Next Day
Sara woke up at almost Six in the morning, and after having a shower and a small breakfast, she burrowed through some of the unopened boxes she had lying around her house, and eventually found the foot-long knife she had gained as a gift from a tribe of African natives that had been suffering from the depredations of slavers. Looking at the knife and its matching sheath, Sara remembered back when she had worn her body armour daily as a matter of necessity instead of preference. She shook off the memories, then got dressed in some semi-casual clothing, mainly a long skirt and blouse. As a precaution, Sara strapped the knife to her right calf, and felt slightly reassured by the weight of the sheath running along the muscle.
She then put her boots on, grabbed the binders where she had been planning the curriculum for most of the night, and planted the binders in the leather bag she had used yesterday. Sara looked at the clock, noticed that it was almost Eight, and smiled. *Well, onwards to the class. Oh yeah, I need a potato, just to torture Lucas.* Sara turned back into her house, rooted around in the kitchen, and went back to her bike, stuffing a potato into one of the pockets on the left side of her coat. She drove to the school relatively slowly, and arrived twenty minutes before the first bell. Sara instantly noticed that Lucas' car still had the racing stripe, and just to add insult to injury, she took the potato out of her coat pocket and stuffed the fairly large spud into his car's tailpipe.
Sara activated her bike's anti-theft system, then walked into the office, greeting a few of the other teachers as she went to the teacher's mailbox system and collected the in-class announcements. Sara had gotten up to her class before the bell had rang, and read the announcements to herself. She raised her eyebrows at some of the dumber ones, and decided to pencil in some changes, just to make them slightly more humourous. After finishing her alterations, Sara looked up and noticed a young girl with dark hair, about shoulder length, and with differently coloured eyes. One was a dark shade of brown, but the other's iris was almost completely red. "Yes? How can I help you?"
Sara swung her feet off the desk, and let the girl speak. "Umm, I'm wondering where Lucas went. After all, this is his classroom." Sara smiled and leaned her elbows on the desk. "Sorry, but Lucas has been reassigned to the chemistry home room, and is also the school's newest chem teacher. So, what's your name?" The girl smiled slightly, and looked at the desk for a few seconds. "I'm Hazel Smith. Sorry about missing the shakedown yesterday." Sara smiled faintly, then pointed at the nearest empty desk. "So Hazel, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, unless you want to torment the token Canadian..." Hazel laughed at Sara's tone, then nodded. "Well, from the accent, you're definitely not a Yank, and you said it yourself: you're Canadian. So, where's the kindness gene?"
Sara barely kept from busting out laughing, then wagged her finger at Hazel. "Well, I see you've managed to hear about that legend. Sorry, but it skipped a generation." Hazel raised an eyebrow, then asked another question. "Okay then, why did you come here? I think you'd be more comfortable in -20 degrees than here." Sara grinned. "Nope, I came here to get away from Canada. After all, this place is the direct opposite of Ottawa." A brief shadow flitted across Sara's face as she spoke, and she didn't expand on the subject. Hazel was about to ask another question, but the bell rang and Sara gathered together the books necessary for the first period.
"Sorry Hazel. I'll probably be able to talk to you at lunch." Hazel nodded, then walked out of the classroom into the swarm of dejected students trudging down the hallway. Sara sorted the books on her desk, then opened the attendance binder as the home room class walked in and planted themselves in their desks. After the usual anthem and PA announcements, Sara took the class attendance, read the most relevant announcements from the sheet, and caused the class to chuckle with an old joke she had remembered the night before. After the bell rang, Sara got the books ready for Lori's class, and she silently thanked whatever higher powers existed that it was only a single period this morning. As her first class trudged in, Sara noticed that a few looked inordinately pleased with themselves, so she expected the worst.
Sara was not disappointed, because as she was starting the in-class work, she heard a loud explosion from the direction of the main office, and then had to answer the intercom as the students sniggered. "Hello, this is the bio class... Oh? Well, I'm sorry but she's been with me for the last oh, half-hour now. I see. Thank you. Bye." Sara hung up, walked back to the front of the class and pointed at Lori. "Miss Anderson, you owe me royally for keeping the principal off your back. However, I have to question your sanity. Seriously, did you have to use a watermelon? I could've done the same thing with a cantaloupe, and caused more damage."
