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Diana stood there as she waited for Cassie to tell her what had happened to her back in Otherworld, she watched as she pulled out her phone and answered a text. Before she could get an answer Cassie said that she needed to get going and quickly headed out of the gym, leaving the four of them behind without any kind of answer. "I guess it's a story for another time then." Diana said at least they were able to find and rescue Cassie. She started to feel slightly tired and stretched slightly as she looked at the others the night was certainly interesting but she was ready for bed now.

"Well i'm gonna go and clean up this bite and get ready for bed now." Diana said as she looked at Zelda. "I'll see you back in our dorm then." She said looking at America and Kate it was actually pretty fun to work with the two of them, and wouldn't mind hanging out with them again later. "If you guys want to hangout or whatever feel free to hit me up anytime you guys want to." Diana said giving them a slight smile as she started to head back towards her dorm.

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Madalyne looked at April she wasn't really convinced that she was fine at all but she didn't want to push her best friend for an answer either as she gently continued to hold April in her arms. She turned to look up at Danni and gave him a slight smile and shook her head slightly. "That I think would be something Dorian would do to you though." Madalyne said with a slight laugh as she leaned back slightly, she thought about going outside for a little bit of fresh air but decided not to at the moment. She however did want to get out of this costume and into something more comfortable.

"I'm gonna go and get changed into something comfortable." She said as she slowly started to get up and headed towards her dresser pulling out some PJ's and headed into the bathroom that she shared with April. Madalyne started to wash the makeup off of her face once it was all gone she quickly changed into something comfortable, she had picked out a sweat shirt and sweat pants with the school's name and logo on them. She came out a few seconds later fully changed and got into April's bed once again.

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She was mad. Leah had attacked and killed the creature that could have swallowed her girlfriend whole, and Sabine was mad. It was obvious, right? Leah wasn’t crazy for assuming based on the icy attitude she suddenly had after being so pissed at Nimue, was she? She wasn’t overreacting and making a mountain out of a molehill by filling in blanks that weren’t even there, right? Leah said absolutely nothing when Sabine walked off, and she couldn’t. There was this knot forming in her chest, a small note of dread that was only getting worse the longer Leah just stood around, doing nothing. She was such a god damn fool, a fucking moron! Of COURSE Sabine would’ve manipulated his memories to calm him down! She was in his HANDS! There was no possible reality in which Leah could’ve POSSIBLY killed him quicker than she could calm him down!

Did she have trust issues? Did she not trust Sabine to use just powers properly? No, of course she did. She saw dad beating she shit out of Leah once- But that was by accident- No, shut the fuck up and CALM THE FUCK DOWN!

Leah needed to move, or she’d be here all night.

April needed someone right now. She was crying, and Leah was still here moping over a dead dog. Leah was an absolute fucking joke of a girlfriend, screaming loud enough to shake the heavens when April was scared and vulnerable, and not stopping to think about the cost of vengeance. And now, she was just sulking.

Hee grip around the sword tensed up, threatening to shatter the hilt, before she took in a deep breath. She doesn’t hate you. She doesn’t. She doesn’t. She’s not mad, she’s just stressed out and doesn’t want to think about it anymore than you do. It’s going to be fine.

She could tell herself that all night, and maybe she could fool herself into thinking it might work if she tried hard enough.

Leah finally managed to turn her gaze away from the corpse and walk out of the doors. Tonight was a disaster, and it would’ve been so much easier on everyone if she had just listened to her own pitiful paranoia, and stayed in fucking bed. Leah could’ve saved everyone the trouble of embarrassing April, killing an innocent creature and now having to face all of her little fuckups if she didn’t have the hubris to think she could enjoy one night without a care; Why did she deserve to associate with people in a party? The one time she tried, she made everything so much worse.

The hallways were quiet, everyone was either dancing or in their dorms right now. Leah walked past hers, and stopped when she saw that there was a switchblade stuck in the door. A folded up postcard was nailed to the door by it. Leah stared at it for second, wondering why someone didn’t just tape it or something.

She learned her new sword against the wall and unstuck the postcard, letting the knife clutter to the floor. She opened it, and her blood ran cold. It said it was from Oslo, Norway. And there was nothing on the inside by two simple words.

Mayra Pavon

There were only two people alive in the universe who knew that name. Sabine was one of them, and Leah tried to kill the other one. The world around her fell away, like old quarters down a well, and there was only black around the edges of her vision.

Leah was a grain of sand in a desert. A drop of water in an ocean. She was incomprehensible small, unfit to stand against the weight of the world.

He found her. She was running out of time.

---

The low drone of the fluorescent lights held her attention long enough that she didn’t notice the needle, until after it had left her skin. She didn’t know what it was that he had put in it, but she didn’t feel like asking.

Mayra didn’t feel like eating, either. But she was hungry.

”Your wrist will heal in four days,” he told her, in a tone that she had long since come to understand as disappointment. ”And your training will continue in two.” Imperator fixed a look at her, which she didn’t see, because her eyes were cast down to the floor.

Then there was a pause.

”Look at me, Mayra.”

Her eyes snapped up to meet his, a pair of blood red orbs. Redder than all the blood she lost today.

”You had better start impressing me, before I break you down every day. Your mutant powers can rip a volcano from the earth, and today, you could barely push a cinder block. That is miserable. No daughter of mine is going to have such a sad excuse for control over her powers.”

She couldn’t look away, or he’d snap her legs again. Or maybe he’d put another hairline fracture in her skull. He could’ve done a thousand things to her before she could blink, sometimes… And he could tell she was shaking.

It only made him scowl.

”I…” She tried to say something, but quickly felt her voice die in her throat. The lab became dead silent. The lights weren’t loud enough.

”Speak up, girl.”

She couldn’t. He’d kill her if Mayra talked back to him. She looked away.

”Say it,” he demanded.

He hated repeating himself.

She could feel herself choking.

Imperator’s grip on her arm tightened. The fact that it didn’t hurt told her that she was in danger.

Silence. Suffocating silence.

”NOW!!!”

He screamed, and Mayra flinched as if he had punched her again. Her eyes screwed shut and did not open. She was going to die, she just knew it.

It was stupid to try and speak, but it would’ve been stupider not to listen to him.

”It’s too hard- I can’t- I-I can’t do it. I’m tired, it’s too much. It’s too hard to move anything else…”

She was worthless. Dead weight. A waste of resources. Imperator glared through her, Mayra could just feel how much he hated looking after a hopeless brat like her.

