savetheearth | Another one bites the dust [OPEN to LHS students/faculty/staff]

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Another one bites the dust [OPEN to LHS students/faculty/staff]

Who: Sheila, the principal (NPC), and any witnesses!
What: Someone's been found out - and summarily fired.
When: Mid-morning
Where: The halls of Locke High School

Sheila had thought that she'd been doing pretty well. Yeah, sometimes she slips up and her hands glow for a few seconds, and she's certainly obsessively checking her makeup. But it's finally cooling off enough that her questionable fashion choice of long sleeves and gloves is looking less suspicious. So she's so far she assumes that she's in the clear.

So when the principal pulls her into the hall during her first period class, her 'condition' certainly isn't the first thing that springs to her mind. There's a few moments of muffled conversation from outside the door. Then...

"EXCUSE ME?" Anyone who's had the dubious honor of pushing Ms. Go to her limits of patience knows that tone. Though usually it's not quite so loud.

((OOC: Student participation, network posts/regular old cell phone videos about the drama, and rumormongering are all highly encouraged. Particularly about how fast Nick and Karl are going to show up to bail her out. I trust you all can get a few ridiculous rumors out of that, right?))

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Sometime around when Sheila had punched a large hole in a wall of nearby lockers, someone had called the cops. Which is probably a good thing, because currently it looks like the principal's next on her list.

Edited 2014-09-18 23:05 (UTC)

When Nick heard the call to the high school - and more specifically, heard who it was for - he'd left his office pretty much immediately. He might not have been bringing coffee by the school anymore, after Lyall's been fired, but he still liked Sheila. He wasn't going to let her get an arrest record over this.

He was heading out to the parking lot when he ran into Karl, doing the exact same thing. It's not the kind of call either of them would normally answer, but that didn't stop them from pulling into the school, just behind the officers actually responding to it.

No one had ever seen the Deputy Superintendent sprint. At least, not till today. The instant the news came, Karl high-tailed it to his car and ran into a familiar face along the way. Anyone could guess they had the same idea. Seeing as two heads are better than one (and two officers who might actually control the situation, too), they opted to join forces.

This is why both the good detective and deputy superintendent are now making their way through the staff and students and whoever else. It might be an odd sight to any of the more seasoned officers, seeing the two of them come to a call like this, but that matters little right now. The last thing anyone needs is Shelia doing actual harm. Not only would the consequences be unpleasant for her, but for every other numbered.

One brave rookie steps in Karl's path. He almost seems pleased with himself to stop someone unauthorized from coming closer. Not knowing your superior officers won't get you promoted, kid. A stern, authoritative leer comes from Karl. "Step aside, officer. Detective Burkhardt and myself will handle the situation." The officer looks almost ready to retort when his partner chimes in a 'GO RIGHT AHEAD, SIRS' before any further stupidity comes out. Good call.

It's probably already too late to keep this incident from stirring up more anti-numbers sentiment, but they made it more or less in time for Sheila's sake. So long as they act fast. The other cops had ushered the principal out of physical conflict range, but her plasma blasts weren't just for close-combat. And her fists are still glowing brightly, ready to make more smoldering holes like the crater in the lockers on her right. Some of the metal looks melted, where it hasn't been blown away completely.

"It's bad enough you canned Lyall! Who the fuck do you think you are, the Inquisition? You want to make this a witch hunt?!"

Sometimes, it's good to be high ranking, and friends with someone even higher, for the times you want to mosey in on something not in your department.

He shoots the rookie an extremely unimpressed look, but since his partner at least seems to have better sense, says nothing. It's more important to get to Sheila in time than it is to give them officer a hard time.

...or maybe not in time, considering the state of the lockers. But at least it doesn't look like anyone's hurt.

The cops inside gathered around the principal clearly look intimidated by her - and some of them down right scared - but Nick moves unconcernedly past them, well into Sheila's range.

"Sheila," he calls, voice calm. "Look, I know none of this is fair, but doing this isn't going to help."

Lockers and property damage are fine in comparison to an accidental taking of a life. No only would Sheila be painted in a bad light, but all other Numbered, as well. No matter what, defusing the situation needs to happen here and now. Karl's voice holds all the seriousness, if urgency to it as one would expect. That's it, however. No fear, no shouting, no anything else comes across. "He's right. All this is doing is instilling fear in the students who have done nothing to warrant it."