Lori's jaw, by then, had hit the desk and she was wondering why any teacher would do that. Sara grinned to herself at Lori's reaction, then continued with the class. Soon, Sara had half the class wondering whether she was sane, and the other half almost falling out of their seats with laughter. Soon, Lucas' head popped through the door, and he looked around at the class, barely keeping from breaking out in total laughter, then at Sara, who was going through a presentation from her university days about basic biology. Lucas heard Sara speak, and understood why the class was laughing. "Now, this picture shows what happens when a human's biological system is influenced by vast quantities of alcohol and a minimum amount of sleep."
She flipped a picture of herself and Lucas onto the overhead, and it showed the two in the middle of a party, with Lucas crashed out on a couch, topless, and Sara sitting beside him, holding a keg and wearing a pair of shorts and a 'party naked' t-shirt. Sara smiled slightly, then pointed out the obvious effects of intoxication on a human being by pointing out Lucas' cherry red nose, lack of consciousness, and several other minor effects, such as the fact that he had made a total ass of himself before falling asleep. By then, the entire class was laughing at Lucas' expense, and nobody except Lori and Hazel noticed the pale white lines running the length of Sara's arms in the picture.
After class, when almost all the students had managed to stand up unassisted and had left the room, Lori walked to Sara's desk. "Yes Lori? Didja have a problem with my presentation?" Lori shook her head, then spoke. "No, your presentation was a riot. I'm wondering about two things though. First, why did you cover for me when the little prank I had left for the principal went off?" Sara smiled. "Well, just between us, I don't want you telling Lucas about the potato I put in his car's exhaust pipe. That's why I got you off the hook. So, do we have an agreement?" Lori nodded, then pointed at the overhead.
"Well, I won't tell Lucas about the prank you're going to pull on him, in gratitude for pulling me out of the line of fire, but here's the second question. What's with the lines along your arms in the overhead?" Sara frowned slightly, then looked at Lori silently. Sighing, Sara leaned back in her seat. "Well, I guess it's slightly safe to tell you." Sara then rolled up her right shirt-sleeve, revealing the long white scar running along the groove between the long muscles. "That was caused by a major surgery a few months before the party in the photo." Lori looked up for permission, and at Sara's nod, she traced the line of the scar with her finger. "Wow. I thought it was an error on the picture, but... hey, you said something about a surgery yesterday, right?"
Sara nodded, then told Lori to scoot before the younger students appeared as she rolled down her sleeve. Lori left, looking vaguely unsatisfied with Sara's answers, but she didn't want to be swarmed by the next class. Sara continued making the classes crack up as the morning went by, and kept a lot of variety in the jokes and other parts of the basic presentation, which was about the effects of different substances on the human mind and body. By the time lunch hour had rolled around, Sara was tired but happy, and she decided that a short walk would revitalize her. She went to the main yard, and after chuckling at the antics of some of the younger students, she went over to the bench under the tree where she had talked with Adrian yesterday.
Sitting down, Sara watched as Lucas walked over to her, and smiled faintly as he was forced to dodge a group of seven students chasing a soccer ball around the yard. "So, how's your class?" Lucas smiled lightly at Sara's question, then pointed at a purple bruise partially hidden by his hairline. "Ow. How did that happen? Fall off a ladder?" Lucas nodded, then frowned slightly as Sara passed her hand over her mouth to hide the laughter threatening to bubble over. "Seriously, how'd it happen?" Lucas sat down on the bench beside her, and grimaced. "Y'know Hazel Smith, right? Well, she gave me a 'present'." Sara chuckled, throwing Lucas off of his track, but he regained it with a little effort.
"Anyhow, that present was a small box that pied me when I opened it. As a result, I fell down the stairs and gave myself the bruise." Lucas stopped his grumbling because Sara, sitting beside him, was laughing uproariously. "Alright, I've missed the joke. What's so funny?" Sara wiped the tears that had sprung to her eyes, then replied after she had caught her breath. "What's so funny? I'll tell you. Poetic justice. A month after we first met, you pulled that trick on me and I ended up with an egg on the back of my head the size of my fist. So it's mean, but immensely gratifying to see you get nailed by the same stunt."
Lucas frowned, then started to chuckle as well, his deep voice adding a counterpoint to Sara's renewed laughter. "Okay, I guess. Just wondering, but did you sic her on me?" Sara shook her head, then gestured for the time as she calmed down. "Well, it's almost 12:15, so I'd better go and get something in my stomach before I make a mistake in the chem room." Sara nodded, then remembered that today was also Friday, and the Eighteenth. *Oh great. Well, in two days, I'm going to have to be ready for anything. Whatever I do though, I'm not going to bring my sword.* Sara looked up at that moment, and saw Erin Cheng looking at her.
