Othergrounds: The IC Edition (Act 8: The Strangest Days have gone By)

TJ looked up from the vending machine, startled by the girl. He jumped a litte, and then laughed at his own foolishness. This was what he was looking for; a survivor.

"Oh, hello there." TJ said, inserting the dollar into the vending machine "I'm TJ. T go to school here. Forgive the blood, I kind of had a run-in with someone who wasn't nearly as lucky as we were." the dollar was accepted by the machine, and TJ hit the button for Coke Zero. The machine began to rattle until a bottle of the black liquid rolled into the bottom of the machine. TJ smiled and picked the bottle up. He unscrewed the cap, and took a nice long drink before continuing.

"That was refreshing!" He said, bringing the drink down away from his lips. "Anyways, what's your name? And you said you were looking for the library?"

"Okay, then, we'll go after the pheromone person first, just remember that if you start to feel like you shouldn't be wherever we're going, that's the territory pheromones meant to repel you. Try your best to ignore them, your instincts will go wild depending on chemical messages you get."

Dragonfly snapped his head in the general direction the sound came from. His curiosity spiking at the idea of someone who could lead him straight to the thing- person he is looking for. THe source of the pheromones. While he wasn't particularly driven away by the pheromones he was sensing, he wasn't attracted either. But he could sense it. It could be the distance from the source, or the pheromones were just too old or diluted to tell for sure. He would have to get closer to find out.

He began crawling along the ceiling, trying to raise his claws so they wouldn't make the clacking sound they did in the sewer when he didn't care. He didn't want to draw their attention to him. If they knew about the rumors, things would get hairy fast, and he would have to find a different route out of the building because of it's lockdown. Of course, they would know how to find one, or they would eventually. They were making his job easier.

As he approached the area of the conversation, he began to flick his forked tongue in and out of his mouth. It was his second was of smelling things and he tended to use the method as a more permanent way of documenting a scent to memory than his noes. As he approached, he finally got a good look at their faces and bodies.

A bird girl, another animalistic meta. Not quite to his degree, but interesting never the less. And then the other one, a man. Shirtless. He said something about getting a shirt when the girl began to speak.

"Well, at any rate, if we run into someone dangerous, the three of us should be able to fend them off. I know I don't exactly seem to have a lot of offensive powers, but if you've ever seen a swan hit someone with its wing, you'll know I can hurt someone pretty easily."

Dragonfly knew better than to disregard this statement, or underestimate the girl. Despite having access to medicine and doctors, he was a predator. If predators were injured too heavily they stood a good chance of not being able to hunt. If they could not hunt, they would die. And he did not want his bad side to take over in one of the days he would spend recuperating. He could hurt himself more on accident.

He then began to realize that if this girl knew so much about pheromones, she could to have a sense of smell acute enough to track them. He almost definitely had a scent to him. While reptiles like himself did not sweat, or really smell bad at all, he didn't doubt that his body produced things others could smell easily.

He didn't worry too much about being in the sewer, as he had just shed his old skin. He had grown an inch and a half in the last three months. But he needed to move out of range if anyone could sense him. He didn't want to be found.

"My name is Marie, but I am not a survivor of whatever incident occurred here. I am one of the new arrivals, it appears whatever fight happened during the time we were supposed to be transported to this school. A teacher never came to fetch us, and we were forced to break down the door." She said, her voice having no change in tone whatsoever. "We were quite wondering if a survivor could tell us what happened, perhaps you can enlighten us on the matter." As she was rather young, her language skills and speech seemed eerie, being eloquent and formal in a way that was not normal for a child her age. This was further worsened by her monotone speech, and colorless appearance.


Nicole's nose twitched, and she frowned, looking over her shoulder. Because she could see every electromagnetic wave in the spectrum, she could see things others could not. However, this was confusing, as she was color blind, and saw things in shades of grey, rather than in unique unnamed colors. She smelled something, but then she typically did, her nose surpassed the brown bear, who had the strongest smell among land animals. She heard something, too, her hearing range was greater than any animal alive, and her sensitivity to sound surpassed the owl. "Who's there?" She asked, suspicious.

