Part 5 of the megapost

Carmen realized she didn't have any particular inclination to competitively build sand castles because she'd never done it before, competitive or otherwise, so she began looking for a way to occupy herself, preferably with somebody else and not just alone. One of these days she'd have to collect her trumpet from the house, but that wasn't really necessary right now. Looking around, she spotted Ara sitting in a lawn chair. That sounds nice, she thought. If only Mr. Grumpy Bartender was here to get me another Cosmo, she thought. She walked over to where Ara was sitting and sat down in the chair next time, asking "Mind if I join you?" as she did so. After all, she knew him from their bar escapades earlier.

Garden was still...stuck due to the guy still not removing his hand on her waist, she couldn't possibily pushed it off...it was kind of rude and it seemed that he was ahving his moment....until he sneezed. She looked at the kitten that was put on the ground. "Aw! arent't a cutie!" She said as she picked up the kitten on the floor and started to pet with it, she turned to the guy with the sunglasses...hitting his head on the wall while shouting something about...hilly balboas and water melons? She was confused on what the guy was saying but she return with the cute little kittin and petted. "You are so cute! How did you get here?" She looked at the guy again and gave out a sweet smile while holding the cat like this "By the way my name is Garden it was kind of nice to meet you."

Seven who watched the idiotic events take hold, the guys team fighting agaisn't each other and a guy with sun galsses..going something like crazy. He run ahead from Mr. Lion and little feather and was waiting for something cool to happen. Since water was gone he could feel at rest. He had heard the next event was something like snad castle making, he watched how people did it before but couldn't do it. He looked at his paws. "Okay..how am I going to do this with only paws? He joked to himself as he slowly turned back human. Now he was completely...naked at the beach...while nearly everyone was there...

"Glorius" Mercy giggled at the shocked smile that crossed his expression as the water balloon landed on his head. "Why are you in a hole Darwin? I'm pretty sure that defeats the object of the game" Mercy pointed out to him, offering him her hand. "Come on out of there, you'll miss the sand castle building
if you stay there!" She exclaimed. "I bagsy you as my personal decorator, no-one is more colorful than you" She grinned at him.

Crash didn't really have a come back for that..."There was a battle...the lines just got a little blurred as to who was the enemy" He finally used as his excuse for his behaviour. He found her reaction rather amusing admitedly he had expected after running from him that she would have put up more of a resistance but he still got her so they were somewhat even. He looked at his finger possibly a flicker of a pout on his face at the idiocy of his own actions, he looked up at her as she laughed feeling a grin break across his expression. "Best time, could you imagine me having to sit out?" He queried, taking her hand he pulled himself up spreading the effort more evenly than before. He lifted his hands to his torso pulling a face as he brushed the sand from his wet skin he was practically covered in it much to his obvious displeasure, that was the only downside of the beach. Crash looked at the sand castle area, his nose wrinkling at the idea of it. "Sandcastles and I are not a good combination...mind if I join you instead?"

Darwin smiled up at Mercy from where he was stuck in the sand. Right, legs....stuck under sand, arms.....stuck under sand. "Well right now all I can move is my head.....and I can't decorate with just my head..." He began wriggling around before exploding out of the sand sending his manga flying. "Now let's get down to business! What kind of style Di you want CID you know....I can change sand into different colours so we could have a multicoloured castle,nit would be amazing and we could have an awesome flag on it as well! Oh it'd be amazing!" He finally stopped to take a breath and smiled at the girl with a determined grin that meant only one thing. He was gonna make the best sandcastle ever known to man or hermit crab.

Mercy felt another laugh burst free of her as she noticed Darwin had in fact buried himself in the sand, she had just begun to pad at the sound around him whilst trying to stifle her laughter when he practically exploded out of the sand showering her in it, she squeaked and scooted back hastilly, Grimacing as she leant forward trying to brush the sand from her cleavage, in line of Ryuu's tired eyes. "Well I didn't realise you had buried yourself quite that well" She grinned at Darwin standing up as she finished tidying herself up. "Yes! Multicoloured sounds fantastic! It must be done!" She agreed clapping her hands together eagerly before hopping her way over to the closed of building area, she really shouldn't have been bouncing...Deciding on a place to begin Mercy armed herself with buckets and spades before taking up a small part of the beach. "Right lets do this!" She stated, elegantly kneeling down on the sand and digging a spade into the sand.

Smiling, Ara shrugged as Carmen sat down beside him. "Hah, seems like a reversal of the time back at the bar." He commented, referring to how he had asked for permisson to sit beside Carmen back then. "Congrats on winning by the way. Though I might've actually played a large part in helping you guys out." He was joking, but it was possible he was also telling the truth really. Technically the one that had started everything off had been the red-headed guy named Crash, but he had definitely been the one responsible for keeping the internal battle going between the guys.

"Sunbathing for two it is then." Kathy replied. "Wait here one sec." Jogging over to a patio area on the beach, she grabbed two beach towels and returned back to where Crash was. Handing one over to him, she set her own towel down and lay down on her stomach. Using her arms as a sort of makeshift pillow Kathy began to enjoy the warm feeling of the sunlight on her skin. Having been so avoident of beaches from her lack of swimming ability, she had forgotten how nice it could be to just enjoy the sun with the sound of waves in the background. There was a lot of chatter going on around them, but it only made the place seem nice and lively.

Darwin blushed a bit when he noticed that he had hit Mercy with a huge wave of sand. That was when he realised something. HE had spent too much time with Ryuu. His eyes widened as he watched her bend over to get the sand out of her cleavage and teied to look away. He only succeeded in knocking his 3D glasses off. He put them back on to see her hop off.... Why was he being torture. Wait maybe this was a test! Yes it must be! It was all a test trying to break Darwin. Just like the time when his dad had forgot to buy starburst and skittles at the hops once. That was a test.....ten people died that day. But still his smile broke throught and he skipped after Mercy. It was so good to have someone as amazing as he was besidesRyuu for once. "Okay then! How big should it be?!" He asked stroking his chin like he had a beard. "I think it should be as big as us...maybe bigger so we can go inside it. Yes it would be AMAZING AND FABULOUS!"

Ryuu glanced at Garden before staring at the wall again. It was her again, though he honestly could not find himself actually hating her as much as he previous did with Ara. In fact, the size difference between him and her made the girl looked somewhat adorable. Still, he was glad to have someone next to him. He had finally begun to get used to sticking with others. It still felt awkward, but hey, it did show progression of his social presence.

"...Name's Ryuu," the otaku simply said. "Sorry about that water balloon that hit you. Sort of my fault for not noticing that one."

"Yeah, what was that about?" Carmen asked Ara, referring to his teamkilling (so many possible RvB references...) "It caught me very off guard, let me tell you! I had a heated duel going with that redhead we were heckling at the bar earlier. It was fun! I had forgotten how competitive I can be."

Garden smiled at Sir Ryuu and shook her head. "It's okay, it was my fault for accidentaly landed on you...I still wonder how I got there though..." She giggled lightly as she petted the kitten as it gave a little mew. " Well it's nice to meet you again Sir Ryuu" She curtsied Sir Ryuu, she looked around and to see a group planning for the sand sculpting competition, she smiled to reconized it was Sir Darwin and Lady Mercy to together. She waved at them both and ran towards them but before that she bowed to Sir Ryuu. "Well I will see you soon Sir Ryuu, maybe over for a drink or a chat?" She smlied gently as she ran towards the two and smiled. "Hi Lady Mercy and Sir Darwin! Nice to see you again." She curtsied to the two while still having the cute little kitten on her arms.

Ryuu nodded silently...

...because he was obviously more focused on ignoring the ranches filled with melons around him. He was also glad that the kitten was dismissed. The otaku did not exactly want to enter a sneezing-festival again, though the girl who picked him up did not seem to have cat allergies. Still, the girl named "Garden" somehow did not trigger his "anger of justice." Not that he wanted that little trait of his to break out all the time.

Crash waited as he was told to, lifting his arms above his head and stretching leisurely as he waited for her to return. "Thanks" He grinned laying it down next to hers and promptly sitting his wet butt back down onto it, he didn't lay down straight away instead watching the others for a while longer rolling his eyes as he watched Mercy hop across the beach like an excited child, he was really trying not to glance down at Kathy as he sat there, he was doing a pretty good job...With a content sigh Crash sprawled back on his towel, covering his eyes with an arm he was rather settled where he was now.

Mercy hadn't noticed Darwin's discomfort which was a first, she was usually good at seeing these things. She grinned at Darwin as he skipped over to her, her eyes growing wide momentarily at his suggestion, laughing lightly as he stroked at his imaginary beard. "Definitely! Why not? We could build a throne room and everything" She grinned up at him. "Amazingly fabulous indeed" She decided on saying looking up as she saw Garden wave at them, she returned the gesture smiling warmly as Garden ran over to the pair of them. "And you Lady Garden" She inclined her head, she was rather comfortable and a fancy curtsy would require her to move again...perish the thought. Her eyes instantly focused on the adorable kitten in her arms. "Oh my! Isn't that just the cutest thing ever?!" She near enough squeaked reaching out with her non sandy hand to gently scratch the kitten behind its ear. "Where did you get him...her?" Mercy asked, quickly remembering what they were doing. "Ooo you'll join our sand castle building team won't you?" She quickly added with a grin as she cooed over the little kitten for a moment.

Darwin chuckled as he thought about recreating the iron throne from Game of Thrones in their amazing sandcastle of unlimited fabulousness. He had so many great brilliant ideas when suddenly he saw one of his most favourite at things advance towards him. He waved at Garden. "Hey Miss Garden" he giggled when he noticed the kitten. "ITS SOOOOO CUTE!" He ran over to it and looked down on it with giant shining eyes. "Where'd you get it? He/she is adorable!" he then let out an awwwwww si high pitched that most girls couldn't even reach iT.q

Garden giggled as Lady Mercy petted the kitten she was holding while Sir Darwin also gave out a very girl aaawww. "I found him..or her beside Sir Ryuu, it just so dorable!!" She petted the kitten again as it gave out another mewl. "Oh I would love to join your group, do you have a plan what to make?" She smiled at the two, with a bunch of creative minds nothing could stop them.

Seven was enjoying the sun, the warmth trhough his fur...skin it felt good. He licked his hand and smiled. He looked around, maybe to talk to someone, he notice a girl in a black swim wear and a prasol (Vanessa) just watching also... He crawled up to her and jumped above her parasol, just floatign above her. "HI! watch ya doing?"

Anedine waved her hand to Garden as she promised to return later, shouting out a "See you soon!" cheerfully. Sadly, Isse was still asleep in his home and for the sake of courtesy should not be woken up, so in order to make herself feel not awkwardly alone, Anedine looked around to see if there could be anyone that seemed to be willing. There's plenty of white-haired girls like her around, there's a purple-haired euphoric-looking boy, then many other men with generic-colored hairs, and finally Ryuu, who seemed to have met Garden recently. Hurrying to the tall boy, Anedine gave her usual greetings.

"Hello again, Ryuu!"

The otaku froze.

"Eh?"

His eyes widened. That voice... The voice that called out for him. This voice belonged to someone he wanted to meet, yet at the same time, did not want to meet. Ryuu, who had repositioned himself to his "epic-wall-leaning-pose" looked up from the ground.

What was he expecting? What was he looking for? What did he want to see?

He remembered what Santa Claus told him. The wise words that belonged to the generous(?) man, whose white hair looked as if it were artificial.

Santa Claus said "When in doubt, just think of boobs.

Sure enough, he did.

And as soon as he did, and as soon as he saw Anedine running toward him, he suddenly screamed with a strangely high-pitched voice. Barely managing to prevent a massive recreation of Noah's Ark with his nose from occuring, the dark-haired otaku raised a hand as he blurted out,

"BOO- Er, ANEDINE! I, uh, didn't expect your breaAAEUTIFUL presence to be here! It's been pretty fun for me, so far. I think."

Ryuu barely prevented himself from mentioning watermelons, instead talking about her "beautiful presence." It sounded a lot more sophisticated than shouting out "breasts" in the public. On another note, he felt quite concerned about the incoming game for the boys, which seemed more like a punishment game more than anything.

The collab post of Destiny and Yuki (Sorry for double posting)

Meanwhile With Zivon and Yuki at the forest during the events of the beach olympics!

Yuki was speaking with Ziv and Liam about the Wisp when he saw a small white fox, it reminded him of home and it just filled his heart with joy, he became distracted from the two who weren't really paying attention to him now but perhaps Ziv still was, either way the fox started to walk deeper into the woods as Yuki smiled his most gentle heart warming smile the kind that makes any woman melt at the sight of being gazed upon with such an expression, it went deeper into the woods as he followed his short azure blue eyes glowing with tenderness, his soft indigo blue hair swaying with the soft breeze that flowed throught the woods as the came upon a mystical lake, the water sparkled like crystals, so vibrant and sweet, a true calm of peacefulness filled the air around the lake, the fox disappeared and Yuki looked around but could not find it, he stood there wondering where the beautiful creature went to, he walked to the waters edge and peered down into the water his reflection so calm. "I wish i could have pet it.. I love White Foxes.. they're such beautiful creatures.." Yuki sighed and closed his eyes for a moment to relax and take in the sounds of nature.

While he and the other were being lead out by the wisp thing Zivon notice that Yuki had went to a different direction, towards the deeper parts of the forest. 'Wait what is he...' Zivon worried, what was Yuki thinking? He said to her lightly " W-ait! Yuki we-nt somewh-ere, I will get hi-m bac-k..." He bowed to her and the wisp and started to follow him. He wonder where the heck Yuki was going...no one just goes deeper into the forest, that just... no common sense yet Zivon didn't really have much also. He had a hard time trying to catch up to the blue hair teen, he tripped and fell a couple of times of exposed roots and a little vines. By the time he was at something that was a lake he some dirt and leaves nearly covered his body. "I need a shower after this...." He said to himself as he tried to rub of the remaning dirt and leaves on him. At the near edge of the lake was Yuki, he looked calm and relax. 'Who can be this calm?! Doesn't he know that now maybe we might be even more lost?!' He walked up to Yuki and tapped his shoulder. "H-ey, co-me on...we n-eed to go b-ack...."

Zivon tapped on Yuki's shoulder as he opened his eyes the water reflecting the sunlight off of its surface into his eyes the sparkle making his azure eyes glisten as well causing them to almost seem to glow peacefully with the harmonious serendipity of naure almost as though the two were intwined not a soul could have resisted this sight, it was so pure so innocent just the mere sight would seem to be mystified in that of itself, a rustling in the tree's behind the two occuring at the same time, Yuki turned toward Zivon and spoke in his smooth low gentle tone. "Oh hello Ziv.. I'm sorry i seem to have gotten distracted by the little White Fox that was venturing further into the forest and I followed it wanting to watch it longer.. but it seems to have escaped my sight.." Water nymphs of the lake seemed to appear out of the forest trees they were small creature so beauitful and seemed like they would be kind but they did not seem to be happy as they saw Yuki and Zivon, though Yuki had his back turned so they could not truly get a better view of him aside from his features from behind him.

'Distracted by a white fox?' Zivon ran that thought in his head, he didn't know white foxes existed and he feared what could that mean. He sighed and look at Yuki again, and tapped his shoulder lightly and nervously. "Lo-ok we shou-ld head ba-ck n-ow..." he turened around to head back to Liam and the wisp but he noticed something...nymphs...he wasn't sure it was nymphs but it seemed like it from the books he had read. "W-ah..." He was in shock to the site of many nymphs, they indeed look harmless yet he read book that said they try seduce men first then do many horrible things to men and he feared he could be hurt. He hid behind Yuki and pointed at the nymphs, obliviously shaking with great fear. "He-ey...lo-ok...." He shivered quite greatly. The Water nymphs had notice that the smaller boy had notice them and decided to act. They seemed truly harmless, with beautiful looks and chamring faces for nearly any straight men will fall for yet they had truly...cruel intentions. "Umm... I do-n't tru-st th-e-m..." He stuttered badly. The nymphs moved closer and notices the looks of the blue hair guy. They mostly blushed at the sight of the boy and his looks.

Yuki could see how they were blushing in reaction to his beauty, it was as though they had never seen someone like him before in their lives, why did women and men both alike always seem to become flustered around him? He couldn't really tell either way he bowed to them and smiled, their faces getting even more flustered as he spoke to the water nymphs. "Good day miss nymphs.. How are all of you?.. Are you feeling hot all of your faces are bright? Perhaps you should get a drink of water or something.. I'm sorry to have imposed on all of you.. You see my friend and I were wandering around in your forest and then i spotted a majestic white fox and followed it wanting to watch it a bit more since i just adore white foxes.. they remind me of home.. Ah please forgive me for not introducing myself properly.. I am Yuki.. like the snowflake.. But many call me Yukio.. Its like a nickname i have.. you may call me that as well if you wish." Yuki smiled softly which was just another heart-pounder making them blush flutter their eye lashes, all of them seemed so tense, he wanted them all to relax so with each greeting he walked up to each one of them grabbed one of their small hands and kissed them on their hands as he greeted each of them and stood back they were all feeling shy and embarrassed now while they were distracted by his angel like snowflake beauty his skin so pale and vibrant like a winter snowstorm, his azure eyes so beautiful and deep like the ocean waves clashing the shores of the Hawaiian Islands, his Indigo blue hair so swuave and soft like that of silouetted silk spun into the finest of a masterpiece, or majestic like the Niagra Falls cascading down from its mountain to the water bed below it, he looked back at Zivon and whispered in his sweet harmonious tone that was more of a singing sort of voice than anything though it was how he naturally sounded. "Hurry and run Ziv.. I'll keep them distracted so you can get away.. I'll be right behind you.." Yuki turned
back to the water nymphs and smiled at them sweetly.

Zivon stood there in fear, he didn't know what to do as he watched Yuki somewhat handle the nymphs... 'How is this guy able to be so calm?' Zivon wonder aboiut it for a while until upon hearing what Yuki said. "Hurry and run Ziv.. I'll keep them distracted so you can get away.. I'll be right behind you.." Zivon just stood there... in shock in what Yuki said... 'R-un!? Bu-t I-I' He was so close to getting another panic attack, yet he just took a deep breath and tried to breath carefully. 'You can do this... Like what Yuki said... just run for it... he will distracted them andthen catch up.... you can do it!' Zivon though possitively but due to his lack of self esteem and self confidence he felt worse... 'You can't do it... you would just probably fall down and get you and Yukli hurt...' He sighed from feeling really bad about himself but he shook his head and tried to be calm. "O-oka-y...Just m-ake sur-e y-ou can ca-tch up..." He whispered to Yuki and with one big deep breath... he ran.. he ran like there was no tomorrow. 'Just run! You remember where was Liam and the wisp thing just run!' He closed his eyes and ran through the forest, minding what ever hit him at the face. A branch or leaves he just ran. But he fell, he tipped over an exposed root making him fall and oddly enough twisted his ankle. "Ah!" He shouted as he fell down on the forest gorund, his ankle, twisted and making him unable to much. "Yo-u got t-o be kiddi-ng m-e!?" He panic as his he couldn't move much and he feared that the nymphs will catch up to him. Zivon stood up but immidietly stumble back down on the gorund. "Ple-ase som-eone he-lp..." He begged for someone help him from his fallen state.

Yuki waited until Zivon was gone and slowly back up as he spoke again, they tried to move forward. "I must be taking my leave now.. I have many important things to do that i remembered.." They tried to move closer as Yuki slammed his hands down towards the ground in the air making a wall of ice suddenly burst from the ground into the air and calmly headed away from them at a quick pace so they could not catch up to him and then he spotted Zivon. "Zivon what happened are you ok?.. Talk to me Ziv.. What happened?.." Yuki knelt down and looked into his eyes worried something might have happened to him while he was taking care of the nymphs. "Did the nymphs do this to you?.. We need to hurry and get you out of here and back to safety.. Can you walk.." Yuki at him and then stood up reaching his hand out to Zivon.

Ziv waited until Yuki came by, Zivon just shivered a bit from panicking too much. "I-I can't g-et up... My ank-le..." He stuttered out as he reached for Yuki's hand, trying to stand up but ended up falling anyway. "M-y a-nkle...it hu-rts..." He gritted his teeth as ankle really hurted badly. Zivon wanted to cry, panic and just dissapear. But he just didn't want to be like that... fearing that he might die he tried to give himself self confidence and esteem. 'You can make it... you can make it...' With that though in his head he stood up again buty taking a deep breath and started to limp forward. "O-okay..co-me on..." He reconginzed where he and maybe Yuki if he was following him was headed... He struggled until he realzed they were out well if Yuki was still following him. He sighed happily but slumped down on the ground rubbing his ankle. "ouch..." Zivon said as he looked around... it seemed there was this event thing happening and a race... treasure hunt paint ballons... "Wh-at is ha-ppen-ing...?" He said as he sighed, stood up again and looked at Yuki... " I-I need so-me rest...s-ee ya whe-n I can Y-uki..." Zivon then limped back to his house thing if he can remember what was his room number was. He sat down on a bench and rubbed his ankle again... "ouch... seriously..."

Yuki helped Zivon up and noticed he really couldn't walk that well and picked him up like it wasn't even a hassle carrying him instead of letting him walk and carried him out of the forest to safety noticing that some events were going on and sat Zivon down as he was told by Zivon that he needed to rest so he watched him walk off and stood there watching the event go on and then headed to sit down in the sand all alone as the sun was setting, sweet harmonious colors cascading the sky in beauty with orange, yellow, and red, and a tint of pink. "Ahhh.. finally out of the forest.. I wonder if there are any beautiful women to talk to.." Yuki smiled softly and blinked looking up at the sunset his azure blue eyes swirling with the hues of the sunset, causing his eyes to glisten such beautiful glossy hues.

GIGA COLLAB EPISODE VI: Return of the Melons

Summary: Crossdressing.

Mercy was so busy cooing over the kitten she actually jumped as Darwin reached a pitch she had not deemed possible. "Whoa! Impressive set of pipes you've got there" She grinned up at Darwin looking back over at Garden she tilted her head to the side still scratching the little thing behind its ears. "Does...it have a name?" Mercy asked. "So far its going to be multi-colored courtesy of Darwin over here, and we're definitely making it big enough for us to fit in" Mercy chuckled at the idea she had by now successfully filled a bucket with sand which was constructive! She got to her feet brushing herself down. "We are going to need a bigger bucket..." She sighed looking up to see where Koop was, she waved at him giggling as the little moogle dive bombed into her arms fluttering his wings behind him happily. "Music is necessary, get some of these lazy buggers up...ice on Crash should definitely happen, also need more space" She instructed the small creature who purred happily before pinging back into the air and zipping away.

Crash by now was dozing, no longer paying attention to his surroundings he didn't really feel the need to. He had practically dried off already by now well minus his swimming trunks they were still damp, and his hair perhaps...not that this really mattered. For unbeknownst to Crash and unfortunately Kathy who was laying beside him, Koop was hovering just above them rummaging through his messenger bag, well they couldn't have people missing out right? Mercy had told him to douse Crash in ice, if he was careful enough he'd miss Kathy. The little moogle fished around his bag before pulling out a stupidly large bag of ice...it was the same size as him! His wings were having to flap twice as fast as they usually did to keep him elevated, with a rather devious little smirk, the cream bundle of mischief grabbed the bottom of the bag and upturned it, sending a wall of ice cubes cascading down straight onto Crash's torso, a few of them probably bounced off of him and straight onto Kathy's back. "Ffffizzwads and Crambletoads!" Crash yelped the shapeshifter's reaction was immediate, as soon as the first few ice cubes touched him he had jolted upright, pulling his arms across his chest as more of the cursed cold things fell on him, he flailed for a moment trying to get his feet as they ran off of his shoulders, down his back he nosedived over Kathy hitting the sand the other side of her, rolling around the sand like a beached whale for a moment. "What the-Who the-grr!" He brushed his hands over his burning chest, completely oblivious to the fact he had probably dropped all of the ice that had previously landed in his lap...on Kathy as he passed her. Koop by now had pegged it, his legs were even moving as he flew away from the pair arms waving wildly either side of him, sweat droplets flying from his head as he moved.

Garden looked back at the two and smiled. "No.. but I would like to call him or her...sunflower! I had a friend named sunflower and he/she has the same flowers so it seems perfect for her or him" Being tired to wonder if it was a girl or a boy she picked up the kitten and looked underneath it. "Oh its a boy! How oddly lucky!" She giggled as she petted sunflower lightly and cuddle with the cute little bundle of fluff. "Something colorful and big enough to fit us in?! Wow! That sounds really cool!" She smiled brightly and she watched as Lady Mercy asked the cute little poof thing of fluff with wings for a bigger bucket, ice and music. Garden put sunflower on the sand and pet his ears. "Okay, stay there for a moment and I promise I give lots of love and food later." She stood up and help with making the amazing sculpting they were going to make.

"?!" Feeling something cold briefly bounce to her side, Kathy's eyes opened wide with surprise as she reflexively yelped out and swatted away whatever had just landed on her. Before she had real time to ponder what had just happened though, a much bigger yelp beside her distracted her. "What's wro-" Mid-sentence, Crash suddenly flew over her to the other side and dived into the sand. At the same time he had just dumped a wad of ice onto her bare back, making her instantly bolt up in surprise. "Cold cold cold..!" Getting goosebumps from the sudden chill, the ice slid off her back with the help of gravity as she sat up with a look of confusion and surprise.

Now unfortunately for Crash, Kathy had been on her front with her back exposed to the sun the whole time and didn't see the real culprit behind the whole thing. Puffing out one of her cheeks, she took a handful of the melting ice that had fallen behind her and dropped it back on top of Crash. "Geeze, where did you suddenly get this from anyway?" She asked.

Crash looked up as Kathy exclaimed he watched the ice slide from her back his face portraying a sudden flush of guilt. Had he done that? He shivered involuntarily, Goosebumps apparent on his upper torso around the nice red marks that now littered his torso, his eyes instantly flicked up looking for the culprit, he had his knuckles pressed against his pectoral muscles looking a bit like a cave man as he cast his gaze around them frowning, he didn’t notice Kathy grab some of the melting ice and bring it towards him. Of course his reaction when she dropped it on his head was rather amusing. “Nngargh!” He exclaimed as the cold water trailed off his head followed by chunks of ice, he clenched his fists waving his arms from the elbow down only as his shoulders curled in tightly he glared up at her only succeeding in looking rather childish. “Wh-what was that for?!” He squeaked yes squeaked...this was not a proud moment for him, he hadn’t even been aware he could reach that octave. He hopped to his feet reaching up and furiously batting at his head, flicking her with the cold water that had accumulated on his fingertips once he was done before clearing his throat. “Me? I didn’t get it from anywhere! It was tipped on me!” Crash answered her his voice returning to normal, brushed the sand off of his chest. “Why would I tip ice over myself...on purpose?” He added the last part, knowing full well he had in fact spilt ice down himself before by accident. “I’m not a magician I can’t make things appear out of thin air.........” Crash stated, watching her carefully in case she felt the need to bombard him with more ice, a thoughtful expression crossed his mind for a moment. He felt his shoulders slump as the gears clicked into place. “Women...” He muttered as if cursing them in general although he unintentionally left himself open for a punch for that one. “Unless Ara can move like a ninja whilst carrying a bag of noisy ice, there is only one culprit!” Crash announced, lifting his index finger pointing towards the sky before aiming it at Mercy who was assisting Garden and Darwin with a sandcastle.

Crash without really thinking ducked down beside Kathy, scooping up a handful of the ice that had fallen onto her towel just behind her, as he stood back up he deliberately allowed some to escape his hands so it landed on her before he danced out of her reach knowing he was so going to pay for that at any moment, he hot footed it across the sand making a bee-line for Mercy who was oblivious to him. “MJ!” He called to her when she was close enough, it worked wonders as she turned around Crash threw the melting ice pieces at her as she turned most of which doused her torso, causing her to shriek quite inhumanely and dance around like a ninny as she tried to wipe the ice from her torso. “You little sod! You’ll pay for that!” She growled after Crash as he sprinted away again, heading back towards Kathy out of habit as he retreated from Mercy’s wrath.

“Alright you lot, announcement number 2!” Mercy called to everyone. “I will shortly be revealing the next event! So don’t disappear...trust me you do NOT want to miss this one” Mercy had a very devious smile plastered on her face, her eyes drifted to rest on Koop who was almost finished setting up an assault course on the far side of the beach.

Watching Crash's unexpectedly exaggerated reaction to the ice, Kathy couldn't help but let out a laugh. Especially when his voice actually ended up even higher than her own. She closed her eyes momentarily as a small spray of water was returned to her, but the amused smile on her face did not disappear.

In Kathy's complete defence, she hadn't seen Crash get dumped with the ice before he ended up leaving quite a bit of it on her back. However, listening to his questions and hurried comments, she was beginning to get an idea of what had really transpired. At his little mutter of 'women', however, she puffed out her cheek again and tossed another bit of ice in Crash's direction.

"Ara..? Who's-" Not having been introduced directly, she had forgotten his name for a moment but then remembered that it had been the brown-haired boy from back at the bar. "Right." Letting out a sigh, she had been distracted by the memory and hadn't noticed Crash's movements until he was... Right beside her really. Still sitting up on the towel, Kathy felt her face turn red as the shapeshifter nonchalantly picked up the ice behind her before dropping some of it on her head and running off. At the moment, she was almost glad for the ice on her head really. Hopefully it would help her calm down again. By the time he returned, the blush had mostly faded away again as she looked at him and joked, "You seem really bent on making a lot of enemies today Crash."

Darwin grinned at Garden and Mercy before rollijumping up and down in excitement. "WASN'T THAT KITTEN SO GOD DAMN CUTE!"

Vanessa took off her shades and looked coldly at the boy before her, "Oh look, a very squirmy boy. What do you want?" She scowled at him while putting on a mischievous grin. She loved teasing and watching boys try to impress her, it was a good sport. "Wait....how can you float."

“Aah… That.” Ara shrugged. “Crash, that’s the guy from the bar by the way, threw a water balloon at me, I threw one back, someone else joined in for some reason and… It all just snowballed from there really.” His own temper probably had a lot to do with it, but he wasn’t going to admit to a fault that easily. Besides, no harm was really done and Carmen seemed to have enjoyed herself at any rate.

Carmen looked over at Ara. "Ahhh...I...think I get it? Well, the game was fun anyway, except when I got knocked over. I think I won my duel though!" she said, grinning with pride. "With that guy from the bar, actually...Crash, you said his name was?"

Seven looked down at the girl, so much black.... He gave his signature smile and waved at her even though he was still floating above her. " Well being a bakeneko is sure have its perks!" He smiled as he bath in the sun light while licking his hand. "What about you, this is good sun! Why are you just hiding underneath that parasol?"

Ara nodded in confirmation. "Yup. Probably a nickname, unless he had some pretty wild parents." He wiggled around in his seat a bit. It had been a while but he had hardly dried out at all. He was in swimming trunks so that was fine, but his shirt was getting uncomfortable. He probably should've thought of that and taken it off before the water ballooning had began.

Save looked at Cyber as her whole body started to tickle "umm.. What are you doing" Cyber suddenly kicked a guy in the face as she could see multiple colors appear in front of her vision. She could hear the wind and the people around her as she floated in mid air above Cyber. She gave a dumbfounded look at Cyber and Dendus as she could feel the air on her face "What... happened?"

Cyber was most definitely getting annoyed with these guys yet he can't do much trouble... but as he was about to use Cyber click he remembered that this area was a bit to small and there was still random civilians waling about. So he grabbed the shirt of the guy and pulled his face close to his. "Okay...I am not interested..." he stopped grabbing the guys shirt and walked to Save at his 3ds.

Save tried to float away but she got sent back into the 3ds as soon as she tried to float away "This is freaking me really out" After a moment of weird movements in the 3ds she saw the same thing she just saw a moment ago as she was being sent back to the real world again "Cyber look I'm real" as she wanted to fly away again but it still didn't work as she entered the 3ds again "I can come to the real world but I can't move an inch" She said as she looked at Cyber through the camera.

Mercy grinned at Darwin as he rolled(?)Jumped about still obviously excited by the kitten, she dusted her hands off. Having readjusted after Crash’s icy assault, she glanced at Garden and Darwin. “Excuse me for a moment” She smiled at the pair, before walking back over to her chair, climbing back up the ladder she stood up on the chair. “Alright everyone listen up, the next event is all set up!” Mercy announced motioning at the rather interesting assault course that had been set up where the waterballoon dodgeball had taken place earlier, in front of them were 6 closed chests 2 of each kind. “Sorry gentleman you lost the last event so you've been nominated for the next one. Unfortunately because of treacherous rule breaking and friendly fire you are doing the next challenge in fancy dress...or more to the point woman's clothing” Mercy continued grinning deviously. “Ladies for winning the last event, how would you like to pick one of the guys and make them look pretty?”She asked, looking rather smug with herself as she looked at the 5 guys stood within close quarters. Darwin, Ryuu, Ara, Seven and Crash were still stood close by. “Once all the guys are dressed up its a free-for-all through the assault course to our left” Mercy continued explaining. “This course must be completed in the outfit you will dressed in, no ifs or buts that is a rule! The course pretty much speaks for itself under the netting over the rickety ladder bridge and to the table at the end. On that table you will find 6 pieces of paper on it, pick One. You must grab whatever is written on that piece of paper and take it with you over the finish line if you fail to grab your item you’ll lose the race and be in for a nasty forfeit” She explained hoping she hadn’t left anything out. “Alright, so who’s dressing up who? We’ve got Ara, Ryuu, Darwin, Seven and Crash up for grabs. Once you’ve got one take them over to one of the six chests and get started” She grinned deviously.

Crash hadn’t realised how flustered he had made Kathy as he’d scooped up the ice though he offered her a cheeky grin at what she said. “As long as you’re on my side I’m good” He returned her jest, winking slyly at her. His ears perked up as he heard Mercy announce the next speech, he stood beside Kathy folding his arms as he listened, though at some point he finally cottoned on to what she was implying. What? Hell no! He grimaced before attempting to slink away from the large group.

Cyber looked at Save who was trying to get out of his 3ds...he was confused and sort of freak out why she was doing that...'Maybe she is a really human?' He thought but he shook his head and tried to to freak out. "Look lets talk about this...or you being stuck in my 3ds... later but for now... what is happening outside?" He heard some noises outside form the shop, picking up the 3ds with Save in it he turned back to the guy he was trying to seduce with. "Onii-chan! I will be right back! please wait for me." He giggled in a happy fake tone and left the store skipping. As he was already at the beach he could some sort of...beach olympics? or games...what ever! He wonder what was happening and why are there chest on the beach. 'What the hell?" he questioned what was happening, he turned the 3ds around so Save could see the beach. "Here, it a nice view but not my type...I seen better in video games..." He smirked as he watched the waves crash down on the shore.

Realizing Crash was trying to slip away from them, she quickly grabbed onto his wrist to stop him. "I guess I've chosen the one to dress up then." Kathy smiled, enjoying the situation quite a bit. 'Crash in a dress...' She almost felt bad at finding the image incredibly hilarious. Almost. Not quite enough to let go and allow him to escape.

Pulling him towards a chest that was blue and yellow in colour, Kathy reassured him, "Come on. It'll be fun. And women's clothing isn't all that uncomfortable, I promise." Rummaging through the chest, she found that there was quite an assortment inside. From costumes like dancer outfits or wedding dresses, to more normal and casual clothes like mini-skirts or summer dresses. Laughing, she beckoned Crash over and asked, "Okay... I'll be nice and let you choose what sort of outfit you want. Easy to move in and revealing? Or well-covered and not quite good for the beach?"

Maria grinned at Mercy's words, her eyes darting over to Ryuu. She walked over to him with a wide grin on her face.

"Well, look what we have here? You need some clothes don't you?" She spoke slowly, giving the boy a smirk. She turned to Mercy and motioned that she was taking Ryuu. She then motioned for the boy to follow her. She took a look in one of the chests and looked through it a bit. Nothing was really sparking her interest. Everything was too... plain. She threw dresses behind her back left and right before stopping. Her eyes went wide as she looked at it. She glanced over at Ryuu with a look that said, 'Should I? Should I really?' Her lips curled upwards and she smiled. She held up a piece of cloth. Two pieces in fact. She held a red, white, and blue bikini in her hands. The top had red, white, and blue tassels hanging from the breasts. She glanced over at Ryuu, trying to contain her laughter, already imagining the poor boy in it.

Carmen was intrigued when she heard the next event was going to be a crossdressing obstacle course. She had no idea how that would go down but as the lady went through the details she grew an amused grin. Turning to Ara with a bright smile, she said, "So! Are you game? I CHOOSE YOU!" Ara is now a Pokemon

Grinning widely, Ara jumped out from his seat and looked back at Carmen. "Hah, great. Just when I wanted some dry clothes to change into." Unlike the other guys, he wasn't fazed at all at the fact that he'd have to dress in women's clothing. After all, he had memories of being a woman. The horrors and embarrassment of those could not possibly be compared to mere cross-dressing. Rubbings his hands together, he waited for Carmen to start leading him over to one of the chests. "Do I get to wear your awesome hat? Though I hope you'll dress me in something I can still win the race in."

Carmen raised one eyebrow when Ara seemed almost eager to change into women's clothing. It certainly wasn't the reaction she was expecting, but then again his doppelganger was a girl. But still...that can't make crossdressing something that requires no hesitation or impulse negative reactions. Oh well...it just made it easier for her. "Sorry, this hat is off limits," she said in response to his question. "Ok...let's do this then!" She pulled him over to one of the chests and opened it up. "And no promises on the race winning thing...this has to be as entertaining as possible, obviously." She rummaged through the chest, finding all kinds of wonderful things to put on Ara. She momentarily stopped, thinking. "Yeah, it's gotta be this one," she said, pulling out a gigantic wedding dress...veil, train and everything. "Still excited?" she asked with a smirk. "Well, go on, put it on!" she said, holding the dress out for Ara to grab. "It's easy!", she finished with a laugh.

Alistair was very interested to find out what a 'cross-dressing' competition was and as his followers could cleary see the way out of the forest he had his light fade out till they could no longer see him and transformed into a bunny. as said bunny he hopped out of the woods and onto the beach , slowly hopping across the sand until he was approaching the large group congregating there. he then stopped staring at the group, which contained a few very attractive girls, including one with a very odd hat and a girl who appeared to have snakes for hair, he was really enjoying this particular group of guests.

Ara rolled his eyes and let out a groan. "What part of that looks easy to race in?" The white dress was ridiculously poofy and probably extended past his ankles. "... Is this karma for the whole wedding heckling I was doing back at the bar?" He wondered aloud, and looked at Carmen with one brow raised in suspicion. Was he allowed to rip the thing to make it a bit easier to run in? Technically he would still be wearing the entire outfit. Wrinkling his nose, Ara took the dress from Carmen and shook it up and down a few times in distaste. "Seriously. If I'm going to compete, I want to try to win you know?"

Carmen laughed. "No it's not karma...that was hilarious! And this will be hilarious too," she finished, confident in her logic. "So win!" she said playfully. "You'll find a way. That dress is very expensive, you know. So don't compete too fiercely. It's like racing while holding a priceless painting. You can do that, right?" She was very amused by this whole situation, and her face showed it. "Besides, I'd imagine you can use the fact that you're wearing an entire bridal outfit to distract your opponents," she opined. "Although I absolve myself from all responsibility if Crash teases you for it. Fair's fair."

Ara couldn't see a better time than the present to admit he probably wouldn't have cared squat about holding a priceless painting. "Aah, so you mean I can just let the thing snag and rip as I please? That's fine then." It wasn't his dress or money. Or Carmen's for that matter. Meaning, he felt very little guilt in potentially ruining the whole thing down to rags. He sighed and unzipped the back of the dress. Taking off his shirt, he stepped into the opening and pulled the dress up over his swimming trunks as he slipped it on. About halfway through pulling the zipper up, however, it got stuck and he couldn't finish putting it on. "Hey Carmen, help me out here."

Waiting for her to help, Ara looked at some of the other clothes poking out of the chest. At least his wasn't very revealing. Even he would've been quite apprehensive about showing too much skin in something clearly meant for the opposite gender. "And Crash can try all he wants. Oh, but if he asks then you're my groom alright?" Smiling cheekily, he winked at Carmen.

Carmen's eyes widened a little as he discussed being careless to the dress. "Hmm...I'm going to have to go with no on that one, boss," she said, somewhat half playfully. "I don't like seeing a good dress go to waste, you know." She walked around as he attempted to put it on, and soon enough asked for her help. "Aww, you can't do it yourself? ...well, at least I know you're not experienced then," she chided playfully. She walked up behind him and unstuck the zipper, zipping it the rest of the way up. "Hmm, that was too easy," she remarked to herself. "They could've at least picked a harder dress to get into. Well, it's least it's big." Carmen reacted in dramatic shock when he mentioned the groom. "ME?! A groom? Certainly not," she said indignantly. "I'm just a bridesmaid, dear," she retorted with an endearing smile. "Ready for your big day yet?"

"Your fault for putting it on me. You've been warned." Ara shrugged back. Then hearing her comment about being 'experienced', he couldn't help but let out a small, defeated-sounding laugh. Oh if only she knew. Though technically he had never really cross-dressed himself before, so perhaps it didn't really count if all he had were disconnected 'memories'. Also, he had to admit he was surprised to find that the dress actually fit. Ara wasn't exactly bulky, but he was still bigger than the average female due to his gender. And unlike girls, his waist didn't slim down dramatically to create curves. Well... The chest area was awkwardly just hovering over his non-existant upper curves but that much was to be expected.

Pretending to look hurt, Ara clutched at his chest and clicked his tongue. "Ouch. Rejected right before the big event. What a mean woman you are." Then letting out a laugh, he gestured towards all the wedding accessories still in her hand. "So are you gonna let me off the hook with this much, or are you going to put those on me too? I have no idea how all those things go, so you're going to have to put them on me yourself if you're going to dress me in them."

"It's not me, it's you," she responded playfully. "And of course you have to wear these too. They're not that hard to figure out, but let me help you out. The necklace goes on the neck, the veil goes on the head, the bracelets go on the wrists, ...I think you get the idea. Have fun!" she finished as she handed the lot to him.

The next event draws near, and Anedine still hasn't found a partner. Like a watchful eagle on its routine hunt, the meek girl's eyes rolled over to the group. Ryuu was taken by the Principal disappointingly, after he had seemed to compliment Anedine for her "beautiful presence", of which she only responded with a simple smile. Then there was a purple-haired boy (Darwin), a boy with a presence comparable to Ryuu's, and possibly his friend too. After a short two-second debate in her head on whether she is sure about her decision, Anedine walked over to him, her had waving a warm greeting and an invitation.

"Poor me, i don't have anyone to partner with." Anedine asked in her usual timid, cutish tone. "Mind if you would be one?"

Dendus, while still heading to the souvenir shop, briefly screamed in surprise as Cyber suddenly disappeared off from his hand. Wait a second, it seemed he said something beforehand... Breach Oily Picks? Peach All Repicks?

...Beach Olympics!

He looked around, finally seeing the two heading to the direction of the sandy shores. He sighed frustratingly, wondering why does he even try to be with her... wait a second, two!? There goes it, the girl in the device is real. His body shook in surprise again, before calming himself down. He walked to their direction, to find there was only the girl again. Probably just imagining things? Ah, well. On another look around the vicinity, it seemed that the Beach Olympics has already begun, and with the first event already over. There was what seemed to be girls' clothes , and a line of men with a female partner nearby.

Cyber made sure that Save could see the whole view of the ocean, well it was pretty but he hated the outdoors so he really didn't like it much. While looking around he notices the guy from earlier, he should really asked his name... he waved him over and walked to him well skipped to keep his girly innocent girl persona contact. "Oh Hi again Onii-chan! Sorry I had to leave earlier I needed to talk to someone but I am okay again! Oh I should really ask your name, my name is Cyber nice to meet you!" He gave a very sweet totally fake but doesn't seem like one smile and batter his eyelashes. He was getting a bit annoyed, he just wanted some food and a drink for free! But as soon he though of food his stomach gave a loud growl. "Oh! wow I must be that hungry" He gave another giggle and looked at the guy waiting for the right response he was looking for. Meanwhile the 3ds he was holding was still pointed at the beach. He looked back at Save hoping she is enjoying the view. Cyber was getting a wee bit impatient and started to look around a bit more. "Hey lets look at event, it looks fun! I will go ahead okay?" He giggled again with a fake tone but you know doesn't seem like it and walked towards the beach. While walking he was so busy about thinking about food he accidentally bumped into someone (Ara) causing him to fall on the sand. "Ow!, hey be careful!" He shouted at the guy as he got up and rubbed of the sand of his shorts.

Garden listened carefully to what lady Mercy said...a cross dressing race competition for the guys!! Oh she never heard such on an event. Males in dresses or skirts at an obstacle course...what excitement! She looked around for a guy to dress up as but as she was about to ask Sir Darwin another girl asked him... 'Oh Lady Anedine!' She smiled as she saw her again, so since Sir Darwin was taken she looked around for another partner... to her surprise she forgot about sunflower! She picked up the little kitten and then again looked around for a partner... It looked like a lot of were taken...

Seven was so confused...a cross dressing thing and he is included? But he didn't even join that idiotic fight thing earlier...

Darwin was upset thinking of kittens flying around his mind when suddenly.....a girl appeared out of nowhere. Why did girls just love to jump him whole he thought about kitten and or skittles. Now he tonight about it he was hungry for skittles. he chuckled as the girl approached and piped up, "Hey! Anedine...right? oh I'd love to, nobody has picked me yet and I'm getting pretty bored just standing here in the seller ing sun with all this sand everywhere! So yeah! So what you want!" As he said this he tried with all his might not to stare at what Ryuu called giant melons....

Episode VII: J.J. Abrams

Vanessa grinned at the bakenko floating above her. Hehe a cat, when she was younger cats would always chase her around as she flew from building to building. "Hehe do you hear that? Girls dressing up boys mister Seven, I guess I'll make you look as good as me." She grinned mischievously and got up swirling her parasol.

The camera started to spin around as she could see the beach "Here, it a nice view but not my type...I seen better in video games..." multiple people were on the beach playing games or something like that it couldn't be seen clearly but it was a pretty nice view even tough the quality of the camera looked pretty crappy "It's nice I guess can't say I like these kind of things. "Oh Hi again Onii-chan! Sorry I had to leave earlier I needed to talk to someone but I am okay again! Oh I should really ask your name, my name is Cyber nice to meet you!" She flipped the camera to the other one to see what was happening between the two of them "Wait you didn't even know him and you start hugging him" she let out a sigh as she looked disappointed what could not be seen from the their side. She got back down to the ground in the game and sat down in a crossed leg sitting pose. She concentrated for a moment and found herself on the beach sitting exactly under the 3DS. She looked up at Dendus his feet as she almost fell back by doing so "Hi"

Liam found herself on the beach after trying to catch up to the bunny and lost Yuki and Zivon "Damn hes fast" she looked back behind her but didn't see the two boys at all she was still breathing heavily after all that running. She could feel the sun burning on her skin as she saw that all the people had gathered here doing "Games?" She was somewhat curious about all of it and decided to ask on of the students that she hadn't seen before. Garden didn't look that busy while the other people did "Umm hey could you tell me what is going on over here" as she tried to put on a smile which did not work that well.

Crash’s face fell as he felt Kathy’s fingers wrap around his wrist, he had become rather accustomed to this gesture. He pulled his best wounded puppy look, but he didn’t tug away from her. “You’ve got to be kidding me...” He groaned, dragging his feet as she tugged him over to one of the chests. “Fun for you perhaps...is this payback for teasing you?” He asked her as she pulled him along. Ok...you can do this, you’ve been through worse He raised both brows at her as she tried to reassure him that this would be fun before she began rummaging through one of the chests, he moved up next to her so he could peer inside as well. He couldn’t say he liked what he was seeing, what was all of this stuff! After watching Mercy make a bee line for Darwin, Crash visibly relaxed just the idea of her and Kathy teaming up...He retreated from that thought reaching over Kathy’s shoulder pulling what he assumed to be a random piece of denim material from the chest in reality it was a mini skirt...he held it up in front of him eyebrow raised. “This wouldn’t cover much on you let alone me” He commented apparently before his mind could catch up a frown creased his brow as he was distracted by what Kathy had said. Easy to move in or well covered? I’m sure the revealing part isn’t as ominous as it sounds Crash couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t shifted into a woman instead of attempting to run...this situation had called for camouflage! “Well I’m not above showing a little skin” He jested, holding his arms out as he shrugged. Right in for a penny, in for a pound He wasn’t exactly a proud guy with the amount of pride shattering situations he’d been in it had been discarded a long time ago. He was beyond tempted to leave Kathy to her own devices... “Really? You’re just going to give me the choice?” He queried, a glimmer of mischief passing behind his crimson eyes. “You dragged me over here...you’ve obviously got me where you want me, so what are you going to do about?” He asked her a sly smile crossing his face, he was aware this could potentially be disastrous for him but he had previously stated it took a lot to embarrass him.

Mercy rubbed her hands together quickly descending from her chair, she had no intention of sitting this event out. She even had a target in mind...as much as Crash deserved to suffer after his ice stunt he wasn’t the one this devious woman was after. She pushed through the crowd, making her way back towards Darwin and Garden, hoping that the young princess had grabbed the colorful gentleman whilst she had been away. She felt a small pout make its way onto her face as Darwin came into her view, he had been seized by a white haired girl one of which Mercy had not acquainted herself with yet. Her golden gaze drifted away from the pair, seeking out Garden who hadn’t gone far and was quite happily petting the adorable kitten Sunflower. Well as long as Garden was happily occupied Mercy didn’t feel guilty at all for moving over to Darwin and the white haired girl. “Darwin” She sung his name sweetly, though her smile was somewhat sinister in nature. “Just the man I was looking for...” She purred, looping her arm through his and turning to face the white haired girl in front of her, smiling warmly at her. “Hey I’m Mercy, would you mind if we shared him?” She asked her, still attached to Darwin’s arm.

