damned_institute | Nightshift 38: F11-F20 Hallway

Clad in her shinigami uniform with the unfamiliar weight of Hyorinmaru across her back, the green strap crossing the center of her chest, Momo slid her own sword into her sash at her side. It felt very weird having two swords with her, knowing a third was carefully hidden in her room until she heard back from Lucivar, but it was a burden she was going to have to bear. There were many burdens the small vice captain had to handle now.

Some heavier than others.

Clutching the key from her lost beloved in her hand, Momo nodded to Celes before exiting the room. She hadn't seen a response from Signum when she checked the board after her therapy, so she hoped the knight had seen it. Making her way quickly, the shinigami moved over a hallway.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/549947.html)

Harley gave an exaggerated sigh. What, oh, what was she going to do with this roommate of hers? "Hey, you're the one belly-aching about bein' misunderstood. Don't exactly come off as a social butterfly, ya know?"

Understatement of the century. Before she could continue, the same stupid guy came over the same stupid speaker saying the same weird stupid things. The door lock clicked.

"What the--? Already?" Heck, she hadn't even finished the portions of untainted dinner. It was sure true what they said about time flying.

Finally! was all Raine could think when the lights went out. She knew where her broom was, but it was soon taking her a lot longer than she liked to find the latest medical book and her journal.

Harley went ignored, because Raine had nothing more to say to her. How long do room assignments typically last?

Harley got up from her own seat to get her flashlight and the small wrecking bar. She'd been so full of confidence upon acquiring it, but after that giant spider last night, she was beginning to think this thing was going to be pretty much useless as a weapon. Unfortunately, she didn't have the time to be picky. Her sweethearts were waiting for her to help them, and they had waited far longer than they should have!

Speaking of which, she was still wondering about heading up there alone. Hmm. "Hey, Rainey! What are ya doin' tonight?"

She looked up, at least, exasperated. "It's Raine. Or Professor Sage. I'm the senior healer in the clinic, so that's where I spend most of my nights."

To be polite, she should have asked about Harley's plans. Instead, she kept looking for that book... and couldn't help a brief smirk when she found her first and only attempt at making Gels. It would be unethical to use them for revenge, but she could fantasize about it.

She brightened immediately. "Oh hey! Meesy said she went to the clinic here a lot, too! What a coinky dink! And you're a professor, too?! I got lotsa professor friends. There's even some guy here with the same name as one of 'em!"

Harley tended to run into him a lot at night, it seemed. Maybe with any luck, she could find him again and they could go up to the lab together! But back on topic: "Are ya one of those teacher professors or scientist professors?"

"Both. I'm a teacher, but a researcher as well." At least it was a topic that she liked talking about. "My specialty is archeology, although things like anatomy are fascinating as well--my world isn't technically as advanced as this, so I've been studying new medical techniques. Although occasionally I need a break from that."

Raine was actually sounding more like a doctor than a teacher. "...How'd an archeologist get into med? You scrape up your leg in the middle of diggin' holes?"

No, really. How did an archeology major suddenly decide to pick up medical stuff? Maybe she was like those people she went to college with who had no clue what to choose for a minor and just picked up something at random.

"The fields are unrelated." Raine was just one of those people who would eventually have a slightly obscene number of college degrees.

Finally, her book! She stuffed it into her bag (a pillowcase on a strap), got her broom, and simply nodded to Harley before heading out. Sheena had to be wondering where the hell she was; knowing the ninja, she'd be mad that Raine hadn't managed to warn her about the room change.

[Going down a thread!]

And without any reason or anything, she's off. Boy, some people just had no manners now, did they? This Rainey sure was a weird person to have as a roommate. She was going to miss Meesy... She had been Harley's first friend here and they could always talk about anything, it seemed. This girl was the complete opposite. It was like pulling teeth just to get a word out of her.

Oh well. It's not like she planned to stay much longer after she'd gotten her babies out. With them with her, no giant spider or freaky cat thing would be too much of a problem! And they'd been cooped up for so long... Poor darlings. No, nothing else mattered at the moment. She had to get them out.

