Nightshift 24: Entry Room

[transgenix]

( coming from here.)

The hall was dark and quiet as Max led the way deeper into the building and away from the dorms. She could hear the faint murmur of voices coming from... somewhere, but couldn't quite pinpoint a location

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[is_god]

[from above]

Susan walked over to the door for - unbeknownst to her - the first waiting room. She grabbed the handle and opened the door; it flew open far faster than it should have, startling her.

She jumped back, flashlight at the ready to bludgeon.

[hajike_tobiume]

(( From here.))

Momo's eyes narrowed as the door opened much, much faster than she'd expected. The shinigami dropped into a defensive stance, low to the ground, ready to attack if necessary.

What met her eyes was a tall woman brandishing a flashlight as if it were a club. Momo quickly took in the grey clothing and that she wasn't armed any further. A further narrowing of her eyes, and the shinigami put forthe the effort to check the woman's spirit threads. It was brief, and increased the shinigami's headache some, but enough to tell this woman was human.

That eased Momo's mind slightly (not her body), but this woman's posture and stance indicated some kind of military training. Just because Momo knew the woman wasn't a monster didn't mean the woman knew the same thing of her.

"Name, rank, division," the shinigami stated in her vice-captain voice.

[is_god]

Susan's eyes narrowed. It was an authoratative voice coming from... a munchkin. Someone very short, and very much younger than her.

But hey, if it was talking, it was probably not a monster. Or rather, it was a figment of her mind that looked like a fluffy bunny, as opposed to a face hugger.

"Commander Susan Ivanova, Earthforce," she said, her tone taking on the hint of dryness that said she was humoring this request. She straightened, easing the flashlight down, though she was ready to go in bashing if necessary. "Name and rank, soldier."

Two could play at this game.

[hajike_tobiume]

Earthforce? Momo had never heard of such a military group, but she'd never heard of the Hellsing organization either. And the odds were Commander Susan Ivanova would not have heard of the Gotei 13.

This shinigami shifted her stance so she was no longer crouching and bowed slightly to Susan. "Vice-captain Hinamori Momo, acting captain of the 5th Division in the Gotei 13," she replied calmly, not phased by the tone Susan was using.

"Well met," Momo continued with a small smile, her tone softening back to normal. "I have not heard of your division before, Commander. And I doubt you've heard of mine, but that is beside the point."

She gestured to the rest of the entryway that Susan was effectively blocking. "May me and mine pass by?"

[transgenix]

Hearing the sound of new voices, Max broke off from the other door she'd been heading for to come up behind Susan. "Found something, I take it?" she asked, eyeing the younger girl on the other side of her roommate with a curious expression. "Hiya."

[is_god]

"Somehow I'm not surprised," she said. Considering Max was claiming to be from quite some time in the past, it was likely this girl was as well. "It's not easy, being from the future." Her tone retained its dryness. She was starting to see the humor in this situation - sort of. Either way, it wasn't any skin off her nose to play along.

Susan glanced at Max, then shrugged. She half wanted to say 'Another figment of my imagination' but refrained. It was quite possible that figments of her imagination had feelings, too, or some crap like that.

"Help yourself," she said, moving to the side. "There isn't anything terribly useful here."

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo didn't really register Susan's comment about being from the future, especially since the shinigami wasn't entirely sure what the present year was. Her attention was drawn to the other woman, also dressed in Landel's grey, as she appeared.

"Hi," Momo replied with another smile in greeting to the woman.

Having decided that there was no immediate danger and Susan had stepped aside, Momo stepped further into the room, allowing for Integra and Alucard to make their way fully into the room. Her eyes swept across the large expanse and she shrugged.

"Seems like it," she said in response to Susan. "That room is some kind of waiting area," she said with a nod toward where she came from. "Nothing worthwile unless you like old magazines."

She turned back to see what Integra wanted to do. As she turned, her eyes caught the folders tucked into the waistband of Susan's pants. Maybe the files Integra wanted where nearby. She decided to wait and see if the knight noticed Susan's paperwork before pointing it out.

[steel_maiden]

Simply because her eyes were not connecting with her servant's didn’t mean she’d miss that sour look he kept giving her. In a way it was almost as interesting as it was annoying. Because really, would a lack of easy blood for only a day or more have gotten this deeply under his skin?

The knight didn’t believe she’d been extreme in any of their recent disagreement. He was receiving the same level of discipline as always. If something else had occurred to bother him, it wasn’t her responsibility to magically know. Only one of them was a mind reader after all.

