Night 59: Main Hallway, 1-West

[doneinthree]

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/experimentation assembly line) had broken down at least once already, on that night when I.R.I.S. had first(?) appeared, and the whole of the building flickered like a malfunctioning hologram. Was that what the glowing cover was for? To prevent... he didn't know. Something. Something bad enough to warrant a Code Red.

(What had killed that creature?)

Waiting around here was already bad enough on normal nights, what with it being an open space with high traffic, but he'd picked it because it was the quickest and most obvious meeting place for all of them. Now with the whole area lit up like the inside of a strip club, Kirk was starting to feel like a lone piece of meat wrapped in a gold ribbon and tossed out for the wolves. He made a face for a second as he considered the unfortunate implication of mixing those similes, then decided that the dumb thoughts which crossed his mind ranked considerably lower in priority than, you know, paying attention to his surroundings and not getting himself killed.

Kirk swung the lead pipe in his hand once, just to focus, and shook his head as pain rippled out from the still-healing gunshot wound on his right arm. Take it easy, Jim, he admonished himself silently. It was still early in the night. Someone would be along shortly. And if not... he was giving his crew one minute. One minute, and then screw it, he was tracking down everyone himself.

[KIRK TO ENTERPRISE]

Comments

[gald_digger]

Anise was in a hurry to get to the next hall so she could meet her friends, but she managed to stop Tokunaga just as two men stepped into her path. When they didn't move out of the way right away, she crawled forward over the top of the doll's head, peering down.

As soon as she saw them, her face lit up with a big smile. "Oh, hey! I thought we were meeting by your block. You didn't come this way because you were worried about little old me, were you?" The tone of her voice suggested she sincerely hoped they did. It sounded like they ran into Luke just earlier, but... once they saw the monsters swarming the halls, surely their first thought was 'What if poor little (cute) Anise is in danger?'

They both had questions for her, so Anise decided to make things easier by making Tokunaga hunch down so she could better face the men from her perch. Claude seemed curious about Tokunaga, which made her grin with pride. "I always had Tokunaga!" she reminded him, though maybe the doll did look a little different. "Maybe not like this, though. Are you surprised? Did you ever think someone so little could have so many talents?" She giggled, clearly enjoying herself.

To Guy's question: "It's a little cramped, yeah," she admitted, though her smile didn't fade. She had to be careful not to run over the other patients, or to bump her head on the ceiling, but that was a small price to pay. "But I'm not complaining! I'm just happy to have Tokunaga back to normal."

[nobleman]

Just as Guy had expected, Claude was pretty shocked by Tokunaga. It wasn't the sort of thing that you saw every day, that was for sure. Guy had tried to get details about how the doll worked from Anise in the past, but it seemed that she didn't know all of the technical parts of it. To learn that he would have to ask Dist, which was something Guy generally tried to avoid doing.

Not that any of that mattered at the moment. Right now Guy was pretty sure that they were all just enjoying the return of their powers. He hadn't had the chance to use any of his yet, but judging by the amount of dead monsters around he was pretty sure that would be changing soon.

"I bet," he replied to Anise with a grin. "And yeah, we weren't sure you'd be able to make it all the way over with everything that's going on tonight." This hallway was even worse than the one that they'd come from, after all.

Guy wanted to tell Anise about their weird run-in with the man that they'd fought on the recreational field, but that would have to wait until they'd put their plans in order. "So are we still going to try and head down into the basement? I mean, those challenges should be a lot easier now that we have our powers back." He glanced from Anise to Claude, curious to see what the two thought. He wasn't against changing their goal for the night if they thought there was a better way to make use of what had happened, so he waited to hear what they both had to say.

[full-score.livejournal.com]

Upon hearing Anise's response, Claude blinked in surprise. She'd always had that thing? Although, come to think of it, hadn't she carried some kind of doll on her back before? Did she have the power to make things grow larger, or did the doll normally have that kind of built-in function? Either way, now wasn't the time to get into all that, but he couldn't help but admire it just the same.

