Kusari sat on the edge of her dorm's roof, her legs dangling precariously over the side. She had gotten up early to avoid dealing with her roommates. Christmas and Sander hadn't done anything to her, but she couldn't stand watching the two of them together. Christmas was being used, Sander pretended to play innocent but he was an enabler. She let out an annoyed sigh, choosing to instead focus on the scenery below her. As much as she despised the fact that she was being held against her will here, the campus was beautiful. The buildings had a simple modern aesthetic, the grounds were well maintained, and the trees exuded a calm, natural feeling.

She wanted to sketch it.

Her hands gripped the sides of her head, she felt as if a headache was about to assault her. The urge to draw was there, but where was the will, the motivation? A disposable tool of the government couldn't be an artist.

She let out a heated breath, and lowered her hands. There was something else bothering her, the amount of guards in the school. Security had increased substantially, and she didn't know why. This couldn't be in response to the attack by the rogue Precursor, it was much too slow for that. Something had happened just recently.

The door to the roof suddenly flung open, surprising Kusari enough that she nearly fell. "Who the-... oh." She frowned at the guards pointing guns at her. She was becoming disturbingly accustomed to this treatment.

"A classroom? Oh right, this is supposed to be a school." She couldn't help but snark at the room she entered. Why this place even bothered to put up such a facade was beyond her. She looked around, and tried to put a name to each of the faces here. She couldn't quite remember the name of a few of her fellow students, but she recognized all of their faces. All but one, there seemed to be a new student among them. One boy was missing, however. Was that the reason there were so many guards? She'd heard one of them mention something about a cuff alarm going off. And a 'site...'

Before she could think about it much more the orientation began. She took a seat behind a boy that, now that she thought about it had handed her part of her spine days ago. She didn't hold a grudge against him, but she couldn't help but get the impression that he had zero tact.

A well put together man moved to the front of the room. By the streak under his eye she could see that he was a staff mage.
"Good morning, beautiful young people," He greeted them.

Annnnd I already can't stand him. Kusari narrowed her eyes as she listened to the man speak. She hated when people acted like this. Of course he had to put on a friendly front for them, but that didn't mean she had to like it. It felt fake and condescending. He then introduced a nervous woman behind him. She clearly didn't want to be here, and likely thought she was going to be killed by one of them. At least she was honest.

Then Rosa walked in, and nearly broke Kusari.

Fred was irritating, but this woman was an insufferable saccharine nightmare. Kusari watched this woman as if she were an exotic alien, both disgusting and intriguing. She felt stupid for thinking so poorly of Fred, this woman was the real psycho! She was only barely able to give a 'thanks' as her custom made clothing was handed to her. She hardly believed they would actually come through with them. Looking around, others had asked for far more ridiculous things. From dangerous weapons, to cute pets, it was as if they were trying to appease all powerful gods that could end them at a moment's notice. But they weren't gods, and they could be killed at any time. So why were they being treated so special?

After Daisy left and Fred continued, she got her answer. They were an experiment. It seemed her paranoia about being test subjects had been right. She wanted to be mad, but the most she could do was grit her teeth and slouch in her chair. She barely paid attention to the classes, the work was beneath her anyhow. She was more interested in the combat training they would be going through. She needed to get stronger, to at least be able to prevent anyone else from dying.

Soon enough it was lunch time. Now that she thought about it she was hungry. She left the room, and headed for the cafeteria. As she walked by students, she spotted Hazel sitting at a table. After taking some mashed potatoes and lobster, she sat down across from her.

"Hazel, right? How have you been doing since that battle? she asked, then scooping a spoonful of potato into her mouth. The food here was good, it ticked her off.

"By the way, you have noticed that one of us is missing, right? I overheard one of those guards talking about it I think. They mentioned a cuff's alarm going off, a 'site,' and footprints. I think he was attacked, Hazel."

When Brent stepped out of the gym’s shower room, warm water still streaking down his sculpted body, he had not expected to be ambushed by four faceless soldiers, rifles pointed at his naked form. Really? They were afraid of him even when his power specifically required him to actually have a weapon on him to be useful? His amethyst eyes flickered at each of those masked individuals, shooting all his ‘wow, how impressive’ towards them, before Brent ultimately shrugged.

“Alright, so, is this like…”

“Shut it, subnatural,” one of the men barked (hopefully they were all men), “Get dressed and come with us.”

“…about all those utensils I borrowed from the cafeteria?”

Only silence. One of them gestured with their gun towards his neatly folded clothes.

“Cool. Guess it isn’t about that.”

Toweling himself off, the amethyst-eyed youth did a few stretches while he was at it. Early morning training was something that was done every single day, after all, and a post-shower stretch was always rather comfortable. Behind him, the guards remained resolute in the face of this manservice. Whatever, it wasn’t his intent to begin with. Pulling up his denim pants and then pulling a long-sleeved blue shirt over his head, he vigorously dried his head further. Breakfast would have followed afterwards, but Brent wasn’t deaf. He could hear one of the soldiers begin to tap their foot.

Hanging his towel around his neck, Brent said, with a smile, “Well now, lead the way.”

His stomach grumbled a couple minutes afterwards. Unsurprisingly, none of the guards offered him a CalorieMate for his troubles.

---

For all his lack of social grace, and for all his inability to care about much of anything, Brent hadn’t missed the change in the number of guards present. They may have slowly built up their numbers during the night, but that didn’t mean that the change wasn’t massive when one slept in the morning with no guards present and woke up to 50 of them patrolling the area. Something had definitely happened, but that ‘something’ wasn’t in the dorms.

After all, if any of the subnaturals in the building had gone mad, they wouldn’t need so many guards when they could just electrocute them. So that meant that there was an exterior threat. A monstrous threat? But if guns were normally going to be effective against Dreamcatcher’s monsters, it wouldn’t have been THAT much of an issue then, right?

So what was going on? Extremist anti-subnatural groups? Rogue subnaturals planning on liberating their own kind? Various thoughts and theories danced in Brent’s head, all the way until he was brought into Lecture Building Z, up the stairs, and finally, into what looked to be a…classroom?

A classroom filled with all the kids he saw in the aftermath of the battle against Menagerie’s monster-goons. From Angel to Sav to Emma to Siena to emo-sick-boy to Christmas (only knew da name because he was a healer) to Sophia to holy-shit-he-knew-a-lot-of-girls-for-some-reason, Brent smiled and nodded at each of them. As far as he was aware, the Director just decided to put all the new kids into one class, except for…

Huh. Aaron the Norwegian was missing.

Brent blinked, and without hesitation, he revised his theory, amending it with that conversation he had caught. Aaron must have escaped, with help from people on the outside. Assistance from one of the criminal organization of subnaturals then? Made sense. That’s why the guards were there. To shoot up untagged subnaturals and all that. Unpleasant, but at the same time…

Nice job, A-man. Enjoy your freedom.

With that, Brent turned his attention to the more immediate problem. What was his optimal seating position? There were four guards present, essentially one for every corner of the room. A large window was open to the side, no doubt bulletproof. So the only escape paths were the doors. He’d like to be aligned with them then. So either front row or back row. From the front, he can more easily catch the attention of their shrinking violet of a teacher, but from the back, he can do whatever he wants without getting into trouble as often. However, said teacher’s temperament was really rather pathetic. He’d most likely be able to do whatever he wanted to do regardless. So front row then.

Closer to the window, so it’d be easier to spot an incoming threat from the outside. In the case of interior threats, that’d also mean there was at least some distance from him and the door. Perhaps he should be sitting in the second row, actually…but no. The first row was a place that commanded respect and made it obvious that he was a try-hard. The first rowers were the smart ones, and being first was winning. So it was…first row, one seat away from the window. Coincidentally right beside Emma.

A problem?

Brent smiled at the x-marked girl. “Morning Emma. Been keeping up with that cardio?”

He didn’t expect a response, nor did he have time to dwell on it once introductions and explanations were to be had. Fred Francisco, April Riveria, Experimental Group B. Group A was Shane’s gang. Was their group just as large as this one, or smaller than them? Think about that later. Daisy and requests. Filled up rather fast. Looked like you could actually request pets and basic things that could just have been purchased online.

He nodded slightly to himself. Something to keep in mind later. His allowance was running dry already. May be high time to start requesting clothes, if they could get that sort of stuff that quickly. His current request came up first though, and no doubt, the acquisition of weapons and protection was definitely more important than mere clothes.

“Well, you know,” Brent grinned as he held the heavy gun in his hand, “All boys like their guns and their trains. But yeah, didn’t expect to get everything anyways. I can probably just develop my own sci-fi rail gun pistol thing. Just better to have a super advanced base to leap even further into the future, you know?”

It was a little disappointing that his flamethrower and motorbike were noped as well, but, alas, that was just how life went. No doubt Daisy didn’t see the value in having a pyromaniac on a motorcycle, but eh.

“So, basically…if I get motorbiking lessons, a motorbike is A OK then? Gotcha, Daisy.” He nodded, thoroughly satisfied despite all the things on the list that were rejected. “And yeah, sorry about a bunch of the stuff. They weren’t medieval torture instruments or snuff films, but I guess I did get super greedy there.”

Did he intend on stopping with his selfishness though?

Brent looked inwards, and didn’t really know, but if nothing else, Daisy provided two more names. Lawrence and Nicholas. So those were the gun people, huh? He should ask around later. And afternoon combat training as well! Ah, so many new, fresh things to think about, so many new adjustments to make to his schedule! So fricken wonderful!

New chances to get new skills, as well as see how he fared against his fellow subnaturals. Actual classes so he could keep ahead of his studies. A chance to see a whole bunch of people in class and get to know them. Group projects?! That smile remained on his face. Perhaps it ate up his own time, but regardless, it was wholly likeable, this Experimental Group B thing.

Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator meant that they were being taught stuff that Savannah and Sophia had to learn. Algebra? Scalars? Sentence structures? Outside of answering the occasional rhetorical question from one of the teachers, Brent kept himself busy with examining his new weapons instead. The machete wasn’t a sword by any means, but it was designed to cut through wood, which was harder than flesh. Good enough? Good enough, but he’d have to learn how to properly cut to begin with. The box of ammunition was hefty, and the Desert Eagle definitely heavier than an overclocked Nerf Gun, but that was more or less fine too. He could get used to the weight, though he didn’t have an opportunity to try shooting it at all.

Not unless he wanted to get blown into smithereens, after all.

The night vision goggles didn’t take too long to figure out either, and ultimately, a vest was just a vest. He would have liked something that was more ‘full bodied’, but alas, that was a request for another day. Really, it was downloading new apps on his Galaxy S10 that took most of his time, but even after that, Brent was running out of things to do. He could hardly do pushups or handstands or practice shooting or stuff in a classroom, after all, and despite his interest in staying ahead of his classes, he didn’t want to be THAT far ahead. So…what could he do?

Origami, that’s what.

For the remainder of his morning classes, Brent swallowed his hunger, googled origami guides, and by the time Fred Francisco popped his head in once more, there was a veritable zoo of origami animals on Brent’s desk, all made of lined paper ripped from his notebooks. A whole array that he smiled, took a picture of in order to immortalize, and then viciously squashed them.

Ah, how cathartic.

In the end, only one origami animal survived the purge. A paper tiger that he kept on the desk, to ward off any other filthy desk-takers. He put on his vest, night-vision goggles, and gas mask, before holstering his gun and pocketing his new phone. In one hand, he held the machete. In another, he held the box of ammunition. And, with destinations in mind and lunch to be devoured, Brent ran off, looking like a tacky serial killer from a B-movie.

“Sup Angelic!” He called out, dashing past the raven-haired rocker.

“Heyo Zoe!” He grinned, pivoting around the fiery lifter like a running back.

“Hi there, name’s Brent. Who’re you?” He asked, jogging in spot for all of five seconds in front of the girl with long bangs covering her eyes, before running off again.

“Yo, Kusari! Have a great lunch!” He waved as he spotted the white-haired wall head towards the cafeteria.

“Chilling, Alex?” He said, grinning at the mopheaded boy.

“Good noon to you, ladies.” He saluted, rushing up the steps.

Maybe he was feeling a bit chipper today after all. It was sorta annoying, not getting breakfast eaten, but now lunch would be great AND he had combat training to look forward to AND he had some real weapons on him now AND he got some nice origami shenanigans going on! In thirty seconds, he dumped all his new gear except for his loaded Desert Eagle onto his bed, before rushing out once more.

Lunch lunch lunch lunch lunch became the rhythm of his dash, and Brent practically slid into the gap as the cafeteria’s automatic doors opened up. A flashy flair of his ID and a wink at good ol’ Jason was all that he needed to get in, and from there…

A deep breath.

A show of gratitude.

And then…

…the feast of legends began.

Hazel Baker

She was sweating nervously.

Hazel was aware that she was holding up people who wanted to get food there, but... . She was sure it wasn't on any of the diet usually made for her by them in the facility she transferred from, but she also wasn't sure if they will punish her for deviating from her usual fare. Steeling her nerves, she took some of the blood red cuisine, and scampered off, almost certain an alarm would come and she'd be tackled to the ground by everyone in the hall.

It didn't so now she was sitting in front of a bowl of something blood red with cubes inside of it. Even through the drug's haze she felt a slight rush of excitement, having finally taken something new from the menu.

Before she could have a bite however, Kusari came over and sat beside her. She remembered her. One who fought with her on that last experiment. Hazel couldn't remember what it was she did however. Kusari was still alive, so it must have been effective to see her through that last experiment.

"Hazel, right? How have you been doing since that battle?" Kusari asked, then scooping a spoonful of potato into her mouth. "By the way, you have noticed that one of us is missing, right? I overheard one of those guards talking about it I think. They mentioned a cuff's alarm going off, a 'site,' and footprints. I think he was attacked, Hazel."

"I did not do anything significant since that battle." Hazel answered, before popping in a spoonful of the red dish into her mouth. Her eyes started watering almost immediately. If she had to describe it, it tasted extremely angry in her mouth. However, inside all that anger, there something that was somehow alluring to her. It was angry, it made her eyes tear up, but she wasn't about to stop eating it anytime soon. She would have enjoyed it more, if not for what Kusari just said. Someone was missing, attacked and most likely dead.

"They didn't like him. Now he's dead. You could be next."

She shook her head, trying to clear out that voice. It was too sloppy to be one of their works. If it was truly them, then whoever it was would have disappeared without a trace. They tended to be brutally efficient should they needed anything done.

"They don't care anymore. No one has the power to oppose them even if they knew."

Pushing that voice to the back of her mind, she finally spoke again. "I see. I will take measures to ensure such an attack doesn't happen to me."

@Piercing Light

---

---

---

---

Brooding beside a locker stood Chris, hoodie up and arms crossed. His blue eyes glaring at the empty hallway before him. Class was going to start soon, but he couldn't get the grin of that sickening punk that attacked him in the fight. Chris was no arbiter, this emotion was human. A thirst for revenge, and an outlet to the despair he felt from all the trauma thus far.

After lunch, Sander walked briskly down the hallway, heading toward the classroom. He was still mildly concerned about his roommate, but didn’t see it fit to interfere. If the blond boy didn’t want him there, he wouldn’t be there. Simple as that.

"Oi"-Chris called out from his corner as the familiar kid walked past. "How can you walk around so calmly?"-He shot a glare towards Sander beneath his hood as he spoke.

“Um...”- Sander halted when a voice called out to him. He half-turned, eyeing the new comer with curiosity. White hair and blue eyes wasn’t common, but he had seen stranger things on subnaturals –“Can I help you?”

Without warning Chris would immediately step up from the corner and take a jab at sander right across the cheek with a right hook. "That's for breaking my ribs on the battlefield, and letting our teammates die from your friendly fire." Chris said coldly.

Pain bloomed across his cheek when the stranger’s fist connected. The blow, as well as the suddenness of it, sent him reeling sideway, where he struggled to retain his footing. A hand quickly pressed against his cheek, while the other gripped the canister tightly. The craving buzzed dully at the back his mind, coaxing him to invoke the blood high at the slightest hint of pain. However, he squashed the urge before it could even form, and focused on his assailant.

“W-What? I…”- He furrowed his brow, body tensed, expecting the accusations to come paired with more violence -“Who are you?”

"The 'monster' you attacked instead of what was attacking the others, dumbass." Chris scowled, tempting to give him another hit but feeling as though that was all he needed he refrained from further violence, for now at least.

“I didn’t…”- Realization set it then, and Sander swallowed his words. A flash of regret passed his features, but he broke eye contact there and then, staring at a spot at his feet instead –“…I’m sorry.”- He managed weakly.

Chris's composure lightened, He was expecting that the kid would take things the other way and a fight would break out but he seemed to understand his mistake. He'd sigh, "Whatever. Next time just avoid punching the dragon that fighting the monsters." Chris would cross his arms again.

Sander remained silent at that. He knew himself, and he didn’t want to make a promise he couldn’t keep.

"We're not friends, but we're not enemies either." Chris stated before walking away, heading to class without another word.

Sander looked at the stranger’s retreating back, a puzzled look on his face as he tried to decipher what the white-haired boy truly meant. A faint taste of copper lingered in his mouth, but it elicited neither fire nor rage, just dull pain. He pressed fingers to the tender patch on his cheek, though they came back clean. Nothing too serious then. Waiting a few moment for the ache to subside and the tabasco scent to fade, he turned, heading back to the classroom with a sombre look on his face.

It could have been different. They could have lived.

---

---

Ernie had moved on from glaring out the window (like one of those emo kids he always laughed at) to glaring at the front board, specifically at the printed schedule on it. GLARING, like if he telepathically channelled enough hatred into the cursed thing he could escape the triple deathblows that were the pre-lunch subjects. Calculus AND Physics AND English, first thing in the morning? USARILN East truly was hell on Earth. More interesting was the phrase “Experimental Unit B” that was printed at the top. It seemed that was cherry-picked to be part of some special squad. Strange.

The arrival of other students drew his attention. Twenty or so teens, escorted by a beefy crew of security guards. An extra special squad then? Or maybe the security at East was always this heavy. Not enough information. It was time to put that detective cap on and suss out what the damn heck was going on here. A way to do that was to assess his assumed classmates, or just the people who stood out the most to him.

A peppy Aberration girl who introduced herself as Emma. Her upbeat little greeting to the teachers had pretty much grabbed Ernie’s attention by the ears, forcing him to acknowledge her existence. And what a weird existence this was.

Assessment time.

Woah, now this was a shiny person, a real “slow motion down the hall” kind of gal. In any other place, West especially, Ernie would have found her enthusiasm pretty adorable. But in here, coming from an Abe… Man, that was just strange. Hardcore denial, maybe? Sure, it wasn’t his first time seeing a cheery X but considering the environment they were in, considering how long it had taken Ernie to earn his own cheeriness, he wasn’t sure what was up with this girl. Maybe she got lucky with a weak stigma and happened to be a nice girl beforehand too. A lucky combo. There wasn’t enough information to work off for the moment and Ernie didn’t like thinking hard about things he couldn’t figure out. So he’d do that thinking later. Her presence didn’t offer many clues to his situation anyway.

An Arbiter with a ridiculous number of scars on him. Ernie was reminded of scored bread when he looked at the guy. The thought of bread reminded Ernie of the fact that his breakfast had only consisted of a small pack of biscuits handed out by the truck soldiers. And, oh god, there were still three hours until lunch break. Ernest Mars was going to starve to death long before he got eviscerated by Dreamcatcher monsters. He tried not to think about his neglected tummy too much, tossing himself back onto his earlier train of thought.

Scarface seemed to share some inside joke with the Daisy lady. How long had these guys been at East again? Not long enough to have gotten their arrival requisitions before today but enough to have established little gags with the staff? Then again, these pro mages here seemed zanier than any people West ever managed to pick up off the streets. It was probably best to not base any concrete judgement from the staff’s personalities. It looked like Chestnut Boy already had his own clique of friends too.

Other than them, no one else really caught his eye. A dozen or so nondescript faces other faces filed into the room, a mix-and-match of personalities and appearances with varying levels of morning crankiness. Nothing spectacular. The only other person maybe worth noticing was a shades wearing, goth punk chick who looked a lot like…

Ernie shook his head.

Naw, it couldn’t be. Probably just some random goth girl who also liked wearing sunglasses. A fellow fan, perhaps? His view of the girl was obscured so his interest was lost very quickly.

The following lessons and speeches were mind-blowingly boring. Something useless about other Experimental Units, algebra that even he could sorta understand, advanced arrow-drawing in Physics and whatever the heck was being taught by the fancy-pants English teacher. Seemed like a total waste of space to Ernie. And he wasn’t just referring to the sentence diagramming. He’d scoffed when Fred had returned to tell them to not eat the shrubbery. Hah, as if anything from East’s décor would look pretty enough to eat.

Classes had passed by without anyone approaching him. That was fair. If no effort is made on one end then why should the other reciprocate? He wasn't going to get anything done by sitting and moping around. It was time to put himself out there and flaunt that stunningly bright personality he'd worked so hard to cultivate. And if those high school romantic comedies were anything to go by, the epicenter of teen socialization was the cafeteria. Delicious foods and new friendships were awaiting him there.

Hold up a second.

Where was the cafeteria? More importantly, where was anything in this school?

Ernie groaned into his hands as his classmates bustled out of the room, presumably to places they actually knew the way to.

---

---

Lily made her way back to her dorm room, lost in thought as usual. Her mind was filled with the faceless golden haired boy, the battle they had just luckily survived, the Precursor who had healed everyone, the irony taste of blood, the pink haired boy who made crystals, the monsters that they had dealt with, the dead students and that excruciating pain from taking too much injuries she can handle. She tripped thrice but luckily caught herself before she fell flat on her face and ran into walls and people a couple of times. It didn't really bother her, being this clumsy, being this absentminded. Nobody else seemed to mind. Well, almost nobody...

"Hey, kid! Watch where you're going!" An angry male voice exclaimed when Lily once again ran into someone.

"Hmmm?" the small golden haired girl looked up at the irritated, glaring face of a USARILN guard.

As soon as the guard saw the X mark on Lily's neck, he automatically raised his rifle and pointed it at her. "It's way past your curfew, Subnatural. Head on straight to your dorm," he said in a stern voice, probably desperate to hide the nervousness he felt in encountering an Aberration. They were all like that.

"I was just heading back there from the ho---" Lily stopped short as a scent caught her attention. She sniffed the air and then perked up. She felt her tummy rumble. She held out a small hand to the towering guard. "You have a donut. Hand it over. I'm hungry," she said in a sing song voice.

"Wha---? Didn't you hear what I said?" The guard wasn't thrilled to be dealing with Aberrations longer than he should be. He gestured with his rifle towards the general direction of the dorm building. "Get going."

Lily shook her head and stood her ground, he hand still outstretched towards him.

And thus, started the staring battle between student and guard. Both stood there for a few minutes, both refusing to back down. Finally, the little girl gave him a look as she glanced towards the his back pocket. "Donut." She bounced on the balls of her feet.

