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

Niza
-

Niza kept the smirk present on her face. Okay, at least this guy wasn't an idiot that didnt think things through- he could free all of them, and he knew it. Considering that, she could guess his power from there- some sort of technopath. It is either that or he has influence abilities like hers, but she considered that highly improbable and even if he did, influence powers usually involve either outside knowledge of the person influenced or contact. If not, they are probably weak. Yeah. He was a technopath. She glanced in the direction he pointed as he spoke, nodding slightly. He fought them, too? Oh wow- all she got was a dart to the rear, and he got the marvelous chance to fight one? Well she felt important.

"Alright then, what do you suggest we d-" she was cut off when she felt someone tapping on her shoulder. Niza turned around to see a red-headed girl with red eyes. She noticed that she was holding the boy she met at the gym- Len's- hand and felt surprised. Who would even like that boring kid? Even so, she still looked at her intently.

-
Len, Bre, and Niza
-

After Ray told him the message for Rush, he gave him a questioning glance before shrugging and turning around to his other side to speak with Rush. Apparently Bre had heard the message that needed delivering because she was already trying to get Rush's attention. Len sighed, watching as she tapped in Niza's shoulder. When the girl turned around, Len began to speak. "Niza, can we speak with Rush?"

Niza was quiet for a moment before slowly turning around. So that was this geeky kid's name? She smirked and nodded, leaning back so that they could talk to Rush more easily without her in the way. "Whatever you want."

"We got a message for you from Ray," Len quietly said, before Bre intervened.

"Basically any little plans you hav... Schemes... That fun stuff. He said to send it back to them," Bre finished, her voice quieter than Len's since she wasn't as far from Rush. Their Captirs being just across the room made her nervous about being heard, so she didn't care if they probably wouldn't have been heard anyway- she felt the need to interject and make the talking quieter.

Dexter 'Rush' Chertok.


Ray? Sending a message down to him? That certainly got Rush's curiosity. He was asking about any plans Rush had cooked up. That was obvious, because in this situation, nobody could really do anything with these collars on. Hopefully he won't disappoint. He leaned in, towards Len, "Tell him, I'm planning something-" That's obvious "-but I need a distraction, before I can do anything." That was all he could say.


Ray Judah Drager, & The Changeling Unit.


((Assuming that Len passes down the message))


Ray passed down the message, and patiently waited for Rush to returned. Quickly enough, Len and Bre passed back down the message. Which was pretty much the same thing that they needed, a well placed distraction. Ugh. It came down to it. No other choices. He has to be the distraction. "Well, looks like I've pulled the short straw again. Here goes nothing...." Ray shook his head, his plan was to play their little game, at least, until Rush does his thing. Get them to gloat. Ray raised his head, loudly saying, "That is Amimoore Black Dellamorte, the headmaster's daughter you've nabbed yesterday."

It was surprising that anyone decided to even speak, Bloodsucker thought everyone was so petrified in fear that they couldn't speak. He turned to Ray, followed by a few members of the Changeling Unit, "Very attentive, I guess you want to play twenty questions?"

"Yeah, I want to know who the hell are the ten people you've maniacs killed..." Ray snarls,

"Looks like someone has been keeping up with their news." Bloodsucker said, surprised.

"You aren't as subtle as you think."

This boy was entertaining. Perhaps they should indulge him with some information. Because standing in this room with a bunch of scared kids was starting to get boring. "That's the fun part: we don't really know\ who exactly we killed, we saw easy targets, and we took them." Bloodsucker started off, walking towards Ray, playing with his knives. "Heh, we even took turns killing." He inquisitively raised one finger into the air, "In fact, on the first night, me and Heartbreaker and Mannequin killed the two students and the teacher." He started laughing loudly, "They were dead before they even knew what happened!" He threw the knife up into the air, before catching it by the bladed part. This movement cut his hand, strands of blood dripped down from his hand onto the floor. Before it closed shut. "Then everyone else had their turn... You know the rest."

He talks about murder like it's nothing. Ray thought to himself. But that's preaching to the choir at this point. I need to buy the Boy Genius more time. As much as I hate myself for this... "How exactly did you kill each and every one of them?"

"Oh? Now that you ask...." Bloodsucker continued, going on, in detail, about every grim detail of the murders. How each member of the Changeling Unit butchered people. It was something that Ray was willing to stomach if it gave Rush the opportunity to save everyone. Still Ray felt like this was just too easy... Like, Bloodsucker was only playing him along.


Dexter 'Rush' Chertok (2).


The moment that Ray put his distraction forward, now was a good time as any. "Niza, do it now, and be quick as you can, if you mess this up, at least we can try to act like we haven't tried to pull anything."

Jesse Sutor and Abraham Gene

"Nice to meet you both." Jesse said. He was relieved to know Jake knew who he was talking about, but still, it was disconcerting they he hasn't seen them either. They were missing, like Jake's siblings. And from the sounds of it, he hasn't seen some of his other friends either. This was starting to sound a little creepy. People were missing - perhaps at a party? There wasn't much noise in the facility, so the other place that would make sense is the ruins. But Lily and Merry didn't seem to be the types who enjoyed parties, especially if they're in some abandoned ruins. Jesse was getting increasingly worried with each passing second.

His concern was interrupted by Jake's words, who insisted that Jesse stuck close to him. Invisible? So his power was invisibility? Oookay, Jesse wasn't so concerned about himself to be honest, and his own ability allowed him to know who was around him before being seen - and then some. That's something he should probably share, but there was something else that kept him from doing so. He'll wait it out and help as soon as he becomes useful. Suddenly, another chill crawled up his spine as the breathy voice of another apparition spoke into his mind. BOY DARK SKIN ANTIPATHY. There is was again. The description sounded familiar. Abraham? As they turned a corner, Jake saw him and paused. The look on his face suggested some form of resentment, but that didn't seem to keep him from calling out his name once, "Abe." Another word penetrated Jesse's mind. DANGER. This might not end well. Jesse remained on guard.

Abraham's ear perked at the sound of a familiar voice, accompanied by three pairs of footsteps. He took a deep breath and turned slowly to face Jake with a scowl on his face that might make even MacArthur quiver. Though, at the same time, he showed MacArthur his place. Jake didn't receive that honor just yet. Accompanied with him was Arianna, as expected, and this other kid. A little familiar. Screamer boy from the first night? And to think he was just touching his doorknob to retire for the night. "What do you want?" Abe grumbled.

It was then that Jake explained himself. Griping about how "something wasn't right" - of course something wasn't right, he was here keeping Abe from laying his head down, who was two minutes away from ripping Jake's arms off and beating him with them. Then he went on about how the people they care about went missing. How they, the one's here, were the only ones of solving it. Truthfully, he didn't want to care. But something about what Jake said hit his chest like a sack of bricks. Unlike Jake's prediction, Abraham fell silent. He stood there trying to dissect his words, and come up with an appropriate response. "...Why should I have'ta care about your loved ones?"

Jesse didn't know his story, and given how Abe responded, he didn't much care to anymore. It rubbed him the wrong way. Jake seemed dead set on getting his help though. So whatever animosity Jesse had that propped up since his remark, he'd have to hold back and try to get his help. He said, "If you had a sibling, and you found out that your brother or your sister was in danger, wouldn't you want somebody to help?"

Abraham fell silent again. His mind was seemingly elsewhere, and stared ahead at the ground in front of him. He said nothing, and his scowl was gone. In fact, the three standing near him might as well not exist at this point of time. Arianna, who was standing by, might notice a severe difference in the Harmony. A song where she might hear instead melancholy, and perhaps even regret. Jesse's power wasn't empathy, but it didn't take a psychic to know that Abe was definitely lost somewhere. Did... did they say something wrong? Or right?

Niza winced as she listened to Ray and Bloodsucker speak before looking back at Rush, giving him a look that spoke for her. If we fail, hun, it's all on you. She slowly nodded as she leaned back, trying to think of the best way to break the collar. She still thought the best way was with her boot. Funnily enough, she actually had used them for that reason, before, when she was younger. Her brother had ended up with a black eye for a bit, but his wounds alway healed quickly. Now that she thought of it, she kind of missed her brother, Carlos. If there was one person in the world that she actually cared for, it was probably him. Oh, well. Best to try to escape now for herself, though. Celo was just trying to think of sentences to make the post longer. Niza leaned back and kicked at Rush's collar, right where she had seen where the opening was.

Eli and Neal

"The fu..." Neal's drunken head raised slowly from where it drooped, his vision blurred and his head killing him. Damned vodka. He heard voices, very distant, but still present, as if they were talking to him through a long tunnel. He groaned audibly and moved to put his sweaty forehead in his hands to find that he could not move his arms. He snapped awake, still groggy but with eyes open wide and teeth gritted. He was in a room, a grey room with grey walls and a cast of the most terrible-looking people ever standing in front of him. He began to breathe heavily as he tried to pull his arms towards his head, as if he had the strength to pull iron chains from a concrete wall. He soon found upon looking down that his neck was in a silver collar. What kind of freak show was this? He continued to struggle, the chains rubbing his wrists raw as he twisted them. "Evil personified" he heard echoing through the tunnel.

"Evil personified, eh?" he yelled, unaware of other voices in the room "You'll be real damn evil when I shove a pike up your ass!" Neal clenched his fists and flexed his muscles, attempting to form a ring of spears around himself, but to no avail. His powers were not working. He attempted to struggle to his feet, still attempting to summon forth something to help him. The scene really was quite pathetic, with him finally falling to the floor, grunting in exhaustion and panting loudly.

"What did you do to me, you ugly demon douchebag?" Neal drunkenly called out.

"Neal," he heard a firm voice call out. Neal turned his head to see Eli chained next to him, also on his knees in front of the changelings. His face appeared grim and solemn, with a hint of sadness in his eye, like a single crystal tear. While Eli looked calm and collected on the outside, internally he was just as horrified as everyone else. Eli nodded, and looked back up.

"I apologize for my friend's actions, sir." Eli eloquently spoke before anyone could harm Neal "In addition to arriving here suddenly, he is also drunk."

Jake Vin Valos.


Not the response that Jake was expecting, but not much better than what he was expecting.

Abe scowled at him menacingly and gave him some rude remark about why he should even care. At that point, Jake was content with just turning around and leaving Abe be for the rest of his life. That was until Jesse said something. Something that, due to Jake's overwhelming bias of Abe, he knew would fall flat, and would only cause him to evacuate to inside his room. But, something different. Jake wasn't sure if Jesse said the right thing, or the wrong thing. But he knew that whatever it was, it was having some effect on Abe. Maybe this was their only chance to get his help. Jake was going to go at the sibling angle - Even if it failed, Jake could easily escape, or defend himself from Abe's attacks. Since there was no one else talking, it all fell on Jake, and his charisma, to sway Abe. Jake took a step forward, despite knowing that Abe could hit him with another one of his attacks. He began his speech, speaking in a somber tone, "Look Abe, I don't know if you ever had a brother, or a sister. But, I have, for all my life, in fact. And I will do everything for them. Even work with the very people that hate me. Because I don't want to find out that I couldn't help, and something terrible has happened to them. When I could have done something. So, I'll ask you this one last time; will you help us? I would do the same."


The Changeling Unit.


The thunderous boom of a gun went off in the room. Directly above Niza's leg, a hole in the wall was formed, with a cloud of dust.

It was quite a movement. How Heartbreaker went from idly playing with her gun like a child, to having aimed down it's sights, and fired off a shot, demonstrating blurring speed. She kept that stance, seemingly posed, a sinister grin on her face. Speaking to them, "Gotcha' now, darling..."

Blooodsucker started laughing like a psychopath. Walking away from Ray, and going more towards the center of the room. "You kids are riiiich!" He spoke, in between bouts of laughter. Before he stopped, keeping a half-grin on his face, "Did you honestly think we wouldn't notice you all sneaking messages to each other, and not think you're trying to get out?"

