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This was starting to give her a headache. It didn't surprise Leah at all that the Young Avengers were all nepo babies. You don't get a name like "Young Avengers" if you're not connected or even related to the Real Fucking Avengers. Granted, she was dating someone who was more or less a SHIELD baby, but that was a but of a step down from literal superheroes. At the end of the day, Leah wasn't all too concerned with it. She didn't plan to actually overthrow anyone. If she was a full blown superhero by the end of next year, then she'd be a superhero. If not? Well, it's just a good thing this internal dialogue of hers stayed internal.

Usagi wanted them to fight in a battle royale. Wasn't that the shitty genre of games all the 9th grade kids played ten years ago? Leah wasn't exactly a pro gamer, but she had a feeling this just meant they'd all be thrown into an arena and forced to fight for Usagi's amusement. She'd be very surprised if it was something else. She checked her phone again... What world did they speak that language on? April was secretly an alien or something, Leah was beginning to suspect.



She then stood up and went to grab a suit. These things were ugly as shit, and always made Leah feel awkward because of how tight they were. Sabine might've enjoyed seeing that, and maybe April too. Oh well. She left her shit in a stall and then climbed into one of the tanks. The real world fell away, and she was now in the digital world of heroric bullshittery.

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Sabine preened at Nemo's compliments. She was sure she nailed the assignment. Sabine took some steps back, taking a stand near Danni and Dorian while Percy stepped up to the plate. Sabine didn't know what to expect with the fiery (get it?!?) Freshman, but either way she gave little attention to the pipsqueak as she felt her phone vibrate. She read the message from April and figured it you be a mistake. She shot off a quick text while Percy did his thing.



Sabine returned to the scene in time to see Percy put a pretend gun to Danni. Sabine tensed up a bit, but Nemo spoke up and scolded Percy, rightly so. "If you ever pull a weapon on him, real or fake, again I will ensure you remember nothing and are left a drooling blob of flesh on the ground that not even your parents would love."

Sabine left it at that and turned to see Zelda's attempt. She could not read the girl for the life of her. And Zelda's attempt seemed...unsure? Uncertain? Did she even give a fuck?

This was her team? This was who she would be working with? Danni she adored and Dorian was....okay, but the other two were not making great strides at impressing her.

"Well, Spicy-that's your nickname now btw, you're welcome," Danni said over his shoulder to the short stack at his back. "You might as well pull the trigger 'cause then at least I'd be just like my dreams, dead in a heap on the ground." Danni grumbled, arms crossed in front of him as he pouted. The three of them were so excited; they'd been sure the trio would have been on a team together and between the radio silence from Princess and Dee's just straight up acceptance of the situation, Danni felt the motivation to be here start plummeting.

Still, he leaned over to Beanie while giving Dee a thumbs up on managing to fuck with the teacher. "You're gunna spill t'e beans later, right? Like, dance, drink, spill t'e tea? Regularly fuck with him wit' whatever spooky shit you got outta 'is 'ead?" Danni stage whispered to her, while maintaining eye contact with Nemo. He decided he didn't like Nemo. Not picking Princess was an insult to her, which was an insult to all three of them, and then just brushing him off instead giving into his demands was just the nail in the coffin. Old guy was a dick. Yes, he was encouraging and yes, he was probably very likable but he broke the three of them up and that meant he was the devil.

Danni partically swooned into Beanie's arms at her declaration at Spicy. "Aw, you love me! I love you too!" Danni beamed and then whirled around on Zelda. "Okay, now Zelds, listen. T'at… I don't know if t'at was right but t'at doesn't matter. What matters is confidence, the presentation. Eyes on t'e prize and t'e prize is 'is mental stability. You're a kickass rockstar who can make flaming bees, alt'ough maybe lay off t'e flaming bees 'cause I ain't tryin' ta be Hootsifer ta Dee's Lilith and all t'at jazz, and t'at beats weird time jumps any day!"

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Dorian was about to take another swing at Nemo when Zelda finally had decided to join them in the Training Room. His sword froze midswing, stopping to try and explain to Zelda why it was that he was attacking their team coach, but as his mouth opened to speak, Sabine came in at full force as she began to read Nemo for filth. Dorian’s mouth stayed open, his jaw dropping lower in equal parts horror and astonishment as she so effortlessly picked Poisson-pas apart without so much as lifting a finger. Surely he thought she’d join in with her fancy new She-Ra sword, but her words cut deeper than any blade either of them could wield. He recalled the old faded photograph of Nemo’s dearly departed love, something he’d meant to ask about later on down the road. But here she was, laying it all out for him, making Dorian that much more interested in what had happened. As she spoke, he recalled what it was that he’d seen in the Astral Realm, a field of graves but only two of them were in focus for him. His arm drooped down, sword barely inches about the floor as he was now thinking about what he had seen. He had wanted to forget, to pretend it was all a bad dream, but he knew there was a timer on their head and he wanted…no needed to speak to Nemo after this was all over.

