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You all have 14 days to do collabs / individual posts! These collabs can take place from Sep 15, 2038 to Oct 15, 2038. You can do as many collabs / individual character posts as you like - but you must do at least one per character. Remember to clear with me anything that might need a roll request. After these 14 days are up, we will then timeskip to the Contest of Champions qualifiers, which will take place on Mon. Oct 18, 2038.

Uncanny Avengers (Usagi)

• Usagi has been pushing the team harder and harder. She usually has them practice fighting each other. At the beginning of each practice, she tells them where they rank on her mental pyramid, Abby Lee Miller style - the very best at the top, the worst at the bottom. Arcade has been on the bottom each week. The other positions change frequently.
• After the exercise in the Framework, Usagi designated Victoria as the leader of the team.
• This team frequently drills in the Framework.

the Huntresses (Lady Nimue)

• Lady Nimue has been training her team well, although... somewhat unconventionally. It's more like she's training them to be knights of Camelot, prioritizing swordplay and archaic manners/etiquette. She asks each member of her team to keep a journal to chronicle their growth and journey in. She gives a prompt each week, most of which have to do with some sort of knightly chivalry or code.
• Ardere was formally removed from the team for not showing up. In order to give them a fifth member, Nimue brought in a girl with super strength and a compulsive need to wear sunglasses all the time, Gideon. She's a senior at the academy - was supposed to graduate the year before, but failed her English classes. Repeatedly.
• Lady Nimue has a different student act as the leader each week.
• This team frequently drills outside in the field.

Excelsior (Ser Nemo)

• Ser Nemo continues to endanger his team, although no one has gotten seriously injured. They have the most variety in exercises. While most other teams focus on combat, Ser Nemo has also been teaching survival skills. Some weeks, they focus on how to survive a potential apocalypse. A lot of weeks, actually. He invites his students to take tea with him in his office if they'd like, at an office hour of sorts, that occurs on Thursdays.
• Ser Nemo has not mentioned anything about who is the leader of the team.
• This team drills in random locations, sometimes even involving field trips to different spots in the city.

General School Life

• the Contest of Champions - qualifiers are approaching! these will be held in mid-October. Details are not released in advance, but last year the qualifier was a standard Save the Civilian simulation. The year before, they had to stabilize a collapsing building. The Margaret Carter Institute can send four teams to compete, meaning most students won't move past this round.
• the Monster Mash - the school dance! It's on Halloween, because that's Mor's favorite holiday and she wants this to be real. People tend to wear ridiculous costumes, and anyone can ask anyone. Different staff members are going to be chaperoning the dance.
• Classes - are well underway now. Check your CS to see what classes your character is taking, as they'll be struggling through those assignments. Midterms are approaching soon.

Ex-Player Controlled Students

• Chi Mai - she hasn't returned to school yet. However, an article in the Daily Bugle details that there is a new member of the Avengers, the inhuman Blossom! She's been confirmed to be attending the next Kids Choice Awards for Nickolodeon as a presenter, and her socials are rapidly gaining followers.
• Teddy - he still is attending the academy, but he's only there part time. The rest of the time he is interning under a famous former member of the X-Men, Beast, as he learns to embrace his furry form.
• Ardere - she still attends the school, but ended up being moved off of Lady Nimue's team for the contest as she kept on not showing up. She's a common fixture in detention, and has caused a small series of trashcan fires.

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Andy was tired. She wanted coffee. The school coffee was okay. But she wanted a good cup. Something hot that warmed her bones and reminded her of early mornings at the Drummonds. The problem was school rules when it came to having things in the dorm. She might have gotten away with it, especially since she didn't have a roommate right now. But she didn't want to push her luck. She also wanted to just have the coffee ready whenever she wanted it. She looked up from her notes and stared for a moment into space. Finally, she sighs and looks at the doll containing her mother.

"Weird question but would you know how to make an ever-fill mug? Follow-up question, could you make one that was full of coffee?" Selene would sometimes be willing to treat Andy. She wasn't sure what combination of personality bits of Selene made that happen. She also was never sure if she could trust it. After having your mom almost destroy the world it was hard to trust her.

The doll that housed the spirit of the immortal sorceress SELENE! remained silent. Eerily still too. Had it not been a doll, someone might have been forgiven for assuming that the creature was playing dead - or pointedly ignoring her daughter's questions. This still could be the case. SELENE! was very petty. And not above making her daughter grovel to get an answer out of her.

Andy let the silence hang for a while. She knew sometimes her mother would do this. If Andy wasn't prepared to ask she wouldn't have started to ask in the first place. Finally, as if a rubber band snapped she sighed and said. "Please? This is something I could really use and I need your help." She relented and tried to keep her voice light. Andy didn't want her mom to hear the defeat or annoyance in her tone.

SELENE! smiled sweetly, the lids of her doll eyes blinking. "I know how to do many things, my child," SELENE! said. "I have walked this land since time immemorial. And I will continue to do so when you are long forgotten. I can teach you to enchant your flask, but you'll need to do something for ME. I want a virgin. A juicy one, please. I'm sooo hungry..."

Andy was hopeful for a moment. That had been shattered as soon as Selene asked for a virgin. "I am not getting you a virgin." The school was full of them but that didn't mean Andy was going to grab a freshman or something at random and feed them to her mother. That was just...evil.

The doll shut her eyes. "Then I suppose I can't help you, poppet," SELENE! lamented. "I'm too dreadfully hungry to begin to even think about your silly little coffee problem. It's such a tragedy. Just one little human soul and I could help you..."

"You ate like three months ago. You ate a whole lot then too." Andy said crossing her arms and staring down the doll. A thought crossed her mind and a popular T.V. show character followed behind that thought. She smiled. That was not something she'd follow through any time soon. Also, that'd take a lot of prep work.

SELENE! gasped. "Are you shaming me?!" she shrieked. "How about this then - I need a new outfit. This one is dreadfully outdated. Do we have a deal? New clothing for a spell?"

"Outfit we can do." Andy nodded. "I'm sure there are some good ones we can find online." Andy smiled. Maybe she could learn to sew and make doll clothing for Selene too. She chose to ignore the shaming comment. If Build-a-bear was still around that might be a good place to look. Maybe she could ask Mads to go to the mall with her and Zari. That could be fun.

Somehow, a smile plastered itself on the porcelain doll's frozen face. "Excellent!" SELENE! cheered. "Now, listen closely, my child..." And she began to teach. It was a fairly straightforward series of incantations, all done in SELENE!'s native Greek. Of course, the pronunciation was probably something that Andy might find difficult, having not learned ancient Greek. "Got it? Good. Now do it," SELENE! ordered.

Andy listened closely to her mother, trying the words carefully mentally. Then she tried them out loud, watching the doll to see if she approved of the pronunciation. She didn't put any power into it yet.

The doll cackled. "Oh my, that's going to need a bit of tidying up!" SELENE! teased. "Unless, you wanted to make a never ending goblet of donkey shit, then you're doing it perfectly." She repeated the incantation again, a bit faster this time, as if that would be at all helpful for Andy to follow.

Andy resisted a heavy sigh and tired again. She did not want a never-ending goblet of donkey shit. She wasn't sure what the difference of what she said and what Selene had said was, but she wanted to make sure it was right.

"Yeesh, you're making my ears bleed," SELENE! complained. "Do they not teach you ancient Greek at this silly school? Maybe I need to go have a chat with your teachers. When do the parents get to come and yell at them for being cunt fuckers?" SELENE! asked. She then hemmed and hawed for a moment, before offering Andy some concrete advice on the part of the incantation she was messing up. "Try it again - this time, don't do it piss poorly," she then added.

Andy bore the scolding. Andy wasn't certain if Selene meant that she had called her a cunt. Andy was honestly surprised there was a word for cunt if that was so. She was thankful that Selene gave her more advice on how to produce the phrase properly. She tried again. Learning from her mom would be stressful if it was ever for something she didn't care about.

"Finally! Now do it like that, but with some real POWER behind it!" SELENE! praised.

Andy picked up the to-go reusable mug that she had at hand. It would work perfectly for this. She held it tightly in her hands as she repeated the words she had practiced. She pushed with her awareness of the spirit energy she contained. Pushing that into the mug with her words.

SELENE! watched with hungry eyes, watching the power flow out of her daughter and into the mug. She was excited, thrilled beyond belief. She had insisted that Andy sign up for magic courses at this academy, but truthfully, Andy had always seemed to have the magical potential of a slug. "Aww, my little one, that was so good!!" SELENE! praised. "Now taste it - does it taste like the blood of virgins? Err, so sorry, coffee?"

Andy drinks from the mug a little nervously. The coffee is hot, but not scalding. The flavor was a wonderful blend. It was a little nutty with a light citrus flavor dancing in the background. It was rich and perfectly sweet with just the right amount of coffee. It was literally the best cup of coffee Andy had ever had. She sighed deeply soaking in the flavors. "It's perfect." She replies. "Can't say it tastes like virgins. But I like it." She did consider that if Mads was a virgin she'd know what they tasted like..._{and they were delicious}.

The doll tilted her head to the side, looking at her daughter with some affection. One day, she was certain, her child would be drinking blood instead of coffee. But if she had to lead her slowly down the road to damnation, then so be it. SELENE! could guide her to destruction. One enchanted cup of coffee at a time. "Good, mummy knows best," SELENE! said.

Andy didn't see the look. Her eyes were closed. "Thank you for your help. I'll make sure to find you something extra goth." Andy says smiling and opening her eyes. She really hoped Build-A-Bear or some other doll outfitter was an option.

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The conclusion left her wanting. _{^{"Mission failed."}} Victoria whispered under her breath. Wholesome as the scene was, they had an objective: Be the last one standing. That always left space for only one of them to succeed, but now they all failed, as two of them emerged out as last. She waited for a little while to see if either of them would stab the other in the back, but when the simulation turned off, she sighed, turning away from the screen.

The news of being made a leader of this lot left her indifferent. She did not mind it. Eventually, she was meant to lead the first batch of serial production ASTRAs after all. Best to start getting into such a role. It did feel like she was just given monumental amount of homework though. Besides, who am I kidding? I'm not their leader. They didn't pick me. I'm the commanding officer at best. I'll need to earn the rest first. she looked at the faces of the others.

An excitable child in the body of a goddess. A coward with a brain. An archer with a temper. An earthbender who may not be just an earthbender. The robot in disguise. And then, there was the teacher who seemed like her dream team was a company of murderhobos. Oh boy... The team she could deal with. It was the coach that would be a problem. Whatever Usagi's motivation was, Vicky decided right there and then that even if she ended up getting ground into powder under her paw, she had to try and shield the rest of the team from most of Usagi's insane bloodlust, and do her best to turn the purpose of these sessions from training how to end lives to training how to preserve them.

Speaking of, the first lives they would need to preserve were their own. Something this session shown needed not just improvement, some of them needed the basics. Better strike the iron while it's hot. "Go sluice off and then reassemble here, I want to show you something." She asked, wanting to get this thought over now so that they had time to think of it before the next session.

As the rest of the lot filed out to the changing rooms, Vicky plopped down behind the computers, found the image she needed and maximized it over the screen, waiting for the rest to come back.



"This is called the survival onion. With you in the middle, these are all of the layers of protection that have to fail before you die. I want you all to commit this to memory, because I really don't want to be reporting KIAs on our first real mission.

The first one is easy. Shoot first. Even if you miss, you can now correct your aim off of your first shot, and the other guy... Let's just say that getting shot at is what is known as significant emotional event.

Second, stay out of their sight. Ed, this is what I meant when I said you had the best approach. You were able to remain completely unmolested until you broke cover, good job. I hope you know it will not always be a viable strategy though.

Next, prevent the enemy from making an attempt even if you know where they are. Take cover etc. Leah, fine job with the pillars, although I'll admit I was surprised I punched through one. We'll have to keep the quality of the cover in mind.

If that fails: Dodge. This is what I need to work on. When I'm not in the air I tend to stand around and get hit by boulders like an idiot.

If you can't prevent the enemy from hitting you, kill them before they kill you. Diana, Zarina, this is you. Points for teamwork, and right away for picking incorrect targets. Zari should have rightly been engaging me and I should have checked out immediately. Instead..." She gave Diana a meaningful look.

"Once you get hit, all may still not be lost. Some of us can resist hits better than others. Diana, Ed, if you want, drop by and let's see if I can give some of your outsits kevlar lining, blast padding and the like.

And if you survive the hit, you need to do damage control - brace a broken leg, stop bleeding - And restore capability, e.g. find a stick to use as a crutch.

I'd like all of you to think on what you could have done better today knowing all of this. Hit me up if you want to talk about it. I think we'll have ample opportunity to practice this." she said, giving Usagi a nasty side eye, "And hit me up if I can help you figure it out. Also, Diana, when you have time, I'd like to talk to you and to try my hand at preventing that half-teleportation problem. Ed, I'll send you some material on how to communicate in the field. We had a plan, and then you ran out on me without a beep. That gets people killed. Otherwise, I believe we have more classes to be in." she looked at Usagi for confirmation that today's lesson was done, and then finally hit the showers herself, before her hair solidified into a helmet.

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[h3]

Thurs. Sept. 16

Danni had left the room, going off to do more research about his dragon egg after the conversation they'd had with Vicky. He laid in bed thinking about the events that had happened the day before and what Sabine had said. She was right, they needed to work better as a team, they needed to mend those faults between them and come out stronger if they had any hopes of winning the Contest of Champions. He, however, had no idea where to start, and Sabine didn't seem too happy with how it all ended after her big speech yesterday.

Dorian groaned as he realized he'd have to take the initiative. She didn't want to drive them all to do it, Zelda wouldn't try, Danni would likely forget that speech ever happened, and Percy would rather chew his arm off. So he got up out of bed, threw on his blazer, and made his way over to Sabines dorm room. Dorian had always had this idea that Danni, April, and him would form their own team in the future, but Sabine was right, there would be times where team ups would be necessary, and that meant learning how to get along and work well with others very quickly. He stood outside of her dorm, anxious as he lightly knocked against the door.

Sabine had been laying in bed, checking her posts on her socials when she heard the knock. She paused a second. Had she been expecting anyone? She was sure she didn’t set up anything, she was too busy. She quickly got up and threw on some yoga pants and answered the door. To her surprise, Dorian stood there.

”Oh, Dorian. Didn’t expect to see you today. Everything cool?” Her eyes quickly flashed in panic. ”Is Danni okay? Do I need to hurt someone?” After all, what other reason would Dorian have to come see her?.

Dorian held his hands up "No no no need to panic. Danni’s off doin' some research 'e's fine. I'm actually 'ere about what you said t'e ot'er day…" His voice trailed off for a moment as he thought about what to say. "I won't lie to you, a 'uge chunk of what 'appened is missin'. I've no idea what 'appened wit' Zelda, only t'at Firestar seemed to 'ave it 'andled and we were told to get back to class. But…you're right, we do need to work toget'er. So…I wanted to see if you 'ad any ideas, while also lettin' you know your words didn't fall of deaf ears."

Sabine stared at Dorian for a bit. She hadn’t expected her words to reach any of them. It almost touched her how Dorian seemed to, at least on the outside, want to work on it. ”I mean, that part was my fault. I only messed with your mind to confuse you, I didn’t mean to set whatever happened up. Even then though, if Zelda was in trouble you could have called for Nemo to stop the whole thing. That’s my point. And if I am being honest, this falls on me too. I should have teamed us up better, but I wanted to connect with Percy since I figured he was still upset from before. We worked well together, but even in the end I could tell he didn’t care. And if we are going to be a team, we need to be one that can work together.”

Sabine crossed her arms in thought. ”We also could probably strengthen our bond. We are only connected through Danni, but I realize I know very little about you. So maybe a quick get-to-know-you deal. Could go get some coffee or whatever. My treat.”

Dorian rubbed the nape of his neck as Sabine mentioned it was partly her fault. He'd already figured that was what happened, but wasn't going to go and say it. The more she spoke the more he realized he could've handled the situation differently, even if he didn't understand any of what was going on, it was smart to grab their coach and have him help. He was surprised to hear her mention their bond however. It just felt like an unspoken rule that she was Danni's friend and only his by proxy. Then again that was her entire point.

"Coffee sounds great. We could 'ead to t'e Caf." Dorian wasn't about to tell her that he wasn't fond of the drinks there. Not when she was being nice and attempting to get to know him. He could suck it up for one afternoon. "Are you ready to go or did you want a minute?" He didn't know if she wanted to be caught dead I'm sweatpants for a potential follower to snag a pic and post it like celebrities with their coffee mugs.

Sabine grabbed her wallet off the side table and closed the door behind her. ”Ready. The cafeteria sounds okay, but we can go elsewhere if you want. I don’t know about you but I don’t eat there unless I have to.” She preferred ordering out if possible. ”But either way, I could use the caffeine. Classes have been draining me.” She walked down the hall, leading them to the cafeteria, unless Dorian changed his mind.

’For the record, you and Danni would have definitely won had I not impacted Nemo’s mind. But in fairness, we were to use our powers to help us win and I can’t do a whole lot with mine in actual physical means.”

"Wait, you changed Nemo's mind?" Dorian asked, shocked as he looked at her. He looked back forwards as they continued to walk towards the cafeteria. "Caf will do fine I guess. T'ough I can't exactly use my powers for much of t'e challenges eit'er. I only met up to Danni on t'e second obstacle and all I could do was move t'e vines. Aside from t'at Danni carried t'e whole t'ing. I screwed t'e pooch wit' t'e bomb."

Sabine grimaced a bit. She thought Dorian knew. Why else did they not get pizza? ”Yeah, I figured you knew. I altered Nemo’s memory to have him see me and Percy cross the finish line first. And we would have had you not possessed him! Not that I am faulting you, of course. Though I would have preferred not having been vomited on. Also, I am positive we diffused that bomb. I gave Percy all the tools necessary to do so and it still went off. Something tells me Nemo would have wanted them to blow up anyway. Dude is nuts.”

”Also I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. Your power is pretty unique. Depending on what’s put in front of you I bet you could find a workaround.”

"I 'ad no idea, swear. But I 'onestly don't know what 'appened at t'e end t'ier. I've never 'ad someone react t'at way to my possessions. T'ough t'e ot'er day Percy did pass out sick in t'e 'all. Don't tell anyone. I don't t'ink 'e wants anyone to know. I took 'im to see t'e nurse immediately, stayed by 'is side to make sure 'e was ok. Nurse said if 'e didn't get better to ask for Nemo's 'elp. Somet'in about Time Sickness I don't know…I t'ink it's why 'e t'rew up." Dorian felt bad for exacerbating an issue he had assumed had passed. Percy seemed fine, but apparently he wasn't. He just hoped whatever pills Nemo gave him helped.

"Besides, I was fakin' t'e whole feelin' sick t'ing when I was in 'im. I can't actually feel anyt'in' while inside someone." He remarked with a shrug. If he could have felt Percy's illness he probably would've hopped right out. Dorian sighed, crossing his arms as he thought. "I can find plenty of workarounds…it's findin' t'em wit' ot'ers t'ats 'ard. T'ats what stumped me so much on t'e challenge."

”Well that’s my point. We aren’t going to be going at this alone. It’s why we need to suck it up with who we are teamed up with and work together. I would love to be on a team with Danni and April and Leah but that’s not how they did it. So we suck it up and put in the work.”

"It doesn't 'elp t'at we're wit' freshies. No offense to t'em but t'ey're eit'er over confident in t'ier powers or not confident enough. I t'ink we need to learn exactly what everyone's limits are, both literally and mentally. T'at'll 'elp us work better I t'ink. Or at least plan better."

”Well we can start by not setting them on fire or causing anxiety attacks.” Sabine knew that was a low blow, though she found the fire incident funny. ”But I see what you mean. I don’t know if the two of them will be willing to work on it though. Percy, perhaps. Especially after you checked on him. I think Zelda is a lost cause, but maybe she’ll prove me wrong.”

Dorian was about to protest. To say that it wasn't on them to not give them anxiety, but that they needed to grow past it if they wanted to become heroes. They couldn't crumble under pressure, or anxiety, out in the field. Luckily however, Sabine seemed to see his point, having just chosen to take the blow at him before admitting it. "I don't t'ink Percy's goin' to be willin' to work on it wit' me. 'e's been pretty radio silent since t'e incident." He said, unwilling to make eye contact with Sabine as he spoke. "If anyt'in' we can focus on what Zelda feels most confident in first. 'er ability to make super suits. If anyt'in' it'll give us an edge t'e ot'ers won't 'ave."

Sabine nodded, though she wouldn’t say her feelings regarding Percy and Dorian. Best to let them figure it out. ”Makes sense. I didn’t know she worked on super suits. Very Edna Mode. And handy, suits can save lives when powers fail. To an extent it isn’t our problem, but we also shouldn’t be putting them in positions immediately that make them uncomfortable. Zelda will have to work on it, sure, but we can meet her where she’s at and help. Same with Percy. I think he may be a bit more willing than he lets on. If his sister is anything to go by.”

"She says she doesn't want to be a 'ero at all. T'at she just wants to learn 'ow to make better suits. Seems to 'ave no confidence in 'er powers at all. I'd like to say we tried to 'elp wit' t'at but-" Dorian tapped a finger against his head to indicate his loss of memory. It was hard to tell what had and hadn't failed with Zelda when he didn't even know what they tried or what went wrong. Something told him he and Danni would've given her a speech about trying it out with their support, after all they believed that together everything was better, but who knows if they even made it that far with Zelda.

Sabine shrugged, ”Seems kind of silly to be at a school for superheroes and not want to take part in it, but we are who we are. If you want, I can see about restoring your memory. With permission, of course.” She figured, knowing Danni and, by extension, Dorian a bit, she figured they did give some speech, probably offered aid and a hug. Probably freaked her out, though Zelda would have to learn to, quite frankly, suck it up. ”Either way, we still have to work together, her included. And as I said before I left, I plan on showing just what I am made of and will not let anyone drag me down.”

Dorian smiled for a brief moment before hesitation took over. He'd like to recall what it was that had happened after the ropes were tied, but he was also extremely wary about Sabine's powers, or any telepathy powers for that matter. He'd brought his sword with him this time, not because of her, but for his general safety and comfort. His hand gripped the handle for a moment, anxious for how to answer. "I won't lie to you, as much as I'd love my memories back…my family 'as a bad 'istory wit' t'em. It's why I carry around t'is. But…we are a team, and we need to trust each ot'er. So…when we get to t'e caf, I'll place it down and you can restore it. I trust you."

Sabine had to admit, she hadn’t expected Dorian to take her up on her offer. She wouldn’t have blamed him if he wanted nothing to do with her or her powers. But as he said, they were a team. ”Of course. I won’t do anything more than that specific piece.” She wanted to say how touched she was he trusted her enough to allow her to help, but despite this nice conversation, she was still hesitant. What was wrong with her?

Dorian nodded. As they rounded the corner and entered into the cafeteria, he made his way towards the closest table, unclipping the sword from his belt and placing it on the table before walking a few feet away. "Ready when you are." There was a small quiver in his voice.

Once they were settled, Sabine reached her mind into Dorian’s once he allowed. She was careful not to mess with anything else. Thankfully, she had been in here before and knew where things were, more or less. She was able to find the tear she had caused and quickly mended it, allowing Dorian to be able to recall those memories again. As quickly as she got in, she got out.

Once back out, Sabine breathed a sigh of relief. ”There. Should be good to go now.”

Dorian wasn't sure what he expected. A wave of memories, a sudden mental assault, or perhaps a blast of pain as moments of time suddenly appeared within his mind. But it was no such thing, they simply just…were. He recalled having been unable to recall, but now he could see it all clearly. Like getting the word that's been sitting at the tip of your tongue. "I…expected more. I t'ought maybe I'd feel somet'in' but…not'in. Just feel normal." He said as he went over and grabbed his sword once more.

Dorian wrung his hands around the scabbard for a bit as he thought to himself. "So, one t'in' Danni and I 'ave worked on over t'e years is meldin' our powers toget'er, maybe if we can get some of us to work better we can all find ways to do it. I bet you could make people not see whose in front of t'em! T'at'd make my job a whole lot easier."

Sabine was happy nothing went wrong. She didn’t want to tell Dorian what happened during her showcase as well as a multitude of other things that could have happened. ”I mean if I did more you would have felt something, but restoring memories is easy. The memories were there, it was just a matter of allowing you to see them. Nothing to it.”

Sabine wondered how the two of them could ‘meld’ their powers, as Dorian put it. ”Possibly, depends on what I do. I could make a person believe they were born blind, but I don’t really impact the actual brain, at least not yet. With practice, maybe.”

[Color=CC99FF]"T'ats cool. I…don't really know what I might be capable of wit' practice… I feel like I can t'ink of all t'ese t'in's and ways for everyone else to use t'eir powers and grow but when it comes to me I just.. Can't. I don't know 'ow t'ey can grow."/[color] Dorian said with a bit of a sigh as he sat down.

Sabine could see where Dorian was coming from. Her powers might look cool to someone on the outside looking in, but even then it wasn’t like she could take a bullet, shoot laers from her eyes, or turn invisible. ”Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Looking at it that way, I can see how that seems like a fault, but it isn’t. Being able to aid someone else is just as important as doing it on your own. But even then, there’s things you could do. It’s why we are here, after all. And being on this team, this is a good way to explore what that looks like. We’re going to have a lot of enemies going through this, don’t add yourself to that list.

Dorian tried to force a smile. "You're right. I shouldn't do t'at to myself." It was easier to be confident in a group setting. To be helpful and fade into the background when needed. But here, one on one with someone who was friends with his best friend, who they barely shared things in common with, it was like being an exposed nerve. "So we get Zelds on costume duty, and maybe try and edge 'er to use 'er powers in small bits, maybe even just to make needles to sew or somet'in' so she gains confidence, and I can work on tryin' to get Percy to 'ate me less. I t'ink we share a class or two toget'er anyways so t'at'll 'elp."

”We just got to work on Danni then. Have him chill out more so he doesn’t freak out Zelda and annoy Percy. Then I think we’ll have a pretty functioning team. Or at least one that won’t implode on itself when the time comes.” Sabine looked around, ”I believe I promised you coffee. What are you in the mood for?”

"T'at depends…can we get some scones too? Or a sweet bread?" Dorian asked with a sweet smile and big eyes.

Sabine rolled her eyes, but smiled. ”Fine. But I pick the treat since I am buying.” She made her way over to the counter to order them their drinks and some sweet bread since Dorian asked so nicely. All in all, she never would have thought a conversation with Dorian would have ended this way and, maybe if they weren’t put on the same team it wouldn’t have, but she was thankful they talked.

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Fri. Oct 1

Dorian never joked about movie nights. He'd felt a little bad that he hadn't had much of a chance to catch up with any of the other students that he'd met at the Carnival. Like a summer fling except with friendship that only lasted a day. He'd decided to change that. Formally inviting Andy over for a Horror Movie Marathon, and what better time to do it than on the first of October. Not only did it cement the Spookiest month of the year, but today was none other than the 70th anniversary of the movie that sparked the Classic Zombie genre. Night of the Living Dead. Dorian had made sure everything was perfect, having baked some chocolate cupcakes that looked like mounds of gravedirt with gummy worms squirming out, coconut cream eyeball jellies that popped in your mouth, and other such. Themed snacks to each which they watched their fill of horror.

Andy was nervous about going to the movie night. She had mixed feelings about Dorian and his friends after their first encounter. However, she was willing to give them a second chance. She had no hope of fitting in with this time period if she didn’t at least try to make friends. She dressed up a bit and done her makeup. When she had gone to the mall with Zari and Mads she had gotten some things for herself too. It modernized her wardrobe a bit, even though she had primarily bought things that felt comfortable for her and were of course ‘retro’.

As Dorian stood back and admired all of his hard work, he began to wonder if it was too much. After all it was her first movie night with him, and he hadn't the foggiest idea of what she might think this all was. Though he'd finally settled on leaving well enough alone, sitting down at the edge of his bed in his halloween pajamas that looked reminiscent of old school camp counselor outfits you would see in movies. He wasn't sure how long she would stay or even put up with him, so he opted for comfort rather than flair. Two plush blankets were set aside and folded as he threw himself on his own and mumbled into the woven texture. "Is t'is a mistake? What if she 'ates me?" he said to no one at all.

Once Andy was satisfied with her outfit (she had spun for Selene's approval of it (Selene said it should be more slutty)), Andy set out for Dorian's dorm. She didnt know the layout of the building super well but eventually she found it. Andy stood there nervously for a moment taking a deep breath before finally knocking.

Dorian looked up from the mass of blanket he had smother himself with, hair slightly disheveled as he stared at the door. He quickly ran towards a mirror, fixing it up before making it back to his door and opening it. "Hi! Welcome to Chez Kingston-Gray. Come in come in." He'd stepped aside from the door to allow Andy to enter, noting her new digs that were much closer to the retro chic he'd expected. "What kind of movies do you like? I've got a ton so we 'ave a wide selection. T'ough we are soooo watchin' Night of t'e Livin Dead. Not only is it a classic its also its anniversary!"

"I love that movie!" Andy said as a grin split across her face. She said, giving a nod of approval. "I used to live with this one family before...uh..I was adopted. And they watched B movies all the time. So the worse the film, the more I love it. You can't go wrong with the classics though." Andy could only hope Dorian and April wouldn't talk about when Andy had been adopted cause mathematically...linearly...it didn't work. She followed him into his room. Her jaw dropping a bit impressed with the set up. "Nice! I can dig it." God that probably was outdated as hell.

Dorian matched her grin as she mentioned her love for the movie. He hadn't realized how much all of this could mean to her, but then again most people who got into horror were looking for some form of escape. What better way to bond than by screaming at your fears or making fun of a bad movie? He wondered if this adoption was how Andy was April's aunt. It wasn't exactly told to him how that happened, but adoption made the most sense. "Dig it? Nice Zombie pun." He said with a bit of a chuckle as he went over towards his desk. Everything was organized, and he grabbed his drive that held B-rate Horror Movies. "B-Horror it is. Oh, and if you need help staying up I've got some coffee here we can drink."

Andy's shoulders relaxed a little at his compliment of her phrase. It worked as a pun. "Oh, thank you but I've got my mug. Andy lifted up the travel mug she had in her hand. She was actually a pro and not sleeping. Prior to getting her pillow she avoided sleep as much as possible. "You can try some too if you want. I made it myself. And it is never ending." Andy was very proud at how successful the spell had been while making the mug. Even if it felt like she was slipping down a slope to becoming her mother's puppet.

Dorian scoffed in bewilderment. "You mean you made t'e coffee yourself…right?" He made his way over to her, inspecting the mug in her hand as he debated on whether or not he wanted to try. "Is anyt'ing you put in t'ere never-endin? Like if I put in some Baja-blast would it be forever Baja?" He wondered out loud as he held his hand out to try the strange artifact.

"The spell would have to be done differently. I almost made it donkey shit when I was still practicing." Andy wasn't totally sure. She hadn't asked follow up questions. Mostly cause that probably would have included more begging for virgins or something. Andy handed over the mug and when Dorian tried it the coffee is hot, but not scalding. The flavor was a wonderful blend. It was a little nutty with a light citrus flavor dancing in the background. It was rich and perfectly sweet with just the right amount of coffee.

Dorian took a sip of the coffee, pausing as the gears inside his mind turned. The flavourful wasn't terribly complex yet it held interesting notes. He took another sip, this time giving a little slurp as he drank so that the flavor covered his entire tongue (something he'd learned abroad while doing coffee tastings). "Is t'is…Brazilian roast? Somewhere between a dark and medium, I mean t'at's really t'e best way to brin' out t'e nutty flavors after all." He paused as he handed the cup back to her. "I didn't realize you 'ad such a complex knowledge for coffee. Or magic for t'at matter."

Andy smiled at his assessment. "Coffee yes. I'm basically addicted. Magic, I'm learning. I had a lot of help for this." She explains taking back the travel mug. "Dark roast is my favorite. This was based off my favorite cup of coffee. That was actually a blend of two, one from Honduras and the other Brazilian."

Dorian smiled, figuring that was why he couldn't quite place the flavour. It was a blend of Central and South American coffees. "Did Mads 'elp you out wit' t'e magic?" He asked as he went over to grab an eyeball and plopped it in his mouth as he debated on how much of his coffee knowledge was too much. She seemed cool enough, and earlier that year she'd been sporting a leather jacket so she might be a bit punk enough. "We've got just about every roast imaginable 'ere. Straight from t'e source never sat on a shelf sort of deal so it's fresh as fresh gets. Buuuuut we 'ave to let it last for a bit. Can't be pesterin' t'e rents everytime we need somet'in' while at school." He said as he let out a defeated sigh. The coffee was the hardest thing to get used to while at AA every year. If they ran through it chances were they wouldn't get more for a while and them they'd have to suffer through whatever wash the school classified as coffee.

"Uh, well no. But she went to the mall with me and helped me find new clothes.” Andy gestured at her outfit. It was still too hot in LA to wear her leather jacket, as much as she wanted to. "That’s cool that your parents let you bring all that coffee here.” She thought of all the foster parents she had had over the years and only the Drummonds (who had never even legally been her guardians) would have been cool enough for that. She grabbed a cupcake from the collection of them on the table. Andy pulled it apart and took the bottom sticking it to the top and ate it like a very sugary sandwich.

Dorians eyes grew wide. "No way! You eat your cupcakes like t'at too?!" It was the superior way to enjoy a cupcake, thought it seemed not many had agreed with him as most people ate it like savages, biting off from the top and leaving themselves with a disappointing unfrosted bottom. He went ahead and made himself a cup of coffee, pouring it out of the French press that had been started earlier before Andy had arrived. He paused to take a sip, enjoying the flavourful with a smile that reached his cheeks before settling back down. "I know a bit about magic ya know. Not a lot, not like Mads, mostly because I can't actually do any of t'e stuff. Buuuut you kinda 'ave to learn a t'ing or two when learning about Astral Projectin' and it's dangers. Even 'elped enchant my sword…t'ough my fat'er did most of t'e work."

