Night 64: X-Ray Room

[damned_intercom]

As soon as the patients entered the dark room, the first thing they might have noticed were a couple of short bursts of static from the intercom. But no voices or cryptic messages greeted them.

Instead, their eyes would undoubtedly be drawn toward the strange picture of a human stomach carefully painted onto the southern wall, its paint casting an eerie green glow that cut into the darkness.

Although the artist had done their best to make the picture as clear as possible, they had apparently decided to leave a sharp kitchen knife perched on X-Ray table to compensate the patients for their troubles. Hopefully whoever picked it up would be able to make good use of it and the clue created for them.

Comments

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

They'd made it! The second the Link stepped inside, Sora shut the door behind them, only taking a second or two to catch his breath before he took in what the room had to offer them.

Normally, the equipment itself would have stood out, but right now there was something else that was much more eye-catching: specifically, a drawing on the wall that looked to have been made in some king of glow-in-the-dark paint.

Sora took a few tentative steps toward it, and as he felt queasiness run through him, he realized what the drawing was depicting. "...That's supposed to be a stomach, right?" A human stomach, with a butterfly inside.

[his_legacy]

Link took a deep, steadying breath as Sora closed the door behind him. Lingormr's parting words had indicated that he didn't plan to follow them inside. Good. The intercom hiccuped, but said nothing. Link frowned suspiciously.

Taking a look around the room, the first and most obvious thing he noticed was the strange machine hanging from the ceiling. Frowning curiously, he approached the long, metal table to take a closer look. So many things in this building were made of such highly polished metal... In Hyrule, steel was used much more conservatively. It was an expensive material reserved mostly for battle equipment. But what was more interesting was the large knife laid on the table. Link picked it up, inspecting it closely. The blade was set straight, and seemed to be sharp. A triumphant smirk ghosted across his face for the first time since he'd woken up here. Link had a weapon.

The Hylian was snapped out of his thoughts when Sora spoke. He looked up to the opposite wall, eyes widening as he saw the painting splashed across the wall. He knew very little about bodies and how they worked. That knowledge was mostly reserved to doctors in Hyrule. But he had been to a doctor's office once, and he had thumbed through a medical texts in his spare time enough to recognize a stomach.

"It seems to be..." He stepped around the table and next to Sora, taking a closer look. Yes. It was a stomach. And it did not take long for him to put two and two together. Link's heart sank and he bit his lip, glancing down at the knife he had just picked up. He was silent for a moment before looking over to Sora, eyes calm and serious.

"This is your call," he said quietly, his voice even. "I will help you, if you choose to go through with... what they seem to be telling us to do." Link had dealt with evil, manipulative men before. But this was definitely up there on the list of the more twisted things he had encountered.

[lighthearted]

When Link grabbed the knife, Sora felt some relief, as this meant that his new roommate hadn't come all this way only to gain nothing from it. Now he had a weapon, and while a knife was the sort of thing that required you to get too close to a monster for comfort, it was better than nothing.

But when Link's face darkened and Sora looked from the knife in his hands up to the drawing on the wall, he felt his body go cold. No, was that really what it was implying? Weren't they just jumping to conclusions?

He placed a hand on his stomach, but it definitely didn't feel like it had butterflies in it. No, he just felt sick, but he'd been nauseous since this morning, and that was a sign of something, wasn't it?

"Do you really think that's what it's supposed to be?" he said after a too-long pause, his voice going quiet. On top of it being dangerous, could he really ask someone to cut him open? Though as Sora remembered Renji's body, laid out and slashed open in the middle, he realized that was exactly what was going on here.

This was not the kind of cure he'd been hoping for.

[his_legacy]

"I hate to jump to an improper conclusion, Sora. By all means, if you can think of anything else, please tell me." Link spoke gently. He remained calm. He wanted to look around the room more, desperate for another idea or clue. But he wasn't going to leave Sora's side, even for something so minor. He chose his words carefully. Sora looked as though he was going to be sick. Given the current implications, he had every reason to be.