Darwin was having a great tie! Two GURLS fighting over him? Meh. But both of them dressing him up? That was exciting, he did not see the scary part of it. "Oh hey Mercy!" He announced as she arrived. "This is Anedine, oh you wanna dress me up too? Sure go ahead. The more the merrier, unless yore in a small tight area in which case more people would kill you." he stopped and grinned at the two girls. "So.....just to tell you yellow dies bit to with my hair."

“Hm… Yes and no.” Kathy smiled, “Not payback. Just trying to gain some leverage in the battle.” Then hearing his confident declaration about not being shy about skin, she raised a brow at the challenge. Indeed… Though she had been careful not to stare too much, Crash was already topless and just in a pair of swimming trunks. ‘Sometimes it’s more embarrassing to wear certain outfits than show more skin though.’ She thought. ‘Let’s see just how resilient Crash is…’

Thinking it was a fairly common costume, Kathy rummaged around looking for something very specific in mind. To her amusement, they had it. “Here you are then.” At first the outfit in her hand looked a lot like a black one-piece swimsuit. Upon closer inspection. It was very obvious that it was one of those famous ‘bunny girl’ costumes. Complete with very high thigh exposure, netted stockings, a red bowtie, fluffy white tail sown directly on the costume, and an adorable hairband with matching white bunny ears. “Oh, and I’m not done yet. Put those on first, and I’ll add in the last details.”

Little Feather had opted to sit out of the last event, she was perched on a dune of sand not far from the main crowd. She had no idea what this ‘Cross-dressing’ was all about but she had to admit it looked rather fun! She had just watched Carmen hand a brown haired guy (Ara) a funny looking white dress...which she decided quite suited him. Her eyes shifted to rest on the principal who pulled something very peculiar out of the chest in front of her and held it up to Ryuu. Maybe she could dress Lion up? “Isn’t this kind of what Mercy did to me?” Little Feather queried...though no answer came. “Lion?” She looked around in confusion, the large beast had apparently wandered off whilst she was spectating. She got to her feet dusting the sand from her backside she lifted a hand to her face shielding her eyes from the sun as she scanned the crowd. She huffed in annoyance as she spotted Lion not far from her, deciding to go after him she carefully walked across the sand she was used to the heat of it by now but she didn’t trust it not to bite her again. Once she was closer she noticed that Lion was in fact crouched very low to the ground even wiggling his butt on occasion as his eyes focused on something ahead of him instinctively she followed his gaze...clocking he was in fact stalking a bunny that had randomly hopped onto the beach “Lion no!” She yelped breaking into a run as the beast pinged into the air aiming to land over the bunny and wrap his forelegs around it.

Seven looked down at Vanessa who apparently wanted to make him look good as her.... "No offense but you are to...what you say...dark and black for me but I am willing to try to see what you have planned for me." He smirked as he continue to float on top of her. His split tail wagging and his perked up, wondering what this girl was planned for him.

As Garden was so busy petting and loving the cute little sunflower as girl who was a bit shorter than her with black hair (Liam) "Umm hey could you tell me what is going on over here" She stop for a moment to talk to the girl. "Oh there is this cross dressing even where guys well we girl have to dress up the guys but sadly not enough guys are here so we might just have to watch." She said to the girl and curtsied to her. "Oh I am Garden by the way, nice to meet you!"

Alistair Panicked. there was a large creature coming after him and he was in the form of a bunny, he wasn't sure what to do. He saw a girl running after the large creature, trying to stop him. So Alistair did the only thing he could think of in the situation that wouldn't blow his cover, he ran straight under the creature to the girl. and proceeded to cower at the little girl's feet. 'please god find me adorable' Alistair thought looking up with big bunny eyes at the girl, with a pleading expression, flattening his ears back against his head. he glanced back over at the creature then up at the girl again.

Lion flicked his ears back he had heard Little Feather but chosen to pounce on the creature regardless. Little Feather exhaled as she saw the bunny scoot out from under Lion before he landed, thank goodness for that she skidded to a halt as it came and cowered at her feet. "Hmm?" She was a little perplexed at its behavior surely it should have kept on running...Lion lifted his fore paws, growling in frustration as he realized that the bunny had escaped he looked back over his shoulder seeing it by Little Feathers feet he licked his lips and sprung round. Which prompted Little Feather to reach down and scoop the frightened animal into her arms cuddling it close to her chest. "Ah! No" She scowled at Lion watching his ears droop. Why not...it was stupid enough to come out here... Lion grumbled at her. "That is beside the point...you're not having it" She assured him, to the bunny this conversation probably looked rather one sided considering it wouldn't have understood the sulky lion who trailed away into the crowd. Little Feather huffed her hair out of her painted face looking down at the bunny snuggled into her torso. "Don't worry, he won't hurt you now" She smiled at it,stroking its head gently before looking back up at the event. "If you're not in a hurry...you can watch the event with me if you like" She spoke softly to the creature. "Though between you and me, I was rather looking forward to joining this one..." She murmured, moving through the crowd. She was acting as if talking to animals was a very natural thing to do...for her it was.

Alistair huddled closer to the girl when the creature turned around then she scooped him up and he let out a tiny sigh of relief. she cried "Ah! No" at the creature she appeared to understand something he didn't say and replied with "That is beside the point...you're not having it" then he snuggled him to her chest. he smiled and snuggled closer. She said to him "Don't worry, he won't hurt you now" Alistair looked up with his big bunny eyes and smiled, it might look a little odd since bunnies didn't normally smile but it should look cute as well. she was stroking his head, which he quite enjoyed. "If you're not in a hurry...you can watch the event with me if you like" he did a little bunny nod and snuggled more comfortably in her arms. "Though between you and , I was rather looking forward to joining this one..." he did feel a tad bad for taking her away from that but if she left him the creature might eat him.

Andromeda was very surprised when they announced a 'cross-dressing' contest would be the next competition. she looked around Ryuu appeared to have already been claimed but he was the only guy she knew so she walked over to the pair, she blinked when she realized who was dressing him but she still felt she should ask if she could help. "Excuse me," she decided to talk to the woman dressing him instead of him "i was wondering if i could help dress Ryuu, i don't really know any other guys"

“Fine.” Grumbling to himself, Ara finished putting on the last of the wedding costume on. The thing was ridiculous. Glancing over at the course, he could already see he would have a pretty large disadvantage in the first obstacle. He was just about to go up to the starting line when he felt something, or rather someone, bump into him. “?” Looking down, he saw someone that seemed like a small girl but… Upon closer inspection, he realized it was actually a boy (Cyber).

Clicking his tongue, he narrowed his eyes at the comment. “I was just standing here looking pretty noticeable in this ridiculous dress, you be careful.” Thinking that the boy (Cyber) was obviously a participant from the fact he was dressed like a girl, Ara began pushing the guy over to the starting line of the course. “Yeah well, let's just head over there and get this event started. Lucky you. Your partner seems to have let you off nice and easy.”

Cyber looked at the boy he accidentally bumped into too... 'How did you find me out?!' His eyes wide open to realize his cover has been broken. "Uh...um How did you find me out!?" He quietly whispered in a...loud tone to the guy, he wanted to know how... but as soon enough he was being pushed towards the starting line...wait Save and his 3DS! When he feel it land on the sand he panic, but before he could rush off to get it and see if Save and his 3DS is okay the guy pushed him to the starting line. “Yeah well, let's just head over there and get this event started. Lucky you. Your partner seems to have let you off nice and easy.” The guy said, he was so confused what was happening.... "Look mister...whatever! I don't know what is happening here!! What do you mean partner?! Why lucky me!? Explain!!" He shouted like a little brat wanting candy and waved his arms around in an anime like style. He wanted answers!! But upon looking more at the of the boy he couldn't help to laugh at the guy was wearing a wedding dress. "Hahahahaha!!! Oh my god!! Look at you!" He pointed at the guy and clutched his stomach, from laughing to hard. He had worn a couple of wedding dresses for fun and he like wearing dresses but seeing a guy like him kind of wearing a wedding dress was killing him. "Oh my god... I swear..."

Crash felt his eyebrow quirk up at her comment on leverage though he remained silent, sporting a somewhat smug look on his face he waited patiently as Kathy rummaged through the chest mildly concerned at how specific she seemed to be it was almost as if she was looking for something in particular. He perked up moving closer to her as she spoke, the smug look practically sweeping from his expression as he looked at the piece of clothing she had in her hand...Oh sweet baby Jesus...what have I done? He was trying very hard to keep the frown from his face as he took the black swimsuit from her already dreading what it was going to do to him. “...Well that was unexpected” He commented, prodding the sewn on bunny tail his brows furrowing for a very brief moment before he managed to smirk. “No problem I’m sure I can pull this off” He grinned at her with ease, though he looked genuinely worried as she mentioned still needing to add the ‘last details’ he hadn’t been prepared for this rather devious side of her. “There’s more?!” He piped up looking at what he already had in his hand, before looking over his shoulder realizing Koop had shifted a couple of beach tents over to the chests to serve as changing rooms. This is not going to look good...this is going to be a disaster Shaking his head he quickly shot into one preferring to get this over and done with. A few minutes passed before he poked his head back out the door, a tell tale pink hue apparent on the tops of his cheeks. “Kathy...can you come in here a second please” He called though he daren’t raise his voice, neither was he coming out. “I need you to zip me into this thing and for the record I’m not coming out until you’ve added your ‘last details’” He added, he was doing a good job at keeping himself hidden from view.Crash was used to feeling awkward, although this was a completely new level of awkward...he was stood in net stockings wearing a bathing suit that looked blooming peculiar on his lean hips he hadn’t the curves to pull this off and it was...uncomfortable to say the least. He wasn’t completely in the costume yet either having been unable to negotiate the zip, though after poking his head back in he’d put the headband on his head and was already wearing the ridiculous bow tie. “Don’t even think about laughing...” He grumbled closing his eyes briefly as he grit his teeth his left eyebrow twitching as he tried to concentrate on keeping color from flooding his face

Alex looked around, back to his teenager size. He was still sitting near the court they'd just used, still pouting. He wanted to participate but... he felt like he shouldn't. Still... He let out a long sigh and slowly stood up. He muddly around for a bit before just deciding to hang with Kathy. If someone wanted to dress him, they could. But... He just didn't really feel like doing much of anything now. He felt pretty useless...

Chris sat, staring at the boxes with distaste. For once, she wished she didn't like to dress like a guy. Someone would probably mistake her for a guy and try to dress her up. Though, that was unlikely. Like she'd let them. She'd rather tell everyone she was female than dress like like one.

Lily sighed and walked over to the group to simply watch. She felt no reason to join in on dressing anyone. She would participate just to have something to keep her occupied but... She couldn't muster the will to pick out a boy and dress him. Her thoughts would return to that day in the store back at the school. Picking out clothes for Bael... Then her thoughts returned to Xanthus... She took in a deep breath and it came out shaking and nervous. She looked distant, her mind somewhere else, with someone else.

---

Years Ago

"Hey! Wait for me!" Lily called out, running up to a man with rather long purple hair.

"Then get a move on! They're going to close soon!" Xanthus called back, looking back with a smile. Lily shook her head and ran in front of him, turning and twirling as she went.

"Will it hurt?" She asked.

"Probably." He answered, his eyes going dark as he thought about the pain she would feel. Lily simply smiled and shook her head.

"Well, as long as you're there with me!" She called out as she flew backward, her wings lifting her a few inches off the ground. She flew up above Xanthus and flipped over, fly in front of him upside down. She had a playful smile on her face.

"I thought the point was not to stand out..." He told her, raising a brow.

"Yeah, but the snow hurts my bare feet..." She replied, a frown on her face.

"Then... I'll carry you." He answered her, holding out his arms for her to float into. She, with a red face, did as he asked and they walked to the tattoo parlor this way.

Once inside, Xanthus let her down and walked up to the man at the counter. "How much for a couple's tattoo?" He asked.

"$35..." The man replied. Xanthus quickly paid and went to sit down. He looked back to see Lily floating all over the room at the different designs on the wall. He sighed and walked over.

"See anything you like?" Xanthus asked, pulling his fingers through his hair, a gesture of frustration. It wasn't that he was irritated by her, he was just... worried.

"Yeah. Look at these." She replied, pointing to a pair of black and white feathers. "You can get the white one to represent me and I'll get the black one for you." She continued. Xanthus chuckled and motioned for her to come down.

"That sounds great..." He said with a sigh as she came down. He motioned for her to sit with him. She fluttered down into a seat and sat, moving her legs, looking at them as a child looks at their legs the first time they see them.

"So... Why is it called a couple's tattoo?" She asked seriously, looking up at Xanthus. She still didn't get it... He smiled gently and closed his eyes for a second. Then, he turned to look at her.

"When someone likes... someone very much. They... become a couple." He tried to explain, realizing she needed to be told bluntly.

"So... My dad and I are a couple?" She asked with curious eyes... Xanthus lifted his hand to his face and decided to give up.

---

Lily looked down at her arm. It was still there... the black feather. After a few moments of looking down at it, she lifted her arm to her neck and touching the necklace around her neck. For some reason, she still couldn't bare the thought of letting the ring leave her body. She liked the feel of it, knowing it was there. It was comforting. And... she felt guilty. She, though her sealed soul didn't, realized she was beginning to fall in love with Bael. And she didn't know if she could handle that. She knew that eventually, if he was around long enough, she'd fall right back into it.

Part of her wanted to leave but... part of her wanted to stay. She deserved a second chance, right? Wouldn't Xanthus be okay with that? She held the ring in her hand, her eyes closed. If only he were still here... to tell her what to do. Even if she could just hear his voice one more time...

Her eyes shot open as a thought occurred to her. Her phone... She still had his number... She lifted her hand to pull her phone out of her pocket but realized she'd left it in her room, safe from the water and sand. She hit the chair she sat on angrily. She'd have to wait until this stupid game was over now...

Brako stood off on the sidelines, watching everything. A small grin grew on his face as he walked closer to the group. "What about me? Can't I play?" He asked, unaware that he would have to be dressed.

Maria looked to see another female asking if she could help dress Ryuu. "...Well, it'd be wrong if I were selfish, eh? Here. Why don't you just take over? I'll go find some other poor soul to torture." She lied. She'd really only chosen Ryuu because he was easy to mess with and kept her mind off of Alfred. She really needed to get over her hatred of music... She walked away and began to sigh, a bit resigned. She chuckled when Brako as if he could join. She had to wonder if the old soul knew what he was getting into.

Maria smiled and shook her head as she walked past. She looked around at the other boys and decided not to intrude on any of the others. She knew about Kathy and Crash and preferred to let them have their time. Though... She eyed a boy sitting alone. She walked over to him and pulled a nearby dress out and hung it over him. It was strapless and bright, bright pink. She grinned and bent down to look Alex in the eyes.

"I think this is just your size." She told him, grinning widely.

Alex jumped when a bright pink dress was stuck in front of his face. He looked up to see Maria Cross telling him the dress was his size. He watched her with a blank stare and grabbed the dress, not really interested nor surprised. He pulled it on over his clothes and sat there, brooding.

"You're no fun..." Maria scoffed, walking off.

Kathy hesitated for a second. “Can’t you come out and let me zip it up?” She didn’t quite fancy the idea of entering a changing room with someone of the opposite sex… However, it had been her choice to give him such a costume. Then hearing that he was not going to step out until she was done helping him get dressed, she grudgingly followed him inside after grabbing a few more things from the chest.

Luckily, the scene in front of her was hilarious enough that it overpowered any feelings of embarrassment. Not taking his grumble into account at all, she instantly burst into a hearty laugh that could probably be heard by quite a few people around the beach. “Pfft, don’t worry… Haha-ahem, it suits you.” Finally stopping, she cleared her throat and tried to keep a straight face on. “Besides, don’t guys like bunny costumes?” She joked, giving him a light poke on the side before pulling the zipper all the way up.

“Now for the final touches. Don’t worry, they’re not that bad.” Grinning, she pulled out a long red ribbon and tucked the middle under his chin before tying a big ribbon on the top of his head between the bunny ears. Effectively securing the hairband in place. “You should be thanking me for that one.” Finally, Kathy handed him a couple of bunched up socks. “And stuff these up in your chest. Curves are part of the costume.” Laughing, she left the tent to give Crash a bit of space before the final unveiling.

Waiting outside, she glanced around to see how the other guys were faring in their costumes. Catching sight of Ara she thought, ‘How ironic…’ Then she saw Alex with a rather dark look on his face for someone at the beach. Walking over to where he was she called out, “Hey, Alex.” Sitting down beside him, Kathy gave him a warm smile. “Something wrong? You should be having fun with everyone. You’re participating in the event right?” She asked, looking at the dress he was wearing.

He glanced up at the familiar voice to see Kathy sitting next to him. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to stay unhappy.

"Hey." He replied, a small smile forming on his lips. "It doesn't matter." He told her, shaking his head for emphasis. He didn't want her to worry. Besides, he'd get over it soon. He felt guilty for making her worried enough to come see him.

"Yeah, I am. Maria... gave it to me. I just kind of slipped it on. I'm not really sure how to put it on anyway. I'm not female..." He told her. He laughed at the last remark and looked over at her with a wide smile. He was happy to know that she cared enough to come see him even if she'd only meet him a few hours ago. Though, for Alex, he didn't even question why he felt so compelled to be with her. He just knew that he did. Something about her... Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was everything. He didn't know. He was only like... 18.

His eyes wandered over to the stall where Kathy had been helping Crash change. Something about her being in there with him made Alex angry. As if Crash was doing something mean to Kathy.

"Kathy..." He began, turning to look at her. "Could... I ask you something?" He asked, his heart starting to race.

"Are you sure?" Kathy asked. She didn't want to pry in too deeply, but he had obviously seemed quite unhappy before she had approached him. "Sometimes just talking about it can help. I don't mind at all."

Then hearing a familiar name she couldn't help but raise her brow slightly. "The principal did?" She knew that the principal had been participating in the event but... Er, somehow she hadn't quite put together the image of a school principal and a cross-dressing event together yet. Looking back at the tents Kathy offered, "How about I help you into that dress then? There are still some tents left for you to get changed in."

Putting on another reassuring smile she told him, "Of course." Kathy was under the assumption that he was opening up and would tell her about why he had been brooding just a moment ago, but kept her ears open in case it was about a different matter.

XXXTREME COLLAB CRAZY EIGHTS - Eighty Crates

Summary: BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Crossdressing.

[Alex] "Yeah... I'm fine. Really. Just you being here made me better already." He told her with a sheepish grin on his face. "As far as the dress..." He began, looking down at his dress.

"I'm pretty sure I'm a lost cause." He told her, chuckling at himself. He picked at the dress and pulled it up. It felt awkward with his clothes underneath but he didn't really have room to complain. He didn't want her to have to help him. She'd had to do enough for Crash already. At the though, Alex's eyes darkened a bit. But he perked up again when he heard her tell him to ask his question.

"Uhm... Well..." He began, already losing his confidence. He took in a deep breath and turned to face Kathy, suddenly very serious. "So... I had a pretty terrible mother. And by terrible I mean... not there. So... This is going to sound weird but..." He began, wringing his hands. He hadn't been this nervous in a while. It wasn't like he was doing anything too terrible. "Could... you pretend to... be my mother?" He asked, very serious. He looked into her eyes, his own eyes clear and dead set. He wasn't joking and he wasn't really trying to be cute.

"Come on, I can help you get into it properly. It's not hard at all." Thinking back at Crash, she felt a little guilty about letting Alex get away with something rather simple and innocent. But Crash was Crash, and he had been embarrassing her quite a bit lately. Alex on the other hand probably didn't need much more stress at the moment.

Listening carefully, Kathy couldn't help but look a little surprised at his request. "Mother..?" She repeated, feeling unsure of herself. She looked into Alex's eyes. This seemed to be a rather serious request of his. 'Oh dear... A mother though... What would I do exactly..?' She felt nervous about the thought, but after some careful consideration she ended up saying, "... If... You really want. Um... I'm not sure exactly sure I can be a good mother for you, but I'll try." Kathy figured he probably didn't mean something like literally being like his parent, but of something along the lines of being someone he could rely on and go to for help. That much she could do. In fact, if that was the case then she was more than happy to help him. She gave him a gentle pat on the head. "I don't mind at all Alex, if you're alright with me."

Vanessa Grinned at Seven floating above her as she thought of all the outfits she could put this little bakeneko in. She thought in her head back to what she had in her wardrobe...Most of it was black. She grinned and stood up. "Well if you don;t like my idea, any suggestions?" She giggled deviously as she thought of what to put this little cat in.

Seven wonder what he will be dress up as...or even will he even look good in a dress or a skirt? "Well...I wore a lot of frilly stuff before...Circus and things so I really don't mind on that but really...its your decision" He smiled carelessly as he jumped back down on the ground and scratched hie ears with his foot. "Oh I am surprised...." He gave s smirk that showed his mischievous side. "How you just don't notice me naked, how odd of people"

Anedine had decided to agree to Mercy's request on sharing Darwin in the cross-dressing competition with a cheerful nod and a glittering, timid eye. Unintentionally, the white-haired girl made herself look like something a guy like Ryuu would be needed to be rushed to the hospital due to heavy anemia, but despite how her cutish face looks right now, inside she was as determined and confident as a knight ready to go in a large-scale war while facing a thousand enemies (and ironically, she is actually afraid of such situations). She turned to face the outfits, deciding on which to pick that Mercy can also agree on.

Crash hadn't thought out his words very well, neither had he realized what he had asked her to do. He blinked in surprise when she came into the changing room having had expected her to hover in the doorway. Surprise aside he went completely red in the face as she laughed at him, lifting his hand to the back of his neck and casting his gaze to the side. "Yeah, yeah...laugh it up" He grumbled though there was the faint curve of a smile on his lips, he couldn't help it he had grown rather fond of her laugh. "Maybe can't say they really appealed to me...maybe I've just seen them on the wrong people. Not that I'll ever look at them the same after this" he answered with an awkward shrug, twitching away from her poke as if she'd shocked him with electricity."E-easy on the sides" He stuttered, the blush on his cheeks darkening as he tried to remain still while she zipped him into the costume discretely guarding his sides as she did. He huffed as he turned back round to face her, raising an eyebrow st her as she lifted a red ribbon towards his face he leaned forward and down so she could access his head easier eyes lingering on her face for a moment before concentrating on the door behind her, aware she could probably feel the heat radiating from his face. As soon as she was finished he lifted his hand poking the bow on his head. "You're really pushing the boat out on this..." He murmured as she handed him the socks and told him curves were required before leaving him to his own devices looking rather pleased with herself. It took him a few minutes to get his sock curves in place before he finally emerged from the changing room, despite feeling like a complete idiot he confidently strode out of the changing room looking rather proud of his look. "There are we happy now?" He asked Kathy having walked over to stand by her and Alex, he even pulled a ridiculous pose for them, dipping a hip hands on his waist. Though he couldn't hold it for long, chuckling to himself before looking
over at Alex. "Is that all you have to wear? I feel overdressed for the occasion" Crash joked a friendly grin crossing his face. "Careful, this is what you can expect if you let Kathy get her hands on you" He continued the jest playfully nudging her side with his arm and grinning cheekily. He was deliberately ignoring the amused murmurs of a few other people.

Little Feather found herself smile back at the bunny, she hadn't seen one smile before...it was beyond adorable. "You're such a little cutie" She murmured to the bunny (Alistair) walked to the front of the crowd still stroking the bunny gently between his ears, realizing it hadn't spoken a word to her she cleared her throat. "Since you're staying with me, might I know your name? Otherwise I'll have to call you Hopper" She grinned at the bunny, deciding on a gender neutral name as she wasn't sure whether it was a he or a she. Lion looked up at her, as he came and sat next to her. I know talking to animals is your thing, but you're wasting your time its just a stupid rabbit he grumbled at the dark haired woman, who tutted at him and looked over at the guys already at the starting line. "Lets check out whats in these chests" she whispered down to Hopper (Alistair) before subtly moving towards Carmen, approaching the chest from behind Carmen she looked into it with a raised eyebrow...it was full of so many peculiar things, shifting the bunny so shr could support it with one hand she crouched down and begun to rummage through it. "We should dress Lion up in this, too bad he can't participate" Little Feather grinned as she pulled out a small black and white dress unbeknownst to her it was in fact a maid costume.

Mercy took the white haired girls silent smile as confirmation enough. "You're an angel, thank you!" She thanked her, tugging Darwin over to the nearest chest. "We've got to be quick the race will start in a minute!" She told them both practically diving into the chest throwing various drab dresses out of of it as she dug around. Reappearing with some pink ruffle lace panties which she threw to Darwin before diving back into the chest finally pulling out a burlesque style corset this particular one was short with a feather trim around the hem, although it was white in color the front was bejeweled and rather sparkly. With lines of glittering jewels trailing up the bone lining the front of the corset joining into the jeweled chest piece that was shaped to specifically to fit a woman. "We have a winner" She grinned holding the burlesque costume out to Darwin. "Would you not agree?" She asked her partner in crime (Anedine) handing the costume over to Darwin. "Quick put it on lets see what it looks like, I'll tie you in" She grinned at him, dipping back into the box and pulling out a long pair of white stockings, a bejeweled choker and a pretty Victorian style pale pink fan. "Accessories for you" She grinned at Darwin though feeling a bit guilty for taking over she turned to the cute white haired girl beside her. "Sorry I didn't mean to take over...erm...Where are my manners, I didn't even catch your name...." Mercy trailed off hoping the girl would step in and introduce herself.

Save could see that the 3ds suddenly was lying in the sand "what the hell" she could see Cyber and Ara running of while Cyber still tried to grab his 3ds "Hey don't leave me" but it was probably already to late to even try shouting at him. She got out of the 3ds and watched around her seeing other people playing games that she couldn't join herself "yeesh now I'm gonna be stuck her for forever seeing other people have all the fun" she got back in the 3ds as she played around trying various things. She found a list with devices that the 3ds could connect to. She soon noticed that she could just go to other devices and play around in them. She dashed over multiple devices of the students leaving the 3ds behind as she did so. Most of the cameras that she could use were just the smartphones of the students that lied somewhere were she could not see anything. She ended up in the phone of Darwin and could hear some people talking "Quick put it on lets see what it looks like, I'll tie you in" She just realized that she might be able to just use the speaker of his phone to get their attention "Hello somebody there"

"Oh there is this cross dressing event where guys well, were girls have to dress up the guys but sadly not enough guys are here so we might just have to watch. Oh I am Garden by the way, nice to meet you!" She gave a weird look at the girl "Wait why would there be something like that on the beach." she thought back and just realized that she was with 2 guys the whole time but where could they have ran of to "Damn bunny, well I was with 2 guys just recently but I sort of left them behind in the forest" She putted her hand behind her head and made an awkward laugh

Alistair wasn't entirely sure how she expected him to talk, but she did appear to have some kind of telepathy with the creature so he decided to try, he closed his eyes for a second trying to send his thoughts to the girl 'I'm Alistair" he opened his eyes and looked at her again.
she started walking over to the chests and started rummaging through, she held up one and said they should dress 'Lion' in it, Alistair assumed that was the creature, and also assumed the child was making a joke. she didn't appear to have heard him but she did seem like a sweet girl, and he wanted to thank her, so he suddenly hopped out of her arms and looked up at her. his body began to fade out as it shifted and grew till he was in 'human' form. he was about eye-to-eye with the girl.
He smiled "i'm Alistair, the Bunny, i wanted to thank you, i panicked earlier when your..." he looked at Lion "lion, was going for me so i couldn't transform, you saved me, thank you"

Darwin grinned at the two girls while he thought about magical dolphins in the water. He was completely oblivious to what would come next, but he was happy he was oblivious, he loved surprises. Suddenly he was hit in the face by a pair of ounj ruffle panties to which he chuckled and threw them off his face. Then suddenly Mercy had emerged with an amazing, fabulous, AWESOME costume. Darwin didn't care that it was fir girls,bit was just right for him! He grinned and grabbed the corset before turning away and slipping it on. The chest area felt a bit empty but it was an alright fit. He turned around for Mercy to tis him in as he got ready to out on the stockings. "Nice pick by the way!" As this happened he heard his phone shout something. "My phone is talking." He said to them seemingly unfazed.

Though normally she would have felt a little bad at making someone blush so much, for some reason Kathy simply found the entire situation to be highly amusing. Perhaps it was because Crash himself did not look too troubled and sometimes even smiled back at her. It was rather reassuring and made even this kind of awkward situation rather fun. Raising a slight brow at his reaction at the poke, she had a slight feeling of déjà vu. “Say, could it be that you’re rather weak at the sides?” She asked, grinning.

Looking up, she saw Crash looking surprisingly dignified in the bunny costume. “Yup, very happy. Maybe you should consider wearing stuff like this more often.” She laughed as she felt a slight nudge on her side. Then sticking the tip of her tongue at out Crash for a brief moment, Kathy hugged Alex while giving him a pat on the head. “I wouldn’t do that to poor Alex. He’s adorable enough the way he is.” Then letting go of the boy, she gestured towards Ara. “At least I chose something that’s fairly easy to move in. Look at that one.”

Ara looked at the boy (Cyber) funny. “Found what out..?” Obviously since he didn’t know that he (Cyber) dressed like this as part of his usual attire, Ara was rather confused at this strange question. He stopped pushing the guy towards the course when he asked for an explanation about the event though. “Wait, you mean you don’t know?”

Now the pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place. “Aaah… I get it. You’re one of those, aren’t you? What’s it called, ‘traps’?” Instead of looking disgusted though, he felt rather amused. It was the first time Ara had met one, and that alone was fairly interesting. “It’s an obstacle course where all the guys have to cross-dress. Seems like you’re very well-suited for the event.”

Then hearing the guy (Cyber) laugh, he shrugged. “Yeah, my partner had quite a bit of fun with the outfit I got assigned to wear.” Then deviously, Ara began to wave his hand in the air and yelled out, “HEY! This guy over here needs a partner!! He’s trying to sneak out of something better by getting himself dressed!”

"Oh, it was so much fun!" Carmen piped up as Ara talked with a new face. "And you enjoyed it thoroughly as well, didn't you?" she returned to Ara with a devious smile. Carmen was having too much fun, and then she noticed the redhead she now knew as Crash from the bar dressed in a seductive bunny suit, and burst out laughing. "Excuse me for a moment," she said to Ara while still laughing. "I have to check this out." Noting that the redhead girl who presumably picked that out for him was looking at her, Carmen approached her first, still stifling a laugh. "Pardon me, but I must say I love what you've done with him," she said to the girl (Kathy). "You certainly have a wonderful taste in fashion...and comedy, of course." Pausing to think while looking back and forth at Crash and Ara (and noticing some of the other outfits being put together), she continued. "So terribly sorry about back at the bar, by the way...though as you can see Ara isn't currently enjoying himself [looking back over to the wedding dress-clad doppelganger], and I must admit I enjoyed that exchange almost as much as I'm enjoying this one. Surely you understand," she finished, before hastily introducing herself as well. "I'm Carmen, by the way," she said as she extended her hand for a handshake. "And you are?"

Little Feather was oblivious to the bunny’s attempts to communicate with her, she looked a little surprised as it hopped out of her arms. As he morphed into a human however shock quickly crossed her face, frozen to the spot as he formed into a rather attractive young man right before her eyes she felt the blood rush to her face realizing she was staring at him she threw herself back with a small squeak of apology. Lifting a hand to her mouth as she listened to him thank her from saving him from Lion, she was slowly calming down by now trying not to think about how she had treated him as a bunny...”I-I’m so sorry! I had no idea you were not...a bunny” She apologized to him. Oh my god I called him Hopper! Little Feather got to her feet unsteadily. “And I’m really sorry for Lion’s behaviour! He’s harmless really...except maybe to bunnies...” She was rambling a little bit now. The Indian girl had never experienced something like this, pure embarrassment it usually flew straight over her head yet here she was red as a hot chilli pepper and stumbling over her words. She nervously pushed her hair behind her ear. “I’m Little Feather...its nice to meet you” She introduced herself as well. Lion came up next to her his tail wagging in amusement. Make him compete, you’re wishes were apparently answered The lion purred his jowels lifting in a smiile, as he looked up at Alistair. Little Feather felt a mixture of feelings over the subject, nervous of even thinking of asking him that...excited by the idea of participating. “A-are you a student here?” She asked him curiously.

Crash shook his head vigorously before he could stop himself as she asked about his sides. Ah no! Act casual keep this low key... He’d missed this opportunity. “Not at all” He shrugged nonchalantly offering her an easy smile in an attempt to cover up his weakness.
Crash lifted an eyebrow at her, inwardly grimacing at the idea but deciding to play along. “Why not? I’m thinking of adding it to my wardrobe for special occasions” He jested, an affection smile greeting her childish gesture as she poked her tongue out at him before turning and hugging Alex he rolled his eyes at the pair of them. “Favouritism” He pointed out clicking his tongue, though the amusement in his expression hinted he was still joking about. He looked up as she mentioned the other contestants, he was barely able to stifle a laugh as his eyes fell on Ara...he may not have looked quite as ridiculous as Crash but it was still amusing on all accounts. He turned to look at Carmen as she spoke to Kathy, raising an eyebrow at the pair recognizing her larger than life hat, she was his triumphant opponent back from the water balloon event. As Carmen congratulated Kathy on her costume choice he couldn't help but feel like a prized Guinea Pig...well maybe not so much prized...He frowned as she mentioned the bar, but he was merely eavesdropping so didn’t open his mouth to ask, he stood next to Alex watching the exchange between the two women who were clearly both more devious than they appeared...this Crash was sure of.

Cyber stop laughing as he heard the guy (Ara) answering his questioned well loud request... "Yes...I am one of those traps..." He blushed and stick his tongue out like a child. The first guy ever from not his family to find him out so quickly... he panicked a bit well not a bit he seemed really worried, his cover was going to get blown and soon enough he couldn't use his charms to get what he wants. “HEY! This guy over here needs a partner!! He’s trying to sneak out of something better by getting himself dressed!” The guy shouted as he waved his hands... Cyber really began to panic, he ran towards the guy and tried to make sure his cover isn't blown. "HEY! HEY!" He...with full panic as he was really worried and can't deal with this guy and his cover being ruined...in a way glomp him very tightly making sure he doesn't say much or anything at all. "DON'T SAY ANYTHING ELSE!!" He started to hit the guy on the head like a child having tempur tantrum. "IF YOU DO I WILL REALLY MURDER YOU UNTIL YOU DIE!" ...'okay maybe use my words better...' But he made sure he can keep his secret well...skills a secret.

Garden was very interested at the girl she was talking at but one thing struck her mind when that girl said something. "Damn bunny, well I was with 2 guys just recently but I sort of left them behind in the forest" ...uh what? 'You...left them? That's kind of...un well...and well...why?" She was really curious on why she would leave two guys...at the forest! She scratched head and scratched sunflowers head making him gave a mewl. "You are so cute!" She said as continue to pet the little kitty.

“?” Ara looked around to see what Carmen was just finding so amusing. Turning to gaze at where she was running to, he also burst out laughing. “Seriously?! Wow, that girl’s a lot more fun that I would’ve thought.” His impression of Kathy had basically consisted of her blushing and curling up into a small ball back at the bar and hiding behind Crash, so he never would have imagined she was capable of doing something so bold. Though his costume was ironic and too hard to move in, he felt quite lucky himself now. A bunny costume… Not even B would’ve wanted to wear such a thing.

He barely managed to keep his balance when the trap (Cyber) suddenly jumped at him and began to wave his fists around. “Tsk, ow, hey!” Then hearing the threat, Ara grabbed the boy’s head under a vice grip and squeezed as hard as he could. He growled out, “Brat..! Either learn to ask nicely or just try it. I’ll floor you if you dare.” Then getting an idea, a smirk came back to his face. “Or know what? Why don’t I just announce what you really are to everyone here? I’m sure no one would mind me borrowing that megaphone over there for a few seconds.”

“Okay, then I suppose you won’t mind the occasional prodding there every so often? You know… Since it isn't a weakness at all.” Kathy laughed, clearly taking advantage of the situation. He was already a lot better at making her blush though so it was only fair she could get have a trump card of her own. Noticing the click of Crash’s tongue as she hugged Alex she chuckled, “Did you want a hug too?” An instant later, she blushed a bit. It had just slipped out naturally, but now that she thought about it she didn't really think she would be able to hug Crash so nonchalantly. Luckily for her, the blush was fairly light and she became distracted by someone else approaching them.

Kathy recognized the girl coming up to them. It was a little difficult to mistake someone that stood out so much in such a large hat. “O-Oh, thank you.” She was a little surprised to be approached in such a friendly manner, but seeing that Carmen didn't seem to have any bad intentions she accepted the hand and gave her a firm handshake. “Kathy. It was… Quite embarrassing, but it’s fine now. Thank you.” Then gesturing towards him she added, “By the way, this is Crash. I’m not sure if you’ve met him yet.”

Alistair was slightly amused by the girl's reaction, she was stumbling over her words "no need to apologize, i was acting like a bunny" he smiled. She apologized for lion's behavior, he waved it off "it's alright, it's a natural response, just a little scary when you're the one being attacked" She was extremely red, he had watched enough human's to recognize this as a 'blush' something humans do when they're embarrassed. he felt his own cheeks heat a bit and he chuckled. Lion came up beside the girl and Alistair gave him a nod of hello.
“I’m Little Feather...its nice to meet you” Alistair smiled "it's nice to meet you Little feather" she asked him if he was a student and he couldn't help but laugh "so that's what you all are? No i'm not a student, i live here, thank you for asking"
"what exactly is this competition that is happening?"

Andromeda smiled when Maria said she could take over "Thanks!" she watched as she walked away, then she turned to Andromeda "so ... um, what should i dress you in?" she walked over to one of the chests, unsure of whether he was actually following. She leaned down beside the chest and started ruffling through it "do you have any ideas, Ryuu?"

Cyber was getting really scared and worried....at first it seemed he could handle that guy (Ara) But now...he is the one getting threatened as the guy was vice grip his head tightly. It hurt him really badly...He squirmed trying to get out but the guy seemed to be to strong for him. “Or know what? Why don’t I just announce what you really are to everyone here? I’m sure no one would mind me borrowing that megaphone over there for a few seconds.” ...Cyber really began...like really began to panic, he felt like he couldn't breathe nor move, very thing went to fast for him and the only to probably process everything was... "WWAAHH!!" He started to cry and weep like the little child he really is. "No! Please don't tell!!" He shouted, cried and struggle to get free. Tears pouring down his face. "Okay! okay! I will do the stupid race thing or whatever! Just don't tell!" He cried out, weeping and shouting like he was scolded really badly.

Ara knew he had been quite threatening, but he hadn’t expected him (Cyber) to just suddenly burst out into tears. He could already imagine B’s smirking face telling him, ‘Oh dear, oh dear. Look at what you did A. Such a mean guy. Why don’t you take it easy and let me be the one to walk around from now on? I wouldn’t make such a dumb mistake.’ Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he loosened his grip on the guy’s head and let go. “Dammit, I get it okay, I won’t tell. One minute you’re a twisted brat that doesn’t know how to say please or sorry, and the next you’re crying like a fountain. Geeze you’re busy.” Sighing, he continued, “I honestly don’t care if you participate or not so just do as you please.” Rolling his eyes, Ara walked away before things got any more complicated and troublesome.

"If by 'met him' you mean domin...errr, fought ferociously in a game of water balloon dodgeball, then yes, I suppose I have," responded Carmen to Kathy's introduction to Crash. "Other than that, I only know that he has red hair, his name is Crash and he looks positively dashing in a bunny suit. I mean...what more is there to know?" she said playfully. "But in the interest of completeness, I suppose we should meet formally eventually instead of merely being near each other a lot," she offered to Crash, extending her hand again to shake his hand. "You two do look happy together...is there a thing? Or is there going to be a thing? Should a thing be considered? It seems perfectly natural anyway...you both have red hair! And a competitive streak, for sure," she finished, reminiscing about the dodgewater match earlier.

Little Feather played with the ring on her finger absently avoiding looking Alistair in the eye, she instead concentrated on his shoulder or maybe his chin or cheek. She was glad he seemed to be of good nature about the whole situation. “I can imagine it would not be a pleasant experience” She murmured to him, repeating her previous action of pushing her hair behind her ear as he chuckled, she smiled as he said it was nice to meet her as well. She figured she was getting better at this interacting game...She blinked in surprise as he laughed her cheeks coloring a second time. “Y-yes...I oh, I didn’t know anyone lived here! Does your family live here too? I thought it was part of the school. Cub, give the guy a chance to speak a rumble passed through the lion’s chest as if he were laughing. “Oh...sorry about that” She frowned looking away and running her fingers through her hair nervously. “From what I can gather the girls are all dressing up the guys in these strange clothes” Little Feather explained to him reaching into the box and pulling out the outfit from earlier and holding it up to show him. “Perhaps...you would consider competing?” She asked him out of the blue adding from memory a phrase she had Mercy say. “You’d look cute in this” She smiled, obviously unaware of her social blunder the lion beside her however put a paw over his nose. I don’t think that phrase would work so well here Cub Lion grumbled causing Little Feather to blush for the third time. “Uh-um-I mean...” She started up though trailed off very quickly, holding the outfit more to hide herself from view now. Pull yourself together Shiko...

Crash groaned inwardly knowing full well he’d given her a trump card. “Of course not” He answered her though the smile he gave her was definitely a little strained. Crash was surprised by her offer, he hadn’t meant to incite that reaction he wouldn’t have declined one but it’d be an awkward exchange at this moment. “Perhaps if I cross the finish line” He grinned at her trying to make light of the situation. He was readjusting his ‘socks’ as Kathy gestured to him, he looked up at the pair instantly stopping what he was doing, he was about to say something when Carmen begun to speak, his eyebrows perked up at her wording until she changed her tune. He allowed a chuckle to escape him as she complimented his ‘bunny suit’ “Why thank you” He grinned at her half bowing as he was unable to bend freely in his current attire. “I should probably warn you I’m extremely clumsy just so you’re aware, apart from that I think you’ve got it covered” He added before taking her hand and giving it a gentle but firm shake offering her a wide smile as he did. “I would be inclined to agree with you” He dipped his head in a nod releasing her hand, he’d barely retracted it before she’d moved the conversation on...straight into uncharted territory. Did she?! Is she?! Crash looked positively stunned by what she was saying, the last time something even close to this had come up Kathy had been forced into a ball. Crash wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all, perhaps he didn’t want to admit anything...but neither did he want to deny anything. He lifted a hand to the back of his neck a bashful look flickering across his expression before he settled on a neutral but warm smile, his mind instantly began to sort through multiple branches of action within a matter of seconds he had come to what he believed to be the best solution. “Erm...yeah sorry about that by the way I can get a little competitive in sports like that. I didn’t hurt you did I?” He opted to change the subject gripping the last part of her question, this had to be safest route...right? Concern leaked into his expression before he could stop it he couldn’t help it even if she had assured him at the time he had already considered adrenaline could have been in play before. “Kudos to you for that last assault, you owned me that time around” He quickly added, trying to keep all traces of color from his face though his pulse was pounding in his ears.

Ryuu gulped. Thankfully enough, Maria seemed to move away from him. Andromeda definitely seemed like a better option to stick with right at the moment, though he personally thought that being dressed up by any girl was embarrassing in its own context. Still...

When Andromeda asked of him for some ideas, the otaku thought carefully.

"...It'd be cool if there was something like a... sailor uniform. Or something like that," Ryuu said. He hoped that at least one of the uniforms, if there were any, did not have the color pink on them.

COLLAB FOR THE AGES IX IRON: The Whole Nine Yards

Summary: More crossdressing than you could shake a stick at. Believe me, I tried.

Alistair he chuckled again as she said “I can imagine it would not be a pleasant experience” he replied with "not particularly".
his face dropped when she said “Y-yes...I oh, I didn’t know anyone lived here! Does your family live here to? I thought it was part of the school."
"no" he replied "they don't live here" he looked back up and forced a smile when she explained “From what I can gather the girls are all dressing up the guys in these strange clothes” then she asked if he was competing "I wouldn't be against it" she held up a dress and saying he'd look good in it, he laughed "you think so?" he smiled, looking her over "if you want me to be your champion i'll surely accept"

Kathy nodded briefly at his response to her offer for a hug. It would probably be better if she didn't try to read very far into it. After all, she had hugged Alex naturally enough, right? Then she became visibly rigid at Carmen’s question, though she quickly forced herself to relax half a second later. A slight blush creeping onto her face again, she glanced over at Crash from the corner of her eyes, wondering how he would respond to that. She clasped her hands together, keeping herself from fidgeting as she tried not to look too interested in what he had to say. To her… Disappointment? Relief? He simply skipped over the question completely and changed topics. She released a small sigh. Perhaps it was for the best? ‘But perfectly natural?’ Kathy thought, repeating Carmen’s words inside of her head. ‘I feel anything but natural around Crash lately.’ It was confusing business. On one hand she did actually know the cause behind it, but on the other she was still busy denying it.

"..." Feeling a strange irritation in the pit of her stomach, she decided to take it out on Crash by poking him on the side again. "By the way, you should probably get over to the starting line so they can get started with the event." Kathy smiled up at him, masking the real reason behind the poke with a plausible reason to grab his attention. "Good luck." Turning to Alex for a moment she asked him, "You're going to participate as well right?"

"Well, I think I've got it all covered now," responded Carmen to Crash explaining his clumsiness. "That's certainly good to know," she said with a devious smile. Carmen distinctly noticed Crash's rapid expression changes, indicating he was attempting to figure out what to say. A small smile crept to her lips as he fumbled to a result, going for the competitive route, starting with "I didn't hurt you did I?" "Of course not, it's only water. And the sand was a nice cushion. If you had hurt me, I'm pretty certain you would have known...like right away," she concluded. She smiled an appreciative smile at his compliment. "Why thank you! Of course you DID still get a couple of good hits on me, even if that shirtless guy I haven't met helped you with one of them. It was a wonderfully enjoyable duel though, so thanks for that. I had forgotten about my competitive streak entirely." She noticed Kathy's attempt to look unaffected by the conversation, as well as her relief when the conversation changed course. Kathy began encouraging Crash to go up to the start line, either to try to get the event going or to get Crash away from Carmen. Carmen felt the latter was more likely, and briefly looked over at Ara to make sure he was still fully dressed and ready to race.

Watching his face drop Little Feather instantly felt guilty for asking such a personal question. “Sorry” She murmured from behind the dress. She visibly exhaled when he seemed to ignore her social blunder, well what she thought was a social blunder. She lowered the dress now her face had returned to its normal dark coloring a smile lifting the corners of her mouth as she held the black and white maids outfit out for him to see. “I’m not sure try it on and we’ll find out” She told him in a soft voice. Lion shook his head and walked over to the chest reaching in he pulled out a head piece, a feather duster and a white pinafore. There we go your ‘champion’ needs accessories Lion grumbled nudging them towards Alistair. Little Feather felt herself blush as Alistair offered himself as her ‘champion’ for the race, it unfortunately brought up an unpleasant memory...it made her falter for a moment, forcing the memory aside she pushed her hair behind her ear for the third time. “Thank you that would be...great” She thanked him with a warm smile. Ask him if he wants a noble steed Lion purred offering Little Feather a lion-ish grin as she turned to look at him. “Not a chance” She poked her tongue out at the lion playfully before returning her attention to Alistair and helping him into his dress. Trying to be helpful she moved to his side opening her mouth to say something when she seemed to hesitate tilting her head to the side as she realized he had very delicate looking wings on his back. "Oh wow..." She breathed tilting her head to the side her hand lifting as if to touch them when she suddenly remembered herself and retracted her hand sharply lifting the dress with a frown. "Well...this is going to need some adjusting" She stated, instinctively reaching for her belt, though as her hand patted her side she blinked and looked down remembering she was wearing different clothes...she didn't have her tools on her. Lion's ears flickered as he watched Little Feather pat hers
elf down apparently at random. You let her take your medicine pouch and knife? Wow I have to say Mercy's persuasive abilities are impressive He purred to the girl another rumbling chuckle passing through his chest. Little Feather raised an eyebrow at him, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Don't worry Alistair I'll make this more comfortable for you!" She assured the boy with a small smile before crouching next to Lion and picking up a large paw applying pressure to his pad she forced a long sharp claw to spring forward. After a few moments there were two slits just big enough for Alistair to squeeze his wings through, Lion however did not look impressed looking pleased with herself Little Feather held the dress out to Alistair with an expectant look on her face.

Crash had purposefully avoided looking at Kathy after Carmen’s question, he thought it best to not do so. He was positive this was the right thing to do, this way she wouldn’t have to get embarrassed. This doesn’t feel right... He felt an internal twist of disappointment with himself mainly. Not the time for this now His expression had remained fixed on a warm smile even though his mind was running rampant and his heart was becoming more determined to burst out of his chest. Setting up a plan in his head Crash was able to concentrate on Carmen as she gave him a devious smile his smile visibly faltered. Oh god...that smile never leads to good things He relaxed when she assured him she wasn’t injured...she had placed a good point making him feel his worry was rather unnecessary. He grinned as she allowed him a small ego boost by admitting he got a few good shots in. “I think his names Ryuu...though I haven’t spoken with him yet” Crash offered with a small shrug. As soon as Kathy poked his side he inhaled sharply and violently twitched away from her hand, his arms clamping down on his sides defensively silently cursing at his obvious reactions. He lifted a hand to the back of his neck momentarily thinking he’d said something wrong but as she smiled he figured he was off the hook “OK, OK I’m going” He grinned at her, lifting his hands in surrender before making his way towards the start line to join Ara and the others.

Alex blinked as Kathy hugged him. A bit unsure as the reason for the hug, but happy to receive it. A soft smile appeared on his lips as he wrapped his arms around her. The warmth of the embrace soothing him. It was as if every worry he'd ever had had disappeared. He shrunk down to his pixie size and flew up to her shoulder where he stayed, snuggling in her warmth. With a small, timid voice he whispered, "Momma..."