Drake

ViperaUnion wrote:

"Well, at any rate, if we run into someone dangerous, the three of us should be able to fend them off. I know I don't exactly seem to have a lot of offensive powers, but if you've ever seen a swan hit someone with its wing, you'll know I can hurt someone pretty easily."

"And I can mess up anyone with my thunder powers, ha! Have you ever fought a thunder god before?" He said in a very smug tone. For a moment there he felt like he was getting full of himself. However, he did regard himself as a powerful Meta-human. With all this power; what good is it if you can't protect the weak? He thought to himself as he stared at the palm of his hand for a noticeable amount of time. Before he regains, his composure "Right!" Drake said as he walked backwards keeping his focus on the group. He walked back into his room and tumbled through the large amount of clothes he brought with him. He grabbed the first shirt that he could find, a bright red striped T-shirt with HAPPY written across his chest. He also put on his tinted goggles, which is resting. He then wrapped his family necklace around his neck. As of now he was ready for a day of adventuring. Who knows what these people Nicole detected up could be. Drake then came out of the room and walked back over to the small group. "Ready? Cause' I am." He asked Nicole.

ViperaUnion wrote:

"Who's there?" She asked, suspicious.

Drake frowned. What is she talking about? Out of no where she just asked who's there when there's no one else in here. Of course there was the possibility that she just detected someone else that's closeby... "Um... Where's not alone in here, are we?"


Jia-li


Jia-li woke up a little while before everyone else did. She had prepared herself as she usually does every morning. Today she was wearing a white frilled dress shirt and white jean pants. Nothing else, usually. This morning she had kept track of all the other arrivals in the school. All of them were sleeping or already out doing their own thing. Right now she was wandering around the dorms to pick up anyone else. Right now, there's no one else in the school other than them. Then she picked up someone else come in. It could be anyone really. But, the way he just appeared there. It was worth investigating. She picked up the pace as she noticed two more people approached. Once she arrived in the room she immediately stopped. Looking tired and there was a slight surprise on her face. Jia-li just muttered, "Who is this guy...?" This new comer was someone she has not seen before. "Hello." She greeted everyone.

"Well, I don't know what you see, but then again, nobody ever said anything about Zeus having super-senses." Nicole said. She looked at the camouflaged figure, but regardless snapped at Drake. Although mostly peaceful, she was regardless a competitive person, and regularly got annoyed by other people. She then addressed the new meta-human, "You can stop hiding, it's not possible to sneak up on me, besides, I haven't been here for very long and already I'm starting to resent being made fun of by people who think my powers are useless." She had been feeling like she wasn't helpful ever since she had arrived at this school, she wanted to prove her powers had merit.


Marie looked at Jia-li, "Good morning, and I do not know who this is, he has yet to introduce himself."

Dragonfly cursed profusely in his thoughts. He was invisible in all aspects except to the bird girl. And of course the group who he planned follow just happened to have the bird girl as a member. Murphy's law.

However, he stayed quiet for a moment contemplating how to respond, as the other happened to have electricity at his disposal, and he didn't want to be electrocuted to the point of brain damage. Because his brain was messed up enough as it was.

He decided that he would project his voice loud enough to make it extremely difficult to say where exactly he was in the room. "Pleasse, dont react bad to thiss. I know how it ssoundss. But I'd prefer it if I jusst sstayed the way I am. I dont want people to look at me. I am a monsster." He said, trying to keep them from being alarmed through his words. "I have come meaning no harm at all. I didn't even mean for you to find me. To keep the ssituation from esscalating. You know?"

He clicked for a moment, contemplating what he'd say next.

"I came when I ssaw the lockdown. And when I did... I smelt ssomething. Pheromoness asss you called it. I overheard you sspeaking of finding the ssource, and I jusst wanted to follow to find out for mysself." He growled in frustration. He wasn't that big of a talker. He was trying to explain himself so hopefully they wouldn't pay any mind to him or try to force him out of hiding. "I promisse I dont mean any ill will." He said trying to sell his explanation. There was sincerity in his serpentine voice. As much of an oxymoron as that was.

