damned_institute | Nightshift 22, Sun Room

Ah, the one from last night. As forward as before, though his sights appeared set on Amaterasu now. The allure of a god?

Zelos' diminutive annoyed her. Just what about her was little? She was only an inch shorter than him, and probably a few hundred times his age. And names were important. She should know. Well, she could let it slide. She'd tolerated Schuldig, who certainly had worse intentions.

Rein saw that he was armed now too, with... she frowned, eyes on the sword. "Where did you get that?" She had an unfortunate feeling she knew the answer.

Raine had been about to say something very biting, but the sound of a gunshot cut her off; she whirled, crutch still clutched like a staff, and called the words to Photon to mind just in case. She wasn't using any more magic until she absolutely had to, but it was very much in her best interests to be prepared.

She shined her flashlight over the room, trying to locate the shooter; no use running when there was no cover to be found nearby and only a dead-end room behind them. It seemed the search for supplies was going to have to wait a while.

Zelos was enjoying the attention from Okami, and was about to respond to her and Rein when he was cut off by the sound of a gunshot.

"Don't wave that flashlight around," he told Raine, tense. They didn't want to be any more exposed than they were. He tried to locate the source of the noise, sword ready. "Just keep moving towards that door. Can't have you pretty ladies getting injured now, can I?" Without taking his eyes from scanning the room, he jerked his head towards the direction of the kitchen.

He'd leave last, to make sure everyone else got out unharmed. He was not about to have a repeat of last night.

(())

With this in mind, Hisoka carefully moved back, keeping a half of his attention on Recluse while he considered what to do. One of them... The boy frowned deeply, eyes still closed. Many of them were weak while they were strong, the chinks in the armor of their minds gaping holes.

Genis... Virginia...

Hisoka opened his eyes again, aware of what he was doing would be follishly revealing his place, but... He could always find another. Making sure that none were nearby-- it would do no good to be snuck upon while he was dealing with an unruly patient-- Hisoka stated with a loud voice,

"Genis."

Raine flinched visibly and stared at the boy. She didn't recognize him, but considering how little time she had been here, that was no surprise. "What about Genis?" She didn't mean to say it out loud, and hadn't realized she had for a moment. Considering how worried she was about him, though...

There was almost no way this boy knew Genis, or anything about him. She knew that... but she still found herself doubting. Just because she hadn't seen him in a few hours of searching didn't mean he wasn't here. The thought of her little brother, nearly magicless and without his kendama, wandering these halls, maybe alone... the flashlight slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers to clatter to the floor.

"Is he here?" She had to know. Had to. It would be easy enough to find out if he was lying, and if he wasn't...

What would happen, when a shinigami and a goddess were thrown into such a situation?

Amaterasu had whirled as soon as she had heard that sound. It was like the clap of thunder, like an explosion, like... like nothing she had really met before. It was almost like the inhumanly elegant energy beams of Yami, but less tangible, just... less. But yet it was deadly, unspeakably so. She didn't have her wolfish senses, but she could smell blood, and she knew that someone had been injured by that attack.

She growled low in her throat as she crouched low, ears alert and eyes focused on those green orbs. The word meant nothing to Amaterasu, but as it was, she didn't have what she needed to protect the others. She, a goddess, was as helpless as the others. Moreso, because she was the only one without a weapon of any sort.

But then fate intervened. Raine dropped her flashlight, and Amaterasu knew that the woman wouldn't be combat-ready any time soon. That meant that Amaterasu would have to find some way to be prepared for the worst... which necessitated a brush or a weapon. Therefore, the goddess seized the flashlight as it rolled away and bolted off to the Arts and Crafts room, trusting that Rein's instructions had been accurate and further that they could remain safe until the brush had been found. After that? It was going to be hard to say. But she always leaped before she thought, so this would be no exception.

((Darting off to here. (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79274.html) ))

[[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79032.html?thread=4393144#t4393144)]]

The shock was begining to wear off. Recluse bit down on his tounge to keep from letting out any noise as he started circling around to get behind the attacker. He kept to cover and moving low. All he had was the damn flashlight, but this problem needed to be dealth with now.

One of the prisoners had escaped into a sideroom, leaving another frozen at the mention of a name. Not only had the attacker revealed his position, he had also revealed how he had found Recluse. The spider lord had enough experience with psychics to recognize their tactics. He had his own countermeasures against that sort of mental intrusion. He didn't know how well they would work here, but...

He let his mind go blank as he could. Hours of practice with the Fortunatas and Regent Korol had honed the technique to the point where it had worked effectively on even Sister Psyche. He would just have to see how well it worked now.

