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

Jake Vin Valos.


One thing was for certain, Jake had knew that Arianna was the one girl that he really thought was special. Despite all the reasons she had not to trust him, she allowed him to lead her outside. Hell, he knew that she would have some reason not to trust him. Jake had been rejected in the past by some people because of his power. They just thought that it wasn't the real him, that he was just pretending... But could he really blame them? Jake would hate himself for taking his eye off Arianna for a moment, but he kinda needed to divert his attention just for one second. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his pocket watched, and stared into it for a moment. Is he really a pretender? That's how he really felt about himself. The thoughts had to be brushed aside, pushed out of his head. He needed to make room for the happy, lovey-doey thoughts. Because right now, Jake was outside, standing in the snow, and darkness. Jake didn't want anymore interruptions, not from Titus, not from Abe, not from Neal. One plus about his power was stealth, deception. Jake had encased the pair in a dome of invisibility, not a soul would see them, even the footprints left in the snow were covered in an illusory veil. Years ago, this might be considered a challenge, but now he's the master of illusion, this was simple, just required a bit of focus and concentration. He felt the need to tell her that that they're hidden from sight, "I decided to make us invisible, so nobody would interrupt us." Just because he didn't want her to find out, and get worried. Though, Jake felt that she would get uncomfortable.

They stood in an empty sheet of snow. Jake knew that this needed something. Dancing... It needs atmosphere, or else it's just... empty, coldness. Jake could fix that... It'd be a tremendous effort. Arianna has been working her ass off to save me. Twice. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't tire myself out a little bit. Just to... Give her a good time. "What do you want our dancefloor to look like?" He asked, curious, it was all about it, "Whatever it is, I can make it." No matter what risks maintaining a large scale illusion may bring, he's capable of doing it, just for a little while.



Drake Deltori Blackmore.


Val's display left Drake laughing off his ass again. Now he got reminded of why he hangs around the guy, he's bloody hilarious. That's why Val has a special place in Drake's heart - His wingman. Drake stopped laughing, just to answer Val's "Hahahahaha! Arsov, this is Claire Sparks, a girl I met last night that's apparently one of our fans. And remember Val, you shouldn't drink too much water, you'll freeze your own piss again." He gave Val a cheeky grin, "Now that was a dumpster fire." He looked around the party, grin on his face. Before turning back to the ladies, "You know, Team Headstrong could certainly use a few cheerleaders, if you know what I'm saying? I already have designs for your uniforms!"

((Shitty POV, I couldn't think of anything, yes, I am a complete tool))


Bloodsucker.


Obviously, Felina didn't quite understand that they're on a precarious height, and have limited footspace. A heavy pounce like that would be more detrimental to herself than it ever could be to Bloodsucker. Besides, Bloodsucker sensed her muscle movements, and his reflexes were apex. In one swift motion, Bloodsucker had danced to the side, out of her reach, an evil smile on his face. He had expected Felina to have fallen to her death, and it was easier than fighting her down. It'll just look like she climbed up here and fell.

Claire and Ariella

At this point, Ariella was completely overwhelmed. She had Putinka over here half-hitting on her and trying to get her to drink what she was certain was vodka, Drake saying something about piss freezing, and Claire laughing her ass off and leaning on Drake's shoulder.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Claire cut in rather loudly "If I've got ANYTHING to do with Team Headstrong, it'll be kicking ass. Angel-girl here can cheer us on while wearing a bikini. And don't go so heavy with the booze quite yet Mother Russia! She's just starting out!" Ariella was blinking heavily, looking from Claire to Drake to the bottle in her hand. Claire took the bottle in her hand and replaced it with her own, assuring Ariella that "I haven't drank from it yet".

"Um..." Ariella said, looking up at Claire's smiling face.

"Aw come on, Ari!" Claire implored before taking a long swig from the bottle Val had spiked "Just one...ew, that's not the best combo there, drink. One bottle and I won't say any more. Can you give me that?"

"Um...Um...Fine, I guess one wouldn't hurt." She slowly rose the bottle to her lips and took a gingerly sip. She grimaced at first when the sour liquid touched her lips, but upon another sip shrugged and decided that she actually sort of liked it.

"YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!" Claire practically bellowed "There we go! You're gonna have a lot of fun tonight, kid!" She laughed and slouched over on Drake's shoulder with her arm around him. In her left hand was the bottle of spiked liquor, which she fully intended on drinking despite the fact that it tasted like absolute sh*t.

"Um, yeah, thanks." Ariella replied quietly after taking another drink. So far, she felt pretty good. She assumed that being drunk would mean feeling confused and nauseous, like her brain spinning inside her head, but had no idea how it actually felt (OOC:and neither do I) so wouldn't know when the effects were coming. "Nice to meet you, Valery." Ariella said to him, remembering that she'd relatively disregarded his introduction.

(I probably did a sh*t job of describing the taste of beer, but I've never drank it and so can only go off of what other people have told me)

Ene
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HalfThere wrote:

"So... Powers? Wait never mind don't tell me uh forget It never mind."

Ene felt her shoulders tense up at the question. This kid had to ask that question out of all of them? Wait- he said never mind. Ene still felt her shoulders tensed up, however. She let out a shaky breath, not even realizing she had been holding it as she turned to face the kid.

"It's fine- but I don't really like sharing my power. Um..." She walked to slowly open the door, letting the cool air come in and send her chills, helping her nerves to calm. "How about we start with names? My name is Ene."

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Jaylin and Kynan
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The boys both looked up at Jaska, unsure of what to really do now that they were outside. They felt more relaxed now that they were away from... that whole mess older kids for some reason like to call a party.

"I dunno," Kynan shrugged. "Wanna just hang out or something?" He kicked at the snow beneath his feet, unsure of what else to say.

Jaylin's mind was somewhere else already, however, as he looked up at Jaska, watching him fly.

"So what's it like?" Jaylin questioned. "You know.... flying? Is it fun? Does it feel weird? Or... I dunno... what?"

Kynan glanced at Jaylin, wanting to get onto him but stopping himself- he was curious about it, as well. Besides, Jaska probably didn't care about such a question, right?

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Mina
--------------

Mina yawned a she stepped out of the dorms, coat zipped up all the way and headphones, as usual, blasting music (currently it was some random Korean song). She had just woken up from a deep sleep and didn't want to go to the party. No- too many people there were annoying. And Drake was there. Mina scowled, deep in thought. She was still planning on retaliation for his actions.

For now, however, Mina was going to enjoy the emptiness of the campus while she could.

Celo the Impossible wrote:

Ene

"It's fine- but I don't really like sharing my power. Um..." She walked to slowly open the door, letting the cool air come in and send her chills, helping her nerves to calm. "How about we start with names? My name is Ene."

"Jack well it's Jackson. But most just call me Jack" he shivered at the sudden draft caused by Ene opening the door,as he looked outside he couldn't help but be reminded of one of his favorite movies John Carpenter's The Thing the feeling of isolation, the freezing environment the paranoid feeling he was constantly feeling of late, "I guess that would make me the killer shape shifting alien" he smiled at that. "It's okay I don't really like "show and tell" about my powers either". He glanced over his shoulder he just couldn't escape that ever present observed feeling i am reading way too much losing touch with reality" of course than again someone was horribly mutilated yesterday it wouldn't hurt to be a bit cautious. He looked up to make sure the lights weren't flickering to cut off...he stopped on the ceiling directly above him was a.....a thing it was segmented like some horrible insect it gripped the ceiling with its powerful appendages and the worst thing of all it had no face the lack of that basic feature seemed to makes it all the more less human and all the more unnatural. He managed to stutter out out a few words as he looked back at Ene "rrrr..run thing ch-chasing get out NOW" as he said it he attempted to shove Ene out if inly to get her away from whoever or whatever that thing was.

Gabriela Mya Valos.


Gabe casted Kate a toothy smile, while looking at her, hoping that her awkward tone of speech wasn't a sign that she wasn't interested. That'd just be heartbreaking! As Gabe got her hopes up so high, and it probably wouldn't end so well if she gets disappointed. Nonetheless, she elbowed her way through the crowds of people, and she carved her own little slice of the dancefloor. Gabe noticed at the corner of her eye that Jake and Arianna were heading off on their own. Good luck, I hope ya' don't run into the blockhead before I do. She silently gave Jake her well wishes. Now Gabe had a lady of her own to deal with. Kate did look like the type of gal who'd be into dancing. The kind of girl who'd be into the exciting, fast, dancing that Gabe is known for. While Gabe looked like the type who'd be more into fighting than dancing, she was quite the dancer, and she intended on showing Kate how good she is at both dancing, and eventually fighting. Gabe started dancing, her style of dancing was wild, fast, and surprisingly graceful.


Jaska Din Valos.