The look was enough to make the guard almost take a step back. Realizing that it would probably be easier to just hand the damn fried dough over than forcefully shove her all the way back to her dorm, he reached back and took the small paper bag he had brought with him. "What the hell are you? Some sort of food sniffing hound? Here. Take it and get back to your dorm." His eyes flicked towards the X on her neck again. "Now."

"Hee. Thanks," Lily cheerfully grabbed the paper bag, turned and skipped towards her dorm.

The guard stared after Lily, letting out a relieved sigh. The look the small girl had given him gave him the creeps and he was glad that his encounter with her was finally over. He just hoped that she didn't make any other side trips. He didn't really want to deal with her more than he already did.

---

---

As soon as she was back on her room, Lily turned her attention to the stack of papers on her desk. She sighed. She never really liked paperwork and on hind sight, was actually a little glad for the battle that had happened earlier. It was, in a way, a sort of excuse not to work on the tedious exams. A morbid excuse but nevertheless an excuse. Of course, now was a different story. She still didn't know why they would give placement exams to a girl who had no idea what her real name was, much less remember how to answer a calculus question.

Does the equation y² + x = 1 represents a function y in terms of x? What does that even mean?

"I suppose I would have been saved from this if I had died," she mumbled, this time glancing at the small paper bag she held in her hand. If she died, it would mean not being able to eat any more donuts. Well, that would be really sad... She peeked into the bag and was pleased to find a chocolate butternut ring inside. She immediately took the donut out and happily devoured it. Happy with what she ate, she turned to her paperwork, ready to work on them. But before she could sit on the chair, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the small mirror that sat on the table. She looked down at her torn and bloodied clothes. I should shower and change first.

She nodded and then walked towards her small closet, pulling out whatever touched her fingertips first. She headed to the communal showers, humming a soft tune as she did. She continued humming happily as she cleaned herself, her mind filled with images of her favorite treat. It was a rare thing for her mind to be occupied by things other than her stigma and for a moment, she looked like a normal cheerful girl. It was, however, short lived. As she turned off the showers, harsh words began filling her head. Faceless people pointed accusing fingers at her. She quickly toweled her hair dry, put on clothes and rushed towards the door of the bathroom as if hurrying away would leave behind the thoughts that had started to invade her mind.

You'll kill us all. You...you're a menace.

I am, aren't I? A useless healer that hurts people instead.

The dark haired man lying face down on the floor flashed through her mind, causing her to collide on the bathroom door. The small blonde let out a surprisingly loud expletive that probably sounded strange coming from someone her size. She reached up and rubbed her forehead where she hit the door and then opened it with a huff. She really need to pay more attention to where she was going. But even with that thought, her mind began wandering off in another direction again. But I did some good in that battle, at least. Maybe even made some friends.

Some friend you are, trying to blow up a team mate with your poorly aimed grenade.

Lily gasped as the image of the blonde haired boy formed in her head. Was he the one saying all those harsh words? His face was still cloudy but his lips were strangely clear. It had a sneer on it. Was he just an imagination borne out of the trauma she had gone through earlier?

Imagination or not, the faceless boy was right. How could anyone think of her as a friend when she obviously botched everything on the battlefield. Her feet carried her back to her room as her mind tried to find another redeeming act to wipe that mocking look on the boy's lips. But I was able to help heal people...

In her mind's eye, the man lying face down on the ground in a pool of his blood looked up. The same sneer was on his lips despite the rest of his face being blurred still. Healing by taking their injuries onto your body? You think anyone wants to hear you scream out in pain? You think that would make you likable? Make them thankful? They pity you. That's all you'll ever get. As soon as the supposedly dead man finished speaking, he slumped back down onto the ground and was again still.

But I... But I... Lily's hand shook as she pushed the door to her dorm room open. As soon as she stepped in, she hung her head low in defeat. The door clicked close behind her. With a heavy heart, a very very depressed mood and a strong reluctance, she sat down on the chair and stared at the stack of papers. The acquisition form was sticking out. It had only two words on it. More Donuts.

She stared at it for a long time. In her manic mood, she would have thought of a lot more stuff to write on it. A teddy bear maybe, fluffy towels, a TV, a cute night light that projected small stars onto the ceiling, a camera, a cellphone... So many things. But her present mood didn't want any of those. There were only two things she wanted at the moment. And these two things she scribbled on the request sheet.

My memories.

Sebastian.

She stared at what she wrote for almost half an hour, as if to ascertain that it was what she wanted. She didn't really know. She didn't even know who Sebastian was or if getting her memories back would somehow make her feel better. With no real conclusions, she shrugged and put the paper aside. Maybe she'd look at it again later on and perhaps write a bit more stuff in.

With a sigh and a confused mind, she slowly, slowly went through the papers that was stacked on the table. She encircled the best answers she could think of... or guess at. With very slow progress, she didn't even realize that she had worked through the night and into the day.

A rumbling tummy and a dry mouth were the only things that made her realize that she had skipped breakfast and lunch the next day. With tiredness and sleepiness apparent on her face, she got up and trudged towards the cafeteria. If she saw anyone in the cafeteria, she didn't really notice them as her mind was plagued by questions of how she lost her memories and why. Distracted as always, she took only a sandwich and a bottle of water. Without lifting her head, she headed back towards her room, mumbling sorry to people she ran into.

Back in her room, she ate her measly dinner and then crashed onto her bed. She was asleep even before her head hit the pillow.

It would have been nice if she had nice dreams. Maybe a peaceful field of flowers with fluffy bunnies hopping around and colorful butterflies flitting by. But her dreams were as unforgiving as her thoughts during her waking moments. Faceless people crowded around her, spitting, yelling, accusing. No matter how hard she tried to see their faces and why they were so angry, she just couldn't remember. In the end, she felt that familiar need to hurt them, to completely erase them from her head, blur them the way their faces were blurred so that they could no longer bother her.

---

---

Lily woke up the next day feeling more tired as she had been before she went to bed. The same questions echoed over and over in her mind. Who am I? Why am I here? How did I become what I am? What choice did I make? Why did I choose to be an X? Who are the faceless people? Why do they all hate me? Do they hate me because I chose what I did? Who is Sebastian? Where is he? Why does his name keep popping into my head when I don't even know who he is? The questions didn't help at all with her mood.

Attired in a simple, white dress and armed with the stack of papers, she made her way to the Registrar's Office. One step in front of the other. And then another...It seemed like it would take forever, each step punctuated with unkind words muttered in her head.

Useless.

Freak.

Forgotten.

Friendless.

It was as if the words were on a continuous loop, playing over and over in her head and making her feel more and more depressed.

Killer.

That last word. Killer? Who did she kill?

The image of the dark haired man came to mind and Lily almost walked into a tree. She blinked, her nose only a few inches from the rough wood. Several people stared at her, some actually snickered. But she was oblivious to it all as she sidestepped the tree, her eyes widening at the sudden realization. Did I... kill that man? What sort of person was I before I came here? she asked herself.

But there were no answers. Only the merciless words.

One step in front of the other. Until finally, she was in the Registrar's Office.

There were no words exchanged. Lily merely submitted her paperwork, stood there and waited to be dismissed. The woman behind the desk who entertained her studied her, her eyes flicking towards the X on the base of her throat. She gave the girl the same look the guard she had took the donut from gave her. The look didn't escape Lily's notice. But it didn't really matter.

Everyone in this place probably looked at her the way the woman did.

When told to go, she nodded and turned away, walking back on the same path she took on her way there and then veering off to the general direction of the Gym.

One step in front of the other.

Until she found herself back n the Track and Field. She stopped as she saw two dark haired boys there. One was tall and gangly while the other one was slightly shorter. No matter their height difference, both were towering giants to Lily. She stood there for a moment, watching them. Should she walk towards them and maybe start a conversation?

No... Her mood was off today and she didn't really feel like socializing.

I'm sure they won't want me to interfere with them, she thought glumly as she climbed up the bleachers and sat there. She stared at the track, trying to get her mind off of things she didn't understand nor have any hopes of understanding. "Maybe if I trained the way the others students are doing then maybe that'd help...take my mind off things and...maybe let me find something to work towards. Maybe then will I be useful in battle," she said softly, her mind bringing up memories on her failed throw. At that thought, Marcus came to mind. Maybe going off to find him would help. He did say that they made a good team. But did that mean that he'd want to talk to her?

She watched a girl trip and skin her knee on the ground. It didn't look funny but everyone seemed to find it funny when it happened to her.

Her thoughts abruptly turned to Angelique and Callan, two people who showed some concern for her when she woke up in the hospital. It did her heart good to remember them. And she thought it would be nice to run into them again. Maybe she should...No. I'd probably be just a nuisance to them. This time she didn't need any of the people in her head telling her that she'd be unwanted.

The golden eyed girl strained to steer her erratic thoughts back to her original musings. Training. Yes, training. I should, maybe... wait. How will I do that? Practice my skills? But then I'd need to hurt someone to practice. Hurt myself then hurt someone... or the other way around. T-that won't work at all. But even as she thought that, she couldn't deny that there was that strange pull, that irresistible temptation to make someone feel the pain she felt. Maybe her confusion can be transferred too. Now, that's an interesting concept. The edges of her lips twitched and curved up into a grin.

After a moment, she shook her head to clear it. Strange thoughts. I should keep that out of my head.

The thought of practicing, training and even seeking out possible friends all flew out of her head, her train of thought obviously running on a completely different track. She didn't bother the two boys as she got up and wandered off again.

Eventually, she found herself in the pool where she did laps with several students she didn't know. It took effort to match their pace, her being the smallest there. But like everything else, she didn't mind as her thoughts drifted off again to things she wasn't sure she'll ever figure out.

---

---

The past few days weren't so great for Lily. She spent most of it getting bothered by her stigma, worrying that she had no place in the world and basically just feeling down in the dumps. She didn't even feel like eating even when there was an overflowing supply of donuts. The people she thought could be her friends, she avoided. All thoughts of trying to get to know them and maybe make things better for herself by having friends dashed instantaneously by either her stigma or herself. She wandered around campus, wondering what to do. In this mood, there really wasn't a lot of things that interested her.

Sleep, maybe. She yawned. She was tired and sleepy. Perhaps it would be best to take it easy today. Maybe find a secluded corner...maybe under a tree or something...or back to her dorm.

The idea was tempting. But then again, sleep ironically tires her out more. With the constant nightmares, there really wasn't any place for rest and relaxation. She shook her head. No. Maybe coffee... that should at least wake her up.

She walked around more, contemplating on getting coffee and trying to avoid people. She failed miserably at the latter, as she had a tendency to lose herself in her daydreams and walk into them. Some were actually used to it by now. She could have sworn she had walked into the same boy five times in two days. He always grinned at her but never said anything. Most were irritated and chastised her. She'd say sorry but then she'd do it again. There was really no use apologizing but she'd do it again and again anyway.

Losing her interest in coffee, her thoughts drifted towards wanting to at least try to do something productive. Yesterday she had spent hours swimming laps in the pool and continued doing so long after everyone else have left. It had been a wonderful exercise, the muscle pains she still had was proof of that. She wondered if she should just head on over to the pool and do some more laps today. She was good at it and if she wanted to keep fit to keep up with everyone, swimming would be it for her.

But then, she didn't feel like swimming today...

Maybe she should learn more about her powers? How to best manage it, how to get stronger and how to make herself more useful in combat.

Lily nodded. It seemed like a good idea. But where should she start?

Should I maybe ask someone for help? The teachers? The Director? That absurdly powerful pink haired boy? I wonder how he got to that point? Was he like us before? It made sense to ask for help in a school but would these people really help? How would they know how to help her? As far as she knew, she was the only one around with the messed up power that she has. Would the crystal creating boy actually share stuff about himself? Somehow she doubted he'd even talk to her. Benediction, maybe? That last thought sent a thrill through her and almost brought her out of her current mood. But not quite. Like every thought she had, it sounded silly. The Precursor probably had a lot to do than to entertain starstruck teenagers.

Lily sighed as her feet led her past the Security Outpost. How to make myself more useful... Should I learn to maybe injure myself? I can't ask people to keep hurting me, can I? Ugh. That sounds a little morbid, when I think about it. Hey, Marcus, can you shoot me in the leg again please? Yeah, that doesn't right at all. I must have traumatized him a lot. I should---"

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" shouted a familiar, angry male voice.

Lily looked up and found herself staring at the irritated face of the same USARILN guard she collided with a few nights ago. He was holding a half finished donut. "Oh, it's you," she said in a flat tone of voice.

"Oh, it's you? What's wrong with you kid? You like walking into people? This is your second time crashing into me. Are you looking for trouble?" the guard demanded, his eyes narrowing as he took an uncharacteristically large bite on the half donut he was holding.

"Maybe," Lily shrugged nonchalantly. If she was in a better mood, she would have laughed at how the guard tried to finish off his donut as quickly as he could. "Don't choke yourself. I'm not taking your donut this time," the dull eyed girl said in a similarly flat tone as she continued walking past the guard.

The guard coughed, thoroughly embarrassed. He would have shouted at the girl but all he could really do was stare incredulously at her as she walked past.

Lily soon found herself in the library. It appeared that her feet knew where best to take her even if she hadn't made up her mind yet. It was certainly convenient and she found no fault in it. But now that she was there, several more questions came to mind. Where should she start? Biology books maybe?

You're serious about hurting yourself? You're that desperate to make yourself useful to people who aren't even interested in becoming your friends?

The same mocking voice in her head.

What do you care?

No one cares.

Trying to ignore the mocking tone in her head, she looked around and her eyes fell on two familiar faces. Siena, her team mate and fellow Benediction fan, was talking to a white haired boy. Lily didn't know his name but she recognized him from orientation. He didn't look particularly friendly but her initial thought was to say hi all the same. Siena had been, after all, nice to her.

Or was it just because of our shared interest in Benediction?

Lily sighed at the thought and ultimately decided to duck into a nearby aisle sandwiched between two book filled shelves instead. She reached up as high as she could and randomly took a book.

Night Watch (Ночной дозор) - by Sergei Lukyanenko

Hmmm... She flipped the book to look at the back cover. ...confrontation between two opposing supernatural groups...Looks interesting. Golden eyes gleaming with curiosity, she sat down onto the floor indian style and flipped open to page 1.

Hours later, Lily walked out of the library, Night Watch and the next book, Day Watch, clutched against her chest.

---

---

The next day found Lily in the same depressed mood. Not being able to sleep well because of her nightmares (and probably made worse by her disorder), she had gotten up early, showered and changed. Using the bathroom so early in the morning wasn't a bad idea. No one was there. There were no lines and no waiting. And she had the place all to herself.

After her bath, she went back to her room and laid on the bed, wet hair and all.

She was staring glumly at the ceiling of her room, wondering for the nth time who Sebastian was. Although she had actually remembered her face during that one time in battle, she couldn't remember it now. All she had was a name. She was contemplating on asking around if anybody knew a Sebastian when a guard came to her room and roughly told her to move out by gesturing with his rifle.

Lily complied, finding no strength in actually trying to resist or even ask where she was being led to. A battle again, maybe? There were no announcements. She looked down at her ankle cuff. It hadn't turned blue like it had before. So, probably not?

Like a meek sheep, she let herself be herded with everyone else into what looked to be a classroom with bare walls and only the bare necessities. Classroom. So we're suppose to be learning stuff after all. I thought we were just here to be sent to battle anytime they felt like sending us, she thought. Well, a school's a school after all. I hope there aren't too many homeworks. I don't any more paperworks. She silently found her seat beside the window, barely noticing who sat around her. As soon as she sat down, she didn't bother inspecting her table like what most would have done. She stared blankly at the schedule posted on the board. Ugh. Calculus and Physics. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and then promptly turned her attention out the window.

It would be nice to be out there in the sun instead of being cooped up in a stuffy place like this one.

She only turned her attention back towards the front of the classroom when a male voice began speaking. The words floated meaninglessly in her mind. Fred, Ms. April Rivera, Math, Presents. She turned her dull golden eyes towards the cheerful new addition to their classroom. A long list... she repeated the words in her head and then looked around. Did they get her what she asked for?

'More Donuts, My memories and Sebastian.' Those were what she wrote. She stopped looking around. It was absurd to expect anything. Was she actually expecting to see a golden haired boy walk into the classroom? Maybe a folder narrating specifics about her past life before she came to USARILN? And the donuts...she didn't even want to eat.

Silently, she watched as her classmates received the things they asked for. Electronics, musical instruments, bags, boxes, pens, toys, weapons... USARILN was more generous than she had imagined.

Seeing everyone receive stuff while she got nothing only made her sink lower in her depression. Maybe she should have asked for stuff after all. That should at least give her something to do than just gawking at everybody. She sighed inwardly and settled for sorting through her desk, at the supplies placed in there. She looked at the notebooks, the schedule and the pens with a bored expression on her face. This is all I'm getting today. Better than nothing, I guess. She didn't bother looking up anymore as she took out one of the notebooks and a pen.

The next few hours was spent with Lily doodling random words her teacher said, not really paying attention to what was actually being taught as she lost herself time and again in her disturbing daydreams.

When Fred came back in and announced lunch, Lily automatically put the notebook and pen aside and silently got up to head for the dining hall.

---

---

Getting to the dining hall was remarkably easy as Lily managed not to bump into anyone despite the fact that everyone was making their way towards it. It was probably thanks to her grumbling tummy that she actually paid attention to where she was going. Once there, she decided that she'd at least a little bit more than what she had been eating the past few days. Her stomach rumbled in agreement and she fell in line behind a chattering pair of girls. They didn't pay any attention to her and in return she didn't eavesdrop on whatever they were giggling about.

She took a plate with a clubhouse sandwich on it, two chocolate glazed donuts and a bottle of apple juice. Donuts, she thought a little cheerily as she looked around for somewhere to sit. Not wanting to encounter so many people or make any small talk with anyone, she chose a small table tucked in a corner. She sat alone and silently ate her food, careful to keep her head down so that she didn't draw attention to herself.

Knock knock.

What was the time? Eh, Grant just slept as usual, so it didn’t really matter. He turned back on his side and tried to ignore the disturbance.

Knock knock knock.

God, who was out there? Maybe they’ll go away if he just ignored them. Sounds like a plan. He didn’t want to deal with anyone this early... Or... late. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t open his eyes enough to actually see the time of day.

KNOCK KNOCK KNO- Grant groaned in annoyance, moving onto his back and sitting up.. “Alright, alright!” He’d say loudly in his annoyance, getting up from his bed. Days spent sleeping... to be interrupted by this? He picked the mess that was himself up, and he wiped off the drool off his mouth as he swung open the door. A guard stood there, appearing ready to just burst into his room at any second now if necessary. He seemed to look Grant up and down before shaking their head, gesturing with their gun.
“Get out here already.” He’d command, and Grant had no choice but to agree. The place that he was lead to, alongside a group of students whose faces were familiar, and others extremely familiar, was a lecture building. Great. He filed into the classroom, deciding to let everyone else pick their seats... and after that was done, he took the seat which was mostly on its lonesome. Announcements, a great thing to be woken up for. Thanks, anonymous guard. Grant spent his time sitting, between the realms of sleep and awakeness as he laid his cheek against his fist. Bursts of information from the teachers came through, a schedule, something about presents that were handed out. He saw a couple things, and obviously none of them were heading his way. He never filled the form out, nor did he sign the requisition sheet.

After everything was said and done, the teacher that was left was the seemingly shy math teacher. Classes. Great. Grant let out a yawn and let the classes pass on by him, and at the end of it all, he blinked his eyes open enough at the sound of a snap. Lunch had just arrived. Finally. His head felt like it was just going to fall over any second now, but the day was still not done. So in the meantime, Grant decided to just get something to eat, maybe sleep a bit. Maybe a lot. Either way, his course was set toward the cafeteria and for once, not to a bed.

Kusari glared at Brent as he greeted her and went on his way. The boy looked as if he was about to audition for a crappy slasher flick. There was something seriously wrong with him. But she didn't have the patience nor the interest to bother finding out just what that something was. Instead she had a slightly muddled expression on her face as she processed what Hazel had said to her. Hazel had spoken in this strangely robotic manner during the mission, but she simply assumed the girl had prior military experience, or was pretending to have it.

But they were just sitting here eating lobster and... Actually she had no clue what Hazel was eating, but it seemed to be causing her pain."If it's too spicy you can get something else..." Kusari said, trying not to look as if she were pitying her.

"And I didn't tell you just so you could look out for yourself. We're all in danger here, so we need to look out for each other." Kusari took a cheap pre-paid cellphone out. "You have a phone right? Give me your number. If anything happens you can call me."

@GreenGoat

Allison Revel was not having the best morning. She was barely able to get breakfast and a shower before she was escorted to a classroom by armed guards, and worst of all, her stigma seemed to be acting up today.

Allison made a beeline for the back row of seats, disappointing to find that only one of the back-most seats remained, and it was in between someone Allison had never seen before and the boy who Allison remembered for being annoying days prior. Angel was only a few seats away, but she was surrounded on all sides, leaving Allison virtually stranded in a sea of people she barely knew.

Over the next several minutes, Allison found herself barely able to focus on the introductions of Mr. Francisco and Rosa, only somewhat rising from her thoughts when their requested items were being delivered, and only enough to acknowledge the items being handed to her.

There were too many people around. Allison felt hyper-aware of their presence, every breath, mutter, or slight movement set her brain off into a flutter of fantasies. If it wasn't for human decency and the fact that she didn't know most of them, Allison would have pinned the first person she could grab to the floor.

The actual classes didn't fair much better. Though the material was pretty easy, Allison's lack of focus made even following it a monumental task. By the end of the English lesson, Allison could tell you a three-part science fiction smut epic about Siena and Chris before she could remember what had just been taught. All she knew was that it was time for lunch, and food was always a good idea.

Allison also had an urge to talk to Angel. She was sure it was just the stigma talking, it had to be, but she decided to follow it anyway. Before Allison could even rise from her seat, though, the metal-head had already rushed out of the door. Allison pursued as fast as she could, jumping from her chair and bolting through the door after Angel.

___

Racing out of the classroom, Angélique had another idea in mind. While Christopher might be Aaron's roommate, he probably didn't know much of what had happened either. If the school was really involved by segregating her friend from the initial group he came from, she was damn sure they wouldn't reveal their reasons to the students. And that is why, as reckless as it sounded in her head, she had to ask personally to someone directly linked to the school's administration.

The young woman's eyes immediately followed the man that was supposed to be in charge of her group - Frédérique? - who had just got out of the classroom a few seconds before she did. It wouldn't hurt to try and ask the guy if he knew anything as to why Aaron wasn't with them today. Unlike normal school, Angel doubted the soldiers here would simply leave a teenager to his room if he was sick on his first day at USARILN, simply judging by how everyone was brought up in the classroom.

Decided on her course of action, Angel chased after Frederico, who had taken the lunchroom's opposite way. When she caught up to him, he was down the hall from the classrooms, accompanied by four guards surrounding. Damn, is that guy that dangerous of a Subnatural, or did he made a lot of enemies out of the students? Surprisingly, that wouldn't have surprised the black-haired Aberration. Being part of the establishment's staff despite being a Subnatural, it sounded like preferential treatment to the younger members of this institute, or a scheme to gain the student's trust.