"It is the superior way to eat them.” Andy nods. "I don’t know a lot to be honest. I’ve only started learning since I came here. I didn’t even know I could do magic until like four months ago.” Time continued marching on. For Andy it had only been a few months ago, but the rest of the world it had been almost two decades. She started to say something, but turned the open mouth into another bite of the cupcake. "Anyway, go ahead and lets start the movie.” She said and found a place to sit down comfortably, kicking off her shoes and relaxing. She could see being friends with Dorian. This could work.

Dorian noted that she'd mentioned she only knew about her magic for four months. It was weird, but not unheard of, for students or other kids to develop their powers very late in life. Either that, or she was lucky enough to develop a secondary mutation extremely early. Maybe that was why she was put on a judges team. He didn't say anything though, just nodding at her request for the movie to start. He wondered if he'd dug too deep? Asked too many questions. Regardless, the file was in and he hit play to an in color screening of Night of the Living Dead. The scene opened up with the siblings of Barbara and Johnny driving up towards an old cemetery.

He let the movie play in relative silence as he struggled to sit still. Constantly adjusting himself underneath the blankets until one of his favorite lines came on. He looked towards Andy with his best Zombie face as he recited the practiced words. "They're coming to get you Barbara. They're coming for you Barbara." Dorian eerily groaned out before giggling and grabbing himself a cupcake to eat.

Andy laughed, she was about to recite the next line, but it was just Barbara being a wet blanket and she didn’t want to say any of that to Dorian. She was having fun, instead she grabbed one of the eyeball candies and munched it while humming a song.

Dorian spied Andy out of the corner of his eye. A part of him wanted to give her a few fun facts about the movie. But he also didn't want to talk through the entire movie for her or mansplain things that she may already know. So he sat there quietly for a moment, looking towards Andy at key points during the movie to see her reaction to the movie plot points. Taking another sip of his coffee as he curled up in his blankets. .

It was obvious she had seen the movie before, probably a few times as she seemed to know the lines rather well. She’d mouth along with them. Andy was having a lot of fun. She munched on the snacks Dorian had provided and sipped her own coffee from the everfilling mug. It was obvious it was everfilling as Andy drank quite a bit and never seemed worried about running out. "I haven’t gotten to see a good old classic horror in ages.” She said at one quiet part of the film.

"What stopped you? I mean not like I can talk. Most of my friends are big scaredy cats t'at don't like 'orror. But it's a bit 'andwaved on my birt'day. T'ough I ended up canceling it t'is year. Wayyy too much 'appened t'at day and so I kept it a bit more…quaint." He replied. It wasn't exactly a quiet scene, but one of many where Barbara simply simply screamed for no real reason while muttering something that didn't develop the plot in the slightest.

"A lot happened and then I came here.” Andy gestured slightly to indicate the school. There was more to what she meant though. She just couldn’t talk about it. She seemed a little sad, but then she smiled. "However, if all of that hadn’t have happened I wouldn’t have met Zari. So it was worth it.” Would she have stayed happy if the Drummonds had lived? The sadness creeped back into her smile. Her attention to the movie wanned, which meant the next jump scare got her. A squeak left her lips and then she laughed.

Dorian watched the emotional roller-coaster that seemed to plague Andy's smile. He recalled she mentioned being adopted, and wondered if that had something to do with the school transfer and sudden change in mood. He was adopted too, obviously as two men couldn't exactly make a baby, but he was young when his parents had died. He wondered if Andy had gone through a similar experience later in life, one in which she could actually recall her parents. His solemn thoughts left him as she squeaked, laughing at the reaction as he wiped a tear from his eye. "Didn't expect you to get startled like t'at I'm sorry" He spoke in between laughs.

He didn't want to press Andy too much about the past if she wasn't willing to talk about it yet. So he focused on what he could as he plopped an eye into his mouth and popped it. " 'ow did you and t'e techie meet? Or was it on one of t'ose super 'ero datin' apps?" He asked playfully.

Andy waved away his apology, she didn’t mind getting spooked, she enjoyed it from movies. "There’s apps for that?” Andy asked super confused. How could she explain meeting Zari without explaining a whole lot of other stuff. "Well, I was living on the streets at the time. We ended up with this group of other people and just sort of stuck together even though the group didn’t.” That left out a whole lot of detail, but it was the most basic way of explaining the story. It was the truth.

"Please. T'ere's an app for everyt'ing and all of t'em are great way to just get ghosted. But it sounds to me you went t'e found family route. T'ats what my fat'er and Appa did, well t'em and my Uncle Casper and Uncle James. T'ey were a part of t'is awesome group t'at saved all of mutants kind! Even brought some back t'at were lost in a fight. It was awesome and terrifyin' all at once! T'ere was t'is dark evil woman, Selene, tried to suck up t'e souls of all t'e mutants around but t'ey stopped 'er cold in 'er tracks. Or well…trapped 'er. But t'at still counts!" Dorian punctuated certain parts with fists or kicks as he showed off how they fought off the evil forces of Selene before getting up and bringing the left over back of sour gummies that didn't fit into the cupcakes.

Andy’s jaw dropped. Starting at the name Casper followed by James. There was very quickly no doubt in her mind that these were the same people she had run with for a while. These were the very same people she had met Zari at the same time with. She closes her mouth again and tries to compose herself. When Dorian brings over the snacks she takes one and chews on it. "That’s a lot. Must have been...insane.” Thank goodness Dorian hadn’t mentioned how the ‘Thundering Champian’ who also just happened to have the name Andy had grown to like ten feet tall during the fight because of trying to eat souls so Selene couldn’t have it. She wondered how much they had told him...and if he’d ever put it together that he was going to school with two of the people involved in that fight.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you 'aven't 'eard of it. 'onestly at first when I 'eard your names I t'ought it was funny. Andy is kinda basic, no offense just not like…weird ya know? But Zari? I t'ought maybe 'er parents were fan of one of the 'eroes of Genosha. T'ere was someone wit' your name as well but t'ats to be expected. Really a lot of t'em 'ad lame generic names. Not t'at yours is." Dorian said as he backpeddled. " 'ell my dad is Max and Appa is Ben. 'ow more basic can you get? At least Casper and Zari were original."

Andy took a sip of her coffee. It lasted longer than probably necessary. "Wild.” She said. "And that’s fine. I’m not super attached to my name.” She gave a shrug. "So your dads are Max and Ben.” Andy took another sip of her coffee. The movie basically forgotten at this point. "And that means Danny’s are Casper and James.” She remembered Danny as a baby. She didn’t think she had met Dorian when he was a baby, but she had met Danny. She just hadn’t put it together.

Dorian gave her a wide grin with teeth. "T'e one and onlys! T'e mutant trio, t'e Genoshan circuit, and t'e best four parents a kid could ask for." It was part of how he was able to get into the school, but he wasn't about to say that. Most people looked down on nepotism, and he would like to think he'd have gotten in regardless with his skills. "Sorry. I…get a little excited when it comes to my family. T'ey're all I got, adopted or not you know?"

”I understand that.” Andy nods seriously. She wasn’t thinking of Magneto though. She was thinking of the Drummonds. ”Besides you’ve been with them your whole life. Blood isn’t what matters. Blood brings you into the world. Doesn’t mean they are family.” There was a part of her that was still mad at Selene for just letting her disappear. She didn’t know the whole story, someday she’d have to get it out of her mom, but all that mattered is Selene had failed to protect her from something. She sighed deeply. Andy needed to tell Zari who Dorian and Danny were, and who their parents were. They could not meet their parents since the two of them hadn’t aged in the years since they had last seen each other. Max and Casper and James would know them instantly. Ben, well Andy was sure he would too, but she knew she’d barely recognize him since he had been a ghost most of the time Andy had been with the Mutant Underground.

Dorian curled back up under the blanket. Wondering what was going on inside her head. He held his hand out to her, placing it on hers after she'd sighed. " 'ey we don't 'ave to talk about families if you don't want to. I know it can be 'ard and not every 'ome life is easy even if it pulled you off t'e streets. But if you ever need an ear, t'is is a safe space to talk ok?" His usual smile was gone, replaced with a very serious demeanor before his childlike grin came back. "Besides, we got t'e best crew around! A witch to curse people, a mutant t'at messes wit' memories, a Pyro, and moi t'e best damn Poltergeist you'll ever meet! You'll be safe wit' us guaranteed." As soon as he said the words he felt a small pang of pain. Recalling the vision of the massive Graves he'd seen. One year.

Andy smiled gently. A whole lot of emotions swirled in her for a moment. ”I appreciate it.” Dorian was like his dad, genetics be damned. She could imagine Max saying that exact thing. ”I mean you know who my adopted dad is, that’s a whole lot of...I don’t even know.” Andy shook her head. ”It’s complicated.” She shrugged. ”But yeah, it all got me off the streets, which is nice. I had been living with this couple, and they died, right before Christmas and I didn’t know what to do. I got lucky. But when I think of family, they are who I think of.” Technically this year would be her first Christmas since their death, not counting the one immediately after their death and she had been in survival mode then. That was insane to consider.

Dorian cooked his head to the side. Normally this is where he'd ghost and go upside down as he spoke to her, but he figured she wouldn't be used to his constant shift between planes yet. "I…know your dad?" He said with a confused look across his face. Had he met her dad? Was he at the Orientation? Did he pay attention to Orientation? His mind went a million miles a minute before it shorted out and froze. "I uh…must've forgot. I'm really bad at focusin' sometimes so details kinda get lost on me if somethin' else grabbed my attention. I'm so so so sorry."

”Oh. No I doubt you’ve met him. I just though April would have told you by now. It came out during the first day of training that I guess. She knew my last name anyway. Uh, Magneto is my adopted dad.” Andy explained. She mentally cursed at herself for saying anything. She could have just kept her mouth shut about that. Especially since April knew that Andy had been adopted ‘on Genosha’ and that made the timeline exist that made a whole lot of what Andy had said so far not work out if anyone thought about it. She was going to get caught in a trap of not wanting to lie, but also having to avoid explain the whole time travel thing.

Dorian snapped his finger as she mentioned Magneto. "Oooooooh t'ats what Princess meant when she said you're 'er aunt. Man Magneto must be gettin' up in years if 'es lookin' to adopt now a days. Big ol softie. Glad 'e got you off t'e streets t'ough. Everyone deserves a second chance and redemption. We can't always see t'em as villains or we don't give t'em t'e chance to grow out of it." He said with a bit of a shrug. His father always told him that everyone deserves a fighting chance, and that unless you lived through their experiences you'll never truly understand why it is they do what they do. Everyone's a hero in their own story anyways.

”Yeah.” Andy smiled and nodded. ”I understand why people see him that way. But I got to see a really nice side of him. He protected me when I was in a lot of danger.” Her smile softened. The irony was that Magneto protecting her was in the very same fight Max and them did the mutant circuit.

"So I've 'eard. Wonder if my parents would ever want to 'ave dinner wit' yours sometime. We could all 'ang out, I mean I know my fat'er 'as a bit of 'istory wit' yours. Some good, some bad. But maybe in t'eir ancient age t'ey can look past t'e past and focus on t'eir kids futures instead." Dorian suggested, though he was also super curious to see how Magneto did at playing host. What food would he cook, was his house really all metal? Did it save or cost more for heating and cooling? Did he just glide everywhere or did the old man know how to walk?

”I bet that would be very awkward. Magneto might be interested.” There was a whole lot Andy could say. Of course, she could just see in her mind the four of them, older with gray in their hair, sitting down to dinner with Magneto and Selene in a high chair or something. She had to laugh at the image. ”Do you have a picture of your parents?” She wanted to see how they aged.

"Yes, hold on!" Dorian got up and scrambled towards his closet before he pulled out an album. It was a leather bound book with some faded pages sticking out of it along with various objects or threads. He sat down next to Andy and opened it, showing off an array of Polaroids each from a family vacation they'd taken across the world. He flipped towards one that had all of them in frame, the most recent trip they'd taken. Both his father's had aged gracefully, one literally having been a model while the other just looked as youthful as ever. "T'e blonde ones Max, t'ats my fat'er, and the Dark 'aired ones my Appa Ben." he said as he pointed to each of them.

Andy didn’t need Dorian to point at them. Or even tell her which was which. Max, while he looked older, also looked so much like he had. It had been seventeen years and she would have known him if they had bumped into each other on the street. She was sure he would know her too. What did he think of what happened to her? She hadn’t said goodbye. She regretted that now. Andy had just left, told Magneto she was going with Zari, took Selene and left. She had bought herself time with it. If she had stayed...She’d be older too, in her 30s now. Looking similarly aged as Max and Ben did. Ben of course she hadn’t known well. Though, she remembered him from the party that ended Genosha. Andy hadn’t thought of herself as close with any of the MU, but as she sat there and remembered it all she missed them. She wondered what each of them were up to. Could she risk asking Dorian about them? He hadn’t said the group name so she’d have to be careful. Tonight wouldn’t be the night. Also, the internet existed. She could look them up. There had to be information about them there. She was honestly a little surprised she never had looked them up. ”Thank you.” She smiled looking up at Dorian from the picture. ”You said there were others...what about them? Do you know what all they do now or did after everything?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but found herself wanting to know right then.

Dorian grinned as he flipped to the back of the album. It wasn't filled all the way yet, but he kept a special picture tucked away in the back. "I really t'ink what my dad found was special. Even if t'ey disbanded afterwards t'ey all kept in touch. I consider t'em all aunts and uncles…" He pulled out a Polaroid, a picture of a picture. The original was back home, with his fathers, but he had taken his own picture of it and had the backs signed by most of the MU that dropped by and visited. "That's all of t'em. Well…most of t'em…" All he had of Andy and Zari were stories. Tales of exploits and time spent together but never once did he see a photograph. He began to point to each and every member of the Mutant Underground that helped to save Genosha, explaining where they all were as he went along. Some were dead when the picture was taken, missing from the frame but living now after the circuit was made.

Andy’s smile cracked a little as she looked at the picture. There was a couple faces and names she had known from then that weren’t in the picture. She let Dorian talk, something dramatic happening on the TV in the background, not really needing him to tell her, but appreciating it still. Her heart tightened a bit when he got to Sapphire. She literally owed her life to Sapphire. Sure she wished that fight had gone different but if Sapphire hadn’t sacrificed herself...well the fight on Genosha might not have even happened. Everyone would have been dead.

She could ask him to tell her all sorts of stories. Some she would know. Others would have happened before or after she had joined the group. Genosha, and the events leading up to it, had been some of the best and worst time of Andy’s life. It had been so dangerous. There had been times she had thought she would die. But this group of people she hadn’t known had taken her in and trusted her to share space with them. ”Thank you. I really appreciate you sharing this with me.” Maybe someday she’d sign the picture too, with her old mutant name, the one Max would know. Andy was glad she had changed it when she came here. Maybe she should have changed her first name too. All well, too late for all of that.

"Anytime! Well I mean, it's mostly just t'is one pic. I 'ave a few of ot'ers who came wit' on some vacations, but not everyone is free or willin' all t'e time." As far as Dorian was concerned they were his extended family. He lingered on the photo for a moment longer before putting it away. "T'ats what I really want from 'ere. Danni, April and I are a great team. T'e Terrific Trio! Even if t'e school is keepin' us apart. I want to find more t'an a group t'ough. I want a family like t'ey 'ad. A bond as strong as what we already 'ave between us t'ree t'at can grow and infect ot'ers too."

”That’s wonderful.” She wanted it too. But if she opened herself up like that...well people died. ”I’m too scared to lose the people I love. After...” After basically her whole life. She noticed the credits were starting to roll on the TV. Had it already been an hour and a half? She looked at the TV with it’s credits rolling and for a moment it felt like so much had happened, yet so little.

Dorian didn't know what to say. He knew how she felt, and worse he knew the coming year was going to be the hardest. He sat there in silence for a moment, listening as the credits rolled by. "I know what you mean. But…you never truly lose anyone. So long as t'eir in your 'eart and memories t'ey'll live on wit' you."]

How do you tell someone that that doesn’t really help? That missing their hug, their laugh, their slightly burnt pancakes on a lazy Sunday, can’t be fixed with memories. Her eyes filled with tears. Had she cried? Had she really allowed herself to feel the emotions that were constantly bubbling? Andy had tried so hard since that foster care where she had been sent away after they had had a child of their own, to not care about people. Her anger issues and everything had started then. She allowed herself to love the Drummonds but they had been killed. And then everything happened that meant she was now sitting in the room of Max’s son.

She realized suddenly that she was crying. ”I’m sorry I didn’t mean to cry.” This was the first time she had cried in front of anyone since she was little. Andy didn’t even remember crying in front of the Drummonds. She dashed into the bathroom and washed her face. The makeup she had put on washed away with the tears. ”It isn’t what you said. I was just thinking of pancakes.” Andy said once she had finished cleaning up her face.

Dorian didn't know what it was that Andy was going through, but clearly it was a lot. The Transfer, new family, everything must've happened so fast. Had she had time to grieve her old family? He didn't know what to do, watching as she rushed to the restroom to wash her face. He stood up slowly, making his way towards her as he realized he'd never once had to deal with loss. How long did one grieve? How long did it stay inside of you? Dorian acted out of impulse, letting his body direct his motions instead of his mind as he simply wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. As soon as he'd made contact, there was a lurch inside of him. Nothing painful or distressing, but a feeling like his spirit was being tugged. He didn't stop however, only managing to hold onto her tighter regardless of what he was feeling. "It's ok to cry, even over pancakes. Just…let it all out."

Andy wanted to hug Dorian. But she felt it. Her mother’s power, the ‘gift’, of eating the spirit of another. Dorian tasted good, not as delicious as Madalyne, the spice that she carried wasn’t there. ”No!” She shouted and pulled away. ”Sorry, but uh, shit I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. I just can’t risk touching you skin to skin. I uh am a energy vampire. I’ll literally eat your soul if you do. Look if you want to hug me I’d love it, just wrap me in a blanket or something first.” Andy said quickly trying not to hurt his feelings.

Dorian jumped back in shock as Andy yelled at him. He hadn't expected such a violent reaction to a hug, that is until she explained herself. It explained the odd feeling he had, the lurch from his soul. "T'ats so cool! Just like Rogue! But t'ats no problem at all!" He said as he ran over and threw on an oversized sweater, the sleeves pulled past his hands. He ran back towards Andy, giving her a massive hug. "No soul stealin' is gonna stop a 'ug of friendship."

The shock of the situation had pushed the worst of the emotions away. The hug was still nice. She sank into it a little. She hadn’t realized how little touch she had had since Genosha. Only Zari had touched her. Only Zari seemed unfazed by the energy vampire. If she hadn’t already started to fall for Zari before that had had happened she would have thought it was part of the allure. But she had liked Zari since the two of them had been in the back of a car and she explained Netflix to her.

”Thank you. I think I actually really needed that hug.” Andy said after probably a full two minutes of hugging Dorian. Her voice was steady and the tears that had come were gone now. Her face was dry again. She pulled away from the hug.

"Anytime." Dorian said with a smile. He backed away a bit, leaning against the door frame. He wanted to ask her a question, but he didn't want to make her cry again. "You know, I 'ave an open door policy 'ere. If you ever need someone to talk to…'ug, or anythin' I'm 'ere for you. It can be 'ard transferrin' in so late in school."

"Thank you. I'll take you up on that sometime." Andy nods. She will, even if it just the hug. The talking about things is hard. Especially when she can't tell the whole story. "Thanks for the movie and the snacks." and the walk down memory lane. "I should get back to my room." Did the school do dorm checks? She hoped not.

"It is getting late. I'd 'ate for Firestar to get upset about 'avin' a student 'ere after 'ours." Dorian went and grabbed another cupcake, hanging it to Andy. "For the road"

Andy takes the cupcake. "Thanks. I'll see you later." She grabs her mug and leaves. Waving over her shoulder as she exits the room. Once in the hall she sighs. That was heavy. Is making friends always going to be like that? Really Zari is Andy's first friend. Before that Andy had never had anyone she called friend. And here it was so difficult navigating history and her identity with everyone else.

Dorian closed the door behind him. Leaning his back against the wooden frame as his head held low. He couldn't tell how well tonight had gone, but he hoped it went well. Andy seemed cool, loved horror, and could easy hang when not being barraged by sentimental questions that remind her of her dead family. He went over and grabbed a handful of eyeballs, plopping on his bed as he tossed them up to catch them in his mouth as he thought on the night.

---

---

Sun. Oct. 10

Dorian fidgeted alone in his room, staring at the full length mirror as he messed with his hair a bit. He didn't think he'd ever felt anxious before when it came to studying. Even in his time at Strange’s he hadn't ever felt anxious, so why did he now? He took one last look at himself before making his way over to his nightstand and opening up the first drawer. Pulling out a Teddy bear shaped cologne bottle before spritzing a bit on his neck and wrist. It wasn't a date by any means, but it didn't mean that he couldn't look presentable. He grabbed his copy of the Iliad, as well as a moleskin notebook and some writing utensils to take notes with. He clutched them in his hands, feeling the leather of his pencil pouch wring against his now sweaty palms before he finally headed out and went one door over. He knocked gently against the door before speaking. "Uh, Perce?"

Almost a month ago, Percy wouldn’t have entertained the idea of studying with Dorian. But the forced repeated exposure to him had… helped. They saw each other almost every day - whether it was in class, in the hallways of the dorm, in the cafeteria, or training with Ser Nemo. Dorian Gray was an unavoidable part of Percy’s life. He could practically feel Agatha Harkness laughing at him from the shadows.

He heard the knock at the door and he sighed. His roommate wasn’t around much these days - something about an internship of sorts, studying under Hank McCoy aka the Beast. Percy certainly liked the privacy of more or less having his room to himself, as Teddy was only on campus one or two nights a week now. But right now, it felt… well, it felt almost intimate - certainly strange - the idea of being alone in a room with Dorian Gray.

Percy unlocked and opened up the door. He was dressed in his academy uniform, like he almost always was. The only real difference was that there was a slight sparkle on his skin. He had tried a new body bar from Lush, and now, he felt a little bit like a Twilight vampire. But he liked it. ”Yes?” Percy said, feeling the tension rise inside of him.

But he knew why Dorian was here. He stepped aside, letting the older boy into his room. ”Teddy isn’t here - you can use his chair,” he explained. He had his copy of the Iliad out, covered in sticky notes - well, the copy assigned for class in English. The Greek version he had on his bed.

Dorian swallowed as the door opened. He couldn't help but notice the new sheen on Percy's skin. Had he freshened up for him too? No, it couldn't be. The knot in his stomach grew as the interaction went on. Teddy was gone, it would just be them two, but they were just studying, so why did he feel this way? "Uh, t'anks." he muttered out lamely as he walked past Percy. He saw Percy's copy of the book and paused, making his way over towards it as he dropped his own supplies off atop of the chair offered to him. "Wow, you've got a lot of notes on t'is t'ing. I don't even know where to begin."

He tried to sound at ease, speaking in a joking tone to offset the tension he now felt inside of this room. It had been almost a month since the kiss, and not once had they ever spoken about it. And as Dorian watched Percy in his school uniform, he began to wonder if perhaps he was a little bit overdressed for their study session. He'd worn a white cotton shirt with light blue pinstripes, though just seeing Percy in uniform had caused his to instinctively button up the two buttons he'd had purposely had undone, covering up the view of his chest once more.

”It’s my ninth time reading it,” Percy admitted, his face flushing. ”Well. Not my ninth time for this translation. I’ve read this one - Emily Wilson’s translation - twice, George Chapman’s three times, and the rest in the original Greek. You get a slightly different story each time, it’s funny that way…” His voice trailed off, as he reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of sparkling water. He put one down on the desk, before offering the other to Dorian.

”Have you tried beginning with, well, the beginning?” Percy asked, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. He grabbed the book from his bed, and opened it, and began to read:



Dorian's eyes lit up in amazement. Nine times. He hadn't imagined that all those notes had come from that many times of reading. He was about to ask when Percy had listed off all the authors if there was any difference between them but Percy quickly answered that thought with his explanation. His face lit up red as he was asked if he'd started at the beginning, and to be frank he'd tried it a few times but never seemed to get the ball rolling.

As Percy began to read, Dorian simply gave up and fell back onto his bed. Groaning in protest at the gibberish that was being spoken to him. "It's 'opeless. It all sounds Greek to me."

Percy shook his head. ”Correct. It is Greek,” Percy deadpanned. There was a hint of a smile on his lips.

”Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus—
that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans
to countless agonies and threw many warrior souls
deep into Hades, leaving their dead bodies
carrion food for dogs and birds—
all in fulfillment of the will of Zeus.”

He then paused for a moment. Maybe just reciting the words wouldn’t be enough to help Dorian - maybe there was something more that he could do here. ”You know, the Iliad is a love story,” Percy offered. ”One of the first queer love stories, too. Achilles and Patroclus. They made a book about the two of them a decade or two back, you might’ve heard of it - the Song of Achilles?”

There was something about the way that Percy recited the tale, the lighting, the new sheen, the way his lips curled with the hint of a smile at every word. Dorian couldn't help but be entranced as he spoke. Watching his mouth as he spoke only to snap out of it with a blush stricken face when Percy stopped to mention it was a love story. A queen love story. He cleared his throat, sitting up and snapping his fingers at the mention of the other book that may as well have been as old as the Illiad.

"Right, I've 'eard of t'at one! My fat'er was obsessed wit' it back t'en. Took us to some museum to see it all. Did you know 'e was double cheeked up? 'e could've opened a bakery wit' 'ow much buns t'at man was carrying."

Percy had been taking a sip of his sparkling water, and very nearly choked at what Dorian had said. He was young - not so young that he was clueless about his sexuality - but young enough that he had never really talked about these things to someone. He grew up in a sapphic household, after all. And he hadn’t had any queer friends at his previous school, and even if he had, Percy didn’t think he would’ve talked about ass cheeks with them. ”I, er… I’d never looked at his ass,” Percy lied.

He might’ve never talked about it with anyone else, but he had access to Google.

”You went to a lot of museums as a kid,” Percy observed - it wasn’t really much of a question.

"Tons. With the ability of free and instantaneous travel it was easy to see the sights." Dorian sat up from Percy's bed, making his way over towards where his sparkling water was and cracking it open. Twisting the cap slowly to let some of the carbonation out with a soft hiss before fully twisting it off. "I've got tons of pictures if you ever want to see t'em. Lots of statues and landscaping mostly. Well, me too."

As Dorian took a sip, he made his way over towards Percy, attempting to peer over his shoulder to see what it was that was so important on Percy's phone as to distract him from this study session. As if Dorian wasn't enough of a distraction himself. "Lots of pictures of his ass too."

Percy quickly turned his phone off, and threw it into the drawer of the desk. He felt like he had been caught doing something nefarious - rather than just searching for pictures of Patroclus. His heart was pounding excessively. Maybe from how close Dorian was. Maybe from Dorian offering to show him pictures of himself. He swallowed another swig of the sparkling water. ”I think I’m beginning to see why you’re having trouble with starting the Iliad,” Percy observed. He didn’t turn around. For whatever reason, the thought of meeting Dorian’s eyes was too much.

Dorian couldn't help but snicker at Percy's reaction to it all. He hadn't noticed just how close he'd gotten to Percy, that is until he was able to smell the body soap off of Percy. "And what would that be? Also…do you shop at lush?" He noted, his question was more a statement than anything. He hadn't meant to, but he ended up getting closer to him, the scent drawing him for a moment.

”You can’t focus on anything,” Percy suggested. He had wanted to say that Dorian was the living embodiment of ADHD, but he had decided against it. For now, at least. His face flushed as Dorian mentioned the scent. ”I went last weekend… It’s a new body bar, figured I’d give it a try.” The scent was citrusy, with a spicy, cinnamon hint.

"It's nice. Explains t'e luster on your skin too." Being this close to Percy was a mistake. He didn't know why, but something inside of him was urging him to kiss him on the cheek. He leaned in a half an inch more before pulling away and making his way towards Percy's bed once more. "I 'ave a 'ard time focusing sometimes. It's like I 'it a wall and if I try to push past it not'in else will get t'rough." Dorian took a large drink from his bottle, his mouth feeling like it was drying up as he began to feel a bit warm, instinctively undoing two buttons once more.

A strange feeling of disappointment swept through Percy. He rotated his swivel chair, finally facing Dorian now. He looked at the way Dorian Gray was sitting on his bed, as if he were meant to be there. A bit self consciously, Percy tugged at the sleeves of his coat. He wanted to ask Dorian why he was able to focus on Percy’s skin, and not the reading. ”So what can you focus on now, then?” Percy asked.

Asking Dorian what he could focus on was like begging him to switch focuses. His eyes darted away from Percy and onto the dorm floor before slowly making their way back towards him. "Well…I'm not sure. But maybe I could focus on…you?" His face flushed red as he cleared his throat. "I mean Beanie said we should all get along more and I t'ink t'e best way to do t'at is to get to know each ot'er more t'an just our powers." Dorian wrestled with the bottle in his hands as he spoke, wondering how Percy would take it. "So you mentioned t'is was a queer love story…'ave you ever had one?"

The younger boy felt like running away - and for a moment, little sparks of blue lit off by his hands. But he remained, trying to ground himself in the moment. He did his best to keep his face neutral and calm, to fight off the blush that was slowly crawling up his features, until his entire visage was the same shade as a tomato. He was fairly certain that Dorian was flirting with him… but he didn’t dare be wrong about it.

”N-no, I haven’t,” Percy admitted. ”I’ve, er, I’ve never even kissed a boy before. Or anyone. I’m only fourteen. I bet… I bet you’ve kissed loads of people though. On your travels.” He felt so flustered. He didn’t understand what he was feeling.

Dorian watched the familiar blue sparks dance around Percy's hands. Clearly he'd touched a nerve…again…why did he always do this? When Percy mentioned he'd never kissed a boy before, it broke his heart. He knew the boy was barely conscious that day, but a part of him hoped he'd remembered. "Actually…my first kiss was this year believe it or not. But we don't have to talk about this if you don't want to." He said as he nodded towards Percy's balled fists where the sparks used to be.

”Who was it?” Percy asked, before his rational mind caught up to him. He felt like he was possessed - something that he had some unfortunate first hand experience with. He tried to ignore Dorian pointing towards his hands. It was just another part of himself betraying him - no different from the heat on his face. ”Was it Teddy?” Teddy was always weird around Dorian and Danni, Percy had noticed.

Dorian wasn't sure if he should answer. It felt awkward now that he knew Percy had no recollection of the events. "I was helping a student out. They'd collapsed outside of my dorm a few nights into being here. No idea why. I took them to the Nurses office and was put in charge of watching over them. Though it wasn't like they could stop me. I was so worried that night…" There was a smile on his face as he recalled the night, the kiss. Dorian got up from the bed, making his way over towards Percy as he attempted to shoot a shot he'd never make. Regardless of what Agatha had said. He got close enough to Percy that he could smell the citrus off of him again. "He was about your height, well done hair, and even in their state he had a beautiful smile. Though his skin wasn't as nice as yours is now. That night he'd kissed me, though I don't think he remembers it at all. Regardless, that was my first one."

Percy tried to think through who the student could’ve been - he knew most of the people on their floor, and there weren’t any boys who came to mind. They must’ve been so out of it that they ended up on the wrong floor. A sharp feeling filled him - something unkind and twisted. It was easier to feel than the flustered nerves, so Percy leaned into it. ”Well, congratulations. I’m sure you’ll make a beautiful couple,” he snapped, coming off a bit more harshly than he had intended. ”If he needs help with a better skincare routine, send him my way.”

Dorian tried not to groan in frustration. Was he truly this dense? Or was he attempting to signal to him that he wasn't interested. But then again why mention being a good couple if he wasn't. Dorian didn't know what came over him, something outside his usual demeanor tugged at his need for answers and he stepped closer towards Percy, barely a hands width of room between them and certainly not enough space for Jesus. He placed his forefinger underneath Percy's chin and his thumb right beneath his mouth and tilted his head up so their gaze met. "It was you, ass." He said before letting go and making his way back towards the bed.

"Maybe this is why I can't understand any of this stuff. Because when I try to read it I think of you. But you clearly aren't interested so I just wonder how any of this could even be remotely true. Suppose that's why it's fiction, because love doesn't work out this way."

Percy leaned forward slightly, as if chasing the contact when Dorian removed his hand. His stomach had twisted himself into more knots, with more of that strange sharp pain. But there was a sense of relief as well. And a sense of… need. ”Shut up,” Percy growled. He wasn’t thinking. If he had been thinking, he wouldn’t be doing this. He wouldn’t be closing the distance between the two of them, grabbing Dorian’s hands and pinning him down, and kissing him furiously.

Dorian braced for a hit, or something. But as his hands got pinned all he could feel was his heart racing. The last thing he'd expected was a kiss from Percy. His eyes went wide for a moment before closing and allowing it to happen. He went to go pull Percy in closer, but instantly felt the restraint from Percy's grip. He didn't know what to do, but he knew he didn't want this moment to stop yet.

Percy kept his grip on Dorian’s hands, having them pinned down on either side of Dorian’s head. He was practically on top of Dorian, the bed underneath the both of them. He was feeling something like rage and love, all wrapped into one confusing feeling, as he pulled away from the kiss. He stared at Dorian, studying his face. Maybe he was trapped in Agatha’s prophecy. ”You infuriate me.”

"You arouse me. I-i mean annoy me." Dorian could hardly think. As if all his blood had left his brain and put him in a stupor. "That was…much better than the first one." He said almost breathless, his hands still pinned near his head. He went to move, though he quickly realized that squirming underneath Percy as he sat atop of him wasn't the brightest idea. The movement caused another button to come undone and Dorian just let out a sigh.

