The moment dear Landel-san announced that it was time for lunch, Erika wasted no time and headed straight for the Sun Room's bulletin board to check if there was any response to her message left for her dear friend. Predictably, there was nothing for her on the board, and the detective scowled as she realized she might have to write him off as a loss. She had lost a good number of potential allies in this place, but losing this one was a bit of a blow, if only because he had useful things on him. On the other hand, if he was gone, and that ring was still here...

Perhaps it was not a great loss, then. Still, Erika was mildly annoyed as she wandered away from the board and back towards a nearby couch. She was spending a lot of time in the Sun Room lately, which seemed to be a bit of a waste as she could have spent in going around the Institute. On the other hand, she had a sandwich here that was waiting to be consumed and after spending a week with little access to "real food", Erika was more then happy to enjoy her time spent eating.

Still, at some point she was going to have to manage her time a little more effectively. There was no reason why she couldn't multitask, so Erika kept her gaze on the door of the Sun Room so she could watch people filter in on their way to other rooms. She wouldn't get everyone, no, but perhaps she would find someone useful that she could bother for the rest of the shift. A familiar face, or maybe someone new. She'd decide on that eventually.

[ hau Seishin ready for round 2. /killed ]

[From here.]

Once inside, Zero took his own flashlight out to help shed some more light in the otherwise pitch black area. The extra light didn't reveal very much, for this place was...strangely empty. Besides a bench, a giant window on the left wall, and something that looked like an incredibly low-tech intercom device near the window, there didn't seem to be anything else in here. As for the window, all he could see on the other side was darkness, so that didn't really help them much at all.

Kind of a let down, wasn't it?

But not completely. There were also two different doors in here. One on the immediate left from the door they came in, and one on the other side of the room. Perhaps this area was meant to be a sort of corridor between other rooms, then? That could explain the lack of furniture in here. Either way, they obviously wouldn't find anything useful here, so they should keep moving forward.

"There are two ways we could go from here," he said, even though he was sure Erika could see that for herself. Out of curiosity, he approached the first door option and tested the knob. It was...unlocked, surprisingly. "This one's open." He pointed to the other door on the far end. "Try that one and see if it's unlocked, too."

[ from here ]

if Erika was hoping that going further into the Medical Wing would offer her some guidance as to where to go next, she would have been extremely disappointed when she stepped into the empty space and found nothing but more doors and hallways to greet her. It was probably a good thing that she wasn't expecting much of anything out of this place, but it was still a bit frustrating when trying to figure out where to start. At the very least, she could see that the hallways led further in, which meant that this place was probably not "the back" of the wing yet. If that's where they wanted to go, then they still had to travel. However, there was no concrete evidence that the drugs they were looking for was actually in the back, so that wasn't her call to make.

The detective turned around to see if Zero had followed, shining her light on a few of the doors as if highlighting all of the different choices they had to make. The most efficient way to get around was to have each of them look in separate rooms, but like hell Erika was going to do that. It defeated the purpose of getting a meatshield.

"We have a lot of choices. Do you think we should check these rooms first, or start from the back?" She hoped that it was clear that Zero was the one who was allowed to choose, because it didn't matter where they started to Erika; she preferably wanted to have the whole area explored by night, but this place was strange and she was sure they were going to run into trouble sooner or later. Maybe she simply didn't want the responsibility of possibly landing them into a deathtrap at the moment, since she had no strong desire to explore any particular room.

[From here.]

This place looked the same as it did three nights ago... Except this time they were the only prisoners here. No distracting traffic, more room to roam quietly, and as result, a better chance for them to hear if something unfriendly was trying to sneak up on them. Not to mention being the first ones here meant everything was undisturbed and where it should be, so they didn't have to worry about missing out on useful supplies or the drugs (assuming some were still around here, of course).

And now they could continue their conversation from earlier. The information Erika provided on the different trials cleared a few things up for Zero. He had spent the night after the first drug trial getting supplies with two people unaffected by the second trial, which Erika said had happened that night. So it made sense why he hadn't heard about the second trial until now, especially since she said few people had been affected by that trial to begin with.

