damned_institute | Nightshift 35: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 1

"Assuming that the doors and keys and stuff don't change every night, or some bullshit," Hughes said, with a small shake of his head. "You work the doors, I'll be on lookout."

He could easily watch for things while Roy tried to get a door open. And that way Roy didn't have to worry or feel pressured that something was going to jump out and grab one of them.

"Let's assume that isn't the case," Roy responded with a frown, trying to be somewhat optimistic despite the fact that he knew that wouldn't do much good here. After all, it sounded like his key for the front door would have worked if the door hadn't already been opened.

"That sounds like a plan," he agreed, knowing that Hughes would cover him despite his less-than-perfect eyesight. He had his glasses, so it wasn't really a concern. He was a perfect shot with his knives so long as he was wearing those, after all.

Roy reached the top of the stairs, relieved that they had made it to the second floor without any trouble.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/454507.html?thread=37814379#t37814379)]

The stairwell was quiet, though Near couldn't be certain if they were the first to travel this particular hall. The thought that the pharmacy might already have been raided was troubling, but one that ultimately wouldn't matter. If he couldn't get the information and materials he needed that night, then there would easily be others.

Studying the darkness carefully, observing everything as he went, Near proceeded forward.

Brooklyn was a little put-off that Near wasn't disturbed by the mess they'd just passed, or at least hadn't shown that he was. Someone shouldn't so easily be able to pass by a scene of carnage like that without reacting in some way. It was bothering to think that this boy might be used to it.

Well, he had said he was a detective, hadn't he? The gargoyle wondered what sorts of messes Elisa had seen that she'd never mentioned to them...

It was a bit better once Matt was on the stairs, but he was rushing up them with more speed than you'd think he would want to use after his past experiences there. He'd probably regret it more once he reached the top.

Mello followed with slightly more care, his hand on the railing. If he wanted to accomplish everything he planned he'd need to allot his energy carefully, especially given the dizziness that followed an awkward or too-sudden movement. "Wait up, asshole," he called. The idea that carnage might bother Matt didn't even occur to him.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/465075.html?thread=37997747#t37997747)]

Edited 2008-10-02 05:39 (UTC)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/454507.html?thread=37973867#t37973867)]

John entered the stairwell and began climbing upward, shining his flashlight up. He felt bad for being so short with the man who was doing him a favor by accompanying him. He didn't want to come off as a massive dick. The guy seemed nice enough and there wasn't anything too strange about him that made John think he was a machine. Perhaps it was time to be a bit nicer to him.

"So. can I ask you a question?" he said, pausing in the stairway to catch his breath. "It might seem a bit odd, but, what year is it where you came from?"

The Doctor kept close to John as they hurried through the halls, quietly assessing the boy. Even though they were just heading to the storage, John seemed comfortable in the lead, scanning for danger at every turn. The Doctor had to wonder if this was something the boy did often.

He paused momentarily at the foot of the stairwell, considering the boy's question. "No, not odd at all," he said, starting up the stairs. People were from different times here, so he could easily tell the boy a specific year and leave it at that, but... He'd been asked directly, and so he would answer honestly. "I'm— not from any one time." He had been once, originally, when he was young, but such things were more or less meaningless to his people. Perhaps he could still be said to belong to that era, but with Gallifrey gone, it seemed irrelevant.

"Last time I was on Earth before I ended up here— immediately before I ended up here— it was the year 2008. A bit before that, I was in 1926. I'm a time traveller."

John's eyes widened and he stared at the man in shock. Did he say- "You're a time traveler?" he gaped, shaking himself so as not to panic. A terminator's story had never been so elaborate. Besides, if he was a machine he would have attacked John the moment he was close enough.

"That's... I mean, do you know of many people who are, erm, time travelers? And do you, say, travel into the future?"

"Yep, time traveller; that's me!" The Doctor raised an eyebrow at John's shocked expression. Really, you'd think people had never heard of time travel! Oh, sure, loads of people from loads of times and places didn't think it was actually possible, but the concept itself shouldn't have been too strange.

At least John wasn't protesting that it wasn't possible. No, he seemed curious, and curiosity was good. Curiosity made people think and question and learn.

"I don't know as many as I used to," he answered as they continued up the steps. "But as for myself, yes, I've travelled to the future. I've travelled all through time: the past, the future, and the distant past, and the far, far future..."

"Tell me about the future," John said, prepared to hear the worst. "I think about it alot and most of the time it's pretty terrible. Do you know anything about... machines?"

He was bordering on giving away too much but if this John was a time traveler then perhaps he'd seen Judgement Day and if not, then perhaps he and his Mom succeeded in preventing it to happen. If that was true then he'd get out of here, he was sure of it. If not, then he would have to try even harder to escape from this hospital and keep Skynet from ever happening.

The Doctor looked at John sharply at his question. He knew a lot about a lot of different sorts of machines... but his recent experiences led him to think immediately about the Daleks. They weren't completely machine, but to someone who didn't know about the creature within...

"What sort of machines?" he asked, concern evident on his face. It was... No, it unlikely that John was talking about the Daleks... or so he hoped.

"Telling you about the future is a very relative request," the Doctor said, looking away and masking his concern. "I'd need a point of reference to work from— what year you're 'from'... There's a lot that could be told, but it's—" There was much less that he'd be willing to tell.

"Telling people about the future is a tricky business, John. If they learn the wrong thing, or even the right thing... Time can usually take care of itself and smooth out the ripple, but sometimes everything could change. I can tell you what's in the future, but it depends on what you want to know."

The man was being vague, about as vague as he himself was being. Perhaps it was time to stop beating around the bush and come out and say it. If he had information on Terminators or Skynet it would be better to be truthful then to keep lying.

