damned_institute | Night 71: Security Checkpoint 2 (Third Floor)

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Night 71: Security Checkpoint 2 (Third Floor)

[From here.]

When the purple light of the warp pad dimmed back down, Lloyd brought his flashlight up and swung it to skim around the room. There was a metal archway set into a transparent wall and a machine that looked like something from one of the Human Ranches, with what looked like a long belt strapped wrapped around rollers that fed inside some kind of box. It wasn't big enough to fit the pods Kvar had used at his ranch to transport humans for making Exspheres, but the similarity was enough to send chill of dread down his spine. What did these people do here?

Other than the machinery, though, the room was empty. No monsters, no people, and no sounds except whatever the three of them made. An anxious tension Lloyd hadn't even been aware of seeped a little from his back. That was one of the things he hated about warp pads, not knowing if there would be any enemies when you appeared at the other end.

Stepping off the pad, he searched the room again, this time more slowly, trying to see where all the exits were. Two doors on one wall, and a door on the right, and... Wait, over there on the other side of the room. That looked like another warp pad. This one wasn't glowing, though, and to get to it they'd have to step through the metal arch. He gestured toward it to draw the others' attention to it.

"There's another warp pad over there. But... it doesn't look like it's on." Maybe there was a control somewhere in this room?

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It didn't take them all that long to find another teleportation pad, which was one thing to be grateful for. Castiel was already trying to make a mental map of the third floor, but he didn't have much chance of creating a detailed one when they would be warping around from place to place. Still, he knew the first two steps of this process, which was of some help.

Then again, it could be that the locations they arrived in after warping were randomized, in which case it would be impossible to plan for a fast journey. Lloyd didn't do much good in reassuring him that this wouldn't take them multiple nights to get through, but Castiel preferred to be given realistic information.

He followed the others onto the next pad, relieved that the disorientation that came with using them wasn't nearly as bad as it had been with the doors. The machinery in the room was something that seemed familiar to Castiel, but not in any way that he could identify what exactly it was. But he felt that he'd seen it before, at some point...

When Lloyd pointed out the other pad, Castiel drew forward to confirm it. Did they need to flip a switch somewhere? It probably had to do with the metal walkway and the conveyor belt next to it, so Castiel approached it, looking it all over as if it would give him the answer if he stared for long enough. "Are you two familiar with this?" he asked. "Do you know what would happen if we walk through?" Tempting as it was to try it and see for himself, Castiel held back.

With so much of Derris-Kharlan and Welgaia's transportation systems built around warp pads, walking onto another one felt like business as usual, even though it had been over a month since he'd last stepped on one. The sensation was still familiar, though, and as soon as they were in the next room, Kratos stepped off and went to work figuring out their new surroundings.

"Strange," he said as he joined Castiel in examining the metal arch. There seemed to be no purpose for it, but experience dictated that walking through it probably had consequences. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the only way to get to the warp pad. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar."

He looked around the rest of the room, searching for anything that could be a switch. As far as their half of the room was concerned, though, there was nothing. "We might have to try our luck with it, since I don't see anything else of use here."

The warp pad was over there. They were over here. It was obvious what they needed to do. So why weren't the other two moving? "We're not going to get anywhere if we just stand here talking about it," Lloyd said, impatience prompting him to move. Striding forward, he headed straight for the arch, which was both tall enough and wide enough for him to pass through without touching any part of it.

Only he didn't make it all the way through before some part of the machine started beeping wildly. Lloyd barely had time to stop and open his mouth before a bone-deep hum filled the air a split second before electricity jumped out from the arch. With a strangled cry, Lloyd's entire body seized up. "Aughh-!" And then even that was too much for his spasming muscles to sustain. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even let go of his sword as he toppled, forward, to the other side of the arch.

Kratos was right, of course. With that archway standing there so invitingly, there was no denying that they would have to walk through. The reason he'd held back was to evaluate the situation, but Lloyd didn't waste any time -- a hasty decision which he paid for.

The beeping was quickly followed by an electric shock, something that Castiel swore he could sense even though he was standing a few feet away. As a being that was usually a wavelength, he was tuned into this sort of thing. If he'd had all his power, his arrival could have short-circuited the machine.

The shock forced Lloyd to drop his weapon and stumble forward. Castiel resisted the urge to move toward him. They needed to determine what state he was in before he or Kratos stepped through and risked the same fate befalling them. "Are you all right?"

Kratos was about to suggest a few minutes more of investigation before they tried blindly walking through the arch when Lloyd took matters into his own hands - which, in hindsight, he ought to have expected: his son didn't approve much of standing around when there was something that could be done, even when said standing around was for a beneficial reason.

His mouth deepened into a frown as the beeping started; the look of disapproval swiftly turned into one of outright panic as Lloyd froze and let out a scream of pain, courtesy of a violent electric shock.