Still, despite not trusting the guy, she required information from the man, and was willing to cast aside that lack of trust in order to find out her friend's whereabouts.

"Yo! Mr. Freddie? Mind if we talk for a bit?"

Fredric stopped and turned slightly, quirking an eye brow before his face lit up with recognition. "Ahh, Miss Angélique Lachance!" he smiled brightly, fully facing her with his hands in the pockets of his coat. The four guards stopped moving and also turned to face her.

"I'm always down for a chat! You've got something to ask me?" he said excitedly, staring down at her with unreadable stormy blue eyes.

"Yeah, I do..."

Angel hesitantly stopped, her gaze switching between each of the four soldiers that were accompagnying the guy in charge of their classroom. While the guards' presence didn't intimidate her as much as they should be, she was feeling sort of unwell to speak of matters concerning her friend in front of those watchdogs.

"Think we can have this discussion in private?"

The Aberration young woman's gaze shifted to the guards once more. Fredric leaned forward with an almost mockingly serious expression, eyebrows raised and lips pursed forward with seemingly genuine curiosity. He followed her gaze towards each of the surrounding soldiers.

"And no, I don't plan to bomb the prison. I just want to know something about a classmate."

His face broke back into a wide grin as he turned his gaze back onto Angel. "Oh, that's just Jake, Ryan, Cameron, and Paul. You heard the lady! Can we have a moment, s'il vous plait? I'll meet you fellas inside." His eyes never left the girl's face as he requested that they move on without him, which they did without question. The two waited in silence until the men rounded the corner. Fredric returned to his upright position, which only further emphasized the man's staggering height.

"You're wondering about Aaron Erikson," Fredric said, his voice and expression betraying no emotion, "Is that it?"

"Am I that obvious? Well, given the circumstances, I'm not surprised. Am I right to assume you know of something? Please, tell me he didn't get himself into trouble."

Bit by bit, Angel's hardened face softened up, her expression turning from a smug mocking facade to something more concerning, obviously worried. By the time the guards were not in sight, her tough girl acting almost faded away, but her strong will remained, burning with a passion to look out for the people that were close to her.

"I've got to know! It's no coincidence he wasn't with us all morning long. And this burst of activity from the guards, I haven't seen anything like it ever since I came here. What happened to my friend?"

Fredric gave a long sigh, glancing over her head at nothing in particular. "Boy, there sure are a lot of Nancy Drews in your bunch, aren't there?" he half smiled at her. His eyebrows knit together apologetically, "Sorry, dime. I can't help ya."

"Nancy what? Why? How? You must know something! It's your job supervising our classroom, right? Why can't you just at least say something beside the fucking 'can't help ya' gimmick?" Angel started being very persistent, somewhat desperate. If Fred couldn't say something to her, who else could she possibly turn to for finding out the truth?

His apologetic smile only widened. He winced and sucked a bit of air between his teeth at the sight of the upset teen. He sighed again, shaking his head. "I'm going to strongly advise you reconsider trying to find the answer to that question of yours, Miss Lachance. I know your upset, but that's how it's gotta be."

Throughout the discussion, Fredric's smile was getting on the Aberration's nerves. She was coping with it, but now that he flat out rejected her request, she couldn't hold her feelings anymore, anger that had been boiling up deep inside began to surface.

"I fucking knew I should've known better than to ask one of you higher-ups! THEY have been right all along! I shouldn't trust any of you institute lapdogs, no matter if some of you are the same as us!"

Angel snapped. Her voice had risen into considerate levels, not enough for actually screaming, but it was loud enough for everyone in the surrounding area to hear her outburst of anger, her tantrum amplified by her voice-enhancing power. While her face showed fury like she rarely exhibited, her clenched teeth and shaking fists showed she was struggling with something, as if she was fighting back something.

"Trust me. I'm going to figure out what happened, without your help. Thanks for nothing, sir." She hissed, the last word she pronounced spat like venom. His contrite smile remained, never missing a beat.

The black-haired X-marked turned her back to her would-be class supervisor and started running at the opposite direction.

Just as she left, Fredric's quartet of guards came bounding around the corner, rifles at the ready. The staff mage held up his hand, signaling for them not to follow. He chuckled solemnly, shaking his head one last time at the Angel's disappearing visage before continuing on his way down the hall.

Allison Revel pulled her head away from the corner, and pushed herself up against the wall. She had just wanted to talk to Angel, and now she felt like a spy, or a voyeur of some sort. Her cheeks were hot at the thought. She had seen something not meant for her eyes. If only it was something more than just Angel questioning the disappearance of their former teammate, like Freddy pinning Angel down, and...

Allison shook the thought away. Her stigma had been getting worse as the day progressed. She needed to deal with it. Why did she want to talk to Angel so bad, anyway? It was just the stigma talking, right? Allison couldn't think straight, she never could. Her mind was battling with itself. Angel was looking for Aaron, so why was Allison not instantly willing to help? Aaron was kind of plain, there wasn't much to the guy, even if what was there was decent. He could also be dead, or dying. What if he was being tortured in some sick, secret underground room, and if they didn't save him in time, he would die? It was a far-fetched assumption for sure, but it was the best reasoning Allison could come up with to want to help Angel find Aaron.

Allison realized that an aberration pressed against a wall was oddly conspicuous. What would she do if anyone came down that hallway? She immediately removed herself from the wall, and started moving away from the hall that she had been eavesdropping on. What would she do if Angel came around that corner, and ran towards her? How would she explain being in a random hallway, but leaving her things in the classroom? Allison hoped that Angel would run in any other direction.

But as fate would want it otherwise, the two students' meeting was inevitable, as Angélique took a sharp turn onto the corner Allison had been watching from a few seconds ago. Blinded by anger and running as fast as she could, the ex professional musician couldn't see who was slowly walking off the corner of the wall, nor could she stop when she was unknowingly about to run into her friend.

The impact was quick and brutal. Angel had rammed into Allison with enough force to send the peeping girl onto the ground, and the shades-wearing young woman tripped onto her, lying on top of the other girl in a confused daze. Angel's shades were knocked off her face, falling next to Allison's head.

Lying on top of Allison for a few seconds, Angélique regained her sense and groaned loudly, rubbing off the slight pain from her nose. "W-what the hell... Allison? You alright? I-'m sorry... I wasn't looking where I was going..." she apologized as her bright emerald eyes stared in confusion at her friend's face.

Allison's mind was melting. One moment she had been eavesdropping, and now Angel was right on top of her. Allison's face was impossibly red, her breathing shallow. She could barely process the scene. The thoughts in the back of her head overran her, speaking up before she could silence herself.

"I'm better than alright." Allison's eyes were glazed over, as if she was off in some distant dreamland.

"Good...good."

Angel got off Allison after shaking off her mild confused state. Getting up on her feet, she extended a hand to the prone girl she had run into. At the same time she was reaching to Allison, Angélique seemed to look around around her, one eye firmly shut while the other was squinting.

"Where the fuck did they fall..." She mumbled lowly.

Allison was visibly disappointing when Angel got up, though she did manage to get herself somewhat under control after rising from the floor herself. Angel was squinting and seemingly looking for something.

"Did you drop something?" Allison looked around at the floor.

"Mhm..."

Angel simply nodded, spotting something black by Allison's feet. She picked it up, sighing in relief as it appeared to be her shades, still in good condition. She didn't lose any time putting them back on. It instantaneously felt right, her vision turning from blurry to clear, her eyes feeling less strained.

"Sorry again, for bumping into you. You'll have to excuse me, but I have something to take care of. I'll see you later at class."

Angélique gave a friendly pat on Allison's shoulder before setting off once more, towards Ground Zero. Her sudden encounter with Allison may have dampened her furious mood, or at least she tried to hide this ugly part of herself to her friend, but the rage still remained. The desire to tear something apart simply by screaming at it, at him, was still pounding inside the back of her mind, further accentuated by the voices that were almost practically yelling insults and taunts all the while, seemingly agitated by this event.

At first, she didn't want to admit it, as it felt like giving into those destructive desires, but the 19 years old Aberration eventually felt the need to sate these impulse, before they drive her into committing unforgivable accidents. She needed to be away from everyone else, to a place she could vent her unbridled fury safely.

"Wait!" Allison exclaimed meekly, stepping towards Angel and putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I... I was actually looking to talk to you. I was wondering if you wanted to... hang out... or something." Her voice seemed to wane as she spoke. She wanted to say something more bold, but whatever sensibility was left in Allison had other plans.

"I don't know, Allison. I..."

Angélique was at a loss of words as she reached out for Allison's hand on her shoulder with her own. She kept trying to find excuses to leave and vent her frustration all be herself, but all it accomplished so far was to make her even more frustrated. Hearing her friend telling her she actually wanted to speak and hang around with her, she just couldn't ignore her. Not that it had been so long, having hanged out with the others for a few days recently, but her old lifestyle was sort of lacking in thus kind of social activities. Actually, ever since she came here, she had never been so active into forming real close relationships.

"Alright then... Follow me."

Angel beckoned after a moment, figuring out that she might as well kill two birds with one stone, given Allison's proposal. Sure, she had to compromise with her plans, but what kind of friend would she be if she turned her back to someone she cared about?

As they walked out of the building and headed south towards the eerie-looking devastated part of the city, Angel turned her head to Allison, readjusting her shades that seemed to have gotten some slack ever since the small accident a few minutes ago.

"So, what did you wanted to talk about? You seem... at unease or something. Is there anything bothering you?"

"I don't think there's anything that hasn't been bothering me recently." Allison looked down at her hands, clasping her hands together as she walked. "I guess it's less that there's something I want to talk about, and more that I just wanted someone to talk to. You're the first person that I can really consider as a friend in this place."

"Yeah... lots happened, and keep happening." Angel replied, reminiscent about the current events and the past week. Truly, this had been an emotional rollercoaster, and mind-wrecking experience. Still, here there were, still living and forging deep bonds from this misfortune.

The raven-haired girl's heart fluttered when Allison told her that she was considering her a friend. She rarely had anyone saying those words to her.

"Guess crying on each other's shoulders bonded us, huh?" Angélique chuckled at this perspective, remembering their first meeting. "I... I'm glad to hear it. You are also someone I deeply care about."

Angel's face slightly reddened after saying those words, a bit embarrassed. She wasn't used to speaking to someone in this way, but her outgoing personality had no problem opening her heart to others.

Eventually, the girls reached where Angel initially wanted to go. Ground Zero. As the two X-marked they were, it took little time for the guards to let the subnaturals go through the gate to the ruined part of the city. At this time of the day, there were but a few students at this place, most likely because it was lunch time, whether half-crazed or a sane student. Angel had led Allison to the building she had trained with Siena a few days before. Astonishingly, the building that both girls had taken pleasure in ruining was still here, in the same condition it was before the Arbiter and Aberration duo took a shot it.

"I haven't had the opportunity to see what you were capable of during the last battle. What exactly can you do?"

Allison immediately summoned the shard, letting it extend to only about a foot. She shoved the blade into the nearest wall, making random slices into it with ease, causing several chunks of wall to topple to the floor.

"That... is about half of what I can do, I guess. Can't cut anything living." Allison was already feeling her head start to clear. This was her first time at Ground Zero, and she definitely found the idea of place you could recklessly destroy without consequence interesting, to say the least. At the very least, Allison could numb her urges and free her mind for a bit. "It only lasts for a minute at a time, so..." The shard shattered into dust as Allison spoke. "I'll have to wait 3 more until I can bring the thing back." She sighed and walked away from the small pile of rubble. "Never thought cutting into a wall would feel that good."

Angélique watches Allison cutting through the concrete wall as if it was mere paper. Half of what she could do? There was some potential into her powers, she figured. Not being able to slice through living matter appeared mundane, but being able to cut into any kind of non-living matter was incredibly useful, in Angel's opinion.

"I see... That's a cool ability, although the limit is kinda harsh." Angel analyzed, actually really interested to know about her abilities.

Angel reminded parts of the information that had been pinned on Death and Taxes. During their physics class, after being done with reading over everyone's profile Angel had requested, she had spent the class' duration reading about USARILN and the subnaturals. There was a lot of useful information to know, especially about X-marks and their stigma.

"Have you gotten the chance to read over that Death and Taxes chatroom thing? Apparently, we Aberrations find some kind of peace when destroying stuff. Sates our destructive impulses, I believe. I can tell, it's no bullshit. Went here the other day with Siena. Blew that building up together. Felt fucking great afterwards."

After Allison was done with the wall, Angel approached the building, faced the area her friend had just sliced into, and started shouting at it. There was a lack of power into her scream, due to the relaxed state she had been while chatting with Allison. But as it went on, as she used her power, it was as if the nagging frustration that she went throughout the day pent up, until it properly channeled into a devastating shriek.

Her screaming power not powerful enough to actually punch through concrete, she did however sent parts of the wall flying into the building mainly due to Allison weakening the structure with her earlier slashes.

Allison covered her ears as she watched Angel scream at the wall, retreating to a safe distance as Angel quickly increased the volume. Angel's screams were horrifyingly loud, and Allison knew that better than just about anyone. She wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of those screams.

Angel was clearly powerful, knocking away chunks of wall with just her voice. Allison imagined what it would be like to have a power like that. Could she have stopped him? Could she have saved them? Could she have stayed away from USARILN? No. If it wasn't for the shard, Allison would still be his. The shard gave Allison her freedom. Though, it also took everything else away. Allison let the wave of thoughts consume her as she watched Angel scream at the building.

The more she screamed, the more Angel was reminded of the earlier conversation she had with her classroom’s supervisor. The moment she was having with Allison, it had made her mostly forget about the reason she wanted to come here for. The anger, the rage, and the havoc she felt compelled to achieve in order to calm down. She could see now the smug, fake-ass smile that the dude had been giving her all the while they were speaking. Not giving a shit about how she felt towards a friend that had disappeared.

“Hypocrites, assholes, two-faced liars!”

She shouted before letting out another ravaging shriek, chipping away the hole both her and Allison made, making it progressively larger. Clearly, wrath was fueling her powers, and it was reciprocal. Her emotions was like a curve. The more she used her abilities, the more she was recalling of all that she had witnessed, and the more angst she was building.

By the time she had let out half-a dozen screams, Angélique coughed and panted. By then, she had vented most of her anger away, as shown by the ever-growing hole onto the building’s wall. Clearing up her throat, Angel turned to Allison, who had been silent for a while, standing a few ways off at a safe distance.

“Hey! How about… you show me… everything… you got? You said that… was only half… of what you… could’ve done, right?” Angel gasped and coughed mid-sentences.

"Well, yea. Do you have another scream in you?" Allison said, as she shuffled back towards Angel.

"I... believe I do. If I can still talk, I haven't screamed... enough to stop. Just need to catch my breath." Angel answered, coughing up one more time as she tried clearing her throat.

"Alright, I'll give you a moment, then. You sound pretty rough. Who knew screaming a bunch could hurt your throat?" Allison started pacing around the area, occasionally picking up small rocks and chucking them at the side of the building.

"Yeah... perks of using... your actual voice... as your power. I don't have to wait... like some of you guys... do. Limited to how much... my vocal cords... can take however." Angel wheezed through.

Taking a few shallow breathes in, the black-haired girl regulated her breathing, taking in the moment of silence to ease up her throat. Then, when Allison was far enough away from her, tossing rocks at the building, Angel took a step back, and shouted upwards. This time though, whatever sonic wave she usually emitted wasn't produced where she was shouting, but rather around her, as shown by the dust being swept and kicked up all around Angel.

"Oh fuck... did that felt great." She coughed up again. Her mind, however, felt at ease now, the voices in her mind somewhat quieted down, now mere whispering instead of pounding yells.

Allison ran up to Angel as soon as she finished shouting.

"Missed my cue, it seems. I guess I should have been more clear. I wanted you to be near me before you screamed. The second half of what I can do... I can stop your powers from working."

Angel took a step back, actually surprised by what Allison had just said. She wanted to stay close to her and cancel out her powers? Was she insane? Didn’t she hear what had happened to people who were standing close to her screams? No, she couldn’t risk injuring her friend, couldn’t afford to lose someone dear to her after what had happened two weeks ago.

“I… I can’t do that! What if I injure you, kill you? I… don’t want to rob anyone else’s life once more. Not again!”

"But I believe your words. There’s no need for you to prove it to me right now, right?”

"Yea, you're right... sorry, I guess I... triggered some bad memories there, or something? Sorry." Allison quickly walked towards the building, summoning the shard as she did. She had let it extend to almost it's full length, a massive 19 foot thing that appeared as a blade of jagged glass, just as it normally did. Allison hadn't manifested the shard to such a length before, so she was suprised when it was as weightless as it always was. The blade controlled the same at 19 feet as it did at 1.

Allison swung the weightless blade at the building, cutting through as much of the building as she could in a single stroke, and repeating until the entire thing had toppled into a pile of rubble and dust. It was an oddly cathartic experience, and Allison felt all the better for it. As the last of the building fell, the shard dissipated, and Allison ran away from the ruins, coughing as she escaped from the clouds of dust that had arisen as the building fell. She approached Angel.

"That felt fucking amazing." Allison's mind felt clear for once, a great weight lifted off of her subconscious. She could actually think without having to fight and restrain herself. She coughed as she spoke. "Aside from all the dust anyway."

Angélique stood silent and lengths away from the building and Allison as she watched just how much destructive power her room neighbor could actually inflict on buildings. It was frightening, really. Now if only all that power could affect monsters, now that would be quite something.

When Allison got back next to Angel, the screamer-turned singer chuckled in response to her friend’s statement. She gave the girl a pat on the shoulder, for a job well done.

“That’s terrific, girl. If I was a building, I’d quake myself to ruins.”

Both girls seemed to be in a lighter mood after exhibiting their shows of powers. It would seem like this trip to Ground Zero was most beneficial after all. As predicted, they literally killed two birds with one stone here, getting to hang out with each other while sating the destructive instincts influenced by their stigma.

“Guess we did enough damage here. Feeling good enough to return to… class?”

"Yea, I guess." Allison said, stretching her arms a bit. For as much damage as she did, she didn't get that much of a workout. While she wasn't exactly exhausted, she was noticing that she was rather hungry. "Don't know if skipping lunch was that good of an idea, though."

"We could race back to the cafeteria. Grab a few pastries for whatever the 'elective class' is. Munch on those during class." Angel suggested, taking her phone out from the pocket of her jeans and noticing that, indeed, they didn't have much time to stop by the cafeteria and go to class.

"Sounds good, if we can make time for it. Race you there?" Allison didn't wait for an answer, and darted off.

“You’re o- hey you cheater!”

Angel in turn dashed after seeing Allison took a head start.

Allison was the first to reach the cafeteria. Both girls were quite fit, healthy young lasses, but Allison’s pride and Angel being more accustomed to jogging than sprinting had decided the results.

Inside the cafeteria, Angel had pressed to receptionist to be quick and let them eat quickly. Time was running short as the girls were choosing what their lunch will be. Angel, knowing that they will most likely be late, took anything that was quick and easy to eat on the move, such as raw vegetables and pastries. Not much of a change from what she usually eat, but it was simple and efficient.

Eventually, as they had been sitting at a table and started eating, a pair of guards showed up in the cafeteria, guns in hand and walked up to the two eating Aberrations.

“You’re late for class, subnaturals. Get up and head back to class, immediately. We’ll be right behind you.”

Angel got up from her chair without protest, pastries in hand and a mouthful of vegetables.

“Fine, but I’m keeping my food with me.”

Angel replied defiantly with her mouth full, the guards shrugging at the bold student. She started walking towards the class, wondering what was on schedule this afternoon. Allison was soon to follow, similarly carrying her food as the pair was escorted back to the classroom.

Marcus nearly jerked awake at the mention of lunch. He hadn't been sleeping, but he had been mulling over the many preceeding events in his head while people were talking. Not the best study plan, but he wasn't really concerned about it right now. He stood from his desk, stretching and yawning loudly, twisting to crack his back and looking at his roommates.

"So, was anybody actually paying attention to that? I caught something about lunch and not eating the shrubbery, but that's about it."

"I think that's the only important part." The words had barely escaped before a faint growl alerted Siena to the fact that she was hungry. Right. No breakfast. Turning her gaze directly forward, Siena paused as she noted that Callan was asleep. Having spent the past few days trying not to wake her roommates up, the brunette wasn't entirely certain how to proceed. Turning to glance at Marcus, the mage gave a nervous smile. "Er...how do you think we should wake her?"

"I've got an idea..." Marcus said, grinning evily. He slowly leaned down towards the sleeping girls face, getting as close as he could. With a large intake of air, he prepared Callan's personal alarm clock. At this point, there was a little thought in his brain, racing to grasp at the controls before the young man could effectively commit suicide. A little thought that wouldn't make it before Marcus' next action.

"WAKE ME UP INSIDE!" he shouted as loudly as he could, cupping his hands to make a makeshift megaphone.

Oh shit, said the little thought in his brain.

Nestled snuggly in the crook of her elbow, it wasn't so much the sound as the close proximity of something being near her face that woke the sleeping Cal with such a start. Reflexively her eyes snapped open and she jerked away, but not before her forearm flew up-- sending the back of her hand hurtling towards Marcus' face. Her eyes flashed with clarity, falling sideways out of her chair. Marcus. Face. Her hand.

Oh shit...!

Yep. Here came the hand. Callan was totally a scare-puncher. Fortunately, Marcus was already prepared to dash, basically from the instant he had started his yell and realized his terrible mistake. As Callan's hand seemed to swing at him in slow motion, he could tell that something wasn't quite working correctly. He should have moved by now.

The suppression cuff.

Just as Marcus had begun to panic in slow motion, preparing himself for death at the hands of a girly slap, the sweet sound of static faded into existance, and he was away. Somewhere safe, away from the killing blow of the supergirl's swing. He moved with astonishing speed, but his journey was quickly ended by another obstacle. His leg caught his own chair, and he went stumbling over it, coming out of his jump just in time to hit the ground.

BANG! CRASH!

The entire chair nearly went flying as Marcus hit the ground, softening the blow a bit by catching himself with his hands, to the slight detriment of his wrists. He lay there for a moment, legs draped over the chair, him lying face-down on the ground, before groaning and rolling over onto his back. He hurt. Everything ached from that little series of events, but he didn't seem to be seriously injured, despite the throbbing in his wrist. He shot an apologetic look towards Callan from his position on the smooth surface, a mixture of wincing and grinning displayed on his face.

"Alright. Mistakes were made. I've realized the error of my ways, that one was my bad. Completely my fault." he sighed for a moment, punctuating his sentance with a long drawn out, "Owww..."

If Marcus said anything, Callan didn't hear. Now sitting on the ground instead of her chair, she gawked at him through the mess of topled chairs.

"Are... ARE YOU NUTS?!" she shouted, squaring her shoulders and tightening her fists, "Do you have a deathwish?!" Even as she sat there, trying not to imagine the serious repercussions of what Marcus had just done, her eyes flickered towards the hamburger plush she'd stowed under her desk. He was okay. Nobody got hurt. His face was okay-- and it was just really close to her face a moment ago-- and this fucking hamburger plush, in spite of it all, was smiling at her....