Percy’s eyes widened, and he almost choked after what Dorian said. ”I-what?” he stammered. It was one thing to kiss a guy. Other things… He was only fourteen. He wasn’t ready for that sort of stuff yet. Not for a while. His eyes then narrowed though. ”Probably better because I can remember it - that I’m in control now.” It was spiteful. He was still angry at Dorian for the numerous possessions. And maybe it wasn’t healthy, but he channeled some of that anger as he kissed Dorian again. He felt complicated. He was attracted to this person, just as much as he made Percy’s blood boil. He pushed Dorian’s lips open with his tongue, like he was trying to devour him.

"I kinda like you being in control" Dorian cooed just before his mouth became occupied once again by Percy's. It killed him that he couldn't run his hands through his hair, or pull him closer. A part of him wanted to just phase right through it all so that he could, but he didn't think Percy would be too happy about that. After all, he'd already possessed him so many times, it would be weird to do anything akin to it during this moment. After a moment Dorian turned his head, breaking off from the kiss long enough to speak as he looked towards the door. "Care to let a guy breathe?" he joked.

”...Sorry,” Percy said, coming somewhat to his senses. He let go of his grip on Dorian and stood back up. He smoothed down his coat and shorts, before removing the coat entirely, and hanging it up neatly. He was just now in the grey shorts and the white collared shirt, as he sat down on the chair at his desk, his eyes sweeping around the room and settling on Dorian, before looking at something else entirely all over again.

Dorian sat up, watching as Percy began to walk away. His hand was outstretched as if to say don't go, but he quickly let it fall to his side. "You don't 'ave to be sorry about anyt'in." He said as he stood up and made his way towards Percy, planting a soft kiss onto his lips before going to grab his book. "Well t'at is unless I fail t'is test on t'e Iliad. T'en I'll totally blame you for it. You're so distractin' bein' all cute."

He shrank away, almost shyly, as Dorian called him cute. Percy then cleared his throat, trying to clear his mind as well. Instead, he reached out and took Dorian’s hand - much more gently than a few moments ago, when he had pinned him down. ”I don’t think it’s hard for you to find distractions,” Percy countered. ”And you’re not going to fail. I won’t speak to you again if you do.” He was joking. Of course. Maybe.

Dorian blushed at the contact. He hadn't expected the pair of them to ever be on good speaking terms, neutral maybe, but not good. Yet here they were well past anything he'd ever thought was possible with Percy. Clearly Agatha was right, it was in the cards and fate was working double time to make this happen. "T'en I guess I'm goin' to need more studyin'. Good t'ing you're a door away so I can bot'er you as much as I want." He retorted with a cheeky grin.

Percy rolled his eyes at him. ”I’m so excited,” he said dryly. He did actually intend on studying - in fact, most nights he could be found studying something, whether it was for one of his classes or not. Lately, he had been going to the library and reading up on a certain teacher, trying to determine what exactly was wrong with that man. ”You’ll bring coffee, of course.”

"Obviously. Though at this rate you might drink my supply dry. Might need to see if I can get more imported." Dorian paused, placing a finger on his lip. "Is it still considered importing if it's illegally teleported straight from the farm?" Sure they paid for it, but the portals helped bypass customs and keep the coffee beans fresh as the transport was instantaneous. He went to lean on Percy, the same way he'd lay on Danni or April, but found himself stopping. It was hard to tell where Percy's boundaries lay. He'd never even thought that Percy was capable of holding hands.

”I’m not a lawyer,” Percy said with a shrug. He noticed that Dorian had decreased the distance between them briefly, but he didn’t comment on it. He wasn’t a person who did very much physical touch. His mothers had joked growing up that he would have been ideally suited to a mutation like Rogue’s. ”But also, I somehow don’t think that you’re too concerned about what’s legal and what’s illegal anyways.”

Dorian grinned at the last comment, with an odd pleased sound coming from him. "Not wrong. I do have to care to some degree if I want to be a hero. But the customs stuff can be swept under the rug." His smile faded for a second when he realized he'd never asked Percy one of the most important questions he asked just about anyone at AA. "What made you decide to join? Zelda wants to do fashion. Danni, April and I are all going to be the best trio known to heroism. What about you? What's your dream?"

Percy snorted slightly, before the conversation topic changed slightly. He wasn’t surprised to hear that Dorian was obsessed with becoming part of a famous heroic trio - he just wondered whether Dorian was assigning himself as Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman in that lineup. ”I’m not here to be a hero - not in the modern sense, anyways,” Percy admitted. ”I want to be like a Greek hero of old - an adventurer, you know. Traveling through space and time, seeing incredible places, doing incredible things.”

Dorian slipped his hand out of Percy's, folding them in between his legs as he looked down. It felt silly to think, and even more to say, but he couldn't look at Percy as he spoke. "I don't know a lot about Greek 'eroes but…aren't t'ey all tragedies? I don't want you to…I mean…" He felt like he was finally getting to know him, and then suddenly the rug was ripped right from under him. Percy wanted to be something that practically called for death. Today's modern heroes had the chance of it, sure, but even then it wasn't always final. But this, a Greek tragedy, that was something much more painful to endure.

”... Yes, a lot of them do end in tragedies,” Percy admitted. ”But I’m not planning on dying,” he said confidently. He was prideful. He always had been. Not every Greek hero died - and the ones who did, well, they really should have seen it coming. Percy was confident he could live that lifestyle without tempting fate. That was part of why he was here, learning about himself and his abilities. ”A lot of heroes nowadays die as well - even though death seems to be a bit of a revolving door when it comes to the Avengers and all.”

"Tell me about it. You're talkin' to t'e child of t'e mutant trio who could perform resurrections. T'ough nowadays t'ey aren't allowed to anymore." He paused for a moment, thinking. Something Percy said reminded him of one of the few lessons he'd learned in his museum tours. "Don't talk like t'at t'ough. Real close to 'ubris. Which is like t'e classic downfall of man. Read a book, why don't you?" Dorian teased trying to lighten the mood.

Percy rolled his eyes. He was interested, however, in the first thing that Dorian had said. It was partially for selfish reasons, of course. He had family that had been resurrected by the Genoshan circuit. ”Do you think they’ll ever do it again anyways?” Percy asked. He ignored the bit about the classic downfall of man - he didn’t need to be a Greek tragic hero for that to happen to him. ”Maybe your inability to focus will be your Achilles’ heel,” he shot back, instead.

Dorian's voice was very far off. Like he was somewhere else as he looked toward a corner of the room. "I don't know. I'm not even allowed to know why t'ey stopped. Said I can know more when I'm older but…t'e way t'ey spoke of it…must've been somet'ing serious." It didn't feel like the usual avoidance parents gave their children. And it was enough to have Dorian never have brought up the question again. "Besides, I don't 'ave an Achilles 'eel. I can't die. I'm already in between the realms." He said, his usual Jovial tone back in his voice. Of Course he had no idea if he was truly immortal, but his uncle was and so maybe he was too.

”Are you actually?” Percy asked quite seriously. There were plenty of superheroes who were functionally immortal. The notion that Dorian Gray could be one of them wasn’t completely outlandish. However, he had a hard time imagining Dorian at the end of time, filled with wise, sage advice. If anything, he figured Dorian might have trouble with all of it - losing everyone you knew and loved, forced to carry on after the world has forgotten them. ”Are you going to stop aging - or are you going to be like Captain Jack in Doctor Who, just a head in a jar one day?”

"Pretty sure my names sake is immortal as well…was immortal…is immortal? Never read t'e book, 'eard 'es pretty t'ough. Eit'er way I'm not exactly eager to test it out. Already 'ad enough close calls and t'e t'ought of spending eternity in t'e Astral Realm…" Dorian thought about the vision he'd seen. The mass of Graves before him with April and Dannis at the forefront. "Not t'e best place to be if I'm 'onest. Buuut if I 'ad to guess I'd go wit' t'e classic age till you're a silver fox t'en stop and look impeccable for years to come. I could become an eclectic old man wit' a mansion t'at 'olds treasures t'rought time!" That is if he survived past next year.

Percy hadn’t read the Picture of Dorian Gray - not that he didn’t want to, of course. He knew enough of Oscar Wilde’s reputation to be at least moderately intrigued. But from what he had heard, the central character of the book wasn’t someone to name a kid after. He smiled ever so slightly at Dorian’s ideal ending - becoming a classically handsome man with a mansion, filled with artifacts from across time. Percy always imagined that he would end up retiring on a boat, breathing his last as he gazed up at the blue sky, the sound of waves echoing around him. ”I think I have the better literature namesake,” Percy argued. ”My mothers named me after Percy Jackson - the demigod from the Riordan books. If you hadn’t caught on, that’s also partially why my sister is named Diana - after the Roman goddess of the hunt. It’s funny that your dad named you after Dorian Gray - doesn’t he become a bit of a vile monster?”

Dorian shrugged. He doubted his father even read the book. Half the time he had his nose in a mystic tome, when not there it was in some dusty Latin book full of Greek tales. He figured Percy would enjoy the collection of books they'd held back home. "Honestly I t'ink 'e just saw 'is last name and went wit' it." He relaxed more as the conversation moved away from the inevitable death, laying backwards onto the bed as he stared up at the ceiling. It was a habit he'd developed, as if he could look past the plastered texture above and gaze right up into the stars themselves. It was when he found himself most at ease, most in thought.

Dorian gently tapped Percy's leg with his hand, wanting him to join him in the metaphorical star gazing. He had half a mind just to tug on his shirt and pull him backwards into it, but something told him that Percy wouldn't be fond of both being manipulated as well as getting his shirt wrinkled. "Percy's a cool name. Sounds kind of like an action star. Diana's too…formal? It's like namin' your kid Gertrude. T'ey won't match it till t'ey're old and gray."

The other boy hesitated for a moment. He glanced around the room, as if someone else would be there - someone to object, to remind them to keep a safe distance and leave room for some heavenly entity. But there was no one - just them. He sighed slightly, before sitting down on the bed, and then lying back. He was perfectly still and straight, almost resembling a corpse in a casket more than a living boy. ”Don’t tell that to Princess Diana,” Percy told Dorian with a chuckle. ”She might be offended.”

Dorian quirked his eyebrow. "Who?" He didn't keep track of any royalty in general, only knowing the ones that had animated movies made out of them. He watched Percy as he laid there still as the dead. He seemed vastly uncomfortable at the whole situation, which of course made Dorian feel more uncomfortable. He scooted a little closer, just enough to feel body warmth but not enough to touch. "You don't 'ave to lay 'ere if you don't want to…"

”I know that,” Percy said simply, before raising an eyebrow at Dorian. ”Did you not want me to lay here? It is my bed,” he argued. He was comfortable, even though he seemed stiff. Percy was somewhat of a stiff person by nature. He was controlled and collected, wearing his academy uniform even after classes had finished for the day, polishing his shoes religiously, ironing out every shirt. Everything was put away properly in his place - the tiniest amount of mess was enough to stress him out. ”Princess Diana was a famous member of British royalty - she was killed in a car crash due to some overzealous paparazzi, although some people think Queen Elizabeth ordered a hit on her.”

"T'ats wild. Sounds like a big rabbit 'ole to fall down to at t'ree am." Dorian noted, his eyes still affixed to the ceiling. He lay still for a moment (which was a lot for him) before finally turning onto his side and facing towards Percy. "I just meant…well you're a bit stiff. Seems like you don't want to be 'ere you know? If we were on a roof I'd get it. T'e fear of fallin' alone is enough to keep me from squirming too much up t'ere when I'm Stat gazin' . But we're in a bed, so unless you're scared of fallin' for me I don't see t'e reason for all t'e stiffness."

He turned his head slightly, looking at Dorian. ”If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be,” he promised. ”This is… This is just how I am,” he said. He felt awkward for a moment. He didn’t like to worry about other people’s feelings - he tended to not think about them much at all. But the notion that Dorian might not like the way he was naturally made him feel a little bit sick. The suggested reason though did smart slightly - mostly because Agatha Harkness had told him that he was destined to love Dorian Gray. It seemed like the universe agreed.

Dorian simply smiled at Percy's response. There was only one real way to get to know a person at first, and he was finally getting the chance to see Percy beyond the classes and training. His walls were down, even if they still appeared up. "Oh." was all he could muster out in response. He turned back onto his back, the sounds of crinkling sheets feeling much louder than they were in the awkward silence as he shifted. "I mean if t'ats 'ow you are t'ats cool. I can't sit still to save my life, couldn't imagine bein' able to just…lay still."

”I can’t imagine fidgeting constantly without wanting to kill myself,” Percy quipped. He then paused for a moment, thinking. ”I like to feel in control,” he admitted quietly. Everything in his life was all an exercise in control - control over his body, over his thoughts, over how he was perceived. He prided himself on it. And without that sense of control, he felt adrift, lost in chaos, spiraling out of control. He needed to feel the ground beneath his feet. It was part of why he had been so upset with Dorian’s possessions - why he had grabbed Dorian’s arms and pinned him during the kiss.

As soon as Percy spoke the words, Dorian felt that familiar pit in his stomach. Percy liked to feel in control, and he had wrestled that from him multiple times now. He felt horrible, and for the moment unable to even face Percy. He fought inside himself, the urge to leave, to walk out, but he didn't. Dorian sat up, not quite a jolt yet not in a relaxed manner either. Clearly something was bothering him now as he leg began to shake up and down. "You'd do well wit' someone like Strange t'en. 'e was all about control. T'e amount of readin' I 'ad to do just to use my powers…'avin' to learn a whole other language…I never was t'e most behaved student. But I was bright enough to learn what I needed so t'ere's t'at I guess."

Percy raised an eyebrow, before shaking his head. ”I think it’d be somewhat cheating, but I digress. I can read any language.” He hadn’t found one yet that he couldn’t translate - except for the inscription on the watch that Agatha Harkness had given to him. It still bothered him, but he had to assume that it was just from insufficient data. His power couldn’t activate as a cypher without enough to go off of. Or maybe there was no meaning behind it at all, and it was just gibberish. ”What was it like, studying under Doctor Strange?” Percy then asked. ”Why aren’t you at Strange Academy?”

Dorian let out a small laugh. "It was…interestin'. Learnin' alongside my fat'er and Strange. 'e's a bit strict, very cryptic, and was able to make even my dad fall in line." He gave Percy a tight lipped smile. "As to why I'm not t'ere, well…I was schooled at Xaviers and it was agreed t'at when my powers came in…if t'ey came in, I'd be able to choose whatever school I wanted. Danni got 'is powers first and I don't t'ink 'e'd want to go to Strange’s School for Magic. We wanted to be 'eroes, toget'er. T'at dream grew 'ere at AA when we met April and so we've stayed 'ere ever since."

Percy nodded. That matched what he had heard about Doctor Strange - he seemed to be an aloof asshole, someone that Percy might’ve even seen as somewhat of a role model behaviorally. It was interesting to him though to learn that not only had Dorian studied some with Strange, but that he had been at the X-Men’s school as well. He didn’t know very many people who had transferred between that school and the Margaret Carter Institute. ”And Danni didn’t want to stay at Xavier’s?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. It wasn’t actually called Xavier’s anymore - he was fairly certain it was the Jean Grey School now, but people still called it that from time to time. ”You’re both mutants, right?”

Dorian made an X with his arms as Percy asked. "Danni never went. I was t'ere before my mutation kicked in. It's a good enough school for advanced learnin'. 'owever none of our family really cares for t'e place. Well mostly none of t'em I should say. My gramps is technically Charles Xavier, not t'e best guy I've been told, so Danni’s parents didn't let 'im join me. It was…lonely t'ere."

Percy tilted his head. He didn’t know much about the varying superhero family trees, at least not for the X-Men affiliated ones. He knew more when it came to the Avengers ones, mostly because his parents were Avengers. But even then, he knew he wouldn’t be able to name everyone related to Hank Pym if someone

pressed him to. He wouldn’t get super far. ”Technically Professor X?” Percy raised an eyebrow. ”I’m not shocked to learn that he isn’t a saint. From what I’ve read about him, he seems… well, like he would be disappointing at best.”

"Technically because I'm adopted." Dorian said with a laugh. "And 'e's far from a Saint. Especially when it came to bein' a fat'er. I'd say never meet your 'ero's but…'e was never one of mine." He let the silence cling to the air for a moment as he thought. He'd never given it much, but the idea that he was best friends to one of Magento's Grandkids while he himself was one of Xaviers…it felt ironic yet as if perhaps the bridge between the pair was healing.

He hadn’t known that the other boy had been adopted. Percy knew a few people who had been adopted, mostly people his moms worked with, and they tended to have been secretly adopted, finding out later in life. As for the subject of heroes… Percy’s heroes were fictional - or at the very least, mythological. He knew gods and whatnot had turned out to be real, but people like Odysseus and all, the jury was still out on. ”He’s a bald old white man who preaches that mutants should just accept their status and kiss the ass of humans,” Percy said pointedly. ”I don’t think he’s anyone’s hero - not anymore. Maybe Fox News likes him.”

"I get t'at." Dorian said. He fell silent, feeling awkward as if he was saying too much about himself and that Percy didn't care. "Sorry. I feel like I'm talkin' too much." He said with a nervous laughter. He threw himself backwards onto the bed with a loud sigh and groan. Wondering why he was like this.

”You aren’t - you just have managed to find a way to talk about something other than the Iliad. Again,” Percy commented with a smirk. ”You’re welcome to stay there, but I am going to get back to studying. One of us has to pass this class.”

Dorian's face turned bright red. He'd completely forgotten that he was here to study in the first place."Right. T'e Illiad. T'e t'ing we are most definitely studyin'." He said as he shot back your from the bed and grabbed his book again. He was so flustered he didn't think he'd be able to pay attention now. "Well, if one of us 'as to pass it it 'as to be me. Ot'erwise you'll never speak to me again." He paused for a moment, looking back at Percy's book. "Maybe I can borrow your copy. It already 'as so many notes in it…"

Percy raised an eyebrow. Ordinarily, he would’ve been enraged and a bit insulted at someone wanting to borrow his copy. But he knew this story front and back. He had been hyperfixating on it since he could read. ”…Fine. If you get anything on it or even bend a page back awkwardly, I’ll kill you and your family,” Percy said seriously, before handing over his copy to Dorian.

Dorian took the copy in his hands, jumping off the edge of the bed with glee. "T'ank you so much!" He squeezed as he wrapped his arms around Percy and gave him a kiss. "I won't damage it one bit! Promise. I'll keep it somewhere safe and everyt'in'."

The other boy rolled his eyes, but his face was a delicate shade of pink after Dorian kissed him. ”Mhmm. Now come on, Patroclus, we have a lot to cover.”

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Diana was sitting in the cafeteria of the academy, she decided to take the moment to sit and eat by herself for once, she usually ate with her brother, or the rest of her team. She was listening to some music having some ear buds while she was eating. Today for lunch she was having a hotdog and some french fries as well to with a side of ranch sauce and a coke as well to. She was looking kind of bored as she was doing some studying for an upcoming test she also having a book out in front of her to help out.

Sabine had been lost in thought for a bit, contemplating what to post when she decided to go get something to drink. As she entered the cafeteria, she saw Diana. It has felt like a while since she spoke to her, given how busy they all were with classes and their teams. She strode up to the table. "Hey Di, been a minute. Mind if I grab a tea and join you or would you rather be left alone?"

Diana turned off her music and quickly put away her ear buds she smiled at Sabine, they really didn't have a chance to really hangout since the school year started. She was busy training with the rest of the Uncanny Avengers and her school work as well to. "Not at all, please sit." Diana said as she quickly shut her book and other study materials she had out. "How have you been, and how are classes and your team training going?"

Sabine quickly got a Chai before she sat down with Diana. "Ugh, don't get me started. Classes are nuts and my team is....something else. Plus, Nemo seems dead set on trying to kill us every chance he gets. I wouldn't even call it training. We don't really learn anything other than survival skills, which are important, sure, but compared to the other teams I feel we are dragging behind. But enough about that, how is your team doing?

Diana listened to Sabine as she took a bite out of her food, she thought about asking how her brother was doing on her team but she knew that she could just ask him as well to. "Seems like Nemo has some crazy training going on for you guys. Usagi is pretty different the cat thing seems to have some ADHD or something, we train mostly in the framework and has us constantly fighting each other. She also made Victoria leader for some reason to." She said shrugging slightly.

Sabine frowned. No one had been assigned leader on their team and she was sure she would be a shoo-in. Nemo seemed to like her. "Yeah he's got some weird things. Also a fascination with bombs. Also no leader as of yet. I kind of wish we'd do more. I would kill to do some training in actual fighting. She sipped her drink, wondering if she should bring up Percy or anything associated with him. She wasn't sure how close the two of them were.

"Why not talk with the rest of the team and do a vote or something for team leader could work?" Diana suggested as she took another sip of her drink, the training seemed to be pretty tough if they were using live bombs. "If you want sometime if you want to that is do a little one on one sparing." Diana suggested.

Sabine waved the mere idea away. "We aren't even working collectively as a team. I mean I love Danni and Dorian actually ended up being pretty cool, but Percy and Zelda just won't budge. I tried to get us working together, it was the whole reason I put Zelda with D & D and Percy with me, but it ended up pushing us away from each other. I don't know, it's going to take someone with an iron will to get us working.

She also debated the idea of sparring with Diana. Sabine had a sword now. "I may take you up on sparring though, I could use the practice."

Diana nodded slightly as she listened to Sabine, her brother she knew he was at times hard to get along with and play nice together but he was all in all a good person. Zelda growing up she knew that her roommate was always pretty shy as well to, given time they could open up to working on a team. "I'm sure you guys will work something out as a team, maybe try doing an out of school bonding thing I know Percy likes to go shopping so maybe you all could do that." Diana suggested she then smiled when Sabine would be interested in sparing together. "We could sneak into the framework or just do it in the gym for sparing sometime.

Sabine shifted in her seat. She didn't know if any outside team bonding would do anything. Percy seemed set in his ways. She thought the time they spent in the obstacle course would have at least raised her esteem in his eyes but he seemed to dislike her even more. And she hadn't tried to talk to Zelda. Sabine's reputation probably soured that. "I dunno. I managed to get along with Dorian so anything is possible, I suppose." She wouldn't admit she was nervous about sparring with Diana. The girl would probably kick her ass and, even though she had a sword, it wasn't like she knew how to use it.

Diana honestly did like Danny and Dorian but the two of them did get a little bit annoying. If she were to spend to much time with them they were good in small amounts, at least her team was pretty quiet. "So what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Diana asked, she was fine if Sabine wanted to do a little bit of sparring or just hanging out later was fine as well to.

Sabine shrugged. "Honestly, nothing. Was thinking of taking a breather in my room but decided I needed the walk and the caffeine. What about you?" Sabine had to admit she knew Diana very little compared to her other friends here. Through no fault of her own, just the two of them didn't seem to get a chance to hang out much. Even then, they were often with Danni and, by extension, Dorian and maybe a few others. This was a rare occurrence the two of them managed to be alone.

"Not to much either really honestly was just going to hit the gym later today and thats about it." Diana answered as she stretched slightly, it was nice to just sit and chat with Sabine they rarely ever did it just one on one. "Do you want to come with maybe some training or something like that?" Diana offered.

Sabine finished her drink. "You know what? Sure. Not like I got much else to do today. Plus, that would be some cute pics for my page. Gotta keep it real for the fans." She got up and threw her cup away before coming back. "Thanks for talking to me Di. I really needed it."

Diana smiled as she got up and put away her food and drinks into the trash. "No problem Beans we should defintely do this more often sometime." Diana said as she gently wrapped an arm around Sabine's shoulder. "You know we should do a collab or something to if you want." Diana said, she was pretty active on her social media scene as well to but not nearly as popular but it was nice to just sit and catch up.

---

Space club's club room…

In hindsight, joining this club in particular has been a mistake. The students attending it were fine, that was not the problem. The problem was the Synthezoid overseeing and his insistence on wireless conversation, that did not make Victoria squirm any less with its length. To top it all off, star wars were on screen, which Vicky never really liked. Too much space magic, not enough technobabble for her tastes. Thus, she was all too happy when it was over.

After they said goodbye, they filed out of the room and Vicky hurtied to catch up with Leah. So far, she felt like the teamwork among their team was a bit lacking. She wanted to change that, but even as far back as their first framework outing, she didn't want to do that by pointing out any flaws so as not to come over as more arrogant than Diana. Thus, she settled on making something for the team as a first step. Now she just needed a quality check on her idea. "Leah, wait! I was wondering if you are free for a bit? I have some project ideas, and I could use a second opinion by someone with a tactically and tech oriented head on their shoulders to give me a sanity check and pick which to go with."

Yeah. This was boring as shit. Leah expected there to be more actual space-related things like building ion thrusters or an actual spacecraft like the Kree ship that was just left laying around. If a Star Wars movie was the best they could do then maybe Leah’s time would be better spent with April and Sabine. She stood up and nearly got out the door before Vicky got her attention.

”Okay, sure. Sanity check. Let’s hear it.” All the other space people had left already, so it was just them. Leah sat down again.

Good, attention gained. Maybe now some fun could happen. "Hear it? Sure, I could tell you. Oooor we could go down to my workshop, fire up the ol' holo projector and have a look at it. Your pick." She leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed and a smirk on her face. If Leah was as nerdy as Vicky hoped, there would only be one choice really. "I did tell you I have a workshop here with just about every tool you could need to build pretty much what you want within reason, unlike some lame club that watches vintage sci-fi, right?" Now that she thought of it, she probably didn't.

”Mm. No, I don’t think you did. But that works. Place is boring as hell anyway.” If Vicky had expected a more enthusiastic response then she might be disappointed. But that wasn’t necessarily a no from Leah. Besides, she was about as good with numbers as good could get, and building things involved numbers. What could go wrong?

”So where is it?”

"I gotta get out of this suit, meet me by the main staircase on the ground level, we go from there." Victoria pointed in the general vicinity on instinct, and after getting an acknowledgement left to change.

When Leah saw her next, Vicky would be wearing long work pants, a size too small tattered white t-shirt with black hand prints on the sides, a pair of safety goggles in one hand and a heavy duty brown apron in the other. When they arrived to the workshop, Leah would see it would be an otherwise unassuming door in the line of many others, save for the safety stickers covering it:



The only other difference was a heavier lock. "Behold my work, yee mighty, and despair." Vicky grinned as she handed Leah one set of goggles and walked in.

Vicky's workshop…

Good to be home. She thought, the dorm not exactly inviting to her nowadays. She set the apron on the workbench to their left for now. On the side opposite the door, Leah could see posters of Warmachine, Ironheart and the Champions. To the left would be the workbench, with a selection of 3D printers and a smaller 6 axis CNC center. To the close right a table with two seats and a beefy looking computer setup, above which was a board with what seemed like data concerning their classmates and how they fought. And to the far right was a monster of a vault, which was easy to guess to contain Vicky's suit. "Make yourself at home." She nodded towards the seats as she flipped the circuit breakers on and fired up the computer.

Leah took the goggles. But she didn’t put them on right away. She’d likely shred them if she did. Walking inside, the place looked like something Zarina and Ed would’ve dreamed about. This was a lot of shit, and some of it wasn’t completely familiar to Leah. But this checked out considering what Leah heard before now. She was a little impressed that this was all here, and surprised she didn’t know about it- Leah was usually at AA longer than anyone else, not going anywhere for the summers.

She looked around and did, in fact, make herself at home. She walked over and fell into a chair not far from the beefy computer. She noted there were a few familiar names above it. ”Taking notes?”

"You don't?" Vicky asked as she sat beside Leah, "One never knows when one of us might go rogue. Now is a prime time to find out how to neutralize them in that case as a last resort. Preferably, I would spot any red flags and correct them before then. And who knows, might be of use in the blasted contest. I hope you guys are taking notes on me, you are my failsafe plan if I ever go nuts, get mind controlled and whatnot." She shrugged, passing over her SHIELD level spookiness as if it was normal. If Leah looked, she would actually see a rather favorable assessment of herself. Her girlfriends though… ouch.

"Anyhows, project stuff!" She logged in and plugged the MFG from her Powerglove into a slot at the table, a cyan hologram appeared over it. "I've been wanting to build something for the team that might be useful." She explained, "And hopefully gel us a bit closer in the process…" she added a bit dejectedly, "I've got a few ideas but I don't know which would be most useful. First thing I came up was communications."

The holo shifted, showing a design of a small head piece akin to sports headphones, with the bridge over the rear of the head rather than the top, with a transparent display on an extendable boom to serve in a HUD function. "Could be used to communicate and forward mission relevant data. We could also code in like a voice activated safety function. You know, summon the rest of us to your location if you get into a pickle. I would keep it disconnected from our phones and encrypted, never know when an Edward is going to try and hack an open system. Thoughts?"

Leah stared at the hologram of the headpiece. ”Makes sense. And Zari or him could fool with these and put whatever they want on them for their own reasons. Probably to make using their powers easier. Something like that. I wouldn’t need shit like that, but have you ever tried sandblasting one of these things?” She asked, pointing to the hologram. ”One time I got trapped under a bunch of shit too heavy for me to lift- And I could throw a horse like a football- and I just ripped out a piece of my hand and cut it all into chunks. Zarina’s girlfriend, Andy, fought me with foam swords at the carnival and her sword just dissolved in my hair. So there’s something you’d need to work around.”

"Yeah I've been meaning to ask about that, do you let it grow like that on purpose or do you just destroy scissors? Because I think there oughta be a tool here good enough if you want a haircut." Victoria offered, looking over her shoulder to the tool shelf.

”Both. It’s like scales for me, someone tries to punch me or shoot me with something when my back is turned they risk turning their hands to bloody dust. And scissors don’t really agree with me either. If I need to, I’m strong enough I can just tear the whole thing out, and my skin is different so it won’t hurt. I could saw through Tony Stark’s toughest suit with a fistful of this stuff. Makes people a lot less willing to swing on me when I’m basically a human cactus.”

"Hm… Ever thought about weaving it into like a whip or something?... Questions for later. Yeah I can see how that might be a problem for you. It also isn't exactly stealthy… I could do a throat mic and a smaller earpiece, but battery becomes an issue. Okay, next idea." She swiped over and the image changed, displaying Vicky's suit and focusing on the back. "Recon drone. Could be helpful in a nasty area like a town where armored stuff famously goes to die if unsupported. Could give us an advanced lay of the land, look behind corners and stuff, without me having to do it and removing my guns from the squad." She brought up.

”Yeah, you had something like that in the fight. Might’ve been useful when Ed was on a power trip. That seems pretty reasonable. And I guess you could maybe wire them so the cameras can transmit a feed to all the head pieces. Or some central location if no one’s in the field just yet. Depends on what you’re looking for though, doesn’t it? Some omega mutant goes invisible, you can’t just use a regular high priced camera to find them. Or something under the ground… You’d need seismic tech to sound out something a hundred feet below. Like a sonar but through rocks instead of water.”

"I was thinking just recon - track targets from high above, and the like. Remove the fog of war, so to say, if you play strategy games Of course, I would want it to be patched up to all of us somehow, the exercise being for this to be usable to the entire team. I would serve only as a carrier and power station. Maybe data processing, now that I think about it. You are right with plain optics." She nodded, gesturing in the hologram and displaying a folder browser, pulling out a file and dropping it to the drone model. Now the drone design also had a thermal camera. "That should help with the visual spectrum, smoke grenades and stuff. Once the targets are identified, I can then highlight them on the feed and give us wallhacks. Then you and Diana can apply some indirect fire, and I could punch through." She nodded approvingly. "Anything else comes to mind?"

Leah leaned back and thought for a second… Not about the chair her hair was possibly about to shred, but things they needed.

”Diana needs a damn crossbow, probably. Not a bow, a crossbow. Something that holds an arrow while she has a free hand. Actually that’s just me complaining, nevermind… If we’re going with the headpiece tech thing… Some way to identify types of geologic matter would be pretty useful for me. Rocks behave differently. Some flake like glass and some are like concrete but I can’t tell which is which just by lifting them into the air. I usually figure it out when they break or by how they feel if I touch them.” Leah was a bit of a geologist, surprisingly. Shockingly, even.

"I'm not about to tell anyone how to do their gimmick." Vicky said, raising both hands in a surrender gesture, "I'm probably high enough on Diana's shit list already. Although between the two of us, forget a crossbow, she needs a sniper rifle." Thinking over what Leah proposed, she shifted from the hologram to the screen and started typing. After a little while, she looked at the search results. "This should work. Write a search macro to correlate your position with available geologic data, and bam, no need to scan. I don't think we could fit a spectrometer in a handbag if we tried anyway. However…" she flipped the hologram back to the headpiece, eyes ticking between it and Leah for a second.

Getting up, she reached for a storage case and opened it, pulling out wires and strings of various materials. "Know of anything that does survive your hair, or shall we find out?"

”I’ve never had trouble sawing through anything… I cut someone’s arm off once by balling up some hair in my fist and punching him.” He grew it back two days later because he had a bio lab in his basement. ”…Too much information. I guess we’ll have to find out. What do you have in there?”

While the answer to what materials Vicky had available was 'yes', to her growing befuddlement, nothing she had was holding up. Titanium? Laughable. Tungsten carbide? Try again. Teflon coating? Not slippery enough for Leah's hair not to bite anyway. Short of pestering Hope to source some more Adamantium, Vicky was running out of ideas. To the point where she was gazing at the hologram, idly wondering if she should dump the headpiece idea and go with a smartwatch instead. But she was not there yet. "Okay, different approach. Your skin can hold out against it, obviously. Not a viable material of course, you're built like a brick shithouse, I don't think we could take a skin graft if we wanted to. But! That's not the only part of you that survives contact with it on a regular basis." She moved closer, looking over Leah's shoulder. "Can I have a lock of that hair, Rapunzel?" She pointed to where Leah's hair was ending, which was somewhere by her knees.

Leah looked at Vicky, pondering the unspoken thought process there for a second. ”Sure,” she said, gathering up the hair and shredding off a whole two inches at the end. Now Vicky had plenty to do… Whatever the hell she was about to do. ”Now just what’s the plan?”

