tightsofmight (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tightsofmight) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
damned_institute2011-10-24 01:29 pm
tightsofmight) wrote in damned_institute2011-10-24 01:29 pm
Entry tags:
- aidou,
- allelujah,
- byrne,
- claude,
- dean winchester,
- doctor facilier,
- guy,
- l,
- lunge,
- peter parker,
- sechs,
- seishin,
- snow,
- the scarecrow,
- two-face,
- zack,
- zero,
- zex
Night 59: West Wing, North Hall 1-A
[From here.]
Did that just happen?
Peter slowed as he entered the safety of the outer hall (safety, really?), turning back to boggle at the door behind him. What - no. No way the cat monsters were that frail. Landel's did not work like that. Nothing was ever that easy here. They didn't get treated, they got tricked. Heart pounding, he checked the hall up and down. Once certain that he was alone, Peter pressed a shaking hand to the wall. Stick.
And it did.
His jaw did drop then. Peter was still for a moment. Switched off his flashlight and tied the pillowcase over his shoulder, then pressed both his hands to the wall. Then his feet. Then up further, rising up and up, then gravity flipped and he was staring down at the floor.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
Was that the power the pink had granted him? The limits were off? Peter clung to the ceiling, the pillowcase settled on his stomach as he crawled upside down. His heart was beating. He was afraid. He was going to drop any minute. They were going to take it away. Or what if this was another challenge like the Coliseum? Something worse was in store because of this?
He almost stopped entirely. Then he thought of Jessica.
"No no no, she's gotta - maybe..."
Peter Parker was all but invisible in the pitch black hallway, crawling higher than most flashlights dared to venture as he found the exit.
[To here.]
Did that just happen?
Peter slowed as he entered the safety of the outer hall (safety, really?), turning back to boggle at the door behind him. What - no. No way the cat monsters were that frail. Landel's did not work like that. Nothing was ever that easy here. They didn't get treated, they got tricked. Heart pounding, he checked the hall up and down. Once certain that he was alone, Peter pressed a shaking hand to the wall. Stick.
And it did.
His jaw did drop then. Peter was still for a moment. Switched off his flashlight and tied the pillowcase over his shoulder, then pressed both his hands to the wall. Then his feet. Then up further, rising up and up, then gravity flipped and he was staring down at the floor.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
Was that the power the pink had granted him? The limits were off? Peter clung to the ceiling, the pillowcase settled on his stomach as he crawled upside down. His heart was beating. He was afraid. He was going to drop any minute. They were going to take it away. Or what if this was another challenge like the Coliseum? Something worse was in store because of this?
He almost stopped entirely. Then he thought of Jessica.
"No no no, she's gotta - maybe..."
Peter Parker was all but invisible in the pitch black hallway, crawling higher than most flashlights dared to venture as he found the exit.
[To here.]
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There appeared to be no one in the next hallway. Nothing, human or monster. That was a good thing - for one, Byrne was running and (unwisely) making a lot of noise, and for another, that splattered cat had not been a good sign.
If there was anything else different about the hall, he didn't notice. He was too busy running to care.
[To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1186308.html?thread=80884228#t80884228).]
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The hallway was completely empty when Harvey reached it, which seemed strange. He would have thought that the loud noises and the pink sheen to everything would have sent patients out in swarms.
Well, chances were that he'd run into more people as he got further from his room. Not that Harvey was looking for anyone other than Jones, but there was something unsettling about this place seeming abandoned while the sirens sounded overhead. He suddenly felt like he was in some kind of action movie and he was racing against a clock.
But that was ridiculous.
Just as Harvey was going to take his usual right turn, he heard something from his left-hand side. He turned, confused since he hadn't seen anyone there, and then --
Something clicked forward through the darkness, and the reason he'd missed it was because it was so low to the ground. Its pearl-colored body stood out, but what struck Harvey more than that was the stinger attached to it. It was a scorpion, but not just any scorpion. Like most of the monsters here, it had probably been exposed to some intense steroid treatment.
Harvey could have played the hero and tried to put the thing down, but 1) he didn't have the time and 2) running was clearly the smarter choice here. In the most dignified way possible, the man turned his back to the thing and started jogging down the hall away from it.
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It wasn't just the intercom and the building that were different tonight, Zack realized. He felt different. He didn't know if it was because of the long sleep or simply because he was fired up by the commotion, but he felt stronger. Or, to be more accurate, he didn't feel as weak as he had his whole time here.
