Night 54: Basement - Grand Ballroom

[its_the_mileage]

[from here]Indy descended the stairs cautiously, listening for any sound other than the usual fountain noises. He didn't catch any. This time, though, he did grab the nearest candle from the wall as they entered the room. As far as illumination went, it wasn't much, but it was better than stumbling around in the dark

Comments

[unheroed]

They had made it this far, but in many ways this was only the start of the battle. Harvey didn't have much of an idea of what laid behind these doors, just vague hints. It seemed like anyone who came down here decided to keep their mouth shut about it, which both intrigued him and worried him.

But that wasn't enough to stop him from indulging his curiosity, and so he followed Jones down the stairs without the slightest hesitation. A glance at the fountains reminded him of the way the other man had had to wash off his burn wound the night before, and the memory caused his stomach to clench. But they weren't here for that now.

In the end, Jones headed right for the door, having been smart enough to obtain another way to light their path. It was well-lit here, but he wouldn't be surprised if it got dark the moment they got through one of these doors.

If they got through

[toxicspiderman]

A tile had slid aside like a piss-poor manhole cover.  They were round for a reason.  A quarter and a piece of paper with a hole in it could show that one.  Why he felt such a resounding comfort with dropping into a dark hole was, conversely, a great mystery.  He remembered claiming to be a biochemist and an Eco-activist, but where did the urban spelunking habit fit in?  Boredom?  World's worst commute

[its_the_mileage]

"Surely not," Indy half-scoffed, but if he was honest, it wasn't such an absurd proposition. Who knew what opened doors around here.

Only one way to find out, though. He reached out and gave one side of the heavy double doors a strong push. The door swung open so easily that the force of the motion almost sent him tripping forward along with it.

[to here]

[see_my_back]

[from here]

Stairs had never felt more treacherous. While she could usually jump them twenty or more at a time, now she found herself watching her own feet as she stumbled down them. It was beyond embarrassing, whatever this was. She just wanted to be useful to her teammates and actually get something accomplished tonight and it seemed that even if she wasn't going to fall asleep and get nothing done, she would wind up delaying everyone else with her ridiculously bad luck. Or whatever curse it was they'd put on her and her chakra

[yin_yang_fox]

They moved easily through the areas, and Renamon had to acknowledge the abilities of the group to move efficiently and effectively. Aside from some murmuring within them, little was said, and that allowed a clear movement rate. Like was told, the stairs to the basement resided in the freezer, and the Digimon became more watchful as the setting changed. Sasuke issued a question to her, and she replied quietly, "I wonder

[promisedawhale]

For how quickly Sai had moved earlier, Brook could see where he had gotten it from. The rest of his friends were as agile as the young man and despite their larger group had things moving quickly. It wasn't long before they were through the Refrigerator and descending into the ballroom, the ninjas naturally in the lead

[sasuke_of_sound]

An ability to withstand pain? On the surface, it was something that seemed beneficial, but even with the accelerated healing that the Institute somehow forced it was unlikely to be anything but a double-edged sword, and sharp at that. He had to spare a moment to be grateful it was Renamon and not someone more inclined to poorly-thought-out idiocy, but was nonetheless about to extend the Watch yourself to her as well --

But just as he turned to speak, there was a commotion and then a blur of chakra barreling straight toward him at an impressive speed. A lesser ninja might have sliced Sakura's head off, but Sasuke restrained the instinctive defence (barely) and his sword arm smashed awkwardly to the side instead, the side and knuckles of his hand scraping sharply against the floor as they crashed to the ground.

... was Sakura going to survive this Nightshift? There had been nights Sasuke had been lucky, but it was common to encounter things somewhat more formidable than staircases. And evidently Sakura had not survived this uninjured

[blood_and_pocky]

[from here]

He had passed this way so many times he was familiarized with the area, its usual sights and sounds, what was otherwise normal for the ballroom. Nothing was out of place that night. There were no other prisoners around and, if an enemy was hiding somewhere in the columned space, he couldn’t tell from his perch on the stairs, head cocked. If the vampire couldn’t trust the flow of time he wanted to at least trust his ability to detect a threat before it surprised him, but…

Whenever he factored in the Institute’s capabilities, there was always a sliver a doubt.

Aidou didn’t relax his guard once he stepped off the stairs. At that point, he wouldn’t be surprised if something waylaid him just so that another notch was added to his ongoing string of failures. It seemed appropriate, like a higher power laughing at him. His goal was on the other side of the room; he kept checking the other doors and possible hiding places along the way, but nothing untoward greeted his scrutiny. Finally, he made it to the southernmost door, one

[ran_on_empty]

[From here.]

If there was any consolation with this it didn't seem like the Grand Ballroom changed at all since the last time he'd been there. The grand scene of the space had long since diminished in Sync's opinion, who knew just exactly what lied beyond all those doors. He didn't turn to face Erika just yet, instead making his way over to one of the fountains at the nearby pillar. It was at that point that he managed to catch sight of another figure on the other side, though he chose to ignore it for now.

[witchdetective]

Having her search interrupted again almost made Erika not follow Sync down into the basement, almost purely out of spite and also to check just to make sure she had missed no openings. However, that meant leaving Sync up to his own devices, and the detective already knew which option was most important. She followed after Sync, her memory from a few nights ago confirming everything about the room. So, at the very least, they reached the Grand Ballroom once again. She said nothing about his "warning" of finding other people, not wanting to give out more information than she had to

[ran_on_empty]

And Sync paused when Erika made her way in front of him, raising an eyebrow at her impatience. He doubted they'd be able to get anything else done tonight, so why rush? Granted, he'd been in Landel's enough to know how spontaneous the end came, so maybe it would've done them some good to gain that insurance. Still, that didn't stop the God-General from brushing past Erika so he could get to the fountain?

"Do you remember what I said the other night?" He reached into his pocket as he said that, pulling out the aforementioned ring. Just like he'd already predicted, the jewel was still shattered from the other night, allowing them the chance to reform it. Despite their 'consequences', they really did make everything more convenient; as long as they were used correctly, anyway.

[witchdetective]

"Yes." She did, though Erika had trouble believing it. A drop of blood on the jewel, in the location that they wanted to be teleported to the next time the ring was smashed. The detective found absolutely no logic in that sort of solution and wondered why she trusted it so easily in the first place, but that's why she wanted to come down here: To test that theory. Looking back on it, it was not the brightest of her ideas, and that made Erika even more irritated. But... despite that, if there was even the smallest of chances that what Sync had told her was true, then Erika wanted to make sure that she would be the one to "set" the ring. For all she knew, Sync had something else up his sleeve, unless... He wanted her to be the one to donate the drop of blood