To his credit, the thought that perhaps he ought to wait and figure out the stimulus for the shock before charging through did occur to him, but as was often the case when it came to Lloyd, Kratos's protective instincts proved overwhelming.

He also recognized that he was about to do something incredibly stupid - and revealing - but somehow, it didn't matter.

"LLOYD!" As Lloyd fell to the ground, Kratos charged through the archway. The beeping began before he was even through, as if to warn him; the shock just as his foot crossed the threshold. "Kkghk--!" There was a strange tingling sensation, and then suddenly, all of his nerves were alight with a bright, sharp pain; he was trying to move, but his body was refusing--and then the shock stopped, and Kratos stumbled forward, nearly tripping over Lloyd but somehow managing to catch himself and stay upright by sheer will.

"Lloyd...you..." His ears were still ringing, such that he could barely hear himself, and his arms were still shaking, but Kratos was still able to crouch down and roll Lloyd onto his back. A quick pulse check: "...you're alright?"

Panting heavily, Lloyd struggled to sit up. It was a struggle, though, the lingering numbness in his muscles making it difficult to push himself upright. "I'm... fine..." A lie, and one so blatant he knew the others would know it for what it was, but the numbness was fading. Well, mostly. His hand didn't seem to want to close on his sword. It took him three tries to pick it back up. Picking up his flashlight was almost as bad, though at least then he knew what to expect. "Ugh... Dammit... That hurt..."

As he sluggishly forced himself to stand up, his eyes turned to Kratos. A strange mixture of emotion filled him when he realized exactly what had just happened. Kratos had just jumped through that arch despite knowing that it was a trap - just to check on Lloyd? Just to make sure he was alright?

Though he hadn't fallen down like Lloyd had. That part at least Lloyd could pin down as the frustration of never measuring up to this man. But the rest... He couldn't just ignore it. Kratos had put himself in danger just for Lloyd's sake, and the glimpse of the expression Lloyd had seen on his face when he'd been checking Lloyd's pulse... That was... Worry, fear, something deeper, something that unsettled Lloyd because he'd never seen that expression on anyone's face but Dirk's. Kratos was really... looking at him like that?

Not knowing what to say in the face of that concern, Lloyd swallowed and tried to change the subject. "What about you?" he asked awkwardly. "And..." His eyes turned to Castiel, still on the other side. How was Castiel supposed to join them without triggering that trap? "Castiel, wait... wait there. Let's see if we can turn that trap off." There had to be a way to turn it off, right? Either on their side or Castiel's.

It was one thing for Lloyd to have gone through to test it and being shocked as a result, but the way that Kratos raced in after him was unexpected. Kratos was usually a very calculating person, and he wasn't known for outbursts of emotion or reckless actions. Who was this Lloyd and what was he to Kratos, for him to behave that way?

Unsurprisingly, Kratos was also affected by the shock. Castiel watched as Kratos impressively managed to keep his balance, though all of the man's focus was on Lloyd's well-being. The two of them seemed fine, if shaken, which meant that Castiel could endure the shock if need be.

Lloyd was correct that it would be wiser for them to see if there was a way to disable the machine before he stepped through, though. While Castiel was willing to take that pain if there was no other option, it would be better if not all three of them were thrown off-balance, in the event that they were attacked at some point.

"Let me know," he said with a firm nod. "If you're unable to find anything, I'll have to walk through."

As Lloyd made it to his feet, Kratos slowly let out the breath he'd been holding. Now that his initial panic had faded, he wasn't sure why it had been so abnormally strong. The shock had not been that bad - he'd gotten worse from Yuan before - so of course Lloyd would have been fine, although a little shaken...but it had felt right to run after him - appropriate, actually.

Thankfully, Castiel didn't say anything about his bizarre behavior, so Kratos proceeded as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. "I'm fine," he said tersely as he backed up to give Lloyd some room. There were some residual effects, some numbness and shaking in his hands, but nothing life-threatening; it was all manageable.

"Right." He nodded back to Castiel and began the task of examining the other half of the room. The teleportation pad, previously dormant, was now humming and glowing purple as all the others they'd seen, but it was pointless to use it when Castiel was still trapped on the other side.

The first place he looked was the conveyor belt sitting next to the arch. There was no switch to be found, but there was something else of interest: "There's a set of keys here." He looked back at the arch. "No keyholes over there?"

Lloyd straightened shakily, his nerves slowly recovering from the shock. He wanted nothing more than to lean against a wall, or better yet sit down, but now wasn't the time. They needed to move. He adjusted his grip on his flashlight and sword, trying to make sure he had a good hold on both despite the numbness in his hands.

