Academy 218 - IC (Act 6: Reverence and Inspirational Misery)

Jake, Gabriela, Jaska Valos, & Sage Pimm.

Shade wrote:

"Jaska! He's so cute! You have to keep him!"

"Oh, thanks! I named him Mr. Bubbles!" Jaska says to Arianna, a cheerful, child-like smile formed on his face as Arianna walked up and pet the rabbit. The rabbit didn't move an inch, it just stayed wrapped in Jaska's thin arms. He flexed his wings slightly, but he kept them folded as there wasn't enough room in the immediate vicinity. Jaska had looked around, and noticed that the birds were flying away from the area, filling the sky with the flapping of a sea of birds - He didn't notice it, but other land dwelling animals were making it a mission. To say that he idly dismissed this event; was an understatement. What they were fleeing; this place, or Jaska himself, was the question, but Jaska didn't have the answer, nor could he get it.

Shade wrote:

"Afraid of catching a disease?" Don't worry, I'm clean. No, wait, that would probably be like weird or awkward or something to say. "I already got Titus-cooties on my hand, I think you can manage whatever comes your way. And Bre, you say that like it's such a bad thing. If Jaska keeps that chick magnet bunny around with him, he'll be agreeing with me before too long. This place...this place looks like a haunt."

"Heh, 'Titus-cooties', huh? I think I might have the cure for that..." Jake says, in a joking tone. He made an illusion of a rose appear in his hands, then he bowed like a disney prince would. As he did that gesture, he spoke in a sly, smooth, near-flirty tone, "... A kiss from a handsome prince." Hey, that rhymes. He was mostly joking - Mostly. There was a small contingent within him that said the flirt was legit. He started laughing, as the flower disappeared. As a thinly disguised attempt to pass it off as a joke, just in the off chance he would make Arianna uncomfortable. I'm glad Abe is no where near here. He would laugh my ass back home.

"Wow, you're less subtle than ME..." Gabe mumbles to herself, rolling her eye again, "... And I just walked up to a girl and told her I liked her ass." She laughed quietly at her own comment. She had her arms crossed, and had shifted her weight to one hip. Looking up at the ceiling.

Jaska had leap down from the wall, he flapped his wings as he landed. Just so he didn't hurt himself on impact. He still had the rabbit in hand. He decided to put down his new furry friend - Or as Arianna dubbed it the "chick magnet bunny". He was still oblivious to a few phrases, to the point where. He had knelt down and put the bunny on the ground. The rabbit had walked over to Jaska, and sat down next to his leg like a dog would loyally stand by his master. He curiously asks, "Chick magnet...?"

"Heh, don't ya' think he's a lil' young to be havin' a chick magnet, Ari?" Gabe says to Arianna, prompted by Jaska's question, "But he dun' even need it. Ha. He's like a cute little dragon all by himself."

Shade wrote:

"Poor choice of words. Isn't that what they call the gang hideouts, though? Just looks like a bunch of teenagers came and....hung out here."

"Well, dere are better places to 'hang out'" Was all Gabe said.

Shade wrote:

"Oh, Gabe,"

"I'm a classy lady. We cleared the snow out of the way first. But yeah, onto the really spooky place...unless you guys are scared."

This made Gabe erupt into laughter, the first part did. "Hahaha... I just bet you did. Class is his forte, ya' know?" She says to Arianna, shifting her weight back to her hip. She ruffed her hand through her hair the moment that her laughter ended. Her expression changed to a humored one, right back to her usual serious, venomous glares. "But, yes, let's get the 'ell outta here - This room is already annoying me." She looked around. There were four options to go, and she had no clue where they would lead- But, hell, that's the fun of exploring. She closed her eye, and started randomly pointing at the doors, "... Eeny, meeny, miny, moe - We're going down there!" Until she randomly picked the hallway that was best for her. Best for her as in they're moving along.

Everyone then funneled into the random hallway that Gabe had picked. Gabe leading the group with her brutish demeanor, and empathizing her strength with each step. Jake had stuck near Arianna. Jaska was hanging in the back, acting as the group's alarm, as few could go undetected by Jaska's senses, with 'Mr. Bubbles' walking alongside Jaska. Sage was quiet, the previous topic was awkward for the morally and sexually conservative Sage, they were more focused on keeping the lights shining ahead for the group.

The group passed a random bookshelf. While it was in the middle of a building with no furniture, they just disregarded it like it was scenery. However, something else had gotten the attention of Jaska. He heard something coming from behind the bookshelf, far behind it. The familiar sound of rats, their scurrying and tiny heart beats moving around. He could smell them too. He stopped and put his ear to the bookcase. Listening carefully. Rabbit friend walking alongside.

"Jask... What are you doing?" Gabe asks, stopping to look back.

"... I hear something... There's something behind this." Jaska answers.

That was enough to get the rest of the group's attention. Jake walked up to the side of the bookcase and tried to push it, "Hey, help me-" Only to be interrupted by a blood-red light that was brighter than anything else in the room.

Gabe had gotten in position and fired a red laser with both hands at the bookcase. A laser that traveled at the very speed of light, it immediately penetrated the wooden barrier between them and the fabled 'spooky place' - Without giving it a thought that she could break something important. The laser was immensely bright, it illuminated the whole hallway. By the time the light faded, Gabe says, "We would have been here all day."

"My eyes!" Jaska screamed. The sudden flash of light, coupled with his higher sensitivity for bright lights, made Gabe's laser absolutely painful. Even though. Jaska had hunkered down, putting his hands over his eyes, and wrapping his wings around his body to provide extra resistance to other bright lights.

"Sorry, should have warned ya'll."

What was behind the bookcase? A stair-well to under the ruins, seemingly, untouched or ignored by everyone who came through the ruins. The stairs were made out a hard concrete, and were eerie as hell, since they were so tall that they vanished, but they did lead somewhere. It was just too dark to tell.


Drake Deltori Blackmore.


"What?! Coward!" Drake shouted as Vespera just dropped and disappeared into nothing. He looked. That taunt of hers made him especially furious. He looked down to where Vespera had - Outside his peripheral vision, he saw the shadow of a stone block flying at him. He had zero idea what it was, it was just a voice in his head screaming for him to dodge. He fired off a quick jet of super-heated plasma, which was enough to take him far out of the way of the rock, for a moment, he paused in mid-air, to look at it. "Watch it...!" Cassandra's body alterations really took a toll on Drake, his mind and body was slowing down. Drake wasn't really 'affected' by Vespera's poison. His body burned infinitely hotter than most - So any poisons or bacteria that Vespera gave him were merely cooked before they can do anything harmful to him. Either way, whatever they were doing, the odds were horribly in their favor - Even. Even with his mind slugging, Drake was resourceful, determined, and hell, at times; even clever. "You'll hate me for this, Val..."

But before Drake could retaliate, an alarm blared that was louder than everything else going on in the arena. It was the time-out alarm, indicating that both teams have used up their allotted time and the match was officially over. The speakers blared, "Timer: zero. Match over. Please exit." A few times, just in case no one heard it the first time.

"God dammit! I wanted to use my other dragon!" Drake says, as he causally descended to the ground and landed on the blast-metal floors. His plasma melted the ice around him, and boiled the air. So he was rather. He was disappointed that the match had to end like this - But at the same time; he was glad. These three fight like total b*tches. No decency. No honor. Cowards. Drake had expected a mighty brawl, not this, for his first fight. He had hoped that the next fight fight would be so much better. "Where-ever the hell you all are, I'd like to let you know that I enjoyed the match. No really. Especially how I got you all running scared at the end. Heh." Drake decided to taunt his invisible opponents.

Drake floated over to Val, who was frozen like a f*cking popsicle. He probably could use a bit of help getting thawed out. "Hey, need a bit of help there, eh, Val?"

Bre and Len
-

When Gabe had first pointed out the rat, Bre held in a squeal of disgust- instead, she could only think, "Eeeeew!" Even though her face didn't show such a thought. Rats were te one animal she COULD NOT STAND. She remembered whenever she was five and her dad decided it would be a "great idea" to get her a pet... Rat. She hated that thing- it's beady eyes and creepy little grey face. So she had actually tried to kill it- she placed it in the toilet and tried to flush it. It didn't work. Instead we dad came in yelling. She claimed that she had only been trying to get it to play with her. Her dad tried to do CPRon the creepy little thing, but it died. Now that Bre thought back on it... She ha been a very morbid, mean little five year old. Now she wouldn't do such thing, of course- she hated rats, but she would feel guilty for doing such a thing. Not to mention the fact that there was no way she was going to touch a rat to do that, anyways.
((That is based off a true story about a friend of mine's))

Mr Allen J and Shade wrote:

".... Because it happened to her before. True story." Jake sarcastically quips. He smiled and crossed his arms. Expecting a response from Gabe.

"Well, I def' wouldn't recommend that you do it in the snow, either. Like..."

I'm a classy lady. We cleared the snow out of the way first. But yeah, onto the really spooky place...unless you guys are scared."

This made Gabe erupt into laughter, the first part did. "Hahaha... I just bet you did. Class is his forte, ya' know?"

As both Bre and Len listened to the conversation, they had different reactions. Len, surprisingly enough, began holding in a fit of laughter. It wasn't long before he was laughing silently, his shoulders shaking as he looke down with a smile on his face, the only thing he could do to keep from laughing out loud. He found watching all this really funny- mostly the conversation, but he couldn't scratch tge fact that the Jake kid offered the Arianna chick... A rose. It was just, as Gabe said, so... Straight forward. Which might be why he found it funny. Len wasn't really sure.

Bre, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to the conversation- she was now looking around for any rats. She had a blush on her face, imagining what she looked like right now, looking around nervously. She probably looked like she was scared of the place, suddenly- of course she wasn't! She was just nervous about what was in the place, which was rats. She wa so distracted that at first she didn't notice the group walking ahead of her, and had to quicken her pace to catch up. By the time she arrived, Gabe was blasting some lasers through a bookshelf. Bre could only shake her head, impressed by the display of powers. But what left her even more impressed was what lay behind the bookshelf. Bre jumped up and down excitedly, suddenly forgetting about rats and not even thinking of the possibility of rats being in the staircase ahead of them- even if they were, she was too excited about the "spooky place" to care. A dark secret staircase- this is just what she was looking for!

"That's what I'm talking about!" Bre grinned as she flipped out the camera that was in her purse and held it up, hesitating before putting it back in her purse. If she were to take pictures and they got caught... Wouldn't it be a bad idea to have those pictures on her? Yeah... It's a no-go for pictures, then. Bre sighed, walking forward to be the closest to the opening and turned around, her grin still present. "We'll c'mon, this is SO the best part of the trip here."

Len sighed, his expression back to normal as he stared ahead at the stairway that led below the ruins. His expression held a bit of worry as Bre walked towards the opening. He mumbled, "Be careful," though he didn't say it loud enough for Bre to hear- he didn't wan for her to think he was trying to be like a dad or something. He just didn't want to see her hurt.

Merry was quickly realizing how in the dark she was about almost everything going on at the school right now. She gave a wave to Jesse as he ran off to get some stuff in his dorm, quietly hoping he would bring over some video games along with the snacks. But he had mentioned something about ghosts, was he some sort of medium? Merry frowned for a moment, shaking her head. She didn't know the powers of either of the only people she could call a friend at this weird academy. With its weird events and fights and black mail. And blood in the hang out spots. She didn't really mine not knowing their powers, everyone had a secret or two, but a ghost power that was something Merry would love to know about.

She walked along side Lily, feeling for a moment like everything was normal. They were just going to be three friends hanging out, watching some Netflix and eating some junk food before classes had to return back into their lives. For a fleeing moment Merry forgot about powers and the blood and the soul clenching feel deep inside Merry when she saw the look on Lilys face when she was talking about Animoore. Merry allowed the two to walk in silence for several moments, navigating back to their shared room. Merry looked up at Lily when she began to talk, excited to finally get some answers about her mysterious roommate.  

Allen wrote:

"So, I should get you briefed... So I was just coolin' outside the library when Amimoore popped up and started being a creep... I tried to leave, but then she found out about my power then..."

Merry didn't know how to react at first. She was furious. How dare this Animoore chick come over and start messing with Lily. Even with the brief time Merry had been at the school, she knew many people didn't like others knowing their powers. Some people had powers they weren't proud of, or maybe the didn't want to seem more like monsters then they might seem outside the school. Wasn't this academy supposed to act like protection to those sorts of students? It just seemed unfair that Lily had to deal with that. Merry tried to find words to comfort her, without trying to ask about Lilys power.

"Goodness. Amimoore seems like a huge jerk for singling you out like that." Merry took a moment to pause. Knowing the kind of person Amimoore is, she could only guess that Lilys secret was in danger. Merry muttered softly under her breath as they arrived at their room. "She better not try anything funny, or I'll...I'll..." Merry's voice died down.

Abraham Gene

Oh, is that what their game is now? Hiding? Hiding from fight? Hiding from the winners? The inevitable beat down? The Golem? Ha! Laughable, truly! The fight smelled fishy before it even started - should have figured that Vespera and friends  wouldn't have the gonads to face off against the three of them. Oh, but what a shame! If they're going to hide, then just simply eliminate any hiding spots... that was something Abraham could do. That was something easy. He took a moment to pause and gather his energy before sharp outcrops of rock were slowly, however effortlessly, being protruded from his body. He thought, let's see them try to escape from this, but was abruptly cut off by the alarming bellow of the of the siren that was mounted above the heads, obscured by the snow clouds that Valery had conjured. It took him a moment to understand what was going on, but it became clear as a voice spoke through one of the speakers. Match over? Timer zero?

Oh, don't you ƒucking tell me... Abe thought.

Now this pissed him off. Really? All he did all match was chase after a little pansy that was afraid to get a little dirty. Now he revealed one of his big secrets and he couldn't even get the proper payback of grinding him into the ground! What a huge waste of his time... though on the bright side, there was the benefit of watching the reputation of the three they faced off against plummet. Or maybe not, but there was one thing for certain: they were on the run for the majority of the match. While there wasn't a win in the official records, in his own eyes, him and his team had already won by default. Likely even through the eyes of the spectators as well, they were witnesses to the event! They saw his team overcome their tactics, they watched the enemy team run! Nothing could convince him otherwise; the match was as good as his... and, well, Drake and Val too, of course.

