---

---

U = Usagi
SN = Ser Nemo
V = Vision
LN = Lady Nimue

Bassard, Sabine - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • B - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 10 - U
• Comments:
  • A radiant and lethal delight. I expect we will see great things from her. -SN
  • Increase surveillance. Ensure latest psyblockers are effective against Ms. Bassard. Can we install a kill switch of some sorts? -U

Flynn, April - Junior

• Ranking:
  • B - SN
  • C - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 7 - U
• Comments:
  • An entertaining and endearing tribute to a Disney classic. I wish we had seen more from Mx. Flynn. In time, I expect they can live up to their family's legacy. -SN
  • I'm not sure why she thinks this is musical theater. But with the family history, I'd recommend increased surveillance. Do we have an idea on her limits, ie can she blood bend? -U

Gallio-Lensherr, Andy - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 10 - U
• Comments:
  • Her control over her abilities was admirable. I would be curious to see how she handles different environments - in an aquatic setting, she could be a blessing or a curse to her other teammates. I am disappointed she did not display her vampirism. -SN
  • Are we really letting in the child of SELENE and MAGNETO here? I get that we want to help at-risk kids and monitor the next generation of supervillains, but seriously? This is a bad idea. I recommend we find a way to expel her ASAP. Has she broken any rules yet we could use??? We don't want another House of M situation on our hands here... We need to find out what her magic capabilities are. Can we discretely cut her off from that power source, maybe with a nanite? -U

Jordan, Leah - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1 - U
• Comments:
  • Her creation was breathtaking. Ms. Jordan's work belongs in a museum. But like the most mesmerizing and haunting of achievements, it has already become nothing more than dust. -SN
  • Impressive levels of control, but again - why do the students think this is an art show? I recommend placing Ms. Jordan on one of the elite teams for the contest. That's a future Avenger, if we can keep her away from art school. -U

---

---

---

Dorian took a deep breath, waiting outside the doors of the gymnasium for his turn to hit the stage. One by one he peered inside through the doors watching as his colleagues and friends all did outstanding displays of power and finesse. It made his heart pound against their cage within his chest. He ensured to give April tons of encouraging hand gestures throughout her performance, whether or not she saw any of them he didn’t know. But what mattered was that he was there for his friend, especially after such a trying day yesterday. His sheets still smelled like toilet water, taking their rightful place inside his laundry basket to be part of today's issues he needed to address. As Andy’s performance was coming to an end, Dorian slid the door closed once more, pacing back and forth as he nervously twiddled his thumbs wondering if his performance would be good enough. What even was good enough? Once she walked out and passed him, Dorian took a hard swallow before taking a deep breath and walking in. ”Ok Dorian, you got this. You can do this” He said, whispering to himself a little pep talk as he made his way up towards the stage.

The stage was dressed up as he’d instructed. Curtains partially drawn, instruments were laid about in certain spaces, and now all that was missing was him. Dorian was wearing a billowy white shirt and black pants similar to the outfit that the human Casper wore in the old film adaptation. He clicked play on a remote he had hidden in his pocket, knowing that the music had just enough of a pause to help him get into his astral form and begin. He closed his eyes and vanished from sight. As the lilting melody of Casper's lullaby began to play over the speakers, Dorian flew up into the air above where he stood and began to waltz like he’d practiced with his fathers. Every other rotation he’d phase in and out, a ghostly waltz that slowly moved itself downwards from where he started in time with the music. He wasn’t an expert at mixing tracks by any means, but he’d tried for this one. Blending together a trio of songs from across several decades to help encapsulate what it was he wanted to do. The spotlight was on him, directly atop illuminating his presence like the feel good ending of a film. Once he’d reached the stage once more, the soothing vocals turned into a ghastly cacophony.

Dorian vanished from the stage once more quickly, throwing off his clothes for a quick outfit change he’d left lying here in the astral realm. He was now wearing an all black gothic outfit with Lydia deetz’ iconic red spider web poncho. He was trying to time his possessions with the song but the jitters from earlier were getting the best of him. He took a deep breath, trying to get himself back on track and push past the show nerves. He was a streamer damn it so he could do this! With every note on the keyboard played, he began to possess a different light. Making them flicker and flash in time to the music's beat. He needed to make sure he kept track of where he was at all times. Noticing the ghostly whoosh was about to happen, Dorian booked it towards the judges table, timing his sounds with the quick possession as the temperature around the judges would drop dramatically and their notes would go flying up as a gust of wind blew past them. He quickly circled back towards the stage picking up a trumpet he’d had set down there beforehand, and playing it as he possessed the instrument, making sure to phase back into view everytime a ghostly sound would appear on the track.

This kept up for several more seconds that felt more like hours to him. Nerves fighting him tooth and nail as the flew around the area possessing various instruments that were being played in the soundtrack as he showed his adept skill at being able to quickly enter and exit things (as well as the astral realm) while keeping concentrated on the sounds of a song. He was on the flutes now, flying back and forth between each instrument, barely letting them fall before possessing them again. This song was almost over and he still had so much more to go. Finally the portion came where Lydia began to call out Beetlejuice’s name. The instruments and area became more frantic as the poltergeist began to come full form. Lights all flashed and the area’s temperature dropped lower and lower until the final call of his name. Once the whoosh came in everything fell silent. The lights all turned off and there was no motion up on stage anymore. This lasted for a long two seconds as Dorian caught what breath he could before Beetlejuice himself announced the ramp up. Suddenly the lights began to flicker and glow greens, reds, and yellows. Spotlights flashing here and there as they followed Dorian in and out of the astral realm. All until the song came to a cacophonous end.

There was once again darkness and silence across the gym, yet no sign yet of Dorian Gray. Only the slight sound of the curtains he’d had partially covering the stage moving out of place. A soft thudding sound could be heard overhead and all around. The known marching sounds of a T-Rex from Jurassic park as the opening title played overtop of it. A soft blue light washing over a verdant set that spread across the stage. The song switched to the End Credits From Jurassic Park, as Dorian possessed the large (actual) fossil of a T-Rex that his father was able to get for him just for this audition. He peaked a large skeletal head around a tall tree that had previously hidden the massive fossil from sight. Walking out and taking the stage once more as he showed off how aptly he was capable of maneuvering even the largest of creatures with his powers. Swinging his massive tail, clawing at trees, and chomping at the air as roars played throughout the speakers to his rehearsed mouthings. Once it was all over, Dorian-Rex placed one large foot atop a large boulder, giving off one final roar as the Rex would in the movie before attempting to hop out of the monstrosity. It didn’t stick, or rather it stuck too well. This was fine, the judges didn’t need to know he was having issues. He went for it once more, finding that he couldn’t leave his fossilized body. He’d never stayed in the Astral Realm for too long, there were warnings against it but now he was stuck.

As he looked past the judges a blurry vision began to take form. He could see Nemo there in the Astral Realm, kneeling in front of what looked like a medieval Emma Frost dressed in all white with white hair to match. The Rex’s giant feet began to tap a bit as Dorian began a small nervous dance. If the fossil could groan in concern it would have. No matter how hard he tried, Dorian couldn’t seem to free himself from the Astral Realm. The vision shifted as Nemo and Discount Emma faded away and made way for what looked to be a cave. Dorian squinted to see what was inside and what he’d found was…himself. Older than he was now as a storm brewed just outside this cave. There was a knife in front of him, and Dorian impulsively took one giant Rex step back. Tree’s fell over on stage, small fronds crushed under the weight of the massive skeleton as Dorian tried to escape the scene before him. As he turns to leave it a new scene appears before him, a handful of gravemarkers handmade all lay before him two with April and Danni’s name on them and the year of 2039. Next year. The shock was enough to kick Dorian into fight or flight mode, and the idea of a T-Rex bounding around school crying wasn’t a good one. Dorian forced himself to stand his ground against the image and try to leave once more, popping out of the fossil and back into the material plane where he was once again physical. His eyes were wide, tear drops forming at the corners as he looked towards the judges and noticed Nemo’s eyes were red and misty. His chest tightened and he gave a small bow before walking off stage and then bolting once he’d made it past the judges.

---

---

Zelda really really didn't want to do this sort of thing. After all, she was not very good when it came to performing in front of a group, even if that group was just two people. Which was why she decided to focus less on her actual powers, and more on her other skills, since that was what she was more focused on doing at the school anyway. Her powers were just something extra that tended to cause her trouble more often then not, but mainly that was because her emotions got out of control, which resulted in the constructs she could make doing that too.

With her audition, she hadn't requested a whole lot, mainly a few different obstacles to potentially cause some damage, and a target or robot or something that she could throw knives at. She did also have a thing to allow for the super quick wardrobe changes that was necessary for her own audition. Most of the summer she hadn't exactly left her sewing machine or stopped messing with fabrics. Not only for the few different costumes and outfits that she was doing, but because her sister had begged her for help with her own.

However, by the end of the summer, she had managed to create her costumes for it. Sure, she expected most people would be showcasing their powers and all, but she didn't want to do that. That wasn't exactly the thing that she was interested in the most. Right now she wanted to showcase her other skills, namely her skills in costume making and in knife throwing. Those were skills she preferred more then anything. And of course, since she didn't have much input from anyone else, Zelda decided to have some fun and make them into cosplay costumes, essentially so she could wear them to conventions potentially. One was way simpler to make then the other, but that was also to showcase what she could make.

Of course her Sheik costume was the last one that she was going to showcase, since if she did end up as a superhero or something, that was definitely going to be the costume that she'd use. It was durable and easily able to maneuver in for her.

When she entered the gym for the audition, there were a few things there for her. Mainly there were constructs of sorts that she had requested, each one able to do a different thing. At the moment when she walked in, instead of her usual clothing, she was currently in the first of her costumes. That one being Evie Frye from Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Feeling a bit better with the fact that the outfit came with a hood for her to have pulled up, that was a good thing. The outfit was meant to be fireproof. Though it still allowed for maneuverability which was a good thing. Actually with all of her costumes she made she tended to go more for that one. Zelda had decided to do this costume that was because it then allowed her to potentially get hit hard with fire.

If this actually worked out, then that would be great, since then she could probably work on other sort of outfits that were based around the same sort of thing. Then, there was the bit of a risk she was taking with this one considering what it was meant to do. "So um... Hi... Well I think it might be best to explain things a bit... Namely well... I made this costume and it's meant to sort of be fireproof, but not overly bulky..." she started to say, looking at the judges for a moment, still clearly incredibly nervous as she moved a little bit where she was, "While still allowing for easy movement despite it looking like it might be bulky, the costume is fairly lightweight almost like nothing really... Here's hoping this actually works out..." With those last words, she turned towards one of the constructs. This one was meant to shoot fire off at her a bit, and hopefully this actually wouldn't end poorly for her with her actually getting set on fire or anything.

The thing started shooting fireballs off at her, and she had to essentially make it so that she had to stand there, despite her brain telling her this was a stupid idea and she was going to get hurt. She actually closed her eyes, however when she felt the force of the fire hit her, despite feeling a bit warm, there wasn't actually much of an overall impact. Opening her eyes now, she looked at where the stream was hitting her, and saw that it didn't seem to be doing much, though she was noticing something she could do better to fix it. Her idea was to ensure that she wasn't actually able to even feel the heat, so that was something. The fire wasn't really damaging the costume, but after a little bit she was starting to really feel the heat, before she got the fire to stop shooting at her.

"Definitely need to work on the whole heat thing... Was trying to make it so you didn't feel that sort of thing at all..." she muttered to herself, before stepping off to the side and switching to her other costume. This one usually wouldn't be one she'd typically wear since it didn't exactly hide her appearance or anything. However with what she was doing, this one would at least be kind of cool and a bit more impressive with the whole super durable sort of thing. Having switched into her new costume, that of Claire Redfield of the older Resident Evil games, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail as she faced the judges again. "Well... This one is meant to be fairly durable... Helpful in potentially preventing serious injury if someone attacks you in general... That sort of thing..." she didn't add what had mentally been going through her mind when making the costume. That being that Claire likely would have benefited from that sort of thing in the game itself.