"W-well, I mean, I always knew you were talented," Claude said with a sheepish smile. "I've just never seen anything quite like this before, that's all. It's really cool!"

Despite the inconveniences something so large could cause, though, Anise looked like she had everything under control. With the three of them at full power, Claude imagined they could take whatever the institute threw their way.

Guy made a good point about deciding what to do tonight, though. Rubbing his chin in thought, Claude glanced over at his friend. "I don't know if it'll be that easy," he remarked. "It sounds like they're trying to slow us down as much as possible. But you might be right. Tonight could be a great chance to make a lot of progress down there."

He looked further down the hallway, frowning to himself. "I wonder how far this force field extends, though. Do you think they tried to box us in?"

[gald_digger]

Anise was visibly pleased with the men's responses, basking in both Guy's concern and Claude's admiration.

But sadly, they couldn't spend all night chatting and enjoying themselves, and it looked like it was time to start talking business. Anise looked around with a thoughtful expression as Guy brought up the question of what to do next. Her gaze snapped back to attention when Claude mentioned a force field, though.

"Force field?" There was a pause as she realized what he could be referring to. "You mean that pink stuff?" Anise had wondered what it was, but she'd been too distracted with Tokunaga and the monsters to give it any thought beyond that. So the military tried to trap them in a space filled with tons of monsters? It really did look like they were just trying to kill off as many patients as they could.

It was true that in their current state, they'd be pretty well-equipped to give more of those trials a go. And...

"Oh, right!" To bring herself back down to ground level, Anise made Tokunaga shrink back down to its normal size. The doll almost seemed to deflate as it sank downward, and once it was too small to carry Anise, the girl hopped off of the doll and picked it up, placing it on her back. Her weapon, which had been tucked against Tokunaga's neck earlier, was left on the floor for now. "I brought those bracelets we got yesterday," she continued, fishing around in her coat pocket until she found the velvet bag. "I still don't get how they're supposed to work, but maybe they'll come in handy." Somehow.

[nobleman]

So it seemed that they had settled on it being some sort of force field after all. Guy knew that that was a large assumption, but it also seemed like a fair one. What else would it be? There had to be a reason that it had appeared right as the sirens had started, after all.

It was tempting to head outside and see how far it went -- and more than that, if they could break through it somehow. Guy was guessing that wouldn't be easy, though, since he imagined the force field was the institute's last line of defense. It wasn't going to be weakened that easily.

Unfortunately, it looked like Tokunaga's shining moment couldn't last forever. Guy watched as Anise sized him down, not at all surprised by the sight. He'd seen her do it countless times at the ends of fights, after all. "Right, the bracelets. I guess the best way to try and test them is to put them on, right?"

It wasn't like he was that eager to put someone else's bones around his wrist like it was a fashion accessory, but that gatekeeper had given these to them and they had to have some purpose. Guy just hoped that it wasn't another nasty trick.

[full-score.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I mean...they have things like that where I come from," Claude explained when he realized Anise didn't quite follow what he meant. "They probably want protect the building from people who want to tear it down, and a force field would be the best way to do it."

As Anise's doll shrank to its regular size, Claude watched in fascination. The way it could seamlessly grow and shrink was certainly something! Whoever came up with the idea to use an item like that in combat must have been very creative.

But they needed to decide what to do about the basement, didn't they? His eyes settled on the velvet bag once Anise retrieved it. "Too bad that skeleton didn't explain what they were for," Claude remarked. While he had no issues with trying it out if necessary, he had to admit he would have felt better about it if they at least had some idea of what to expect. "I guess that would have been--"

Suddenly, a sudden movement caught his eye from behind Anise, illuminated by his hard hat. As if acting on instinct, Claude darted to the side and channeled a familiar surge of power through his veins. Within a blink of an eye, he raised his free hand and shot a blast of energy at the creature closing in on them, casting a burst of light against the pink-lit walls at the same time.

