Chapter 6: Scenes From The Class Struggle In Amity Park
"Detested sport,
The owes its pleasures to another's pain."
-Cowper, The Task, III
All things considered, the day began a lot better then Danny had been expecting.
Because after what had happened yesterday, Danny expected to wake up feeling like he had been run over by a herd of buffalo, or maybe a squad of Sherman tanks. It is during sleep that a body truly assesses the damage that has been done it during strenuous actions, and it will give the mind a full report when it wakes up, and it was usually a report that wasn't very favorable, if it was favorable at all.
So it was much to Danny's surprise that when he woke up, all he felt was refreshed. Quite a bit so. He stood up, looking at his arms and hands and expecting his muscles to start complaining at any second.
But they never did. They didn't complain during his shower either. Nor when he was getting dressed. By then Danny was getting damn suspicious, and at that point he decided to throw caution to the wind. A bright flash and a pair of energy circles later, and Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom, and he expected to be hit with the pain and exhaustion like a sledgehammer…
Which never fell.
Danny blinked, and then looked down at his form. He wasn't surprised that his black outfit looked pristine and new again: something had happened to the clothing during the accident that had made him who he was and it was no longer so much a piece of attire then it was a part of him. But the rather painful injuries he had suffered yesterday were gone. True, his ghost form didn't feel like running a marathon, but it seemed to have gotten itself back into fighting shape. At a speed far higher then Danny was used to.
"Danny!"
Danny was barely able to transform back before his door opened and his mother poked her head in.
"Good morning sleepyhead!"
"Ah! Hi mom." Danny said sheepishly, acting like he had just been gotten caught doing something else, something you can't really mention in a cartoon like this.
"You better hurry honey, or you'll be late for school."
"Yeah I…WHAT?" Danny yelled as his mother's head disappeared. He quickly followed her out.
"Did you say school?"
"Yes Danny."
"Um, Mom, forgive me if I just had an extremely vivid nightmare or something…but didn't half the school get trashed yesterday?"
"No dear, that really happened. Believe me, I was just as shocked as you were when the call came in that you had to come to school, and I gave the person on the other end a piece of my mind, but in the end they made me realize the good things behind it."
"But…walls were blown up! There are holes in the roof! Some of the hallways…"
"Yes Danny, but about half of the school escaped any serious damage. You'll be going to that half. Relax. It's a Friday, the weather says it's going to be lovely, and I doubt that you'll have any serious classes. This school day is more of a stand against the notion that the American education system is terrible, that a school will go on just for another day even after this…the man who called was quite eloquent about it, even though his constant stating of famous book titles when he was excited was a bit off putting."
Of course. Danny realized. Lancer. It figured he'd go to the superhuman effort to keep the students in school. Well, it WAS a Friday. After this would be the weekend, and by this time Monday they'd probably have relocated the students to other places until the school could be repaired…however long that took. Danny winced at the inconvenience of it all.
"Morning Danny!" Jack Fenton said at the breakfast table. If Danny had known that his mom and dad had been up all night working and were still hopped up and ready to go, he might have respected their devotion to ghost hunting a little more. As it was, Danny just groaned inwardly, knowing now that his father would want his full report.
"Danny, listen, I know yesterday was hard, but…"
"I know Dad." Danny said, and gave a greatly altered version of what had happened yesterday, which reduced his role from "hero who had kept Sizzle from killing anyone" to "idiot who ran around screaming and barely kept from getting killed". Jack Fenton bought it all though. Like Savior had said, his perception was that way.
"Well Danny…they say lightning never strikes the same place twice…but then again, this is fire we're talking about." Jack said, as he reached down and pulled up something from the floor: another Fenton Thermos. This one was slightly larger then the previous ones and tinted red. "So if that ghost warrior shows up, hopefully because it knows you have good gear, and heaven forfend if that psycho fire ghost has made her presence known first to take another crack at your school, give him this. Unlike the last Thermos, this WILL hold that fire ghost."