Taking the strands with utmost care and making damn sure they did not slip one bit in between her fingers, Vicky laid them out on the benchtop and straightened them out - as much as Leah’s curls would do that. She then picked up a can and a tube from the storage box, mixing a spoonful of a two part resin, before coating the previously scratched titanium wire in it. Then she took it, laid it over the hair strands at an angle, and started rolling, taking care to cover every bit of the metal. With the wire wrapped in the hair, she waited for the resin to harden before handing the resulting composite to Leah for testing. “As I said, it’s not just your skin that is resistant to your hair. Your hair itself is too, or it would turn itself into powder.” In theory, both the metal wire and the glue on it should now be completely covered by said hair, which should resist being sawed. In theory. “Moment of truth?”

Leah didn’t fully understand what the hell Vicky was doing with all the shit… Though her hair did always have a way of surviving damn near everything short of burning. ”Hmm. Okay. Let’s try that.” Leah grabbed another chunk of her hair while it was still fixed to her head and held it up, attempting to cut through Vicky’s hair-resin-titanium thing…. With no success.

Vicky was watching the attempt with excitement. Of course, because they figured out how to make Leah’s headpiece last, but also because of the implications. When the stop watch ticked over what was the time to saw through the most resisting material so far and there was not a dent on the surface of the experiment, at least what could be easily seen, Victoria whistled. “Okay. As a member of a family of some scientific renown, I have worked with materials that are near mythical. Vibranium, adamantium, I’ve seen it all, and they are impressive and expensive. The expensive part is because they don’t exactly grow on trees. Heads. Whatever. It’s too early to celebrate before we can do some longevity testing, but… Whatever’s in your hair, it’s causing it to have cutting power damn near that of antarctic vibranium. Anti-metal, if you know it by that name. Only, you know, yours will cut metal, bone, glass, whatever.

You could make a killing by going to the hairdresser once in a while. And if you figure out what is causing this and replicate it, well… Is Scrooge McDuck’s vault a real estate you’d like to live in? And also have a massive target on your back.” she frowned, promptly logging into her security system, stopping it and deleting the last 30 minutes of the footage. “With that in mind, I think we can safely conclude that we have a way to make your headset last, at least for a little while. I could try to do some fatigue testing and such, but I’d probably break my equipment on this stuff sooner or later. I would honestly suggest calling up my mom if you want to do something with this. After getting a good lawyer to make sure Hank doesn’t butt in and screw you out of your money. Or I’ll take this secret to my grave, so you don’t have to look over your shoulders for mercenaries, literally hired to get your scalp.” she summarized their discovery.

”Alright, slow down a minute. I’m pretty well aware that I’ve got some weird shit in my hair but I’m not sure I want people paying me to chop pieces of it off. Something about that just feels weird,” she started up on that rather quick. ”I’ve got some sort of freaky supermaterial coming out of my head, I prefer to tell people it's basically sandpaper and not much else. The cause is a mutant thing. I was born like this, it’s just some weird genetic product of having super strength.”

“Silence it is.” Victoria nodded, doing the zip the lip emote over her face. “Although I would lie if I said I was not curious as hell. But… Stop me at any time If I am getting too personal. Have you thought about what happened to you in the Framework?” she asked quietly, aware that it might be a sore subject, but it was also one that needed to be handled. Leah going wild on a mission was a hulk-level disaster in the waiting, and Victoria would prefer to be ready for it. Her intel board might need an update for that.

”Yeah. But… Don’t have a damn clue.” Leah shrugged, ”All I know is that Zarina stabbed me in the spine, and suddenly my skin feels like it's being burned off my bones. And then everything else under it too. I stood up and everything felt wrong.” Well, “wrong” was subjective in that context. It felt like waking up for the first time in years, but to Leah, it sucked.

”Your guess is as good as mine. Unless I’ve got some other mutant power I don’t know about.”

”Could be the case.” Victoria slowly nodded. “Did you try visiting nurse Annie about it? Even an X-ray of your back might shed some light on it.” she suggested, before getting an idea of her own. She grabbed one of the magnets off of her intel board and ran it over Leah’s back, wondering whether it would stick. In her head, she was already reassessing her intel on Leah as well. Hmm. Durability on par or exceeding Asgardians, but from what I know, she lived her whole life on Earth. Not bloody likely for a doctor to get a needle that she could be vaccinated with. Consider biological attack vector if neutralization is required.

”Nah. I don’t really go… Go there…” Leah didn’t fuck with medical people who might stick needles in her skin… Another thing she was weird about thanks to Dear Old Dad. The magnet got a weird look out of her. ”If there is something metal in there it’s gonna grab that magnet and shred it against my hair, you kn-”

Thump.

The magnet did, in fact, stick. It was now stuck against Leah’s lower back. And it was flaking like fragile obsidian.

”What… In the fuck.”

Vicky’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ”I… don’t know. Ever had a spinal injury that required bone screws? Perhaps one you may not even be aware of? That would be the most likely explanation.” Victoria tried to temper her excitement over unlocking the mystery that was the girl in front of her and stayed on the ground with explanations. “Is it the same spot where Zari hit you?”

”That’s… Exactly where she got me. I’ve had plenty of crippling injuries but I never needed screws.” There wasn’t a single bone she had that hadn’t been broken once or twice, including her skull. ”If I had screws in my spine then I think I’d feel those knocked loose after getting stabbed… I felt something zap me instead. Not a nervous jolt either, a shock.”

Now she felt creeped out. What the fuck did you do to me, Imperator?

“Right, we’re going to get you X-rayed. Come on, on your feet, no talking back.” she pointed at Leah before she could respond. “A shock might suggest an active implant. Want me to speculate on what it could be, or do you just want to find out?” she asked. Herself, she would probably want to get facts as quickly as she could, rather than stress over what-ifs and might-bes, so she would keep quiet if Leah was of the same mind.

”Hold it- Implant for what? Yeah, speculate. This sounds like you’re talking crazy. Why would I have something like that fused to my spine? For what purpose?” It wasn’t crazy, Leah was just uncomfortable about being put under the proverbial knife and microscope. ”Now you’re stressing me out, Vick.”

Pulling up the other chair, Vicky sat on it in reverse, resting her arms on the backrest. ”As far as stressing over it goes, I don’t think you need to. By what you are saying, you took abuse that would have killed most people outright and it wasn’t until you got hit by for what for all intents and purposes is a fucking holy sword that someone managed to even damage… whatever it is. You might live the rest of your life without that ever happening again.” she started with hopefully some good news, “That said, next time we are in the framework, when you’re not physically in danger in the real world, I would like to test if directed, blunt trauma could cause the same. You. Me. One punch. As hard as I can. Even better, Kodiak or Hulkling, if we can rope them into it, they have a much meaner punch than even the two of us. That would give us a baseline on when we could expect that… power… to activate, and what level of damage you would need to defend your back from.”

“As far as the purpose goes? The electric shock is leading me to the idea of an implant. Sort of like a pacemaker. As for its purpose? Well, you got stabbed and went super saiyan. I would say a ‘power damper’ that got damaged by the sword would fit the observed results. I could be wrong though. It might as well be an amplifier that reacted to your injury, although given that you have sustained major injuries before and nothing happened, that seems less likely. Or it could be completely unrelated. But, if it is and it is powered by electricity, well… Pacemakers need to be recharged once in a while. You might also be running the risk of the power running out, and if it is a damper, then we need to figure out if it will need a recharge and how to do that, so that you can keep being your small version.” she hypothesized. “Only way to be sure is to go have a look. An X-ray, or better yet CAT scan is noninvasive, and unlike Magnetic Resonance it shouldn’t tear the thing out of you. You just have to lie down for a while, and we’ll know a lot more in a few minutes. I don’t need to be there if you don’t want me to, go with whomever you feel you’d like by your side, but my two cents? Get it done, sooner rather than later. Last time it happened in a controlled environment. Next time it happens, someone might get hurt if you’re not ready for it.” Vicky explained at length.

”Fuck. Okay. Fine, shit. If it’s damping my powers then something tells me I need this shit gone. That’s fucking dumb, I don’t need that on me. That- That’s like putting training wheels on a motorcycle.” Leah was just a little antsy about this whole thing, but she felt that Vicky was intelligent enough to figure out some way around this. It went against her better judgment to reach out like this, but if what Agatha said was true, then she needed more than just two people she could trust one day. ”I don’t say this to anyone much, but I need your help with this. If it’s holding me back, while still being damageable, then I need that thing gone and I need to know why it’s there in the first place. I learned there’s something I can do that I don’t know how to do, and only can when that thing’s busted. And you sound like you’re better equipped for this than me… So… Yeah.”

Shit. This was one of those situations where Victoria knew she should do something, but wasn’t sure what. Uuuuh, what do I do? Fuck, is this when one gets physical to bring solace to the other? Is a hug appropriate? Is it too much? Aaaaaaa! she fretted in her mind, before taking a breath and getting up, choosing to gently lay a hand on Leah’s shoulder. “Hey. We’ll get to the bottom of this. We picked up on it quickly, we have a working theory of what it might be and a plan on what to do next. It will be fine.” she said, trying to sound reassuring despite being uncertain whether she was doing the right thing.

”As for wanting it gone - It might also be keeping your powers low just enough for you to… well, still look human. Nothing wrong with being an absolute unit of course, but you also mentioned it hurt everywhere. I wouldn’t think you’d want that as a permanent state of existence? Regardless. We won’t be any wiser talking about it. To the infirmary?”

”Yeah. Infirmary.”

School infirmary…

Nodding, Victoria shut the 'shop down and ushered Leah out before she could change her mind. In a couple of minutes, they were by the infirmary and Vicky was knocking at the door. "Nurse Annie? If you have the time, could you help us with a thing, please?"

The door soon opened and the nurse looked them over, not finding anything immediately wrong with them. "We'll see. What is the 'thing'?"

Victoria gave the nurse a short recap of what they found, and seeing the picture, the nurse agreed to help and let Leah in. When Vicky made to move as well, she found a hand in her face, blocking her. "Nu-uh, grease monkey. Do you think I disinfect this place for fun? If miss Jordan wants you in attendance, you're going to go change first. I'll be first asking some general questions and doing standard physical, you have a few minutes." She said uncompromisingly, before turning to ask Leah: "Should she bother?"

”She’s fine. Let her. I’ll wait for you to get back here before then, Vick.” Leah and Vicky weren’t particularly close, but Vicky was the one who helped her discover there was some weird metal thing in her spine and was the one with the most common sense out of her new “team.”

Besides, Leah had a tendency to avoid this part of the school like the plague unless she broke a bone or something.

A few minutes later, Victoria was back. Annie managed to get Leah’s blood pressure and temperature in the meantime, and shook her head in dismay when she blunted a needle against her forearm trying to draw a blood sample. “Any other pains, discomfort and the like around the affected area, such as reduced range of motion?” she asked, “If not, please go change over there.” she told Leah, handing her a hospital gown and pointing to a changing screen in the corner of the room. She then turned to Vicky: “You were saying the object is metal?”

Victoria nodded. “Magnet clung to her back, so it probably isn’t all that deep, or at least some part of it. From what we know it is located somewhere around the L2 and L3 vertebrae. It may be electronic in nature, maybe an implant, we’re not entirely certain. That’s… about as much as we know.”

Annie nodded. “CAT it is, then. Miss Jordan, when you are done, please lie here.” she pointed to the tunnel of the tomograph.

”Right.” Leah sat down on the tomato graph and then laid flat down.

The scan revealed that there was indeed something attached to Leah’s insides. At the lower half of her spine, the CAT revealed a small, rectangular shape no larger than a person’s fist. Not unlike a cellphone, but with a circular shape near the bottom. Like a pacemaker layered over a brick. Along the circle’s edges were smaller circles like spokes on a wheel, which seemed to blur slightly in the CAT scan’s image. It did not remotely resemble any sort of medical device that went inside a person.

The strange blur seemed to creep up and down the nearest parts of Leah’s spine, like the image was being distorted. Though it was still clearly visible, this wasn’t something that should be happening. Annie and Vicky would still be able to clearly discern the shape of the foreign object.

“You may join us, miss Jordan. We’re done there.” Annie called out to Leah. When she got to them, the nurse opened the model on the computer’s screen and stared at it for a minute, before asking: “...What are we looking at?”

“I… have no clue.” Victoria had to admit. “I didn’t expect whatever it is to be that large, how is it not impacting your movement? Maybe it’s flexible…” she thought out loud.

“Well, the metal seems to be distorting the image. We’re not likely to get a better look from the outside, and given that I broke the needle on you, I don’t think I have the tools to get a look from the inside even if you wanted to.” Annie scrunched up her nose thinking.

Leah came back over and fixed her hair so it wouldn’t brush against anything. She stared at the image on the screen like it was a fucking unicorn.

”What in the god damn fuck is that?” It was a slightly rhetorical response obviously it was the thing on her spine, but she didn’t recognize it. ”I have no memory of this thing whatsoever. I’ve never even seen this thing be-“ Wait.

She knew those shapes. Leah had seen them before in other things built by a man she was once experimented on extensively. Her hands gripped the edges of the desk the computer sat on. Leah damn near burned a hole through the screen with the death glare that crept up on her face… The death glare that was also full of disgust. Her skin felt like it was crawling now.

Leah tried to speak, but her voice wouldn’t work for some reason. Eventually she found the words.

”…I want this thing gone. I don’t care if you have to rip me open with fucking adamantium. That thing is not supposed to be there.” She practically growled out the words, trying to resist the urge to split the entire building in half.

“Hey.” Vicky tried to console her, putting her arm around Leah’s shoulders. Well, there goes that suit. she hissed in her mind as she felt the wool catch on the hair. “I get that this is… not great… But it’s not actively hurting you and we still don’t know what it does, heck, we don’t even know how it works. If you have any idea who built it, or anything else, it might help make heads or tails of this, before we do something rash.” she cautioned.

”My fucking lunatic dad built that damn thing. I recognize it- He always built a bunch of stupid shit and tested it on me/ I didn’t even fucking know that put it inside me. Fucking Tony Stark couldn’t build shit like what he did.” Leah only ever brought up the existence of her dad around Sabine or April, and now she was talking about him like she actually had one. Her hands would be shaking if they weren’t flat against the desk.

”I know how he built things, he understands that shit the way a person understands breathing. Evil bastard had a whole lab of this shit in our basement. If- FUCK!” She really, really wanted to punch something right now. Leah hated feeling vulnerable like this.

The nurse was getting lost in the conversation. “Girls. Obviously I can not be of much more help. I can not operate as a nurse, and even if I could: No. I agree with Miss van Dyne, not until we know that would be safe for you. And as I said, I wouldn’t have the tools anyway. Xavier’s school might, if you want to place a call. They deal with mutant cases on a regular basis. Now, unless you have something more you need of me, I would please kindly ask you to leave, you are disturbing patients in recovery.” she said, in a kind tone, but sternly.

”Of course. We’ll let you know if we need something else. Thank you for your time.” Victoria thanked the nurse, and placed a hand on Leah’s, noticing the death grip on the desk. This was not good. Leah was one of the more promising heroes in the making, and this looked like a thing that could tip her over to an anti-hero mindset, if not a downright villain. “Come, Leah. Please? I promise I will do what I can to help you with this. Let’s get back to the workshop, we can plan there in peace.” she pleaded with her, but had a different reason for going to the secluded area.

From: ASTRA A-U-0
To: #Administrators
===EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGE===
Requesting emergency condition 3 VEIL user access for personnel: Jordan, Leah
Reason: Personnel undergoing significant emotional event due to hidden past trauma.
Disclosing unit nature requested to gain additional trust to reveal more information.
Risk assessment: See attachment. Summary: Benefits outweigh risks.
APPROVE - REJECT
===EAM END===

With the message sent, Victoria hoped one of her admins would approve the request quickly enough. She didn't have to wait long.

From: ADMIN (H. v. D.)
To: ASTRA A-U-0
===EMERGENCY ACTION APPROVED===

”...Yeah. Okay. Let’s go.”

Back at the workshop…

The return trip was spent in quiet. Victoria foregone the change of clothes, figuring out the jacket was already torn, so some grease on the pants didn't matter all that much. And she did not dare leave Leah in this state. And… Her father did this to her?! And I assume all of the other abuse? The poor lass… I really have a good lot in life, don't I? More than decent family of my own… And being tasked to snap necks of people like the family of hers! she seethed internally.

When they arrived and Victoria made sure not a sound or sight would escape the workshop, she would stand in front of the vault, her back facing Leah for now. This… this was it, wasn't it? Time to lay it all out. Bare her secret to the world. Was she right? Could Leah be trusted? She noticed a tremble in her hand. This? This is what terrifies me? Not the idea of fighting a guy who could do that to her, but the idea of saying you're not human, in a school full of mutants, inhumans, aliens and stars know what else? It's irrational, pull yourself together! she tried convincing herself. It did little good though. She supposed that emotions were an inseparable package, those that felt good and made sense had to come with the rest or not at all.

Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm down - Another imitation without meaning, she knew, and yet it seemed to usually help anyway - Victoria turned around to face Leah. "First… I am so sorry… That your own father would do this… I have no polite words. He does not deserve to draw breath. If the time ever comes to face him, know I'll be there. Heck, I can raise waves over my channels to help us find him, if that is what you want to do." she started, meaning every word, even if she said it to hopefully give Leah some peace.

"That said… It took a while for you to mention your… father… as much as he doesn't deserve to be called such. If we're going to get to the bottom of this-" she pointed towards Leah's back, "-I'm going to need to know. Everything. So… I think since I'm asking… It's only fair that I go first." She almost stammered, her fingernails digging into her palms. Why wouldn't her hands stop shaking?!

Taking another deep breath, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, instead of green, two red orbs were staring back at Leah.



"I suppose reintroductions are in order. Hi, my name is Victoria Åshild Elise van Dyne, and I am an ASTRA. Autonomous Superhuman Termination and Regulation Automaton. I'm an android, designed to protect humanity from paranormal and extraterrestrial threats. Pleased to meet you!" she managed to force out somewhat quickly, before extending her hand for a handshake, hoping that would be taken instead of being garotted by diamond saw hair.

”You’re a what?”

Leah didn’t shake Vicky’s hand. Not because she just admitted to being a robot like Ultron or Vision- Were Synthe-whasits robots- or whatever, but because she was processing that information a little slower than she normally would due to… Everything.

”…An android. To protect people from threats. Yeah, okay. That checks out. That’s the second most unusual thing I’ve learned today.” All things considered, Leah didn’t really give a shit. There were worse things she could’ve said. Of course, she appreciated the difficult that she perceived Vicky to be dealing with right now, but it didn’t change her opinion of the girl.

”So I guess that’s why you’ve got all this then.” She gestured to the whole workshop, taking the news oddly well.

"Well, no- I wouldn't dare mess with my system. This is just to repair the armor… And because making stuff is fun… And so I have a hidey hole from other people…" the killer robot shyly looked to the side with a bit of blush on her cheeks. She let the untaken hand fall loose along her body again, not quite certain where she stood now. "So… Are we okay? I understand if you have concerns, but I didn't choose to hide this, and I do genuinely want to help you if you'd still let me…"

”You could’ve said a bunch of other different things and they might’ve been weirder than you being a robot. Given that we have people around here like Usagi, I get it. It’s fine. There’s weirder shit around here.” Okay… Time for her baggage.

Explaining this to the girls was one thing, but she didn’t know Vicky that well. Fuck it.

”My dad’s a supervillain. He’s one of those S-lister, probably-an-omega kind of bastards who only care about getting paid and not dying. He raised me expecting me to do the exact same thing as him- He’s a mercenary. The earliest memories I have of him are trying to punch him, only to get sideswiped faster than I can blink… About a week before I wound up here, I tried to kill him. Why I did that’s a whole other thing itself, but as far as I was concerned, I did kill him. And I thought so up until the start of this year when Agatha told me I’d have to try again and make sure he’s dead for good this time.”

She paused for a moment, and then continued. ”Have you ever seen someone fly through the Sonoran desert straight to this general area on a building-sized rock, with nothing but the sun to tell where you’re going? Over the course of two days with no sleep? Wouldn’t recommend it.”

Blinking, Vicky’s eyes returned to green. ”Alright. He’s nasty, and tough, so if we stumble upon him, we need to watch ourselves. Good to know in the long run… not of much help letting us determine what the thing on your spine actually is.” she thought for a second, remembering the details of the CT scan. It wasn’t until she noted the mention of Agatha that she connected the dots. “Did he dabble in magic? Could that be part of it? I have seen technology being disrupted by magic a while ago, when… Well, when I died.” she said, tugging on her collar.

”When you- I’m not touching that right now. As far as I know, he wasn’t a wizard. He’s a mutant. He does this thing where he can master any sort of skill or intellectual thing in an hour or two at max. He could learn to box like a god in half an hour and he’d physically change slightly to reflect that. Give him a little longer than he could do advanced calculus in his head in seconds. I don’t know if magic factors into that. Knowing him and how batshit fucking crazy he was, it might. And that’s just with his powers… If he actually took time to study something then that’s two things he’s good at.”

”Well, the thing is, when I went to Aghata’s tent, she had some sort of defensive magic field up that disabled tech. I just offlined as soon as I got there. To me, that’s like a lobotomy. If I ever lose power, my personality will just be gone. Except, this time, when I woke up, I was all there, and a bunch of my code was in runes. I don’t know what Aghata did to me to keep my mind intact, I don’t even know if I came back the same as before, and she refused to tell me when I asked. But just before I went down… My optics suffered from the same artifacts as on your scan. I think we may be onto something here. The bad news… I know zilch about magic. We may need to get more help on this one.”

She then walked over closer, her voice going down to a whisper. ”And… one more thing. A plea, really. If I ever go bad… Bury me. Under enough weight that I won’t be able to dig myself out, deep enough that I won’t get any sun, but shallow enough that I can not recharge by absorbing geothermal energy. And away from any power lines. You know what I am now. I’ll need you to be my failsafe, because you’re one of the people that checks all of the boxes. You can get rid of me rather easily, live long enough to do it, and now you know how. If the time ever comes, don’t. Hesitate. I am telling you this now: I would rather revert to being a toddler and start over than to be another Ultron. Can I count on you?”

Leah was caught off guard for a second. ”Vick, if I really do check all those boxes, then your robo-brain should be able to calculate that I can’t just bury someone alive like that. You’re not Imperator- You’re not my dad. If you were then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. If you go down a bad path or something, then I’d rather just pull you back. That’s better than getting rid of someone who’s an honest-to-god hero, I think.”

Drawing a ragged breath, Vicky eventually nodded. ”I… Okay. Thanks. Just… keep what I said in memory. Just in case. Now… you on good terms with Zarina or Madalynne? We’ll need a wizard to have a look at you.”

”I don’t really hang around either of them much but we’re alright. Agatha gave me a bag of magic runes, like your… Code apparently. I’ve been meaning to learn how they work. I guess now’s a good time. But it’s technology too, and Zari got it to do something, so… Well, I guess we’ll figure it out one way or another… Thanks, Vicky.” And she meant that, genuinely.

”Don’t mention it. Like, I mean really. Not a word, to anyone. You know what I mean. I don’t think you would blabber, but Admins would probably have my head if I didn’t say it.” she sheepishly scratched the back of her head. “Now, off to bed with you or something. Magic gizmo will wait for another day after this many years. Get some sleep. You… look like you need it.” she smirked cheekily. After LEah left, all mirth vanished from her face. She picked up another piece of paper, stuck it to her board, and wrote another note on it.

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Mary Sue's training had been perhaps the strangest and greatest thing she'd done in her entire life. The methods of Lady Nimue seemed arcane and Arthurian, but they were working, she thought anyway. Table manners were not the first thing she thought of when superheroing, but learning how to handle a sword was absolutely cool. Between her team and her classes, she was swamped, and in a near frenzy constantly. When she wasn't actively in class or on her team, she was either locked away in her room studying, or doing everything she could to keep in shape. In her mind, you could either be preternaturally gifted and not have to try, or burn everything else in your life to succeed. She knew which bucket she fell into.

As such, classes were one of the only places she got to talk to people that weren't on her team, and even then, she was high strung to say the least. Failure would not be an option for her, and that meant notes, engagement, and constant self criticality. Combat 101 then, ended up being an excellent place for her to blow off some steam. Today, she was paired with a Percy Novikov, a name that was already somewhere in her brain; was his parents one of her father's old collogues? It could be, but she didn't address it. They'd been tasked with practicing different holds, and going right into that wordlessly didn't sit right with her, so she gave a thin smile and said, "Mary Sue, nice to meet you."

Percy raised an eyebrow. Mary Sue. He bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't laugh. The term wasn't as popular in the late 2030's as it had been twenty or so years ago, but he knew what it meant. "Percy," he said curtly. He paused. They were practicing different holds today, which was fine, but he didn't want to just go out and put his classmate into one. "Do you want to go first, or should I?" he asked, doing his best to be polite. It was rude after all to just put someone into a hold. Although he might not have asked had Dorian Gray been his partner in this - or his sister.

Mary Sue took a mental note of the boy's tone; he seemed polite, yet restrained. This was a nature she could appreciate in a person. She shrugged and said, "I don't mind starting, assuming you're ready." She quickly stepped towards him, intending to restrain his arms, only to have Percy shrug her off, stopping her from getting anything solid on him. Quickly refusing to allow herself to fail, she didn't let up, and forced herself behind him, locking her arms over his. Blind spots were something she'd learned to take advantage of in her training as of late, and she was proud of herself for being able to properly execute in this instance. After keeping him held for a moment, she let go, and said, "If you'd like to try now, that's fine."

Percy similarly noted that Mary Sue seemed rather quiet - something he could appreciate. A lot of the students at the academy, particularly those on his team, were excessively load and outrageous. He couldn't decide if that made her more or less fitting of the name Mary Sue. Was she a social chameleon, matching the energy of all she met, in order to ensure everyone would like her? But he wasn't really getting that impression - but then again, he had just met her. The accent was interesting though... not English, but definitely something from around that general area.

It then occurred to him that he actually had heard of a Mary Sue before - the kid of some ex-coworkers of his parents'. "You wouldn't happen to be Mary Sue Sulivan?" Percy asked. He attempted to put her in a wrist-lock hold, but he didn't quite get the positioning correct, so the pressure wasn't applied properly, meaning that there was very little keeping Mary Sue from escaping.

Mary Sue gently pulled her hands out of the lock, and she held back a flinch at that name. She... didn't want to be know for being her parent's daughter. But she also wasn't one to lie, so she just nodded, "Aye, and you're Percy Novikov, right? I think... our parent's used to work together?" It was true, and Mary Sue would even go as far to say that she knew at this point that their parents were Agents of Shield; her obsession with super heroes wasn't to exclude the ones she was perhaps closest to. But that wasn't something she felt needed to me mentioned This was their story, and all their parents were were the people who got them here. It deserved to be respected, but she didn't want it to ever define her.

She almost instinctively wanted to push back into the assignment at hand, focus on the wrist lock, give Percy a chance to try again, and divert the topic but... she didn't know. She wanted friends and her roommate was not providing that for her at the moment. She liked Percy, he seemed competent and careful and thoughtful, something that a lot of people were lacking if she was being perfectly honest. She picked a middle road. "If you'd like to give that grapple another shot, that's fine, but... Is there a reason you asked?" She allowed herself a small smile, trying her best to seem open and polite, but not overbearing and nervous.

"Yes, they did," Percy confirmed. It was somewhat of a relief to him to learn that there weren't two poor girls named Mary Sue running around - or at least, not that he knew of. He raised an eyebrow though, as she asked him why he had asked. He hadn't had any sort of ulterior motive. He had simply been curious, wanting to know if she was the same person. "Do I need a reason to ask?" he then proposed, before moving into giving that grapple another shot. It wasn't bad by any means, as he managed to get Mary Sue down to the mat, but it definitely needed work.

Mary Sue knew she was going to fall on her ass before it happened. She gave a push against him, but found that she couldn't really get herself out. She exhaled, and said, "No, I suppose not." She said, rather briskly. Right now, she was more focused on freeing herself. Though she struggled, she was stuck. She was visibly annoyed at this situation, that she was incapable of freeing herself. It was at that moment, she has an absurd idea. She knew from her practice with Andy that her power's constructs could have physical qualities, like conductivity. What if they could have other one's as well? Within a few moments of concentrating, her skin was coated in some slick substance, and she slid herself out. Standing and brushing down her arms, she turned her head, "I... don't have a lot of free time, but if you'd like to practice together again in the future, I'd like that." There was something about Percy that Mary Sue really respected; he seemed cool and competent. She honestly thought she could learn a lot from him; besides, she needed more friends.

His face wrinkled up, and he looked distressed as Mary Sue slipped her way out of his grip. "What the hell?" he muttered, looking at the strange substance. Some of it had gotten on him. When he touched it, it felt slick and sticky. "...Dare I ask how you get this out in the wash?" he asked her. He hated having a dirty uniform - even when the school provided tons of spares, as students were destroying their uniforms all the time in class. But he nodded slightly at her offer to hang out in the future. "Do you play chess? You seem like you'd be good at it."

Mary Sue gave Percy a wry smile, and held back a laugh. "Oh, don't worry, it comes out like that." She said, snapping her fingers, as the construct faded. God, she was glad that worked, or she would have looked ridiculous. "But believe me, I know the stress of a dirtied uniform, I wouldn't have done that to you just to get out of a hold if I couldn't have fixed it. Apologies." She said, her tone sympathetic. At the questioned, she paused. She'd heard of chess, and vaguely knew the rules, but she'd never actually played. "I... No actually. I'd be curious to learn though if you'd be willing to teach me." She answered honestly, a curiosity in her voice.

Percy let out a sigh of relief - although on some level, part of him would always know that the weird substance had been there, but that was something he was just going to have to deal with. "Thank you," he said curtly. He smirked slightly as Mary Sue asked if he would teach her chess. He liked to play the game, and often found that beginners could be surprisingly good at the game - mostly because they opted for unconventional movement sets, forcing things away from the handful of optimal strategies. He liked that. "I can teach you, but you might not like my teaching style."

Mary Sue had to admit, she was curious about Percy's methods. She... knew she didn't have much time, but Chess felt like the sort of thing that might be good to know. It was about resource management and planning right? Those were things she should know about, one way or another. If Percy was offering to teach her, she'd take it. "I'd like that, let's find a time to play." She said, a grin spreading out on her face. She was excited, this could grow, ostensibly, her first close friendship in her entire life. Today had been a good day, and she considered herself so lucky for meeting Percy Novikov.

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---

Madalyne had decided to spend some time out in the library of the school, she tended to spend more of her time in the magic section of the library. Madalyne always did enjoy the library quite a bit and it was always quiet which was also always nice too. There were a few students who were busy either studying or doing some homework as well to. She had her earbuds in and listening to some music. Her best friend and roommate April was somewhere else at the moment, she had some homework she was doing as well but she was just about to finish and was about to get up and leave to head back to her dorm.

Andy had some homework to get through. She didn't have the best study skills or anything. She hadn't been to school much before this. Her education was a bit behind in the normal high school classes. Her room was fine to study in most of the time, since her roommate had left the school and was straight up in the Avengers now. Wild. It was nice to have a room to herself. But she also needed some resources and didn't know where to start. After nearly twenty years of tech advancement and history, she had a huge gap in her knowledge. So to help with that Andy went to the place where she knew had all the resources she could want, and if they didn't they'd help her find them. The library. Entering the library it was cool looking. Very advanced. She was looking around a bit amazed at that when she bumped into Madalyne. Thankfully no skin was touched. "Oh, I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I just haven't been in here yet and was amazed. How are you doing?"

Madalyne bumped into Andy as she was just about to leave she closed her eyes for a moment and sighed slightly, she was glad that she didn't make skin contact with Andy. She didn't want to risk going into that form again like she had done in their first training session together but she gave Andy a friendly smile. "I'm doing pretty well thank you how about yourself?" Madalyne asked Andy as she looked back at the library and smiled. "I always enjoy coming here it's pretty quiet as well to, they have just about everything here you could think of book-wise. Were you looking for something here?" She asked her friend.

"I'm doing good. I have an essay to write for Ancient History class, and I need to find a subject for it." She had considered doing an essay on Ancient Greece, she had a first-hand source in her room for that. That'd be interesting, but also she didn't want to push her luck with Selene any more than necessary.

"Thats good to hear." Madalyne said to Andy giving her a smile as she wondered what kind of essay that Andy was working on. "What were you going to write for specifically maybe I can help you out? The library has a pretty good selection of books on ancient history." She offered.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not certain. I was thinking Ancient Greece, but I also want to be a bit contrary." Andy was honest. "So I maybe would do Egypt." She added. It was still ancient history, but it wouldn't be Greece. That'd keep her mom from trying to give notes.

"Both ancient Greece and ancient Egypt are pretty cool actually. Ancient Rome is pretty cool as well too." Madalyne said, ancient history was actually one of her favorite non-hero related subjects at this school. "I'm sure we can find something you are looking for to help out." Madalyne said as she started to head towards the ancient history section of the library.

"Thank you." Andy smiled following after Madalyne. She was impressed with the library. No student would ever have the time to read all the books here. Andy could see herself getting lost here. She hadn't ever really sat down to read. She struggled a bit with it so the idea of reading that much sort of stressed her out. Between undiagnosed dyslexia and undereducation, Andy wasn't good at reading. "I wouldn't even know where to start."

Madalyne started to look through the ancient history section until they were at the subjection that just dealt with ancient Egypt she gave Andy a friendly smile. "No problem, it's the least I could do for what happened during training." She said to her as she looked around at the books. "Were you doing like mythology or just history itself?" Madalyne asked, as she thought for a second. "Did you ever read the Percy Jackson books growing up?" She asked, it was one of the book series that her mother got her into and read all of the books and most of the spinoff series as well to.

