Nightshift 41: Disciplinary Therapy Corridor

[iwascloned.livejournal.com]

The static snapped Spider out of his gruesome writing trance. His initial project had been to cover the walls in his shit, but he soon sobered up and realized that the nurses would probably wash it all off as soon as he cleared out of the cell, and he couldn't even read what he'd been writing very well. Instead - and mostly because he didn't actually want to smear shit all over himself - Spider had begun writing on his clothes and body using a mixture of blood and saliva. He was still having problems reading what he'd written, but he planned to transcribe it later. He'd have plenty of time after the interviews. He just needed some jumpstart, maybe a cigarette, maybe some coffee, maybe a whole fucking lot of coffee and - WAIT! INTERVIEWS!

The static rose in volume, and Spider heard the click of his cell door unlocking. Leaping to his feet, Spider threw himself against the door until he found a way to open it, and burst out into the corridor.

"HAVE AT THEE, DOGFUCKER! WHO UNLOCKED MY DOOR? I WILL EITHER THANK YOU OR FUCK YOU IN THE NECK DEPENDING ON WHO YOU ARE."

Spider threw his gaze around the room, attempting to slam it into a lurking orderly or patient. He found no one.

"BAH! I HAVE INTERVIEWS TO CONDUCT. YOU ARE SAFE FOR NOW, YOU QUIVERING TOWER OF EXCREMENT! BUT THIS IS NOT THE LAST TIME THE BASTARDS WILL PUT ME IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, AND THE NEXT TIME YOU LET ME OUT, I WILL GRIND YOUR SKULL AGAINST ITS OWN FOOLISHNESS UNTIL CANDY COMES OUT."

Screaming into the empty corridor, Spider kicked open the door and ran.

[to here]

Comments

[k4t4str0ph4l.livejournal.com]

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/634585.html).]

Once he was actually in the hallway outside the lab rooms, Schuldig was forced to slow down and confront an ugly reality.

He had no idea which room Crawford was in. And while he likely couldn't make any progress in forcing the heavy metal door of any of the rooms open, he still didn't even want to waste his effort on a door that didn't lead to the Oracle.

This uncertainty only brought him up for a moment before, on principle, he hit the nearest door with the lead pipe in his hands as hard as he could. All it accomplished was for the reverberations of the pipe to make his palms numb, which did nothing to stop him from moving to the next door down the line.

He had to do something, damn it.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The sound of metal clanging against metal was what woke it up. The beast had rested all through the day until that loudmouth had screeched through and disappeared. Then, just as it was settling in again, someone else came and started banging about. If the patient wanted to make noise, then the beast would give him a reason.

Opening its eyes - a pure, yet unholy white - the creature pierced the black skin cocoon that housed it throughout the daylight hours. The flesh split easily, rolling back as two arms with three fingers each, sharp as blades and glowing with a familiar light that never seemed to illuminate anything, pushed through. The half lucentien, half something else pushed its head free, turning its milky eyes down toward the source of the noise. As it did so, the air seemed to fill with the smell of sulfur and black, slippery tentacles emerged from the cocoon, slapping against the ceiling as it helped pull the lucentien's upper torso free. As the Krakken tentacles spread out across the ceiling, the creature opened its one mouth, deep within the cocoon, filled with jagged teeth and breathed - releasing more sulfur.

The lucentien turned its attention to Schuldig, head rolling at an unnatural angle to follow his movements. Then, it struck. The creature screamed as it sent two gripping tentacles at him, aiming for his back and left arm.

[Kaze - sorry for the continued edits orz]

[k4t4str0ph4l.livejournal.com]

The smell was the only warning he got, but it wasn't as though it wasn't potent enough all on its own. As soon as the smell registered, Schuldig whirled to put his back against one of the steel doorways to allow himself to face the hall...and avoided, purely by chance, the creature's first attack, the black things - tentacles, his mind supplied quickly; he hadn't spent years as a telepath in Tokyo without seeing far more tentacles than any man could ever wish to - actually grazing his jacket as they passed. The scream came too late to be considered a warning, but at least it directed his gaze upwards to what was quite possibly the ugliest thing he'd ever seen.

Shit. He'd expected a fight at some point, yes, but he'd figured on it happening after Crawford had been released, with some allies at his back. He'd never traveled alone at night before, much less fought alone. Aside from speed, he didn't even have much combat prowess, certainly not against monsters his telepathy couldn't even keep him a step ahead of - and he was barely armed.

Still, he wasn't panicking; he was merely ticking up the odds against him. If anything, the monster's appearance only made him angrier - another obstacle between him and Crawford, as though he needed another.

