damned_institute | Nightshift 36: East of the Institute

Brainiac 5 blinked and scowled. He'd been more accepting of the woman's random and often violent behaviour then anyone had any reason to expect him to be, but still she insisted in screaming at him and refusing to offer any information on herself. He was seriously reconsidering any possible value there might be to travelling with her any further; he now knew the location of a nearby settlement, so leaving her alone would be entirely possible. And it did appear to be what she wanted.

"Very well," he said stiffly. "It seems you don't want my company anyway and frankly it would be wiser to return to the village where we might be able to get some form of assistance. But if you would prefer to wander lost in the woods all night, you can be my guest." That said he turned around, intending to walk back to the road when he suddenly realised there was a minor flaw in his plan.

He couldn't see the road any more. And in following the woman's erratic path in order to let her know that he wasn't going to be following her any more, he'd managed to lose all sense of which direction they'd actually come from.

He turned back to her. His face was feeling warm again, but he ignored it. "However, considering our current predicament, perhaps it would be best to stick together."

Elle didn't stop when he did, but she didn't make it very far before he spoke. "I don't need you," she responded harshly.

As though some higher power with a particularly malicious sense of humor had timed it, Elle tripped. She went down with a startled cry, her electrified palms hitting the ground and accidentally setting another tuft of grass ablaze. Frantically, she rolled away from the fire, up a small hillock, cursing under her breath and swatting at her clothing to make sure she wasn't on fire too.

When she finally stopped writhing, she struggled to push herself upright, finally managing with only a few stumbles. She glared over her shoulder at the boy as though daring him to make fun of her.

Brainiac 5 wasn't the type to openly mock someone else's problems, but that didn't keep the smirk from his face as Elle finally rolled to her feet and glared at him. "No, of course you don't," he commented dryly. "However could I have gotten that idea?"

He walked up to stand nearby and made a show of looking about the area. "I don't see anything of interest in any direction. Did you have a goal in mind when you stormed off recklessly or did you just fail to think about this at all?"

He didn't give her much time to answer, clearly already having decided which answer would be the most likely, instead continuing on to say; "I've answered several of your questions about myself already, but I have yet to learn even your name. Perhaps you should be telling me about yourself."

"I'm Elle," she responded tersely, grabbing her left arm to make sure it was still attached to her body. In her annoyance and total lack of knowing where she was going, the memory her father's visit was beginning to fade. She didn't feel like playing nice, and since Daddy had only mentioned the boys, not the fighting, he probably didn't know what she got up to at night.

"What do you wanna know, Doogie?" she asked, sauntering down the hillock towards him. She let the electricity fade out of her hands as one settled on his waist and the other slid up his chest. It was okay, she wouldn't be distracted for long. Then she could get back to walking and Daddy wouldn't know about the momentary slip.

"As I keep telling you, my name is Brainiac 5, not this 'Doogie' you seem to think-" he would have continued further, but then Elle was in front of him, entirely too close for his liking and pressing her hands against his body in a way that he was unfamiliar with. He knew humans preferred physical contact to strengthen social bonds - it had taken him some time to become used to the concept since leaving Colu - but this was an entirely different form of contact than anything else he'd experienced during his time with the Legion.

He stared at Elle, torn between trying to understand and catagorise her actions and his body's natural responses - his face was becoming heated again, heart rate was elevated, and his skin was increasingly sensitive to the touch - or backing away from her. The contact was far too intimate by Coluan standards, but then most of his interactions with the Legion fell under the same category there. However he didn't feel comfortable with someone he knew nothing about getting so close, so he instead opted for an intermediate response.

"What are you doing?" His voice had apparently also been affected, sounding much more nervous and uncertain than he would have liked.

The brainiac wasn't nearly as suave a teenager as Reid. For fun, Elle used the hand on his waist to tug his hips towards hers, grinding roughly against him. A soft jolt of lightning shot from her hand into his chest; barely enough to make him hurt. Elle giggled delightedly and twirled away from him, back up the hill to look out at the landscape ahead of her.

