damned_institute | Nightshift 33: Men's Bathrooms (M81

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/398710.html?thread=31925878#t31925878)]

Vlad was quiet as he entered the bathroom, although the flashlight made the entrance to the otherwise dark room less than inconspicuous. He shone the light around the floor a bit, and saw the outline of a small figure against the sinks.

"Ah, Daniel. Well, did you manage to make it here without hurting yourself further?" Vlad shone the light a little higher, though not quite at eye-level. Temporarily blinding Daniel might be funny for a moment, but they were trying to work together nice and civilly, after all.

If Vlad was trying to be sneaky, it wasn't working very well. The sudden flood of light as he entered gave him away, and Danny turned his head towards the entrance to face the man with a glare.

"Yeah, actually. I do know my way around these rooms, believe it or not." He was also going to mention the fact that for some reason, he had been moved from one block of rooms to another entirely, but it didn't seem like a very important detail. Instead, he held up his left hand, the folded-up maps gripped between his fingers. "And I have the maps this time."

Just in case Vlad felt like making a joke about his navigational skills.

"Yes, and I'm sure those maps are a great help in the dark with no flashlight." Vlad walked over towards the sinks. There really was no helping the arguing, was there? A few little murder attempts here and there could really ruin a working relationship.

Then again, this was going to be an effort at teamwork. And apparently, pipe removal. "Still keen on attempting to get a pipe from here?" Vlad looked over the sinks again, frowning a little. Frankly, the entire room had a distasteful scent that he was fairly sure wasn't present in the bathrooms during the daytime. "You're the one with the experience in plumbing. Any recommendations?"

Oddly, it was only then that Vlad realized Daniel, with one arm, couldn't possibly be expected to force one of the pipes free. Which meant Vlad was going to be the one doing any pipe removal. How lovely. He couldn't even count on simply phasing a part of the pipes free, with his powers so off; that would take control, and he was more likely to just phase his hand through the pipe or possibly fail to turn anything intangible at all. Getting his arm wet would be less embarrassing.

"Except there is a flashlight," he countered, getting the last word in the argument before the conversation turned to pipes. He turned around to take a look at them, wondering where they could sever the pipes as if he actually knew anything about how they were assembled.

"As long as it's long enough to hit something without getting too close," he shrugged. It didn't even have to be straight, as far as he was concerned, and the last time he took a pipe, he wasn't even really focusing on where he took it. It was more of a sort of get-the-pipe-and-go situation.

He also figured it was best not to mention that blood might come out of the pipes instead of water. It hadn't happened since, but he also hadn't been stealing pipes from bathrooms since. He had no way of knowing whether or not blood was going to come pouring out of a pipe as soon as they took it. If it did...well, at least Danny would be prepared for it. More prepared than last time, anyway.

"Yes, now that you are at your destination and have no need of maps, there is a flashlight available." This could continue all night, couldn't it? Vlad did his best to resolve to ignore anything Daniel said about maps or flashlights next, and to focus on the problem at hand.

And what a problem it was. Any universe in which Vlad Masters was unscrewing plumbing was not a universe which should rightly exist. At least he didn't have to worry too much about the fruits of his labor being turned against him; Daniel would have to swing with his left arm, for now.

"... I hope you appreciate this," Vlad muttered. He placed the flashlight on the floor at a helpful angle before wrapping his hands around one of the pipe fixtures to give an experimental turn. It loosened with surprising ease, and after a bit of force it came lose. With the pipe's freedom came a nice small flood of brackish liquid down his forearms.

Vlad held the newly-freed pipe at arm's length for a moment, wincing at the smell and the liquid's odd off color. It certainly didn't look like anything that rightfully should come from a sink. It didn't even look like something that should come from a toilet. He couldn't place his finger on what it did remind him of, but if he'd been aware of the option, he would vastly have preferred blood. At least having one's arms blood-soaked had a sort of class to it.

