Amanda Sefton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xp_daytripper) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
xp_logs2007-06-02 09:47 am
xp_daytripper) wrote in xp_logs2007-06-02 09:47 am
The Road to Kalfu - The Bus Run
Life - and the bus run - goes on, even with half the school in Las Vegas. At least until things start going terribly wrong.
"I wanna be an American idiot..." Amanda sang along cheerily (but not terribly tunefully) to Green Day, not-quite-blaring out of the speakers as she hit the indicator and began to change lanes in preparation for the exit. They didn't have a lot of passengers this trip, given everyone and their dog practically was in Las Vegas, but it was a sunny day, traffic was... well, not as bad as it could be, and she and Angelo had a day to themselves in the city planned. Lunch, maybe a movie, all that normal date stuff. Life was good. Glancing over at her boyfriend, she grinned. "See, this is why you should come along with this trip more. Shotgun picks radio."
"I come along as often as I can", he protested easily, grinning back. "But yeah, maybe I will. At least every other week - 's good to get out into the city. We could switch off the drivin'."
Amanda pretended to look shocked. "Drive my minivan? I love you, but there's limits you know." She managed to keep the expression all for a second before breaking into laughter.
As it was the last weekend before the end of school, Crystal had stayed in New York just as she had done the previous weekend. A trip with half of the mansion residents would have counted as staying, too, but the thought of moving through Las Vegas on crutches had not been appealing at all. Jennie seemed to be doing well, so there was no reason to actually stay at the mansion all weekend long. Crystal looked out one of the minivan’s windows, paying little attention to the banter between Amanda and Angelo. Only one week to go. Surely Jennie was wrong about the jinx; with all that had happened during the past year, what was the chance that something horrible would happen between now and graduation?
Laurie watched Amanda and Angelo with some amusement, deciding they needed a good teasing for being so cute. "Amanda, what did the school tell you about subjecting our poor virgin eyes to your heathen displays of affection?" she called from the middle of the mini-van. The Brit responded by sticking out her tongue playfully and making a rude noise.
Sooraya listened with some confusion; it had started when Amanda began talking about firearms and radios and only escalated when Laurie had remarked about their actions. "What do you mean, virginize?" she asked, though her question was loud enough to be heard by all the van's denizens.
Angel blinked and then blinked again. "Eyeballs that aren't used to sex?" she offered after a second. "Though, ew, not actually not used to sex because that would be gross but ones that haven't actually seen much. Not too muddled an answer, huzzah!" She grinned at her roommate. "Which is remarkable for me sometimes."
Ah, the unique joys of Xavier's staff and students. Dani was mostly certain that other boarding schools did not quite have these problems or at least not as often. Or something, "No more de-virginizing anything," she pronounced, leaning forward and punching a button on the radio to turn it to a country station. Ah....real music that did not involve yelling. Or blatant sex that might offend someone.
"Hey!" Amanda started, not expecting anyone to actually appear in her peripheral like that. "One, no fucking with the radio, Dani. We have a system, and whoever rides up front with me picks the station and the rest stick with it or put in their bloody iPods. It works. Two, what the fuck are you doing distracting me like that in bloody New York traffic in a fucking mini-van?" She glared at the other girl through the rear-vision mirror. "I swear, pull that shite again and you're walking home."
"She didn't mean anythin' by it", Angelo said quickly, really not wanting an argument to start between two of the chaperones in front of the kids. "But Dani... she's got a point."
Dani sat back, glaring. She never cared what her passengers did, but regardless, Amanda's reaction was too much considering that she was an adult and a fellow chaperone. She was not going to escalate the situation further though and respond, she'd wait until they were somewhere privately. This was why she preferred to drive herself though, but she'd decided to go out with the kids and hang with them for the afternoon and she was going to enjoy it, regardless of Amanda.
It was the distraction between them that led to Amanda's brief yelp as she suddenly slammed both feet down on the brakes. They had just pulled off the ramp and a white van was stopped on the street, beside the parked cars. Strangely, the music suddenly disrupted into a discordant squawk as the van screeched to a stuttering halt, tossing the occupants of the mini-van back and forth. There was the bleat of the horn as Amanda's forehead bounced off the steering wheel.
Before the passengers were even done bouncing from the sudden stop, another white van pulled up beside them and a third behind them, completely boxing in the minivan. Doors flung open and less than a second after the minivan had stopped moving, armed men in black were swarming the vehicle. The heavy muzzle of a semiautomatic machinegun poked through the driver's side window at Amanda's temple as she looked rather dazedly at him, and beside her, another one mirrored it, leaving Angelo staring straight down the barrel. The doors of the van where being yanked open around them.
