Pruitt advanced on her, smirking nastily.
"You are going nowhere. I'll take you down," he snarled in his thick British accent. "You will be my prize for all they days I have had to put up with you ignorant, pestilent, dirty, disrespectful, spoilt little brats! I'll-"
"Pestilent? Is that the best you can do?" she snarled, leaping over the table.
Fleur dodged as Pruitt pressed the trigger on the compact electronic weapon. Pruitt waved his walking stick at her, and she bent back just as a spring-loaded blade popped out of the bottom of the cane. She circumvented the desk and snapped her leg out in a vicious roundhouse aiming for Pruitt's head. He dodged it, barely, and Fleur changed tactics. She punched his flabby gut twice in quick succession, then jumped and planted one foot on his chest, pushing him back and hopefully knocking the air out of him. For good measure, she kicked him where no human male should be kicked.
Fleur raced out of the office and quickly disarmed the receptionist with a roundhouse to the head and a low leg sweep. She fled down the corridor, shedding her jacket and grabbing a tennis racquet off a startled fifth-grader. She banged against the lockers, putting up a hell of a racket and screaming ath the top of her voice.
"GRIFFIN! EILA! KICHIRO! RHAKSHA! MIST! BOBBY! WHISPER!" she yelled, feet pounding against the linoleum flooring. She snuck a quick glance behind her, and swore nastily. Not only was Pruitt and the receptionist tailing her, but so were a few other teachers and a hell of a lot of Erasers.
She shook her head and pushed herself even faster.
Kichiro heard the awful banging on the lockers and his head snapped around to the source of the noise. With his super-enhanced mutant hearing, he could hear Fleur screaming the flock's names. Caralina's attention snapped around and Kichiro glanced at the other mutant. Caralina fixed her gaze on him and leapt, baring elongated fangs. Kichiro dodged and grabbed an empty chair, hurling it at the mutant with as much force as he could muster.
The girl's eyes widened and she couldn't dodge in time. Caralina was carried a couple of feet by the flying chair, but she recovered freakishly fast and aimed a roundhouse kick at Kichiro. He caught her foot and flipped her over his shoulder, into the racks of encyclopaedias and dictionaries. Caralina screeched in anger, and claws extended from her fingers.
Worse still, the teacher brought out a Taser, which she aimed directly at Kichiro. Thinking fast, he leapt in front of Caralina and ducked as the flying Taser-bolt missed his head by a few inches, instead, hitting Caralina. She screamed and collapse, and Kichiro took the opportunity to pick up another chair and throw it at the teacher.
Kichiro decided enough chairs were enough chairs. He made a quick escape from the classroom, slamming down the fire alarm next to the door.
Mist was in the middle of Gym on the football pitch when two things happened. First, alarms started going off in the main building of the school. Secondly, a bunch of male models barrelled out of the Gym doors, shaking water from their hair and chasing Fleur like crazy.
Mist glanced at the javelin in her hand, and shrugged. With as scary a battle cry as she could manage, she hurled the javelin, spearing one of the Erasers through the gut. It howled and the others began to morph out, muzzles and fangs elongating grotesquely. Mist grabbed another javelin as a screaming girl dropped it and rang for all she was worth. Mist hurled it at Principal Pruitt's Taser-wielding hand, breaking his wrist and sending his Taser clattering to the ground. Fleur turned on her heel, snatched it off the ground and Tasered the closest wolf-man.
Fleur swore when she saw that it had no effect. She tucked the Taser into her pocket and grabbed a javelin, spearing another Eraser and sending him staggering into his compatriots. Mist grabbed a couple more javelins and pelted them off in quick succession, killing a couple more Erasers. Then, she turned and ran with Fleur, who was already shooting off as fast as her legs would carry her.
Mist hissed and a lightning bolt struck out somewhere behind her, to startled yelps and howls. There was also a loud sizzling noise and angered yowling.
Much better.
The second Rhaksha heard the screaming and banging and zapping, she bolted upright and dragged Whisper to his feet.