"For how long?"
"I'm not sure. Should be long enough to do whatever that white haired ghost does." Jack replied. Danny groaned inwardly again. "But make sure he uses it! With what happened to my lab I could only make one of those! If it's damaged or lost, it will take a month for new materials to arrive so I can make another one." Jack said.
Another thing to worry about. Danny wondered if it was possible to get gray hairs before one had started shaving.
"And since the Ghost Incapacitator prototype was destroyed, I managed to whip this up as well." Jack said, as he pulled up a long silver rod.
"A cattle prod?" Danny asked.
"No no, this is a miniaturized version of the Fenton Ghost Catcher! If you zap a host body with it, it will separate the ghost from it. But I warn you, I had to lessen the power to get it to fit into such a small object. If the Ghost is stubborn, and this one probably is, you may have to give it multiple zaps to get it out. The good news is that even one zap will scramble the link between ghost and host and screw up any real countermeasures the ghost tries. The bad news is you have to get right up close to use it."
"Right. Thanks dad." Danny said, accepting the mini Fenton Ghost Catcher, not able to tell his father that if he had to get that close, he might as just overshadow the host and pull Sizzle out himself…but hey, you never knew.
"Danny…I know yesterday was bad…but you have to be ready in case it happens again. But you're my boy. I know that any ghost that wants to hurt you will have its work cut out for him!" Jack said, clamping his hand on Danny's shoulder
"Uh…yeah…" Danny said, and finally buried himself in his breakfast. Jack Fenton seemed to take the hint and began reading the paper. The front page was all about what had happened yesterday, of course. Through subtle glances as his father turned the pages, Danny noticed there was nothing about Valerie in there. That was good, he supposed. She had been taken to the hospital after Sizzle had been forced out of her body, and on top of a lot of people seeing Sizzle coming out of her, Savior had said, just before Starfire had carried his once again dozing off self home, that he and his team was going to go down to the police station and talk to the chief to make sure Valerie didn't get charged with anything. And since Danny hadn't heard anything about Valerie suffering any real injuries, Danny figured she'd soon be back to plague his life. Once again, he groaned inwardly, but then AGAIN, after Sizzle, maybe she wouldn't be so bad.
Fifteen minutes later Danny was off to what was left of Casper High. Jazz was still home confined due to her parent's insistence she stay there, to make sure she hadn't caught some kind of ghost germ or something. He envied her.
And he might have more if he knew the second he was out of the house Maddie was in the kitchen.
"Did you manage to plant it?" She asked.
"My fingers can still do some nimble things." Jack replied. "If that ghost comes anywhere NEAR my son, that tracker will let me know, and if it does, it will find that we're ready, and that for what it did, there's going to be heck to pay."
Famous last words.
Danny could hear the work a full block away from the building.
And it got even louder when he approached the school and found all the students milling around the front, as if waiting for something. The sounds of drilling, hammering, and general construction work were everywhere as men came and went from the damaged parts of Casper High.
"Danny!"
It was Sam, Tucker in tow. They'd had been watching from across the street for Danny, and had quickly headed for him when he had arrived.
"Can you believe this? Who the heck would be so stupid to want the school open after what happened yesterday?" Tucker said after the three had exchanged quick greetings. "I mean, no one should be that lacking a brain!"
"ATTENTION STUDENTS!" Came a bellow from the front of the school. No, not a bellow, an amplified voice spoken through a loudspeaker. It was, of course, Mr. Lancer.
"I stand corrected." Tucker said.
"Now listen…parts of the school have been roped off, you are NOT to enter those parts, for ANY reason. If you get hurt, the school is not responsible!" Mr. Lancer was saying. "Now, I must warn you there is only one working bathroom, so if anyone wants to use the facilities they had best do it now, DON'T STAMPEDE!" Mr. Lancer yelled as a wave of students broke away from the main group. "Ok now listen, I know you don't like the fact that you're here, but I assure you that it won't be for long. You will receive word by Monday on where you will be going until the repairs are completed, but until then, here is where everyone will be during this day…"
"Sigh. Don't you love someone who insists on locking the gate after the horse has already run off?" Came a voice behind Danny, Sam, and Tucker, and the three jumped and then turned around.