"Yeah, I guess I just somehow missed hearing about the second trial." Zero stopped walking momentarily and stared down the dark hallway before them, thinking. Where do they go from here... His knowledge of this area was limited; he'd only fully explored that 'MRI room' area last time, never finding the room where the drugs had been. But perhaps Erika knew?

"Do you know where the drugs were kept here?" he asked, turning to face her. "I wasn't able to find it when I went looking for it before."

[From here]

"Just this next hall?" she asked as they neared the far end of the main hall. Rapunzel hadn't been out to this wing of the Institute in a few days, not since she and Ippo had gone out to the Greenhouse yard. Agh, I should probably check in on him tomorrow. I don't think I did today, Rapunzel thought with a wince. Clueless flirt or not, Ippo was a sweet guy and she sincerely hoped she hadn't worried him at all by not sending him a message.

[From here]

Looked like she was the first one out this way. Utena stopped just short of the Sun Room, turning her light back to see if anyone she knew was coming up the hall behind her. No one so far.

Utena switched her light off as she leaned back against the wall. She was pretty sure everyone preferred not to be fighting hordes of rotting dogs and bigfoot monsters again tonight, so she figured the less attention she called to herself out here, the better. The only downside to doing that was that it made seeing down the hall a bit more difficult. She squinted a bit, eyes trying to adjust to the near-pitch darkness as she pictured what one of her silhouetted companions might look like.

It was kind of a weird group they had put together when she really looked at it. She and Aigis had been friends before, of course, but she never would have pegged the quiet Aigis being friends with someone as brash as Sechs. And neither of them really knew much about the redhead; Utena didn't even know if they knew his real name or not. They had worked together well enough the night before, though, both in combat and as a riddle-solving team. She had a good feeling about the group, despite them not all each other that well yet. Getting to know Sechs that afternoon had been an interesting and enlightening experience in contrast to the violence she had seen from him the night before, and she had to admit, the mysterious redhead at the very least intrigued her, even if he seemed to share some of Touga's or Landel's smugness. She was looking forward to seeing what they could all get done tonight — and beyond, for that matter.

She kept a careful eye out from her spot in the shadows, wondering who would show up first.

It was always interesting to listen to the nightly rantings of whatever madman happened to be in charge, but Erika was remarkably unimpressed by how Landel sounded exactly like Aguilar when he first assumed command of the Institute, even going as far as to warn them that they were responsible for "the coming changes" yet again. It seemed part of his ire stemmed from the fact that he lost a certain woman and that just made Erika roll her eyes even harder as she listened to him whine. Perhaps she should have made a little welcome back card for him, that might have improved his mood a little bit.

On the other hand, it was very clear that Landel was truly back and seemed to have no desire to hand off his Institute to any other parties for the time being, so they might not see their friend Aguilar again for a long time. That was fine, as she had already seen the man and saw the limits of his power. Landel, at the very least, proved himself to be the true Game Master of this board. Did this mean her fight with Gabriel was null and void? Despite what she lost, it would have been awful to have the whole thing be for nothing. But that lingering feeling of knowing she would disappear the moment she left this board remained and besides, she could always go back downstairs and check.

Well, that was the plan, but she was missing a certain squeaky voiced brat. Where was Sync? The nurses wouldn't say a word and Erika had to wait until the doors were open before she could throw herself out into the hallway, carrying her usual fare. She supposed, just this once, she would make one last attempt at trying to track Sync down before writing him off as a lost cause.

[ stomping off to here ]

[from here]

Even the main hall was deserted. S.T. switched on his flashlight and took a look around. Yeah, it was empty. No roadkill, no other patients. If he ever made it home, he was never bitching at any of the girls who didn't want to do night ops alone again. It was different when you knew there were things out there in the darkness. Things that knew they had the upper hand or just didn't give a fuck.

He whistled something that, if anyone listening could shelve their sense of pitch for long enough to identify it, switched back and forth between the Twilight Zone and Batman themes.

[by your powers combined Team Mental Quest]

Harmony?

Somehow, that sounded very ominous.

