[Plot] Power to the People

[Ashlie Minamida]

"That's good, because I'm not sure I know either, which is very fun and exciting." she chuckles which immediately turns into a cough. And while there's no blood there is certainly a liquid seeping out of her bullet wound, clear and a bit viscous.

[Will Stanton]

"Look, I don't know what it'll take for you to stay dead, but no one's going to kill you other than me; I want the credit for that," Will deadpanned. "We'll get a stretcher here and get you to the med center."

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know how, but it feels like he's got our powers in those vials," she says, gathering them up.

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo, lightly burned and bleeding from a laceration on his side, was looking like a half-transformed creature from a horror movie by the time he caught up.

Supporting himself on a wall, he said, "Damnit. I wanted to punch him."

Then he collapsed to the floor.

[Miriam Bell]

Once the proverbial and literal dust has settled Miriam makes her way towards the lab. Passing by an unconscious and detained Quinn she stops and looks at him for a moment. She's well aware that kicking him now would mean she's not much better than him and frankly, she doesn't feel like she is, so why not get the satisfaction anyway? But without her telepathy there's no minds, no ugly subconscious thoughts to pick through and feed into her self-deprecation. Who the fuck even cares about magicians anymore anyway.

And walking away from him she feels... relieved. For the first time in a very long while she feels okay.

People are picking themselves up, calling the medical center, brushing off the dust and debris and it's hopeful.

Then she sees a collapsed Leo, Will and an injured Ashlie, but what makes her stomach sink like a stone is Sam holding a bunch of vials. Somehow she knows what they are and for a moment she considers just turning around and walking away from all of this...

[Drake Martin]

With nobody currently paying much attention to the lab, Drake took the opportunity to slip up to the lab computer unobserved. He surreptitiously plugged in a high capacity thumb drive, which automatically ran a program to crack the password. Assuming that worked, he'd copy Lippincott's research and get out with no one the wiser.

[Colette Rosenhof]

A wavy-haired head poked itself down the hallway, the woman careful of all of the smoking debris lying about as she called out.

"Allo? Are zere any survivors? Basil and I, we 'ave brought bandages and a... what is ze word, civière... a litter!"

[Basil Benson]

When the pair came into view, Basil visibly blanched at the blood loss of some of his fellow students. He was holding the back end of the stretcher , a backpack slung over his shoulder filled with medical supplies.

Thanks to his nervousness, his eyes darted around and then held onto the one person who wasn't actually bleeding, Headmistress Minamida.

Partially because he could look at her and not feel panicked, and partially because he thought she was dead already. Finding her sprawled on the floor leaking vital fluids was a bit confusing.

[Samantha McManus]

"We're going to need a couple trips to the medical center."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"Ooh, we should have brought additional litters." Colette mused softly as she stepped in through the hole in the door with Basil in tow. "Has anyone prioritized ze injured? Oh, also, was ze mission successful? Zat is also important. But not to zis."

[Samantha McManus]

"We've got what he stole from us. We just have to figure out how to get it back where it belongs."

[Narrator]

With nobody currently paying much attention to the lab, Drake took the opportunity to slip up to the lab computer unobserved. He surreptitiously plugged in a high capacity thumb drive, which automatically ran a program to crack the password. Assuming that worked, he'd copy Lippincott's research and get out with no one the wiser.

With everyone currently distracted by bleeding, explosions and power confusion, Drake was able to subtly slip in his thumb drive. Advanced Genoshan algorithms went to work, cracked the password, and allowed Drake to download the contents of Lippencott's research. How devious.

[Basil Benson]

"The Eskandari boy is unconscious." Basil commented to Colette.

" He should be first, then Minamida. We'll put him in the back seat of the car and send the stretcher back for Minamida while I get him to the med center. By the time he's unloaded Minamida should be ready to load by my return."

Basil explained all of this out loud to Colette, staring very hard at the floor.

[Will Stanton]

"I don't know how, but it feels like he's got our powers in those vials," she says, gathering them up.

"The medium they're in is probably what they were taking from us," Will frowned. "I didn't catch on for far too long; the calming ray felt too good. But after noticing myself getting progressively weaker and more tired, I grew suspicious.

I broke my own thumb one time when they were blasting me with the calming ray -- a trick I learned when you turned me into a slug, Sam; had to figure out how to keep my head clear even when being bombarded by suggestion. That's when I caught on to the medical research, but by then, Lippencott had put threats out on you and Miriam and Robin, and I couldn't just come out and say everything.

They were taking something out of us -- blood plasma, maybe? I'm not a scientist. I'd bet dollars to donuts, however, that whatever it was they were removing is in here, keeping it active and stable.

I don't suppose it's as easy as injecting it back in? Or maybe, if you can see the Sparks, there's something the Morrigan can do..."

[Colette Rosenhof]

"The Eskandari boy is unconscious." Basil commented to Colette.

" He should be first, then Minamida. We'll put him in the back seat of the car and send the stretcher back for Minamida while I get him to the med center. By the time he's unloaded Minamida should be ready to load by my return."

Basil explained all of this out loud to Colette, staring very hard at the floor.

"Oh, yes, right! Let us get to work zen." The two brought the stretcher over toward the somewhat-dwindled student... at least he'd be a little easier to carry now.

[Miriam Bell]

While Colette and Basil take care of Leo and Ashlie, Miriam takes a deep breath and walks over to Sam and Will.

