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.

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[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.

[talk_to_you]

"We got lucky. Most of them were inside and in class. We got them to the safe rooms. There were a few outside, but they've gotten to safety. They barely breached the walls before the team started turning them away."

And a few, like Rose and Topher, had gotten out instead, of course. There would have to be talks about that later.

[nohoundsallowed]

Her brow furrowed. The skin around her bullet wound rippled. There was a very soft, wet sucking sound coming from the non-natural hole in Rachel's body. The redhead clenched her jaw as she ignored the pain.

She nodded like she had heard her husband as a blood-covered slug popped out of her wound. It had been buried in bone and had hurt like hell coming out.

"Mmf. Remind me to not get shot again." She took a breath as her wound started to close. "Are there still intruders on the grounds?"

[talk_to_you]

"I've heard pretty bad things about getting shot," Doug said, forcing a bit of a jesting tone. "Can't say I recommend it."

"There are," he said. "The team's holding ground and I've got the security system on-line, but there's still a bunch of them out there."

[nohoundsallowed]

"Sorry. Bad joke." If Rachel had been more with it, she would have avoided the joke. At least with him. Kitty on the other hand... would have reminded Rachel about Doug. That wouldn't work either.

"I need to get outside," she said as she opened her eyes. She rolled her shoulder to make sure the wound had closed and she had deadened the nerves there temporarily.

[talk_to_you]

Doug frowned. "You're still injured. You can't go out there like that."

[nohoundsallowed]

"I have to. This is my school now. I'm a little... angry." Her hound marks momentarily appeared. Though they were quickly replaced by a faint phoenix appearing around her eye.

[talk_to_you]

He shook his head. "We've got Lorna, Monet, and Anna-Marie out there already. I.. if something happened to you..."

[nohoundsallowed]

Rachel reached up and caressed Doug's cheek. She understood his feelings; she felt them through their psychic rapport. "Something already has. I was the first shot for them. I will be the last shot for us. Even if I have to do nothing but gesture grandly while the other adults clean up."

[talk_to_you]

Doug managed a small smile. "Go get 'em, babe."

[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."

[nohoundsallowed]

Her hand dropped away, and Rachel gave Doug a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be back. I promise."

With the best of assurances that she could give given, the Headmaster of Xavier's headed for the door. She took in a deep breath and focused. The redhead was unaware of the physical thrum of power starting to emanate from her.

[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."

[iced_cherub]

"Yeah, which could have gone better. Just hope that it bought others time to get to safe rooms." She got to her feet looking at him carefully. "You probably should be in them too if you're a guest." She managed to fold one wing slightly.

"Stupid wings, not big enough to fly with, and lousy like this... You'd think they would have put something a little more helpful in combat into the mix." The last bit was muttered low, mostly to herself. "We should get inside, check on the damage right?" She really didn't know protocol, but that sounded like something her dads would do. Check on the younger students, though not many were younger than she was, and get orders from someone who knew more.

"I'm Bobbi by the way. Probably heard some of the others yell that out when I'm kicking a ball around."

[dark_scion]

"Since the bulk of the attack appeared to be directed at the buildings themselves, it seemed more prudent of me to remain out here," he explained.

He glanced at her, noting her sorry state. Feeling a moment of compassion, he removed the Purifier dagger from his jacket and offered it to her. "In case you need to defend yourself. I have enough natural weapons to not require it."

"Friedrich," he said by way of introduction, "but Fred is acceptable. So..Bobbi, you believe going back inside is advisable?"

[iced_cherub]

"That would be because that's where most of us were. They attacked us during classes." She pouted.

Though when he handed her the knife she looked at it puzzled. "I... Can't fight with this. I'd kill someone. I don't want to risk it. I don't care if they're trying to kill me, they're really bad at it."

Looking towards the buildings she thought a moment. "We should at least get away from them. I don't know how long they'll be jerkcicles. Pretty sure they won't be enjoying a sunny beach the rest of the season though. dead skin and salt water can't be a good combination."