To the Barricades

Posted on Thu Aug 24th, 2023 @ 8:33 by Claire Cavendish & Kaylee Ashton BSc & Sarah Bright & Heather Redding & Fiona Creagan

Chapter: All Hallow's Eve
Location: Avalon Institute, Exterior
Timeline: 00:15 November 1st, 1992 (immediately following A Cold Plunge / Loch Ness Monster)
2533 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Heather looked up at the Castle and grinned as the travel sickness left her vision that the blinking from one location to another had created. She had not realised that Robert had copied that power but it had made the trip from the cave to another location easier than the trip out to the cave.

“It is beautiful and all the kiddies are hopefully asleep.” She hoped. She did not think any of them would want to deal with a volume of teenagers right now. It was a simple thing get some copies of abilities and move on. She did not want to open the can of worms right then and there. On one side, a group of mutant renegades sought to seize the keys to reshape it to their own radical ideologies, while on the other side, a band of loyal mutants in larger numbers standing ready to defend their haven against the intrusion - they would lose at the moment. It would take time for them to see the world properly.

It took a moment for Fiona to get her bearings. Whatever powered the way Robert had teleported it wasn't agreeing with the curry she had for dinner. "Yeah.." She rested her hands on her knees for a bit as she tried to recover.

Robert took in a deep breath, "I can sense them." he handed the staff back to Heather and started taking confident strides towards the castle. "There's so many of them." He licked his lips. He knew this was an amazing idea, unlimited resources. This was going to open up so many possibilities.

Heather took the staff and gasped as the power oozed into every inch of her body. She stared at the castle and just smiled at how everything was coming together as they slowly started to approach. "They will all be yours, my love." She assured quietly.

Robert inched a bit closer to Heather and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then with a brush of the hand he soaked in some more energy from the staff she held. "Everything we've ever wanted." He cracked his knuckles and started to run towards the castle and then with a big jump leapt into the air to cross the distance between him and the castle.

Fiona stood in the meadows in front of the main bridge leading up to Avalon. Exactly why they had come here and not just inside the building was beyond her. She drew on the material of the staff and strengthened her physique. Ready to hit whomever felt the need to come out and face them, over the head. "I hope they put up a good fight." She took in a deep breath and let out a loud warcry.

Heather rolled her eyes as she reached out to all the people she could sense and instantly was able to create an illusion of many people around them rather than two people. "I do not even need touch." She whispered amazed looking at her hands.

The noise rolling across the hills echoed off the loch where Sarah and Claire just beached Kaylee and were working with her to remove her from the ice. The head mistress immediately shot up from her knelt down position and looked in the direction from where the roar had come. She had no clue what it was but immediately knew it wasn't anything good. "Focus, Kaylee. The students need us." She knew putting pressure on it might not help but she needed her free and ready to confront whatever was approaching, she was still a big foggy on who she had put where in her blinking around the British isle.

Hearing the roar as well as the seriousness and urgency in Claire’s voice, Kaylee knew whatever was happening, it wasn’t intentional. Taking in as large a breath as she could, Kaylee did her best to focus on cracking the ice.

‘don’t force it, you’ll only get frustrated.’ the voice in Kaylee’s head said to her, ’remember what mum taught us, let the energy flow, don’t push the energy’

A little confused as to why the, at least up till now, antagonistic voice was now helping her, she knew she didn’t have the time yo argue. Stopping her efforts for a few moments, Kaylee closed her eyes and focused only on her breathing and the energy around her in the ice. As she did, her mothers voice began to return to her, “you don’t control the energy, you are merely its humble guide. Show it the door and let it open it” she said to herself before taking one last deep breath, holding it for a moment, then releasing it all at once as tried to push her arms together infront of her. As she did, there was a resounding crack as a fissure formed in the ice running from the top to the bottom.

"There you go. Nice work!" Claire clapped her hands a bit at the clear indication of progress in their predicament. She was slowly starting to move away from the distressed teacher in the ice block, trying to get a line of sight on the institute and whatever gave off the bellow nearby. The timing so near to the event that made her powers go haywire was alarming. She wondered if someone had planned to get the people away from the institute in order to make their move. What possible move could they envision? She moved further and further away from the two women she had plunged into the loch with her.

Seeing the crack from infront of her, Kaylee’s face lit up with excitement. “I can do it” she said to herself as she prepared to repeat what she’d just done.

hold up, now we have a path forward. Focus on opening that crack the voice said

“But why….” Kaylee started to ask before being interrupted

focus Kaylee. Pull apart the ice

Listening to what the voice was saying, something suddenly clicked in Kaylee’s head. “It’s all visualisation” she said to herself as an expression of realisation came to her face. After a moment, Kaylee closed her eyes and focused on picturing her own hands taking hold of the crack in the ice and pulling it apart.

Sarah looked on with surprise as a crack formed in the ice surrounding Kaylee, and going by what the other woman had said, it was becoming clear that she was somehow doing most of the work on her own, even though Sarah could not see how or why. The rock in her hand, scooped up from the shore of the loch, seemed able to do little more beyond chip away small amounts of ice, but it was the only tool she could think of, so she focused on striking at the cracks that were forming.

After a few more moments of struggling, the three of them had managed to split the ice cube in half, freeing Kaylee from her self imposed prison. Breathing heavily on her knees, Kaylee looked up at her two companions, “see, told you I can move ice”

"Amazing work, you're going to need more of that soon, I reckon." Claire started to move towards the source of the cry. "Let's make sure everyone is safe in Avalon."

