Night 52: Sun Room

[composers_proxy]

[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

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[composers_proxy]

The change was immediate and more than enough to put Neku on his guard. Robo kids and now a giant mecha in the shape of a monster was about to descend on them. It was like something out of those zentai-suited live-action kids shows. Only real. And about to confirm everyone's suspicions that the Sun Room was a very bad idea at night.

He didn't have a way to equip all the pins at once, but the three he had on hand should be enough to help out. Radio Waves had worked well last night, and he didn't like to be without some kind of healing spells, so Run for the Clinic! was kept close at hand too. Last was Scalpels and Swords and he hadn't had a chance to break in either of the last two. So trying them out for the first time on a giant hulking metal monster spraying some kind of gas at them? Not ideal

[composers_proxy]

Sora managed to stay on, if only just. Dammit, why didn't he have any Psychs that would let him throw the furniture around equipped? Throwing things with telekinesis would've at least been useful rather than just blasting the guy. But it wasn't like he could just ask them to all hang on while he found a pin that actually worked.

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

[scintillatingly]

It had really worked! Sora grinned for just a split second as the glass shattered, since he knew that they were one step closer to taking this guy down for real. All they needed to do was stun him or knock him unconscious, and then his mech would be useless without its pilot. So if he could just close in again for another hit

[piggy_king]

"Alright, brats. You had your chance to escape. No more mister nice guy!" Porky shouted as he pressed a few buttons on his control panel. A steady buzzing started to emanate from the mech as purple electricity crackled from its exposed circuitry, sparks shooting off from the top of the machine. And besides that, the music changed. Instead of the video game theme that had been playing earlier, a new, more intense-sounding song began to play. "You should know that I was going easy on you idiots before. Guess it was a mistake on my part. Well, it won't happen again

[madeinthehrl]

It was definitely the first battle Soma had ever fought that had involved music of any sort, to say nothing of music that changed. But that was only a momentary annoyance, barely even a distraction. What was more concerning was the electricity that began to crackle across the machinery, and Soma was forced to hit the ground and drop into a roll for the second time that night rather than risk injuring herself on it

[composers_proxy]

Neku watched Sora go skidding into the glue and gave a wince of sympathy. He was still moving though, so he had to be okay. Besides that, the chubby old guy was up to his speeching again, complete with brand new theme song music. It might've sounded like some demonic heavenly chorus, if not for the midi-quality vibrato of the would-be voices

[scintillatingly]

Doing his best to keep his eye on the fight even as he struggled to get out of the glue, Sora watched as the mech once again flew into the air and got behind them, though now it was covered in electricity and the man's theme music had even changed. While the boy didn't know what that lightning surrounding the spider-shaped machine would do, he doubted it would be good

[piggy_king]

Porky laughed maniacally as the patients futilely tried to attack him once more. Hadn't they learned by now that Porky was invincible to psychic attacks? And jumping in the way of an attack that had already missed its mark?! So far the biggest threat to Porky's health so far was the possibility of dying from laughter! The shockwave that the headphones kid shot out was reflected once more, dispersing the waves into thousands of harmless pulses. Even at close range, the PSI counter shield was extremely effective, and it certainly didn't help the kid's case that he was using such pathetically weak attacks compared to those that Lucas and Kumatora could wield. If that was all the brat could do, then Porky could afford to let him hitch a ride for a while. Besides, the electricity was sure to zap him off sooner or later

[madeinthehrl]

The blow sent Soma flying for the third time that day, and it was a while before she realized she had landed on the floor again and was currently struggling for breath. There was only so much abuse even a supersoldier could take, and it was difficult to focus past the pain to what was going on. In the background, she heard Sora's voice, loud and clear. That was reassuring, at least; it meant he hadn't been harmed

[composers_proxy]

The electricity and getting his own Psychs reflected back at him for the second time were enough to make him lose his grip. The good news was that the scalpels and swords pin worked just fine. Unfortunately, that was also the bad news. Neku was more than a little bloody and beaten when he hit the ground, barely conscious enough to keep his eyes open and hope that they didn't get their asses handed to them.

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?

[scintillatingly]

Seeing Soma get hit once more only caused the determination in Sora to grow, and he had been completely ready for their enemy's next attack, except

[madeinthehrl]

The old man was dead. Soma stared mutely at the motionless body before she slowly withdrew her fingers from his neck. Certainly he had sounded as if he had been enjoying the fight, but if he'd been brainwashed--if it had been her there, in the GN-X, led to believe she was fighting Celestial Being...wouldn't she have felt the same rush of exhilaration, the same fierce joy? And now he was dead--they hadn't even intended to kill him--

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,

[composers_proxy]

Can you give me a minute so my head can stop ringing? Neku wanted to ask irritably. He couldn't be sure if it was the question itself or the fact that he was already annoyed that nothing he'd done had helped in the fight. But with mecha guy defeated, at least he could heal up a little and not have to worry about it reflecting somewhere else

[scintillatingly]

For the moment Soma was being quiet, eyeing the corpse -- and Sora was pretty sure he knew why. The fact that they were all at least somewhat responsible for someone's death was hanging between them, but Sora was relieved that no one had mentioned it so far. They were all aware of it, and now wasn't the time to talk about it. They could deal with it tomorrow...

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

[madeinthehrl]

The fact that there wasn't a clue yet was disappointing, but as much as Soma would have liked to go looking for one, she doubted any of them were in the proper physical condition at the moment--especially if the clues were guarded, as she'd often heard. Instead, she settled for getting slowly to her feet and retrieving her spear, which had been knocked loose from its resting place during the battle and had rolled into a corner

[composers_proxy]

Neku picked himself up, rolling his neck a few times to try to dispel the soreness and the general aches and pains or at least put them out of mind. It wasn't long before the next broadcast came and he glanced at the other two. He didn't have to repeat anything for them that time. It'd been loud and obvious enough