Roxy stood in the shadow of an alley on the rough side of her hometown. She spent most of her time in the shadows hiding from her father and his men. She rubbed at the odd stone that had appeared on her collarbone. A day after it appeared she had received a letter stating that the stone gave her powers if only she could learn to use them. She just had to figure out how to get there. Anywhere was better then here. She made her way to the bus station.

Jarek had been spending most of his days alone since the stone appeared at the baseof his skull. He had been trying to figure out how to control his abilities until he got the strange email. Jarek now stood at a bus station, reading the cryptic email again on his phone while rubbing his neck where the stone was.

"Smell ya later!" Collin called off to the taxi driver as it sped off. Heh, I've always wanted to do that. Just like Gary. Or Will Smith. Which reference was that? As Collin pondered what is reference was actually about, he made his way to the facility that was mentioned in the email.

It's gotta be a Fresh Prince one... I was stepping out of a cab... Collin walked straight into a pillar of the building, causing him to stumble backwards a little bit.

"Ow, son of a bitch..." He grumbled, rubbing his forehead that had just been hit. "I need to day dream less often...

Collin looked up at the facility which seemed to glow in it's whiteness. It was hospital like, professional and clean. Quite the opposite of his shoddy apartment in the middle of the city.

"Welp, this is probably it." Collin spoke to himself. His hand went to the newly formed gem that appeared over his heart. "It would make sense that a hospital or something would know about this gem thing. Probably some weird comic-book science mumbo jumbo." Collin took a deep breath and approached the door of the facility, knocking on it.

Angelica held the suitcase tightly in her hand as she sprinted through the streets of the town. She still didn't understand how that stone appeared on her body or how the anonymous sender even knew about it. Her mind was full of questions (and different book ideas for some reason). Sooner or later, she arrived at the facility mentioned in the email. It looked suspiciously like a hospital but she ignored that detail. She walked up to the entrance and stood behind the boy which she saw knocking at the door.

@Animera

Collin continued knocking after about a minute, but eventually found his efforts fruitless.

Welp, that's all I can do. He gave one final, hard, loud knock on the door and sighed. Guess I'll just chill out or shoot the dude an email, telling them I'm here. His hand went to his phone and he brought up his gMail app. As he began typing up an email to the address that called him hear, he caught someone out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head towards the newcomer to get a better view of them.

It was a girl, if Collin were to guess, she was around the same age as him, perhaps a bit younger and still in high school. She had brilliant red hair that seemed to burn with a sort of elegance. Her stance was cautious as she approached him and the facility, holding her suitcase tight to her body. While not afraid, she was definitely on her guard, ready to act quickly if need be.

Quite the opposite of how Collin approached the facility.

"Hey-o," Collin said casually, giving a little salute to the girl. "How's it going? You trying to get in here too?"

@jeroukoo@Animera
“Thanks for the ride, Onyx. I’ll catch a ride back.”

“No problem, babes. Good luck with… whatever you’re doing.”

Blowing a kiss to her friend, Lexi stepped away from the car, waving to Onyx as they drove away. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Lexi bent down to tie her shoe as she thought of a game plan. It’s cool, I’ll totally just walk into a building that I don’t even know because of a sketchy email. Yup, makes perfect sense.

However, as if to quell her reluctance, her left hand had wandered to her chest where, just above her cleavage, a small gem lay. It served as a reminder. If she wanted to figure all this out, she had to do this, no matter how much her strong survival instinct warned her not to.

Come on, you’re Lexi Madden. Woman up and walk in there like the Queen that you are! At the confidence boost, Lexi straightened up before waltzing confidently towards the interestingly bright building that made her raise an eyebrow. A small part of her wanted to take a can of spray paint and give the building a more, uh, real feel.

She mentally ran over the words of the email in her head while her left hand tightened slightly on the strap of her purse as she heard the sounds of talking. Head tilting to the side in curiosity, she narrowed her eyes at the sight of two people at the door. She resisted to touch the gem on her chest for comfort, not wanting to give any sign of weakness.

Relaxing her form yet maintaining her confidence, she approached the pair. A small smirk appeared on her face as she eyed both of them up and down. I’m sooo okay with this.

“Glad to see I’m not the only one here. Chances of this being a set up have diminished quite a bit.” Lexi drawled, moving to stand by the woman as she crossed her arms.