"Sh*t..." Ray says underneath his breath. He had the feeling that this would go bad - And hey, it is going badly. He knew that they would punish them, they have to keep them in line, make their prisoners think they're in control at all times.

"No.... That was our only plan." Rush said, disheartened.

"I have to inform you that those things are next to impossible to break with your tiny hands. They ARE armored, after all." Bloodsucker continued, scraping his knives together. "But, while your escape attempt was adorable, I feel as if you should be punished for it." He spoke, less amused, more bored. "I did say this would be painless if you played nice."

Drake merely rolled his eyes, and said to Rush, "... This is what happens when you don't pick your moment." He blew out a puff of air, and silently hoped that whatever punishment they administer to Raym Rush, and Niza isn't too severe. This was all the more motivation he needed to kick their ass once his moment came.

Gabe's eye turned towards Ray, Rush, and Niza. Those poor bastards. The only real reaction Gabe could show was irritation at the fact that they failed so spectacularly, and she's still in these cuffs. "Ya' bloody idiots..." She hissed underneath her breath. Gabe noticed that one kid, Neal, the guy who was Jake's roomie, shouting some stupidity, probably was going to get his ass kicked by them in a second. She was almost inclined to shout something at him, before realizing that she didn't care one bit about what happens to Neal.

"Good, now that you all let that sink in a bit; allow me to choose who gets to do the torturing!" Bloodsucker said in a flat tone, still sounding bored, as if something was disappointing him. He put a hand to his chin, looking like he was going into thought. I must decide whether I want to cause them as much pain as possible, or make it flashy! "Witch Mother, this is your time to shine. Start with their distraction." When the Witch Mother passed by him, he said to her, "Make it nasty."

Witch Mother slowly walked over to Ray, whether it was because her age, or for dramatic effect. She stopped in front of him. Looking him dead in the eye.

Ray merely spat in her face.

Which was not the smart choice, given what was about to happen. In a swift motion, Witch Mother slapped her hand against his face. Grabbing onto him with a death grip. His body was immediately filled with a agonizing pain. As his body began to rapidly change. Red, skinless, flesh wrapped around his body, before pouring out onto the floor, and spears of bone pointed outwards. Blood sprayed in almost all directions.

Everyone proceeded to start screaming. With Bloodsucker laughing.

Niza
-

Niza let out a yelp of surprise, her leg moving back at the sound of a gunshot. Her eyes were frantic as she turned to look at Heartbreaker, then to look at Bloodsucker. Oh crap. She was so dead... Or at least almost dead. As Bloodsucker pointed at Witch Mother, Niza watched her walk towards Ray, before looking down as the real violence began. She kept a straight face, her lips pursed into a thin line as she listened to everyone scream.


This was all her fault. She had gone along with this plan that was more than likely not going to work, and yet she had gone along with it... And now a guy just died. She was probably going to suffer the same fate. Crap. She was going to die like this? She sighed before showing a pained smirk, not daring to look at Ray. Just die with a smile, huh? Maybe they will find her amusing enough not to kill her... Then she will turn out okay. Probably not, but she could still hope. Or was hope gone, too? Niza's pained smirk grew into a grin, her lips pulled apart to reveal her lips as she just looked down, eyes wide with fright. She never thought she would smile in such a situation, but what else could she do? If she was going to die... Die with a smile, at least. Tears were falling from Niza's eyes as she continued to stare down. Just die with a smile, if she was going to suffer whatever Ray's fate was.

-
Mina
-

Mina let out a wail- probably the first one she had ever made- as she watched what she was pretty sure was the seats of Ray. Her eyes were stinging as her vision blurred with threatening tears and she threw out one curse word after another, some in Korean and some in English. She knew Ray was a teammate, but he had saved her butt more than she deserved from him and here he was, bones and blood going everywhere... And she does nothing?

"You're gonna pay for this!" Mina screamed at Bloodsucker, her vision clearing as she allowed the tears to fall. "Just watch! You and all your friends will-" Mina stopped screaming as she got choked on a sob. Blood had splattered on her, as she had been sitting next to Ray, and she winced, feeling the warm liquid drip off of her. She was too weak to do anything.

-
Ene
-

Ene didn't look up until she heard a gunshot. Her eyes quickly snapped up as she saw one of the Changling Unit people pointing a gun at... Niza? The girl had her leg pulled back in an awkward position as if it had just been lifted and she suddenly pulled it back. So Niza was one of the ones that had been trying to escape?

Ene's eyes widened as the situation unfolded, and the first person charged with the "wrongdoing" was punished... And Ene found herself screaming, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene as blood splattered in every direction and the boy was killed. She didn't want to see this- what did she do to deserve this? Now she had witnessed a boy, whether innocent or no, it didn't matter to her- suffer probably the worst of fates.

And, for the first time in a while, Ene wanted to forget. She wanted to forget the death. She wanted to use her power on this memory an make it all go away and... She had to. Ene pressed her head against the wall, her eyes widened with horror as she stared now across the room, straight at the brick wall. She couldn't clear this memory. She had to keep the promise, right? But when she had made that promise to herself she never thought she would see something like this- it was okay to clear it if she got out of this thing, just this once, right? Her expression was blank as she stared at the wall and her mind continued this debate.
-
Len, Kynan, Jaylin, and Bre are just screaming-

Merry had entered some sort of borderline panic attack. She had been trying to keep calm the whole time, but the hopelessness of their situation had begun to kick in. They were trapped down there, with some sort of sick and twisted beings, and no one knew they were here. At this point, she couldn't even make eye contact with Lily. She didn't want her only friend down here to see her as any weaker as she already was. Merry hated being weak. Her breathing became more rapid and short. She knew now was not a time for hyperventilation, but she couldn't help herself.

She continued her fruitless attempts to get closer to Lily as the changeling unit talked to and borderline teased the students. This didn't seem fair. All Merry had wanted was to go to a school with people like her, so she could get stronger and learn more about her powers. She wondered what her parents will think if she escapes. The school has to tell their parents right?

And then she heard screaming. Merry's mind has wandered slightly, maybe as an attempt to calm herself down. She hadn't seen what had gone down between Ray and the elderly looking changeling unit member. And now she could see the mangled form of Ray and the women standing over him. Merry felt a horrible twisting in her gut, maybe somewhere she was hoping the older looking changeling would be kind. Like a normal old lady. Merry couldn't scream. She could only stare and hear. At some point Merry noticed she had stopped breathing, air caught in her throat as she tried to keep from screaming. Tears streaming down her face.

Or maybe she had seen it, and was rapidly trying to forget. Watching someone you went to school with, took classes with, suddenly erupt into blood. It was almost too intense for her to understand. In a way, Merry hoped he died without pain. It would be hard to suffer down here even more.

Jesse Sutor and Abraham Gene

Jesse looked between Jake and Abe. Jake, who built on top of his own plead with a speech of his own, back to Abe, who took a breath and lifted his head, staring straight ahead at the door to his dorm, sucking in the sides of his cheeks and puckering his lips. He couldn't help but to hide the fingers that were crossed behind his back, holding on to the hope that he might reconsider. Abe on the other hand listened very carefully to what Jake had to say, latching onto some words more than others. Don't want to find out something terrible has happened, eh? Especially when you could've stopped 'em? Abe shook his head in denial. No, there was no reason to help this punk out. Sure, go ahead and let this guy find out. It wasn't his obligation to save anybody. In fact, he could easily just ignore what they had to say, go inside, and leave these three out in the hallway doing their Scooby Doo thing. But...

Without warning, Abe's hand abruptly pushed open his dorm-room door and hurried inside. The door slamming behind him. At this, Jesse winced and was, for a moment, confused. "Damn..." he muttered under his breath. He thought for sure they would have reached him. So now what? He wasn't sure what the other two could do - Jake had his invisibility powers, Arianna talked nice, and Jesse, what? He talked to ghosts that nobody but him could see. So he was insane as far as everybody was concerned. Great! Wonderful! If something did go down, or something terrible did happen, who among them had the muscle to get them out of thoroughly stirred shit-bowl? Jesse sighed in resignation and turned around to face Jake and Arianna. "Well... what now?" He said dejectedly.

The door behind Jesse opened once more, the sudden sound causing Jesse to jump in surprise and turn around. Abe came marching back out, his face lined with stern creases and in his left hand he held a thick duffle bag packed tight with the contents inside, and heavy enough even the threading of the strap sewn into the bag was stretched loose. Still, he held it as though it were a pack of clothes. "Alright." Abe griped, his tone of voice suggesting he finally submitted. His pace didn't slow down. "Let's just get this whole brouhaha over with..."

This prompted an excited, ear-to-ear grin from Jesse. Perfect! If something serious did happen, they're set!

"But if this turns out to be a waste of my time," Abraham warned, "I'm kicking everyone's ass."

Eli, Neal, and Titus

Neal's mouth opened as if to scream, but no sound came out. His face flushed white as paper, and he pulled his head away, trying to ignore the blood-curdling screams and the sound of blood raining down against the floor. Eli was unable to do as such, and he stared over at the scene, his eyes wide as saucers, absolutely terrified. He began to whisper a prayer to himself, so silent that no one else could hear. It was all he could do: all he could think of to make himself feel more secure. His powers were worthless here; he tried to use them, but to no avail. Not that it would matter; these bastards felt no remorse for what they were doing anyways. Titus, who had awakened a few rungs down from Neal, looked pale in the face as he watched Ray mutate. He nearly vomited, and swallowed the bile back down into his stomach before he could make a scene.

"Please," Eli choked out, trying to look away "Have mercy. We're sorry for defying you, sir."

Claire

Claire woke up laying on the floor of her dorm room with a splitting headache. She groaned loudly and sat up on her elbows to find an empty bottle of Jack Daniels in her hand and a matching stain on the carpet. She attempted to stand up, but fell back over towards the bed, her hands catching her before he hit. Staggering to her feet, she looked about the room; it was completely empty. She flicked on the light switch to find four black smears on all four sides of her. She stared at them quizzically before she realized that these were her shadows hung-over. She stomped on the floor and all four shadows awakened abruptly, their postures and body language suggesting they were angry. One shook a fist at her. Claire rolled her eyes and began to prowl the room, flicking on light switches as she went. The light burned her eyes and caused her head infinitely more pain, but without the light, she was useless. Her shadows didn't work in the dark. She walked over to a drawer next to the door of the dorm, and opened it to find a set of black mirrored sunglasses. They would help with the light, hopefully. Claire put them on and grabbed a flashlight next to them, ready to leave the room. It was then, however, that she realized she was in her underwear. How awkward. She immediately thought of Drake; if he did anything to her and then left her alone on the floor, she'd break his neck.

About five minutes later, Claire threw open the door of her dorm room and turned down the hallway, now dressed in a metallica tee shirt, a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, black leather boots, and her trademark studded jacket. In her jacket pocket was her old switchblade, a little piece of home that she was able to hide from the coppers when she arrived at the school a few weeks ago. The flashlight illuminate the floor in front of her, and one of her shadows took point, walking in front in case an enemy attacked. Before leaving, Claire took a few fast-acting Advil, though they had yet to kick in and heal her of the pounding drum in her head. There was no one around, as it was after curfew, but even then; wasn't there a big party? You'd expect someone to still be kicking, but no; there was silence.

"Where the f*ck is everyone?" she muttered to herself as she walked down the hall. She walked down the stairs carefully, fumbling in her jacket pocket for a lighter. She held the flashlight under her armpit for a moment and grabbed her pack of Marlboros from the pocket in her jacket. There were two cigarettes left.

"F*cking Drake!" she yelled as she lit the cigarette. The lighter went back in the pocket and the flashlight returned to her hand as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Claire walked down the corridor cautiously, and soon her flashlight fell upon a group of students. She recognized one of them as Abe, a friend of Drake's who she had seen before.

"Yo Abe!" Claire yelled out "You seen Drake anywhere?"

