damned_institute | Night 21: Lower Hallway in M1-M40 Block

The captain didn't waste time in making his way to the end of the hallway. He was working on a time crunch, after all, and while he got the feeling it would take a while for all of his crew to gather together in one place, he wanted to make sure he was punctual. He could start working things out with whoever was already there...

As he got to the end of the hallway, he paused when he saw someone who looked around his age loitering. What was the point of that? Maybe he was waiting for someone, but wouldn't it be better to stay in his room as a meeting place?

He frowned when he realized that he had bandages covering his lower left arm. Not one to start off a conversation politely, he simply asked, "What did that to you?" He wasn't necessarily wasting time. It might be good to learn what areas were dangerous - and what if this guy had a better idea of how to get to the female block than he did?

Cid arched a brow. No long introductions? Fine, he preferred straight-to-the-point to overly verbose, which was the way some particular people he'd come across in this place tended to be.

"This?" He asked, gingerly holding up his left arm. He winced as he did, unprepared for the pain and holding one arm with the other because of it.

"Heh..." The pilot shrugged as he lowered the injured arm to his side. "Funny you should ask about that. If you'd seen me two days ago, I could've said I'd taken on a fresh-from-hell monster and lived... but now, I have to tell you I got sliced up by a little girl."

He shook his head and smiled wryly.

"Ain't too good for my reputation."

From what Mal had seen thus far, it seemed that while the institute let its patients get beat up at night, it made sure to take care of those wounds once it was morning. He wasn't sure what to think of that, but the point was that even if cuts got cleaned out and wrapped up, they still hurt. And it was pretty obvious that the blond was in a lot of pain at the moment.

He liked the man's sense of humor and would have been content just smirking at him if something hadn't occurred to him.

"A little girl," he sighed. "Happen to know her name?" While he had only caught the end of River's hysterics at breakfast, he could tell that it had something to do with being controlled. Had she been made to attack this man? If that was the case, then their running into each other was one hell of a coincidence.

"Her name?" Cid blinked in response to the guy's question. He laughed. "HA! Nah, I was a little too busy getting the shit beaten outta me for formalities."

Then he took a moment to think, and he narrowed his eyes in thought.

"You know, though... now that I think back on it, I did recognize her as one of us inmates. Long hair, dark eyes, about yay-high?"

Cid held out his right hand to show about the height of the blur that had come at him had been. He paused, then gave a sardonic smirk.

"Friend of yours?"

"Sounds like River, all right," Mal sighed. It wasn't like there could be another girl with similar features that could kick that much ass, right? It was a bit emasculating to admit it, but she was way out of their league. Of course, that was because the Alliance had done things to her, so it wasn't exactly something to be praising...

"I s'ppose I should be apologizing on her behalf, but she didn't mean no harm," he said. "She's part of my crew. I'm actually on my way to find her and the others, so..." It was about time he got moving. He felt bad leaving suddenly when he'd been the one to start the conversation in the first place, but he doubted the man wanted to come along with him to search for the girl who had left him bandaged in the first place. Though he imagined River would have appreciated being able to say sorry herself.

River? So that was the psycho's name, the one who Vincent seemed to have been familiar with before the venture to the entrance went to shit.

Cid was about to make one of his usual snarky, but slightly empathetic comments that he used in peculiar situations like this (after all, who was he to be pissed when his friend had tried to kill him just the night before?) when he suddenly realized the meaning of what the man had just said.

"Crew?" He asked with an arched brow as he tried not to sound as eager and stupidly hopeful as he was. "You mean a boat crew, or...?"

Most people didn't pause at that word of all things. Mal was honestly surprised that the man had taken an interest. And perhaps a little proud. He loved his ship and his crew and never passed up on a chance to talk about them.

"Yep," he replied, placing a hand on his hip. "I captain a ship. Seems that a lot of my crew ended up here with me." Though it had been proving impossible to hold a proper conversation with any of them. "Which is exactly where I want 'em." He would have been more worried if he'd had no clue where they were. He was always mentally keeping track of where everyone was. Being in this place had made that exceedingly difficult. He still had no idea if Jayne was around.

