damned_institute | Nightshift 33: East Wing, Hall B

It sounded like Renamon misunderstood, but Toph was okay with that. She could deal with that later on when they reached this so-called file room.

What she focused on instead was the woman's account of her night, especially a certain term. "Un-undead cat?" the earthbender stammered before quickly regaining her composure. Normally, Toph wouldn't be bothered by such facts, but she still hadn't quite gotten over that voice from earlier.

The silence was not exactly helping, sadly.

Renamon paused at the door leading outside. She half-turned to face Toph, even though she couldn't see her clearly. "Yes. I'm very sure of it. I thought it was just a large wildcat when I was fighting it, but at one point..." Like when its teeth were embedded in her defending forearm, and ever so close to her face. "What it was couldn't be denied. It was decaying as we fought."

So that meant... "You didn't see anything strange while you were exploring last night?"

Toph remained situated in the shadows, albeit she stood close enough to feel the cold air permeating from the doorway. This was probably a good thing as Renamon would not notice the look of disgust that crossed her features. Yuck.

"I thought those things only existed in legends." Why couldn't tales ever stay fictional? "Creepy..."

Despite the tension, she managed a tiny smile at the wording of the question. "Nope, not a thing." Beyond the joke, the girl hadn't actually noticed anything off since her arrival. Well, except that one thing. "Tonight, though--"

Her lips pulled into a tight frown. "Don't laugh, okay?"

"I thought they didn't exist at all," she replied, shrugging. "Things are different here."

Her hand on the door, she stopped to listen. "You'll find in me someone that's likely to believe most things." And in case that wasn't clear, "I won't laugh."

"Guess so," Toph admitted.

She sighed before continuing. "After dinner, I heard several voices from out of nowhere," the girl explained, slowly. "Well, not exactly. I'm pretty sure they all came from the ceiling. But that's the thing: there was no one on the ceiling!"

Wow, this explanation was getting more ridiculous by the sentence.

Last night, like the others before it, all its prey had eluded it. Hunger gnawed at it, making it desperate. No longer seeking to lie in wait, it actively hunted for prey.

Sensing the vibrations of their footsteps and conversation, the dog-sized insect slowly approached them, a barely visible pale white carapace steadily moving ever closer, its legs clicking softly but in rapid succession against the ground as it approached.

[David]

Renamon had to cock her head at that. The girl didn't know about intercoms? She must be from a more rural world, or perhaps even a medieval one. But she didn't notice the box on the wall either? Hmm....

"Ah. That's nothing to worry about. They have things called intercoms here that the man in charge uses to talk through. It takes his voice from somewhere else and sends it to all of the rooms." She hoped she explained that right. "Albeit, tonight seemed a little stranger. It was very creepy," she said, using the girl's word from earlier.

As she ended her sentence, her sensitive ears picked up a faint clicking noise. On guard, she stepped past the girl and flicked on her flashlight, aiming it at the sound.

...Her eyes narrowed. This was a bigger problem than the cat the night before. She might have to find Orihime sooner than she thought.

No thinking like that. She flicked the cap off the pen she was carrying and slid her feet into a defensive stance. "Toph. Be on guard."

Intercoms... It was a strange name and a stranger device (if the description held true), but at least it sounded much better than ghosts. Not that she was actually considering the possibility or anything.

Before the girl could answer, however, she, too, caught a presence from the other end of the hall. A bug? The tiny vibrations and the hollow echo of its footsteps certainly indicated as such, except this critter was much larger than what one would believe to be appropriate bug size.

This was probably what those guys from breakfast were referring to.

She planted her feet further into the tile before also going into a defensive position. Renamon had mentioned diminished powers, but there was a chance her bending could still be intact. "Got it."

As the flashlight shined on the insect, it was most clearly a scorpion, though easily the size of a small dog. A viscous fluid slowly dripped from its stinger, and its armored pincers opened and closed menacingly. It was still a decent ways off, but it approached steadily. Three nights had gone by and its prey had eluded it each time, save a single toe one lone night. A scorpion could not live on a single toe. It needed larger prey. Small girl-sized prey.

