Starring:
Amuro (emitter), Datura, Shinji, Mune, Kanami, Tomoyo
Date: January 7, 2011
Summary:
The battle for survival in the middle of a hellish environment continues for the Tao Shih on Level 5.
Warning: Contains strong violence and horror.
"Tao Shih Training Arc - Blight Of The Soul"
Level 5 - Location Unknown
The Tao Shih's core membership is on Level 5 of the underground base they use for their activities. Originally a massive hospital complex designed for taking care of thousands of patients at once, Level 5 and its resources were subverted by some individuals and were used for 'experiments'. These experiments ranged from genetic manipulation, to designing viruses, to unlocking the secrets of Kekkei Genkai, to creating disposable soldiers. None of this went on without Amuro's knowledge, of couse, but he decided to shut down only the ones that were too dangerous to be allowed to continue and let the others think that they were still operating 'under the radar'. He would deal with these subversive elements once he saw the results of their research. They might come up with something useful that he would not be willing to allow to be worked on under other circumstances.
Then came the great betrayal. The chief scientist for the organization that the Tao Shih rule over was lured into turning traitor by the Stone of Body — also known as the Earth Stone. Or perhaps he was just a power-hungry fool and was made worse when he stole the Stone. His attempt to claim ultimate power from Amuro and take over the entirety of the Tao Shih resulted in the scientist's demise. He had tunneled his way right into the room where interaction with the accursed monster from Ankoku Cave was taking place. It disrupted the Seals, and a small portion of the Yin Beast was released. Level 5 is now a place right out of a horror film. But unlike the movies, this is >real<. Amuro is running down a corridor, being chased by misshapen >things< that may or may not have definitive forms. He isn't sure on that count. He has led them on a merry chase throughout Level 5, gradually accruing a greater and greater group of pursuing abominations. Sometimes the number would decline as the creatures attacked each other. Just because they are all monsters does not mean that they are friendly towards each other.
Amuro comes to a large room that is like the inside of a water tower in that it has smooth metal walls, and is very wet. This room was not here when Level 5 was built, or even a week ago. It has just… Manifested from somewhere. Is the Yin Beast breaking down the boundaries between worlds? Is it influencing his mind?
Unable to go anywhere else, Amuro turns to face the corridor behind him. Hollering, and offering a mix of tortured cries and insane laughter, a small army of hideous creatures is hurrying down the hall. Red light from the furnaces that continue to burn shines into the hall from slats in the upper parts of the walls, giving an especially hellish appearance to the scene. One creature that appears to be a man tied up in barbed wire such that his feet are above his head, and he has to crawl along on his hands, which in turn causes the barbed wire to pull out his innards part way with every movement, is at the front of the procession. However, he is moving too slowly, and some kappa-like creatures come cackling, and hopping, and wheeling down the hall, some jumping over the tortured wire-creature while others leap directly on top of him just to make him scream louder. Amuro sets himself in preparation to fight, but then that bizarre howling noise comes echoing down the hallway. "KreeeeEEEOOW!" All the creatures in the hall stop for a moment to look behind them (if they are capable of such). The call repeats, "KreeeEEEOOOW!" Then all those horrors begin running, slithering, crawling, hopping, and skittering towards Amuro once again. The difference is that they are no longer chasing him. They are >fleeing<.
An enormous hand that glows red and black comes zooming around the corner and slams its palm down on the kappa-things at the front. It drags backwards, scarring the metal floor and walls with its acidic flesh. It drags the entire army of monsters backwards, back down the hall, and back around the corner. From there, the sounds that follow are simply best not described.
Amuro takes a step back as the only remaining kappa-thing manages to make it into the room with him, only to be snared by several tendrils of crimson and ebony that streak forth from the hall and wrap around the small creature's limbs. The kappa gibbers in fear but then screams as its limbs are all snapped like twigs to make it harder to escape. The creature is yanked down the corridor, wailing the whole distance, until it too vanishes around the corner.
Amuro waits to see if that has satisfied the creature, and if it knows he is here or not. When the sounds of eating and screaming end, there is a long silence. Then…
"KREEEEEOOOW!" the howl bellows loud enough to make Amuro's ears bleed. He lowers himself and holds out his right arm, the kanji on his palm changing to 'Fire'. "What a bother," he mutters. Then the hand comes barreling down the hall and it fills his sightless vision.
The nurse thing is bound by Shinji and then shoved back into the office it came out of. That may or may not hold it for long. Who knows how strong these things are, after all? Infact, shortly after it crashes into something inside the office, it gets back up and turns around to try to come back out! Closing the door is in order here. And possibly holding the door closed if its arms get loose.
