I am the law!

[forge]

Forge gritted his teeth, angry/relieved he'd left the prototype plasma cannon downstairs. Should the shooting begin, he'd at least want to wipe the Cops from the face of the earth before they managed to kill any of the kids... better to down people in the line of duty than school children.

Still, it appeared they were just being cautionary, and as long as no one moved, the situation would pass.

His eyes glanced at Jubilee, irritation on his face. He'd have to talk to her later about dealing with skittish humans. In the face of mutants, they're like deer - move to quickly and they'll do something really, really stupid.

He sighed, and looked after the leaving Bobby with a sad expression.

How to prove a telepath was taking him over? That would be an interesting defense indeed. Sadly, it was true - and nearly an unprovable crime. The worst part is that if they managed to convince a jury of it, then many other sickos on the streets would try the same defense.

'Many Dark Wizards claimed to be under the influence of you know who thanks to the Imperius Curse' Mad Eye Moody had said 'the trouble is sorting out the ones that were tellin' the truth from the liars.'.

Hmmm... time to read more Harry Potter.

[phase]

Seeing the conflict become suddenly heated, Hannah fought Candice with an angry child's yell.

"BOB--EEEE!!"

Unable to get out of the struggling woman's grip- and no matter the gentle words of calm she tried to employ to get the little girl to hush, Hannah employed what she had been taught at the Sombra Corporation to its best effect.

Hannah's tiny body let out a burst of light, a faint mist erupting from her as the white light lingered in her eyes and mouth. Her form went limp, falling through Candice's arms and slumping to the floor.

But Phase the astral body was on its way.

Running out the doorway, the ethereal form of Hannah Creed ran headlong at the men dragging Bobby away, a look of determination on her translucent white face.

[candice]

Candice closed her eyes in the face of the white flash of light, then curiously fond Hannah's body had gone completely limp. Her first thought was that she'd somehow killed herself with that flash of light... then the other's gasps and shouts (including Forge saying in a voice that sounded just like an annoyed black man: "Mother-fucker" - she'd have to talk to him about his language later) drew her attention to the other form of Hannah running towards the police.

Her heart sank, and horror took over as she imagined the girl getting cut to ribbons by police fire... then she remembered the girls mutant ability, and realized the phased form of Hannah could not be physically harmed.

Still, it may just spook the police into action.

[husk]

Paige let out a yelp as she watched them drag Bobby away and within seconds, Phase explode out of her body and head out the door.

"Oh baby no!" She cried, looking down at Hannah's small body. She picked the unconscious girl up, cradling her body and pulling back from the doorway. She didn't want to take a chance that the little girl would get hurt in crossfire.

That is, if her astral form couldn't get hurt. They could only hope.

[Iceman]

Bobby didn't see what Jubilee had done, or tried to do; he only knew that all of a sudden, Smith and Jones were very anxious to get out of there. He didn't fight them as they drug him out, figuring that the best thing to do would just be to keep quiet and get out of there as soon as possible, before somebody did something stupid that would make somebody get shot.

But being led backwards as he tried to turn around without seeming like he was fighting them, he saw Hannah run after them. Fear struck him, hoping to God that they didn't shoot her. It took him moments of seeing through her to realize that it was only her astral form. Still, it showed how distressed she really was, and Bobby's heart went out to her.

"Hannah, no! Go back inside!" he said, forcefully but not without kindness. He pulled sharply against the agent's grasp, wanting to go to her and shield her from any fire, even though he knew they couldn't hit her.

[angel]

Still on the phone to Cameron, Warren nodded as Bobby asked him to call his parents.

"I will." His attorney sounded surprised.

"No, not you Cameron." It would have been amusing if everything hadn't gone so horribly pear shaped afterward.

He wasn't watching what the rest of them were doing, didn't see what happened, but he went from thinking 'Well, this isn't going too badly,' to blinking in stunned surprise.

Jubilee was raising her hands, Kurt was bamfing outside, that little kid had just exploded out of her body and was running toward the agents.

Oh, shit.

"I'll call you back." Warren's voice was low and calm.

He didn't raise it too much, but he hoped that they could all hear him. There were too many people in here, if the officers started shooting... Well, it was a risk that they couldn't take. Why the hell did the X-Men live in a school?

"People at the back," he sounded extremely calm. Too calm.

"Can everyone please start moving slowly toward the back of the school." Thankfully most of the students had already been directed toward the common rooms, but there were still a number milling about. If any these kids got hurt because of everyone losing their heads...

