damned_institute | Nightshift 35: East Wing Hall 2-A

"I guess you're right there," Wally agreed. He hadn't noticed things taking that long himself, but then, he'd assumed that he hadn't really been fighting dragonflies all night and that they'd just been knocked out early somehow. But if Tony had spent most of today just walking down a street, then that was pretty powerful evidence. The news of possible maps was interesting, and something that he'd have to look into later. That in itself was something new, as Wally normally didn't bother with maps much. If he got lost on his way somewhere, he could easily backtrack and find a new route in no time.

He followed Tony, also deciding that locked doors weren't something he wanted to try forcing just yet. But it seemed like the new hallway wasn't going to be helpful in that regard. "Now what?" Wally asked. He wandered over to the closest door on his left and gave the handle an experimental turn. To his surprise, it opened easily and his light gleamed off rows of washers and dryers. "Huh. Probably not that useful, but at least we know that some of the doors aren't locked?"

The chattering started down the hall, far away in the dark like a group of people muttering to themselves. It was quiet at first and slowly grew louder as if the strangers were moving toward the two patients. And they were, but it wasn't a group of people. Three of them, two feet tall with sick grey skin hanging to their deformed bodies, the necrits slowly appeared out of the shadows. At first, they seemed surprised to see two humans standing in their hallway, but their surprise quickly turned to bloodlust as the three creatures rushed Tony and Wally, teeth gnashing and looking to bite into whatever they could catch.

[Kaze]

"Yeah, that's..." Tony began, trailing off as his ears picked up the muttering from down the hall. As empty as the last several passages had been, it was enough to draw his attention, and he swung his flashlight in that direction. Too high, as it turned out, the beam aimed to catch figures of average human height, not the tiny, hideous things that came out of the dark. For a few seconds all he could do was stare, mind rebelling against the impossibility of what he was seeing. Hearing of monsters was not the same as coming face to face with them. "What the...fuck!" The last word turned into a pained exclamation as he jagged sideways not quite swiftly enough to avoid having the vicious teeth of one creature shear into his thigh.

Wally hadn't paid too much attention to the noise at first, assuming it to be another group of patients headed the same direction as they were. However Tony's shout of alarm had him spinning around just in time to see some sort of hideous armless thing sinking its teeth into the other man's thigh, while two more of the creatures rushed towards them. "This is so not good," he groaned, but nevertheless tightened his grip on his flashlight. It was the only weapon he had at hand and had worked well enough last night, hopefully it would do the same now. At least this time he had the advantage in that he wasn't exhausted and starving from using his speed to move around.

The thought of keeping his powers a secret didn't even enter Wally's mind as he automatically reached for the Speed Force, letting its familiar crackle of energy wrap around him as he raced over to try and wrestle the creature away from Tony.

Blood! Blood blood! The necrits started screeching as one of them managed to clip Tony's thigh. The one attacking him was quick to turn and go after him again, teeth gnashing at his already injured leg in an attempt to bring him down as the others began to circle around. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, came the other patient.

Unfair! Too fast! The creatures screamed and the one Wally caught began to thrash, turning in circles to bite at him instead. One other came up on his right side and bit at his legs, while the last remained focused on Tony, teeth going for his injured leg again.

As Tony fast-stepped back to avoid taking another bite, three things registered almost simultaneously. First, that his roommate was shockingly fast, second, that the screeching of the creatures was remarkably grating, and third, that a trio of armless cannibal midgets was a lot more unnerving than it would have sounded. He half-skipped back another two paces, spinning his mental picture of the hallway to judge how near he was to the wall without actually taking his gaze off of the remaining necrit. The movement sent a twinge of pain through his leg, not enough to punch through the numbing effect of the adrenaline coursing through his veins, but enough to tell him it was going to hurt once that adrenaline wore off.

And the things seemed to react to blood much like sharks might. That was terrific.

He swung the base of the flashlight in a low arc in an attempt to keep the creature at bay, mind gnawing over the situation as it did over more traditional problems. Conflict, he was no longer a stranger to, but things like this...they were new.

Wally realised he hadn't really thought this through properly and that, while he'd managed to get the thing off of Tony, that now meant he had his arms full of thrashing monster. He let out a yelp as its claws tagged his leg. Make that screaming, thrashing monster with huge clawed feet. Trying to keep both the teeth and the claws away from himself was proving impossible, and the angle made his flashlight useless as a weapon, so he did pretty much the only thing he could think of: throw the squirming bundle and hope that it would take it a while to get up again.

"Hey, Tony, you okay?" Wally called, turning slightly. Distracted as he was, he didn't notice the second creature on his right until it struck, sinking its teeth into the back of his knee. His question became a cry of surprise and real pain and he automatically tried to run further away, but the movement sent a jolt of pain up his leg and he stumbled awkwardly instead.

The necrit screeched at Tony as the flashlight arced at it, but when it realized the beam was elsewhere, it seemed to calm down and just screamed in a general frenzy as it tried to bite at his hand. The mottled grey creature skipped forward and back, hopping around in an attempt to escape the weapon and get another bite in. If only it could back Tony up against a wall! Then it could feast! Feasting was good. Lost to the blood, the necrit wailed and rushed him again.

And while one rushed Tony, another found itself airborne, which was a very peculiar feeling for a creature that spent its life with its feet on the ground. The necrit screamed bloody murder as it hit the ground two yards away and again when it smacked into the wall. It rolled around on the floor, trying to push itself back up despite a broken leg.