"But yeah," he finished, stretching out his hand to the blond. "Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity."

Cid stared for a second and then grinned wider than he had in a good damn number of days.

"Well, if that ain't a nice fuckin' surprise for a change." He strode forward as if he hadn't been injured at all, outstretching his right hand in a motion of amiability.

"Name's Captain Cid Highwind of the... well, the Highwind." He laughed, though, true to his own ego, not in self-deprecating away. "Why waste time thinkin' up a new name when you've already got a great one, right? Hahaha..."

After giving the man a firm, coarse shake, Mal nodded his head as if in approval. Highwind, huh? That wasn't a bad name at all. Reynolds was no proper name for a ship, so it wasn't like he could have done the same thing.

Besides, Serenity had its own importance. "My boat's named after something, too," he said. While he had taken an uncanny liking to the man, he was not going to get into the particular details behind the name. It wasn't relevant, anyway.

"Well, I've got to be going now." He shrugged. "You can come along, but I'm bettin' you'd rather not. Still, I think the little girl might want to say she's sorry." He couldn't help teasing the man, even though he knew River's capabilities were nothing to snicker at.

The approaching creature was silent as it padded down the hallway, keeping against the wall to avoid any flashlights picking out its form. About twice the size of a normal cat, the creature licked its chops at the thought of what lay ahead. The warm scent of flesh was a welcome one.

Watching the pair, the cat's ears laid back some. Their voices were loud and rough, much like they smelled. Oh well, dinner was dinner. It waited for a moment, trying to pick out which of them would be the best to take down.

Cid shook Captain Reynolds' hand jovially, though he regretted it a moment later when he found his chest hurting and pulled his hand back to gingerly press it against the bandages.

"Ow... ow... Heh." He then heard the next words that came out of the man's mouth and somehow felt foolish and deflated. "Wait, you say 'boat'? What the hell kind of ship are you talking about?"

Cid was about to have a moral dilemma about whether or not hanging around this guy was smart or clingy when he paused.

"You hear that?" He asked, though he wasn't sure what exactly he was talking about.

Mal raised an eyebrow when he watched Highwind recoil in pain. If he was in that bad of a shape, maybe it wasn't so smart for him to be lingering in the hallway on his own.

He would have answered the blond's question rather happily, if he hadn't similarly been distracted by the overwhelming feeling that they were being watched. As usual, his hand immediately went to his belt for a gun that wasn't there.

And then he realized something even more upsetting. He'd forgotten the bat in his room. He'd gone through all that trouble the night before to get his hands on it and then he'd forgotten it. He wanted to make some sort of verbal announcement to let out some of his anger regarding the situation, but he didn't want to reveal his stupidity to this man he'd just met.

He nodded in response to the question. "I'm thinkin' a tactical retreat might be in order," he whispered. Cid was injured and he was batless. Running would most likely be the wisest decision.

"Mrrrooowwllll."

The sound was far from any noise that a regular cat should have made, feral and hungry. The cat darted forward, hungry and already eyeing a potential ankle for bringing down prey. Scythe-like claws extended beyond the pad of its foot, screeching on the floor as it charged.

Cid Highwind already smelled of weak prey to it, attractive and stirring that desire to claw and bite. It was Mal that it went for though. That male was relatively uninjured seeming, a potential rival for whatever prey it managed to bring down and thus needed to be eliminated first.

Charging out of the dark, it swiped its claws towards Mal's ankle and shin, wanting to shred and rend the man apart.

(from here)

So much for Renji's assumption that near the rooms, people were safe. As he led the kids down the hall, intending to just go to M10, he heard a rather unnatural... something? It wasn't a howl, but it was definitely animal, and angry, and probably hungry as well.

