Shiro listened to Diamond with a sense of horror, frozen with fear as she spoke of Team CODE's mission. He half wanted to freak out and tear up the infirmary in his search for Cobalt and Emerald, misunderstanding and thinking she was saying that they were in pieces. But, after she left Oswald's words helped to clarify a few things and calm him down. If only a little. He took a little comfort in hearing Oswald saying he was okay, though he looked far from it. Though, what did he mean by 'rogue Huntresses'? Did such a thing exist? He cocked an eyebrow, not sure what his classmate meant by that. At least the terrifying Ms. Vanhomrigh was there to save them, thank the deities above for that. Things seemed to take a sudden and dark turn when Oswald mentioned the death of a few mercenaries. Shiro's expression growing somber as his ears slowly drooped, his tail lifeless in its lack of motion. He had no idea what to say to offer to the boy to console him, as he could see that he was dealing with pain that was more than just physical. Something set off an extra sense of his and Shiro jumped, startled by some unknown intense emotion. Looking around in confusion, the feeling vanished, Shiro unsure what it was that he had felt. Turning back to Oswald, he continued to listen to the boy. When Oswald looked away, Shiro knew what he was trying to do and looked off to the side himself. To save the boy some dignity. It had to be difficult for him to share what had happened. Shiro cursed himself for being so insensitive to not see that.

When the boy finished, Shiro could figure that Oswald wanted some privacy. To be left alone.
Inhaling, Shiro started to speak but his voice caught in his throat and he paused.
Summoning more of his strength to talk, he tried again.

"I...don't know what I can do or say to help you feel better, boss. But, if you need someone to talk to, I'm always around somewhere. Causing some kind of trouble." he laughed nervously.
Shiro reached and just gently patted a Oswald's hand with his own gloved one.
"I'm gonna go see how the rest of your team is doing. I'll uhh....see you around man."
Turning, Shiro left and made sure to close the privacy curtain for Oswald's sake.

Standing just in front of Oswald's bed but on the other side of the curtain, Shiro stared at the ground for a moment. Ears still low. If this mission had torn Oswald up that badly, then would it do any good for him to check on the others? Of course, he had to at least made it be known that someone was there for them. He almost felt bad for his mission going as 'well' as it did. Clenching his fist, he bucked himself up and went searching for Emerald's bed. Finding it, he made sure to let his presence be known before just barging into her private space. She may not have been decent and Shiro vaguely remember making that mistake once with another female student.

Was it Sapphire?
...Nah.
"E-...Emerald? Hey, it's me, Shiro. I got back from my mission a little while ago and wanted to see if you were okay..."
He waited for her response before stepping behind her privacy curtain.

@Abillioncats

Emerald's ears twitched and turned toward the direction of Shiro's voice. She had faintly heard him talking to Oswald so she wasn't surprised.

"C-Come in..." Emerald squeaked after a minute once she finally found her voice, the first words she'd actually spoken since she woke. She tried to rub her eyes, even though it caused her some discomfort to move. She didn't want him to see she'd been crying. The tone of his voice made it clear that he was concerned about her wellbeing, she didn't want to burden him with worry, he was way too happy a person for that.

No, she'd put a smile on her face, despite the fact that she felt like her world was crumbling all around her. She just...needed to think positive, giving into negativity just meant the Grimm would win in the end right? Right...

Shiro's ears twitched when he heard Emerald's voice, allowing him to come in. Expression saddening, he could tell by her uneasy tone that she didn't sound too good herself. Shaking his head to wipe away the sorrowful look he had on, he instead put on a his usual friendly smile and poked his head in between the curtains. He had to fight to keep the smile on his face. Seeing her condition, it wouldn't be hard to see why. One look at her eyes and Shiro recognized the redness and puffiness of someone who had been crying. He dreaded seeing the condition Cobalt was in.

"Gods, this sucks.."
He lamented.
"Hey, Emerald. You doing alright? I was just stopping by to check on the others who I know, that returned from their missions. H-how are...things?"
Shiro's chest felt tight, his heart hurting for Emerald when he saw the obviously forced smile she was displaying for him.

