Xaviers!

Leo Eskandari wrote:But Shane bought enough time for Leo to recover sufficiently to sluggishly dash over to try and put his proverbial foot down on Zandra's arm.

Leo stomped -- and, after all Zandra had done to him, that was pretty pleasing in and of itself. Zandra cried out and dropped the calming ray...

Sam's speech was rallying the crowd, be it from her words or her divine presence.

This was no good. The calming ray, for some reason, didn't seem to be effecting her, so Quinn changed tactics.

He disappeared in a puff of smoke, reappearing in Sam's blind spot. He emerged with a small, thin rapier, and wasted no time trying to skewer him a Goddess.

Leo grinned and picked up the device. Unless he was stopped, he'd blast her with it.

Sam barely has time to react, earning her a slash across her flank as she tumbles to face her new assailant.

"...of course," she says as she rights herself with some pain.

"The 'nice' one."

"I'm not the one starting a riot on campus, 'Morrigan'. Calm them down!"

"It was a protest until the prefects attacked it. And now you're going after me with a bloody sword?"

"Nobody believes your gaslighting anymore, Quartermain."

"You think I'm nuts to try to go toe-to-toe with the Morrigan with bare fists? I'm pleasantly jovial, not an idiot. Stop this, now, before we have to resort to more extreme measures."

Leo Eskandari wrote:Leo grinned and picked up the device. Unless he was stopped, he'd blast her with it.

Zandra cried out as Leo hit her with the beam, and then her eyes started glazing over in that familiar way.

It appeared that whatever injections the two of them were getting, it wasn't to do with stopping the emotion ray!

"Like what, mindwipe the student body now that you got caught with your trousers down?"

"You don't understand the grand plan. You just want to destroy!"

"How do you like it?" he asked Zandra with a satisfied smirk, still more calm than anything. His mean side didn't extend to continuing to smash her arm.

"I understand the ethical issues of experimenting on the student body without their consent. Do you?"

Ainsley was watching Leo closely, but currently wasn't making any moves to stop him, nor did his expression indicate he was particularly worried.

These people had it coming to them, and Ainsley was generally difficult to shake.

When things started to take a turn for the worse, Jez had originally started filming with her phone - it was important to document these things. But as things started to get really violent, well, she couldn't stand on the sidelines anymore.

Well, yes, she could. But that's just because she could decide to send about half a dozen of herself into the fray.

Or try to run past it and toward the Administration building. Because there was still one player not on the field.

Samantha McManus wrote:"I understand the ethical issues of experimenting on the student body without their consent. Do you?"

The response to that was another attempted stab in the ribs, a good sign that Sam had a winning argument and/or vulnerable ribs.

Leo Eskandari wrote:"How do you like it?" he asked Zandra with a satisfied smirk, still more calm than anything. His mean side didn't extend to continuing to smash her arm.

"Nnn...it's actually...kinda nice..." Zandra moaned.

Jezabelle Sherlock wrote:When things started to take a turn for the worse, Jez had originally started filming with her phone - it was important to document these things. But as things started to get really violent, well, she couldn't stand on the sidelines anymore.

Well, yes, she could. But that's just because she could decide to send about half a dozen of herself into the fray.

Or try to run past it and toward the Administration building. Because there was still one player not on the field.

The prefects had mostly been trying to keep control via mind-altering rays. With Will, Quinn and Zandra all down, Jez could get a free run into the building if'n she so chose.

Well, the door was locked, but I mean, that's not a permanent roadblock by any stretch of the imagination.

Leo frowned. This wasn't going as planned. People weren't supposed to enjoy being punished.

"I was going to make you eat this thing, but it'd just choke you. So I'll settle for makin' sure you stay down for a while."

His tail came around and his stinger slid out before jabbing Zandra in the leg. At least he was careful not to go in too far.

Then he snapped the mood altering device in half.

"Woo! Go team!" the pink blob also known as Robin shouts with a voice as wobbly as her shape. "Ah-dih-ca! Ah-dih-ca!" There's a 100% chance she only knows this as a thing people shout in the context of revolting.

"It's not over yet! We've still got Lippincott and that creep Ghost to deal with!"'

Having had the same idea as Jez, Shane made a bee line to the admin building.

"I've also got Mister Friendship is Magic trying to perforate my lungs over here, thank you very much."

Sam shifts her weight out to one side, her hand shooting out to grip the blade of the rapier close to the basket hilt.

Her leg comes around to aim a kick at the middle of Quinn's chest.

Within the chaos, a small and deadly silent slip of a young woman draped incognito in the trappings of a normal human being burst from the crowd as if on cue, a hardened solid and perfectly round ball of quartz wielded in her hand like a blunt weapon. She was practically flying at Quartermain from behind him, aiming to bring the object down on his skull and knock him unconscious.

Sam's kick connected, sending Quinn flying backwards, but a puff of smoke surrounded him, and he vanished just before Chisaki's swing could hit.

Reappearing on the other side of Sam, he lept and tried to put her in a choke hold, a sign of desperation if I'd ever seen one.

Shane and Jez were met with a locked door, and a voice crackling over the intercom.


"Step away from the doors now, please, Ms. Sherlock; Mr. Marsh. I'm afraid my open door policy must come to an end."