"Oh, that totally wasn't your fault. We had no idea that would happen. Now that we know, we know to avoid it." Draining someone of their soul was easily in Andy's top five fears. There were of course things that outpaced that...like her mom escaping her prison. "Uh I think just history. The prompt was to write an essay about a part of ancient history that interests you. I don't know a whole lot about ancient history to be honest." Andy didn't want to explain that this was the first time she had been to school in ages. "They sound familiar. The author's last name is something a little strange right? There was a really bad movie too?" Andy had actually seen the movie and never cared to read the books after that. Not that she would have anyway.

Madalyne smiled she was glad then that Andy had forgiven her for pretty much stabbing her. "Air hugs from now on then." She said with a slight laugh as she looked at some of the history books that were there. "I can lend you my copies of the books next time I am home I can grab them for you if you want to read them." She offered and started to grab one of them. "The movie is really bad it's nothing like the books at all." Madalyne said. "These books should be good has some general information on the Pharaohs and stuff."

Andy wasn't surprised to hear that the movie was bad. She had made that assessment without the books years ago. She wasn't certain how to respond to Mads offer to lend her the books. Would she even get to them? School was taking a heavy toll on her free time if she was honest. She couldn't see having the time in the first place to read them. Then add that she just didn't like reading that much. "If you're okay with me having them for ages. I don't have much time to read for pleasure, and honestly, I read pretty slowly. My education was pretty sporadic growing up." She might as well be honest. That all being said while Madalyne handed her books. She looked over the stack and figured she might as well check them all out. "I'm going to stay here for a bit. It'll be nice to study away from the room. Even without a roommate, it can be difficult to keep concentrating on my work in there. Thank you for your help." Andy smiled brightly at Mads.

Madalyne smiled at Andy. "I don't mind I read them a few times already you can keep them if you want to take your time with reading and just do it whenever you can." She told Andy, having read through the books multiple times she was fine with giving them away to a friend she had chosen four books for Andy that might be able to help with her project. "I spend a lot of time here so if you ever want a study partner or something let me know to."

"Okay." Andy smiled brightly. "Both for study partner and borrowing the books. Especially, if you can help me with some of the magic homework. That's overwhelming sometimes." And asking Selene for help was a dangerous game. She probably would help happily but it'd come at a cost.

Madalyne smiled and nodded at Andy she did help do a little bit of teaching when Agatha was teaching at the school and thought about becoming a TA officially for her classes before she left for Strange Acadamy. "I can definitely help you out with any of your magic classes. Madalyne said to Andy.

"Thank you." Andy smiled brightly. Then started to set up her study area at one of the tables. She was going to be here for a while trying to figure out what she wanted to write her essay about and then writing it. "I'll see you around."

Madalyne smiled at Andy and nodded towards her. [color=7FFFD4]"No problem, anytime you need help you can call on me." She said to her as she gently patted Andy on the shoulder. "I'm gonna head out now, but I wish you luck with your essay to." Madalyne said to her as she started to head out of the library.

---

Sabine was drained. Classes were kicking her. She expected the workload, but it was something else at a school for superheroes. Not only that, but training with her team was expending her remaining mental energy. They just weren't gelling. And Nemo was doing everything in his power to try to kill them or take them on weird field trips or, perhaps worst of all, insist on meetings with tea in his office.

So when she was finally able to allot some free time, she wanted nothing more than to be with the two girls she cared for.



Leah's team was the worst thing about this year so far. Vicky was cool, and Zarina at least had a few brain cells to rub together... But she couldn't get along with Diana for anything and she didn't trust Ed for anything as far as she could throw him- And she could kick the guy for a field goal if she wanted to. Still, that didn't mean things were going bad. Every year, when everyone else went home for summer break, Leah was still here as the only student who stayed. Not because she had summer school, but because this was home for her. She trained and pushed herself even when everyone else took it easy. So ultimately, her team being annoying was as worse as it felt to her. The combat simulations were tolerable. Usagi's celebrity tier list bullshit was usually tuned out.

Even her ordinary assignments were fine, she just blasted through them since she wouldn't stress too much over Usagi's nonsense. Like a rock, she endured.

Especially when her girls were calling.



The school year had gotten off to a bit of a rough start with April. While her Contest of Champions team wasn't her preferred line-up (there were a few key people missing) and she had her first real relationship, her mental health had been a bit all over the place. Things had gotten better when she told her parents about the broken phone situation and they sent her a new smartphone, allowing her to text at a speed faster than 20 words per minute, but a better phone wasn't enough to solve what ailed her. But instead of talking much about it, April did what she did best - she threw herself into her school work, her training, and her social life, all with a big smile on her face.



She had been in the library, working on some homework for her astrozoology class. But it was definitely time for a break - April was starting to feel her eyes cross, as she read about the native habitat of flerkens and why they should never be domesticated (she had sent a screenshot of that page to Diana, complete with the 👀 emoji). It wasn't too long for her to throw her things into her book bag, and then head on outside, making her way to the exterior of Stark Hall.

Of course, she was immediately somewhat stressed about what Leah had to say. Even though Leah had said not to worry about it, April's mind immediately generated a list of terrible scenarios: 1) Leah was going to break up with her but not Sabine, 2) Leah was dying, 3) Leah was leaving the school, 4) April had done something problematic and Leah and Sabine were going to cancel her for it, and then break-up with her, 5) the Monster Mash had a rule against polyamorous couples and they had to decide who was going to go.

Sabine checked her texts, happy to see the both of them were on board. Now to decide what to do. They could go shopping? Perhaps she could buy each of them a gift, maybe give Leah an actual jacket to wear that looks good on her. Or maybe go out to eat? There were some nearby food trucks she had been meaning to try.

Either way, it was time away from school and with her girls. She would be satisfied as long as she was with them. It was funny, Sabine never thought she would be in a relationship at school, let alone with two girls, one she was roommates with (and they were roommates!) and was sure she hated Sabine and the other a girl she had seen around but had never much spoken to before recently.

Isn't it funny how life worked?

A few minutes later, Leah was outside the main building of the school, the place where everyone usually went when they first arrived at the school. Like usual, she was dressed in her trusty Carhartt jacket big enough for two people. She was checking her phone to see if the girls texted her before she got her, and was mentally preparing herself for the conversation she had to have to April. Sabine didn't seem to care, especially not with the "rock climbing" they that day, but April might be scared off... And that worried Leah.

Oh boy, here they come.

"Hey."

April was beaming, waving at Leah before hurrying up a little more to catch up to her. She was dressed pretty casually - a pain of light washed denim short shorts, a crop top she had fashioned out of Margaret Carter Institute spirit shirt, and white converse high tops. Her dirty blonde hair was pushed up into double buns. Her sunglasses were perched on her forehead like a headband. "Hey!" April greeted, giving Leah a kiss on the cheek. "You look nice today!" Her heart was pounding. Leah didn't seem mad? Maybe the worst wasn't about to happen? Or maybe Leah was just trying to figure out a way to spare April's feelings?

Sabine had seen the two and ran over. She was wearing a yellow mini-dress and white sandals. She wrapped the two of them in a hug. "Hello life savers! God, I need this day. So what are we in the mood for? Literally, anything to get me away from this place. Pick your poison!"

She eyed both of them, both looking every bit as nice as before. How had she gotten so lucky?

”Shit, I dunno. I never go anywhere except here and to bed. I’ll just pull a rock out of the ground and we can ride it like a plane. That’s faster than walking.” Shit… April looked so damn happy right now. Was this really the time to bring her up to speed on everything? Leah started having second thoughts. If she did tell April about her dad, maybe she’d have the same reaction as Sabine, but what if she thought of her differently after? Fuck

”Haven’t really been anywhere but here in a while.”

April swooned slightly, as Sabine pulled her and Leah into a hug. She pressed a quick kiss to Sabine's cheek - after all, she had kissed Leah's cheek, so it was only fair. She didn't want to play favorites among her girlfriends. The real reason, of course, was that her girlfriends were both incredibly hot and April desperately wanted to kiss them. It was a bit of a jumbled mess of emotions up in her head, but she hadn't imploded yet, so everything seemed to be okay? Maybe she had overreacted with Leah's message? Maybe Leah was just going to confess that sometimes she liked to hang upside down and pretend to be a bat?

"Well, we could go vibe at the mall, be in our mall era - or we could go to the beach, that's always fun - ooh or maybe go see a movie, I heard Barbenheimer II is supposed to be super good, like amazingly good - oooh or we could go to the salon and get mani-pedis ooor we could go get bubble tea, there's a really cute bubble tea spot nearby that makes these adorable little pastries that look like teddy bears, they're sooo cute!!" April rambled.

It was adorable how excited April was in her little ramble. Someone had to decide. "Well I really want to go to those new food trucks that were set up so let's go get bubble tea and some food then. And we can even eat on the beach. What do you think?" Sabine bit her tongue on her thoughts on the beach. If her girlfriends wanted the beach, she would damn well give them the beach.

"I can drive if you both want. Perfect day to drive with the windows down.

”That sounds nice. But what the hell is bubble tea? Never heard of that.” That wasn’t a joke, she genuinely didn’t drink tea enough to know what it was. ”Oh, and your car might get shredded by me. Just saying.” Yeah, the talk could wait. She wanted this, and didn’t want to ruin it. If April cared like Leah knew she did, then it wouldn’t scare her off.

Assuming her “beach fit” didn’t do so first.

"Yes! That sounds perfect!" April squealed. She could just picture the three of them, living their California fantasy, driving with the top down - well, the windows down - their hair splayed behind them. It'd be just like in the movies. She wanted to swoon again at the thought of it. "Oh! Bubble tea, is, well it's usually a milk tea with these, like, little squishy tapioca pearls at the bottom. But it can be also other things, like I really like the lychee jelly - oh and it comes in tons of flavors, and just overall, it's super aesthetic."

Sabine had nearly forgotten Leah's hair was like sandpaper. "Just....try not to rub your head against the seats. I can have the top down which will help. And yes, bubble tea is a must. Also the food trucks should have some good spots for pictures too. Shall we?" Sabine began walking to her car.

"Yeah, let's go. I'll try not to vaporize the seats." Leah followed her to the car. Why the hell did this make her nervous? It's not like they were going on a first date. Well... Technically it was, but they were already a thing! And the old man definitely wasn't about to just appear out of nowhere and shoot everyone. What did Leah have to lose? Nothing, she told herself. Nothing bad will happen. Nothing will go wrong. Enjoy this.

April followed along, her heart pounding. Pictures. Of course they were going to be taking pictures! Hopefully she looked cute in them. She didn't doubt that Leah and Sabine would look perfect, especially on the first take, but April tended to over-scrutinize images of herself. She usually demanded at least ten takes for every attempted photo she'd take with Danni and Dori. And even then ten takes usually wasn't enough. If she wasn't hyperfixating on one thing, she was hyperfixating on another. "So, um, what was it you wanted to talk about, Leah?" April blurted, before she could stop herself. That was what she was currently trying not to hyperfixate on. And struggling. It was easier to voice the question as they walked, her eyes forward and not on either of her girlfriends - and their eyes not on her.

Once in the car, Sabine began the drive, noticing some tension. What did Leah want to talk about? "Whatever it is, now is the time to do it. Unless you don't want me in the conversation, which fair enough. But we are going to be surrounded by a bunch of people where we are going so this is the safest space to talk about whatever." Sabine could even extend the drive for a bit to allow the conversation to happen. Wasn't like the food trucks were going anywhere. Plus, Sabine thought, April needed this also. Girl was not hiding her nerves as well as she'd hoped.

Fuck.

Of course April's hyperaware ass wouldn't let that slide... And Leah couldn't be mad. But she still felt fucking nervous about it. Leah stared out the window, absentmindedly as she thought about how to bring this up. Sabine didn't give a shit, so there was that. Okay, just start speaking.

"My dad's a supervillain... I already told Sabine about this a while back, so it's only fair that you know as well. I don't talk about it much, but before I showed up and met you two, he killed my mother, and I tried to kill him. And up until I walked into Agatha's weird magic tent, I thought he was dead. And... He's alive, still. And he's looking for me, and he's really, really fucking dangerous."

Leah paused for a moment, hesitating and feeling afraid of what April might say.

"One day, he's gonna find me. And when he does, he'll do absolutely anything in his power to drag me away to some place where I'll never see the light of day again. He'll kill everyone around me if they try to stop him. That's why I thought you should know, because I don't want you to be surprised if he flies out of the sky and carpet bombs the place-" And I'll understand if you don't want to be around me anymore. She almost said that part out loud.

April was in the back-seat of the car, directly behind Leah. It probably wasn't the best spot to be in, given that Leah's hair was lethal and deadly, but she hadn't really thought things through. She usually sat on the right side of the car anyways when she was a passenger, so it was just a force of habit. It also meant that no one could really see her face, as Leah dropped the BOMB. And maybe April was a bit ill, but rather than feeling horrified or scared... she felt relieved. This wasn't a break-up speech. She hadn't done anything wrong. She had nothing to be worried about.

Her girlfriend's dad was a supervillain. Who might try to hurt and/or kill them, in an effort to hurt and/or kill Leah. April could handle that.

"Oh!" April said, sounding a bit more chipper than she meant. "Oh," she then said, more neutrally, spiced with a bid of sorrow on Leah's behalf. "That's really rough," she said, unknowingly channeling Prince Zuko - at least she hadn't called Leah buddy. "But we've got this. When he shows up, we'll take care of him, it'll be easy! We're all superheroes, right? In training, but that's fine. This is just your super heroic origin story, where you'll beat your dad, and we'll be right by your side. But also... I guess if we're disclosing stuff, then I should mention that there're some supervillains in my family tree too... Namely Magneto. He's my grandpa. Not to steal your thunder, I'd feel bad if you shared and I didn't share, because that wouldn't be, like, fair or right to you two."

Sabine was happy Leah got this off her chest. And it seemed April had her own fucked up family. "My step-mom is a bitch, but that's about as far into my family as evil beings go. Like I said, he comes after you I will turn his brain into literal mush. Same with your grandpa April. I can revert them back to literal babies if I wanted to. Fry their brains so badly steam comes out of their eyes and ears. Say the word and I got you."

Holy shit. Magneto. Leah took a moment to grasp that. April “Cascade” Flynn, the resident Golden Retriever of Margaret Carter, was the grandkid of Erik fucking Lensherr. Wow.

”…Wow. Fuck. Does- Does he know you’re here? Magneto doesn’t sound like the kind of person to let his grandchildren go to a school where humans and wizards are. Do I need to snap an old geriatric motherfucker in half?” Leah asked, stealing Sabine’s term for Imperator from not long ago. ”Because I will shatter him like glass if he tries anything funny. Fuck, all three of us got shitty family, huh? Fuck, man…” Despite this revelation, Leah felt relieved. Relieved that April wasn’t put off, or saw her differently. That was a monumental weight off her chest.

April furrowed her eyebrows slightly, thinking. "I don't know if he does?" she admitted. "I'm not really in touch with my dad's bio family - he was adopted," she explained. Biology was really the only connection she felt with Erik Lensherr - and the only connection she wanted. She knew some people saw him as a savior - maybe just as many who saw him as a villain. Then most of her aunts and uncles from that side of the family turned out to have psychotic breaks that caused them to become villains. If anything, that was what April was worried about - what was lurking inside of her DNA, waiting to hurt her and everyone else around her.

"I'm sorry about your step-mom, though," April said genuinely, frowning slightly. She wished her girlfriends had better home lives. They deserved better than what they had gotten.

Sabine shrugged. "She's nothing. Some woman who latched on to my dad when she could. Obvious gold digger. And her two spawn are so annoying. I ignore them, they ignore me. Works fine all around." Her fingers clenched on the steering wheel as she drove. "Anywho, point is if either of them come for either of you I will explode their mind. Literally. I've been practicing."

”Yeah. We don’t need our families. We’ve got each other for that. We are our family now. Everyone else who threatens that will suffer the consequences. If Magneto or your worthless stepmom try anything with any of us, I will personally grind them to dust with my bare hands.”

With that intense thing being said, Leah paused for a moment, staring out the window.

”I’ve been telling myself for a couple of years now that he was gone for good. That I’d never see his face again, or hear his voice again. The reason I never talked about him was because I thought I had actually killed him. Sabine saw a memory of him fighting me-“ That was what she called it, not abusing her, ”-And she saw how fucking menacing he can me. I’d take Magneto over him if I had a choice. If he did that to either of you… I took out my whole house and everything around it for miles back then, trying to kill him. The school, and the whole city probably wouldn’t be left standing if he showed up, by the time I was through with him.”

April was mildly uncomfortable with Leah's declaration that they didn't need their families - she liked her family, her parents, even her irritating little sister - but she didn't raise this point. She knew what Leah was trying to say - or at least, April thought she did. She listened as Leah explained why she'd never mentioned her horrible father before, not that April felt like that needed an explanation. It was definitely a sensitive subject, even if Leah's father had actually been dead. She reached forward, putting a hand on Leah's shoulder. "You don't need to worry about him. We've got this," April promised. "Sabine can delete his mind, you can bury him alive in rocks, and I can fill his lungs with water until he pops. It'll be fun! And emotionally satisfying, I think."

Sabine let the conversation hang as she pulled into a spot by the bubble tea place. She turned the car off and sat for a second. When she really thought about it, she had it pretty good. Sure her step-mother was a monster and her children were annoyances, but her father, through his many faults, loved her. Though he went about it the wrong way (and it wasn't like she was about to complain when he footed the bill). But she didn't have family that actively wanted to hurt or kill her (though she was sure her step-monster would take the first opportunity).

"Girlies, we are here, so I am calling an end to this conversation other than to say that if they mess with either of you I will see they never have a good day ever again. And I can make that happen. Literally, make them never forget trauma or pain whenever they close their eyes. Now, who wants bubble tea?"

It wasn’t the most logical thing, and probably made Leah look a little dumb, but she felt like she was about to start tearing up. Leah wasn’t used to being this emotional around people. Being connected, letting the walls down like this and feeling like she was genuinely cared about was… Nice. It was cathartic in a way, to feel loved. Leah stepped out of the car, and waited for April and Sabine to get out too, before suddenly wrapping both of them in a loose bear hug. Normally, Leah was the stone cold, bulletproof personality who didn’t particularly like hugs, but this was different.

”…I fucking love both of you.”

---

---

Finally, Victoria had done everything she felt she needed to do on this day out of silicone hell. Now perhaps she could get to the things she wanted to do. Namely, go test out her new piece of kit. Thinking of that brought forth the memory of how that started.

Was it really just a day or so ago? It seemed like a few weeks rather than a few days since the carnival with all that happened today. She was so behind on stuff, too - She didn't even finish her review of her audition, still stuck on the collapsed building. That was when she remembered her last thought of asking the first person she met for an idea. Well. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone? She thought, and decision made, fished out her phone.

From: Vix
To: DD#1, DD#2

Hi, it's Victoria. Are you guys at your room?
I've got results for that handbag utility idea you put in my head, I could drop by if you want to see it?

Cheers.

Dorian had been given the rest of the day off from his classes. After the incident with Nemo and the very real threat of a C4 explosive, his dorm mother had decided they needed some time off. So, he did what any other teenage boy with a free pass to play Hookey and the ability to roam the halls out of sight would do. Tailing behind the classes he was meant to be in to get a good feel for the students he had been assigned with this year and how the teachers were going to be. After all, this was the first year his life had truly been threatened even if Nemo claimed he knew they'd survive. So it was best to see how many other crazies may think junior year was the best time to start cranking up the heat for the students' survivability.

Once all of his classes had ended, some with a few familiar faces in them, he'd decided to head back to his dorm. To say he was exhausted was an understatement. Between the attack by a teacher, the drama with Zelda, and even more so the drama with April followed up by Danni and tied off with a big ol Percy sized bow, he needed a break. He'd hoped that being a fly on the wall would take his mind off of things, but seeing Percy in one of his classrooms made him dread that class even more. He laid in his bed, unable to sleep as he stared up towards his ceiling before decidedly getting up and putting on his VR gear.

No sooner did his gear turn on that he saw a message notification in the top corner of his H.U.D.

From: Dorian
To: Vicky

Yeah, I'm plugged in right now but feel free to stop by and shoot me a text when you're at the door.
I want to see what you came up with for a portable pocket protector.

-👻

Well, it was time to check out some of the others' crib. Victoria curiously noted that this was actually the second time she visited some other dorm room in so many years, the other of course being Cassie's. Fixing her necktie, she set off.

Arriving at the door, she instinctively went to knock on the door before she remembered.

From: Vix
To: DD#1

Ring-a-ding.

She sent over, and then grinned. Slipping the Powerglove on, she charged the MFG with a tiny little electric charge and placed her hand on the knob, intending to give Dorian a little bit of a zap as he opened the door.

Dorian watched as a new notification came up, opening it before he shut off his headset and began to take it all off. He placed the pieces back onto their display before making his way towards the door. His hand reached for the knob, turning it as he felt the numbing shock course through his hand. Now, most people would've just screamed and let go, but Dorian wasn't most people. Pranking was in his blood, and he'd be damned if he was going to miss out on an opportunity for it. He let out a loud yelp, making sure to have turned the doorknob fully so that Vicky could see it was unlocked just before she'd hear the sound of a body thumping to the ground. He lay there motionless, still.

Seeing the knob open after hearing the yelp, Vicky wasn't exactly worried. Likewise, Agatha said she should not be admitting students with pacemakers, yet Dorian lived through visiting her just fine. The memory of her own visit made her shudder though. Still. Pushing the door open, she saw him sprawled on the ground. Walking over, she could see he was breathing, so she theatrically checked his pulse. "Oh no." She mock cried… And charged the Powerglove up, safely away to prevent any charge jumping between them. The defibrilator sound it made was very real though. "Clear!" She called out, barely able to keep her tone of voice serious.

Danni came around the corner, whistling as he did. Fingers tapping away at his phone, he sent a thumbs up to Vicki and pocketed it shortly after. A new friend at the dorm! He wondered if he could sneak up on her, scare her as a prank. That'd be funny but he always messed it up and using fire in a prank never ended well; he supposed it was a good thing Dee was making friends. Despite how outgoing he'd been this year so far, he was usually a cute little shut in that Danni would drag away from that silly little computer kicking and screaming to socialize until he finally enjoyed himself. And now, here he was making friends and inviting people over.

He felt like a proud parent.

And that's when he saw it. Vicki standing over Dee, something charging up and Dee motionless on the floor. Flames popped in and out around him as he felt his heart start to race, his breath coming quick and short. Was Dee… dead? "OMG DID YOU KILL 'IM?! 'E COULDN'T 'AVE BEEN T'AT AWKWARD, O' GOD! DEE, DEE LISTEN TO ME!" Danni screamed, racing towards his best friend and sliding down next to him. The tears were already falling and he clutched the body as he wailed. "T'IS IS ALL MY FAULT! I SHOULDN'T 'AVE MADE YOU MAKE FRIENDS, I SHOULD 'AVE LET YOU PLAY YOUR STUPID GAMES T'AT YOU IGNORED ME FOR! WHAT KIND OF FRIEND AM I? PLEASE, PLEASE IF YOU JUST WAKE UP, I WON'T DRAG YOU TA ANOT'ER DANCE PARTY AGAIN, I PROMISE!

Dorian popped up immediately, a huge grin plastered across his face as he looked at Danni pleased. "Promise?!"

Well, that escalated quickly. Vicky thought, quickly powering down the MFG before accidents happened. "Mr. Kingston, I am offended that you believe I would kill a friend without a valid cause." she said in a fake hurt tone, but immediately fished a hanky out of her suit's pocket and offered it to Danni as soon as Dorian made it known he was in fact among the living. "So… how was your day? Because I am tired of the one I had." she groaned.

Danni let out an unholy holy screech as Dee popped up, scrambling away and clinging to Vicky. "Dee, you bastard! No, now you're goin' ta go ta every damn t'in' I want as my plus one, forever! Givin' me a 'eart attack." Danni patted Vicky's face. "Mr. Kingston is my pops or papa 'cause ya know, bot' are Kingston. I'm just Danni! Tell me 'bout your day darlin'. What's 'angin' on t'ese shoulders? Why was it so nasty?"

Dorian pouted as Danni took back his promise. "I already am." he replied with a sorrowful tone as he scooted closer towards Vicky, placing one hand on her gauntleted arm and lifting it to inspect what she'd already begun work on. It was clear that neither of the pair knew the term personal space. "Please tell me you made more t'an a glorified joy buzzer?"

Vicky was fighting the urge to shrink away as the DDs seemed to tackle her. At the same time though, she couldn't help but smile at their antics. Dorian could take a joke and dish it back, that was fun. Danni? Danni was a golden retriever made into a human shape, she was sure.

"Well, that lil gadget started on carnival evening, really. After you put the idea into my head, I first thought: Gun. But I can't shoot a gun. So I thought: What do I know? Well, my armor stuff. So this is literally taken from the gauntlet of my armor. But, I designed it with a pistol grip. Fortunately, mom has a connection to my computer, and saw me working on it. Eheh… turns out there is a law in Cali that says I don't get to carry a gun. And as I said, I can't aim a gun. I know how to aim with the palm of my hand tho! What do you know, I wake up, and this is in the mail, along with a letter from mum. She's the best!" she ended qith a fistpump of her armed hand. "Probably not too many shots in this, but enough to make some bees or bozos buzz off."

Did she just say that in one breath? When did she ever say that much? No time came to mind. Why were these two so easy to talk to? … Questions for later. Turning to Danni, she sighed: "That's… about where the good stuff ended. First I'm on a team with roommate, who I am sure we have nothing in common with and so far, I don't like too much. We went to the team training session and, uh, our coach is an alcoholic ball of rage and cat fur, ye olde combat class teacher. What is the first thing she has us do? Go to the Framework and kill each other. Multiple times. Not a great bonding exercise, Diana got so mad at me!" she half vented and half whined.

"Kept messing with us, too! Summoned bosses out of games to hammer us even more. And when I had the advantage, she changed the rules and made it go away!" She paused to take a breath. "Sorry for raging. I hope you had a better day?" She had to admit, airing out her thoughts was helping, although she didn't like putting the blues on the mood in the room.

"Aw, I can't t'ink your roomie won't bond with you over training 'ell! Great way to make friends, ya know?" Danni cooed sympathetically, unrepentant shifting more of his weight onto Vicky as he patted her cheek. "Let's see… our teammate couldn't 'andle 'ow cool Dee and I are so she fled after she messed up once. We chased 'er down t'e 'all for t'e cure-all cuddle pile, but it didn't work, which I t'ink speaks for 'er character if ya know what I mean, and Starry got 'er and t'en gave us the day off once we got t'rough class. So Beanie and Spicy made it aaaaall t'e way ta t'e end, so Dee got inside Spicy, 'ad a good time poppin' them back ta t'e beginnin', and we made it ta the bomb room after crossing a bottomless chasm, climbin' a vine wall, and givin' doors teet'. Then, the C4 went BOOM! And we were in t'e middle of it, but I t'ought it felt like a 'ot stone massage and Dee popped and locked into the ghosty worlds so small good! But then my clot'es were ruined and I had a itsy, bitsy mental breakdown before my shower and pleacing out! Oh and Bear Bear came by and t'en left wit'out sayin' not'in'. Wierd but eh."

Dorian tugged at the edges of the mechanical gauntlet, testing how easy it was to remove off of her in the event a villain tried to disarm her. He cooked his head to the side when Vicky mentioned only getting a couple of shots off with it before inspecting it further. "T'ats odd. What powers t'e glove? Surely you can add some form of solar intake to 'elp charge it while out in t'e field. Or perhaps it would be better to make clips like a magazine in a gun so t'at once you run out of shots you can reload quickly and keep goin'. Personally I'd go for t'e second idea, allows for versatility. Sometimes you don't need shots but could use a grapplin' 'ook or fire retardant, or whatever. T'at way t'e magazine can be swapped around wit' other uses like a utility belt."

Dorian was mostly thinking out loud as he rambled on about possible ideas and attachments, already thinking of ways to improve upon an already impressive design. But that was just how his mind worked, once the first thing was done he was already on to the next, finding ways to keep tweaking it even past the point of perfection. "I say ignore Diana, she can get a bit competitive at times. Just be glad you guys 'ad t'e framework. Ours were real bombs wit' real t'reats. But it's good she kept changin' t'e rules. Keep you on your toes ya know? Villains won't always play by t'e rules, makin' up t'ier own as t'e fight goes on. So 'avin to experience t'at early? A blessin in disguise if you ask me."

Vicky stared at the two of them in bewilderment for a second, most of the things getting filed for later conversation once explosives were mentioned. "What? Are they having a bubble bath? I know of better ways to balance the school budget than offing a few students!" she groaned. Fun times were ahead, it seemed. "That's almost as bad as when I died visiting Agatha! What is wrong with the faculty here? Have you talked to anyone on Nimue's team? Did they also have it this bad?" She did not believe it. Could it be that Usagi was the least mad of the coaches? Preposterous! And yet, it seemed that the guys were right, going to the Framework carried no risk aside from finding out how badly most of your teammates sucked at something so basic as survival.

Her eyes ticking from Dorian to Danni and back, her arms suddenly flew towards them as she gave each of them a one armed hug. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Aw, Vicky! Arent' ya a wittle softie?" Danni laughed as he went easily into the hug, wrapping his arms around her fully. He had decided this was were he was now and Vicky was just gunna have to deal with it. He wiggled a little to make himself comfortable "Princess fought a Questin' Beast and Mot'man!. T'ough, I told 'er what Aggie told me: Nimue is a Sinister clone so I t'ought Beanie could wriggle waggle 'er way into t'e villains brain and give Princess a 'Eads up on what's ta come!"

Dorian yelped as Vicky went to hug him, speaking in wheezes as he tried to adjust himself within the impromptu hug. "Wait, why'd you almost die at Aggies? She's not t'at spooky, and she was super sweet." He asked as he wondered if everyone was going to react this way when they found out about the bomb incident. They were heroes, if they couldn't survive a simple c4 bomb then what good were they? Hell even Sabine and Percy had managed it.

"Err… Who's Princess again? Wait, on Nimue's team… Elder Flynn?" Vicky deduced, none of the others quite fitting such description in her opinion. She fought off a biting remark about how well that checked, though probably for different reasons than Danni gave her that nickname, before the gramophone in her head skipped over a scratch, "Come again? Nimue's a what? You sure the old hag wasn't pulling your leg? Or are you pulling mine?" She eyed Danni with suspicion, before turning to Dorian.

"I don't think I almost died. I was rooming with a wizard until now, you know? I never felt, measured, or otherwise observed any of his spellwork, and you believe me I tried. Yet, the second I walked into Agatha's tent, some defensive spell must have reacted badly to me or something, because I started seeing… runes, and thaumaturgical symbols, and stuff… and not with my eyes! But, like, in my mind. And then just… dark." She tried to explain, her hands leaving the embrace and making undecodable gestures in a vain attempt to aid her description as she spoke.

"I don't have the words for the feeling, but I just know I was gone." Well, the truth is I can't tell you how I know, but good enough. She thought, "I don't know what she had to do to bring me back, and when I asked she told me to ask again when I'm older. But it took some effort, because when I came back to, it was already night, and I swear I could feel magic coursing through me until the next day. I just… I hope that what she pulled back from limbo is still me. All of me. And with nothing extra." She shuddered at the thought, wrapping her arms around herself anxiously. "Anyway, then we had a lovely chat and said our farewells. So yes, Agatha isn't spooky or something, and I would take her as a coach over Usagi in a heartbeat. But she also isn't exactly careful or concerned about one's well being, either."

"Oh! She also gave me a viking shield. Beautiful restored antique! Did you get fortunes told by the way?" She beamed, before her eyes grew serious again as she turned back to Danni. "Speaking of gifts… Did I mention I adore dragons? Are you taking good care of that egg, Danni, or do I need to go CPS on your ass?" She gave him a toothy smile that somehow promised unspecified doom in an unknown future if something terrible happened to the creature.

"No, no, no scouts honor, Nimue's a Sinister clone! Like, listen. I'd 'eard about a Sinister clone slippin' inta t'e school and Aggie just used 'er tarot cards ta confirm it! Nimmie's a clone, we can count on t'at!" Danni insisted, happy to skip over his actual fortune because he really didn't want the negative vibes that the thought of killing everyone he loved and cared about would bring around. "Well, next time ya die, we'll just have Papa bring you back as a ghost and that way you can still 'ang out wit' Dee and me! Might take some gettin' used ta since Dee's t'e only one who can see ya but Uncle Benji did it for a 'ot minute so we'll figure it out!"

At the mention of his egg, Danni waved away her concerns and pointed where he had it all snuggled up in a small pile of clothes and blankets under a lamp. "Nice and toasty, like an egg should be! I've told it every day all.about what's going on in t'e world, or t'is school at least, and it'll be very against Sinister clones when it hatches." Speaking of hatching, he snapped his fingers. "I gotta get wit' Mads 'bout t'e library. 'onestly, t'e number system makes my 'ead all fuzzy and t'en before I know it, all I care 'bout is my bed."

Dorian ignored all the banter about the Sinister Clones, after all his grandpa was always doing some shit with DNA and cloning or something or other. So he wouldn't be surprised if Nimue was a Sinister clone, it just meant they needed to keep a closer eye on April. However Vicky's recount of the whole reading seemed…wrong. Just factually wrong. Bringing people back from the dead was a big no no as far as he'd been told growing up, and even more so… "You went to Limbo? Why t'eir? I've 'eard stories about my fat'ers time in Limbo, 'e didn't die mind you just…ended up t'eir, anyways, How'd you manage to fight off t'e 'ord of demons? T'e Green Eyed One? T'e Red Smoke?" Limbo was a very real horror story. Something Dorian could sink his teeth into but never actually wanted to visit.

