damned_institute | Nightshift 44: Janitor's Closet

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Nightshift 44: Janitor's Closet

[from here]

Brainiac 5 pushed the door open and ducked inside just as a couple of other patients passed him in the hallway. The brief glimpse he'd gotten from the passing light indicated he'd been right about this being the correct room, but didn't help him locate any of the spare flashlights he'd hoped were stored here.

He'd have to search manually then.

Taking his time and moving slowly, Brainiac 5 felt his way around the shelves for the familiar shape of a flashlight. As careful as he was, he still couldn't avoid knocking over a few items in his search, some of which fell to the ground with enough noise to make him jump. But after what felt like an eternity, his hand closed on something that felt right and, as he located the switch, snapped on with a bright enough light to dazzle him for a moment as his eyes adjusted.

Now that he had that taken care of, it wouldn't hurt to see if there was anything else of use in the room. A quick search through what was on the remaining shelves, what he'd knocked over in the dark, and what else was in the room turned up a few items that might be useful. A toolkit containing a set of extremely basic tools offered a number of uses, so was tucked into the pillowcase along with his now useless flashlight. There was also a slim, small blade that he stared at for a moment before dropping into the makeshift bag as well. The last item he hesitated over; a large metal pipe with enough weight behind it that, with a decent swing....

He swallowed. It was harder to rationalise taking something like this for any reason other than hurting someone else, but... he had to think of Peter, about what had happened to Clark. He couldn't let that happen again. The pipe was too big to easily fit in his makeshift bag, so he tied the end of the pillowcase around it, double checked that he hadn't missed anything else the might be useful, and slipped back out the door.

[to here]

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[[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60692885#t60692885)]]

They didn't have a lot of time to consider the options, so Kagura let go of Bridget's hand to pull the door open and lead them inside. The closet was something of a mess and finding anything was going to take a bit of looking. There were bins and lots of tools, but where were the batteries?

"I guess... we should probably get started. I'm not really sure where they'd be, but... I think they're here."

Bridget nodded,pulling away from Kagura enough to start rummaging through shelves and bins. There was a lot of stuff all over the floor too, so after a moment, he got down on his knees and started to look under the shelves, just in case.

Duct tape.... bulbs.... paper.... Oh! "Here's... two." That wouldn't be enough. He kept looking.

"Ah- you found them," Kagura said with some relief. When she saw there was only two though, she tried not to seem disappointed. Surely there were more than that.

In her enthusiasm to search though, some of the items on the higher shelves fell loose, spilling paintbrushes and a roll of garbage bags down on them. She squeaked and tried not to fall over. What a mess!

"O-oh, S-sorry! I um-! I think there's... well, m-maybe there's more of them if we keep looking?"

"R-right." Bridget offered a smile, pulling a bag off his head, and resumed rummaging around the things on the shelves and floor.

Sticks, the paint brushes... something soft and squishy....ew.

When more and more people seemed to be arriving, Kagura wanted to be out and done as quickly as they could. Especially since they all seemed to be male and well... tight places and a stupid curse like hers didn't exactly go well together.

After a bit more rummaging, she pulled out a flashlight, which actually worked, and a couple more batteries. "Got it! I think ah- I think we're good. We should probably let the others through."

Bridget reached out and took Kagura's hand, carefully placing him in the path between her and the others in the room. Now, in order to get close to her, they had to go through him first.

"Where to now Miss Sohma?"

Kagura blushed at the sudden assistance Bridget offered her. Had she been so obvious? Or was he just that thoughtful? Knowing Bridget, she would have to guess the latter. She followed him as they crept back toward the exit, supplies in hand.

"Ah- I'm not sure. I haven't been up here much, maybe we should look around?"

[[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60779413#t60779413)]]

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60722069#t60722069)]

Pushing in, Sho glared blearily at the two nanobrats inside and decided that, seeing as they were not talking loudly or obnoxiously, he would spare them this day. Stumbling inside and keeping his distance, Sho only got as far as putting a couple rolls of duct tape over his arm before he just went ahead and slumped over against the shelves, causing them to shake and threaten to rain their contents down upon everyone inside. Luckily, nothing went quite so far, though the precarious stacking was now more so than ever. Heaving a tired sigh, the mathematician took a moment to close his eyes.

His head really hurt.