Slowly, chunks of rock loosed and fell off his body with each thunderous step he took towards his teammates and crushing the ice beneath each gargantuan foot. He ought to make them fell off nice and prickly and spiky just for the sake of Vespera and her butt buddies. Hopefully they'd step on one of them at least.

He wasn't entirely out of form yet, and he was still about as massive as before, with flakes and chunks of rock breaking off as if it were melting ice. As a result, his strength and size and capabilities were about as formidable, his voice just as deep and rough. He jibed impatiently, “Let's hurry up and get him out of that popsicle already. I'm sick of even breathing the same air as these washouts.”

It was true Abe's opinion of them wasn't basked in a radiant light so much as lying in a pile of sticky, rancid muck, but so far up to his point, he found no reason to even waste his time concerning over it or them. They were nothing, so low that they weren't even worth an acknowledging glance. At least dirt can grow plants. So little concern that he didn't even care of the idea of them turning this whole event around and use it greaten their own image! Let them! Show them to be the bottom feeders they undoubtedly are!

Abe didn't even bother looking at the two girls as they passed by with the arrogant goading. How hysterical! Fleeing and then taunting? That was something kids did in middle school! Big talk for some people that couldn't back up their words. He watched them walk out of the arena and he simply turned to Drake for a bit of banter. “I could crush them later if you want me to, it'd be my pleasure.”

He looked at Vance as he came by to apologize for the two snide girls. Bah, whatever. A sheep apologizing for a pair of tools. Cute.

---

Damon Viscous

More high-risk students? Surely this was disconcerting, faculty wasn't exactly at a steady employment rate and they were all heavily outnumbered by the students. To be fair though, all of the teachers were at least considerably powerful in their abilities one way or another. But “high-risk” usually meant “keep these students under control or they'll blow up the school”, especially when Adam said it. But that was often associated with someone's power, that's not considering the fact in what situation should  which student behave under. Drake was Adam's kid, so even if the boy was high-strung, he wasn't going to do a whole lot of damage. Kids like Mr. Gene behaved unpredictably from what he was able to assess by watching him fight. These were two different dangers and both kinds were “high-risk” under the right circumstances.

“These school years seem to be getting more dangerous.” Damon said idly as the arena alarm sounded. A shame that the fight didn't have a concrete ending. Vance is probably the one who managed to save them, any longer in that blizzard and his two teammates were done for. He looked at the time on his watch and stood himself up, throwing away his trash in a nearby garbage disposal. He turned back to face Adam and said, “Well, it was nice talking to you. I ought to get back to work now that I've had my fun. Be careful with these kids, my friend.”

Valery Arsov

Bah! Timer? When did they put in timer? Did I start winning too much?

Valery wasn't particularly upset about the match being ended early, mostly because being encased within a glacier tends to keep you pretty chilled out about things. His eye, incapable of moving, watched the others cease fighting, presumably trade some post-game trash talk, but surely their adversaries realized how the match was going to end-Drake, Abe, and Val had shown no signs of slowing down, while Cassandra was close to beaten and Vespera and Vance kept on their toes the whole match. With more time, Val could've encased the entire Arena in a similar icefield, and that would've marked the end of their attempt at fighting back. The laws of physics don't care about morale or perseverance, they merely freeze water when it gets cold enough.

Val got along pretty well with the laws of physics.

Yes, jackass, I could use a little help. Now start melting ice before I make it hail again.

Val, buried under ice and snow, had begun easing back on the snowstorm as soon as he saw the fight was finished. It would take time to completely undo all the cold he'd brought into the Arena, but normally the Arena stuff pumped in hot air to help thaw him out, and if Drake would stop making smart comments and put that plasma to work, he'd be out of this even faster. Still, a slow thaw-out wasn't so bad. It was, pardon the pun, a good cool-down after a workout, and Val had strained himself a bit, working his abilities so hard, so fast. He'd be sore tomorrow, and his soreness would be all over: every capillary and vein and artery groaning in protest at having been turned into a icicle, bouts of brainfreeze as his body worked to turn his blood back from its slush-like consistency, numbness in his hands and feet as the frostbite worked itself out. No lasting effects, but he'd be staggering around like a bad drunk for a few hours.

The ice began slowly melting, with Val no longer actively bringing the temperature of the Arena down, but he may be stuck for a considerable time until the small wall of ice and snow around him decided to hurry up and turn into water. Val, now capable of moving his eye very slightly, kept his eye on Drake, as if to say, Melt the ice, plasma boy. But don't be a d*ck and start shooting plasma at me, maybe, like, around me or something. Actually, just let me thaw out on my own.

Arianna Madrigal

Arianna didn't want to admit it, but this was getting a little scary. She hummed softly under her breath, something which didn't have any supernatural calming effects on her, but was stabilizing merely because it was familiar. And it looked less visibly nervous than chewing her nails or something. Of course, there was no hiding it from Jake, whose hand she was now squeezing painfully tight-and between the emotional whirlwind of nervous tension with Jake and anxious fear of the derelict building and the use of her Song earlier, Arianna felt ready for a nap. There was no way, however, she'd be sleeping anytime soon-not with all the adrenaline pumping through her. She had a hell of a crash coming on later-but for now? There were creepy abandoned ruins to go spelunking in, and a pretty fun partner to do it with.

Arianna grinned, impressed by the rose-and secretly not wanting to show her eager confusion over whether Jake's offer had been serious or not. Was it? She'd play it cool-he was laughing, but they were holding hands. "Oh, please. I'm a high maintenance girl, at least conjure up some fake diamonds if you're going to bribe me. And Gabe, he'll be a little heartbreaker in no time, just you see." Arianna felt somewhat...fake? talking about things such as that. She was fairly inexperienced, to make a massive understatement, in the dating arena, but had spent as much time gossiping and fantasizing as you'd expect from any girl her age, of her standing. So maybe she was a little qualified...three years' worth of Cosmo had to count for something.

Then Jaska had spotted a hidden bookshelf, and Arianna felt like an idiot for not thinking of it-they'd even read The Diary of Anne Frank in school. Even if they hadn't, the bookshelf was where Batman and everybody else hid stuff behind. She listened for a moment to the Symphony, and surely enough, the bookshelf sounded like a sore thumb, something just a tad bit off-something not at all what it seemed. It sounded vaguely like one of Jake's illusions.

Arianna yelped when Gabe lazed the bookshelf-and subsequently felt a wave of confusion after the initial terror. Was...was she startled by the sudden light and sound...

...or the fact Jake had been standing right next to it when it made contact?

Christ, I'm going to need some Valium if I keep hanging out with him, my chest hurts from all this.

Jaska was screaming along with her, though, which made her feel a little better. Arianna, like everyone, wasn't immune to the forces of peer pressure, and she by no means wanted to be the wimpy girl who held everybody back, especially when Gabe was kicking *ss and taking names. "Here, Jaska, hold still for a second." Arianna took a deep breath in, trying to steady her racing heart, and began to sing something soft and gentle, reaching into the Symphony for Jaska's song and working on the parts that were missing their beat, were off-key, out of rhythm. She didn't want to expend too much energy, especially over such a minor injury (it wasn't like he'd actually been hit by the laser), so she only held the melody for fifteen or twenty seconds, feeling as if she'd just done a windsprint or two by the end of it. She'd been doing a lot of hard work, as far as her gift was concerned-she never Sang this much on her own, normally. Maybe there was something to that Black Fall Effect, after all.

"Ooh," Arianna said, taking in a few deep breaths of chilly air. "Did that help?" Arianna listened, interested to what Seth had to say, but also somewhat apprehensive-surely he'd keep them from doing anything really fun. And by fun, she meant dangerous, which were two things Arianna never would've considered to be similar before this afternoon: Those Valos kids are rubbing off on me way too quickly. But maybe that's not so bad.

Arianna found her way back by Jake, somewhat unsure of how to resume holding his hand, because that felt really nice but she didn't want to look like a CENSORED or something coming on too strong. Would she look like she was coming on too strong? Maybe she'd wait until they were back in the dark cave and she could act sorta scared ("act") and then latch onto him for support. Yeah, that sounded good. Really good. "Hey, take all the pictures you want, but don't get any of me on there. And make sure you don't get a shot of the ghost, he might get all vengeful and come after us or whatnot." Arianna tried to sound a lot braver with that last bit than she really felt, but she doubted anybody would notice. Probably.

Drake Deltori Blackmore.


As Cassandra and Vespera gloated about - Just about everything that would piss him off. They insulted his honor. The one defining thing about him. Drake followed through with his honor - It gave him a reassuring feeling behind his actions. I believe in having a code of honor, giving my foes a fair fight - Even if it kills me; I will not abandon my convictions, ideals, morals. Not even if it means an easy win. He stood there, in the room, with his arms crossed and his head tucked down, an angered look on his face. I'll have you know: An honorable soldier is remembered as a hero when he falls. A sociopath is never remembered for anything good - I can argue that the only good thing to be remembered about them is the fact that they're gone. This was odd for Drake, when compared to his previous attitude - He was really, philosophical. He was much more serious, innately. However, the more it angered him, and he thought about; he realized what it really was. Really it was... Rather amusing, to be honest. They were mocking him, when he was the one doing the most damage. They really knew that Drake could beat them, and they wanted to rub it in. The way Drake saw it, he was really giving it to Vespera, and he nearly defeated both Vance and Cassandra with one attack. In his mind, he had won - No, his team had won.

Not a word was said to them. Let them have the last word. Because if this was a real fight, then that would mean that it's gotten to the point where Drake would have no reason to hold back, and that's where things would get hot.

Then their little lapdog came up to him and apologized. The gesture wasn't appreciated - It was like a middle finger at this point. Either way, Drake was going to take it in stride. "... It's fine. Didn't really expect a person like yourself to be with them, to be honest." He said to Vance. Then Vance mentioned that Val can't talk. This only made Drake turn from his unusual serious demeanor, back to his playful, and cocky attitude. "Ah, you underestimate my good pal, Val," He spoke in a cheeky attitude, "This is like camouflage so the punches would stop. Any second now he'll turn into a giant snow-man, ha."

Then he noticed that Val's eye had drifted towards him, as he thawed out. A sure indicator that Drake should stop being a d*ck and help. "... You're going to want to step back." He said to Vance, as the plasma around him sparked, glowing much brighter and intense. He generated much, much more heat, which quickly melted the ice around him. He would have shot Val with plasma just to be a smart-ass, but this was easier.

Lieo wrote:

“I could crush them later if you want me to, it'd be my pleasure.”

Now what Drake was about to say would be classified as uncharacteristic, or out of place. "Nah, leave them be. If they're going to play the game like that; then they're not worth the ground they stand on." He was being honest here. If they had played a bit more fairer, then maybe he would have been fine. Otherwise, what's the point? Hearing them jerk themselves off.


Adam Leo Blackmore.

Lieo wrote:

“These school years seem to be getting more dangerous.”

In a way, Adam had heavily agreed with Damon. No one knew it more than Adam, but the students were dangerous. Each of the teachers here were dangerous - Each in their own way. He knew that. But, the high risk students were something that were much more dangerous. Because they didn't have the one thing that keeps even the greatest of masters from being monsters; control. That's what Adam and the school aims to accomplish for everyone. Even if things seem bleak, long as the student keeps at it, and is willing, control can be achieved. "Yes, but I am confident that, no matter how dangerous the situation may seem, order and control may be maintained so we can go without incident."

Lieo wrote:

“Well, it was nice talking to you. I ought to get back to work now that I've had my fun. Be careful with these kids, my friend.”

"You too," Adam says to Damon as the battle finally concluded. Damon was leaving, and, well, Adam should be too. For his own reasons, he had something to say to Drake. He was about to leave, but he had a few words to share with the rest of the students. "I hope the rest of you enjoyed the battle - I'm certain that the rest of you will get a chance of your own to fight." He gave everyone a smile before he walked off, going to meet Drake.


Jake, Gabriela, Jaska Valos, & Sage Pimm.

Shade wrote:

"Here, Jaska, hold still for a second."

"Ooh," Arianna said, taking in a few deep breaths of chilly air. "Did that help?"

"Huh?" The song that Arianna had sang for Jaska had mended his wounded eyes. All in a few moments. While he was confused at first - because why is this crazy lady singing at him? - he did highly appreciate it. He slowly, but surely gotten out of the shell that he had made for himself, unwrapping his wings and moving his hands away. "Oh... Thanks pretty lady!" He had once again gave Arianna his gratitude. He was the type of kid to really show affection when he felt like he needed to. He really had started to consider Arianna his 'friend' even though she was older, and he had thought that she's Jake's... Girl-friend.

"So, ya' can sing...?" Gabe says, crossing her arms, and her expression neutral. She tried to wrap her head around what just happened, and how the hell singing would help Jaska's burning eyes. Then, like many things, she went f*ck it. "Eh, whatever... Uh... Thanks, for that. I really do appreciate it." The thanks was tacked on, and her speech patterns became awkward when she did do it. Since normally, - But Gabe was in an extra good mood right now.

While Jake had already seen Arianna's singing in action, he was a bit more curious about Arianna's power now. Jake was pretty clever, clever enough to put together that the singing had healed Jaska's pained eyes. Time will tell whether or not there's more to her than he's aware of, and if he's made the right choice getting her on his side.

True Night wrote:

"It goes down a good ways then opens up into what I assume to be a room, unless of course they built this over a cave."

Sage nodded. "I think it's a room." They said, their voice and tone completely neutral. They were still uncomfortable in this group - Gabe's demonstration didn't help. The blinding flash of light created by Gabe did literally nothing to them, as their power made it impossible for even the brightest lights to adversely affect them. So the light was no more painful than a night light. Now, the likelihood of a cave being down here is quite slim, a room that's a different discussion.

Celo wrote:

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"We'll c'mon, this is SO the best part of the trip here."

