damned_institute | NS 61: Sun Room

[Dropping in from here]

He flinched, expecting a hard impact with the misleadingly soft, plush carpet below, but it wasn't meant to be. His weight was caught by someone, the tell-tale sign of a strong grip molding around him signified that much. It was the name, however, that left him so shocked.

Wild Tiger had been very careful not to used his real name with anyone, so who would know him? Peeling his hands away from his face, stunned blue eyes poured into an identical pair, his partner's.

"Bu-Bunny?!" he squawked in obvious surprise. Of all the places for this man to be in! But that wasn't right; Barnaby couldn't have been a patient. The older man jerked his head forward and saw the shine to the blond's leather jacket. He was in his civilian clothes, not the institutional uniform. So that meant--! Actually, what did that mean?

"Bunny," he said again, looking for the right words to fix all of these questions he had. "What're you doing here?"

Despite the strange turn of events (Almost dying from a crazed woman-hair-cat, suddenly falling head first into the unknown before being caught by his partner), Wild Tiger didn't ask to be put down on the floor. Too relieved to see his partner after months of self-discovery separated them, he lay in Barnaby's grip, comfortable, happy. There was a peace there that couldn't be explained and, frankly, that wasn't the issue right now. Wild Tiger had his other half back with him.

Edited 2012-02-20 04:01 (UTC)

"I could ask you the same question," Barnaby responded with a frown. He might have initially guessed that Kotetsu came to rescue him, but the man's surprise from their meeting here could only mean that wasn't the case. Kotetsu may have been brought here against his will as well, which raised more questions than answers.

At any rate, Barnaby had used his Hundred Power to catch him, which might not have been necessary, seeing how he'd activated his own ability before his fall. That meant once their powers ran out, they'd both be vulnerable for at least another hour. On the other hand, he hadn't been able to use his NEXT power during dayshift. Even now he could tell that he wasn't functioning at full capacity. Kotetsu was likely in a similar state. He could have been injured if he'd hit the ground head first.

Regardless, it was then that Barnaby realized he'd carelessly used his real name even though the man had donned his mask. While he personally didn't have any use for secret identities, Barnaby respected Kotetsu's choice to keep his name from the public. He'd just been so taken aback at finding him in his arms that it had been the first thing to escape his mouth. A little embarrassed, he glanced away, thankful they weren't being filmed by any TV crews right then.

Normally, Kotetsu would have started squirming to be let down by now, since being carried like this had a tendency to make him uncomfortable after too long, but Barnaby immediately noticed the difference this time. It confused him, especially when he remembered the awful way their last conversation had ended, but this wasn't the time or place to dwell on that. Barnaby could at least act professional enough to set aside any wounded feelings until the situation became less unpredictable.

"What happened?" he asked as he gently lowered Kotetsu onto the ground and looked up toward the dimly-lit railing. "Why were you falling just now?"

"Ah--! That's right! Bunny!" Tiger immediately held onto his hunting cap and pointed at the top of the glass ceiling. "Look out! There's a crazy NEXT and it threw me... off--?" He had expected the thing would have fallen after him to finish the job, but there was nothing there around the railings. Any trace of the NEXT was gone.

"Eh... uh?" He withdrew his index finger slowly, completely befuddled by the sudden silence. There was no crackling noise like a broken radio and the air was brighter, less oppressive. The older man had to wonder if it had even happened. The pain in his shoulders seemed to say as much, but...

"Ah, n-nothing, never mind. I thought I... saw something." His voice grew lighter and more sheepish as he tried to backpedal away from his sudden and embarrassing freak out over something that wasn't even there. "Guess I got scared and tripped over the railing!" It ended in stuttering laughter as he looked back up at the ceiling. "I Just... I dunno, I just fell, I guess..."

He turned his attention back to Barnaby, and for a moment he said nothing, until he finally realized he had his own pertinent questions to shove at his partner. "But you! Where did--I mean, how did you even get here?! Were you institutionalized?!" And by who?

Edited 2012-02-21 05:10 (UTC)

Barnaby wasn't particularly impressed with Kotetsu's backpedaling. Saying he'd been thrown off was a far cry from accidentally tripping, and yet the man had somehow managed to cross that line in record time. Even more suspicious was the way he'd immediately turned the subject back onto Barnaby himself, as if he'd actually been hospitalized through legitimate means.