Then he recalled that Rita had said it would be a Music Room shift. Just the thought of it gave him a near-paralyzing flashback to a time that had involved a lot of wine, and an attempt at singing by Thor, Fandral, and Volstagg.

Rita had also said that they could meet in the Sun Room, but it was best to be prepared since the staff seemed to regard the prisoners as if they were sheep and the nurses were dogs. As the hateful woman (really, was her face a mask? she had the same terrifying smile just fixed on her lips and he was almost certain it didn't even budge when she spoke) approached to collect him, Loki scrambled to one of the drawers of art supplies and extracted a few cotton balls, palming them.

A weak defense, yes, but better than nothing. As an alternative, possibly superior to a blood bath that involved using the strings of a lute as a garotte. Or improvising with whatever horrifying instruments Midgard had come up with in the last few centuries, which no doubt involved all sorts of things that went twang and tinkly little chimes that encouraged the common idiot to not so much sing outside of his proper range as sing way outside of his proper range.

Loki hastily pasted a smile on his face that seemed to eagerly insist no, he had not just been contemplating mass murder, goodness, he was too much of a nice young man for that sort of nasty thing. The nurse didn't notice one way or the other. With (feigned) meekness, he asked if perhaps he could please go to the Sun Room instead, as he was not particularly musical.

And pleasingly, it worked. The nurse smiled and began telling him something about her husband not being musical, and choir practice, and yes wasn't it lovely, and... they actually reached the Sun Room before the gripping conclusion had been reached, but he stood and listened politely anyway, making vague noises at all the appropriate pauses in the conversation. She said a few more words in the sort of final tone that indicated she was done speaking, and he laughed for her, gave her an extra little smile, and made his escape.

Pretending to be a nice young man was much less fun when it came without the power to have someone flogged.

Loki walked to bulletin board and waited near it, keeping an eye out for Rita. Or at least someone that matched her description.

[Rita!]

And so it seemed that everything had gone back to normal.

Guy had spent his breakfast filling in a new patient and now Landel was rambling over the intercom like he always did. It made sense that the man would want to act like everything with Aguilar had never happened, though Guy couldn't help but wonder how things would change when night finally came. Knowing Landel, he'd have a long-winded speech prepared for them.

That was something that he could worry about later, though. Guy filed away the information about the doctors, but it didn't matter too much to him. He'd only been forced through that once, and had apparently been deemed a lost cause after that session. Speaking with a doctor here would just be a waste of time as far as he could tell, so that was fine by him.

Being placed in the Sun Room gave him access to the bulletin board, and perusing it gave him some idea of what had gone on last night, at least to the point that he understood that they'd had some sort of outside help. People were being secretive, but that was nothing new. Guy went ahead and put up a note for his friends, wanting to keep it up as a routine (at this point Luke should have been the one doing it, but Guy could talk to him about that later).

With that taken care of, he had little else to do but find himself a place to sit, and before long he located a comfy armchair. He took as seat, but as usual Guy couldn't help but keep an eye out for any friends.

[For Tear!]

Anise had been lying snug in bed, only vaguely aware that she was awake, when her rest was disturbed by the one sound in the world she'd never wanted to hear again.

"Good morning, everyone!"

The girl's eyes shot open and she immediately sat up straight. There was no doubt about it. That was the Head Doctor, that bastard, and he was back! Now that she was wide awake, Anise realized she was wearing the institute's old uniform again, and that the decorative items in her room had been left alone.

It was hard to contain her frustration at hearing the man run through the breakfast menu as if it were any other day, and she ended up throwing a pillow against a wall before pulling herself out of bed. Didn't Marc get a chance to kill that guy? What about the army? Landel had to have pulled some dirty trick to end up back in the Head Doctor's seat.

Seething was only going to get Anise so far, though, and she knew she'd have to go out and face the day. She wasn't surprised when a clueless nurse came to pick her up, though she wasn't any less annoyed that the hag was carrying on as if nothing had happened. At least she had Tokunaga back with her...

