Nightshift 33: Greenhouse Yard

[yin_yang_fox]

[from here]With the door shut and Toph safe for the moment, Renamon allowed herself to think again. Her body would be feeling the pain soon, as soon as she calmed down, and she needed to search the outside before it set in. She didn't see anything, but she was learning that meant nothing. And then she realized she didn't need her flashlight

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[neutral_jing]

What had occurred was no more than a mystery to Toph. She felt weight on her chest, movement, and finally, cold air and dirt beneath her knees. It took perhaps a minute or so to fully comprehend what had occurred, but when she did, the earthbender merely stood up.

The relative stillness beneath her indicated they were safe, at least from that clicking bug. Their adversary had been resilient to Renamon's attack, but it was Toph's lack of, well, anything that bothered the girl. Controlling the earth had been so ingrained; Toph felt strange without it. Sure, she had gone in this fashion several times in her misadventures with the Avatar, but this was the first instance there was no explanation.

Aside from the institute, of course.

Toph let out an annoyed breath. "Guess those guys were right about giant bugs," she muttered angrily before realizing the previous silence held more than what was considered natural. "Oh, hey. You okay?"

[yin_yang_fox]

The yard was empty, for now. She wasn't going to wait for something to show up and refute that statement. Renamon glanced over at Toph, getting her first good look at the girl. She had to go with her earlier impression--the girl couldn't be more than twelve. And she had such an interesting shade of eyes....

She was fine with the girl affording her her pride from the injury. "I'm fine. Nothing that will slow me down that much." Still holding the cloth to it, she rotated her shoulder so it wouldn't get stiff. "If I didn't think the poison would be worse than the other injuries that could be sustained, I wouldn't have left that thing for others to deal with."

She didn't know why she felt like explaining her actions. She wasn't used to running from fights. She looked at the sky for a moment, remorseful that she couldn't stay outside. "We should continue on."

[to here]

[yin_yang_fox]

[back from here]

Toph had a point, and Renamon had been thinking the same thing. She wasn't happy leaving it roaming the corridors, but even with their makeshift weapons, there wasn't a high chance of success. And though it had slowed, her shoulder was still lightly bleeding.

She breathed in, enjoying the night air, when their solution appeared in her eyesight. How simple. "There's another door to leave from."

[neutral_jing]

The breeze outside was certainly refreshing, more so than the initial entry into the yard. Toph let out a puff of air, glad to be breathing in cold air again.

It also sounded as though they had another way inside. "Sweet," she muttered. "Hopefully, it'll stay there." Not only for their safety but also for others nearby. No one needed to run across that thing.

[yin_yang_fox]

"Yes, hopefully. It seemed slow enough." It lowered her spirits to leave the outside, but the thought that she could come out every night cheered her somewhat. She missed the moonlight.

Oh, well. Places to go. The file room might hold more answers than what she'd already found.

[neutral_jing]

Nodding once, Toph readied the shards in her hands and led the duo to the door.

[To here.]

[never_learns]

[From here]

Yohji slipped out into the greenhouse yard, pausing to listen for anything that might be moving before flicking on his flashlight and taking a better look around. It seemed empty for now at least. He waied for Omi to slip up beside him and hen headed across the courtyard quickly, sticking to the walls as much as he could.

He reached the wall and turned back to face Omi. "What do you think? Can we get over it?"

[daddyslilkiller]

Omi followed quietly, glad of the moonlight that meant he didn't have to rely so much on his flashlight.

He missed his goggles almost as much as he missed his explosives.

He eyed the outside wall. It might not be easy, but it should be doable, so he nodded. "I think so. Give me a boost, first. I don't want to go over the wall and find myself jumping into a moat or something."

[damned_monsters]

Omi's voice had been a little too loud for their sensitive ears. Five of them opened beedy eyes, disturbed by the sounds coming from the other side of the wall. They didn't like the sounds, which is perhaps why they found their home next to the walls of the institute. Nothing ever escaped landel's before, so they were able to sit in blissful silence.

But this was a good sound. It was the sound of prey. And so the five giant bats took flight, their decaying bodies swooping over the walls and down upon the unsuspecting assassins, screeching loudly as they descended upon the boy who had just recently been eyeing the wall.

[David]

[never_learns]

"Yeah, I think we can manage to at least get up to the top and survey the outside." And see if this was a decent point for getting out or if they needed to try for a better spot. It'd suck to just be jumping over into a nest of snakes or something. Maybe a monster breeding pit.

