damned_institute | Nightshift 41: Entry Room

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Nightshift 41: Entry Room

[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..."

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No one was answering him, but that creepy thing sure was getting closer. The way it was rasping and wheezing made his stomach turn, and Apollo's hair stood on end when he saw its attention focused mostly on him. His heart was pounding in his chest, his muscles instinctively tightened, and for a moment, the whole situation just felt so extraordinarily surreal.

"I-Is that thing for real?!" As scary as it looked, there was no way it wasn't just some kind of illusion or trick, right? Maybe this was like one of those people who dressed up in haunted houses and harassed the kids who acted the most freaked out by them. It definitely wouldn't be the weirdest thing here, if that was the case.

Still, whoever -- or whatever -- this was, they didn't seem too happy they were there. And if they were supposed to be some kind of security guard, there was no telling whether they were armed or not.

Keep it together, Justice! he told himself. It's probably not as bad as you think!

The other man seemed to be trying to intimidate this strange person -- did he have experience with this kind of thing, or was he just trying to put up a brave front? Either way, Apollo knew he couldn't just stand there. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the front door that was nearby. Frowning to himself, he took a slow, measured step back toward it, hoping to try the handle.

The patient was moving now. Slowly. With calculated steps, he followed, herding the young man towards Kibitoshin and Dahlia. They all seemed to group together before splitting to attack. Would they all attack him?

With a small, questioning growl, his visible eye spiraled over to Kibitoshin. His gesture was aggressive. Patient aggressors hurt him. They cracked his displays and tried to hurt him. Tried. Would this particular patient attack, or run?

Curious, he let his interest drift to the one displaying clear aggression instead of a desire to escape. Both were equally unacceptable outcomes. The patients... non-patients... non-living... the patients were not allowed to leave his designated territory.

His steps echoed off the walls, even though the sound should have been muffled by the carpeting and furniture--it sounded as though he was walking over stone. Eye trained pointedly on Kibitoshin, he advanced without a word, completely unarmed but clearly unflinching.

And it actually worked. Me and my big mouth!

Kibitoshin darted a now-frantic look across to the man. "You really want to find out?" That squeak to his voice probably hadn't given the poor woman behind him much in the way of confidence. But something in the look the figure was giving him said he was going to find out just how real it was whether he wanted to or not. And what's more, it hadn't even hesitated at the threat!

B-but he couldn't just stand back and let it do as it pleased! What kind of Kaioshin would he be then, letting the bad guy win? For one brief, beautiful moment, he felt himself bristle all over with a fiery indignation, and then-

- oh geeze, oh geeze, oh geeze! He couldn't even run, not while it was still in front of the door like that! The fists in front of him started to shake and he clenched them all the tighter for it. He glanced back at the man and woman, biting his lip. "D-do you think you two could make a break for it?" At the very least he could distract it. Yeah! That wouldn't be too difficult.

... wouldn't it?

Oh, the scary little dolly was coming towards them now. "But what about you...?" She couldn't leave him behind! That would be mean!

Please.

Alright, that thing had gotten close enough for her to properly lose her "hesitation" to leave a poor man behind. Maybe they could watch from outside the room and see if they actually got into a fistfight. With a terrified squeak and a shaky hand, she reached forward to yank on the collar of the boy heading for the door and made a move to run back through the opened doorway with him in tow. Like she really needed to told to ditch someone.

Actually, Apollo did want to find out what the deal here was. Generally speaking, it was a good idea to figure out whether people dressed in weird...cosplay or whatever this was were intent on hurting you or not. Generally speaking, anyway. Right at that moment, though? With the creepy wheezing and the way this thing's footsteps were echoing in the room? He wasn't so sure what to think.

It didn't look like he'd have much time to figure it out, either. The man was telling them to run, and before Apollo even had a chance to try the door handle, the woman had grabbed his shirt and was trying to drag him off. Although he didn't necessarily try to fight it at first, he cast an anxious look back at the patient who was staying behind. "W-wait, why can't we just escape together!?" he shouted. "This is nuts! I can just leave you!"

What if something happened to him? He'd never be able to forgive himself if he just abandoned the poor guy like this!