Brako huffed a bit, watching as every ignored him. to be fair, they all seemed pretty busy. Wait... Why were the boys in dresses? Brako blinked, looking around rather confused. Things were starting to click and suddenly Brako didn't really know if he wanted to join in at this point. Why were the males being dressed? Would they make him? What were they even doing? Suddenly, the old dragon seems like an old fish out of water.

Chris sat off on the side, particularly resigned now. No one had come up to her to dress her... no one had come up to talk to her at all really. And all of her attempts at trying ended in her being alone. She didn't want to join a big group of people and the smaller groups seemed so tight nit, she didn't want to intrude. She felt like she didn't really belong here. Maybe it was time she just went back to her house. Her dog probably missed her anyway.

As Carmen looked around she noticed two guys sitting off on the side, resigned from everything. "Hold on...no guy here is going to escape this race on my watch. Look over there [motioning at Kathy], there's two guys not participating! We just can't have that, can we? Obviously not! C'mon...!" She began walking...no, jogging...to the two guys. Yelling back at Kathy, she said: "I'll get that guy on the left if you get the guy on the right!" still totally unsure if Kathy would even come or not. Oh well, she'd at least get one of them.

Walking up to the guy she had targeted (Brako), she noticed him basically brooding while being confused. As she got closer she thought she recognized him from both the opening day at the Academy and when they arrived on the island. Ahhh...the speech guy, she thought.

Brako watched, wide eyed, as a female approached him. "Oh... Oh no... nonono...." He said shaking his head at her. "I didn't sign up for this." He sputtered out, clearly rattled.

"HI!" Carmen said as friendly as it was possible to be as she reached the obviously uninterested guy, smiling at him broadly. "You sir look like you could use some cheering up. Why not come and participate? It'll be fun! I'm sure we can find something that'll make you like irresistible!"

Brako's eyes went wide but with a glance from Maria he stopped turning to bolt. "...fine." He replied, resigned to his fate. It was for the kids... right? Yeah... for the kids.

Carmen only kept smiling at his disinterested reaction. This was going to be fun. "Oh do lighten up, this is a holiday! You're not allowed to be grumpy on a holiday, ok? C'mon!" She dragged him along with her to one of the unopened chests. "Let's see..." she said as she began rooting through the chest, clearly dissatisfied with the options until she came upon one particular princessy prom dress, painting a very amused smile on her face as she took it out. She didn't care how important he apparently was for giving all of those speeches and such; there was no way he was getting off easy. "Well, here you go! I think this will look wonderful on you," she said, holding it out for him to take.

Another smile crept onto Kathy’s face upon seeing his reaction. It was quite interesting really. She hadn’t thought that his weakness would be something as easy to poke at, literally, like his side. “Good luck!” She repeated, waving him off.

Apparently Alex was not going to participate, despite the fact he had gone through the trouble of slipping a dress on. Smiling gently at his whisper, she focused on keeping her shoulders straight so that he would not have trouble staying there. Then, Carmen got her attention by motioning her over. “?” Looking where Carmen began to walk, she did a slight double take as she realized that the girl was going up to the vice-principal. ‘A-Amazing…’ Though it would be a funny sight for sure, she didn’t think she would’ve been able to attempt such a thing. Glancing over at the other one, Kathy nodded and began to approach the small boy (Chris – since she didn’t know that Chris was actually a girl).

“Hey,” Approaching Chris slowly so as not to disturb Alex too much, Kathy gave ‘him’ a warm smile. “Do you not have a partner for the event? I could choose something for you to get dressed up in if you’d like.”

Having successfully escaped the crying boy (Cyber), Ara made his way to the starting line. Catching sight of Crash, he made sure to line up right beside him. “Hey,” He greeted with a friendly smile plastered onto his face. A bunny girl costume. That was hilarious. “Like your costume. Did the girl from before help you get dressed?”

Cyber's tears run down his face until the guy said something and let him go from the vice grip. “Dammit, I get it okay, I won’t tell. One minute you’re a twisted brat that doesn’t know how to say please or sorry, and the next you’re crying like a fountain. Geeze you’re busy.” Then the guy walked off saying he wouldn't care if he would join..he wiped the tears on his face and sniffled. He was so used to being called a brat so being called that didn't faze him. he was really liked, a bit bipolar....but then he wondered... Usually if people would find out about his secret they would use him from something like black mail but this guy just let him go...well he threatened him first but still oddly let him go... He looked back at the guy just wondering why... he wanted to ask but then the guy was already at the starting line. He gave a sigh and continue to wipe away his tears then he walked over to his 3ds and see if it was okay and save also...but at the screen...Save wasn't there! "Huh?! Save!! Where are you!?" He panicked again, where was Save? It could be impossible for her to move in the real world...he had seen that yet... He looked around trying to find her. While looking around he notice a chest.

His mind definitely change, first from a crying brat to a worried friend? to a...curious adventurer!! He closed the 3ds to save battery, ran to the chest and opened it. "Wow!~" like an adventurer finding treasure he found a bunch of pretty outfits for girls (and guys like him) to wear. Some are really girly and frilly and some were just to cute! He picked a very frilly yet gothish loli dress. That he recognized it from a video game, project diva arcade, a design for Kagamine Rin! He picked up the cute dress and instantly wanted to wear it even though the sun was shining. He looked around an area to change and found a small little hut, probably a changing room. He ran there, removed all well most of his clothes and started to wear the dress. He came out wearing the girly gothish lolita dress and pretty happy. Now he looked even more girl than before with the dress except he didn't have makeup with him... He walked back to the starting line just to watch the show and maybe have a good laugh. On the way he some people look at him but he didn't mind at all.

Anedine, seeing Mercy's choice of clothing for the fabulous-ish boy, gave an agreeing nod to the lavish dress for Darwin. And as soon as after she made turns on her head as gestures, she helped as Mercy dressed up the man for the contest, and then giving an awed, amazed expression as she saw the final results. The pure white, elegant corset dress, the glittering, shimmering jewels, the fabulous feather trims, and the fit stockings, all of them happened to caught Anedine's eye until Mercy then gave her a question.

"Sorry I didn't mean to take over...erm...Where are my manners, I didn't even catch your name...."

"Oh, sorry there! My name's Anedine, and it's nice to see the two of us working together!"

Mercy smiled as Anedine introduced herself as well as saying it was nice the two of them were working together, she chuckled lightly. "A pleasure to be formally introduced Anedine, and I would agree, doesn't he just look fabulous?" She grinned at the other woman. As Darwin turned she quickly reached over to tighten the corset. "Tell me when you can't breathe and we'll know its tight enough" she joked deliberately tightening it enough to hold it up but not enough that he couldn't breathe after all he had a race to win. She laughed as he complimented their choice, surprisingly she had expected this kind of reaction from him she knew his stylish ways were for the most part exemplary. "I for one love these, though there is little call for them nowadays" She made a small dissatisfied 'Tch' noise to emphasize her displeasure of this fact. "Hmm?" She hummed as Darwin pulled his phone out, the sight of it reminded her she should probably check her own soon..."That's what happens when you call people" She teased the unicorn playfully. "Are they on speaker?" She asked wondering what kind of mischief she could create if they were. Of course it hadn't crossed her mind that someone was actually inside the phone. Mercy reached up to secure the jeweled choker around Darwin's neck before placing the fan in his hand, taking a step back she clapped her hands together grinning happily. "You look fabulous honey" She complimented him. "Best go join the others though, the race will start soon...I'll be rooting for you" She assured him with a bright smile and a quick wink, turning the purple haired boy away from her and patting his butt as if to encourage him along

“Thanks be sure to cheer for me” Crash called back cheekily, winking before he attempted to jog to the start line. Oh boy...major issues He grimaced as he pulled up to the line he caught a glimmer of white out of the corner of his eye causing him to turn towards Ara. “Hey” He replied back with a slight nod of his head, focusing his eyes forward momentarily before he looked back at Ara. “Her names Kathy for the record and yes, yes she did” He admitted with a sigh “Carmen did a great job on you” He smirked at Ara. “You make a great Runaway Bride” He added for good measure he could actually think of more but he decided it best not to. He caught sight of a rather interesting character (Cyber) making their way towards the start line; she seemed to stop on the start line. “Erm...hey, I think you’re in the wrong place” He grinned at who he quite easily mistook as a girl in the clothes ‘he’ was wearing all Crash thought on it was Athalia expect the unexpected It was becoming a regular thing to see peculiar clothing...after all he was stood here in a bunny suit and Ara was in a wedding dress couldn’t get more ‘unexpected’ than that...right?

Darwin was checking himself for any ugly pats as he circled around looking at his amazing, fabulous dress. He personally thought the choker was a bit too muhc, thought, but this wasn't him making the costume. he gripped the fan in hand stunned by the amazingness of it. "Well, you made a very good choice!" He giggled slightly. "YEah its on speaker, I always put people on speaker...but I didn't call anyone." He shrugged this off and fiddled with the ruffles of the corset.He immediately remembered he had to go and race so he grinned back at Mercy and hardly acknowledged the pat as he went speeding to the starting line.

Alistair heard her whisper 'Sorry', and gave her a smile, but didn't say anything.
She then handed him the dress, her face was no longer as red, and said “I’m not sure try it on and we’ll find out” Lion also dug a few items out of the chest and passed them to him, he nodded and looked them over, he had never seen the odd costume before and had no clues as to what it's purpose was. she said “Thank you that would be...great” in response to him offering to be her champion. he smiled but heard something behind that, and realized that perhaps his words had not been the best.
she also then said “Not a chance” in reference to something Lion must have said.
Alistair was looking over the dress curiously when Little Feather got closer, as if to help. then she looked at his back and no doubt saw the pair of fluttery wings he had on his back. "Oh wow..." she whispered, he generally garnered that reaction. She took the dress from him and said "Well...this is going to need some adjusting"
"that would be wise" he said with a smile, wings fluttering slightly as he thought about it "how do you intend to do that?" she went for something that she acted as if should be at her waist but wasn't. he waited patiently as she and lion exchanged words for a minute. then she said to him "Don't worry Alistair I'll make this more comfortable for you!"
"i leave it in your capable hands" he said, clasping his own behind his back. He watched as she used Lion's claws, which Alistair had to admit looked menacing even at human size, to cut slits in the dress. Lion didn't look particularly happy about this but Little Feather appeared proud so Alistair put on a big smile and clapped for a second "imaginative thinking, Little Feather"
she held the dress out for him and her took it carefully, there appeared to be an odd contraption on the back (a zipper) that when he pulled on it the back pulled apart and allowed him to more easily slip it on and to get his wings through the slits more easily. after that however he had no idea how to redo the contraption "little Feather, could you help me?" he turned slightly towards her.

“Oh?” Ara’s brow went up as his grin grew wider. He hadn’t expected Crash to just willingly give him her name. “So her name’s Kathy? I’ll be sure to remember that when I go talk to her.” Not feeling embarrassed about the costume, he laughed, “How’d you know? My partner ran off on me for another. Figures. I’ll trade you mine for yours.” He smiled in a friendly manner at the last comment, keeping his smirk at bay for now.

Catching sight of the boy (Cyber) again, he thought, ‘The hell..?’ The guy seemed so adverse to joining, and now he was coming over to the line in a fancier costume than before? Ara just rolled his eyes and decided to let Crash deal with the troublesome kid on his own. After all, he didn’t want an encore of waterworks if he let the ‘secret’ slip.

Cyber didn't mean to walk the way to the starting line, he just wanted to watch but he guessed he didn't really think where was he going...“Erm...hey, I think you’re in the wrong place” He heard a voice, when looked at the direction of the voice he swear he couldn't keep his laughter in. A red head guy (Crash)..in a bunny girl outfit!! Cyber was dying from the inside trying to hold the roar of laughter. He gave a a broken smile just try to maintain his composure. "Oh! I am!..I just noticed that... I am so lost though, everything is going so fast! But I have to say...Onii-chan~ You look quite...nice...." He smirked as he gave out the innocent girl persona he used on the guy earlier. battering eyelashes, a very girly kind voice, a smile that usually wins over many guy's hearts yet though he didn't want to do anything with that guy. "I am just here to watch Onii-chan, I like wearing clothes likes these they are fun and very cute~ But hey if you are thinking I am not a boy who likes dressing up like this! I am a girl who like to wear this type of clothing" He giggled in a joking manner as he started to walk away from the starting line but before doing that...

"But maybe later Onii-chan we can talk! You look like a very cool and confident man to able to wear something like that!" He made sure he sounded like he was admiring the red head even though he was gladly not. He then walked closer to the red head, tip; toe because he was still small and whispered at his right ear. "I like that~ You are really cool Onii-chan~ And I would like if maybe...we can have a little...alone time together? Maybe for a date?" He giggled again then he looked at his eyes showing his fake interest on the red head. Even though his eyes showed so much interest on the guy he knew he was just messing with him. "Well then...Bye Onii-chan~" With that said he kissed the red head right cheek then skipped off. As he was at a good amount of distance he started to laugh. "Oh my god!! That was so perfect!"

Little Feather merely grinned at Alistair as he asked her how she intended to do that, after proving how resourceful she was a little taken aback as he offered her a big smile and clapped for a second. “Erm...thank you” She murmured feeling the pink tint return to her cheeks, this reaction was becoming a nuisance. She tilted her head to the side watching the dark haired boy get into his dress, her brow furrowed as he pulled it up her putting her hand to her mouth to hide a smile as she resisted the urge to laugh he looked rather amusing yet cute at the same time. “You should let me dress you in normal clothes sometime I think you’d suit them better” She told him, of course her her idea of ‘normal’ clothes were squall clothes. “You’d make a fantastic brave” She murmured, bashfully clasping her hands together rather thankful when he turned slightly towards her and asked for help. “Sure” She smiled as she closed the distance between them, moving between his wings carefully she gently pulled the zipper up for him securing him into the dress. “There you go” She announced stepping away from him. “You’re all set to go...want me to come with you to the starting line?” She asked him, looking over at the other guys who were already lined up.

Crash felt a pang of anxiety...he couldn’t say he liked the idea of the brown haired student hassling Kathy, he was confident she could stand up for herself but the idea of it made a nasty surge of anger seep through him. A frown crossed his face. What are you getting so antsy about...it’s just talking The fact of the matter was he neither trusted or liked Ara it was that simple it didn’t matter that he barely knew the guy. “Apparently I’m more perceptive than I thought” He grinned at Ara with ease, though it did falter a bit as he asked for a trade his mind throwing two possible meanings at him,, the first one he didn’t even entertain the thought of...”Nope, I’d rather not suffer the wrath of Khan for changing costumes” He shook his head, his expression had become very guarded as he spoke. Though that quickly changed as the ‘girl’ (Cyber) he’d spoke to practically cracked up into hysterics, he looked skyward briefly before returning his crimson gaze to the ‘girl’ He obviously fell for the innocent girl facade completely counteracting his claim of being ‘more perceptive’ than he thought he was. He didn’t see through the students disguise. “Erm...thanks I think, I wouldn’t say this was my best look” He chuckled giving a small shrug of his shoulders, though he noticed ‘her’ smile he didn’t give her any signs of falling for her flirtations in true Crash style they flew straight over his head, he did however offer her a warm smile. “So you’re new around he-“ He was cut off as the other student began to speak again, his brow creasing in confusion at what ‘she’ said. “I hadn’t thought you were a participant” He shrugged at her. “You’d be surprised what the students around here like to wear normally” He chuckled thinking of Little Feather and her usual attire, although Mercy had been telling him of her ’plans’ to pull the Indian girl into the 20th century. Maker help her He was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard the ‘girl’ speak to him again, he politely focused back on her.

A very perplexed look crossed his face Cool and confident? He raised an eyebrow at ‘her’ wondering why on earth ‘she’ would throw those...compliments at him, he opened his mouth as if to say something when in the next moment the ‘girl’ had walked closer to him and leaned up to whisper in his ear. His frown deepened he didn’t show it outwardly but inwardly he wasn’t happy with’ her’ sudden proximity to him it actually bothered him...why did it bother him? He listened to ‘her’ words blinking a little in disbelief at what ‘she’ said, was ‘she’ flirting with him? It would explain the compliments...and the strange look ‘she’ had on her face now, however as ‘she’ leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek he literally froze not looking too dissimilar to a deer stuck in headlights. Red light! Words, Crash use your words! “I’m sorry that wouldn’t be ok” He blurted out, forgetting Ara was stood directly behind him. “Not in that context...I’ll be around if you need a friend but that’s all I can really offer you” He finished, really hoping ‘she’ had heard him as ‘she’ skipped away. “What the hell just happened...” He frowned completely confused by that strange turn of events, at least the blood hadn’t rushed to his face at all...apparently that reaction was especially for Kathy.

Alistair thought Little Feather's blush was rather cute but he wasn't going to say anything about it. She seemed amused by his attempt to get into the dress, which made him smile "am i even doing this right? human clothes are odd" he laughed, pulling at it to try and straighten it as best he could. “You should let me dress you in normal clothes sometime I think you’d suit them better” she said. He smiled again "i might take you up on that offer" then she whispered “You’d make a fantastic brave”. He looked over at her "what's a brave?"
when she put the back together he chuckled and said "it's a little tight" he tried adjusting it some more but it didn't really help. she offered to walk with him to the starting line "i'd like that thank you" he held up the pinafore "by the way, how do i put this on?" as he said this he started to move towards the line, he noticed a man approaching him and stopped, waiting for the man to approach, he nodded to him.

One, if looking closely enough, could see Brako's eyelid visibly twitch when the dress came into view. His eyes shifted over to a very bemused Maria, unable to contain her shock and laughter.

"Yes, yes." He spoke with a measured tone. He knew that by doing this he was helping both Maria and the kids out. And he'd always thought of Maria as his own. So despite her antics, he'd follow along if it meant her happiness. With a deep sigh, he grabbed the dress and motioned for Carmen to follow him to the dressing room.

"Sadly, this is not my first time putting on a dress... So... I know I'll need your help at least zipping the darned thing up." He told Carmen as he walked to the dressing rooms. He stole a glance at Maria, glaring at her, before turning back with a small smile on his face.

Maria honestly couldn't contain herself. Brako, THE Brako, was getting in a dress. It'd been so long since she'd seen this. A real treat for sure. She was both shocked by the girl's choice and unable to contain her laughter. She had to admit, that man was more of a father to her than her's had ever been and he put up with all of her... adventures. She wasn't sure what she would do without the old fart.

Chris looked over at the redhead that had approached her, asking if she needed something to wear. Chris's facial expression changed drastically within the next few seconds. First, she was happy to be noticed. Then, sad because it meant she'd have to put on a dress. Then, angry because she didn't want to admit to being a girl either.

"Do I have to dress up in order to participate?" She asked, her eyes pointed at the redhead's (Kathy).

CALL LAB SECTION X: Are you from Tennessee? 'Cause you're the only ten I see.

Summary: Even more crossdrWAIT THE RACE STARTED

Ryuu grumbled as he began to look through the chest filled with... frilly... things. The otaku literally felt the stench of "3-D" coming from some of the clothes. He really did hate some of the clothes women wore. Sure, it was up to the women to decide on whether they'd actually wear anything at all, but that was just him being the generous farmer he always had been. ((still working on this))

Looking back at the small 'boy' (Chris), Kathy smiled and replied, "Yes... But I promise not to pick anything too extravagant or strange if you don't want that sort of thing. Do you want to participate?" Then realizing that she had never even introduced herself, she held her hand out and added, "By the way, I'm Kathy. It's nice to meet you."

Ara’s devious grin grew wider as he watched Crash’s reaction at his words. The guy was fairly good at trying to make light of things, but that hardly mattered because he got proof that the red-head was actually quite bothered by it. ‘If you’re gonna try, you should at least stay strong from beginning to end.’ He thought to himself.

Glad that the trap (Cyber) seemed quite satisfied and occupied with Crash to notice him, Ara was going to focus his attention to making strategies for the course when he saw the small boy (Cyber) whisper something into the redhead’s ear and let out a giggle. Though he hadn’t been able to hear what they were saying, he commented, "Woah, two-timing? Well... I'm not one to judge on orientation, but your tastes don't seem to match between your partners." With his brow raised in question, it was pretty hard to tell if he was being serious or not.

Cyber was really laughing his guts out as he did that to the red head (Crash). He didn't hear anything if the guy said something he was just laughing to much. He turned around as he was at a good amount of distance and watched for the event to start. While looking around as the race thingy wasn't starting yet he grew quickly bored....he wanted to play some GTA 5 yet his PC was still not fixed. "God dammit I am SOOO BORED!" He shouted as he slumped a little...boredom was getting to him as a impatient brat.

Carmen was delighted when the man she had discovered was doing something other than harrumphing. As he walked to the dressing room, she followed cheerfully, saying "Ah, see? I knew you'd start coming around!" She followed him in, immediately walked behind him, and zipped up his dress. "There, see? That looks lovely!" Not one to back down at any point from anything, Carmen looked him over, deciding how she could improve the look. After a few seconds of pondering, she had it. "Hold on," she said as she ran back to the chest, sifting through and finding a shiny tiara. "Ahhh, this is perfect," she said, jogging back to him. She held it out to him, noticing a slight smile on his face. "I think this will make all the difference!" She said, beaming at him.

Chris looked at the hand offered to her and after a few seconds of deliberation, took it. "I'm Chris. Nice to meet you." She replied, her voice rather gruff. She let out a long sigh and sent the girl, Kathy, a smile. "As long as it isn't too revealing or embarrassing, I guess." She told the girl, giving her her best charmer smile. For some reason, Chris enjoyed being male. She didn't like the looks people gave her as a female and she didn't enjoy how they looked down on her. Oh, she's a girl. She can't play football, she can't fix cars. She was tired of it. She just wanted to be Chris.

Little Feather shrugged at Alistair looking apologetic for a moment. 'You're guess is as good as mine..." She grinned at him, smiling broadly as he laughed and straightened out his dress. She tilted her head to the side frowning momentarily as she thought over his question. "A warrior for my people" She answered him with a small smile. "Oh...I don't think there's anything I can do about that" She told him, looking at the back of the costume as he tried to readjust it, but seeing no way of doing so she shrugged, her smile grew as he accepted her offer to walk him over to the start line. Lion blew air out of his nose in a huff, giving Alistair a funny look as he held up the pinafore. Little Feather looked as perplexed as him, so cast a glance at Lion who lifted his eyes to the heavens before grumbling at her. Tie it around his waist with the long bits so the bib at the faces forward he instructed her, she frowned at him but took the pinafore from Alistair and did as Lion said, carefully negotiating her way past his wings as she tied the two long strips of white material behind his back in a double knot. "All done" She grinned at him before he moved off towards the starting line she felt Lion tug at the hem of shirt as she went to follow him. This way cub, no use following him over to the start line...let us find others to stand with whilst we watch He purred to her sliding his head under her hand. "Good idea" She grinned at him, noticing Alistair had already moved off to speak to someone else she followed Lion into the crowd.

Crash was still rather rattled over the 'girls' (Cyber) actions, he huffed his hair out of his face pulling at the ridiculous ribbon tied under his chin but not enough to disrupt it. He turned to face Ara as he heard him speak instantly flushing with guilt as he listened to what he had to say. "What! N-no I wasn't...you must have heard me say I wasn't-" Crash cut himself off, his cheeks flushing with color why was he saying this?! He was single... You idiot...wait tastes? He wrinkled his nose at Ara. "My tastes? What are you on about?" Crash sighed, he couldn't decipher whether Ara was just trying to mess with him or not...though he was rather confused about what he meant.

Brako sighed when he stepped out of the dressing room, blinking when Carmen placed the tiara on his head. "Like that's stay on my head for long." He mumbled. Still, he sent the girl a warm smile and bowed his head at her. "Thank you very much for your help." He told her, curtsying mockingly.

Alex was content on Kathy's shoulder, the dress was a bit uncomfortable but bearable. He heard Kathy talking to someone else and opened his eyes to see another male. Just what he needed, another male talking to her. Still, he didn't make a fuss. He just stayed on her shoulder, enjoying the sun and the warmth he found there.

Lily looked over as another female shouted out something about being bored. Wait... Why was she in a dress? Lily walked over with delicate steps and got closer to the... creature? "Uhm... Weren't guys the ones that were supposed to dress up? I mean, if you want to dress up that's fine but..." She began, her brows raised.

Cyber was so busy mopping about being so bored until a girl with pink hair (Lily) ...like Marluxia in kingdom hearts chain of memories! but of course a girl and wearing a white bikini with a white blouse. "Uhm... Weren't guys the ones that were supposed to dress up? I mean, if you want to dress up that's fine but..." Cyber blinked just wondering why she would ask that but then again...he does look pretty weird dress up like that. "Oh I am just you know i though this was pretty cute dress, it reminded me of a video game character outfit so I wore it..." He sarcastically said to her but not keeping the innocent girl persona but his true personality a rude little bi-polar brat. He looked back at her and sighed. "When will this thingy start!? I am so bored..."

Seven was looking at the starting line, an array of interesting men dressed up. His tail wagged as he was curious how the even will go. Still waiting for Vanessa for the decision of his clothing he yawned as he scratched his ears with his foot. "Maybe I want to wear something a wee bit loose or a bit you know movable...like a .... hmm a Stripper" He joked as he snickered at what he said well isn't he already considered as a stripper? Most of the time when he is human he was naked...

Kathy gave 'him' another smile as her handshake was returned. "Okay then, how about we pick the outfit together?" Pointing to the chests she continued, "Most of the crazy costumes seem to be taken by now anyway. Maybe we can just find a nice summer dress for you to wear."

Looking around, it seemed that a lot of the guys were already dressed and ready to get the event started. "We should probably hurry if you're going to participate. I'm not sure how much more patient Mercy will be with everyone else already ready to go."

Chris looked over at Kathy and then at the chests. "Maybe..." She mumbled. She walked over and began to dig through the chest, looking around with a rather blank expression on her face. She pulled out something blue and pulled it out to show Kathy. "What about this?" In her hands, she held a overall dress. It stopped at her thighs. She pulled out another sweater type thing to go with it. Over all, it was pretty nice. Not too girly but would still satisfy them.

Lily chuckled at a bit at the person. "It is kind of cute. I don't play... video games. So, maybe you could show me sometime." She replied, trying her best to be friendly. She looked out at the others hearing him/her saying something about the game. "I'm not sure I even want to join in." She confided. She was less enthusiastic about this than she wanted to admit. She'd tried but she couldn't bring herself to be happy. She was trying so hard...

Cyber yawned getting even more bored just for waiting. "I just wanna see something happen!!" He crossed his arms together and grumbled, boredom still killing him. He looked at her again and sighed bored. "I just...hate...really hate being so bored, I just want to do something!' He shouted out again, he had his 3ds yet he had a rule to play a new game after playing another one from before so he wouldn't get bored with it so easily. "Sorry if I sound like an immature brat, that's how I really am..." He grumbled out as he just notice he was being...an immature brat.

Again, another chuckle from Lily. For some reason, this person made her laugh.

"You're fine. I can understand. It is rather boring." She replied, smiling at him warmly. "I'm Lily, by the way." She added, turning to face her new friend. Their energy didn't seem bad, just a bit... different. Yeah, different.

"Sometimes being a brat is nice. I wish I could return to that." She continued, turning to look at him/her. "That dress looks really nice on you too." She added on, smiling and laughing a bit.

He looked at her oddly curious of her composure...lots of people would have left him already if he acted like that but oddly the girl or Lily didn't. "Cyber...my name is Cyber..." He grumbled out again so he wouldn't raise his voice again. "Being a brat isn't of course peaches and cream... I hate it when people tell me I am to young or small to do anything...and yet they I act I always end up being called a brat or maybe just maybe getting slap at the face...grown ups are terrible....." He bit his lips as he fixed the bow on his head. Cyber kind of was surprised of what Lily said about him looking nice in the dress he was wearing. "Um...thanks... I guess... but what do you mean like before?" He looked away trying to think a bit more. Cyber looked back at the unlucky souls having to deal with the whole thingy magig... that bunny suit, wedding dress, frilly thing? and a guy wearing a maids outfit with wings. "...Okay....interesting...uh wait Lily I want to know where that guy got his outfit...I want it" He wanted to know where the guy got his costume, it reminded him of an armor...yes an armor from old school game. He started to walk to the starting line and towards the guy in that maids outfit.

Alistair smiled at the man, hands clasped in front of him, the pinafore still there "Hello, are you participating in this competition? it's an interesting practice, this uniform is definitely unique" he pulled at the dress, he looked at the man and the clothes suddenly registered, he wasn't wearing clothes like the rest of the men here "do you mind my asking if you are a boy or a girl?" he smiled as if this was the most innocent question ever, because of course to him it was, it did not occur to him that his question might be taken wrong, and as so he waited calmly for an answer.

Cyber started back at the man with no idea what to say, in his mind he wanted to say is 'Hey where did you get this outfit I want it!' but as he listened more to what the guy said he smiled deviously...inside. "Oh I am girl, lately I am getting a lot of mistakes here from this event thing, it's quite... interesting actually. Guys dress up like this, quite fun...it shows how one guy can panic and be ashamed about it or even stay cool and confident with its.... quite fun. I like to see a cool and confident man in this event...." He giggled as showed his fake interest on the guy like what he did before with the red head. "I feel rude my name is Cyber, what about you Onii-chan?"

Alistair nodded, something about this person didn't seem to fit what he was saying but Alistair also hadn't had much contact with humans so he ignored it "Ah, thank you i was confused," he simply smiled in response to the 'cool and confident man' comment. there was something oddly attractive about the women's giggle, that made him put on his most flirtatious smile "It's very nice to meet you Miss Cyber, I'm Alistair" he took her hand and bent to give it a kiss, it occurred to him that Little Feather might be upset by his interest in this other women, but he just assured himself that he would return his attention to her afterwards, right now he had a women to woo "are you a student? like my new friend Little Feather?" he gestured to the girl as he said it
"i would like to know more about you, if you'd permit me?"

Cyber smiled even more...in the inside. 'Finally a catch!!' After his attempts on that guy at the beach from way earlier to that guy in the wedding dress...well nothing came good after that at all or wasn't planned to. The red head where he just wanted to mess with the guys head but now...this guy...he finally got a bait. He giggled even more, putting on the innocent girl persona, battering his eyelashes and making sure he sounded very kind and cute. "Nice too meet you Alistair but I prefer to call you my Onii-chan if you don't mind" Cyber even faked a blush as Alistair kissed his hand like a gentleman would do. "Oh yes I am very much a student, little feather...what a weird name...are you hanging out with her after this? Because like what you said Onii-chan..." He walked a bit closer making sure that was definitely his...interest on him. "I would like it if you hang out with me later...so you can get to know me a bit more...or even a lot more..." He suggested and battered his eyelashes in a seductive manner, if he had a catch he would go all in for it to stay. 'One more then...achievement unlocked' He smiled as he was ready for the next step of his strategy for his game of catch. "Maybe a little private time together?" It took him years to master his innocent persona and he was glad to use it.

Vanessa gave the bakeneko a large grin before grabbing him by an ear and dragging the floating boy to a costume bow. She let go and dived into it before re emerging with a grin. "So mister kitty, do you know much history." She threw to him a purple belly dancer outfit. It had a short silky skirt along with purple stockings. A pinkish bra for him to put on and a little purple veil. "I believe it's just your taste.....go on then...try it on."

Alistair was not one to let women woo him, but something about this one intrigued him. there was something about that giggle, Alistair smiled. "Nice too meet you Alistair but I prefer to call you my Onii-chan if you don't mind" she blushed, but it was different from when little feather blushed, he wasn't sure why. "you can call me whatever you like, my dear"
"Oh yes I am very much a student, little feather...what a weird name...are you hanging out with her after this? Because like what you said Onii-chan..." she moved closer to him, he also moved closer to her, she was barely taller then him, but he didn't mind, it just made her more attractive in his eyes "I would like it if you hang out with me later...so you can get to know me a bit more...or even a lot more..." he smiled. "i would enjoy that, very much, Miss Cyber"

Seven looked at the interesting outfit that Vanessa had chosen for him....He had seen these outfits before and was very much a curious kitty. He put on each piece clothing from the short skirt to the sort of bra. After he wore it he wanted to see himself yet there was no mirror so he has just to roll with it. "Okay thanks madam now I am off to the next event" Seven bowed to her then did a backflip and some other flips and twist to reach the starting line with a final front flip to reach the starting line like saying lets get this show on the road! He didn't mind wearing the belly dancer outfit, it was quite loose but very movable, a sort of perfect combo for him. One thing though...the short skirt, due to his tail it lightly lifts up the back part of his skirt causing a very small peek of his butt.

Cyber smiled innocently at him... but mischievously in the inside. "Oh that sounds great Onii-chan! how about after this beach thing maybe we can go for a walk or dinner?" He gave another smile and a sweet giggle. "Well then Onii chan, I will be cheering for you, good luck!" with that said he kissed the cheek of Alistair and then skipped off. But Cyber looked back at Alistair just slightly and gave a flirty wink then walked back to Lily. "Okay sorry I am back..." He said dully but inside he was excited for part one of his game of catch to succeed.

"Looks good!" Giving Chris a thumbs-up, Kathy led the way towards one of the changing tents. After asking and checking that the tent was indeed empty, she held it open for Chris to usher 'him' inside. "Just let me know if you need help with any of the clothes. We should really hurry along now though, it seems like almost all the guys are at the starting line now."

Kathy peeked over to the starting line again as she waited for Chris to get changed. Perhaps she had overdone it a little with Crash's costume after all, even though she still found it quite hilarious. 'Good luck.' She thought, not quite feeling up to cheering loudly for such a comedic event.

With Chris fully changed, Kathy led 'him' over to the race's starting line. Giving 'him' a reassuring pat on the back she smiled, "Good luck. Go and have some fun out there." Then she retreated a little away from the course, but at an area where there still seemed to be a good view of the whole event.

Mine! Alistair could see something hidden behind her innocent smile. He wasn't sure what it was so he ignored it. "whatever would make you happiest, Miss Cyber." he looked towards the starting line "the contest should be starting soon, i should get to the line" he felt odd when she said she'd be cheering him on and the peck on his cheek made him go a little red, and then she left, walking over to another girl. He smiled and walked to the line, he noticed that Little Feather and Lion had gone. There were other men at the line, he stood awaiting the start of the contest.

Andromeda liked the sailor outfit idea so she she searched 3 chests till she found one. finally she pulled out a bright pink sailor uniform "Will this work, Ryuu?" she laughed and held it up in front of him, "wow, it might actually fit" she smiled "here, try it on" she handed it to him.

Ryuu blinked.

He wondered if he should smile at how magnificently pink the sailor uniform was. Just when he said that a pink-colored uniform was not in his preferences, Andromeda, the surprisingly pure-hearted girl, suddenly flipped out a hot-pink uniform. The otaku wondered if there was a god that was born to torture him for an eternity.

Still... he needed to wear something. Time was running out. And he definitely did not want to see Maria come back with something more terrifying than what Andromeda picked out. Actually, Ryuu always wanted to try out a sailor uniform.

A sailor uniform that belonged to a man. Not a Sailor Moon uniform.

...There was still that guilty pleasure that allowed him to wear the stupid thing.

Giving Andromeda a somewhat flushed pout, the sunglasses-wearing otaku softly snatched away the uniform, mumbling as his mind began to spin around,

"I'll go... wear this... seifuku. Yeah. This seifuku."

The student vanished into a nearby restroom. It actually took him a lot longer than expected, seeing how there were men staring at him as if he were the sexiest guy in the whole world, but then again, some of them were doing the same thing he was. After taking several good minutes of wearing the uniform, he walked out of the restroom, heading straight to where Andromeda had been.

He felt like good ol' "Sailor Mini." He even had a lightsaber by his hip-

Wait... actually, none of the Sailors ever had a lightsaber, right...?

Needless to say, now that he actually wore it, it felt as if he were wearing some sort of freakish Irish clothes. Except the Irish certainly knew how to dress up better than him. Quickly forgetting that he was cross-dressing, Ryuu stretched his arms to his sides as he exclaimed to Andromeda,

"You know, it scares me how this freaking thing actually fits me!"

Still, he could not help but not get angry at the woman. He could not bring himself to get that angry at women in general... except for his sister, who literally acted like a feminine man.

Mine. Andromeda smiled when he pouted and took it. she waited patiently while he got changed. finally he came out. she held back a laugh, "not bad Ryuu" she smiled, then she straightened it out "not bad at all" she noticed he had a lightsaber at his hip "i think the light saber fits" she looked over at the starting line "you should probably head over there," she looked back with a smile "don't worry, i'll cheer you on again!"

Of course the old man wasn't really appreciative of Carmen's efforts, but she would take what she could get. He seemed to be loosening up ever so slightly. As soon as the exchange was finished, Carmen had her eye on the starting line. "Looks like people are starting to congregate at the starting line...we don't want you to miss your big race! C'mon!" she said to him as she led him back outside and to the starting area. Certainly, the spectacle of someone as old and important as her newest victim would be a sight, but compared to the outfits some of the other victims were wearing, his princess outfit was pretty tame. Carmen's finest handiwork still rested with the lovely bride, Ara.

Ryuu grinned cheekily.

He seemed to wake up shortly after his awkward smile, for he suddenly smashed his face in determination. After assuring that he was in top condition- after all, he was someone who refused to go down even after getting smashed by some demon monster (he took pride in that)- the otaku glared at the starting line, his eyes on fire. He looked as if there was a whole stash of lunch money sitting on the line.

The creepily dangerous smile vanished for a short while. Ryuu simply pumped a fist at what Andromeda's contribution into cheering him with a complex smile. He'd definitely win. Somehow. Or some way. He honestly did not know how he'd win during a race that involved him wearing a pink seifuku that mysteriously matched his body, but he would put his all into at least not look like an absolute loser.

Feeling a little encouraged by Andromeda's presence, the otaku moved over to the starting line. Right at the moment, he looked like a disturbed "Sailor Girl" full of bloodlust. Not that he actually cared about his looks at this point, though. His excited, glowing eyes made him look eviller, if that was even possible.

Brako grumbled as he was pushed along by the girl that had dressed him. He rolled his eyes and took in a deep breath. The things he did for people.

Mercy chuckled as Darwin trotted off to the start line, she turned to Anedine. “Right well I best go and get this started” She smiled at Anedine, saluting at her before she moved off returning to her lifeguard seat. From there she could see most of the unfortunate contestants and their rather interesting attire, a smirk lifted her lip as she lifted her hand to catch Koop’s attention. The small moogle flew to her and landed on the arm of her chair, fiddling with the strap of his messenger bag. “Everything in place?” She asked him, her expression serious for a moment. “Yes, placed perfectly...right to the dotted T, kupo-po” Koop responded keeping his voice monotone and deadly serious even his ‘kupo-po’ was said seriously. Mercy turned slightly to frown at him. “Koop...T’s aren’t dotted” She pointed out to the moogle, rolling her eyes as he adopted a very confused face. She stood up on her chair dropping the previous charade, she quickly scanned the crowd seeing that mostly everyone was there she decided they had all waited long enough. “OK! Times up, lets get this event going while we’re still young” She grinned, trying not to look at Brako. “Aww look at them all lined up there, I have to say some very interesting costumes we’ve got down there...definitely something to be cherished” Mercy spoke loud enough that everyone could hear her, whilst she was speaking however a blinding flash erupted from in front of the starting line, to those who adjusted quickly they saw Koop holding a camera he quickly retreated before he could get zapped. “The rules are the same as the last event” Mercy stated though in her excitement failed to repeat them. “Your objective is simple you need to traverse the obstacle course in front of you, first its under the net then its up the slippery wall, over the rickety bridge and on to the item hunt at the other side. Here’s the tricky part, you must pick up ONE piece of paper from the table, then you have to retrieve whatever it says on it and take it over the finish line with you, you have to make sure you still have the piece of paper with you as well once you finish” Mercy announced. “Now ladies, whilst the guys are running this race we’re going to have a bit of spare time on her hands...so you can either watch and cheer or perhaps” Mercy started with a grin. “You would prefer to be more of a hindrance? There are buckets of paint filled balloon bombs at the slippery slope and foam blasters at the rickety bridge which you are more than welcome to use against our contestants” She finished explaining. “No quitting now guys! “ She told them. “You start in 3...2...1...GO!” Koop pressed the top of a fog horn he had gripped between his paws right behind the guys. And just because he could once the contestants had crossed the start line he pressed play on the music player sat beside him, the tune that blurted out was none other than ‘Shania Twain- Man I feel like a Woman’

Finally, Mercy made the announcement to begin the race, and with it came some information that made Carmen very intrigued. "Paint-filled balloon bombs, huh? I'm all over that," she said as she began to run alongside the course. Claiming a handful of balloon bombs, she prepared to give the guys an unprecedented onslaught of paint...and balloons. Or something. Standing next to the top of the slippery slope, she was at a perfect vantage point to severely hinder their progress...or, with luck and brute force, send them falling back down the slippery slope. "This is going to be fun," she said, her huge sun hat providing a distinctive landmark for the guys to strive towards dread getting closer to.

Ara blinked a bit, momentarily blinded by the camera flash. Then realizing what the light was, he couldn't help but let out a slight groan. Something told him that B would want a copy of that. And hearing the part about the paint filled balloons, he couldn't help but laugh. All that colour was going to show up nicely on the white wedding dress. Unfortunately for Carmen, it was now very obvious that there would be no way to keep the dress preserved in pristine condition.

Taking advantage of the slight confusion people had with the camera flashing, he swung a foot sideways at Crash's shin before sprinting forward. Gathering up the hem of the white dress, he ran to the net and began to crawl under it. "Stupid wedding dress..." Ara grumbled has he tried to continue on under the net using a military crawl. Unfortunately, as he had thought, the dress was snagging everywhere and making it ridiculously difficult to move even just a few inches forward.

Kathy's ears perked up at Mercy's words, realizing she could do more than just sit around and watch the guys race from the sidelines. "Hmm." With a thoughtful sound, she wondered just who she wanted to really pelt down with paint-filled balloons. A smile on her face, she walked over towards the slippery slope to prepare for the guys' arrival.

Crash looked up at Mercy as she began to speak, completely caught unawares by the flash from the camera he blinked a few times to adjust , he grimaced a bit at the idea of being pummeled with paint he still had white specks in front of his eyes as he readied himself to start, he wasn't prepared for Ara's sneaky kick as he attempted to spring forward and it connected with his shin painfully causing him to stumble forward hissing and cursing profanities...for example. "Ah you Donkey Konging, barrel fisher" He grumbled, kicking up sand as he shot after Ara, skidding onto his belly as he threw the net over his head cursing some more as his ears got stuck as he army crawled along having to stop every so often to heave sand out of his sock cleavage before scrabbling further. How do they cope with these things? He wondered, his eyes focused on the ridiculous white skirts not too far ahead of him.

After announcing the start Mercy sprung from her chair practically sprinting towards the paint bombs, picking up one and preparing herself. "It be about time karma paid a visit" She murmured, not to anyone in particular as she waited for the guys to wheedle their way out of the net.

Darwin was too busy fiddling with his iPod to realise the race had started. He knew that the best way to run was with badass amazing music playing. He chuckled as he shoved the headphones into his ears and began running off waving his arms around. Then he remembered that there was rules he had to follow. He began trying to remember the rules, but it was so god damn hard to. He just flailed his arms and ran after Alistair, he looked like he had an idea what to do. Somehow he was pretty agile in his fancy burlesque dress. He dived into the net where he saw Alistair and he chuckled like a madman. He went to grab the boys ankle since there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn't 'hinder' Al. "Hey Al!" He shouted dragging himself forward before one of his shoes got caught in the net. He freed himself and escaped the net and shook off all the sand out of his fabulous purple hair. He set his sights on the big slippery slope and grinned. He jumped and got a good hold on it before slipping and losing a shoe. He reached the top and made a triumphant shout before slipping and falling down the other side.

Alistair was standing there for probably 20 seconds before he realized the loud sound had meant he was supposed to go. so he started walking forward, the others were running so he sped up. But then he found the net and wasn't entirely sure what to do. he saw the others going under so he did being careful not to catch his wings, which were more fragile then you think. unfortunately he still got caught and had to stop and release his wing from it's grasp, at which point the others were ahead of him. his dress was actually really easy to move in. he felt something grab his ankle, he looked back and saw someone who looked oddly familiar and called him 'Al' he pulled his ankle out of his grip, slightly confused and kept going. he barely managed to pull himself out on the other end, relatively unscathed.

QUANTUM COLLAB SECTOR XI: Ocean's Eleven (minus George Clooney)

Summary: "Boogity boogity boogity! Let's go racin', boys!"

Ryuu gulped when the announcement was made. Mercy announced the rules of the game. With that said, he felt worried about the so-called "item hunt." Just what would he have to hunt? There was the possibility that he would suddenly have to pick up a pencil. How the crap would he find a PENCIL here? How would he find SUNGLASSES here? He totally had no idea how to find pencils and sunglasses...

...That did not belong to him, of course. What would he get? Just what on Earth would he get? A demon charging towards his face again? Or maybe...

Anedine.

Ryuu suddenly let his hands crash against the sides of his head, his face making up an extremely complex expression. With that said, he was quite... red. A little. And that was because of his plasma... right?

The otaku ducked. He took a deep breath. He heard the countdown going "3, 2, 1," but during those three seconds, he felt his adrenaline rise. It was as if someone kicked him in the nuts. Actually, he would have preferred it if someone did kick him. With a powerful dash, Ryuu let his skirt flow across the air, revealing his stinking awesome polka dot boxers, before charging toward the net with a slide. He nearly screamed due to how he felt a conveniently well-placed stone hit his nuts.

Now he really did not like the idea of something kicking his nuts anymore.

Still, Ryuu slid, letting his tears scream through the air. His dress was already getting torn by the sheer weight power he was applying in moving. The otaku found the slippery slope, however, to be a serious pain.

Lily watched as the boy left, her smile fading. So much for that... She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and walked on, just watching. Her head perked up when she heard Mercy speak, reminding her of her entire purpose for being here. Deciding to try and wait again, she walked up to another girl who was quite obviously prepared to give an onslaught (Carmen) and stood next to her, a calm expression on her face. At this point, she was perfectly fine with just watching.

"Hi..." Lily spoke softly, a bit shy now. She was unsure of whether she wanted to try and make conversation or just stop trying.

Brako stood there, looking up at the course, his eyes trained on it, his expression blank. He heaved a heavy sigh as the others began to race off. He shook his head slowly, and made his way under the net, sliding along as well as he could. He wasn't really putting in all that much effort so it took a bit. His dress kept getting snagged. In the middle of the net, Brako stopped and stared down at the dress that kept causing him so many problems. He blinked before smiling and bending down toward it. With a firm hand, he pulled at the material and ripped some of the dress off. Content with himself, he continued and made it through the net. He glared up at the 'slippery slope.' before finally beginning his accent up it. Because of his slow pace, most of the girls didn't even notice him and he made it up with.. relative ease. He did fall a few times, bruising his knees.

He'd feel that in the morning.

Seven didn't much bother to listen about rules and things to do. The only thing he really card his to make through everything and find the item on the paper. Seven watched as the other students ran well maybe he wasn't sure he was too busy scratching his cat ears with his foot. He wasn't even looking at the right way he was busy looking at a seagull eating something... weird. He wanted to wait first of the other to go, maybe because he might beat them to quickly or that he thinks. "This is to easy..." He said gleefully as he licked his paw...hand thing. He turned around to see some contestants running off, he still waited until he was last... even lying on the sand and napping for a moment. Seven laughed how the image of some students were already getting hit with balloons filled with paint. He stood up and stretched a bit. The weird old guy in a pink dress hasn't moved yet... "...weird old man" he side commented until he sprang to action, but he didn't run like a normal human... he ran like the wild cat he was. All on fours he ran with great cat speed even though wearing that pink belly dance outfit. He noticed the net thing and smiled happily. "Just like hunting..." He crawled down, moving with great speed. Flexibility was a great cat like ability for him to have.

He passed by a guy in the wedding dress, a bunny suit, (more character who are going through the net) Soon enough he was out of the military net and did a back flip until he was doing a hand stand in front of everyone still at the net. His skirt went down due to gravity so his underwear... well... he wasn't wearing any... he was showing his...gender...Seven made a childish face and smirk. 'Thank you Vanessa for giving me this outfit' He had to thank her later for the very movable outfit. "Keep it up guys, you are slow! Like slugs.. see you in five months!" He taunted them until doling one more backflip then continued with the competition. He even reached the slop thing, he smirk as he fixed his position like a lion preying and then started to climb up very quickly.

" Go Alistair!" Cyber cheered out for Alistair very happily but inside he wished to get this over with and get some free grub. He was already mad due to Lily ended up walking and talking to another lady. He just sighed but gave out another fake smile and continue to cheer for Alistair.

Carmen looked on as the competitors began their long and arduous journey through the obstacle course. She wasn't sure who she would root for...she figured Ara would be a logical choice because she dressed him, but as he got into the net and began ripping up the dress she quickly changed her mind and decided to root for nobody. She frowned as he frayed the bottom of the dress, disappointed that that nice dress was about to go to waste. She couldn't really blame him because it would be pretty much impossible to keep something like that dress in pristine condition in an obstacle course, but...she was Carmen and she was going to blame him anyway. She noticed the old man she had dressed climbing the slope and decided not to pelt him with paint balloons...it just didn't seem right. When the cat person from the student center arrived at the slope way ahead of everyone else, Carmen released three balloons in brutal succession straight at him down the slope...at the very least it would give the rest of the guys a chance against the more nimble cat guy. Plus it was fun.

As she finished throwing the balloons, an unfamiliar girl came up to her. She seemed calm and even shy - but she was gorgeous. Carmen wondered if she'd been here the whole time and the two had just never crossed paths or if she was new. In any case, she looked forward to meeting her...and getting her to open up, of course. She was actually surprised when the girl said a soft "Hi" instead of nothing, and was happy to respond. Turning to the girl (as the rest of the boys were still a while off yet), she responded with a bright smile. "Hello! I don't recognize you...have we met? My name's Carmen!" she offered as she extended her hand to offer a handshake.

