Night 64: Main Hallway, 1-West

[dualistic]

[From here.]

Well, that had been painless, but the good time he'd made also meant that he was the first to arrive. Harvey leaned himself up against the wall, swinging his metal pipe around in his hand as he kept an eye out for Scott or Sangamon.

He had to admit, it was strange that their group had been cut down so considerably. He didn't even know if Depth Charge was still around, but it didn't matter to him too much either way, so he hadn't put much thought into it. He figured that one of the others would mention it when they showed up, if they even knew themselves.

While he waited, Harvey grabbed the bone bracelet out of his pocket and started to spin it around in his hand. The skeleton hadn't been too clear about how this worked, but there was an obvious answer about what to do with it, not that he was going to attempt anything until the others had shown up.

Comments

[hiddenbadass]

Well, if Mike wasn't worried before, he was now. He jolted, eyes going wide. She had no mouth to scream, but she was making a terrified muffled noise that should've been splitting his eardrums in two. But it wasn't. Because her mouth was gone.

Mike stumbled back, almost running into Niikura. His head turned for a moment, and then he knew--shell. Both the kids were panicking. He was panicking. They were freaking the shell out, and they had a damn good reason to--shell her mouth was GONE.

She was still mostly human. Mike forced down his panic, locked it away like every other emotion in his life. He'd seen worse. It was just a missing mouth, not missing arms and legs, people begging for death--

Mike reached out to her, touching her upper arm with roughened fingers. He was now the leader. There was no one else.

The former turtle barked: "Room. Now! Panic later!"

[requitedfate]

Shiina tried to control herself, but something was changing within her as well as without. Grasping for sense was like trying to gain a hold of a metal ball doused in oil. She was slipping off an edge.

Her skin was on fire. It had started at the rash, but now it was spreading over her entire body like a ravenous colony of ants. She wanted to rake her nails across her arms until the skin tore, but Mike was grabbing at her and holding her still. She couldn't possibly fight against a man with his strength...

...Or she might have thought, had this been a normal situation. But Shiina was no longer just the weak girl she had been moments before. Wanting to scream, Shiina yanked away from his grip, her skin peeling away as it rubbed across Mike's calloused palm. She shrunk back, her hands clawing blindly at her arms, clothes, ad scalp as she stumbled.

She couldn't see. Her irises had all but disappeared and her pupils were rapidly shrinking. Even if she could, it would not have helped her cope with the way her flesh and hair just flaked off, giving way to a metallic flash of greasy feathers.

[oneman_onekill]

She was screaming. He could hear her. Mike was yelling something at him, something like "panic later", but he might as well have been talking to a rock.

You failed her, Hazama's (his) voice roared in his head. You made a promise!

Mike was the one with his hand on her arm, wasn't he? That was so not right. It was supposed to be him. He was the one who'd promised to protect her. He was the one that had talked to her yesterday and told her that he'd get things done. That was...he wasn't going to stand for this!

"Hey! Don't touch--" Niikura tugged Mike away just as Shiina wormed out of his grasp. "SHIT." He could see the feathers starting to protrude from her scalp, metallic, oily feathers that gleamed in the light from his flashlight. Without thinking, he jerked Mike backwards, trying to put some distance between them and the thing that was morphing before their eyes. "SHIINA!"

[hiddenbadass]

Nothing that Splinter had taught him could have prepared him for this. There was nothing he could do for her, he realized numbly, as she pulled free from his grasp and left him with bits of shredded skin on his fingers and falling to his feet. His moment of calm was over, replaced by horror.

They were too late. They were too late, and she was rapidly turning into a monster. Mike was frozen in horror.

It only lasted a moment, however, as Niikura jerked him back and brought him to the present. Now. Something. They had to do something now! Disable. Not kill. Disable. Remove as a threat. Save her.

"Shiina!" Mike called out after Niikura, then grit his teeth. "We gotta knock her out before we can't!"

[requitedfate]

Too late. There was no saving this monster now.

Shrinking down, half-feathered hands jerked back, and what was left of her pale skin sloughed off in a rush of metallic feathered wings. The grey clothing hung limp on her now one-foot frame.

Unable to make a sound other than the ruffling of feathers and a soft metallic clacking of wings against the nearby wall, the creature shook itself until it no longer was obscured by the uniform. White, marble-like eyes glanced up, the only features on the Tempest's flat face.

She fluffed her wings. Then took a wobbly step on her three-toed feet, and staggered to the side, having to flap harshly to keep upright. It was like the creature was somewhat top-heavy for its thin body. It finally managed to gain its balance, and when it did, it simply stared, motionless, as if waiting for the males to make the first move.