Nightshift 30: Decontamination Room 2

[small_fortune]

[From here]He was in no hurry to step into the room, shining his light across it first. It looked like--like what the map from the radio man had promised. A decontamination room. Places to wash and to change, presumably before whatever scientific horrors this place could devise were created or refined

Comments

[sasuke_of_sound]

To Sasuke's immense surprise, the first door they tried was the one that matched the key. Either they had ridiculous amounts of luck, or Mark knew something more definitive than he'd explained earlier

[i_slay_giants]

Jack stomped over to the ninja and put a hand on the door. "Hey, I don't know anything about this door, but I do know that there are a lot of greedy s.o.b.s here and I'm in no hurry to share anything with them. Seeing as this is my key, how's about you respect, MY wishes and shut that door?" Jack was trying to appear genial, but it borderlined on the threatening, as if he already had decided what would be done of Sasuke questioned his wishes.

"If you're scared, kid, you can always wait outside. I'm sure it's safer there."

[small_fortune]

Wonderful, infighting, and here he was trying to be on his own best behavior. Such as it was

[sasuke_of_sound]

All things considered, Sasuke had done fairly well keeping his temper in check in Landel's. True, a few things had inevitably forced it out, but for the most part, he'd managed to keep Sound-cool. Currently, however, he was a little low on blood, the dizziness was becoming a headache, and John was rapidly proving himself to be a type that Sasuke happened to despise.

"In other words, you can't defend your loot against a few human patients," he snapped, not bothering with tact. "As for your key, now that we're in here, your leverage is completely lost, John. If you don't have a decent suggestion, stay quiet."

Fortunately, Mark had a bit more of a rational idea, and Sasuke unknotted the shirt around his wrist with an irritated gesture. By the time he'd gotten it between the door and the frame, he'd already realised that he might have alienated a potential ally -- still, he couldn't bring himself to really regret it at the moment. John was annoying in too familiar a way.

[i_slay_giants]

"As for your key, now that we're in here, your leverage is completely lost, John. If you don't have a decent suggestion, stay quiet."

Leverage? And here Jack had thought he was doing a good deed by sharing whatever treasure might have been hidden away with these two saps. Hell, he hadn't even met Sasuke before this night, so who was he to take that attitude with him?

Actually, it was beginning to become clear, but the Fable didn't voice his suspicions. Mark had been the one to bring up this little adventure tonight in the first place, when Jack had seen him by the bulletin boards, hadn't he? At that point, he had already worked out all the details with Sasuke and the pair had made plans for this raid. Plans that Jack had never been a part of.

Those sneaky bastards.

Well, no wonder Jack had been treated like shit this whole evening. He really was simply the key to this room and nothing more. Both of them had their own agenda and Jack Horner was only a bit player. Jack Horner had news for them; he was always the star of whatever

[small_fortune]

"Both of you, knock it off! John, if you weren't an equal member, we'd have no reason not to at least try to knock you out here and take your key... but we will not, because it is your key, and because all of us would get injured for no good reason in the effort. Since you're the one who let us in here you've got a right to whatever we find." Mark paused. "Sasuke's here because he has a sword and other weapons, along with a history of fighting, meaning if something in here jumps out at us while we're sitting around arguing at least it'll be three people fighting it instead of two. I'm here because I have a map and believe I know where we are going. The door is open, I'm hardly going to try tackling anyone who tries to walk out, but we have a choice between fighting between ourselves here or heading forward. I'm not going to tell you both that you have to like each other, I don't really care what you think about each other, just so long as it doesn't get in the way of all of us moving forward and getting something substantial out

[sasuke_of_sound]

... and Mark proceeded to scold them like they were children, which brought back memories that Sasuke didn't particularly want to relive at the moment. Still, he had a point, even if Jack wasn't making himself sound any better or brighter.

"Fine," he said shortly, and stepped fully into the room, pointedly keeping both weapons in a nonagressive position. "John. I assume you're here for a reason, if Mark's bothering to keep you, and he's given me reason to trust his judgment. You haven't proven yourself to me, but I will act as your ally for the night, in which case you have no need to question me."

And as if that settled it, Sasuke took an expectant stance and waited for Mark to move, since he was the one who seemed to know the way. Actually, to Sasuke, that did settle it, and he didn't particularly see any reason why it wouldn't.

