They had made it. It had required leaving Tsubaki behind to deal with her brainwashed roommate, but they'd gone all the way up the escalator, and this was it, the third floor--

Good morning, patients.

Sora shot up in bed, eyes wide, and let out a huff of surprise and aggravation. That wasn't fair! They'd made it all the way up, only for it to end like this? He fell back onto the bed and slammed his fists into the mattress to vent his frustration before he realized that Link was still asleep. Whoops.

It was hard to know what to do from this point on. He needed to go back to Farwell, but the third floor was important too. He could probably rely on his friends to handle things here while he traveled back to the rebel city, but he just didn't know.

He dragged his hand down his face and then slowly sat up again, as the door opened and his nurse came to get him. On the way to the cafeteria, Sora realized that the Head Doctor sounded kind of down. Was he upset because so many people were trying to go to the third floor now? Well, that was what he deserved after everything he'd done!

Sora stood in line for his plate of french toast and then peered around the cafeteria, looking for any sign of Tsubaki. He wanted to check in with her first.

[Tsubaki.]

[from here]

No, not cling. Clinging was for grab bars on emergency takeoffs. Seize it with both hands and yank. Like grabbing and crushing the bones of someone who held out a patronizing handshake. She'd never done that, but Two did, once. Only once, because they couldn't get away with repeating it. She had a feeling the same held here; they would need to find that one gap in the forcefield, and then strike with everything they had.

The women's block was empty; not even a whisper. That concerned her; they couldn't build up an army if there was no one here. Maybe she was just moving quickly; she told herself that as she slipped through the darkness.

[to here]

[from here]

The hallway was empty, too, but she could hear voices, so some of the men were at least up and moving. There were a lot more of them -- was it because they took mostly fighters? Despite having the same basic geneset, some of the designers had argued against having half of her siblings be female. Even after they'd been born; even after the girls had started to outlive the boys.

[to here]

[from here]

The main corridor was dark, and no sounds came from the sun room, even when Taura pressed an ear to the doors. That didn't mean much, but it gave her something to do while she waited. Then she switched to jogging back and forth along the length of it. Staying in one place had proved more dangerous than making a visible target of herself; she didn't like waiting.

[Rita]

[From here.]

Still keeping a wary eye out for any kind of threat, Lloyd stepped into the hall and shined his flashlight around. Still nothing, and the stairs were just up ahead. He crossed the distance swiftly, planting his feet on the first stair steps.

[To here.]

While the rain had eased up as the day turned to night, that only made way for a fog to roll in, setting the stage for a night that was bound to be full of danger.

"Security breaches..." The Head Doctor's voice was calm as it came on, almost distracted, as if he was more concerned with other things than with handing out his nightly message.

"I imagine a few of you have noticed by now. Sneaky, aren't they? Like little rats infesting their way in. Though that's all they are, isn't it? A nuisance. Nothing to really worry about." He chuckled lowly. "But you can keep trying. That's all can do.

"Persist, or submit. And we can't have that last one, can we?"

The cutting smile could almost be heard in his tone, but the Head Doctor had nothing more to say, and the intercoms went silent.

[Bamf'd from here!]

In a puff of sulfuric smoke, Kurt and Peter's friend touched down on the roof of the Tasty Burger. Kurt had made an attempt to shift his body underneath the injured boy's, but after teleporting he felt as though he'd been run through the dryer. His knees wobbled and the two of them went crashing to the ground, Kurt clearly out of sorts.

But they were both there and in one piece, which was an accomplishment considering how messed up Kurt's teleportation was. When he found this Landel guy, Kurt was going to punch him in the face.

"You... okay...?" Kurt asked, straining to get up.

At first, the idea of being stuck in this meatbag dwelling sector at night seemed like a wonderful idea. So many targets, such an open field, and so many things that could be repurposed for use as weapons!

...Then he saw all the zombies. After the talk of those 'space barnacles' last night, it was fairly easy to identify them as such. But the only thing was, those things were supposed to only affect droids.

Now there were meatbag zombies. All over the place. And he didn't have a flamethrower. Oh no no no nononono.

In short, HK freaked out.

Everything seemed to be perfectly fine.

After calming Dahlia down and agreeing to hide the spice bottle they had decided to spend the rest of their time in that store. It didn't really matter where they went; he certainly didn't need the protection of some manmade weapon and if the redhead wanted to waste this opportunity then so be it. And so he nestled himself back into his mask, smiling and striking up a lighthearted conversation whenever Dahlia spoke.

While it seemed odd that they were still in town even as the sun was setting Sync didn't bother to pay much attention. He knew well enough that they'd be rounded up eventually, so there was no need to speed up the inevitable.

And then it happened.

The God-General glanced up the moment he sensed something strange, and yet even he wasn't prepared for what he was about to witness. The store was suddenly decaying right before his eyes; the once clean space was now rusted and filthy, and the structure creaked as if the entire building had been rotting for decades.

