damned_institute | Night 59: Courtyard

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Night 59: Courtyard

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The cold breeze and fresh air of the outdoors really was a welcome feeling as Chipp barreled outside, only stopping once he was made some distance between them and the door. Just in case something followed, if those stupid monsters were smart enough to push it open. For now, nothing followed them out, and Chipp deemed it safe to stop.

Of course, as per Venom's wishes, he let go of the other man before doing so. He immediately turned around, back to looking at the door. Just in case. Still, it looked like nothing came out to follow them and he let out a frustrated sigh. It seemed like this damn place was just frustrating to go through no matter what the circumstances were.

It was still best to keep going rather then linger around. At the very least, maybe they were clear of any annoying vermin. Chipp turned back around to see what was next. Venom ... did know where he was going next, right? Something about looking for Landel... wait, wait a minute.

"Wait, how do you know he's out here an-"

Before Chipp could say anything else, he was promptly divebombed by something big, feathery and nasty.

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Daemon inclined his head and stepped away, clearing a path to the wall that ringed the Courtyard. "We'll part ways here, then," he spoke politely, giving a slight bow, the barest hint of Protocol. He wasn't giving Harrington and the female his trust just yet, but they had provided an important advantage tonight and would continue to work from the outside. As much as he wanted out himself, the game was far from over and he could play better from within just now, as frustrating as that was.

Daemon was patient, and more had occurred in his past few days here than he'd witnessed in his first three weeks combined. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a drawn-out game after all.

He spared them both a glance, his expression serious. "Good luck, wherever you're headed to. Those of us trapped in here will need all the help we can get, especially after tonight. If they do manage to undo this mess, I can't imagine they're going to be very happy about anything accomplished tonight. Still, don't forget you have allies within the walls if you need them."

Motion out of the corner of his eye had his head lifting, golden gaze narrowing on the too-dark sky above them. "I think our feathered friends are looking for more prey in the meantime, however," he mused, a hint of amusement in his tone. "You'd better go unless you feel like playing a while longer."

His fingers absently brushed against the Black Jeweled pendant that hung from around his neck, testing the strength of his reservoir with satisfaction. If only all nights could be this simple. he strengthened his shield once more before flashing Renji a cool, dangerous smile. "At least we can make a dent in the fodder for one night."

Renji glanced to the top of the wall. "You sure you don't want a hand up that?" he asked dryly. The question was now directed more at Claude than Lydia, since he seemed to be more reasonable about the whole accepting help from a demigod thing.

His eyebrows went up when Daemon let it go that easy. "Now wait a damn minute," he said. "I've got a duty here..." While the monsters weren't Hollows exactly, he still felt like he ought to be protecting the squishy mortals so they could go about their business. Really, being in a position where he actually could effectively do that again had him feeling pretty damn optimistic about life, all things considered.

Except movement in the sky drew his attention as well. He snorted, drawing Zabimaru in one smooth motion. "Well look at that. Enjoy your climb, you two."

It seemed that one of them was reluctant to let them go, but the other was more reasonable. Lydia was thankful for that, because she didn't need either of them being too insistent on coming along. That could have turned ugly rather quickly.

"We'll do what we can. You have my word on that." Lydia knew that her fight wouldn't end here. Part of her wished that she could just run as far away from this institute as possible, especially since she had paid her dues in so many ways, and yet she knew it wasn't that simple. She was more aware of what went on here than most, and that made it even more difficult to turn away from it.

"Good luck." And there was no more time to waste, seeing how the monsters had found them. She couldn't tell if they were aquilas or tempests, but considering that most of them seemed to be without their virginity, she was guessing the latter. Lightning-based birds were the last thing she needed right now.

"All right, Prescott." She nodded to him and then started to run across the courtyard, keeping her distance from the pond. The last thing she needed was to get shoved into the water by a monster.

As fun as taking another man's hand sounded, the group had far more pressing matters than bickering over the nuances of assisting. Their gracious help took to defense, leaving Lydia and Claude to their final obstacle. "Godspeed," the latter called, managing one lazy salute to the brave pair. It was likely unneeded given the circumstances, but luck often served best in the place of gratitude.

His thanks given, the man turned to Lydia with a wide grin. "On it, my lady." He followed the woman closely, eyes on alert for signs of danger. One could never predict the presence of a stray creature. Better to be prepared for an interruption than assume the best, after all.

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Godspeed wasn't a term Daemon was familiar with, and he would have paused to puzzle over it for a moment if the sound of wings weren't growing closer. He squinted up into the darkness, trying to make out the shapes in the black expanse above them. Something silver glinted faintly and Daemon gave the subtlest shifts, readying himself for an attack.