"Well, I wondered when you'd have enough free time to find me. Here's the fifty I owe you." Sara pulled a bill from her wallet, then waved it in Erin's face until the girl reached out and grabbed it. "Wow. This is actually worth about twice that much." Sara grinned as Erin pocketed the bill. "Actually, only about seventy-five. Oh yeah, about the little gift I promised you, it won't be ready for a few more days. Sorry." Erin shrugged, then sat down beside Sara. "That's okay. Oh yes, I'm just wondering, but what's with the knife hidden along your right leg?"
Sara frowned, but tapped her right leg as Erin looked at her. 'Well, I guess it's okay to tell you. Some people key cars, I slash tires." Erin smiled, but shook her head to show she wasn't buying it. "Okay. It's actually for self-defence. Satisfied?" Erin nodded, then stood up and ran over to a nice-looking boy who seemed to be waiting for her. Sara watched the two walk off for a few seconds, then turned her attention to Lori's gang who were beginning to intimidate some more young students. Sara decided to break up the group once again, but Adrian got there first and told Lori to quit harassing the juniors.
Sara watched Lori's gang disperse under the watchful eye of Adrian, then smiled. "Well, it seems that every teacher has some opportunities to torment Lori. Just wondering, but where's Doctor Zack? I heard that he works here, but haven't seen him yet." Adrian grimaced, then looked Sara in the eye. "Actually, I haven't seen him for the last two or three days either. I heard that he had apparently called in sick, but I wouldn't put it past the principal to try and replace him." Sara snorted. "From what I've seen of the good doctor, that's not bloody likely. Maybe a friend could wander over sometime this week."
Adrian nodded, but his reply was drowned out by the bell, signalling the end of lunch. Sara nodded, then walked back into the school before the swarm of bored students crushed the teachers into one of the walls. Soon, Sara was causing her first afternoon class to crack up, and the rest of the day went by rather quickly. After school, Sara walked over to her bike, turned off her generator, and watched as Lucas tried to turn on his car. After almost five minutes of watching him try to make the engine turn over, she looked away for a second, and heard a massive KA-WHAM!! from Lucas' car.
Sara turned back to look at the car, and saw a massive cloud of grey smoke expel itself from the muffler. *Sucker.* Sara looked at the car opposite of Lucas' muffler, and saw a fist-sized hole that had punched through the front grille, and probably wrecked the poor person's radiator. Looking around, Sara saw Lori looking at the cloud of smoke floating above Lucas' abused sedan, and she noticed that Lucas was already out of his car, looking at the damage done to his colleague's car.
She then drove to her house, parked her bike, and went into her basement hidey-hole. *Okay, now the twentieth is Sunday, and today's Friday evening. Now, what should I bring? The magnums are a definite yes, and I may as well try to train my sword to attack evil-doers. What else? The cards can be useful as support, so I'll take those, and I'll take my knife so I can show off my really nasty close-combat skills. Naturally, my armour will be active for the entire conversation.*
Sara collected twelve each of the chem-ex and EMP cards, and grabbed one grey card, surrounded by a faint haze. Sara put all twenty-five cards into a specialized hip pack, with three compartments. After sorting the cards by type, Sara closed the pack and put it on the small table beside the exposed cards. Sara grabbed her sword, and felt a small shudder of revulsion pass through her as she looked at the stained scabbard. She knew that some of the brownish-red marks were caused by her own hands, but many others were much older than her, and some were only a few months old.
She put the sword, still sheathed, on the table beside the hip pack, then unbelted her knife's sheath and put it on the table as well. Sara looked at the innocent-looking objects on the table, and felt a sudden urge to get out of the small room before she felt like smashing something. Sara climbed out of the small room, and closed it before deciding to get some leisure reading done. She walked over to the kitchen first, made herself a sandwich out of several cold cuts and cheese, and polished off the small meal before grabbing the Pern novel she had bought a few days ago.
Sara read the book for a solid three hours, totally engrossed in the story, and finally noticed that she had a visitor when the guest knocked on the back door. Sara got up, walked to the back door, and opened it to the sight of a rather pained-looking girl who she knew on sight. "Well, how are you doing Stryk?" Sara motioned the teen to come inside, then closed the door after Stryk came in. "Well, it seems that I'm cashing in on your offer to crash here. Actually, I was caught in a bit of a scrape and need some place to lie low for a few days."