He didn't hesitate. He could see the shapes moving in the darkness ahead; he'd been a shinigami so long that he built up the mental flow of the battle in an instant. Even as his footsteps quickened to a run, he snatched a pen into each hand. With such pathetic weapons, he'd have to strike fast, and true.

He'd almost forgotten, in the past two confusing days, the kind of fire that battle put into the blood. Before he'd gone to the Sixth, he'd been in the Eleventh, and for good reason.

The little light caught the eyes of the beast; he aimed for the reflection. Renji grinned as he went from sprint to lunge, hands ready to strike.

Nowe trailed after Renji, stopping dead as soon as he heard the familiar noise. It was that disgusting cat again.

"Ah-- Renji, wait!" He cried, stretching a hand out as the man took off before they could stop him. He cursed under his breath, glancing behind him at Sora. The urge to rush in and help was strong, and he could feel the adrenaline already starting to pump into his veins, but he had none of his abilities. He had to think before running in to help, and that annoyed him more than anything.

Again, he looked back toward Sora. Damn this having to hesitate. But if Sora rushed in, so would he.

"What should we do?"

Having written down Renji's room number and put his journal away, Sora had been content to follow Renji in search of Kurosaki. He didn't mind adding another member to their party, after all. He'd only spoken to Kurosaki once, but he had seemed like a good guy...

They ran into trouble before they should cross the short distance to the first hallway, however. Renji had charged toward the cat before he could even blink, and Nowe seemed conflicted.

Shining his flashlight on the scene, it soon became obvious that there were two other men being attacked by the creature. He couldn't see much more than that, but it was enough for him to make a decision. "Me and Renji will try and get at it from behind," he said. "You help those two."

With that, he summoned his Keyblade without much of a struggle and rushed after Renji.

"Yeah..." Cid said under his breath in response to Reynolds' evaluation of the situation. The captain may have been a stubborn bastard, sure, but stupid?

...Well, only most of the time.

Cid's eyes widened as the cat beast lunged forward and he jerked away only to have his back hit the ground, his flashlight and radio clattering away from him. He would have yelled from the pain of aggravated wounds had he not been winded, and from his disastrously bad vantage point, he couldn't even tell if the other captain had already been taken down.

"Shit!" He finally managed to breathe, rolling onto the palms of his hands. He grit his teeth and his left arm shuddered as he struggled to push himself up again. It was only from experience of battles long before this place that he knew now mattered, not the fact that he'd torn his stitches and made the blood flow again even as he got to his feet and whirled around.

Only to see the calvary come.

In the form of fucking kids.

The pilot wasn't sure to laugh or cry. Or maybe pass out, that'd be nice too.

Who would have known the thing could move that fast? Not to mention the fact that the hall was so dark made it impossible to judge how close the monster had been in the first place...

It could be worse. It could be Reavers. He just had to keep telling himself that.

But when he felt a claw hook into the soft tissue of his ankle, that internal reminder didn't matter. It still hurt like a bitch.

Mal's first instinct was to get away, so he jerked his angle and while he definitely felt something rip in the process, at least he was out of the cat's clutches. He turned to find Cid on the floor and quite a few other patients running toward them.

...All right, maybe they could do with a little help.

He slumped against the wall. "Ai ya, wo mun wan leh." He'd been trying to refrain from using Chinese while in this place since most of the others didn't understand it, but this time it just slipped.

Scythe-like claws curling around, the cat tried to hang onto Mal. Hunger was roaring through the creature, the smell of blood spilled from Cid's injuries a great incentive to it. Once it managed to take this one down, there would be even more to eat!

Shaken loose, the creature hissed at them in anger. That had most certainly not been in its plans! When Renji flew at it, the cat leaped for him in turn. It didn't know what weapons this one had, nor did it care. Claws out, it tried to clamp onto the man.

Of the creatures of Landel's, it wasn't the smartest. Fast, yes... smart, no. The others were paid no attention for now, just wanting to feed.

In a way, that was pretty convenient. It made closing the distance easier.

