Night 59: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

[gald_digger]

[from here]

Oh, how she missed this! Just like old times, riding atop Tokunaga without a care in the world. Anything that got in her way would be trampled with ease!

A little too much ease, as it turned out. Her attention elsewhere, she didn't notice when an oversized rat made the mistake of scurrying under Tokunaga's heavy foot... until she heard the sickening crunch of the creature's bones snapping.

She stopped, pointed her flashlight down at the mashed-up body, then let out a small sigh of relief. Just a rat. She'd have to be careful not to trample any people - or any monsters that looked like they'd put up a mean fight. Anyway, she probably just did her fellow patients a favor by taking out a monster (even if it was an accident). Hooray for Anise!

Satisfied, the girl continued onward to the next hallway. Her doll left a light trail of blood with its foot.

[to here]

Comments

[fluctuate]

[from here]

The moment she hit the next hallway, she noticed the trail of blood. Gross. That meant that the monsters were probably willing to attack anyone in their sleep. How did anyone make it through the night around here? But maybe that was some kind of the magic around here. Or maybe this was just some weird metaphor for the lives that twenty-somethings lived, never getting enough sleep and always having to go through the daily grind the next day.

Only this was a little too melodramatic for her tastes.

Ramona continued on until she saw something skitter out of the corner of her eye. She turned sharply and saw a giant bug. Gross and it really informed her metaphor from earlier! After all, it was a cockroach: every twenty-something's nightmare when they landed that cheap, affordable, and secretly super gross place. (Though she proudly lacked any of that at her apartment.)

Only the cockroach—which she mentally decided to name "Bob," because Bob was always that unfortunate guy with an unfortunate existence and a name like Bob—wasn't scuttling off on other business. Oh, no, he decided to go Joe's Apartment on her and head right for her. Well, at least the streak of blood would have company.

She glanced down toward her shoes in disgust, because the last thing she wanted to do was destroy them, and she then she moved fast. Fast meant that she ran up a wall, and in an action straight out of the Matrix—which she absolutely loved for times like these—she ran almost horizontally before using the momentum to kick off and head straight for Bob.

And then Bob the Roach was dead, killed by a flashlight, because in those last few seconds she decided that she liked these shoes. Her nose wrinkled as its insides ended up on her flashlight, and she dropped it down against the floor.

She picked it up gingerly moments later, remembering the bathroom, and turned back to where she was before.

[to here ... again]

[fluctuate]

[from here ... again]

With the corpse of Bob lying in the hallway and the streak of red blood, they definitely needed to initiate a clean-up process. If this was how things went at night, she wondered how they managed to pull everything together by morning. So, Ramona decided they must have some kind of cleaning crew that didn't mind any of this. One that somehow moved very fast. She wondered if they were tiny little men that snuck out the moment a hall was mostly abandoned, and if so, they were slacking tonight. Or maybe they were tiny little men who ran illusions in the daytime so they didn't need to clean up. Both were viable possibilities. But she figured there'd be more blood if that was the case.

Ramona was more cautious as she headed down the hall this time. If Bob had a Fred and Frank coming to avenge him, she didn't want to make herself that noticeable. Too many trips to the bathroom when trying to be out doing her ninja thing just looked embarrassing.

[for Scott]

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

There was blood in the hallway, and other matter. Multiple trails of it, and multiple sets of footprints scuffed through it. She tracked one to a dead rat -- this one had been crushed. She'd have said run over, but that was definitely a footprint, not a tread mark.

She was stalling for time. Again. In what wasn't as relative of safety as usual.

Lana's grip tightened on the candlestick she held in her right hand. There had been attacks in these halls before, but never two so early in the night. She tried not to shiver as she walked past two twenty-somethings who'd lost track of anything except each other, and she didn't stick around long enough to see if it was a friendly reunion.

[to here]

[oneman-onekill.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1190586.html?thread=80847546#t80847546)]

Oh, gross. Niikura wrinkled his nose as he walked down the hall. Blood was in the air...his flashlight picked up flashes of red too as he passed them by, and then finally the decimated body of a rat. Looked like it had been run over--by what, exactly? Last he checked, everyone here was pretty normal-sized, and Recluse nowhere to be seen. That meant that something bigger had to be lurking around here.

