damned_institute | Hallway Outside Sun Room

"You can heal people?" That was a question, with just a hint of respect. Anybody could learn to fight, but it was what came after the fight that was a lot harder to deal with.

He shifted, not quite uncomfortable, but definitely uncertain. Not that holding to the 'just a florist' routine was really applicable during nightshift, but admitting things still felt weird. "Ranged fighters are only as useful as their weapons, and the ones here..." He shrugged. "Anyway, I don't think he was planning on us fighting at all tonight. Not that plans matter much here."

Artemis looked slightly surprised, "Yes, I can. Of course, how well I can heal wounds is up to debate, but I am physically capable."

Great--another ranged fighter. Well, Artemis had just guessed that Haku was a ranged fighter based on the boy's insistence that a scalpel was best used as a throwing weapon. But, in this instance, Artemis was well-equipped to handle the situation--literally.

"I have two packages of syringes that I stole from the Pharmacy. Would those suit you better? I have no idea how to use them as weapons, but you might be able to handle them better."

It was the truth--Artemis had stolen the syringes because they were pointy and sharp. How he would actually use them never crossed his mind.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/189165.html?thread=13024237#t13024237)]

Finally deciding that it was better to dare few awkward moments than the sense of danger lingering in the air, Aya made his way quickly to Omi and the other young man, hoping he wouldn't interrupt anything important. He shifted the knife he had hidden under his sleeve around, and when he paused beside Omi, he offered it to the smaller assassin, handle first.

"I forgot to give you this," he said silently. Obviously Aya thought he was beyond simple 'hellos' as well. "You can throw it. The balance isn't completely off."

He waited for Omi to accept the knife before moving away. He wanted to find both Ken and Yohji and make sure there was nothing to be worried about in the intercom post.

Omi had been about to respond to the offer, rather enthusiastically in fact, when Aya approached them. He actually managed to surprise Omi into silence by offering the knife, which left him unable to do much except accept the weapon with a quiet 'thanks' as Aya left again. He really should have protested Aya handing over a useful weapon, but the gesture made him bite his tongue and just take the knife.

After a minute, he shook his head and focused back on Artemis. "Syringes? Can I see one?"

Artemis watched in silent wonder as a man came, gave Omi a knife, then left as abruptly as he had come. Frowning, Artemis jerked his head at the retreating man. "Who was that, and where can I sign up for strange men to give me weapons?"

The boy chuckled at his own joke, pulling the packages of syringes out of his right coat pocket. He opened the bag easily, pulled one out and handed it to Omi. "Perhaps you could make them a bit heavier by filling them with water."

"Aya-kun, and if I knew, I'd tell you." He was really starting to wonder whether more had changed over the time gap between them than he'd thought.

He took the syringe, studying it as well as he could in the darkness of the hallway. It was lighter than the pens, even, so it wouldn't fly very well on its own. He'd need to fill it with something, but there wasn't exactly an obvious solution to that problem at hand. "Water would work, but you'd have to be careful to keep it from sloshing around and throwing the balance off."

He turned the syringe over in his hands, thinking out loud. "There're enough poisonous monsters around, it shouldn't be that hard to get hold of venom or something. Maybe a sedative, if you could find it. Not perfect, but..." He trailed off. It was the closest he'd come to a weapon he was used to so far.

"There are probably some sedatives in the Pharmacy--I was in a bit of a rush, so I didn't check what else was in there." Artemis looked thoughtful for a moment. "If you filled the syringes the usual way, the water probably wouldn't slosh around."

The boy shrugged, "But you seem resourceful. I'm sure you'll figure something out.

"I'm sorry!" The boy said suddenly, "I never introduced myself. Artemis Fowl, the Second. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tsukiyono."

When Peter had witnessed an older man walking up to one of the boys and offering a knife to him, he had assumed the worst and had started to half-run over to the kids. But the boy had taken the weapon without much of a reaction and the redhead had left without another word.

He didn't like it - kids having to resort to fighting, handling weapons like it was normal? It put a bad taste in his mouth. He knew he had just been a kid himself when he'd started fighting crime, but this was different. He just wasn't sure how yet.

He approached the two, assuming that Clark was following. However, once he was standing in front of the two boys, he realized he hadn't really planned out what he was going to say. He was used to young boys loving Spider-man, so when he had the suit on, dealing with them was a piece of cake, but at the moment he was just Peter Parker, and therefore a lot less interesting.

