damned_institute | Night 58: Recreational Field

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Night 58: Recreational Field

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Stepping outside sent chills all over Brook's body for how cold it was. He'd welcomed it when there was snow for him to play with, but given the absence of the white powder this evening, Brook only shivered and crossed his arms to rub away the sensation.

"Must still be winter then," he laughed and watched as his breath condensed.

Telling what time of year it was in this place was difficult anyway, but the temperature at least gave an area for them to consider. Snow meant winter, or just nearing spring, and then the cold temperatures had to be either Winter or Fall. And since they couldn't go backwards from snowy winter to fall...

"Ah, but that would be a shock!" The place had seen stranger occurrences that Brook actually had to consider that the seasons could try to go backwards on them. At the very least, that gave him the potential for making another snow angel or having that snowball fight that he'd overlooked while in the town.

Eventually the cool of the night air overtook Brook's wild theories about weather patterns and reminded him that he shouldn't be dallying. He was supposed to be searching out his friend! Brushing his arms over once more, he turned for the door at the opposite end of the field.

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Kairi found herself giggling as she followed Sora out the door, not saying anything else on the matter because, after all, she had been joking. Plus, she knew neither boy was lazy (During the night, anyway. Day was another story.) so it didn't really matter.

However, once they hit the outside air, the princess couldn't help but shudder at the chill air as it hit her skin. Clicking off her flashlight and shoving it into her pocket, she then proceeded to wrap the now free arm around herself, her other clutching tightly onto the sword at her side. "I think this goes without say, but I miss Destiny Islands because it never got cold like this," she said in a hushed tone, trying to keep her mind off of the fact it was cold and that it snowed in this world. Oh, how she missed the beach ...

Kairi nodded to Sora's question, peering out into the darkness. She couldn't help but remember that one time with Axel where there had been some kind of ... rocket ... launching baddie that had tried to shoot at everything that moved. That hadn't been a good night. She only hoped that kind of thing would never happen again.

"Yes," she whispered softly, nodding her head. "Just ... run through. Don't stop for anything -"

Until suddenly there was a voice through the darkness, and Kairi froze at the mention of a gun. Uh oh. She should have known they wouldn't get away that easily. But ... they had to get over there. If they moved fast enough, they had to get away from the shots. "What now?" she asked the boys, frowning.

Kairi's plan had been a good one. It was the one they did before. Somehow, it just figured that they would run into some kind of obstacle. If it wasn't the night ending suddenly, it was something else; this time, it was a guy with a gun. And if Riku learned anything while he was out with Albedo the night before, it was the fact that guns had the same effect. There really wasn't any in-between on that.

"Both of you need to run," he said bluntly, but in a low enough tone to keep it between the three of them. "I'll distract him long enough."

His hands gripped his sword, and he was suddenly glad for the fight with the spiders for a different reason. It meant that he was aware of his limitations, and the last thing he needed was for them to get in the way. He had a feeling the last thing his friends wanted was for him to try and divert this guy's attention from him, but that meant he had to think fast. Riku didn't feel any guilt for that. If there was anything he knew how to do, anything he had to do, it was protect his friends.

That meant he took a step toward the guy—a long stride, even, with his sword up. "That can't happen tonight," he told the guy firmly, and he really hoped that Sora and Kairi would take the hint.

Sora hadn't expected to get stopped up so soon and his expression darkened almost immediately when he heard the voice. It was hard to see the guard completely from so far away, but his orders and threats were loud and clear. Sora stiffened, preparing to make a run for it. It was likely that one of them would end up wounded by the time that they got up and over the wall, but this wasn't a situation where that could be helped.

Just as he was going to tell the others to scatter and run, Riku spoke up, offering himself as the distraction. There was no way that Sora could accept something like that. "Riku, no! We--"

They were going to stick together, and that was that. There was no way he was leaving his friend behind, especially when considering the fact that he'd disappeared from this place so many times. Sora knew he was being stubborn and maybe making the situation worse as a result, but chances were that guy wasn't going to shoot at them until they made a move.

Which Riku then proceeded to do by approaching their opponent. Sora could already tell that there wasn't a good chance of Riku being able to deflect bullets with that blade, which made him even more nervous. "You don't need to do this!" he argued, moving forward to stand at his friend's side. Then he lowered his voice so that only Riku would be able to hear. "Let's just all start running. If we're quick enough, he might miss."

Looked like at least one of them was armed. What horrible security did they have here, that a skinny teenager could get his hands on a sword? They probably passed out at the sight of a full sized serial killer.

Badd advanced on the trio as they kept arguing amoungst themselves. He kept his aim on the white-haired boy, that one seemed like the one most likely to do something stupid. "Oh, I agree," he said. "If you three go back to your cells like good little children then I don't have to fill out paperwork and you don't have to spend the rest of your sentence in the hospital."

Did they think he wouldn't fire on teenagers? That would be a stupid thing to think, even for criminals. His voice turned from snarky to iron-cold. "I don't do warning shots, kid. Move." One sword against a trained policeman with a gun. Badd hoped this would be over quickly, anyone with sense would know they were doomed to fail.