[Off to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544346.html?thread=44912986#t44912986)]

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544090.html?thread=44878682#t44878682)

The only problem with going exploring away from the Clinic was... that stalker person. Sheena didn't know who it was, what it was, but the thought of someone stalking her was creepy. Very, very creepy. Sure, the ninja was perfectly capable of taking care of herself (and she did threaten to beat the stuffing out of the stalker), but the thought of some guy trying to sneak up behind her to bite her was just...

Ew. Icky. Perverted. Worse than Zelos.

Sheena felt a distinct shudder travel up her spine as she knocked on the door to F18. "Raine! Hurry up. I feel kinda weird out here by myself," she snapped, naturally covering up her discomfort with aggression. After a few moments of silence, Sheena knocked again, louder. "Hey! Get your half-elven butt out here before I come barging in!"

Nothing. Uh oh. This wasn't good. Raine would have at least called out for her to shut up about the half-elf stuff by now. Refusing to be worried (stupid half-elf), the ninja did exactly what she said she'd do; she barged in.

"I swear Raine, if you've got your nose stuck in another book so deep you've got words stuck in your pointy ears, I'm gonna--"

Sheena's words cut off in shock as the ninja found herself staring at a completely empty room. It looked like no one had ever been in the room. Perfectly made bed with pressed sheets. Not a single book lying around. Nothing to indicate Raine, or anyone for that matter, was using the room.

"No..." She'd lost Raine. She didn't know how, but she'd lost the one and only person she knew, one hundred percent, she could trust. Did Raine end up where Zelos was?

Sheena whirled around. She needed to tell Kratos. He's be able to find--

The ninja stopped and fell to her knees, forcibly holding back tears. No, not even a member of Cruxis would be able to find Raine if what everyone else said about the people who disappeared. He probably wouldn't even care. Sheena wrapped her arms about herself and sat in the middle of the room, still trying not to cry.

She was alone again.

[From above.]

No sign of Sheena, but Raine noticed that the door to her old room was open; she wondered who occupied it now. She glanced in as she walked down the hall--

--and saw the very person she was looking for. "Sheena?" she asked, stopping in the doorway. She couldn't tell what was wrong, but it generally took a lot to upset Sheena this much.

Upon hearing her name, Sheena's eyes snapped up to find Raine in the doorway. She hadn't shed a tear yet, but there was a glistening in her eyes. The next moment, the ninja had launched herself off the floor and tackled Raine with a forceful hug.

"Don't you ever do that again," she growled out, though her words were a little shaky.

Raine had to take a step back, but after a startled moment she hugged Sheena in return. "Sorry," she murmured, and meant it. "I would have warned you if I had the chance, but I didn't know until I was taken for dinner, and then I was delayed getting out." Tales of her new roommate could wait.

Poor Sheena--did she get abandoned that often, or it was something else?

Once Raine hugged back, Sheena realized what she'd done. She shrugged out of the hug and turned away from Raine, swiping a hand at her face to check for any insolent tears that didn't know when to listen to a ninja.

"I guess I can forgive you," was the surly reply. "So, what's your new room?"

Sulking again? Sheena really was still a child at heart, it seemed. "F13," Raine replied. "I have a new roommate again, as well." She was obviously not thrilled about this development.

"So you weren't moved?"

Shaking her head, and completely composed at this point, Sheena turned back. "Nope. I'm still in F2. I take it you and your new roomie don't get along?"

"Not so far." And ever doing so seemed unlikely, but never mind that.

Raine just hoped they as a group would NOT be taken by surprise by something major anytime soon; losing two such strong leaders in as many nights was bad for many reasons. Especially since it really didn't seem like it could be coincidence.

Sheena rolled her eyes. "At least try, you know?"

The ninja started down the hallway, nervously twirling one card . "Hey... you going to be okay tonight without me?" Something was clearly bothering her.

