It had been a long and particularly ‘cruel’ week at Claremont.
First, Colin had returned to school on Saturday night with a distinctly ginger tinge to his hair, a broken nose and several very nasty looking bruises. He was immediately ushered into Nurse Joy’s station and a call made to a Doctor Collins in London. She appeared a couple of hours later. Young, pretty, professional, whoever she was she apparently had the mystical touch since when Colin stepped back out of the nurse’s station a few minutes later his nose was repaired and his bruises had vanished. He merely muttered something about the healing properties of the ‘light of Albion’. His hair was still tinted an orangey-red, though.
However, his antics, whatever they might have been – Colin refused to comment about them even to them – had earned him a grounding the following weekend.
Then, both Chris and Gustav were ‘forced’ to sit a series of mock exams. It didn’t help that they were initially held in the reception block for the first couple of days, which meant there was a baying horde of protestors standing just outside the windows.
The recent exposé in The Wessex Gazette about the involvement of the Humanity First Party and its sole MP Ted Reichman with the members of the ‘Keep Claremont Human’ group had resulted in a Police investigation and several articles in the national newspapers.
Yet, despite the bad publicity and the links the article had exposed between the party and the attacks on outed Metas, the situation didn’t change. The known members of Keep Claremont Human set were called into Mr Summers’ office for an ‘interview’ about what they had been doing as part of the KCH and challenged about their behaviour off-campus.
They were banned from holding any future meetings on school grounds, though they argued that they generally met in St, Mary Mede at the weekend anyway and the school had no influence over what they did in their own time. Despite these meetings being supported and paid for by Humanity First, the school could do little about them.
The school did ban the displaying of publicity materials or recruiting for the KCH on school grounds and a school assembly was held where the main topic was about tolerance by all and trying to understand each other’s point of view, though it ended in a strict warning that physical and verbal assaults would not be tolerated.
What had changed since the newspaper article was the presence of a constant, if relatively small and extremely vocal, public protest outside Claremont Academy. This was supposedly local parents protesting against the presence of Metas in the school; however, no one was able to identify more than a few of the people participating in the protest.
Originally, the demonstrations were held just outside the reception block but they were subsequently moved off school property, across to the opposite side of the road.
As the week went on, the numbers attending dramatically reduced though Ted Reichman did visit the protest at the beginning of the week when the TV reporters were all present to denounce his personal involvement with the good people running the much maligned ‘Keep Claremont Human’ group at the school, claiming the original newspaper report was ‘fake news’.
By Friday, the dispute had reduced to just a few die-hard protesters jeering at the kids as they were leaving the school.
In school, Zoe was suddenly being ostracised by the in-crowd and especially by Angel Summerville, but again no one was saying why.
They couldn’t wait for Friday to roll round. With Chris grounded, Gustav and Chris had to head into Wessex on their own, with only a dozen other students as company.
They sat on the top deck at the front of the bus with Ces and Angel with their bullyboys, Nathaniel and Chris Williamson sat right at the back.
To their surprise Zoe, usually one of Angel’s more popular hanger-on’s, sat on her own in the middle and for whatever reason she was being teased by Angel and Ces, both of whom were making snide comments behind her back and bad-mouthing her at every opportunity.
The bus arrived at the Wessex Interchange and Zoe hurried off first followed by most of the other students, several of whom immediately headed towards the public toilets, jumping the turnstile rather than pay their 20p.
At least they were away from them. To their surprise, they saw Zoe head towards the bus stop for Boar’s Hill, a large, rundown residential estate on the poor side of the city. They’d always assumed Zoe lived in the more affluent area of Southside or in the River District with the likes of Angel.
Then they saw them – a group of young people in pulled-up hoodies, their faces hidden behind a series of animal masks advancing on her from the direction of the toilets, hooting and making animalistic screeches. The masks were all of predatory animals except for one of the younger female figures who incongruously had chosen a cute bunny mask.
They began to cluster around Zoe, who was sitting in front of her empty bay waiting for her bus. They were about four or five empty bus bays between the two of them and the harassed Zoe. Then they noticed that the masked miscreants appeared to be trying to grab and poke her.
Chris turned to Gustav and said, “Looks like your old girlfriend is in some trouble over there.” An embarrassed Gustav murmured, “She’s not my girlfriend and I don’t think there are any laws against making animal sounds or wearing masks, but I’m sure there are about assaulting someone. Shall we?”
