'Sima lets this sink in for a moment. "...oh." She makes a fist and looks at it. "I think...I think maybe I get it, a little bit." Her left eye starts to glow like lightning and she spins and punches the bench she was just on. A blue disc of electrical power interposes itself between her fist and her target, and when she strikes it, the bench shatters mightily, falling apart into several dozen pieces with a spectacular and concussive *BOOMMMM!*
"OHMYGODIAMSOSORRYIDIDN'TMEANFORTHATTOHAPPEN!"
'Sima's hands fly up to her mouth like startled birds as she stammers out a run-on apology to anyone listening. She looks at her hands again. "Well," she says slowly, "...I think I need to be here more than ever, now. Yeesh."
Keme cracks up laughing. "Oh my gosh, you should totally see the look on your face right now!"
*giggle* "I just hope that bench wasn't important."
"Don't worry, princess. I'm pretty sure everything in the lab is designed for maximum replaceability when things go boom."
Phaezeriel ends the sense link, and when Nasima looks at him has an amused look on his face, but he is hovering several feet farther back than he was a moment ago, No worries. I am sure it can be mended rather easily.
He flies over to the remains of the bench and pulls a piece of railing out of the rubble. Be careful how you grip things though. I would hate for this to be an arm. As he holds out the rail, she can easily see finger marks embedded in the steel.
'Sima gives an embarrassed little smile. "Ah-heh. Er. Yeah. I guess I should figure out what I can do, huh? I'm gonna go to the gym, I..." She stops herself short again. "Guys, thanks. So much. I don't think this is over. I mean, my dad is totally gonna hit the roof when he finds out you did...whatever it is you did to Khoda, and I'm not real good at dealing with dad. Maybe I can talk to mom ahead of time, I dunno. ANYWAY! What I'm saying is thank you. You guys are all the best friends. I don't even really know you all that well and you just got rid of a thing that's saddled me my whole life."
Tearing up a bit, she hugs Paezeriel, being extremely gentle but still cracking his back a bit (chirophracty!), turns and hugs Vai gingerly, then goes to hug Keme but stops. She quirks an eyebrow at him. "So, can I hug you, or are you too cool for that or something? I know you say you hated having to do it, but you still looked after me, and that's really amazing to me. It means a lot."
'Sima lets this sink in for a moment. "...oh." She makes a fist and looks at it. "I think...I think maybe I get it, a little bit." Her left eye starts to glow like lightning and she spins and punches the bench she was just on. A blue disc of electrical power interposes itself between her fist and her target, and when she strikes it, the bench shatters mightily, falling apart into several dozen pieces with a spectacular and concussive *BOOMMMM!*
Keme grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "See? There you go acting like I'm tame or something. Silly princess."
Before she had time to react he leaned in and kissed her briefly. He moved back just as quickly and winked.
"I figured if you're going to break me, I should at least do something to deserve it first."
'Sima stands stock still, a stunned look on her face. Her hair, however twists itself up into an exclamation-point shape above her head, and the clouds on her skin move ferociously around. Slowly she starts to blush, creating a remarkably sunset-like glow on her pale skin. "Ummm...I..." she touches two fingers on her right hand to her lips. She looks at Keme wide-eyed, then giggles and gives him a hug. She opens her mouth to speak, seems to think better of it, then giggles again and turns toward the little aschen, now standing awkwardly by the wall.
"Thanks little guy. My room's a disaster, now, but I know you were just doing what's true to your nature. Next time I see you, I'll have bags of coffee beans for you. Thanks for helping." She smiles at him and, not knowing what else to do, pats him as gently as possible on the head.
"This way!" she shouted to the children, preparing to provide a great deal of unexpected obstacles for whoever was chasing them.
"Aunt Aananny!" They all yell excitedly as they turn and quickly rush over to her. "Come on, you're really smart, you can help!"
Gareth, only just starting to come around, sways softly in the air as the Antairus Three stop in front of their aunt.
"This child is who you came here to help?" she asked pulling a starcaster from her bag and syncing it with her own. "We can use this to bring him back with us. I have some for you too, but I doubt you need it. Go home right now. We'll be right behind you," she said, stomping on the ground to pull up a slab of stone in between them and any possible pursuers.
"But we haven't helped the others yet!" Matthias protests.
Aananda sighed. "Let me guess. This is about to get complicated. What others? Also, once we do get home, you three are grounded until you're thirty."
"Collectively?" Gwenne wonders quietly as she looks at the stone slab.
"The ones in the lab! We can't save one and not the others, it's not fair!"
Aananda pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. It was usually the best way to handle these situations without going ballistic. Usually.
"Where is the lab from here?"
"Um..." Matthias looks at Gwenne and Tal, who share a glance before pointing in the direction they were running before.
"That way." Tal explains. "We can find the way."
"Okay, but we need to hurry." She adjusted the programming on the starcaster slightly and clipped it onto the barely conscious boy's clothing.
"Okay, kid, hit this button right here and this will immediately transport you somewhere safe. It's a school for special children like yourself who need some, umm....specialized training."
"You three. Show me the way to the lab and then GO HOME! Your dad is worried sick."
"Yndely, you take care of him, 'kay?" Tal says under his breath as he watches the boy, still a bit out of it, press the button and disappears.
"There's Byhdrany. Let's go." Gwenne takes off down the street quickly, followed closely by her brothers. "It's not too far, Aunt Aananny!"
Aananda follows after the children, pulling up slabs of stone behind them to hinder pursuers.
"Got any other pertinent info you want to share before we get there?"
"Don't know. What's per-ti-nant mean?"
They race toward a a group of building that would blend in witht he rest if they didn't look slightly newer and more well kept.
