Night 52: Sun Room
[from here]
Last time he'd been in the Sun Room at night, there'd been some crazy guy with a gun and Neku really wasn't looking to have another bullet in him, so he was cautious as he pushed the door open, his flashlight darting from place to place. He might not have all his old psychs on him, but he still had a few of Mr. H's pins and those would ( Read more... )
Last time he'd been in the Sun Room at night, there'd been some crazy guy with a gun and Neku really wasn't looking to have another bullet in him, so he was cautious as he pushed the door open, his flashlight darting from place to place. He might not have all his old psychs on him, but he still had a few of Mr. H's pins and those would ( Read more... )
That seemed unlikely, but in any case there wasn't time to warn him. There were knoblike protrusions sticking out from the side of the tube closest to her--something that looked like a face, in the flickering light of the Sun Room--and she leapt for them, hoping to grab on and climb up from the front, even as Sora appeared on the back of the mobile suit--
Soma hit the ground hard as the mobile suit leapt over her, gritting her teeth as she tucked into a roll to cushion the fall. Timing. Her reflexes were too slow here, too sluggish in comparison to her movements at home, always half a step behind her brainwaves. She rose into a crouching position and turned back just in time to see some unknown substance sprayed at her. She whipped her head back again, closing her eyes, but the stuff managed to cover the better part of her body even as she tried to evade it.
She managed about three steps back before she encountered resistance. The substance had fused her shoes to the floor, and stuck parts of her clothing fast to her skin. Glue? Some sort of powerful adhesive? Whatever it was, she was stuck here for the moment, and it probably wasn't wise to try to slip out of her shoes until the area around her had dried, too.
The shields, prompted Marie, and Soma nodded grimly. "Neku!" she called. "Try not to heal at all if you can help it! I don't know what that light was, but it's best not to risk hurting yourself again!"
She pulled at her shoes again, hard: still stuck. Instead she leveled her gun at the back of the mobile suit and waited. Too risky to fire now--she might hit Sora--but as soon as she saw an opening...
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He'd worked with Sora before, but the girl was new. Even so, it was kind of surprising that they were able to work well together as a team. The distraction seemed to work, at least it was enough to wobble the machine's legs so that Sora could hop on. What Neku didn't expect though, was for the whole spider thing to jump up and go flying across the room, shaking the ground with how hard it landed.
And then there was whatever the spider was spraying. He put up his arms to block, which kept at least some of it from his face, but his uniform, his hair, even his JoTM brand name headphones. It stung his open wounds, but as he moved to try to wipe it from his arms, his fingers came back sticky, not only that, trying to tug his feet up from the floor was even difficult. At least his pins weren't going anywhere...
He heard Soma's shout and nodded, but now that he was effectively stuck in one spot, what the hell was he supposed to do? The old guy had put the pink shields around Soma and Sora too, if he healed them, it might bounce back, if he fired a Psych at any of them, he was screwed. He couldn't even dodge now that his feet were glued to the floor. If he'd brought his full set, he could've at least cast a barrier spell of his own, but here he was, just standing around helplessly.
Neku sighed his discontent, flinging his last picture frame where the spray of glue had come from. If he got out of this muck, he didn't want to give the guy any chances to spray them again. It didn't fly quite as hard as he would've liked; the glue hadn't quite hardened, so he supposed he should be glad it left his hand at all.
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The plan had been to close in to attack the weak spot at the exact same time that Soma got there, so that they could get him from either side, but that didn't quite go as expected. When the air was released from the legs and the mech started to flatten, Sora almost lost his balance. He made sure to fall forward and grip an edge of the mech as tightly as possible, since he had a feeling he knew what was coming--
As he'd guessed, the whole machine managed to jump in the air, causing the boy to hold on for dear life as he waited for it to hit the ground again. What went up had to come down, and so it did; the spider-shaped mech landed with a lot of impact, causing Sora's body to slam hard against the metal. It was enough to knock the wind out of him for a couple seconds, and he was definitely going to be sore in the morning, but he'd at least avoided falling off.