Lily blinked at the bright smile and the even brighter greeting. She certainly hadn't expected it. A small smile grew on her lips at the girl, getting her hopes up again but what could the angel do? She had to try, right? She watched the girl's hand as it came out to shake hers. With a gentle hand, she reached out and took Carmen's, smiling warmly. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Lily." She spoke, her voice still soft and warm. "I don't think we've met before. I haven't met many people here yet." She continued, sounding like an awfully shy girl. Which, she really wasn't. She was just a bit put off for that day Normally, she was more open and outgoing, if not sarcastic. But, this day had put her in a bit of a bad mood. She wasn't angry, just... put off.

Grumbling to himself the whole time (obviously not being a very good sport), Ara finally made it through the net obstacle. He had kept having to pull the lower half of his dress up because it snagged against a part of the net or just started to trail behind him from moving forward. In fact, it snagged again at the edge of the net as he got up. Clicking his tongue, Ara grabbed the hem and pulled it to the side to get it free. He sighed, looking at the people in front of him. "Tsk. This is why I wanted something easier to move in Carmen." Then noticing the guy who was revealing quite a bit below the belt, he shook his head in wonder. 'Does that even count as having the whole outfit on?' He thought as he ran up to the slippery slope.

Luckily for him, this was actually not too bad to move through. As long as he kept the dress lifted high up, it seemed that he would be able to climb up without too much trouble but... Ara cast a dubious glance towards the sidelines. Something told him that he as probably not going to get away with an easy ride for much longer.

Darwin sped through the rickety bridge not giving a damn as his dress flapped in the wind. It was actually very refreshing. He finally found a table with some weird numbers on it. He really should've listened to the rules.....ah well. He grabbed a piece of paper with the word 9 on it, wait no, it was a NUMBER! He chuckled again and ran off looking for something blue and adorable.wait no.....he was looking for something ADORABLUE.

It appeared as if he would have to work his way up this wall afterwards, as that's what the others were doing. so he quickly skimmed up, having little to no problem, wings fluttering slightly behind him he stopped at the top, realizing he had actually gained a little distance on the others, not much as he was still behind, but he was certainly closer. he came to the bridge, He heard a voice calling out his name and did a quick bow to miss Cyber before heading out on the bridge, again he didn't have much trouble and was quickly catching up with everyone else, as his wings continued to flutter slightly behind his as he walked, keeping him roughly straight most of the way, he stumbled toward the end but managed to regain his footing and got to the other end to the table. he grabbed a paper marked '10', he flipped it over and read 'a feather' he thought for a second and almost laughed at his thought, he put the paper carefully in a pocket of the pinafore.

Ryuu smashed his face with a massive palm, simply grumbling to himself, "Of course my freaking dress would kick my own a-s."

With that said, he stared at the lower portion of his dress. He suddenly got a beautiful idea.

Reaching out for the dress, he gripped it tightly. But he was not going to discard the dress itself. No, he was going to actually IMPROVISE!!! Right at this moment, Ryuu felt like a freaking genius. He wondered why Obama did not recommend this method of running with a dress to all women in his country. Or people with dresses in general.

Ryuu suddenly tore nearly two-thirds of the lower portion of his dress. He then pinched two parts of the cloth before tying it around his neck. And all of a sudden, viola!

Ryuu earned a pink, frilly cape! With a satisfied grin, the otaku literally stormed up the slope, now satisfied with how his dress was affecting him. His polka dot boxers were not something he was embarrassed about. With that said, he screamed like an insane maniac yearning to kill some unforgivable rival. The sunglasses-wearing... student(?) charged out of the slope, paint plastered on his left torso, eager to complete the race as soon as possible.

Chris took in a deep breath as the count down was called. She smiled and booked it for the net, sliding under with ease, well, that is until she collided with someone. Without stopping to see who it was, Chris steady herself again and booked it for the end of the net. Within about a minute, she was out and on the slope, climbing up. She had cuts and a few bruises now but she ignored them, nothing she hadn't had before.

Crash hadn't taken too long to reach the end of the net, after working out a good routine he had begun to move faster literally popping out the other end a few moments after Ara, he scrabbled to his feet completely bypassing the half naked guy as he pegged it for the slippery slope, gripping a rope he tugged it testingly before leaning back a little and beginning his ascent, not even entertaining the thought of looking to the sidelines he had barely got a third of the way up before a balloon collided with his face splattering him in neon pink paint and knocking him spare, he barely kept a hold of the rope as he fell sideways the paint from the balloons flying here there and everywhere was making the slippery slope even more of a pain to get past, hearing Mercy's hysterical laughter he was positive half of the balloons that hit him where from her. He found the only way he could get up this thing was pulling himself up purely by his arms as his feet struggled to get a foothold. He made it over finally practically flopping over the edge like a fish landing on his feet, he wiped paint from his face now sporting neon pink, green, yellow and orange paint he was practically dripping with the stuff. "I really should learn..." He muttered to himself, jogging across to the rickety bridge.

For an old man, it didn't take Brako long at all to get to the table with the pieces of paper. In all honesty, he knew the girls would pity him and not pelt him with anything. His hands hurt from the rope and his... 'princess' dress was in shambles but he didn't care. He made it up here. Time to get his piece of paper, get his item and... leave this game. With a determined expression, Brako reached in the box and pulled out a piece of paper. Slowly, he unfolded it.

Some say they saw Brako's face that day. Some say he was in shock, others say he simply cried. To this day, we still do not know what paper the VP pulled.

As Brako came down from the other side of the tower, Maria stood at the end to watch him. She raised a brow at his expression and grabbed the paper as he walked by. She blinked for a moment before busting out in laughter.

Paint-filled balloons ready in her arms, Kathy basically threw balloons at anyone that wasn't Chris or the vice-principal. After dragging 'him' over to the race, she felt guilty about hitting Chris with anything and Brako was... Well, as tempting as it was, the good student inside of her just didn't seem to let her aim anything at someone that high up on the school ladder. She was clearly playing some favourites here, but that as her choice right? She did aim one or two balloon at Crash, but soon the majority of it became aimed at a certain brown-haired individual in a wedding dress that was nowhere near its original colour anymore.

The wedding dress just seemed to be soaking up the paint like a sponge. Clicking his tongue, Ara momentarily stopped the ascent up the slippery slope to rip the lower half of his dress and tie the ripped portions a bit higher up near his thighs. It looked a little strange, especially since his swimming trunks were now peeking out from underneath too, but at least he could actually move around better. After spitting out some of the paint that had gotten into his mouth, he gritted his teeth and finished with the second obstacle. Going to the rickety bridge, he began to make his way across as he tried to catch up to the others.

Darwin chuckled maniacally again and practically took off from the ground. He knew what he must do. He ran off in his fancy burlesque dress towards the crowd of girls.

he then walked past the desk out onto the beach. he had to look around before he saw what he was looking for. he slowly walked over to the large creature that had tried to kill him earlier "Hello Lion" he then turned to his friend "Hello Little Feather, do you mind if i ask you a favor? I apologize for just leaving you earlier by the way" he smiled, clasping his hands in front of him.

With a mighty leap, Ryuu landed outside of the slope. He then put his all in running like crazy, his eyes screaming "I'm going to kill you all if you get in my way." With that said, Ryuu literally tripped and rolled on the rickety bridge before finally reaching the tables. With that said, he really did not know what was coming up. After what he went through, a demon did not sound like a bad thing to find. That would give him an excuse to actually have his kind of action-packed fun. With anxiety swirling in his head, the otaku snatched his paper, anticipating something he could take on with his fists...

Seven laughed even more as this competitors were going a head o of him, he gave a small smirk and then he climbed even faster passing by the others. Due to his speed he was gladly enough to not get hit by the paint balloons. He was enjoying this game, he loved seeing people suffer in a way, it made him more interested in a lot of....things... Then he ran fast towards the next obstacle of.. playground for him. He sped through the old like bridge, dodging the foam like matrix style...even passing by a weird guy who looked like a homeless super hero... Running like a cat he finally reached to the tables where he notices papers. He grabbed one and opened it.. his eyes were shocked.... his nightmare was getting to him....

Carmen was sure she had heard the name Lily somewhere before, but couldn't put her finger on it. Dismissing it as deja vu, she returned the warm greeting. "That's ok. There's no rush!", she said, responding to Lily saying she hadn't met many people yet. She was about to continue when she glanced back at the slope and saw it being overrun by crossdressing guys. "Um...excuse me a moment?" she said as she wheeled around, noticing that her first onslaught had grazed competitors she hadn't been aiming for. The Kathy girl had arrived on the scene to assist with balloon throwing, so Carmen had to make a quick decision. Turning back around to Carmen with two more balloons in her hand, she outlined her plan of action to Lily. "Somebody needs to operate the foam cannons over at the bridge before the competitors get there...and they're almost there! Feel free to join me...I'll be right back hopefully!" And with that she didn't just run, but sprinted to the foam cannons. The competitors certainly weren't going slow so she couldn't either. Jumping behind the first one, she trained it towards the competitors at the bridge, first finding Crash in a bunny suit, already soaking with paint. Of course that didn't mean "show mercy", as she unloaded the foam cannon as soon as he reached the bridge. Next came her beloved bride in his ruined wedding dress, who she still insisted on blaming him for. As penance, she unloaded on him as well. To her dismay, two of the competitors had already crossed the bridge. There was nothing she could do after that as it was an item hunt, so she maintained her post, unloading at anyone who had the misfortune of reaching her bridge.

Chris grumbled as people, one by one, passed her on the slippery slope and the ladder rope part. She hated heights, she always would. If it weren't for that, she'd up there with the others. Instead, she pulled up the rear, slowly... painfully, making her way up to the top.

Ryuu froze deathly still. His eyes were locked on his paper, for the otaku had accidentally retrieved a forbidden artifact. The hand carrying the paper trembling a little, the sunglasses-wearing student gulped, only letting out a quiet,

"A GIRL...?!"

The otaku suddenly screamed, clutching his head as if the end of the world was nigh. Ryuu- a student who seriously had problems when it came to dealing with three-dimensional women, a brat who only knew how to study and how to fight stuff, an otaku that enjoyed staring at flying women wrecking havoc upon random protagonists- had been chosen to find a good ol' lady and enter the finish line.

With his scream gone and over with, Ryuu calmed himself down, thinking to himself,

Listen up, Ryuu! You must put faith in yourself! Sure, you can't see Andromeda or Anedine anywhere right at the moment, but there's ALWAYS a chance that a woman would actually be generous enough to follow you!

The sunglasses-wearing otaku reminded himself with the one phrase his father constantly told him,

Keep faith in yourself!

Ryuu immediately began to search for a woman. His eyes pulsing small amounts of plasma, making him look like a homeless super villain now, the otaku began to search for a woman he could rely on. Or someone who could just tolerate with running alongside a dude with two-thirds of his skirt being used as a cape.

Lion turned to Alistair lifting an eye ridge at him, as Little Feather gave the boy a warm smile she was about to ask why he had abandoned the race when he spoke before she could. "Hmm? No I don't mind" She assured him. "Don't worry about it, you had a race to get to" She added with a quick shrug. "What do you need from me?" She asked her cheeks coloring ever so slightly now he was back in her presence.

Crash had barely made it up to the start of the bridge when a jet of foam hit him square in the chest knocking him back onto his butt, he spluttered and batted at it with his hands...which didn't help at all. He scrabbled forward onto his hands and knees just able to resist the bubbling stream and barely pulling himself upright as he waited for the foam jet to redirect to someone else as soon as it did he thought himself in the clear and leapt onto the bridge. Agile, quick as a flash...if only Crash's tactic for this obstacle was to crawl along it on his hands and knees, at a ridiculous speed. Like a turbo fueled baby, he luckily still had his bunny ears on...he had to remember to thank her for the ribbon, she'd been right...He hoped keeping low would keep him out of the line of the canons as he neared the end of the obstacle, he was aware Carmen was the one who had hit him in the first place.

His world dropped...his ears drooped, tail not even wagging... on the piece of paper it says... Ocean water ...."Water..." ...."water..." "WATER??!! FUCK THAT GODDAM SHIT!!" He threw the paper on the floor and started to crush it, like a little bug. "NO FUCK THAT SHIT!! OF ALL THE THINGS OCEAN WATER!!? WHO IN THE HELL WROTE THIS?!" He screamed out as his rage was filling him. It was easy to get a feather or a shell but ocean water... 'Who the hell thought of that!!?' It was an easy task to get but one thing though... water. He hissed loudly and wanted to kill something quick. His fangs were even showing but even though he was showing anger and rage he was still very afraid... He looked at the ocean... all he can see was a trap of endless suffering... but one thing he had to do was to win... once he plays a game or a competition he has to win... no matter what. Seven took a deep breath, picked up the paper and charge for the ocean, of course his eyes closed and fear racing after him. As soon enough he was getting lazy and droop down until reaching the shore. His split cat tail was like a dog between his legs and he was shivering.

" I can't do this..." He droop down on the sand and grumbled like he gave up to easily. He looked at ocean and gave a pathetic mewl of defeat... " I hate you..." But then the ocean decided to help him in his little treasure hunt... A GIGANTIC wave came by and like it was smiling sarcastically crushed the sad little bakeneko where he was at. "...Fuck...my....life..." Were his final words until getting smashed by the huge wave. Seven was super lucky to survive oddly but he was drenched in ocean sea water.

Kathy had been busy aiming at quite a few people with the balloons at the slipper slope, so she was a little late in getting to the cannons near the bridge. Luckily for her, she seemed to have made it in time for the main target she was after anyway. Letting Crash go (figuring he probably had enough of a handicap compared to most people with his usual clumsiness), she aimed the cannon at Ara's legs and waved at him with a smile on her face. She wasn't always all that nice to everyone, and a bit of innocent fun like this seemed like just the right way to get back at someone.

Unfortunately for Ara, someone seemed quite happy to aim the foam cannon at him. "Wagh!" Letting out an odd yell in surprise as the foam suddenly clipped him right in the face, he stumbled around for a bit before he pushed the foam away from his eyes and looked around. Carmen. Figures. Dress him up in the worst outfit for the competition, then aim the cannon at him. He yelled over to the sidelines, "I have good memory! I'm going to take revenge on you hat-loving Carmen!!" After giving her a cheeky wave, he continued on along the bridge... Only to be hit by another jet of foam, this one aimed almost strategically at his legs. Tripping down to his knee, he quickly snapped himself out of it and got back up. He looked again at the side lines to see a girl with rusty red hair waving at him with a friendly smile. He rolled his eyes. Yeah, he probably should've seen that one coming too.

Alistair smiled "i need to find as feather" he pulled out the paper to show her, with a grin he asked "would you mind if i used you?" he wasn't aware that that could be taken horribly wrong either.

!KATHEH!" he shouted as he approached her. Darin had only met her once.....and that was during the battle. "I need you for the hunt!" He laughed and jumped up and down. "Come with? I promise to not hurt you...." He chuckled and held out his hand. "I need to turn you blue....like a smurf or something even cuter!"

One of Ryuu's ears grew larger, as Ara, someone he really wanted to punch in the face for not cooperating properly, shouted, "I have good memory! I'm going to take revenge on you, hat-loving Carmen!!"

The otaku immediately thought to himself,

IT MUST BE A GIRL?!!?!?!!!!?!?!?! ZOMG, THIS MIGHT BE EASY-

...

...

...Waaaaaait a second. If I recall correctly, she's that one girl with the trumpet, right? That... trump-girl. Yeah. Still, uh... I don't really know her that much, but I don't really have much of a choice right now, either.

Ryuu suddenly jerked his head toward Carmen, his eyes flashing like a freaky monster from Cloverfield- or whatever that thing was called, anyway. The student wearing sunglasses charged toward her, ignoring everything that attempted to distract him for some mean reason. It took him a while to run, but nevertheless, he finally stopped in front of the woman. Thankfully enough, his eyes stopped shining like crazy, though he was panting heavily. Reaching out for the girl, the otaku seethed,

"FORGIVE ME, RANDOM CITIZEN!!!"

With that said, Ryuu grabbed Carmen, roughly putting her in a bridal carry, before beginning to make his way back. The otaku had his paper underneath one of his hands, which did not fall off thanks to Carmen's body.

" Why..." Seven moaned and shivered as he was drenched in cold ocean water from the gigantic wave that hit him. He tried to shake it off, licking even his skin like a cat trying to dry himself. "I have to be dry..." He grumbled out as he tried to dry him self off. But he realized something... ocean water... he has ocean water now well... with him now... He smirked even though he hated what happen to him... " I better get something good out of this..." He grumbled out as he ran back to where the tables were at, still twitching and shivering from the cold water. He was sneezing, hissing and complaining how he hated water but he was so close to winning and maybe after that he can dry himself at the sun. Seven finally reached the table but of course being a sour little kitty cat. " There ocean water!" He shouted as slammed a piece of soggy white paper on the table and he instantly tried to dry himself with his tongue.

Little Feather tilted her head to the side, looking at the piece of paper he showed her. She lifted a hand to her hair reaching for the feather braided into her hair, unsure of how she was supposed to give it to him. Lion's ears pricked up at Alistair's words apparently hearing something entirely different he grumbled loudly though this time not forming any words. "Oh..erm of course, where would you like me?" She asked patting Lion's head and moving over to Alistair so he could take her with him.

Crash stumbled towards the item table grabbing a piece of paper, and peering at it, his expression was barely visible through the gloop on his face. Foam was spewing forth from his sock cleavage and clinging to his hair and side as well. Heels?! Are you kidding me? He spun on the spot looking around wracking his brain for an answer, who would wear heels on a beach...Liightbulb! He pushed off into a run bee-lining for the nearest chest and rummaging through it like a possessed lunatic clothes and accessories flying everywhere until he reappeared with one black stiletto and a completely different pink heeled shoe, not giving a rats ass he leaned on the edge of the chest jamming his feet into them, he went to step forward end up doing a chicken impression as he wobbled dangerously arms flailing he tried to take a step forward though this action provoked a 'bambi on ice' response as his ankles twisted in ways they were not supposed to. "How do they do this?!" He complained, falling forward onto his hands, though this gave him an idea. Holding the paper in his mouth and with a grunt of exertion he flicked his legs up into the air above him so he was doing a handstand, the next step was walking on his hands which was stupidly difficult on the soft ground, he was lucky he only had a short way to go, he walked his way across the line at record speed, falling onto the ground in a crumpled heap the other side he exhaled now covered in sand as well as paint, he held his piece of paper in one hand as he attempted to wipe himself down but only really succeeded in smearing all the colors together.

Finally free of obstructing foam being fired at him, Ara just ran across the rickety bridge and to the item tables. By now the only 'white' left on him was some of the foam still clinging to the side of his face and legs. He wedding dress he wore was dyed in an array of colours and didn't really resemble the formal attire it had original started out as anymore. Grabbing a piece of paper, he raised his brow slightly. 'Guess it is something fairly easy to find at a beach.' He thought. Now an interesting option would've been to grab one of the girls waiting at the sidelines because most of them were in swimwear, but there was an easier option.

Running to the chests from before, he rummaged around for some. He noticed that Crash was also doing the same, which made him curious to know just what the red-haired guy saw on the piece of paper. But getting back to his own task at hand, he found a pair of pink bikinis in the chest. '... Thank goodness Carmen didn't decide to give me this one.' Breathing out a sigh of relief, he grabbed onto the swimwear in the same hand he held the crumpled piece of paper and began running for the finish line.

Carmen was having a grand old time blasting the poor competitors with foam, and all was well. What she did not expect in the slightest was for one of the competitors - one that she had never met - to come running towards her, but as she glanced to her right that's what she saw - the burly tall guy from the dodgeball match running at her with a fetching pink ensemble partially covered in paint. She completely turned to face him in surprise as he ran, and had half a mind to turn the entire cannon towards him as well, but was more curious than anything. As he got closer, and stopped in front of her, Carmen did nothing except raise one eyebrow as usual. When the man made an outburst that sort of...but only somewhat...explained his intentions, Carmen knew that something more was afoot, and soon found herself in the hands of the guy, like a groom holding a bride, and heading down towards the end of the course. In a weird juxtaposition of moods, she didn't even raise her voice in reaction. She let herself fall completely limp in full damsel-in-distress fashion and looked up at the man's face, asking simply and with a hint of playfulness: "I take it this is part of the competition then? Are you pleased with your prize?" With a slight smile she let her head go limp again.

ALL OF THE COLLAB-ING BULKHEAD 12: The Dirty Dozen

Summary: *spoiler* an Athalia student wins. Also, a friendly message from our sponsor, Apophis.

Alistair smiled when she agreed "thanks" he gently took her hand "follow me, i think the finish line is over here" he starting walking, not entirely sure if she was actually going to follow or not. he was pretty sure he was going the right way, there was one of the other contestants washing paint off, he walked up to the lady who seemed to be in charge he held up the paper and gestured to Little Feather "a feather, is that it?"

Ryuu began to make a run for the finish line, gritting his teeth as he did so. He then glanced at Carmen when she surprisingly asked him with a playful manner about whether he was pleased with picking her up. The otaku simply grumbled, averting his gaze away from the particularly playful lady,

"Er... I guess so. I'm surprised you're not trying to slap me like most women did."

The sunglasses-wearing student looked up at the finish line, only to feel disappointed with how there were people ALREADY at the freaking-

"ARE YOU SERIOU- oh my God," Ryuu rolled his eyes in disbelief, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Not only did he get one of the fastest headstarts among the students AND miraculously lose, but they were men that obviously looked more decent than he did. Still, he attempted to kick his feet up toward them.

"Hold on!" Ryuu shouted to Carmen, clutching her a little tighter to prevent himself from somehow dropping her. He then sprinted as fast as he could. The otaku genuinely hoped that SOMETHING would determine him to rank at least at second place, but then again, luck never ever took his side. Putting as much effort into his run, Ryuu finally entered the finish line.

The otaku panted a little. While his energy had not run out, he never really was the best at running. With that said, he gently put Carmen on her feet, quickly putting his paper down on one of the tables. He then cheekily apologized to Carmen with a disappointed mumble,

"Sorry 'bout... you know, kinda snatching you away from your fun like that."

Ryuu shook his head. He wondered what place he was exactly in, but right at the moment, he felt quite dizzy. After all, his nuts just got hit by a rock a minute ago. He wondered what Carmen had to say, for she sort of did have the right to complain.

With all the guys having moved on to the item hunt, Kathy decided to just stand back and watch the rest of the race, thinking there was nothing more she could do to get involved. “Hm?” Hearing her name being called out, she turned to see Darwin in a burlesque dress. She couldn’t help but laugh. This race was really turning out more like a costume race than simply cross-dressing. She was about to agree to help when… ‘Huh? Blue? Like a smurf?’ She blinked, wondering if she had heard him wrong. “Um… What do you mean by ‘turning me blue’..? You mean literally?” Feeling a little apprehensive at the idea, she held her hand out but didn’t quite grasp his offered hand yet. He had promised it wouldn’t hurt, but nothing else yet. “Er, it’s perfectly safe right? You’re not going to do something that will affect me permanently in any way..?”

Darwin tilted his head and smiled. Oh how people acted around him, he'd have to convince her.....some other way. He laughed like a mad man and began turning her blue. "Don't worry I can just turn you back to normal afterwards.......well it might be a while till your hair changes back though....so..." He began to grin as her skin became blue along with her hair and her clothes. He loved doing this sort of thing...not only did it freak people out but it was good practice.....but it also turned his own hair blue as well. That was the only downside. He stepped back to see the adorable blue girl. "Now come on, I WILL NOT LOSE!" he grabbed her hand and dragged her after him to the finishing line. He arrived and jumped on the finish line. "WE MADE IT!" He laughed and ran over to Ryuu."Oh hey Ryuu!" He said as he changed back and his burlesque outfit somehow stayed in one piece.

"!!!" As Darwin had promised, the actual transformation did not hurt but it she couldn't help but feel worried as she saw her skin turning blue. 'On one hand I'm curious, but on the other I'm not sure if I want to see...' Kathy thought, wondering if it was a good or bad thing she didn't have a mirror on herself at the moment. There was also the slight worry about the fact her hair would remain this shade of colour for a while, but at the moment she was just praying that her skin would return to her normal colour soon. She was pretty sure all the blood had drained from her face from the fright. Under normal circumstances her complexion would've been as white as a sheet now, but she had no idea how that looked with her unnatural shade of skin.

Kathy ran quickly to keep up with Darwin, not wanting to be the one to slow him down after she promised to help out.

Carmen could tell the guy that was carrying her was also extremely competitive - he was acting like he had to make a buzzer-beater or a game-winning touchdown run or something. Her head was certainly very close to the ground as he sprinted, and she certainly very noticed. But, thankfully, the two reached the finished line without Carmen being killed, maimed, or even slightly injured. In an about-face from what just happened, the guy put Carmen on her feet gently, as if trying to make up for the cataclysmic dash that had just occurred. Carmen could tell that he was both disappointed at his apparent result and at least a little disappointed at what he had just done to her, a point made clear with his sheepish apology. She chuckled at him. "Oh, it's quite alright. It was a welcome change from decimating the guys on the bridge...not that that wasn't fun," she replied. "But, thank you for not killing me," she finished with an out-of-place dramatized polite curtsy. "Then I would have been a little upset."

Ryuu gulped, though it was only because he felt tired. With that said, he was glad to hear that Carmen did not feel that offended with him being some sort of princess-snatcher, or whatever the heck could describe what he did. The sunglasses-wearing student responded to Carmen's "polite curtsy" with a confused look.

Alas, he was an idiot. He actually began to wonder on whether she had some sort of revival spell whenever she died, seeing how she talked of death so simply. He then began to wonder if he was just being plain retarded.

The otaku chose the latter, for he realized that he was overestimating his own thinking ability.

"Er, yeah," Ryuu nodded with a nervous, yet tired look. "It would've been problematic if that actually happened..."

He then turned from her momentarily, sighing again. While he did have way more stamina lying within him, the disappointment was sort of killing him. He needed something to punch on. Or slice apart. Something that did not involve having people as his targets. Something that he could pent his frustration upon. After all, he pretty much had a girl (Andromeda) cheer for him for two games, both of which he surely lost in. From what his sister told him, it was best to apologize to people that supported him in whatever he failed at. It was a good practice, though Ryuu was seriously not used to it. Nevertheless, he would try it out if he sees Andromeda.

Still, he felt a little curious about the woman he just picked up. Not only did she not respond with some sort of outburst, but she also did not seem to mind how he literally tossed her around due to his rough running abilities. And not to mention, but he did not expect someone who used a trumpet to simply dismiss something vulgar that happened to them. Maybe he needed to stop using the "stereotypical views" his father accidentally taught him when he was drunk.

"So, uh," the otaku said, diverting his attention from his disappointment, "you're... Carmen, from what I've heard during the race? I saw you use a trumpet several times, though I never actually got to talk to you."

Ryuu would be lying if he cheesily added "I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN, GURL."

The shade guy continued to stumble through conversation, clearly tired from the race. However, he was making conversation with Carmen, and it was somebody she hadn't met yet, so she had no objections. She smiled as he asked about her. "Yes, I'm Carmen. You probably figured that out from that Ara guy yelling at me, huh?" she chuckled. "Not easy to miss. ...anyway yes, I do have a trumpet that I use. It enables my abilities in my human form, you see...although my other form isn't exactly useful at the moment," she said with a slightly dejected tone. "Without my trumpet with me I'm just an ordinary girl really into fashion. And fun," she said, looking a little disappointed at herself for her very lackluster description of her trumpet-less self. She pondered for a moment, and decided to return the favor. "What about you? I've seen you around usually doing something ridiculous but I know nothing about you. What's your name? What's your story?" She was entering into Eternal Questions mode and she knew it, but she figured she would be cut short any moment by the megaphone lady announcing the race results, so she didn't really care.

Ryuu felt a little taken aback by the sudden amount of questions Carmen sent to his direction. He then put up a thoughtful look, quickly forgetting that he had just finished a race right at the moment. After devising a good outline for a short introduction he could use, the otaku gave himself an extremely quick fist-pump. He turned to Carmen again with a bit of his confidence returned.

"So... I'm Ryuu. Just an anime-loving punk, if you put me in a nutshell. I can control plasma and sorta morph it up to make weird stuff... such as flashlights and chef knives. Local city spoilsport fits my background, I guess."

The sunglasses-wearing student blinked, giving Carmen a curious look. Then, a relieved sigh came out of him. Putting some honesty into his next words, Ryuu told Carmen,

"Honestly, ordinary sounds extraordinary in this academy, from what I could tell so far. At least you're talented with something music-related. I only know how to scream 'Barotone' at scary-looking punks..."

Ryuu seemed to grumble out the last part, though he was visibly fascinated by the fact that he just met someone capable of using a trumpet that granted them magical powers. He always enjoyed music, though he never got the chance to actually lay his hands on a single musical instrument after he somehow made his father's car explode just by playing the drums. The otaku did not feel like asking Carmen about her 'other form' simply to not intrude into her privacy.

"You really play that trumpet well, though," Ryuu admitted. "Where'd you learn how to play it?"

Little Feather was rather surprised when Alistair gripped her hand, she felt the blood rush to her face before she could stop it. She followed Alistair as he led her towards the finish line, she thought better of starting up a conversation as they walked to the line after all he was technically still in this race. She lifted her other hand and waved at Mercy as Alistair made his way towards her, she opened her mouth to speak when the winged boy beat her too it she fell silent again waiting for the silver haired woman's reaction.

Mercy had been throwing paint bombs ruthlessly at the contestants aware she probably should have been at the finish line, responsibly waiting for them to finish...but responsibility was the last thing on her mind, she wanted to be a little reckless. She laughed heartily as she managed to catch Crash with a neon pink balloon to his face, pulling back her arm she was about to aim a balloon at another brown haired student (Ara) when she realised what he was wearing, the balloon slipped from her fingers falling onto the sand with a small bounce. She put a hand to her head exhaling when she realized it hadn't exploded everywhere, she didn't particularly fancy being covered in paint...surprisingly. Distraction aside she moved along the assault course grinning as Carmen and Kathy created havoc at the rickety bridge unbeknownst to all of them Koop had been flying around snapping pictures left right and center, catching memorable shots. She made sure she was at the finish first, watching Brako as he looked at the piece of paper listing his item she couldn't help but wonder what he'd got his facial expressions were confusing, she tilted her head to the side as Maria pulled the paper from his hand and read it before bursting into laughter. Although her curiosity was peaked further, she had to turn her attention back to the other contestants who were flooding towards the finish line.

---

(Hell - Apophis' Chamber)

There were times when Apophis did not feel well, but today was not one of those times. Lucifer had granted him some free-time, mainly to give him a short moment to cool down. But in all of Apophis' honesty, he never really was mad at anything during his visit on Earth. He simply wanted to give off the impression that he was a foolish, weak demon that could easily get aggravated, though he never suspected that Thane would actually shove a spear through his face. Or neck. Or both at once. It seemed that many people truly believed that he was the foolish, weak demon that he wanted to look like.

Things were going his way. Even now, his plans were progressing smoothly. But there were bound to be mistakes, yet Apophis had prepared plans if he actually made such mistakes. He was a mastermind. A genius. A truly novel piece of intelligence. He was someone who served Lucifer loyally.

For now, that is.

Deep within Apophis' chamber, a shrill cry echoed violently. But as soon as the voice of agony raised its voice, it immediately grew silent. Apophis, the Eater of Souls, put his freshest victim next to the grindstone he just used. He placed the head on top of the inactive, gore-covered stone in a satirically humorous fashion.

He let out a quick "Tsk," wiping off a tear of blood that streaked down one of the victim's eyes.

"A tear of loss," he said, wiping off one tear before wiping yet another with a gentle smile. "A tear of joy."

There were still victims that still had their souls intact, though he simply shoved them all in a single, tight closet. He liked hearing the vibrations of shrill screams reflecting off of brass furniture. It was simply how he worked. Picking up the scattered flesh around him, Apophis immediately headed deeper into his chamber. It was slightly darker in the depths, but it was enough for him to see things. Red water splashed as his feet create paths between them.

"One day, I'd like to path the seas like Moses did," Apophis said to himself with deep thought. "Seas of blood, that is."

The man proceeded to work on... something... for an entire hour. During this time, he did not speak a word, carefully crafting something. Something he could use to test Athalia Academy's courage, mentality, and power. Foot soldiers were out of the question due to how they needed more training. Apophis began grinning by the time he finished crafting a brand-new creation.

"How beautiful," he whispered, his dead eyes sparkling with childish joy.

After he was finished working on the creation for the moment, Apophis returned to the entrance of the chamber again, blood splattered over his entire face. They were his blood, but at last, they had been used to serve for a greater purpose. Apophis honestly did not require blood; they just gave his opponents hope whenever they managed to hit him. His wounds had healed as if nothing happened in the past few months.

Just when he opened his closet filled with people, the chamber's doors were smashed open. Apophis turned to face a familiar, angry face with a ridiculously wide smile.

"Apophis," Thane growled.

"THANE! HE HA HE HA HA!" Apophis screamed with joy, his mouth slightly tearing itself apart again. "Oh, it's really nice to have you around. Want some coffee?"

The Eater of Souls carelessly placed the man on a flat, bloody table, still staring at Thane with an exuberant expression as he picked up a chainsaw. Placing the saw dangerously close next to the man's face, Apophis carelessly gave Thane a salute, sarcastically complimenting the ninja,

"You're good at hitting people with that spear of your's, my man."

Thane's eyes were still furious, though he visibly attempted to calm himself down. It had been several hours since he left one of the interdimensional-warp gates, and he already heard that Apophis had done something drastic. It turned out that Apophis did something else just as drastic as what he did while Thane was missing from Hell.

"Apophis," the ninja growled, "where did you get all of those people? Why didn't you inform the Lord that you were capturing them, anyway?"

The Eater of Souls laughed once, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He then looked at the man he just took out of the closet, who stared at him with a horrified look. A rag had been tied over his mouth to prevent him from speaking audible words. Turning back to Thane, Apophis shrugged.

"I originally went you guys to get some supplies," the flesh-wearing deity said, pointing at the terrified soul.

He then grinned violently, his eyes glowing a little, as he continued,

"So I paid some people... a visit. A fair amount of people, actually. Enough to make me a little satisfied for about... ten minutes."

Thane's face scrunched up, which made Apophis giggle at him.

"Then tell me," the ninja whispered dangerously, "how were you able to meet the Madministrator AND take back the fallen angel? And knowing you, something's wrong with her life being spared."

The Eater of Souls shrugged, suddenly turning on his chainsaw. Before the victim was able to even scream, Apophis cut him up into twelve pieces in a millisecond. Putting aside the bloody cutting tool, Apophis ate yet another soul. He did not need to exactly eat any of the victim's limbs: all he needed to do was to sense the soul and absorb it.

With one task completed, Apophis stood up and took a small, exotic cup from a cupboard, quickly returning to the table. He then used one of the limbs to create a "cup of coffee."

"Here!" Apophis said with a gentle smile. "This cup is yours, my good friend."

"Answer my question, Apophis," Thane said, though this time, he did not act harshly. "I need to know just how you thwarted someone as strong as that man and complete a mission I was supposed to finish."

The one who wore his brother's flesh raised an eyebrow. He slightly shook the cup, motioning for Thane to grab it, though the ninja did not seem interested in drinking blood as if it were a beverage. Apophis shrugged, drinking out of the cup instead, before he told the warrior,

"You see, all you need to know is that I can... trick a lot of people. And I specialize in being tricky. I tricked the Madmin, and I completed that stupid mission. End of story."

Apophis downed all that was left inside the cup, tossing it aside once he was finished with it.

"Thane, tonight, I am going to use my free time productively. I want to have some fun, just for a while. You don't need to mind me all the stinking time, do you?"

The warrior of Hell made a thoughtful look. As much as he hated the flesh-wearing deity, following him around might make him lose his reputation. And he simply did not want to see Apophis in his sight for now. Lucifer had him under control, so even if the deity went out to meet the students again, he would probably not dare to try and kill them. Thane stood up, simply asking Apophis, "Where's the captured target now?"

"Uh," the Eater of Souls thought to himself before answering, "she's probably at the prison at this point. I dunno."

Thane nodded before walking away. Soon enough, he had left Apophis' chamber.

Apophis grinned.

He then made an absolutely mad smile as he quietly questioned Thane, who had left the chamber,

"Do you really think I don't know, my friend?"

---

Just as she turned to move over to Seven another young man whom she didn't recognize (Alistair) approached her her eyebrow twitched up as she noticed he was firstly dressed as a maid which made her lip twitch in mirth and secondly he had Little Feather in tow, she smiled at the pair of them. A surprised look crossing her expression as he held out a piece of paper and asked her a question, she looked at the paper before shifting her golden gaze to Little Feather. "That! Is genius" She giggled looking between the pair with a grin on her face "I hadn't been expecting that, well played" She admitted turning her attention to the winged boy (Alistair) checking his costume over she gave him a thumbs up. "Costume intact so you've passed, hang around a while longer we'll announce the winner and such" She grinned at them before walking over to another contestant.

Moving over to Seven first she danced around the sopping wet bakeneko holding a hand to her mouth to suppress her laughter as she glanced at his piece of paper, nodding her approval. "Ocean water check, nicely done" She grinned at the bakeneko. "And you're still in costume! So you pass, hold tight whilst I check the others and then we'll announce the winner" She told Seven, hoping he heard her over his frenzied cleaning.

After that interesting exchange Mercy hopped her way over to her favourite unicorn, unfortunately not recognizing it was Kathy stood next to him straight away though her eyes were drawn to the smurf colored person. "Wow...I think I can already guess what you got" She grinned at the now blue haired boy, glancing back at the blue person beside him she finally clocked who it was. "Looking good Kathy" She playfully commented to the embarrassed girl. "Don't be embarrassed honey, you have seen what the guys are wearing right?" She placed her hand on Kathy's unoccupied shoulder smiling at her even if she didn't see. Of course at that moment she noticed the rather adorable blue haired chibi on her other shoulder, her response was very tame as she smiled at the boy. "Hey, you're rather cute aren't you?" She murmured to him with a warm smile before she looked back at Darwin. "He is adorable and has blue hair so I'll take it" She grinned at the unicorn. "So are you of course Kathy...but if Darwin was submitting you as his item that would mean he was breaking the rule of not using his powers" She commented to the pair, a small twinkle in her eye. "Hang around I'll announce winners soon" She grinned at them as she moved away from the trio heading towards the sun glass wearing Otaku and the extremely fashionable Carmen who still had a hold of her larger-than-life hat by the looks of it

She was more cautious when approaching the pair, seeing as they were clearly deep in conversation she felt a little intrusive as she walked towards them but she had to check out Ryuu's item..."Hey you two!" She cut in, offering a small wave of her hand as well as a smile. "Excuse me for interrupting but I just need to check out your item" She spoke to Ryuu indicating the paper in his hand as she reached for it. Her golden eyes quickly took in the printed words as she pinched the edge of the paper stretching it just enough that she could read it without taking it from Ryuu. "Fabulous" She smiled at the pair. "Although I'm a little confused as to why your costume looks this way...I can see its a complete costume therefore you have also passed" She admitted to Ryuu. "The results shall be announced in just a moment don't disappear just yet" She explained, taking a step back. "I'll let you get back to what you were doing" She grinned at the pair as she moved over to the paint riddled shapeshifter.

With that it was onto the next contestant...the brown haired student in the rather colorful wedding dress (Ara), Mercy felt her chest tighten but she bounded over to him with enthusiasm once he had crossed the finishing line. "Hey!" She greeted him brightly. "I'm Mercy" She introduced herself with smile. "Lets see what you've got there hmm?" She grinned at him, tugging the crumpled paper from his hand before he could object she smoothed it out between her fingers quickly reading it before she moved closer for a brief moment inspecting the swimsuit. "That's great and you're still in your costume so you passed, if you want to hang around a few more moments I'll announce the winner and such" She grinned at him, offering him back his piece of paper before she moved away from him.

Last but not least Mercy walked over to Crash who was still sat in the sand, with his arm in the air, she snatched the paper from his fingers making him flinch as she came to stand next to him, reading the paper and looking down at him to see he was still wearing the high heels. "You couldn't find a matching pair?" She grinned down at the red haired shapeshifter. "They are a pair!" He grinned at her, chuckling as she whapped him upside the head with her hand. "Sure, you still a bunny under all that paint?" She asked him. Crash reached down and pulled the devil made shoes from his feet exhaling in relief as he did, once they were off he discarded them in the sand and got to his feet lifting a hand to his head to straighten his ears. "Unfortunately I am" Crash sighed at her grumbling something under his breath as she burst out laughing at his paint splattered appearance. "Oh your face!" She grinned at him, reaching up to ruffle his hair between his ears. "On the plus side you passed, so hang around I'll announce the winners in a moment" She told him with an affectionate smile before moving away from him, the shapeshifter waited all of two seconds before he walked over to the blue colored Kathy, tilting his head to the side and raising an eyebrow at her appearance. "What's with the smurf look?" He asked her with a cheeky grin nodding at Darwin.

“Ara, nice meet you.” With a nod of his head, Ara returned Mercy’s greeting. Then looking at her as she offered the paper back he asked, “Do I still need that though?” Regardless of the actual answer she gave him, he accepted it back and decided to wait patiently for the announcement to be made. More importantly (since he knew he wasn’t in first place anyway), for the okay to go back and get the dress off of him. He looked around to see that Carmen was hanging out with someone he recognized but didn’t really know. Going up to join them, he held up a hand in greeting and called out, “Hey.”

They probably didn’t have a very good impression of each other at this point, but since Carmen looked like she was having fun Ara decided to at least go through with a proper introduction to the guy (Ryuu). “Hey, Ara. I recognize you from the water balloon game, but don’t really know your name. Mind telling me what it is?”

Ryuu turned to face a familiar face. A face he sort of wanted to punch, but... it would be bad if this guy somehow got him suspended or something. And giving him a slightly brighter chance for a decent conversation seemed better than having to fight everyone. Giving Ara a curious look, the otaku raised an eyebrow as he held a hand back in greeting.

"Uh... 'sup?" Ryuu said, wondering if he could end some tension as soon as possible. "Name's Ryuu. Sorry about... you know, trying to go all ham on you and stuff at that balloon fight. I didn't really know what was going on, honestly."

Carmen was about to respond to the guy she now knew as Ryuu's compliment and question about her ability when Ara showed up...in a completely ruined wedding dress. As he began to talk to Ryuu, she went through it in her head. Let's see. He had to military crawl underneath his net. Not really his fault. He had to climb up a slippery slope where he may have gotten hit by paint balloon bombs. Not really his fault either. Then he had to cross a rickety bridge where I sort of obliterated him with a foam cannon. Definitely not his fault. He had a 0% chance of getting that dress through unscathed or even decent condition. But am I still going to blame it on him? Absolutely. With her inner thoughts sorted, she waited for a break in the interaction between the two men and interjected simply and curtly, "Nice dress," with a completely deadpan expression that said "I am not amused". Of course it was somewhat in jest, but she didn't want him to know that just yet.

Kathy peeked out between her fingers to look at Mercy when she approached them. “Yes but… This is a little different.” She mumbled as Mercy placed a hand on her shoulder and attempted to console her. Actually, despite the fact she was covering her face, she didn’t feel too embarrassed yet. She was actually dreading something that hadn’t quite happened yet and was covering her face for that reason alone…

Listening to Mercy talk to Darwin, Kathy wondered, ‘Just why was I turned blue again..?’ She lowered her hands and gave the unicorn a sheepish smile. “Ha-ha, I guess I couldn’t be too much help this time. Sorry about that.” Then looking at Alex she commented, "Though you were able to save the day." Then noticing that Crash was approaching them, she visibly stiffened up a bit. Kathy didn’t really want to be seen by him as she was right now, even if he just seemed to find it amusing. Turning to Darwin she gently poked him on the arm and asked, “Can you please just change me back now?” Complete with a slight puppy-eyed look, she seemed quite ready to get back to normal.

SERIOUSLY, THIS ENTIRE RP IS NOW TAKING PLACE ON AN ETHERPAD Floor 13: Salvation Army Edition

Summary: Some people talked, others bantered, and still others turned into a puppy (ok, just one).

Seven didn't care in what the woman with white hair said he needed to be dry. "Dry..I need to be dry!" He dussed out he continue to lick his skin with his tongue like any cat would. He bent to different position as continuously to lick his skin from the salty sea water. Seven didn't care how weird or odd he looked doing that he just wanted to be dry.

Cyber continued to cheer on for Alistair until the treasure thingy ended, he gave a sigh of relief as everything was already over and he was starving. He walked over to Alistair for doing a good job even though it was not said who won yet. He found it funny that Alistair brought a girl with him for the treasure thing. 'Did he need a girl or something?' He snickered lightly as he was at the finishing line. "That was very cool performance you did out there Onii chan!" He smiled at him happily and giggled bubbly. Cyber latched onto Alistair arm and battered his eyelashes. "I hope you win too!" He smiled again but more kind and warm than his usual fake happy smile. He noticed the girl he brought and gave her a mischievous smile. "Well that was a nice race to watch! Lets celebrate!!" He then kissed Alistair on the cheek.

“Aah, that.” In all honesty, it had annoyed Ara quite a bit during the event and suddenly being pelted with a balloon at the end with the force of a home run in baseball had been quite unpleasant. But it was a little hard to feel hostile or mad at someone that was apologizing about it. Besides, he had already gotten Ryuu back for the last attack. “It was just water balloons, so no real harm done. As for what really happened… That Crash guy is probably the only one that really has the full story. I was just retaliating for the sudden attack from behind.” Ara was half nodding to himself as he spoke. Well, he did have a pretty good idea of where and why that initial attack came in the first place but there was no need to go over such long and tedious details.

Ara then noticed Carmen’s expression as she turned her attention over to him. “Hey, to be fair I completely warned you about this.” He laughed, shrugging his shoulders in a joking manner. In reality, he was actually a bit scared now. Every sensible man knew that there was nothing truly scarier than a woman’s irrational anger. He was just barely managing to keep a joking air about him. “Besides~! You played a pretty big part in ruining the dress yourself didn’t you?”

Darwin's smiley amazing face suddenly froze. "T-there were rules?" He said like someone had just punched him in the stomach. He sighed and put his hand on Kathy's shoulder slowly turning her back to normal. "THANK YOU MISTER CHIBI!" He screamed and went to hug him but then remembered he was too small for hugs. He chuckled and hugged Mercy instead. "THANK YOU MERCY"

Alex blinked, confused by it all. Why had that boy turned Momma blue? Why did he thank him? Alex looked up at Kathy to see that her hair was still blue. He turned back and looked at Darwin again, his eyes narrowed. "Turn it back!" He said with a serious expression on his face, his voice still small and child-like.

Chris got her paper with relative ease and held the paper in her hand. She looked around, trying to find her target. She didn't really... see anyone she knew was an idiot. Who was she supposed to grab? She didn't really even know anyone here. Then a small chuckle escaped her lips and she walked up to the finish line.

"Can I be my own idiot?" She asked, holding up the piece of paper? "I feel like an idiot for joining this." She continued, chuckling.

Alistair smiled at the woman "thank you" he walked out of the way and looked at Little Feather, the mischievous glint still in his eye "thank you for Helping Little Feather, i appreciate it,". Alistair straightened his pinafore with a wink "guess i should get out of this".then something occurred to him, he looked behind her "where's your guardian?", referring to lion. He hadn't been paying close enough attention to remember whether the creature had followed them or not.
Then Miss Cyber walked up "That was very cool performance you did out there Onii chan!" Alistair gave her a thankful nod, and she latched onto his arm and said "I hope you win too!" he patted her hand, then blinked "wait, was 'winning' the point?" then he looked back over at Little Feather "Little Feather, this is Miss Cyber, Miss Cyber this is Little feather"
Miss Cyber said "Well that was a nice race to watch! Lets celebrate!!" and kissed his cheek .
He smiled and said to Little Feather "i'll see you later, Little Feather, thank you again" and started to walk away with Ms. Cyber.

Carmen wanted to laugh at Ara's attempts at excuses and shifting the blame. They were all valid of course, but she could tell he was at least a little bit nervous...anyone could. Somehow managing to keep a straight face, she replied with a continuingly stern tone of voice...at least that's what it sounded like in her head. With a roll of the eyes, she began. "Details, details. We both know that no matter how much evidence you scrounge together I'll still blame it on you," she said, poking his chest. "You should have stayed at the starting line to sacrifice your dignity for the dress...for me!" she continued with a dramatic whipping back of her head, with one hand inverted on her forehead and one hand on her sternum. It was dramatic enough that, although Carmen acted like this anyway, it provided at least a little insight into the inwardly playful nature of her accusations. She hoped he'd catch on at least slightly, although she would be perfectly happy milking it if he didn't.

Mercy grinned at Darwin when he touched Kathy's shoulder and returned her to her normal state well, except for her hair she noticed it had stayed smurf color, she found Crash's reaction rather amusing snickering at his frown. She jumped as Darwin screamed and dived for the small blue haired student on Kathy's shoulder, fearing the chibi wouldn't be up for the glomp she reached towards Darwin opening her mouth to speak when the unicorn spun to face her chuckling before practically enveloping her in his arms thanking her in a loud voice. "Don't mention it honey" She hummed at him with a small chuckle as she patted his back, once he had released her she saluted the small group and wandered back towards the finish line, koop flew past handing her back her phone which she checked quickly as she ground to a halt by the finish line,one arm folded across her chest resting the elbow of her other arm on it she reached her hand to her face, tapping at her lower lip with her index finger. She was waiting for Koop to return to her with the results, though she was sure there was another contestant that needed to cross the finish line...As if to answer her mind's question, an unfamiliar voice pierced the air beside her, she actually jumped in surprise. Be your own idiot? She thought walking over to the 'guy' who was subconsciously testing her perception. "Hmm, I don't know...maybe if you were wearing a jesters costume?" Mercy joked though it was rather 'weak' in its delivery, she tilted her head to the side reading the paper between the 'guy's' fingers. "Sure I'll take that as an item" She smiled warmly at the 'guy'. "The results will be announced shortly so feel free to hang around" She added, though she didn't move away she cast her gaze away from 'him' down to the phone gripped between her fingers, allowing herself to return to her previous thoughts looking positively perplexed.

