ic Final Exam (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

In an eyeblink, the doors slammed shut - first, a square cage around Epiphany and Raptor whose orange-tinted vitrium walls made it look oddly like a hamster cage, right down to the airholes punched in it at the top. Garuda got magnetized - the iron in his costume pinning him to the bare floor with a whumpf, while the opposite happened to Prestige as anti-gravity conditions suddenly pinned the lithe fae to the celing like a stuck butterfly. As she tossed Nighthawk aside, Alkahest was the last to fall - the cage around her dark, silent, and as it turned out, unbreakable...

 

Fred heard her heartbeat first, and then her breathing, and knew that Alkahest was gone. 

 

"Hey, Fred." Riley and Robin were kneeling down around her, Riley's poncho draped over her, offering extra protection besides her unstable molecule labcoat. As frightening as her powers were, Fred just after her transformation back always struck a great chord of pity with Woodsman. Riley knew what it was like to be exposed. "Welcome back to the land of the livin'." 

 

Across the room, a conversation was taking place. The headmistress had not been interested in hearing from either group of teenagers upon her arrival in the company of two of the new faculty members, the English teacher Joan Collier and the new science teacher Ms. Ambrose. Immediately upon her arrival. Mrs. Collier had scooped up both Mr. Archer and the fallen Raptor and left for medical attention, leaving the students down in the Doom Room with each other, their headmaster, and what they were all learning was a much, much bigger problem than a schoolyard brawl. 

 

"There will be a full investigation in the morning," Callie Summers was promising, her eyes looking from face to face among both Next-Gen and their rivals. "after all of you are treated for your injuries by Nurse Joy. I will be contacting your parents and guardians tonight to discuss what's happened - after that, further steps will depend on what we learn over the next few days." 

[Gizmo]

The first thing Winifred was aware of as she came back to her senses was throbbing pain in her hands that extended up her forearms and well past her elbows. She was always sore and bone weary after reverting from her monstrous state but this was acute and she could only surmise that the Alkahest had spent a significant amount of time punching something impervious even to its formidable strength. She reflexively tried to push herself into a seated position as her senses crystallized enough to string Smith's words together into meaning and the arm gave out on her. Pulling the poncho and her lab coat against herself she huddled for a moment, jaw set in defiance at the indignities visited upon her. Somewhere beneath the ache and exhaustion she couldn't shake a feeling of violation, an ember of righteous indignation she could not immediately place.

 

She had managed to raise her chin by the time the Headmistress was addressing them and a hacking cough wracked the alchemist's petite frame when parents were mentioned. It might have almost been a humourless laugh had it not sounded more like one of her organs making a bid for freedom by way of her throat. She opened and closed one hand with effort, looking down at the knuckles as the word 'injuries' finally registered. She turned her head as far as it could, taking inventory of the faces around her. "Wh-hakkk-who?" she demanded with another cough.

[alderwitch]

"You didn't hurt anyone. Well, not badly. Sofia got a bit tossed but she's going to be okay," Robin explained swiftly, as she was well aware that was often the first concern. Her grey eyed gaze slanted over towards the other knot of kids and she couldn't help narrowing them in anger, "Despite some people's efforts to the contrary. Easy. It's okay. We saved Archer - I mean, I think."

 

There was a bit of doubt there as to the weird thing attached to the man's neck but they had gotten him the help needed, with only the delay from being accused by the Next-Gen. She gave Fred's shoulder a gentle squeeze before standing up. It escaped no one that she put herself between her 'team' and the rest of the room as she met the headmistress's gaze head on. "I continued to make the calls after it was clearly not an exercise anymore. I'll answer any questions that you need but if we're going to be in trouble, that should be taken into account."

 

Robin didn't have any parents to call home to. Trouble, in her mind, probably meant expulsion, and a small part of her was surprised at how much that thought hurt. Her gaze went back to Riley. To Fred and Raina. Robin's jaw tightened and she turned to offer her hands to Fred, her voice dropping low as she added in a tone that hopefully wouldn't carry, "I can carry you if you want."