Callan smiled incredulously back at Marcus, clearly exasperated. "God," she sighed with the smallest hint of an incredulous chuckle, "I almost just wrecked your face."

There were definitely things that Siena had learned to regret in her lifetime. Apparently asking Marcus for an idea was going to be one of them. As the boy cupped his hands, a petrifying thought came to mind with clarity that made a magnifying glass of the highest caliber seem blurry.

'That is a terrible, terrible idea.'

Siena opened her mouth a fraction of a second too late as Marcus gave a shout. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the events unfolded before the brunette, watching with wide, steely eyes as a fist went flying towards the prankster's face. Oh no. Oh no, bad. Very, very bad. Callan was strong, and given that Siena could still utilize her abilities, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that the cuff wasn't going to stop Callan from being superpowered. Oh, this was all a big, big mistake. She should have just woken Callan up herself.

The fist cleared empty space as Marcus crashed into a chair...desk...everything, really. The boy tumbled to the ground, looking a little battered, but at least not looking like his jaw was broken in twenty different places. Callan's reaction was warranted, but just as soon as her voice was raised, the intensity seemed to trail off.

Wheeew... Releasing a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding, Siena slowly put her head down into her arms, feeling her heart start to beat like a stampede of buffalo. She let loose a soft groan before letting out a muffled complaint. "You two are going to give me an aneurysm before a monster kills me..." Honestly, they were worse than Gerwulf, and he was no slouch at giving the mage heart attacks every few days.

A sudden shout from nearby yanked Ernie out of his silent whinging. The clique down the row, with Scarface and Seaweed, were fighting? No, messing around. His eyes followed Chestnut Boy as the freaking guy warped down the room.

Ernie held his breath. People here had powers. Actual powers, not just dumb impractical nonsense like the kids at West. So this was the kind of stuff that went down on death row. He didn't know whether to be scared or fascinated.

Neither of them for now. The ridiculous sight of Chestnut flipping over a chair had grabbed his full attention. Ernie started giggling. Then the giggles turned to full on raucous laughter. What the heck was up with this Experimental Unit B? First the wacky staff mages, then these guys?

At least there was something to enjoy in this hellhole. Ernie's grin emerged for the first time since he entered the classroom.

"Holy shit, man," he chuckled between breaths and leaned over his desk, "You okay down there?"

"A little bit, yeah..." Marcus said, answering Callan's first question. He put his hands over his face and wiped them down, but his grin never faded. "Not usually, no." he added, answering her second. A small chuckle escaped his mouth from where he was, content with just lying on the floor looking at the ceiling, contemplating life.

"I almost just wrecked your face."

"You sure did. And it wasn't holding up that well to begin with, either." he said, the words escaping without him realizing.

Oh good. We're joking about this now. said a little voice. He had surprised himself with the comment; the newer additions to his portrait weren't something that he was particularly comfortable with. Apparently though, he was comfortable enough to quip about them. He wasn't sure if that was a testament to his acceptance of the events that painted the stripes on his visage, or more for the new friends he felt at ease around.

His thoughts were interrupted by laughter; a sound he fully expected to hear given the events that had just transpired. He looked over to the face that was supplying it, still grinning as he answered this new person's question.

"Not quite sure yet. Give me a few minutes for damage assessment." he said, reaching behind him and pulling out the pen that was uncomfortably poking him in the spine. "Soooo....you guys gonna leave me down here, or are we gonna go get lunch? I hear the shrubbery's delicious!" His eyes flicked between the many people looking at him, and he extended his arms out in hopes that somebody would pull him up, squeezing his hands together almost like a small child would.

Callan exhaled sharply, glancing apologetically at Siena as she got to her feet. Her poor roommate had already seen Callan stroll through the door with a bloody fist the other day-- followed shortly after by a girl with a bloody shirt.

Unsurprisingly, the sound of laughter filled her ears. That guy probably had no idea what had almost just happened. She looked over her desk at Marcus, smiling like an idiot as he awaited assistance. Her eyes narrowed. Hands on her hips, she stepped towards him. She was mad... or at least trying to be. She was hungry, someone was still laughing, there was a giant hamburger under her desk, and she'd almost just killed her roommate... she willed herself not to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. She held her hand out stiffly-- the least she could do was try not to humor Marcus too much. She should be mad right now.

"Thank ya, dahling." Marcus said, smiling and grabbing Callan's hand with his own, digging in his feet and bracing for the pull. Callan certainly looked mad, but the fact that she wasn't yelling meant that she probably wasn't that mad. Probably.

Callan pursed her lips at the goofy response, biting back a chuckle. As she pulled him to his feet, she briefly noted the softness of his hand-- coupled with the disturbing weightlessness of his body-- before shoving her hands into her pockets and turning away. "I'm starving. Let's go," she huffed, glancing at Siena as she started heading towards the door.

"Are you guys going to lunch?" Ernie hopped over the desk, eager to tag along. He needed directions, desperately. And these people seemed pleasant enough. From what he'd seen so far it looked like they could take a few jokes. Exactly the kind of people Ernie liked having around him.

"Could you help me find the cafeteria, or whatever you have around here? I'm, uh," he scratched his head sheepishly, "I have no idea where anything is."

He was going to hold back the bitter complaints about the morning. People didn't like negativity and he needed them to like him, at least while he was still figuring things out. After that, he could fly solo if needed. But who knows? These guys had the potential to turn out to be actual pals! And he could always use some more of those.

The sound of movement drew Siena's attention up from its resting place in her arms, gray eyes peering from one face to another--including one that she didn't recognize. Flashing a half smile at Callan, the brunette glanced at the mysterious new addition to their motley little crew. "I wouldn't mind having more company. The more the merrier, right?" Pushing herself up from her desk, Siena tried (to no avail) to balance holding a large, spherical Loch Ness Monster in the crook of her arm while gripping a pencil case and paperwork for Chief Tater Tot in the same arm. Awkwardly reaching for the carrier, Siena promptly felt her Squishable roll out of her grip, hitting the floor with a dull plop as it rolled slightly. "N-Nobody saw that..."

Attempt number two had the paperwork folded neatly into the pencilcase and the Squishable safely tucked away under an armpit and one hand ready to hoist a carrier complete with canine with the other. "Okay...this works." Barely, but barely was good enough for her. The brunette turned her gaze towards the boy that had decidedly not crashed into a table. "Er...I guess this is the part where we ask for your name." Before the moment passed and six months later, she was actively avoiding using a name for fear of her ploy being discovered.

"Yes, merrier is good!" Ernie beamed flawlessly at the third girl, "My name's Ernest but everyone calls me Ernie. Awesome to meet you guys! So who are you? Are you all fresh transfers or something?"

So his first day crew was going to be all Arbiters, huh. Ah well, beggars couldn't be choosers. This brunette seemed to be quite the klutz. Ernie's eyebrow was raised in amusement as she watched the poor thing flail about. How adorable.

A hand was offered to the girl. "Want some help with that? I could take your pencilcase for you, or your Squishable. Gotta have both hands free to hold your dog up like a majestic newborn lion, right?" He hoped that joke wasn't too stupid.

"I'm Marcus. But Awesome McCoolGuy works, as does HeyYouOverThere!" Marcus said, making a very dramatic show of brushing himself off. His palms still stung a bit from catching himself, but he was basically okay. He stopped as Ernie suggested holding the dog aloft, a suggestion that Marcus quickly, but subtly, tried to redirect. "D-don't you think that's a bad idea?" he said, clearing his throat to try and hide the slight nervousness in his voice. "We're heading to a cafeteria. Lots of food in a cafeteria. Don't want the little guy running off, do ya?" he said, gesturing to the dog cage.

Callan stopped at the door. She leaned up against the frame impatiently, staring at Marcus, Siena, and 'Ernie'. Couldn't they do introductions while walking?

"Just bring the dog and come on! It'll be fine!" she called out, tapping her foot.

Marcus's immediate reaction to Ernie's inquiry drew a faint smile from Siena despite the overall feeling of "almost had a heart attack for the fifth time in one week" that was so graciously trying to overwhelm her. "O-Oh, I think I got th--" As if to spite her, Nessie the Plessie squeezed her plump, plush body from Siena's grip, only stopping when the nub that was Nessie's head was pinned to her ribs by a quick squeeze of the elbow. "I-it's fine!"

Plop.

...or not. Hearing Callan call out impatiently for the rest of the group, Siena gave up on trying to play balancing act with items wider than her torso.

"I um...okay. I'll just get that after class. I don't think I can carry everything to the dorm at once anyways." With a nervous laugh, the brunette hoisted Chief Tater Tot's carrier and took a few steps towards the door before realizing that she'd never answered Ernie's first question. "Oh, I'm Siena! And that's Callan." Motioning towards the other girl with a nod of her head, the brunette tried to keep her pace relatively stable despite feeling a little lopsided with the addition of a dog in one hand. As she reached where Callan waited, Siena gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry about the wait."

"Whiiiiiiiine..."

"...and so is Chief Tater Tot."

Chief Tater Tot. What a mind-blowing name. Ernie could almost feel tears in his eyes from the sheer beauty of it.

"Ah, I'll finally get to see if East's food is as nice as its people, eh? Alrighty, let's go!"

---

"ID."

Ernie threw the guy, 'Jason', an miffed look.

"Getting there, mister," he said, leaning down as if he was searching for something at his feet, "Where's the dang--"

"ID card," Jason's eye twitched as he emphasised the last word, "We don't have those cuff scanners at East. You need your student ID to get in. Comes with the package you get in your room."

"Are you kidding me? I don't even know where the rooms are!"

The staff member pinched the bridge of his nose and Ernie was about to unload some more, before a jolly "Heyoo" pierced through the rising tension. It was that woman from earlier, the one who had handed the class' requisitions. She was accompanied by an escort of three soldiers.

"Don't think I don't have any presents for you, new kid," she grinned and flashily handed Ernie a glossy ID card, "Oh, and if I recall correctly your room's in Building B over there," she pointed, "Room 305. Try not to land yourself in too much trouble here, eh?"

Ernie stared at her quizzically, startled by her energy and sudden appearance.

"Wow, uh," he looked at her, "Thanks... Daisy?"

Not-Daisy laughed heartily.

"Ah, that's just a silly name Freddy gave me. 'Cos I pop up like daisies when you least expect it, or something like that. The actual name is Rosa. Well, Cowboy. Bookworm. Chestnut. Supergirl. Chief Tater Tot. I'll catch you kids later then!"

She strolled in with a flick of her own ID card, forcing a hapless Jason to swipe it in a hurry before she entered completely.

"And don't forget to go to training afterwards!"

With the parting reminder, she jauntily strolled in.

Ernie glanced at the card before handing it to Jason. They were all let through with a slight grumble from the staff member.

"Thank God," Callan griped, following after Ernie through the line. She stared after Rosa with silent thanks before taking her card back from Jason. Continuing over to the food stations, she turned to Ernie as she loaded her plate with food beside him. When he'd asked if they were fresh transfers or something before, she'd assumed he'd actually been there longer. Apparently that wasn't the case. "Cuff scanners? Where are you from?" she asked curiously, scooping some alfredo onto her plate.

"The wonderful world of USARILN West," he replied only half-sarcastically. East's cafeteria seemed fine enough. A little on the small side, but that wasn't really a complaint. It wasn't like he was going to eat everything in here after all. Ernie went forth with his standard practice when faced with a buffet: take one of everything you can grab.

"I only got transfered here this morning. Didn't even get a welcome bag before I got shoved into the class with you guys. That's why I have no dang clue where anything is," he chuckled through the last statement to hide his annoyance at the situation. His stomach growled, "Didn't get much breakfast either."

"Th-they transferred you?" The idea gave Siena a sense of relief. That meant that maybe, just maybe, Aaron's missing presence was because he had been transferred elsewhere. Nothing dangerous. Nothing that would mean that something had happened to the boy. Following Callan's example, Siena decided to take a few samples of...whatever Callan was getting, really. It wasn't Maya's cooking, but that might have been a good thing. Surreptitiously passing on the alfredo after having unfortunately timed flashbacks, the girl shifted Chief Tater Tot's carrier from one hand to the other, giving a tired arm a break. "At least it's lunch time now. I think everyone's starving after that rude wake up call."

Speaking of, was Chief Tater Tot hungry? The brunette thought briefly about it, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to give the canine just a bit of lunch, before perusing the selection for something dog safe. Meat, most likely...and maybe just a touch of bread.

"Oooh, transfer!" Marcus cooed, surveying the lunchroom looking for something decent to eat. The little dialogue with 'Daisy' just now had caused his grin to reappear, and the little nickname he'd apparently been given only strengthed his resolve. This was a war now; he'd get even with her one way or another. He grabbed a couple of the breadsticks that Callan had, and quickly stepped away to avoid getting trampled. "Did they do the whole, 'march in, I'm Director Zhang. Angry face, veiled threat, grr.' thing to you guys too?" he said, puffing his shoulders out stiffly and lurching around during his imitation.

His question was interrupted by his own train of thought. "Ooooh, enchiladas! Hold that thought a moment!" he said, holding up a finger and scurrying over to the booth. "Save me a seat!" he called over his shoulder.

Ernie gave a small wave as Marcus left. Now that was a fun guy. He turned back to the food, making extra sure to take only a small piece of everything to fit as much variety on his plate as possible. This was a challenge he was going to take seriously.

"To answer Marc's question," he directed his response to the remaining girls, "I'd literally only just stepped off the truck before they took me to class. No intro for me. Seriously, all the info I've got about this place is from the stuff that Fred guy said before."

Should he get enchiladas too? No, he needed to keep in order.

"I can't believe you met the Zhang though! Is she super psycho murder crazy like everyone says?"

"Yeahh," Callan drawled, stacking a sandwich on top of the pasta and various other foods she'd managed to fit on the plate as well, "Count yourself lucky you missed that orientation." She left it at that, sparing a look at Siena, who she remembered hadn't taken things as well as Callan had.

"But yeah-- you could say that about her, I guess." Her thoughts on the Director were muddled as ever these days.

Memories of the first night flooded to mind. Blood. Bullets. Carnage. Her mind might have tried to formulate a replication with everything it had, but it had never quite matched up to that intensity. As if in response to the tremor that tried to anchor itself into her bones, Chief Tater Tot gave a sound that bordered between whine and bark, instantly dragging Siena out of the less-than-pleasant journey her mind was ready to put her on. Taking a breath to calm her words, the brunette took an opportunity to keep herself in check with a distraction--food. She put another item on her plate, not bothering to look at what she'd taken (a breadstick).

"Practical. I think I would call her practical, if a little ruthlessly so." The words came out softer than anticipated, her voice still strapped down with the weight of unpleasant memories. "B-but I mean...yeah. It wasn't an ideal welcome." Definitely not if Siena was still suffering from vivid night terrors that woke her up three times a night in a cold sweat--not all of them were of the orientation. "What's it like at USARILN West though? I imagine different, but..." But misery loved company, didn't it?

Ernie shrugged, half as a show of nonchalance and half as a way to stall. Oh boy, where could he even start?

"What can I say? It's bigger, brighter--" He managed to stop himself before the 'better' escaped his lips. He wasn't trying to make them feel like shit, not now anyway. He needed to rein himself back and retry this.

"The buildings are really colorful, for one thing. Everything here seems kinda square and gray to me. A lot more security for some reason. And West is wayyyyyy bigger. If I'm remembering right it has about three thousand more subnatural kids than East, so sometimes it feels more like a town than a school. There's a shopping mall on campus, outdoor stages, friendly people, and the teachers don't assault your brain with Calculus and Physics first thing in the morning, haha."

A rueful look crossed his face. It was still hard to believe those days were over. There was no going back to those happy times. Now he was in here, the damn finest gilded cage he'd ever been locked in. A place that offered only the tiniest of pleasures before it took away the ability to feel any of them. His sudden turn of thought made him grimace.

"How 'bout we find a table first? I'll tell you guys more when we sit down."

Callan nodded and led the way to a free table. Making their way over, she glimpsed Marcus talking to Emma. She dragged her attention away, though her eyes kept wandering over to the pair even after they sat down and Ernie continued telling them about USARILN West. She found herself staring after watching Marcus handed the girl a napkin, upon which she wrote what only could've been her phone number. Her eyes snapped down to her food as Marcus looked back at their table. He was going to invite her to come sit with them-- of course. She quietly bit into her sandwich, trying to guage exactly how this made her feel.

In the end, she rationalized with the least uncomfortable conclusion. Marcus was her friend and roommate. He was nice and friendly and good looking and Emma probably was, too. A perfect match, really....

Following after Callan while parsing through what she'd just heard about USARILN West, Siena wondered exactly what led to being transferred from one to another. Records of some sort, maybe? Well, nothing that she could really speculate on without more information. As the trek continued, Siena was able to catch sight of Marcus talking to another girl--one of their classmates, if she remembered correctly. Not one she recognized by name, of course, but one that had undoubtedly been in the room earlier. A pause in the usually rampant thoughts as the napkin exchanged hands.

'Did he already find a girlfriend?'

Being wildly inexperienced in the idea bar for a few stories overheard from when Gerwulf and Maya thought she was asleep (ha), her mind rationalized writing on a napkin as contact information. Well...maybe it was unsurprising, given Marcus's usual wit and humor. The distraction faded out quickly after a moment of logic. Clearly her roommate hadn't been wasting his days off. Not her business, she supposed.

"So, about USARILN West then..."

It was getting clearer by the second. He'd developed a hypersense for these things after all, for rude people who weren't paying attention to his awesome stories. As Ernest went on he could see the bright-haired girl, Cal, stare after her roommate and his...

Girlfriend? Girl friend? Some girl who dropped her napkin, prompting Marcus to pick it up and return it to her despite the obvious hygiene risks?

Come on, was that really more interesting than West's annual paint balloon wars? Whatever, Cal could stay hung up on her tragic hots for Marc. Or the girl. Whichever one it was, he couldn't care less. He continued his tales, undeterred. At least Siena and the dog were listening.

Emma greedily eyed the enchiladas. Her plate was already so full, but… the prize. Tortilla, sauce, meat, cheese…. It was such an enticing offer. And one that, embarrassingly, Emma had now been contemplating for over a minute. She was so enthralled with the internal debate over enchiladas that she didn’t even notice Marcus waiting behind her.

"So; it's a really mean trick to owe somebody a drink and then run off without giving him any information. Bet you thought you were gonna get away from that, huh?" Marcus said suddenly, very much trying not to startle Emma. He'd learned his lesson by now, and the quip was delivered softer than usual, with the hopes that he wouldn't get killed by those wierd things she summoned. Flashing so many times in such a short period of time probably wasn't super good for his health.

Emma turned around slowly. Marcus? Her face turned red.

He didn’t see me staring at the enchiladas, did he? How long have I been here? Now I’m just staring at him. Say something, Emma!

”Uhhhhh… hey, Marcus!” She said a little too loudly. Her hand flew up to rub the back of head. Am I blushing? What’s wrong with me? I have to finish my sentence, don’t I?

”I… yeah, sorry. Uh… you gotta piece of paper? I don’t have anything to write on. Uh, for my phone number.”

"As a matter of fact; no!" Marcus said, his cheerful tone contradicting his words. There was the small slip of paper that Flower Power had handed him -- but he wasn't gonna give that up to anybody but the cold hands of death. He made a mental note to pull it out of his pocket before his clothes went through the wash. Actually...maybe it would be best if he just put the number in before he started eating; that would save him from all of this stress.

Fortunately for Emma, this momentary thought meant he wasn't completely aware of how red her face was getting.

He nonchalantly leaned over and grabbed a napkin from one of the nearby dispensers, holding it out proudly. "But now I do!"

Emma accepted Marcus’ napkin, pulling out a pen as she did. ”And I’ve got a pen” she said, trailed by a laugh. You’re suck a dork that wasn’t even funny. That definitely was not her stigma. Emma carefully wrote her phone number on the napkin then handed it back, and then…

”Well…. Uh…”

Marcus looked up as she scribbled on the napkin, now noticing the redness of Emma's face. He smirked silently to himself, biting back words that would surely get him into a whole mess of trouble. "Why thank you very much, dearest Emma!" he said, in a faux-elegant voice. He folded the napkin carefully and shoved it into his other pocket.

"I do believe I will save this for a day when I am exceptionally parched! Always good to have a few favors at your grasp!" he said, giving a little wink. Why did I just wink? That was the dumbest thing ever. Nice one, champ. It wouldn't be long before his own face started turning crimson; all of his confidence just melting away as his 'Cool McSmoothMan' facade started to fall apart.

Emma snickered at Marcus’ attempt at a joke. ”And you almost tricked me into thinking you were good with girls. This close,” she said, holding up her hand and pinching her fingers together, ”Better luck next time, I guess.”

"I'm sorry..." he said, hanging his head dramatically. "I should have known better than to try and evade your keen sense of deduction. Alas, you've seen straight through me!" He grinned again and resumed his normal standing position, reaching for one of the enchiladas currently on display. "Guess that means I don't have to keep up the act then." he finished, turning his head to look for his roommates in the lunchroom.

Emma also grabbed an enchilada. ”Hey, just because you blew your chance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep a girl entertained. Common courtesy, Marcus.” Emma stood by him, glancing around the room.

”Well, I guess I should find somewhere to eat…” she thought aloud.

"Keep you entertained?" Marcus said, turning back to look at her. "I've been doing this whole charade just to keep myself amused, thankyouverymuch. Don't you have roommates you can go sit with?" he said, his eyes drifting down to the 'X' across her throat. That was right; the 'X' people didn't get roommates...did they?

His mind raced for a moment, betrayed by a slight flicker of panic in his eyes. No, the 'X's didn't get roommates...but there had been exceptions. Was she one of them? It had all happened so fast! Was Emma actually dangerous. Oh no, was he about to get punched again?

"I mean...where's clawfoot?" he said, regaining his composure.

Emma gave Marcus an incredulous look. Did I not make it obvious enough I wanted him to invite me over? Maybe I’m coming on too strong… is he looking at my boobs? Emma became acutely aware of Marcus’ downward gaze. She cleared her throat, ”Eyes up here, Marcus.” As for the mention of roommates and Kusari she shrugged, ”My roommates aren’t exactly great company, and Kusari is… have you talked to her? She’d probably chew my head off if I wanted to sit with her.”

"I mean!" Marcus said, his eyes immediately flicking back to her face. Yeah, he probably should've made sure he wasn't being super obvious about that. It bothered him when people stared at his marks, magic or otherwise, so it made sense that Emma would be bothered by hers.

"She yelled at me that one time. So I'm gonna count that. And yeah, I suppose that's a valid point." he said, nodding his head in agreeement. " I mean, you can come sit with the best team, if you'd like." His voice was cocky now, clearly egging her on. "We did pick up a stray though, so I hope you like making introductions!" He nodded his head in the direction of Siena, Callan, and Ernie.

”Best? Didn’t I have to come over and help you guys clean up? The way I remember it we took care of our monsters first.” She said, matching the cockiness in his voice as she headed towards the table he had indicated.