@jeroukoo@BubblegumQueen

" Hello and yes I am indeed." she responded to the blonde boy. He seemed to be older than her, but it was hard to determine based on just looks.

Angelica smiled at the green eyed girl which approached them "I suppose we came here for the same reason, didn't we?" the redhead asked, the bright smile never leaving her face. She kept the tight grip on her suitcase. The questionable appearance of the building started to worry her. What if they were summoned here to just be tested on?

@Animera@BubblegumQueen

"Hello and yes I am indeed." The ruby hair girl replied to Collin. She seemed more relaxed when she spoke, but held her suitcase close to her. Wonder what's in there? She's hanging on to that thing for dear life.

“Glad to see I’m not the only one here. Chances of this being a set up have diminished quite a bit.” Another female voice came from a far. It was cool with a hint always latent sarcasm. Collin lazily looked over to the source, and stood before him was a girl quite different from the ruby haired one.

The new girl's clothing was a tight black leather jacket paired with tight, torn, black denim pants and a t-shirt underneath. As for the girl herself, her was jet black, with a hint of green at the bangs. Her skin was an ivory white with piercing green eyes. She had a confident and sarcastic demeanor about herself, one Collin would describe himself as "edgy."

Cool and edgy! Looks like we got two opposites here. Wonder how this will play out?

"I suppose we came here for the same reason, didn't we?" The ruby hair girl cut off Collin's train of thought about the edgy girl.

"Ah, yeah. Did all of you guys have a 'Stephen Universe' happen to y'all?" Collin asked. He absent mindly started humming the theme song to the show, in typical Collin fashion.

@Draconis @jeroukoo @Animera @BubblegumQueen
Roxy watched the group from the shadows. She had no desire to interact yet. She was going to be cautious about this. The ability to walk in the shadows had gotten her out of one very bad situation. She wasn't going to walk into trsp. She studied the otherarrivals and dismissed them as threats. They weren't anything she couldn't handle. She was curious what they could do. She couldn't tell. None of them looked like anything other then regular teens.

The door to the facility opened and an older man stepped out. He stood barely five feet tall. His hair was white and stuck out in ever direction like he had stuck he had stick his finger in a light socket. His eyes seemed to change colors with the light. It was like they were a reflection rather than normal eyes. "Welcome young ones. Welcome. I am sure you have many questions. Please come inside we will talk. We do not wish to attract attention. You have much to learn and nor much time."

Jarek had managed to get dropped off in front of the hospital like building. He disembarked from his transportation and made his way down the path as everyone else started to walk inside. I guess I'm not the only one to receive an invitation. Jarek continues down the walkway, eventually catching up to the others inside.

---

---

---

---

" I guess you can say that" Angelica responded. Looking down she noticed that her knuckles turned white due to her tight grip on her suitcase. She relaxed her grip a bit. As she heard the boy humming the theme song, she decided to join the humming.

The redhead turned her attention to the extraordinary man. Angie simply nodded her head and headed inside. At least she could hit someone with her suitcase if they tried to harm her.

@Animera@KatherinWinter@jeroukoo

Lexi gave an unlady-like snort at the comparison, lips further quirking up. “Steven Universe, eh? That’s one way to put it, cupcake.” She drawled, eyes alight. However, Lexi noticed the other girl’s nervousness had wore off a bit and felt herself relaxing as the air seemed to lighten up even more.

She was brought from her observations by the arrival of an older gentleman who idly reminded her of the doc from ‘Back to the Future’. But, she decided to put her feelings (and slight desire to rewatch the ‘Back to the Future’ franchise) aside for her desire to get answers.

Glancing at the others, including some more approaching, she gave a shrug before following after with little hesitation. She'd moved ahead of the group with a kind of cool confidence as she waltzed into the meeting room. Glancing around with an unimpressed stare, she plopped herself in one of the chairs as she loosely crossed her legs.

@BubblegumQueen@Animera@Draconis@KatherinWinter

“Steven Universe, eh? That’s one way to put it, cupcake.” The girl's voice was scathing with sass.

Aha, I was right about the edge. Before he could reply with some sarcastic quip, the redhead girl started to hum along with him. She seemed to relax a bit too as she did.

"Hey! Look, I got Ruby-hair over here liked it." Collin said with a cool grin. "And where'd ya get cupcake from?
Is it cause my musical humming was so sweet?" He changed his grin to an exaggerated smile to further emphasize the pun.