"C'mon," he said, mainly to himself. They had to do this! Even if they only stunned him for a moment, it would be something. And so the boy slowly got to his feet, using his Keyblade to pull himself up. He was still standing on the thing's back, though a quick glance around showed that his two teammates were incapacitated, at least for the moment.
Which meant one thing: it was up to him! "Don't think we'll give up that easy," he called out as he moved forward on the mech's back, reaching the spot where the old man was seated as he slashed forward with his weapon.
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But Porky had bigger fish to fry. While the two other brats were stuck, the third one was currently climbing all over Porky's mech and being an asshole in general. Of course, Porky wasn't an idiot. He knew that there was no way that he'd be able to deflect the attack in time. Nevertheless, he grinned. The key came crashing down, shattering a good part of the glass tube protecting Porky. As he shouted in faux horror, Porky raised the two back legs of the mech and swung both of them at the boy. With any luck, at least one of them would connect and send him flying into the glue.
"Come on, guys!" Porky shouted above the din of battle, "What's the point of all this? You're not going to win, and even if by some freakish chance you do, what would you have to gain? One night that you could spend running around this cage? It's not like you'll find out anything important! Really, why bother taking your life into your own hands when you could just let the other idiots do all the work for you?"
"Of course, you'll probably take this speech as the cue to give one of your own..." Porky grumbled to himself.
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Soma had never been the sort for speeches--she would leave that to Sora, who seemed the speech-making type. Instead, she clenched her jaw and pulled harder at her shoes--there, there was some give, she might make it yet--
Which was when she saw the back legs rise up and swing at Sora. With a final burst of adrenaline, she yanked her legs free and ran toward the mobile armor.
The rest of its legs had returned to the ground by now, giving it the appearance of a scorpion. One bullet left before she could reload; Soma fired it at one of the legs nearest her, hoping to tilt the mobile armor toward her as she, too, sought to leap onto the now-unprotected tube.
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It wasn't like Neku hadn't thought plenty about the stuff the chubby old guy was yelling already. Everything reset in the morning, but at least it meant that other patients who maybe couldn't handle the fight didn't get hurt.
And then Sora managed to shatter the tube, leaving their target unprotected. So even if he couldn't use Psychs, couldn't find anything to throw, and couldn't really help from a distance, if he could get in close, a well-placed kick just might come in handy.
Soma managed to break free of the glue, which at least told him it was possible, so he set to getting his own legs free, stumbling a little as one jerked loose and other was a little late in following. Once free, Neku charged toward the mecha, hoping the other two would be enough to keep the old man occupied.
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But it wasn't that easy. One of the legs came out of nowhere and hit Sora in the side hard enough that he flew right off of the mech's back. He crashed to the floor, his body sliding right into a huge puddle of the glue. It covered most his upper body, leaving him to try and kick with his legs to attempt to get himself out.
He'd been so close! Forcing down feelings of frustration, Sora just did what he could to try and get his arms to move, while also focusing on the feeling of his fingers wrapped around the hilt of his Keyblade. He couldn't lose it, not yet!
And while he normally was the type to give speeches, Sora was a bit too distracted to do that at the moment. He was trying to tell himself that Soma and Neku would be able to handle things until he was free, but his heart was pounding in his chest with concern for them. He needed to help, before something went wrong!
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Of course, things were rarely that simple. The shot the girl fired from her gun wasn't reflected by the PSI shield like the emo kid's projectiles were, so the mech was knocked off kilter for a moment due to the bullet. Of course, Porky hadn't just changed the music with that command input, and the electricity, while nice and intimidating, wasn't just for show. It only took a moment for the mech to right itself and continue with Porky's maneuver.
The mech leaped into the air and came crashing down behind the group again, spinning to face Porky's enemies in midair. Making sure to keep four legs on the ground to preserve his agility and balance, Porky had the four front legs dart forward at the group, blunt sides first. Porky had been told to keep the idiots alive for whatever reason, and Landel didn't seem like the type to enjoy being disobeyed. At the very worst, the legs would break a bone or two.
