Aoife watched him with big eyes, her mind silently calculating the probability of landing a good right-hook and pushing past him. That was a pretty good testament of her state - she was usually a pacifist when it came to this but she was fully willing to punch some guy who was trying to be nice to her and not have her eyes poked out. Once Aoife had officially dumped the idea of going into combat on the taller German, her mind decided that he could be reasonably trusted; she would just have to follow his instructions and then, he would let her out.

Her breath was still quick, her body still shaking and although she wanted nothing more than to rush past him into the free but dangerous open-air, his examining stares along her and his light smile made her feel that he at least had some level-head of authority. "Ok..." She murmured, barely a whisper. This was indefinitely not normal Aoife - as much as Victor was helping her, she was the one who had dragged him here and she was certainly not a damsel. She just had to get seagull-proof gloves. Those thoughts were clouded by irrationality though and she hesitantly nodded to him, her fists bunching and loosening slowly. Her whole body was as tense as a bowstring, only elevating the mental stress that was being pressed down on her.

Turning slowly, she cast her vision over the boy lying against the floor and shivered, turning her gaze back towards the tantalizing release of the outside. Shaking her head free of the eager propositions to attack Victor, she placed one foot in front of the other, dragging her shaking body towards the bay window. Aoife had regained some control of her mind but it was still deeply clouded and she had no choice in letting the emotions take their toll.

Of course, she had absolutely no idea what it was that Victor was trying to convey to her. The only piece of information that got through to her was panzer. That clicked a little with her, mainly due to her knowledge; panzer meant tank in German but also Armour. Finally, it all clicked into place with the drapes (although, this took about a minute or two due to her spent-mind).

Once she had reached the windows, she stood up on her tippy-toes, fumbling at the high-windows. If she was in a decent mental state then this either would have annoyed her or embarrassed her. She wasn't doing the best, mentally, so she chose to silently and rather obediently, follow out Victor's request. Breathing heavily, she finally pulled the drapes down and reached over, opening the windows a little wider. It wasn't much but the rush of cold air reminded her to regain some control of her breathing.

"Can I go now?" She murmured, her voice still small as she looked around the room, glancing nervously between the imposing wall and the door. She simply had to get out, there was no options for her mind, which was still reeling after peering into his memories.

Midori said
"Anyone want to help me build an anti-bird field emitter?"

'Ooh! Pick me!' Able said enthusiastically.
On reflection, he didn't know if he could help at all because it sounded complex. But hey, that toolbox looked heavy.
'Let me carry that.' Able said, taking the toolbox from Kimiko. Yeah, it was heavy, but he could deal with it.
In all honesty, this was probably all he could do at the moment because he didn't have any other plans. This was probably the best thing to do, even though he didn't know if he would actually help.
'I think we should split up.' One of the others said, one that had been chatting with the girl that had the rabbit doll. 'One group stays with Kimiko and help her build the Anti-Bird Field Emitter, and the rest of us goes and finds who the hell the source is.'
That was actually a pretty solid plan, and Able couldn't think of better ones. That said, there were a lot of unknowns, because the plan assumed the source of the seagulls was actually on the boat. Well, it wasn't really Able's concern. He wanted to help Kimiko build an anti bird field generator.
'Where do we start, Kobayashi-san?' Able asked.

Al glanced nervously over his shoulder as the people within the conference room began to brainstorm ideas, while pressed up against the door he considered each plan that was presented. Eventually he stepped forward and clapped his hands together. "Alright!" In a fairly dramatic fashion he pointed a finger across to Kimiko who was setting up with their tools and getting ready to construct her device. "Focus the building efforts around there! Try to stay in this room, seems secure enough." He swung his backpack around and dropped it to the ground before pulling his foldable umbrella from a side strap, with a swift flick of his wrist he extended it before putting his back pack on again. His finger then shifted to point at Ryu before switching to a thumbs up.
"Splitting into teams is definitely a good idea but I think we need one more, there's still people trapped up on the deck and I think this will be easier with their help." He gestured to the door he had come through, the one that lead to the top deck. "I'm going to try and create a diversion and get them away from the doors, while I do one of you needs to get the students from across there down here!" Alvin turned and started heading upstairs, hoping at least one person would join him and holding his umbrella out like a spear.