A pause follows before Karl decides that bluntness might be necessary here. Sugarcoating things rarely works. Is it a risk doing it with someone so enraged? Yes. Is it a risk worth taking? Also yes. His voice retains the same serious air upon adding, "Do you want your students to remember you as the monster you've been painted or as the educator you know yourself to be?"

Sheila whirls on the officers, eyes flashing and fists still glowing, only for her rage to be stymied by seeing who, exactly, has come to her aid. She hesitates, glowering at the two of them, before she looks back over at the scene. At the kids crowding the doorways. The other teachers. At Danny and Robyn, now ushered back to 'safety' by the police.

"Shit."

Her expression clears some. With considerable effort and a couple deep breaths, she relaxes, flexing her fingers until the green plasma-glow dissipates. She's not happy, by any stretch of the imagination, but she's more under control. "This is just wrong."

His stance relaxes when Sheila does, and he moves in even closer.

"It is," he agrees quietly. "I'll give you the number of the same lawyer I gave Lyall."

He waits until the green glow has disappeared entirely before he slides an arm around her shoulders. It's honestly more to protect her, just in case one of the other officers decides to take her calming down as an opportunity, but he doesn't really care how it looks at the moment.

"For now, let's get out of here, all right? You could probably use something stronger than coffee."

"At the station. We will have to take you in for questioning." The fact Karl's not reaching for handcuffs and keeps a gentle tone to his voice is indicator enough that the action is mainly for PR. Sheila had endangered lives. Not taking her in will raise more suspicion on all three of them than any of them would care to deal with.

Some of the other teachers seem ready to protest Karl's words (though most of them seem shocked to see a former teacher dressed up in a police uniform and that helps in keeping the protesting to a minimum), but he doesn't give them the chance to. Turning to the officer closest to him, his authoritative tone returns full force. "Miss Go will be taken back to the precinct by myself personally. Clean up the mess here." The officer wastes no time in barking out a 'Yes, sir!'.

Damn. And she really can use a stiff drink right now, too. Somehow she doesn't think she'd be getting it soon, if she has to go in for questioning. Still, she's not about to protest. The anger's given way to hollow disbelief, which is probably the better option, all told. "Yeah. Let's get out of here."

She manages a last, venomous scowl at the principal, and keeps her back straight as she walks out with the two men. She still has her pride, after all.

Danny has the good fortune to be in Ms. Go's first period class, so when he hears her outburst with the principal in the hallway, he winces and rises out of his seat a little. He doesn't know what to do or what's happening--but--

He has to do something, right? If it were anyone else, he might have let it be, but...Ms. Go's a numbers person too, and if there's anything Danny's learned in the past year, it's that they have to help each other out whenever possible, because no one else will.

So he stands up, goes over to the door, and cracks it open a smidge, looking in to the confrontation.

"Uh--sorry, is...everything okay out here? 'Cause we're kinda getting worried. Also, we're taking a test unsupervised."

They're not, but he figures that if the principal thinks the kids might be cheating on a test right now, then Ms. Go will be left alone a lot faster.

The principal did, to his credit, look quite nervous and flustered as he faced down one royally angry Ms. Sheila Go. As in, fists clenched with little flickers of green starting to burst around them angry. But he stood his ground. "Now, Ms. Go, you have to understand that the school board is under a lot of pressure-"

"Bullshit!"

"-and in light of recent information, we have no choice but to let you go." He got out the words in a nervous rush.

"You can not be firing me. This is discrimination! Based on what, rumors? That's- FENTON GET BACK INTO CLASS THIS INSTANT!" She wasn't having any of her students be placed under suspicion, if she could help it.

Unfortunately, her concentration dropped, and her hands burst into glowing green plasma light. The principal took a nervous step back.

Danny's first instinct is to yelp, recoil, and shut the door just as Ms. Go tells him to. But as her fists light up--right there, in front of the principal--he realizes this isn't the time to get scared and stand down. No, this requires some action, some backbone.

So Danny slides out of the classroom and smoothly shuts the door behind him. Can't have any of the students seeing Ms. Go like this, after all. Step one: defuse this before the principal thinks he's under attack (or worse, he actually is).

"Ms. Go," he says, low and calm, "your hands are glowing."