Reinforce went into a crouch when she heard the gunshot, ready to spring for cover if the attacker came into view at a distance or at him if he approached. She had in fact never seen or heard an Earth-made firearm in person before, but all manner of weapons and technology had been arrayed against her in her various lives, and she was familiar enough with chemical explosives. Of course, she'd never actually been harmed by a nonmagical weapon before... Landel's was as always a learning experience.

When she heard the attacker's voice her first instinct was to start making her way towards him, but then she heard the clatter of Raine's flashlight on the ground and realized the girl was still standing, apparently in shock. Had she been hit? No, she would have noticed that...

Then came Raine's response. It was the words that produced the effect on her. The tactic of an acquaintance, or another telepath like Schuldig?

It didn't matter. He was shooting at them, and Raine's condition meant defense was her only option for now. Reinforce grabbed Raine's arm, pulling her down, and threw herself towards the nearest of the long couches in the room. They seemed to represent the best cover, paltry though it were. Now she just need for Amaterasu to return with her weapons or one of the others moving into the room to provide a distraction...

From partway down the hall, Caim heard it: that loud sound, like an explosion, coming from the doors he was aiming for. Quickly, he gripped his flashlight tighter and made his way over to the doors, where another man had just walked in the door ...

... and given away his position by being an idiot.

Caim pursed his lips and didn't move for a moment, mere feet from the door. He could go in there and try to attack whoever was there, whoever was the most threatening (or whoever got in his way), but he had no weapons. Without a weapon, he could do damage, but the point of his moving through here was to get to a place that could provide him with something to do more damage.

Damn it.

Cursing himself and everyone in the hospital, Caim rammed himself past the man standing in the doorway and made for the opposite exit. Those doors, he knew, lead to the courtyard, to outside. And out there he'd be able to find a weapon and fight with greater certainty whatever enemy lurked within the room.

_{[up from here]}

Had he just - had that filthy - had that man just shoved him aside? Bubble burst at possibly having a fun go-around with the bumbling kids in the dark, Aidou shook his head sharply. These idiots just didn't have a sense of humour.

He made for the cafeteria doors as he had originally planned, noting the second man crawling around on his knees. Since he didn't stumble around in the dark, or have need of a flashlight, Aidou quickly overtook the man who had entered behind him - he made certain to shove him aside as he had done to Aidou (perhaps more forcefully than necessary, but hey, no one pushed around a noble) - and kept on moving.

People were diving behind couches as the kid waved his little gun around, and it appeared his telepathy tricks were doing as planned. That begged the question why he was attacking other "patients" in the first place, but whatever. Puzzling out human actions was too much of a chore for Aidou. As long as the bloodshed was kept to a minimum, he didn't care.

Following the other man, Aidou veered around the worst of the mess, and disappeared through the open cafeteria doors.

_{[and moving here]}

A glance back told him Okami wasn't just beautiful, but smart. She had run when the chance came.

Once sure that neither of the other girls were hurt, he crouched low with them, sword still at the ready. He couldn't afford to have Raine losing focus.

"I've been here three days, and I haven't seen Genis," he said in a hushed voice. His eyes were still trained in the direction of the voice. Stupid kid just gave his location away...now all Zelos had to do was wait for him to get a bit closer.

Six were gone-- if only for now-- and one was trying to disappear. Foolish. Had the boy had enough time, he would have told the patient that no one could simply disappear, that there was always that faint residue of energy still left behind.

But there was no time and now that one patient was harder to see, to hear. He was going to have to be even more careful now... He could not afford to delay any longer. Making note of where the 'invisible' patient had been before 'disappearing', the shinigami turned his attention back to the other three.

"Don't you remember, Raine? He's dead."

That was all that was needed to be said, the boy knew, the one the words were aimed at was filled with thoughts drenched with worry for this Genis. His words would hit hard.

Raine's breath caught at the boy's words and she bowed her head until her forehead nearly touched the floor, closing her eyes and clenching her fists. No, he can't be... I would remember...

Except their own mother had forgotten them, had gone out of her mind with worry for them. Who was to say that Raine wouldn't do the same if Genis, her only family she really left now, had been killed? Her shoulders shook for a moment with a barely-suppressed sob.

She couldn't afford to fall apart now, though. She knew that well. Raine took a deep, shaky breath and opened her eyes, looking towards Hisoka; she wouldn't let him make her an easy target. Her teammates here and now needed her to be alert and ready, and she could give at least them that. She didn't know if she had it in her to cast Photon, but that still didn't render her completely helpless.

She wasn't even remotely okay, but she would hold herself together for now. After that... she didn't know what would happen.

