Nightshift 60: West Wing, South Hall 1-B

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

Taura pondered the announcement she'd just heard as she jogged down another empty hallway. Who was she? Jill? Who he'd tortured himself, though that could have been an act on her part as well? Whose side had she been on? And what could have happened to her that would be permanent?

Death was usually pretty permanent, but even that had its exceptions around here. Taura didn't have to like it to know it was true; what had General Aguilar done that could change that? And why was Doctor Landel so angry?

It was an uneasy thought to stomach; revenge drove people like nothing else did, and being one of the people in between was a hell of a way to go.

[to here]

Comments

[rainboompow]

Rainbow stopped in her tracks again at the red-haired guy's words. Right. Monsters. She really did need to remember that for more than five seconds at a time. Then again, if there were monsters, where were they? She didn't hear anything around them so far. For all she knew, Nutty and his friend were just trying to scare her.

...Dang it if she didn't want to take that chance in this body, though. Rainbow shivered inadvertently.

Instead of heading on, she turned back around, pretending like she was just going to answer Nutty's question. "Last I checked they were little round metal things with teeth that work in machines. And not pegasus ponies," she said to the silver-haired crazypants, raising a very questioning eyebrow at him. "I mean what else would have wings and hooves? Seriously, how do you make that mistake?"

[zanuff]

It was just so damn weird to Chipp that these two had no idea what a Gear was that the idea of the rainbow haired not`Gear girl being a pony was actually easier to swallow. Okay, pony, that was kind of weird, but the wings and hooves thing made it sound like she was supposed to be some kind of demon, and it's not like Chipp hadn't run into characters like that before. She wasn't a Gear, anyway, so it looked like he came here for nothing.

"Shut up, I never heard of a pegasus pony thing. If you're not a Gear, that's all I need to know." Saying the word out loud reminded Chipp, once again, that these two definitely had no idea what a Gear was. Wow, he never thought he would have to explain this. There really were different kinds of things here, wasn't there...

"Uh... Gears are like... these creatures made with Magic. They're really powerful and really dangerous. They're weapons." Chipp tried for that, unable to even articulate really what made a Gear a Gear. He never thought he'd have to. He gave a glance at Luke and the rainbow girl, to see if his explanation made any sense to them.

"So that's why I thought you were a Gear, since you mentioned having wings and other stuff that humans wouldn't have." Since she mentioned it, it sounded more and more like this girl wasn't supposed to look that way. If it was inconvenient for her, why did she look like a human, then? Of course, Chipp was already getting the idea that this form might not have been voluntary on her part... Or she was a spy, trying to act like one to infiltrate this place. That sounded pretty cool too.

[dispersive]

Chipp's vague description of a Gear struck a chord in him that hadn't exactly healed yet. His first thoughts were of Moh's army of hollow children and Ion's cyclical fate. The word Gear seemed a strange name for them, but calling replicas wasn't any better.

The rest of his rambling wasn't so cut and dry. None of it made any sense and he felt like an outsider looking in on a domestic dispute. Luke did his best to keep up, but it was hard since he hadn't exactly heard the first part of this entire mess of an argument.

Maybe he would just keep an eye out for trouble while they argued. Yeah, that worked! He was good at that.

[rainboompow]

Never heard of a pegasus pony? What?

That was a first. All the humans she had talked to today at least had some idea of what she was. The only explanation Rainbow could think of was that this "Japan" place of Nutty's existed so far away from Equestria that no Equestrians had ever visited it, and likewise no Japanese or Gears had ever been to Equestria. Maybe wherever they were now was somewhere in between? Sure would explain a few things... Rainbow thought, tilting her head at Nutty and squinting.

She still didn't really get the whole "Gear" thing, though. So when Red (as Rainbow was starting to call the other guy in her head) didn't seem to have anything to say, Rainbow plowed right into another question: "Wait, you mean 'made' like... Made made? Like created? How does that happen? No one would have enough magic to make creatures like that!" Rainbow was quiet for a moment, then mentally braked and backed up a step: "Well, maybe Princess Celestia could do it, but she wouldn't even if she could! She doesn't need to and she wouldn't want to!"

There was no way Princess Celestia would create any creature just to be a weapon. The Elements of Harmony were the biggest weapons in the fight for Equestrian peace, and Rainbow and her friends wielded those. Also, as much as Rainbow hated to admit it, making Gears wouldn't be Discord's style either. Why would he make weapons when he could just turn enemy swords into ice cream cones and armour into rubber duckies? Even Rainbow Dash could see that logic.