Little Feather had felt painfully aware of Alistairs hand in hers as he spoke to Mercy, hand holding wasn't something she was accustomed to she felt her cheeks color as Alistair glanced back at her with a mischievous glint in his eye, she lifted her free hand to push a strand of hair behind her ear feeling that same bashful awkwardness that she had before. "It's no problem! I'm just glad I could" She smiled at him, retracting her hand once he had released her she watched him straighten his pinafore with an amused expression. "Perhaps, I don't see anyone else getting changed yet though" She pointed out to him, tilting her head to the side as he asked about her 'guardian' she blinked at him with confused pale green eyes before looking over her shoulder. "You mean Lion?" She queried, her smile returning this time with a sheepish edge to it. "He doesn't accompany me everywhere you know...he's not my guardian, he's a friend" She explained to the winged boy, twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers idly as they stood there. To say she wasn't surprised when another person sidled their way up to Alistair would have been a lie, wiping the surprise quickly from her face she smiled at the newcomer her bashfulness receding as she looked at the other 'girl' she must have known the winged boy before Little Feather had met him. She couldn't help but furrow her brow into a frown for a brief moment as the 'girl' latched onto Alistair's arm assuming it was normal as Alistair didn't seem to react to it she relaxed her expression, shrugging her shoulders at the dark haired boys question. "I'm not sure, I would assume so...most races are about winning. Though maybe this was more for fun?" She offered as an answer, pointing at his attire. She smiled at the 'girl' as they were introduced, waving a small greeting. "Nice to meet you Miss Cyber" She politely added. She was rather shocked when Cyber leant up to Alistair and pecked him on the cheek, saying they should go and celebrate
the young indian girl swallowed a small lump that had formed in her throat, a mixture of guilt and disappointment passing through her as she cast her gaze aside, pulling a small smile onto her face as Alistair bid her farewell. "N-no problem, bye" She stuttered, hugging her torso as she watched the pair disappear. She hadn't realized the winged boy was with someone already, she felt guilty for the way she had been acting...Lion pulled up next to her rubbing his head against her hip. What happened Cub? He grumbled his face wrinkled with concern. "Nothing...I'm just thinking I have a lot to learn" She answered him vaguely, smiling and petting him between the ears.

Crash had noticed Kathy become tense as he approached, he couldn't quite fathom why though...she didn't usually mind him being near her. He watched her prod Darwin's arm and ask to be changed back, his trade mark grin spread across his face as Darwin complied and switched her back to her normal self...well kind of. She still had blue hair, he reached out towards her with his clean hand the other was paint splattered, scooping a small section of her hair between his fingers he frowned at it before letting it fall back to her shoulders. "I'm not so sure blue suits you" He smiled at her his expression laced with amusement. He raised an eyebrow at Alex as he demanded Darwin turn her hair back to its normal color, he had to admit he would like that too Despite the fact she looks beautiful regardless... Wait, had he just thought that? Crash lifted his paint covered hand to the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing pink underneath the streaks of paint currently decorating his face, he averted his eyes deciding to make himself busy instead of getting flustered over his thought process, he wasn't sure why he was getting flustered...he'd thought it before. To distract himself he undone the bow around his head and pulled his bunny ears off. "I'm kind of wishing we'd done the dodge ball second, would of helped wash all of this stuff off" He chuckled, wiping at the paint on his chest as he removed his sock cleavage. "Where are my manners...here have some paint" He grinned cheekily at Kathy dipping his finger in a wet purple splodge on his lower arm he lifted his hand towards Kathy's face a mischievous glint in his eye as he playfully attempted to dab it on the tip of her nose.

Lily had followed Carmen around, unsure as to what she should do. She felt so lost, like a lost puppy trying to find an owner. She didn't know who would actually talk to her and she hated putting herself out there only to be turned down or later on betrayed. She was beginning to wonder if she should even try but then... What would be the point of everything? Without people, she felt so empty and... dead. What was worse? Pain or emptiness? She didn't know. She clutched her arm, her hand on the tattoo as she followed Carmen around.

A small smile formed on her lips at the interaction between Carmen and one of the males, presumably the one she'd dressed. The dress was tattered and worn, muddy from the course. "Shame on you." Lily spoke up, shaking her head slightly in a shy but playful manner. Her voice wasn't really loud and she probably sounded like she was mumbling but... she was trying.

Carmen was surprised to hear another voice agree with her as soon as she finished her berating of Ara. Wheeling around on her heel, she beheld Lily, the shy girl from earlier! She gave her a bright smile of greeting and walked over to her, turning back to Ara while putting on a stern face again, barely able to contain her actually-not-serious-ness. "See? Even she agrees with me! It's clearly obvious that you're the one at fault here."

"This coming from the one that rejected me right before the big event? Hey, I've got no obligations to listen to a mere bridesmaid about how I take care of my own wedding attire." Ara laughed, a cheeky grin replacing the nervous one he had on before. Now he could feel quite a bit more confident that Carmen was just joking with him. “And hey, apparently you have no idea how much my dignity is worth! It’d be enough to fund the entire wedding!”

Then seeing an unfamiliar face approach them he pretended to look horrified. “Two against one? Now that’s just unfair.” Shaking his head, Ara let out a laugh and held his hand out to the girl (Lily). Looking between Carmen and her he greeted, “I’d have remembered if I met you. So who is this equally fashionable friend of yours Carmen?”((Finished the interaction with Carmen + Lily, will probably add more when Ryuu’s post is done.))

Kathy’s face became a bright shade of red as Crash reached out to touch her now-blue hair. Now that her skin tone was back to its normal shade, it was very easy to see how flustered she was from that simple contact. Which was rather… Odd, considering she herself had ruffled Crash’s hair quite frequently. “Y-You’re just not used to it.” She stammered out, running her fingers through her hair and lifting some of the ends up towards her face so she could take a look at it. She had never even considered dying her hair before so it felt a little strange to look at the unfamiliar blue strands. Kathy glanced over at Alex. Blue hair suited him just fine, so maybe it wasn’t bad at all. “Don’t worry, I think it’ll actually resolve itself over time.” She smiled at the small boy on her shoulder reassuringly. “Darwin did say it would take a little longer for my hair to turn back to normal. And think about it this way, now we kind of match don’t you think?” Perhaps both of them rather liked her natural hair colour? It made her feel quite happy to think that way. Between the warm feeling she got from that idea and the fact that Alex seemed to have more than her share of concern about her hair colour, there was just no room for her to feel uneasy about it at anymore.

“Oh, that’s true. Should I ask Mercy to give me a few more water balloons to help you out?” She joked. Though there had been plenty of time to dodge or run away, Kathy just let him dab a bit of paint on her nose. Smiling warmly she asked, “How’s it look?” While waiting for an answer, she reached over and took the bunny ears out of Crash’s hands before placing it back on top of his head. “Say, why don’t you just keep this one on for the rest of the day? It suits you, though not as much as a pair of floppy puppy ears would.” She laughed at her own imagination of Crash walking around the beach in his swimwear and bunny ears.

Cyber just continued to giggle and smile like the good innocent girl. "Oh sorry it just well I played some games Onii-chan like racing games so I usually think that winning is part of i!" He giggled lightly and said in a sweet, frail and kind tone. "Well see you when I can...Little feather..." Cyber mischievously smiled again then walked off beside Alistair. "Hm.. where should we go? There are so many things I want to see!" He fakely said as they both walked around a bit. "maybe you should change Onii chan if you want to... I mean look really cool if you wear that like you are super confident but its up to your choice!" Cyber giggled a bit more and battered his eyelashes, at least trying to be flattering which usually works. "Look! An ice cream cart! Oohhh! Lets go and get some!" he cheekily said as he hugged tighter but not too tight on Alistair's arm. 'Finally! food! and after this... well... let see!' Cyber smiled even bigger as part two was a go!

Crash noticed Kathy's face become a rather impressive shade of red as he reached for her, it made the blush on his own cheeks darken he wasn't quite understanding why it had made her so flustered, he was trying to act normal...He tilted his head to the side as she stammered and ran her own fingers through her hair. He watched the exchange between the two blue haired students, he couldn't hide the glimmer of relief as she told the blue haired boy on her shoulder that her would turn back to normal, he grinned as she mentioned matching with Alex it was true quite the pair they made now. Perhaps this would have bothered him if Alex wasn't an adorable blue chibi at the time. He blinked at Kathy as she mentioned asking Mercy for more water balloons. "Only if you're prepared to get very wet" He grinned at her, the mischievous glint returning to his eyes. He was rather surprised when she simply allowed him to dab the purple paint on her nose, noting the warm smile as he withdrew his hand, chuckling at her question. "Perfect of course" He grinned at her, though for a brief moment he allowed admiration to enter his expression quickly flickering away as she placed the bunny ears back on his head, he gave her his best 'unimpressed' look though he couldn't hold it as she burst out laughing. Feeling a smile tug at his lips he shook his head at her. Floppy puppy ears? Really? He wasn't sure he could get away with those. "Laugh it up but there is nothing you could do to convince me to stay in this outfit for the rest day" He chuckled, running his fingers through his fringe, frowning as he pulled clumps of pink paint from it.

Mine. Alistair could see little feather's face out of the corner of his eye, he did feel a little bad about leaving her on her own like that. "maybe you should change Onii chan if you want to... I mean look really cool if you wear that like you are super confident but its up to your choice!" Miss Cyber said. Alistair patted her hand "it's actually not all that uncomfortable, but i would like to get out of it eventually"
"Hm.. where should we go? There are so many things I want to see!" Miss Cyber said. Alistair smiled "where ever you wish Miss Cyber, i don't know where or what anything is so i trust your judgement"
Then she pointed something out "Look! An ice cream cart! Oohhh! Lets go and get some!"
"what's ice cream?" Alistair asked "some kind of confection?" He followed her over to the 'stand of ice cream'.

Looking at Crash’s face, Kathy realized a vicious cycle was going to start soon if she didn't get a hold of herself. ‘Don’t blush with me! You’re making it worse..!’ Luckily for her, talking with Alex and the joking exchange between her and Crash was helping her calm down and just enjoy the company. "Hey, I'm not the one that needs a wash-down. And besides, I was pretty dry compared to you last game." She grinned back at Crash, feeling rather confident about the potential challenge. Then referring to the paint he dabbed her nose she added, "Matches my swimming top too. Good choice." Smiling broadly she gave him a thumbs up for the colour selection. Watching him tug at his hair though, she gently took his wrist to make him stop. "Hey, just wait and rinse it off. You don't want to pull out some of your hair with it too do you?" Letting go of him, she pretended to pout. The smile on her face made it rather difficult to pull look off though. "Really? Absolutely nothing? And you don't need the rest of the outfit, just keep the bunny ears on."

Mercy grinned as Koop finally flew towards her, waving a bit of paper around in front of him. She held her fingers up gently taking it from his clutching paws. “About time, thank you” She thanked him. Moving back over to the elevated chair she climbed the ladder up for the third and hopefully the final time that day. “Alright! Listen up the results are in!” She called out, her voice echoing across the beach she did have a rather impressive pair of pipes. “In last place, for copping out of the item hunt is Brako” She grinned. “Following close behind in Seventh place is Crash, Sixth place goes to Ara, Fifth to Alistair and Fourth to Darwin” She announced the runners up, avoiding their eyes as she moved on swiftly to the next lot of people. “3rd place goes to Chris who came in only a fraction behind our 2nd place contestant Ryuu, which means 1st goes to Seven! Who managed to complete the course in record time” She announced, clapping her hands as most of the gathered crowd erupted into cheers as if they knew exactly who these people were, congratulations were thrown this way and that to the contestants. “And that wraps up all of the events for now!” Mercy cut across the chatter. “Feel free to continue using the equipment or go about as normal, thanks everyone!” She chimed before descending the chair her phone still in her hand, having had quite enough excitement for the moment she used this opportunity to slip away for a while, she was sure she could catch up with the others later.

Crash chuckled at her as she argued very valid points about the water balloons. “That’s beside the point, if you’re challenging me I can assure you now you won’t be able to say that” He grinned at her, knowing the challenge was unlikely to be taken up but letting her know his thoughts all the same. Of course as she said it ‘matched her swimming top’ his eyes dropped to check which was quite possibly the worst thing he had done, he barely caught the thumbs up as he dropped his gaze to his feet clearing his throat and passing at the ground with his toes his cheeks alight with color. “...thanks” He managed to say with a bashful smile, clearly lacing his fingers into his fringe through a nervous action, he blinked as he felt Kathy’s fingers curl around his wrist gently stopping him from teasing the paint from his hair, impatience apparent in his features it was a small reminder of how bad he was at waiting around like this. Though he seemed to calm down as she gripped his wrist, he smiled apologetically at her reaching up with his other hand to touch the back of his neck. “Sorry, it was just something to do...” He mumbled, rubbing his hands together as she released him, his lip twitching up in mirth as she attempted to pout at him the fact she was smiling as well didn’t help her cause though it was a cute gesture...cue him agreeing to her ridiculous terms. He sighed as he listened to her knowing full well he wouldn’t win this battle...”Fine, I’ll offer you a deal...I’ll wear just the bunny ears until your hair returns to normal” He offered her with a cheeky smile to accompany it. His ears pricked as he heard Mercy beginning to announce something. He remained quiet through her speech feeling rather disappointed at the fact he’d basically been last, he sighed to himself clapping along with everyone else as the winners were announced. “Well done Darwin fourth place” He grinned at the blue haired boy feeling like the odd one out in the group. “So I should.-“ Crash started to s
ay though stopped, his breath hitching as if he were about to sneeze. “Ah cra-achooo!” He lifted one of the socks to his face way before he sneezed but as he did he practically exploded in a puff of purple smoke, the costume he was wearing crumpled to the floor after a few seconds it begun to move as if something was stuck within ita few moments later a little gingery/red puppy head popped out of the material, it wriggled its nose before lurching forward succeeding in face planting the floor before barrelling over and landed on its butt in front of Kathy’s feet. It had to undoubtedly be the red haired shapeshifter in disguise, it lifted its nose looking up at Kathy tiny tail thumping against the sand. Oh fate thou art a cruel deity... Crash thought to himself.

PETA COLLAB 7 x 2 = ???: Science Rules! Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill Bill

Summary: More bantering and puppy-ing.

Carmen openly laughed out loud at Ara's dignity spiel, complete with a throwback of the head and an infectious laugh audible by...pretty much everyone. In between stifled laughter, she responded. "You speak of your dignity while talking to me in a wedding dress covered in paint and foam. That's about the most undignified thing in the entire world for a male," she said as she looked around. But as she did so, she noticed some of the other crossdressing outfits around, like Crash's bunny suit and of course Ryuu's Sailor Mini Moon outfit (not that she knew what that was) and faced Ara again, amending her last comment. "Alright...one of the most undignified things for a male," she said with a chuckle. "In any case you undoubtedly would have retained more dignity if you had stayed at the start - your wedding dress would be pristine! Pristine! I could have taken it for myself afterwards..." she said with almost a whimper.

Upon Ara's noticing of Lily, Carmen continued the verbal assault. "Nothing's unfair for the Fashion Police," she said playfully. "This is Lily," she said, turning and smiling brightly once again to the girl. "She's...well, I met her very recently. As in before and during the race. But she's quite lovely, don't you think?" she finished, looking expectantly at Ara for an answer.

Ryuu slowly crept away from Carmen, attempting to slide out of what could wind him up in an embarrassing conversation.

“Would you like me to give you the usual ‘my eyes are up here’ line?” Kathy asked with a laugh. There was a slight tint of a blush on her face as well again, but not nearly as bad at Crash’s. Besides, his innocent reaction made it harmless and seem more amusing than potentially awkward for her. Now if he had actually stopped to stare… That would have been incredibly embarrassing. Her smile visibly grew quite a bit as Crash agreed to keep the bunny ears on. Temporarily. “Alright, it’s a deal.”

Kathy turned to Darwin for a moment with a bit of relief on her face. Fourth place didn’t seem too bad. “Congratulations!” She smiled at him, glad that his decision to string her along hadn’t ended too badly. "By the way, do you know about how long this will last for?" She asked, pointing to her hair.

Looking at Crash again, she was looking for something to say to cheer him up about his placement when he suddenly sneezed and changed into an adorable little puppy. Kathy laughed as he fell over. Apparently transforming had not given him better coordination. She looked a little troubled for a moment, shifting her weight from one foot to another. 'But he's still Crash and...' After making a slight thoughtful sound, she scooped him up in her arms and gave him a hug, rubbing her cheek against the top of his head. "I offered a hug after the race right?" She laughed. It was an excuse really. She just wanted to hold the puppy, barely managing to keeping her touch gentle instead of squeezing poor Crash to death. "Say, can you stay like this for a bit? You don't need to wear the bunny ears if you do." Kathy looked absolutely delighted about Crash's form as a corgi puppy. The thought that she was technically hugging a boy almost 2 years older than her just didn't seem to register behind how cute he was at the moment.

Ara joined in on Carmen’s laughter. It was hard not to and he himself found the whole situation rather funny as well. “Dignity is not defined by the clothes a man wears.” He smiled, straightening his back and lifting his chin up like he was feeling proud of something and arrogant about it. “And trust me, there are worse things a male can go through. Much worse things.” He made an exaggerated shudder with his last sentence. Worse than just wearing an even more embarrassing costume. "Honestly, between a ruined or pristine wedding dress there's not much of a difference in how awkward it is to be wearing one in the first place." Perhaps it was even less embarrassing if it was covered in paint and the like. It made it seem obvious that the dress was being worn because of some sort of challenge or prank instead of some sort of strange hobby on his part.

"Lily, huh?" He repeated her name with a smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ara, if Carmen didn't bother mentioning me to you." But before replying to Carmen's final question, Ara raised a slight brow wondering if this was actually a trick question in disguise. 'Now would it be better to truthfully agree? Brown-nose Carmen? Or be a jerk and say no?' He mused. 'Decisions, decisions...' He decided to go with the first option for now and watch how both girls reacted to it. "Indeed, very lovely. Enough that I can at least see why you'd abandon me at the alter for her instead." Ara joked, still continuing the jest about Carmen running away from him at a wedding.

Cyber was very much shook in how Alistair didn't know about ice cream! He was sure someone must be freaking out about someone not knowing about ice cream (hint hint!) "Wah!? Its a really yummy and sweet treat! its made of milk and cream there is so many flavors!... I wonder where did you come from Onii-chan?" Cyber looked at him but with real curiosity... Now he wondered... where did Alistair came from?...Even though he wasn't at the academy for a while it seemed that Alistair was from a whole new world... 'Well I just have to pay for now... luckily I have a few dollars I saved up...' He sighed from knowing he had to spend some cash...'Does he even have money!?' That though up to his head but he shook the idea and just gave his sweet fake smile. "Hhhmmm Well Onii-chan its time for you experience something truly delicious." He pulled Alistair near the ice cream stand and asked the vendor. "Excuse me but can I get two vanilla and strawberry ice cream please?" The vendor nodded and gave him two ice cream cones with the flavor he choose. Cyber nodded and paid the vendor at least 3 dollars then gave the treat to Alistair. "Here we go! try it! Its really good!" He giggled and smiled again while taking a small bit of the sweet dairy treat.

Alistair looked over at Miss Cyber when she said "Wah!? Its a really yummy and sweet treat! its made of milk and cream there is so many flavors!... I wonder where did you come from Onii-chan?" Alistair stopped to think "i'm not sure" he looked over at her with an amused smile "I've never thought of it, I've been here so long..." his face dropped "i've forgotten where i came from".
He shook the thought from his head and smiled at her "Hhhmmm Well Onii-chan its time for you experience something truly delicious." she said then talked to the man at the stand "Excuse me but can I get two vanilla and strawberry ice cream please?"
"thank you very much, Miss Cyber" Alistair said. he looked at the man putting balls of the 'ice cream' on a triangular prism "fascinating, what is the purpose of the prism? and why is this 'ice cream' in ball shape?" the man held the confections over the stand to them, he wasn't sure what to do so he looked to miss Cyber for direction.

...What?....Cyber was getting weirded out by Alistair in a way... 'He forgot where he came from...what the hell those that mean!??! Is he like a thousand year old guy just looking like that!? Like how Ash Ketchum is still like 10 even though its been what? Fucking 10 years or so!? Then that's so weird!!' He tried to keep those thought in his head and just smiled, acting out his normal innocent girl persona."fascinating, what is the purpose of the prism? and why is this 'ice cream' in ball shape?" ...'Seriously'... " Well I don't know... people don't asks those things really, the prism is called a cone some are edible like this one so you can eat it, it holds up the ice cream so you don't have to eat it with your bare hands. The ball shape is just been like that for a long time so not much is really answered by it..." When he thought about he didn't know the use of the ice cream being circular but he just shook it off and smiled again . "Just try it though Onii-chan I swear to you its really good!" Cyber giggled again and took another bite out of the ice cream.

" Well I don't know... people don't asks those things really, the prism is called a cone some are edible like this one so you can eat it, it holds up the ice cream so you don't have to eat it with your bare hands. The ball shape is just been like that for a long time so not much is really answered by it..." Alistair listened intently as she explained "interesting" he muttered again.
Alistair watched as Miss Cyber took the 'cone' he imitated her. Then she took a tiny bite of it. he blinked, not entirely understanding the gesture.
"Just try it though Onii-chan I swear to you its really good!" she said, taking another tiny bite. Alistair carefully copied the gesture, it was rather good, "this is quite sweet, like the asper pods back home" he smiled at the memory "quite enjoyable" he took another tiny bite, smiling up at her "thank you again Miss Cyber for this treat, it's quite nice of you"

'"Asper pods? What are those Onii-chan?" Cyber was really curious of Alistair....Its like he came form another world... "Well glad you like! But you know ice cream isn't much a celebration treat... I think there should be more though..." He smiled seductively thinking maybe he should go quickly to part 3 of his master plan... "After this we need to get some dinner! or lunch... whatever the time is right now! I say we should try some sushi or maybe a bowl of ramen! Oh those things are just making me feel so hungry!" He said excitedly... he was really getting hungrier and could't wait for probably a free meal. " So Alistair... while we eat, I wan to know more about my Onii-chan! So what do you like and stuff I am really interested!" he faked his interest in him again so time can move a bit more. "Onii-chan are you a student at Athalia academy?" First question he was actually curious of, like before.... where did this guy came from?

he thought about it "asper pods ... are a lot like strawberries, but bigger and juicier" he smiled as that was a reasonably accurate description.
"Well glad you like! But you know ice cream isn't much a celebration treat... I think there should be more though..." Alistair understood her insinuation and he smiled very mischievously at her, he knew it came off almost like her knew something she didn't, she suggested "After this we need to get some dinner! or lunch... whatever the time is right now! I say we should try some sushi or maybe a bowl of ramen! Oh those things are just making me feel so hungry!"
he wanted to ask what those were but he figured his questions would start to annoy her after a while so he just smiled "lead the way"
as they started walking she said " So Alistair... while we eat, I wan to know more about my Onii-chan! So what do you like and stuff I am really interested!"
"there's not a lot to know about me, i don't do much ever, i mainly hang around and feel sorry for myself" he laughed, then she asked if he was a student, he shook his head "no, i live here, well more precisely out there" he gestured towards the forest. As he figured she was probably confused he said "i wasn't born here though, i was ... well taken is the kindest way of saying it, and well, i ... i was left here, this isn't my home" he looked at her "but i have nowhere else to go," he quickly changed the subject to "where do you come from Miss Cyber?"

Cyber was very interested now on where Alistair came from. Even the Asper pods sounds like it came from a new world of some sort...like Saint's Row Four.... that was a weird world. "Left here? Like you were abandon? That is sad Onii-chan.. Well you can stay here, maybe you can even know about yourself here too~." He did feel a little pity for Ailstair yet he didn't really much care for what he says like how he feels sorry for himself. "Hhmm well if you don't know much about yourself then maybe we could both out together? Hang out and unlock to see much more!" Cyber thought he was talking gibberish...well of course when he talks about something it ends up with gibberish and a fight. "Sorry if I am not making myself clear Onii-chan..." He gave a semi-okay joking smile and a lighthearted giggle. He noticed that Alistair quickly wanted to change subjects but he just gave his signature fake innocent happy smile. "I am from little town... Well a very big town, not much has happen in that town...quite boring with lots rumors and myths...but still quite boring..." Cyber made a childish face for remembering how he used to live there. "Plus lots of...creeps who just...ugh..." Now he wanted to change the topic... "Well just enjoy our ice cream! Create new happy memories!" He smiled gleefully as he continue to eat his ice cream with Alistair. Maybe he was enjoying his company after all...

Seven listened carefully while trying to dry himself. 'First place?! Yes!' Seven smiled happily but was so busy licking himself to dry he really didn't care anymore.. "If I was smaller then this would be easier..." He felt a little gloomy from not caring that he won first place but rather keep himself clean. He turned back to his bakeneko form, he was small enough and probably easier to clean only problem he always faces... fur... fur dries slower than skin so bid disadvantage... "gah! Stupid water! God why did I have to get that!?" He moaned as try to lick his fur clean, thinking that he was getting no where and getting lazy he walked towards a small group of people (Crash, Kathy, Darwin, Carmen, I will continue this later) "um excuse me but... need help drying my fur up..." He asked the group hoping to help him.

If it was possible Crash went as red as his hair at Kathy’s question, he looked so flustered he couldn’t even formulate an answer to that, he just kept his hand on the back of his neck and looked to the side giving her a point in the teasing war they seemed to be engaged in. He was also eager to find out how long it would take for her to change back for two reasons now.
Sneezing was a rather haphazard for Crash, where he hadn’t fully learnt how to control his shifting it happened at sporadic times, often controlled by his emotions. He looked up at Kathy with soft crimson eyes, wrinkling his nose as she laughed at him, he poked his tongue out at her, holding the tip out for a moment before his ears flicked back as he watched the troubled look cross her face, his tail thumped against the sand a second time he tilted his head to the side as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking over his shoulder at the changing booth he got to his feet. “Let-“ His voice hung in the air though replaced by a surprised yip as he was suddenly scooped up into her arms he hadn’t expected it. Crash puppy’s reaction to being hugged was to wriggle happily and wag his tail at an alarming speed resisting the urge to lick her hands in its excitement, it was difficult to suppress every animal like reaction when in a shifted form. His tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth as she laughed, he hadn’t forgotten about that he took being crushed as a puppy was as good a hug as any, especially if it was from her, He tilted his head back his front paws resting over her arm as the rest of him hung underneath it, though she was holding tight enough that, he wasn’t about to flop to the floor his tail was still whirling away below him. His ears pricked up as he listened to her request, he noticed how delighted she seemed to be with his puppy form. Really? I get a hug just like that and I don’t need to wear the bunny ears anymore? I’m sensing I should have been using this form a lot more... He thought to himself, puffing out the tops of his jowels as if trying to grin. “Sure!” He answered her happily. “Just ease up on the squeezing hmm? Breathing is a necessity” He added cheekily snuffling her arm as his ears flickered atop his head as he dropped his gaze to the blue haired unicorn beside them. “Where are we going next though?” He asked, his tail still wriggling away. He tilted his head as Seven approached them. “Good race Seven” He barked happily to the bakeneko, his whole body wriggling in response very much like an excited puppy did. In fairness if he hadn’t been in Kathy’s arms he would have been running around like a crazy cracker by now, he was kind of hoping he could stay where he was for a while longer though...

While Kathy knew it had been an 'unfair' question, it was a lot more effective on Crash than she would've imagined. She grinned mischievously, wondering how she could use this to her advantage later. 'Not sure exactly how but... At last I know he's weak against something now.' She thought to herself.

With Crash in her arms in the form of a corgi puppy she laughed again as she noticed how fast his tail was going. "Is that on automatic?" She asked. His little stub of a tail seemed to be on helicopter mode at the speed he was going at. "And hey, doesn't breathing get a little boring at times? Maybe you should take a break." Despite her jokes though, Kathy loosened her grip on him a bit and used one hand to support him under his butt and the other arm remained wrapped around his torso. Basically, Crash was hugged to her body while facing the same direction she was as she support him from below with one hand. Looking around for a moment, she thought about where they should go next. Noticing the pile of crumpled clothes nearby, she chuckled, "I'm thinking the changing booths might be an ideal next destination." Kathy actually wouldn't have minded if he just stayed with her as a puppy for quite a bit longer, but that was probably not really fair for Crash. And also... Unfortunately, she also realized that the pile of clothes on the ground meant he probably wouldn't have any to shift out of... 'Entering a forbidden zone of thought now.' Blushing, she shook her head a bit at the thought, probably confusing anyone that was looking at her with the sudden action.

Clearing her throat, Kathy looked around trying to locate where the newest voice was coming from. There was a purple cat (Seven) nearby, calling out to them for a bit of help. "Oh." She realized with a start, "Are you a shape-shifter as well?" Still keeping Crash held up against her upper body, she leaned down to talk to him. "We can probably use one of the beach towels to help you dry." She lifted her head back up to glance over around the changing booths. Maybe they didn't even need to go very far. There could be a towel or two around the changing area, or if they were particularly lazy they could always use a costume cape or something similar in place of a towel. "By the way," She added with a light chuckle to Crash, "You wouldn't chase a shape-shifting cat would you?"

Seven looked at a red haired puppy... “Good race Seven” ... A puppy... a dog... you looked like he was going to explode out of excitement like a puppy would be.... Seven hissed very loudly, arching his back, tail straight, fangs are showing and ears back. "Get away!" He hissed out as he step back. He had a very bad experience of dogs and hated every single mutt out there. But he ended up being distracted by the voice of a girl (kathy) "Are you a shape-shifter as well?" The girl with rusty red color had said while carrying the mutt. Seven just stop being a sour little cat and nodded "Well not really you say shape shifter... this is my true form quite frankly" he looked at the giants now since he was back to name al' but laughed sarcastically. " But its not important right now..." Seven grumbled a bit as he was getting irritated with the wet fur. "We can probably use one of the beach towels to help you dry." He looked back at her and gave a small smile. "Thank you now please dry me off! I hate the water" He shudders and continue to lick himself to sort of help his situation.

EXTREMELY EXTREME COLLAB CHAPTER WHO CARES PART I DUNNO: It's Training, It's Pouring

Summary: The Beach Olympics have concluded and the second chunk of Season Two has begun, where the students head over to three dojos to train. In keeping with the geographical trend on Destiny Island, the dojos are reasonably close from the Beach Olympics course, which is reasonably close to the pool, which is reasonably close to the central resort building thing, which is reasonably close to the bar, which is reasonably close to the water, which is reasonably close to the dojos.

- Intro -
Fists of fury burst yet another sandbag, leaving it lifeless on top of cold stone. Firearms screamed through the air, blasting apart targets one-by-one. Magic spells filled to the brim with power caused training dummies to literally vanish, though some of them were obviously spared for later use. A water fountain sat in the middle between these three sources of power.

After a (literally) eventful day on Destiny Island, Athalia Academy's students had been sent to train under the academy's supervision. If the students were to face the sources of dangers that threatened their lives, they wold need to learn how to harness their strengths. While they could certainly not accomplish that within a single day, training was certainly not an optional choice in the current situation.

There were three "dojos" (all of them have different appearances) that contained teachers, though there were also free practice grounds that students could independently train in. The training grounds in its entirety was located a little away from the beach, but far enough to prevent people from noticing them. A spell had been cast so that bystanders unrelated to Athalia Academy would only be able to see an illusion image of an empty, locked building site.

- Nikola -
Nikola fired a Desert Eagle straight through three targets, simply tossing the firearm away before picking up a Glock 18 on a metal table in front of him. After testing out all of the weapons- getting perfect shots in the entire process- the cybernetically-modified human began to read through some of the reportings of the demons that had been spotted so far. The man himself preferred not to teach (the irony) a bunch of children how to shoot guns, but at the same time, he did not want any student to die. He would get the blame, and that would mean that not many people would try to help him out through funds and payment. He hated how reputations worked, sometimes.

- Madame Serena -
The magic dojo, from the outside a plain looking building open those steel doors and be prepared for an unexpected surprise, once you've passed the threshold the empty warehouse becomes a intricately designed library with magic practically buzzing through the air! A shiny well kept marble floor leads the way into the library, with intricately decorated wooden shelves lining either side of the room stacked from floor to ceiling with various tomes, though there were no ladders visible to access the top levels. High ceilings decorated with pastel colored paintings of mythical beasts dancing across the cream ceilings, majestic griffins and unicorns trailed down circular white stone pillars that lined the room separating the bookshelves from the large open space at the center of the library. Small spheres of light floated peacefully through the air leaving thin trails of powder blue smoke behind them as they sailed around the room. At the far end of the spacious hallway was a circular room with a huge oak table sat at its center cluttered with many glass jars and steamy pots, smaller tables were carefully laid out around it with chairs tucked under them a cauldron sat atop each table with books placed either side of it.

Madame Serena hummed softly to herself gliding across the magic dojo, the elderly woman moved over to a table covered in jars and steaming pots, various tubes and apparatus added to the clutter. Today she had placed wooden field dummies alongside the stone pillars, though apart from that the old witch hadn’t given any other indication of what she would be teaching.

- Tora -
A growl echoed from the man within the wood-covered dojo, his pale eyes peering into an abyss of nothingness. It had been quite a while since he had lost his humanity, and even now, he lacked the ability to think like a human being. But while he failed to retrieve his soul for the time being, his lifeless reincarnation trained to become a teacher of fighting. No more did he need to use words, for now, his martial arts demonstrated who he truly was, even before becoming a cursed zombie.

The man swung around his hooks violently, decapitating five dummies effortlessly. He then smashed each and every one of the heads back up into the air, jumping up to reach the height of the heads. He then, creating a massive arc with a single leg. The zombified martial artist effortlessly smashed the airborne objects - with a single strike - toward the respective bodies they popped up from.

The man landed on the ground before cleaning up the place again. Another advantage in being a zombie was that he did not know what "annoying" felt like. Tora growled like a dog before sitting down.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka watched the fellow teacher (Tora) smash through the dummies with ease, just leaning back against the wall and relaxing before the students joined in. "Smile Tora, smile." He chuckled, "You are going to scare the students at this rate." On the other hand, it would probably be better if Yutaka tensed up a bit. He didn't look someone ready to teach the students about combat at all.

In fact, the mask he had chosen to wear that day was a black gas mask. So forget about looking like a teacher... Everything about him was just screaming 'suspicious' character. He was better prepared than usual though. In a corner of the room there was a large pile of white sheets that Yutaka intended to manipulate to give the students a moving target if they wanted to practice against them.

- Tora -
Tora turned to Yutaka. He tilted his head in curiosity before attempting to smile like the fellow teacher told him to.

It turned out that he was already smiling. With that said, Tora decided to - humorously - slap a single training dummy. Even then, the dummy looked like it would explode at any time soon due to how much power he could not contain within himself.

- Carmen -
Carmen had certainly enjoyed herself during the Beach Olympics, but she wanted to be at least a little productive during her stay on Destiny Island. Luckily, the general student population all elected to go train, somehow all at the same time, and she found herself making her way towards the dojos. Stopping by her house to pick up her trumpet, she quickly made her way to the dojo area. It had been odd spending this whole time without her trumpet, but at the same time kind of nice to be an - almost - ordinary girl. Well, ordinary other than her extremely sophisticated fashion sense. Obviously.

She decided to wait at the entrances of the three dojos for some people she recognized to show up. She knew she wanted to try all three dojos as well as the free practice room, but she had no idea which one to start with so she figured she'd let somebody else decide for her.

- Crash -
Crash had been released! Not that he had anything to complain about, whilst in puppy form Kathy had practically hugged him the whole time...he wasn't sure whether that was to stop him from chasing Seven though...Deciding that four legs were better than two and probably far more stable, he had shifted into a large crimson pelted wolf, sprinting across the sand heading towards the training area kicking up sand as he went. The only problem with this form of travel was it was fast and Crash's reaction times were not the best in the world, once he began to weave through students it was only a matter of time before he collided with something. In this particular instance, the shapeshifter had tripped over someone's shoe stumbling forward he'd been unable to keep his balance and in an attempt to stay upright had shifted into an armadillo curling into a protective ball...which wasn't his best idea as the hard red shell made him look like a giant dodgeball. He was kicked from one place to the next by a small throng of students very much as if he was a pinball in a pinball machine. As soon as he was flicked into the air he shifted a third time adopting a flying squirrel form he zigzagged his way towards a very familiar hat well there were quite a few actually all kind of blurring together, tilting down slightly he zoomed towards the sand at Carmen's feet shifting back into his human form a smidgen to early and practically face planting into the sand in front of her. "...Eurgh...why do I do these things?" He groaned to himself as he rolled onto his back his eyes not all that dissimilar to spinning discs. "Hey Carmen" He grinned at the multiple Carmen's stood behind his head, he was currently wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of cargo khaki shorts.

- Kathy -
Kathy was actually more than happy to go for training. She enjoyed physical activity. And more importantly, she wanted to become stronger. The party, the next day at the auditorium, and even during her stay back at her parents’ house… She was honestly beginning to feel like nothing more than a damsel in distress (minus being the main victim of the story) and the idea of that irritated her to no end.

Before making her way to the training center though, she stopped by the small house she was assigned to and changed into a pair of black gym shorts and a white tank top. Kathy also grabbed a small hair tie and went to the mirror to fix her hair up into a ponytail. And to her surprise... "It's purple..?!" Somewhere between her transition from the beach to her room, her hair had changed from blue to purple. Surprised, she ran her fingers through it again. "... Just how does Darwin's powers work exactly?" She wondered aloud, then got back to tying her hair up into a ponytail.

Leaving her house, Kathy went to the training center and joined the crowd of students gathering around there. It seemed a lot of them were talking amongst each other and discussing where they wanted to go, but she had already made up her mind and pushed through the crowd with a few apologizes to make her way towards the physical training dojo. On her way there, she came across a bit of open space without too many students and saw a very difficult-to-ignore hat there. At the next minute, she also noticed the familiar mess of red hair at Carmen's feet. "Hey you two." She greeted. With a slight chuckle, Kathy shook her head at Crash and added, "You did pretty well in heels. Here I was thinking you got a bit better at this 'walking' business."

- Ryuu -
A certain otaku believed that training would be the best part of the trip. Sure, there were lots of "cosmetics" that severely distracted his intentions, but nevertheless, he finally made it. Some training would help him stop getting destroyed by everything. Also, he needed to get stronger to completely stay up all night watching anime for two weeks without moving at all. That would literally make him a complete man.

Aside from the dumber reasons he had in training whole-heartedly, the otaku actually wanted to learn everything the training grounds had to offer. Training in magic might allow him to learn how to create more items that can utilize his plasma, training in physical power would increase his stamina, and possibly increase his power output in general. Ryuu actually considered taking a quick ride in using ranged weapons if he succeeded greatly in his magic class, though he personally doubted that he would be able to start casting Touhou-esque bullet hell abilities.

Ryuu wore his regular outfit, but the most noticeable difference was the fact that he changed his sunglasses. They were, right at the moment, bright blue. Other than the ocular accessory, however, nothing in particular changed about him. He got quite surprised on how he ranked second in the cross-dress obstacle course.

He actually sort of liked being a Sailor Mini for some odd reason. The sunglasses-wearing student would never try to wear a seifuku again, though.

"Alright," the otaku said, entering the training grounds. "Time to learn how to kick some... stuff."

Ryuu was forced to censor his own words due to a girl walking by him. After she moved past him, the otaku corrected his sentence as he said to himself,

"A-s."

Entering the training grounds, Ryuu headed immediately toward a free practice zone, exercising as much as he could before he began his training.

- Carmen -
Carmen was, understandably, startled by Crash's entrance. Although she missed most of the sequence including the pinball game, she did see a flying squirrel barreling towards her, clumsily crashing in front of her as it became Crash. "He...llo?" responded Carmen to Crash's greeting. She was a little unsure on how to react to that entrance but it had made her chuckle, and she was certainly enjoying herself now that she had company. Barely seconds later, the redhead named Kathy showed up. Carmen looked back and forth a couple of times. "Wherever one of you goes, the other is always not too far away," she observed. "It's cute," she said adamantly. Anticipating Code Red (aka extreme blushing), she quickly moved it along. "So, I'm assuming you're here to train like I am. I must confess that I am at a loss as to which dojo to enter first...do you two have any ideas?"

- Crash -
Crash blinked up at Carmen hearing her respond to him, watching the three outlines of her finally merge into one he was able to sit up brushing sand from his hair he turned round to face her with an apologetic grin glancing to the side as he heard Kathy's voice. He sat back on his feet, lifting his hand to the back of his neck looking sheepishly up at Kathy "Walking wasn't the problem...apparently I'm not made for flying" Crash grinned though it didn't last long before he practically bounced to his feet, blinking at Kathy's new hair color. "What...happened to your hair?" He queried, once again reaching out to touch a section of it, the tip of her pony tail as if checking to see if the color would come out on his fingertips. He would be lying if he said he didn't like the purple look...he was biased on the color, he looked back over at Carmen as she spoke. His eyebrows shot up at the observation, puffing his cheeks out before exhaling and rubbing the back of his neck taking a small step back when he realized he'd invaded Kathy's space, code red activated with the 'cute' comment as his cheeks flushed a similar color to his hair. "Erm...I...err" Crash struggled over his words, going for a sheepish grin instead. Though Carmen's next question was one he could answer confidently. "You would be correct" He smiled at her, looking over at the 3 dojos he reached a hand to his face gripping his jaw as he thought it over. "Physical training...its got to be the safest place for me personally. I'd rather not go alone, would you two ladies consider accompanying me?" He asked the pair innocently, a warm smile on his face.

- Kathy -
"Flying?" Kathy repeated, a little confused by the statement. She had apparently not seen the mini fiasco Crash went through this time. Her blood actually began rushing up to her face before she was fully conscious of the fact the shapeshifter had reached out to touch her hair again. "N-Not sure..." She stuttered. Then clearing her throat, she continued, "It was just like that when I went back to the assigned housing."

If she recalled correctly (and in all honesty she was pretty sure she did), Kathy knew that Crash's favourite colour was the same as her own. Purple. She did like the familiarity of her natural hair colour, but she thought that perhaps going with something different temporarily (hopefully) would not be a bad idea. "It's not bad right..?" She asked, looking up at him with one hand on her cheek as she tried to cool herself down.

Listening to Carmen's observations, however, the colour came right back to her cheeks. "T-To be fair, quite a lot of students are here." She answered back, perhaps a little too quickly. Letting out a sigh, she placed both hands on either side of her face to hide the redness there. Quite glad to move onto to another topic of conversation, Kathy answered both of their inquiries at the same time. "That's where I was headed actually, the dojo for physical training. So I'd be happy to go with you." She glanced over at Carmen for a moment, hoping the girl would not get the wrong idea about that. "Are you coming too Carmen?"

- Carmen -
Carmen let out a laugh as Crash and Kathy's faces lit up right on cue. Code Red had been achieved. But, her instant move on had worked, and the conversation hadn't ground to a halt. An awkward halt. So, even though that would have certainly been enjoyable for Carmen, she was glad to move along, because she wanted to train. Both Crash and Kathy stated that they were going to physical training, Crash even asking in a way that was a Carmen level of formality. "I'd love to accompany you two, thank you for the offer," she replied, smiling warmly at them. "I need to improve my melee skills with this trumpet, anyway. And perhaps I can learn a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat as well. But for now, shall we go in?" she said, walking towards the entrance, with Crash and Kathy following.

Walking into the dojo, the three were greeted by a group of students in front of her and two instructor-looking types. One appeared to be...dead? Carmen had read about zombies but had never seen one or gave them much thought. He certainly seemed like the fighting type. The other was wearing a...gas mask? Now Carmen was at least a little bit confused, but...she reminded herself that the abnormal was normal here, so shrugged it aside. She wondered if "physical" included melee weapons or exclusively hand-to-hand...either way, she could learn something. If not, there were two other dojos and a free room to occupy her.

- Tora -
Tora froze when he heard several people entering the dojo. Actually, a considerable amount of people entered the dojo, though he was not exactly surprised. After all, he did not exactly have any emotions right at the moment. With that said, the zombie let his head completely twist around, letting him see several students behind him. The zombie remembered what the staff members told him to do.

He waved at the students. Some of them flat-out tried to ignore what they saw. Growling mindlessly, Tora grabbed his head, snapping it back into its proper position, before walking around the dojo. He moaned, his eyes lolling around. The zombie set up another punching bag before walking away from it, his hooks ominously following his path.

- Crash -
Crash tilted his head to the side. “Yeah...long story” He chuckled, completely oblivious to how nervous his proximity to Kathy made her. “Hmm” Crash hummed, retracting his hand with a thoughtful look on his face. “It’s not bad, I like it better than the blue but not as much as your normal color” He decided on saying, giving her his trademark smile though there was a twinkle in his eye as he spoke. Crash looked around at the other students as Kathy mentioned there were quite a few of them, he hadn’t actually noticed how busy it was...His face lit up as Kathy agreed to go with him, he turned his crimson gaze to Carmen unashamed of his puppy dog eyed look as Kathy asked her if she was coming as well. At her courteous agreement he grinned happily at the pair, stepping aside he motioned for them to pass hi. “Ladies first” He smiled following along behind the two women. He was pleasantly surprised by the simple layout of the dojo, he tucked his hands into his pockets his height giving him an advantage as he was able to see over the top of the small crowd gathered in front of them, he frowned as his eyes rested on a man wearing a gas mask who he could only assume was a teacher A gas mask? What the hell have they got planned? Call him suspicious but as far as he knew a gas mask wasn't a casual accessory. His eyes then drifted to the other man in front of them, watching as the man's head turned all the way around the color actually drained from Crash's face and he shivered involuntary, looking positively green. Wh-what?! How is that...eurgh...don't you dare He felt his stomach twist as the man snapped his head back into place, shivering again. Its like something from the Exorcist... Apparently there was a reason for his reaction. "...well...this looks interesting" He half grinned the color slowly returning to his face.

- Yutaka -
“Welcome!” Yutaka greeted them with a deep and warm voice, smiling under his mask though the students couldn’t see. Looking at the girl with an extremely large hat (Carmen), he clapped his hands together once and commented, “That’s a wonderful hat you have there Miss. It may be damaged while you’re training though, would you like me to leave it somewhere where it’s safe?”

Yutaka didn’t really think turning heads 180 degrees was the best way to greet the students either, but at least Tora seemed to be trying to help out. “I’m Mr. Ito, or Yutaka if you prefer to just be friendly. And the interesting instructor over there is Tora. We’ll be helping all of you with some physical training.”

- Kathy -
‘He likes my original hair colour..?’ Kathy thought. Her blush didn’t get much worse, though she could actually feel her pulse rise a bit. It could have very well been in comparison to the purple hair she had right now but it made her happy to hear that. Being able to see Crash smile at her in his usual way also added to the good mood she was feeling now.

“With your trumpet?” Kathy asked with surprise. “Is that alright? What if you damage the instrument?” She gave her a moment to respond before Carmen asked to go inside. Nodding to her, she went inside with Carmen as she gave a smile at Crash’s courteous actions.

Inside the dojo, there were three surprises for them. One, someone that seemed to have come right out of a first-person zombie shooting game with his head turned all the way back in an impossible angle. Two, another person greeting them in Japanese clothes and a gas mask. Three, the fact two such strange individuals were standing in front of them and seemed to be their instructors for the training. Having adjust to the oddities of Athalia, however, she took in a deep breath and didn't think too much about it. Kathy looked over to see how Carmen and Crash were faring. Carmen seemed to be fine but... Crash looked ready to lose the fruit loops he had eaten a while back. "You alright?" She asked. Watching the one introduced as Tora set up sand bags, she waited to see what the teachers had planned for them.

- Carmen -
Carmen smiled at Kathy's concern for her trumpet. "Oh, it's quite impossible to damage it. It's not exactly a normal instrument," she explained. "Essentially, it's a human manifestation of the vehicle for using my abilities, just as I am currently a human manifestation of my pure form." She ended the explanation there, but it got her thinking. Maybe I can make my pure form useful, she thought. Perhaps the magic instructor can help me with that? For now, she would stick with Crash and Kathy.

The instructor with the gas mask noticed her because of her hat, and offered to store it for her. In this instance she didn't object to taking it off for a number of reasons:

1. She was training. Gas mask man was right; it was not a supernatural hat like her trumpet was, and it would undoubtedly get damaged. And we just couldn't have that.
2. People could see her wonderful hair again.
3. It was a nice change to be able to see above her a little bit.

So, without hesitation she walked over to him and handed the hat over, saying "Thank you" with a pleasant smile. While they had each other's attention, she also took the liberty of asking him about the parameters. "So...would you be able to train me on how to better utilize this [holding up her trumpet] as a melee weapon? Or is this dojo limited only to hand-to-hand combat techniques?" She hoped dearly that he could help her with her melee technique, but would still be able to get use out of hand-to-hand instruction.

- Tora -
Tora groaned, finishing setting up several more punching bags. Having completed his extremely simplistic task, the cursed teacher simply turned to Yutaka. There were several students standing nearby his fellow teacher.

The combat teacher instinctively dragged himself toward the other teacher. No words came out of his mouth: instead, inaudible grumbles slid out of him. Tora limped, and walked, until he finally reached Yutaka. He had been dragging the loose hooks chained around his arms.

The zombie simply stared at the students, looking at Yutaka, then at the students again. He continued this pattern of... staring.

- Melanie -
Melanie knew she had forgotten something...but she had only just remembered that the thing she had firgotten was teaching... She literally sped into the dojo carrying a pile of training books and what-not. She put the pile down and approached the other teachers with a cute but nervous smile. "Sorry I'm late, forgot where the dojo was" she said grinning at the other teachers before turning to the other students, keeping an eye out for......vampires.