Something bigger...images of death robots sprang to mind, along with several memorable video game bosses. Could he take them out by himself? He was a unified consciousness, but human power only went so far against the fantastical--

Great. Good job, Niikura, freaking yourself out. Suddenly, he wanted that sword all the more.

[oneman-onekill.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1185883.html?thread=80849755#t80849755)]

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

There were more signs of a scuffle here -- no, not just noise.  This time it was remains.  Not human, whatever it was.  It looked, from the mashed parts left, like one of the big cats, the kind that had attacked her last night.  It had been squashed, which didn't bode well.  

Taura scratched idly at her shoulder with one long metal claw.  Wait.  Scratched?  Was it itching, or was she just indulging in what Admiral Naismith would call a little healthy pre-drop paranoia?  

[to here]

[witchoftruth]

[ from here ]

That pink light was probably part of the "Code Red" procedures that was going on, and since she noticed it, it was bound to be a vital clue to this night's mystery. Now that her detective's authority was restored, it meant all of her senses were heightened to perfect accuracy. Nothing was unnoticed by her as her eyes pierced through the dark of night, which included that rat corpse and the trail of blood that followed it. So, that was the strange stalking feeling she had been getting...

"That makes sense. They can't just let us run freely," Erika mused, making sure to avoid the blood so she wouldn't stain her lovely shoes. There was no way she was going out without her detective's outfit, after all. Still, she was wary as she continued to run down the hall. It was a good thing that detectives didn't get tired.

[ to here ]

[survives]

[from here]

It was impossible to miss all the blood in the next hallway. Impossible to miss an entire trail of it, which looked like it ran the length of most of the hallway. And she'd thought that rat had looked bad... All the blood in this hall, it... The reason for it became clear soon enough, with another giant rat at the source of it, this one looking like it'd been crushed. The footprints in the blood only made the sight all the more gruesome.

Carefully sidestepping the trail, Leanne wrinkled her nose and kept moving, reminding herself all the while that covering her nose would only hinder her movements. Not knowing what awaited her that night, it was a risk she couldn't take, no matter how gross the hallway looked.

It was just like another job: she pushed on, no matter what. ...Now, if only that didn't bring to mind thoughts of their jobs usually went, didn't make her wish she had a certain two people with her just then, even with their stupid commentary.

Paying only cursory glances to the other people she managed to see milling about, Leanne moved on.

[to here]

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

More blood here. A rat this time, crushed underneath something large and heavy. If he didn't know better, he'd say it was a foot. And still he could see no evidence that anyone here had seen anything remarkable.

If there was something out there, it might well be on their side. That could certainly constitute a Code Red for Aguilar...

Brushing aside the thoughts, he headed for the women's block.

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

As Rita raced into the next hallway, she realized: she wasn't fatigued. At all. It was as if she had all of her original strength back. And it felt amazing.

The moment was almost ruined when the sound of growling reached Rita's ears. She flinched, turning to face the source: a wretched-looking dog with matted fur and probably more than a few diseases. Its growl turned into a snarl as it broke into a run, lunging at the mage.

To avoid the attack, Rita jumped into the air... then didn't come back down. It looked like her ability to levitate had returned to her as well. Floating in mid-air, she raised herself high enough to avoid the creature's attack... then quickly began to prepare her counter-attack. "Nice try, dog," she taunted the beast. "Now try this on for size! Demon's Lance!"

A small, dark portal manifested in front of her, and from it, a lance formed of dark energy emerged... and was immediately shot down at the dog. It pierced it through the head, and ran straight through the beast's chest. When the spell dissipated, the dog dropped to the floor, dead.

Rita was so pleased with her success that she was practically giddy. To go from being nearly powerless to being back to being the most powerful mage in the world (she assumed it was probably the case on Earth too)? It was beyond exhilarating. She floated onward a little ways, just enough to be clear of the monster's body, then dropped to the floor and continued to the next hallway.

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

[36-24-35.livejournal.com]

Tifa was two steps into the new hallway when her sneaker squealed across the strangely slippery tile and brought her butt down to meet the floor. Her tailbone sung with pain and betrayal as she sat, stunned, in something slightly sticky and--

Oh, blood. Wonderful. It wasn't hard to see the carnage in the corridor now that she was paying attention. Bloody footprints every where and flattened roadkill. It looked like a giant just decided to stomp right through without care for the lowly.

