PITCH BLACK〔M〕「Hoef & Hannelorian」

[Dire Hoef]

Hachiro had been loitering for a bit before Nora stepped out. He came up from the secetary's counter-desk, and looked over at her as she began speaking. "Y-Yeah.. I'm fine..." He glanced away, before moving his attention away somewhere else. "She is.." What Kei spoke was the truth. This entire institute is a powderkeg ready to blow, and so Hachi understood the assignment.

Then she said it again, verbally this time; audible to the human ear. Those words, 'I am sorry.' They reverberated around in his head for a few idle moments before they came bounding back. Here, in the quiet vacancy of this antechamber, Hachiro felt that genuineness roll off her tongue. It soothed him, lifted his spirits to a more confident level. Those were more foreign words that his mind absolutely adored. Never, in his life, had he heard those words be uttered to him. Was he led astray as to the true nature of women? He wasn't sure, but he cherished the words and held them close to his soul.

"It's...q-quite alright.. I'm used to it." He shifted slightly, turning towards the door and motioned towards it. "The less...we talk about h-her...the b-better." He didn't exactly dwaddle on the topic too much longer and steered the conversation towards their objective. "Lady Kei gave us some stuff to do...didn't she? It was to..find people..?"

Which, to Hachiro, was an astounding task. He was concerned by what they already faced getting up here, but now fear grew unchecked at the thought of them going back down to look for people. Personally, Hachiro was not excited about doing this, but he reminded himself that they're on borrowed time. And any delay could mean their misfortune.

[Hannelorian]

It was with a distinct immediacy that Nora understood that further commentary on the subject of Lady Kei would be unwelcome or unwise. To that end, Nora would allow her mind to do all of the swearing she kept bottled inside. It was rather colourful in nature.

Because she is soooo high and mighty, she couldn't possibly be bothered to look for survivors herself. No, perish the thought. God could you imagine? Kei wandering the halls? Doing something for someone else? And what the fuck was that "important" research crack? Ugh.

Fuck. Her. and the horse she rode in on.

The internal dialog prompted Nora to roll her eyes. Bringing matters back into focus, she was relieved to hear that Hachi was indeed alright. It was important for the both of them to keep some degree of a positive mental attitude. Focusing on the fact that they would survive, they would get through this whole ordeal. Or that they had survived so far, so clearly they had some skill between them that would push them through.

"Right. Task at hand." Nora said aloud and offered a smile. "We have to work together. Just like we have been. If we don't look out for one another, we're both destined for a nasty fate." Fate... what a funny concept. In the brief moments she recalled of this morning before realizing what had happened, not even in her wildest of dreams did she foresee this sort of thing. Fucking fairytales. In the original versions of most, things did not turn out so well for the protagonists... or there were a delightful variety of tales involving maiming and killing of children for disobeying their parents. And this was the sort of draconian, historic bullshit that she was supposed to believe magically explained what happened?

But magic was real. So perhaps it wasn't quite as farfetched as Nora originally considered. "There is one more thing we have to do... okay, we don't have to. But I'm asking for your help, Hachiro." Nora had never asked a man for help before, at least not in a meaningful way, something beyond 'fetch this, do that.' Now she was dependent on him to help her. "My research. I need to retrieve it. My lab is one floor down. I just need a few minutes to complete the latest backup... without it..." Nora sighed. She was about to make an admission she normally would not. "Well, frankly... the last few years of my life would amount to exactly nothing."

Nora cringed at it. She felt physically uncomfortable, almost sick at the words she spoke. Even if she'd never work again, or died... at least her work wouldn't be in vain. That was her biggest fear. "I can't force you to help... I don't want to endanger your life anymore than it already is." Slowly Nora made her way toward the door which led back into the corridor, turning around to face Hachi. "There is one incentive, however."

She folded her arms before her and looked up toward the ceiling, lost momentarily in thought. "Our biggest challenge is finding survivors. What if we didn't have to find them?" No, of course Nora wasn't suggesting just abandoning them to their fate and claiming they did all they could. Wouldn't that be something? "What if we could locate them from the lab, and then hyper focus our routes, avoiding any area we don't need to go to."

