groovygamers.com

Friday, the end of the week.  Alicia is looking forward to the weekend, but by the end of her second class can't get the subtle stink of something out of her nose.  It smells like oily pavement right after a hard rain in summer.  Hot, sickly sweet, and something like mold.

It seems to be all over, not concentrated in any one place really.  At lunch she finally comes across a couple of people sitting together that stink of it.  They're not really dirty looking, mostly regular looking.  Perhaps they all walked through it, but they carry the smell a little heavier than anyone else.

At first, Alicia dismisses it as left-over from the sprinkler malfunction. After a while, though, the overwhelming odor starts to rub her raw. She stalks the hallways, speaking shortly to any questions and generally acting cross.

She tries hard to find the source of the smell. Is it coming the furniture, the floors, the people? The other students are treated to the strange sight of Alicia moving around and sticking her head in unlikely places, her nose twitching and her face pinched.

At lunch, once Alicia notices the pair, she parks herself within line-of-sight and proceeds to study them, the way a lion lying in the grass stares at the herd in the distance. She doesn't touch her food; the smell has pretty much killed her appetite.

She tries to figure out who the two are; what grade they're in, what group or clique they belong to.

The pair are joined by four more before the end of lunch.  At least two band kids, a geek she recognizes from one of the geek gatherings she tailed Logan to, a football player, and a guy that looks familiar.

OOC: Make an Int roll, add any bonus she has for Eidetic memory *snicker*

OOC: Pbpbpbpbt! :P (1d20+1=3) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2236062/) Are the new arrivals markedly odorous too?

Int check (no eidetic memory) (1d20+1=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2236072/)  


Sammy looks back and forth between the table and Alicia.  Not sure what to do, but wanting to be in position to intercept
intercept what?, Sammy moves past the table and says hi to the people she knows.  Then she starts walking in as direct a line as possible from that table toward Alicia, keeping her eyes on Alicia the whole time.

"Hey girl," she says, as she gets closer to Alicia.  "Whats up?"

Even though she's sitting still, Alicia looks... tense, edgy, twitchy. Sammy can feel the pressure of Alicia's gaze on her even through the girl's shades.

"Hey," she replies, flatly. She nods her head at the other table. "Know those guys?"

OOC: I need simple physical descriptions of the first two so that Alicia can point them out to Sammy.

OOC:  not ignoring you.  I don't know if Sammy smells bad too.

OOC: No worries, and hey, thanks for reminding me. Yeah, GM, does Sammy carry the funk, too?

Sammy has certainly been close to one of the people that smells, but doesn't bear the stink herself.  All of the people at that table smell of whatever it is.

Sammy knows Heather and Bill, the other band kid at the table.  She recognizes the geek, but only in so much as she's seen him around.  The football player is in her Social Studies class, and is rock stupid.  And she too recognizes the last boy, but can't quite put her finger on where she knows him from.

The group of them sit together, quietly eating their lunches.  Not speaking.

OOC: I'll let Sammy respond before saying anything.

"Yeah.  That's my friend Heather, and the guy next to her is Bill -- they're both in band.  The jock is in one of my classes, and I've seen the geek around.  I think I know the other guy, but I don't remember how."  Her brow furrows.  "Do I need to get Heather away from there?  Things kind of shifted around some this year, but she has always been one of my best friends.  I'll be in her wedding and she'll be in mine kind of friends."

Alicia's head doesn't move from her intent gaze as she says, "They stink."

Belatedly realizing how lame she sounds, Alicia shakes her head slightly, clearly vexed. "There's this smell in the shcool today. At first I thought it was just left over from the sprinkler accident, but it's everywhere."

She clenches her jaw as she continues. "It's bad, like rotting rubber. And the funk is strongest on them." She gestures again at the four on the table. "It's either coming from them, or they were closest to where it came from."

Sammy's hand flies up over her mouth in concern.  "Oh no... she wasn't acting right earlier, she said she wasn't feeling right.  She and Bill are both in pep band with me, do you think they got sick from the water?  Could it be a sickness kind of smell?  A lot of people got wet."

Sammy's anxiety sharpens Alicia's demeanor. She shakes her head curtly. "Dunno. I've never smelled anything like it before. Don't smell of sick, just... wrong.

Alicia's hands, resting on the table, clench into fists. "Mr. H cleared the sprinkler water, so it can't be that, right? Maybe they're involved with the Love/Hate Goo thing. I know I've seen that one, " she nods to the geek in the group, "hanging around that Logan guy. He could be playing on the other team."

"Logan... don't worry about Logan right now, ok?  And Heather wouldn't be messed up in that Love Goo stuff, not on purpose anyhow.  If she is, something was done to her; she's not acting like she's been Gooed, she's just off like she's getting her period.  She was a target of the Bee Guy before I caught his eye..."  Sammy's voice trails off as she looks closer at the guy she couldn't quite place.  Bee Boy?

OOC: No, he's taller and skinnier.  You're sure it was some gathering when you saw him though.

"I'm going to go sit with them," Sammy says abruptly.  "I can't leave Heather in trouble.  If I sit over there, maybe I can figure out what it is, ok?  If I'm close enough, maybe I can protect her, or get her out of here if I need to do that.  In the meantime, get Syl or Colin or Donnie to look.  Maybe they can see what it is"  She pats Alicia on the shoulder, pastes a fake unconcerned smile on her face, then goes over to sit next to Heather and Bill.

Alicia shakes her head again. "Nope, Heather's not on the rag. That ain't it."


Alicia's lips thin, but she can't come up with a good enough argument in time to stop her friend. As Sammy approaches the table, Alicia fishes her phone out of her bag without looking and punches a quick text to Sylvia.


Syl. weird alert. need quiet bkp. lunch rm.

Sammy makes her way to the table and sits down.  The group exchange some looks.  "Everyone, this is my friend Samantha."  Heather says.  They reply with "Hi." in a unison that almost makes Sammy's skin crawl.  "Sam, you know Bill.  That's Bryce, he's on the school paper.  That's Brent, he's a musician...."  Heather continues to introduce the others, but Sammy's mind leaps to Brent.  He's the keyboardist that auditioned in her garage for the band the same day Rhys did. 

OOC: Alicia gets the rest of the names;

Brent is the Geek
Heather is the Band Girl
Bill is the Band Guy
Clark is the Football Player

Alicia's phone develops a new font--Sylvia's handwriting, in pink.

