Now the dark is taking over [WILLIAM PLOT]

"Here... *pant*... Get inside... *pant*"

Labored breathing and the sloshing of wet clothes signaled the approach of Jacob Cunningham, carrying yet another student in his arms. This time it was a young man. The student would have probably objected to being carried in Jacob's arms in that manner, but the circumstances nullified the embarrassment. He was set down gently on his feet just outside the ballroom and the young man made the rest of the way in without any help.

Jacob, however, would probably need help. He pretty much collapsed against the entrance way to the ballroom, next to Paragon. He was breathing hard and ragged and even a little gurgle-y considering all the water that probably got into his mouth. He was soaked from head to toe from the driving rain, his clothes clinging to him and dripping buckets onto the floor. His hair was wetted-through, and now that there was no rain to wash it all away instantly, the blood from his wounds were free to flow. Several rivulets of blood ran down the right side of his face from a head wound, and diluted red patches started to appear on his arms from either debris or broken glass.

After getting the first unconscious female student into the main school building, Jacob had actually went back out into the storm a few more times to help students into the building. He hadn't stopped until it was painfully obvious that the twister was going to be right on top of him, and even then he managed to grab that last student.

His eyes were not even open, and he coughed a few times while he leaned against the wall on the floor.

"How... How is it lookin' in there?"

"How... How is it lookin' in there?"

"Like shit," Cabel said. He didn't think the question was directed to him, but he answered anyway. Like Jacob, Cabel was completely soaked. His dirty-blond hair was plastered to his head, though the back of his hair was stuck up at an odd angle. He had a cut across his left cheek and a bruise dotting his temple. It was unclear if this was from debris or if someone had hit him.

Cabel had a lot of good reasons to be hit, but they paled in comparison to the storm raging on outside. Even inside the ballroom, Cabel could hear the wind howling through the commotion.

"Speaking of which, you look like shit, too." Cabel said to Jacob. He was looking at the blood on the man's arms from what Cabel could guess was glass and the blood on his temple, too.

Cabel probably shouldn't speak to a teacher that way if the man was a teacher; he wasn't sure. Either way, he hadn't run into Jacob in the school, so he was hoping the teacher wasn't aware of his shady reputation.

Right now, Cabel was thinking his reputation might come in handy. He had a knack for being able to get things, and right now, it looked like everyone in the room needed...something. There was only one problem: There was no way Cabel was going back out in that storm.

"What the hell is it like out there?" Cabel asked. The unasked part of his question was what was on everyone else's minds, too. And what the hell is going on?

His question wasn't directed at Jacob or Paragon precisely, but he anticipated an answer from someone.

The young man was pacing, full of the restless energy that so often turned into violent outbursts. This was not a boy who liked being stuck inside. This was not a boy who liked the weather giving him the middle finger. This was not a boy who liked someone else destroying his things.

"You'd think someone would be smart enough to stop the freaking storm before it blows the place up," he said. Of course, Cabel ignored the fact that the school let the hurricane rage on last fall. Something to do with the balance of nature or some crap like that. He hadn't paid much attention. It wasn't important at the time.

Only now it was.

And Cabel didn't like it.

Skyler knew where everyone was going, but he flashed down the other way. If "everyone" was going to one place that had to be the safest place, Skyler needed something. No... Everyone needed this. With half of the students being outside and some of the teachers to help them, everyone needed it. So he ran like lighting down the halls, bashing down every door, looking for the room, the room that had to have it.

Door after door, Skyler was getting mad. His cat like ears could hear the twister coming closer to the school each second which placed Skyler into a great panic. He didn't want to die, he knew that NO ONE wanted to die like this, so Skyler placed all his force on each door, knocking it down with a single shoulder-butt.

When he looked around, it had to be the room. There were only a few beds, but this school was large. Skyler understood that only a few people get hurt at once. Most of the time... Cabinets were all along the wall to the front and back. Skyler was getting tired with using his powers so much, but there wasn't any other way he could help the people in need. Instead of using them, Skyler raced to the cabinets my hand and feet. Throwing open the doors to them pushing everything aside for him to see if there was anything of use in them.

2 rolls of bandages, a cup of clips, and 1 jar of pain killers. With the short time Skyler had, this was all he could find looking through half of the cabinets. Focusing he tried to figure out where the ballroom was exactly, he had took the time to search the school... So where was it? It was as if Skyler could hear a ticking a of a clock that was telling him "TIMES RUNNING OUT!"

Finally, it came to him! Taking a deep breath as if it was his last, Skyler zipped through the halls as quickly as he could. With his powers weakening, Skyler was slowing down. He wasn't much farther from the ballroom, but you were able to see the speed he was at now.
Just as he reached the door to the Ballroom, Skyler collapsed. Everything came to him in a shot of a bullet. It had felt like he hadn't slept in days. From there on Skyler hit the floor with a huge *BANG!* and all the supplies was thrown across the floor.

Félix didn't dare go outside again. He wouldn't last any longer in that weather. However, the adrenaline in his veins forbade him to sit around and wait for the worst to come. The school was damaged, parts of the hallway collapsed from the earthquake and large debris. As a consequence, more than one student was trapped in a room or pinned under debris.

Fortunately it didn't seem like anyone had died. He couldn't say much about the people still outside. On occasion Félix would see Jacob, the teacher, run outside back into the torrent to pick up a fallen student. There was no way Félix could manage that; he commended Jacob.

As Félix did not yet want to go into the ballroom, he explored what he could of the school for other lost survivors. Most of those kids he encountered were heading towards the ballroom, but more than one student was trapped.