Flight. They asked about Jaska's flying. It was something that was just natural to him - Or became natural the moment he got his wings. Under the guise of his mother, though, he managed to figure out an easy way to fly. "Oh?" He flexed his wings "It used to be sooo fun!" He said in an elated tone, going back years ago, before his power manifested, when he wanted to fly like a bird - Or more accurately for this world, Superman. "Now, it's not as fun anymore... I was told that I just got used to it." It was harder to fly than what the twins may have thought. He couldn't just leap up into the air and be flying. He needed to get some momentum going, get high enough - To the point where Jaska's flying was more gliding. While Jaska was aware that there was plenty of other flying meta-humans around the school, that used more supernatural means of flying, that could just jump up in the air and be in the sky in minutes. just wasn't one of them.


Drake Deltori Blackmore.


When Claire shouted 'yeah' at the very top of her lungs, Drake followed suite and shouted "Yeah!" except mimicking how Lil Jon does it. That was the only response that he had to Ariella drinking some well needed booze. "See? You tried it? Just don't over do it, sweetheart. One time I got so drunk I ended up in a ditch two cities over, wearing a dress!" Drake laughed. I may or not have been wearing women's. "A hell of a night that was!" He quickly moved onto the subject. Claire was his top pick for the forth member of Team Headstrong. It all came down to the opinions of Val and Abe - Val seemed too lighthearted to raise a fuss, and Abe could be convinced. Because Drake is one hell of a people's person, nobody could resist his charms. "Kicking ass? Please. Once I let the dragon out, the kids got no choice but to pray I'm gentle."


Mannequin.


The moment that Jackson looked around to view the machine, the Mannequin had already been halfway through his response. Due to the fact that the Mannequin is, well, far away from a human being as possible, the machine was superhumanly fast, agile, and flexible. Not limited to the confines of flesh. The Mannequin dropped from the ceiling, balling his ceramic fists, holes in his knuckles opened and he pointed them. Firing out a random flurry of tranquilizer darts. All while descending towards the ground. He onl needed one to hit each of them for him to succeed. The second that the Mannequin hit the ground, he flattened. Almost like he was broken. Before he quickly rose upwards, feet first. Until he was straight up, then he hunched over. Featureless face directed at Jackson and Ene.

Ene
-------

"Nice to meet you Jack," Ene smiled before turning around to head outside. It was less than a millisecond afterwards that when she heard Jackson saying to run. From... Something. From what?

Ene hesitated. That one moment was crucial, however, and she felt a sharp prick in her arm. She felt tired suddenly. Tired. Wait-she needed to fight! She had to leave and get help! Help... For what? Why was she panicking? She just needed a break. Yeah, that sounded nice. A nice, looong break. Ene closed her eyes and fell to the floor.

-------
Niza
------

Niza nodded at each person as they were introduced, whether it be by them self or by someone else, and kept her hand that was holding her drink static. She did not plan on getting drunk tonight. She was there to observe and find those who would be useful should the time come when they were needed for whatever mess may come. Seth was already one of her main targets, even if she didn't know his power. Being a teacher's assistant was a good enough reason. Someone who was close with the staff could always prove very useful.

Niza leaned back against the table, using the moment to try to think of something to talk about so that Seth wouldn't walk off. There wasn't really much to talk about, really.

"So hun," Niza began, primarily addressing Seth, as he was the main interest for her- well, maybe the girl with the veil who was with him, as well. She seemed interesting. "What do you think of the party so far?" A simple question, mostly small talk in an effort to keep the conversation going, and hopefully dive into other subjects.

Claire and Ariella

"Was that meant to be a d!ck joke?" Claire retorted, a devious smile on her face. Ariella took another drink of the beer, giggling semi-nervously as Drake recounted his drunken tails. She hoped that wouldn't happen to her. This group in general was making her rather uncomfortable, though. Claire seemed to be taking rather sexual peaks at Ariella's legs when Drake wasn't looking, and Val seemed like the sort who enjoyed his ladies like he enjoyed his vodka; in bed. She shifted rather nervously, but continued taking sips of the drink. Now that she was drinking it, it was easy to continue and hard to stop. It tasted halfway decent, after all, and one beer wouldn't hurt.

"So Val," Claire said "It's nice to meet you. I saw your and Drake's fight with those weirdoes a week or so ago. You're an ice-bender, right?" Claire spoke, of course, completely unaware that one of those "weirdoes" was standing right there in the conversation. Ariella looked over at Eric, noticing him for the first time.

"Oh, um, hi." she said "I'm Ariella."

Felina

((F*CK ALL OF YOU, THIS IS HOW THIS ENDS))




Arianna Madrigal

Arianna was perhaps a bit of a romantic-and she was unaware of the importance behind it-but she was aware that their hearts were both harmonizing with the tick-ticking of the pocket watch in the Symphony. As to what that meant, she had absolutely no idea, but there was something important about it.

However, the little nuances of the Symphony were lost on her tonight.

They were in the middle of a field of snow and not cold at all. Arianna brushed a few snowflakes off her shoulder, a bit annoyed at how they could mess up her dress, and then decided she didn't care. She felt the flurries settle on her hair and eyebrows, and resisted the urge to giggle. If she looked as silly as Jake did with snow in his hair...Arianna playfully reached up and ruffled some of it out of his hair, vaguely curious as to why standing in the snow was so much damned fun. And she wasn't sure how, but the Symphony was subtly telling them that it was just the two of them, out there, that they were alone from the world-and for a girl who was so often focused on being the center of attention and making as many friends as possible, that was strangely appealing. Then Jake explained the invisibility and that instinct made a lot more sense. She reached for her notepad and started to write out So if we're invisible, can we go sneak around in the Forbidden Forest and find Hagrid next? but stopped, not knowing if Jake was a HP fan. Besides...writing took her focus off him. Did the important stuff need words?

Then Jake wanted to know what she wanted the dance floor to look like. Hm. She thought for a moment, doing a half spin as if testing out an imaginary dance floor, and grinned. She turned back to him and shook her head, stretching out her arms. The snow's just fine to me. Arianna moved in closer and placed her hands around his neck, whistling a slow dance all by herself (and it was somehow more orchestral than if an entire band had been playing). She winked at him and began to sway in time.

Jake's face rippled and changed to hers, bloodied and eyes wide with terror. Illusions. There was screaming and gunfire and

Arianna closed her eyes. Perhaps the gesture looked romantic, but it was anything but.

Valery Arsov

Val sputtered on his beer (he'd quickly slipped away and grabbed a solo cup of seven proof happiness) on the comment about freezing his own piss. Heh. Drake had a good sense of humor, which Val appreciated. He was fond of dishing out light-hearted teasing, and he loved a little in return: kept things lively, kept Val's brain sharp. Well, as sharp as Val's brain was. Outside the Arena and making friends, the big guy wasn't too sharp on much. But, it didn't seem to bother him any: and Val had a hell of a lot more fun than most people "smarter" than he.

"Well, Miss Sparks, it is a delight to meet you. I am sure if Drake has chosen you you must be very classy lady." Val meant it somewhat seriously, but was starting to get a bit tipsy (because when you're 6'2 and weighing in more than most people can bench press, you can still get tipsy) and the words weren't coming out so great anymore. "I...eh...you..." he shook his head and decided to stop talking for a moment, for whatever reason. It would probably help or something.

Claire and Drake started yelling at each other, next, and Val kinda zoned out for a second, mostly because he was tired from training earlier and alcohol and, ah, something else, what was it...

Eh? Somebody said his name. Val perked up and saw Ariella talking to him. "Aw, stop, you will make me blush," he said. "Good to meet you. Hope you are enjoying the party...too much crazy stuff going on lately not to sit back and relax every now and then. And Drake is right. Ending up in ditches in a dress with him was terrible. People asked questions for months." Val drank a little more, considered he should perhaps switch to water, and continued on anyways.

"

Jackson
Avoiding the hits would have been impossible that's not to say he didn't try. When it descended guns blazing he shielded his face with his arms inevitably providing even more area for the projectiles to lodge themselves into his arms three hit and his body tried to compensate, his various blood vessels and veins contracted  and attempted to shut off the chemicals, but due to the cellular rate at which his body was going at it was no use."no no no NO!" he thought as he collapsed to his knees and then fell over.

Anthony
He was passed out with a drink spilled all over him even the ever loud party atmosphere had done nothing to keep him awake. The day had gone like usual falling asleep in various places ending up tripping a few people in the hall with his prone body, constantly trying to ignore his ever president condition he figure at the very least the party would be fun and keep him awake.

Mannequin.


"Go to sleep..." The Mannequin's robotic voice echoed to Ene and Jackson as they faded out of consciousness. The drugs that he injected them with were doing their job, his various scans of their vitals revealed. It was time to call in Flashbang, and get these kids out of here. But, the Mannequin had to be quick. He needed to remove evidence of the Changeling Unit being here. There were plenty of empty darts on the ground that missed. Acting quickly, and efficiently, the Mannequin quickly scraped up all the missed darts, cupping them in his hands.

