The Cloak Guard

School Attack, Part 4

When Emily was five years old, there was a thunderstorm that had scared her so much she had crawled into her parents' bed. That had started an argument between the two about her being 'coddled' that went on for three days. The morning of the fourth, her dad left to get groceries and never came back.

She made a promise to herself after that that she would never be scared again. If it just made things worse for her, then overcoming it was the solution to all her problems. So she embraced all the things that scared her before. Scary films? She watched them all. Spiders? She started picking them up, no problem. School bullies? She took them head-on. Dark rooms? She found a damn light.

That was only the beginning. She later learned that when she doubted herself, she became afraid. So she decided to remove that from her life too. She pushed herself to the point where she could never feel that way again, competing in all sorts of activities from rock-climbing, to track-and-field, to soccer. She even gave wrestling a go but gave that up as rolling around on the floor wasn't really her thing. She eventually settled on cheerleading as it worked out her entire body, built up a good community, and forced her to be in the spotlight more which she hated.

It eventually got to the point where she challenged her fears instead of being afraid. When someone pissed her off, she came right for them. She wasn't afraid to fight and she made sure everyone knew that. Britta once said that she was afraid of a mugging not for her sake but for the mugger's. Emily agreed, knowing she would probably attack the mugger right away.

So when a mysterious figure had entered the gym and then suddenly grew into a stone giant that attacked her, her response was not to scream and then run and hide like Britta had. Instead, she went right on the attack. And when more enemies came, she just kept on going. She was afraid of them, she couldn't deny that. But that only made her want to fight and beat them more. To her, her fear was the true enemy and she would beat it no matter what.

Personal stakes also happened to bring out the best in her, so when she saw the giant about to attack Britta, she'd stretched out her legs and managed to blow up her whole fist until it was the size of a car, punching the giant and sending it crashing backwards with one strike. She'd just kept going from there, her abilities coming to her naturally. She found out she couldn't just stretch but also twist her arm around like that. With the giant, she'd managed to throw her arm out and tie it around its legs to trip it up.

That few minutes of combat had given her more control over her new power than the last few days. But she also knew when she was outmatched. When all the new stone figures had emerged from the ground, she knew she couldn't beat them all. It was a horrible feeling to have and she hated admitting she was weak to herself. But right now, she wasn't ready to take them on. So, she had to do what Franklin asked and get help.

Which was what led her to rummaging through the wreckage of the gym, looking for his phone. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on," Emily rambled, tossing aside part of the bleacher. "Where the hell is it?"

She had searched all over the gym and still nothing. It must have fallen under some debris but that was going to be a problem as the whole place was covered in debris. She decided to start where he had been punched through the wall as that was where he said he'd lost it. But, after sifting through a bunch of stuff, still nothing.

She could hear crashing sounds and cries from outside, wincing every time a new one came. She had no idea what was happening but it obviously wasn't good. Franklin wouldn't last long, despite how strong he was. She had to find that phone quickly. She wasn't sure what this Travis could do to help. She only knew one Travis, Travis Stroneman, and from what she knew about him, he didn't inspire much confidence. Still, maybe what gave her powers gave him super powerful ones, although that did make her a little jealous. Or maybe it was a completely different Travis who was awesome and powerful and would defeat all these bad guys with one strike. That would still make her a little jealous but at least he would be more helpful.