Night 53: Main Hallway 1-West

[hasnomeaning]

[from here]And again, quiet. Silence broken only by far off footsteps and the creak of a building settling. There was more in the darkness, Ayanami knew this, but currently nothing had stepped forward to show itself. This night was too similar to another, and her hand raised to her neck without meaning to. There was nothing like trauma in this, she

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[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

A girl in a skintight bodysuit that belonged in some weird-ass Japanese pornography, not this dim hallway caught his eye.  Heart-shaped face, blue hair, no visible nipples. Hell, she probably had.  Hopped off the direct-to-video screen and been stranded here.  That, plus the fact that she looked about twelve except efor the boobs (though that might be a trick of her height), made him feel slightly green.  (Anyone else would call it seasick, but S.T. didn't get seasick. Not even on a choppy night and some bad tequila, the kind that had worms to make gringos pay more. Green it was.)

She wasn't the only one cruising this strip.  Peter was standing by the stairs, a pillowcase doing stand-in duty for the little black bag.  What the hell he planned to do with the shovel, unless Landel was sending then out in body bags now was less clear.  S.T. stepped out of the shadows and leaned up against the wall with a nonchalance that would make James Dean envious.

"Peter?  Assembling the team here, or just killing time before the bastards put the needles away?"  Clean-up duty, Depth Charge had bitched about, and he'd been right.  Maybe he'd gotten too jaded.  Forgotten that some crimes could be stopped before half-rotten-alive dolphins washed up on the beach.

O.K., that was a bad thought to have on an already-queasy stomach.  He couldn't actually smell anything putrefying in the hall, which was a plus, but his imagination didn't need much.  He swallowed hard and forced his shoulders to stay loose through sheer determination.      

[human_sponge]

While he should have guessed, Peter hadn't expected S.T. of all people to show up. Even though he'd been up to that hallway with him before, he hadn't seen him commenting around on the board and so he hadn't thought about it. Still, it was good to see a familiar face, even if the man was a bit on the odd side. His heart was in the right place, so that was all that really mattered to the nurse. Ex-nurse. Whatever it was.

The idea of waiting for things to finish up was one that made his stomach churn, though he realized that S.T. meant no harm by it. Still, Peter was the sort of person who wanted to be up there and waiting as soon as he could, since the idea was that the patients who got taken wouldn't be alone when it was all said and done.

"I was told to meet here," he explained after a pause, glancing around to see if there was anyone else on the other man's heels. It didn't look like it, though. "Do you know who else is coming? I didn't really get all the details..."

Maybe he should have paid more attention or asked more questions, but he honestly hadn't thought so much about it. Usually if a meeting post was made, people showed up, and at least one person had made it here other than him.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. didn't like it either, but if he wanted to put his head in the sand, he'd have stayed at Mass Anal. Work on his 401K for a few years, and then switch to golf. (Maybe not. The things they did to those greens should have every top executive buying stock in hazmat boxers. Pity it didn't actually stop the fuckers from reproducing.) If no-one was outraged, he wasn't doing his job. Even if it was his own side he was pissing off.

"I wasn't sure I'd be along, so I didn't promise anything I couldn't deliver. You met this R. Aoyagi before?" He drew the last name out, like A-OK with an extra syllable or two.

[human_sponge]

So S.T. had been talking to Ritsuka, too. Peter must have missed it, and while he felt kind of embarrassed about it, he realized it wasn't worth dwelling on. They were both in the right spot, so Ritsuka was the one who was missing at this point. He didn't think both of them could have misunderstood.

As for the question, he shook his head before saying anything. "Just talked to him on the board for the first time today. All I know is that there's supposed to be something cat-like about him." In this place, that could be any number of things, though he was sort of hoping that he would know it when he saw it. He figured it had to be something he couldn't miss.

[toxicspiderman]

Cat-like? Nine lives? Falls asleep at the slightest touch of a sunbeam? Roams alleys shrieking worse than a twelve-year-old with his first electric guitar when turned on?