All three people in the hallway quickly disappeared in a flash of light.


Blood-Sucker, & Carmen 'Lily' Santo.


The display was amusing... But ultimately disappointing. Bloodsucker was hoping that Felina would at least be interesting. She just killed herself before he could get excited. She fell of the roof, and was trampled to death by wilder beast. Gah! At least there wasn't any signs of a struggle... There were a second set of footprints, but the way the snow was falling; that wouldn't matter in a few minutes. Which meant that Bloodsucker could just jump down, and the death of Felina could be attributed to just a slip and fall. He dropped his weight to his legs, and jumped off the roof, limbs spread out, and was seemingly gliding towards the dorms. That's where the prey was. He arrived at the girl's dorms, at least the side of the wall, he quickly scaled it, every floor, he'd peak into a room. Most of the rooms were empty - Or the opposite, full of people. Both cases, were bad. His work and patience payed off, he came across a room on the upper floors of two girls, all alone, one looked already intoxicated. Naturally, he decided to target these girls...

The very idea of going to the party was just stupid. As much as Lily used to like parties, years ago, such an idea was a thing of the past. Something for people who haven't matured like she did. Besides, Lily had taken it upon herself to keep an eye on Merry - Because her little drunkie friend got herself a hangover. The thought that Merry had received a 'reward' for getting drunk off her ass, was certainly amusing. So Lily sat on her bed, reading a book. Occasionally glancing upwards at Merry. She yawned, a little tired. She was going to wait this party out before going to bed, just in case anyone gets a little rowdy and tries anything. Speaking of trying anything... Lily had sensed a powerful Meta-human scaling the building, and whoever it was, he was close. Now you see, living on the run, fleeing from powerful Metas that want to use your power for their own ends really makes a person paranoid. She was getting really nervous, quite fast. She almost wanted to grab Merry and get the hell out. Prematurely, Lily started hacking into the new party's power, and started gradually weakening. The problem was that she needed lots of time to do the big things like shut off a power completely. "Look, Merry, we shoul-"

It wasn't long before Lily's fears were more or less justified.

Bloodsucker was easily the least subtle member of the Changeling unit. Because it was more fun that way. He kicked his way through the window, causing Lily to scream in terror, and break her concentration, thus any alterations were shortly reverted. The wounds caused by the broken glass shards were immediately healed, and the glass was pushed out of his skin. He stood straight up, knives were bared, and fangs were exposed when he smiled. The glass caused a lot of noise... But, given the heated chaos of the party, it would largely go unnoticed.  

"What the f*ck!? Wh- What the hell are YOU!" Lily shouted, falling on her behind, desperately crawling backwards.

"Your new friend." Bloodsucker started off, taking short steps towards her that turned into large strides. There wasn't much of a distance to cover, so the moment he was within arms reach, he grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and brought her to her feet. He got behind her, the usual hostage with a knife to their throat technique. He faced Merry, and had the blade of his knife to Lily's throat. At this point, tears were coming out of her eyes.

"Now, I don't know how close you two are, but I'd like to test it...." Bloodsucker started off, "You girl, get up on your feet, and come with me. Because I don't think you've seen your first crimson-rain?"

"Please..."



Drake Deltori Blackmore.


The conversation was going along just well. Plenty of jokes, CENSORED references, and other obscenities were being made. And Drake loved it. Everyone here was pretty cool, especially that weird looking guy, Eric, with the metal jaw. Looks never really mattered to Drake, more about a man's personality, and, far more importantly, if they were boring or not. He laughed, heartily, and full of his usual flair and bravado. "Heh. Let me tell you something, Claire." Drake leaned in, whispering, "I have two dragons. One for beating scrubs around in the arena. And another for the ladies...." He laughed quietly. He was hoping that he'd show Claire the dragon for the ladies. Tonight - No, right now! Drake grabbed onto another bottle of cold hard, beer, and downed it. Getting drunker by the second. He was looking around... I hope I don't have a repeat of that incident in the ditch. I had to hide here because no would ever let me live it down! Perhaps he should switch to water, because he could never take his liquor well. By that, I mean he took his liquor like a b*tch.

He looked around, glancing between Val, Eric, Ariella... And Claire, that's who he saw giving some interesting glares to Ariella's legs. Not just accidental glances, Claire's eyes were alight with a lustful gaze. While Drake was drunk, just from the look on Claire's face, and the fact that she wants to get the girl all boozed up, he knew that she wanted to tap that. This might have been lady-parts repellant, but Drake started laughing. He just had to comment on this! Because what can possibly go wrong? "Yooo... Sparks..." He raised one hand over his head, "Hey! I thought I was the only one that was ladies only!"


Jake Vin Valos.


This was unexpected, of course, Jake was expecting that she requests something exquisite like a castle courtyard, or a.... All those thoughts were dashed aside when Arianna embraced him. That's when he cleared his mind, closed his eyes, and started dancing real slow. At least he conjured an invisible roof so the snow wouldn't land on them. The note was a little weird, since Jake didn't get the reference to Harry Potter. But was that going to stop him from acting like he did? "Heh, later, let's enjoy this moment for now." He whispered, quietly. Enjoying her embrace.

Being alone out here. It really made him think about things. His romantic feelings for Arianna were more than cemented. But what would he do if she was... gone? Or would she accept him if a few past grievances came to light? What would happen if they left this damned Academy? The questions piled up in Jake's head, all while his mind started to play tricks on him. The beautiful snowy environment turned into a wasteland. The snow and grass disintegrated into blackened ash, the trees were burned, and the sky was crimson red. Though, the more he focused on Arianna, the less grim things seemed. Not in the way that the illusion he was casting on himself was going away. Things were progressively getting cheerier, and the landscape seemed positive.

Still. Jake was getting quite nervous. Not because his mind was screwing with him. All the doubts, worries, and just everything downright negative, was quickly welling up. I couldn't protect Arianna. I... Can't save her. "I have to ask..." This was likely a stupid thing to do, but Jake just had to ask, just to get it off his chest, "Do you... do you really trust me? Do you think I'm weak? Because last night, I really should have been better, and..." Jake felt like he just had to ask Arianna the question, he's been meaning to ask it all morning. "... Be serious, I just want to know."

In his mind, everything froze, then disappeared, sapped away into a black nothingness. There was nothing else in the area in sight. Only himself, and Arianna. He had hoped that she would answer his questions in a positive manner.

Claire and Titus

"What?! F*ck you!" Claire half-playfully kicked at Drake's unmentionables. Pissing off a drunk Claire was not a good idea. Ariella took several steps to the left, closer to Val. Claire had officially moved from "thug" to "creep" on Ariella's weird-o-meter. Val seemed like a pretty nice guy, at least for this crowd. She decided to stay closer to him for the duration of her time in this group.

Spoiler:

Across the room, the lounge doors flew open violently. Titus stepped in, ducking under the door frame and puffing his already-massive chest out as he strutted in. He was obviously mad, and his fists were balled into a pair of blood red boxing gloves. Someone threw a part and didn't invite him!? Preposterous! He scanned the room until his eyes fell upon three people on his hit list; Val, Claire, and Drake. Some other loser and a sexy redhead was standing over there as well. Oh, this would be fun! He could beat up his nemeses, and then get laid with the redhead! He began to strut over to the group. Claire caught him out of the corner of her eye.

"Dammit." she said rather loudly "Here comes fuckin' Hell on wheels." Her "S"'s were rather slurred, and she was leaning on Drake's shoulder for support. Her shadows (which had been dancing around her in circles, also somewhat intoxicated) stiffened up and moved into half-hearted fighting positions around her.

"Sup, b!tches." Titus said as he forcefully entered their circle "Who threw this party? I've got half a mind to kick their ass for not inviting me."

"F*ck if I know." Claire replied "But whoever it was is my new favorite person."

"Can it, b!tch!" Titus spat at her. Ariella took a few steps away from this hulking meathead. He was obviously going through roid rage. "Why are you leaning on that ugly piece of sh!t anyways? Did he drug you?" There was a tense silence as Claire stood straight up. She flipped the beer bottle in her hand into an overhand throwing position (like one about to get in a bar fight). Her face froze from a liquor induced smile to a sneer of complete and total rage.

"What did you just say to me, you meat-headed motherfucker?" Claire seethed. A bar fight was imminent.

Merry was unaware of pretty much everything at this point. However she wasn't even blissfully unaware, as her headache was pounding enough to keep her awake. At least Lily was around with her, as Merry had already meekly asked for several things like cups of water and medicine. At this moment Merry was also extremely thankful that Lily was rather quiet, all she was doing was reading. She could have been assigned to stay with Gabe. As much as Merry fancied her, she doubted Gabe would have kept quiet. She probably would have offered her more alcohol as a way to nurse her hangover.

