Night 75: Secret Stairs

[his_legacy]

[From here]

Link struggled to force his eyes to adjust to the sudden white light of the moving staircase. As always, they began moving as soon as he stepped up. He turned to face Sora, finally breaking the silence.

"Hopefully the top brings us partially through the journey like it did last night."

Comments

[lighthearted]

"It should so long as we have our keycards!" Sora assured Link, turning to lean against the side of the escalator as it slowly carried them up.

"We might have to fight pretty soon after this." Sora probably didn't have to warn Link, but he went ahead and said it anyway. There was no such thing as being too prepared.

When they reached the top, Sora pulled his keycard out of his pocket and approached the door. "You ready?"

[his_legacy]

"Yes." Link backed up his affirmation with a nod as they reached the top of the moving staircase. Yes, he was more than ready. He was tired of the suspense and of all the waiting.

Link stepped with Sora onto the third floor.

[To here]

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

Lana took point on the staircase, gun trained on the top of the steps. "I was a little distracted; did you see anything about where we ended up last night?" The end of the night was a haze of pain and teleportation nausea; she wasn't even sure she remembered opening her eyes again before hearing Landel's voice in the morning.

[ryuuzaki]

He holstered his Walther before stepping onto the escalator, but left off the catch, and remained ready to draw it all the way up, his hand relaxed on the grip.

"No, nothing." He sounded grim to himself, and regretful. If he could have mastered the nausea quickly enough, he might have seen it, but that hadn't been possible.

"If the device is meant to function that way --" (the closer he got to Landel's probable location, the less he wanted to trade in specifics) "-- then it seems most likely that we'll need to do our part first. I don't know how much longer it will be until we've found the right place, and it seems as if we'll only have one chance... the notes suggested it has to happen the same night. If we fail, the password will most likely change, and it could be a while before we have another chance.

"I'm not sure we have that kind of time." Sometimes Landel's threats were empty bluster, sometimes they weren't. If he could force people into the molds he had created for them whenever he wanted to, why bother with the hospital charade at all? Maybe he'd gotten better at it, maybe that explained why more patients had disappeared recently, but it didn't make sense for that to be the full story.

They were nearing the top of the escalator. L's hand tightened on his pistol, and he shifted his stance, making it stronger. His heart rate accelerated. If the escalator worked as it had the previous night, they'd soon be in a room they hadn't yet seen. If it didn't, they might wind up in the monitoring room again, and they might not have it to themselves.

[To here.]

[redcladidealist]

[From here.]

The stairs were empty when Lloyd stepped through the open door. Anyone ahead of them must have already gone on, wisely not lingering. Lloyd didn't waste any time either, glancing back only once to make sure Castiel was following before he planted his feet on the moving stairs. He wasn't even willing to stand still while it carried him up, long legs taking the stairs two at a time.

It wasn't until he reached the landing that he finally stopped, fumbling his swords until one hand held both hilts. He needed one hand free to fish out his key card and swipe it through the lock.

"Ready when you are."

[freewill]

Castiel didn't mind climbing upward despite the fact that the escalator was already moving them, and so he followed after Lloyd without a word of protest. Any second saved might make a world of difference in the end.

He would have used his own key and saved Lloyd the trouble of shuffling his weapons around, but he wasn't given the chance.

Castiel nodded. "Ready." And he stepped through.

[To here.]

[rebonding]

[From here]

As usual, it was difficult adjusting to the sudden change in lighting. This was back to that overly sterile environment that was characteristic of the days here. Not the nights.

Korra didn't waste time waiting for the moving stairs to take her up. She was bounding up three at a time.

[thecamellia]

_{[from here]}

To be honest, neither did Tsubaki. The number of prisoners had thinned substantially and it was difficult to gauge where everyone was focusing their efforts; a lot of people had surely chosen the third floor, but who could say what it mean that they'd failed to pass anyone actually headed their way.

Maybe it was a trap. Ultimately, what wasn't, though? They still had no choice but to take the risk.

"Hopefully we'll see the others," she said softly. Once they'd scaled the escalator, she turned to Korra. "Maybe the warp pads sent them to different places."

_{[to here]}

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

Taura took point, hopping onto the moving staircase as soon as the door swung open. For all that it was a small, enclosed space, it felt awfully exposed, and the sooner they were onto the third floor, the better.

"It said we needed to disable his powers like he's disabled ours. Which means there's a way to do it." She wasn't at all sure of that, but she was sure it was accurate in saying that if they didn't, this was going to be a very short night for all of them.

What, exactly, they were going to do then, well, they'd figure that out when they got there.

[no_dont_go]

"The sphinx..." Aigis remembered that monster very clearly. She had been so worried they wouldn't succeed in solving its riddle, but they had managed. The creature had been rather upset it had lost another meal but in this case... "So we will be offering it retribution as well."

Landel as sphinx chow had a nice ring to it. A grim smile spread across Aigis' face in the dark.

She followed Sechs and Taura up the stairs quietly, her steps barely making a sound. It was a taller staircase than the others around the institute, but these would go up two floors instead of just one.

"... Perhaps one of the rebels will know how, or another patient." That seemed almost too easy. Would that be possible to do, to reverse the effects on the Head Doctor? As Taura said, supposedly it was possible. Landel was too confident.

[sixth_attack]

"You kidding me? You went back for the Sphinx?" was all Sechs could say before Taura rushed past him up the stairs. With no choice but to follow, he ascended the steps with Aigis close behind him. He allowed himself to go on autopilot while his brain tried to process what Taura had just announced.

The Sphinx?! Really? Had Taura really just released that creature from the basement? Was this some sort of sense of humor he hadn't seen from her yet? The last time Sechs encountered the enigmatic being was when he and Aigis were confronted by a riddle which could have resulted in their deaths if they gave the wrong answer! Even though Sechs promised a battle with the Sphinx the next time they met, now wasn't exactly the time for such a monstrous opponent to get in their way! Was the Sphinx really on their side tonight?

The subject of their unlikely rival was quickly replaced by plans to disable their main target, Landel. Sechs focused his mind back to the task at hand. If Taura was as sure about the Sphinx as she sounded, then all Sechs could do was trust her (and the Sphinx as well, wherever he may be prowling right now...). "Alright..." he muttered between each step, "Whatever you say...!"

This time the stairway's upward spiral took longer to ascend than the others, for it bypassed the second floor and was leading the group to a level which only seemed to exist in rumors amongst the imprisoned population. The stairs then gave way to a door. As Sechs followed Taura across the threshold, he felt a surreal realization dawn on him, as though he had just silently passed through an ethereal sound barrier...

They had reached the third floor, the institute's final domain.

[To here.]