Aidan was working out a scenario, but not quite the way Bill expected. She knew that she couldn't just run around and knock heads together, as one of the gunmen could hurt her or one of the students in the school. As she thought, she received another holograph and frowned when she heard Rutile talking about his plan to make Serpentine decide to release Citrine.

When the holograph faded, Aidan swayed slightly, and Lance stood up. "Freeze it buddy," said the gunman as he pointed the gun at the youth.

"Lance, do as he says," ordered Aidan gently, not wanting any of them to get hurt, but Lance continued.

"Look, buster, I don't care what you want, Miss Aidan was wounded a couple of days ago, probably by you guys and has a head injury," he said, holding his hands up to show he was unarmed. "She's had a couple of dizzy spells today from her injury, and she looks real pale now. If you don't let her sit down, she'll pass out."

"I don't believe you..."

As she listened to the two argue, Aidan realized he was inadvertently giving her a hint. 'Well, for once this holograph problem and former head injury will be useful,' she mused, and moaned, swaying slightly and rolling her eyes a little. 'Now, all you have to do is be the big dumb ox you are,' she thought, moaning again and shaking her head.

The gunman turned to her, and noticed Aidan's eyes were a bit out of focus. She was also starting to hyperventilate. "Come on, you're playing," said the gunman with a hint of doubt, getting closer to investigate. When he was close enough to force him to catch her instead of let her fall, Aidan rolled her eyes up and pretended to faint. Confused, the man caught her in his arms, wrapping his hands around her to avoid dropping her.

The class jumped up in concern, but the gunman shouted at them to sit down. "Look, I'll check on your precious teacher," he said, trying to hold on to Aidan so he could see if she was faking.

As he was talking, Marci picked up a chair behind him to try and strike the man, but the gunman saw her. As he started to turn to fire, Aidan straightened up, grabbed his gun hand before he could fire the weapon, took the gun and flipped him. The gunman flipped twice before hitting the floor, semiconscious. Before he could gather his thoughts, Aidan kneeled and gave the man a full right cross to the jaw, knocking him into unconsciousness.

"This is the only time I'll say that chivalry's dead," said Aidan as she stood up, making a face. "Guy tried to grab me elsewhere ... Certainly not how you revive a fainting lady."

The class was stunned at what they saw. "Miss Aidan, how did you do that," asked Marci. "I've never seen anyone flip someone where they flipped twice, not to mention that punch... wow, I think you knocked him into next week."

Aidan pocketed the hostage taker's gun, stood up and looked at the young woman, smiling softly. "Well, I've been taking self-defense classes, Marci. This was one of those odd scenarios, the old possum technique into a flip off. Next time, do as I say, 'K? You could've been killed."

"Yes Miss Aidan," she said meekly. "You all right?"

"Yeah, well, as well as I can given the situation. Now, listen Lance, I need you to help me tie up this guy and put him in the closet." After binding and gagging the gunman, Aidan and Lance carried him to the closet and locked him inside. After quietly getting a holograph off the man's gun, which had been handled by Rutile as well, Aidan shook her head to clear it and turned to the class. "OK, I want all of you to do as I say. I want all of you to go outside through the fire exit here and run. The blinds are closed around school and no one's looking out. Marci, I want you to count the class after you get to the other side."

"What about you Miss Aidan?" asked Lance.

"I'll be fine, just do as I say." With that, the class left through the fire exit. Making sure they all were far away, she grabbed the gun again and squeezed it in her hands, finding to her pleasure it folded as though it was aluminum. Aidan then stripped down to the jammies and started searching for Tony. She knew that it would take the both of them to get Rutile and keep him from completing his plan.

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Tony finally found something to pick the door lock. He opened the door and looked outside, and finding it supposedly clear, exited.

"Just where do you think you're goin' mister," said a gunman as he drew his rifle on the man.

"Uh, nowhere just wanted to go to the bathroom," Tony stammered.

"Nice try pal, but that ain't gonna work. Back inside or I'll drop you."

Tony shrugged. "Well... if that's what ya want me ta do..." he suddenly turned around and gave the gunman a right cross, causing him to stagger and drop his rifle. As the two continued to throw punches, trying to get the weapon, Aidan turned into the hallway. Seeing the commotion, she tried to turn invisible again. She disappointed to see it work only partially, but decided to use this to her advantage. "Hey, what do you think you're doing in my school," she said in an eerie voice.