"Hey, are you two okay out here?" He glanced over at the Sun Room's entrance, but stopped himself from getting a proper look. "You shouldn't really be hanging around here if you can help it."

Clark came half-jogging up behind Peter - the adult had taken off after seeing someting he hadn't - and peered past his shoulder at the two middle schoolers. Now that Clark was a lot closer, he realized that one of the "middle schoolers" was actually his age, and just looked a lot younger from far away.

He wasn't sure why one of them was holding a knife, but he assumed it was hopefully for self-defense. He didn't want to have to disarm anyone and risk hurting them, especially in a situation like this. It could get a bit awkward if a knife was to just "magically" overheat for no reason, but he could always try to play dumb like always. While it looked like Peter had a handle on stuff here, Clark couldn't keep his mouth shut:

"You guys okay?" he chimed up. "Do you know what's going on here?"

Omi was planning out how to best add a counterweight that would both balance the liquid and help push the plunger in after the syringe struck its target. It was very complicated, creating the low-tech equivalent of a tranquilizer dart. So he was only halfway listening when Artemis started to introduce himself. "Huh? Oh. Nice to meet you, too, but you can just call me Omi."

And then even more people were approaching them. He glanced at Artemis in a 'friends of yours?' sort of way. They both had an air of 'protect the kids' about them, which, while understandable, bothered Omi, which was also understandable. "We're fine. We're waiting for someone, and he told us to meet him here so it's not really 'hanging around.' We're still fine, and not really. In that order. Who are you?"

Omi had silently asked if Artemis knew the two young men who had approached, but all the boy could offer was a shrug. He didn't know these two people.

But the words that came out of their mouths made it clear that not only did he not know these two, these two did not know him. Treating him like some child... preposterous!

"As much as I would like to leave this place, Mr. Tsukiyono and I have business here. We are waiting for Captain Hitsugaya, and therefore, leaving without him would be quite pointless, wouldn't you say?" Artemis' tone was cutting, but he enjoyed the part where he revealed he was no normal teenaged boy.

"As for 'knowing what's going on here', I think it's fairly obvious," Artemis said with a smirk, gesturing to the door. "Judging from the racket thats emanating from the doors, it's fairly clear that there is a brainwashed patient in there--probably one Captain Hitsugaya has some attachment to. Probably the one causing this... dreadful feeling--but I can't be certain yet."

Artemis smiled at the two, "And I will have to ask the same question Mr. Tsukiyono did: who exactly are you two?"

Peter had to admit that it looked like these two had things under control. It also seemed like they didn't enjoy being treated like they couldn't handle themselves, but what was he supposed to assume? Most kids their age totally wouldn't be ready for this sort of thing, but he was going to have to accept that things were different here. The patients weren't all normal civilians, or so he had to guess at this point.

Also, the one kid, who actually looked like the younger of the two - who talked like that? Maybe he had just been raised that way, but it was a little zany. He would have gotten the crap beaten out of him if he'd spoken that way at Peter's old high school.

What really caught his attention was the mention of brainwashing. "Brainwashed? What are you talking about?" Maybe it had been stupid of him to come over here and try to help these kids when they seemed to know more than he did. Oh well, the damage was done.

As for the question, it wasn't like he was anyone of importance, and he didn't know if that was what they were expecting. Maybe all they wanted was a name. "I'm Peter Parker," he said, and he figured he would leave Clark's introduction for him to take care of.

Brainwashed? What? Clark was two seconds away from asking before Peter beat him to it and asked for them.

"Clark," Clark said, when he sensed that it was his turn to introduce himself, and sheepishly gave a little grin. "Clark Kent."

What was with these kids? The youngest of the two acted like he belonged in college or something, what with how he kept calling his friend "Mr." ahd how...well, formal he was. Clark couldn't help feeling a bit taken aback as he sized up the two boys. Despite the fact that he was both bigger and maybe a bit older than them (with superpowers, no less), Clark couldn't help feeling like he was the kid here.

Artemis got a raised eyebrow from Omi, too. That little speech was certainly interesting. Not that Omi would have been underestimating the boy, since Hitsugaya obviously thought there was some good reason to bring him along, but it was still odd to hear him talking like that.

