Liam Black

Andrew was avoiding the house; he needed a minute away from all the chaos of everything. Most of it wasn't even the people; it was him, he had been thinking again. Walking around the town, he just wanted a minute, but in Havensdale, he wasn't sure it was possible.

Ever since the attack on the high school, Liam had been keeping to himself, not really sure how to speak to anyone after his sister had been murdered. Today was no different. He had only left the house for a quick, desperately needed grocery trip, when one of them stopped. Was he really daring to ask him for a light? Liam still didn't know who it was that had ended his sister's life, but part of him felt an urge to take it out on him.

Julian hadn't noticed that it was Liam who had been watching him, if he had he wouldn't be giving him shit right now. "It's cool, man, don't worry about it!" He smiled at Liam, pointing over to the back of the truck. "Just over there. Thank you for the help."

Liam guided the box to where Julian had indicated and gently lowered it beside the rest of the boxes. The magic faded and he waved his hand again, this time dismissively. "Any time." At least he was useful for something. Couldn't protect his own sister, but hey, he could get a job as a moving guy. "What is all this anyway?"

Danny had seen this film before, you know? He felt the dread in the pit of his stomach build. The longer Liam looked back at him, the clearer it became to Danny. He hated to think it, hated to feel like it was true, but... Laurie Black didn't make it. He didn't tend to lie anymore, or live in hope. He'd give Liam just one more moment of it. "It's going to be okay," he said softly while the world burned around them. At last, he looked away, pressing his finger to his earpiece. "Give me the update on Laurie Black, please."

Callie was busy juggling multiple channels and keeping an eye on everyone from her screens, when a call came in from Danny. Her heart sank at his words; after already having to give multiple updates like this already, she wasn't sure she could keep it together for much longer. Locating him on the cameras, she noticed that he was standing with Liam and the network link told her that Danny had given him an earpiece. Taking a deep breath, she isolated their coms to a private channel before speaking. "I'm so sorry, Liam..." There was too much going on to sugarcoat anything. Jamie had confirmed the deaths she had seen, but Callie didn't have all the details. "Laurie didn't make it out."

As soon as the words came through the coms, Liam's vision clouded over. He didn't hear anything she said after 'sorry' and the effort to stay standing was simply too much. He let go of Danny, backing away a few steps before his knees hit the ground. He had enough cognitive thought left in him to remove the coms from his ear before an agonising wail erupted from his throat. His hands slammed into the ground, his magic flowing through them with enough force to fracture the earth beneath him. Sound was tearing out of him, but if there were words they were hidden under the anger, and the pain, and the untethered magic rolling off of him.

Julian carried a box on his shoulders. he had been moving stuff for the whole afternoon and still felt like he had a while left to go. He had noticed that someone was watching him, but he hadn't turned to look at who the audience was. "I know I look good doing physical labour, but it would be nice to get some help. My arms are killing me."

Liam hadn't really been staring at Julian, if anything, he had been staring past him. Ever since the attack on the high school- ever since his little sister was killed- Liam had been zoning out of most conversations. "Oh, sorry..." Julian's voice snapped him out of his stupor and, with a wave of his hand, the box he had been carrying was now levitating at the side of his head. "Where do you want it?"

Danny's stomach dropped as he watched the worst case scenario take over Liam's face. He didn't want to believe it, but the same feeling sat in Danny's chest. Laurie Black had been at the after prom party. No one on comms had mentioned her, yet. If they'd found Jamie, Annie, Yvonne and Landon... Damn it. Danny reached out and held onto both of Liam's hands, strong and steady. "I know," he said. Everything could be okay, right? Everything could be okay. Danny couldn't bring himself to say it, he knew better now. Instead, he unzipped his pack and placed a spare earpiece into Liam's hand. "Listen in, okay? I can try her cell-," Danny said, touching his own earpiece to ask Callie to patch through the number- "I'm right here, Liam. Okay? I've got you."

Liam clung on to Danny's hands as he tried to steady himself. The only thing keeping him standing was his determination to find his sister, but if that stopped being enough, he was sure that Danny wouldn't let him fall. Even when he reached into his pack, Liam kept a strong hold on him, only releasing with one hand to take the earpiece and secure it to his ear. "Thank you." He stared into Danny's eyes for a moment too long before nodding. "Danny, she-... She's all I have..."

