damned_institute | Night 59: Cafeteria

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Night 59: Cafeteria

[ from here ]

The cafeteria was no different then the Sun Room, with the feeling of predators already lurking in the shadows to get the jump on unsuspecting victims. It only took a moment for Chipp to locate a door as he veered to the right on instinct. It was a good choice, because he swore he heard the crunch of bone as something made impact on the wall they were just a second ago. If Chipp were alone, he might have wanted to turn (and possibly laugh), but with Venom in tow, he was quick to just head right for the door.

It wasn't that Chipp had no faith that he and Venom wouldn't be able to take on a few (or a hundred) monsters, but they had bigger fish to fry. Much bigger fish.

"Damnit!" Yet another creature attempted to strike at them, Chipp veering to the left and making a wide turn until he crashed through the door. What was that, a ... a thing? He thought he saw hands, human hands and a mouth, but it too only made a crunch against the floor when it missed.

Screw this shit! Chipp didn't even hesitate when approaching the door, literally crashing into it with his shoulder to throw it open as they escaped into the Courtyard.

[ to here ]

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> Be the mutant cat

You cannot be the mutant cat. Besides, the mutant cat was, in Rose's estimation, divesting itself of one (1) pillowcase with claws that made the process trivial. (In fact, it was momentarily distracted by a need to groom a few ruffled underbelly patches and a round of incredibly dignified self-hindsniffing, but would be on its way shortly.)

Either way, Rose had found something she would rather not stab without an attempt at conversation. She didn't want to disappoint Lily. Obviously.

Instead, she rushed past Ilia and Gamzee, through the door, and somersaulted past over the first row of tables, putting as much distance as she could manage between herself and the stunned feline. "The coast is clear for the nonce," she called back to the other two, with her fingers (well, knifewands) crossed that the cat couldn't understand her.

Edited 2011-11-05 04:29 (UTC)

"Whoa!" The surprise carried over to Ilia's side when she saw Gamzee launch the cat across the room with just a swing of his weighted pillowcase. Rose also carried her own against the necrits just fine Ilia was really starting to wonder where these kids came from. Not her Earth, that was sure.

Ilia was impressed by Rose's swiftness and chased after her, clearing the tables with her own mighty bounds. Tonight really was her night, it seemed. Their night, maybe. Ilia didn't know if she could count on this being a permanent power-up but she was thankful for it, nonetheless. Even with the monsters, it almost made traveling through this place easier.

There was only one door at the far end of the cafeteria, located just beyond the serving counter. It would be faster to just bound over that then go around, provided no monsters were lurking behind it and lying in wait for them. Well, only one way to find out. She continued with the kids across the cafeteria, only hoping their luck would hold out and get them there without further incident.

Hell yeah. Gamzee could do this whole jumping over tables thing. It's not like they were allowed to do it during the day, so why pass up an opportunity when the staff weren't around? His new friends sure knew what they were doing when it came to having a good time.

He laughed as he went, almost losing his pillowcase at one point but running back to get it before he did. This was the sort of fun thing he needed to do every night. Then he might actually start to like it here more. (Not that he wasn't dealing with it pretty well as it was.)

> Gamzee: Do something awesome.

[From here. (http://damned.livejournal.com/1193659.html#comments)]

"The nurses'll have it all fixed up in the morning," Carter said, trying to make his new friend feel better. "They always do for me. This one night I got my shoulder all torn open by a bat and the next morning it was half-healed already. They've got some pretty good medical care here."

Well, compared to a Nazi prison camp they did. The stalags had given Carter a healthy dose of perspective on the institute's good points.

The cafeteria seemed empty enough, but that didn't mean it was safe. Carter tried to hold up Hakkai's weight on his first side and tugged him further towards the kitchen.

Hakkai was loathe to admit the real extent of his injuries, but it was easier to walk with someone taking some of his weight. And they needed to get somewhere where there wasn't room for the monsters to sneak up on them again.

His smile had a forced edge to it as he spoke. "Aah, do they? How kind of them." His travelling companions would have recognize the tightness in those words that meant that this place, the monsters, the pain was starting to wear at the edge of his temper, and that he meant nothing of the sort. To a stranger, though - it would all sound surprisingly sincere.

Carter, who had the social cognition of a soggy brick, would probably not have recognized the sarcasm even if he'd known Hakkai for years. He put his arm around Hakkai's waist and crouched to better let him lean on his shoulder. "Much better than my last one. I hope they've got it outside the institute too."