Emerald thought for a moment on how to respond, she could have easily faked it and told him she was fine, that she just needed a little rest and all would be good! But she just didn't have it in her to lie to him, not when it was something that was so blatantly untrue it would be insulting his intellect. "T-To be honest I've been better...not because of my injuries really..." She looked away for a moment, worried that he'd see her getting misty eyed. "I...I've seen things...learned things that I wish I didn't know about...stuff that s-shouldn't be real I-" Emerald stopped abruptly as her voice quivered, she couldn't do this anymore.

"I'm sorry I...let's talk about something else...anything will do I just...I just can't talk about this..." Emerald shut out the memories as best she could, they were just too fresh in her mind. "H-How was your mission? Better than mine right?" She actually laughed at that, it was kind of funny in a really sad, morbid way.

There he goes again, just after realizing his mistake seconds before with Oswald too. He was being insensitive. It was probably better to just not ask anyone how their mission went. It should've been painfully obvious before, but if a student ended up here after their mission for anything other than a simple check-up. Chances were high that their mission did not go well. It was also very likely that they were still recovering from wounds more than physical and Shiro was just doing the worst possible thing by reminding them of the events that had transpired. Needless to say, Shiro really hated himself right now. His own pain evident on his face when his expression briefly twisted up into what looked like a cringe.

Shaking his head, he picked up his usual smile again.
"Ah, I'm sorry hear you're not doing too well."
He didn't know what much else to say, other than that.
Though, it just made him extra curious to know what occured during their mission.
Just what was it they had seen? What had they gone through?
"Even still, I figured you wouldn't mind seeing another friendly face."
Nervously, as per his habit, he scratched the back of his head.
"Ah, my mission? It went rather well. Almost boringly so, to be honest with you."
Looking up at the ceiling, he couldn't help but chuckle and smirk.
"The most exciting thing that happened is that we learned Sapphire has problems with water. Either she's afraid of it or can't swim, I don't know. But, we kinda found out the hard way."
His expression blanked as he stared at Emerald.
"She bit me when I tried to rescue her."
Shiro said in an annoyed tone.
Tugging off the arm-length glove that concealed his medically bandaged arm, Shiro showed her the covered bite wound.
"She bit me kinda hard too. Wasn't expecting it so my Aura couldn't defend me there."
He sighed, ears drooping before his ears perked back up and his face brightened, laughing at his own expense.
Shiro thought to mention how it kind of hurt, but as his eyes glanced over Emerald's wounds...

He figured it be best not to say.

Emerald blinked, Sapphire had problems with water? It wasn't the most interesting news in the world but it was enough to keep her mind off of her trauma. "Water problems huh? You'd never guess than looking at her. I mean I'm not the biggest fan of swimming but I do know how to." Truth be told, the fact that a lot of people assumed she hated water because she was a cat faunus annoyed her. She was in fact a fairly decent swimmer. "Maybe once I get out of here we should try to teach her."

"Wait, she bit you?" Emerald asked incredulously, finally realising that was what had been said. "And humans think they're more civilized than we are? Please."

Shiro laughed again, more genuinely this time. "Yeah, it surprised all of us too. I actually love the water myself and I think I'm a great swimmer. I'd offer to teach her but, I severely doubt she'd ever accept." Thinking about it, she would probably tell him to go shove his offer somewhere the sun didn't shine or just outright ignore him with a cold shoulder. He could hardly imagine her listening to his instruction anyways. Not realizing he was looking at the ground, he looked back up when Emerald asked about his bite wound. Laughing nervously, he scratched the back of his head again. "Y-yeah, she bit me. I think she had some sort of panic attack er...something, and just bit me. Like one of those cases where she didn't know where she was or who I was..kind of...deals. Thingys." Shiro said in a rather confusing manner, making sure not to comment about Emerald's remark on human/faunus civil and social relations...

"Ayyyoooo! How's it hangin', Jumpercables? You all alive down here?"

The unmistakably friendly, casual voice no doubt set a few of the survivors on edge, especially when an unfamiliar dark-skinned girl rolled in the room wearing only a sports bra, sunglasses, and a coquettish grin from the waist up. The grin faltered only slightly when she saw the unconscious girl Luke and Cian were keeping aloft. That must be the Priscilla chick everyone was talking about. Some help, Lauren thought wryly, not for the first time that day, but saying so right now was probably insensitive. Not missing a beat, Lauren carefully lifted Priscilla away from the two other Huntsmen and put the girl over her own shoulder. While in close proximity, she took the opportunity to wrap an arm around Luke's neck and squeeze.

