Whoa. Whoa. Niikura hastily backed up as a pink glow suddenly bathed their room, settling over all the furniture. This sort of interior decorating...really uncool. Did they have to coordinate the defense systems with the food too? Or was it the other way around? Either way, Aguilar had some questionable color preferences. He sighed and shook his head; hopefully, this was only lasting the night because waking up surrounded by a pink aura...ew.

Anyway, time to get down to business. He was going to get a sword tonight, pink glow be damned. And things were going to be awesome.

--oh right, and he still needed to warn Shiina off of Badd or Byrne. Or anyone who asked too much about Akumetsu, actually. He'd thrown down the gauntlet, and as much as he didn't mind a fight, he didn't want her mixed up in it. She didn't even know him, technically. Getting her involved again...she'd already died once. Niikura would never allow her to die again.

[to here]

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/experimentation assembly line) had broken down at least once already, on that night when I.R.I.S. had first(?) appeared, and the whole of the building flickered like a malfunctioning hologram. Was that what the glowing cover was for? To prevent... he didn't know. Something. Something bad enough to warrant a Code Red.

(What had killed that creature?)

Waiting around here was already bad enough on normal nights, what with it being an open space with high traffic, but he'd picked it because it was the quickest and most obvious meeting place for all of them. Now with the whole area lit up like the inside of a strip club, Kirk was starting to feel like a lone piece of meat wrapped in a gold ribbon and tossed out for the wolves. He made a face for a second as he considered the unfortunate implication of mixing those similes, then decided that the dumb thoughts which crossed his mind ranked considerably lower in priority than, you know, paying attention to his surroundings and not getting himself killed.

Kirk swung the lead pipe in his hand once, just to focus, and shook his head as pain rippled out from the still-healing gunshot wound on his right arm. Take it easy, Jim, he admonished himself silently. It was still early in the night. Someone would be along shortly. And if not... he was giving his crew one minute. One minute, and then screw it, he was tracking down everyone himself.

[KIRK TO ENTERPRISE]

Edward was a little disappointed there was no gun-toting escort awaiting him outside the door. It was lucky he had had so much experience with spontaneous teleportation -

- except his experience didn't mean very much if his senses were able to readjust themselves at the speed they always should. Though the change in environment was immediate and surprising, he - landed? Was that a sufficient term? - without nary a stumble. For a moment, he was strangely overtaken by all of his senses returning: the smell of the mask on his face (a mask? The air in the entire place, then, was polluted?), the starch of his uniform, the way the terrain was open to him, unhindered by the darkness.

Immediately he was taking in the environment directly around them, his eyes already darting around for the potentially "hostile" rebels. Edward moved by Bella's side - moved like a vampire at a speed he felt was blurred to himself - momentarily distracted by staring at his hands in the darkness. Just like when he had returned to Forks, he had become himself again. Fast, strong, inhuman.

It was shocking to realize he was now uncomfortable in his own skin.

Where they had been taken to was the very opposite of Forks. While the small town in Washington could not be accurately be described with any word pertaining to vitality, this place was run-down, half-standing buildings and empty streets stretched out before them.

He looked to the smaller man that had landed beside him, his voice misshapen by the mask. "Do you feel different, Venom? Like from when we first teleported?"

This was not how Bella had planned on spending the night. All she wanted to do was grieve and mope in solitude, and as she walked down the hallway led by an unidentified soldier (she had attempted to get away from them the moment they entered the room, but had been told that she had no choice in the matter. She could either come quietly with him, or be ... forced. She chose the easy option.) she couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen. With every stop she took, the panic only rose.

What was going to happen? She heard that patients were experimented on from time to time, and she only hoped that was not the case here. If it was, she swore she wouldn't go down without a fight, that was for sure.

... Not that she could do ... much against an armed soldier, but still.

