damned_institute | Night 64: Main Hallway, 1-West

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Night 64: Main Hallway, 1-West

[From here.]

Well, that had been painless, but the good time he'd made also meant that he was the first to arrive. Harvey leaned himself up against the wall, swinging his metal pipe around in his hand as he kept an eye out for Scott or Sangamon.

He had to admit, it was strange that their group had been cut down so considerably. He didn't even know if Depth Charge was still around, but it didn't matter to him too much either way, so he hadn't put much thought into it. He figured that one of the others would mention it when they showed up, if they even knew themselves.

While he waited, Harvey grabbed the bone bracelet out of his pocket and started to spin it around in his hand. The skeleton hadn't been too clear about how this worked, but there was an obvious answer about what to do with it, not that he was going to attempt anything until the others had shown up.

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[from here]

Shiina was out of breath by the time she skidding into the same meeting place designated by Shou. Leaning over, clutching her arms around her middle, Shiina sought to catch her breath. It backfired. Instead of finding more air filling her lungs the tickling feeling at the back of her throat took hold, causing her to hack and cough between gasps.

Her baseball bat dropped to the ground with a metallic clamor. She barely managed to keep hold of her dim and dying flashlight.

Get a hold of yourself, Nagasawa! she berated herself, shakily reaching for the bat on the ground, only to be caught by another wave of spasming coughs. If she didn't know better, she would have thought she had inhaled a cloud of dust. Or maybe something worse.

[Niikura and Mike]

[from here]

As soon as he reached the main hallway, Niikura turned on his flashlight and began searching for Shiina or Mike--or both of them, even. He'd gotten to the spot pretty quickly, so he didn't actually expect to find either one of them. However, he was quickly proved otherwise when he came upon Shiina, and even worse...Shiina in the midst of a coughing fit.

He'd been planning on saying something as soon as he saw her like "Hey, did you hear the intercom?" or "How about we go to the X-Ray room instead?", but none of that ended up falling through as his mind went blank with something close to panic.

"Shit... Nagasawa!" Niikura rushed over and knelt down next to her, placing a hand around her shoulders while reaching to knock the bat back within her reach. "You okay?" His heart was beating too quickly; tonight was going to be terrible, he could just feel it.

Shiina's hands reached up and clutched at her mouth and throat, doing all that she could to control the spasms. It was strange, like her throat was clogged with something. It took a few minutes, and a reassuring hand on her shoulder, for her to calm down enough to relax her breathing.

"I'm... I'm fine!" She gasped hoarsely. One hand she kept at her throat, but with the other she shakily reach forward and took up her bat. She straightened up on her feet, offering Shou an apologetic smile.

She had to clear her throat before talking again, but it still did little to relieve her need to cough. Her voice was small and scratchy. "Mike's coming?"

Niikura's arm didn't move from its place around Shiina's shoulders as they straightened up together. Neither did the look of concern on his face. "He should be--soon, I hope." For good measure, he looked around for the older man, but...no sign of him.

"Look--y'know what? We're not goin' to the basement tonight. We need to make sure you're feelin' better, okay? I'm not...it's what I'd rather do, so no tellin' me that I shouldn't hold myself back or anything like that." There, it was out, and if she protested, he was just going to insist upon it even more fiercely.

[From here]

Look--y'know what? We're not goin' to the basement tonight. We need to make sure you're feelin' better, okay? I'm not...it's what I'd rather do, so no tellin' me that I shouldn't hold myself back or anything like that.

It was music to Mike's ears. Niikura wanted to do exactly as he suggested. The fact that he was talking to Shiina instead of screaming also meant that she wasn't a monster yet. There was still time to save her. How much, Mike didn't know, but the fact there was any time at all....

Mike made sure to announce his presence by walking loud enough to make noise before speaking. "And it's what I'd rather do, too."

Shiina looked away, reaching up an arm across her lower stomach and clenching at her other arm. Her fingertips brushed across a dry patch of skin and she scratched lightly at it with her nails.

"'m sorry," she croaked, still hoarse from her earlier coughs. She swallowed, trying to relieve her scratchy throat. It did little to help. If anything, she only felt like it was closing up even further. Her illness was getting worse.

"Mike-sa--" Shiina broke off into another fit of coughs. The intensity of the attack wrecked her whole body. She had to reach out and press a hand against the wall to keep from sinking to the ground.

Niikura normally would have shook Shiina and sternly told her not to apologize, but she looked like she was about to collapse any moment. "Tch--" He gritted his teeth and looked away. "It ain't your fault or anything like that."

He caught sight of Mike as the older man approached them. "Hey. Ya heard the intercom, right? That guy, H-whatever it was. We gotta get over to the medical wing, fast." It was likely that a whole bunch of people were headed that way even now; maybe it wasn't even worth it to go, since he'd probably find out in the morning over the board. Then again, he liked seeing things for himself.

Niikura steadied Shiina again as she had another coughing fit. "Maybe you should go back to your room, Nagasawa. Probably not good for ya, stressin' yourself out here."

"I heard," Mike replied simply, and then he turned to look at Shiina.

He didn't know the girl well, but his eyes still belied his worry. Shell, if she wasn't going to cough up a lung and die on them, she was going to cough herself into a monster form. Either way, not pretty. ... And she was a good kid. She didn't deserve that.

"Gotta agree with Niikura," he spoke softly. "You should rest. Wearin' yourself out is only gonna make it happen faster."

