Night 48: Grand Ballroom

[sasuke_of_sound]

[[from here]]The only place in the Institute Sasuke was truly uncomfortable navigating was the basement. He'd walked the halls of the structure aboveground enough days and nights by now to know the layout like the back of his hands; he used the hand that was beginning to grow slightly callused from nights of following the walls as a secondary

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[idontregret]

Somewhere at the other end of the room, two heads belonging to the same creature rose abruptly, catching the sound and sent of the approaching patients. A large figure shifted from where it had sat in wait. It rose to all fours and began padding silently around the perimeter. If it came at them too soon, they would flee back up the stairs and it wouldn't have the opportunity to do with them as it pleased.

Its claws twitched in impatience, every muscle in its body tensing in anticipation at being able to spring upon its prey. It had been far too long since Agni had been allowed a real hunt.

[zack_fair]

Adjusting to a sudden light source was enough to make Zack pause for a second. Everywhere else he'd been thus far had been pitch dark, but this place... Well, he could actually see the detail as his eyes adjusted and he took in what looked to be a massive ballroom.

He marveled at the sheer size of the room with his mouth hanging slightly open. Even though he'd gotten a small description, that didn't really match up to the real deal. Why build something like this under a mental hospital?

Then again, he knew from experience that places that stood out to this extent were usually important, so he got the feeling that they were on the right track.

Just as he was about to say something, though, his eyes focused in on movement further ahead. The torches gave him enough of a light source to make it perfectly clear that that was not another patient. Zack had seen monsters that looked similar enough -- it seemed like he'd finally run into one of the creatures here

[blood_and_pocky]

The underground ballroom was far larger than any of the indoor spaces above, and that alone meant extra caution. With its expanse, the columns that ringed it, and the burbling of the fountain, it was difficult to know what might lay in the areas out of sight. But movement that wasn’t theirs, however slight, was like ripples in a pond

[sasuke_of_sound]

The same movements of other two that Sasuke relied on to pinpoint their position were what prevented him from noticing the faint sound that marked tonight's guardian for this area. It took Zack's warning for the tension already-marked in Sasuke's posture to sharpen into threat -- he turned fully in the direction opposite to Zack, and then Aidou's, voice

[noifsandsorbubs]

[from here]

It was immediately obvious that the room was bigger than anywhere he'd been so far. The tiny lights of what looked like candles outlined the walls far from him and Scott, and sounds bounced of the walls and a ceiling so high Logan wasn't sure where it ended.

He paused on the stairs and held his hand up for the kid to stop. There was just enough light in the room to see that the three kids who'd gone first weren't alone, but not enough to tell exactly what the hell the other thing was. After years of dealing with the weird and the dangerous, you learned to pick things up from little abstract cues, even from far away: it looked like the three considered the thing a threat, but not one they couldn't handle. It was the same way the kids were back home; they knew how to defend themselves, but they needed time and discussion for tactics.

"'Let's do this thing,' huh?" he said, shooting Scott a wry glance over his shoulder.

[vsyourface]

Scott gulped audibly. "Yeah. 'Huh' indeed."

If the sight of the massive ballroom hadn't been enough to overload Scott's tiny, fragile mind, then the tall, two-headed red thing jumping out of the shadows and going for the guys already on the ground surely was. First level and there was already a boss-type monster? Sunnuva-Still, Scott did not want to lose too much face in front of Logan of all people. He wanted to tough it out for at least a little while longer before he deemed it okay to run away in terror. Gritting his teeth, he maneuvered his way a little further down the stairs after the mutant. He shone some extra light on the large, ornate wooden doors, careful to avoid shining the light near the Angry Red Giant. "Might be able to make it to one of those doors if we're fast enough," Scott said, though with obvious indecision in his voice. He was keen on getting to another room without having to fight the monster, but he didn't exactly feel great about leaving the other group to take on the creature by themselves. So, he gave

[noifsandsorbubs]

Whatever was behind those doors interested him, too, but Logan's personal feeling on bad planning was that you had to rip it up as soon as it appeared. Dubious plans were okay for him, but kids had to learn different.

"So you're suggesting that we leave the safe ground behind us," he gestured to the trapdoor, "run through dangerous ground," he pointed to the ballroom, "and head into who-knows-what? That's potentially puttin' yourself in a situation where you can't fall back. You don't want to do that. Best thing would be to get rid of this guy first." He looked back at the kids down below. Kids could be touchy about getting help - they thought they were hot shit until they picked up some humility the painful way, most of the time - but if they looked like they needed it he was going to have to be there either way, so leaving now wasn't really an option.

[vsyourface]

There was a somewhat long pause on Scott's end. "Well. Uh. That's . . . why I said 'might.' It was a very remote 'might.' . . . Right."

Embarrassment aside, Logan's idea, while still not one that seemed like it would be guaranteed to work out, was at least better than the picture he had just painted of Scott's suggestion. Scott wasn't quite sure how they were going to 'get rid of' the Angry Red Giant, but he figured they'd have a better chance with three others in the room than the two of them alone might have.

Down below, the monster went for one of the guys on the ground, while one of the others shouted for them to move back. Uh oh. Maybe Scott had thought too soon on the five-on-one front, if they were going to retreat. "You got your- uh, any weapons handy?" he asked, just barely able to turn "You got your claws in this place?" into a less suspicious sentence. He held up his own metal pipe, the only weapon he had handy other than his fists and the crutch.

[notachick]

[from hereThe walk down the stairs was long, longer than he thought it would take, but his focus had drilled to a point with the end of the stairs being the terminus. While Teresa had been down this way before, Okita and Kenren had not as far as Okita knew. That Homura wasn't here to share in this smallish victory was a sore spot, but Okita trusted his friend would catch up to them soon