On Chisaki's swing and miss, the object in her hand shed flakes of quartz with a flick of her wrist, the shape changing from a round blunt object to a sharp, shabby one.

She had the dagger of quartz held in her left and squared off behind Quartermain, ready to stab him if he tried to back up.

Her only real goal now was keeping the magician corralled and contained, the Morrigan could do the rest.

About half of the Jezes remained by the door, the three others moving alongside the walls in search of an unlocked window. Of those that remained, one pressed the intercom's button.

"Headmaster, this has gone on too far. Your staff has attacked the students, one of them is swinging a sword around for Christ's sake! You have to tell them to stand down. Otherwise I can't guarantee that this protest won't turn into a riot. Neither of us wants there to be a mob of angry mutants busting in the doors."

"I'm afraid you do not have all the information, Miss Sherlock. While you have forced my hand to move up by about 72 hours, I can assure you; there will not be a mob of angry mutants 'bursting in the doors' in a few moments.

For what it is worth, I am sorry."

The Jezes looking for a window began heading back toward the rest of them at a rapid, one turning to look to Shane.

"Shane, we need to get to him, now."

Meanwhile out on the lawn, a pale-faced Jez clutching her phone pushed her way through the crowd watching the fight and grabbed Robin by the shoulder. She'd been the one who got them all together, she was the one the students would listen to.

"Robin, we have to get everyone out of here, now. Lippincott's about to unleash something big and I don't know what it is, but it isn't good."

Robin's still kind of out of it, but Jez grabbing her shoulder and, perhaps more so what she's saying, snaps her out of the ray-induced stupor.

"Shit..." She elongates her legs till she's a good two feet above the crowd and places her hands around her mouth, shifting them into an actual bullhorn.

"Everyone! They got something big up their sleeve! Get outta here till we know what's what!"

"You... should have ran, Quartermain..." She manages to get out.

Then she turns the rapier around and stabs behind her, between her arm and side.

Shane nodded and sent forth a multitude of roots and vines at the doors in order to break them down with the power of nature.

Leo took a second to think before running over to Ainsley, picking him up, and booking it away from the building.

Ainsley was in no position to fight Leo and allowed himself to be carried away.... but they'd probably have words about this later.

Chisaki stayed in a battle readied position with Samantha as she continued to battle Quinn.

'No one left behind' logic it seemed.

Quinn gasped as the sword went into him, eyes bulging, spitting a bit of blood out as Sam stabbitied stabbitied.

It turns out, getting stabbed hurt! Man, would have been good for Quinn to know that beforehand; might have made him more hesitant to do all the stabbing!


It looked like the X-Teams had won a victory, and it was only a matter of time before they kicked down the doors and demanded answers from Lippencott himself...

"You're lucky I'm not as petty as you think I am," she says turning around, aiming to at least try and help with Quinn's wounds.

"Three, two, one.

Mark."


With a deafening roar, a drone blasted it's way over campus, emitting a stream of colored smoke behind it, coating the quad and the exterior areas of campus in a fog. If students attempted to get indoors away from it, they'd find the ventilation systems cranked into reverse, spewing out more of the stuff, getting on their skin, into their lungs, all around them.

Tear gas? No...no, not quite. Some kind of anesthesia? Not...not really.


At first, in fact, it seemed to have done nothing at all; just cloud the battlefield and clog people's vision. But then, slowly, people began to catch on.


For telepaths, the world gradually became...silent. The constant underbubbling of people's thoughts faded away, replaced by...nothingness. Just before her extra vision faded away, Sam could catch a glimpse of a cavalcade of sparks, floating up and out, twirling and vanishing into the haze.

For shifters, the world became solid. For flyers, the ground rapildy became solid, too! Jez found herself suddenly in one place, not many.



"What you are experiencing," Lippencott's damned calm voice continued over the loudspeaker, "is your X-Genes being blocked from expressing themselves. You will likely experience some confusion and perhaps some discomfort, but I assure you, from all our experiments, this effect should be temporary.

I must say, starting a massive fight on campus, while unexpected, was likely an added boon. You see, most of our research on each and every one of you came under stressful conditions; the better to isolate the X-Gene's performance. I suppose, under the stressful conditions of combat and protest, it made your particular mutations that much easier to target.

I do apologize for misleading you, but let me assure you, your sacrifice is for a good cause. As we speak, my laboratory in the Point is breaking down and analyzing the extracted powers from each of you. We have been taking samples of your DNA since we arrived on campus, and combined with the energy sources we were able to acquire from you just now, we will reach a breakthrough. The X-Gene can be activated by...

...Well, I won't bore you with the details. Be assured, however, that because of your sacrifices, we believe we have a way to forcefully activate the dormant X-Gene in the wider population. By this time of day in 48 hours, there will not be a Flatscan in Britain. Your powers will spawn a new nation, one in which every man, woman and child has reached their ultimate state of evolution.

When we are all mutants, there will be no discrimination of mutants. No hatred, no violence. No more people killed because they are different. For when we are all different, none of us will be.

I thank you for your service."

A brown-haired boy most of campus had never seen before coughed and sputtered on the ground, shivering and shaking as his bones refused to debonify.

Leo stumbled and nearly fell, losing some of his strength. He was still a seven foot chimera after all.

When Lippincott's words sunk in, he started to sob.

"...congratulations, Quartermain. You've been following a lunatic," she says, checking his wound.