Once at the top of the staircase he flung the door open and stepped outside, slamming it shut behind him. "Get ready to run back to the conference room!" Al called out to the trapped students, hoping they would be able to hear him. Soon enough the flock of birds turned to the new target. "Yeah come on feather brains!" He taunted, holding his umbrella ready. As the first swarm charged at him he opened up the top, using it like a shield to part the birds, he then shut it and waited for the next group before repeating the action. As more and more birds started attacking Alvin he began to dash around the deck, leading them away form the doors and towards the bow of the ship, all the white swinging the black umbrella around and yelling insults interspersed with loud bursts of laughter.

He had absolutely no idea what the other boy in the room was saying. He had an extremely heavy German accent and he could hear some German words with his Japanese and it was really hard to picture what he was saying. He told the girl to grab the drapes in the room? And now he was motioning, something about clothing maybe? He was more worried about the girl.

The girl was definitely claustrophobic. Her heart rate was currently through the roof, and judging from the fact that she kept asking to be let outside even though they all knew about the seagulls suggested that it might have been her first time. Now that he thought about it, he’d written down some notes about several fears including claustrophobia and some extra notes on how to deal with them in his note book.

"Uhhh..." He said to the other boy, "In a second, uh..."

Pulling out his notebook and flipping to the page he thought the claustrophobia information was, he found it and started reading to try and figure out a way to calm the girl down a little as the other boy in the room asked Gabriel to remind him to get a phone when they landed. The girl went over to pull some drapes down from the windows, but luckily the fog still persisted so sunlight wasn’t coming into the room which was fortunate for him.

“Can I go now?” she murmured. Gabriel had no idea what the other boy wanted with the drapes, but he had more important matters to attend to.
Forming his actions in his mind, he put his notebook away and scooted towards the panicked girl.

”Sit down.” He said, still on the ground. He extended his gloved hand and grabbed her arm gently and tugged on it slightly to get her attention. ”Please.” He added, out of politeness.

Kimiko needed a number of parts and she was glad for Able's help. The others had a good plan as well, except for the boy who stormed out with the umbrella. She wasn't quite sure why he was leaving since her device was going to allow them to move about uncontested by the horde of gulls. Regardless, it was time to get to work. "Right, so I need that TV, some wiring, something conductive for the armature loop, something non-conductive for the frame, and three magnets. Two of the magnets need to be polar opposites and bigger than the third. The third magnet needs to be smaller than the other two with north and south poles. Hmm... What else?"

She needed something to magnetize objects since there probably weren't any big enough magnets just lying around. Never mind about the magnets. I'll need someone to go to the kitchen though. I need a jug of distilled water, at least a pound of salt, the biggest oven pan you can find, a smaller non-metallic pan or bowl, and all the steel wool brushes you can carry." She thought for a moment. "That should be everything I need to do this."

'Hold on, hold on.' Able said, setting the toolbox down and taking out a notepad he had in his pocket. He also took out a pencil and began writing.
'So, jug of distilled water, pound of salt, big oven pan, small pan/bowl, lots of steel wool...' Able muttered as he wrote all the things down.
That should be everything. He didn't know about the TV part, but he should be able to run to the kitchen fast enough to get everything. Though, there was the seagulls... Just the, one of the others spoke up.

'Splitting into teams is definitely a good idea but I think we need one more, there's still people trapped up on the deck and I think this will be easier with their help.' He said. 'I'm going to try and create a diversion and get them away from the doors, while I do one of you needs to get the students from across there down here!'
'Alright, I'll do that!' Able said, rushing to his luggage. He picked his sports bag because it was the biggest and emptied it onto his other luggage. It took a while to pack all of that and he'd have to pack it again later, but not now. He needed the space for the materials Kimiko needed.