He was a very self conscious metahuman. He thought himself a monster and no one had really said so otherwise. His old personality still leaked through, however, and when it came to woman he wanted to be as apologetic as possible. If it had been the man he probably would've kept quiet. Because of this, he spoke but remained as invisible as he possibly could. He knew there was a chance that they'd tell him to leave. So he decided to give a small lie. He would follow never the less, but at a safe distance.

"If you dont want me around, I will disappear."

TJ was about to introduce himself to the newcomer and reprimand this other girl for forgetting his introduction when something caught his eye. Apparently he was not the only newcomer in the room. Behind Marie was another boy whom he had not seen before. It seemed as if this girl was talking to him before and not TJ, causing him to be a bit embarrassed. He looked away a moment towards the lounge, and was going to sit down when he remembered the body, which caused him to shudder visibly. He took another drink of his coke zero, and extended his free hand to the Chinese girl.

"Good morning." he said as cheerfully as he could "I'm TJ. TJ Eckleburg. I'm a newer student here, and I haven't really talked to many people yet, especially since I just survived what I assume was an anti-mutant terrorist attack. Perhaps you know my friend Claire? She's much more gregarious than I am".

Nicole sighed, "I don't care much about looks, and the reason I can see you is part because of my perception of EM waves, and also because I happen to be colorblind entirely, I can't see color, everything is a black and white film. I don't think I'd see you any more clearly than I do right now, there's electric lighting in here messing with my vision, to begin with. Besides, even if you can't be seen, you can be heard and found by smell." Nicole's ears focused on the sound of heartbeats, like an owl listening for a mouse buried in snow. Her hearing was precise and well-tuned, "Do not think of yourself as a monster, mutations can take very odd turns, but nobody should hate themselves, but rather embrace their gifts."


Marie simply blinked, "I do not recall names very easily, It is quite hard to focus on conversations for the most part. I must suppress my powers at all times, as they can be difficult to control, and cause extensive property damage, as well as injury to others. Being gregarious can be bad, at least in an enclosed space such as this hallway. However, I doubt I know this person you speak of."

Jia-li

Maxx Toron wrote:

"Good morning." he said as cheerfully as he could "I'm TJ. TJ Eckleburg. I'm a newer student here, and I haven't really talked to many people yet, especially since I just survived what I assume was an anti-mutant terrorist attack. Perhaps you know my friend Claire? She's much more gregarious than I am".

For a moment Jia-li was very hesitant to taking the stranger's hand. The usual; she didn't know him thing was the excuse. She knew that she'd at least be able to take down this man with her darkness if he tries something--- Unless, he instantly kills her. She didn't shake his hand, "No thanks." She spoke in a polite tone and kept her eyes on his hand. It was ride, but the smart thing to do right now. "I am Jia-li." She spoke again. Hoping that he wouldn't dwell too much on the fact that she turned down his hand shake. The one thing that really has her curious is what TJ said about being a "newer student" Does that mean he arrived here like they did?

Jia-li had to ask, "We aren't students here... We were just left in a white room... Are you already a student?! Tell us what happened here, please!"



Drake

TheOperator wrote:

"I came when I ssaw the lockdown. And when I did... I smelt ssomething. Pheromoness asss you called it. I overheard you sspeaking of finding the ssource, and I jusst wanted to follow to find out for mysself." He growled in frustration. He wasn't that big of a talker. He was trying to explain himself so hopefully they wouldn't pay any mind to him or try to force him out of hiding.

What is this guy? Where the hell is he? Drake thought to himself. The dude sounded like a snake, and he was invisible (or very well hidden) that was rather unnerving. If the guy tries anything he isn't going to hesitate to kick some ass no matter how big and powerful he may be. No one's immune to a good old ass whooping.

TheOperator wrote:

"I have come meaning no harm at all. I didn't even mean for you to find me. To keep the ssituation from esscalating. You know?"