"I wouldn't rush in there, at least while it's dark," Jake said to Bre, "Might be an evil monster waiting to bite you." He spoke in a calm, teasing, bravado. He walked closer to the opening, behind Bre, and looked down, it was quite scary. In his eyes; it was his turn to be the bringer of light. He snapped his fingers, for flash, and crafted an illusion that was an exact copy of the sun, and provided the same amount of light that Sage's light orbs would. It appeared at the door frame and went down the stairs, before stopping. "Now how about we give this mystery place a gander before we head on home?" He spoke in a goofy, stereotypical country accent. Just for fun - That's all this trip's been, right? Just a bunch of kids having fun, and exchanging jokes. Well, except for Seth and Len - Those two were the weird kids in the back, but their presence was fortunately quiet.

The darkness wasn't a problem for Jaska, he could see through the shadows just like it was nothing - It's daytime he has to worry about, when things get bright. When Jake had prompted everyone to come down, Jaska followed, but not before he picked up his rabbit, and held it in his hands. He walked down the stairs, followed by Sage, then Gabe was all the way in the back of the group, taking up the rear.

The group walked quite a distance downwards, to the point where they were on level with the tunnels underneath the school. At the very bottom of the stairs, there was a hallway, that lead to a door. A metal door, that looked quite reinforced, and shiny (Which is bad because shiny deflects lasers) blocked the group. This door looked similar to a bunker door, but not quite a massive blast door. However, whoever put it in didn't bother to lock it, so there was zero need to think of any clever plans to get around it. The door was even slightly ajar. Jake shined his light on it.

"Heh. Looks like we found where our evil Headmaster keeps all his stolen children." Gabe says, with a chuckle. Her attitude changed from a joking mood, to a neutral, deadpan tone. "I can't get dat down. Not without sendin' lasers everywhere and givin' err'body a bruise."

That comment aside, Sage was the first one to notice that the door was ajar. "... How about we do it the old fashion way?" They said, with a cheery smile as they walked over to the door and grabbed on to the handle and started pulling with all their strength... Which wasn't a lot, Sage didn't really have much in the strength department, so the door was slowly moved. Thankfully Gabe came over and loaned her strength, grabbing onto the handle and pulling it with all strength. After a little bit of pulling, the door was open for everyone. Jake had made another replica of his illusory sun, and had sent it forth into the room for light. Sage was the first in, shining their own light upon the room, which had illuminated the room better than Jake's illusion did.

The room was a large room, very large. The basic layout of the room was very similar to a prison block, it was long, rectangle shaped, and had several large doors that were highly similar to blast doors (Some were closed, and some were wide open). It was made out of the very same shiny blast metal as the arena, it was made to be durable, and to last. Unlike the rest of the ruins, this room was 100% finished. Almost like it was the first room to be completed. However, that didn't mean that the room was clean, like everywhere else here, there was a thick coat of dust on top of the floor. The group was clearly not the first people to be in here. There were footprints in the dust....

"... I don't think you're wrong..." Jake says to Gabe, referencing that earlier comment. It was a massive understatement saying that this room really gave Jake the creeps, not in the way like a scary place... Like, there was some very horrible reasons for this particular room existing...

On the other hand, Gabe readied herself. She knew that something was up in here. That meant that there was zero room to let her guard down and get ambushed. Even the smallest thing crawls out, it's going to get a thousand degree death ray to the face.


Carmen 'Lily' Santo.

Dragonbud wrote:

"Goodness. Amimoore seems like a huge jerk for singling you out like that." Merry took a moment to pause. Knowing the kind of person Amimoore is, she could only guess that Lilys secret was in danger. Merry muttered softly under her breath as they arrived at their room. "She better not try anything funny, or I'll...I'll..."

Lily's mood sure was lifted a bit. She was close to forming a smile, but the anxiety of the situation really fought that off. "Yeah..." Was all Lily could say. She didn't want to mull on the subject that much, so she kept quiet for the remainder of the walk. Until they arrived at their shared dorm-room, she had taken the honors of unlocking the door, and stepping inside. "So, let's just wait for Jess, okay?" She said, as she laid down on her bed.


((Half assed POV cuz I'm tired))

Mr Allen J wrote:

"I wouldn't rush in there, at least while it's dark," Jake said to Bre, "Might be an evil monster waiting to bite you."

Bre laughed a bit and added, "or a rat." She hated those things, but she couldn't help but think of Gabe's earlier comment when hearing Jake's warning. Then he crafted the illusion of a mini.... sun.... thing. Bre grinned, "Your power is awesome!" she remarked and began heading down the stairs, not fazed in any way by the eerie aura the stairway ahead of her reeked of.

She walked near the front of the group and arrived at the metal door, itching to go past it, but knowing she should wait for everyone else to arrive. It was unlocked and slightly ajar. By the time she had noticed, however, Sage was pointing it out. It felt a bit stuffy to her from so much dust being present. she grinned, waiting anxiously and Gabe and Sage began to pull open the door. What was behind it? A underground series of tunnels? Maybe an actual monsters? How about some secret agency of.... something-or-other! Or maybe.... Bre wrinkled her nose at the though. Rats.

when Gabe and Sage slid open the door, she was not expecting for it to be what Gabe had joked about, but it was. A prison. Bre felt her stomach lurch as she looked around, taking in a shaky breath.

Mr Allen J wrote:

"... I don't think you're wrong..."

Bre nodded in agreement with Jake. "A-a prison...." her voice was shaky and her eyes continued to dart around the room, thinking of the possibility of someone jumping from the shadows and grabbing her, pulling her into one of the cells. "...Why couldn't it have just been a regular creepy old room.... n-not a prison...."

They were all going to die. Someone saw them on some camera and they were going to die. No, don't think like that. No. No.

"No, no no no no!" Br e suddenly shook her head really quickly, her sunglasses flying off and landing beside her from the shaking of her head. "This can't be right. It can't, it can't, it can't!" She looked around frantically, not even noticing that her sunglasses had fallen off of her face. She froze when someone touched her on the shoulder. She slowly turned around, fear still gripping her stomach. Len stood with his hand still forward, eyes closed.

When Bre turned to face him, Len felt her shoulder move and after a moment let his hand fall to his side. He made sure he kept his eyes closed to avoid being frozen a few seconds. Calm down, Bre," he warned, voice surprisingly steady. "And your sunglasses..."

Bre calmed down when Len spoke, and as he pointed out her sunglasses, she yelped. "Oh- I'm sorry!" She reached down and grabbed her sunglasses, quickly placing them back over her eyes. "I'm sorry I freaked. But this is a double danger thing...." She looked at Len's confused face.

"This is a prison. What's to say we won't end up in here next?" She sucked in another shaky breath. "And look at the footprints. W-what if they belong to someone who was jailed in here for a long.... long time? What if the person recently escaped a-and he...or she's out for blood and... how powerful or dangerous must that person be for him...her... whatever the person is... to get jailed?" She looked around nervously, again, the questions floating around her mind.

Len cleared his throat. "I think we should go. I have to go tell my brothers to be careful. Tell Kynan to keep an eye on Jaylin..." his voice faded. Perhaps the shock of the place had made him a bit more willing to talk, or maybe the fear he also felt, even though he wasn't going to show any signs of fear on his face- only an expression of boredom, though this place suddenly seemed a lot less boring.

Sage Pimm, Gabriela, Jake, & Jaska Valos.

Celo wrote:

"No, no no no no!"

"This is a prison. What's to say we won't end up in here next?" She sucked in another shaky breath. "And look at the footprints. W-what if they belong to someone who was jailed in here for a long.... long time? What if the person recently escaped a-and he...or she's out for blood and... how powerful or dangerous must that person be for him...her... whatever the person is... to get jailed?

"Argh, get your sh*t together..." Gabe snarled through her teeth directed at Bre. She crossed her arms across her chest and shifted her weight to one hip, giving Bre an annoyed glare. The over dramatics was quickly started to get irritating, and when Gabe gets irritated, even in the slightest, it tends to show. She wasn't in the least bit phased by the fact there was a secret prison here. In fact, it only made her more defensive. A bright red pulse traveled down her arms to her hands, then repeated again and again. A oval shaped orb surrounded her hands. She was ready to give whatever may pop out hell.

Jake was similarly on edge, but was still calm enough to think things through. This place was obviously never used as a prison, because the place looked old and decrepit, and poorly guarded (They did just open a door and walk in). If the place was really an active prison, then there would be much more security here. But those footprints, someone has been in here. "Calm down, I don't think anyone was in here...." He tries to calm Bre down, "Jailed, I mean. Just think about it; if people were really kept it would it be this unguarded?"

On the other hand, Jaska was started to get quite frightened too. It was blatant in his worried facial expression. His eyes quickly darted to the first thing that made noise, only to see that it was only a rat. His instincts were kicking into fight-or-flight mode, priming him for a hasty retreat, or a fight. However, his instincts only told him that only prey was nearby - Everyone was prey to him. He hyperextended his wings, making them large and threatening. In the same way that a frightened animal makes himself look more intimidating, to ward off any threats.

Celo wrote:

Len cleared his throat. "I think we should go. I have to go tell my brothers to be careful. Tell Kynan to keep an eye on Jaylin..." his voice faded.

"Agreed, let's just head back to campus and don't mention we found this place, okay?" Jake said, acting like he had the best plan.

"Let's." Gabe said.

"... This place is kinda scary..." Jaska quietly yips.

As everyone talked about leaving, Sage was standing in the background, nervously stroking their hair as it flickered a white color. Despite wanting to explore this place, the urge to leave was even greater. Finally, Sage finally had the gall to speak, "There was something wrong with this place from the moment I stepped in here. I sensed something overwhelmingly evil... Just... Not like this..." Sage's hair was glowing with a beautiful white light, and their eyes had taken a similar glow. A aura of light had surrounded Sage, making them the brightest thing in the room. This was an unconscious use of their power, usually activating during times of emotion. Such as this. "Like... This is the kind of place where all the Ghosts and Little Devils-"

Unfortunately, Sage had awoken something with his speech, something he should not have.

"- come to lurk..." They finished.

Spoiler:

The words 'Little Devil' had rung through Jaska's ears. He heard nothing else in the room, only those words. They were the trigger into utter hell. His eyes widened, with a horrified expression on his face. "No..." Jaska says under his breath. His legs felt weak, like he couldn't support himself, he took drunken-like steps backwards like he was going to fall. He finally fell on to his behind, with a quiet thump. With his rabbit falling out of his hands, hopping away, to the other side of the room, going far away from Jaska as possible. In fact, all the rats that were in the room began to flee the room, rushing up the stairs. As they knew there was a predator lurking that was unlike anything else. He loudly screamed, "No!" at the very top of his lungs, as he curled up tightly as possible. There were no true monsters in the ruins until they brought him.

"For the love of f*ck! Don't tell me...!" Gabe immediately turned her attention on to Jaska. She pointed her hands at Jaska's stomach, they were glowing with a bright light, and cocked. Even though Jaska hadn't done anything, she knew what was about to com. "Everyone, get back, now!" She called for everyone else

"Sh*t!" Jake hisses through his teeth. Like Gabe, he was familiar with Jaska, and his alternate form. He turned around with a wide jump. He snapped his fingers, and crafted an illusion around Jaska. A small dome of solid titanium had surrounded Jaska, and made it assault the senses - It generated a strong smell, and loud sound to keep Jaska contained.

Unfortunately, that only slowed Jaska down for a second. A second. A pillar of fire erupted from the dome, the intense heat destroyed the illusion. A fire that burned at a higher heat and ferocity than regular fire. By the time the fire had faded it revealed Jaska, clothes completely burned off, and transformed. A better word would be transforming. The more he transforms, the stronger he gets. He was much larger, at least by another foot and a half. He was growing bulky muscles, that would look very impressive if he wasn't a rage monster - With his tail getting thicker. His body was growing a large amount of scales, that grew larger and thicker as time passed, his right arm was already covered in tiny scales. His claws were growing a threatening length, at this point; they were nearly a foot in length, the blade on his tail was getting larger too. His teeth was larger, and more threatening. He was seemingly growing a snout, as his nose and mouth were extending, similar to other beasts of prey. Some many notice that the air was waving around him - As he was giving off an unbearable heat, and soon enough, he exploded into a wreath of flames. This was no longer Jaska - The beast inside of him had taken over, and began to grow in power, and rage. There would be no reasoning with him, as there were no mind left in his head to reason with.

He was in between the exit, and the group, and likely wouldn't let anyone leave uninjured. 'Jaska' had taken a large step forward, a small wave of fire was created and traveled along the ground in all eight directions. He pointed both hands at the group. He let out a bestial roar as he unleashed a fire storm from his hands, that was guaranteed to burn the group badly. As this fire was hot, really hot. Jaska didn't let up for a second, and kept the fire going.

To save the group from incineration; Sage had created a solid wall of light between the group, and Jaska. The flames were stopped by the barrier, but the heat was seeping through it; the air was already starting to heat up, and they could feel it.

Forgive me, Jask. The thoughts ran through Gabe's mind as she fired off a massive, solid, laser through the barrier, breaking right through it like it was glass. The brittle nature of Sage's solid light couldn't withstand the beam, and ultimately destroyed it. It traveled at light-speed, so it more-or-less immediately made impact with Jaska's stomach. The force that she put into the laser knocked Jaska onto his back, and stopped the fire storm.

On the flip-side, combat only accelerates the transformation...

Jaska got up, his transformation was going much, much faster, with no signs of stopping. He had almost grown to the point where he was taller than most members of the group.


Drake Deltori Blackmore.


((I'll wait for Shade or someone else to post))

Arianna Madrigal

Arianna stayed fairly close to Jake as the whole thing got...more nightmarish. Arianna wasn't normally one to consider the darker shades of human morality, but this place just gave off some bad vibes. Major bad vibes, the kind that make a hundred thousand year dormant instincts wake from their slumber and tell you to get the f*ck out. She sidled closer to him, nothing romantic in the gesture, merely her wanting the physical presence of someone next to her for comfort. Sure, Jake didn't have Titus strength, but he'd proven he could handle himself, and having anyone warm and breathing and alive next to you in places like that is a relief. One of the other kids started seriously breaking down, which wasn't helping Arianna's mental state, but she didn't want to try and expend any more energy trying to calm her down. It'd be better if they just left, wouldn't it? When she was rested she could try and undo the hellish effects this place had on the soul.