Finally, she reached the Cafeteria, where Anise instinctively moved to line up at the real-food counter... before realizing they weren't divided anymore. More importantly, though, the food looked and smelled not only edible, but delicious. Whatever happened yesterday seemed to be over, thank goodness. She loaded up a plate full of waffles topped with strawberries and made her way over to a seat.

There was a lot to think about, but she needed to take things one at a time. Since she'd gone all of yesterday with nothing to eat but candy and chocolate (something she may not have objected to if she were a little younger), getting some real food into her body was Priority Number One. And Priority Number Two was... oh! Luke had to be around somewhere. He promised he'd meet her that day, so she had to keep an eye out for him!

[for Luke]

Tonight did not fail to disappoint her: While Erika prepared herself for something interesting, she didn't expect something on this level of disaster. She didn't have the slightest idea what "Code Red" was, but it was the universal term for "Start Panicking Now". Yet the detective didn't panic in the slightest, because she became aware. Although she had still lost her right to be on her old gameboard, she blinked and realized she recognized this sensation from a few nights ago, when she entered the basement. That purposeful and powerful feeling. She was, without a doubt, a detective once more. The detective's authority, and the power of the Witch of Truth, both restored her to her rightful place, at least on this gameboard.

What an interesting development!

Although Erika knew this was the best time to try and tackle the mysteries of those strange caverns she and Sync had explored last night, she also knew that plan was probably going to be thrown away. Her powers had returned, so it wasn't a stretch to deduce that everyone else had regained their own powers. Which meant that Sync was probably going to have his own ideas... and since they barely got along as it was, perhaps it was best to stay out of his way for tonight. There was nothing to be done about that, but... It was a little disappointing since she had no opponent to truly test her powers with; she had the feeling that this was a move by Landel, against Aguilar. The two of them must have been fighting for control over this Institute, and the rest of them were just caught in the crossfire. Well, as long as she didn't die, then it didn't matter what those two were doing. As for who she actually wanted to win...

That was a tough call, actually.

Well, she would have time to think about it. For now, it was probably best to get moving before things got too chaotic. She really didn't want to be here once everyone decided to start slinging around fireballs or whatever weird magic crap they had up their sleeve.

[ to here ]

After an intercom broadcast like that, Kurogane felt somewhat better about the little information he'd gotten from Harrington the previous night. The man only sounded competent when he needed to but was an idiot otherwise. Unfortunately that was furthered proof of the General not employing the brightest of staff members, making another option for information closed to them.

Kurogane was again some steps ahead of his escort when he reached the Sun Room and ignored the soldier further as the ninja headed to look over the bulletin. Last time he'd missed something, and he wasn't about to have that happen a second time. With some searching he located Tsubaki's messages to others he didn't know but found nothing either written by the magician or addressed to him. That being the case, he left the board without any of his own writing and sought out a chair over a couch. If he didn't leave open a space by him, he had a better chance of being left alone. Or so he believed.

[free bird! bear]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning.

He'd spent the morning alone, trying to ignore any cutting remarks from a boy who wasn't there as he puzzled through things. Were the drugs responsible after all? A note on the bulletin had confirmed that someone else who'd been forced into the trial had been hearing things too, but Hakkai...

The call for lunch had been welcome; the day was barely half over, and Firo was already feeling exhausted. At this rate, maybe it would be best to just wait it out instead of trying to figure out what was causing it. If it was the drug, it should wear off after a while.

He accepted his gruel quietly, looking it over as he headed across the cafeteria—Hakkai had said it looked spoiled, but he couldn't tell any difference from what they'd served morning, noon, and night every day. Maybe the man was still seeing things after all, or maybe he was the one seeing things. It could have been bad and only looked alright. Or maybe it was just the color after all...

As took a seat, a new voice called out to him: "There's no point in you trying to figure it out, Firo. You're a real idiot, you know?"

Firo scowled. "I don't want to hear that from you, Berga," he growled under his breath.

[For Peter Petrelli ;_;]

Erika stood back to survey her work, and she had no idea why no one seemed to care.