They instinctively began to move towards Zoe, and some of the group moved to intercept them. Okay, so this was about to get fun.
Based on the voices they could hear, Zoe’s main protagonists were Ces and Angel, her voice in particular was unmistakable, though that also meant Nathaniel and Chris Williamson would also be present. Gustav was reasonably sure that the bodybuilder-want-to-be advancing on them was Nathaniel.
They also noticed two of the group were standing back from the others; they were both masked but seemed very ill at ease with what was going on. There was something familiar about both of them, and it took Gustav a couple of seconds to realise that the overweight one might just be Lawrence Smalls, himself a covert meta.
There were others in the crowd though that they definitely didn’t recognise and Chris suspected they might be students from St Mary Mede Secondary. As they got closer they could make out what was being shouted at Zoe, something about ‘teaching her a lesson for ratting them out’. This was intermingled with cries of “mutie lover “, “double-crosser” and “snitch bitch”.
Most of the group were clustered together as they attempted to push and hit her. She was only saved from serious injury by the fact that there were so many of them crammed into the small area behind the safety rail and they are all trying to hurt her at the same time. She was trapped between the locked bay doors and her attackers on the other side of the safety barrier.
One of the masked figures tried to spit in Zoe’s face, only for the ‘lip’ of the mask to catch the spit, which dribbled down the outside of the mask onto her hoodie.
No time to change, Gustav started walking towards her, planning to try to intervene. One of the masked thugs tried to intercept him, but he pushed past, shoulder striking him and knocking him to the ground with the unanticipated strength he put behind the slam. Gustav looked him in the eye as he walked past and smiled a predatory yet serious grin. Chris tried to follow, only to find his passage blocked by the muscular build that he thought was likely Nathaniel. He tried to push through, but the masked figure stood his ground.
He took in the situation. There was no way that the apparently ‘unpowered’ two of them could resolve this on their own. Gustav couldn’t resist asking “what are you doing?” only to hear a “Just trying to get past him, mate” followed a second later by Chris suddenly pointing to his left and asking the ‘brick wall’ standing in front of him, “isn’t that your bus?” and attempted to sidestep his opponent. Instead, the figure placed his hand on his chest and tried to push him away.
Gustav said, “It’s all right Chris, I’ve got this, just chill. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, a case of mistaken identity, right?” He attempted to continue towards Zoe, only to find two other masked figures stopping him with a shove to his chest.
Gustav braced himself and stood fast. “Are you Okay?” Chris asked from behind him, “Just a misunderstanding” he shouted as a one of them in a muffled voice said, “Look mutie lover, why don’t you fuck off?”
Rather than respond, Gustav again tried to walk round his opponent’s. It resulted in a swing from one of them at Gustav’s face. He ducked, swinging his body back while stepping forward and passed him so the punch swung wide over him, throwing the male off-balance.
Nathaniel meanwhile was trying to shove Chris away. Instead of fighting it like Gus, Chris turned and went in the opposite direction towards the public toilets.
As he walked away, Chris saw the hooded and masked figure Gustav had knocked down had stood up and was now advancing behind Gus. Chris tried to make it look accidental as he rushed past him and with a covert push again knocked him back down to the ground with a “sorry”.
He continued running towards the public toilets with a shout to Gustav of, “Sorry mate, gotta go, need to find the nearest loo, I need to go badly.” Behind him, he heard a bemused Gustav ask, “Do you have a 20p?” as a masked thaniel began taunting his ‘retreat’, calling his a coward and demanding he came back and fight. He ignored him and headed straight towards the public toilets.
As soon as he was inside the cubicle, he changed into his costume and hid his street clothes behind a nearby radiator before checking whether anyone outside was looking in his direction. The other passengers were thankfully all focused on watching the shouting figures at the far end of the bus bays.
Back in the waiting area, he saw Gustav focus and somehow use his Voice of Allure not just on the two blocking his path and the ‘man-wall’ that was Nathaniel but on all the others nearby as well. He shouted, the affect echoing over to those nearby that were now pushing, shoving and even trying to grab hold of Zoe, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” The taunt seemed to work as several of them turned and began to walk towards him and away from the harassed Zoe.