- Crash -
Crash was also curious about Carmen’s trumpet...he remembered the last time he’d seen her use it, she had blasted a Demon and a Dragon, it had been insanely impressive. Her explanation left him reeling however he had failed to follow it...

He looked at the man wearing Japanese clothes and a gas mask as he introduced himself, he chose to refer to him as Yutaka. Chuckling as he offered to keep Carmen’s hat safe for her during the training, he glanced at Kathy as she asked him if he was alright. “Just peachy” He answered her with a somewhat strained smile, he was terrible at lying but he wasn’t quite sure his masculine pride would allow him to admit his reasoning’s. He watched the zombie like teacher drag himself towards the group, apparently unbothered by him now although he was curious as to how he was going to train them. Curious enough to find out...He pulled up behind Kathy leaning forward to whisper in her ear instead of shouting across the excited chatter of the other students. "I'm going to talk to Hook" He told her in a low voice jutting his chin towards the zombie man. "Not abandoning you, I'll be back" He grinned cheekily, unintentionally implying Kathy would be bothered with him moving away...With that he shifted around her and approached the two teachers. "Hey, are you going to be teaching us anything today?" He asked the zombie-ish man, though glanced at Yutaka in case he answered as well.

- Seven -
Seven just smiled silently then ran off to sleep underneath a tree. Upon waking up he gave out a loud yawn, he turned back human and of course was naked but he just "borrow some clothes at a store" A light blue tank top, a short denim shirt with leggings and a pair of pink rubber shoes. He oddly remember that there was a training thing happening and her was curious about it. "Right....training thing...eh I have been eating too much I don't want to get flabby like Mr.Lion well time to have fun!" Seven did a couple of flips and twirl until reaching a place with lots of students. "Huh? Dojo thingy? Well lets go!!" He ran quick ans agile as possible in a way he looked a ballerina, gracefully avoiding any contact. Once he had entered one dojo with looks like a lot of training bags (physical), he yawned immediately and lay on the floor sleeping a bit.... he had no idea what to do... he was bored already.

- Garden -
Garden was glad the vent was over because it was so much fun! And she have a new friend too called Sunflower the kitten. Since everything was over she saw some student going somewhere... it was like a weird training center of some sort. She was curious of going but first wanted to change because...she wasn't going to wear that for the whole day. She went into a changing booth with sunflower and started to change. She didn't need clothes, using her ability she can create clothes and underwear out of petals and flowers. The material is strong so it just like any other clothing. She turned the blue flowered swimsuit into a light blue dress with light blue and white flowers scattered on the dress. It was more movable than the swimsuit. She picked up Sunflower and left the changing booth then headed towards the weird buildings...she had no idea what to do but wait outside, She didn't know which training thing to go so she just petted Sunflower.

EH WHATEVER: Stuff 'n' Junk

Summary: Some people begin to decide what to actually do while Crash gets righteously beat up by his instructor.

- Zivon -
Zivon tried to limp back to his assigned house but gave up half way, his sprained ankle was killing him. he did ended up walking towards a training like building...he did remember hearing about a training thing for the student to get better with their abilities... 'Maybe I should go and try... so I won't be a pathetic and lose...' Zivon thought about it as he slowly limped all the way to the building. His low esteem was getting to him and was feeling pretty depressed. He looked at the ocean and smiled gently. It was still a very beautiful view it reminded him of home. He wanted to take a picture but he had no phone... "...Dad would love this view...I wish I could take a picture and show it to him...." Zivon said as watching the ocean, he shook his head and continue to limp until seeing something shiny on the ground. "Huh?" Zivon picked it up, it was a phone... quite fancy looking one too with no damages on it. " Who would lose this? This could cost my entire saving in a year..." Zivon said as he inspected the phone carefully then he clicked a button, it turned on. "Wow...no wonder people like these things..."

- Save -
Save has been bored for a rather long time now since she entered another phone that suddenly disconnected from the internet. She couldn't get out after entering the phone and was lying on the beach for an hour or so ''Why did it have to send me here'' thinking back to what she did before she got here. A few people where talking about cosplay and a guy in girls clothes it all looked rather funny however she couldn't have joined them and let them see her cosplay outfits. When she turned on the speakers of the phone and said a few words she immediately got sent to this hell hole of a phone. Just when she started thinking that no one would ever gonna find this phone she could hear some footsteps coming from the mic the speakers however where still in muted like they where the whole time she tried some thing with them but they just didn't want to make any sound at all. The phone lifted from the sand as she could see the face of a rather young looking boy. The mic must have been damaged by the sand slightly as she could only hear some of his words. She gave a gentle wave at him as he clicked on the home button.

- Zivon -
When the phoned turned on the only thing Ziv could see was a girl...waving at him... "AAaaaahhh!!" Zivon shouted in the girliest scream possible and fell on the ground, landing on his butt. "Ow!!" He shouted as he but his lip from the stinging pain coming from his butt. the phone dropped pretty bad and caused a crack on the screen. "Sh-it..." Zivon cursed slightly but he picked up the phone and stood up, his sprained ankle was killing him but he was trying not to be a cry baby and cry over it. The phone looked pretty damage but he sighed and touched the screen, using his ability he was able to repair the phone to its former great working self. The girl was there and he was too scared to even say anything but give a shy wave, tremble in fear and whimper like a kick puppy. His fear, anxiety and nervousness was getting worse than before, soon enough he felt like he will break.

- Save -
The camera was flipping a few times as Save could hear a cracking girlish squeak. Her head raised up in curiosity she could only see the sand once again. A puff came out of her mouth as the phone was being picked up once again. She folded her arms together and gave a angry look at the person that was watching her she opened up her mouth a few times but still nothing came out. Trying to un-mute the phone again and again but still no results at all. She became pissed at the fact that she couldn't talk anymore and got out a note pad that was on the phone ''You shouldn't drop a phone in the sand'' She typed out quickly before folding her arms once again. She could feel a warm feeling through her body as he touched the screen with his finger and could immediately hear the sea on the beach and everything much more clear. The phone also was connected with the wi-fi on the island now must have been broken when it dropped in the sand for the first time. Looking through more of the advanced options now she tried to find something about the speakers.

- Zivon -
Zivon looked at the girl at the phone as she typed out "You shouldn't drop a phone in the sand'' in a note pad thing. He gave an awkward smile and felt pretty weirded out.. this girl must be something else to able to do that...unless phone have people in them and do that... he wanted to say hello or asked if she was real but every time he tried all came out was silence. 'Stupid! I can't do anything right...ugh....just say it...come one Ziv...don't bail now...' Zivon said to himself in his head but he was still trembling with fear, he was to afraid and his anxiety issues was going through the roof. After that horrible experience with the nymphs... he feared a lot of more thing than before. As he tried to speak he finally able to say something but only word by word while stuttering. "H-i...Th-er..ere.....uum...s-so..rry..." Zivon stuttered out as he started to walk towards the building he was heading earlier too, his ankle hurt him and in was painful enough to deal with emotional self esteem and anxiety... He wanted to cry and go to his dad, cry all day but he tried not too. "U-m...uuh-h....Wh-o-o...ar-re...y-you...?" He asked as if he wanted forgiveness from something.

- Little Feather & Lion -
Little Feather was sat atop Lion just outside of the 3 dojos, she was trying to decide where to go. Neither of them wanted to enter the dojo that seemed to specialize in ranged weapons, the idea of being around 'Boomsticks' did not sit well with Lion after their visit to the city. Just the sounds of the guns alone were causing Little Feather great discomfort, her heart was beating irrationally and she looked positively pale under her face paint. She had changed clothes since the earlier Beach Olympics having met up with Mercy, she was now wearing appropriate training clothes, a dark brown cropped sports top complete with Indian quillwork which Little Feather herself had added and tight khaki shorts for 'aerodynamic movement' whatever that was supposed to mean. "I wish we could find some of the others..." She murmured to Lion, as much as she appreciated his company it would have been nice to interact with another fellow student or two. So far she'd manage to lose track of Dani who she deemed a friend even after knowing him for such a short while and Alistair had left her to go somewhere with Cyber, not that she minded all that much. I'm sure they will be around here somewhere, the sooner we pick somewhere to train the better! Lion grumbled to her, flicking his tail as he caught a few students giving them strange looks. They'd been here long enough you'd of thought people would of grown used to them by them..."Physical, Magic or Free Practice?" Little Feather asked him, playing with her hair idly. She desperately wanted to start training, since it was allowed she wanted to learn how to protect herself better without having to solely depend on her spirit animals...if she was separated from her flute she was defenceless. Her hand fluttered down to her belt touching the hilt of her fathers hunting knife, the one he had given to her such a long time ago she wondered whether she could be taught how to use it if the worst came to the worse. Then there was magic she harnessed a large amount of magic within her, she would be mad not to want to explore it! Perhaps it would help her reconnect with some of her lost spirit animals? Or help her master her healing abilities or expand them? The possibilities were endless in her eyes. She didn't want to visit the 3rd dojo she may allow herself to be convinced but the idea of it made her stomach twist painfully and caused her palms to become clammy. I don't know! You decide Lion growled at her, he didn't want to make the decision he was just along for the ride...well at this moment he was just a form of transport for the Lakota woman upon his back. His nose twitched as he caught the scent of another feline. Hmm...interesting He grumbled as he padded towards the scent without warning Little Feather who almost nose dived off his back, she barely managed to grab his mane and keep herself upright shifting so she was straddling his back properly. "What? Where are we going now?" She asked him grinning as he pulled up next to a familiar looking person. "Hey Garden!" She greeted the other woman, as Lion extended his nose towards the cute kitten held in her arms, his tail swaying behind him.

- Unknown Woman -
A rather sporty looking woman stood in the corner of the dojo, looking down at the ground, mumbling.

"One... Two... Three... Step... Roll... Dodge..."

She looked up when she heard more movement inside the building and watched as the other teachers moved to greet the students. Her unruly red hair was tied up in a ponytail, softly hitting her shoulders. She wore her standard fighting gear, a tight fitting tank top with a minimalistic leather jacket for defense. She had on loose fitting pants with tennis shoes that were light enough that she couldn't really even tell she was wearing them. On either hip, she had two wooden short swords.

It wasn't that she didn't want to go and welcome the students, she just had the belief that if they wanted to learn from her, they needed to seek her out themselves. So, with that, she walked over to her little center and sat down on her pillow, cross legged. She moved her around a bit and then closed her eyes to meditate, keeping a watch on her surroundings mentally.

- Garden -
Garden turned around to hear a familiar voice. It was Lady Little feather and Lion, she remembered seeing and talking to her after that event at the academy. "Hello there Lady little feather and hello to you too Sir Lion" She curtsied to them while still holding Sunflower, he noticed that Sir lion was every interested with Sunflower. The kitten yawned and meow to the very big lion. " Hewwo thewe... you awe a vewy bwig cwat..." Sunflower mewed at Lion while Garden talked to lady little feather. "Excuse me for asking but do you know what to do Lady Little feather, I am kind of confused what is happening here... There is this training event right?" Garden asked to here in a calm yet curious voice. She wanted to train a it only because she can't really fight well. Sunflower looked again to Lion and licked his paw. "So vewy big cwat...you lwook wiewd...weiwdy cwat!" Sunflowed meowed and tried to touch Lion nose. "Oh be careful Sunflower!" Garden tried to make sure the little kitten was not being to rambunctious.

[i] - Tora -
Tora growled, tilting his head as if he were asking Crash if the student was talking to him. After a second's worth of silence, the zombie nodded. He groggily lifted an arm, slowly pointing at what appeared to be a... wooden boxing ring.

Even in death, Tora had a dumb sense of humor.

The zombified man gargled, still pointing at the boxing ring, before smashing his other hand's fist on his chest. His teeth were grinding against each other, and his pale eyes seemed to stare down at Crash. Tora's method of training involved direct contact, which meant that anyone training with him would not only have to deal with his inability to speak, but also the possibility of feeling pretty battered. At the same time, however, he provided one of the most hardcore forms of training.

The man stood still, wondering if Yutaka, or someone, could translate what he wanted to say.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka took the hat and carefully placed it in a corner of the dojo that he didn’t think they would use. Returning to the young lady (Carmen), he smiled at her question, though once again no one would be able to see it under his gas mask. “Not at all. In fact, I’d be a lot better at teaching you how to use odd weapons instead of hand to hand combat.”

Hearing the question directed to both instructors from the red-haired student (Crash), Yutaka tilted his head and answered while nodding, “Of course, that’s why we’re here.” Then he tilted his head over to the other side and made thoughtful humming sort of noise. He glanced at the red-haired student (Crash), the girl that wanted to use her trumpet (Carmen), the purple-haired girl (Kathy), then at Tora. Basically talking to everyone in the dojo he suddenly asked, “By the way, how am I supposed to train you exactly?” For the trumpet girl (Carmen), he thought he should probably start off with some basic theory of how fighting with a weapon was different from being empty handed, but otherwise he literally had nothing really planned out.

He watched was Tora growled out an answer to the red-haired student (Crash) and pointed towards a wooden boxing ring in the dojo. “Tora seems to be saying that he’ll teach the students one-on-one in the ring. Possibly some sparring?” He told the student, turning to Tora for verification of his intent.

- Kathy -
“Ah. I probably don’t understand it completely,” Kathy admitted, “But I think I get a vague idea of what you mean. Basically, because the trumpet itself is manifested to use with your abilities you don’t need to worry about damaging it right?” A weapon though… Technically hand-to-hand combat would have probably been the best option for her to learn, but perhaps there would be merit in learning how to handle a weapon as well. She would have to take that into consideration for training.

Kathy couldn’t help but smile at Crash’s obvious attempt at pretending to be fine. She finally recognized an opening for some teasing, however, she decided to let him get away with this one. Not really out of mercy for Crash though, and more so because she would be poking fun at him at the expense of the instructor. A slight blush came up to her cheeks as he leaned in to whisper by her ear. “Hook?” She repeated, making a small laugh at Tora’s new nickname. It was interesting that Crash decided to go out of his way to talk to that particular instructor since she had thought that Tora’s strange head twisting was what had made all the blood drain out from Crash’s face. “Alright, have fun.” She gave him a funny look at his last statement, wondering if he was treating her like a small child that didn’t want to be separated.

… Kathy did actually like the fact that Crash decided to go out of his way to tell her before suddenly wandering off, but he didn’t need to know that. And neither did Carmen, who was still close by. She looked between the two instructors, wondering who she should go with. Tora was a little intimidating, and Yutaka didn’t even really seem to have anything planned. Thinking that she didn’t really want to go head-to-head with an instructor right off the bat in the confines of a ring, Kathy followed Carmen to see if they could learn a thing or two from the teacher with the gas mask.

- Crash -
Crash didn't notice her blush as he whispered to her though he was glad she found his nickname for the teacher amusing, he was a little nervous about his choice of teacher but he had his reasons he was absolutely positive however this was going to bite him on the ass. He shrugged his shoulders at her as he caught her giving him a funny look he wasn't going to apologize for that. Turning just enough to face both teachers he gave the zombie-ish man his full attention...well most of his attention. Crash watched the zombie nod before groggily lifting his arm towards an arena not far from them, he was about to say something else when the man started hitting his chest with a fist in a fashion he thought wasn't all to dissimilar to Tarzan, if he would just lift the other hand and make ape like noises it would have been spot on. It made an amused grin spread across his face, with the grinding of the zombies teeth and wide pale eyes accompanied by the zombie beating his chest this could easily be mistaken as a challenge in the animal world...He blinked over at Yutaka as he answered his question nodding his head in appreciation of the confirmation, he raised his eyebrow as Yutaka explained what Tora would do. "Sparring sounds like fun, I'm Crash by the way" He introduced himself to Yutaka and Tora giving them a two finger salute. "I'll go wait over there for you Hoo-Tora" He started just about catching himself before he made the mistake of nicknaming the zombie teacher. He exhaled before moving over to the ring that had been pointed out to him, he had no idea what to expect though once the teacher approached he made the mistake of saying. "Don't hold back on me" Which was an invitation for trouble. (Advanced training 4 or 5 xD You know you want to >.>)

- Little Feather & Lion -
Little Feather tilted her head to the side as Garden did her usual strange dipping movement after greeting them, she wasn't entirely sure why she called her 'Lady Little Feather' either. None of the other students did this...Lion on the other hand was rather enjoying his title he gave Garden an appreciative purr. Greetings, Lady Garden Though the girl probably couldn't understand him. "Lion said hello as well" Little Feather smiled, sliding off of the beasts back to stand beside him. Lion watched the kitten stretch and yawn before speaking to him, his ears flickered as he chuckled at the kitten's remark before he replied in a rumbling purr. Greetings ...small one. On the contrary you are a very small cat He flicked his tail, jowels twitching up in mirth. Little Feather smiled at Garden. "Ah well from what I can gather after all the strange happenings around the school, demons showing up buildings being destroyed. The school has decided we need some training" Little Feather explained turning so she was facing the 3 dojos she pointed to the one on the right hand side. "On the right you've got the magic 'dojo'" She put emphasis on the word dojo as she had only recently learnt that word, though she still hadn't a clue what it meant. "In the middle is range training" She shrugged as if she wasn't sure what else to call it. "On the left is physical training" She finished before pointing out another area where a familiar sunglass wearing student was. "I think that area is a free practice area" She smiled, turning back to Garden looking rather proud of herself for remembering it all. "Did you want to go to one of them?" Little Feather couldn't stop herself from following up with that question. Lion lifted the ridge above his eye just barely as the kitten accused him of being a weird cat, he didn't react negatively to being bopped on the nose just tilted his head and nudged the kitten back gently with his nose. On the contrary small one, you're the weird kitty...where exactly did you come from? Lion purred softly to the kitten, Little Feather looked between the two cats finding their conversation rather...odd for less of a better word. "Don't worry, Lion won't hurt him. He's just being curious...aren't you little fella?" Little Feather murmured reaching over to scratch the kitten behind his ears affectionately, silently wondering whether the kitten would pick up on human speech as Lion did or whether he could only understand cat talk.

- Tora -
Tora blinked, wondering if his name was actually "Hook," and the life he had been spending was all a lie. Nevertheless, the zombified teacher seemed satisfied when Crash went inside the ring. Though, from what the teacher could tell, Crash wanted some good training. Tora did not know just how strong Crash was, but he felt the need to assist Crash in training by kicking his a-s.

Well, he did not know how to train people well other than the usage of that method, anyway.

The teacher threw his hooks toward the ring, letting them fiercely create two holes on the cornerstands. He then flew up in the air, dragging his body toward the center of the ring, before letting the hooks leave the corners. Spiraling in the air, Tora harshly landed on the ring with his feet, his back facing Crash. He felt quite happy to finally earn the chance to spar with someone!

Tora's head snapped backward- then his torso, which was followed shortly by his legs. The fallen martial artist wanted to put passion into teaching this life-filled student, who... probably... had the chance to utilize whatever potential he had within him. So far, Tora was enjoying this particular student's confidence. Confidence was what let Tora begin physical training as well, after all.

Tora decided to immediately begin "Advanced Training Number Five."

Groaning with his empty eyes directly facing toward Crash, the undead martial artist began to spin both of his hooks. He did so in a fashion he would use for nunchucks, except hooks acted far more differently than nunchucks. Tora came up with how to perform Crash's first lesson under his guidance, but Crash himself needed to at least show that he was willing to train. Tora began to inhumanely twist his body, letting his hooks create a very simple shield that could be broken easily. Getting hit by the hooks would hurt a little, however...

- Carmen -
Carmen looked a little puzzled when the gas mask teacher (Yutaka) responded to her query. "Well...I figured you'd be able to tell me," she said with a shrug. "I typically use this [gesturing with the trumpet] as a long-range weapon. It matches my ability, you see. But as it is unbreakable by conventional means, I want to also explore what it can do as a melee weapon," she explained. "I would be happy to learn empty handed techniques as well though. I just want to train, you know?" she said with a cocking of the head.

Quickly turning to Kathy, she realized her hands were quite full on the conversation front as Kathy asked about her trumpet. She smiled at Kathy's guess. "You've got it," she replied. "It's not a traditional instrument by any means. I'm quite defenseless without it," she admitted.

"...which is why I'd like to train," she said, turning back towards the gas mask teacher. "When can I start?" she asked, a bright smile on her face and eagerness in her eyes.

- Unknown Woman (Annie) -
Annie opened her eyes a peek when she overheard a girl speaking about using a trumpet as a weapon. She closed them again almost immediately after seeing the girl had her trumpet. A trumpet... What an interesting choice of weapon...

- Crash -
Crash had tucked his hands inside his short pockets as he waited for the teacher to enter the training ring, he was rather curious as to how Hook...Tora even was going to train him, he grimaced for a moment thinking back to the 'training' he had endured over the two week break before coming to the island. Training? More like human punch bag He physically jumped as the two hooks created holes on the cornerstands. HK quote comes to mind here He swallowed as the teacher flew into the air spiraling towards him before landing with a thud in front of him his back turned towards him, by now he'd dropped back into a defensive stance. The color drained from his face a second time as Tora manipulated his body to face him instead of just turning like a...normal person. OK you can do this... Crash thought to himself, rolling his shoulders and smiling lightly at the zombieish man. He shifted backwards crimson eyes focused on the man in front of him watching him spin his hooks like...nunchucks?! He bounced back on the balls of his feet watching the teacher for an indication on what he expected him to do. "Do you just want me to attack you?" He questioned the teacher, carefully stepping to his right as if to circled the zombie his eyes seeking out a weakness in his shield. Upon hearing no reply from the teacher the shapeshifter took a deep breath before propelling himself forward jumping into the air deciding to put his new athleticism to use as he twisted forward into a front flip sailing over the top of the hooks and landing behind Tora jutting forward aiming to slam his shoulder into his back though he didn't put a great amount of force into it. He hopped back grinning at Tora as if he thought it was just a simple exercise...

- Dani -
Dani finished rearranging his room to become less of a bedroom, and more of a living room, as ghosts don't actually sleep. He then looked at his clock.
"Oh, nuts! I'm going to be late for training!" he exclaimed, and shot out of the tiny beach hut.

Dani ran along the dirt path that lead to the training grounds, but fell panting to the ground right outside of it. He turned around onto his back and lay there for a while, calming down. He really needed to get back into shape.
Then he realized that he wasn't the only one right outside the training area.
"Hello," Dani huffed up at Garden and Little Feather.

- Tora -
Right when Tora's shoulder was hit, the combat teacher suddenly threw his hooks back towards himself, catching them expertly. The zombified martial artist suddenly lurched toward Crash with swift speed, almost breaking his own neck. With that said, Tora literally sent one of his feet directly towards Crash's face so quickly, he accidentally let go of one of his hooks. The hook caught Crash in midair and, not knowing that he caught the student, Tora spun towards the ground, smashing the ring's interior with his fists. His hooks immediately crashed into the wooden ring as well.

Tora wondered if he did not do it hard enough, so right after the entire attack, the zombie backed away from Crash, finally entering one of his standard martial arts: the Dragon.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka made a thoughtful sound. Looking between the two ladies, he snapped his fingers. “Let’s start off with some theories then.” Turning to the purple-haired girl (Kathy) he asked, “What about you miss?” Looking at the instructor Kathy replied, “I’m interested in hand-to-hand combat.”

He made a thoughtful sound, wondering how he could integrate both their interests. Snapping his fingers, Yutaka exclaimed, “I know! We can do a mock sparring!” Kathy frowned a little at his words. ‘Do all the teachers intend to make us spar?’ She wondered. Noticing her expression, he reassured her, “Don’t worry. I’m not actually going to make the two of you actually exchange blows. Just stand in front of each other for now and you’ll see what I mean.”

- Kathy -
As instructed, Kathy went to stand in front of Carmen. Yutaka directed them so that they were about 1.5 metres away from each other. “Would the two of you please tell me your names?” He asked. She nodded and replied, “I’m Kathy, and this is Carmen.” The instructor smiled and greeted once more, “Nice to meet you both. Now, at this distance who do the two of you think has the advantage and why?”

Kathy thought about it for a minute. "Carmen would, right? Since she has a weapon, so I think she has a longer reach than me, giving her an advantage." Yutaka nodded, though he didn't affirm or correct Kathy. "And you miss?" He asked, turning to Carmen.

- Crash -
Crash had been far too cocky for his own good, he was completely unprepared was the teacher's lightning reactions, he had barely stepped back before Tora's foot connected with his chin sending him flying into the air, regaining his wits he twisted in midair grunting as the hook curled around his shoulder piercing the joint apart from the obvious pain the student was more concerned about the fact if he was in the air he had to come down. He exclaimed loudly gripping the hooks chains as Tora spiraled towards the ground, tugging him down with him, straight into the side of the arena with an almighty crash...which was quite fitting for the red haired shapeshifter. Who hit the wood so hard he winded himself, as the dust cleared from around him Tora was able to see the student remove his hook from his shoulder as he got to his feet already looking like he'd just been dragged through several holly bushes and used as a pillow by an angry cat. "Right...So...you're quite serious about this" Crash spluttered, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor as he lifted himself up onto one knee, groaning as he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand pulling himself to his feet wincing at the pain that coursed through his gut. "Argh, I'm going to feel that in the morning" He murmured, shaking out his hands before rolling his shoulders, smirking at Tora as a few wisps of purple smoke appeared on his shoulders.

Whilst the teacher was waiting patiently Crash's form begun to change, mostly noticeable when his hair changed color , growing out to his shoulders and turning a dark blonde in color his facial features became more angular and his body buffed out until an unrecognizable man stood in front of teacher he brushed himself down, a little upset the transformation had ripped his shirt...yet again Tora's attack had ruined it anyway. The cuts and bruises apparent on his torso had already begun to heal, as the man smiled at Tora. "Round 2?" He asked, his voice deeper than normal and carrying a rather distinctive highlander accent as he turned side on to zombieish man falling back into a defensive stance.

Summary: People start training. Crash continues to get beaten up, while Kathy and Carmen spar under Yutaka's direction. Ryuu punches some bags and then heads to the magic dojo. Dora the Explorer shows up in a cameo no one was expecting. Swiper, no swiping!

- Tora -
The zombified man completely let his stance fade away as he stood curiously at the shapeshifting student. His pale eyes simply stared at Crash, who turned into a blond highlander. Tora wondered if Crash was going Super Saiyan.

Nevertheless, the teacher would continue the training. Answering Crash with a blind grunt, the zombie put up his Dragon stance again. He, however, planned on using a hybrid mix of multiple martial arts, along with his own methods of sparring with others. The teacher simply stared at the now-blond-Crash, wondering how he could train Crash for a long time.

Tora decided that Crash could probably handle on his own. In other words, he proceeded to try kicking a-s.

The cursed man groaned...

...before launching himself toward he shapeshifter. However, he was not close enough to actually begin delivering attacks that Crash could (probably) block, so the zombie began to walk through the ring using his hands. After taking about six steps with his hands, Tora pushed himself toward Crash, spiraling like an extremely powerful torpedo. Should he miss, Tora would push himself back into the ring by using the ring's walls.

- Carmen -
Carmen willingly stood across from Kathy when instructed to, and didn't even have to say her name. The gas mask man posed an introductory question and Kathy answered first. Carmen thought altogether longer about the question posed, before answering, a bit hesitantly. "I'd imagine that if Kathy has more experience in hand to hand combat than I do that she would have the advantage, despite the weapon. I have very little experience," she admitted. "Plus, my trumpet may be long but it might take longer to attack with than with bare hands," she finished, still not exactly resolved in her contemplations on the question but semi-confident in the answer she posited.

- Crash -
Crash wasn't aware of the stance his teacher was using as he readied himself for the mans approach unsure how to utilize this forms powers, his eyes were still a crimson color though they seemed to shine brightly in this form. He growled impatiently as the zombie stared at him, feeling an uncomfortable rage crawl beneath his skin, though it was easy to suppress luckily. He flinched back as the man came towards him readying his heightened senses for the oncoming barrage of...what the hell was he doing now? He watched the teacher take 6 steps with his hands, lifting a questioning eyebrow he hissed as he barely managed to block Tora's spiraling attack, it clipped his shoulder as he dodged to the side hitting the ground on his he stayed on the balls of his feet leaning forward on one hand he dug his fingers into the sand looking back up at Tora as propelled himself back into the ring with an angry growl Crash launched himself at Tora recklessly aiming to collide with the teacher and hopefully get a few punches in...likely situation he was going to regret this move.

- Tora -
Tora's eyes grew wider. For a split second, a reflection of Crash's anger sparked brightly from his eyes.

The zombie, twisting his body around, crouched and kicked in front of him, leaving Crash in midair for a quick second. He then jumped and did five front flips: in each flip, his hooks created a larger distance from him. After flipping around in the air long enough to unwrap some of his chains, Tora swung his hooks directly towards Crash. The hooks wrapped themselves cleanly around Crash's neck, though they did not harm him with their sharp tips. Thinking that Crash could handle such an attack, Tora swung Crash behind him, letting the student harshly land directly beneath him. As the teacher fell, the hooks let go of Crash.

Tora fell straight down on Crash feet-first. He yelled his iconic battle cry before flipping off of Crash, immediately putting up his Tiger stance, thinking that Crash would pop right back up like a... woopie cushion.

Not that woopie cushions ever exactly refilled themselves with air.

- Crash -
Crash hadn't expected that reaction whilst in midair he could only wait for Tora's next move his hands reflexively reaching out to grab the hooks but they had already curled around his neck he gripped the chains as he had before hissing angrily as he was pulled behind the teacher, unprepared for the speed he hit the ground at he was immediately knocked spare his vision swimming for a moment as he tried to pull air back into his lungs. He roared out in pain as Tora's feet drilled into his chest, pushing him further into the ground before springing off of him like a spring board. The shapeshifter's bruised body screamed in protest but he surged forward aiming to at least get one hit on the teacher, his lips were moist with a red substance as he aimed 3 swift punches at the zombies torso using the forms fast speed, though on the third punch the blonde highlander slid away and Crash shrunk back into himself, blinking up at Tora. ...oh...sh-taki mushrooms...

- Tora -
Tora held his Tiger stance for a while... before loosening up. The zombified man deemed Crash to be surprisingly unfit against him. Then again, Tora did sort of immediately start training by beating the living day out of his own student. The man tilted his head slowly, as if he were wondering if Crash was going to fall asleep at any moment.

The teacher, wondering if the student was alright, began to walk toward Crash.

The zombie heard in his own head,

"What the heck are you doing? You're supposed to train him. Do you need Merriam's dictionary to understand that?"

And another voice said in his head,

"Take it easy. Go ask if he's okay and just... have him run. Or something."

Tora nodded to himself, though the zombie would have to somehow communicate on that part while getting over his inability to talk.

Dragging himself toward the student, Tora attempted to help the student back up, growling like he usually did. It was strange for a zombie that growled so much to suddenly yell out humane battle cries of victory, but then again, there were others that acted far stranger than he did. After helping the student back up, Tora wondered what he could do to let Crash understand that he should begin training with easy stuff.

The cursed man got an idea. Motioning Crash to stand still, Tora suddenly smashed a hook into the wooden boxing ring. He then let the hook slide into the floor a little.

He waited.

After a few seconds' worth of waiting, Tora took out a paper and pen. Though his English had been severely downgraded to the point where even Bill Nye would say "Wow, you're stupid," it was enough to get straight into the point. The zombie humorously scribbled something down on the paper before showing it to Crash. On it, there were two things listed:

"1. Do 100 lapz rund the dojo"

"2. Prakdis punshing wid Dora"

He spelled his name wrong, but you get the point.

- Seven -
Seven slept for a while until waking up and didn't bother to look at the other people trying to something he was busy grooming his face and body when he turned around to see what was happening. He looked at a weird zombie looking man (Tora) and decided to bother him because he was bored, he slowly walked there and poked the weird man at the back. His ear perked up just poking the man's back... he was just entertained just by poking him multiple times. He then grew bored then walked away well he jumped up to the air and walked towards a man with a weird mask (Yukata) Like a cat he played the guy's hair from above. Like his cat anture he made little cat mews and noises just by playing with his hair.

- Garden -
Garden smiled and petted a bit Sir Lion head. She listened intently on what Lady little feather said. "Hhmm.... I don't know which one to pick...I am curious with the shooting range...." She said as she continue to pet Sunflower. The little kitty look at Lion and little feather and yawn again. "I dwon't know...I jwust wemembwed neaw thwis gwuy (Ryuu) awnd I pewwedon hwim... Then shwe pwick me up... I lwike hew...." [i] Sunflower said then looked at Garden telling her with his eyes that he wanted to be on Lion head. Garden giggled and placed Sunflower on Sir Lion head. "He wanted to be on your head Sir lion." Garden said happily while Sunflower yawned and began to sleep on his head. "So Lady little feather where would you go?" She looked back to see Dani, she waved at him. "Hello there Sir Dani." She said as she curtsied to him.

[i] - Crash -
Crash was currently knelt on the floor just in front of the zombie, breathing heavily as he tried to suck oxygen into his lungs he was clutching his stomach visibly wincing he was definitely going to have a very colorful stomach after that brutal assault...he wouldn't be surprised if his internal organs were even bruised after that. He wiped at his bloody lip, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor with a grimace, he'd managed to cut his tongue as well, he also had a small cut across the top of his cheek which was already surrounded by the tell tale sign of a bruise. He swallowed as Tora approached him, gritting his teeth and preparing to force himself to his feet ready for his teachers next move, if he was still breathing he was still going to fight. He blinked in surprise as Tora helped him back to his feet, looking a little unsure of what was expected of him...had he failed already? He really wished he could understand the strange growling noises the man made at him. "I may have jumped the gun a bit there..." Crash murmured, feeling rather foolish for his previous confidence, just because he learnt how to do a few fancy flips and punches last week didn't mean he had become combat savvy...He caught the motion from Tora and pretty much froze, flinching as the hook flew into the wooden boxing ring. Well...never again...if its scary it can bloody well remain so Crash thought to himself, he had orginally thought to train with Tora in an attempt to get over his mild fear of limb manipulation, what better way to get used to seeing body parts at peculiar angles then sparring with a zombie? And although he no longer felt he would lose his breakfast if he saw it, he was regretting ever wanting to conquer that fear. He blinked at the teacher wiping a line of blood away from the corner of his lip in an attempt to clean himself up a bit, he felt his sore face crease into a grin as he watched the zombie scribble on a piece of paper, it was a rather entertaining site. He leaned forward glancing at the paper curiously as he was shown what was listed on there. Laps? Aww man...basketball training all over again...Dora? He couldn't stop himself laughing at that he knew it was rude, but he couldn't help it he paid for it as the movement made his bruised stomach ache. "Ow ow ow, laughing not good" He groaned, rubbing his stomach with a grimace before he stood up adrenaline still in play he nodded at Tora. "Right running I can do that" He grinned at Tora, figuring it would be better to soldier on at the moment instead of nursing his broken ego and licking his wounds. He jogged away from Tora, beginning his laps gritting his teeth and ignoring the dull ache that passed through his limbs he was still healing slowly thanks to his previous shift but its powers were subsiding slowly but surely.

- Little Feather & Lion -
Little Feather felt her stomach twist nervously as Garden voiced her preference, of course of all the dojo's it would be the one she really wanted to avoid. She was busy chewing her lip and failing to not look stressed when she heard the kitten speak again, she was barely able to stifle a laugh at the story wondering who on earth the kitten had decided to randomly pee on. It had to be one of the more unfortunate guys which in her head was Crash or possibly Ryuu? She couldn't be sure, she smiled at Garden. Lion also found the cats story amusing it made him lift the corners of his jaws as if grinning at the kitten, though he was still confused as to where on earth the creature had appeared from. "He's positively adorable" Little Feather grinned at Garden, sounding rather 'Mercy like' in manner it was obvious she'd heard the silver haired woman use that sentence before. She was distracted as someone flopped onto the ground beside them, she turned to face the student instantly recognizing the purple haired boy as he huffed a greeting up at them. "Dani!" She exclaimed, a wide smile breaking across her face. "Hey! Where have you been?" She asked him crouching down next to him, concern momentarily breaking through her joyful expression. "Are you ok?" She asked, offering her hand to help him up. Lion turned towards Dani raising the ridge above his eye questioningly he had literally just turned back to face Garden and Sunflower when he heard the woman giggle and felt something being plonked down on his large flat head. His ears flicked out to the side and he went cross eyed trying to look at the kitten curled up on his head. "How did you know he wanted to be on my head?" Lion asked Garden probably surprising both students, his voice was deep and melodic with a purring undertone. "Hello Dani, hope you are well" Lion greeted the spectre as well. Little Feather smiled at the lion. Finally She thought in response to him revealing his human voice, he had been holding out on everyone...not that it had probably bothered them all that much.

- Garden -
Garden was startled with hearing the human...like voice? From Sir Lion. "Oh wow! I didn't you could speak like that, I mean no offense really.” Garden said happily, interested in Sir Lion a bit more while looking at Sir Lion. “Oh I just looked into each other eyes! Sunflower seemed to want to…” She said also wondering how did that happen, how did she know that Sunflower wanted that by just looking at his eyes. “Well greetings again to you Sir Dani, I am glad you can make it, that voice was coming from Sir Lion, it was a surprise but it’s really cool to know he can talk, really cool!” She said as she patted Sir Lion head even though Sunflower was on his head. "He is such a cutie!” Garden said in a bubbly tone then looked the three of them (Including Sir Lion) and then looked at the dojos. “This will help us be strong, I want to try range…”

- Dani -
"Well, I've been in my little beach hut thing, transforming my bedroom into a living area." Dani replied. Dani reached up and took hold of Little Feather's outstretched hand, and hauled himself off the ground. He quickly brushed himself off.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was worried I would be late for training, so I ran all the way here. At least now I know I'd make a terrible runner in a marathon." Dani said.

"Greetings, Princess Garden." Dani said to Garden with a bow. For some reason, her courtly manners had rubbed off on him. "How are you today?"

However, before Garden could answer, a deep, manly voice rung out.
"Hello Dani." Lion said. Dani looked around, not realizing that Lion was the one who spoke.
"Who's there? Where are you?" he asked.

- Matt -
Fire... Water... The sky... And fear. Lots of fear. These were the only things Matt could remember after he awoke from his... Er... Nap? It wasn't a nap as much as a strange occurrence that causes him to have visions of his past lives.
He looked at his watch, wondering what time it was.
Wait... I've been asleep for an hour? Just sleeping on this random table at this bar. I'm surprised I haven't been drawn on. Not that I'm complaining. Matt thought. He stood up, put his empty cup on the counter, and left the building. He headed along the path towards the training grounds. Unlike the classes at the academy, he had heard that nobody was allowed to skip these classes.

Matt found his way to the training area, and entered one of the dojos. The first thing he saw after his eyes got accustomed to the light was Crash, and his battered up body.
That can't be good. I may be having second thoughts on coming to this dojo instead of the magic training, or the archery. Matt thought with a frown. Nobody had spotted him yet, maybe he had a chance. If he slowly left, maybe he could go over to the ranged dojo. Maybe. He cautiously turned around, and quietly began to make his way out.

- Darwin -
Darwin skipped through the corridors with skittles spilling out of his hand as he popped one after one into his mouth, never to be seen again. Some thoughts went through his head, why were they training him? He already had pro MLG skills like Ryuu. But no one seemed to notice him! Damn...he must be that good. He was like a ninja...super rainbow ninja, jumping from place to place dispatching his enemies with nothing but a muffle. Yes, he was awesome. So there was...skipping through the corridors when suddenly he saw a disturbing sight. "MAAAAAAATT" He called out as he saw him leaving the training centre. "YOU CANT LEAVE! YOU MUST TRAIN! TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN! IF you want to be awesome like me, you must train! Now get back in there and kick ass like a duck!" Darwin grinned almost like he was ready to eat Matt. Maybe he tasted like an orange skittle.....

- Yutaka -
"Those are both very good answers," Yutaka nodded, smiling broadly under his mask. Then chuckling he announced, "But the correct answer would be: me!" The teacher himself could almost hear the crickets chirping from his lame joke, but he did have a reason for it. "Now now, before you two start waving that off, consider this. I am the one instructing the two of you, so like Carmen said, I would have advantage over both of you in experience. And I have some weapons accessible to me here that I'm very used to using and, like Kathy said, I'd have the advantage in reach as well."

There was more he wanted to explain, but the loud sounds coming from the wooden ring in the dojo grabbed hold of his attention. "Er..." Yutaka looked at the rough fighting going on there, then at the two girls in front of them. His gaze wandered back and forth for a moment as he wondered which was more important to address. 'Tora knows that he should hold back for a student, right?' Well, he would step in if things went too far but for now he gave his fellow instructor the benefit of the doubt. He gave the two girls his undivided attention again and continued the lesson. "For a unique weapon like your trumpet Carmen, experience itself is probably the best teacher but we can start with this: find a place where you can put both your hands on the trumpet and get a good grip on it. Make sure you can let go at any time you need too though, so don't hook your fingers in anywhere and make sure that your thumb isn't pressed between your hand and the instrument."

Turning to Kathy he continued, "Now because Carmen does have a much longer reach, it'll be better for you to use kicks rather than trying to draw in closer for a punch. Unless you're more used to using your fists?" Seeing her shake her head he nodded, "Perfect. Now I want the two of you to take turns, but first let's have Carmen attack while Kathy defends. Slowly, at first, just get used to the motion and stop before you actually hit each other. Then if you get confident the two of you can start adding some force behind it. Carmen, try to practice swinging up or sideways at Kathy from below. Though most people like to swing up from around the head, it's a lot harder to see attacks coming from below so let's practice those first. And Kathy, when it's your turn to defend then I want you to either dodge while moving closer to Carmen or kick the trumpet off to the side so it doesn't hit you." Taking a couple steps back, Yutaka gave them some space to try it out as he watched the red-haired boy start jogging around the dojo. He looked more like someone who had just picked a fight in the streets than a student under the instruction of a legitimate teacher, but at least he was in one piece and seemed to have the energy to move around still.

It was at this point that Yutaka felt a slight poke from behind. "Hm?" Turning around, he saw an interestingly-dressed fellow (Seven). He probably didn't have any right to comment on anyone's attire because of his own, but he saw the humor in it. "Hello there." He greeted, tilting his head up towards the boy (Seven)."Are you here for training as well?"

- Kathy -
Listening to the oddly violent noises coming from the wooden ring, two thoughts came to Kathy's mind. 'Is Crash alright? Isn't he bleeding?!' And, 'I am really glad I chose Yutaka over Tora now.' Her worry and sympathy went out to Crash, but there was quite a large sense of relief that she was not the victim of those heavy blows.

She nodded, listening carefully to Yutaka's instructions for their own training. Keeping her hands closed into loose fists, she took a stance in front of Carmen with both her hands near her hip and one foot slightly in front of the other, shoulder-length apart. "Ready?" Kathy asked Carmen, waiting for her to make the first move so she could run her defense. She seemed a little distracted though, peeking over at Carmen's shoulder every so often when Crash passed by during his laps. At one point she finally asked him, "Are you alright? What exactly was Tora trying to teach you with all that?"

- Carmen -
Carmen listened to the instructor's words intently. When it was time to mock attack Kathy, she was at a bit of a loss. Her normal trumpet playing position was the most ergonomic way to hold it for playing, but due to the long leadpipe might be completely ineffective for fighting. After a moment of experimentation, she arrived on a grip that placed her left hand on the back bell curve and her right gripping the third valve slide. It allowed her a good range of movement and solid grip with leverage. She also noted that she could also jab a rushing opponent with the leadpipe like using the butt of a gun. Looking positively out of her element, Carmen looked at Kathy. "Ready when you are," she said, noting her interest in Crash running by. When there was a break, she decided to begin. "Okay, here we go," she said audibly at Kathy, making sure she was ready before starting. She moved towards Kathy, holding the trumpet low and horizontally, and began the mock swing, which would ideally come up and connect with Kathy's side.

- Crash -
Crash jolted to a halt regretting the action as he leaned against the wooden side of the dojo, he grinned at Kathy his chest heaving as he sucked in oxygen. “Nope, but nothings broken so that’s always a plus” He commented between pants, his eyes flickering from her to Carmen he touched the back of his neck. “Probably not to be such a cocky git” Crash shrugged at her. “You should see the speed this guy moves at...” He chuckled, apparently not concerned about the violent training session. “Don’t look so worried...Dora’s pretty tame, believe me. I’m still standing” He grinned at her, leaning both his arms on the side looking as if he was in no rush to move instead looking rather...content watching Kathy and Carmen.

- Leroy -
Despite Leroy's promise to see Oona down at the beach, he never really stuck to it and went back to his room instead. It had been more of a casual, 'see you there if I do' kind of situation more than a real promise anyway. And besides, 'Beach Olympics' seemed like something more for people interested in the athletic department. Not people like him who were abnormally thin and preferred more a sedentary lifestyle.

So why exactly was this painter making his way over to the training center? Well, one, he had never really received any formal instruction on using his abilities better. And two, which was his real motives, he was interested to see other peoples' abilities at work. He got to see a few of them back in the auditorium of that chaotic day, but he was sure there was still other interesting powers to observe within the diverse academy. Whistling to himself, he entered the magic dojo and looked around to see what everyone else was doing so far.

- Tora -
Tora tilted his head, watching Crash begin to run a hundred laps. The zombie opened his mouth dumbly before loosely closing it again. Maybe he was doing alright, after all? Tora lost all of his knowledge on how emotions exactly worked, so he could not exactly tell what Crash was feeling. The teacher, however, felt accomplished when Crash met up with some random female student.

Maybe he could teach her how to fight as well. He, however, clearly knew that teaching students one-by-one allowed Tora to properly focus in teaching. With that said, the zombie wondered if the female student was Crash's sister.

Tora immediately stopped caring and began to think about what else he could teach Crash. Maybe he could teach him that "bungee" trick nearly every other combat teacher hated...?

- Ryuu -
Ryuu swiftly delivered a single punch at the training bag he placed in front of him, smashing the very center of it with a surprisingly decent accuracy. Something about his hits, however, felt lacking to him. As much as he enjoyed training, training felt incomplete without a partner. Not that he cared about that particular flaw, anymore. The reason why he always fell behind was because he accepted training alone. Now, he sort of improved on working by himself.

The sunglasses-wearing student lied on his back, simply huffing a disgruntled mumble. The free training area he chose was literally filled with grass, a tree, and several training materials. Ryuu had set up the punching bag by using one of the branches to hang it onto. He aimed to improve his overall stamina and strength to prepare himself for any further "crazy stuff" that could happen to him. After all, some demons- yes, demons- decided to attack the freaking academy he began to attend in. And the entire attack was certainly not part of any "opening ceremony," from what he could tell.

But more than worrying for himself, he felt a little worried about... his family. He wondered if the demons would somehow attack them. Sure, they were pretty strong in their own ways, but there were always those dark thoughts about him losing those he considered to be important to his life. And as much as he hated to admit it, he felt most worried about his sister. She was not particularly the combative type, despite being able to control his "totally-sh-t" attitude when he was younger. The last thing he wanted was to have his family attacked instead of him.

So he needed to get stronger so that he would not need to worry about such matters. Lifting himself up from the ground, Ryuu was about to begin training again before he thought about something.

I need a teacher if I want to learn how to use my powers more efficiently, though.

Ryuu sighed. Admitting that he needed some training in his powers, the otaku reluctantly left the free-training area to the magic dojo.

- Seven -
Seven looked down at the weird man with the mask and gave a tired yawn, still playing with his hair. “Maybe… I don’t know…there is nothing fun to do here!! I need something to kill or something!!” Seven said in a sour mood, like a very grumpy cat. His tail droop down like the only thing that was holding up his body was like a board on his chest. His ears also droop down and her gave out a pathetic mew. “Give me something to do Mask man!! “ Seven shouted at him then lie on his back getting annoyed with boredom, his worst fear water second…boredom.

- Cyber -
Cyber looked at the empty lot but just continue to walk while holding Alistair. As they went closer things began unravel it turned to three big dojos…. “Wow, Man I am ready!!” Cyber said as he ran towards the dojo and looked at each one. “Which one? I think I will go to this one! Come on Alistair!!” He ran to one dojo (Physical) and looked around, punching bags and a fighting match!! It was like a boxing game, Cyber smiled and began to stretch a bit more… maybe he though he could have change but no time for that now! “So Alistair ready? This might help you too!!”

- Kathy -
Seeing that Carmen seemed to be aiming for her side, Kathy decided to dodge instead of kicking the trumpet away. ’Dodge closer to Carmen.’ She repeated in her mind, moving slightly sideways as she took a step towards her. She was beginning to see the point of just having a ‘mock’ spar. Her normal reaction would have been just to jump back, but that would have made her unable to attack Carmen as well. Actually stepping forward while dodging, however, put her past the trumpet’s ideal range and made it easier for her to get a hit into Carmen if she took advantage of the opening quickly enough. “Let’s keep going.” Smiling, she stepped back to the same range as before and readied herself again.

Kathy gave Crash a funny look. “I’d be really worried if you broke anything during training.” She wanted to actually do something to help tend to the bruises forming, but she was in the middle of training herself and didn't want to interrupt Carmen or Crash's valuable training time. Then tilting her head slightly to the side she asked, “A cocky git? Did you do something to rile the teacher up?” She thought that was kind of unlikely, but she didn’t know enough about the interaction between Crash and Tora to make any other conclusions. She let out a laugh at the inaccurate name Crash mentioned, instantly imagining a small cartoon girl with a pink shirt and purple backpack. She laughed, “Dora? I thought you were going to call him Hook?”

Summary: Training continues. A group forms at the ranged training dojo. Kathy is distracted by Crash. Nobody is surprised.