Dorian paid no attention to Percy’s little comment, focused solely on the old man before him as questions burned inside him begging to be asked. Nemo’s words felt hollow, not that the old man wasn’t actually praising him, more so that they meant nothing in the end if his best friends were to die in a year's time. ”Yeah…I’ll keep that in mind.” he answered back as a single tear fell down mimicking Nemo’s. Dorian started to make his way back towards Danni, just in time for Percy to shimmer out of view and place a finger gun to Danni’s back. He knew he couldn’t actually harm Danni with it, yet Dorian’s hands gripped his sword tighter nonetheless. That Percy would even think that was funny was…Dorian didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t sit right with him. Sabine’s voice cut in, threatening Percy before Dorian could even utter a word. It was then that he noticed his throat felt incredibly dry. The past few days had been too much, and he had no idea how to handle all of the information that kept coming at him at lightspeed. Danni seemed to be fine, taking what Percy had done with stride, and clearly he was more than content to have Sabine in his corner, so for the moment he just felt…alone. He sheathed his sword, making his way back towards his cup of coffee, taking a sip as he sat down in a mess of emotions. ”Gotta agree wit’ D t’ere. You need more confidence in what you do or you’ll never sell it. Everyt’ing in life is a show and you need to give it your all wit’ some pizazz. Eit’er way…we did your challenge Poisson-pas, even if someone’s was a bit lame and rude…Pers. So who’s t’e team caps? And why is it me and Sabine?”

Mary Sue watched with a dropped jaw as the sword she summoned was used to stab one of her teammates. How on earth these things she made kept ending up inside people, she had no idea, but she wasn't a fan. Even more so, Mads pulled the sword out, putting the girl at risk of bleeding out. This girl was either a sociopathic loose cannon, or an idiot; either way, Mary Sue would be slow to trust her, if ever now. Instead, she focused on getting this done, and rushed past the beast, making to to the sword rack and grabbing a sword for herself with Andy, she had yet another plan.

Zipping back to the scene of the attempted murder, Mary Sue quickly found herself by the bleeding out Andy, but held her tongue at reprimanding Mads. That sor tof talk about and team fighting wouldn't get them anywhere right now. Instead, she laid the spare sword gently by her side, and made herself let go of Andy's constructed sword, it fizzling off into where ever the things she made went when they were done existing. She briefly tried to summon up some gauze, but apparently between all the stress, blood, and confusion, Mary Sue wasn't quite able to do that.

Thinking on her feat, she slid her jacket off, and felt her heart jump in her chest. She didn't like what she was about to do at all. She was, technically, now in violation of her dress code, but she assumed it was preferable to Andy dying on the floor. Quickly, she wrapped the blazer around Andy's wound, and looked over to her teacher, almost pleadingly. "Okay, Okay." She said, speaking quickly, an obvious tremor in her voice, "We've all got swords, can the monster go away now?" That wasn't originally how she wanted to pitch it in her head, and she was already beating herself up for her delivery, but she was shaken and wanted this to end.

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@Blizz@Nallore@BlueSky44@Forsythe: The group would open their eyes up inside the Framework.

They were in a large grassy field, each of them standing on a separate circular platform. These platforms surrounded a gigantic cornucopia, filled with weapons and supplies. Some items were thrown in the grass around the horn, and a few things were even pretty close to the platforms. Ed's eyes widened, before he laughed slightly. "I love the Hunger Games!" he admitted. He then did his best to mimic Prue's whistle, but didn't quite do it right.

Then, from up above, Usagi's voice boomed - "FIGHT TO THE LAST!"

The battle royale had begun.

Arcade took off of his platform at a sprint, surprisingly fast. He scooped up a large hunting knife, and then sprinted as far away from the cornucopia as he could. He played enough of these games. He knew that central location would be a blood bath. He made it to the tree lines when suddenly a wall of pixels appeared and his face smashed right into them.

"Damn it, Usagi, you made the arena too small!" Arcade cursed, his heart pounding.

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The questing beast was going right for April, as her eyes widened and then narrowed with determination. Her heart was pounding a million beats a minute, but she held tightly onto the sword that Mary Sue had conjured up for her, and in her other hand, she was holding a small ball of coffee water. "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this," April muttered under her breath. She swung her sword, only to...

"Argh!" April screamed. The beast had sunk its fangs into her arm. And it wasn't letting go. Her arm felt like it was on fire, and she hoped to the gods that it was just because of, y'know, the giant wound. And not venom. She didn't know if the questing beast was venomous. If it was, hopefully Lady Nimue would take pity on them - but so far, their mentor seemed unmoved, watching them all coldly.

The water April had been keeping up fell to the ground lamely. She could vaguely make out snippets of conversation behind her - Mary Sue pleading with Nimue to call off the beast - but her head was throbbing. Her vision was swimming, a wild swirl of colors all around her. For a brief second, she could've sworn she saw Danni and Dori... laughing at her. She tried to swing her sword, but her body felt like lead. And then she went limp, fainting for the second time that week.

"I have seen enough," Lady Nimue said, raising a hand. The questing beast collapsed, turning into water that lapped at the floor. She reached into her bosom and produced a cordial. She placed a drop of it on the head of April, Mads, and Andy - everyone except for Mary Sue, essentially. The venom dissipated from April's body. Mads' demon form washed away. And Andy found herself healed, restored to her senses.

"...Did I seriously faint again? And wake up wet?" April groaned under her breath. She had been right next to the questing beast, so she was now completely soaked in water. This was sadly starting to become a pattern. She was shaken though, her mind going back to that weird vision she had had, when the venom was inside her. Danni and Dori laughing at her... Her heart cracked slightly. They hadn't even texted her. Maybe they didn't care. Maybe they didn't need her anymore.

