The Rampage ((SA meets Jurassic Park!))

Wong Ha Jung (with Pham Thi Anh Sang)

Wong Ha Jung held Anh Sang tightly as they hit the ground. The tail of the dinosaur swept over them, missing them completely, but the man knocked his head against a rock in the process. The few moments immediately after that were wasted in a daze as the Vietnamese girl in his arms screamed something at him in her native language. The meaning of it seemed clear enough, or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him as it tried to get him to follow its own orders. Get up, get up, get up, get up. He blinked at the sky as the pain really started to register.

Wincing, he pushed Anh Sang off of him so he could sit up. Ah... He got to his feet unsteadily before bending down to help the girl back onto hers. The roar of the dinosaur made them both glance in that direction but Wong Ha Jung forced himself to look away and go back to trying to lead the girl back to safety. For the most part, she was un-protesting now, and deadly silent.

"Look away," he urged her, as she kept staring in that direction with wide eyes. "Anh Sang!" But he knew a losing battle when he saw one, so the counselor stopped trying to convince her to do things and more or less dragged her away by himself, even though his arms were starting to tremble. The only thing keeping him from having a panic attack right there in the field, besides the fact that they'd be dead if he did, was that he couldn't stand to just watch so uselessly as everything unfolded before him in a situation that actually mattered. Like Mei Mui, like Leticia, maybe even like William Reed.

There was another especially loud roar that forced Wong Ha Jung to let go of the girl and clap his hands over his ears. And then all of a sudden, the dinosaur who was Oliver was back on his feet, lunging for the two of them. Which, of course it would. Out of all of the people closest to the fight, they were the only ones who really had no way of defending themselves.

"Oliver, stop!" Anh Sang yelled, her voice a high pitched shriek. The counselor tried to push her out of the way again -at least so that she'd be behind him instead of in front- but he needn't have bothered. The young girl was sent flying back several feet just by the sheer force of the dinosaur's breath and before he had time to do anything, the shapeshifter opened his jaws and swooped forward.

He gasped as teeth pierced his body before screaming as they sank deeper into his flesh. Oh God, oh God, oh God. He still had one arm free but there was just nothing that he could do anyways to make the dinosaur let go. The panic attack was breaking out of him -who wouldn't panic in this situation anyways?- and causing his movements to become jerky. Each one sent new waves of pain through his body so he just stopped moving. He was trapped. Even on the slightest chance that he could succeed in getting free, a fall from this height would likely kill him anyways.

When the shapeshifter stumbled backwards and suddenly threw him up in the air, that was when Wong Ha Jung thought he would really die. It just took one look down the dinosaur's throat and an abrupt, seizing pain in his chest to knock him momentarily unconscious. The force of landing back down between razor sharp teeth jolted him awake seconds later.

There just wasn't anything he could do. He was on his side now, with teeth digging into both of his arms and legs, holding them to his sides. If he hadn't been completely paralyzed by fear and physical pressure, he might started screaming again as the dinosaur shook its head, tearing his wounds open wider. He feel could liquid in the shapeshifter's mouth -his blood or its saliva, he didn't know. He didn't want to know.

All of the pain spiked without warning, not just where the teeth had cut him, but every other part of his body that was in contact with something. His powers had gotten away from him finally. He swallowed a few times as his heart hammered against his chest. I can't breathe... Suddenly overwhelmed, Wong Ha Jung began to struggle frantically against the hold on his body.

For a brief period of time, it didn't matter to him that it was just making everything hurt that much more. He just wanted to get away from this. How he could do that wasn't crossing his mind. Nothing logical was and in any case, there was always a split second of numbness following the stabs of pain that made him all the more willing to ignore reason. Sobbing and choking on his own breath, he succeeded only in inflicting more damage on himself.

Soon enough, however, the combination of blood loss, panic attacks, and the increased feelings of pain from Black Winter simply sent him back into unconsciousness. Thankfully.

"WONG!"