"And just where d'yall think y'alls are all goin'?" the teacher exclaimed in her thick, thick Southern Accent. She dug a Taser out of her desk drawer and fired it at Whisper. Whisper shut his eyes and the probes carrying the wire went right through him, like he was a ghost. Rhaksha's eyes widened as Whisper opened his smoke grey eyes.
"Whisper!" Rhaksha shouted. Whisper turned his emotionless stare on the teacher, who gasped and looked horrified as the Taser probes fizzled uselessly on the ground. Whisper lunged and planted his fist in the teacher's flabby double chin. Her jowls wobbled and her head slammed against the whiteboard behind her. She landed a completely un-teacher-like double handed karate chop into Whisper's side, and he stumbled, gasping for air.
"Yo, flubber-face!" Rhaksha shouted. "Chew on this!"
The teacher turned and a bulky computer monitor from the previous century crashed into her face. The teacher screeched and hit the wall. Whisper struggled to his feet, leaning against the wall. That is, until someone picked him up by the back of his collar and threw him into the back wall. The jock who'd thrown him advanced and grabbed Whisper by the throat with one large hand. Another jock grabbed Rhaksha by the arms to stop her from attacking the guy who was currently in the process of strangling Whisper.
Rhaksha swore nastily and stomped on the guy's foot as hard as her mutant skills would allow. The dude screamed, hitting operatic soprano pitch, clutching his foot and hopping around like a madman. Rhaksha downed him with a roundhouse kick and two kicks to the head when he went down.
Whisper scrabbled at the hand of iron choking off his air supply, black fringing his vision, The guy leered at him, and Whisper kicked out, trying to weaken the grip of his assailant. Red and black spots shimmered across his vision, and his lungs were burning. There was a flash of orange and red, and the grip around his neck vanished. Whisper gulped in the air. A hand helped him to his feet, dragging him out of the classroom.
Rhaksha glanced back at Whisper.
"Are you okay?" she asked. He winced.
"I've had worse," he replied. Rhaksha looked back down the corridor, swearing profusely.
"Let's get outta here."
Eila and I covered each others' backs. I landed a flying kick into an Eraser's face as Eila grabbed a frying pan and bashed it into the back of one unwary lupine-mutant's head. It connected with a clang and the Eraser crumpled. I deftly slid two knives out of the drawer, spinning them and slashing at the Erasers with them. Eila sent food processor blades flying through the air with a flick of her wrist, and a couple more Erasers fell to the floor, incapacitated. I tossed my knives to Eila and grabbed two beefy cleavers.
Eila covered me while I broke down the door. We rushed out into the corridor, exploding out the front entrance. We were closely followed by the rest of the flock, wet and wielding javelins.
"Fly on!" I yelled, and I threw Bobby into the air. Eila and Mist did a running start, while Kichiro took of from a standing start. I launched myself into the air and checked if everyone was okay. A couple of armoured vans skidded into the parking lot, and Erasers poured out, half-morphed. They morphed out fully and climbed into the air, and I made my decision.
"Scatter! Through the woods!" I shouted, and the flock scattered in random formation, dive-bombing into the woods as the Erasers pursued us.
I lost track of the others as I slipped between the trees. I veered around in a wild arc and doubled back to throw them off, flyign nearly at a vertical between the trees. One of my secondaries snagged and ripped out, and I hissed in pain. Eila and Whisper drew up alongside me, and I could vaguely see Kichiro up ahead. Rhaksha and the kids were up above us in tight formation.
I glanced back quickly and burst out of the woods into open air. I rose sharply and circled, then heading to the bat-cave once I saw that there were no Erasers on my tail. Eila pointed back at the ground and Kichiro swore nastily. Whisper's eyes widened and Mist shouted.
"Griffin!" she said urgently, pointing at the ground. There were a mass of specks, and I strained my raptor vision so I could see what had everyone so riled up.
Oh, God. Oh, God, no, don't let this be happening.
They had Fleur.