[From here.]

The next room more befit the first floor than the third. Clinical lab environments had been replaced with something much more cozy. There was a plush couch, carpeted floors, and even a bookshelf. The room was designed for comfort, meant as some kind of escape for whoever might make use of it -- and Castiel had an idea who that was. It wasn't an office, but it was another step toward it, or so he guessed.

The setting didn't mean that they could relax, though. It was dark in here, and while Lloyd's wings and the glow from the pad across the room shed some light, it wasn't enough given the size of the area.

Still, there were signs that they weren't alone. The metal slide of two blades moving against each other, the rasping noises of monsters that were in eternal pain, and a more alarmed sound as one of the mutated nurses realized there was fresh meat close at hand.

More than that, Castiel could now sense them again, picking out the taint that gave away any supernatural creature.

"Stay back," he ordered the others once they'd all made it through, "and shield your eyes."

He didn't act instantly this time. The horde of nurses were across the room from them, which gave him a few seconds to delay, long enough to give the others in the group a chance to prepare themselves.

The security station that monitored the third floor didn't differ much from any of the others, but where normally at least one distorted nurse would have been waiting, there were instead bodies littered on the floor. Quite a few belonged to nurses, and it appeared that the monsters which had been unleashed in greater force on the institute had decided to attack indiscriminately.

The nurses hadn't been spared, and neither had the doctor who had worked so hard to get away from a group of displeased patients. His body laid crumpled on the floor, throat torn open by the mountain lion that stood over him. It didn't seem particularly proud of its kill -- no, it really only seemed hungry as it ripped the doctor's neck further open with large, greedy bites. As if some fresh meat might repair the damage to its own body, that telltale taint of rotted flesh and exposed bone.

Screens lined one wall, still displaying footage which cast enough light to show off the grisly scene. The security feeds revealed that there were monsters in most parts of the third floor now, occupying rooms where the patients had only just been.

As they arrived on the warp pad, the mountain lion's head jerked up and it bared its teeth in a snarl. The muscles in its legs coiled as it prepared to pounce.

[From here.]

At first Lloyd thought this room was as empty as the last, a few trolleys with jars and tools sitting on top, forgotten, the only signs of recent use. Two chambers much like the one that had nearly killed Kratos (and him, except that he'd been more lucky) stood on either side, ominously promising the same experience - or worse - if any of them dared to step through. The warp pad wasn't in either one, though. This time its soft purple glow lit up the room they were in from the far side, with no need to tempt fate in the pressure chambers again.

That same purple light revealed a flicker of movement as something large, maybe as tall as Lloyd was himself, darting back around the corner of one of the chambers. Lloyd's heart jumped in his chest, and he quickly motioned to the others.

They weren't alone in here.

"Who's there?!" he demanded, lifting both his swords.

Please, please just let it be another patient.

[From here.]

The room Lloyd stepped into was a whole lot larger than the one they'd just left behind. It almost felt like a hall, especially with all the doors Lloyd could see - one, two, a third... maybe four? It was hard to see around the corner into what looked like a little side hall. It wasn't as long as the other halls in the Institute, though, and there were a few pieces of furniture - rolling carts with lab equipment, crookedly parked as though hastily left behind. Something about that bothered Lloyd, but he didn't think about it for long. There wasn't any sight of the next warp pad, and that's what they needed to keep their minds on.

"Everyone pick a door," he suggested softly, moving toward the nearest one. "Call out if you find anything. But don't split up." It would be bad if something attacked while one of them was too far from the others to be helped.

[From here.]

While the next room at first looked like nothing more than another shower, the heavy duty sinks and the sterility of it indicated that there was more to it than that.

Castiel pointed his flashlight into the empty spaces and under the counter. While he could still hear the distant banging from the previous room, they had at least put some distance between themselves and the onslaught. The sooner they got to another warp pad, the better.

He didn't see any reason to linger, and so he moved across the narrow room to the opposite door. When he found it locked, he let out a small groan of frustration and turned to Lloyd.

"You can handle this one if you'd prefer."

[From here.]