"Is that what I think it is?" she asks, glancing at the vials full of colorful substance.

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, our Kool-Aid business can finally get off the ground," Will nodded.

[Samantha McManus]

"It's our powers. Somehow. I can feel them in there."

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam slowly shakes her head and lets out a brief laugh through her nose.

"Well, then I better do this now before everything gets... complicated again." She closes her eyes for a second and takes a deep breath, trying to ignore the bunny-ear that has flopped out of her hooded shawl once again.

"Will, I just straight-up don't deserve a friend like you and that's already taking into account that time you tried to kill me. This isn't some... grand gesture of pushing you away, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you and how sorry I am for all the things I've put you through, intentional or not. I've told myself you could take it but the fact that that's true doesn't mean it was okay."

[Will Stanton]

"Miriam...


See, that's kind of the underlying problem. Of course you deserve friends. You think of yourself as this...dark figure of tragedy, doomed to forever be alone. But you're not.

And yeah, you've made mistakes. So have I. So have all of us here," he said, looking around. "There are days where we're 90% mistake by volume. And it's hard to forgive people for their mistakes, especially when they were doing things out of...good intentions.

But we're all in this together, aye? All this crazy shit we're going through?"

[Samantha McManus]

"You could've just bailed on this, Miriam. On all of us. But you didn't."

[Miriam Bell]

"I'm pretty doomed, but you're right. I see the worst in people. I can't help it. Or maybe I could and I'm just bad at it. But right now all I have to go on are your words, so I can't second guess your thoughts, I just kind of have to believe you, right? I just... I guess I just wanted to let you know that I do consider you friends and I'd never have the guts to do it when I have everyone's worst subconscious thoughts at the edge of my mind, insisting that's how they really feel about me."

[Will Stanton]

Will paused for a moment, and then pulled Miriam in, giving her a hug.

"I forgive you, Miriam. For everything you've done. For everything Mel did. And I'll try to be more honest about how I feel in the future, so you don't have to rip through the tea leaves of my mind.

You belong here."

[Miriam Bell]

"Thanks..." she says, sniffing as she returns the hug.

"And Sam... I'm jealous. I've always been so bloody jealous of you. But me of all people should know that just because something looks easy doesn't mean it is. I'm still going to give you a hard time simply because somebody has to keep you grounded with the mere mortals, but... I should have occasionally listened to you."

[Samantha McManus]

"You're better than you think, Miriam. That's all I'm going to say on that."

[Will Stanton]

"These would seem to help with the listening ability," Will said, slipping one of Miriam's bunny ears outside of her hoodie.

[Miriam Bell]

"Oh buzz off!" she says, slapping at Will's hand but there's the hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

"And I might be good, but I'm not sure I'm smart about being good. I do know one thing though and this'll be the final note on this horribly sappy moment. You do have a great ass, Sam."

And with that she grabs Sam by the collar, pulls her into a short but intense kiss, turns around and walks out of the room.

[Will Stanton]

Will blinked, watching as Miriam walked away.

There was an awkward pause.


"She's not wrong," he finally said, after a moment.

[Samantha McManus]

"...suppose today is an interesting day," she says, a bit flushed.

[Will Stanton]

"So, this would be a bad time to suggest the Morrigan give the campus powers back with a kiss, fairy-tale style, yes?" Will said, teasing stoic-faced.

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know what you've heard going around, but there are at least a few people on campus I wouldn't kiss."

[Will Stanton]

"More's the pity," Will said, trying to maintain his serious expression and not doing the world's best job.


"Seriously, though, if you can still see the sparks, then maybe you can help...guide them back to where they're supposed to go. You ripped one out of a portion of me, you said -- maybe you can, y'know, guide them back."

[Robin Stanton]

"Yes! Gimme gimme gimme!" Robin pipes up, making grabby-motions with her fingers.

[Victor Freud]

Victor stayed out of the way mostly, watching the nerds take care of the science stuff and the different kind of nerds tend to the wounded. Somehow one of his falsie cigs just felt appropriate then.

"Sorry you didn't get to Grunkle Stan some more, Em. Maybe next time."

[Drake Martin]

With everyone currently distracted by bleeding, explosions and power confusion, Drake was able to subtly slip in his thumb drive. Advanced Genoshan algorithms went to work, cracked the password, and allowed Drake to download the contents of Lippencott's research. How devious.

His final obligation with the computer was to start a complete data wipe. He hated destroying evidence against the asshole, but he couldn't let the data survive. Not there anyway. Destroying any backups wasn't his job.

With that done, he hid the thumb drive in his jacket and went to join the others and hopefully be a dragon again.

[Emilie]

Victor stayed out of the way mostly, watching the nerds take care of the science stuff and the different kind of nerds tend to the wounded. Somehow one of his falsie cigs just felt appropriate then.

"Sorry you didn't get to Grunkle Stan some more, Em. Maybe next time."

Emilie shrugged. "Can't cream them all.

I'm more concerned how good Minamida's vision was." She quipped.

[Samantha McManus]

"I can try. It'll definitely be easier to do everyone else once my own powers are back."

"Otherwise it's like trying to suck a bowling ball through a garden hose, aye?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, you have a focal point for creation, now. A fulacht to draw from and filter through.

...I don't know how it works, either."

[Robin Stanton]

"Very well, hopefully! Alright so Sam first so she can make sure it all works. Do we just... take a shot from a strange vial?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I don't know what's in these. Physically, at least."