Nightshift 25: 2nd floor hallway near staff research/medical reference library

[itneverwas.livejournal.com]

[From here]

If a being that lacked his heart could somehow have a heart attack, Xemnas would certainly have one as soon as the radio broke the deafening silence. As the man blurted his message, the Nobody found himself torn between listening to said message or trying to silence it. It would seem he had no choice in the matter, even despite the possible foes the noise would certainly attract. If it was possible for Xemnas to do so, he would certainly regret bringing the item along this little trip.

Naturally a curious man, the message was merely fuel to the fire. Where the Dead rested..., certainly some of the patients must have perished during their stay, leaving a mere corpse behind. There was no graveyard to speak of, yet those bodies needed to be stored somewhere...

Even so, the Superior had no idea where he could find such a place, as he still hadn't fully mapped the institute. Added to the fact he still had no decent weapon...it seemed incredibly unwise to pursue the supposed clue unless he would have some means to defend himself. There was also the possibility it was a trap. How much could this man of the radio be trusted, after all? What could be said of him?

He continued ascending the stairs, eventually reaching the very spot he had been a few nights ago. He had gone straight ahead back then, now there were both the options of left and right. After a moment's pause, he finally chose to head left.

[To here]

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[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

Indeed, there were other things to worry about in an Institute filled with madmen and monsters, and for this unlucky group they would soon cross paths with something worse than ghosts.

The pair came rushing at the group in an alarming speed, scalpel-like fingers gleaming even in the darkness of the hallway. The Nurses struck without warning, aiming their arms high and swung down at the one target nearest to them: Roy.

[felled-hero.livejournal.com]

Hughes was going to respond, but the advance of the nurses stopped him from speaking. This was bad. When was the last time he'd faced off against nurses? Even after everything he'd seen, those twisted mockeries of human beings still bothered him more than any monster he'd yet met.

They came out of nowhere, moving with a speed that greatly disturbed the soldier. Immediately he pulled out a knife, readying it quickly and letting it fly at the closest nurse. He aimed for her head, hoping to at least push it back from its attack on Roy.

Now was the real test to see if he and Greed could work together.

[grabby-hands.livejournal.com]

Greed was about to concurr with Roy's nonchalance about whatever voices Hughes had encountered when he sensed something coming down the hallway that wasn't in his imagination at all. He saw Hughes move and darted to the side himself, whirling around to face the monster with his claws at the ready.

He'd have to focus harder this time than he had before. Back home, he'd been at the top of his game and had been able to heal as much as his own damn head if it got chopped off, but here, his reflexes were crap and his regeneration was completely absent. His ignorance of those factors hadn't helped him much with the dogs he'd encountered earlier in his stay, and though he felt slight trepidation at facing a monster while knowing how little he had to fight back with, he at least knew he needed to compensate for his weakness.

And besides, he'd be damned if he lost again or became weakened enough that he couldn't kill Kimbley the next time they met.

He saw the trajectory of the monster's attack and lunged as he glanced towards Roy and yelled.

"SHIELD!"

[muted-flame.livejournal.com]

They did seem to come out of nowhere--Roy had forgotten how suddenly an attack could drop in, without even a second's pause to catch his breath. He only needed to vaguely see the outlines of them to know what they were. He and Hughes had dealt with nurses before (he remembered one particular time they and two others had faced off against four of them), but he wondered if Greed had come face-to-face with any yet.

The half-humans were disturbing to look at. The chimera-like creatures were a lot easier to handle, psychologically. Not that any of that mattered when he was working on instinct. He had two people with him, jumping to the ready and not hesitating to attack. He needed to do the same, which meant he had to stop thinking so much.

Most importantly, he needed to get out of the way. As he saw the scalpels arcing down, he did all he could to jump back and out of their range. Greed's yell came through the clamor, and he steeled himself. It was now or never, and what better way to learn than being thrown into the middle of things?

He started to focus, but not too hard, and just wished, with as much greed as he could muster, for his hands to harden into claws.

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

Luckily for Roy, the momentum of the knife Hughes threw was enough to force the Nurse back somewhat, its hand completely missing its target as it swiped downwards. Unfortunately, the bladed instrument had imbedded itself into its shoulder instead of its intended target. And so the warped creature wretched it out with a loud shriek, throwing it back at Hughes without a second glance.

