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Basement stairwell

The black eyes caught him off guard, the throwing of the trainee probably should have as well. But well, fighting was fighting. But completely black eyes. "Oi!" (His phone blipped, but there was no time to check. At least it would see Noemi was alright enough to respond). Milo rushed up the remaining set up steps, ready to intercept, ready to collide with the girl if need be but that just never happened.

Her head snapped back, that didn't seem normal, and she decided to run away instead. Milo skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs and pushed himself to where the trainee lay against the wall. "Aue, you alright?" A medical professional he was not, but he at least knew how to check for a pulse and bleeding and stuff. Moving injured people wasn't always the best option either, if he remembered correctly.

< Why aren't you going after her?! >

"You got no idea how much I wanna, aibou, but gotta make sure this guy isn' hurt, ya." Koume grumbled from his response.

Milo's phone blipped again, reminding him that he had a message. He quickly dug out his phone again and was relieved to find it was indeed from the petite red head. Seeing the first part of the message was not a comfort, even with the short sentence that followed.

When Peyton didn't prove to be a threat, the clone turned away from her, picking its way further into the rubble, whispering a quiet mantra to itself, a half remembered poem that it had never cared to read for itself. When it reached the wall, it began carving at the surface is a a sharp shard of tile.

The voice was coming from underneath a broken set of lockers and floor tiles, a support beam across the entire pile. "Please," came the weak reply.

Finley's heart pounds in her ears as she searches, growing louder and louder, til it's nearly all she can hear and then...the sound splits. Half a dozen odd rhythms first echo for one beat and then separate, some speed up with exertion, others slow to a point close to stopping. Hearts, she's hearing the heart beats of those who need her most.

The loudest leads her straight to a hand, just barely visible under the wreckage.

[Minipets lab]

Dakota was like this close to to bopping Molly on the head. He had 0 attachments to Cannon cats, or any of the minipets.

He was hungry. He wanted to fight. Whoever did this...He wanted to know. The hand itched over chama's blade. He wanted revenge, not to continue protecting.

But her wails were met with a small kitten, leading them to a cracked wall.

"Oh mighty destructo woman." he pointed at it, "One of your kittens got loose."

hurricane

It was explosion to end all inner conflicts. A singular confluence of destruction, duty, and devastation all rolled into one, of fire, of fear, of a cool voice calling for aid. It rocked the surroundings until even the soundwaves punched his ears unpleasantly. It blocked out the incoming dms, the texts, and even for a moment the sick, unwanted urge to kill Caly.

And then it resurfaced, worse than ever. It forced him into that initial burst of speed after her before Dawson even knew he was moving, to catch the clone before something else happened. And then he remembered himself. Not a tool. Not just a clone.

I don't want to die.

Caly. That alone made him come back down to earth. A single cry for help beyond the large mass that intimidated him into panicked paralyzation otherwise. He had already learned shamefully that when it became too much, he ran away. But if he focus on just one at a time--just Caly for now, and not all of his friends at once like his frantic heart bled to do--he could act. He could protect her. Not kill, not kill, never kill. (Never again.)

Dawson was not a soldier at heart or in mind, but he was a guardian. A Moon.

And maybe, just maybe, a paladin.

Infirmary

Lex had signed up for more Infirmary shifts, back to back, because it was easier to tend the wounds of others than lick his own open sores; just analyzing them made him nauseous. He hadn't looked at a mirror in days, his own reflection bringing him to his knees in a fit of dry heaving.

Sewing together gashes and changing bandages were his haven, the one thing in his life that he couldn't ******** up, no matter how hard he tried.[

Then even this temporary paradise was ripped asunder as the explosions hit, aftershock tremors sending already askew carts and IV's rolling, needles and tools clattering against the floor in a rampant, painful crescendo. The screaming was the first thing to get Lex off the floor, the second the phone buzzing in his pocket. Angry eyes checked the caller ID - Claudia Anna.

"Claudia? I'm fine, my patients aren't. Either get to the infirmary and start hauling them out, or go barricade the pods." He barked at her over the phone, the din of alarms, screaming, someone - Sunny, God bless her - keeping a level head and issuing orders to all able to move. "See you soon, kid."

He hung the phone up and heard the final violin in the orchestra, Clarice's voice. It was unsettling, but comforting. Lex wished she were still here, maybe she could help him sort his own demons out-

No. This was not the time for thoughts like that. Patients needed saving, potential Hunters needed protecting. Lex slung an immobile patient with a leg injury over his shoulder, barreling out of the infirmary and to safety, laying them down against a wall not attached to the very possibly gone soon infrastructure, and fumbled in his pockets for a bottle of painkillers (always be prepared), popping a few in their mouth and commanding them to stay put.

The tall Lifer sprinted back to the infirmary, and stopped when he saw Leslie with something more than his weapon.

"Miller!" Lex hissed, grabbing the comatose patient the smaller man was guarding. "What the ******** is-- nevermind. How many others that can't move?"

lucyal

lurks beneath

Coma Ward

She'd thought her best friend was on another base, Shu hadn't seen Noemi for a while again. Yet, her heart told her it won't be a bad idea to check on her. The Reception of the phone was weak and last check, there were no new messages. She threw another text message quickly, wondered why her emotions was like waiting outside the operating room, helpless and fidgeting. She hoped everyone was alright, walking while zoned out, the thick smokes and the debris didn't stop her down. The strong smell of medicines and sterilizing liquids filled up the place besides that of the combustion.



She disliked hospitals, like a giant monster, the people it swallowed seldom return. Even though the smell surrounded her made her uncomfortable, she insisted to walk into it. Clamor of calling for assistance can be heard from where she was, loud sometimes, weaker sometimes and the occasional bombing and sounds of weapon clanking. At her feet, the coma ward left a big hole. It was scary to imagine where all the patients went. She braced herself by holding herself, searching for possible lives.

Everything was a mess, lives were depleted. The eyes roamed around with the brain quick spinning, the dusts and ashes blew up and filled the place due to the collapse, lower one's visibility and making the job of rescue more difficult. A guess was, someone already moved the patients to a safe location, she stared at the footprints left on the floor covered in grey ashes. Yet, she had a strange feeling she shouldn't leave. Filtering all the noises, she listened, with breathless interest and distinguished the weak but consistent beeping of device.

Someone was there below!

Staring at the big hole, she had thought to make use of her hammer to get down, but then she thought of how fragile the structure currently was - it couldn't bear a strong blow like that and gave up. She looked around for any useful stuff and luckily discovered a long rope somehow left on the floor. Shu tied it to a firm collar and climbed down with it.

The space at the bottom was a different world, full of big concrete pieces and broken parts of reinforcing steels. She walked around the piles of waste, scooted over to catch the source of beeps. To her relief, it was audible enough that she found it quickly, below big pieces.

With her gloves on, she used the end of her hammer as a level to get rid of the big materials on above. Rocks over smaller rocks, finally she could make out the lights from the device. Fortuitously, the main two big pieces built a tent to provide enough space for the survivor. She sighed in relief.