The gore wasn't what was so disturbing, though. What was disturbing was the fact that two monsters had been taken down by something and the night had just begun. This never happened--In fact, monsters rarely came this close to the patient's cells! Whatever Code Red had been, it wasn't good, clearly.

Neither was sitting on the floor, she realized, when something stealthy grew closer. Its only give away was the soft click of its nails to the left of her, but there wasn't enough time to get to her feet and defend herself before it was upon her. Clutching her breast, Tifa summoned a spell of Ice to at least stun the beast for a moment. The air around her began to sing with energy, much more energy than she remembered ever pulling in this place. It concentrated into a ball that instantly froze the creature. Whole. It was completely frozen solid. Tifa didn't know what to make of it.

Holding her breath, she got to her feet and cautiously leaned over the new ice sculpture of what looked to be a feral cat. Her foot was brought up over its head and, after a moment's hesitation, Tifa stomped it into the ground. The figure shattered into chips of ice and frozen flesh across the hallway. It was surreal and exhilarating and she even let herself hope that she now had the means to leave this place.

She needed to find Zack and run away from here. Together, with their powers, they could face anything.

[arakhnes.livejournal.com]

[ from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1185725.html?thread=80902589#t80902589) ]

The second she was out the door, the alarms over the intercoms weren't the only ones blaring. She immediately skidded to a stop, eyes wide. Her danger sense. Her spider sense. It was going off again, but not obnoxiously like it did the nights before. No, just the familiar tingle and that was something strange in itself. She paused and her foot stepped down in something wet.

Blood.

Danger.

Her gaze moved across the hall and she immediately tensed up. Blood everywhere. Human? Animal? She didn't know, nor did she care to find out. But something was going down and the buzzing at the base of her head wouldn't go away.

But as she moved further down the hallway, trailing behind everyone else, it began to add up. Why her Spider sense was going off. Powers bursting across the halls, magic, giant stuffed animals -- their -- No. Could it --?

No.

She brought her hands before her, palms up. Her fingers were crooked and she closed her eyes for a moment, taking a breath. Before long lines of web shot upwards to the ceiling, clinging tightly. Not like the spindly, useless web from before, but her real webbing. It was back. Her powers were back. Without even a second thought, she was pulling herself to the ceiling on her webline, placing one foot against the tile and then another before she flipped herself upside down, crouched there with bushy brown hair hanging down.

She couldn't fight the grin crossing her lips.

(Nostalgic. Just like when she -- he -- first discovered his powers.)

And then she crawled, disappearing into the darkness.

[sainted]

[from here]

There was blood on his hands and his clothes. Rotten, sour-smelling animal blood, but blood nonetheless. Even though he'd managed to feed only last night, the memory of gnawing hunger was still too close, and the thrill of the kill... the way the kill was supposed to be, fast and unfettered...

It would've taken no effort to run straight to Elena's room from the main hallway, but Stefan would rather not have her see him in full vampire mode. Especially not so soon after the last time. Anyway, he probably knew her smell and the sound of her voice better than anyone else, dead or alive, and he would know if she were hurt or in pain somewhere around here.

She wasn't. If he was lucky, she would stay in her room for at least another minute.

"You go on ahead." He could feel his fangs scraping his tongue as he talked, and shook his head, willing the hunger to leave him alone. It helped. When he blinked again, he could already feel less blood in his eyes. Stefan gave Edward a smile, and didn't have to force it. "Stay safe, both of you."

[prodigalson]

It was impossible to lie to himself; he did not notice the frequency of the dogs, their natural intent until Stefan thought of it, too caught up in his own predatory instincts, distracted by the way Stefan's face changed - effects to make a monster movie probably shiver with jealousy - and their combined hungers rising up like tidal waves.

The singing distracted him further. He looked up from his prey, eyes piercing through the darkness to find the source. The dogs dropped like proverbial flies, and he didn't question their luck. They had more important things to do; he couldn't be distracted. That he had at all made him cold with revulsion.