”If you’re too weak train, then you’re too weak to eat my food. Fix the rest of your injuries, and don’t take too long. You have work to do.”

He didn’t give her the chance to argue, not that she would have. He stood up, and walked out of the doors to the lab. The elevator whirred into silence as he went back up to the surface.

Mayra doubled over on the bed and finally broke down into tears. She sobbed, and trembled like a dying animal.

If he had seen her cry like this, he would’ve shot her between the eyes. So she didn’t allow herself to shed too many tears.

---

The door to the dorm opened slowly, and Leah stepped into the room to the sight of her “friends,” by someone’s definition, consoling April. Leah looked tired, dejected and lost. She held her sword and the veritable death knell with her birth name in one hand.

She didn’t have the right to be here.

”…I’m sorry,” she said, weakly, to April and Sabine.

The least she could do was pretend she deserved their love.

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"Okay, see you later. Let me know if you need help." Andy said smiling as Zari left. Zari was determined to do things her own way and wouldn't ask for help normally. Andy hoped that she was getting better at that since coming back to her own time.

"Thank you." She said to Mary Sue as she helped set up the movie. She had wanted to cuddle with Zari. She didn't dare risk touching Mary Sue. That would be bad. "I'm going to change into PJs. If you want to run to your room and get into comfy clothes you can too real quick."

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If Sabine stood and thought about it for a moment, she wasn't mad at Leah. Not really. In fact, if Leah didn't stand up for her and try to fight the creature hurting her she would have been more upset. Still, she couldn't help her emotions. It was a chemical cocktail of guilt, sadness, anger, and fear. So far, guilt was winning followed closely by sadness.

She assumed Leah was following her though Sabine didn't look back. It was like...if she looked back at Leah she would feel a flush of emotions again and she wasn't mentally stable enough to handle all that. On top of the fact April was traumatized, it just wasn't happening.

Leah did the right thing. She did the right thing. So why the hell did they all feel so bad?

Sabine paused before the doorm room building. Should she bother April? Everyone else in their posse was with her, surely. Sabine opened the door and went in. She crept slowly towards April's room, allowing her time to process. She wound her way to the others, looking worse for wear. Her costume had been torn up, blood was surely spilling somewhat, if not scabbing over.

She never felt less like a hero in this moment.

Leah came in shortly, looking about as wrecked as Sabine felt. Sabine didn't need an empath to see Leah was beating herself up. And an apology escaped her lips. Sabine wanted to run over and hug her. To comfort her and tell her it was all okay. But how could she do so when she felt every bit as helpless?

Sabine closed her eyes and whispered, "We won..." before she collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

“‘e does, and ‘e does it alot. Mads, you need to spoop him back for me! I need a demon in shining armor!” Danni demanded, wiggling his fingers at her in parting as she left to change. He was far too comfortable to be willingly dislodged. “No, no, no. No. No no no no. No. We don't do t'at ‘ere, ya know? You gotta feel t'e feelin's. Like me! I feel all t'e feelin's, all t'e time, and I only set one person on fire th'e first day and now t'ere bein’ gross wit’ Dee so I t'ink frelin’ t'e feels and just riding the wave is t'e right t'in’ ta do since it worked out great!” Danni booped Her on the nose with a laugh.

Leah entering made him give her a once over and wrinkle his nose, taking in the condition she was in. Why did she have a sword? Couldn't she like, punch through walls and stuff? Seemed kinda useless if you asked Danni. He went to open his mouth, something unimaginably witty in the tip if his tongue for sure, when he paused as Beanie came in next. “Oof, it does not look like you ‘ad fun out t'ere. Come on, it’s lovin’ friends time so get in t'e bed.” Danni patted April’s bed as he said it. “Normally, I’d say combine t’e beds, make fort, and t’en cuddles but you look like you need emergency cuddles ta recharge so no waitin’, no hesiatin’, only cuddlin’ cryin’, and talkin’ from t'is point on!” He used his foot to start moving pillows around, making as much space as he could on the bed and t'en settled back in his spot.

“Leah, Beanie, get in t'e cuddle pile, you made us wait so loooong and t'en you can cry, ‘ave a good old fashion mental breakdown, and t'en open up about what sucked so much. You'll feel tons better, I promise!”

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You could see a weight being lifted off of Percy's shoulders. Whether he intended to or not, or if perhaps he was just too tired to hide it better, Dorian could see the signs of relief as Percy realized he wasn't going to be forcibly shoved into a situation he didn't like. A dance was one thing, a chance to meet others and attempt to bond while broadening your horizons. But an emotional cuddle pile that could end in a night of sobbing and vulnerabilities? That was pushing the envelope too far for newcomers. Dorian understood that perfectly clear. So he took Percy's hand, going up the floor they were missing before finally making it to their own.

”I don't ‘ave anyt'in’ stronger sadly. Danni’s too flammable and alcohol would make t'at t'ousands times worse. Even back at ‘ome it's locked away to keep it safe. I swear sometimes I t'ink uncle James ‘as it ‘idden be'ind asbestos just because ‘e knows no one else could get to it but ‘im.” He stopped by his dorm, opening up the door and raiding his coffee supply before putting the kettle to boil while grabbing his French press and grinding up some fresh beans for Percy. ”Feel free to ‘ave a seat wherever on my side. T'ough it shouldn't be long to get some stuff.” As the beans ground and the water boiled, Dorian made his way over towards his gaming chair, pulling off an oversized sweater he kept tossed over the backing. He threw it over towards Percy with a smile before making his way to him and planting a kiss briefly before going back to attend to the coffee. ”It's my gaming sweater. In case you miss me while I'm at April's” Dorian gave Percy a wink before filling up the french press and making his way towards the door with it and a mug in hand. ”Let's get you to your room t'en, coffees brewin’ and it'll be waitin’ for you in your room.”

Once Dorian got Percy all settled into his room, he made his way towards April's. He had no idea what the vibes would be like at this point. Some time had passed, perhaps she was already feeling better? Or maybe they were back at crying? He wasn't sure but as soon as he heard a body thud, he came rushing into the room. Leah stood there like she was in shock, Sabine on the ground looking worse for wear than Leah had been, April had regained a bit of herself bit she was still clearly not up to par, Mads was MIA though sounds could be heard from the bathroom, and Danni was instructing them all in what to do. ”What ‘appened? You two look like shit”

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The phone buzzed twice. Vicky looked around at the mess of her workshop and sighed. If she knew she would have visitors... Well, then again, it looked like both of them already knew what she was. She responded to Cassie first, with a simple 'Workshop.'