See, Daddy? she thought. I wasn't distracted for long. And the way he'd reacted to her was funny.

Against the dark mass of the forest looming ahead, a ragged collection of buildings was beginning to take shape. It wasn't Doyleton - it didn't look nearly as big - which was good. Elle could take a few people, even in her current condition. And maybe there'd be medical supplies or something.

Her decision made, Elle slid down the other side of the hill and started walking again, not looking behind her to see if the boy was following.

Brainiac 5 almost panicked when Elle pulled him closer to her, pressing against him and moving in a way that might not have been entirely unpleasant in a completely different set of circumstances, but as it was now just made him want to get her away from him. He would have pushed her off if she hadn't decided to shock him just enough to make him gasp and then twist away to walk back up a nearby hill.

He didn't know if there was something wrong with him, his body had been reacting strangely several times tonight, and he was almost certain that normal humans had no such problems. But he did know that there was something wrong with the woman, Elle. He'd never met anyone who behaved so... illogically. He was determined to get to the bottom of this.

Unfortunately Elle had made use of his momentary distraction to wander even further into the woods. "Wait!" he called, following. "Why did you do that? You keep doing these things and I don't understand..." He trailed off, at a loss to describe his confusion over the issue.

Elle stopped and turned around, moving closer to the boy. "What's with the scars?" she asked with almost childlike curiosity, holding a ball of electricity up to his forehead to see better. They weren't scars, after all. They were just... circles. Weird.

Not waiting for an answer, Elle whirled around and started walking again. The buildings were coming closer, and her eyes tried to pierce the darkness, looking for signs of life. They were still too far away to tell for sure, but the place looked kinda... wrecked.

"Scars?" Brainiac 5 asked in confusion. "What scars?" He flinched automatically as the electricity came close to his face, but thankfully Elle seemed to have had enough of shocking him for the time being. If only he could convince her to let things stay that way.

And she was gone again. He was beginning to see a pattern here. "Do you plan on answering any of my questions?" he asked, annoyance seeping into his tone. He noted that Elle's apparent goal was some sort of abandoned town. He doubted there would be much by way of transport there, but perhaps they'd run into someone, anyone, who would be more helpful than his current companion.

Elle sighed in annoyance. She'd asked him what he wanted to know, and he hadn't answered. "What questions?" she asked. "I told you my name, didn't I?" He'd been pestering her the whole way - she could hardly be expected to remember all of the things he'd been babbling about.

To take her mind off the boy and the pain in her shoulder, Elle rolled a spark of electricity across the back of her fingers like a quarter, loving the way it looked and the pleasant humming sensation rippling under her skin.

Brainiac 5 folded his arms and arched an eyebrow. "So far you've failed to explain what 'Landel's Institute' is and why I should be concerned about being here, you avoid explaining your increasingly random actions, including your conduct just now, and you persist in calling me 'Doogie'," he said, ticking each point off on his fingers as he spoke.

He watched the spark carefully, deciding not to get too much closer in case Elle decided to go back to attacking him or whatever else she had been doing last time. "Besides, considering both our current conditions," an expansive hand gesture took in her bleeding arm and possible head injury as well as his own slightly shocked and tired self, "a short rest would be entirely beneficial."

Elle kept on walking. "It's where they put the bad little boys who didn't eat their vegetables," she sneered. "There are monsters under the beds and in the closets. And who hasn't heard of Doogie Howser?" If she'd heard of him, the rest of the world must have, right?

The suggestion that she needed to rest made Elle turn back to the boy, her fingers flexing around tiny lightning storms that flared, died, and flared again above her palms. "I'm fine," she insisted. "But if you want to stop and take a nap, I'm sure there's a grizzly bear around here somewhere that would love to babysit." She didn't need to stop; she wasn't weak like that.