Edited September 19, 2016 by alderwitch

[Electra]

"Tell my parents whatever the hell you want," Raina said carelessly, flipping her blond hair over one shoulder. "They're not gonna give a damn that Merlin and I got hold of a bunch of bullies and shoved them in boxes. I just want to hear that the bitch squad over there is going to get some remedial training in how to provide backup when someone sends out an SOS." She gave Madison and company an extraordinarily supercilious look.  "Oh, and maybe why you let gym class be taught by a guy who was freaking POSSESSED BY ROBOTS and abusing his students. That should be a real fun investigation." Merlin chattered agreement. 

 

With her daily quota of insubordination apparently filled, Raina joined her teammates in their little huddle. "You okay there, Fred?" she asked with friendly sympathy. "Let's get the hell out of here. I stole like thirty cocoa packets from the caf the other day, we can go to my room." 

 

 

[Avenger Assembled]

"'M fine," said Riley, which was true enough. He'd bled a fair amount down the side of his face and neck from the sword stroke that had cut his ear, but it was nothing that wouldn't heal on its own. He didn't think Garuda's sword was liable to infect him with anything. Except maybe being an ass. "Jay got himself hurt bad, though. I guess just standing up in the middle of a firefight and yelling about how I should be in girl's prison isn't the smartest fucking thing to do, huh?" The last sentence was practically a shout, directed at the now-human Garuda, whose scorched chest was the worst injury still in the room. Raptor had probably taken the biggest hit of the fight. 

 

"You're the freak who started this whole thing-!" Injured or not, Jay looked ready to get up from Madison's grasp and go for Riley before the headmistress interposed herself. In a voice as cold as Frostbyte's ice, she hissed "Both of you. Quiet - now."  Reluctantly, both young men did so - Riley stepping back to Robin's side, Jay back to his team. As Next-Gen left, Callie Summers turned to address Robin's team.

 

"What happened tonight is going to change things at this school." She took a breath, and let it out. "Thank you for your efforts on behalf of peace. You can be assured that blame, and responsibility, will be handed out fairly. You are dismissed - and Ms. Sanderson, at least provide the service of lowering your voice." 

 

 

[Gizmo]

"Ch-charming you think you could tell any of us to -- hnh -- do anything we didn't wish," Winifred forced out with all the poise she could muster through the aches and passing spasms, giving Robin a tired look that at least attempted to be a small smile, even if it failed. "Wouldn't want you to think -- ah -- I was doing it for the attention, Sanderson but pilfered sweets s-sound an excellent plan. Has anyone f-found my cane? I -- ahh!" Attempting to rise to her feet, the alchemist winced and grabbed at her side, awkwardly adjusting the overlapping coat and poncho with her free hand in an effort to maintain some modicum of modesty. "...she shot me," she recalled with a note of indignation before the wince dominated her expression once again. "H-head... throbbing. More than normal."

[alderwitch]

She reached out, not to restrain Riley, but to offer a small touch on his arm in mute support. Her own look for Garuda was coolly controlled. She had her temper back well in hand though Robin could only watch Fred struggle for so long. Reaching out slowly she scooped the smaller scientist up with ease. "You're very sturdy and very resilient but even I ended up in the hospital before, 'member?" She added with forced lightness as she lifted Fred up in bridal carry with minimal effort and left the collecting of Fred's belongings to other members of their small band. "Cocoa sounds great all around, I think. Good idea, Raina." 

 

With that, and unless there was further complaints or attempts to halt their progress, Robin would see about leading her small, battered team out of the Doom Room, heads held high. 

[Electra]

Raina gave the headmistress an eloquent look, but at least provided her the service of not flipping her off in public, a show of restraint that Merlin agreed she should be commended for. She watched as her teammates began filing out, then put her hands on her hips and addressed Summers once more. "Oh, and FYI, I noticed that something was wrong with Archer months ago, and all I heard from the faculty was that you already knew and nobody was doing anything and don't talk about it. So hey, I hope nobody dies from this!" She gave a huge fake smile to Summers and the bitch squad, then literally skipped out of the room. As soon as she exited, the jaunty posture fell away. "That sucked," she told the others. "Chocolate time." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Time passes differently when you're a celebrity. Over the next few days, all the members of Nighthawk's squad were brought into the Headmaster's office for some intensive questioning about exactly what had happened during the battle in the Doom Room. (Callie Summers also made sure that Riley had his sword-cut stitched shut and treated by something other than his personal stash of antibiotics.) The team didn't see anything of the new Next-Gen - from what Merlin's hacking and Riley's occasional snooping could tell, they'd been moved to the other dorm building and were keeping to themselves. They had some visitors of their own; both Bombshell and Peyton Quinn showed up on campus to speak to their wards (de facto in the former's case) about the events of the battle. 