It was almost like--
A sudden sound drew him out of his thoughts as he realized that he was face-to-face with some kind of monster. Actually, a closer look showed that the thing was a scorpion. Zack was shocked to see the thing here, so close to the rooms, but it wasn't like he could ignore the monster now that it had caught him in its sights.
"Well, guess there's one way to test this out..." Grabbing for the Lightning materia that he always brought with him these days, Zack held the orb tight in his hand and then closed his eyes. Without any delay, a green light surged up around his feet and then a lightning bolt crackled down from the ceiling, hitting the scorpion dead on.
The monster let out a death cry and was almost completely incinerated by the spell. Zack was left to stare in awe, seeing how the last time he'd tried the Materia out it hadn't had nearly as much punch. Was he really back to full strength now?
Suddenly his night had gotten a whole lot better, and it hadn't been that bad to start with. Zack broke out into a grin and then jogged down the hall, searching out more chances to test his stamina, strength, and speed. If he was back up his normal mako-influenced strength, then this was all going to be a cake walk.
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The rest of the hallways weren't much better. Badou wasn't a squeamish guy by nature. He knew what the inside of a person's head looked like after the skull had been shattered point blank by a spray of bullets, and he'd stomped right through it on more than one occasion. He'd picked bone fragments out of his hair. But this was... extreme. And not in a good way.
The place reeked of blood and burnt flesh and a lot of other unpleasant things he didn't really want to identify. He did stop at a couple of corpses, all monsters though that wasn't entirely reassuring. The place had never been crawling with so many at once.
What the hell was going on up there?
[to here]
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Another dead creature in here, and this time it was some sort of gigantic...insect(?), appearing to have been fried by something with the way the ground looked scorched around its remains. Like it was...struck by lightning, as impossible as that was in this place. What in the world?
Zero stopped to take a closer look at this new corpse - and not a minute after doing so, he learned the reason why he'd been feeling so uneasy. Or rather, came face-to-face with the reason.
It was a cat, or at least, it looked like one but was quite large as far as normal cats went. He heard it hiss and turned around just in time to see it leap at him, giving him a split second to dodge just in time. The combat reflexes came naturally, and the following minute became a blur of motion. Dash quickly to get behind it, take the pipe in both hands, let all hell loose upon its body. One swing was enough to bring the cat down to the ground, the second was enough for a satisfying crack sound to be heard from its body. Zero swung again and again, and then, seeing it still struggling on the ground, lifted one foot and stomped its skull into the floor. And stomped again. And again. The beast was nothing but a crushed pile of fur and blood by that point, with its brains splattered from where his shoe had struck its head.
Definitely dead now. Zero took a step back from the corpse to catch his breath, calmly wondering just where the beast had come from...
...
Wait a second. What?
He could swear he had not been able to effortlessly dash at a speed like that before, when he'd come under attack by the spider. Nor did he feel like he'd had the strength before to be able to mutilate a giant cat this quickly. The way he'd been able to bring it down to the ground... He could tell he wasn't as strong as his Reploid body had been, but...still stronger.
Was this the odd feeling he had perceived earlier? That he had somehow been able to recover some of his dashing and fighting capabilities in this form?
...Well. No matter how it was possible, he wasn't about to complain. However, he did need to get moving now - he could already hear something else coming his way.
[To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1186308.html?thread=80916996#t80916996).]
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Despite the loud way that the night had started and the pink film that seemed to have enveloped the building, Guy wasn't quite ready for what he saw next. Honestly, it wasn't anything he was unused to seeing: there were just two monsters corpses littered in the hall. But that was the sort of thing he'd seen more back on Auldrant, not here.
The reason for that wasn't due to a lack of monsters, but rather that they weren't usually killed so quickly. And for a scorpion and -- was that a cat? -- to come so close to the patient rooms seemed out of the ordinary.
"Code Red," he repeated to himself, recalling I.R.I.S' announcement. "Do you think they sent out more monsters tonight?" It would make sense to combat the sudden regaining of their powers with some sort of defense, which meant that they were going to have to be extra careful. Guy doubted that most of the monsters were going to give him any trouble now, but if they were ambushed...
"We'd better get to Luke, then." Guy knew that his friend wasn't particularly skilled in combat unless he had a sword, and tonight was definitely a time when he was going to need it.