"Heya, kiddo," she said affectionately, ruffling the younger student's kinky black hair with her knuckles before looking up to the congregation JCL was at the head of.

She thought of asking Jack if he'd heard from her own captain. The fact that the monster - whatever the hell kinda Grimm it was - was still stampeding around the roof and sending tremors through the facility meant that something was distracting it from actually ripping the roof off the building and snacking on them individually - and if the big motherfucker on the roof was anything like the car stealing motherfucker in the basement, there was only one boy who could ever even remotely hold its attention.

Fuckin' Cap.

Lauren grinned.

That boy knew how to get her wallahi juices flowing, boy. She knew there was something she'd liked about him. Ever since he had given her ass the ol' Zeus grip in front of everyone at combat class to avoid throwing a fight. Any guy with that kind of sack could hold his own long enough for them to get the non-fighters outta Dodge.

"Sangue is on the ground floor, near where we found the kinky guy at the entrance and the maps. We found a couple survivors, and they stuck with her while I came down to look for you guys and some power. What'd I hear someone saying about the generator?"

As the plan was explained to her, though, Lauren's face finally began to lose the plucky demeanor it was known for, turning into a look of mild confusion by the end of the plan as Jack explained where he was off to.

"You...were gonna go and power the generator alone? What if you got jumped? And what if," and here Lauren gestured to Cian and Luke, "these guys got jumped? They were both working on carrying Priscilla. Look, I have an idea. You lead the survivors to the elevator, and I'll take Cian and Luke to the generator room. Sangue's still up there with a big battery and a dumbwaiter, so if I stream a few seconds of video footage with the dumbwaiter and the generator, she'll get the picture and start sending it down. That'll take a minute or two, but in the meantime, we can jury rig something to conduct electricity into the generator. You and I can take the survivors up in the elevator and get them out of here, Cian and Luke stay behind to install the battery, just like before, and then when the generator's got a battery they can follow us upstairs. We'll send someone inside to grab Sangue and then all we have to worry about--"

--another tremor rattled the building; a few survivors quaked--

"--is Cap and the hooker!" Lauren finished brightly. "All we need is a temporary power source. Anyone got, like, a sack of potatoes? Citrus? Daddy once told me...no, no, that wouldn't work..."

Then she stopped, eyes wide, looking as though she herself had been electrocuted.

Daddy once told me to be careful when messing with electricity. It'll kill us just as quick as it can make our lives easier, he said. The human body...

"...is the world's quickest conductor," she finished in a whisper. She thought hard for a second - and, slowly, the manic grin returned.

"Lucas," she said, tightening her embrace around the kid's throat, "I think it's time for you to shine."

Emerald let out a small giggle. "Sorry, I know it probably wasn't funny for you but...picturing Sapphire panicking and biting you looked really comical in my head."

Despite her injured appearance Emerald seemed to be in a better mood, at least for the moment. Talking with a familiar, friendly face made her feel less afraid and safe.

"So...anything happening around the school since you got back? I'd look around myself but...I'm stuck here."

With Shiro gone, Oswald's mind began to wander towards figuring out a way to spend his time while he was bedridden. Even he couldn't spend all his time moping about the current state of affairs. His mental faculties were too dulled by the pain medication to think in-depth about how he could improve his equipment, as well.

This was truly a pickle. A bored Oswald was not a pleasant Oswald, and this weekend was already shaping up to be wildly unpleasant. What could he do to relieve his boredom? Shiro had utterly killed his desire to speak with the Faunus boy, and Emerald was already busy talking with him. He wasn't looking forward to discussing what happened with anybody, but he didn't particularly know anybody he could talk to who wouldn't ask about the mission.

Except Diamond. Dammit, and she'd just left, too.

I'm bored. Entertain me. That should suffice. Hopefully.

Diamond's scroll rang on the shelf it has been deposited at, making her sigh in the tub she poured herself. shaking one arm somewhat dry she reached out for it and read Oswald's message. Rolling her eyes she opened the messenger and started typing furiously:

Shaving my legs. Entertain yourself for a couple more minutes.

