03. Compound

[Twilight]

Cain gave only cursory attention to the procession from the copter, noting that the facility's newest guest looked like he wanted to be here even less than their group did - instead he was scanning the area between the buildings, looking for any ways out of the compound they might have missed in the brief look they'd gotten at the exterior on their arrival. There were plenty of vehicles and large stacks of equipment or supplies unidentifiable to the Digimon between them and the other buildings; he wasn't sure about the mage, but the wolf would likely have little trouble sticking to the shadows and remaining unnoticed, if they moved quickly enough before the searchlights resumes whatever their normal pattern might be; and of course Cain himself was relatively tiny and mostly black.

Leaning close to be heard over the chopper's engine, Cain nodded towards the guards disappearing into the opposite entrance. "Let's see if we can't find out what they're up to." Staying low, he darted as fast as his stature would allow across dark, open ground towards the closest cover, then glanced back to make sure he hadn't been spotted; none of the humans were yet paying attention to their position.

[Grim Wolf]

Cain was apparently less taken aback by what they'd seen than were Suri and Caster--Kaden and the others had only just vanished from sight when Cain called them after and went darting through the shadows. Caster glanced at the wolf, then swallowed and followed. He moved quietly, carefully--for one he couldn't fly, as Cain could, and for another he didn't have access to magic sufficient to quietly enhance his actions--mask him in shadow, let him bound here and there...

No time to dwell on his present weakness. He followed.

It appeared Cain's instincts had been correct--no soldiers guarded the door where Kaden and his prisoner had descended. They pressed on--no one wandered the halls here, the facility seemed quiet, and there were not quite so many turns. Caster, Cain, and Suri went farther, quietly, carefully...

They ended up in a long, dead-end hallway, lined with doors. One at the end was ajar.

Here Caster froze. "If they come out," he hissed. "They'll see us, no problem."

[Chaos Shadow]

The wolf growled faintly.

"And we can only feign ignorance for so long," he murmured. He stepped back, peering down the corridor. Then up.

"Cain," he began. "I think you can do this without much trouble." He nodded to the ceiling. "Humans never look up. If you can get into that room and hang out where they can't see you..."

He trailed off, not really seeing a need to finish the sentence. Next he looked at Caster.

"Maybe we can try the doors," he said. "Hide in them, I mean. Check for signs of life and get them open, turn them into cover if we need it. Might not open, but..."

He stopped again, his ear twitching.

"Wait, no, that'll show up on a camera, doors opening on their own..."

[Twilight]

Cain cocked his head, contemplating the wolf's first idea. "Don't know if it's good to rely on that stereotype, though. These are professional humans, and whether or not they have experience dealing with... things like us, it seems pretty likely they're trained to. And the rooms are mostly well-lit here, not exactly ideal for me to blend in..."

Still, there seemed to be less light coming from the open room. Above the hall were plenty of pipes and wires he could crawl along and hide on top of. And Suriumon had a point; Cain was the least likely to be noticed of their trio.

"It's probably the best plan we've got though, short of turning back." He slowly stretched his wings open, testing them - it was harder to fly here in the human world, but he'd been resting them mostly since their expulsion from Mirage. "If something goes wrong, or looks like it's about to, one of you distract them while... uh, probably Suriumon's most likely to get away unnoticed, and the wizard's flashier anyways. Better one of us is caught than all of us."

Before he could change his mind, Cain leapt into the air, grunting in surprise at his own weight as he struggled to remain airborne. After a few seconds he found a good rhythm and it got a little easier, but by then he had reached the ceiling, scrambling onto the largest pipe; there was barely enough clearance for him to fit as long as he hunched down. He gave a brief nod to the two below, then began scurrying towards the end of the hall. He considered messing with the cameras on his way past, but aside from just breaking them he had no idea what to do with them; and that would serve only to draw attention.

There was a small enough gap between the doorframe and his position that, once Cain got close enough, he'd be able to get a decent look at the room's interior; and he'd certainly be able to hear whatever was going on inside.

[warriorjames]

(Suppose I may as well do something.)

It had only been a few minutes since Suriumon, Caster and Cain had left, but to Haruhi it felt like it had been hours. His head was flowing with constant worry, but his gut told told him that they were alright.

For the moment.

Would they make it back? What if they didn't? What would the others think? Simon would most likely become uneasy, or maybe even go nuts, without Caster. Chaos, meanwhile, would only have Nihimon should Suriumon go missing. And then there was Kikota. Mechamon was running on limited energy...those AA batteries. If Cain vanished...

"You look uneasy."

Haruhi almost literally jumped out of his scales. He took a quick look around, but gave a sigh of relies when he saw that Wingman had simply woken up.

"Don't do that again."

"Sorry," Wingman sighed, "So what's got you on edge?"

"Suriumon, Caster and Cain left to look around a while ago, and-"

"You're worried that they could be in trouble," Wingman finished, "I can understand the worry; were in unknown territory and we're limited by what we can physically do, but give them some credit. They can hold their own."

Deep down, however, Wingman was also starting to become uneasy about the situation.
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Words-206
Posts-12
Karma-32(29+(1+2))

[Chaos Shadow]

[ I think we're waiting on you, Grim. ]

[Grim Wolf]

[Oof, I think you're right. Chaos, the other man is your character, I guess. And I'll take over Cain if Twi doesn't step in to do so.]

Cain slipped in.

The room within was large but relatively simple. There were eight large cells, all surrounded by plastic walls so that their occupants were totally visible, and each cell was isolated from the others. Each cell contained a cot, a sink, and a toilet. The whole area was very well-lit.

Only two of these cells were occupied. One had a human asleep upon it. the other contained Kaden. This one was surrounded by soldiers; a human trying to get a look would not have been able to see what was happening.

But Cain was on the ceiling. So he saw Kaden slip the syringe into the yelling woman's arm.

"It's alright," Kaden said, in a quiet, commanding voice.

"No!" shrieked the form on the stretcher, still struggling. "No! Alia's in trouble, I have to-"

"This is not the Digital World," Kaden said firmly. "You have no chance at saving your Partner save through cooperation with us!"

"You did this!" she howled. "You...you did..." The man stopped struggling, and trailed off.

"There," Kaden said. He easily lifted the woman off the stretcher and placed her on the cot, then turned to the cell and knocked upon it. One of the walls slid down into the ground, and Kaden stepped out.

"She's not like the others?" one of the soldiers asked.

"No," groused Kaden. "She wasn't sent back by...whatever sent them back. We'll have to look into it." He started walking towards the door, with the soldiers in tow.

KARMA COUNT COMPLETE: 4/29/13

This post has been edited by Grim Wolf on Apr 28 2013, 05:40 PM