damned_institute | Nightshift 34: West Wing, North Hall 2-B

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Nightshift 34: West Wing, North Hall 2-B

[From here]

Allelujah shone the torch around the next corridor quickly, noticing the door directly to his left with some interest. He tired it, glad to find it another one that he could break down even if he knew his shoulder was going to be one huge bruise the next morning. It wasn't logical or anything, he should really go on to the end of the corridor, but, well, who would it hurt? He bit his lip, walking ahead to try the door at the end of the corridor and finding that locked too.

Well, if there was nothing to choose between them then...

He went back to the first door and lined up his shoulder with it before ramming into it, using his full body weight against it. He heard the lock groan and threw himself against it again, managing to catch it this time before ti slammed against the wall. He shook his arm out and then switched on the flashlight before stepping inside.

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[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/435087.html?thread=35584399#t35584399)]

This hallway looked, again, disconcertingly like the last one. "I hope you know how to get back from here," Meche said to her partner. "Put me in charge and they won't find us for weeks." Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing. If only they had food. And if only she didn't have such a knack for getting found by the wrong people.

Scanning the corridor with her flashlight, she hit on a door to their immediate left that looked like it had been forced open. A quick search down the hall told her that there was a similar door down at the far end, but that one was locked. It didn't look all that strong, though--they could probably force that one open too if they had to.

Maybe not tonight, Meche thought ruefully. Just getting up the stairs seemed to be enough effort for these bodies.

Motioning for Manny to follow, she headed through the open door nearest them.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/435677.html?thread=35588317#t35588317)]

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Had he not worked there for so long, Manny might have bothered trying to remember whether a client named 'Martin Landel' had ever passed through his office. It made sense if he resented the company – it was the only semblance of divine power in the Land of the Dead, after all – but agents weren't usually found at the top of anyone's hit list. On the other hand, getting back at the guy who left you on the sidewalk with nothing but a walking stick sounded fair (to someone who believed a salesman got off on not being able to meet his sales quota).

Whoever was to blame for this, he had the feeling that, him being who he was, it had to be his fault, at least in part. It chilled him to think he was going to be a target until the day came when Lady Luck finally left his side.

He paused next to the last door, waiting until Meche had stopped beside him before calmly opening it and walking inside.

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[From here.]

When they were greeted with yet another empty hall, Sora couldn't help but start to get excited. They might be the first people to make it to the autopsy room, which meant they might actually find something! He smiled from ear to ear as he waited for the others to follow him into the hallway.

Still, part of him knew that they had to be prepared for the worst. There was the chance that nothing would be there but a difficult fight, and the thought made him try to reach out for the Keyblade that he knew was just beyond his grasp. But it was there, and it would come to him when he needed it.

Now he had two people that he needed to keep safe. That might make it harder on him, but he would rather that than knowing that MOMO was off on her own somewhere.

Oh god, the girl's wording couldn't have been much worse if she tried. As if everyone had a home to go back to. Well, Kaiji couldn't really speak for anyone else in the institute, for all he knew he was the only one who had lost everything prior to showing up here. The comment still made his heart sink a bit. What would he even do once he got out of here? Where did he have to go? Dodge the strange men in black suits and try to figure out how to get back at the old bastard who made him lose everything while hardly being able to find decent things to eat and safe places to sleep. What the fuck kind of 'welcome home' was that? What kind of anything was that? "Yeah," Kaiji answered, sounding far too sad about the prospect of going 'home,' "I guess someone has to get somewhere sometime." He quietly hoped that it would be him or that he would at least contribute to it. He already failed at least two groups of people as well as himself, and he definitely wasn't going to let down a third without putting up a fight.

Kaiji's response was followed up with a yawn that sounded more like another sigh: his guard was fading a bit. Things were far too calm for him to continue running on pure adrenaline. Kaiji really, really wished that he was in bed right now. The Head doctor's loud voice jolted him awake fairly early and his day had been pretty stressful - something about waking up in a weird asylum that was apparently populated by things like monsters and little girls with pink hair and getting punched really hard in the face for no reason was enough to make someone just want to crawl under the covers and not come out for a long, long time.

Having a properly working conscience sucked. It made him a somewhat decent person, but aside from that it was constantly throwing him into dangerous situations and forcing him into things that wouldn't benefit him. Kaiji wanted to be selfish, but at the same time didn't. He saw what selfishness did to people: they tended to feel better, true, but they could also turn absolutely disgusting fairly easily. Not that he wasn't already typically considered unpleasant, but this was on a whole other level.

