damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Main Hallway, 2-West

[From Here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/491309.html?thread=40477997#t40479277)]

Stepping out of the stairwell, Hohenheim peered around through the darkness. If he had an extra hand, he would be able to use his flashlight, but it was impossible when he was keeping Yuuri upright. He stepped aside to allow Wolfram to follow along before setting his pillowcase of bottles and fished around in his pants pocket to find his flashlight.

He pulled it out and offered it to Yuuri. "Point in a direction Yuuri, and we'll go that way. Remember, we are looking for rooms with locks on them," he said kindly before reaching down to grab his pillow case again. They would get somewhere quickly this way.

With that, he set off down the hallway.

Wolfram followed only long enough to make sure that they weren't being followed, from downstairs or otherwise. Once he was certain that they most likely wouldn't be attacked from behind, he quickened his pace and stepped in front, eyes scanning for any vicious cats or anything else up ahead.

Yuuri seemed to be pointing to the first hallway. Wolfram had never gone down there, so it seemed as good a place as any to start.

He gave Hohenheim a reassuring nod that he had things under control before heading down the smaller hall.

"What? ...Wait. Slow down, there, buddy-boy." He had just earned the most dubious expression to cross Harley's face since... well, visiting hours.

If she understood this guy correctly, he was stating that he was also called Scarecrow? Another Jonathan Crane, another Scarecrow? It could have been a twisted nickname to give someone with the same name as the Professor Crane she knew. But that didn't seem to be the point he was trying to make.

Suddenly bringing up alternate realities... Was he actually trying to say he was the Professor Crane from Arkham, but not really? An 'alternate reality' Crane-y? This was nuts and not normal nuts. It was something straight out of those late night sci-fi movies, only this poor guy actually believed it.

Harley knew about people like this: people who made up some world in their head and convinced themselves they were Abe Lincoln or whoever the heck. It was pretty common. After all, she'd met a man-turned-girl only a few days ago who'd convinced herself she was in some kind of giant game.

Had she not had that entirely unsettling meeting with Red a few hours ago, she'd have said exactly what was on her mind. Harley knew she wasn't delusional... She couldn't be. She knew she wasn't! But even still, it sure hurt a lot to be told someone else thought you were. With how nice he was to her, she didn't want to hurt "Crane's" feelings. She'd at least try to be a bit sensitive about it.

"...Can't say I heard nothin' about alternate realities." Though she said with a straight enough face, it was obvious she wasn't buying the idea. "Ya think... there are two Gothams and two Professor Cranes. And you're one of them? No offense, bucko, but ya don't look a heck of a lot like Professor Crane... or act like him."

Well, she tried.

[From here]

They reached the second floor. Dean had a good look around. Some more halls that branched off from this one, his flashlight beam just reaching far enough to show something that looked like balcony railings off in the distance, his torch glinting off metal. Despite the voices he'd heard earlier, this end of the second floor seemed to be empty, which was fine by him. It'd be easier to hear if anything tried to sneak up on them. Dean remained quiet, guarded, knowing that even for his usual gig, this could be a whole hell of a lot dangerous than normal if he got caught with his pants down.

He was tempted to ask Tokito about what he remembered before waking up in this place - ask if there were any strange smells, any electrical disturbances, stuff like that. Now was neither the time nor place, no matter what suspicions he had. If Tokito did have any "abilities", he'd have to save trying to find out until later. The kid didn't seem like he'd snap and go apeshit on Dean, just from his first impression. Kind of bitchy, sure, but straight-jacket crazy? Not so much.

It took Tokito a few seconds to figure out which direction they needed to go, now that he was in territory he'd only ever seen sketched out on a two-dimensional map. But he saw Dean's flashlight beam glance off the railings around the top of the Sun Room, and that cleared things up. "That way. Past the railed area and all the way to the end. Last hallway branching off there." Maybe they could take a peek down into the Sun Room, too, see if it was safe. But who knew how much time they had left, with the way things worked here.

Didn't seem that far. Still, couldn't hurt to be careful.

Dean turned to Tokito.

"How 'bout I go first, take a look around and make sure it's clear?" he asked. There was no hint of joking in his voice. So far he couldn't hear anything but that didn't mean something wasn't out there, waiting for some dinner to blunder past.

[To here]

[From here.]