Jasmine

Spoiler:

High above the school, on the roof of the dorm rooms, stood Jasmine Chang, crouched down on her haunches, staring down at the rest of the school with a quizzical look on her face. Once again she donned her trench coat and business-like outfit, though this time bandages wrapped around most of her shoulder, torso, and the deltoid of her right arm. She had been wandering around, the pain in her shoulder keeping her awake (the painkillers the doctors gave her dulled her mind far too much for her taste), when she overheard a conversation between a few students. Apparently, everyone had gone missing, and no one knew where they were. This sounded like a perfect mission, and a way for her to show the others (especially Rush and Ray) that she was not just a crazy nutjob.

But as of that moment, she was completely lost. Her sixth sense had run dry; she could find nothing. She watched the ground eagerly, hoping for some kind of clue to where everyone was. Not much was popping up, and she was getting impatient. She wondered what had become of that girl Ene. She had never arrived at the dorm. Whoever had taken her probably... That's it!

Jasmine flew down the ladder leading to the roof and to her room on the third floor. Mel was gone; Jasmine hadn't seen her in quite a few days. Mel occasionally disappeared like that, and Jasmine got used to it. She hit the "brew" button on the coffee machine and threw the lid of her computer open. If she was lucky, she'd be able to send Ene a phone call and use some software on her computer to GPS track the phone to wherever it was. Assuming that the phones were all not disposed of, Jasmine would have a direct line to where the metas were captured. She picked up the phone, dialed the number, and...

Phone's dead. Dammit. Jasmine slammed the computer lid shut and rolled her eyes. Of course they disposed of the phones! What was she thinking? She poured herself a cup of french vanilla coffee from the machine and walked out of the door, forgetting to close it. She spotted a group of metas in the adjacent hallway. Her ESP told her that they were also looking for the metas. She decided to just follow them and see what they came up with. She felt her pocket to make sure her lock-picking kit was there. She'd need it if the mooks used more than combination locks.

Jackson
His eyes grew wide as the scream happened,up to this moment he had been shut down,hoping this was just some horrible nightmare that somehow this was not could not be real. Then the kid was dead in a sick,twisted way,blood was all over the chains. He snapped he tore at his restraints trying to rip them off trying to get away from the horror he just experienced, They were all gonna die and there was nothing he could do about it another emotion hidden behind all the fear was anger,anger that he couldn't do anything ,anger that these psychopaths killed Ray for no reason,angry that they had locked them all up,angry that there was no one to save them.

Jake Vin Valos.


Abe went inside, and Jake rolled his eyes in disgust, before turning away. Regardless of how much he despises Abe; they have to get a move on. Jake had already wasted enough of their time trying to get his help. When Jesse asked what now, Jake snarled, "Everything we can-" Before getting surprised himself. Abe came out of the room, holding a bag full of something, and he confirmed what Jake thought he sternly rejected by saying a mere 'Alright'. This almost made Jake smile, but the comment about wasting Abe's time will only result in him getting violent surpressed that. "I''ll keep that in mind." Jake said in response, unimpressed as ever. Still, he's honestly thinking a little better of Abe, but he isn't going to get too hasty. He couldn't help but say, "Thank you." He meant it too.

Jake had formed the team that would save everyone, or end. They weren't the best, nor the strongest, nor did they even have the best team work, but they were the heroes that everyone is stuck with. The reluctant heroes. As Jake thought about it, he came across one huge problem... They had no f*cking idea where the hell to even start. That was a bigger problem than they thought. "Alright guys..." He didn't want to say out loud that they don't have a clue what to even do, especially with Abe right here, but he had to, "... Do you have any ideas where to start?" Jake expected to get it now, Abe was going to go back into his room, just for good this time.

Only to get something different from Jesse and Arianna. Both of them said that they could somewhat pinpoint where everyone is. They say that everyone is in the tunnels underneath the school... The one place Jake never wanted to go on this god forsaken island. Heh, but when has what I wanted ever mattered before? He snarked to himself. He spoke to the group, "Follow me, I-" Only getting cut off by a third party entering the mix. Aw, you could have entered while I was monologuing! Jake thought to himself. Turning to Claire, he looked at her. Metal style attire, looked trashy and classless. Normally, Jake would have been content ignoring her, but she might be helpful. In fact, Jake needs all the help he can. Despite the fact that she was only talking to Abe, he spoke to her instead, hoping to explain the situation better.

"Alright, we might be looking for the same thing here. A lot of people we know are missing, and we may have just found them." Jake started off, trying to get her attention, "Myself? I'm looking for my little brother, Jaska, and my twin sister, Gabe. If you have seen anyone going by those names, much would be appreciated." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Just so we can get the introductions out of the way; I'm Jake Valos, this is Jesse, and this is Arianna."

"If you're going to help, come with us. We don't have a lot of time here." Jake immediately started walking. He first lead them outside, then he went towards the administration building. Jake remembered a place that Jaska and Gabe found not too long ago. An entrance to the tunnels. Jaska went down, only to come back up a little later, because he said it was 'scary'. Jake was going to disregard the stories about it, and hope that it isn't closed up.

Fortunately, it was open as it'll ever be. It was round, metal, man-hole, buried under a thin layer of snow (Suggesting someone has been down here recently). There were a few broken locks on it, which was perfect for them. Jake knelt down, and dusted away some of the snow with his gloved hand. He reached down and lifted up the manhole and pushed it aside. Looking down inside. He couldn't see the bottom, and that was scary as hell.

As hesitant as he is; Jake was the first to step down the ladder. Every step downwards made him regret going to get someone like Adam for help. Jesus it was dark. Fortunately, he had just the remedy. He created an orb of light. It was bright enough that they could see ahead, but, dim enough that they couldn't be spotted from too far away. "Hopefully we won't be walking into the same sh*t they are..." Jake hung his head, speaking under his breath. He sounded a bit like a pessimist, and hoped that no one else would hear them. There was still thoughts of just giving up here, and finding someone who could do a better job of helping-

But, no choice but to continue, eh?

Reluctance, hesitation, and fear. All of those wouldn't help here. He needed confidence, and bravery. Continuing down the dark hallways, following the guide of both. He was still doubting whether or not it was a big deal. Until, their work paid off, that is. "Yo, hold up," Jake heard voices. A cacophony of screams, shouts, talking, and evil laughter. He dispelled the illusion of light, and peaked around the corner into the room. It was a large ramp into big large room that was illuminated. "I think... this might be it... What the hell do you suggest we do?"

Charging in there wasn't an option, they didn't have enough in the firepower area, and Abe likely couldn't handle the situation by himself. Sneaking in... That was the better idea. Especially with Jake's power set.


Ray, Rush, Lily, & The Changeling Unit.

Spoiler:

"Drager!" Rush screamed his best friend's name, in a high pitched tone. He didn't know what the hell happened, but he was certain that this would be the last time.

"What are you getting so worked up about?! He's still alive!" Bloodsucker turned to Mina, getting close to her, ignoring Rush for now. He stood over her, and used one finger to wipe some blood off her face. Before putting it into his mouth, and licking it clean. "Mmmm... Tasty." He walked over to Ray, looking down at the mockery that he is now. Continuing teasing them, "Because killing him would be a mercy... And we need him to be somewhat recognizable..." He paused for a moment to laugh, "... Though, I'm sure he wishes that he wasn't... Unless he's more of a sadomasochist than I am!"

Ray is indeed alive. Just reduced to a deformed, and disfigured blob-like creature. Though, he couldn't help but think he would have better off getting killed...

"Watch, he'll be back to normal in no time!" Bloodsucker loudly announced.

That was the cue for Witch Mother to change him right back. She put one thumb on his forehead, and all the drastic changes were slowly undone. The flesh that wrapped around him unfurled, and the bone spears retracted. Until it revealed the normal Ray underneath, except with a few wounds that came from where the spikes had protruded, but those were healed up by Witch Mother. Until Ray was perfectly fine, albeit pale and bloody.

The second he gained the ability to; Ray screamed at the very top of his lungs. What he was begging to do during that whole horrific experience. What was going through Ray's head could not be put into words. He... Was disturbed by what the hell just happened. It was something that he has never experienced before - And he's been through some pretty f*cked up things already. The second he was out of breath (which came quickly, since he was nearly suffocated in his own skin) he stopped to breathe, every breathe he wasn't. He felt lightheaded, and looked pale.

"Okay, he might be missing a little bit of his blood...." He looked at Ray, who panting, and barely conscious, "Okay, maybe a lot of his blood. But we can fix that!"

Witch mother caused his bone marrow to produce more blood to replace the blood he already lost. Until he was healthy.

"Now..." Bloodsucker ordered Witch Mother, "... Do it again." Restoring him was merely a momentary respite.

With one motion, Witch Mother grabbed onto Ray's face. Inducing the exact same changes as before. Before reverting him back to normal. Before changing him back into a freak yet again. It was clear that this was going to go on for a little while. The agonized screams of Ray filled the room.

"This is going to go on for a little while..." Bloodsucker said, "... Until I get bored with him, or he dies. Then we'll go on to your little girly friend. Let's hope that he can last until the deadline. That way, you won't get tortured... But you'll be dead."

Jesus, this was simply something that Lily couldn't bare. She knew exactly what the Witch Mother was doing with her power. In fact, just by Witch Mother using it in her presence, she knew exactly what her power is - Biokinesis: A near limitless manipulation over all biological organisms, tactile, changes are near-irreversible without her. She cannot work with dead matter. That was a great perk of her power. So, now came the problem of wondering what the hell to do. Ray... She knew him, he was with Rush, and they helped her find the family she lost years ago. For that, she was grateful. It may have been a stupid risk, given the fact that she could potentially give away her little ace in the hole, but she had to do something to help him. He'll die. Lily focused on Witch Mother, hacking into the very essence of the Changeling's power; the energy that flows within her. She would have to wait a bit to get a 'feel' of the Biomancer's ability, but eventually she hacked into her ability enough to be able to block usage.

Still, Lily had to wait until Ray was reverted to normal, or else, he could be stuck like this forever. Hold on there, Ray-boy, just go through with it one more time... Thankfully, he didn't suffer for long. Witch Mother healed him back to full health. That's when Lily blocked the usage of her power, stopping her from turning him into a freak again.

"Huh?" Witch Mother said, she tried to change Ray, with her hand on his face. Like something has stopped her from doing the deed. After a few moments of trying, she gave up. Something like this has never happened before, even though she gave up. "I can't do it anymore..."

Upon hearing this, Bloodsucker looked bored. "Ah, well, take a break." He rolled his eyes. Before he grinned ear to ear. "Mannequin! You're up."

The Mannequin turned his featureless face to Ray, before going over to him. He walked like was about to fall over, but never once did he falter. He retracted his knives, and the needles that were in his fingers.

F*ck. Lily internally hissed. She knew that her powers couldn't do squat against the Mannequin. She quickly scanned his power to see if there was something. Bio-Technology: The Mannequin is a meta-human that possess an intuition when it comes to technology and biology. Can combine man and machine, and create devices that affect biological organisms. No. No. No. There wasn't a thing she could do to the Mannequin, since he was less dependent on his powers than the rest of them. Turning it off won't work...

Why is it that she is so helpless no matter what she tries?

Claire and Jasmine

The screams sent a chill down Claire spine. She visibly flinched, and her hand found the switchblade in her pocket. The shadow in the cone of light projected by the flashlight tensed up, his fists clenched and ready for action. If they hurt Drake or any of her other friends, they'd be in a world of hurt. She had to wait for the others, though; if these guys captured Drake, then they must be the real deal. Claire turned around just as Jasmine descended down the ladder and Jake asked for ideas.

"Who's that?" she asked, pointing at Jasmine.

"My name's Jasmine Chang." Jas replied as her feet hit the ground of the tunnel "I'm here to help. I apologize for not making myself known to you, but I'm not the most likable character around and I was fearful that had I revealed myself like Claire did, that one of you would recognize me as someone unfavorable and tell me to buzz off."