"One down, then." The now emptied pipe was placed to the side, and he shifted his weight to the next sink in line. Well, perhaps whatever they hit with it would get some sort of horrible infection if it didn't die immediately. Faint comfort. "You know, Daniel, you never did mention what happened to the pipe you said you had before."

"We're not spending the entire night in here, though," he pointed out as Vlad lowered to retrieve the pipes.

He loosened up a bit once he saw that there was no blood in the pipes. It wasn't the fact that there was blood in the pipes that bothered him that night, it was more that the blood had to come from somewhere...or rather, someone. The idea of the head doctor keeping a bunch of prisoners somewhere, killing them, and then pouring their blood into the sewage system seemed all too real (and morbid, especially for Danny to make up on his own).

Of course, there was something immaturely amusing about Vlad being covered in sewage liquids and Danny couldn't help but snicker to himself. It actually made Danny glad, in a way, that his arm was broken--at least Vlad had to take apart both pipes, sparing Danny the effort of doing it himself and getting covered in it just as much as Vlad.

"The other pipe?" Danny wasn't in a mood to admit that he lost it back then. He had been in a rush, after all, but if he let Vlad know about it, he would never hear the end of it. "The monster I was fighting snapped it in two." That was a reasonable lie...right?

He was not responding to that. No. Absolutely not. Instead, he grit his teeth as he finished freeing the other pipe, then looked up at Daniel balefully.

"Hilarious, yes. If you're finished snickering, you're welcome, please do try to keep your dog from eating this one, or whatever ridiculous excuse that was. I wasn't really listening." Vlad handed over the newly freed pipe, just because it was still slightly damp. Honestly, this was too tempting. Daniel was incapacitated, Vlad technically had two metal sewage pipes available, they were alone in a dark room and nobody probably even knew Daniel was meeting with Vlad tonight.

It was almost a pity that his main goal for the moment was to keep Daniel alive.

"Now, if we're all done here..." Vlad stood, lifting his own pipe in his right hand. At least it did feel nice and heavy. Would probably impact well against a skull, even a very thick skull. "... there's the issue of your flashlight. I understand one of the storage rooms upstairs contains flashlights--if we travel there, we can possibly replace your lost one. Assuming you would like to do so and don't fancy wandering around in the dark at nights indefinitely."

It felt good to know that he had the last word in that little argument of theirs.

Of course, when he took hold of the pipe that Vlad gave him, he found it was still somewhat wet from whatever it was that had been in the sewage. Of course Vlad would give him the nastier one (and he was fairly certain this one was the nastier of the two, since Vlad really had no reason to give him the nicer pipe if there was one). It didn't exactly feel sanitary, but he would just have to make do. He set the pipe on the ground, wiping it on his pants before gripping it again. Now he had sewage on his pants too, but it was better on his clothes than his hand.

"I don't wander around on purpose," he huffed automatically. "And what about that thing on the intercom earlier? That doesn't happen every night." Danny didn't even usually pay much attention to the announcements at night, but tonight, there was something definitely off about it.

"Yes... the message was a bit unusual." Out of curiosity, Vlad went to one of the undamaged sinks and turned the tap. After a moment, the same noxious liquid came out. He shut the tap off, scowling at the bathroom fixture. He could at least get a chance to wash his hands...

"Hold still." Vlad rather callously reached out and dried his hands on the shoulder of Danny's arm, over the sling. "There, that's better!" Brightly, he reached for his own pipe, before Daniel got any ideas about taking a swing at him for it. "So, the message was strange, wasn't it? I passed outdoors and saw something unusual, likely another brainwashed patient, so if you had any urges to run out and start climbing fences, it'll likely meet resistance. I suggest, while we're still managing not to murder each other, that we go on and find a replacement flashlight for you."

Edited 2008-07-11 06:25 (UTC)

Danny frowned as Vlad wiped his hands on his shoulder as if he was a towel. In response, Danny lifted his pipe and wiped the wet end of it on Vlad's arm. If he was going to have gross sewage liquid on him, then Vlad should have some too (never mind that he already had some on him from removing the pipes in the first place).