She almost tossed the scroll back out to the shelf, but she just didn't have the energy left to even be angry at this point, so she typed some more.

You know just because I'm not stuck in the infirmary as well doesn't mean I'm any less tired or wounded.

Frowning, she considered turning the machine off so she could just finish cleaning up and go to sleep, but eventually tapped the send key.

Send pics! She'd be able to tell he was joking, right? Was it worth the risk? After a few moments, Oswald decided it wasn't. He hadn't sent the message yet, thankfully, so he quickly backspaced and fixed the message. Literally coughed up some blood a few minutes ago, Diamond. Figured we could both use a distraction. I'm not a complete monster, ya know?

He couldn't blame her for being angry. He still barely had any idea of what she'd gone through, having been unconscious since he launched that flare, save for a few touch-and-go moments where he swam in ans out of consciousness. Considering the fact that Emerald hadn't been turned into mincemeat, however, Oswald wasn't sure she'd had the luck he and Cobalt had. Still, that didn't mean he had to be a bastard about it all.

Diamond really expected something along the lines of 'pics or didn't happen', but was not about to complain. Still, it was a missed opportunity to send Oswald a picture of her hand flipping him off. She felt cheated somehow.

Yeah, well, at least that one will heal. What I could use is a two pound rare steak. Raw red meat right on the bone. Followed by a bottle of something rather strong and at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.

The mental image almost made her drool. When was the last meal they had, before they left on the mission?

Great, now you made me aware of how hungry I actually am. I will think of you and your IV drip as I go stuff my face ;-P

Sending the message with a spiteful smirk, Diamond wondered whether it would be sleep or hunger that would win in the end.

Shiro's smile seemed to grow a bit wider when Emerald giggled, glad that he could help lift her spirits while she lay in her hospital bed. When asked of the current goings-on around the school, he couldn't help but search the ceiling for his thoughts and tapped at his chin.

"Hmm, no. Not really. My team and I just recently got back and were directed to come here for our after-mission check up and stuff. Well, just Sapphire and I anyways. I haven't really gotten a chance to see if anyone else is back or if anything has happened. Not many teams have returned yet. It seems rather quiet around. Which, if you think about it, could be both a good and bad thing." Shiro shrugged. He only really knew his own team had returned, obviously. It wasn't until he went to check up on Sapphire that he noticed other some students from sister teams had made it back, namely Team CODE.

Which, reminded him...
His ears perked, looking surprised.

"Oh! Actually, I still need to check up on her. Sapphire, that is. Hey, so it was nice seeing you and chatting. But, I really need to check up on my team leader. You've got my number in your Scroll if you need anything, right?"

Emerald pouted briefly, disappointed that he was leaving already, who was she gonna have to distract her now?

"Yeah I got it, say hi to Sapphire for me! If I get bored of staring at the ceiling and going over traumatic memories I'll let you know." Despite that being a joke it was probably exactly what she'd be doing when she was alone.

Kuhuku didn't notice Emerald's pout as he flashed her his signature wide, toothy grin.
"Will do!"
He said in response to her request to pass on a salutation to Sapphire.
Pointing a finger at Emerald and wagging it at her, he 'reprimanded' her briefly.
"No traumatic memories! Just rest and happy thoughts! You're safe among friends now, yeah? See you 'round, boss!"
Waving, Shiro left Emerald be as he slid the privacy curtain open and making sure to close it behind him.
Pausing, he smiled to himself.
"I think I really helped to lift her spirits. I'm glad."
Looking around, he continued his search for Sapphire.

To be honest, he could've just stopped to ask a doctor or nurse where one 'Sapphire Rode from Team SASG' was. But, for some reason the thought didn't cross his mind. He was wasting time really, with nothing better to do. He still had his...'issues'...with her, after all. Walking down the length of the infirmary, he would peek in as quickly into any section that left their privacy curtains open only to find unfamiliar faces. Apologizing when he was caught and giving some sad excuse like 'Oop, sorry! Wrong bed!' or 'Sorry, wrong person!'. Sighing, he was getting agitated.

