Night 75: Patient Library

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

Once they got inside of the library, Sora definitely slowed down. It just didn't feel like the kind of place they could run in, since libraries were always supposed to be quiet.

Besides, they were going to have to pull the switch in the bookshelf first anyway. Sora knew exactly where the Oxford book was now, so without any delay he moved over and yanked it out.

The door slid open and he turned back to Link. "Let's go."

Comments

[his_legacy]

Link bounced on the balls of his feet as the shelf scraped aside, revealing the secret entrance to the third floor. He gave Sora a nod, and proceeded to the stairs, squinting against the light flooding from within.

[To here]

[ryuuzaki]

[From here.]

They got through the Sun Room without incident, but he stopped at the library door to check the area before moving into it. When he was sure it seemed clear, he walked to the book.

"Please cover the door. I doubt there's anything in there -- no signs here that Sora and his friend were attacked -- but there's no way of knowing for sure. We should also be prepared at the top of the escalator... and any time we move to a new area from here on out, even if we know someone is ahead of us. It would be better to assume that they failed than for us to be caught out by a false sense of security.

"Did you learn anything today?" He pulled the book down, assuming she would answer him on the way up, if there was nothing to greet them, and if she had anything to say.

[fourstonewalls]

Well, he could use her bullets if need be, which was convenient. In the unlikely circumstance both she and the gun were out of commission without taking the ammunition along for the ride.

She nodded at the request, and kept her eyes scanning across the door and the dark spaces between the stacks. "Yes," she murmured. "Some sort of device the rebels have; it can disable Landel in some way if they can get it to him." Exactly how, she wasn't clear on; the only physical power Landel had demonstrated was the barriers between himself and patients, and Aguilar had been able to get past that. Perhaps that would be enough; perhaps there was more they didn't know about that.

Scratch that, there was certainly more they didn't know about. There was always something new that turned up in the heat of the moment, no matter how open and shut a case seemed.

"And I did manage to tell a few people a little more about what was going on up here that could be said on the bulletin. We won't be the only ones springing traps along the way." Despite being decently armed, they weren't the kind of combat team most of the patients were; while she hated thinking she was safer with Sora and a kid his age in front of them, it was true.

[to here]

[freewill]

[From here.]

They still looked to be following in the footsteps of others. As Castiel entered the library, he heard the door to the secret passage slide shut on the other side of the room. That only meant they would need to pull the switch out again, though, so it wasn't a large concern.

After they moved up that escalator and used their keys, they would probably be in a completely different area than the others who were ahead of them.

Castiel started down the aisle without much preamble, and at this point he could find the book they needed with hardly any trouble. He reached over to pull it out, opening the passage yet again.

"Go ahead," he told Lloyd.

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd couldn't help but keep a wary eye on the darkness that surrounded them in the library. He hadn't forgotten being attacked in this room. Was there still a monster lurking? Had someone killed it? Or had it moved to another part of the building?

No way to know unless it attacked, or they found its body somewhere. Regardless, Lloyd wasn't going to let it slow him down. Grim and still determined, he strode straight for the open passage that would lead them to the secret stairs.

[To here.]

[thecamellia]

_{[from here]}

"We made it," she said to the darkness inside the library. Then she turned to look at Korra, who she'd stuck close to the whole way here so far. "Here we go one more time."

The secret lever was right where it always was, Tsubaki crossed up the aisle to where the book rested innocuously on the shelf. She put her hand on it, ready to move it.

[rebonding]

Korra was right on Tsubaki's heels the entire time.

She came to a halt shortly behind the other girl, waiting for the shelf to scrape aside before stepping forward into the harsh light of the secret staircase.

"I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that we've been left alone..."

[To here]

[no_dont_go]

[from here]

The library was quiet but there was trace evidence that the room had been used already tonight. The door to the library having been left open wide was their biggest hint.

But from here, where did they go? Aigis turned to her companions. "I will take a position at the flank. Please, lead the way."

[sixth_attack]

Sechs was glad to see Taura back in one piece, but the lack of any new weapons on her brought a confused perk to his eyebrows. Nonetheless, he wasted no time on getting into the library.

Turning to Aigis, Sechs nodded and went ahead of her to approach the aisle of books with the hidden door. Stepping to the side of where the passageway would open, Sechs then gave Taura a questioning look. "What did ya have to do back there?" he asked, perplexed by the idea of not taking advantage of the well-stocked armory in the basement. Whatever it was, it must have been important enough to risk going back alone in those formidable catacombs.

[ninelivesonce]

"Not a what, a who." Taura's voice was barely above a whisper, but it carried across the library. She stepped over to the door, waiting for Sechs to pull it open.

"The security systems were keeping the Sphinx locked in that room, and it isn't any happier about that than you or I would be." Aigis, too, if she was anything like them, but she didn't know her as well. Anyone would be, unless the spirit had been crushed out of them, and Landel, for all his flaws, chose stronger victims than that.

"It's on its way up to help, if we can find a way to take out Landel's protections." The door swung open, and she slipped through immediately, still talking as she went.

[to here]