"I'm Omi, and that's Artemis." He pocketed the syringe to study later, and tucked the knife out of sight where he'd be unlikely to fall on it. "They can turn patients against each other. That's what the intercom was talking about."

"Artemis Fowl, the Second," the boy said, gently adding to Omi's introduction. He prided himself on the fact that both he and his father had earned the name Artemis. "Pleasure to meet you both."

And indeed it was. After all, Spiderman and Superman were standing before him. Though Clark looked a bit younger than Artemis was used to, and he'd only seen Peter Parker in comic books before.

"Yes, apparently every other night, patients are taken from their rooms, brainwashed, and ordered to attack fellow patients," Artemis frowned, "Can't say I know many of the particulars--I haven't seen a brainwashed patient myself. But I do know that the subject regains full use of his or her abilities, receives his or her familiar weapon and... their normal clothes."

For Artemis, this was a big plus. If he ever was brainwashed, he needed to instruct someone to liberate him of his suit. He missed his suits.

"In fact, I'm curious to see who the lucky patient is, and what they look like," Artemis said, craning his neck towards the door. "I wonder how the Captain is faring."

The Second. Right. That sort of pride in your bloodline sort of reminded him of Norman Osbourne, but he didn't really want to think about that right now. Harry's death was still fresh in his mind, and it wasn't something he had the time to deal with now. Then again, it had been a while since he'd had proper time to grieve for anyone.

Brainwashing, though... That was pretty frightening, mainly because he didn't want to consider what he would do if it ever happened to him. It would probably be similar to what had happened to him when he was the symbiote's host, but there wouldn't even be space to doubt himself about it.

So, whoever was in there was strong enough that they could all literally feel his (or her) power. Or at least that was what Peter had to assume.

While he had no idea who the "Captain" was, he didn't like the idea of someone being in there when it was so dangerous. He was going to ask the two boys details about that, but then he felt something.

He closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled. Someone had just sped past at a ridiculous speed, out into the hallway. Peter tensed and looked around, wishing his night vision was better as he tried to make out what looked like two shapes on the other side of the hallway. First he caught a shock of white hair, and then--

Eddie? What had happened? Peter quickly turned to the three he was with. "I need to go and see what's going on over there," he rushed to say, pointing. "Stay here, though. It might be dangerous." He had no idea what Eddie was up to, but there was no reason to lead anyone else into a potential trap. He didn't have time to wait for confirmation from anyone, so he could only hope they would listen as he moved away from them and toward Brock.

Clark was still struggling to deal with that fact that they actually brainwashed the people here and then sicced them on their friends when Peter suddenly announced he was leaving the group. Clark opened his mouth to protest, but shut it; Peter was right, it was probably best to stay back with the kids, even if he wasn't that much older. Sighing, the farmboy instead nodded, and watched Peter disappear down the dark hall.

He was pretty sure he'd have no problems protecting Omi and Artemis, but he also had to wonder if it was such a good idea for all of them to be so close to the Sun Room - it sounded like that place was ground zero for one of these brainwashed people. Clark was of half a mind to go snap him, or her, out of it before people got hurt, but he didn't want to run off playing hero until he was sure that these two were someplace safe.

"Why would they do that to people?" Clark asked, glancing from Omi to Artemis. "What do they think they'll get from it?"

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/189165.html?thread=13118701#t13126125)]

Hitsugaya stormed over to his two teammates and Clark, looking pissed off. His wounds stung, and what was worse, he lost to Ichimaru. Certainly it wasn't a fair fight, but it stung to know that Ichimaru had beaten him.

Not to mention the idiots who kept waltzing into the Sun Room like it was a sake bar. Morons.

Ignoring Clark for the time being, he glanced to Omi and Artemis. "You two look like you're ready to go. We're going to be investigating the doctor's offices tonight. Can either of you pick a lock?"

'Because they can' seemed almost as good an answer as any, and it would have been his answer to Clark had Hitsugaya not chosen that moment to show up. Which was probably great timing, since it stopped Omi from having to go to him.

Then again, once Omi got a look at him, it probably would have been better for him not to be moving around so much at all.

"I could, if I had the tools." He bit his lip, thinking. "The syringe needles might be strong enough. I could try, anyway. More important, though, what happened?"

