[Duplicate Deleted]

[Deleted Duplicate]

[Duplicate Deleted]

[Duplicate Deleted]

Dana Lucille Alcott.

---

Hm? Someone was up here talking to her, someone familiar. Who in their right mind would climb up here and talk to her? Even while she wasn't... herself. Dana turned her head and peered through her cloak. Night vision was enough to see through the darkness. Of course it had to be Vespera... The school's pet sociopath. Dana sneered from under the cloak. This woman was someone she definitely didn't want to talk to. Vespera and Dana were on two different ends of the social spectrum. Yes, simply from their contrasting personality she knew they weren't going to be friends. However, a problem came from being up here alone with her, and revealing her identity to her. She didn't want Vespera, of all people, knowing of her true power. Which meant she would have be to careful. In this body... she felt different. She... was different. Under the cloak... when eyes are averted, she is no longer Ms. Alcott.

She shouldn't exist.

Dana had to choose her words very carefully. She knew how aggressive Vespera can be, so starting a fight would be stupid. But, bending forward for this lunatic was not in her intentions. While Dana Alcott was a doormat, she just wasn't Dana right now. "I am nobody...." Dana said, her voice was horribly warped, nearly sounding electronic, but there was a little bit of her original voice heard if one payed attention. "Merely someone who will come and go..." Dana whipped around and faced forward. The most difficult thing here was forcing herself to act like a stranger.

---

Jago Andrew Javuant, & Ben Voss.
(Written in collaboration with Jazzy)

---

Treating his little talk down from his cousin lightly as possible, Jago walked through the halls of the Academy. It wasn't his fault that people pissed him off sometimes. It was just a factoid of life. Which is why Jago here is going to continue from here and chill. The student lounge was open? He heard two knuckleheads went at it in there. He was sad that he missed that one, but whatever. Everyone in this school acted like they were Superman, so another fight was just around the corner (Next one might even have him!). It annoying, but exciting- What broke his train of thought was a nice vending machine. Not just any vending machine. A drink vending machine. One thing Jago couldn't resist was a good drink! He skittered over to it, and pulled out a dollar bill... though... he had a better idea in his head. Staff might not like it, though!

A bottle of Sprite started floating out of place. Someone could walk by and mistake it for being weightless if there wasn't a dark-purple aura around it. Now this part was a little tricky... Since he never tried it on anything bigger than a pencil before - but that isn't important. As it floated, he tried to will it towards the bin. He's trying some real Jedi shit here. It started floating, and floating, and floating... and doing absolutely nothing. This jazz was frustrating. He seen all sorts of kids do this. Why the hell can't he do this? The bottle of Sprite quickly fell back into place, and that pissed Jago off even more. He pushed off against it, turning around in the process, and huffed loudly. He face palmed, before just giving in and just paying for it. He pulled a dollar and a quarter out his pocket and slid it in, and like that, he received his Sprite. Worked better this way. Who knows where that old-head Adam - or that fucking Lizard freak - is lurking? Jago didn't want to hear cousin Deb's bitching anyway.

The journey continued as Jago pressed the bottle of sprite against his lips and started gulping down. He stepped through the doors of the lounge, and amazing, it wasn't trashed. He was expecting one fire, but that was too much to ask for, now was it? He took a look around and saw nobody that he knew, so he figured that he'd chill. He was going to play some good old Pokemon! Sure, other kids said it was lame, but what the hell else are you supposed to do here? Learn? Well, maybe he'd play pool with someone. He quickly walked up to the pool tables and leaned up against it, and whipped out his 3DS and started playing on it. He'd keep playing until someone came around to entertain him.

Ben had retired to the lounge himself, he was currently sitting down in one of the chairs with one of his college textbooks, reviewing Oxidation reactions in Chemistry. It was hard shit, he was getting it, but it was still hard. His eyes were brought up when a new person entered the room, young man of color. He watched as he started messing around with the vending machine. He swore to himself that if he bought grape soda he was going to throw a fit and hurt Pink when he got back home. But everything turned out alright when he ended up getting a Sprite. Ben raised an eyebrow, and took out his board. He watched and waited, seeing the boy was now up against the pool table, all without noticing him. He watched, and heard the low music of a pokemon game. He smiled, he had played some of the oldest ones in the past, but none within the last decade or so. That little contraption that he had looked fancy and new too. He stood up and walked a bit closer, ending up behind the boy looking over at what he was doing in the game. He wrote down a quick 'What pokemon game are you playing?' to try and spark some communication.

The boy raised an eyebrow and looked at this fucking tower standing over him. He looked like a redneck giant, had a beard, and really looked like a racist bastard (At least to him). Jesus. Did they delay this guy's education so much that he's going to high school in his thirties? Jago rolled his eyes. This school was packed full of freaks. A dumb guy wasn't the worst thing going on in here. He looked at the note, then back up to Ben, then back to the note. They probably didn't teach him how to speak either. Brilliant. What boat did you come off of that they didn't even teach you how to talk, Big-man? Though, he wasn't going to say that. It would be stupid to even think that. He put up a finger as he rudely took a few gulps of his sprite. Before he answered. "X/Y. The only one that's even out for this. At least until the new games come out.."

Ben shook his head, and wrote a quick 'I'm mute, excuse the board.' Honestly, he just asked a question. There wasn't much need to react so... negatively. He, in a way, hated this generation already. Abe was a bit of a dick, but he had an excuse, Shannon seemed to dislike him for everything up until he became her friend, and now this little squirt was being this way. Jesus, kids these days. He decided to answer the boy's response. 'I apologize for my lack of knowledge, I've been working for a long time, haven't had time to sit back and enjoy a game in a while.' He was ignoring the finger for a moment, giving the boy the benefit of doubt on just not knowing what was rude and what was not.

Mute, eh? Well that explains a lot. Maybe Jago was a little too hasty on the whole "lol he's probably dumb yolo" thing. Whatever. Jago was going to keep this conversation going, because there's literally nothing else for him to do right now other than get bored. "Big-Man, you really can't talk?" He had to asked as he read the board. He wondered how this guy lived like this. ,"Damn, man... I wonder how that feels like. Bet ya' had moments where you were dying to tell someone to shut up, hahaha..." Never being able to talk... then again, being as massive as he is, he doesn't need to. His presence talks for him. He whistled quietly. "But I bet someone like you doesn't even need to talk." He pointed at Ben's body with one finger.

Ben shrugged. He did wish he could speak sometimes. 'It would make conversing easier. I dont want to always come off as a big mean man, I like to think I'm a pretty friendly guy. I've managed to befriend two girls named Shannon and Deborah on my first day being here. You happen to know them?"

It was almost like Big-Man here had telepathy! Though, Jago had to roll his eyes up into his head. He didn't want to be reminded of Deborah right now. Because that was in the way of fun, man. You can't have fun if you're always thinking of downers like Deborah. "Yeah," Jago started off, as he downed the Sprite, and took the last gulp. He felt disappointed since, he's out of soda. "Deborah's my cousin, annoying too. Dunno about the Red head, but she makes siiiick clothes."

Ben nodded, looking over to continue to watch the game Jago was playing, before he smacked himself on the head. He didn't know Jago's name! So he put on his sunglasses and wrote on his whiteboard 'My name is Ben, what's yours?' as the 4th wall exploded behind him. Mute guys and cool guys dont look at explosions.

Oh, they're doing the name game now? Weeell... Jago was pretty meh, but he appreciated that Ben dropped the subject of Deborah and that was fine. Ben, eh? Something told Jago that his name was the most unique here. "Heh... My name is Jago, Big Man. Jago Javuant..." Jago raised an eyebrow as Ben walked off, without his white board. He shrugged and started playing his DS again. It wasn't important.

Ben left his whiteboard at the table and walked over to the soda machine, seeing the kid was out of what he was drinking, and bought the most interesting soda he could see, which happened to be watermelon soda. He returned to the boy once again and slid it over to him.

Oh, hell naw. No. This big man was cool for a minute, but now? He's handing him fucking bottles of watermelon soda. There were people that would brush moments like this off, then there was Jago who would explode all over him. "Oh hell naw!" Jago loudly exclaimed as he slapped the watermelon soda on the floor. "You think just because I'm black I like watermelons, Big-Man!? Unbelievable!" He grabbed a pool-cue by the tip, and slapped it into his other hand in a very threatening manner. Like, "hey, I'm going to smash this over your head in a second!" Which was what Jago felt like doing. But he was going to keep his cool... at least for Debby. "Racist bastard..." Jago muttered under his breath. Staring directly at Ben.

Ben looked at Jago for a second, trying to figure out what the fuck he did this time. Now he was freaking out, and threatening him. Fuck it, time to show this kid how a real man handles situations. He picked up the soda from the ground very slowly, then with as much strength as he had ripped it open, and then downed the whole damn thing in one go, then proceeded to take the empty can and smash it against his forehead. Now that it was completely crumpled, Ben proceeded to hold it like a baseball and then throw it like a 90MPH heater straight through the Lounge window. He'd fix it later. He fixed fucking everything on this damn island. Might as well break some of it too.