He had no idea, at this point, how the science and technology of the Institute related to the rest of The Future. He'd seen things that seemed like magic even to the Future people around him, which left him fairly confused.

The smile thinned a little as Carter inadvertantly pressed a little to hard on the injury at his side. Gods, they were both going to be a mess after this. Hopefully nothing here tracked by scent - he could smell the blood, even in human form.

"Aah - I don't know. I'm a healer, though unfortunately I can't use it on myself. And I can't say what the world here is like." The number of times that would have been handy...

[from here (http://damned.livejournal.com/1193659.html?thread=81266363#t81266363)]

"Phew!" Niikura slammed the doors to the cafeteria behind the three of them and paused, his back slumped against the cool metal, to catch his breath. "That was...well, close, but we made it, huh?" He smiled up at Mike and Shiina as he straightened up and rolled his shoulders for a bit to loosen them up: chases made him tense if it wasn't just his safety on the line. "Gettin' our exercise here, that's what we're doin'."

"Let's..."He looked around and spotted two other men also in the room with them. His first thought was that they had to be competition--ah, no, that was the wrong way to go about it. Their fellows deserved a crack at sharp, pointy objects too, especially since he and his friends already had gear. So they were allies...

His second thought was that they weren't going to get very far, limping around like that, given how much running was required tonight if you didn't feel like adding to the Red Sea that was rapidly swallowing up the hallways.

"...hey." Niikura coughed to clear his throat and then tried again, cupping his hand around his mouth. "Hey! You guys okay over there?"

Mike was already looking at the men before Niikura had noticed them. He was panting lightly now. If the men hadn't of noticed them just by the noise, then they definitely noticed them by the flashlight that Mike now had; Mike had stowed the other bat in his shirt when Niikura had handed it over.

Niikura was either a mind-reader or they were of the same mind. Leaving two guys hobbling along like that didn't sit right with Mike, either. The least they could do was help. After all, they already had some weapons. There'd be another night to get more.

"Doesn't look like it," Mike commented, turning the flashlight onto the men but pointing the beam down far enough that it didn't catch them directly in the eyes. "Looks like they could use an assist."

Shiina had been quiet for most of the trip over. It took a lot out of her to keep her stomach from reacting to the smell of decay and death that had taken over the institute tonight. Carcasses of dead and dying monsters lay everywhere in the halls and this time no amount of hurrying could shield them from Shiina's eyes.

Her grip on the bat had tightened considerably as Niikura mentioned even more dangerous places he wanted them to frequent in the nights. Well, if he thought he was going in alone (or at least without her) then he was kidding himself. She probably wouldn't be giving him a moments peace any night while they stayed here. An inappropriate joke could probably have helped to alleviate the tension here but Shiina wasn't in the mood.

Shiina was still catching her breath when Shou called out to the other two who were already in the cafeteria. Both of them were older-looking men and one was leaning heavily on the other. His leg injury was quite conspicuous. Gathering her courage, Shiina spoke out in a wavering voice. "W-we'd like to help."

Not the voice of a war-hardened vet but she was at least far from swooning over at the sight of blood. Actually, seeing human blood was at least normal though she feared what might have caused the man his injury.

The door slamming made Carter whirl and nearly drop Hakkai. His heart restarted again when he saw the flashlights. Monsters didn't carry flashlights.

"We're mostly okay, but my friend here got clawed up." Carter waved them over with his bloody crowbar. "Any of you got bandages? I think he can hang on until morning but I don't want him to bleed too much." He wasn't sure how infection got handled around here, but at the camps even a small untreated wound could turn deadly. And he had no idea where those monsters had been digging before they came in here.

Hakkai immediately tensed, hearing motion in the room - but, thankfully, for once, it was not more monsters. He forced on a smile for the newcomers, though it was difficult to make it completely sincere. He'd suffered worse injuries, but the edge of pain was starting to get to him, without the adrenaline of battle to take the edge off.

"It's worse than it looks, really. We should make sure there's nothing else hiding in here first."

"Uh..." Niikura looked between the three of them before stuffing his flashlight underneath his arm and digging through his pants pockets for the remnant of the sleeve that he had torn earlier. Most of it was now on his arm, but at least he'd remembered to save what was left! "We can offer you part of asleeve. I kind of got on the wrong side of somethin' a little earlier, and that's pretty much what I used." With a small jerk, he produced a wad of fabric and shook it out.

"Nagasawa, can ya help me out here by tearin' this up? Hands are full, sorry. Mike-san, if ya could keep an eye out in the mean time..." He smiled at the injured man. "We'll take care of both at the same time; I think there's enough of us hangin' around here."

