Monday, April 2 - CO: Into Narnia We Go!
((This takes place during the early parts of the confusion of the CO Attacks. Angie, please let me know if I need to edit. Thanks!))
Elaina awoke with a start with C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew open on her stomach. She'd fallen asleep revisiting the start of one of her favorite series, still dressed in a pair of grey knit pants and a sweatshirt. The reason she had awoken with a start? Well, honestly, who could sleep with an alarm blaring overhead and lights going off. She distinctly heard chatter over her intercom (lying on her bedside table) as she rushed to put on her standard issue uniform. The English teacher was dressed within five minutes (just like she had trained herself) and was out the door within two minutes with her intercom and bedtime book in hand for safe measure. Afterall, what good was her power if she didn't have a book to open a portal into.
The hallway was chaos. The first thing that popped into her head was to usher as many students as she could to safety; but if the alarms were going off like crazy, where was safe? The tunnels? Yeah, maybe. That is, if the enemy didn't have someone on the inside who knew of that route. It was just then that a wail sounded from a small brunette girl bounding down the hall, shouting for her papa. It was Nadia. Elaina recognized the red-eyed brunette as Remy LeBeau's daughter, another staff-member. Poor girl looked pretty frightened with her customary triceratops half-whining, half-growling at anyone and anything that looked threatening. It was then that a black armoured figure ran out of a nearby doorway and tried to grab at Nadia. Elaina was half-way to the little eight-year old, screeching, "NO!", when out of nowhere a huge griffin appeared, running down the black figure. The figure just ran away, leaving a crying Nadia behind.
"Nadia, are you okay?,"she asked, kneeling down so that they were eye-level, once she'd gotten to the crying girl, "Where's Remy? Does he know where you are?" Elaina was quite relieved to see that Nadia was only scared rather than hurt.
"W-We got s-separated," sobbed the little girl as she finally picked her triceratops up as if he were the lightest thing in the world, "He told me ta find a grown-up ta take me out if we got separated and-and ta tell th' grown-up ta keep me s-safe! I-I-I'm scared, E-Elaina!" And with that last sentence, the little eight-year-old threw herself into Elaina's arms and sobbed as she tried to bury her head into her shoulder. Elaina could only pat her head and rub her back for reassurance as she thought of what to do next. Of course, there's only so much reassuring you can be before something happens. The dinosaur that Nadia was holding was starting to whine now and wriggle at being sandwiched between two people. So, Nadia let him down and wiped her eyes. All this happened within two minutes. So, not a lot of time had lapsed.
The nearest tunnel entrance would take them quite close to the hall leading to the stairs that went down to the foyer. There were some classrooms along the way and an office or so. The kind-hearted mutant didn't know what sort of surprises would be in store for them, but she did know that sticking around made them sitting ducks. So, with a purpose and a sense of urgency, Elaina took Nadia's hand and they both ran as fast as Nadia could keep up with..
(Tell me if you'd like me to edit.... there was no way i could figure to bring her in, and figured Elaine wouldn't run charging off with the kid in her care, but I know assumptions aren't always right...lol)
At first there had been silence… the silence was deafening though, and what followed came crashing down upon the walls of the school like waves void of sound. It wasn’t until later, an eternity of seconds, for which the sirens flooded the halls with a pounding and frightening sensation. Long stray strands hang motionless from where a figure crouched, the window gently pushed open as if to watch a curious display laid out before her, and it was then when the soft gentle wind embraced her features that the strands finally moved, caressed by the unseen figures of nature. Green eyes peered down, heartless for a moment as a cold mind calculated the motions of the endless moving shadows, their scents drifting in the air as unwelcomingly as their presence to these grounds.
"Monsters," It was the only sound the young girl made, the only one she let pass her lips, they didn’t smell human, at least not the majority, somewhere in that thrall reeked the sweat of humans and yet the stench of the others was almost too overpowering. There was an elegance in the youth, a strange mixture of longing and fury, a chaos that swelled relentlessly with her emotions, as untamed as she. This was not her fight, for sure she knew it, and yet part of her did not care, for a fight was a battle she rarely cared to walk away from. How was she to learn of Logan and his brood if she were not to watch them from within their fortress, to see how they lived and trained without fear of being watched, this was her only chance to see the world she was ripped away from, to see what she was never given a chance to have. These monsters would not suffer lightly for their interruption to her mission.