"I simply mean that, from what little I have heard, the head doctor is not the kind of man who would leave a perfectly good weapon lying around for us to simply take." He paused a moment before adding solemnly, "Not without reason, at least." Link had dealt with sick traps like this before. Despite his well-controlled countenance, anger flared up in his gut. He was going to make Landel pay for this. Keeping a boy like Sora locked up in this dungeon was bad enough. But to attempt to drive him to such a gruesome action? Link took a deep breath. Now wasn't the time to get angry. Sora needed a friend right now, someone with a level head.

"We haven't seen everything quite yet. Do you want to look in the cabinets for more clues?" In Link's experience, it was the little nooks and crannies that ended up being the most important. Yet at the same time he was quite certain that their initial conclusion was correct. He only wished to comfort Sora.

[lighthearted]

That was the thing, though. Even if Sora was trying to look for some other meaning, he didn't know that there was one. Nothing was immediately coming to him, and as his dread grew the churning in his stomach only got worse. He found himself leaning against the X-Ray table as he tried to pull himself together.

"You're right," he said, "but slicing someone open with a knife... That doesn't seem like a good idea, either, does it?" Then again, Sora had stabbed himself in the chest once before, to release Kairi's heart, but at least in that case he'd had some idea of what he'd been doing. This time, if he just agreed to getting cut open, he had no idea what the end result might be.

Regardless of all the risks involved, he didn't think dying was the answer. That was one path he wasn't willing to walk yet. He still had too much to do.

When Link suggested searching the cabinets, Sora nodded and pushed away from the table. "That sounds like a good idea," he said as he started moving toward one of them. He was wobbling a little, but he was keeping his balance for now.

[his_legacy]

As Sora approached the cabinets, Link began picking through the garbage bins, praying that he would find something. He watched the other boy inconspicuously from behind, making sure he wasn't going to fall over or be sick.

"It's a last resort. And even then, it's your call, Sora. No one is forcing you to go through with anything." Thus far, Sora had come across as... a bit boyish. Yet at the same time, he was noble-hearted. That much was obvious. He had been friendly and helpful, and for that, Link was thankful. But that also meant that Sora might go so far as to be willing to attempt this madness- perhaps not for himself, but for the sake of the other people who could get hurt.

Link knew that sentiment better than anyone. But he had never been forced into a situation such as this.

There wasn't anything special in the garbage, or anywhere else, from the looks of things. Link's heart sank. He had known not to get his hopes up, but Sora didn't deserve to make such an awful choice.

[lighthearted]

No one was forcing him now, maybe, but if Sora did start changing then he knew some sort of aggressive action would have to be taken. The idea of one of his friends having to put him down seemed horrible, not just for him but for whoever had to take on that burden. It wouldn't be fair to put anyone through that.

But what alternative was there? Asking someone to cut him open and possibly kill him in the process wouldn't be much better. Sora searched the shelves and cabinets, but all he found were supplies for doing X-Rays, which wasn't going to do him much good.

Except...

"Wait a second," he said after a pause, spinning around with a new burst of energy to face Link. "They had to have sent us to this room for a reason, right? X-Rays are supposed to show you the inside of your body, so maybe if we do one we can figure out what's in my stomach!" He had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't anything like a butterfly.

Of course, as thrilled as he was with what he considered a good idea, the reality of the situation hit him soon after. "Uhh, if we can figure out how to do it, anyway..." He didn't know much about this stuff, and judging from how Link hadn't even known what an intercom was, he wouldn't be much use there either.

[fallenbeanpole]

[from here]

The moment they were inside the Once-ler slammed the door behind him, leaning heavily against it. He tried to put Soma down as gently as possible, but with the way she was struggling he couldn’t tell if he’d accidentally dropped her the last few inches. Back against the door, he slid down into a sitting position. Now that the immediate danger had passed, he slowly – and painfully – became aware of the state he was in.