Edward followed Stefan without a beat between them, moving like they were already from the same coven, like only one hunt was needed to solidify their ability to cooperate. He didn't know if Stefan came from a tradition of vampires who were social creatures, but Edward did. He was raised in one, and that was how he hunted. Only in Landel's had he been forced to do it alone.

Watching the change in Stefan with visible interest, he kept his questions silent. Neither the time nor the place, and Stefan was trying to... stop it. It was something he could control, maybe? And the fangs. They were real. He still couldn't get over the teeth, lengthened and sharp. Two pinpricks on the neck. That was all it took. Neat and almost gentle comparatively.

He returned the smile, patting a reassuring hand on Stefan's shoulder. No need to linger, for there was no cause of concern for his friend's safety, nor Elena's. Not when he saw how efficient Stefan could be. "You both as well. I will catch up with you tomorrow. Stay out of trouble."

Then he was gone, only the cold smell of blood left behind.

[To here.]

[avengingfists.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1185883.html?thread=80857179#t80857179)]

"Or else they're against sending a team that's already been thrown together before," Ilia mused as they moved further down the hall. "They know a team like the two of us can deliver results, but they could also be attempting to use the same stone to test the abilities and teamwork of other patients here."

The hallways were more than familiar to her. Once they were a bit further in they could start talking about future endeavors. For now, just the usual legwork would do.

[lovecraftcomplex]

Stone? There hadn't been a stone involved in their endeavor, except for the obvious planet-sized one. It had been so long since Rose had encountered someone capable of non-ironic metaphor that she almost didn't recognize the animal when it sauntered in.

"Spreading the experience around. I agree." She wasn't disappointed, exactly. Another assassination wasn't actually something she wanted to do, but the possibility that they'd taken an early mission and locked themselves out of a route to the finish line was disturbing.

Then again, that hadn't been how the game had worked before. Simultaneous advancement, each to their own mission. Skipping ahead had been both fruitful and barren. Like, perhaps, their session.

> Strife!

[revolutionise]

[From here]

Utena almost had to cover her mouth when the smell of blood hit her nose. There was a rat carcass in the hall, seemingly crushed, along with a speared dog and solid chunks of dark ice all over the ground. Usually there wasn't carnage like this right out the starting gate; Aigis had been right, there were probably more creatures out tonight thanks to whatever was going on

"We should move as quick as we can," Utena told Aigis, stomach twisting as she tried to push the smell and sight of the rat out of her mind.

[To here]

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

Brook's voice entered the hall before the man himself as his scream carried over from the previous one.

"Excuse me, please!!" he called as he sped through, not wanting to either hit any patients in his sprint or have them become the next prey for the creature hot on his trail. He sent a look back, hoping that the creature might have stayed in the previous hallway, but before he could catch any sight of the thing, his balance went. Something wet on the floor easily took his feet out from under him as he slipped, crashed forward, and continued to move, sliding on his stomach right into the next hallway.

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

[savagestray.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1186308.html?thread=81004036#t81004036)]

Heine rounded the hallway, not bothering with so much as a second glance as he passed other patients, some of them dressed in strange clothing, others still in uniform. He had no explanation for it, but he hardly wasn't a thought continuing to wonder. A running theme for most of this place.

He slowed to a stop outside the women's wing of the dormitory rooms, pacing a bit before leaning on the opposite wall. Heine wasn't about to get near enough that he'd bump into one of them by accident, but he didn't want it to be completely obvious he was avoiding the majority of the females in the institute.

It wasn't until he heard the speaker system come on again that he started to feel strange.

Emergency. Emergency. EmmEERrrgencyyy....

Initiate CODE RED. Initiate CODE RED. Initiate CODE RED.

The words sounded more faded and distant as a pounding throbbed in the back of his head, dark laughter bubbling up along with it. It was heavy, beating along with his heart and so loud he couldn't hope to ignore it.

What's wrong master? Not so depressed and apathetic this time? Get out of my head you son of a-

Not tonight haha! Not tonight master, tonight I'll lend you my strength, how's that? Tear things up, give 'em hell for trying to fuck with you again. That soldier from yesterday, let's find him, see what his face looks like when we squeeze his neck so hard his eyes start to bulge. Or count how many holes we can put in him before his lungs fill up with blood. I know, we'll go meet the girl and then... and then we'll play. Like old times. How's that sound?