"How do you know my name?" Claire interrupted.

"Please save all questions until the end of the monologue." Jasmine snarked "Anyways, my abilities allow me access to extrasensory perception, a power similar to telepathy that in essence allows me to gain information from my environment without actively seeking them. For example, I knew that you were looking for the missing students, same as I am. My friend Mel disappeared as well, and I'm hoping that she'll be here. Anyways, you are Jake Valos, correct? If I am right, you have the ability to alter the visual cortexes of others and allow yourself to project illusions into our brains. You could make us invisible. I highly suggest that we do this as cloak-and-dagger as possible, as they have a sniper in the roof that could pick any one of us off with relative ease, something I learned through my ESP upon entering this tunnel. I would suggest that we use Jake's power to make ourselves invisible long enough to get into the room, assuming that these metas have no way to see through us. I can dismantle any lock on the door, and can most likely unlock our friends from whatever restraints they are wearing. If I cannot, then Mr.rockslide over there can simply bust any restraints. Once we get inside, I suggest that we strategically free the most powerful metas and use them to cause a distraction until we can bust the rest out. It will take time to get through every set of restraints. I know for a fact that Titus MacArthur is in there, although the general consensus of the school seems to be that he is a meatheaded jackass who should be trusted with nothing. If we did free him, however, his ability to heal combined with his aggressive nature and supreme strength just might hold off the bastards long enough for us to free our friends. Either way, it's not like any of us will care if he gets killed or decapitated. Once we free our friends, we send one member to headmaster Dacious to inform school security to rescue us and let the nice gentlemen with body armor and assault weapons deal with our kidnappers while we go off to our dorms and have a nice nap. Any questions?" Claire blinked hard, obviously overrun by the sheer amount of words that came out of Jasmine's mouth. How did she talk that god-blessed fast?


Eli and Neal

He just couldn't take it anymore. Eli was shaking with a combination of fear and rage as he watched Ray be helplessly tortured by their captors. Titus had long-since began to throw up, and Neal had sank to his knees, his face dripping with sweat and dark mutterings conglomerating under his lips. He looked up as the next member of the Changelings began to do his work. Ray seemed to be in so much pain that Eli couldn't handle it.

"Stop!" he shouted at the top of his lungs "Please! Don't hurt him anymore! He's going to die if you keep doing this. Hurt me instead, if you must hurt someone!"

"What the f*ck are you doing?" Neal whispered.

"What is right." was all Eli replied.

Arianna Madrigal

((given the skip-ahead in my absence, I'm going to resume with where you left off, Lone. If everybody wants me to fill in Arianna's reactions, I totally can, but figured you probably wouldn't want to be bogged down with that))

Arianna wasn't paying attention to how quietly her feet moved across the floor, near-silent in the training boots. She was more focused on how deathly afraid she was. They never showed this, in the movies, or mentioned it in the books-how every dark corner potentially held a supernatural predator, magnitudes above anything Arianna could handle, or how the own people on her team she wasn't sure she could trust-I mean, she hated to discriminate, Jesse really was a lovely boy, but something about speaking to the dead, or spirits, or whatever they were...it unnerved her.

Coming from the girl who listens to the universe.

Arianna kept one hand lightly grasping the training blade that was strapped over her shoulder-she'd almost whipped it out when Claire (Claire...that's a very pretty name. approached them, but managed to hold back at the last second. There was a familiarity to Claire's Song (just as there was an abnormality with Abe's; forgive the pun, but Jesse and Jake's speech had struck a chord with him), one that didn't exactly save her life, but did save her from getting smacked in the face by an adrenaline-fueled, very-frightened teenage girl.

Dear God please just don't let me die in spandex. No, wait, now they'll strip me down first. God, let me die in the spandex.

Arianna knelt down when they'd traipsed down the ladder, quietly thankful that she hadn't been the one to go first. She was too afraid to feel infatuation or admiration for Jake, but she was a bit proud of him that he'd gone down the ladder. Arianna fought back a shiver and tried to keep her cool. She...she wasn't used to being the hero. Arianna always saw herself as the princess some charming knight would come save-and a lifetime of her mother and father's wealth and her own charisma doing just that had reinforced the idea. Going in to save someone else was....odd. She wasn't selfish, she could be quite altruistic-but Arianna had never carried a weapon on her before she'd come to the Academy.

Brown hair tightly held back in a knot, she turned her head to listen to Jake. She'd been wrapped up in the maelstrom of emotions that was her own mind, and in the quiet of the subterranean hallway, she Listened again.

Jesus Christ.

Such pain. She'd never heard it before. It was an ugly, terrible sound, as if the buzzing of a defibrillator that couldn't bring its patient back from the brink and the screams of a newly widowed woman and the sounds of the machineguns of Normandy could be put into a

Arianna forced it out. Lips trembling (Arianna wasn't quite an empath, but the raw emotion, the atrocities coming from that chamber...it was a side of the Symphony she'd never experienced before, and never cared to see again. This night. She would never forget this night), she shut her eyes and tried to pinpoint something of use out of the chamber. There was something that sounded vaguely like a blend of an old slave spiritual and that opening song from Les Miserables...

"Chains," Arianna muttered, talking to no one in particular. "They're...they're being restrained. No, more than that. Their powers. Their powers are..." she fumbled for words to describe the Song she was hearing. "Torture. Someone's being tortured and-"

Some b*tch was interrupting her. Where the f*ck did she even come from? Arianna waited, irritated, as Jasmine rattled off a bunch of crap that...well...she was forced to admit was useful.

"...I can't fight very well." Arianna said, sounding somewhat weaker than she meant to. "But...but I think I can help you all more if I don't. Jake, I can Sing and make your illusions more tangible, more believable. Or I can..." she paused, putting her hands to her forehead, taking a little comfort in the feel of the synthetic gloves against her clammy, sweaty skin. "I don't know how to describe it. Your Songs. I can bolster them. Make you...make you harder to hit and stronger and...Christ. I don't know how to put it into words. I can't help but I'm gonna slow you down if I try and fight, I think. Whatever you need me to do, just tell me, and I think I can manage."

She interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on it, trying very desperately to hide how badly her hands were trembling.

Jesse Sutor and Abraham Gene

It was nice, Jesse thought, that he had the opportunity to help out the way he did. As soon as their position was located, he followed a chain of apparitions to lead himself and his newly acquired teammates  towards their destination. Honestly, Claire rubbed him the wrong way. Like, straight up "yo y'all" and then just tagging along. But, whatever, that's fine, the more the merrier. After all, it would be great to have more back up considering how every apparition part of the chain whispered "danger" to him. There was this one, other apparition that alerted him to another person nearby. Some description of "girl", "oriental", and "cloaked". They didn't give him any sense of danger, but it was something he would remain alert to.

Jesse was bothered by their hike into the snow, unlike Abraham who took it with unusual stride and apathy. The latter chuckling at Jake's prying open of the manhole that lead them to an underground hideaway. Of which the idea of crawled down brought more unease to Jesse, who wasn't looking forward to finding out what was down there. Abe would have simply dropped the duffle bag before Jake, but the blundering object hitting the ground might break some of the contents inside and create a thundering echo unsuitable for a sneaky operation like this one. It was safe to say that climbing down the ladder with one arm was not the easiest thing he has ever had to do.

Jake's orb of light was uncannily helpful, and brought surprise to Jesse. He thought his power was invisibility! So, what? Did he control light or something? There didn't seem to be a whole lot of light down here to control in the first place...

And then they heard the screaming. Oh, god, the screaming! Jesse cringed at the sound of it, never expecting to hear anything as atrocious as blood-curdling screaming. And then he cupped his mouth with his hand at a horrifying realization - Lily. Merry. Both of them could be down there. And Jake's siblings. They could all be down there and they could be suffering the same fate that...

He had to take a moment to look away from the door the stood across from. The apparitions were feeding him all sorts of information: blood, guts, insides are outside. But most importantly, he learned where the perpetrators were. Their locations. All he had to do was--

Jasmine dropped from nowhere and rattled her mouth as though God spontaneously brought into creation a howler monkey in a holy instant. It interrupted Jesse's train of thought, but by no means caught him by surprise - he was constantly fed information. Abe, on the other hand, let go of the heavy duffle bag and immediately dropped into stance, his arms poised at Jasmine's core, his bones in his hands solidified like that of stone, the skin wrapped around around his arms were made of flesh as always. Anybody who didn't know better would be ignorant of his ability as always. "Wha-what the fuck?"

Jesse sighed. This girl - it was as if she thought she was clever. Sure, picking up information with some superpower might make you think that. But damn, she didn't seem to have an ounce of common sense. "You know," Jesse started, "here's a hypothetical for you: you're marching your way down through a secret underground torture chamber filled with a handful of psychopaths. Someone jumps you, you're going to think it's a god damn ambush. Are you dense?"

Abe added, "If you say another word, I'll be usin' you as god damn battering ram for this door."

Which was cruder and not quite as necessary, Jesse thought, but I'm pretty sure we're all thinking it.

"In any case," Jesse said, trying to veer the topic away from Abe threatening to smash any more people, "most of the lunatics are up on a platform. There's a couple on the floor in front of some students chained up along the wall on our right side - I think three."

Abe's postured had since relaxed since Jasmine's sudden drop in. He looked at Jesse curiously and back at the door. This was a pretty nice ramp... yeah, this idea might go pretty nicely. "Okay, thanks kid. Let me handle this." Abe said with a cocky smirk. "Yo Ari - you remember what I said 'bout how these bones don't break?"

He zipped open the duffel bag that sat on the floor at his side, revealing that it was completely full of concrete bricks. He dumped them on the floor beside him and carelessly tossed the bag over his shoulder before squatting down and tensing his body. His fists tightened, rested on his legs. "...Think it's 'bout time for you to see what I mean."

Abraham's skin was seemingly devoured by the color and texture of stone, crawling from his arms and legs and up towards the rest of his torso and finally enveloping his face. Jesse, not quite sure what to expect, took a step back. Abe's fist struck the ground and provoked the sound of a sickening crack - the stone beneath his hands had nearly shattered. Jesse flinched. Upon Abe's touch, thicker layers of rock crawled over his limbs as though it were fluid. The bricks provided by Abe's bag were merged with him, and rock soon began to engulf his whole body. It was a long and somewhat tedious process, but with all the stone around him at his disposal, it wasn't long until he increased in size and mass. It wasn't long until he stood nearly twice as high as Jesse, well three times greater in size and weight. The rock that swarmed him slowed down only when the top of his head nearly touched the ceiling.

The transformation was finished - he stood well taller than anyone in the room, greater than even Titus, who was locked up in the chamber beyond the door. His sheer size, mass and weight dwarfing even pick-up truck, capable of effortlessly carrying a grown man with a single hand and crushing log cabins with his monstrous hands. There was little distinction between his head and his neck that linked it to the rest of his body. The newly formed Golem turned to look Jake dead in the eye - a look from someone like that, likely to shake even the hardiest of spirits. He spoke to the rest of his team in a voice completely alien from Abraham's usual tone, "get ready to rumble."

All Jesse could really muster at the sight of Abraham's new form was a nervous gulp and nod. Despite desperately wanting to tell the others, "remind me not to piss him off", he couldn't even manage that. Well, it was now or never. He didn't know what Abe was planning to do, but he had a feeling that a big fight was about to erupt. Oh god! He could die!

Abe stood his legs apart and leaned forward, at the center of the rampway in front of him, straight towards the door. Without warning, he dropped himself onto the ground, tucking his head, arms and legs into his body and subsequently rolled down the corridor as a titanic boulder. It was a brief moment of picking up momentum before meeting the metal door and brick wall, bulldozing through the line that separated them from their enemy and their friends...

Spoiler:

Jake Vin Valos.