Sara nodded, then ventured a guess. "So, Jose wants you to be turned into cannon-fodder ASAP huh?" Stryk nodded, then looked upstairs for a few seconds. "Actually, I'm really exhausted, so could I crash in your spare room now?" Sara nodded, then ushered Stryk into the guest room, and saw that the exhausted girl was asleep before going back downstairs to read another six or seven chapters of the book.
Three Houses to the South, and Several Hours Later
Six landed on the small balcony outside the rather large window there, and knocked lightly on the windowpane. She heard a muffled voice respond to her light tapping, then the window opened, seemingly of its own accord. Six walked into the rather spacious room, and she looked over at Dr. Zack, who was sitting in his large armchair, already smoking on his ever-present pipe. "Good evening Tony. How are you this fine day?" Dr. Zack nodded at his guest and took a long pull on his pipe before responding. "I could be better my friend. You've had closer contact with Miss D'Arnise than I have, so you may be able to answer some questions."
Six smiled slightly, then responded. "Actually, it's at Sara's request that I wander over here and see how you're doing. She was slightly concerned about your disappearance from school for the last several days." Dr. Zack nodded, then pointed towards the basement. "Well, I have a perfectly justifiable excuse this time. I've been working on ways to try and decipher the internal workings of those nanomachines that are in our friend's blood. As far as I can tell, they were originally programmed to repair damage done to osteocytes, but they seem to have almost... evolved to a level that surpasses almost every form of nanotechnology that I have ever worked with.
"I swear, these machines are easily four or five times more advanced than the ones I use to make those thumb-sized rubies and spider silk." Six nodded, but she had managed to partially lose what Dr. Zack was saying when he started on how advanced the machines were. "That's fairly high up in my level of comprehension, but you're basically telling me that those machines floating around in my friend's blood actually evolved to their current configuration?" Dr. Zack nodded, then turned the conversation to more mundane matters, including an offer for Six's customary cup of blueberry tea. By the time the clock hit two in the morning, Six and Dr. Zack had finished their conversation, and she went out to try and keep a lid on the city's resident greenskin population.
Sara woke up at almost Six in the morning, and after having a shower and a small breakfast, she burrowed through some of the unopened boxes she had lying around her house, and eventually found the foot-long knife she had gained as a gift from a tribe of African natives that had been suffering from the depredations of slavers. Looking at the knife and its matching sheath, Sara remembered back when she had worn her body armour daily as a matter of necessity instead of preference. She shook off the memories, then got dressed in some semi-casual clothing, mainly a long skirt and blouse. As a precaution, Sara strapped the knife to her right calf, and felt slightly reassured by the weight of the sheath running along the muscle.
She then put her boots on, grabbed the binders where she had been planning the curriculum for most of the night, and planted the binders in the leather bag she had used yesterday. Sara looked at the clock, noticed that it was almost Eight, and smiled. *Well, onwards to the class. Oh yeah, I need a potato, just to torture Lucas.* Sara turned back into her house, rooted around in the kitchen, and went back to her bike, stuffing a potato into one of the pockets on the left side of her coat. She drove to the school relatively slowly, and arrived twenty minutes before the first bell. Sara instantly noticed that Lucas' car still had the racing stripe, and just to add insult to injury, she took the potato out of her coat pocket and stuffed the fairly large spud into his car's tailpipe.
Sara activated her bike's anti-theft system, then walked into the office, greeting a few of the other teachers as she went to the teacher's mailbox system and collected the in-class announcements. Sara had gotten up to her class before the bell had rang, and read the announcements to herself. She raised her eyebrows at some of the dumber ones, and decided to pencil in some changes, just to make them slightly more humourous. After finishing her alterations, Sara looked up and noticed a young girl with dark hair, about shoulder length, and with differently coloured eyes. One was a dark shade of brown, but the other's iris was almost completely red. "Yes? How can I help you?"
Sara swung her feet off the desk, and let the girl speak. "Umm, I'm wondering where Lucas went. After all, this is his classroom." Sara smiled and leaned her elbows on the desk. "Sorry, but Lucas has been reassigned to the chemistry home room, and is also the school's newest chem teacher. So, what's your name?" The girl smiled slightly, and looked at the desk for a few seconds. "I'm Hazel Smith. Sorry about missing the shakedown yesterday." Sara smiled faintly, then pointed at the nearest empty desk. "So Hazel, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself, unless you want to torment the token Canadian..." Hazel laughed at Sara's tone, then nodded. "Well, from the accent, you're definitely not a Yank, and you said it yourself: you're Canadian. So, where's the kindness gene?"