"There usually aren't non-medical problems within the clinic. Why?" Raine hadn't missed the worry, and wondered what was going on. She didn't know many of the people Sheena did, and really had no idea what the ninja's plans were. I trust you're not getting in over your head, though.

...at least, she hoped not.

"...just wanted to make sure me not being there wasn't going to screw up any Clinic business," Sheena replied, not looking at Raine, the card still twirling. "I'm kinda... restless."

She suddenly stopped and whirled around to look back down the hallway past Raine as if expecting something to be there. A moment later and she turned back and continued on after seeing only an empty hallway.

"Sheena, what's going on?" Raine was far from stupid, and it was increasingly obvious that Sheena was nervous about something. In theory it could have been anticipation, but she doubted the ninja would be acting like this if she was looking forward to something.

She did remember seeing an exchange on the board that seemed on the way to getting heated, which could be it... wonderful, as if they needed more conflict.

"...it's probably nothing," Sheena muttered, though the card never stopped moving. "Just someone playing 'let's rile up the ninja'."

Yeah, that was it. Right?

"Did something happen?" Possibly started by Sheena, but never mind that.

Sometimes making enemies was unavoidable, but in-fighting here... not good.

Sheena was silent for a moment, debating what to tell Raine. "No, it's just... Someone threatened to stalk me, okay?"

Raine frowned. "Do you know why? And if they intend to do more?" Stalking was in itself technically harmless, but since it carried an implied threat of injury, she couldn't just tell Sheena good luck chasing the person off.

The ninja could defend herself, at least. Raine just hoped she was a better fighter than the might-be stalker.

"I dunno," Sheena grumbled. "He, she, it... whoever it is said they were gonna tackle me form behind and bite me or something, like the vampire did to the one girl."

She hunched her shoulders forward, the card's twirling speeding up. "I warned them I'd kick their ass, but then they knew my name, which I didn't sign by the way, and said they knew what I looked like."

She shuddered. "It's creepy, Raine."

"This is why some people use disguised handwriting." Raine shook her head. "I usually don't, but it was still startling when a friend revealed she knew I'm a half-elf without being told. I've mentioned it on the board, but rarely, and I hadn't always identified myself in those posts."

[[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544346.html?thread=45157722#t45157722).]]

Unfortunately, something stranger than Utena's story had cut the detective's thoughts short.

A voice again-- it was the same one she heard before becoming completely conscious, or was it different? It was hard to remember, especially between waking up and the surprise of finding herself somewhere else entirely. It started off well enough, with a pleasing sounding jingle and jaunty tones, but in context Naoto couldn't figure out what it meant. 'Nurses'. 'Patients'... Were they really in a hospital after all? That couldn't have been right, it didn't make any sense. Anyone taking a person-- much less two-- wouldn't bring them to a hospital... That was digging your own grave right there, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why.

But the lights cut out, leaving them in the dark. Before Naoto could decide on what to do next, another sound began to echo through the intercom, a hideous sounding noise that was far from pleasing to the ears. She froze on her spot on the bed, where she was in the middle of her discussion with Utena, and despite the lack of light and even a window to allow any to sink into the room, Naoto stared at the ceiling, attempting to discern any rhyme or reason behind what they were hearing. And then, that man's voice again, except this time... It was as if someone much more sinister took over the microphone. She knew right away it wasn't somebody different, though, not unless someone was really good at impersonating.

Whatever the case was, it finally gave some insight. 'Replace'. So... they were 'replacements'. But not just the two of them, if she were guessing correctly. This sounded like it was far beyond what Naoto originally thought, and it left her feeling far too unnerved. As soon as he said the word 'institute', that finalized it-- she was wrong in her guesswork after all.

Naoto couldn't make sense of the rest of the message, but with the way it was said, there had to be someone who did. When it all came to it, the entire thing sounded kind of... scary. She didn't like where this was heading at all.