Castiel's head pounded and his stomach twisted as he stepped off of the pad, forcing himself forward so as to make way for the other three trailing him. The first thing he heard was a loud banging off to his left, coming from behind a door. The snarling and scraping sounds that intermingled with it signaled that the monsters had already found them. They might not have much time before they broke in, which meant their best option was the other door across the room.

However, they had yet another metal detector to deal with. "Hurry," he snapped at the others as he rushed forward to set his blade on the conveyor belt. None of them could afford to get shocked right now, not when they had monsters nipping at their heels.

Castiel undid his belt as quickly as his fingers allowed and set that down too, before he walked through the detector to the other side and went to collect his items. The rest of them should know how this worked by now, so he didn't expect them to take too long.

[From here.]

L managed to keep a grip on his gun as the vertiginous sensation receded. The pads were a useful technology, but couldn't they be refined? There had to be some better way to accomplish teleportation without making it feel like you were passing through zero gravity. In this case, he would have preferred a good map and the ability to find a room the usual way: the pads felt like hoops they had to jump through.

This time, he could see the room.

The walls were lined with racks of computer equipment, reaching almost to the ceiling. One small computer might be nearly silent, but a system of this size required a lot of cooling, which meant that there was a background drone in the air, soft but present.

It had a familiar feeling... not just from the last few rooms they'd been through the night before, the server room and the room with the security monitors, but also from similar spaces in his own old life before his abduction. He had created them, or caused them to be created; they were immensely useful. This room had a major difference, however.

A chair sat several yards away, with a figure seated in it... or maybe placed in it. The figure was hard to miss, even in the near-darkness of the glow from the pads, because its surfaces were mostly white. Visible black mechanical joints made it obvious that it wasn't human, and it appeared to be connected to the other equipment in the room via cords that plugged into its back.

It was in profile to them, for now. They'd have to pass it to reach the next pad, which was across the room and just in front of a door.

They'd have an advantage over something like this, because it couldn't move like a living creature and because it was tethered. Or they'd have a disadvantage, because its weaknesses would be different and because it might not even need to move much to kill them -- there was nothing about the android that suggested that it might have been built for pleasure, so he wouldn't be surprised if it had been weaponized.

Or, if they were lucky, it wouldn't attack them at all.

If they were very lucky, it might even be what they had been looking for... but the fact that it seemed to be dormant suggested otherwise.

He kept his hand on his gun as he stepped slowly down from the pad, trying to be as quiet and unobtrusive as possible. The thing might look like it was inactive, but there could easily be a standby mode. The only way to know would be to find out.

[From here]

Link struggled to force his eyes to adjust to the sudden white light of the moving staircase. As always, they began moving as soon as he stepped up. He turned to face Sora, finally breaking the silence.

"Hopefully the top brings us partially through the journey like it did last night."

[from here]

Whatever else he'd meant by the broadcast, the Head Doctor hadn't been kidding about the patient population. Lana hadn't seen another soul on the walk from her room to the center of the main hall. She could only hope Ryuuzaki was still here.

Well, hope, and risk a solo expedition if he didn't show up within what seemed a reasonable interval.

[L]

[From here.]

Link was always the quiet type, but that seemed to be even more so tonight. He looked focused, like all he could think about was finding Landel and ending this once and for all.

Sora could understand that. He remembered how he'd felt right before taking down Xehanort's Heartless and then Xehanort himself, and this wasn't that different.

Still, he wasn't one to let things stay quiet even on a night like tonight, and so he glanced over at Link as they moved.

"Did you have any friends come here? From home, I mean?"

[Starting in M7.]

It was just as Sora had feared. The Head Doctor was going to try and get rid of them by brainwashing them, all of them. That meant he really did feel like he was in danger, didn't it? So in one way, it was encouraging, but Sora didn't know what they'd do if Landel got to them first.

Both he and Link were here and aware of themselves, though, so that was one upside to focus on.

Sora had changed already, and his final act was to grab his radio, flashlight, and place that key card in his pocket. He turned toward Link and let out a heavy breath. The pressure was definitely on now.