They were accepting the help. Good. Mike didn't like the idea of leaving fellow 'patients' in dire straits like that. Sure, they'd get bandaged up next morning, but that was only if nothing else went wrong. Being injured like that when the night wasn't through could get them killed. Especially since this night was turning out to be so much more dangerous than usual. It was like the entire place had gone nuts.

"I'll keep an eye out. And feel free to use my stuff, too. Still got one rolled up sleeve," Mike replied, eyes flickering around the place; he didn't like the exposure of his stump, but he figured they could just tie some of the cloth around the end if it came to that.

His comfort wasn't as important as keeping others alive. Never had been. Never would be.

"Name's Michelangelo, by the way," Mike took a moment to nod at the two new faces.

Clawed up. How awful. For it to produce that much blood the thing had to have been at least the size of a bobcat. Or else just have really, really sharp claws. She swallowed a lump in her throat, trying not the think about it.

"Sure!" It wasn't a problem helping out. It actually helped make her feel like she was accomplishing something, even if it was just tearing up fabric into strips. With the seams all ragged, it was pretty easy to tear without too much fumbling. She was just a bit distracted, however. Was the creature that had attacked that other man still running loose around here?

When Mike introduced himself Shiina felt it might be best to follow his example and inclined her head to the two men. "I'm Nagasawa Shiina."

Carter tried to lever Hakkai around in a way that would let them take a good look at the wounds. His face was stiff with concentration as he refused to let Hakkai drop, no matter how sore his arms were getting. He was no good at this medic stuff. Sure, he'd had his share of self-treated injuries but those were mostly burns and little nicks.

"Sergeant Andrew Carter." He gave an awkward bob of his head in return. With Hakkai leaning on him he wasn't able to get an arm free to shake her hand with. More Japanese folks, that should make his friend comfortable. "I don't know what attacked us, but I don't think it was venomous or anything."

Now that they weren't actually walking, it was easier for Hakkai to take his own weight, shifting slightly to his uninjured leg. His injuries really weren't worth all this fussing over, and given something a little less messy than his own shirt, he could probably treat it himself. But being rude to the newcomers wouldn't solve anything, so he forced on a smile.

"Cho Hakkai. If you give me those strips, I can wrap it myself - I'm something of a healer."

Even as he put his hand out for the make-shift bandages, he saw something move in the edge of his vision, up above them. The adrenaline hadn't quite worn off from the last fight, and he was on edge, ready for a fight - he'd spent so many days like this while they were travelling that the mindset was easy to fall back into. He whipped a ball of qi at the thing before any of the others reacted. His aim was off, though, and the blast only seemed to disturb more of the things in one of the far corners of the room. The one he spotted first took a dive at him, and he got a better look at what it was. It was a bat - in the same manner that the creatures he'd encountered earlier could be called rats. Huge, diseased looking, like some twisted version of what they'd been.

Another qi blast at close range clipped one of it it's wings, sending it careening towards a wall, but it was clear the rest were coming. And they all seemed to be coming for him, like the things that clawed him had. He realized that all night, he'd been the only target. Which meant - he was putting the people with him in danger, and the injuries were slowing him down, keeping him from being able to protect them.

He still had one ace up his sleeve, though, as Gojyo would have put it. It was a distasteful prospect, but having seen those teeth, it would probably be best for them to stay as far away from him and his companions as possible. Only a few minutes - he could handle that. He took a deep breath, and reached up to tug the ear cuffs off.

The rush of power and the physical changes that came with it were near-instantaneous. His ears and fingernails lengthened into points, and dark vine tattoos marked his skin. Strangely, the cold rage that accompanied his transformation was absent - but he didn't have time to dwell on that now. A larger blast of qi took out the front of the oncoming pack, and one of the vines snaked down from his feet, and then up the wall to grab the bat that had hit there, wrapping around it to squeeze what life remained out.

Oh duh, his name. “—oh, right. I’m Niikura Shou—‘Niikura’, if ya don’t mind.” He gave a little wave before handing over the strips that they had made so far. “And that’s cool, don’t have too many healin’ types around—” But whatever he was about to say was suddenly cut off as Hakkai whipped around and fired off what totally looked like an energy ball, and Niikura’s brain short-circuited from the fanboy deluge.

Oh wow. He’d just seen a real energy ball. Who got to see that outside of reruns of Dragon Ball Z? This was why being in this place could be kind of cool, sometimes: it was like his dream world if the cards happened to be on his side, and wow, if this guy had powers like that, did that mean he was from an anime too…?

