Night 44: Main Hall, 2-West

[should-be-dead.livejournal.com]

[To here]

After reaching the top of the stairs, Tenzen slipped into the next hallway. This time, the hallway consisted out of a normal floor, ceiling and walls, as opposed to the pulsing flesh from last night.

Sliding his hand along the wall, the ninja kept his flashlight switched off as he headed East.

[To here]

Comments

[ruthless-hunter.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60032699#t60032699)]

So far so good. Lockdown still hadn't run into anything. He'd been lucky every night so far when it came to not running into any monsters while alone, but that was no reason to be careless.

[ruthless-hunter.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?view=60034300#t60034300)]

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

It looked like Taura was the first one of the group here. For that matter, it looked like she might be the first person up the stairs, period. Taura took up position in the hallway that, tonight, was just a hallway. She leaned against the wall near the north opening, in a posture that only looked casual.

[waiting for History Club folks]

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

Of course, in Landel's, there weas a danger associated with being first: that of also being alone. The hall that Taura and company had chosen to meet in seemed innocuous as first, inasmuch as hallways in the Institute typically were, but as the night wore on and the young woman continued to wait for her companions, the area slowly seemed to grow darker. Still, such things were hard to judge within the Institute.

Somewhat easier to judge was the appearance of dark masses of hair, seemingly growing out of the seam of wall and ceiling, that had started to crawl down towards the patient who had made herself an apparent immobile target. It moved noiselessly, save for a whisper of strands against strands here and there, spreading down towards where Taura's body made contact with the wall.

[sixtyeighth.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/728500.html?thread=60092852#t60092852)]

So this was the second floor. He hadn't been up here even during the daytime, and so it was a completely new environment. He took a quick glance around. What were the doors further ahead of him? He couldn't quite make out any of the labeling on the doors, so keeping his flashlight sweeping the path ahead of him, he proceeded onwards, taking a right into the larger area.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?thread=60097020#t60097020)]

[emotionl4arobot.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60102587#t60102587)]

Upstairs now, and Brainiac 5 slowed down, keeping a very careful eye on his surroundings. The hallway thankfully just looked like a perfectly normal hall tonight, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. He tensed up when he realised that someone else was close by, but when they didn't make any moves towards him or seem to really notice him at all, he quickly slipped past and continued on his way.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?thread=60103676#t60103676)]

[mizuhomaiden.livejournal.com]

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60180923#t60180923)

Pausing at the top of the stairs, Sheena silently crouched in the darkness. It wasn't very often these days that she had a chance to utilize her stealth skills. She was usually with a group that was not trained in the ninja arts. It was nice, actually, to be able to use them again. Comfortable. At least it was telling her she wasn't losing her edge.

There was one person in the hall, a woman, but she seemed to be waiting for someone. Without betraying her presence at all, the ninja silently moved along the wall, slipping past the woman as she headed toward the second hallway. This was going well.

[damned-monsters.livejournal.com]

Despite the surreptitious way in which the girl was moving, it seemed that something had still found her.

At first, it wouldn't have seemed to be of much note; a dull light in the distance that could have easily been passed off as from one of the flashlights or even a brightening spell that certain patients were capable of.

If only it were that benign, though. No, the glowing creature, the lucentien, was simply taking its time on its way toward her. Its whole body glowed and became more defined the closer it got. Not afraid to announce its presence, it reached out with one hand to drag its blade-like nails along the wall as it shambled forward.

[tostepforward.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60120507#t60120507)]

It was quiet up here still, but Ayumu didn't pause; quiet, yes, but there were others present. As damaged as her cover was now, she still wished to keep it intact as possible, and didn't intend to be seen openly speaking to Okita unless necessary.

Her steps continued onward, silent and assured despite the darkness around her, across the more familiar hallway toward one she'd only seen on a map until now.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/736668.html)]

[scarefaux]

[From here.]

As they reached the top of the stairs, the Scarecrow prepared himself. Here it was: the Horrible Hallway, the passage through with the Scarecrow had hoped he and Depth Charge would not go. He paused at the top of the steps before following his roommate through the entrance, attempting to prepare himself for what could be lurking in the darkness of the corridor.

Took a step into the hallway and stopped again, looking around with his flashlight. It was surprisingly... normal. The floor was solid, the walls still, and the ceiling not dripping with an unknown, slimy substance. Huh.