On my way.

And in a few minutes the phone alerts Alicia again.

All right.  I'm here.  What do you need?

Sylvia is nowhere in sight.

Sammy smiles and chirps happily at Brent. "I know you! Keyboard, right?"  She doesn't look like she expects much of an answer.  She opens up her lunch bag and pulls out a short, wide container.  "Aha!" she says as she pulls it out, "Leftover stew.  Yum.  And cake!"  She's on full alert.

Alicia's eyebrow quirks. Showoff, she thinks wryly, assuming Syl's got her brain radio on.

She quickly sketches the situation in her mind's eye for Syl's benefit. The everpresent smell around the school, its intensifying on the four at the table, their odd behavior. Her mental picture of the table draws circles around Brent and Heather. Brent gets a note associating him with Logan's hangers-on with a "potential bad guy" tag, and Heather gets an "is friend of(?)" link to Sammy.

Heather is definitely a friend of Sammy's, Sylvia confirms.  Jesus, those guys are acting weird.

She pauses, full of misgivings.  Hey, do me a favor?  If I read them and start acting like a plant person, would you look in my bag and find the business card in my wallet?  Call the number.  Just tell him what's going on.  If he doesn't know what to do, call Eagle's Nest and ask for Seer, please?

Uh, sure, Alicia thinks back with cheerful sarcasm, It might help for me to know where the hell you are, though. I mean, sure, I could track you down by the smell of that cheap underarm deodorant you use, but since time could be of the essence...

The grin in Alicia's mind is of Cheshire proportions.

"Cheap?"  Suddenly Sylvia is next to Alicia, visible only to her.  She sniffs her pits.  "What brand do you use?"

It was probably stupid to come over here.  I could get hurt if something bad is going on and I'm smack in the middle of it. Better eat dessert first.

Sammy uses the plastic fork thoughtfully packed by her mother to break off a largish bite of angel's food cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  She puts it on a napkin and slides it over to Heather.  "Want some?  It's really good.  My Mom made it yesterday."

"No."  Heather says.  "Thank you."

Sammy shrugs.  "More for me!"  She picks up a big strawberry, licks the whipped cream off the end, and proceeds to thoroughly enjoy it. 

There is no conversation at the table as they eat lunch.  Sylvia feels the volume of the noise rise and fall as the four students eat.

OOC: Make an Int Roll DC 16 Sylvia

Could they possibly be communicating with one another? Are Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy sitting there, too? (1d20+2=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2237361/)

Sylvia probes the noise cautiously, trying to find a way into it, a way to understand it.

It causes a headache to focus on the noise intently.  It's certainly coming from the four at the table though.

Sylvia flashes Alicia a wary look.  "There's something seriously wrong with these four five.  Like, take-me-to-your-leader wrong.  I'm getting nothing but screeching."

Alicia does a masterful job of hiding her flinch. Ah-ah, I'm not revealing my beauty secrets, she stays with mind-talking. Her rep is too carefully maintained to risk having people notice her talking to thin air.

So, I'm assuming you're really here and masking yourself to everybody else. Good. Start with those two, she mentally points to the two who were there first, then work your way to Heather. Warn me if anything physical is imminent. I need to make sure I get there in time to cover Sam. Heck, might as well have her tune in the brain-radio.


Great. Now what? Alicia moans inwardly, We can't confront them here. Too high a risk of collateral damage. Let Sam know the danger. Maybe she can lure Heather or the other band kid somewhere private and we can check them out more thoroughly.

Sylvia taps Sammy's brain.  Your buddy, and the other four, are making funny mental noises at each other.  My guess:  they're really pod people.  Alicia wants to know if you can lead Heather, or one of the others, away from the group so we can check them out more thoroughly.

Sammy feels a surge of panic about Heather.  Oh God.  Yeah.  I think I can find a reason to get Heather to go with me.  Hold on one.

Sammy reaches for something and with a little help from her powers "accidentally" knocks over a bottle of juice so it spills on both Heather and herself.  She jumps up and back.  "Oh man!  I'm so sorry!  What a mess..."  She grabs Heather's elbow.  "Guys, watch our stuff, ok, we need to go to the restroom and get this out so we don't dry all sticky... come on Heather."  The powers are used again to prompt Heather up and out of her seat.  There's a lot of pressure on the girl's elbow so she might not notice the slight lift from behind.

Sylvia issues a quick summons to John, like setting off the supersonic signal on her watch.  He has the most medical experience of them all.  She fills him in on the details as she scampers invisibly after Sammy and Heather.

Alicia glances at the girls as they set off, but remains in her seat. She figures Sammy and Sylvia should be able to take care of anything that might come up.

Her attention, visual and aural, stays firmly on the table.

Heather had almost no shock reaction to the spill.  She does get up with Sammy's urging and go with her to the bathroom.  As Sammy wets paper towels and cleans up the mess Heather just stands there and lets her.  "It's really not something you should make a big deal about Sam."  she says.

***

It's like she's doped up from the way she's acting, but there is a bigger problem.  John's thoughts are not a shock to hear.  Sylvia can pinpoint him in the adjacent room to the girls restroom that Heather and Sammy are in.  There is something in Heather.  It looks like some kind of, it looks like a snake or a large worm.  Coiled around her spine, just below her heart.

One moment please, Sylvia replies with the glacial calm of a recorded phone message.  Invisible, she performs a peculiar little oh-my-fucking-god shudder, kind of like Sylvester the Cat with a finger plugged into an electrical outlet.  Okay.  That's out of my system.

Oh, Sammy?  Sylvia transmits the salient facts.

{wordless mental freak out}   Sammy's hands and voice tremble as they clean off Heather.  "It's the least I can do.  I made the mess, I should clean it up, right?"  She gets some more paper towels from the dispenser.  ohmigodohmigodohmigod I had a horrible dream last night {no words again, just memories of the dream -- black worms biting at Sammy, Sammy bleeding music, a worm trying to crawl down Sammy's throat} That's what has happened to Heather ohmigod--.  She clamps a hand over her mouth and dashes to an open stall.  Words spill out in a hurry before something else does.

"You were smart not to eat that cake I think there was something wrong--"  ::RALPH::*



*technicolor yawn  ;)

Alicia sees all of the remaining people at the table look up as though they heard an interesting sound.  Then they all look at the keyboard player.  He nods, and they get up and begin to leave the cafeteria.  Assuming Alicia follows them it's not hard to guess they're heading towards the bathroom where Heather and Sammy are.  The keyboard player begins to take a wooden box out of his back pack as they go.  The box is black, and carved with intricate patterns.

