Invasion! -- Music Room (Artie & Laurie)

[Matthew Craft]

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Matthew finds it odd that Laurie has said very little besides a recap of his sister's condition. But for the most part, the thought is buried under a much more important issue.

Revenge.

Now Matthew has never been an outright violent person, but these invaders definitely had it coming to them. He was ready and willing to smash a few heads through some walls.

But then all the aggressive thoughts vanish in the instant he feels the cool hand against his arm. Matthew looks down and stares for several seconds before slowly following the limb upwards to a concerned but hopeful face. As Laurie gazes up at him, he can feel himself relax.

"I--" He's forced to break the contact when Toni shifts in his arms, and he has to adjust his hold. "Thanks..."

"Quickly," Matthew looks up, his previous hardened expression returning in a flash. With his teacher leading the way, the trio makes their way down the dark hall. Strips of light had begun to filter through doors that were either broken open, or left ajar by those trying to escape from the Institute. Matthew hadn't put much thought into the others. Were the children safe? Had any been hurt, or worse, killed? With that horrid thought in mind, Mr. Coleman's next statement comes as a profound disappointment.

<The lower level... it should be safe.> Matthew can't explain why, but he finds the news to be aggravating. He really wanted to hurt someone. Just as he's considering ramming a fist through the wall, if only to vent some of his anger, salvation comes to him in the form of a lone soldier.

His teacher nearly panics and presses himself against the wall, quickly encouraging Matthew and Laurie to do the same with a frantic arm. And regardless of what hazards may lay with the advancing soldier, Matthew grins.

"I've got this one. It'll only take me a second." He doesn't even care if he's heard or not. It probably wouldn't make a difference.

Setting his unconscious sister on the floor, Matthew steps past Mr. Coleman and Laurie, listening intently as the approaching footsteps suddenly stop. The soldier was aware of his presence.

Without waiting any longer, Matthew takes four long, quick strides and closes the distance between himself and the soldier in a bolt. Startled, the soldier raises his rifle and aims the laser guider at the teens towering frame, the red beam in the middle of his chest. Before a single shot is fired, Matthew drives a hard fist into the intruders stomach, sending the man backwards.

He spends only milliseconds on the ground before a large hand grabs him by the throat and pins him against the wall, his boots dangling at least a foot off the floor.

Matthew holds him tight, leans in and growls, ignoring the gasping breaths and clawing hands on his arm. Normally he never would have engaged in such uncharacteristic behavior, but in the recent minutes (had it really only been minutes? It felt like hours) he found it perfectly reasonable to be strangling a gun wielding soldier in front of a classmate and teacher.

[Arthur Coleman]

I've got this one. It'll only take me a second. A strangled noise comes from within the confines of Arthur's chest, every part of him screaming in defiance but unable to move lest he reveal the other three of them, one of whom is unconscious.

The noises that follow are anything but pleasant, and Arthur's heart races again from the alarm and then pounds from Matthew's overpowering fury. He cringes at the noise of bone meeting bone and a body hitting the floor, shivering at the soldier's distress and pain. It's horrible.. the man is so helpless beneath Matthew's power and grip.. and if the boy wanted to, he could easily kill him. Flashes of panic and pain are clawing at his psyche and Arthur retreats in to his own mind, trying to block it out, starting to feel helpless himself, and these feelings had nothing to do with the soldier.

But what could he do? Pry Matthew's arm from the soldier while begging him not to kill the man? Arthur knows that his student is furious.. that he wants to avenge his sister or avenge something for himself, but he would not let his student come to kill a man for any reason. While perhaps most others would encourage this because the soldier 'deserved' it, most others were not Arthur. And he would never live with himself if Matthew followed through.

<Matthew!>

The telepathic cry is sudden and brief, a change from the soldier's gurgling gasps and the scraping of his body across the wall. Arthur is normally not one to intervene, not one to speak up too loudly even if in extreme discomfort, like Matthew is normally not one to be driven to violence and blinding fury.. but these were trying and confusing times. Even so, he just had to say something.

His face has completely drained of any color, despite the fact that it is not much of an accomplishment, and Arthur is trembling. Life had been so much easier when he was just a slight, blind boy on a farm in Virginia..

[Laurie Collins]

Laurie concentrates on the tempo of her breathing, the pace of her footsteps, and the unchanging stream of carpet with Mr. Coleman’s footfalls bringing his shoes into view every few moments. Rhythm and order and anything but fear, anything but hearing and seeing and shattered glass and red walls. Wrapped in this sensory cocoon she doesn’t notice the approaching footsteps, doesn’t see Mr. Coleman falter, and is taken by surprise when his flailing arm catches her in the stomach and sends her reeling back towards the wall. She doesn’t emit, doesn’t scream or look scared, just stands and clings to her detachment, distantly amazed at what you can see and feel nothing.