Mune's pronouncement about the dead-end is perhaps made at the least convenient time imaginable. As the windows on every office in the main hall shatter at once, grey-skinned arms, covered in mold, flail through the openings, shoving aside blinds, and sending a rain of glass shards outwards at Shinji and Kanami. Datura managed to slide under the nurse-thing, so she is relatively safe from the jagged glass, along with Mune. But given the surreal vision of dozens of arms with peeling flesh flailing on both sides of the hall, and their owners gradually emerging as well, glass may seem to be a very distant priority for one's attention indeed. A chorus of wails and cries resound from the medical staff that have been twisted and transformed, mixing together as they fight with each other to be first to get through the windows and attack the humans. So far they have mostly looked like nurses, though with the blurring heads that conceal their features. But a doctor emerges from the masses, finally. Apparently possessing great strength, a pair of nurses are hurled through the window and out into the hall as though an explosion had gone off. This knocks a few others over the window sill as well. All of the head-blurring nurse-things get back up quickly and begin to run in both directions of the hall. One comes charging at Datura, while three others perform a jerky, stop-animation run towards Shinji, and Kanami beyond him. The Doctor crawls over the windowsill, and unlike the nurse's his head is quite still. It also bears a mask. A blank, featureless, ceramic mask. The bottom half, the part that would cover his mouth, has been broken at one point or another, because in place of a chin and mouth, there is a mass of purple-black tentacles that terminate in pincers not unlike a scorpion's, complete with dull-brown coloration, shiny carapace, and lengthy arachnid-like hairs. They even snap at the air, showing they are fully prehensile and capable of being used. Short, spikey, blood-soaked hair adorns the Doctor's head, as he plants a booted foot on the head of one of the nurse-things that was too slow to get up. Her head explodes like an overripe melon, causing a gout of black ichor to spray out across the floor. The once-healer then turns his attention on Datura and Mune, and begins to walk down the hall towards them, taking slow, methodical steps, in complete contrast to the rapid, insane movements of the nurse-things around him.
The end of the hallway is just a wall with a small amount of red paint on it in the middle, in the shape of a question mark. A dead-end lies off to the side. There is no escape.
As if needing to see the proof of the cutoff of their escape for herself, Datura kicks up from her prone sliding position, covering her neck and head with her arms as glass begins shattering behind her and running for Mune's position. She rounds the corner, coming face-to-face with the bare stone wall sporting a question mark, ending the distance which she could run to. Of course, things soon go from bad to worse behind them, with the emergence of yet new foe, one who seemed intent upon the two of them, as well as the appearance of yet more of the clinicly-dead clinic staff.
The blonde-haired young woman simply turns to face what seemed to be her approaching death, putting her back to the wall, and doing her best to angle it so that the doctor on her team was between her and the new approaching physician.
"I… I vote we just get the hell out of here!"
After managing to shove the nurse back into the office she came out of, Shinji quickly slams the door shut. Though with not knowing how powerful the nurse creature is, he holds the door and quickly looks to Kanami who is near him. "Umm..Mune, where the hell do we go from here?" he asks again. There has to be another way out of her, Amuro wouldn't just tell them to follow this damn hallway and have not way out would he? Shinjis mind is quickly going through possible escape routes, something that he's been neglecting. "Kanami stay close to me." he tells her as he hears Munes words about there only being a dead end, "THen we gotta get back to where we started and hope Amuro-sama makes his way back there." he states.
At that moment, Shinji looks up as all the office windows shatter! As arms shoot out of the windows and glass shard rains across the hall Shinji quickly moves to cover Kanami, and flatting her against the wall. Lowering her head and taking majority of the glass shards peppering him in the back, arms, legs and nicking him across the side of the head. A grunt escapes him, but Shinji moves keeping Kanami behind him, "We are cut off from the others." he says to Kanami. This was getting dangerous and the fact that they had to watch how they hit these things. Shinji begins to focus, as the doctor makes his way out of the office and the strewn bodies of the nurses begin to stand up, the light skinned Tao-Shih member narrows his eyes. "I will get you all out of here." he says as blood run down his arms and back, the pain was there but Shinji has never given up on damn thing and right now with him and Kanami closer to where they came from, "Kanami, you need to get back out of here, I need to go for Mune and Datura." As the doctor just crushes the nurses head who wasn't able to get up fast enough Shinji moves into a fighting stance. "Or you can stay here, if you do keep close."
Looking at the outstretched grasping arms and hands, Shinji knows trying to traverse down the hallway is very dangerous, but he just couldn't leave Datura or Mune here. Looking at the three nurses who are advancing on him and Kanami, followed up by the doctor Shinji shakes his head. With only the scalpel in his hand, Shinji sighs and grips the scalpel in his hand, the blade colored with some dried blood or something, Shinji just readies himself.
As the lead nurse makes her way closer Shinji immediately streaks towards her, spinning quickly the throws a power spinning back kick into her chest, in the attempt to lift her off her feet and send her back and away from them. He then thrust the scalpel in at the neck of the other nurse who screams but seem not to notice the scalpel cutting into her neck. The nurse quickly reaches around screaming and laughing as she attempts to rake her sharp nails at Shinjis arm. Hoping back away from her, Shinji gown is clawed. He could feel the breeze of nails nearly cutting into his ribs. Lucky for not getting hit, Shinji jumps straight up and throws a knee into her face, then as he lands he does a quick kick towards her knee aiming to break it to possibly slow her down. Knowing that it wouldn't, Shinji tries to keep moving. Hearing a manical scream and his gown being grabbed, Shinji spin himself managing to fling off the nurse just barely. His back hurting due to the glass that is still embeded into his back, the light skinned fighter continues his assualt and keeping their focus on him Shinji then throws a punch in towards the nurse who he kicked first, but not without her scratching his arm.
