Night 58: Main Hallway, 1-West

[princeofthemoon]

[ from here ]

Sesshoumaru had not been in the building for nearly long enough to really know it, and his knowledge had not been expanded yesterday as it might otherwise have been, because of the poisons that had been fed into his system - poisons that somehow worked, which had been a disconcerting and unpleasant experience. In the end, though, all

Comments

[unheroed]

[From here.]

Oh, Harvey hadn't missed Sangamon. The man had done his best to move past him without drawing any attention to himself and he probably would have been successful if Harvey hadn't been specifically looking for him and the others. He could have called out to him, but when it was so obvious that the guy wasn't up for talking, it seemed pointless. Chances were he would have just pretended not to hear him.

And so he reached the main hall. While Harvey did keep an eye out for Scott and Peter specifically, there was no sign of them. He didn't particularly want to talk to Depth Charge, seeing how he'd managed to avoid interacting much with the man even during that whole ordeal.

Which meant... he either went on his own or searched someone else out. Harvey paused for a moment, but his train of thought was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice. It took him a moment, but he eventually placed it as Lana's sister, Ema. Frowning, he moved further down the hall and then spotted her standing with a man who looked to be somewhere in his twenties. The girl was clearly already paired up with someone, but at the same time Harvey didn't see anyone else he recognized around.

Before he knew it, he was slowly approaching the pair. He could see what she had planned for the night and go from there.

[believein0]

"I don't," Zero admitted, choosing not to comment when Ema thanked him. He'd hardly explored this place the night before, and all he'd found then was a huge (and hungry) organic spider. So upstairs was the place to go for a weapon, according to the girl. Made sense, he hadn't been up there yet. Weren't there stairs near here? He looked around to see if he could spot them.

It was then that he caught sight of a man slowly walking towards him and Ema. A man who...who...woah. Even in this darkness, Zero could clearly see that something was horribly wrong with the fellow's head. The left side of his face - just the left side, curiously enough - looked like it had been burned in a horrific way, revealing charred skin and the gory inner structure of the human face. Hair was missing, teeth were showing, the eye was wide open... It was a sight Zero had only seen on corpses. Yet here this human was, alive and walking right towards him and Ema.

Was he a monster?

The Reploid-now-human instinctively stepped between Ema and the strange man(?), staring directly at the newcomer with a challenging glare. Maybe that was foolish, being unarmed, but he didn't care. This looked like a threat, and he'd already promised Ema that he would protect her.

[scientist_skye]

Ema could hear someone walking toward the pair, although she didn't have time to make that known before Zero had moved ahead of her. It looked like he was taking his role as her escort seriously, something for which she was grateful. The remaining concern for her own safety all but evaporated; even with the dangers of the Institute at night, she had someone who had her back.

Zero seemed to be reacting to something he could see, but Ema couldn't make out much beyond a shadowy silhouette. In order to identify the new arrival, she shined her flashlight into his face without thinking about the detrimental effect a move like that would do for the approaching person's vision. Ema nearly hit the floor. It was Mr. Dent, but... he wasn't wearing the bandages on his face. The damage from whatever had happened to him prior to arrival was gruesome at best. Despite her knowledge of the man and every rule of politeness that Lana had taught her, she couldn't help but stare.

"M-Mr. Dent?!" Then, to Zero, she added, "It's okay, I know him. He's friends with my sister and she told me I can trust him."

[unheroed]

The last thing that Harvey had expected was for Ema's partner for the night to step in front of her protectively. He paused for a moment, tilting his head until he realized the lack of bandages and the fact that he was walking up to a stranger in a dark hallway probably made him look pretty intimidating. It was quaint that the man was so intent on keeping Ema safe, but it was hardly necessary.

Before he could say as much, Harvey was treated to a bright light pointed right into his face. He let out a small groan and then pulled one hand up to shield his eyes -- which seemed even more sensitive after the accident in some ways. He didn't know why Ema had to go to that extent to figure out who he was, but it looked like things were being cleared up either way.