He grabbed his whiteboard and used his whole arm sleeve to wipe away what he last wrote, and then scribbled a messaged saying 'I grew up on a small farm, I have NO FUCKING CLUE what the hell is racist and what isnt.' then he proceeded to snap the board over his knee and give the two pieces to Jago. He'd fucking fix that too. It was made of wood anyways.

Jesus!

Now THAT was unexpected.

Ben the racist fucker actually threw it through a window, and apologized. Jago wasn't sure if he could even stay angry. Though, he would be mighty pissed if Big-man here wasn't punished. Because, man, he couldn't get away with shit like that even if he tried! The world was so harsh on a little black boy. "Woooah, Big-man! That shit wasn't even necessary!" When he was handed the white-board, he made it float in the air using his telekinesis. A dark-purple aura surrounded it, because, fuck touching that. Jago has no idea where this weird ass man's been putting it (Probably up his ass!). "Alright, Ben, let's just leave it at this and pretend this never happened and be cool?"

Ben simply sighed and nodded, swiping his board pieces and placing them back together and transferring some of his power to them, welding the wood back together. There was still a crack in the center on the plastic part, but oh well. With his marker he added 'Agreed.'.

Time passed, and Aislin's many visitors disappeared. First Nicholas, as he wasn't amused by the porn. Then the twins. Gabe still looked pissed, leveling a death stare at her before her brother ushered the two of them out. Sylvia stuck around a little longer, but she seemed eager to enjoy her findings alone. 

As door clicked shut, the smile on Ailsin's face deflated. She stared out the rain-soaked window, the gray weather outside reflecting her own cold feelings. Snippets of the conversation before flew through her mind, pegging her with guilt. Why did I immediately blame Adam? He's just a teacher... Ailsin groaned, squeezing her hospital sheets with white knuckles. 

Ailsin should have considered there'd be more than one blue-skinned meta, especially in a school like this. But the enigma, it burned at her with ferocity. I need to know who's down there. She thought. If not for her, then for Jaska. He was the one who got all defensive in the first place, maybe there really was a problem the school wasn't aware of. Aislin couldn't begin to guess who the blue lady was, but she pondered the question nonetheless.

God, I can't take this. I'll drive myself insane at this rate. Aislin frustratedly pushed the red button again. When the nurse walked in she put on her best 'I'm healthy' face. "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm rested and feeling great. When can I go?"

She'd say whatever she had to if it meant she could leave. But the nurse was pretty chill, helping her out of the IV. They threw Aislin's clothes in the wash, cleaning the salt out. She buried her face in her shirt, breathing in warm cotton and detergent. It was shredded to shit, but still wearable one last time. The nurse showed her to a change room, and Ailsin slipped back into her loose graphic tee and skirt. 

"Thank you, ma'am. Could you point me in the direction of the hospital's gift shop?" Aislin asked before she left. 

It didn't take long before the young lady found her way to Jaska's room, a small bouquet of flowers in hand. She knocked before entering, but found the room empty besides the whirr of machines and a slumbering Jaska. He looked sick, frail. The machines seemed like they could eat him up as he almost disappeared amongst the cords and tubes. 

"Oh... My God. Jaska..." Aislin's voice choked, and she hovered near the far wall. Her heart thumped in her ears; being here scared the living shit out of her. When she looked at him, her mind continued flashing horrific images of the Beast, closing in for the kill. The end of her life, only inches away from being swiped out of existence with a razor claw.

She shuddered, feeling incredibly weak. But, gritting her teeth, she tiptoed to the edge of his bed. Slowly, carefully. Not to disturb the sleeping monster child, Aislin quietly placed her gift of flowers in an empty vase beside his bed, a card reading 'From the Pretty Lady' hidden among the petals. The moment her hand let go of the stems, she took quick steps back, keeping her eyes on Jaska the entire time. Jaska's door closed with a quiet click as she bolted into the hallway. She didn't stop until the hospital was far behind.

The dripping rain soaked her clothes after minutes of being outside. Undeterred and only a little cold, Aislin pushed her wet hair off her face as she slipped past the school's gates. Traveling on a bubble of earth for speed, Aislin tried retracing her steps to the caves. It took some time, but the cliff came into view once more, dark holes dotting its side. 

Golden orbs flashed in the darkness, just as they did before. Aislin's fear spiked so great that she lost control of her power, tumbling headfirst into the mud. She roared in disgust, spitting grit from her mouth. Cursing her vivid imagination, she shakily rose to her feet. Mud caked half of her body, getting all in her hair. Feeling even shittier than before, Aislin wiped off as much as she could before she willed herself to wander back into the caves.

Going to the same place they saw the blue lady together, Aislin could still pick out dried blood on the ground. The broken stalagmite sat guilty at its center, and with a furious kick Aislin sent the stone sailing into the opposite wall. It didn't make her feel any better...

"Hellooo!" She yelled in vain, not believing for a moment the blue enigma would just appear from a greeting. With an exasperated sigh, Aislin scratched at the mud drying on her arm as she followed the tunnels deeper in, following the sounds of rushing water. If anything, maybe she'd find an underground spring to wash off in.

Codi Bailey

Codi, after safely bringing the people who had been injured, along with the healer, to the hospital, had retreated into her room to hide for a bit, and was thankful to see that her roommate wasn’t there. She did not recall ever having a formal conversation with her, but she was not in the mood to talk with anyone, not even the person she would be sharing living arrangements with. She had to let the stress of the day wear off, and it was particularly difficult, even though she was a person who could reach Zen in the worst of situations. She used the term ‘Zen’ on multiple occasions, although she also had to affirm that she didn’t hold Buddhist beliefs. It was primarily her figure of speech for being calm and at peace, although what had happened today was deeply troubling, for her.

She didn’t quite know what had happened, but even as someone who had to do the research on both Atticus’ powers and her own, she hadn’t recognized that roar she had heard in the distance as belonging to any sort of man or beast. Although she was sure, due to the fact that they were on an island, that the wildlife could be extremely unique, the thing that had attacked everyone had been anything but natural. As strong as what had gone up against it was, people had nearly died. Codi and Atticus weren’t even on their level of skill, and mentally calculating the odds, things didn’t look good for them. She was also aware that if it could happen once, it could happen again, and next time, it might happen to her, and she might be all alone by herself with no assistance.

Sitting on her bed, blankets piled up under Reef’s bulk, she reflected, and resolved that she wouldn’t be as trusting as she had been when she had first arrived. She enjoyed placing her trust in others, but already too many incidents had taught her that even the planning of the faculty and staff had major holes in it. There weren’t plans that had been arranged in case something went wrong, and people took challenges of strength so seriously that they might have brutally maimed someone if others weren’t monitoring them to ensure safety. If she was forced to fight in order to survive, she didn’t want to be the one dead or lying on a hospital cot. She wanted peace, but if she was seen as easy prey, then there was no hope of getting it in this school, or anywhere on this island.

Taking a deep breath, the unsettled fears turning into a strange mix of determination, and perhaps a deep-burning anger at herself, Codi stood up, pulling in Reef’s six arms so as not to knock anything over. The parasitic urchin felt bulky and awkward where he was fused to her back, and he was so frequently ignored by his host that he tended to just flail his arms about at whatever the insect’s simple mind thought was a threat. Codi needed to change her way of thinking about that, too. Reef was fused to her back, and their blood supply was the same, which meant that the parasite was an extension of her own body. She could even control him, but perhaps she needed to gain more control of the insect than what she had seen as sufficient in the past. She would force herself to always make sure the arms were held in a certain way, and that she could prevent even the slightest inclination the urchin had to swat anything that she didn’t see as a threat herself. She wouldn’t let it have free reign over unconscious actions, anymore.

Now hooked on a specific goal, Codi got up, and left the dorm room, heading off for the training hall. She was going to go train, until she was capable of protecting herself, so that she could finally enjoy some peace. It didn’t matter how many times she had to do a backwards-hug, or scratch at a dummy.

She would do it, because once she set her goal, she didn’t stop going after it until she had succeeded.

Atticus Fowler

Atticus took out his Tenor Saxophone and tried to play it in his dorm room, but to any well-trained musician’s ear, the music had a tense quality to it that would have indicated clear stress in the person who was performing it. Because Atticus did, in fact, have such a trained ear, he gained no satisfaction as the person who laid claim to being the source of the music. He tried to play jazz, but instead of sounding calm and peaceful, the tune was somehow harsh and uneasy, as though the notes were eager to leave the air and flee to some dark corner where they would never be found again. He tried pieces of music that were intended to sound uneasy or skittish, but the quality of the notes was still sub-standard. Atticus finally lowered the saxophone, still in his creature form, and looked at the instrument with a distinctly dissatisfied expression on his face, even though his features were already warped by an inhuman appearance.

He then sat down on his bed, and laid the silver saxophone down next to him, before putting his face in his hands, and shaking his head, forcing the stoic, unreadable expression it normally had to return. The people who had been hurt were fine, nobody had died. As much as he tried to reassure himself, the fact that the fight had happened at all still deeply worried him. What kind of environment was this school, if the first thing to happen when you wandered off alone was that you were attacked by some predatory species? Secondly, when students got lost, shouldn’t there be an easier way to locate them, versus simply sending a search party, when the search party just wound up in another bad situation at the same time? Actually, how did students get lost in the first place? Why would anyone wander off in such a dangerous place? It was pretty obvious that even strong meta-humans could die out there.

