Nightshift 41: Entry Room

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

[From here]

Kibitoshin stepped into the room, hope renewed. It looked like some kind of reception area if the two desks on either side of him were anything to go on, both absolutely pristine as though everything had been tidied away only seconds before he'd stepped into the room. On top of that there were enough doors here to keep him busy for hours yet. But the Kaioshin's efforts were focused rather further away than reconnaissance; at the end of the room were a pair of wide double doors, and beyond them was the outside. A little giddy, he hurried towards them, reached out, pulled, and-

- nearly wrenched his hand out of its socket. They were locked! Kibitoshin stared at them blankly for several moments, as though they would spring open if he willed it hard enough. Once it became apparent that his night was going to continue being so very distinctly free of miracles he sighed and dropped his hand. "Of course they're locked. That would be way too easy..."

Comments

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/636114.html?thread=53556690#t53556690), if you don't mind?]

Finally! Was it really that hard to find someone around here in a place this size? Seemed so. Ugh.

Stranger-man looked like he was going to answer her question about the door for her, though, so Dahlia figured she'd be nice enough to give him an obligatory greeting and desperate plea to follow him around. He didn't look any smarter than the others, that was for sure.

"Ex... excuse me," she called out, voice tiny and afraid. "Is that the exit?"

[ofazureflame.livejournal.com]

01...

02...

He could sense them. Two targets, unspecified, but present. Present, and attempting to leave. Leaving was against the rules set. And while his rules had become more firmly programed, he could still feel his radio buttons dancing around, and switches moving constantly from 1 to 0. Again, and again, and again.

Waking from his origin point, he slowly stood, rising from behind one of the desks. His glowing green eyes turned towards the patients, beacons in the dark.

[bitpartgod.livejournal.com]

Just as Kibitoshin was about to turn back he heard the sound of footsteps behind him and, to his surprise, found himself looking at a nervous young woman with red hair. You can let go of the flashlight now, Kibitoshin. Really. She's not a monster.

"The exit...?" He glanced back at the doors. "I'm not sure, but they're locked tight." Wasn't she a little small to be out by herself? His brow furrowed with concern. "Are you okay? You look a little sca-"

A green glow from the shadows caught Kibitoshin mid-sentence. Standing behind one of the desks was a figure, unnervingly quiet in the darkness. Oh, no. He had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling indeed. "... hello? Um... are you lost?"

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

"I am a little scared... I just-" There was a shuffling noise behind her and suddenly she wasn't the center of attention anymore.

She turned her head, looking at what had caught the man's gaze and slowly began making her way to stand behind him like a shield. Chances those floating green lights were actually dangerous? Low. The chances she was going to act like they were? More likely than not.

No, wait. Were those eyes? It was looking like some creepy doll.

[longlivetheking]

[From here, will be passing through with permission.]

Scar only watched the battle to determine the location of the attacker, not caring for the fate of his unfortunate victims. The flash of green in the eyes was rather interesting, but not worth to be standing around for. If he could help it, he'd rather leave this room as soon as possible.

His own eyes glanced over the doors, not certain which of them would lead to the file rooms. But there was a certain urgency behind the decision, so for once the King relied on luck and moved over to a random door without consulting his companion. Specifically, he picked a door behind some piece of furniture Scar would not bother naming right now, which would hopefully give them some cover.

And as fate would have it; it was locked!. Scar narrowed his eyes at the offending obstacle before casting a glance over his shoulder. Hopefully, the man was distracted enough to not notice them breaking down the door.

The Pride Lands didn't have these sorts of things to begin with. Humans made things complicated!

Either way, they would need to act quickly...

[she-is-ruin.livejournal.com]

There was quite the crowd in the entrance. Explained by the presence of an aggressor, a patchwork boy with powers far beyond the average human-- he didn’t belong to any supernatural category she could confidently say she had experience in, and a second‘s appraisal was all she needed to know that. And the way he moved, his focus narrowed to only one of the group ahead of her… Its idea of fashion was garish at best, but the creature was a pinwheel of color, even in the dark, something to break up the monotony of sweatsuits and slippers. When she was free to carry on with her business, Yomi didn’t see anything wrong with that. The huddle of grey-clad prisoners standing at the center of attention could act as a good trial run, too, since if she wanted to go outside, she might have to get involved, herself. Being where he was, she thought the boy had an interest in guarding the exit.

The other two men who had entered at the same time, Yomi ignored. Then there was, of course, the one who’d come in with her… She didn’t move her head, but looked away from the fight to where Scar was poised, in the periphery of her vision. Two doors, in the two areas marked ‘file rooms’ on the maps, both probably locked. Yomi could assume so, because Scar was still standing around.