"Are you ready?" It was just the two of them now, but that wouldn't stop them. They had to put a stop to this. For Tsurugi's sake. For Kairi and Riku. For everyone.

As the day started, the weather only seemed to be improving, and some patients might even call it warm. Granted, the climate control in the building meant it wouldn't make a difference until someone chose to venture outside.

For now, though, it was time for breakfast, and the intercom came on to wake up all of the patients from their enforced slumber.

"Breakfast sandwiches... how could you not look forward to something like that, dear patients?" Even as Landel spoke, the nurses started peeking into rooms and rousing people from their beds.

"There's plenty to look forward to today, from the recreational field to the greenhouse. I hope that you all enjoy your days and your lunches."

As usual, lunch would be handed out in a paper bag, offering some fruit and vegetables to snack on, along with a sandwich as the main course and pudding for dessert.

"That's all for now!" Though the Head Doctor would be announcing the different shift changes throughout the day, as usual.

--

Mingle log guidelines:

1. All Day Shift 75 threads will take place in the comments to this post.
2. PROSE!
3. Tag under the proper time of day for the thread. You do not have to stick to one thread per shift, as long as you don't try to do a large total number of threads (4 or less is best, but a fifth won't get you in trouble).
4. Subject line of your opening tag: Location (required), shift (optional), OPEN (if appropriate). Putting "OPEN" in the subject line should make it easier for other players to find open threads, and the nature of this log means that you should be able to pick up an open thread that interests you even if you already have something scheduled for that shift. Threads which are not open can be marked the way they always are, with the names of the other characters in small text after the opening post.
5. Each thread should have its own separate starter, just like on any other DS. The format of threads is not changing, only the format of the log post itself, and the fact that you don't have to strictly stick to one thread per shift.

[From here.]

They reached the next room, but before the brief nausea and disorientation passed, before L had the chance to register anything at all about his surroundings, the night ended.

[from here]

Lana resisted the urge to close her eyes as a wave of nausea and disorientation heralded a successful move, so the first thing she saw was light. This room hadn't lost power, or if it had, its emergency systems were first-class. Banks of computer screens were lit, showing familiar -- and not so familiar -- hallways.

She stayed right by the pad as she looked over the room.

Different views blinked across the screens. A couple of patients remained in the main hall just outside the dormitory, but most of the rest showed dark, echoing hallways. The others -- there was the Sphinx, quiet and still, and many of the ones she didn't recognize had the same ornate look. "It looks like we've found what we were looking for. Part of it, at least. Have you spotted anything that isn't on the basement or first level?"

There was a second teleport pad, too, which probably meant they would have to work their way through the security offices -- or jump from the office into something completely absurd, and then reach more of the system. The latter seemed more likely.

[From here.]

L stepped back from the door he'd just forced, then retrieved his pistol from its holster. Nothing had come charging out of the room, and it seemed quiet inside, but that didn't mean much.

He stood in the doorway, the flashlight poised above the pistol, ready to fire if he needed to.

His anxiety faded quickly, back to a low background buzz. Even from the door, he could tell that the room was as advertised: an ordinary server room. The racks lined the walls, not leaving much space for anything to hide.

Beyond that, they'd found another pad. They had no way of knowing whether or not it was the "next" one, or whether it would only take them in another loop, but they'd have to try it. If another was available, and one was the wrong choice to take, nothing would differentiate the two.

He glanced at Lana. "It seems to be clear."

He felt tempted to sabotage the servers, but what would they be sabotaging? Live cultures probably accounted for several of his worst experiences at Landel's; destroying work related to them might be a good idea. At the same time, if these servers controlled machinery involved in experiments and storage of pathogens, breaking them could cause some kind of biological disaster. Without knowing what kinds of live cultures were involved, doing anything that could result in their release would be stupid. And it would be time-consuming. If they were to have any chance of success, they needed to stay on track... then, any biological research here might become irrelevant.

As he moved towards the purple glow, he heard soft electronic noises--battery backups, he thought, since this area didn't seem to be receiving full power--and saw the occasional small blinking light.