By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a blanket fort of all things should have prompted some sort of reaction other then asking what she needed the blankets for. In the center of the room, a couch and several chairs had been stolen from the tables to make more "support" for the blanket to stretch across both. In fact, Erika was finishing up preparations for another layer of blankets to be laid out and still, she got no reaction from the soldiers. At least, not any reaction that matched with her expectations. A lack of a reaction was still a reaction, but not the one she was expecting.

Why was she going out of her way to antagonize her captors in the first place? In truth, it was because Erika was hoping to stir up some drama and suspicion after the military was stupid enough to make it blatantly obvious that they were in a tough situation regarding their little traitor. But perhaps Erika overestimated just how serious the situation was. Even so, she seemed outright disappointed and grumbled quietly to herself as she started to lay out the second blanket after stacking some more chairs up to make another wall.

"What a waste. All of this trouble and no one even wants to look at it," The ex-detective grumbled to herself, but she didn't bother dismantling what she already put up. No, it seemed more like Erika was determined to ruin someone's day and if she could annoy some people by making it more difficult to find a place to sit, then it was all the better for her. After setting the blanket in place, Erika watched the fabric settle for a moment before scowling and crawling underneath the fabric, poking her head out from underneath and glancing around again to be met with no reaction whatsoever.

Why did no one care?!

[ hay Sync it's time for a secret evil league of evil meeting get in here. ]

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress he'd made had been washed out of his memory.

He tried not to be disturbed by the deja vu, but it wasn't the sort of thing one was in full control of. And yet, his heart didn't race. His nose didn't bleed. His hands were shaking, but with a different tenor than the last time he had concentrated on them. Everything felt still, and whole, and maybe not right, but for the first time in weeks Billy breathed without trouble. There was no weight of a terrified, dying universe crawling over his shoulders and clamoring for attention. He laid there in bed for a long time. Victory. Not his victory, but someone else's, and that was good enough. He hadn't needed to be the one who saved it, he was just doing what he had to. Truthfully, he was glad to have not seen it. There was a lot Billy wished he hadn't seen.

He couldn't bring himself to react much to the fact that he was still here. Billy glanced around a couple times, vision blurred without his glasses, but saw that the room was basically the same. This time lit up, of course, although it didn't help him to gather many precise details. He would have almost said his aimless adventure with Captain Kirk during the night had been a dream, but it was all wrong, thematically speaking. Maybe if Kirk had been a squid dressed in gold lamé, he'd believe it. It really didn't matter what his dreams meant anymore, though.

( Kraken spoiler cut for those who mentioned wanting to read it. )

Any further thoughts were interrupted by a soldier he hadn't noticed entering.

"Get dressed."

Billy stared at the military blues from the night before. Clean and fresh, no sign of any blood, not that he'd been the one injured. There was even a little hat that he had missed the night before. He was going to look ridiculous, he could feel it.

"I think you'll probably find I'm not actually registered here," he tried to tell the guard, who was not impressed by Billy's claim. The soldier wasn't even moved by Billy pointing out that the dog tags didn't have his name on them. (Frederick Aldrich? An eerie coincidence that made Billy quietly comply with demands for a few minutes.) The man spoke in nothing but orders, which were easy to follow when you weren't particularly attached to any final aim. Billy was listless. Flotsam and jetsam. Getting back to London was an eventual goal, but he'd put in a call to someone later, and go back to whatever. His life, he supposed. He was already exasperated by the taciturn and far too serious military man. Once upon a time he would have wanted to gain purchase with him through inoffensive smiles and falsely friendly comments. Today, he could only give the man a tired look and equally brusque answers that didn't hide his irritation. Did he really look young enough to be pressed into a military academy?

He was led down cleaner versions of the hallways he had seen the night before, and into a large cafeteria, basically devoid of anyone beside himself and the assembled guards. Billy uncomfortably found a seat, and took a few seconds to just hide his face in his hands and block everything else out. The tray he had been given was immediately forgotten, just to the side of him, and he blamed his turning stomach on the adrenaline that was still working its way out of his system. It was so fantastically quiet in the large room, he wanted to drown in it. He only peered through his fingers when someone else in powder blue passed close to his table.

[For Castiel.]

[From here.]