She thought she got over the situation with Zari and her not/knowing about her real identity a while ago, but Victoria could not help but feel relief at finally having that question answered. If she was honest, it felt a little bit annoying that her mind could lie to itself. It made her think of what other feelings she has buried that could surface at the most inopportune moments. Come to think of it, her earlier anger about her Admins came to mind. Perhaps she should talk with them about it. Sooner rather than later. Even more motivation for that family trip to pan out. Issues for later though. For now... She started typing again.

I have a hidey hole of a workshop in Stark Hall basement. Get to the ground floor, and continue down one other level, then go straight. It's one of the doors on the left side, covered in stickers, you can't miss it. My sister's on her way too, if you bump into her, just follow her lead or wait for her if you arrive earlier. I'm not exactly mobile ATM and Cassie can open the lock.

Send. With that out of the way, she still had a limp. Shrugging, Vicky reached behind her into the storage cabinet and pulled a spare servo out of the parts bin. Might as well address that while she waited for the company to arrive. As it was, when it did, it would find her with one of her legs seemingly cut open, adamantium bones sticking out, stripped insulation hanging from her teeth and a new motor being soldered in place.

Vicky looked up form her 'surgery', spat out the insulation into the trash and waved at them with the soldering gun: "Hello!"

Mary Sue's anxiety spiked when Zari left; had she done something wrong? Was there a social cue she missed, that she was maybe supposed to have left the two of them alone? Did people... really just suddenly have to leave sometimes? She had no idea, but it was almost everything she had to try to make sure that this worry and stress was not apparent on her face. She didn't want Andy to think she was some kind of weirdo who couldn't take a person leavi9ng her vicinity without going into a full blown meltdown, but she was having a difficult time processing the situation.

Taking a deep breath, she leapt at the opportunity to take some space to herself. She nodded quickly and stood up, saying "Yeah, I'll be back in a few." And stepped out the door, trying to block out the thought that maybe she'd come back and find the door not opening for her. The space she had now gave her the room she desperately needed to feel and embody her emotions, which would maybe help her not seem like a total freak in front of her new friend. She just wanted to be able to sit with a girl and watch a movie; why did this have to be so difficult?

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Zelda was just kind of glad that the whole adventure was seemingly over. That had been not the greatest sort of situation to be in, and she was more then happy to see it dealt with and over. She couldn't help but wonder what exactly had happened with Kate and Diana, considering the bite on her neck, but figured maybe now wouldn't be the time to ask. Cassie was already taking off to go somewhere else and not actually mentioning what had happened with her which was kind of dumb but oh well.

It took a moment for her to get her bearings, and honestly she felt better about running around in another reality than here right now in the school. "Um... Bye," she ended up saying to the others there, before she left the area, namely so she could go be off somewhere else by herself, because that situation was horrible. Plus they were lucky that something bad hadn't actually happened.

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The message played out a bit, and she rolled her eyes slightly. She was still a bit surprised that Victoria had gone to her for help, when she knew that they didn't exactly get along because Victoria decided to play military dictator or whatever. That was the only true problem she had with her, but oh well. This was going to be an interesting thing. Zari went to stop by the dorm room first, figuring she'd grab Mr. Eyeball, as well as the toolbelt she had gotten earlier that day, figuring it would probably be useful.

"01010111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001?" the robot beeped a bit at her as it followed along after her out of the room.

"Well, we're apparently helping out with some weird tech thing, still no actual idea what's going on with that, but oh well, let's get going," Zari responded, before heading out of the room. Going down to the room that was hidden or something that Victoria had indicated to her. This was still a bit weird, but oh well, can't be helped, time to fix things. Whatever the tech issue was, the whole Ultron or whatever thing mentioned was weird to her, since Ultron last she checked was dead, well as dead as a weird robot thing could be anyway. Some weird SHIELD thing or whatever, she wasn't sure, she just vaguely knew the name.

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The past few weeks had been intense. The four teams who had qualified for the Contest of Champions were regularly pulled from classes to practice - four hours, starting at 2 PM every day. Of course, they were still expected to catch up on the coursework that they were missing, and watch recorded versions of the lectures. The week after the dance, they had all been fitted for combat uniforms specially made for the Contest - these uniforms were resistant to most types of damage that would come their way, and for students with special needs, those were provided for them. Headshots were taken for promotional images, and their official superhero names were registered. It wasn't just a frenzy to train - it was a minor media circus.

And yet, despite all of that, it was still clear that the school wanted the Young Avengers to win. The Young Avengers were excused from classes every Friday for the entire day, and were allowed to participate in missions - real missions. To say the deck was stacked against the lesser experienced teams would be an understatement. And everyone knew. The school board wouldn't approve sending out the other three teams, not to mention the fiasco of parental permission that had already been hard enough to get squared away for the Young Avengers.

But while the adults were unwilling to help, Ed stepped in.

He wasn't particularly good when it came to combat, but he had been studying the Framework, optimizing programs. And the day before everyone left for Thanksgiving break, it would be easy to hop onto the machine - to give extra practice time to the other three teams and level the playing field. He'd developed programs that approximated the other teams in the Contest, including the Young Avengers - programs that they could fight and train and get that crucial edge they needed.

Ed didn't care if his team won. He just needed the Young Avengers to lose.

At 10:30 PM, everyone needed to be at the gym ready to go - ready to enter the Framework. And of course, not get caught by teachers on their way over.

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April's mental health was at an all time low and she knew it.

The Contest of Champions was less than a month away - weeks away, actually. It was scheduled for December 15th. And they were hopelessly unprepared. The Young Avengers were in the news saving people, fighting real threats, and the Huntresses were still just practicing against monsters Lady Nimue summoned. For a perfectionist who dreamed of winning the Contest, that was enough already to stress her out - not even accounting for all the other teams who would be there, all filled with incredibly talented people. Then there was the mountain of homework and exams she was falling behind on, as every waking moment she spent training, pushing herself harder.

Then there was the situation with Leah - the paranoia, the knowledge that her father was just lurking around the corner, waiting to strike. He was inevitability. April didn't know how to fight that - didn't know how to protect Leah, as much as she desperately wanted to. And Sabine too, Sabine was so strong, but she'd been hacked - and she'd seen something that night as well, something harrowing.

