Rumours of Thunder Chapter 12
by Mintaka14
Kira was dishevelled, and Tommy could see a couple of scratches on her arm, but Cheryl was sporting a bloody nose and a mark across her cheekbone that was already darkening into a spectacular bruise.
"Alright, ladies," the principal said with ominous calm. "Would either of you care to explain what just happened?"
It was only because Tommy was watching Kira closely, and not Cheryl, that he caught the murderous look that Kira levelled at the cheerleader. Cheryl saw it too, and her mouth snapped shut.
"No?" Tommy was well aware that Principal Randall had no real interest in getting to the bottom of what had happened, as long as it didn't interfere with her disciplined school, and he wasn't surprised when she turned a quelling look on both of the girls. "You can both go park yourselves in the main office while I figure out what to do with you, and call your parents to come and get rid of you for me."
When the girls didn't leave fast enough, Randall snarled, "Move, you loathsome little maggots!"
They moved. Tommy followed them down the hall to the secretarial office, and caught Kira's elbow surreptitiously.
"I'll talk to Randall," he said softly, and the look Kira flashed him was one of defiance and misery. She gave him a brief nod, and Tommy let her go, turning back to look for the principal. There was no sign of her in the office where he'd left her, but he could hear her voice in one of the classrooms nearby. He pushed open the door.
"How much longer do I have to babysit these juvenile idiots, master?" Randall was complaining, but the figure standing there was Elsa, in all her black latex and wild-eyed glory. She was standing in front of a crackling green portal, talking to someone on the other side and she whipped around at the sound of the door, her eyes narrowing at him as the portal collapsed behind her.
"Elsa," he snarled. "I knew there was something I didn't like about you."
There was a flash of something disenchanted in her face that vanished in a sneer. "I can't believe it took you this long to figure it out. Too bad, Tommy. We could have had something good together."
Was she serious? He'd never been interested in Randall, even before he found out that she was Mesogog's minion.
"Not in a million years," he said flatly.
Kira looked up at the aggressive sound of Miss Randall's footsteps as the principal strode past the secretary's office. Then Dr O ran past, his face grim, and Kira pushed herself to her feet, following after him. They were heading outside.
Kira reached the top step of the school entrance as Dr O shouted something and Principal Randall spun around. There was something in the arrogant tilt of the woman's head that reminded Kira of someone, but Kira didn't have time to chase that thought down, and she gasped in shock as the principal suddenly snapped a kick at Dr O and he countered with breathtaking speed.
Kira felt frozen to the step as Dr O and Randall fought across the wide lawn of the school quadrangle. She was too paralysed by shock to even wonder how their principal could move like that. Dr O was holding his own, but Kira could tell that he was being pushed hard.
The principal snapped a head high kick at Dr O, forcing him back until he stumbled into a bench at the edge of the lawn. As Randall closed in on him, Dr O deflected and kicked out at her, and Kira watched in disbelief as Randall caught his foot and flung it up with enough force to completely flip Dr O and the bench together in a tight, airborne roll. Randall's boot heel came down and splintered the bench, but Dr O was already somersaulting under the attack. He came up behind her, and dropped into a spinning sweep that would have taken her out if she hadn't already been backflipping out of reach.
The edges of the quadrangle were filling up fast with students watching the battle, and of course Cassidy was there, with Devin and his video camera. Kira could feel Conner and Ethan close in behind her, but her whole attention was on the furious battle. Dr O and Randall were moving almost too fast to follow. They were spiralling around each other, strikes and counter-strikes a blur of killing speed as Randall leaped into a spinning kick and Dr O cartwheeled away.
And then the most staggering move of all as Principal Randall vaulted into an aerial somersault, and morphed into Elsa as she hit the ground in a crouch. The feral-eyed warrior turned and snarled at the students, and there were screams. Kira was aware of kids scattering and running for cover, but she was focused on Dr O and the psychotic woman who had turned on him again.
Elsa spun a kick to Dr O's gut, and Kira sucked in a pained breath, but he barely flinched, twisting Elsa aside. Kira didn't even realise she was reaching for her morpher until Conner's hand closed firmly over hers.
"Don't," he said quietly. "Dr O's got this. You'll blow our cover."
"Do you think I care?" she whispered sharply back. "That's Elsa!"
"Dr O would care."
Kira's hand fell away from her morpher.
"I can't believe we didn't work it out," Conner was grumbling. "They look exactly the same, except one has glasses."
"Hey, Clark Kent and Superman look the same, but nobody ever puts that together," Ethan retorted.
"Good point."
Kira ignored them both.
"You fight well for a science teacher," Elsa was saying, and Kira didn't like the intimate note in the woman's sharp smile.
Dr O's eyes were wary, waiting for her next move. "You're not bad for a principal."
"Former principal," Elsa corrected him savagely. "Tell the school board I resign."
A bright green portal flashed into the air and disappeared, taking Elsa with it. Kira let out the breath she'd been holding and took a shaky step down the first stair with Conner and Ethan right behind her, but before they could reach Dr O, Kira froze again at the sight of a familiar car pulling into the parking lot beside the quadrangle.
Her mother.