Lockon followed through the hallway at Sho's side, restraining both his own pain and his urge to offer to help. Sho hadn't seemed very appreciative last time, and Lockon had a pretty solid feeling he wouldn't be this time, either. He might yet be able to turn Sho onto the prospect of teamwork--Lockon refused to give up hope on that, at least--but now wasn't the time. Not when they were both injured, and rather badly at that.

To tell the truth, it was rather tempting to him too to just slump down against the shelves and rest. But he couldn't do that; in fact, he couldn't even show that he wanted to do that. Instead, he forced himself to focus on scanning the shelves for what he wanted. Duct tape--that was easy enough to find. The batteries would be a bit harder; he kept looking.

Now and then he glanced over at Sho to make sure he hadn't passed out.

While Sho had grabbed a pair of duct tape rolls, to secure his takings for the night and join his collection back in the room, there were plenty more where they came form. Hopefully batteries were plentiful too, as the kdis seemed to be grabbing some. Not that it was Sho's problem if Lockon had nothing to fling. Maybe some of the smaller pipes? Nah, even those looked to be outside the feasible range of sizes.

Groaning, Sho looked about for anything he could add to his store of supplies. Well, not that there was much room to put stuff in his closet anymore. Well, there were some compressed air cans, that, depending on their contents could have possible flamethrower potential (if he could find a source of combustion). He reached over lazily and snagged a pair, stuffing them awkwardly in his pants pockets, seeing as how his jacket was full. They didn't stay in so well, but it would do until he went back to the hand truck.

Now, this was a Janitor's closet, right? So there was probably something nice and chemical that, if not weaponizable, could at least be used to do something nasty to the Composer with. Anything with a "don't put in eyes, do not inhale, don't drink or give to small children" label would fight within his specified parameters. Sliding down the wall, he fell into a crouch and began looking around the lower shelves for such an item.

In a more ordinary situation, Lockon would be all over the kids--no, not like that. He'd be very enthusiastically helping them out, assisting them in finding what they needed...

With his head aching and his vision dimmed, he could barely see them, much less focus on helping them. All he could afford them was an encouraging smile, and that was it.

In his current state, all he could manage to do was focus on rummaging through the materials himself. He crouched by a shelf, wincing more visibly now that his face was turned away from anyone who could see it, and started to go through its contents. He pushed away several coils of extension cord before finally--aha. Two boxes of batteries stacked atop each other, each containing four batteries. He hurriedly grabbed the boxes and pushed them into a coat pocket, careful to keep the roll of duct tape he'd taken around his arm.

He stood up. "I've got everything I need. What about you?" He'd hoped to find some tools that he could pass on as a makeshift weapon that would suit Feldt, but he didn't see a toolkit anywhere here. He had no idea whether that meant someone had taken it, or whether a janitor at a place like this didn't need ordinary tools.

Even with his flashlight, Sho could barely make out any of the labels on the items; he was going to be really angry if this was indicative of permanent neural damage to his optic nerve centers.

Ah, there. It didn't even matter that the warning label had those nice little pictures of people suffering harm, bleach in a bottle was easy enough to recognize. Pulling it out past the other things, Sho just managed to teeter to his feet with it as Lockon spoke up.

"Eh, as much mass as I feel like acquiring given my current state of being," he muttered. He would have indiscriminately swept a few shelves of items into garbage bags and sort them out later had it been any other night, but as it was his ribs were causing enough pain just for lifting the bottle of bleach. "Let's get plot a vector out of here; its volume is severely lacking."

[And back out to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60722069#t60722069)]

Alright, then, the box of batteries is . . . empty. Great. Peevishly, Phoenix studied a can of air sanitizer and wondered how springtime-fresh he had to make a monster to kill it, only to look back at the shelf as a second flash of silver caught his eye. It looked like another flashlight, and he reached for it, clicking it on and off for confirmation that it would run. Grinning, he dropped it into his bag, thoughtlessly tossing the air freshener in there too. It wasn't exactly mace, but as far as something to use against human beings went, it was a weapon he preferred to the bat.

Scanning the shelves one last time, he grabbed a full roll of duct tape - because really, you never knew when you'd need something like duct tape - before heading back out into the hall.

Edited 2009-10-25 21:35 (UTC)

[From here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60724885#t60724885)]

It looked like the closet wasn't unoccupied, which made Kurt a little uneasy. They were kids, too. He didn't want to scare kids, after all...

Staying behind Terry, Kurt slunk into the closet, wrapping his tail around his waist. At least he looked somewhat normal if he kept his back to the other people in the room.

