Basics in Teaching

Chapter 5 - Basics in Behavior (2/3)

"I know," Miss Teck said, briefly turning her gaze to Mister Maus' unconscious body on the floor a short distance away. "He will be down for a while, at least until this entire debacle is settled and done with. You're bright—you could probably tell that the other teachers aren't themselves right now. I don't suppose I need to tell you who, or what, the cause of this is."

Engel nodded expectedly. "Alice."

"That's right, or at least that's what I believe. Nothing else fits the bill, and most of the other teachers I've come across were acting wholly out of character," the nurse confirmed, now turning her attention to Bubble. As her injuries were much less severe than the others, likely a byproduct of her unique physiology, it consequently took a lot less time to 'heal' her to a degree that was satisfactory for the canine nurse.

As expected, in time, Bubble looked nearly identical to the state she was in just before this whole thing, albeit still unconscious and with some of her clothes torn. "There, that should do it. She doesn't need hospitalisation, but it would be better for her to go anyway."

She then turned to Engel. "You look rough yourself; are you okay? I can heal you too."

Engel shook his head, knowing that if she exerted even more of her ability, it was likely that she wouldn't have much more energy to do anything else afterwards. At least, that's what he thought. "No, I'm okay. It looks a lot worse than it is, I think—he went easy on me."

"Come on, then," Miss Teck said, carefully carrying Lana and Abbie over her shoulders—they were looking much better before, at least physically, so they could handle it. "Help Bubble up. We need to get out of here, and fast; they're stable now, but my healing ability can only do so much."

The feathered demi-human said naught a word and merely nodded as he picked Bubble up over his shoulder as well.

Quickly, they proceeded to make their way to the end of the hall, towards the exit with nothing else stopping them. Engel, with a lump building in his throat, approached the door—there were no more obstacles, no unstoppable force for him to face, just... the gate leading to the outside world. As he finally swung it open, the two of them exiting unceremoniously, the sun's rays immediately impacted the feathered demi-human, causing him to recoil a little as he motioned to bring his arms up to block it. Never has he ever been gladder to see the sun and have its warmth impact him the way it just did.

After that moment of deliberation, Engel went ahead and followed Miss Teck to the school's parking lot and to her vehicle, opening the backseat doors as the two then propped all three of the unconscious students in a semi-comfortable, 'safe' way in the back of the car.

"I need to get them to the hospital quickly; I called the police a little while ago, but I do not hear their sirens—it will likely be a while until they get here because of where this school is located, and I fear that it would already be too late should we wait," Miss Teck huffed, beads of sweat running down her face. It appeared that the effort she put into healing the three students did in fact drain her of a lot of her own energy, but she still managed to maintain a composed look. "I will drive them. I would also like you to come with me, Engel."

Engel immediately shook his head. "No... no, I can't. Claire is still in there somewhere, and until I know she's safe, I can't leave her alone in there."

"Engel..."

"I'm sorry, Miss Teck, but I have to do this. I have to be sure she's okay," the feathered demi-human said as he stared at her with a level of determination and resolve that he didn't know he had. A common growing theme, he found. "Please."

"Doing this is completely irresponsible and irrevocably against everything I've ever stood for my entire life," Miss Teck argued back, though she then let out a somber sigh as she leaned against her car. "...but I can't stop you, not like this. Just don't do anything risky, and the moment things look like they're about to turn bad, you run like HELL, got it? Even I don't know the full scope of what's going on in there."

"Yes ma'am, I promise," Engel said, although he was uncertain himself that he would follow through with it. "I'll be as careful as I can be. I'll see you later, I'm sure of it."

"...Convincing. You'll make a great lawyer one day."

With that, he watched as Miss Teck drove out of the school grounds and towards the nearest hospital, of which he knew was a little ways away from what he could remember. Gritting his teeth, he wasted no more time and rushed back into the school, sprinting deeper into the dark, seemingly endless catacombs that appeared to be contorting around him.

A byproduct of his growing madness, perhaps, although he did not doubt there to be other factors at play, too.

At least he knew most of his friends were okay, or seemingly okay...

As he ran further in, he was suddenly stopped. Not by a teacher or anyone dangerous on that note, but an... unlikely, yet somewhat expected person.

"ENGEL!!"

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A / N

No real author's notes here! What can I say... Ah! I have an Ao3 account if you would prefer to read this on there. The name of the fic is the same here as on there.

(Edit 11/17 -> Special shoutout to Huy_tam_plaval for correcting Mister Maus' Russian!!!)