Sara barely kept from busting out laughing, then wagged her finger at Hazel. "Well, I see you've managed to hear about that legend. Sorry, but it skipped a generation." Hazel raised an eyebrow, then asked another question. "Okay then, why did you come here? I think you'd be more comfortable in -20 degrees than here." Sara grinned. "Nope, I came here to get away from Canada. After all, this place is the direct opposite of Ottawa." A brief shadow flitted across Sara's face as she spoke, and she didn't expand on the subject. Hazel was about to ask another question, but the bell rang and Sara gathered together the books necessary for the first period.
"Sorry Hazel. I'll probably be able to talk to you at lunch." Hazel nodded, then walked out of the classroom into the swarm of dejected students trudging down the hallway. Sara sorted the books on her desk, then opened the attendance binder as the home room class walked in and planted themselves in their desks. After the usual anthem and PA announcements, Sara took the class attendance, read the most relevant announcements from the sheet, and caused the class to chuckle with an old joke she had remembered the night before. After the bell rang, Sara got the books ready for Lori's class, and she silently thanked whatever higher powers existed that it was only a single period this morning. As her first class trudged in, Sara noticed that a few looked inordinately pleased with themselves, so she expected the worst.
Sara was not disappointed, because as she was starting the in-class work, she heard a loud explosion from the direction of the main office, and then had to answer the intercom as the students sniggered. "Hello, this is the bio class... Oh? Well, I'm sorry but she's been with me for the last oh, half-hour now. I see. Thank you. Bye." Sara hung up, walked back to the front of the class and pointed at Lori. "Miss Anderson, you owe me royally for keeping the principal off your back. However, I have to question your sanity. Seriously, did you have to use a watermelon? I could've done the same thing with a cantaloupe, and caused more damage."
Lori's jaw, by then, had hit the desk and she was wondering why any teacher would do that. Sara grinned to herself at Lori's reaction, then continued with the class. Soon, Sara had half the class wondering whether she was sane, and the other half almost falling out of their seats with laughter. Soon, Lucas' head popped through the door, and he looked around at the class, barely keeping from breaking out in total laughter, then at Sara, who was going through a presentation from her university days about basic biology. Lucas heard Sara speak, and understood why the class was laughing. "Now, this picture shows what happens when a human's biological system is influenced by vast quantities of alcohol and a minimum amount of sleep."
She flipped a picture of herself and Lucas onto the overhead, and it showed the two in the middle of a party, with Lucas crashed out on a couch, topless, and Sara sitting beside him, holding a keg and wearing a pair of shorts and a 'party naked' t-shirt. Sara smiled slightly, then pointed out the obvious effects of intoxication on a human being by pointing out Lucas' cherry red nose, lack of consciousness, and several other minor effects, such as the fact that he had made a total ass of himself before falling asleep. By then, the entire class was laughing at Lucas' expense, and nobody except Lori and Hazel noticed the pale white lines running the length of Sara's arms in the picture.
After class, when almost all the students had managed to stand up unassisted and had left the room, Lori walked to Sara's desk. "Yes Lori? Didja have a problem with my presentation?" Lori shook her head, then spoke. "No, your presentation was a riot. I'm wondering about two things though. First, why did you cover for me when the little prank I had left for the principal went off?" Sara smiled. "Well, just between us, I don't want you telling Lucas about the potato I put in his car's exhaust pipe. That's why I got you off the hook. So, do we have an agreement?" Lori nodded, then pointed at the overhead.
"Well, I won't tell Lucas about the prank you're going to pull on him, in gratitude for pulling me out of the line of fire, but here's the second question. What's with the lines along your arms in the overhead?" Sara frowned slightly, then looked at Lori silently. Sighing, Sara leaned back in her seat. "Well, I guess it's slightly safe to tell you." Sara then rolled up her right shirt-sleeve, revealing the long white scar running along the groove between the long muscles. "That was caused by a major surgery a few months before the party in the photo." Lori looked up for permission, and at Sara's nod, she traced the line of the scar with her finger. "Wow. I thought it was an error on the picture, but... hey, you said something about a surgery yesterday, right?"