The wads of cloth that had been serving as makeshift bandages were soaked completely through; his hand came away red and wet after shifting the bunch at his waist. Briefly he stared at his hand, almost like it was the first time he’d ever seen blood, before dropping it to his side. The man tilted his head back and closed his eyes, breathing heavily.

He was starting to feel dizzy now; he had no idea how much blood he’d lost, but it was no small amount. His jaw still stung from the punch, and he just knew there was going to be an absolutely lovely bruise on his arm. The shallow cut on his side was relatively minor compared to the other two. He hadn’t even bothered dealing with it.

The Once-ler didn’t say anything. There was nothing to be said.

[madeinthehrl]

As it turned out, he had dropped her the last few inches, but Soma was in no position to care.

She lay with her face against the floor, the cool tile almost comforting against her fevered cheek, and tried to breathe. Getting up and heading back to help Rapunzel would have been her first course of action, but even supersoldiers had their limits. Judging from the way her arms and legs felt like lead, it felt like she'd reached hers.

It was a full minute before she could even summon up the energy to open her eyes, and when she did she promptly shut them again. Rapunzel was hurt--possibly dead. Probably dead. And she couldn't even move.

Maybe she could have gotten to her sooner if she'd been traveling alone. Lingormr would have hesitated to hurt her--she was almost certain of that. She could have played that to her advantage. Instead she was stuck here with a man who had physically dragged her away from her friend in some misguided attempt to find a cure.

Some part of her knew that was unfair. He couldn't have known what was going on. Not really. But she couldn't get the sound of Rapunzel screaming out of her mind. The thought that one of her friends here might have killed another of her friends, and she might have been able to prevent it.

It wasn't as if she had plenty of those to go around.

"It's not worth a cure," she said, and coughed a little as the words scratched her throat. Then, hoarsely, and a little louder: "Damn it. We have to go back."

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

The second that Sora re-entered the room and pointed his flashlight at the two newcomers, he realized just how bad things were. His hope had been that the ones joining them would be uninjured, seeing how he and Link had gotten through with no trouble, but that had clearly been wishful thinking.

The amount of blood was what registered first. What kicked in second was the fact that one of the injured people was a club member. "Soma!" Sora cried out, racing from the doorway over to where the girl was collapsed on the floor.

He took a knee and tried to move her slightly so that he could get an idea of her wounds, but it was hard to tell what was going on when it was this dark. And the other patient, someone he didn't recognize, didn't look much better. "What happened?!"

He hoped that Link had some sort of healing power, because otherwise he didn't know what they were going to do. From the looks of things, they should have gone back into the hall to check on things after all. How were they supposed to handle this? He was doing his best not to panic, but that was easier said than done.

[his_legacy]

Link grabbed his knife and followed Sora back into the X-Ray Room, jaw dropping as he saw the bloodied patients, one face first on the ground, and another limp against the door. While Sora rushed to the girl's side, Link knelt by the man. He was already in the process of taking off his shirt, cutting it into strips with his knife.

It was... painfully obvious what had happened. Link certainly didn't mention that, though.

"Is there anyone else stuck in there?" He looked up at the Once-ler as the sharp blade slid through the shirt cloth. The Hylian's expression was intense, but not panicked.

[fallenbeanpole]

The Once-ler cracked an eye open when he heard Soma’s name called once again. Two boys had come in from another room, and the younger of the two immediately ran to Soma’s side. The Once-ler noticed immediately that he wasn’t wearing the gray shirt and pants that seemed to be some kind of uniform, instead having a very unique outfit on. Just like Lingormr, actually.

“Please tell me you’re not another brainwashed friend here to stab and taunt us,” the Once-ler said. There was no edge to his voice despite the implications of the words. “I’ve fulfilled my quota for the day. Actually, make that for the rest of my life.”