"So... we just need weapons of some kind, right?" he asked, staring firmly at the shelf in front of him.

Kurt's optimism was appreciated for the effort, but Terry knew that some things would just work better than others. If they found fifty rolls of duct tape and nothing else, they were pretty much slagged no matter how good at improvising they were. Luckily it looked like the pair would have at least a little more to work with.

"Yeah, pretty much." In such a tight space, it was pretty easy to pick up on Kurt's discomfort. Terry glanced to the two kids already in the closet, then leaned closer to Kurt. "Doesn't matter how hard you stare at it. It's not going to open up and let you hide." He lowered his voice so hopefully the kids wouldn't hear; Terry was afraid if they started asking why Kurt wanted to hide, the guy would just bolt.

There really wasn't much choice but to use his light in here, so Terry clicked it on and began scanning the shelves. The pipes were first to stand out as something good for whacking monsters over the head, and Terry picked up one of the longer ones to test the weight. It would definitely work for him, though he wasn't sure how Kurt would do with his hands.

"Hey, heads up." Terry gently tossed the pipe to Kurt, letting him test it out if he wanted while looking for a few more of the same length.

Kurt frowned at the shelves, shoulders sagging a little, then offered Terry a small smile. "You never know. There could be a secret passageway for hiding in. ...probably not in a janitor's closet, though," he said with a laugh.

The mutant began scanning the shelves as well, hoping that he wouldn't have to turn around. Boxes... boxes... more boxes... tape... Agh, why were there so many freaking boxes?!

Kurt turned around at Terry's call--and just in time, too. He caught the pipe easily enough, despite being nervous about the throwing of large, metal objects, and lifted it up and down a bit. It was a little heavy, but nothing Kurt couldn't get used to. He sighed a little, ears drooping at the tips. So... this was what he'd be killing things with. God forgive him.

"We should get one for Kitty, too," Kurt said, still scanning the shelves for anything interesting or useful.

"Oh, I don't know. Kind of helps to keep it secret if people don't know where to look for it." Like a certain passage Terry had managed to stumble into a few months ago. Then again, that hadn't been in the janitor's closet either. But at least one in Wayne Powers had been, so it was still possible here. Not that Terry was exactly ready to tell Kurt why the remark amused him so. Best the guy keep thinking Terry was just going along with the joke.

"Right. And maybe Peter? Don't know if he hangs out with you guys a lot, but it couldn't hurt, right?" Worse case, Terry ended up with a back-up pipe. He started to put a couple of the metal lengths in his pillow case, but then he noticed how Kurt seemed saddened. Terry picked up his bundle, slinging it over his shoulder as he looked towards his roommate. "You're starting to make kicked puppy faces again. What's wrong?"

"Yeah, good idea," Kurt said, pulling down a box and opening it. He wrinkled his nose--box of rags. Gross. "Not everyone can get up here in one night, it'd be good to think of the others."

Kurt, unsure of what to do with the pipe, put it against the shelf briefly and re-shelved the box. He looked around for another box that wasn't full of gross rags.

"Kicked puppy?" Kurt repeated with a pout. He so wasn't a kicked puppy... ~~Even if he did make the most adorable faces when he was upset.~~

"Nothing's wrong," Kurt said. "That's... the problem, I guess. I don't want to kill things, but I know I have to if I'm going to survive here. It's necessary but... not something I would sign up for voluntarily."

"Yeah, and it could save us some repeat trips." Though Terry was interested in just what they'd missed out on; considering just how raided the room seemed, there had probably been some things worth coming back for. At least if they got there early enough.

Terry picked up one of the rolls of duct tape, then tossed it into the pillowcase with a shrug. His dad had been a pretty good scientist, but Terry had seen him make more than one repair with the stuff. Maybe it'd be useful for something.

"Yep. When you pout, and your ears droop." Like right this very second, Terry thought with a grin. It faded pretty quickly though, when Kurt explained what had made him start looking like that in the first place.

"The same goes for me. It's a lot easier dealing with the type of criminal that you turn over to the cops." Instead of watching that criminal fall off the Gotham bridge. Thinking of Charlie, Terry couldn't even bring himself to say that they might be putting the monsters out of their misery. Maybe some of those things he'd read about had volunteered to be here. Not the animals, but the humans. People did insane things for insane reasons. If nothing else, Terry's time as Batman made him sure of that.