Artemis stared at Hitsugaya, wondering to himself how the ~~shrimp~~ Captain managed to get himself injured... again.

But, a medic was a medic--and Artemis was the medic on duty in this situation. The bottles were heavy in his pocket, almost begging him not to take them out and waste them on Hitsugaya. He, Artemis, needed them to survive. And wasn't now as good a time as any to test out his healing potential?

"Here," Artemis said, pulling out one of the bottles, "My report. After you passed out, I treated your wounds using the monster's blood. It has healing properties. I then bottled what I could using pill bottles I stole from the Pharmacy." He extended the bottle to Hitsugaya. "It isn't necessary to drink the whole bottle. Abarai-san merely licked the blood off his fingers and was healed. A small sip should do."

After giving the bottle to Hitsugaya, Artemis looked up at Clark, "And I still don't know why people are brainwashed or experimented on, Mr. Kent. Once I do know, it will become public knowledge, believe me."

Mr. Kent? Clark didn't think he could get ever used to being called that, but he didn't bother correcting Artemis and telling him that the only man who was called that was his dad.

Most of the conversation was going over his head - monster blood? Reports? - but he had caught enough that he didn't like what he was seeing. A locked door wouldn't have been a problem, but he wasn't sure if he should just volunteer himself for it; they'd never been an issue for him in the past, but then again, he'd always just poked out the locks and broke the knobs, none the wiser. He wasn't sure he could get away with that here. Clark kept his mouth shut on that for now.

"Who's in charge? Does anyone know?" Clark asked, still trying to get some answers. Not the Luthors, he pleaded, not them this time, this's way too far for either of them.

Hitsugaya took the vial from Artemis. The idea of drinking a monster's blood didn't seem particularly appealing, but neither did wandering around with these burns. He took a slight sip and grimaced slightly at the unpleasant flavor. Still, he felt a slight effect as the worst of his burns began to lessen. The sip didn't entirely heal him--he still felt sore, and all of his burns remained--but there was a remarkable improvement.

"Eh, I'm not fully healed," Hitsu answered, handing the vial back. "But this should be good enough. We don't want to waste it if we can help it. How many vials did you get?"

Clark's question made Hitsugaya pause. Who's in charge? Did they manage to pick up someone on their first night? Great. He glanced at the man. "Let me guess. You're new here and have no idea what's going on?"

He glanced back at the door to the sun room nervously. Gin's presence there made him nervous. Still, he supposed there was enough time for a quick explanation while he waited for the blood to finish coursing through his body. "Hitsugaya Toshiro," he said in formal greetings. "In my world captain of what could be best compared to an elite police force, 10th Division Unit Leader. Here, leader of the Arts and Crafts division, one of two current organizations working together to bring this place down. We don't know exactly who's in charge. We know the face of the enemy is one Dr. Martin Landel, the voice you hear over the intercom. We have a source which indicates that he has superiors as well, but the credibility of that source is dubious at best."

He paused, waiting for questions.

He huffed softly as his question was ignored. Not that it was that important, but the team leader in him rebelled against doing anything without all the facts, even those that might affect his mission only peripherally. But if Hitsugaya was fine- and he seemed to be, thanks to that.. whatever it was- then he'd let it go. He would have to ask about whatever was in the vials. Did they say it was blood? That was even weirder than most things around here.

He pulled the syringe back out, turning it over in his hands, considering whether it would be long and sturdy enough to use as a lock pick. Probably not, but he could try. He also had darts from Kurama that might work better.

He listened to the conversation while allowing his attention to focus on the syringe.

Artemis paused, frowning. The blood should have worked better than that. Perhaps because the injuries sustained were from one of Hitsugaya's acquaintances? One never knew. For now, Artemis contented himself with the fact that Hitsugaya hadn't stepped on his foot at the suggestion of not wasting the blood. Maybe the two could get along after all.

The boy tucked the bottle back in his pocket, just as the radio sounded. Artemis frowned at the box around his waist, pulled out his journal and pen, and began scribbling frantically. He was, quite possibly, even more hellbent on keeping accurate records since meeting Light and Ryuga. He had to stay on top--and the slightest detail could win it for him.

"And who is this dubious source, Captain Hitsugaya?" Artemis asked, not afraid to enter the conversation uninvited. He snapped his journal shut and tucked the pen away.

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