It was a scene straight out of the violent parts of a dinosaur movie. Dino-Oliver was crunching down on Wong, and seemingly holding him out of spite rather than hunger. No real animal would literally toss its meat around with the intent of simply inflicting pain and suffering. There was something malicious about this student-turned-monster, and Jacob made his decision: One life weighted against Wong's and many others. It was the cold logic of aggression and war, the calculus of war. Time and people would judge him, but Jacob was not about to let a beast continue on its rampage if it meant more lives lost. It was going to be hard, but Oliver was going to have to be put down.

Jacob sprinted around to Oliver's front, facing the beast head on. His eyes were focused and stern, concentrating on his one goal of saving Wong's life at the cost of Oliver's. A burst of wind emanated out from Jacob as his sheathe unlocked and he drew his blade. His sheathe dropped from his hand, clattering quietly on the ground as both of his hands gripped his sword.

It was almost poetic that Jacob was going to have to put a dinosaur down. A prehistoric apex predator was going to be slain by a smaller, but modern being. For all its strength and ferocity, the laws of the wild dictated only the most capable survive. There was no guarantee of whom will succeed, only the rules of nature would dictate that.

Jacob was but a blur as he streaked toward Oliver. He was a direct path at the beast. As he ran he slashed his sword twice, sending two razor wind slashes at the legs, before leaping high in the air, higher than the beast itself.

Hanging in the air for a moment, Jacob raised his sword and took aim. As gravity asserted its role, Jacob came down and cut straight down at Oliver's neck, aiming to sever the head in one clean cut.

Pham Thi Anh Sang (with Wong Ha Jung)

Oliver, Oliver, Oliver -what are you doing? She stared in utter shock as her friend snatched up Ha Jung in his jaws. This wasn't like him! The Oliver that Anh Sang knew was nice and polite and soft and, well, Oliver! Even when he turned into dinosaurs before, he was still the same old person that he was when he was human. She just didn't understand what was different this time.

Why isn't he listening to me? Did I do something wrong? The child's mind couldn't grasp any logical reason for such terrifying behavior except for the idea that the entire thing might have been her own fault. What did I do?Oliver, stop being so scary. I'm really sorry... But childish pride wouldn't let her say it out loud either, not like this.

One thing was certain, though. No matter how much she screamed, it just wasn't reaching him -whether it was because he couldn't hear it or because he simply didn't want to hear it. Anh Sang took his roar at her as proof that he was angry at her for something. But she also took the fact that he hadn't actually hurt her -the scrapping and bruises on her arms didn't count; they were from her clumsy landing- as proof that he at least didn't mean for her to be harmed.

That was enough for Anh Sang to think that they were still friends, despite everything. Despite the fact that there was blood everywhere, some of it from her teacher. She wasn't thinking about death, then. She had only just accepted the fact that people were being seriously injured. It was better that she didn't know, maybe. Ignorance just made her braver.

She had quite a bit of light left over from the mock campus battle that had occurred just a little while back. Soft light, hard light of all kinds. That was to say, mostly white but some with a slight tinge of color. It didn't take much time to call it all back to her. The speed of light was quite fast, after all.

Anh Sang's first thought was that she should try and get Ha Jung down. It seemed like he had been hurt pretty bad and even though he was being scarily quiet, somehow she still heard him screaming. It was terrifying. Without thinking too much about it, she reached for her magic to do something. Anything. What she had in mind was some vague idea of help. But then she saw Mister Cunningham running towards Oliver with his sword and her priorities suddenly changed.

"Wait, no!"

The math teacher might have been running faster than most human eyes could comprehend but he couldn't outrun Anh Sang's thoughts. He certainly couldn't outrun her magic.

Without a word of command, almost even without a completed thought, the girl's magic rushed forward. All of it. There was no way for her to know how or where Mister Cunningham would strike at. All she wanted to do was protect Oliver from serious harm and her magic obeyed that wish, layers smashing together into a shield so solid that even light itself barely passed through it. It wasn't even shining as normal. It was just a slab of white with streaks of different colors flashing across it so fast that it would have been impossible to name them for sure.

