Night 46: Sun Room

[arc_wrench]

[from here]

And now it was time for the traditional cautious entry into the Sun Room, the old classic of carefully scanning the area for the enemy that will surprise you anyway, and then the venerable tradition of running in an attempt to not become very lumpy wallpaper.

HK had done this so many times by now, it at least felt like it deserved

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[vsyourface]

"Huh? What is it?" Scott squinted ahead in the dark, training his flashlight beam ahead. "GAH!" He jumped suddenly when the beam crossed the hooded man in the leather. The guy looked like a superhero (or villain), but not one that he could immediately place. That in and of itself was almost as surprising as the man's sudden appearance.

He raised an eyebrow as the guy made some cocky talk. Had he heard about something like this before? Something about brainwashing? Scott scratched his head as the guy went on about kids or something, trying to remember. What he wouldn't give for an in-game journal right about now. And not the crappy paper one in his drawer, either. Something that lit up in front of his face on command, none of this carrying it under his arm crap.

The light from his flashlight glinted off the metal of the superguy's gun. Oh boy. There was definitely going to be a fight, then, if they wanted to get past. Scott had some weapon-like implements on him, but Remy didn't look like he had anything aside from his now-trembling fists. "Stay close," he told the shorter guy, furrowing his eyebrows at the hooded stranger.

"Heh, bedtime is for pussies," Scott quipped back, putting on a confident grin to cover for the fact that that gun was looking really, really intimidating. "And you know what they say, 'No rest for the wicked.' The wicked awesome, anyway." He took a few challenging steps forward, keeping Remy close behind him. He kept his heels slightly off the ground, ready to get the hell out of Dodge if necessary. He really couldn't place this guy's costume. It seemed so familiar, though. Why couldn't he put a name to the helmet? It was starting to make him even more nervous. No, no, no, gotta keep a solid front! Never show fear to the enemy! Never let them see your underwear! Er, wait-

"Who are you supposed to be, anyway? The Red Menace?" Scott asked, hoping the question came off as just an action hero quip and not an actual attempt to figure out the guy's identity. He could hear others coming in behind him now, but he didn't want to take his eyes off the stranger just yet. It would proooooobably be a bad idea to look away from a guy with a gun.

[tiny_chef]

Remy heard the group come in behind him and Scott, and gave them a quick glance; the fact that one of the people was Meche, who he'd met that morning, made him think that they were more likely to be friends than a threat. Or maybe they wouldn't care at all. Maybe it would be every man for himself.

His heartbeat raced, and his eyes were wide with alarm, and -- why was Scott, who looked like he might have been equal to a couple of cats, goading the big scary guy with the gun? Remy knew that there was a time to stand and fight, and a time to escape, and this was the latter. The only reason he listened to Scott's suggestion that he stay close was that he found he was rooted to the spot, physically unable to obey his pulse's insistent whisper: runrun, runrun, runrun.

He should have listened to Meche, he knew. And to his roommate, and everyone else. It might have been the catastrophic nature of this revelation that kept him from moving.

The thing was that even though Dad had always been right in the strictest technical sense about humans and danger, Remy wouldn't have accomplished anything through close adherence to his admonitions. He would still just be a thieving rat, not a chef, not really himself. Now, he was forced to admit that the same matter of identity didn't exist at Landel's. People weren't warning him to keep him in his place; they were warning him to help him.

[scintillatingly]

[From here.]

As Sora crossed the Sun Room at a run, all he could think about was that he should have had his Keyblade in hand. The fact that he had his full outfit and could feel his crown necklace bouncing against his chest as he jogged just made it more obvious. But the only way he was going to get his Keyblade to cooperate was if he provoked the antagonist for tonight to take a shot at him.

Probably wasn't the best idea to start off with something like that, though. Sora wanted to check on the other two first, and just judging by how they looked, he was going to guess that Scott was the more experienced one.

"Hey!" he greeted between catching his breath. He really hoped Soma was behind him, but he'd manage on his own for now. "We're here to lend you guys a hand. It might be a good idea to start running once we've got him distracted," he explained. Sora wasn't sure how easily Scott would agree to something like that, but it was worth a shot.

Realizing that he might as well get the Special Counseling patient to notice him, Sora took a step forward and spoke up. "Haven't you figured out by now that no one ever listens?" he asked with a somewhat cocky grin. Not the smartest move, but that wasn't what Sora was aiming for. He just wanted the guy to focus on him first.

