[fifteen]
galvanise

ALEX SIGHED AS she followed Stiles, the two on their way to play a prank on Coach, considering it was Mischief Night, and his birthday.

"But it's the middle of the night." Scott mumbled over the phone as Stiles tried to convince him to come and help.

"Scotty, if I'm here, you have to be here as well." Alex added, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, well, that's because you can't sleep and you've got nothing better to do." Scott replied from Stiles' phone.

Stiles glanced at Alex, who shrugged. "Hey, he's got a point, Stiles."

"It's twelve fifteen. Which means, it's after midnight, and officially Mischief Night slash Day." Stiles changed the subject. "And, by perfect, awesome coincidence, it also happens to be Coach's birthday. So if you're not down here in five seconds, I will destroy you, okay? And I mean, five, four, three, two-"

"One." Scott spoke with a smirk from behind the pair, Stiles jumping in surprise.

"I hate you." Stiles mumbled as Alex chuckled.

••••

"You're back at school?" Scott raised his eyebrows as Aiden and Ethan stood in front of him and Alex, Stiles walking up to them.

"No, just to talk." Ethan replied.

"Oh, that's kind of a change of pace for you guys." Stiles spoke.

"Seeing as you'd usually be killing people." Alex added sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"You need a pack." Aiden spoke to Scott, ignoring Stiles and Alex. "We need an alpha."

"Yeah, absolutely not." Stiles cut in. "That's hilarious, though."

"You came to us for help, we helped." Ethan responded.

"You beat his face into a bloody pulp. Literally." Alex frowned. "I wouldn't call that helping. I don't think anyone would, if I'm being honest."

"In my opinion, that's actually counterproductive." Stiles added.

"Why would I say yes?" Scott changed the subject.

"We'd add strength. We could make you more powerful." Aiden responded. "There's no reason to say no."

"I can think of one." Isaac added in as he approached the group. "Like the two of you holding Derek's claws while Kali impaled Boyd.  In fact, I don't know why we're not impaling them right now."

"That's literally the only thing I agree with you on." Alex blew out a breath.

Aiden growled at Isaac. "You wanna try?"

Isaac was about to walk up to Aiden, however, Scott pulled him back.

"Sorry, but they don't trust you." Scott spoke to the twins, referring to his friends. "And neither do I."

"Yeah, and that's not gonna change if you threaten any one of us." Alex added, glaring at the twins. "And I mean any one of us."

Scott began to walk off, Isaac following with a smirk, Alex and Stiles following them too.

••••

"Hey, that's my face!" Stiles stumbled a little as someone threw paper in his direction. He glanced at Scott, moving on. "Hey, good decision buddy. Good alpha decision."

"I hope so." Scott blew out a breath as him, Stiles, and Alex walked alongside each other.

"No, you know so." Alex added as they approached their lockers. Stiles and Alex noticed that Scott was glancing at Kira.

"What are you looking at?" Stiles frowned.

"More like who is he looking at." Alex spoke with a smirk.

"Who, me?" Scott frowned.

"You." Stiles nodded. "You looking at her?"

"Who 'her'?" Scott's frown deepened.

"Her her. Kira." Alex rolled her eyes, gesturing to Kira. "Do you like her?"

"No." Scott replied immediately. "I mean, yeah, yeah...she's okay. She's new."

"So, ask her out." Stiles spoke simply.

"Now?" Scott raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, now, Scotty." Alex sighed.

"Right now?" Scott asked.

"Right now." Alex confirmed.

"Scott, I don't think you get it yet." Stiles added as the three continued to walk. "You're an alpha, okay? You are the apex predator. Everyone wants you. Take Alex, for example. You want him, don't you?"

Alex frowned. "Uh, not re-"

"You're like the hot girl that every guy wants." Stiles cut her off as he spoke to Scott.

"The hot girl?" Scott raised his eyebrows.

"You are the hottest girl." Stiles replied with a smirk as he walked away, Alex following.

"What?" Isaac frowned in question.

"I'm the hot girl." Scott spoke.

"Yes you are." Isaac nodded as Scott chuckled.

••••

Coach yelled from his office. "Son of a bitch!"

Stiles grinned at how he knew the prank worked. Alex chuckled too, sharing a glance with Stiles as the prank was partially her idea too.

"Mischief night." Coach started annoyedly as he entered the classroom. "Devils night. I don't care what you call it. You little punks are evil. You think it's funny, every Halloween my house gets egged? A man's house is supposed to be his castle. Mine's a frickin' omelette."