After a while, Bella was led towards a simple door that read "meeting room 2", and instantly the teenager tried to run. She didn't know what was hidden behind the door, but with the rising panic and paranoia, by the time she saw the room she was beyond crazy. Plus she was still in mourning -

Suddenly the soldier's arms were around her waist, pulling her towards the room, and Bella hissed under her breath, fingers clawing at the soldier's arm to no avail. "Let me go!"

The soldier said nothing, instead reaching out with his free arm to open the door to the meeting room with ease. He moved inside and towards the middle of the room and unceremoniously dropped Bella to the floor, still silent. The teenager remained, unmoving, on the floor, frowning in the darkness. Damn stupid soldier (who had quietly exited the room during her hissy fit.). Damn the fact there were no lights on. Damn loss. Damn being annoyed at the one person she was never annoyed with (slight lie. ... that was also a slight lie.). Damn the fact she was probably going to hate how the night continued.

Sighing, Bella only remained on the floor for a few more seconds before finally standing up. Dusting herself off, she looked wearily around the room, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried to not let the thoughts of fear take over her mind. She didn't want anything bad to happen. "Everything will be okayyyy," she whispered to herself, biting her bottom lip. "Everything will be okayyyyy ... because we are not in the mood for a panic attack right nowwwwww."

The place was full of starry eyed heroes with hearts of gold. Perhaps not so much starry-eyed, he guessed. Just eager to please. Eager to help. Peter could count himself among those numbers on good day. At the moment, he had about had his fill from everyone else.

Maybe not for the bitter reasons of before. Sam was right: he had to spill some beans or he was going to go insane, push himself off a deep end. There had been plenty of close calls with that back home, and he hated to think how he would have ever gotten by without MJ to confide in. It was just that today, he was done with confessing. Drained. It took a lot out of him to keep crying on every offered shoulder and keep pushing through the story of how he'd brutalized Indiana Jones. It took even more to be the one with the wet shoulder when Jessica went into hysterics over hallucinations. To try and coax a genuine emotion from Sakura. Sam, at least, hadn't had anything to say about himself. Probably because he figured that being ten years older made it inappropriate to be confiding issues in Peter (which he was right about, to some extent.)

And it was for that reason that when he caught Scott Pilgrim's eye at the end of lunch, Peter had bolted in the opposite direction. Bad enough that he had to work through the people he had today, but Scott would just be the final straw. Screaming hit his ears too in between Indy's death rattles, screaming that suddenly stopped short as the man fell on stone seats and clutched his throat. Screaming the name in horror when the kick landed. Peter was not ready to sit down with someone who had been there. Especially not Scott. Never Scott.

Honestly, Peter would be shocked if he could ever manage talking to them again. A brief but bitter exchange with Sangamon earlier today was the only attempt thus far, and Peter hadn't started that one. Though he had cut it short.

Shedding clothes and padding over wet tile was perfunctory by now. Showers were welcome today. For once.

[For Edward Cullen.]

Although it had been good to see his mom again, Claude entered the cafeteria with a dark expression on his face. He was glad she felt comfortable enough with him to share her experiences from last night, but that didn't make him any less angry at the military for using her to do their dirty work. Why couldn't those bastards clean up their own messes? Surely they had the resources for it.

Were they really going to have to fight someone else's war now?

His head buzzed with those sorts of questions as he moved through the room. Even so, with the help of his escort, Claude assembled a tray with a rather large hamburger, the appropriate condiments, and a cup of water. The cafeteria was still relatively empty, save for the soldiers on duty, so he took very little time in the line. It was probably just as well. He'd been so engrossed in his conversation with Rita during breakfast that he hadn't eaten much.

After finding an empty seat, Claude gingerly placed his tray and journal onto the table and sat down. As he lifted up his burger with his good hand, Claude couldn't help but think of Ashton for a moment. Where was he? He'd disappeared so long ago, and yet part of him worried the military had used him for something too.

Eyebrows furrowed, he took a bite and tried to focus on getting a decent meal in his stomach.

[For Guy!]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of felt like she was floating and bobbing in the water.

But she was alive.