Mune moves inbetween the incoming nurse-thing and Datura, without needing to be urged. The blurring head makes for a poor target to strike at, but she's not sure hitting anything else would necessarily hurt the creature. So she darts in close and tries to shoulder-ram the mockery of a woman into the wall to Mune's right, directly in the ribs, and then she just forces her right forearm under the nurse-thing's shoulder. If it breaks, that's swell.
But mostly she is just trying to make sure she has something to prop up against as she runs her feet up the opposite wall, finally lets go of the nurse-thing, and then leaps off the wall to deliver a stomp-kick at where the neck should be. Maybe the head is a blur of motion, but the neck is still in the same place. Unfortunately, the blow probably lacks as much force as someone like Shinji can deliver. Mune is skilled at Taijutsu — a bit less than Jounin-level, really. But her physical strength is not the focus of her training, just the ability to strike accurately and evade swiftly.
Even so, Mune's particular style of fighting is a very effective one known in the language of the Southern Lands as 'Kick Them In The Balls And Then Stomp Their Throats'. Or 'Anything-Goes Martial Arts', if one prefers. Thus, the dark-skinned woman has no problem with stomping the nurse's neck to break it. Assuming it even has bones to break at all. She may seem to be in-control and ready to kick ass right now, but primarily she is a mix of terrified and disgusted. These nurse-things… She could have been one of them. If she had been outside of the shielded room when the Yin Beast's essence was released, she WOULD be one of them. So looking at this horror, let alone touching it, or trying to kill it, is simultaneously like attacking a friend and trying to put down a monster with her own face on it.
If her attack is successul, that's one less zombie-nurse to deal with. And then she'd turn to face the Doctor. And he's only a few feet away! Without thinking, she tries to leap backwards to put some distance between herself and the enemy, but with Datura somewhere behind her that might wind up being a bad decision. Especially if the Doctor is able to move faster than he is presently. Two prone female targets in a situation like this is like putting up a sign reading, 'KILL ME NOW' in bright neon lights.
Kanami is released by Datura, and she looks on concernedly as the blonde darts in to toss her coat over the nurse-thing and then slide under it to safety. She isn't sure she can do anything remotely similar right now, but she may have to if Shinji can't take the creature down. But he succeeds in tying it up and shoving it in an office, so the actress starts to relax a little and move to rejoin Datura and Mune. Then Mune makes that announcement, and everything goes to hell — almost literally.
Kanami's eyes widen, though her right eye does not change from its serpentine coldness and detachment. She turns to look behind her to see if there is anything following them. She doesn't see anything, but… "Back this way! If that is a dead-end then we have no choice! We must go back!" she calls out. When the Doctor makes his appearance, she bites her lower lip briefly. Datura is in danger. And she can't do a damn thing to help. 'No Chakra,' Amuro had said. Well, to hell with it. Things can't get much worse than they are right now! Shinji has shielded her from the breaking glass and then moved to deal with the nurse-things.
Kanami uses a Ninjutsu. "Myriad Snake Net Formation!" she lets out and then opens her mouth as wide as she can without dislocating her jaw. A number of snakes come surging out of her mouth and flood the hallway. The snakes open their own mouths, and a sword blade projects from each. They begin stabbing at every enemy in sight, trying to work their way towards the Doctor's exposed back.
But despite gaining some of the aspects of her Doujouji Mask, Kanami is not USING that Mask right now, nor is she surgically altered to be capable of this feat. So she chokes and gags on the snakes, and starts to suffocate, even as she draws them back to her, leaving more of that black ichor staining everything in the hallway… Especially the parts that now have severed limbs lying on them. Finally recovering her breath, though she continues to cough, Kanami manages to get out, "*Cough* Ryo*COUGH*-chan…!"
It seemed to be about the right time to head on out, after already arriving late to the underground base as is. This was due to some unforseen events that took place above ground that proved to be rather potent distractions for the wayward Hyuuga girl. But now she was below ground and all about business, after getting cleaned up and departing from the quarters that were made ready for her in the Tunnel Network level of the facility. Before leaving her room, she reminds herself to grabe the small scroll that was rolled up on the dresser that held the large weapon she had been training with for some time now.
With all her things in order, Tomoyo ventures out into the open hallway and tracks down the nearest fellow that might be able to inform her of some things. It happened to be a lone guard who was just keeping an eye on the general area, a boring job probably. She'd question the man about the whereabouts of her father and would at first get a peculiar look until she told him just who her father was and tensed up for a while. It seems that papa and the others had ventured down to the 5th level of the facility for some group business and that she would have to play catch up.
Thanking the guard for the information, she'd quickly make her way to the elevator needed to descend to the fifth level, the medical level. It was an uneventful ride down and she stepped out feeling a little wobbly from the ride down. An odd feeling riding an elevator. The next thing she'd need to do is find another source of information, which began as a series of quick interrogations of personnel she met along the way to her final destination, a barricade of sorts to section off a part of the level from the rest.