"Move and you're dead!"
Sooraya had made leaps and bounds when it came to controlling her powers - but her self-control was no match for the sudden stop and shocking appearance of gun-wielding strangers. As soon as the man began barking orders she gave a gasp and then was suddenly 'gone', leaving behind only a shapeless pile of clothing and a pile of sand, which sat still for only a moment before shivering and slipping off the seat to the carpeted mats below.
Guns. Threat. No physical movement was required for Crystal’s instinctive reaction; no movement save for the movement of air. Her broken leg had been jostled, but that thought hadn’t even crossed her mind when a sudden punch of wind erupted from around her resulting in blasts of air forcefully finding their way out each door where these people with guns, whoever they were, were prepared to make good on their threat.
The two men at each of the side doors disappeared backwards with a gasp, smashing back into the vans. The doors at the back of the van were pulled open, and a popping sound like an airgun as a pair of darts suddenly appeared on Crystal's neck. She had barely time to open her mouth before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. More men replaced the ones tossed back, carrying instead of normal guns, strange bulky looking handguns.
"Do what they say!" Dani said quietly, putting her hands up. Even though Angelo was an X-Man, now was not the time for heroics. Not with Crystal unconscious and a group of students. She had hit the panic button on her cell phone, hopefully that would be enough for the moment.
Laurie had hit her panic button the moment Crystal had reacted, eyes wide at the threat to Angelo. She heard Dani saying that they should do what the gunman said but it was all somewhat distant as time seemed to stretch somehow around her, going slowly as her thoughts sped along at a panicked rate. She needed to get control of herself, before her panic transferred to anyone else. She'd been working rather steadily with Mr Haller and Dr. Grey and had a fair control over her subconscious powers use now but it was still wobbly at best. She just hoped she didn't get anyone killed because she used her powers without meaning to.
Angelo had frozen at sight of the gun in his face, working down his own first instinctive reaction. He still wasn't moving... except for the hand creeping slowly to the pocket where his communicator was. "Stay calm, kids", he said levelly. "An' like Dani said... do what they tell you."
"C-c..." Laurie stuttered, pausing to take a deep breath as she saw the man's eyes briefly flick toward her before going back to Angelo. "P-p-please. My friend. C-c..I need to c-c-heck on h-h-her."
She hadn't had this much trouble speaking in some time, but the sheer terror gripping her limbs wasn't making it any easier to speak. If the man would just move that gun away from Angelo, she might be able to breathe. But she wanted to check on Crystal, make sure the other girl was okay.
It took everything Angel had not to look at where Sooraya had vanished from, instead she stared at Crystal and then back and forth to the guys wielding guns. This was not happening, it was not happening. Closing her eyes and opening them didn't help, they were still there and she let out a shaky breath. The problem with her power, really, was right now it was not about fine control--John and the studies with Forge were helping with that but if she let go, everyone got roasted. Instead, she fought down the surge of panic and tears and held her hands up.
She was still somewhat vague from the crack she'd taken from the steering wheel, but the increasing panic of the students was clarifying things to a fine point for Amanda. Keep them safe. "Whatever you want, you can get it without hurting the kids," she told the gunman on her. If only she could do the fucking shielding spell without using her hands, but she didn't dare risk the sudden movement it would take, not when a glance in the rear vision mirror showed guns at the heads of the kids. "You want hostages, take the three of us, leave the kids here."
"Wasting time." One of the men said, even though less than thirty seconds had passed. The men with the strange looking weapons raised them, the same 'pop-pop' sound as the darts struck with great accuracy. In seconds, Dani and the students in the back were unconscious, and Angelo took the next dart. Only the gun a fraction of an inch from Amanda's temples stopped her from reacting as her boyfriend toppled.
"This is de one?" The man holding the gun reached for his pocket, shocking her with his Cajun accent, and pulled out a needle. "Can't have you mojoing up a rescue, petite." He said, stabbing the needle into her neck and injecting her. Barely a second passed before the blackness reached up to pull her down into unconsciousness.
Rapidly, the bodies were transfered from the school minivan to the other vans, dumped like cordwood in the back. Each was searched quickly, and a bag full of cellphones and security cards was dumped back into the vehicle. One of the men pulled off his hood and climbed into the van. "Two hours of driving around before you dump de van. De RFID scrambler is coming off now."
"I know my job." The vehicles pulled away from the curb, white vans going north while the school's minivan turned right and headed into the city. No one had noticed the tiny layer of sand that had trickled out of the minivan and into the bumper of the white van. Less than a minute and a half before, Amanda had slammed on the brakes. Now her van pulled out, with a new driver, and without the slightest sign that anything had ever taken place there.
