fandomhigh | Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

Class was in the Danger Shop again, and the room looked like a city street under the stark light of the moon. It was lined with identical low-rise tan office buildings, set on lots surrounded by high chain-link fences. Tyler waited outside one such building, arms folded around himself as he waited for the students to assemble.

"First things," he began without preamble. "If you know me at all, you know I don't like to apologize. But I will say last week's class was a mistake. I should've done a straight session on fertilizer bombs, not gotten into ... the rest of it. Anyhow, if you have something to say to me about it, I'll be around after class and my office hours are still Mondays."

"Though it does kind of lead into what we're doing this class. Because this week, for our final, you can bring a building down." He paused, watching the students for any reaction. When it was quiet once more, he went on.

"Right, so this is the deal. Each of these buildings represents the HQ for the most evil scum you can imagine. They eat babies, they pollute, they support Barry Manilow's recording career, whatever. And your job is to take them out. You have two choices: Big boom or sneak attack."

"If you go for a big boom, you get into the lot and detonate a fertilizer bomb or nitroglycerin around the building. It goes up, you run, the evildoers can't recover. Done. You just need to hope your evacuation order went through, 'cause if anyone was in there, they aren't coming out."

"But that's not the only choice. You can also go for sneak attack. If you go that way, you use small bombs like C4 and Molotov cocktails to break into the property, steal a folder of crucial information in the main conference room, and sneak out, blowing up however much you want to on the way. Problem is, a, there's no proof anybody will believe what's in the folder, and b, you could get caught before you do anything. But do this right and there's no chance of collateral damage. Then once the building's down -- or not-down, however you're doing it -- you get to tell me what you did and why."

"You're paired for this, and there's one group of three. I know the idea of a lone wolf is all romantic, but in the real world, you'd probably have to work with other people to get anything done. Or not sleep." Which was Tyler's favored approach. "Anyhow, the bomb-making supplies are in that workshop area. Questions? Ask me or Miss Hammond."

"And you have all been a fantastic class. Thank you."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If they were on our side, feeding intelligence to us, then we'd have them pull out before the mission," Ino said, "have them call in sick, or something. This wouldn't be a sudden thing, you'd have to plan it. There'd be plenty of time to get warning to those on your side."

"It just doesn't make sense to leave people alive in a case like this."

Tyler raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna recruit and convert every admin, every housekeeper, and every pencil pusher in a building this size, or else lwe them die?" he queried. "'Cause you try to do that, you end up in handcuffs or worse long before you can get to work."

"Why should I care if they die?" Ino asked honestly. "The mission was blow up the building, not 'blow up the building but get everyone out of the building first'."

"Actually the mission I gave you did include getting everybody out," Tyler pointed out. "I'm not quite senile yet."

"But if that's not a good enough reason -- look, I'm not teaching ethics here, I won't give you some big speech about how human life is sacred." He pushed his hair back. "But when I'm teaching? I'm not going to encourage kids to pretend to kill lots of people."

"And I'm still not understanding why," Ino said, "I mean, yeah, okay, so you said we've got to give an evac order--but why? It doesn't make sense."

She frowned at him.

"And in my world I've been an adult for three years now."

"And I thought I was grown when I was 13," Tyler shrugged, clearly not impressed. "Didn't make it so."

He lowered his voice. "Look, let's just say I have reason to know how the school feels about people who try to blow buildings up. They are not fans of the possibility of collateral damage. And, even if you disagree with my morals, I still am not getting fired over a Danger Shop exercise."

Ino was just going to keep her mouth shut 'bout how she'd really been only twelve, and that it was only even the seven months stuck in the past in Paris that let her say she was fifteen now. Yeah.

She raised her eyebrows. "And yet they don't have any problems with kids trying to kill their teachers?" She'd gotten to seriously poison Logan-sensei earlier after all.

"I'm going to guess that depends on the kid and the teacher," Tyler said, confused. "And how seriously they try."

"Also on the teacher being mortal to start with."

Fandom was weird, but it seemed like a murder attempt should at least be worth a detention.

"It was a class assignment," Ino explained. "In how to be the best class. He told us to knock him down, and said he could take anything we tried."

"So I poisoned him."

That was unexpected.

"Hnuh," Tyler managed, after staring at Ino for a second. "Yeah, I'm going to guess Professor Logan isn't really mortal, if he's challenging you guys that way."

He paused, then: "So you know, I am." He didn't want Ino to decide to test the poison on him as payback for detention.

"It's a mutant ability," she said with a shrug, "his healing. it affected him but he managed to get up after a bit though it was designed to be able to take out things the size of elephants in half a minute. He told me to up the dosage next time I poison him."

Logan-sensei ruled.

"And don't worry," Ino added, looking innocent. "I'd only do it on orders."

Tyler had to laugh at that. "Good to know," he said. "You get an order like that, let me know. Give a guy a fighting chance."

"I'll consider it," she said smartly. "If I, you know, feel like it."

That felt like detente, and he half-smiled.

"Have a good detention," Tyler offered. "And, hey, I'm surprised it took me to the last class to give one out."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Whatever," She shrugged her shoulders. "Glad to oblige I guess."

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

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