Edited 2009-06-07 06:12 (UTC)

[Sorry for multiple edits. T_T]

02 and 03 were leaving. How unpredictable, though. Normally when a target expressed a reluctance to leave, they didn't try to leave. Why was 02 different?

While his attention had been on analyzing whether or not Kibitoshin would change his status or not, he let the program run in the background while he began a new command line. There were new variables: 04 and 05, but neither of them struck him as different. 04 was staring at a door and 05 was expressing a desire to leave--or so his language modules were reporting.

Back to the matter of 02 and 03. 03's reaction was in line with the data--he didn't want to leave another patient-entity behind. 02 was insisting he leave.

02 was like him. 02 was an aggressor-patient.

His visual feed went to static snow for a moment, and his program began running the necessary protocols.

If Patient → Target
If Non-Patient → Targ3t%nsp*%
If Non-Aggressor ← < !---BLANK(]$
If

The run terminated and he received his commands. He slowly turned his head towards Dahlia, feet lifting off the ground. For lack of a better term, he was floating about six inches off the ground, glowing eye on Dahlia.

Leaving a series of afterimages as he skirted around the furniture and back towards the door, he became solid again a mere foot from Dahlia--hovering, staring with wide, green eyes. Another wheeze escaped him, as though trying to ask something.

It hadn't taken much to send the woman flying for the exit (fair enough- she was probably scared out of her wits, right?) but the other man seemed to have other ideas. Kibitoshin nearly hugged him. Oh, thank the galaxies! Even he hadn't quite convinced himself that staying was a good idea!

"D-don't worry!" He threw him a weak smile. "I'll be okay, I just need to stay here long enough to distract it and then I'll-"

But before he could finish the figure, to his surprise, seemed to stop. Wait, what? Kibitoshin stared, edging backwards just a little into a more defensive stance just in case. Maybe it was something to do with the two men who had just come in? Second thoughts, perhaps? As much as he would have liked to think so he highly doubted that he posed enough of a threat to scare it off.

Any theories he may have had, however, were soon disposed of. Suddenly it turned and, leaving flickering reflections of itself behind in the air like ripples on the surface of a pond, began to advance on the woman. Of course it would go for the most vulnerable one here! "Watch out!"

Oh look, another person with a hero-complex and it wasn't directed at her. Next thing she knew, he was also going to be a lawyer. Idiot man, just do what she says! She kept tugging at him, staring up at him with teary, horrified eyes, like that qualified as an answer. "It- It...!"

She let go of him the instant she turned around and saw that face of doom standing next to her. It was floating in front of her. Staring and wheezing. But mostly floating, which was a little disconcerting.

...that had to be some lame trick and she wasn't going to fall for it. It wasn't going to attack her, anyway, that much she already knew from the beginning, but what was it doing? What was worse was that it was ruining her act--this situation? Had never come up before. She supposed she go for the usual and start bawling her eyes out until someone came to "rescue" her, but for the most part she just stared right back up at the thing, watching it.

'Do you want something, puppy?' She thought, face just as innocent and pure as it always was. 'Get out of my way.'

She looked scared, and Apollo felt bad for trying to hold them up. Still, the idea of leaving that other man behind put a bad taste in his mouth. The fact he didn't sound entirely convincing when he assured them he'd be fine didn't help things.

That wasn't to say he wanted to hang around here, either. Apollo could feel his heart throbbing in his chest, and every so often his stomach would do an uncomfortable back flip. Actually, the sooner they could get out of here, the better. Apollo had never been a fan of horror movies; that went doubly so for haunted houses, and triply so for weird hospital/prisons with weird guys like this hanging around and-- oh geez, he was levitating now?!

Before he knew it, it had appeared right in front of the woman, wheezing and staring at her with those creepy eyes. In the back of his mind, he knew none of this could be real -- it was floating, for crying out loud! Even if it was an illusion, though, it was still a very, very good one, which didn't make this any easier. Apollo balled his sweaty, trembling hand into a fist of determination, the other one gripping tightly onto his flashlight, and he suddenly tried to wedge himself between the woman and the creature.

"Just...just leave us alone, okay?!" he forced himself to say. "Or I'll--I'll--!"

Or I'll what? he frantically asked himself. Yell at it to death?! Good going, Justice!