The shield wouldn't block all of the teacher's attack. Even though light was faster than wind, wind was stronger, and Anh Sang was too young to take her own powers very seriously. So some power would still pass through it, not enough for a killing blow but maybe still enough for a cut or two.

As the two powers collided, a streak of purple on the shield became momentarily obvious.

{Claire}
As she got closer, she saw others, other people, and a, dinosaur? No, that wasn't possible, it wasn't. They didn't exist, did they? Claire shook her head cautiously, not wanting to fall over or cause attention o herself. "Wh-what?" She mumbled as she walked closer to the people. She shook her head again, but it felt as if everything was slowly fading, turning black around her. In a matter of seconds, she collapsed on the ground. She opened her eyes to see red, blood, screams in her ears. Wha was happening? Did she hit her head? Was she so confused amd excited she couldn't stand? Claire had no idea, nor was she about to find out anytime. She couldn't just lay there, she would die or get crushed.

{Lucy}
As she looked at the beast, she looked around to see the other people around her, but she wasn't sure as to if she should attack them or the beast. Was the beast friendly? She wondered and looked soured cautiously. "Can I help?" She asked the fellow people, as loudly as she could. Lucy put her hands i front of her face and smiled. "I guess it's a fight then."
Bt the situation was getting worse. People were getting hurt, and she didn't know what to do. She panicked. "Shit." She stood there, like a tree, unable to think straight. As she looked around, she closed her eyes. She needed to focus. She needed to help.

For the duration of the carnage Alice's eyes remained glued to the screen. Still clutching her plushie tightly she watched Oliver's rampage with all the sadisic glee of a serial killer murdering their victim. In the chaos, however, Alice noticed something...a teacher and a student, both brave enough to stand up to her little "toy dinosaur." One seemed to be one of the gym teachers. Figures... Alice thought to herself as her face twisted into a disapointed pout. The staff comes in to ruin the fun....Oh well..more violence equals more trauma for my pawn, so that's something!Alice continued to think to herself as she watched the two staff members try to aid their students.

Of course, as soon as Wong fell victim to Oliver's rage, Alice's face instantly lit up with joy. Watching as his body was crunched in her "toy's" mouth Alice could not help but break out into a deranged giggle bounce up and down in place with glee. "All that blood...it's so beautiful!" Alice exclaimed as she watched Oliver brutalize Wong. Squealing like an excited fangirl, Alice yelled "Yata, focus in on Wong! I want to see all that pretty blood!" and her Yata unit in the field responded to her command.

On the screen before Alice, Wong's bloody, broken body clenched in Oliver's mouth came into focus and Alice continued to giggle. "Silly Wong...look what you've gotten yourself into!" Alice sand with a twisted grin. After Oliver spit the teacher out of his mouth Yata's cameras focused back on the entire scene, showing the torrent of chaos Alice's actions had caused. To Alice, it was all a beautiful show, of her power and the power of her new "toy."

As the brave fighters stood up to Oliver, Alice could not help but grin like a psychotic killer. "So...the game is set! Lets see what you can do....my toy dinosaur!" Alice said as she continued to watch the carnage with eager anticipation.

It looked like it was going to be a clean cut. A humane cut. A cut that would end the rampage in an instant. But just as Jacob blade descended on Oliver's neck, a shield of white built itself over the dinosaur in an instant. Nothing could have stopped Jacob's attack, so he was forced to continue into the barrier and bear the consequences.

The slice felt like it hit something solid, and Jacob's sword bounced off of it, taking him with it. As he tumbled backward through the air from the force of the impact, he glimpsed the breaking shield and the streak of purple. Anh Sang. It was the young Anh Sang making a shield for the out-of-control student. He was almost angry as he twisted in mid air and landed on his feet, skidding for several feet before coming to a complete stop.

"Anh Sang! What are you--RRRGH!"

The scolding would have to come later. Oliver was still a lunatic dinosaur and still very much a threat, so Jacob had other things to focus his attention on. Things like getting both him and Sang out of the way of a charging dinosaur.