One of the other constructs she had requested essentially to launch projectiles at her. The main idea for her was to essentially just protect her head if the projectiles went towards it instead of the rest of her body, basically that was her best defense in case this kind of goes haywire or something like that. There were so many sort of instances that could go wrong, and once again she was getting incredibly nervous as the contraption started firing off the projectiles directly at her. Luckily she didn't have to worry too much about it aiming for her head, but she did feel the attacks as they hit her, likely going to make it so she was slightly sore later. However there wasn't actually a scratch on her, the only difference being a few scuff marks of sorts where the projectiles had hit her, however there wasn't any actual damage and she wasn't hurt, more sore then anything.

Again, she made note of needing to fix that sort of impact damage, and instantly went to her third and finally outfit change. This one was the one she'd actually wear if she was a hero of some sort. Fitting considering it was a color variant of Sheik from the Legend of Zelda series, who was Princess Zelda in disguise. It was a bit of a callback to her first cosplay costume, and it always had been her favorite. She preferred to be more of a ninja type in the shadows anyway. So this time she actually was going to do one of her combat skills. Zelda had a sheath of throwing knives at her side, as the third of the constructs proceeded to be active, this one wasn't meant to attack her though. Only meant to dodge her attacks.

Zelda moved as she unsheathed her first blade, throwing the knife towards the construct, but her shot went wide, and she took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as she instantly sent another one flying without much hesitation, but it too went wide, this time the other side. This definitely wasn't going too well for her as she moved to try and get a better angle on the moving target, her third shot just barely seemed to miss the construct. Well at least her aim was getting better, and now she was determined to actually hit the thing.

In a flurry she sent more flying, each one in quick succession, figuring she'd more or less corner her target and injure it as she went along with it. Her knives this time hit their target, despite the thing moving, with each throw she maneuvered around to aim better and get a better shot with her next one. Out of the 10 knives she had prepared to throw, she ended up landing 7 hits on the construct, each in various parts of the robot. Though what might be the most impressive of the 7 shots she hit was the one that was right in the middle of what would have been the head of her opponent, with others stuck through various points on the thing.

She definitely felt better about that part of her audition then the other part, but she had wanted to showcase the part of her skillset she actually wanted to focus on more then anything. Though the confidence she had when in her typical Sheik costume was definitely apparent, as she turned to look at the judges, "Thank you," she said with a bit of a wave, before leaving the room, still in her Sheik costume and ensuring that she had the other two outfits still with her, part of her mind still going about thinking of ways to improve their designs and all.

---

---

---

---

Diana woke up pretty early that morning, she opted to wear a simple black tank top, along with some sweat pants as well to. She was a little bit nervous about how her audition would actually she waited until it was her turn, when it was her turn Diana got up and entered the gym. She looked around the gym, she had requested an obstacle course, with some tanks of water to soften her fall in case she did fail, something similar to the shows like American Ninja Warrior. She had also requested targets that constantly moved as well to in order to make things more challenging for her, Diana wanted to show off more of her normal skills first before showing off her power which she was going to do last. On a nearby table there was a bow, and a quiver of normal arrows and a pair of archery gloves as well to. Normally she would have gone for her own, but she didn't want to use any of her custom trick arrows.

"Good morning." Diana said looking at Ser Nemo and Usagi who were the judges this morning, she made her way over to the table she slipped on the archery gloves and then strapped the quiver of arrows. Diana made sure that she requested so that the arrows wouldn't fall out of the quiver until she was ready to fire. Once Diana was ready she made her way over towards the ramp, then the first target popped out which she quickly took out her bow and quickly fired off an arrow, which flew true and managed to hit it's mark. Diana then moved forward, and jumped. The first obstacle was a set of monkey bars, which she moved as quickly as she could and made it to the other end without any issues.

The next obstacle before her was a balancing beam with a pool of water below and a few rotating rods that she'd have to jump over as Diana ran forward she jumped over it. When a target popped in front of her rather quickly as it started to go up and down she drew back her bow and fired off another arrow which hit it's target once more before going away. And Diana proceeded forward running forward while keeping her balance. Diana took a moment to catch her breath when three more targets came up around her Diana fired off three more arrows before going forward coming face to face with a rock climbing wall. Some of the rocks were moving or looked pretty loose as well to. Diana started to climb forward when she nearly lose her grip due to a loose grip but she managed to get her grip once more. It almost happened again when a boxing glove came out nearly hitting her in the face but luckily she didn't get hit with it.

When Diana got to the top of the rock wall there was only one more obstacle to go through which was a warped wall, she leaned forward slightly taking a few more deep breaths. She looked it up and down before running down the wall that she was on, using her speed and momentum to move forward as she ran up the other end of the warped wall and became much steeper she started to loose her speed. She had just enough momentum to get to the top of the wall. Diana slowly pulled herself up as she reached the final obstacle of the course, she looked down at the two judges and gave them a slight smile and waved. In a flash of bright blue light Diana was gone as she teleported away, and reappeared in a local sushi restaurant near the campus.

Diana quickly ordered two plates of sushi and sashimi making sure that there were some chopsticks as well to go and paid for the two meals before teleporting out of the restaurant and reappearing behind Ser Nemo and Usagi setting the plates down. Hoping to get some brownie points with them as she gave them the two pairs of chopsticks. "Hopefully it isn't early for sushi." Diana said to them as she made her way back to the table, setting down the bow and quiver along with the archery gloves. "Thank you for your time." Diana said giving the two of them a bow as she left the gym behind.

---

It was one thing to talk about it; it was another to wake up the morning of auditions knowing your team (and your chances of kicking ass in the Contest) was going to be determined by how well you avoided making an absolute fool of yourself in front of the judges. And if Danni was being honest with himself, making a fool of himself was a specialty of his. But it’d be fine - the name of the game was flexibility and Danni had that down pat. Mistakes would be made and like any other performance, he just had to roll with the punches.

Thankfully, Dee and Danni’s mutual love of coffee provided the perfect poor sleep recipe and as the edges of a night of tossing and turning crumbled away under the aggressively chugged caffeine on his way out the door, Danni couldn’t help but vibrate with excitement. The morning had been a whirlwind of emotions - he’d realized his original outfit was absolutely awful and he threw that pile of garbage in the back of the closet. If he started wailing about the last minute complication, no one but Dee, their neighbors, and anyone unlucky enough to be walking down the hall that early would know.

Thankfully, wardrobe malfunctions and last minute change of whimsies were something Danni was prepared for so he still sauntered his way to auditions in style. His original idea had been too much, too loud. The fire should be the star of the show, as much as he did love that shirt, and so he went something a little more formal than flashy: a white, long-sleeve button up shirt open at the small of his back tucked in the front into a well tailored pair of black slacks with a detachable black wrap skirt falling down the left leg all above his sturdy combat boots polished perfectly. It was certainly a change from the original but with sharp eyeliner, intentionally tousled hair, and a little glitter across the cheeks, Danni was feeling good and ready to dominate.

---

Danni threw open the doors to the training room and paused there for a moment, critically eyeing his stage. He didn’t take much seriously, but putting on a show was never a joke and he wanted everything perfect so he would shine as brightly as he knew he could. His targets were in place, six on each half with three close to the center and three against the far walls. “Good morning!” He sang as he found himself satisfied with the arrangement, all but running into the room like a little kid to a pile of presents on their birthday. “I’m so excited! Are you excited? I know it’s probably been a long morning, but ‘opefully I’m going to brighten your day!” Danni beamed at them, music starting at the snap of his fingers.

His original idea had been a complex dance routine with as many massive fireballs as he could throw in, one at every other step really, but Pops had shut that down for something more… controlled, if you can call fire controlled. Danni hadn’t ever really perfected his new routine but that was what the training would be for, right? So he went for it, letting himself fall into the rhythm of the music.

With a twist of his legs, Danni spun and fired off Hotshots at the nearest targets, three on each side of him. The first landed perfectly dead center, catching fire from the small burst he sent out. He shot the next with a push off the ground, hitting the second target and then whirling mid-air to hit the next. He smirked at the three burning targets and repeated the process, but he was a half a beat off and he barely hit the fourth, missed the fifth and hit a back line target, and then as he went for the last target, he stumbled and his final shot flew wide. Everything slowed down as the flames flew further and further and…

“Oops, sorry! You know, just excited!” Danni laughed weakly as the judges table caught fire. That… that probably wasn’t good, even if Nemo had calmly packed up his belongings and stood out of the way before Danni had even fired off the last shot. Creepy old man. Danni didn’t like that at all but he was already behind and needed to catch up - the teachers could handle themselves. The next part was an easy recovery anyway!

As the beat slowed down, Danni whirled around with his back to the flaming table and flourished at each burning target in tempo. The flames on targets one, two, and three all roared into ten foot pillars and stayed that way, Danni ignoring the tremble in his hand at the intensity. He felt his last flames roar but when he looked at the target, there wasn’t a pillar. Instead, the judges table exploded behind him and Danni tried his best not to flinch at the implications of attempting to kill the judges.

“Just keep going, just keep going.” Danni muttered to himself as his early confidence quickly waned, dread heavy in his chest. A perfect pirouette had all the flames in the room swirling towards him, following the edge of the skirt as it flared up along his side and then traveling up in whirling threads into a ball in his outstretched hand. With the flick of three fingers, three claws of fire roared past the first set of incinerated targets and slammed one, two into the further set of targets. The third slammed harmlessly against the wall.

Danni leapt away from the now burning targets with another spin, parts of the flames following his hand as it arced over his head. Nearly reaching the ceiling as the lances of fire soared under his command, one target on the opposite end of the room burst into flames while the second arc sputtered dead on the floor in front of the second. Danni grimaced at the site, three missed targets definitely was not as impressive as six or even four, but he couldn’t let that stop him - he’d get them on the finale.

With a swirl of his finger, the flames again whirled across the floor towards him and jumped for the final time, the fire surging up beneath him to give him a greater lift. It was shaky (sue him, he hadn’t practiced this part enough but it was hard, okay?! Bruises were ugly!) but he managed to stay stable so he brought his hands together and then apart, clawed as fire bubbled between them and grew and grew and…

Barely got larger than a soft ball.

The fire under him sputtered out and he hit the ground with a heavy thud, the wind knocked out of him as he lay there. He was shaking and sweating, the breath knocked out from him from the fall. Still had to work on flying like that. He pushed himself into a sitting position, and flashed a thumbs up in the general direction of the judges. “And t’at’s t’e Kingston touch!” Danni exclaimed as he pushed himself to his feet. “Can’t say I bored you, can you?” Danni winked at the judges and laughed, silently thankful he was not responsible for the clean up. In a few hours, Danni would recount how embarrassing it was but he was exhausted after that and all he wanted now was a shower and a cuddle pile nap.

---

---

---

---

Madalyne had woken up pretty early that morning with her alarm going off, she looked at April for a moment it looked like she had a bit of a rough time last night, though she didn't really get a chance to ask her about it though. Madalyne had gotten dressed choosing a leather jacket as well as a dark red shirt and black jeans and a pair of boots. April had her audition before her in the morning while she had her's in the afternoon with the other sophomores of her class. Which gave her sometime to do a little bit of practice of her own in the meantime and get some breakfast in as well to before it was her time to go in for her audition.

---

By the time afternoon came around it was time for the sophomore's turn to do their audition's and eventually it was her turn as Madalyne walked into the gym. In the center of the gym stood a Shi'ar golem with a pair of curved blades, she looked at the two judges that were in the room Vision and Usagi. "Good afternoon, I hope you are having a good day judging everyone else's performances." Madalyne said giving the two judges a friendly smile and wave as she made her way towards the rack of swords she picked up one of them and twirled it around in her hand. For her audition she had requested the golem, she was going to show off her sword fighting skills as well as her magic against it.

When she was ready Madalyne used her free hand as a fireball started to appear in her hand and quickly threw out several of them, all of them managing to hit her target head on. The golem quickly started to try and close the distance as it started to run towards her, as she started to back up. When it was close to her it swung one of it's curved blades at her, she quickly started to bring up her shield against it, but her defense was lacking as it broke through her shield and got a few good hits in.

Madalyne quickly backed away swinging her sword at it as well, getting some hits on the golem as well to, thinking of a way to confuse it Madalyne decided to cast another spell as three duplicate images appeared around her and the golem. The golem was confused as it turned towards one of the images as it tried to take the illusion out with it's sword. Only for it to pass right through it and it vanished shortly after that. She hadn't really figured out how to make them solid yet but she was glad that she was able to use the spell.