"You are not ready for what is to come," Lady Nimue said, addressing the group. She seemed more stressed than disappointed. "Only one of you has impressed me so far today. I would like to see that changed. Now, take up your swords and defend your lady!"

Nimue snapped her fingers, and a flock of what must have been a thousand bats appeared out of nowhere, rushing at the group!

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"Good ear, Ms. Flynn. I have lived long enough in Otherworld that I have adopted that accent for my own," Ser Nemo said. He did not care for the students criticizing Zelda, but his comments would have been very much the same. Without confidence, she would never achieve her full potential. He did not come all this way to see these students only achieve mediocrity. "Confidence will come with time - and good friends."

He then eyed Sabine. "Ms. Bassard, while I applaud your defense of your friend, if you would threaten one of my students again, I will have to send you to detention - as I would Mr. Novikov, if he continues to make such choices."

Percy's nostrils flared. Detention? For making a point and completing Nemo's stupid test? Everyone else here was getting praised, whereas this old asshat seemed to hate him. Fine. The feeling was mutual. His insides felt all twisted up whenever he looked at him, the old man was probably carrying a million weird diseases. Percy didn't know much about Otherworld, but he knew that the place was supposed to be crazy. Nemo being from there checked out. They probably had loads of fake knights running around that place.

"What's your problem with me?" Percy snapped, glaring daggers at Ser Nemo. His eyes briefly crossed. Sweat was pouring down his neck. His body was screaming at him to go lie down in bed and take it easy, but Percy refused. He was fine. He wasn't sick. He most definitely didn't catch whatever his roommate had.

"I have no issue with you, despite your attempt on my life," Ser Nemo said coolly. "Now, as for the winner of the challenge - that is none other than Ms. Bassard. As a reward, you get to select the teams for today's obstacle course. One team of two and another of three. The teams will enter from opposite sides of the course." He then smiled, with a twinkle in his eye. "The teams will be tied together at the legs and arms."

Percy wasn't actually pissed that one of Dorian's friends was put in charge. He figured there was no way that Sabine put him with any of her friends. That was fine with him. Put him with Zelda. The team of two would have an easier time - plus, Percy could just teleport himself and Zelda through the course. No running or awkward movements required. Nemo probably didn't think that part through. He smirked slightly, proud of himself already.

And feeling so very very ill.

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How did Leah know this was going to be a shitshow so well? The digital world manifested around them, and they were in the fucking Hunger Games. Leah felt like she was going to get turned into a fucking YA protagonist who wasn't like other girls within a week at this point. Whatever, she thought, Usagi wants a fight? By God, she's gonna get a fight. Leah scanned the battlefield and saw that Ed- Arcade was the only one thinking to move and grab a weapon. She had a feeling he was easy to intimidate based on how little they interacted already. Leah stepped into the grass and swung her arms into the sky. The ground beneath everyone's feet became to tremble and quake, as it split and rose into the air. Steep, massive spires of rock and dirt spiked up over center of the arena, forming a sort of radial pyramid shape. From every direction, rock caged the cornucopia in, and no one could access the weapons now that they were walled off. She did this at an angle because Leah knew at least two people here had a movement advantage that would easily allow them to get up over perpendicular walls.

Diana couldn't get to a bow and arrows, Vicky couldn't get to anything, and Leah had her fists.

She then stopped and considered who was the biggest threat now the weapons and supplies were out of the picture. Diana could teleport and she had some moves of her own as far as Leah was aware, but she wasn't the type to fight head-on. Knowing her, she'd avoid a slug-out. Assuming Vicky was planning to load that suit of hers in with her, she'd be a wild card that Leah would have to get creative with... An unknown for the time being. That left Arcade. The knife was an obvious problem, but he was a tech wizard allegedly, like Vicky. And he had been fiddling with the Framework at some point. Could there be a slim chance that tinkering included more than emulating fossilized games? Unlikely, but if it did, then Arcade could bend this entire reality to his whim. Vicky and Diana were known threats, and Diana had the movement advantage. It was a slippery slope to believe she could just entomb all of them one by one- In theory, it was absolutely possible. But the different between theory and practice is greater in practice than it is theory.

Vicky was a heavy hitter, just like Leah. That meant they were a match for each other. An even match that could swing either way, but it was her expertise to hit things hard and think fast. Leah looked for her, and kept the uploading of that suit in mind. If it appeared, then fine. If not, even better. Leah ran for her with malicious intent.

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Zelda whirled around as both Danni and Dorian spoke to her about "confidence" which to her was insanely condescending. They had already made it clear that they had wanted April on their team, so why the hell were they even talking to her. "How about you two just leave me alone already, I know you'd rather have April here and hate the fact that it's me so stop being condescending about everything already and leave me alone!" Yup, at the moment she was trying really really hard to hold back her emotions again. That was part of the reason she typically held back on her emotions, was because if they went crazy or something, then she could effect everyone around her.

No one seemed to get that, at all. Her powers if they went out of control, could effect not just her or her opponents, but those on the same side of a fight as her which could then start a domino effect. "I don't even fully want to be here. I prefer to make the costumes for the heroes that are durable and maybe even beneficial to their abilities, then do the fighting since my powers can screw with everyone, not just me or someone I'm fighting... So maybe I should just leave already and make it easier for all of you at this point... I'm better on the stealthy quiet side of things anyway..." After her initial outburst she was now back to talking in her fairly quiet normal voice, preferring to keep her voice down and quieter now. It did help her to keep out of sight at times.

