Nightmares and Examinations

Running! I keep running and I can't get away from that damn Gorilla! This hallway goes on and on and on. I got to get away! Why are there no doors in this hallway! I scream as the floor dissolves from under my feet I look down and all I can see is a giant sized Gorilla head with it's red eyes blazing fire and it's monstrous mouth agape with his sharp teeth gleaming as I fall in and his mouth snaps closed! My eyes snap open and now I'm standing in a giant tube with electrodes protruding from the walls. Electricity starts arcing across the electrodes as I start screaming and franticly beat my fists against the wide window of the tube fruitlessly.

“NO! Don't do this! Please for the love of god let me out!” I screamed horsely to the mad doctor with her maniacal smile and creepy cybernetic eye staring at me!

Goop quickly floods the tube from the ceiling and I am soon held motionless as I watch her crank a dial till it stops turning. A split second later agonizing pain rips through my body and It hurts so bad I can't even scream! I watch my masculine hands and arms start to tear to shreds in the gel and reform smaller and daintier. My head starts ponding as eyes roll back into my head. <BOOM.....BOOM...BOOM...Boo...ock, KNOCK>

<KNOCK KNOCK> “SCOTT!...SCOTT!!! Are you OK in there??” I sat bolt up right in bed at hearing that gasping for breath, drenched in a cold sweat.

Someone was at my door?

“Scott! I'm coming in!” I heard the voice again and the door to my quarters open.

Next thing I know The Raven is standing in the doorway of my bedroom with a worried look on her face. I stared at her for an unknown amount of time as the fog of sleep released its grip on me. I was still breathing hard and sweating like crazy but I grabbed the covers I threw off of me when I woke up and pulled them up to my chin and rested my head on my knees.

Raven slowly walked to the side of the bed, sat down on it and gently put a hand on my shoulder and asked quietly, “Rough night I take it?”

“Y...Yeah. I was having a nightmare. A bad one.” I said shakily in a voice near tears.

“Want to talk about it?” she asked.

“I... I was running and I... I....” I started breathing hard again. “I can't... I can't talk about it...” I finished as the tears started flowing again.

“That's OK Scott, when you are ready to talk about them don't hesitate to call for me if I'm not with you. OK?” She said with gentle understanding.

I nodded my head in response.

“Why don't I give you some time to clean up. I'll come back for you in a little while. If you are still feeling up to it at least.” She said.

“N..no, the sooner we get to the bottom of this the better. I want to continue with todays plans.” I said resolutely.

“OK Scott, I'll be back in a half hour then? She asked.

“Yeah, that will be fine. Thank you Raven.” I said wiping my eyes.

She squeezed my shoulder once in reply and left me to get ready for the day.

I quickly got out of bed, disrobed and started a hot shower. The shower helped me relax from the tension of having the nightmare. I haven’t had a nightmare like that since I was a kid. I also haven’t been abducted and had my identity ripped away from me either... I was a hot mess right now for sure. After standing in the shower and relaxing I quickly soaped my self down, trying the best I could to ignore the different sensations I felt from what I was used to when cleaning certain parts of my anatomy. Once my body and hair were clean I got out and toweled off quickly. I brushed my hair and my teeth and got dressed once again with a fresh set of the sweat clothes provided the day before. I went out in to the lobby area to wait for Raven.

I was standing at the window watching life in the city carry on oblivious to my plight when I heard the elevator arrive. I stepped in the elevator when the doors opened and I saw Raven inside. The elevator doors shut and she pressed the sub-level 1 button and the elevator started moving again.

“Since you didn't have time for breakfast I brought you a protein bar.” She said with a warm smile as she handed the bar to me.

“Thank you! I am really hungry.” I said with gratitude.

I was half way through scarfing down the bar when the elevator doors opened and I followed Raven out. The room was fairly big and in the center of it there was a sophisticated looking computer terminal with at least a dozen monitors stacked orderly in a grid. It looked like they could all be used to display like a really big single display or be used like they were now. Each monitor was showing something different and Captain Thunder was the one studying what he saw on the monitors. He turned around at the sound of us walking up and said, “Good morning Scott! How are you doing this morning?”

“OK, thank you.” I responded as someone else walked in to the room.

“Scott, This is...” She was interrupted with a streak of movement I jumped back a little bit as the person she was going to introduce appeared right in front of me.

“Hi there! Johnny Rocket at your service! You must be Scott? Nice to meet you.” He introduced himself and held out his hand.

I took his hand while moving my other to grasp the neck of my sweat shirt self consciously. “N..nice to meet you too.” I replied.

“OH! I'm sorry I probably startled you by zooming up on you like that!” He said a little contritely while taking a step back as out of the corner of my eye I saw Raven roll her eyes at him in annoyance.

“Now don't you worry about anything now that you are here! Ravens' a genius and will have you back to your old self in no time! Now excuse me please. I have some place I need to be!” And with that he zipped away as fast as he had arrived.

I, however caught the look that Raven and the Captain gave each other as he said that and saw the doubt in their eyes. I self-consciously crossed my other arm over my chest and said to Raven, “Can we get started now please?”

“Of course, please walk this way.” She said as she lead me to the infirmary and medical lab.

She started her examination just like and doctor would, by taking my height and weight. She had me strip down to my sports bra and underwear to get the measurements. I was now 5' 4” tall and 105 pounds and she took my other measurements as well. My figure measurements were 36B-24-34, every measurement was a far cry from the 6 foot, 190+ pounds I was a couple of days ago. My shoulders slumped as struck me that I was literally almost half of what I used to be weight-wise. The impact of that pulse the loss of of eight inches in height caused my eyes to tear up again but I didn't start crying. I was feeling defeated.