As he blinked the bright spots out of his eyes, Harvey let what the girl said sink in. Lana had told Ema that he was trustworthy? That came as a shock. It seemed that he'd made more of an impression that he'd realized, and a dark part of him was amused to know that he could still convince people that he was a good person. Granted, he had no reason to show Lana or Ema his ugly side. At least not yet.

He nodded to the girl in greeting and then glanced at the stranger once more, taking note of his long hair (what the hell?) and serious expression. "What are you doing out here?" he asked Ema, though there was no accusation in his tone. If she wanted to risk walking the halls at night that was fine. He just wanted to know what plan she had in mind.

[believein0]

Zero glanced back at Ema with a look of uncertainty, mostly out of surprise that she both knew this mons...human and she believed he was trustworthy. And only through her sister's word, at that. Sure, it wasn't like the guy was attacking them (yet), but...really? 'Mr. Dent', whose horrible half-face features made him look more like a demon than a man, was considered an ally?

... A-alright, if she was sure. Zero reluctantly backed away a couple steps to stand at Ema's side, and he remained silent as 'Mr. Dent' began conversing with the girl. Meanwhile, he continued to stare at the other man with a stony expression. It was simply his way of letting 'Mr. Dent' know one thing, should he reveal himself to be an enemy after all: I've got my eye on you. After all, the Reploid-now-human wasn't ready to shake off his doubts about this half-face man, not until after he'd gotten a chance to know him and his intentions a little better. Maybe he was judging looks too harshly here, but Ema's safety was his priority at the moment. Not to mention that...that face. It wasn't the gruesomeness that bothered Zero, exactly; it was wondering how on earth such features were possible on a living human being. What had that human gone through to look like that and still be alive?

Perhaps humans were not as fragile as Zero thought they were.

[scientist_skye]

Completely oblivious to Zero's silent warning and Mr. Dent's surprise at her identification of him as a trustworthy ally, Ema shot the pair a smile as she lowered the light's beam back to the floor. "I've been asleep for at least a day, maybe five. The last thing I remember is Sunday morning, so I figured I could go and see what's going on at night and try to find some answers. With all of the changes lately, I thought that maybe the nights were different, too. Zero promised to keep me safe and he needs a weapon, so we're going to find him one before we start with the investigation." A pause. "Have you met Zero? Mr. Dent, this is Zero. Zero, Mr. Dent."

Now that introductions were out of the way, it was time to find answers to the questions that her conversation with Zero had raised. It didn't seem like Mr. Dent was going to lecture her (thankfully), so she was able to get straight to business. "What day is it? And do you know what Code 1-8 means? Zero is new and I don't remember hearing it before. Oh, and do you know where we can find weapons, exactly?" It occurred to her (after the fact) that she probably should have asked the questions one at a time so as not to overwhelm Mr. Dent. Well, it was only three questions; she would simply stop there for now and let him catch up.

[unheroed]

The hard stare that Harvey got from the other man as he backed off said quite a lot on its own. He didn't know why this guy was so eager to protect Ema, but he was probably just one of those hero types. The type of person that Harvey had been once; the path that he'd left behind. That on its own was almost enough to be annoying, but he was going to have to shove that to the side for now. He'd managed to avoid Ema's staring, so he could ignore the guy's high and mighty attitude too.

While the stranger kept quiet (and what kind of name was Zero?), Ema more than made up for that. So she'd been asleep for a while. It had been about five days since he'd seen her, but Harvey doubted that she'd been out for that long. Lana would have mentioned something, wouldn't she? If she trusted him so much...

"It's Monday night. If you remember it being Sunday last, then you probably only missed a day." It could have been a lot worse, though sleeping for even a day was a bad sign. Lana was probably already worried, but now Harvey could get more points in her book by explaining that he'd found her tonight.

"No idea on the Code 1-8 thing. The announcement Aguilar made was the first I heard of it." He didn't think it needed to be said that they were going to have to be on guard as a result. "As for weapons..." He paused for a moment, thinking it over. The truth of the matter was that he was pretty well-armed. While he didn't take it all out with him at once, he had a gun, an axe, a box of syringes, and a metal pipe to work with. The gun and axe had both been found in Doyleton, so those were out, but...