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Zari wasn't entirely sure what sort of arena they were in. However she did notice the sort of central area that seemed to house a bunch of weaponry of various types. She did contemplate whether or not to go straight there and grab something, but then a small voice in the back of her mind stopped her. It was pointing out that a lot of people would be heading that way in order to grab something, so it might be a better idea to think of something else. That decision was made easily for her when Leah created a large wall or something around it blocking everything that was there. Another thought on how to get herself a weapon crossed her mind and she couldn't help but smirk slightly.

She was a technopath, in a computer simulation. Which to an extent could make her a god in the program.

Her mind shifted as she started using her powers, managing to get herself into the code without too much effort, and she held out her hand. Around her others would see something like a few bits of code or as if something was glitching around her, before a sword appeared in her hand, a replica of the size and weight of her own sword. That made things a bit easier for her over all, and she couldn't help but giggle a bit as she twirled it around a bit. "Oh this will definitely be fun," she said with a smile, before hopping off of her own starting platform and heading towards where others were or what they were doing.

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As soon as the simulation loaded, Victoria took inventory of the area. The hunger games motivation was clear at the first look. Which could be expected for a battle royale. Still, the grassy plain offered little to use in the terms of terrain, pretty much only giving Leah things to work with. Victoria would have preferred something with a few more hazards to use, like Mustafar. As soon as she saw the clear sky above though, her plan kicked into motion and she launched up...

...only to flatten against an invisible barrier. "I will f****** stab you, rabbit cat lady, and make a hat out of your fur!" the girl growled out loud as she returned to the ground. With the limited space, there was no point in flying and wasting all that power, when it would only give her a second at most more to react to a rick pillar rising to meet her or similar attacks. Dropping back to the ground, Victoria took a look around to locate targets just as Usagi told them to start murdering.

Without flying, she had pretty much all of her generators available to defend or attack with. She toyed with the idea of fighting everybody all at once, but the wise words of one Londo Mollari echoed through her mind. It would be much more sound tactic to eliminate the biggest threat and mop up the rest later. The biggest threat would obviously be the technopath among their midst. A fine plan, however there appeared to be a volunteer for punishment.

Turning to face Leah, Vicky ran perpendicular to Leah's approach. Being a stationary target was a stupid idea. She fought the urge to cheer. Vicky had no idea how was it that in two years she has never faced this one in combat class, which was a damn shame as from her observations, Leah actually wouldn't break apart if she jokingly punched her while armored. Focus, stupid! she thought, raising her arms and firing off her attack, while keeping attention at her sensors to keep aware if someone fancied stabbing her in the back.

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It had been a good thing that Mads had forced Andy to let go. Being stabbed drew rage and more hunger to the surface. She was reaching out when the world shifted. She was no longer in pain from the stab wound and she was no longer wanting to drain Mads of her life force.

There was a jacket, that was not her own, wrapped around her and covered in her blood. She winced and removed it, offering it to the jacket-less Mary Sue. "Thanks." Next she looked at Mads, she remembered everything that happened. "I am sorry. It would be best for us never to make skin-to-skin contact again." She told her. In the back of her mind, the part of her that had enjoyed and relished in drinking Mads life force was not pleased.

Andy knew perfectly well that Lady Nimue was disappointed in her. She was disappointed in herself and scared of herself. Andy hadn't ever lost it like that. That was dangerous. She couldn't allow that to happen again.

There wasn't time to dwell on it. Lady Nimue changed the scenario.

Andy picked up the sword that was near at hand. She tested the metal and her electricity sparked along it. Andy nodded. This sword would do well. She didn't know how to actually fight with one, but it conducted, and that gave her some precision she couldn't get on her own.

Andy moved enough to get a good vantage on the bats, not bothering with planning this time. She pointed the sword at the swarm of bats and unleashed lightning. The lightning hit the swarm and dispersed amongst them, jumping from one bat to another taking out a large swath of them.

This made her feel like herself again. Yes, she would prefer to be doing this with her fists, but this felt just as right. It didn't bring the guilt and fear like the vampirism did. She wondered if the plan she had been forming with April as the catalyst would work for the bats too. Getting them wet might help her power even more.

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Once Diana was loaded into the Framework and the simulation was loaded in, she found herself and the others were in an arena very much like how it was in the first Hunger Games book. She had grown up reading her mother's copy of it and fell in love with the book series much like her mother had. Seeing the cornucopia in the center of the arena, and a few other things that were strewn around the outside of it, Doana noticed a quiver of arrows that was on the ground along with a bow that was inside the cornucopia itself. Diana could hear Usagi's voice and nodded.

The moment Diana stepped off of her platform she felt the ground suddenly shaking and the cornucopia was caged in, due to Leah but that wasn't going to stop her from getting inside of it. She watched Ed running off after grabbing a knife, Diana ran and grabbed the quiver of arrows and strapped them to her back. The simulation glitched ever so slightly as Zari summoned a sword of her own, she knew that she wanted to work with Zari. And Usagi didn't say anything about working together either really which would work out Leah and Victoria were most likely going to go for one another. Ed she didn't know much about him either but he could be useful as well to as Diana teleported herself into the cornucopia in a bright flash of blue light.