"Just how many students are in here sick or hurt? Man!"
He scratched at his ears as he continued to wander, pretty much lost.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her, well them. Not Sapphire! Of course not! He couldn't help but stare through the curtain at the two gals from Team...Well, he wasn't quite sure what their team name was. Thinking about it, did he even know their names? All he could vaguely recall was Emerald once demonstrating her Semblance to him in the Cafeteria and that it...Ended with him falling right in front of them and on top of their food. He remember the one girl with the headphones resembling Sapphire to near heart-stoppingly frightening levels and having maybe bumped into her once at the arcade. The other girl, the owl faunus...Well...

They both counted on his list of 'people-I-know-and-should-say-hi-to-and-check-on-them' in any case. With know more akin to 'hey-I've-seen-your-face-before'. He just hoped the headphones girl wouldn't bite his head off. He had enough of girls biting him presently. Taking deliberate steps towards the curtain, he peeked around the edge of one of the curtains and hoped he didn't seem like a creeper. Golden brown eyes flitting between the two of them, he announced himself and stated his purpose.

"Ah. Hi. I'm Kuhaku Shiro from Team Swansong. I-...I was just stopping by to visit friends of mine to see how they're doing. Did...you two need anything?"

He probably hardly registered as 'friends' to the two girls.
But in Shiro's book if he meets you...
You're his friend.
Until given a reason to not be otherwise, that is.
He tried his best not to do it, he promised himself he wouldn't.
But he did.

Once the two took notice of him, Shiro's heart rate started to climb. His body felt warm as his gaze and breath was stolen by the owl faunus, his eyes locking with her's. He couldn't look away, no matter how hard he tried. Was his blood heating up? Damn it, he promised himself not to do this the moment he saw her! Swallowing dryly, he hoped he wasn't sweating. He probably looked very nervous for reasons unknown, other than maybe being shy. Which normally he wasn't. But, well...

@Abillioncats, @Crimmy, @Write

It was with no small amount of relief that he recognized the jovial voice, the confident stride, and the at-capacity sports bra of the girl that had just walked in. Lauren, an by extension BASL, were here.

Thank god, maybe now they could get moving.

"Jumpercables", huh?

You know, that's actually a lot better than Inimica-- Oi, oi!

He winced as Priscilla was lifted, as though feather-light, from his grasp. Not because she was in bad shape, mind you. He had patched her up fairly well, all things considered, and he trusted her ability to use control on fragile things that weren't his poor emotions.

Instead, it was the sudden arm over his shoulder and tousling of his hair, coming just quick enough and forceful enough to work his neck joint unexpectedly. Was this what bobbleheads felt like on a smaller scale?

I need to apologize when I get home for break...

Oh, so Sangue was with the survivors on their end? That was good news.

If such was the case, then they could get them all out in one fell swoop, and turn the entirety of their attention onto the Manticore. He hoped Ben and Amy would be able to hold out well on their own...

Granted, they were more than a little skilled, so if Lauren felt safe enough to leave them to it, then he shouldn't hold any qualms either, right? She did know them better, and had even fought one to a standstill. Her judgement here was probably in the right.

Still, it's best we do this fast. Leave as little chance for something to go wrong as possible.

Already, it sounded like the plan had been changed...

Wait.

Her grip tightened, and he suddenly felt trapped rather than embraced. To make things worse, that exact vibe came not only from her arm around his neck, but from that beaming face, too.

Wait!

"Eh? Me?"

Run that back, what do you mean, "world's quickest conductor"? Why are you looking at him like that, Negasi?

It's metal, right?

Copper?

M-My guantlets are steel, so that's not exactly right...

He had a bad feeling about this, one way or another.

"What do I do, then?"

Face it with dignity, lives are on the line.

"Well," came the start of an explanation, from a girl who probably thought she was coming across as educational instead of psychotic, "we'll need something to attract electricity. I think Jack should be good for that, right, Jack? So we'll line some of those funny pins across your arms and have you hold the copper wire on the generators. Most of the electrical infrastructure looks pretty intact, so all we have to do is introduce a foreign charge to replace the one that fuel would normally start up. Cian here has some Dust rounds that would probably do the trick."

As much as all white people looked the same to her, the ghostly pallor that had fallen over Luke Schwarz's face was hard to mistake. Lauren tightened her arm around Luke's neck and tried to sound more reassuring.