And ... now the boys were going to squabble. Kairi couldn't help but frown and place a hand to her cheek as she tried to think things through. Now that Sora and Riku were close together, if she tried to run, she would probably be shot.

... Or at least shot at.

Honestly, the way the princess looked at things, she had the upper hand here. She could run faster than them if she used the Darkness that flowed through her veins to her advantage, but that always left her feeling like she wasn't in control of herself and just ... like she was going to be taken over again. She didn't want that.

However, if the boys were going to fight over who should be used as the target practice, she would do it. And if they yelled at her, she could easily turn it around on them. The double standards weren't fair, as far as she was concerned.

"We could always go around," she said quietly, frowning. "Since I really don't feel like getting shot right now unless I have to," she warned, looking towards the two boys, her fingertips beginning to tingle.

This was a point when his friends' approaches to things clearly differentiated from his, and it bothered him. It wasn't that he was playing the great self-sacrificing hero, but he wasn't just going to turn around and accept that this was the end of the road. Riku watched Sora out of the corner of his eye. A number of plans popped up in his head, and if he was alone, he could execute them. Or if his friends weren't the way they were, it could happen, as well. It wasn't that he wanted to get frustrated with them for this, but it was happening all the same.

Later, he knew he would see their ways better, but he didn't right now. All the plans were too obvious, too easy—it was all that time of trying to protect himself and fight to live. There was only one time when he thought he would die, and that he walked into it fully aware of the potential consequences. Any other time, he couldn't risk that. If he died, he couldn't protect Sora, he couldn't protect Kairi ...

From where he stood right now, it looked like they thought he'd really dive into doing that again. Did they trust him that little?

But then, they probably had good reason to. Look at everything he'd done.

"But it's just one guy," Riku managed. One guy that was between them and the wall. A three versus one advantage, and all this guy had was a gun. Maybe they weren't as fast, but Riku felt a familiar power brimming inside of him. If he managed to get the guy in the face, he'd probably be stunned long enough ... but he couldn't act yet. His friends might frown on it, and already, his guilt was starting to surge up from the fact that they thought so little of him in a situation like this. They had good reason to.

This really wasn't the time for an argument, and yet Sora couldn't agree with Kairi's idea either. Backtracking just because they'd hit a snag wasn't going to do them much good, especially when they had so far to travel. No, they had to face this head-on, but they were going to do it as a group. Or at least as a pair. Sora's strategies seemed to include mainly himself and Riku, partly because he didn't want Kairi involved and partly because he wasn't as used to fighting alongside her.

He watched as their opponent drew closer, making out his features with the scant light that they had. He was an older man and he had a mean look about him. Sora didn't know why he was talking about sentences like this was a prison instead of...

Well, it kind of was one, wasn't it? But he'd never heard someone talk about it quite like that before.

Riku's response made it clear that he still didn't understand the danger they were in here. If this had been any normal time, Sora wouldn't have protested in the first place. He knew that his friend was strong, maybe even stronger than him, and he would have known that he could take out one enemy. But in this place where their powers were drained and their wounds couldn't be healed, it wasn't that simple. And he'd watched Riku drift in and out of the institute too many times to allow him to run off on his own.

"If we're going to take him on, we do it together," he said, still keeping his voice down. "You run one way, I run the other. He'll have to focus on shooting one of us and then whoever he ignores can go in for a hit, right?" And once the guy was disoriented, they could all make a run for it. Quietly, Sora knew that he was the one who should be taking the bullets, seeing how his Keyblade might not manifest until the last moment. Saying that out loud might just upset his friend, though.

Badd watched them for a few seconds, braced for their next move. Moments passed and he began to realize that the three had elected to stay in place and keep chatting as if Badd wasn't even there, rather than leave or make a suicidal run across the yard. It made a guy feel a little bit insulted.

Badd wasn't comfortable with the idea of shooting kids, or even shooting at kids (because when you had your finger on the trigger you had to be ready to kill). No matter what they'd done to fuck up their lives they still had a lot of life left to go through.

Still, they'd made their choice. Badd aimed for the legs of the one with the sword. If that one went down, hopefully his buddies would get the idea. At this range in this light and this situation Badd couldn't be certain of hitting his target...or at least hitting the body part he'd aimed at. With the way they were clumped together he might even hit the short one or the girl. Either way it wasn't important as long as he got the point across.

"I said, move!" he shouted, and fired.

They were still not moving. Kairi listened to the two boys as they spoke about attacking the man - Sora one way, Riku the other - and the redhead instantly felt that usual sinking in her stomach. I'm going to be left behind again.

Turning her head, she swallowed down the ache in her heart and opened her mouth to speak -

When suddenly there was a gunshot from the man, and he was shouting, and without thinking, Kairi screamed, lifting her hands to cover her head, even though she knew well enough her arms would not be able to stop a bullet. "Just run for it! Separate! He can't aim for us all at once!" She had no idea where the man had aimed. She had no idea where he was currently aiming. All she knew was that standing around waiting to see what they would do was not working, and though they would probably be upset with her ...

