[ voice ]

[hostage]

[This guy sounds like a total hood, his voice rough and gravelly with a cadence that suggests he's straight outta Compton. (Or, you know, Albuquerque. Whatever.) Even so, he doesn't sound angry. He's excited, actually.]

Yo, so… Oh my god. This shit about -

Hold up. Lemme start again, sorry.

My name's, um, Jesse. Jesse Pinkman. ABQ represent. 'sup.

Anyway, so this shit about superpowers. Like, I get it, but… For real? They brought us here to be superheroes? With like the whole mask and alias thing and everything? 'cause it feels like - no offense, okay - but it feels like some kinda Punk'd thing and any second now some camera crew's gonna jump out and Ashton Kutcher or some asshole's gonna…

[He loses that train of thought, laughing to himself.]

Unbelievable. That's what this shit is.

Comments

[hostage]

Screw that.

[centurybaby]

You should try slicing a finger off or something. See if it grows back.

[hostage]

Wow, that sounds like so much fun. How about - no.

[centurybaby]

You're being a pussy, Pinkman.

[hostage]

There's nothing wrong with that. Pussy is amazing. I like pussy. You know what I don't like? Missing fingers.

[centurybaby]

They're supposed to grow back. You wanna wait until someone tries to cut something more important off to find out if your powers actually fucking work?

[hostage]

I've gone this long without powers and without having anything cut off, so...

[centurybaby]

Yeah? Well you're in the fucking big leagues now, Pinkman. I bet you could find a handful of people here who cut things off for kicks, and then some.

[hostage]

[He laughs at that. Yes, okay. Now he's finally in the big leagues. Good to know.]

I will, uh, avoid pissing off that handful of people.

[centurybaby]

Sure. Good luck with that. You never know. I might be one of those people.

[hostage]

Did I piss you off already?

[centurybaby]

Nah. Just saying. Anybody could be a fucking psycho, you know.

[hostage]

Trust me, I know.

[centurybaby]

Yeah? You hang out with a lot of crazies?

[hostage]

I used to hang with a pretty rough crowd, yeah. Tweakers. You know how we do.

Sober now, though.

[centurybaby]

Hey. Good for you. My best friend back home used. Didn't turn out that great for him.

[hostage]

Sorry to hear that.

[centurybaby]

It's cool. Shit happens.

[hostage]

Still sucks. A lot.

[centurybaby]

Yeah, well. You have to get over it eventually.

You lose somebody too, or something?

[hostage]

[He takes a breath. It doesn't ever really get easier to talk about.]

My girlfriend.

[centurybaby]

[ a beat. shit. ]

...Sorry.

[hostage]

We make our own choices, you know?

[He lets out a short, humorless laugh.]

Wish I'd had this power back then, though. God...

[centurybaby]

Being powerless is the worst fucking feeling.

[hostage]

[Wryly:]

At least now I can finally make a difference in the world.