NIGHTSHIFT 28: BUS 1

[byname_bynature]

Artemis had always been skeptical as to whether or not the things present in the Institute actually turned into their nightly counterparts. He'd never seen a kitten turn into a rotting cat, or a nurse turn into a syringe-covered monstrosity. Now he had, and he was very sorry that he'd seen it up close and personal. It'd been difficult to keep

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[ol_canucklehead]

The bus pulled to a halt as Logan awaited Ami's next response, but it never came before the last light faded from the sky. He fell silent as the feeling washed over him. The animal within knew this sensation far too well. Anticipation. Something coming. He took in the bus with slow, sweeping gaze, hands tightening, muscles bunching. The wound in his leg throbbed lightly, but he was hoping it would be strong enough for whatever was about to happen.

Logan had already changed his breathing pattern to one more suited to fighting,and mentally began clearing his mind and focusing on his senses. He knew something was up, but had no idea what.

And then it came, a twisting, warping of the vision, and all hell broke loose. His eyes widened as the first of the nurses began to writhe and change, and the others quickly followed suit. Jus' like tha Brood, his mind growled. So that was how it happened. There was no more time to sit around gawking, there was only time to act. His mind raced as he took in the scenario, and his eyes focused first on Artemis Fowl as he began bellowing out orders like a drill sergeant (very strange for a kid, he noted absently), and then on the patients moving to engage the monsters at the front of the bus, between them and the door.

Something else clicked into his mind at that sight; there had been more nurses at the back of the bus, too. Spinning in his seat, he saw them. Two hideous monstrosities that had once been prim and proper ladies, and a huge hulking thing that could only be what used to be an orderly. The very orderly who had dragged him back here, no less. Well, well.

Logan was just about to start moving when his exceptional hearing picked up on Ami's voice. It sounded like as good a plan as any. "I c'n try, darlin'. You jus' be careful, okay?" He whispered back and then raised his voice as he leapt onto his seat, facing the rear of the bus.

"Alright kids, ya heard Fowl! Any who c'n fight, let's go! Gonna need some help back here!" Without missing a beat, he turned to address the orderly at the back. "Hey ugly! Yeah, you! You n' me pal, let's have us some FUN!" With a roar like a caged lion, he stepped up onto the back of his seat and threw himself with all of his might towards the beast. Oh, what he wouldn't give to have his claws right now, but a pair of adamantium punches would be a good start.

[icy_pole]

Ami dropped to the floor as Logan charged towards the back of the bus like man possessed. Trying to ignore the pain in her hand, Ami began to crawl quickly under the seats towards the back of the bus, whispering to other patients to follow if they could and trying to remain relatively undetected by the now mutated nurses and orderlies.

[no_side_effects]

[[Running from here]]

Wesker had heard the man at the back shouting. It took him a small amount of time to catch up, and by then Logan had committed to attacking the large orderly already.

"Claire, go for a nurse," Wesker had picked his own target, and trusted Claire to take her own target out, or at least to stay in one piece while Wesker took his on. He wasn't as careless in his own attack on the nurse, getting up onto one of the back seats and aiming a kick towards the head of his target nurse.

[claire_ity]

[running in with Wesker]

The danger of the situation and the battlecry that had come from the back sent Claire into an adrenaline rush. Nodding an affirmative at Wesker's order, she focused on the remaining nurse, desperate to keep her sharp fingers out of the range of the other patients.

[damned_nurses]

The orderly that had been addressed seemed to understand. At least enough to raise its bulbous, deformed head in time to see Logan charge him. But it wasn't in time enough. The orderly went down, lashing out with meaty, larger-than-human fists and feet, pummeling at Logan with inhuman strength.

The nurse that Wesker kicked at dodged, lashing with blade-like fingers at his leg.

The other nurse, the one covered with needles, seemed aware of its opponent. It reached out with fingers that were syringes, slicing at Claire's face.