"Alright, I got it, Ari, thanks." Jake acknowledged what Arianna said. Okay, so, they're chained up, and someone's getting tortured. Got it. Jake was going to come up with something when a new person just appeared out of the goddamn blue. He jolted, and was about to create a barrier between himself and the stranger out of something. When he created light so he can see, he got a good view of her. Clearly a half-Asian girl, black hair, attractive, but looked like any other student here. Still, you can look perfectly normal, and be f*cked in the head. When the Asian chick just revealed she was following them, along with some other compromising information... Well, that was enough to voice immediate distrust. Because, they are in the dark, they're about to walk into a chamber controlled by what seems to be evil personified, someone is screaming their f*cking head off as if they're getting a fate worse than death, and Jake is really, really, really f*cking scared pissless right now. What really didn't help was the fact that she was just nonchalantly telling them things that she definitely shouldn't know. To say the least; Jasmine rubbed him the wrong way. The same with Abe, and Jesse. Jake himself was a very kind and loving boy, but he was also intelligent, and far from a fool. Especially when he's f*cking fearing for his life.

With one mere thought, he erected an illusory brick wall between himself, and Jasmine. It was transparent, almost like a window. "Sorry, but there's just too much at stake here to just trust random girls coming out of no where-" Jake's speech was interrupted by the sound of heavy concrete bricks hitting the ground, if he wasn't so trained with his power, he would have dropped the illusion. He was interested in what Abe was up, he kept one eye on Abe... But one eye on Jasmine, he didn't know what the hell the girl was up to.

Okay, Abe was carrying around bricks in his bag. Odd. But Jake had a feeling that Abe knew what he was doing. Abe underwent some transformation... Incorporating the bricks he brought with him into a new form.

Spoiler:

Jake looked upwards in awe, Abe's new form was quite a a. Jesus christ. This guy was powerful enough already! He can transform himself into a golem, a masterpiece of stone. He hasn't seen such a drastic change since Jaska's beast form was unleashed. It was all the more reason to not to piss him off in the future. In fact, Jake didn't want to even make contact with him after all of this is over (Because, he's getting the hell off the island). He was wondering what the hell Abe was going to do with that. Before he walked up to the ramp, and told everyone to get ready to rumble. Wait, are you...

"Wait, wait, wait, No! What are you-" Jake quickly yipped, trying to stop Abe from doing something idiotic, and throwing all chances of sneaking up on them out the window. Abe rolled himself up into a ball, and crashed through the entrance of the chamber with a monstrous bang. If he wasn't serious as he possible could be; he would snark about Abe, well, 'comin' in like a wrecking ball!'

Change of plan. Subtly was out of the window, and Abe threw a wrench in what they had planned (Or hadn't planned). He was almost thrown into a state of panic. Thoughts were whirling about in his head about what the hell he should even do right now. "Oh, f*ck me. No, f*ck him!" He muttered. Trying to quickly come up with something. But, Jake realized that he was doing too much thinking when he should have been acting. He could use this situation as a distraction. Abe might have rushed in head first, but everyone else hasn't been the slightest bit noticed. Eh. This might have been stupid, but they had a chance. And Jake wasn't going to waste it wondering about the 'ifs' and the 'hows'. "Alright, um, guys, come with me! I'll make us invisible."

Which is exactly what he did. He made a dome of invisibility around the group, and proceeded down the stairs. With each step, he realized that he was pretty screwed, but at least he'll die with the smidgen of glory!


The Changeling Unit.


"Alright then... Your funeral, Mannequin, he clearly wants to take one for the team, so happily oblige him." Bloodsucker said, prompting the Mannequin to turn his attention from Ray, to Eli. The Mannequin was getting tired of these kids, he was going to give Eli the most brutal torment of all time.

"The hell is that noise?" Heartbreaker asked no one in particular. She heard it coming from near the entrance.

Before said entrance f*cking exploded into a cloud of dust, sending the door flying across the room. It was knocked down by something. Whatever it was, it sure as hell got the attention of the Changeling Unit. Heartbreaker back flipped almost immediately, displaying how fast her reflexes were, putting her trusty in front of her as a shield as if something was going to hit her.

The only one really at risk here was the Mannequin. The door flew off, and what was rolling behind it would have surely destroyed him. There was only a second to react before the Mannequin leaped high up into the air, springing off one leg. His pose almost looked like a hanged scarecrow. He hit the ground, and flattened, almost like he fell to pieces. Only to eerily rise as if someone was pulling him back to his feet like he was attached to strings.

Spoiler:

By the time the dust faded, the Changeling Unit had long realized that their little plan had finally hit a snag. They had done everything near perfectly, until a third party came into the mix. Which was annoying, but they had no choice but to go handle this threat. The Changeling unit grouped up together on their podium, opposite to their prisoners.

Bloodsucker laughed, pulling one of the knives from his coat. He put it to his neck, and slashed his own neck open. A wave of blood sprayed onto the surrounding areas, to the point where he had lost a comical amount of blood. At least ten times the amount of blood in his body! It pooled on the floor. Before it all gathered, shifted, and formed a new construct. A massive meat cleaver made out of crystallized blood. With a jagged serrated edge, and a brutal spike in front of it. It was enormous. It was longer than he was tall, and twice as wide as he was. It was less of a cutting weapon, and more of a weapon that was made to overwhelm opponents with sheer size. Despite it's size, Bloodsucker wielded it perfectly, almost as if it was a smaller weapon.

Still floating above the group, the Dreamwalker had something to say, "He is not alone!" He spoke in his ghostly voice. The phantasm like being had telepathically scanned the surroundings, and detected five other people. They plan to spring everyone from the scene. They can't allow that to happen.

Hmph. How irritating. These kids think they're honestly one step ahead of them? Time to put them in their place. "You know the drill. Light, Scar, Vicious, Walker, with me! We're taking down the wrecking ball over here. Everyone else make sure our guests don't get free!" Before he jumped to battle Abe, he whispered in Heartbreaker's ear, "Make sure the Headmaster never leaves here alive..."

Count Vicious was encased in a shell of metal, it smoothly wrapped over his figure. The metal took the shape of a second skin, it perfectly copied every last detail on Vicious's body, down to his clothing. Count Vicious pulled out an nonoperational pocket watch made out of solid gold. With his metal body shining a light upon everything around him. He was ready as he'll ever be.  

Similar to his team-mate, Acid Scar was wreathed in an element. A glowing, thick, purple goo. It sizzled and bubbled loudly. It was obviously acid, as it melted the floor underneath his feet, and when it dropped, it made holes in the floor that revealed that there was floor underneath it.

Primitive Light needed to make a show of power, similar to her team-mates. Electricity arched off of her body, dancing across her skin, and forming a orb at her hand. The lights in the room flickered. Despite the fact it would be useless against a target made out of stone. Then all the electricity disappeared.

Dreamwalker was ready as he'll ever be.

The team that went off to fight Abe walked slowly towards him. Before Bloodsucker broke off into a sprint, demonstrating blinding speeds.

The leader of the group stopped several meters away from Abe, preferring to slowly walk. He does want to get in a few comments before the slaughter begins. He spoke to Abe with utter calmness, like he was about to unleash something. "You, you right there. I don't know what you are..." Bloodsucker dragged his sword of blood alongside the ground, leaving a split in the concrete leading right up to him. He heaved the sword, and pointed the tip of it at Abe, "... But, I'm going to make you scream!" That calmness turned into pure bloodlust.

In a sudden movement, he had both hands on his cleaver, and leaped straight at Abe. Before swinging it at him with enough force to shatter the hardest of any materials as if it was glass.


Carmen 'Lily' Santo.


For once, Lily was giddier than a schoolgirl.

It finally seemed like their knight in shining armor have finally arrived (Well, it was more of a living f*cking ball of concrete, but whatever). Lily had sensed six people coming coming, and honestly believed, because of the all the despair, that it was merely more members of the Changeling Unit. But a quick scan of their powers revealed some of their identities. Because of the way powers work, each energy, each power is purely unique to a single meta-human. It was Jesse, Jake, and Abraham. Jesse! Oh, my god! Thank you. But Lily decided not to get too excited. She knew Jesse and Jake wouldn't be strong enough to stand up against the Changelings. She wasn't sure about the others. On top of that, Lily had the feeling that Abe wouldn't last long against the combined might of the Changeling Unit's strongest. Now that she thought about it, the odds weren't very good. However...

... This was the moment she needed. A huge f*cking distraction. If she can get Rush to turn these collars off, perhaps they can stand a better chance against the Changeling Unit. She turned her attention to Rush, and started hacking into his power. Gradually boosting his power in strength. She would need a little while before it's enough to make a difference. So, everyone will have to hold out for a little while.

Just a few minutes, guys. That's all I'm asking for...

Claire and Jasmine

(keep listening to Allen's badass music)

"Oh is this really your plan?" Jasmine asked as the wall was erected "You're just going to charge in there like an oversized gorilla and expect to pound them?" She had to admit it was impressive. She stepped through the illusory wall; afterall, she knew it wasn't really there. This battle was lost to her; she couldn't change their minds, and so decided just to sit in the background. Once the prisoners were broken out, she'd find that girl Ene and would be out of the cavalry's hair before they'd even notice.

A wicked smile spread across Claire's face as Abe charged. This was perfect; a real mutant battle between good and evil. Of course, she always expected to be the evil part, but she wouldn't complain. It was good to be around a gigantic wrecking ball of pure destruction. She ran in tow, ducking as the door came crashing down. The lights inside gave her shadows all the strength they'd need to give these bastards a pounding.

"I've got your back, Abe!" Claire yelled out as the battle commenced. She whispered to one of her shadows "go find Drake! Bust him out and get his ass over here!" The shadow nodded and darted off to find the boy. Upon arriving at Drake's chains, he pulled as hard as he could, attempting to free Drake of his harnesses. To others, it would appear as if the chains were being yanked telepathically. Claire watched as Bloodsucker moved to strike, and sent two of her shadows after him. The light would give them enough strength to hopefully topple the monster and prevent him from putting a dent in the wrecking ball.

"Oh no you don't, you little bastard!" she yelled as the shadows moved to tackle Bloodsucker midair. The fourth shadow began to revolve around claire, ready to fight anyone who dared get too close to her. The switchblade was in Claire's hand, fully-extended, but it wouldn't do much good here. Nobody here was going to be harmed by a simple knife.

Jasmine, meanwhile, leaned against the doorframe, studying her nails while the others thought. She was going to give it a bit before she sprung into action so that she could disappear into the crowd. Hopefully the Changelings would ignore her and go after the gigantic wrecking ball. She scanned the room nonchalantly, recognizing the faces of many of her former comrades. One struck her more than the others; Ray was chained up, his clothing soaked in blood. He appeared to be going into shock. Against whatever common sense she had left, Jasmine sprinted across the room towards him, putting herself right in the line of fire. Whether he liked her or not, she wasn't going to let him die.

Neal watched from afar, a smile on his face as Abe wrecked the place. Neal knew he'd be a kick-ass fighter. He frowned when he saw Jasmine running across the room. She was going to get herself killed, per-usual. She was an addiction to him, like crystal meth or heroine. He kept telling himself that he wouldn't care if she got hurt, but then when she got shot, he had to physically resist going to see her. Why did he ever fall in love with that crazy b*tch?

Mina scowled at Bloodsucker as he wiped some of Ray's blood off her face and tasted it. She had been so tempted to actually bite his hand, then, but knew she would only end up the way Ray was and- look at her, already thinking of herself again. How pitiful. At least he was alive. Mina let out a sob. Yeah, thiugh she pictured death being better than whatever he just went through.  Judging by the scream that Ray let out, she was right. Mina closed her eyes as she was stuck listening to Ray's screams as the process repeated. "Stop..." She choked out. But there was apparently no need. Witch Mother's powers just randomly stopped working, which was odd, but good. Relief began to fill Mina all too soon right before Manniquin was then told to do his job. And then a boy piped up and Mannequin turned to him. Mina looked back at Ray, her eyes red from tears. He did not look very good.