[madeinthehrl]

Soma stayed close on Sora's heels, keeping her breathing steady. The man blocking their path had a gun, she noticed, though the lack of light made it difficult for her to guess the caliber. The chance it was the same as the one she had obtained in Doyletown was probably low. That was a pity, but it might be worth trying to disarm him nonetheless. She was aware they were only here to provide a distraction, but she hadn't yet grown used to the idea that she could be bested that easily in a fight, especially if she had backup.

Sora was addressing the brainwashed patient, hopefully drawing his attention away from everyone else, and Soma took the opportunity to glance at the young men they had decided to assist. Neither of them seemed particularly used to fighting, in her limited experience, but looks could be deceiving. Unwilling to draw attention to herself by speaking out loud, she settled for a meaningful look and a barely perceptible nod toward the cafeteria doors.

[no_ones_son]

Well, one thing for the crazies here, they were good enough to make picking his first target easy. Still idly playing with the gun Jason grinned to himself as the loud one kept running his mouth off. It was more fun having an opponent who talked back and this one didn't seem to know when to shut up. He was the first one tonight to try and guess Jason's identity too and he was close - maybe this one had been shipped from somewhere near Gotham. Or it was just that codenames tended to be pretty easy to guess unless they were completely stupid. "You're half right. I could give you a hint but I don't thinking knowing my name is going to help you much. And I'd tell you to consider being a pussy for tonight but if you were to type to do the smart thing you wouldn't be here, would you?"

He had been expecting the other group to make a break for it while he was apparently focussed on this pair and they did start running. Right over to him. Jason wasn't used to the crazies working together, at least for longer than it took to stab each other in the back, but if they wanted to play hero for some reason it was fine by him. Made his job easier.

'Course they'd do a lot better if they tried to keep their 'plan' to themselves - did they think he was deaf? Or stupid? Of course they were going to try and distract him so the rest of the group could escape. But, in the interests of being polite and fair and shit - and having some fun himself - he waited for them to turn their attention on him.

"Oh, now we're getting to the distracting me part of the plan?" he replied cheerfully when the kid finally decided to address him. Shrugging he went on, "Yeah, I know none of you crazy bastards are going to do as you're told but, see, I have to warn you."

The girl got a quick, measuring look as she arrived, apparently completing the set. He could see the spear she was carrying but the darkness worked against him too when it came to spotting other, less obvious weapons they might have. The others seemed to be unarmed but with the way things had been going so far he wasn't betting on that being the case.

"If I don't at least give you a fair warning there's all kinds of trouble when I do this." At the last word, Jason abruptly stopped playing with the gun, firing off three shots in rapid succession at the group, trying to aim for non-lethal hits. He wasn't looking to kill a kid, no matter how crazy or what company he kept. The rest either - for now.

[vsyourface]

Scott just kept grinning as the redhead taunted him. "Yeah, you got that about right. Besides, I promised my girlfriend I'd stop being a pussy. Wouldn't want to go back on a promise, would I?"

His eyes widened suddenly when one of the people from behind ran up beside him. It was totally Sora. Full Heartless butt-kicking mode and everything. Oh this was even better. How was this doof in the helmet expecting to take on two main character types at once? He just couldn't, simple as that. Or simple and clean, as it were. "I don't know about me, but my friend here could probably use that kind of help," he answered quietly, jerking a thumb at the frozen Remy. He could already hear one of the other girls trying to call Remy over to her by name. Good, someone he probably knew. He'd probably he better off running with her, then.

Just before he could send Remy off to his friend, however, he heard Red Sonja or whatever speak again before pointing the gun. The word "this" was like a trigger in and of itself, making Scott jump backwards as the first shot rang out. No hit, thankfully. He grabbed Remy's arm as he passed, pulling him backwards and out of the way of the second shot. "Go with your lady friend!" he told the younger guy, quickly reaching into his front pocket and then tossing his box cutter Remy's way.

Unfortunately, by the time Scott had finished throwing the box cutter, Red Dawn had already fired off a third shot. Had Scott been in his own universe, he might have had the speed and flexibility to dodge the speeding bullet by one dramatic hair. Scott was not in his universe, though. The Law of Rising Dramatic Tension did not apply here. His reaction time was slowed, and the bullet grazed deep across his lower right thigh. "AGH! FFFFFF-!" Scott clenched his fists, biting down hard on his lower lip to keep from giving his opponent the satisfaction of a string of curses. He couldn't see the blood in the dark, but he could feel it oozing against the fabric of his jeans and trickling down his leg. When was the last time he'd really bled like that? Shit!