He started walking again, a little faster to catch up with Depth Charge. "Which way now?"

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

It was hard to say exactly what she'd been waiting for, but she had waited -- allowed nearly a half-score of patients to pass without apparent interest. Perhaps she had simply found one that fit her fancy, although it was dubious whether she had much of a fancy to fit: more likely, perhaps someone had finally caught just the right pattern of entrance to stir her sleeping rage.

Whatever the case, she had awoken.

Tonight there were no shifting shadows, no slow, gentle approach. Tonight, she was more direct: the patients stepping into her space would feel a tickle in their throats that abruptly worsened into a sharp, harsh pain. If they were able to suppress the human body's natural instinct to cough and clear whatever obstruction to breath was suddenly present, it seemed that choking was imminent, as if whatever it was would lodge into their lungs and be impossible to remove hereafter.

[bullygeneraleva.livejournal.com]

[[From Main Hall, 1-West. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/727695.html?thread=60279183#t60409487)]]

The stairs, Evangeline quickly realized, had been a mistake... or at least, it had been a mistake to think they wouldn't reveal her weakness. She'd been able to act as though nothing was wrong easily enough standing around and talking, but the simple physical effort required to carry her body up to the second floor brought the fatigue back in full force and had her breathing heavily by the time she was at the landing.

It was really nothing she could hide from Junpei; stopping to catch her breath after such a small distance would be no less obvious. She just had to steady herself on the rail, move on, and make ready to bite his head off if he made any sort of comment.

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

It must have been a tough climb indeed, but it was possibly in Evangeline's best interests to hold off on berating her companion just yet -- for without him, it might have been difficult to notice what had happened when she reached the top landing. For, no matter how difficult the stairs might have been, surely it wasn't really normal for exhaustion to be so thorough as to change the colour of hair.

But, without a doubt, the colour of her hair was changing: through the golden strands was sifting a pitch-black mass of it, sprouting from her head in a way that looked nearly natural. Evangeline herself might not even notice anything out of the normal, unless she happened to toss her hair in front of her shoulders.

[pleading-ngri.livejournal.com]

Phoenix emerged into the hall, flashlight lowered, still rattling off the last of his train of thought. "The way it looks right now, they're taking a bunch of people from every world imaginable, putting them through this nightmare of a selection process, giving a handful what could be charitably called superpowers, brainwashing them, and letting them loose among the population." Even to Phoenix, who had in a court of law proposed timelines of events that involved body-switching, that was a little much to wrap his head around. "What are you training people for, that you need to do all that?"

[high-prosecutor.livejournal.com]

Miles was about to respond when the voice alerted him to something in the hall ahead of them, its sharp groan accompanied by a sharp pain in his throat. He couldn't help the coughing fit that ensued, his body trying to dislodge whatever the source of it might have been. He leaned against one wall, breathing hard, after the worst of it had passed.

"Dealing with whatever it is that's here," he said, unable to help the sarcasm that accompanied the words. There was a fight going on, and he felt a pang of guilt at not being able to do anything about it, but getting them through what felt like a gauntlet was more important.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?view=60420348#t60420348).]

[constellates.livejournal.com]

[ from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739831.html?thread=60425719#t60425719) ]

So Alkaid turned the slight right, as Endrance had instructed, then paused to look around, passing the flashlight beam along the hallway. Yeah, didn't look like anything was here except for some people who seemed to be chilling at the tops of the various staircases. The usual.

Oh, and a girl sitting beside a monster carcass. Classy. As hell. Best interior designers in the west. Real conversation piece. Ugh.

"Yeah, uh... so... tonight - I mean, not that I'm judging you or anything, since it let you know what happened to him... you were in Haseo's room why?" Not like Alkaid was jealous of Endrance stopping in Haseo's room for one reason or another, but if the two of them were getting lots of super-special alone time, she would admittedly feel kinda left out. Especially since she knew how Endrance felt.

[oftemptation.livejournal.com]

That question seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was probably a good thing there were other things to focus on besides the surprised expression on his face. Couldn't she have asked in the morning, at least, when things weren't quite as time-sensitive?

"I...well," Endrance stammered, then stopped - something was out in the hallway that night. He couldn't see what, but he broke into a coughing fit, thanks to a tickle in the back of his throat that had turned into a sharp, painful sensation. He waved Alkaid on ahead, then followed into the next hallway.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/736668.html?view=60429980#t60429980)]

[gundamned.livejournal.com]

Once Setsuna reached the last of the steps to the second floor, he did another sweep of his flashlight along the hallway, momentarily wondering where he and Feldt should turn next now that they were in unfamiliar territory.