Well, that was simple enough.

She jumped onto the desk in her way, then down to join him in the same motion. “Let me guess, you can’t get in,” commented Yomi. Simple indeed. Her unspoken intention became clear when she coiled her body and kicked out with her right foot a moment later. Pulling together makeshift lock-picking tools took time. Breaking the door in worked just as well.

[longlivetheking]

"That would be correct."

When Yomi's attention became clear, Scar quickly moved out of the way. That worked. Scar usually had some difficulty to either break a door down himself or getting someone else to do it. Someone doing it for him without even having to ask it was a nice change.

The door gave in soon enough. Scar briefly glanced over his shoulder before moving in. The boy causing the ruckus in the center of the room seemed more interested in the other patients right now, which suited him just fine. No need to wait until he would notice them.

[To here]

[justlovesyogurt.livejournal.com]

Michael stopped at the entrance room door for a moment, pretending to have trouble with the latch in order to listen to the conversation going on nearby. A mention of the exchange on the bulletin board ... yeah, this was the guy. Seemed pretty self-assured. No need to take action. At least not yet.

Inside the entrance room, however ... well ...

Intelligence organizations use a lot of high-tech equipment not available to the general public. When you're out in the middle of Afghanistan, the purchasing office won't always spring for it, but it's there. They've got guns that'll cut through three feet of cement, cameras that see through walls, and wireless bugs the size of a pencil eraser. What they don't have are brightly-colored harlequins with glowing eyes and large, multi-bladed weapons.

"Okay." said Michael, "Let's go a different way."

[manwiththecoat.livejournal.com]

As he stepped through the door Walter wasn't quite sure how to react. He could see the doors that must be the entrance and he might have been shaking a little, but he wasn't quite sure. He should have been able to just find himself at the right doors, but things clearly didn't work like they should here.

And there was the matter of the thing with the glowing eyes. It was decidedly better armed than he was at the moment, and in between him and his mother.

"Is that one of the monsters?" he asked quietly; he sounded unnaturally calm. "It seems distracted." They could just walk on by.

[justlovesyogurt.livejournal.com]

"Either that or the in-house entertainment," said Michael, trying to make sense of the scene playing out in front of them. "And yes. it seems distracted. It. Not him, not her. This is a thing. And if this is what they have guarding the entry room, who knows what things they have OUTSIDE the entry room. And have you given any thought to what we'll do once we're outside? Assuming we get outside without having ... whatever is happening over there happen to us. Do we know where we are? Do we have any form of transportation? I suggest. We go. A different way."

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Any hope Haseo had about being mistaken was destroyed the moment he came through the doorway, that sense of uneasiness solidly validated and quickly increasing. He was completely ignoring the woman and other men present, eyes going right to the one conspicuously glowing and floating and lacking in a grey uniform. It was-- It was that guy! Of all the ... Why him?!

The Adept Rogue gritted his teeth, and although he wasn't entirely in his full offensive or defensive posture yet, every line in his body was full of obvious tension as he stood mostly frozen, grip tightening on his wooden pole and flashlight. This was bad. Almost embarrassingly so, without access to his weapons. But all the same... after several seconds the fact that the other patients seemed to be actually threatened by the being sunk in. He took a step forward, then another, until he was quickly approaching the AI, not sure what to expect at all.

"Hey!" he snapped, trying to catch its attention.

[oftemptation.livejournal.com]

That push to one side had briefly startled Endrance, but he recovered from that quickly and dashed over to Haseo's side once again. He gave the pipe in his hand a glare, willing it to turn into a proper sword, but of course, that didn't happen. It was only then that he looked up and towards the source of the trouble.

"K-Kite...?" He stammered out the name, clearly taken aback. "What...what did they..." He shook his head, brushing his bangs out of his eyes so he could get a full view of the AI. There was no question that the -- person? program? being? -- was based on his old friend's appearance, with the way he looked. Only...it was like looking at a caricature. No. Not a caricature, a...a bad parody. This isn't Kite, this is...

He was forcibly snapped out of his thoughts by that sharp yell. "Haseo, be careful!" I don't want to hurt you, Kite, but I've got someone more important to protect. I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be. With that, he moved into a defensive stance, ready to jump in if and when he was needed. He briefly looked back to the other two, his look clearly stating "Stay behind us and wait to cast anything unless you absolutely have to," then focused his attention once again on the AI.

