A church basement in Jonestown, Baltimore, Tuesday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

So the incense good mood from that morning had worn off, and Duke had started to get anxious. The idea of Octavia hanging out in Baltimore attending community outreach meditation courses had stopped making sense again. Unless maybe she hit her head and was looking for something familiar? He headed to the mainland a little bit earlier than was strictly necessary to attend the tai chi class Jim had said Octavia would be coming to this evening, hoping to get some answers.

Jim was seated on the floor when he arrived, surrounded by thin, hungry looking older women, who all turned beatific smiles on Duke when he walked in.

"Duke!" Jim greeted. "Come in, come in! We were just finishing up a group chakra cleansing!"

Warning bells were (a bit belatedly) going off in Duke's head. "Chakra cleansing. Right. Cool."

That was not a thing. What the hell had he gotten himself into, here?

[NFB. For the one expected, and more cult-fighting hijinks. . . .]

Comments

[hatesparadise]

You had to know that Danny wasn't going to be a very surly version of back-up here, right? Because it was sort of his thing.

Which was why he was following Duke. To a pretty creepy AA sort of meeting of all things. Chakra? Really? Couldn't you just find a normal dealer like everyone else?

He stuck near the door, scoping out the place for any other exits in case this turned into something. And, with his life, it was gonna turn into something.

[betterthanaplan]

Ah, but a normal dealer couldn't prey on Duke's vulnerabilities like Jim and Mike could!

One of the older women stepped to the front of the group, her eyes wide. "Duke? Is that -- really you?"

Duke swallowed hard. "Mom." How was he even surprised anymore? "You, uh. You recognize me, huh?"

The woman rushed forward and wrapped Duke in a firm hug. "Of course I do, my darling boy! Oh, I'm so glad you've come to join us in Jim's love!"

Duke's hands slowly came up to hug her back, pausing just before he actually touched her and settling finally for a bro-pat to her shoulder blades. "Wow," he said. "This is . . . an actual for-real cult, isn't it."

[hatesparadise]

"...what the fuck?" Danny whispered to himself.

Could he know just one person without super fucked up mom issues? Could he? Please?

"Okay!" Danny said, letting his voice go up to a volume that couldn't really be ignored as he stepped forward. "C'mon. Time to go, Crocker."

[betterthanaplan]

Jim's expression turned hard. "I'm so sorry to hear you say that, Duke." He looked up at Danny came forward and nodded to someone lurking in the corner of the room. "Still, you and your friend are welcome here."

Duke pulled away from his mother to get up in Jim's face. "The hell is your gameplan here, man? You've never even seen Octavia, have you?"

Jim pulled what looked like an epi-pen from his pocket and jammed it into Duke's arm. Mike, lurking in the corner, lunged forward to do the same to Danny.

"No," Jim said, as Duke crumpled to his knees. "But we'll tell her you said 'hi' if we do."

[hatesparadise]

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Danny hissed, trying to draw his gun and fight off the person coming at him at the same time. Which ended in getting one shot off at the floor of the church before he was tackled and jabbed with unknown drugs. He staggered for a moment before everything went fuzzy and he was out on the floor.

Just like old times in Hawaii.

You know, this shit was supposed to happen to McGarrett, not him.

[betterthanaplan]

McGarrett wasn't here, so they had to make do!

For all her 'my darling boy' talk, Duke's mom was very chill about him passing out on the floor. She scooped him up and petted his hair, and looked to Jim for further instructions.

"Load them into the van. Someone's going to have heard that shot."

And Duke and Danny had to come to tied back-to-back in a warehouse, as was only good and proper!

[hatesparadise]

ALWAYS WITH THE CULTS.

"If I puke, I'm gonna kill someone," Danny muttered, feeling like his mouth was full of cotton and his head might split in two.

[betterthanaplan]

"Shhh," Duke hissed, and then immediately regretted it. "You're loud."