"If you can call it that," he icily remarked, his gaze still locked onto railing. "Of course, I'm not the one slipping from the second floor. Even for you, that's careless." He didn't believe a word of it, naturally -- Kotetsu could be clumsy, but Barnaby knew when he was lying about something. In this case, though, he decided not to let himself get too angry about it. This facility had a way of making people second guessing themselves. Barnaby had already experienced that firsthand.

"I'm going to take a closer look," Barnaby added as he moved to retrieve his fallen flashlight. You can follow me or not, was the unspoken sentiment behind his curt words. While he knew now wasn't the time to let their differences get the better of them, he didn't necessarily expect Kotetsu to want to hang around after their last encounter.

With that, Barnaby leaped up into the air with the intention of landing on the railing.

...Only to drop back down onto the floor after reaching about 5 feet. Blinking in muted surprise, Barnaby glanced from the carpet to the second floor. It looked like his weakened Hundred Power hadn't been his imagination after all.

Edited 2012-02-22 02:09 (UTC)

"Ah--Ehhh, well..." Wild Tiger didn't have a good comeback for that potshot. The lie hadn't been very substantive to begin with, but he knew he would feel like a fool blabbering on about some furious cat-woman who could disappear in a blink of an eye without a trace.

Getting a sour look was better than a worried one like he was losing his mind. Still, the older man tried to defend himself with a glum mumble of "It wasn't like I tripped on purpose. I thought I saw something." He couldn't tell if Barnaby was even listening to his halfhearted attempts to dig himself out, but soon Wild Tiger's attention moved back to the seemingly innocent railing.

When his partner moved to investigate, he was right behind him... until the young man came back down to the ground as if he had forgotten something important. The perplexed look on Barnaby's face, though, said otherwise.

"What's wrong? Did you see something?" If it had come back, he would have expected Barnaby to have been more alert, not bemused. Wild Tiger thought to get a better look and, too, used his Hundred Power to hurl himself up onto the second floor. He only made it about five feet as well before gravity took hold and pulled him down.

"W-What the hell?!" True his powers were declining, but it never affected the potency of his strength before, only the duration. Was this some new side effect? Was there some kind of NEXT-induced barrier that kept them down on the first floor?

"D'ah, this stupid place!" For now, the only thing he could place blame on was the institute.

Edited 2012-02-22 17:38 (UTC)

Sure enough, Kotetsu dropped back to the floor as quickly as Barnaby had. "Just as I suspected," he murmured as he flexed his hand into a fist at his side, "our powers are still weak for whatever reason." Considering his inability to even increase his strength at all during the day, the fact he could do so now was a miracle in of itself -- or, more likely, a temporary "gift" so graciously bestowed upon them by their captors. After all, if the institute could suppress all NEXT during the day, then it stood to reason that they still maintained some degree of control over them at night.

As much as he wanted to ask Kotetsu what he knew of the latest turn of events, Barnaby still hadn't forgotten his original objective. They could talk later. For now, he wanted to take advantage of their relative freedom to figure out more about this place.

"At any rate," he added as he turned to look toward the door from which he'd come, "I saw some stairs leading up to the second floor on the way here. I'm going to try to head that way before my five minutes are up." With that, he began to backtrack with long, quick strides. He probably didn't have much time left, but it didn't hurt to make the attempt.

It was hard for Baka not to jump at the chance to interfere the moment he saw someone plummeting from the second floor, so very hard, and yet the delay was so very worth it for what he got the chance to see. Another victim had entered in glorious fashion, jumping into, of all things, a glowing rescue of the falling man and intriguing Baka all the more. Who cared that the falling one hadn't splatted on the floor, the guy had been glowing! Was he one of the aliens Baka had pulled there, or something more?

And most importantly of all, how could he use these two for his own enjoyment?

"Wow, how did you do that?!" Baka eventually called at the two, breaking his silent plotting as he made his presence aware.

He wasn't sure how either one would react to someone awing over the blonde's former glow, but he did know that said blonde was at least the protective type. Jumping to the rescue like that couldn't have just been his conscience kicking in at random, after all.

"Ah, wait up, Bunny!" He called out a bit childishly, but the young man's chilly attitude was rubbing him a little raw. It pulled his deep insecurities to the surface and Wild Tiger didn't want to get left behind in Barnaby's exuberant quest to figure out what had attacked him upstairs. He followed right behind his former partner.

Neither made it very far, though. Out of the corner of the Sun Room, another patient appeared. From the inflection in the person's voice, he or she (this lighting and the patient's long hair was not making that important distinction too apparent) was a civilian. It didn't make the potshot sound any better! Wild Tiger immediately retaliated with a glower and a finger pointed directly at the other patient.