That itch was starting to feel more like a burn creeping up her arm, but Shiina didn't risk reaching over to scratch it. It was just the rash, she told herself. She had more important things to worry about, like trying to stand up-right. She wrapped one hand around her middle and placed her other hand over her mouth, determined to stifle her convulsions. After a while, the coughing did begin to subside but her throat still felt thick.

Niikura and Mike were both pushing to go back to the room. Honestly, if Shiina assessed her condition she knew they were right. Grudgingly, she pushed against the wall and attempted to stand firmer on her feet. Okay.

Shiina stopped, and tried speaking again.

.... Nothing.

Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest, then it was pounding like a jackhammer. The hand she held over her mouth slowly ran fingers from her nose down to her chin. All she felt was a smooth expanse of skin.

Panic. Stumbling back, Shiina would have screamed if she had been capable. But there wasn't any lips left to part, no mouth to open, for her to release any sounds.

Oh good, it looked like she was agreeing. Niikura breathed a sigh of relief. Once they got Shiina safely back to her room, then they could go tearing off after that clue without any risk of--

He opened his mouth to say something, but his voice was failing him. It had been totally gross to watch the nurses distort and transform the other night in the bus, but here, it was just horrifying. Before his eyes, Shiina's face was stretching--actually, it was just her skin that was stretching, gradually covering her entire face until all he could see were her eyes, wide with panic.

The last cognizant part of his mind was screaming at him to move, to go for his gun, to remember what he'd promised, to do anything at all, but nothing seemed to be responding. In fact, it almost felt like he was having an out of body experience.

What do I do? What do I do what do I do what do I do WHAT DO I DO

Well, if Mike wasn't worried before, he was now. He jolted, eyes going wide. She had no mouth to scream, but she was making a terrified muffled noise that should've been splitting his eardrums in two. But it wasn't. Because her mouth was gone.

Mike stumbled back, almost running into Niikura. His head turned for a moment, and then he knew--shell. Both the kids were panicking. He was panicking. They were freaking the shell out, and they had a damn good reason to--shell her mouth was GONE.

She was still mostly human. Mike forced down his panic, locked it away like every other emotion in his life. He'd seen worse. It was just a missing mouth, not missing arms and legs, people begging for death--

Mike reached out to her, touching her upper arm with roughened fingers. He was now the leader. There was no one else.

The former turtle barked: "Room. Now! Panic later!"

Shiina tried to control herself, but something was changing within her as well as without. Grasping for sense was like trying to gain a hold of a metal ball doused in oil. She was slipping off an edge.

Her skin was on fire. It had started at the rash, but now it was spreading over her entire body like a ravenous colony of ants. She wanted to rake her nails across her arms until the skin tore, but Mike was grabbing at her and holding her still. She couldn't possibly fight against a man with his strength...

...Or she might have thought, had this been a normal situation. But Shiina was no longer just the weak girl she had been moments before. Wanting to scream, Shiina yanked away from his grip, her skin peeling away as it rubbed across Mike's calloused palm. She shrunk back, her hands clawing blindly at her arms, clothes, ad scalp as she stumbled.

She couldn't see. Her irises had all but disappeared and her pupils were rapidly shrinking. Even if she could, it would not have helped her cope with the way her flesh and hair just flaked off, giving way to a metallic flash of greasy feathers.

She was screaming. He could hear her. Mike was yelling something at him, something like "panic later", but he might as well have been talking to a rock.

You failed her, Hazama's (his) voice roared in his head. You made a promise!

Mike was the one with his hand on her arm, wasn't he? That was so not right. It was supposed to be him. He was the one who'd promised to protect her. He was the one that had talked to her yesterday and told her that he'd get things done. That was...he wasn't going to stand for this!

"Hey! Don't touch--" Niikura tugged Mike away just as Shiina wormed out of his grasp. "SHIT." He could see the feathers starting to protrude from her scalp, metallic, oily feathers that gleamed in the light from his flashlight. Without thinking, he jerked Mike backwards, trying to put some distance between them and the thing that was morphing before their eyes. "SHIINA!"

Nothing that Splinter had taught him could have prepared him for this. There was nothing he could do for her, he realized numbly, as she pulled free from his grasp and left him with bits of shredded skin on his fingers and falling to his feet. His moment of calm was over, replaced by horror.

They were too late. They were too late, and she was rapidly turning into a monster. Mike was frozen in horror.

It only lasted a moment, however, as Niikura jerked him back and brought him to the present. Now. Something. They had to do something now! Disable. Not kill. Disable. Remove as a threat. Save her.

"Shiina!" Mike called out after Niikura, then grit his teeth. "We gotta knock her out before we can't!"

Too late. There was no saving this monster now.

Shrinking down, half-feathered hands jerked back, and what was left of her pale skin sloughed off in a rush of metallic feathered wings. The grey clothing hung limp on her now one-foot frame.

Unable to make a sound other than the ruffling of feathers and a soft metallic clacking of wings against the nearby wall, the creature shook itself until it no longer was obscured by the uniform. White, marble-like eyes glanced up, the only features on the Tempest's flat face.

She fluffed her wings. Then took a wobbly step on her three-toed feet, and staggered to the side, having to flap harshly to keep upright. It was like the creature was somewhat top-heavy for its thin body. It finally managed to gain its balance, and when it did, it simply stared, motionless, as if waiting for the males to make the first move.

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Night 64: Main Hallway, 1-West

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