[i_slay_giants]

Hmph. Jack didn't like the way things had turned out, but he would bear with them for the night and play hard ball in the morning. He'd definately not be inviting that Sasuke punk (blind or not!) anywhere again and decline invitation if he was present.

Like Sasuke, he turned to Mark and waited to see what the other man, with his map, was planning and how this would benefit his interests.

[small_fortune]

God. Did Miles have this much trouble getting people to follow him?

No. People swoon for the right to chase after his every order. But the old jealousy didn't quite sit right, and Mark dismissed the thought. It was bad enough arguing amongst the people here, he didn't need to be competing with shadows too.

"Something should be back here. A new set of doorways, past the showers. It may not be obvious. We want to try to open or break through them." He advanced into the room, shining the flashlight around to look for the entrances for the labeled elevator or staircase. "It will be at the back of the room."

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke nodded, not remembering the fact that it got dark enough in the Institute at times that others could see very little more than he could, and followed Mark's voice into the room

[i_slay_giants]

Jack trailed slightly behind the others, sizing them up mentally. If they did decide to backstab him, he was fairly certain he was the tallest and most athletic of the group and could probably dish out a suitable beating. Yeah, he'd be keeping an eye on them, alright...

"What is it we're looking for?" He addressed Mark, though he noted Sasuke's sword. He wouldn't have minded having one of those for himself. Maybe he could ask where Sasuke got it. Or take it when the kid wasn't watching. Like he was ever watching. "Is there something special?"

[small_fortune]

There they were. Finally. The odds of the doors actually opening were astronomical, he supposed, but they'd gotten this far at least. If they could just get through one set...

"Back here," he called, and slammed his flashlight down on one lock, the one for the room marked 'elevators'. A primitive sort of lift tube, if he remembered right. Another try, and it wouldn't budge. "This one seems to need a key. We can see if John's key works on more than one door," such a thing wasn't totally unlikely with these primitive doors, right? "I'm going to try breaking into the door beside it."

Going deeper into the web. Downstairs, downstairs, downstairs was what everyone was constantly talking about. It made upstairs particularly enticing. Of course, with no map, it would make further progress difficult, and this staircase might lead to the roof... but why would the roof be hidden so far out of the way? Something had to be up here.

[Sorry for slow, wanted clarification on desc. plus was at con, back now!]

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke passed the first door as Mark ascertained that it wasn't one of the breakable locks, finding the next one with his hand and trailing it over to the handles. A quick shove revealed a bit of give, and he readjusted his grip on his weapons before back up two steps.

"This one feels like it'll give," he told Mark, and swung into a kick angled to strike just below the catch of the lock. If the same pattern held for this door as for the other breakable locks around the Institute, it shouldn't take more than two or three kicks -- and indeed, on the third hit, there was a distinctive cracking noise and the door swung open on silent hinges.

Sasuke didn't proceed directly into the new area, though, instead hefting his weapons to the ready and waiting. If he had two pairs of seeing eyes around, he might as well use them to check for danger instead of feeling it out himself.

[small_fortune]

That was certainly efficient. And if John still had questions about why Sasuke was there, it should be a suitable answer.

"I'll go up first." The staircases between the first and second floors were traveled enough that Mark didn't feel too squeamish about wandering back and forth on them, but this was something else. The odds were decent that he'd find nothing but a staircase leading to a door he couldn't pass through. Placing everything on those odds didn't make Mark comfortable, however. We're the best suited for this part, unless one of them's been holding out on us.

"If I find anything worthwhile, I'll call back down."

[to here]

[small_fortune]

[And back]

That was as much as he'd hoped for. Better, even. For one thing, nothing had killed him on the staircase, or even tried, which was more than he'd hoped for. Most importantly, he'd confirmed a third-floor or roof door. What kind of roof has an elevator to it? He also had confirmed one key to enter this area.

They could look around some more and see if there was anything worth taking home, but he'd gotten his prize for the night. "It seems we've gone as far as we can with that key."

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke had to admit that he was a little disappointed -- for a moment he'd gotten his hopes up that they might have managed to reach the roof and whatever might be there -- but logic said that they probably couldn't have anyway. This place wasn't exactly forthcoming with its secrets, though it was also oddly free.

This meant that keys were on the list of priorities, though, especially if there was a new area to be discovered.

"What about the other door?" He glanced over to where he'd last heard John's footsteps, waiting to see if the key worked on that door as well.