Scott looked up, clearly pissed now. "Nice warning, Red . . . Whatever-Your-Name-Is. Here's one of my warnings right back atcha!" He started a dash, forgetting Sora and the unfamiliar girl for now. This smug asshole was not going to get away with shooting him just like that.

His running was crooked and obviously hampered by the hit, but surprisingly fast even still. He kept his light on the gun barrel, watching for any more shots and ready to dodge. When he got close enough, he launched himself upward with his good leg, putting all the strength he could into it. It wasn't as high a jump as he could achieve back home, but still the jump seemed to defy gravity just that extra little bit, enough to put him higher than Red Dwarf's head. On the way down, he put out his foot, aiming a flying kick straight for that faceless, mocking helmet.   

[tiny_chef]

So many things were happening at once, and it wasn't like the organized chaos of a kitchen, a hive of activity in which everyone had a well-defined task. The closest thing to this in Remy's experience was the end of the colony's time on the farm, the hasty and scattered escape of everyone he knew. At the time, it had seemed like the end of the world.

This was a bit different. Scott was still standing his ground, saying something about his girlfriend thinking he was a coward, and two more people from the new group had joined him, a boy and a girl. Both were small, even smaller than Remy himself. The boy was offering help, and Scott seemed pleased to see him. How could they help?

Remy experienced a pervasive feeling of unreality, as the confrontation progressed; he heard Meche call softly to him, but he couldn't move. The guy with the gun was bantering and threatening. Finally, there was a sharp, echoing noise, and Remy started.

The effect of the first shot was to snap Remy out of his terrified stupor. He ducked, and Scott pulled him aside at the same time, tossing something and shouting about his "lady friend." In an automatic motion that was almost defensive, he caught what Scott had thrown (it was that, or being hit in the head with it), then scurried in Meche's direction.

[To here.]

[scintillatingly]

As expected, Soma had been almost right on his tail. Sora figured that the more people fighting this guy, the better, but he also wanted to make sure that the ill-equipped got out of the way as soon as possible.

It looked like Scott was more than ready to handle things, and Sora shot him a quick grin before sending the other patient a worried glance. This must have been the one who Mercedes had been telling him about earlier. Luckily, the woman seemed to have things under control, seeing how she called out to the guy -- Remy was his name, it sounded like.

Just as Sora had been preparing to grab Remy by the arm and give him a friendly shove in Mercedes' direction, the brainwashed patient decided he was sick of just chatting with them. The gunshots were painfully loud, causing Sora to wince. Still, he made sure to jump out of the way, feeling his heart start to race when one of the bullets just barely missed his foot. The good thing was that it was enough to make his Keyblade appear in a bright, almost blinding flash of light.

By then, Remy had run away, but Scott was screaming out in pain. Sora frowned as the boy rushed ahead of him toward the Special Counseling patient... Did he really know what he was doing?

Sora had had every intention of following up after Scott, but that was when he heard someone from the other side of the room call his name. Frowning, he stepped to the side, giving Soma the space to go help fight while he figured out who had just yelled for him.

That was when he saw him, up against the wall. "Neku!" he yelled back. And was he with... Joshua? Well, Sora couldn't think too much about that now -- not when he was in the middle of a fight like this. Seeing how both he and Soma were armed (Scott didn't seem to be, but he obviously knew what he was doing), Sora was pretty sure they had things covered. "I got it! Don't worry about me!" He even risked a wave before turning back to the fight, figuring that it wouldn't be too long before the guy got trigger happy again.

[madeinthehrl]

So Meche knew the boy. That was helpful; at the very least, it might finally prompt him into running for the cafeteria. Soma remained silent, tensed, watching the gun in the other patient's hands. She knew by now that her reflexes wouldn't provide her enough time to push anyone out of the way, but at the very least, she could avoid injury to herself.

Meche's friend ran for it at the first gunshot, and Soma twisted slightly as the bullet tore through the space her shoulder had been a moment before. Good. Still not entirely useless, then, though a cry of pain alerted her to the fact that not everyone had escaped unscathed. A flash of light ahead distracted her for a moment; Sora seemed to be holding a large key, and she was sure he hadn't had one before.