There was also the fact that lately, when April stared in the mirror, she didn't recognize herself - she didn't recognize her body. She flinched when people referred to her in conversation by things other than her name and she didn't have the mental space to know why. At night, in her dreams, she saw that same nightmare replaying over and over again - saw Magneto's helmet on her head, saw herself transformed into something else, something horrible.

She had just finished an assignment for one of her science courses with less than ten minutes to spare until they had to meet up with Ed. She was jittery with nerves and caffeine and sugar as she changed into a nondescript gym outfit - gray yoga pants, matching sports bra, and a hoodie. "You ready?" she asked Mads, dark shadows under her eyes, as she cracked open an energy drink and began to sip it.

With her other hand, she sent off some texts rapid fire:

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Percy's roommate had more or less officially withdrawn from the school at this point, leaving him with a single. However, while he would have enjoyed his own room's environment much more, he also understood that one of the expected functions of a boyfriend was to spend time in Dorian's room. So after packing his bags for a brief visit to see his moms for the upcoming Thanksgiving break, he had taken his laptop and gone over to Dorian's room, dutifully typing away at an essay he was writing on the Odyssey for a class. He was currently typing the essay out in a bizarre mixture of Russian, English, and Ancient Greek - he'd edit it all into one concise language later on.

He understood the importance of tonight's training session, but he wasn't particularly stressed about it. He wore his same academy uniform as always, and he glanced at his watch, frowning slightly before hitting save on his document and closing the laptop's lid. He left the laptop on the desk, just in its proper place, before turning to his boyfriend. "Πρέπει να πάμε," he said, his mind still stuck in Greek. "Apologies - we should go," he then repeated, standing up to leave and putting his blazer back on, before offering a hand to Dorian.

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Against everything that was being thrown at her, Leah managed to deal.

Classes got harder, but she was always good at numbers. So that was never an issue for her. Hell, she could help both Sabine and April at the same time with their numbers-related assignments at the same time that she worked on her own. The school’s definition of combat was a joke. She was going through far worse training at 12 years old than this. Usagi was the only element that made it annoying to deal with. But still, she managed to deal. The promotional shit, though? That was unusual. She was officially “Jotunn” to the world now, as much as she didn’t care for people taking pictures of her unless it was her girlfriends. Unfortunately for all the internet people without a life, she didn’t give out interviews or bubbly smiles, she sucked at things like that.

As a strategist who liked to think she could finesse someone smart as Vision out of a chess game, Leah spent more time than most reviewing the Young Avengers’ strategies. She did all of this before 9pm, every day. When it was dark out, she went through her own training routine. Adamantium-fiber punching bags for an hour, a thousand pound leg press session for 30 minutes, 500 sit-ups, a thousand pull-ups with an added 750lbs in weights strapped to her waist, and once she was warmed up? She ran a marathon on a treadmill built for people with super speed.

Leah refused to slow down and rest. She didn’t need rest. Leah could keep going when everyone else couldn’t, and that hee contribution to her team. Even if it didn’t matter to her, it mattered to others who she owed it to. But tonight, something different seemed to be happening. The suspicious Technotwink had some sort of scheme to even the playing field a little. Something to unrig the rigged game. Strategically, it made sense. If they were going to put the golden children on a pedestal and expect the rest to climb, what difference did it make if they chipped away at the pedestal?

Leah had decided to stay in for this one until it was time. She didn’t want to be sweaty and knee-deep in a workout when she got to see Ed’s master plan. Just in case someone was stalking her. It was getting late, and time to go. Leah checked her phone and saw April sent a text… What were the chances someone could read their messages? The wifi was public, after all.



Leah got her shit together, and climbed out the window. The last thing she needed was Bruunhilde (who she didn’t want to run into for reasons) or fucking Firestar to ask her why she wasn’t training to kill god himself barehanded. She dropped into a tree, then down to the ground and stalked through the shadows as a certain wizard would have done. She made sure no one would see her that neither a sight nor a sound would alert anyone to her presence. There was more to bring a hero than flashy dramatics, after all. The coast was clear, so Leah let herself into the gym, then showed herself in the Framework.

This was going to be hell on her hair.

It looked like she was the first one here.

"Okay, Ed. Show yourself already."

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Sabine sat on the edge of her bed and collected herself. Over the past few weeks, so much had happened. The top of the list was the fact Leah's father had found her and was more than likely keeping an eye on her, waiting for a time to strike. Though Leah put on a brave face for others, Sabine didn't need to check her memories to see Leah was afraid. And Sabine was too. But she had to be strong. Not only for Leah, but April too. April was hanging on by a thread after the events of the Halloween Dance.

To make matters worse, they had school work on top of training for the Contest of Champions. What was once something Sabine had been looking forward to since Freshman year had turned into a stress-induced miasma taking over her life. Sabine was smart and was able to keep up with her course work, though she noticed she was slipping in areas that proved vital. Missing a question on a test or saying the wrong answer. She chastised herself. She was better than this.

And, of course, the actual training. Though they had made strides, her team was not fully there yet. The school was also looking at The Young Avengers and they were not hiding the fact they were the favorites. While Sabine could understand that, given their efforts in the past, to have a school pick them for teams and then not give them any validation or boost was rage-inducing. They deserved a shot like any others.

Sabine heard her phone chime and read the message from April and Leah. She responded.



Sabine had changed into her gym clothes in preparation. Ed had made it abundantly clear that this was on the hush-hush. A way to get everyone else a leg up in this competition since the school didn't seem to care.

Once settled, she made her way over to the gym, careful to avoid any faculty, less they ask what she's up to. Once there, she made her way in. Leah was there. She walked up and put her arm around Leah. "Cute outfit girl. Any word from April?"

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As soon as the two visitors filed into the room, Vicky found herself with a Cas-glomp wrapping around her shoulders. She had to brace with one arm as she returned the hug with the other. "I'm okay, I'm okay. Thank god you are! Can't replace bits of you too easily." the younger sister grinned, "Umm... Mind trying to find out why Mom has gone quiet? I think we need to all have a talk. She's ghosted me so far, maybe you'll have better luck? I'll be with you as soon as we finish with my other repair. Try to, uh... ease her into the fact that I'll need to come in for repairs and likely a software patch?" she asked of Cassie, who nodded and went on the horn.

Turning to Zari, she was relieved the valkyrie shown up. While she texted she was coming, that was plenty of time for her to change her mind. "Thanks for coming. I'm sorry if I interrupted you doing something, I would have delayed if I thought it was safe for this to wait. Was my message clear enough or do I walk you through what needs doing?" she asked as she finished up with her knee, testing the range of motion. They had to get this right, there was little room for error. Better make sure.