Once she gets there, she asks if Amuro had been through here recently and gets a confirmation that they have indeed been through here and have gone into the quarantine zone. With a nod, she goes to take a step through the barricade and is quickly stopped and promptly warned of just what lies beyond the dimly lit corridors. She had all the courage in the world to fight any human foe, but when it comes to monsters.. things that remind her of that one time.. it wavers. But… now wasn't the time to cower somewhere safe in the light, she had to proceed and catch up with the others. But why did they have to go in there in the first place? She'd definately ask or find out for herself eventually.
After mentally preparing herself for what may or may not lie ahead, Tomoyo takes the first of many steps forward into the murky unknown. Knowing full well she couldn't find her way through here alone, she'd concentrate for a second as the veins along her temples start to tense up as her gaze becomes more intense. With her Byakugan activated, the dimly lit corridors are easier to see now and she can more easily discern where her comrades are than blindly wandering the halls and hoping she can trace them by sound. Sadly for her, this also brings to light what else is hiding in the halls, things that were not normal. At least anymore. To her eyes, things with human shapes and not human chakra networks made her blood run cold. But she had to press on!
Taking a moment to look around, she sees the familiar chakra of her father off alone from the group with something else that screamed at her to stay away, while the cluster of comrades were somewhere else, surrounded by many of those same inhuman things. Without a moment to spare, Tomoyo takes off as quick as she can down these hallways. Fully aware of the things that she passes along the way but moving to quickly to be intercepted. At least she hoped.
Eventually she reaches the open room that leads to the hallway where her comrades are fighting for their lives. She can see them from here, and things don't seem to be fairing to well as the abominations outnumber the living. There was no time for dawdling, not if she wanted all of her friends to get through this unscathed. Since she was warned already about 'infections'…
Without so much as a word, she propels herself foward yet again, through the empty room before the final hall while unfurling the scroll she had taken with her and releasing the item that was contained within. A massive weapon, like a spear that had a sword attached to the end of it. By the time she reaches the hallway, she is witness to Kanami unleashing a torrent of sword-snake missiles that go about doing some hefty damage to the monsters still trying to get out of the offices. It seems that a bit of clean-up was left for the Hyuuga as she finally caught up to everyone.
As one of the nurse-creatures recovers from the pummeling that Shinji delivers and gets back up to standing, Tomoyo rushes it with her guan-dao in tow and brings it down with a heavy downward swing that causes the blade to sink into the floor with the pole now extending below the creature's body. It takes a moment for the monster to realize what happens before it splits and flops to the ground, spilling that ichor onto the floor. With a yank, she hefts up her weapon in her right hand and extends the left towards the seemingly only doctor figure present. Concentrating chakra into her hand, unaware that the use of chakra was a bad idea, she'd release it in a channeld blast of chakra that would hit everything in her path like a truck and force it backwards and into the far wall of the hallway. Hopefully it was enough to shove them all away.
Turning to those behind her, she'd then point with her free hand to around the corner, "We have to go past them. The path continues beyond the fake wall. It's made of chakra." she points out before turning back to the most menacing foe, the doctor and makes an effort to harpoon him with her weapon. A grunt of effort follows the throw as it makes a beeline for the doctor's chest.
Kanami's sword-in-the-mouth snakes sever plenty of unwisely extended nurse-thing arms, causing the appendages to fall to the floor of the hall and bounce a couple times while black ichor pours from their severed ends, before settling. Shinji's Taijutsu does a good job of at least keeping the three nurse-things off-balance, if not preventing them from getting to Kanami. Mune breaks the neck of one nurse-thing, causing it to slump and slides down the wall to the floor. Its head stops blurring and moving, revealing… Nothing. The flesh 'deflates', resulting in a very flat and featureless flap of flesh at the end of the broken neck. Whatever horrible visage the nurse-things possess, no one is going to be exposed to it, it seems.
The Doctor continues to approach Mune and Datura, regardless of if Mune leapt backwards and landed on Datura or not. But a syringe with a needle about three feet long slides out of the Doctor's right sleeve as he closes in on the pair, preparing to 'inject' them. Or maybe just impale them. It could go either way.
Then Tomoyo arrives. The nurse-thing that was about to lunge at Shinji from behind is sliced in half. It continues to flail and writhe and shriek even as it falls to the floor in two pieces. When it lands, it just spasms all over and continues its head-thrashing. The blast of Chakra carries the bodies of the nurse-things, still 'alive' or 'dead', along with the various dismembered arms, and hurls them down the hallway. They all hit the wall that Mune and Datura are likely right in front of, but the bulk and tall frame of the Doctor provides a sort of 'shield' against the force of the Chakra blast, keeping anything from hitting the two women — except maybe for some of that nasty black stuff that keeps splashing everywhere.
The Doctor turns from the two seemingly-vulnerable targets in front of him as the use of Chakra draws his attention. Facing Tomoyo, he watches from behind his half-broken mask, pincer-tentacles clicking at the air around the vicinity of his mouth. While Tomoyo alerts everyone that the wall around the corner is made of Chakra and that they can pass through it, the Doctor begins to stomp towards the Hyuuga girl, syringe-weapon raised to stab through her. Then Tomoyo beats the Doctor to the punch by hurling her weapon through his chest. Sticking out his back, black ichor stains his labcoat both on the front and the back. He pauses and looks down at the guan-do haft protruding from his chest. Then his eyeless mask raises again and he resumes his advance.