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But the old man was putting up more of a fight than she'd expected. For all that the cockpit was shattered and that anyone who could get up there and hold the pilot at gunpoint would be assured of victory in moments--they'd have to get up there first. Right now, as she turned to face the mobile armor once more, that was seeming more and more difficult.
Not that she was giving up. Not by a long shot. They had already established that the armor was vulnerable; all they had to do now was switch up their tactics.
She glanced around quickly as the mobile armor came in for another round, trying to take stock of the situation. Neku was free of the gluey substance, but Sora seemed to have gotten stuck. That was worrying, especially as the mobile armor's front legs swung in toward them.
There wasn't time to reload. Soma emptied the magazine with a huff of disgust and waited again for the armor to come closer. It didn't take long--it seemed as if it were moving faster this time--and as one of the legs descended toward Sora, she hurled herself at it from the side, hoping to knock it aside before it could reach her teammate.
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The machine itself though, did look a good deal more ominous and potentially life threatening as it came crashing down behind them, a flurry of metal and lightning. Neku had to whirl around just to face it, and then there was the flailing limbs to worry about. Soma was first to come to their team-mate's aid and assist Sora by throwing herself at the mecha, so Neku picked up the slack and went after the thing himself. Even if the machine could move fast, it was still clumsy, huge, and at least a little slower than a scrawny teenager with psychic and telekinetic powers rumbling around in his head like a bunch of static.
Sora had the right idea about getting up on its back, so he skidded on sticky boots, weaving through the legs so he could try to get at the back. Once he had a handhold, he had to wonder; now that he was in so close, would the Psychs work? Mr. H cautioned to be careful about using it in close range, but there were few other options. He set to clinging onto the back of the machine while he concentrated on the Psych. Sure enough, the thing sent out a shockwave of psychokinetic energy, sharp and pointed as the scalpels and swords the pin was named after. Either they'd finally do some real damage, or Neku was really going to be hating life come morning.
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What was even worse was when the mech started racing straight for him, planning to attack. Sora would have been dead meat it if hadn't been for his two teammates racing forward to distract their enemy, though Sora gasped when he realized what Neku was doing. "Don't get too close to it!" he warned as he fought even harder to free himself.
Finally he got out of the glue, using a dodge roll to get further away from the skirmish. He wouldn't let his friends' attempt to protect him go to waste. Sora wished he could just use a Strike Raid and attack the mech from afar, but he doubted that his Keyblade was capable of that right now. And magic was clearly out, so...
Right as he was going to attempt another attack, though, Sora heard his radio go off inside his pocket. The sound was muffled both by the music that the old guy was playing and the general noise caused by a fight like this, and so Sora yelled over to Neku once more. "It's the radio! Listen, if you can!" He knew that the other boy had headphones, so he was hoping he'd be able to at least catch the most important bits.
Tightening his grip on his weapon, Sora wiped as much of the glue off of his body as he could with his free hand as he stared their opponent down. He knew that trying to reason with him would be pointless, which meant that he'd just have to resort to taunting to get the guy's attention. "Hey, big guy!" he said, waving one hand in the air. "Over here!"
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In the meantime, Porky could deal with the two other idiots. The girl had decided that the best course of action would be to throw herself into the way of one of the mech's legs. Needless to say, the closest leg connected and hit her with significant force. Porky leaned in closer to hear if anything cracked, but it sounded as if all of her bones were intact. Tch. Hopefully it caused some internal bleeding at least. The three other legs, however, missed their targets completely, given that two were aimed at the girl and the other two were aimed at the key boy. Since the girl had thrown herself in the path of one of the legs aimed at key boy and he had rolled away before they could connect, three attacks were completely wasted. Well, at least one had connected.
"You just signed your own death warrant, kid!" Porky shouted as the key brat waved his arms around like a fool, "If you think you can seriously beat me, you're in for a...shock?"
As Porky bellowed out his taunt, he couldn't help but notice that the crackling of the electricity was growing louder and louder. It's true that turbo mode wasn't good for the mech, but it certainly didn't damage it too much. Of course, Porky had failed to take into account the beating that the mech had taken before the mode's activation. Even worse, Porky had never thought to test the effects of turbo mode on the mech when the glass tube was broken. As the the buzzing grew louder and louder, the arcs of electricity increased in length and frequency. Suddenly, without warning, a beam of purple electricity shot out from the mech's control panel and shot out right at Porky's face.
