damned_institute | Day 29: Music Room

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Day 29: Music Room

Quatre was thankful that his "name" wasn't called to be visited, but there was always the next shift. He knew he probably should have hunted down his comrades to see if they were safe this shift as well and if they could think of a plan to escape. It was strange being in captivity, Quatre had never been caught by OZ and when one of the remaining White Fang factions had attempted to assassinate him, the action had resulted in the deaths of many innocent politicians and bureaucrats; people who had families and who had honestly been hoping to do the best with the peace that Quatre and so many like him had tried so hard to obtain.

There were a few things that could completely take Quatre's mind off even the most horrible of facts, one of them was music. So when the nurse mentioned that he could go to the 'Music Room' he couldn't help but want to at least look in the room. There was an assortment of instruments for him to choose from. There were no classical pieces to speak of, but Quatre considered the fact that an attentive enough patient could use a number of the pieces of a piano to kill someone. That and you couldn't really use headphones on a real flute.

He ran his fingers over the electric keyboard before sitting down to it.

He had once told a good friend, Noin, that he played what he felt and at the moment his anxiousness was overwhelming. If he played at least a little bit of it, it might release from him, might take some of the pressure from his heart.

That, and it would be reassuring to be doing something he loved to do. He placed the headphones on his ears, trying not to allow his emotions to affect any of the patients that might enter the room after him, and started to play.

The sound was dulled, probably for safety reasons, but that was probably for the best. If anyone spoke to him he would be able to hear, even if he let the music that his fingers played with electrical sound take him away from Landel's prison walls.

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"Yeah, I was on one of the buses," That seemed to be what a lot of people were talking about, and he really couldn't blame them. Even for SubZero, it had been an interesting experience.

A lot of people had probably been injured last night, since even he and HK had found fighting to be a little difficult last night.

Well at least they had something to talk about. Ami breathed a mental sigh of relief, afraid SubZero had sensed something about her ice powers and that was why he had come over. At least this was a safe topic.

"I was too. I'm wondering what exactly triggers the nurses and orderlies turning into monstrous creatures," Ami mused. "I wonder if it is similar to werewolves? That was the first time I've ever seen them change."

"It's probably nothing like werewolves, it changed the entire environment as well as the people, but it had no effect on the patients at all," SubZero pointed out.

Did werewolves even exist? Possibly in her world, but not in his.

He had a good point. Ami's brow creased in concentration. "That's true. Obviously whatever it is is being controlled, probably by Dr Landel, because none of the patients have ever had any side effects from being injured from one of them, as far as I can tell."

While Ami didn't really believe in ancient tales of werewolves and vampires on her home world, this was a completely different environment, and she'd heard there were vampires amongst the patients. Snapping back to attention, she asked, "So how is your robot friend? He wasn't too badly injured last night was he?"

"He took worse when he was struck by lightning," SubZero wasn't too concerned about HK, though, if he could survive that, then he could survive whatever else had hit him last night.

There was something odd that SubZero couldn't quite place about Ami, and it was irritating that he didn't know what it was.

Ami wasn't too sure, from SubZero's tone of voice when referring to HK, that the two were exactly friends. They did seem to hang around each other a lot though. Maybe it was more of an agreement than a friendship?

Glancing up, Ami noticed SubZero was studying her. She blushed and looked back down at her hands, hoping that he couldn't tell she was also an ice user ~~albeit a useless one at the moment~~, and she hurridly tried changing the topic.

"So what do you think of this whole visitors scenario? Do you think the whole thing is a sham?"

"Probably, I doubt if they abducted visitors from other worlds to visit people here that they'd be too cooperative. They're probably fakes," He raised an eyebrow at Ami's blushing, wondering why she was acting so odd.

Did she know something that he didn't?

While his comments were reassuring, Ami wasn't ready to rule anything out, especially since Dr Landel seemed to love tormenting the patients.

"I guess it's just another one of Dr Landels games," she said. "I still haven't figured out why we're all here. Are we just entertainment for him?"

SubZero was still looking at her oddly. Breathe Ami, he doesn't know anything about you.

"Well, a lot of people here are pretty talented in some way or another, there are at least a handful of assassins here, some ninjas, whatever Wolverine is..." SubZero shrugged slightly.

"Why he'd want to get a bunch of people like that together really isn't something I care about, I just want to get rid of this place and get out of here, I have work to do."

Ami seemed a little nervous, though SubZero really wasn't sure why. It wasn't like he was going to just attack her without provocation.

"But there are also a lot of younger people in here as well who don't seem to have any talents like that," she pointed out, thinking of Anthy. While Ami agreed with destroying the facility, she couldn't quite understand why SubZero wouldn't want to know why they were here.

"Surely though it would be beneficial to know why we were all placed in here so that we can prevent it from ever happening again," she persisted. "This," Ami gestured around the room, "could be part of a bigger plan or organisation."

"They're probably just hiding their abilities," SubZero said dismissively. If they weren't, they'd probably be dead by now.

"If I find anyone behind this when I get to Landel, I'll go after them too, otherwise, I have a sorcerer to hunt down as soon as I get my hands on Landel and get out of here," Quan Chi was a lot more important than whoever was giving Landel orders.... though, it was a close thing, if SubZero had an easy opportunity to go after Landel's boss it would be too tempting to pass up.

