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After the lunch bell rings everyone heads to their next class.  As fate would have it Sammy and Colin share this class.  Fate also has it that Megan and Sarah share the class as well, but that has nothing to do with what happens next.

About fifteen minutes into the period Kel, Colin, Sammy, TJ, and Seth hear screaming from a nearby classroom.  Colin and Sammy are in a room right next door to the screaming and TJ is in a room on the opposite side, they are close enough to hear the buzzing.

There are a few seconds of screams, and the sound of breaking glass.  Those of you close enough that were alerted by the screams are at the windows moments after hearing the breaking glass.  You see a large cloud of what you assume are insects move away from the building, and then drop a boy.  This is the fourth floor.  Of the people seeing this only Sammy and Seth have powers that could be applied to trying to help the falling boy.  To take any action you'll need to make a Will Save with a DC of 14.  If you make the Will Save you can attempt to use your powers to arrest his fall or at least help him make a gentler landing then he's headed for.

Seth is just as shocked as anyone when he hears the screaming. The kids start to move towards the window, and Seth follows. What he sees worries him. A moment more thinking about it, and the kid could be dead. Seth shakes himself out of it

Will Save to save the falling boy. (1d20-1=17) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=718518)

He blinks, and his mind reaches out to save the falling boy. Telekinetic hands reach out to cushion the boys fall.

Seth hopes it will be enough.

BLACKBIRD!
Colin shouts in his mind, but before he can actually ask for anything, something slows down the boy's fall.

"God and Great Spirit thank you!" he sighs, then he turns to the source of the problem.

Blackbird, do you think you can get some friends like at the party and get rid of those insects? You like insects, don't you?

Will save to catch the falling boy (1d20=20) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=718774) (no modifiers applied, Will =2)

The bees again!  Sammy tries to use her air powers to catch the boy, or at least to slow his fall.   She isn't thinking too much about how to do it, she just does something, anything.

(OOC:  a blast to push him up, projecting her force field to wrap around him, or if worse comes to worst, burst through her own window, fly up and catch him.  Instinct leads me very strongly towards the last option because its the surest solution in her mind, especially since it also gets her in position to chase after those damned bees if he's saved by other means.)

OOC: For future reference Air Control basically gives you TK-like powers at your power rank as well as all the other stuff you have listed on your sheet.

Seth's TK grabs the boy to slow his fall, and the bees cluster up and fly down towards the young man.  Sammy hears Colin say something, it's barekly audible, and it's not English.  Suddenly the clouds of October open up and a harsh downpour erupts.  The bees seem to slow down and begin to scatter.  They head upwards towards the roof and start to thin out, then they cluster again and begin to dive.  As they pass the windows  Sammy feels her frustration flash like a match dropped into a pool of gasoline and the line of windows in the classroom explode outward from a burst of wind, shattering into thousands of shards.  The cluster of bees is shredded by the onslaught of glass, which then flies out past where the boy has landed and clattered to the street below.

A few seconds of shock, and the people in Sammy's class realize that none of them are hurt.  No cuts from glass, nothing.  The bitter cold of the rain can be felt from the now windowless classroom.  A second later the rain stops, as quickly as it started.  The teacher has everyone gather their things and move into the hall, as she calls the office to request an ambulance for the boy on the ground.  The room the boy was tossed from is evacuated as well.

Word spreads around campus about what happend pretty quickly.  It's reported over the PA that the boy suffered minor cuts and bruises as well as a few bee stings, but apparently suffered no additional injuries from the fall.  People are talking about how he seemed to fall kind of like in slow motion, and how it started raining and how it was like a strong wind blew out the window and disintegrated the bee swarm.  By the end of the day a large portion of the student body is convinced that someone at the school can control the weather.

Colin feels the words being born somewhere deep in his chest as burning their way out. As they leave you lips he touches, hardly believing what he has just done. And with the same urgency those words came out of him, a chilly rain start to fall violently on the swarm.

After the wind blows the windows and the bees away, he only murmurs "Wow."

Did I really do that? It's something new. Was it on my own or do I have someone to thank, because... it worked really well. Have you got any advice for me?

He looks for Sammy and as the teacher gets them out of the class, he tries to get at her side.

"Great job." he whispers to her with a smile. Then, in a normal voice "Do you happen to know who that kid was? And weren't a girl and a gym teacher attacked by bees too, last week or so? Do you think those were the same bees?"

"You asked for help, and the world answered with her rains.  My advice is as it always is.  Have faith."  Colin can see the bird perched on the window sill as they leave the classroom.