"...yeah. Yeah, let's go back and never mention any of th-"

Then Jaska started howling and a sea of rats prompted Arianna to scream and stagger backwards, more than happy to comply with Gabe and Jake's instructions. Jaska started to...to transform, like a werewolf on the full moon, but somehow this was far more terrifying than that, because this was right here and they were going to die in this room, this place would be their graves

Arianna pressed her back against the wall, trying very desperately not to scream. Jesus Christ! Gabe lazed her own brother, which just convinced Arianna further of the danger (even the rats weren't bothering her now). Yeah, if Gabe, who didn't seem to care for anyone but her own flesh and blood, was threatened enough to start shooting lasers, then...then...

Suddenly, something made Arianna focus. Wait, wait, wait. Jaska was just...just a big dog. A giant beast. All feral rage and mindless fury...that was something Arianna had seen before. She remembered once a rabid dog got loose in their neighborhood, and Arianna and her friend had been off playing when it happened. The dog had come up to them, frothing and wide-eyed, and heard Arianna singing to her friend.

Arianna, trying to fight down the simultaneous urges to scream and throw up, walked nervously a step or two ahead, taking in deep breaths. She fought out the noise of the snarling beast, of Jaska hammering himself against Jake's illusions (no different than a concert, Arianna, no different at all), listening close to the cosmic Symphony. God, was it angry. Passionate and tragic and full of fury, with brothers turned against one another and fear and death sounding from every living thing in the room-which, itself, had the sort of ominous score you'd expect from the most masterful of horror movies.

Arianna steeled herself and began to sing. Maybe she could hamper Jaska a bit, make it easier for Gabe and Jake to subdue him without killing him. He was a cute kid-and she knew this had to be hard enough for them already. A far more selfish part of her feared what would happen if they came out from an illegal trip holding a dead body, but she quickly dismissed that. No one was going to die.

"Hush little baby don't say a word....momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird."

Arianna reached for the anger and feral intensity of the Symphony, closing her eyes as she did so, trying to visualize the notes more clearly. Arianna sang a lullaby, pouring as much of her energy as she could into it-she figured a lullaby would be the easiest to work with, as it had one purpose: calming. Soothing. Putting babies to sleep and making the thing that was Jaska calm down were very separate entirely, but Arianna forced herself to not think of that. Not to panic. The familiarity of what she was doing, finding a rhythm and synchronizing herself with it perfectly, helped to steady her.

"And if that mockingbird don't sing, momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring turns brass, momma's gonna buy you a looking glass." Arianna's voice, enthused with the metahuman parts of her vocal chords-or if you wanted to be more spiritual, powered by her own soul-managed to be audible even amidst the chaos of the room, her voice somehow reflecting as if the strange dungeon had perfect acoustics. Arianna's feet tapped a gentle beat into the floor, her hands clasped behind her back (to keep them from trembling). This was just like a recital, just like a concert, just like a performance.

"So hush little baby don't you cry...Jake and Gabe love you and so do I." Arianna felt a particular surge of exhaustion at the end of the song, having changed the words, altered the way it was supposed to go. She felt the personal touch might resonate with Jaska's humanity, remind him of who the hell he was flipping out on, but she wasn't sure if it would work. Arianna, however, didn't have much time to ponder all this, as her legs quickly folded beneath her. Arianna braced herself against the floor for a moment (oh sweet Christ those rats), gasping heavily from the exertion of all her Singing. Arianna took a deep breath, reminding herself that they could very well die if she didn't resume helping Gabe and Jake, and with considerable difficulty, picked up the song again, trying to slow down Jaska's tempo with hers, to override the energy and the passion with the lullaby.

Valery

Will come later, yes? I'm going to be off for the next two days, we can assume he thawed out and followed along with the others

Jaska, Gabriela, & Jake Valos, & Sage Pimm.


At this point, Jaska was starting to look a lot more threatening. He stood at seven feet tall at this point, with his growing wings extended outwards at full length. His body was covered with threatening bulging muscles. Skin-colored scales had already grown large and complex. Claws looking sharp enough to cut through steel. Eyes glowing with a gold colored fury as an aura of fire had surrounded Jaska. Gabe's previous attack was already healed and did absolutely nothing to him. At this point, Jaska was quite dangerous, and powerful enough to require a lot of punishment before going down. But he was still transforming, growing larger and more complex.

He took steps towards the group, an ear-piercing growl came out of his mouth. His footsteps were like heavy-footed stomps. The flames around Jaska were getting hotter, and more intense. He had the sole intention of killing these people, then everyone else that he comes across until there was no one left on this island.

Being the nice little hero he was, Jake quickly ran over to Arianna, and without words, had crafted a transparent illusory barrier of a blast metal wall around the two of them, that was quite a distance away - Even though Jaska's fire is hot enough to destroy them with ease. Gabe and Sage can handle themselves, Seth, Len, and the others, hopefully. Just in case, though, he had crafted illusory barriers in front of them too, putting them in between Jaska and them. Jake was silent, he needed to find a way to make Jaska change bacj.

At this point tears were running down Gabe's face. It was quite painful seeing Jaska transformed like this, it was even worse having to hurt him like this. But it was for his own sake, right? If he wasn't stopped here; he would grow powerful enough to wipe out this island. Everyone in this room probably thought he was a monster, and not the sweet little kid he really is. Gabe pointed her hands at Jaska and fired an insanely bright laser solid laser at him. The insanely bright blood red light blinded Jaska, momentarily. He took this laser much better than the last time. Instead of getting knocked down, he was merely pushed backwards a few feet, claws skidding against the blast metal floor.

Sage had to help bring down Jaska, as the light around them shaped and bent into a beautiful construct. The light took the appearance of an archery bow. They took the usual stance of an archer, hand on the center, and pulling back the string. As they pulled the string back, an arrow of light was crafted. Sage was only going to see if they could disable him, not kill him. Because deep down, they knew that Jaska wasn't in control of himself, and they needed to help subdue him. Sage let go of the string, and the arrow of light flew at Jaska, hitting him in the shoulder, the arrow was willed to hit harder, so the arrow pierced the thick scales that Jaska had. Then Sage repeated the process, unleashing a good five arrows that pierced Jaska's center of mass. The moment they were inside of Jaska, they faded away. Even though they had penetrated his body, they were promptly regenerated.

All this combat was just making him transform faster, and thus, making him stronger.

Shade wrote:

"Hush little baby don't say a word....momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird."

"And if that mockingbird don't sing, momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring turns brass, momma's gonna buy you a looking glass."

"So hush little baby don't you cry...Jake and Gabe love you and so do I."

The moment that the singing started, Jaska turned his attention to Arianna and Jake. He lunged at them, leaping through the air. A small burst of flames was sent towards them, that was enough to destroy the illusion, but not burn either of them. He picked up speed...

No! Leave her alone! The, well normal, Jaska screamed through the beast's head. Arianna's singing had given Jaska enough control to do one thing...

Suddenly, the monstrous Jaska stopped dead in his tracks, shaking uncontrollably, like he was trying to move forward, but an outside force was preventing him from moving forward. He dropped down, landing on a knee making a monstrous bang, and clawed hand on the ground. The growling had stopped, replaced with a deep, yet, imposing breathing, and the tense situation suddenly got much quieter, peaceful even. The transformation was still on-going, except at a decelerated rate. The inner rage inside of him. Without that merciless rage to drive him to destroy anything in his path, he was quite docile. However, that didn't stop him from reverting back to his human form, he was still a beast, just chained down, metaphorically.

But it was too much of a risk to leave him unchained. Sage was the one to chain Jaska up, so to speak. An bright wreath of light had surrounded Jaska. Then the light took shape, shifting into an intricate and large amount of shackles on every part of his body, chaining Jaska down, restricting his movement much as possible. With his movement this restricted, it would be hard for him, no matter how strong he gets, to bust out.

Restrained, and mended, the bestial mindset of Jaska was quickly being overwritten by the normal, human, part of him. When sufficiently restrained, he'll revert back to normal through shear willpower. His back had split open down the middle, revealing the normal Jaska's back. He fell out of his monstrous 'skin' completely naked and covered in blood. Like some sort of reverse metamorphosis of a butterfly, shedding new skin - Leaving the monstrous body that Jaska grew was in dead, more or less. The body had started to burn away into ash, slowly deteriorating into nothing.

Jaska was on the ground, unconscious, the wounds that have been dealt to him while transformed were on his body. There were six holes in his body from Sage's arrows, and several bruises from Gabe's lasers - They were half-healed, as Jaska was in the middle of regenerating those wounds while transformed, he wasn't bleeding - Well, if he was, then no one would notice since he's covered in blood.

"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t..." Jake ran over to Jaska, pulling off his own coat and putting it over his unconscious body to preserve his modesty. It didn't matter if his coat got dirty, he only cared if Jaska was alright.

"Jask! Are you okay?! Say something!?" Gabe says as she ran over to him, a few moments after Jake did. Her attitude was different, most people would get the impression that she was a temperamental, stone cold warrior, but now she was a legitimately worried older sister. She grabbed the coat that Jake put over Jaska, and started wiping the blood off of his face.

"I..." Sage was utterly speechless right now. That boy went from being a little kid, to a horrible rage monster, and they felt sympathy like no other. It didn't look like he transformed on purpose, nor did it look like his older brother and sister enjoyed fighting him. It looked like Jaska had zero control over his transformations. Their hair was started to shine with a bright white color, and their iris was flickering the same color. The light chains that had restrained Jaska had faded away, and allowed the body to fall to the ground with a thump, and continue it's rapid decay. Sage found themself changing glances from looking at the Valos siblings tending to their little bother, to looking at Jaska's second body. Fear, shock, and other emotions had really inhibited use of what social skills Sage had. They just blurted out, "... What was that?" Only to immediately regret it. "... Oh! Uh, sorry..."



Drake Deltori, & Adam Leo Blackmore.


The natural progression of events took place. Val was thawed out, Drake said goodbye to Vance, and team Headstrong walked away from the fight. Drake particularly walked over to the locker-room, and got out of that suit, swapped that out for his casual-wear. He was proud that he gave the fight his all, and put on a good show. But, from here on in, he was going to avoid the Creepy Three. While he was in the locker-room, he transformed into his Shape-shifting form. His entire skin turned into a liquid-y, metal-like color, before his body reverted. Once again, he was shape-shifted into himself. It'd be impossible to tell that he was shape-shifted without advanced means of detection. He walked out of the locker-room, only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

"You did good in here, you held your own against arena champions..." Adam says, walking up next to Drake and standing next to him. "... I just wouldn't recommend anymore big, flashy, impractical attacks. You left yourself too open." He gave his son a word of advice.

A cocky grin had crept up on Drake's face. He turned to Adam and said, "It was tough, but my little dream gave it to them."

"Yes. Abraham and Valery played their place. But I think your team needs more practice..."

"Heh, yeah, we just got finished practicing. I can't wait for the real fights.

"Ah... You shouldn't focus your training purely on combat. With an ability like ours, your potential is limitless..." Adam says to Drake as he walked off, turning his head back. "Also, I would stay in Megan's shape-shifting form for awhile. You'll heal faster." He gave Drake a smile and pointed at his eyes for a moment.

Hmph. Drake's potential is limitless, but in the world he lives in, training in non-combat area would be a waste of his time and efforts. Some people might revel in that, but Drake; he was a natural born warrior - That fights in the fields of glory. He didn't say a word to Adam, just quietly took his advice and kept walking. Drake had walked over to the main lobby of the Arena, where Abe and Val ((Assuming that Abe and Val are in the lobby)) were there to meet him. "Heh... That was a disappointing ending, but I'm a man that's all about the journey. Hah. So, what do you guys want to do next? I want to go get some training in. I want to be at my absolute best, ya' know?"

When Jaska began to freak out, both Bre and Len stepped back, seeing the danger in the situation. Bre already was reaching up for her sunglasses, ready to try to freeze Jaska if he began to charge. The flames were bad enough, though. But then...

Bre held in a scream when she saw something she believed was actually scarier than Jaska- a wave of rats began scurrying towards the stairway. She felt like Indiana Jones when she thought, "rats. Why'd it have to be rats?" She held in a scream when they scurried past, frozen in place, back turned from Jaska and staring at the opposite side of the room.

Len saw Bre's petrified state and pulled her to the side, next to Sage as... They created the barrier. If there was anyone in here he didn't want to get hurt at all, it was her. While his statement had good intentions behind it, it came out of his mouth sounding like an order you hear soldiers bark at others in those movies.

"Snap outta it, Bre," he firmly held onto her arm, trying to help her get back to her senses. "You can get hurt!"

Bre blinked quickly, as if she was only just then noticing the situation, again. "Rats," she mumbled, slowly sliding off her sunglasses and turning around to look at Jaska, ready to have him freeze and stop his rampage when... She heard singing. She glanced at Arianna and back at Jaska, stepping back from her and Jake as the monstrous form of Jaska began to charge at them... And then freeze.

As Sage create Shackles around Jaska, Bre released yet another of the many shaky breaths she had let out since entering this prison-like place. She felt sorry for Jaska- a feeling of pity was gripping her stomach. She knew he hadn't gone on that rampage on purpose- he seemed too nice earlier for such a thing. His power made him the way he was, and he must have a hard time controlling it. And yet, while Jaska was in such a state, she had done nothing to help. She let her own fears prevent her from helping. She could have probably helped in some way, right? Bre placed her sunglasses over her eyes again.

"I-I'm sorry- I'm so sorry I wasn't able to help. I just froze up and... Sorry."

As Jaska turned back to his normal form, Len examined him carefully. He had bruises and other wound on him from the fight. They seemed to be healing, however. Len also noted that the skin of his larger, rage-growing form had just... Peeled off, like some insects have happen to them. Len noticed Bre mumbling apologies for freezing up, and Len nodded at his friend. "It's fine," he said before turning to face Jake and Gabe, nodding at them, a small hint of an apologetic expression on his face.

"If you want, I could block Jaska's pain while his body heals itself- I can't do much else to help, though."