Without waiting, Jacob slid over to Anh Sang and shoved her out of the way. It was a rough shove, and one that he would have to apologize for later. But practicality and urgency were foremost priority for Jacob.

With Anh Sang out of the way, he faced Oliver and stood his ground. In a stare down with the dinosaur, he clenched his legs and then flipped over him to try and land on Oliver's back.

"Calm. The f**k. Down!

Pham Thi Anh Sang (with Wong Ha Jung)

Anh Sang was getting shoved around a lot that day. Not that she was complaining or anything, nope. Maybe she was just a little annoyed about getting pushed onto her butt again for the third or so time. Maybe. But then she'd look around and get the entire situation hammered back into head and that just killed any annoyance that would be there.

She was terrified. The childish bravery was wavering then. It felt like she was failing so many people just by being there, although she was relieved to see Oliver not get messily cut open. She wasn't thinking about anything like decapitation or something equally fatal because kids weren't supposed to die because adults were supposed to protect them from that. Mister Cunningham was an adult and he was there so things were supposed to be okay. Only, only Anh Sang was starting to see things now that she hadn't seen before. Maybe. (There was a person on the ground, covered so much in blood that it was impossible to tell who it was. There were parts all around the body.) Or maybe she was just confused. It was probably that. It really was that.

But no. Failure. Back to that. She still didn't really understand but she was starting to get a picture of... something. The gears in her head were being fed kind of uselessly but that was okay. It was something at least. Seeing Ha Jung get thrown around like that, even a child would come to the conclusion that something like that would hurt pretty badly.

Is he okay? she worried. There wasn't any movement from the place he had fallen. The question of Why isn't he getting up? was almost immediately self answered with Because he's probably really hurt so he can't. But Ha Jung was a teacher. Or staff. Or whatever he called himself. He was an adult. More than an adult, really. He was almost a doctor of some sort. That was as adult like as a person could get. And though sometimes adults got hurt by other adults or maybe just chance or nature, they weren't ever hurt by other kids because-

Because-

They just weren't! They're supposed to know how to not get hurt! Anh Sang wailed in her head. Only, nobody had actually told her that, right? No, she was sure that somebody had! Somehow. Maybe? It's chance, it's nature. Oliver's a dinosaur now so that's just nature so they don't know how go against that. That was the reason, it surely was.

But then she looked over at Mister Cunningham and saw him doing something. He looked like he had plan, whatever it was. It was still a plan. He didn't look that uncertain, just frustrated. Or angry. I was in the way. Anh Sang's lip trembled and she bit down on it because crying was for babies and then she'd be in the way again. If Mister Cunningham knows what to do, then why didn't Ha Jung? Those two men were set on the same level in her head. Outside of school things or physical things or some personality things, she just assumed that they were sort of the same. If one knew one adult like thing, then why shouldn't the other? Not just any adult like thing, either. Something that was important and mattered. Things that had to do with kids because of course all adults knew what to do with kids even if they said they were bad at it.

Basically, all adults should know how to protect themselves from kids. Mister Cunningham obviously knew it. But Ha Jung just. Didn't. And that was what caught Anh Sang. Or maybe he did. He had, after all, tried to stop her from running away from the school. Maybe that was how he had tried. Which meant that it was completely her fault that he had gotten hurt.

But he's supposed to stop me... Of course adults couldn't control everything kids did, but they were supposed to stop them from making really big mistakes, right? That's what adults were for, right?

Sometimes adults can't do things. That was a scary thought. That was where a lot of the terror came from. Her parents were doctors so of course she knew that sometimes things just couldn't be worked about, but she had still thought-

Everything had been going so well. Things weren't just supposed to change one day all of a sudden. They were supposed to go slow and then work up. So what did I do? Had she just missed the signs then? Sometimes her parents' patients missed signs. But back at home, she had never thought too much about things like being too late herself. There was supposed to be somebody to tell her how to do these things. There were always supposed to be reminders.

And then there was a faint memory of something her mommy had told her as she got onto the plane to the island. Just a hug and a kiss on a forehead, with a hand holding out an envelope with all the necessary paperwork and information to get her through.