Injury or even death meant nothing. It was all about skill, and the fight. He had strength and weight, and the weight of centuries of experience with him.

Baring his teeth in a feral grin, Renji met the creature's leap with one pen stabbing toward its left eye, the other going for the sweet spot of the soft belly.

Nowe watched Sora rush in, and then made a rush himself, past the battle and over toward the other two men, skidding to a halt in front of Mal.

"Did it get you badly?" he asked, pulling a towel from where it was tucked into the waistband of his pants and held it out, glancing back toward the fight. "Here. Use this to wrap up the wound."

He moved on to Cid next. "It didn't get you, did it?" Nowe asked, keeping his flashlight low so as to not blind anyone. "Need a towel?"

He felt a bit silly, really. Like a nurse on a battlefield or something. But if he could be useful this way, then so be it. He'd rush into the fray after making sure everyone else was alright.

It was a good thing that Nowe had listened to him, since it seemed like the cat had managed to hurt at least one of the men. However, Sora was forced to skid to a stop when the monster lunged straight for Renji, who he wasn't very far behind.

He almost crashed right into both cat and friend, which would have caused a huge pile up of pens, claws, Keyblade, and... Well, it would have resulted in a lot of pain.

The problem is that while he would have been able to properly skid with his normal shoes, slippers weren't exactly conducive to good traction and that sort of thing.

So basically, he ended up on his butt. Some savior he was. He just hoped Renji didn't get too hurt...

Even with all the chaos going on around him, Cid was able to figure out that Reynolds was still alive (though not kicking so much) and that one of the guys going at the monster was the schizo kid who'd been convinced he'd known Cid somehow a few days back. The pilot felt his gut twist a little, not just because of the pain but because he was letting a kid and a tattooed punk do his work. Whether it was more of a blow to his morals or his ego, he didn't know, but he was damn sure he didn't like it.

The other kid asking if he needed a towel didn't help, though the pilot couldn't help but feel bad for the guy and his futile cause. After all, what the hell was a towel going to do?

"Nah," he waved him off with his good arm, "I'm fine."

The battle seemed to be nearing them again and he found himself wondering if he should retreat or join the fray. Both weren't the greatest of choices, but hell, the wounded could only pick the better of several ways to screw themselves over.

Then he remembered the glass shard in his pocket.

Cid grit his teeth and fished for it, attempting to pull back the cloth he had wrapped around it while trying to avoid cutting himself further.

"You okay, Reynolds?" He muttered out the corner of his mouth.

Mal took the towel without much of a complaint. It was a bit of a blow to his pride that he had to take help from a kid, but parts of his ankle resembled shredded bacon at the moment and he figured something should probably be done about that.

Remaining slumped against the wall, he pulled his hurt foot up so that he could wrap it. He didn't spend much time on it, seeing that there was imminent danger nearby, and so in the end he looked rather ridiculous with the towel tied around his foot, but at this point he didn't honestly care.

"Thanks," he muttered to the one that had helped him, as if he didn't really want to say it. He glanced over at Cid and was pleased to see that he'd procured some sort of weapon. "I'll live," he replied. "Don't you think you coulda gotten that out sooner?" Well, better late than never. He still didn't have any manner of weapon himself, so he was going to see how the redhead currently wrestling with the creature fared and jump in to help if need be.

The cat held onto Renji as best it could as the two pens drove into its body. Claws curled in, a deathgrip forming. This dinner had hurt it, worse than it had expected. It wasn't supposed to die! They were!

Mortally wounded, the cat's body began to shudder as it let loose a piercing yowl. That probably would help them much, perhaps attracting even more monsters. With one last spasm, the cat died, relaxing in death.

It definately didn't smell any better dead than alive.

It hurt, and it stunk. But he won, and that was all that mattered.

Renji twisted the pens further into the cat's body, growling as it dug in deeper with its claws. He wanted to make sure it was dead, and that this was just a death spasm. He wasn't sure what made his head hurt worse - the yowl, or the smell of the thing's breath.