He felt a bit annoyed with the entire situation, but Len also felt sorry for Jaska, like Bre. Only it was mostly because he saw the wounds- even though they were healing- that were on Jaska. They had to cause some pain, right? Not to mention the fact that Jaska was young and shouldn't be experiencing such an experience of pain and have such a problem.

((Half frogged post. I only ha for minutes. Now I gtg to a meeting))

Jaska, Gabriela, & Jake Valos, & Sage Pimm.

Celo wrote:

"I-I'm sorry- I'm so sorry I wasn't able to help. I just froze up and... Sorry."

Jake didn't really blame anyone who didn't help. Really. This was an occurrence that only Gabe and Jake were used to such an occurrence, and knew how to deal with it. To everyone else; it was something that was new and scary. "... It's... Fine... You couldn't have done much to help." Which made him think that he couldn't have done much to help either. Jaska was superheated, hot enough to cleave through his illusions like they were nothing, and his fire would do the same.

Celo wrote:

"If you want, I could block Jaska's pain while his body heals itself- I can't do much else to help, though."

"You can if ya' want to get burned." Gabe said to Len, a bit of irritation in her voice. She was pretty much the only person in here who could touch Jaska. While transformed, Jaska gave off a red-hot heat, and while he's cooling off, he's still burning hot. Regardless, she didn't care whether or not Len would be burnt, it would help Jaska, and that's the only thing that was going through her head. She kept wiping the blood off of him with Jake's coat.

True Night wrote:

"This venture is officially over, were going back to the academy."

It was quietly agreed that the time was now to leave. The trip here was less than ideal now that they've gave the place a good hard look, and were two seconds away from getting mauled to death by a ten-year-old rage monster.  

Right then, Jaska came to, he woke up. His eyes slowly opened, and remained half-open, like he was too tired right now. He tried to push himself back up to his feet, only to find out that he doesn't have the strength. He's physically and emotionally exhausted, and a droopy, sad expression on his face. He was in pain right now from his wounds and the changes to his body, since his body was much more sensitive to pain. Tears were coming out of his eyes, his tears were steaming because of all the heat he gave off, and they were quite painful to the touch. All he did was mutter "I'm sorry..." Over and over again of slightly different volumes and tones, but still rather quiet.

"C'mon Jask...." Gabe immediately helped Jaska up to his feet, and carried him along the best she should. He was on the very verge of falling over, if it wasn't for Gabe keeping him up. She started walking him towards the exit, while saying, "Yeah... Let's go back." This was one hell of a predicament. The group has to explain why they have a naked ten year old covered in blood. Sage was following quickly behind Gabe, just in case Jaska transformed again, as they didn't know how the transformation was triggered.

Gabe didn't need any help with helping Jaska, so Jake decided to help Arianna. "Let me help you..." She looked exhausted, and he knew that she wouldn't be able to leave here without a helping hand. Jake put her arm over his shoulders. He started walking up towards the stairs. Regardless of whether or not Jake had a crush on her, he wasn't going to leave her in here to help herself.

The monstrous skin that Jaska shed had already burnt off it's skin, leaving muscles and bones exposed, and a pile of ash had formed at the bottom of it. The 'corpse' was sizzling loudly as it burnt itself away. In an hour or so, there would be nothing left of it, except for ash...

The group headed back towards. The sun was setting on the Academy, and it was going to be dark soon. That meant there was no time to waste out here. Strangely, Jaska's presence warded off any animals nearby. They instinctively knew to kept their distance and stay far away from him as possible. After twenty or so minutes, they made it back to the school gates. Fortunately, there was no one out looking for them yet.

The two Valos siblings had stood side-by-side next to Jaska. Jake said to the group, his tone blank and serious, "Look, we'd like it if you don't tell anyone about what happened... We're going to get him washed off, and into bed. He needs to rest." The two Valos siblings headed to the dorms, specifically Jaska's room. While they walked, Jake put an illusion around the three that made them invisible, and hoped that no one would detect them.

"Umm..." That just left Sage there. Awkward, shy and alone. "Well... Bye..." Sage turned invisible and quickly made their departure. There was little left for them to do other than leave.


Ray Judah Drager, & Dexter 'Rush' Chertok.


It was a hard task.

Ray found it almost too enticing to just drop Jasmine out of the sky while he was flying. But he has some form of morality preventing him from just killing anyone for stupid reasons (Though, he had a great reason to just rid the world of a sociopath). Either way, the thoughts were suppressed long enough for Jasmine to get to the hospital. The EMTs took it from there. Ray wasn't the type who would stick around in the attention like this. He vanished just as quickly as he arrived. He was hoping that the police won't be on his ass asking questions. He literally had no where to go other than back to his dorms. The room that he shared with Vance, they haven't had a chance to talk to each other. He threw open the door and slammed the door behind him since he was rushing not to get seen - Even though he was well aware that if they were looking for him, his room would be the first place they'd check. He leaned up against the wall, and slumped down until he was on his behind, curled up. "God dammit..." Ray muttered. Right now he was scared, worried, and everything else, because of Jasmine, they might be spending the rest of their lives in a cell. Mina and Kate had obviously seen that Jasmine was associated with Ray and Rush, and Mina had heard of their evil schemes, and he knew that a girl like that would blab away about it.

His reverie was promptly shattered when he heard a familiar voice, "Greetings." Obviously it was Dexter Chertok, Rush, the Boy Genius, Nerd... All the nicknames that Ray had for his friend. Rush was sitting on Vance's bed with his legs crossed and playing on his a laptop.

"Boy genius!?" Ray says to Rush, surprised that Rush was in his room, "How'd you... Never-mind. Where the hell have you been?" He stood straight up. "And get off his bed. You're filthy." He leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Yes. It is I. Have fulfilled the plan. Yes." Rush says, as he got up, with his laptop underneath his shoulder.

"The plan? What-" Ray asks, before he remembered why they were in the cafe to begin with, "... How'd you pull it off?"

"Distraction. Simple. Everyone was concerned. With cafe. Managed to sneak in undetected. With a few well timed distractions. Yes."

"Hmph. That was my fault for thinking you gave up that easily...."

"Yes. It was."

"... Can you tell me what the hell you found?"

Rush immediately looked at the door, and he propped a chair in front of it to barricade it. Should Vance or someone else decide they want to come home. "Yes... My findings. Very interesting," He started off, "The student logs. They report that several students. Have left island. However. Deeper probing into logs. Suggest that they never left. There is separate log. For students who got on boat. They've only been updated. Recently. Months... Years... After the fact" He gave Ray the coldest, dead glare he could, "What is most interesting... Students gone. Have no where to go. Renounced by family. Killed them. Or simply never had them. Found somewhere to go? Unlikely. School best place. Yes. For them."

"... What you're saying is that they never left the island?"

"Theorized. Yes."

"Guess what, Boy Genius..." Ray got up off the wall and as he did, he spoke, "We don't have room for theories. We need something conclusive."

"Have been working on that. Yes. Reported findings to The Man in The Mirror. Before breaking in."

"We're going to need something real to go off of. Because I can guess that they-"

"But... Other students. Immediately logged as departed."

A silent filled the room, as Ray looked at Rush. He was probably foolish for trying to dismiss his reports so easily. "Alright then... We'll have to look into it. But..." Ray looked back at the door, "... Jasmine has probably blown our cover, plus we have a chick that knows about what we do. It wouldn't be the best idea to keep going. At least while we're in the spotlight."

"Yes. Will lay low."

"Good... Because from here on in, we're just going to be two guys that attend this glorious school. Clear?"

"Yes."

"Now let's go."

Both Ray and Rush separated.

Arianna Madrigal

Arianna's voice finished the last notes, crystal clear and in perfect pitch, and her body seemed to give way as her voice gave out.

Arianna flumped to the ground, feeling something she'd never quite experienced before. Arianna...Arianna had never tampered with reality very much. She'd sung her heart out, played her Stradivarius until her fingers couldn't anymore, and she'd never felt....this. Arianna's vision seemed to be in flux, her vision greying in some places and bursting, as if lens flares were appearing in her vision, and Arianna realized something very troubling. This mental disorientation-and while Arianna had never tasted alcohol, she felt that being drunk was very similar to this-wasn't simply exhaustion, or simply being confused. It was Arianna stepping out of beat with the Symphony, having spent too much energy altering the Song of another and not making sure her own progressed right. Her brown hair fell into an unorganized mess around her shoulders and over her face as she stared at her hands, trying to make her vision stabilize. Something black and skintight began rolling down over her hands and quills like silver porcupines erupted forth from her arms and-Arianna squeezed her eyes shut tight, unable to listen to the Symphony. She knew it was there, but it was behind a veil, hidden from her. The good news was that Arianna was too tired to be afraid of what Jaska was going to do to her, or that all of them (Jake) would die, because the fatigue was overriding everything else.

With what felt like all the force her body could muster, Arianna rolled back against the wall, feeling comforted by something to lean on. She could-and out past ten or fifteen feet, her vision got real trippy-see Jake and Gabe and Seth and Bre and Len and Jaska lying, but her senses must've been lying to her, because she could hear bells ringing somewhere and there was a second set of skin lying on the ground.

Somebody-she couldn't tell who, because their voices kept blurring together and separating again, but somebody said that the trip was over, they were heading back to the Academy. "No sh*t," Arianna mumbled, even spitting out a few words feeling very difficult. An attempt at a more coherent sentence devolved into a whimper, and Arianna slid down onto her back. That was good. That felt really nice. Even the fact a hundred thousand rats had been where her face was a minute ago didn't bother her. It was nice and quiet and still there.

Eh? Somebody was bothering her. "Go away" was what Arianna was trying for, the idea of sleep suddenly overwhelmingly appealing, but it came out as a more muffled, unintelligible whimper. Arianna opened her eyes a bit and saw it was Jake. Oh. Um. Maybe sleep could wait just a minute or two. Arianna put her arms around his shoulders and didn't do much walking of her own, but tried to move her feet as best they could. "Next time," she finally managed to say, "let's just...stay in the lounge..." Arianna let her head-and most of her upper body-lean against Jake as she tried to keep walking and not be totally useless, but she was exhausted on several different levels. She'd need a nice, long rest. The strange visions were diminishing now, but she still occasionally saw...strange things, sounds, glimpses of the Symphony's sheet music from the future or the past, or maybe somewhere distant in the present. It was all very confusing to the very befuddled Arianna, who was really in no mood to try and discern the more complex nuances of her gift. She was in the mood to sleep for like, three straight days.

Valery Arsov, b*tch!

Val sat in the main lobby of the Arena, shivering. His breath frosted up in the air before him, falling to the ground as tiny ice crystals, and his salt-and-pepper hair seemed a bit greyer and whiter than normal-snow, like arctic dandruff, was falling from it periodically.

"Do not give me journey and destination bull crap. I am going to journey my foot into-" Val paused as a full-body shiver racked his large frame-"the ass of whoever set that timer. But thanks for helping me thaw out. Normally takes a while. It is shame that match ended prematurely-something I'm sure you two have experience dealing with-because we would have won. I do not know about you two, but I was just getting started good. Not to mention Abe was doing his..." Val paused, perhaps not knowing the word for Golem, and instead settling for raising his arms up, mimicking the Golem, and "rock-man thing. And you! With dragons! We have very good team, I think." Val shivered again. "Bah. I need something that will...warm me up." Val's subtle pause was a rare moment of planning ahead, as he figured the Arena's lobby was monitored. Oh, I'm Russian. They would be surprised if I didn't drink and smuggle alcohol in. "You two can practice if you want, but I will be finding some hot chocolate or something first. With marshmellows. Lots of marshmellows. The way they are soft and easily melted reminds me of spider lady and friends."

Abraham Gene

With Valery finally thawed out of the ice block, there was little left to do in the arena or say to Vance, the rock had crumbled off of Abe's body returning him to his normal size – underwhelming in comparison to the form he was just previously in. The trio had made their way back to the locker room and change out of their suits and back into their regular clothing. There honestly wasn't much to say, which was fine by him and he was at least given an excuse when Drake's father approached him. No words were needed to figure that they ought to be alone for a moment, thusly evacuating the room with Valery into the lobby where they would wait for him.

It was there that he realized how big of a crowd the fight had drawn. Had they really been at it for so long? For the timer to go off and to draw this kind of crowd? Whatever, he should at least revel in his victory! To let himself kick it back and relax... to calm his nerves as the transition between mindsets progressed. Still did he feel that heart-wrenching rage, but in just splinters, and hear the drums of the blood euphoniously pulsing past his ears, though just faintly. His nerves weren't calm – no – rather, they were just barely racing from the left over adrenaline. He was on the verge of ending the fight with a rage-fueled discharge of spikes from his body, much like a porcupine were porcupines ever able to eject their quills as projectiles (though sadly and fortunately, this is not the case).

Instead, Abraham made the attempt of inducing such a transition by forcing the appearance of such. He strutted out of the room in his normal attire with confidence and he had his cheeky smile aimed at the crowd. Though there was no gleam in his eye, people are oft so oblivious to such details and his charm wasn't to be any less enchanting to them!

Conversations with spectators and his shivering Russian comrade to be excluded, the wait for Drake wasn't as long as he expected. Whether it be that neither of them were much for words or that Drake had simply blown him off, that was unknown, and ultimately unimportant to Abe. It was no concern. What was a concern, however, was where he'd go next. Conveniently, it was a concern that Drake had addressed. Yes, the training room sounded good. There he could exercise and get him quicker on his feet. Speaking of which, he probably shouldn't be transforming until he's near his target. That's a tactic he should remember to maintain. But there was also Arianna... and lover boy. Jake? Yeah, Jake. Jake wasn't important here, but he did promise Ari he'd be somewhere around the cafe' when the two of them were done and they'd meet up. Cover what they've done. There must've not been any trouble since he hadn't gotten any calls from her, so it was probably fun for her.

“I'd love to.” Abe said to Drake. “But I did set up a schedule to be meetin' up with a friend at the cafe', you see. I'll have'ta catch y'both later.”

He was just starting to walk off when he looked back at Valery with a clever smirk. “Speaking of which, as it so happens, that cafe' might have what you're lookin' for.”