They would have to get the old man... a thought she did not relish after their encounter getting into the elevator. "Every employee is tracked, all of our movements, our comings and goings. We could use that to see recent activity, and compare that with the layout to get a better idea. "Focus on areas that still have power." Nora was now thinking out loud for possible alternatives. "Or use the air scrubber data." Another sigh, it was imperfect. "There are three distinct levels of air filtration throughout most of the facility. The first is ambient, that is the resting base line level. The second is organic, an intensified version which only activate when organic matter is present, i.e. us. The last and highest level are handled by the volatile compound detection system which is only triggered in rooms containing... well, volatile compounds."

[Dire Hoef]

Teamwork. That's what got them here. He recalled the moments where the two of them were synergistically aligned to achieve their ends. He softly smiled at the idea of the two of them relatively getting along in this ambient, shadowy, hell. However, his mind latched onto a different thread as Nora continued on.

Hachiro stepped a few paces toward her as she explained an alternative objective. He didn't have to oblige her in this moment. He could simply turn her down, and remind her to focus on the task. Although, he decided against it. He wanted to aid her in whatever she had planned. "I'll do it," he said assertively, "I'll help." He felt the fear of the unknown below bubble underneath the surface of his conscience, but this was Nora he was standing in front of. She had become his de-facto partner-in-crime. It felt like providence that the two of them met and have survived for as long as they have. There was no discernable way he could turn her down now after suffering so much in such a short time.

But, Hachiro frowned slightly at the thought of leaving people behind. They put so much time and effort the old man that it was practically too late to really care for themselves at this moment. Hachiro wanted to at least test his heroism. But, as he was fathoming a counter to her question she threw him a curve ball and presented an idea. He liked where she was going with it, and nodded; on board with it.

Though, he followed a bit before stopping, looking at Nora inquisitively as she ran her options. He was listening intently, breaking down each option into its finer components. He did note that there would be a database of everyone's whereabouts as Lady Kei was paranoid like that. However the question was access, and Hachiro wondered if Nora had such access. The air scrubber is a long shot, but could yield results. "Does your lab.. have access to ssuch egress data? And.. Air scrubber data is faulty, but it could give us a generalized blot-map of high concentrations of the ooze.. That data can tell us what areas to avoid.."

[Hannelorian]

Nora could have hugged Hachi when he agreed to assist her. This assent was different than others. Typically men indulged her because they felt compelled to. It was as though they had no choice and more often than not that was quite the case. She issued orders, she did not make requests. This revelation was enough to prompt a rather large smile and nod of her head. "Okay." Nora spoke softly. It wasn't long after that, that Hachiro began to offer his thoughts on the current situation and feedback on her suggestions.

"Inverse relationship." Nora smirked now, Hachi was quite bright indeed, and certainly very useful in the present situation. "Where not to go, that is." The question that remained was one of access. "The only person with a higher clearance than me is Kei." She was tempted at that moment to roll her eyes. She was not the only one with such an access level, but as far as she knew, Nora was one of the only surviving or present members of senior institute staff. "I can get in to anything... except Kei's research files." What she wouldn't give now to have access to those files. Just what the hell was she working on anyway?

Nora swallowed hard and took a deep breath in and out before preparing to go back into the main corridor. "My lab is just downstairs. I'm not sure going back to the elevator will still be an option. But the emergency stairwell on this side of the building isn't far. We'll need to be fast." When didn't they need to go fast? She probably didn't need to say it. Nora rested her hand on the door handle and slowly opened it, allowing the light from the ante-chamber to slowly begin to travel to the corridor. She took a cautious step outward, as she suspected, the path to the elevator was no longer an option, the floor had been covered with the ooze. The other way was largely clear, taking a few moments to listen she didn't quite hear anything overtly concerning.