Colin nods at his spirit guide and friend with a big smile and deep gratitude. It's only when he is out of the class that he picks up something of what he said.

-Her- rains? So the world... is a she? Oh. Interesting.

T.J watches with awe as the others save the boy and take out the bees. As the teacher tells them to move to the hall, T.J looks down at the hall. Shame I couldn’t do anything, but the only thing my powers really do is stop me from getting hurt, he thinks to himself.

He looks for any dead bees and, if he sees some, attempts to sneak away from the class and to the  area where the bees are. Once he finds a nearly whole, dead one he tucks it into a plastic bag for examination. Then rejoins his classmates.

OOC: The class whre the boy was from has several and you can get one with no problem.

Very surprised by her own abilities, Sammy is shaking a little bit.  The dark haired girl whispers back to Colin,  "Yes, I think so.  They behaved the same way as the other bees that attacked the gym teacher and my friend, Heather.  I don't know who the boy is.  I just hope his name isn't Jim Cunningham, or that he wasn't in the same classroom as Heather."  She looks back at the wreckage that used to be her classroom.  "I'm becoming an expert at destroying classrooms, aren't I?  At this pace, all of my classes will soon be meeting in the cafeteria.  Unless..."  She clenches her hands into fists to stop them from shaking so much.  "Unless I didn't do all of it.  I'm pretty sure I made the wind that blew out the windows, even though I've never done that before.  I'm not so sure if I caught the boy; I know that was one of the things I wanted to try to do.  Did I bring the rain, too?"   

She stops walking, and turns towards a stairwell.  "We need to see if there are any dead bees upstairs.  If there are, we can take one and find out if is the same as the other bees.  Then I need to find out if my friend is safe.  If we hurry, nobody will notice we went missing from the group."

"Actually the rain was kind of my doing. That's a first for me. And if you aren't sure about catching the boy... Well I know another one who could have done it and is usually very discreet while helping people. I'll ask him and let you know. Anyway, we worked together very well. We should do this more often." he whispers with a wink.

"As soon as the teacher goes around  the corner... three... two... one... let's go!" they take a sudden turn left and lead upstairs.

Once upstairs, the pair make a beeline (pardon the pun) for the other classroom.   Sammy smiles in conspiracy with Colin.  "Actually, I have been working with others.  I went out hunting with Kel and Sylvia the other night."

(OOC: do they meet up with TJ, or is he just ahead of them?)

OOC: Yes, for story simplicity assume you meet up with TJ as he's bagging his sample bees and leaving the room.

(ooc- Am I in a room with any of my fellow PC's? If not where am I?)

OOC: You were in a room on the other side of the room where the attack happened, the same room TJ was in.  They evacuated your classroom after the mayhem, so you're sure to have seen TJ go back and collect bees and Colin and Sammy come by and see him.

Upon seeing TJ, Sammy stops.  "You already got some?  Good!  I gave some other bees to Mr. Heep last week.  We need to find out if they're the same kind -- the ones that attacked my friend were genetically engineered, and these seemed to act the same way.  I killed them by leading them through a car wash."  She turns to Colin to explain, "That's why I thought maybe I made the rain happen.  Water worked so well the last time."

She starts scanning the room, walking around, looking for where the attack most likely occurred, trying to find where the victim was sitting. 
OOC:  searching for answers (1d20=10) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=720122)

If she can figure it out, is there anything there that gives the victim's identity?  Was it Jim Cunningham that went through the window?

As she walks the room, she asks for help.  "Guys -- this is going to sound stupid, but I can't imagine anybody doing something like this without wanting to be able to watch the, uh, 'fun'.  Do you see any cameras around here?"
OOC:  searching for cameras (1d20=6) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=720141)

There is a hole in the overhead tiles directly above one of the desks.  A quick search through the book bag under the seat reveals it's Jim Cunningham's stuff, so he was likely the target.



There don't seem to be any cameras in the room.

Listening to accounts of the attack from kids in the hall it sounds very much like what happened to Heather last week.  The bees burst through the ceiling tile, clustered around Jim and picked him up, stinging him the whole time.  Then they carried him to the window and burst through it.  You guys saw the rest.

Colin greets Seth as he passes beside him, and leans in to whisper something in his ear.
"Was that you?".

After Seth's answer he follows his friends into the room.


"What if he could see through the bees' eyes?" Colin offers.

He kneels to pick up a dead bee and looks at it for a while in the palm of his hand.
Well, I guess trying won't hurt.
He closes his eyes and empties his mind, trying to be receptive for any vision of sensation the bee could offer him.