Firewall stepped out and began to run across to help, noticing the pair that had been hanging back and refusing to get involved and that the overweight one appeared to be secretly trying to use his phone to call someone, hopefully the police. The other clicked his fingers and sparks of electricity flared for a second between his fingers.
Was the other figure standing back with Lawrence, Dimitri Ronin, aka Kilowatt? He seemed to make a habit of hiding in plain sight as a friend of Ces, could that decision have led to him agreeing to be part of this?
With three of the masked figures now behind him and several more advancing towards him, Gustav reached out and grabbed at the closest of the masked figures, a male with the disguise of a pig. He tripped his legs and bodily swung him round to act as a physical shield, his feet held an inch off the ground. He tossed him around like an oversized nunchaku, using his flailing feet to hit one of those in front of him in the hand. Another got close enough to try to punch him but missed as Gustav dodged and pushed his ‘human shield’ forward so the punch hit him in the shoulder instead. Another tried to grab him, but the mass of attackers were again getting in each other’s way.
Meanwhile, he shouted “Zoe, what is all this about?” and for a moment lost concentration as he realised that the silent Zoe had pulled a spray bottle of perfume out of her handbag and was busy trying to spray the alcohol-based liquid in the eyes of her attackers. A faint smell of lavender reached him from her counterattack.
He had no time to say anything as another attacker managed to dodge passed his human shield and land a punch on him. Thankfully, it was only a glancing blow, as he was already turning away when his assailant had attacked. Another punch reached him, but Gustav deflected the blow.
Chris, now Firewall, barriered up and ran towards his embattled friend, it was definitely time for ‘Enter the Meta’.
Instead of running behind Gustav, he ran between Zoe and Gustav’s attackers and unleashed a massive energy burst, hoping that the people still trying to attack Zoe would provide sufficient cover to protect her from the surge. The electrical tsunami washed over everyone nearby. The overweight guy, he thought might be Lawrence, collapsed first though his companion seemed unaffected (which strengthened his belief that the other hesitant member of the group was Dimitri) then two of Zoe’s attackers also fell to the ground, temporarily stunned.
Unfortunately, Zoe must have taken some of the blast herself as she staggered back. The others still attacking her must have also been affected as they grabbed hold of the safety rail but managed to remain standing. Of the original dozen or so attackers, only six remained standing, not bad for an opening gambit.
The one he thought was Angel and another female managed to reach over and grab Zoe by her hair and jacket and slammed her into the rail. Apparently unable to break free from their grip, Zoe reached up and sprayed what remained of the perfume straight into their eyes, and was rewarded with two high-pitched screams of pain. It was obvious this crowd intended to try to do Zoe a real injury. If they were to save her, they had to resolve this quickly if at all possible.
Gustav was still keeping his ‘human shield’ off-balance and spinning him so that his feet kept on hitting the ankles of the others trying to grab him. He was worried that he might need to ‘out’ himself if he was to resolve this fight, but he was determined to put that off for as long as he possibly could. He ducked, swung his near vomiting ‘human shield’ round and down to the ground so his legs intercepted his other attacker’s legs knocking them to the ground with loud yelps and allowed his human ‘Nunchaku’ to bounce and spiral across the ground as he leapt over and through the group so he now stood with Firewall between them and Zoe. Was it time for him to do a meta-makeover or..?
Another blast emanated out from his costumed companion, which shook him but succeeded in again knocking their attackers to the ground. One of them reached out and tried to grab Firewall, only for him to unleash a Taser blast down the gripped arm, rendering him incapacitated, if not wholly unconscious.
In the distance, they could hear the faint two-tone challenge of Police sirens as they apparently headed towards the interchange. Whether it was the CCTV operator in the station who’d finally seen what was happening or Lawrence’s covert attempts to use his mobile before Firewall had ‘dropped’ him, it didn’t matter. It was at best a matter of minutes before the boys (and girls) in Blue swarmed the place.
Firewall turned and moved towards the masked figure he thought was Dimitri and quietly muttered, “Look, the Police are on their way. You haven’t outed yourself as a Meta in front of these morons yet, and I assume you wouldn’t want to in this present company anyway, so why don’t you and your mate high tail it out of here before it’s too late and you really get into trouble?” The masked Dimitri nodded and began to try to pull his semi-conscious partner out of the way.