"Don't cause any harm, and I won't harm you." He says in a normal tone. He could easily have said that in a threatening tone... But, it's common sense not to piss off an opponent like that. In this case, he decided to just stand there and let Nicole talk to him. Drake didn't want to end up causing a fight.

TJ withdrew his hand rather quickly, and thought how rude. He eyed the man in the corner suspiciously once more, and then back over at the overweight oriental woman, and took another sip of his drink slowly and elegantly. He replaced the drink at his side, and thought a moment, then began to speak.

"I'm not exactly sure really. Some group of what I believe to be terrorists or a hate group attacked the school. They used some kind of darts which knocked people unconscious, but there were bullets too. The school turned into a warzone, and I'm still not sure who won. My friend Claire and I retreated to Sparrowdale Tower when they attacked, but she was shot with a tranquilizer. I'm glad that we're not the only two left!" he smiled, and took another drink, letting the cool, black liquid slowly trickle down his throat. Then a thought occurred to him; a chilling thought. He lowered the bottle from his lips, and muttered something under his breath.

"What happened to the others?"


Claire

Claire got bored easily; it had always been her Achilles heel that she couldn't just sit in one place and wait. This was a biproduct of her powers, as when you have that much energy flowing through your veins, you'd be jittery too. She got up off of the ground, her arm still throbbing, and slowly began to descend the stone spiral staircase to the bottom floor of the tower. She threw the doors open, and gasped as she left the tower. The school looked like a set for a war movie. Signs were riddled with bullet holes; blood was pasted to the concrete sidewalk, and smoke was rising on the horizon. She shuddered, and clenched her teeth tightly to keep herself from crying. Eventually, though, she decided to press on, and walked towards the detention center. The building was well fortified, and would make a great place to hide. So she walked off towards the outskirts of the campus to find any other survivors.

Marie didn't say anything, but her eyes flashed silvery-white. "We are the newest arrivals here, we do not know what has happened to the others. We arrived and nobody was there. Everything happened before we woke up. The ones who transported us are likely dead." She said. For a little girl, she seemed to focus on worst-case scenarios. Then again, being sad was an emotion that she didn't find linked to anything. Sadness was an emotion she could feel without risking safety of others.

ViperaUnion wrote:

Marie, was wandering about the hallway when she saw the one person, who was sometimes invisible, pass by, only giving her a moment's regard before continuing to walk. He looked bothered by something, "You appear to be bothered, sir. Are you perhaps looking for something as well? I myself am currently unable to locate the library, although considering this campus is a collection of buildings, the library may very well be separate from the dormitories. Perhaps you could help me look for it? At my age I should not leave a building without a chaperone, and as there are no teachers around, I must settle with that I should not be alone as we do not know if the grounds are still safe." Marie's voice could still be considered monotone, although she changed her voice very slightly when asking a question, just enough so that people would not mistake it for a simple sentence. When someone else came walking down the hallway, though, she seemed to flinch and turned around to look at them. This person, she had never seen before, and he had blood on his clothing, although he only held a dollar in his hand. She stood there for a moment, her eyes flashing yellow, before speaking, "Who are you?" She said, this time no tone suggesting a question, although the nature of her words was obvious.

"Wait," John told her "You can see me?"
Inside his head, the Hallelujah chorus was playing. Finally, someone can see him. That was great. With a great amount of self control however, he didn't allow that to be shown on his face. Okay anyway, back to business. Creepy little girl wanted him to escort her to a library. Every instinct in his body told him not to trust her. This is how people died in those slasher films. He decided against his better judgement to help her.
"Let's go find you a library."

Edit: John noticed two other people there. He nodded in their general direction as a sort of acknowledgement.

Dragonfly snarled to the girls statement. "You don't know what I am." He snapped, his anger spiking for a moment. His voice was off, a more crazed theme to it. But he caught himself. "I'll calm down, I'll calm down..." He growled, closing his eyes and counting to ten.

"I will sstay the way I am. If you can see me why doess it matter anyway?"