Atticus stood back up, and looked at a calligraphy paper he had hung up on his side of the room, bearing the Japanese word for ‘Courage’ that he had written himself. There were other words, too, but this one, in particular, applied to him the most strongly right now. This school seemed to bring out the most extreme aspects of a person’s nature, enough that it had seemed abnormal. Atticus was now thinking that it was actually probably more normal than he thought, if perhaps there were more incidents like the one that had just happened. What kind of things did that do to a normal person’s mind, thinking that if you weren’t careful, you would wind up on a chopping block?

If he knew anything, Atticus was aware that this would probably have a worse effect on Codi’s mental state than his own. He deeply cared about her, as his best friend, but he had always been aware that she could be a bit ‘off’ or ‘misguided’ in her actions, even if they were often well-intended; some might say they were more disturbing, or an indication of something far worse, however. As kind as she could be, when she set a goal, she went to dramatic lengths in order to achieve them. Everyone had forgotten about punishing her for pushing Atticus over the waterfall after the fight that had injured several people, but that didn’t mean that it hadn’t happened. In the end, Codi hadn’t done it for the sake of a prank, but to finally prove whether or not Atticus’ creature form could breathe underwater. She was generally a follower, or someone who was willing to accommodate others, but in the end, if she felt like she was forced to do so, Codi could take control, and be ruthless with it, not allowing anyone else a say-so.

The controlling aspect of Codi’s personality was a part of her that Atticus was somewhat afraid of, even though he still greatly liked her. It was what had driven her to push him over the cliff in the jungle, and when she had just been learning her powers, what had caused her to take Atticus’ advice, which he still in certain ways regretted offering. In the past, when Codi had still been learning the exact nature of her powers, she had been aware of the bacterial toxins she could inject with the hidden syringes under her nails. The problem was that she did not know what each toxin was, or what it could do. She didn’t know if it had been lethal or not. The suggestion Atticus had given her was perhaps the most logical option, to obtain mice and test the toxins on them, but if it were not for the actual researching aspect of what she had done, Codi still strongly felt as though she had been torturing small mammals. Atticus felt guilty, because the research showed that although the toxins were non-lethal, they existed primarily to cause pain and hinder whatever was injected. Codi now knew the exact nature of each toxin, but the knowledge came with the intense guilt of knowing that innocent creatures had been harmed to learn such things.

Atticus didn’t want to think about what this incident would do to Codi’s mind, but knowing how they had never really trained to fight, it was possible that right about now, she would be heading off to train and become more powerful. In the end, he knew her well enough to properly guess what her actions might have been. She probably was going off to train, although Atticus was not as quick as his friend to build any sort of new goals or resolves based on recent events. He felt drained, and much of it was because his own body had been forced through a certain degree of stress. The automatic change into a fish-creature without a conscious effort was a defense mechanism, and even though he wouldn’t get sick because of the way Codi had timed it, it still messed him up, to a certain degree.

Sighing, he got up, and decided to go and check on the people who had been hurt, to see if they were okay. Pausing, he grabbed his Tenor Saxophone, and put it in its hard-back case, where it would be safe, before heading out the door. Maybe it would give him some peace of mind to play for anyone who was interested in listening.

Nicholas Raynor & Shannon Balore

After a moment or two of resting, he smiled, before sighing, looking up at the teacher. "I appreciate that offer, but only if I can earn it. I'm not using my abilities to take short cuts, sir. Maybe we'll discuss that later. Right now, I feel like grabbing a bite and taking some time to rest. If you need me, I'll be at the cafe." And with that, he finished his winding statement, slowly standing up, taking in another deep breath, and making his way out of the hospital, taking the time to continue to gather deep breaths. It was -true-, the additional healing had taken some strength out of him and made his trek harder, but it wasn't -that- difficult to walk at his own pace.

Moments later, Nicholas found himself feeling a tad bit better, much more capable of walking at a decent pace without being out of breath. Not only that, but he stood in front of the entrance to the cafe, slowly moving to open the door and walk in. He observed his surroundings and looked over the menu, haven't yet done so before, before simply ordering a simple chicken panini and a hot tea to go with it. After retrieving his meal, he looked around the cafe. It seemed like not an awful lot of people were here, which were to his tastes. However, a certain person with ginger hair caught his eye. Something about that atmosphere she gave off about her...she looked awful stressed. Or maybe just upset over something. And yet...

He moved towards her table, taking his hot tea and sandwich with him before standing across the table from her, looking down at her. "If you don't mind, miss, I'm going to sit here." He simply stated, not trying to sound rude or forceful in the least. If anything, his voice would come off as still somewhat tired from the work he had done with the others, and maybe a bit concerned? Hrm. Maybe she wouldn't notice that last bit. With that, he slowly took a seat across from her, not trying to impede her personal space by keeping his items close to his side, quickly moving to take a sip of the hot tea. Ah...green tea. He did enjoy it. Just like that, a smile moved across his face, as his body was filled with its natural warmth.

Oh in fact, I do mind. Shannon rolled her eyes up into her head as yet another annoyance decided to help himself to her table. She knew she was good-looking, but, seriously, why is she attracting all the people she doesn't want to talk to? Shannon gave Nicholas a good look, he looked like a real Boy-scout... Reminded her a bit of Ethan - Hopefully he won't be as irritating. But otherwise, this kid was unremarkable as they get. For once, Shannon was going to contain her immediate contempt, and go finish her cake. She was down to a few bites, and it was so great that she'll have to get another. Remind me to tip the waitress. She thought to herself with a smile. "I can't object too much since you've already helped yourself, now can I?" She said with a little smirk. If this boy was looking for a date (Or the rest of her cake) then he's going to very disappointed.

Even as Nicholas finished downing a good portion of his tea, he couldn't help but hear this girl's complaint. He smiled a little, looking up to her. "Its not that I mean to intrude...its just, well, I know everyone has a hard time adjusting to a new school, right? I'm kind of new here, myself, and you seemed interesting, so I dropped by to say hi. Meet new people, ya know?" He stated.

Don't mean to intrude? Well, he did that the second he walked over here. But maybe Shannon will keep her mouth shut for now. Maybe not. Depends on what (she thinks) this kid's up to. Going off that "I'm new here" story (Which she has heard a thousand times already) he just wants to integrate himself in some group... Or something else. Shannon couldn't peg it that well. He was too young to be looking for a date, at least in her. He barely looked like he's sixteen. "I heard that one before." She cynically said. "Just that I'm probably not the best choice for a first chit-chat..." Shannon was easily the hardest person here to get a good first impression on. It was because of her rather high standards.

Though, that was only half the truth. He could tell, just by looking at her. The quickness in her eating her cake, the composure of her body language...she wasn't too comfortable with him. He wondered, though...he looked over her cake. When a waitress walked by, he quickly rose his hand. "Excuse me, miss. Em...could I get another cake just like her own?" He asked eagerly. She nodded, and went on her way, before turning back to the girl. Maybe it was just a hunch, but perhaps by keeping more of that cake here...she would stick around? Something to make her chill out, perhaps. Moments later, the cake arrived, fork and all. Nicholas split the cake in half, carefully so, before moving to take a bite out of his half. It was...delicious. Just how the frosting and cake layering melted in his mouth. Oh god...that waitress needed a tip. He couldn't help but smile goofily as the cake satisfied any sweet craving he had, to the point that he utterly ignored the cynical statements she had made, blissfully unaware through his ecstasy.

"Strawberry." Shannon just had to say the second Nicholas asked for a cake. Shannon was personally wondering what this child was trying to accomplish. Was he getting a cake for her, or himself? That was the golden question. But it quickly turned out to be for himself. Which was great, since Shannon would have vehemently rejected it, and probably walked away. Though, the stupid look this kid had on his face as he ate the cake made her think he got some sort of sick sexual satisfaction from it. The people this academy attracts by the boatload....

"Oh...em, sorry." He stated, widening his eyes at just how much he was enjoying this cake and looking so silly he was in front of a girl, of all things. Though, this wasn't the first time, either. He had made silly mistakes like this before, and had gotten all kind of mean comments thrown at him in public. He quickly wiped his mouth of any crumbs he had on his mouth from the cake with a napkin. "Thanks for pointing out the kind of cake you had." He stated, before looking down at the cake...crud. He just realized. He...well, he was planning on giving part of this to her. Luckily, he had halved it beforehand. "Oh...em...sorry. Are you still hungry? If so, you can have a piece, if you want!"

"No." Shannon snapped. She didn't want any of this child's cake... Those faces he was making turned her off from ever eating this stranger's cake. "Sorry, but, I can't be won over with gifts from complete strangers..." She cynically said again, narrowing her brown eyes.