But his pause only lasted for a few seconds as he decided to trust his instinct. He wasn't certain what they would meet, but it was better than simply talking and planning here when he knew that they both have not scouted the second floor beforehand. It was better to continue moving.

"Let's go," he told his comrade, quickly taking the hallway to the left, walking in quick, stealthy strides.

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

Quick, stealthy strides were all well and good to avoid opponents that relied on physical detection in order to hunt. Unfortunately, Setsuna and his companions had run across one which ... simply didn't. The only real warning before the attack was the illumination from their flashlights, which suddenly began flickering, each successive glimmer of light weaker and briefer.

And the pain: a sharp pressure began at the base of Setsuna's skull, growing quickly from a faint annoyance to a pain that seemed to feel like something was trying to claw its way out of the back of his head.

Perhaps whatever it was, it was related to the sound that was growing louder and louder as they walked further into the hall: a guttural, rattling sound, relentless and unceasing.

[longlivetheking]

[From here]

Animal instinct was usually flawless. Scar had already felt uneasy as he further ascended the stairs. A feeling in his gut told him that the second floor was not quite safe, but pride prevented him to pick a different route. After all, he could just as well run into that insolent woman downstairs again, and he did not particularly enjoy the idea of dealing with her for a second time tonight.

And when he reached the top of the staircase and cautiously slipped into the hallway, he tensed. The former lion had been correct; he couldn't quite tell what, but there was certainly something lurking within the darkness. His instincts were telling him to turn back now, while he still could. Forcing himself to remain calm, to not panic, he attempted to ignore the alarms going off in his head and cautiously moved into the hallway, making sure his light-stick had been switched off as to attract as little attention to him as possible. He heard the sounds of other patients...they might be enough to distract whatever that lingered here.

Scar had been lucky thus far. But right now, he could only hope his luck hadn't run out tonight...

[Will probably run into Donna again later.]

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

Another patient with good instincts, instincts that perhaps he should have followed. Scar was certainly right in that there was definitely something lurking in the darkness -- something borne of hatred that had festered for years upon years, until the cause for vengeance had been forgotten and only the drive for it remained. Any target, any at all, that wandered into this space would do.

And as Scar moved into the hallway, that something found him: something subtle, something that couldn't quite be pinpointed. There was a set of footsteps, unsteady and lurching (one foot landing heavier than the other, the other sounding almost like it was being dragged), but it seemed to come from all directions and no directions at once, fading in and out of awareness.

Perhaps it might have been wiser to keep his flashlight on -- for then Scar might have been able to see, flickering in and out of sight, the figure of a disfigured human, movements jerky and unreal.

[lighthearted]

[From here.]

"Oh, and we'll be looking for knives and anything else that could be used as a weapon!" Sora explained, glancing over his shoulder another time as he addressed Tsubaki's earlier question.

However, when he turned back around to face the hallway, he suddenly got this feeling that something wasn't right. He wasn't sure if it was a sixth sense or if something weird really was going on, but he knew by now that he shouldn't ignore any instincts.

"Be careful," he warned, his voice suddenly dropping to a whisper. "There was something here last night, too..." While he didn't think a Special Counseling patient was wandering around tonight (thankfully, the hallway looked like it should rather than that weird esophagus or whatever from yesterday), that didn't mean they were in the clear.

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

The something that was here was significantly different from the something that had been here last night -- but there was one thing that these patients would find in common. Where there was no giant esophagus was forming around them, there was instead something much more subtle, much more sinister. The darkness of the hallway seemed to be growing more complete with every step, the faint moonlight seeping in from the direction of the Sun Room's skylight somehow blotting out.

Good eyes and a sharp memory might notice that the juncture of this section of the hallway and the area overlooking the Sun Room seemed just a little smaller than usual, for some reason. Even better eyes might notice that the entrance to the hallway where the M-U patients were being kept also seemed a little smaller, and ... was it shrinking?

But good eyes weren't necessary for all the patients entering the area to feel a faint chill travelling down their spines: for here was suddenly an area soaked in old blood, vicious wrongs, and a rage that had been borne of both.