'Let's go!' Able said, preparing to run. He and the other guy sprinted up the stairs, the guy holding out his umbrella like a spear. The boy ran out the door and slammed it shut behind him and Able waited for him to distract the birds.
'Yeah, come on feather brains!' He yelled. The seagulls ceased their attacks on the room that the other students were apparently in and started chasing the new blood.
Able waited for them to leave as the blond boy turned a corner, the seagulls chasing him down. Sure that there were no seagulls left, Able burst our of the door and started sprinting. He was probably more suited to distracting the birds than that boy, but he was the only one fast enough to do the 2 jobs he'd taken at the same time. First thing's first, time to armour up.

He ran to the kitchen which was thankfully not too far away from the conference room. He crashed through the doorway at half speed, throwing some pots into disarray. Most of the pans fell to the floor but Able grabbed a sizeable saucepan and stuffed it in the bag. He scanned the kitchen for everything he needed. The kitchen was surprisingly empty and devoid of life, which was convenient. The first thing he saw was salt and jumped the chaotic assortment of pans on the floor to reach it. Skipping the measuring, he took the whole bag and some scissors and put them in the pan. His eyes searched for the next target, the oven. He saw the biggest oven he'd ever seen and jerked it open. No time for a thorough scan, he took the biggest one he could find and held it because it was too big to fit in the bag. He shut the oven with a bang and looked for steel wool. He jogged to one of the cupboards and opened it, to be covered in an avalanche of steel wool.
Wow. Able thought as he stuffed handfuls of steel scrubbers into his bag. Whoever worked here must really like steel wool.
Next, distilled water. He ran to the fridge and yanked it open. Lo and behold, a large bottle of mineral water.
Is that distilled? Able thought, grabbing it and stuffing it in his bag.
Luckily, he saw a flash of the label which read 'distilled.' How convenient.

There wasn't much space for anything else, but Able took a fish from the freezer. He might need it for the seagulls after all, and he could just hold it. He looked at his watch. He'd found all of those in under 2 minutes.
Not bad. Able thought.
One more thing left to do. Able sprinted out of the kitchen and headed to the cabin the trapped students were in. He managed to get there in a few seconds thanks to his ridiculous speed. He slowed down as he got to it, hoping that the blond guy had held off the seagulls for long enough. He knocked on the door in a rushed manner to alert the trapped students.
'Come on! We need to go! The seagulls will be back soon!' Able yelled.
He turned around as they emerged, the glasses guy he had been sitting next to, the white haired girl and the golden eyed guy, and started running back to the conference room, slow enough to accompany the other three students.
'I got your materials!' Able said, bursting through the doors.
He put down the tray, his unzipped sports bag but kept the fish.
'This fish is for the seagulls, the rest is in the bag.' Able reported, catching his breath. 'I'm off to chase the other guy! He can't hold out on his own for long.'
With that, Able dashed out of the door again.
Wonder where that guy went... Able thought.
He put on a burst of speed as he began to run to look for the blond guy.

7:53 AM
Control Room

The test Kentarou had setup was a simple one. He would isolate the students and force them into a 'dangerous' situation so he could observe their abilities.

To create the fog, he used a basic application of fire magic. He took the heat from the surrounding air and conducted it towards the sea. This caused the surface water to rapidly evaporate raising the humidity. The subsequent drop of temperature in the surrounding air caused the surrounding water vapour to rapidly condense into a fog. Although it sounded simple, the average student would have probably made a room sized fog and not one that encompassed the 80-meter super yacht.

«Tamer» was an ability which allowed him to control animals via pheromones. He used it to in conjunction with the fog to prevent them from escaping overboard on the lifeboats.