Holding out her hand again as green like lightening appeared in her hand as she sent out a few eldritch blasts at it as well, seeing the golem sputtering as Madalyne fired off some more eldritch blasts at it. And then she fired off a few fire balls at the machine as well for extra damage as the golem started to look like it was about to shut down to finish it off Madalyne ran forward towards it the golem managed to hit her again with one of it's swords as Madalyne ran the sword through the golem. She watched as the lights on the golem started to go dark and shutdown in front of her and the judges. Pulling her sword out of the golem she made her way over towards the rack where she had gotten her sword putting it away. Madalyne turned to face Vision and Usagi and gave them a quick bow and smile, hoping that she did well with the audition. "Thank you for taking the time to watch." She said to them as she started to head out of the gym.

---

---

Zari actually was kind of excited for the whole audition thing. She actually thought the whole idea of it was super cool, and she had been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. At one point she did contemplate maybe summoning Mr. Sparkles and doing some mounted combat sort of things, but had eventually decided against it. She was still working on that whole thing, so she probably shouldn't do that, besides, sometimes it was more fun fighting on the ground level and all.

She had her sword, and she had her armor, and Mr. Eyeball who seemed to want to tag along, maybe for moral support or something. Truthfully she wasn't fully certain why he wanted to see about trying to follow along after her, he could just wait outside the door or something instead. But nope, as she walked into the room, the floating eyeball was following along right after her.

"Hi there!" she said cheerfully, waving happily at the judges. Zari was currently wearing her normal clothes, but in a moment she activated her ring, allowing her to switch rather quickly into her Asgardian armor. "Hope you've all been having a fun day, I know I have, I am soooooooo excited and it is great to show what I can do and all hooray!" Zari started saying rather happily towards the pair.

"01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100001 01101101 01100010 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100001 01101001 01101110."

"Oh, right, sorry... Probably should get started then right?"

"01001010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01101001 01110100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00101110." the robot beeped back, as the robot floated along and ended up right by the table that the judges were currently sitting at.

"You shush..." she muttered, as she pulled out her flashlight, which then proceeded to shift into her sword Glowstick. For her audition, she had gotten some constructs that were very mobile and technological based. Each had a sword in their hands, and this was how she planned on things working out. Since she wasn't one to just swing swords at something, nope, she preferred full on potential combat with all the dodging and such. It made things more fun that way.

It didn't take long for her to get into a stance, and the fight seemingly started. Zari wasn't a hundred percent certain how well this would go for her, and at the beginning of this, it didn't seem to be going very well. Most of her strikes were blocked, and considering she was fighting two opponents at once, she probably shouldn't have been too surprised by that. Things weren't going too well for her. And here she was wanting to see about being amazing and showing off during this fight. Then again, these robots were programmed, as opposed to the unpredictability of an actual combat fight. Maybe that was what was throwing her off slightly?

Well, it took her a few moments, but her strikes were getting faster, and she was doing a bit better. Her offensive attacks were getting to her targets properly as she was swinging. Now dodging the return attacks or trying to avoid them, that wasn't going to well, but there was a silver lining to that. Namely it showed off how her armor was and her durability in a way. So there was that, it worked out for her. In between her strikes, she was dodging (or more attempting to) the return volleys. That could have gone better, but it was all she had.

After a few moments of this, she broke off from the robots, her attention turning more specifically towards one of them. Her mind focused on the circuitry, her head being filled a bit with the coding and all of the robot in front of her. It didn't take long for it all to click together, and with a bit of a smirk, she now had full control of the robot in front of her. That was the nice thing about her power, it didn't take her long to hack into anything, with or without her powers, and now she could execute the second part of what she wanted to show off in her audition.

With the slight movement of her hand, she had the robots turn on each other.

The pair essentially ended up hacking away at each other for a few minutes, there was the sound of metal clanging against each other, as pieces of each one started falling off. Eventually, there wasn't really anything left of the robots but a pile of scraps. As with her manipulation, they had more or less managed to destroy each other, and Zari was just standing there with a smile on her face.

"Well that was fun," she said happily.

"01001000 01101101 01101101 01101101 00101110 00101110 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100111 01100100 00100000 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 00110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 00110001 00110000 00101100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100110 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01100101 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 00111000 00101110."

"Well your opinion on this doesn't matter stop being so mean!" she complained to the robot as it floated back over to her. "I'll probably see you all at a later point in time, by!" she said to the judges with a wave, before switching back into her normal clothes and heading back out of the room, skipping a little bit as she went.

---

---

Percy had made no requests for his audition.

He hadn't told his family what he had been planning on doing. Percy had assumed, likely correctly, that they would have attempted to talk him out of it. But in his gut, he knew that this was the correct call. He had heard from Diana about the sort of auditions her friends would do - some of them would fight things, others would do artistic demonstrations. His original thought had been that he could recite the Odyssey in ten different languages while teleporting around an obstacle course. That would have been fine. But would it have been memorable? No. Would it have stood out against all the other students with similar ideas (albeit likely with less perfect pronunciation of Ancient Greek)? No.

If it resulted in his expulsion (which Percy had begrudgingly considered a small possibility), that would be fine. He would make a name for himself, one way or another. He didn't care about getting put on the Avengers or the Fantastic Four (bleh) one day - all he cared about was becoming a legendary hero, the type from the legends of old. He had been reading an account of the life of one of Japan's sword saints, Miyamoto Musashi, when the idea struck him.

Percy had no regrets. But even if he had, it was too late to turn back now. He stood in the hallway outside of the audition room, a bag slung over his shoulder. He had had to wake up early that morning and slip off of campus to get what he had needed. Given the number of kids he saw going around with medieval weaponry, he doubted the school would have an issue with what he had acquired - his mothers though were another story.

"Percy Novikov? We are ready for you," a cold, watery voice said. Percy saw her head poke out the moment she emerged from the door. She wore a simple mold-stained white gown, and a wreath of twigs around her face. She was made entirely out of water, her features hard to observe through their shimmering effect. He could smell the lake on her. He half expected her to toss a sword at him.

"Right, thank you," Percy said. He couldn't quite parse her accent. It sounded very old. At any rate though, he was moderately concerned. He hadn't planned for her to be a creature made out of water.

He stepped on through the door, his bag slung over his shoulder. He was wearing his academy uniform. Everything had been calculated here. Well, almost everything. He hadn't anticipated the ringing that sounded in his ears as he entered the room, the way he almost stumbled for a moment before his brain righted itself. The room was expansive, large, and almost entirely empty. The Lady of the Lake took a seat behind a rickety table, covered in papers. Next to her was an uncannily familiar old man. He must have been Ser Nemo, the new time travel studies professor. Percy was immediately annoyed and confused as to why Ser Nemo didn't look up at him, didn't acknowledge him, didn't address him.

Well, fine then.

The Lady of the Lake cleared her throat. "You may begin when-- argh!!"

The air around Percy had shimmered briefly, before he reappeared at the judges' table - and with one flawlessly smooth motion, kicked it over into the judges. Lady Nimue collapsed into a puddle of water, trickling away and reconstituting herself almost instantly. Ser Nemo though was suddenly a few feet away, standing on his feet like nothing had happened. How did he move so... Percy asked himself, his eyes narrowing.

Percy pulled his prize out of his bag - a sturdy axe with a red handle. The air shimmered around him and with a whoosh, he appeared a foot or so away from Ser Nemo, swinging the blade for a killing blow. But instead, Percy's axe bounced off of the wall of the training room - it was meant to withstand things much stronger than the axe swing of a puny little thing like him. Ser Nemo wasn't there. The ringing in the back of Percy's head was getting louder. Where the hell was that old man?!

"O young one, stop this madness at once!" Lady Nimue commanded. She reached into her breast and pulled out a stone sword, the hilt covered in moss.

He narrowly teleported away from the swing of her blade, reappearing on the other side of the training room. He hadn't considered the possibility that they wouldn't understand his audition. But even now, he was more irritated with this old man - an annoyance that Percy himself did not fully understand. How could someone so old and frail move so fast? Was he a speedster? There wasn't much information on him, but even then... What? Nemo was sitting at the table again, sipping his tea, as if nothing had happened. Had he righted the table? When did that happen?

The air shimmered and Percy re-appeared, swinging his axe at Lady Nimue from behind. He was quick enough that she did not have a chance to swing her rocky sword, the axe gliding through the liquid of her body. But as she was a being of water, it did not do much at all to her. But he continued on anyways. Hopefully she got his point. He teleported again, this time right above Ser Nemo, swinging the axe for a decapitating blow -

And his blade connected with the elderly man's flesh.

"Thank you for your consideration," Percy said, having pulled the blade back at the last second, so that it was merely just touching the back of Ser Nemo's neck. Percy dropped the axe. He bowed, just as Katniss Everdeen did - a woman who reminded him very much of his mother. The ringing in his ears was getting louder by the second, and he felt liquid begin to trickle from his nose. A nosebleed.

The Lady of the Lake stared at him - her expression was briefly calculating for a moment, before a mask of astonishment slipped over it. Ser Nemo did not look up at Percy. He still held his cup of tea, as if nothing had happened at all. Percy couldn't recall the old man saying a single word. Had he acknowledged Percy's presence at any moment? Would it have been the same if Percy had just gone in and eaten a cupcake - just nothing from this man, this person who Percy was supposed to be learning from here at the school?

He decided then and there that he hated Ser Nemo.

A small part of him wished the he had killed him.

---

---

U = Usagi
SN = Ser Nemo
V = Vision
LN = Lady Nimue

Gray, Dorian - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • B - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1 - U
• Comments:
  • Dorian, as his name correctly implies, is a gift. How many people could control so many objects with such precision, at the tender age of 17? -SN
  • The next kid that walks in here with a musical number, imma smack them. I don't care what the legal team has to do. You can fire me. I just can't take this anymore. Did we accidentally put up a flyer saying that we LOVE musical numbers and HATE auditions that let us see you fight??? Someone kill me, please. Before I assault a child. -U

Kingston, Daniel - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A (but I am angry about it)- U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1000000 - U
• Comments:
  • Control will come with time. Omega level mutants have the powers of gods - and I am eager to see where he takes it. -SN
  • HE TRIED TO KILL ME. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE? FIRE. I BETTER GET HAZARD PAY FOR THIS!!! -U

Novikova, Diana - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1 - U
• Comments:
  • Thoughtful and graceful, Diana is a credit to her namesake. The goddess could not be prouder than I am of her. -SN
  • Okay I'm NOT SAYING that the bribe worked but... Love me some sushi. I'm a little over the entire archery gimmick, but she does well. Would probs be a great asset to a covert team one day. We could always use more teleporters. -U

Raynordattir, Zarina - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1 - U
• Comments:
  • Mr. Eyeball's comments are charming to the last. As for the performance, I would expect nothing less from a promising future Valkyrie. She would be an asset to any team. -SN
  • Okay I'm gonna be honest, I can't keep track of all of these Asgardians. That being said, she looks like she could fuck some shit up (am I allowed to swear in these? oops). Maybe it's time to bring back A-Force? -U

Crane, Madalyne - Sophomore

• Ranking:
  • B - U
  • B - V
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 3 - U
  • 6 - V
• Comments:
  • Agile and ruthless. Love the sword and sorcery. Wish the rest of the magic types would learn to do a push-up or two. -U
  • She shows a great deal of promise and talent. However, I would advise caution and increased mentorship. -V

Flynn, Zelda - Freshman

• Ranking:
  • C - SN
  • C - LN
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 5 - LN
• Comments:
  • I quite enjoyed seeing her application of desired properties to fashion. Goodness knows that some of my colleagues are lacking in it. However, I would like to see an incorporation of her mutant gifts in the future. She has the pedigree for greatness. -SN
  • She is a weaver, like her irksome mother. There is much in her depths that has yet to be discovered. -LN

Novikov, Percy - Freshman

• Ranking:
  • D - SN
  • A - LN
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 10 - SN
  • 5 - LN
• Comments:
  • Ser Nemo left this section blank.
  • I have never seen his like before and I do not believe I will do so again. The river curls around him, yet he is unworthy of her power. -LN

---

---

As the day progressed, Victoria busied herself working on the side project D&D brought forth in her mind. Initially, she thought of just getting a gun and spending some time at the range, maybe later modifying it with some utilities. However, the more she thought about it, the more of a learning curve she was seeing. She needed something to use now. Trouble was, everything she knew how to use was either locked away by the VEIL protocol, or mounted on her armor.