"Monsters? What kind?" Brainiac 5 asked with interest. He didn't question the existence of such things, the presence of 'Eddie' in the institute would have been persuasive enough even if he hadn't had similar experiences with the Legion, but he did think that it was more likely that Elle had just seen some other alien species around and jumped to the wrong conclusion due to the backwards nature of this era.

"Apparently, I haven't heard of 'Doogie Howser'." He took an automatic step back as Elle turned to him, electricity flaring and dancing around her hands. He didn't want to get shocked again, but he couldn't let her just walk recklessly out into danger like that.

"That's beside the point, we need to rest and possibly consider our situation further!" She didn't seem to be paying him any attention, so without thinking, he reached out grabbing her shoulder and pulling her to a sharp stop.

This time, he did grab her injured shoulder. Elle cried out in pain, jerking backwards in an attempt to alleviate the pressure of his fingers in the wound. "Get off me!" she shouted as her skin reflexively lit up with electrical energy, sending a sharp jolt from her shoulder into his hand.

She stumbled toward a nearby dip in the terrain, and her ankle twisted at the sudden sharp decline. Suddenly, she found herself slipping down into the ditch, landing with a thud at the bottom.

Okay, this was getting more aggravating by the minute. Elle sat up and braced her back against the wall of the ditch, holding her shoulder tightly. There were exploding lights in front of her eyes, and she was pretty sure she should wait for those to go away before she tried to move on.

Brainiac 5 hadn't been paying attention to what he had been doing, so only realised a fraction too late that he was gripping Elle's injured shoulder tightly before she shouted at him and electricity surged over her skin, crackling against his hand painfully. He yelped and let go, clutching the sore hand to his chest with a pained gasp, too distracted to notice Elle stumble and slip into the ditch until she hit the bottom with a loud thump.

He picked his way carefully over to the injured woman, making sure to keep at what he felt was a relatively safe distance. She wasn't looking that healthy, not that she had been before but it was more pronounced now. Under other circumstances he would have suggested cleaning and tending to the wound, but with no supplies there was little point in mentioning it. But he supposed he was expected to do something.

He cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly before speaking. "I suppose I should apologise, I didn't intend to cause you undue pain." Of course he couldn't resist adding, "perhaps now you should consider resting a while."

Elle leaned her head back and closed her eyes, sucking her breath in through her teeth as she tried to calm the lancing pain in her shoulder. The bandage the nurses had put on it was in tatters by now, stuck to her skin with pieces of medical tape. Reaching through the holes in her shirt cut by Eddie's teeth, she peeled it off, slowly and carefully. Every little movement tugged on the wound, but eventually the ruined bandage came away and she dropped it in a bloody pile on the ground.

"Fine," she hissed in answer to he boy as she pushed the heel of her hand into the deepest part of her injury, right where the metal rod had nearly skewered her. Her left hand tensed as her right pressed deeper into her shoulder, clutching at the grass. She needed to be careful not to set it on fire, or pretty soon the whole field - or moor or whatever the hell - would be ablaze. But she needed to stop the flow of blood, or her prediction would come true and she really would bleed to death in a ditch.

Elle didn't know much about electrocauterization, only that it was supposed to stop bleeding. Her dad had gotten her to learn pretty much everything there was to know about her ability, and that word had come up once. He hadn't cared about the ways her ability could heal, though, so she hadn't bothered to figure out how to do it properly.

When the heel of her hand was as deep in the wound as it would go, she unleashed the highest voltage blast she was capable of. The sudden burst of pain made her cry out, the force of it slamming her shoulder backwards into the ditch wall.

It hadn't even worked; she was too good at absorbing what she generated. Crap.

Elle was clearly in a lot of pain, but Brainiac 5 couldn't think of anything to do for her wound with his current form. If he'd been his usual self, he'd have had a range of medical tools on hand with which to treat her, but now? Unless by some miracle there was a complete set of surgical tools and supplies just over the rise, there was nothing he could do.

Still, this was partially his fault, and Superman and the Legion had taught him that helping others was important. Superman would want him to try to help her.