[cannotlogout.livejournal.com]

It took a moment for Tsukasa to take in the scene (not helped by the fact that he was shorter than Endrance and Haseo), but once he did, his eyes widened at the sight of the person who was stood nearby. "Kite?" he called out in surprise, although there was something wrong with the twin-blade. The colours... the way he moves and... Some twisted version of him and Tsukasa couldn't help but shudder.

He nodded in acknowledgement of Endrance's look, moving back a few paces and preparing himself to cast a spell if need be. Assuming he could even cast spells. He didn't have a staff and these wasn't exactly a normal situation.

[lastlovesong]

[from here and will go away...after battle commentaries]

Upon entering the room, Chise was greeted with a battle between several patients and a glowing figure. This wasn't good. The entrance doors were at the other end of the room and a monster was blocking the way. Should she run across and open the doors or help the people being attacked by the monster? She couldn't risk blasting the glowing figure with her cannon, there were too many people in the room. There would be a high chance of injuring one of them, or worse, killing them.

Chise stood still and thought hard about what they should do next.

[16hitmagnum.livejournal.com]

"Ta-ta-ta-ta-tatatanan ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-tanan~"

The moment Chise opened the door was the moment Kagura started singing the tune to the movie Rocky, horribly messing up the parts that had lyrics in it to sing "Penis Volta", not that she knew what it meant.

Which might have been a bad thing since they happened to walk in on a battle. Kagura stopped singing, curious about the battle. "Captain Sniveller, is this the war you were talking about? Seems like they have enough people already."

[bullygeneraleva.livejournal.com]

Evangeline's thoughts were similar to Chise's, except that the main thing stopping her from blasting away at the glowing kid was her desire to conserve magic. If she was going to waste her talents on random people she wanted to at least do it in a recognizable fashion. Sniping from off in the darkness, for all its tactical advantages, wouldn't earn her any recognition.

Although... maybe they could send Kagura to fight him.

[whirlingwinds.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/636114.html?thread=54051538#t54051538)]

Naruto stuck to the wall immediately, scanning the area quickly. There seemed to be a scuffle further off but it was dark and he couldn't quite make out what was going on. No monsters in sight, though, which was a relief.

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

They hadn't been in the room for more than a few moments when things started to change. It went from a plain, tiled room to what looked like some kind of... place of worship? But there weren't any symbols or pictures of deities. It had to be some kind of genjutsu, but it didn't make any sense to her at all.

However, her usual method of dispelling the illusion didn't seem to be working. Did that mean that the room really had changed? In which case, she could no longer see a door at the other end. Dammit.

Something was screwed up here and they'd probably waste less time if they turned around and went the other way, like the stupid old sage had said in the first place. She reached out to grab Naruto's wrist, shaking her head silently to keep from distracting the ones already fighting. Hopefully he'd take the hint and come back out into the hall.

[toadally4boobs.livejournal.com]

Jiraiya stopped mid-step as the room changed around them--and in the next moment, he was already attempting to dispell the genjutsu. Except that his chakra was sealed. It of course did nothing, and Jiraiya muttered a curse under his breath.

From what little he could see, Sakura couldn't dispell whatever it was either, and she had some of her chakra available. Which mean that this was either a powerful genjutsu... or anything but an illusion at all.

Warping reality was not beyond Landel's abilities. The Institute had shifted before, according to others. Jiraiya frowned--they had to go another way, especially if Landel's turned into some sort of crazy reality altering killing machine at night. ... Okay, so that wasn't likely, but it was better to be cautious then dead!

Sakura stopped Naruto, and Jiraiya smiled thinly. Good. She wasn't going to take any chances on Naruto not noticing.

[entaiho]

[from here, and after the others]

This...wasn't quite what he'd been expecting.

Rokuta paused only a few steps into the room, staring around the open room as though wondering if he had started to hallucinate. He couldn't have read the maps that wrong, could he, to have mistaken a cathedral of some kind for an entryway? And how did they fit this into a supposed hospital?

He glanced up at Youko, surprised enough to even be silent for once. Maybe she'd have an idea.

[sekishi-keiou.livejournal.com]

A western church of some sort? What on Earth was that doing here? Granted, they were theoretically in the United States, but this wasn't the sort of thing that should be found in hospitals, as far as Youko knew. "This is not right at all, is it?" What kind of monster or event could change their surroundings so completely, so quickly? "We didn't pass through anything like a shoku?"

[ofazureflame.livejournal.com]

At the front of the church, staring up at the stone pedestal before the rows of pews, he stood waiting. Waiting for what was unclear, but his program had been damaged so badly from the previous fight that he wasn't even being pressed to attack the two patient-designated entities only yards behind him. They wouldn't be getting through a door they couldn't see.