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It was then that Guy voiced his question, drawing Claude's attention at the same time. That would make a frightening amount of sense, especially if the military felt like they'd lost control of them. "I wouldn't be surprised," he grimly responded. "They're probably more worried about the institute than the people inside it."
Come to think of it, if a lot of captives had gotten their powers back already, how come the building wasn't already torn to shreds? "I wonder if that pink glow is supposed to be some kind of force field," Claude wondered out loud.
Either way, Guy had a point that they needed to find Luke. The redhead would need something to fight with, especially if tonight stayed this crazy. "You're right. Let's go." With that, he quickened his speed and led the way further down the hall.
((To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1186308.html?thread=80960260#t80960260).))
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...Okay, no. Everything was not fine. That was pretty damn clear as soon as he stepped out the door.
He'd been through this area several times already. He'd never seen anything around here. Or else he just never hung around long enough to see. But as soon as he walked into the hallway, something yowled this weird sound and pounced on him immediately from the side. Snow threw his arm out instinctively to smack whatever the hell it was offa him. Whatever it was had had some friggin nails, even as he smacked it away, he'd felt them graze him. ...Dammit, that woulda hurt if he'd just been a second later. What the hell was...?!
...It was a cat. Even with the weak light and how bad it was deformed from normal, he could tell it was a cat. And wow. He'll say it right now: Pulse cats are ugly. Sorry, Fang.
But anyway. Smacking it off had only accomplished him... smacking it off. It had landed on its feet, turned right back around, tried some zig zag charging thing, then pounced for him all over again. Except it wasn't a surprise this time. Without really thinking about it, he'd already started moving toward it and had reeled back his arm to fling a hard fist at it. Through pure stupid luck, he managed to hit it just as it was in mid-air pouncing toward him... and that meant the cat lost this one. Cause it was just sent flying down the hall and out of sight.
It would've been nice if he could say that was that but there was another one right there not even a second after. Like it'd just been hanging around waiting for its turn. Oh, you've gotta be... You know what? Fine! They want to go at him? Bring it on! He threw his arms wide provokingly. "You want some a' this?! Come on!!"
That didn't mean he was going to stand around and wait for it to attack first. No way! He charged right for it, full speed. Rather than aiming to hit it straight on, he hooked the punch so his fist hit the thing in the flank and he slammed both fist and cat into the wall together. He could feel something snap under his knuckles, but he didn't think about it. Instead, he left that same fist pinning it to the wall while the other reeled back and he hit it the head, hard.
...He hadn't really been thinking that one through and he didn't really know what he was expecting, but it definitely hadn't been that the damn thing's head was going to burst open like... a thing that bursts open easy. E-Ew.
Okay that part hadn't really... been part of the plan. At all. Gross. But um, okay. Whatever. Anyway.
Looked like he dropped his flashlight at some point in all that. Guess he hadn't thought too much about it, and freeing up his hands had been more important. But it looked like the damn things were sturdier than he thought, cause it didn't break or anything. He picked it back up, still all pumped up from the brief fight, but the buzz was already starting to wane and he was getting all anxious and stuff.
What the hell had that been all about?
[to here]
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Chaos and corpses greeted Sechs as he dashed into the next hall. His boots nearly skidded on the flesh and blood which painted nearly every inch of the area a grotesque palette of reds, browns and purples. The Replica paused to take in the messy scene surrounding him. A flicker of surprise briefly suppressed his grin of excitement as it dawned on him that he mustn't have been the only one to regain power...
Further down the hall, Sechs could spot the telltale sounds and flashes of a huge battle taking place, one which had overtaken the entire institute like never before. This sudden riot and the horrendous amount of slaughtered monsters scattered about the place would have disturbed most normal people, but to Sechs, it just heightened his battle-loving ecstasy.
If the patients have regained most of their powers, then the military must have failed to hold their power over everyone, and their apparent absence only further proved to Sechs that the night couldn't have been a better time for a good 'ol violent uprising against the institute.
Sechs' vengeful grin couldn't have been any wider on his face.
Another sloppy step forward in the bloody mess and Sechs took another pause. His instincts warned him of danger, and the familiar shrieks and squeals of monsters he had dealt with before turned his attention towards the ceiling.
There were at least seven of them; hanging upside down like hideous wingless bats with their clawed feet clinging to the ceiling. Revealed by Sechs' flashlight, the damn little armless bastards with big eyes and even bigger mouths looked down upon the Replica, chirping and hungrily chattering their teeth at him. Sechs only sneered back. He hadn't forgotten his last encounter with the petite but formidable creatures, the same ones that nearly killed his closest ally. It was payback time.