"This might be a bad time to continue our conversation, Tenjou-san," Naoto remarked, sounding oddly unfazed by what had just happened. "I wouldn't mind picking it up again, but for now, I think something else has fallen into our hands."

Utena listened to the first announcement suspiciously, not sure what to make of it either. It confirmed her earlier idea that this was a hospital environment of sorts, but that still didn't tell either of them why they'd been taken there.

And then the lights cut out, followed by a garbling from the intercom above. The combined suddenness of both events caused Utena to jump a bit in surprise, her leg hitting the side of her bed. "Wah!" she gasped softly, falling back onto the mattress. She was frozen in place for a few moments as she listened to the new voice (was it really new?) speak above them. This definitely didn't sound anything like what the Student Council or their Ends of the World might cook up anymore. They never referred to institutes or levels like that, and the man didn't mention the Rose Bride or duels even once.

Utena moved her hands around on the bed to push herself back up once he was done addressing them (and the rest of the trapped population of the building, apparently). In the process, she discovered a lump in her pillow that she hadn't noticed before. Upon investigating, she found a flashlight there. "Yeah, I guess all that's not really relevant anymore, huh?" she said, standing back up and flipping on the switch. "Check under your pillow. Maybe you have a light too."

With the beam of light trained on the door, Utena moved toward it, eyes narrowed. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go out there and find out just what's supposed to be going on here and how to stop it. You with me?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder as she reached for the doorknob.

In slight surprise, Naoto also moved her hand under the pillow, and she too found the flashlight placed under there. Huh. It was odd that whoever put them there would give them a fair amount of material to work with, but Naoto certainly wasn't going to complain about it. She would be able to make some sort of use out of what was found in the drawers.

"I have one, too," Naoto confirmed aloud for Utena, and as if to make the news more apparent, clicked the light on as well. Good thing, now they wouldn't have to stumble around blindly and aimlessly.

Without a beat, Naoto was on her feet, approaching from behind. "No need to ask," she replied with a single, determined nod. "I advise that we both be careful-- we don't know what's out there, and our speaker here has made it obvious that possible danger lies ahead. Don't act rashly."

Utena nodded back as she turned the door handle. "Right. I'll try not to," she said, keeping her eyes ahead as she slowly pulled the door open to reveal a hall as dark as the room they had just left. She wasn't sure how easy it would be not to act rashly. She knew that she had a tendency to rush into things if she saw people - particularly friends - in danger. But she would try, anyway.

In the beam of her flashlight, she could see a few other girls moving through the hall, two of which were having a conversation that Utena was hesitant to interrupt and the rest of whom seemed to be headed elsewhere. Some were dressed in the same gray clothing as Naoto, while others had wildly different outfits the way that Utena did.

"No other way to go except down that way, looks like," Utena said softly back to her roommate, gesturing down to another hallway with her light. Seeing nothing too dangerous yet, she stepped out of the room, carefully making her way down.

[To here]

Finishing dressing, Yukari grabbed her flashlight and her sadly still-bent parasol. If they were going to fix the dress, why not the parasol? Was Landel making fun of her? He probably was. Part of Yukari saw the humor in it, but it was hard to appreciate when she was the butt of the joke.

She popped her head out of the door at the sound of someone banging away on one of the doors down the hall. Some girl in a vibrantly purple ninja outfit was standing out there, and simply her pretty costume, in particular the color, was enough to catch Yukari's attention. Then someone with a half-elven butt (apparently) showed up and mentioned something that captured Yukari's attention the rest of the way.

"Sheena."

She hadn't gotten a good look - and still couldn't without shining her flashlight at them and drawing attention to herself - but it certainly looked like the girl, and it definitely sounded like her. Yukari grinned evilly as she went over the maps in her head.

Yes, indeed. There was only one way out of the female dorm block.