Niikura’s awe was shattered by the screech of whatever it was that Hakkai had just clipped with his freaking awesome energy ball/blast/thing. Snapped back to reality, he swiftly turned around, sword at the ready, only to groan. Bats. Why did it always have to be bats? Well, at least those were easy. “We got this, no swea—”

And then, just like that, they all died. So maybe he didn’t have this.

He looked back at Hakkai with a thin smile on his lips. “Ya know, that kind of takes the fun ou...”

Akumetsu could be totally outrageous, but there were certain boundaries that had to be in place, and those were ones that were dictated by the fabric of reality itself. He could be superhuman, but that didn’t mean that he could look superhuman, for example, because the truth of the thing was that there were no long, pointy ear options for the genes governing one’s ears, nor were there options for vine tattoo-things being able to suddenly bloom across your skin and OH GOD THEY WERE MOVING.

“…oooh man, you’ve got plants growin’ on your face.” That was probably one of the most observant things he’d ever said.

It had been a while since Mike had seen magic--especially magic of such magnitude--and he couldn't help but let his jaw drop a bit open. That was pretty impressive, if he did say so himself. Was this guy from Street Fighter?

Mike might've fanboyed if he had been Niikura's age, but he wasn't anymore. He watched the man more closely, noticing the changes to his body. Vines tattoos that moved, he grew elf ears, and suddenly almost had claws for his nails. That had allhappened when he did something with his head. Mike had only caught the end of the movement.

The tattoos then strangled one of the creatures, and Mike immediately went on edge. Hakkai could possibly take at least one of them out rather quickly, if not all three. Mike doubted he had a reason to do it, but the thought was still there.

Even with the caution, he still reached over to lightly smack Niikura upside the back of his head.

Shiina had thought they were finally getting a break from the madness of the institute but apparently the night was just getting started.

The one called Hakkai moved suddenly and threw(?) something up at the ceiling; a blast of light that spooked Shiina into jumping back. Her heart started pounding and she began to back up, but then she realized that he was actually aiming at something. Looking up, she had to suppress a scream behind a hand when she saw even more terror above them for the second time tonight. Couldn't a pair of teenagers and three beat-up older gentlemen get a break now and then?

Looking back down at Hakkai, Shiina really did scream at seeing the vines burst all over him and up the walls. That just was not normal! It was a natural reaction to scream, but she didn't feel any more courageous for admitting that to herself.

After his remark, Shiina gave Shou an unamused look. He was always making jokes at the worst possible time. She didn't blame Mike for smacking him one bit! In fact, she might have done that herself if he hadn't. But his flippant comments didn't make her want to release his arm any quicker. If anything, she cowered behind him just a little more.

[from here]

Though she tried to keep close to Zero as she pushed open the doors to the cafeteria, Leanne still couldn't quite help the shiver that passed over her when she entered, her unease only increasing.

Focus, Leanne!

If there were monsters in this room too, she couldn't afford to be distracted by anything. Being ready to run at a moment's notice (and drag a certain someone else along with her!) had to be her highest priority at the moment. ...And making sure Zero didn't try to leave her behind again. That was important, too.

"It looks fine, I guess," she whispered to her companion, taking several short steps into the room.

... The way Leanne just blissfully took off for the cafeteria without waiting for him to even say 'okay' was kind of irritating, especially when it was possible she was blundering right into danger. But Zero didn't comment out loud (besides frowning a little more than usual), however, because she at least had enough sense to stay relatively close to him. He was also mostly prepared to head in this direction, anyway, so it really wasn't that big of a deal.

Just mildly annoying.

The once-Reploid also took some cautious steps forward into the new area and then paused, listening and looking intently for movement. If it weren't for the pink glow over everything, this place would be pitch black. As it was, it was just empty and eerie, no sounds from anywhere. To help the pair see better, he pulled his own flashlight out of his pocket and flicked it on, sweeping the beam over the many tables and chairs in the room. Didn't look like there was anything hiding under them...from what he could see, anyway.

"I don't see anything," he whispered back, "but that doesn't mean we're alone here." So they should keep moving before something did decide to show up. Where could they go from here? Zero could barely make out the shape of a door to each side of them, each leading to who knows where, but they could also go forward to see the...kitchen, he was assuming. He started to walk again, slowly, considering their options...and continuing to make sure they actually were alone here.

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Night 59: Cafeteria

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