If he had been programmed for laughing, he might have done it at that moment. 'Leave us alone' was listed under the 'Pathetic Attempts to Escape Unharmed' subgroup. And if his program told him that's what it was, then that's what it was. He could only operate based on what his environment told him--other entities were no different.

Even though Apollo managed to get between him and Dahlia, his focus was still on her--still trying to calculate her calm, innocent expression. But his sensors couldn't quite process it. And now 03 was in the way.

Faster than a human eye could follow, he seized the collar of Apollo's shirt with his right hand and began pulling the man out of the way. The hand wasn't warm or even cold--it had no temperature to it at all.

And now it was... staring at her? Kibitoshin broke off, startled. What did that mean, exactly? Predicting the figure's moves was getting more and more difficult, especially without some kind of ki energy to read. In fact, he couldn't work out if it was even alive- that slow, deliberate movement, the strangely inhuman glow to that one staring eye... it was all too, well, mechanical to be anything with a pulse.

Now wasn't the time for pondering. Before he could so much as blink things had turned from bad to disastrous and the thing- alive or not- seized the man's shirt, a predator striking its prey. Without thinking Kibitoshin darted towards the two of them, fists balled. "Put him down! Right now!"

But wait, why was he talking when he could be doing? That was his problem, wasn't it? He spent too much time worrying and not enough time doing what had to be done! Teeth gritted, he went forth and did.

It was only a split second later, fist flying towards the figure's shoulder, that the adrenaline of the moment wore off and he had his first clear thought all evening: oh, no.

Yes, yes, she knew she was adorable and beautiful and a gift to all the world--she didn't need this creepy thing's reassurance. She knitted her brows upward at the thing and, in a quiet, shaky, and unassuming voice, spoke to the doll in front of her. "I-is... is there something you wa-"

Oh, now the kid was trying to protect her. Doll didn't take kindly to that, it seemed. Long-haired-man didn't take kindly to him not taking kindly. It all felt like they were fighting over her and it took a bit more force to fake a scared response instead of smiling to herself. How cute. "Please," she called out, raising her voice while shrinking back in horror. "Please! Stop fighting!"

Ack, the thing had grabbed him now! Apollo's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. "H-hey! What are you--?!" His voice had raised in volume and pitch, and he frantically tried to yank himself free. Right then, he wasn't even sure what was more unnerving -- the fact it was touching him, or the fact its hand seemed to have no temperature at all.

And then out of nowhere, the other man seemed to fly in to his defense. Part of him was immensely relieved, but it was short-lived once another wave of anxiety washed over him. The last thing he wanted was to see a fight break out. More than anything, he just wanted out of here!

"Be careful!" he called out to the man. He really didn't want to have to leave anyone behind if he could help it.

He'd been focused on obtaining data from 02 and pulling 03 out of the path of his sensors, but he hadn't been completely unaware of 01's movement. Red data readouts scrolled before his visual display, noting that 01 had shifted from mere defensive tactics to aggression.

With a wordless cry, he let go of Apollo and dropped his shoulder back to clear the attack. He seized Kibitoshin's wrist and, with apparently no effort at all, threw the warrior back towards the wall. Eyes wide and glowing, he leapt at Kibitoshin, armed with a set of three-bladed twin blades that he definitely hadn't been holding a second ago. One of them was coming down directly at Kibitoshin's chest.

H-hey, wait, those people over there! The ones calling out to it! Maybe they could help before things got out of hand, or maybe they could even call it off! They certainly seemed to recognise the figure-

- the figure, which seemed to have none of the problems he'd had whatsoever when it came to predicting his moves. Kibitoshin's fist scythed aimlessly through the air where its shoulder had once been and suddenly it had a hold of his wrist and he was flying towards the wall like a ragdoll. His head reeled backwards as on impact with a suddenly dizzying thwack, and for one blinding moment all he could see were stars. T-this body... it's a lot more fragile than my old one...

He had barely recovered from the initial blow when a glint in the thing's hand caught his eye. I-it was armed, and coming right at him! Frantically he threw himself to the side and swept one leg out towards its feet to trip it up and buy him some time- but not quite fast enough. The blade glanced off of his shoulder, drawing out a gasp of pain from the Kaioshin as well as a scarlet streak of blood on his shoulder. What was he going to do now?!