The monster -- a rabid cat, Claude soon realized -- let out a hideous shriek and collapsed against the floor, its matted fur burned. "Be careful," he said, casting a glance over his shoulder at his friends. "Looks like we're not alone."

[gald_digger]

Something might happen if they put them on...? The bracelets still looked like plain bone to Anise, but she supposed anything was possible. Landel's Institute wasn't always about logic, after all.

She was about to retrieve the bracelets from the bag, when a sudden movement from Claude made her pause. When she looked up, Anise saw some kind of light shoot out from Claude's hand. Whipping her head around to try and follow what was happening, she finally spotted his target: a now-dead cat monster.

Her shoulders fell a little in relief at seeing that the danger had been taken care of before she even realized it was there, and Anise turned back to Claude with an easy smile. "Hee hee. I guess I wasn't the only one with a secret talent." Whatever he did with his palm just then was pretty neat. Was it some kind of arte? It kind of reminded her of some of Luke's techniques.

Anyway, there was no telling when more monsters would show up, so it was probably best to hand out those bracelets while they had a moment to do so. "Here!" Anise first handed one to Claude, then brought another over to Guy, making sure to hold on to it by the far edge so he wouldn't have to worry about brushing her hand as he took it. What could she say? She felt like being nice today.

"So... who wants to try first?" Anise asked, looking over her own bracelet as if she might learn something from staring at it. She just hoped it'd be something helpful, and that the skeleton wasn't just messing with them.

[nobleman]

Really, it had only been a matter of time before something attacked them. That didn't make the sudden approach of the monster any easier to anticipate, though, and in the end Claude beat Guy to the punch with taking the cat down. He made quite the show of it, too, but there was no reason for him to hold back when he had all of his old abilities back.

Was that heraldry he'd just used or something else? Claude had mentioned before that he wasn't very good at heraldry, so maybe he had pulled from some sort of other power to perform that attack. "Nice job," Guy said to his friend, setting a hand on his shoulder.

That attack just made it more clear that they needed to waste no time on getting out of this area. It was clearly being frequented by a lot of monsters tonight, seeing how that cat had just added to an already large number of bodies. Anise went about distributing the bracelets after that, and Guy was very careful to take it from her without initiating any physical contact.

Even getting that close caused his heart to race a little faster, though Guy realized that might also be due to the fact that they were about to take a pretty large risk.

"Well, I guess we should try and put them all on at the same time, right?" That seemed like the best way to do it, sort of how he and Claude had jumped off of that cliff together the last time they'd gone into the basement.

[full-score.livejournal.com]

Secret talent? Well, Claude didn't think it was as impressive as Anise's ability to turn that doll into a giant, but his face glowed a little from his friends' praise regardless. "It wasn't a problem," he said with a lopsided grin and a scratch of his cheek. He was just glad no one had gotten hurt.

It was still a reminder that they couldn't afford to waste anymore time, though. He took his bracelet from Anise with a grateful nod, but refrained from putting it on until they'd agreed on how to handle this. Guy's suggestion actually sounded pretty good, since it meant that, whatever happened, they'd all be in it together.

"Yeah, you may be right," he agreed, growing more serious now. "How about on the count of three?"

[gald_digger]

It seemed kind of risky for all of them to try at once, but Anise had to admit it was a little comforting to know that if anything bad happened, none of them would be stuck dealing with it alone. It looked like these kinds of leaps of faith were becoming a routine, though. It was pretty scary, never knowing what was ahead of them.

"Okay, let's do it!" she chimed in, trying to sound confident, even if she was mostly nervous. Worrying was just going to make it harder, though, so it was best to just put on a brave face and charge onward! She picked up her meat tenderizer, tucked it under her arm, and decided she was as ready as she'd ever be. "I'll count! Okay?" She only gave a second for anyone to object, then started.

"One, two..."

They were going to feel really silly if nothing happened, she realized belatedly.

"Three!"

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