An Administrator Came to Westchester

[ngm_miscellaneous]

Mrs. Mary MacNeilly had made the hour trip out to a private school in Westchester county. She was the person assigned from the State Education Department's Office of Nonpublic School Services to perform a surprise inspection of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It had been some time since an in-person inspection of this learning facility had been conducted. It had fallen to Mrs. MacNeilly to go and assess how the school fit the understaffed Office of Accountability's educational parameters.

She drove her midsized sedan up to the gates. She announced herself on the intercomm as "Mary MacNeilly from the New York State Education Department for a compliance inspection."

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she waited for some administrator to allow her on the grounds.

Comments

[nohoundsallowed]

Doug's wife had been at a conference. She had been feeling the various emotions coming from her husband, but as she had been presenting she could not exactly step away and deal with it.

She had a breather now.

What is it, Doug? And she used that moment to grab what info she could from Doug's mind. The link was open enough he could have seen what she had been doing. Get closer to Topher. I may need a bridge between us until I can get to the school.

Despite that, she was reaching out with her telepathy to Topher as she raced to her car. She would help him bulk up his shields as needed and help him get rid of what had built up.

[demonbearslayer]

Dani looked around with quick motions, taking in the catastrophe in progress. Someone needed to try and stop it from getting any worse.

"Everyone!" She yelled with as much volume as she could. "It's ok! No permanent damage done!"

She cut her eyes to Brianna. At least, she hoped nothing was permanent.

"Just be calm. Not like this is the first training exercise to go a little wrong. We've got this."

She looked over towards the mansion. "Bobbi. Take Kayla over there..." Dani pointed at the base of a large tree. "...and help her sit down. She looks a little shaky."

[marvel_boy]

Rachel, Topher reached out with his mind. Animus.

Pause.

Also, bad lady!

His thoughts were not entirely cogent, the poor boy.

[seismic_shockwave]

Kayla looked at Bobbi for a moment. "M'not hurt." Her own hand was colder than it should be, cool, sweaty and clammy. She didn't resist being shown to the tree, and sat down willingly (though very shakily) enough, though she still looked like she was a thousand miles away.

"I'm not hurt." She said again, a little more clearly. "I did this." She murmured it a couple more times, with a detached sadness, without really looking directly at Bobbi.

"This is what I am."

[wild_child]

Rose gave the woman a shove. "Lady, cool it! I'm fine!"

Okay, not fine, because she was regrowing major organs, but the cuts on her hands had healed almost immediately, and the space previously occupied by shrapnel was closing before her eyes.

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi fought a moment, half tempted to scoot away from Kayla, but didn't, it had been an accident.

"It's okay Kayla, it'll be okay they'll be fine..." She wasn't sure, but she hoped it helped Kayla." She didn't glance over to Rose or Brianna yet, scared that they wouldn't be. The kid was going to need a lot of hot choco when this was over!

[ngm_miscellaneous]

Mrs. MacNeilly staggered back at being pushed. She looked pretty astonished when her make-shift compress fell away to show Rose bleeding less.

"What is going on here?" She turned around to see the destruction to property. This was not the educational institution she had come to inspect. That was a prestigious school. This had the makings of a terrorist bootcamp. Her face darkened some as her hearing slowly went back to normal.

[talk_to_you]

Doug stepped closer to Topher, close enough that he could reach out and touch him if need be.

He heard Macneilly talking, but didn't pay it any attention. He was focused on Topher right now.

"It's going to be okay," he repeated.

[nohoundsallowed]

Doug's proximity to Topher helped strengthen Rachel's reach. Without the rapport with her husband, this would be a lot hard and she would be crashing into that semi.

Rachel swerved on the road and mashed her foot on the gas. She was splitting her attention with the bulk of the focus on her younger cousin.

I'm here, Topher. We'll hold it back. Doug was looped in just because he was her focal point to reach Topher easier. I can't get rid of completely. Not at this distance, but I can cage it until I get there. A psychic prison for Animus. Just think about a box made of bars. Bars with no room to reach out between. Envision it, Topher. Give the psychic energy I'm giving you form. Once it's held, Doug will take you to a very quiet room away from everyone else.

[marvel_boy]

Topher closed his eyes and concentrated. He could hear the woman screaming about people being hurt, and he could feel Bobbi's worry and Kayla's deep regret and Rose's pain and Doug's general freaking out and ohgodohgodohgodblockitout, Topher!

He punched his hands into the ground, literally trying to ground himself. He could fly up away, expend some energy that way, but that would take him away from Doug, thereby potentially severing his connection with Rachel.

He imagined a cage made from bright green fiery energy, and Animus getting locked in inside of it. After all, Animus couldn't get out.

Things had gone bad enough as it was.

[seismic_shockwave]

Somewhere, Kayla dimly recollected that it was a good idea to stick her head between her knees. Bring it down a little so the blood didn't have to pump as hard. She tried her best to just block everything out, to just not deal with things that she had no capability of dealing with right now.

The problem was that as the dull edge of shock faded slightly, her awareness of the magnitude of what she'd done became bigger and bigger.

Once upon a time, she could have relied on faith, on something far greater than she could ever be. On a living family, but she'd lost all that.

Due to her mutation.

The same mutation that was causing all the chaos around them.

[wild_child]

"Uh... wouldja believe we're rehearsing a play?" Rose said, in response to the question.

[demonbearslayer]

Dani shot Rose a look. That wasn't helping. The she gently touched the sides of Brianna's neck... no obviously broken or displaced vertebrae, but she thought it would still be a good idea to get her on a stasis field backboard, and into the infirmary.

"Bobbi! Kayla!" She pointed over at the two girls. "Go to the infirmary and bring me Trauma Pack 3 - stat!"

What was a little advanced Shi'ar medical equipment after all that Mrs. MacNeilly had already seen?

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi nodded. "Come on Kayla, I don't know what to look for." She was trying her hardest not to freeze Kayla's hand.

She glanced to Rose a moment, just to make sure that she was okay.

[ngm_miscellaneous]

Mrs. MacNeilly looked at Rose, looked at her wound healing before her eyes, and scowled. "No, I wouldn't believe that. Nor do I believe that this school is an educational institution."

She left her bloody coat where it was and stomped toward her dropped notebook and what was left of the curriculum pages that had not blown away.

[talk_to_you]

This was all going terribly wrong. But Doug wasn't in any position to ignore Topher either.

"Okay," he said gently. "We're gonna go inside now. It's all gonna be okay."

[marvel_boy]

In a small voice, Topher, who was still shivering, still trying to keep Animus caged up, said, "This made a bigger mess than every time that Uncle Scott and Logan fought over Aunt Jean, combined."