- Crash -
Crash glanced over his shoulder at Tora sheepishly, the zombieish man looked pretty spaced out so he was sure he was safe for the moment. Leaning on his elbow he propped his chin on the tops of his knuckles watching Carmen and Kathy with intrigue, absorbing both reactions noting how Carmen held the trumpet strategically before striking and how not only stepping forwards but sideways worked in Kathy's favour. I wish I'd heard what Yutaka said earlier He glanced at Kathy as she gave him a funny look, he blinked at her a sheepish look entering his expression. "...well we can't have that, I'll be careful promise" He grinned at her, though quickly averted his gaze at her next question lifting his head as his hand rubbed the back of his neck. "Not so much rile him up...just worded my interest wrong" He murmured, his trade mark smile returning as she laughed although he wasn't aware of his mistake until she repeated the name, he felt his smile widen into a grin. "My bad, he accidentally put a 'D' at the front of his name must have stuck in my mind" He shrugged, relaxing back onto the side of the wooden boxing ring crimson eyes admiring his friend's...technique.

- Little Feather & Lion -
Little Feather tilted her head to the side listening to Dani having helped him to his feet, she retracted her hand fiddling with the ring on her finger thoughtfully, giggling at his comment about being a terrible runner in a marathon. She watched him address Garden with a sense of awe, unsure whether this was a normal custom that she was unaware of...should she be bobbing or bending at the middle every time she greeted Garden? Lion rather enjoyed both of the students reactions his tail flicked behind him as he first addressed Garden. "No offense taken m'lady" He purred lifting his jaws in a grin, tough his ears flickered as he settled her with a thoughtful gaze. Turning his head slowly to look at Dani who was looking around in search of the 'man' that owned the deep and melodic voice, he purred appreciatively at Garden as she patted his head and explained to Dani who had spoken. "Apologies Dani, I didn't mean to startle you" He apologized to the purple haired boy. "I'm glad you think so" He made a motion to rub his cheek against Garden's leg, careful not to disturb Sunflower. Little Feather rubbed her hands together nervously before reaching for Lion and sliding her fingers into his mane, the beast pressed his shoulder against her leg in a comforting manner. "Range...sounds great" The Lakota woman lied convincingly, she could tell Garden really wanted to go there and she didn't want to part ways with either of the two students. Are you sure? Lion grumbled so only Little Feather and the feline atop his head would understand, he lifted his bright blue eyes to watch Little Feather, she nodded at him with a small smile.

- Matt -
"MAAAAAAATT! YOU CANT LEAVE! YOU MUST TRAIN! TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN! IF you want to be awesome like me, you must train! Now get back in there and kick *** like a duck!" called a voice from behind Matt. Matt whipped around and looked sheepishly a his old pal, Darwin.
"Er... About that. You see, I am going to train, just sort of... Elsewhere..." Matt trailed off as his eyes glanced over at Crash. Crash seemed to be looking a bit less beat up now that he was moving around, but still... Matt didn't feel comfortable in the same room as a teacher who would do that sort of thing to someone.
"I was thinking of moving over to the ranged dojo. I heard they had archery, and shooting targets with a bow and arrow sounds pretty fun." Especially compared to this place... Matt thought with a frown.

- Alistair -
Alistair was frankly surprised as the world around them bent and shifted to show 3 buildings instead of an empty lot "interesting magic" he waved his free hand in front of him as Cyber had stopped to look at the building and part of the original lot he saw formed below his hand, he laughed "the lot's just an illusion, how interesting, I'm surprised I didn't see through it, i can see through most" he turned to cyber as she said “Which one? I think I will go to this one! Come on Alistair!!”and pulled him towards one of the building "alright!"
“So Alistair ready? This might help you too!!” Alistair grinned a little maliciously "Oh I'm ready! how are we going to train Cyber?! one-on-one?"

- Carmen -
Despite the instructor telling Kathy two things she should pick from, Carmen was still unsure which one Kathy would pick, and so was not prepared for the dodge. This was certainly enjoyable, even if elementary. "Agreed," she responded to Kathy, giving a soft smile. She prepared again, with an altered tactic. This time when she went at Kathy, she directed her swing more vertically than horizontally, giving Kathy less of a chance to dodge by going forward. There was still plenty of chance to dodge, but she thought it would work. She started the swing going very sideways like before, but lower, and quickly curved it to go almost completely upwards. Hopefully, it would connect with Kathy this time, but she learned just as much when Kathy dodged it.

- Kathy -
"Hey, you already promised to be careful, remember?" Kathy smiled, tilting her head to side as she looked at Crash. "Does 'you're not allowed to get Crash hurt' ring any bells?" Laughing she added, "You need to be able to remember your promises to keep them right?" She watched as he avoided her gaze and began rubbing the back of his neck in answer to her quest about riling the teacher up. 'He really isn't suited for lying.' She thought with a fond smile. Though she was curious about what he meant exactly, she took the vagueness of his answer as a sign he wasn't all that keen on telling her the full story and decided to drop it. "Wait, you mean Tora was the one that made the mistake first?" She asked, confused but not doubting Crash's words. Kathy momentarily turned her head to glance at the other instructor. 'Now that I think about it, I haven't even heard Tora speak before. Is it because he has a strange accent or lisp of some sort?' Shaking her head at him she asked, "Taking a break already?"

Turning her attention back to Carmen, she got ready for the next short exchange. Even if she had been looking for it, the vertical swing was slightly harder to perceive and her reaction just a split later than it should have been. Caught by surprise, she accidentally resorted to her old tactic and sprung back, putting distance between them. "Ah." Realizing her mistake, she sighed. "That was a habit of mine, sorry." If Carmen had actually used her full strength and speed behind that one, she thought that it would have probably connected. And if it was a real fight, she would have given her opponent an unnecessary advantage again from having a wider reach than her. Kathy walked back to the same distance again and readied herself again with a slightly more determined look. "Again."

- Carmen -
Carmen was only too happy to oblige. In Kathy's surprise and backwards spring, Carmen learned still more. Sure that Kathy wouldn't make the same mistake again, she altered her approach yet again. This time, she would come in from the opposite side, quickly switching her approach as late as possible in an attempt to fool Kathy into preparing to block the other side. It was sort of a long shot, but she had already done side and up, so she figured she might as well do the other side. Glancing over at the instructor, she noticed him just calmly observing, not saying a word. Yet. As she planned, she moved towards Kathy and switched her approach at the last second, swinging towards Kathy from the left side instead of the right.

- Crash -
Crash’s eyebrow twitched up, his mouth twisting into an amused smile though he looked a little surprised at her comment, his hand thudding against his chest as if in mock hurt. “Wow...Miss Argall, do you really think I’d forget a promise?” He queried. “I’m hurt by such a thought, I’ll have you know I never break my promises” He admitted with an honest grin. “Yes, he can’t really speak from what I can tell so he wrote down some instructions...he’s far more talented at fighting than writing” He explained trying not to sound rude about his teacher but be truthful at the same time, he wasn’t exactly good with words at the best of times. He tilted his head to the side as she shook her head at him, a reply to her question jumping to the tip of his tongue asking him to be bold enough to say it. “Just admiring the view while I recover” He grinned cheekily. ...Oh good...I actually said that out loud...

- Kathy -
Kathy watched Carmen's movements carefully, knowing from her second attempt that she was not just going to stick to the same patterns as before. Thinking that the attack was coming from the left, she waved over to the right. However, that was the trap. Carmen suddenly switched the trajectory of the trumpet and came at her from the right. She brought her knee up to try to kick it, but knew she had already lost her timing and didn't bother following through with the defense. She smiled at her practice partner. "That was a good one." Licking her lips, she retreated back to the predetermined distance once more. She had lost that exchange now, but with it she got a small idea and wanted to try it out.

"Oh? I'll be sure to hold you to that promise then, no excuses." She laughed, joining in on Crash's jest. Glancing over at Tora again for a second she admitted, "He does give off that sort of feeling... You know, being better at physical activities than academics?" Kathy was a little surprised he had chosen to write something out to Crash, but supposed Tora had to have some method of actually communicating with with students if he was a teacher. Then hearing Crash's cheeky comment, her stance wavered a bit as she felt a flush rise up to her cheeks. 'Did he just..? Did I hear that right?' Looking at Carmen, she waved her hands a bit and asked, "S-Sorry, can I get a time out? Just for a bit." Taking in a deep breath she pointed at Crash and told him, "No distractions from the sidelines please..!" With all her embarrassment, she wasn't sure whether to just take it as flattery or question what view he was actually even really referring to.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda had left soon after the Beach Olympics were over, she had heard about a training thing so she followed everyone else towards a vacant lot. when she crossed the threshold it warped into 3 separate buildings, she stopped and looked around, finally she decided on a building and walked towards it (magic dojo). she walked in a gaped, it was a huge library. she slowly walked in with a wide mouth. someone walked in behind her she turned to see Ryuu "Oh! Ryuu!" she blushed a little "Hi!, you did a good job in the ... the ... uh, the contest" she smiled "do you know where we are? some kind of ... of 'dojo' i think they called it" she looked around "it's a really pretty place" she saw another guy inside with them (Leroy) and waved shyly at him before returning her attention to Ryuu.

- Ryuu -
Ryuu walked up to the dojo of magic. Now, he personally expected a lot of weirdos to be bragging about how smart they were right in front of the entrance. Much to his surprise, there weren't those kinds of idiots.

...Then again, maybe I'm thinking that my entire life is an anime. Of course not every academy with magic would have idiots bragging about how strong they are.

The otaku got closer to the building. Before he entered the dojo, however, he met someone he personally felt guilty in meeting in.

Ryuu rubbed the back of his head as he stopped in front of Andromeda. With a guilty look written on his face, the otaku simply mumbled,

"Uh... heya."

Andromeda was kind enough to actually congratulate him! He felt a little happy about that, actually. It felt better than being barked down by disappointed insults. When she averted the topic toward asking on where she was, Ryuu simply answered her,

"Well, this place is the 'magicka' dojo, or at least, that's how I like to call it. You can just call it a training ground for magic, though."

The otaku found the girl's awed reaction to the dojo quite adorable. It was something he'd see rarely in his life... except in anime. Thankfully, women invoked different reactions from him when they were three-dimensional instead of being made of pixels. Ryuu, feeling a lot more confident with the fact that Andromeda did not seem to mind using her time to cheer for a slowpoke like him, asked the fellow sunglasses-wearing student,

"So... you here to train as well?"

Ryuu thanked the heavens that what he said sounded too stupid to be a pick-up line.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda didn't quite like the way he looked guilty and it made her feel a little bad. she pulled at the strings of her bikini bottoms, but she'd done it enough that she didn't undo the bottoms, but she realized what it might look like so she pulled her hand away. she pulled one of her snakes down and ran her hands down it like someone would a lock of hair, at first it was about to snap at her hand but then it seemed to sense her feelings and stopped.
When he said "Well, this place is the 'magicka' dojo, or at least, that's how I like to call it. You can just call it a training ground for magic, though." she blinked "Waaah! seriously!" she looked back "wow"
then he asked her if she was going to train, she smiled and nodded "yeah, it seems i came to the right place, magic would be more useful to me then physical combat, i heard something about a firearms dojo too, i might want to head there later, as well, what about you Ryuu?"

- Carmen -
Carmen felt satisfied with a successful mock attack. However, she soon felt even more satisfied when Crash showed up. By now, she knew it was only a matter of time before Code Red occurred, and it occurred very quickly and very humorously. Carmen had an endearing grin on her face, trying (this time successfully) to suppress laughter. "Take all the time you need," she said with a playful streak. She decided to take the opportunity to ask the teacher about the three spars they had done so far. "Do you have any suggestions for me? I'm still pretty new to all of this," she admitted to the gas mask man.

- Garden -
Garden smiled at Sir Lion who like a cat rubs his cheek at her leg, she really like Sir Lion he was like a big protective kitty cat but can only...kill you... she and held hands with Little Feather. "This will be fun Lady Little Feather and I bet we will learn well from it too!" Garden said then pet Sir Lion and Sunflower. "You two make a cute pairing!" She said happily as she then looked at Sir Dani, smiling happily to him like a child at a playground. "I would like it if you join us Sir Dani but it's your choice." She said to him offering her other hand to him and giving a sweet and kind smile.

- Cyber -
Cyber was getting ready, he needed to train... no way he was letting that Alexandria bitch beat him. He started to practice some punches and kicks even though he was in a dress. "Hell yeah!! I can't any asshole out!!" Cyber shouted doing a fist pump. He looked at his dress thinking he might be in a disadvantage and opened his backpack there he still had a lot of clothes he could change into. He saw this really cute dress even though it wasn't really training gear he would love to kick ass with it. Cyber looked around to see a changing room and ran there, he remove the dress he was wearing and wore a black and orange dress then came out. Even though it was sort near his thighs he made it really REALLY sure that if he kicked or jump wearing a short like dress no one will see his...gender at all. He walked again to Alistair and gave out a fighting stance. "I am ready!!"

- Zivon -
Zivon waited for a while but then he looked at the three dojos and decided to see. He put the phone in his pocket and started to limp there, as he was close enough he looked wondering which one to go. "um...which one...what if I pick something that could injure me!? Or mental scare me!?" Zivon panicked a bit, making decisions was like life and death to him. He closed his eyes, shaking with fear he then started to walk near a dojo (magic) without knowing it and opened the door. It was amazing once he opened his eyes, a gigantic library, stone pillar, floating lights that leave a beautiful fairy dust! It was like the books he had read before. He didn't even mind other students were there, he goes near a shelf and scan through the books, he was an avid book reader and this was like heaven for him. "I never seen so many books!" Zivon said, he was enjoying this place but forgot it was a dojo for a reason.

- Crash -
Crash propped his chin back atop his knuckles watching Carmen's new technique his eyebrow twitching up at the deceptive yet clever move, he ran his fingers from his jawline to his chin thoughtfully watching Kathy's reaction. Her reply to his jest made him chuckle to himself. Pretty sure I just shot myself in the foot...I haven't mastered control over my clumsy nature He watched her glance travel to Tora again, he followed her gaze suppressing a small laugh as he realized how spaced out the teacher currently looked completely spaced out. "Your perception knows no bounds, ma chère" Crash jested maintaining his cheeky grin, apparently on a cheeky streak. "I have a theory he's way more...'academic' than he comes across" Crash added scratching his injury free cheek idly, as he glanced back at her he realized she had a slight flush to her cheeks. Oh crap...knew I shouldn't have said that He lifted a hand to the back of his neck automatically adopting a somewhat bashful look as she waved her hands and called for a time out he shifted his gaze to see Carmen's reaction, catching the endearing grin on her face, made his cheeks color and confirmed his previous thought. He resettled his crimson eyes on Kathy as she pointed at him, he blinked as few times taking in what she had said before presenting her with his trademark grin another response flickering to the tip of his tongue he heard Carmen turn to Yutaka and ask a question. "I'm sorry, how am I distracting you?" He asked Kathy taking the chance given to him knowing he would probably pay for his cheek later. "I'm learning" He offered though his mouth had twitched up into a smirk.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka gently told the boy (Seven), "No killing allowed here I'm afraid. You'll have to deal with a very scary lady named Maria if you do." Laughing, he told him his name. "It's Yutaka or Mr. Ito by the way. Though if you'd prefer Mask Man, then I'm sure I can remember that much." He (Seven) wasn't the first student to give him that nickname and probably wouldn't be the last either. Now the slight troubling part about this student was that he said he wasn't even sure if he was training, and probably had no idea what he wanted to do. Well, that was basically putting two clueless folks in front of a giant puzzle. He waved over at Annie, hoping she would have some sort of idea on what to do. "Want to help me with this student?" He asked. "I'm currently helping out with these two ladies so I could use an extra pair of hands."

Turning his attention over to Carmen, Yutaka smiled. It was always good to see an enthusiastic student that was willing to ask questions. Though he tried to pay attention and approach them himself if he saw any particularly shy students, but there was only so much he could do if they weren't willing to ask for help when they needed it. "First, you'll want to keep your elbows closer to your body." He told her, pretending to hold a weapon in his hand as well as he demonstrated. First he showed how Carmen had swung her trumpet the first time, then did it again keeping his arms closer to his body. "It's a minor difference and it'll feel awkward at first, but you basically want to make the area someone can target as small as possible. You'll create less blind spots for yourself that way as well." Now since most people didn't know any better, it was generally very ironic to hear Yutaka suggest that people decrease the number of 'blind spots' when he was a walking example of everything you probably shouldn't wear into battle. One, all his masks would've greatly narrowed his vision if he was a normal human (though luckily for him, he wasn't). Two, all the fluttering and loose Japanese clothes he wore were perfect examples of clothes that were easy for opponents to grab onto and to become a hindrance when attempting to move quickly. Again, his abilities made up for the 'hindrance', but he probably needed to consider becoming a better example for the sake of the students.

- Kathy -
Kathy smiled and nodded gratefully at Carmen, thankful that the girl had decided to let her embarrassment slide instead of teasing her this time. There had been a hint of playfulness in the musician's voice, but that much she could take. If anything, it made her like Carmen more for her friendly nature. After watching Carmen go up to talk to Yutaka, she walked over to where Crash was. Catching the smirk on his face, she couldn't resist a slight poke at him. Literally. She brought her finger up and gently poked the bruise on his face. "Now I know guys don't care about their looks as much as girls, but don't you think you'll want to avoid hits here?" Satisfied with her mini-vengeance, she switched the topic back to his cheeky question. "Geez, you know exactly what I'm talking about." She let out a sigh, but the smile on her face seemed to imply she found his cheekiness more endearing than irritating. Shaking her head she continued, "Just what's with this evil streak going on with you today? Have you been influenced by someone?"

- Darwin -
Darwin tilted his head at Matt. Ranged training? Darwin loved ranged training. "Aw cool!" He said jumping up and down. "I'll join you, it'll be like we're ranged bros! You can be the brawn and I'll be the grains!" He grinned at the Phoenix. "Sounds cool right?"

- Dani -
"Apologies Dani, I didn't mean to startle you" Lion to Dani.
"Oh, it's just you." Dani said, then realized that that might have sounded offensive. "Not that I'm disappointed that it's you- I mean- I'm glad that it's you- I mean." Dani promptly shut his mouth. He was only digging his hole deeper, and that was the last thing he wanted.
"I would like it if you join us Sir Dani but it's your choice." Garden asked, offering her hand.
"Where are you going? You know, besides to train." Dani asked. "I heard the ranged dojo has archery, that might be fun."

- Carmen -
Carmen listened and observed as the instructor gave her advice. She hadn't been thinking at all about what her elbows had been doing, so it was advice that she was sure to heed from here on out. "Thank you, I'll try that next time," she responded to the teacher with a satisfied smile. "I hadn't been thinking about my elbows. It makes sense." This was exactly the sort of advice she needed, what with minimal fighting experience. Every tip she was given would elevate her fighting skill significantly. Briefly glancing over at Kathy enough to catch her grateful nod, Carmen couldn't help but grin. That pair was great fun to mess with, that was for sure. As long as Kathy would still have time to train with Carmen, she welcomed their awkwardness.

- Crash -
Crash’s smirk widened into a smile as Kathy approached him, he remained leant forward over the side, raising an eyebrow at her as she brought her finger up to his face, he winced as she poked the bruise on his face, his face falling for a moment. “Dededede easy on the face” He complained pouting at her as he resisted the urge to lift his hand to the nick on is cheek knowing it would only sting more, his eyebrow twitched up at her comment. “I’d rather avoid hits at all times, but I seem to be a magnet for that kind of thing” He grinned at her, crimson eyes dancing with amusement. He chuckled relieved to see her smile taking it as a positive sign, one that meant perhaps she didn’t mind his cheekiness at the moment. Crash leant forward on his forearms, his lip twitched up into a soft smile as he mused over her question.”You know I’m not entirely sure I do know what you’re talking about” He teased her further, feigning innocence although he visibly tensed as if expecting to be thwacked for being a git. "Have I been influenced by someone to do what? Be complimentary?" Crash chuckled at her questions. "If I was being 'evil'..." Crash started, lifting his hands and making quotation marks as he said evil, still grinning in his idiotic fashion he didn't however finish his sentence however as he caught Carmen glance over at Kathy and grin. "Never mind, I think Carmen's waiting for you" He pointed out, poking at her side for no reason what so ever. "Time to show off some more moves" He added, his mouth relaxing into a smile.

- Kathy -
"Haha, that's true." Kathy laughed, imagining all the injuries he probably incurred from his clumsiness alone. It was odd how she'd be worried if she saw Crash getting injured directly, but just imagining the accidents seemed rather funny. Probably for the same reason 'fail videos' were popular on the internet. She made a dramatic sigh as she shook her head, pretending to be exasperated with him. Not quite pulling off the right look with the smile and amused look in her eyes though. She now knew that he was older than her, but out of acquired habit, she reached up and ruffled his hair. Besides, he still acted younger than her. "I'll get back at you soon, just you wait." She grinned in challenge. Then nodding as she glanced over at Carmen she answered, "Yeah. I should probably get back there." Feeling the poke at her side, she moved and laughed, feeling slightly ticklish from it. "Hey!" She considered poking back at his side too, knowing he was much weaker with it than she was, but she decided to let it slide for now. "Stop procrastinating and get back to your own training as well."

Returning over to where Carmen was, Kathy made a sheepish smile and said, "Thanks. Sorry for keeping you waiting."

- Melanie -
Melanie watched as all the students went flocking to the other teachers. Wow...they were good. She sighed as she thought of a plan to get people ready to destroy the undead. he glared at the zombie teacher, she never cared for the undead, they were mindless killing machines who smelled like garbage. Ah well......she still had one way to get all these kids prepared for vampire hunting. She whipped a box of brownies from her dress and held them up in the dojo. "FREE BROWNIES!" She announced. "If you want to learn how to kill vampires come here.....for free brownies!" She smiled sweetly. Bribery always worked.

- Crash -
Crash grinned at Kathy as she laughed, one of his favorite sounds as of recent, he raised his eyebrows at her rather dramatic sigh as she shook her head, he found himself chuckling at her attempt unfortunately the smile gave her away a did that amused twinkle in her eye. “Oh really? I will wait with bated breath then” Crash noted the challenge, though there was curiosity present in his expression. “Probably” Crash agreed in a murmur though he didn’t sound overly enthusiastic. A rather playful look crossed his face as she laughed and moved away from his poke, he reached out to poke her again for good measure. “Oh do I detect a slightly ticklish area?” He grinned at her, quite glad she hadn’t thought or more to the point decided to pay him back for it. “Perhaps I can come join in with yours for a bit” He suggested cheekily having now made a motion to hop over the edge of Tora’s ring however in typical Crash style he caught his foot in the process which sent him toppling over to the side with enough momentum to result in him dropping and rolling towards Kathy and Carmen at speed, it'd be pretty impressive if they managed to avoid the clumsy shapeshifter

- Ara -
Wanting to take a chance to rest after the Beach Olympics, Ara returned to his room. He instantly heard a voice coming from the mirror. "Woah, what happened to you?" B looked incredibly amused, noticing the spatters of paint on his skin and hair. He had changed back, but hadn't bothered to really clean himself up from all the mess. "Stuff. You'll see when we switch." He answered. B looked surprised. "You're going to switch with me now?" They had agreed that she would get her chance at nightfall, so she hadn't expected him to willingly trade places until then. But more than eager to take the chance up, she nodded her head in agreement. Placing a hand on the mirror, watching B do the same, they traded places. To an outside observed it would look like A just suddenly became replaced with B, the exchange occurring in an instant without any real noticeable transitions.

Ara (now B) smiled, happy to be out and get a chance to enjoy herself outside. "Hmm, not bad A. Looks like you've met a couple of interesting people." Rubbing her hands mischievously in anticipation, she changed from her usual dress into a pair of purple yoga pants and a white t-shirt. Walking over to the training area, she noticed a large group with some people she didn't recognize from A's memories. Curious about the lion with a small kitty on top of his/her head and the fact a few of the members of the group (Garden and Little Feather) were dressed different from the rest, she went up to them with a friendly smile on her face. "Hey there! I don't know too many people here yet so I was hoping I could join you guys for the training. Would that be alright?"

Summary: Alistair and Cyber have a fight, which logically ends with a kiss. (wut?) Crash goes bowling with himself, knocking down the Kathy and Carmen pins.

- Alistair -
Alistair watched with a funny look on his face as Cyber started doing odd things. something dawned in the back of his brain but he ignored it as Cyber went and got changed. Her dress certainly made his inkling hard to believe but he filed it away for future thought. she got into a fighting stance and said she was ready. his grin turned a little scary as he also slid into a fighting position "throw a few practice hits so i can get a quick idea of your fighting style, i'll do the same for you if you like" he winked "try not to hurt me"

- Cyber -
Cyber smiled, he was really excited it has been a while since he may have...sort of train? in a way..."I will try... but no promises!" he said.
He felt like he was Chie Satanoka from Persona 4, which she was one of his idols. Cyber then did a weird movement then gave two light punches just close enough not to his Alistair then he step back enough and a Chie style awesome kick He then backed again once for one more move. Cyber slide down on the floor and did a side sweep kick at Alistair legs, making him fall. He didn't care if his underwear was showing he made sure he hid his gender properly. He gave a smirk and when back doing the weird movement thing but still smirking at him. “Your turn!”

- Little Feather & Lion -
Lion purred up at Garden as she petted his head blinking at her as she mentioned a 'cute pairing' he had no idea what she was on about. Little Feather blinked as Garden grabbed her free hand she was a little surprised by the sudden burst of energy from the other woman but grinned at her all the same feeling oddly comforted by the simple gesture maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought. "Ok if you say so" She agreed with Garden, turning her gaze to Dani as the princess addressed him and offered him her other hand. Lion raised the ridge above his eye. Now skip to the training stadium and I shall hum that endearing children's tune involving a yellow brick road Lion purred to Little Feather who eased her fingers out of his mane and brought her fist down lightly on his head in a 'bonk' motion, he ducked away from her hand grumbling at her. Lion tilted his head ever so slightly as Dani seemed to stumble over his words. "...Ok then" He decided on saying. "I suppose that's a good thing all round then" He offered the boy a lion-ish grin. "We're on our way to the ranged dojo actually, Garden figured it would be an interesting place to start" He explained to Dani, his tail flicking behind him.His ears flickered as he heard a new voice he turned his head, blinking at the newcomer when he didn't recognize them he turned and butted his nose against Little Feather's leg. "Hey, sure you can we're heading over to the ranged dojo. I'm Little Feather, this is Garden" She started indicating the woman beside her as she said Garden. "And that's Dani" She continued pointing towards the purple haired boy. "And this is Lion, with his new hat Sunflower" She finished with a small grin pointing at the Lion who purred a greeting to the girl. "Can I ask what your name is?" Little Feather queried instead of waiting.

- Ara -
"Nice to meet you all." Ara smiled again, greeting each of them with a nod of her head as Little Feather went around and introduced everyone. She laughed, looking at the 'hat' on top of Lion's head. "Well, that's the second best hat I've seen today. Excellent choice there Lion." No one here probably really knew what she was referring to but she just continued on without putting too much depth on her hat reference. "My name's Ara. And the ranged dojo sounds interesting, thanks for letting me join in."

- Garden -
Garden politely curtsied to Ara and gave a sweet smile. "Second best hat? I wonder what's the first... Nice to meet you Lady Ara too." She said in a calm tone, she then picked up Sunflower from Sir Lion head and petted him. "So everyone I think we should go in now, better late than ever" She said 'Was there a time schedule? uuhh....' she didn't think properly on what she said but she just shook her head and looked at the range dojo. Garden walked there and looking back at the others. she opened the doors slightly but still outside waiting for the others. She just petted the sleeping Sunflower while she waited.

- Alistair -
Alistair grinned when he saw the bouncing gait she had, something in the movement didn't seem to look quite right on 'her' but he ignored it, the punches he blocked easily, the first kicked was slightly harder but still blockable. the 3rd kick did knock him on his butt, which brought a smile to his face. he stood back up. he took his stance (this without the fire) and faced Cyber with a smile. in one quick motion he slid forward and kicked her legs out from under her. then went back to the original stance as Cyber stood up, he then began to bend backwards, putting his hands down and bringing both feet off the ground and kicking at cyber's shoulders (instead of her head as he normally would in a real fight) and bent backwards into a static (unmoving) version of Cyber own stance. "should i do more?" he asked with a wink and am i allowed to use my powers?" he chuckled.

- Cyber -
Cyber was really shock in how Alistair was able to knock him out quickly but he liked the challenge he then stood up biting his bottom lip from the small sting of pain at his shoulder. "No, only your true strength now!!" With that said he charged at him doing a a punch and a kick that was quick enough to hit Alistair with good force. Then he stepped back and gave a a very strong sucker punch at Alistair shoulder, then slid behind him doing another side sweep kick and a lightly punching his shoulder again. "This is fun!! But I think you are just holding back!!" Cyber taunted at him happily.

- Alistair -
Alistair was enjoying this, it had been a very long time since the swamp fights he and his brothers would have. He let most of cyber's hits land as they didn't so him much harm.
"if i'm holding back sweetheart, you don't want to see when me when i'm not" he winked playfully and did a backflip to land behind Cyber, did a handstand and a spin kick that would at the very least make Cyber stumble forward. then flipped in such a way that his feet caught Cyber's shoulders and pushed her backwards as he went passed her. he slid back into his original fighting stance, with a taunting smile.

- Cyber -
Cyber was getting wrecked, he never knew that Alistair could do those moves it was like he was a video game character himself. He fell on his butt and bit his bottom lip again cringing the pain on several parts of his body. "Come on... this is just child's play..." Cyber stood up and did the weird movement and gave a very strong kick but he lost his footing and slipped making him landing on his face. "Ah!" He hit his face hard but he rubbed his face with his hands and stood up again. "I-I just sl-lip!!" Cyber felt embarrassed... he never feels embarrassed like he never want to. Cyber then tried to punch Alistair but slipped again and landed on his elbow. "F--k!!' Cyber shouted as he felt like he was being destroyed... by himself!! "This f-king!! Gah!! Sh-t Christ!!" Cyber cursed loudly as he stood up slipping again, landing on his butt. "You got to be kidding me!!" Cyber shouted, he felt really angry and frustrated, his rage and anger was boiling really badly until he didn't realized that he was using Cyber click and turned back to Alistair, he had a pissed of face but oddly enough...have a red blush on his face. Binary codes floated around him and his eyes turned a light futuristic color blue and red. He then ran up to Alistair and did a flame kick (Pokemon). His angry was making him go crazy mad.

- Alistair -
Alistair was frankly surprised when Cyber fell, when it happened a second time he put out a hand "do you need assistance?" instead of answering she cursed and stood, but fell yet again. then her eyes began to glow and Alistair stepped back a few times. then she tried to kick him with a flaming foot, Alistair went immaterial a mere second too late and got a good scorch. as a wisp he floated away from cyber with sounds of distress, it was an automatic response, meant to call other wisps to his aide, as there were none to call his powers did it for him and a good dozen illusory wisps shuddered into existence around cyber, encircling her, all letting out the same distress signal. then the sounds morphed into what should be a calming tone.

- Cyber -
Cyber watched as turned into his wisp form he guessed, as what looks like more wisp circled around him and made some noise that annoyed him so much that he used Mazionga (lightning attack that attacks all foes from Persona). Zapping each one of the weird wisp making sure he hits Alistair then he did a flip then with all of his rage started to destroy some punching bags with Seal bomb (a multi attack on foes from persona) destroying each one of them, nothing was stopping his awful rage.

- Alistair -
Alistair let out a high-pitched wail when he was hit with the shock attacked and dropped, his light dimming. it occurred to him that normal calming methods wouldn't work on this kind of divine rage. as so he changed human, he had a scorch mark on his chest, just visible below his shirt, and across his shoulder. he stood up, weakly. and quietly approached. before Cyber could relax he grabbed her and (insert anti-gay argument here, done? ok) kissed her, fully expecting to get hit for it.

- Cyber -
Cyber didn't expect it... he never expect that to happen!! He was kissed by Alistair...kissed, his eyes turned back to normal and his rage was going away but the only thing he felt. Pure utter embarrassment. He couldn't believe that just happen, his face turned bright red and he lost all feelings of his legs. Cyber kissed a couple of guys before but only because it was his plan to get what he wants but this time... The first thing the pop up in his head was to..Cyber gave a very strong slap on Alistair face. "Aahh!!" He shouted, his face boiling with embarrassment but he just walked away a bit and started to think. He never felt so embarrassed in all of his life.

- Alistair -
Alistair took the slap like a man. he had expected it and deserved it. it still stung a little.
"are you feeling better now Cyber?" he coughed "i must apologize for my actions, i could think of nothing else to bring you to your senses, as i did not believe you would kiss me of your own volition" he clasped his hands behind his back "i will take whatever punishment you deem worthy, i just hope you are alright now"

- Cyber -
Cyber looked back at Alistair, face still burning with embarrassment but he then walked up to him and punched hard on his stomach. "Never do that again!!" He said, showing of his pissed of side yet it was only fueled by embarrassment. He then looked around and saw that he caused quite a mess, even at Alistair. Cyber touched the scorched mark on Alistair's chest. "I went crazy again...I should really calm down for once and not hurt anyone anymore..." He said a sort of moody tone. "Sorry... I should bring you to a doctor or someone can fix this.." He looked away, still feeling embarrassed of the kiss the he touched his lips.

- Alistair -
Alistair didn't quite expect the punch and as he was a bit unstable on his feet anyway he dropped to a knee, then fell backwards into a sitting position. he muttered "i deserved that"
then she leaned down and touched the scorch mark on his chest, the touch stung for sure but he tried not to show it "I went crazy again...I should really calm down for once and not hurt anyone anymore... Sorry... I should bring you to a doctor or someone can fix this.." Alistair waved off her concern "i'll be ok, i'm made of tougher stuff then you give me credit for, everyone goes crazy every now and then" when he saw the embarrassed look on her face he said "there's a phase in every wisps life, where we can't control ourselves, it's our parent's job to make sure we don't hurt anyone" he looked at her "i didn't actually go through that phase until i came here, and i was alone, with no one keep me from hurting people, it's ok to go crazy every now and then, just keep in mind that you haven't hurt as many people as i have" his voice was sad and he tried to catch her eyes as he said it.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda felt that Ryuu didn't really want to talk to her right now, mainly from the guilty look on his face "i'll talk to you later ok?" and she walked off into the library like complex and straight into someone else (Zivon), she dropped to the ground and her glasses slid off "Oh My God! I'm So Sorry! But Can You See My Glasses? I Need Them Badly"

- Cyber -
Cyber listened carefully to what Alistair said, he then patted Alistair head and help get up. "Okay...but still...it's not right to hurt someone even though you don't know them or care for them... it just not right when you think about it." Cyber said, he knew he was being hypocritical but he didn’t care, he looked around, trying to find someone who can help Alistair. “You there was this time I hurt someone, ya I know he was an ass but still…after what I have done to him…I can only blame myself. Anger is such a dreadful thing yet why am…” Cyber shook his head again and gave a fake smile like what…he usually does. “Never mind that but come on lets find you a doctor…It’s better if get better soon… we have to be ready for Alexandria…” Cyber said looking around for a medic of some kind. He wished he could use Cyber click again to help Alistair heal but he wanted to save it for the battle or when Alexandria shows up. He touched his lips again feeling quite….nervous oddly.

- Zivon -
Zivon was busy looking at the books until a person or a…gorgon? The person was looking for glasses but Zivon stood still, paralyzed with fear but he tried to pick up the glasses but drop them again, he was afraid that his powers will destroy it. “I-I-I….H-h-he- r-re…” He stuttered as he quickly grabbed the glasses and gave them quickly to the girl. He quickly brought his hands back and was shaking with fear. In his head he couldn’t stop believing he will cause trouble and destroying everything. …..” He whimpered like a kick puppy.

- Alistair -
Alistair nodded "it's not like i'm defending my actions, just wanted to give you something to think about" then she helped him up "thanks" he was wobbly on his feet but he tried not to show it. "i'll be fine Cyber, i don't know where a medic would be or if they could even help me as i'm not even human, but if you insist, let's try finding one" he took a step and nearly toppled "ok ... maybe i'm not as ok as i thought i was" he used Cyber to steady himself "Cyber i'm sorry to ask you but may i go into wisp form? i'll heal faster that way and i won't take up as much space, the only problem is i won't be able to fly, you'd have to either leave me on the floor or carry me, it's up to you"

- Andromeda -
Andromeda quickly took the glasses from the person's hand, it sounded like a boy and quickly slid them onto her nose, she opened her eyes and looked at him, it was a boy "umm, thank you," she went red when she realized she had knocked it him "Oh! I'm so sorry! I hit you didn't I, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, are you alright? I didn't hurt you did I?" she was sitting on the floor and the snakes were turning towards the boy "Oh! Um, I'm Andromeda, what's your name?"

- Leroy -
Noticing that other people were entering the dojo, Leroy glanced to see what they were like. Company number one looked like an incredibly intimidating-looking guy that looked like he walked straight out of a car-chase movie, and company number two looked like she walked right out of a Greek myth. Since the two seemed acquainted with one another, he decided to leave them be.

That was when he noticed a third student in the dojo, one that he had seen before. 'Oh, it's the guy that got drunk on my ability.' Recognizing the grey-haired boy (Zivon), he put on a friendly smile and approached the two of them. "Hey there, are you two here for magic training as well?" It was a fairly obvious question with an obvious answer, but he figured it was a good place to start. "Oh, I'm Leroy by the way. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Turning to the boy (Zivon) he asked, "Do you remember me by any chance?"

- Matt -
"The grains?" Matt asked with a smirk. "I don't think that's the proper name for it, but alright." Matt turned and made his way towards the ranged dojo.
As they entered the dojo, Matt looked around. There seemed to be a whole lot of gun shooting, but no archery.
"Um... There seems to be a strange lack of archery..." Matt said, then frowned. Thankfully, another student heard him.
"Oh, the archery is out back." he said.
"Cool, thanks!" Matt said, then turned to Darwin. "You want to do archery, or shoot some guns first?"

- Dani -
"Really?" Dani asked, then laughed.
Then a newcomer, a girl, walked up and asked if they could join them. Dani was about to answer, but Little Feather beat him to it.
When Little Feather introduced him Dani waved and said, "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, you're right! We should get going!" Dani said, realizing that they were going to be late. "I completely forgot!"

- Little Feather & Lion -
Lion grinned at Ara as she complimented his choice on hat purring at her affectionately though he was rather curious as to what first best hat was, he hadn't a clue what she was referring to neither did Little Feather. "Nice to meet you as well Ara and no need to thank us we're glad to have you along" She smiled warmly at Ara, glancing at Garden as she released her hand and scooped Sunflower off of Lion's head. Her skin paled beneath her face paint and she instantly wove her fingers into Lion's mane as a substitute as she watched Garden walk over to the dojo. "I don't think we'll be too late, don't worry" Little Feather attempted to assure Dani, before turning her attention back to Lion. "Well shall we?" She asked, indicating for Dani to move on ahead before offering Ara the same. Well this should be fun Lion grumbled to her raising an eye ridge at her before he moved off towards the dojo himself tugging Little Feather along with him pulling up next to their newest acquaintance. "So Ara are you a student here as well?" She asked, hoping for a distraction as they caught up with Garden. "I'm only asking because I don't think I've seen you before, not that I've seen everyone..." Little Feather rambled a little her cheeks tinting as she realized her nerves had gotten to her already. Lion's ears flickered as they approached the dojo, he was both eager and...not so eager to see what was inside, the first bang they heard was going to have him and perhaps Little Feather scrabbling across the floor.

- Madame Serena -
Madame Serena had been stood on a chair by her table mixing something in the cauldron atop it, so from the students point of view she looked like a pudgy but tall lady considering they could only see her from the bust up, she was humming quite happily to herself as she stirred the strange smoky concoction with a large wooden spoon (That was probably the same size as her). "Bring to a full rolling bubble, add two drops of oil to boil...mix blood of owl with a herb that's red, and pluck a hair from thy head" Serena hummed to herself adding another ingredient to the potion before she lifted her gaze looking around at the students walking around the magic dojo. She was rather looking forward to interacting with the lovely students, maybe they'd like to try a bit of what she was making? The 'potion' itself was chucking up a rather appealing smell, to each student it was different adopting an aroma that appealed to them as an individual though if anyone heard what Madame Serena had been saying why she was making it...they may have been rather hesitant to even investigate the scent. "Add a dash of pox, and a dead mans toe..." She grabbed another ingredient plopping it into the orange liquid, her eyes shifting to rest on the Anti-Vampire woman to her left Melanie Slaughter a teacher at the school unlike Serena who was only here to help out. She noticed the young woman was advertising brownies she wasn't sure why...but credit where it was due, brownies sounded like a fantastic ice breaker.

- Kathy -
Kathy caught his wrist this time before Crash poked her again. “Everyone’s a little ticklish there right? Though you seem even more sensitive than most.” She gave him a mischievous grin, then attempted a quick poke at his side as well. She already showed mercy once, and besides, his reaction was really interesting and she felt like seeing it again. “If you’d like, seems like learning with us will help your body last longer.” She laughed, replying back to him as she stayed with Carmen.

Back in front of her training partner, she was getting ready for another mock spar when another odd sound near the ring caught her attention. “Hm?” Turning to look, she saw a blur of clothes and red hair that suddenly knocked into them. Letting out a small cry of surprise, she reflexively reached out to grab onto anything nearby to try to regain her balance. Which, unfortunately, meant she tried to grab onto to Carmen who wasn't exactly in a very steady predicament herself.

- Annie -
Annie looked up to see Yutaka motioning for her to come over. In one swift movement, she was up and walking to the group. "What do you need, Yutaka?" She asked with a hand on her hip.

- Lily -
Lily walked into the physical training dojo and looked around. Other than a face that caught her eye, she saw no reason to stay. As much as she liked her wooden sword, something about guns made her feel safer. Call her a coward, but she liked providing support from behind and she wasn't too bad at it either. She turned her heel and went outside to look around for the archery range.

- Yutaka -
Smiling at Annie he replied, "This little one's looking for something to do but..." Yutaka shrugged and honestly admitted, "I have no idea what I can do for him to keep him from getting bored. In fact... I'm not too sure what the other students can do either after the first bit of sparring." He continued, referring to Kathy and Carmen. "Did you have anything planned for the students Annie?"

- Alex -
Alex sat in the corner of the room, silently watching the others spar. Maybe he should just go to the magic dojo. With a sigh, he stood up and walked out, headed for the magic dojo. When he arrived, his brow raised at a rather... plump looking old woman over a pot... Weird magic...

- Carmen -
Carmen was about ready to begin sparring again with Kathy, when she was suddenly surprised to find Kathy clutching her and a Crashball roll out onto the ground, and even more surprised to find herself then on the ground. While she might've had a chance to keep her footing if she had seen Crash coming, but nobody could have, and so with Kathy initiating a prolonged fall onto Carmen's arm they soon both found themselves on the ground. In fact, it was a bit awkward as when Carmen fell she brought Kathy with her and the two were now a pile on the ground. Uninjured, but on the ground. Carmen opened her eyes to see Kathy's eyes literally right above hers, and then her eyes opened a lot quicker to their full dinner plate-shaped size. She wasn't the type to shove someone off in a situation like this, especially since she had been caught so off guard with the Crashball, so she merely lie there and said, "Hey um...Kathy? Mind if I uh...get some breathing room?" in a clearly constrained voice. It was fortunate her trumpet had fallen next to them and not directly in between them, or there could have been actual injury. As it stood, there was only merely the risk of scuffing her dress...which was still not ideal. No sir.

- Annie -
Anything planned... She blinked, looking around at the students. She spotted familiar red/pink hair but decided to pursue her later. She closed her eyes slowing and when she opened them, she turned to Yutaka.

"If they want to learn, they are more than welcome to seek me out. I have things planned though, I'm not sure they would like it." She told her coworker with a somber expression.

- Melanie -
Melanie turned to her side slowly as she heard something very peculiar..... It sounded like a witch making a dangerous spell......at least the spell sounded quite dangerous. She was thinking to just forget it when she noticed no students had turned up for brownies, how disappointing. She sighed and approached Madame Serena. "New teacher here too?" She asked hesitantly. If it was a student she'd have to knock her out and maybe dissect her. "Nasty thing your brewing..." She said pinching her nose as her red eyes began to water at the smell. God, what on earth was this witch making. "Well, I'm Melanie Slaughter, a new teacher here. Pleasure to meet you miss....."

- Darwin -
Darwin grinned at Matt threw a very toothy mouth. Darwin was a pro master skill shot at archery, everyone knew it. He had his special move tucked up his sleeve, THE ULTRA MEGA RAINBOW ARROW ARC OF MAGNIFICENCE! It took three days for that name to be thought up, but god was it worth it. "Sure, let's do some archery, but beware, I'm a bit of a badass at it..."

- Kathy -
Kathy saw Alex leave from the corner of her eye, a little before the suddenly incident sent both her and Carmen down to the ground. She felt guilty, not having paid a lot of attention to the boy after the Beach Olympics. She would have to make up for it later.

"Ow..." Though she wasn't really hurt, she muttered the word like a sort of habit as she shook her head, trying to make sense of the sudden chaos. Catching Carmen's eyes below her, she visibly stiffened, Kathy's eyes also opening wide with surprise. "S-Sorry!" Lifting herself up, she pushed herself away from Carmen and sat up on the floor. "Crash..." She murmured, looking around for the instigator of the mess.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka let out a laugh, "After what Tora did, I get the feeling the students will be up for a lot more than you'd expect." Then shrugging he continued to say, "And between his brutal training methods and my lack of direction... You're probably the best option they've got."

- Annie -
"Maybe..." She said slowly, her mind elsewhere. Aimlessly, she walked toward the back of the dojo, where the slide glass doors were to the back area.

Summary: Training and conversing continues. Kathy and Carmen recover from the wayward Crashball.

- Crash -
Crash hadn't expected her to grab his wrist, neither had he even thought she'd attempt to poke him back...he felt his cheeks flush at the comment and jolted away from her hand in a rather exaggerated motion not that he could escape as she had a hold of him . "Duly noted!" He squeaked upon being jabbed.

Upon his connection with the two other students the wayward Crashball ground to a halt, having knocked both Kathy and Carmen away from him he was now sprawled out on the ground where they had been stood a moment ago his gangly limbs out haphazardly around him. Why? Why did that just happen...? He lifted his head groggily hoping the circling tweety birds would fade away soon, as he pulled himself upright onto his knees, rubbing his nose which had been the first thing to connect with the ground. He was about to see whether the girls had managed to stay upright when he heard his name murmured, his head instantly shrunk down and his shoulders lifted as he adopted a very guilty expression. He was knelt next to both her and Carmen looking incredibly guilty, especially as he noticed Carmen had also been knocked to the ground. "I'm so sorry! Are you both ok?" He asked them, scrabbling to his feet he quickly offered both of them a hand up. "...I didn't mean to, just..." Crash murmured, quickly retrieving Carmen's trumpet and handing it to her with an apologetic smile, glancing at Kathy with the same sheepish apology.

- Lily -
Lily walked up to see Matt with another.. rather bright looking guy just in time to hear him bragging about his archery skills. "I've never understood the term, 'badass'. What's good about being an ass or being bad?" She mumbled, a brow raised.

- Darwin -
Darwin's head shot up as he sniffed the air. He could smell something...it smelled like....heaven. He'd been to heaven once, in a dream. According to his father he was born in heaven but was too awesome so they sent him down to earth to contain his rainbow...ness. He turned around to see a familiar face. IT WAS THE GIRL HE HAD MET IN THE BOOK SHOP! And then before anyone knew it he was running towards her and hugged her. "LILLEH!" He screamed. "Your alive! I thought you had died!" He laughed again and let her go. "Skittle? I got them from the black market!"

- Lily -
Her eyes shot open at Darwin's response to her presence. She honestly hadn't expected to be attacked by him like that. She lifted an awkward arm and pulled it around to touch his back. "It's... nice to see you too?" She responded, "No... I haven't died..." She let out a long sigh as he offered her a skittle. "No, thanks. I just... want to shoot." She explained, shaking her head slowly.

- Darwin -
He stepped back from her with a still amazing giant grin. "Aww really? No skittles? Pretty sure I got this of a Russian dictator, but oh well!" With that Darwin down the whole packet of the skittles with a satisfied gulp. "Man...those were good." He was pretty sure he tasted some extra flavouring, cyanide perhaps. "OH! Me and Matty were just about to do that, care to join us!" He chuckled razily and lifted a gaint rainbow coloured bow up. "LET US DESTROY ALL!"

- Matt -
"Really? I haven't had that much practice, but maybe you could give me some tips?" Matt asked. However, Darwin was distracted by something else.
"LILLEH!" he screamed, making Matt cover his ears. Darwin shot off and hugged a girl whom Matt recognized immediately. Sure, Darwin screamed her name at the top of his lungs, but still.
Matt walked over to them.
"Hey Lily, I haven't seen you much. Were've you been?" he asked curiously.

- Annie -
Annie turned to the students in the room and took in a deep breath. "For those of you that want to study under me, I'm heading outside. Just come find me." She yelled before walking outside. She found the small sand pit she'd made and sat down on the large smooth stone in the middle to meditate while she waited.

- Lily & Matt -
Lily turned to see Matt walking over. She honestly didn't know whether she was relieved or... something else. She didn't know. All she knew was that she'd finally found someone she knew would respond to her at the very least. Well, Darwin had as well but... if she had to be honest Darwin was a bit much for her.

"Hey Matt. Yeah. I've been... okay. What about you?" She told him, putting a smile on her face. If Matt knew her well enough, he'd be able to see how tired she really looked. She hadn't been sleeping lately.

Matt caught the hesitation in Lily's answer.
"You don't seem okay." Matt said worriedly. "You sound really tired. Are you sure you should be training?"

"I'll be fine. Thanks for worrying, Matt." She told him, a small smile appearing on her face. If she had to be honest, Matt was probably the only friend she had currently. Though... could she trust him? She didn't know...

"I'm serious though, you need rest. Do you want me to take you back to your little beach hut?" Matt asked, mentally adding that to his list of rarely said quotes.

His words made Lily chuckle a bit. "No Matt. I'm fine. I'd rather not be alone right now. Plus, I want to work on archery. It might make me feel better." She told him, trying to stop him from worrying.

