So You Wanna Be a Hero, Kid?

[Gifted]

Xander nodded. "Take off." He ordered the pilot.
"I'm going to take a look at you when I'm sure Stephanie is stable." The medic told Awhina. "Until then, here." He handed her a bottle of water. "Drink that."

[Raven]

Awhina accepted it. "Wait... We're leaving without the boys?" she asked, seeming confused. She'd heard Xander order them to wait before coming over, but she hadn't expected them to leave them.

[Gifted]

"We'll be back for them, but you're going home first." Xander said. "I'm not letting their stupidity put you two in danger."

[Raven]

"What?" Awhina asked, baffled.

[Gifted]

Xander sighed. "Ryan and Jason faced Danielle and fled. They did not take any percautions against her following them. If they come back and she's tailing them, every one of you are dead."

[Raven]

"What were they supposed to do exactly?" Awhina demanded. "They got closer to actually killing her than anyone else has so far!"

[Gifted]

"Try to get her to run. Or at least loop around to check if she's following them. Hide. Literally anything other than potentially lead her to four easily stringed humans you lot trust who are all heavily trained, heavily armoured and could kill all five of you in an instant if we were forced to turn on you." Xander snapped. "Don't you people get it? Her power works on all. Humans. That includes me, the other three people on this jet, your families, everyone you've ever known or trusted or cared about. Anyone can be turned against you."

[Raven]

Awhina rolled her eyes. "Are you seriously asking the person who just set fire to half a fucking city if I get she can turn anyone against us?" she asked. "You've given us impossible odds and next to no direction and less than two months of training. We're fucked, we get it!"

[Gifted]

"So why are you encouraging scenarios that make your odds significantly worse?" Xander countered. "Fucking think about these things and at least try to counteract them. That is what I expect."

[Raven]

"We're trying! Along with the eleven other things we're trying to do when the only one with any training is your fucking apprentice! We've never done this before, and at every turn you assume we're just stupid teenagers who don't understand what's at risk - all except your fucking pet!" She gestured angrily at Cassie. "You clearly don't think we can do this, so why are you even here?"

[Gifted]

Xander stood up on the moving jet, towering over Awhina, and it was fairly clear she had crossed some sort of line. "If it seems to you that I treat Cassie better than I treat you, it is only because Cassie knows how to keep her fucking mouth shut. You think I wouldn't smack her if she started mouthing off the way you do? This isn't one of your fucking school functions. People die when you get this wrong. My job is to keep you people alive until you have some semblance of a fucking clue, and that's a lot harder when you treat this like a fucking videogame like you can just try again if you fuck something up. You need to be thinking every. Single. Second. or you're going to die and take the rest of us out in the fucking process. I am trying to keep my platoon alive. This is war. You act like a soldier or you get broken like a bitch. And if I have to be the one to do it so you and the people who are trying to help you survive the experience I will. And that goes for you, Stephanie, Cassie or anyone else who doesn't treat this seriously enough. Do forty push ups. Unless you don't want to eat today."

[Raven]

"If your only job is to keep us alive, maybe you should get a second directive," Awhina shot back, unbuckling herself and dropping down to start on the pushups.

[Gifted]

"That's 5 more." He responded.

[Raven]

It was abundantly obvious that without the starvation she'd been dealing with the last time she did the pushups, Awhina was actually quite strong, getting through twenty of them before she had to take a break, even given the fight she'd just been in. She shot a look in Xander and Cassie's direction before she strapped herself back in so she didn't fly around the plane when they landed.

[Gifted]

Allowing her to rest last time had been an allowance for the fact that she had been starving. But since she didn't look so great from the fire, Xander left it alone.
"Stephanie will be fine, no long term damage." The medic said, coming to look Awhina over.
"Good. Thanks." Xander told him.
"We're touching down in ten." The pilot told them.
"Good. Awhina I want you to do the other twenty five when we land. After that you two need rest. Cassie, either go train or come with me to get the boys. I don't care, but I want 6ou back in our training exercises within 48 hours so you best make sure you can walk."