"I'll look on this side," he said, turning away from the conveyor belt that Kratos had gone to inspect. The glass wall dividing the room held no clues, though, and neither did the solid, outer wall. When he reached one of the doors, he tried to turn the knob. Locked, and it looked just as shiny and new as the one that Lloyd had broken his lock picks on. Nothing else of interest jumped out at him.

"I don't see anything over here except the door."

It was frustrating being forced to wait on the other side while Lloyd and Kratos did all the searching, but he could at least rely on Kratos to be thorough. The door that Lloyd inspected looked like one of those that were impossible to break through, which meant that the teleportation pad was likely their only option at this point. At least them walking through that arch had activated it.

When Kratos mentioned a set of keys, Castiel drew as close as he could without actually walking through the arch to try and see what he meant.

"It may be that they're used on one of the doors here," Castiel suggested. "If not, they may be needed for a later room." He didn't know why they would be left here so carelessly for them to take, and it made the entire process feel as if it was staged. He wouldn't have been surprised by that -- while reaching this point had hardly been simple, Castiel still felt that they should have come up against more resistance by now.

It could be that Landel was busy handling those rebels that had made the announcement earlier, though. That would be the best case scenario, but Castiel had a difficult time holding onto any optimism.

"Probably." Kratos walked up to the arch to take a look for himself. There was no place for a key, which agreed with Castiel's assessment of the situation, but left them in the same place that they'd started. If only they knew what the machinery in this room was for...looking at the set-up, it was clear that there was some kind of purpose, but of course, none of them had a clue.

He looked through the arch at Castiel. At this rate, if they wanted to continue, the angel would just have to weather the shock in order to join them, since their search had turned up no way to disable the device, but perhaps there was some other option that he was overlooking. "Any more ideas? Otherwise, we're running out of time."

Finishing with his part of this side of the room and still finding nothing, Lloyd had returned to the arch. The shakiness in his limbs was fading a little, for which he was grateful. It let him stand a little more solidly as he frowned at the trap that had caught them. There had to be a way to get past it. How?

"What if he went on the belt thing? He might be able to fit if he crawled." It was the only thing he could see that offered an obvious alternative to just walking through that gate. It wasn't very big, though, and Lloyd couldn't see inside the box, long flaps of plastic blocking the view where the conveyor belt fed into it. Cautiously, Lloyd approached his side, shining his flashlight at it. It was hard to tell if Castiel would even be able to fit, or if it was rigged with the same trap as the arch. It would be even harder to get through something like this if Castiel got a shock like he and Kratos did. "You think it's worth a try?"

They had no other options and Castiel didn't see much reason to hold them up any longer. He was ready and willing to take the shock, but he did go so far as to humor Lloyd by moving over to the belt. He bent down and peered through the hole, but it didn't seem likely that he would fit through. It wasn't worth it when he might risk getting stuck, and crawling his way through would also take much more time.

"No," he said after a pause, "I'll walk through." There was also something to be said for preserving his dignity, although getting shocked meant that he wouldn't be allowed that either way. Castiel returned to the arch and straightened his shoulders, hesitating for only a second before he walked through.

The shock hit him almost instantly, working its way through his body and bringing every nerve to life, from deep in his chest to the tips of his toes. Castiel convulsed from the pain and then stumbled forward, grasping for the frame of the arch to keep his balance. His heart thrummed hard and fast in his chest, enough to make him dizzy, and he sucked in a breath. His hand weakened, causing his blade to slip from his grip.

The shock again...if they were forced to come through this room again, they would need to figure out how to disable this particular trap: as much as Kratos wanted to explore the third floor, he did not want to be electrocuted each and every night. If it came down to it though...for a brief moment, he entertained the possibility of dealing with it anyway. The third floor could possibly be that important.

He retrieved Castiel's blade as the other man recovered, keeping a careful eye on him in case Castiel was actually faring worse than he initially seemed - he'd at least managed to stay on his feet as well. "Here." Kratos offered the blade, hilt first, once it seemed the angel had properly regained his bearings, and then held out one of the three keys he'd found as well. "They all seem to be identical, so it would probably behoove us to each take one." He turned toward Lloyd and offered another to him.

"Shall we continue?"

Lloyd tucked his flashlight away long enough so he could take the offered key, turning it over so he could examine it. Nothing particular special jumped out at him. Still, it was a key, the first he'd ever found in this place. Chances were it went to something significant. They just had to figure out what it was.

Casting his own concerned glance at Castiel, he slipped the key into his pocket and thereby freed up his hand. It didn't look like he'd need it, though. The other man seemed to be recovering, just as Lloyd and Kratos had. Good. That was good. At least it wasn't a lethal trap.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Lloyd said, stepping toward the warp pad. There wasn't any point in sticking around here.

Unfortunately, they never made it. Before his foot even stepped on the pad, the night ended with nothing but a crackle of static before the three men were returned to their beds.

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Night 71: Security Checkpoint 2 (Third Floor)

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