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in
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Nightshift 41: Entry Room
[From here]
Kibitoshin stepped into the room, hope renewed. It looked like some kind of reception area if the two desks on either side of him were anything to go on, both absolutely pristine as though everything had been tidied away only seconds before he'd stepped into the room. On top of that there were enough doors here to keep him busy for hours ( Read more... )
As Apollo stepped inside the room, he reminded himself he didn't have much time to waste. He needed to do two things: mainly check to see if there was some kind of phone available, and get a better idea of their precise location. Something with the institute's address on it, like an envelope, would have been best, but he wasn't sure what the chances of finding something like that this time of night were.
Were those voices up ahead, though? Apollo held up his flashlight, illuminating two figures who were beside the door. They looked a little upset by something, which was more than understandable. Maybe they were trying to find a way of here. An exit could have been just as good as an envelope or a phone, depending on where they actually were right then. And at any rate, maybe they'd seen some things that would have been of interest to Apollo. It couldn't hurt to check things out really quick, right? They weren't so exposed if they were just lingering around the hallway, after all.
He jogged straight across the room, quickly approaching them. "E-excuse me!" he called in a hushed voice. "Is something--" And it was then he realized what the two were upset about, as a pair of green...something caught the corner of his eye.
"Gah, what is that?!" he blurted, whirling completely around so he could get a better look at it. Why was it heading straight towards them like that?!
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He continued towards the two non-aggressor patient-classes, still unarmed, still silent save for a small, threatening wheeze that might have been a word. But when the third entry made a sound louder than a whisper, his head swiveled directly towards the query, eyes flashing dangerously.
Another breathy, grating wheeze escaped what must have been a crushed windpipe or the like. He leaned forward, a row of sharp, small, pointed teeth visible from behind his collar. The eye that wasn't hidden by his hair twitched in its socket--taking in the surroundings and calculating them. 82% of this attention was focused on Apollo.
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The thing gave another rasping sigh and Kibitoshin started, realising that it was looking straight at the newcomer in a way that raised goosebumps on his bare arms. Oh, no it didn't!
"H-hey! Stay back!" Instinctively his hands curled into fists, raising them in what he hoped was a threatening manner- if, indeed, it could be threatened at all. Still, he pressed on. "Leave them alone!" The rest of the sentence curdled unpleasantly in his mouth: and come after me instead! How did he get himself into these messes anyway?!
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Oh, now there was someone else? Some kid, bringing that thing's attention to himself instead of her. Good. That meant if Dahlia could keep pulling at the guy in front of her to the door like some shield, they could just find another exit together. And aww, he was going to try and intimidate the thing--how cute.
She cast a frightened glance to the newcomer while tugging on the back of other man's shirt once more for good measure. "Please, don't anger it. Let's just go!"
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"I-Is that thing for real?!" As scary as it looked, there was no way it wasn't just some kind of illusion or trick, right? Maybe this was like one of those people who dressed up in haunted houses and harassed the kids who acted the most freaked out by them. It definitely wouldn't be the weirdest thing here, if that was the case.
Still, whoever -- or whatever -- this was, they didn't seem too happy they were there. And if they were supposed to be some kind of security guard, there was no telling whether they were armed or not.
Keep it together, Justice! he told himself. It's probably not as bad as you think!
The other man seemed to be trying to intimidate this strange person -- did he have experience with this kind of thing, or was he just trying to put up a brave front? Either way, Apollo knew he couldn't just stand there. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the front door that was nearby. Frowning to himself, he took a slow, measured step back toward it, hoping to try the handle.
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With a small, questioning growl, his visible eye spiraled over to Kibitoshin. His gesture was aggressive. Patient aggressors hurt him. They cracked his displays and tried to hurt him. Tried. Would this particular patient attack, or run?
Curious, he let his interest drift to the one displaying clear aggression instead of a desire to escape. Both were equally unacceptable outcomes. The patients... non-patients... non-living... the patients were not allowed to leave his designated territory.
His steps echoed off the walls, even though the sound should have been muffled by the carpeting and furniture--it sounded as though he was walking over stone. Eye trained pointedly on Kibitoshin, he advanced without a word, completely unarmed but clearly unflinching.
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Kibitoshin darted a now-frantic look across to the man. "You really want to find out?" That squeak to his voice probably hadn't given the poor woman behind him much in the way of confidence. But something in the look the figure was giving him said he was going to find out just how real it was whether he wanted to or not. And what's more, it hadn't even hesitated at the threat!
B-but he couldn't just stand back and let it do as it pleased! What kind of Kaioshin would he be then, letting the bad guy win? For one brief, beautiful moment, he felt himself bristle all over with a fiery indignation, and then-
- oh geeze, oh geeze, oh geeze! He couldn't even run, not while it was still in front of the door like that! The fists in front of him started to shake and he clenched them all the tighter for it. He glanced back at the man and woman, biting his lip. "D-do you think you two could make a break for it?" At the very least he could distract it. Yeah! That wouldn't be too difficult.
... wouldn't it?
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Please.
Alright, that thing had gotten close enough for her to properly lose her "hesitation" to leave a poor man behind. Maybe they could watch from outside the room and see if they actually got into a fistfight. With a terrified squeak and a shaky hand, she reached forward to yank on the collar of the boy heading for the door and made a move to run back through the opened doorway with him in tow. Like she really needed to told to ditch someone.