S.T. knew it probably just meant weird pupils or ears that didn't need a headband to stay put, but he was bored. People were gathering, and

"Depth Charge said he might turn up, but we didn't pick a meeting place. Tall, blue hair, red eyes, kind of an asshole. Like me, not like the real assholes up there." He shrugged. "Want me to stick around, or should I go see if we're going to have to fight our way up there?" There weren't many attacks taking people home. Experimental subjects that died before they could be measured were a waste of money, materials, and time. Subjects, too, but if Landel gave a fuck about his Village People rehash of a total population, he had a funny way of showing it.

[human_sponge]

Hearing such a familiar name out of the blue caused Peter to start for a moment, staring at the other man as he slowly realized that it seemed they had a mutual friend. He wasn't ready for the man to describe Depth Charge as an asshole, but maybe his tolerance was a bit tougher than most people's.

Who was he kidding? Nathan was his brother. Of course it was.

"I know him," he said with a small smile. "If he turns up I'll make sure to grab his attention." It wasn't so surprising that the two of them were running in the same circles, since Peter was pretty sure they had a few things in common, even if it wouldn't have been obvious at first glance.

Either way, he hadn't been expecting for S.T. to offer to go up ahead and scout. He frowned and then quickly shook his head. "You shouldn't be going anywhere on your own." Peter couldn't really blame the guy for being antsy, since it was true that those experiments were getting closer and closer to their finish with each second that went by, but that was no reason to start making stupid decisions.

[cannotlogout]

[From here]

He swept the flashlight around the hallway, taking a good look before switching it off and sighing. He couldn't see Ritusuka anywhere in the hallway. He'd said that he'd be there. Tsukasa had kept the note that he'd taken off the board, not wanting to risk just throwing it away, even if the staff didn't seem to do much to interfere with things overnight, and he was sure that it said they should meet here. Maybe he'd wandered out too quickly? That was a possibility, he supposed.

He bit his lip, heading a little further, one hand against the wall, keeping out of the way as much as he could and idly listening in on conversations. It wasn't eavesdropping, not really. Not if they were talking out in they were talking out in the open like this.

There were a couple of guys nearby and Tsukasa's ears pricked up when he heard them mention a certain name. Aoyagi? That was Rituska's name, right? He'd seen him using it on the board. After a moment's hesitance, he took a step towards them warily. "Um, did you say you were here to meet R. Aoyagi?"

[toxicspiderman]

"I'm not aiming to play martyr," he shot back at Peter. "Give me a little credit."

Then a wide-eyed high schooler done up like a colorblind KISS groupie poked his head in. "Yeah, that's us. You been up there before?" Taking minors on an operation was one of the few rules GEE was adamant about. Came in just below non-violence and above consensus policymaking. Kids got tie-dye T-shirts and a tour of the boat and a polite boot to the ass before they cast off.

This place didn't give a fuck about propriety. S.T. jerked a thumb at Peter. "Ask him, he knows the drill. I'm going to get the hall door open if no-one's using it for target practice."

He thumbed his high-beam on and pointed it at the door. "Catch you later." Technically, they'd catch up to him. Sooner if someone was waiting to summon the Swamp Thing again in the upstairs hall, but he wasn't going to try fighting. Just get the lay of the land and a few more hinge bolts for his collection.

[to here]

[human_sponge]

Having someone else show up made Peter feel a bit better, though it looked like this still wasn't Ristuka. The face markings were a little odd, but he'd at least seen that sort of thing here before. It was nothing to judge by, and he only nodded as S.T. explained.

It seemed like the guy was dead-set on going ahead on his own, though. Peter was tempted to follow right after him, but he didn't feel comfortable leaving the newcomer alone. All S.T. got was a vague hand reaching after him and a "Wait--" before he was gone up the stairs.

Sighing, the nurse turned back to the kid, remembering that meeting with Hanatarou and how so many of those involved had been young. He hadn't met this boy before, but any shock he might have had over his age had dissipated some.

