To Rise, First You Must Burn.

[nohoundsallowed]

((OOC Note: This immediately follows this post and continues it on.))

Consciousness came back slowly to Headmaster Rachel Grey-Ramsey. The pain hit her faster. She groaned softly as her head and shoulder throbbed. She could sense all the chaos happening around the school, but her mind was too muddled to make sense of it. She reached up and pulled books and cracked shelving off her head and shoulders.

She knew she needed to be up and moving to protect the children. She wasn't helped by a cascade of wood and paper into her lap.

Comments

[talk_to_you]

Which was when Doug burst into the office, finally having locked down the virus.

"Rachel!"

[nohoundsallowed]

"Not... so ... loud..." she mumbled. She tried to wave the volume down. Except she used the wrong arm. The one not attached to the shoulder that had not been shot would have been preferable. She gasped softly and then blinked to try to get her mind a little clearer.

[talk_to_you]

Doug was at her side in an instant, helping her up. "Here. Lean on me."

He tried to put a clamp on the worry he felt. No sense in getting her more worked up.

[nohoundsallowed]

She grunted a bit getting to her feet. "What hit me?"

Rachel glanced around the room. Her built in bookcase looked to be the worst casualty. Though the bullet hole through the window only partially answered her question. She shook her head. Foggiheadedness was a bane to someone with mental powers.

[talk_to_you]

"Probably part of the Purifers initial attack," Doug said. "They got past the defenses... and they brought Sentinels."

[nohoundsallowed]

"Puri-flonq." She closed her eyes to will her mind clearer. It worked partially. She was distracted by the throbbing in her shoulder. Rachel concentrated on the pain and why her body was screaming bloody murder at her.

"The children?" She asked distractedly. She was less worried about the staff and X-Men. All of them could handle themselves and had countless times before.

[iced_cherub]

Okay so running across the pond may have been a bad idea, more so when her strength gave out halfway through and... well those feather wings of hers? Are nothing like a duck's feathers! She's just out of reach of the bullets though and apparently not being picked up by the Sentinels who seemed to forget she was there. Coming to the surface of the pond she bit back a cry of main, the pond may be pure water, but ugh, not as clean as the pool and she's got open wounds.

The small girl splayed the damaged wings out to help keep her afloat at least. Looking back at the shore she had come from she was glad to see she hadn't killed anyone. Sure they were frozen in pillars of ice, but thee were able to breathe, moving other than that... well would take a few flame throwers to thaw them out. One of the teachers could deal with it. For now, the little clone just wanted a ton of pain killers and a nice long nap.

Sputtering when her head went under the water she figured, no more shooting should be safe to come out of the water right? Easier said than done... She barely kicked back to the surface, her wings making it impossible to get to the shore. "Okay, not good..." She splashed under again....

[dark_scion]

Fred had yet to go back inside, believing that remains outdoors was the most prudent course of action at the moment. That was when his enhanced hearing picked up what sounded like..splashing? He turned to look in the direction of the sound, his eyes making out a winged-form struggling to stay afloat. While Fred was no altruist..even he wasn't going to let a child drown. He ran toward the pond, picking up speed quickly as his long legs covered ground quickly. He slid forward to the edge, plunging an arm in, his hand reaching for the struggling form.

[iced_cherub]

THe wing he managed to snag was ice cold. She wasn't shivering, but the pond was still icing up from the panicked clone.

"Ow!" Fred you happen to have the wing with two decent sized bullet holes in it. At least they hit the wings not her. Though her splashing did stop somewhat, she was trying not to pull whomever had her in with her. Wouldn't do to freeze someone trying to help. "They're still jerkcicles right?"

[dark_scion]

"Pardon," he said in simple apology, bringing his other hand under shoulder and gently easing her out of the water. "If you are referring to the frozen Purifiers in the distance, than yes."

[iced_cherub]

"Just making sure I did see it right." She let him help her and knelt by the edge of the water looking at her wing. "Man, Headmistress is probably going to be pissed I gave them bad cases of frost bite... After the fiasco with gliding through the foyer... I'll be lucky if I'm not grounded until I graduate."

MOving either wing right now would be a pain, but she might be able to stand at least. "T-thanks for pulling me out. Seems I can't do ice slides when wounded and panicking," Hey he wasn't armed, not like she'd tell him too much, but she could at least be nice, drowning would have been embarrassing! Her dads both wouldn't have had that problem right?

"Huh, if you're a new student, every day's not like this."

[dark_scion]

"Considering you were fighting for your survival, I believe she will be lenient," he surmised, not really understanding why she'd be in trouble.

