Anger To Love; Theo Raeken [1]

30|The Bunker

"That's how he got in?" Corey asked as he, Ava, Scott and Mason all looked up at the black markings on Scott's ceiling.

"What is it?" Ava asked.

"It's a point of impact from a lightning strike." Mason explained. "Usually you'd find charred spots like that on the ground after a violent thunderstorm."

"That's how the Ghost Rider got in. He rode the lightning." Scott said.

"If they can use lightning to get past the Mountain Ash..." Ava said.

"No place is safe." Scott finished.

"What about the others?" Corey asked. "It's my fault they're marked."

"We'll find a way to protect them." Scott told him. "All of them." Scott said turning to face Ava.

•••

"The K-index quantifies disturbances in the horizontal component of earth's magnetic field." Ava read out loud.

Mason nodded and Ava scrunched her eyebrows together.

"What's a K-index?" She asked.

"It's a scale that meteorologists use to measure thunderstorm activity." Mason explained. "So, a K-Index value less than 20 means no activity, and above 35 is severe."

"Well, how bad is severe?" Ava asked.

"Well, your average storm has about a thousand lightning strikes. In the past three months, the average storm in Beacon Hills had five thousand." Mason said.

"And what's it reading now?" She asked looking at the website Mason was on.

"Uh, 14. We're clear." Mason said.

"Okay, so if a spike in the K-Index means more lightning, then we can tell if they're coming." Ava said.

"Yeah." Mason agreed.

"This is good." Ava smiled.

"Yeah." Mason said.

Mason's laptop started beeping and the reading was going up from 14.

"Actually... this is really bad." Mason said as the number on his computer was going up.

•••

"We need to hide them." Mason said.

"We need to fight them." Ava argued back.

"We need to hide them." Mason said firmly.

"Who's them?" Scott asked as he arrived at their table in the library.

"The Ghost Riders." Ava said at the same time Mason said "The kids at the party."

Ava and Mason turned to each other with a look of disbelief whilst Scott just looked puzzled.

"Got it." Scott said.

"We could get a lightning rod. Attract the Ghost Riders and catch them off guard." Ava said.

"But since everyone from the party is in danger, all we need to do is find a safe place to hide them until the storm passes." Mason explained.

"The Ghost Riders ride the lighting. Nowhere is safe." Ava said.

"It is, if we're underground." Mason countered. "The Earth can ground the lightning's electrical charge. Everyone would be safe."

"Okay..." Scott said and sat down opposite them. "Here's what we're gonna do. We take everyone into the Argent Bunker. It's underground. It's lined with Mountain Ash."