"Yeah, I know where we're headed and I have some supplies, but..." He paused, glancing around the area once more. "I don't know how many more people are coming or how long we should wait." There would come a point when they wouldn't be able to wait around any longer in good conscience, but they weren't quite there yet. Still, it was a bit frustrating, and Peter leaned himself against the wall with a sigh.

[cannotlogout]

He stared after the man who had left for a long moment, a slight frown of consternation on his face. Had he said something wrong? Or maybe he was just in a hurry. "Um..." he turned back to the other man, a little nervous because it wasn't like meeting people in The World, where you couldn't really tell how old someone truly was, but here, it was a little more obvious. "I'm a healer," he said after a moment. "I hope that I can help." He was still getting used to the idea that he could heal for real, and it was something truly useful here.

"Ritsuka said that he was coming tonight, but I haven't seen him. This is my first time doing something like this so I don't know who'd usually be around." He sighed softly, standing there awkwardly and peering down the corridor, hoping that Rituska might appear out of the darkness.

"Ah, I'm Tsukasa, by the way."

[human_sponge]

From the sounds of it, he and this healer were more or less in the same boat. They had signed up to help people, they were new to it and didn't know who else was involved, and they were waiting for the mysterious Ritsuka to show himself. It really wasn't that much to go on, was it?

"Oh," he replied with a blink when the boy introduced himself. "It's Peter. Peter Petrelli." He wouldn't have bothered with the last name if his first one wasn't so common; he knew for a fact that there was another Peter here who was currently running around with his niece.

When Tsukasa glanced back down the hall, Peter followed his gaze, but he didn't see anything cat-like. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you think he got held up?"

[cannotlogout]

Tsukasa gave an awkward smile and nodded. "Nice to meet you, Peter," he replied, before glancing back down the hallway. Where was Ritsuka? Even if they'd only met last night, at least he knew Ritusuka, and there was the bond of shared culture, although Peter's Japanese was very good. Everyone's Japanese was very good. Should he have given a second name? Was it rude to not do a full introduction?

He turned back and shrugged apologetically. "I think he must have. I mean, I don't know him very well, but if he was organising things, I think he'd do his best to turn up." He wished he knew better what Ritusuka was like. He didn't feel very helpful.

[human_sponge]

All of that made sense to Peter, and he honestly wondered how someone could be late to something that they'd been so intent on organizing. He sighed, not really wanting to rely on someone who he'd never even met -- even if this Ritsuka seemed to have pretty good intentions. It didn't amount to much if he didn't deliver.

Then again, for all Peter knew, Ritsuka had been taken up to be experimented on himself; that was enough to make him guilty for wanting to disregard the stranger so quickly.

"Maybe we should just go ahead, then. I mean, he knows where he's going so he'll be able to catch up, won't he?" Peter was getting more and more antsy the longer that they just stood there, and he wasn't really interested in waiting for any other people at this point. Still, he'd wait to see what Tsukasa said before taking off.

[cannotlogout]

There were worse thoughts behind what Tsukasa actually said, things that he didn't want to think too closely about even though he knew that ignoring them didn't make them any better. It never made anything any better. Apathy just got you more tangled into that way of thinking and it took that much more effort to drag yourself out.

He glanced over at Peter, frowning at the suggestion, before nodding, trying to at least look decisive, even if his thoughts were one confused mess right now. "Yes, you're right," he agreed, giving one last look down the corridor. "He'll know how to find us." If he wasn't already up there being hurt. If he wasn't asleep and unwakeable.

If he was still there.

[human_sponge]

While Tsukasa looked reluctant about the whole thing, he did eventually agree with him. Peter felt bad for forcing the young man into it, but they weren't going to do much good just standing around, especially if Ritsuka wasn't going to show up for some reason.

"All right." He didn't know if the young man had been up to the rooms before, but Peter had been enough times by now that he didn't hesitate in taking the lead. After he glanced down the hall toward the patient blocks one more time for good measure, anyway.

But there was no cat-like being approaching, as far as he could tell, and so he turned toward the stairs and started up them. "Come on."

[To here.]