"There's a storage closet upstairs that usually has a few metal pipes in it. It's nothing special, but it's better than whacking things with your flashlight," he explained with a nod. He was going to guess neither of them knew how to get there, so... did he help or didn't he? It didn't seem worth a coin toss, honestly. This wasn't some huge moral question, nor was it life or death. He didn't have anything else to do with his night, so part of him had already decided to take them there. At this point it was probably best to get more people on his side and at least the errand would take his mind off of last night.

[believein0]

... Ema sure was energetic all of a sudden. Better than the way she'd been when Zero had found her a few minutes ago, though. She made up for the once-Reploid's silence by spouting out several questions at Mr. Dent, somehow not managing to overwhelm the fellow in the process. That was quite a feat on his part, Zero had to admit.

Now how long had Mr. Dent been in Landel's Institute? (And did he always walk around looking like that? ... Maybe it was about time Zero stopped wondering about that face and started seeing whether or not he was trustworthy, appearances aside.) Mr. Dent seemed rather knowledgeable of this place and where things were from the way he responded to the girl's questions. He didn't know what Code 1-8 was either, but he was able to give Zero a name: Aguilar. That wasn't a name he was familiar with, but it might be the name of the man in charge of this place. Sounded important in any case. He mentally noted it down.

Then Mr. Dent confirmed Ema's earlier statement that a weapon - metal pipes - could be found upstairs, so that would definitely be the place to go first. A metal pipe was acceptable, so long as the metal in question was sturdy. Zero could make do with using it as a bludgeoning weapon. But at the same time, he couldn't help wondering about something. He'd seen that short human (kid?) from the night before with a shotgun. Even Mr. Dent had a gun, now that Zero was able to look at details beyond his face.

Time to ask the obvious question here. "So where are the firearms kept? I saw someone with a shotgun the other night." Not that a metal pipe wasn't useful too, but a gun packed more power and was more appreciated in certain situations...even if firearms weren't Zero's preferred kind of weapon in a fight.

[scientist_skye]

So it seemed like the code that was being used over the loudspeakers was incomprehensible to patients all around, not just to her. That was at once comforting and disconcerting; she wasn't the only one in the dark, metaphorically speaking, but that meant they were all in the dark. Also, Mr. Dent answered a question that Ema hadn't thought to ask--General Aguilar was still in charge of the Institute. Once again, Ema fished out her notebook to try and take notes in the darkness. She only hoped she could decipher her own handwriting in the morning.

Mr. Dent confirmed that they could get a weapon upstairs, a statement for which Ema was grateful. She had only been running off of a hypothesis. Zero's follow up question, however, surprised her. Firearms? People had those? The young scientist shifted her attention from her notepad to Mr. Dent, waiting intently for his reply.

Before he had a chance to answer, however, Ema's radio crackled to life in her bag. Even though she had doubts about the usefulness of the radio announcers, she still made it a point to keep the radio on her. It was better to be poorly informed than completely out of the loop. And tonight, it turned out that having the radio was a good source of information. Dr. Landel was with Marc. One of Marc's comrades had been killed by a patient. General Aguilar was sending patients on missions. And their resident rebel was obviously losing morale, even if he ended on a note of defiance. Something about all of that caused Ema's stomach to knot. There was nothing like a radio broadcast to remind her of the severity of the stakes here.

Once the radio feed cut off, Ema looked to her two companions. "Do either of you know who was killed last night? And by whom?"

She tried to sound brave and professional. She really did.

[unheroed]

The fact that Zero immediately homed in on guns as a possible weapon made the stranger stand out far more than his long hair or protective nature had. Harvey was just hazarding a guess, but chances were that Zero had some experience with using firearms specifically. Of course, it wasn't like there were guns just lying around the place. Harvey had learned that the hard way. (Who the hell had been lucky enough to find a shotgun, though?) He was about to explain the special circumstances under which they could be found when the radio in Ema's bag started up.