SubZero's comment hit the mark, even if he didn't realise it. Ami mentally winced. She wondered if people like Anthy were hiding their abilities, as she was doing. Certainly there were some like Logan and SubZero who broadcast their skills, but then they didn't seem to have a reason not to.

"Speaking of which, I know that people in here with various skills and powers have had them lessened. Has being in here affected your ice ability greatly?"

"Yes, I've been weakened a lot. I'm back to about where I was when I first started using my ice ability. Outside this place, I could take on the fire god himself and win," He had, but he doubted anyone here would actually believe him about that, but there was no telling.

SubZero didn't want to say exactly how weak that made him, it just went against how he had been trained to reveal exactly what his limitations were.

Hmm. It was interesting to hear that his ice ability had developed. So had hers, over time, however the big difference between them was that he was able to use ice naturally - she could only do it in her senshi form. Also, he sounded like he was a lot stronger than she was...if his story could be believed.

"That's quite impressive. You must be very powerful when you have your full abilities," Ami said, stroking his ego. It would be better for him to talk about himself than for the conversation to switch to her. "So what is the name of the fire god?" she asked, curious as to his background.

SubZero considered the question about the name of the fire god, trying to remember if he actually knew it.

"Fuujin, the wind god, was really the only one that talked. And after fighting the elemental gods of wind, earth, and water, as well as all their servants, then the servants of the fire god, I was in no mood for any kind of conversation." He had hated that temple, it had really been the most draining Job he had ever been on, and SubZero hoped never to set foot in another temple that was not controlled already by the Lin Kuei.

Ami blinked. He fought the Japanese Shinto gods and their servants? Ami didn't really believe in gods of any sort. She was more of the opinion that people who called themselves gods were just more powerful than those who worshipped them, thus creating the illusion of a god or goddess. Maybe that's what SubZero was referring to?

"So may I ask why you were fighting the four gods?" she said, filled with curiousity?

"Well, because that's where the map lead to..." He decided that he should just back up and summarize the entire thing.

"Well, first, I had to get this map that was guarded by a bunch of crazy monks. There was also a ninja after it, sent by the same guy who sent me just in case one of us failed. We didn't know that so we attacked one another and I won. The map gave directions to a temple hidden in the himalayan mountains, guarded by four elemental gods for as long as mortals have inhabited the Earth realm. Inside the temple was an amulet that I was sent to retrieve, but I couldn't do that unless I defeated all four of the gods," SubZero paused for a moment, deciding to elaborate that it wasn't quite as simple.

"But first I had to get through a bunch of traps and fight my way through a bunch of their followers that hadn't yet gotten themselves killed by the traps in the temple they were protecting."

Although it was amusing to use the traps to kill said followers, it got tedious after a while. Very tedious.

Ami's mind began to spin. What SubZero was describing was like something out of a game. She refrained from asking him how many coins he had collected, and instead focused on the reason behind the god killing, amulet collecting, multiple ninja mission.

"Er...so you're a part of an organisation?" she asked. "Were you able to get the amulet in the end?"

"Well... I accomplished the mission, but then I needed to go get the amulet back again since the sorcerer took it to the netherrealm," He'd leave out the whole part about the entire thing being his fault and the thunder god being angry with him.

SubZero just shrugged. "And I was on my way to the netherrealm when I ended up here by mistake. Or perhaps on purpose, I still haven't decided if this is some sort of cruel joke or not."

Ami put a hand on her temple. Sorcerors? The Netherrealm? Scratch game, now it was more like some elaborate fantasy novel.

"So magic common is common your world then?" she surmised. "It's very uncommon on mine. In fact, most people don't believe in magic." Little did they know, she thought.

"Not at all. Sorcerers aren't human," SubZero stated as a matter of fact. "There are a lot more people who can do stuff from Outworld," Who the hell had named the realms, anyway?

"Only people affiliated with gods or families that have abilities like mine really know about anything."

Ami blinked again. "They're not? What are they then?" she asked. She was becoming more fascinated by this world of his. There was so much to learn! Just think of what we could all learn from each other in Landel's!

She pounced on another topic. "So how many realms are there?"

"I don't really know what they are, just that they apparently aren't 'mortal'," SubZero considered the next question from Ami, and counted up all the realms that he knew about.

"No idea, but I know of four, including my own. And I don't know the name of whatever place we're currently in. I was traveling through a portal to the netherrealm that accidentally dumped me here instead. There's also whatever realm you're from, probably one that's just like mine," Were there multiple realms just like his? It made the most sense considering what he knew about this place.

Ami pondered his comments, her eyes showing that she was deep in thought as she scratched the tip of her nose. The notion of travelling between worlds was fascinating.

"Well, I come from a realm, as you put it, called Earth," Ami replied. "Where I'm from, we would call them 'worlds' instead of 'realms'.

"So do you have to create the portals or do they exist already in each realm?" It would be interesting to know if there was some such 'portal' on Earth, although it was highly unlikely.

"You have to create them, I think. The thunder god and that damn sorcerer are the only people I've ever seen who can actually do that. There might be a permanent one somewhere, but I doubt it," Then again, if there was a temple with an amulet belonging to the so-called god of the netherrealm, why not a permanent portal hidden somewhere too?

"I think other gods can probably create them as well."

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