They sure didn't recognize who was standing there: it was a black girl with corn rowed hair, polished features, and wearing highly stylized clothes. The three stared, Tucker barely holding back his flood of drool.
"Do we know you miss?" Sam asked
The black girl glanced around.
"Yes." She said, and then the black girl suddenly vanished, revealing Raven in her battle costume. And then the black girl was suddenly back, as the three gaped.
"Holopins. We're all disguised as students here so we can shadow you Danny. So if you see someone you don't know watching you, it's one of us. And your ghost sense should kick in if Sizzle decides to try the same trick, right Danny?"
"Uh, yeah." Danny said, amazed at how different Raven looked with the holopin on.
"One of us will probably be with you at all times, the rest will be nearby. We agreed that if we can't see you react if Sizzle shows up, that you should do a gesture. So if she does, grab the top of your head, so we can get you and any innocents clear before the fires start. Ok?"
Danny nodded.
"Holopin? Don't you mean image inducers?" Tucker asked. Raven glared at him.
"Shhhhh! You want to get sued?" She said tersely.
"Sorry." Tucker replied.
"That's quite a disguise there." Sam commented.
"Savior believes that if we can hide our appearance, we should do more then just change our hair and skin color." Raven replies. "So like I said, we'll be watching you. So just go about your business Danny, and don't worry. Despite certain disagreements…" Raven said, glancing at Sam, who frowned. "You're one of us, and we protect our own. Especially from Sizzle's breed." Raven said, and then she walked off.
"What was that about?" Tucker asked.
"Oh nothing." Sam said. Except the leader of this group is an A-Class jerk who wants to treat this situation like a chess game, with Danny as his pawn.
In the end though, Sam said nothing.
While the group was called the Teen Titans, the ironic thing is that none of the four Titans that had arrived in Amity Park to help Danny had ever really gone to a normal high school. Starfire and Raven had been raised in different places other then Earth (an alien planet and another dimension respectively), and Cyborg and Savior were the sons of very rich men and hence had been mostly home schooled. It was true Cyborg had had some experience in a high school, and had actually been fairly happy before the accident that had killed his mother and injured him so badly that it had been necessary to transform his form to the state it was now, but it wasn't much. And Noel's father…well, he wouldn't have let Noel near a normal high school. Not considering his plans for his son, and those were another story, a very ugly one. Let's just say if you don't believe in the existence of evil…you've got a lot to learn…
But getting back on track, none of the Titans had ever been to a real high school, but they knew plenty about the pit of man and woman eaters that existed in such a place. Mostly because they'd had problems with kids who had been destroyed by the nest of vipers the average school could be, and sometimes when those ruined kids turned around and struck back it got messy. REALLY messy. Perhaps the worst case had been that of Marissa Mori, who had gone a tad bit nuts and caused a bloodbath…but again, that is another, uglier tale.
So you can't blame the Titans if they thought they had some level of preparation.
Oh how wrong they were.