He paused, hearing an odd beating sound approaching that he could quite place. It sounded like... wings?

Before he could react, the bats were there, heading for them, especially Omi. Yohji pulled out the knife and lunched for them, lashing out with the blade in the hope of catching a couple of wings. Enough damage to get them out of the air maybe.

[whiteychan]

[from here]

Hitsugaya stepped outside and circled the greenhouse so that his back was to the greenhouse and he was facing the wall. There was a spot on the wall that looked scalable for someone his size, but first a quick survey of the area was in order. "I'll go first," Hitsugaya said. "Then help you up. Meanwhile you keep a lookout for anything coming and alert me immediately if something so much as rustles nearby." He carefully wrapped his sword back into its impromptu sheath and tied it to his back, then handed his flashlight to Artemis. His heart raced wildly. Would they actually be able to pull it off? To get out of landel's against the doctor's wishes?

He put his hands against the wall, found a crack wide enough for him to get a grip, and began to pull and push his way up the surface.

[byname_bynature]

"Understood," Artemis replied, turning his back to where Hitsugaya had begun climbing the wall. After all, it was the safest method, keeping one's back to a wall or an ally's back.

He honed all of his senses into watching and listening, barely daring to breathe. His heart, however, was racing. They were almost out, weren't they? With the barrier down, there wasn't much that Landel could do to stop them from running into whatever lay beyond and never come back.

Out. Freedom. He'd been here too long to not feel a small thrill of victory.

Laugh all you want, Landel. This is check and mate.

[damned_monsters]

There was a crackling sound - a sense of dryness in the air. A small warning before the coming storm. An arc of electricity could be seen in the dark, lighting up the area only for a split second in which one might have been able to catch the shape of three winged forms.

The tempests spun in a circle around the two figures, silent save for the flapping of their silvery wings and the occasional buzz of the element they harnessed. A light, quick bolt struck the wall next to Hitsugaya's hand - a warning of what was to come.

[Lauren]

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya dropped immediately to the ground the moment the charge struck the wall and pulled out his sword. "Damnit," he cursed under his breath. Naturally things couldn't go smoothly. He took a defensive stance in front of Artemis, eyes trained on the silvery wings that occasionally glinted off the light. "Two of them," he said. "I wouldn't trust your blade to block their attacks. Get ready for some fancy footwork." Or at least as fancy as they'd be able with the greenhouse next to them.

[broken_exorcist]

[[from here]]

There was a little bit of moonlight, much easier to see by than the dark interior of the institute. Though he'd played the game enough times in the past, Allen didn't want either of them to get wise to the fact that he was a cheat. He continued to play the part of the innocent rookie. "You w-want us to play what?" he asked, feigning surprise.

"That... that seems terribly inappropriate..." he added innocently. And if there was just a tiny hint of darkness in the way he smiled as he shuffled the cards... well, he hadn't perfected his poker face just yet.

[tyki_pon]

Poker. Strip poker...with Cheating Boy A.

The experience on the train immediately came to mind, where Tyki and his two human friends had been stripped all the way to their underwear. Granted, they had completely underestimated the boy, but that still left the fact that he was a merciless card shark. One that had easily defeated the three of them combined.

But there was no way Tyki could escape this with his dignity intact; a real man wasn't going to run from a card game. And did he want to? Probably not. Didn't he say he had wanted to play another card game before he had tried to kill the boy? It was another chance, even though that might as well end up with him in his underwear instead of Allen Walker. He'd have to see when they were actually playing, he guessed.

"Don't act so innocent, boy." Tyki remarked, knowing enough to see through the boy's facade. At least he knew better than to be fooled by his innocent act twice. 'Inappropriate'. Some 15-year-old kid making adults take off their clothing, that was inappropriate

[sugarsweetblood]

"Tyki, Allen's as innocent as they come~" Rhode cooed playfully, but she clearly was only doing so in teasing. She knew that Allen Walker was kind and all, but innocent? No one was innocent! Well except for her, but some would gladly argue that.

Rhode knew she was a perfect little angel though. The Earl told her so! Though he did say she shouldn't be so boyish. Whatever.

[broken_exorcist]

He still wasn't completely used to using his new arm, but it was probably dark enough out to cover any mistakes he might make. Besides, by now cheating was practically second nature.

"Five card draw?" he asked with a wide-eyed, boyish smile. Allen seated himself quickly and began dealing the cards. He'd already managed to sneak a couple of good ones into his hand just by shuffling the deck carefully.