That was until she realized that the problem would go away if certain things were not mounted to the armor anymore. Thus she found herself designing a pistol body into which she could just plug in a power cell and one of the multi-field projectors from her armor, along with some controls to give her some options. Of course, the selectors would be dummies, there was no point to them as she could as easily send signals to the weapon through the nanites in her skin, and it would fit in nicely with her misuse security theme.

Finally, the hour of her turn was coming up, and she had to start suiting up. Setting down the soldering gun, she walked over to what looked like a bank safe and touched her palm to the door. “IDENTITY CONFIRMED.” boomed a machine voice and several snaps and whirrs could be heard as the case unlocked and folded open, revealing the Shieldmaiden armor.

Room secured.
No observation devices detected.
Lifted VEIL condition satisfied.
Activating combat mode.

With the magical code purged from her system overnight, and taking a shape it was actually primarily supposed to take, rather than something she made up on the spot, it worked without a hitch. Her surface lost all of its texture, molding itself to a smooth silvery form with golden printed circuit pattern crisscrossing it. The only part that stayed the same was her head, with her irises turning a vibrant red. Reaching for the armor pieces, she started attaching them, the nanites in the skin reaching to meet them almost like a symbiote, plugging in power and control threads and holding them in place.

Victoria had to admit, with her cover present, the clunky suit up was a bit of a nuisance. It took her almost ten minutes just to put the whole thing on, sans the helmet which she clipped to her belt for now as she headed over to the gym.

Right. The gym. Where nothing of what she requested would be installed. It turned out that when Stark sayd ‘almost anything can be made available’, which a couple of buildings she requested definitely could, he actually meant ‘I like my money where it is’. Hence, her own audition would be happening in the Framework. Cheap son of a- I can already see it: ‘Hottest tea! Van Dyne auditions on easy mode!’ Whatever. I don’t care what people think.

Having to pass a few of her classmates on the way to the gym, she briefly thought about giving them a red tinted glare - Oh, let them guess? Does she like colored contacts? Is that some sort of a HUD? Is she a robot? - but the annoying VEIL warnings screaming from the computer part of her mind made her put the helmet on. As she entered the gym, she gave the teachers observing a brief nod and stepped into the framework ‘bubble’ to hook up. Being already suited up worked in her favor here, as she could claim the suit itself could interface with the framework.

As the simulation loaded, the teachers would see a holo of her position and all of her readouts on a couple of flat screens. Finally, she got dropped in, flying over a city. She could try to determine her position, but it wasn’t important for her demonstration. Flying in a wide arc, she pointed the armor’s sensors down, gathering as much data about the situation as she could. No bueno. Too much interference. Eeeeverybody in this day and age, when they see a catastrophe, just has to pull out their phone and start fucking streaming rather than helping.

She decided to patch into the local first response frequency. Listening in, she found out that the site was an aftermath of a recent avenger battle. Typical. Where else would one find multiple kinds of disasters in one area. “Emergency response central, this is Shieldmaiden. I am sending aerial scans of the area and am at your disposal. Where do you need me?” she called over.

“Shieldmaiden, Central. We have units on the way, but the units heading for these four pockets are more than ten minutes out. See if you can help and update us on the situation, over.”

Some data came back, highlighting the four problematic areas. Victoria came to hover midair, overlaying the data with the layout of the city. From up here, she could see the problems were a mid-rise building on fire, a multi-car crash with a fuel truck involved, a flooded area and a collapsed building. She had to prioritize where to help first.

A data stream would appear at the teacher’s flatscreen, showing summary data from multiple on-line sources about the likelihoods of survival in all of the four situations. Victoria concluded that the fuel truck had to be checked first. Second fire breaking out could lead to a disaster on a whole other scale. Then a quick check of the flooded area for anyone drowning, followed by pulling people out of the flames - whether she liked it or not, given the state of the fire, everyone in danger of burning would be dead before she got there, and the rest who were in danger of smoke poisoning had less of a chance for survival than the people in the flooded area. Save who you can. Lastly, the collapse victims had both the highest chance of survival for prolonged time, and their situation would require more finesse. No one would get to them quickly without risking the ruins collapsing on them in the process.

Boosting over to the car crash area, she landed and had a look inside all of the vehicles. No important heat signatures. That meant no hot engines that could set off the fire. It also meant that no one would be walking away from this one, the bodies long cold. “Central, shieldmaiden. Deprioritize the car crash. All drivers and passengers are casualties.” Running over to the cistern, she checked it for damage. Yep, that is definitely leaking somewhere. Still, this is a city. Road is paved, leading into drainage that feeds into water treatment plants. Lives are at stake here, the environment has to wait. Victoria reasoned, heading over to the cistern, setting herself up just behind the rear of the truck. Bracing herself, she engaged the suit’s hydraulics and lifted the cistern, before backing it away from the engines, snapped wires and whatever else might cause a fire. Parking it further away and over a drain cover, she called up the environmental situation to Central and jumped into the air, flying over to the flooded area.

Once there, she found thermal and motion sensors useless again, but good old audio revealed several sources of screaming. She and Hope will really have to have a word about the quality of her sensor suite. Recalling the classes, she remembered that if a person is drowning, they are likely to trash and flail around in panic, so the generally accepted way to go about them is to wait for them to drown just enough so that the rescuer is safe and wrangle them out of danger then. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ that, nor yer feelings. Or a coupla of bruises. Vicky thought. Being able to wrestle a locomotive, the people can trash all they want, she was getting them out of there one way or the other if she could not calm them down. She should be able to do that even without armor, grabbing a firm hold of a person and pulling them through water should take but a fraction of her strength and even if they did not hold their breath, she should be able to pull them out fast enough for it not to matter.

Cutting the engines, she splashed down and dove into the building. She used the multifield projectors to shine light around herself, increasing the visibility in the murky water. Combined with listening to the screams, she managed to guide herself to the first victim. A boy, thirteen or so. Two options: The sight of a heavy armor suit would either scare them beyond anything, or elicit a long, loud ‘Coooool!’. Victoria decided to take the middle ground, her helmet flipping open and retracting to at least reveal her face, making her appearance a bit more human. “Hello! I’m going to need you to be brave and hold on to my hands, take and hold a large breath, and I am going to pull you through and outside. ‘Think you can do that?” she asked, receiving a vigorous nod.

Eventually, she got all the people she could see out with varying degree of effort, and an even ratio of ‘Thank you’s and ‘Fuck you’s for the level of caring for their opinion on the method of their rescue. Biting back an ‘I can also drag you back in there. Enjoy your last breath!’, she was about to leave when her statistical software detected an anomaly in the ambient audio. A dull, but a regular spike on the lower end of the spectrum. Diving again, she followed the sound, soon finding herself at a trapdoor which probably led to the basement.

This was a bit of a pickle. The second she lifted that door, the water that was so far dripping in would rush in, taking with it who knows what debris, endangering the person inside even further. Running long on time, Victoria decided to take a bit of a drastic measure. Surfacing again to check the rest of the previous inhabitants were out in a safe distance, she returned to the trapdoor, dialed all of her multifield projectors up and blasted the building away to all sides with a spherical repulsor field. Well... Good news was that the debris really cleared out. Bad news was that in her hurry, Vicky failed to account for the spherical field also pointing down. Seeing the cracked floor and the telltale signs of water rushing in and air rushing out, she stormed over to the trapdoor, ripping it off of it's hinges and throwing it aside, descending into the basement and heading straight for the last person as the water level rose quickly. Reaching them and grabbing them under their shoulder, she pointed a palm up to blast a hole in the ceiling, ready to cover the refugee with her own bulk if any debris came down, and then promptly taking them out and towards the rest of the victims, enjoying about the same ratio of ‘Thank you, my baby!’s and ‘Bitch, that was my house!’s. Ignoring the lot of them, she hurried over to the burning mid-rise, reporting to Central the five people needing care and shelter.

If her sensors were having trouble before, they wouldn’t be able to detect anything inside of the raging inferno of a building. Deciding to eyeball it, she flew around the building in a spiral, finding a woman and a child huddling on a balcony the fire had not yet encroached on. Approaching them with a wave and a hello, she hovered behind them and asked them to hold on. Grabbing each around their waist, she flew them down and away to safety. Then it was time to see if anyone else was on the inside. Tearing the main door off of its hinges, she carefully walked inside, the nanites in her skin working to absorb the heat and replenish her power reserves somewhat. Going room by room, she found no one at the ground floor, while constantly checking the building for any sign it was about to come down on her.

Reaching the staircase, she saw it had already collapsed, so she took a running leap, boosting off of the far wall and landing on the next floor. The story was the same, and rinse and repeat on the third floor. On the final floor, she found another person who managed to block the door and save themselves from getting poisoned too much, but had no way out. “Get on my back and hold tight!” She said. Since the immediate area was empty and this was the last person in the building, she could make their way out. Charging her chest projector, she directed a slashing repulsor beam to cut a hole in the wall and fly out from there. “Stay here and wait for the firemen.” she instructed, before patching to the emergency channel again, “Central, the burning building is completely evacuated, though the fire is not contained. Proceeding to the collapse.”

Arriving at the final site, she had a bad feeling this situation would be quite hopeless. Walking around the site, she scanned as much of the debris as she could see and tried to run several simulations.

- Digging into the debris? No luck. The whole thing was a jenga tower endgame, one wrong move and the whole thing could come down.
- Generating a large enough graviton field to put the area into zero-g and gently moving the debris away? Nerp, she could not put up a field this large fast enough without introducing any motion and torque into the structure, and she could not scan deeply enough into it to eliminate any possibility of the structure collapsing again.

Almost giving up and just waiting for the professionals, she recalled what led her to her targets in the flooded area. No one was screaming for help here, but that could have been for lack of trying, or simply being buried too deep. But, she could try to reach them and instruct them to make a larger noise. Dialling up the speakers on her suit as far as they would go, she shouted at the pile of rubble: “If you can hear me, can you make a noise? Bang on something hard with a piece of rebar, or something?”

There was no response, which pretty much meant she was at the end of what she could do without assistance. With calling up the situation to central, the simulation ended. She unhooked from the framework setup, mumbling a 'That could have gone better...'. She said her farewells to the teachers and left, wondering whether to spend the next minutes de-suiting or is she should take a flight to chill out while she was all dressed up.

---

---

In hindsight, looking at the judges at the booth, all eyes focused on her, perhaps Ardere should’ve been more modest in her designs. The first challenge was a wall break, though, for her powers, it was more of a wall melt. There are ten layers of walls, each made of a different material, ranging from most easy to most difficult: paper, cloth, ice, glass, plastic, tile, brick, stone, steel, and finally concrete. For this first challenge, all she had to do was to make a hole to go through.

Good thing the redhead wore her mask to avoid showing how thoroughly anxious she was.

Nonetheless, she began. The paper wall was a no-brainer; one brush from her fingers and it all burned away. The wall of cloth was just as easy, turning into a smoldering ruin, as her power forced a spark to ignite. So far, the challenge was rather straightforward, melting a hole through the ice wall as simple as walking. Here I was worried for nothing! Ardere thought cheerfully as she approached the glass wall. For a second she contemplated bashing through but that would go against the spirit of the challenge.

Ardere’s blue eyes were miniature red giants as she concentrated her strength on the crystal-clear plane of glass; like a polished mirror, the redhead could see her own reflection perfectly before the image began to warp and distort. It began slowly at first but devolved into a melting puddle as the glass wall resembled an object out of Salvador Dali’s paintings. Taking a deep breath to regather her thoughts, Ardere pushed forward once again. After going around the blob of hot liquid, the wall of plastic was next.

Unlike glass, the material melted much more quickly with less concentration. As for the smell, it was extremely unpleasant from the leaking chemical odors.

Moving on, the tile wall loomed over Ardere like Goliath, ominous and imposing. Confident of her own spirit, she gathered her strength once more to burn or melt it down. I can do this. I CAN do this. The words bounced around in her mind, an echo chamber, as the outside world grew dimmer and dimmer. So deep was her concentration, Ardere felt a vague sensation of pain like a rubber band stretched too wide. Her vision blurred as tears obstructed her vision, her mouth tasting ash and iron, and her legs struggling to stay upright.

A brief scream of frustration erupted from her mouth when Ardere pounded her head onto the intensely hot tile wall as if her thick skull could knock it down. With the sensation of drowning in sweat, she ripped out her cloth mask, letting it fall to her side, to reveal a most downcast expression.