Nicholas couldn't help but widen his eyes. Oh dear...thats when he felt it. A certain fear he had felt many times before, creeping into his mind. That certain sense, that unutterable feeling of loneliness slowly and surely isolating himself from the others as reality struck. Had she really thought of him as someone who was trying to 'win her over' with cake? He was just trying to be nice, thats all. And maybe at the same time, make a new friend? Slowly, he closed his eyes. "...My name is Nick. I didn't mean to win you over at all. I saw you stressed, and I just thought I would try to cheer someone up. Forgive me for being wrong." He stated simply, no longer sounding happy or joyful. In fact, in one fell stroke, the girl had just killed whatever happiness he had found that day. Nicholas was admittedly a gentle guy. He didn't like upsetting people. He lowered his head in shame, and sighed, gently pushing his cake away from himself.

"... Then tell me what you get out of it?" Shannon was quick to reply. She hadn't finished her cake on purpose, because she had to give this kid a reality check. "What do you possibly get out of cheering a complete stranger...?" She asked, very curious to what response this kiddo would come up with.

Slowly, the young man constructed the words proper in his mind, before speaking out, with less enthusiasm with before. "...I just thought that you looked like you were having a bad day, and if I was in a bad way like that, then I know I would like someone to help me out too, ya know? Do to others what you would do for yourself?...Besides..."

Oh goody. Another super nice imposter. Just when Shannon couldn't get enough of them. She sneered, and rolled her eyes behind her spectacles. "Spare me the nice guy routine." She was quick to insert. "Nobody is nice just because, I've learned that time and time again...." She trailed off, rolling her eyes up into her head. She brushed some strands of her hair back behind her head. "Everyone who slaps the 'good' or 'nice' title on themselves always want something, even if they have to fake their true nature," She shrugged, "Status, money, or simply just want to feel important... It's all something they can get from other."

Nicholas was taken aback. He thought over this for a moment, before slowly shaking his head. "...Maybe you're right about some people, but I just...wanted someone to talk to and relate to, maybe even have a friend? I've had weird time here so far. One girl wanted to get in my pants just because...another, a girl named Gabe, gave me a death stare just for trying to help out a friend who was being interrogated viciously by her just because she was in an accident with Jaska. I'm tired from everything I've done so far, and I just came here hoping to maybe relax and have a conversation with someone who seemed interesting to me, ya know?...Or maybe I just come off as some sort of creepy kid. I don't know."

So Mr. Nice guy was having a bad day? Tough luck. People here have bad lives and you don't see them complain. But whatever. "You best get used to people like that..." Shannon said as she took a long sip of her coffee (Which she honestly forgot was even there!). She broke eye contact with Nicholas for a moment and closed her eyes. Before she gently pressed her coffee cup against the table. "You've just entered the biggest cesspool of arrogant assholes, sociopaths, power hungry maniacs, and narcissists you've ever seen... Where do you lie?"

Nicholas shook his head. He...didn't know. If anything, he was always taught to not be any of those things. Both from personal study to how his mother taught him. He never wanted to be any of those things. And so, he stood up, pulling out a twenty dollar bill and placing it on the table beside his food. "...Thats for the meal. You can take the rest as a tip, ma'am." He spoke to the waitress, before looking at the ginger-haired girl. "...I don't know. And if it were up to me, I would rather not be any of them." He stated. With that, he left the whole sandwich, what remained of the tea, and the partially-eaten cake behind, moving to step out towards the door of the cafe. He slowly stepped out into the rain, lacking an umbrella as his clothes slowly got soaked as he wandered towards the student dormitories. Maybe he should just take some time to himself there...maybe people weren't in the lounge anymore...

Jago Andrew Javuant.

---

Talking with the Big-man was fun and all, but Jago wanted to do something else. Maybe something that gets his blood rushing. The arena? Nah, Jago was a super star, but he don't do too good without backup. For now, baby! The next best place for making fun is the Training hall. It was late, but some scrubs were probably getting some last minute practice in. Probably getting ready for an arena match or some shit. Details were irrelevant to Jago, all he wanted was for some douchebag to punch his shields and laugh his ass off when they bounce all over the place! That might be entertaining, more entertaining than chilling with Big-Man over here. Jago turned his eyes onto the gentle-giant he finds himself talking to. He was going to try to forget about the whole Watermelon mess and chalk it off as him being oblivious. But if that shit happens again, Jago's gonna punch Big-Man in his dick... If he can even find it! Dick jokes were immature but... Jago will hide behind his shields. Even the biggest, strongest, Big-men get tired at some point, and Jago knows this more than anyone.

"Tell ya' what, Big-Man," Jago started off, leaning the pool cue against the table, and promptly forgetting about it. While there was a place for it, screw that, someone will grab it when they want to use it. "I wanna go practice. Dunno what you can do, but I could use a Big-Man... You up for it?" The second Jago got the go-ahead, he bounced off the table and started walking out the door. "Haha... Follow me." Though, Jago had to take another excursion. Vending machine, Jago had to get his juice! It was nice and simple this time, all he did was stick a dollar or two in, and pressed a button, then, bang! He has a bottle of cooling-blue Gatorade. Like all good things, however, Jago was going to save it for later. Why waste it walking there, and buying another one, when he has a perfectly good one in his hand?

With the drink problem out of the way, Jago made his way outside. It was still raining, and Jago still didn't want to get drenched. He didn't like walking around all soggy and shit. So it didn't matter. He threw a bent arm over his head, and created a square shield over his head. Not a drop hit him! He quickly made it to the training hall. He stepped through the front doors and smelled the pain, sweat, and failure! Jago was going to be inflicting the first one, giving off the second one, and avoiding the last one. The way he went about life.

Jago walked into the first room and looked for some dickhead to hit his shields.

---

???

---

"... Whatcha' yellin' about, sweetheart?" A male voice pierced through the darkness.

A lighter clicked on to reveal Luis... The man who met Deborah's group earlier today, casually sitting on a rock with the same outfit as before. He also had a cigarette in his mouth that he lit with the lighter, before casually clicking it off. Obscuring him back in the darkness. What a coincidence that this young girl happened to be in the same cave as he was. If Aislin could see in the dark, she could see the idle smirk on his face. He pressed his long legs against the ground, and stood straight up, hands folded behind his back. In this darkness, the only thing that would allow Aislin to track his movements would be the cigarette in his mouth. "I'm wondering why a little child like yourself is wandering around these neck of the woods all by yourself...." Luis walked a circle around Aislin, before stopping dramatically. He pulled the cigarette out his mouth and blew out a puff of smoke. Calmly saying, "... Don't you know there's monsters out there?"

Codi Bailey

After having arrived in the training hall and putting on her special gear, Codi had went to the first area that had seemed suitable for her powers. Because of unusual circumstances, and the fact that faculty hadn’t been present to give her a better idea of how to train her powers, she mostly just wound up attacking dummy after dummy. They weren’t always stationary, there were machines to make them simulate moving targets, but Codi still couldn’t help but feel a bit dissatisfied with the whole system. A real moving target wouldn’t have a pattern that she could easily predict, and there were very few cases when Codi didn’t see a predictable pattern in machines. She built robots in her spare time, typically, so she understood how a machine could have repetitive behavior, on a deeper level than most people did. A machine was only as good as the person who had programmed it, and just as smart.

It wasn’t as though the simulation machines weren’t useful, though. Things jumping out from random places, either in front, to the side, or behind, did still catch her off-guard at first, before she got into a sort of rhythm for the whole exercise. She was soon questioning how the school afforded training dummies, when there were students who would completely destroy them in exercises like this. In Codi’s case, they could probably be repaired, but they were still messed up pretty badly, a lot of fabric was going to be rendered useless by Reef’s spikes tearing into them. The real difficulty, though, was that at first, Codi had to figure out how to give a sort of backwards-hug. Such a hug sounded strange, but considering what was present on Codi’s back, it sounded more like getting locked inside of an iron maiden.

In the end, the exercise was actually perhaps a lot more satisfying than Codi first thought, because she knew it wouldn’t be long before the human component of her, at least, started to get tired from the exertion. She knew that any sort of physical training, though, did not have any effect unless you pushed your boundaries beyond what made you exhausted. Until her muscles started to shake and burn with fatigue, she could not afford to stop, or she would not gain anything from what she was doing. She did not know if the same thing could be done to Reef, but if she could increase the power of its grip, she knew that probably nothing would be able to get out of it. Although she knew that the six limbs it possessed were arms, they would be mistaken for tentacles, although generally, she and Atticus both had to make an active effort to be politically correct. Codi additionally attacked dummies that came in front of her or to the side with her own secret weapon—hidden syringe-like claws under the regular nails—which injected bacterial toxins, along with a small live culture to keep it maintained for just a bit longer in the victim. She was so quick in swatting her nails through the fabric pieces of the dummy, though, that nobody would see anything more than a quick tap where the dummies seemed to catch on something.

When Codi had been training for a bit, she didn’t notice that a person had walked into the room, as her back had been turned. Her parasite, Reef, though, noticed, and a few of the spines gravitated to point in his direction, almost threateningly. Not all of them did this, though, as there were still other objects that were more immediate dangers, at least to the simple mind of the insect that the urchin really was. There really wasn’t an intelligent mind, so to speak, but the urchin valued its own survival, and therefore, the survival of its host, as it was fused to her and it relied on her blood supply. Codi felt the urchin tugging one of its arms against her control, which she found unusual, so when she turned to look at what Reef seemed to be noticing, she saw the stranger who had appeared.