Renamon quickly analyzed the situation. Toph seemed to perhaps have some kind of martial prowess. She had her own fighting skills... and pens. Her sole power that remained to her was not for combat. Their position afforded them some cover, but allowed them to be cornered. On the other hand...

What she remembered of scorpions reminded her far too much of a certain spider Digimon. The first Digimon that had ever almost beat her. Oh, yes, other than size they were quite similar. Most likely it had a hard shell, and this larger version's was probably reinforced. Pinchers that might have great strength behind them, and did she ever wish that Orihime knew what antidotes were the night before by the look of the stinger.

She was completely divided on the best course of action to take. Self-preservation was telling her she was not ready to take this thing on, especially with another to protect. But... she couldn't just leave something like this to roam the halls. Orihime, Toboe, Yukari... they were out there somewhere. She couldn't allow it to have a chance to hurt them.

Maybe she had time. She took the risk. Eyes on the scorpion, she focused herself. Calm. Breathe. Focus. She delved inside herself for what she was looking for. A moment. Another. And then, there. She vanished to the outside world; sight, sound, and smell.

Concentrating, she slowly and softly moved to the side, her feet making no sound as she moved. She didn't know what she could do, but she was going to do something. She had to.

Of course, Toph had not noticed the bug in question was an actual scorpion. Its size threw the girl's senses off; normally, she would have picked up on the identification almost instantaneously. Her ignorance probably wouldn't become a threat, though, just as long as the earthbender kept track of its movements.

And that happened to be her specialty.

While Renamon crawled forward, Toph remained stationary, her feet picking up on the actions and positions of both her companion and the insect. She intended to make no move until one of the others did, although at this point, the girl could not predict which one would act first. All she could do was wait for the initial strike.

Hopefully, that privilege would belong to Renamon, not Mr. Bug.

Fortunately for renamon, the bug relied tremors in the earth to detect its prey, and as she moved so softly as to scarsely disturb the earth, and as the ground itself was hard and rigid, leaving it mostly blind, the scorpion ignored her. Instead it focused on where it last knew Toph to be, the last known location of its prey. While it couldn't sense her any longer, it knew she had to still be there. It passed right by Renamon, its entire focus on Toph for the time being.

Think.

She didn't really have a plan at the moment. As a Digimon, she might, but as a human? Not so much. The scorpion did as she predicted though, and passed her by. What to do?

Her concentration dropped as she leaped forward to grab the scorpion's tail, right below the stinger so she wouldn't get stung. She wasn't invisible any more, but she wouldn't need to be. All she wanted to do was crack its tail. She wasn't sure of the capabilities of this body, so she wasn't expecting anything but she was wishing. Martial arts prowess or no, she was still human here. The tail could completely break off, just crack, or nothing at all.

She held on to hope.

Toph was a bit taken aback when the creature decided to creep toward her, but her intention never changed. If it got too close, she would simply tile slam the sucker. Provided this place would let her, that is.

And if not? Well, she'd figure it out.

When Renamon reached for the insect, Toph shuffled off to one side, preparing to strike in case the attack failed. She slammed her left foot onto the tile in hopes of causing seismic activity enough to jar the scorpion off its feet, making it vulnerable to the woman's strike.

Except at the critical moment, nothing occurred. Not even a tremor. ...Crap.

Suddenly the scorpion had a new target. No one had ever been so bold as to grab its tail before! As such it began thrashing violently, claws reaching up in an effort to grab at whatever was holding it, but it simply didn't have the reach. Fortunately for the beast the carapace on its tail was very well fortified, and Renamon was unable to break the tail. It continued to thrash, desperate to be free from the evil thing that held its tail.

That plan didn't work in the slightest. She seemed to be hindering the beast however, so for the moment, she held on while it thrashed and tried her best to maintain her footing. Her eyes widened to watch the claws as they raked close-by. This thing was too dangerous. She had been going to the greenhouse to find things that could be used as weapons, and here was a scenario that needed them, feet away from the place that possibly had them.

