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... )
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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"Something about Jill. That girl the doctor had I think. Not to worry about her because she's tough. Then it was about the building. Whatever's going on with the lights," Neku put a hand to his head, irritated when it came away stick with a mixture of blood and that obnoxious glue.
"It's more than just lights. That guy's looking into it, but he just said to be careful," he finished, another wave of dizziness rocking him when he tried to use his healing pin. It worked enough for a quick fix, stopping the bleeding in places, but he still felt like shit. Nevermind that he couldn't hear a damn thing over the static that buzzed in his head and headphones alike as he used it. It faded, thankfully, after a moment, but his enthusiasm for the evening had waned considerably.
"Nothing that sounded like a clue," he added, when he could actually hear himself speaking. Now that they weren't fighting for their lives, the lights flickering in places, dimly lit in others, was enough to add a creepy ambiance to the room. Nevermind the way the shadows seemed to flicker and move. It gave him unsettling flashbacks of Konishi and her game of hide and seek.
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As Neku gave his report, Sora moved closer to the other boy, scanning over his wounds; it looked like he was the one who'd been the most injured during that fight. Sora was sore in a number of places and pretty sticky all over, but that wasn't too bad compared to his two teammates. He took a deep breath, trying to expel his guilt.
The radio announcement -- or what Neku had heard of it, anyway -- wasn't too helpful. While Sora was glad that Marc was on the job, that still meant that they were left with nothing to do for the moment, especially now that their opponent was taken care of. (Dead, he reminded himself. It was wrong to call it anything else.) So, where next? Perhaps for now, the best thing would just be to rest, but it wasn't like they were near any safe spots.
Though in the next moment, the intercom came on and a woman's voice came out. Sora's jaw tightened as he realized that she sounded like she was in a lot of pain, and yet still she was talking to them. Or had Landel put her up to it? Her words were unclear, but the announcement didn't last for long, and when it ended...
Sora watched his flickering shadow start to warp right before his eyes, and he turned to face it fully, hand itching for the Keyblade that had already left him. He was waiting for that shadow to take form, to grow yellow eyes and attack--
But no. That couldn't happen here. He paused, shook his head, and looked at the others. "...Can you guys see that?" he asked, pointing. Because if it was just him, then he was really going to start worrying.
[OOC: They can see it!]
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She paused as the intercom flickered on: the sounds of someone clearly in distress. Jill, then? There wasn't much time to consider it. As she returned to the bulletin board, she saw that Sora's shadow was moving.
She'd been here too long to question how such a thing could happen. For now, the shadow didn't seem to be explicitly hostile, and it gave her time to reload. The magazine slid neatly into the well, and the sharp click as she chambered the first round was loud and clear in the silence. It was unlikely that a bullet could harm a shadow, but she didn't bother to fight her own instincts.
"Yes," she said sharply. "I take it it isn't normal."
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As if the weird lighting wasn't enough, the shadows moving and shifting in ways that were anything buy normal was pretty unnerving. He half expected to hear the Iron Maiden's laughter as he turned to see his own shadow, hardly surprised to see that it had decided not to follow his movements any longer.
Things didn't show any sign of stopping and Neku had to wonder how a person could even be expected to fight their own shadow. They could take out the remainder of the lights, but there was no guarantee that such an action wouldn't just strengthen the darkness. Treading on Konishi's shadow had been the only way to deal any sort of damage to her in his world, but who could tell if the same thing would work here?
"Yeah," he said finally, giving his own shadow an unamused look. "Some kind of scare tactics probably. They're just shadows, right?"
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"For now," he responded to Neku with a frown. The shadows weren't stopping with their movements and probably wouldn't be anytime soon, which either meant he stood his ground and continued to have a staring contest, or they moved on.
He couldn't really let his teammates down, and so he was just going to have to divide his attention. Slowly, Sora started to relax and allowed himself to look away for a short moment so that he could address his two friends. "So, where do we go from here?" he asked. "We still don't have much of a clue except for these shadows, but I don't think they're going to help us."
It would probably be the opposite, but there wasn't really any way he could think of to stop something that didn't really exist other than being the opposite of light. Sora knew it could get much more complicated than that, but he was trying to be positive. It wasn't working too well.
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But if the shadows were only growing twisted and warped, there were worse things that had happened at night. And Sora had a point; they had essentially neutralized the threat in this room. It was time to move on.