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

By keeping his back to the wall Lunge could stop something from catching him in the back, but eyes cast to the floor could see little in the darkness. With luck, though, any wandering stares would bypass the tall, silent figure slipping along the edges of the room with the lean speed of a cat advancing on its prey.

Only this time it would do to remember that the roles had been reversed- from hunter to hunted. Weaponless, he wouldn't have stood a chance against... whatever it was here. The corner of Lunge's mouth twitched in irritation, but he resisted the temptation look up. Low profile, Inspector.

[herr-inspektor.livejournal.com]

[lady-general.livejournal.com]

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60400315#t60400315)]

Celes swept her light across the floor after they opened the heavy metal door to the second floor. "Alright; if I remember correctly, the morgue is down that hall. Patient possessions, I've been told, is also on this floor, but on the other side. We can visit one or the other, whichever tickles your fancy, Edgar."

[girlsandgadgets]

"Both sound intriguing," Edgar said, his eyes scanning the hallway for activity. The hall seemed darker than the previous corridors, even with their flashbulbs pushing back the shadows.

His eyes scanned the entrance to the side hall. "If the morgue is the closer locale, perhaps we should head there first."

[hamelinschild.livejournal.com]

_{[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60565691#t60565691)]}

If Bart was going to bait Scourge into something nasty, well--things wouldn't be pretty. Whatever happened to getting along?

"Hey--" he piped in, "--cut him a break Bart. I don't know where anything is here. Anything's a help." And with the verbal tag-back in Scourge's favor, the least he could do would be to give Bart the same.

--the young man had a point as well. At any time, something could pop out and--oh, say, eat their faces off.

"--but stepping things up could be good too. How much father is the closet?" As they left the stairs into the a second floor hall, he looked around for anything resembling a closet. Without knowing which door it was, it made things a little difficult.

But as he kept up with the others, his mind was elsewhere, trying to recall what mixed with what the best chemical-wise. While Hart himself wasn't much of a demolition man, he'd spent more than enough time with James and Mick (men who could appreciate a good boom) to pick up a thing or two.

[hamelinschild.livejournal.com]

_{[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/736668.html?thread=60567964#t60567964)]}

[see-my-back.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/727695.html?thread=60569743#t60569743)]

The stairs took little time, and even Sakura took them two at once as she climbed them. When had the operation started? Surely they had more time than they'd had with Naruto. It'd only seemed like a handful of minutes, but who knew?

And what would they do with Shikamaru? They'd altered both Naruto and Sasuke's eyes, but Shikamaru? With a mind like his, the number of things the enemy could learn was nothing short of dangerous. Sakura hated the thought of anyone hurting her friends, even if they were lazy and annoying like Shikamaru had a tendency to be.

As soon as they reached the top of the stairs though, Sakura was on her guard. There was an animosity in the air that she couldn't quite place, but the murderous and deadly intent was unmistakable.

[lostonlifesroad.livejournal.com]

Like Sakura, Kakashi immediately noticed the foreboding atmosphere of the hall at the top of the stairs. There was something present, though he could only guess at what. Tempted as he was to use the Sharingan to try and find whatever was there, he opted for haste over anything else. There was no telling how far the experiment had progressed, or the extent of Shikamaru's injuries until they found where he was being kept. While the information the Sharingan could provide might be valuable, the energy drain would slow Kakashi down, leaving him and his group vulnerable.

"Keep going." Though he advocated hurrying, Kakashi was still on guard. From his very first night he'd seen things that shouldn't exist. He didn't think they would stop making them now that the ninja were in a hurry.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/736668.html?thread=60649116#t60649116)]

[strayfag]

[from here]

Badou hiked up the stairs with Haine in tow, not really willing to linger anywhere for too long. He didn't have much to say on the topic of friends either. He had Mimi back home, and Murphy was around, and maybe Mihai kind of counted in that familiar-hobo sort of way - but things were different here. Fucked up.

He tucked the gun under his arm again so he could light a fresh cigarette. "So is your creepy brother gonna kill me or what?"

[straydoghowl.livejournal.com]

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60627093#t60627093)]

[diamondstorm]

[from here]

Darkness. The hall maintained its dim, and Renamon paused at the top of the stairs, eyes flickering as they tried to adjust. There were sounds, movements, but she couldn't focus on the location. The screams she had heard had died, and she was wondering if they had been at all. Another trick? Something else? The Digimon cautiously took a step further, back against the wall.