Heine put a hand firmly on either side of his head, trying to clamp out the noise, the heartbeat, the gradual loss of control, but none of it helped. He could feel his hold slipping. He could almost see that face in the mirror, laughing, mocking, his hands around Heine's neck, slowly choking him into submission. His vision was growing dark and spotty as a numbness passed through his fingertips. No! Fuck you, don't you touch her! Don't-

"Goodnight master," the voice, hardly above a whisper taunted, flexing hands a fingers and a body that was once again his to control.

[unit67.livejournal.com]

[From F11, to be backthreaded]

It was a difficult sensation to describe. Some might have considered it a tingling, a sensitivity that traced invisible motes across her fingers, but Lily knew it was both more and less complex. She felt the line drawn down her spine the way a person might feel a sense of unease in a too-barren hallway, and the voice gained a quality: not a volume, like one might expect, but an unstable and dangerous insistence. Was this what she’d been afraid of, what she’d thought happened the night before? If it was, she had to get somewhere safe, somewhere she couldn’t hurt anyone, but what good were doors when her fingernails could slash wood into splinters?

Which is what happened. After spending far too long pretending to be asleep and waiting for Rose to leave, Lily reached for the doorknob, broke it off, and then nearly put her hand through the door in a casual attempt to open it. Normally, she could control her strength, but it seemed like the last few days had muted her control. Muted her powers. She'd almost gotten used to it, but now everything was so loud.

She looked at her fingers. Nails, savagely ripped from the raw pinkness below them and dangling from threads of cuticle. Blood trails down her knuckles. Lily felt the pain, but Lily was used to the pain. Like an itch. Like the phantom ache of a dismembered limb...something Lily knew far too well. Her nails returned, growing like scabs of smooth keratin. Like death denied. Like the body of a monster.

Please, no. Please.

She couldn’t go to Rose. She couldn’t hurt the girl, she couldn’t lose the fragile friendship. But what about Heine? He’d helped her before, but how many times could he pull her back together before turning away like the rest? How many times to work a puzzle before a piece went missing?

Lily was frightened when she left her room, but it was not a healthy, human fear. Her arms were tight over her chest, as if she could hold that inhuman Terror in. She wanted to stay inside. She wanted it so much. The voice didn’t give her that option.

The hallway was filled with voices. Victims.

Toys.

Make them suffer. Teach them how to suffer. It’s the only thing that people know how to learn.

“Heine,” she whispered, though she didn’t expect her brother to appear. In her mind it made sense in a way, his white against her black, a counter. Like he could save her, like there was a color between the two that no one had ever taught her. He would know it. He had to.

She rounded the corner at a sprint and somehow, against all odds, there he was. Taller than her, with a posture that had lost some of the compassionate confidence she knew so well, but no matter what changes overtook him, Lily would always recognize her friend.

“Heine,” she said, this time a plea more than an inquiry, and her body collided with his with a force that might have been overpowering were they both not custom-built to handle it, her arms tight around his waist and face buried in his chest. “I don't know what’s happening, I broke the door and I thought...and...and Rose, and she trusts me but I can't...and last night...I...” She clenched her eyes shut, but a few tears traced shameful lines down her pale cheeks. “I can’t,” Lily whispered through choked tears as her hands reached for the chain around her neck. Yanking forcefully only resulted in a line of blood over a quickly-healed slit. Even death couldn’t redeem her. She looked at Heine, her eyes wide, remembering her words before she awoke. How could he accept that? That monster in her, that monster that was her? Lily tried to pull closer, but there was a distance. A decade, maybe. Time. How could she expect him to understand?

Lily held her breath and clenched her eyes against hot tears that hurt almost as much as torn skin.

[saviored]

[from here]

The hallway here was practically spotless in comparison. Couple of corpses. Shattered ice, like someone had tipped a sculpture over and watched it smash. He could see specks of fur in the chunks of ice. What, was there a Batman villain running around now, too? He wouldn't be surprised. Why stop at Twilight?

His baby brother better be with his girlfriend by now. Damon wasn't about to be stuck babysitting all night waiting for Stefan to show up. That wasn't his damn role. (It could be, but it wasn't. And he didn't want it, at any rate.)