 

Three days after the battle in the Doom Room, the team was summoned to the headmaster's office, this time under cover of daylight. Thanks to their earlier visits, it wasn't too surprising to find both Talya and Peyton waiting in the lobby for the group. Peyton Quinn might have looked out-of-place amid a super-school, but Claremont's mundanity meant that her sensible shoes, dark brown suit and skirt, and thick glasses let her blend in perfectly. Without a word, the middle-aged engineer hugged the lean reflection of her son, only her short, frizzy hair giving her a height advantage over Riley. "We're going to get through this, Riley," she promised him with a husky voice. 

 

While everyone was making their acquaintance, Callie Summers stepped out of her office. "Hello, everyone. The line is ready now." 

[Gizmo]

It was transparently clear that Winifred was uncomfortable as she followed a step behind Robin, a rigid quality to her perfect posture. A few days worth of time to worry had eaten away at the devil-may-care attitude born of exhaustion she'd felt after the altercation itself. She was certain her roommate would try to take the brunt of the blame again given the chance which was wholly unacceptable but the time-displaced alchemist wasn't much fonder of any of the other scenarios she'd had a chance to imagine. She didn't even have anything proper to wear to their 'hearing', settling for an ill-fitting blouse and slacks under her coat that were as presentable as she was likely to get.

 

She inferred the identity of the blonde woman from Raina's boastful annecdotes and Cathy's somewhat reverent description and absently mused on how strange this must all be for Smith and his mother-who-was-not-his-mother. She wondered if she ought to introduce herself to either of them but decided that as on-edge as she felt she'd only make a fool of herself. Better to keep silent and focus on not fidgeting too obviously with her cane.

[Electra]

Raina strutted into the lobby leading with her attitude, looking more than ready to go another few rounds with the Headmistress, or Mr. Archer, or the mean girl squad, or... pretty much anybody except Talya, really. She hesitated in midstride when she saw her mentor waiting in the lobby, surprise, guilt, resolve, and then outright rebellion all passing over her face in the span of seconds. Raina was obviously not ready to stand for discipline from anybody, not even someone she actually respected. "Didn't expect to see you here," she said to Talya, her voice fairly neutral but for the faint edge of nerves. "I guess you're who they called when I got detention instead of my real mom?" 

[alderwitch]

Dressed head to toe in her signature black, Talya cut a very different figure today than she generally did in the Espadas school. Utterly composed from the blonde curl that draped artfully over one eye to the sky-high peep toes. Those red, red lips quirked up at the corner at the fight Raina seemed ready to have. Though she didn't move towards Raina like Payton did for Riley, when she stood from her chair, she stepped towards the side to place herself between the headmistress' door and her pupil. 

 

"I did get a call from Callie, it's true." Talya said as she moved to easy conversational distance. "Although I rather suspect that I'm not actually any higher on her list than your mother in terms of choice of contact. Her childhood memories of me are rather a... mixed bag." 

 

Her hand came down then lightly, brushing Raina's forearm to get her attention as she added; timed so that Callie's entrance drew most attention away from her words, "But I did think you might take a modicum of comfort in knowing that no matter what might be decreed, you're not without places to go."

 

Talya didn't actually think it would come to that - not from what she'd gathered thus far, and certainly she intended to keep Raina at the school but suspension or expulsion had far more threat to these children than it did to the scions of heroes like their opponents. Casting her gaze over the wayward orphans, Talya briefly and silently considered that it was lucky the rest of her family wouldn't really expect anything less if she ended up with a handful of teenagers needing a temporary home.

 

--------

 

As for Robin, she stayed by Fred's side as their companions were met by their guardians. Reaching out, she squeezed Fred's hand briefly as Ms. Summers made her appearance. 

 

"We'll be okay, Fred," she promised the other orphan in an undertone before turning her direct grey-eyed gaze to the headmistress at her approach. "I promise."

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside Callie's office, they were greeted by a familiar face - although not in person. The computer on Callie's desk was turned around to reveal its screen - and its familiar occupant. 