While the basement and its contents was reason enough to believe that anything was possible when it came to what Landel was capable of, Sync was mildly surprised at what was waiting for them as soon as the doors opened. But it wasn't the skeletons strewn across the sand or the dark and dank air that surrounded them that did it; it was the silhouette of the lake that seemed to stretch an indefinite distance that he hadn't expected. He spent a moment taking it all in, gaze finally settling on the pair of torches that provided the only light in these caverns.

Having never been there before was reason enough to remain alert, but the God-General's experience was evident with the casual expression he wore. For all he knew the skeletons could just be nothing more than fakes, or at least purposely placed in order to achieve a more foreboding atmosphere. Of course, Landel would have to be stupid to believe that more dead people could deter anyone after what they've already had to go through.

Speaking of. Knowing Erika would catch on quick enough, the God-General was quick to roll up his sleeve before outstretching his arm so that the corner of his wrist caught the portion of the latter's katana. Now that there was actually something interesting worth exploring he wasn't about to ruin his progress, and he scraped a drop of blood on the broken jewel and watched it reform.

Sync took a few more steps across the beach, eyeing the dock that was now close enough to make a few details out of. Glancing over his shoulder, the teen sneered at Erika.

"Don't tell me that this was exactly what you were expecting."

[ from here ]

It was just yesterday that Erika had thrown herself into this strange place for what should have been the last time, but she was already back. She might have been more upset about the fall, which certainly wouldn't do her aching body any good, if she hadn't perfected her "talent" of falling right on top of Sync each time they teleported into the Ballroom. Erika didn't know if was just Sync's foul luck or the whims of the Game Master, but he kept appearing underneath her every time they used the ring and she was more then happy to take advantage of that fact.

Tonight's interesting consequences only made Erika's landing even smoother, as the girl avoided a world of pain and hurt by hitting Sync as opposed to hitting the cold, hard, inorganic floor... in more ways then one. When Erika rolled off of her poor companion, she had a very pleased look on her face, one reflected a lot more happiness then just the sheer joy of calculating your landing on another person's form just so.

"... Really, you're making this too easy for me," Erika didn't even apologize, smiling indiscreetly as she struggled to get herself up. Unfortunately for her, the floor was still hard, cold, and did little to help her get up without considerable stress to her abdomen. Well, at least Sync "helped" her from making it worse.

[from here]

Whatever was happening to her, Rita was going to fix it. She could fix anything. She was a genius.

That heavy pounding in her chest, that light-headed feeling... those were just getting in the way. Rita tried to will it to stop, for her body to simply stop being anxious, but the feelings persisted. She had to hurry... Even if she didn't know what she would do to help herself, that just meant she was going to need more time to figure it out once she reached the Medical Wing.

Rita broke into a run, dashing through the hallway and around the corner.

[to here]

Normally, the lack of an intercom post would have registered as slightly ominous to Erika, at the very least. However, she was glad that there wasn't one, because it allowed her to focus on something else strange that was happening. Something else very strange... It was a feeling that she couldn't put her finger on, so she naturally came to the conclusion that the drugs she was given were kicking in, so there was no point worrying about it.

The plan was to stay in her room to finally get rid of Yukari's toy and perhaps sleep the night away, if the drugs were going to allow it, but Erika had no desire to actually stay in her room to do the former task. The person picking up the toy said she would likely know of it and the detective already knew that waving the gun around would not end well without prior warning to the other occupant of the room. And since Erika didn't feel like doing that, she decided to be a pleasant roommate for once and went outside, with nothing but the fake gun in her hands as she waited for that person to come.

Even though Erika had no idea who she was waiting for, she was sure her appearance would be more for the other party to recognize her. If Erika still had her title as the detective and Bernkastel's piece, she would have been more then happy to try and reason out the other person's identity, but the girl didn't care tonight. No, she wouldn't have to care for all of eternity now, so it was pointless to even try.

"I guess I can consider this a vacation now," Erika mumbled bitterly to herself, looking down at the darkened halls. Really, she should just leave Yukari's toy lying on the ground and that person could pick it up if it was still there. It was only Erika's lingering curiosity that kept her around to see what purpose the gun actually had.