Nora made her way quickly down the hall, glancing behind her, always looking for Hachi, making sure he was following and that nothing else was following him. She pushed open the door to the stairwell, it was still brightly illuminated and eerily not as badly affected as some of the other areas... yet. By the time they had arrived at level 4, and exited things had deteriorated from when Nora was last here not that long ago. "Shit... If I wasn't so fucking terrified, I would find it's expansion rate to be rather impressive." The scientist within her couldn't help but admire it, at least a little bit. The ooze had crawled up the walls, and onto portions of the ceiling. "Right... so there's something on this floor too." Before Nora seemed to develop her lust for blood, she recalled the creature on the ceiling just outside her lab. "Probably best to go through Sharpe's lab." The majority of this portion of the fourth level was dedicated laboratory space. Dr. Sharpe's lab was right across the hall from them, and had an exit at the opposite side which would come out closer to her own lab and office.

[Dire Hoef]

Nora's smiles had been bonfires in the darkness, but here it was an effigy; awashed in flame. Her large smile came forth like an Oblivion missile detonating in a flash. He was blinded, but not physically. Emotionally. Though, it was not negative. In fact, the inverse was true. He was elated. His own face lit up like an ornament tree on the Saturnalia. Twas full life and wonder, something he rarely felt. The passion from her filled him with a determination that he only barely became accustomed to. He felt ready to face whatever came forth from the cold night.

His determined look was followed by an affirming nod to his observations. "Then your access code is all that we will need.."

Then, He pivoted his thoughts for a moment to take account of his vitality. He didn't know how much time had actually past to account for any large-scale spells he could cast. It felt like perhaps a few hours since all this started. He'd need to find a clock somewhere in Nora's lab to check how long it has actually been. However, now was not the time to think about his powers. Survival was at hand.

He nodded again, this time leaning forward; prepared to bolt after her. And sure enough, she stepped out into the corridor and beelined for the stairwell. Hachi, after glancing at what happened with the elevator, followed in suit; keeping just a meter behind her so as to not nip her heels. And once they were in the stairwell, he exhaled slightly, having spent some stamina keeping close to her.

Down the stairs they tread where they reached the door leading onto the fourth floor. Here, obstacles reared their ugly heads. Hachi could see that the ooze had advanced in stage of infestation, this ooze was far thicker than what he's seen. And having glanced at Nora when she commented on it, he figured that this was part of what she had seen earlier before seeing him.

So he took her up on going through Dr. Sharpe's lab. He pointed over to, and quickly positioned himself near, the door. There, he proceeded to silently conjure up a few magic circles that lit up around his right hand and wrist; three in descending size from small to large to be precise. His hand was in a dagger like form, all fingers put tightly together. "I'm ready..." He whispered looking around every so often to ensure nothing was moving toward them.

[Hannelorian]

The growing confidence in Hachiro motivated Nora to be both an active partner in their tasks, and provided faith that they were properly equipped to do this. "Right." She nodded when Hachiro indicated he was ready, and with a few taps on an electronic lock, the door released and slowly opened. Inside there was little light, a few of the fixtures from the ceiling were now hanging on for dear life by their wires alone, irregular flickers of light burst forth and vanished leaving only flashes of what was around them. Nora took a hesitant step inside.

"Akari?" Nora called, but not too loudly. A part of really doubted that Dr. Akari Sharpe was here, or if she was, that she would be alive. She was always a bit too skittish and not nearly level headed enough for this kind of situation. Nora certainly was a rather judgmental one when it came to her assorted colleagues. Dr. Sharpe specialized in microbiology. There was no response from the void. But had she called to something else, Nora wondered. Stepping further inside, there didn't seem to much trace of the ooze on the floor. But it wasn't long before she collided with an object, something she presumed to be a desk. "Fuck..." She let out, that one was painful.

Reaching her fingers down she ran them along the wooden surface of the desk, running over papers, files, a microscope and then finally a metal disk, when she tapped it on a second time, the desk lamp awoke and illuminated a small area. The lab was in utter disarray. Desks overturned, papers everywhere you could imagine. Expensive equipment toppled to the floor, no longer glowing with the assortment of indicators it normally would have. There was broken glass, every workstation seemed an utter mess. But where was the ooze? Surely something had caused this.