She had rushed up here for something... Perhaps a misguided hope of combat, something substantial for her to channel her aggressions. Something... To distract her, focus her. And yet it seemed her strange hopes were unfounded. She sighed softly, frustrated. She should go back downstairs. It wouldn't be good to not be there when Jiraiya appeared.

[deathrattling.livejournal.com]

[sorry for slow!! >___>]

Substantial, not quite. But there was something here. Renamon would feel nothing strange -- at first. The air didn't change temperature, no strange breeze swept through the hall.

But something was here that made the hairs on the back of the neck prickle. Nothing was visible in the shadows of the Institute, nothing was making a sound -- but something did brush the back of her neck. It felt like hair; surely it was merely her own ... though it was longer than usual. And growing faster than usual, thick and certainly not the same colour as her own -- a dark black that would feel cool to the touch if she reached back to feel it.

[mateswithnobody.livejournal.com]

Donna would have enjoyed the hallway very much if it had been absent of others running about. She didn't see the annoying man, however, thank God, and thought she was pretty much set to continue on her way. She just had to head right and get a move on. But she ended up being too curious for her own good and gave a glance back to see if she could possibly see the man on the other side. Something about him made Donna think that he'd only pretended to go up ahead of her, had waited a moment, then gone right back to his spot in the hallway below. And oh, if that was the case...!

He really wasn't worth her going back down and turning out, but she'd definitely have a mind to give him what for!

[mateswithnobody.livejournal.com]

And there he was, just a ways off on the other side of the hallway. Well, before she had to deal with him then. Donna turned away to head for complete opposite side of the Institute, but before she got far something sent shivers down her spine, and not in the "cold feeling" kind of way. She looked around, then back and stopped when she saw... was that... no, it couldn't be.

Again the man was casing her problems, but it wasn't him she was trying to decide was real or not. It was... well, the ghost, or what at least looked something like a ghost, that was getting nearer to him. Her mind had to playing tricks on her. Really, what would ghosts be doing here? It wasn't as though they hadn't had the zombie apocalypse just recently.

Donna huffed out a sigh. "Oi!"

[stringless-doll.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/729787.html?thread=60680635#t60680635), joining Taura shortly!]

There was no one waiting by the stairs, but Nataku wasn't really worried. It was hard to tell if there was anyone waiting in a big dark hallway, so they'd just have to look around a bit or stake out a spot and wait for Homura.

"I don't see him." It was a quiet hallway, so speaking normally carried well enough just in case Homura was waiting for them nearby. He stepped out of the doorway and glanced back to make sure Hanatarou was still ok.

[screwthegods]

[From here. Hi! Also, we have permission to skip Zalia for the moment, until she's back up to regular posting.]

Homura didn't join Nataku from elsewhere in the hall, but from behind. He said nothing about the blood on his clothes, as in his mind, the matter with Callisto was settled. The demi-god needed to focus on the task ahead, as did the others. The monsters waiting for them were dangerous enough without distraction.

Kenren was also with the demi-god, though again, Homura didn't allow for explanations just yet. Okita had his own key to the room, so the group could move on as soon as they had Taura join them. He looked around the hall, then pointed out their missing member, who had for some reason taken off her shirt. "She's over there. We'll move on as soon as we get her. The room is close by."

[prodigalson]

[From here.]

Now seemed the best time to break away - their sounds were clearly causing Venom irritation, and the boy who had joined them needed questions answered. The choice was obvious.

Moving away from the black opening of the stairs behind him, Edward leaned against the wall of the entrance, nestled neatly between the already-opened door and the bleach-soaked wall. He had assumed the pain would dissolve easy enough, even if the climb had been particularly painful, but the burns had welled back up in a hot pain. When he brought a finger to the bandages, they met moisture. Maybe it was because, in a way, it had become his blood, but he hadn't smelled it before. One of the scabs must have cracked open.

Wonderful. Anything that was vaguely predatory could detect him across the length of the hallway. He knew he'd be able to.

"Personally, I haven't met any," he told the boy, trying to rearrange the bandages wrapped around his knee to soak up the blood quickly. "I know they're here, however. Are you looking for someone?" he guessed.

[timeseal.livejournal.com]

Since the injured man was the one who was willing to stop for him, Rolo followed suit and stopped with him, ignoring the other one that they had been following. They really must not have been working together... It made things easier for him, so he wouldn't complain.

