[6/7] Something Awesome [1.3 - Redwatch] [Slot Open - Accepting Entries]

Otto puts the frog in an empty container, making sure there's no harmful chemicals left in it, then rolls out to collect more frogs. He's been building a nice pond ecosystem in one damp corner of the local forest, and some frogs would be perfect to populate it. Or deal with the mosquitos before the entire food chain collapses into a bloodsucking menace. Either or.

Frogs rescued: 1/?????

Oren scoops the laptop from the table, apologizing to Bob, who's been looking at that thing a while.

He jogs down the hallway, netbook tucked under one arm, and turns round the corner past the drama wing to get to the library. He comes face to face with a frog.

"WAUGH," goes Oren.
"Grunk," goes the frog.

Oren catches the computer before it hits the floor and puts a hand on his chest.
Why did a frog catch him off guard in this goddamn school?

He bends over to pick the little fella up...

"Hands off that frog, criminal scum!"

Otto roars, and brandishes a miniature orange traffic cone like he's Mega Man or some shit. Frog #1 is sitting on his shoulder.

"Oh, wait. It's you. False alarm."

Otto raises the point of the traffic cone to his lips, and blows at it like a smoking gun.

"Seriously, though. That thing's laced with Prank You Very Much brand Itching Powder. I suggest you hand it over. Not literally, mind. Unless you had gloves handy. Just, give me the damn frog."

"Itching what?" Oren squints at the frog. "Aww, shit. This was that Selman kid again, wasn't it? Why hasn't he been suspended or something yet? I'm gonna get kids coming in with contact dermatitis or worse."

He looks fretfully to his laptop. "Okay, uh, Otto, listen. In the nurse's office there's a jar of something called hydrocortisone cream. It's in the back room next to the red fire blanket box and the, um, the shotgun. Just you grab that and if any of the kids have touched the frogs and they have any rashes or anything on them you give 'em that. I gotta turn this back in before next period."

He starts walking off, then turns around real quick. "Oh, and you can give it to the frogs too. I think."

He gets about halfway down the hallway, then turns around one more time. "Oh, and please don't touch the shotgun. You, uh, you need any help with the froghunt?"

"Not with the cream, thanks! Saves me from having to go wash all the frogs off at a bathroom each time."

Otto picks up Frog #2, pops it in the now-inverted miniature traffic cone, and zooms off with his cleaning cart at top speed for the nurse's office. If he comes close to running anyone over, he'll make ambulance noises and yell "Anurance coming through, pull over!"

"Okay, well, good luck with" says Oren, and then the janitor powers off down the hallway, screeching round a corner and yelling at two deer-in-the-headlights sophomore girls to pull over because the Anurance is coming through.

"...the frog thing." Oren chuckles. This place is colorful, he'll give it that.

Said the school nurse with a $30,000 bounty on him in Somalia and three bullet scars on his chest, he thinks, walking into the library.

Librarian's not here, so Oren just sort of leaves the netbook on the desk.

He squints. He straightens it a little. He looks back, thinks, maybe a note? And then decides to just let the matter and the laptop settle.

He sees Larry over in the vampire books section, papers and such spread out everywhere. He considers saying hey but decides against it. That fella's agreeable enough, but any time Oren comes over when he's working he sort of snaps his head up and gives you a look that reminds Oren of a shark. It's all big, dark pupils. He decides to head back instead. Art's probably through with that Randall kid by now.

Then, though, he catches sight of that Donovan kid. For the students at Silver Heights who seem like they're smart enough not to need to sit through a lecture all period, Oren's happy to write an under-the-table get out of class free slip for stomach troubles or dizzyness or something, and Donovan's taken advantage a few times to do, what did he call it, "information gathering". Kid had a bunch of questions for him about that chemical attack last year, too. Not that Oren could help him much, being pretty new to the scene.

The, uh, the school scene. Not the chemical weapons scene, unfortunately.

Donovan's sitting with that new girl with the hair. Well, if anyone knows anything about them dead kids it's him. And Oren's gotta admit, his curiosity is getting the better of him.