Alicia calls out in her head, hoping Sylvia is scanning, You've got incoming. The glee club's gotten up and are heading in Sam's direction. I'll try for a distraction.

She flows silently up to the group and hip-checks the box-carrier, using the distraction to slip the box out from his hands.

OOC: Sleight of Hand (1d20+10=12) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2252188/) Crap. I hate you, InvisibleCastle. :P

OOC: Don't you have the FEAT that lets you take 10 on that skill?

Sylvia frowns, unwilling to break cover to hold Sammy's hair out of her way.  Pull it together, soldier, she says, not without compassion.  The others are coming.

Then she reaches out to John.  The other pod people are on their way.  Her own stomach is a little cinched up at the vivid image of some kind of parasite in these kids.  Hey, John?  It's just them, right?  It's not that they're just the first.  We don't all have these things growing in us, do we?

Others?  Noooo...  Sammy does her best to pull it together.  She washes her face off with icy cold water.  "Gah," she says, a bit unsteadily.  "I hate when that happens.  Let's go out in the hall.  More room to fall down if I pass out."  I don't want to be cornered in here, Syl.  I'm trying to get out.

Sylvia bites her lip and waits until Heather's back is turned.  Then she pushes the bathroom door open for sound effect and tries to tap Ginny's talent for dramatic entrances.  "Oh my god.  There you are, Sammy.  You look like crap," she blathers.  "I mean, sorry, but you know:  crap.  Are you okay?  Nick came by the news room looking for you.  It seemed pretty important.  You better, like, splash some water on your face--no, never mind that.  Too important.  Let's go!"

They all have them.  And there is one in the box.  We're clean though.  John has moved into the hall, and Sylvia can see the cascade of thoughts as he quickly examines objects that might be used as non-lethal weapons, how much force he can safely apply to a person without snapping them like a twig, at what velocity a human connecting with concrete amounts to severe bodily injury, how sturdy the floors are, the fact that Sylvia doesn't have Alicia's reflexes or Sammy's force fields to protect her and how much distance he can cross in under a second.

The others come around the corner and begin to move towards the bathroom door.

OOC: Assuming that Alicia continued to move past them after her failed attempt to dislodge the box, does she keep moving, or is she falling behind them?  Oh yeah, and just to be on the safe side.  Everyone roll Initiative.

Oh, hell, Sylvia tells Sammy.  It's on.

Just in case. (1d20+2=21) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2252313/)

Call for help.  I'll try to keep you safe.  Agonizing thoughts about having to sacrifice Heather race through Sammy's mind as she preps herself to do exactly that if it means keeping herself and Sylvia safe.  How hard do you have to hit someone to knock them out cold?  Its the only way I can keep Heather safely on my side of the air walls.

Sylvia has no answer for that.  The only way she has to keep Heather unconscious is maybe to make her feel sleepy.  I think she'll be okay on the other side of the walls, actually.  They probably won't hurt her as long as she's got the worm in her.  She's one of them.  And John's next door.  The problem is really more like, 'How do we get the worms out of them?'  Colin?

Find something that irritates them, but doesn't bother us.  Did Heather shy away from anything she might normally have eaten or drank?  John broadcasts, a corner of his thoughts settling on slowing his breathing, relaxing the muscles in his neck and shoulders, and putting himself at the edge of what he mentally perceives as a dark and deep expanse.  Violence.

OOC: D'oh! You're right! Hah! Take that, InvisibleCastle! *Nestor bites his thumb*

Crap. Never mind. Events have moved beyond that point. Sigh.

Alicia skips out in front of the group, blocking the way.

"Wat'ch'a got in here, huh?" she asks in a challenging tone, pointing at the box. "Better not be your stash. School's got a pretty stiff ZT policy, y'know?"

OOC: Initiative! (1d20+4=9) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2252368/)  InvisibleCastle hates me back. :P

Sylvia has become such a glutton for danger that she almost forgot Sammy's sensible suggestion to call for help.  She sends out the signal, focusing particularly on Sarah, Donnie, and Alicia--their combatants.  Possible trouble at girls' bathroom.  The warning is almost a diagram, pinpointing their location and providing a schematic of the strange insectile creatures and the creepy pod people.  Nonlethal suppression required.  John and Sammy already on scene.  The mental image highlights the box John's seen.  They're starting a recruitment drive.


And Alicia's taking them on single-handedly. Sylvia sounds wry.  Let's hope Rhys can suck one of those things out of her if they try to pin her down and force-feed her.

They ignore Alicia and part to move around her, almost like they're of one uniform mind.

Are we going to them or letting them come to us?  John inquires.

Let's get them out of the school, Sylvia advises with a level authority that has more to do with the need for immediate decision than the need for immediate obedience.  Alicia, John, can you grab the box and head to--  Who's their go-to guy for alien invasion?  --Jack's?

I'm not worried about those guys hurting her.  I'm worried about her trying to hurt us if she's inside the bubble with me and you... yes, get Colin.  Donnie too, in case this is some kind of magic thing.  Get everybody.

Sammy pushes open the bathroom door.


(OOC: Assuming Sylvia is now a party line)
I offered to share my dessert with her and she turned it down.  I don't remember her doing that before.  It was cake, with strawberries and whipped cream on it.  She's not so excited about this weekend either -- we're going to hear some music.  Band practice was all wrong yesterday... hey.  She and Bill and the keyboard guy are all musicians.  That dream I had, I was bleeding music when the worms bit me.  Music?

And they're making some kind of mental noise, Sylvia says.  It might disrupt their communications if Sammy and I try to drown them out.

Alicia stands stock still for a second as Sylvia's mental image gives her some inkling of what's going on. There's a spike of panic that transmits back to Sylvia along with a frantic thought, S**t, Syl! The whole goddamn school smells of these f**kers! How many of them are there?

Dead serious this time, Alicia foregoes subtlety and leaps out, intent on grabbing the box out of the boy's hands.

OOC: I'm assuming this is an attack so... Attack! (1d20+4=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2252381/)

Aw, crap, Sylvia tells Sammy, a little panicked by Alicia's sudden, unexpected inclination to do what Sylvia suggested.  Are we doing this?  Are we trying to stun them now?