However, what struck Sync the most was not the wilted appearance of the building, but the inhabitants that were lingering inside the store as well. The smell of rotten flesh was unmistakable and familiar, but the fact that it came so suddenly was enough to turn his stomach. It seemed as if everyone around them was caught in this spell, their heavy feet shuffling towards them while their empty groans filled the air.

Sync finally took a step back, eyes wide with shock from the unexpected transformation. He almost didn't notice one of the creatures approaching him from the side, but he immediately reacted the moment it lunged at him, dodging off to the side before grabbing a fistful of hair and slamming its head down into the counter.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Sync roared, anger evident in his voice.

[from here]

There were people in white all over the place, and it was one of them that stopped Kurogane before he got any further than what looked like another park at the end of the main street. He only snorted at the person, but didn't try anything and just turned around back into the park. It looked worse than the other one by a mile, but Kurogane didn't much care for atmosphere. There was no real danger that he could sense by staying, and at least a place like this would be one anybody who liked him would keep away from.

He found a bench that was still standing and banged at it to see if it was safe enough to sit on. When he decided it would do, he plopped down. So long as certain people didn't bother him, he would take what time he could to just sit and think about this situation for a change.

[Free and broody; No limit]

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that slippery skid and the realization of what that was. By the time he yelled, he was sitting straight up in his bed like he'd bolted awake. Like it'd been nothing more than a bad dream. ...What the hell just happened?!

"Oh! Good morning!" The nearby voice made him yelp with a half squeak-like noise. Oh, for hell's sake. It was one of those freaking nurses again. She was beaming at him like nothing had happened at all. Before he could so much as ask one question, the hag started blathering real fast about some field trip and buses and getting changed and hurrying up before everyone left without him and... OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS SHE DOING?! She was grabbing at his shirt like she was about to start helping him get dressed (or undressed in this case).

He flailed in a desperate attempt to get away from her and yelled his consent to go along if she would get out and let him change HIMSELF. What was the matter with her?! Thankfully, she left but told him to hurry. Hell if he knew what she'd do if he took too long. So for the sake of not getting freaking stripped, he quickly changed into the clothes she'd left on the bed. Clothes being the ugliest looking white-and-black track pants he'd ever seen and a bright blue sweatshirt with a cute little penguin design on the front. This was some kind of joke, right? ...Not to say the penguin wasn't cute or anything but there was no way, no way, he was wearing something like this in public.

But the nurse had burst right in again, and before Kanji could offer much protest, he was being pulled down the hallways and through the doors of the bus. He'd yelled some things her way, but she totally wasn't listening at all. By the time they stopped, he was standing at the front of the bus with a paper bag and the nurse had run off to cart another poor sap along. Frickin' PERFECT. For the sake of not standing up there like some kind of zoo animal for everyone to stare at, he plopped himself into one of the seats by the front and sighed in complete exasperation.

[Free. No limit.]

[from here]

The main hallway was empty, too. The quiet was broken only by squeak of S.T's shoes on the tile floor and tiny creaks of metal as the toolbox swung as he walked.

This was the part in the horror movie where the cheerleader took a knife to the throat. Good thing he'd left his pom-poms at home. As long as he was the idiot friend or the brains (hell, both) he should make it at least to the third act.

He hurried along, hugging close to the left-hand wall.

[to here]

Jiraiya had been right about the bulletin, at least. Yousuke guessed that meant he'd probably have to take some of the other things he'd said a bit more seriously as well. Like the monsters at night.

Hopefully his questions would all be answered when he met up with Kanji and Naoto. (At least he was pretty sure it was Naoto. No one else from their group spoke like a textbook.)

He was led out to the courtyard to mingle, saved from the showers due to his newbness, it seemed. Should he be grateful? If they expected him to play catch with someone, they were going to be disappointed. (Though if they got an actual game of soccer going that might be another story...) Mostly, he just wanted to find a familiar face as soon as possible, despite the promised meeting later.

[closed to his bff Adachi]

"Hello, hello," said the Head Doctor in a cheery tone. It sounded as if he'd gotten over his paperwork hangover. "I hope half of you are clean and that the other half of you are hungry! Or that all of you are hungry! Ha-ha... Either way, we'll be serving a down-to-earth lunch of crispy chicken strips and fries; we also have cole slaw, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese as sides; as always, our salad bar is stocked with all varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables, and we have our usual fruit drinks available, as well as milk and water.

"As you may have noticed, we also have new patients coming in every shift today, and as I am sure you are all aware by now, to organize such an endeavor takes up a significant portion of my time. Here's hoping that you all get along nicely during this coming meal shift, and I shall now get back to work!"

The intercom clicked off.

[ All introduction posts for this shift's group of new characters should be made in response to this post.

Have your character wake up in a random room as we don't have roommates sorted out yet. Putting M??/F?? in the subject line is fine. ]