"I may not be a robot, but I'm not stupid, yeah I get what the problem is, however the first step into fixing the problem is going to be diagnosing the full issue. Since the problem can likely stem from a multitude of problems, you just need to know where to start looking. Basically I'm the doctor, your the patient, so how about you let me do what I'm good at, which is repairing technology and scanning for any underlying issues," she was a bit annoyed that Victoria seemed to think she needed someone to hold her hand and walk her through something.

That was beside the point though, as Zari very clearly didn't pull out any sort of tool from her tool belt or anything, and just looked at Victoria. What she was doing was actually somewhat similar to what a telepath did when scanning the mind of someone, in her case though she was scanning the tech that the android was made of, searching for any sort of vulnerabilities.

"01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101001 01110010 01100100 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110010 01100001 01101110 01100100 01101111 01101101 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110010 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100" the robotic eye that was with her beeped.

"Shh, keep quiet please, and the key word in that sentence is most people, not all. But, I do think I can see where to begin to fix everything, but it likely won't be super pleasant. You basically have so much wrong with you right now, it kind of makes a full diagnostic scan a bit difficult. So in order to repair the damage and to fix the containment that you are concerned about, have to start with the small things first. Basically in order to figure out where to start with the diagnostics, have to plug and patch some of the holes, which then if we're lucky would lead to the containment being restored without anymore issues." she said to Victoria with a bit of a shrug.

_{"Right. Sorry."} Vicky seemed to shrink after getting scolded. Could one blame her though? This was her core they were messing with, was is any wonder she wanted to be sure? Still, better she let it go. If she were human, she would not want to be angering a doctor before operating on her either, even when one disagreed with them. Overhearing Mr. Eyeball beep put a small smile on her face. But, since he got scolded for being noisy right afterwards, she withheld chatting with him until Zari seemed done with the first part.

"01001111 01101000 00100001 00100000 01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01001101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01000101 01111001 01100101 01100010 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01010110 01101001 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01101001 01100001 00101110 00100000 01000001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01110010 01101111 01100100 01110101 01100011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101101 01111001 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 01100101 01100100 00101110" she introduced herself, before looking back to the technopath.

"Well, that sounds terrifying. Especially since my self diagnostics did not pick up on most of it." she sounded positively anxious now. She took one of the generators and merged it to her skin, setting it to project a schematic on the wall. "This is how I have been told I work, sans the actual firewalls around the Ultron layer. Is this even correct and complete from what you've been able to glimpse? It's only just now occurring to me that I might have been purposefully left in the dark or downright mislead about all of this. Oh! And I also removed the code that prevented me from telling people what I am. It seemed like I did a good job, but now I'm not that sure. Let me know if you need me to do something, otherwise... Do what you have to do. I'd rather go offline than turn into the next AI menace. And after the last few hours... I don't trust my admins to pull the killswitch in time, assuming they put some in there."

"There are a few options on how to more or less be able to patch the holes. Which if you had somewhat listened to what I had said, you wouldn't be wondering why your diagnostics didn't pick it up. When there are too many holes, the system doesn't work properly and everything is slowed down. So, the two options you've got? Either I manually go over there and sit there, trying to repair the damage, likely going slowly while doing that and manually reprogramming everything. Which likely would not be pleasant for you. Orrr I just try to use my powers to just repair the damage and fix everything. Since lucky you, you ended up roommates with the one person who can heal you so to speak with powers. I can repair damage and all that way, which I had to do with Mr. Eyeball here once when he ended up getting sliced in half on a quest I was doing."

"01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101001 01110010 01100100"

"I said I was sorry!" she complained towards him, before turning her attention back towards Victoria. "Plus I've gotten better at being able to do that since then. But both options have risks to them. I don't know how your programming and all works on an indepth level, which would likely take a little longer to fully do, which likely would be a bit unpleasant for you, plus risk me screwing that up and not being able to fix it but since I'd be going slow, it would more easily be fixable. On the other hand, the other option as Mr. Eyeball just mentioned, runs the risk of that screwing with the personality matrix, which I didn't mean to do no matter how much he tends to hold that against me. Choice is yours, I don't have a preference either way. One is slower but likely a little safer in general, or the quicker option that runs a risk of screwing something up that way. Though as mentioned to him I then fixed that issue. But you know, this isn't an exact thing, no matter how good at doing this sort of thing I am. Risks are always involved and figured I'd let you know what they are before I do anything and leave the choice up to you on that one."

Listening carefully, Vicky nodded, hoping she understood her options. Is she was as screwed up as Zari said after the hack, was she even in a state of mind to make that decision? "Then take the path of least risk, regardless of my comfort. And... Thanks."

Zari shrugged slightly, "Both have different sets of risks, but going to go with the manual option, just because then it makes things simpler and puts me more at ease, always more fun to mess with things using my hands and not relying on my powers instead," she responded, before she eventually set to work on trying to repair as much of the damage as possible, using her powers as more of an aid than a reliance. It took a while though, Mr. Eyeball was just floating around almost like it was peering over her shoulder as she was working along.

Eventually after a while, Zari turned to look at Victoria now. "Well, now that I can more easily finish running the diagnostics, which is the good news, the next thing isn't the greatest of news. It's starting to get fairly late. It was late when we started this entire endeavor. I've got you up to about 50 percent functionality, there is a lot more damage than initially appeared. In order to finish repairing everything, I'm going to need to do another session of this. I'm tired, and unlike you, some people do need sleep. You should be fine until later, just try not to do anything that could potentially screw things up even worse and make this more like a week long project than just a two day project. Okay?"

Whatever Zari was doing, none of it was as unpleasant as the knowledge that someone, anyone, was changing Vicky's core code, which Vicky now learned she knew even less about than she thought. "I'll try, but, you know... Usagi." Vicky pouted, the one name serving in her disctionary as an universal explanation to everything awful, evil and uncomfortable. "I guess I'll see you at my next appointment doc. Provided the admins don't shut me down tomorrow."

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Victoria has been out of her element the last few days. It weren’t the extra training hours and the crunch that bothered her, no - It was the ado about it. Yes, she was a member of a prominent family, but only Hope was really doing any public appearances. For one reason or other, she has managed to shield her from the media and the paparazzi. No amount of watching Hope on TV could have prepared Vicky for the spotlight to be shone on her though. Her bluntness came to the front, and she just knew she put a foot in her mouth more than a few times.