"Is there anything..." he began, knowing what the answer was most likely to be, but he couldn't think of anything else to do.

"No," Elle said quickly. She didn't need help. Daddy had put her here to make her stronger, better, he'd said. So she'd be strong. She'd prove to him that she was the best.

Elle pulled her hand out of the wound, choking back a whimper as fresh blood started to ooze again. No, she'd be fine. This was nothing she couldn't handle.

With that thought, she braced an arm against the highest point on the ditch wall and tried to lever herself up. But dizziness swept over her. There was something rushing in her ears. She could feel the blood pumping out of her with every beat of her heart.

"I need to sit," she said, lowering herself back to the ground. "But I'm fine."

Brainiac 5 didn't need a 12th level intellect to tell that Elle was lying, but he still couldn't think of what to do to help her. Instead he remained silent and sat down opposite her, taking the opportunity to rest his tired legs. He'd never had to walk so far, particularly after fighting some strange person and being shocked several times in one night. He felt drained from the fight and from the toll of adapting to being human. Just sitting down and taking the time to think things through was a welcome change.

"If I only had my flight ring, I could get you to medical facilities and contact Superman for assistance." He sighed heavily. Of course, he may as well wish that he had his cybernetics or a fully functional spaceship for all the good it would do him now. But it would have been comforting to just be able to see Superman's face again. Something about the kryptonian just seemed to be able to put his mind at ease.

"Considering that we have little else to do for now, perhaps you could answer a few questions? Namely about your... abnormal behaviour. Or if you have any idea how I came to be here and in this body."

As soon as the world stopped spinning, Elle focused back on the boy, who had apparently moved in front of her while she was busy almost blacking out. "What's with you and Superman? You know he's fictional, right?" Despite his stature, he looked to be in his late teens. "You're too old to be one of those drooling fanboys who thinks all the superheroes are real."

She didn't want to talk about her 'abnormal behavior;' the only person she'd ever explained herself to was Peter Petrelli and she intended to keep it that way. But she could run with the last bit. "This body? What's your body normally, Junior? No, wait. Don't tell me. You're really Lois Lane."

Brainiac 5 bristled at the 'drooling fanboy' comment, but the rest of what Elle was saying sank in and he paused, eyeing her curiously. "I can assure you that Superman is not fictional. At least, not where I'm from. He's widely considered the greatest hero of your time, if not ever. Besides, you yourself have powers, why would you think that superheroes are purely the realm of fiction?"

Of course it was uncertain as to if Elle would even answer that question, judging from her track record with his other questions. In particular she seemed to want to avoid talking about her behaviour; he made note of that in case it became useful later. She also didn't appear to know anything about how he came to be here at all, which was unfortunate. He'd have to search for answers on his own then. Presuming he actually managed to make contact with anyone other than Elle that is.

"As I already told you," Brainiac 5 began as patiently as possible given the circumstances, "I am actually a Coluan. Normally I'm mostly cybernetic, but for some reason I appear to have become human. It's somewhat... disconcerting."

A web of electrical arcs sprang up between Elle's fingers. "Superheroes aren't real," she repeated. The closest person to a superhero she'd ever met had used her, betrayed her, and abandoned her, so she didn't really think he qualified.

The thing about being a robot was weird, but Elle was too tired to argue about it. Let the kid have his delusions if he really wanted them. She needed to get out of this ditch and hopefully find something to wrap her shoulder with. Because medical supplies were in such great abundance out in the middle of nowhere.

Much more slowly than before, Elle pushed herself upright, bracing herself against the ditch wall until she was standing. "I'm going," she told him. She wondered when she'd gone from giving anything to be alone to telling him her plans in advance. It must be for the very practical reason that if she did end up passing out, he could carry her, or at least make sure she wasn't eaten by wild animals. She certainly didn't want the company.

Of course, the doing was a lot more difficult than the saying. Scrambling up out of a ditch wasn't Elle's idea of a good time, but she managed it. Once on more level ground, however, she had to lie down, watching the stars wheel before she caught her breath and they began to steady.