"Listen, all I did was fall, okay?! That railing isn't fool proof, you know! People fall! Give an old man a break..."

As soon as a third person revealed themselves, Barnaby slowed down. Using his flashlight beam, he illuminated this stranger as he inwardly debated leaving him behind. Whoever it was, they appeared to be another patient, though this was the first one who had decided to approach him tonight. They were unarmed and didn't look like they posed any immediate threat. Appearances could, however, often be deceiving.

Barnaby hadn't even noticed the newcomer before now, which put him on guard. If he'd had access to his powered suit right then, he could have at least picked up on his body heat before getting caught by surprise like this. What other crucial information was he missing?

He resisted the urge to frown and instead wore a completely neutral expression, squaring his shoulders as the quiet, blue glow of his NEXT powers continued to radiate from his body. "Who are you?" Barnaby asked, deliberately ignoring Wild Tiger's indignant squawking.

Edited 2012-02-26 00:08 (UTC)

The one that had fallen was really defensive and apparently just as assuming. And yet he seemed to be the nicer one of the pair somehow. Baka didn't like how the blond responded at all, and not just because he got a light straight in his face. He was just too direct, and that face...! If someone was going to at least look like he cared about his appearance (and with those curls, this one must have spent hours at the salon), he should have made just as must of an effort to be happy about it.

"Anyone can fall, you know," Baka reasoned, a bit slowly since he felt he might need to for the guy. Falling was not some kind of spectacular feat, and most idiots even knew that much. "What I meant was him. That glowing! I didn't think anyone here had their powers!"

That was a lie. He'd allowed for some bits of abilities to remain with these patients, particularly at night, but he couldn't pass up an opportunity to potentially deflate some egos.

Oh, the person wasn't even addressing him. Embarrassed, Wild Tiger quietly huffed and crossed his arms over his chest and directed his iridescent blue eyes at Barnaby. Once again, someone didn't know what a NEXT looked like. It was becoming increasingly worrisome since the phenomenon happened all over the world. Not all these people could be so cooped up within their own schizophrenic setting that they would block out that information completely.

"Well, he's a NEXT. He always has power..." The last of his words were tinged with uncertainty as his eyes moved from the stranger and back at Barnaby, looking for some confirmation that he wasn't on the wrong page.

Was it so rare for someone to access their powers at night? Barnaby couldn't imagine he and Kotetsu were the only ones, even if their abilities only held a fraction of their full potential. More than that, though, this person seemed completely unfamiliar with how a NEXT looked.

At this point, Barnaby knew it shouldn't have surprised him. It still did, though, even if his expression remained perfectly neutral.

"That's correct," he answered as he slightly lowered his flashlight. "We both are, in fact." Barnaby's gaze didn't waver as he spoke. "But you still haven't answered my question. Who are you?"

NEXT. Which universe was that from again? Ah well, it didn't matter so much since he wasn't even going to pretend that he knew what one was, especially since these two were apparently expecting that he would know.

Baka blinked at the two, then frowned. "Never heard of that before, but I bet you two are great at raves."

Whoops. Now that wasn't a great comment for a scared persona, but he'd really wanted to say as much. Maybe he could play up the comedy a bit more with these two. One was going to be comedy gold if he kept up being defensive, and didn't some people resort to jokes when they were scared enough?

Yeah, this could work.

"Oh right, sorry. Name's Baka," he provided, running with his new found decision to be somewhat of a ham, "And no, I'm not from Japan before you start thinking I was named that way."

"Uhhh--" Wild Tiger pulled his head back at the strange comment and dared to share a look with Barnaby, who might know what this person was talking about. "--right, anyway--" He tried to steer the conversation to something more poignant, but Barnaby beat him to it when he asked for the man's name again. The answer they received was just as strange.

"Wh-What are you--?! Neither of us were even thinking that! Sheesh..." Defensive much. Or racist! It seemed hard to distinguish in the near darkness, but perhaps the man could tell he was Asian. Either way, he was sending Wild Tiger all the wrong signals. Then again, this was a mental hospital, so maybe this was just another deranged patient out and about when he clearly shouldn't have been.

"Anyways, what are you doing in here all alone? You could get hurt, you know! isn't your room a whole lot safer?"

NS 61: Sun Room

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WOW SORRY! Didn't get the notif for some reason