It was dark on the inside as Diana searched around and eventually found a bow and a bow string, sadly it wasn't strung up she had done it herself hundreds of times before and shouldn't be to hard. Diana teleported herself back out with her bow and string in hand she quickly made her way towards Zari holding her hands up. "Hey wanna work together?" Diana asked Zari hoping that she would agree to teaming up. And if anyone ever did read the Hunger Games before alliances were always a pretty common thing, and she was pretty sure they could take the others on together.

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Madalyne continued to stare down Andy with a malicious look in her eyes, when Lady Nimue ended the fight with the Questing Beast, she felt something drop onto her forehead, and all of her demonic features were now gone. Feeling like herself again, but she still felt something was very wrong with her. Like there was still a dark presence around her, Madalyne quickly shook her head looking over at Andy seeing the bloodied shirt that was now on her and instantly started to regret her actions on her new teammate. "Oh my god i'm so sorry Andy I didn't mean to hurt you." Madalyne said hoping that Andy would accept her apology seeing that Mary-Sue was next to her as well seeing the look that Mary was giving her and looked away.

When Lady Nimue said that they were not ready for what was to come, she felt disappointed in herself she wondered what Agatha would have thought if she was still here and her teams coach. Lady Nimue then suddenly summoned up a bunch of bats that started to swarm after all of them, Madalyne quickly ran up next to April. Andy used her powers on the incoming bats seeing lightening arcing to a few of them killing them easily.

"Lets destroy them together." Madalyne said looking over at April, as she started to summon up a fireball only for it to explode in her face, covering her face and hair with soot, like something out of an old cartoon. "Not what I had in mind.." Madalyne muttered to herself as she summoned another fireball into her hand and sent it flying at the bats managing to destroy a few of them easily.

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Sabine waved off Nemo's threat of detention. Like that would deter her from twisting the annoying freshman like a salted pretzel if he tried to hurt anyone she cared about again. Whatever the case was, Danni was happy again. Once the exercise was done Nemo had named her the winner and put her in a rather interesting position of deciding what the teams were. The obvious choice was to put her with Danni and Dorian and let the two unknowns try to figure it out, but that was too easy.

Sabine grinned wickedly.

She had noted that Danni and Dorian seemed to give unwanted opinions to Zelda's attempt at Nemo's task. Granted, she agreed with their advice, but there was a time and place. It would also be funny if she put Percy with Danni since Danni had nearly set him on fire. There was also some...tension between Percy and Dorian which would be a laugh. Zelda was the only unknown entity here. According to her, she would rather fade into the background and make costumes. Barf.

Sabine looked at each one of them and made her decision. "The teams will be me and Percy versus Danni, Dorian, and Zelda."

She looked at Danni and gave him a look that read 'trust me on this'. It was part team-building (if they had any hope of winning this thing they needed to be able to work together) and part knowing this would be hilarious. In her eyes, she had already wow'ed Nemo. The rest was just icing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! On se calme, on se calme!" Danni held his hands placatingly. "I didn't mean dat. Yeah, Poisson-Pas broke me, but I ain't know jack from shit about you so we're still chill. 'onestly, I'm just surprised ya ain't a toddler or somet'in'. Princess always mentioned the little sister and I coulda swore she said she was like, I dunno, five? But we can do dinner sometime, 'ave a little spa night, make an evenin' of it, ya know? Oh, Beanie, we can invite Zelds ta our fashion show! Did we ever pick a place, btws? I vote for middle of t'e school entrance, flirt wit' t'e stage craft group and see if t'ey'll put somet'ing' toget'er for us. T'at way everyone can bask in our beauty!" Danni clapped at his own idea, but his thoughts hit a stand still at Nemo's interruption.

"Aw yeah, that's my Beanie! Best of t'e best, t'at's why she's t'e bestest Bean- Wait." Danni whirled on Nemo from where he was congratulating Sabean to face Nemo. "Poisson-Pas, why didn't you tell me we were competin'? Like, I don't wanna pick t'e teams, t'at sounds like responsibility and I'm 'ere ta kick butt and 'ave fun, but I wanted to compete! Dee, Beanie, what was the competition? Can we 'ave a redo? Not t'at you don't deserve it Beanie, but I wanna play too!" Danni whined. Danni was too caught up in the whole fuck-Nemo-up-physically-and-mentally thing and he'd missed whatever they were competing over! Not cool!

And then Beanie didn't want to be on a team with him. What the hell? Princess didn't give a damn they were on different teams, Poisson-Pas didn't give a damn 'bout them as people since all they were was to make 'im look good as a judge's team and he had the audacity to leave Danni out of the competition of whatever the challenge was, and now Beanie didn't want to be with him. Did he smell? Was he having a breakout? Danni freaked out and quickly used his phone to check his face, sighing when he didn't see anything. He opened his mouth to protest, and loudly he'd like to add, but Beanie gave him the look that meant she was scheming and Danni paused, instead opting to link his arm through Dee's and propping his arm on Zelda's shoulder.

"Well, since Beanie 'ere thinks she can kick our buttons, we'll just 'ave ta prove her wrong. Tie us up, Poisson-Pas!" Danni demanded, the emotional roller coaster of a day making him buzz with more energy than normal. He definitely needed an outlet and the obstacles course was as good as any.

