The journey down the stairs was unpleasant, to say the least. As he lay on the ground below the steps, he heard Glasses descend surely, the tap-tap-tap of their boots slow, hard and clear against the cold concrete. His disguise had broken apart.
"Hello again, Uari, and also fuck you."
"...how did you know it was me?" It didn't seem as though Glasses was enjoying the permanent migraine they had been given. They were now wearing sunglasses, a neon yellow scarf, and bright red earmuffs, likely to reduce any sensory input. On the ground, Uari stifled the laugh threatening to spill from his throat.
"Do you think we're stupid enough to just invite some new face in here? You're truly underestimating us."
Yeah, okay, Uari had to admit he probably had been. Even if they weren't fighting naturals like he was, he had definitely been underestimating their collective intelligence. It was clear from Hykel's status that their influence reached far and wide, and on top of that, their strange abilities had demonstrated physical differences and advantages that normal people didn't have.
He had imagined he had been dealing with some poorly-assembled rebel group, but it was clearly some secret scientific organisation that was successfully experimenting on their members and that had big players with high status covering them up. Obviously.
Groaning, he tried to get up. Glasses was built like a truck. 'Done a number on his ribs' would be putting the damage very lightly; he was certain that he had broken a bone in his right calf, and there were bruises everywhere that demanded attention. He shouldn't have assumed that a few sonic bursts would have been able to put Glasses out of commission.
He wasn't allowed to recover, however, because Glasses gifted him another lovely kick once he reached the bottom of the stairs and forced him to his knees. Through the unwilling tears in his eyes, he could see Valen peering down at them from the top of the stairs. She gave him a small grin and a wave, then shut the door on them.
Oh, gods above, he was going to kill her.
He was stripped naked, and then Glasses wrapped him firmly in a combination of plastic zip-ties, handcuffs, and heavy chains. He would say it was overkill, but he couldn't blame them for that. He had prepared for this, at any rate, because he had previously splurged on a subspace storage device that was currently stored....well, where he stored it wasn't that interesting. It sure was uncomfortable, though.
Glasses hoisted him up onto their shoulders like the shameful sack of potatoes he resembled, careful not to make any movements that would worsen their migraine. In any other situation, Uari would have been happy to be enveloped in these thicc arms, but today, his bruises throbbed in protest. He let out a measly whimper. At least Iria wasn't here to bear witness to his humiliation.
"Please be gentle..."
"You're a maniac. You're a reckless maniac. You're a goddamn glass cannon with a hell of a punch and zero stamina and you don't even use your abilities. You don't even remember half of who you are. I can't believe the bosses haven't just run you into the ground. You're lucky you're you. Damn you."
Uari did not answer, but registered several things as he swung pathetically: first, that he had abilities and hadn't been using them; secondly, he reaffirmed that the bosses wanted him alive for some reason, and that reason was that 'it was him'.
What that implied, he wasn't certain. The pain from his leg was taking up too much brain space for him to register anything else. What he would grasp was that he was valuable in some way, at least.
His ears throbbed as several unwarranted screeches made themselves known. Glasses was pulling open an archaic-looking heavy metal door, and it dragged unhappily against the ground. They paused for a moment—only for a moment—to regain their bearings and continued past the door. Uari was soon deposited, unceremoniously and almost violently, on a mattress on the ground. The thinness of the bedding did nothing to stop his head from hitting the ground badly, and he let out a minor grunt as he ended up face-down on the mattress.
Glasses rolled him over thoughtfully, just enough to make sure he didn't die from suffocation, then left the room with another unpleasant screech of the doors. A metal 'thunk' alerted him to the presence of a lock. Staring at the mattress and ground in front of him, Uari did his best to ignore the near-blinding pain in his right leg and began to think.
He still had all of the valuable equipment, but he couldn't reach his subspace storage without the assistance of his hands. Or anybody's hands, honestly. The chains were thick and heavy and the zip ties robust, even if the handcuffs were surprisingly brittle and non-functional.
He could wiggle outwards, but they had to get him out of this getup at some point, so he decided to just go to sleep. No sense mulling over a situation where he couldn't do anything. He would need to wait and observe, and then make his moves when things were more favourable.
He was, of course, awoken by another kick from Glasses. "...can't you get some variety in your assault tactics?" He mumbled as he came to his senses. Glasses sneered loudly and ignored him.
"Hmm, your leg is in pretty bad shape, isn't it?"
Blearily, he saw the shape of another person crouched over his leg: a teenage boy with tousled hair and fair skin, so uncommon in the desert suns of Gejuth. The blurry shape came into sharp focus as the boy poked his injury, hard, and he stifled a scream.
"You really don't remember anything." The boy looked disappointed, but stood up and smoothed his robes with gentle hands. "I know they said it would be like this, but it still sucks that you don't remember me."
A pout made its way onto the boy's face; Uari feared for his life and prayed that the boy didn't stomp on his broken leg.
"Well, it's alright since they said you would be re-wiped again for the mission." Uari thought they would have to be truly brainless to send him back to an apartment they knew was bald as well as a semi-compromised mission, but he choked the thought down as the boy's face loomed over him, curious.
Cunning, familiar, electric-yellow eyes peered down at him, and Uari didn't know why, but he was immediately reminded of a beast. Short brown hair framed an angelic face and thin lips.
"Hi, Uari," his mouth parted, but Uari couldn't tear away from the eyes. "My name is Io. Welcome back to the Gravts."