"I'll be sure to bring up the issue of our nonexistence at the next meeting of the Legion of Super Heroes then. It ought to at least amuse everyone."

Brainiac 5 didn't bother arguing when Elle insisted on moving. She hadn't listened any other time, seeming intent to do whatever she wanted in spite of the obvious value of his advice. And with him having no idea about the location of the road they had left, he had little choice but to follow her lead; if they encountered anything dangerous he'd have to rely on her protection after all.

So he pushed himself to his feet and clambered awkwardly out of the ditch, considerably frustrated with how easy the task would have been if he hadn't been human. Elle was lying down on the grass now, still bleeding badly, though he didn't think she had lost consciousness yet.

"Unless you think we're going to find medical supplies just lying around, it would be best if we returned to the road or found some other way to get in contact with a hospital."

Elle rolled onto her side, then pushed herself onto her knees, taking a few deep breaths before attempting to stand up. Once she found her feet, she glanced around, trying to get a bearing on where they were. It was almost impossible - no landmarks stood out above the hilly terrain except the group of buildings they'd been headed for and the forest just beyond it.

"I don't know where the road is," she admitted grudgingly. "And I'm pretty sure the only hospital around is the one we barely escaped from with our lives."

The only real option was hope there'd be something other than angry people with weapons in the village. Elle started walking again, determined to make it to her destination without falling down again.

"Then considering the circumstances, it might be best for your continued health if we returned to that location. We should be able to locate a different method of entry that would allow us to avoid that man - Eddie - and I would be better able to assist in repairing your injury if we were in a medical environment. Taking into account our current location, it really would seem like we have little other choice." He doubted Elle would listen to the voice of reason, but he would continue to try regardless. It was that or return to insisting she answer his questions, an exercise which had proven fruitless thus far.

As he'd anticipated, Elle was already headed for the buildings they could just make out beyond the trees. He supposed it would be too much to hope that there would be some sort of vehicle or method of contacting others for assistance, but maybe someone would have a first aid kit of some kind.

"Don't you get it?" Elle snapped. The electricity in her palms crackled. "The point is to get away from that place!" She kept on walking, studying the buildings as they loomed closer. They definitely looked... wrecked. Ruined. The closest one - a sort of barn thing - was roofless, and beyond that was something that looked like a church with the spire ripped off.

Maybe there'd been a tornado or something. A long time ago.

"I understand that... Eddie... posed a considerable threat, but it should be easy enough to avoid him in that facility. And while you've mentioned other 'monsters', I failed to notice anything out of the ordinary otherwise. Are you sure you weren't seeing things?"

Brainiac 5 looked up at the damaged buildings, taking in the cracked and torn roads, the remains of walls indicating what might have been buildings, and arched an eyebrow. "I don't think we'll be finding much help here."

"I could kill Eddie," she said, fists clenching as she fell under the shadow of the ruins.

Except she hadn't. Maybe she couldn't generate enough electricity here to stop his heart or melt his brain, but there were other ways she could have, with him lying there, unable to move. It would not have been difficult for Elle Bishop to kill an unconscious man.

But she hadn't - a slip in judgement, a little clerical error where her brain supplied something else instead of anger or indifference. It happened. Next time, she wouldn't make the mistake of giving a crap.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/504336.html)]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/503562.html?thread=40419850#t40419850)]

It took quite a while for Usopp to stop, and he was stopped less by an end to his terror of the bloody snow and more by a bad step against a rock and a prompt nosedive into the ground. As luck would have it, where he landed wasn't one of the snowy patches, and he let out a loud protesting cry as his nose cracked against the rocky ground.

"Dammit." That calmed him down, at least, as he sat up and rubbed his nose, trying to tell whether it was bleeding. Quiet again for a moment, he thought he heard the sound of water, but wasn't sure. There was no question that this area was colder, and he was starting to have the feeling they'd been going gradually uphill, although now the terrain didn't leave any of that to question, offering a few paths through increasingly steep rocks.