At least one of them was lucky though. It got a firm hold on Wally's leg and started kicking, trying to pull a chunk out of the back of his knee. And what luck! The prey stumbled! It might go down! They might eat! Kicking forward, the necrit tried to push Wally over, even as it struggled awkardly against letting him slip away.

Tony backed off another few paces, not leaving him much more room by his estimation; further attempt at retreat would put his back flush against the wall. It would mean a loss of maneuverability he couldn't afford, and he cursed internally as he sidestepped in an attempt to bring himself around to avoid that particular hazard.

He was brought up short when he heard Wally's cry of pain, head snapping up instinctively to see what had transpired. He realized his mistake and corrected it a second later, but that inattention slowed him enough to allow the creature he was facing to bite into his forearm, just above the wrist. His hand spasmed, and he only just retained a hold on his flashlight, hissing pain through teeth clenched too tight to allow much more sound than that to escape.

Wally stifled another yell, the creature's teeth were biting deeper into the back of his knee and it was shoving against him, tangling his legs and trying to force him over. It was enough to cause Wally, already overbalanced, to land heavily on his palms and send his flashlight rolling across the floor. "Let go, you little gremlin!" he snapped. "Fine! You wanna play hardball?" His eyes narrowed and he kicked out with his uninjured leg, trying to get the monster to let go of its painful grip. "Play with this!"

Blood! More blood! The scent in the air was driving the necrits crazy and the creatures started screeching louder, the sound of their voices echoing down the hall. With its teeth digging into Tony's arm, the necrit started shaking its head back and forth, trying to rip his arm off. An arm was good! An arm would be a great snack! But then, the flashlight - cursed thing! A stray beam of light hit it and the necrit shrieked, trying to hop out of the way while still holding onto Tony's arm.

The other creature loosened its grip on Wally's leg temporarily when he fell and gnashed its bloody teeth in delight. The prey was at its level! It would be so much easier to--ow. Wally's kick connected straight into its face and the necrit howled in pain, letting go and backing away. Even if the skin wasn't cut, bones had snapped and the necrit was desperately trying to fight back the pain of a broken face. Snarling, it rushed forward again just as the third necrit managed to get to its feet and begin to limp back over.

Damn, but that hurt. Pain turned Tony's breathing ragged as the necrit's teeth tore flesh and muscle badly enough to scrape bone. With the thing's mouth so near to his hand, he couldn't easily make use of the flashlight he held as a bludgeon, even had blood not been slowly slicking his grip. Steeling himself, he reached to grab the creature by the neck with his free hand, aiming to take advantage of his greater height to deny it leverage by lifting it clear off the ground if he could manage to catch it.

The creature had finally let go of his leg, though by the looks of it that wouldn't be the case for long, not to mention that the other one had gotten up and was limping back towards them. This wasn't good, even with just two of the monsters they weren't doing too well. He'd have to try and take care of at least one of them before the one he'd thrown got close enough to join in. Wally rolled onto his side to face the monster near his leg, swinging his flashlight in an arc as he did so. He hoped that Tony was having better luck than he was, but couldn't afford to check. He'd just have to pray that the absence of screaming was a good thing.

Lifting a necrit wouldn't be an easy job. They really had nothing but a solid body with large eyes on top and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth to grab onto. When Tony reached around, it squealed around his arm and started thrashing worse, wiggling its entire body in an attempt to tear out a chunk and eat it. It wasn't working so well because anytime the flashlight beam came near, the creature would stop and try to move away instead. The light, it burned, and it didn't want to get caught in it.

And the others were learning that the flashlights were dangerous, too. The necrit closest to Wally shrieked and backed away when he swung the flashlight, gnashing its teeth as it stepped from side to side, trying to get away from it. Flashlights were bad, they were very bad. The third reached its packmate and chattered at the flashlight, held at bay for the moment as it waited for the light to pass.

When a second attempt at grabbing the wriggling monster yielded no better result than the first, Tony gave it up as a loss. By that point, however, he'd noticed its reactions to the passage of the light beam as it jerked at his arm. Easier by far was to grab the light with his free hand. A short, ragged gasp of pain jerked free of his clenched jaw as he forced the cramped and spasming fingers of his wounded hand to release it. He trained the beam securely on the necrit, hoping to drive it back before it could savage him enough for the wounds to be utterly crippling.

His attempts to hit the creature with his flashlight hadn't worked out, but Wally noticed that the beam of light seemed to bother them; they were avoiding it whenever it passed close by. This in mind, he trained the flashlight on the bulbous yellow eyes of the one that had bitten him, thinking to blind it before its injured companion could get close enough to attack him. He began to slowly push himself to his feet as he did so, flinching and gritting his teeth against the protesting throbs from his knee. A gasp of pain from Tony drew his attention away from the monsters. "Tony?" His eyes widened as he took in the state of his roommate's arm, lit in gruesome detail by his own flashlight. "Jesus," he swore under his breath. That looked bad. Really bad. He'd have to hope they could find a first aid kit somewhere, 'cause it looked like Tony was going to be needing it.

The necrit screamed like it was burning when the light hit it full on and it released Tony's arm, chittering and screaming as it ran into the darkness. It had blood on its lips now, though, so it would be back. Once that damned firestick was out.

The others didn't fare much better and when Wally turned the beam on them, they fled, screaming in the same manner. The necrits regrouped up the hall, but they wouldn't come near with those flashlights still on. Instead, the humanoid chattering remained, just outside the light, gnashing teeth and claws waiting for the right moment.

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