Slowly, he turned to watch the two patients at the back of the cathedral. Either they hadn't seen him, or they weren't afraid. Either way, they seemed more curious than aggressive.

...of course, that tended to change like many of his radio buttons.

[iwhipthefool.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/636114.html?thread=54384850#t54384850)]

What should have been a dusty and boring entry room was most definitely not. Franziska stood in the doorway, frozen by what she saw. In the place of chairs and desks, there stood a cathedral. An honest to goodness cathedral. Elegantly carved stone floors, tall stone pillars, a high ceiling, and an altar backed with arched glass. It would have been a magnificent sight, if it wasn't so entirely impossible.

"What in the--" Franziska couldn't stop herself from voicing her surprise. Just what was going on here?! She refused to take a step back, but she couldn't exactly move forward either. This wasn't the entry room she was supposed to find! Just what was this?!

[lawful_perfect]

[Passing through with Serey's permission <3 ]

As Franziska related the sordid story of how she found herself in this hellhole, von Karma wondered how she had allowed herself to literally sleep on the job. Unacceptable! But right before he could admonish her for her confessed indolence, they arrived at their destination: a set of doors to the right that led to the entry room, according to his map.

"Indeed, dear daughter," von Karma started to reply to Franziska's statement about the importance of collecting information at a time like this. "That is--"

He, too, suddenly broke off, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of the room. No amount of research or investigation could have ever prepared him for what he saw. What in blazes was this? What sort of entrance to a medical facility resembled a giant cathedral whose architecture resembled the style of many of the Gothic churches he had seen in Germany? Was he hallucinating or dreaming?

von Karma quickly looked behind him, through the portal from whence he and his daughter had arrived. He only saw the familiar -- if not terribly comforting -- walls of the Institute. Then he looked back inside the room. How could this be?! Impossible! Hiding his true level of shock over this was a struggle, but it was critical in front of his daughter; he could not afford to display anything she could construe as a personal weakness from him.

von Karma quickly looked back at his map. This was indeed the correct location of the entry room. The boy's version of the map was consistent with that of his former roommate Javert, so what could this be but a bizarre anomaly? However, he had difficulty accepting such notions -- even the Kurain channeling technique was, at most, a dubious concept to him (though he had to admit to himself that Misty Fey's performance in summoning Gregory Edgeworth had seemed almost authentic...).

The only logical explanation he could think of was that this was an optical illusion of some kind, similar to those used in amusement park "fun houses" or in theatrical "magic" shows. Certainly, this Martin Landel was hardly above employing such techniques to addle his prisoners. Yes, that had to be it. In which case... the doors to the file rooms were merely concealed. He would just have to use spatial reasoning to find them.

It was then that he noticed that there were other people to the south in this same... structure. They appeared to be in an intense struggle, so avoiding them was crucial. "Franziska," he whispered, not wanting to attract the others' attention. "Stay close. I have reason to believe that this is nothing more than an illusion. The door is nearby."

Sure enough, after slowly walking around in the area closest to where one of the doors was located on the map, he saw a dim, transparent rectangular outline, seemingly in the middle of space. How odd, yet... He gingerly placed his hand upon it. Solid. Yes, this was it. After feeling around for the doorknob, he discovered an invisible protrusion from the solid surface and placed his hand upon it. There it was.

He turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Though he was startled yet again to note the marked difference of the interior of this new room, he was satisfied -- and pleased with himself -- over having solved this absurd riddle.

Before entering, he called out in a soft voice, "Franziska, I have found one of the file rooms. Hurry inside, daughter."

[iwhipthefool.livejournal.com]

Impossible. This was simply impossible. A hesitant step inside the room revealed that the quality of the flooring was not akin to that of the many cathedrals she'd entered during her time in Germany and abroad. The sound wasn't the same and that slight inconsistency was enough to alert her to the reality of the situation.

This was an illusion? If it was, it was an extremely good one. Her father strode into the room and Franziska followed, refusing to show weakness in front of him beyond what she'd already accidentally shown. She stayed close as he ordered, but kept her eyes on the fight across the room. So this was what the night was like? Illusions, monsters, patients attacking each other? The bulletin reports weren't lying after all.

When her father called to her from the side, she finally tore her eyes away and nodded once. He had found their goal and that was all that mattered. She quickly moved to join him -- was the door just floating in space? Gah, what was this place?! -- and slipped through the open door.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/645495.html?thread=54394743#t54394743)]