Ardere was crying blood as were her nose and ears. Smeared by pulling off her mask and her eyes glowing deep red, she looked more like a possessed demon than a teenager, glaring hatefully at something so mundane. Yet, she was forced to admit defeat and she walked around it to melt the next wall: bricks. Miraculously, it melted into a loose, smoking, foul-smelling puddle.

Feeling encouraged, Ardere pushed on to melt the eighth wall: stone. Her breath was short even as her vision was clear for the moment. The pain quickly resumed, a hidden blade stabbing into her arms, legs, and torso. An unfamiliar strain was felt around her fingers and eyes as Ardere struggled to turn it into lava.

In an instant, the redhead bowed to its will and decided to move around it to face the steel wall. As she attempted to melt the metal, Ardere felt rigidness. The long sleeves and pants suddenly gave no warmth at all as she shivered as if she ate a bowl of ice cream outside in the middle of the coldest blizzard in New England. Her own mind was engulfed in a fog as her body slowly collapsed into a curled ball. Ironically, Ardere used the boiling temperature of the steel wall to heat her own body up.

After using her sleeves to wipe the blood off her face, she took the time to rest and recuperate for the final wall of this section: concrete. Which Ardere immediately skipped to move on to the next challenge she set up for herself.

“I’m alright.” She spoke meekly, unsure who she was trying to convince.

Before she was a pool of water filled with freezing cold water. Ice cubes floated on the surface like tiny icebergs while three mannequins wearing cotton sweaters sat at the bottom waiting to be retrieved. It was to be a simple affair: dive down, pull them up, and dry them with her powers.

Taking a deep breath, Ardere dipped headfirst into the pool. The only thing she felt was the cold water restricting every muscle in her body. Ardere thought she felt cold before, under the shadow of the steel wall, but this was omnipresent, omnipotent. As her heart and mind demanded action, any action, to swim to the surface yet her body sank like a rock before her thoughts were ground to a halt. The last thing she saw before the frozen darkness found her was her hand reaching out to grab the shoulder of a mannequin.

“I can still do this,” she whispered, almost pleading while gasping for air, while one of the judges, the Lady of the Lake, fished her out of the pool. “I need to finish it.” Ardere’s eyes returned to their sapphire color as she glanced over to the other challenges she planned.

This was a patently silly idea. that wa swhat Mary Sue was tuck with as she tried to steel her nerves enough to make her able to do do this. She wanted to be a hero, yes, but she still was plagued with what felt like endless amounts of ucnertainty. She didn't even know how to show something like this off. Was she to try to make some kind of dream-esque landscape, and fool the likes of the heroes she idolized? Of course not. The best she could think to muster was a fog, something she could hide in. If she could sell her powers around deception or obfuscation, perhaps she could hone her body to be a weapon that depended on that. She didn't like it, but she truly didn't have anything better she thought she could do.

The scene of her audition was simple, an open stage covered with golems det to try their best to detect her, with her standing in the center ready to disapear. She was fairly confident she could make a dense enough fog that would make her borderline unnoticable. A bit of her father's sort of analysis crept into her, telling her that the larger the particle she made, the harder it would be for it to be seen through. All she needed to focus on was making them stick around in the air and be dense as hell. She'd done a fair amount of private practice with her powers, so she really thought she could manage this.

With a silent look towards the judges, Mary sue closed her eyes, and all around her on the stage materialized the densest cloud of faintly glowing flecks of golden light. Discerning out individual specks would have been borderline impossible for all but the most keen eyed, but they were there; this was not some solid cloud of light, but a confluence of tens of thousands of particles. Dropping to the ground, Mary Sue was intent on putting distance betweem herself and the puppets that were now set to look for her. very proud of herself, she navigated around the stage with a kind of smoothness and dexterity that she didn't know she was capable of.

She positioned herself behind the first golem, ready to take them down silently and knock them out, only for her to realize very quickly that something was terribly wrong. The sounds of coughing were filling the stage, and the figure in front of her had buckled to its own knees. With a kind of shock, she quickly dismissed her own fog, and saw faint specks of blood sputtering out of the mouth of her target. A look of shock and fear crossed her face, as she hurried to try to see what had happened. Turning the doll over, she noticed flecks of her fog still in its mouth, and her eyes grew wide. There was something she fundamenntally didn't understand here, but clearly her illusions were far more solid than she'd believed so far. Unsure of what to do, she looked up t the judges, frozen. She didn't want these things to suffer, but they also... weren't people? She didn't know what to do, but she shook her head, and quickly realized that, whatever she'd done, it was likely because their lungs were all still filled with her sand. She closed her eyes, and focused on whatever was still keeping her power up, and shut it down completely. "I..." she stammered out, horror flat on her face as the scene around her, "Had no idea tha that would happen."

Dorian had originally planned on going back into his Astral Self. Sitting up atop of the rafters of the gymnasium as he watched the other students do their performance and silently judged them from another plane where they couldn't hear his laughter, applause, or remarks. His audition, however, had left him wanting to spend some time away from the familiar realm. He'd been warned several times by Mr.Strange about the dangers of the Astral Realm, but until today he'd never really experienced them. He'd stuck around long enough to see Danni's audition, peeking through the doors as he had for all his other friends, but once it had ended and Dorian gave his congrats, he'd slipped away to be alone for a while.

For the most part he'd gone to his dorm room, laying on his new sheets that he'd just changed in while reading a book in an attempt to escape what he'd seen in the Astral Realm. It was quiet without Danni and April here to fill the space. He curled up in his bed, turning to his side as the thought about how he may need to get used to this silence come next year. A tear began to form in the corner of his eye until he heard a loud thud outside his dorm room door. Dorian tossed the book aside and went to go see what it was, cracking the door to peek at the source but not seeing anything at first. He waited a beat, then opened the door and went to take a step out when he tripped over the body of one Percy Novikova.

Percy Novikov was covered in layers of his own sweat, blood flowing silently from his nostrils and staining the collar of his white shirt. He was somewhat coherent, but not really. He remembered the audition. He remembered stumbling out of there, his head pounding, his body screaming and feeling ill like he never had before. But he had been too proud to ask for help. Somehow, he had managed it back to Stark Hall, just to fall short - literally - right in front of his door. Or a bit to the side of it.

His vision was swimming as they focused on a pair of intense, beautiful eyes. He couldn’t identify who the person was, and Percy smiled groggily. “Привет красавчик,” Percy mumbled, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out - for real this time.

Dorian hadn't noticed before, but now, having fallen over him, he could see the blood that traced Percy's cheeks. A mixture of that and sweat painting his collar, some having gotten on Dorian's own clothing. As he heard him mutter something (most likely another insult) towards him, he saw the lights go out behind his eyes. Panic quickly set in as Dorian didn't want others to see him like this and think that he had caused this. He didn't know why Percy had shown up at his doorstep (especially because for a brief moment he'd forgotten they were neighbors entirely and decided it was the hands of Fate at work) but he knew he had to help.

"If I had a nickel for every passed out teen I'd had to carry this week…" Dorian muttered to himself as he (for a second time) went to help an unconscious student. He tried to think of the best way to approach this, realizing he hadn't moved from where he fell atop of Percy and scuttling off in a hurry to stand up. Dorian circled Percy as if the unconscious boy were going to attack him any moment. Did he carry him? Certainly Percy was small enough to do so. Drag him? He was sure to get an earful later if those school shoes got scratched. The easiest option was to possess his body and walk it to the nurses. But last time he entered it he'd set off his powers and that was an entirely other can of worms.

Dorian took in a deep breath before finally making a decision. He'd knelt down beside him and tried to slide his hands underneath Percy to pick him up Bridal style. Though in doing so he may have accidentally grabbed his butt before immediately correcting his aim to just below it. His other arm looped itself underneath Percy's arms, having each fall back so that if he did wake up mid transport, he only had one good arm to punch him instead of two to choke him. Once he was settled in, Dorian walked as fast as a panicked gay man could towards the nurses office for a second time this week.

Percy had no concept of time when he opened his eyes again - he was mesmerized again by those intense, keen eyes he saw staring at his with concern. They were the most amazing shade of green that he had ever seen. They made the brightest emeralds seem dull and flat by comparison. They had the mystery of the choppy waters of the sea, with the beauty of the Northern Lights. He was vaguely aware of the fact that the owner of the eyes had his arms wrapped around him, carrying him bridal style. The arms weren’t as muscular as Percy would have liked, but he felt strong and secure nonetheless.

“У тебя самые удивительные глаза,” Percy mumbled. He wanted to raise a hand to rest on the cheek of his mysterious savior, but his body didn’t seem to be listening to him.

Percy spoke, and the words startled Dorian for a moment. His grip slipping ever so slightly as he tried to regain his composure. "Merde Merde Merde. He's broken! Percy's speaking gibberish…maybe if I…" He tried readjusting the position of his right arm so that Percy's head was more elevated than the rest of his body. Maybe he was too low before and that didn't let his tongue properly form words, or maybe Percy had a concussion. "Oh pleeeease don't 'ave a concussion. You aren't allowed to sleep wit' one. Uhhh stay awake, or somet'ing."

Dorian bounded the corner, lifting up his leg and slamming it down on the handle just enough so that it'd open the door before kicking it in. "Nurse Annie! I've got anot'er one!! T'is time wit' blood!" Chances were she was bound to get busy today. After all…not everyone did well on their auditions.

Maybe Percy did have a concussion. He was vaguely aware that they were in some sort of a new room - but he didn’t recognize it. His savior was saying something, but the words weren’t making sense in Percy’s brain. He wasn’t even coherent enough to realize how strange that would be, that he couldn’t understand what someone was saying. His savior had soft looking lips. He wondered what they would taste like…

Nurse Annie huffed. “I told them to use the Framework for these things, but nooooo!” she complained. “Get him down over there, I’ll be over in a sec,” she said. She was currently attempting to reset the bone of one of Dorian’s classmates - a kindly runt of a Frost Giant, yet she still managed to take up about six of the beds in the infirmary by herself.

Dorian cringed at the state of the Frost Giant. He didn't care what people said, no matter how many times you see it, broken bones are absolutely disgusting to watch. It wasn't natural and always made his stomach a bit queasy. He didn't say anything back for fear of vomiting on Percy as he held him, instead electing to nod at her as he made his way towards the opposite side of the room as far from their giant friend as possible towards an empty bed. He went to set Percy down, halting just inches above the bed as he took in the sight of him. When he wasn't constantly spouting vitriol at him…he was really cute.

Dorian's stare lingered for a breath too long before he shook it off hoping no one would notice his now rose tinted cheeks. If anyone asked he was just flush from the run here. He set Percy down, pulling his sleeve up and over The palm of his hand to help clean him up a bit. Wiping away some of the sweat and blood from his cheeks and forehead. "I'm not sure t'is was even an audition issue… I found 'im in t'e 'allway just in front of my dorm." worry laced his words as he kept an eye on Percy. Swapping between his face and chest to ensure he was still breathing. " No lie Annie 'e's a bit of a jerk but…I 'ope 'e's okay…" Without noticing it, his hand had subconsciously began to hold Percy's like one would a loved one at a hospital bed.

There was a cry of pain from the frost giant, as Annie finished her work. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Annie said, hoping to reassure Dorian. “I’ve seen kids in worse shape than his come on through these doors.” She stood up and straightened herself out, before moving on over to come attend to the pair of young boys - only to stop in her tracks suddenly.

Percy had been staring at the stranger’s lips all the while he had cleaned him up. Without realizing it, he had moistened his own. And then, acting under a compulsion that was somewhat foreign to him - one that, had he been in his right mind, he likely would have never done - Percy used his strength to bring his upper body up and he kissed the stranger’s lips. A crooked smile appeared on Percy’s face, satisfied with his work, before he fell back all of the sudden onto the bed again, his eyes shut.

Dorian turned his head when the nurse spoke up, only to be caught unaware by a kiss as he turned back to face Percy. A plethora of emotions ran through him as his first kiss was now solidified inside of a nurses room in school with a boy who was barely conscious. As far as they went, it wasn't bad. His lips were soft, if not a bit too moist due to the sweat and blood, and there was the unfortunate undertaste of iron now inside of Dorian's own mouth. A consequence only born from accidentally biting his lower lip after the kiss had happened. He didn't know if the taste of blood was his or Percy's, and at the moment he didn't want to know. All he knew was that he needed to catch Percy quickly as he helped him gently lay back down onto the bed.