"If you insist. We're going to do some archering as well, you want to join us?" Matt asked, motioning to Darwin and himself. "I've never actually done it, but it sounds really fun."

"I was planning on joining in." She said, her voice brighter than it was before. "I've only done it once. It is fun... Though, guns are more fun." She told him, sticking her tongue out playfully.

"Probably 'cause they're easier! All you do is pull a trigger, and it does everything else for you. Bows are actually difficult." Matt replied, sticking his tongue back at her just as playfully.

- Darwin -
Darwin watched with a fixed smile as the two exchanged banter. It was actually very amusing fir Darwin, he didn't like getting involved in all this romantic love thing, but he loved to watch t. "Well, both of you combined won't be able to stand up to the my rainbow bow!" He giggled like a madman and did a little good luck jig.

- Madame Serena -
Madame Serena continued to hum to herself, as she stirred her concoction she glanced over at Melanie as she approached her offering the woman a warm smile, she laughed lightly as she hesitantly inquired as to why she was here. "I suppose you could call me that, I'm just here as a favour to help these students learn and explore magic" She explained honestly catching the look she received, she wasn't worried it had been many, many, many years since she had met someone capable of besting her, if Maria Cross walked in right now she may have had to restart the timer. She raised her eyebrows at the young lady as she pinched her nose, noticing Melanie's red eyes were beginning to water...what an odd reaction, the concoction was supposed to smell alluring. "You don't like Goulash? That's a shame...I thought I'd make some for old times sake" She grinned at the other teacher. "Melanie Slaughter pleasure to meet you" She smiled warmly. "I am Madame Serena dear, I see all, know all and tell all" She introduced herself giving the other teacher a wicked grin. "If we're to be working together might I ask what you specialize in? I don't want us to be teaching the same things" She asked.

- Mercy -
Mercy was perched atop a wooden face, one leg crossed elegantly over the other her foot tapping along to the tune she was singing along to. The archery area was set up just behind the range dojo for the moment it didn't look like much just a large field with a dirt track straight across one edge and several round targets at the other end. The targets stood on wooden tripods with round slabs of wood as the main face of the target which in turn had rope swirled around the front of them with bullseyes neatly painted onto them. Mercy lifted her honey eyes to inspect the field watching Koop fly across the ground looking for things to do to keep himself busy as they waited to see if anyone would throw them any interest. She had a traditional Mongolian recurve bow perched against the fence next to her, a light brown quiver full to the brim with arrows sat next to it. "A few more minutes, if no-one turns up then that's that" She grumbled, Koop instantly shot towards her. "Can't have to stay here until training is over, kupo-po!" Koop reminded her. "Tch" She tutted in annoyance she'd not been in the best of moods for the past hour, she was hoping she'd be able to shake it off if any students showed up she hated feeling negative...perhaps she should seek out her favourite unicorn? It was near on impossible to be sad around him. "You can't leave here until training is over, kupo-po" Koop repeated watching her scowl at him and turn away in a huff. Koop shook his head and flew over to her right shoulder wriggling through a few tendrils of her silvery white hair crawling up and resting his torso over her shoulder, tucking his wings in tightly and purring contently.

- Cyber -
Cyber looked at Alistair and gave a nod. “Go, if it only makes you heal faster then ya go…” Cyber said unintentionally only because he was to focus on the kiss he had received earlier. He then picked up his backpack and opened it; there was bottle water in there. He threw it to Alistair but enough so he could catch t. Cyber rubbed the back if his neck and looked away blushing. “You…did very well in our one-one fight, here have this.” He then touched his lips…still thinking about the kiss.

- Zivon -
Zivon was still shaking with fear as the girl with snakes introduces herself to him. As the snakes looked at him he moved back and grabbed a book hiding his face that defiantly showed fear. He felt dizzy, sick and out o f breath…all he can do is mutter out words. “M-M-y n-n….n-na-m-e i-i…i-i-…s Z-Z-Zi….i-i…v-vi-i-v-v….o-n…” Zivon stuttered, showing his courage…well…most of it. He then noticed another guy… when he saw his face…he wanted to cry… It was that guy who shouted him and something with the yellow pain… He just stood there frozen…ready to collapse from fear. The book he was holding quickly decomposed in a mess and Zivon moved back. “Y-y…o-u….” He muttered out as then went completely mute, he wanted to cry but it showed how he was pathetic and was not able to do anything right at the past.

- Garden -
Garden smiled as all of them came towards the dojo but when she heard a loud bang she screamed as it caught her off guard. “Ahh!!” She shouted, she didn’t know what was still in there but the bang sounded weird, she never heard of it before. Garden turned around to her friends and asked. “Um What is that sound?...I never heard of it before…”

- Seven -
Seven looked at a girl and yawned again.. “Hey teacher lady!! (Annie) I will do anything…just give me something to do!!!” Seven shouted as he fell on the ground, landing face first but very intentional. He then flipped and then followed her. His ears twitched just looking at the lady but he just continued to follow her. “Hey!! Give me something to do!!’” Seven shouted again, he boredom was killing him.

Summary: Seven annoys Annie. Crash, Kathy and Carmen begin to try to survive against Yutaka's army of fabric nuisances.

- Annie -
Annie looked back to see a rather annoying boy shouting at her. Her eyes narrowed slightly and small smile formed on her face. "You want something to do?" She asked, standing up from her stone seat. "I can provide. Though... I would require some respect first, please. My name is not 'teacher lady.' It is Ms. Linedale, or Ms. Annie, Or Annie-sensei, if you fancy that. Next, you don't command me. You ask me." She told the boy sternly. "Ask me, and I might provide you with something." She told him before sitting back down to meditate.

- Seven -
Seven just looked at her with a bored face he then gave a loud yawn and licked his paw…. hand. “Okay…Ms. Annie… uuhhh… can you think of something I can do?” Seven said as he flipped to face in front of her and did a handstand. He gave a bored smile while balancing then did two back flips and ended up landing above Annie using his Cheshire cat ability. “Doing all these flips…I need something else to entertain my boredom.”

- Annie -
A smile formed on the young redhead's face. "Alright." She said, standing up once again. She jumped up and over the sand pit, walking swiftly toward one end of the backyard. She pulled out a bag from under the dojo and pulled something out of it. It looked like a long... metal stick. With a smile, she walked over to a relatively clear patch of land and threw the stick at the ground. The impact triggered the mechanism and the stick began to morph and grow until it was about 20 inches in diameter and about 12 feet tall.

She turned to look at the boy. "Alright. Climb that. without using your powers." She told him and then walked back to her seat in the sand pit. She did a small little flip and landed with her feet on the stone. With a smile still on her face, she slowly sat cross legged on the stone.

- Lily -
Lily rolled her eyes at Matt's response. "Guns aren't easy. Let me put one in your hand and you tell me how easy it is." She told him. With a smile on her face she walked up to the archery range. She blinked when she noticed Mercy was the teacher. What... luck. Lily chuckled to herself and waved at Mercy. "Hello ma'am! We're here for archery!" She yelled out, considering they were still a distance away.

- Matt -
"Well, both of you combined won't be able to stand up to the my rainbow bow!" Darwin giggled.
"I know I won't. You've had practice." Matt told him, then followed Lily to the Archery Court.
When they arrived, Lily waved at the teacher and called out to her. The teacher seemed to be the person who directed the beach olympics. Or at least, the same person as the one who advertised them.

- Seven -
Seven watched, as the weird stick thing that Annie threw on the ground grew very tall. He gave a yawn and just looked at the teacher who said to climb it…without using his powers… He shrugged and walked to the giant pole. Seven gave a loud mew which translate to “Hey sure whatever” and then started to climb it, it was sort of a piece of cake to him. Being a bakeneko and being trained in the circus it was not really his power of his flexibility and strength but more of his true potential…if he ever showed any of it. As he was half way he looked at the teacher and yawned. “I don’t know if this is consider my power!! I was raised in a circus plus I am a bakeneko!!” He shouted as he climbed up a bit more.

- Annie -
"Oh?" She asked, looking up at the boy. Her eyes narrowed, thinking a bit. What could she make this kid do? She looked around the dojo, looking for something, anything. "Then... How about sparring with me? Since you're so perfect and bored, eh? If you're already good with physical attacks, then why come to this dojo?" She asked, a it peeved at the kid. "If you are from a circus, I'm not sure there is much I can do for you other than mindless strength training that you may or may not want. The purpose of the metal, slick pole is to increase your strength. What would you like to work on?" She asked, finally realizing this was the question she should have asked him in the first place.

- Mercy -
Mercy reached up to scratch Koop behind his ears rolling her eyes at him as he purred contently at her his ears twitching happily. "Oh what to do Koop..." She sighed heavily, watching the creature for his response. His bobble drooped and he rubbed his paws together nervously, unable to reply to her question...after all he was a machine at the end of the day he couldn't understand the depth of her question. She blinked as she noticed a small trio of students moving towards the archery court, catching the woman with red/pink hair waving at her she lifted her hand and waved a greeting back grinning at what was yelled at her. She slid off of the fence brushing down her shorts she was pretty much wearing the clothes she'd started out without earlier in the day white tank top and khaki shorts although now she wore a leather bracer on her left arm and half a leather glove on her right, having grabbed her quiver and bow she made her way towards the small trio a grinn crossing her face as she noticed Darwin was one of them. "Hey! In that case you've come to the right place" She smiled at Lily. "Lets see have you guys done archery before or fired a bow?" She asked the trio. Koop looked up at all 3 of them with big eyes unwilling to move as of yet but unsure what else to do.

- Seven -
Seven dropped down from the pole thing and listened to the teacher; he then dozed off after hearing half of what Annie said. Seven woke back up as he heard the mindless strength thing. “Wah? Sorry… I dozed off…” He yawned again scratched his ears with his foot. “I don’t know…maybe I just…I just ran in here seeing all the people doing things…it fun to watch but gets boring afterwards…Sparring right? That what you said? Well I am not much of a fighter…well” He looked down and licked his hand. “If only I get provoked…” He said in a dark tone but then gave a bored smiled and continue to scratch his cat ears. “But ya I can fight…probably…maybe not…I don’t know…” Seven gave another yawn.

- Annie -
This boy was getting on Annie's nerves. She was more than ready to test his ability to fight. She stood up with a sour look on her face. "That is the last time you disrespect me." She boomed and shot off toward the boy. She stopped just short of him, her face towering above his. With a quick movement, she jabbed near his face. The boy would hear a loud bang next to his face and then wind as the air around her fist exploded slightly. She then bent down and picked up the kid, throwing him in the air in one swift movement. With that, she jumped up and kneed him the gut, letting them both fall.

She landed on her feet with a thud, her feet shifted just slightly, and her hand at her sides, in her ready attack stance. "Get up and come at me." She barked.

- Seven -
It was so fast, the kick, the jab to his face, the knee to his gut. He just let it happen…not even caring, he let her beat him and he just lay on the floor. The pain was of course unbearable for his nature yet..it excited him… it made him smile. He stood up and yawned, he clutched his stomach as he tried to walk closer to Annie. Seven collapsed then turned back to his original form, his clothes clung to his tiny body and his was still in pain…everywhere. “I guess you beat me up well… well I am not really giving effort…” He said as he came out of the pile of clothes on the floor and looked at the teacher, giving a loud meow.

- Annie -
"Then you don't deserve my effort." Annie replied simply, lowing her arms. With a somber expression, she walked back to her seat. "Leave." She commanded calmly.

- Lily -
Lily smiled at Mercy and nodded her head. "Once. I prefer fire arms, but I figure I'll try my hand at a bow and arrow again." She explained, still walking over.

- Seven -
Seven just waved off whatever Annie said and yet beside her as walked back to her seat. He curled up beside her and gave out another yawn. “I don’t think so… you caught my interest teach” Seven purred out and scratched his ear. “SO I will just stick around near you for now on.” He knew he was getting a death sentence…but does it really matter?

- Carmen -
Carmen accepted her trumpet from Crash and slowly got up, still sort of dazed from the encounter. "Well, that was...interesting..." she said. Addressing Kathy first, she had a small, soft smile despite the mishap. "It wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it," she said. Turning to Crash, she could clearly see that he was mortified at when he had just caused, and any inclination she had had to be upset went away. She hadn't been hurt, after all. "Relax...I'm not upset," she said to him with a warm smile, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Now Kathy on the other hand...I'm not so sure," she teased as she walked back over to Kathy. Attempting to diffuse any hard feelings, she spoke softly to Kathy, "Would you like to spar again? Or would you rather go to a different dojo? I saw a teacher walk outside earlier as well."

- Kathy -
“Thanks.” Kathy accepted Crash’s helping hand and got up with his help. Since he already asked if she and Carmen were alright, she turned to Crash and returned his question. “What about you? Are you hurt anywhere?” She glanced over between the two of them. They seemed fine from the way they moved, but she wanted to be sure of it.

Then hearing Carmen’s jest Kathy chimed in, “Ah yes, I can’t forgive you that easily.” Slipping her hand out of the one that helped her up, she ruffled his hair again. “Say… Can I take this as something you owe me for?” Oddly enough, she didn’t seem all that mischievous about the question even though she seemed to be continuing the joke. If anything, there was a slight sense of hesitation when she asked. Turning to Carmen, she lightly tapped her cheek with her finger as she thought for a moment. “I’m planning on going to the shooting range at some point but… I think I want to stay here for a bit longer. Do you mind?”

- Carmen -
Carmen smiled at Crash and Kathy's interaction. Yet again, Kathy giving Crash grief playfully...it was certainly amusing to watch. Listening to Kathy's response, Carmen had no change in her softly happy expression. "Oh, not at all," she replied. "Some sparring then, perhaps?"

- Crash -
Crash's face flushed in embarrassment as he helped Kathy to her feet and handed Carmen her trumpet back, he forgot to release Kathy's hand. He looked somewhat relieved when both of them appeared unharmed, it wasn't like him to get so worked up over accidents...yet again as far as he was aware this was the first one he'd had that had directly effected someone else, his reaction was completely different. He was pretty wound up stuck between shame and embarrassment however he visibly relaxed as Carmen kindly reassured him she wasn't upset and he was sure she wasn't injured. He tilted his head at Kathy giving her a quick once over check as well. "No I think I just about managed to avoid getting 'Crash hurt'" He jested weakly, hearing Carmen's words made him visibly flinch though adopting the look of a child awaiting scolding, he attempted to give Kathy his best puppy dog eyes deciding shifting was the next best option, a part of him didn't think she'd be too harsh on him anyway because nobody got hurt. He adopted a sheepish look as she slid her hand from his and reached up to ruffle his hair again, he closed one eye and grinned at her. He wasn't overly surprised at the question...well he was surprised that it was a question and not a demand actually. "I think we could safely say I owe both of you after that" He pointed out lifting a hand to the back of his neck, as he grinned he sensed the slight hesitation though he didn't understand it. "So yes, add it to the tally" He jested moving aside as Carmen suggested more sparring. "I'll get out of your way" He grinned, after that little episode he knew he was probably safer staying way out of their way besides from this distance he could subtly grimace at his agitated bruises and perhaps actually hear Yutaka's advice on the sparring match.

- Ryuu -
Ryuu scratched the back of his head as he saw Andromeda walk away. He honestly did not know whether to feel good that she left him out of the good of her heart or feel bad for being ditched by a girl. Either way, she probably had her reasons.

The otaku saw the girl talking with some other dude, who seemed to drop his glasses. Ryuu wondered if being a "four-eyes" was becoming a trend.

With that said, he moved deeper into the library-like training ground. There were quite a lot of books in certain shelves. As much as he hated reading, it sounded like the only plausible alternative from awkwardly learning things through teachers. He liked to interact with things that did not berate him too much. Maybe that was why he bought so many visual novels.

- Melanie -
Melanie chuckled and smiled shyly at Serena. What did she plan on teaching, well there was only one clear answer. "Well Madame Serena, I plan on teaching the students how to destroy undead, well that was why i was created, I presume...." She began to blush as she remembered destroying them. "So...what do you teach madame?"

- Kathy -
"Tally?" She repeated, confused for a moment. "Oh, right. That." Kathy had actually forgotten about that for the time being. Indeed, she had been keeping score of how much she owed Crash but... 'Ah... That wasn't really my intention.' Her shoulders slumped back in disappointment. 'Maybe at another time then.' Putting a light smile back on her face though, she told Crash, "Good job keeping yourself safe then." Besides, perhaps her plan hadn't been the best one anyway. He seemed really guilty about the whole mess, giving her a puppy-eyed look and all.

At Carmen's question, she nodded. "How about some light contact sparring then? Um... Will you be alright like that though?" Kathy asked, referring to Carmen's attire. She had never really tried to fight in a dress before but it didn't seem like the easiest thing to move around in. "Maybe we should at least ask if they have some protective equipment?" She didn't mind getting a few injuries here and there, but perhaps Carmen did.

- Carmen -
Carmen was amused by Kathy's concern for her attire. "But of course," she replied. "I'm quite used to it. I don't actually know what wearing something that isn't a dress feels like, funnily enough." At the mention of protective equipment, she continued. "I think we'll be fine unaided. So...yes, light contact sparring sounds good to me. Though...you haven't practiced being the attacker yet. Would you like to do that first?"

- Kathy -
Kathy gave Carmen a sheepish look. "To be honest I've learned a bit of offensive techniques from P.E. back in Athalia so learning defense was what I was more concerned about. Past that it's just practice I guess." Then wondering how seriously she could really take it she asked, "Have you sparred before? Against a real opponent?"

- Yutaka
Listening in on the girls' conversation, Yutaka smiled under the mask. He went up to the girls and even beckoned the red-haired student (Crash) over as well. "If you're done with the mock exchanges, want to try something that'll give you practice against multiple opponents?" He waited until all 3 students were around before continuing, "The good part about this one is that you won't need to hold back if you've been worried about hurting each other. What do you all say? It should also help with getting used to working as a team."

- Crash -
Crash watched Kathy's shoulders slump, he was unsure why she had reacted this way but he was sure it was his fault. His expression crinkled into a frown as he backtracked over what he had said trying to figure out what he had said wrong, he caught her smile offering her a somewhat strained smile in response before he moved out of the way, returning to his train of thought, folding his arms over his chest, he lifted his right hand towards his face resting his index finger against his lips as he watched Kathy and Carmen decide what to do next.

He was rather surprised when Yutaka beckoned him over as well, he lifted a hand to the back of his neck checking over his shoulder in case it was meant for someone else before he walked over to them curiously. "Me as well?" He asked grinning at Yutaka. "Because if you can fit me in I'd be up for this" He offered in answer, pushing any doubt to the back of his mind.

- Madame Serena -
Madame Serena smiled broadly at the other woman as she smiled shyly, she pulled the spoon from the cauldron which was probably about 4 feet in length...and turned away from the other woman and hopped down off of her stool near enough disappearing from view as she did. She tottered around the cauldron, now about the same size as the wooden spoon held tightly in her fist. She leant the implement against the table and wiped her hands on her apron before removing that as she listened to Melanie's answer. "How to destroy the undead..." Madame Serena mused, nodding her head and adopting an inquisitive expression. "That sounds interesting, I'd love to know how you deal with such creatures the evil variety of course, I find some of them to be rather pleasant to have around" Madame Serena chuckled, a mysterious twinkling entering her old smoky eyes. "That entirely depends on what they want to know" She answered, though the answer was vague it was true. The elderly woman hadn't planned anything out for the students, she wasn't aware of their powers or what exactly they were looking for...in her mind that would all become clear over time. "Now the question is shall we get their attention or shall we wait for them to come to us?" Serena asked Melanie with a devious smile.

- Melanie -
Melanie sat and listened to the old woman with fascination in her eyes. It was always good to learn new things, especially from wise old people.....well all old people in general actually. "of course...the evil kind." She answered shyly, she had never net a good undead before, they all creeped her out... "Well they all seem pretty pre occupied right now...." She shook her head out of frustration. "Yeah we should get their attention, they are year to learn.

- Darwin -
Darwin grinned as he heard a familiar voice, wait.....it was one if his super duper Besties! IT WAS MERCEH! Darwin started jumping up and down in joy when he saw Mercy approach them, making rivers if skittles pour out if his pockets in the process. This day was going great! He suddenly leapt forward with a packet of his Black Marjet skittles. "Hey mercy! Fancy a skittle? I got these from the black market!" He sounded amazingly happy as ore usual as he smiled at her. "Of course I have shot a bow before! I'll have you know I'm like a unicorn robin hood! Except I don't take anything....so I don't give anything to the poor! But still I an fabulous at it, these two think they can beat me though!" He grinned at her as if to motion the duo were into some lovey dovey stuff. He was great with facial expressions.

- Mercy -
Mercy smiled broadly at Lily. "Good to hear, help yourself to a bow if you haven't already got one, there is a selection over there" She told the other woman, pointing over to the wooden display sat next to the fence she had been perched on, it held a variety of different bows with a small selection of quivers hung on a similar display next to it. She switched her gaze to Darwin instantly feeling her bad mood ebb away as she watched him jump up and down like an excited child causing a rainbow of skittles to pour out of his pockets, her eyebrows rose as she felt a lugh escape her. Koop perked up wagging his butt as he watched the excited unicorn and his two companions. Mercy lifted her hand to accept a skittle as he leapt forward with a pack in hand, she took a green colored skittle another lighthearted laugh bubbling free of her throat. "Black Market?! What do they have in them?" She asked hesitating for a moment before popping the skittle into her mouth regardless of his answer, praying it didn't have anything in it. She felt herself smile back at him. "Oh! You really are a man of many talents" She grinned at Darwin, tilting her head to the side as he made a peculiar motion, towards Matt and Lily, she raised an eyebrow at the pair trying to figure out what Darwin was trying to indicate. After a few moments of studying she picked up on what he was trying to tell her, a little ashamed that she hadn't got it sooner. "Darwin would you mind coming with me quickly just to give me a demonstration?" She asked the colorful gentleman. "Lily and Matt if you could grab yourselves a bow and quiver each then make your way over to us we'll get started" Mercy smiled at the pair, lifting her hand and beckoning Darwin over as she headed for the central target, once they were out of earshot she turned to the unicorn raising a questioning eyebrow at him. "Ok cupid, what are we dealing with here?" She asked him, stepping aside so he could position himself in front of the target and demonstrate his amazingly fabulous marksmanship at his leisure.

- Carmen -
It was at this moment that Carmen looked the closest to embarrassed that she had ever come in her entire life, upon being asked by Kathy if she'd ever sparred before. "Well, I...I've never really had a need for physical attacks before, what with using my trumpet and all, so...I've actually never fought or sparred with anyone before. I learned basic hand to hand combat at one point, but that's all. I never had to apply it. So..this will be a first for me."

She perked up again at Yutaka's interjection and suggestion. "That sounds lovely," she said, using a definitely odd choice of words for talking about combat. She became even more interested when Crash offered to join.

- Kathy -
"Oh, really?" Kathy was surprised, but not really by Carmen's lack of experience. The musician's slightly meek response was what really surprised her. Even during the short time she had been acquainted with Carmen, she had the feeling that the trumpet player was pretty much always brimming with confidence. Putting on a reassuring smile she replied, "Don't worry, we all start somewhere right? And if you never needed physical attacks before, you must be pretty strong anyway."

She had been feeling a little troubled as to how much she should hold back during the sparring when Yutaka approached them with an alternative training menu. "I'm good with that too." She answered, glancing to look at Crash when he joined in with them.

- Yutaka -
The instructor nodded, pleased that they were all willing to try something new without hesitation. It was a good sign. "Good good, then let's get started immediately." Yutaka held his arms out towards the sides and flicked his wrists around a bit. On cue, white blurs of fabric suddenly rounded around the group, ghost-like figures surrounding them on all sides. Upon closer inspection, they would all be able to see that they were just looking at floating sheets of fabric with plush head and arms attacked to give them more human-like features.

"These fabric dummies are being manipulated under my control, so no need to hold back on them." He explained, placing his hand on one of them. Then he admitted, "They're not too strong, but that doesn't mean they'll be easy to fight against. There are plenty of ways to make opponents admit defeat without having to beat them up after all." Beginning to retreat into the crowd of fabric surrounding them he added, "Oh, and I won't be just observing this time. Every so often I'll be joining in the fray as well, so be on the look out for that."

As soon as his sentence ended, the dummies instantly began to rush in on them. Trying to twist themselves around the students' limbs and bring them down to the ground.

- Crash -
Crash flashed Kathy and Carmen a quick smile before turning his full attention to rest on Yutaka, he fell into a defensive stance as soon as the white blurs surrounded them, after his duel with Tora he was feeling rather cautious. He shifted so his back was turned towards Kathy and Carmen, he tilted his head as he examined the floating fabric his eyes widening in awe as he noticed their human-like appearance. His ears pricked as he heard Yutaka continue his explanation, he tried to retain all of the information given to him as he watched the gas mask wearing teacher retreat back through the dummies, as he admitted he wouldn't just be observing Crash reached out behind him his fingertips reaching to touch Kathy's side to check she was still there, whilst his other hand brushed Carmen's arm. "G-" He started but cut himself off as the dummies instantly began to rush towards them.

Before he could react a few of them had jumped at him trying to twist around his limbs restricting his movement, he fought against their grip especially as he felt them attempt to tug him down. He wriggled free from one only to have the other replace it. As he felt one of the dummies wrap around his knees he disappeared within a cloud of purple smoke, shapeshifting into a crimson pelted panther. He squirmed free of the dummies grip going along with his first reaction which was to try and shred the damn things with his talon like claws. His crimson eyes seeking out the other two instinctively as he tried to keep them within his sights ducking away from the persistant creatures as they popped up in his face obscuring his vision, he dove down between plush legs shifting a second time, an agile red fox emerged from the cloud of purple smoke. It slid through the dummies grip easier than before and wound its way round to stand between the two girls, unfortunately this form was good at squirming out of the dummies grip as they tried to wrap around him but not particularly good at attacking back. "Ideas?!" He barked before biting down onto a plush arm, growling and shaking his head vigorously.

- Carmen -
Carmen was expecting maybe a couple of opponents...not dozens. While they looked fairly harmless, they were being controlled by Yutaka, so they were certainly a threat. And, she had heard the bit about him "joining in the fray", so that was an additional obstacle. Immediately she had to duck and weave to get out of the reach of two of the dummies, noticing Crash transforming into various animals of the feline and canine variety to avoid them. In an emergency she could always transform into her bird form, but figured it best to only do so as a last resort, seeing as this was physical training and not "change into your gaseous form to safety" training. She spent most of her time running around trying to catch a space long enough to go on the offensive, and when she finally did she was unsuccessful. A few swings with her trumpet into the backs of some dummies revealed that they weren't weak, and probably impervious to anything but extreme force.

She was, at least, able to prevent herself from being caught in a vice. When one got a hold of her she clubbed it square in the chest with her trumpet and was able to break free, despite not doing any noticeable damage to the dummy. Yelling at Crash's callout, she attempted to get somewhat of a grip on the situation. "Let's try to fight them near each other? There's too many to face alone!" She decided to try brute force to try to bring one down, at least temporarily. Finding one that was heading for Crash, she ran up behind it and jumped in the air with her trumpet over her head, smashing it down on the top of the dummy.

Summary: STILL MORE CONVERSING. Crash, Kathy and Carmen successfully defeat the fabric army, but not before Crash has a run-in with the wrong side of the skirt of Carmen's dress.

- Kathy -
Kathy felt Crash's fingertips reach out to her but before they could discuss any plans or get ready for the attack, the dummies literally surrounded and rushed at them like a swarm. 'Thank goodness they're just fabric,' she thought, kicking one away as it tried to coil itself around her legs. Taking a deep breath, she ducked down and focused more on making contact with her feet rather than taking full swings at them. The minute her foot touched a dummy's head, she activated her ability, recoiling her foot back in the next split second as it was pushed back by her entire weight and the force of re-directed gravity. The same attack didn't do much for the fluttering bodies of fabric, unfortunately, but kicking at the head or soft arms seemed to force them back quite nicely. The real issue was the fact none of them were permanently put out of commission and they kept coming back at the three of them, consistently outnumbering their much smaller group.

Listening to Crash and Carmen's shouts she replied, "We need a way to decrease the numbers, even if by just a little bit!" Pushing another dummy away from her face, she located where the two of them were and re-grouped with them. The idea to burn them came to mind, but there had to be another solution. First, it was probably dangerous to start a fire in a wooden dojo while they were surrounded by flammable items. And also, this was the 'physical training' dojo. There had to be a way to defeat them without resorting to specialized magic abilities.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka watched with amusement as the students battled against his manipulated dummies. "Keep thinking!" He encouraged them, quickly moving to a different location so they couldn't locate him by voice. Now one way to defeat the dummies for certain would have been to defeat the manipulator but... In all honestly they would probably have better luck facing double the number of dummies he was sending out right now. He briefly glanced over at Tora, feeling a little bad for stealing someone that was training under him, but he couldn't help but feel amused as he watched them try to communicate together. 'Good. Seems like they don't need any lessons on getting along with each other.' He thought, 'But just playing friends won't count as teamwork itself. What will the 3 of you do?' He took one of the dummies by the soft head and hardened its body into the shape of an umbrella. For now he would let them try to do something about the fabric army, but soon he would be joining in on the fun as well.

- Crash -
Crash fox's ears twitched as he heard Carmen yell back to him, he ripped his head back tearing an arm off of one of the dummies before he reverted back to his human form in a billow of purple smoke, looping his fingers in the string around the creatures neck he swung it around and flung it away from him, just in time to see Carmen's spectacular aerial assault on a dummy headed straight towards him, his eyebrows hitched up in surprise as she smashed down on top of it. Lifting his eyes he noticed another come up behind her, diving forward into a roll he narrowly avoided the flailing limbs of one of the creatures, pinging back onto his feet next to Carmen he slammed his hand into the neck area of the creature, using his previous momentum he aimed to slam the creature into the ground he was aware that the move wouldn't hurt it, but it prevented it from wrapping around the musician. "Good plan" He flashed Carmen a grin, his eyes shifting past her to rest on Kathy as she fought her way towards them. "Finding a weakness?" He asked Kathy, jamming his foot into the creatures neck he stood back up ending up grappling with a second creature. "I can shapeshift into sharp things" He contributed in a rather unhelpful manner, lifting a foot and propelling the second creature away from him, he stumbled to Kathy's left side to block any creatures coming at her that way, watching Carmen's flank closely as well.

- Carmen -
Disappointed that her attack hadn't done so much as get the dummy's attention, Carmen whipped her head around to see Crash save her from being caught by a dummy coming up from behind. "Thanks," she said quickly, returning the grin as she stuck close to Crash watching his flank as he did hers. The duo was doing well to keep the fabric army off of them, but not much else. Carmen was using all manners of physical strikes, both with her trumpet and without, on all areas of the dummies, to no avail. "They don't seem to have any," she responded to Crash's question to Kathy. "Surely there has to be something we can do? He wouldn't send these at us if we couldn't defeat them with physical means...I think," she said, unsure of her reasoning. "Blunt physical attacks are about all I have," she pointed out, though she was sure there was more she could do. Hoping Crash or Kathy would have an idea more quickly than her, she continued to fight the onslaught.

- Kathy -
Kathy moved to cover Crash and Carmen's free side, which naturally just put the 3 of them into a rough triangle covering each other's backs. "Same here," She answered, referring to the fact she also only had blunt physical attacks. "I wouldn't really call it a weakness but..." Lifting a foot high above her head, she stepped down onto a dummy that tried to grab onto Carmen's arm. It wiggled around in a rather creepy manner with its head pinned against the floor, but didn't seem capable of much else. "They're light enough you can just keep them pinned to the floor with one foot." Now if they had about 10 more people on their side they could've just stepped on all of them to keep them from moving, but that wasn't possible with just their team of three. In the end, she had to release the dummy under her foot to attack other dummies that tried to grab hold of her other limbs.

- Yutaka -
"Hmm..." Yutaka began to wonder if maybe he should have let them start off with a smaller crowd. Well, it was too late to consider such matters now and if they succeeded defeating these then they were well on their way to gaining actual experience to be used in more serious battles to come in the future. Bending down, he placed one hand on the ground as he got into a runner's starting position with the other hand holding onto the 'hardened' dummy acting as a sort of shield in front of him. Using the surrounding dummies as a visual cover, he sprang into a full charge as he aimed to slam the shield into Carmen.

- Crash -
Crash found it easier to keep the dummies at bay when the 3 of them worked together in a triangle formation, he kept the annoying sheets from getting to either of the other students though he was beginning to get frustrated with this yo-yo like battle. "Agreed" He assured Carmen, he didn't know the teacher but this was physical training dojo...and he was teaching them that subject, so it made sense. "Its still something, perhaps there is a way to keep them down" He He growled in frustration jumping onto one of the sheets, he pinned its arms down with his knees and grabbed at the string around its neck, attempting to rip the material away from the sheet to see if it did anything, regardless of whether or not it worked Crash was forced to dodge off to the side to avoid another creature, placing himself back into the triangle he caught a glimmer of color amongst the white dummies, it probably took him half a second to realize it was Yutaka charging straight at Carmen. "Car-" With little consideration to any of the repercussions, he shot sideways aiming to slam his shoulder into the teacher just before he reached the fiery blonde as he hadn't the time to get in front of him, perhaps if he could knock him off of his current course it'd be enough and give Carmen just that little bit of extra time to react.

- Yutaka -
The dummy, having lost the string keeping the stuffing inside its head, limply flopped down onto the ground as a large white sheet with stuffed arms sewn into the surface. Though it continued to move around, it lost its central weight and could not actually keep anyone really tied down anymore. It could still cover them like a blanket, but that was probably just more annoying than anything else.

Meanwhile, Yutaka turned the 'hardened' dummy in his hand towards Crash instead of Carmen to meet his blow. He first let the shapeshifter make contact with the hardened surface, before he quickly released it (turning the fabric soft again) and jumped up and out of the way. "Excuse me ladies." Landing behind the girls, he pushed them in opposite directions into the crowd of dummies in an attempt to separate them.

Carmen
As Carmen was basically swatting one of the dummies away from Kathy's back, she didn't notice Yutaka charging for her, whipping her head around just in time to see something that wasn't like the others make contact with Crash, quickly deducing that it was Yutaka. Suddenly via an impressive leap he was behind her, and also suddenly he pushed her away from Kathy. She was quickly completely surrounded with dummies, so to give herself a little breathing room she took her trumpet and held it out, rapidly spinning around almost like a ballerina, hitting each dummy on the head as she went around. She stopped her spin and was given a few milliseconds to calculate her next move. She had seen Crash go for a dummy's string but hadn't seen the result, as she went to swat dummies away from Kathy, but she figured it was worth a shot. She just needed to isolate the dummies. As they recovered from her spin attack, she bunted one back with the leadpipe of her trumpet, chasing it down with another dramatic aerial assault, only to separate it further. As soon as it was separated enough, she rolled behind it and grabbed its string, forcefully yanking it off. Its effectiveness seemed to be significantly impaired, so she figured that would be her next plan to deal with the rest of them. "Kathy, go for the strings!" she yelled, assuming Crash would since he came up with the idea in the first place.

- Kathy -
"Carmen!" Kathy called out, noticing the teacher charging at them as Carmen took a dummy off of her back. Luckily, it seemed that Crash had noticed too and decided to take matters into his own hands. But Yutaka had nimbly evaded the shapeshifter and landed behind them, giving them a firm push into the crowd of dummies. "Woah!" Trying to retain her balance as she was forced to step forward, the dummies instantly swarmed around her. 'He managed to separate all of us with just a few steps.' She realized, kicking the dummies away again as they continued to try to tangle themselves around her limbs. Hearing Carmen calling out from the crowd Kathy nodded (out of reflex, not really taking into consideration that the trumpet player could not see her) and decided to try it out. Stepping on one of the fluttering bodies of the dummy, she pinned it in place as she yanked at the string on its neck, snapping it after some effort. "It's working! Let's keep tearing away the strings for now!"

- Crash -
Crash hadn't expected Yutaka to react quite as quickly as he had, though he knew he really should have done he thumped against the hard surface barely moving it as he did. He pulled back as it became soft and restrictive arms wrapped themselves around his torso, he stumbled backwards his eyes watching Yutaka as he struggled to loop his fingers into the string around the creatures neck, trying to move back towards the girls he felt his stomach sink as in one simple movement the teacher managed to separate the 3 of them again. In his logical brain he knew this was a training exercise but he wasn't able to suppress the panic he felt once both of his companions were out of his sight. the claws that slid out of the tips of his fingers cut through the string with ease, though as the creature lost its central weight and became a wriggly blanket it fell forward onto his head, obscuring everything from view which just made it worse as the creatures tried to entangle him in their plush arms. "Ah ya, nug munching noodle snatchers" He hissed, kicking out at the buggers as he waved his arms around wildly. To the outside viewer he looked as if his mother had decided to dress him up as a ghost for Halloween. Luckily enough his flailing limbs proved to be quite effective at battering the plush creatures away from him, his ears pricked as he heard Carmen's voice to his right he'd almost wriggled free of the blanket when he heard Kathy call back to his left, encouraging them to go for the strings. "Suggestion taken, feel free to move back over here if you can" He announced finally freeing himself from the blanket. "I can talk-" He continued on, launching forward to grab another creature. "-for England so-" after being batted over the head and seized by another he looped his claws into the string around its neck, tugging back hard enough it snapped with ease. "-that way you'll know where-" He shouted waving his claws at the creature currently twisting around his arm shredding it as he tried to claw the string from its neck. "-I am all the time" Success! but it was swiftly replaced by another. "How about-" He dodged out of the way of some of the creatures having to slam his foot into anothers torso to give himself some breathing room before he could think about going for their strings. "-I recite poetry or-" He continued on.

- Carmen -
Hearing the affirmative calls from Kathy and Crash was a good sign - the string theory (sorry...) was definitely proving itself. Carmen began moving over towards Crash in response to his quite polite and diplomatic request for help, focusing more on covering distance and clearing a path towards Crash than pulling every string. As she neared him with a group of dummies in tow (it was fortunate that they weren't particularly quick) and heard his amusing attempt to keep everyone informed of his location, she responded as she began brutally trumpet hammering the dummies closest to him (strings could come off later): "Oh relax, you're fine!", she said in a way more suited to casual conversation over fine wine than intense combat. "See, the cavalry is here to save you," she said as she clubbed another dummy. "The unwieldy, very un-graceful cavalry - OH!" she remarked and then exclaimed as the group of dummies following her caught up. Rolling to the side to avoid the solid line of them, she began knocking them back with her trumpet. At this point, lots of strings had been pulled (can't stop won't stop), and the number of dangerous (i.e. stringed) dummies was noticeably dwindling. It seemed that the trio would be able to pull out the fight after all - without Yutaka's "assistance", of course.

- Alistair -
Alistair nodded "thank you" he took a deep drink of the water bottle and set it down. he took a deep breath and his form changed slightly, it was a little bit painful but he shifted back into a ball of light. He settled down to the ground, with little noises coming from him.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda stood up and cleared her throat. she swatted at the snakes and said "leave him alone, you're scaring him" she looked at him "you're name's Zi..von? that's a nice name do you want a hand?" she put out a hand towards him "are you alright? i didn't hurt you did i?" then another boy approached, he appeared to know Zivon so she quietly cleared her throat, let him notice her if he wished but she wasn't going to push herself into the conversation.

- Kathy -
'How much stamina does he have?' Kathy wondered as she listened to Crash continue to talk as he battled the dummies. It did make it very easy to find him and re-group once more though. She was quite certain she would've felt tired and breathless by now if she talked that much while moving around, but perhaps there was a reason why Crash always seemed to energetic on a normal basis. Kick away a few, pull off the string from another. Kick away some more, and move closer to the other two. She repeated this process until the 3 of them were back together again. "May want to get these out of the way completely!" She told the other two, grabbing a handful of the wiggling dummies on the floor and tossing them aside completely. The last thing the needed was for one of them to slip on the fabric and injure themselves. "One... Three... Just seven left!" She happily announced, counting the number of dummies still able to move around.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka smiled. Though they had started off rather clueless, they made quick progress and would be able to complete the training with no problems at all at this rate. There was no point separating them any more since there weren't enough dummies to cover them from view and he couldn't make a sneak attack anymore either. He had planned on interfering a couple more times, but since they were so quick on the uptake he decided to let him finish and have their victory. Leaning against a wall a small distance away from them, he watched them go at the last handful of dummies still left.

- Crash -
Crash had just knocked back another creature when Carmen appeared in his peripheral vision, he turned his head blinking in awe as she practically charged into the group surrounding him. "Perfect timing fair knight" He commented as she clubbed another of the dummies with her trumpet. It presented him with the opportunity to lunge forward and grab the string of another, attempting to loop his claws up and through it. However Carmen's appearance had resettled him and they'd shrunk back, he fumbled for a moment before getting enough of a grip to yank it away. "Un-graceful? Not possible" Crash flashed Carmen a grin hearing her exclaim he glanced over his shoulder, instead of dodging he dropped his shoulder and rammed into central dummy knocking it back as the others turned to swarm, yet again Carmen jumped to his rescue trumpet in hand. Pulling the string of the dummy trapped beneath him he hopped back onto his feet, adrenaline was a beautiful thing as soon as it hit his system he was an unstoppable ball of energy...that would probably eventually expire in a dramatic fashion. For now he jumped to help Carmen out, crimson eyes falling on Kathy as she made it back to them. "Probably best before-" Crash agreed with her, aiming a front kick at a dummy coming up on her left just as she grabbed a fistful of the blankets, one of which was under his supporting foot. The dummy still flew backwards but Crash's balance was terrible so even though the fabric simply ripped beneath his foot the jolt threw his centre of balance, causing him to fall backwards onto his butt. "-I fall over" He finished pinging back to his feet before he could be bundled by sheets. "Alright then" He grinned at Kathy, "In that case we've got this, all for one and one for all" He encouraged turning his back to Kathy and Carmen lunging forward to grab another of dummies to wrestle the string from its neck.

- Ara -
“Ah, the first best hat belongs to a rather fashionable alien from outer space.” Ara chuckled, technically answering them but probably still confusing them. Nodding, she followed them all to the dojo, eager to get her first chance at dealing with firearms. Answering Little Feather’s question she nodded, “Yup, I’m a student here. I registered rather late so I haven’t even gotten a chance to look at the campus yet.” Smiling she added, “So it makes sense if you haven’t seen me around, since it’s my first day joining everyone.” Hearing the first rounds of gunfire coming from inside, she let out a low whistle. "Wow, I wonder if students are even allowed to keep their own personal firearms on campus?"

- Leroy -
Leroy smiled blissfully at Zivon's reaction. Even without receiving a proper reply, it was easy to see that he had been remembered. “Nice to see you again too.” He laughed. Then noticing the book decompose in the boy’s hand he commented, “That seemed like a waste. Guess you’re not a fan of studying either?”

Hearing the girl (Andromeda) clear her throat, he turned his attention to her as well. “Oh, excuse me. I didn’t mean to make you feel ignored miss.” Normally he greeted people by looking directly into their eyes, but in her case he felt rather distracted and watched the snakes on her head move this way and that. It was oddly fascinating to watch. “Not sure if you heard, but my name’s Leroy. Care to tell me your name as well?”

- Andromeda -
Andromeda blinked when the guy turned his attention to her "oh, uh Yes i heard" she tried flattening the snakes on her head but they were being unruly today and ignored her. she put out a hand to shake his "I'm Andromeda, it's nice to meet you" she saw his eyes were on her snakes and she blushed and tried flattening them again, when that didn't work she sent a sudden stern command to the snakes to settle and they reluctantly stopped moving "how do you do, Leroy?"

- Zivon -
Zivon kept quiet, even though he wanted to say something nothing came out of his mouth. He was scared, nervous, panicking…all those things he felt during the auditorium but worst. He dropped the decomposed book from his hands and covered his face. Zivon was so close to crying just looking at Leroy’s…smile. There was something wrong with that smile that made him cringe…something that isn’t right. He bit his bottom lip and stood up, he then picked another book and started to read it, trying to remove the fear and anxiety filling his whole body. Somehow he was able to mutter out something… “I-I …I l-li-li…k…e s-stud-d…..yi…n-ng” Zivon stuttered out while reading a book about…mythological places while trying to have eye contact with Leroy.

- Garden -
Garden looked at Lady Ara and was curious of…firearms…. “Excuse me for asking Lady Ara but what is…firearms? I never heard such a thing…is it the loud thingy that made that Bam sound?” Garden asked, where she lived…they had no guns or firearms of such. She looked again at the dojo and petted Sunflower who oddly enough was still a sleep.

- Leroy -
"It's a beautiful name." Leroy commented, smiling at Andromeda. He wondered if the snakes were just a part of her, or if they also had minds of their own. "Say, if you don't think it's rude, can I try touching your hair? Snakes? Whichever term you prefer." He asked, laughing slightly. "I'm doing good, what about you?"

Leroy's smile grew about another inch at Zivon's stuttered reply. "Really? Wouldn't have guessed with how you destroyed that book just now." Leaning against the bookshelf as he faced the two other students, he studied Zivon's reaction (having caught his name from Andromeda moments before). "Hey now, don't act so cold. You seemed to be really enjoying yourself last time." He chuckled, remembering how strongly his ability had worked on the boy.

- Zivon -
Zivon listened to what Leroy said and immediately shivered in fear and blush with embarrassment…he did not want to remember what happen at that auditorium and how pathetic he was… He used the book to cover his face a bit more but felt like his legs were about to give up, as he tried to move away he tripped… but there was nothing to trip on… He tipped and landed on his face. Zivon stood up and started to cry a bit more, believing that it was all a big mistake to be here and it was his choice to be there. He rubbed his face and started to breath heavily. He wanted his dad…. He then looked back at the two and tried to cover his embarrassed face. “S-S-..o-o..r-r-..y-y..” Zivon said without a reason, he felt like saying sorry for the pathetic show he just did.

- Carmen -
"I understood that reference," Carmen stated simply and proudly as she began to go for the strings of the remaining dummies within their reformed triangle formation. For her to understand a human reference was a big deal to her, since she had learned everything from books and other media. There were only seven functional dummies left, and soon to be zero as the trio aggressively went after the remaining strings. She began pulling off strings, stopping to bat eager dummies away with her trumpet briefly before grabbing for the strings again. Out of the corners of her eyes she could see Crash and Kathy doing the same on either side of her, and knew that victory was imminent.

- Kathy -
"Oops, sorry." Closing one eye in a slight wincing motion, Kathy apologized as she saw Crash fall down. It was ironic how she ended up being the exact cause of the very incident she had been trying to prevent. She grabbed one of the dummies Carmen batted away and pulled at the string again. With just 2 left, she immediately stepped on the fluttering hem of one of them and hooked her fingers to tug it away. She kept an eye out on the last one as it scurried low across the floor and... "Ah." Let out a small sound of surprise as it decided to run up into Carmen's dress, trying to wrap itself around her lower thighs. Not about to to try flip Carmen's skirt up in an attempt to catch that, she asked, "Er, you alright with the last one Carmen..?"

- Crash -
Crash grinned at Carmen’s statement, he was glad she had understood that. He dispatched the dummy he had been wrestling with noticing they were down to the last two, he watched Kathy slam her foot down on the hem of one of them pinning in place but the last one scurried low to the ground. “I got it!” He exclaimed pouncing towards it, he was paying no attention as to where it was going however, he landed short his fingers missing it by a hairs breadth as it continued its journey straight up Carmen’s dress.

Now, most people would have instantly realized that following the dummy was NOT a good idea...However this thought did not even cross Crash’s mind as he followed the sheet his head disappearing under her skirt, he gripped at the last creature yanking it backwards as it tried to wrap around Carmen’s thighs, he detangled it from her legs quickly. It was probably at this moment that Crash realized he was somewhere he really shouldn’t have been...

- Carmen -
Carmen had been too caught up in de-stringing the penultimate dummy to notice the last one going for her thighs. By the time she had finished relieving the other dummy of its string and turned around, not only was the dummy up her dress but so was Crash. As she didn't seem to be in immediate danger for the very reason she was surprised, she just turned her head to look at Kathy with her eyes like dinner plates.

Crash had, indeed, dealt with the dummy, but in a most undignified (for Carmen, at any rate) way. Being the bipolarly understated or overexaggerated person that she was, she merely looked down after she was quite finished expressing her view in the situation to Kathy and said, "Enjoying the view?" with her one eyebrow raised. Indignantly stepping out of the way of Crash's "view" to both save her dignity and Crash's embarrassing attempt to get out, she even more indignantly yanked the string off of the last dummy and stepped on it, holding almost a Captain Morgan pose while looking down at Crash. Her face was a mixture of confusion (one eyebrow raised), "disappointed-but-not-actually-disappointed-and-you-can-totally-tell...hopefully", and a light sprinkling of violation. However, she took the time to momentarily look up from Crash, who was still on the ground next to her, to look at Yutaka. "So, other than that," she said to him, "How did we do?"

- Kathy -
Catching Carmen's glance, Kathy tugged the string from the dummy she had pinned under her foot earlier as she helplessly watched the embarrassing scene close by. Her eyes seemed almost as wide as Carmen's as they exchanged looks, almost simultaneously looking down at the large lump formed under the musician's dress. She noted, with a hint of admiration, that Carmen took the situation far better than she would have. For some reason, a slight flush of colour came up on Kathy's cheeks, almost as though she felt embarrassed for Crash herself. Clearing her throat with a cough, she looked away and also turned her attention to the teacher watching them from the sidelines.

- Yutaka -
Yutaka was busy laughing to the point his haori (the article of clothing draped over his shoulders; think of it like a Japanese jacket) had fallen off onto the floor. Seeing that they had only 1 dummy left to deal with, he had purposely manipulated it a rather interesting manner to see how they react but... They had certainly put on a better show than he would have expected.

"G-Good job..!" He laughed, trying to speak through his incessant laughter. "That was... Hahahaha, that was a very good job well done. Haha. Uh, well done you three." Yutaka had to momentarily lift his gas mask from his face, the steam from his own laughter having fogged up the clear area he was supposed to look through.