He made his way over to his desk, picking up a present that was placed there. "Oh, this? We're gonna do this again? I don't think so." He dropped the present on the floor purposely, stomping on it, whatever object that was wrapped up shattering.

He picked up a shard from the broken mug that said number one coach on it. He took the letter and read it aloud, sighing. "Happy birthday. Love, Greenberg."

••••

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, the William Barrow?" Stiles asked his dad as he and Alex fell into step with Noah. "The Shrapnel Bomber? Spotted nearby?"

"A little closer than nearby, actually." Noah spoke quietly to the teens.

Alex frowned. "What's really going on here?"

••••

"Barrow's going after kids with glowing eyes, he said those exact words?" Isaac asked as him, Alex, Lydia, Allison, and Stiles were walking side by side.

"Yeah. And no one knows how he woke up from the anaesthesia." Alex answered. "Just that when they opened him up, they found a tumour full of disgusting live flies."

"Which, in any other circumstance, would be all kinds of awesome." Stiles added, Alex frowning.

"How in the world would that be awesome?" Alex frowned. "And what other circumstances?"

"Did you say flies?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah, why?" Alex frowned.

"All day I've been hearing this sound, it's like...this buzzing." Lydia replied.

"Like the sound of flies?" Allison clarified.

"Exactly like the sound of flies." Lydia sighed.

••••

"Hey, Scott, where the hell have you been?" Alex asked as her, Lydia, and Stiles ran up to Scott.

"The police are leaving. Why are they leaving?" Lydia asked as she glanced between the group.

"The police?" Scott frowned in confusion.

"They must have cleared the building and grounds, which means he's not here." Stiles realised.

Scott's frown deepened. "Who? What are you guys-"

"He has to be here." Lydia cut him off. "That sound...that buzzing I've been hearing? It's getting louder."

"How loud?" Alex asked.

••••

"So this is how it's gonna be now? We trust them?" Isaac asked as him, Alex, and Scott were in the basement, looking around for Barrow.

"Just because I'm letting them help, doesn't mean I trust them." Scott answered as Alex blew out a breath.

"Yeah, well, I don't trust them either. Or like them." Isaac replied. "In fact, I hate them, I just want them to die."

Alex frowned. "Bit extreme, don't you think?"

"Well, if Barrow's actually here and he's got a plan, you might get what you want." Scott spoke to Isaac.

"Guys, I don't have a good feeling about this..." Alex sighed.

"Yeah, that's because we're trying to locate a guy with flies in his stomach." Isaac replied.

"It's not just that..." Alex spoke.

"Then, what is it?" Scott frowned. "Alex?"

"I...I don't know..." Alex furrowed her eyebrows. "But whatever it is, it's not good."

••••

"Isaac, Alex, and Scott are in the basement, right?" Lydia asked Stiles.

"Yeah, with Ethan and Aiden." Stiles answered. "The plan is, we meet in the middle in the boiler room."

"All of the wolves..." Lydia realised. "All of the ones with glowing eyes are in the basement at the boiler room."

"Oh my god." Stiles widened his eyes in realisation. "An engineer could use a boiler room to blow up the whole school."

"We have to get them out of there." Lydia spoke.

"We have to get everyone out." Stiles finished.

"How do we do that?" Lydia asked.

••••

Suddenly, the fire alarm rang, Isaac, Alex, and Scott stopping and frowning. They all ran up to the top floor.

••••

"We didn't find anything." Aiden started.

"Not even a scent." Alex blew out a breath.

"It's three o'clock, school's over." Stiles frowned. "If there was a bomb, wouldn't he have set it off by now?"

"Does that mean everybody's safe?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know." Lydia replied. "I just...I don't know..."

••••

Stiles pinned a red string on a picture of Barrow he hung up on his board.

"What do the different coloured strings mean?" Alex asked as she rested her chin on the palm of her hand, the girl lying on Stiles' bed on her stomach.

"Oh, just different stages of the investigation." Stiles replied, glancing at her. "So, like, green is solved, yellow is to be determined, blue is just pretty." He shrugged.

"What does red mean?" Alex questioned, even though she already knew the answer.

"Uh, unsolved." Stiles answered.

"There's only red on the board." Alex pointed out.

"Yes, I'm aware, thank you." Stiles spoke sarcastically.

"Alright, sorry for making an observation, no need for sarcasm." Alex scoffed. She moved on. "Did you get detention for pulling the alarm?" She took some green string and began wrapping it around her finger.