Yes, both the fog and seagulls were only a setup. The real challenge was another thing altogether. Natsu had somehow borrowed them from the science department and insisted it to be used to test the potential club members. Although it had been ordered not to cause any fatal injuries, he shuddered for the new students.

Kentarou sighed. That woman is a devil, he thought.

---

7:55 AM
Conference Room

Events were unfolding at an uncanny rate.

Hiiro calmed himself and tried to replay the past 10 minutes in his mind. Lets see... his conversation got cut off and said conversationee ran off. Blondy came in and told us we were under attack by seagulls. Gun boy and Tardy Girl followed after shady blondy. Full Metal Alchemist and XD-kun started working on some bird killing device. Voodoo was the calmest here and Macho was replicating her composure. Blondy and XD-kun then ran off again.

Basically, it was havoc.

From the windows, he could also see a dense fog surrounding the yacht.

"Hmm..."

Voodoo was on the right tract but she wasn't using all the information available to them. Hiiro thought back to the black uniformed student. Given the impression he gave off and that he had assumed responsibility for them (since he was in charge of briefing them and all), it didn't make sense that he had yet to appear to quell the situation. That someone felt like him. The whole situation felt fishy.

But that would be jumping too quick to conclusions.

"...I agree with splitting up but I think we should set aside finding the source of this first. Its more important we rejoin the res- ahahahaha. You must be having a lot of fun, whoever you are."

Hiiro gave a grim smile at figure blocking the conference room door.

The body of a lion, wings of a bat and a tail of scorpion. Hiiro recalled hearing about such a creature from the mythology otakus from his old school; it was a manticore.

"Excuse me, Macho-san(Ryu), you wouldn't by any chance be able to fight that off, would you?"

The manticore gave a powerful roar and leaped towards Julliete.

---

7:58 AM
Entrance to the deck

A rather unfortunate series of events were happening here. Alvin had gallantly ran past Ren and Kazen and barged onto the deck in an attempt to draw the birds away. Able who chased him would arrive just short of Alvin dashing out.

This is where the problem starts.

Able hadn't arrived alone. From behind him came the second manticore. As it lay its menacing eyes upon the three, it whipped its scorpion tail against the steel wall, easily causing a large dent.

Juliette was not completely supportive with the idea of splitting up. It meant forming teams with those she barely knew and she didn't really even trust them. There was a chance that any one of them were causing the disturbances or at least aiding the person behind them in some way. She observed their expressions, trying to detect any form of deceit. Perhaps it was one of the other three who had left the room and were supposedly trapped because of the angry seagulls?

It's more likely to be that S-rank student, she thought, frowning down at the table in front of her as the others decided on plans around her. I don't need to go with them to search for the source. I just need some materials to get a circle ready and detect magic in the atmosphere...

"...ahahahaha. You must be having a lot of fun, whoever you are."

Hiro's words made her look up towards the entrance where he was staring. The creature blocking the doorway was one she had only vaguely read about in books. Its name evaded her memory, but that was not what she was focusing on at that moment. Juliette was slowly beginning to get up from her seat, one hand on the conference table beside her as her lips moved silently.

Just as the manticore roared and leaped at her, the table would spring up in its direction, blocking its path. The creature crashed into the table and went right through it, knocking Juliette to the floor. The ineffective shield had only helped her avoid the true force of its attack and the hybrid creature shook off the wood splinters, giving an ear-splitting roar once more as it refocused its attention on its victims.

Instead of Ren deducing a plan, the remaining students ascended to the same level as them. Never before had Kanzen seen so many minds at work, all with their bits of input and ideals, working towards a common cause. It was a heart-warming scene, excluding the fact that Kanzen had nearly left this world, by the foot of a mythological beast. Minutes prior to nearly being stomped to death, he was deciding which team to help out. In this situation, he personally felt at a disadvantage. This was an obvious reason why he was only a C rank student. Unlike these creative minds working in unison, the young man was able to follow orders better than making them. When Ryu proposed that one group assist Kimiko with building, and the other find out who the source of this cherade was, Kanzen chose to go with the latter team.

