trans_9 | Underneath someone else's lucky streak; [OPEN]

[backdated to the beginning of the event, I had a big paper due so I couldn't do this right off the bat, sob.]

Claire was trying to catch up on things she'd missed while stuck in GLaDOS's mazes when the ship went dark. It didn't even take her as long as it took SHODAN to cackle about domination over the speakers for her to be up and moving around her office. She always kept a flashlight in the top drawer of her desk, just in case. Never know when you're going to need a flashlight, and since the wiring in the school was probably extremely old it was a good idea on its own.

The shotgun had been mostly a joke, mounted on the wall just in case any of the students got out of line, but she didn't even hesitate to grab it, swearing under her breath that she only had a dozen shells for it sitting in the desk. By now Boon was up from where he'd been curled in the corner of her office, and he wuffed softly at her.

"Keep your ears open, Boon," Claire murmured softly, moving back to the desk to stuff the shotgun shells into her pocket and strap the holster of her reserve 9mm to her leg. "We're about to have company." She taped the flashlight to the barrel of the shotgun, before hoisting it up and running into the hall, making a line for the front door. The biggest blessing here was that it was later in the "day" so most of the students had hopefully cleared out. The downside of this was Claire had no idea who was still in the building, so after she'd secured the front door, she started back through the building, checking each classroom, and locking up the ones that weren't already locked. She caught a glint of metal movement every once in a while out a window, but for now it seemed more like SHODAN's puppets were casing the joint. Either that or stalking her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Paco had holed up in the nearest building the moment the new voice had started talking. Schools were pretty secure places, right? They were meant to be safe places during things like floods and alien invasions; Attack of the Evil AI, Round Whatever shouldn't be much different.

He was currently engaged in blocking up the windows so that the robots outside had to work a little to get in at the soft fleshy bits (him) inside. Fortunately, his mechanical arm still seemed to be in working order, at least for the moment.

She knew there was someone in the room up ahead when Boon shot ahead of her barking, and she followed on his heels, pointing shotgun and flashlight into the room. When she saw it was Paco she lowered the weapon, letting out the breath she'd been holding when Boon had first taken off.

"Thank God you're not a robot."

"You'd be surprised how often I get that from the ladies," Paco said reflexively, lowering a hand to let Boon get a sniff. "Critter, you'd better stick with your mom there, you don't want the robots to get a look at you either." He flashes a grin at Claire. "Mind if I tag onto whatever you're planning? I was just going to hole up in here until I came up with a better idea."

Satisfied that Paco wasn't going to attack Claire, Boon padded back over to her side as she moved a little further into the room.

"Yeah, sure. Though t' be honest, I haven't got a plan, either," She replied with a slightly uneasy laugh, shaking her head. "Mostly find out if there's anyone else in the building and try not to get attacked by robots."

Paco shrugged. "Then we'll just go with the old 'two heads are better than one' saw, and work on what we're gonna do after we find everyone else in here." He gave her a sideways sort of self-depreciating grin. "I'm just gonna say now that I am completely against getting kidnapped by giant roaches, and I'm not doing another strip-tease."

Sometime after all the trouble began, the doors of the school rumbled with the frantic noise of somebody knocking on them.

"Claire! Anybody! Open up, please!"

Behind Steve, Miku kept looking back towards the street behind them. While she - for once - could not sense anything or anyone waiting behind them the sensation felt deafening, like someone had stuffed her head with cotton.

And if she felt this way, who knew how her sensei was faring? "Do you think she's still here? Maybe they went to find a safer area..." Not that any place seemed particularly safe at the moment.

"I don't know where else she'd be," Steve muttered under his breath, his voice full of dread. Claire had to be here. She was always here. They hadn't risked their way all the way across the ship to come here for no reason, had they?

"Claaaire! Somebody help!"

Underneath someone else's lucky streak; [OPEN]

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