Nightshift 35: Main Hallway, 2-Centre

[from here]

Siegfried led the way along the main hallway and past the balcony looking down on the Sun Room, constantly on the lookout for anything that might sneak up on the two. He expected that they would hear something before they were attacked, but that may not always be the case. It was better to be safe than sorry.

As they walked, Siegfried spoke quietly to Xelloss. “There’s a storage room at the end of this hallway where they keep the batteries. We can search there first.”

[identity profile] intoindra.livejournal.com 2008-10-05 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Indra stopped. The great demon simply stopped, and despite having a blank mask, one could almost feel disdain oozing from the creature. The great razor-sharp edges of its lance were retracted again, sliding back into its palm and elbow, as though the great weapon were too sacred a thing to bother with such a weak opponent.

Instead, the monster strode forward with its left hand out, the pair of deadly discs embedded in the back of its hand beginning to whir ominously. Elle was allowed to circle around it as she pleased, for without eyes or ears or nose, Indra had no senses that had to keep focused on its prey. There was no escape, no hiding from such a being.

Once she got within arm's length, however, that massive hand lashed out at her. Indra was aiming to wound and maim, not to kill; though with such weaponry, the two were far closer than for any mortal blow. Oddly, while it struck at Elle, its face seemed to be following Shito, as though the demon was expecting to be done with Elle shortly, and in any case had no fear of her.

[identity profile] strange-unlife.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
How did one sneak past a creature that didn't seem to use any visible means of sensing its prey, but obviously knew where they were anyway? Well, Shito figured that sticking close to the wall was probably a good idea anyway, since it at least meant the thing could only attack him from the front or sides, and not the back. Why did everyone always attack him from behind, anyway? First the chainsaw golem, then Elle... very frustrating.

[identity profile] ellectriclights.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
Elle tried to back away from the creature, but it was like trying to back away from a hurricane. The hand, with its spinning blades, slashed towards her and no matter how prepared she was for an attack, she couldn't entirely avoid it.

She stabbed the broken piece of railing into the whirring mechanism, hoping to break whatever it was that kept the blades moving.

Whether it actually had an effect on the mechanism was something Elle never got to find out. She hadn't counted on how powerful the blades were - they sent the metal rod straight back out at her, and it slammed into her shoulder with such force that the jagged, twisted edge left a deep cut.

Elle tumbled backwards with the force of the blow, her wounded shoulder colliding painfully with the floor. It was on pure instinct that her hands crackled with electricity, arcing from her fingertips into the ground. With the adrenaline pumping this hard, it was difficult not to generate electricity. Too bad it wouldn't heal her.

This was not gonna be the way she went out, lying on the floor, waiting for it helplessly, not even trying to defend herself. She tried stand up, but the pain in her shoulder was too much, her damaged ribs made breathing hard, and she just wanted two seconds of not getting her ass kicked.

[identity profile] intoindra.livejournal.com 2008-10-06 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
The screech of the blades cutting through railing didn't even make Indra flinch, nor did Elle's tumbling backwards cause it a moment's pause. It strode forward with the same remorseless gait, and even the lightning arcing from Elle didn't slow it down. It merely drew up those bolts into its own body, all those volts dancing around its body like it was a living Tesla coil.

Even as lightning crackled around it, Indra reached down with its massive armored right hand, deliberately choosing the shoulder that had been so deeply cut for its fingers to dig into. Then it yanked her up like a rag doll, holding Elle up without any obvious strain.

Then the mask slid open, baring its maw with its rows of razor-sharp teeth, still blackened and reddened from rotting flesh and fresh blood. Indra had fed well so far, but it had room for more, much much more. It lunged for Elle's other arm, demonic hunger still unsatisfied in its desire for flesh...

[identity profile] strange-unlife.livejournal.com 2008-10-08 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
That... was a lot of teeth. Holy crap, the thing was going to eat her. Shito sighed and closed his eyes for just a fraction of a second, already regretting what he was about to do. Yeah, she was a bitch, and a nutcase, but she didn't deserve to get eaten alive.

Shito ran a few quick steps back towards the fight, then threw himself into a sliding leg-tackle, the heel of his leading foot aimed for the back of the monster's leg. If he could knock it off-balance, maybe he could grab that metal bar Elle had dropped...

This was so dumb.