Sammy is equally thrown off stride.I thought we-- but then she-- poor impulse control strikes again.  I don't know how we're supposed to stun them.  For lack of any other constructive idea, she channels Snow White as portrayed in Shrek 3, starting out with a sweet little song about the birdies and gentle forest creatures, then switching to Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.  She thinks the song while she loudly and defiantly belts it out, hoping Sylvia can somehow push it mentally and that the combination might shout down worm-communications.  On a more practical note, she also puts up an air wall between her, Sylvia, Heather, and the infected guys.

Alicia's plan is clear in her mind for Sylvia's sake.

The school hallway offers too much of a risk of collateral damage. The box is likely to be a valuable enough goad to draw the infected posse away to somewhere a bit more private and suitable for any physical interaction.

After twitching from the info-dump download from his girlfriend, Donnie bolts out of the Library, thankfully close to the cafeteria and bathrooms. He zips around the corner, finger pointed with thumb cocked as if he were carrying a gun, resting in the palm of his other hand.

Gravity ready to lighten their loads, baby. Give the word..

OOC: For the sake of the story, I'm assuming that Donnie comes around the corner that Alicia is heading to, away from the possessed kids.

Alicia thinks furiously, Syl! Have Donnie do that zero-G trick of his on the Boys from Brazil and then Sam can push the lot of them easily out somewhere safe!

Sarah, having won initiative, has made in ahead of the gabbling blond clique of sophomores and moves slowly in the lunch line towards her chocolate milk and a ham sandwich.  Suddenly she gets the M.I.M* from Sylvia and heads out the door on the run, vanishing at the first clear spot and appearing behind Donnie in the quiet hallway from the Library. 


OOC:
* = Mental Instant Message  if you couldn't guess.

Unless Sylvia's schematic is good enough for a port guide?  In which case, Sarah heads for an empty bathroom stall.

Oh and an initiative - I forgot - 1d20+6=24 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253031/)

Sylvia, figuring that it doesn't matter what she transmits as long as it's good and loud, passes the request on to Donnie at a high, rising volume.  GET THEM AIRBORNE!  All she has to do is make enough psychic noise to override the alien shrilling, right?  She does her best to make herself heard all the way in Arizona.

Dear Sir or Madam:  PLEASE CONSIDER THIS MY APPLICATION TO THE ALPHA SQUAD PROGRAM . . . !

init: 1d20+1=21 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253028/)

"Bang Baby!" The cluster of pod-people students are now 180 lbs lighter. If Alicia was in the mix, she is too since Donnie is affecting all the students in the cluster.

My fate roll sense is tingling... (1d20=5) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253034/)

1st roll, using air to push, no bonuses added; 2nd roll, is the singing is doing anything? (1d20=19, 1d20=14) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253076/)

or just use the two rolls for whatever...

"...we come from the land of ice and snow...""...we come from the land of ice and snow..."

Donnie and Alicia round the corner at the same time, in opposing directions.  Donnie does his Popper routine and the collected mass of students begin to slip and fall, upwards.

Sarah, guided by the telepathic map Sylvia gave out, arrives in the bathroom as Sammy is exiting.  Heather is being tugged along, but Sarah can see the motion forming as her free hand comes up, she's not sure why she knows it's a motion that means violence, but she does.  Heather is about to do something unpleasant to Sammy.

When Sammy starts to sing, the smooth floors and walls act to bounce and sustain the sounds.  Some of the notes seem to cause them a degree of discomfort, and it wont be long before Sammy figures out which ones annoy them the most.

The wind howling down the halls begins to send the floating students towards the double doors which lead to the rear parking lot.  Colin steps from one of the class rooms right before the doors as Alicia  begins the long straight away towards the doors.  He sees the box, and as pretty as it's carvings are, he's confused why anyone would make a magic box that says DO NOT OPEN on it.  Then he sees several students sailing down the hall, bouncing like balloons as a stiff wind pushes them along.

Laney opens the door to step back inside.  She had the strangest feeling that she left something in her car, and walked out to get it.  In the parking lot it dawned on her that she hadn't driven.  As she pulls the door open she sees Alicia and Colin, and then her attention is caught by the student balloons bouncing along the ceiling, and the cool breeze blowing out of the building.

Laney lets out a startled yelp. The exit widens as the girl clings to the door, pulling it open when she steps back in surprise.

Balloons are so magical, rising into a blue sky at the whim of the wind to some mysterious, unreachable place.
The only problem is: these aren't balloons.  And when they fall -

"Allywhyarepeoplefloating?"

Then she sways, quickly shifting her gaze to her feet to regain her own equilibrium.



Edit:
In case it's needed for Init. or whatever:
1d20 → [2] = (2)
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253647/
Good thing.  She was going to shut the door again.

Alicia feels the rush of air behind her and glances back to see the possessed posse imitating a Macy's parade. With a maniacal grin, she leads the procession towards the doors.

When she senses Colin's presence, she waves the box at him as she goes by. "Gotta present for you! C'mon! Bring Donnie!"



Alicia replies with a gleeful tone and machine-gun delivery, "Badguys! Herding them out of the school so people don't get hurt! Keep the door open and stay clear!" She leaps down the steps with a whoop and out into the parking lot, still holding the box.

Colin raises an eyebrow.

"It looks like you guys have got everything under control. What about a little recap?" he says as he strides behind her.

There's a squeaked, "Badguys?"

Ohmygod, they're doing this?  Um...windows...kids in classrooms watching...Watching what?  

Alas, invisibility is not one of Laney's superpowers. All but cowering behind the door she holds open, staring up at the building her side is pressed against.  Staring up and hoping everyone inside, anyone who could interfere, just happens to be distracted at this moment.

Sammy keeps singing and pushing.  She's focused on what lies in front of her, and isn't paying too much attention to Heather so long as Heather is still moving in the right direction.  She doesn't notice Heather getting ready to hurt her.

OOC:  will stay like this, to give OS a chance

"What? Miss Mental didn't send you the info-dump?"

Panting slightly, either from exertion or excitement, Alicia relates, "According to John, these guys got passengers, some sort of icky slugs, in 'em. All I know is they smell totally off. Sam got one of them off to the side and the rest looked like they were going to mob her. One of 'em was taking out this box so I thought it'd be better out of their hands. I figure you and Donnie can get some idea what's so important about it.