He moved across the ceiling, closer to the other one, the one who had electricity at his disposal. "I do not want to go and fight againsst anyone. If I did, why would I have sspoken. I will not harm you. Therefor, there iss no reasson to be hosstile.

'They dont see you. Take out the man first, then the woman. You have the advantage.'

He shook his head for a moment trying to rid himself of the unpredictable craze that was always in the back of his mind.

He realized his previous statement was a bit hypocritical to how he had acted. He had indirectly threatened the valkyrie. And had said he wasn't there to fight seconds after that.

"I'll make a deal with you." He said, trying to reason with them. "You allow me to tag along, and I will reveal myself to you."

"This is perfectly fine with me," Nicole said, "I am more likely to let you tag along if I can see you, anyway. And if anyone else objects to this, then they can leave the group, I'm tracking down this pheromone source regardless of what anyone has to say." She knew this meta-human seemed reptilian in nature, almost like a sort of chameleon, and also possessing a somewhat unstable temper, judging from his outburst. It was better to stay completely calm, and not feel threatened in situations like this. You didn't exactly look like much of a target when you didn't look intimidated. Besides, Nicole wasn't really concerned with physical appearances, her arms had become wings, and she looked like a harpy.

The Detention Center


The detention center was one of the smaller buildings that's apart of the school. It was merely three floors high and was out of the way of the rest of the buildings. It served as a reminder to students the consequences of any reprehensible behavior. The building was mighty and built out of a thousand grey brick with heavily barred off windows. The front door were twin doors made out of glorious brown wood, each with pillars of the same material on each side of the door. There was a small stair case leading up to it. Far above the door were two windows. There was something notable about this particular scene. In front of the twin doors was a boy. Paper white skin, strange lights surrounding him. Wearing a cute little light-green suit, and looks absolutely fabulous in it. He also wore black dress shoes. The boy had white hair cut very short. The child was sobbing over the stairs with both hands over his face.

Claire

Claire arrived at the detention center after a long trek from the tower, and began to circle it, looking in the windows as she did so. A small fire was burning next to the center, fueled by the tank of a motorcycle which had been shot repeatedly in the attack. Claire kicked one of its tires playfully, and jumped back when the motorbike flared up, startled. She backed away from the burning bike, and soon arrived at the doors of the Detention Center, where a boy in a lime green suit was crying. Claire walked up to the stairs, and was about to touch the boy on the shoulder, when she stopped. Something was off about this picture. Claire had never seen this kid in school before, and certainly not in a lime green suit that looked like it glowed in the dark.

But what if he was real? This kid could just be a normal boy who is shocked at how the school looks. He did resemble a vampire, but he could have been just a scared little boy who was overwhelmed by the chaos. Unfortunately, Claire wasn't in the mood to be nice, and if it made a fool out of her, oh well.

"Nice trick Jake!" She yelled up at the windows.

Dragonfly sighed, and prepared himself for the worst. He knew this would get hairy fast. If this girl was as little affected by appearance as she said she would, she would be the most prepared for what she was about to see.

The other, he wasn't as sure of.

He fell to the ground, his body turnig in the air and catching himself in a form of inhuman grace. He could be tracked as he fell as his skin could not change as fast as gravity's pull. Therefor giving it a second or so of lag before returning to it's near invisible state. He then dropped his camouflage, showing himself. He was much happier he was doing it by choice than being forced out. He stood to his full height, standing a few inches taller than the other two.

His appearance would be enough to make most gasp. Even metahumans. A giant humanoid lizard with an intelligent stare that hid madness in it's eyes.

If the girl was as good as seeing things as she was smelling, she would see his 'problem' too.

"Jusst because I reveal mysself now doessn't mean I'll keep it that way for long until we get to the Outergroundss. The Eyess... I'm not ssuppossed to be unssupervissed and out without permisssion."

His tail dragged back and fourth in agitation. He did not like this at all. Not one little bit. It scared him that he was exposed and vulnerable. That he couldn't just be invisible to them. The bird wanted to see him, and he wanted to find the source of the pheromones by following them. A compromise was the best was to make it happen.