Then the monster went limp, and Renji threw it away, heedless of the long, deep gouges it had torn in his arms. They bled freely at the moment, but he considered that to be for the best. Who knew what something that smelled that bad had stuck under its claws. Let the wounds cleanse themselves. For a moment, he considered retrieving the pens, but really, he had quite a few more, both with him and back in his room. Hell with that.

He looked back at Sora and Nowe, and the two older guys. Everything seemed under control. No more evil cats at the moment, everything was under control. "I'm going to get Kurosaki," he said. "I'll be back in a second."

He headed down the hall toward Kurosaki's room.

(going briefly here)

By the time Sora got back up, the cat was already dead. Well, that had been anticlimactic. The boy let out a sigh and dusted himself off. The Keyblade was gone within seconds, almost as if it was disappointed in him.

He nodded to Renji as he ran off. With the monster dead and the last addition to their party about to be safely retrieved, it seemed like they would be able to get on their way soon. Still, Renji had been hurt, hadn't he? Sora hoped he was okay...

At least he and Nowe and gotten out of it without a scratch, though it looked like the two men that had been the cat's original targets were a bit flustered. He walked over to them.

"You all right, Mister Cid-That's-Not-Cid?" he asked with a tilt of his head. He was all bandaged up, which meant he must have been injured beforehand...

He glanced over to the other man, even though he'd never spoken to him before. "And how about you?" They would probably be heading off in separate directions soon, so it was best to make sure that neither of them were seriously hurt.

...Well. Cid found himself both relieved and resentful as the cat fell to the ground with a loud thud. Fucking hell, why couldn't he ever go up against something that wasn't strong enough to beat the living shit out of him?

The pilot didn't even bother responding to Reynolds, seeing as what he could use to fight was a moot point now; instead, he simply wrapped up the glass shard and slid it back into his pocket as he watched the cat beast writhe and die with some kind of sadistic satisfaction. It was good that this place sometimes got a taste of its own fucking medicine.

A somewhat familiar voice broke through his thoughts, and he scowled at the schizo kid.

"I'm fine, but I'd be doing a hell of a lot better if you accepted who I fucking was!" He growled as he gingerly leaned his back against the wall. He winced, then let out a sigh and opened an eye to glare at the kid. "You're the nutso."

"Huh?" Mal had no idea why some kid who he'd never even met before was so concerned about his well-being, but he shrugged and nodded. "I'm fine." He glanced down at his towel-foot and sighed. He was going to run into Inara and she was going to make some snide comment and...

He was a little confused by the exchange between Highwind and the kid. It seemed like they had some sort of misunderstanding. While he hadn't expected he'd ever get in the position where he could offer helpful information, it looked like maybe he had. "Folks are taken from all different times," he said, ignoring the urge to wince when he pushed off the wall and placed his weight back on his feet.

"Anyway, while I appreciate what you all did for me, I've got people to meet." He glanced at Cid with a raised eyebrow, wondering if he'd decide to come along. Both of them were pretty hurt. It might be in their benefit to lean on each other as they traversed the hallways.

Well, at least they seemed alright, if not a bit reluctant to accept help. Nowe didn't blame them, he got a lot of that during his time in the Knights. The more senior Knights alwasy resented the younger ones for trying to help them if they got injured. The towels made silly-looking bandages, but they'd suffice until the man could find something better.

He listened in on the odd conversation between Sora and the more gruff of the two men. It sounded like this Cid guy might be from a time before he met Sora, or something. It wasn't terribly important for the time being.

For now, they just had to wait for Renji to come back, hopefully with the Kurosaki guy in tow. They needed to move on too. The faster they could map out this place, the faster they could work on ways to get out.

Sora glanced at the man he didn't know. He wanted to ask what his name was, but it seemed like he was in a hurry. "No, it's not that. Our worlds are different, so it's more than a time thing..." Still, it was silly for them to keep fighting over it, which just meant that they were going to have to start anew.