"The machines I'm talking about are robots with human skin. They're called Terminators in the future but I guess the best term is Cyborg. They're after me."

John looked at the other man intently, waiting to see what reaction this revelation would cause. "My name is John Connor. In the future I lead the only human resistance against the machines. Sometime in the future Skynet declares war on all of humanity. It's just that... I can't be sure when that will happen. It keeps getting pushed back as my Mom and I delay the process. We jumped it the last time, traveling nearly 10 years into the future. The last I heard was that the machines become sentient in 2011. That's four years from where I was when I left and came here. If you know anything about it, anything about the Terminators or Skynet it would really help my Mom and I in the fight."

The Doctor paused in climbing the stairs for a moment, but then continued onward. "I haven't heard of Terminators," he said. He was almost glad of it (they sounded rather unpleasant), but for John's sake, he wished he knew something. More than anything, however, he was glad that John's mechanical threat was neither the Daleks nor the Cybermen. "Well, that's not to say that I won't hear of them. Time's not a straight line; it's more...... wibbly-wobbly. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've visited the 2010's. But, because I haven't heard of them, it may be safe to say they won't be a lasting threat."

There was also the ever-increasing possibility that John had come from an alternate universe, as Marcus had. But crossing between universes shouldn't be that easy any more, so he wouldn't draw that sort of conclusion unless there were no other possibilities.

"I assume these Terminators have a means of time travel?" They must have, if they were from John's future and yet going after him in his present. If they were trying to stop him from leading a resistance against them, that had the possibility of changing the future to one where the Doctor would hear of them soon enough...

Edited 2008-10-05 03:58 (UTC)

John nodded, feeling a bit relieved to have someone to talk to about this. "The machines built the time machine to send the Terminators back in time. First, they were after my Mom. Then, they came after me once that failed. They're roots and they'll never stop as long as a pose a threat to them."

It was always difficult to bring up his future. Living up to the legend of his future self was always difficult. "Do you ever find jumping strange?" he asked, getting off the topic of the Terminators for a bit. "Skipping years that you would have lived through and losing people that you cared about?"

"Machines, even sentient ones, are logical beings," the Doctor said, thinking over John's words. "You, your mother, and your future resistance against them must really be a threat to them if they're coming after you in the past. If they could have stopped that threat in their present, I can't imagine they would have bothered with time travel... Creating a time machine isn't like building a car." Or maybe it was, but only in Earth movies.

The Doctor brightened at the subject of time travel. "Strange? Not at all!" he replied, his tone chipper. "It can be a bit disorienting when you realize you wound up in, say, 1875 instead of 1775, but strange...? Never."

He grinned at John. "Me settling down in one place and time—that's what would be strange. I tried it once—well, I was forced to once, in the 1970s, or the 80s?—but it didn't last terribly long, and I'm glad for that. Really, there's too much out there in the universe to just stay put. I'd miss out on all sorts of things!"

Not that he hadn't thought about having that sort of life... on occasion. There had been a lot of almosts, but he always, always kept running in the end. His grin faded.

"But losing people, people that I—" the Doctor said, cutting off suddenly. He was silent for a moment before finishing, "—that I care about... It's always hard, but it would only be harder if I stopped."

Yep, the stairs definitely gave Elena the creeps. It wasn't as though she hadn't been in scarier situations before, of course. But she couldn't quite get rid of the feeling that this place probably wasn't the most fun to hang around in at night.

She determidly placed herself in-between the two boys. They had the weapons, afterall. It only made sense that they should get first shot at the possible danger up ahead, right?

Reno let out an exasperated, but tolerant, huff of breath. "Just--duck for now, okay? Christ. We'll find you something to beat the shit out of stuff later."

He was still ticked that Schuldig had jacked Elena's--other Elena's (this was freaking wrong, that he had to differentiate between Elenas)--gun, but it was more on principle than anything. The thing only had one bullet in it.

At least Elena knew to take her place in the middle, which meant he didn't have to bother to tell her to move there and could just keep walking. Number of spoken words saved: ....

...Oh screw it. He was too lazy to calculate that out.

[going here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/465075.html?thread=38018995#t38018995)]

Wolfram made sure to go first, staying only a step ahead of Yuuri in the case that something was waiting up ahead.

"You sure about this? There's a chance that we might not find anything, so don't be disappointed." Although he was kind of saying it for himself as much as for his fiance. He was hoping for another clue like the shield. But he wasn't ready to tackle the basement again yet.

"Hmm?" Glancing up at Wolfram as they walked up the stairs, Yuuri simply smiled happily as he answered. "We'll never get anywhere if we just stay in our room all night."

Trailing along behind Wolfram, Yuuri glanced around at the few other patients slipping between the hallways as he softly murmured. "Besides, I want to make sure we can get everyone out, Wolfram, not just us."

"Hmph." Wolfram agreed, but it wasn't as though he would admit to it directly.

"But how can we get everyone out? It's not like you can travel to any world you like to send them home..."

He sneezes, wiping his nose on the borrowed sweater sleeve in a very unprincelike manner. The sooner they could escape from here, the better off both would be. And Wolfram had to admit he wasn't as selfless as Yuuri; if he had the chance for the two of them to escape, he'd take it. The others would have to figure out their own solution.

But he'd try. For Yuuri's sake. Even if he was a stupid wimp.

"I don't know," Yuuri said with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head. There had to be a way, and if he could manage to find a large enough water supply, then he should (hopefully) be able to transport everyone away. Where would he take them? It would be too difficult to take them all to different places to begin with, but if he could travel to Shin Makoku and Earth, then he should be able to go to other places... somehow... maybe? Murata might know something... or Shinou. But it was worth a try.

"Anywhere would be better than here." He murmured softly before smiling over at Wolfram.

Nightshift 35: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 1

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