Her pretend sleep was tossed out of the window, as she has spent every moment of free time either tuning her armor or training, spending little time socializing. In a way it was a relapse into her first two years. She wasn’t doing it for the contest though. Leah revealed to her an actual threat may be on its way, and she was determined to support her bestie in a time of need. If only her foray into mystic arts was progressing at more than glacial pace!

It most likely reflected on her performance in the training sessions though. The most shots she called nowadays was what she wanted done and sometimes a specific teammate that should do it, leaving it entirely up to them to figure out how to make it happen. At one point she even experimented with “Plan Z”, that was to say absolutely nothing and let the session flow. Sometimes she even stopped giving any instructions mid-session, to make sure that the team wouldn’t fall apart if she was offed. The sample size was however too small yet to make the call on which approach worked best.

And, apparently, her teammates have been busy as well. This was exactly why Vicky was withholding informing the rest of her team of her true self. She did not want to give Ed any ideas. She did want to tell Diana badly, but she figured she needed to let her admins cool down after her last stunt at the monster mash.

This particular evening she was already haunting the gym, so when she heard footfalls heading towards the Framework, she padded over as well, nodding her greeting to Sabine and Leah, before leaning on the wall and waiting for the rest of the goons to file in and Edward to tell them what was going on.

Danni dreamed about the Contest of Champions since he knew what it was. He thought about beating out the Young Avengers, he thought about the the popularity, he thought about the fun. “T'is isn't fair! All t'e superhero movies do like, a montage for training. ‘ow was I supposed ta be prepared for t'is torture routine?! T’is lack of sleep is killin’ my skin - ‘ow am I supposed ta fight crime and keep up with my socials if my skin is ‘alf way ta flakin’ off. Danni grumbled into his pillow, having pushed aside his excessive pile of homework off to the side in favor of laying face down on his bed. “And Spicy, stop bein’ so productive while you're here. You're makin’ me feel like I should like, do my homework or study or somet’in’ and I do not wanna. T'at's a future Danni problem.”

He fished his phone out as he felt it vibrate, sticking his tongue out as he typed his response.



He kicked his feet, the excitement that inevitably swept him up into better moods bubbling up, and rolled off the bed into a crouch. “Dee, Spicy, Princess and Mads are settin’ out. We gotta go! Time ta kick some virtual butt!” Danni cheered, taking a second to tie his shoes and then skipping out into the hallway. Since they had to be ninjas, he'd decided to go wear black, different shades of course because who would ever mix up pitch blank, midnight black, and ink black, but black enough that it'll look black as they're climbing the side of the building and rappelling back down in their attempts to avoid the teachers.

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Madalyne was stretched outside under a nearby tree with a book out on her lap that she had borrowed from the library, she sometimes did like to spend her time just reading outside of Stark Hall to relax. And they day was pretty nice as well to, she had brought out a cup of tea next to her as well. It was the weekend and the weather was good to and a perfect time to just enjoy it. She occasionally would look up seeing a few other students walking past and going about their day as well too.

Leah hadn’t been looking forward to involving more people into this. Talking about it with April and Sabine was only natural, and Vicky did help her find the… thing inside her in the first place. But she never really talked to Madalyne that much. She was okay, but Leah just never got around to bonding with her like she did the few other friends she had. So approaching her today was a little awkward.

Vicky should be here any minute.

She walked up to the tree where Madalyne was, and tried to think of the best way to make her situation sound logical. ”Hey, Madalyne. I know we don’t talk very often, but there’s something I could use your help with. Something that might have to do with magic.”

As Victoria headed out, she was considering the pros and cons of revealing herself to more people. Granted, she wanted to shed the human disguise, however, not all of her teammates were indifferent to the contest. Her robot nature was an ace in the hole to be played at a perilous moment. As such, telling anyone outside of her team was a little counterproductive in that regard.

Then again, Cassie knows, and that team is the biggest threat. The other threats are magicians, and having them know in order to not destroy me on accident is no small thing. And speaking off- she cut her train of thought short when she spotted a mess of black curls talking to someone parked under a tree.

"Greetings on this fine day, ladies."

Madalyne stopped where she was in her book when she heard Leah's voice she turned to look up at her, asking for some of her she was more than willing to help and she knew that Leah was dating her best friend along with Sabine as well to. Other than that they hadn't really hung out with each other. "Sure I don't mind helping out, whats the issue that you have?" Madalyne asked as she started to stand up putting her book away in her bag.

She then turned to look over Leah's shoulder hearing Victoria's voice, she remembered helping her out back at the dance to try and find her sister Cassie she seemed nice enough. "Hi there Victoria, how are you doing today?" She asked her as she reached down to grab her cup of tea and her pack which she slung it over her shoulder.

Now that Leah had to actually articulate her predicament, she suddenly felt self-conscious. This was going to make Leah sound like she was batshit crazy or something... "Okay, so... A while back, Usagi put us all in the Framework," she started from the beginning. "She had us fight each other, and Zarina stabbed me wither her sword. Right over my spine. Normally, that would just, you know, paralyze someone. Except she hit something else, that was in the way of bone."

"It... Did something to me," She continued. "One minute I'm fine, the next I'm a lot taller, and my skin's turning grey, and my powers are acting crazy. She didn't know what it was, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. After that happened, me and Vicky were talking and we found something metal stuck inside of me." She still felt her skin crawl just thinking about it. It took a considerable effort not to walk into Vicky's lab and find whatever looked like an EMP emitter just to fry the fucking thing. "We tried to get a good look at it with an MRI. But- Well..." Leah pulled her phone out, and pulled up a picture of the image. It was pixelated way beyond what any medical image should be, but only in one specific area. It was easy to tell that the device was rectangular, and has a circular base with lines radiating outwards, but the finer details were much too foggy.

She showed it to Madalyne, and then elaborated. "Vicky thinks there's something magic going on, which is what's causing the glitchy stuff. Apparently she's seen it before," Leah didn't give any specific details about how, since that wasn't her story to tell. "I'm not exactly a wizard, so I've got no idea what it is. But I had no idea it was inside me until that happened. So, this sounds weird, but I'm asking if you can maybe help me figure out what the deal is with this thing. If it is actually magic."

As Vicky saw Leah struggle to get going, she wanted to put a reassuring arm on her shoulder. Fortunately she remembered in time that getting entangled in Leah's deathly mane was not quite selubrious. Taking her hand might also send a wrong message. Instead she settled for a smile and a headnod to beckon her to continue.