 

Alan Archer had obviously seen better days. He looked pale and thinner, having lost a noticeable amount of weight since they'd last seen him. They couldn't see the place where the implant had been buried, but he was obviously propped up, sitting in a hospital's recliner, and when he moved his head there were tubes going into the back of his neck. "Hello, everyone," he said in an older, tireder voice than they'd ever heard before. "It's nice to meet my saviors again - though it feels like the first time." 

 

Peyton Quinn stayed close to Riley, hovering over him as he took a seat, her face tight with worry. She'd nodded a short greeting to the headmistress and her son's friends, but she was obviously far more interested in Riley than anything else going on there. 

 

Callie spoke, hovering herself in the back of the room without actually sitting down. "Alan, are you sure you want to-" 

 

"Please, Callie, let me-" Archer was briefly out of breath, long enough for everyone to enter and take a seat. When he spoke again, it was in a low whisper. "I'm sorry for everything that happened to your group. I knew I had to provoke someone into attacking me to overload the implant - and I knew your group would fight back."

[Gizmo]

"I beg your pardon but I expect I speak for said group when I say that explanation is getting rather ahead of itself," Winifred spoke up, shoulders rigid but eyes flicking back and forth as she tried to decide whether to look directly into Archer's eyes on the monitor or into the lens on the camera a few inches above it. "That the metal protrusion attached to your neck was influencing your behaviour was a simple enough assumption to make but from whence did it come and to what end? How was it not detected before that night?" She might have just as well been in a classroom from her demeanour and the clipped tones of her questions but the thin line of her lips pressed together as she waited for answers spoke to how hard she was working to appear calm.

[Electra]

Raina stared flatly at the screen, the air around her beginning to smell ever so slightly of smoke. "You're sorry?" she repeated in a disbelieving voice. "You attacked us on purpose to save yourself, you dug in to find what was really going to hurt, you gave us all a bunch of nightmares we get to live with now, and now we forgive you and everything's okay again? I thought you were supposed to be a hero." She turned her back to the screen and walked away. "Just because we're supposed to be heroes doesn't mean you can set us on fire to warm yourself up. Go screw." With measured steps, she walked out of the room, not even slamming the door behind her for once. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Archer breathed out softly at Raina's words, guilt clear on his lined face, and Callie watched her depart - but no one made a move to stop her. 

 

"It wasn't me," said Archer quietly, his voice almost too quiet to make it over the mic. "It was that thing they put it in me." 

 

"It's all right, Alan," said Callie, her face almost inscrutable save for the worry in her eyes. "From what Miss Americana has found, the initial implant in Alan's body was no bigger than a microchip. It's been growing inside him for almost a year now, feeding on his central nervous system, influencing him more and more." 

 

"It was...putting thoughts in my head, making me do things. Making me frighten you in your tests, do things no one should have to do..." Archer's eyes tightened. "I'm so sorry," he repeated. "The only way to beat it was to do what it wanted, but go too far." 

Peyton Quinn had been silent so far, but she suddenly shot Callie Summers a hard stare. When she spoke, her voice reached Raina out in the hall, a voice suited for shouting over loud machinery in a nuclear power plant. "Your super-school let a man with a chip in his neck torture my son, and everyone's sorry?" She pointed right at the former Raven. "You told me he'd be safe! You told me this was better than letting him get into trouble without anyone in a costume watching him! But nobody was watching a damn thing." 

 

"Mom, it's-" Riley looked stricken for a moment, then kept talking. "It's all right. I've seen worse things in there. If something was making him do all that, it's not his fault. Everybody breaks. When people break, it's not...it's not them in there any more." 

[alderwitch]

Robin had been quiet, her hands in her jean pockets as she watched the events unfold. Her gaze flicked to Raina as she left and then Peyton as she lost her temper. She gave a little bit of a shrug of agreement with Riley's assessment and reached out with one hand towards her boyfriend, "Riley's right." Robin said, even if her voice was tight and the words were a little terse. It was hard to push down the all too recent memories and the months that had led to this point but Robin had seen enough to know that there were somethings worse than broken bones and bruises. There were Riley's ferals, there was the Alkahest that stole away Fred's sentience whenever she lost her temper. She didn't hold the Alkahest's actions against her friend, she couldn't really hold Archer's actions against him. That didn't mean Robin liked it.

