Night 55: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 1

[yin_yang_fox]

[from here]No sound came from inside the stairwell, but that amounted to little at times. Still the Digimon stretched her senses, moving quickly and quietly into the dark. None were in this place yet, despite the small crowd in the hall below. It might mean none have moved upstairs, or it might simply mean they were quicker than she

Comments

[swornandbroken]

[from here]

Interesting that she'd gotten the ring back. It fit the pattern Mello had already observed, of a lack of pretense and euphemism under the military. They volunteered a hell of a lot less information, relying more on intimidation than fake concern, but there was a certain matter-of-factness about them that Landel had always avoided. The problem with that was the corresponding rarity of letting anything useful slip. So far, at least. Weren't you over unfounded optimism? the bugs babbled. Military with no qualms about wrongful imprisonment? Rod Ross's security was more likely to leave gaps than these assholes.

That raised the question of where the grunts' allegiance truly was, and whether they could be bought, but Mello had to conclude, with an inward scowl, that he wasn't in any position to be buying loyalties. Not in here.

He knew Mordio had been here as long as Matt, at a minimum, so he didn't bother asking about that. "What do you think of the coup?"

[checking in with Javert]

[sheepwood]

[From here; assuming some sort of magical time-skip around the fight]

Along with the telltale signs that he might have been suffering to any degree, Guybrush stifled a gripe about the stairs. Ugh, stairs. He grimaced- what luck that he'd tried the Sun Room the previous night in an attempt to avoid taking the stairs, only to find and be pummeled by Scott; now that he was walking with one hand on his flashlight and the other around his chest, they were headed up them anyway. The plan of "go in the Sun Room, see if anyone is even in the hall upstairs before making the trek" hadn't worked out so well for him.

Not only were there stairs, but there were already people in the way. Guybrush's hook hit the railing with a dull clunk. They were just going to have to move.

[unmocked_lawr]

Guybrush's faint hisses of pain hadn't gone completely unnoticed, but Javert chose to ignore them. If the pirate was so adamant about his ability to assist tonight, then he wasn't going to belabor the point. Better than him running off by himself and getting killed by a few stray rats.

"A couch?" he repeated disbelievingly, before he remembered the restored powers. "If nothing else, it explains the bruising." He would have inquired further--it had been a while since his last encounter with a Special Counseling patient--but a familiar figure was on the stairs ahead of him, and he increased his pace slightly.

"Morgan," he called up. Better to stick with the young man's false name if he was traveling with a companion. He'd still no idea why Mello chose to hide behind it, other than sheer paranoia, but if it would earn his trust, then he had little room for argument. "Doing all right?"

[bodhiandspirit]

He planned to give it to his friend... as an escape route, then? That was too bad for both of them, but Rita wasn't so generous (or so naïve) as to leave a valuable possession of hers in the hands of a complete stranger. In that sense, Morgan's plan certainly wouldn't have worked. But it was too late for that anyway, so Rita didn't bother mentioning it.

"I think it's annoying, first of all," Rita huffed in response to Morgan's question. "Half of my research was confiscated, so I was only able to work during the dinner shift." Fortunately, tonight's task hadn't taken long, but the next time she had a large project to do, it could end up taking days to complete.

Before she could elaborate on her thoughts, they were approached by an odd pair: a one-handed weirdo with what looked like underpants tied around his waist, and some geezer. Rita regarded them with a passive, somewhat unfriendly look. "These the guys you were looking for?" she asked Morgan. There was a dubious quality to her voice. If this was the Search and Rescue group, Rita

[swornandbroken]

"That's them," Mello told Mordio. He halfway agreed with the skepticism in her voice after flicking the flashlight beam over Javert's lanky companion, sizing him up. He looked thoroughly battered already, and as though getting the worse of fights was nothing new to him, given the hook. And what the hell was that sash made of? Mello nodded to him briefly, more in recognition of the fact that the prisoners often had more to them than was obvious than any belief that this one particularly did.