She had nothing to loose. He had everything besides the pants he left in the sewers and the scales on his back. The one thing he kept dear to him was his ability to disappear and let other go on without a care about him.

He was scared for what he might do.

Nicole looked the stranger over for a few seconds, not saying anything. His mutations in a physical manner were quite dramatic, but at the same time, it wasn't surprising to her. Once again, she could imagine turning into a lizard being quite possible, as her own arms had turned into wings. People who didn't have dramatic mutations were more likely to not understand, they still had hands that functioned, and their appearance was normal. Eventually, though, she spoke, so as not to make things awkward, "I don't know why you thought something was wrong, my hands turned into wings; a change like yours isn't impossible in my mind. You shouldn't be self-conscious. you have no reason to be." Nicole had already decided to accept her mutations as permanent years ago, and while they sometimes annoyed and hindered her, she didn't see herself as unnatural. If she changed the way she did, then it was normal, not because of some accident. Although his eyes glinted oddly, she ignored it, her own eyes had turned a deep indigo blue when she had mutated, and half the group she arrived with had unusual eyes, especially that girl Marie, they were a glowing silvery-white, and sometimes changed shades, which Nicole suspected was a change in color. She didn't know what the flashes of colors meant, except that that was somehow ominous, more so than this meta-human she was now seeing for the first time.

"Well, regardless, if you're not supposed to be seen by the eyes, you can camouflage yourself if any fly past, I don't blame you. Those things are weird, and I don't like them staring at me, either. Although to be completely honest, I'll probably fly a short distance from the ground and crash right into one. In that case, you'd better not laugh, that happens more often than you think." She didn't really mean the last part, but the stranger looked so nervous she was trying to lighten the mood, "Anyway, that set aside, what's your name? I'm Nicole."

"It's not my body I'm scared of." Dragonfly said, looking her in the eyes with his slitted ones, looking for a hint of disdain towards him to justify his nervousness and fear. But he saw none. In fact he saw acceptance. Which was different. He was used to other metahumans speaking of him as nothing but a monster and a crazy. Trying to make themselves feel normal again by reacting the same way they would if they weren't in the school. He had grown to push others away before they could hurt him. And now he was seeing the faults in his mentality, this person wasn't trying to hurt him an here he was nearly threatening her.

"I am in a sstate that took millionss of yearss of evolution to perfect; the reptilian form." He began bringing his clawed hand up to his face to look it over. "But it hass it'ss drawbackss." He dropped his hand back to his side. "People can be monssterss in more than jusst the body."

But this girl, was she perhaps the first to not fear, and accept him? Or was she just the first to be persistant enough?

He wouldn't know, but he hoped she stayed the way she was. He had not had a friend, at least not one he could remember in his current form. Perhaps, he would have a place in this school that wasn't the sewers.

He decided to give it a shot and be as socially acceptable as he could. It wasn't his strong suite, but if this girl was willing to meet him half way, then he would be mad at himself in both personalities if he didn't do so himself.

He opened his mouth to speak, trying to form words, before remembering that most people would shake hands as a greeting or goodbye. While the girl didn't exactly have hands, he could still shake by grabbing the end of her wing if she decided to. Right?

He was still extremely nervous, but held out a hand anyway. While it was a big reptillian clawed hand that would probably damage a few of her feathers, it was a step in the right direction, if he did it right, that is.

"My real name hassn't been ussed in sso long... It would take me a while to remember it... But you can call me Dragonfly."

Nicole nodded and smiled, before grazing her right alula-hand over Dragonfly's momentarily. She couldn't manage a real handshake, because she only had three fingers and a thumb, and their actual strength was far less than a normal human's. She could only handle the lightest of objects, and the hand itself had a wrist that wasn't flexible enough to always serve its purpose. However, it was obvious that it was her form of a handshake, "Pleased to meet you, Dragonfly." She said. She permitted herself to trust this person. Everyone had to accept that they were different, even things that weren't exactly nice. It might just be because meta-humans were more social with one another, but Nicole truly felt similar to Dragonfly, in a way. They both had physical changes that made them different, and mentally speaking, Nicole's point of view wasn't understandable by anyone else, because it was different. It was wrong to condemn people for things they couldn't control.