Mary Sue's eyes were stuck on Lady Nimue as she healed her team and crtiqued them. Her lips twitched as she was caught reflecting on what she said. Was she impressed with Mary Sue? She didn't know. There was some part of her psyche that wouldn't let her make that assumption, the feeling that, even if it was true, it wasn't a useful belief for her to have at this moment. She has to be better. Andy was stabbed by the bery blade she made, and she couldn't help but feel some accountability for that. If they were actually being attacked by the questing Beast, they'd have, in all likelihood, died. Silently, she nnodded at Andy, and took her blazer back, unwilling to put it back on her though, given the amount of blood.

Soon after, bats were swarming them, and she watched as Andy and Mads started their attack against the swarm. Still slow to act, she watched the situation unfuld. She wasn't interested in being the first combatant in any situation, she needed to know what cards to play, so she could be sure to minimize risk and harm to herself and those she worked with. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, and she realized she'd been keeping up actual, tangible things for longer than she'd even thought possible. She still had so much to understand about her own abilities, but all she could do now was see how much further she could push them.

Her mind flashed back to her audition, and thought that, maybe, if she could do that again, that would be the most effective method to deal with such a large swarm. She tried once more to pull something out of nothing, and construct a mist to choke the bats, but nothing came of it. Making that many things at once, along with the swords she'd been maintaining, was just infeasable. Instead, she thought a bit more clever, and realzied that all her team members could attack at range, whereas the bats would need to get close to them to attack them. Shortly after, a cage with openings throughout, not unlike a kennel, formed around them, hopefully allowing for a one-sided slaughter of the beasts.

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Dorian looked up from his coffee, looking at Zelda with confusion clearly plastered across his face. His head tilted slightly to one side like a puppy trying to figure out what someone was saying to them. ”When did we ever say we ‘ated you? I mean yeah who wouldn’t want to be with t’eir best friend t’at t’ey can’t see over summer? But t’at doesn’t mean t’at we ‘ate you. We all just ‘ad t’is dream t’at we’d be on a judges team toget’er and well…we finally made it to one and we’re missing one t’ird of our trio. She’s the Jose Carioca to our Donald and Panchito. So yeah, it sucks and we don’t even know what team she got in or if it was even a judges team…and if it's not she might be upset t’at we made it and she didn’t.” Dorian took a sip of his drink in an attempt to cut himself short as he had begun to ramble. He looked back up towards Zelda, patented puppy dog eyes looking just over his cup. ”Don’t sweat t’e powers t’ough. You shoulda seen Danni and April t’eir freshman year.” He said with a slight giggle as he thought about just how much damage April had done to the school's plumbing so quickly.

Dorian waited patiently for Nemo to announce the winners of the competition. Scrunching his nose at Percy as he threw a small tantrum when his attempts to complete Poisson-pas test weren’t given praise. He was Diana’s younger brother, and boy did he act like it. Clearly his parents were the doting type, the kind who most likely gave him everything he’d ever wanted and when he didn’t get his way he’d just throw a tantrum until he did. Not like Danni and Dorian, they’d never do that. The conversation finally seemed to get back on track as Nemo was ready to state the winners. Dorian nodded along when he called out Sabines name, and he’d expected more too. But he just kept going on with the instructions for how she would pick the teams and to be tied together for the next leg of the practice. ”Wait wait wait. Only one winner Poisson-pas? I t’ought we were gonna ‘ave two winners and we’d pick off teammates like in dodgeball.” He squirmed a bit in the place where he sat, the heat of his tervis reminding him not to move too much unless he wanted to spill fresh hot coffee on his lap or hands.

Sabine had declared the partnerships and he was surprised to hear she didn’t pair herself with Danni. Was it because he was here? Did she really not want to work with him? Fine. At least he got to get paired with Danni, although the addition of Zelda was a bit awkward after what had just happened. Dorian began to stand up to make his way towards his team when Danni suddenly hooked his arm into his and made their way over towards Zelda. ”D did you t’ink i was beatin up Poisson for fun?” He asked, chuckling the entire time at Danni’s antics. The pair of them could switch up moods and scenes so fast it gave most others whiplash. Danni had seemingly already pushed past the previous debacle with Zelda, and the competition helped to push all of that aside for Dorian. He wanted not only to beat Sabine for thinking she could win with the underdog team, but also to beat Percy and wipe the smug look on his face as if he thought he’d already won the next race. ”Alright Zelds! We got t’is! Don’t need to use our powers if you don't feel comfortable, t’ough maybe…if you wanted we could find a way to utilize them to beat t’ese two into t’e ground.” Dorian said with a grin on his face before sticking his tongue out towards the other team in a playful manner.

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@Blizz@Nallore@BlueSky44@Forsythe:

Vicky fired off her attack, and it hit. The infrared laser fired off first, setting Leah on fire. Her hair and her clothes were burning. The repulsor beam attack hit Leah second, not as powerful as the laser, but strong enough. It struck Leah in the neck. It was a fatal attack. Leah's form glitched for a moment, as three hearts appeared above her. One of the hearts then greyed out. And Leah vanished. Only to respawn at the platform she had first entered from.