The hallway seemed to be empty by the time they made it out of the staircase, though Sync could make out lights further in. He gave an idle glance to the hallway on his left but kept moving forward.

Toboe skidded to a stop once they got out of the hallway and looked back nervously--were they coming? Should he put Artemis down and go back to try to help? There were just so many of the creatures...he didn't know what to do about Artemis's injuries, either.

Toboe whined and put a bit more distance between them and the hallway they'd just run out of. If Hitsugaya and Renji weren't out soon, he was going back.

[from the same damn place (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/495383.html?thread=40581143#t40618775)]

Hitsugaya flashstepped once, then kicked off the wall and continued the velocity around the hall. Hoping they were far enough away to escape the nurses he collapsed with Renji in a heap next to Toboe and Artemis. He pushed himself away from Renji and pushed himself up on his hands and knees, throwing up a large quantity of blood in the process. He felt woozy again, but it was no longer due to the drugs in his system. Now it was simply from loss of blood. "Good work," he coughed out to Toboe. "Call for help if you can."

Still, there was a little energy left in him. Enough to keep one of them alive...

...but only one.

He glanced between Renji and Artemis, hating the choice that lay before him. Heal Renji and Artemis would die...the boy's magic wasn't closing the wounds like it had before, so there was no relying on that. He'd lose admittedly one of the few friends he'd made here, even if he was a smartmouthed brat. Heal Artemis and they'd lose yet another shinigami, a man who'd proven himself again and again since being here, who'd offered support in more ways than Hitsugaya could have even hoped. If Hitsugaya were the head of Arts and Crafts, there was no denying that Renji was the heart. Without him, he saw no way that Arts and Crafts would survive.

But Renji was a shinigami. Renji had a duty to uphold and in his actions he had done so. He would die here in service to others, just the way he would have wanted it. In the end there was really no choice about it. He turned to Artemis and willed his last bit of reiatsu into the boy, coursing through him and cleansing some of the poison. It would be enough to keep Artemis Fowl alive, if only barely. Blood poured out his ears and eyes as the last of the reiatsu escaped from him and he collapsed against the wall.

"That's...that's all I can do," he whispered.

First, he had the satisfying moment of going in for the kill, and then goddamn things hurt, and worse, and worse, and then everything stopped making any kind of sense at all. Renji wheezed, barely able to breathe around the burning pain that seemed to be spreading out across his chest, and started trying to stand. One of the few things he could be certain of was that he hadn't killed everything in that hall, and there were people around, which meant beyond his own revenge, he still had a duty. "Get 'em out of here," he whispered, though to no one in particular. Somehow, he managed to make it up to one knee, with one hand braced against the floor. There seemed to be a lot of blood, though not nearly enough for just how much everything hurt, and it kept getting worse with each strangled breath.

This was all happening too fast again. First he had been running into the fight alongside Renji--a particularly hopeless fight, in retrospect--and then he had suffered grave injury. Again. He felt the nurse's arm go right through his shoulder, giving him an almost identical wound to the one Ken had given him. It must have been some sort of a record, being mortally wounded twice in two night. Hitsugaya would probably have some choice words for him once he and Renji were on their feet again. That's how it had worked last time, anyway. He hallucinated from blood loss until Hitsugaya healed him and chewed him out.

But it hurt so badly, the poison working its way through his body. So much that he hadn't noticed Toboe pull him out of the deadly situation. He only became aware of what was going on around him when Hitsugaya began healing him. The Captain was bleeding everywhere.

"No, Captain," Artemis wheezed as he felt Hitsugaya's reiatsu enter him and begin to patch up his wounds. Why wasn't his magic doing anything? "No... you won't have enough for Renji, stop it...!"

The poison was being removed from his system, but everything still hurt like hell. Artemis wasn't sure if the Captain was actually slumping against the wall, bleeding, or if he was only hallucinating that. The fact that Renji remained unhealed was enough to prompt the boy's brain that what was happening wasn't just a dream.

Weakly, Artemis outstretched a hand to Renji. If he could just touch him, everything would be alright. Everyone would get out of this okay. "Heal..."

A lone blue spark lept off Artemis' index finger, and died in the space between them. Nothing. It was gone, all of it was gone. "Heal...!" Artemis insisted. Nothing again. It couldn't be gone, not when he needed it the most.