The gunman turned and his mouth dropped open. Before the gunman could react to the ghostly image, Tony grabbed the rifle and struck the man on head with the rifle butt. The gunman fell to the ground, insensible. "Well, sometimes Wendy will surprise you with impressions of her favorite ghostly friend," said Tony as Aidan popped back completely visible and make a face.

"Not you too, Tony. Bad enough Bill calls me Artie. Feel like I need a gambler hat every time he says that," she said sighing as she picked up the man in her arms and carried him inside the storage closet. Tony blinked, but remembered the suit gave her enhanced strength, and then stood up with rifle in hand and entered the closet.

"Joke, Aidan... Nevermind, listen, Mr. H's still in his office."

"Yeah, I know, got a holograph. Rutile plans to do something to the school if the judge doesn't listen, but I have a feeling it doesn't matter whether or not Citrine is freed. I managed to get my students out, but I don't know about the rest except there's a gunman in each hallway."

"And this one's lights are out, but there's quite a few we need to take care of, not to mention Rutile. Problem is, we don't have much for defense except for me, you in your fancy underwear ... Hey, what's this?" said Tony, looking at the bottles. He grabbed one with a clear liquid. "'NaCl solution.' What about this Aidan? Anything we can use to knock them out?"

"Well definitely not that, that's salt water," said Aidan. Noticing Tony's questioning look, she continued. "OK, I still balance chemical equations too for fun. But, given the writing on the tag and its location, this must be the chemistry storage closet," said Aidan.

"OK, but what about the other chemicals," said Tony.

Looking at the other bottles, she shook her head. "No, most of these are neutral solutions ... sorry ... won't do anything, and I know they removed the ether and chloroform mixes a few years ago because of explosion and other risks..."

Tony thought for a moment, and remembered something from a science lesson so many years ago. "Explosions... hey, Ade, I remember Mr. H telling us about some sort of element that would explode if it was exposed to water. Showed us too. I think it was a metal of some sort...

"Yeah, I remember those reactions too. They were the three base metals, calcium, sodium and potassium," she said. "Each one reacts differently to water."

"Do you think the school has them still?"

"Those, should. Spinel would keep them in here for experiments to show the students the reactions and dangers of the three..."

The agent looked around and found a bottle with a grayish metal encased in oil. "This one reads potassium."

Aidan grinned, realizing it was the most reactive one. "Perfect. Now, let's set off some fireworks of our own, courtesy of Mother Nature and the magic jammies."

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Outside, Bill was relaying information to another agent heading to the school over the radio, who in turn was not happy Bill butted in when he's supposed to be retired from field duty. He was surprised to see Pam come up and meet him. "Counselor, what are ya doin' here? You're supposed to be keeping Serpentine from making a decision."

Pam frowned. "I know, but he realized that he couldn't stay in recess forever or the defense would try to get a new judge. He had to continue, so I decided to get here and see what I could do to help."

"Well, sweetheart..." He stopped when he saw several students walking out the school toward them. "I think you can help out at least partially."

When they reached the agent, Marci took count. Finding all of them present, she turned to Bill. "Listen, what's going on here? Who are you?"

"Bill Maxwell sweetheart, and you and the class need to get out of the way."

"Now listen, Miss Aidan's still in there and we're worried about her..." said Marci.

Pam frowned, realizing what Bill meant by help, but decided to ease the student's fears. "I'm sure she's fine, guys. There's an FBI agent in there helping out with the case. She should be out soon too. Now, you need to listen to Agent Maxwell and head on down the block as fast as you can."

The class nodded and headed on their way quickly. About five minutes later, Bill and Pam felt a presence behind them. 'Great, Artie's class is as dim as the ones Ralph taught,' thought Bill with a grimace. He started to turn. "Now kids, I told ya that..." he heard Pam gasp and he turned, finding himself face to face with a gun.

"So, you think you can stop Rutile?" said the gunman with a smirk. "Drop you weapon or you'll die. You both are going to pay a visit to the principal's office."

Bill would've taken a swing at the man, but when a second gunman appeared and trained a gun at Pam's head at point blank range also, he realized he had no choice. After Bill dropped his weapon, the gunmen frisked him for other weapons and finding none, made Pam and Bill stand up. As they walked to the school with the gunmen pointing guns at them, Pam could tell that Bill was working out some scenario of his own, to save not only the two of them, but the whole school.