Thankfully, the injured guy didn't ask him for any help with his bandages. Rolo wasn't too keen on playing Good Samaritan and ... A quick check with his flashlight turned out to show some blood. Rolo wasn't aware of how many different types of monsters and ghosts there were in this place, but he met enough to believe. He'd have to make this quick.

"You could say that," Rolo nodded. More like, he was making sure that there weren't more surprises from Britannia and Area 11... and the whole mystery behind why he was the only one who seemed to know the proper names of any of those countries. At this point, Rolo had no choice but to be slightly more honest.

"You called Britannia 'England'. Why?" He said something about it being a Latin name? And the other man recognized that name too. Something was going on, and Rolo was sick of being out of the loop.

[notachick.livejournal.com]

[moving through quickly with permission from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/736668.html?thread=60755868#t60755868)]

Whatever that thing was, it wasn't just like the stories Hajime told, it was straight out of one of them. The masses of black hair, the pale skin, the soulless eyes - Okita only caught a glimpse of them as he ran past, but that small look was enough. He had a feeling it would haunt him for a long time to come. He'd have to be certain not to whistle at night or do anything else to call this spectre back from whatever hell it had crawled up from. And it was most certainly a creature from Hell, even if it seemed solid enough to attack people.

He'd heard too many ghost stories to simply ignore what he saw. Turning his face away, Okita kept running, knowing that Ayumu would keep pace with him. He couldn't let either of them get caught here. Not when he was certain he saw Homura's silhouette up ahead.

[going here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?thread=60744700#t60744700)]

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

Sangamon Taylor had a philosophy when it came to biking in Boston traffic, one that went at odds with legality and radio PSAs, but he hadn't found himself facedown in a pothole with a station wagon and an MBTA bus duking out the airspace rights over his ass. Yet.

It was the submarine-drama method: run silent, run deep, but pretend like he was wearing a day-glo flak jacket and the bouncing of his back wheel was a pimply kid with light-up batons directing traffic up his cracked rear fender, rather than just Comm Ave's meager excuse for asphalt.

This a long way of saying that he had not switched his flashlight on.

In most cases, "if you can't see them, they can't see you", were last words eclipsed only in utter moronic aptitude by "the enemy can't hit us --". But the Institute specialized in bucking the bell curve; for once, S.T. was slicing through probability waves at a familiar clip.

[to here, moving through with permission]

[its-the-mileage.livejournal.com]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/730364.html?thread=60771580#t60771580)]

If Indy's father was supposed to have checked him in here, shouldn't they have contact information for him somewhere--an address, maybe even a phone number, anything? What really mattered here was where Dad was--whether they'd sent him back home or left him around here somewhere, brainwashed, needing to be found and brought back.

The way Ryuuzaki was swinging that light around was really starting to grate on his already-frayed nerves, though. Was he trying to attract the attention of every lab rat and omnicidal maniac in the building? "Could you stop that?" Indy said, not in a tone of voice that suggested a question. "If the Bogeyman's here, waving your flashlight at it is not gonna do a lot of good."

[ryuuzaki]

L sighed.

One thing he had learned in the recent past was that showing his exasperation to subordinates was not always contributory to useful cooperation. At the same time, he hoped that the task force in Tokyo would be able to disband soon, and that their victory would make it all worthwhile; the irritation of people like Aizawa at what he termed L's high-handed behavior would be ameliorated by a win.

Dr. Jones is not exactly a subordinate, at any rate; he has not consented to work under my direction. He does not know. It will be necessary to treat him as an equal. This line of thought, however pragmatic, did not decrease his exasperation. He would have to be careful about expressing it. It would be pointless to misdirect his anger at his possible allies. They were not responsible for throwing him into a mass of people without his consent; In fact, they are my best chance of escaping it. He decided to explain himself in a calm, polite tone.

"Last night, my group was attacked by someone who appeared, to all intents and purposes, to be flesh and blood. It is useful both to be able to see what may be coming and to have the possibility of temporarily blinding anyone who may be waiting here. If they are waiting, they will notice us regardless of my aggressive use of the flashlight's beam."

Nonetheless, he slowed the arcs of his flashlight, concentrating it on the hall in front of them before rounding the turn into the corridor that would lead them to the morgue. He was satisfied that nothing waited in the dark near the stairwell to follow them down the next hall.

[Sneaking by with permission; to here.]