Popping back into her room momentarily, she planned things out, then waved Callisto good-bye cheerfully. She headed out of her room, keeping her flashlight off for now, but acting for all the world as if she was just off to go wherever patients went at night and not at all interested in anyone else in the hallway. She walked right past the two without so much as a glance in their direction and exited the corridor.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544346.html?thread=44916314#t44916314)]

As riveting as Melissa's conversation with her new roomate was, the mindcaster had much more pressing issues to deal with once the doors unlocked. Like getting the stupid arm healed, finally. And then getting outside.

Unlike many other people here, Melissa really didn't need to bring anything. The flashlight only hindered her progress, her radio was gone and the reason that she had a broken arm in the first place, and the journal... was a journal. No help there. So as soon as the announcement ended, Melissa was out of the door and moving down the hall.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544346.html?thread=44954714#t44954714)]

Dinner had been a silent affair, which was what MOMO was becoming used to. It was a little sad, but there was nothing she could do about it.

The realian changed quickly, thinking over tonight's assignment as she did so. She knew where to find syringes, and she could only guess that the other supplies they needed would be found somewhere close to that area. After all, it made sense to keep similar items like that grouped together, didn't it? That was what she thought and she hoped it would hold true, otherwise it would make things more difficult.

There had been extra pillowcases in that one closet, so MOMO figured she didn't have to worry about bringing something to carry anything in. She couldn't think of anything else she would need to bring, and it wasn't as though she had much in the first place, so she grabbed only her flashlight before heading out the door.

They took Ami.

What were they going to do to her? Why couldn't she do anything to stop it? How could she be this powerless?

Anise felt sick just thinking about it. Even though she always tried to keep her chin up and pretend she wasn't bothered by her situation here... in the end, the staff could barge in anytime they wanted and tear her away from what little normalcy she had.

The girl took a few minutes just to process what happened. She felt guilty for not being able to help Ami, and now that she was gone, Anise still didn't know what to do. If she knew who any of Ami's friends were, she could have gone to tell them what had happened, but she didn't know a single one. The most she could do was leave a note in case someone came looking for her. Tearing a page from her journal, Anise did just that.

Ami was taken tonight. I'm sorry.

-Anise

She felt pathetic to think that this was all she could do for her roommate, but it made her feel a little better than just doing nothing. Anise left the note on Ami's desk, then returned to her side of the room to collect her things.

The sack of metal for the Cooking Club, the cookies for Honey, the journal filled with recipes for tonight's plan, and the metal pipe for her own protection. It was more than a handful all together, so Anise took the pillowcase from her bed and filled it with everything that wasn't going to the Cooking Club. It was going to be a little awkward carrying two sacks with her, but it was better than balancing it all in her hands. Plus, she was finally getting a flashlight tonight! She needed a free hand.

As soon as the doors unlocked, Anise was on her way to the F-A block for her first rendezvous.

[To here]

Well... her roommate had certainly hurried off. Kimberly frowned slightly, but in the end that was probably for the best. She couldn't risk the other girl seeing her ninja suit, after all.

Shrugging her shoulders, she waited a few minutes just to make sure that the girl wouldn't come back, and then hurried to pull the outfit from the closet and change. Her communicator still wasn't working but, again, that didn't stop her from snapping it onto her wrist where it belonged. It was comforting to have it on, even if she couldn't use it to call Tommy or anyone else.

Thankfully she managed to change quicker than she had the previous night (although she still missed morphing like normal), and the Pink Ninja Ranger practically bounced on her heels as she tugged on the gloves and adjusted the face-mask. There was just something about being in pink again! How could she not love it?

She didn't have any plans tonight, but that wasn't about to stop her. She was going to do something to make up for the failure that had been last night. So, after picking up her flashlight, the Ranger exited the room and jogged down the hall.

Callisto left the room swiftly after Yukari. She still didn't have much in the way of a proper weapon, though the light stick was bound to be decent at beaning someone over the head if the opportunity allowed.

There had been enough delays over the past few nights. She was going to get where she wanted to get tonight, and she'd be damned if anything got in her way.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/544700.html?view=45197500#t45197500)]

Nightshift 38: F11-F20 Hallway

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