"Eit'er way, You may just 'ave a 'yper sensitivity to Magic. Your roommate was probably not as strong, Aggies shit is very potent, could knock you out for a good spell if you're too sensitive to it all." Dorian said nonchalantly. It wasn't as though he didn't believe her, but he felt no such warnings when he'd walked in, and if Aggie wanted to kill a student she wouldn't of brought them back.

Being made at ease about the egg's wellbeing, Vicky listened to Dorian and it took a while until she realized her error. "Oh! No, sorry - lowercase 'el' limbo, not uppercase Limbo. I… don't recall anything from when I was out. Sorry, no afterlife spoilers. Either there is none, or whoever is in charge does not let you keep the memories if someone plucks you out." She smiled sheepishly, looking back at Danni, "I do not want to ghost around though, no thank you. If that happens, tell Cassie I died some heroic death so that I get to one up her one last time and burn all evidence to the contrary." She smirked.

"Anyway! Enough of the gloomy stuff! So yeah, this thing." She tapped the glove, "I like that I can literally have this in my pocket, so hard pass on the grappling hook. As far as carrying spare batteries or, stars forbid, an utility belt goes… Danni back me up here, tactical rigging on a suit would be hideous!" She groaned, "I could put a powerpack into the handbag tho. Say, what did you two do for your auditions? Mine went… okay… but I'd like to show you, if you have some ideas, because I am stuck coming up with better solutions to one of the problems I faced." She admitted.

Danni nodded sagely at her evaluation of tactical rigging on a suit. Sure it may be functional but let's be real - you either needed a high level tech designer to make it really work or suffer the humiliation of bad design. At the mention of audtions, he let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. "Auditions, oh oof. Well, it was fun, but yeah, callin' it a flamin' 'ot mess wouldn't be too far off. I got a little too big for my britches, tried ta set too much on fire, and 'it the judge's table instead. Makes sense that Poisson-Pas's stuff is timey wimey stuff - t'e nut managed ta pack up 'is bag and get out of t'e blast radius wit'out breakin' a sweat! I got a decent amount of 'eight on lift off but t'e finale fell t'rough at t'e end. Was supposed ta be a big 'splosion, Danni added in a sound effect as his arms spread out before sighing in defeat. "But I over extorted myself and all I got was a puff of fire."

"Show us whatcha did! We'll 'elp 'owever we can! T'ough Dee is t'e ones wit' t'e brains; I'm just t'e arm candy." Danni laughed.

"I did a performative number as an 'omage to classic movies two of which involved ghosts t'e t'ird was just for fun. Took a lot of possessin' and flyin' about. 'onestly it went great…save for t'e end when i couldn't make it back from t'e Astral Realm. But let's see what problem you've got." Dorian replied wondering exactly how she planned to show them what it was she needed help with.

Smirking, Victoria tossed her phone up, catching it after it performed a couple of backflips. “You’ve got a VR setup, right? I went in with my armor and I recorded the whole thing. How would you like to be there? Otherwise, widescreen over yonder would do.” she pointed over her shoulder at the guys’ setup.

After the phone was plugged in, Vicky linked it to her computer in the workshop, using it as a relay. As the record of her audition started playing, the DDs would also see that unlike almost everyone else, Victoria did not do a static or fighting demo, but rather a rescue scenario. She commented on her thought processes as the replay progressed.

“With the car crash, it was too late for the drivers and passengers, but I figured out if another fire broke out, things would get a whole lot worse. No offense to the present company. Once I dragged the tanker out, the fuel would have leaked into the sewers, which I suppose is a relatively major enviro burden, but I did not want to waste too much time when other people were in danger. I’m relatively happy with that one.”

“I had to decide whether to go for the people that had the least chance to live first in a hope of rescuing them, or last and give the others a far greater chance to live. I did a search and in the end, the math came out to go rescue people from the flooded area. Any victims in the burning building would have either found a safe spot and would last relatively unscathed for a while longer, or the CO poisoning would have already been setting in. But if I went there on the miniscule chance to help them, people in the flooded area that would have otherwise had a good chance of making it out would have drowned. So, I chose the flooded place. It was a… Cold… decision, but I stand by it. Of course, I almost killed a guy because I stupidly blasted the roof of the ceiling he was trapped in, but it worked out in the end and you can make sure I will not be making that mistake again.”

“Nothing of interest happened at the fire. The classic, people trapped in air pockets and balconies. It is the collapse that I just don’t know how to tackle though. I tried finding the people by noise. I tried running a simulation of putting the rubble into zero-G and digging them out. But no cigar. To top it all off, when I searched afterwards, there is also the hazard of exposed power lines, broken gas pipes and the like. Honestly, I am stumped at what else could I do other than wait for the rescue team with the heavy machinery. Any ideas?”

"Well, ta even consider 'ow ta approach it, do ya 'ave any imagin' equipment, cameras, sonar, etc? Problem wit' t'is is t'at we can't see 'ow the areas under evryt'in' is supported so anyt'in' you did could 'ave potentially made it worse since, ya know, you're runnin' around blind and trigger ot'er t'in's furt'er in, ya know? 'onestly, seems like t'at was the right call ta me." Danni shrugged after watching. Disaster Management was a class he took early on, not so mistakenly considering himself a disaster he'd have to watch out for.

"As Poisson-Pas might say, or at least I imagine he would, "Sometimes, choosing to do nothing is the most heroic choice of all." Causes 'e tried ta be t'at wise old man in hero movies, ya know?" Danni explained, mimicking Poisson-Pas's accent as best as possible.

Dorian put on the VR headset. Deciding it would best help him to help Vicky if he could see all of it from her eyes. She'd mentioned the Collapse was what she was struggling with, but he saw a few areas that he believed could be improved over all. "Danni's right about t'e tech. 'ard to say what could've been done better if we don't know t'e full array. 'owever, Sonar as well as small drones would be t'e best ways to 'andle t'at situation like 'e said. My concern is for t'e ot'er exercises. You let t'e tanker continue to leak, Best solution would-be to have a cryogenic capsule or spray to cover t'e 'ole and stop t'e leak entirely. 'ell you could've also carpet bombed t'e area wit' some sand or ot'er sort of t'ing to bot' abosrb t'e chemical as well as put out the fire while you transported t'e tanker. Aside from t'at bot' in t'e fire rescue and under water rescue you could've benefitted from 'aving an oxygen supply for t'ose you rescued. Maybe somet'ing t'at functions like gills, takin' in the oxygen from t'e water and using it to supply it to t'e rescue. T'at gives t'em less chances of drownin' as well as 'elps wit' t'e smoke inhalation."

Vicky sat down cross legged on the floor, pondering their suggestions. She did not expect to get ideas for the rest of the session, but hey, feedback was always welcome. “I can basically do any electromagnetic field, or use repulsors. Both either as a directed energy or as a deformed spheroid field.” she said, tapping on her chin. “I don’t have any drone units currently installed though that could be arranged. End to beginning… Sonar I don’t think would be overly helpful. There is way too much complexity in such a collapse. To be useful, you’re talking seismology levels, which might cause it to collapse even further in the first place. Radar though… Hm… Concrete does not have good electrical permittivity, and the frequent cavities in the collapse would still cause quite a lot of scattering, but maybe if I took a look from more angles and constructed like a tomograph, I could filter the noise out and create a 3D map of the internal structure, yeah. With some training, interpreting ground penetrating radar signals is still quite a bit skill based.”

She looked at Danni in surprise when he guessed at what Nemo might have said. “That’s pretty much verbatim what was on my evaluation sheet. As far as oxygen supply goes, well, I can’t quite carry a truck trailer of gear with me on every mission just to be ready for whatever. While I knew what I ordered to be in the sim, I wanted to show that I can adapt to the various situations even if I didn't. The tanker… I guess I could have done more, but the question is: Did I have the time? There were people drowning and maybe cooking to death. I think even if I could spread out some sorbent, I'd still choose not to. Same issue with some cryo solution: I'm good, but I am still subject to laws of thermodynamics, and heat only goes from hot to cold places. I can heat stuff up using IR laser well, but there's no such thing as a chill beam, and I can't exactly lug a bottle of LN2 with me.” she reviewed.

"Bah, why are we talkin' about school work? T'at's borin'." Danni declared, jumping up onto his bed. "What we need ta talk about is t'e Contest of Campions. We should tots put your and Dee's scouting power together and spy on t'e other teams for their strats so we can prep ta beat them! It'd be a good way for ya ta develop some mini-drones and test 'em and Dee can practice… idk, ghostie stuff. Ya know, team up wit' each other ta defeat everyone else and t'en we'll go head ta head in the finals!"

Dorian thought Vicky was giving up too quickly on the idea of new gear. Just because something didn't exist didn't mean that it wasn't waiting to be invented. Hell if Stark could make it to space with one of his suits, who's to say the next line of geniuses couldn't perfect it? Solar power already existed, so why couldn't they find a way to extract the oxygen from the air or water to channel it into a funnel used to give an oxygen mask for a victim? "Well…it would be a good idea to keep an eye on t'e ot'er teams strats."

Victoria giggled at the last exchange. "What, you guys are telling me you don't have an intel board? Am I the only one here who made notes on what makes others tick? I'm fairly certain you-" she pointed the Finger of Accusation at Dorian, "-are for whatever reason doing your best to avoid getting physical with me in Combat 301. Even if I fight unarmored at the time, and despite you having a sword against my hand to hand." She noted with a confident smirk. "The carnival was also a treasure trove. That reminds me I need to confirm whether Diana is scared of bees or fire." Vicky grinned savagely.

As the conversation turned to the contest, Vicky’s face drooped: “Fat load of BS the contest is. It’s giving people incorrect motivation. Whoever is here to ‘get on the Avengers’ or ‘Win the contest’ should get their priorities straight. You should be here to learn to help people, period. Feels to me like some on my team get that, that makes me a happy girl.” she smiled, “If only our coach could see that. I swear, I need to make some sort of a deal with the devil to try and sway our training off of that focus for at least on occasion. If all we do is fight each other, we’ll be highly specialized at fighting ourselves. That’s not just bad for the contest, that’s bad for anything. We need to be training how to fight as a team, and preferably not just fight. Who knows what the damn qualifiers are going to be, if they are a rescue scenario, we’ll be hosed!” she complained. “Therefore, if you want to make a cartel deal and play the system, I’m game. And I’m sure Arcade would be too. I suppose the question is: How many privacy laws are you willing to break in the process?” she asked, her eyes squinting in thought. And of course, I’ll be making damn sure I get the intel even if Bassard removes it from my head. Don’t think I wouldn’t be watching you too.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. 'Ere in t'is dorm, we stan the Contest of Champions! I wanna fight and win against all t'ese people 'ere! I don't mind if I get on t'e Avengers or nat; I'll be a 'ero eit'er way, but I def want t'e spotlight. It'd be a shame ta look t'is good and not 'ave a chance ta show myself off." Danni rolled over to send Vicky a smirk and propped his head on his hand. "And no, I don't 'ave an intell board - Dee might but I run on vibes, caffeine, fire power, and pure instinct. Not'in' goin' on behind my pretty eyes but t'at's why I got Princess and Dee!" Danni laughed, beaming at his best friend.

"And 'onestly, privacy is more of a suggestion t'an a rule, right?"

Dorian snickered at Vicky's question about privacy. It felt as if she hadn't even met them yet. "A whole intel board and you 'ave to ask about privacy? My powers invade it on t'e most personal level to begin wit'. If you 'ave to ask t'at you need to expand your Intel to encompass a whole lot more." rarely would Dorian consider himself cocky, but when it came to the Contest of Champions he was fully delulu that the terrific trio could conquer anything put before them. "Besides, it's only day 1, give Usagi a chance to expand your training."

Victoria did her best Mr. Burns impression. “Oh, I am learning more about your limits every second. Well, lack thereof. Well, then as long as we don’t get caught, and I think I might have a plan on how to do that… How about we bug every training area we can think of and just listen in? I would bug the dorms too but… I don’t want to hear too much.” she said, mimicking a gag, “Maybe the teachers’ places though? Get some ideas on what they are planning for us. I already hate the contest, I don’t care if I get disqualified if they find out. I think my team can handle manufacturing and operations, and the ghost over here can probably handle deployment without getting busted. I think Ed would be all aboard with this little idea.” she nodded, pointing to Dorian. “Regarding Usagi… If I didn’t already have two years of combat class with her under the belt, I might be optimistic, but I just don’t see getting it unless I take it. But I am not at the point of challenging her to a Trial of Grievance yet.”

"Ooooh, def bug t'e trainin' rooms! I don't t'ink t'is will disqualify us t'ough; if t'e Avengers knew where t'e base of t'eir enemies were but 'ad ta wait ta kick t'eir asses, buggin' t'eir lair would be t'e least scoutin' t'ey'd do." Danni reasoned. "It's just good recon practice! But t'e teachers' places we probs shouldn't. T'ey probably like, discuss test answers and ot'er borin' teacher stuff and if t'ey t'ink we're cheatin' on tests, t'en t'ey will expel us and if I got expelled, I'd never be able ta show my beautiful face ever again. T'ough, t'e tea in t'e teacher dorms would probs be fuckin' awesome. Ugh, why are bad t'in's so 'ard ta resist?"

"Well we know t'rough our intel board t'at Vicky doesn't 'ave any drones or spy equipment. Which means t'e first 'urdle is makin' or acquirin' some for us to use. T'en after we should totally bug t'e trainin' rooms and if possible t'e framework. 'Ack it to record and show what 'appens inside the virtual field." Couldn't have Vicky's group escape their eye after all. Dorian looked at Vicky pointedly, seeing if she'd know of a way to make undetectable spy gear for this use or if it'd all be a wash.

”I know right!” Victoria exclaimed at Danni. ”Forbidden fruit tastes the best. But, yeah, good point with the test results. Maybe the teacher’s table at the cafeteria though? If you’re looking for Tea, I’d wager that would be the place to listen to.” He had a good point about the scouting being part of preparation for the contest. It made so much sense! The game was already on, and she didn’t even notice. He was right, no one said they only had to prepare for it in the official training sessions.

Turning to dorian, she snickered. ”More like a hastily scribbled on intel napkin. But, drones would be too conspicuous. I’m thinking something far smaller, and I think we can get such a hardware off the shelf, and even if not, building a few button sized bugs to listen to is child's play. Arcade is also up to his elbows in the Framework already, and Usagi spilled the beans that the Young Avengers are there every damn night. You don’t have to go past ‘wiping the floor with Cassie’ to get me on board.” she rubbed her hands, ”I’ll need to open up a build queue though, but this is definitely up there.” Right along telling Ed to delete any records of ours.

"Okay, okay, okay. So Vicky's rockin' t'e bugs, Dee's plantin' t'e bugs, and I'm here just ta look cute and distract people if t'ey catch on. And we're gettin' t'e Frameowrk stuff too. Oh, t'is gunna be so much fun! I can't wait ta tell Princess! Actually ya know what, picture time! Danni decided, hopping off the bed and hauling Dee with him to Vicky. He held his phone up to take a selfie of all of them. "Everyone say Champions!" Danni said as he snapped the picture.

"Champions" Dorian said with a wide smile as he nuzzled up next to Danni for the photo. If Vicky said it was child's play, far be it from him to counter her. So long as she could provide the bugs he could plant them. Of Course he was planning on installing a few extra of his own just to be safe in the event one of hers failed. One could never be too cautious when gathering intel after all and he trusted his handiwork.

”You know it would be better not to tell every other team we’re spying on them, right? I can’t help but think you’re being in denial just which Flynn you are on a team with. Vicky groaned, before being photo op’d. ”Uh! champions?” she managed to squeeze out, only winding up looking confused in the picture. ”Well, I guess it’s a wrap for today? Thanks for all the ideas, this oughta keep me occupied on my insomniac nights. Fill in the rest of your team on the plan and I’ll do the same, and I’ll let you know when I have the stuff. Well. Good night?” she wished them well, waving as she got up to leave.

Danni waved away Vicky's concerns. "Princess won't snitch on us, don't worry! We can tell 'er and it'll be perfectly safe!" Danni insisted. "And no leaving t'e dorm wit'out t'e most important t'in'! 'ugs!" Danni wrapped Vicky up in a big hug, holding on until Dee joined as well.

Dorian joined in on the hug, squeezing them both as their hugs compounded onto Vicky tightly. "Anytime V, if you ever need more ideas you know where we are. We'll usually."

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Andy needed to go to the mall. She didn't know if Build-A-Bear was still a thing, but it would be the perfect place to get some outfits for Selene. The sizes would be perfect. She also was trying to build her friendships up. So far she had started to have a friendship with Mads. Something about draining the life energy from someone and their response was stabbing you made for the start of a good friendship. First, she'd see if Zari wanted to go too, and then go ask Mads.

Andy knocked on Zari's door. "Hey, want to go to the Mall? I'm thinking of asking Mads too." Andy explained once Zari answered.

Zari was basically incredibly bored not doing much when Andy knocked at the door, she had been mainly sitting there arguing with Mr. Eyeball over what to do or if she should go off and find some weird adventure or something. So she was kind of glad when Andy came asking about going somewhere or something. "Ooooooooh sounds like fun! I've never really wandered around one before anyway, so sure lets go! Aaaaaaaand we can bug her along the way and drag her along too," she said gleefully to Andy as she stepped into the hallway with the robot eye following along after her as usual.

"Cool." Andy smiles, giving room for Zari. She leads the way to Mads' dorm. Once there she knocks on the door waiting for Mads to or her roommate to answer the door. She realizes she doesn't even know who Mads' roommate is. Thankfully it was Mads who did open the door. "Hey, I wanted to go to the mall. Since we're new to the area I thought you might know where it is, and give us a tour or something." She did have a specific store in mind and just hoped it would be there. She couldn't imagine how weird it would be to ask about a store that had gone out of business years ago.

Madalyne was sitting on her bed quietly reading a book she had borrowed from the library not to long ago, April was out and about probably with Danni and Dorian or something like that. When she heard a knock on the door Madalyne closed the book that she had and set it down on her bedside table. Getting up from her bed and made her way towards the door wondering who it was at her door, and assumed that it might have been April who might have forgotten her dorm keys for a second. When she opened it Madalyne smiled seeing that it was Andy and Zari who were there and waved at them. "Sure I'd be down I wanted to get out anyway." She said as Madalyne reached for her purse and closed the door to her dorm behind her. "Let's get going."

"Let's goooooooooooo already!" Zari said happily sort of hopping around the hallway. The robotic eye next to her just seemingly shook its head or something by her, but she didn't seem to notice. "I've never really been to one anyway so not even sure where the closest one is anyway, but let's go have a mini adventure!"

Eventually, the small group made it to the mall. Andy went to find the directory since she knew what store she needed. Thankfully she was lucky Build-a-bear still existed. Now she had to hope it had the right sort of outfits. "Any particular stores you want to go to?" Her question was primarily directed to Madalyne, but it did include Zari if she had any desires. "I want to swing by the build-a-bear for some doll outfits." If Mads had noticed the doll she'd probably be able to guess why. "Other than that, getting some non-cafeteria food sounds great."

"Build-a-Bear sounds like a great idea, i'm fine with going there first." She said as she looked at the directory and thought for a little bit on where else to go. "I need some new clothes so maybe hit up one of the clothing stores here would be nice if you guys want to go anyway. The food court here is great to you guys will like them."

She wasn't entirely sure where she'd want to go running around the mall too. However the shop that Andy mentioned definitely sounded interesting to her. Not so much the finding doll clothes thing, but the shop as a whole. "Build... A... Bear? Um, what exactly is that? Sounds interesting to say the least. But what exactly is it?" Zari asked, clearly a bit confused to the whole situation.

"Oh new clothes sounds good. I'm gonna stick to my style but I need something that fits in a bit more." She shook her head. Madayln had been there and heard some of the comments. "Uh, it is not what it sounds like." Andy shakes her head. "You make stuffed animals there. They have more than bears though. But they also have a wide selection of doll clothing so that's why I want to go there. You might like it still." Andy mentally marked where the store was from the directory and started heading in that direction.

"Build-A-Bear is really fun, and like what Andy said you pick from any of the stuffed animals there, and fill them up with stuffing yourself and then you can name them to if you wanted." She said as she followed behind Andy and Zari. "And i'm pretty sure one of these stores will have a good selection of clothes to choose from when we are done and you might find something you might like there to."

"That sounds cooooooooooool let's go!" she said happily before she started almost skipping along with the pair not having a care in the world. Making a teddy bear or something sounded like so much fun to her, she was super excited to see what sort of things that they had there now.

Andy loved when Zari did things like that. It was part of why she had fallen for her. She didn't let the weight of everything that had happened bury her spirit. She was just herself. It was something she wished she could do.

Once at the store Andy showed Zari what dolls she could pick from to make her bear. "Bear is a bit of a misnomer since you can make tons of stuff. I remember there were Pokemon ones." There were the classics of course, and dolls that made sense for 2038. Andy wasn't going to pick one, she just wanted the outfits, but she'd love to watch Zari make one.

She smiled as she followed the two of them over towards the store, when they got to the store Madalyne started to look around at the various choices that they had. "What are you guys going to pick out for your stuffed animal?" Madalyne asked the two of them as she found a cat one that she thought was adorable and grabbed it.

Zari didn't say anything else really as she seemingly glanced around the store to see what all was in the place. It definitely wasn't a store that she had visited before, so now she really wanted to get something. She looked at the different stuffed animals she could make, and decided rather quickly to create a normal teddy bear as opposed to just about everything else, "Ok, so now that I picked one what do we do now?"

Andy hadn't planned on getting a new stuffed animal but she couldn't pass it up if both Mads and Zari were getting one. She grabbed the bat. "Now we can pick a sound for it, or go straight to stuffing. I don't want a sound, but feel free to grab one." Andy led the two of them over to the section where you could get sounds to put in your stuffed 'bear'. She hoped the staff would be extra with them when they got to stuffing. That was always fun and she knew Zari would love it.

She thought for a moment if she wanted some kind of sound effect with her stuffed animal as she looked at the cat that she was holding. "I was gonna go for some cat sounds for mine." She said as she went over and grabbed the one that she needed and started to head over towards the stuffing station. She was actually having some fun, as she turned to look over at Zari. "So how are things going with your team?" Madalyne asked Zari.

"I mean it's going okay? I personally find one person on the team annoying. But also the very first thing that happened was we got thrown into the Framework thing and people discovered that I can cause a lot of issues in a virtual world," she said with a shrug, before she started looking at the different sounds and voice boxes that she could put in her teddy bear. Thinking for a moment and after hearing all of the various sounds, she did eventually pick one out to put into her bear.

Andy snorted. "How was the Framework?" She could perfectly imagine Zari being a god in there...not to forget that technically she was one out of the Framework too. Andy led the little group to the stuffing station. "Hi," she smiled.

The stuffing technician seemed a little distracted but started going through the steps. She had each of them get a little heart and make a wish on it. Then had them do jumping jacks and a little dance, before stuffing their animals.

Madalyne listened to Zari as she talked about the framework training that the team was doing which was cool. Madalyne had been in the framework a few times for some classes that required them to use it. She started imagining Zari in there she was pretty sure Zari was having a lot of fun in there messing with things. "Seems like a cool way to train." She said as her stuffed animal was quickly being filled with stuffing.

"I mean it was cool, kind of. I could have messed with things a lot more if I wanted to, but was concerned I'd destabilize the program, so I only did minor glitches in the code. Like teleporting around. Could have shut down the entire program if I had tried if need be or something," she said with a bit of a shrug. Though now she did find the thing kind of interesting as her teddy bear got stuffed up and all.

"We've been doing a ton of sword work, which don't get me wrong I enjoy. I'm just confused by the archaic study of how to be a knight." Andy shakes her head. She gets her bat stuffed super tight as she prefers the hard stuffed animals. She gave it a hug at the direction of the stuffer, and approved. The stuffer then tightened the stitches. Once the other two had theirs finished the next station was the real reason Andy had wanted to come here - the clothing. There were a ton of options. Thankfully with Halloween approaching too, there were some good 'spooky' things to pick from.

"I don't mind the sword stuff actually my mom did teach me a little bit while growing up as well to." Madalyne said as she went over towards the clothing station and started to look at them all. Since Halloween was coming up pretty soon she decided to go with a witch outfit for her cat, witches and cats always did go together to anyway. "So are you two going to the Halloween dance together thats coming up?" She asked the two of them.

"Nothing wrong with swords. Our teacher pretty sure is psychotic and just wants things to blow up or something. Which you know, if fun, I like chaos, but not exactly all the time," she said as she started looking at all of the outfits and everything for the stuffed animals, she was kind of hugging hers close to her at the moment. Upon hearing Madalyne asking about the dance, she just sort of shrugged, "I mean I dunno? What are dances or whatever like that like anyway? Not to mention I might pay more attention to my birthday that comes first a few days before Halloween. But the dance sounds like it will be fun to go to."

The last party Andy had gone to had not ended well. She snorted to herself, best to keep Mom in the room for this one. "What do you want to do for your birthday?" Andy didn't think much of birthdays, and her last one she had fully skipped over since she had been frozen at the time. But if Zari wanted to do something special she'd do her best to make it happen. "I'd be alright going to the dance if you want to. If we do though we should get dresses while here." They were going to go clothing shopping anyway. She could get some new make-up at the same time. While chatting Andy picked out an outfit for her bat and a few others that Selene might like. "The next step is paying for everything. We get to name them and get an adoption certificate when we do." She explained pointing to the cashier's area.

"Did you want a party or anything for your birthday?" Madalyne asked Zari, she wasn't sure if Zari liked birthday parties or just wanted something small to. The dance she was actually looking forward to as she looked at Andy mentioning about getting a dress or something like that. "It's more like a costume dance than anything there is a party store we could buy some there if you want. Or we can do it sometime later." Madalyne said as she went over and paid for her new stuffed animal and gently took her adoption certificate from the cashier and gave her new friend a hug.

"I mean I don't know what I want to do for my birthday. I usually spent it most of the time with my parents or something not doing a whole lot. Well, one year for my birthday I wanted my own robot, so my mom helped me to build Mr. Eyeball as a present. That's one of the many reasons why I don't want people messing with him. That and he's also the only real friend I had for a while. Helps when your powers naturally let you repair any piece of tech you want though," she said with a shrug. Currently she was working on coming up with a name for her newfound teddy bear as she paid for it. "Not sure what to do for a costume, I mean also never really celebrated Halloween so not entirely sure what to do or anything for it."

"We'll figure out something fun to do, even if it is just to watch a movie or go out to eat. Maybe both, we could go to the movies as a group and then have dinner. You can invite whoever you want." Andy said. She wanted to make the day special for Zari, but wouldn't want to overwhelm her. "As for costumes I'll be honest I'm not sure either. I haven't done one since I was like five." She frowned. "We can go to the party store and see what options there are and pick from there." Andy named her bat Stellaluna. She remembered the book from when she was little. Friendship despite differences was one of the main themes of the story and she had always loved that but hadn't seen it in the world at the time. She did now. She paid for her doll and the clothing she had gotten.

Madalyne listened to the two of them talk she always did like birthday parties growing up, she loved the cake and presents as well to. "So now where do you guys want to go, did you want to go and do some more shopping or hit the food court?" Madalyne asked, she didn't mind either way she was still having some fun and hanging out with Zari and Andy.

Zari thought about what she wanted to do. She never thought she'd actually enjoy shopping this much, which definitely was a bit odd to say the least for her. Currently she had settled on the very simple name of "Beary" for her new stuffed animal friend, and now was wondering what to do. "I say let's go to the food court I'm hungry!" she said happily, figuring they could then go find other stores that would be fun afterwards.

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Diana decided to hit the school's gym she wanted to do a little bit of a workout they usually spent a lot of their training time in the Framework. She was finishing out her workout for the day as Diana pulled out her phone there wasn't any rule for the teams to have some social interactions really. Diana hit send as she grabbed her water bottle and started to head back over towards her dorm.


Ed was in one of the computer labs on campus, frantically coding away. He had a huge project that he needed to accomplish soon, and it was taking all of his energy to push it to completion. Anything less than perfection was unacceptable. His code wasn't compiling the way that it needed to, and he was going on his fourteenth hour staring away at the screen. His phone buzzed, alerting him to a notification. His team had made a group chat. He mostly lurked in it, not replying very much. He didn't dislike his teammates or anything, he didn't have an issue with them, he just wasn't... well, he wasn't the most social of people.

Ed left the chat on read, and returned to his work. He was so close, he was certain of it...

Vicky almost jumped out of her skin when the phone buzzed, messing up the soldering she was tunnelvisioning on. Setting the tools down, she had a look and nodded to herself.


Leah, always the machine she was, had been beating the everloving Christ out of a steel fiber punching bag at the moment. There were already tears in the outer sleeve. Her phone buzzed and she demonstrated her eloquent grasp of the English language.


Zari didn't answer she was probably spending some time with her girlfriend or something, and Ed was doing who knows what he rarely ever did reply to their team's group chat. She didn't mind maybe the three of them could have some kind of fun together as she went to leave the gym and pulled out her phone. Diana hit send and started to make her way back towards her dorm and get herself changed into some normal clothes.



Vicky shot back, packing her work, pocketing the Powerglove and heading to the meeting place with a quick pitstop at the dorm. Once she arrived, she waved the other two over, a little blue that more of them didn't show up. "Hi there. So, what do you feel like doing? I could do with something to make my head stop thinking, I don't care if it's a chill movie or admiring some outdoors."

Diana waited outside of the building when her attention turned towards Vicky and waved at her as she leaned up against the wall slightly as she put her phone away. "Well was thinking either dinner, or maybe hit up an arcade, or go to the beach whichever works for you all i'm open for whatever I can teleport us wherever we need to go to or just take the bus." Diana offered, she was slightly dissapointed that neither Ed or Zari didn't want to go but she didn't say anything about it.

Realistically, Leah didn’t actually care that much about doing anything fancy with the rest of her team. She couldn’t really resonate with most of them, even the maniac supposed to train them was, well, a fucking maniac. But Vicky was also on this team, and she’s be disappointed if Leah didn’t at least try to get along with them. So, she came anyway. Dressed up in her usual Carhart jacket and oversized sweatpants, Leah wasn’t exactly beach-ready. ”Doesn’t really matter to me all that much. As long as it’s not here, and we don’t get split in half if we’re teleported over to it.”

"Well, If you're volunteering yourself for rockmobile duty, I'm not going to complain." Vicky grinned at Leah, "And I don't think beating up Ed any more is in our best inter-oh that's not the arcade hitting you meant. Ugh... this training is frying my brain!" Victoria rubbed her eyes. Was anyone to look closer, they would see bags starting to form under them. She had to both praise and curse her mimicry software. "If it's all the same to you two then, let's not do anything remotely like training. If I go to a VR arcade I might kill someone on accident. I need to vent, not pour more fuel on my funeral pyre. Grabbing some drinks and chatting sounds great. Do... do you guys sing?" she asked, a finger tugging on her collar nervously.

Diana thought for a moment seeing that the two of them weren't really ready for beachwear for the beach she quickly started to think of something else. "We could go out for dinner or something if you two wanted to instead and just hangout. Or we could see a movie to if you want." Diana offered a video arcade then was off the table since Vicky didn't want to do that. "And no I don't do any kind of singing I completely suck at it." Diana said with a slight laugh.

”Food or a movie sound find to me… I don’t really sing. I mean- I could. Probably, anyway. Never really thought of that, though. Why, is that something you do?” If this was a karaoke thing, then maybe Leah wasn’t the right person for it. She didn’t know any kinds of music that weren’t fit for listening to whole slaying gods or going to war. Then again… Maybe that was perfectly fine. Badass Karaoke sounded interesting.

"I do. I like mostly rock or symphonic metal, but if the song is right for the occasion, I'll do any piece. I don't think I'm a particularly praiseworthy artist or anything, but sometimes the lyrics just fit a situation, person or mood so well..." Victoria explained, "Nevermind though. Looks like movies and food it is. What's playing? As long as it is not vintage sci-fi, I'm good. Seen a bit too much of that recently."

"I do like a lot of rock music and metal myself actually." Diana said giving Victoria a slight smile as she thought about what to do and a movie seemed to be good to her. "I think a movie would be pretty good. I'm not sure whats actually playing right now though but i'm sure we can pick something out that we all like when we get there." Diana offered.

"There's always something playing somewhere, won't be hard to find something. So, who's driving? I don't have a car, but I have rocks," Leah offered. The pioneers used to ride those babies for miles.

"I'm with Diana, let's get to a place and pick out what to see there. And no offense to rocks, but I'd rather teleport or fork over a wad of cash for a limo. We're doing this to unwind, not to get sore behinds, am I right?" she said, looking at the teleporter in question, "I trust you if you say you're up for it."

"I don't mind teleporting us on over there it's not that far of a jump, i've done a lot further." Diana said as she gently rested a hand on both Vicky and Leah's shoulders and closed her eyes, using her power to teleport in a bright flash of blue light they were gone. And a second later they were standing on the sidewalk right in front of the movie theater. "Alrighty we are here thank you for using the Novikova's teleporting service. Any and all nausea, dizziness and or lost limbs i'm not responsible for." Diana said jokingly.

When they teleported, Leah was expecting it to be like falling, or to be like they just took a step forward. Instead, it felt more like skydiving; Falling and being inverted through the air suddenly. Leah almost tripped and fell when they arrived. ”Fucking- Holy shit. That’s disorienting. Damn. Okay, are we here, or are we in space or something?” She snarked, looking around.

"Oi! This went rather well, I say." She countered the unpolished gemstone among them, stepping further away from the road she was almost standing in, before looking up at the programme displays. "Okay let's see what's on display. Bunch of haloween themed stuff... romcom... Mission Impossible 7... Oooh, Fast and Furious XX! And... Barbenheimer II?" She named the last one with an air of confusion. What even...? It sounds like a Sucker Punch sequel...