It was only then he'd noticed the sudden quiet of Annie. He didn't want to look back, he could feel her eyes on him. What would she think? Would she report him to his dad's? To Percy's mom's? His stomach sank as he took a step back from Percy, hands still interlocked. "Is t'at a side effect of a concussion or somet'ing?"

Nurse Annie considered this for a moment. “No, I don’t think that’s a side-effect of a concussion. There’s a GSA club at school that could answer your questions better,” Annie said. “But as far as I know, you’re just born that way.”

Dorian wanted to die of embarrassment as Nurse Annie spoke. He wasn't questioning his sexuality but he certainly was questioning what he was still doing here. Dorian tried not to meet her gaze as he waited awkwardly for Percy to feel better. He'd feel wrong just leaving him there, and he was certain Diana would kick his ass if he did. "Mutant, Gay, and Proud." he said trying to force a smile. He ran his thumb over Percy's as he leaned himself against the wall. "Any chance this is extra credit? Two students in two days. I'd say it's a record."

She rolled her eyes. “The actual record is twenty-seven in one day,” she said bluntly. “Now, do you know his name? I need to pull his records. It could be just over-exertion, illness, something to do with his powers, etc etc.”

Twenty-seven?! Dorian just about leaped out of his body when he'd heard that number. Either there was a massive attack at school or someone was a kiss ass. He tried to compose himself before answering her question, managing only to blubber like an idiot as he spoke. "P-percy Novikova. 'e's a freshman t'is year and brot'er of Diana."

”Novikov,” Percy mumbled.

Nurse Annie didn’t register the conflict in the surnames. She was familiar with Diana. She had helped Diana out after a few archery injuries - and some teleporting related ones. She stepped away from the patient and went over to her computer, typing in her password and pulling up the records. The boy was a linguist and a temporal teleporter. She unfortunately wasn’t an expert in time-travel related injuries - she’d have to get a consult from the time travel professor.

“I need to ask Ser Nemo to come and take a look at him, to make sure he didn’t get the temporal teleportation version of the bends,” Nurse Annie explained. “But my guess is that this is just over-exertion. Bed rest and fluids. Thank you for bringing your boyfriend here. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

Dorian's head snapped towards Percy as he spoke. He was clearly delusional since he was getting his own last name wrong. Either that or he didn't have the strength to finish the last syllable. "Poisson-Pas? Does he need to?" His mind raced to the broken tea cup still hidden in his room, barely registering what the nurse had said. "Best rest sounds eas- wait non! Not my boyfriend! He actually kind of 'ates my guts…" It was then he noticed they were still holding hands, or that it was even happening at all. He snatched his hand away from Percy's, letting it fall off the bedside as his arm lay limp for the moment. His free hand made its way towards the other, feeling the warmth left on his palm from holding his hand.

Nurse Annie wasn’t buying Dorian’s protests. She sighed. She had let him take his friend back earlier after bringing them here and unconscious - it helped that Danni had had some amazing puppy dog eyes. Nurse Annie didn’t feel great about it then. And she didn’t feel amazing about it now. “If he hasn’t recovered by tomorrow morning, then he needs to go straight to Ser Nemo,” Annie compromised. “I will be coming by to check on him.”

Dorian tried to give her his most reassuring smile. "We got April back up to a 'undred I'm sure I can do t'e same for 'im." His false bravado faltered for a moment as he realized he would now need to house Percy somewhere. Technically his dorm room was the best place but Dorian didn't exactly have a key to it, and he wasn't aware how Teddy would feel about it. He couldn't exactly keep him in his room though since Danni and Percy didn't see eye to eye. Dorian fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt before finally deciding. "I'll bring 'im back to 'is room and keep an eye on 'im. If 'e seems to get worse or if t'ere's no change by t'e morn I'll get Poisson-pas myself."

”Нет рыбы,” Percy whispered, starting to somewhat come to.

Nurse Annie shook her head. “Go, before I change my mind,” she dismissed, waving him off.

Dorian beamed a massive smile towards her, his dimples in full effect. He scooped up Percy like he had before and began making his way towards the Dorms again, looking down to keep an eye on him every once in a while. If he was honest he looked like an angel as he slept in his arms, mumbling nonsense every now and then. But each time he did he couldn't help but focus on his mouth, thinking back towards the kiss and wondering if Percy would even remember it.

Once he'd made his way back he stood there at the door, staring at it when he realized he had no way in. He paused, doing a small dance in place as he knew what he had to do but didn't care to do it right now. He took a deep breath in, placing Percy on the floor before jaunting over to the Astral Realm just long enough to pass through the door and make sure Teddy wasn't inside. Dorian shifted back inside of Percy's room, unlocking it from inside as he opened the door and brought Percy into his room.

Percy’s side of the room was extremely organized, neat, and tidy. In some respects, it almost looked like an example room from an IKEA showfloor. On the desk stood his collection of classical literature, propped up between two bookends. Directly above the desk drawers was an assortment of items for tea and coffee - nothing incredibly expensive, but still a little bit nicer than what would typically be found in a dorm room. His blankets were folded neatly on the bed, his matching set of red silk pajamas placed on top of the pillow. Also on the bed was a well loved stuffed teddy bear with an ascot - clearly something that Percy must have had since he was a small child.

Directly in front of the window was a keyboard, with pieces of sheet music affixed to the stand. The song Percy was currently working on was by Chopin - Nocturne in E Flat Major. The rest of his possessions were out of sight, having already been sorted into their designated drawers and whatnot.

Dorian thought his side of the dorm was neat, but Percy's was on a whole other level. He felt bad putting his bloodied clothed self on such a neatly done bed, so for now he rested him on the floor, looking around as he tried to figure out what to do. After a bit of pacing, he'd finally decided…he'd need to change his clothes. Lucky for him there was a pair of pajamas sitting atop a pillow, just what the nurse ordered. As he went to fetch them he noticed they were silk, extremely smooth to the touch and Dorian couldn't help but feel a little jealous. A part of him wanted to try the shirt on, checking the size to see they wore the same one before deciding against it.

"Gray what 'ave you gotten yourself into?" He asked himself as he stood at the foot of Percy’s body, wondering how he was going to get him undressed and dressed. If Teddy walked in, or worse if Percy woke up, he'd just die. So he needed to be quick. Locking the dorm room before coming back and taking off Percy's shoes, then socks and pants, he wasn't about to change his drawers so that he'd have some decency left, and then removed his shirt. He quickly slipped on the silk pajamas, folding the dirty clothes and placing them off to the side on the floor before lifting Percy and putting him in his bed, tucked under the impeccably solved sheets.

Dorian lingered for a moment, rocking in place as he watched Percy lay there motionless. He took a step back, and snagged a book off his shelf. When he opened it his eyebrows knit in confusion, he didn't recognize the language immediately so it wasn't any of the few he knew, but it reminded him of the writings he'd seen back on his vacation in Greece. "Weird. Must be a collectors t'ing." he decided before putting the book back and picking up the Teddy bear. He gave it a quick squish before smiling at it and placing it in Percy's arms. "Cute. Little gremlin likes plushies too."

”“Подарок,” Percy muttered. His arms tightened around the teddy bear, as a scowl overcame his face. And then the expression vanished, as Percy fell into some sort of a deeper state of unconsciousness. There was a sound coming from down the hall though, one that sounded like a stampede was coming through - probably Teddy, the way the feet were slamming against the ground over and over again. Dorian would need to make his exit quickly if he wanted to avoid Percy’s roommate.

Dorian felt his time was short, he gave Percy one last look as he rolled his eyes to himself mentally telling himself to get it together. He quickly ran towards their adjoining wall, going ghost as he jumped to phase through and land on the other side where his dorm lay. He faded back in with ease as he looked back towards wall, a mixture of feelings coming over him once more.

---

---

U = Usagi
SN = Ser Nemo
V = Vision
LN = Lady Nimue

van Dyne, Victoria - Junior

• Ranking:
  • A - SN
  • A - U
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 1 - U
• Comments:
  • People tend to think that the Avengers are cops, whereas other people argue firefighters. Miss van Dyne is making a case here for the latter. She is a natural born leader. -SN
  • Disappointed she didn't really fuck things up while in there - would've been excited to see what sort of damage that suit can do. But hey, still was super cool! Didn't know the van Dynes were making suits that weren't meant for shrinking. Thought that was Stark's deal? -U

Terrane, Ardere - Freshman

• Ranking:
  • B - SN
  • B - LN
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 3 - SN
  • 7 - LN
• Comments:
  • She pushes herself too hard. While I admire her ambition, it is important to also know when to stop. - SN
  • I sense a great deal of confusion in her - and a desperation to prove herself. If not guided properly, she may become a force of great evil. -LN

Sullivan, Mary Sue- Freshman

• Ranking:
  • C - SN
  • B - LN
• Likelihood of villainy:
  • 1 - SN
  • 10 - LN
• Comments:
  • A young protagonist at the start of her hero's journey, just barely scratching the surface of her power. We should consider private sessions, to help her probe the nature of her abilities. - SN
  • The granddaughter of Thanos heralds death. I should like to work with her, less the darkness consume her. -LN

---

---

NOTE: Official rules indicate teams should consist of 5 members. There may be 2 additional members to serve as alternates/subs.

FIRST ROUND PICK

V: As the reigning champions, I propose that we keep the team designated 'the Young Avengers' in tact under my guidance. Their membership includes Hawkeye II, Stature, Wiccan, Speed, Hulkling, Patriot, and Miss America. Are there any objections?
SN: No.
LN: No.
U: You're taking ALL THE GOOD ones! Ugh, fine. Whatever. Half of them are graduating anyways, keep your shitty washed up team.
V: ....
V: Thank you. Based on previous patterns, I assume you would like to select your own teams first, prior to filling out the remaining nine groups.
SN: I choose Poltergeist as my first pick.
U: Fine. I'm taking Artemis. Love a bitch who can fuck things up.
V: ....
LN: I will take Marvel Girl.

SECOND ROUND PICK

SN: I will take Hot-Shot.
U: Pfft, loser. Can't believe you picked the walking fire tornado. Anyways, I'm going to make a high IQ move and I'm taking Valkyrie. You all can suck it.
V: ... Really, Usagi?
U: Eat me.
LN: Oh, I suppose I will take then... Trivia.

THIRD ROUND PICK

SN: Hmm. Begrudgingly, I will take Odysseus.
U: You're really bad at this. Did you have a stroke? Aaaanyways. I'm gonna take Jotunn. Damn, my team is SO GOOD.
SN: Perhaps I did.
LN: I will select Luna Minor.
U: She's going to kill you in your sleep. Just an FYI.

FOURTH ROUND PICK

SN: I will take Amnesia.
U: snorts
U: Imma grab Shieldmaiden, no idea how she hasn't been snapped up yet.
LN: I will take Cascade.

FIFTH ROUND PICK

SN: Mmm. I will take Calamity.
U: Oh! I'll grab up Arcade. Easy choice. My techies are gonna be BESTIES.
LN: And I will conclude with the selection of Kindle.
U: Yikes.

---

---

---

At 7:00 AM, the Lady of the Lake cast a minor enchantment upon Stark Hall. A knock simultaneously sounded at each room, as slips of paper manifested themselves, sliding underneath the door for the occupants to find. Addressed to each student, these included their official team placement for the upcoming Contest of Champions. It also included instructions to report to a designated location at 8:00 AM sharp in uniform to meet their coach and have their first training session as a team. Free dress was over.

There were thirteen teams in total - but most students knew that the only teams truly considered to have any promise were the judges' teams. If you weren't on Vision's, Usagi's, Ser Nemo's, or Lady Nimue's team, it meant the academy had no faith in your ability to bring home a win.

Not that anyone really had a chance against the Young Avengers. Unlike other students at the academy, they were authorized to go out and do real superhero work. They had more direct, hands on-experience than anyone could hope for. Plus, most of them were nepo babies. Nepo babies always seemed to go farther, no matter the line of work.