Everything's going to hell in a handbasket these days.

[Trask]

Everything happened at once.

A blue-skinned mutant appeared in a puff of sulfurous smoke calling for them to calm down, the mutants at the door started to carefully step back and then the little girl who had been shrieking exploded into light and raced toward them in some sort of ethereal form.

"DO NOT OPEN FIRE!" Smith yelled at the police who were becoming increasingly agitated. The last thing they needed was the body of a mutant child on the news at six.

Jones turned Bobby around and propelled him toward the waiting officers, "collar him!" He said before returning his attention to the encroaching mutants. The officer nodded once, produced a thin metal collar and, having grabbed the boy by the shoulders to stop him falling, clapped the device around his neck.

"Get in the car son," the officer said, gesturing to the black sedan, "well be out of here in a second."

Smith and Jones meanwhile were continuing to back up as the spectral girl bore down on them. Ear-pieces crackled, "Alpha units to ground team, do we have a go?"

Smith paused, indecision written plain across his face.

"Do we have a go?" Alpha leader repeated, more insistently.

Smith gave the approaching girl once last look before gritting his teeth. This was not going to end well.

"Yes damnit, you have a go!" Then they continued their retreat.

The pair of Sentinels detached from their cradles and dropped to earth like avenging angels. The first hit the lawn with a crash that shook the ground all the way through the mansion, it's revolving cannon immediately coming to bear on the mutants at the door.

The second landed barely six feet from Nightcrawler in a spray of dirt and turf. It's gun covered the decreasing middle ground between the blue mutant and the spectral girl.

"HOLD YOUR GROUND!" The tinny, enhanced voice thundered.

[candice]

Just as Candice had bent to pick up Hannah, Paige had scooped up the girl and was already moving away from the doorway.

To Candice, this seemed a physical impossibility… how could she have moved so quickly given what was happening? Physically, Candice should’ve gotten her first… unless…

Since Candice had gained her mutant abilities, there had always been a small side affect. She’d always been queasy at life-threatening situations, though steadfast under normal pressure. The everyday rigors of running a school, for example, she could handle with stride… pull a knife on her, though, and she’d freeze up. Since she gained her powers, however, more than that happens.

She had gained something quite similar to epilepsy, which froze up her brain as well, and caused her to black out.

As happened at this exact moment. There were too many guns… too much happening… and as Hannah got five steps from her, and she thought to scoop up the living form of Hannah before shouting to the police…

She passed out.

[forge]

Forge’s vantage was poor, and his luck, even worse. A guy in a wheelchair has a shoddy chance of actually seeing anything in a situation like this, particularly when five people are bunched around a small doorway, which isn’t even a double.

So Jubilee made her move, and Kurt bamfed in, his vision was blocked by the two of them. He didn’t see the police draw weapons, because he couldn’t see out into he driveway.

Then when he scooted up to get a better look, Kurt bamfed out into the drive, just close enough to obscure his vision again.

Then when he went to get a closer look at what was happening, Hannah had hit ethereal and was running out there, drawing his attention.

Angel was talking to the students that must have still been lingering in the hallways.

“Mother fucker.” He managed, and hoped to God she wouldn’t voluntarily touch something in time to get hosed down by the police… because there would be a lot of death there at the X-Mansion. Most of it cops.

He held a hand out at her, scooting forward in his chair, and shouting: “NOBODY SHOOT! SHE’S JUST A KID!!!”

But again, thanks to incredibly piss poor luck, the damn Sentinels had chosen to detach from the Chinook at that VERY second, drowning completely out his yell.

He sighed… how was it possible to have this much shitty, shitty luck?

Time seemed to slow for Forge, as his tactical mind began to work. Only about five seconds had passed since Jubilee made her first retarded super mistake, and about two since Hannah had been running.

People who could be killed by stray fire from here:
- Kurt, who had bamfed outside.
- Hannah, who could only be harmed if she voluntarily touched someone, or worse, decided to attack one of the cops.
- Him, because he was now in the doorway
- Shadowcat, because she had his handles.

So he shouted again:

“Shadowcat, Go intangible! COPS! DON’T SHOOT – SHE’S JUST A LITTLE GIRL!!”

Stuck in a wheelchair, there was little he could do from here. If Kurt tried to teleport to grab her, he’d just phase right through her, and end up getting himself shot.

Currently the little girl had the most inconvenient combination of powers imaginable.

