C0mb0 Br3ak3r

[Erin Hackett]

"Come on, I know the locker combo is right." Erin sort of mumbled whined under her breath as she fumbled with her locker combination again. She had already tried four times and after the fifth try she was on the verge of giving up. She had only put the stupid lock on the locker to keep her stuff safe. It was stupid but she was paranoid about her stuff being taken or messed with that she wanted to make sure things were safe. "If this was made out of electronics I could hack my way in." Erin grumbled as she gave up with the stupid lock.

If she could not hack her way in, or open it the right way, then she was going to break in. There was no one around at the moment that she saw because of classes were in. Erin had class, but she still had time to break into her locker before she had to get to class. Plus worse case someone getting out of class or going to class would end up helping her out. For now she just knew she was alone and since she was alone she could be bold and do what she had to do in order to get at her things. Her power would not help, so she was going to do this the old fashion way, with effort.

I'm going to be so tired after this. Erin thought to herself because she was not one for putting for major physical effort. Stepping back she took a deep breath and started to kick at her locker, yank at it, run into, and shaking the handle. "Damn it open!" Erin yelled out, breathing heavily as she rubbed at her shoulder.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex hated her Academy appointed therapy sessions. Not so much because she felt she didn't need them, on the contrary. Any mutant who had carried a deep pathological fear of the very thing their powers centered around should be involved in a program to help them to accept and overcome their fear simply for the safety of others. Especially when that fear happened happened to be in regards to something as destructive as fire. No, what Alex hated the most was how her sessions always happened to fall between two classes. This meant she would leave one early to make that embarrassing walk of shame out into the empty hall while the rest of the students looked on curiously and ended in the midst of a different class causing her to make that same walk into a class already in session.

It just sucked all around.

Slowly, almost contemplatively, Alex moved along the halls of Bellefonte utterly lost in her own thoughts. She was deep enough into her therapy that every session seemed to linger with her for the rest of the day. Her fear had started well before she discovered her 'gift' and only became worse with the realization of her mutation. By now, sometimes wondered how she could function knowing at any given second the thing she feared most could instantly appear in front of her and knowing she would be the cause was still utterly terrifying.

The sound of someone slamming against a locker instantly snapped Alex from her own thoughts. She jerked, stopping in her tracks and blinking a little as she tried to focus upon the source of the racket. Her eyes finally settled upon the redheaded girl attempting desperately to gain entrance into her locker. A brief flush of heat instantly touched Alex's cheeks the moment she laid eyes upon the other girl and there was absolutely no reason for it whatsoever.

Slowly, Alex crept closer as she tried to figure out what was going on. It was easy for her to hide and typically quiet. She often went unnoticed even when she spoke. She watched the scene for a moment before finally deciding to make her presence known. "Um." She said timidly. "Are you, uh, having problems?" She asked and immediately squeezed her eyes shut. Anyone with half a brain could see the other girl was having issues.

Smooth, Alex. Real smooth.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin had been too focused on her locker to notice that there was someone that was watching her and getting closer. She just wanted the damn thing to open. She would not have cared about it if she had not put something in it that was very important to her. She had only shoved her Pokémon plushie in there on a whim to hide it from a really hot girl that was walking past at the time of the incident. There was also other stuff in there that she needed but now that it dawned on her that she had in fact left one of her plushies in her locker, she needed to set it free.

It belonged back in her room with her other collection of Pokémon and other various plush dolls. Erin let out something between a mix of a quick yell and a squeak when she heard the voice. She had been startled and as such she did a quick flicker. Her eyes dilating for a second as she vanished from sigh and then reappeared as her eyes went back to normal. Of course whenever she 'flickered'; as she called it, it came with the side effect of a massive headache. Erin was already reaching a hand up to rest on her hear, closing her eyes and trying to bite back the pain.