He turned his focus to the other boy, who was slicing up his shirt into strips. The kid was surprisingly calm, considering the situation, almost as if this was nothing new to him. Calm and focused. That was kind of disturbing, actually. He looked barely old enough to be out of high school, let alone having experienced a situation similar to this before.

Soma’s probably not much older, he realized suddenly. It had never crossed his mind that she might not even be twenty. And that other boy next her is even younger. Should he even be in the same asylum (however questionable its legitimacy might be) as adults?

The Once-ler’s thoughts were interrupted when the older boy addressed him. “There’s a group back by the entrance to the hall that’s fighting Li, er, Lingro…” the man’s name was surprisingly difficult to pronounce, “the guy with the horns. We only managed to get here because he got distracted by them.” Well, not completely distracted, but it had stopped him from attacking the pair. “Not much we could do like this.” He held his hands out, gesturing at himself and the three separate cuts he’d received.

“So,” he continued, then blinked. “Hold on, how’d you two get here without getting hurt at all?” Lingormr had been really determined to keep sticking Soma and the Once-ler with metal objects unless they gave up.

[madeinthehrl]

Soma would have prodded the Once-ler for his comment about brainwashed friends, except moving still felt like a bad idea. She settled for a feeble glare in his general direction before turning her attention to Sora and his friend.

She couldn't deny the younger boy was a welcome sight, even as worried as he appeared to be. She grunted slightly and managed half a smile before she shuffled into a sitting position, her back against the wall. "It's worse than it looks. He needs more help than I do."

And as much as she didn't want to rat out her friend, it wasn't as if brainwashing was Lingormr's fault. "Lingormr has Special Counseling," she said, trying not to look at the bloody smears she'd left on the floor. At least her voice stayed level this time. "I didn't get a good look at everyone in the group back there, but Kratos and Castiel were there, and Rapunzel--"

Right. Voice level. Professional. Like a debrief. She could do this. "I think she's hurt."

[oyaji]

[From here]

Whatever the hell was wrong with that door was forcefully pushed aside, revealing a few shocked looks from a group of patients already in the room. Wild Tiger was not expecting that... Which was dumb, because the whole point of coming here was to help protect these civilians! Bang up job, Tiger, he thought bitterly. So far he had "helped" Barnaby go into shock from blood loss, lost to a criminal, and found plenty of wearied individuals that he hadn't saved.

Tonight was such a nightmare and he was powerless to change that. Holding his partner a bit higher in arms so he didn't get hit and his long legs didn't hit anyone else, he moved past the group of patients. "Ah--Uh, excuse me, everyone! I need to--Excuse me--Get through here!" Hopefully he didn't coat anyone in blood while he frantically wiggled through to set the blond on the table. Grabbing the small pillow, the older man made sure to angle it behind Barnaby's head before he put the young man down. The last thing they needed was for his partner to skull himself and add a concussion to his list of injuries.

[baniichan]

After what felt like an eternity, Barnaby became aware of being lowered down onto a hard surface, his head cushioned by a pillow. Kotetsu's body felt like a furnace compared to the cold table, and he grimaced at how chilled he'd become since this whole mess began.

If he realized there were other patients in the room, he didn't show it. Instead, he cracked his eyes open, only to see Kotetsu anxiously peering at him. His partner had managed to get them both out of harm's way without much assistance, and now he was putting any thoughts of their original mission aside in favor of tending to his wounds.

"That was careless," he mumbled as he struggled to control his heavy breathing. Balling his hands into weak fists, he turned his head away. "I'm sorry."

Spoilers in the last paragraph

[oyaji]

"Sorry? What are you apologizing for? How were we supposed to know there was an axe-crazy NEXT with invisibility and illusions and knives that kept being hurled all over the place?!" His anxiety was turning simple words into rants to let off his pent-up anger and fear. This was not how it was supposed to be. They were trained Heroes and they were bested so royally by one criminal.

And all this blood... It would have been one thing to have personnel standing around like always, ready to assist if someone was gravely injured, but they were all by themselves now. There wasn't any back up and if Wild Tiger wanted to save his partner, he needed to stop fretting and start doing.