((Returning from here. (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79032.html?thread=4372152#t4372152) ))

Raine's distress called to Amaterasu, and the goddess felt righteous fury swelling within her soul. This 'Genis' was important to Raine, and she had heard Zelos contradicting the speaker. She believed Zelos to be a good person, for the most part, and she had formed opinions of the other one... and so his toying with Raine's emotions made Amaterasu hate the inhuman one even more.

Directly contradicting Zelos's opinion that she was smart, Amaterasu began striding directly towards the one with green eyes, a child's painting brush in her hand. If he pointed his gun at her, she would see which was faster. Her power, or the power of man.

She knew, most of all, that she would not simply stand back and allow private pains to be made public. Not in such a manner.

Recluse kept moving, even though his wounded leg was adamantly refusing to cooperate. He didn't trust his mental shields in this place. They had never foolproof to begin with anyway. His best chance was to keep moving, and wait for an opening.

He held his flashlight ready to attack- it seemed like a useless gesture, but such things could be surprisingly effective if used well. He still knew all the old tricks he had learned when he was human, back on the streets in Paragon City, in WWI, and as a thief in post-war Europe. In a situation like this, the 'useless gesture' could be invaluable. Especially with the damned gunshot wound. His free hand was clamped down over the makeshift bandages, forcing his leg to move. The cloth was soaked through and the pain was quite intense, but there was no way his own body would keep him from dashing that boy's grey matter against the wall. He wouldn't allow it.

The same went for his mind. He couldn't give away his position now. Recluse moved in closer, concentrating on keeping his thoughts hidden. The other patients were providing good, distracting displays of idiocy, but it wasn't favorable enough to warrant action yet. He'd only get one chance, and he wasn't in the habit of wasting opportunities.

He would not allow incompitence within himself.

Reinforce's expression darkened at Hisoka's taunt. Words such as these had heralded her last birth... had heralded the last end. She could not tolerate to hear them leveled against one entrusted to her again. And what anger suggested, Amaterasu's reappearance and approach on their attacker demanded. She would fight.

"Please help her." She whispered to Zelos, then stilled for a split-second, preparing her body for what she would demand of it. It was only with the precision of her control and absorbed knowledge could she make up for her lack of experience in ground combat, and only by preparation that she could make full use of those advantages.

Then she made her move, springing from behind the couch and launching herself at Hisoka. She came from the side opposite Amaterasu's avenue of approach, hoping that he would be forced to choose between the two as targets and in the best case be too distracted to hit either before one reached him.

Her attack was two-layered. The first was obvious and physical, her headlong charge with her crutch. The second was more subtle, a trap crafted for a telepath. As she charged she projected a diagram as she would were it a shielding spell, though in her current state it was powerless even against so weak a projectile as a bullet. This knowledge of the diagram's nature was her lure, its purpose as a shield held in mind as normal but the truth of its weakness held deeper, closer to the more older and more alien parts of her mind associated with the structure of the Book. Here she would attack his mind with the sheer weight of her knowledge and experience; the learnings of whole civilizations and millenia of slaughter and grief. If his mind could be overwhelmed the physical fight should prove much easier.

Of course, Reinforce had no idea whether the ability by which he'd gained the knowledge he'd used to attack Raine would be susceptible to such a method. She'd conceived a trap in this form after meeting Schuldig, and she wasn't even sure it would work on its intended target, let alone a complete stranger. With the experiment with Raine fresh behind her she could only only hold out so much hope, but it was better to try and fail then fail for not having tried.

Oh, dammit. Raine couldn't be buying this B.S., could she?

The hero thing was really more Lloyd's department, not his, but he wasn't about to leave a beautiful girl to fight by herself (with a brush, no less).

From his hiding place, Zelos crept around, waiting until Rein started moving to dash behind her, waiting until he was close enough to slide like a baseball player right at the kid's legs, hoping to get him off balance.

And quite suddenly he was under attack. It wouldn't be as alarming if it wasn't being done from both sides, but despite this worrisome detail the only change in the boy's demeanor was his widening eyes as he began to fall. With his descent, yet another gunshot-- this one a wild shot-- broke through the silence of the room as the boy attempted to aim at the female patient assaulting him.

How well the shot went was entirely unknown. The backwards fall was definitely not part of the plans.

Grasping at straws for what to do, the boy pressed the hot muzzle of the gun into the male assaulter's leg and, making a quick decision to retreat, disappeared into thin air only to reappear in one of the room's corners shrouded in darkness.

He had underestimated these patients. Foolish.

Back to the drawing board.

"We have to move," Raine said, voice still not quite steady. She didn't expect the boy to stay gone for long, and they needed to get out of there any way they could.

Making a split-second decision, she got to her feet and ran for the cafeteria, glancing back only to be sure she was being followed by her teammates--and only by her teammates.