Codi then walked out of the simulation area, and turned off the machine, so that power wasn’t being wasted, before looking at the other person who was now in the room. “Hey,” She said, raising one hand up in a greeting. She smiled a bit, but considering that her heart rate was already elevated and still needed to slow down, she couldn’t say a long, detailed sentence introducing herself. She took a deep breath and let it out, so that her heart settled. She couldn’t straighten up, though, because as always, Reef’s incredible weight bearing down on her spine didn’t allow it.

As the tunnels sank deeper into the earth, Aislin regretted not bringing a flashlight. When she could barely see her own hand in front of her face, she remembered the lighter in her pocket. Pulling it out with hasty fingers -- This darkness is giving me major creeps -- she clicked it several times in an attempt for some light. Sparks flew, but no matter her perseverance a flame would not take hold. A moment of dread filled her as she realized she was stuck traveling through perpetual darkness. 

"Ah, fuck." She cursed bitterly, resigned to carefully inch her way through the dark caves. It didn't help that her paranoia only increased. Something was dreadfully wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. 

"... Whatcha' yellin' about, sweetheart?"

A voice cracked the silence, startling her. The sound of a lighter clicked, and a small light illuminated the cave not a stone's throw from her. He was devilishly good-looking, sitting on a boulder with his cigarette. Tall, built, curly dark hair. But his aura spoke a pungent evil as if he were a wolf in sheep's clothing. This stranger's very presence demanded fear, and Aislin froze up. Shit, shit, shit...

The caves plunged into darkness once more, the cherried end of his cigarette the only light to follow. His footsteps ominously echoed off the cave walls as she watched the light make a full circle around her. She didn't dare expose her back, slowly spinning to face the light as he spoke. Her limbs wouldn't stop trembling, and she clenched her fists at her sides. Nothing, however, could hide her terror. 

She summoned whatever confidence she could. "I have stared down the gaping maw of Death today, you don't scare me." Her voice cracked, betraying herself. 

They faced each other in the darkness. Even if she couldn't see his eyes, she could feel his lethal gaze. Her heart thudded in her ears. How did he find me? She thought, wondering what a scary stranger in the depths of a cave could possibly want. She knew her own goal, finding adventure and possibly a blue lady. So, if he was gonna kill her, at least it would be exciting. She was never the type to die peacefully in a nursing home anyway. 

She struck the flint of her lighter again. Only sparks. "Goddammit."

Holding the lighter in her palm to warm the piece of crap, Aislin asked the near-tangible darkness a question. "I'm looking for a blue-skinned woman, you wouldn't have happened to have seen her, would you?" She frowned. "And... You're not from 218. Why are you here?" 

Jago Andrew Javuant.

---

Hm? Who is this? Jago turned his eyes towards this new girl that just so happened to be in the same room as him, and gave him a weakass "Hey" as a greet. He gave her one look and classified her under "freak". She looked like the Hunchback had some forbidden buttlove with a sea urchin. That big ass hunch she had on her back, with the barbs and all, certainly she looked like something less than human. Just like the headmaster's pet Godzilla. Oh? What was he going to call her? Hunch-back? Urchin-Fucker? Nah. He'll save the second one for when she starts being annoying.

But meh.

He came here looking for some schmuck to practice on, and here is one. Standing right in front of him. Even if she turns out to be some weakass, or annoying twat, he can at least have some fun screwing with her. Jago looked around the room for a second to see if there was anyone else here... Just in case. There was Big-Man, but he was probably going to sit on the sidelines, but it didn't look like there was anyone else here. Typical. Jago couldn't get the best, so he's just left with the rest. Jago turned the cap off his Gatorade in preparation. "Yo." He said in response. "You're training here, right?" He had to ask. He took a few steps towards the center of the room, he was flipping his bottle in the air, and catching it. Before climatically catching it one last time. "A power like mine needs someone to help, you up for it? I can help you with..." His eyes peered towards the training dummies for a second, "... Whatever the hell you're doing." He shrugged.

A simple proposition. If she didn't want to help him, then that's fine. Because she's a huuuge lameass and not even worth his attention. But he was so caught up in his plans that he had forgot to introduce himself! It would be awkward later on if they didn't. "I'm Jago, by the way."

---

Luis

---

Luis stopped the moment this child said that he didn't "scare her". This almost made him grin ear-to-ear. She was nothing but a mere child, attempting to act strong when she was truly afraid. Even trying to say that she has already stared at death! How amusing! Luis turned towards her, his movement only indicated by that glowing cigarette piercing through the darkness. He dryly looked at her, and let out a sigh, "Aren't you a little green to be saying that?" He said, bored already. "You are nothing but a child... You haven't had your chance to truly live." He was testing her. Gauging to see what her response was. This was easy though, regardless of what she said, he knew that she was zero threat to him. So he was fine with entertaining this badass idea a little. Thus he wasn't even going to lift a finger against her, unless she acted first.

Hmm... She's after a certain blue-skinned woman? That was interesting, because that means she's after his partner. "Depends... Depends... It all depends..." Luis tapped his chin. It was clear he found this whole triad amusing. He raised a finger in the air as his body became rigid. "May I ask you a little question first...?" He started cackling. "... What are you going to do when you find her?"

Codi Bailey

Codi gave a small nod, quickly considering Jago’s words, “My name’s Codi, and sure, I’m up for helping you train. What exactly do you want me to do, though?” She made Reef’s arms fold behind her, and hang low to the ground, so that their fashion seemed more like a flowing cape in appearance, if such a comparison could be drawn. She could sense that this person was all about business. Jago probably didn’t want anything slowing him down in whatever goal he had set, so small-talk probably wasn’t an option. Codi didn’t mind this, though, because if training with him helped her improve her own powers, then she was not bothered by assisting him in developing his.

Atticus Fowler

Atticus arrived at the hospital, and went in, before trying to figure out where everyone was. After a bit of consideration, he chose to take a seat in a waiting-room area for guests, to see if anyone came and asked him who he was present to see. He didn’t come with any sort of gifts or flowers, but Atticus wasn’t exactly poetic in that sort of fashion. He felt that it was appropriate just to come and see how everyone was. It was there that if anyone walked into the area, they would see a black eel-like creature in a wetsuit with a hard instrument case.

"The school is filled with monsters in sheep's clothing, I've certainly had a chance to truly die." Aislin replied. "Yet here we are."

She couldn't figure out his game. Was he merely playing with her? Passing simple banter before his true motives showed? He wasn't spilling any secrets just from her asking questions, obviously she needed to turn up the heat. But there was still the fact that her legs screamed for her to run, the fear gripping her chest was very real. Was it wise to antagonize a devil? 

Cursing herself for coming down into the depths of hell alone, Aislin asked herself: Am I willing to die alone here? To risk it all for a couple answers?

"... What are you going to do when you find her?" His wicked laugh sent chills down her spine. 

The words jumped on her tongue. Beat her into the ground for scaring the shit out of Jaska. But he sounded like he knew the lady Aislin was looking for, he probably wouldn't appreciate that. She couldn't harm someone in spite, anyway. 

In one last effort, Ailsin clicked her lighter. A flame came to life -- Finally! -- which pushed back the darkness. They were both revealed in the dim light, Aislin caked in mud and shredded clothes, the stranger in perfect attire. Tapping into her power, Aislin blew on the flame like a bubble wand, creating little candlelights to float a few feet around her. They didn't get close to the stranger, she wasn't attacking. The light expanded, flickering shadows along the cavern's stone walls. Being in the light gave Aislin a (false) sense of security, and this reflected in the tone of her voice. 

"I have a few questions for her. And I'm sure the Headmaster does too since she's trespassing on the island and causing a disturbance among students, which could be considered a criminal offense." She said in a thinly veiled threat to his friend. Maybe if he felt indirectly threatened he'd spill some secrets. Like who they were, why they were there. 

Luis.

---

This child...

This child.

Speaking to him, and tossing threats around? Luis stopped and gave her a vexing stare. With the lights on now, she can see him clearly. She could see the look he was giving wasn't the most pleasant look. "Child," He started off, he spat the cigarette out of his mouth, and watched as it idly landed. He lifted up a foot and crushed it under his heel. He stared her down for a moment or two. "Ask yourself a question; who knows you're here...?" Luis cackled sinisterly for a moment or two. Before he raised a finger up into the air, "Let me take a guess," He started laughing some more. "Nobody. You rushed here all headstrong hoping to get answers all on your own!" He put his fists high up into the air in a triumphant gesture. "And here you are, all alone threatening someone you do not truly understand....." He took a few steps towards Aislin staring her down. This was all too funny. This child doesn't understand what she is dealing with, and it's oh so funny. He put up a finger and wagged it left and right, for what seemed to be minutes on end. After time passed, he reached behind himself and grabbed something that's most likely in his pants.



"... Where no one will ever find you!"

What so happened to be behind Luis were two combat knives. He had both of them in his hands. He quickly lunged at her with both knives primed to swipe her throat. The plan was simple, and he's done it before. He was going to kill this child and leave her here to rot. She was foolish to come down here to begin with, and now Luis was going to punish her for it. While he did this, he had a grin on his face. The kind of grin that only maniacs have.