As he walked, it was hard not to feel stalked. Watched. He wasn't unnerved the way he might've been before because it wasn't as though anything could take him on, but he was still aware of it. Very aware.

He kept walking, stepping over a flattened rat and knowing Rick wasn't far behind at all.

[deathandgin]

Alaric wasn't far behind if only because he was moving automatically. It wasn't fear or nervousness that propelled him through the hallways after Damon. While he had definitely paused in disgust at the... remains, that seemed easily overshadowed by the fact that Damon had just saved his life. It wasn't as though Alaric hadn't been readying his crossbow to take the thing down himself (or try to. He wasn't exactly sure the crossbow to giant cat kill ratio.)

Yeah, he knew his death was temporary. Still.

He didn't make anything of it. Verbally, at least. The fact beat against his brain but never made it to his mouth.

The hallway after was better in a worse way. Now it was clear that something obviously supernatural was running through the darkness, and it wasn't something predictable, like, say. A vampire. Or a werewolf now, apparently. Those he could handle. Easily. What the hell was this? Mr. Freeze? Yeah. The safety in finding a crossbow was quickly fading -

Peter? What the hell? "Hey, would you -!" Oh god, there were two of him.

Oh god, his life right now. That's enough for him. Yeah. Get him off of this ride right the hell now.

Alaric moved closer by Damon's side and occasionally turned to watch their backs, letting Peter go... wherever the hell he was off to. Kid had speed. Maybe that would be enough to keep him safe. (He hoped so.)

[To here.]

[tightsofmight]

[From here.]

They whizzed along nearly side by side, stopping for no one and nothing. He wasn't sure how long this would last, if at all. They had to make it upstairs. Had to. Crucial things. Peter was actually giddy right now. He couldn't remember looking more forward to a fight in his life.

The place had really done a number on him. Two and a half weeks seemed to completely eclipse anything and everything of his sordid past in New York.

He did skid a little when he nearly bowled over a pair of men - a familiar pair actually. The weirdly suspicious guy from last night and the one Peter owed a beer to, Alaric. Who was carrying a crossbow and looking mighty distressed. Normally he might stop and insist on finding out what the deal was (turning frowns upside down was a civic duty as an honorary Care Bear), but he couldn't tonight. So instead, Peter just whipped around and waved wildly, still running as he shouted to the taller of the two.

"Heeeey Rick! I'll get you your booze later okay? Bye!!"

A man should know when his liquor shipment is being post-poned, okay?

[To here. ;alksdjf;l I am zooming them along if that's okay with you bakhu]

[she-is-ruin.livejournal.com]

_{[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1185883.html?thread=80830811#t80934747)]}

Even if the hallways had been dark like usual, the remains of mutilated spectres would have still been noticeable to someone who knew what they were looking at. The corpses weren’t being disposed of in a way she was totally accustomed to, but so long as the prisoners had their way and so long as the spectres continued to come, the bodies were going to keep piling up. It was a basic equation: kill or be killed. The night’s events had just upped the ante a little.

As for the Institute’s pets, well, there were always more ready to take the place of their fallen brethren. The monsters and the prisoners had that in common.

Yomi held her blade loosely, but she felt it the moment the atmosphere changed, when something moved in the hallway that wasn’t another captive. “Well, I wonder what that could be?”

[ex_rosebuds752]

Rose had followed with only a glance at Saber, offering the other woman an apologetic glance and a slight shrug of her shoulders before stepping out after Yomi into the hallway beyond. She smelled them before she saw them, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

"Dammit, what is it with this place and dogs?" she complained, frustration thick in her tone as she did her best to ignore the faint shiver of dread that slid down her spine as the first large rotting canine melted out of the shadows ahead of them. Another one followed, then another, until there were five of the things prowling down the hall towards them.

Oh goody. They hunted in packs, too. How quaint.

"Sorry, Zack. Hope none of these were friends of yours," she muttered under her breath before she vanished from sight, moving so quickly that it would be impossible to follow with the human eye. All that speed combined with her vampire strength plowed into the lead dog, the largest of the group, and sent it tumbling with a snarl and a snap of its teeth dangerously close to her shoulder. She was already moving again, however, hands dragging him around, finding weak spots with a precise ease born of centuries of survival skills.