There was another ear piercing shriek, and the cluster of creatures released their grips and dropped down into a predatory circle around Sechs. Upon landing, their claws clattered sharply upon the bloody floor, each one eagerly shifted on the spot as they kept their huge eyes facing their surrounded target. They expressed their naive confidence in their hunt with loud, hungry chattering and drooling mouths; surely seven of them could take on a single, fleshy human?
Sechs only chuckled, tucking his flashlight away and drawing out his machete alongside his axe. "You want a piece of this, you little shits?!" he snarled, laughing down at the little creatures that once proved too dangerous to face as a group. Now Sechs knew he could take on a thousand of them without much effort, "Come and get it!"
The armless monsters gave out their own battle cries and pounced in for the kill, yet they were instantly met with a blurring whirlwind of spinning blades! With each hand holding a weapon, Sechs had spun himself into a small but lethal tornado. The creatures didn't know what hit them! The power of Sechs' superhuman spin sucked the monsters in without mercy, and chopped them into bits like a life-sized blender. Laughing, Sechs reversed his rapid rotation, throwing out the minced pieces of all seven of his attackers into every direction, splattering their flesh against the walls and ceiling of the hallway in a matter of seconds!
With his brief but effective attack finished, Sechs spun to a stop with ease, his acrobatic memories from his life as a battle android had worked perfectly, leaving him to stand strong and appraise his slaughter with a grin. Near his bloody boot was a single claw from one of the slain creatures, Sechs made sure to pocket it as a personal memento. He then shook the thick blood off his machete, tucked it away and continued on down the hall, eager for more action and destruction.
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Dean limped to the side, wishing that he had a nice shotgun instead of a single knife if they were going against dogs. Zombie dogs, as if regular dogs weren't enough. Looked zombie. He just hoped it wasn't gonna be like the movies -- he'd make a shitty zombie and anyway, he was pretty sure going zombie before his soul went out the way it was supposed to was like cheating or something. He kept the door closed, standing to the side and ready to go for any dog that made it past Ruby before it knew what hit it. He didn't spare the hall much of a glance: just enough to establish he wasn't gonna get jumped by more dogs learning how to open doors, Jurassic Park style, and that he'd wandered into another gore pit.
Fun times.
Dean swallowed back the nausea. sure, he'd been around stuff like this since he was a kid, but there was a shapeshifter's skin pile and then there was halls literally covered in who knew what. This was kinda excessive, even for him.
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Damn.
She looked down -- she hadn't realized it, but one of them had gotten a good bite of her waist. Blood and a whole lot of other things she didn't think about were marring her shirt, and she pulled it away to see the flesh torn in a series of anything-but-neat puncture wounds. Her left side looked like raw hamburger. But, Dean was alive, and that was something.
And she hadn't realized it. Another something. A better something. No pain meant she had game. Real game, the kind that she was supposed to have, that she had everywhere but in these stupid walls.
She didn't tuck her knife away, just gave the dogs' corpses one last look, stepping over the rotten and mutilated entrails of one that had been strewn across the hallway in the struggle, and moved out the door after Dean. Making sure to shut it behind her, she tugged her shirt back down over her wound and spared Dean a look, then flashed the beam of her flashlight up towards him.
"Better not puke on my shoes, Princess." She stepped closer to him, hiding the limp that came from the stretch of her side with every step. "All moving parts still attached?"
Could you move us to the soccer field?
"I think I'll manage," Dean sneered. "Surprised you made it out in one piece."
Surprised and half-disappointed. Probably too much to ask for the dogs and the resident demon to somehow take each other out. Save him a load of trouble. Knowing his luck, if Ruby somehow (accidentally) keeled over of "natural causes", they'd probably shack him and Sam up with another chaperone and there was no telling if the replacement would even be as hot as Ruby. Or Chaperone 2 could be making passes at him and Dean shut that train of thought down right there and then, shuddering. Dean nodded toward the door that should lead to the soccer field.
"C'mon."