Allen wrote:

"Look, Merry, we shoul-"

Suddenly, Lily's silence was broken. Merry was unable to detect the panic in Lily's voice, only letting out a tiny groan in response, that was until Lily screamed and the window shattered. Merry's eyes shot open, she had never heard Lily scream like that, however her head began to pound again, aggravated by the sudden sound and Merry's quick decision to open her eyes. And god she wish she hadn't seen what she had seen. For several moments she had to squeeze her eyes shut, praying that it was just a dream or a hallucination brought on by too much headache medicine. But when she reopened them, and the scene in front of her hadn't changed, Merry felt like she was going to pass out. But the pounding in her heart and head kept her in a haze.

And then the monster spoke to her.

Allen wrote:

"Now, I don't know how close you two are, but I'd like to test it...." Bloodsucker started off, "You girl, get up on your feet, and come with me. Because I don't think you've seen your first crimson-rain?"

It was holding Lily hostage. Oh god. Merry had never been so scared in her entire life. She had been protected so heavily from the outside world. The only time she had ever seen hostage situations was in the news or in movies, never in her real life. It was now in which Merry wished she was strong and brave, she would have jumped out of bed and punched the monster to death, but she couldn't. She was too scared. But she knew she was going to have to do anything she could to protect Lily. She struggled to pull herself out of bed, her arms and legs shaking. She stood in front of the monster, trying to be brave, but her voice came out in nothing more then a panicked whisper as she tried to keep from hyperventilating.

"Please." Merry started, tears streaming down her face. "Don't hurt Lily." She tried to say more, but she couldn't form words.

Arianna Madrigal

Arianna stayed quiet for a moment, not entirely sure of what to say.

The truth of the matter was that Arianna didn't feel safe with Jake. But she hadn't felt safe since she'd left her perfect little sheltered life back home: she felt rather as if someone had grabbed her out of the kiddy pool, torn off her floaties and life jacket, and thrown her into the deep end. Also, the deep end of the pool had sharks. And Titus.

But perhaps that wasn't what Jake wanted to hear. Should she tell him the truth? She didn't really understand guys super well but she knew their egos were sensitive. And, besides, it...it wasn't his fault. Titus threw him like sixty feet, and...sure, Arianna knew Jake couldn't stand up to guys like him in a straight fight, but that didn't really matter. I mean, between the two of them, they should've been able to avoid most fights-his illusions and her songs? Arianna let her mind wander as to what the two of them could do in a fight, if they needed to...

But all of this was dodging the question. She closed her eyes, feeling his chest against her cheek, and only vaguely aware of the cold, snowy air around them.

"I don't think you're weak," Arianna whispered, her voice barely audible-any louder and it would've hurt too much (and yet, somehow, it still sounded melodic and sweet, even as hoarse and raspy as it was). "I..." Arianna stopped, unsure of what to say or where to take the conversation from there. "I trust you. Now..." she hesitated for a second, trying to work up her nerve. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, grinning softly. "Stop ruining the moment and kiss me."

Valery Arsov

Drake was busy putting the moves on Claire, or...something. Val wasn't really super concerned with what Drake was doing anymore, which was no insult to his friend, merely that his alcohol-infused brain was having trouble focusing on more than one or two people at a time, aaaaaand unfortunately Drake didn't have breasts. Val's mind had a very simply means of prioritizing.

Then Titus came stumbling in, and Val perked up a bit. "Oh, hey, I didn't know they were letting you within a hundred yards of a school again," Val slurred-although, what was in his mind an unparalleled burn was likely unable to understood by most people. Val could drink most people under the table, given both his size and the somewhat disturbing resistance to alcohol he'd built up over the years, but he'd been at it for a while: and even as carefree as he was, recent events at the school had him concerned. Val self-medicated to deal with concerns.

Despite his growing inebriation, however, Val wasn't one to let a serious threat slip by him. Not wanting to provoke a fight, but also not wanting to be caught off-guard, Val cast a sideways glance (likely more overt than his half-drunken self realized) at Drake, as if to say I'm not starting anything, but I can turn Big Hoss into a popsicle if needed. The subtle nuances Val intended were likely entirely incomprehensible, mainly because Val staggered back an entire step whenever he turned, making it seem more like he tripped over nothing than him sending a subtle message.

Well, now that he and Drake were entirely synchronized in terms of fighting strategies, it was time to be chivalrous: because, whether you wanted to say his motives lay with getting in ladies' pants or genuine kindness (a fair mix of both was probably the most likely answer), Val didn't like to see women get roughed up. He shifted over, putting himself slightly between Ariel or whatever her name had been and Titus, letting his hands fall to his sides and curl into fists.

"Hey...I don't....uh...sh*t," Val muttered, unable to put together anything coherent. "Drake. Drake, tell him."

Change of song:

Drake Deltori Blackmore.


Ah, great. Titus the meathead had arrived. He remembered the guy from last week, and Drake was just about ready to give the guy a pounding. "Well, my d*ck just got soft..." He quietly whispered to himself. It seems that the guy hasn't learned his lesson from last week. Looks like Drake will have to teach him a few himself. Except it was all apart of Drake's nature to be a taunting smartass, constantly. "That's new..." Drake started off, cheeky grin on his face, "... You didn't get invited to that party EVERYONE got invited to." He slid his goggles down over his eyes. "That's a first!" This wasn't unsurprising behavior. Drake rarely saw anyone as a threat, not even the biggest, meanest, craziest motherf*ckers out there. Titus isn't an exception. "And you forget, my bud, Val here has style. He don't need to drug 'em because they already love 'em." Jesus, it rhymes, I should become a rapper.

The problem that Drake found himself facing is that they're in a pretty crowded party, and, thus, his signature plasma form would cause unnecessary collateral damage. Hm... He hasn't gotten into a real fight with his new shape-shifter form. Yeah, that's what he'll do if a fight. "Now, how about everyone just walk away from this, and enjoy the par-tay? Ya'll don't have to end things in blood..." He gave Claire and Titus a toothy grin, "... Blood." Drake knew that this plan was likely to end up being a waste of time - But he was just stalling for time while he transforms. Drake's skin turned into a silvery color briefly, before it snapped back to his usual skin color. He had changed into his shape-shifting form and shape-shifted into himself, no one except the observant would notice. Then his form took the properties of the blast metal that coats the arena. He'd be pretty hard to hit.

So unless Titus backs off, he'd get one mean fight from Drake.


Gabriela Mya Valos.


When the doors slammed open, Gabriela couldn't help but give one quick glance. What she saw welled enough anger to turn that glance into a stare, and obviously she stopped dancing. She balled her fists up, and grit her teeth together, making it fairly obvious that she was angered. Titus, that giant motherf*cker that's on the very top of her sh*tlist. "Oh. Hell. No." She hissed venomously. There was no way in hell that she would let Titus walk around acting like he's top dog, after what he did last night. That really grinded her gears. The obvious action would be to beat Titus around the party a few times, letting everyone know what happens when you screw with a Valos. Because this was about not showing weakness. Gabe knew that she had to set an example. You know? Let everyone know that she, nor any of the other Valos, isn't anyone that gets walked all over. "Excuse me for a minute, Kate." Gabe said to Kate, quickly making her way over to Titus.


Bloodsucker, & Carmen 'Lily' Santo.


"Now aren't you a good pup?" Bloodsucker smiled at Merry, "You and your girlfriend might come out of this one alive!" He put his knife away, making Lily slightly relieved that she (Only to realize that they are taking her somewhere). He tightly clenched Lily with one of his arms, keeping her nice and still with his elbow. With his now freehand, he grabbed Merry's shoulder tightly, and grinned. "Flashbang we are making an exit!" He said to seemingly no one in particular.

Once again, all three people in the room disappeared in a bright flash of light.


Heartbreaker, & Flashbang.


Walking around outside when there's supervillains afoot was a particularly bad idea.

Especially when you're in clear view of a sniper that just never misses. Heartbreaker saw Mina all alone in the cold and the snow through the scope of her sniper-rifle. The girl was likely not the brightest light, being alone in the dark, and having headphones on. It'd just be a mercy that the Changeling Unit gets to her before anyone else does. "Hey Bang, we got one..." Heartbreaker said with a sadistic smile on her face. She quickly aimed the sights directly at the side of Mina's neck. She pulled the trigger, and with perfect accuracy the dart would hit her right in the next, and incapacitate her in moments. Which was enough time for Flashbang to teleport them to their prison.

Jake Vin Valos.