Gustav glanced around him at that moment and saw the one he thought was Dimitri grab the shaken but now reawakened Lawrence, and run towards one of the side exits. Then he heard him speak, in Dimitri’s voice to the others as he was leaving, “The cops are coming, get the hell out of here…” Gustav pointed behind the masked figures who were starting to recover and added, “Run away, the Police are on the way!” as strongly as his Voice would allow.
Angel started running as soon as she heard, closely followed by one of the females and a couple of the males. He reached over to grab Zoe by the wrist intending to drag her to safety. A second later, he found himself thrown over her shoulder (and the barrier) to the ground as an angry and defensive Zoe ‘reacted’. He tried to smile as he lay on the ground off to one side of her as he muttered, “I was just trying to help!” She let go of him and he flipped himself back up onto his feet. Around them, they could see the Police starting to enter from the other end of the station as members of the public stared in a mixture of shock and awe at the costumed and sparkling Firewall.
Gustav tried to bluff his connection to the costumed figure, who was making sure the attackers were either leaving the scene or remained down for the count. “Thank God you’re here, finally.” and couldn’t resist melodramatically adding, “who is this mysterious hero I’ve never seen before.”
A couple of the fleeing figures threw a couple of kicks and punches at Gustav as they ran past. A couple almost managed to hit him as he stood between them and Zoe and weaved in between the blows, ducking and diving. As they ran away, he turned towards Firewall and shrugged.
The remaining attackers managed to get back on their feet and a couple of them tried to attack Firewall together, throwing multiple punches at him. Firewall allowed his barrier to take any damage their punches might have inflicted before unleashing an uncontrolled and undirected Taser blast around him that splintered and branched out like a bolt of lightning. Several branches of electricity immediately earthed, but Firewall was rewarded with the smell of burning from the first of his attackers as he collapsed. Thankfully, it was just the zip of his hoodie overheating from the electrical discharge. Another two also collapsed to the ground, unable to stop spasming.
A couple more of them ran away, even as one of the figures that Zoe’d tried to spray perfume in their eyes tripped over a bench and went sprawling across the ground.
Gustav meanwhile was still weaving in and out between a couple of the other attackers as they tried to land a punch or scratch him over the barrier. He grabbed Zoe’s water bottle and tore off the lid before splashing the contents into the eyes of one of those that Zoe had sprayed with perfume previously. It was intended as a helpful gesture, but wasn’t seen as such by the soaked individual, as Gustav again urged them to “run away”. He faked a few jabs at them to encourage their retreat. He never expected Zoe to punctuate his message with a vicious kick between one of the male attacker’s legs, crushing his manhood. Gustav winced in sympathy as her victim hobbled away, moaning and clutching at himself.
Meanwhile, Firewall risked a final Taser blast at one of the retreating attackers, smiled as he dropped unconscious to the ground before leaving the rest to escape as he rushed back into the toilets to change back into Chris.
Not everyone was able to get up, though, never mind do a runner. The rest though started to run, stumble or try to crawl away and as the several Police Officers entered the station. Although Gustav and Zoe couldn’t identify which of the fleeing figures it came from, one of them was heard to shout “They’re coming for you race traitor, the Purifiers will make sure you never choose scum like those Meta bastards over your fellow humans ever again. You’ll get yours tonight, and good riddance.”
As Police officers rushed over, Zoe’s bus arrived ready for a prompt departure and she quickly jumped on-board with a quick “thanks” as Gustav tried to ask her if she would be safe. She ignored the question and told him to “get away, otherwise the Police will haul you in for questioning too and you’ll spend the rest of the evening in an interview room.”
She was obviously scared, distracted and in a hurry to get to wherever she was heading, but ignored his questions about whether she would be safe. As the 72 to Boar’s Hill pulled out with Zoe as the only passenger on-board, he quickly left the Interchange. He ran outside, jumped over a low wall and hid until the Police had rounded up and taken into custody the remaining attackers. He risked watching them as they were arrested and marched away now minus their animal masks, but he didn’t recognise any of them.
As soon as it was clear, Chris and Gustav met up as the next bus to Boar’s Hill pulled into the bay and the driver jumped out and headed to the staffroom for a cup of much-needed coffee.
