damned_institute | Nightshift 22, Sun Room

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.

((Came from here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/79032.html?thread=4679608#t4679608).))

The bright light was more of an irritant than an actual threat, but it seemed to have driven off one of the others with a loud shriek.

Ah well, it wasn't himself doing the shrieking, so the vampire could care less.

Nodding at Sasuke, he started to break into a slow run. No use in trying to sneak through, since now part of the room was almost as bright as day. And as for the other people, they had their eyes on the weapon too.

Most of them just stood there to watch, and thus Alucard felt fully entitled to wrenching the firearm away from the boy, if he could. Children shouldn't be allowed to handle those anyway.

He bounded foward in a leap, joining the others in attacking the boy, jaws open and ready to clamp onto the hand holding the gun.

It was quite possibly the sloppiest fight Sasuke had ever seen outside of Academy 'spars,' and he wasn't sure whether to be concerned about the gun or annoyed by the lack of coordination.

Staying far enough from the main huddle of the fight to keep logical track of those involved, he twirled the knives in his hand speculatively. The fact that the assailant had disappeared kept him from completely dismissing the struggle as worthless.

He ignored most of Aidou's vaguely taunting words, but the question made him blink.

"Sakura's a genjutsu-type," he said, voice slightly confused and brain obviously not making the normal connection. "I started out a ninjutsu-type."

When he'd suggested "take down that little boy" he'd meant "take the weapon", not bother with the child holding it. Was this undead thing really so stupid as to attack a human like that and expect Aidou not to step in!?

Aidou's lip curled in disgust. Normally he would've, and with pleasure. Normally, it was his responsibility to prevent this sort of unsightly behaviour. Now he didn't have the strength to spare on his own, and there weren't any aids around to charge with stopping the creature for him. And considering the number of witnesses should he attempt to put a collar on the situation...

It was no good. His involvement would only cause more trouble. The only upside to it all was, in this place, Aidou wasn't automatically recognized as a vampire himself.

He came up just behind Sasuke's shoulder - the kid was short enough to allow him to keep an eye out from over his dark head of hair, but still provided cover for Aidou should anything come at them. Even being unable to see Sasuke's full expression he could still tell the kid hadn't grasped the innuendo behind his question.

"I meant is this Sakura your type in a biologically, you're-a-young-man-and-she's-a-young-woman way." But genjutsu and ninjutsu? That was an odd way of putting it... "Were you trained together, then?"

The situation was quickly becoming chaotic. Not only was the miniature sun that lit up the entire room detrimental to his plans, the damn patients who couldn't seem to get a clue were beginning to prove things were getting worse. Mentally calculating the number of bullets he had left-- twelve-- Hisoka attempted to try and dodge both the male patient and the crutch, well aware that more patients were coming.

The boy wasn't so lucky with dodging his two assailants though, the crutch hitting him square in the shoulder before falling uselessly to the ground and the male assailant-- hadn't he burned him earlier? To think he would have learned...-- had slashed at him leaving a large gash running down his forearm. Glaring hatefully the boy kicked the man away before firing a shot at him, aiming for his abdomen rather than his chest-- like he really wanted to. Yet just before Hisoka could do the same to the others closing in on him he stopped short at the loud shout.

"Hisoka!"

Hesitating for only a moment, the boy turned to see a strangely familiar man running towards him...

Wait, Tsuzuki?! Hesitation gone, Hisoka's face became expressionless and cold. That bastard was always disregarding the rules and it was about time he was brought into line!

With that in mind, the boy's eyes narrowed and he fired four shots-- two at Tsuzuki, two at the the patient running slowly towards him with his eyes on the gun. Without a moments pause Hisoka then swung around and fired a shot at the patient who created the light in attempt to put it out.

Six bullets left.

Raine skidded to a halt not even halfway across the room from the others when she realized no one was following. Still too far away to use her makeshift weapon--the crutch was far too unbalanced to throw with any hope of hitting her target--and afraid to use her magic again for fear of wearing herself out completely, for the moment she could only watch.

She seemed to have been forgotten by the boy--Hisoka, apparently--for the moment in the sudden chaos, and that was more than fine with her. Her strength felt lower than it should have, even here; her body just felt heavy with... well, with grief. Try as she might not to think about what Hisoka had told her, it was impossible not to, and the fact that she didn't know if he was lying to her or not almost made it worse.

Wanting to keep the others safe, she tried casting Barrier when Hisoka raised his gun again, only to discover she couldn't do it. Whispering the words and sketching the symbol did nothing--it was simply too high-level for her here. Running for cover wasn't really an option, so she stayed where she was and just watched; because of her current state, she would act only if she absolutely had to. The room was getting crowded enough so they had a fair chance of getting away while Hisoka was distracted--if anyone else in her group would actually run this time.

Two things became clear to the goddess in a momentary flash of insight.

Firstly, that the only three mortals in the room did not stand a chance against the kind of power that the inhuman one possessed.

Secondly, that the weapon which spewed fire could not be allowed to fall into the demon's hands. That thing wrapped in dead flesh was an abomination to the natural order, and for that reason if for no other Amaterasu was forced to make her decision rapidly.

She couldn't protect everyone. A human body had limitations, and further without her Celestial Brush she could only draw a straight line for so far before it became curved and her power dissipated. Therefore, while her heart ached to interpose her power and save all of them from the terrible attacks... she simply could not do so. And in such a case, she had to do what was best for the entire world.