"I've got this one. It'll only take me a second."

Mr. Coleman makes a strangled noise and her hands drift backwards, scrabbling against the surface of the wall as if looking for purchase. Her eyes follow Matthew’s path towards the soldier, silently she watches him knock the man down then haul him up against the wall, watches him lean in and growl. This is different than the soldiers with their efficiency, perhaps a little sadistic enjoyment mixed in, different than Toni knocking soldiers aside upstairs. This is emotion and so this is familiar- a soldier vomiting on the floor, a man lying on the carpet with a mass of gore for a chest. The subtle difference between a person using a weapon and a person as a weapon.

She steps forward in unknowing unison with Mr. Coleman’s mental cry of protest, hands raised, and realizes she can do nothing to stop him. If Matthew is intent on following through he won’t even notice her grip. To release the lid she has clamped on her emotions now could be disastrous- scaring a telepath and a boy with the power to destroy the institute with a breath of power is never a good idea and there’s more than fear welling up in her now- but she can feel herself losing control as she watches Matthew’s face contort to unrecognizable rage, realizes that she wants this kind of blood on his hands even less than she wants it on hers.

Not like this. Not you. But she can’t say it and she can’t stop him, Toni’s unconscious form behind them somehow eliminates her right to even ask, and so she stands stiffly, glassy eyes locked on his face while everything wells up behind them, waiting.

[Matthew Craft]

Matthew knows that what he's doing is wrong, but he finds that it's a lot like trying to resist chocolate. How can something that feels so good, be so wrong? The military man wiggles and tries to pry off his hand, but Matthew doesn't let up. Instead he just holds the poor man there, taking a few moments to marvel at the desperation all over the soldier's face.

He would have put him down and let him go, had not known that his sister had been in the exact position. And now she was lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Matthew had no sympathy.

<Matthew!>

The mental blast makes him jump slightly, becoming deafly aware of his audience. He turns his head around to look at Mr. Coleman and Laurie, holding the soldier in place.

The frantic and frightened look on his teacher's face brings back a sense of reality, but it's Laurie that does it for him.

Matthew's grip falters and he let's go of the soldier, letting him drop to the floor in a heap. His anger momentarily relieved, Matthew leans against the wall and covers his face with a hand.

"I...I--" He shakes his head in an effort to clear his thoughts. "Sorry."

The soldier whimpers and holds his throat, but poses no immediate threat. Without giving him another look, Matthew retrieves his sister.

"I..uh...I think we can go now." He feels uncomfortable, and rightfully so. Never in his life had he ever brought a person that close to death, and he suddenly found himself very aware of his actions. Matthew felt scared, but not of their situation, but of himself.

As he walks away from the soldier, he never notices the hand print burnt into the invader's throat. It was like a severe sunburn, or rather, radiation burn.

[Arthur Coleman]

I...I--Sorry.

Arthur can't even so much as nod as he hesitantly appears around the corner, swallowing hard and trying his best to ignore the feelings of pain pulsing from the soldier. The telepath silently reaches out to Matthew's mind, touching it lightly and quickly withdrawing away again--a silent signal that he has something to say, but can not not say it now. I..uh...I think we can go now. In reply, Arthur only nods again, shivering in a post-shock to the soldier's trauma.

"Yes.. we...," he lets the reply die off as he tries to form words together, and Arthur tightens his jaw and keeps quiet. His powers remind him once again of the soldier, and he silently motions for the two to follow as he starts forward once more. He is walking slightly faster than before--nervous and tense, almost robotically. He does not let his hand touch the wall, almost rigidly keepin them at his sides, finally pausing at the elevator panel. Arthur goes about wordlessly touching for the button--

Ksh!

The panel opens, revealing the white interior of the elevator. Uncertain as to Toni's condition, Arthur swallows, almost frantically gesturing for Matthew to go first with his sister. He feels faint and exhausted, wanting more than anything to find his room despite the chaos and sleep in the solace of his own, private environment.

[Laurie Collins]

[[Another silent post, sorryyy. I assumed everyone would get into the elevator so if saying they did was in error I'll edit and be sorry and...give you a cookie?]]

I...I--Sorry.

Laurie exhales the breath she hadn’t realize she was holding as Matthew releases the soldier, registering the sound of his body hitting the floor but keeping her rather unfocused gaze on Matthew as he slumps against the wall with his hand over his face. She wants to approach him, offer some form of comfort, but right now standing steady and staying detached is taking all of her concentration. So far she’s kept the symptoms of her concussion and the strong emotions that are natural results of the invasion pushed to the back of her mind, clinging as best she can to the blank detachment of trauma and pheromone emission. Not much longer. It can’t be much longer. It can’t.