Brook only had a moment to glance behind him before he realized Usopp was gone. He'd bolted like a frightened deer and nothing had even happened!

Which wasn't that bad of an idea really.

"W-wait for me, Usopp-san!" Brook shrieked, more terrified of being left alone than anything. He nearly bolted in the same fashion, but he suddenly remembered his manners, and promptly bowed the to snow - inanimate or not, he still had poked at it - apologized with a quick "My apologies for disturbing you!", then fled after Usopp. He didn't get far before he found the sniper getting up off the ground. "That was mean, Usopp-san, leaving me like that! You didn't even apologize to the snow!"

"It-it wasn't snow we were apologizing to! It was if there had been a dead body!" Which Usopp hadn't really stayed to see if there was, or not, but that was beside the point. "The snow doesn't need to be apologized to! In fact, it should have apologized to us, for being so creepy and bleeding for no good reason!"

Shivering violently again, he pulled the blanket closer around himself. "And you have longer legs! You can catch up easily!" Usopp shook his head, feeling guilty despite his words. "...Do you hear something like running water?"

"I'm not so sure that's how it works..." Brook pouted, tilting his head sideways. Snow couldn't talk could it? And it certainly hadn't been the ones poking them either.

The comment about his legs made him huff. "That is still no reason to leave me behind! You should warn when you're about to go running off like that!" He continued pouting a bit, almost like an angry child, but he did let his ears open to the idea of water, and soon enough he was able to pick up on it. "Yes, I do believe so."

"I did warn you!" At least, Usopp thought he had. He'd definitely made noises before running, he didn't really remember what he'd said. Probably something about leaving, but considering that he'd been running on automatic and he was very creative, it might have been a recipe for explosives or a short Captain Usopp story instead. "Anyway, anyway, that's not the point! If there's water..."

Well, that was their natural environment, right? Even if he sneezed loudly, before rubbing his aching nose, and decided the air had more moisture in it than before. Cold moisture. "I thought we were inland. Maybe it's a river or something..." He started walking ahead, vaguely in the direction of the sound. The passage was getting more and more difficult, but as lost as they were by now, there wasn't any turning back, and he might as well head towards the water if he was heading anywhere. Besides, holding still in the cold was bad for you, wasn't it?

Brook didn't remember a warning, he remembered rambling! Maybe it wasn't worth worrying over. "Hmmm, if you say so then," he consented.

"What is the importance of water?" he asked, looking down. When he thought about it more though, he realized what it might mean. They could be nearer to the ocean than they thought! If they could get everyone to a port and find a ship, then they could get out of there!

But the ocean didn't usually sound like running water, so a river was more plausible. The river could possibly take them somewhere though!

"Right behind you, Usopp-san!" Brook announced so that this time he wouldn't be left behind and started following along behind. "It's a bit chilly though, so maybe a part of the water is frozen?" he suggested as they went, being slightly realistic for a change. Anything was possible though. "I do hope not!"

Usopp nodded back, sneezed, rubbed his aching nose a little more, and kept walking. Really, even if they magically found an ocean right around the bend, it wouldn't do them a lot of good. They didn't have their ship, or their navigator, or any reason to believe that they could sail home. They might be able to go someplace better than this, though. There had to be a limit to the range of Landel's influence, right?

Still walking, he noticed the amount of snow increasing, even as they moved closer towards the sound. He also saw a few more dark patches, which he studiously pretended not to see at all. Something on the air was starting to smell bad, although there was a salty touch to the smell, or maybe it was just wishful thinking. After the blow and then the cold, it would be no surprise if his nose had gone a little numb.

"Even if it's frozen... you can break through ice. It'd still be something to tell the others, if we found something like that..."

Maybe the cols wasn't so wonderful anymore. Brook still liked having the feeling of it prickling his skin, because he had skin now, but he was losing some feeling in the areas where his skin was showing. Going numb wasn't good for feeling any sensations! He sniffled just a bit himself (was his nose running? How wonderful!), but he wasn't sneezing yet.