He drums his fingers on the librarian's desk and checks the laptop. His eyebrow raises and his nose sort of crinkles. He adjusts his hat and heads over toward Donovan's table.

As Otto speeds his way to the nurse's office, he bypasses two students hanging around a staircase to the second floor. He only hears a fragment of their discussion as he whirls by:

"...and they've had the room locked up ever since! Makes you wonder if they're hiding something in there."
"I don't think chemicals persist for years. It's acid, not radiation. They could at least clean it up?..."

Chances are they're talking about the old chemistry lab, where the Chemical Incident took place. Room's been locked and boarded for over a year now.

A break-in to take a look could be fun - and one could always get away on the excuse one of the escaped biology frogs got in somehow.

Having since gotten bored of Donovan's research, Melinda is sitting with a random mystery book she'd grabbed off of the librarian's desk. Although it's the third book in a series she's never heard of, and she had skipped about fifty pages to get into the good stuff, she's still gripping it tightly, reading like she's in the middle of the craziest plot twist in the world. Who says you have to know what's going on to enjoy a good book?

She's so engrossed in the story that she barely notices Oren walking over. She certainly doesn't give any indication that she has.

Still in the teacher's lounge, Robert Bigfreid sits with his forehead firmly planted on the table, covering up the newspaper he had been pretending to read while all the others went about their business. On the floor, he steadies a miniature trash can he had cleverly hidden between his legs. Thank God Lawrence and that new nurse left. He wasn't so sure he could have handled more noise. After waiting a few minutes to rally and gather his sense, Bigfreid slowly stands up, kicks the trash can back towards the corner he found it in earlier, and stumbles to the doorway. It's going to be a long day.

Donovan nods at the English teacher. "I'm fine Mr. Beedle." He shoots a glance at Melinda, noting her white lie. He watches Lawrence walk off then heads over to a computer, immediately logging on and starting to tap away at the keys.

While he's surfing through the multiple police reports that he... found online, Donovan hears footsteps approaching the table. He swivels in his chair to face Oren. "Mr. Ashford." Out of all of the staff members that he has familiarized himself with (more than they know, of course), Oren was probably one of the more interesting ones. "What brings you to the library today? If you don't mind me asking."

As Donovan searches for reports, he notices something seems off.

The names of the missing students have been removed from them.

"I imagine you kids have heard of the, uh, the disappearances by now? What happened to them, and all." Oren takes a seat opposite Donovan. "And you know. As the nurse and everything the overall wellness of the student body is my responsibility, so you know. If you've found anything out about the, uh, the circumstances of the dea-the disappearances, of the students, and it unsettled you or anything like that, I'm here to lend an ear, to, ah, to-"

Donovan can see basically right through him and Oren knows it.

"All right, kid," he says. "I been keeping my ear to the ground ever since I come here about this chemical attack thing and the faculty don't know what's been going on either. It all feels... I don't know. Fishy. You find out anything?"

Donovan stares emotionlessly at Oren until he cracks. At least he's a nice guy. Donovan leans back and cracks his knuckles, gesturing the man to come sit next to him. He also taps Melinda on the shoulder and invites her to watch as well.

"Well Mr. Ashton, I'm sure you're aware of the... ahrm... 'assault' on the school a year back. Let me go over it just to make sure we're on the same page. Last year, the school suffered an attack by a group of students known as the 'Chemical Mafia'. They, somewhat understandably, started their attack in the chemistry room. However, some sort of complication arose that trapped both this group of students and what I assume was one of their leaders, in the room with other innocents. The kids who were innocent attempted their own form of 'justice' and tried to get rid of the Chemical Mafia students by finding them out and getting them arrested. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances, the terror of the Chemical Mafia ended in an absolute massacre, all the affected students dying. No survivors."