"You'll get used to it after awhile trust me it was disorienting for me to when my power first manifested." Diana said towards Leah giving her a smile, her brother could do the same thing as well to however his teleportation was way different than her's was. "I'll go and buy us the food i'm fine with whatever movie you two decide to pick." Diana said as she grabbed her purse and pulled out her wallet as she headed for the concession stand to buy them all popcorn and drinks.

”Yeah. Cool.” When she walked off, Leah turned around and looked up at the listings. ”I’ve not seen… Any of these. The hell is Barbenheimer? Fuck it. Let’s pick that. It sounds dumb as hell.”

Vicky was already consulting her phone. "Looks to me like pretty chicks lobbing nukes. Gunporn on steroids. This should be fun." She grinned, going for the ticket booth.

Few hours later...

"That... was... Awesome! Dont get me wrong, the story is stupid, but the VFX? And the music? Chef's. Kiss." Victoria was beaming, feeling more energetic now than any time before this week. "This was a great idea, D. Thanks... same time next week?"

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April was not good at confrontation. The only person she had ever really screamed at or fought with had been her sister, and that didn’t count. Everyone yelled at their siblings. But when it came to her best friends, and the radio silence she had received all day? Her confidence failed her. She thought about rushing into Dorian and Danni’s room, demanding answers… but the truth that they had gotten bored of her, that their friendship was over… And she was not ready to face that truth. There were a lot of truths she wasn’t ready to face - some of them deep inside of her.

So as she knocked on the door to their room, she wasn’t here for a fight - to express her feelings or anything. No, she was there with one of Danni’s hoodies. She had borrowed it from him last year, and it had ended up coming back to D.C. with her instead of New Orleans with him. This was just her returning it. It didn’t change the way she felt sick to her stomach, or the way she had a death grip on the fabric. ”Guys? I have Danni’s hoodie, I wanted to drop it off - you home?” April called out, before knocking on the door again.

What if they were ignoring her? What if they were avoiding her? She swallowed thickly, doing her best to breathe evenly.

Dorian heard the knock at their door. He hadn't been doing much of anything at the moment, bored out of his mind as the idea of getting to play Hookey had already lost its appeal. After all, it was hardly as much fun to get out of classes when everyone else was still stuck in them. It wasn't like he could whisk himself away to another country and enjoy the sights while the others studied hard on their first day. So as soon as he heard the knock on the door, he rushed over and swung it open with such force that the spring stopper began to rattle. "Ugh you're finally out of class. I t'ought it would be anot'er eternity until you were set free!"

Dorian hadn't noticed her soured mood, walking swiftly past April as he pushed her in from behind and closed the door. Using his foot to gingerly avoid the broken porcelain while slowly closing the door behind him. "We got t'e day off from school. Firestar wasn't 'appy at all wit' 'ow our first day went. Apparently it's bad form to blow up your students. Coffee?" He asked as he began to make his way over and pour himself his third cup of the day.

Danni frowned as Dee opened the door for April. The brewing ugliness in his chest had finally started to calm down - he'd convinced himself that she just needed some space, that she was upset about the situation, that she would respond before the end of the school day even though she knew how being ignored made him feel. And then she just waltzed right in without even so much as a sorry, or a crazy adventure to excuse herself with. Nope, just a hoodie to return, probably ready to flaunt in their faces how cool her team is, how much better she was without them.

"Yeah, Poisson-Pas tried tearin' us a new one wit' a little C4. T'en Beanie told us how much we all suck as a team, but always figured we'd 'ave a different set up. Kinda got off on a shitty foot wit' your sister when we tried ta convince Poisson-Pas ta swap her out wit' you, but guess we can't get far when you don't even wanna text us back." Danni could feel the prickle of tears at the corner of his eyes, so he didn't make eye contact with April. "Guess your 'appy wit' your team then, huh."

April had a death grip on the hoodie, as if letting go of it would cause her to collapse into a puddle. The coffee in Dorian’s cup froze solid, as did the rest of the coffee that hadn’t been poured out just yet. Any skin care products that were unlucky enough to be in the room as well would find themselves partially frozen, and a thin layer of water condensed on the windows. ”I-I… I didn’t get a text?” April stammered out. She could barely feel her hands. ”I must’ve missed it, I’m s-so sorry. Um. I’m glad you… you didn’t get blown up. Or die. I… I can get going now, then, I’m sorry, this is… this is weird and I… yeah, cool, great.” She then turned around and started for the door, completely forgetting to hand over the hoodie.

Dorian watched as the coffee in his mug froze solid, the steady stream of liquid gold solidifying right before his very eyes like one of those pranks toys meant to look like a spill. He looked between Danni and April, confusion clear in his face as neither of his best friends had mentioned they were in a sour mood with the other and now suddenly they were fighting around him. He placed his mug onto a counter, the pot still frozen to it as it floated in the air when placed down. "OK time out. What is goin on 'ere?" He said as he beat April to the door and leaned against it. If they were fighting they needed to hash it out now.

Danni rolled his eyes at April's theatrics. "What's goin' on 'ere is someone didn't care t'at we, t'e t'ree best friends who 'ave done nothin' but dream about winnin' the Contest of Champions toget'er, aren't toget'er and couldn't even bot'er ta respond ta her best friend's text w'en 'e told 'er 'e wasn't gunna take t'is shit lyin' down. Probably 'cause she was havin' too much fun wit' her new friends. New year, new 'er, and fuck Danni and Dee, even though we fuckin' missed 'er like 'ell over the summer, am I right?" Danni snapped sullenly.

She couldn’t help it as the tears started to fall. She couldn’t bear to turn her head to look at Danni. Each accusation felt like a lash. But April hadn’t received a text message - she was almost sure she hadn’t - but she felt like such a mess that she didn’t reach into her pocket to produce the phone. She didn’t feel capable of removing her death grip off of the hoodie. ”You both have been ignoring and avoiding me all day!” April finally cried out, feeling like she had removed a dagger’s blade from her heart.

”I-I didn’t get a single text the entire time, a-and if I missed it, I just said I was sorry! You tw-two get to do the dream together without me - you probably don’t even need me anymore. I’m the fucking third wheel. I-it’s like those shows when you see three characters and one of them is just cl-clearly not it and the other two want them to leave and I get it now, you two hate me, it makes sense. Why’d you even want a girl hanging around all the time? I-I’ll go, it’s fine, you can - you can invite Zelda over or something or the rest of your team and I bet you’ll do great and y-you’ll win and…” To be fair, April did have a tendency for over-dramatics. But she was feeling all of this deeply. And having Danni snap at her like this… it only fed into the thoughts she had, the thoughts that Danni and Dorian were done with her.

”I-I’m going to g-go, c-can you step aside?” she asked Dorian.

Dorian froze. It felt like what he imagined dial up was like. His brain couldn't compute with anything that was going on and the words quickly began to fade away into the background. This wasn't how they were supposed to act, none of this was in the script. Sure a few things went pear shaped earlier today but this was when it all got resolved right? The fighting just brought back harsh memories of when he was younger and hot tears began to form in the corner of his eyes. "What t'e 'ells are eit'er of you talkin' about?! I didn't send anyt'ing because you were in class all day and I didn't want to get you in trouble, and you…what?! he looked at Danni incredulously.

"Avoiding you?! I am t'e clingiest bitch in t'is group, and you think I'm avoidin' you?!" Danni jumped up from the bed, furious. "Your sister doesn't want shit ta do wit' us 'cause I demanded, in front of her, that we swap her for you! We told Poisson-Pas ta 'is face t'at 'e made a mistake on t'is dumb piece of shit. Danni waved the team letter around in April's face before setting it on fire in a calm, controlled burst. "And I texted, verbatim, "Don't worry Princess, we'll get us back toget'er". And t'en nothing. Does t'at sound like we 'ate you, 'cause it sure as fuck doesn't ta me! Miss me wit' t'is t'ird wheel shit - we text, call, and phone bomb your ass while we're apart. You don't get ta say t'at shit when we're t'e ones t'at stood up for t'e t'ree of us while you go fuck off with your new lays!"

April had turned around to look at Danni, and she flinched, as he waved the flaming paper around - even as a small part of her wanted to praise him for the control he was showing. But then, things got worse. Her eyes widened. She hadn’t told Dorian and Danni yet about making things formal with Leah - and Sabine. She wanted to tell them, of course, but it had basically just happened and she hadn’t had a chance yet. And it seemed like something that would need more than a text, especially when her replacement phone had a dinosaur of a keyboard, making individual words a pain to type out.

”I didn’t get a text!!!” April screamed, like it was a shield. She could hardly see, the tears were falling so fast. ”I didn’t get a fucking text from you!!” She said it like a prayer. ”A-and m-my lays??? I’m a fucking virgin, Danni, you KNOW that! And i-it like JUST happened with L-Leah and S-Sabine and you KNOW I would NEVER end our friendship or abandon you for s-s-some chicks!! I’m not the fucking devil! I’m not the villain!!”

Dorian just watched as the pair of them went at it. His head swiveling back and forth from one to the other as their screaming match had continued on. More and more he was being put back into the role he had played when his fathers had fought. His chest tightened, his heart quickened, and it felt like he was about to black out. The frozen coffee mug went flying off the shelf, slamming against a wall as it shattered and the pot fell harmlessly on his bed. The chairs screeched and groaned as they pulled closer towards him and the lights began to flicker from his oncoming panic attack. He couldn't speak, he couldn't say anything, he just slid down the door slowly, hands against his ears like a frightened child as he closed his eyes and sat on the floor.

Danni recoiled as if he'd been slapped, angry tears finally falling. "Beanie and Leah? What the fuck, I was talkin' about your team, not your relationship? What the 'ell, Princess. 'Ow t'e fuck are we just findin' t'is out now? I was gunna fight Beanie yesterday over you, now you're with 'er?" Danni's head was whirling. Beanie and Princess were like… secret, undercover lovers weren't they? He literally spoke with Beanie about this the other day, and then Princess was kissing Leah, and now all of them are together. How the fuck did that flow road go?! The temporary distraction faded quickly though, as he sidestepped a moving chair.

"Fine, you didn't get a text from us, sure. Then why didn't you text us, huh? Why didn't you stand up for us? I noticed you haven't mentioned anything about that. Or did you just-" Danni paused. Moving chair? He stared at it for just second before the flickering lights caught his attention. Danni looked at Dee, something mean and vicious and sharp on his tongue about why he wasn't upset too, when it died at the sight of him on the floor. Danni barely registered the thud of his knees hitting the floor as he wrapped around Dee as best he could.

"Oh no, oh fuck. No, no, no. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay, we're okay, everything okay." Danni rocked Dee, the argument with April already a distant thought.

”It happened, like, like last night! Like after we’d all talked! And I wanted to tell you all in person, so I was going to tell you now!” April sobbed. ”I didn’t stand up for you? What does that even mean? Stand up for you where? I-” she stopped, the words suddenly cut off. Danni wasn’t paying attention to her anymore - her rebuttals didn’t matter. It wouldn’t matter if she explained she hadn’t texted because they hadn’t texted her and it had terrified her, terrified her that they didn’t need her anymore, that they were always going to be a pair and she was just going to be an extra.

But Dorian was on the floor now, clearly in pain. The room had come to life, like a haunted mansion. And April couldn’t help but blame herself. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have come over here. She wanted to reach out to help Dorian, to soothe him and cuddle him, but she was afraid that Danni would snap at her if she did so. Instead, April lowered herself down, sitting back on her knees. She was still crying, but the tears were silent now. ”D-Dory?”

Dorian hadn't heard any of it. He'd blocked the noises out, muffling them as he sat there with his hands at his ears and his knees to his chest. He knew he wasn't the cause of this fight, yet he still was helpless. He couldn't prevent it, couldn't help. He could feel the vibrations of them yelling, like punches to his ribs. Then suddenly he felt pressure. Someone had wrapped their arms around him. His eyes shot open to see who it was, half expecting to see one of his fathers. His eyes a ghostly green as his powers continued to rage on. Tears fell down his cheek, though as they hit the floor they seemed to phase away.

"Please. Just…stop fighting. Stop yelling. Just…" He could feel his back wanting to give way. To have him melt into the doorway so he could escape this scene. He tried to relax himself but only ended up closing in tighter. His glowing green eyes looking towards his best friend's pleadingly as he felt the grip in his chest threaten more.

"We're done, we're done, we promise, don't we Princess? It's okay, don't cry. 'ush, Little 'auntling, don't say a word cause you probs wanna murder me for callin' you t'at." Danni sung off key, pulling at April's leg to get her into the cuddle pile. Why she was hesitating so long, he didn't know, but Dee needed love and affection damn it.

April bit her lip. She still felt incredibly upset. But she nodded anyways, as Danni asked her to. “Y-yeah, it’s all good, we’re totally fine!” April lied. The cognitive dissonance going on in her head was leaving her feeling untethered. She twitched slightly at Danni’s hand pulling on her leg, but she complied, putting her arms around Danni and Dorian, feeling like they had just put a blanket over a bomb in hopes that it wouldn’t explode.

The second he felt April's arm around him, Dorian launched himself towards his two best friends, tossing them both to the floor. He sobbed quietly with them in his arms as he pulled them in even tighter. "Can't we just solve t'is peacefully or wit' a pillow fight?" He said I between gasps for breath. He didn't care for confrontation, less so when there was yelling involved. "I don't know what you two are on about but I love you bot' so much I don't want to lose eit'er of you."

"We're not on about anyt'in', Little 'auntling. I just wanna know t'at Princess was fightin' for us ta be together like we did, but she isn't sayin' anyt'in' about t'at and just comin' in and sayin' t'at apparently we 'ate her even t'ough we chased her sister out tryin' ta get her in." Danni grumbled as he pinched Dee's cheek, avoiding looking at April. "Shoulda run off Spicy instead. Total prick."

She didn’t know what to say. Dorian was so clearly distressed about them fighting, and April was worried that anything she said back to Danni would just inflame the tensions again. She wanted to say that she didn’t even know how to fight for them to be together as a team - or that she had assumed the lack of texts from them meant that they didn’t even care. She hadn’t known anything about what was going on with Zelda - it vaguely occurred to her that she probably needed to check in on Zelda, or she was going to really get it from her parents’ if they found out. ”No one’s going anywhere, Dori,” April said soothingly. Her own tears had stopped, mostly because she had run out.

Dorian slowly let go of the pair, his eyes back to normal as a few remaining floating items fell down to the floor with a clatter. He looked past the wall where Percy's dorm was before looking back at the pair. He spoke through sniffles as he said "Percy's not all bad. Even Beanie said so. Doesn't help that I made 'im vomit and pass out on 'is first day after you lit 'im on fire." Maybe a lot of the animosity was their fault, between the attacks on Percy and bad mouthing Zelda to her face, it was no wonder the team was falling apart. "Poisson-Pas said we can't swap anyways. Where'd you even end up? We got a judges team but it's been radio silence from you all day. So spill, who'd you get stuck with?"

"Ugh, and Beanie didn't even want ta team up toget'er! I'm still kinda hurt by t'at. You t'ink she'd wanna stick with 'er friends, but I guess she did win by droppin' us, huh?" Danni sighed, resting his cheek on Dee's head as he talked. "Ugh, too much depresso, not 'nuff espresso. Yeah Princess, tell us who…" Danni trailed off. He really, really wanted to make a snarky comment. Like, really really. But damn, Dee just had a panic attack and honestly, he was such an ugly crier.

"Yeah, who uh… who are you paired with?"

April shifted uncomfortably. Dorian had seemed to calm down, but the tension was still palpable. ”I got put on Lady Nimue’s team - she’s… kinda intense?” April explained. Nimue was new to the Margaret Carter Institute, as she was replacing Agatha Harkness as the new magic instructor. ”It’s me and Mads, which is fine - and then this freshman, Mary Sue, I kinda know her as her parents are friends with my parents… And then there’s my… aunt, Andy… from my dad’s bio side,” April said. She looked away from the two of them. She didn’t think much of the weird nickname they had given to their coach. ”There was supposed to be another girl, I think, but she never showed.”

"Did she try to blow you up wit' C4 bombs too?" What was it with this year's batch of judges? Or were the judges teams always like this? Maybe this was why the Young Avengers were as good as they were, because they'd been facing actual life and death scenarios since Freshman year. He paused for a moment as something April said finally clicked in. "Wait, did you say retro-chic is your aunt? 'ow in t'e world does t'at work out? She's younger t'an you are…I t'ink?"

"Wait, wait, wait. You got stuck wit' Nimue? I 'eard from Aggie t'at Nimue was a Sinister clone! You gotta be careful, or Nimue's gunna do wierd experiments on ya. Get Beanie ta look into Nimue's 'ead; maybe she can give you a 'eads up on t'e plan!" Danni supplied helpfully. Apparently as long as Dee was sandwiched between them, he wouldn't get to pout at April for not sticking up for the trio and he was itching to tell her to pull out her phone, but they had to play nice. For now. "But speakin' of Beanie… got yourself a two'fer, 'uh? 'ow'd t'at come about? I'd only 'eard about Leah, and kinda maybe t'ough you were doin' somet'in' downlow with Beanie after pur first day back with how y'all were actin'!"

April’s eyes widened, as Dorian mentioned casually that their coach had tried to blow them up with C4. ”What? No! She did make us fight the questing beast from Arthurian legend, and Mothman, but not C4… Although I guess that’s probably worse?” Or maybe it was better? April couldn’t decide. Either way, it was reckless and dangerous. The coaches she had had before hadn’t done anything like it. ”A Sinister Clone?” April then repeated, completely shocked. ”I thought she was just, like, some sort of Arthurian legend sort of person - y’know, the sort of stuff that Captain Britain deals with…” She bit her lip, trying to think through anything Nimue had done that might seem sinister - which amounted to most of it, really.

”Umm, so like, I kissed Leah - and Leah had already started something with Sabine, so then I guess Sabine must’ve liked me or, like, not hated me or something? I don’t know. I def didn’t have anything on the downlow with Sabine. But now… well, it’s super new and I’m like not 100% sure of everything, but we’re testing it out, and I guess we’ll see if this triangle arrangement works out.” She was blushing deep red. This was all new territory to her. She was happy and excited, but scared and nervous at the same time.

"Wow, that's a lot of new stuff goin' on! Mothman sounds fun though… Do you t'ink Poisson-Pas will let us fight somet'in' cool, or do ya t'ink he'll just keep blowin' us up? I'd like ta do some fightin' rather t'an just survival exercises over and over but Poisson-Pas seems like 'e kinda wants us ta like, live or somet'in'." Danni spoke with false cheeriness, bad at keeping his emotions in check but trying so fucking hard for Dee when all he wanted to do was cry at the thought that Princess wasn't going to have time for them anymore. "And wow, when's the first date Princess? You guys got anyt'in' planned yet?"

"Ugh I 'ope so! I can 'andle beasts and Mot'man no problem. But a bomb?! What am I supposed to do wit' t'at?" Dorian said, a bit exasperated. Sure some heros had to deal with those kinds of threats, but he wasn't expecting to be one of those heros. That was more of a techies problem than his. He hadn't said anything about April's relationship yet. Still unsure of what to say in the first place. She managed to bag 2 people at once and he managed to make his cosmic love vomit in front of everyone. Great. "Oooo yeah when's t'e first date so we can wear fake mustaches and spy from t'e corner."

April nodded again - she was pretty nervous, mostly because all of this was so new and she was scared about messing things up. But she was happy and excited - the drama of the encounter with Danni was just continuing to stress her out, causing her mood to swing dangerously between extremes. The smile on her face was both genuine and a lie. “Um, not really? My phone’s kinda busted so texting has been really hard… I need to call my parents and ask for a new one,” April admitted. She pulled out her phone and flipped it open, pressing a bunch of buttons to navigate to a chat with Leah and Sabine. “I tried earlier and, well…” she showed it to the two. Most of April’s messages were complete gibberish, random letters and symbols without any meaning. “To be fair to me I was texting in class so I couldn’t look at the phone.”

Danni nodded along, biting a wobbling lip as his eyes started tearing up. So that's what happened. She started a new thing with Beanie and Leah and now Danni and Dee were second best. Texting her new besties and ignoring them. The ugly feeling in his chest grew heavier, sinking into his stomach, and he couldn't hold back a sniffle as he tried not to cry. Dee didn't want them fighting, Dee didn't want them fighting, Dee didn't want them fighting so he just had to learn to hold it in. Yeah, he could do that. Totally, 100 percent, no problem.

"Dang, yeah, gotta do t'at stat. 'ow you're workin' wit' t'at dinosaur is crazy." Danni laughed, ignoring the crack in his voice and pushing past the hurt in his chest. He disentangled himself from their little pile, scooching away from them. "Make sure ya keep us in t'e loop t'ough so we can plan 'angouts round your dates and all our practices."

Dorian didn't miss the crack in Danni's voice. Nor did he miss the way he moved himself apart from them. This whole situation was really hurting him, and neither of them would make the move to prove the other wrong. "Oh, if you 'ave a new phone you're goin' to need to a new wallpaper for it." He said with a half chuckle as he pulled out his phone. He opened up their group text, noticing the lack of message from Danni.

Instantly Dorian knew this wouldn't be good, but he also knew this would never be resolved unless it was shown. So instead he picked a photo from his gallery that had all three of them, a particular pic that depicted one of their happier moments together at AA from years passed. He hit send, both Danni and April's phones chirping to life as the image went through and more importantly, the chat would be shown where Danni had never sent his message.

April bit her lip, seeing the physical rejection from Danni, as he scooted away from them - and she caught the way his voice had cracked, the sniffles. They were both pretending to be okay, for Dorian’s sake. It probably wasn’t healthy. But April was fine with pretending - she pretended to be okay all the time. She pretended to be the perfect student, the perfect daughter, the perfect friend - the sort of person that could always be relied on, that was always there to help, never asking for anything in return. She did her best to give and give and never take.

Her clunky phone buzzed twice, as Dorian’s message came through. She had managed to get her phone number switched to this phone - which had taken about an hour or so to figure out, unfortunately. ”It’s loading,” April said, as she opened up the message. ”Might take it a while,” she admitted sheepishly. But on her phone, she could see the chat - the messages that were sent - and that Danni had never sent her one. The guilt and shame melted away - not all the way, but at least partially. She looked at her friend, not saying a word about it. She couldn’t find her voice.

Danni's phone went off, an upbeat song that he would let a call ring to the voice-mail just to dance to. It was awkwardly out of place and Danni fumbled it even though Dee had given them heads up; it took him a few seconds to open up the message. Even though he was upset, he still smiled at the photo - all three of them crowded together and smiling after… gosh, was it a test they'd all been stressy spaghettis over? Ugh, he didn't remember but he chuckled at how happy they all looked together. It was such a stark contrast to where they were now, this bundle of hurt, angry, soggy potatoes, and that thought slapped the smile off his face real quick.

Well, fine. If Princess wasn't going to admit she was wrong, he'd just prove her wrong now. He backed out of the picture, scrolled up to the message he'd sent, and… He frowned at what he saw though. There weren't any messages from today before this picture. Danni backed out of the chat and opened it again, scrolling it once more to see if anything had loaded. Still nothing, he scrolled up faster, checking each and everyone of his good morning texts that he sent every day, even when they were apart because he loved his friends and he wouldn't deny them the amazingness of his perfectly planned good mornings, but he still didn't find one from today. The date above the photo Dee sent sat there, irrefutable proof of one thing and one thing alone.

He fucked up.

And oh, did he fuck up big. He could feel his entire face heating up as the realization hit him, embarrassment making him want to crawl in a hole and die. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and he opened his mouth to speak, to apologize, to scream, to do anything but he could barely breathe, let alone speak. His vision swam and dark spots clustered around the edges of his vision, and his phone shook, his fingers aching and white.

What now? Scenarios flickered through his head, unbidden and unwelcome. April only staying friends with Dee, April ignoring him, getting a message in their chat saying she blocked him, April on dates and never telling Danni all about them. Years of friendship gone because he hadn't sent a text, because he hadn't double checked, because he… he fucked up. Something gross and unwelcome boiled in his, making him want to scrub his skin off his bones, set fire to himself and everything around him, anything to get rid of it and he wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't embarrassment - he'd been embarrassed before but a quick joke and a laugh made everyone move on. Now this was worse and he just wanted it to stop.

"I… I never sent… a t- text." Danni managed to croak out, he hesitantly looked up away from his phone, He couldn't bring himself to look Princess in the eye. "I coulda swore I did. I didn't even send a good mornin' text? I… I always send a good mornin' text. It's like my t'in' cause I always want ta talk ta y'all first every day. 'ow did I not send a text? We… we were walkin' ta trainin' and t'en before we went in, I wanted ta send y'all a text so we could all make t'em fix t'e mistake cause we were suppose ta be on a team toget'er. No one… can stop us if we were toget'er but I didn't send t'e text. 'ow did I forget ta send t'e text. It was important." Danni let his mouth run, not knowing what else to do.

"And t'en I… I… God, I'm so sorry!" Danni sobbed, all but launching himself at Apri with hugging intent. "I was scared and upset 'cause you said you didn't fight for us ta be toget'er but I never even sent ya anyt'in' and I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just… it sucked so much, I missed you so much, it was fun at t'e time even wit' a teacher blowin' us up but after I just felt empty since we weren't wit' you and I was angry and grumpy and I didn't double check and please don't leave me, please please please don't stop bein' my friend! I'm sorry!"

April’s body shook violently - not from fear or surprise or anything along those lines, but more as a release of tension and stress. She didn’t try to hold it together for Dorian’s sake anymore. The tears came readily, and her shaking arms wrapped around Danni, trembling as she could barely hold onto him. A part of her was relieved - she hadn’t missed a text from him, she hadn’t been the one to mess up here. But then another part of her was sad - he really hadn’t sent her anything. He had meant to though. The other thing though filled her with shame - she hadn’t texted them. She had been so consumed in her own inner monologue of morose sorrow that she hadn’t reached out to her best friends.

”I’m sorry too,” April mumbled into Danni’s neck. ”I-I should’ve reached out. I was just so sad and scared and thought you two… that you didn’t need me anymore. A-and that something must’ve changed over the summer o-or that maybe I did something wrong and I’m not good enough anymore to be your friend,” April admitted. ”L-like ten years from now you’d be off in the stars having adventures and shit and you’d go oh remember that girl from school, wh-what was her name, June? a-and I’d be in some shitty town like, I dunno, San Jose and I’d be alone and… Sorry I should stop rambling, I think I’m getting off topic anyways…”

Dorian wrapped his arms around both of them, squeezing them tightly. "We've all been so stressed about auditions and team placement of course somet'in's get forgotten at times. It doesn't mean any of us love any of t'e ot'ers any less. We need to see the positive 'ere! We each made a judges team!!! After t'ree years we did it!!" He squeezed them again before planting a kiss on each of their over dramatic cheeks.

---

---

Diana had been spending some of her time in her room she was getting kind of bored at the moment as she stretched slightly letting out a slight yawn. It was the weekend and she wanted to get off of campus it was a few days since her team's first session now and she was still a bit annoyed being the first to die in the simulation. Diana decided to see what her brother was doing and figured she'd check in on how he was doing at the academy now. Diana left her dorm and made her way down towards her brother's which was on the sixth floor of Stark Hall as she made her way towards the elevator. It didn't take to long as she found her brother's dorm and knocked on the door leaning against the side of the door waiting for Percy to answer.

Percy had been tidying up the room. Now that Teddy was feeling better, he was doing a deep clean of just about every item, ensuring there weren't any lingering germs left behind. His roommate hadn't given him too many details on what was happening, but he was barely around anyways. Percy had a feeling he was going to end up being one of those students who basically had a room all to himself, even if officially he had a roommate. "Coming," Percy said, hearing a knock at the door. He set down his lysol wipe container and intended on teleporting himself to the hallway, in order to greet whoever the person was.

Instead, Percy's teleportation went somewhat disastrously wrong - he teleported directly into Diana, knocking himself and his sister to the floor. "...Hi."

Diana waited by the door hearing her brother when he spoke through the door, she felt the wind getting knocked out of her as she landed on the floor with a loud thud. "Oww.." Diana said as she slowly started to stand up, and offered her hand to help her younger brother back up to his feet. "Bumping into me is better than getting yourself split in two like what happened to me during training." Diana said with a slight laugh. "I was wondering if you wanted to get off campus and get some real food my treat?" Diana offered, hoping he would say yes.

Percy accepted Diana's hand, getting up and brushing himself off. Had it been anyone else, he would've been mortified. But this was his sister - he could lower his guard around her a little more. "You'd think I'd have the hang of that," he muttered, irritated with himself. He wanted to have much more precise control over his powers than he did. He did raise an eyebrow though at what Diana mentioned, but given that she wasn't dead, it must not have been a huge deal. The coaches seemed to be pretty intense in the training anyways. "Did you have a place in mind?" Percy asked. He was new to the school, whereas his sister had been attending for a few years.

"My team tends to spend a lot of our training in the Framework thats where it happened actually." Diana explained as she thought about where to eat. "We could try one of the restaurants on the Santa Monica Pier if you wanted. Theres a place there called Maria Sol there that sounds good if you want some mexican food."

If Percy had been being honest, he’d been hoping to find a good deli or something nearby. But he figured he could ask his sister for her recommendations later - hopefully there was a place that had good coffee as well. He’d like a little local haunt he could go read in, with some comfort food and a good cuppa. ”Sure, I could go for a quesadilla,” Percy said with a shrug. ”You’re lucky - Nemo likes to send us off on the wildest errands all over the place. And physically endanger us. I’m starting to suspect he didn’t retire from the TVA, and that he was actually fired for being incompetent.”

"Cool, did you want to teleport over there or the good old fashion way and take the bus over there?" Diana asked she had used the bus a few times going between the school and into the city but she did prefer teleporting over there since it was a whole lot quicker. She then smiled slightly getting a bit of an idea. "If you want we could sneak into his office and see if there is anything interesting in there, i'm sure he has some information or whatever in there totally up to you."

"Teleporting's fine," Percy said. He was used to traveling that way with his sister. He didn't know if any of his peers had caught on yet, but Percy's teleportation range was somewhat limited. He could only reliably jump about fifty feet or so - any time he'd tried to go further, well... He ended up accidentally traveling a week into the future, freaking out his family. He didn't have the long range control his sister had. He smirked a bit though at her suggestion of spying on Nemo's office. "Lunch first?" he suggested. "Then we can heist."

"Teleporting it is then." Diana said as she gently took her brother's hand and teleported themselves, but instead they both landed onto a wall and groaned slightly. "Thats embarrassing sorry Percy." Diana said to him as she teleported again but only a few feet down the hall, not saying anything at how embarrassing the situation was. Normally she was really good with her teleporting but today seemed to be one of those days where her powers didn't work the way she wanted to. On the third time however they teleported to their intended destination and landed at the front entrance to the Santa Monica Pier. "Here we go finally lets get some food." Diana said as she headed down towards the restaurant.

He didn't judge his sister much for her difficulty teleporting - Percy's own aim wasn't perfect. However, that didn't mean he wasn't going to tease her about it. "Maybe they need to implement driver's ed, but for teleportation," he suggested dryly. "Do you think you'd pass?" he then added with a smirk, following after his sister as she led the way to the restaurant. They were at the pier now and the crisp ocean breeze hit Percy's nostrils. It was a nice change after the dustiness of the academy.

Diana looked over at the Pacific Park on the other end of the pier she had been there quiet a few times by herself during her time at the school. But she was pretty hungry and wanted to get some food at the restaurant at the end of the pier itself her attention turned towards her little brother's teasing and rolled her eyes. "I would totally pass you'd probably have to do the whole thing multiple times." Diana said teasingly and nudged Percy playfully as they entered the restaurant together, a hostess was at the front counter. "A table for two please." Diana said as their hostess nodded and started to lead them over to an open table that was on the outside.

Percy fake gasped. "I'll never forgive you for saying that. I'm amending my will to include that you aren't allowed to attend my funeral," he told Diana bluntly. He did have a will, of course, and it never struck him as odd that a high school student might have one. He had thoughts and opinions as to what should become of his belongings, and he didn't trust his family to sort things out should the worst occur. He had even had the will notarized.

He followed the hostess to the table, taking a seat. It was still sunny outside, and he popped on his sunglasses. That was much better. He then put a huge grin on his face - the sort of grin of a sibling who was continuing their offensive against the other one. "How's your love life, sister dear? Still dead?"

"You are so not getting anything in my will then." Diana said jokingly back towards her brother as she sat down across from her brother, Diana didn't have a will yet. She did think about it however from time to time in case she did actually become a hero and she did die at some point at least her family would get some of her belongings and whatever money she had to. Diana shook her head slightly when her younger brother asked about how her love life is going. "No i'm not dating anyone yet." She answered honestly she decided to keep the whole Artemis thing to herself for now. "What about you any cute boys yet?" She teased back to Percy.

Their waiter came towards their table sometime later and looked at the two of them. "What can I get you two to drink today?" They asked as Diana thought for a moment. "Just a coke please." Diana said as they nodded turning to look at Percy.

"Horchata, please," Percy requested to the waiter. He put on his award winning I am friendly and sweet smile, although often it just made him look like he was gloating. As the waiter left to go fetch their drink orders, he returned his attention to his sister. "No, unfortunately - this school seems to be overflowing with lesbians, and not a single gay man in sight," Percy lamented. "I think I'll die alone. Just me and my books." His mind had slipped to a certain cute boy, but that cute boy was quickly becoming his mortal enemy.

"I'm sure there is someone out there for you, besides you are young still no need to settle down and get married yet." Diana said with a slight laugh, she hadn't really dated anyone either since she had been attending the school there were a few cute boys and girls though. A few minutes later their waiter came back with their drink orders and set them down onto the table. "Are the two of you ready to order?" Their waiter asked as Diana nodded. "I'll have the Baja Fish Tacos please and a side of fries." Diana said as their waiter turned to Percy.