At least they hadn't run into any monsters yet. As much as it would assist in keeping him awake and alert, Kaiji was by no means looking forward to what this place had to offer in terms of abominations. Kaiji was gradually starting to let fear get to him again as the trio continued to the next part of the hall. The night had been too calm so far. Something had to happen, right? Maybe when they got to that room...

He didn't want to think about it, but what else was he going to think about?

MOMO had no objections to Sora taking over the lead. Despite having taken that position herself the last couple of halls, she didn't have much experience in leading; she was more used to simply following others. Plus, she felt bad for trying to start that failure of a conversation.

For a moment she considered hanging back and trying to separate herself from the other two, but she eventually decided against that. She'd worried Shion when she did that at home once, and the last thing she wanted to do was worry Sora or Kaiji (although considering they'd just met, she had to wonder if the latter would worry at all). This place had enough reasons to worry, and besides, they were almost at their destination. It would've been ridiculous to go back now.

Still, MOMO allowed herself to fall a couple steps behind the others. She'd already decided she wasn't going to leave them, but at least following from behind provided a decent excuse for not trying to initiate any more conversation. If questioned, she'd simply say she was making sure nothing snuck up behind them. She'd never been good at lying though, so hopefully they wouldn't ask.

Somehow, the conversation seemed to die down, and MOMO was even pulling back. That might have been for purely practical reasons, but Sora would have preferred they all remained close, simply because it was more comfortable knowing that the people he had told himself he'd watch over were within an arm's length.

Still, it was obvious that this hallway was empty, and hopefully the girl would know that they would need to stick close to one another once they actually made it to the autopsy room. For now, he was willing to let it go and focus on actually getting there.

It wasn't long before they reached the end of the hall and the door that would take them into the morgue, and with a quick test Sora could see that it hadn't been broken down yet tonight. Well, that was a good sign! It meant they were the first ones here. "Looks like we beat everyone to it," he said to the others with a smile, hoping that would cheer them up a bit.

Of course, this also meant the door had to be broken down. Sora gestured for the others to move away and then took a few steps back so that he could get a running start. With that, he raced for the door and then slammed a kick at the lock. It sent a painful tremor up through his leg, but it was a start.

Kaiji was taken aback by MOMO letting him pass her. Was she as afraid of what might be in this room as he was, or had his way of speaking made her want to shrink away from them? Whatever the reason for her shift was, Kaiji assumed that it wasn't good. It worried him, actually - these people were, to the best of his knowledge, on his side. Maybe even kind of sort of maybe eventually (but he would never admit it) friends. The bottom line was that he wanted to watch over them to the best of his ability and the new formation screwed with that. Half puzzled and half concerned, he kept glancing back with a very serious look on his face as they moved along, acting as if the girl could vanish at any second.

So this door was the last obstacle before they either ran into something awesome, something horrifying, or both. Kaiji was glad to hear that they had apparently been the first to show up despite their pause on the stairs. If all of this tension was for nothing, well, he didn't know if he would be pissed off or relieved. Probably a combination of both.

The sight and sound of Sora trying to bust open said door made Kaiji wince, though. Although he backed off when asked to, he would have preferred to do this part himself. He was the biggest of the three after all, so forcing his weight upon something would have had to have a better effect, right? He was no powerhouse and not particularly large by any means, but as some unfortunate pieces of furniture (and a small handful of people) had learned in the past, Kaiji could be surprisingly vicious when he wanted to be.

"I can get it," he blurted out, sounding much, much more casual and confident about it than he had intended, "We only have to bust it open and we're in, right?"

MOMO breathed a silent sigh of relief when they reached the end of the hall. That meant they just had to go through one more room before reaching the autopsy room. With any luck, hopefully they could avoid anymore awkwardness between now and then. Especially since it was likely a good idea for her to remain close to them now.

Of course, while being the first to arrive was definitely a good thing, it also meant that the door had yet to be broken. MOMO herself wasn't able to do much when it came to that sort of thing; being created to look like a child worked against her in that regard. Thankfully, though, Kaiji seemed confident that he'd be able to handle the door. He was bigger than she and Sora were, so hopefully he'd have a better chance at getting the door open without hurting himself in the process. Hopefully the kick Sora had landed would offer some help with that, too.

"Be careful, okay?" she said, moving aside but keeping her light on the door.

"Yeah, this is pretty much the last obstacle," Sora agreed, eyeing the door with a certain amount of determination. He had done this his fair share of times already, and while his foot was throbbing slightly, he would have been ready to throw himself against the door another time.