The dog's spine snapped as she bent it like a twig. A twist and its head slumped awkwardly to the side. The lead dog was dead even as the other four canines realized they'd been attacked and started to turn on her.

[ham_fisted]

[from here]

That weird glow wasn't just inside the patient blocks. It was all over the connecting hallways, too! And he'd bet it looked the same everywhere else in the building now. The sirens were still going, and he continued to wince against the thumping in his ears as he ran down the corridors, swinging open any doors that stood in his way.

The sirens suddenly stopped once he was near the Ladies' Block, and he gave in to one final wince while his poor eardrums adjusted back to how it had been before they'd been at risk of being blown out. It took these guys long enough to realize they might be sending everybody deaf! Now he could finally hear himself think!

But before any form of intelligent thought could enter his mind--apart from the obvious, which was that there might have been a jailbreak of sorts--the toe of his boot hit something. "Ack!" Falling short of losing his balance, he managed an awkward, one-legged jump over whatever it was before throwing a frantic glance back at the figure. It was hard to make it out at first, but that was one good thing about the mysterious glowing: he didn't need a flashlight to know what it was.

"Ahhh!" He flinched and reversed on swift steps. Because alive or dead, it was clearly a monster! It didn't matter what kind! You didn't need to be a detective to know there were sure to be more where that one came from! He spun on his heel and fled. There were other dark figures on the ground, but none of them looked large enough to be human, or so he thought. He didn't dare to stop and double-check.

[ham_fisted]

[to here]

[sortaheadstrong.livejournal.com]

The first hallway would have been too small to do anything in, so Celty turned right and headed through to the third hallway. She took a moment there to stop and breathe, then looked around before realizing that even this place wouldn't work, if only because of there being others around. Testing was one thing, but hitting unsuspecting bystanders was another. For a minute she considered heading for the outdoors, but her experiences in the field had her turn right instead.

One of the main hallways was sure to be big enough. She thought.

[sortaheadstrong.livejournal.com]

[ultimagi]

[from here]

It smelled like death. The stench of blood was mild, compared to the rotting ichor of the birds the previous night, but present and familiar nonetheless. Her pace slowed for a moment, her flashlight skimming the floor. A large, bloodstained footprint of something not human led away from the body of what she could only assume had once been a rat; there, a dog, smelling foul with disease and the blood pooling around it. There were other signs of smaller carnage. Her ears caught the chittering of rats somewhere nearby; the girl tightened her grip on her flashlight, swinging toward the source of the sound. A small group of large rodents had been aiming for the carcass of the dog, but now were making their way towards her. Her hand tightened on the flashlight, and without hesitation she swung her other hand out, shouting "Fire!"

Flames erupted from the ground in short busts, engulfing each rat in bright fire. It lit the hall better than her flashlight, and their screams hurt her ears, but within a moment the flames died -- and the rats with them.

She exhaled, shaking her head to keep moving. It was strange how familiar it seemed, that anxious anticipation of an unexpected fight in the dark. Was that what they'd meant, that she'd been used as a weapon? Certainly fighting came naturally to her... even that Sesshoumaru had noticed, the moment she took up a weapon.

She frowned.

No one had passed her in the hall, and no one remained here now; the person she was meant to meet could not have slipped past her. There were only a few more halls to search. With a quick pace, she evaded the worse of spilled blood on the way out the hall.

[ultimagi]

[to here]

[hairraising]

[From here]

Rapunzel had to cover her mouth and nose with her hair when they got out into the hall. It smelled like death and danger. It was the way things had smelled the other night, when she and Tsubaki had rolled over in the hummer. It was the way Eugene had smelled when...

Anyway, there had never been so much of it at once before. Monster carcasses were beginning to litter the hallway, and they stood in front of a massive, bloody footprint. For once, Rapunzel was glad for the boots she kept on at night now. "Maybe... Maybe 'Code Red' means more monsters are out tonight too," she said with a shudder, already inching away from the carnage and trying not to throw up on the spot.

[thecamellia.livejournal.com]

Abandoning the cell block was like officially passing onto a battle field. Bodies (and body parts) belonging to the Institute’s creatures were scattered everywhere, more destruction than Tsubaki had seen in one spot before… excluding the night everyone had been ambushed in Doyleton.