"Really, because they way I remember it involved a giant fart-scorpion coming over from your side of the battlefield to spew garbage all over us. 'Course...that's probably just the shell-shock talking." He said, shrugging nonchalantly as he put a few more foodstuff on his plate. "Sorry guys, picked up another stray on the way back." he said, standing before the table and jerking his thumb at Emma.

"Hey Emma," Callan smiled and nonchalantly waved, "How're you holding up?"

Emma shrugged, taking a seat. ”Better than expected, current situation considered. You?” Emma glanced at Ernie and Siena. To her recollection she hadn’t met them yet. She smiled, ”I’m Emma, if you didn’t pick up on that. Or Em. Either way is fine.”

"Same," Callan shrugged before busying herself with her drink. A weird habit for avoiding conversation she seemed to be developing.

"Oh, it's...it's nice to meet you, Emma." The name felt awkwardly familiar--a name she'd given to a faceless sister? Not quite. 'Emily. You called her Emily.' Pushing the unwelcome thoughts aside with a practiced smile, Siena pushed forward with introductions. She was doing quite a few of these, apparently. "I'm Siena. And this is Chief Tater Tot." Motioning to the carrier just by her feet, the dog seemed to give a small whine in acknowledgement.

"You better be talkin' 'bout the dog when you say 'stray', buddy," Ernie raised an eyebrow of mock indignation and turned to the new girl. It was the curiously peppy Emma from class. He eyed her X-mark but grinned as he introduced himself. "I'm Ernest but everyone calls me Ernie. Awesome meeting you! I was just telling these guys what West was like."

"Offfff cooooooourse. The dog. Clearly!" Marcus said, with an unconvincing nod and wave of the hand. "Oh yeah! West! Did I miss that part?" he said, sitting down and picking at his food. He'd wondered about a USARLIN West when it had been specifically mentioned that they were at East. It made them somewhat companions, he supposed. A foriegn traveller from a foreign school. A quick thought came to mind, one he voiced aloud after he swallowed a bite of food. "Is there like...a USARILN North and South too?" he asked, as if anybody else would know any more than he did.

”Nice meeting you guys. Anyways, Marcus, there’s a USARILN Central, but besides East and West that’s it… as far as I know at least.” Emma had done her research before D&T went down, so at least she was able to look like she knew what she was talking about. She then glanced at Ernie, ”And from what I’ve heard West is a lot better than here… in that it’s actually almost a normal school and not a militarized prison. So, uh, welcome to the shit, I guess?” Emma paused for a moment before deciding that maybe being a little more genuine would serve her well, ”Really though, sorry you had to end up here. It’s not easy.”

Huh. So the Aberration wasn't a total ray of sunshine after all. Ernie found that somewhat reassuring.

"Looks like someone's been doing their reading, eh?" he smirked at the girl, "Yeah, there are only three USARILN schools, West being the nicest of the lot since nothing ever really happens there. I appreciate the welcome though. Thanks, buddy."

He waved off the more negative aspects of her condolences. Useless words against irreversible problems. The only thing he could do now was try to shrug it all away.

"Ah, you don't need to worry about that! Shit's something I'm used to, haha!" he laughed in response to his own joke, "Trust me, you're not the ones who need to apologize. It hasn't been all bad! I got to meet you guys, after all!"

Emma’s smile brightened a little. Siena, Ernie, and, of course, Chief Tater Tot seemed nice. She was getting the chance to get to know Cal and Marcus, who both seemed awesome. She was having lunch at school with her new friends… everything was turning out okay, things were almost normal.

At least, that’s what she told herself.

Ernie is right, though, there’s no reason to focus on this gloomy stuff! Emma nodded at him, clapping her hands together. ”That’s right, it isn’t all bad. Everything will be okay as long as we all stick together, right?” She glanced across the table.

Bullshit.

Red flags raised the hairs on the back of Siena's neck, but she pushed them all aside without much thought. Weren't red flags the norm for her anyways? Instead, the brunette affected her best smile--'Like a lady, Siena. Warm, but not too many teeth! Show them you care without baring any fangs.'--in response to Emma's apparent optimism. At least it was a step away from the dark clouds that threatened to loom overhead. "There may be a point to be made there." Liar. "It's certainly going to take some getting used to though."

Marcus held his tongue at Emma's blind optimisim. He knew damn well that everything could quickly go to shit, no matter how many friends, acquaintances, or allies you had around you. This was not that kind of story; their world was one of terror and death. But, the brief sparkles of hope at least made for a better lunch, so there was no use in shooting down what little faith they had to spread around.

"I'll toast to that one." Marcus said, raising an invisible glass in the air after it became apparent he'd neglected to actually get himself a drink. He smiled warmly - an empty, hollow smile. He was sure Emma meant it as a pep talk, but he couldn't help but hear it as a reminder of their circumstance.

Callan responded by sinking her teeth into her second breadstick with a brief nod. Emma's positivity was only making her want to like the girl more. She always had to appreciate a good pep talk, didn't she? Suddenly Callan was reminded of another Emma. The Emma that couldn't control her tulpas and would've gotten her killed if she had been literally anyone else besides maybe Kusari. The Emma that had slapped Shane in the face and cried about her dead classmates. 'Stick together'? Yeah, that had done Padma a whole lot of good, hadn't it? She mentally kicked herself for being so negative out of nowhere.

Marcus probably liked peppy girls oozing with optimism. With another mental kick, Callan went back to saying nothing and trying not to care.

A circle of mirrors. Ernie looked from Emma to Siena to Marcus. Nice, pretty smiles that were well practiced but not at all perfected, for the latter two anyway. This sort of optimism bordered on straight up stupidity. He knew that they knew that. But at least they were putting in the effort to pretend like it was okay. It was this sort of pretending that made it bearable to live here, wasn't it? Ernie beamed even brighter than before, as if it were some competition now. If it truly was a contest, he'd win every time. He'd worked hard for it after all.

His scan of the table made him notice Cal's silence. No effort at all from her end. Huh, so East did have some realists here. For now a brief but knowing look was sent her way. I getcha, buddy. Barely missing a bit, he returned to the swing of the conversation. There'd be plenty of time to check that attitude out later.

"Hear, hear!" Ernie laughed and toasted an invisible glass against Marcus's.

Whiiiiiine...

The sound cut through the veil, drawing Siena's attention to the carrier beside her. The girl felt a pang of guilt--he'd been trapped in there for hours. Surely Chief Tater Tot could be out for just a bit. After all, as a therapy dog, Siena was certain he had at least basic obedience training. Enough, at least, to know better than to run off wildly. With some effort on her part, she slid the carrier out enough to get a view of the latch, slender digits already reaching to undo it.

"Poor little fellow...I better let him get some air..." With a faint squeak, the front of the carrier opened, and a canine snout peeked out, sniffing the air eagerly before the rest of the Spaniel trotted out of his cage, tail wagging faintly with the motion. He peered up at Siena, wide, warm eyes looking like the most precious thing in existence, before pawing up at her knees. Her heart melted on command. "Awww..." The dog gave a few eager pants, tail wagging again, before dropping back to all fours and trotting around the members of the motley little lunch crew, pausing to give each a few identifying sniffs, complete with still-waving tail.

The sound of a whine cut through Marcus's personal veil, but for a different reason entirely. By the time he turned to come up with some excuse to keep the dog safe and sound in its cage, Siena was already leaning down to undo the latch. It sauntered out, and Marcus looked it over with apprehension. It was small, so he should be fine...probably. Right? A creature that tiny couldn't possibly cause him any real harm!

If that was the case, why were his hands getting clammy and his heart beginning to race?

As if to make matters worse, it seemed intent on walking around and personally meeting every single one of them. He tensed up as it drew nearer, his uncomfortableness hitting its maxium as the thing sniffed his leg. He was tense, and although he didn't realize it, he was holding his breath. He dared not look at it, hoping that avoiding eye contact would make it move along faster. A silent part of his mind really hoped his dread wasn't as obvious as he thought it was.

Chief Tater Tot was, as far as he was concerned, a good companion. The canine had been trained to handle uncomfortable situations, and was better at comforting the large humans-people than other dogs. Apparently. Really, he just loved the attention. Coming to a stop when he caught the scent of acrid fear, the beige-coated dog perked up, his eyes peering directly at the golden haired humans-person with wide, excited eyes and a tail swishing to and fro.

FRIEND.

He approached, stood on his hind legs, and placed both paws directly on the humans-person's leg, mouth open and tongue out with each pant, as if just asking for pets and attention.

Marcus jerked slightly when he felt the pressure on his leg. Surely, of all the people here, this dog had not just climbed up to him? He turned his head to look at the source, only to meet it directly in the eyes. He could feel himself beginning to sweat as he looked down at the thing.

It was small, harmless even!

The eyes.

It was a therapy dog, for Christ's sakes! The thing was friendly! It was meant to help people cope with fear and anxiety and stuff!

The teeth.

Alright. This wasn't working. He started to take deep breaths, trying to bring his heart rate back down. If he could get the thing to go to someone else, he'd be okay.

"H-hey, little guy....you wanna go back to your owner?" he said, nearly through clenched teeth. He gave a little motion with his hand, desperately begging that the dog would move on. This situation was deteriorating, but his heart was starting to calm. He was starting to get everything under control. Everything was gonna be fine.

If Emma noticed everyone’s more negative reactions to her small declaration she gave no sign. As for Chief Tater Tot, she pet him as he came around to greet her, ”What a good boy!” she cooed, as the dog trotted on. As it reached Marcus she noticed… Is he scared? The tone of his voice as he shooed off the precious Tater Tot all but confirmed that there was something making him uncomfortable. ”Ummmm… is everything alright Marcus?" She said, giving him a curious glance.

Grateful for the distraction, Callan had perked up as Siena voiced her decision to let Chief Tater Tot out of its cage. She watched as the small dog wandered to each of the others, finally coming to Marcus, who-- did he just jerk away? The movement was so subtle it was hard to tell. The tone of his voice certainly suggested he had as he encouraged the dog to go away. Obviously she wasn't the only one to notice, because Emma was the first to draw some attention to it. Callan set down her fork and looked between Chief Tater Tot and Marcus with an equally curious glance.

"Are you allergic?" she asked, furrowing her brow. She hoped not, for Siena's sake. But if he wasn't allergic, then....

"Truly an honor to finally meet, Chief," Ernie mock-saluted.

Marc was getting noticeably shifty around the Chief. Deep breathing and all that tenseness? Ernie could have sensed those freaked out vibes from a mile away. Poor guy didn't like dogs, how tragic. But was it an allergy or fear? It couldn't possibly be fear, right? The little guy was adorable!

"Come on, man. Is that really how you greet a superior officer?" Ernie chastised Marc before whistling and offering a slice of turkey from his plate. The guy looked like he could use a hand. Ernie cooed to the dog in a babyish tone. "Cheeky subordinates who call you silly things get shot in the kneecaps, don't they, Chief? Who's a good little buddy?"

Spiky-head humans-person's discomfort didn't alleviate as Chief Tater Tot pawed up on his leg, making the dog lower his ears slightly. He was failing? He never failed at making humans-people feel better! The canine, being the young, innocent creature that it was, had never even considered that the source of Spiky-head humans-person's fear was him. After a pause, he wagged his tail again at the motion from the humans-person's hand, head tilting faintly in confusion bef--

Sweet merciful humans-person hands above, a humans-hand had food at face level.

Dropping from his initial target of affection, Chief Tater Tot made a few graceful strides towards the source of the food, tail wagging and nose eagerly taking in the scent of glorious humans-person food. With a grateful-yet-restrained ruff, Chief Tater Tot took the small slice.

Siena, on the other hand, was busy taking Gerwulf's advice on meeting new people. Watch them. For the most part, Chief Tater Tot had elicited the expected reaction--he was a small dog, after all, and given his training, guaranteed to be virtually harmless even when provoked to what most would consider an extreme. Unfortunately, it seemed that Marcus was not quite on board with the presence of a canine. The tension he emit was easily detected as long as the one trying to detect it was...a noun.

'C'mon, why d'ya need a mangy little mutt when you've got us?'

"Oh no...if you're allergic I can always have Chief Tater Tot returned." Not that she would want to, but it was the proper thing to do, wasn't it? Despite her best efforts, Siena struggled to keep the barest traces of disappointment from lacing the offer. The idea of someone being afraid of a pet made for companionship hadn't even come to mind the morning that Siena had filled out the requisition sheets. Guilt yanked at the corner of her thoughts with an unbridled aggression. Selfish.

'What, you were too busy thinking it'd be like home? Even Gerwulf and Maya wouldn't let you keep one.'

But all she had wanted was a guarantee that someone would be there.

Oh good. Everyone had noticed. Just what he wanted. Marcus let got of the breath he was holding when Tater Tot moved onto Ernie, silently screaming 'thank you's at him. Now was time for damage control. He was cool and composed, or at least, rapidly trying to get back there. Fortunately, Callan had given him a perfect excuse; an answer that Siena was willing to take, and an answer that might solve all of his problems!

"Yeah, I'm terribly allergic. Sorry Siena, but you're gonna have to send the little guy back!"

That's what he wanted to say, at least. Those were the words that his brain desperately begged him to say, that had been prepared on the tip of his tongue. But Siena had specifically requested the thing, and he had seen her earlier excitement when the carrier had been brought over. Although her offer seemed to lack disappointment, Marcus knew that Siena would be crushed if the dog had to be sent away. She'd just gotten the little guy, and it didn't seem fair to rip that happiness away so suddenly. So, while his brain screamed at him to stop and just have Siena send 'Chief Tater Tot' back to the pound, he sighed, and his mind raced to come up with an alternative excuse.

"Nono, not allergies! I just...don't care for dogs that much; my grandmother used to have a big, mean one when I was little. Always barked and growled at me when I got close and stuff. I was always afraid of that thing as a kid, and apparently I just never quite got over it." A lie. Well, a somewhat truth. He'd only ever remembered one of his grandmothers, and she'd been a cat person.

"It's nothing that I can't deal with! Just make sure you keep him off my bed when we get back to the dorm!" he said, with another forced smile and strained chuckle. He just hoped that he would be able to deal with it, otherwise his life was about to become a living hell.

Emma realized her mistake quickly You shouldn’t of called him out, idiot. A voice echoed in her head. After Marcus was done speaking she was a little too quick to shoo away this line of conversation, ”Well, it’s not a big deal, right? She offered, ”I wonder what Daisy and Fred are doing working here, eh? They don’t really seem like Zhang’s run-of-the-mill goons, do they?” She hoped to change the topic, as Marcus very clearly wasn’t comfortable.

Marcus had never struck Callan as the type to dislike dogs, but she wasn't going to press it. It wasn't a big deal anyway-- like Emma said.

"They seem pretty chill," she said simply-- her own attempt at being positive. She wasn't sure what to make of those two just yet. They almost seemed too nice, given everything they'd been through so far. Even so, their sunny demeanors were like a breath of fresh air. Something she wasn't really able to appreciate earlier that morning.

Before Siena could fit in an apology to Marcus for failing to ask about obtaining a dog, Emma was quick to push the topic away. Part of Siena was grateful, the other part still riddled with guilt. Still, giving it some thought, the brunette couldn't help but wonder. "They were definitely a bit...eccentric." Eccentric being an understatement, given their encounters with Freddy and Rosa. Pushing a small bit of chicken around on her plate absentmindedly, Siena gave a faint smile. "But they seem nice enough as long as we follow directions."

"Mmm," Ernie chewed thoughtfully while occasionally tossing turkey bits for the dog, "They're pretty wacky. But I guess it's better than having asses like Jason for teachers. Under other circumstances I'd say they're like that to butter us subnaturals up before tossing us into the fire, but these guys actually seem geniune about it!"

"It's a nice change of pace, at least, Marcus said, his composure regained and him settling back into a calm state. "Although, I can appreciate someone like Mrs. WhateverHerName; a faculty member who can take a joke and fire back, instead of just glaring me down and muttering behind my back. Did you see the mischevious little grin she gave you when she was handing out the Req stuff, Cal?" he said, turning to face her and taking a bite of food. "I'd be careful stepping into our room; who knows what she's got waiting in there." he added, eyes flicking to address Siena.

"I hope she didn't replace someone's bed with a giant dog bed. Or um...she said you requested pillows right?" The memory seemed to come to mind a bit fuzzy. Something about Squishables being fancy pillows that Rosa had said while handing the large, hamburger shaped plush to Siena's suitemate. "Maybe they replaced all our beds with pillows." Pillows, maybe a few blankets, and nope, no more mattresses for frames. While it seemed outlandish, there was a faint trickle of apprehension in the back of Siena's mind that it might have been the case. A pause settled over her thoughts briefly, silencing everything for one serene moment as she considered that reality. Would she even have minded?

'...actually...that might be fun...'

Callan wrinkled her nose and affably scoffed, "No, I didn't see. I was barely awake this morning and half tempted to eat that thing, but... I wouldn't complain if she gave me more food shaped pillows."

Emma sighed, ”I think if all the beds in my dorm were replaced with food pillows I’d be the only one that would actually notice or care. Actually, Hazel would probably ask something like ‘What’s the tactical advantage of hamburger pillows?’” Emma gave a slight giggle at the back end of the joke that would only make sense to her.

Oh, that was an unpleasant reminder. Ernie was going to have to find that room in Building B at some point. No doubt there'd be the standard entry exams and requisition forms to fill out. More importantly, would all his stuff be there? He needed every single piece. It was a stash he had built up over his seven months at West after being so rudely ripped away from his collection in Reno. If he entered his dorm room and there was something missing, he wasn't sure how he would react.

"My room, huh..." Ernie muttered, mostly to himself, "I'll need to find that soon."

"God, I can't imagine that would be super comfortable. I feel like a pillow-bed would just swallow you up, and then nobody would ever seen you again." he said, jabbing something on his plate with his plastic fork. He gave a curious glance to Emma, and a polite chuckle at the apparent joke, but he didn't know enough about her roommates to follow along. Ernie drew his attention, and he gestured his fork, with food still attached, at him as he spoke. "Might be a good idea if you wanted to sleep inside tonight. Although, barring that, you could always go sleep on the bleachers by the track!" he said, shoving the fork in his mouth and shooting Callan a knowing grin.

She smiled back and shook her head, turning her breadstick over in her hand and accusingly pointing it at him with a faux glare, "Hey, don't go around telling people! I had to fight off a hobo to get that spot."

"Unless you've gone back and broken the rest of them, I'm sure there are plenty of bleachers left." Marcus replied, mimicking her glare and pointing his fork at her.

"You say that like I'm willing to share," she chuckled mischieviously, "Keep offa' my turf, Time-boy."

"Fair point. Not really much I can do about that except rewind aggressively at you." Marcus said, shrugging and silencing himself with another mouthful of food.

Emma stared at her food, picking at the remains of the enchilada. Nope. Not going to say anything. Jealousy is an ugly quality, Em. She reminded herself, taking a bite, quietly simmering with her forced smile still on her face.

"Rewinding and bleacher breaking, huh? Are those your cool-ass powers?" Ernie piped up, eager to break the chain of back and forths between the two. Interesting. Cal liked joking with Marcus, but Emma's smile went slightly wonky when it happened. He wanted to poke around that little puzzle some more but the chance to bring up powers had finally reared its head.

Callan's smile widened-- she was equally eager to hear about Ernie's powers. In the back of her mind, she felt the tiniest pin pricks of guilt-- still acutely aware of Emma's presence. She brushed the thought aside in favor of answering Ernie's question.

"Sort of," she laughed. "I've got super strength and durability, Marcus can, uh, rewind himself, and Siena--" her eyes lit up as they fell on her roommate, "Hers is actually really cool, but I can't remember how she explained it..."

Finding some semblance of familiarity (perhaps even flickers of happiness? She wasn't entirely certain) at the banter between Marcus and Callan, Siena was taken off guard when the discussion turned to their powers. While she should have expected it to come up at some point, it didn't stop her from tensing the faintest amount. Thankfully, with the attention on her suitemates, maybe there was less chance of having to--

'Oh no.'

"U-um, uh I--bwah...?" It was the verbal equivalent of smashing her face into the control panel in the part of her brain that made words, but it was the best that she could muster as her body stiffened, the fork in her hand suddenly finding itself buried in the piece of poultry that had been victim to her aimless prodding prior to the moment. "I-it's um...it's not that cool." Slowly, Siena regained herself, but at the cost of her cheeks flushing with color as she tried to make herself smaller in that instant. "I can take names from um...print media, let's say that." With a nervous sound that didn't quite pass as a laugh, Siena felt her free hand instinctively reach for a stray lock of hair, only to stop the motion when she caught it. Bad habits. "I just er...borrow things from them. Usually powers or skills."

And sometimes homicidal intent, but that was maybe better left unsaid.

"Well, my deal is a sorta mix 'n' match of stuff. I've got a magic rope that makes me tough and a little glyph that's pretty much a real version of Freeze Tag. Nothin too awesome like your stuff," Ernie shrugged. He summoned his rope for extra emphasis, a cheeky grin lighting up his face, "The toughness is my favorite part though. If any of you guys wanna take a swing, just let me know, haha!"

He turned expectantly to Emma.

Emma only realized she was prompted to speak when she noticed the silence around her. She looked up from her food. ”Oh, uh, powers?” Without a word Determination materialized behind her. She knocked her fist against his chitinous armor, ”I get to command these guys around. They come in different varieties.” She shrugged, redirecting her gaze back down as her tulpa disappeared.

Emma seemed a bit glum now. The banter between Cal and Marcus must have really done a number on her acting skills. Awesome. This situation only got funner by the minute! So Emma and Marcus had the hots for each other, that was pretty much confirmed by their previous conversation. Cal's banter made it certain that Emma had a definite eye on Chestnut. So now it was time to see what the other two thought, Cal especially. The only way to do that was to take some action. Ernie glanced at Marcus briefly, an apologetic look on his face.

Sorry, buddy.

"Holy crow, you're a summoner?" Ernie almost jumped in his seat. It was important to play up the excitement. "Do you have any idea how awesomely rare that is?"

Emma was slightly surprised by Ernie’s enthusiasm. Was her power really ‘rare’? She never really gave it much thought, just kind of accepted it as her own and then moved on. She did think it was kind of neat, actually, but really… Is it really that cool? She thought to herself, excitement apparent. ”Uh, is it a big deal to be a summoner? I haven’t really thought about it too much.” She said, clearly downplaying the fact that Ernie’s excitement made her feel a little better.

It was an average sized deal. Summoners weren't a common type but they rarely did anything worth bragging about, from what Ernie had seen anyway. Recharge times were of little use in cage fights.

"Is it a big deal? Are you kidding? I knew loads of Aberrations before I got picked up by West and let me tell you, summoners, especially the ones that can summon big guys like yours, are as rare as they come. I only know one guy who could make something as sturdy-looking as yours. And you said you could summon a whole variety?"

Emma shrugged in a decidedly nonchalant manner, “Well, yeah, there’s the big guy with all the armor, one that can self-destruct, uh, one that can turn the ground into sludge, there’s one that can pull things towards it, and one that can siphon someone’s energy,” Emma nodded along as she listed them off. ”And that’s it.” She stopped, eagerly awaiting what Ernie had to say to that.