But Kaiji wanted to help, and this wasn't exactly rocket science, so why not? Sora moved away and leaned against the wall, gesturing to the older man to indicate that he could have a turn.

"Go for it. Hopefully you can finish it off," he said with a small smile. Then they would be home free beyond the fight that was waiting for them, and that was when Sora would really step in.

The last obstacle. That sounded so nice. Even nicer was the support of Kaiji's cohorts: at the rate he was going, he might have been able receive a promotion from the group's walking dictionary, thesaurus, and conversation-killer to their walking dictionary, thesaurus, conversation-killer, and battering ram. An inconvenient and aesthetically displeasing multi-use tool for leading around at night.

Although it probably wasn't going to do him any good, Kaiji made his flashlight flicker on and inspected the door for a moment, feeling along it as he went. He saw what Sora had been aiming for - that damnable lock, obviously. This would have been a good time for some kind of weapon, but Kaiji supposed that he could improvise. He turned off his light, flashed a nervous smile toward Sora and MOMO, then backed away from the door as much as possible.

Still preparing, he positioned the flashlight so that the lens faced him and held it with both hands, lens-end pressed against his palm as much as possible, as if he was trying to set up a delicate shot in pool with a short, fat cue stick.

Like an unskilled fencer he lunged at the door and mashed the sturdier end of the flashlight into the lock with his right palm. As pain shot up his arm and reached especially high levels at his joints, he regretted having taken that approach. Still, Kaiji had successfully managed to force much of his weight against the lock in a single moment of impact. It had to have done something.

"I've got it now!" he announced through clenched teeth, determined to give this door hell. Heart racing, the joints of his right arm stinging, he quickly stepped back again and switched to have his left side facing the door more than his right. Charging at it again, he slammed into it with his shoulder and the length of his upper left arm this time. Not quite there, but he had to have been close. He could feel it. Or maybe that was just the soreness that came along with running into solid objects.

Once more with feeling: he was ready to dismantle the door with his fingernails if he had to, but instead he gave the door another slam. Was it starting to give on him? It was hard to tell, but he needed at least one more go at it to find out.

Third time was always considered the lucky one, right?

Watching as Kaiji worked to bust open the door, MOMO couldn't help but wince. She'd only seen someone break down a door once before, and Thursday had seemed to do it so easily compared to this. Granted, Thursday also seemed to have some experience when it came to that sort of thing (and in this place, MOMO was certain a lot of people could say that). Still, this didn't seem to be a very... pain-free event.

The realian shifted from one foot to the other, biting her lower lip nervously. Both Sora and Kaiji had taken their turn at the door, and so far neither had succeeded in getting it open. It wasn't fair for her to stand idly by while they did all the work, even if she wasn't the best when it came to tasks like this one.

"Um, maybe I should give it a try," she said quietly, before clearing her throat and speaking more audibly. "I mean, you and Sora have both tried, so... It's only fair, right?"

This door sure was giving them a lot of trouble, wasn't it? Then again, he had just said that it was the last barrier in their way, so it made sense that it would take some work. Still, Sora wished this could have taken a little less time. What if some other patients showed up and tried to beat them to the prize somehow?

Kaiji was giving it all, though, and while Sora didn't like the idea of MOMO taking a turn as well, he didn't want the older man hurting himself any further. Sora could have stepped in again, but he got the feeling the others would rather spread the work out equally.

So, in the end, he nodded over to MOMO in response to her suggestion. "All right. I'm sure that it only needs one more push!" If it still held firm after that, he would have to determine that the odds were against them somehow. It wasn't such a stretch to believe that, after all.

Kaiji snapped in protest, now even more determined to break the door down by himself, "Just one more!" Of course if that didn't do the trick, it would turn into two more, three, twenty, any number until either the door's seal broke or he broke. Kaiji was stubborn: he rarely knew when it was wise to stop or even if he did know, he didn't care. He was going to be helpful, dammit.

Wild, reckless, even if the door was guaranteed to never budge and break every bone in his body to boot, Kaiji wouldn't have hesitated. He knew that there were many occasions when physical sacrifices had to be made to win, and he was willing to risk his own comfort to keep most of that part to himself. Sora and MOMO were just kids after all, and they had both endured this place for longer than he had. It was the least he could do.

Anyway, this was it. One final charge! Kaiji dashed straight at the door and crashed into and finally through it, stumbling in wearily and accidentally taking the lead for the group.

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Nightshift 34: West Wing, North Hall 2-B

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