Keeping busy was the best way to keep herself from thinking. She had a feeling that if Nightshift was good for anything, it was keeping one's mind off personal troubles.

When evil chose to use darkness, Amaterasu fought it as she always had.

The inhuman one had disappeared, retreating so that he was shrouded in darkness once more, and Amaterasu felt that righteous fury rage unabated in her heart. Justice was to be brought on that one, for if they were to go past him, what would happen to the others who had stepped in?

But despite her anger, the goddess felt a prayer whispered in the back of her mind. A kind man- no, not a man, but not a demon either- wished to help, and wished to find someone... and even though her first instinct was to lash out with the power of the Celestial Brush, to smite the offender with a Power Slash and render his weapon useless...

...she decided on another course of action. Instead, she took a deep breath to focus her power, the touch of the divine channeled through the humble brush. A single circle was drawn at the ceiling, and even though there was neither ink nor canvas, the very world itself obeyed.

A small sphere, like a tiny sun, blazed into life on the second floor of the Sun Room, casting the entire room in holy light. Normally she could have called the very sun itself back into the sky, and by comparison what she had drawn was nothing more than the scattered memory of an ember of her power. But even that was still blessed with a divine touch, even that could ward away evil.

What she did not know, of course, was that she was not fighting a being evil in and of himself. Therefore, it was rather unlikely that the miniature sun would do anything more than deny Hisoka hiding places.

Things always had to turn against him at the last moment, didn't they? Recluse had been a split second from attacking when the boy dissapeared. 'A teleporter?' Things were suddenly much worse than he thought they were.

He felt dazed and a little disoriented. Blood loss was starting to get to him- perhaps the bullet had struck something important after all. He didn't want to leave- the boy had a gun. He could use that, if he could just get rid of the boy. But he was in no condition to throw himself into an unplanned charge.

When he saw the white haired girl making a break for it, he followed. His leg shook with every step, but he forced it to comply. While things were still dark, he could--

And then things weren't dark. It was bright and it hurt. Taken so abruptly from the darkness, he couldn't help but let out a strange, inhuman shriek as the light blinded him.

He stumbled on, heading for the doors to the cafateria. He kept low and moving as fast as he could. He was useless in the light.

Hisoka's hastily-aimed shot pierced Reinforce's side, but circumstances left her no time to consider the wound. Her attack had been rendered unnecessary by Zelos, but if Hisoka's movement magic was anything like hers, activating it so quickly meant a very short transference route. He might still be in the same room, and certainly knew exactly where they were- to stop now would be a fatal mistake.

And then the situation suddenly changed again. Raine bolted for the cafeteria, and Amaterasu's magic lit the room, sending another figure fleeing. She felt the same as Amaterasu, that she must combat the threat posed by Hisoka lest another group stumble into his ambush, but she had sworn to protect Raine and the girl was in front of her now. The most pressing concern, though, was the illumination. It might make searching the room for their opponent the task of a few seconds, but if he was already in position it made firing at them even easier... and Raine, running for the doors, would be an easy target.

She shifted her grip on the crutch and spun, turning the rotation into a lunge and releasing it as one would a javelin when she spotted Hisoka. Unlike him she only had one shot, and the weapon was a poor one. All she could do was hope that Amaterasu's power here was great enough to finish what it had started.

Zelos gritted his teeth in frustration. A part of him wanted to follow Raine, because for all he knew, she'd get into more trouble by herself; on the other hand, he had a chance to stop this damn annoying brat.

And his leg burned, dammit. His ~~awesomely perfect~~ skin was bruised. Kid was going to pay.

Rein had the right idea - Zelos was half tempted to toss his sword in a similar fashion, but parting with it unless he had to wasn't very wise.

Instead he charged again after the crutch went flying, off to the side rather than right behind the object. He waited until he was in range to slash gracefully at the boy's arm - preferably the one with the gun in it, but Zelos would settle for whatever he could get.

Tsuzuki flinched at the sudden bright light that filled the room, lifting a hand to cover his eyes. He wasn't sure what just happened, but it wasn't natural... He flinched again at the shriek that sounded a moment later, taking a step back and resisting the urge to cover his ears.

Still feeling completely lost, the shinigami dropped his hand from his eyes once they'd adjusted to the light and took a look around the room. He could see much better now with the light, enough that he recognized his roommate standing across the room, and then over in the corner... Tsuzuki froze for a split-second before making a dash across the room towards the familiar face.

"Hisoka!"

Vaguely, he saw the woman and the crutch she hurled that was heading in the boy's direction, along with the other man rushing close behind. He knew he wouldn't be able to make it in time to block either of them. Still, if he could get to Hisoka, he could protect him from any further attacks. And at the moment, that was all that mattered to Tsuzuki.

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