[ol_canucklehead]

The hulking thing had gone down as Logan had expected, but it was far from out. And almost twice his size. Luckily, height made no difference on the ground. Logan was taken aback immediately by the swiftness of it's responding attack, and took three hits in rapid succession before he could even react. The first, a solid punch to the stomach, knocked the wind out of him momentarily. The second, another punch caught the side of his face with a momentum that would have torn his jaw off if not for the adamantium and his natural inclination to roll with the punch. Stars flickered before his eyes.

The third strike, clearly more luck than intention, was a flailing kick which caught the previous night's leg wound. The leg buckled in response, but they were both already on the ground, so it was less of a disadvantage, despite the intense pain.

Howling in rage and agony, Logan channeled his inner beast. He would not lose control completely just yet, but there was a definite feral edge to him now. In an attempt to distract the orderly long enough to roll away and try another attack, Logan darted foward, intent on clamping his razor-sharp canines into the behemoth's nose.

[blazing_general]

Signum's first instinct when all hell broke loose had been to form up her team on her and attack, but said team quickly disappeared out of a hole in the bus, leaving her with a meeting point and little else.

Her revised reaction, then, was to attack on her own. There was a lot of magic flying around the front of the bus that she preferred not to get in the way of so she headed for the rear. The grounded orderly looked too solid to hurt without weapons and Logan (who she recognized in passing as a rather less crispy version of the man she'd run across in the recreation field two nights ago) was blocking access to the head and neck, so she lashed out at the nurse Claire was squaring off against with a kick aimed at its knee. Without her gloves she couldn't armor her hands so other limbs would have to serve...

[no_side_effects]

There was something of an air of frenzy to the battle with all the panic all around, and it was slightly contagious. Wesker hated a frenzied combat, and the man on the ground with the orderly was not helping things at all.

The gashes on his leg missed major arteries and tendons, so while he would have some nasty flesh wounds for the next few minutes it was nothing to stop him.

Still using his elevation to his advantage and the fact that there was now more room with the two combatants on the floor, Wesker brought his other leg around in a crescent kick, coming in towards the nurses neck and then down towards her collar bone.

[claire_ity]

Claire didn't flinch; instead, she sent a punch straight at the nurses head as the syringes sliced her face open. She could feel the blood pouring from the wound, but she ignored the pain. It would leave soon - it always did.

Just then, someones foot lashed out, kicking at the creature. Claire appreciated the help, but it wasn't entirely necessary. There was a man shouting to clear the way, patients were screaming, someone could have been injured. Too much was happening at once.

Keeping her eye on the nurse, Claire addressed the figure (it was too dark to see - but it was probably a woman). "Don't worry, we'll be fine. Help the others escape!"

She heard a voice call that there was a way out now. Whether the patients could make it out on their own through that chaos was another story.

[damned_nurses]

The Orderly screamed when Logan bit it, grotesque brackish blood spraying from the wound. It continued to punch at the man on top of it, fueled by rage.

The nurse that Claire - and now Signum - was attacking was starting to fall back under the onslaught. It leaked green blood, as dangerous and drugging as what filled the syringes that protruded from its body. It snarled, leaping for Claire as its bones broke.....

Wesker's kick snapped the other nurse's collar bone, and now its neck was twisted at an odd angle. But it lunged once more, hissing and screaming as it attempted to grapple the man.

[ol_canucklehead]

The frenetic activity of those around him, the tight quarters, and perhaps most significantly Ami's forceful and clear call to retreat from the very back of the bus all added up to keep Logan from going over the edge. It was a good thing too; he knew that if he lost it and managed to take this thing down, he'd likely turn on whoever was closest next, friend or foe.

That wasn't an immediate problem however. The bite didn't have the affect he intended. He'd assumed that the creature would clutch at its face, allowing him (or someone else) to launch a different method of attack. He should have remembered that assumption rarely paid off, especially not in battle.

The thing's blood tasted foul and rotten, he quickly spat it out before focusing his attention on maintaining a defensive stance. Luckily the beast hadn't had the intelligence to recognise his leg as a weak point; its attacks continued seemingly randomly. He brought his arms up time and time again, deflecting the powerful blows as best he could, but his forearms were beginning to split and bleed under the pressure, already showing glints of the metal beneath in some places. Not gonna be able ta hol' out agains' this much longer.