A second hallway full of gore was still gross, but the shock of it was already starting to wear off. Dean held his breath. At least his eyes weren't watering up too bad. With the crap lighting and the gore making the floor slick, he needed to see as far as he could and he couldn't do that if his eyes were going. Probably could ask Ruby. But admitting to a demon that maybe his frail human eyes weren't all that cracked up wasn't really something that sat well with him. At the very least he just hoped they were through with dogs, Dean's hand resting on the hilt of his bowie knife as he aimed the flashlight down to the door at the end of the hall.
lkejalej i'm so sorry this took so long ;_;
What was it with Winchesters and sucking it up when it came to gratitude? No matter how often she put her ass on the line for these sons of bitches, they always found a way to make it seem like it was worth squat in the end. It was maddening.
"Think it's too much to hope the big and growly types are keeping it indoors?" She pushed the door to the outside open when she reached it, stepping out into the cold night air.
[ to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1191699.html?thread=81220883#t81220883) ]
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Still had his strength and all the rights and responsibilities of being a nation that came right along with it. The dream wasn't too good to be true and he was going to absolutely continue on his merry way. England wasn't in his room but that didn't mean he wouldn't find him. Or any other nation he might stumble across. So he set onward toward the other end of the hall toward where folks usually gathered.
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Hmm. Odd glow still everywhere, which gave his flashlight's light an odd feel. A shame he didn't have his natural eye... it was so much more sensitive to light and color! THese small human eyes couldn't really appreciate this... but one did the best with what one had. ZEX kept moving.
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There were monster corpses strewn across the floor, even so close to the patient rooms. For once, it just made England smile instead of hurrying onwards. What did he have to fear?
As if in response, there was a yowl in the darkness and something leapt at him, claws digging into his legs, drawing long scratches downhis thigh. That's all they were now, scratches. Nothing more serious. He kicked the cat off him roughly, sending it flying, and quickly stabbed it through, leaving the sword there until it ceased struggling.
He gave it a disdainful look and then peered down at his leg in the light of his torch. To his satisfaction, the wounds healed quickly until there wasn't even a mark.
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[To here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1189937.html?thread=81038385#t81038385)]
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"Let's hope there weren't any lasting effects," he said, heading through the open door. They hadn't begun to scratch the surface of what using Landel's rings might do, never might the consequences of any other vague body modifications. Lunge tilted his head, a thought occurring to him suddenly. "I suppose that would be to do with the 'Code 1-8' mentioned around dinner?" That would have made sense- organising a mass experiment on the patient populace, particularly when they'd already opened the floodgates to experimentation on the night that the medical wing opened. Was this, perhaps, even an offshoot of that?
Only stopped hallucinating before dinner... the image of Venom's face, tweaked with something that, uncontrolled, could have been called disgust, flashed into the forefront of his mind. What was it he'd been looking at again? His lunch. L had already said that he hadn't been able to smell anything during his own episodes, but there was nothing to say that the same mercy had been extended to Venom.
Now that he thought about the rest of his day, though, he'd seen the notices on the bulletin board earlier that day that specifically referenced a drug trial last night. They'd also made mention of seeing things- more specifically and more interestingly, though, they'd seen one thing too vague to state outright. A 'device', it had been called.
A drop of blood fell to the floor just in front of his foot from the ceiling above, but the inspector didn't bother to look up; instead, he frowned. "Your hallucinations- are they the same ones that were being discussed on the bulletin board today? The ones which mentioned seeing a 'device'?"
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He continued to pick his way through the corridor, making steady progress towards the door. There were more complete corpses here than there had been at the other end... the blackened remains of something large and insectoid, what looked like a large cat with a crushed skull, and then more thorough destruction, as if the creatures in question had almost been liquified. The toe of his boot kicked something small and hard, which shot away and hit the wall.
"Seeing it... hm. No, it wasn't anything as concrete as that. It's hard to explain, but it was a feeling--a certainty that such a device exists somewhere in the Institute. It's small, but powerful, and I became aware of its existence without anything to prompt or justify the knowledge."
He opened the heavy door, allowing a rush of fresh, chilly air into the corridor--an icy, earthy scent that was an immediate relief in comparison to the foulness they'd just passed through. It had rained for much of the day, and looked like it would rain again; that meant that the grass would be slick, and that the ground was likely to be muddy. They would have to watch their footing. As to the pink glow, it was still everywhere, lighting the sky down to the tops of the walls that limned the field, and lighting the walls themselves.
He took deep breaths as he scanned the field for immediate danger, and hefted the brush axe in his hand, making sure his grip was good. When he was sure that the area seemed clear, and sure that Lunge would be right behind him, he stepped through the door.