Ed was keeping to himself, crouching down near the tree line and somehow managing to become somewhat invisible. He was watching the fights though, almost hungrily. He noted the hearts that had appeared above Leah, and how she had respawned. It was like a video game then. They had three lives. Hopefully, all the heavy hitters would tear each other apart, and then Ed could stroll on out and claim victory. Worst case scenario, he wouldn't be out of breath like the rest of them.

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Each time a bat was destroyed, it turned into water, crashing helplessly into the ground. A similar thing had happened to the questing beast when Nimue dispelled it. If it hadn't been apparent to April then, it was now - the Lady of the Lake was using magic water. And all the water in the universe was April's to command. Could she control these creatures like water, before they had been dispelled? She wasn't sure. But what she did know though was that there was now plenty of water on the floor for her to work with - especially after Andy and Mads took out a fair number of the swarm.

The swarm kept on coming though. Mary Sue conjured up a weird sort of cage thing around them. "Nice job, uh... Sorry, I don't know your codename, Mary Sue!" April cried out. Her eyes were on the prize. The cage around them had narrow enough gaps that it would hopefully keep most of the bats out, although she was trying very hard to not worry too much about whether the bats could squeeze on through the gaps.

She held her hands out in front of her, bracing her body as if she was about to carry something heavy. And April tugged on every drop of water in the room. She thrusted her arms up towards the ceiling, and the water did the same thing, slamming into the swarm. The water sent the swarm up and into the ceiling, breaking some of the poor bats' bones in the process. She tried to force the water to keep the pressure up as long as she could, but her focus slipped and the water crashed down to the ground - the remaining bats along with it. "Any chance you could hit them with lightning?" she asked Andy. "Just maybe, um, try not to hit this cage - I'm not sure what material it's made out of - thoughts maybe? - but I don't wanna find out if it conducts electricity."

Lady Nimue had not said another word. She was as still as a statue, just watching the girls in the cage.

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Percy was not surprised to hear that Zelda didn't even want to be here. He didn't particularly want to be on a team with Danni and Dorian either - Sabine, vicious as she was, was fine. He liked her sharp tongue. But while he wasn't thrilled with his team placement - mostly because he just could not stand Ser Nemo - Percy still wanted to win. He didn't want to be made a fool in front of the world's superhero community. He wanted the praise and the attention and the awards, and once he had them, he'd act like they were nothing. That they meant nothing. That he was above all of that stuff.

He knew the school rules - all the high school aged students had to be on a team. Zelda had to compete. "Maybe you can ask to be transferred to another team then, where people don't have a strong interest in winning," Percy suggested. He didn't mean it to be mean. But it probably came off that way. He wasn't arguing for April to be brought on - it'd probably just make Danni and Dorian even more unbearable. But if Zelda wasn't going to pull her weight, then he didn't want her on the team.

"Ms. Flynn, once training for the day is complete, would you stay behind so we can chat?" Ser Nemo asked. The coach didn't look shocked in the slightest that Zelda was having a crisis of confidence and wanted to quit. If anything, he seemed to have expected it. Percy narrowed his eyes. Had Ser Nemo time traveled briefly and seen everything that was going to happen that day already? Had he rehearsed in his head a thousand times how to convince Zelda to stay on the team? Did he keep on traveling back in time until he got it right, creating thousands of splinter realities?

Sabine however had a devilish grin on her face.

It was immediately apparent to Percy as to why. She didn't pick the teams that he expected her to. But she also didn't do the worst case scenario, which would've been pairing Percy up with Danni and Dorian. He gave a pitying glance to Zelda. This was her worst case scenario. "Interesting choice," Percy said to Sabine, moving to stand next to her. Actually, his worst case scenario probably would've been being paired up with Nemo. That might've just killed him.

Ser Nemo chuckled slightly at Danni's whine, shaking his head. "My dear boy, you competed first in the challenge. But take this lesson and heed it well. There are no redos. Treat every choice you make as if it is set in stone," Nemo advised. His tone became strangely sharp. "And there is only ever one winner - never two, no matter how it may seem."

Percy shook his head quizzically. What was that about? The vibes were so weird from Ser Nemo, and they seemed to change drastically by the minute. He guessed that maybe the bit about no redos could've been from the trauma of his apocalyptic future, but those futures were averted all the time. Time travel was all about redos. And as for the winner comment... well, the best Percy could guess is that Nemo was terribly competitive - simultaneously a sore loser and winner.

Ser Nemo then handed rope to the two teams, letting them tie themselves up. The obstacle course was a mirror image, meaning that the team of three would start off by going to the left, and the team of two to the right. "On your marks... get set... GO!"

Percy turned to face Sabine for a moment, before shuffling along with her up to the start of the course. There was a dizzying drop separating them and the other side. He assumed there had to be pillows or a crash pad or something down at the bottom. In the middle, a canoe was suspended on a rope. And on the other side, he could see the rest of the course. Percy snorted slightly. "Idiot. A drop like this is nothing to a teleporter," he boasted. "Don't hold your breath. When you're ready, I'll jump us."

Of course, Percy had never teleported another person before, but he wasn't about to tell Sabine that. Just like he hadn't mentioned the pounding headache or the growing feeling of nausea.

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Well, that was anti-climactic. Victoria wasn't too sure how much pain the Framework simulated, and was happy enough that Leah wasn't left burning for too long before the repulsor ended whatever sufferring she might have been enduring. That should give the others some warning against treating her lightly. Okay, one down, three to go. Now, where's- Oh what the heck?! Victoria frowned as shitty heart sprites appeared over Leah's corpse as it vanished, only to reappear a second later.