"But like you said. It's to survive, right? And not just that." Terry steeled himself, knowing the bigger reason to shut this place down. "But to put an end to this place before they drag anyone else we care about here. It's bad enough we have to go through it. But there are innocent people out there, without powers or mutations or any sort of experience. As hard as it's going to be, when either of us thinks about them being put in our place, I think we'd both rather be the ones forced to kill. Right?"

[Sorry for the long-ass wait, Tad-Tad. T_T]

Kurt looked over his shoulder as the kids left the closet, frowning slightly. "Yeah..." he said absently, though his tone suggested that he wasn't saying it just to get Terry off his back--he actually believed what the other boy was telling him. "It's better if it's us and not like... those girls that were just in here." He wondered briefly if he should have asked if they needed help. Kurt knew better than to judge by age or appearances, but still, they looked young. Kids shouldn't have to kill anything to stay alive, in his opinion.

"You're right. We should end this before it gets out of hand. Before anyone else dies or is taken away.

"But it's good to know I'm not like some... pansy or anything. That you feel the same way," Kurt said with a smile. "Some people I've met here didn't understand why I wanted to hide, or why I didn't want to kill things, even to protect myself. I mean, Kitty understands, but I don't know if she's still mad at me or not."

[Pffft. No worries. You'll make it up to me ~~in bed~~ ♥]

"Yeah, exactly." Terry's thoughts ran along the same line as Kurt's as the girls left. Just a couple of kids. Bad enough that this sick freak Landel had to put anyone at all through the ringer, but completely innocent kids being there only made Terry all the more eager to get at the guy. He was tempted to go after the girls too, but they seemed okay going around on their own. Though part of him still didn't like it, Terry hoped that they could handle whatever they ran across.

That Kurt had thought Terry was calling him a twip kind of surprised the older teen. "Nah, that's not what I meant. Just the pouting thing, like I said." Though he could see why other people wouldn't get it, Terry just shrugged. "Some things are harder to face than others. I mean, dealing with street thugs can be easier than facing your girlfriend when she's ticked off, right?"

And speaking of, apparently. "Mad at you? What, she catch you looking at another girl too long or something?" It didn't matter a whole lot, so long as whatever lover's quarrel they were having didn't put any of them into unnecessary danger. Mostly Terry was making conversation while he pulled out his map and began looking over the layout. From what he could tell, they seemed to be done here anyway. "Anything else you wanted to look for while we're up here? We still have some night left; might as well make use of it."

Kurt frowned, ears flattening against his head. "Man, she's not my girlfriend!" he said, looking disgruntled. Why did everyone think he and Kitty had something going on? He had Amanda, and Kitty had always been kind of friendly with the jerk Lance. Sure, they seemed to work together a lot, but it just so happened that teleportation and phasing worked together really well for infiltration and avoiding unnecessary fights.

"She's just a friend. And the last time I saw her, I was kind of... pretending I wasn't a mutant," he said, ears drooping again. Man, he was such a tool sometimes. "She was pretty disappointed in me." Which was kind of strange when he thought about it. In the beginning, he really freaked Kitty out. She couldn't handle Kurt climbing all over the ceilings, popping in and out of rooms, and bouncing around on all fours. In a matter of months Kurt had become her friend, someone she expected to stick by her when their kind was under attack.

Kurt frowned and scratched his head in thought. "Anyway, wasn't there like... a room with our stuff in it or something? I think it was near here."

Terry glanced up from the map to raise an eyebrow at Kurt; that kind of response just screamed of rejection. "Hey, easy." Terry raised a hand in what was supposed to be a placating gesture. "It's not the worst thing for people to assume, you know." Kitty was kind of cute for a kid. And Kurt wasn't all that bad looking himself, if blue and fuzzy was your thing. It wasn't completely impossible to see.

Kurt's little confession definitely explained why Kitty would be upset, though. "Yeah, I can imagine she'd be pretty ticked at that." Especially if Kitty was like Kurt, which Terry was starting to seriously suspect. "But you know, she might have been pulled from a different time than you. That means she wouldn't even remember it, or maybe she's forgiven you." Terry didn't really expect it to be that simple, especially since Kurt obviously still had to deal with the guilt. But there wasn't much else he could offer by means of comfort.