So who would create something like a Gear?

[zanuff]

Chipp couldn't even begin to start answering the not-Gear girl's questions, since he himself had no idea which asshole had the bright idea of making Gears, only that the world never really healed from the destruction they caused in the first place. It was just a relief to know that there weren't any walking around at the moment, for everyone's sake.

"I dunno. I'm just glad you're not one... not that I hate Gears, but they're hard to deal with." In all honestly, he should hate Gears, but Chipp had already seen the error of blindly hating something without any regard as to why it existed in the first place. Apologizing for his behavior might have been the next appropriate thing to do, but as far as Chipp was concerned, he did the right thing by trying to check on the girl and clearing up any misunderstandings. Yep.

Except now he had no idea what to do, aside from tell Luke and not-Gear girl about Gears, except that he told them everything that he knew. In that case, then he really had no idea what to do, other then...

"Okay, I guess I'll just go then. I'm looking for Landel's office so he can tell me the way out." And so he could beat the hell out of him, but that was probably obvious enough. "You guys wanna team up?"

It seemed extremely out of place to offer a team-up when one guy thought he was insane and the other thought he was a stalker, but Chipp figured there was no need to go through the trouble of looking for some extra allies when there were two others here who probably wanted the same thing he did.

[dispersive]

Well, that had all been rather anti-climactic. Luke supposed he shouldn't have expected or prayed for anything else. Senseless bloodshed would have gotten them nowhere. So, if she wasn't a Gear or a replica or pegasus thingy, then where did they go from here?

The young man was about to make a suggestion, but Chipp beat him to it and his sounded just as good. It would be no simple task, but you may as well dream big in the face of uncertainty and oppression. Besides, Luke and his friends always had the tendency to find people that didn't want to be found. It was a developed skill and one he may as well use to help his friends, even if these two were still on shaky ground.

"I'm game! Someone needs to teach this guy a lesson!" That made two of them, but what about their third baggage. They were deliberately arousing trouble and it wouldn't do to bring someone along if she couldn't defend herself.

He turned to the oddly colorful girl and asked, "Can you, you know... Fight?" That lightened fontech was pretty heavy, maybe she could bludgeon Landel to death with it.

[rainboompow]

It bothered Rainbow that Nutty couldn't answer any other questions about Gears. They sounded like pretty serious customers. Before she could start getting properly annoyed or secretly worried about that, however, Nutty made a suggestion that she actually liked. Miracles could still happen, apparently.

If it had just been Nutty, she might have been a little more wary. Even with the misunderstanding cleared up, Rainbow wasn't completely over how he had treated her earlier, or the accusation of her being a Gear. However, with Reasonable Red getting in on the action too and putting forth just as much (if not more) enthusiasm, Rainbow felt good about her chances on this idea. Plus she sure wanted to find "Landel"'s office all right, if for no other reason than to see if she could force Discord to show himself. Either way, teaching Landel a lesson (Discord or not) sounded right up her alley.

"You bet I can!" Rainbow answered Red instantly. Never minding the fact that she was more of an athlete than a fighter, and the fact that she still wasn't totally used to this body. The desire to kick something in the face was too strong for her to think things through at the moment. "If 'Landel' or whoever he is wants a fight, then Rainbow Dash is gonna give it to him!"

[zanuff]

See? Nothing wrong with proposing a little teamwork! It was like Chipp had completely forgotten about the whole misadventure that happened only seconds ago, and to be honest, it might not have been surprising if the whole incident was already water under the bridge for him. With Luke and Rainbowgirl on his side, they definitely should have been able to catch up to that Landel bastard. At least he was already in the building, that should make things easier for him.

But where exactly was he? All Chipp had to go by was Daemon's suggestion that he was on the third floor, and when they went up to the second floor... well, on the other hand, he and Daemon kind of got sidetracked by the dude who set him on fire. If he found that guy again, he'd punch him in the face too.

"Cool, so we're all teamed up now! Let's go, we're looking for the third floor." Now that he secured everyone's cooperation, Chipp had no trouble turning around and walking out of the hallway like he actually knew where he was going.

[ moving them over here

ooc: so I figure since Chipp is leading, I can move the whole group after a round of posts, or would you guys prefer I keep going up to the second floor? XD; ]