Chris was initially for carrying on with their plans for the night, but Gustav was not entirely sure that everything was now going to be all right. That final comment about purifiers, whoever or whatever they were, bothered him and he asked Chris “Could you sleep soundly after hearing that threat?” To his surprise, he replied, “You want to follow the damsel, don’t you? Yes, I could sleep very well” then went silent for a second before continuing, “But on the other hand, I wouldn’t rest easy if I let you go into danger alone.” Gustav smiled, “Such a hero, Chris.” He shrugged, “Reluctant hero, admittedly. Now let’s try to figure out where exactly Zoe’s gone to, shall we? You got any vampire-tracking skills that would help?”
They pulled out their weekend bus passes and waited for the bus driver to return. The difficulty was that Boar’s Hill was a massive Council Estate and they had no idea where exactly Zoe was heading once she arrived. Chris’ mentally interfaced with the station’s Wi-Fi system and searched for details about Zoe on the internet. Although she had a presence, especially on social media, there was nothing to link her with Boar’s Hill. Then he had an idea and accessed the Council’s Rates database, hacking in through their firewall and online security, looking for any records relating to anyone by the surname of Deren. It wasn’t a common surname and, as the driver arrived, he got a hit to a resident of Boar’s Hill, one Lynne Deren recorded as having two dependents both unnamed, still it was a start and it was the only lead they had.
Meanwhile, Chris suggested the Gustav should have asked Zoe for her phone number or possibly out on a date, which elicited all sorts of excuses from the shy and embarrassed youth. He asked him why he didn’t just use his ‘allure’ on her. Gustav went silent, remembering the time he’d done just that on that girl in Carpathia and shuddered. Instead, he tried to change the subject and suggested that they ask the staff next time they have a session Down Below if it was possible to swap powers in the VR somehow so they could walk a mile in each other’s shoes, so to speak.
The driver dropped them off just out the front of a five-storey block of flats with a shared walkway and balcony on each level. There were stairs either side of the block, but both exited into a single ground level entrance in the middle of the building beside the lifts. Gustav couldn’t help thinking the whole place was a fire hazard waiting to happen.
The apartment they wanted was on the top floor and Chris was arguing that they should use the lift to check out the address though now they were here Gustav was wondering what they were going to actually say if, when Zoe answered the door.
As they stood in front of the flats talking, they saw Zoe and a woman who appeared only slightly older than her but was clearly her mum, as well as a little girl no older than four or five, standing with a number of bags on the top floor while Zoe struggled to lock the door. Even at that distance, the two women looked frightened.
Chis was for suiting up immediately and offering assistance when two vans suddenly screeched to a stop just behind them and six figures jumped out. They were dressed in identical dark, body armour. Although their armour did not appear to be powered, it made for an intimidating sight – helmets with a cross-shaped visor, Kevlar body armour, heavy gloves and boots and each was carrying a Katana, a Japanese sword. They were sure that these were not originals, they looked like cheap, ornamental knock-offs, bought from a gift shop rather than a martial arts supplier, though still sharp enough to do some serious damage. Gustav muttered about the legality of carrying such long-bladed weapons in public as one of them pointed up towards Zoe and the others on the top balcony.
The armoured figures, they assumed them to be the Purifiers that the guy being arrested had mentioned, attack dogs for the AML, began to walk slowly towards the single entranceway as Gustav and Chris dived inside and quickly changed into costume. As they stepped back out, one of the figures, pointed at them but no one said anything aloud. Chris surmised they must have some sort of communications system installed in the helmets, allowing them to coordinate without anyone overhearing.
Ashen stepped forward so he now stood squarely in the entrance to the building, intending to defend the bottleneck as he suggested Firewall should “go upstairs and protect the family and I’ll hold them here.” Firewall sniggered at the suggestion and took up a position just behind him, braced for action.
Then they heard one of the armoured figures say, “Gene jokes, seems the info was legit, take them both out and we’ll deal with the race traitor and her family after.” The voice was electronically modified.
The first purifier pulled out his Katana and rushed at Ashen, intending to slice him from shoulder to hip. Ashen waited until the last second then stepped in close and with an “I’ll handle this” grabbed at his assailants forearm mid-swing, stepped under and blocked the arm so that the blade dipped towards the ground. He then squeezed his attacker’s wrist, causing him to drop his blade in surprise, allowing a delighted Ashen to pick up the blade. All that Jiu Jitsu training was starting to pay off, he thought, as he wondered if he’d be allowed to keep it if he had the blade blunted.