The school day was pretty weird: there weren't enough classrooms, so the teachers were teaching in the gym, the cafeteria, and outside, and rather then actually teaching, most of the teachers were acting as consolers, mostly talking about what had happened yesterday and trying to see if anyone was having any problems. That wasn't so bad…
What was bad, or maybe more accurately, sad, was that despite having their school turned into one of the circles of hell, some of the students STILL hadn't gotten a clue on how to act like decent human beings. Indeed, in one of Danny's classes, where he was being watched over by Cyborg, who had disguised himself as a white jock, almost to the level of a Dash clone, there had been the unpleasant incident of one girl's tearful confession that her boyfriend had been badly burned and might need skin grafts his family couldn't afford. The girl, barely keeping from breaking down and crying, had actually drawn some snickers from, surprise surprise, Dash and his ilk. Danny couldn't believe that Dash would actually be amused by the girl's unhappiness…until he realized that she was from a poorer section of town and had somewhat of an acne problem. In Dash's group, that meant scorn and contempt, no matter WHAT had happened. Danny spent the rest of that class thinking dark thoughts about Dash, dark thoughts that were mirrored in Cyborg's face as he seethed at the unrepentant cruelty of the popular kids. Cyborg made a mental note to learn the boy's name and get on the horn to Robin, who would pass a message onto Batman, who Cyborg didn't know was Bruce Wayne but knew was rich and did a lot of charity work from what he had gathered from Robin. Batman would then point some of that charity in Amity Park's direction.
Those kind of incidents, as well as the Sword of Damascus Sizzle's threat presented, didn't make for a happy morning for the Titans or Danny and Co. Danny also ran into Starfire, who was actually disguised as her teammate Terra, a normal looking blonde girl. Savior didn't introduce himself, and Danny couldn't be sure who he was: he'd had half a dozen inklings but none had seemed to bear fruit.
Eventually, lunch came, as the teachers returned the cafeteria to its normal job and all the students took in the meal. Not a lot of them were in the actual cafeteria though: it was still banged up a bit from Danny's actions. Most took their lunch outside…though Danny, his friends, and the Titans did not. After lunch, there was one last "class" scheduled and then the students could go home early.
"So, you sense anything Danny?" Raven asked at the table the six were sitting at: Savior was again a no-show. When Sam had inquired about that, Raven had replied he was overseeing everything and hence might not approach Danny at all…unless there was a problem.
"No, and believe me, Sizzle has a VERY distinct presence." Danny commented, and tried to eat his sandwich. It tasted like oatmeal to him, but that was probably just the stress.
"So…does anyone have anything to report?" Tucker asked.
"Only that I now weep for the human race even more then I NORMALLY do." Raven said dismally. "We were doing one of those "do you want to discuss your feelings" things, and one of the girls actually spent TWENTY MINUTES talking about how her makeup was ruined. That was it. She wasn't hurt, her friends weren't hurt, even her PROPERTY was undamaged…but she went on like it was a Greek tragedy, and when the teacher tried to stop her she just talked louder and acted like no one was there. She only stopped when she was done. I swear, I never saw such a display of superficial ignorance in my life, outside of maybe that white supremist group we dealt with once."
"Was she Hispanic?" Sam asked.
"Yeah."
"Paulina." Sam said, resigned again. "A girl so shallow she's somehow deep."
"So of course, Danny has a huge crush on her." Tucker commented. Danny blushed, and Sam looked irritated.
"You like this Paulina?" Starfire asked. Starfire had done Savior's good disguise mandate one better: on top of her concealing hologram she was wearing a necklace that distorted her voice so she sounded like a Valley Girl. And hearing a typical Valley Girl talk without using the usual Valley Girl English mangling was actually extremely disorienting.
"Well uh…you see…" Danny said, blushing.
"Buddy…" Cyborg began.
"What, she's out of my league?"
"No. You're out of hers." Starfire commented. "I do not usually give humans advice Danny, as I was raised in a very different culture then yours and even now I tend to get things wrong more often then not…but I think she would be a bad match for you, not because of fictional class systems, but as, you humans might say, she would be a terrible lay."
"WHAT!" Danny said, his face feeling like it was on fire…which probably wasn't a healthy omen considering the force that was stalking him.
"Don't act so puritanical. You're a teenage boy. Sex is what almost everything is about for you. Looking at linoleum makes you want to have sex." Raven said dryly, which somehow made Danny blush even more.