Edited 2008-11-12 04:35 (UTC)

"Don't talk!" Toboe barked softly, before awkwardly shimmying out of his sweatshirt--it had blood stains on it, from Artemis's wounds--and tearing at his t-shirt with his teeth to make bandages. This was how humans fixed wounds...wasn't it? The blood was everywhere...

He couldn't run for help, not with all of them so injured, not with all the monsters around here. He was the only one uninjured, the only one who could even stand a chance at driving anything away.

This was the only thing he'd be able to do.

"And don't move!" he barked at Renji, but he wasn't sure what he could do there. The smell of blood was overpowering, enough to make him nauseous, and there was so much of it...Toboe couldn't even tell where everyone was hurt.

"Renji, no," Hitsugaya weakly argued. "The poison...I couldn't heal you." There really wasn't anything else to say. He couldn't do anything to save Renji, Fowl's magic was obviously gone, and Toboe was a wolf.

"Ca...call for help," Hitsugaya said weakly to Toboe. "Maybe someone will hear. The monsters will smell the blood anyways, shouting wouldn't draw any new ones to us."

Not really understanding the voices gabbling around him, Renji attempted to stand anyway, only to come crashing back down to his knees. He gasped out a mouthful of blood, curling in around himself as the pain continued to burn through him. "Shoulda... shoulda watched out for that snake," he said, wheezing out a chuckle. With nothing else making sense, he simply settled on the first memory that seemed to fit what was going on, the feeling of poison. "Sorry, Rukia. Shoulda watched out better." He gritted his teeth, refusing to make a sound of pain. He didn't want to make anyone worry.

He fell slowly onto his side, arms clutched so tightly against his chest that his muscles shuddered. He squinted at the blurry shapes he could make out between strands of loose hair. "Taichou? Where's..."

But no, she was gone. That was right, gone. He let out a harsh cough. "Gotta find her," he mumbled.

Artemis looked wildly around as Renji began to fall into delusion. Most likely from the poison. He couldn't do anything, as injured as he was and without any magic left in him.

"Renji, Renji!" Artemis shouted, his voice harsh and raspy from both of his injuries. "Stay with us, we're going to get help!"

The boy rolled onto his side and tried to push himself up on his arms. He was so weak, but this wasn't the time to let his body give out. "Come on... Toboe," he ground out, gritting his teeth against the pain. "We need to get a healer, we need help...!"

Toboe ran a bit farther down the hallway, toward the stairs, before cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting--loudly. His voice didn't carry nearly as far as a howl would have, but he was still loud--and especially when he wanted to be heard.

"Someone help!! There's people hurt here!!"

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/502061.html?thread=40300589#t40300589)]

Still leaning on Michiru's arm, Seiya heard someone shouting about injured people. Even if she'd had any medical knowledge, beyond the kind of first aid anyone could offer, she didn't have the energy or concentration. And they'd been lucky the patient they'd encountered had let them backtrack as it was... injuries had to come from someplace. They weren't in any shape to try and fight off any opponent.

Anyone looking at them would think she was qualified for the same kind of yell, anyhow. That, or that she was drunk. The dizziness was a bit like that, but the weakness in her legs was simply from a lack of energy. Seiya wouldn't be trying that trick again, even with a spotter, anytime soon.

Crane was perfectly aware that what was coming out of his mouth sounded absolutely ridiculous, but he'd seen and heard enough about the ridiculous in his life. He lived in a city with a man dressed up as a bat, for the love of God. He still wasn't entirely convinced, of course, but there was evidence here that he just couldn't ignore.

He was glad to hear that it sounded just as strange to her, and that she wasn't entirely ready to buy it. There was hope for her to make a good ally, yet. She was crazy, and she was willing to admit it, but she wasn't entirely stupid, either. It was all down to who was right. Either she was, he was, or they both were, but he was willing to bet that it wasn't solely the first. He was likely a bit crazy, but he knew he wasn't wrong.

"Oh, I'm sure. I suppose you're right, then." Crane shrugged and put on a faintly amused expression, although his next words dripped with sarcasm. "It's all a simple coincidence, and logic applies in an institution that allows its patients to run free rather than lock them in, as they're supposed to."