Logan couldn't take his eyes away from the beast for fear of a strike making it through his battered guard, but his ears could pick up on most of what was happening well enough. He'd heard Leon's shout as if he were standing beside an ascending jet plane, and could make out a faint blue hue in his peripheral vision. Tha' guy's got somethin' up his sleeve. Soun's like he needs some space ta use it tho'. Maybe I c'n help.

He addressed the bus in general, much as Ami had, reinforcing her cry. "Get out! Everyone! Non-combatan's first, then tha rest! Don' know how much longer I c'n hol' this guy! Go! NOW!"

Half turning towards the blue light and grunting under the impact of the orderly's blows, he did his best to try and focus on Leon. "You! Wit' tha blue! Ya got somethin'? Energy blast? Somethin' like tha'?" If his answer was in the affirmative, there were several options open to Logan. He could either reiterate the demand to get out or get down, or, if necessary, try to get this brute in the path of the blast. For now though, he tried to manoeuvre his knees to pin the orderly. The monster was big, but he hoped it'd have a hard time throwing off 300lbs of muscle and metal. All the while, the blows rained down on his ragged arms, relentlessly and brutally.

[for_marian]

Leon gritted his teeth, struggling to hold the power focused in the knife blade while the people at the back of the bus continued their wild, apparently random battles. Only the light-haired man seemed to really be doing anything remotely sensible, everyone else was clearly insane. Which would make sense if this was a real institution for the mad, but was rather frustrating at the moment.

Finally someone acknowledged his presence and his shout but, to his surprise, it was actually the berserker who noticed what he was trying to do. But instead of just giving him a shot right away, he asked questions, and Leon realised he was losing his grip on the energy too fast. "Too late, I can't hold it anymore!" The energy dissipated with a flash, leaving his knife an ordinary piece of metal again.

Shaking his head, Leon turned towards the hole in the side of the bus. There was nothing he could do in these crowded quarters, and there was no way he'd be able to gather the energy again with the fights only getting louder and more chaotic as time passed. "Too bad, but I'm out of here!"

As he approached the gaping exit, he leaned out slightly and looked around for anything that might attack him as he was vulnerable--and he saw large wings, not too far down the bus. Airborne enemy, and he had only a short blade. "Fuck."

Well, nothing for it but to be bold, then. Getting a grip on the edge of the hole with his good hand and what was left of his right hand, the knife now held between his teeth, he pushed with his legs and swung around, hoping the momentum would carry him within reach of the thing's wings. A surprise attack was his only choice, at this point.

[flying off this way]

[blazing_general]

Signum wasn't so sure the three had things under control, but the quarters were cramped so she grudgingly accepted Claire's assurances. She wasn't going to do much damage kicking at the nurse's shins around the girl anyway.

A job unfinished left an unpleasant taste in the mouth, but there were more than anyone one person could handle to be had here... she started to force her way back to the front of the bus.

[[Going... somewhere.]]

[no_side_effects]

When the nurse attacked, Wesker simply took a small jump backwards over the seat he had been standing on previously, putting a barrier between himself and his opponent. He needed to finish this quickly to help the man on the floor.

He readied his arm for a hook punch before leaning forward to get in range to hit the side of the nurse's head. It was already tilting at an odd angle, if he could push it further that way it might disable her quickly.

[claire_ity]

Claire didn't have time to fully notice the exit of the woman, or listen to the shouting that was happening near her. That thing was coming for her head on. It was bleeding - and it didn't matter what color the blood was - it was injured. She could do this.

Diving to meet it, Claire went to pull its sharp hands away from her face as she slammed her head forward, hoping to damage the skull any way she could.

[damned_nurses]

The nurse Wesker was attacking finally expired with a sickening crunch of bones.

The orderly under Logan seemed to be tiring, its blows coming slower as it bled and writhed.

Claire's attack resulted in another sickening sound of breaking bone, and noxious gas began to leak from the split skull of the nurse as it screamed and crumpled backwards.