She squinted to see who had scared her and then was pretty much speechless anyways because it was a girl. Not just a girl, a cute girl. A little on the short side, but a girl all the same. She was asking if Erin was having a problem. Yes, she was having several problems now. She could not get into her locker, her head was killing her, and there was a hot girl talking to her. "I uh...locker...it’s you know, not opening. But uh...hi." Erin said, thanking her head for hurting so she could say that was why only fails came out of her mouth.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex did little more than stand in silence for the first few moments. Erin had spoken, giving the information Alex already knew but was still dumb enough to ask about in the first place, but the redheaded girl's flickering caused a bit of a glitch to surface in the brunette's mind. By now Alex was used to the typical goings on at the Academy. There were kids that could shift into animals, move things with their minds, hell, Alex, herself, should have been capable of manipulating flames with a mere flick of her wrist. But this was on an entirely different level. She eyes Erin a bit before being able to finally push words out.

"Oh, uh..." Those counted as words, right? Alex took a short breath, confused herself as to why a sudden tension had settled between the two girls who had just met. "I could give it a try." She offered meekly, giving a short gesture in the direction of the locker. "Sometimes they stick." Of course, if she wasn't able to get the locker open, she could always default to much more destructive means to get the infernal receptacle open. "Do you mind?"

[Erin Hackett]

The eyes on her made her start to blush. Why was the girl looking at her? Was there something on her face? Did she forget to wear the bottom of the uniform? Erin quickly looked down to make sure that she was in fact wearing one of the pants sets they allowed girls to wear for their uniform. She let out a breath when she saw that she was all check in that regard. How embarrassing would it be to meet a pretty girl and realize that you didn't have pants on? That was practically something out of a nightmare. The girl managed to get out words and then was offering her help.

Erin startled to play with the end of her shirt as she took a few steps away from her locker. "Uh, sure. Yeah, you go ahead. You do your thing. Your hot thing. Not like that. Not saying that you are not hot or anything, cause you are but...I'm Erin." Erin stumbled out over her words and managed to at least try to change her fell into an introduction. She hesitated a moment before she offered out her hand to the other girl. Handshakes were fine, right? Cool kids still did that, right? Why were girls so hard to talk to!

[Alexandra Lawson]

"Oh." Was all Alex could muster as a response right away. She didn't know why this seemed to happen lately. The pretty redhead was the second girl she'd encountered recently that ended up stumbling over their words. Alex didn't mind, after all, it didn't feel so bad when she would inevitably do the same if she had the knowledge the person she was talking to was probably prone to doing it as well. She offered a small, but embarrassed smile that was lowered the moment it flashed upon her face. She'd never been called 'hot' before, even by accident. Sure, she got her share of 'cute', 'adorable', and 'annoying as fuck', but 'hot' was definitely a new one.

"Alex." She said finally and reached out to accept Erin's hand. It was a little unorthodox of a greeting between to students, let alone girls at that, but that was fine. Alex sort of liked it. She held the handshake for just a moment too long as she contemplated the feel of the slender hand in hers. The other girl was taller, but that wasn't anything new for Alex. Everyone seemed to tower over the five foot tall brunette these days. Wasn't her fault she barely grew when she hit puberty.

Taking back her hand, Alex's head shook a little and she offered a bit of a sheepish smile. She'd let her mind wander. Again. And she could only hope it wasn't as off-putting to Erin as it was to most. "Okay." She said, a bit of resolve touching her voice as she focused upon the task at hand. "I'll, um, give this a try." She carefully shifted between Erin and the locker, being careful to maintain a decent amount of distance from the girl. She waited for the locker combination and slowly went to spin the dial to the numbers. She thought she heard a small 'click' inside the mechanism, signalling she'd performed the task correctly. With a hopeful gleam in her eyes she pulled on the lock.

Nothing happened.

"Well shit." She muttered under her breath.

[Erin Hackett]

You called her hot! Damn it Erin! You don't call a girl hot the first time you meet her! Cute or adorable are okay, but hot it just like saying 'hey, you are sexy and I was so checking you out among other things. Erin was practically internally screaming at herself for having even let that slip out. She needed to be locked away, forever. Not allowed in public with actual girls in her life unless they were out of the legal age limit or something like that. Erin was just thankful the other girl didn't say anything about it and didn't make a big deal about it.

Alex; as she had now given her name was even extending out a hand to shake with Erin's. The other girl did have soft hands, and she was pretty tiny. Nothing was wrong with tiny or anything like that, but Erin did feel her face warming up when she quickly notice the girl was still holding her hand. Of course she would notice if a pretty girl was holding her hand longer than the usual acceptable amount of time to shake someone’s hand. Not that she was complaining. Just more internal screaming. Erin didn't even bother to say anything, just nodded her head several times when Alex said she was going to give it a go.