"We're leading the group out of the school in case things get ugly. Hopefully it's all of them. I'd hate to have to do a live reenactment of the mob scene from The Faculty."

Donnie follows along, maintaining the spell and keeping his Student Float Exhibition lighter than air..

Once outside, Alicia stops to consider her options.

OOC: Alicia should know of somewhere nearby that's reasonably private and safe from collateral damage.

"C'mon!" she directs Donnie and Colin. "We'll take them somewhere out of the way and 'discuss' the situation with them."

OOC:  Donnie has them floating, but Sammy is the one doing the pushing.  If she is attacked by Heather, she won't be pushing anymore, so the rats might not be following Alicia's Pied Piper... want to wait for opensesame's action before you get much further along?

OOC: Roger. Awaiting further developments with worm on tongue. Bated breath.

OOC: Work is really crimping my style.


So she was all like, 'Don't taze me bro I'm one of the good alien parasites that take over people' and I'm all like *Zot!* *Zot!* *Zot!*


Sarah's staff springs to life and strikes forward towards PodHeather. 
OOC:
Beating on the HeatherPod (1d20+4=18) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2253916/)

IC:
Sarah wonders as she attacks about how much she takes on faith with her friends.  But if I didn't believe in them, we wouldn't be friends.

Sarah cracks Heather with her staff, and the girl squeals, and then falls to the floor, obviously about to vomit, or at least trying to.

Sammy is not too distracted by Heather's collapse that she drops her powers, but she will have to stop singing OR stop pushing if she intends to stay and help Heather.

Laney is looking up, hoping everyone that might see is looking at something else.


***New Round***
Sarah is up.  For simplicity Sammy is sharing Sylvia's Initiative (unless I missed seeing the roll)

Sylvia, Sammy, Donnie are next in the queue.

Alicia is slow on the uptake, and for simplicity Colin will be sharing her initiative unless I missed seeing the roll.

Laney is last, but I have the feeling she wont be doing anything tangible so that works.

Sammy stops singing.  There is a mighty heave, and the floaters are pushed hard toward Alicia and whoever is near her.

"Heather!"  Sammy spins to grab her afflicted friend from behind, by the shoulders.  She sincerely hopes that the gagging means the worm is being evicted.  "Let it out, girl, it's okay, I've got your back."

Sarah deflates for a moment of guilt and doubt.  This is Sam's friend and I smacked her down.  This sucks.  Will she remember and hate me?  But she didn't really see me do it anyway.  Oh yeah like that makes it all better.  But she was going to do something to Sammy!  Maybe she still will though... Not Heather but whatever!

"Careful Sam.  Whatever is running the show in there was about to try something on you."

And I've got your back.

Donnie keeps the floaters floating, walking nonchalantly behind the group of floating students as if it were an everyday occurance, his blonde hair waving in the stiff breeze.

Ms Jameson nods.  "Oh-- okay.  I'll be careful.  If something like a black worm comes out of her, squish it, ok?"

Alicia deftly walks backwards, pacing the group.

She glances over at Donnie. "We need to keep them controlled, and you'll need to focus on other stuff." She rummages in her backpack and retrieves a packet of zip ties.

"Can you drop them one at a time? I'll truss them up to make sure they behave," she says with an anticipatory smile.

Colin takes a good look at the floating students' auras and at the strange box with his ghost sight. They've seen weird things this year, but this is a new level of weird.


"Uhm. I'm not sure about that. Stay on the safe side and don't let it touch you, just in case."

Sylvia figures Sarah and Sammy have this under control.  "You got her?"  She doesn't wait for an answer as she steps out to chase down Donnie, Alicia, and the others.

Sylvia's rapid departure surprises Sammy.  She looks up at Sarah.  "You're not gonna bolt too, are you?"

Sarah shakes her head.  "Pff.  As if.  I wont ditch my traveling buddy.  Sylvia knows we can handle just about anything that comes along.  She's probably more worried about the big picture.  She does that.  It's a good thing.  If she weren't so bitchy she'd be an awesome leader."  Sarah blushes and groans, "Aw crap she probably heard that didn't she?  Love and kisses?" 

Sarah sighs and keeps her eyes on Heather. 

On a different mental channel?  Hey Morpheus?  Ever deal with mind control critters inside someone's guts before?  We seem to have.. well at least one.

Donnie purses his lips. "Um, not really, but I'll add weight back onto them until they float down within reach of you, if you jump. If they give trouble, I'll float them higher again."

Alicia smirks at Donnie's warning as she deposits the suspicious box at his feet. "They'll be no trouble at all. Just keep them steady," she adds, a feral grin stretching her mouth.

She readies herself. As soon as the group looks ready, Alicia leaps up to the jock, zip-ties clenched in her teeth.

OOC: The plan is obviously to grapple, subdue and restrain. Alicia's not looking to hurt them, but won't hesitate to defend herself if any one of them wants to get rough. Let me know what I need to roll.

I have a question.  See OOC chat.[color]

Heather begins to cry, "Sam, what's happening?"  she chokes out between heaves of her chest.  Then, with a sound all too familiar to some people the contents of her stomach finally come free, and with them the worm.  It's black, perhaps as big around as a pencil and about six inches.  It has about fifty little tendrils, which seem to be retracting into it's body, and it looks to be twitching.

It's a Terikal Worm.  Morpheous says.  They are a parasite from the Pe'Niq Galaxy.  I am surprised there are any this far from home.  Your staff must have stunned the worm, and the human body expelled it.

It takes Alicia some....convincing to secure all the other students, but with Donnie throwing their sense of up off she has little trouble.

Colin can see the box on the ground near Alicia.  It's engraved with assorted protective runes to hold it closed, and he can see the magic of one of them is broken.  Also, clearly written across the top in a language he doesn't recognize the character for are the words DO NOT OPEN.  With a small post script that says CONTAINS EVIL.

OOC:

I assume Donnie maintains the gravity spell a little bit so that attempts to struggle result in a sort of bouncing so that they can't get leverage.

When I say Colin doesn't recognize the text on the box I mean he does not know what the language is.  He can read it but he just doesn't recognize the language the characters are from.  Make sense?

OOC: I'm assuming Donnie has enough control of his spell that it doesn't affect Alicia even as she enters the area of effect.

It's almost... mesmerizing watching Alicia truss up the floaters. She uses their weightless state to her full advantage, leaning and throwing her own weight to send each one spinning as she expertly applies the ties to their limbs in disturbingly creative ways. The look in her face leaves no doubt she is having the time of her life.