"Don't worry about it, buddy! You have tons of Aura and a regeneration Semblance to keep you covered, so you're really the best man for the job outta all of us. Plus your girlfriend here's gonna be the one doing all the shooting. She won't go too hard on you, huh? Huh? It'll be fine. You just gotta hold out until the elevator gets going and Sangue gets the battery down here. If it looks like you're crapping out, I'll yank you outta the circuit and take over myself. Pinky swear."

One little finger coiled around a terrified stalk of hair.

"Why are you so casual about electrocution?!"

Before he could bite it back, a retort snuck out. Seriously though, didn't she know how much electric shocks of such caliber were dangerous, let alone painful?

Because I certainly do!
Being tased once is enough for my lifetime!

Not that the hows and whys of that incident were important, but it was a very bad experience that he couldn't imagine willingly repeating. How his sisters cracked their father's lock, he still to this day couldn't know.

Anyways.

"While that sounds like it'd work, is this really the only thing you can come up with?" he asked skeptically. "If there's nothing else, I'll do it, but using people as a conductor's pretty far out there."

He knew she said she would jump in, but that didn't do anything to quell his misgivings. In fact, they made them all the worse. If she had to step in and shock herself too, they'd be down two hunters instead of one. Who would carry Priscilla out, guide the survivors, ward off threats? If they were both spent by this, that would fall squarely upon Jack and Cian.

And they had enough to cover as it was.

Not only that, though.

He favored the jovial Brawler again. Despite her plan being almost psychotic, she had just casually expressed her willingness to stand in for him. To not only prevent him from taking on too much, but to also take it herself if that was what they needed. She knew exactly what she was getting into. He knew she was much more intelligent than that nonchalant demeanor would sometimes let on. Lauren Negasi was not a stupid girl.

Smarter than him, by any means.

And if she defaults to something risky like this...

It must be all she can come up with.

If that's the case:

"...Okay, I'll handle it. Just make sure everyone stays safe."

She was right.

Better me than anyone else.

"I always do, kid."

Lauren released Luke's head at last with a final ruffle of the martial artist's head before turning back to the group at large. Her confident grin was back.

"Alright, at-ten-shuuuuuun distillery employees! Please follow Jack to the elevator as planned and try to stay frosty. I'll be right after you in a second with Priscilla here, and we can all get outta here together. Cian, Luke, with me."

After bumming a few lightning pins off Jack, Lauren led the two Jumpercables (a spur-of-the-moment moniker which now looked much more like a sick euphemism) back to the generator room, where the machinery still looked as cold and lifeless as it had since they'd arrived. This time, however, the end of their mission at this horror show of a distillery was just about done. Lauren just had to take her own advice -

Stay frosty.

The streaming feature on her BaSTEEL Cinema-specs flared to life. Normally she could broadcast video to each pair of sunglasses in the network, but if Ben and Amy were up there fighting whatever was on the roof, they didn't need to see Luke being wired up like a suicide bomber. She decided to broadcast to them in audio-only (just to let them know she and Sangue were okay) while Sangue received the full audio-visual package.

"San-guuuuue. Hey, baby girl, it's Lauren. I'm down here in the generator room." The camera panned over to the empty dumbwaiter for a second. "See this? The other end should come out right at the room you're in right now with Ivor and the Popsicles. There should be a battery somewhere in that room, too. Be a babe and plop it down into the dumbwaiter for me so we can wire it up."

Lauren's feed turned towards the powerless generator and zoomed in on it momentarily, then unfocused.

"We're rigging up a temporary power source now, long enough to get the survivors outta here, but the battery will be a lot more effective and should run a while longer. And uh, Sangue...I don't like to be a hardass, but..."

The BaSTEELs panned over to Luke Schwarz, being wired up with lightning pins and staring uneasily at copper wire as he gripped it with both hands and stretched out his arms.

"...we could really use it soon. Love ya. Bai bai."

Lauren turned off the streaming option and looked towards the two other Huntsmen in the room.

"Keep an eye out for that battery between bullets, Cian. Don't shoot him more than you have to, he needs to be feeling okay enough to take you out on a date. Luke..."

The Jumpercable got the most charming grin she'd hustled at a Beacon student yet.

"Deus volt."