---

Jago Andrew Javuant

---

Now this is what Jago's talking about! This Freak-Girl agreed with his idea, and she didn't talk too much. That's what he calls a two for one deal! Maybe she won't be a huge lameass after all. "Good, good..." He grinned like a fool. He quickly got a good distance from Freak-Girl here, and got himself ready. Actually, if this girl didn't bumrush him, he would have gotten some stretches in beforehand, but, hey. You live a fast paced life, and you gotta go without the luxuries of taking it slow. Though, all he could do now to prepare was enjoy this Gatorade.... It wasn't like his enemies were going to give him a second to prepare and shit.

It took a little bit of concentration, but Jago's right hand started glowing with a dark-purple aura. He focused for a moment, as he outstretched his hand out to the side. A little sweep to the other side, and Jago had created a large, glowing, translucent shield. It was square-shaped, and dark-purple, but could be seen through. It had to be a foot or two thick. Damn some of this telekinesis crap sure was hard. Though that was the glory of practice! All he needs to do is get this Freak-Girl to beat on his shield for a little while, then it's going to be easy. Like, that's how the masters did it, right? Practice makes perfect.

The boy walked up to the shield, and flicked it with his index finger. Looked solid enough to him. "Looky here, girly-girl." He said as he pointed at the shield. "This is a shield-" Just in case you dumb enough not to figure that out "-What I want you to do is hit it with your weird tentacle thingies so I can test how much it can take. Sounds easy?" ... He neglected to tell her that she would bounce right off of it if she hit it just right. It might make a good laugh. Though, if she gets pissed off, he can tell her that it was an accident, or he forgot, and keep this ball rolling. If she was that big of a tool, that is. Jago started downing the Gatorade, he needed a little extra hydration to keep these shields going. However, his eyes were on Codi's tentacle thingys. Like what are they? Jago was a little too early to watch that target dummy massacre, but he was wondering if it could break his shields... Nah, he doubted that. They were just puny toothpicks! His shields took a haymaker from a brick and kept going.

... But he'll see in a moment. "Give it all you got." Jago said, testing her limits. He was relatively prepared to stop an attack.

---

Adam Leo Blackmore.

---

"... You sure you didn't see where she went?" Adam asked a nurse.

She nodded her head.

"Very well, carry on." Adam put his hands behind his back and waited for the nurse to leave before he let out a sigh. Ms. Rose had apparently left the hospital in a hurry, without telling anyone where she was going, not even a hint. Maybe she had ran off back to the dorms? Adam had hoped so. He was hoping she wasn't going to do anything impulsive. Because that whole incident was rather traumatic, and she was young.... A dangerous combination in his eyes. For now, he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt and keep looking for her. Mr. Blackmore began moving. He headed towards the waiting room and gave it one good hard look - Hoping that Ms. Rose would be somewhere... He didn't see a trace of her. He let out a sigh, but he managed to catch Atticus in his field of vision. It was hard not to catch him, given that he was a giant fish wearing a wetsuit.

"Hello there." Adam sat down next to Atticus. Reaching around the immediate environment for a magazine or something. "I am Adam Blackmore, I believe you're... Atticus Fowler, yes?"

Codi Bailey

Codi nodded, and pulled Reef’s arms back into an offensive position, readying them to start striking at Jago’s barrier. “Alright, then, that sounds good.” She said. It was then that without any further hesitation, Codi swung the first arm at the shield, angling it so that it came down on Jago’s left. It was less like a punch, and more like swinging a whip, which she had already judged to be more effective, based on what she had done to the dummies. There was an audible crash as the arm collided with the shield, and it bounced back, having caused no damage, unless there was an increased struggle in maintaining its integrity when it was being buffeted by stronger blows. The power behind it, though, was extremely obvious, and almost a bit scary.

Having aimed a side blow instead of one that was straight-on, Codi was spared the embarrassment of being injured by her own appendage, but she raised an eyebrow, visibly thinking about what her next move was. She then decided to just keep hitting the shield for a bit in various places, wondering if perhaps there was a better angle to go at. She also knew the best exercises started slowly, and then intensified until you couldn’t go on anymore. Crash after crash followed, as single arms hit in individual blows, but after about three sets of blows, three blows delivered by each arm, she paused, and pulled them back again. It didn’t look like she was giving up, though, but preparing a different form of attack. All of the arms had bounced off of the shield, but because Codi now deliberately aimed to ensure their bounce-back angle didn’t hit, she was not harmed by it.

The next set of blows consisted of two arms hitting in different places at once. She kept going at this, the sound of crashing getting louder and more violent, and not stopping until she had completed eighteen of these blows. Once again, the pause, and the pressure was increased further. Striking in three different places using Reef’s arms, once again, eighteen sets, she added yet another arm in the pattern. She would keep doing things in this fashion, until either she was using all six arms at once, or Jago’s shield broke, in which case, she would immediately stop. She did not focus on what he was doing, as she was not trying to get at the person behind the shield. Her target was the shield itself, and she was going to do everything she could to compromise it, just as Jago wished for her to do. Jago would also note that as this rhythm progressed, there was also less and less time between each blow.

Atticus Fowler

Atticus looked up at Adam, “Yes, that’s my name. I’m here to see how everyone who got hurt at the jungle is doing. I don’t exactly know what happened, but I can’t get involved carrying the injured and not come and see if they made it or not. Thanks to the healer, they’re probably really well-off, but I still felt like I had to come and check on them.” He rested his webbed hands on the saxophone’s case, his face inscrutable, “I also want to know if Dana’s alright or not. Her wheelchair got smashed after she was attacked by some animal…I think it was a bear, and she crawled and hid in a bush and told us to leave her behind. We didn’t want to leave her, but when we were going to insist she come with us, she was already gone, using whatever power she has, I guess. Is she back at the school, yet?”

Nicholas Raynor, & Deborah Termellio.

---

Nicholas slowly walked along the hallways of the dormitories, the lit halls enough to expose the pure sadness on his face. These moments of his...happened, from time to time. It wasn't the first, and it wasn't to be last, he was sure, but for the most part, there had to be someone to come along and steal his joy. Whether it was bullies, strangers, or outright students in the same school which he had -thought- had been for those who could perhaps bear to understand him. Apparently, even though he was a meta, he was still out of place. Or...maybe she was out of place? He didn't know...infact, right now, he felt so wishy-washy that his own mind began to play tricks on him. Another darned symptom of his paranoia. He sighed, before slowly allowing himself to slump one of the hallways near the student lounge, learning against the wall and slowly sliding down to his knees, before closing his eyes...maybe he just needed to get away. Find a safe place to read...

"Hey." Deborah said, standing over him. She slid against the wall and landed on her behind. "Mind if I have a seat?" This kid caught her attention from one look... She knew that he was in some sort of emotional trauma (The school, and it's people, are too much for him). She was always the kind of person who'd play therapist, the girl that everyone came to spill all their problems. Just... being that shoulder everyone cries on. New or not, this boy would not be different. But all she needed was a little bit of subtlety. Just start things off slow. "You don't look too good, boy, what's wrong?"

Nicholas slowly looked up at Deborah. Mind if she had a seat?...Well, not really. Especially since she wasn't outright threatening to beat his head in or something along those lines. He had experienced much worse introductions. He didn't bother to respond though, as she already took her seat. He sighed as she did so, no point in saying anything if she was going to do it anyways. "...I guess I don't look too good, either. But...its not really something you should care about. I mean, this school is full of all sorts of people who would rather me shut up about it, right?"

"Boy, who's got you hopped up on that thinking?" Deborah started laughing, not in the "I'm mocking you" way, but more in the uplifting way. People here are assholes, Debs knows that more than anyone else here, but if you let them get to you, then that's not good for you. "Boy, yeah, this school is full of people like that," Deborah started off giving Nicholas an affirming nod. "But you can't let them get to you like that. You're basically letting them control you."

Nicholas found himself slowly nodding...before sighing. "I know, I know...but all I did was just try to be nice to a darn ginger-haired girl because she looked stressed, I offered to share some strawberry cake with her, and she goes ballistic on me, as if my very gesture is stupid in and of itself. She then proceeds to demand why I'm trying to be nice to her, and tell me that this school is only full of jerks, and asked me which one I was going to be. I...I don't know. I don't want to be any of them. Even if it means being ostracized again, I'de rather be alone than become one of a great many jerks this school apparently has." He finally finished ranting, before looking up at her, parting his semi-long bangs a bit. "You know what I mean?"

Um... Does he mean Shannon? Because that sounds like her. Deborah nervously scratched the back of her neck. At least Shannon is more... friendly... when Deborah herself is with it. At least she'd keep that cynical attitude to herself. But that wasn't the point here, she was going to have another 'talk' with Shannon later in her bed quarters... Hehe... there won't be lots of talking then. Deborah brushed a strand or two of hair back a bit. "You don't have to worry about... uh... being an asshole. Yes, there are people like that in this schol, but you want to know what this school has for every asshole...?" She put her hand on his shoulder and gave him a reaffirming smile. ".. A good soul. The kind of people who make life matter. And you just found one of them." It was foolish to say that she was a good person, that was a title that should only be given to others, not to yourself.