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It didn't look like he'd have much time to figure it out, either. The man was telling them to run, and before Apollo even had a chance to try the door handle, the woman had grabbed his shirt and was trying to drag him off. Although he didn't necessarily try to fight it at first, he cast an anxious look back at the patient who was staying behind. "W-wait, why can't we just escape together!?" he shouted. "This is nuts! I can just leave you!"
What if something happened to him? He'd never be able to forgive himself if he just abandoned the poor guy like this!
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02 and 03 were leaving. How unpredictable, though. Normally when a target expressed a reluctance to leave, they didn't try to leave. Why was 02 different?
While his attention had been on analyzing whether or not Kibitoshin would change his status or not, he let the program run in the background while he began a new command line. There were new variables: 04 and 05, but neither of them struck him as different. 04 was staring at a door and 05 was expressing a desire to leave--or so his language modules were reporting.
Back to the matter of 02 and 03. 03's reaction was in line with the data--he didn't want to leave another patient-entity behind. 02 was insisting he leave.
02 was like him. 02 was an aggressor-patient.
His visual feed went to static snow for a moment, and his program began running the necessary protocols.
If Patient → Target
If Non-Patient → Targ3t%nsp*%
If Non-Aggressor ← < !---BLANK(]$
If
The run terminated and he received his commands. He slowly turned his head towards Dahlia, feet lifting off the ground. For lack of a better term, he was floating about six inches off the ground, glowing eye on Dahlia.
Leaving a series of afterimages as he skirted around the furniture and back towards the door, he became solid again a mere foot from Dahlia--hovering, staring with wide, green eyes. Another wheeze escaped him, as though trying to ask something.
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"D-don't worry!" He threw him a weak smile. "I'll be okay, I just need to stay here long enough to distract it and then I'll-"
But before he could finish the figure, to his surprise, seemed to stop. Wait, what? Kibitoshin stared, edging backwards just a little into a more defensive stance just in case. Maybe it was something to do with the two men who had just come in? Second thoughts, perhaps? As much as he would have liked to think so he highly doubted that he posed enough of a threat to scare it off.
Any theories he may have had, however, were soon disposed of. Suddenly it turned and, leaving flickering reflections of itself behind in the air like ripples on the surface of a pond, began to advance on the woman. Of course it would go for the most vulnerable one here! "Watch out!"
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She let go of him the instant she turned around and saw that face of doom standing next to her. It was floating in front of her. Staring and wheezing. But mostly floating, which was a little disconcerting.
...that had to be some lame trick and she wasn't going to fall for it. It wasn't going to attack her, anyway, that much she already knew from the beginning, but what was it doing? What was worse was that it was ruining her act--this situation? Had never come up before. She supposed she go for the usual and start bawling her eyes out until someone came to "rescue" her, but for the most part she just stared right back up at the thing, watching it.
'Do you want something, puppy?' She thought, face just as innocent and pure as it always was. 'Get out of my way.'
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That wasn't to say he wanted to hang around here, either. Apollo could feel his heart throbbing in his chest, and every so often his stomach would do an uncomfortable back flip. Actually, the sooner they could get out of here, the better. Apollo had never been a fan of horror movies; that went doubly so for haunted houses, and triply so for weird hospital/prisons with weird guys like this hanging around and-- oh geez, he was levitating now?!
Before he knew it, it had appeared right in front of the woman, wheezing and staring at her with those creepy eyes. In the back of his mind, he knew none of this could be real -- it was floating, for crying out loud! Even if it was an illusion, though, it was still a very, very good one, which didn't make this any easier. Apollo balled his sweaty, trembling hand into a fist of determination, the other one gripping tightly onto his flashlight, and he suddenly tried to wedge himself between the woman and the creature.
"Just...just leave us alone, okay?!" he forced himself to say. "Or I'll--I'll--!"
Or I'll what? he frantically asked himself. Yell at it to death?! Good going, Justice!
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Even though Apollo managed to get between him and Dahlia, his focus was still on her--still trying to calculate her calm, innocent expression. But his sensors couldn't quite process it. And now 03 was in the way.
Faster than a human eye could follow, he seized the collar of Apollo's shirt with his right hand and began pulling the man out of the way. The hand wasn't warm or even cold--it had no temperature to it at all.
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Now wasn't the time for pondering. Before he could so much as blink things had turned from bad to disastrous and the thing- alive or not- seized the man's shirt, a predator striking its prey. Without thinking Kibitoshin darted towards the two of them, fists balled. "Put him down! Right now!"
But wait, why was he talking when he could be doing? That was his problem, wasn't it? He spent too much time worrying and not enough time doing what had to be done! Teeth gritted, he went forth and did.
It was only a split second later, fist flying towards the figure's shoulder, that the adrenaline of the moment wore off and he had his first clear thought all evening: oh, no.
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Oh, now the kid was trying to protect her. Doll didn't take kindly to that, it seemed. Long-haired-man didn't take kindly to him not taking kindly. It all felt like they were fighting over her and it took a bit more force to fake a scared response instead of smiling to herself. How cute. "Please," she called out, raising her voice while shrinking back in horror. "Please! Stop fighting!"
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