 

Talya, however, had been quiet, arching another sardonic brow as Raina swept out in grand exit. "I agree with Ms. Quinn," Talya said, her voice clipped and clear though quieter than Peyton's outrage. "This should have been caught sooner. I know you've had a lot on your plate with the transition, Callie," Talya said, with an air of familiarity borne from having known the first Raven - and perhaps stolen from him, "And while I'm sure that you're doing everything you can to tighten security and ensure this particular tactic is not successful a second time - " She was her father's daughter, after all, "But I'm more concerned with how you move forward from here with the children. You can't just throw counseling at them for the next several months. This growing divide between the children of legacy heroes and those from more unusual circumstances has to be addressed. I know that it isn't what you want for the school either."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I can promise you both that there will be significant changes at this institution," promised Callie Summers. "This will not happen again to my students - to your children. I will make sure that everyone gets the treatment they deserve at this school, so that everyone can grow up to be the person they want to be." 

 

"I've tendered my resignation, effective immediately," said Archer from his screen. "Callie-Ms. Summers will find someone who can do my job better than I could, and who can make sure everyone stays safe. From what they tell me, I'll spend long enough recovering that I'd be no good to you next year anyway." 

 

Peyton Quinn had her fingers at her temples. "Listen," she said, her voice still a trifle louder than the other adults in the room. "I know I'm not a superperson of any kind, so maybe I don't know how it is in your side of town - but is someone going to explain how a chip got into the man's neck and turned him into the kind of teacher who thinks scaring the hell out of his students makes for good education?" 

 

"Alan was badly injured during a fight with some Foundry robots last year," said Summers, "he was in and out of several hospitals, not all of them secure. From what the science people are telling us, the chip must have been implanted in his neck at some point around that time - and been growing inside him since. We had warnings about his changing behavior, but that was put down to...other factors." 

 

 

[Gizmo]

"Though I applaud the sentiment I can say with some authority that a division between those noble born and those less fortunate is nothing new," Winifred noted primly, tugging at the  lapels of her white coat. "Colonialist ideals or no I think we may appreciate being the subjects of some great social experiment less than you may imagine." The idea of being forced to work more closely with Madison and her friends brought an acidic note to her voice. After the others had filled her in on the details she'd had trouble remembering she'd decided to avoid Celeste as completely as possible going forward, for both of their sakes.

 

The alchemist still had a number of questions but the way Summers had phrased her answers suggested that she either didn't know who had created the implant in the first place or more likely that she wasn't willing to share that information with her students. Winifred was beginning to suspect that they themselves had been the ultimate target of the scheme and their instructor the unlucky catalyst but if they wanted more information they would have to get it themselves. She rose to her feet, her stature robbing the movement of some of its drama. "I wish you a speedy recovery, Mr. Archer. I take the... shall we say 'faith' you placed in us as a compliment, of sorts. Without putting too fine a point on things I can well empathize with being robbed of control. If I might be excused, Headmistress?" She turned to Summers, expression betraying nothing. "It might be best that someone catch up with Sanderson before some other unfortunate crosses her path and becomes the target of misplaced ire."

[Electra]

Raina hadn't gone far, she was sitting just outside the administrative building on a landscaping ledge, blowing smoke rings. Not even smoking a cigarette, just lazily breathing out whitish-gray smoke in wobbly rings as she looked up at the sky. She glanced over as Fred approached, raising an eyebrow. "Is the meeting over already, or are you here to drag me back in by my hair? I really think I've had just about goddamn enough of Mr. Asshole and Headmistress Vulture for the next little while." She swung her legs on the ledge and looked supremely unconcerned, which for anybody who spent a lot of time with Raina, probably meant that she was putting the lid on a lot of less-than-unconcerned feelings. 

[Gizmo]

"Surprisingly they were not terribly invested in forcing me to endure an emotionally taxing conversation while contained to a small room full of people," Winifred idly mused as she took up a place next to Raina, leaning against the ledge. Reaching into a pocket she produced a pair of small glass orbs that sloshed with brightly coloured liquid and began rolling them about in one hand. The pyromancer was pretty sure she'd seen the alchemist use that same combination of chemicals to affect significant property damage when mixed. For a while she was quiet, with only the sound of glass rubbing against glass to disturb the silence.