The Vision's Team - "the Young Avengers"

• Teddy Altman / Hulkling
• Kate Bishop / Hawkeye II
• Eli Bradley / Patriot
• America Chavez / Miss America
• Cassie Lang / Stature
• Billy Maximoff / Wiccan
• Tommy Maximoff / Speed

Lady Nimue's Team - "the Huntresses" - REPORT TO TRAINING ROOM A

• Madalyne Crane / Trivia
• April Flynn / Cascade
• Andy Gallio-Lensherr / Luna Minor
• Mary Sue Sullivan / Marvel Girl
• Ardere Terrane / Kindle

Ser Nemo's Team - "Excelsior" - REPORT TO TRAINING ROOM B

• Sabine Bassard / Amnesia
• Zelda Flynn / Calamity
• Dorian Gray / Poltergeist
• Danni Kingston / Hot Shot
• Percy Novikov / Odysseus

Usagi's Team - "Uncanny Avengers" - REPORT TO THE FRAMEWORK HUB

• Ed Acra / Arcade
• Leah Jordan / Jotunn
• Diana Novikova / Artemis
• Zarina Raynordattir / Valkyrie
• Victoria van Dyne / Shieldmaiden

In more general news, poor Teddy (the bear, not the other one) seems to have come down with a nasty cold. He ended up missing his audition time. He'll probably be out of class for a few days, to Usagi's annoyance - she likes having her TA around for teaching Combat 101. She's less likely to kill her students that way.

More shockingly though, Chi Mai sent a mass group text out to her friends - namely April, Diana, Mads, Danni, Dorian, Sabine, Vicky, Teddy, and Leah. The text read:



If anyone tried to reach out to Chi Mai for clarification, she just sent back various memes or inside jokes. She didn't answer where exactly she had gone or why, but she had also missed her audition the day before. And a quinjet had been spotted on the football field, so her story wasn't completely farfetched. No one just had any idea why Chi Mai was suddenly running with the Avengers.

@Nallore: By some blessed miracle, her horrible acne breakout cleared up overnight. It would've been nice for that to be gone for the carnival - or even for auditions - but at least the zits are gone now. Maybe now is a good time for Diana to take some selfies, before they come back!

@Kirah: Andy's possessed doll has been strangely quiet, ever since the carnival. She hasn't had her mother's spirit trapped inside of the doll for very long, so it's completely possible that everything is fine. It probably takes a lot of energy for Selene to communicate through the magical prison anyways. But at the same time, it is definitely unnerving. It's like when a normally loud child suddenly is silent... They're probably up to no good...

---

---

April had woken up filled with nervous energy and excitement, while simultaneously feeling like she had been hit by a truck. It had been a long two days. A long two days with so many twists and turns that she was already ready for a break, and the school year had barely started. She hadn't even gone to her first classes yet. Those would begin tomorrow. Today was time set aside for the coaches to meet their teams and start working towards the Contest of Champions. The knock on the door was as punctual as it had been the years prior - exactly at seven o'clock, there was a rustle at the door as the sheets of paper appeared underneath it. April leapt out of bed, grabbing them and throwing Mads' hers.

April didn't take time to appreciate her name written in beautiful calligraphy, tearing the envelope open. The paper indicated the team she was placed on - the Huntresses, led by the Lady of the Lake. Her heart stopped. Maybe Danni and Dori could still be on the Huntresses though? Girls could be on a team called the Hunters, why couldn't guys be on the Huntresses? But as her eyes scanned the team roster, she didn't see their names there.

Tears sprang to her eyes. How was she going to have the perfect year and win the Contest of Champions if her besties weren't by her side? Would she have to go up against them? She couldn't imagine fighting either of them... but she really did want to win. Could she bring herself to send water gushing at Danni or Dori? Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe she'd get another letter in a minute going oops, we forgot, Danni and Dori are on your team, it's a seven person team, our bad!

She stared at the door. Nothing else came. Her shoulders slumped. She didn't know if it would be better or worse if Danni and Dori were on a team together without her... They already did tons of things without her. They basically lived together all the time, they had grown up together. Maybe they didn't need her. Maybe they were the stars of the YA novel, and April was just a quirky manic pixie dream girl side character...

At least Mads was on the team with her. And she sorta knew Mary Sue. Her eyes looked at the last names and her heart cracked. Gallio-Lensherr. A relative of hers. It was already awkward enough knowing that two of the most popular boys in her year were her cousins, but they never really felt like it. She was pretty estranged from that side of the family. And having to be on a team with someone who was probably from that side... That was bound to get awkward.

But she took a deep breath. She had kissed a girl for the first time yesterday. And they were going to talk to Sabine soon. Her heart fluttered, thinking about both Leah and Sabine. Maybe the universe was only going to let her have so much luck - like, there was a finite amount, and she had used it all up, so she didn't get put on the team she wanted.

"Oh sick, we're on the same team, fam!!!" April squealed to Mads. "Do you know anything about the Lady of the Lake? Is she cute? Not that we're gonna be hot for teacher, but, y'know, just for information purposes. She's... Otherworld nonsense, right? I always kinda get Otherworld and Narnia mixed up, to be honest. They have kinda similar vibes to me. But you should get dressed so we can go grab a bevvie before going to... it looks like they want us at training room A, where we did the auditions. Do you have any tea on the other peeps on the team? I kinda know Mary Sue, her parents are family friends."

---

When they got to training room A, about fifteen minutes early (April was paranoid that they would get lost, despite knowing the way perfectly well), she was dressed in her academy uniform. Because Firestar was their dorm mom, both Mads and April had to wear the red version of the AA uniform. April had gone with black sneakers and grey knee high socks, the red plaid academy skirt, white button up shirt, and tie. And of course, she had her contacts in - she didn't feel like wearing her glasses that day.

Besides her book bag, which contained her academy issued spandex training uniform, her most important accessory was her coffee order. She had her absolute favorite drink that day - a venti iced caramel machiatto, two shots, no foam, almond milk, and triple blended with whipped cream on the bottom. She ordered it so often that she had partially memorized the price that it would ring up as at her favorite stand.

Inside the training room, it looked like a fairly typical set-up. April was used to coaches on the first day having something elaborate or crazy already there, but the Lady of the Lake was magic... Maybe she was just going to wave her hand and surprise them all. Or maybe she had something else in store. The Lady in question wasn't there yet either.

"We aren't that early, are we?" April asked, before checking the time on her phone. She still needed to finish getting all her contacts over. That or call her parents and beg for a new phone. But she didn't want to have to explain to them what had happened to the old one, and unfortunately, she was a TERRIBLE liar... At any rate, it was about eight o'clock when she checked. Everyone was supposed to be there now. "Is she running on Otherworld Time? Is that like... GMT-12?" April asked Mads.

---

---

Percy typically didn't really enjoy waking up early. He was much more of a night owl. However, he was also somewhat of a germaphobe. His roommate was seriously ill, having spent most of the night running back and forth between their room and the dorm's toilets. Percy wished that he had had some sort of surgical mask on him. He was fairly confident now that Teddy must've been the reason he had gotten ill all of the sudden yesterday. Teddy was old too - at least, in his mind - so it made sense that his immune system would be struggling to clear it more than Percy's.

To that end, Percy was actually in the campus library when the clock struck seven. He had fallen asleep with the Song of Achilles pressed to his face. A large thermos of coffee was on the ground next to him, struggling to maintain its temperature so long after he had brewed it. Yet it wasn't the clock but instead a sudden knock that woke him up, causing the book to slide off of his face. And almost immediately replacing it was a letter that had appeared out of nowhere, addressed to him. He frowned slightly.

"Isn't this a cliché by now?" he murmured, before ripping the letter open. And then, his worst nightmare came to pass. He was on a team with the terrible judge, Ser Nemo. Ser No One. It was a stupid name. Did Ser Nemo even speak Latin? Why someone would call themselves that, Percy had no idea... But irrationally, it made him hate Ser Nemo even more. He'd like to see someone trip the old man down the stairs. Preferably, it would be caught on video, so Percy could experience it over and over again.

At least his sister wasn't on the team. He loved her, but she could be suffocating at times. The only person on the team that he actually liked was Zelda Flynn - and she was fine. He would have preferred to be on a team with Zari. Sure, he'd have a constant headache, but at least he'd be entertained. Zelda would probably end up clinging to him like a life raft. The rest of the team though pretty much sucked. He didn't know this Amnesia person, and while he loved the Sabine Women, he was skeptical if she would live up to her name. The other two though were some of the assholes from a few days ago.

The universe seemed to insist on throwing Percy in Dorian's path - like some cruel, unwanted gift. Dorian Gray was the Christmas fruitcake of teammates. No matter how hard Percy tried to chuck it, it always seemed to come back. "If I kill him, it's your fault," Percy said to no one in particular. He did still have the axe...

---

He had dressed in the dorm room in record time when he got back. The constant sounds of illness and plague coming from Teddy's side of the room was a strong motivator. Percy didn't even realize he was capable of holding his breath that long. He didn't even do his usual routine of folding the bed up as neat and tidy as he could, figuring that every second he lingered in that room, he was putting his immune system at risk. He made a mental note to get the sanitation equivalent of Febreeze before returning to this room.

Or maybe he could suck it up and ask Diana if he could sleep in her room until Teddy was no longer a bear corpse. He vaguely recalled her mentioning that one of her two roommates had ended up withdrawing from the school, leaving her in a triple with just one roommate.

At any rate, Percy made his way to the training rooms from the auditions - his team was specifically put in training room B. He had briefly considered bringing the axe with him, but had decided against it. Ser Nemo could live for another day. Besides, he didn't particularly want to go to jail for killing an old man - although Percy was pretty sure that his parents could pull some strings to cover it up. Maybe he'd be sent to a secret school that worked with kids who were on the roads to becoming villains. Or maybe they'd just shoot him off into space. He vaguely recalled something like that happening to the Hulk once. It was hard a times to know all the notable super events, given that approximately twelve billion had happened every year since Tony Stark went public as Iron Man.

Come to think of it, the mysterious handsome savior from his dream did have a certain resemblance to Tony Stark... who was Percy's answer for both fuck and marriage in classic Avengers' Fuck, Marry, Kill.

"Ah, Mr. Novikov - come in, come in," Ser Nemo said as Percy arrived, waving him through the open door of the training room. Percy was, as requested, wearing the standard uniform. He had opted for the version of it that used shorts, as it was still INCREDIBLY hot at the moment in Los Angeles. He didn't feel like having rivers of sweat running down his legs.

"Are we... running an obstacle course?" Percy asked, his head starting to ache. Fuck. Maybe Teddy really had gotten him sick... His nose was itching as well, as if a nosebleed was about to come on. But he did his best to focus on the massive obstacle course that had been set up in the training room. It looked like something out of Survivor or another trashy reality competition. He especially didn't like to see a section that included a giant mud pit. Percy narrowed his eyes. Maybe this was how Ser Nemo was going to get revenge for Percy's attempted murder - by ruining his crisp, clean clothes.

"Hm? Oh, yes! You will be competing as teams. We'll begin with a mini challenge of sorts, so to speak, which will let the winner pick their teams. One team will have three members, and the other two. I will order pizza for the winners."

Somehow, Percy managed to narrow his eyes more. "Pizza. Right, because we're just children who need a bribe," he scoffed. He was feeling angrier by the minute as he talked with Nemo. And his headache was becoming stronger and stronger. Maybe he'd get lucky and he'd give Nemo Teddy's illness. Now THAT would make all of this worth it.

---

---

It was one of those nights Victoria decided to spend actually pretending to sleep. The inactivity helped her to sort out her thoughts somewhat. Or in this case, run through her audition several thousand times, trying to come up with what she could have done better. The car crash, that was just unfortunate. Sadly, not every time are they going to get on site while there is still someone alive to need help. Move on, or you're not cut out for this job. Victoria had every bit of belief people who wished to save everyone were going to end up neurotic wrecks before graduation. Still, could she have plugged the leaks? Welding was out of the question, she was trying to prevent fire and explosion. Pinching the cistern shut? That assumed she would not just tear it somewhere else. Did she even have time for it? Not likely, people were drowning and suffocating. She was happy with how she handled that. Much like the building that was set on fire.

The flooded area she felt could have done better. She had half a mind to break a few walls with her forehead for the stupid, idiotic, moronic, rushed decision to blow apart the building with a spheroid repulsor field. Spheroid! Over a basement! Did she have a glitch?! As if the first thing James told her when she took the first steps in the suit was to mind her weight so that she did not sink into some terrain. No, here the time pressure did not justify the rash action. She would have to do better next time. Check the water level in the basement perhaps? Yes! She could use a ground penetrating radar pulse to detect the air cavity and measure it's size. Good. It was an abysmal error, but I'll learn form it. Better a few bits in the Framework drowned than a real person if I did that in the field. she mentally nodded.