Her task finally complete, she back-flips down, landing adroitly on her feet. Slapping her hands as if to brush off dust, she exclaims, "That was fun! Donnie, remind me to bring you along some night for a game of Perp Ping-Pong."

She glances over at Colin examining the box and calls out, "So what's the word, C-Man? Do we chuck the box in the furnace, or just hand it over to the feds for storage in Warehouse 13?"

Sam makes reassuring noises as she stops using her powers on the floating kids and aims them squarely on the worm in front of her.  She traps it inside its very own bubble of air -- that little sucker isn't going anywhere.

"It's ok, Heather.  I think the bad stuff is out of you.  We'll double check, but I think you're ok now.  You're crying, that's a really good sign."

((I had something typed and GG ate it, probably because it realized I wasn't saying anything, anyway.))

Sammy, Sarah, and Heather are inside and not seen by Laney ((?)), while the others paraded away, losing the momentum they had from Sammy's driving force once she drops it. 

If they made it to a more private location out of Laney's line of sight, she pushes away from the building and drifts towards them, arriving in time to witness zip ties being put to good use.

If they're still near, Laney remains silently holding the door open, leaning so heavily against the wall one might believe she'd tumble backwards were it not there.  She seems to be watching them, or watching the skyline beyond them, or maybe the dumpsters between buildings beyond them, or the classroom windows in said buildings...Anyone's guess.

Colin has been moving the box around with a stick, careful not to mess with the magic.

"Weird." he concludes.

"I've never seen such a language at all. Yet it clearly says not to open it. I think someone didn't bother reading, because this protective rune was messed with. It says it contains evil, so I'm not sure if we should just re-seal it, or put those things back in before re-sealing it."

He carefully looks for a spot on the box that wouldn't interfere with the runes, breathes in to calm himself to keep his power in check, and lays his thumb on it, hoping it could show him where it comes from or who handled it.

Alicia glances over at Donnie with a touch of concern at Colin's action. There he goes again, sticking his hand into the meat grinder without a thought it might get chewed off.

She moves closer to Colin anxiously, unsure what to do if the s**t hits the fan.

Donnie grimaces, trying to keep the students balanced and floating, but heavy enough for Alicia to reach and hog-tie. After she completes her gleeful mission, he gently adds weight until they are grounded, but easily picked up if necessary; approximately 30 lbs or so each. He wipes sweat off of his shiny forehead.

The blonde teen walks over and peers down at the rune-language covered box, hovering his hand over it to see if it is of magical origin.

Once Colin makes a connection a Shade takes form nearby.  We have removed the evil from the sky stone and placed them in this vessel.  We are forbidden to kill, but dare not let this threat roam free. Then it fades away.

He can sense about three more living beings inside the box.  His ghost site shows all the people Alicia has trussed up have two spirits.  A human one, and another one.

OOC: Think of a Shade as a recorded message.  It can't answer questions.

Sammy is comforting Heather, who is starting to whine like someone that just threw up.  The little worn appears to regain consciousness, and begins to thrash about in it's little bubble.

I can try to summon someone to claim them, if you and your friends fail to find a way to contain them. Morpheus says.

"Sarah?" Sammy says, eyes on the thing in the bubble. "Could you please let the rest of them know we have one of the things sort of contained if anybody wants to look at it?  I have to stay here to watch it.  If you see John out there, ask him to take a look at Heather too, make sure she's really ok?"

Colin looks up at Alicia and Donnie.

"More mixed news. Something fell from the sky, a meteorite, I guess, carrying those passengers. Someone long ago recognized the threat and made this box to contain them. There are at least three still in it."

He points at their prisoners.
"Each one of them has one, but I don't know how many there were, originally."

Still looking at them with his ghost sight, he asks them a question, to see which of the two spirits will answer.

"who are you?"

"Great, Just f**kin' great," grumbles Alicia. "The whole damn school stinks of 'em."

She sighs, "Look, I'm no good at this thinkin' crap." Nodding to the two boys, she adds, "you guys deal with the mumbo-jumbo. I'll link up with John and see if we can figure out how far this has spread." She heads back inside.

As she passes Laney, Alicia nods curtly. "If you got any luck to spare, chica, we could use some right now."

"Huh?  You don't want my brand of - Oh.  Um...Who's the box belong to?"

Alicia glances back at the two inspecting the box. "From what I heard Colin say, some maricones who didn't have the cojones to clean up their s**t."

Without further explanation, Alicia hurries inside.

"In a high school?  Who brings that shit to a - John?"  And with that, Alicia has a bewildered shadow trailing behind her.

Worms from the Picnic Galaxy?  Well at least it wasn't ants.  Just kidding!  What should we do with them?  Kill them?  Trap them?  I mean are these uh.. sentient creatures?  They've got to be if they're driving people around like cars right?

Sarah says to Sammy, "It's a parasite from another galaxy.  Keep a close eye and keep way away from it.  Wait... where is everyone?"

Syl?  Where are you guys?  We've got a bug!  If there are more I can zap em.

Sylvia can sense John making the rounds of every classroom in the school.  Nothing so far.  Looks like it might be contained to just that group.

Now that Alicia isn't focused on a threat her senses pick up a sound of fireworks off somewhat in the distance.  On the opposite side of the school.  From any window on that side you can see a pretty cool fireworks display, even though it's daylight, in progress about five blocks away.  It looks like whatever is launching the fireworks is actually in the air.  A balloon maybe or something along those lines.

Heather seems to have recovered, with a shudder, and clings to Sammy telling her between sobs about how horrible it was.  She could see what was going on, and was screaming for help, but nothing she did made her body do what she wanted it to.

They are sentient, but not considered a peaceful race.  They destroyed a half dozen worlds before they were finally stopped.  Apparently some of them escaped the purge.  Killing them is the simplest thing, but if you'd rather not I understand.  If I can reach someone, they can come to collect them.  You decide.

Sammy keeps making comforting noises.  "You're okay now; I'm looking out for you.  I knew something was wrong.  That's why I spilled stuff on you -- I wanted to separate you from the others so I try to could help you.  We'll get the worms out of the other guys too, and everyone will be okay.  We can have a worm squishing party after to get revenge.  Sound good?"

ooc: Sammy, Sarah, and Heather are all still inside, right? The outside party has not heard any of this conversation?