"I think these are different," he murmured to Renji with a frown, his fingers absently stroking over the smooth surface of his Jewel as he started a controlled dive into the Black, gathering power just in case. The monsters inside had been simple, but more dangerous things were rumored to exist out here. Would they be more of a challenge?

He caught sight of a shape as something swept high above them, and his expression turned more puzzled. There were wide, silvery wings, but... "Are those even birds?" he muttered in frustration.

It was hard to see the things, and Renji wasn't about to start flailing wildly in the air with Zabimaru just yet. He concentrated on just getting a look at them, frowning. "Think these might've been mentioned on the bulletin board. But all I've really got is that if you can cut one of the wing tendons, they're stuck on the ground." He laughed. "But that's true of any flying thing, so who knows."

One of the creatures dipped low enough for Renji to take a shot at it. He whipped Zabimaru around, the sword flowing from katana to the much larger whip. "Howl!"

His aim was impeccable, as always. Links of the sword wrapped around the creature, but there was something, a flash of blue that crackled down the blade. Renji's muscles locked for a second, his teeth grinding together. He could still control Zabimaru, though, with reiatsu and instinct. The creature disappeared in a rain of bloody flesh and bone, and its death stopped whatever attack it had done to him.

He snapped Zabimaru back, the segments of the sword coming back together even as he dropped to one knee.

Whatever the flying creatures were, they hadn't swooped low enough for Daemon to do anything about them, but Renji's sword had better reach than his. Too much better apparently, as the redhead attacked, slaughtering something overhead. Whatever it was had a backlash, however, because Renji went to one knee even as blood and body parts rained down around them.

"Renji?" Daemon exclaimed, crouching beside him, his expression concerned. Perhaps the monsters out here were more of a challenge than he'd anticipated. "What happened? Are you injured?"

One hand rested on the Shinigami's shoulder as he probed the dark sky above them. There were dozens of bodies up there. Possibly hundreds, it was impossible to tell. The sky was literally crawling with things, one indistinguishable from the next, although some were far too distant to pay them much attention. The massive amounts of fodder let loose this night was making it difficult to pinpoint anything not distinctly human in form.

Renji's breath hissed from between his teeth. His muscles burned, but that was the worst of it. He blinked his eyes a few times to clear them, shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't get your panties in a wad."

He pushed himself up to his feet, eying the sky speculatively. "I don't know what that was. Kind of like lightning, I guess. Captive lightning." He wasn't much for science, so he didn't really know more than that, other than that lightning liked metal things, and traveling down them to get to the ground. "Well, this is going to suck."

But they didn't really have that many options, not if they were going to cover the escape of those two humans like they said. Another creature dropped low, and he whipped Zabimaru at it, the sword lengthening impossibly to reach the creature.

He was ready for the tooth-grinding pain this time, but that didn't make it any more pleasant. An instant later the creature was cut in half, and Renji was down on one knee again, trying to remember how to breathe.

"Renji, enough!" Daemon chided in mingled exasperation and concern as the redhead went back to one knee. He laid his hand on the Shinigami's shoulder, his dark eyes worried as he put himself in front of the other male. "Enough. metal and lightning do not mix, even I know that. You're just channeling that force straight into you. Don't waste your strength on these."

His gaze lifted to the dark sky once more. They'd drawn attention, but it was here, at the outer ring of the Courtyard, and Harrington and his female were already vanished over the wall. They'd done what they needed to, so now they only had to move on.

"Renji, get back to the Institute, along the wall. Stay out of sight if you can. We'll head to the roof, but I need to keep these busy long enough for us to get there. I'll be right behind you."

Renji snorted, though his voice sounded a little hoarse as he said, "It's only pain." He scrabbled mentally for some other solution, since it was true that lightning and metal didn't mix. Too bad he sucked at kidou, he thought.

He rubbed his forehead, frowning as he tried to think of a different solution that didn't involve his sword or kidou. Nothing was forthcoming, since there weren't any rocks to throw either. "You have got to be kidding yourself if you think I'm gonna let us get separated," he growled. "What, are you going to do some kind of secret underwear magic that I'm not allowed to see? Just get your shit going and I'll run us up to the roof."

Daemon gave him a lazy look though half-lidded eyes. "Decoys work better when the real things aren't standing next to them. I can sight-shield myself, but I can't hide both of us. Get out of sight, I promise I'll be right behind you," he explained patiently, keeping half his attention on the sky in case more of the strange creatures descended.