Sara nodded, then told Lori to scoot before the younger students appeared as she rolled down her sleeve. Lori left, looking vaguely unsatisfied with Sara's answers, but she didn't want to be swarmed by the next class. Sara continued making the classes crack up as the morning went by, and kept a lot of variety in the jokes and other parts of the basic presentation, which was about the effects of different substances on the human mind and body. By the time lunch hour had rolled around, Sara was tired but happy, and she decided that a short walk would revitalize her. She went to the main yard, and after chuckling at the antics of some of the younger students, she went over to the bench under the tree where she had talked with Adrian yesterday.
Sitting down, Sara watched as Lucas walked over to her, and smiled faintly as he was forced to dodge a group of seven students chasing a soccer ball around the yard. "So, how's your class?" Lucas smiled lightly at Sara's question, then pointed at a purple bruise partially hidden by his hairline. "Ow. How did that happen? Fall off a ladder?" Lucas nodded, then frowned slightly as Sara passed her hand over her mouth to hide the laughter threatening to bubble over. "Seriously, how'd it happen?" Lucas sat down on the bench beside her, and grimaced. "Y'know Hazel Smith, right? Well, she gave me a 'present'." Sara chuckled, throwing Lucas off of his track, but he regained it with a little effort.
"Anyhow, that present was a small box that pied me when I opened it. As a result, I fell down the stairs and gave myself the bruise." Lucas stopped his grumbling because Sara, sitting beside him, was laughing uproariously. "Alright, I've missed the joke. What's so funny?" Sara wiped the tears that had sprung to her eyes, then replied after she had caught her breath. "What's so funny? I'll tell you. Poetic justice. A month after we first met, you pulled that trick on me and I ended up with an egg on the back of my head the size of my fist. So it's mean, but immensely gratifying to see you get nailed by the same stunt."
Lucas frowned, then started to chuckle as well, his deep voice adding a counterpoint to Sara's renewed laughter. "Okay, I guess. Just wondering, but did you sic her on me?" Sara shook her head, then gestured for the time as she calmed down. "Well, it's almost 12:15, so I'd better go and get something in my stomach before I make a mistake in the chem room." Sara nodded, then remembered that today was also Friday, and the Eighteenth. *Oh great. Well, in two days, I'm going to have to be ready for anything. Whatever I do though, I'm not going to bring my sword.* Sara looked up at that moment, and saw Erin Cheng looking at her.
"Well, I wondered when you'd have enough free time to find me. Here's the fifty I owe you." Sara pulled a bill from her wallet, then waved it in Erin's face until the girl reached out and grabbed it. "Wow. This is actually worth about twice that much." Sara grinned as Erin pocketed the bill. "Actually, only about seventy-five. Oh yeah, about the little gift I promised you, it won't be ready for a few more days. Sorry." Erin shrugged, then sat down beside Sara. "That's okay. Oh yes, I'm just wondering, but what's with the knife hidden along your right leg?"
Sara frowned, but tapped her right leg as Erin looked at her. 'Well, I guess it's okay to tell you. Some people key cars, I slash tires." Erin smiled, but shook her head to show she wasn't buying it. "Okay. It's actually for self-defence. Satisfied?" Erin nodded, then stood up and ran over to a nice-looking boy who seemed to be waiting for her. Sara watched the two walk off for a few seconds, then turned her attention to Lori's gang who were beginning to intimidate some more young students. Sara decided to break up the group once again, but Adrian got there first and told Lori to quit harassing the juniors.
Sara watched Lori's gang disperse under the watchful eye of Adrian, then smiled. "Well, it seems that every teacher has some opportunities to torment Lori. Just wondering, but where's Doctor Zack? I heard that he works here, but haven't seen him yet." Adrian grimaced, then looked Sara in the eye. "Actually, I haven't seen him for the last two or three days either. I heard that he had apparently called in sick, but I wouldn't put it past the principal to try and replace him." Sara snorted. "From what I've seen of the good doctor, that's not bloody likely. Maybe a friend could wander over sometime this week."
Adrian nodded, but his reply was drowned out by the bell, signalling the end of lunch. Sara nodded, then walked back into the school before the swarm of bored students crushed the teachers into one of the walls. Soon, Sara was causing her first afternoon class to crack up, and the rest of the day went by rather quickly. After school, Sara walked over to her bike, turned off her generator, and watched as Lucas tried to turn on his car. After almost five minutes of watching him try to make the engine turn over, she looked away for a second, and heard a massive KA-WHAM!! from Lucas' car.