"Now that leads us to today. Security is upped, the school is a lot more peaceful, yadda yadda yadda. But then the disappearances happened. As you know, many students have disappeared without a trace. Poof. And I've just found something out. If you would glance towards the computer screen." Donovan gestures to the computer, where multiple police reports have been assembled. There are a bunch of black boxes where it seems names would be. "Someone has begun erasing the names of the kidnapped students. I think that may be parallels to a certain... uh... theory I've developed, which in turn, connects to the attack last year." He finally leans back and looks at Oren. "Any questions?"

"Now if this is a fishy situation I'd call that a big ol tug on the line." Oren leans over and pages down one of the reports. Black box after black box after black box. "This is just the straight-up paperwork about this, ain't it? How did you... actually, don't tell me. I think I'd have to report it or something."

"Well. Hmmm. Could it be the families asked them to? Maybe because the victims were minors?" He tilts his hat up and scratches the side of his head. "That's the most innocuous solution I can dream up. But I don't feel much like this is an innocuous situation. Do you? If these are the raw cop reports where the name's going missing that don't sound like platitudes for weepy parents or nothing. Ask me, that sounds like a coverup."

He pushes his chair out. "Tell you what, Don. I'll fish around the more, uh, official channels about this sorta thing. Maybe talk to campus security or something. I won't mention you or nothing."

Donovan scratches the back of his head and nods. "Yeah. This is definitely not just an innocent cover up. There's something going on here for sure. I could understand parents not wanting names if this was a news paper or something, but these are pure, no biased police reports. Er, uh..." He glances around before turning back to Oren.

"That'd be a huge help, actually. I'll need all the stuff I can get." This is good, he's already got an ally in this hunt, and the more connections the better. "And uh... thanks for not mentioning me to anyone. In advance. Yeah."

The censored police reports contain a couple of interesting gems.

"...thought to have been sent to the moon, and then survive re-entry..."
"...body went missing following a strange explosion at a morgue, rumored to be alive..."
"...said to have ties to local domestic terror groups..."

Read into some of these reports?

Donovan goes to turn of the monitor when a few choice phrases catch his eye. The moon? Domestic terror groups? Morgue explosions? He turns back to the computer to look into these occurrences.

Melinda nearly falls right out of her seat when she feels a tap on her shoulder. The slam of her book hitting the table is immediately followed by her own shouting: "IT WAS THE BUTLER!"

...

She blushes in embarrassment when she realizes what's going on. She recovers as fast as she can and listens intently to Donovan. If it weren't for the fact that all those kids bit the dust, she'd be wishing she could've seen the Chemical Mafia in action. Now there's an adventure! But whatever, too late for wishful thinking.

Looking over all the erased records, she hums loudly as Donovan wraps up. "Corruption in the police force, eh? Sounds like a job for a bunch of ragtag students, and faculty too, I guess! Thanks for the help, Mr. Ashton." She leans in close to the monitor. "I got a question. What's that theory you talked about, Donovan?"

"My theory..." Donovan turns away before he gets too absorbed in the stories. He glances around again. Looked safe enough. Not enough students around to be concerned. "Okay, I'll tell you. I think that something a bit more... 'effective' happened with the chemicals used in the day of the attack."

"I left this part out of my story, because I'm assuming Oren knew. You're new here, so you probably don't. During the Chemical Mafia assault, there were lots of chemicals used. They had lots of different effects, some kid got poisoned I think. Anyway, lots of the kids drunk the chemicals, splashed chemicals on each other, the whole nine yards. Now, normally, you'd sterilize the room, shut it off, let it sit for a few days maybe. But they tore down the entire school. Suspicious, right?"

"Getting on to my theory. I believe that something in those chemicals stayed, even after the school was rebuilt. These chemicals lingered in the air, in the foundation, even in the ground. That is, until, the people got here. I think that some people got changed by these chemicals. What changes, I'm not sure, but there are definitely at least eight people in this school that these chemicals have gotten to."

Arthur kept his stare on Oren till he had fully left the cafeteria, it was now just Arthur, the trouble-maker and three young witches in the corner trying to capture Arthur's soul with some kind of eye thing, strange black box thing. Eye-something, eye of newt probably, witches and stuff.