"This.... does not bode well." The exit sign across the room was illuminated, they didn't have to go far to reach it. Navigating now around the desk, Nora tapped on any lamp she came across. It was then she heard it. They weren't alone after all. At first it came of the form of clanging, like metallic objects either falling, or coming into contact with each other. Then there was a sort of shuffling noise that came from one of the darkened offices along the perimeter. Then it would stop. Complete silence save for the lab's ambient noise. "We have company." Nora said turning to glance at Hachiro.

The sounds returned, in quick succession. The ooze came forth, surging out like an actual wave, the office door no longer able to hold it back. As it moved it carried with it objects, objects which to most would be too heavy to move. And at the crest of the wave, something like a mouth had formed, ready to consume. "Run." Nora spoke calmly, collected as she looked back at Hachiro once more, she now bolted her way toward the door. As the fiend came forth, it threatened to separate her and Hachi. She would not let that happen.

Looking at what was around her, there were few options. Breathing in deeply and quickly Nora made a fist and pulled it downward forcefully. An enormous creaking noise was heard, almost like a groan as a pipe fell through the drop ceiling, bursting, making waves of her own as water and a good deal of ceiling came crashing down upon the thing. Nora quickly punched in the code to open the door, and would wait for Hachi before she moved through.

[Dire Hoef]

All was quiet at first. The lab, itself, being rather unremarkable in its architecture but erratic and messy in its presentation. It turned out that the lab was turnover, everything strewn about as if a tornado had torn a swathe through the place. However, this was merely the calm before the storm.

Hachi could smell it. That growing fungal miasma that spelt death for anyone magically perceptive enough to deduce its origins. It was putrid, having almost made him gag at how strong it was. He glanced around the perimeter of the lab, craning his head toward where the smell was coming from. Although before he could pin the smell down in its totality, Nora heralded the coming of a new threat. A far more fluid threat.

Off to his left came the rattling of an office door, and then a cascading boom as the office door gave way to reveal a writhing mass of ooze. That mass swept through the lab, picking up everything in its path. He wasn't entirely expecting a mass of ooze to come lurching out at them, but he figured there were far worse fates to suffer. So, he rolled out of the way as a desk came flying towards him as the thing threw anything that wasn't nailed down into the air.

Then, in the next moment, Nora had called forth some of her own power and temporarily halted the creature in its tracks. Hachiro took that opportunity to lob two of the three arcane projectiles he had prepared. Such projectiles streamed from his right hand in archs of light that pierced two separate areas of the mass; causing it to spike and wave erratically. Thus, when the obstacle was created and some pain dished out, Hachiro clambered towards the other end where he found himself rolling to Nora's side.

His back at hit the wall on the opposite side of the control panel and Nora, his breathing a little haggard. He quickly got up to his feet and readied his third and finally projectile in case the thing got close as they were making their exit. But then his mind thought of something.

He used his free-hand to conjure up a near-translucent human hand that suddenly began moving furniture in front of where they stood. He intended to make a barricade using whatever was available, making it a makeshift one. How it will fare is unknown, but at least it was an attempt to cover their escape.

[Hannelorian]

There was a comfort in knowing Hachi was behind her, and made it to the door. He was doing his best, and that was all that Nora could ask for in this moment. When they were both on the other side of the door Nora pulled it shut, and breathed a sigh of relief when the sound of the electronic lock had engaged. But with something that fluid... "The door won't hold it back. Not for long... if it can manipulate it's own structure... it'll find a way through the cracks." The seals on the door to this lab in particular were no longer air tight.

"Nice moves back there..." Nora managed to get out, catch her breath and begin to move quickly across the hall to the entrance to her own laboratory. With the swipe of an ID card, the lock released and she hurried inside, not wanting to wait for what else was out there. "Welcome to my world Hachiro... everything that's left of it." The lab was quiet, and still so far untouched. Though no one from her staff had arrived either. There was an empty and gnawing feeling, nothing felt right. Her home, her solace, it had all been violated.

Nora cut a direct path to her office, bypassing the empty workstations and machines. There were several sealed chambers toward the sides of the office where active experimentation and development occurred. She looked at the flowers on her desk, and smiled, but for the first time since this all began, it brought a tear to her eye. Moving behind the desk to her personal terminal, she logged in and first and foremost inserted a drive identical to the one Kei had shown her, while reminding Nora of her failure for not considering that first.