He was caught unawares when the Purifier’s glove activated with what had to be an integrated Taser on Ashen’s hand, leaving him with a painful, burnt sensation, but he still held on to him.
Ashen stepped back, dragging his captive with him, and tried to blot out the pain as he quipped, “People just don’t like holding hands any more.” Before he could respond, another Purifier pointed at him and a metallic net suddenly sprang at him from the back of his outstretched arm, trying to snare him. He managed to dodge as it had insufficient distance to fully deploy. It hit him but did not envelop him in its web, but his attempt to slice it into pieces with his newly acquired sword failed as the net fell over the tip of the blade and caught on both the handle and Ashen’s hand.
Firewall responded to the attack with a series of laser blasts at the other five now approaching the lobby. The first shot missed its target, but the next two were staggered by the attack. The last two shots were fired before he could properly acquire his targets and narrowly missed. The others now drew their swords and advanced towards them, but more cautiously.
Above them coming down the stairs alone, Zoe stood on the level above them armed with what looked like a spray bottle filled with a clear liquid. Ashen would bet good money that the liquid inside was bleach rather than water or more perfume. Zoe seemed to be very good at improvisation.
Still, this was no time to daydream. He had a blade in one hand and a purifier by the other. He tilted the blade down so the net fell off the end, then proceeded to beat down on his captives’ visor with the hilt of the blade. After a couple of powerful whacks, the visor shattered and he looked into the scared and bloodied face of a street thug. One final blow with the hilt through the shattered visor broke his captive’s nose in an eruption of blood and left him dazed. He pushed him away, so he collapsed to the ground and took up a ready stance. Firewall muttered behind him “Only you would have a sharp, pointy thing to hand and use the hilt as a weapon.”
A Taser bolt hit Ashen and discharged, forcing him to one knee. He forced himself to ignore the pain and disorientation and wondered if he could risk stepping into the shadow and heal himself. Firewall immediately went down on one knee behind Ashen and steadied himself as the other four ran straight at them.
Firewall fired off a Taser blast at the closest of the other attackers. It hit, he went into shock and then proceeded to trip over the prone Purifier in front of him and sprawled to the ground, dazed.
A restraining net was unleashed at Firewall, who, realising what was happening, ducked and it went over his head and deployed against the rear wall of the entranceway.
Meanwhile, another Purifier tried to target Ashen with his glove Taser. It fired a dart with two thin cables trailing behind it, but Ashen sliced through the cables with the blade of the Katana before it could activate and knocked away the dart trailing it’s now severed cables with the flat of the blade.
Behind him, he could hear Firewall advise him to “use the sharp bit on them.” Ashen shuddered and replied with a drawn out, “Nooo!”
Another Purifier used the Taser attack as a distraction to get past Ashen and tried to slice at Firewall. Thankfully, his sword swing lacked any real skill and Firewall was caught with the flat of the blade across his jaw, leaving him dazed.
Enough, thought Firewall, as he immediately responded with a full-on EMP burst. The pulse might be invisible, but its effects weren’t, as it took out the entrance lights, enveloping Ashen in healing shadows. It also took out their commdots, forcing the units to go into standby mode. Looking at the surprise on the face of his attacker, it must have also depowered at least some of the Purifiers weapons, such as their Tasers and net launch mechanisms. Their suits were simply body armour, unpowered, so it had no effect on that, though he bet their comms were now offline as well. He did wonder if it had affected the rearmost two attacker’s weapons, though.
Ashen stepped back for a second into the healing shadows before stepping back, partially drained from forcing himself to fast heal. His shielded anonymity collar, if anything, made his eyes burn even more than usual as though he was a demon that had stepped down off his throne to destroy the mortals challenging him. There was at least one audible gulp at his reappearance.
He hit his chest with the flat of his blade as he resumed his position guarding access to the flats.
Well, at least they had reduced their weapon capacity so that Tasers and the restraining nets were out of the equation. He jumped over the prone figure lying on the ground and immediately attacked the man behind, who desperately parried the blows away.
Two of the attackers paired up to attack at Firewall, armed now only with their Katana. Firewall quite fancied a pair of the swords as souvenirs, crossed on his bedroom wall, though he had a feeling there would be a school rule against it.