Harvey had never put much stock in this Marc guy, but the fact that he was dealing with Landel singlehandedly made him stand out more. It didn't seem like things were going well for him, though, seeing how Aguilar was specifically targeting his outside contacts. Harvey knew that it all made sense strategically, but it left a bad taste in his mouth. Everything Aguilar did was bound to be an annoyance after last night.

Ema's question was completely understandable and yet it hit a nerve. Harvey didn't know anything about Marc's friend, but someone else had been killed last night and he hadn't needed the reminder of that. He tried to force the thought from his mind as quickly as possible; the good thing about half his face being burnt away was that his expressions were that much harder to read. They probably wouldn't notice that initial reaction.

"Nothing about that, no," he said with a shake of his head. "Sounds like some of our fellow prisoners were involved, though." What else was there to say there? It was a shame, but the damage had already been done. He glanced toward the stairs. "Anyway, we should get going." If they wanted to get Zero here a weapon, they were going to have to hurry.

[believein0]

Before Zero could get an answer to his question about firearms, the group was briefly interrupted by the radio in Ema's bag. The once-Reploid was thrown into a state of alert at the sudden voice - a state that really only amounted to a straightened posture and clenched fists, as his stoic expression didn't change in most situations - but he relaxed a little once he realized it was only a transmission. A transmission that was...troubling, mainly because he didn't know who the speaker was or what, exactly, the transmission meant. Ema and Mr. Dent looked like they probably understood, but Zero was left feeling confused and out of the loop. ...Not like that was anything new thanks to his lingering amnesia, but it was still frustrating.

By listening closely, however, there were a few helpful facts he could gather from the speaker's words. Besides Aguilar, there was another possible enemy through the name 'Landel'. Made sense. The place was named Landel's Institute, after all. The speaker was with this 'Landel', but he was on the prisoners' side (a double agent?) and currently hiding out in an abandoned town. Who was he? And those 'forced errands' he was talking about...those were probably the military missions Zero had seen mentioned on the bulletin board during the day. He made a mental note of that and resolved to ask about the mysterious speaker later.

As for the identities of the dead comrade and their murderer(s), neither Mr. Dent nor Ema seemed to know; the latter appeared to be more bothered about the news than the former, though Zero could've sworn he saw Mr. Dent's expression change for a moment when Ema asked him that question. (Change to what, he wasn't sure, nor was he sure he even saw the change to begin with. He wasn't going to think about it too much.)

Zero wanted to ask a lot of questions about the transmission now, but he also recognized the need to get moving. He frowned at the thought of Mr. Dent leading them who knows where, though. ...Yes, he still had lingering doubts about the man. Just--just something felt off about him. Maybe it was that decayed half of his face that was the problem here? Judging too harshly on looks? Ema trusted him...that should say something, shouldn't it?...

...X would probably nag him for his distrust if he were here.

Alright, alright. It was time to give this guy a chance. The Reploid-now-human nodded in agreement at Mr. Dent's proposal, and then he looked over at Ema, not wanting to start walking off without her. He was her escort here, anyway, not Mr. Dent's. He wasn't going to leave without her approval, too.

[scientist_skye]

While Mr. Dent's inability to answer her question was framed in a way that pretty much halted discussion for now, Ema had to admit that he was right. They only had so much time to move; they would lose the night if they didn't start walking. Zero seemed to have no protests, looking at her expectantly, so she gave a small nod of her own. "Yeah, we should go. We can't really do anything about Marc or his friend or Dr. Landel right now." Or ever, in Ema's case--she knew that she wasn't really equipped to make any sort of daring maneuvers or rescues, especially not at night. Vision was something of a prerequisite for that.

All agreed on the decision, the group began walking. Ema made it a point to stay near Zero as an orientation point, (occasionally getting too close and knocking into him), but she knew this area of the institute well enough that she didn't need too much help finding the stairs.

[to here]