She began the process of backing up the data, an operation which would take several minutes to complete. Wiping her eyes, Nora stood back up and put on a clean lab coat emblazoned with her name and title. Nora also took the opportunity to kick off her high heels which had been nothing but an inconvenience. Opening the small closet designed for personal effects, she pulled out a pair of black flats. Why didn't she keep something for this kind of scenario in her office? Well, too late for that now.

"See the desk with the cat pictures?" Nora yelled over to Hachi, well not yelled, but spoke loud enough to be heard. "You can use that terminal. Username: EVSakai, password: ye shall be as gods." Of course this was a blatant violation of every rule they had, but in this moment Nora didn't really care. For all she knew her lab wouldn't be around much longer anyway. "When you reach the admin systems, the authorization code is delta 9862." Nora had now left her office while the backup continued, and was moving around the lab, collecting things that might be of use before finally moving back to stand behind Hachi. "Annaliese is really into cats... Like I should have probably been more concerned about that."

[Dire Hoef]

Nora was correct in her assessment of his attempts to hold the creature at bay. He had high hopes, perhaps a bit too high. No matter. That was going to be a problem for a different time.

Hachiro followed Nora into her lab as she presented it to him. This was her world, her own little slice of heaven. However, Hachi could tell that there was something amiss in the air of this laboratory. It wasn't quite the world she wanted to come back to after only leaving it for a short while. Nevertheless, the confidence in her bound as she zeroed in on her office, made Hachiro smile a little. He was glad that she was able to return here in one piece.

He focused his attention over to the desk with the cat pictures, and sat at it. Here, he scooted in and began typing away at the username and password. He only really raised a brow at the password seeing that it was quite a scientist thing to make. Moving on, he moused over to the admin control console icon and clicked it. Now, a new screen appeared asking for asking for an authorization code. Hearing that was "Delta-9862," Hachi parroted the phrase into the entry box. Here it accepted the code, and dove into a series of tabs and pages.

Nora was behind him by this point, to which he nodded and said, "Considering how much of a hardworker you are... it makes sense... As long as they were doing their work... you didn't care of their quirks..." This was wholly based on what Hachi has seen of her. Despite her predicament prior to this, she was able to push through. Her tenacity was something that Hachiro admired.

However, his attention was more focused on the comings and goings of all staff and personnel. He saw there be a total of four to five thousand people on campus prior to the events. "This makes sense... Today is the Saturnalia... Yesterday was Gift Day... A lot of people are home this week.." He then moused around for the camera feeds wanting some answers as to how all this started. What he found horrified him.

This camera was facing the central plaza, the most brightly lit area of the campus.
Within seconds, a darkness rolled over the plaza like a fog in the morning hours.
It shrouded all of the available light, snuffing them out.
There were even a few pedestrians outside, moving from one building to another.
They did not fair much better.
As the darkness hits them, they topple over like ragdolls.
Falling to the concretely lifelessly.

Hachiro stared at the footage as this same scene played out on all the cameras he scrolled through when three-thirty-three in the morning came. It felt like a cosmic slap in the face for Hachi. All of this was so sudden and nobody saw it coming. The scope of this tragedy has expanded to thousands of people suspected dead. However, he needed further confirmation. So, he frantically scrolled over to the life support feature that monitors the health of the staff specifically. Here, he held a hand to his mouth.

Out of the two to five hundred staff present on campus when this occurred, only a handful of them are still alive; them included. The number of remaining staff are twelve, six of which are still on this campus. The rest have fled to scattered locations throughout the neighboring small city. "If there's four of us now ID, then that leaves," he looks two remaining names, "Eguchi Keiko...? And...Ikeda Aiko..?" He tiled his head a little at those names as he is unfamiliar with one of them. "Keiko I remember seeing her hang out around biology... I believed she followed...Professor Hisako..?"