Oh. That really was impressive. His excitable facade dropped to reveal a genuinely stunned expression.

"Wow, I've... I've never heard of someone with five different summons. That's cool as hell!" Ernie remarked. It was time to make it personal. He leaned into his hand, slightly closer to Emma. "You can't just end a list like that was 'And that's it'! Modest and badass, huh? You really are something."

Emma blushed a little at that. ”Really, it’s not that big of a deal.” She sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head, ”Anyways, it’s not about the power, it’s about how you use it… and I still need to practice with them quite a bit.” She gave a Callan an apologetic glance, ”After all, she got hurt because of I couldn’t manage them properly, and really, well… if it was anyone other than Cal it probably would have been pretty ugly.” She sighed, ”Sorry, by the way. Don’t think I’ve said that yet.”

Ernie dismissed Emma's doubtful words with a wave.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. You're a pretty capable-looking girl."

Up until now, Callan had been listening intently as Emma described the extent of her abilities-- her expression a mixture of awe laced ever so slightly with a hint of feeble jealously. Emma was an aberration and she seemed like she had way more control over her ability (she wrongfully deduced). And, to top it off, she now had Ernie pining after her as well as Marcus. Her buzzing thoughts completely vanished as Emma addressed her with an apology. Blinking in surprise, she felt her cheeks flush and she looked down at the table.

"I-It's fine! You don't have to apologize! We're all still trying to get the hang of our stuff...." she replied, her voice tapering into little more than a whisper as she further chastised herself for being so damn petty today. Emma seemed nice and here she was trying to come up with reasons not to like her. She poked at what remained of the pasta on her plate and chewed the inside of her cheek, momentarily lost in thought.

Marcus, having done so well in bringing himself back to normal levels, did not notice Determination behind him. Between Emma's explanation and a particularly uncooperative piece of pasta, his attention was divided. So when Emma knocked on the thing's armor and Marcus turned to see a dark shape standing right beside him, he jumped enough to nearly throw his plate. He covered his surprise with a cough and a clearing of the throat, and sheepishly looked around to see if anybody had noticed.

Ernie caught his attention, and Marcus cocked his eyebrow at the look he was recieving. Then the kid started gushing on and on about Emma's power, and Marcus found himself caught up in the conversation. Summoning seemed pretty cool, yeah. If Emma could end up doing the types of things that Menagerie had done on that battlefield, she might not need the rest of them.

His eyes darted back and forth between Ernie and Emma as they talked, while he chewed on enchilada listening to them. Ernie hadn't seemed to be as excited about anybody else's powers; such a reaction almost made it seem like-

Oh.

This must have been how that Brent kid felt when he'd done that thing back at the track. Sure, Emma and Marcus didn't quite have as much of a night planned as he had, but he was still looking forward to that drink. He shot Ernie a look of disapproval, but there really wasn't much he could do about it. If anything, even saying something would be immensely hypocritical, since he'd basically done the same thing already. So, instead, he turned his attention back to Callan, assuming her soft tone to be a byproduct of yesterday's 'incident'.

"It's definitely a learning curve, that's for sure!" he said, his tone trying to be more upbeat than Callan's, looking between the people at the table. "But hey, look at us. When has our generation ever stopped because something was difficult? We're hard headed, some of us quite literally so, I'm sure we'll figure it out!" he said.

Emma nodded at Cal, ”Yeah, but… well, let me make it up to you sometime, kay? I don’t really feel great about almost getting someone killed.” As for Marcus, well… Emma nervously tapped her foot against the ground. She kept her smile, but it was becoming more and more forced. Not to say that would be obvious- she was good at faking a smile, after all. Nobody likes someone who’s jealous, She reasoned with herself again, Buuuut it’s super obvious what’s going on here…

She cleared her throat as Marcus finished talking, ”It definitely hasn’t been easy. Although, Ernie, you’ve had powers for a while, right? I’m sure you’re a pro by now, especially if Zhang had you transferred out here.” Of course her move was a calculated risk- but if Ernie responded favorably and she pushed a little, it wouldn’t hurt to make Marcus a little jealous too, would it?

Ernie scratched his head with a self-effacing grin.

"My powers aren't anything too fancy, nothing that would take long to get pro at. I've had them for years now so it would be kinda embarrassing if I wasn't good at what I did. I wouldn't say they were what landed me at East though. It was probably just luck of the draw."

Incredibly terrible luck. He was still very bitter over the transfer.

"Well hey, I'd say we're all set then!" Marcus said, clapping his hands together softly. Like a fool, he'd taken the bait, and the new kid was about to become an unwilling target for Marcus's direct ire. "Between the five of us, we've got Time Manipulation, access to literally any character ever written about, Supergirl incarnate, An army of Exploding Shadow Clones," he put a little more excitement into describing Emma's power, just enough to be noticable. "...and rope! DC better watch his back!" he said, shooting a look at Ernie.

Just as Ernie had delivered his 'Sorry buddy' message, Marcus sent one of his own. A message between men, with all the respect that entailed: 'Bring it, buddy.'

Watching the events before her unfold, Siena made herself scarce in conversation, deciding to observe rather than try to include herself on topics she didn't really understand. Between the other four at the table, there was enough tension to suspend a bridge, and to say that Siena wasn't interested in seeing some reference material would have been a bold faced lie. Grey eyes peered over the group, observing reactions as Siena gently stroked the fur on Chief Tater Tot's head to give herself something to do. After watching a few exchanges, a few furtive looks, and catching a few stray emotions, Siena could really only come to one conclusion given the events and tangled connections that she tried to straighten.

"Mhhh...dating really is like politics, isn't it?"

Emma was about to speak, but she instantly froze as Siena threw a hard ball from left field.

Her face instantly turned crimson. ”I… uh…” Her words caught in her throat. She just got called out for being cutthroat in a situation where it was now clear she shouldn’t have been. ”I… She had absolutely no idea how to proceed. For a second she had thought she was in control of the situation, but her Machiavellian scheme fell apart instantly. She glanced at Cal and then Siena, but not Ernie or Marcus. Retreat it was, she decided, now very sufficiently embarrassed. ”I… uh… gotta go…” She had meant to make up some sort of excuse as she left. She had also meant to not be a stuttering mess, but instead she choked out those word, picked up her tray, and headed for the door.

Ernie looked to Marcus, betrayal in his eyes. How could he put him down like this, even after Ernie had sent him his 'sorry' look? What an asshole! He should have chucked some turkey by Marcus and see who would laugh then. Before he could throw a counter back at Scarface, Siena let rip a comment that completely shattered his trance. Oh dear. He'd been so caught up in trying to rile up Cal that he'd forgotten to take into account how it looked from the outside. That was stupidly sloppy of him. Oh no, now they thought he was actually going for Emma.

"Wh-what?" Ernie sputtered, confusion and embarrassment clear in his flustered expression, "When did I say anything about dating?"

Holy shit. The conversation had taken quite the turn. Wide eyed, Callan watched the events unfold in stunned silence. This... was a part of Marcus she hadn't seen before. She didn't like it-- though whether it was because she found his comment towards the new kid mean or because it was said out of jealousy over a girl that wasn't her... well, she'd have to detangle that mental clusterfuck of feelings later. She stared after Emma as she fled in response to Siena's remark-- an unorthodox method of nipping drama in the bud if she ever saw one. Now everything was horrendously awkward. For a moment she envied Emma again-- wishing she could bolt for the door as well.

But she didn't want to leave things like this. Unlike Emma, Cal was going to have to see most of these people later. Even so, Callan had absolutely no idea what to say to put out the escalating flames of tension that were rising with every passing second.

Marcus looked back at Ernie, a smug look of satisfaction in his eyes. If the guy wanted to play hardball, then Marcus would gladly play. He stuck another mouthful of food in his face, his satisfied grin a show of his accomplishment. Immediately after that, he nearly choked to death on the same mouthful of food, Siena's comment coming out of absolutely nowhere.

His face immediately went from white to red, and he gave a few gasps of air as he tried to replace the pasta currently filling his lungs with oxygen. Before he could say anything in reponse, Emma had already stood up and excused herself, Marcus's head turning to watch her as she left, before slowly turning back to look at their motley little crew, a look of complete disbelief slowly turning itself to face Siena. When Ernie defended himself, Marcus immedately looked at him with confusion. "Wait, weren't you just-" he said, feebly pointing towards the exit.

"Ahhhhhhhhh shit." he said, bringing one hand up to cover his face. Perhaps he'd completely misread the situation, and had openly sassed Ernie for no reason. That was another thing he'd have to apologize for later.

A long moment of silence passed, Marcus with head in hands, before he looked up and gave a long sigh, meeting the eyes of everyone present. "So. I'd say that went well. Welcome to East." he finished, an apologetic look meeting Ernie's face.

Apparently pointing out what she'd thought had been fairly obvious was not the best choice. Confusion wrapped with guilt and topped with apprehension came neatly packaged onto the mental stoop of one Siena Santana, the card neatly addressed. Furrowing her brow flightly, Siena sorted through the situation at hand. "Oh...perhaps I misread the situation." Doubtful, but possible, she supposed. "Well, I suppose Gerwulf was right. I should stay quiet when I see things." The words were restrained, soft. Tinted with just enough apology to seem sincere despite the thousands of thoughts that concentrated into a flurry at all the newfound information she'd received. After a pause, Siena stood to her feet, motioning for Chief Tater Tot to return to his carrier before performing a repeat of her previous juggling act--easier now that her plate was largely empty, really.

"W-well, I should bring Chief Tater Tot to the room for now. I'll be off first then," Siena claimed with a bow of her head. "Sorry about earlier. I guess I haven't picked up as many social customs as I'd hoped." Or something to that extent. With that, the girl started her journey back to the dorm.

Callan's eyes flashed at the opportunity to leave. She hesitated just long enough to finish her drink and avoid eye contact with anyone before jumping to her feet. "I-I'm gonna go with Siena. In case she needs help," she glanced at the new kid. "See you later, Ernie. It was nice meeting you," she said with a brief nod and tentative smile. Her gaze turned briefly to Marcus and the smile faded as she resigned to chewing on her bottom lip, reflecting wounded confusion for the briefest moment before she turned to follow after Siena.

Ernie was too busy sulking over his failed recon operation to send pity Siena's way. Had he always been so terrible at this? Absolutely nothing had been gained from this nonsense, except for the fact that Cal never visibly reacted to anything and that Emma had a power that was wasted on her. He groaned into his now empty plate, completely burnt out by the awkward turn of events. Was he supposed to apologize to someone now?

He turned to Marcus at the boy's comment, surprised to see that they guy actually seemed sorry for earlier. Guess he wasn't so bad after all.

"Super well," he returned with a tired smile, "Yeah, welcome to East."

Hazel Baker & Kusari Bloodworth

---

Her mouth felt like it was burning, as if the food was fighting back.

For any other thing Hazel would have perhaps followed Kusari's suggestion and gotten another bowl of food, one that wasn't as angry. But for something as delicious as this... . In all its burning, it actually tasted quite good. Had this been anywhere but here, and had the situation anything less than this, she might have just shut out Kusari and ate in silence. The danger that Kusari spoke of was quite worrying.

"We are all in danger." She repeated. Wiping away the tears in her eyes, she glanced over to the object Kusari was holding. "I do not have one of those, but my number is –"

"-SWP-3851 but thats classified. Keep it secret from everyone outside for me alright?"

"My number?"

Hazel looked down at her food.

Kusari snapped her fingers in Hazel's face. She didn't know why she was suddenly stumped and staring at her food, but the conversation was going nowhere at this rate. "You don't have a phone? Where are you from anyway?" Kusari let out a sigh and shook her head. "Whatever, come with me after classes are over to get one. I need to upgrade from this piece of junk anyway."

Hazel jerked slightly as Kusari snapped a finger in front of her.

A phone? Was it that important? She was familiar with phones and what they do, but they weren't really that important to her. After all, if they wanted to tell her something, they'd find a way somehow. She had no idea why this tall girl seemed exasparated from the sheer fact that she had no phone.

"I understand. I will come with you after classes are over."

From what she remembered of the schedule, that would either be between the time of 3:30pm to 4:30pm after the classes were over, or after 6:30pm should Kusari consider combat training one of the classes.

Kusari chewed on a piece of lobster, just looking at Hazel. If she didn't know any better she'd assume the girl really was an android. She should have expected this, but this school really was full of weirdos. "You're kinda boring to talk to, aren't you?" She rested her head on her hand, her elbow on the table. "So, nothing interesting happened to you call week? I experienced being impaled, that was... something." Kusari wasn't sure if the memory was one that should be filed under terrible or worthwhile.

"Did you maybe go to ground zero? I want to know how your ability is advancing."

"I see. I apologize if it inconveniences you," was all Hazel said in response to Kusari's first comment. "I have experienced nothing unusual this week, but I did go to Ground Zero. My ability..."

That girl's face flashed before her eyes for a second, grinning in a way that made her skin crawl. "Its all for you!"

"My... ability..."

Would she tell her? Would Kusari understand? Was she part of them? It was an irrational fear caused by those few whispered words from what was undoubtedly her stigma, but it was one she could not shake off. It was like a maggot that had eaten its way deep into her flesh, one not easily removed save for tearing herself apart.

"I have been improving." She replied, looking down at her food.

Kusari let out a sigh. Once again she'd found herself eating with someone that was refusing to tell her something. Looking at Hazel, she could tell that it was something deeply personal this time. So she decided to not pry into it any further. Simply holding a conversation seemed to be a monumental task for the girl.

"Improving huh? That's good. There's no telling what we'll be running into in the future, so we need to be ready for anything." There was a lull in the conversation now. Kusari eat in silence for a while, wondering if she should find someone else and get their number. However, something had been nagging at her.

"Before I grew this... Leg, I saw something. An ocean I think. I don't usually have dreams I remember, in fact I don't think I was even asleep on that battlefield." Kusari pulled on her braid, trying to find the words.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but did you see something like an ocean on that day?"

"Dreams... Ocean?" Hazel sat up straight at those words, looking directly at Kusari. "You..."

Her mouth opened, but no words escaped her. What was she going to say? What would she say? That Kusari had the same dreams as her? Ask her if she saw that girl as well? Hazel could not think of anything else to say, for if Kusari was having the same dreams as her, there was nothing to say.

"I... am afraid." She spoke with barely a whisper. "The room is breaking."

It seemed Kusari had managed to hit a nerve without meaning to anyway. The words Hazel used didn't quite make it clear if she had seen what Kusari had seen, but she had a feeling the girl had seen the ocean based upon how she reacted. She wouldn't press the issue more. "Forget about it, it's probably just DC messing with us." Kusari said. She doubted the being would just mess with them for no good reason, but at the same time, nothing it had ever done made any sense. Her tray now devoid of food, she took it in hand and stood from the table. "I'll let you eat in peace. Remember to meet me after class, alright?" Kusari said, then taking her leave. With not much else to do, she headed back to class.

Hazel stayed for a while longer, staring at her unfinished food. Kusari didn't understand. She didn't understand at all. Does this mean she was alone with her dreams? Hazel stayed a while more before finally moving, going back to class.

Gregory Irving

---

---

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but USARILN had its way to sour even a pleasant morning jog. There was a nippy autumn breeze that warred with the warmth of a decent pace, and it kept him rather comfortable as he lost himself in the run. That was until a faint series of beeps caught his attention. “Return to Building B.” Short and clipped, the cuff continued to beep as Gregory stared down at it for a few moments. “Well, fuck,” he muttered rather appropriately as he swore the beeping’s pace increased at the lack of any compliant movements from him. The prospect of a shock was more than enough for him to hurry back to the dormitory at a quicker pace than he originally intended to.

Initially the escorts hadn’t warranted much thought, but the reactions they got eventually made Gregory think otherwise. If this were really that common then why all the curious looks? That aside, the classroom they were all herded into was, if nothing else, sizable he supposed. Picking out one of the seats off to the side and by the windows, he quickly slid himself in and tuned out the surrounding world. With middling success since it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two before a familiar voice called out his name and his head rose slowly to look around.

“Oh, hi Rosa.” He raised a hand towards the woman, past the guard, before he looked down to examine the packages dropped off by the guard. He left the projectiles alone aside from a quick one-over, but actually took the Fender out to get a feel for it. It felt nice in his hands, and he figured it ought to for the price tag; it was probably, what, two or three times the price of his own bass? Looking up when Rosa held something out for him to take, his eyebrows climbed a bit before he took the picks with a sigh. “Thanks. I think…”

Once the bass was stored away, he paid the staff a bit more attention as they went through with their spiel. Nothing particularly fascinating, at least not until the afternoon to see what the hell combat training was all about. The classes passed by quickly enough, and he paid the modicum of attention that the teachers’ efforts seemed to warrant. Not nearly enough to keep his thoughts from wandering though, and he resorted to his smartphone more than a few times in the few hours before lunch.

When they were finally dismissed to get some food, Greg’s first destination was the dormitory. As fun as lugging around more than a dozen kilograms of gifts was, it’s not like any of the three were particularly easy to carry around. As mentioned his room had been packed with a few other pieces and there was a slip of paper that noted which bike was his and what the lock combination was. It was hard not to feel a bit mollified by the “gifts” given, and he collapsed back into his bed with a heavy sigh.

Still… with less than an hour for lunch and a fair chunk of it already gone, he hurried back onto his feet and figured it might as well be a good time to put the bike to use. A few minutes saved here and there could add up after all.

---

---

As the young mages filed into the classroom, four previously occupied seats remained unfilled. Notably, the seats of Christmas Halvost, Lilianna Brandt, Gregory Irving, and Sophia Lemane. Just before the last student took their seat, Fredric strolled into the classroom, passing a small stack of papers to the guard stationed in the corner by the door. Despite his confrontation with Angel, he betrayed no hint that they'd ever spoken outside of a warm smile in her direction. He proceeded to address the rest of the class with his knuckles against his hips.

"Welcome back, guys! Hope you all had a good lunch. For our first order of business, I'll go ahead and explain how these elective blocks are going to work after today."

As Fredric spoke, the guard by the door stepped forward and began passing out a simple form. Below a line labeled 'Name' was a list of several subjects along with some instructions. Boxes big enough to write in lined up with each subject.

Art/Photography
Creative Writing
Woodworking
P.E.
Film Study
Music Theory
Home Ec
Computer Science

"With all the dirt that's been kicked up these past few days in addition to organizing our little experiment here, I'm afraid most of the available elective courses for this block are already near full. With that being the case, we can't guarantee everyone will get the electives they want most. Number the subjects from 1 to 8-- 1 being the subject you want most and 8 being the one you want least. Turn 'em in before you leave here today, if ya don't mind."

"Now--" Fredric clapped his hands together once in excitement, "--on to the fun part." From his pockets, the man pulled four pieces of sturdy looking fabric attached to thick strips of velcro: purple, yellow, aqua blue, and white with red polka dots.

"Rosa and I have been brainstorming names all day and the best we can come up with is 'Flag and Seek.' During your assessments, we couldn't help but notice how Red Team seemed to have some trouble keeping Mr. Halvost safe and sound, though Blue Team did a good job with Ms. Brandt. Healers are an essential asset to the team and need to be treated as such, especially since Dreamcatcher's monsters know this as well. Any tell you give them, any careless show of where your healer is, and they'll headhunt. And soon enough we're in this sorry situation where healers are prized commodities," the glimmer of mischief in his eyes faded a bit at the statement, but returned after a blink. "In any case, Mr. Halvost and Ms. Brandt are our only healers and we needed four for our little game, so we've taken Mr. Irving and Ms. Lemane as well."

"You want them back?" Fredric smiled and pulled a black dry erase marker from his pocket, tossing the flags to the guard who'd just finished passing out the elective forms, "Pay attention."

Strolling up to the board, Fredric began drawing a finely detailed outline of a man with practiced precision. "You'll be divided into teams of four. Team One will go up against Team Two, and Team Three; Team Four. While one set of teams take their turn, the other set will anonymously evaluate them. You guys need to know how to utilize brutally honest criticism from your peers just as much as you need to recognize a good plan from a bad plan."

Finishing the sillouette outline, Fredric began adding more lines as he spoke, "Now let's talk about the point system. Goes without saying, but the team with the most points at the end of the ten minute time period wins. You get points by stealing flags. Each player gets six flags. One for the chest, which is worth two points-- here." He drew a line connecting to the lines across the chest that he'd drawn, followed by '2 pts'. "One for the head-- also two points. And one for each wrist and ankle, one point each. Just in case you're wondering about the point distribution, think of it this way: failing to protect your head or chest is usually death."

"Additionally--" Fredric drew a nigh perfect first aid cross off to the side, "Each team gets a 'healer'. Healers are like the golden snitch-- worth 32 points total if you can find them and bring them back to your safe point. The only way to even the board at that point is to nab the other team's healer or collect every single one of their flags. To help motivate you, we're offering a nice incentive: the two winning teams won't have to attend our pretend-school classes for a week. That means no pesky guards waking you up early, no boring teachers droning in your ears, and no forced socialization in the name of building teamwork. Unless you want to, of course."

"The rules of Flag and Seek are as follows," he continued, writing them down as he spoke, "If you lose all your flags, you're out. Shuffle yourself somewhere safe and wait until the round's over. No lethal methods or you get tazed and take a nap. No running out of Ground Zero or you get tazed and take a nap. No hiding your flags under your clothes. No putting lost flags back on. If you lose possession of the flags by any means, the points go to the other team. Yes, Mr. Francis, that means if you take off your flags to transform, those points immediately go to the other team once the game starts. But you get to be a dragon! So weigh the damage.

Your objectives are simple: occupy the enemy and take their flags--and that means block them, distract them, hold them back, whatever you've got up your sleeves; find your healer and make sure the enemy never gets to them; find the enemy's healer and make sure you return to the marked point with them in tow, even if you have to knock them out to do so; and, of course, work with your team."

At the latest mention of "team," Fredric drew two tables of two columns each on the adjacent whiteboard, lines perfectly straight and perpendicular. Each column had the lists of names comprising the teams with their designated healer as well.

Team One (The Abusement Park - polka dots):

Sander
Angelique
Marcus
Grant

Healer: Lilianna

Team Two (Multiple Scorgasms - aqua blue):

Callan
Christopher
Siena
Kusari

Healer: Christmas

Team Three (Victorious Secret - yellow):

Allison
Lawrence
Hazel
Zoe

Healer: Sophia

Team Four (The Mighty Mushroom Bruisers - purple):

Emma
Brent
Ernie
Savannah

Healer: Gregory

When that was done, he leaned back, surveying the two boards and making sure the information was correct.

A brief pause later and he turned around, expression somber.

"It seems like fun and games, but try to take it a bit seriously. Lack of teamwork kills almost as often as Dreamcatcher's monsters do and I can't tell you--as in, I am not allowed to tell you--the number of groups we've lost so far just because they couldn't coordinate with each other," he said, sitting down at the desk.