Like a ghost in the shadows, a soul blended to the darkness, the one now known as Alice to this school crept out of her room, dressed in her suit, the dark leather that hugged her young and youthful body, yet to bare her true female figure. One day she would have that figure, and one day she would swoon most all men who look upon her, but this day she was still a child, and for that, still carried herself as such. The boots ran up just below her knees, thick in sole and flat of heel with a steel tip toe that bore a slit in the center, the gloves covered her entire hand with only two slits of metal on the back of either knuckles to allow for her metallic claws to slice though.
A mask was pulled over her head as she walked, true this would put her at risk of being mistaken for the enemy, but the filter in the mask would help drown out the intolerable noise of the sirens and the like. Not to mention her eyewear would give her an even greater advantage compared to her natural enhanced sight. It was a risk worth taking, after all, there was nothing yet she could not handle, this was what she was made to be.
It was down the hall that the first cries were heard, they were a while off though, not in her area of the school, X-23, man made assassin, and she wasn’t even in the heart of this situation… it was almost shameful. Thankfully at this point she didn’t much care for these intruders, first she was more curious about her own mission objectives, there would be no mission if there were no targets, and if her targets were taken out prematurely by these shadows of the night, she’d be rather peeved by that.
The night was cold, for most animals the scent was lost in the wet, for X-23 it was only dimmed, but rarely was it ever lost to her, but with the throng of fighters outside even rain wouldn’t wash the air of the smell this lot gave off. Rain hang the air though, the young form assassin could smell even that, whatever blood was spilled would soon be washed away. The wetter it was the better in X-23’s mind, she loved the rain, the really heavy rain, where vision was impaired and evidence so easily washed away.
Moving about was easier in the dark, moving about in a rush of panic was even easier really, even with her getup on, all ‘Alice’ had to do was duck low and move quickly, and the plan was working well… that’s usually when most plans start to fall apart. Turning into one of the halls gave X-23 a clear view of the backs of two armour clad men, these were human, she could smell their sweat under the armour, smell their anxiety, and so they should be anxious… a pair of lonely humans in hallways inside a school of mutants. For a moment X-23 thought nothing of them, just another pair to ignore and avoid, and she would have, and part of her insisted she carry on… There was a cry of a young girl though, the fast and heavy footfalls of racing, an adult and child, easily told by the space between each rushed step, the image was sudden and brief, burned into her mind as if she were watching it in slow motion for a time without end. They were scared, and the humans… they were quiet… moving after the two, hunting them at a distance, likely unseen or bluntly ignored, was the child with her mother? For a moment Alice faltered in her steps, swaying to a steady stop as her masked features tilted slightly to the side. Was that a mother protecting her child? Was this like a moment in the stories read to her, the stories that were forbidden to be told to a product such as her… was this where such stories came from? Did mothers really care so much? Did parents really sacrifice it all for their child? How curious. Silent steps drew the young assassin towards the men further down the hall. Just how far would this woman go for her child? How true were those stories told to her? Maybe they deserved to die, if the child could not defend herself what right did she have to live anyway? Live was for the strong, that is what she was told, those are the stories she was allowed to hear. Where weakness is a curse and love an empty promise – life had no other purpose but as a path to ones end.
And yet… something had urged her on, and silent as death, like a reaper from the shadows of hell itself, not even a grunt followed the sounds of metal grinding metal in a short but precise scraping sound. The first body fell a few feet behind his partner, falling first to his knees and then face down to the floor in a heavy thud, X-23’s claws still dug into his back, her grace landing herself atop his body as it landed. The sound drew his partners attention, the gun in his hand was aimed and ready just as fast as Alice was about to leap frog from her first victim and throw herself against a nearby wall. The gunshot struck his dead partner, which didn’t even cause the solider to flinch, the former assassin noticed, and just s her body touched the wall and before the threat of gravity bought her down, Alice kicked off it, propelled herself to the floor on the other side of the hall and missed yet another shot. He was quick, well trained perhaps the cause for his speed yet it seemed something more… human or not he seemed enhanced somehow. As the youthful figure landed, her body curled into a roll and ducked aside, missing yet another shot before spinning herself about to give a powerful low kick at the man’s leg, a stifled cry escaped as her adamantinum claw pierced from her foot and into his leg.