In any case, she wasn't going to judge his choice of weapons now. Sora had stepped away from the fight for a moment, and she decided to seize the opportunity. The gunshot injury hadn't seemed to faze the other young man overmuch, as he was already launching an attack. Soma darted in, spear sweeping in low as she brought it toward the SC patient's legs. She didn't want to kill him as much as immobilize him for the time being.

[no_ones_son]

That was... different. Shooting at the kid had apparently made him pop out a giant freaking key. Jason considered himself difficult to shock - something about dying and waking up months later knocked that right out of you - but meta-kids producing fucking keys out of nowhere was damn surprising no matter what other shit you'd seen. Not to mention stupid but it still looked dangerous in spite of being nothing but a huge ass key.

Seeing the giant fucking key appear out of nowhere was distracting enough that Jason didn't get another shot off before loudmouth was charging at him, the girl close behind. Jason knew the moron had been hit by one of his shots before but it clearly hadn't been bad enough to slow him down. He was fast and not half bad - the jump was something he would've been impressed to see the Dick pull off.

Jason couldn't avoid the attack and loudmouth's foot slammed into the hood, knocking it into his head painfully even with the inside lining cushioning the impact. Chuckling in amusement, Jason launched himself into a backflip to avoid the spear sweeping towards his legs.

"Not bad, why don't you try this on for size?" he called back as he sprang off his free hand and landed in a crouch a distance from the group, emptying the rest of the clip at them.

...Now that he thought about it, that may not have been the best idea if he had been planning on keeping this non-lethal. Oops.

[There were seven rounds left in the gun, spread among the three of them. Let me know if there's a problem with this.]

[vsyourface]

It was incredibly satisfying to hit the guy in the head so squarely. Scott pushed off of the helmet to finish the hit, landing slightly to the side of his opponent in a crouch of his own. Out of the corner of his eye, he had caught the flash of Sora's Keyblade appearing, which inspired further confidence in him. Remy and his friend were both out of the way now as well; even better. Then the mystery white-haired chick rushed in with a pretty potent spear swipe of her own. Even though the attack had missed, he could tell that he wouldn't want to have been the guy hit by it. Oh yeah. We got this, Scott told himself, trying to ignore his persisting fear of the gun.

This time when Red Sox opened fire, Scott was better ready for it. He rolled out of the way with a mental tap of the L2 button, avoiding the first shot aimed at him. He tightened his grip on the pipe he had, ready to dodge again and spring forward for another attack. Pushing off with his good foot again, Scott propelled himself forward like a human rocket, ready to wail on the guy's arm and knock the gun away.

The disadvantage to the intense acceleration, however, was that it became harder for Scott to divert his course quickly. Another bullet sped his way. Scott started veering to the right. He put too much pressure on his injured leg. With a hiss, he slowed for a split second. Bad move. The bullet tore through his right shoulder. Eyes widened. "SHITCOCK!" shouted the boy who normally shunned swearing.

It was too late to stop moving, however; he had built up too much momentum and gotten too close now. Gritting his teeth and furrowing his eyebrows in a way that would make the likes of Wolverine and Kenshiro proud, Scott pushed to close the rest of the distance. His arm was shrieking, but he ignored it, focusing on the flow of pure adrenaline instead. The thick pipe was raised over his head, then slammed down in the direction of the asshole's wrist. "Take THAT!"         

[scintillatingly]

When Neku moved on, having acknowledged Sora's reassurance, the boy quickly turned back to the fight. Scott really did have potential, if they way he'd smacked their opponent in the head was any indication. Soma's attack didn't hit home, unfortunately, but they couldn't win them all.

Either way, Sora had some catching up to do, especially when the guy they were fighting kept backing away. That was a good sign, though, right? It meant they were cornering him. Just as Sora started running up to close the gap, though, he realized why the man had been moving away from them. The volley of gunshots was startling enough that it was only instinct that forced Sora into bringing up his Keyblade to deflect one of the bullets.

Unfortunately, the guy wasn't going easy on them, and he fired off more shots than Sora was able to count in all of the chaos. While he tried to keep moving, one ended up catching him in the side, drawing a pained yell out of him. His hand went to the afflicted area for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he felt the stickiness there, but it wasn't enough to stop Sora -- especially not when Scott was still going even though he'd been hit twice.

Gritting his teeth, Sora followed up after Scott's attack, swinging his Keyblade around in a slash aimed at the brainwashed patient's legs. He didn't want to hurt the guy too bad, but they needed to get him stunned so that they could make a proper getaway.