Speaking would have just been foolish because she knew she was going to end up messing it up somehow. She didn't want to scare off the girl or anything when she was looking for some help with her stupid locker. Erin waited, just trying to not stare all over the girl as she worked on her locker. Unf, girl doing work, so attractive. Focus! Erin mentally scolded herself. There was a click and Erin figured that Alex had gotten it, but the locker was still not opened and Alex voice out a word that added to that fact. "Good to know that it was not just me...being weird and not able to open it." Erin responded back. Wait, that was not cheering the girl up. "Good try!" Erin quickly said, but more so yelled it out.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex felt a warmth flush her cheeks. It was bad enough she'd put herself on the spot with letting her hand remain closed about the other girl's for too long, but she had to go and try to do the same thing the redhead had been doing for who knows how long thinking that somehow it would work for her. And now she stood, facing the locker, her back to Erin, the embarrassment growing rapidly.

"Um." Was about all she could get out at first. Her fingers went to work the dial on the lock again but to no avail. The same futile -click- followed by another round of jiggling at the lock. "Come on you bastard." She mumbled under her breath, her growing frustration now mirroring Erin's before Alex had showed up.

Eyes narrowed as a third attempt ultimately proved pointless. Alex glanced over her shoulder to Erin. She had put together the other girl's mutation probably wasn't conducive to getting into the locker herself, or she already would have. Alex had an idea, but she didn't know how well it would work and whether or not Erin would even be alright with it. "I've got an idea." She said. "You don't mind if I break this thing, do you?" The question came accompanied by the same flash of frustration Erin must have felt while trying to gain entry into the locker. The infernal receptacle had claimed another victim, it seemed.

[Erin Hackett]

Alex seemed embarrassed that her attempt had failed, Erin would have too if she were in the girl’s shoes. There you were trying to save the day only to fail yourself and the both of you stuck and not getting anywhere. Erin of course was not mad at the girl and could not even picture having failed or anything like that. She had tried her best and there was no way a pretty girl like her could actually fail at anything she did on purpose. The locker was just clearly stupid and that was all there was to it at the end of the day.

Erin stayed silent and just watched the girl as she worked on getting Erin's locker opened. Of course during this time Erin's eyes were wondering over the girl's form. It was okay because the girl was distracted so she was less likely to get distracted, plus it just sort of happened. Like when you were trying to focus on something and then the next thing you know you realized you were doing something completely different then what you intended to do. Alex was still not having any luck and even mumbling something under her breath.

"Oh go ahead. Do whatever ever you got to do. So long as it does not like completely destroy uh...something." Erin said, not saying what that something was. Did this girl like Pokémon? She didn't want to say that she had a plush Pokémon doll in her locker that was really the only thing that she was worried about getting destroyed. Sure she could replace it, but it was still kind of important to her. Granted, this girl could probably burn all of her stuff animals and she would find some way to be okay with it. Erin even stepped back to give the girl some more space for whatever she had planned. "Need me to do anything?" Erin asked.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Alex didn't know where this sudden burst of frustrated confidence came from. Maybe it was because she had made a fool of herself in front of a stranger she happened to find undeniably cute. Whatever the reason Alex was doggedly determined to get the best of this infernal lock. She had remembered a trick her trainer had taught her that would come in handy. She'd been able to work on it more since it didn't involve seeing much of the element that struck an irrational fear into her heart.

"No, I think I got this." She tried to reply confidently but her voice wavered toward the end of her short sentence. She cast a short, sideways glance at Erin in hopes that she hadn't caught the hint of nerves that had leaked into her voice. "But, um..." Her eyes flicked to the locker, then back to Erin. "You might want to step back." Alex didn't know why. It wasn't as if she was going to blow anything up. Well, she supposed she could do so, in a way, but that wasn't the intent.

Swallowing hard, Alex took a long, slow breath and reached out and splayed her hand over the locking mechanism. Her eyes narrowed as she began to concentrate on the 'fire within'. as her trainer had always called it. She held the pose for a few long, almost agonizingly embarrassing seconds before she felt the warmth of the metal against her hand. It became hot to the touch, so she pulled back just a few inches, sucking air in through her teeth at the flash of searing pain. She hated not being immune to her own power.