Sara turned back to look at the car, and saw a massive cloud of grey smoke expel itself from the muffler. *Sucker.* Sara looked at the car opposite of Lucas' muffler, and saw a fist-sized hole that had punched through the front grille, and probably wrecked the poor person's radiator. Looking around, Sara saw Lori looking at the cloud of smoke floating above Lucas' abused sedan, and she noticed that Lucas was already out of his car, looking at the damage done to his colleague's car.
She then drove to her house, parked her bike, and went into her basement hidey-hole. *Okay, now the twentieth is Sunday, and today's Friday evening. Now, what should I bring? The magnums are a definite yes, and I may as well try to train my sword to attack evil-doers. What else? The cards can be useful as support, so I'll take those, and I'll take my knife so I can show off my really nasty close-combat skills. Naturally, my armour will be active for the entire conversation.*
Sara collected twelve each of the chem-ex and EMP cards, and grabbed one grey card, surrounded by a faint haze. Sara put all twenty-five cards into a specialized hip pack, with three compartments. After sorting the cards by type, Sara closed the pack and put it on the small table beside the exposed cards. Sara grabbed her sword, and felt a small shudder of revulsion pass through her as she looked at the stained scabbard. She knew that some of the brownish-red marks were caused by her own hands, but many others were much older than her, and some were only a few months old.
She put the sword, still sheathed, on the table beside the hip pack, then unbelted her knife's sheath and put it on the table as well. Sara looked at the innocent-looking objects on the table, and felt a sudden urge to get out of the small room before she felt like smashing something. Sara climbed out of the small room, and closed it before deciding to get some leisure reading done. She walked over to the kitchen first, made herself a sandwich out of several cold cuts and cheese, and polished off the small meal before grabbing the Pern novel she had bought a few days ago.
Sara read the book for a solid three hours, totally engrossed in the story, and finally noticed that she had a visitor when the guest knocked on the back door. Sara got up, walked to the back door, and opened it to the sight of a rather pained-looking girl who she knew on sight. "Well, how are you doing Stryk?" Sara motioned the teen to come inside, then closed the door after Stryk came in. "Well, it seems that I'm cashing in on your offer to crash here. Actually, I was caught in a bit of a scrape and need some place to lie low for a few days."
Sara nodded, then ventured a guess. "So, Jose wants you to be turned into cannon-fodder ASAP huh?" Stryk nodded, then looked upstairs for a few seconds. "Actually, I'm really exhausted, so could I crash in your spare room now?" Sara nodded, then ushered Stryk into the guest room, and saw that the exhausted girl was asleep before going back downstairs to read another six or seven chapters of the book.
Three Houses to the South, and Several Hours Later
Six landed on the small balcony outside the rather large window there, and knocked lightly on the windowpane. She heard a muffled voice respond to her light tapping, then the window opened, seemingly of its own accord. Six walked into the rather spacious room, and she looked over at Dr. Zack, who was sitting in his large armchair, already smoking on his ever-present pipe. "Good evening Tony. How are you this fine day?" Dr. Zack nodded at his guest and took a long pull on his pipe before responding. "I could be better my friend. You've had closer contact with Miss D'Arnise than I have, so you may be able to answer some questions."
Six smiled slightly, then responded. "Actually, it's at Sara's request that I wander over here and see how you're doing. She was slightly concerned about your disappearance from school for the last several days." Dr. Zack nodded, then pointed towards the basement. "Well, I have a perfectly justifiable excuse this time. I've been working on ways to try and decipher the internal workings of those nanomachines that are in our friend's blood. As far as I can tell, they were originally programmed to repair damage done to osteocytes, but they seem to have almost... evolved to a level that surpasses almost every form of nanotechnology that I have ever worked with.
"I swear, these machines are easily four or five times more advanced than the ones I use to make those thumb-sized rubies and spider silk." Six nodded, but she had managed to partially lose what Dr. Zack was saying when he started on how advanced the machines were. "That's fairly high up in my level of comprehension, but you're basically telling me that those machines floating around in my friend's blood actually evolved to their current configuration?" Dr. Zack nodded, then turned the conversation to more mundane matters, including an offer for Six's customary cup of blueberry tea. By the time the clock hit two in the morning, Six and Dr. Zack had finished their conversation, and she went out to try and keep a lid on the city's resident greenskin population.