Percy wrinkled his nose at the idea of getting married. Maybe one day, but definitely not any time soon. He was barely fourteen years old after all. "I'll have the chicken quesadillas, thanks," Percy requested. The waiter took their orders and went off, placing them with the kitchen. Percy sipped his horchata, staring at his sister. "What do you think our moms are up to, now that we're both gone?"

Diana leaned back as she took a sip of her drink and watched as their waiter headed off to put their order in, then turned her attention back to Percy as she thought about what their parents were doing. "Probably planning a new vacation or something. That or they are probably helping to prevent the next world ending event to." Diana said, since they were Avenger's as well to they always did have to leave from time to time to help out the rest of the team.

"You don't think they're remodeling?" Percy asked. "Isn't that what people do, when their kids go off to live somewhere else? I'd be surprised if we still have bedrooms come this summer. You very well may be sleeping on the couch. I'll take the guest bedroom, of course," Percy proposed with a smirk. He liked to try to rile his sister up, although Diana rarely gave him the satisfaction.

"Oh i'm sure they are going to move all of your things into the cold dark basement and I get the guest room instead if they are planning on remodeling. That or they are planning another baby so that way you aren't the baby of the family anymore." Diana teased and smirked back at him. She did enjoy teasing her little brother and he rarely ever did get her riled up, she did wonder what they were actually doing right now while they were at school. A few minutes later their waiter came back to their table carrying the tray with their food and handed it to them. "Was there anything else you two would like?" They asked as Diana shook her head.

Percy shook his head. "No thank you," he said. The waiter then left, before adding that the siblings just should wave them on over if they needed anything else. Percy chuckled a bit though, thinking about their parents having another baby. "I think they're a little old for that - and besides, they can't improve on perfection," he reasoned. "Besides, what if the baby came out straight?" he then hypothesized. "I don't think the family would be able to live down the shame if that happened. I'd have to change my name."

Diana giggled slightly at the thought of their mothers having another baby, they were getting pretty old well their mother Maria seemed to still appeared to be really young still due to her healing factor and life absorption powers. "Well then they would be breaking the cycle for once." Diana said as she took a bite out of her fish tacos even their aunt Kristina was also bi like she was which was cool.

Percy nodded, before trying the quesadilla - it wasn't half bad. It was nice to hang out with his sister too. This school was pretty lonely, and while he'd protest he didn't need friends, it was good to have someone to talk to - especially someone that he didn't have to put on a cool front around. "We should do this again," Percy proposed. "Maybe you'll even teleport better next time."

Diana smiled at her brother and nodded. "I really enjoyed it just the two of us. We definitely should do it a lot more often." She said back to her brother, she had a lot of friends at school but she felt a lot more comfortable around her younger brother and she could confide in. She shook her head slightly as she took another bite out of her taco and a sip of her drink. "If I remember correctly you were the one to teleport into me first." She said with a slight laugh as she simply just enjoyed the meal and hanging out with her brother.

---

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Danni skipped out of his dorm and right down the hall, basically right next door. Vicky's comment the other day brought up a good point - Danni really had no idea how to handle a dragon, let alone raise one. What if he'd already killed the poor baby? Maybe it didn't want to be snuggled up under a heat lamp, maybe it wanted to sit in a freezer or be buried like a turtle. He'd forgot Mads's offer in the chaos of their first day but he was here to take her up on it now.

Now, Danni wasn't really the studious type. Danni would even argue that libraries were his natural enemy. The silence was suffocating, the general stillness made his skin crawl, and the weird smell every library had made him nauseous, and it never failed to make Danni itch for a itsy, bitsy light show. So, it was for the greater good he went with a chaperone who he could bother and annoy instead of setting this on fire. Plus, he didn't want to be a dead beat dad! He need to know how to take care of his baby properly; neglect wasn't an option.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaads, open up, open up!" Danni sang as pounded loudly on the door, bouncing on his toes. "Wanna take ya up on your offer ta go ta t'e library for a Dummy's Guide ta Dragons!"

Madalyne sat in her dorm she was doing a little bit of light reading she was enjoying her day as she stopped and heard Danni’s voice from outside of her room. She had nearly forgotten that she had offered to help Danni with his new little baby dragon. She needed to return a few books anyway to as Madalyne made her way towards the door and grabbed the books that she was going to return.

She gave Danni a friendly smile as she opened the door and looked at him. “I was just about to head down to the library so lets go and get you hooked up with some dragon learning material.”

"Yaaaas! Lets get t'at lit!" Danni cheered, immediately winding an arm in hers and setting out. "So Vicky busted on in, nearly gave me a 'eart attack too 'cause Dee played a prank on 'er wit' some electrical doodads. You know, Dee always geeks over Vicky's stuff anyway but guess he wanted to be a shneaky shnake about it and I t'ought they got in a fight and Dee was unconscious but 'e wasn't but more importantly, Vicky asked 'bout the egg and I don't know up from down about takin' care of it so figured we could chill and read about it together!" Danni spoke animatedly, waving his free hand around with gusto as they walked.

"Plus, we 'aven't 'ad any 'angout time in aaaaages. Killin' two birds wit' one stone and all t'at! Oh, I'm so excited! You t'ink t'at it'll be easy ta take care of a dragon? Oh jeez, what if it's t'e size of a tree? Like t'e 'aunted tree! You know, t'e one t'e little child 'aunts here!" Danni paused a second as something in his head seemed to click and he practically vibrated as he walked. "OMG, Mads, Mads. Listen, listen. You 'ave magic, and magic people can like, talk ta ghosts and shit right? Can you ask t'e tree ghost it's name? I am dyin' ta know."

“We hangout all the time whenever you guys come over to my dorm to visit April you know. But it’s nice to just hang out the two of us actually.” Madalyne said with a slight laugh as she gently patted her friend on the shoulder as she led him down towards the library. "I’m sure Vicky loved it when Dorian decided to prank her or whatever.” She said as they got closer towards the library.

“Do you mean a seance or something?” She asked him, it really wasn’t that hard if you knew what you were doing, people without magic did them all the time anyway. “We could do that sometime if you want I just need to get some stuff for it.” She told him as they finally made it to the library now.

"Obvi, between just us! Hangin' wit' t'e group hits different, ya know?" Danni giggled as he pulled open the library door. It was rare that he came in here, group project partners nearly dragging him by the collar to get his help. The soaring, vaulted ceilings contained rows on rows on rows of shelves and his head just started spinning the second he tried to process it all he swore he was allergic, but most people just ignored him when he insisted he was allergic to the library. "Oooh, yes a seance! We should tots do t'at sometime! Get answers and spread t'em around ta see what craziness happens!" Danni smiled sheepishly at the few people who shushed him, forgetting to adjust his volume as they came in.

"Okay, dragons. Where can we find books on t'at?" Danni asked, looking around thoughtfully.

Madalyne smiled as she shook her head slightly at Danni’s antics as they entered the library some of the other students in there shushed him. “But yeah we can do that sometime i’ll need some stuff for it though.” She said as she entered the aisle that had the spot for magical creatures. “The books should be here in the magic section follow me.” She said as she made her way towards her usual spot where she spent a lot of her spare time in. “So you got a name for the little guy yet?” She asked as she started looking at some of the books.

"Oh, it's been 'ard settlin' on one! I t'ought 'bout Aggie 'cause t'e old witch gave 'im ta me, t'en I was like nah, it's not epic enough. So t'en I t'ought 'ydras are super intense and t'en I t'ought what about Kraken cause t'en I could be like "Release t'e Krakren!" And it would be my adorable baby chewing faces off!" Danni cackled as he inspected the books.

The only book he could find was beaten and battered, clearly having seen better days. Danni pouted as he pulled ot off the shelf. "Gross. What is t'is t'in'? Is it any good?" Danni flipped it open, scanning it. The information, something about another dimension, made his head spin and he quickly closed it. "Nope, not'in' good, just gross."

Madalyne looked at Danni as he managed to find a book that looked like it was in pretty rough shape, and it looked like the other dragon books were taken and checked out. “Here let me see it.” Madalyne said as she gently took the book that Danni had and looked it over. It looked like it was actually really useful. Her knowledge on dragons was good but this had more info than she could provide.

She then started to chant a spell quietly, since they were in the library she didn’t want to be loud at all really. The book started to slowly repair itself somewhat the book was still in rough shape but it was in better condition now, and it didn’t look like someone’s dog tried to eat it. "It’s the only book we have really, the others look like they are checked out.” She said to Danni as she handed it back to him.

"Aww, you're t"e best!" Danni cheered, throwing his arm over her shoulder. "Still, it doesn't seem like such a great book? It's like… a guide book from somewhere I don't know even exist? Mads, you're a magic person; do you know anyt'in' about dragons? Like, I know not everyone magic will but people wit' magic are probs gunna know more t'an someone wit'out it. I really just need ta know what temp it likes ta snooze in, how long it's gunna be before it 'atches, and if it needs like… 17.2 sheep or somet'in' once it does for food. Also, I gots ta figure out what kind of horde it's gunna want cause I'm gunna be t'e best dragon daddy and I need ta get a 'ead start!"

Madalyne gave Danni a smile as he wrapped an arm over her shoulder. “Well text books aren’t supposed to be all that interesting unlike fiction books.” She said teasingly as she started to think about her knowledge on dragons Agatha did do a small unit on them awhile back during her first year attending the academy. “From what I remember one species of dragon the European kinds their flames can melt reality.” She said with a slight shrug as she looked back at the book. “Thats about all I know, that book though does have a dimension you could go to and they’d give you more information about it than I could. Maybe they could even find out what kind of dragon yours is to.” She pointed out.

"Well, I mean sure, but like, 'ow do I do t'at in the middle of the semester, ya know? I don't t'ink dimension 'oppin' is as easy as openin' the library doors, right?" In any show he'd seen, it took enormous amounts of magical energy to open portals between dimensions and Danni def didn't have that! "Well, I'll check it out and see if Dee 'as any ideas. He does more wit' t'at kinda stuff."

Madalyne thought for a moment, she did have a class on other dimensions and stuff. “I can see about asking my Study of Ethereal Realms, Planes, and Dimensions teacher about it that should be helpful.” She said giving Danni a smile. “I think thats about all we can do at the moment though i’ll help whenever and wherever I can to.”

"Yes, tell me all t'e magical secrets! T'ough, do you t'ink t'ere is a magical creatures class on campus? Or like, a myt'ical biology class? I could just ask t'e prof t'ere about it, right?" Danni pondered, tapping the book on his chin. "Oh well, t'at's a question for anot'er time, anot'er day. Right now, we have a seance to play!" Danni cheered, wrapping his arm in hers and marching to checkout the book, all while chatting on about his theories for who the ghost haunting the tree is.

”I do have a cryptozoology course as well to so you could swing by sometime and ask the teacher about that as well to.” Madalyne said as she smiled and started to take out her phone as she started to make a list for the seance later for all the materials that they would need for it while they went to check out the book.

---

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Zelda had been sort of bored so she had begun tinkering a bit with the design of sorts for at least a prototype suit for Percy. It was a basic one since the main function was to get it so that at least the clothes appeared to change appearance for the time era it was in. And she was making it with a fabric she had found that was a bit more adaptable to different environments and more resistant and durable in general. Of course, it had served as a nice project to get her mind off of the rest of the team that they both had gotten stuck with. Eventually, she did find Percy after she had finished the project and basically had just sent him a message to come to meet up with her at her dorm room since she had something to give him. Of course she kind of had kept her little mini project hidden from her roommate, figuring it best to not potentially have to explain the full thing to her or something.

Percy had been watching reality television in his room when Zelda texted him, asking him to come on by. He visited Zelda's dorm room somewhat often, mostly because her roommate was his older sister, Diana. There was another dorm room besides his own that he tended to visit, although he had been keeping that development somewhat private. He didn't need his personal affairs to be the talk of the entire school. Although he wouldn't have been surprised if the other person in the budding relationship had already told most of the junior class. He made his way on over to Zelda's dorm - it wasn't too far, just on another floor of Stark Hall, and he knocked three times. "Zelda? It's Percy."

She walked over and opened up the door, giving him a slight smile, "Hey there Percy..." she said, before stepping aside to let him in the room. Once he entered, Percy would see what looked to be a mannequin of sorts with a costume on it. It looked identical to the outfit that he was wearing currently for the most part. "Remember how we spoke about what sort of costume or whatever we'd do for you? Well I kind of decided to try making it. The crest on the suit is what hides the thing meant to shift your outfit depending on what period you're in... But obviously not entirely sure that it works or anything for what it's meant to do without actually testing it out or something..."

Percy blinked, looking at the mannequin. He hadn't actually expected for Zelda to be able to make a costume that would fit his specific needs. He had watched a few video series on designing clothing for superpowers, and it wasn't an easy job, even for the simpler powers. Percy, somewhat haughtily, figured that his would never be called simple. "How'd you make it?" Percy asked, incredibly curious. He reached out and gently touched the fabric, as if too hard a contact would cause it to unravel and fall to pieces.

"Well I already had a lot of the sort of materials. I typically tend to keep on hand fabrics and materials that are fairly durable... Though I did go on a bit of a scavenger hunt to find something that would be better for just in general durability in the fight... Now for the tech part well... I did have to ask someone for help with that... But thankfully we both know someone whose good with tech and electronics, and Zari essentially squealed with excitement at the challenge that I gave to her and we figured out a way to make it so that it, well hopefully, works correctly... I have my own little costume I've sort of been working on for me, but yours was a bit more interesting to work on in general..." she said, still not entirely sure about his reaction, "So do you like it?" Zelda then asked, waiting to hear his response.

That made sense to him, Zelda involving Zari - Zari hopped between universes, she had access to the sort of text that could make clothing change to fit a time period. In fact, Percy wouldn't have been surprised if Zari's mother had even invented a device that would similarly help her daughter blend in. Clearly Zari wasn't using it though, as her style looked as alien and awkward as always.

It was also the most he had heard Zelda talk in a while. Or ever, really. She was always so shy and withdrawn. Percy nodded. "Yeah, I love it - thank you," he said, giving her a smile. "Can I try it on?" He hoped that it fit. He didn't know how Zelda would've gotten his measurements, but maybe Diana had given them to her... Although he didn't know how Diana would have gotten them either. But he didn't worry about it. Not yet. It wasn't creepy yet.

"Sure, figured that probably would need to happen," she said with a slight smile, before she gently pulled the the outfit off the mannequin and handed it to him. Zelda had only been able to get more of just a general sizing for the outfit, so she was wondering how it'd fit him. Having kept what exactly she was making from Diana, she had basically asked her what it was and only saying it was for something she was making for Percy. It would be easier if it was a little big on him or something, since either he could potentially grow into it, or she could just easily adjust it to fit him better. Fixing it if it was too small would be a bit more of a challenge for her, but not super impossible.

Percy grabbed the outfit from Zelda, and went into the closet. It was the only spot in the room where he could change without being seen. He wasn't keen on changing in front of Zelda, and the bathrooms were communal in Stark Hall, meaning he'd have to leave and come back. He got dressed pretty quickly, and when he came out, it was pretty clear that the outfit was slightly too big on him - he looked almost like a little kid playing dress-up in their parents clothes. "Well, I'm relieved to know you didn't have my exact measurements after all," Percy quipped, smirking at her.

"I mean that would have been impossible to get without asking you, and that would have ruined the surprise, but I can pin it so I can just hem it to make it a little smaller for you. Fixing from too big is harder than going up in sizing anyway... Not sure how you'd want to test out whether or not it can shift appearances where you are though..."

"It wouldn't have been impossible," Percy said, somewhat without thinking. Zelda could have snuck into his room while he was asleep and taken his measurements. That was what he had been mildly concerned that she may have done. Only mildly concerned though - it didn't seem like her. He hesitated for a moment though, as she suggested trying it out. His moms had always warned him to not try to time travel without an instructor, that using his powers to time travel rather than just spatially hop would be too dangerous. One was like sliding along the ice, the other was like descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn.

It was stupid and reckless and risky. He didn't even have perfect control over just a spatial jump.

But he cared that Zelda thought he was cool and impressive with his powers - he wanted everyone at the school to think that. "Sure, I can give it a try - did you want to come with?" he offered. He wasn't going to try anything too big. Maybe a day or so. Then a month. Maybe a year. Nothing crazy. Nothing massive.

She was a bit surprised that he fully went with the trying his powers thing. Personally she would have been fine to just wait a little while for the season to change or something and they just wouldn't be sure until then "Uh sure, sounds like it might be interesting to see what happens."

Percy nodded. This was a stupid and reckless idea. But he was going to start small and work his way up to it. He took Zelda's hand and concentrated. It was different from when he jumped from location to location, but somehow exactly the same. His plan was to take them back five minutes. Nice and small. Then he'd go further. And further. The air shimmered around his hands a strange blue, and there was a POP, as Percy and Zelda were flung back in time...

Exactly one hour. The dorm room was empty, thankfully, so they didn't need to worry about running into past!Zelda - or even past!Diana. Percy frowned. "I think I overshot it," he admitted. It probably was a bad idea to try going even further back. Probably. Maybe.

"Well that was interesting to say the least... I do think the idea of you being able to time travel no matter how small is kind of cool... Especially when you consider how useful even a small jump back could be..." she said, looking around the room a bit, "Hopefully we don't run into anyone since that might not end well though..."

"I could try to get us back an hour forward, but it might be easiest to just hide somewhere," Percy admitted. "I think as long as you don't run into yourself, it should be fine." His moms had warned him against running into versions of himself - they had said that it was likely nothing good could come from it. His mother, Dominika, had even gone on a long explanation of the quantum mechanics and physics involved in such an event that summed up to not great.

"Probably for the best, though... We need to hide somewhere else other then in here... Since I'm probably heading back this way soon. And running into myself for whatever reason would be weird to have happen... So let's find someplace else to wait it out..."

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Classes had been canceled for the day, as all students were participating in the qualifiers for the Contest of Champions. Only four teams could be submitted to compete in the actual contest, so today's purpose was for the school to decide which groups stood the best chance of winning it all. To minimize any chance of favoritism, contest coaches were prohibited from sitting on the judges panel for this. Instead, their colleagues in superheroism had graciously donated their time to come and observe the students. Usually, these tended to be C-listers - the sort of Avengers that would be placed in the very back of a group shot and most definitely did not have their own merch at Hot Topic.

This year was different. A-listers were coming to watch. As to why that was? Well, the AA gossip mill had brought up a few explanations, some of which may even be true -

• Half of the Young Avengers were graduating this year, so the school needed to find replacement members, and having a more experienced eye would help.
• Half of the Young Avengers were graduating this year, so the school was trying to create more chances for them to be seen in action by high ranking members of the Avengers.
• The Young Avengers were an actual superhero team with public recognition, with higher profiles than the usual C-listers who came to town
• Most of these rumors really tended to revolve around the Young Avengers

At any rate, all the students knew was that big names were coming. They would be evaluated by a panel of three judges, based on their performance in the scenario given. If they scored high enough, they'd have a shot at getting to go and compete in the actual Contest of Champions, up against the best of the best of youth superheroes. If they didn't, then they'd be stuck on campus watching as others lived out their dreams, and they studied for algebra tests.

The first round began at 9:00 sharp. Six teams were being evaluated. The second round would begin after lunch, where the remaining seven teams would be evaluated by the judges. This year's scenario was simple - heroes vs villains. The teams would have to compete in direct combat. The last team standing would win. Additionally, the villains team would begin with a Shi'ar golem hostage.

ROUND ONE - 9:00 AM

Training Room A
Excelsior (villains) vs the Mighty Marvels (heroes)
Ser Nemo vs Jack of Harts
Judges - the Black Knight, Crystal of the Inhumans, Shang-Chi


Training Room B
Uncanny Avengers (villains) vs the Unity Squad (heroes)
Usagi vs Tigra
Judges - She-Hulk, Blade, Rogue


Training Room C
The Huntresses (villains) vs the New Defenders (heroes)
Lady Nimue vs Brunnhilde
Judges - Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow

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In training room B, the stage was set - literally. Behind the Uncanny Avengers was a Shi'ar golem that looked suspiciously like Britney Spears. There was a pool of water in the middle, off to the side, for anyone who might have elemental powers. Students were allowed to bring whatever weapons and equipment with them that they wished. Vicky had tried to cobble together some comm devices, but it had been an outrageous failure (a nat 1 on a d20) - the approach definitely needed to be rethought.

But the room made it unlikely that anyone would have trouble hearing anyone else - it was large, but no so large that a good shout wouldn't do.

Arcade had shown up almost at the last minute. He had a belt with a million pouches on, likely containing different tricks and whatnot. He had thought about bringing his laptop, but he didn't want to risk damaging it. He had goggles on as well, to protect his eyes, and a Kevlar vest.

The judges today were Rogue (famously of the X-Men, but she had served as an Avenger too) (she was getting up there in age, but looked like she was 50 at most, and still in her prime), She-Hulk (in her green form, looking not a day over 30), and Blade (who insisted on wearing his sunglasses indoors).

The other team, coached by Tigra, was called the Unity Squad. They were mostly freshmen, with a sophomore and a senior. The senior (Momchil Angelov) was somewhat well known around school, on the account that they were a bird person - they looked like one of the Rito from a Legend of Zelda Game. They had a bow strapped to their back and a quiver of arrows at their side. There were two girls with excessively curly hair and bushy eyebrows. There was another person who was incredibly androgynous and had a weird glow to them, and the ceiling lights seemed to flicker when they moved. And then there was Jyoti Singh, the It Girl of the sophomore class, her bubblegum pink hair tied back in a braid. When she moved, her feet barely touched the ground.

"Well, hey there, sugahs!" Rogue greeted. "Ma name is Rogue, that's Jen, and that's Blade. You all have fifteen minutes tah do yer task - villains, that's keepin' the hostage, and heroes, that's savin' poor Britney. No maimin' or killin' now, y'all understand? Good. Yer time starts now!"

Angelov took off into the air, as did Jyoti. The two of them flew across the room, making a beeline for the hostage. The lights all then suddenly went out, and Abby Smith was a glowing being of energy, having eaten the power like it was candy. They looked across the room, their eyes glowing bright yellow, as they grinned a knowing grin.

The lights weren't the only source of power around.

One of the curly haired girls suddenly turned into metal - only lit by the intense light bouncing off of Abby. And the other one's eyes began to glow, before laser beams emitted from them. She swept her head in an arc, in order to maximize the number of targets hit. She ended up hitting Ed and Diana, sending them both flying backwards into the back wall, their uniforms smoking. Diana had a bad burn - it would hurt somewhat to move, at least at first. Ed's vest had taken most of the damage for him.

---

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April had been up for a few hours due to nerves. She had gotten changed into her training uniform at about 7:00 AM. She had texted her girlfriends and her soul-brothers (thank the gods she had finally gotten a decent phone, and the Nokia had been chucked into a bin). But that had only taken her about twenty minutes. There had been plenty of time for nervously pacing in the room, for staring at her water bottle and making the water go between frozen and unfrozen until the water bottle had finally had enough and cracked from the stress. Cleaning up the mess had then only killed thirty minutes at most.

So by the time she was in the training room with her team, facing down their opponents, she was more than ready to get this all over with. But simultaneously, she felt sick to her stomach. If they messed this up, there'd be no Contest of Champions for them. And even worse, real Avengers were watching them. Iron Man didn't suit up much these days - he was in his 60's or 70's now, his hair long since gone white, and he walked with a cane. Black Widow creepily looked like she was still in her 20s or 30s - must've been the super serum she had received in the Red Room. The Hulk - well, Doctor Banner - looked like he was in his 50s or so. But he had looked like that for the last thirty years from what April could remember.

Standing on the other side of the training room were their opponents - Brunnhilde's team, the New Defenders. April only recognized two of them - Theda Papadopoulos, a gorgeous Greek girl with unnatural piercing yellow eyes and almost translucent skin, as if her corpse had long ago been cast off into the sea. April didn't remember anything about her powers or what she could do, but she knew that she was looking at a predator. The other one she recognized was Michaela Jones - a dark skinned girl with her hair done in bantu knots. She had no idea what Michaela's powers were either. Both Theda and Michaela were a year above April - seniors.

The three she didn't know, she assumed must've been freshman. One was a pale girl with her hair done in braids - for whatever reason, April immediately decided she hated her. There was a ginger with a wild spray of freckles across the nose. And an Egyptian boy who kept dancing from foot to foot, as if he couldn't bear to stay still.

"We ready to get this show on the road?" Mr. Stark asked, before taking a sip of his ginger ale. "Great. You know the rules. No killing or maiming. Huntresses will be the villains. New Defenders will be the heroes. Blah blah blah. You have fifteen minutes, so don't screw it up. Go." He waved his hand dismissively.

Black Widow rolled her eyes. Banner shot them all two thumbs up. "You're gonna be great!"

April swallowed nervously. The Shi'ar golem, looking like a cute little girl with pigtails and a dress, was tied up behind her team. There was a pool of water in the middle of the room, off to the side - she assumed for her, Lady Nimue must've asked for it. "Okay, let's do this!!" April cheered.

In the blink of an eye, the other team was on the move. Megan drew her sword, only for Gideon to smirk. "Hell yeah!" the senior girl shouted. Gideon was an accomplished sword-fighter, but her superpower was that she couldn't die. The only way that she could be killed would be if someone consumed her soul, and even then, her body would continue to live on without her.

But instead of rushing forward to meet Megan, Gideon went right for Theda. A forked tongue slipped out of Theda's mouth, as she began to sing in a strange language, whisperings that April couldn't understand. She felt a longing to know though, to go and kneel down at Theda's feet, to... "Shit, she's a siren!!" April realized. "Plug your ears! Gideon, don't get distracted by her boobs!!"

Gideon had a reputation for being a himbo butch lesbian.

Neferkare dashed forward with supernatural speed - nowhere near Speed or Quicksilver or Northstar - but still incredibly fast. He was making a beeline for the hostage. April's reflexes were somehow fast enough though, as she yeeted a gigantic portion of the pool water at him, and froze it around his feet.

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Percy hadn't deviated very much from his routine. Shockingly, he was not nervous about the qualifiers today. He didn't intend to go into this sort of superheroism. He was here at Avengers Academy to learn the skills he needed to explore time and space, to be the sort of traveling adventurer like his hero, Odysseus. Fighting as a member of a group against another group seemed unneeded. He'd be better off spending his time watching Doctor Who. David Tennant was certainly easy on the eyes, even if he found the Doctor's fashion choices atrocious.

However, he knew how much this meant to Dorian. So he was going to put his best foot forward. He had selected a freshly cleaned uniform, wanting to look his best, even though these uniforms tended to get destroyed throughout training sessions. Or at least, ruined enough that he had no intention of ever using them again. He had slipped a nicely penned note under Dorian's door the previous night - writing letters was really becoming a lost art - wishing his boyfriend good luck today.

And reminding him that they still had a test on the Iliad at the end of the week.

Now, he was standing in the training room, facing down their opponents. The judges didn't impress him very much. There was Crystal of the Inhumans, who seemed to have aged nicely into her role as a cougar / a candidate for the Real Housewives, given the way she was inappropriately touching (or trying to touch) the Black Knight. Percy was fairly certain the Black Knight was dating Sersi of the Eternals at the moment - that would be some interesting drama for the tabloids. And then Shang-Chi seemed to be regretting his life choices, seeing how far he could scoot his chair away from those two.

"Oh, sorry, duh, it's time to start this thing," Crystal of the Inhumans said with a sigh. "Don't kill each other. Or do, that might be interesting. Fifteen minutes, villains - that's Excelsior - keep the hostage. Heroes - try to reclaim her. Last team standing wins, and all that jazz. So, like, um, go?"

Percy was not feeling inspired. He glanced behind him, noting the tied up Shi'ar golem - it had been made to look like a little boy with a balloon, which he wasn't sure if that was twisted or funny. Perhaps both.

He didn't recognize anyone from the other team - the Mighty Marvels (Percy hated that name. It felt very gimmicky). There was a tall boy who looked vaguely French, a short girl with an insane number of piercings and her hair clipped almost to the scalp, a larger boy holding an impressively sharp looking double sided spear, a Greek looking girl with haunting yellow eyes and sharp features and prominent veins, and then an Arabic person who was tossing a ball of light back and forth in their hands.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I don't suppose they're going to just tell us what they can do," he observed dryly. Hopefully the older students on his team knew. And hopefully Zelda didn't fall over from having a panic attack.

Almost unconsciously, he found himself walking forward, drawn towards the Greek girl. But then he was snapped back into focus, as he found the tip of a spear pressed into his chest. "No," Percy refused. He executed a perfect jump through the fabric of space, reappearing behind the taller boy with the spear. He kicked the boy in the back, sending him stumbling forward to the ground, the spear falling from his hands.

"You little shit!" Paul cursed, scrambling back up to his feet.

---

---

---

Leah was already awake... For the last two and a half hours.

For the first hour, she was in the gym as usual, hammering away at a steel fibered punching bag and getting her blood rushing with some tungsten-clad weights that clocked in at about 700 pounds minimum. High-energy metal blasted from her phone as Leah prepared for the long and heavy day ahead of her. Leah didn't even care about the contest itself. For her, this was actually a rather lightweight workout, she usually went to 1,100 pounds minimum, and a vibranium-fiber punching bag. But right now, she just needed a warmup. Being a hero was never the point of Margaret Carter for her, so much as having a roof over her head and moving on with her life. Of course, Leah was all for saving lives, but unseated some baby Avengers was the least of her concerns in that. Sure, the money would be nice, but it was just that. Money. Despite this, Leah knew that others cared, and genuinely believed in the Contest of Champions. They trained and damn near broke themselves to live up to the challenge, so Leah saw this as a matter of obligations. An obligation to the team she had been training with and trying so damn hard to resonate with, an obligation to April and Sabine to be her real self and not a flunk just for the sake of it, and an obligation to Victoria, who would feel very disappointed if she didn't show up. Leah was doing this because it would be stupid not to do it, and because she didn't like to lose, Young Avengers and popularity be damned.

By the end of it, the punching bag's outer sleeve was starting to split, so she called it there, and Leah considered herself thoroughly warmed up and awake. She put everything away, drank some water and got changed. She then spent roughly 40 minutes combing out knots in her hair with her hands. Most of them were because she always tied her hair back when she worked out, but Leah was also doing this for a special occasion- Her hair was a weapon. Adamantium would struggle to hold together against the coarseness of Leah's hair, and the curls, along with the sheet volume of the hair that draped to her ankles meant that it tangled very easily. If someone were to swing a weapon, or even their fists at Leah from behind, it wouldn't do to have it clumping together. Leah would consider it bonus points if she were moving quickly in the fight and her hair whipped out to flay someone by mistake... At least on the enemy team. After that was taken care of, Leah's hair was as smoothed out as she could get it, like a thick curtain that chewed up metal like moldy, wet cardboard.

Leah grabbed her phone, having taken care of that, and texted her girlfriends. By now, they'd be deep in their preparation.



Knowing April, she was terrified right now. Sabine was probably pressed, but not stressed. Hey... That rhymes. She quickly shot a text to Victoria as well. It was partially a joke, but realistically, Leah and her entire team knew it was pretty damn accurate.



She then left her phone on her desk, and fished something out of the drawer. It was a pouch of carved stones, engraved with magic runes. Agatha gave her these. She had vaguely studied them, but Leah never could get them to do much. She'd draw them on paper and try to make some effects come about, but the best she could do was make the paper smell like it was burning. They were permitted to bring anything they needed to take the win, but would these really help her?

Even if she couldn't make their magic work, she was holding a bag of small, uniform rocks. They could be used to make some pretty good shotputs if Leah was particularly desperate. With that decision being made, she left for the armory.

---

Shortly after, Leah appeared in the training room, surrounded by her teammates. She was dressed for the occasion, wearing combat armor somewhat similar to Arcade's, only it covered Leah almost completely, and was much denser than most armor, to compliment Leah's incredible strength. She didn't wear a helmet for obvious reasons, and the armor would likely be ruined after the fight due to that reason. Surrounded by this group of chaotic dipshits, and Victoria, Leah thought about their chances. They knew how to deal with each other, and that meant they knew how to deal with teleporters, technopaths, gadget-happy cowards, super strength and aerial assaults. Though they didn't know how to wark as a team overall. Sure, Leah and Vicky could work well together if they tried, but Leah wasn't so sure when it came to the others. Zarina might just rush them, and Diana might flank. It wasn't such a big deal if they knew their roles, and didn't need to be told how to proceed, but it meant they weren't used to communication. They couldn't call out a certain phrase unique to their tactics, they had to say their plans out loud and tip the enemies off. It was a small thing, but everything mattered here.

So, in the interest of not needing a verbal order to do what she needed to do, Leah already made her plan under the assumption that the enemies would not hesitate, and that the UA knew absolutely nothing about them.

"If you've been holding back, now is the time to stop," Leah commented to the group, standing directly in front of the golem.

And then the lights fell. The only light was a glowing... Girl? Soaring towards them. Leah could vaguely catch that the bird motherfucker took flight too. Leave them to Shieldmaiden.

Light flickered off of metal as someone went Colossus, and then lasers blasted Diana and Ed back. They had air superiority, a tank, and a sniper. Varied. Just like us.

"Up there!" She barked, quickly crossing her arms in an "X" as the ground behind her swelled into a cage, completely sectioning off the fake hostage from anyone who might grab it. Now, if someone wanted to get through the rock, they had to use their powers. Blasting through it with lasers risked blasting the hostage, and punching through would sling shrapnel that could injure it. Leah uncrossed her arms into a "U," and the floor erupted again, raising up high into the air to form a barricade. The foot soldiers were now cut off. The two fliers were able to get over, making this effectively a five on two battle. Artemis could teleport to the top of the wall and start blasting people if she wanted... Or if she could see past her damn face. This also meant that Arcade could fiddle with all those trinkets of his without being sniped from across the arena..

Now, all they had to deal with was the glow-in-the-dark target, and the bird they couldn't see.

So naturally, Leah started looking for signs of the bird motherfucker's presence in the dark.

"Where the fuck are you..."