It didn't matter right now. It was a race to see if she'd lose her grip or her footing first, and then it'd be over. No time.

She shifted her weight back, pulling the thrashing thing with her. She almost lost her grip there, as its thrashing increased. She forcefully just heaved it back to where it was before it started towards Toph. As she let go, one of the flailing claws finally caught on part of its target; catching her sweatshirt on her left upper arm and tearing through to the skin underneath. It skimmed sharply across it, ripping a nice line diagonally across.

Like the night before, she refused to register the injury. There was no time. She still had people to protect and the scorpion was only feet away. Move. She let instinct take over, and darted to the door; opening it and shoving Toph through without a prelude.

The door slammed shut behind them.

[here]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/393089.html?thread=32150913#t32150913)]

It looked like the two patients he'd seen when he entered the hall had escaped- that was good. Keeping a wary eye out, Kratos ran across the hall, making for the door on the other side.

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/407713.html?thread=32879265#t32879265)]

“I have found, with many of the other mortals here, that quite a number of other words do not have such a grand variation of sentient beings as my own does,” The Star Dragon Sword muttered while entering into the next hallway. He’d bypassed the one he went down the previous night only to find the following one devoid of all doors besides one solitary one aright at the end.

He was assuming that it would lead him outside.

Taking a cautious step down the hall, the Night Rune quietly scanned the corridor for danger before he continued to proceed towards the door at the far end. “There most do not hide from the other species, but there are small handfuls that do… yet it is done more out of arrogance than anything else.”

[[sorry for the wait, I've been really sick.]]

It still sounded like something out of a game or an anime to her. All the different worlds, or stories people told... they were all so exciting or incredible, but there was nothing too special about her. Turning into a pig wasn't very exciting or incredible, especially not compared to magic or adventure or... any number of other things.

She'd only taken a few steps into the next hall when another small explosion occurred, returning her to her original form. Minus all of her things, of course. With frightening speed, she tugged at the clothing Star Dragon Sword had been carrying and managed to pull a couple of articles free.

"D-don't turn around please!" she said quickly as she pulled her shirt over her head and tugged it down. She was dressed again in a matter of moments.

"I... I can take my things now," she said quietly.

[[No need to apologise. I hope you’re feeling better now! :D]]

The sound of a small explosion caught the Star Dragon Sword’s attention. Glancing back over his shoulder with a frown, he was moments away from barking out a demand to know what was going on before he was cut off by the sight of Kagura as she transformed back to her original form. While the Night Rune was typically the type not to be surprised by anything, even he found himself spluttering at the flash of naked flesh before he quickly averted his gaze and spun around.

Handing over the clothing without question, the Star Dragon Sword squeezed his eyes shut to stop any accidental peeking as he snapped. “What sort of dirty fool do you take me for?! I’m not the type to leer at a mortal’s naked flesh.” He hated looking at his own disgusting bag of flesh clothed or not – let alone anyone else’s. Human bodies… no, all mortal bodies, were vile sacks of flesh and bones and he longed to return back to his original form more than anything else.

The Star Dragon Sword took a hazardous peek with one eye back towards Kagura as she asked for her things back. There was almost a sigh of relief touching his lips when he saw her human and clothed once again. Offering her back her clothes, the Night Rune gruffly suggested. “Now that mess has been dealt with… I suggest we continue on.”

"How am I to know that?" Kagura replied just as stubbornly. Shigure said old men were dirty, and she'd no reason not to believe him. He proved that theory right often enough himself. And Star Dragon Sword was way older! So did that mean he was dirtier too? She decided it was probably best not to wonder.

She felt more confident though, once she was fully clothed and had her flashlight and pointed staff in hand. "I said I was sorry," she pouted and began walking toward the end of the hall.

[[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/408710.html?thread=32952198#t32952198)]]

Nightshift 33: East Wing, Hall B

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