But all of a sudden, A&A took a valiant charge onto the deck, disregarding the volley of birds coming their way. Kanzen let out a sigh and chose to burst out in lieu, regardless of the avians’ assault. They managed to close the gap between the deck entrance and the containment unit the students were trapped in, the green-haired boy covered their flank as Alvin deflected an attack with his valiant umbrella-wielding skills. ”Johnson-san, Gant-san, we have to move fast. Get those people out of here. Kimiko-san’s team should be done shor-” The student was cut off mid-sentence when a shadow suddenly shrouded him. With a quick glance upwards, his eyes widened as he barrel-rolled to the side. In the spot where he was just standing, a haunty beast came to fruition. It let out a frightening growl, and just in case that wasn’t traumatizing enough, the manticore slammed its spiked tail into the steel wall next to them, just to inspire some more fear.

Kanzen also acknowledged the one now assaulting the other team at the door. In other words, their exit was blocked off. Even if they managed to bypass this adversary with the ensnared students, another blockade laid in their path. Operating now on instinct, the young man unsheathed his firearm and raised it to shoulder level. He aimed down the tritium iron sights, held his breath, and pull the trigger.

Click.

”Oh, right. It isn’t loaded. Shit.” Was all he thought before he evaded another attack. ”I’ll keep it distracted! Just, get those guys out of there, fast! I can hold my own ground!” Against another human, maybe. But against a beast originating from myth and lore? Probably not. He holstered the P30 and analyzed the beast. His lone exposed eye focused on the beast’s fangs, now beared at the viridescent man. Kanzen’s breaths quickened in pace, his attention completely on the beast. Then, out of his peripheral vision, he caught sight of the formation of gulls. ”Oh, crap.” He reeled back as the line of birds nearly collided with him, causing him to fall back on his rear. The manticore took this chance to go on the offensive, and attempted to pounce on Kanzen. He barely managed to roll out of harm’s way, while the wooden deck cracked below the beast’s weight. ”This isn’t good.” He took a fighting stance, but kept most of his central mass near his back. At this point, all he could do was evade. If only the bullet deities could drop a magazine onto the young man. Then he’d be able to deal with his enemies in the blink of an eye. ”Don’t feel the need to rush! But, please pick up the pace!” Kanzen called back to A&A, in a worried and distressed tone.

Aoife stared at Victor hard, her small but fully-capable fist curling up into a more dangerous stance. The fresh air had done her some good but the feeling of being trapped had not disappeared and she was going to get out, whether Victor liked it or not. If she was a little more stable, hitting the kind German boy would have appalled her but at this point, she was willing to use any tactic to get past him and open that door.

Might I add in here a pretty good life lesson - don't sneak up and grab a coiled snake, even if it is only small and looks harmless. If the other guy had maybe played it a little safer and stood, calmly introducing himself before he implored her to sit down, her desperate mind probably would have listened to him, but a desperate mind is a dangerous one and he had endangered her. Although Aoife could hear what he said, asking her to sit down, her hatred of being touched was an old thought with deep roots - there was no memories that could override that. The memories did alter some things though, one of which being her reaction to perceived danger. Wide-eyed and startled, her mind reverted to the flight-or-fight instincts.

Flight was impossible in this tight-space with Victor against the door so, her only option was to fight. Turning with a surprising speed, her first punch fired out in a shallow curve, missing him by mere inches due to the fact that he was on the ground. Unfortunately for him, the second punch wasn't as inaccurate.

Catching his jaw, her punch wasn't hard enough to be considered overly painful as it has more than likely damaged Aoife more than it had damaged him, but the fact that she had caught him by surprise was the critical part. Shaking herself so that he would drop her arm, she took a step back with wide-eyes, her trapped-feelings deepening as she backed against the far-wall.