Kairi gripped tightly onto the sword by her side and began to ran across the field, forcing the two boys into action whether they were ready to or not. If worst came to worst, she would use the Darkness for a little boost, but that was it. That's all, she though to herself, almost as if she was talking to that dark part of her side itself.

Later, it would dawn on Riku that none of this made any sense. Why were these guys still out doing this while they got that speech from last night? This was something that Sora and Kairi mentioned to him before, and it seemed ludicrous now. But at the moment, he wasn't thinking of that. His own self-berating had to be set aside as well. Thinking fast didn't mean having the time to truly analyze what it meant that Sora and Kairi thought that way of him—rightfully, too.

No, he just needed to move.

He realized a second too late where the gun was aimed and where the bullet was headed before he managed to move. For the most part, he avoided the attack, but even from a distance, the guy could have been shooting to kill. He was just trying to disable them. That put them at an advantage. The disadvantage was that the bullet had cut through his right leg—or rather, right along the side of his thigh. It was a grazing, but it was enough to send warm heat rushing through him. With his friends here, that meant nothing; pain was nothing. They needed to get away.

"Run!" he shouted to Sora, affirming what Kairi had said. He hoped his friend didn't hesitate this time to prove a point. No matter how stupid Riku was in the past, or how much he hadn't changed now, there were some things that needed to happen.

For him, the pain was somewhat dizzying as he started to move. Each hard slam of his feet against the ground reminded him of his injury. He knew it wasn't a good idea, but he held up his hand and sent a dark blast in the direction of their assailant as he ran past (from a distance, of course). If he was right, that would be the only chance they got at that tonight. But he couldn't think—just as it had the night before, that stripped him of his energy. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea. In the end, securing his friends' escape was the only thing on his mind. They might not get killed, but seeing them hurt was the last thing he wanted.

In the end, any plan he made, no matter how sensible, just didn't matter. They'd used up the man's patience and the sound of the gunshot echoing across the open field almost caused Sora to jump. That was more than enough to spur anyone into action, and having both of his friends yelling orders at him meant that Sora was done being stubborn.

He took off across the field after them and quickly overtook Riku. That was no surprise when the other boy had been shot at. Sora didn't know how bad it was, but the way that Riku was limping made it clear that it'd hit him in the leg.

That was pretty much the worst place he could have been shot, seeing how they still had to climb the wall. Sora wanted to take up the rear and make sure that Riku didn't end up with any more injuries, but he knew that the time for being protective was long over. What he hadn't expected was for Riku to be able to send out concentrated darkness right at their opponent. This was the first time he'd seen him use that power here, and the fact that he still had access to it was unexpected.

Maybe he should have let him handle this after all. His protests had still led to Riku getting hurt, so what good had it done? Sora clenched his jaw and shook his head, knowing that it was rare for things to work out properly here no matter what you did. Keeping his gaze settled on Kairi's back, he continued to run, one ear out to make sure that Riku was keeping up.

Winged one, by what he could see in the dim light, but not enough to stop him running. Badd whirled to follow them and fired again before something dark and warm sent him sprawling. He was left shuddering on the grass for several seconds while his body tried to figure out what the hell had just hit it.

It wasn't a bullet, he'd been shot far too many times to not know what a gunshot felt like. But it had hit him hard and left him weak.

Job still to do. Shake it off. Get up. Badd staggered to his feet and took after the prisoners, too dazed to yell another warning. It wouldn't matter anyway. The trio had decided they had a death wish, or at least a vigorous bodily harm wish, and Badd would be happy to grant it.

She could barely hear the boys behind her. Kairi turned her head slightly to look back at Riku and Sora - just in time to see Riku appear to shoot something at the man that was shooting at them. Through the darkness, she could see the man's body fall for a moment before ... getting back up.

Faster, she hissed to herself, hearing another set of footsteps moving after them.

She had to think of something, especially considering it sounded like one of them was slowing down. Who? She knew they had been shot at before, but she hadn't seen anyone actually get shot ... but that had been because she had been so quick to move. Still, she couldn't help but let that worry flow through her as she neared the wall.

And once she reached it, Kairi waited, beginning to climb, but stopping. She had to see which one of them was hurt first, because if it came to it, she was more than willing to use the Darkness to stop the man at least for long enough to get them over the wall.

Fatigue made each one of his steps heavy—then heavier—and heavier still, until he almost couldn't make it to the wall. Riku ground his teeth as he managed, just as the bullets started coming again. Was this guy insane? Stray bullets could kill, which made him believe that this wasn't just shooting for nothing. This guy meant business. He didn't know how much further he could go, but he forced himself up and over the wall after casting a final glance in the direction of his friends.

If he could make it, despite the fatigue and everything happening, so could they. His only worry was how determined this guy was. If he was this desperate to get them, would he follow them right out of Landel's?

Riku hoped not.

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Night 58: Recreational Field

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