Her eyes close briefly in a respite from the effort of focusing as Matthew turns and walks behind her to pick up his sister- Laurie does her best to quash a concerned spike of fear because it’s been a bit since Miss. Craft passed out and if she’d lost that much blood by then…- then snap open again as he speaks.

"I..uh...I think we can go now."
"Yes.. we...,"

She glances over at Mr. Coleman as he walks past her and bites her lip, he looks even worse than she feels. Of course. He’s an empath. He feels us… he felt… her eyes widen and flicker to the soldier groaning on the floor- the sight of the hand shaped radiation burn on the man’s neck freezing her gaze there for a moment- then back to Mr. Coleman. For a moment she considers trying to emit, to dredge up some calming memory and exude the emotion as she had with the dying soldier back in her room. The memory makes her wince and she quickly discards the idea, even if she could pull off a controlled emission again she couldn’t get through all the more negative emotions waiting to be released and she still has doubts about the morality of the idea. I already got that soldier killed and hurt the others in the hall. I had to but I shouldn’t have… I can’t… I won’t do it again. Her thought is firm but not as much as it might once have been, the events of the morning have begun to weaken the meaning of ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’.

She breaks off her train of thought as she realizes she’s simply been standing in place gazing with unfocused and disproportionately dilated eyes at the spot just above the fallen soldier. We have to be almost there. She forces herself into a walk, using the wall for support as she follows Matthew and Mr. Coleman down the hall, trying to concentrate on nothing more than footfalls until they stop in front of the elevator. Stepping after Matthew and Miss. Craft into the seemingly blindingly white elevator she slumps against the wall and takes a shuddering breath.

[Matthew Craft]

Matthew felt like he was no longer in control of his body. The stresses of the attack were wearing at him, and he found it harder and harder to concentrate. Slowly, one step at a time, he follows his teacher down the dark hall. He stares blankly ahead of them, only remotely aware of the dangers around them.

The soldier Matthew had subdued had stopped moaning shortly after they left, probably succumbing to unconsciousness. The teen shifts his sister, frowning lightly at the odd, hot feeling in his hands. He brushes it off as just strain and anxiety.

Mr. Coleman leads them to a certain section of the hall that Matthew recognizes immediately. The light cast out into the hall by the elevator is blinding, and he’s forced to squint as he enters the white pod. Once all four are inside, the door hisses shut and they’re left in the general safety of the confining elevator.

Matthew looks down at his sister and for the first time, is able to see the extent of her injuries. The sterile white light doesn’t hide anything from him and despite his previous moment of sustained emotional neutrality gives way to a tightening knot in his stomach. Toni’s white t-shirt is half stained in red, as well as Matthew’s blue shirt, creating an ominous deep purple. Her blood had soaked through his shirt and dripped down his pant legs, running his favourite pair of jeans, but he didn’t care.

Instinctively his tightens his hold on his unconscious sister and pulls her a little closer. Her pale face dips slightly and lolls onto his shoulder. Drawing his eyes away, Matthew gazes around the elevator, urging it to descend faster but yet still wary of what might await them below.

Mr. Coleman seems relatively unharmed, but is very clearly shaken by recent events. Matthew found himself concerned with the older man’s mental health, since he had always seemed to be on edge and fragile. Laurie’s condition, however, seems far direr.

“Jeez Laurie…are you okay?” He asks, alarmed by the sight of drying blood on the side of her head. Matthew knew that she had been injured, but it wasn’t until they had stepped into the light that he realized the extent of it. He blinks a few times before finally realizing that Laurie has been acting a little out of the ordinary. It dawns on him that maybe the head injury is the source of her detached behaviour. He feels like he should ask about her condition in a much more specific manner, but at the risk of sounding pretentious, Matthew remains silent. It was better not to draw any conclusions before someone with proper medical experience could take a look at her. Still though, he feels the strong tug of concern in his chest.

Ding!

Now it was time to see what was waiting for them on the other side of the elevator. Matthew holds his breath as the doors slide open.

[Arthur Coleman]

Arthur's knees almost lock in anticipation, but he is relieved to experience only the feel of cool, sterile air rush onto his face. There are no soldiers.. and it is relatively quiet, which at this point may or may not be a good sign. Releasing a sharp gasp of air, he hesitantly releases the handrail inside the elevator which he has been clutching fiercely for the past few moments in which their descent began. "It is safe..," he murmurs to no one in particular, leaning heavily against the wall, feeling as though he would collapse against it if it were not for the handrail behind him.

The energy it required to put up with the stress and panic around him was draining, albeit Arthur was not exactly a strong person even considering.

He needs to breathe for a moment.

Without saying anything more, he holds a hand to his head, the other tightly relocked around the handrail. Arthur considers just staying in the elevator for the rest of the day, or for the rest of his life, where it has so far proved to be one of the safest places. After several moments, he moves to follow after the others.