"...Ray-" it was then the door burst open, warning a squeal from Mina. She stared at it, wide-eyed. "What...?" Mina watched as by some miracle, some kids came crashing through the door. She smiled a bit, biting her lip before looking at Ray again. "You better not die when we finally got a chance!" She yelped, nudging him with her foot as lightly as she could.

-
Bre
-

A rock flew over and hit Bre in the head. Oh noes! No moar Bre!

-
Len
-
Bre had been crying into Len's shirt. And then the door flew open, and Bre turned around and looked up, getting hit in the head. Oopsy.

Well now Len watched as Bre's body fell to the ground, her face now covered in blood, and he just stared in shock. She was... Dead? Len moved as close as he could to Bre and looked at her, not even looking up at Abe as Bloodsucker and te others approached him. He could only stare in horror at Bre's dead body, unable to even let out a scream. She can't be dead- she was stronger than him. She had been staying quiet and the Changeling Unit wasn't supposed to hurt her- if they tried Len had already decided he would take her place then and there. But even then he had been unable to protect her. Len continued to stare, unsure howmuch time had passed before he finally muttered, "She can't be..."

Len's voice grew as he said it again, screaming te sentence. "She can't be dead!"

It was as though by saying it Bre could be saved, though Len knew such wasn't the case. He began sobbing, not caring that they were possible saved as he wept over Bre's dead body.

Arianna Madrigal

"...oh. Okay, I guess we're not planning anything then," Arianna murmured to herself as Abe went breaking through everything and bursting into the room full of the Changelings. There was something to be said for such brute force, although she wasn't sure if it would be everything they needed currently.

Arianna sat down, folding her legs Indian-style, and did one or two quick, deep breaths, trying to ready herself. The same nervous jitters that got to her before every concert came, and she pushed the thoughts of one of the Changelings coming out of that long, dark hallway to her out of her mind. There was nothing more she could do, now, and they'd all be distracted with Abe at any rate.

Arianna began to Sing, not bothering to muffle her voice or keep it restrained. Amidst the screams and gunfire and sounds of children fighting for their lives, she doubted it would be noticed. If...if it was, they'd probably torture her and kill her.

But Arianna decided if that was how she was going to go-well, she wouldn't like it by any means, but it was a worthy death.

Her voice, clear and perfectly resonant, began to fill up the tunnel as she reached into the Symphony, sensing the battle-songs of Abe and Claire and Jasmine and Jake and Jesse and the fearful, but now glimmering with just a bit of hope, tunes of the children locked inside. She thought of all the epic movies, like Lord of the Rings, where the good guys always had this triumphant, booming score to accompany their charge against evil. She couldn't pull off an entire score by herself-if she'd had her violin or something she could've, but no, there wasn't a score. She needed something similar, a song to weave their melodies together and...infuse them. Overwrite the current Symphony with the energy and force they needed.

Arianna racked her brains for just a moment or two-it rarely took Arianna very long to think of the right song for an occasion, not due to her power directly, but because the girl listened to and dissected more music than anyone else alive-and settled on one. They needed something that was empowering, confident and...

A wicked grin stretched across Arianna's face. She pulled the face-mask down below her chin, making sure her throat wasn't constricted, and began to play the beat against the pipe next to her. With more soulful vocals than Gaylor herself could've managed, Arianna began to belt out I Will Survive into the Symphony, reaching into each individual member of their rescue team and tying her song into theirs. It was difficult, and Arianna began to feel the strain almost immediately-but the pressure of the situation and her fear combined made it hard to even notice the toll it was taking. The Song was too generally directed for Arianna to plan any specific effects, but undoubtedly, the energy and optimism Arianna was putting into the Song would carry over. Abe would find his blows striking with more force, whilst his enemies attacks came easier to dodge, easier to reflect. Jake's illusions more vibrant and full of life, teeming with quintessence and almost flowing from him without his knowledge. Jasmine's psychic powers more pinpoint accurate, wider in scope and bristling to tell her the secrets of the world around her. Jesse's apparitions more powerful, almost closer to the threshold of life, and communicating more clearly. Claire's shadows obeying her more readily, and all of them would feel that trickle of optimism and confidence from when there's twenty seconds left on the clock in the championship game and your team's up by just a point or two-that tentative, but present, feeling of "Holy sh*t, we might actually be able to do this"

Sweat running down her head, Arianna continued her Song, wholly focused on the Symphony above, through, and around her, and oblivious to her immediate surroundings.

Jesse Sutor and Abraham Gene

This guy must be crazy! Jesse thought. He looked around frantically under Jake's invisibility illusion, trying to figure out what next to do while Abe drew the attention of most of the psychopaths down here. He heard Arianna's song, and it was something that filled him with some odd, confident energy. His connection to the apparitions felt... more concrete. One of them reported back to him, RUNNING MAN, ILL INTENT, A HEART-BREAKING HAWK'S EYE. This was different from the other times though - it was coherent. Easier to understand. But it was still somewhat of a loose description and it was just as cryptic. Still, they led him a chain towards the target they had alerted Jesse to. A swift man... he was heading towards the prisoners! Their friends!

Bloodsucker's cleaver and the rest of his team advancing on him did little to intimidate Abraham or force him to give them ground. As if to accept the challenge, the Golem stretched out and roared, a cry that was thundering and ground shaking. At the rise of Bloodsucker's weapon, Abe stood back on his legs and brought down his two massive fists crashing against the ground, resulting in an earth-shattering tremor that tore up the ground around him - spires and pillars with pointed edges erupted around him and stabbed at the approaching enemies. A attack more devastating than usual, given Arianna's song, and a nearly unbreachable barricade if the enemy was not adept at acrobatics. The focus site where Abraham had struck the ground looked as though a small meteor had crashed there.

Jesse looked at the apparitions that showed him Heartbreaker. He had never tried anything like this before, he never had reason to. But if this was right - the idea that they were actually a psionic species - then this should work. "Alright..." Jesse muttered. "Running man, ill intent, a heart-breaking hawk's eye... half-a-dozen of you, if you can speak to him like you can me, flood his thoughts. Talk to him. Don't stop. Say things to drain his confidence, but whatever you do, just don't stop."

Surely, this bastard won't know what hit him.

Abraham roared into the air once more, an attempt to demoralize his enemies. He bent over once more, not long after his initial maneuver, all of his limbs firmly gripping into the ground. A column burst from the ground beneath him at an alarming speed, bring Abe with it. With a sudden stop and a very short jump into the air, the towering Golem reached the ceiling, his hands and feet penetrating the stone and melding with it. Now hanging overhead the Changelings, he looked down over them. He was well in the position to drop down on top of them with thousands upon thousands of crushing force, but instead, multiple focused outcrops bulged from his back. It wouldn't take long to realize that they outcrops resembled stalactites - and that these were in fact sharp spikes growing from his back.

Bloodsucker.


There wasn't a single thought in his head that didn't involve murderous bloodlust. Mid-lung, Bloodsucker heard a girl yell, saying that she 'got your back'. Bloodsucker was fine with ignoring this. But, it was hard to when he got his momentum killed, getting knocked to the side, mid-dash, by a sneak attack. Despite his reflexes being apex; he couldn't do much to dodge mid-air. As he descended, he used his god-like agility to flip mid-air, and dove his sword into the ground to cancel some of the momentum. He hit the ground with a thud, but on his feet. Bloodsucker looked less than pleased. He stood straight up and looked straight in the direction of the girl that yelled. Looking angry.

Looks like you've just bumped up to the top of my hitlist, little lady...

He didn't know if she was the one that interrupted his attack. But, he was going to make her suffer anyway. He heaved his cleaver over his shoulders, and started running towards her. Abe was getting ready to launch one awesome attack, which Bloodsucker would have loved to handle, but he had his own business to attend to. The rest of the Unit could handle it. Bloodsucker ran towards Claire with blinding speeds, only those with enhanced reflexes could see him coming. Once he made his approach, he jumped high up into the air and tossed his blood meat-cleaver at her. Using his bloodbending ability to guide the blade to his target, packing an incredible force behind it - It'd likely get embedded into the ground. This was merely a distraction, get her to dodge this attack, leaving her open for another attack.

Bloodsucker quickly pulled the knives out of his longcoat. Descending towards her, with his knives aimed at her, seemingly gilding.


Primitive Light, Acid Scar, Dreamwalker, & Count Vicious.


Because of Dreamwalker the rest of the Changeling Unit was one step ahead of Abe. He was reading the Golem's mind for battle tactics, before transmitted it to the rest of the team, so they could react before he even does the attack. Right when he attacked, Dreamwalker quickly telekinetically grabbed all of his team mates and floated them up into the air so they can avoid Abe's attack. The shockwave barely affected them this high up off the ground. They carelessly floated above the chaos, picking up speed towards Abe. To give them a bit of an area, Dreamwalker telekinetically pulled the spikes and pillars out of the ground, and tossed them at Abe with bullet-fast speeds. Even if it didn't do any damage to him, it would distract him.

Primitive Light was tossed up into the air like a slingshot. She nearly hit the ceiling, before arching downwards. During her descent, Dreamwalker brought her down to the ground with force that would crush any other human being. The very second she hit the ground, she created an explosion of amplified kinetic energy. The concrete constructs were shattered, and sent in all directions, the ground was also crushed underneath her feet. The fall didn't kill her, or even seem to bother her.  

The rest of the group were gently lifted down into the clearing that was created. There, they went to work.

Acid Scar quickly pointed his hands at Abe at the top of his pillar, and shot off a continuous stream of acid at him. Using his elemental ability to carry the acid further. Drips of acid had fallen down underneath it, and would have been mighty fatal for anyone standing underneath it.

Count Vicious set up defenses around them, should Abe try to launch another attack. Absolutely massive metal pillars erupted, and circled them, but they were spaced out enough so they wouldn't interrupt Acid Scar's attack. If Abe attacked, Vicious would use his metal manipulation to block the attacks.

Primitive Light stayed still, watching Abe, the second they got the signal, she would nullify the energy behind his attacks.

Dreamwalker on the other hand, stayed on the defense. He was reading Abe's mind, so they could be alerted and react in time.


Heartbreaker.


"I got you now, my pretty..." Heartbreaker aimed down the sights of her sniper rifle, right at Jasmine's chest. With one flick of a finger, Jasmine would have her heart broken like so many before her. Oh, the joys of sniping. Before Heartbreaker ended Jasmine, she went in focus, and everything started slowing down, or she started seeing things far faster. Still, she was interrupted... By something horrific. The screaming masses of a hundred voices just filled her head. Heartbreaker collapsed on the floor screaming, grabbing on to her blood dripping ears.

Heartbreaker disappeared in a flash of light. Flashbang teleported her somewhere else in the hopes that she could save her from whatever was happening to her.


Jake Vin Valos, & Gabriela Mya Valos vs. Mannequin.


Under his veil of invisibility, Jake entered the room and looked around. It appears that the Changeling Unit was engaging Abe, while the rest of them were guarding the prisons. Well that made his job a little harder. Still, he could sneak by everyone. Jake looked at the prisoners for Gabe and Jaska... Aaaand bingo. Gabe is on one part of the line, and Jaska was on the other. He kept his veil of invisibility around Jesse and Arianna, as he moved forward on his own. Silently bidding Abe goodluck fighting his own battles. That girl Jasmine was hauling ass towards Ray, which, while it was a stupid action, threw the initial mistrust out of the window, since he was sure she was on his side now.

Since Gabe was closer than Jaska, he had no choice but try to get her out first. Because of his training, Jake is a really sneaky boy, he couldn't be detected by non-supernatural. He walked over to Gabe, got behind her, and got down on one knee. He quickly examined the shackles and the collar around her neck. "Hey, you call for a Knight in Shining armor?" He says to lighten the mood, even though he was ready to scream his head off.

Gabe nonchalantly turned her head until it was lined up with her shoulder. Her sole eye was facing Jake. "Get Jaska." She spoke in the most dead serious tone she could.

