Night 59: Main Hallway, 1-West

[doneinthree]

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/

Comments

[gald_digger]

[from here]It wasn't often that Anise ran into a monster so soon into the night, but she didn't think too much of it. That happened sometimes, right

[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]

For once, Anise was easy to find.

Guy was initially distracted by the fact that there were corpses scattered all across the hall, but even that could only hold his attention for so long when there was a huge stuffed animal with a girl perched on top of it close-by. He was surprised for a moment, but that expression quickly turned into one of amusement. Of course. He really should have expected this. If all of their powers were back, then it made sense that Tokunaga could once again grow into its fighting form

[full_score]

When they first entered the area, Claude caught sight of something large and bulky just ahead. His first inclination was to raise his sword in case the institute had thrown a strange monster at them, but Guy's easy-going greeting immediately put him at ease. Still, it was hard to pay attention to anything else in the hall, much less worry about the strange man who'd passed them a moment ago.

But, wait -- there was someone there! Claude's eyes grew as wide as saucers as he stared up at the girl peering at them from on top of the button-eyed giant, the light on his hard hat traveling along with his upward gaze.

"W-woah! Anise?!"

Just what the hell was that? Some kind of machine, or did it tie into Anise's powers somehow? Considering he'd never seen her use it before tonight, it had to be the latter, right?

"I didn't know you had something like that!" he marveled. Before he could help himself, Claude drew closer in order to get a better look.

[gald_digger]

Anise was in a hurry to get to the next hall so she could meet her friends, but she managed to stop Tokunaga just as two men stepped into her path. When they didn't move out of the way right away, she crawled forward over the top of the doll's head, peering down.

As soon as she saw them, her face lit up with a big smile. "Oh, hey! I thought we were meeting by your block. You didn't come this way because you were worried about little old me, were you?" The tone of her voice suggested she sincerely hoped they did. It sounded like they ran into Luke just earlier, but... once they saw the monsters swarming the halls, surely their first thought was 'What if poor little (cute) Anise is in danger?'

They both had questions for her, so Anise decided to make things easier by making Tokunaga hunch down so she could better face the men from her perch. Claude seemed curious about Tokunaga, which made her grin with pride. "I always had Tokunaga!" she reminded him, though maybe the doll did look a little different. "Maybe not like this, though.

[razing_phoenix]

Just as Guy had expected, Claude was pretty shocked by Tokunaga. It wasn't the sort of thing that you saw every day, that was for sure. Guy had tried to get details about how the doll worked from Anise in the past, but it seemed that she didn't know all of the technical parts of it. To learn that he would have to ask Dist, which was something Guy generally tried to avoid doing

[full_score]

Upon hearing Anise's response, Claude blinked in surprise. She'd always had that thing? Although, come to think of it, hadn't she carried some kind of doll on her back before? Did she have the power to make things grow larger, or did the doll normally have that kind of built-in function? Either way, now wasn't the time to get into all that, but he couldn't help but admire it just the same

[gald_digger]

Anise was visibly pleased with the men's responses, basking in both Guy's concern and Claude's admiration.

But sadly, they couldn't spend all night chatting and enjoying themselves, and it looked like it was time to start talking business. Anise looked around with a thoughtful expression as Guy brought up the question of what to do next. Her gaze snapped back to attention when Claude mentioned a force field, though.

"Force field?" There was a pause as she realized what he could be referring to. "You mean that pink stuff?" Anise had wondered what it was, but she'd been too distracted with Tokunaga and the monsters to give it any thought beyond that. So the military tried to trap them in a space filled with tons of monsters? It really did look like they were just trying to kill off as many patients as they could.

It was true that in their current state, they'd be pretty well-equipped to give more of those trials a go. And

[razing_phoenix]

So it seemed that they had settled on it being some sort of force field after all. Guy knew that that was a large assumption, but it also seemed like a fair one. What else would it be? There had to be a reason that it had appeared right as the sirens had started, after all

[full_score]

"Yeah, I mean...they have things like that where I come from," Claude explained when he realized Anise didn't quite follow what he meant. "They probably want protect the building from people who want to tear it down, and a force field would be the best way to do it

[gald_digger]

Something might happen if they put them on...? The bracelets still looked like plain bone to Anise, but she supposed anything was possible. Landel's Institute wasn't always about logic, after all

[razing_phoenix]

Really, it had only been a matter of time before something attacked them. That didn't make the sudden approach of the monster any easier to anticipate, though, and in the end Claude beat Guy to the punch with taking the cat down. He made quite the show of it, too, but there was no reason for him to hold back when he had all of his old abilities back

[full_score]

Secret talent? Well, Claude didn't think it was as impressive as Anise's ability to turn that doll into a giant, but his face glowed a little from his friends' praise regardless. "It wasn't a problem," he said with a lopsided grin and a scratch of his cheek. He was just glad no one had gotten hurt.

It was still a reminder that they couldn't afford to waste anymore time, though. He took his bracelet from Anise with a grateful nod, but refrained from putting it on until they'd agreed on how to handle this. Guy's suggestion actually sounded pretty good, since it meant that, whatever happened, they'd all be in it together.

"Yeah, you may be right," he agreed, growing more serious now. "How about on the count of three?"

[gald_digger]

It seemed kind of risky for all of them to try at once, but Anise had to admit it was a little comforting to know that if anything bad happened, none of them would be stuck dealing with it alone. It looked like these kinds of leaps of faith were becoming a routine, though. It was pretty scary, never knowing what was ahead of them.

"Okay, let's do it!" she chimed in, trying to sound confident, even if she was mostly nervous. Worrying was just going to make it harder, though, so it was best to just put on a brave face and charge onward! She picked up her meat tenderizer, tucked it under her arm, and decided she was as ready as she'd ever be. "I'll count! Okay?" She only gave a second for anyone to object, then started.

"One, two..."

They were going to feel really silly if nothing happened, she realized belatedly.

"Three!"

[to here]