WHY THE HELL ARE WE STATIONED IN A SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! The thought raged through him in a sudden furious anger.

[chamber]

Watching the Sentinels lift, Chamber's only fear was for Hannah. He could hardly be hurt by their weapons and might easily destroy them from where he was standing just outside the door. But the little girl. He wondered if he could speak in her mind if she were in astral form.

Hannah. Come back to the house, love. Bobby needs you to behave.

Keeping his hands up, he dared not move from his position. Stuck there like everyone else, he prayed the little girl wasn't going to be harmed.

[Jubilee]

(ooc: Don't wait on account of me; Jubes wouldn't move, and Bobs is in the car)

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt watched with wide eyes as Hannah's spectral form burst forth and rushed towards the agents as they carried Bobby away, and he was just about to add his voice to the others shouting for her to return when he heard Agent Smith shout and a loud, familiar sound caught his ears. He looked up...

And his entire body went cold.

He was thrown when the first Sentinel hit the ground, but he recovered quickly enough to see the second robot train its arm on him. "Forge! Close the door!" he shouted frantically, spinning on all fours to see Forge at the door with Kitty pushing his chair. "Get them away from there!"

His head spun back to the Sentinels and he desperately tried to think of something to do, but all he could see was Storm's body sailing through the air again and again...

And then the simplest idea ran through his head, and he stood back up, his eyes focused on Hannah, and he called out, "Hannah, stop this instant!"

And to his surprise, she paused in her tracks.

[phase]

Phase stopped, turning to look back at the doorway as Mr. Kurt used the teacher voice.

With a look of dismay on her ghost-white features, she turned back towards the car, watching Bobby disappear inside. Her hands went to her throat... obviously horrified by the collar they'd put on him. It echoed of too many things she'd seen that her young mind could not explain.

Why wasn't anyone helping him?

Tilting her head up, she saw the sentinels. They should have frightened her, but Phase had been trained not to fear. Unknown to any of the adults or students watching her, Hannah was fighting a battle with programming she had no capacity to comprehend.

Looking at Chamber, then back to Nightcrawler, she spied a small lump of brown on the grass. Running to it, she picked up the child-sized football up and clutched it to her. Her astral form thickened, becoming a barely translucent child's form in the front yard.

"Can't I just give him his foopall?" She said, holding the ball up in her small hand, her voice wavering.

In Paige's arms, tears slipped down Hannah's face.

[Trask]

The pause Hannah made to pick up the football gave the agents enough time to fall back through the gate and into the waiting car. Without a second thought Jones gunned the ignition and accelerated away with a screech of tires.

"Stand down, everybody stand down!" Smith barked into the comm once the car was in motion.

In the rear-view mirror he could already see a couple of the police cars speeding to catch up. The rest would return to the station.

"That includes you Alpha team," he said to the Sentinels still stationed on the lawn, "we have secured the subject, return to base."

The pair of Sentinel units lingered a moment longer, their weapons scanning the arrayed mutants and then the roaring whine of jump-jets filled the air and the massive frames were once again air-born, hurdling the school and disappearing out of sight.

The nose of the Chinook dipped and then it too headed away in the same direction.

[phase]

Hannah's eyes went wide as she saw them flee away with Bobby. Knowing Mr. Kurt said not to go after, she clutched the football to her chest, and disappeard. The football fell to the ground.

The mist surrounding her physical form dissipated and the light waned as she returned to her body. With a soft gasp her eyes opened, filling immediately with tears. She wriggled out of Paige's arms, being set on her feet again. She watched Bobby in her mind, her clairvoyance working overtime to keep up with their speed.

She didn't say anything as the sound of the sentinels and the cars faded, pressing her small hands to her face and crying.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt watched the forces all disappear as quickly as possible, though he didn't actually breath again until the Sentinels took off, leaving the school void of military forces. Sighing heavily, he strode through the grass, picking up the football where it had fallen and teleporting back inside.

Kneeling down beside Hannah, he chewed on his lower lip for a moment. She would have no idea what was going on, and he could only imagine what she'd been through before to compare it with.

He watched as the tears streamed down her face before he scooped her up into his arms, setting the football in her hands and moving to carry her upstairs to her room. "Come on, Liebling. We'll give it to him when he gets back."

He gave Forge a quick glance and tilted his head towards the rest of the students, as if to ask him to get them moving again.

[forge]

(ooc continued in "Arrested Development")