Well, that sucks.
And yet there is hope, for coming up behind Kanami, about 20 feet away and closing, is Amuro! One arm seems to be hanging a bit loosely, but it is his left arm so it probably will not impair him much. Either he's going to kick this Doctor's ass… Or Shinji or Mune or Datura or Tomoyo will beat him to it! Kanami does not seem to be in any condition to do anything further right this second…
Well damn, being hit from in front by her own comrade's body hadn't been in the plan! But Datura's taijutsu is slow to react, her physical prowess is found wanting, and her attention is frayed and overcome with nervousness. It all culminates in her being sent stumbling backwards, half-turning to catch herself with her hands, leaving her prone on her stomach with an advancing menace preparing to impale/inject her with something that she would rather not find out any more about. Kanami is using up chakra she shouldn't be, Tomoyo is drawing the creature's attention at an unhealthy rate, and Mune is fighting to protect them both! The blonde-haired kunoichi's natural instinct is to withdraw, try to find a way through the wall, which someone, she'd figure out who later, was yelling about not being normal, or real, or something, and let the others take the brunt of the fighting.
'Help them, Imouto-chan! You know how!'
The sudden shout that only she could hear flaring through her head causes Datura to grit her teeth and squint her eyes against sudden moisture. Kanami was in danger, Kanami was trying to save her. Kanami was probably killing herself doing so. The outcast Yamanaka was barely aware of biting into her own thumb as she focuses her chakra inside of her, storing up a vast well. When her hand slams against the floor, it's released in a veritable spider-web of scrolling letters.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Smoke envelopes the blonde-haired teenager's immediate area. "Why have you called…" | "…us here, Lady Spinner Ryoko?" Two female voices come from the summoning mist, one finishing the other's sentence. When it clears, there stands two women, of average height and slender build, wearing precious little. One is light-skinned with dark hair, the other dark-skinned with light hair, both holding spears as they frown dispassionately down the corridor, a red hourglass symbol on each of their stomachs.
Even as the Yamanaka teen pushes her way to her feet, laying hands on the wall and pushing, testing it, she turns wide blue eyes over her shoulder at the doctor, who wasn't looking at them anymore. "This hallway needs to be cleared! Leave the humans and snakes be!"
"We shall expect…" | "…appropriate compensation." And then, even as Datura tries out a Genjutsu Kai to see if the wall could be dispelled from herself, the black widow twins turn into a blur of static, and then vanish from sight, bouncing, ricocheting, and bounding down the hall, slicing and carving their way through anything that didn't pass their cursory examination as 'human'.
Eyes widening as Tomoyo's weapon impales the doctor, Hinotori says, "Thanks Tomoyo-san." He glances behind himself to see a half and half nurse. Shaking his head and a bit upset about his lack of attention, Shinji turns around and notices that the damn doctor was still moving but now coming towards Tomoyo who has just… Hearing Ryoko's voice, and the words for a summoning, Shinji felt this wasn't good, but as the twin women appear, as well as Amuro who looks to be injured, Shinji just blinks a few times.
Refocusing himself, the light-skinned man clenches his fist, he starts to rush the doctor to finish the job that the Guan Doa didn't but the twin women beat him, "Shit." he says as he skids to a stop and hopping back to Kanami. "Come on." he says as he reaches for her and keeps her close to him as the whirling twins begin their dance of death. "Amuro-sama you alright?" he calls as he moves with Kanami over to Tomoyo to keep her covered as well, "Don't use any more chakra, they are attracted to it." he tells her.
Mune slamming into Datura is totally not part of her plan. She manages to recover, but before she can make sure Datura is okay, the other blonde is scrambling to her feet and darting off. Looks like she's fine. Mune turns back to the Doctor. She knows using Chakra is bad down here… But maybe she should—No. She can't. It's too risky. There is at least one thing down here that can kill them all if it shows up. Period. They'll just die.
So she settles herself into a makeshift Taijtusu stance, just as Tomoyo shows up and throws a harpoon-thing through the Doctor's chest when it turns to face the new arrival. Well… That was less than effective. Mune thinks she can make out a cloak with red clouds on it beyond Kanami, but she doesn't know if there's time to wait for Amuro to take the Doctor down.
Then a cloud of smoke erupts from behind Mune. Unfamiliar female voices speak to Datura and then are sent into a whirl-wind of slashing and blood/ichor-spilling all up and down the hall. The walls are shredded, along with the concrete floor and the ceiling of the same material. Yes, even concrete can shred beneath the blades of these two women. But what of the Doctor, and the nurse-things? Even having their arms cut off and being stabbed repeatedly hasn't stopped the screaming hordes in the offices on both sides of the hall from trying to get out to kill the humans.