Renji snorted. "Decoy. Right. Well, if you need anything, scream. Really loudly. And I'll try to not drag my feet coming back." He smirked at Daemon and sheathed Zabimaru, then sauntered back toward the building. The situation wasn't so desperate that he'd waste the energy on shunpo for it.

A roll of golden eyes and Daemon snorted, waiting until Renji had started back for the building before he glanced upwards once more, gathering Black-fueled Craft to make a pair of shadows. They'd never fool another human, but he was hoping the creatures circling above weren't that intelligent. Shaping the shadows to mimic Renji and himself, he imbedded a hint of Craft in them to draw attention to themselves as they fled over the wall in the other direction that Harrington and his companion had escaped. With luck, the lightning birds would fall for the lure and be occupied for a while.

Cloaking himself in a sight-shield, he sent the shadows fleeing and smiled faintly when he caught sight of a jagged bolt of lightning a moment later beyond the wall. Satisfied, he air-walked on silent feet to where he found Renji once more.

He didn't drop the sight-shield until he stood just before him, shivering into view once more as he gave the Shinigami a lazy smile. "That's taken care of for the moment. You don't have any brilliant plans for getting up on the roof, by any chance, do you?"

Renji looked at Daemon before the sight shield went away. The man breathed reiatsu like a Captain, so it wasn't exactly hard to feel him approaching. "Oh sure," he said, grinning. "We're going to run up the wall." He glanced back toward the way the lightning things had gone; they seemed to be safely out of the way for now, so he wouldn't need to worry about them on the run up.

Daemon blinked at the ease of this explanation, not quite grasping how that was possible. Run up the...? "Pardon me?" he asked, his expression bewildered. That particular expression on Renji's face had him more than a little concerned.

Renji's grin became something distinctly more smirk-like. "Gravity is for losers. So we're gonna run up the wall. Or I guess I'm gonna do the hard part, and you'll just be along for the ride." He moved a little further down the wall, to the corner, since that was easier than trying to run up somewhere flat. And Daemon had seen him sort of pull this trick in the stairwell.

Renji ground the ball of one foot idly on the grass as he looked up toward the roof. "And of course, the other part is where you let me carry you like a good boy, 'cause if you squirm I'll drop you."

Daemon eyed the redhead as if he'd suddenly sprouted a second very-thick head, his expression dubious at best. "You intend to carry me?" he echoed, sure he hadn't heard correctly. "In what realm did you mistake me for a good boy and why would you ever think this was a good idea?" he drawled skeptically.

Renji smirked at Daemon and drawled, "Well, if you want to run on your own you're welcome. But I bet it won't work too well. You can't be that heavy unless you store lead in your ass." They were about the same size, actually, but Renji was also a hell of a lot stronger than people tended to think - it came with the whole territory of being immortal and something approaching god-like. Sure, he wouldn't want to carry Daemon all day, but three seconds while they ran up a wall would be fine. "Oh, I wouldn't accuse you of being good. But you can fake it for a couple of seconds so I don't give you up to the tender mercies of gravity. Since you'd be less pretty if Mr. Face had a meeting with Mr. Ground."

This still sounded like a less than stellar idea to Daemon, but as he eyed the expanse of wall and the distance from the roof, he had to admit that attempting to air-walk it would be a waste of Craft that might be needed later. Resigning himself did not mean he did not still smirk at Renji for that last bit.

"I'm flattered to know you think I'm pretty," he drawled, amusement warm in his tone as he cast the Shinigami a wry look. "Although I'm beginning to suspect your motives now. If you wanted to sweep me off my feet, I assure you there are much easier ways to do it."

All teasing aside, however... Daemon sighed and propped his hands on his hips as he surveyed the wall once more. "Alright, you have a point. Let's get this done with. Hopefully we don't encounter any more of those lightning creatures on the way up. That would be problematic."

Renji grinned. "Can't flirt. Preparing for take off." Renji peered up the wall, finding the little shadows on it that might indicate a rough spot where he'd get a better grip.

"And we'll be up there so fast we don't have to worry about any nasties 'til we get there."

Rather than give Daemon more time to try to do... whatever it was Daemon always did... Renji stepped over to him, wrapping one arm around the man's back and scooping him up into a fireman's carry.

Daemon was definitely heavier than the lady Renji had just brought back down to the ground. But thankfully, it was a short trip.

Renji launched himself at the corner, foot catching the wall a couple of feet up. In full shunpo he launched them higher, bounding back and forth on the walls that met in that corner. In a flash they were up over the railing to the second floor patio and he ran across it to the next corner, using that to launch them up to the roof.

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Night 59: Courtyard

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