Once Leah finished, she added on her reasoning. "If you recall the haunted house, I can apparently see strong enough magic. And while I can't see any when I look at Leah myself, that-" she pointed at the medical scan, "-Is too similar to what I've seen to ignore. Oh! Which reminds me, I would also like toask you to teach me the shield spell you used, if that would be possible?"

Madalyne listened to Leah as she started to explain what was going on with her, and leaned in getting a good look at the medical image it felt similar to her current situation. She had found out that she was a half demon, after coming with direct contact with Andy when she touched her, she still regretted stabbing her fellow teammate. "It could be some kind of magic item with an enchantment that someone put in you, why someone did that I don't know." She said as she started to think for a moment. "There are some spells and enchantments that can be used on someone either to repress someone else's powers or magical abilities if they have a hard time controlling them. Or to seal away something else as well to." Madalyne explained hoping that she was making some sense.

"But I can take a look see if you want to go to my dorm or yours whichever is better for you." She said to Leah, her attention turned towards Vicky, she did remember that Vicky requested her help as well to back at the dance. She was kind of surprised that Victoria wanted to learn a little bit about magic, the shield spell was something that her mother had taught her when she was little. And it was a specialty that her father Edus used, though he had gone missing when she was three years old during Halloween. "I can teach you it, though it might take some time and practice as well. But i'd be more than happy to help you with that." She said giving Vicky a friendly smile.

”My dorm should be empty right now, it’ll be easier without anyone else watching us,” She said, as if they were getting up to no good or committing acts of sin. She didn’t know Vicky was interested in learning magic. Wouldn’t that kill her?

”Didn’t know you liked magic, Vick.”

Victoria waited until they were alone in the dorm before answering either of her companions. Just to be sure, she did a sensor sweep for any listening devices. "My body does not like some kinds of magic. You weren't there at the time, but Madie already shielded me at the monster mash and it worked well. It's either spatial or dimensional magic that is a danger, and even then it may need to be of some strength. Suffice to say, magic teleporting is probably not in my future, but the shield is fine. Personally I always wanted to take the class, but I didn't have the time in the schedule yet. That said-"

She turned to Madalyne, taking a breath. According to her observations, Mads was one of the people less likely to react negatively to finding out about her not being human - Time to put her people reading skills to the test. "- I would reserve enthusiasm. Agatha did tell me, and I quote, 'AIs are a pain in the ass to teach.'"

"Lead the way." Madalyne said as she started to head into Stark Hall and over towards where Leah's dorm was she turned to look at Victoria for a moment, listening to her as she spoke she the last bit caught her attention though. "From what I know usually AI's tend to rely more on science, mathematics and other technologies over the mystic-arts." She said wondering how Victoria would react, before turning to look at Leah not wanting to be to bold. "If you are alright could you lift up the back of your shirt a bit just to see what I might be working with?" Madalyne asked her.

Leah turned and shut the door, before pulling her shirt up in the back, and pulling away her absolute mess of curls. There were definitely a few markings here or there; Scars and other traces of past hardships that Leah had been through, with any number of them being related to her time at this school.

But nothing indicated that there was a magical device stuck to her. No stitching or neat surgical scars that suggested anything was done.

"Not really much to see."

Well... almost no reaction was a good reaction in Vicky's books. She was curious and nearly picked Madalyne's brains about the issue with more questions, but she restricted herself. Leah's issue should take priority, because dad was coming back with the milk and cigarettes. "Well, you're not wrong on that account, but when faced with reality and one's own mortality, I'd rather my ego and need to analyze and explain it all did not stand in the way of survival." was the reaction she limited herself to, although she intended on resuming that conversation afterwards.

Looking over to Leah's back, she confirmed nothing changed. "Nope, still not seeing any magic there. But we have done some testing, and sufficient blunt force is enough to break the gizmo. Tight about here." she pointed to the location.

Madalyne looked at Leah's back noting some of the scar that were there she knew that it wasn't really a good idea to ask unless Leah was willing to answer. "I'd be fine with discussing the differences between science and the mystic arts sometime." She said to Victoria. It would be kind of cool to learn more about the android she turned her attention back to Leah. "I'm just going to do a simple trace magic spell nothing to invasive." Madalyne said to Leah as she held out both of her hands and closed her eyes for a few seconds while chanting her spell which sounded like latin, a slight green glow came out of her hands when she opened her eyes again they had the same slight glow to them as well to her hands went up and down Leah's back.

She stopped the spell a few seconds later the glow from her hands and eyes fading getting a slight idea but it was hard to say. "So it could possibly be Asgardian in nature but it's hard to tell, it's something like Ms. Bruunhilde one of the teachers at the school." Madalyne said to Leah hoping that would give her some answers.

"Bruun- What?" Leah turned around and looked at Madalyne as if she had grown a second head. "Asgardian? You're- You're serious. What the hell. That just makes me more confused..." Were there runes on it? Did it have some kind of enchantment related to Nordic magic? Leah wasn't a wizard or a magician or a whatever in terms of magic. She had runes but they didn't do a damn thing for her, so now Leah was out of her depth.

Why the hell would her old man have viking magic surgically implanted in his kid?

"I've got nothing for that."

Vicky's brows furrowed at the information. "Well... The gizmo does seem to have something to do with you turning into a giant version of yourself, and giants are a rather significant part of norse mythology... She also made another connection in her mind, but she wasn't sure she should say that one out loud in front of someone else. She would have to tell her afterwards though. And last time, we established the gizmo was likely a power inhibitor. So, Leah... Are you a woman who turns into a giant... Or a giant who turns into a human? she thought, wondering how they could find out. "Anyways... Any idea whether it can be turned on or off, and if it can run out of juice?" she asked Madalyne.

Madalyne looked at Leah who looked very confused at her, either she was somehow related to the Asgardians or some other part of the Norse mythology. "Thats what i'm getting off of whatever it is. But my guess is that it's in place to disable some of your other abilities." She said to Leah as she looked at Victoria asking her if there was a way to disable it. "I unfortunately don't specialize in Asgardian magic, I use whats called Eldritch magic some of my spells are powered through my father." She said keeping her father vague, she had never met her biological father. "But it's possible, thats if Leah wants it removed, or disabled or to use it at will if she wanted, it would take time to research it however if you want it removed, or to be used at will." Madalyne said to Leah.