"Bad men never go away," Came the hiss of anger, her voice clear enough to be notable as a young girls, her movement agile enough to be suspected of possessing the mutant gene. No normal child could move as X-23 could, normal children needed to be protected, she wasn’t a hapless child lost in the chaos of war. A hand grabbed tight about her leg, pulled both her blade from his wound and then flung her aside, he was stronger then a normal man of his build, but still no match for her. There was a brief pause, a slight moment, the leather clad girl was up and pressed against the wall, her smirk unseen behind the mask as he aimed his weapon at her. It was true that he squeezed the trigger fast, and that the bullet pelted into her within a blink of an eye, and yet Alice knew she could have dodged at least all but the first, not have taken him down before the finger even reached the trigger. He aimed for the stomach and thought her dead, he didn’t even look as if he would have waited to check, but a soft chuckle was the last thing he heard as the smaller figure caught him half turning away, her form not even limp as a clawed fist punched against his neck, sending a spray of blood pulsing from it as his body fell.
"But they all die… one by one," And for that it was a comfort, a small one, but better then nothing, and already the wounds of her stomach had healed, and already she was moving towards the duo. "You breath too heavy when you run, they hear your fear and chase you… try running without the fear,"
Re: Monday, April 2 - CO: Into Narnia We Go!
They were running so fast and in such a panic that they didn't even notice the two men hunting them. To someone who didn't know them who was looking at the two, Elaina and Nadia would look like a mother and child. This would seem strange if they did actually know Elaina and Nadia vaguely. For one thing, Nadia didn't look at all like Elaina. For another thing, Elaina didn't actually know Nadia too well. Sure, she'd spoken with Nadia a few times (enough to gain her trust a little bit), but it wouldn't explain why she would strive so hard to protect the little Cajun girl. The only explanation would be that Elaina possessed a kind heart and would shudder to think that someone else would simply leave behind her niece or daughter (if she had one). That was just the way she was. She adored children and would lead any number of them to safety if need be.
Nadia, for one, was glad of Elaina's presence. The little eight year old may not know Elaina very well, but she was at least a familiar face and a nice lady. It is an odd thing to think that children might actually be able to recognize that someone might have a good heart. However, children can surprise you. In this case, it was Elaina's kind heart that was keeping Nadia a bit calmer than she might have been had Elaina not been there. That still didn't keep Nadia from breathing harder than usual; because she was quite scared.
A thud sounded behind the running duo, causing them to come to a dead stop and turn. The scene that unfolded before them was enough to make both their hearts' pound harder. A young girl in a mask was taking what looked to be a blade attached to her hand out of the back of an armored man. Nadia grabbed at Elaina's leg then, making Elaina jump slightly and look down. Nadia's red-irised-eyes stared up into her own dark brown ones. They exchanged quick glances before Elaina knelt down and hugged her, as if to say, 'its okay, dear..'. In response, Nadia clung to her, the hug feeling like one that her mother might give her if she had been there. A gun shot sounded then, causing them both to jump and gasp before looking up to see the same young girl fight the man that had shot the gun. Nadia turned her head away from the fight, fear not allowing her to continue to watch. Elaina could only look on as the young girl moved with an almost poetic grace.
'Who..?,' the brunette educator wondered as she watched the masked girl fight the remaining soldier. She had said something earlier, but she couldn't quite catch what it was. Another gun shot sounded, causing Elaina's eyes to widen. However, a the girl seemed unharmed, causing her to think that perhaps this masked girl had some sort of healing factor or invulnerability. She couldn't be sure though.