Sometimes everything happens so fast, it becomes a weird blur. The boy on the ground clearly had no idea Victor was talking to him, prioritizing instead to grab and restrict someone who was suffering from claustrophobia. The punch made Victor flinch, mostly because he was still seeing the innards of the two, making it a weird play in some horrific theater. The bones bending slightly from the impact, the shudder from the muscles, and the veins bursting to leave the bruise. The German tried to respond, but the door suddenly received several slams, and a voice from outside yelling at them in panic.

"Come on! We need to go! The seagulls will be back soon!"

A pause, as Victor's mind processed the entire scene before him. A panicked animal of a girl backed against the wall, a guy who had just been punched in the face, and now another student yelling at them to run. Several fixes ran through his head. He could knock the girl out, it wouldn't be hard, he could see the veins and pressure points, all he'd have to do is apply pressure. Get the other boy to carry her to safety. He could swing the door open and let her run, get out of this area and get somewhere safer. He could keep the door shut, they hadn't been attacked yet, he was surprised the others even knew they were in here.

Knocking her out would be a poor first impression. And there was no guarantee the other student would be willing to carry her.
Remaining wasn't an option, if the student was screaming and hammering the door, he would be attracting attention, their location was known now.
Victor gave a sigh, then swung the door open. He didn't know these people. He grabbed the curtains, bundling them up under one arm. Still a good idea to take some protection from these gulls. He turned to the other two, then made a sweeping motion with his arm.

"SCHNELL! OUT!"

With that, Victor vaulted out of the room, and was met with perhaps one of the more bizzare sights he had witnessed. Victor froze as he saw the mythical beasts on the deck. Scorpion tails, lion heads, and winged. The term escaped Victor at the moment, being replaced instead with a loud:

"SCHEISSE!"

The two beasts were violently attempting to get below deck, slamming and breaking quite a few things in the process. Victor had a curtain. And a woeful lack of physical capabilities short of seeing the fact that the pair of beasts were indeed real, and made up of a lot of muscle and horror. Poorly, he might add. Whoever had created them had forced nature to bend in a way that it didn't want. He could see internal bleeding, scar tissue and oddball biological choices, strain on parts of the body that would cause massive pain in later years. This was barbaric, an infant tearing the heads off dolls and recombining them. The creatures were jury-rigged at best.

The initial panic was wearing off. Victor was getting frustrated more than anything. Whoever was behind this wasn't trying to kill them. They could have done that 8 different ways if they had access to these. They were trying to hurt them. Or scare them. Either way, the German was just getting annoyed. He scanned the creature for vital points, nerve bundles to exploit, to cause them to go numb. He just needed an opening. Wouldn't be hard to avoid getting hit, he could read the muscles at the internal level. Seeing the movements was child's play. Plus, the beasts seemed to focus on the group inside, not so much Victor on the outside. Seems whoever had come to get them had fled ahead, and grabbed all the attention. And he did still have the curtain...an idea began to form in his head.

Everything was moving so quickly, one moment he was fending off the birds and the next minute the swarm had somewhat dispersed and Al was left staring at the horrific beast and the handgun wielding teen who attempted to deal with it. As another flock charged he raised his umbrella once more, beginning to get the hang of deflecting them but also starting to run out of energy. Eventually one person emerged from the room, given he was shouting Al assumed that he was the German he'd heard before, he also guessed the rest of the students from the room would soon follow.

"Hey! Guys! I've got a plan on how to deal with the freaky dragon things!" He called out loudly over the sound of birds and beasts alike, moving over to a gate by the side of the ship, the same one they had passed upon boarding. He glanced over the edge and saw the drop to the water below and the well worn and rusted lock that was keeping the gate closed. "Try to lure it over here!" Bringing his leg up he gave a series of sharp kicks to the gate before it swung open. Al then turned his attention to the creatures, waving his arms and calling out to them. "Oi! Come and get it!" He shouted in English, trying to antagonise the beasts enough to charge him and hoping they weren't smart enough to see what he was planning.

((Double post.))