Nicholas found himself slowly nodding, before sighing again, just resting his back against the wall. "I know you're right. And...I appreciate your help. Its just...I spent a great deal of effort and energy making sure others were alright, and...I just wanted to sit down and maybe have a pleasant conversation, ya know? Its not like its a terrible thing to ask. But...I think you're right when you say there are some really nice people here." He paused, scratching the back of his head and beginning to summarize his thoughts again. "I'm...Nicholas, by the way. Nicholas Raynor. Its a pleasure to meet you, miss."

"Deborah Termellio, school gossip gal." Deborah introduced herself in return. Which she felt took piority over responding to the rest of his statement. Boy, what Shannon said must have hit him hard. She could have mediated Shannon. "That's good that you care about others Nicholas, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." That was the first thing Deborah said. "If you wanted someone to talk to, there's me..." She looked away for a second, "... And don't really worry too much about Shannon... she's... just like that... and believe it or not, my best friend." And my one true love.

"Oh...so you know her, then?...alright. And if you don't mind, I'de love to talk with you a bit. Though...something about her did seem off, ya know? Like...I don't know, but she seemed like she was just having a bad day to me." He stated, looking at the floor.

"Well... That's kinda the way she is," Deborah started off, nodding, "She isn't the type to make friends. She just keeps to herself... or me, haha."

"Oh, if I had known that, I wouldn't have bothered her, considering her attitude. Nonetheless, I'll keep that in mind for the future. So...do you mind if I ask what your power is?" He finished, finally looking back up at Deborah, his saddened face having begun to try to express a bit more happiness at this turn of events.

"No, not at all." Deborah smiled at Nick. She was completely comfortable with Nick, she knew that he was one of the good people around these parts. He shouldn't get too mad about knowing her power. "Well... My power is basically getting information by making connections between two different things and filling in the blanks. You know, cause and effect." She stopped for a second to let him take in the information. "For example, I knew you weren't doing too well because of some not-so-good interactions."

Nick blinked, tilting his head. "...Oh, that's a power?...Cool. Em, I suppose I'm just used to the typical things. As for me...well, its not -that- interesting, but..." He stated, before his left hand's index finger's tip came alight with a small, white flame. "This is my power. Don't worry, it doesn't burn. In fact, you can touch it, if you want. Its a healing flame, used to heal people, obviously. Its...kind of a weird concept, I suppose. I don't know why my flames heal people naturally rather than hurt them...but I prefer it that way, ya know?"

Healing power... Interesting. It reminded Deborah of Vera, where ever that woman is. Deborah could always appreciate a nice healing power. Because, if it wasn't for a healing power, she wouldn't be walking right today. "Believe me Nicholas, I find all powers interesting." She was being truthful here. She has seen many powers, and each of them had a person behind them, with their own story. "Someone with your power set can really do some good, you know? I've... always had the belief that while people can do very bad with their powers, at the same time they have the potential to do great things for others."

Nicholas nodded again, as his flame grew larger with her encouragement. His smile widened, as the sadness finally began to fully fade from his face. "Thanks. Thats one of the nicest things I've heard all day. Though, thats...not the whole truth about my flame. You see, my flame does...well, a little bit more than heal people. I've felt myself like it kind of gives you sort of...a clarity. Yeah, we'll go with that, a clarity of the situation, helping you overcome your hindrances and fears. Infact...I often use it when I'm in fearful or painful situations. If you would like to see for yourself, feel free to touch the flame for yourself. Don't worry, nothing about it will harm you." He stated, smiling widely as his blue eyes watched in anticipation.

There wasn't any reason for Deborah not to trust him (He is telling the truth). So she just stuck her hand in it, and felt the morale boosting effects surge through her. It almost caused a high (It is altering your mind, removing your fear, and boosting your bravery). This power of hers was great for telling her when she's encountering mind altering powers! Her will-power would have allowed her to resist it, if she truly wanted to. That was the difference between Nicholas's . "This is... astounding, Nicholas." However, she quickly pulled her hand away. "You can really help people with this..." Deborah quickly stood straight up. "It was nice meeting you, Nicholas, but I think I should go have a talk with Shannon..." She started walking off.

Before she escaped his line of sight, she stopped for a moment and raised a finger. "How about you go swing by the training hall? You might find someone there to practice with you. You might even find an arena team." She left his line of sight.

Nick slowly nodded at her suggestion, before getting up and off the floor. Actually, that sounded like a great idea. Not only that, but he could spend some time himself practicing a few things in his mind involving his powers. Nothing revolutionary, mind you, just some small ideas. "I will, Deborah! Thank you for all your help!" He exclaimed. And with that, he quickly walked down the hallway towards the exit of the building. It seemed Deborah was right. There really was a good soul for every bad one, and he hoped that he was, at least, one of the good ones. Next time, perhaps he won't get so down when someone criticized him for no reason?...He would work on it, for sure.

Rosette Sauveterre

In the cafeteria, near the lunch-lines, a small girl who physically looked to be about eleven years old suddenly phased into view, but was still transparent, giving her an extremely ghost-like appearance, given that her skin was rather pale. When she materialized, she appeared to have been running at full speed, but stopped once she had seemingly ‘arrived’ in the world of the living, as much as what was possible for her. She breathed hard, and her limbs shook a bit, her eyes were wide, as though she had been scared of something. She looked over her shoulder, as though checking to affirm something, and whenever she had confirmed that nothing was behind her, she seemed to visibly relax a bit. She did, though, retain a frowning expression on her face, as she straightened up, and adjusted the scarf around her neck, adjusting her hair so that it was tucked behind her ears, also.

Rosette did a bit of controlled breathing until her heart rate returned to normal, and then finally calmed down enough so that she was semi-normal. She inwardly mocked herself, though, as she had been careless, thinking she wouldn’t be followed by her most dedicated adversary to the Academy. She had hoped that the rainstorm would confuse them when they tried to track her scent; sometimes it worked. She hadn’t taken into consideration that she had to actually be standing in an area where it was raining, in order for them to lose her scent. When she was nice and dry, it might as well have remained a sunny afternoon, as far as anything pertaining to olfactory senses was concerned.

The relief only came in knowing that she had phased back before her assailant managed to catch her again. She had survived once, but she was not going to risk it a second time; she was fortunate she had lived at all. Taking in her surroundings, she noted the smells of food, and found that she had been lucky enough to arrive in the cafeteria, when she was actually quite hungry, right after the chase. Fear only dulled her appetite when she was in danger; once it had subsided, her body demanded food to replace the ridiculous amount of energy she lost in running for her life. Composing herself, she went and got a tray so that she could have what she supposed would be considered dinner, at this point.

As a vegan, she completely avoided the meats, cheeses, and eggs, although if anyone thought she was a tree-hugger or animal-rights person, they made a huge misconception. There was a different reason for why she didn’t like animal products, but it was a long, complicated explanation for why, and it was too tiring for her to get the point across, since nobody believed her, anyway. She grabbed a baked potato and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and a few chives, so that she had some carbohydrates, which she needed the most, presently. She got a certain amount of a mixture containing carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, and edamame, and to add more protein, she grabbed a side of black-eyed peas, as well, so that she was not getting an incomplete diet. Altogether, the meal looked like more than a person Rosette’s size could eat, but it was actually about the amount as well as variety she needed if she wanted to avoid taking vitamin pills.

With her tray in hand, she walked around the lunch room, and found that the only place that wasn’t crowded was in one corner of the large eating area, where there was one person, probably sitting there for the same reason as Rosette would have. She walked up to the seat at the table across from her, “Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?” She asked.

The light revealed something more of a monster than one with golden, soulless eyes. His awful gaze, how it shot ice in her veins. It was as though the air was sucked out of her lungs. The lighter fell from her quivering grasp, landing with a clink on the stone. He spoke, every syllable paralyzing her in fear. The candlelights surrounding Aislin reacted to her dread and slowly extinguished, one by one, until a single remained. The stranger was silhouetted in the semi-darkness, hands behind his back.

How vain she had been, descending into the darkness alone. She wished to cut out her own tongue, with all the good its done her. She wanted answers so bad, and here she blew her only chance. The stranger looked pissed as hell, almost murderous.

Malevolent, the devil uttered, "And here you are, all alone threatening someone you do not truly understand... Where no one will ever find you!"

Metal blades glinted in the low light as he whipped them forward. Wicked, long combat knives aimed for her throat, and Aislin did the only think she could do, instinctually. The ground gave out below her. One moment it was solid, the next more fluid than water, and Aislin fell into the stony earth. It immediately reformed as a concrete surface above her, barricading her from the devil.

She had half a breath in her lungs, and her terrorized body screamed for more. The fluid stone pressed up against her lips, and she fought to not panic. She couldn't push it away, there would be no oxygen and she would rip apart with the building pressure. If she lost focus, the rock around her would solidify and she'd be trapped. But dying under stone sounded better than dying at the hands of a psycho devil any day. With her last shreds of determination, she cleared her mind. The stone relaxed with the slowing beat of her heart, and something clicked.

She could feel the devil's shoes a couple feet above, pressing down into her. The stone continued on from her body, sensing the shapes around and above them. It was a new, unifying feeling, being half-aware of two separate thing. And using this building of an extended conscience, Aislin summoned stony vines to wiggle alive around the devil's feet. They latched on, tightly wrapping once around his ankles before returning to being motionless rock.

