Put That Kid Down

Chapter Twenty Two

Coming to an abrupt halt he turned on the three children fidgeting nearby. Or two children fidgeting. That heathen, Max, was stockstill and scowling. "What were you thinking?"

"...That it might help if we actually did something instead of waiting for Daniel to come to us?" Max suggested venomously.

"And what if it went wrong?" David took a sharp step forward, looming over Max with fire on his breath, "You could have gotten your friends hurt, Max! You could have died! Why are you set on making me regret- Isn't it enough to be passively in danger?"

Rolled eyes were not one of the accepted responses to that sort of accusation, Daniel was fairly certain. He might not spend a great deal of time around people before he purified him, but that he could pick up on.

It seemed David agreed since he made a strangled, inarticulate noise of fury and turned away from the children, fists clenched in front of him as he tried to breathe deeply. This, of course, only led to him making eye contact with the very person who might have killed his campers if things had gone well. 'Well' for Daniel, anyway.

Daniel raised a half-regenerated eyebrow at him over the gag.

David made another furious noise and kicked his cage over before storming out of the room.

A few seconds later, it appeared he'd sent Gwen in to deal with the situation more calmly.

"You three are terrifying," she informed them bluntly upon entry, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't think there was a big chance you'd have gotten murdered if only because you clearly have some sort of probability skewing force on your side, but David would still like me to remind you that risking campers like that is against the camp rules and that your lives are precious and blah blah blah." She shrugged, "But like I said, I don't think you increased the danger you were already in doing this."

As he wiggled back into an upright position, Daniel noted Nikki had already relaxed at the calmer tones and Neil didn't look ready to climb the sides of the craft hall and dig his way out through the wooden walls anymore, but the heathen child was still tense. Some sort of schism, there?

"Okay, how are we going to..." Gwen jerked her head towards Daniel, not looking at him or elaborating what exactly she meant. Perhaps one of the children would slip up and reveal what they intended.

"Outside," Max said sharply, and Daniel twitched.

Fuck that kid.

.

"...and we still have the purification sauna, after all," Max concluded his explanation, trying to ignore David's silent glower the whole way through. The counselor couldn't quite protest, however, because he'd essentially planned the same thing. Without the whole use Max as bait caveat.

That was an important distinction.

"Plus, Neil can help us set it up to brainwash him better," Nikki put in, snagging Neil cheerfully by the shoulders.

Dislodging her, Neil threw his arms up in the air, "Why do you just assume I know how to brainwash people? I'm not a mad scientist, Nikki!"

Max snorted and Nikki leaned in closer, staring at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

After a moment of staring back, Neil crossed his arms and looked away. "Okay, I happen to know how to brainwash people. Shut up."

"Harrison can help, too," Max added, talking right over the glare Neil shot his way, "but we gotta figure out what kind of stuff Xeemuug would say, so someone's going to have to go listen to his fucking propaganda and report back."