That was unexpected.

Dahlia pushed herself up against the wall and away from those freaks. She wasn't about to leave without at least one of them (it'd blow her cover and like she needed that happening with Mr. Attorney hanging over her shoulder), but that didn't mean she was going to call attention to herself if it looked unnecessary. With those other people trying to get the doll-thing's attention, she'd have enough time to get the two losers with her and drag them out, anyway.

[Skipping Apollo with permission.]

The patient-aggressors were all so fragile, he noted. But then again, all entities except him had more-or-less fallen from only a few executions of his attack program. Some even couldn't run from having their data completely rewritten. The corners of his mouth twitched upward, revealing the row of small, pointed teeth as he calculated the odds of--

Crack.

Haseo's aim was right on--the flashlight cuffing him upside the head. There was a cracking noise, and he rebounded, staring right into Kibitoshin's eyes. There was a crack running up his face and through his eye--but he wasn't bleeding.

They must have come in while he had been focused on running his attack. In one jerk, he turned his head to see who had thrown their flashlight at him.

[Attention drawn to here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/639482.html?thread=53883642#t54019834)]

He was a goner! This was it, the end of the road, he was-

A sharp crack dragged Kibitoshin back from the recesses of his panic. A flashlight rolled across the ground nearby and by its flickering light he could see an ugly crack running up through its one staring eye. For a moment he stared back, frozen. It... it was a doll?!

Whatever it was, it had obviously found itself a new target; it reeled back towards the group that had recognised it before. So they were the ones who had attacked! They probably knew how to handle this kind of situation then- he'd have to thank them later.

Shaken out of his paralysis, Kibitoshin scrambled to his feet using one of the nearby desks as a support and hurried towards the man and woman. "Maybe we should make a move?" He forced out an apologetic, hopeful smile in spite of the pain in his shoulder. "We'll only get in their way."

...

Well then.

She pushed herself away from the wall once Guy 1 came back and nodded her head at his question, adverting her eyes from the action in front of her. Anything to protect her poor sensibilities~ By chance, her sight caught onto 1's shoulder and she gasped.

Blood. He was actually bleeding. It wasn't enough for Dahlia to believe any of this wasn't just a huge joke, but it was a good push in that direction, anyway.

"We need to get you looked at right away. It's the least we can do after you risked yourself to save us..."

Apollo had only been able to watch as the thing attacked the man who'd tried to fight it off, horrified that it had actually cut him. The realization that it was armed and likely not afraid to kill any of them washed over him like a bucket of ice water. It was all he could do to keep himself from being paralyzed in place.

They needed to get out of here. But he couldn't exactly just turn tail and run, either. Not unless they were all together, because he definitely wasn't going to leave anyone behind.

Suddenly, he was distracted by some newcomers calling out to their assailant, and Apollo wasn't sure whether to feel relieved that they might be saved, or bothered by the idea that those people could wind up getting hurt. He couldn't dwell on that for long, though. Before he knew it, their attacker's attention had been drawn away from them (rightfully so, since someone had just thrown a flashlight at its head). It left them to go fight the new group of patients. Apollo didn't get the chance to see the crack on its face, as he quickly turned back toward the injured man, swallowing hard at the sight of the blood.

"A-are you okay?!" he anxiously asked him. Well, it was obvious he wasn't, but what else was he supposed to say? Still, the woman was right -- they needed to get him looked at if they could. "We should get out of here before that thing decides to come back for more."

"It was nothing, really! I was just doing my job is all." Protecting people all over the universe was his duty no matter where he was, right? Even so, he couldn't stop a proud smile from spreading across his face. It wasn't often people got concerned about him.

"Anyway, this thing's nothing I can't take care of myself." He hoped- but what if he couldn't heal anymore? The wound may not have been all that deep in spite of the blood but it still hurt an awful lot, and if he couldn't even fix something like that... "C'mon, let's go."

Lifting the beam of his flashlight (it was a miracle he still had it with him- what else was he supposed to cling to for dear life?) towards the door he made his way out, continuously glancing back over his shoulder to make sure the other two were following.

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Nightshift 41: Entry Room

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