Shade wrote:

"I don't think you're weak," Arianna whispered, her voice barely audible-any louder and it would've hurt too much (and yet, somehow, it still sounded melodic and sweet, even as hoarse and raspy as it was). "I..." Arianna stopped, unsure of what to say or where to take the conversation from there. "I trust you. Now..." she hesitated for a second, trying to work up her nerve. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, grinning softly. "Stop ruining the moment and kiss me."

There was plenty of doubts still lingering in Jake, he had a very good hunch that Arianna was lying through her teeth. There was a conflict in Jake whether or not he should be cynical, or just, as Arianna says, stop ruining the moment. That said, what more could Jake say? He had one thing to do here, and one thing alone. She wouldn't be his first kiss, so he wasn't in the least bit nervous. Confident that he couldn't possibly screw this up, but fearful that someone else could come in and ruin this moment. Jake leaned in close, to give Arianna the most passionate kiss he could, without his tongue, because he's actually classy! At the corner of his eye, he saw something that made him lose concentration, because it was just that much of a surprise what he saw. "Oh f*ck!" He immediately pulled back from that kiss, turning his head to the source of the sudden change of mood. It was their 'friend' (Using the loosest definition of the word) Abraham Gene. Their savior, the golem that saved them from Titus, he was thankful. But he hadn't a clue where Abe was, or what happened, after last night, but at least hoped that he was okay. "I forgot about him!" The shock, and the sudden realization, had inadvertently made him lose his concentration that he was so desperately trying to maintain. The illusions over their heads disappeared, and made them visible to everyone in the field. He hadn't realized this, until it was too late. He was hoping that Abe wouldn't notice them and move on. But Jake knew one thing...

... He was cockblocked yet again.

Abraham Gene

"Look, we're talking issues here," Abraham said in a low voice to himself in frustration as he walked out of the school's detention center. His fists were squeezed into tight spheres of concentrated anger, and through his eyes, he imagined Jake and Arianna before him and his eyes were fixed on these fake figments. That he and his associates were standing alone in the hall, despite his vigorous marching through the school corridors. "I sweep in, save your dumb ass, beat the living shit out of the guy about to kill y'all, spend all night and the next day in that god damn detention room, and I don't even get a fucking thank you? Oh, and Ari, I thought I told you to call me. Not some two-bit magic jockey that can't lift fifty above his head!"

This spat of talking to himself only went to get him more worked up, driving him to throw a wild, aimless punch at the air. Which in turn, caused him to loose balance and nearly fall over. Oh, great! So everything was looking to embarrass him! In a fit of aggravation, his foot solidified into rock and stomped it straight into the tile floor with all his strength. Whatever the floor was made of, it must've been made to withstand a lot of force, since only a smidgen of a crack was formed beneath his boot. Of course, not thinking to brace the rest of his leg led him to pull a quadricep, the weakness stinging throughout his thigh. Although frustrated with his poor luck, Abe at least let off some steam, and appeared much calmer as he walked awkwardly forward.

He wasn't allowed to hear much of what had happened after the incident with Titus, but the security seemed to be exceptionally suspicious of Abe until some point, as if they suspected him of more than just beating the hell out of the local meat-head, but calmed down about him until whatever time it was last night. Abe didn't even have a clock. Just the clothes on his back. But he definitely noticed some anxiety. Did something else happen besides his scuttle? Pfft, whatever. Not his problem.

What is his problem however was Jake and Ari! Despite Ari doing just as Jake did and not even bothering to check up on him, Jake was at the top of Abe's shit list. God damn illusionists and their stupid games. Ari seemed out of her mind at that time, but Jake was definitely conscious enough to listen to Abe and pansy away off to pansy land. And without a thanks! Truly, the pinnacle of pansyness if there ever was such a thing. It was the giggling of a couple nearby students tipped him off. They made light chatter about a party on in the lounge. While he was not quite dressed in party attire - that is to say, baggy jeans and a sleeveless undershirt (not entirely his fault, seeing as how he just got out) - he still had his intentions set on going there to see if he could find them. For right now, his appearance no longer concerned him, but the ungrateful fool that made a tool out of him. If he thought Titus was scary, man, Jake is in for a surprise.

Unfortunately, a patch of land separated the two buildings. To make it to the lounge, he'd have to trek across thick snow. But this did little to deter Abe's march, who's bare arms morphed into solid stone to resist the chill winter air. However, upon turning a corner and exiting through the solid metal door and entering a frozen field, to his surprise, Jake and Arianna had suddenly appeared before him. Jake in particular was in a good amount of shock and surprise, which was a pretty good indicator that he probably wasn't up to any good. And there was Arianna, with him. Hell, if that wasn't suspicious, what was?

Well shit!" Abe called out to him indignantly. "If only I had known how much I was appreciated, eh? How about next time I let you take on MacArthur? I mean, if what I've done so obviously means jack shit to you and all. And what do you think you're doing out here? Alone and invisible? Let's hear it mister illusion guy!"

---

Jesse Sutor

coming soon

Jake Vin Valos.


And good god, Jake pissed Abe off. That doesn't sound good. Especially since it was Jake's inability to protect Arianna that got them in this in the first place. So he has no choice but to try his best to talk Abe down. If that fails, and Abe gets violent, then he could just illusion his way out of it. Hopefully that is, last time it didn't go as planned. Jake took slow steps forward, towards Abe, and was hoping that he isn't too violent. But, f*ck! He could feel the anger vibrate off of him! He threw his hands ups, in a gesture for him to calm down. "Look... we were just..." He looked back towards Arianna with a less than hopeful look on his face. "... Celebrating the second chance you gave us!" Good move, Jake, be a smartass to the one guy you don't want to fist you. He mentally scolded himself. Jake continued, trying to ease the situation, "Look, I'm sorry that I couldn't find you today after what happened..." Jake figured that he could pass it off as not being able to find Abe, instead of the more alienating I forgot about you, "But now's as good of a time as any; I'd like to thank you for the help last night." At this point, he had closed the distance between himself and Abe, "What happened to you after we left?"

Niza
-

Niza carefully watched at Seth downed the rest of his glass, noticing the way he leaned back and smiled as if he were drunk, though such a circumstance didn't match his words. He seemed to know what he was talking about and spoke pretty well for a drunk person... But then different people reacted to a lot of alcohol in different ways. He was correct about the party- it was pretty pointless. Sure, it kept a lot of the student body in one area and calm things, but did it really help with things? And also it was mostly a reason for kids to get drunk than it was to calm things- for kids to get drunk and do who-knows-what, becoming more violent and more likely to do idiotic things.

Then Seth asked an interesting question- what was her view on the situation? Niza put her half-empty glass on the table, letting out a dry laugh. What was her view on the situation? It might as well have been a rhetorical question, in her opinion. The input on the situation should have been obvious.

"You know what I think?" Niza's lips curled up into a smirk as she replied to the question, "it's all just like a balloon. All of the problems are just building up, and last night was a sign, if you ask me. It's all just like blowing up a balloon- all these problems are just adding on, and on, and on. You know what happens when the balloon has too much air in it. It pops, letting out a loud sound that some even find frightening. Last night is proof that such a circumstance is nearing. Sure, fights are normal here, but even some of the students that have been coming here for a while seem disturbed by the recent events. Things might seem bad now, but they are probably going to worsen even more. And more. And more. And soon, the balloon is going to pop and even more chaos will come."

-
Mina
-

It was a bit comical when Mina was hit with the tranquilizer dart. Being naturally a sleepy person because of her power, she was already going to fall asleep soon. This being said, the moment she was hit, instead of her body trying to fight the tranquilizer, it was almost as if her body embraced the idea of being knocked out. When the dart hit her, instead of standing for a few seconds, maybe showing some shock on her face as normal people would- instead of falling slowly to the ground as one normally would, showing signs of struggle against the drug- Mina just crumpled to the ground. She found herself staring at... Herself, now in spirit form.

"What the heck!?" Mina yelped as she looked at the tranquilizer dart that was now stuck into her neck. "Who shot me!?" She demanded, not even caring if she could or couldn't be heard. Her eyes darted around the area, searching for who had knocked her out. She sighed and sat down, glaring at her own body and waiting for whoever it was that did this to come and get her. They were so going to pay for this.

-
Kynan and Jaylin
-

Jaylin and Kynan nodded in unison as their reply to Jaska. They were both not sure if they should be jealous of Jaska's flight or not, now. It had been fun at first... But he was now used to it. But it was such an awesome power!

Both of the boys were now indecisive on whether or not they would like to have such a power- of course, they liked the power, but were unsure if they would have wanted it, now. Why have a power you just get used to and don't find that fun after a while? Once again this was just a confirmation that the boys preferred their power over everyone else's- it wasn't boring, ever, with someone constantly sharing a telepathic link with you. It's like being able to have someone to always talk to- not a full moment!

"So got any questions about our powers?" Jaylin asked, giving Jaska a wide grin.