"What would we break it with? And yes! We would definitely have to tell them! Everything about being out here, of course!"

"R-right. Big, important... news report. About the stuff outside. 'Cause we accomplished a lot tonight." Usopp sniffled loudly, realized one of the sniffles he'd heard hadn't come from him, and glanced up at Brook. Then he untied his cape, opening it, and gesturing loosely to Brook.

"C'mon under here. I have a smaller body. I lose heat faster, so I need extra warmth. S-so two peoples' body warmth's better, right?" At least the bedsheet should be large enough for both of them, although traveling like that would be even slower.

Brook nodded, then paused when he realized what Usopp was saying. "We did?" he asked, confused. They'd gotten outside of the wall, that much was certain, but they hadn't done much more. Except for the bleeding snow. Did they have to report something that creepy?

He looked down again when Usopp offered his cape, but shook his head at it, holding up a hand. "It is all right. I should have planned ahead better. Yohohoho! And besides, it would be difficult for me to bend down that much and be able to walk! I'd look like a hermit crab!"

Usopp looked a little annoyed at the refusal of his offer. Especially since Brook was ignoring the lie Usopp had given for motivation; Usopp didn't lie about being weaker very often, after all. But he shrugged it off. "It's a whole bed sheet, I think it'd reach. If your toes and fingers start falling off, it isn't my fault, okay?"

Distracted from their surroundings' atmosphere by the annoyance, he stepped ahead, and turning around another corner, saw in a distance what looked to be the source of the sounds he'd heard. The water was frozen over, as Brook had predicted, and looked calm if weirdly... discolored. The beach looked strange too, as though it were covered with large white pebbles. Whatever water they'd heard must have been coming from the lake at an outlet somewhere not too far off, Usopp decided, but the lake itself gave him an uncomfortable feeling. At any rate, it wasn't water they could sail on.

Brook laughed. "Then I'd probably turn back into a skeleton wouldn't I?! Yohohohoho!" Some humor was good for this kind of situation! Or in any kind of situation really.

He viewed the beach and frozen water as well, frowning at the ice more than the color. It didn't look easy to break apart, that was for sure. But then again, who would want to break apart ice on a lake! "It looks a little strange, doesn't it?"

That thought just made Usopp shudder violently, which he covered by pulling the sheet closer around himself.

It was hard to see, especially with moonlight shining off of white snow and ice (where it wasn't stained, and he wasn't sure he wanted to see what was staining it.) The whiteness around the shore from stones or... something... didn't help. He tried pulling out his goggles, squinting through those, but they didn't cut down on the glare at all. Finally, squinting, he made out a little more detail, recognizing one of the odd round white shapes as a human skull.

Stumbling backward, he nearly fell over Brook, turning white as the snow or-- "BroBroBroBrook! That's, it's, that's, those are..!" Despite the cabin he'd seen on the shore, he turned away from the lake entirely, shutting his eyes and covering his ears for a moment. Didn't see anything, didn't see anything, didn't see anything...

Stumbling into Brook didn't help when the former skeleton had had enough problems when he'd been a skeleton with just seeing himself in the mirror! The moment he saw the skulls being pointed to, his mouth fell well beyond the point any normal person's would or could and went back as well, right onto his butt.

"Skulls! There's skulls!" As if that wasn't obvious. "Why are there skulls?!" He pointed, demanding an answer that wouldn't come. Unlike Usopp, Brook didn't have enough sense to just look away and pretend he hadn't seen it, because he had eyes now so he knew what he could and couldn't see! And he saw skulls!

[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/507197.html)]]

He landed quietly, noticing one familiar face, even if he didn't give a greeting. His smile was barely there, muted somewhat by the night's events. He checked the area quickly before signaling the others to follow him down.

The dark, made opaque without any artificial lights to help chase it away, was still lightened now that they were outdoors. Like late nights on the mountainside, Tsubaki felt a certain familiarity being in the pitch black, under the stars.