But it wasn’t the monsters who were causing the most destruction in this case. The bodies in the hallway had been left there by… other prisoners? Who else besides other prisoners would have come this way? Tsubaki wasn’t oblivious to the smell, either, but she still bent to examine the inhuman footsteps leading away from what looked like a rat. So many souls. Where were they all going? And where were all the monsters suddenly coming from?

… Just what was going on?

“Hey, try breathing through your mouth instead, all right? You don’t have to look,” she said, returning to stand by her roommate’s side. Rapunzel might have had a point, but Tsubaki wasn’t sure where that left the two of them. Rapunzel wasn’t a meister, wasn’t even a conventional fighter. If there was a more pronounced threat waiting for them, Tsubaki wasn’t in the best position to face it, even with her transformations returned to her. She was a weapon, but there was no one to use her.

“Whatever’s going on, it’s not normal… It might be better not to go down to the doctor’s offices with everything going crazy.”

[doneinthree]

[from here]

It became quieter as Kirk turned the corner, in that only a few people appeared to still be actively fighting off the Institute's "guards." He wondered where all the soldiers were — you'd think well-trained men and advanced technology would be better trusted to the duty of rounding up prisoners than an army of half-rotting lab experiments.

But apparently not. It disturbed him to imagine what Aguilar might consider more important than one-hundred-plus angry prisoners with superpowers on the loose. Kirk eyed the pink-hued walls as he dashed through, wondering. Why let them fight back at all, when previously their captors had demonstrated the ability to knock them all out cold and transport them back to their rooms at seemingly the touch of a button? Did that require the "device" too?

Maybe Aguilar trusted the Code Red measures would be more than enough to contain them. But Kirk wouldn't be Jim Kirk if he let himself be defeated before he'd even started. First, find Uhura. Then they'll figure out how to get around the system.

[to here]

[stylebythemile]

[from here]

Sonia stumbled again when they got out of the Women's Block, stopping by the wall to get her bearings and clenching her hand once again around her weapon, just to make sure it was there.

"That wasn't meant to happen!" she cried, shaking her head. "I've never lost my balance like that!" Not since training!

[kingdomless.livejournal.com]

Kairi had lifted her sword up when the monster neared, but at Sonia's words, she did as she was told, eyes widening as she watched the girl spin and - tumble. Instantly worried, the princess nodded and followed after the older girl, her face filling with concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked once they slowed to a stop, and she looked the girl up and down. She had taken quite a fall from what she could only guess was an ability she had been able to do back in her own home, but it looks like things hadn't turned out the way they were meant to. "I'm sure it's just after not being able to do it after so long?" she thought aloud, frowning to herself. If Sonia wasn't able to do something she had mastered back home, then she couldn't help but wonder how Sora and Riku were holding up.

Placing a hand on Sonia's shoulder, Kairi gave her a warm smile. "Don't worry. I may not look it, but I can fight, too. I promise we'll be okay."

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

Leading Lust back into the hallway he'd come from, Brook frowned at the open doorway to the women's block and wondered whether he should forgo his own room for one at random. These were much closer, and as the lodging places for the ladies of the Institute, likely a bit nicer than those for the men. At least that's what Brook liked to think, anyway.

But just barging into another's room, even should they be out would be quite rude. Even ruder should said person be present! And yet Brook found he was more willing to chance giving up some of his gentlemanly manners in favor of lessening the potential that he would get eaten. And that he wouldn't get to see some undergarments.

"I believe any one of the patient rooms is a good place," he explained down, motioning his free hand through to the next hallway, "Do you mind just picking one from this area? My room is a bit further away, so there would be more of a threat trying to reach it."

[a_sin_for_him]

"This is where I came from," Lust said, indicating the hallway of rooms. "The room I woke up in was empty."

So any of the rooms were safe at night? That was a very handy bit of information to have. She began to wonder a bit more about this Brook. He didn't seem as though he were anything but a harmless pervert, and even then mildly so. Of course, she supposed she was in a unique position to be favorable. He was her only option for information at all. And if perhaps he was more dangerous than he seemed, that was perfectly alright. She could certainly handle him, skilled as he was.

"I do appreciate your help," she went on. "This is all very strange."