Unfortunately, there's other classrooms in the hall, and there's already a few students and teachers poking their heads out to see what all the fuss is about. Including a couple more of Ms. Go's class crowding around the tiny window in the door to her classroom, though no one except Danny's been brave enough to actually open that door yet, given they're closest to the action.

Sheila grits her teeth and her fists flare brighter. She's not really trying to keep it under wraps anymore. After all, what's the point? Now everyone knows. "Yeah, Fenton, thanks for that update. I'd noticed."

Sensing a potential opportunity, the principal clears his throat. "So, ah, if you'd just collect your belongings and leave, Ms. Go..."

"I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU YET, YOU SPINELESS LITTLE TOAD!" Nope. Sheila's still quite a ways from calm.

Robyn was in Ms. Go's first period class as well, but she hadn't been at the time. She had missed the bus to school this morning and while she had the ability to run pretty fast now, it still left her very late for class. She was going to bomb this test, she knew it.

She was caught up in her thoughts of dread as she approached the classroom and didn't catch on to what was going on until Ms. Go's glowing hands caught her attention. Normally she would have thought glowing plasma hands were pretty cool, but her teacher looked and sounded pretty scary right now.

It was about then that she noticed other people were watching the scene as well and she started to slowly back away toward one of the open classroom doors to watch what was going on and hopefully remain unnoticed.

Oh god, oh god, this is the worst possible time to be in human form, and there's no way for him to slip away and transform, not when he's in the thick of it. He'll have to try and do damage control as best he can without the authority that being a floating dead kid in spandex gives him.

"Ms. Go!" he shouts, pressing himself up against the door to steer clear of her fists. "Don't hurt him--even if he is firing you!"

Sheila's a little too preoccupied to notice one wayward pupil sneaking in late, though Robyn will probably notice there were a couple students with smartphones out already. That couldn't be good.

"THIS ISN'T HURTING, THIS IS YELLING!" Sheila slams her glowing fist into a nearby bay of lockers to prove the point. Unfortunately, she doesn't have anywhere near the control over her powers that the other her once did. Especially when she's this worked up. And her plasma blasts still only have one setting: full power. There's a green flash, an explosion, a screech of metal, and the wall now features a smoking hole. The lockers where her fist hit are slagged in a circle roughly the size of an open umbrella, and the wall behind them has a considerable chunk gouged out of the concrete.

Any classrooms that hadn't had obvious eavesdroppers burst open seconds later as everyone tries to crowd out and catch a glimpse of what's going on.

Oh no, of course people were taking pictures and videos of this. It was something that she had caught herself doing in the past before too, Robyn does her best to stand in their way to try and block them from getting a clear shot of what's going on but she's not exactly very big herself and there's a not a lot she can do to stop them. There was no way she could stop people from getting pictures of this, especially with more students and teachers popping out of classrooms now.

"Uhm-Ms.Go! Please stop!"

Danny, so close to the blast, has to lift his arms up to shield his eyes, and when he lowers them and sees the destruction, he feels a twinge of fear. Not for himself (well, maybe a little bit for himself, but honestly he's half-dead as it is, so what's the worst that could happen?), but for the principal, who is clueless, helpless, powerless, and probably scared out of his mind.

So Danny does the first thing that comes to mind in an attempt to defuse the situation and keep it from escalating any further. He steps out from behind Ms. Go and stands right in front of her, wrapping his arms around her and then tightly clasping his hands in what looks like a strange, arm-confining backwards hug.

"I hate to do this, but...if you try doing that again, you'll have to hurt me before you can get to anything or anyone else."

Well, Danny certainly isn't known for thinking his plans through. He's pretty sure it'll work though--he is about 95% certain that Ms. Go won't incinerate him in an attempt to get at the principal. 90% sure, maybe.

The lockers had been an accident, but Sheila has to admit that the look on the principal's face is very satisfying. For maybe half a minute. Then she has two young voices shouting at her to stop, and one Daniel Fenton stubbornly latched around her middle. She looks down and growls. "Will you get off, Danny? This doesn't concern you!" Her hands are still glowing, but she doesn't make any move to use them again.

Progress, maybe?

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Another one bites the dust [OPEN to LHS students/faculty/staff]

Damage control - CLOSED to Nick and Karl

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