 

Eventually she spoke up, "It was put in him while at hospital, apparently. Packed him full of powder like a pistol, which is a terrible enough thing of course but I can't help but infer that our mysterious someone wanted a pistol to point at... us." She gestured away from the administrative building to the campus as a whole. "The student body as a whole, I expect; our Mr. Archer knew our little circle would explode rather than shatter is all. Still, I take having a pistol pointed at my head rather personally, don't you? I should like to know who was pulling the trigger so that I might express that properly."

[Electra]

Raina laughed, letting the smoke dissipate into the air. "Oh honey," she told Fred, "It'd be easier to count who doesn't have a gun pointed in our direction. I don't know if you noticed, but every faction in this town wants us either off the map or under their thumb. Good, bad, doesn't really matter." She shrugged, staring down at the scuffed toes of her shoes. "I'm here to get trained so that I can control my own power, not because I trust any of these people to tell me what to do with it. I don't want any part of whatever gang war might be going on between the school and some rival faction. If things do blow up, I'll do my best to keep the neighbors out of it, cause I'm pretty sure that's the heroey thing to do. But why should we let ourselves be drafted into their wars?" She gave Fred a pointed look, as though demanding a reply. 

[Gizmo]

"Now where's that vaunted American patriot spirit I'm told so much about?" Winifred asked with a snort, rolling her eyes. "But no. While I owe the Academy my gratitude you misunderstand my motivations. There's no learning to control the Alkahest, Sanderson. I'm living on borrowed time and my story does not end well." Perhaps that was why Archer hand't found quite so effective a point to prod with her compared to the others. On the other hand perhaps he simply hadn't had a good likeness of her parents from which to work. "However, you and Robin and Smith are my friends," she continued with a slight pause that suggested she'd been about to use a stronger word before propriety had reigned her in, "and someone hurt you. That goes well beyond wanting or trying or drafting to my thinking, nor is any amount of carefully crafted indifference going to do a damn bit of good when they take a second shot!"

 

She stopped rolling the glass orbs in her hand with a clink and closed her eyes briefly. Exhaling slowly she counted backward from ten before she opened them again. "If the Academy is unable to ensure our safety it falls to us. As for the number of individuals who might wish us ill or want us to leave, recall that my childhood was markedly different from your own. You'll find me able to count very high indeed and I'm confident in my ability to break a great many trigger fingers, as necessary." She resumed her calmly rotations and looked away. "Still. If you can't be bothered at least ask Merlin to put his investigative skills to use."

[Electra]

Raina laughed hollowly. "Mr. Archer hurt us. Maybe, and I stress the maybe, somebody wound him up to hurt somebody, but he's the one who focused in on us. Maybe there was no enemy and he took super-mechanical steroids and got super-roid-rage instead, but he doesn't want to tell us. Maybe that's not Mr. Archer at all on the screen, and how would we even know? You can't trust the things that they tell you, Fred. If your first principles are wrong, if you believe the wrong people, then you can think you're fighting the good fight for a really long time before you realize you were just a tool all along." She flicked her lighter off and on, staring down at it with her face a frozen mask. 

[Gizmo]

"I'm putting these away before I'm tempted to throw them at your face," Winifred explained flatly as she matched action to words and slipped the glass orbs back into her pocket. She turned back to look at Raina with her tapered jaw set with gritted teeth, using her hands to emphasize what she was saying. "You have issues with trust, you've made that clear. The word 'incessantly' comes to mind. That does not entitle you to speak down to me, now or ever." There was a note of hurt behind the tense frustration as the petite girl stopped leaning on the wall and stood with squared shoulders instead. Perhaps foolishly she'd expected more than the usual defence mechanisms from this conversation. "If I trusted the Academy I would be content to allow them to handle matters on their own, would I not? Would you for one minute actually talk to me instead of putting all of your energy into appearing untouchable, you stretched-out pyromaniac?! Do you seriously think you're the only one who-- who--"

 

She had to stop there as her right hand began to tremble and she found herself unable to will it to steady. Leaning heavily on her cane Winifred closed her eyes again and focused on her breathing. "I haven't finished," she insisted between slow exhalations and one strangled sniffle. "I just... need a moment."