"You're not supposed to kill us, are you?" he growled as he slipped a hand into the pocket of his coat, drawing out his gun. He ignored the part of his mind whispering that 'not supposed to' and 'wouldn't' were different things, that Hitsugaya at least had been killed and eaten by monsters smaller than this when he'd run off alone...'like an idiot', as Schuldig himself had observed at the time.

Arty would kill him if he died the exact same way, that was for sure.

"Well," he continued, aiming his gun at the creature, "you're going to have to kill me, because I'm not leaving yet." Which was all well and good to say, but he had only one thought in his head, and it wasn't a comforting one.

One bullet.

He could see the eyes; hoping for the best, he aimed between them and fired. If it didn't work...then he was trapped in a narrow hallway, with a monster armed with blades and tentacles, and he had a length of pipe. That was only a viable murder weapon in Clue.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The patients were bold. They knew no fear, but neither did the creature. It knew only hunger and pain and a million mismatched thoughts from all the different pieces that had been sewn together to give it life and form.

The tentacles hit harmlessly against the wall, the suckers sticking to the plaster for a moment before ripping back off with a thick, wet sound. The tentacles recoiled and groped blindly for a moment before the lucentien turned its eyes back to Schuldig. The man was moving his lips, saying something, something the creature couldn't understand or hear. Instead, the lucentien raised its hands and then-

BANG.

The creature screamed and the lucentien jerked back as the bullet hit it square between the eyes. The sound of metal clanging against metal ricocheted off the walls as the bullet did the same, imbedding in the ceiling. While the shot hadn't killed it, it certainly had stunned it and the lucentien retreated back into the cocoon for a moment, covering its face with bladed hands. At the same time, two tentacles shot out toward Schuldig again, determined to push him away.

[k4t4str0ph4l.livejournal.com]

Schuldig's night vision wasn't nearly good enough to work out what, exactly, had happened to the bullet he'd been saving for...well, it had to have been weeks. But he heard it bounce off, and realized that while this creature didn't quite match the description of those metal-skinned monstrosities that someone had so thoughtfully added to the monster list the other patients were working on, it did at least share one property with them.

Shit.

Nonetheless, his bullet seemed to have done some damage - or, at the very least, had made the thing angry - and Schuldig allowed himself some slight satisfaction as he tucked the gun away again(useless now, but if he could get more bullets in the future...). Right up until the tentacles - extremely difficult to see in the dark, since they didn't share the helpful luminous properties of the thing's eyes - hit him in the chest hard enough to drive the breath out of him and shoved him back against the metal door, putting on a spectacular fireworks display behind his eyes as his head hit steel.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The tentacles connected and then glanced off, slapping against the wall. The suction cups gripped the plaster in places, ripping it off as they recoiled back toward the massive body. Without knowing where to aim, the leftover couldn't very well attack again and so it needed to regroup. Bringing its arms back to the ceiling, the lucentien's torso pushed through again, hanging from the ceiling limply for a moment.

The dull glow came back to the room and the creature swiveled its head around, milky eyes tracking for any movement. The smell of sulfur permeated the air yet again and then the creature screeched as it found Schuldig against the wall. Sending two tentacles out toward him again, it tried to grab his left arm and right leg in an attempt to drag him toward the ceiling.

[k4t4str0ph4l.livejournal.com]

Schuldig was still seeing stars - and trying, with some urgency, to blink them away - when he felt rubbery but alarmingly strong things (which he could identify easily enough as tentacles, whether or not he could see straight yet) wrap around his arm and leg. Unfortunately, the arm being restrained was the one holding the pipe; but, as his right hand was still free, he quickly switched it to his free hand. He promptly brought the pipe down in an angry arc - mostly by feel, as even with his vision beginning to clear the tentacles were hard to make out - on the one holding his left arm.

Had he been less stunned by his having been slammed back against the door, he'd probably have stabbed at the thing instead with the end of the pipe, since that probably would have done more damage, but his thoughts were still a bit scrambled.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The tentacles wrapped around Schuldig's limbs, but just as they did so, Schuldig's pipe crashed down onto one of them. The creature screeched and pulled that one back, the bruised limb slithering back up to the ceiling where others wrapped around it - almost as if it were nursing its wound. The one around his leg, however, remained and the leftover gave a sharp tug, dragging Schuldig closer toward the lucentien whose bladed fingers reached out in hopes of ripping into his flesh.

[braidless.livejournal.com]

((From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/634585.html?thread=53871833#t53871833).))