"What Raven said is true…girls like Paulina are so self-centered that they are terrible in bed. They're so concerned with their own needs and their so called perfection that they have no idea how to satisfy you, or will they care to because in their worldview it's all about them. They will tease but they will never please. I suggest you stop this mooning and focus your energies into finding someone who is "lower on the ladder", because while they might not seem like some kind of dream achieved like dating and being with a girl like Paulina, you will ultimately be a LOT happier in the long run. Trust me. On Tamaran, our royal and high state marriages, which are almost always between Tamaran's best and brightest, are rarely happy due to that very factor, while many lower ones with men and women who possess slight, mild, or considerable blemishes are filled with more joy then you could believe. I suggest you, as the saying goes, aim lower. Because that's where your happiness will most likely lie." Starfire said.
The alien girl had never quite mastered the art of tact, as she then grinned broadly.
"If you ask me, I think Sam would be a great match for you!"
"WHAT?" The two immediately said, and Tucker snickered quietly to himself as he saw this game was about to enter its latest round.
"Hey, what Starfire says is true. You've known each other your whole lives, so you know each other's flaws and special qualities, and you're good friends now, and that's ultimately the most important thing about a relationship because lifelong romances ultimately end up being close friendships…" Cyborg said.
"Ok, enough! Jeez!" Sam said, blushing furiously. "We don't have those kinds of feelings for each other! So stop trying to hook us up!"
"Yeah! I mean, sheesh, I think I would know what to do if I had feelings for…uh…er…" Danny stammered, and then just trailed off.
Raven smiled to herself. She thought the two would have handsome kids. Which made her wonder: she'd been with Noel for a long time now, and her father still seemed to be dead. Maybe she should wonder if he should be gathering up two month's salary…except the Titans didn't get paid…except they had a money fund that they used to pay their bills…
And these little outward and inward thoughts on relationships were interrupted as all heck broke lose.
But not the kind the Titans and Danny had been expecting.
Then again, maybe they should have.
Savior didn't, on the surface, want trouble. He'd just bought one of the school's lunches, and had picked out a table that gave him a good view of Danny and his fellows.
Then again, UNDER the surface, Savior was probably just begging for it. It all began with his Holopin disguise: a straight out of a bad movie nerd, complete with glasses, bad hair, and a pocket protector. At least he wasn't wearing suspenders.
The second was his own witnessing of the usual "elite" nonsense, as he had seen one of his "fellows" stuffed in a locker and another being chased down the hall by a group of boys who were chanting "Wedgie!". That fellow escaped, thanks to a sudden rope that zipped in front of the pursuer's ankles and made them all tumble in a heap. Some inquiries on why this was going on revealed that one of the people who had been fairly badly hurt was a jock named Kwan, who was in stable condition now but would be healing for a bit. Apparently, the jocks were worried about their friend…and in true unwilling idiocy fashion, they manifested it by pushing around their usual targets even more. Savior apparently managed to stay in enough of the right places during the right times to not become the target of any of such indignities…but deep down, he probably wanted to.
As he happened to sit at the table that was reserved for the most popular kids.
Savior gave Danny and his friends a long look as he starting gnawing on a carrot stick, and then turned to look at several VERY surprised popular kids, which of course included the king and queen of Casper High, Dash Baxter and Paulina Noapparentlastname. And can you blame their shock? The whole school knew that to sit at their table was to court death, or at least the combined wrath of Dash and his jock allies, or if you were a girl, the nastiest claws that Paulina and her breed could bring to bear. So you can't blame them at being immensely surprised that a thin, bespectacled geek had actually sat at their table. To them, it was like he had spat in their food.
Then again, when it came to truly classifying the worth of their fellows, they were pretty much all idiots, so take their offense with a grain of salt. Actually, a saltshaker would probably be better. Or maybe one of those boxes of salt people buy that…moving on.
"Hello." Savior said casually, and resumed looking at his team.
The popular kid's silence lasted another few seconds before Dash finally collected his sole remaining wit.