Knowing how close she came to death last night, and remembering the lengths her friends had gone to in order to save her, there was no way Anise could let a little discomfort get her down. She had to be at her best today so she wouldn't seem ungrateful to Guy and Claude. On that note, she had to remember to thank them properly, now that she was better able to express herself.

While getting ready, Anise was surprised to actually run into Claude that morning. He came to her room asking for the notebook he stored there (or maybe it was an excuse to see her cute face again), so Anise happily located it and handed it over. She was pretty tired, but the big smile she gave him was genuine. Who wouldn't be happy to see her savior so soon after a dramatic rescue?

After he left, Anise finished re-tying her pigtails into a low position so the military beret would fit on her head, and then she was ready! Even though her stomach wasn't feeling that great, she figured sitting down to a decent meal would help normalize it. And luckily for her, she was among the few who had the privilege of eating such a meal. Anise filled a plate with french toast topped with syrup and fruit, accompanied by small portions of each of the available side dishes.

It looked like she was early, which meant there weren't a lot of people around. That was okay, though. Anise could get a good head start on her meal before any company came around. She sat down at a table by herself and started on her sausage first.

[for Tolten!]

While Peter was glad that he had been able to meet not one, but two new patients and give them some advice, he had to admit that he was itching to see a familiar face by now. Actually, it was one in particular that he was looking for, and one that most people who knew him would have been able to guess on the first try. In others words, he hadn't seen Claire all day and he was worried about her.

It was possible that she was tied up with a visitor, which worried him. While he had been through it himself and had come out of it okay despite the fact that he'd had to face both his brother and his mom at different points, he didn't know how Claire would be able to handle it. What if one of her family members showed up? Or a friend of hers?

Even though he was close to Claire, the fact was that he still didn't know that much about her. Where would she go, if given the choice? It seemed like outside would be far too cold to go by choice, so where did that leave him? He hadn't seen her in the Sun Room, so he decided to search the Music Room next. Teenagers were usually interested in music, weren't they? Granted, he didn't even know what Claire liked -- pop, rock, maybe even country?

However, as he walked into the room in question, there was no sign of his niece, which forced a sigh out of him. He figured he'd probably be best off searching elsewhere (maybe the Game Room next?), but decided to pause and give the CD collection a glance over. It was usually too crowded to get a good look at them, but not today. Maybe he could take a walk down memory lane...

[Free!]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't very familiar with Earth technology, she'd seen the little devices in the Music Room that could play recordings of people's voices. This had to be something like that.

It wasn't long before Anise was escorted to the Cafeteria, and then to the section where edible food was being served. As she filled her plate with waffles, fruit, and sausages, she looked to the other side of the counter with a look of sympathy. It was hard to enjoy her own meals while knowing what the other patients had to suffer through.

She wasn't about to refuse her meals just out of guilt, though. Anise needed her strength for tonight. There was still a bit of a nervous twist in her stomach whenever she thought about what could happen down in the basement... but she wasn't going to back down. Not after promising her friends they'd go together.

With her tray in hand, Anise seated herself at an empty table in the middle of the room. She preferred to have company while eating, but it looked like she was one of the first patients there, so there was no one to sit with. Maybe if she minded her manners and tried to look her cutest, she'd attract someone handsome! Holding her utensils delicately, she began to cut her waffles into smaller pieces.

[For Battler.]

[From here.]

It had been an exceedingly long amount of time since Edward had seen something new in the institute, and he imagined if he was a human the pantry itself would not disappoint. It was larger than he would have thought despite the size of the patient population, and filled to the brim with a wide assortment of foods. They all blurred into one scent to him, one that was nearly overwhelming when he had opened the door. Like the sun room, he was wary. There were too many dark spaces here and the flashlight only went so far. With enough time in the institution, he had acquired a very justifiable paranoia of the smallest of dark spaces.

He eyed his way through the first and closest shelves as he took a few steps inside. It had more preserved food than he had imagined. Luck again. This way he would be able to get food for Bella that wouldn't expire. The problem would be how much he could carry...