It was a little difficult to tell exactly what was going on, but as soon as they entered the hallway, Obi-Wan knew he didn't like it. If the foul stench of sulfur in the air wasn't his first clue, the sparks showering from a certain spot on the ceiling were certainly worrisome in their own right.

"Someone might catch on fire at this rate," he quickly said to Tsubaki. Whatever was causing those sparks seemed to be well out of reach, which made the situation even more dangerous. In the distance, he recognized Schuldig's form, and judging by his movements, it appeared he'd sustained sizable injuries.

It would have been foolish for them to charge in, and yet they couldn't allow for one of those sparks to catch, either. Instead, he settled on he felt like was the best alternative for now.

"Get back from those sparks or you'll get burned!" he shouted from where they stood.

[thecamellia.livejournal.com]

Tsubaki darted inside along with Ben, and knew it was bad before he even spoke. She’d been prepared for chaos, and chaos was exactly what they found.

But there were no spiders this time.

In the few scant moments before the thick, sulphur-heavy area around them ignited, she counted four--five--bodies moving in the dark, a hall door standing open, the shifting shape on the ceiling, and then the wave of flame was coming towards them.

Good, they should make it, was the thought that went through her head as everyone rushed for the door. And then they were in the rear, and she was gasping out, “Quickly!” and turning back so that she could take shelter from the worst of it behind the lip of the wall. No time, no time--

[braidless.livejournal.com]

Obi-Wan's mouth pressed into a thin line as he watched the others begin to clear out. But he feared they were running out of time, especially with the putrid smell of the gas acting as a constant reminder of the danger they were in.

It looked like Schuldig's group was going to escape, though. Good. He could hear Tsubaki's voice, and he stuck close to her as they tried to take shelter. It was at that moment that the band of heat rushed past where they'd been just moments ago. The Jedi could feel some of the hair on his face and arms become singed.

Despite everything that was happening, though, he was just thankful that no one else was out in the hall right then.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

There was no smell of burnt flesh and the leftover opened its cocoon again, stretching its limbs out across the ceiling. The tentacles plopped along the plaster, sticking and grabbing at whatever they could as the beast heaved itself forward. The lucentien descended, it's torso hanging from above, waiting to capture anything that was so foolish as to stay behind. The leftover moved slowly, the sound of it heaving its weight forward inch by inch was as if the roof itself was splitting. It moved to the center of the room and then it waited.

There were still those inside the rooms and those who would come for them. All it had to do was wait and then, it would feast. Tentacles stretched out, one by one, searching for anything - crawling along the ceilings and hanging down toward the ground, and slowly slipping along the walls toward the door.

[thecamellia.livejournal.com]

The heat seared her skin, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut for a moment as Ben pressed in beside her. When it had passed, she blinked rapidly, orienting herself. Danger’s not over. That thing--whatever it was still present--even if Tsubaki was gaining confidence that the others had made it out before the blast had caught up with them.

She was still holding the pillowcase in her hand, and let it slip from her fingers to rest against the wall behind her. “Are you all right?” she whispered, turning her head so that she could see the truth for herself. Her vision was adjusting, and now her hands were free…

Behind her back, her fingertips brushed the tip of her ponytail.

[braidless.livejournal.com]

((fff, I'm SO sorry for the delay. T_T))

"I'm all right," Obi-Wan replied with a quick nod. He glanced over toward the woman, trying to assess her condition. "Are you?"

Lips pursed, the Jedi considered their options. As far as he could tell, there were no patients who had escaped their cells yet. It was just as well, considering what had just happened, but Obi-Wan knew it was only a matter of time before people began filtering out into the hallway.

It was then he sensed the creature moving itself toward the center of the hallway, its reach seemingly extending outward. Eyebrows furrowed, Obi-Wan peered around to where they'd retreated from. He was aware of others -- more rescuers, no doubt -- who had come to aid them. From the looks of it, they certainly had their work cut out for them.

"If anyone comes outside, they'll get caught in those tentacles," Obi-Wan said. "But if we provoke it too early, we may risk another fire later, and get some victims killed in the process." They would need to assess the whole situation before leaping into a fight.

[thecamellia.livejournal.com]

“Yes,” was her answer. She didn’t have any serious injuries that would slow her down; that was what was important to her, not any minor flesh wounds she could examine later. More important to her still was if the people around her were safe.

And there were more of them in the corridor, a different collection coming in behind her and Ben. Ritsuka’s group. If the three of them wanted to advance ahead and try to reach the heavily locked rooms, it was fine if they had the capacity to defend themselves in whatever ways. Not fine if they couldn’t. The latter condition was especially unwanted, when they sounded like they were getting ready to engage the threat. Because Tsubaki was thinking along the same lines as Ben was--they couldn’t underestimate the monster, no matter how strong in number they were. There were too many variables stacked up against them.

