Czarina, still on four legs, sped ahead of the others. She reached the edge of the zone of destruction and halted in her tracks. 
A semi-concious Scotch had her arms loosely around Richi’s neck, who stood in the center of the ruins. Everything surrounding them was blown back, demolished, as if there had been a vicious tornado, and the two teens had been in the eye of it.

“Remind me not to piss Scotch off,” Blaze muttered, who had reached the wolf along with the others. 

“Richi! Scotch!” Val raced forward to her friends. As she neared, she was able to better see the red beginning to stain the blonde boy’s shirt. The violet hair girl in his arms was trembling as the blood seeped from her wounds.

“What happened?” Silver said in awe of the power it would have taken to create such a scene.

“I told you,” Valeriya said, “She’s prone to panicking.”

“We need to get her to a hospital. Now,” Richi said.

“I don’t think that would be the smartest idea,” Alek countered.
“He’s right,” Nic agreed. “Six teenagers showing up at a hospital to get care for their friend with two gun-shot wounds? That’s bound to raise a few flags.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Val demanded.

Blaze crossed his arms, a solution already formed in his mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She opened her mauve eyes and squinted up at the ceiling as her blurry vision began to clear. Muffled voices around her turned into soft, distinguishable tones speaking soft, undistinguishable words. As her senses sorted themselves out, Scotch tried to sit up on the bed she had been laid on, but froze and gasped a sharp pain pierced her torso.
“Well, well, looks who’s back in the land of the living,” Richi recited from his place leaning against the wall across from the bed.
“Woah,” he said as the girl tried to sit up straighter. He removed himself from the wall and set a gentle hand on her shoulder, carefully pushing her back down. “Scotch, you’ve sustained two gun shot wounds. You need to rest.”
She nodded and relaxed back into the comfort comforter. “Where are we?” she asked.

“Atlanta, Georgia. Two star, low rate, off the grid hotel.”

Scotch’s drooping eye lids snapped back open at the unfamiliar voice. She turned her head and glanced at the white-haired teenage girl standing by a desk where a blonde and girl Scotch didn’t immediately recognize were at work on a pair of laptops.
The door of the hotel opened and Val walked in and quickly shut the door behind her. She smiled at Scotch, who returned the gesture. Her friend tossed a bag to a dark haired teenager who sat on the second twin bed.
He caught is easily, muttered a thank you, and raised the ice to his black eye. 
“You find anything yet, Aryess?” he asked. The girl who sat perched on the desk with a laptop shook her head. “What about you, Alek?” the boy also shook his head. 

“What are you looking for?” Scotch asked. Suddenly the names of the teens, the events of the past days, came rushing back to her. Her eyes widened and she struggled to stay whelmed over the overpowering intensity of it all.

“A link between the Light, the School, and our assassins,” Nic said in answer to her question.
“And we’ve come up with nothing in the past 5 hours,” Vika said, sounding down hearted.

“Oh. Wait, I was asleep for 5 hours?” 
“Long enough to get those bullets out of you,” Richi confirmed.
Scotch blinked, then blushed, feeling the bandages just under her rib cage and on her foreleg.
“Don’t worry,” Val reassured. “I performed the procedure myself. Nic instructed me, though he couldn’t do it himself with the blurry vision of his bad eye.”
“Oh,” Scotch breathed, blush fading. Vika giggled. “You really need to relax, or you’ll have to be institutionalized for stress-”
“That’s it!” Aryess suddenly exclaimed, making the others jump.
“Institute!”

“[/i]The[/i] Institute?” her partner said. A smile graced his lips and turned his attention back to his laptop, fingers a flurry as the flashed across the keyboard.
“Hold on. ‘The Institution’? What does that have to do with our mission?” Richi asked.
“The Institution for Higher Living is linked to the School,” Nic supplied. “It’s a place were several of their experiments were caged until a few years ago. They're linked to CADMUS and other organizations that test on and create mutants. Both the School and the Institute are run by-”

“Itexicon,” Alek finished. “And there happens to be an HQ right here in Atlanta.”