That's curious however, he walked off without a fight, maybe the nurse forgot to bring his wooden, missile wand, thinger? Actually this whole day has been speaking of ill-omen, normally the cafeteria lady would of thrown a dozen knives at him, but this time she hasn't even bothered, she even left the place long before Arthur had finished dealing with the kid. Which reminds him, he needs to deal with this brigand still.

Knowing full well the witches' magic will have no effect on him, he turns his attention to the struggling student in his grasp, titling his head like a curious dog. "Randall?" He says, tapping the blighter on the head. "What kind of name is that? Is it foreign?"

Without letting him respond however, King Arthur quickly waps 'Randal' on the head to stop his fidgeting and grabs him with both hands. "Oh well, foreign or not, you have gone against the king's law and as such you must be punished!"

He scans the room for something, before letting his eyes fall on the sandwich bar at the front of the cafeteria, that'll do just nicely. He runs over next to it and examines it, speaking up to the kid just as he begins to regain his composure, "Ah yes, pelted with fruit and veg, while locked up for the public to see, a true, tried and treated treatment for you, ruffian."

Without saying anything more, Arthur stuffs the kid into the front of the sandwich bar and slams the large glass door down, trapping him inside. The kid is left there with a confused and angry snarl, covered in sliced tomato, shredded carrot, lettuce and all sorts of fruit and veg, Arthur dusts his hands of a job well-done and walks out the cafeteria, heading off in the a random direction to patrol school-halls some more.

Melinda's eyes widen considerably. "So...what, you think the chemicals turned some students into radioactive mutants?"

Perhaps she's read a few too many superhero comics, but the possibility does sound tantalizing. If the affected people came out of the woodwork, it could cause a scandal. "Chemical Warfare Goes Nuclear! Silver Hills at Risk!" the headlines would say. There would be cops, investigators, SWAT teams...

And to her, that all sounds awesome. (Whether she's completely off-base or not.)

Donovan gives her a confused look, then shrugs. "I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be too extreme, but maybe something along those lines." He turns back to the computer and starts reading the reports again.

Oren's about to leave when he hears Donovan's little theory. He spins right round.

"Chemical contamination? What the Sam Hill? Wait, wait. Eight students? If you have a number does that mean you have names? Because if they've been exposed I'mma need to examine them."

Lawrence narrowed his eyes. Another benefit of his chosen position was that he could see anyone entering the area and what they were doing - you know, so he could be ready if they wanted to have a conversation with him while he was busy 'working' on his lesson plans. He had known Donovan and Oren got along reasonably well, but when the three gathered close together and started whispering he knew something was going on. With how nervous and hurried Oren was in leaving and how legitimately invested he and Melinda appeared to be in Donovan's yarn, Lawrence knew it was probably something bad. It helped that Melinda was less than quiet about the whole exchange.

He quickly looks over the work he's done so far. Good enough for now, most students don't even show up for the first half of classes after the lunch break, much less pay that much attention. He hits the print button and retrieves his notes from the librarian's desk as they come out of the printer, then casually turned towards the two students.

"Well, I'm just about done here. You two alright? Mr. Ashton looked a bit upset, has something happen-"

It is then that he is interrupted by both Melinda and Oren shouting things out at practically the same time.

Superpowers? Exposure? Had he been found out?

Lawrence began to panic a little.

"Wait, what's going on? What do you mean, powers and chemicals?"

Donovan swivels his head in surprise. "Oh, Mr. Ashton, you're still here?" He wasn't exactly sure what reaction a faculty member would have, but he supposed this was along the lines of reasonable. And then Lawrence. "Mr. Beedle. I guess you heard. It's a little theory about the school. I suppose you might like to hear, considering you've probably heard more than I was prepared for."

"Anyway, contamination sounds about right. But not just students. Teachers too. I don't have any names. I'm just making observations. You're the nurse, right? Have you had kids come to you for bouts of nausea, fevers, or sneezing or coughing fits? Some kids have complained about excessive bruising. None of this, however, escalates. It stays exactly the way it is. All I'm saying is that it's a rather likely possibility." He raises his hands in defense.