Not only did they need to take into account victims coming out from those rooms getting caught up in the conflict, but just as possible, people coming in from outside getting just as entangled. For an assassin, leaping straight into the fray without keeping a calculated distance--figurative or otherwise--was one of the last eligible choices. For most, anyway.

But Black☆Star wasn’t there.

In the there and now, Tsubaki just didn’t know enough about the enemy--it was clearly mobile, but it’s full range of motion was still unknown to her. Whatever it was reaching out with--long limbs, or tentacles, quickly glimpsed in the fire--she could probably cut without a strong chance of making a spark…

“We may not have a choice but to try and stop it from making another flash fire if it comes down to it,” she murmured back. Because if the creature forced them to move into close range combat, to protect someone or prevent it from starting up another series of sparks, stopping the gas from igniting a second time was a scenario they had to avoid. She hoped the others had realized that. Taking a step away from the wall’s cover, she looked first the slice of corridor that she could see, before looking back at the trio behind her. “Stay back unless you plan to fight this thing!” the girl called to them. Not that any one of them was clearly more prepared than the others, but a random charge, even by experienced fighters, would only make things worse. Then she indicated the pillowcase on the floor, which she pushed further down the hall so that it was out of the danger area. “Use what’s in here for bandages if you need.” Or could, which was an all too possible reality, depending on what the creature did next.

And then she concentrated on her scythe form so that the end of her ponytail glowed gold--a whisper of chain links heralded the scythe that emerged out of the light and spilled into her hand. It was followed by a short length of chain that tied the weapon to her hair like an extra appendage. If it happened to attack…

“There’s a chance we could lure it’s attention away from the rooms,” she said to Ben, bringing the scythe to a ready position at her side.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The leftover heaved itself across the ceiling again, drawing closer to the entrance and closer to the only prey available to it. The doors were stubborn to open and that meant it had to search elsewhere if it wanted to eat. It wasn't until the light from Tsubaki's ponytail caught its attention that it knew exactly where to attack though. The great mouth opened, breathing a heavy dose of sulphur into the room and a piercing scream ripped through the air.

The lucentien reached out and the tentacles followed - a flurry of movement in the dark as they shot forward like battering rams at their prey. Three tentacles went for Obi-wan and Tsubaki, while others split off to attack the other group.

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/634585.html?thread=54207961#t54207961)]

Ben and Tsubaki were definitely there, but so was something else. Ritsuka had made the push to be the first inside, but now he wished he hadn't. The heavy smell of sulphur was starting to permeate the area and from the strength, Ritsuka could tell that it had been there awhile. Also, the smell of burning. Something had been singed, not burned though. It was like the smell of a hot iron on hair or skin - something he knew a little too well.

Dropping back, Ritsuka kept close to Soubi's side and then looked around to see the state of the room. One door open, the others still closed, Ben and Tsubaki pressed against a wall and--

"What the hell is that?" He hadn't meant to say anything, but it looked like something out of a horror video game was hanging from the ceilings.

[beloved-less.livejournal.com]

The moment Ritsuka had dropped Soubi's hand, his nerves began to unravel. It was as though something had been shielding him from the night and it was gone all too suddenly. Vulnerable and exposed, Soubi sucked it up as best as he could. He was safe. They'd done what they wanted to him already. Ritsuka was still close by, hadn't left him yet. He was ok.

And then he saw the monster.

That was never a part of training. He grabbed Ritsuka, making sure the boy was close behind him and wedged against the wall. So long as Ritsuka had a clear path to the door...

"Ritsuka. What are your orders?" He asked, ready to run if they had to. "Demyx, are you ready for this?" he added, feeling rather useless. He wasn't getting involved unless the thing came for Ritsuka...

[sitard3d.livejournal.com]

"Oh, wow," Demyx whispered, staring at the...thing. He definitely didn't have anything better to call it, so 'thing' would have to do for now. If that sea witch from Atlantica had ever become a Heartless, maybe this was what she might've looked like. He was on the fence as to whether or not it that would have been an improvement.

This was one hell of a step up from rats, that was for sure.

The smell of sulphur - of fire - had him reaching almost instinctively for the nearest water source, somewhere beneath their feet. It'd take him a minute or two, but if that thing used fire, then he at least had the answer to that. Besides, if he wanted to be able to help Ritsuka and Soubi at all, then he needed the water anyway, since he sure wasn't armed with anything else. "Gimme a sec," he murmured, closing his eyes. "Pulling water up is harder than pulling it down..." When he'd coaxed that leak in the ceiling before, with the rats, he'd at least had gravity helping him.