"Uh, okay I need to ehh--Stop the bleeding, hang on!" The older man flung himself toward cabinets and counters, pulling things left and right out onto the floor to find what he needed. There were disinfectant wipes, which he put on the table beside Barnaby while he searched for--

"Aha!" They had gowns! Of course, they were full of lead, but that was rectified by frantic, adrenaline-fueled ripping that separated seams until all he had was cloth. Clean cloth. Staggering back up on his feet, he grabbed the wipes and loomed over the blond, his face a portrait of concern even as he tried to hide it so Barnaby didn't grow nervous.

"Okay, now I just need to--" Kotetsu couldn't even finish his thoughts his mind was racing so fast, trying to do everything as calmly and logically as possible. First things first, he needed to get the fabric away from the wound. Lifting up his leg as far as dared, Wild Tiger took hold of the ripped seams and, in one experienced stroke, ripped it apart, and the blood... The blood just flowed onto the table, no longer constrained by his pants. Nervously, he used the gown to soak it up while he ripped apart his right pants leg. What it revealed was about as jarring as the wound.

His partner's thigh held no jagged scar any longer from the incident with Maverick. It was completely gone and there were no signs of it having ever existed in the first place. Bewildered, he ran a rough hand across the smooth skin, looking for any trace, any clue.

Re: Spoilers in the last paragraph

[baniichan]

As a Hero, he was supposed to be prepared for any situation. The prevalence of NEXT criminals demanded it, and yet Barnaby had been utterly defeated before he'd even had much of a chance to fight. Now look at him. Although his abilities had allowed Barnaby to move freely after taking such an injury, the human body still wasn't designed for that kind of punishment. The limitations this place put on him didn't help matters, either.

There was no excuse for what happened. But then, they weren't exactly Heroes anymore, either.

They were still partners, though, and he hazily watched as Kotetsu set to work, relying on years of experience as he tore apart the room in an effort to find something useful. If there was one thing the man was good at, it was saving people while leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. To think that just a few days ago they would have had the best resources in Stern Bild. Now they were huddled together in this god-forsaken place, doing what they could to scrape by while they mopped up his blood with a spare hospital gown. Kotetsu may have had some grand hopes of saving other people, but in the end they could barely take care of themselves.

Even if the man tried to act like everything was under control, Barnaby could sense his anxiety. When his partner ran a rough hand against the pale skin of his thigh, he tried to lift his head enough to get a better look. "What is it?" he rasped.

[oyaji]

"Oh, uh, you're--I mean, nothing! I was just looking for any other cuts, that's all!" Four savaged gowns later, Wild Tiger had to start the worst part of this because it was going to hurt and the last thing the blond probably wanted was more of that. "Okay, this is gonna sting, sorry..."

He took a few wipes, cleaned off his own bloodied hands, before he very quickly cleaned the skin around the cut to disinfect anything lethal. All the while, the older man mumbled apologies one after another to compensate for the abuse. He then wadded up some clean cloth and used another strip to bind the cloth around the wound and hopefully stifled the blood flow. It was a bit hard to tie it while his hands shook terribly, but eventually he got it secured as tight as he could without completely cutting off circulation.

The second leg was a bit easier since he had found his rhythm (Hopefully they wouldn't be making a habit out of this just to keep his basic first aid training sharp).

[baniichan]

The warning wasn't really necessary, since Barnaby figured a lot of this was going to hurt regardless. Still, he braced himself, and managed to stay silent outside of the quick, shallow breaths he couldn't control.

Though he became aware of some other voices in the room with them, Barnaby couldn't find the energy to worry about how many people may have been watching this sad spectacle. Instead, his head remained propped against the pillow as it slowly lolled toward the side. Maybe it was his imagination, but there was a strange green light emitting from the southern part of the room. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. He just knew that he was cold, and his heart was beating far too fast for his liking.