The blurring heads, the flailing stumps tha continue to spew disgusting fluid, and now the nearly-invisible movements of two things that appear to be human but are not… The nightmarish scene is too much for Mune, and with senses overloaded she collapses to one knee and holds her head, closing her eyes to shut out the visual input at least. "Nnggh…"
Kanami coughs up some blood from somewhere. She can feel the disturbing and painful sensation of parts of her body moving and shifting that should not be moving and shifting. She can feel organs that shouldn't even have pain receptors, or nerve endings to feel ANYTHING with, suddenly hurting and sensing things. The scales on her face begin to spread and she just huddles on the floor, hair hanging around her face as she covers her features with both hands. She doesn't want Datura to see her like this.
Shinji's attempts to 'move with her' would not work so well unless he gets her on her feet — something she would be resistant to. But ultimately, common sense and survival instincts win out, and she allows Shinji to get her up and start moving… Closer to the fighting!? She peeks out between her fingers and sees that Shinji wants to move them towards Tomoyo, who is inbetween them and the Doctor. That strikes her as a bad idea, so she tries to pull away and move backwards, towards Amuro and safety.
Getting in the middle of a whirlwind of death is one of the stupidest things imaginable. Allies or not, 'accidents' happen.
Perhaps it was just the excitement of the fray, the surrounding atmosphere of forboding that caused that momentary confusion in the mind of the Hyuuga girl? Or perhaps she was just caught up in the moment of being able to come and 'save the day' as it were, at least that's what it felt like to her.. that she failed to realize that a pair of her comrades were located behind the good doctor and his allies when she decided to blast them that a way. Hopefully nothing icky splattered them. She'd have to apologize for her lack of consideration of course.
With her weapon now securely lodged in the torso of the squid faced doctor, she had assumedly figured that he would topple over dead after receiving such a mortal blow. Sadly, it didn't do as planned and only focused its attention on her, who was now unarmed.
However, that wouldn't slow her down much. In fact, it was probably for the best if she was unarmed as it was her natural fighting style to begin with. Tomoyo gives a silent nod to Shinji, who she didn't know to well as he thanks her for the support. With the syringe wielding monster doctor slowly advancing like time itself, Tomoyo readies herself by assuming a solid looking stance and preparing to strike as chakra begins to prepare itself to shut down anything that gets within range. Which was quite a bit.
About to strike, Tomoyo sees the recent arrival of her papa and seems to almost settle down a bit as her stance grows lax. Was he here to finish the job? Or should she still go through with trying to take down the impossibly durable thing in front of her…?
The question is soon answered when she hears Datura speak up and brings out some allies of her own? Two scantily clad ladies with an hourglass on their stomachs. Before she has time to even soak all this in, those two begin to pass through the hallway, carving up building and creature alike and somehow leaving their 'allies' unharmed. With her Byakugan still activated, she could still see more of those nurse-things struggling to get out of the offices, and god knows what else is on the way. She definately didn't want to linger.
"I… I think now is a good time to get out of here, before anything else decides to get back up…" she suggests, slightly worried that they just might do it. She also had to get her weapon back, which was still lodged in the shredded up carcass of the doctor, presumably. Can't leave that… And with a sickening feeling in her stomach, she retrieves it, grasping it low and yanking it out slowly. As the weapon starts to free, a movement catches her eye as the arm of the late doctor suddenly makes a lunge for her arm, grasping at the air for a moment before falling with a thud against the ground. Tomoyo most definately didn't expect that as an inadvertant cry of surprise escapes her. Maybe nobody heard it… Finally it was dead as her weapon comes free, coated with that black ichor that is supposed to be their blood.
With hopefully no more obstacles in her way, she approaches the overwhelmed Mune and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Come on." she says encouragingly, looking around at the others to see if they were all more or less in tact. Her gaze falling lastly on Amuro as she stares at him and his dangling arm. Obviously worried.
Rigumo and Digumo make a superb team. They do not always speak in unison — that is a habit they outgrew many years ago — but having to retrain themselves to work in tandem has resulted in a renewed sense of unity between the twin spiders. And their skill makes it obvious that their training has succeeded wildly. Sprays of ichor paint the walls and ceiling, as the concrete 'peels' away fom the floor in rolls of processed stone from the winds generated by the movements of their oddly-bladed spears.
The nurse-things fall by the dozens, and still they scramble to climb out of the broken windows of the offices, until only three are left. They remain huddling in their respective offices, hissing and growling and do not proceed with the attack. Too many butchered bodies of their fellow abominations lie all around — many of them no longer identifiable as bodies at all. The walls of the hallway collapse in places due to too much structural damage. Still, even the scratched ceiling and shredded floor appear to remain stable, so there is no danger of a cave-in. Probably.
The Doctor's remains lie in a bloody heap in the middle of the hall. Even after being hacked up, the resilient creature continued to wriggle for a bit. That was mostly reflex, however, as was its arm lifting straight up in response to the weapon being pulled free from its severed torso.
Amuro arrives behind Kanami and announces his presence verbally first so as not to get a snake to the throat. "I am here," he speaks into whatever combat noises may remain. The Black Widow Twins may have stopped by now. Or maybe not. Odd cracking and crunching noises and a perhaps-worrying shift in weight occurs each time Amuro takes a step with his right foot, but other than that, there is nothing to indicate from his voice or mannerisms that he is in any pain or is injured.