---

Jesse Sutor


Rummaging through his things obviously wasn't the most fun of tasks that he has ever had to perform, but it was at least for the sake of improving someone's night, especially if that someone is a friend. Was she a friend? Yeah, she was definitely a friend, his main concern was if she considered him a friend. But no, no, he shouldn't be thinking about that sort of jargon right now. So what did he have to bring? His laptop was practically obligatory if Netflix is to happen, there was the Combos and fruity tea (specifically Arizona's Mucho Mango ice tea), and of course, sourdough pretzels. Extra dark and seasoned with sea salt. Man, that was the snack food of champions right there! Packing the stuff into a backpack and his laptop into a side back that was slung around his shoulder, all that was left to do was to find Lily's room again! Fortunately he had that neat trick he learned, right? Ha!

The command was issued once more – the same command. Or at least a similar command, much like the one he used to find Lily in the first place. The familiarity of course prompted the apparitions around him to carry this command out faster than before, guiding him back to Lily's dorm. This of course prompted a smile from Jesse. It was exciting! It was honestly exciting to have control over his life and his power like this. Not just that, he was no longer afraid all the time! And now he could even improve his life further by learning how to utilize this ability. Perhaps coming to the school wasn't so bad.

It didn't take so long to make it back, between his memory of how to get there and the lead provided by his escorts. Same room number and all. He turned the doorknob, finding it unlocked to his surprise. It was within the room he found Lily and Merry again as they seemed to get ready for tonight. As he stuck his head through the door, he smiled and piped up, “I'm back,” before stepping inside. He dropped his bags next to a dresser and close the door behind him. “So... what do we feel like watching?”

Gabriela Mya, Jake Vin, & Jaska Din Valos.


It wasn't long before the three Valos made it to Jaska's room. They all had reason to haul ass and get him back to his room. The moment they got there Gabe was furiously banging on Jaska's door, before being handed a key from Jake. She rammed the key into the keyhole, turned it, and shoved her way into the room, and slammed the door behind them. Jake and Gabe were hoping that the room would be vacant, but unfortunately Jaska's room-mate was in, playing on the xbox. He was a little red haired boy that was a year older than Jaska, he had pale skin and long, wavy, red hair that made him look effeminate and the round glasses, and high-cheekbones didn't help.

The first thing the boy did was take one good hard look at the bloodied Jaska, and cried "What happened?!" A little too loudly for everyone's liking. He got up to go get some help.

A laser beam came out of no where - if Gabe's only eye qualifies - and struck the lamp next to the boy's bed. Gabe had gave the younger boy the mother of all death glares, because it didn't matter to her whether or not he was old enough or not, do not piss her off. "Look you little brat, you will keep your ass firmly planted on that bed, and shut up! Got it?!" She snarled at him, pointing a finger glowing with laser light at him.

The message was so clear that the boy had sat back down on the bed and stayed there like his little life depended on it (Which it sort of did).

The moment that situation was through, the pair quickly carted Jaska over to the shower and put him in it. He's already naked, so they didn't need to undress him, other than Jake's bloody overcoat. He barely had enough strength to stand up on his own, and would have fallen on his face. Which is why Gabe was in the shower with him, holding him up by his shoulders. The awkwardness of the moment was ignored because of how stressful the scene was. Their brother had just transformed and if he wasn't stopped his rampage wouldn't end with them. Gabe turned the shower on and let the cold water bombard both herself and her little brother. Jaska was still red-hot from transforming, so the moment the water hit him, it was heated into steam almost instantly. But over time, his body cooled down much faster. The wounds on Jaska were all but healed, they were a little visible, but were likely going to be healed within the hour, with no traces they were ever there. While Gabe was holding Jaska, Jake had grabbed onto a wash cloth and rubbed soap into it, and started wiping Jaska clean. Damn this is a lot. Fortunately the running water on him had washed away a great deal of blood.

A good ten minutes later, and much scrubbing, Jaska was pristine, no blood or wounds were on his little body, but he was still tired and naked. Jake turned around and went through Jaska's drawers for a pair of underwear, that's the best they could do. He ran back in, and Gabe lifted Jaska up a few inches, enough for Jake to fit his underwear around his legs, and pulled it up to cover his privates. At this point, they were done. Gabe had carried Jaska over to his bed and rested him down on it. The two quickly left the room so Jaska could rest, not before Gabe could share some words with his room-mate about keeping quiet.

"That..." Gabe says

"... Was a disaster?"

There was an awkward silence. Only for Jake to realize that he's supposed to meet Abe and Arianna at the cafe after their respective adventures. He hated to leave like this, but there was nothing else he could do. "Sh*t, I gotta go!" He quickly ran off, putting on his coat because it's cold - And he forgot it's covered in ten year old blood, and looks conspicuous as f*ck. He darted towards the cafe, to see that it was surrounded by security. Clearly an incident took place here and he looked around for any signs of Abe or Arianna. Jake's gaze went downwards towards his outfit and... "F*ck!" He loudly shouted, drawing attention to himself.

There the twins went their separate ways yet again.



Drake Deltori Blackmore.

Shade wrote:

"Bah. I need something that will...warm me up." Val's subtle pause was a rare moment of planning ahead, as he figured the Arena's lobby was monitored. Oh, I'm Russian. They would be surprised if I didn't drink and smuggle alcohol in. "You two can practice if you want, but I will be finding some hot chocolate or something first. With marshmellows. Lots of marshmellows. The way they are soft and easily melted reminds me of spider lady and friends."

Lieo wrote:

“I'd love to.” Abe said to Drake. “But I did set up a schedule to be meetin' up with a friend at the cafe', you see. I'll have'ta catch y'both later.”

He was just starting to walk off when he looked back at Valery with a clever smirk. “Speaking of which, as it so happens, that cafe' might have what you're lookin' for.”

"Heh, I could set you on fire. That'd shoot up your body heat just like that!" Drake playfully said to Val, a cheeky grin on his face. It was the best he could do right now. But since they didn't want to attend a glorious training session with him, he figured that he'd do it alone. He's still full of energy and firepower, that's ready to explode everywhere. He'd probably find someone to train with. Drake turned away from the group, his grin still present. He spoke to his team;

"Looks like our magnificent trio splits for today - Until next time, buds."

He said before he started walking out the arena lobby, which he half expected them to follow. "Need anything? Give me a call." He said as he left the room with a goofy salute. He stood at the bottom of the steps, he took a moment of silence and looked up at the frigid sky. The snow was picking up at this exact moment, and he decided to feel the cold against him. He closed his eyes, and his mouth was slightly ajar. A voice, no his voice, rung through his head:

... Regardless of how strong I look, or who I impress, would it just be pointless in the end? Is all of this pointless, actually?


The fears of life being pointless and nihilism was constantly creeping up on him. Now especially, since that big fight was all pointless - Now that he thought about it - ending in a pathetic draw with no winners or losers. The perfect example of a wasted endeavor. No matter what battles he got into, and the victors be they may; inside of Drake there was fight that never ends. The snow never felt no welcoming, because he could think back to when things weren't complicated. The life of a snow-flake is simple, just fall and fade. But a snow flake appears and fades in an instant. Drake will exist where a snowflake will melt, and that's for certain. With a somewhat uplifted attitude, his eyes darted open again, shrugging away the thoughts of hopelessness and depression. He exploded into a cloud of plasma, another beautiful, yet powerful display of his ability. He flew out of the cloud of plasma and started flying in the direction of the training hall, leaving behind another glorious trail of plasma.

... He was in the mood for something scenic.





7:21 Pm


Eight days after the first day of school, a lot has passed. Many classes were passed and failed, and many victories were won in the arena. Seemingly, the various students were going along well with their lives. The 10th day at the Academy had passed, without any incidents so far. The cold, winter, night had already fallen on the Academy. A light snow had littered the school grounds one last time before morning came and it was shoveled yet again.


Drake Deltori, & Adam Leo Blackmore.

Spoiler:

Another swift victory for team Headstrong! Delivering yet another crushing defeat to the opponents!

Drake narrated in his head, reminiscing about the various arena battles he fought after school, the last few days he was here. He fought at least eight arena fights, solo, and won most of them - But what really took the cake was the arena fights he did with Val, and Abe - Or as he named them: Team Headstrong. As a team; they absolutely wrecked any teams that came their way. With a few teams that gave them trouble.

Then he realized that he was standing in the middle of the training room, in his fist fighting pose, facing a combat dummy. Drake looked down at himself, and saw that he was wearing his usual black leather jacket with a skull on it, white t-shirt, and black jeans on. He knew that he was in his Shape-shifting form. Thanks to all the time he had to himself in between fights; Drake had gotten quite a grasp on his new form. He realized that he could shape shift into anyone, and mimic the properties of anything he touches - Along with the regeneration he had demonstrated on his fist day when he healed from Vespera's poison. A perfect power, for the world's most perfect man. He decided to demonstrate it, while he was here all alone. Drake's hand elongated, and took the appearance of a long knife. Blade he had created then took a metallic appearance. He quickly jabbed the blade at the training dummy that was right in front of him. The blade didn't pierce it, but it didn't break like last time. A cheeky grin formed on his face.

The doors to Drake's particular training room opened, and Drake stopped to give the door a curious look. It was none other than Adam Blackmore. "Ah, I knew I'd find you here." Adam says, as he approached Drake. He was wearing a different attire. A black dress shirt, with a suit jacket put over it, unbuttoned. He wore matching black suit pants. He had on his shiny glasses. "I'm glad to see that you are practicing your powers."

"Yeah, you should know that I need to become the strongest I can be." Drake responds, facing the training dummy. He demonstrated a series of different quick punches and kicks on the training dummy. His shape-shifting form had marginally increased his speed and strength. Every impact left behind a mark for a moment.

"But why?" Adam questions, "I know you enough to tell there's a reason why you need to be. What is the real reason, Drake?"

That question made Drake freeze, as in he stopped completely in his tracks - Mid-punch. He did have a reason why he needs to be strong, and it certainly wasn't to feed his ego. "Well..." Drake says, dropping his stance, and crossing his arms. "... I know that some day I'll find someone worth protecting with all my strength. That, or I'll find someone that's stronger than me that needs to be stopped. That's why I need all the power I can get, better now than later."

"A very noble ideal..." Adam says, "I'm glad to see that there is more to you than you show. Now..." Adam  says, pushing his glasses up his nose. Rushing winds had surrounded Adam and he floated a few feet up into the air. He then floated away from Drake. "... Are you up for a demonstration of your combat skills? Against mine? For someone of your caliber; it won't be easy."

"Yeah, yeah I am!" Drake determinedly says. Ready to preform some badass training.

Immediately, Adam started bombarding Drake with powerful gust after gust of raging winds. His son had little chance to block or react. "Now, you are caught off guard, and have no time to transform to another form. What do you do?" Adam told Drake the scenario he had set up. Knowing that Drake was in his Shape-shifting form by just looking at him.

The winds had hit Drake like a hard-as-hell punch, he threw his arms up in a way to block it. Adam was right he was caught off guard and didn't have time to transform back into his human form, then his plasma form. But Drake was resourceful as they came. He was in a room full of training dummies and targets - Right now, they were cover. He took the air barrage for a few more moments before he quickly dove behind a training dummy, out of Adam's sight. Then Drake came up with an even better idea. Regardless of whether or not it worked, Drake quickly shape-shifted, taking the form of one of the combat dummies - More or less a perfect replica. As long as didn't touch him, it'd be fool-proof.

By the time that Adam had came around, Drake was no where in sight. Likely hiding. An effective strategy, as Adam can't hit what he can't see. But if Drake tries to switch to his plasma form, he'd surely give himself away.

Perfect, perfect, perfect. Drake thought to himself as Adam just walked right by him. Which left him open for a sneak attack. Disguised as a training dummy, Drake inched closer and closer to Adam. Until he was close enough, and shifted out of his disguised and lunged at Adam, arms open, for a tackle. "Oooooh yeah!" Drake let out his battle cry, as he preformed the tackle.

Unfortunately for Drake; this was exactly what alerted Adam. Who instinctively sent out a massive gust of air at Drake. The air gust was insanely powerful, and had enough force to launch Drake right off his feet, flying high through the air, screaming like the little kitten he is. Right when Drake was about to hit the concrete ground of the training room, Adam quickly reacted and sent a gust of air his direction upwards to soften his fall.

"Next time," Adam says, "Save the battle cries for later."


Ray Judah Drager, & Dexter 'Rush' Chertok.

Spoiler:

"... Look, buds, we aren't a charity here." Ray says, his voice irritated and his hands in his pockets. It was blatant that he was quite pissed. The scene took place in the tunnels underneath the campus. The very tunnels that the students weren't allowed in. However, the tunnels were often used for illicit trades and deals all the time. This night wasn't any different from those deals. Ray and Rush were standing side by side, and about ten feet away from them was a small gang of four people, both sides were illuminated by the dim lights above them. A bag full of gadgets that could easily be used to hack systems, break into rooms, and various weapons, all made by Rush, was set between both crowds "We agreed that if we give you our tech; you would tell us something about Dacious." Ray snarls, explaining what was going on concisely. Ray had on a black long-coat, with a black sweater underneath it, and a scarf around his neck. He had on blue jeans, and black combat boots, with his usual gloves on his hands.

This was a familiar scene to Rush. Especially since they've done these kinds of deals all the time when they weren't in this school. Deals that involved trading Rush's electronics for money. "Yes. Tell us. Small island. Will find you. Unavoidable conflict. Best end here." Rush says, his tone mechanical, and his vision set on the gang. Rush was wearing a white t-shirt, and red track pants, with black sneakers on. Over all of that, he had his usual coat that contained all his inventions.    

"It's a four on two, pal, we'll take our chances." The gangleader said. Who was a taller Asian man that had to be in his early twenties, goes by the name of Fang. A usual troublemaker around school, and his name came up often when people wanted information. Fang's power was Psychometry, the power to get residual information from objects and people, even from a distance. His eyes were on the bag of gadgets. "Your powers are Telekinesis, and Technopathy. I can find a way to beat both of you."

Upon getting his power revealed to him, Ray only shrugged. He wanted his power to stay a secret, keep it ambiguous - But now that Fang just parroted it out, he knew that he had no reason to hold back. "Heh. You know our tricks. But we sure as hell know how to use them. Don't underestimate us, pal. Or you'll be in for a world of hurt."