Her lungs screamed again, and Aislin swam through the fluid darkness before resurfacing around a corner down the tunnel. She gasped for air, pulling herself out of the stone rippling below her. It was just as hopelessly dark in the cave, and Aislin had to listen for the devil located behind her.

She didn't say a word until she was running on her own two feet in the opposite direction. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"

Poor Aislin fled for her life, running up the maze of tunnels in the cave systems. She couldn't see a damn thing in front of her eyes, but her mind was aware of the second consciousness extending below her feet in the stone, sensing the twisting path and sharp turns. It also was aware of her feet, and aware of anything possibly catching up to her. She was unfamiliar with the tunnels, being so deep in the caves. Hoping to God she was going the right direction, Aislin ran and ran.

Jago Andrew Javuant.

---

Now this is what I'm talking about!

Turns out that Urchin-Girl can pack one hell of a punch. Nothing that Jago can't stop, though! For a second he wondered what would happen if his, you know, real body was taking the first hit. He winched at the loud crash that echoed through the room, but fortunately, it was just one blow. His shield curved towards him, and he took a few steps back. Before it snapped back to his original position. Not doing one bit of damage to it. "Nice one," He said, cocky, as he turned the cap off his bottle of Gatorade. "... Do it again." He started drinking that bottle of Gatorade, putting an extra hand on his side. It was clear that he wasn't phased by the blow. Because hell, if he knew his shields couldn't take this, then he would ask her to punch it with her kitten mittens. He eyeballed her hands, yeah, this chick was a shrimp. Probably couldn't even hurt a fly with those. Though, it seems she was gearing up for some more.

Yeah, that was just a 'test'. Codi here was testing if Jago was a bitch, and let his shields break after one merely blow. Ultimate shield, baby! Nothing can crack Jago's armor! Though, what this girl was doing was sure as hell going to do something. It was like she knew what Jago's weakness was, yo. Instead of just one strong attack, she was launching a god damn barrage of strong attacks. It wiped that cocky grin off his face. After the third one hit, Jago had to step up his game a bit. Barrages were what required a bit more effort to keep them up and running. He put his hand up, and concentrated, though he was getting strained by the barrage. He felt the pressure built up in his mind, in fact, it was like his brain was tightening. He dropped that Gatorade, it fell to the ground, splashing to the ground. It wasn't even important to him now. What was the goal was to keep his shields going for long as possible. Because he was a reputation to keep! No little Urchin-Girl is going to ruin it.

Which is why he was going against Adam's advice of not pushing himself too far. In Jago's eyes, if you were to grow and develop, you must meet your limits, and push them far as possible. Jago was pushing his limits. With every crash, he was getting closer and closer to his breaking point. Not the shield's breaking point. Adam told him bouncy shields are shock resistant. It was the boy behind them that was the problem. He wiped off some sweat, and had no choice but to mask that strain. "That all you got?" Jago bragged. He needed to hide his strain one way or another. So why not be a cocky pissant? "You're just getting me to sweat!"

---

Theresa Sindel Obott.

---

Oh? Someone finally decided to give Ms. Obott some company. Theresa looked up, pausing eating, and saw that her guest was some little girl. Looked weird actually with that ghosty-ghoul get-up she had on, though Tess has seen weirder. Her voice was off though, like, Tess almost thought it was some grown woman talking to her. Powers, powers, powers. They always screw you up in all the worse ways. Though, Theresa was lucky. She's still pretty! As for the whole sitting down thing - She was perfectly fine with that. She honestly needed someone to talk to, given all that incident. Just... One conversation to forget about things. Because what better way to deal with things other than live? Fool around, make friends, that was how Theresa deals with trauma. Rather than moping.

"Sure thing," Theresa started off, smiling convincingly, "I'm open to any and all conversation, after all."

Though that wasn't a good conversation starter. Theresa already knew the awkward is coming, and she was the only person who could stop it! Her eyes scanned every thing about Rosette, looking for something to bring up. She has no meats on her plate. Vegetarian? Maybe. But that was something Tess could work with. Theresa pointed a fork at Rosette, laughing, coy, "Haha... You're the first little kid I seen that actually eats their veggies." Not the best attempt at humor, but whatever. "Bet your parents must be proud."

---

Adam Leo Blackmore.

---

It was quite noble that Atticus came to check on everyone. Adam had to appreciate that kind of attitude. "That is very kind of you, Atticus," Adam started off, "Everyone involved are fine. It took a little bit of healing, but they all are back on their feet... except for young Jaska Valos." He let out a sigh. Such a bad incident on the first day? It brought Adam shame. He was the one who was supposed to be keeping everyone orderly and he let this happen. However, everyone involved should assure themselves knowing that it won't be happening again. Atticus asked about Ms. Alcott's status... It was simple. She was the one in the cloak, so Adam knew that she was fine. The only thing that was apparent was that not everyone else knew who she was. Which was perfectly fine with the All-Father. It was her choice to keep her power a secret, and it was Adam's duty to respect it. "Ms. Alcott is perfectly fine. She helped herself back to the school earlier today...." He started off, "You can find her and ask her all your questions yourself. She's one of the more well-known students here, so it won't be too hard to find her."

Adam's eyes peered towards the saxophone, "... And please don't be a nuisance with that." He calmly pointed at it.

---

Luis.

---

"Thrill of the chase, baby!" Luis was completely unphased when his feet were held down. It was completely an expected move for this child to flee. She claims she faced death, but when you get down to it, she is nothing but a child. And a child always falters in the face of a real threat. Luis simply raised his feet and the stone vines broke all like they were nothing. He laughed at the prospect of them holding him back. Now all he had to do was wait for her to come up. She can't hide down there forever, she has to come and face the monster eventually. That time came sooner when he heard her come above ground. Luis grinned like a maniac. "Just like I said, you're just a child!" He shouted as he chased after her with a burst of speed worthy of the olympics. He made no effort to even be silent, all he wanted to do was close the distance and end this child. He was closing the distance pretty fast...

As Luis chased after her, seemingly unhindered by the darkness, he heard a rather suspicious sound behind him. He whipped around to look over his shoulder.

That was the last thing he saw before he was looking at the ground...

The massive boom of an iron shot echoed through the cave. Absolutely deafening everyone's hearing and could be heard from outside the cave. The muzzle flash illuminated someone in a black wetsuit, and a mask, for a second, holding an assault rifle of some sort. Not enough to make out any identifying features.

The bullet was aimed for Luis, the first bullet ripped clean through his heart and hit the wall in front of him. Spraying blood and his organs all over the place, there was a large hole going through his chest. Luis let out a loud cry, screaming at the top of his lungs, as he fell to the ground. Whether it was the impact or death looming over him, he hit the ground with an audible thump. He was dead in seconds. However, his assailant was not done yet. The rifleman walked up to Luis without even making another sound. He leveled the sights with Luis's head and pulled the trigger yet another. Letting the sounds of yet another bullet ring through the cave-system, the gunmen blew Luis's head off. His blood and brain matter painted the floor.

Always confirm the kill.

His business was not over, though. He walked over to what is Luis's head and knelt down, he scooped up some brain into a vial with a knife. Before disappearing into the caves.

---

Dana Lucille Alcott.

---

Perched on the dorms like a gargoyle, Dana watched. Standing and waiting for when she was needed. Ultimately ignoring Vespera, she wasn't important to the line of thought anyway. Her vision showed her Aislin running from the hospital back out into the woods. Wait... What is Aislin up to? She was injured, and she was running into the woods all alone? That girl must be foolish, or determined... Whatever the reason, she was not going without some guardian angel watching her back. Dana turned her head towards Vespera, this... bitch was not of any concern to Dana. "It appears our conversation must come to an end." Dana leaped high up into the air, her entire body coiled like she was a spring, and launched herself several meters. All in the blink of an eye. In mid-air, Dana vanished in a burst of speed. She appeared as nothing but a black blur, that would be difficult to even track, especially as she went further and further out. As for Vespera - There was no way she could keep up with Dana even if she tried. She was most likely out of range of Vespera's senses.

Going over the walls, Dana was running through the woods. Trying her best to find Aislin... Dammit. She lost track of the girl. Can't stop now. She wasn't leaving this forest without Aislin. Even if she had to scan every nook, every cranny, she was going to find this girl. Dana was running through the jungle, splashing the puddles of water, and leaving a whip of wind behind her as she moved. Only coming to a stop when she heard a loud gunshot. She stopped with her cloak flowing in front of her. Her body turned towards the source like she was on a gear. "Aislin!" Her ghostly voice wailed. She wasn't 100% on it being Aislin, but she had to assume.

Dana disappeared yet again, heading straight for the gunshot almost immediately before it faded away. She closed the distance in surprising amount of times... A cave? That's where she's going to look first. It was almost like she teleported inside, her head whipped around twice, her power gifted her with night vision. She could see through these shadows just like it was day. Dana saw Aislin not too far away.

"Aislin!" Dana appeared besides Aislin, "What... What happened...?" Her eyes peered towards the deceased Luis. "Oh... oh my god..."