[To here.]
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Allelujah took a long look down the hallway before stepping out, but saw nothing immediately amiss. Even if there was, he was certain that he would be able to handle it. He hoped.
"Yes," he replied to Badou. "That's exactly what I mean.l I shouldn't have been able to do that here and... maybe that's why I feel so much stronger again."
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"That's actually pretty sweet. I wonder if you're the only one." Maybe that was why the institute had started flipping out. And if so... maybe that was why he only saw monster corpses in the halls. No dead patients to be dragged off and eaten or anything, just a lot of fodder for some really powerful, really pissed off people.
[to here]
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Seishin carefully opened the door leading out of the patient block, sweeping the beam of his flashlight around the corridor. He found little else -- little else that wasn't dead, at least. The small beam revealed corpses. A lot of corpses, all of them belonging to monsters from what he could tell. The corridor was littered with chaos and death, what could only be the result of a massacre.
Stunned for a moment, the former priest soon came back to his senses and began moving out of the doorway. He held back a wave of nausea at the amount of gore before him, trying not to wince when he stepped on something that he didn't even wish to identify.
"...are there always so many monsters around here?" Seishin asked uncertainly, his voice barely above a whisper. He hadn't seen any of these creatures on his first night, which was in stark contrast to what he was seeing now. Did it have something to do with this Code Red, perhaps? Without knowing the norm, there was no way he could tell.
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"I've been here for some time, and I've never seen so much out in one night," the Scarecrow said, continuing down the hall, seemingly unfazed by the gore around him. "And I don't think I've ever seen them so close to the patient rooms before. This is very unusual, but then again, so was the announcement and whatever magic this is covering the walls."
He paused and turned, nearly stepping in something rather unpleasant and indescribable. "Oh, pardon me for being so rude!" he said, as though the circumstances didn't merit it. "You can call me Frank Westerning."
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"I'm Muroi Seishin," he answered softly, "A pleasure to meet you, Westerning-san, though I would have hoped the circumstances had been better." He would have offered a polite smile under such better circumstances, but there was something weird - if not slightly disturbing - to concern yourselves with introductions whilst standing among a pile of corpses. A polite smile simply wasn't very appropriate.
Though, the fact that normally the monsters didn't venture so close to the patient block was worrying. Furthermore, Westerning-san implied that there were many more roaming the hallways than usual. For now, it seemed best to assume they were related to the announcement and this Code Red.
"We'd best be careful," he said, though the statement was clearly an obvious one.
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"If things are this bad so far, I can't imagine what the main hall must look like. We'd better be on our guard, in case there are witches lurking about."
[To here.]
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"Which way do you intend to go?" Sasuke asked as they moved past the body of the cat. "Up, or out?"
Not down, because they'd been there already and knew the so-called prize: and Sai was alive, but the tedium of working through down was something that called for more patience than the live thrum of chakra in his body provided.
There was less of a stench of scent of blood and rot in this hallway -- but it grew stronger the further out of the patient areas they walked. Sasuke was willing to bet that the main halls were a carnage, if this was the patient blocks, and -- after blood across his bare feet, a night when everything stank of iron, another night when everything reeked of rot -- could only look forward to it.
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He wanted to inflict pain. He wanted to make this place bleed.
Which was why he followed after Sasuke, leaving the cat’s gore to leak out over the once pure ice. There were more appropriate targets to exact his vengeance on--the Institute’s beasts were distractions, fodder meant to detract from the true goal of finding the cowards behind their imprisonment. Losing his head now would just be cruel twist of irony after holding himself together for so long.
“One day you’re going to have to tell me about your abilities,” he mused, crossing the slick ground with equal if not similar grace. Sasuke knew enough about Aidou that Aidou felt no need to conceal his nature, but Sasuke was still somewhat of an enigma. Their true potential had only been glimpsed in snatches until now, temporary moments in time that always ended up with them back under the Institute’s suppression, but this was different.
This was a sudden and unexpected push into the middle of a massacre. The rules might just have changed without them knowing.
For the vampire, the smells in the air only grew more potent once they reached the corridor, where the scents met and entangled themselves with those within the building and those from outside. Ahhh, it was almost as if the walls were alive with blood again! Making sense of it all took a moment, in part because there was a hunger in him that resisted being set aside in favor of calm thought.
“Outside, I think, for now. To take a peek at what’s going on out there. I can smell… well, I can smell quite a bit, but it’s hard to tell what might belong to staff and not just other prisoners.”