"Where are we?" he suddenly asked, his voice tight.

[gald_digger]

[from here]

Well, they definitely weren't the first ones here.

Actually, there were a ton of people. Not clones, either, but distinctly different, normal-looking people. Several of them appeared to be injured, but none of them appeared to be turning into monsters at the moment. That was a plus, right?

"This is it," Anise breathed, relieved to be in what appeared to be a safe space, even if that could change at any moment. She took a moment to look over the room and the people inside, but her attention was quickly drawn to the conspicuous greenish drawing scrawled on one of the walls. "What's that? Could it be the clue?" She'd been hoping for something a lot more detailed, like a journal or a note at the very least. Maybe one of the other patients found something before they arrived, like that creep by the entrance said.

[earthling]

Like Anise, Claude was surprised to find the room so crowded. But more importantly, several of them looked like they hadn't gotten off as lucky as the three of them. He wondered if they'd been attacked by that monster back there, or if something else had happened. The thought that there could be other victims like that poor woman made Claude's stomach turn.

Before he could dwell on the gory details for too long, his attention was drawn toward the glowing picture etched onto the wall, some of the iridescent green paint dripping downward. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to make heads or tails out of it. Was this supposed to be another riddle? Or were they supposed to take the message literally?

"I...guess," he muttered as he studied the picture. "Is it just me, or does it look like a butterfly inside of a human stomach?"

[nobleman]

What they ended up running into was a mess. Guy came to a quick stop when he realized that the small room was practically filled to the brim by now, with not much in the way of breathing room. On top of it all, half of the people here seemed to be injured.

Oddly enough, Guy didn't actually recognize any of the other people here, though some of them had familiar faces. It seemed that for now, though, they were going to focus on staying out of everyone else's way. None of them had healing powers as far as he was aware, so what could they do?

When Anise and Claude both drew their attention to the drawing on the wall, made with some sort of paint that showed perfectly even in the dark, Guy also set about examining it. Claude was quick to make a conjecture about it, and Guy moved to his side, tilting his head as he realized that was exactly what it looked like. "No," he said after a pause, "it's not just you."

[gald_digger]

A stomach? Anise wasn't sure at first, but... it sort of did look like a diagram she saw in a book before. Butterflies in the stomach... with all the anxiety Anise was having over her illness, she understood the feeling well, but she wasn't so sure what the image was actually conveying.

"What do you think it means?" she asked, looking to each of her friends. The more she thought about it, the worse ideas came to mind. "... Is something wrong with our stomachs?"

[earthling]

Wrinkling his nose, Claude patted his belly with a gloved hand as he considered the possibilities. He'd felt nauseated before, sure, but it hadn't been severe or painful -- just kind of unpleasant, like he'd had too much junk food or eaten something that was a tad past its expiration date.

Still, there were only so many ways they could interpret a clue like that. He looked back at the other patients in the room, wondering if they had similar thoughts about the painting. Then again, with the way some of them looked, they probably had other things on their minds...

"Well, I'm not sure why else they'd draw a stomach," he said as he tried to piece things together out loud. "Didn't the intercom message say we could use this somehow? I wonder if the X-Ray machines could pick up on something like that."

[nobleman]

The moment that Claude made that point, it was as if everything had clicked into place. Not that something like an X-Ray was common back on Auldrant, but Guy had heard of it before and he knew what the technology was capable of. It could basically see into a person's body and reveal certain things, and it couldn't have been coincidence that the clue had been placed in this room.

Of course, only scientists that were well-trained would have known how to work a machine like this, and chances were that the technology that went into it on Earth was completely different from Auldrant. Which meant that Guy was basically useless in this situation.

He sighed to himself, but now wasn't the time to be dwelling on his own shortcomings, so he turned to Claude. "Do you have any idea of how to work something like this? If we can get a look at what's going on inside you two, maybe we can figure out how to stop it." There were some obvious solutions that came to mind, but none of them were acceptable in his opinion.