The other nurse, undisturbed by the other elements around it, swung its hand down at its target. Though it wasn't expecting Roy's hands to suddenly harden, the ends of the scalpels creating sparks as it scraped down the rock hard surface with little to no effect.

[felled-hero.livejournal.com]

Kinfe throwing nurses weren't good. They weren't good at all. Hughes jerked up his hand in barely enough time, fingers snatching at the hilt of his knife and fumbling, dropping it to the ground. He hadn't caught it, but he'd stopped it from skewering himself at least.

And he had two other knives. One of which was already in his hand. Roy looked like he was doing alright, using his... other talents. Hughes decided to focus on the first nurse he'd attacked, dropping low and hurling the second knife towards the creature's midsection.

[grabby-hands.livejournal.com]

At least it looked like these two guys knew what they were doing, as Greed didn't much feel like babysitting others while his own powers were out-of-whack. From what he could tell, the Hughes guy was a knives kind of guy while Mustang... well, maybe he'd get lucky.

While the nurse was distracted with the other two, Greed lunged from the side, claws in the air as he swiped down with both of them into the nurse's shoulder.

[muted-flame.livejournal.com]

It all happened so suddenly that Roy was taken by surprise when he had sparks jumping right near his face. He closed his eyes and tried to yank himself back and away from the nurse, but he knew he was supposed to attack. He was pretty sure some knife-tossing was going on between Hughes and the other nurse, not that he could pay much attention, and so he wanted to get rid of this one so he could be certain his friend was all right.

He wasn't as worried about Greed. He was rather certain a homunculus could take care of itself. That fact was reinforced when he saw the sin come in from the side to help him. Roy pushed the nurse back and then yanked his hand up and down, hoping to slash open the thing's chest with his new found claws.

[damned-nurses.livejournal.com]

The knife easily found itself at the nurse's midsection, the creature screaming as blood poured from the wound. But unlike last time it didn't bother to pull it out, dashing at Hughes and raised both hands high into the air before slashing down at the armed man.

Unfortunately, the other nurse wasn't so lucky. With two targets to worry about the monster became confused, crying when pairs of claws imbedded themselves into its flesh in a flurry of slashes. Wounds ran down its chest and shoulder, but that didn't mean it'd easily lose its opportunity to strike. Forcing to move around its deepening wounds, the nurse jabbed one hand at Greed's face while the other swiped at Roy's chest.

[felled-hero.livejournal.com]

Hughes had hardly any time to duck. Instead he flung up an arm, to catch the attack and hopefully deflect it before severe damage was done. Though the slice and sting he felt on his arm told him that maybe he'd just managed to take the severe damage on a non-lethal area.

It hurt like hell.

But the nurse was still bearing down on him. Hughes gritted his teeth in pain and brought out his final knife, not throwing it but using it as a held blade, jabbing out and up and aiming for the nurse's throat.

At least Greed and Roy seemed to be doing alright.

[grabby-hands.livejournal.com]

Greed tried to dodge away from the nurse's attack, but retreating after putting his full momentum into lunging didn't seem to be an option, and he instead lost his balance and fell to the ground with less grace than he'd intended.

The homunculus hit the floor with a loud grunt, rolling away from his opponent and shooting up into a crouching position to view the situation. He already felt a sharp sting across the scratches that Kimbley had left across his cheek and knew that the nurse had landed a blow on him. Although he wasn't as careless--and wounded--as he had been when confronted with those rotting dogs, the reminder that he was no better than a human in this place still bothered him immensely.

His eyes darted to the side, and he noticed immediately that Hughes wasn't doing so well. Greed might have not liked the guy, but a means was a means, and he wanted to stay on the good list of these two for now.

And so, Greed grit his teeth and ran at the nurse that was attacking Hughes, swinging his shielded fist towards its side.

[muted-flame.livejournal.com]

The nurse was lucky enough for both hits to get in, and Roy was once again left with gashes down his chest. They weren't as severe as the wounds he had gotten from the guardian of the entry room door, but he wasn't exactly happy about it, either. It still hurt, and it didn't help that his attention was divided by the fact that he was pretty certain Hughes was in danger.

Greed seemed to be taking care of that, though, and while the alchemist was surprised, he wouldn't let that distract him for too long. Working off of the adrenaline granted to him by his recent injury, he lunged toward the nurse, determined to finish it off. Both of his claws (he still wasn't quite accustomed to the fact that he could even have claws, but he was working with what he had at his disposal) were out, and he went straight for the neck.