[forgot-it-all.livejournal.com]

With Soubi and Demyx flanking him, Ritsuka felt a little safer, but he knew that was just a temporary thing. More important than his safety was that of the people inside the rooms. There was no telling when they'd come out and if the beast were still around when they did, there was only one outcome. Yet the one order Ritsuka hated giving was an order to harm someone else, even if it was just this unholy creature on the ceiling.

Gritting his teeth, Ritsuka heard Demyx talk about pulling water up and he wondered just what that was supposed to mean. Maybe it had something to do with Soubi's 'impressive' comment. It probably did, which meant Ritsuka wouldn't have to worry about Demyx's safety too much.

Which just left the order.

"Take it down." He hated saying that. He hated it more than anything. "Try not to kill it, Soubi, but if you can't help it - do it."

[beloved-less.livejournal.com]

Hn. Soubi ignored the fact that some silly little woman was trying to give him orders. He took his from one person and one person alone. A child, admittedly, but...

There was something about Ritsuka's words that sent a tingle up Soubi's spine. Either everyone was right and he really was a masochistic pedophile and that tingle was simply arousal...or...

He lifted his hand, glaring at the creature, reaching back with his other to hold Ritsuka's shoulder, the contact always helping.

This had better work. Otherwise it was down to Demyx and Soubi would have put up with being upstaged if it was for Ritsuka's safety.

"Beams of light," he started softly. "Paper thin. Tear the enemy!"

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

The leftover had moved closer to the door to attack Tsubaki and Obi-wan's group, breathing a heavy dose of sulphur into the room as it did so - releasing an ear shattering scream at the same time. It wasn't about to let anyone get away tonight, not when the doors refused to open and give it easy prey. Frustration was something it did not know, but hunger was something that was built into it.

The lucentien reached out, bladed fingers grasping at the air as the tentacles shot out toward the two groups. Three went for Tsubaki's group, while three more went for Soubi and Demyx. The force was meant to throw them back, away from the little one who would be easily devoured, but something went wrong.

Beams of light shot out, like mockeries of the lucentien's own flesh, hard like blades, but made of light. What should not have hurt it cut into its flesh and the creature screamed, the tentacles veering off course and smashing into the walls. The tentacles curled up on themselves, swinging wildly at all three of them.

[sitard3d.livejournal.com]

Demyx was only vaguely aware that Soubi had launched some sort of attack beside him; he was too focused on coaxing the water beneath their feet. Put pressure on the joints, make a hole in the pipe, then draw the water up -

Beads of water had only just begun to coalesce into a small, fist-sized ball of liquid in the air before Demyx when the monster screamed, snapping the Nobody's gaze upwards just in time to see tentacles flying at them. There was no time for finesse, for shaping the water into some sort of weapon; all he had time for, in his panic, was to explode the ball outwards, forming a wide but paper-thin shield of water in front of the three of them to keep the tentacles at bay. It should have offered no resistance whatsoever, save for Demyx desperately willing the sort of surface tension into it that he'd infused into his water clones with, a solidity that was as firm as a brick wall.

But man, he hoped Soubi had another attack, because there was no way he could hold this up for long, and if he dropped the shield while the tentacles were this close there was no way he was going to be able to get off any sort of attack himself before they got him.

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

[staggering out from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/641256.html). Planning movement to another location after monster tag.]

It was taking all the concentration he had to just put one foot in front of the other without falling over, so Wally didn't notice what was going on out in the hallway immediately. And then the creature screamed and he jerked back, shuddering violently and uncontrollably from the drug, and half leaned, half collapsed against the wall.

"That'snotgood..." Some kind of monster on the ceiling, though it was hard to make out around the flailing tentacles filling the room. Other people were fighting it, including what seemed to be a kid, and normally Wally wouldn't have wasted an instant leaping in to help. But now?

Now he wasn't going to be much help to anyone. He hated it, but this was one fight he couldn't join in. He was lucky his body hadn't shaken itself to bits as it was, but - and another, strong tremor shook him for a moment - that wasn't from lack of trying.

[gothamnight.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/646192.html).]

There was a monster in the hallway Bruce had never seen before. It was attacking people, yes, but that also meant that it was distracted.

The corpse wouldn't move. He'd need to carry it.

Bruce's arms had begun bleeding at some point, too. It made it difficult to support the body, and the cold, blank-faced head rolled back and banged painfully against Bruce's biceps as Bruce stole across the hallway.

He didn't mind.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/634585.html?thread=54191833#t54191833).]