"You are welcome. And no, not a student, more of a long-term guest."

[ngm_foes]

While the adults on campus finished getting the invading Prime Sentinels subdued, two ten-foot tall shapes appeared on the lawn. Both armored robots scanned the grounds. Their heads swiveled back and forth as they homed in on power signatures.

[nohoundsallowed]

Rachel raced out of the mansion. Only to skid to a stop upon seeing not one, but two horrors from her future. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment. Which kept her from dropping a few choice explicatives.

[ngm_foes]

The pair of mutant annhilators zeroed in on Rachel.

"Primary target acquired. Initiating elmination sequence," they said in unison. They raised their arms and fired disingrating blasts at the Headmaster.

[nohoundsallowed]

Rachel threw a hand up. Not that the physical motion would do anything against the power coming at her. Though the motion helped with her drawing out power she hardly tapped into on daily basis. A very deep well she could draw from.

She grit her teeth as the twin blasts hit the telekinetic shield.

[ngm_foes]

Both Nimrods poured on the power as they moved closer to Rachel. More power would break through her shield. The ground around where they blasted disappeared under their onslaught.

Somewhere in deep space

[ngm_parents]

Jean felt a ripple, then a tug that meant someone else was tapping into the Phoenix Force. The tug became a sharp pull and the ripple a crashing wave. An enormous flaming raptor involuntarily manifested around her, terrifying the crew of a small Skrull mining vessel harvesting a nearby asteroid. She saw a brief flash of Sentinels in her mind.

"Rachel."

Jean turned around and streaked towards her home planet.

Somewhere, in New Jersey

[summersspawn]

Sara was in the living room of the power station, wading through an especially dry - and thick - Economics text. Why, oh why couldn't it have pirates in it? Or at least come in PDF form that she didn't have to lug around? She sighed, and tried to focus on the unappealing, but required text, when it hit her.

Sara jerked up and backwards, her back arching. Her eyes glowed a firey orange-yellow, and a glowing Phoenix raptor briefly manifested around them. Then she screamed, and collapsed, unconscious, to the floor.

That hated Economics textbook was replaced by a pile of smoking ashes.

Re: Somewhere, in New Jersey

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden had been preparing food to throw in the crockpot for dinner. He was in midchop when a scream came from the living room. He just barely missed chopping off his own finger.

"Sara? Angel?" He went directly toward the living room with his vegetable knife in his hand. Cedric the Scottish Terrier was right on his heels. Possibly because Aiden might have taken some of the meat on the counter with him.

At the door to the living room, Aiden's eyes widened when he saw Sara collapsed. "!"

Medical Bay

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck felt like hell. He had gone in and out of consciousness from the moment he was brought into the lab. Ilya even told him earlier he stopped breathing, and it scared him. Instead of showing fear, he joked and tried to keep his best friend and partner calm. Now, he awoke yet again, this time with two IV's in his arms, and one side of his face bandaged up.

He had a vague memory of a golden mutant, telling him things would be alright, and that he could heal the life threatening wounds that plagued his body. To not be scared, and things would be okay. His stomach felt somewhat tender, and the bullet wounds to his shoulder and forearm were sealed up, as though they never happened. His eye, however... felt odd. Like it was not there anymore.

He did not question the feeling, or pay it much mind. Instead, he curled up in some blankets to try and get comfortable.

Re: Medical Bay

[iced_cherub]

Bobbi entered having a feeling she was going to be scolded for freezing her wing. Seeing Dolemeck there though she ignored the medics for a bit. "Really can't leave you alone for a few minutes now can I?" Sore Pickles, looks like you're not getting that nap just yet.

Re: Medical Bay

[dolemeck]

"Bobbi, please." Dolemeck sounded rather serious, a change from his normal happy and jovial attitude towards Bobbi. "Now is not the time for such comments. I nearly died. We all did. I just... I never thought anyone would attack a school like this."

Re: Medical Bay

[iced_cherub]

"Sorry, must have been a little more of Dad's side of the family peeking out." She's careful to hide her damaged wing though because yeah he doesn't need to know how close she was thanks!

"And I know we almost did. I kind of had front row seats to the headmistress dealing with the aftermath." She has to move her wing it's irritated and she winces. "Okay ow, should go deal with that. You're okay though right?"

Re: Medical Bay

[dolemeck]

"I will live, aye." He tried to move his head so Bobbi was not in his blind spot. "Honestly, you should have gotten your wing looked at first instead of coming to check on me. I am going nowhere anytime soon, I hope."