"I wanna be an American idiot..." Amanda sang along cheerily (but not terribly tunefully) to Green Day, not-quite-blaring out of the speakers as she hit the indicator and began to change lanes in preparation for the exit. They didn't have a lot of passengers this trip, given everyone and their dog practically was in Las Vegas, but it was a sunny day, traffic was... well, not as bad as it could be, and she and Angelo had a day to themselves in the city planned. Lunch, maybe a movie, all that normal date stuff. Life was good. Glancing over at her boyfriend, she grinned. "See, this is why you should come along with this trip more. Shotgun picks radio."
"I come along as often as I can", he protested easily, grinning back. "But yeah, maybe I will. At least every other week - 's good to get out into the city. We could switch off the drivin'."
Amanda pretended to look shocked. "Drive my minivan? I love you, but there's limits you know." She managed to keep the expression all for a second before breaking into laughter.
As it was the last weekend before the end of school, Crystal had stayed in New York just as she had done the previous weekend. A trip with half of the mansion residents would have counted as staying, too, but the thought of moving through Las Vegas on crutches had not been appealing at all. Jennie seemed to be doing well, so there was no reason to actually stay at the mansion all weekend long. Crystal looked out one of the minivan’s windows, paying little attention to the banter between Amanda and Angelo. Only one week to go. Surely Jennie was wrong about the jinx; with all that had happened during the past year, what was the chance that something horrible would happen between now and graduation?
Laurie watched Amanda and Angelo with some amusement, deciding they needed a good teasing for being so cute. "Amanda, what did the school tell you about subjecting our poor virgin eyes to your heathen displays of affection?" she called from the middle of the mini-van. The Brit responded by sticking out her tongue playfully and making a rude noise.
Sooraya listened with some confusion; it had started when Amanda began talking about firearms and radios and only escalated when Laurie had remarked about their actions. "What do you mean, virginize?" she asked, though her question was loud enough to be heard by all the van's denizens.
Angel blinked and then blinked again. "Eyeballs that aren't used to sex?" she offered after a second. "Though, ew, not actually not used to sex because that would be gross but ones that haven't actually seen much. Not too muddled an answer, huzzah!" She grinned at her roommate. "Which is remarkable for me sometimes."
Ah, the unique joys of Xavier's staff and students. Dani was mostly certain that other boarding schools did not quite have these problems or at least not as often. Or something, "No more de-virginizing anything," she pronounced, leaning forward and punching a button on the radio to turn it to a country station. Ah....real music that did not involve yelling. Or blatant sex that might offend someone.
"Hey!" Amanda started, not expecting anyone to actually appear in her peripheral like that. "One, no fucking with the radio, Dani. We have a system, and whoever rides up front with me picks the station and the rest stick with it or put in their bloody iPods. It works. Two, what the fuck are you doing distracting me like that in bloody New York traffic in a fucking mini-van?" She glared at the other girl through the rear-vision mirror. "I swear, pull that shite again and you're walking home."
"She didn't mean anythin' by it", Angelo said quickly, really not wanting an argument to start between two of the chaperones in front of the kids. "But Dani... she's got a point."
Dani sat back, glaring. She never cared what her passengers did, but regardless, Amanda's reaction was too much considering that she was an adult and a fellow chaperone. She was not going to escalate the situation further though and respond, she'd wait until they were somewhere privately. This was why she preferred to drive herself though, but she'd decided to go out with the kids and hang with them for the afternoon and she was going to enjoy it, regardless of Amanda.
It was the distraction between them that led to Amanda's brief yelp as she suddenly slammed both feet down on the brakes. They had just pulled off the ramp and a white van was stopped on the street, beside the parked cars. Strangely, the music suddenly disrupted into a discordant squawk as the van screeched to a stuttering halt, tossing the occupants of the mini-van back and forth. There was the bleat of the horn as Amanda's forehead bounced off the steering wheel.
Before the passengers were even done bouncing from the sudden stop, another white van pulled up beside them and a third behind them, completely boxing in the minivan. Doors flung open and less than a second after the minivan had stopped moving, armed men in black were swarming the vehicle. The heavy muzzle of a semiautomatic machinegun poked through the driver's side window at Amanda's temple as she looked rather dazedly at him, and beside her, another one mirrored it, leaving Angelo staring straight down the barrel. The doors of the van where being yanked open around them.
"Move and you're dead!"