((Half-frogged. Meh))

Jaska Din Valos.


Hm. A question for the twins. Jaska couldn't come up with a good question right off the bat. They did ask him a question about his power that didn't go 'too deep'... It just wouldn't be fair to just leave them hanging like that. He did have to keep the conversation going strong. Which was hard, since, despite their similar age group, the twins and Jaska have very few things in common. But the boy was far too inexperienced to realize a distinct lack of chemistry. He had a hard time coming up with it, the growing 'pressure' was also making it far more difficult for him to come up with a question, tapping his chin with a clawed finger. Until it simply popped up in his head, "Oh! Has anyone ever... You know, liked you less, because of your power?" This was a more personal question, as he was hoping that he could find a similarity between the three, if not he can just disregard it. As Jaska knew that both Gabe and Jake were uncomfortable around the twins.


Flashbang, & Heartbreaker.


"Tagged and time for you to bag." Heartbreaker said with a maniacal grin on her face, as she watched Mina drop like a fly. Just like she anticipated. All she has to do is bag the brat before anyone sees her unconscious and tries something.

On cue, Flashbang teleported over to Mina in a bright flash of light, and did the same thing that she did to Jackson and Ene, kneel down and try to touch her. Except a monumental force had sent her flying at the very last second. She had to have been sent a good ten feet away. Obviously the first thing that happened was that Flashbang lost her composure, and was stunned by the attack. She quickly recovered and reared her head, swinging it back towards Mina.

Only to see her get pulled towards a new individual, who was short, but still imposing. Obviously it was a use of his power. A half-grin had etched itself on Flashbang's face. Looks like things just got a little interesting.


Ray, & Rush, vs. The Changeling Unit (Bloodsucker, Mannequin, Heartbreaker, & Flashbang).

Spoiler:

"Now, I don't know who the hell you are, unless you want to be turned into a stain on the wall; back off." Ray said, making his appearance known, and his telekinetic aura glowing brightly, shining a blue light on the area around him. Waving gracefully. He had no plans of letting them take Mina. He would have grabbed Mina and hauled ass, but he knew that there was a sniper on the roof. He was the distraction, Rush was taking care of her right now.

The sights of her rifle were deadset on Ray's throat, and had a truly evil grin on her face. "Sorry sucker, but you just volunteered!" She giggled, laughing. Before she could pull the trigger, she heard three objects roll up onto the roof. Sounded like grenades. They were grenades, Rush had been sneaking up on Heartbreaker, and tossed some grenades up onto the roof. With lightning fast reflexes, Heartbreaker had bunny hopped off the roof, to a free fall, which would have been quite dangerous if she didn't have a teleporter on her side. "Bang!" She shouted, before a flash of light had quickly engulfed her, and she hit the ground. Without the velocity of a several story building, merely falling at least two feet. The grenades that Rush had tossed up there were merely electric-shock grenades. They exploded, sending a painful electric jolt in all directions. Fortunately for Heartbreaker, she got off in time. She gave a quick glance at her surroundings; she was right next to Flashbang, their opponent, Ray, was standing several meters away from them and in between them was Mina.

Flashbang was already up onto her feet, and staring down Ray with a murderous passion. She had reached inside her uniform and pulled out a pistol, a glock, customized, and narrowed down the barrel at Ray, and just pulled the trigger, a loud bang filled the area, which was somewhat masked by the booming bass of the party. Before it could hit Ray, it entered a sort of momentary stasis, before idly dropping to the ground. Ray lifted up his hand, and the gun had been pulled out of Flashbang's hand, no matter how hard she tried, and flew towards Ray. It hit the ground between them, and Ray raised his foot, before slamming it. Ray created a giant telekinetic copy of his leg that crushed it when he brought his foot down.

"Dammit, bang! Leave the shooting to me!" Heartbreaker hissed through her teeth, before aiming her own gun at Ray. She was just about to pull the trigger and end this fight, when she saw yet another brat creep in at the corner of her eye. She pivoted towards him and fired a blind shot at him. That's when she realized that she was still using tranquilizer darts, and that this rifle couldn't use real bullets... And that her aim was disrupted at the worst moment. A transparent arm had appeared and grabbed her rifle, aiming it skywards, and the dart went god knows where. Ray was likely behind it, as his hand was doing the exact same grabbing motion that the arm was. He didn't relent one bit, and had the gun tightly wrapped under a death grip, never letting it move one inch. Heartbreaker didn't release the gun, and acted like it was her body part being grabbed, despite the fact that she could just grab another one. "Saved by one of your fuckin' buddies yet again..." Her voice was strained, blatant that this little engagement has started to really piss her off. Time for them to stop showing mercy, and execute these brats before even more come across the scene and make their job much harder.

Rush had arrived at the scene, already armed with weaponry. In one hand, he had his taser-dart gun, and in the other, he had a glove with circuitry and other electronics weaved into the design. He jolted when Heartbreaker pointed the rifle at him, but was ultimately relieved when Ray had pointed the rifle away. Without wasting a second of his time, he raised the dart gun at Flashbang. "Please adhere to request. Both of you. Have entered our trap. Failure only outcome. Success for us."

They had no intentions of giving up. Not when they're so ahead in the plan. Flashbang teleported behind Rush, and delivered a swift heel to the back of his knee. Which was quick and surprising enough that Rush couldn't prepare his body in time. She followed that kick with a shove to his back, getting him to his knees, and following that with a sharp kick to his back.

When Ray saw this, he quickly swung his arm towards Flashbang, creating a glowing blue copy of his arm that mimicked the exact process. The arm would have knocked Flashbang off her feet, if she hadn't teleported out of the way, where she had teleported was unknown. However, this had an unintended side-effect of making him lose focus. The arm that was holding Heartbreaker's gun had disappeared, and she was already mid-way through pointing it at him. He acted fast, floating towards Heartbreaker at high speeds, he did a sweeping motion with his arm, which once again spawned an arm that pushed the gun aside. Before he dove in and tried to deliver a telekinesis enhanced punch. Heartbreaker's reflexes and agility was so sharp that she rolled out of the way, she had already pointed the rifle at him, and fired a dart. Unfortunately, darts don't go as fast as bullets do, so Ray had an easier time stopping this one. Before he grabbed the gun with another limb again and threw it into the snow. 

At this point, Rush had gotten up to his feet, and had his dart gun pointed at Heartbreaker's face, one twitch and she'd get an electric shock through her face.

"Look lady," Ray tried to plead with her, "You can't win this... Just give up, there's no point."

"Nope, I can't," Heartbreaker seemingly agreed with her, "But I have friends who can." An evil grin had etched it's own onto Heartbreaker's face.

A large flash of light had appeared in the distance, followed by two knives thrown at Ray and Rush's feet.

Spoiler:

Flashbang wasn't leaving her ally in the dust. She knew that she would need help, because what they already have would do little to stop Ray. She brought their heavy hitter. Bloodsucker, and she also got the Mannequin. There the three walked over and closer to the scene, appearing as silhouettes until they were close enough.

Bloodsucker was the first one to speak, "Now, now... Can you kids tell me what the problem is?" He sounded incredibly arrogant, and spoke strangely causally, like this was all nothing. "We were just picking up a... volunteer, yes. There's no need to kill my assistants...." He gave Ray a downright sinister glare. "I'm Bloodsucker, would you mind coming with me? You've just volunteered." He reached into his coat and pulled out his knives at lightning fast speed.

Ray quickly sized up Bloodsucker... The guy looked tough, this wasn't going to be easy. The... thing, the thing that looked like a Mannequin, was easily the single weirdest, inhuman, thing that Ray had the displeasure of encountering. It didn't matter now, because they had to grab Mina and haul ass. The odds were looking less and less in their favor. Rush didn't waste any time in shooting everything he had at them. He wildly pulled the trigger of his dart gun, releasing every dart he had in the clip. While pointing his gloved hand at the Mannequin, the glove crackled with electricity with one command, and a stream of electricity was shot at the cyborg. But it had no effect on them... He might as well be throwing cotton balls. The Mannequin didn't have any flesh, so the electricity and the darts simply did nothing. Bloodsucker's body crystalised with blood red jewels - that's what seemed to happen - at the points of the dart's impact, before continuing his hellish march. Flashbang teleported out of the way.