The Detention Center


Carolina Elias woke up laying on the cold concrete floor of the detention center, shivering. She had been leaning up against a set of steel-reinforced doors, to the sound of a rather husky, but still feminine, voice of a woman yelling something into the empty air.

"Nice trick Jake!" the voice yelled. Carole jumped bolt upright, and almost screamed, but cupped her hand over her mouth. She took off her heels to prevent their loud clacking noise and ran up the stairs to the second floor. She tripped on the last step, and fell face-first onto the floor, causing her to let out a scream, which she immediately muffled. She cursed herself for her clumsiness and ran to the window, where she glanced down at the stairs to see a girl in a blood-covered shirt yelling up at the windows. She stepped back, almost falling over a potted plant, and ran down a nearby hallway.

"Johnny?" She yelled "Hey, Johnny! Someone's outside!"


Claire was getting impatient. She walked up a few of the stairs, past the crying child, and banged loudly on the door until she remembered something about Jake. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, and her eyes lit up electric blue. She pointed at the boy on the steps, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the spot, revealing that the boy was indeed an illusion. He faded away, to reveal nothing but a black burn mark on the stairs. Inside, Carole screamed and hit the floor, putting her hands over her head as if a bomb had gone off.

"JOHNNY!" Carole screamed. "Where the Hell are you?!"

Dragonfly curved his lips up ever so slightly in the back of his jaw until a small reptilian smile crept up on his snout. It wasn't an insane one, it wasn't the kind on a hunter after it made it's kill. It was the kind one gets when they are genuinely happy about something. In this case, it was the fact that he wasn't a monster to someone. It didn't matter if everyone else in the world didn't agree. If one person wanted to give him a chance, how bad could he really be?

"Sso..." he said, turning to the other person. "Whoss thiss?"

Dont want to leave anyone out, and they probably knew each other well if they were planning to find someone together. Which he could probably help with because of his camouflage ability. It allowed him to disappear to the 'prey' and keep them from getting spooked and running. In cases like this where he's just trying to find them, it was a perfect ability as he could find the source and then call them or find them.

He needed to slow down and relax. His thoughts were whirring at a mile a minute and he wasn't accustomed to it.

'They trust you. Wait until they turn their backs.'

He was harshly brought back to reality as he heard himself think. He remembered why he didn't like to be seen and socially interact with others. He was afraid of hurting them. Going psycho and doing something that he couldn't apologize for. Something he couldn't fix.

"And what or who are we looking for?"

Nicole looked at the other person, "I think he said his name was Drake, and to be honest, I don't exactly know who or what is causing the pheromone trail, except it's likely another meta-human, like us. I get the impression they have a fur pelt, though, they have that smell." She couldn't exactly describe it to people with weaker senses, but things with fur gave of a certain scent that was unmistakable, sort of like how you knew the smell of a wet dog. Smells were interesting at times, what they could tell you. It was a world hidden from most humans, their sense of smell was terrible compared to most things.

Johnny and Sylvia


Johnny's previous day went like this (abridged); Wake up, get dressed, eat, CENSORED around for the next hour, go to training, flirt with girls, CENSORED around some more, eat food, get thrown in detention for the next few hours, upon getting let out soldiers come, hides in cell, two of his siblings hide, Jake makes an illusion that tricks the soldiers, hide in detention center until the next day worrying about his other sister who isn't with them. That was quite the day. Fortunately, the day is over and they hope that they're gone. Until then, the people inside of the detention center would be taking shifts watching for soldiers. Right now, it's Jake's turn to watch. His abilities made him suited for the job. Johnny was resting on a bed in the detention center with the door wide open and hoped for a bit of peace and quiet. However, his life was full of the chaotic and loud. Today, Johnny was wearing a simple brown pin-striped dress shirt and matching pants. With a wide-brimmed pimp hat on, and gloves on the hand without his tattoo of the family name on it. Finally, he wore black dress shoes. He loaned his long coat to Sylvia, since she got cold last night.