The attackers rushed him together. He dodged both strikes and responded with multiple attacks, starting with a blast at the prone figure nearby. Despite his armour, it obviously hurt as he gave out a scream of pain. The next took out one of his immediate attackers and left him staggered. The other missed his other remaining attacker, but did cause him to swing wide.
Ashen waited until one of the attackers was close in then, using everything he had, he tried to emulate a move he’d seen in a Martial Arts film, Blind Ninja Master 3. He swung his leg round in a roundhouse kick to the back of his opponent’s neck, slamming his foot into the back of the helmet with a jolt that must had caused a nose bleed if nothing else. As he spun, he sliced upwards with the sword, slicing open the chest plate before carrying through to the next Purifier, where he managed to get in a glancing blow with the back of the blade to the side of their helmet. He spun back round, planted both feet firmly on the ground and smiled.
A second later, he was forced to duck as one of the Purifiers swung his sword where his head been. It whistled as it skimmed past.
Firewall was also struggling as the rearmost Purifier, so far untouched by the melee, charged at him, swinging his blade widely. It almost removed his head from his shoulders, but as his attacker swung the blade down, it caught the edge of the door frame. The strike twisted the blade in his hands so instead of the ‘sharp end’ connecting with Firewall’s temple, it came in at an angle merely cutting the skin as the flat of the blade connected with his temple leaving him dazed and bleeding from a thin cut above his eye. Could he convince the staff that he’d had a shaving accident, he thought irreverently?
Firewall knew he had to try to end this, despite their attacker’s inexperience and lack of sword skills, it was only a matter of time before one of them accidentally succeeded in chopping their heads off. Ignoring the blood dripping down into his eye, he unleashed a series of laser blasts at the remaining opponents. The first shot hit his attacker’s helmet and seemed to daze him, the next two shots missed their targets (“damn the blood obscuring his vision”), the last shot was dead centre of the chest and the Purifier dropped to the ground and remained down.
That’s when Gustav noticed that there was a cascade of milk bottles, admittedly mostly empty, though some weren’t, raining down on their opponents from the landing above. He risked a glance up and was rewarded with a glimpse of Zoe unleashing mayhem on the attacker’s heads from above. Not many bottles hit but it forced them to dodge and the not give up attitude was a classic Zoe distraction. They hadn’t expected two Metas to be waiting for them and now they also had to dodge this bombardment from above…
Ashen rushed forward and grabbed one of the still standing Purifiers and lifted him up, dropping his souvenir Katana in the process, and slammed him into one of the others. They both collapsed to the ground, which meant there were only two Purifiers left capable of fighting.
Firewall meanwhile had rushed forward and ‘claimed’ the dropped sword, tucking it in his belt, much to Ashen’s obvious annoyance. He didn’t have time to complain as the two rushed him and started punching and kicking him as they swung their blades wildly. Firewall responded by unleashing a series of laser attacks but again missed, though it made them jump back outside where Zoe successfully dropped a couple of empty bottles on their helmets.
With their spirit broken, they tried to help their fallen comrades back to the vans and fled.
Zoe came down with her mum and her young sister and thanked them, but surprised them when she said she’d see them back at school after she’d made sure her mum and sister were somewhere safe.
An upset Ashen tried to use his Voice to convince her, “No, you’ll not.”
She retrieved her packages and cases as she explained that she’d infiltrated the KCH about a year ago to get a story and recently learned about Ted Reichman’s involvement in trying to bring down the school because of its open attitude towards Meta-human students.
When she’d outed the AML’s involvement with the Keep Claremont Human Group to the Gazette, the story spread so that Reichman himself was now being investigated. That had upped the ante and had unfortunately uncovered her involvement in breaking the story.
She accepted the risk to herself but was feeling pretty stupid about inadvertently putting her mum and little sister in danger and had arranged for them to go to her aunt’s until the whole thing blew over, only for this to happen.
She stopped and held up her tablet as she smiled. “Do you think they’ll try again once the video of their attack hits YouTube and the Police begin to investigate?”
Meanwhile, Firewall had retrieved a pair of Katana for himself, intending to keep them as souvenirs. If only he could get some wooden sheaths so that they resembled practice blades? Gus retrieved one as well, though he did wonder whether he should just get himself a practice blade, a Bokken instead?
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 