"Okay." Sarah said, also breathing heavily. Even though she didn't feel the cold the same way most people did, that didn't mean she wasn't immune to its effects. Her clothes were soaking wet, and she was no longer wearing shoes or a jacket. Untrained as she was, the librarian was unaware that she was actually more susceptible to the cold, as her mutant powers shut off unpleasant but necessary responses like shivering, and the numbness in extremities that came as the body sought to protect its core. Thus, functional and oblivious until the end, she would never see hypothermia coming.

"Is it giant robots?" Sarah said as she stood, reaching down to help Kaylee do the same. Though she was trying to push through her confusion, she was more or less oblivious to the threats the school faced, and that was now probably starting to become evident to her colleagues.

Standing up with Sarah's help, Kaylee looked over towards the school, "what could it be this time?"

Claire was picking up the pace now. Whatever the wave had been that had hit them, it was sure to have left the school in disarray. Some of the kids had a tenuous grasp on their abilities, and if they had affected her to the point of randomly dropping people off in other places she was apprehensive to go back and try and figure out what would've happened to some of the more inexperienced mutants within the walls of the institute.

As the three of them crested the small hill that would get them in front of the institute's bridge they were faced with a small army of very angry looking mutants. They seemed to be chomping at the bit to charge at the institute. One of them stood slightly back, soft glowing staff in hand, seemingly focused on the horde's goal. Slightly in front of the horde stood another woman, another roar emanated from her. She had the same soft glow that the staff also had, and it almost seemed as if she was made of the same materials.

"Stop her!" Claire pointed at the woman who was picking up pace in front of the pack, clearly headed for the outer walls of the institute, intent on crossing the bridge with or without an invitation. She herself set her sights on the woman in the back, wielding the staff.

"Uhh... umm..." Sarah stammered as she saw the group of people in front of the institute. They definitely looked like they were up to no good, but Sarah wasn't entirely sure what she could do to stop them. She had no weapon, no combat training, hell, she didn't even have any shoes on! Yes, she did have some strange abilities, but no one at the institute knew she even had them... or so she thought. And even then, Sarah had never voluntarily used them with ill intent. Well, except for that time at that punk rock show. But that had been almost fifteen years ago.

Stopping to concentrate, Sarah must've looked like she was freezing up in panic, when In actuality she was trying her best to focus on what little she did know how to do. But she was immediately met with... nothing. The angry looking mystical mob was still too far away for her to form any sort of connection with their bodies. She could of course feel all sorts of sensations coming from the women close to her, but there was nothing she felt comfortable attempting that would help them out. Sarah knew little about her powers, but she did know that using them to help people was far more difficult task. Realizing she'd stopped, Sarah did her best to run to catch up to the others, doing her best to shut out the pain in her bare feet. Maybe if she could get closer there would be something she could do.

Dashing to keep up with Claire, Kaylee tried to clear her head of any doubts that were troubling her about using her powers openly. while it had been some time since she used her abilities in an aggressive way, something told her that this time would be different. First of which was the fact that her inner voice that usually would be egging her on to use her abilities was uncharacteristically silent. Second was the strange power boost she seemed to have gotten from either Claire's teleportation or some other source. It felt like a floodgate had been opened up inside of her and she could feel her mutant abilities ready and raring to go.

Hearing Claire call out for them to focus on a specific target, Kaylee took as deep a breath as she could while running and did her best to increase her pace to a sprint. This Institute gave her a reason to protect something other than herself for once and she wasn't about to let it go so easily.

As the attention was being diverted Claire took in a deep breath and with a fizzle disappeared from her spot and reappeared right next to Heather. She was holding on to some sort of staff or javalin tightly and without knowing anything else about it, the head mistress knew it was important to the woman. She reached for it to try and wrest it from her control. The second she touched the metal she felt the power surge through her again like it had done when the energy washed over her. She held on, focused on the here and now as to not be displaced by it. "Why the hell are you here?!" She hissed at the dark haired woman.

“Because he needs you.” Heather said grinning madly as she already knew what was going to happen with the woman touching the staff. She could not believe the power that was running through her. It took barley any focus to make people see what she wanted around her.

Seeing Claire vanish from infront of her, Kaylee changed the direction of her movements slightly so she was instead heading for the institute side of the bridge. While she knew that she didn’t have a good grasp on her powers right now, being close to a source of water might just be the best advantage she could give herself.

For a moment Sarah stood there confused. Claire had disappeared, only to reappear ahead, and Kaylee had run off ahead.What had she gotten herself into? The librarian thought as she frantically decided on a course of action. Should she join Claire in confronting the intruders, or rush to keep up with Kaylee, who she presumed was going more on the defense? Sarah decided on the latter. "Ow!" She said as she stubbed her toe on a rock when she ran to catch up to Kaylee. She bent down and picked up the rock, which was a bit smaller than a tennis ball. Maybe she could throw it? She was so screwed.

Claire looked back at the horde going towards Avalon, there was no way the few people she had in place to stop them would be enough to keep them at bay. Another surge went through her and she saw herself fade into invisibility. Which is when it dawned on her. The staff was super charging her powers, like the wave had done, but with more control. If that was true she'd be able to do what she had done earlier that evening. Get the people back to Avalon. Have them there to help protect the institute. She focused her mind, thought about the first person she met at Avalon. William. The knight in shining armour, lost in the London streets.

Then the world around her was enveloped in black.