Talking with some of the others, Félix had a short list of troubled students – ones trapped in the infirmary, and another pair in the cafeteria. One of the boys was unconscious, and the infirmary was partly blocked. Félix figured he could help with the infirmary, but the boys needed medical attention.

Félix went to the ballroom first. Most anyone who could help him would be in there. He noticed the spilled medical supplies on the floor, that familiar boy sprawled out on the ground. Félix could still feel the bite in his tendril, though the tendril itself was long gone. Skyler seemed a bit... tired.

However, there were others by the entrance. Jacob, for instance. Félix knew he'd be willing to help. Dropping his manners, Félix butt himself into Jacob, Paragon, and Cabel's attention.

“Someone needs medical attention in the cafeteria. I also need help moving some debris away from the infirmary. A few people are trapped.”

Félix glanced between everyone with whom he could make eye contact. He was deeply impatient to get going, and he wouldn't wait more than a few moments before he marched out of the ballroom and went to investigate the situation at the infirmary.

"Like shit."

Jacob's head lulled back and forth against the wall as his breath slowly came back to him. He heard someone talking to him, someone unfamiliar, but he did not feel like opening his eyes just yet. It was not like he was going to fall asleep, but anything resembling rest was welcome while he had the free moments.

"Like THE shit, or just shit?"

Maybe the blood loss was making him wonky too.

"Speaking of which, you look like shit, too."

"Then I'll fit right in."

"You'd think someone would be smart enough to stop the freaking storm before it blows the place up."

"Well, until we can get the X-Men on the horn we're just goin' to have to deal with it--

He visibly winced at the sound of some guy running up to the scene and demanding answers. Without even opening his eyes, Jacob could build an accurate picture of the speaker in his head. Some bureaucrat or entitled PTA member probably. Possibly around the same age as Jacob too, only nowhere near as good-looking or fit. The thought made Jacob snicker.

"Speaking of dealing with things...

Jacob finally opened his eyes and hauled himself to his feet again. Using some leverage with the wall, he managed to get himself back on wobbly legs, leaving a massive puddle of water on the floor with little flecks of blood in it. His gaze skimmed over Paragon and the guy demanding answers, figuring Paragon could handle that mess, and landed on Felix.

"Show me the kids in the cafeteria. You handle the infirmary until I come help."

"Well, until we can get the X-Men on the horn we're just goin' to have to deal with it--"

Cabel laughed that dry laugh of his again. "Aren't we kind of the x-men? Only not me because I suck and honestly you're bleeding all over the place and that's not very x-man like, but I mean, shouldn't there be someone?"

Thankfully, another person Cabel didn't recognize came and interrupted what could have been a long discussion about how x-men should be examined as classical literature given the schools status.

“Someone needs medical attention in the cafeteria. I also need help moving some debris away from the infirmary. A few people are trapped.”

"I can go," Cabel said, "To the cafe-infirmiry. I can go to the infirmary."

Cabel changed his mind last minute. He was good at getting in places he wasn't supposed to, and he could help more with the drugs he could pilfer there than he could for the poor person in the cafeteria. let a healer handle that.

"If we get in in the infirmary, we can grab some supplies, for the people back here," Cabel said, "If we can get even a few painkillers I can make that batch last for everyone here for hours. But..I uh, I'll need help."

By "help" he meant someone to help him move the debris and drag him back down in the event that Cabel got blown away again.

Just as Skyler lays on the floor close to the entrance to the Ballroom, the wind had picked him up and blasted him through the infirmary. He had once been here before to pick up the supplies that still lays scattered at the door of the ballroom, but it had seem he was bashed through the wall once more, making a way for some small people to fit through.

With Skyler being asleep, and unable to do much, the people left in the room ran to go help him. Even though they were terrified, they grabbed somethings around the room to bandage his large head wound and support his body on a wall behind him.

Many of them tried waking him up, tried to bring him to again, but it was no use. Skyler was losing blood, from small scratches plus the head wound. His skin began to turn white, just slightly. This scared the people in the room more, some began to pace back and forth, cursing and praying. Everything they could to make this nightmare stop, but it just didn't...

More chaos as the ballroom filled up with people. Confusion quickly evolved into panic, and that panic would very soon become outrage if nothing happened to calm them down. There were medical supplies strewn about. Félix hoped someone had medical expertise. But that couldn't be his job. He needed to help move heavy stuff.

Fortunately, he had two people ready to help him. Jacob, and the student he was talking to. Good enough. “Alright, I'll show you the way.” Parts of the school were blocked up from debris. It was a bit of a maze just to get to those familiar rooms.

After a few turns, Félix pointed out to the cafeteria. Its door wasn't blocked, but parts inside were damaged and fallen to bits much like the rest of the school. He could still see the two boys, one kneeling over the other. “In there,” Félix directed Jacob, before running off to the infirmary with Cabel.

The original gap had opened up. One of the girls already escaped, a slender one that managed to just barely squeeze her way out. The other two girls weren't so anatomically fortunate. Concrete and wood rafters barred their way, nothing a normal human could lift.

As they approached the mass, Félix's body erupted with pitch black tentacles from every apparent gap in his clothes. They slowly built up their mass until each one seemed like an anaconda in size and strength. It was how he planned to move this mess.

He wrapped his tendrils around whatever debris seemed loosest, trying to find something he could pull out without exhausting himself. Parts of it were still connected to the roof or walls, making the challenge harder.

Finally he gripped around one piece of concrete, budging it to the side and allowing the rest of the debris to shift a little. It wasn't enough just yet. “I'll try to hold open a large gap,” Félix suggested, pushing his tentacles along the largest hole to stretch it open. It was strenuous enough, “Get in there and get whoever and whatever you can out,” Félix grunted to Cabel.