"To hell with you and your plan you b*stards!" Ray screamed his battle cry, while swinging his arm as hard as he could for one hell of a haymaker, all for Bloodsucker. A truly massive telekinetic copy of Ray's arm had appeared, the size of a big rig, and shadowed the motion. The fist hit Bloodsucker with an insane amount of kinetic force, and sent the monster of a man flying away. Before he impacted the wall with the force to put a hole in it. That attack would have killed anyone else... But not Bloodsucker. On impact, the bloody crystals had covered Bloodsucker's body, taking a bit of the force. However, it wasn't enough to protect him from the full force of the attack. His body was mangled and bloody, but, in less than a few moments, his body was completely healed, obviously showing off an advanced form of regeneration. The Mannequin had already closed the distance, skittering on the snowy ground like a bug at high speed, he lunged at Ray, retracting the blades in the palms of his hand. Ray floated out of the way, a few feet to the right, and the Mannequin landed at his original position, but he wasn't going to stop there. In a display of the Mannequin's literally inhuman flexibility, he stabbed his bladed hand at Ray, a fast and unexpected attack. Which successfully landed, and made a nice wound on his hip.

While they were distracted, Heartbreaker had turned around and ran for her rifle. Ray had the Mannequin and Bloodsucker, it was time for Rush to handle Heartbreaker. While she was running, he pointed his dart gun at her, and emptied what was left from the last attempt. She peered over her shoulder, and entered a, if I may say, bullet-time. She did a back-flip, and all the darts had missed. While she touched the ground, she gave Rush a mocking smile. She was within arms reach of her rifle. Flashbang had once again teleported behind Rush, but he wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice. He spun around and jammed his gloved palm outward, once again, Flashbang had teleported away again. This time the flash could be seen in the distance. However, this was yet another distraction. A dart had hit Rush in the side of the neck. Before the drugs kicked in, Rush saw Heartbreaker with her rifle in hand.

Heartbreaker got approached Rush, taunting, "You know I've been waiting this entire fight... Just. To. Do. That. Have fun in dreamland, darlin!" After her sentence, Rush fell unconscious. Lying backfirst in the snow. She walked over to him, rifle slung over her shoulders, standing over him in a moment, before laughing. Heartbreaker raised her boot off the ground, and positioned it over his crotch. Before putting all of her weight down into one truly painful stomp to the manhood, heel first. Heartbreaker laughed, "That's just payback for being a lil' pain in the ass, earlier."

The fight between Ray, against Mannequin and Bloodsucker had gone on a little further. The Mannequin had dealt a few moment wounds onto Ray. Several slashes all over Ray's arm, and had stabbed Ray through the foot. If it wasn't for his telekinesis, Ray would have a hard time maneuvering. All while Bloodsucker had gained his second wind and rejoined the battle. Mannequin had charged Ray, moving nothing but his legs, the rest of his mechanical body was inhumanly still, all while Blood leaped through the air, blades out for a kill, seemingly gliding. When the Mannequin got close, he cocked his blades for a stab, seemingly. Once his arms were back a significant enough distance, he instead flipped backwards, retracting the blades in his feet, kicking upwards. Which was to confuse Ray, with success. Ray had his own little plan for the cyborg (Grab the Mannequin and tear him to bit telekinetically). The wrench was thrown in the plan when the Mannequin flipped instead, Ray had reacted quickly enough to move backwards and put his arms in the way so he didn't get disemboweled. This had left him open for Bloodsucker, whom made his descent, foot first and kicked Ray right in his chest, knocking the wind out of him, and sending him flat on his ass. A yell of pain came out of Ray's throat, followed by groans on pain while on the ground. Jesus, this hurt like hell.

Bloodsucker had kept a impish grin on his face, scraping the blades of his knives together. He approached Ray, slowly, he wanted to savor the moment. He gloated, "You know, so many people lost their lives, but at their last moments; fought death off, with varied success... Defiant to the end, huh?"

"... F*ck you..." Ray groaned, which was painful to do. He wasn't going to give up here. Yeah, he is going to be 'Defiant to the end'. Because hell with giving up. With what was left of his willpower, he exerted a pushing force in all directions, and tried to crawl off. It wasn't a strong enough force to keep them away, though.

Bloodsucker had brought down his foot onto Ray's chest. "... No, you're just not my type." He raised a fist up into the air, and punched Ray extremely hard, square in his face. Knocking Ray unconscious, and ending their fight, once and for all. He stood straight up, laughing. "Let's go. I don't feel like dealing with anymore weaklings."

Moments later, everyone involved vanished in a flash of light. Thanks to Flashbang. To the Changeling unit's  prison that they had set up on the island.

Arianna Madrigal

Everything was warm and the Symphony and the whispers of corpses and kidnapped schoolchildren all went away for a second. Maybe two. Arianna reached up with her hands, unfamiliar with the art of kissing but guided by instinct on what to do and how to do it. She caressed Jake's head with her hands, pulling him closer to he-

Jake was cursing and the magic was gone, she was suddenly shivering in the cold and the pain in her throat had come back and

"J-Jake? What's wrong?" She felt a very sudden whiplash of emotions, angry that as soon as they'd had a quiet moment, together and alone, everything had been so close to being perfect and then-her voice hurt as she spoke, her throat still sore, but it was mending quickly. Perhaps by tomorrow she'd be running full-speed again.

No. No no no no. It was Abe. She was grateful that Abe had rescued them from Titus-beyond grateful, but all of a sudden, everything got to be too much for Arianna. There were people dead and dying at this school, and she was so close to losing her voice and she'd maybe almost been raped last night and Jake had done those awful things and now Abe and Jake were going to fight and she couldn't stand another fight, it wasn't-

Arianna's response was perhaps immature, but it was understandable. She shut down. Arianna closed her eyes and turned away from the two of them, resting her head in her hands as she tried desperately to figure things out, to make even a little sense of the insanity that was the Academy, but it was impossible to think. The Symphony had come back in full force, and it tore at her focus with how loud and brutal it was tonight. Abe's raw anger and Jake's passion and worse than that there was some bitter nocturne just beyond it, some terrible omen, like the leitmotif of the devil himself, and Arianna just couldn't handle it.

"Please...please don't...I don't want..." Arianna's voice gave out, barely audible over the screams anyways, and she sat down in the snow, dress soaking through quickly and her whole body shaking with the cold. This night had become so horrible so damned quickly.

There was nothing she could do. Not the night before and not now. She hated it.

Drake Deltori Blackmore.


"Buh-bye." Drake gave Titus a sh!t-eating grin and waved to him as the lumbering titan decided to leave them alone. Which was A-okay in Drake's book. The guy needs to learn that he isn't the top badass around here just because he's big and tall. Drake holds that title because he's easily the strongest mutant in the room right now, and that isn't going to change anytime soon - Unless he gets bored. It wouldn't be long until someone gets tired of it and kicks Titus' ass so hard that not even the best regeneration will fix that. Drake would love to be that guy, but meh, he doesn't care enough, and he personally had the feeling that Titus would go down easily. And Drake's a man that loves a good challenge.

That aside. Drake went back to his cheerful group... Now that Titus is gone, then it was time that they continue their conversation. If their sarcasm and jokes count as a 'conversation' that is. Perhaps they'll mix things up a bit. Drake is barely intoxicated. The plan was to get so drunk that he doesn't remember the day before - Which will make disproving any involvement a breeze. Right now he's consumed... One bottle. Well ho-ly f*ck. He needs to fix that as soon as possible. Everyone else needs to follow. Because what good is getting drunk off your ass if you can't do it with friends? Well, if he called Eric, Claire, and Ariella friends. Hopefully he won't wake up in another dress this time around, and wake up next to a sexy lady (I.E Claire or Ariella) like a normal human being.

It was time for a drinking contest. Drake slammed his drink on the table, so hard that he caused cracks to form at the very bottom of it. "Alright ladies!" He loudly announced, getting up off his seat, and taking steps forward. An over the shoulder glance was shot in the direction of his 'gang'. "It's about time we stop talking, and do something a little more interesting." He started laughing, "Gather all the booze you can. We're having ourselves a drinking contest to see who's the lightweight." He quickly walked over to the nearest cooler, and grabbed it tightly, ready to drag it off somewhere. He needed a place to have the contest! He looked around, and saw that Gabe girl punch out some drunk kid, and started laughing a bit, before he continued on with his own business. He saw an empty table, used by kids to place their drinks on while they danced. Perfect. Drake dragged the cooler over to it, and cleared it off trash and other junk by sweeping it with both hands, until it was clean... Mostly.

Drake quickly lined up drink after drink, after drink, on the table. Until the table was covered with them. He grabbed a seat, sat down on it, leaned back kicked his feet on the table, then put his behind his head. "Ready when you are."


Gabriela Mya Valos.


There were few things that could possibly divert Gabe from her warpath. Not booze, not girls, not money. Literally she was relentless as the Terminator when fired up. Possibly only Jake or Jaska needing help. The only way to stop Gabe is to redirect her anger at something less important, and hope that she forgets about it.

Fortunately for Titus; that 'redirection' came fast.