The topic changed then, and that was probably for the best. Another group had wandered into the closet, so the talk about mutants definitely needed to stop. Terry thought he remembered something like Kurt was talking about, and after a minute, pulled out his flashlight so he could actually read the map. "Hey, yeah. A place called 'Patient Possessions' just down the hall." The room name brought another memory to mind, however, and Terry frowned as he picked up his bag. "The place some people were talking about burning on the bulletin." Terry didn't smell any smoke when he stuck his head out the door, so that was a good sign. Still, that didn't mean he wanted to stand around and wait for the bonfire to start. "Maybe they ran into trouble. Either way, if we want to get there, we'll need to hurry."

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60854677#t60854677)]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/739477.html?thread=60785557#t60785557)]
Tim shined his flashlight into the closet. It was bigger than he was expecting, but...there were people inside it. He couldn't quite make them out, but he was pretty sure one of them looked familiar. Wait...wasn't that Kurt? He'd only seen part of the boy before, but surely there wasn't anyone else her with quite those features.

He didn't go over and say hello, though. Another time, another place. Not here.

He looked back over his shoulder to see if the others were following, then scanned the shelves to see if there was really anything useful here. He sure hoped so.

But maybe it wasn't a wasted night, was it? He'd met Joshua again, and met Mr. H. They were intriguing, if nothing else. They were also a welcome change from the ridiculous standard he held himself to around Batman and the others. They didn't know him, they didn't have any definitive way to judge him. It had been so long since he'd worked with anyone, really, and he'd forgotten what a team was like. This wasn't really helping him remember, but it did make him wonder if he could actually use help in this situation. Things back home, well, no one could help him with that. But here...that was different.

Everything was different.

There was one useful thing in there, something that Joshua noticed immediately... an electrical outlet. With that in mind, he knelt down next to it and plugged in the charger, then started charging his cell phone. 'His' being a bit of a relative term, due to it being a clunky thing he'd never be seen with on the streets of Shibuya, but he'd laid temporary claim to it. Until he could upgrade.

As he left it there, Joshua started looking around for other supplies, finding himself disappointed. Most of it was already picked over, and he knew who was responsible for that. The Grim Heaper and his light-fingered filching... ugh, he should have pushed the Reaper down the stairs while he had a chance.

"It looks like most of the good stuff is already taken," he mused, "but I have a pretty good idea where it went." With that, he shouldered his shovel and started heading back to the door. He could take out Minamimoto and be back for his phone before the night ended, of course he could! And if Mr. H. could just keep their companion busy for a little while, he'd be none the wiser...

...well this was disappointing. Even with Minamimoto snagging as much stuff as he had, he still expected something to be there. Unfortunately, it didn't look like that was the case; any item he might have considered worth it was gone--although at least Josh had found an outlet for his rock - er, phone.

Sanae sighed and ran a hand loosely through his hair. "Yeah, me too..." Sometimes even he got the urge to really wring Minamimoto's neck; right now was one of those times. Goddamn Heaper. He pushed mindlessly through an open box, searching for something that might have been left behind.

He snapped out of his haphazard search when he noticed that Josh was already taking off, looking especially determined with that shovel sitting across his shoulder. Funny, because what else was there to do tonight other than that little side trip they'd canceled to the Arts and Crafts room? And then it dawned on him:

He's going to go after Minamimoto.

Sanae nearly panicked. Joshua was acting way too rashly; he couldn't possibly expect to take Minamimoto out so early with just a shovel, could he? And Minamimoto had someone accompanying him, a potential witness! ANd sure, he could maybe hold off Alvin for a while, but still, the risk was astronomical...despite what many assumed, Sanae did like to have some of his schematics worked out ahead of time.

Also, there was still that tricky little wrench called "My Contingency Plan/Your Assassination". So far, Minamimoto had apparently never spoken about it, but who knew how long that silence would last?

So Sanae played dumb and said, "Hey, what's the rush, Josh?" This would probably earn him points down, but he had his reasons.

There wasn't really anything left. Damnit! That was a whole night wasted, then. Well, maybe not entirely. Joshua and Mr. H weren't totally unwelcome company. Joshua seemed a little odder than Mr. H did; after all, he'd met the boy earlier in the day, and he didn't seem quite normal. Tim had spent enough time around people who were anything but normal that he sort of had a sense about things like that, or so he liked to think.

Tim turned at Joshua's words. Where the heck was he going? He'd looked pretty angry earlier...

Wait, was he going to go after that guy they'd passed in the hallway? That wasn't good. Tim hoped that hunch was wrong, because really, what was that going to help?

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," he said, sounding as nonchalant as possible. "It will all come back tomorrow, isn't that the rumor?"

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Nightshift 44: Janitor's Closet

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