He moused around some more to pinpoint her location, and sure enough she was in the biology department according to her last ping. Her tracker marked her as being huddled somewhere in a classroom. There weren't any cameras that got a good look of that classroom, but she hadn't appeared to move from that spot for a while.

As for the other woman, she's over in a separate building.. "The dormitories.." The tracker found her in her dorimtory as the last ping, and she hadn't moved from her dorm since then. She was going to be trickier as there was only an outdoor corridor connecting their building and that building. So, they were going to be need fast when crossing.

Taking into account the two women's locations, Hachi then proceeded to go over air scrubber data; finding that tab after some clicks. There, it revealed another horrifying revelation.

It appeared that ooze had adapted far more efficiently than they were led to believe. The entirety of the first, and large portions of the second, third, and fourth floors had been subsumed by the ooze in this building. The other building's first floor appeared to be largely untouched save for sporadic red signatures along the first and second floor's ventilation system.

Hachiro sat back, dumbfounded by the information revealed. He rubbed his face little, seemingly to wipe the stress from his expression. He glanced at Nora and said, "That's what we're dealing with..."

[Hannelorian]

As Nora stood behind Hachi, she watched over his shoulder at what was unfolding. "You... are a very good judge of character, Hachi." He was right, Nora cast aside all quirks and elements of personality she might otherwise find distasteful if her staff were doing their work. She only cared about results, efficiency and meeting deadlines. And without really noticing it, this was first time she referred to him as Hachi out loud. It signaled a growing comfort and ease around him. A kind of unspoken trust she now placed in the man. It was odd, he had taken her on good faith from the beginning, he called her Nora. Everyone did, save for Kei at least. But she had been on her guard around him. In hindsight, Nora realized she had been terribly unfair, and at some point she should apologize.

But nothing prepared her for what she saw unfold on the screens before her. The fog that descended more swiftly and effectively than she had ever seen. People, colleagues, friends were dropping like flies within an instant. They never saw it coming. She prayed their death was quick, painless. The revelation of the scope of this was horrifying, it was worse than any nightmare she could have imagined. A hand moved to rest on Hachi's shoulder, squeezing gently and reassuringly, despite the fact that Nora was now slowly crumbling on the inside.

"How... can this be?" Nora did not believe in God, but this was the closest thing to an act of God that she had ever witnessed. When Hachi moved on to check the life support systems the tragedy had numbers and could be quantified in the cost of human lives. She forced herself back to the task at hand. "Professor Hisoka." Nora corrected, but not in a particularly cruel way. "Well... that makes one thing easier." It didn't. Really nothing about any of this would prove easy. "Ikeda is one of mine, a first year graduate student." Nora admitted that teaching was her least favorite part of the job, though she was exceptional at it. Research was foremost her priority.

"Look at the rate of expansion. It's ruthlessly efficient." Nora wasn't sure it was possible to be even more horrified than she already was. But this was something on a scale she couldn't even fathom. "It's organic... it feeds, it grows. It takes over." It was more closely aligned to a predator than anything else. "There... are a few ways we could tackle this." Nora and a vague sports analogy? Shocking. "We could... go back for Nabuo first, try to get him to Kei. Before the rest of the third floor is rendered inaccessible. But then again, it looks like every floor, save for the fifth is fucked. So perhaps we go for the girl first in biology."

In a rather dramatic fashion, Nora used her arm to push some of the contents of the desk to the floor, and she sat herself comfortably in the space she had cleared, now just looking at Hachi. "Yes, this is what we're dealing with..." Nora wasn't sure what she could say, what was one supposed to say when something like this happened? "It's easy... to see the odds as astronomically bad." Nora smiled and let out a small giggle for a moment. "But you know what?" She asked, somewhat rhetorically. "Fuck 'em." Nora nodded. "We've made it this far based on good instinct, and clever thinking. The odds haven't met us yet."

Nora offered her consistent good nature, and tried like hell to be as positive as she could. "Come on partner, it looks like we've gotta figure out how the fuck we're gonna pull this off." With absolutely no help whatsoever from Kei. Who certainly knew exactly how bad this was the second they came into that office, and still sent them off on this task. Was Kei sending them to die? Nora's backups were completed.