Turning back to Cid, he nodded. "All right, I'll accept who you are. But... who are you?" He cocked his head to the side curiously. He wasn't the Cid he knew, which meant he was someone else entirely (though there were some vague similarities between the two). "I'm Sora," he said with a grin.

When the stranger expressed a desire to leave, the boy switched his attention back to him. "Huh? Oh, okay. You should be careful, though. Wandering around on your own with a bad foot is..." Well, the man probably already knew the risks, but Sora had still felt the need to say something.

"I'm Captain Cid fuckin' Highwind, that's who I am," The pilot grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand. "And I ain't never met you before we showed up in this hellhole."

Still, even through his aggravation at the peculiar situation that this kid had put him in, Cid couldn't help but be baffled at the kid's response. Rather than get angry--as most punk kids his age would do--it seemed as if this little guy didn't even have the propensity to make a come-back. The pilot wasn't sure if such forgiveness was a quality he especially admired, but it damn well made him feel bad.

"All right... Sora," he said slowly, watching the kid carefully. (He still had some kind of suspicion that this kid's nature was too good to be true.) He outstretched his right hand. "How's about we make a deal: You stop giving me shit about 'not being me'--since I am me, --and I'll stop giving you... ......shit in general."

Made sense in Cid's skewed mind. He noticed Reynolds stubbornly slinking off despite his wounds--indeed, a man after his own heart--and turned, adding his two cents after Sora voiced his concerns.

"You're gonna get yourself killed with a bum leg, Captain Reynolds." He gave a wry smile. "Might need a bum arm to go along with you."

Cid made this suggestion for three reasons: 1) He was genuinely curious about this guy's 'crew' and wanted to check them out--mostly to reassure himself of how superior his own men were. 2) The two captains would both be stupid to travel alone. 3) Cid would die before he let a bunch of kids do his work. Again.

Different worlds, again. Mal still wasn't used to that little theory. There was no way he could keep arguing against it, though.

He was amused by the other man's rough way of dealing with the kid - Sora, his name apparently was. They seemed to have quite a lot in common, though Mal's cursing was usually in another language. Not that it really mattered.

When both Sora and Highwind spoke up against him going on his own, he sighed in exasperation. "All right, all right," he grumbled. Though he was sort of glad that Cid had in the end decided to come with him. Mal was never really one for making new friends easily or anything like that, but this seemed like a man he could relate to. Since he'd managed to find someone like that, which was rare enough in itself, he might as well make the best of it.

He held his arm out so that the other captain could come over and they could use each other for support. It was going to be a rather pitiful sight, but he'd feel better hobbling around than staying in his room and licking his wounds.

It seemed like the other two were going to head off in their own direction, so Nowe shot another glance down the hallway to see if Renji was coming back yet. He certainly was taking a while. Had Kurosaki gone missing again?

He grimaced. They weren't getting any younger. Maybe he and Sora should go look for him? He was starting to get worried. There hadn't been any sounds of a scuffle, but who knew what other creepy monsters were wandering around here? He was starting to worry already.

It seemed they had come to an understand. (Though Sora really could have done without all of that coarse language, he was worried he'd be laughed at if he said anything.)

He took the man's hand and gave it a quick shake, grinning at him as he did so. "Okay, Mr. Highwind!" he agreed. He was simply going to have to think of him as a different person, since in the end, he really was very different. Calling him Mr. Highwind instead of Cid would also make that easier for him.

He was glad that Mr. Highwind decided to go along with - well, it looked like his name was Captain Reynolds. Even though they were both hurt, they would be better off traveling as a pair. "Be careful!"

It was only after he glanced back at Nowe that he realized that they were still waiting for Renji. "Hmm... Well, he should be back soon with Kurosaki," he said when he realized that the older boy looked concerned.

Cid couldn't help but smile as the kid shook his hand and finally called him by a name he could accept. Captain Highwind might have been better, but... the pilot had already wasted enough time on introductions for the night, and besides, the kid was increasingly seeming like he didn't have a bad bone in his body.