Maxx Toron wrote:

"Johnny?" She yelled "Hey, Johnny! Someone's outside!"

"JOHNNY!" Carole screamed. "Where the Hell are you?!"

This echoed through the hallways. Awakening a sleeping Sylvia in another room, using Johnny's long coat as a blanket. Her eyes immediately opened. The first thing she did was grab the large sunglasses that was next to her pillows, and throwing them on her eyes. Sylvia was wearing a large white padded hoodie vest, and suggestively short white sweat shorts. With her pink iPod loaded with bass-boated Skrillex and other Dubstep songs. "Shut the hell up!" Sylvia shouted at the source (not caring who it is) before muttering to herself, "Fucking hell... can't I get a few minutes of rest?"

More shouting. Perfect. Johnny got up out of the bed and started walking towards who he was certain was Carole. When he saw her running around looking panicked he spoke in a sarcastic tone, "... Yes. There's someone outside. But, let's panic and act the polar-opposite of CALM and COLLECTED." He walked up to her and spoke in a less sarcastic tone, "Yes... there's someone outside. Who, exactly? If you by any chance spotted him or her. Heh."



Jake


"... Not very subtle, are you?" A voice spoke from behind Claire. It was Jake (or could be Jake). Standing straight up with a hand in his pocket. Jake was wearing an all black suit with horizontal white stripes going across it, with a striped tie. Thrown over his shoulders was a black fur-top coat, with grey colored fur. Finally, in the pockets of his suit was the golden pocket watch that he always has. "Yelling and shooting lightning? C'mon, that's not very... wise..." He then speaks under his breath, "Because of what happened earlier today." It was ambiguous that it was the real Jake or not. It could easily be one of his illusionist duplicates.


Drake


Any normal person would piss themselves upon witnessing a giant lizard monster like Dragonfly. Drake was not one of them. He almost let out a long and dragged out "Cool!" But, kept it contained. Instead he said, "Wow... You're kinda cool there, Dragon... Mind if I call you that?" He then sat back and watched the exchange between Dragonfly and Nicole, quietly again. He'd feel as if it's better that he just stick to the sidelines here. "Yeah, name's Drake D. Blackmore. I... Don't think you're a freak, quite the opposite." He spoke to Dragonfly. He felt like he could at least be comfortable around Meta-humans like him since he can copy their powers and in a way: become like them. "I personally think we should stop standing here and find these people already. I sure as hell don't like mulling..."

Claire


"You'd do the same if you were just locked up on the top of a fucking tower for twelve hours with a dart in your fucking arm!" Claire sarcastically spat. She couldn't help but smile at her friend's craftiness. She had always been jealous of his power; creating illusions. It was the perfect getaway in any situation, and the way they could be touched and heard was incredible. Of course, that didn't beat shooting bolts of fricking lightning, but it was a close second in Claire's mind.

"And turning invisible? Really?" She playfully pushed him in the chest and laughed "Now can I come in or what? I think I gave Carole a heart attack. Saw her peeking in the window, so I figured I'd scare the Hell outta her".

Carole

Carole was absolutely hysterical. She jumped off up the floor and wrapped her arms around Johnny's neck in a tight hug. She was shaking like a leaf, and tears were running down her face. Johnny was her only friend, and Carole was seriously freaked out.

"I-I don't know!" She cried "I heard someone yelling, and then there was an explosion! Oh my God they're going to kill us! Oh my God!" She went back into her sobbs as she thought of the terrible night before; her door being broken down; the gunshots; Claire getting shot in the shoulder; then she was there, and she reinforced the doors with steel to keep the soldiers from breaking them down but they pounded and pounded away for hours and she fell asleep there by the door, crying in silence, the only thing separating her from the soldiers being a steel and wood door.

"Oh my God they're going to kill us!" she cried again.

(Yes, Carolina Elias is indeed an absolute, total, 100% drama queen).