[madeinthehrl]

Soma's eyes narrowed in frustration as the patient backflipped out of the way, but she recovered her balance quickly and kept moving forward, unwilling to give him the advantage of range. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the boy who'd been shot move forward; Sora seemed to be closing in as well.

Her body reacted instinctively to the gunshots, reflexes taking over where mental calculations would have been of little use, and Soma let it. It was impossible to avoid all of the bullets completely, and she hissed softly as one ripped through her arm, but she didn't slow down. It hadn't struck anything vital, and it would heal with time. The important thing was to take the patient down first. Soma wasn't sure where he'd come from or what his world was like, but as far as she was concerned, he had to be close to running out of ammunition. Reloading would take precious time, and she intended to take advantage of it.

Sora was pulling his weapon back; the apparent angle indicated an attack on the patient's lower half. Soma settled for raising her spear and bringing the wooden shaft down toward his head. Even if it didn't connect, it might succeed in forcing him further back. They had to corner him eventually.

[no_ones_son]

He'd gone upset the poor little crazy. If loudmouth didn't like being shot then he should really learn to make himself less of an entertaining target.

"Awww, did that hurt? Maybe you should take a time-out to cry about it," Jason mocked as he caught loudmouth's pipe on the barrel of the gun. The blow sent it skittering out of his hand and away out of sight in the dark. No loss. It was useless to him now as anything more than a blunt instrument.

The kid with his stupid ass key was right behind loudmouth, following up with a swing that knocked his legs out from under him. Jason immediately rolled to the side as he hit the ground, using the momentum to propel himself back to his feet drawing his dagger as he rose. He was just in time to catch the shaft of the spear on his blade before it hit his head. Again with the head. Made him glad he wore head protection.

Unseen by the group, Jason smirked and set off the closest flash grenade, a loud bang the only warning before the area was covered in a thick cloud of smoke. Moving in quickly he grabbed for the shaft of the spear and lashed out with a palm strike aimed at the girl's head. See how she liked it.

[vsyourface]

"Shut up! Shut your big invisible mouth!" Scott shouted back. Now that he had knocked the gun out of the guy's hand, he felt a tiny bit better, but that didn't make up for the gaping HOLE IN HIS SHOULDER GODDAMNIT IT HURT. Why did getting shot hurt so much more than all the other pummeling he'd taken in his life? Was it just because everything else had just been surface level - punches, kicks, energy blasts, that sort of thing?

The next sequence of events happened almost too fast for Scott to keep up with. Sora knocked the enemy off his feet, sending him backing away yet again. White-haired Chick (Anime girl? Sephiroth genderbend? Possible relative of Benjamin Button?) went for the head, but was blocked. Then the action was all covered up by a freaking smokescreen. "Hax! I call hax!" Scott snapped as he lashed out in the smoke with his pipe, trying to find the douchenozzle. Suddenly, he saw a quick burst of smoke moving in one direction at about head level. It was either Red Bunghole or one of his new teammates. No time to guess. He couldn't just keep swinging at nothing, especially not with his arm hurting worse and worse. He took a swing at where he guessed the target's midsection was, hoping to hear the sound of pipe hitting douchey, douchey gut.

[scintillatingly]

Sora felt a surge of triumph when his hit connected, but the guy they were fighting clearly knew what he was doing. Even though he fell, he was back on his feet in a matter of seconds -- and holding a knife, at that! Sora wasn't sure where that had come from all of a sudden, but at least they didn't have to worry about the gun anymore. A knife would be much easier to block against.

The boy was proud to see that Soma was just as on top of it as he was, watching as she closed in on the brainwashed patient. The man guarded her attack, unfortunately, and Sora was just about to follow up after Soma (they couldn't give him a moment to rest!) when there was yet another loud noise. While it thankfully wasn't a gunshot this time, the fast-spreading smoke wasn't much better. It would be far too easy for the guy to start swinging his knife around and catching them with it, if they weren't careful.

Fighting like this was going to be near impossible, and so it didn't take long for Sora's mind to jump to the next objective: getting away. He hadn't forgotten that Mercedes and Scott's friend were still waiting for them. "We might want to use this as a chance to run!" he yelled as he stumbled through the smoke, searching for Soma or Scott. It was just as likely he'd run into their enemy, but Sora wasn't going to make a run for it without them -- even if his side was throbbing like nothing else.