Immediately, Fang dove for the bag and tried to run off with it - With his gang in tow. Eh, unexpected, but I can work with it. Ray thought to himself as he rolled his eyes up into his head. He had expected them to rush forward and try to fight the pair, but this was a easier action to work with. Suddenly, a massive force started pulling Fang straight at Ray, he tried to resist it, but the force couldn't be resisted. Fang was pulled straight at Ray, at high speeds. Ray just grabbed Fang by the neck, and a dark-blue aura had surrounded Fang, and all of his movements were restricted. "Be a nice little camper and just tell us what we want." Ray says to Fang, the aura around Fang "tightened", putting a bit more force on him.

At this point, Fang's gang had turned around to return for their leader. His gang consisted of a blonde girl that had a punkish attire, another was an overweight boy that dressed too heavily, and the last one consisted of a guy with curly red hair with a gas mask on. The boy that dressed too heavily immediately dropped all of his clothes off his body, as he transformed, that is. His body elongated, as his limbs shifted and grew, until they appeared like the exoskeleton-layered limbs on an insect, his hands were long claws, his legs were double jointed like a grasshopper, and he had the head of a locust-bug. His insectoid body charged straight at the pair with surprising speed.

"F*ck..." Ray mutters to himself as he threw Fang straight at the insect-man, and swung a haymaker at the air. A large glowing copy of Ray's fist came out of thin air and hit the insect man directly at his side, knocking him down to the ground. Only for him to flip back over.

Rush had pulled out two gadgets out of the pockets of his coat, his dart-gun, and a collapsible baton with a button on the side and wires going through it. One push of a button, the baton started buzzing loudly and crackling with electricity.

The other two members of Fang's gang started using their powers against Ray and Rush. The girl created two black orbs that looked heavily like the mixture of a black hole and a star. The orb sucked up everything that was close enough, and grew more and more in mass. They floated towards Ray and Rush, growing bigger and bigger. The boy with the gas-mask took it off, and revealed his heavily scarred and disfigured face - Heavily damaged by acids - the moment he took his mask off, a jet of a green, evil-looking, gas came out of his mouth and nose.

Meanwhile, the Insect man got back up on his feet, and had jumped straight at Rush with his foot outstretched, only to get punched by another large telekinetic fist. This time, the insect man got smashed between the wall, and Ray's fist. Which would have killed anyone else, but not this guy. The fist faded away, and Ray's opponent had a clear window of opportunity. He lunged directly at Ray with with a leg outstretched, and managed to nail Ray in the rib-cage, a quiet cracking sound could be heard. Then he started wildly swinging his arms at top speeds. He managed to get in a few blows with Ray - Who could only raise his arm, and create a projection of that arm, in defense. Only for the projection to get destroyed with one massive, bone crushing kick, the projection was kicked in half and shattered, and Ray's arm immediately went limp. He let out a massive cry of pain, since he just felt the pain of getting his arm kicked in half.

Rush turned to Fang's crew-members and pointed his dart gun at the two in back. That attack failed when the darts were merely fed to the orbs, sucked inside. "Need tactic. Yes. Take advantage of orb." Rush muttered to himself.

The insect man and Ray were brawling on their part of the hallway, the insect man was faster than Ray had thought. With two sweeping slashes, the insectoid had sliced through Ray's longcoat, and made two slashes in his arms, meeting at his chest, he bled heavily from the wounds. He grunted, and groaned in pain. Rush turned his attention to Ray, and emptied his clip of taser darts at the insect man. Even with an exoskeleton, the electricity coursed through his body and he was forced to relent as he screeched in pain. Ray took no time in kicking his aggressor off of him, with a copy of his leg. The leg had launched him through the air. The orbs were feet away from Ray and Rush, and they could feel the sucking effects now.  The orb had sucked up the boy, grew larger, and stopped sucking up objects - Trapping him in the orb, indefinitely. Taking two threats out of the picture.

Ray then turned his attention to the girl that made the orbs. He pulled her towards him with a powerful telekinetic force. The irony was that she was sucked into her own orb, and she was trapped in it. Leaving only one opponent left: the no-name with a gas-mask. "Choose carefully." Ray says, as he slowly floated towards the last opponent in this fight. The boy with the gas-mask took it off, and started breathing a cloud of acid directly at Ray. Who thankfully, side-stepped it with a gliding movement.

Both Rush and Ray had forgotten all about the man of the hour: Fang. He had snuck up behind Rush, and punched him in the back of the head, full force, almost making Rush fall over. He tried to turn around and face Fang, but he only got another rock-hard punch to the face. Then a foot to the shin, making Rush tumble over. While on the ground, Rush was kicked over and over again, in the face, stomach, and mid-section.

"Rush!" Ray turned his attention away from his opponent to Rush being beaten. Which turned out to be a mistake, as a powerful spray of gaseous acid was sprayed at him, and it hit his other arm. The acidic gas had surrounded his upper arm, it was pain like nothing else. He screamed loudly in agony, as the acid dissolved his skin. During the pain; Ray responded by swinging his foot in a wide arc, and creating a telekinetic copy of that limb, which shadowed his exact moment. Knocking Mr. Acid directly into the wall. Then he turned to help Rush, by pushing Fang away with an immense force.

By getting this sociopath pushed off of him, Rush had an opening. He grabbed on to his shock baton and jabbed it at Fang hard as he could. The baton transferred a large out of electricity, causing Fang to have a comical seizure on the ground, and nearly fell unconscious.

With that attack, the fight was over, and Fang's group was defeated.

When Fang's eyes opened, he saw that Ray and Rush were standing over him. Rush had a shock baton pointed directly at his face, and Ray was pointing Rush's dart gun at his face. Both of them were dirty and bloody, but still standing victorious over everyone else here. Ray had regained control of his other arm, and could use it normally. Still, his other arm was heavily burned, and ever nerve was alight with a stinging pain. "Bud, I swear to god; I'll tear your f*cking head off if you don't spill everything. Because my patience is just about at zero right now, and I don't mind leaving you in here to rot."

"Look kids, I don't know anything! I just wanted his gear, that's all!" Fang pleads, defiant to the end.

Ray put his foot on Fang's chest, and a thick, dark-blue, aura had surrounded him. Fang's body was squeezed by an outside force, and one by one, Ray snapped bone after bone in half. Starting at Fang's toes, moving up to his legs and other body parts. "You better start knowing, because I'll make sure that not even the best healers can fix what I'm about to do you..."

Fang screamed, as his bones were crunched and distorted. His voice echoed through the halls of the tunnels. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you everything."

"Wise choice. Ray. Would have broken spine. Life as paraplegic. No good." Rush says, his clothes stained with blood.

"Alright, alright, Dacious is into some weird sh*t. Like, he's been having students kidnapped, and teachers have been disappearing - He said that they left, but they really haven't been gone at all. It's his power... He can mess with your minds, change your memories, emotions, or even your f*cking personality. He can make you eternally his servant... I wouldn't shake his hand. That's not getting into what he's doing underground. He's moving loads of construction equipment down there...."

Ray and Rush exchanged glances, before Ray says, "And you know this, how?"

"... Psychometry, it's my power. It lets me get information from the world, by touching it, and Dacious has been leaving behind lots of it."

So now they've gotten more information about Dacious and his many evil schemes. Students have been disappearing from the island, with the world being told that they left, and no one knows where they are. The dynamic duo are going to find out where they went. "Here take this," Ray threw a small spherical device at Fang, and Fang caught it, "It's payment. A parting gift."

The pair grabbed the bag of the devices they were originally going to trade. "D*ck." Ray hisses between his teeth. Unfortunately for Fang, the device that Ray had given him was effectively a flash-bang. A few moments later, the device went off right in Fang's face, exploding in a flash of light behind Ray and Rush.

They left the tunnels through a man-hole outside of school grounds. They had gotten over the walls with Ray flying them over. The pair wandered the school grounds, heading in the direction of the hospital. Bleeding, covered in cuts, bruises and acid burns.


Jake Vin, & Jaska Din Valos.


Like they usually spend the evening, the Valos were in the student lounge - At least Jake and Jaska were there. Jake had found himself at the piano, preforming beautiful music for everyone within earshot, getting some practice in the process. Jaska was lying on top of the piano, wings spread, and watching the keys that Jake intuitively pressed. He was wearing a blue T-shirt that had Miami and other text on it, and jean pants. Amusingly enough, Jaska had on large, blocky sunglasses, that were too big for his smaller head - They were to help with a problem that he's been having with light irritating him. Nothing else, since Jaska wasn't the type to wear shoes to begin with. "Where's Gabe?" Jaska asked Jake.

That was an easy question, in fact, so easy that Jaska could have figured it himself. Jake paused his piano session for a moment to look at Jaska, "Probably with Sage." He answered. Jake was wearing a black sweater, and a black over-coat on that, and blue jeans, and black boots.

"Ew... She's always hanging with that person - Like she has a crush on him!" Jaska says, sticking his tongue out and closing his eyes tightly.

This only made Jake smile, because the thought of Gabe having a crush on Sage was something else. He just wanted to see the look on her face when she found out that Sage is actually a boy. That'd rock her world. "Now that would be something, Jask..." He started quietly chuckling.

"Oh! What about that one pretty lady?" Jaska was reminded of something that happened while back.

"... Which one...?" Jake asks, slightly confused.

"The one I bit! You know, the one that you said was your girlfriend!"

"Oh, you mean Cleo..." Jake rolled his eyes up into his head. She was his older squeeze, and unfortunately wasn't that well versed with the Meta-human community of Black Fall. When she showed up at the manor, it was a disaster, that ended with Jaska biting her after she stepped on his tail. She never called Jake again. "Yeah? What about her?"

"Oh... Uh..." Jaska totally had no idea where he was going with this, "... Nothing. I just, uhhhh, remembered her. Yeah."

Right. Jake didn't say a word. He just went back to playing the piano, until Jaska asked a question which made him stop again.

"So, do you think I will ever find a pretty lady?" Jaska asked, his tone was worried, "Like, I look like a monster... And... What if It comes out, and, and...?" His tone became increasingly distraught, as thoughts of fear had filled his young mind. Lots of questions also filled his head. What if she saw him transform? What if he attacked her?

This was certainly was a hard, and unexpected, question to answer. To be honest with himself; Jake truly didn't know if Jaska could accomplish the things he was worried about. The only thing that. "Don't worry yourself about it... Jask. You're too young to have to worry about that, anyway..."

"When will I be old enough to?" Jaska asks

"Well... Once..." You hit puberty. And Jake will make sure to get far away as possible the moment Jaska goes through puberty. "... You're old enough."


Amimoore Black Dellamorte, & Elizabeth Stacy Prezelin.


Another new place so Eliza can be ignored by people - Actually that was a good thing. She's a girl that's always on edge, and afraid of the worst situations. Other people scare her. People frightening powers scare her even more. Especially coupled with the fact that she's brand new to the whole. She was in the corner of the student lounge, leaning up against the wall. Hands in the pocket of her leather jacket, she looked down to see her jeans, combat boots, and had on large black headphones blaring music, to the point where she couldn't hear anything. They seem normal. For being a bunch of freaks. Yeah. Eliza was terrified the moment she realized that she had a power. She just fell over one day and broke her arm, and it was all fine within the hour. That was freaky enough for her. But once other things started to manifest, and she caused a little scare, that was when the letter came in the mail and her parents carted her off to an island instead of college. They're probably at home enjoying hot coco while she's here. Regardless of Eliza's past, she kept watching everything that was going on at a distance. She wasn't the type of person who'd be seen approaching people, she was fine here in the corner. If someone did approach, she figured that she would give them a chance and see who gets ran off first. It just so happens, that scenario would be put to the test....

"Hi." Amimoore said as she approached Eliza, an obvious new student, but from observing her thoughts Ami felt like they were so similar. Two seemingly nice and cheery girls that had vicious dark sides that were just hidden. That incident with Jesse pulled out a 'dark-side' of Amimoore - It ended the belief that she needed, deep down she knew that she was just a tool. A person that people just took advantage of to advance their own goals. No one really wanted to be associated with the headmaster's daughter other than hoping they get out of trouble. Amimoore could use a new ally, a real one. She definitely had no friends in Drake and Lily, she pushed them off, her respective incidents regarding them had garnered her ire, and ultimately a confrontation with Adam, and Jesse. But Eliza, she knew something good could come out of teaming up with Eliza. She spoke in a cheery tone, appearing more cheery than she really was, "You're scared? Don't be. Your time here will be just fine." A risky tactic, giving away a hint of her telepathy.

Eliza was not going to ask how she knew how or why Amimoore knew she was scared. "No.. I'm fine... I'm Eliza."

"Nice name. I'm Amimoore, the daughter of the headmaster." She responded.

Only silence came out of Eliza's mouth. She was obviously unsure of what to say next.

Amimoore was hoping. "You should stick with me. I'll make sure that no one messes with you. We can be friends... Right?" With her telepathy, she'd always know what this girl is thinking, and what to say.

This was all happening so fast... Eliza didn't know what to say. Whatever Amimoore was doing, she was doing it right. "Yeah... I will."


Carmen 'Lily' Santo.

Spoiler:

Heh. Just another day at school. Lily thought to herself as she walked through the snowy school grounds, with no destination in particular, her mood was more elated than usual. A cheerful smile on her face - Which had some less-than-cheerful scars on her face. She was in the zone, the best mood of all. Recently, she's gotten in touch with the family that she left behind when she fled. The people I abandoned. Since this was the only time she's been in a peaceful enough environment in order to find them (Having a computer in her room helped). They were doing great, they've moved to a better neighborhood, and gotten a better grasp on the powers that Lily gave them. But Lily knew that her place was in the academy, at least until she learns how to control her power, but she can't wait to go find them. Other than that life was... So good. No one's harassing her, and she's got two rockin' buds in the shape of Merry and Jesse. In fact, she should find a place to meet up with the and tell them all about it. But not in some damp dorm-room... Somewhere scenic and memorable. Well this place is no more memorable than my left asscheek - Oh! The cafe. As she walked the school grounds, she redirected herself towards the cafe, and whipped out her phone for a text,

Yo,

Ya'll want to meet up at the cafe? On me.