Alicia cocks her head as she hears the distant explosions. She grumbles, "Now what?"

She mentally reports the status of the group outside to Sylvia and her own concerns as to the extent of the "invasion."

OOC: I'm assuming Sylvia passes along John's own report.

Alicia runs to a window to witness the aerial display. She ponders whether to ask Sammy for backup, but her sharp hearing can hear her comforting Heather and decides her friend has enough on her plate. Her face twists in indecision, then clears with sudden inspiration.

She races to the bathroom. Ignoring the scene with Heather and Sammy, she jerks her head at Sarah. "Hey, there's something weird going on a few blocks away. Dunno if it's related to this crap, but I think it's worth checking out. Wanna come along?"

OOC:  yeppers.  We're separated from the rest of you right now.  I'm not sure you guys even know the worm is out of Heather.

Carefully measured and calculated to produce those effects at those angles at those heights, firework still seem magical to Laney.  Like balloons...colors in the sky.  Impossible.  The building itself draws her focus back, the geometric pattern of the window frame Alicia peers through, the cracks in the bottom right corner...Cracks? How long have they been there, unnoticed, unattended, irrelevant compared to so many more important matters?  She begins tracing the sill with her finger -

- and blinks.  Laney spins around and takes off in the direction her excited companion fled, coming up behind Alicia at the bathroom.

"Hi, guys.  Did you see the - Oh."  Her freckled cheeks flush an embarrassed pink as she takes in the scene, her gaze drops to the thing: wriggling worm on the floor.

"This isn't weird enough?"


Edit: Someone stole my colon!

I... They've destroyed worlds?  Worlds?  Not just a culture or a race but a planet.  Six of them.  And this batch was probably looking to start on number seven?  

Practical Sarah wants nothing more than to flatten them all.  Peaceful Sarah wants to trap them and send them off for a trial.  Doubtful Sarah still holds the question as to whether Morpheus isn't just a voice in her head.  A voice that was suggesting she kill something.  

Even if he is just a voice in your head it's not the first time you've been part of murder and death.  But I don't want to be a part of that.  Suck it up.  Heroes make the tough choices.

Sarah nods to herself and turns to Samantha.  She says, "Sammy?  Can you squash that thing?  My staff seems to stun them but we're going to need to stomp them flat as they come out."

Stepping out into the hallway she calls out, "John?  Alicia?  If you can here me we should squash any of these bugs we find.  My staff can stun them and get them out.  Where is everybody?"  

Sammy tilts her head sidewise, pondering how to use the air bubble trap to squish the worm.  "Yeah, I think I can do it without touching it.  Do you think its safe to leave the guts laying around, or do we need a HAZMAT team?  When you get them out, I could take them all down to the boiler room and incinerate them too."

OOC: Gotta love cross-posting. ;D

Having walked into the bathroom during the exchange, Alicia looks at Sarah, and then the black worm on the ground. With a casual tone, she asks, "Hey, Sam? Can you keep that thing still for me?"

Calmly, she reaches into her backpack and extracts a molded piece of plastic, a small cylinder flattened and stretched to form a serviceable knife with not a bit of metal to it. Her face is expressionless.

"Put that thing away," Sammy says tiredly, still mostly focused on the worm.  "First of all, I'd have to drop the bubble to let you through to cut it, and I don't want the little SOB getting away or even touching anybody else.  Second, I'm pretty sure I can just smash it by squeezing the air walls tight around it, like a fist.  Third, I'm going to hold off squishing it until I find out if acid goo is going to etch a three foot deep hole in the floor when I drop the hold, or if escaping gases are going to poison all you breathers.  I also don't want any little worm larvae or ripe eggs rolling their way into the floor drain there.  So let me crush it my way, or let me burn it if it seems safe to burn it."

Alicia shrugs and the plastic knife disappears.

"You might want the boys outside know what's up, she says laconically. "They've got the rest of the posse trussed up and are playing around with that box the one was carrying. I think it's got more of those things in it. There's some sort of big light show a few blocks away. I'm gonna head over there and check it out."

"Maybe you could, oh, I dunno, tell them for us before you go chasing after the new shiny thing?  Sarah and I have been a little busy here, fighting off an attack and catching a creepy crawly."  Sammy stands up, and hauls Heather to her feet, partially supporting her.  "Let's go find the rest of the worms, girl.  Maybe someone can teach us how to use a welding torch, and we can cook them.

Alicia looks at Sammy, her face a mask. "Sorry to intrude. Catch you later."

She turns and leaves.

Minutes later, a slim figure leaps over rooftops in the direction of the fireworks.

OOC: Uh.... I don't know how to fix my boo boo so... *nothing to see here! move along!*

Sarah says, "Alicia?"  But the girl is long gone. 
She turns to Laney, "You're right.  We've got plenty of weird.  Laney do you know where everyone else is?  Are they dealing with more bugs like this?  We should probably all get together and deal with this mess in one place."

Sarah smiles.  "I know someone who can take care of this bunch pretty quickly.  Let's go find Donnie.  He's got friends with perfect talents."

Sammy's expression lightens.  "Oh, that's perfect Sarah!  Much better than a welding torch!"  She briefly looks off in the direction where Alicia disappeared but doesn't say anything about it.

((Panicked kids.  Chaos.  It works.))


Laney remains transfixed by the thing on the floor and answers in a low, rapid chatter,   “I…You’re right.  If it’s…It could contaminate…things.  I – I guess that’s one of them.   Huh? Meteorites with passengers.  One in the box, one in each of them.  Outside.  Fire outside, too.  They’re tied up, but not what’s inside of them.  The past is past.  What about now?  Who let them out now?  Colin and Donnie are with them.  Fireworks, I mean.  The other way.  Do you think they can move from person to person?  I'll show you.   Funny. It looks...like…a pencil.  Misplaced.”

They are not a toxic creature.  Burning them would certainly be an efficient way to end them.  If this troubles you I can signal an Asgard ship.  There is one in the vicinity, it could be here in a few hours.

OOC:

I assume you move Heather and the worm out to the parking lot (Laney knows where they are and you are part of SNN (Sylvia News Network).


Alicia covers the few blocks to where the fireworks display is taking place.  It appears that a balloon contraption is holding a platform from which the fireworks are launching.  Police and fire trucks are responding to the scene and are a few minutes away.  The display is taking place right over a lake in the park. 