Needless to say, it was the staff and their best kept secrets he was hunting for: the faces and places he hadn’t been able to reach as a weakened prisoner caught in a cage.
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"With any luck, you will see them tonight." And indeed, luck seemed to be with them. While Aidou could sense the extent of the rotted, bloody ruin around them with concrete, Sasuke was resonating with it on a level more primal, something almost instinctual: the recognition of a fight, the tension of blows struck and blood spilled were a frequency that he had lived since childhood.
The first hint of normalcy here, suffused with the ease of controlling his own body. The only shortfall of the night, his vision, had already been more or less fixed with Aidou's appearance. Any sight would have done; Aidou's had proved itself before.
It made the decision to go outside instead of limiting themselves inside the warded Institute more logical, and Sasuke nodded to acknowledge it. Without further discussion, he pushed through into chill outdoors.
[[to here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1191699.html?thread=81881363#t81881363)]]
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Avoiding more of the darkened piles of bloody entrails, Facilier nearly slipped off his feet over a puddle of fresh blood. He swiftly recovered himself with his cane, but the damage to his only good pair of shoes had been done. Growling, Facilier was forced to slow down his pace and keep close to the wall as possible without staining the rest of his attire. Whoever caused this mess was far too uncouth for their own good! The wretched stench wasn't getting any better either...
Up ahead, a sharp single claw upon the floor caught Facilier's eye, its size was so formidable that he had to pick it up for further inspection. As the sounds of battle continued on in the background, Facilier stared at the claw. What could this belong to? Was this from one of those "monsters" that the other prisoners kept talking about?
In the midst of pocketing the frightening nail, Facilier was suddenly startled by loud squeals behind him. The Shadow Man gave out a hollow gasp and turned on the spot to face the source of the sounds. Before him approached dozens of small, armless creatures who could only be the true owners of the claw Facilier had just found. With huge bulging eyes, enormous toothy mouths that dominated most of their petite bodies, and powerful legs which ended with more of the lethal claws, these were surely one of the monsters everyone had been talking about!
Wheezing with terror, Facilier stepped back away from the hungry mouths that gaped and drooled towards him. "Jumping Jehosaphat! What ARE those things?!" he cried out as he nearly lost his footing again. The creatures seemed amused by Facilier's near fall, as they gave out a chorus of shrieks, their toothy mouths nearly curling into bloodthirsty smiles at their prey. This skinny human would surely make a fine meal for them!
Facilier turned to run, but the little creatures had a head start. One of them made an astonishing leap for Facilier's ankle, but was struck back by a swift kick from the doctor's sapient Shadow. The rest of the monsters seemed stirred on by this, and they all gave chase with their terrible claws clicking erratically on the floor.
"No! NO! NOOO!!" Facilier nearly stumbled forward in his fit of panic as he felt both of his coat tails get viciously torn off by another lunging mouth. He couldn't get away fast enough! There were just too many of them, and their speedy little feet seemed undeterred by the slimy mess that covered every inch of the hall. Meanwhile, Facilier's Shadow was doing its best to knock away the jumping critters, but their sheer numbers and tenacity were too much to handle! They already got a piece of his coat -- one more slip from him and the creatures were going to be ripping him to shreds next!
Sweating and whimpering under his shallow breaths, Facilier spotted the exit to the field outside up ahead, but his desperate sprint failed once more and he tumbled over face first. The creatures gave out cries of victory as their claws and teeth rapidly approached Facilier's legs. This was it! He was doomed...!
But Facilier still had a fighting chance. The infamous Shadow Man didn't get his title from letting others tread over him! He still had his magic!
"That's IT! I ain't gonna be ANYONE'S dinner tonight! Y'all regret messing with ME!" Facilier roared at the approaching predators. Snarling, Facilier reached for his packet of Transmogrification powder and blew the green dust at his attackers. He could only hope this spell would work...
One second the armless creatures were pouncing in for the kill, yet as soon as they passed through the magical cloud they emerged as tiny, harmless tadpoles. The horrible screeching was instantly silenced, replaced by the soft sounds of a dozen tadpoles wiggling helplessly on the soaked floor.
"THAT'S what y'all GET!" Facilier snarled as he got back to his feet. "And I'd say this new change SUITS you!" Before making his escape, he stomped on the squirming tadpoles, his shoes too far gone for him to care of their cleanliness.