She sent them both the same exact text. But Lily didn't want to head to the cafe just yet, she wanted to know if they wanted to go first, and that they're not busy. But this good mood and excitement is too much to possibly waste by herself! She'd hope they participate.

Merry slowly reached her hand forward, before swiftly pulling it back to where it belonged. Wrapped timidly around her torso. She had been doing this all week, trying to gather up the courage to move forward, but giving up last second to return to the safety of herself. Several days ago Merry had a thought that disturbed her, she realized how weak she was. This school was full of potential danger, and she was unable to protect herself or her friends. She was weak in more then one way. For the last week Merry had been trying to gather up the courage to go to the training grounds, but every time she tried to go she would think about how embarrassed she would look in front of the other students, and would hurry back to her dorm room before anyone saw her. She sighed, rubbing her arms anxiously. The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass herself. Again.

For the third time today Merry looked at the door to the training grounds, tempted to reach her arm forward to turn the knob and walk in. But she just couldn't. There were other people inside there, training themselves, and Merry was way to self cautious of her power to train in front of other students. What if she messed up? Or looked silly in her training outfit? She didn't want any bad attention to be on her, it would pretty much ruin her. Merry took a deep breath, trying to make her hand stop shaking at she reached for the door. She silently coached herself, forcing her hand forward. She couldn't be a wimp forever. If she didn't do it now she would never do it. Inches away from the door, her hand stopped, interrupted by a vibration in her pocket. Her phone.

Who was texting her? Her immediate guess was either Lily or Jesse had sent her a message, as she had no other friends around and her parents had no idea how to text. Merry took a few steps away from the doors, casting a longing glance at the door before pulling her phone out, checking the message with a grin. She was right, Lily was the sender. Merry read the message quickly, her eyes scanning across the screen. Merry allowed herself to grin again, Lily seemed to be in a great mood. She had even added a little smiley face at the end of her message, much to Merry's delight. Merry opened her phones keyboard, thinking over her message before quickly typing it out.

"Hey girl!

Sounds like lots of fun!!! I was planning on spending some time at the training grounds, but I think I'm going to do that later, so you can count me in!! I would rather wait until it's less busy in there anyway! I'll meet you there!"

And with a final sigh, Merry sent the message, closed her phone and walked off towards the cafe, glancing at the training grounds behind her. Wishing for a moment that she was a little more brave.

Bre
-

Bre smiled as she placed her camera down on her dresser, after saving all of her pictures to her laptop. Her sunglasses were laying to the side, since she figured even if her roommate did come in, she wasn't facing the door so she could just quickly place her sunglasses on when she hears the door open.

For the past week, she had just been hanging out with Len, taking pictures, and also getting some exercise done in the gym.  Now she had just gotten done with having all of the pictures backed up on her computer. The majority of the group pictures had Len in them. Bre blushed a bit.

Len wasn't the most attractive of guys, but he was a little good-looking,  even with that pale skin of his. Bre had gotten him to open up a bit more towards her- he spoke a lot more to her and pretty much acted normal when no one else was around. She had realized that Len, even though he was easily annoyed, was actually really nice. He does try to help, but he just acts like it would usually be a bother when he offers his help.

During the past week, Bre had also met his step-brothers. They were so sweet! They had some sort of connection in their powers where they could merge and also had a constant telepathic link. When they merge together, they can read minds. The twins were all smiles, though they would a lot of times glance at each other mischievously, as if there was some secret plan they were sharing. Bre had a feeling that the idea wasn't far from the truth.

She smiled as she wiped her hair over one shoulder and grabbed her white jacket, followed by her sunglasses being placed over her eyes and stepping out of her dorm room. Maybe she would just walk around a bit.

-
Len, Jaylin, and Kynan
-

The siblings were inside the student lounge, sitting at a table and talking. Since he was used to the twins, Len was actually smiling as he spoke with them. Each of them had a cup of hot chocolate that Len had taken the liberty to buy at the café before heading to speak with his brothers.  Steam danced from the warm drinks as heat emanated from them.  Len was the one currently speaking.

"So have you two been doing much? Have any major events take place?"

"Huh? Uh... Not really." The reply came from Jaylin.

"How about sports? How's the gym?"

"It's fine." That time it was Kynan who spoke.

The twins seemed a bit distracted to Len, but he didn't bring it up. He just sat, quietly examining them. Both kept glancing towards the back of the room. Len glanced back as well. He saw the Amimoore chick the twins had said they were friends with along with some other girl. Though they hadn't brought her up, lately. He wondered what had happened, aside from the one screaming incident.

The twins were having a mental conversation, Jaylin being the first one to speak.

I feel really guilty about telling Adam, Kynan. Especially now that I see Ami.

I know. I do, too.

What if what she did to the girl with purple hair that Jaska told us about wasn't bad?

It was blackmail, though.

Yeah. But she's still our friend, right?

I hope so, Jay. And I hope her punishment wasn't that bad.

Same.

The two glanced then at Len, and oils tell by his expression that he was worried about them. They should probably talk to him more, since they were worrying him, a bit.

"So Len- how are you and Bre?" Jaylin grinned. The two boys had planned that they were going to get them together. Of course, they first had to get Len to stop being so socially awkward.

Len didn't think of how the statement could be understood and just nodded, "Bre is good. Haven't talked to her today, though."

The twins exchanged glances. He was too clueless on the fact that Bre probably liked him, as well.

-
Ene
-

Ene yawned as she walked into the student lounge, waiting for Niza. She was wearing a dark blue jacket (her sweatshirt was getting washed) with a light pink shirt under it. Ene also wore a pair of dark blue bootcut jeans and sneakers. Just some casual clothing.  As she waited for Niza, Ene went deep in thought. They were pretty close, in her opinion, but Niza didn't seem right. She was nice to her, of course, but the girl had made a few snide comments towards others. And then there was what had happened yesterday. Ene looked around nervously.

She and Niza were talking about different people at school, and the girl just up and asked about her power.

"I don't know..." Ene had said, "I-I don't feel comfortable telling others my power. Sorry."

"Oh it's fine," Niza smiled. "Though I would suggest you tell me," Niza said, looking Ene in the eye.

Ene had for some reason suddenly felt the string urge to tell her- they were friends. What would be the harm in telling her? So Ene had told her that she could control memories. Niza's eyes flickered.

"That is an interesting power, hon," Niza gave Ene a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

With that Niza just up and walked inside her dorm room, closing the door.

Ene frowned at the memory. She wasn't sure why she felt the urge to tell Niza her power- she just did. It was really strange. Ene slowly looked around the lounge, trying to find something to do while she waited for Niza. She saw Jake and Jaska to the side and smiled.

She had seen Jake and Arianna hanging out a lot and was told the two were dating by someone. Ene wondered if it was true- the two would make a cute couple, and they were with each other a lot, of course. She hoped they were- the two just fit together like that.

Bre walked up to them and smiled. They hadn't spoken since the first day. "Hey, you two- what's up?" The good thing about the past few days is that she was getting better at greeting people. She still felt some sadness about her mom a lot of times, but she was getting better at hiding the fact that she felt sad.

-
Mina
-

Mina let out another one of the many yawns that she had let out since waking up. She wore some faded jeans with some black and neon green high tops. She wore her oversized coat, as always, with a dark green shirt under it. Mina's headphones were resting around her neck with her iPod off. The past week had gone by so slowly- the only interesting thing she could do was walk around in her soul form. Even that wasn't very interesting- everyone she listened to about things was so boring. The only interesting thing she had heard was at the one incident in the café.

Speaking of the café incident...

Mina looked up, her tired expression watched as the two guys from the incident- Ray and Rush- walked past, covered in bruises and burns. That's right- she hadn't thanked Ray for the fight thing. But then, she probably didn't need to- after all, she would've been just fine without them. A simple knife couldn't hurt her that much in sleeping mode. It would be the equivalent of trying to stab a statue- you could stab one, but it would take a lot of strength. But then, she hasn't known Jasmine's power. It could have been super strength. Either way, maybe Mina helped the two guys- she helped them realize the Jasmine girl was crazy.

Still... Maybe she should thank them. Yeah. She so wasn't just trying to think of an excuse to talk to them and find out how they got hurt. Of course, they would probably not tell her why. And they were probably angry with her. But it was worth a shot. 'Sides, why should she care if they are angry with her?

She walked next to them and looked down, yawning. "I just wanted to say..." She lowered her voice a bit, as despite her curiosity she didn't feel happy thanking them... An also apologizing. "Thanks for taking care of the café thing..." She mumbled, "And sorry for eavesdropping." She had told them that she was listening in on them and still asleep when she confronted them earlier at the café right before getting attacked by the crazy chick, so maybe they knew her power, now. Oh well. Not like they could do anything about it.

-
Niza
-

Niza handed her money to the cashier as she received her mocha frappe. Nothin like a sweet coffee drink in the morning to get the brain flowing. She had to think of a plan for Ene. The girl's power could so be used! Memory manipulation? That's like one of the best powers for if you want to manipulate them. Have them do something and then erase their own memory. Of course, it would take a lot of her own energy, as well, to tell Ene to do stuff.

It was too bad Ene didn't seem like the type of person who would be willing to hurt someone- if she was it would make things so much easier. And yet much harder. It will be easy to get Ene to help her... And yet hard to get Ene to do the dirty work.

Niza sat down at a table, taking a relaxing break from her "nice" attitude before she was going to her to the lounge.  She wore a red leather jacket with a plain black v-neck and some light blue jeans that were tucked into her black boots. Her nails tapped against the table as she tried to form a plan to use Ene's power with.

Ray Judah Drager, & Dexter 'Rush' Chertok.


This chick again...

Ray thought to himself as he let out a quiet growl and stopped to look at her. They weren't in the mood to go through this again, and it wouldn't be the smartest idea to try to black mail them out here. As it's dark, Rush can turn off any lights without even thinking about it, and there was no one nearby - If they wanted to, Ray could break her spine and leave her here with no traces. Surprisingly... The situation didn't call for such violence. Mina was apologizing for her actions - Even though they should be apologizing to her for Jasmine. Ray spoke to Mina, giving her a long speech, "Look, don't mention it - Really, I mean don't mention it. Since, don't take this the wrong way, we just want you to stay away from us. We're into some serious stuff. And you saw what happened when you-" Don't use your f*cking head "- Reveal yourself in the wrong way... But, hell, I thought that Jasmine would enough common sense not to murder someone in a room full of people and expect herself not to get stopped..." Ray hung his head and started shaking it. Even thinking of Jasmine pissed him off.

After Ray had told , Rush spoke in his usual mechanical manner of speech, "Miss Cheng. Illogically violent. No good. Has been in hospital. Since incident. Have been working by ourselves. Yes. But. Recommend distance be kept. Best apology of all." Rush kept his hands in his pockets, and kept a cool head on his shoulders.


Jake Vin, & Jaska Din Valos.

Celo wrote:

"Hey, you two- what's up?"

Once again, Jaska's super senses allowed him to sense Ene walking up. Though, it was hard with all the usual action going on in the lounge, but he smelled her. "Oh hiii pretty lady." Jaska spoke to her, even before she got close. He raised his head and looked at her, still lying down on top of the piano. He totally forgot who Ene was.

Fortunately, Jaska had alerted (That's one great reason why you're here) Jake of Ene's approach. Jake choose to take a smoother route. He turned around halfway, and stopped playing the piano, but kept his fingers on the piano keys. He spoke in a sly confident tone, "Ah, the usual. I'm just kicking back before I prepare for another long, stressful of school..." He started laughing, "Hah, just kidding, I'm doing fine. Just waiting for Arianna to show up... But, how about we talk for a bit? We haven't talked for days and why not now?" He was at a lost for subjects for a moment. Naturally, he talked about the first thing he pulled out his ass, "Are you doing good in your classes?"

Jaska immediately started to get bored.


Carmen 'Lily' Santo.


Coming soon as Lieo posts...

Mina
-

Mina raised one tired eyebrow at Ray as he told her to just leave them alone. Yep. He was angry with her. She didn't blame him, of course. She would be angry, too. But him telling her to not even interact with them made her want to take back her apology. Normally she would be walking away by now. But there was one sentence that kept her interest in the conversation.

Mr Allen J wrote:

"We're into some serious stuff.

Mina didn't pay attention to anything else Ray said after that because she was busy thinking about that one sentence. So they were still doing some secret operation thing in the school, hm? Mina yawned before she spoke up.

"I guess I'll leave you guys alone, then. But what I was going to say in the café earlier in the week I'll explain to you, now- I was going to offer up my assistance in some way. I can find out things about people if I just listen. I, also, because of that know several kids with... Interesting... Powers. Memory control, mind influence, you name it. I figured you might find that some of them would be useful. But okay. I'll just go. I'm sorry for wasting your time and once again sorry for the trouble I caused in the café. Anyways, don't worry- I'll keep whatever it is that I heard a secret."

Mina let out another yawn and began walking away. She just revealed her power, but oh well. She had revealed it in the café but wasn't heard. Not like they would be able to tell anyone about her- if they do, she can easily tell people some of the interesting things she had heard from them in the café. Or perhaps she could listen to them and find out if they have a new plan, and share that. And then there is the possibility of them trying to kill her on the spot, right here. For that, all she could do is hope that things would turn out "okay". Okay as in her sleeping form having strong enough skin. Though why would they try to kill her? That would just be a bunch of unnecessary work that can just be avoided by ignoring that comment and going on with their lives.

-
Ene
-

Ene smiled at Jake's comment and wasn't surprised to hear who he was waiting for. The girly side of her thought something along the lines of, "Aw, how cute!" Though she would never be the type to say such a thing out loud. When he asked how her grades were, Ene just shrugged. "They're pretty good. I, um... think I'm doing best in art, though."

Ene paused. She found that she, like Jake, was unsure what to talk about. "Well how about you? Um... Anything interesting happen in your first week? Meet any interesting people?" Her questions were just things to keep a conversation going- small talk. It was what she continuously found happening when she tried to talk to anyone. It got a bit old.