The sheer force of the bolt sent Porky flying out of the remains of the glass tube and into the east wall of the sun room. With a pained grunt, Porky slammed against the wall and crumpled into a heap when he hit the ground. After merely laying there for a moment, his muscles spasming involuntarily from the electricity coursing in his body, Porky finally raised an arm attempted to pull himself up.
"You've got to shitting me..." Porky coughed, his entire body shaking, "This is impossible...how could...I be defeated?" He slowly sat up and shakily got to his feet, "I...what's this...sensation? Am I...dying?" Trembling, Porky stood up and hobbled over to the bulletin board and scribbled something down before collapsing. Then, just as the ex-king stopped breathing, the music coming from the mech changed once more.
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She forced herself into a sitting position, taking slow breaths. It didn't feel as if she'd injured herself internally, but her entire torso ached and she knew there would at least be bruising come morning. That worry allayed, she looked up just in time to see the old man go flying out of the mobile armor and into the far wall. The lights in the Sun Room and the electricity still crackling from the armor allowed her to make out the man scribbling something down before he collapsed.
"Was that--?" she managed, before breaking into a hoarse cough and shaking her head. Unhelpful. She struggled to her feet and stumbled toward the old man's prone form, reaching out an unsteady hand to check for a pulse.
Marie knew before she did; the pang of sorrow hit Soma before she had time to realize it wasn't her own. She could only shake her head wordlessly as she tried to get her own breath back.
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The radio went off again and Neku managed to focus long enough to retain it, even if everything else was fuzzy.
The sudden bolt of purple lightning that erupted from the machine was surprising enough to jar him back to reality though. What the hell had just happened? Before he could ask, what was left of the mecha played some kind of ridiculous victory fanfare.
He pushed himself up from the floor to his knees, the blood running down the side of his face and the countless other cuts and bruises and abrasions was all his own. They won, but he'd no idea how. Some kind of luck? Chance? Were they just being played with?
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Before the guy could move his mech closer to him, something had gone haywire with the machine and it had sent a spark at its own pilot, shooting him right out of his seat and against one of the walls; the one near the bulletin board. Sora watched with a shocked expression, hardly believing that after all that it was his own device that had taken him out.
Soma made it over to the guy before Sora could, though he was quick on her heels in case something else happened. Though from the look on the girl's face, Sora could guess that the guy was, well -- he was dead, if not by their hand. Or was he just thinking that way to make himself feel better? It was their attacks that had made the mech malfunction, and even now the thing was playing some weird music.
The boy tried to shove back the guilt, shaking his head even while he felt like he'd seen something weird from a shadow in the corner of the room. He was just rattled, but he needed to regroup; he was the leader here and had to direct the others. So he forgot about the fact that they'd inadvertently caused someone's death; he forgot about the note that had been posted on the wall. What he focused on instead was that they had managed to clear out the Sun Room. He didn't think most people could claim that.
"Neku," he said, turning to face his friend and frowning when he realized how injured the boy was. All of them had taken beatings, but that didn't make Sora feel any better about the state that his teammates were in. "Did you catch what the radio said?" Did they have a clue, something to go on?
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It's not your fault, said Marie immediately, but Soma brushed her away.
That doesn't matter. It wasn't that she felt guilt. She'd been created a soldier. Both of them had been. Killing someone was an occupational hazard, though it had yet to actually happen. But this...this was different, like the time she and her friends had fought the creature in the hallway who'd turned out to be a patient out of control. It wasn't supposed to happen like this.
From her seated position, she could only make out the signature on the note. Porky, she read, and took note of the name. If the note was gone in the morning, she could at least inform any friends she might have had.
For the moment, she remained in a sitting position, thankful that Sora had addressed Neku first. Hopefully, by the time they needed to start moving again, she would have gotten some of her strength back.
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