Gabe was marching up to Titus, she almost got a clear shot at him, he was trying to leave. There were a few people in the way, but so what? They would come out with a few burns, but yeah, everyone with a brain would get out of the way the second the lasers started flying. Titus is the one who would get the worst of it. Gabe's hands started glowing with a brilliant blood-red light, that gradually got brighter and brighter with every passing moment, until it could be seen in all the way across the room. Red energy coursed down Gabe's arms into her hands. It was hard for her to see at this point, but that didn't matter. She (At least) thinks she knows where he is. She was almost ready

That's when she felt someone bump into her. Not just a simple bump. She was hit hard enough to get knocked over. It was certainly surprising, since she had phased out the world at large. Just focusing on herself and her target. Getting bumped into was enough of a shock to snap her right back into reality. "F*ck!" Her teeth grit as she swore, falling on her side. It was fortunate that she wasn't about to shoot, or else she could have really messed someone up - That would be bad because it wouldn't be her target! Gabe hit the ground on her side, fortunately, she knows how to fall correctly that she doesn't get too badly hurt. She was caught off guard, disoriented slightly. The bum that crashed into her was saying something... She didn't know what exactly, because she was too irritated to pay attention, but the voice was male, deep. The guy was standing behind her missing eye, so she had to turn her head to get a good view of him.

The boy was short, stocky, jock-like. He had blond hair and a military hair-cut to match. He wore a red track jacket, unzipped, showing some T-shirt that said "DO YOU EVEN LIFT" which was ironic since the brat looked like he hadn't lifted a penny in his life. The kid was average, if she wasn't letting bias take over. He was spouting some lame flirts, that would never be considered in a thousand years. So she was ignoring him.

Gabe had looked around, scanning the crowd for Titus. She hadn't seen Titus anywhere in her, limited, gaze. He got away... She thought to herself, right now the irritation was turning into blood-thirsty anger. Directed at the fool that bumped into her. If he ran now, then perhaps Gabe might get over it soon enough. But he stood there, making more and more stupid comments that Gabe ignored. She rose to her feet, slowly, but was. Gabe looked down at her dress leather jacket combo... F*ck. Just f*ck. The bastard spilled some of his drink on her dress! That. If

If that wasn't enough, the boy was still running his mouth even though Gabe had been ignoring him, "... So, what do you say babe? Want to tell me how you lost that eye over a drink?"

This was the last straw. Gabe just let all of her anger control her for a moment. It was over in a flash, the second that she felt her scarred hand come in contact with another body. When she realized what she had done. The kid was on the ground, spread eagle, with a bloody nose, and Gabe's fist tingled with a slight amount of pain like it usually did when she punched someone not holding back.

Aaaaaaand everyone was staring at her, and the unconscious boy at her feet.

Perfect.


Sage Lucas Pimm.

Spoiler:

Parties certainly wasn't Sage's cup of tea. Especially since they were more of a person that stayed in the shadows, despite shining brightly with their presence. They walked throughout the room, every small light hanging overhead started shining brighter than it normally did for a few moments. Reverting to their usual intensity the moment that they left their presence. When they stopped, they stopped near the dancefloor, looking down on themself. Sage wasn't dressed fancily, or even for a party. They were dressed up wearing the same thing they were wearing all day. A light-grey hoodie, with matching sweatpants, and white sneakers. Their elegant blond(e) hair was flowing off their back, occasionally lighting up with a white light, indicating emotions of some sort. Sage walked through the chaoticness of the party, looking for someone they knew. Their eyes were ever so aware, but Sage had brought an apple, and was occasionally taking bites out of that.

Still there was that feeling that things aren't right here. There was a stranger, darker presence lingering overhead, and that everyone here was at risk. Sage didn't know whether or not they were just being paranoid because the headmaster's daughter was kidnapped last night, but, hey, staying alert never hurt anyone. Especially being someone as lonesome as Sage is.

Abraham lifted his right arm up and showed it off in a ninety-degree angle, solid rock. His eyes didn't leave Jake's person and were as piercing as ever. The good old Boston charm worked every time, the boy was practically shaking in his shoes! Or so Abe would like to imagine. Maybe. Maybe he was, but was trying to keep his cool and stand off against him. Which wouldn't work, Abe thought he should know. And on top of that, he had the audacity to try to play clever with him! To answer Jake's snark, Abe simply closed in even closer, his gaze and arm still as ever. In response to Jake's second chance comment, Abe said, "I am the one guy you don't want to be fisted by right now."

And oh boy, wasn't that the truth. Titus pummeled this brat senseless, and Abe tore the meat head down. Not without a little sacrifice, he had to admit. So far Titus was the only one to see his special secret ability. It was one of the first time he had used it - not the first, but the first time to use it after extensive training. Now he knew that it worked, but Abe was disappointed his first big reveal had to be used in response to a try-hard like Titus MacArthur. But that freak's strength was probably greater than his own. It was a good thing that big boy was jack shit fighting him.

"As for the guy that nearly killed you - who I saved you from, by the way," Abe glared at him as if Jake had already forgotten again, "he would be dead if he were any other guy. But the bastard just doesn't die and I don't think he'll be forgetting about you or me. It's long overdue for apologies, buddy."

Abe's voice grew sinister, putting emphasis on the word "buddy". Slung like a jagged knife being thrusted into one's belly, and then twisted. He looked at Arianna, a pitiful pile on the ground. Her spell wasn't necessarily in effect - her voice was shot and she can't quite speak up to an audible volume. Thusly, his infatuation had since atrophied. "And you! I thought I said for you to call me when there was trouble! Are you happy now? Now you know what happens when you rely on illusion boy for help. I wonder what Titus would've done to you if I hadn't come by? I bet it would've been pretty damn terrible!"

Jake Vin Valos.


Jesus, this guy must have telepathy!

".... I'll keep that in mind." Jake said in response to the fisting comment. Jake's eyes didn't avert themselves from Abe, nor his display of power... It was definitely something that he didn't want to tangle with - Which, as much as he hated the thought, was becoming more and more likely. Abe didn't seem to calm down one bit! Even after he tried so hard to keep his cool and talk the guy down things weren't looking that bright. If it came down to it, he had hoped that he could at least escape - But, as much as he wanted to flee, he wasn't going to leave Arianna all alone with Abe, no, he wasn't going to leave her alone at all. Jake contently listened as Abe told him about the little engagement he had with Titus (Wait? You tried to kill him?). Waiting for the moment for him to stop flapping his gums, so he can insert a comment... Which he backed out of at the last moment. He knew that nothing he could say would have any impact, Abe was too stubborn to consider the point-of-view of anyone but himself. It'd a waste of breath. And Jake hates wasting. His mouth was posed to speak, he stepped forward, about to poke his finger out. He reverted to a more neutral stance. Mouth closed. Arms at his side. Face blank. Jake didn't have anything to say on the matter, really...

But

It was getting so hard to keep that 'I want everything to be chill' mindset (And to an extent, his silence) when Abe just constantly talks down to him like he's inferior, like he's the high and mighty champion. It's been that way from the moment. "Look, Abe..." Jake put his foot down. Literally. He raised his foot off the ground, then brought it down with all of his strength. He looked down to see a deep, shoe-shaped, indent in the snow. Before he could say something to Abe, Arianna had caught his attention. She dropped to the snow, begging for them to stop, at least that's what he thought she was saying. "Arianna!" He called, coming to her side, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" He was heavily concerned about Arianna, he wanted to know what got her upset. Quickly enough, he managed to draw up a few conclusions. Maybe it was stress of the recent events? Perhaps she feared that a fight would break out? She doesn't like violence (But it's all around her) it makes perfect sense. Abe was now ranting to her about how unreliable and worthless he is, and it made him feel worse about not being able to protect Arianna. It made him angry. How the guy was just a total ass. Someone should take him down a few notches. But why can't that person be Jake? Perhaps Abe was physically superior to him in every way, but this wasn't about strength, power, none of that - It was about having the ability to stand up for himself.

This was hard. Tending to Arianna, and trying to protect his pride. He needed to choose what was important here. But he started something with Abe. He wanted to see it through.

Whether or not it was the right decision was to be seen. He was going to accept the consequences of his decisions. He stood straight up, staring Abe in the face, hands in his pockets. "That's enough!" He injected with the intent of cutting Abe off mid-sentence, "Look, pal, while I should have been better back there," Jake's eyes wandered off to the side, as if he was searching for one of his hallucinations manifested to torture him about the incident. Alas, there was nothing, which meant now was as good of a time as any. "But I will not stand here and let you guilt her about something she choose." He tilted his head downwards, letting his hat cover his face dramatically. Before speaking for himself, "... And I will not stand here and let you degrade me when I'm standing right here... I may not be able to move the mountains, I guess I lack the will and strength - But I will be better next time. I can promise her that."

If that wasn't enough, Jake had to top it off with a departing comment "... You got anything else to say? Because I'm real eager to hear more of your glorious input."

Jake had a feeling that everything would go wrong, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.