Night 59: Main Hallway 2-West

[fourstonewalls]

[from here]The upper hallway was empty, at least at this end, though Lana could hear something skittering around. She checked her pocket -- ran her fingertips along the grip of the gun in the breast pocket of her jacket, but she didn't take it out. It hadn't done them much good last night, had it

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[tasteoftruth]

Badd noted Lana's gesture, and the skittering sound, but paranoia kept him from acting. If it was a hallucination striking first and asking questions later might put blood on his hands. His eyes frantically scanned the corners of the floor and ceiling.

"You do what you have to in order to keep her safe," he said, not facing her. "I had to duck Byrne all the way here because he thinks he ought to be next to the kind of guy who'd shoot a kid dead because he thought she was wearing an orange jumpsuit. They don't know what's for their own good."

The comment about Niikura would slide. She knew what he was capable of, if she recognized the description, and thus the danger to herself if Niikura found out she'd covered for a killer. Beyond that it wasn't his problem.

[fourstonewalls]

"He...what?" It took Lana a minute to puzzle through the pronouns in that sentence, though her pace didn't falter. Just because they could see a little further than usual, and she couldn't see anything attacking, didn't mean it was safe.

"Hold it! You told him not to come along just because they'd brainwashed you?" She shook her head. "I think there are some cases where we do have to trust the people we care about...and their judgment." If that was all that had been at issue, then Badd was asking the impossible of both himself and Faraday.

She cleared her throat. "Though I stand by my decision. Gant went down fighting; this isn't going to be pretty."

[to here]

[triplecrossing]

[From here.]

It seemed that they'd lucked out, at least for now. Despite the mess that they had just walked out of, this part of the hall was much cleaner and emptier. They were just going to have to move quickly and they would hopefully avoid running into any wandering patients.

"I don't know how well-versed you are with the layout of the institute," she said, "but we'll be going straight down the hall to the right here." Despite not being a true soldier, at the moment Lydia was behaving like a woman on a mission. She'd finally gotten her chance to leave this place, perhaps for good, and she wasn't going to waste it.

[damned_soldiers]

Lydia had gain the role of the assertive leader, and Claude was quite fine with the set-up. His purpose, after all, was to retrieve the woman alive and well. Given her superior knowledge and experience in Landel's Institute, it would be more beneficial to take her cues. Therefore, he didn't complain. Instead, allowed the statements without a complaint.

She probably was desperate, besides. After being under that man's control for so long, anyone would be dedicated to following through on a potential escape.

"Right we go," he murmured, eyes scanning their surroundings for patient and monster alike. The man paused for foreign sights and sounds, before following after Lydia to the aforementioned hallway.

[To here.]

[36_24_35]

[From here]

"I remember finding a supply closet up here, so maybe they'll--" The image laid before her stopped Tifa mid-sentence. "Whoa..." The hallway was completely red, there was no other feature to describe it. From ceiling to floor it was absolutely covered in blood and gore. It reminded her of the path left in the wake of Sephiroth's massacre at the ShinRa building. The resemblance made her shiver slightly.

"Someone's having too much fun." Tifa sure hoped they saved a little for them. Both directions seemed rather spattered, but perhaps the right not so much? it was hard to discern, especially when her burning hand began to throb in time with her heart beat. She brought it up above chest level and hoped it didn't look too obvious as she scratched her chin in "thought". "What do you think? Left or right?"

[zack_fair]

Even if casting an Ice spell on him was by all means a terrible idea, Zack was half-tempted to throw caution to the wind and ask Tifa to do it anyway. The pain was only getting more severe the longer the burn went untreated, which made him wonder if it was ever going to let up. Burns were generally the worst kind of wounds to deal with, so the fact that he'd managed to get one right off the bat with no healing items or magic in sight was

[36_24_35]

"Oh... Really?" Tifa's words probably held more surprise than was decent, but Zack's reaction caught her off guard, as most surprises tended to do. Bending over to see past Zack, she made a quick check and, sure enough, it was still just as bloody as she remembered it

[zack_fair]

Maybe it was the pain making his mind get all cloudy, but Zack had a hard time telling what Tifa was surprised about and what struck her enough that she'd decided to swear. Not that the ex-SOLDIER was any stranger to bad language, of course. It had been pretty common among the ranks, though he hadn't been the sort of person to use it much himself

[selfnighted]

[from here]

Ah... That was better.

"I'm Maya. Pleasure to meet you." And while they were at it, maybe she could explain to Maya what the plan was; Maya was still in the dark about that. "I don't think I received an answer to my question. Where are we going?"

... If her companion hadn't followed, Maya would look very silly, talking to herself.