First things first, then. He turned to Wally with his offer: "If you want to begin your business, I can watch your back. Just in case something decides to change our luck for the night."

[from here]

So far so good. They'd made it to the cafeteria without either of them getting attacked or horribly maimed (again) or anything. Now if they could just get as far as the kitchen without anything else happening? Wally would count this night a win.

He glanced back to make sure Edward was keeping up and tried not to think too much about how Damon and Alaric must have dragged him all the way through this room last night before he'd woken up again. He also tried not to look for any kind of marks from it, because there never were any here. It was like the building had a giant reset button that they hit at the beginning of each day.

"I don't think it's much further," he said, mostly to remind himself to focus on right now. "But all the same, we should keep an eye out."

[from here]

The sun room was quiet, with the artificial hush that came from snow blanketing the big windows. The halls upstairs weren't; while it wasn't quite a fight that had broken out up there, it was heading that way. Possibly irrevocably, as what the boy up there had just called the brainwash brigade didn't do negotiation. At all. Even if they liked to chat their victims up first, which sounded like what was going on. Taura slipped to the perimeter of the room right under them, and out of view.

Ringside seat to the discussion, but unless Rita slipped and made noise, the crew above was too busy with their own preliminaries to start a second front.

[from here]

Tolten tried to seem confident as he took the lead, proceeding further into the dark corridors. There had been nothing overtly threatening so far, but his heart was racing in his chest even so. He couldn't shake a sense of lurking danger, of shadowing hidden fear. He tried to tell himself he was being foolish, but experience told him otherwise.

This reminds me of the sewers. Though hopefully there would be no failed experiments lurching about, hell-bent on human flesh.

And thoughts such as those will not calm your nerves. And now he was no longer alone, and he was bound by his honor to look after his companion. He couldn't allow himself to give over to old fears and childish worry. They would find an exit of sorts, find someone possessed of the means to help them, and... well, that was as far as he'd gotten but at least it was a plan.

The corridor widened suddenly, and Tolten faltered to a stop. He held up a hand and swung his torch in the opened space, taking in the change in surroundings.

Getting to check up on Neku had been good (even though Sora realized that he was the one who'd been approached, rather than doing the approaching), but when the buses finally made their way through the snow and into the town, the boy was completely distracted by the view that followed. It really did remind him of Christmastown. There were no lights up and he wasn't going to stumble on Santa's factory anytime soon, but it was still beautiful and he couldn't wait to get out into it.

So, the moment that the bus came to a halt, Sora waved a goodbye to Neku, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder for a moment as reassurance before he made his way down the aisle and eventually out the door and into the cold weather.

Sucking in a breath, he spun in a slow circle and grinned to himself. It was so pretty out here! And there was a whole thick layer of untouched snow that was just asking to be played in. Sora realized that his priority should have been finding a place where he could spend the twenty-five dollars he'd been given, he figured he'd have all day to work that out. Right now, he wanted to make the best of this weather, since he doubted it was going to be like this next week.

And so without delay he headed across the street and right into Magus Park. It also occurred to him that he'd finally broken his pattern of being injured whenever he came to town, which meant he had all the freedom to play around as he wanted.

The first order of business was making one of those snow angels that he'd learned about; it would be way easier than trying to make a snowman, he was guessing. Making use of the winter clothes he'd been given, the boy threw himself on the ground and started to fan out his arms and legs.

Maybe he was the leader of the Arts and Crafts club and maybe he'd fought against the Heartless and almost all of the Organization members during his journeys, but sometimes Sora just felt the need to be a kid again.

[For Tsubaki.]

> ==>

"Bro?"

He was going to be somewhere around here, certainly. If not him, then someone else. Right. Before he got any further...

Gamzee stopped in the middle of the hallway, slapping his hands together and bowing his head in prayer to the Mirthful Messiahs. He just needed to believe he'd find himself a miracle somewhere along these empty halls. If he'd gotten there, then someone or something had to have brought him. That much he could figure out on his own.