He appreciated Javert's sticking to his alias, and was amused by wondering if the older man were that perceptive, his own stubbornness were that obvious, or both. "Mason's up there," he told him. "Nothing anyone can do for him until the doors open." Which went without saying, but it was a reminder Mello needed, to keep himself from pacing that hallway with nothing to think about in the heavy silence except what might be happening to his friend behind one of those doors. "This is Mordio. Javert." He gestured to each of them in turn.

[sheepwood]

Guybrush's attention was drawn for a second when Javert called a familiar name, only to realize he was talking to one of the people on the stairs, not about a certain Mighty Pirate Hunter™. "Morgan" then introduced them to "Mordio," and they were apparently looking for "Mason." Not only was it a confusing set of names, but it appeared Harvey Dent wasn't the guy who'd had half his face ruined at some point in his life. There really was a need for a club for people whose bodies had been mangled in one way or another. Knitting prosthetic cozies, giving lessons on how to avoid losing limbs, starting a movement to collect half-masks for those wanting to look more distinguished while covering their facial scars... the list of useful activities for such a club was pretty impressive

[unmocked_lawr]

The surprise that flickered across Javert's face would have been understandable to only Mello, provided he was looking for it. He supposed, in a way, the younger man's ally being taken was only to be expected at this point--Landel's love of irony was only matched by his love for the dramatic, and it seemed Aguilar was the same, if less obvious about it. Still, the fact that Matt had been taken twice was worrying, especially since he was still in the dark about what had been done to him the first time

[bodhiandspirit]

So they were Javert and Threepwood. Javert appeared to be in charge, which was probably ideal, at least given Rita's first impression of the other guy.

But... what did he just call her? It wasn't any word that Rita had ever heard before, though it sounded like it was part of the old man's pleasantries. Rita merely responded with a long, appraising look. She wasn't one for extended greetings.

Having only just met Morgan, Rita wasn't particularly well-informed about the situation, but she was able to piece together the basic picture. The friend that had been taken for experimentation was called Mason, and Morgan had come to ask that Javert's group take care of things. "Is that all you came to do?" she asked Morgan after watching the exchange. Perhaps it was cold to try and rush things along when he had a friend in danger, but Rita wasn't exactly involved in that, and she was eager to accomplish something (really, anything) tonight.

[swornandbroken]

It was good to have Javert back to normal; the older man's perceptiveness saved Mello having to give a tedious and time-consuming explanation of his intent. He took note of the surprise, and gave a small half-shrug in response to it. If nothing else, two things were clear now: that the torture sessions were part of Aguilar's plans as much as they'd been part of Landel's, and they'd either not finished, or not started (which Mello thought more likely) with Matt the last time they'd taken him. That was an anomaly that bore further investigation, but not now. Now, he wanted to think about the whole situation as little as possible until there was something he could do about it.

"I'll see you there later on, then," Mello told Javert, including Threepwood in this with a glance.

To Mordio, he said, "Yeah. Come on," and continued up the stairs.

[to here]

[sheepwood]

And with that, the rest of the team was gone. To do what, exactly, was the confusing part, since Guybrush was under the impression the name "Search & Rescue" was more or less a literal interpretation of what they did during the night. Now that he thought about it, it didn't make much sense: presumably, Javert knew where the hallway for the sleep studies was, so there wasn't much searching to be done. The Rescue Club didn't have quite the same ring to it, though.

Guybrush waited a moment for the pair to make it up the stairwell before speaking. "So I'm guessing they're members of the club."

[unmocked_lawr]

"Morgan is. I haven't seen the girl before." The two of them were already out of sight; Javert decided they might as well follow suit. No idea how much time had passed now. "With any luck she's a new recruit; we need fresh blood on our rounds as it is."

He sped up as they reached the second floor. With luck, the night would still be young.

[unmocked_lawr]

[to here]