"Yep, everyday this week..." Stiles blew out a breath. "It's okay though, we were on to something."

"Correction, you and Lydia were on to something...I did nothing..." Alex mumbled, looking away.

"Hey, Lex." Stiles frowned as he walked up to her squatting down in front of his bed so he was eye level with Alex. "You did something, alright? You helped. Even if it didn't seem like it. I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but you're a badass werewolf who can do awesome things. Don't start doubting yourself now."

Alex glanced at Stiles, her eyes flickering between his. "No scent. No bomb...and I didn't find anything..."

"Okay, look, Barrow was there, alright?" Stiles stopped the girl before she could go on, placing his fingers over Alex's as he began unraveling the string from her finger.

"You knew it, okay?" Alex didn't take her eyes away from Stiles' as he went on. "And look, if you wanted me to, I'd go back to that school and search all night just to prove it."

Alex sent him a small smile as she glanced away again, Stiles smiling back. He then realised something. "Get up. Get up now, we're going to the school."

••••

"So what are we looking for?" Lydia asked as her, Alex, and Stiles looked around the chemistry room. Stiles and Alex picked her up on the way there.

"I'm just as clueless as you, Lyds." Alex blew out a breath.

"That was supposed to be locked." Lydia spoke once Stiles opened the chemistry closet.

"Yeah, I know." Stiles answered. "Notice anything else?"

"It smells like chemicals." Lydia replied with a frown.

"Heavily." Alex added.

"Alex, you and the rest of the werewolves wouldn't have been able to catch his scent." Lydia realised.

"From the chemicals..." Alex frowned as Stiles shone his phone flashlight on the ground to reveal black ooze on the floor.

"He was here..." Alex realised.

"Performing very minor surgery on himself." Stiles spoke as he glanced at Lydia. "You were right."

"Then why don't I feel good about this?" Lydia responded.

"Probably because he was here to kill somebody." Alex answered.

"But who?" Lydia questioned.

"That's what we're here to figure out." Stiles replied. "Spread out, start looking for...anything."

"Lydia what are those?" Stiles frowned as Lydia walked to the board.

"Atomic numbers." Alex answered for Lydia almost immediately, walking up to the board as well. Alex didn't know what it was about one of the numbers that she recognised, but it gave her an unsettling feeling. She glanced at the other two numbers and frowned, the same feeling washing over her.

"Is it a formula?" Stiles asked as he stood next to Alex.

"Not really." Lydia answered. "Nineteen's potassium, fifty three's iodine, eighty eight is radium. The first two make potassium iodide." She picked up the chalk and wrote letters beside the numbers.

"Potassium is K?" Stiles frowned.

"From kalium. The scientific neo-Latin name." Lydia answered as she wrote another letter.

"What's radium?" Stiles asked.

"R-A." Alex answered immediately as Lydia wrote it next to eighty eight.

"Kira." Stiles spoke in realisation.

••••

"Scott!" Stiles exclaimed as he helped Scott up.

"Barrow! He took Kira." Scott spoke immediately.

"We know. He was after her the whole time." Alex blew out a breath.

"We have to think of something, he's gonna kill her." Scott spoke panically.

"I knew he was there, how did I know that?" Lydia asked with a frown.

"Because you heard the flies, right?" Stiles replied.

"What do you hear now?" Alex asked as she glanced at Lydia.

"Nothing." Lydia answered. "I feel like I can do this. But I don't know what to do. It's- it's like it's on the tip of my tongue, and I don't know how to trigger it. I just- I swear to god, it literally makes me want to scream."

"Okay, then scream." Stiles spoke. "Lydia, scream."

Lydia then screamed loudly, Alex and Scott shutting their eyes tightly, Stiles putting his hands over his ears.

Stiles shared glances with Alex and Scott as Lydia stopped screaming.

"It's not flies." Lydia spoke in realisation as she faced the group. "It's electricity."

"Wait a second, Barrow was an electrical engineer, he worked at a power substation." Stiles frowned.

"What substation?" Scott asked.

••••

"Okay, wait here, alright?" Stiles spoke to Lydia as him and Alex got out of the Jeep. "Just wait for the cops to come."

"Wait, why?" Lydia frowned.

"Well, I only got one bat." Stiles answered, holding up his metal bat. "And Alex has claws."

The two didn't follow Scott as he ran into the substation.

"Wait, Stiles where are we going?" Alex frowned in question.

"You'll see." Stiles answered.