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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[scintillatingly]

One attack had connected, but the other one had been reflected back at Neku. Sora was only vaguely aware of how that turned out for his friend, though he did hear him yell in pain, followed by the thump of him falling to the floor. As much as he wanted to turn back and help the other boy, he needed to focus on what they were fighting. If they held back with their attacks, then chances were the machine would just overwhelm them

[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

[scintillatingly]

While Sora didn't want to take his eyes off of his own shadow, he was forced to when it turned out that Neku's was doing the same thing. He became even more ready for another battle (even though they weren't really in the best shape for it), because as far as he knew, shadows were never good. And while his Keyblade should have been reacting if these were Heartless, he couldn't really trust his Keyblade to act the way it should in this place

[madeinthehrl]

Soma slowly lowered her gun, but she left the safety off for the moment. Neku's shadow had begun to move as well, and she couldn't help but turn her attention to her own shadow. For a moment, she almost thought it, too, moved--but that was only the movement of her own hands. A trick of the light. She frowned, her gaze flickering from her shadow to those of her teammates. What was going on? Why wasn't hers doing anything? Was there a pattern she was missing? Something they'd done that she hadn't?

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?"

[composers_proxy]

"We could try to keep going toward the basement," he shrugged, "the girl who gave me a copy of the map seemed to think it was worth checking out."

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?"

[scintillatingly]

It was more or less a given that any more big fights were out of the question for them, but Sora didn't think that he needed to confirm that. While he had also considered the basement, Neku bringing it up gave the idea more value. Though on the other hand, did they really have the energy to travel that far? There was a good chance they could make it all the way down there unhindered, but there was no telling what would happen once they actually reached it. The basement was known for being dangerous, so

[madeinthehrl]

Soma offered a small nod, keeping her own eyes fixed on the shadow creatures in front of her. Nothing from her own shadow, whose only movements matched her own.

"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?"