Except for the blood trail coming from his right boot, and the obvious lack of movement from his left arm. To Tomoyo's Byakugan, it would be evident that the left arm has some kind of Chakra-based poison in it that is spreading before her very eyes, and the right leg is broken so badly in so many places that Amuro shouldn't be able to put >any< weight on it without screaming or just falling down. It is not set up to support anybody's weight, let alone someone as large as Amuro.
"Has anyone been injured? Kanami? Tomoyo? Shinji?" He looks very closely at Shinji with his eyeless mask. He cannot see Datura or Mune very well from back here, especially not with all the others in the way, but he can sense their Chakra is fine… Though a bit low in Datura's case. It is mainly Shinji and Kanami he is worried about. Kanami is showing evidence of further mutations, and Shinji has blood on him… Not ichor, but blood. "…Shinji, were you injured by these things?"
Meanwhile, as soon as Datura touches the wall with the question mark on it, it loses solidity and allows her to start passing through. The Genjutsu Kai is not necessary if she winds up performing it before noticing how insubstantial the wall is. Beyond it is a large room, well-lit, with mechanical guards of some kind that look at Datura upon entering and then ignore her. If she chooses to enter, that is.
As the wall allows the young woman to pass through rather cleanly, she stumbles a bit forward, falling to her knees and catching herself with her hands as she whips her blonde head up to look at what she has literally stumbled in to. Upon seeing the room, with it's non-hostile guards, the young woman lets out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding, standing up and brushing her knees off, smoothing out the skirt she was wearing. As she looks over her shoulder, she finds the wall still there, at least visually. Her voice travels beyond it towards the others in the group. Or rather, to two in particular.
"Rigumo-chan! Digumo-chan! Bring Kana-chan!"
The pair of humanoid arachni have stopped their dance of death, coming to a perfect standstill on the other side of the devastation they have caused, their faces dispassionate, blank masks, having pulled up just short of reaching the other group that had been on the far side of the wicked things. Wordlessly, they look towards each other at the Yamanaka girl's call, then towards Kanami, then towards Mune, their frowns marginally increasing. "…The one with the dark hair!" Again without a sound, the light-skinned one passes her polearm off to her dark-skinned sibling and moves towards the shaken snake-woman, her arms outstretched and ready to scoop her up.
"Do not try to resist."
If all goes according to plan, the fair-skinned widow will carry Kanami like a child towards the fake passwall, her sister holding both spears in tow, turning their backs upon the other Tao Shih in callous disregard and, perhaps, a bit of disdain, too. If Kanami resists, the spider-woman attempting to grab her will try to force-carry her along!
Having to agree with the pulling away from Kanami, going towards the engagement area is very stupid and he didn't knwo if he was doing that due to the blood loss, which Kanami and Amuro would see very clearing. His back is blood soaked, as well as shards of glass can be seen embeded in him, spots of blood can be seen through the gown along his back. He's not losing a lot of blood, he is doing alright, as the dance of death is completed from the twin Widow sisters Shinji backs away with Kanami.
Upon hearing Amuro, Shinji glances back behind him, "I'm alright, I was hurt when the office windows shattered. I took the glass so that Kanami wouldn't get hurt. But I don't know if thier blood was or is on the glass or not." he tells Amuro and gestures at the dead bodies on the ground. Turning back around and looking to see if there is anything moving that could pose a threat, Shinji just sighs a bit. When the light skinned widow twin comes to take Kanami to where Datura is, Shinji looks to her and nods to Kanami. "Go with her Datura is just worried for you is all." he tells her reassuringly. "Tomoyo-san are you alright?" he asks knowing that she isn't hurt from what he can see. "Mune-san you ok?" he calls to her. "I'm in agreement for us getting out of here."
Mune looks up when the noise dies down, opening her eyes just in time to see Tomoyo approaching her. Amuro is here, and the creatures are all dead — or at least no longer moving. "I'm fine," she answers both Tomoyo and Amuro as she rises to her feet. She moves aside to let Rigumo and Digumo pass through, and keeps her eyes locked on Shinji and Amuro. They are obviously injured, though Kanami seems to be suffering too.
"Amuro-sama, were you injured as well?" she asks as she rushes down the hall, no longer in a 'combat' or 'survival' mind-set but instead focusing on her role as a healer. She slaps a hand onto Shinji's shoulder somewhere that doesn't look injured and unthinkingly focuses her Chakra for a moment to analyze his injuries. She swears under her breath. "Get into the safe room. I need to get to work on you immediately. You've been infected." She points at the scratches on Shinji's arm, and then starts trying to guide him back up the hall and towards the hidden room behind the wall that appears to be as solid as ever.
She also looks behind her to eye Amuro and make sure he doesn't try to hide his own injuries somehow. Men are stupid like that, though Amuro shows a lot more sense than every other that Mune has ever met.
Kanami is too far gone to try to resist. She allows herself to be picked up and carried, but leaves her face covered by her hands. Things have stopped changing for now, but she can feel the difference. Half of her is still human, at best. The rest is… Something other. Maybe MULTIPLE something others. She doesn't know. She just wants Mune to make it stop.