It was a very nice warehouse they were coming to in. Or maybe it was an old abandoned factory space. It was hard to tell so far, but they were in what was clearly an industrial broom closet.

At least it wasn't a meat locker?

Duke squinted at the bright yellow mop bucket in front of him. "I'm beginning to hate Baltimore."

[hatesparadise]

Warehouses were just bad places to be. They were always filled with drug dealers, gun runners, sometimes the Yakuza, and tetnus.

"Beginning to?" Danny snapped. Then winced because yes. The headache was still there. "I'm going to go find my gun and beat the crap out of the guy who drugged me."

[betterthanaplan]

"Ooo, great plan," Duke said. "That going to be before or after you escape these ropes?"

[hatesparadise]

"I don't know, maybe I'll use the chair to beat him with," Danny replied sarcastically, wriggling to test how loose he could get the ropes.

Would you believe this was far from the first time this had happened to him?

[betterthanaplan]

Duke would just say that was because he was a terrible cop.

"Not if I beat you to him," Duke grumbled. "Ow, hey! Give a guy room to breathe, here!"

Oh, the joys of being tied to someone.

[hatesparadise]

Rude and hurtful. If you got him drunk, he might agree with that statement in regard to being tied to chairs, though. Because saaaadness.

"I'm sorry, are you being delicate about escaping right now?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, silly me, getting upset about potentially smothering."

It was how he was really likely to die someday! Not that he knew that yet.

"Look, just hold still and let me see if they took my knife, okay?"

[hatesparadise]

"Well, let's just hope they're that dumb," Danny replied, going still as he looked around for a guard or maybe something helpful like, you know, an exit sign.

[betterthanaplan]

"They're a cult." Whether that meant they were dumb or not was still up for debate.

Duke rolled his shoulders back, stretching his arm as best he could while feeling for his back pocket.

". . . Fuck." He did not, in fact, have his knife.

[hatesparadise]

"Is that a no, Crocker?" Danny was now just being unhelpful.

[betterthanaplan]

"Shut up."

Yes. Yes it was.

"Okay. Okay, hang on. I've been in worse situations than this."

Admittedly he usually had someone to deliberately antagonize into making a mistake who wasn't also tied up.

[hatesparadise]

Wasn't that great!

"Are we sharing now? Is this a sharing hour?" Danny asked, going right on back to wriggling to loosen up the ropes a little bit.

[betterthanaplan]

"Sure. Let's start with how you ended up kidnapped by this cult." Duke had excuses! His girlfriend was missing and his damn mother showed up! "What, can you only arrest people when they politely turn around and tell you where their weapons are?"

[hatesparadise]

"Excuse me for being unaware you were involved in a dangerous cult," Danny snapped. "Next time I'll just leave you to it!"

[betterthanaplan]

"I could have handled it!"

No. No he couldn't have. Having someone to yell and/or snark at was a vital part of his handling process.

"And I'm not involved. They just. . . ." He dropped his head and sighed heavily. ". . . Noticed I was vulnerable and targeted me for recruitment. Fuck."

[hatesparadise]

It was therapy for everyone involved! But, ugh. Don't make it feel like this was kicking you while you were down, Duke.

"How about we just get out of here so I can contact the locals to round these idiots up?" Danny asked with an answering sigh. "And pretend none of this ever happened."

He went stiff as the sound of a door opening and closing echoed heavily through the building.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke should have known better! His dad had basically been in a cult when Duke was little, one that had occasionally tried to recruit him, too!

He was also just kind of ridiculously suggestible and open to manipulation. It was a problem.

Duke snapped his head back up at that sound, then started his own wriggling to try to loosen the ropes. "You couldn't have brought Diaz or someone for back up?" he hissed.

[hatesparadise]

"Back up for what exactly? I wasn't even expecting to get off the goddamn island," he snapped back. He was wasting his precious time away from that crappy island saving your ass rather than calling his daughter. Appreciate his sacrifice here. "Also, your mother, Crocker? Want to explain that?"