“Hey, you OK?” Raven asked with a sympathetic look.

“Maybe eventually....” I replied with a weak smile while straightening my shoulders. “What's next.” I asked.

She then checked my ears and nose and drew some blood to be tested and them she handed me a vacuum sealed package, “Here you go, I'll leave the room so you can get out of your underwear and get changed into this.” She said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It's a sensor suit. The sensors built into in the material of the suit will wirelessly provide me telemetry of your vitals and condition. I will also be able to use it like a wearable C.A.T. Scan among other things.” Raven explained. “Just let me know when you have it on.” She said as walked out of the door and shut it behind her.

I unsealed the bag and let the garment unfold as I held it by its shoulders. It was a blue hooded catsuit of sorts. It had built in feet and long sleeves that were open and a zipper going up the front. It was not solid blue as it had a white, upside down triangle just above the bust of the suit and matching white triangles at the shoulders and hips. There were inch wide bands at the wrists and ankles that were made of a thinker material than the rest of the suit. The suit was made of a substance I didn't recognize. It wasn't latex, (thank goodness. That would just be too weird.) but is was slightly shiny but not very stretchy like spandex would be. With some trepidation I took my bra and underwear off and stepped into the suit and zipped it up. First thing I noticed it was WAY too big. I had to push the sleeves up up keep my hands out in the open and to get my feet where they belonged the extra fabric of the legs were gathered up at my ankles. I then signaled to Raven that I was dressed.

As she came in and shut the door I said, “I have it on the best I could but it's way too big on me.”

“On the left wrist there is a recessed button on the band. Go ahead and push it and hold it in for a few seconds.” She said.

I found the button and pressed it as instructed and gave a startled shout as the suit quickly shrunk until it felt like it was two sizes to small! After a couple seconds it relaxed it's grip a little bit but it still felt way to tight! I looked down at myself and immediately covered my chest with my arms self-consciously. Even though it covered me from head to toe, the tightness of the suit left VERY little to the imagination!

“Ah crap! I'm sorry Scott! I forgot to warn you about that!” She apologized.

“Ah.. Well.. Uh, I guess I know how you feel while you are in costume.” I said while pointing at her own skin tight uniform. “I would even be embarrassed as my male self in something this tight. I don't know how you go out like that.” I finished turning away from her, blushing at how exposed I felt in the suit.

“It DID take some getting used to.” She admitted. “Don't worry about being self-conscious, it's just the two of us in here and after the first tests are complete you can put your clothes on over the suit.” She finished.

The test she did took until lunch when she finally told me, “Go a head and put your clothes on over the sensor suit and I'll take you to the kitchen for a bite to eat.”

The dining area had a table set up piled high with deli style sandwiches and a good sized selection if sides dishes. While Raven and I ate she asked some questions.

“I know this might be painful but tell me about yourself before all this began please?” She asked.

I took a deep breath and started, “Well, I'm 32 years old even if I don't look like now.” I said wryly. “I have a bachelors degree in computer networking and I work, or I guess at this point used to work at Freedom Medical Center as one of their network administrators. Right out of high school I served six years in the military So I could use the GI Bill to pay for college. I work out three days a week. I'm really just and average everyday guy, uh....person....gi...” I finished with a sigh.

Raven laid a sympathetic hand on my shoulder then threw away our trash and took me back to the lab for more tests. I fell into a routine quickly that week. Raven would conduct different tests through out the day till around mid-afternoon on days the Freedom League weren't out on a call. Raven had me wear the sensor suit 24 hours a day letting me changing it out fro a fresh one after I worked out and every morning. After she was dome with me for the day I would go workout at their gym. Once they knew who I was they arranged to have my stuff from the storage unit my landlord had moved my stuff into after I had been declared missing during my captivity. They also were able to get the police to release my car from the police impound lot where it was towed to from the supermarket. Over the course of that first week I met the rest of the Freedom League, Bowman, Daedalus, Dr. Metropolis, Lady Liberty and Siren. All of them greeted me warmly except for Dr. Metropolis. Raven explained to me that that was just how he was. He was the living embodiment of the city, hence the way he acted.

After week three I was getting a little more comfortable with my situation and my nightmares were not happening every night like they were at first. I was however going stir crazy. Bored with being cooped up in Freedom Tower all this time. I finally asked Raven If I could leave the tower and get some fresh air.

“That's a great idea actually. You need to get out and re-acclimate yourself with the world.” She said but then added, “But your accounts are still frozen. The police know that we have you in our care but you are still officially listed as missing until we can restore you.”

“Great, Just one more thing to put on the list as to why this sucks.” I said with disappointment.

“Whoa now, Let me finish.” She replied. “Tess Atom of the Atom Family want to chaperone you and get you out of the tower for the day soon. I'll give you a pre-loaded Visa debit card with $1,500 so you can go out and enjoy yourself.” She finished as she handed me the card.

“Oh,no I can't accept this!” I said holding the card back out to her. I didn't like needing to accept charity. “I already feel like I'm a free loader here.”

“You don't have to feel bad about accepting the money Scott. It's yours free and clear with the only condition being that you go out and use the money to enjoy your self. OK?” she said as she put the card back in my hand and closed my fingers over it.

“Thank you.” I said simply, wiping a tear of gratitude from my eye. “I appreciate everything you and the League are doing for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means more to me than you could possibly know.”

For the first time in the three weeks I had been here she dropped her professional, all business demeanor and gave me a warm hug which after a startled second I returned.

“How about I arrange for Tess to come by tomorrow morning?” She asked.

“I would like that.” I replied with a smile.