"Look, I'm worki-" Jake was cut off by Gabe.

"... Get Jaska, now." She repeated herself. Honestly, she didn't care if she made it out of here. Long as Jaska did. "... He deserves to get out of here."

"Be quiet before I get noticed... Act natura-" Jake was interrupted mid-sentence again, this time by a alien party. The Mannequin had grabbed onto Jake by his arm, and demonstrating more strength that what he would appear to have. Jake was thrown to the ground, hard. The illusion was dispelled the moment he was caught off ground.

"Jake!" Gabe screamed looking back.

The Mannequin nonchalantly retracted his blades and, dropped. He fell forwards, like he was clumsy, blades forward.

Jake responded by creating an illusion of hardened metal to block the attack, and allow him some leeway. However, that wasn't going to help him get Gabe free when there's an evil doll standing over him.

Claire

Just as it began to descend, Claire dove out of the way of the gigantic cleaver. The ground shook as it struck with life-crushing force, and it stuck hard in the ground. Claire had to say; Bloodsucker looked pretty threatening with his giant blade and super speed, but Claire wasn't one to back down from a fight. Once he hit the ground, three shadows (the fourth was still trying in vain to free Drake) all converged on Bloodsucker. Two went for his legs, hoping to bring him to his knees, and the third cocked back its fist and launched a powerful haymaker at Bloodsucker's jaw. Claire had a plan as she commanded her minions telepathically; if she could knock Bloodsucker out, she could grab that big-ass knife of his and either use it to bust the chains off Neal or give it to Abe to use as the ultimate war club. She wasn't sure if it would hold up without his consciousness active, but if it was between that and getting turn into long pork chops, it was worth the gamble.


Jasmine

The ESP told Jasmine that the gunslinger was targeting her, and she was prepared to dodge when the woman went down in agony, her head apparently filled with screaming. "You missed, b*tch!" Jasmine yelled over her shoulder as she rushed to Ray's aid. Then she saw Jake, and she rolled her eyes. Staring over at Ray, she realized that he wasn't going to last long, but Mannequin would make a meal of Jake, and she was the only one in a position to help him. Jasmine sighed loudly, muttering something about idiots getting stuck by robots, before she produced a crowbar from her jacket and ran towards Mannequin. The blow wasn't going to be a problem; Arianna's lovely song was giving Jas quite the psycho boost, and she knew the flash precognition would allow her to hit Mannequin where he would be, nullifying his reflexes. Now all she needed was the Bond one-liner.

Unfortunately, though, Jasmine has a lazy and generally disinterested author in such a field as Bond one-liners, so instead she simply decided to swing the crowbar full-force at Mannequin's head.


Neal

Neal looked on at the fights with haste, his fists balling up and his muscles tensing as he watched the battles unfold. He pulled at the chains once more, but to no avail. The chains wouldn't budge. He cursed under his breath and stood upright.

"Can anyone here get these damned chains off me?" he yelled "This is pissing me off!"

Jake Vin Valos vs. Mannequin.


The Mannequin was knocked aside by Jasmine's attack. It wasn't a particularly devastating attack, as his ceramic armor made him near-immune to all but the strongest attacks. He was merely knocked off balance. However, he was quick to regain balance. His body above his 'waist' turned towards Jasmine and Jake very eerily, like it was on a wheel, and moved independently from the rest of his body. At this point, four flashes of light appeared around Jake and Jasmine. Flashbang, Contessa, and Berserker had appeared, surrounding the pair. Drawing their weapons. The Conntessa quickly turned off their powers, leaving them powerless.

Jake wasted no time in getting back up. "Thanks." He said to Jasmine, looking at the robotic foe that was before him. The flashes of light prompted him to make an illusory barrier, only for it to disappear, and l. He quickly looked the other way to run, only to see two other members of the group. He tightened the distance between himself and Jasmine until his back was touching her. Realizing how much he f*cked up right now. "This doesn't look good..." Jake mumbled to himself. A familiar, bright red light filled his peripheral vision.

"... Get down!" A even more familiar voice filled his ears.


Carmen 'Lily' Santo, & Dexter 'Rush' Chertok.


Christ, the situation didn't look good, but not once did Lily take her mind off of her task. She remained focused, as it was the only thing she could do. She kept boosting Rush's power from a distance, hoping that she could give him a jumpstart, to use his powers to get everyone out of here. She kept at it, getting herself more and more familiarized with Rush's power, and the way that his energy worked, thus to that extent, how his power worked. Even as Golem did battle, and people got cornered. Until she got herself to the point she needed to. Lily gave his powers a boost, only to accomplish nothing. C'mon, c'mon.... She tried again, with the same results. Lily was losing hope, but she was going to keep trying to help no matter what. Even if she can't do anything to help, she was going to at least try to help everyone else fight the Changeling Unit by messing with their powers. Lily tried again... With success. Rush's power was now active, but Lily didn't know how it would.

Got it! Yes! You better take this chance...

It came as a shock, something so unexpected that Rush thought it was merely a dream to cope with the fact that his best friend was nearly tortured to death, and he was next. It was no dream, illusion, or hallucination though. The technomind gave him a map of all the electronics in the room... Including their power suppressing collars. How interesting. The design of these devices were clunky and inefficient, plenty of room for improvement... Rush would be sure to grab a few before he leaves here. There were more important things going on other than his little head being filled with new designs. Rush can easily get these collars off. Electronically locked. Unlocked by signal. Very good choice. It leaves less options for escape. But one glaring flaw...

Rush's collar beeped then dropped off his neck, and his powers returned to full strength. Removing the need for Lily to keep trying to jumpstart his powers.

Then everyone else' collars dropped....


Gabriela Mya, & Jake Vin.


Gabe started violently shaking left and right, trying her damn near hardest to get the hell out of these shackles. She wasn't going to sit here on her ass and put Jake through the same punishment as they did Ray. No. It just doesn't work that way. Gabe didn't see how hopeless the situation is, she saw how she could kill these bastards. Thankfully, her murderous impulses didn't go unsatisfied for long. The collar keeping her powers suppressed came off, and her powers immediately activated, a red light started to glow outward from her eyes. Randomly just like that! Gabe wasn't the type to worry about the specifics about things, instead she thought of how she was going to get out of these shackles. Well, there wasn't any thought about it, she fired lasers right where the cuffs were placed on her wrists. The cuffs shattered like they were mere glass, and were sent in random directions. A few pieces came outward and cut Gabe, drawing blood, but she wasn't worried about it. She jumped up to her feet, and figured that she should give Jake and his little lady friend a bit of a warning before she kicks her plan into motion.

"Get down!" Gabe screamed, giving them a window of opportunity as she got ready. She leveled her arms to the Changeling assholes, before letting loose a large laser beam that would surely set whatever they come in contact with ablaze. She performed a sweeping motion from right-to-left. It burned the hell out of her hands, and destroyed her gloves and a bit of her sleeves. But there wasn't enough time to get them off. So it looked like bouts of flames dropped off of her hands.

Gabe... Wait... How'd she get out? Jake quietly asked himself. Still he was more focused on not getting burned alive and got down on his belly, hoping that he would stay out of the line of fire. He made sure to make sure his eyes were pointed away from the overwhelming light of the laser. He still felt the overwhelming heat of the laser ignite his nerve endings.

It's effect on the Changeling unit before them was fairly obvious. Flashbang instinctively teleported herself and Contessa out of the way. The Mannequin's ceramic was melted, leaving an obvious black scorch mark on it - Ultimately forcing him to retreat. Berserker took the most damage out of the four. The laser burned across her chest, setting her ablaze. She let out a screech of sheer pain as she landed on her back. Flashbang teleported her away so she could be healed by Witch Mother. Otherwise, the entire Changeling unit that attacked them were forced to retreat. But, it was not the last of them.

Gabe wasted no time getting over to Jake, and gave him a helping hand. "You're going to stand there all day?" She asked.

It was a miracle that a deus ex machina came at the right moment! Jake took Gabe's hand, and was heaved up to his feet. "Thank you..." Now that he got the chance to; he looked around, breathing in the scene. It seemed like the Changeling Unit was going after other targets right now. Abe was getting bombarded by acid, which would dissolve solve. Jake wondered if he could quickly help Abe, or should he... Well, the guy did help him against Titus, after all. With a quick snap of his fingers, Jake created a curved glass wall between Abe and the rest of the Changeling Unit. Glass is acid-resistant, but the only thing about Jake's illusion in particular was that the glass could easily be destroyed by anything other than acid.

Thankfully, the acid splashed up against the glass, before falling to the ground, there was some corrosion. Otherwise, the acid didn't even touch Abe.


Drake Deltori Blackmore vs Flashbang.


"... My moment is here." Drake said as he watched the collar fall off his neck. Getting out of these damn cuffs should be easy enough. Hell, Gabe made hers explode, and was already up and at it. Selectively changing his arms into his shapeshifter form, he slipped out of the restraints, and changed right back. He stood straight up, and looked around, gently messaging his wrists. Drake's wrists were sore for sitting like that for so long. Either way, since he was watching the whole thing take place, he knew exactly what was going on. Abe and company came to the rescue, and Abe was taking on the Changeling Unit. His empathy went out to Ray, for enduring that torture... If only you kept still for a few more minutes... But now's not the time for ifs.... Drake had to decide whether or not he should help the people chained up, or jump into the fight.

... Sorry, Abe, but I have to do this.

He went over to Rush's shackles, and changed his hands into his shapeshifting form inherited from Megan. Mimicking the properties of metal, he pulled them apart, which was enough to free Rush. Getting a quick 'Thank you' from Rush as he ran over and tended his friend. Honestly, Drake didn't blame him for wanting to help his friend more than anything (You would always do the same yourself, Drake). Drake wasn't wasting any time, he was trying to break out as many people as he could.

He managed to liberate Niza, Merry, Lily, Jackson and Len.


Dexter 'Rush' Chertok, & Ray Judah Drager.


The second Rush got freed from his binds, he ran over to Ray. Worried out of his mind about Ray. He got down on one knee, and examined Ray... He didn't look good. He's fallen into shock, and was likely mentally broken as well. Which wasn't good. "Drager. Answer me. This instant!" Rush finally started talking in his normal tone of voice of sentence fragments. Ray didn't answer. Either he couldn't or didn't want to. That's a problem. Crap. Rush has to get him out of here, fast. He needs to get to a hospital... Or a healer. Rush took a look back towards the chains, and the lock. Unfortunately, Rush doesn't have anything he could use to break those... The Changeling Unit had stripped him of his tech during their first fight. Rush was absolutely useless here, and they were gathering, getting ready to attack, he didn't like one second of it. Ray was dying before his eyes, and he couldn't do a thing. That was something that excited emotions of fear, and sorrow. Such emotions were seemingly alien to Rush.


The Changeling Unit.
(Sans Bloodsucker, and Heartbreaker)


The signal keeping the collars on was turned off, the Mannequin was the first to notice this, as he was monitoring the signals maintained by the collars. They have gotten free. A mental message that was relayed by the Dreamwalker to the rest of the Changeling Unit. His ceramic was still damaged from the laser beam. Since Bloodsucker was distracted, and Heartbreaker was taken out of the fight, that meant that the leadership fell onto the Mannequin, their 'third' of command. Using Dreamwalker, he relayed his commands to the rest of the group.

Count Vicious, Acid-Scar, Primitive Light disengage the Golem. Drewamwalker, summon Giggler, and continue hostilities against the Golem. Scar, Light, Flashbang, kill the students. Vicious close all the exits, then fight the students. Flashbang, teleport the Witch Mother away, transport anyone that gets injured to her, and transport Berserker out of the line of fire until she has a chance to transform. Contessa... Kill the Headmaster's daughter before she gets a chance to leave here, and join the fight.

Each member of the Changeling unit nodded in agreement. Scar, Vicious, and Light were teleported away from the fight with Abe, leaving Dreamwalker to face him alone.