She has yet to realize how one hand is covered in white scales and the other is a mix of blackened flesh and porcelain. She'll probably find out soon enough.
Things seemed to quiet down now that hallway was more or less cleared of anything that wanted to dig their dirty claws and or oversized syringes into them. There were still a few stragglers, but they seemed hesitant to come out of their offices for fear of what might happen to them.
As Tomoyo's penetrating gaze looked over Amuro, she could read what his body was trying to hide. The shattered leg, the poison that was threatening to spread into his body. Her eyes widen slightly at all the damage that Amuro took, and yet he's still able to stand. She's amazed at the endurance her papa has, but at the same time is surprised to see him end up in such condition. The girl looks over to Mune and then to Amuro, luckily for everyone she was able to handle things like injuries and poisons!
When Datura finally finds her way into the hidden room beyond the fake wall and calls for her pets..? Servants? To retrieve Kanami and also head into the room, she looks at the two women, especially the one carrying both of the spears. Spear users? She looks at her own weapon, something similar to that of a spear. As the one with the darker skin passes by, carrying those deadly spears, "Nice job, you sure know how to handle those. I'm still learning." she admits, offering a bit of a smile that doesn't seem appropriate for the situation here…
"I'm fine papa. Sorry for being late." she apologizes to him and to everyone else. Answering both Shinji's and Amuro's question on her current state of health. As far as she knew, not a single scratch. A dangling piece of glass finally loses its grip on the window frame it was desperately clinging to and clatters to the floor, shattering rather loudly and causing Tomoyo to cringe as a reaction. Physically she was fine, mentally, she was a little on edge.
Now that Mune was back on her feet and fine again, she gives a little nod as people should now start migrating into the 'safe room'. She walks up to Mune again and whispers something to her while glancing over at Amuro before looking over at Shinji who was just a mess of blood and tattered hospital gown. She didn't realize it until now just what he was wearing and made a slightly peculiar face.. "Erm… why is he wearing that… here?" she asks no one in particular before Mune provides a rather dismal diagnosis of him being infected. That probably wasn't the best news he'd hear all day. She doesn't know what to say to that and sort of forces herself to wander into the other room, hopefully the others will follow before the nurse-things build up the nerve to crawl out of their holes.
Amuro admits openly to Tomoyo and Mune, even as Shinji is diagnosed, "I am going to need treatment once Shinji is taken care of. Something bit me before I could escape it." He continues to walk forward, using his right leg normally, even as it fails to support him. A squish from his blood-filled boot can be heard with every step. It seems he is keeping the leg stable simply by tensing all the muscle in that leg so firmly that it acts as a sort of psuedo-cast. The arm is a different matter. He even mentions off-handedly, as though he had only just realized, "Ah, and I broke my right leg."
Then he stops at the end of the hall once everyone (except Tomoyo and himself) are within the secret room. He stares at the wall in front of him, not the one at the end of the passage-way. Then he turns his head to his left to look at the one with the question mark on it. Then he looks at the wall in front of him again. He stays there for a few seconds more, then turns around quickly to look behind him. The three nurse-things are already creeping out of the offices, hissing and blurring their heads rapidly. He could probably take them, but in his condition it would be better not to. Besides, they will have fled by the time the Tao Shih re-emerge regardless. Such creatures tend not to remain when their territory has been violated so thoroughly.
He looks straight ahead one more time then turns fully and says, "Tomoyo-chan, into the room. The wall is permeable to us, as you may have noticed. Though it is fortunate that Datura's Chakra lingers on her guardians. Otherwise those two would be unable to pass." Once they are inside the hidden room, Amuro moves directly over to where two tables lie. They are not unlike operating tables, but they have restraints in place, and are surrounded by high-tech equipment that no other hospital on the planet has access to. The masked man leans back against a wall, waits for everyone to be somewhat settled, and then says, "I would apologize for the trouble caused by my directions being faulty… But the truth is that it was not my error. When I constructed this room, it was right at the end of the main hall. There was no left-hand passage. The passage was not here the last time I visited, just like the room where I was ambushed did not exist previously. That means that there is something down here that is able to… 'Reconfigure' the facility — and potentially reality itself. Needless to say, we are in a lot of trouble if any more reconfigurations take place before we leave. I have an emergency method of getting to safety, but using it in a place like this might 'teach' the malevolent presence down here how to do the same. For now, we have other matters to attend to."
Amuro watches as Shinji is likely guided towards a table. The ex-mercenary is going to need to be treated for his infection, then Amuro's left arm, and then Kanami as a whole. In that order, despite any protests. Amuro is slowing the spread of the poisonous Chakra in his arm through a mix of willpower and absolute mastery over his own Chakra — similar to how he is resisting the screaming, horrendous pain in his broken leg. But he can't last more than another 30 minutes. Then the poison will reach into his heart.
"Set Kanami on the other table, if you would," he 'requests' of Digumo. She may ignore him, but it is likely Datura will repeat the instructions if for no other reason than because Amuro has already said he knows how to fix Kanami and doing so is a priority for the rogue Yamanaka. Sighing, Amuro says, "What a bother."