"It means things I need to know right now because they matter very much to the problem at hand."
She hits a button on her headband. "Scanning protocol 9855."
"Well, Papa said the dragon here doesn't like magic people, so the might be able to help if you can get them to use their magic."
"Yeah, that matches what Lysander said. Okay, kids, time for you to go home. I'm going in through the basement and you can't walk through rock."
"How are you going to find them?" Tal asks quietly, looking at the building in a mix of awe and confusion. "I can't find them."
"Me neither." Gwenne says sadly. "We couldn't have helped."
"That's what nanites are for. Go home. I can't go rescue these people until I know you three are safe. Don't worry. I can handle this."
"Be careful." Matthias tells his aunt as he grabs his siblings hands. They disappear and Aananda feels a wave of energy wash over her.
Back in the lab, a very confused looking child with a starcaster clipped to him appears in the room. He's floating a few inches above the floor, but maybe being carried is a better way to put it, since something unseen appears to be holding the back of his shirt. He's gently set down and he just stares at everything.
Aananda steps into the ground going down far enough to go through the granite foundation, squeezing between the adamantine bars to get inside the building. She came up into what she could only assume was some sort of storage room inside the basement. She hit another button on her headband.
"Security code 5554. Building layout and locations of laboratories/ experiment subjects," she whispered.
Enre raises an eyebrow as the child appears. He than says in all the languages he knows "You alright?"
"I think so." Gareth replies when he understands what Enre is saying. "Where am I?"
The nanites scan the building quickly and come back with an extremely detailed layout. The building appears to be only three stories on the outside, but it has a fourth floor hidden by the way the other three seem stretched and taller than normal from the outside. This floor appears to be where all of the experiment subjects are held between laboratory visits.
Three large laboratories are kept inside the building, each highly specialized. One is dedicated to technology and temporarily disrupting the nervous system of a magic user, causing minor paralysis and unconsciousness. The other two seem dedicated to genetic reasearch, and one has an subject in it. The only guards appears to be in the technology lab.
"Well you are on another planet, in a school called Avalon Academy." Enre says to the child.
Aananda pushed a button on her wristcomm. "Code 331. Destroy all equipment and research," she said releasing a new tube of nanites which would now infect all the equipment, rendering machines useless and erasing data as it went.
She fixed the coordinates in her mind and headed for the lab with the subject in it, moving as silently through the halls as she could.
Confusion fills the newcomer's eyes.
"So I'm not on Jegareth?"
Barely a sound can be heard as Aananda makes her way to the lab. For a place that holds and experiments on magic users, it seems oddly empty. A few nanites and the door slides open. The lab is well equipped and probably first rate by Imperial standards. The subject is attached to several large containers near the back of the lab, and a nearby console seems to be recording data on whatever experiment is taking place. Though the subject is strapped down, she doesn't appear to be uncomfortable, and sleeps soundly.
"No." is Enre's answer to the question.
"Okay." He says as he carefully climbs onto a stool, a task made difficult by the large book he holds in his arms. He looks up an Enre. "So what is this place?"
Aananda hacks into the data quickly, wanting to see what experiment was happening before she unhooked this girl from the machines.
The data that flies across the screen details an attempt to discover the link between adrenaline, emotions, and magical power. Currently, subconscious feelings are being studied and reactions to mood-changing pharmaceuticals monitored. Past data is constantly compared to the most recent data to create a progress chart that shows improvement in the method used.
Aananda pulls up her display screen and her fingers move rapidly across the screen as she programmed the nanites to return the girl's body to normal, removing all of the drugs and their aftereffects from her system, while the other nanites continued with their protocol of destruction, completely wiping out all of the data and destroying the equipment at the molecular level. She waits for the girl to wake up.
"I'm sorry I don't have time to explain," she said softly. "I work with the Resistance." Not exactly a lie. She did build things for them after all. "Would you like to leave this place, go somewhere outside of the reach of the Empire? I don't know what they'll do to you if you stay, but I won't take you against your will."
"Uhnn..." The girl moans as she feels her body adjusting to it's drug-less state. "Gotta be.. be better than.. here."
She takes a step and immediately stumbles a bit. She catches herself quickly and seems to grow stronger the more she moves around.
"You here for everyone or just me?" Here voice is much steadier than it had been seconds ago, and Aananda can see tiny bits of magic zipping around her body. "Last I heard everyone was getting shipped off planet to better facilities."
"I'm here for everyone. I just got to you first. Do you think you can walk well enough to make it to where they're holding the others? This will be easier if I can port all of you at once. But I'll have trouble getting to people once they're off planet. I don't have intel on those other facilities. Just this one. For now."
"I'm okay. I just need to get moving before I'm one-hundred percent." She stretches a bit before heading for the door. "So you're with the Resistance Can't say I envy you the job much."
"Okay." He says as he carefully climbs onto a stool, a task made difficult by the large book he holds in his arms. He looks up an Enre. "So what is this place?"
"Avalon Academy. If you mean what kind of Academy, one where people with special powers come to learn to control those powers."
Aananda shrugged. "I don't usually do field work, but desperate times and all that."
She led the way down the corridor moving towards the location her map told her the other prisoners were being held, keeping an extra wary eye out for guards, especially now that she wasn't alone.
Nasima waves goodbye to everyone in the lab, though she can't meet anyone's eyes, especially not Keme's. She strides down the hall, amazed at how much more quickly her legs are propelling her along. This is incredible! I gotta see what else I can do. Gotta learn to control whatever the heck has been grafted onto me...
She heads towards the gym, unaware that a disembodied hand is following her up above in the HVAC system.