"Hey! What are you doing here!" He yelled.
"Sitting and eating." Savior calmly replied, and picked up a limp looking celery stick, wondering how long it had sat in that display case.
"What?" Dash yelled.
"Oh no. I'll bet anything that's Savior." Danny said.
"You are correct sir." Cyborg replied.
"Maybe you should go over there before Dash attempts to kill him for his unpardonable faux pas." Sam commented.
"If Dash attempts to kill Savior, he had better have a lot of blood, because he's going to lose some." Starfire replied.
"Hey geek! What are you doing! This is OUR table! NO ONE SITS HERE BUT US!" Dash yelled.
"Do you know who we ARE?" Paulina hissed in the anger of the people who have had their whims catered to their entire life and think anything that does not fit their view of the world should be stomped on for daring to show them reality.
"Things change, and no." Savior said simply, and bit into the celery stick. It had more moisture then he expected.
Dash goggled at the fact that the geek wasn't running for his life, begging for mercy, or even apologizing for sitting at their table like he was somebody. Then again, Dash didn't know he was looking at Savior, who had locked eyes with gods and monsters and humans at the pinnacle of their potential and form. And after all that, he wasn't going to give any ground to a jock blowhard, not even in microscopic terms.
"Ok loser, you asked for it." Dash said, as he started around the table.
"Sit down. Talk to me. Resorting to violence towards someone after a five second assessment of them is the mark of a mediocre mind, but then again you probably demonstrate that in spades all the time." Savior commented.
Dash's eyes blazed.
"WHAT?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Was I speaking too fast for you? Ok. Siiiiiittttttt dooooowwwwwwnnnnn…" Savior began, his patience already exhausted. Now he was prepared to take Dash's measure, and if Dash wanted to play whose can of whoop ass was bigger, he was going to get a rude awakening.
Dash went for Savior's food first, grabbing the tray and shoving it violently to the side and onto the floor. Savior's eyes flicked briefly to follow the movement, and then went back onto Dash's angry face.
"Oh no. My government sponsored meal of gray stuff and something that might have been an animal once. However will I cope?"
"Get up geek!" Dash said, grabbing Savior's shirt front (his few remaining brain cells not noticing the feel of his clothing didn't match up to his appearance, as Savior was wearing his battle outfit of jeans, shirt, and leather jacket in reality, and anyone who grabbed those would have noticed the feeling didn't feel quite right, because the clothing Savior wore wasn't clothing but highly developed armor disguised as clothing. Savior's shirt could stop most high caliber bullets at close range) and yanking him up from his seat. Savior let him have that motion to gauge Dash's strength, as he pulled himself out of Dash's grip before Dash could start punching.
"Fight fight fight! Fight fight fight!" The students immediately chanted, gathering around to watch and block the teachers from being able to break up any brawls for a few minutes (not that most of them expected anything, as when guys fought it was mostly all show and no blows. Girls, surprisingly, fought FAR fiercer then guys when they actually resorted to physical contact, and would think of nothing of actually trying to claw out an eye or inflict serious physical damage.) Raven rolled her eyes and wondered if she should warp over before Dash said something that made Noel lose his temper.
"I hope you like your dentist nerd, because I'm going to make him rich!" Dash yelled, and snapped off a blow. Savior, who trained at least five hours a week with Robin, who was an accomplished master of nearly six different martial arts, could have dodged the blow in his sleep. So he did.
"Hey! Don't be running away wimp!" Dash yelled.
"Oh my dear Australopithecus Africanus, if I am a wimp, why am I taking the path of most resistance?"
"That's it! I'm going to beat you so bad, your mother will cry!" Dash snarled, and snapped off a straight jab.
Savior caught it.
"You really shouldn't have mentioned my mother."
With a series of motions so quick most of the students couldn't even make them out, Savior twisted Dash's arm and pried open his fist, and then with a sickening snapping noise, dislocated Dash's little finger. Dash's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and then he screamed at the sudden pain.