Sammy swears softly.  "Dammit!"  She turns to Colin and TJ.  "The guy who was attacked?  He knows the girl who was attacked last week.  They have a class together before lunch.  He just asked her to go to Homecoming with him."


Sammy's eyes grow wider as she watches the boy commune with the bee.


Sammy looks up at the ceiling.  "I wonder how they get into the building.  Last week they were all swarming around some air conditioning units; do you suppose they came in from the outside through the air vents?  Or did someone bring them into the building and let them loose in the ceiling space?" 

She looks around furtively.  "I could go up there and take a look, but some of those spaces get kind of small, and I'd probably get caught if I tried it right now."

"It does sound like a pattern. Maybe you should go check on your friend as well."

Something else seems to bother Colin too.

"It's already time to ask someone for Homecoming?"


"Yes, I guess there's a chance it gets too narrow for you. On the other hand, for someone else..." he says, looking expectantly at T.J.

Colin hears the Blackbird say, "It's dead."  Then Colin's vision shifts and he's looking into the room from the window sill, where the Blackbird is sitting.  "What you suspect is possible, as you can see."  The Blackbird's voice is less inhuman when Colin is looking though it's eyes.

"Wow" Colin says, though he's not sure if he's going to say that with his mouth or the blackbird's beak.

So, if I find a bee that is still alive, could I trace a link back to her master?

"No.  This communion is only one way, unless the master of the bess has some other way of achieving this end."

I need to use the bathroom really badly. I'll be right back  . Seth told his teacher.

He didn't exactly wait for a response before he took off. He makes his way to the room where the boy came from.

He sees some of the gang allready.

"Hey. I snuck away for a few minutes. What the hell is going on. Bees don't do that. I may have only been alive for like 15 years at this point, but one of the things I've learned is that bees dont do shit like that. Or have the power to break through windows.

Unless these are those africanized bees I've been hearing so much about."

Colin notices Seth come in, and wishes to return to his own body. He stumbles for a moment, then he lets the bee down and rubs his eyes.

"We may have to do with someone who hasn't got the guts to ask a girl out in person, so he prefers to send a swarm of killer bees after her and whoever else does.

Sammy, Seth, do you know each other? Seth, Sammy is... one of us." he says meaningfully.

"The looking through the eyes of the bees thing can be done. No info on who sent them though."

Sammy gives a small smile and wave to Seth.  "We sort of met at the Janush party.  I was one of the horns."


Sammy gestures around at dead bee parts.  "These acted the same as the bees that attacked my friend Heather last week.  All I know about them is that they were genetically engineered; I took a couple for Mr. Heep to  look over.  These things pick up people and carry them off.  Their venom puts their victims to sleep.   Heather got a rose a couple of days ago.  This morning she thought maybe it came from the guy who asked her to the Homecoming dance just this morning.  I'm pretty sure that was the same guy who was attacked here, and I don't know if the rose has anything to do with any of this.  I left it for TJ to examine."  She drifts towards the door.  "I'm feeling kind of nervous.   If its okay with you guys, I really want to find Heather and make sure she's okay."

"Go Sammy. Go check on her. Even if she's fine, she's gonna be scared as hell, and likely in need of a friend."

As soon as she's gone, Colin asks his friends again "Seth, that was you, wasn't it? Catching the boy in mid air like that? And T.J., do you think you can... explode and sneak up there?"

Yeah, that was me.

Seth is practically glowing with pride.

"It felt really really good."

Colin gives him a bright smile and a slap on his back.

"Good job." he says admiringly.

"Sammy's the one who made the windows explode on the swarm. She can control the wind."

"I'll look over this bee as well, to see if it's the same type or if something has changed." He puts the bee in his pocket then looks at the air vent. "I can probably fit up there. I'll look around but I don't think I'll find anything." He focuses and explodes a swarm of bubbles and climbs up into the air vents.

Once inside the air vents he looks for any traces of bee and follows it around the air vents.

TJ easily oozes along the airvents that the bees burst from.  After a few wrong turns he finally ends up in a part of the basement where there are several dead bees on the floor, proving they were here.  There are also several pictures of a girl hanging on the nearby walls.  The girl isn't someone TJ immediately recognizes, but he knows he's seen her before.

Sammy slips away from the group in the hall and makes her way to the room Heather is in.  A peak in the little window in the door shows that everything is normal, Heather is in her seat and nothing seems wrong.

Sammy breathes a sigh of relief, glad to know that Heather is ok, but still concerned about how the girl will react when she discovers that her Homecoming date was stung by something other than Cupid's Arrow.  "I wonder how much a lighter and a can of Raid would cost..."