"We aren't in any shape to try another Special Counseling patient." Probably any other patient would said it with a touch of humor, however dry. Soma was not any other patient. "And I doubt these shadows are going to lead us anywhere. Has too much time passed to explore any other part of the building?"
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They might not have a clue, but at least they'd cleared the room, he supposed. Oh right, except for the shadows. His own was currently trying to pull itself up from the ground and even if this wasn't the UG, he still knew it was probably not the best thing to have happening right after they'd gotten kicked around by a giant spider mech.
He took a step back, but it didn't keep the shadow from growing, taking on a life of its own. Probably not a good thing.
"Or not," he frowned, reaching out a hand toward the shadow, not sure if he should be surprised or just freaked out when it didn't copy the same movements. "What's this about?"
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"I've tried to get down there before. I'm up for trying, if you guys are willing to risk it." He glanced to Soma first, since she was the one who hadn't voiced her opinion on that specific idea just yet.
However, before he could get a response he was distracted by Neku's voice, and he turned just in time to watch the other boy's shadow finish pulling itself out of the ground. With a gasp, he turned back to his own (how had he let himself ignore it for so long?), only to see that it was doing the same thing.
A dark shadow rising up from the ground. It was a sight he was far too accustomed to, and he immediately fell into a defensive pose. He'd been through already! And so when the dark spiked head came out first, followed by a pair of arms and legs...
Well, he'd been prepared to see those yellow eyes fixed on his darkened form. "I don't know, but I've seen this before," he replied. Where was the Keyblade? "It's our own darkness. Be careful! It might try to attack." He knew it wasn't going to make much sense to people who weren't used to the darkness being alive, but Sora could always explain later, when the threat was gone.
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"I'm willing to try the basement. I haven't been down there yet." But that plan seemed to be on hold as Neku's shadow began to rise out of the ground. The gun came up again, automatically, but she found herself frozen in shock after that, unable to pull the trigger. How was that even possible? What was it?
Our own darkness. What did that even mean? What darkness did Sora and Neku have that she didn't? They'd seemed like relatively normal teenage boys, combat experience aside. It was ridiculous, but she would have felt cheated if she weren't in mute shock, watching the shadows pull themselves out of the floor.
"But they're just shadows," she said aloud. This shouldn't even be possible. "How can they attack us? Is there any way we can fight back?"
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Well... the Noise weren't exactly normal, but Sora hadn't shrugged it off when he'd tried to explain and even experienced that, so if Sora said he knew what he was talking about, Neku could trust him at his word too. But if this was supposed to be his own darkness... he had to agree with Soma. Just how did he fight something like that?
"Our own darkness, huh," he repeated under his breath, glaring right back at the annoyed shadow of himself.
As if to prove Sora's point, the shadow smirked back at him, dressed up in his JotM brand clothes, all the usual pins, but oddly enough, a pair of reaper-like wings unfolded at the shadow's back. What. Me? A Reaper? You've got to be kidding. That's not me-
"Like a bolt from the blue," the shadow taunted, eyes lighting with a familiar red tinge, though there was no sign of the famous red pins that'd caused that change before.
"Shut it," Neku growled back, ignoring just how weird it was that his own shadow was talking, aloud no less, back to him. Did he really sound like that? There was no way he'd use the same lame taglines as the Reapers.
"I thought you were sick of this game," the shadow continued with a shrug, "just thought I'd see if you were interested in ending it."
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Still, a small part of him knew that sometimes things went wrong, and he returned to that state himself. When his drive mode failed -- it was rare, but it happened -- he'd go berserk and claw at anything in his path. Donald and Goofy had told him what he looked like then, but he didn't like to think about it.
What shocked him was when Neku's shadow -- which had strange wings attached to it -- started to speak. Heartless weren't able to talk, usually; the only one he could think of that could was Xehanort's Heartless. So what was going on here?
Before he could try to defend Neku or help him, though, his own shadow had started to talk as well. "Haven't you ever wondered where I came from?"
Sora spun toward it, still trying to will the Keyblade to come back, and yet there was nothing. He was totally helpless against this thing, even if all it seemed to be interested in doing at the moment was taunting him.
"You could say it's a result of that time when you were a Heartless for a while, but I was around even before then. Because your heart... it's not completely pure, is it?" Even though the figure was almost completely black, Sora could see a shining in its yellow eyes that made him almost certain that it was smirking at him.
"I never said I was!" he yelled back, as pointless as he knew this all was. It was just supposed to distract them, right? But it wasn't like he could just ignore the words being tossed at him, either.
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