Aidan was teaching her students how to set a stone when she felt a little dizzy and fell softly against a wall. She got a holograph of Ralph and Tony being held up in the principal's office. She saw Tony be dragged out of the room before the holograph faded.
"You OK, Miss Aidan," said Lance Hematite as he grabbed her arm and lead her to a chair. "You look like you're gonna pass out. Maybe you should've stayed home a few more days."
"Fine, Lance, all I need is some fresh air. I'll be right back..." She stopped and gasped when she saw a man carrying a gun enter the room. "Hell," she said, wishing the suit also warned her of this.
The class panicked and tried to exit, only to have them man shoot the gun in the air. "Now, that's no way to treat a guest," said the man with mock hurt. "I want all of you to sit back at your desks, while you teacher, stay here and answer some questions." He put a finger under Aidan's chin and lifted her face up, stroking it lovingly. "Now, why don't you be a dear and tell me where's Melissa Serpentine?"
"I don't know," she said, moving her chin out of his grasp, only to receive a slap to her face. She staggered a bit, but otherwise was all right. 'Better not do anything to have him club me though, or I won't be much help, suit or no,' she thought, remembering what Ralph said about the suit not protecting her head.
"Perhaps you can modify the answer," said the man with a slight growl.
"I honestly don't know, she isn't in my class until later so I don't know if she's even here," she said levelly.
The man pondered her answer. "All right ... for now. Just keep your hands where I can see them."
The school's intercom buzzed and Ralph's voice filtered through the air. "Attention students. This is Principal Hinkley. By now, you've probably seen several men with guns in the hallways. Stay in your rooms, and stay calm through all this, but no heroics."
The intercom cut out, and the students looked at each other. Aidan quietly leaned against the wall again, holding the blue goldstone locket she had decided to wear that day, which contained Pam and Ralph's pictures, and got a holograph. In it, she saw her godfather now being tied and gagged by Rutile while another man stood guard. The image shifted to Tony in a closet near the science lab. Aidan frowned, knowing that, being the one with the jammies, she'd have to help the other men and the students. She straightened back up and, glancing at the gunman, started thinking out a scenario to get to the other two.
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"Good, make sure that there is one gunman in each hallway. The only one that needs to be in a room is the one with Aidan Hinkley. She's not that strong because of her injuries, but she's a good bargaining chip to keep the principal in line," said Rutile before he turned off his cell phone.
'Yeah, and so's tying me up, dummy. Just wait, Aidan's not your typical girl,' Ralph thought as struggled a bit against his bonds. He stopped when Rutile looked at him, smirking. "Hinkley, you can try to get out of those as much as you want, but it won't work," he said, his face turning into a scowl. "Keep it up, and you'll be taking a 'nap' as well."
Knowing he wouldn't be helpful to Aidan or the students if he was unconscious, the blonde-haired man nodded and tried to talk around the gag. Rutile smiled and removed it, and Ralph coughed. "Why take over a whole school," he said. "I mean, none of these kids would hurt you."
"Well, it's not them, just Melissa Serpentine we need, but this way it only makes Judge Serpentine's decision even easier. Besides, I've got a contingency plan in case he has doubts."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say that I have the nerve to make sure that he listens or else..." Rutile said with a wicked smile.
Ralph took in the comment and thought of everything that could happen. "What kind of crazed mind would want to harm kids?"
"The kind that wants his boss back so we can ship guns with no problems to countries to overthrow democracy," he said as he retied the gag on Ralph. "You just sit there right now. I'm sure that Serpentine has received our demands, and will be making his decision soon."
Ralph sat in the chair and slowly tried to free his bonds again to avoid Rutile deciding to follow through on his threat. He hoped Aidan was getting a holograph of everything that happened so she could help save the school from meeting a bitter end.
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Bill arrived at the school, and was surprised to see the parking lot mostly full. Though a lot of the students ate at the cafeteria or snack bar, from visiting Whitney High as often as he did, Bill knew there were never that many cars there during lunch. When he saw a man carrying a rifle walking in quickly and quietly, he knew that Rutile and his men had taken the school hostage. "Damn," he said.
He called Pam to let her know about what happened. When he found out about Melissa Serpentine, he frowned. "So that's the connection. Has the judge said anything?"
"Well, right now they are in recess in order to discuss the hostage situation and try to let the agency and police rescue the students. He has a very tough decision, Bill, one that could affect the entire school."
"Counselor, it's easy, release the guy, then when the gunmen inside get word that he's out, they let the school free and we nab the group with her help."
"That's just it, I did some further checking when he received the demands. Citrine isn't the first member of the ring to be put in jail and be eligible for parole. There was another gunman up for parole last year. Same thing happened, Rutile put a school under siege, and the judge relented and let the man free. The police headed over to the school, and found it had been gassed. Only a few of them survived."
Bill frowned at this predicament. "OK, see if you can stall the judge from making a decision either way. I see Tony's car out front as well as Artie's and Ralph's. Hopefully she's wearing the jammies and getting ready to bust these bozos, or the school might have nap-time, permanently."