"You have to," Blake said, even if he wished he didn't have to. Liam had to keep it together, he was on the field and the night was far from over. They had to keep a clear head, had to keep moving and stay alive. No one was going to help find survivors faster by being reckless. Blake was about to answer Liam about who had been located at the bleachers already when his ear-piece starting blowing up. 'We need back up, Blake', the SOS was loud and clear. He looked back to Liam, regret clear on his face. "You have to," he said softer. "I have to go, I'm sorry. Keep moving, okay?" And with that, he had to leave Liam behind, hoping against hope that Laurie would be okay.

"Tell me 'bout it," Lua mimicked being frightened to death in response. "Yeah, no, I am good. You good?" she answered absentmindedly, not feeling good at all but she could talk to her pillow about that later. "A weapon? Wow," she turned again to behold the remnants of the school, "Magic, huh?" It did make some sense to her. A forgotten Bunsen burner could hardly have caused this much damage. She looked back to Liam, head tilted, "when you live in the woods everyone looks a bit shady, truth be told. Bad guys, good guys... all of them with some agenda. I saw some kids, like, a while ago, though. Pretty sure their agenda was fun but not, like, lets-blow-up-the-school-fun."

At her fake fear, Liam did smile, despite the seriousness of the situation. "I'm good." He nodded, but like her, was probably just physically good. There was too much carnage around them to truly be okay. "Yeah. Someone should really tell Xavier that magic and tech aren't supposed to mix." It was impressive, what he could do with a few magical items and a soldering iron, but Liam wasn't entirely sure how he felt about something this powerful being able to exist. "That's fair. Probably safe to assume it wasn't them." He almost smiled again. "So, if you were a bad guy, with a super powerful weapon... would an empty school be the thing you chose to blow up?"

The magic that was hanging over the school (or what remained of it) was clearly an evil one, one that made Gwen's stomach sick. She hadn't been around this level of magic in a long, long time, and it was hard to not let it overwhelm her. Liam's words helped pull her out of the fog, even if it took her a moment to process them. "You mean, when, with the McReids?" She had not been involved in that, but she remembered it, of course. "Don't worry about the pizza. I'm not hungry, I don't think. We should...We should do something. Help."

Liam nodded, "Yeah. They have this guy who's like a genius with magical items and tech, and he-... well, he made a bomb. The hope was that it would at least weaken Edward long enough to get close to him, but Karen wasn't able to trigger it before-..." Before she died? Before they murdered her? Before their last shred of hope was burnt to a cinder? "Yeah. Yeah, we should-..." Liam looked around them, trying to piece things together. "Why the school? If they figured out how to use our weapon, why not try to get it into the Underground or into, like, the McReid house? Why an empty building?" As far as he knew, no one had been at the school that night.

Blake didn't get the chance to answer as he watched Liam figure out the terrible truth. Laurie Black would have been at that prom, at that after-party, and Liam knew that. It was clear from the look that had fallen on his face. Blake swallowed back the lump in his throat and tried to remain grounded. Strong. "They had an after-prom party," Blake confirmed anyway. He gestured to his earpiece before answering, "We're looking now. It sounds like there's a beat on at least three people by the bleachers. No specifics yet. Liam, I-- We'll find her, okay?"

"Three?" He repeated, panic clear on his face. "There's probably like a hundred seniors and we've only located three?" Liam was hyperventilating. Magic crackled at his fingertips as he tried to focus. Maybe Laurie was at Landon's. Maybe she really did go there and all her friends would be with her. Safe. "Do you know who they are? The kids at the bleachers?" If Laurie had been here... even if she survived this... what were the odds that all her friends survived? How many people could she lose before it broke her? How many could he lose? "Blake, I can't-..."

Tessa looked away when Liam used his magic but quickly got a hold of herself. The perimeter around them looked clear for now, long enough to explain at least. She closed the gap between them, taking in a breath before answering his question. "There was a code red underground. Carmen had been monitoring the prom and everything was fine. Until it wasn't. Some kids, they snuck into the school to have an after-curfew party. It went--- Things are bad but then... They used it. Xavier's weapon."

Liam noticed her look away and briefly wondered if the decapitation had been a bit much. One of the benefits of being a witch and a bloodline hunter was the intense training you get with combat magic. Witches were supposed to be about protection and vibing with the universe, but Liam liked to think of his use of magic as karma, justice. You could use a force-field to decapitate a vampire and still keep your soul intact if you were maintaining the balance of nature. "Wait, did you say prom?" Stepping over the dead vampire, he moved towards Tessa, brow furrowed. "My sister was at prom, she-... she was staying at her boyfriend's house after it." He paused, looking back up at the rubble. "There was an after-curfew party?"