But, she kept coming back to the collapsed building. And she was drawing blanks. The radar pulse would not help her there, not enough resolution. There was just no way she could think of to accurately map out the internal structure of the collapse. Nor was any idea of how else to dig up the survivors safely. Maybe there weren't any? Maybe she took too long? She spent a couple of hours in the night reviewing materials on earthquake rescue. Usage of dogs lead her to an idea of using smell, but she could not reasonably do that without revealing her superior senses. Good for an actual situation, not for her audition where VEIL protocol still applied. She also found there were more hazard factors than she thought of too - Broken gas pipes, fallen power lines... Baaaah! That S&R class better deliver! she groaned inwardly, Maybe I could ask someone? But who would have the experience here? ... Oh screw it, I am so starved for ideas that I might just ask the next person I meet!

Before she realized her introspection dragged on for so long, it was morning and someone was knocking at the door. Getting up from the bed, she walked over and opened: "Yes?"

"A package for miss van Dyne?" the courier said, waving a small box in front of her face. Signing for it, she closed the door and walked halfway back before the knocking sounded again. Opening the door once more, she saw no one in the hallway. Ha, ha. Children, please... she pouted, closing the door again and only then noticing the envelopes on the ground. Picking them up, she saw one addressed to her and the other to Zari. Setting the latter one on the desk, she plopped down on her bed and looked up over the parcel first. Noticing the return address, she smiled. Cool! Something from home! Tearing into it quietly, a note was folded on the top:

Hi Tori!

I noticed you were working on something to help you respond more quickly if you find yourself unsuited and in a pickle. Great idea! You should hang around those guys more, if they help you improve like that. However, I need to point out a couple of things. One, using a pistol grip is not going to help you to shorten your learning curve too much. It is a completely different position for aiming. Second, under California law, you won't be able to carry anything resembling a pistol in concealed or open carry before you're 18.

Don't worry, I got you covered! Cassie is no doubt going to continue with that team of hers, but I have no doubt that you will ace your audition and deserve equal treatment. I don'T have the clout to do that, but... I can even out the playing field a little bit ;) Put it to good use and show the rest what you're made of! (Well, not literally, but... you know...)

You two come visit soon!

Love, Hope.

As she read, a smile was growing on Vicky's face more and more. She really felt lucky. Everyone else, they would have created her for a purpose, and that purpose would be the forefront on their interactions with her. The van Dyne household treated her like a person, like family. She still kept her purpose in mind, but she was allowed choice to pursue it, and do so because of her own beliefs, not because of being told to, with only minimal restrictions put it.

Unable to contain her excitement any longer, she bit her lip and reached into the box, pulling out a contraption. Upon seeing it, she instantly knew it was better than her design, and for a few simple reasons. The device was made like a glove, with a slot for the multi-field projector in the palm. At exactly the same place as with her armor, sans some thickness. Not looking at just the plain better ergonomic and the exploitation of the loophole in the wording of the law that would actually allow her to carry this thing around, another thing also came to mind - The glove part covered her skin, so she would be able to easily transform that hand into an interface mode, further easing up control. Still some way to go to besting the master. she thought, testing the contraption on. It fit, well, like a glove. She would have to get Hope something very nice for birthday.

Reaching for the envelope, she checked the contents of the letter. Ah. Well! The team she was assigned to looked quite like a powerhouse on paper. Between herself and Leah they could move building if it came to it, and they seemed to have serious brain power behind them as well. She was a bit saddened by the lack of a magician, but she supposed she could not have everything. The giant red flag was the Arcade guy, who, to her horror, was almost unknown to her. Did she miss a recluse even worse than herself? Well, at least she would have an opportunity to correct that mistake this year.

"Aigh't, back into the tank we go..." she noted, briefly looking over the shield from Agatha. Nope. She first needed to figure out how to make it last, without revealing her nanite skin. Next time, baby. she smirked and headed to the workshop to pick up one of the M-F generators before heading to the Framework lobby, seemingly ahead of anyone else.

---

---

---

---

Andy woke to the knock on the door. She got up and found the note. At first, she didn't realize that the room seemed empty. But there was only one envelope. She looked at her roommate's bed and frowned. Stuff was gone. Maybe she had failed the audition so badly because she was so high she had been kicked out of the school. Was that possible?

On the plus side that meant Zari could probably hang out in her room. She didn't remember who Zari's roommate was, but hey they could get alone time. She felt a bit overwhelmed with how many people there were. And the blatant use of powers still. What would have been a prison sentence at best was so common practice none of the kids here had any idea what it had been like.

To top that off Selene was uncharacteristically quiet. Maybe the meeting with Agatha had gotten to her more than she was letting on. It was unnerving.

For a moment Andy spiraled. Things felt so wildly out of her control. She still hadn't looked at the card inside the envelope. What if she didn't? What if she left? The thought of leaving, of not trying was tempting. But Andy imagined Zari being sad. She also imagined her laughing. She didn't want to make Zari sad. She also didn't want to leave her because Zari was one of the things that made her happy. That grounded her.

Shaking her head Andy read the team assignment. She didn't know how to feel. Was this a good thing? She didn't have Zari on her team, which she was sad about. And the only person on the team she did know was Madalyne. At least Andy liked Madalyne.

Andy got dressed. She opted for shorts. Having never been a fan of skirts. She also left her jacket. The school dress code wouldn't allow it. In a way having a uniform was a relief. It meant she wouldn't have to deal with any more comments about her clothing. However, it meant she couldn't wear what she was actually comfortable in.

She left her mom sitting on her dresser. Andy had taken her out of the bag, but decided meeting someone named "Nimue" made her nervous about magic shit. And that meant not wanting to have her mom there. Andy knew enough Arthurian legends to know that would be a sticky situation. Though if Usagi was anything to go by she'd probably be surprised and Nimue would be a fighter instead of a wizard.

Andy wished she had a nice cup of hot coffee when she finally arrived in the training room. There was Madalyne and ...Princess? That couldn't be her real name. Andy tried to guess who of her team Princess really was, it would be hilarious if it was Mary Sue. What caught her attention and took her from that thought process was she was holding a cup of coffee. Sweet blessed caffeine.

"Hello Madalyne." Andy nodded at Madalyne before turning to 'Princess', "Hey. Uh, where did you get the coffee? I haven't had any in like two days except this stash of coffee drinks my mom got for me and I'd love some real coffee." She asked 'Princess'. The idea of coffee was distracting. She didn't care if it meant leaving the training room and coming back late. "Also, sorry I don't know your name." She said a bit apologetically and inquisitively. Now that she was thinking about it, the girl had corrected one of the French guys with her name. She couldn't remember what it was though. "I'm Andy." She added, just in case the girl had forgotten. Their first time meeting had not been great. It wasn't her fault. But it had been a bit of a mess. Andy wanted to put it behind her. She wanted to make friends, but she was going to follow Agatha's advice and not change herself to try to fit in.

---

---

---

---

Diana slowly started to wake up when she heard a knock on the door to her dorm she slowly started to get up and made her way towards the door seeing two letters slipping under the door. Diana knelt down and picked them up one of the letters was addressed to her, and the other was for Zelda. "Here you go Zelda." Diana said, she knew her roommate somewhat as she went over and started to get some cat food out for her pet Tauriel who was sleeping soundly on the edge of her bed, she also changed out her water. Tauriel would let out a little annoyed meow before going back to sleep.

Diana opened up the letter and started to scan through it, seeing who her team assignments were this year they were, Ed Acra, Leah Jordan Zarina Raynordattir, Valkyrie, and Victoria van Dyne. She didn't know Ed at all really Zarina she was looking forward to working with since she had practically grew up with her, due to her mother's being best friends with Zari's mother. Leah she didn't get along with that much really, and Victoria she didn't know that well either really. Diana went to the bathroom grabbing her school uniform and started to get changed into it.

She opted for the green skirt for her uniform, her uniform had a green trim to it Tigra being their dorm parent wanted green for some reason. She was glad that her acne had finally cleared up actually which was nice for once, it would have been nice if it had disappeared for her audition but it didn't but it was cleared now which was good. Diana quickly brushed her teeth as she changed as well to before going out finishing buttoning up her shirt as Diana looked at Zelda. "See you later today Zelda have fun with the training. Also if you want to hangout later or something just let me know to." Diana said to her as she grabbed her school bag and left.

---

Diana thought about teleporting over to the Framwork hub but she decided against it as she did prefer to walk sometimes as Diana made her way towards the gym, she left Stark Hall behind and started outside and made it towards the gym, she knew where the Framework room was having used it a few times during some of the classes. Her eyes wondered up as she made her way to the lobby of sorts to the Framework hub seeing Victoria there and gave her a slight wave. "Good morning Victoria." Diana said as she set her school bag down. "How are you doing?" Diana asked wanting to be friendly to her new teammate, it was just herself and Victoria right now it seemed that the others hadn't appeared just yet.

---

---

---

---

Madalyne slowly started to wake up letting out a slight groan when she heard the knock on the door, April was up already and went to get the letters. "Good morning to you to April." Madalayne said as she rubbed her eyes and accepted the letter from her bestie, and opened up the letter. She was actually really relieved to be on a team with April this year she really enjoyed spending time with her, as she looked up the rest of the people on the team. "I honestly don't know anything about Lady Nimue, other than her taking Agatha's place as the magic teacher here." Madalyne answered April, she was still sad and disappointed that she wont be working with Agatha this year, her eyes wondered over to the unopened letter that was on her bedside table her invitation to attend Strange Academy.

But she didn't want to leave her friends really either. "I don't know anyone else really aside from Andy a little bit she's dating Zarina." Madalyne answered April. Madalyne got up and made her way towards her dresser and started to get changed into her school uniform, once she was ready she looked at April. "Lets get going then we don't want to be late really either." Madalyne said to April grabbing her school bag as well as she left their dorm room behind.

---

Madalyne stopped with April at the cafeteria to grab something to drink, April had gone for her usual, while she had gone for a soda instead, she didn't like coffee that much no matter how you changed it or added to it she could still taste a little bit of coffee which Madalyne didn't like really. She did like tea quiet a bit but she wanted something fizzy to drink as she made her way to Training Room A of the gym. "I'm not sure maybe she'll come in right on the dot, we are early after all anyway." She said as her attention turned to April and shrugged slightly she wasn't sure really either but she knew that they were actually earlier as her attention quickly turned to see Andy and smiled as she approached them.

"Hey Andy how are you doing? Also you can just call me Mads or Maddie for short if you'd like." She said, only her mother and relatives called her by her full name really, she looked at April for a moment and then back at Andy when she asked where they got the drinks from. "We stopped at the cafeteria on our way over if you want afterwards we can go there." She offered.

---

---

---

Sabine could have slept there for hours. But of course the school would not allow that. Not with the audition over and done with. She heard the knock on her door and turned over to see who it could be. Two slips of paper came into view. Groaning, she got up and walked over, picking up both of the sheets. She assumed one was for her and the other for Leah. She glanced over them, flopping the one meant for Leah on her bed.

Reading through it, it seemed she was on Nemo's team. The old guy was very odd. Sabine lit up a bit noticing she was with Danni. It was a pity that Leah, April, and Mai would not be on her team (Mai apparently going off on her own adventure), but Danni could make up for that. She was not too thrilled to see Dorian on there, but Dorian was all right in some aspects. And Danni liked him. The other two were....not ideal. Zelda she didn't know from Adam. And Percy was that annoying Freshman that Danni nearly incinerated. God, those two were going to be at odds weren't they?

She had some time to get ready, though she would much instead prefer not to wear the uniform, despite the fact she made it work (she made everything work). She changed, not caring if Leah was awake and watching her or still asleep. She opted to wear her uniform with a skirt. Once she was satisfied she looked good, she turned to head out, but not before blowing a kiss to Leah.

---

She enjoyed the stroll to the training room, if for no other reason than because she wouldn't be put to work. But she made it there nonetheless. Once inside, Sabine noticed the obstacle course. And then she noticed Percy, so far the only one who had shown up. Sabine moved away from Percy, nodding at Nemo. "Do not eat the pizza then if you win. More for the others that pull their weight." Sabine stood, waiting for the rest so they could get this over with.

She intended to win, despite being on a team she would not have chosen. She'd make the best of it and shine.