"You breathe too heavy when you run, they hear your fear and chase you… try running without the fear,"
Nadia detached from Elaina then and looked up at the girl in the mask with wide eyes. "How?," she asked quite simply, genuinely curious as to how one might go about doing this. Elaina looked to Alice then as well, tearing her eyes from the scene of carnage while reminding herself that those men would have killed them had that girl not shown up. "Thank you, Miss," she said with barely a tremor in her voice, "I'm Miss Elaina and this is Nadia. She was separated from her father and we were just heading towards the nearest tunnel. Care to join us? I'm sure we'll need your help before this is all over." They really didn't have time to just stand there and chit-chat, so Elaina motioned to the masked girl to keep up (at the very least).
"There's a tunnel a few halls down and if that's sealed off, then my office is just around the corner," she said, pointing off to the right, "I can transport us into a storybook if only I have a book..Which I have lots of in my office." That statement would have been laughable had she not been completely serious.
Edited by: xX Pure Radiance Xx at: 2/22/08 12:52 am
Re: Monday, April 2 - CO: Into Narnia We Go!
(oh, right, wait, X-23 is posing as a student in the name of Alice, they don't know her namei sn't Alice, she's just a newly arrived student, like a week in the school or something, speaks a heavy load of Japanese with a few sentences of english here and there. Usually her words her limited, and in class she doesn't speak much at all. Remember shes wearing a mask so even then Elaina wouldn't instantly recognize the girl, she'd never have told anyone she had claws or used them yet in front of people. I really should have sent a PM or added more detail with all that info)
Re: Monday, April 2 - CO: Into Narnia We Go!((ooc: I think this works XD))
Although dreams came vividly that night, at the same time they switched quickly through different scenes, just as one story seemed to develop, so it switched to the middle of another. It proved disorientating, once running from creatures in the horror book she’d just finished, the next, as if her own character was ripped from each story, she was still running, fear coursing through her when she realised she was in an empty meadow, the sun shining brightly over head. There was no one else there, no giant rats, and the air smelt clean. The clouds were a billowing white, not grey and heavy. Hearing what sounded like a thundering in the distance, she started towards it, looking down quietly over the brow of a hill to see horses galloping together, wild horses, enjoying their freedom. She lay down to watch them, finding sketch book and paper in hand, she started to try and draw the scene before her, although in real life her drawing skills left something to be desired, of course here it was coming out exactly how she wanted. Suddenly the horses bolted and she jumped as a piercing sound broke through the air.
The dark haired girl sat up right, eyes wide and panting from being shocked to waking. She sat there for a moment, hearing the siren, wrapping the duvet around her in some fear. A fire alarm? She wasn’t sure, and she was still dazed as she heard it coming. Although she was 15, the shock had brought tears to her eyes, quickly wiping them aside. Fire, you were to get out, forget about belongings. They could be replaced. You couldn’t. Hannah got to her feet, grapping her soft yellow dressing gown and wrapping it around herself, not bothering to lock her door as she looked around the student dorm’s hallway. She had to find Wes. He was in the guest dorms. Silently she half ran through the corridors, the only sounds from her were her panting breaths and the sound of her feet hitting the floors, both hidden beneath the sirens which seemed to roar around her. They were what scared her most. She’d been here long enough to be part of a couple of fire drills, and these sirens sounded nothing like that. But what else could it be? For a moment Hannah paused, believing she’d heard something. Other’s hearing the alarm and panicking perhaps? Her heart went out to them, but she had to get to Wes. The truth teller could only wonder what her friend was feeling. But then she thought, at least he would be calmer, and she’d feel safe with him. Perhaps then they could help the others.
Hannah turned a corner, almost running straight into the dark haired invisibility mutant. “Wes!” She said, hugging him immediately, as if that could save her from the unseen danger. She’d seen no smoke, so either she was wrong about their being a fire or it was in another part of the building. An arm looped around her gently, comforting her softly. Slowly her eyes lifted to his gentle face, so composed. There was some worry, but there seemed to be no fear. He didn’t know what was going on, but clearly right now he wasn’t worried about that. He did seem pleased to see her. ”It’s okay Hannah. Let’s get out of here. It’s probably a fire alarm right?” The truth teller nodded, gripping his hand tightly as they started out. She hadn’t noticed the flicker across his eyes. He didn’t really think it was. He’d heard a lot of alarms and there was something similar to that of intruder alarms he’d heard in the past. And it sounded like more than your basic burglar alarm. Regardless though, he held Hannah’s hand firmly as they moved, not running but swiftly enough, through the corridor’s. Hannah glanced up at her friend, watching as his eyes would dart around occasionally, as if expecting some threat to come out of the shadows.