[identity profile] ellectriclights.livejournal.com 2008-10-08 08:48 am (UTC)(link)
Elle had just enough clarity left to yank her arm out of the creature's way, barely avoiding its gnashing teeth. She wrapped her hands around the one holding her, desperately trying pulling herself up to alleviate some of the pressure on her shoulder, twisting and writhing and kicking her feet in an attempt to find the floor or shake herself out of the creature's grasp or something. But nothing worked. It hurt worse than getting shot, worse than electrocuting herself even.

Her fingers were still crackling with electrical current - an instinctive reaction to danger - but now her whole body was coming alive with it. Blue-white arcs shimmered across her skin. Elle gritted her teeth in concentration. She had to control it. If she didn't, if she let go and used the full extent of her ability, it would leave her faint and helpless, totally at the mercy of this creature.

She could almost hear her father's voice in her head. Don't disappoint me again, Elle. You're tougher than this. But Daddy's reassurances were beginning to sound hollow.

[identity profile] intoindra.livejournal.com 2008-10-09 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Normally Indra wouldn't have cared about the first dodge of its teeth, instead lunging again and again- sometimes the exertion made the meal only sweeter. The lightning crackling across Elle was still being absorbed, as though Indra was a battery with a fathomless capacity. Those rows of teeth stretched wide, the demon leaned forward once more...

...but then something happened. Suddenly there was a roar of flame from one of the other patients, a blast of fire that wrapped around Indra's head and drove it back. When the flames dissipated, the blue skin was scorched and blistered, the kind of burns that would cause a normal human to scream in pain... yet Indra was silent, its actions speaking far more loudly than any roar might have. In one motion, Indra flung Elle down the hall, blindly throwing her to the side as far as it could as it created lightning and flung it where the attack had come from. All this time it staggered back, nearing the edge where it had jumped up.

That was when Shito attacked. The zombie dashed at the stumbling demon, and even though striking its leg was like putting one's leg to a mountain, and lightning still crackled and arched at any contact, Indra was still just disoriented enough. It stumbled, tottered, and when Shito's full weight hit, its leg collapsed beneath the strain of the hit and the heavy burden of the demon's dense body.

Once again, Indra made no sound as it fell, plummeting back from where it came.

((Falling down here.)) (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/458774.html?thread=38009878#t38009878)

[identity profile] strange-unlife.livejournal.com 2008-10-10 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
What exactly happened was totally unclear to Shito. There was fire out of nowhere, and the monster was freaking out, throwing Elle aside and blasting lightning at--as far as Shito could tell--nothing. But he was in motion and couldn't exactly stop, so his heel connected with the monster's leg exactly as he'd intended.

The resulting shock was significantly worse than the one Elle had given him, and Shito bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out. Even his numb nerves felt that one strongly! Another burn was added to the first one on his foot, but because he was lying down the electricity thankfully didn't need to travel through his torso to ground out, and he didn't have to find out what a shock like that would do to his dead heart. The electricity grounded itself through his hip, leaving yet another burn in its wake. Shito had no idea what his insides must look like, at this point, having been ravaged by electric shocks twice in such a short period of time, but he was glad he didn't have to see the majority of the damage, just the entrance and exit points.

Left gasping and hurting but aware enough that he knew to worry about what the monster would do next, Shito forced himself back to his feet, only to find that the thing had vanished while he was still reeling from the shock.

The fuck?

[identity profile] ellectriclights.livejournal.com 2008-10-10 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
The electricity was throbbing through her, crackling brighter across her skin, trying to force its way out of her. Elle whimpered at the combined strain of controlling her ability and the pain lancing through her shoulder.

She squinted through bleary eyes as the creature lunged again, only to have it stop, suddenly engulfed in flames. And then she was somehow on the ground again, skidding on her side through a sticky mess of her own blood.

There was a man, further down the hall, running away. He must have caused the fire. And Shito... what the hell was he doing? He was attacking the beast? Why would he do that; why would he help her, at the risk of his own life?

As silently as it had come, the creature fell backwards into the Sun Room. And with the realization that the danger was gone - for now, at least - Elle was able to suppress the electricity racing through her veins. She channeled it safely into her hand, using the light shimmering across her knuckles to peel back the torn scraps of shirt glued to her shoulder. She needed to assess the damage that thing had done.

It hurt like a bitch, that was for sure. There was a deep cut, made deeper and wider by the creature's fingers digging into it. She still had a full range of motion, but each time she moved her arm, hand, or even fingers, pain shot through her entire body.

"Just what I need," she grumbled sarcastically.