"Not a single person here is under any illusions about your willingness," Fredric leaned forward and rested his forearms against the desk's wooden surface with a short sigh. "But you all know where we would be without mages fighting those things. We're fighting fire with fire here because we don't have a choice. They've learned well enough by now to stay away from more densely populated cities where the chances of running into a large number of mages are high, but that hasn't stopped them from attacking smaller locales. And..."

He stared out the window, expression blank and unreadable before he looked back at them.

"...you should know that they've been behaving strangely in the last year. Everything we're doing might seem unfathomable and absurd because we can't tell you what we don't know, but trust me when I say we're doing the best we can with what we have. And you guys are what we have...on our side, at least," he finished quietly, staring at each of them in turn before his face split into another wide smile.

"Well, then. I hope you all copied that down, because you'll have the next..." he flicked his wrist upwards and checked the time, "two and a half hours of class and a break to ruminate on it!"

A cheerful wave and wink later, Fredric was out of his seat and out of the room again as their pockmarked biology teacher coughed and wheezed his way into the room, afflicted by a cold so severe his lecture was barely comprehensible. To make matters worse, he had come in nearly forty minutes earlier than the intended class period thanks to Fredric's early exit, so the students had even more bonding time with their cold-ridden instructor.

The remaining chemistry period passed soon enough (with an angry man in a black dress shirt and slacks and close-cropped hair barking about stoichiometry at them) and before long Fredric returned to notify them of the half-hour break before the mandatory training session.

"Mandatory," he stressed again, nodding meaningfully at their ankle cuffs. "I have plenty of pull, but not enough to save you from the Director's wrath."

With that, classes concluded for the moment, the sky already losing its blue hue and verging on darker tones in the shorter autumn days.

---

---

The four designated "healers" had been snatched by guards near the end of lunch and taken away to a security outpost near Ground Zero where Rosa had explained the game to them as well--neglecting to mention which "healer" was on which team--with the warning that their role was to stay hidden at all costs or risk solitary confinement in a containment chamber. For the designated "healers," it was a lesson in learning where to be and who to trust, especially if they were alone in an unfamiliar environment.

Even as she cheerily mentioned the consequences, however, Rosa placed several bowls of crackers, cookies, chips and salsa, and various other party snacks on a nearby table, adjacent to the main control desk, letting the four students eat as they liked while she turned to the various screens embedded in the floor-to-ceiling wall of monitors in the large security room. The screens displayed various hallways, classrooms, and buildings, but a particular batch of twenty screens on the right displayed Ground Zero up close and personal. They had added a few more cameras just for the occasion, tucked in corners of Ground Zero and marked for retrieval before the reset wiped them out of existence.

After some deliberation, the staff mage picked out four locations for the healers, motioning for the guards to take Lilianna and Christmas towards Ground Zero while a different group led Gregory and Sophia to another room in the security outpost, locking them inside with several other guards and a quick "You're free to eat from the fridge. Now wait here."

The two healers for the first round were escorted to a large clearing that might have been a plaza of some sort before whatever befell the nameless city. Several dead bodies dotted the expanse, freshly shot by the setup teams while the rest of the "people" in the looping town had been scared away, leaving that section free from interference. On either end of the plaza were bright orange circles drawn in spray paint on the ground with the words "SAFE POINT" in capital letters below the circle with "1" or "2" following the words.

The cement sported cracks and small ruptures like something heavy had charged through the place--or many "something"s. A nearby building barely stood, half of its support structures collapsed inward from where a gaping hole had been smashed into its side. It had been a restaurant of some sort, the aperture revealing in a mockery of a window the rows of parallel aluminum counters and stove tops where pots and pans had been abandoned, their contents rotting and congealing. Cooking utensils littered the floor of the establishment, the patches of brown and red threatening temporary tetanus to anyone foolish enough to cut themselves on the knives and forks.

Cars lay on the circular fringe of the plaza where a street wound around the location, their wheels stolen, windows smashed, and chassis rusting over, weathered by both time and the elements and fixed into that repeating moment of decay by the ghost's power. Several arching street lamps had been torn from their bases and lay twisted and bent across the marred concrete.

On the asphalt of the roundabout that circled the plaza's perimeter, there was an open manhole.

Further away, a five-story apartment building that had blissfully survived the destruction by a hair's breadth had been entirely abandoned, the evidence of its near obliteration in the scores of gashes decorating its red stucco walls.

The guards split into two groups, one set taking Lilianna and depositing her in the defunct freezer of a dilapidated restaurant with orders to either remain hidden there or hide away elsewhere at her discretion. The abandoned dining establishment was located on the outskirts of the plaza, near of Team One's designated safe point and far from Team Two's goal.

The other set lowered Christmas down a manhole where stagnant water and thick, viscous fluid discolored by waste and chemicals worked in tandem to make him nearly throw up his lunch. One guard lead him by gun and flashlight down the walkway extending along the large sewer pipe for several long minutes before they turned into a passageway on the right and then made several more lefts and rights until Christmas had no idea where he was in relation to the exit point.

Once that was done, the guard handed him the flashlight with repeated orders to "Stay hidden" before flicking on a mounted light on the rifle, leaving Christmas behind in the near total darkness and fetid stench.

---

---

When the healers for the first round had been placed in their spots and the escorting guards gone from the area, the morning's group of escorts found the students at the end of the break period, this time herding them in a tight group towards the direction of Ground Zero, which had now been cleared of all other students. As they reached the periphery of the school grounds, just as the group drew closer to the security outpost that bordered Ground Zero, the entire group came to a halt at a loud order from the foremost soldier.

Half the group was split apart and taken to the security outpost room where Rosa waited with snacks and a smile, leaving behind the members of Teams One and Two.

From the security outpost building, two guards emerged hefting a large cooler, joining the remaining students on their march to Ground Zero.

The first and second teams were then taken to the site of the game. Weaving through the rubble and skirting around the ghost's tower at the center, the group was eventually led to the same starting point as the healers and segregated once more into their respective teams, positioned on either side of the large plaza, right in front of their marked "SAFE POINT"s. Here, the guards finally wrapped the velcro strips around their foreheads, chests, wrists, and ankles: white with red polka dots for Team One and aqua blue for Team Two. The two guards carrying the cooler approached Sander, flicking open the lid once they had set the heavy box down. It opened to reveal 15 metallic, cylindrical canisters. They left the cooler at his feet and returned to the security outpost without a word, the suggestion clear. What the blood mage chose to do with it would be his decision.

After several more minutes of preparation and checking, the soldiers stepped well away from the opposing teams.

"Prep time! 5 minutes! Don't move from the starting point, yet!" one of them shouted as they jogged away from what would soon be sheer chaos.

Five minutes later and their cuffs beeped slowly three times before an automated voice intoned lifelessly, "START."

---

"Siena!"

Callan jogged the last few steps until she was shoulder to shoulder with the girl. Still visibly flustered from the conversation before, she sighed with relief.

"Do you need any help carrying some of that?" she asked, gesturing to the dog carrier particularly.

Hearing Cal call her name, Siena paused her motions to attempt a glance back--thankfully, Callan was quick to come even with Siena. The brunette gave a weak smile towards her suitemate as she parsed through the thoughts in her head. At the offer of help, the smile brightened a bit.

"O-Oh, I could use some help with him. I think we fed him too much there." Siena grinned while pretending Chief Tater Tot was far heavier than he was before awkwardly offering the carrier to Cal. "I'm...kind of glad to have some alone time with you though." Odd. Siena usually didn't like being so upfront about her honesty...maybe it was just something about Cal.

Callan chuckled as she took the carrier from her, grateful for the mood shift. Even though Siena had been the one to accidentally (or purposely?) turn the spotlight onto all that festering drama, she was hardly the cause of it. Sheepishly, Callan realized she might've been what set it all off to begin with-- though she hadn't intended to. Tucking Chief Tater Tot under her arm with ease, she cocked her head to the side.

"Oh yeah?" she prompted.

"H-ha...I guess after that incident, I shouldn't say this, but..." A pause. One of hesitation instead of thought, as was her norm. Was she really willing to discuss it? Taking a breath to steel herself, Siena forced herself to push forward. "W-well, I guess I was tired of playing nice? F-for...lack of a better phrase." Not playing nice. That was how Maya and Gerwulf had phrased it. Playing dumb was the term that Siena would have preferred.

Playing nice?

"Heh...," the more Callan spoke with Siena, the more of an enigma the girl seemed to be. Of course, this wasn't a bad thing. It was a pleasant surprise-- finding out how 'real' her roommate was. "Yeah, things were getting pretty... petty in there." she mused.

Much to Siena's relief, Callan seemed to accept the brunette's word choice without much question. Feeling a faint weight begin to lift itself, Siena took a breath to calm the anxieties that threatened to rise. "Well, I mean...given what I saw, Emma would have man--!" Oh shit. Clapping a hand over her mouth, Siena felt the blood drain slightly from her face. Giving herself a moment to think, the girl gave a sheepish smile towards her roommate. "I mean, I don't know much about the topic of dating, so I don't know what counts as petty."

Smoooooth save.

Callan sighed, relaxing her shoulders as she stared at some point further up the path. "Petty is..." She fished around for the right wording in her head. "Trying to flirt with two guys at once so they get jealous and fight over you.... And getting jealous over someone you just met." Her cheeks burned and she quickly turned to Siena with a sheepish grin of her own. She'd been talking about Marcus just now, but what if Siena assumed she was referring to herself? Through a stream of curses, she tried to wade out a coherent sentence to cover her tracks, "I mean-- Marcus and Ernie barely know Emma. She's cool, but why be stupid about it, y'know?"

Grateful that Callan hadn't questioned the initial slip up, Siena listened to the explanation. As she attempted to process the first half, Callan quickly added information for clarity's sake, making the brunette pause and piece it all together. After a pause, Siena considered it. She supposed Emma was...cool. It would be best to go with tha--"I can understand it. She's pretty, and she's really good at faking it to make it."--or not. Stopping in her tracks, Siena stumbled over her words for a moment, hardly believing that she'd been distracted enough to let that observation go. "I-I mean, uh. That's t-totally not wh--I mean..!"

One breath. Two.

"I mean...she acts like she was trained to be well liked. Maya used to teach me that sort of stuff, so um...maybe I'm just reading too far into it."

She was silent for a moment, surprised by Siena's candor (though, at this point, she really shouldn't be). Ultimately, Callan couldn't help but laugh softly, shaking her head.

"Well, I'm sure she has her reasons," she smiled weakly, "Try not to hold it against her too much. Lots of people do it."

"O-Oh, no, I wouldn't..." Taking a moment to regain her bearings, Siena gave a smile. Practiced and friendly, even if a little distant no matter how many times she'd put it on. "Most people do it to some extent. I try not to let what I catch cloud my judgement." Brushing a few unruly strands of hair from her line of sight, Siena continued as best she could. "The people I met before I came here were all like Emma, so I guess she reminds me of home? Sort of." Well. "Home" was a better way to put it. Home wasn't the practiced etiquette designed to butter up the Santana family into donating to campaigns or getting a "close relationship" with the company, it had been in a comfortable estate with Maya and Gerwulf.

A shudder passed down her spine at some hazy memories she couldn't quite place as her own.

"But that's just me! I didn't get to be around normal kids much, so it's nice to have roommates like you and Marcus."

All this talk about Emma was starting to wear her down. For a moment she thought Siena might steer the conversation more towards where she was from, but then Marcus's name came up. She idly wondered if he was just another name on a long list of love interests for someone like Emma before brushing the subject aside. Now was her chance to nudge the conversation somewhere less confusing.

"Where's home?" Callan asked as they reached the doors to Building A.

Where's home? The words hit Siena like a truck, but she hid the grimace well. A thousand thoughts came to mind. Home was with Maya and Gerwulf, the former braiding Siena's hair while the latter clumsily read through a book in a language he'd long forgotten. Home was with Maya humming a lullaby when the nights were howling with winds that sounded more like monsters.

Home was Gerwulf telling her that they'd go out some day in his low, gruff tones when the loneliness drove Siena to tears and back again.

"Oh um...the uh..." She stumbled over faded memories. "Some big estate. I uh...think the news mentions it sometimes when my parents hold benefits?" And here, a faint smile, painted on almost like thinning paint on porcelain. "But more like here now, right?"

Callan smiled warmly, "Guess so, huh?"

Siena didn't ask, but she figured she might as well say as long as she was thinking about it. "Home for me was Atlanta...." she shrugged before groaning through her next sentence, "Ugh, I still haven't called my mom. She's probably worried sick...." She'd purposely avoided thinking about home the past few days and USARILN East had offered plenty of convenient distractions to keep her from feeling homesick. So far, she'd treated every night like it was all part of one long out-of-state basketball tournament. Saying it out loud sort of shattered that entire illusion, though-- reminding her of what had really been going on since the day she left.

Something had been going on with her facebook and email. Everything had been wiped-- in addition to her iPad's data plan. Initially, Callan had been upset. Why would the government delete all that stuff? In favor of not getting too mad, she rationalized about how she never really used any of her social media sites anyway-- though it was a pain to lose all her contact information on top of being stuck in a cell with shitty wifi. Creating a new facebook account wouldn't be hard. If USARILN East wanted to delete it again, that was fine. She just needed it up long enough for her mom to respond to her message asking for a list of everyone's phone number now that she actually had a phone.

She made a mental note take care of that later. Realizing she'd been quietly frowning to herself for a moment too long, she once again set forth on her quest to find a subject she could chat about without it leading her back to the less pleasant recesses of her mind.

"Anyway, yeah. It's not too bad here. I'm kinda stoked to see what the heck that lady did to our room," she smiled.

Returning Callan's smile, Siena listened to her roommate's own thoughts of home. It certainly sounded like an experience closer to the everyman she would read in novels. Now that was something that Siena might enjoy some day. Though part of the girl wanted, with every ounce of her being, to try and lighten the thought of not calling home, the fact that the only thing she could offer was "I'll call my mom if you call yours" stopped the girl. Calling her parents was...well, not as easy as it should have been. Assuming they answered their phones at all, she had to hope it was the right number. Pushing the thought aside, Siena quickly followed suite with Callan's new topic.

"Hehe, she seemed nice enough. Maybe it'll be cool," the brunette chimed with hints of hope and anxiety in her voice. "If they did replace our bed with pillows, we should make pillow forts! I've always wanted to try that." Wanted to try it, but could never, ever get Gerwulf and Maya to humor her. Maybe it was because they were too old for her antics by the time that Siena had finally read something about the fabled pillow forts. Glancing at her roommate, Siena gave the best grin she could. Genuine this time instead of the usual attempts to mask what she couldn't control.

As they approached the door to their suite, Siena paused in front of it, as if steeling herself for whatever battlefield they might see on the other side of th e door. "Hehe, ready to see what surprises are in there?"

Callan nodded, "Aww, yeah!" Turning the knob, she entered to behold several brand new dog items on the floor of the kitchen and-- she spotted a few pillows on the bedroom floor up ahead, leading to her corner of the room, which was obscured by a wall. Curiously stepping into the next room, her jaw dropped at the sight of countless pillows from floor to ceiling-- a true mountain worth scaling. Apparently this is what happens when you're too lazy to be specific on your requisition sheet.

She carefully set down Chief Tater Tot and rushed forward, frantically digging through the pillows. "Please tell me they didn't--" she sighed in relief, "I still have a mattress. Thank God.." Whirling around, she lifted her hands up into the air and fell backwards onto the mount of pillows, completely disappearing from sight as the cushions swallowed her whole.

Silence.

"This isn't actually as comfortable as it looks," Callan's muffled voiced chimed out with disappointment.

At first glance...yep. Nothing seemed terribly out of place other than the mysterious new additions of the dog supplies--or at least, that's what Siena would have said if a few stray pillows hadn't been just in sight. Oh no. They didn't...did they?

Evidently, Cal had the same idea as she rushed toward the literal mountain of pillows that had swallowed her bed entirely, digging through the pillows with a sense of urgency that Siena was certain was not an exaggeration after their previous musings. Thankfully, Siena found her mind put at ease when Callan announced the presence of her mattress then fell back and completely vanished into the pillows. Flabbergasted couldn't even begin to describe Siena's mood at that instant. Never would the girl have thought that she'd lay witness to someone being completely engulfed by a fluffy, overwhelming tower of cushions. When Cal expressed her disappointment through the barrier of pillows about its comfort, Siena couldn't help but break out into a stifled laugh.

"I-I bet! I think I have to get Chief Tater Tot to rescue you from there!"

Oh, it would be fun living with Callan, wouldn't it?

After Emma fled from the cafeteria she found a quiet corner to decompress in before class started. It would be a good place to cry, she thought, but she didn't feel like doing that right now. She didn't feel sad, more disgusted by the way she had acted. The right combination of insecurities were hit for her to be someone she didn't want to be. She had pitted Marcus against Ernie so easily. That wasn't right, or fair. Cal was just joking around with her roommate and she had wanted to scoop her eyeballs out. She was never really sure if violent urges like that were because of her Stigma or not. And Siena... well, she had seen so plainly through her carefully crafted facade. Siena was instantly able to tell that she was...

A manipulative bitch... just like Riley, huh?

Most people had emotional baggage, but Emma had always sarcastically remarked that hers was more like a baggage train. More true than she would've liked to let on, she thought. Also more true than most people might assume, although that was rapidly becoming less and less true with the number of budding psychoanalysts at USARILN East. If she had baggage than it was tightly packed, but not in a neat way. No, more like shoved in an about to burst. Like someone who had to leave last minute, which she saw as entirely appropriate.

Like I'm fleeing.

And she really had been fleeing, hadn't she? First from her shitty dad, then her shitty girlfriend, and then from the fact that she'd tried to kill herself only, what, a couple of weeks ago? It felt like a lifetime to her. She hadn't so much as thought about it except for that time in the tunnels below the medical building, and that was... well, Emma wasn't sure what that was. A sign that she was starting to crack? Had cracked? She felt like she was crazy. No, she almost certainly had to be crazy. No one reacts to a sight like that by laughing- that's something someone who is going insane in a bad movie would do. No sane person could suddenly just fit into USARILN East, hell, be enthusiastic about it even. And there was the Stigma- her Stigma, that is. Her thoughts, not just a voice in her head... or were they? It was so damn hard to tell. Ever since that one morning in her dorm they'd been constantly intermingling in her head with her own feelings. The urge for violence against both others and herself, the constant reminders of all her shortcoming and failures. It came stronger and was harder to drive away.

Everything's too much to handle, isn't it?

She felt like she was breaking into pieces and she was scrambling to hold them all together. Inevitably, she knew, there would be way too many to hold onto. And one day, probably sooner than later, she'd lose her grip on all of them and-

She didn't want to think about that and. She wanted to go back to who she had felt like at lunch before she turned into whoever the hell she had been. She liked feeling like she had friends. She liked Cal, Ernie, and Siena. Marcus... well, he was Marcus. She'd barely met him and she was hook, line, and sinker. He made her smile and he was cute and he made her feel like a complete idiot for being so ready to buy in on someone she hardly knew. She really was an idiot, wasn't she? Some would call her a hopeless romantic, but she thought that was stupid. She was gullible. She knew that she should know better than to be so invested in people she barely knew.

But all the same here she was.

It probably didn't matter anyway. Emma doubted Siena would warm up towards her after what had happened, and she had absolutely no doubt that would deteriorate her relationship with Callan and Marcus. She'd effectively made herself look like a bitch to that whole trio of roommates. That's what she had thought, at least. Overthinking situation like she always had. There was also Ernie- if he picked up on the fact that she was flirting with him, well... she didn't want him to get the wrong idea. He seemed nice but...

She didn't know what the but was. That she had a date that was probably shot by now?

Her phone buzzed. It hadn't buzzed since she had started blocking her old contacts- it was too much hassle to reply to everyone asking her about the rumors that she'd rampaged around town before being picked up by USARILN. That's bullshit, by the by, she commented internally. She was excited by the vibration in her pocket- there was the possibility that it was Val, who she'd given up hope on contacting. Or maybe her parents, depending on which ones that might even be a good thing. Or maybe it was Marcus. That was probably hoping for too much.

No one important, she realized as she glanced at the name. One of Riley's old friends. She sighed to herself. She glanced at the clock on her phone as she placed it back in her pocket. Shit, gotta get back to class She realized. She didn't feel up to this one.

---

Emma did her absolute best not to acknowledge anyone in the class, particularly those she just had lunch with. She'd try to avoid confrontation for as long as possible, hopefully forever. I doubt Marc's going to call me to grab a drink now, huh? She took her seat. As she was handed the form for electives she brightened ever so slightly- her smile has long since left her face, but at least this was something to take her mind off of things. She neatly wrote her name on the form, and then began to order the class.



Emma placed the sheet on the corner of her desk. She'd been tuning out Fred and paying attention to the sheet. What was he talking about? Oh. She frowned. She'd already been enough of a disappointment on the battlefield. Now that she knew the importance of her powers, which was apparently very high according to Ernie, she hated being so far below expectoration. It got even worse as she saw her team- Brent was undoubtedly going to admonish her if she didn't perform well, given the fact that he'd come to her dorm and dropped off a cardio routine for her to follow after her disappointing performance on the track. There was also Ernie, which would undoubtedly be very awkward after lunch. She didn't know Savannah, so at least she got to meet someone new?

She sighed.

There was also the fact that she was against her roommates. No small matter- Lawrence was experienced and could probably kick her ass, and she doubted that Hazel would be too remorseful about punching her face in if that was her mission. And even if by some miracle Emma beat them that probably wouldn't help their camaraderie as roomies.

This is going to suck.

---

Teams Three and Four were taken into the security outpost to watch the first two teams with Daisy. Emma liked Daisy, even though her exposure to her had been limited- she exuded the vibe of 'cool big sister' in a way that almost matched Val. Well, no one can match Val, but Miss Daisy is probably in second from what I've seen. At least she didn't have to go first. As the group walked in Emma gave Lawrence and Hazel a brief glance and an apologetic smile. A look of 'sorry we're not on the same team' that she assumed Hazel probably wouldn't pick up on and Lawrence would pick up all too well on. At the very least she was glad that she didn't have to wait with the trio of Marcus, Siena, and Cal. That awkwardness was spared- fighting with or against them would be a practical hell for her. That would've sucked big time. She sighed. All she could do was watch. For now she grabbed a cookie and waited for the 'battle' to start.

---

---

---

---

With a full tank and more sleep under her belt, being attentive was much less of an impossible feat when Callan returned to Room 23. Being one of the stragglers for the sake of going with Siena, she was presented with the opportunity to get a good look at everyone on her way to the back of the class. She couldn't resist looking past Brent and the girl in the far front corner in favor of focusing on Emma. She felt certain there'd be little chance of measuring up if that was her competition. Assuming she ever actually decided to do anything about the small crush on her roommate she'd been forced to come to terms with in the past hour. Though the odds of her doing such a thing were getting slimmer and slimmer at this point. Dating a roommate was probably a horrible idea to begin with anyway. Besides... Emma was a stereotypical type of pretty-- a mold Callan had tried and failed to fit into plenty of times before. It was probably best not to dwell on in too much.

A much younger looking girl with messy blonde hair sat beside Emma-- possibly Dom's age judging by her size. She didn't want to think about Dom being in a place like this. The idea was depressing, so she decided to move on.