And then it was back to wandering.

> ==>

> ==>

There were halls and doors all around, but no one else to be seen. Gamzee wandered aimlessly, keeping his eyes and ears peeled as much as possible for any familiar voices. There were voices out there somewhere, at least. He could hear them. That meant someone had to be nearby. Were the voices being distorted somehow? He wasn't going to think about it. He'd simply follow them.

"Hey, bro! Best friend! You all bein' out there?" It wasn't much of a yell, but hopefully Karkat might hear it all the same.

He didn't have his clubs. In fact, he didn't even think he had his sylladex, which might be a problem later. If he ran into any imps or anything, his fists would just have to do the job. He could pretend he was Equius for a while. At least until he found Equius. They all had to be around here somewhere. Perhaps he should toss out a prayer before turning the next corner...

> ==>

( Gamzee: Wake. )

Whatever was going on, something was probably wrong with him and the others would know why. He just had to find the others first and that would mean getting out of this room. At least he assumed as much, given that there wasn't anyone else there. Trying the second door proved more fruitful, and he took nothing with him as he stepped out into the hall.

> ==>

Night. Bella had been in the middle of talking to Claire when suddenly the lights dimmed, finally turning off. There was a moment of silence - and suddenly, the static.

Her hand's instantly leapt up to her ears, covering them from the offensive sound. Not that it did anything, of course, but it certainly helped. Mentally. If she was trying hard to block out the sound, maybe her mind would think it was blocking out the sound. ... Right? Right. Or ... something. Bella didn't really know; her mind felt somewhat frazzled after the loud static sound. Was this how Edward always felt? She didn't really know what it was like to hear thoughts that weren't her own, but she imagined it was just like that. Static. White noise.

Speaking of.

Right. She had plans. She had to get to Edward as soon as possible. Sure, her ankle still ached, but she would be damned if she wouldn't try to run. He could scold her after. She would gladly take the verbal beating if that meant that he was by her side.

Bella moved quickly, grabbing her flashlight from under her pillow. She didn't even bother looking for her bat. It didn't matter. She would be fine.

Waving quickly to Claire, the teenager moved out the door, limping into the hall outside.

[From here.]

Her boots fell with heavy sounds on the smooth floor. She was on the verge of stomping. The loudness struck her about halfway through the new hall, and Claire finally took a deep breath. She didn't pause, but her footsteps came lighter. She slowed.

It wasn't a good idea to be making so much noise. Even with the flashlight giving her away. If she didn't keep a level head, she could land herself in a lot of trouble. Though she might welcome another chance to beat on something right now, it wasn't the time or the place.

Claire sunk her teeth into her lower lip, and carried on.

[To here.]

[From here.]

She was alone when she entered the connecting hallway. Claire couldn't find it in herself to be surprised. Everyone here was so happy to waste the night away.

Not her. She was going to get something done. Her and Klavier - if there wasn't anything in the file room, then they would just look elsewhere. After missing out on last night and the affront that was today, Claire was hell bent on progress tonight. God help the man who stood in her way.

Furiously, she thought back to all the people she'd talked to. The man from lunch, telling her it was stupid to hunt down the soldiers. The mysterious "Kaneyoshi" from the bulletin, telling her she would fail to find them. The general attitude of 'it's hopeless' and 'you'll never find anything' and 'what's the point?' Why had everyone here given up so easily?

They had so much going against them. All this stupid magic stuff, things that Claire didn't understand. Monsters she had never seen. But that didn't matter, because for the first time in three years she was on solid land. She was in a place where you could hop on cars, buy food from stores, where you could have more than one friend in the world and you didn't have to worry about being shot in your sleep.

Most importantly though, she was on the same land as Aaron. Her son. This, above all things, made her tear through the hallways with singular resolve. She knew America was huge. She knew that she had no idea how to get to L.A. from here, and no money to do it with. She knew this place was a literal hell and that it worked with forces she couldn't hope to control.

But you know what?

She could not care less.

[To here.]