As the gun began turning to her, Amaterasu focused all of her power on the brush in her hand, pointing it to the left of Hisoka. The weapon aimed at her shoulder, the barrel gleaming in the light of her own sun, green eyes glaring at her with inexpressible malice and hatred.

Then a roar greater than the mighty voice of Susano-wo-no-kami, God of Thunder, rang throughout the Sun Room. There was a flash of fire, time seemed to slow down as Hisoka pulled the trigger...

...and Amaterasu cut her brush straight across, one smooth stroke cutting like the blade of a sword. Her divine power infused that single motion; gun and bullet and wielder were attacked as though she had swung a blessed katana at all of them at the same time. Such was the might of Power Slash.

But yet, despite having destroyed both bullet and gun in that attack? It would seem that she had indeed succumbed to the terrible power of the inhuman one's attack. The crimson marks on her face and body, the proof of her divinity, faded entirely as her holy power was utterly drained by her exertion, and she collapsed to the ground as though dead. Only the faintest of breaths escaped her lips, her heart nearly still as she succumbed to exhaustion.

And the brush, being a mere thing of man's creation, shattered from the holy energies that had infused it, the fragments falling to the ground next to Amaterasu's motionless body.

Recluse didn't make it much farther across the room than Raine, although not by any conscious decision-- His leg finally refused to support his weight. He tried to stand, but the thing shook uncontrollably under him at the half-hearted attempt. He pulled himself up against the nearest piece of furniture and sat. There wasn’t much else he could do at the moment. He was still half-blinded by the light, anyway.

His makeshift bandages had soaked through quite thoroughly, and there was more still coming through. All the movement had kept it open and bleeding this whole time. It wasn't enough to cause more than a little light headedness, but... He was so unforgivably weak in this place. A gun causing so much damage to him? It was almost unthinkable. Up until yesterday, the bullet would have simply flattened as it hit his skin, leaving him unhurt.

More than anything, he was furious at himself for being such a fool. Allowing his attention to wander when things had seemed safe, wasting any chances for attack and making such a humiliating scene when that light--sunlight?!--had hit his eyes.

The gun was out of the hands of the attacker, in any case. But now there wasn’t a chance of him getting the damn thing, either. He’d just have to try to get some knives…

…If he could get up. Recluse swore colorfully through whatever languages came to mind first as his adrenaline started to leave him for some quality time with the wound in his leg. He focused on the pain, trying to get the better of it. Dignity was already a lost cause, but damned if he was going to let a minor problem like this stop him from getting something done.

He just hoped those still fully functional would do the sensible thing and kill that boy.

Reinforce could only watch as the gun-wielder, despite a hit by her attack and a far more severe wound inflicted by Zelos, extricated himself from close combat and unleashed a barrage of bullets against his attackers. Charging in herself didn't seem like a very good idea in light of this demonstration of her opponent's skill in rapidly lining up shots, but she was already committed. Even wounded she might be able to bring him down by the momentum of her charge...

Or so she thought until Amaterasu's power manifested itself again, attacking gun and wielder both. The way before he cleared, she completed her charge with the swing of a fist at Hisoka's throat. Her strike had to be debilitating, lest he produce a backup weapon or use his movement ability again to procure one.

Shit.

This was getting too crazy. Zelos lifted up one arm to block the kick, but he wasn't so lucky with the bullet. He'd had a feeling the boy would fire, but close range like this, there wasn't much Zelos could do but try and jerk away. The bullet still tore through skin, but it was a graze, and Zelos grimaced before whispering quick words. First Aid. It still stung like a bitch, but that was no big deal. At least he was on his feet.

He really wanted to avoid killing this kid if he could, but it was starting to look like mercy might not be an option. Amaterasu was down for the count now, and Zelos couldn't even check to make sure she was alive or dead.

Instead he attacked in combination with Rein. As the woman punched Hisoka, Zelos made a sweeping kick to knock the kid off his feet. Once the kid was down, Zelos could point the sword straight at his throat. He hoped, really hoped, the kid would get the message and give up already.

Amid the chaos, Tsuzuki's rush to save his partner was halted abruptly when he saw the muzzle of the gun flash in his direction. Twice. Without really realizing what was going on, his body tensed with the expectation of pain. But there was none.

He was momentarily stunned as the bullets were stopped, Hisoka was attacked, and a woman nearby suddenly collapsed motionless to the ground. Tsuzuki couldn't tell what had happened, but he knew she had done something to save him. He now was torn between helping her and going to Hisoka's side. Ultimately, it was the continued attacks that spurred him onwards towards his partner. If he didn't stop this now, more people would get hurt, not just the woman.

Despite attacking him and injuring others, Tsuzuki just couldn't abandon Hisoka. When he had been possessed by the demon Sagatanasu, Hisoka had done everything in his power to save him and had almost died by his hands in the process. Tsuzuki was willing to go that far and more if that was what it took to help Hisoka.

This time, Tsuzuki knew he was close enough to do something about the attacks. Throwing caution to the winds as usual, he sprinted forward and lunged at Hisoka, grabbing him by the shoulders and tackling the boy to the ground. It helped that the red-haired man had planned to sweep out Hisoka's legs which would leave him already off balance. The momentum of the tackle landed them both on the ground with Tsuzuki covering Hisoka with his body in an attempt to block any further blows.

"Stop! Stop attacking, please!" he shouted hastily to the others, his worry and concern overriding any kind of sense of self-preservation. His grip on Hisoka was tight to keep him from squirming away (he might be a reckless idiot, but he wasn't a fool), but Tsuzuki was careful not to grasp onto any exposed flesh. He knew the kind of damage that could cause, especially right now.

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