Caleb 89 - Shooter.
The guy with the guns slid off to the side of the door, putting his back to the wall just beside it, presumably so he wouldn't be silhouetted against the door and make for an easy target. He looked around the room.
"You," he pointed to one of the girls sitting by the window. "Close the blinds."
I looked at the windows. There were blackout blinds installed for use when the lecturer wanted to present using the projector. For a second she didn't move, but when he pointed his weapon at her and shouted "MOVE" she stood up and started to obey. The room darkened but it was still light enough to see everything that was going on.
I still couldn't believe that I wasn't able to see him with my powers, but was determined not to make the same mistakes I'd made last time. I wasn't armed, so the option to shoot him wasn't there, but I still had my non-mental power, TK. There was a lot I could do with that.
However, I still had to maintain my anonymity. I didn't want to reveal myself to the entire class of students. Dana looked at me a question in her eyes. I gave her a reassuring smile.
"Hi," said the professor, drawing the attention of the gunman to him.
The girl who'd closed the blinds had retaken her seat.
"Shut up," said the gunman and then looked around the room. He noticed that some idiot towards the back of the room had his phone out and was recording.
"Everyone," he said. "Phones on your desks in front of you."
For a moment nobody moved. Once more he pointed his weapon at a student. "NOW!!" he yelled and people started to move. I placed my phone on my desk, at the same time contacting my girls.
"
There's a shooter in the school,"
I sent.
"He's in my ethics classroom. I think he's alone, multiple weapons and multiple hostages. Call Dianna. Also, he's invisible to my powers just like Green. Stay safe, I love you."
I felt fear and concern from all my girls. I'd specifically excluded Arnie and Ness from the send. Neither of them needed to be distracted or upset by this just now. I wanted the other girls to know, firstly so that they could contact Dianna, and also so that they could keep themselves safe.
I looked at the gunman. Despite him being invisible to my Telepathy, Empathy, and Compulsion, I could see his Aura. It spoke of anger, fear, and loathing. Just who the loathing was for, I didn't know. Whether it was for himself, and the actions he was taking, or for someone or something to do with the school, that had caused him to take the actions in the first place. I had no idea.
My mental powers wouldn't work, but my TK worked fine. I could have easily taken him down, but I had two priorities right now. First to make sure everyone got out of this situation alive, and secondly to find out exactly how and why he was immune to my powers.
"You," he said. pointing to Dana. "Collect all the phones and put them on the desk there."
Dana glanced in my direction again as she rose, and started a route around the desks, picking up everyone's phones.
"Turn them all off," he told her.
It took her a few minutes, since there were so many, and they were all different makes and models. Eventually she'd managed, and there was a pile of phones on the desk.
"What next?" asked the professor levelly.
"Next?" he said, "Next I..." he stopped, having not got that far ahead.
"Next I speak to that asshole of a principal."
"The Dean?" asked the professor.
"Yeah him," he said. "And tell him exactly why I'm going this. Then, I'm going to show him that I'm not as stupid and useless as he said I was."
I could never imagine the Dean saying that someone was stupid and useless, but having seen the meeting with Sarah, I could imagine him refusing entry to someone who didn't meet the academic standard. I wondered if that was what happened here.
I also wondered exactly how he intended to show how 'not stupid' he was. I was certain it involved killing some of the students. That was not happening.
Since I couldn't connect to him with my mental powers, I decided to try Healing. Dianna had said that some people were born without the structures required for mental powers to 'connect' and in other cases they'd been damaged in some kind of trauma. I wanted to examine his brain to see if I could see anything in there that would give me a clue.
"Why don't you..." the professor said.
Almost without warning the gunman brought up his weapon and snapped a shot off at the professor.
I shoved the professor out of the way using TK, the bullet missing him. However, my shove caused him to lose his footing and trip over the small step up to the 'stage' his desk sat upon. He fell, banging his head on the edge of the desk, and was rendered unconscious.
I diverted my healing to him, noting he had a small fracture to his skull and a concussion. I fixed both easily but left him, unconscious, on the floor.
There were a few screams in the class, and he turned his gun towards the rest of the student.
"I thought you wanted to make a point to the Dean," I said. "You can hardly do that if you kill people before he gets here can you?"
He looked at me, pointing his weapon in my direction.
"Shut up," he said.
I smiled at him. I'd found it. He'd had some kind of accident, some kind of head trauma probably when he was very young. There was a tiny amount of damage to his brain, and I realized exactly how and why he, and possibly Green, had been immune to powers.
I also realized two other things. Firstly, that I could undo it, and make him just as susceptible to powers as everyone else, and secondly that I might be able to do this to other people, and make THEM immune to powers. The ramifications of that thought were, in themselves, mind blowing.
Making him susceptible to powers though, would probably take too long. I went with Plan B. Using my TK, I disabled both weapons.
"I'm guessing the Dean refused you entry, and you're pissed?" I asked him.
"He told me I should go to the Community College." He complained. "Said I'd be better suited there, that I was setting myself up to fail by coming here. He as good as told me I was stupid."
I could well imagine the Dean saying those things. He'd said virtually the same to Sarah. Fortunately, I'd been able to convince him that she had the means to improve.
"Would you mind if I checked the Professor?" I asked. "I think he took a hard knock to the head."
"I shot him," he said.
"I saw," I said. "But did you want him dead? He wasn't the one who told you you weren't good enough. In fact, I would guarantee that he would never have said that."
"Leave him be," he said. "I'm sure he's not going to be the only one hurting before the day's out."
I'd actually seen the Professor's eyes flicker. He was conscious, and I could tell he was evaluating the situation. He knew the gunman thought he was down and out, and so was waiting for an opportunity to act.
I measured the distance between the shooter and me. I was something like ten feet from him and seated. He was standing, his weapon in his hand, pointed in my general direction as we spoke. The rest of the class just stared.
"So what's your end game?" I asked. "When you've made your point to the Dean, how do you intend to get out of here in one piece?"
"What makes you think I do?" he asked a grim smile on his face.
"Oh," I said mildly. "So, this is a suicide mission. You'll never actually know if you got your revenge or not. You know that FBI and local police will not let the Dean any where near here, don't you?"
"What do you know about it?" he asked.
Slowly I reached into my pocket and pulled out my ID.
"Because I'm a consultant with the FBI," I said. "I work with them, and I know their protocols. Already the school will have been evacuated, and a perimeter created around it. Nobody, but nobody, will be coming anywhere near until the SWAT team gets here, which I guess will probably be in another five or ten minutes, depending on where they are. Then once they're in position, someone will try to contact you. Since there are no phones in here, they might try one of the student's mobiles, probably mine since they know I'm in here. BUT they're all switched off - so that's out.
"Best you can hope for is a sniper's bullet to the brain, and you're done."
"They can't see me." he said. "Remember, I closed the blinds."
There was a note of triumph in his voice.
"Ever heard of thermal imaging?" I asked.
"What?"
"Thermal imaging," I repeated. "They use the heat of people's bodies to see through things like closed blinds. They'll be able to see us, all seated, and you standing there. It will be pretty obvious who the one with the weapons is. I wouldn't worry though; you'll probably never even hear it coming."
I could see the wheels turning in his mind.
"They'll call your phone?" he asked.
"Most likely," I said. "If not, they'll probably work their way through all the phones in here until they find one that's working. I suspect though, since they know I'm in here, they'll try mine first."