Brainwashed patient? Yeah, Danny would have liked to avoid one of them...having been one himself, he knew how much damage they could deal. A broken arm was bad enough, he didn't want to end up with something more serious. He remembered how Vlad had been wheelchair-bound, and shuddered at the idea.

"Fine. Replacement flashlight it is," he finally said. It was a lot better than the alternative of having to face a brainwashed patient, even if the idea of trying to escape the place was tempting.

Vlad looked remarkably annoyed at Danny's wiping the pipe off on his arm. "Excuse me!" After all, he wouldn't have had gunk on his own arms in the first place if he hadn't been getting the stupid pipes, Daniel's own request. The urge to return the tap and wiping of the pipe with a nice firm swing towards the arm still in the sling was held back, and Vlad turned towards the door instead, holding his flashlight in his spare hand.

Why did he bother...? That was right, he needed Daniel alive. A perfectly good excuse. "The flashlights are upstairs. I believe the announcements tonight also mentioned some of the testing tonight, so there will probably be people up there trying to rescue the poor test subjects, and that will make our travel easier."

Not that Daniel probably paid attention enough to know that the nights included experiments on the patients.

Now that he had his mini-revenge, Danny lowered the pipe, adjusting his grip on it to hold it better. Vlad wiped sewage on Danny's arm, and Danny wiped sewage on Vlad's--that was good enough for him.

"Fine. So are we gonna go, or stay in here poking pipes at each other?" he asked impatiently, starting to walk toward the door.

Danny did, in fact, know about the experiments on patients, if only vaguely. He wasn't usually one for pessimism, but he had to wonder--what if they were released while they were on the second floor and were brainwashed or something so that they began injuring people? Well, that's what the pipes were for.

Speaking of...they hadn't transformed yet. Danny, for one, didn't want to resort to doing something like that in a hallway full of people--especially people who could potentially find out that Danny Fenton was the same kid who had gone berserk and injured a bunch of people. So he did it now, the two usual circles forming at mid-body and separating to leave his ghost half standing where his human half had just been. "You coming?"

My, but that head was a tempting target when it was glowing white like that. It probably wouldn't even do much damage... then again, with their powers off, it'd be a pity to give the boy brain damage by mistake.

Not much of one, but still. "Yes, we're going. I'm not changing." Vlad looked Daniel up and down and turned his flashlight off for the moment, since Danny provided enough light to see the door, at least. "For one thing, Vlad Masters and Danny Phantom have already been linked to each other; our traveling together will further cement the idea that you are essentially a harmless patient who has an older family friend also imprisoned in this area. That is good for both of us. For another, teal looks very bad with yellow and gray."

That said, Vlad pushed the doors open and stepped out, to where they couldn't possibly argue about it thanks to company.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/398710.html?thread=32169334#t32169334)]

The bathrooms did seem to be a common place for people to get metal. Brooklyn realized even as he entered that someone had already gone and removed the piping under the sinks. Those weren't the only metal pieces in the room, but they would have been the easiest to break off. According to Skuld, anyway. If only he'd had his regular strength he could have ripped off the faucet - the whole sink eve - with very little trouble.

As it was, he checked over the condition of his shovel to see if it might be able to withstand prying the faucets off. If only he had something like a screwdriver or a wrench...

To heck with it.

The shovel was brought down hard on one of the sinks, several times, filling the bathroom with deafening clangs as the end broke the porcelain. He'd get the metal one way or another.

Several minutes later, dirty and sweaty and utterly stunned all the noise he'd made hadn't called something down on him, Brooklyn had a couple faucets and whatever pipes he'd managed to undo and break off. It was a rather grimy and nasty collection - and at this point he wasn't looking too pretty himself, but hopefully it would be enough for Skuld.

And he got some small satisfaction tearing up anything that belonged to the Institute, even if he knew it would most likely be replaced the next morning.

Now to find the right room...

Nightshift 33: Men's Bathrooms (M81 - M120)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject