everything that came on, and no two were the same. ”What are you doing? How are you doing that?” He just wanted to know.

Duke shook his head, more and more incredulous as the guy proved he was being serious with each claim. ”I can tell when there are microwaves around and my brain and interpret them.” ”That.. could be possible.” he admitted. It was crazy but.. theoretically, the science was there. ”Do you hear it in your head, or just know the information?” No wonder they were forcing him to spy.

”How does your work?” ”What? No, I can’t do anything like that.” He was kind of starting to wish he could, though.

”I.. hear it like you hear your thoughts.” Duke nodded, understanding what he meant by that. ”Outside the van.. it was just a lot.” ”You could have done the same thing.” Anyone with eyes could have. Maybe not as well as he did, but that wasn’t the same thing as hearing radio waves. ”Why are you working for these people?” He still didn’t understand why the guy had gone back to the meeting place. If it were him he would have high tailed it as far as he could.

”The door is locked.” ”They have to open it eventually.” Like Rico said, they weren’t just going to let them starve. ”How often do they send you out on.. missions or whatever?” Because if they had a chance to go, that was the time to do it. Unfortunately, those were not often, and Duke wasn’t known for an overwhelming sense of patience. ”When they bring us food, then. How many usually come in here?” The guy wasn’t exactly intimidating, which gave them an element of surprise.

”Two, but maybe more now that you’re here.” He had more questions, including but not limited to: whether or not the guards carried weapons, how many were typically seen in the hallway, how far they were from the nearest exit, and what kind of food they were likely to bring. Once he had forced Rico to recall every detail about the place he could manage, Duke nodded. ”Great, follow my lead.”

Duke had positioned himself close to the door so that as soon as it opened, he could grab the guard holding their food. The man made an adequate shield against the armed man behind him, and an even better weapon when his weight was propelled backward into his friend. Dukes whole plan of course rested on the assumption that a federal agent would be unwilling to potentially let loose a bullet on one their own, and that a moment of surprise would be enough to give him the edge over someone who had the potential to be better trained and stronger.

It did, and he couldn’t help but grin a bit smugly once the gun was in his possession, held against the temple of its former weilder. ”Come on,” he said to Rico, cocking his head impatiently in the direction they’d come from.

It was a good plan. He’d accounted for everything, except the fact that Rico’s mutant ability gave him a weakness normal humans didn’t have. As soon as the escape alarms sounded, a dozen radio frequency were blasted out of the speaker in the hall, sending him to his knees. ”What? What’s happening?” Duke asked impatiently as guards approached the hall. He looked around the room, saw the speaker, and swore. ”Goddammit.” He shot the speaker, effectively solving that issue, but with the gun moved the guard he was threatening slammed his head back into Duke’s nose, throwing him off of him, and giving the man a chance to grab back the gun.

The other guards had made it there by this point, one grabbing Rico and binding his hands behind his back and another shooting Duke in the leg. He went down instantly. As they handcuffed him he heard something about 'testing positive', and 'shipping them both off to a facility'.

They were thrown into the back of a truck. ”I said I’d get us out of there, didn’t I?” Technically.. he had done that.