Within seconds the concentrated sphere of manifest flame had began to melt the paint from the locker and cause the metal lock to glow a deep red. A lick of orange flared out and lapped against Alex's hand. She let out a yelp and pulled her arm back, ceasing the fire and leaving behind a scorching metal mechanism. She simultaneously went to place the burnt piece of her palm into her mouth while stepping back and attempting the most awkward kick to the locker imaginable.

The quick motion caused two things to happen. The first, and most pressing, was the weakened metal of the locking mechanism gave way under the terribly inefficient kick, causing the locker door bend inward and rattle open. The second was the force of the blow, as well as the awkward way in which she attempted it resulted in the obvious. The foot Alex had planted on the floor slipped from beneath her, sending her sprawling onto the floor.

She landed on her rear with a grunt and a high pitched squeaking noise. "Dammit!" Alex groaned under her breath, her uninjured hand moving to press against her sore butt cheek. "I broke my ass." She whimpered around the burnt hand she was sucking upon.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin did hear the slight level of nervousness in the other girl’s voice, but she was not going to say anything about it. Everything Erin was saying came out nervous because she was around a pretty girl who just so happened to be willing to help her out. “I’m uh…sure you can pull it off.” Erin said, trying to encourage the girl. She didn’t have to be told twice to step back, Erin was all for giving someone space because it made her a little bolder. Wonder if she is going to like bust out some cool metal bending metal power or something. Erin thought, figuring it be pretty badass if she just ripped the locker door free.

Erin remained silent, watching like a hawk, and not just because the girl was hot. Now part of it was because the girl was actually doing something hot, like heating up the lock. So Erin was dealing with a fire bender of sorts, that was extra hot. Pun intended. “You okay?” Erin asked, unable to hold back the concern when she saw the girl in pain. Normally Erin was a bit distant when it came to others pain, but there was something about seeing this girl in pain that tugged at her heart.

Erin jumped at the yelp, half flinching back but also moving forward so she kind of just moved around in place. She wanted to comfort the girl but that involved getting closer, which involved her sucking up her issue with being close to people and girl’s specifically. However; when Alex hit the floor, Erin was kneeling down right next to her. She hesitated to touch the girl before she reached out to try and take the girl’s hand. “You should run it under warm. Oh, I have some ointment you could use. I burn my hands a lot when I’m putting things together or fixing them.” Erin said, losing a little bit of her nerves as she removed her backpack and was already rummaging through it to get the ointment.

If you didn’t tend to a burn; if it was bad, it could welt, or damage her skin for a time being. Erin didn’t want the girl’s hands to be damaged because of her. Erin’s eyes traveled to Alex’s butt at her words about breaking it. Did she really break it? She could have damaged her tail bone. “Is your butt going to be okay? I offer to check it but…uh, thanksformylocker.” Erin said. She started to turn really red when she started talking about the girl’s butt. It was a nice butt.

[Alexandra Lawson]

Great. Now the other girl was having to play doctor after that little display of Alex's. She groaned a little and slowly went go crawl up to her feet, using the wall of lockers nearby to help. She was none the worse for wear, the burn was minor and her butt, while she might have a nice little bruise on one of her cheeks, wasn't anything serious. She was sort of getting to use to falling on it lately anyway. "No, I'm alright." She insisted with a weak smile. "Only thing that's really damaged is my ego." The admission came as she went to run a hand through her hair so she could reapply the band that was keeping the long, thick brunette tendrils in a loose ponytail.

"So, uh..." Alex's eyes shifted to her hand where a small streak of red had formed. It wasn't a major burn, but it did hurt. The mention of ointment did pique her curiosity. Anything that would sooth the sting was fine by her. She then looked to the now broken locker door. At least in her masterful display of coordination she'd managed to get it open without, hopefully, damaging anything inside. "You're not going to get in trouble for me breaking that, are you?" She asked, suddenly realizing that she'd just destroyed Academy property. She felt a flash of fear as he eyes turned toward Erin.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin would have helped her to her feet but it seemed like the girl wanted to do it on her own, to not come off as weak. Erin would not have thought of her as weak either way because the other girl just burned off her lock like a badass. Like how many people could say that a hot girl burned their lock off their locker. Well sure this was a mutant school and that was possibly a thing but she still bet that it was not something that happened often. So she still felt special, at least on some levels.