Count Vicious was transported out of the way. He immediately put into action his duties. He used his metal creation ability to fill the four exits to the chamber with metal constructs. He created pillars, spikes, blocks, among other shapes, to completely fill each entrance until they were impossible to penetrate. This process took time, and he was forced to fill each exit one at a time, but just in case, he filled the ones closest to the escapees first.

Mannequin, Acid-Scar and Primitive Light appeared before the students side by side some distance away from them. Immediately preparing to launch their combined attacks. Primitive Light crackled with electricity, and Acid-Scar sizzled with dissolving acid, and the Mannequin stood over them with his blades extended. With Flashbang appearing behind them to provide support.

Dreamwalker quickly sent out a telepathic message to something, before telekinetically creating a large crack in the ground in the center of the room. A crack that went straight to the room underneath the chamber. Inane laughter quickly echoed through the halls that weren't already sealed off by Vicious. Until a green slime came bursting from out of the crack like a geyser, pooling the green slime onto the floor. The slime separated into dozens of orbs, and crawled off away from the main mass. These orbs turned all-white, and took shape. They appeared like almost-featureless humanoid creatures that walked on their hands like gorillas, and have disproportionately long snouts, massive teeth, and insanely off-putting grins. They opened their mouths and started laughing. They just never stopped laughing. These are the Changeling Unit's pets. They know only how to slaughter. They are the smaller part of a larger creature. They are appropriately called The Gigglers.

You know who to kill. Dreamwalker sent out the message to the Gigglers. Seemingly leaving himself open to attack from Abe.

The Gigglers quickly turned their attention onto the students, rushing towards them using kamikaze-style tactics.


Amimoore Black Dellamorte & Contessa.


Amimoore was alone. While everyone else was breaking free, she was on the podium, chained down alone. It did take a little while for Amimoore to realize that her powers were back on. In truth she wasn't in the best of all conditions right now. During the time that she was captured by them, Amimoore was tortured seemingly nonstop. Each member of the group took turns tormenting her. Each of them did something different. Either the mental torture of the Dreamwalker, or the hell that the Mannequin subjected her to. Every time Amimoore was pushed to the point of death, Witch Mother would heal her and then they'd start over again. The one thing that Witch Mother couldn't fix was the mental damage. Amimoore was utterly broken, and there was not a thing that she could do but wish for death. She had lost the will to do anything, even escape.

When the Contessa had appeared before her, she didn't do a thing, even though she could have. Contessa walked up to Amimoore, and slid the metal mask that was on her face off, dropping it on the ground. Because of the Witch Mother, there was not a single sign that the Changeling Unit layed a finger on her. Physically, she was pristine. For the first time, the Contessa spoke, teasing, "You don't even have the will to do anything anymore? Do you?"

Amimoore didn't respond.

"After what they did to you, I don't blame you. You could telekinetically tear me in half if you wanted to..." The Contessa pulled a pistol from out of her jacket, a desert eagle, and pressed it up against Amimoore's forehead. "... But this makes things much easier. I don't have to turn your powers off."

This was how Amimoore was going to die. Getting monologued to death by a villain. "Pull the trigger..." Amimoore pleaded.

"... It's what Heartbreaker would do, ciao." Contessa bid Amimoore farewell before she pulled the trigger, and blew Amimoore's brains out. The boom of her gun roared through the room. Causing Amimoore's body to slump forward, dead as anyone could be. It was for the best anyway, Amimoore would have likely had killed herself if she ever left this room - But Bloodsucker wanted to make sure that Dacious's bloodline died. Contessa had to say Bloodsucker's plan to break her so she wouldn't try to escape was quite... Effective. That was one one potential threat taken out of the picture. It was time that she moves along, her business was now with the headmaster's little brats. Mannequin wants them dead, so she has no choice but to follow orders.

Contessa was teleported away, and into the fight with the students.


Bloodsucker.


The cleaver of blood firmly embedded itself into the ground by the spike. Bloodsucker wasn't too concerned with the scene going on with the students, until Dreamwalker had relayed a message to him. Which filled Bloodsucker with rage. A rage that would surely be taken out on Claire. When he hit the ground, Claire had sent her shadows at him. Perhaps it was time to give her a little demonstration... The cleaver quickly changed shapes. Going from a cleaver, to a massive claymore that was longer than Bloodsucker was tall, and nearly as wide as Bloodsucker. While this occurred, Bloodsucker took the attacks. The blows to his knees did not make him falter, and he took the haymaker like it was nothing. He was nearly killed by far stronger attacks, so it didn't bother him much. Bloodsucker taunted, cocky, advancing towards her slowly "Look here, sweetie. I have the power of a God." He flicked his hair backwards. "If you came here expecting to be a soldier..." He used his power to draw the claymore to his palms. In a swift motion, blurringly fast, Bloodsucker had raised his weapon into the air ready to cleave Claire in half. "... Here's your rude awakening!"

Claire v. Bloodsucker

Now she was in trouble. Claire had no way to stop that blade. This little switchblade piece of CENSORED would do nothing against a giant claymore made of blood. Claire watched as the collars dropped, and she sighed. She could see Drake running off to that hurt kid. She could have called out; she wanted to, but he was more important. After all, once the vampire king was through with her, she would be nothing but a splatter on the wall. Nobody would care. Maybe a few would be upset, but nobody would panic.

"Do your worst, you son of a b¡tch." she spat at him. She closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

Spoiler:

Just as Bloodsucker was about to drop the blade, a violet-colored spear erupted from the ground behind him. The razor-sharp spear embedded itself in Bloodsucker's gut and fired out of his stomach, sending a spray of blood against the wall Claire was pinned against. The source of the spear, of course, was Neal, who now stood behind Bloodsucker with his shield and three-tailed whip. Claire wiped the blood out of her eyes and spat freeing her mouth of foreign invaders.

"Get out of here!" Neal yelled "Help bust some of the others out! They need help. I'll finish this asshole off!" Claire nodded and ran off towards Drake, four shadows trailing behind her. Neal cracked his neck loudly and cracked his whip, sending a penetrating crack through the air. Though the palisade should have been enough to kill the average joe, something told Neal that he wasn't lucky enough to take the baddest of them all down in one hit.


Titus, Eli, and Ariella

The chains stood exactly zero chance once the collar dropped. Titus tore them right out of the wall, bringing chunks of stone with them. He swung one chain towards the Giggler and splattered it with the concrete boulder before tearing the chains off and walking over to Eli. He broke the chains with ease, freeing him from imprisonment.

"Thank you." Eli said to Titus graciously.

"Don't mention it." Titus replied "You're the healer, correct?"

"No, but my friend Ariella is. She's over there." He gestured to Ariella, who was pulling against the chains in vain. Titus rolled his eyes when he recognized the girl as one of Drake's harem, the one he had flirted with at the party. At first, he was going to simply go off punching down Gigglers, but Ray looked like he was really in need of help. Titus sighed and ran across the room to Ariella, who recoiled against him as if he were a Changeling himself.

"I'm here to help you." Titus said, breaking her chains off with ease "Go fix that guy over there." He pointed towards Ray. She stared Titus in the eyes, her skepticism overcome by her compassion for the wounded fellow. She nodded and ran off. Titus began to run about the room, smashing aside Gigglers and freeing shackled metas. He approached Drake, and stopped dead. The guy pissed him off, but Titus wasn't going to start a fight now. He needed Drake, no matter how much he hated to admit it. "Who else needs help out?" Titus asked him, yelling over the roar of the battle.


Ariella and Claire

Ariella arrived at Ray and shoved Rush aside. "Excuse me!" she yelled out "I'm a healer! I can help!" Claire arrived just as Ariella knelt down next to Ray. She rolled Ray over onto his back, and tore his shirt open with relative ease. Ariella needed to touch bare skin to assess the damage and begin the healing. She placed her hands on his chest, fingers spread wide, and closed her eyes. She took a calming breath, and her hands began to glow silver.

"Jesus," Ariella said to Rush "He's really messed up. I'll be able to fix him, but it's going to take some time. Keep those things away from me."

"I've got you, babe." Claire replied to her, turning towards the oncoming Giggler apocalypse. Her shadows attacked with her, making a five-man fighting force that worked in perfect unison. Claire slashed at the first Giggler she saw with the switchblade, aiming for the jaw. Her shadow went for the back of the Giggler's knees to take it down when Claire connected.

Jasmine

Just as the laser struck, Claire hit the deck, rolling out of the way of the laser blasts. Now a full battle was raging. Jasmine was pretty much useless now. These gigglers were resistant to physical damage, and a crowbar would do next to nothing against them. She looked about, scanning faces until she saw the one she was looking for; Ene. She ran to Ene's side and took out the lockpicking kit, stowing the crowbar in her jacket.

"Hello, Evelyn Brown." Jasmine said to her as the first shackle opened. "I'm your guardian angel. Nice to meet you." The locks on the shackles fell quickly to Jas' expertise. Her ESP worked its magic, telling her exactly how to move her tools to achieve her objective. It took a grand total of twenty-three seconds for Jasmine to get both shackles off.

Jesse Sutor and Abraham Gene

Jesse watched as his target, the woman who the apparitions labeled as the heart-breaking hawk's eye, was taken away by who he presumed to be one of her allies. It brought on a grimace to see someone in the kind of torture that he, too, underwent, but given the circumstances, he didn't feel quite obligated to be handing out his sympathies so easily. Especially to these psychopaths. "Continue the assault," he would murmur. The apparition's widespread presence would allow them to easily hunt down their target. It was very doubtful the woman would be in the condition to be fighting any further, but he had to get across the message that they couldn't hide. He had to win his future battles too, not just this one. With that action being performed, Jesse hurried with the others to the imprisoned students. However, there wasn't much he could do to help - aside from not knowing how to get them out, a couple of the other students seems to have already freed themselves! Starting with Lily, Rush, followed by Drake and then he starting helping the other students! He had immediately rushed to Lily and Merry with the stupidest grin on his face. "Thank God you two are okay!"

The acid that was shot towards him splattered harmlessly against a glass panel that had suddenly appeared just before Abe, which prompted a glance from him down below - it was Jake. So apparently he wasn't so useless after all! Fair enough. A couple of the other students were released from their shackles - a good improvement - but the bozos he had pitted himself up against ran away to start fighting the kids they were just torturing! Talk about cowards! Unfortunately, Abe's concerns would half to be forced to shift towards more pressing matters. The floor below split open, where white balls joined together to form a pack of - ugh, God only knows - aberrations that then ran towards the students like a mad pack of dogs! Abraham tensed his body, and let loose a monstrous roar that shook the air itself, where it would hopefully grab the attention of the Gigglers. The dozens upon dozens of stone spikes now fully formed and erected on his back were forcefully ejected and aimed towards the pack of Gigglers and the Changeling that had brought them forth, Dreamwalker, and had the velocity to punch through a passenger's vehicle.

Oh God, oh God, this isn't good. Jesse thought. Everyone was free, and now everyone that was fighting Abraham fell back and started towards them. Gabe had lasered away the robot guy and the bunch of new guys that came in as backup. Hell had officially broken loose, and Jesse felt powerless to stop any of it. Okay, okay. So his apparitions were hounding Heartbreaker. There were more. Could he send out simultaneous orders? Well, sure, he supposed it made sense. But he didn't want to stretch his resources thin. Apparitions were everywhere, but not infinitely concentrated in one location. What was one other people he could sent them against? He didn't want to take a chance on the robot guy - for all he knew, the thing had no mind. He wasn't sure what the parameters were - while he thought he could handle the guy with all of the acid, he wasn't sure what the physical prerequisites were. So there was that one woman. "Uh, command..." Jesse muttered to himself, "war-torn, armored woman... pursue, by any means..."

So it was at that point he just had to cross his fingers again and hoped that targeting her was the right choice. The sound of a girl calling out, "I'm a healer" made him wince. No, no! Don't do that! He was pretty sure these people didn't care about Geneva Convention... they would kill her without hesitating!