Except a hike through the wilderness in this situation was a lot more ominous a thought.

Nodding wordlessly in the face of Matsumoto and Ichimaru’s resolve, she followed them to the outer wall, sneaking a peek through the dark windows of the greenhouse as she passed. The wall itself was fairly tall and smooth, but like the others, Tsubaki didn’t think it’d be that difficult of a climb--she scoured it for handholds before sucking in a shallow breath and starting up, ignoring the hot throb that started up in her injured arm.

Accepting Matsumoto’s hand with her uninjured one once she was within reach, Tsubaki found her balance on the lip, casting a quick look at the moon’s position in the sky. Then when the silver-haired shinigami in front gestured them down, she slipped off, cushioning the near-silent drop with bent knees and keeping the wall close at her back. It’d be easy to turn an ankle on this uneven terrain if she wasn’t careful…

Rangiku helped Tsubaki onto the top of the wall and then jumped down herself, landing silently in her slippers. She paused, taking a long moment to look around at the first glimpse outside of the walls beyond the trips to the town. Trees for the most part, not too thick thankfully, although the ground was uneven and littered with debris and rocks.

"I guess we keep heading that way," she said quietly, pointing off towards the east, although there was little to be seen in the darkness to suggest what might be waiting for them.

She headed off walking in that direction, keeping her head held high defiantly and only stopping once to rub at her eyes when she felt a flare of reiatsu be snuffed out completely.

This was the time when good people said things like "it'll be okay," or "we're too far away to know for sure if they're gone." Things like that. Empty hopeful words that meant little yet somehow seemed to comfort others. The were simple enough, but Gin was having a devil of a time getting anything of the sort to come out of his mouth. Whatever he said would hold no meaning and they both knew it. Neither of the reiatsus that had been in danger were people he cared for, or cared whether they lived or died even. In fact, life for him would be much easier if they weren't around, it was one less thorn in his side.

And yet, he did feel guilt, if only in the tiniest degree, because no matter how little he cared, Ran still cared a great deal. And seeing her in pain was what bothered him.

"M'sorry," he said quietly as he brushed past her, scanning the area for anything ahead. It was not tender or heartfelt, nor was it completely callous, it simply was as he'd stated it, simple and straightforward. There was no explanation, and while it might not have even been an "I'm sorry your friend is gone," it was at least an "I'm sorry you're in pain." Probably the best she'd ever get out of him.

"All right..." Tsubaki's response was soft enough that it was almost carried away by the chilly breeze, which rustled tree branches and occasionally muffled the sounds of others' movements in the woods.

She wished these moments never happened, moments when she could clearly sense the grief. She wanted to do something, even if she had only an inkling of the circumstances. She wanted to say something, even if Matsumoto was trying to conceal her pain. But in the end, she did neither, because the only thing Tsubaki knew she could do was quickly slip out of her slippers, scoop them up, and creep to the left and over an incline, on alert for any activity in the darkness around her--support the team by staying focussed on her part.

And still she wished that she could do something more... Anything, really, so that these things didn't have to happen.

She didn't reply to Gin, not verbally at least, but just brushed her fingers against the back of his hand lightly, accepting his words gratefully. It was more comforting than empty platitudes would have been, because it wasn't going to be alright and she knew that it would have felt hollow and empty if he'd said that he was sorry that it had happened when he hadn't even liked Renji. But it was what he felt and that was better than anything else would have been.

She took a deep breath, forcing down the sorrow that she felt and then turned to face Tsubaki, feeling bad for having mostly ignored both her and Gin. "I'm not sure what to expect, but I think we just keep heading into the trees," she said. "Make a note of anything interesting that you see."

There was little else to be said, so he hurried on, giving a nod to show he understood the order. Something to stab about now would be a relief, but so far no luck. The forest up ahead would offer them cover, but it would also put them at risk. He was curious about what sort of things might be outside or if it would just be more of the same.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/508865.html)]

Nightshift 36: East of the Institute

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