Still ignoring the three others within the waiting room, the tall blonde only paused in time enough for Momo to try the next door. It was also unlocked, as was made obvious enough when it simply swung open to reveal another woman blocking their path.

Integra paused, listening as introductions were given. So...more prisoners who either were part of some military force, or at least believed themselves to be. It was becoming quite the pattern

[transgenix]

Max studied the tall woman skeptically for a moment, her hands propped on her hips as she obviously eyed her up and down, taking her measure, outwardly looking unimpressed. "There seem to be an awful lot of military types around here," she commented almost idly, crossing her arms.

"The names Max," she introduced herself both to the young woman that had first entered and the woman (knight? She hadn't realized females could be knighted) who'd followed her. "No rank, no level, no patience for stuff like that. Just plain Max works."

At the last question, she arched an eyebrow, adopting her typical careless attitude that was often her default. Exploring with her roommate was one thing; she wasn't quite so quick to trust complete strangers, even if they were dressed like other patients. "Maybe," she answered abruptly, not bothering to explan further.

[is_god]

"Another one from the past, then," Susan murmured, though she wasn't all that surprised. There wasn't a Britain any more, and she was pretty certain the 'sir' thing was antiquated.

And really, she got the feeling this woman was bullshitting her anyway, since 'sir' wasn't much of a military rank, and 'Alucard' sure wasn't much of a name.

"Files are in both rooms," she said. "I hope you like dust and wasting your time." She turned to Max. "I don't think some antique magazines will help us out. We might as well move on." While initially she'd been thinking it would be good to find more patients, she wasn't so sure about this group. 'Alucard' was a bit... loomy. And while Vice-Captain Momo seemed fairly earnest, she also wasn't so certain about the blonde woman; something about her smelled of politics, and Susan had dealt with enough politicians - and was Russian enough - to know better than to trust anything that even reminded her of politics.

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo swallowed back her giggle when Max answered Integra with flippancy. She opted not to mention that 'maybe' was just a 'yes' waiting to happen. No one says maybe unless there's a yes hidden somewhere in the thought process. She was about to thank Max for her answer and check the other doors in the room when Susan confirmed the location of the files as well as indicated they weren't of use.

"Thank you, Commander... Max," Momo said as she smiled and bowed to each in turn. "Perhaps we'll cross paths again."

With that, the shinigami moved past the two women, toward the room where the two boys weren't currently at. She kept a close eye on them as their movements reminded her of the 2nd Division. Except the one was entirely too loud. best be on her guard, though. Just in case.

[steel_maiden]

The blonde ignored the attitude of the shorter one, too accustomed to receiving such looks and tone whenever she was made to deal with the common police or lower military ranks who knew nothing of her Organization above them. “Max” as she called herself, clearly had no desire to be too helpful without personal reason, but that was well understandable

[transgenix]

Max nimbly stepped aside to let the other women - and the silent shadow - past, but waited until they were in the room before quite visibly rolling her eyes. The younger girl had seemed nice enough, but Max wasn't so fond of the older woman. She didn't like her, and though she couldn't put her finger on why not, she usually followed her instincts on such things.

So, with a flip of her dark hair over one shoulder, she turned to Susan once more. "Should we head out back to the hall since these are just waiting rooms or something? We can explore further once out there and figure out where to go?"

[is_god]

Susan nodded, the gaze following the strange party as it went past them. She really wasn't so sure about these people. "Let's go."

And quietly, she added for Max's ears, "Okay, maybe we are in a nut house."

She also couldn't help but notice that more and more people were coming in. While her initial urge was to be friendly, look for more allies, one weird encounter had been enough for her. Better, for now, to stick with Max and not go looking for trouble. She was starting to think that she'd been lucky enough to get a relatively sane figment of her imagination partner.

(to here)

[hajike_tobiume]

Momo poked her head into the file room, noting it was empty and quite small. It really didn't look like all three of them would comnfortably fit inside, so the shinigami opted to stay in the main room.

"I'll stand watch, Hellsing-san," she said as she stood off to the side of the doorway into the file room. "Call if you require my assistance. I'll be within earshot."

Momo turned her attention to the rest of the room, dark eyes scanning the movements of the room as the knight presumably went to investigate the files. Susan and Max had left, but the two boys were still there. She was watching them a little closer when she heard her name.

She looked over to the four people that entered the room and recognized Kuchiki Rukia. Her eyes instantly teared up.

So they did follow through with the execution.She glanced back at the file room and said in a low voiice that would only carry into the room, fighting hard to keep her voice steady, "Another shinigami has arrived. I must see to her, but I will be back

[hajike_tobiume]

((Make that two threads))