Spawncamping was a tactic that immediately came to mind (Vicky idly noted that she was going to miss game nights with Mai), but it would let her victims learn nothing. Instead, she checked if anyone was making a move on her and then waved at Leah to get her attention.

"This armor was made to deal with super powered people, that includes people like the Juggernaut. Unless you can teleport or move and think fast enough to dodge ranged attacks that move at sound or light speed or can bypass them somehow, you'll need to move cover to cover to protect yourself on approach, or somehow prevent me from targeting you." she dropped some advice, hopefully specific enough to be useful, but general enough to make Leah have to think about how to accomplish that.

Walking back to put some more distance between the two if them, she nodded at the brunette and issued a challenge: "Again!" as she reset the generators for a more defensive setup, keeping the others (notably the teleporter) in mind, banking on her armor being able to take a shot from a bow and arrow from any side.

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Well.

Shit.

Her hair caught fire, and something sniper her in the throat. For the brief window of time where she could full pain, that felt like shit. Leah was promptly banished out of reality and back into it on that weird pedestal thing. Was this fucking Minecraft? She had hearts over her head. Okay, that was weird. Leah was about to start over when Victoria came over to give her advice on how to deal with her. This confirmed she was, in fact, a mini Iron Man. But how mini... Leah briefly wondered if she could throw Victoria like a missile and smack a motherfucker with another motherfucker. Victoria didn't look particularly heavy, but neither did Leah and she clocked in at around 280lb thanks to her inhuman strength. So... She probably couldn't smack a motherfucker with that motherfucker in particular.

"Hm... Right. Okay. I have two ideas for that." As Vicky got herself into a distance and planted her proverbial feet, Leah thought about the science behind blasting solid rock with heat lasers. She wasn't exactly sure what kind of stone the ground was made of, since she didn't have the time to stop and give the terrain a geologist's inspection. That wasn't particularly important so long as she could manipulate it all the same. And since she could, it didn't matter at all.

Leah put her arms out in front of her, and made a motion like she was lifting something heavy above her head. The ground began to rumble as she attempted to turn this otherwise flat battlefield into a veritable pin cushion of giant stone pillars, giving her ample cover between herself and Victoria.

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Dorian couldn't believe what he was hearing. He thought that Percy was supposed to be her friend, yet here he was telling her to just give up on a judges team and go to another one that was content with losing. His jaw tightened, the muscles flexing in the back as he bit his tongue on the subject. Maybe that was something that Zelda would want, but they were both freshmen here, neither of them truly knew how lucky they were to have made it onto the Judges team in their first year at AA. The last team to do that well…they were now the youngest superhero team allowed to assist on missions and rescues while still attending the school. The tension in his jaw lessened as Nemo called out Zelda to stay after class. Something Dorian had wanted to do to speak more with the old man before heading off into his next course. He’d have to try again after school, after all now he knew where his office was. For now he’d have to be content with how things were working out. That is, until Nemo spoke again. His words had such a dark undertone it made Dorian wonder if Nemo already knew about what it was that he wanted to speak to him about. As if he knew why it was that everyone else had perished, and now he wondered if he was the cause of it. Did Dorian make one mistake that he couldn’t undo? Did that domino into an apocalypse that wiped out all of his friends? Maybe that’s why he’d made it onto this team, so that Nemo could keep an eye on him and ensure he doesn’t do it again.

His chest felt tight as Nemo handed them the ropes to bind them. Dorian nodded towards him, taking them as he knelt down to begin tying Danni and Zelda together by the legs. He took this time to try and hammer out any plan or idea that they could get for the first course. ”Percy’s a teleporter, t’ough not exactly an accurate one. Chances are ‘e’s gonna try to cheese t’is course. We need to work toget’er if we’re gonna beat t’em. Zelds, is t’ere a way you could shield you and me? Danni can use his flames like rockets and fly us down towards t’e boat nice and quick and hopefully it’ll get us a leg up on the competition.” He wanted to add that he understood that she didn’t care about winning or losing, but her teammates did. This wasn’t their first year, and they wanted to make a big splash before they left good old AA. He continued tying them all together until they were ready. Danni was in the center with Zelda and Dorian to either side of him to help balance out the flight. He was used to going off this way, but he was sure Zelda hadn’t had a flaming flight before and worried how’d she react.

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Sabine got the sense Danni was less than thrilled with her choice, but she wasn't thinking of friendship. Zelda needed to connect with Danni and Dorian and she needed to connect with Percy if there was going to be any hope of them coming together as a team. She didn't hold out hope, but at least she could get some blood running with competition.

She glanced at Percy and nodded. Despite how annoying he was, she could tell he was skilled. "Don't slow us down now." She eyed the obstacle course. Nemo put it out there, for sure. Still, she was sure it was nothing she couldn't handle.

Once they were good, Percy used his power to teleport them. Safely through the first obstacle, Sabine was going to proceed onward until she felt her stomach turn. She coughed, doing her damndest to not puke. "Ugh, really? Next time, warn me! Merde..."

She took some deep breaths and stood back up. The next obstacle could easily be done by Percy again, so perhaps she could use her power to stop the competition. "Can you get us through the next bit? I'm going to see if I can slow them down."