To that end, why was it so prudent to stay together...? Maya was doing it because she was hoping their shared experience might incline them more favorably to exterminate anything that might jump out at Maya tonight. Whoever had left this bloody mess, for instance.

But really, they hadn't seemed to learn anything of importance aside from Thayer's name and Harrington's apparent betrayal. Doubtless, if all the patients' 'abilities' had been restored (as was the implication), the other patients would be attempting escape, as well. Adding their own efforts, perhaps...?

[madeinthehrl]

"Soma. Soma Peries." She frowned a little. "I'm not really sure where we're going. If that man--Castiel--really does have as many abilities as he implies he has, and if he can teleport now like his friend--then we should definitely try to escape tonight."

But the entire plan, if it could even be called that, still seemed a little rushed to her, and that was saying something. "Even so, we can already guess from the intercom that steps are being taken to restore the power limitations. Given that possibility, I'm not sure if I want to entrust my well-being to Castiel entirely. I don't even know him, and if his powers suddenly vanish, I want to be able to defend myself without his help."

[selfnighted]

Teleport? Was that what the man's friend had done? Maya's back had been turned; he could have appeared out of one of the rooms. Well, no matter. She had knowledge of it now. And really, if Castiel could teleport, he was welcome to try, though she had to wonder why he hadn't mentioned it yet. Perhaps he needed enough space, or some such limitation?

She could ask him when he joined them, as seemed his intent. As for the other, it appeared her conjecture had been confirmed. Although... "There is the other matter of whether we can trust each other," Maya said cheerfully. There had been a number of betrayals tonight.

Not that Maya wanted Soma to suspect her. But someone coming out of nowhere to talk to Castiel alone after they had left the meeting room...? If Maya had not wanted to leave the bloody hall, she might have asked Castiel's friend who he was and whether their apparent need for secrecy was so urgent.

But enough of that. "Regarding escape, is there anywhere you had in mind? After we retrieve your weapon, that is."

[madeinthehrl]

The woman's tone of voice was light, but Soma decided to treat the comment as if it were a serious one. "I didn't agree to hunt down Landel because I wanted to help Aguilar, although I'll be the first to admit I prefer Aguilar's way of running things to Landel's. I'm more interested in getting home, and if I can get anyone else home in the process, I don't mind, either." She glanced back at the two men, still talking. "I only hope I can trust Castiel, too. And you, if it comes to that."

It was probably best to ignore the remaining kernel of doubt in her mind, the one that said but they were doing this to defend their world. An unfortunate byproduct of her upbringing, she told herself, and by all rights it shouldn't even be a question

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]

The hallway was clear. No dead vermin, just a couple of women chit-chatting away and more powder-pink mood lighting everywhere. Looked like an actual hospital or dorm, if a little beat-up.

Looks could be deceiving, around here. Secret identities, hidden passageways, fake deaths, giant robots that looked like a punk had given a construction worker his dye job. Or like the guy they'd just picked up. He wasn't human either, which would give him and Raph something to commiserate on. "I don't know what's up. I started out human." Even the shit they'd shot him up with didn't change that. "You sense something?"

[wantsyourzex]

Well, one of the humans didn't seem very happy with him. That ZEX was used to, from his brief communications with humans during the War, but even then he'd thought it somewhat unwarranted. He'd never wanted to hurt them! Things had just transpired so that he had no choice in the matter. Understandable, if unfortunate

[meanandgreen]

Who the heck cared about names? There was bigger things going on here! Raph trotted in front of the group, stopping short and demanding attention.

"Whoa, whoa. Wait just one freakin' second, here!" He pointed at ZEX. "You're tellin' me you ain't human either?"

He had a feeling he wasn't the only one, but he had to play it safe. Never know who's gonna turn out to be an enemy. Not that it made this guy any more trustworthy. He's known plenty of mutants and aliens that were even bigger pains in the shell than humans could be.

He eyed both men critically, ready to spring into action if he had to. Human or no, now that he was getting the hang of this new body thing, he could take these guys with one hand tied behind his back.

[toxicspiderman]

"Sangamon Taylor," S.T. said, and then got out of the way. There were a lot of things he could have said, like pointing out that normal here was about as constant as the surface of the Charles in a thunderstorm.  Whitecaps and shit in equal measures, but only consitent in tis turbulence.

Nah, the sooner Zex and Raph could have their little green slime heart-analog-to-heart the better.  Waking up here was disorienting enough for anyone who hadn't been ripped out of a future gonzojournalism Timothy Leary/Hunter S. Thompson crossover porno mag, and even Spider had had a few moments of looking confused before he found where the transporter beams had dumped his smartass expression.

[to here]