“Oh no, your ego should be fine. You used your power to break my lock. Like uh…that was no simple feat for just anyone.” Erin quickly said, trying to make the girl feel at least a little better about the whole thing. Erin was not even worried about her locker at the moment. Okay, so she did glance to see that everything was alright but once that was confirmed she was all eyes on Alex. There was a question that had Erin smiling and again trying to help Alex feel better. “Don’t worry about it. If I do I can pay for the damages, so please don’t worry about it.” Erin said, giving the girl her best smile, which was pretty much the smile she tended to have when she won a battle.

“Can I…can I help your hand out? Or at let you have to…well don’t have to but you can uh use my ointment for your burn.” Erin said. She stumbled a little as she spoke. She had already pulled the ointment out by now, holding it out for the girl to take. She wanted to be the one to put it on the girl’s hand but that was probably asking a bit too much. Well, not asking but expecting too much for herself

[Alexandra Lawson]

Lost in the entire debacle of feeling mortified over flailing down to a sitting position and landing on her rear in front of a stranger was the fact that Alex had actually used her power and it did what she'd wanted it to. She tilted her head as Erin pointed his out and eyes narrowed as this realization slowly sunk in. To some it should have been a simple thing, it wasn't as if the act had put much of a strain on Alex's system and was well within even her limited capabilities but to Alex it happened to be a major milestone. Peering up at Erin there was no hiding the feeling of satisfaction that had crept into her features. "Yeah. I guess I did, didn't I?" She said with a faint nod, suddenly feeling that much better about how things turned out. Sure, she may have busted her ass and was going to have a nice sore spot on her hand for a few days but the fact remained she had done something with her power.

"Oh." Alex's sudden distraction with her own mind was broken as the focus of the conversation moved to her hand. She glanced down at it and nodded faintly, her fingers tracing lightly along the outside edge of the red that had formed on her skin. "I'm okay..." She said, her tone lowering significantly. She had a few scattered streaks of scar tissue marring her otherwise smooth skin, the traces of previous incidents of her power going awry. Even though it felt a little strange, Alex almost instinctively went to extend her hand to Erin with the idea the other girl was going to take a look at the injury. She bumped into Erin's hand as she, in turn, went to hand over the ointment. It was an awkward mix up that ended with Alex offering a sheepish smile before accepting the cream. "Thanks." She said meekly.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin started to relax a little as the other girl looked up at her with as satisfied look in her eyes. She immediately felt relieved that she had said something that had helped the girl feel better and not worry about how she ended up falling after the whole breaking the lock event. Erin's confidence; when it came to talking to the ladies, boosted a little then or at least she felt like she was not as bad as it then she normally was. Perhaps it was just a lucky day for her or that she had things like trying to help the girl out to distract her.

"Yeah, I could not have gotten it open with my power and if I had your power I would have like lit myself on fire or something." Erin quickly followed up with. She then thought to herself if she was perhaps saying a bit too much but it was too late to take back the words now. Erin just didn't want the other girl to feel down after she had helped her out and really falling on your butt was not that big of a deal. It would have been different if she had possibly fallen into something. "If...if you are sure." Erin said as she looked at the girl's hand. She didn't have the gull to try and be forceful about the girl at least putting some ointment on the wound so it would not blister. Blisters were so not cool.

The extended hand had Erin half panicking for a moment. She did reach out for it, but it was clear there was some hesitation for a moment and then she just sort of just touched the hand a little to turn it to get a better look. She didn't keep contact however and things felt at least less awkward when Alex then seemed willing to take the ointment from her. Erin would have offered to put it on the other girl, but touching a girl...rubbing something on her...it was just too sensual for Erin’s mind. "No problem. Thanks again for helping me out with my locker." Erin said as she stayed where she was, watching the girl take the ointment to put it on. She probably should have been getting what she needed out of her locker but there was a pretty girl currently distracting her.