"That was your pinkie."
Another twist, another snap, another scream.
"That was your wrist."
Savior did a body tuck and hurled Dash to the ground, seizing his arm up behind him, and giving him one final, violent twist. Dash screamed in agony this time, even as the students went dead silent as this took a turn none of them could have expected.
"And that was your shoulder." Savior said calmly. "I can still dislocate your elbow. Would you like to go four for four, you empty-headed, mean-souled shit spewing sanctimonious son of a BITCH?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Was Dash's only reply as Savior jiggled his arm, ever so slightly. His eyes caught movement, and he noticed some of Dash's jock friends were moving in tentatively to help.
"Anyone comes a step closer, I rip his arm right out of its socket." Savior said in a calm tone. That stopped all movement. Savior leaned down to the agonizing football star.
"Now apologize for sullying my mother's name, unless you want to spend the rest of your life eating food through a tube."
"Uhhhhhhhhh…" Dash moaned, any rational thought he had stolen by his pain.
"APOLOGIZE!" Savior yelled, letting his rage flow through as he gave Dash's arm a slight jerk, causing another distressed scream. "You have done something much more powerful men then you have not survived kid. I WILL not hesitate to put you on a ventilator."
Which of course was a total lie: Savior might deal out some pain, even a great deal of it, but he wouldn't cripple unless he absolutely had to. But as mentioned, he worshiped Batman, and he learned his intimidation tactics from the best.
"I'm sorry…!" Dash whined/cried/screamed. In the back of his head, Savior could make out voices from the far perimeter, of that teacher Danny and his friends called Lancer. He better hurry it up.
"You know, if having your life put in deadly danger doesn't break you out of this little abyss of sadism and holier then thou bullshit you and your little bootlickers have going and believing, I doubt anything will. But I'll leave you with three things. One." Savior said, and then snapped Dash's finger back in. That hurt almost as much as dislocating it had, if Dash's cry was any indication.
"This pain I am giving to you, the only thing you seem to understand, it will fade eventually. It will heal. But what you do to people in the visage I wear, and others…the pain doesn't go away. It stays in a place that won't heal so easily. Sometimes it can't heal at all. And then it becomes something else entirely Dash. Something BAD. So you better watch what seeds you're planting kid. They're starting to bloom, and this fruit of a poisoned tree is starting to cause Columbines." Savior said quietly, and then fixed Dash's wrist, fixed being a very loose term as Dash screamed again.
"Two…better enjoy this time. It will be the best years of your life. Reality is going to intrude soon Dash, and it's going to be one hell of a wrecking ball. It's all downhill from here. Cherish this. It's the best your worthless kind gets. At least if I have anything to do with it. And THREE…"
Savior snapped Dash's shoulder back in. If you want to give Dash any credit, it was the fact that he had a strong enough constitution that he didn't pass out from the pain. But it's doubtful he found that much of a blessing. By now, Lancer thought that someone was being tortured. And I suppose he was accurate.
"Your stats REALLY suck." Savior said, referring to Dash's football "accomplishments". He pulled himself up from where Dash was now lying, clutching his arm, and he looked around at the shocked students, who couldn't believe they had just witnessed the physical and mental dissection of their so called lord and master.
"You know…" Savior said, as he ran a hand through his fake hair. "The phrase is that the meek will inherit the Earth. SO DON'T PISS US OFF."
Lancer and some other teachers were almost there by then, as Savior headed for the opposite side. The students got out of his way like he was a mad bull, as Savior walked through and left the cafeteria.
Raven just shook her head, and then she sank into the darkness, much to Danny, Tucker, and Sam's startled reaction: they hadn't yet witnessed her teleportation power.
"Uh oh. Savior's in for it now." Cyborg said, and sipped at his soft drink.