As he finished his sentence, a short man who had crazy scientist written all over him stepped through the doors and began to welcome the group. "Welcome young ones. Welcome. I am sure you have many questions. Please come inside we will talk. We do not wish to attract attention. You have much to learn and nor much time."

As edgy girl and ruby haired followed the Einstein rip-off, Collin decided to take a good look of the outside before he followed the group.
A male about the same age as himself caught his eye. He wore a black pseudo-suit jacket and a red tie. Unlike the other two girls who Collin had met, this boy had normal colored hair. Collin couldn't really get a read on the guy based on just his movement. However, since three out of the three people who showed up at the building arrived for the same purpose, he assumed the boy was one of them.

"Hey dude!" Collin waved to the guy casually. "Gem party is this way! You're a little late though,
so hurry up, bro!" Collin turned his head away from him and made his way into the building, figuring the new guy would follow.

Roxy stayed in the shadows as she followed the others. So far no one had felt her presence. She knew it would be harder to hide once they were in the building. There weren't going to be as many shadows foe her to hide in. While she had gotten good at walking in big shadows, like those of buildings, she wasn't as good at smaller shadows. She would stay in the shadows as long as possible but she knew she would fall out eventually.

The older man opened the door and indicated for them to enter. "Just go straight down the hall. There's a conference room at the end. We will talk there." He promised. The teens would see a long wide hallway as they entered. It would be like those of a hospital. Except there was nothing on the walls. They would pass what looked like classrooms. The rooms had desks and comfortable looking chairs. There was a large white board in the front of the room but nothing else.

Jarek slowed down a bit as Collin yelled out to him. Gem party? At least there's more than just me. But that doesn't rule out a trap. Jarek continued to walk, not sure about this blonde guy who had addressed him. The guy seemed too eccentric for all this cloak and dagger stuff. Curiosity and pure hope for answers was all that brought Jarek to this place.

@KatherinWinter

"Just go straight down the hall. There's a conference room at the end. We will talk there." Einstein directed Collin down the hall.

"Sure thing, Doc." Collin said as he strolled down the hallway. The hallway continued to give off a hospital-y vibe. That made Collin slightly nervous. Maybe they were brought to this hospital to be experimented on? THAT would super suck.
Not a big fan of being poked, prodded, and sliced. Collin made his way in the conference room and his eyes went to the white board.

"Oh hell yeah!" Collin said, with a wide grin across his face. He immediately went to the white board, looking for a marker.

The alarm starts to blare
"Oh SHIT! I'm late!!!"
Rod dashes out of his room with only boxers on, he grabs a piece of toast that just popped out of the toaster and headed outside his family's 90's wood panel apartment trying his best to get his pants on as he ran down the street to get to his bike. His mother yelled at him in angry Spanish in the background. With the letter in his pocket, he rushed to the facility described within the letter's contents. As he rode down the parkway, he wondered what this meeting could answer for him. He has so many questions about the gem embedded in his palm. He didn't have much of a problem with it but he hoped that it was nothing too serious and that he could get it removed. After all, a weird growth like that would put him in a bad spot in the media if he were to ever get famous. "I hope to god I didn't miss it.."

Jarek followed the group down the halls into the conference room. He took a seat at the far end of the table and watched the blonde guy wearily as he doodled on the white board. That guy is way too excited about all this. For all we know the stones were planted so we can be experiments.

((Sorry. I was waiting for something to reply to but... Oh well))

"so this is the institute that was in the Email" Sven knocked on the door and wondered if anyone could here him "hello, you are late Sven. Come in the rest are already here" said a well groomed man that looked like einstein. and then Sven was lead by him down a choridor to a room full of people about his age how did he know my name? thought Sven.

@Draconis@BubblegumQueen

Collin placed the marker on the whiteboard sill impressed with his poorly drawn tiger. It turned out better than he expected, but Collin was still no artist. He turned around and saw edge girl sitting cross legged in a chair, her "I don't give a fuck" attitude unwavering. He also saw the kid he waved down from earlier.

"Like the drawing, muffin?" Collin asked the edgy girl, picking the first pastry that popped in his head to call her. "It's called, 'El Tigre en Uno Color,' fancy no?

His smile was beginning to become all too familiar to the group as he grinned. He looked over to the new kid, and waved.

"Glad you decided to come in. You have magic super powers and a pretty looking rock embedded in your skin?"