[from here]

The next room was larger, and the bleakest supply depot Lana had seen yet. It was too clean, if such a thing existed; night at the Institute always left her feeling grimy, but now she was half-inclined to actually use the sinks to clean up so that she wouldn't dirty the area. Fans whirring overhead added to the oppressiveness. The only inviting thing was a computer, which presented a password screen. "All yours," she murmured. A security expert, hmm? If he was, he was welcome to try his hand, although this seemed even unlikelier to be their goal than the thermostats had been.

Instead, she kept looking. Two doors, one beside the room they'd appeared in, and one that likely led out of this particular warren. She turned to see what Ryuuzaki had decided to do without opening either, and waited.

[From here.]

The archive had been large in comparison to most of the rooms they had passed through so far on the third floor, and this new room was only about a quarter of its size. Bland colors, nothing that could really be described as "decor" except in that the walls and floor had been finished.

It seemed to be empty, but there was bad news: only one pad, and a closed door. That meant that if this wasn't Security--it already seemed doubtful that it was--and the door didn't lead to where they needed to go, they'd have to hunt for the next pad.

It immediately brought what had happened the night before back to the front of his mind. There probably wasn't even anyone ahead of them at this point, and he and Lana should now be visiting areas that no patients had reached before... at least not as far as any of the remaining patients knew. But it was possible that he'd missed something, that someone had gotten further without him learning about it. Either way, going forward, they needed to be even more on guard than they already were.

Was it possible to increase that vigilance? Without sabotaging themselves with anxiety? They were already on high alert, already quite aware that if they escaped one trap, it might not be long before they found themselves in another.

Several panels were mounted to the wall. He approached one after he stepped off of the pad, peered at it for a moment, then turned to Lana. "It looks like a series of thermostats."

No point in staying, then.

[From here.]

After having it built up so much, the Records Archive turned out to be a rather unassuming room.

It looked much like a number of the other rooms scattered throughout the institute. There were computer consoles all along the walls, interspersed with bookshelves that held countless different volumes -- journals, notebooks, and files, all looking to have been organized and cataloged in a very methodical way. There was a table in the center of the room surrounded by chairs; atop it were a few open journals, along with one large binder. Was this what Landel was referring to whenever he mentioned paperwork?

Castiel used his flashlight to take in the whole room, noting that there was yet another teleportation pad in the corner, but it was abandoned save for them. Maybe Landel hadn't expected them to get this far...

Other than the computers, though, this was the sort of thing that Castiel was comfortable with. This was research.

He turned back toward the others. "It looks like we have plenty of work to do."

[from here]

By some miracle, the very door they had been seeking was immediately to their left. Kratos found himself double-checking the wording on the sign posted next to the door to confirm that yes, this really was the Records Archive. After so many nights spent wandering through rooms and physically straining himself in ways that were incredibly healthy, it was just a little anti-climatic to turn the corner and find exactly what they were looking for.

"Finally," he breathed. He tested the lock out of formality; as he'd expected, it held fast. Above the door handle, though, was a little black slot - a card reader exactly like the one that had graced the door to the third floor and many others in Welgaia. Castiel seemed to be in charge of the keycards, so Kratos stepped aside to allow the angel to unlock the door.

[From here.]

As Lloyd peered down the hall, first one way, then the other, he quickly came to the same conclusion the others must have drawn. Turning right would lead them to a dead end. Left was the only option.

There were no doors in sight, just another stretch of hall, walls featureless and oppressive. The silence hung heavy and thick between them. It made Lloyd's skin itch, tempting him to say something, raise his voice and yell just for the sake of breaking the atmosphere that this whole building tried to create. He tamped the urge down. The halls looked empty, but that didn't mean they were safe.

On the right he could see a set of stairs that led down. No, definitely not that way. The second floor wasn't where they wanted to go. In a way, though, it helped him orient himself. Stairs. The only stairs he'd seen on the floors below were...

He kept his voice low. "Do you think that's the Sun Room up ahead?" Had they just come around in a circle?