To the truth teller, the danger seemed to come from nowhere, and despite herself she clung tighter to her friend, who’s hand went to his waist before finding, remembering, that his weapon was still in Mr Summer’s office. Hannah’s deep brown eyes cast upwards as she felt Wes’ body temperature drop, and she watched as parts of his body shimmered out of sight. His eyes lowered to her, gentle but worried. ”Get out of here Hannah… I’ll keep these guys distracted. I’ll meet you outside. I don’t know what’s going on, but hide in the woods. I’ll find you” He promised softly, hugging her before releasing her as the young agent vanished before her eyes. At least he still had that weapon on his side. [n]”No!”[/b] The protest left Hannah’s lips, tears threatening in her gentle eyes. She felt a force against her shoulder, pushing her away from the new threat. ”Go now Hannah!” Came the voice from nowhere, before the invisibility mutant moved to confront them.
Only a moment’s hesitation came before Hannah took her friend’s name to heart and fled. She had to get free, somehow. Get out of here and to the woods so they can meet up again. Fear coursed through her, uncertainty. This was no fire, but who, what were they that Wes now faced? She’d only seen them in the shadows, only felt the danger which seemed to ebb from them. She wanted to know what was going on but at the same was too scared to ask, for the reason of her power. A hand lifted as she ran, rubbing tears from her cheeks. She lowed, looking around, trying to gather her bearings. Her head turned, waiting for the shadows o come to life again. ”Calm down.. You’re 15… stop acting like a scared child..” She tried to quietly scald herself. But she was a scared child really, terrified. And she jumped when she heard voices nearby, unable to work out where they were coming from. Head turned from side to side before realising the seemingly wordless voice came from around the corner. She froze, hugging the dressing gown to herself, bare feet feeling the chill from the floor. She’d not spent the time to find her slippers and now she regretted it. Silently though she made her way towards the corner, still not catching the words, but realising that the owners seemed to be gentler than she would have imagined the threat to be. Slowly she walked around the corner to the trio, eyes lowering to the smaller child, then the masked stranger before the woman. ”Do..” She started, fingers gripping her gown that but tighter. ”..you know away out?” She tried to stop her voice trembling. At least in a group they’d be safer right? Especially as it seemed the woman was familiar. A teacher.
Hannah: In this world we're forced to make choices everyday. We don't always know the consequences. But it's how we react to them which makes us who we are
Re: Monday, April 2 - CO: Into Narnia We Go!
Elaina had already taken Nadia by the hand when another girl showed up. 'What is this, some lifetime movie?,' she thought as she eyed the girl, trying to put a name to her face. Sadly, she still couldn't remember all the names of the students here. It was then that the girl asked the question of the hour: Do you know a way out?
"There's a tunnel a few halls down, but my office is just around the corner," she said, pointing in the general directions of the tunnel and then her office, before going on to say, "I know this will sound silly, but I really must grab a book. That way I can transport us out of harm's way should some more baddies show up." It was then that she motioned for the girl to follow her before saying, "It'll only take a second." And then she and Nadia were walking straight for the office, trying hard to control their breathing as the masked girl had pointed out that anyone could hear them a mile away. She didn't even bother to look back to see if the other two were following.
True to her word, they arrived at Elaina's office in no time. Luckily, the English teacher had her office key on her and within a minute, they were inside her office. So far, they hadn't spotted anymore trouble. However, that didn't mean that there wasn't any lurking just around the corner. Hurriedly, she grabbed the nearest book. However, upon looking at it, she found that it was a textbook and not anything she could use. It was then that she saw a shadow dart just outside her doorway. She looked to the masked girl as if to say, 'go check it out' while she held her index finger in front of her mouth in the universal 'shhhh'ing motion. She spotted a cover then and grabbed the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, hoping that they'd all be able to escape to the tunnels instead of into the book (no matter how fun that might sound under different circumstances).
((Sorry for the shortness! We'll be waiting on anyone else who wishes to come before heading off. Sound good?))
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