Kusari sat in the seat behind Brent.

"That's not to say I didn't mean it, I thought you looked cute so I just said it."

She purposely looked past her, hoping the girl wouldn't look her way. As confused as it made her feel, the memory did soothe some of the insecurities that had been writhing in the back of her mind ever since lunch.

Behind the seat beside Kusari, she spotted Lawrence-- smack dab in the middle of the room. He seemed as calm and collected as that day she approached him in the library. Then there was Zoe-- she was cool. And then, in the seat beside the one in front of her-- Grant. She hadn't seen him at all the past few days. He was probably still torn up about Padma... poor guy.

The far corner, besides Ernie, was filled with more people she didn't know. She curiously eyed the taller boy sitting in front of Ernie a hair longer than she did the other no-names, but didn't think much of it as she took her seat between the white haired guy and-- wait, hadn't there been someone else sitting in that seat to her right? Oh, well....

Listening to Mr. Francisco's explanation of the electives, missing classmates, and horribly named 'Flag and Seek' game, she was hesitant to feel too excited about it at first. She was still unsure of how a game like this was going to turn out. Looking at the names on team one, she tried to think back to the fight, but couldn't recall seeing much of what the other kids could do besides her teammates and Emma-- much less remember any other names that might've been mentioned. She knew that someone was able to either turn into or summon a dragon. And then there had been that one kid Shane had had to put in time out-- oh yeah. She glanced at the taller boy sitting at the end of her row by the window. That was the guy, wasn't it?

Emma's tulpas seemed strong, but besides that-- who else might be able to give her a good run for her money? Normally her desire to participate in these sort of school assignments would cave under the weight of her laziness, but nothing had been remotely normal lately. This was superhero training, as far as she was concerned. She wanted to kick ass and take names the next time any DC creatures tried 'kicking up dirt'-- as Fredric had put it. She wanted a decent sparring partner-- no offense to poor Kusari. The idea of being able to skip out on a week's worth of classes was pretty tantalizing as well.

She read through the names of the opposing team several times. Sander... Angel... Marcus... and Grant. So that just left Sander and Angel. Not that Marcus and Grant's abilities were 'weak' per se (she fully expected Marcus to be a decent flag-stealing thorn in her team's side with that blink of his), but surely Sander or Angel were on Team One for a reason. One of them were sure to fit the bill as far as power equivalency went. Hopefully she'd find out which one before the game started that afternoon.

Classes flew by as Callan set to work on getting her phone just the way she wanted it. One whole class period of searching through google for a decent background image ended with a rather generic looking selection, but she felt it was fitting-- not to mention it reminded her of that place. Procrastinating by perusing the Death and Taxes chat and fiddling with her more minute phone settings for a time, she finally got around to recreating her facebook account and sending her mother a message. She felt a heavy feeling of guilt as she tapped the words into existence.

Hey mom. Sorry it took me so long to message you. They deleted all my social media accounts and I've been held up with lots of stuff. I'm doing okay though. Are you guys staying with Grandpa while you find a new house? I hope you're all doin okay. Could you send me everyone's number when you get the chance? I've got a new phone. Love you.

Send. If her mom's schedule was anything like it used to be before she leveled their house, she probably wouldn't get a response until later that night. Locking the phone and slipping it into pocket, Callan used the remainder of Chemistry to fill out the elective form-- doodling stars and squiggles in the margins once finished.

---

---

---

---

Walking towards Ground Zero, Callan could feel the same anxious swelling in her chest as before, when the ankle cuffs explained they'd be fighting against DC monsters on their very first day. This was pure excitement and adrenaline. Even amidst the surreal spookiness of Ground Zero, nothing seemed capable of dampening her mood at this point. Every chance she got, her eyes flitted to the members of her group as she tried to guess who was who among the unfamiliar faces. Finally, as the teams were separated, her eyes fell on the two that could only be Sander and Angelique. Remembering the scuffle with Shane, she felt more inclined to stare at the former with a keen interest before facing the rest of her team. With unwavering confidence and a powerful pep in her step, she clapped her hands together and took a deep breath.

Let's do this.

After class had ended, Savannah had rushed to the cafeteria. She hadn't had a chance to eat that morning due to a rude awakening, and was awfully hungry. Sitting through a class for a couple of hours hadn't helped either. Unlike her classmates, who had thought that the material was easy, Savannah was in the 8th grade. The stuff that they were learning- she hadn't learned that yet. So she actually had to pay attention. And what made it hard to pay attention was several animals yowling and barking, not to mention the students not paying attention.

And the origami guy. That was distracting.

When she got to the buffet, she got a bean and cheese burrito, and a cup of iced tea and headed to a seat.

Meat meat meat meat meat. With tongs, Brent grabbed thick slices of beef and stacked them on top of white rice, before spooning himself a large portion of seasonal vegetables. On the tray too was a large bowl of chicken noodle soup, accompanied by a whole handful of saltine crackers. Two tall glasses of milk precariously balanced on the edge, but, not showing any sort of anxiety about an inoppurtune trip, the amethyst-eyed youth looked around, searching for a good place to sit. Angel wasn't there, no doubt concerned about the whereabouts of her Norwegian puppy. Callan, Emma, Siena, and Marcus all looked to be busy with the new guy, while Sophia...well, where was Sophia?

Upon scanning further though, he caught a shock of blond hair on a milk-despising little girl's head, and grinned.

Walking over and placing his own full tray opposite of her, Brent sat down in front of Savannah. "Heyo, still on a diet from all those McDs?"

"I'm eating a bean and cheese burrito. Does it look like I'm still on a diet?" Savannah said, taking a bite of the aforementioned burrito. Damn, this was good. She looked inside of the burrito, and viewed a tortilla full to the bursting with beans and cheese. Nothing else. Just beans, cheese, and a flour tortilla.

"You're eating one," he smiled, "So yeah, pretty diet-y. Only 390 or so calories, after all, and there's no meat at all in it. Cheese is a good substitute for milk though."

As he spoke, Brent began to tear open the packets of crackers one by one, dropping them into his soup.

Savannah scowled at hearing the milk mentioned again. He really wasn't giving up, was he? "Y'know, there isn't even that much cheese in this at all. It's mostly beans. And plus-" she said, cutting herself off to take a bite- "Aren't beans protein too?"

"Yup, beans are indeed protein, and you don't have to worry about fats when eating them, which makes them pretty good for the whole dieting thing," Brent replied. "I would mention that beans don't have the amino acids you need...but the cheese makes up for that."

WIth a fork, he pulled a fat slice of beef into his own mouth before chomping down, an expression of childlike bliss blossoming on his face as he let out a satisfied sigh. "Can't beat meat in terms of taste though. And hey, meat doesn't make you gassy either."

"Hey, you know what they say." Savannah said, taking a sip of her tea. "Beans, beans, the wonderful fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot." Savannah said this with a small smile.

Immature, really, but Brent grinned regardless. For all her angry small child attitude, Savannah did have a nice smile. "Never actually heard stuff like that in my own school. Everyone was more interested in doing rhyming couplets that insulted their teachers."

With one gulp, he downed a glass of milk. "Stuff like 'Mr. Mare's such a bear/Underwear? No, it's just hair.'"

"Damn. They must have been English nerds." Savannah said, biting a chunk off her burrito. "To be fair, I didn't learn it at school either. My classmates didn't even rhyme. They just cursed and made bad jokes." Savannah made a face.

"Wow, I thought rap music made poetry 'hip' and 'neat' again."

Savannah scowled. "Apparently not."

Brent chuckled. Must be at the age where she thought everyone else was stupid. Taking the soup bowl in his hands, Brent carefully sipped on it, until his tongue became accustomed to the heat and he downed a whole mouthful. Another long, satisfied sigh passed through his lips, before he turned his attention back to the little lady. Absentmindedly folding a napkin into a rose, he asked, "By the way, how're you finding the classes, Savannah?"
"Actually, they're pretty hard. What do you think of them?" Savannah asked. She took a chunk of the burrito and shoved it into her mouth.

"I'm, like, 18," Brent replied, "so it'd be pretty pathetic if I couldn't do algebra in my sleep. Pretty sure you learn that sorta stuff in elementary though. Wonder why they're starting with that stuff..."

"You kidding me? I've never even learned algebra. I'm pretty sure they start that stuff in like the 8th grade." Savannah replied.

"Mmm, might be a difference in schools. By the time I got to Grade 12, all I had were AP courses to take."

"Oh wow, AP?" Savannah said. "You must be really smart."

"Naw, pretty sure that was average," Brent laughed. "There were these crazy kids who skipped like, two grades and then got into university early. There were musicians and athletes on a national level as well. The school I was at just churned those types out. Super duper insane shit."

Really, compared to them, he was still falling behind, huh?
"Oh, wow. That's so cool. I could never do that." Savannah said with a big-eyed look.

"Well, they did get a headstart probably. The whole multiple tutors plus starting at an early age multipled by intense parental pressure thing." He shrugged then, stuffing four slices of beef in his mouth. After chewing and swallowing, Brent said, "You could totally do that though. If you have something you're passionate about, well...your parents aren't here, and you don't have to worrying about basic necessities, so outside of your classes, why not devote yourself to something you like?"

"Talent isn't necessary if you're willing to go all out, after all!"

Savannah chewed a bit, and then swallowed. "You see, I'm what people call a dumbass. I don't exactly have the-" Savannah searched for a phrase to use for a few moments. "mental capacity to do that."

"Ah, here's a fun fact though!" Brent snapped his fingers, summoning random sex ed trivia from a couple years ago. "Puberty lasts from two to five years, and for girls, starts from 9 to 14, depending on the individual. Now, what's one of puberty's most important functions?"

A rhetorical question, really, because he didn't wait for Savannah to answer.

"Brain development! Of course people would think you're a dumbass when your brain hasn't even fully matured yet. The important thing is to not let those losers drag you down because of that. Though genetics may have some hand in it, your brain could be compared to a muscle in that as long as you use it a lot, your intelligence will increase incrementally."

Pushing up glasses that do not exist, Brent grinned. "That's why school makes you learn things that you'll never use again. It's not the knowledge that's actually important, it's the exercise your brain receives while attaining that knowledge."

"Little known fact: my parents always said I was dropped on the head as a baby, but I managed to get fairly good just by bashing my head through obstacles until my brain became a wrecking ball."

Savannah just gawked. "I didn't know that. Th-thanks for telling me?" she said. The whole monologue had been unnecessary, just a reason for him to keep talking. But she apparently wasn't a dumbass. At least not yet. That was... relieving? She really didn't care.

"You're welcome," he beamed. He noticed, of course, her disinterest and mild confusion, but Brent also didn't particularly care. Savannah was likable in the way kids were all sorta adorable, but she wasn't particularly great at anything else. "Whatcha like doing anyways? Got a hobby that isn't video games?"

Savannah nodded excitedly, suddenly interested in the conversation again. Finally, a topic that she actually cared about! Her foot danced around, and her fingers bounced against the table. "I play the violin! Actually, I just got a new one from the school, so I'm really happy about that. It's a Cremona, it's actually good for my size, even though I'm really small and all." she said, gushing over the topic. If there was one thing that could catch her attention, it was any conversation about classical music.

"Oh, right, you got that, eh?" Brent nodded along, watching the blonde's fingers dance on the table. Her left hand sure was agile. "How long have you been practicing? And huh...is a Cremona supposed to be a high-end brand or something? Only violins I know about in detail are the Strads."

Savannah nodded. "Yeah, Cremonas are pretty high-end. They cost a bunch, but they're not nearly as high-end as the Strads. I, um uh, I started when I was like eight."

"Six years, hm..." Brent nodded at that. He had no real idea what six years of practice could bring out, but it was definitely longer than the amount of time he spent pursuing any particular 'hobby'. "I'd love to hear you play some time. Got any specialty songs, Sav?"

Savannah shook her head. "No, not really. I'm really into Lindsey Stirling right now, though. I can play a couple of her songs."
Lindsey Stirling? He could have sworn that she died from a three-headed giant turtle dropping from a kilometer above onto her concert hall. Well, fame was attained post-mortem anyways, so whatever. "That's cool. Got them memorized?"

Savannah shook her head quickly. "God no. It's so hard to memorize them- I've only memorized really short songs. Like Mary had a Little Lamb and Hot Cross Buns. You know- that short stuff."

...after six years? Brent smiled, overwriting his disappointment with a reflexive motion."So stuff like muscle memory doesn't apply to music, huh? I guess it isn't really a sport or a martial art."

He dwelled upon that for a moment, making edits to his assumptions and the knowledge he attained in the past. Was music a more cerebral task after all, that required active thought? Or was Savannah just a 'dumbass' that couldn't even remember things with her body? It was a bit of a pity, that the only examples he had were high-level, talented musicians and a 14 year old kid, but, well, he'll just have to broaden the sample pool more in the future. Another task to focus on during class.

"Got any plans on requesting a violin instructor? Or are you going to go the self-taught route?"

"Oh, no no no." Savannah replied, shaking her head quickly. "I can memorize parts of a song- just not the whole thing. It's actually really weird. Do you ever listen to a really popular Taylor Swift song and just memorize one or two lines?" she saked. But it wasn't really a question. Mostly because she didn't wait for him to answer. "It's sort of like that- but muscle memory instead of your head."

At Brent's second question, Savannah shook her head yet again. "No. I've taught myself for a while- and I'm sure that no one will want a subnatural student, right?" she added a weak grin at the end of this. It was a shame really- she couldn't learn properly.

Taylor Swift? The country star that was beheaded by a headless centaur during the Emmy Awards? He did in fact only recall a couple of lines from one of her songs, but that was really only due to said lines being from the chorus. Still, if she had taught herself the whole time, it did make a little more sense, her lack of progress. Six years trying to figure something out by herself because circumstances conspired against her desire to get proper training. Six years spent fighting a lonely battle, trying to perfect an art without the assistance of knowledgeable musician. He may be embellishing it a little bit, but...

"You're probably right about that," he shrugged, "But online teachers exist too, these days. With proper camera positioning and a believable excuse, you can probably get someone to teach you while concealing your subnatural existence. Or put it on your request form. Daisy seems to be more or less happy to deal with non-violent requests, after all!"

Yeah, he might be getting his tank any time soon, but surely there's one competent violin instructor out there who was more interested in music than in race.

Savannah snorted. "Yeah, you could be right. But how do I explain when I flip out? Or in the event where a guard comes in and aims his gun at my head? You can't explain everything, Brent. Especially not the weird stuff that goes on here."

"Weird stuff, huh?" Memories of the basement of the hospital popped up in his mind once more, before it was then replaced by images of life outside USARILN. Monster attacks. Activist organizations. Police bashing down doors. "Weird stuff happens everywhere, but I see your point."

He thought for a moment, wondering if it was possible to help someone learn a new ability if he didn't have that ability himself.

"Well, if the request form gets you nothing, I don't mind helping you out with pitch and all that. Not like I really have anything better to do when I'm so far ahead in school. I didn't devote six years to violin-ing, but hey, a second set of ears is always useful for improvement, right?"

He was trying too hard, but on the other hand, Brent didn't care. It was like Emma all over again. His curiousity was ignited.

Savannah hesitated a bit, biting her lip. "Nah, no thanks. Wouldn't wanna take up your time or anything like that."

"Taking up all the free time that I'm dying to get rid of? Alright." Brent laughed, before he bit down on his fork. Looking at his plate, he realized that somewhere along the way, it had been emptied completely. "Well, I'm going to go for round two. Want me to get you anything?"
"No thanks. I'm pretty full. That burrito was huge." Savannah answered his question.

"Really now?" There was a tinge of disbelief in his tone as he scooted off, disappearing off into the crowds.

He never did return to that table.

Entering class, it did not take long for Angélique to be annoyed once by the presence of Fredric, waving at the girl with a smile that made it look like nothing ever happened between the two. Was he doing that on purpose to aggravate her? If it was the case, he damn well succeeds in doing so. Not to mention that there were four additional missing students on top of Aaron’s disappearance. What the fuck was going on with their classroom?

With a bored look on her face, she looked at the paper a guard just handed to her while absent-mindedly listening to the class supervisor at the front. So that’s what elective classes were. Back home, they call it ‘optional classes’. Technically, they were mandatory for extra credits, but they weren’t what would make one graduate from school anyway.

Setting up the elective form aside for later, Angel listened to Fredric about this activity he had brought up. It was sort of simple, really. It reminded her of Flag Football in her school days, although they weren’t chasing after the guy with the ball, but rather randomly taking off bands and looking out for healers to get points. It sounded dull. Already, enthusiasm sapped away from the black-clothed singer. The problem was that this will be a team game, so she couldn’t let her own lack of motivation hold her team back. The reward at the end was quite mundane too, nothing really encouraging.

Getting her requested royal blue folio out during classes, she reviewed the information given about her classmates, memorizing their name and faces. On the empty spaces of the pages, she would write down information she had already gathered on the individuals she had already encountered, such as powers for the entire crew of the previously-formed Green Team, Lilianna, Christmas and Siena, as well as her first impressions of everyone she had met so far. It took her an entire class reviewing and adding information onto her profile sheets. After it was done, she had separated the folio into two stacks. One was composed of every players involved into the first set of match, the other into the second set.

Until it was time to being brought into Ground Zero for their Flag n’ Seek game, Angélique didn’t pay much attention in class, fiddling with her phone, gathering information on Death and Taxes, chatting, reading more e-mails and messages that she was still catching up with from her week-long absence. While there was certainly an ordered chaos in Angel’s newest lifestyle, it was terrible just how much of a mess she had left her old life behind, as a result of her awakening as a subnatural, at least on the social side.

Throughout social media, there was an uproar about her coming out as a subnatural in such a way. Media seemed to have jumped on the opportunity to make a scandal out of it, with reason considering how dire the situation had been. The most aggravating however that is those same media started the rumor that it was all part of a scheme, terrorism in a way. Angélique Lachance was but a subnatural terrorist who bade her time, building fame until she could hit hard. Effectively, those rumors gave an even worse reputation to Subnaturals, gave more reason for the normal people to fear the supernatural-empowered freaks. Some hardcore fans and groups of activist tried to rally against these rumors and defended the young Canadian singer, but against the already overwhelming general mistrust towards the “Dreamcatcher’s Blessed”, the issue was quelled rather quickly, branding the newly-formed Voice of the Metalheads into one more hated villain.

As a result, Angel had received many e-mails and notifications. Hate letters, threats, sympathies, sponsors cutting their ties with her, manager and staff members leaving her service, letters from lawyers and bankers; she had read them all. It had broken her heart reading the letters, but she was a woman who loved her fans, and so had taken the time to answer to every single one of them during the days she spent had spent in USARILN. This afternoon, she had finally managed to get through them all.

She had been thinking about her old life during her stay in this prison. Would she be able to remain the same person, even though she was locked behind this prison they faked as school for Subnaturals? She wanted to believe she was the same Angélique Lachance, popular rock and metal musician, who had been so close to her fans and even tried to become a voice for the outcasts and secluded members of society (she wasn’t an activist, but she had the reputation of being close to one, her reasons unknown as to why she had been supporting Subnaturals during her last years as an icon).

No. What happened during her last concert changed it forever. She would no longer be the fan-caring leader of a band. She was transformed into a Subnatural criminal, one who had robbed the lives of people who loved what she was doing and who trusted her. There was no way she could return to her last life.

Hence, the raven-haired X-marked deleted everything related to her. E-mail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, everything until there was no trace left of her but the fan-made legacy she had left behind throughout the internet.

By the time she was done with deleting her old life and focusing on what will be ahead of her, the class ended, and it was time for everyone to be herded together and brought to Ground Zero, where the Flag n’ Seek game was to happen.

Time to see if she was truly resolved into starting from scratch. From popular singer icon to despised Subnatural. Would she witness as much success as she had in her previous lifestyle? Only time and her living existence will tell.

---

---

The food Lily took for herself disappeared as soon as she sat on her chosen table. Her tummy full, she found exhaustion catching up with her. With so little sleep, it wasn't really surprising. She stacked her empty plates on her food tray and pushed it forward on the table. With the kitchenware out of the way, she crossed her arms on the table and laid her chin on it, watching the other students eat together and converse with each other. The corner table that she had chosen was inconspicuous enough to let her watch what was happening in the other tables. She saw familiar faces intermixed with unfamiliar ones. A flash of aquamarine hair, a scarred boy, brown hair... Her sleep deprived mind recognized them as her team mates...or previous team mates. She, however, had no idea if they were gonna be put in the same team again. From where she sat, they looked chummy together sitting with the pretty girl named Emma and someone she didn't recognize, a boy with wavy dark hair. She didn't find a particular want or need to join them but she wondered in passing if any of them would welcome her if she got up and joined their table.

It didn't take long for her lids to slowly flutter close, her entire body relaxing into sleep. Never mind the chattering voices in the cafeteria, never mind the clattering of utensils on plates. She was tired and no amount of noise would prevent her from falling asleep.

It would have been nice to have a dreamless sleep for once but Lily's were always full of nightmares about nondescript, featureless and nameless people. Despite the weariness of her body, her mind threatened to pull her out of her impomptu nap, desperate to escape the curses, harsh words, hateful utterings and malicious glares that always came from the faceless people that haunted her.

But disturbing dreams weren't what woke her up. It was the barrel of a rifle poking her on the back followed by a male voice barking out an order. "Wake up!"

Lily sleepily opened her eyes and looked dully at the guard. "Why?" she challenged, a little irritated that she was roused from her sleep.

The guard responded by pressing the barrel of the rifle a little more firmly against her back.

Lily sighed. "Fine," she muttered and once again let herself be herded to who knows where.

Where turned out to be a security outpost near Ground Zero. The small blonde teenager reached out for a cookie and began nibbling on it as the rules of the game was explained. The idea of being a "golden snitch" perked Lily up and she soon found her depressive mood change into her manic one. Even the boring directive of staying hidden at all costs during the game didn't dampen her mood. She glanced towards the other "golden snitch' and grinned. It was Christmas, the boy she had drank blood from. Lily was glad that he looked well enough. From where she was standing, she waved her hand and half bitten cookie cheerily at him.

Lily bounced on the balls of her feet a little impatiently. But she didn't need to wait long. Soon, they were escorted into a large clearing. Lily shoved the rest of the cookie into her mouth, chewing like a hamster with its cheeks full as she looked around a little excitedly. She wrinkled her nose at the sight of the dead bodies. What sort of place was this? Why were the people at school bringing them to a place with dead bodies?

Dead bodies...

She stared wide eyed at one of the unmoving bodies, its form melting into one from her fragmented memory. Dark hair. Blood pooling around. She waited for the dead person's head to lift up and curse at her.

But it didn't move. The still body didn't even have dark hair.

They moved on.

A little more along the way and she was separated from Christmas. She didn't even get a chance to say goodbye as they were led to different directions. She was deposited in a large, nonfunctioning, empty freezer in a run down restaurant and was reminded to stay hidden before she was left alone.

"Stay hidden at all costs or risk solitary confinement in a containment chamber," she repeated to herself. Being a "golden snitch" wasn't exciting after all.