You're a big girl now, okay? Mommy had told her with smile. Mommy and Daddy can't be there all the time to tell you things anymore. You'll have to do some things by yourself but there will be other people to help you, too.

And she had thought and she had thought and she had thought...

Her mind fizzled out for a moment as she got to her, slowly.

Sometimes adults don't get the important things right... That thought slid right into place, like it had always belonged. Oh.

She shook a little from fear and swallowed several times. I should get back to the school; I should go to Ha Jung; I should stay here because I don't want people to get hurt again. Anh Sang wished that she could be in two places at once. She desperately wished that she could because okay, fine, maybe this wasn't a thing for kids but there were kids in it anyways and adults weren't doing so well either. And Oliver still wasn't attacking her. That's important.

Maybe she could just stay there, though. She backed a little from the fighting and looked over her magic. With all of it right there in the field, it was easy to see how she could craft things. All she wanted then was to see what had happened to Ha Jung, so she sent a few butterflies over to where he had landed, commanding them to bring back images.

They were back almost immediately and just as quickly, Anh Sang swatted them away from her. It was bad. She only saw a few snatches of it but it was bad! There was a funny feeling in her lungs and she kept trying to take deep breathes. Hyperventilation wasn't something that happened to her but the sight of her teacher's body broken on the bleachers was more than enough to get it going.

I'm going to be useful, I'm going to be useful, I'm not going to be in the way. It didn't keep her arms from shaking as she hugged herself but it was a nice thought. Silently, she ordered the butterflies with the images to go to the school. Ha Jung's office was near the infirmary so she knew exactly where it was. It didn't look like anybody nearby could heal and it was her fault -all my fault- that he was hurt anyways.

That done, with her guilt weighing heavily on her, the girl went back to observing the battle. Besides Mister Cunningham and Oliver, there was that kind of scary looking robot thing that was fighting, too. She hadn't seen it do much yet so she didn't worry too much about it. But looking at Oliver, she realized that her shield still hadn't stopped all of Mister Cunningham's attack. It still looked like a bad wound, though, even if the Oliver dinosaur was still fighting back a lot.

So how bad would it have been if she hadn't tried to stop the attack? She didn't want to know. She really didn't want to think about it so she let it go. But everything going on showed her that people got hurt easily. Too easily. Her light couldn't block everything but she could always try. Had to try.

She stared a little at Mister Cunningham and Oliver, wondering which of them she was supposed to protect more. On one hand, Oliver was, well. Oliver. But Oliver was also a dinosaur right then while Mister Cunningham was still just a human. And she had seen by now what a dinosaur could do to a human. On the other hand, she had a good idea about what Mister Cunningham's sword could do to Oliver, too.

After a moment of thought, Anh Sang focused on Mister Cunningham. There were three people in this terrible situation that she cared about, after all. Ha Jung and Mister Cunningham were on one side. Oliver was alone on the other. It made her feel awful to make her choice upon that but she couldn't just go and think on it forever. Even though she knew that people would want her to ran away, she couldn't do that either, not while everybody who mattered stayed here.

So she figured out a plan and set her butterflies around the math teacher. People were really easily breakable and even though Mister Cunningham didn't look as breakable as Ha Jung, he still probably couldn't hold up to getting hit by a dinosaur. In her mind, Anh Sang crafted a kind of shirt made of hard light. Many, many layers of hard light. It was just a bit more durable than the shield she had set up for Oliver but then again, it was also much smaller than the first one. She could afford to shift quite a bit of light around. With the finished item in mind, she willed it into existence with a thought. It was tricky but she was used to making light crafted clothes. Maybe not for grown men but it was a similar idea. She could still do it from a distance.

It took just a few moments for the light to mold itself and it looked almost identical to what she had envisioned. It shouldn't have been very heavy. It was still light after all, hard light or not. She would still keep an eye on Oliver, though, and try and use the rest of her butterflies to keep him from the worst of attacks, too. It would be harder to do that now that she had already used up light on Mist