Really, his words were partly an argument with himself, but it suited his purposes just as well. Her not believing that he was himself was a bit of a problem, but if she wanted proof, he could provide it. He didn't know just what this Crane that she knew looked and acted like, but he didn't sound like someone that Crane would be too pleased to deal with past their business of fear.

If he wanted to go about proving it, though, then it was simply a question of what frightened her most. Best to start small. From what she said earlier, she could well be afraid for her babies. He wasn't certain if she would recognize what he was doing, but it would still be interesting experiment. It was always a good idea to be certain of what the people he knew were afraid of, in case he ever needed them out of the way.

"This place is abnormal in other ways, but I suppose that that is a bit too far-fetched, isn't it? It still begs the question, of course, of why they would have your...'babies'. What sort of experiments they may be doing to them, or perhaps they'd like to use them as leverage to get you to cooperate in something. After all, I doubt they would have any qualms with killing them."

Oh, so they were following. Perhaps he shouldn't have waited for them to catch up. He wasn't all that interested in what lay in the Patient's Possession room. He'd never owned very much so it seemed pointless to go looking for something that wasn't going to be there. Unless they had a hangar for a mobile suit hidden away somewhere at least.

He shrugged in response to Joshua's question. "Nothing on my mind."

He paused part way along the corridor, frowning slightly. "There's a fight going on ahead." He could hear voices and the sounds of a fight were fairly difficult to mistake.

Michiru heard the shout as well, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had enough on her plate just helping her own companion. And despite Seiya's previous comment and the consequent urge to see her roll down the nearby stairs, Michiru wasn't planning to desert her. Yet.

"If I remember correctly, you already tried that. You were fortunate to have quick reflexes." Otherwise, Haruka might have left an unfortunate mark on the other girl's--at that time guy's--face.

Though, that wasn't entirely Seiya's fault. Michiru had instigated it. She just forgot to mention that part to Haruka, and the results had been rather amusing, anyway.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/497998.html?thread=40650574#t40650574).]

Hitsugaya coughed again, spitting out coagulated bits of blood but nothing fresh. He'd survive, of course. Fowl'd live, too, as usual. If they couldn't get help, though, Renji wouldn't. He didn't even know how much time Renji had left. His reiatsu was very weak, though, so he imagined they didn't have long.

"No," he coughed out. "Conserve your strength...we'll find you a healer...we..we have to."

But he already knew in his gut it was too late.

Renji shut his eyes tightly for a moment, then cracked them open again. He reached out with one hand and managed to clumsily grab the front of Artemis' shirt, dragging the boy a little closer. He licked his lips, concentrating on what was really going on. Artemis; talking to Artemis was important. And it needed to be done while he could still manage to breathe. "When ya get my sword, give it to Lucivar," he whispered. "An... take care of my books."

He managed the ghost of a smile, blood running from the corner of his mouth. "Don't give me that look," he whispered. "It'll be okay."

The look that Renji was describing was most likely a look of utter shock and terror. But Artemis couldn't be sure. He'd lost all feeling in his face when he'd heard what Renji had told him.

"N... No," Artemis finally found his mouth after a few tries. "No Renji, I won't do any such thing--it's not necessary. You're going to be fine," Artemis' voice was wavering. "The Captain says we'll find a healer and you'll be fine... you can't die while I live, you just... can't."

The tears spilled over his eyelashes and down his cheeks. "It's not fair... it can't happen this way, I won't let it. I didn't even have a chance to tell you...!"

The way this was going, Artemis was almost certain that nothing would be okay. If Renji died for his sake, nothing would ever be right again. Renji served people, and what did Artemis do that was so grand? Serve himself? No, this was all wrong, this was backwards. He should have been the one suffering from the poison now, not Renji. Not Renji, who had been his first friend here and the one he turned to regularly for sound, down-to-earth advice. This wasn't fair at all. This couldn't happen.

"TOBOE!" Artemis shouted, gripping Renji's hand as though that would keep him alive. "WHERE IS THE GODDAMNED HEALER?!"

He'd never felt this powerless before.

Toboe hunched and watched the people going by in the shadows, whining softly. "I don't know. I don't know. Why isn't anyone...why aren't they helping?"

Once more, Toboe shouted. Maybe this time...someone would listen. "Someone help!! Please, we need help!!"

Nightshift 36: Main Hallway, 2-West

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