"I'm ok. I'M OK!" Dash snarled as people tried to help him up. As mentioned, the pain, and the weak state it had put him in, was already fading away, leaving Dash with only the rage and humiliation of the exposed. "That was nothing! I was just…faking it! Now I'm going to…"
And then Dash took a step.
And stepped on the tray of food Savior had tried to eat before Dash had given it an up close and personal meeting with the floor.
Which caused his leg to slide right out from under him as he fell back down to the ground with a yell, even as his foot caught ever so slightly on the tray and flung it into the air…and splattered what was left of it's contents all over a shocked Paulina, who had watched what Savior had done to Dash much like a normal person would have watched aliens land.
That did it: the entire student body erupted into laughter, the fear that had awoken at Savior's dangerous actions a few seconds beforehand already forgotten as the students rejoiced in the rare revelation that the so called great and good of their school were no better then them. Dash screamed at them to shut up, but he couldn't beat up and intimidate the whole school, and since EVERYONE was laughing, there wasn't anyone who he could single out and seek revenge on later. Paulina's shock at the mess that now covered her, and then her horrified scream and own running off just made the laughter increase, even as the students began to break up to head back to what they were doing before this little spectacle.
Lancer was left standing in the mass that a moment ago appeared to be seeing something from the Viet Cong's interrogation books and now were acting like they had seen a best of the Marx Brother's marathon.
"To Kill a Mockingbird! What is going ON around here?" He asked.
"So, Savior always this brutally sadistic, in the end proving he's really not if much better then Dash?" Sam commented.
"Actually…" Starfire said. "That boy got off easy. Savior's main nemesis, Jack Djinn, has pushed Savior into places far worse then that, and the end result has been Savior presiding over the removal of Jack's hands and his right eye."
"He also broke his back." Cyborg added.
"Twice." Starfire finished.
Once again, Sam found she had nothing to say.
"That blasted gosh-darned nerd! How did…AHHHRRGGHHH!" Paulina screamed in frustration from the girl's washroom, a moment before she scooped hot water on her face before pulling back to look at her clothes. "My outfit! I got this on special! Daddy won't let me max out another credit card! OHHHHHHHH!" Paulina cursed, strangely sounding like Yosemite Sam from the Loony Toons. Dark thoughts rolled through her head, though she had considerably less righteousness in the grand scheme of things then Cyborg and Savior had.
Every other girl had promptly cleared out when Paulina had stormed into the bathroom, not wanting to be anywhere near the girl when she threw her fit. Good thing: her makeup was ruined again and she would be damned if any student got even a slight giggle from her looks. Good thing she always carried a complete kit for touchups, or in this case, complete do-overs, and she got to work. When she was done, she was going to go back out, put on her pretty face, and bid her time a bit…and then she was going to disembowel the person who had done this to her. And she might do the same to Dash as well for failing so badly in what should have been a simple reminder that every other person should grovel and scrape before her and she should be allowed to treat the losers like they deserved to be treated.
"Ohhhhh Paulina, I'm the best, no one ever says no to me, I've gotten nerd's underwear over their heads, I am so great, we'll always be the best, ohhhhhh…you muscle-headed dunderhead!" Paulina cursed to herself, mimicking Dash in her anger towards what had happened. "Well Dash, you have lost your date to the next dance, for the next DECADE. You lousy…" Paulina snapped as she leaned in to make careful adjustments to her mascara: there was a fine line between glamorous and a painted up lady of the night, and Paulina was NEVER going to cross that line. Never. "You know, if they're not acting like they're god's gift to the planet and trying to touch the no-no places, they're failing miserably on every front they claim they hold with ease! Argh! Men! I have half a mind to give up on them entirely from now on!"
Paulina pulled herself back from her extreme close up against the mirror.
And found to her great shock and horror she was no longer alone in the room. There was someone new behind her, now apparent in the mirror…and it wasn't a fellow student.
Paulina spun around.
Sizzle smiled.
"Oh yeah, you and I are going to get along just fine."