Sooraya had made leaps and bounds when it came to controlling her powers - but her self-control was no match for the sudden stop and shocking appearance of gun-wielding strangers. As soon as the man began barking orders she gave a gasp and then was suddenly 'gone', leaving behind only a shapeless pile of clothing and a pile of sand, which sat still for only a moment before shivering and slipping off the seat to the carpeted mats below.
Guns. Threat. No physical movement was required for Crystal’s instinctive reaction; no movement save for the movement of air. Her broken leg had been jostled, but that thought hadn’t even crossed her mind when a sudden punch of wind erupted from around her resulting in blasts of air forcefully finding their way out each door where these people with guns, whoever they were, were prepared to make good on their threat.
The two men at each of the side doors disappeared backwards with a gasp, smashing back into the vans. The doors at the back of the van were pulled open, and a popping sound like an airgun as a pair of darts suddenly appeared on Crystal's neck. She had barely time to open her mouth before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. More men replaced the ones tossed back, carrying instead of normal guns, strange bulky looking handguns.
"Do what they say!" Dani said quietly, putting her hands up. Even though Angelo was an X-Man, now was not the time for heroics. Not with Crystal unconscious and a group of students. She had hit the panic button on her cell phone, hopefully that would be enough for the moment.
Laurie had hit her panic button the moment Crystal had reacted, eyes wide at the threat to Angelo. She heard Dani saying that they should do what the gunman said but it was all somewhat distant as time seemed to stretch somehow around her, going slowly as her thoughts sped along at a panicked rate. She needed to get control of herself, before her panic transferred to anyone else. She'd been working rather steadily with Mr Haller and Dr. Grey and had a fair control over her subconscious powers use now but it was still wobbly at best. She just hoped she didn't get anyone killed because she used her powers without meaning to.
Angelo had frozen at sight of the gun in his face, working down his own first instinctive reaction. He still wasn't moving... except for the hand creeping slowly to the pocket where his communicator was. "Stay calm, kids", he said levelly. "An' like Dani said... do what they tell you."
"C-c..." Laurie stuttered, pausing to take a deep breath as she saw the man's eyes briefly flick toward her before going back to Angelo. "P-p-please. My friend. C-c..I need to c-c-heck on h-h-her."
She hadn't had this much trouble speaking in some time, but the sheer terror gripping her limbs wasn't making it any easier to speak. If the man would just move that gun away from Angelo, she might be able to breathe. But she wanted to check on Crystal, make sure the other girl was okay.
It took everything Angel had not to look at where Sooraya had vanished from, instead she stared at Crystal and then back and forth to the guys wielding guns. This was not happening, it was not happening. Closing her eyes and opening them didn't help, they were still there and she let out a shaky breath. The problem with her power, really, was right now it was not about fine control--John and the studies with Forge were helping with that but if she let go, everyone got roasted. Instead, she fought down the surge of panic and tears and held her hands up.
She was still somewhat vague from the crack she'd taken from the steering wheel, but the increasing panic of the students was clarifying things to a fine point for Amanda. Keep them safe. "Whatever you want, you can get it without hurting the kids," she told the gunman on her. If only she could do the fucking shielding spell without using her hands, but she didn't dare risk the sudden movement it would take, not when a glance in the rear vision mirror showed guns at the heads of the kids. "You want hostages, take the three of us, leave the kids here."
"Wasting time." One of the men said, even though less than thirty seconds had passed. The men with the strange looking weapons raised them, the same 'pop-pop' sound as the darts struck with great accuracy. In seconds, Dani and the students in the back were unconscious, and Angelo took the next dart. Only the gun a fraction of an inch from Amanda's temples stopped her from reacting as her boyfriend toppled.
"This is de one?" The man holding the gun reached for his pocket, shocking her with his Cajun accent, and pulled out a needle. "Can't have you mojoing up a rescue, petite." He said, stabbing the needle into her neck and injecting her. Barely a second passed before the blackness reached up to pull her down into unconsciousness.
Rapidly, the bodies were transfered from the school minivan to the other vans, dumped like cordwood in the back. Each was searched quickly, and a bag full of cellphones and security cards was dumped back into the vehicle. One of the men pulled off his hood and climbed into the van. "Two hours of driving around before you dump de van. De RFID scrambler is coming off now."
"I know my job." The vehicles pulled away from the curb, white vans going north while the school's minivan turned right and headed into the city. No one had noticed the tiny layer of sand that had trickled out of the minivan and into the bumper of the white van. Less than a minute and a half before, Amanda had slammed on the brakes. Now her van pulled out, with a new driver, and without the slightest sign that anything had ever taken place there.