Of course, such a realization brought up darker conclusions in Cid's mind. This place was cruel enough to even pull this shit on kids. Sweet kids. They were a lot of sadistic fucking bastards, whoever they were. And the guy on the intercom... to think he laughed at this kind of shit.

Fucking sick was what it was.

The other kid had been pretty much silent the whole time, so Cid simply gave him a glance-over and a nod before he turned to Reynolds and let out a laugh at the familiar motion he was making.

"Used to being wounded, huh, Reynolds?" He smirked wryly, shaking his head as he put his right shoulder under the other captain's arm and started moving them along. It was weird that he didn't really have any suspicions of this total stranger, but then again, in this place, most any similar face was a friendly one.

"So, uh..." Cid said, suddenly stopping their pace. "Where are we going, again?"

"Maybe," Mal responded with a wry smirk to the question about him being familiar with crippling injuries. To be frank about it, he'd been through much worse. Getting skewered in the side by some jerk's sword beat this.

He leaned against the other man and offered a bit of his own support as they fell into position. Sending a nod back at the kids - they seemed to be able to take fairly good care of themselves - he was forced to pause when Cid halted.

"Over to the female block," he reminded him. Hopefully between the two of them, they wouldn't miss it like he had the night before... And run into that triangle thing. This time, he wouldn't be able to outrun it. "Come on," he urged, and they limped their way out the door.

Renji and Ichigo got there just in time to see the other two heading out. Renji said nothing. He never expected thanks, and he didn't want to embarass the guys any further than they already might have been.

Instead, he just worked on getting the bandages on his arms. "Sora, Nowe, this is Kurosaki," he said. "You guys ready to go?"

Parting the looming shadows of the hallway with the bright and vernal shade of his hair, Ichigo emerged from behind Renji and gave a quick nod to them both. Sora, he'd already met, but Nowe was a new face.

"Yo, sorry I kept you guys waiting." he said, grimmacing; still, it almost felt as if something else beyond their control had been slowing them down.

Nowe looked up as the two finally reappeared, his shoulders sagging in relief. So they hadn't been attacked. Good. Having more allies was good too... with Renji injured, who knew how much that had lowered the strength of their party.

"Nice to meet you, Kurosaki. I'm Nowe," the brunette said, extending a hand the new face.

Moving toward the outside hallways, he turned and faced their little group.

"Shall we be going, then? We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"It's good to see you again," Sora told Kurosaki with a small smile. Now that their group was gathered, he was ready to get going. He wasn't going to let that earlier attack get him down. Hopefully they'd filled their quota of monster encounters for the night and wouldn't run into anything else.

"Yes, let's go," he agreed with Nowe. With Renji injured, it was probably better that he didn't lead the way. Who should, then? Sora figured it didn't really matter and whoever ended up doing it was fine. It was nice to be working with so many people again, even if they weren't the dog and duck he was used to. Even though he had always had Donald and Goofy with him, he'd always had other people joining up to help him. This was no different.

Renji, unaware of Sora's thoughts, had every intention of being in the lead. The two most dangerous positions in any group were the lead and the rear, and he was figuring that if Kurosaki didn't take the lead, he'd bring up the rear. Though who knew, he could be wrong, he'd see.

With everyone eager to go, he didn't waste any more time on words. He headed out, setting the same grueling pace he had last night, since he knew the kids could match it. They did have a lot of ground to cover, after all.

(To here via here.)

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/53935.html?view=2927279#t2927279)]

Naoe walked calmly out of the hallway from his room and continued down the path that the nurses had taken him during the day. If he seemed displeased that his time with those two men had gotten him no where he didn't show it. For some reason he felt very uneasy, more so than just wandering around a dark place with monsters should have made him feel, as silly as that sounded.

He wondered if Takaya was alright, but rather than worry too much about it, he continued walking.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/58316.html)]

Night 21: Lower Hallway in M1-M40 Block

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