Sylvia can tell from the mental noise in the school that almost everyone that could be looking out a window is.  And that means most of the student body is facing away from the gang in the parking lot.  It's a simple matter to get the trussed up alien infected students out of sight so that the extraction procedure can take place.

Sarah's staff has the predicted effect.  The convulsions, the vomiting, the crying.

Out behind the building, Donnie summons both sword and the wyrm known as Salamander, his narrow antlered head covered in a mane of flickering neon-green flame. His hisses like a heated kettle and glares at everyone.

Sarah, Sammy, and Donnie's dragon Salamander make an efficient team. Sarah whacks the bound infected students, making them vomit up the parasite aliens, Samantha catches them in a ball of compressed air, and once several are contained, Salamander prepares to burn them until nothing is left.


Donnie stands vigilant, sword at the ready, if any of the creatures somehow escapes Sammy's careful capture.

The process is efficient.  Sammy sets a reassuring hand on Heather's shoulder and hums a happy little song as she watches the parasites go up in smoke.  "How are you feeling?" she whispers to her friend.  "Are you going to be ok?  I don't mind you knowing about me, but you might rather forget about all of this.  Whatever's best for you."

"Yeah.  I'm okay I guess."  Heather is starting to calm down some.  She is still a little shaky, but helps the others get over the initial shock.

The clean up is done, and the ones in the box are dealt with as well.  Salamander is more than happy to scorch the worms into nothing.

You might want to make them forget.  To protect your secrets, and relieve their worry.  Morpheus says to Sarah as the last of the worms are destroyed.

Laney's eyes light up like a child's on Christmas when the dragon appears. She even says, "Hello," and waves, but has the good sense not to approach.

In spite of the gruesome nature of her friends' activities and the distressed students, she sits crossed-legged on the ground, observing with a small, serene smile on her face.  She does ask, once the dragon's completed its job, to the worm victims in general, "Who found the box?"

While the Unusual Suspects do their thing, Alicia arrives at the location of the disturbance. She sits on a rooftop and observes.

The balloon-and-platform contraption is cleverly made, held in position by a set of fans running on the topside of the platform, powered by what look like solar panels. The underside of the platform is the launch point for the fireworks; the packages drop off and either fire away or spark as they fall. By the time Alicia arrives, it's obvious about two-thirds of the ordnance has been used up. The balloon itself is pretty slick; almost transparent. Definitely not something one can pick up at the neighborhood hardware store.

Alicia glances back towards the school thoughtfully. The spectacle would certainly attract every eye there, in the totally opposite direction from the team's efforts with the worm-like invaders. How convenient.

She taps a finger on her chin as she ponders. Alicia doesn't believe in coincidences. Someone triggered the light show; narrowing the list of suspects shouldn't be a problem. Considering the high incidence of creative engineering witnessed at school, opportunity's not an issue. What Alicia is unsure about is the exact motivation. An anonymous assist? A message?

Or is she falling into rampant paranoia? Maybe this is just what it looks like to be; someone's elaborate prank.

The police and fire trucks finally arrive. With one last look at the contraption shooting off the last of its wad, Alica turns to return to school. Things have probably wrapped up there by now.

"I did."  Bryce Atwood says.  "I was trying to figure out what was in it, and managed to break the seal.  And then."  Bryce stops, the memory of the event silencing him.  "and then the worm thing jumped into my mouth and suddenly I was a passenger in my own body."  the thought causes him to shudder, and he crawls a little bit further away to vomit again.

Donnie uses the tip of his sword to scatter the ashes about. "Where did you find it, and how did the parasite chose it's victims? Did it have anythign to do with the water incident during the game?"

There's a flicker of expression.  Sympathy.  Laney tilts her head slightly, distracted by the pattern traced in the ash.   "But a fire alarm is nothing but water and sound...Unless there's a fire, of course.  Should we call an ambulance?"

Bryce explains how each person became a host.  The tale is one of wrong place at the wrong time.  Targets of opportunity, people he happened to be alone in a room with, or in the back racks of the library.  Sylvia bothered it for some reason, or she would have been a host today when she came into the news room.  And Sammy, in the bathroom. 

"I'm just glad it's over.  That's it for me, no more magic.  It's nothing but trouble."  Bryce exclaims.

The bell rings to signal the end of lunch.

Sammy idly comments, "You didn't say where you got it, where you found it, Bryce.  Other bad stuff might be there too."

"It was in my grandfather's stuff.  From his estate.  He got it in South America I think when he was down there as a boy.  All his stuff is on our garage.  I found it when I was looking through it."

Alicia arrives on the parking lot with a three-point landing after jumping from a nearby lamppost.

"Found what?" she asks, then stops to fan her hand in front of her face, "Phew! Smells like someone was burning tires around here!"

She glances at the dragon with no sign of concern, "Let me guess, Donnie called you over for a BBQ."

Looking back at the school building, she drawls, "Lunch time's over. So, are we plannin' to skip class or somehting? If so, I can think of better places to be."

Donnie uses his scrawling in the ashes to hide his tearing of space. Cold eminates from the tear for the brief few seconds it exists, then Donnie 'sheathes' the sword into the ground all the way past the pommel and wills the tear closed. Salamander fades from everyone's vision like the after-spots of glancing into the sun.

Donnie looks once again his normal, fourteen year old self.

"Perhaps we ought to check and make sure there are no more surprises in your grandfather's things, Bryce. Between us we ought to rule out just about all possibilities." He gestures around the group. Colin can sense spiritual, Sylvia mental, Alicia physical, and Donnie magical.

Alicia cocks an eyebrow at being considered an asset in this endeavor.

She grins at Bryce, "So, cholo, you up for company after school?" She glances at Donnie. "Or are we doing this now?"

"Less questions after school."  Laney squints up at the sky, pondering cloud formations or, perhaps, looking for more balloons.

"Later would be better," Sammy says.  "We might need to get these guys sent home first.  They probably could use a rest, since they were all sick.  MAybe when they wake up it'll all seem like a bad dream."

Sarah does just that.  Quietly in ones and twos she has a word with the classmates who were infected.  She turns it from crawly bugs to cafeteria food 'bug' and airbrushes the rest of events out of the story with the exception of Bryce*.  The fireworks replace a Salamander. 

OOC:
*not screwing with the continuity again!  Bryce - suddenly forgetful - Why are all you people at my house?