Danny was so close to getting what was going on here. He had all the pieces, he just needed to jam them together. "It wasn't an empty building. Supposed to be but-," he started and then it hit him. Laurie Black. Had she been...? "There was an after-prom party in the school. Someone must have stolen the keys or something, we don't know yet. We're- We're looking for survivors now."

Liam heard 'after-prom party' and was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea and a ringing in his ears. Laurie had been at prom tonight and she had told him that she was probably going to crash at Landon's with his friends. Should he have been a better guardian and insist that she come home instead of spending prom night with a boy? Maybe, but she had been so excited. Landon's friend group had welcomed her in after a rough year or so of her being the weird kid that insisted she didn't need friends, so how could he tell her 'no' when she was finally figuring it all out? Had she been here? Or did she go to Landon's house like she said? "Danny..." In his panic, he couldn't get any other words out. He needed to call her. Where was his phone?

Lua stood quietly, overwhelmed by a feeling of dread slowly flowing through her as she came to realise maybe this wasn't a science project gone wrong. There was way too much running, screaming, and general unrest for this to be an accident. Liam Black snuck up on her then and instinct had her greet him with a drawn knife. "Oh fuck," she exclaimed, sheathing her trusty companion quickly, "almost risked you kicking my ass there for a second." Gesturing to the general destruction she shook her head defeatedly, "I've no idea, but it feels weird. Unnatural. Spicy. Intentional?"

Liam's hand immediately came up, ready to blast her back if she came at him with her knife, but at her realisation that he wasn't one of the bad guys, he relaxed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to-..." He made claw hands and mimicked jumping out at her. His mouth twitched, almost forming a smile. "Good thing your reflexes are so quick then. You good?" Liam scanned the surrounding area, making sure no one else was preparing to jump out at them. "Yeah, you're not wrong. That was definitely a magic weapon. Have you seen anyone shady around the school lately?"

She had been at home, warm and comfortable, ready to relax after another day of work. In fact, she had just turned the tv on and then, there it was. Gwen tried to stay out of the factions, the fighting, but as soon as she heard that it was the school that was hit, she was out of her house, off and running.

Liam looked out at the rubble of the high school and nodded. There was definitely some sort of magic radiating from it and the flames were flickering somewhere between purple and pink. From what he could remember of the plan from six months ago (he hadn't been involved, but he had been underground at the time and on standby in case he was needed) this sounded like Xavier's weapon. "I think it was the device we tried to use on Montgomery Manor." This was really bad. His attention turned from the school and back to Gwen. "I-... I think I have your pizza in my car."

Blake almost went running by when he heard Liam. He turned, clearly a mess. The scrapes weren't too bad, nothing was broken and the blood was superficial. The dirt and sweat would come off in the wash. The loss of today wouldn't come out so easily. "Code red. There- There was a party after curfew. There was an ambush and then... They blew it up. The school's gone, Liam."

Liam almost didn't recognise Blake as he ran past; he was a mess. Covered in blood and dirt, and frantic as hell, but his words hit him hard. "What do you mean, a party after curfew? At the school? Who would be-..." Prom was tonight. Laurie's prom was tonight, but it was in town hall and-... Liam's thoughts were racing. Lame, overly chaperoned prom in a town hall that ended at 8pm... Cool, unsupervised after-party in an empty school after curfew. "They had an after-prom party..." His heart was racing, his ears were ringing. "Survivors?" He couldn't breathe.

Tessa had been working with the team to clear the area and rescue any survivors. It broke her heart to think about how hopeless that was proving to be. The least they could do was make sure no one else got hurt. She was fending off a couple of vamps when she noticed Liam getting out of the car. Tucking and rolling, she threw back a couple of Xavier's little black discs. They hit the vampires, momentarily paralyzing them.

Liam caught the tail end of Tessa's takedown and when she yelled at him, he didn't hesitate. He ducked and grabbed the vampire that ran at him, using their momentum to flip them over him and on to the ground. As he stood, he slammed his hand down, creating a magical force that decapitated the vampire. He lifted his head to look at Tessa, "What the hell is going on?!"

"It's a code red, man." Danny looked back at Liam, something obvious flying over his head... Instead, he was focused on the fact that Liam was a witch. And a bloodline hunter. Even if he was a gun for hire, they could use his help now. "All hands on deck. There was--- Something happened at the school. They set off Xavier's device."

Code red. Liam wasn't quite up on his knowledge of the Resistance speak, but he knew that 'code red' would never be a good thing. "What?" That didn't make any sense. "Why would they waste a weapon like that on an empty building?" Surely, there would be better places to do something like this.