”I… Have no clue what it’s for. Zari busted it open in the Framework, and suddenly I’m taller and feel like I’m on fire. I didn’t really have time to see if I had some sort of other mutant thing going on- And I’ve been pretty sure I’m just a mutant for more of my life- Since we were fighting a big fuckoff hand thanks to the Alcoholic Cat. I wouldn’t know what exactly it is that the thing is supposed to block.”

Victoria sighed. "Well... It's a piece of tech, that has something to do with Asgardians. I hate to suggest this, you know I do, Leah, but we kind of have a perfect teammate to help with that combination. Shoot, a couple more favors adked and I might as well give Raynordattir a contract to be her indentured servant."

"Well if I had to guess you are more powerful than you think and whoever put it there probably did it so that you wouldn't loose control or anything. But if you need anymore help just let me know." Madalyne said to Leah it seemed that her services weren't really needed anymore either as she turned to look at Victoria. "If you want to learn some magic I'm free to teach you on either Saturdays or Sundays. Anyway I should get going now." She said offering to mentor Victoria as well to, usually the weekends were usually pretty free for her aside from training with The Huntresses training for the contest was every day pretty much now.

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After the Monster Mash Diana had spent a lot of her spare time out of classes training with her team the Uncanny Avenger's with their team mentor Usagi within the framework or whatever training areas that the talking cat person decided that they needed to use. On top of that Diana had her regular school work that she needed to do. Which was really difficult to juggle somedays and her grades were falling behind slightly, but she was still maintaining C's through A's though. Though the added fame was pretty nice after they had taken headshots to promote the Contest of Champions.

Diana had gone home and spent a few days with her mothers and her younger brother Percy at some point, and with the help of one of her moms made a few extra trick arrows to help with the contest she was looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving though. She had to admit though that the Young Avenger's were all getting the special treatment and they were going out on actual real missions as well on Fridays which made her jealous. Ed was actually smart enough to come up with the idea to help all of the other teams to catch up and told them to go to the gym for some training in the Framework. Diana turned to look at her roommate Zelda as she stretched slightly she had put on some of her workout clothes for tonights training. "Are you ready lets get going Zelda." Diana said as she started to head out of their dorm and down the hallway towards the gym where the Framework was, hopefully none of the teachers were nearby to see what they were doing.

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Madalyne had spent the time since the Monster Mash if it wasn't training with the Huntresses, then it was also spent time doing her school work, keeping up with it all as much as possible. She was still able to maintain her grades as well to though she spent a lot of it studying and practicing her magic, she had offered to help Victoria learn some magic on the weekends since that was the part of the week where she didn't have classes aside from the four hours of training that was if Victoria wanted to on those days. She had been noticing that April wasn't doing all that well either and she had offered her best friend if she ever did need to talk about anything she was there for her always.

"Yep i'm ready now." Madalyne said as she slowly started to stand up closing up her binder that contained her homework for her cryptozoology class that she was taking. She was kind of surprised that Ed from the Uncanny Avenger's team had messaged her a few days ago to offer their team a way to try and help level the playing field against the Young Avenger's team. She didn't really care to much whether their team won or not she was there to have fun really but winning did mean a lot to April so she would do her best. "Lets get going." Madalyne said to April as she headed out and gave Danni a slight wave. "Ready?" She said as she started to head down towards the gym.

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Andy was tired. She had put in a lot of extra hours to try to keep up with homework and practice for the Contest. She still felt underprepared for both. Homework came with a lot of backlog because of large gaps in her education. Math was hard because she had to go back and get the basics of other maths to get a grasp on what she was currently working on. Also, reading was a nightmare. It felt like a fight on its own. How did anyone get any sort of enjoyment out of reading? It was miserable.

She, however, did not want to let down her team. Andy figured that once she got in the ring, so to speak, she'd be competitive about the whole thing. It also was training. She needed to know how to fight to protect the world from her mother. Also, April seemed to have placed a wild amount of her self-worth into the Contest. So, Andy went to the gym taking a quiet route. Hoping to not get caught out of her room. If she did she had a lie planned. She had been studying late and needed to stretch her legs and hadn't realized how late it was. It'd suck to get caught and have to go back to her room, but she wasn't about to get everyone in trouble.

There were a few others already in the gym. She nodded to Leah. The two hadn't gotten to hang out much. She'd have to try again soon. Zari wasn't there yet, but hopefully, she would be soon.

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While Percy sat on his bed being productive as ever, Dorian had opted to ignore the essay he was meant to do and focus more on relaxation. The past few weeks had been torture. Training and cramming more than he'd ever done before. At first it was exhilarating, but after the 20th time of having to cram more work into his schedule as they did training, the charm began to wear off. At least the Young Avengers got to go out and do real missions, some variety and true test of mettle. Here it just felt so…monotonous. School, train, cram, school, train, cram. He was already dressed and ready for today's secret session, shoes on and off the bed (because who wore shoes in bed?). When his phone went off, Dorian flipped it open, seeing the message from April and then D. A part of him was worried about his best friend. She hadn't done so hot after the Halloween Dance, and he was certain all this extra training and work wasn't helping.

He closed his phone, looking up at the ceiling for the moment as Danni complained about how all this work was making his skin look slightly less than flawless. Though Dorian thought it was all in his head. He'd texted the pair back, a simple Ready and raring to go before he took Percy's hand and hopped off the bed. ”You sure you don't want to leave t'e jacket off amour?” He teased as he ran his hand along the lapel. ”But maybe t'at can be for after trainin’ Non?” He joked as he planted a kiss on his cheek and left the room with Percy in hand.

Andy had decided that reading was a punishment made specifically to make her suffer. Not only was reading hard enough with the letters jumping around the page, but the words were also hard. She spent half the time looking at a dictionary when she was in the library. It probably would be easier on her computer but she still had an old-fashioned way to study. She had grown up during the transition and tech now was even more advanced than it had been the last time she was in school. So sitting with the physical books sometimes made her feel like she wasn't spinning out of control. Even if she wished she could just have the books read to her. All of that combined and it made her Physical science class's upcoming presentation about a geological epoch a trudge.

Though Mary Sue was making a concerted effort to study less, and enjoy her time at school a bit more, she still frequented the library. For one, she liked it, a lot. It was big, and quiet, and people for the most part were easy enough to avoid when she didn't have the energy to be around them. For another, it was a part of a bit of a social hack she made up in her head. She had what she viewed as conflicting goals; get closer to people, and continue to work on making herself a better. The easiest way to do both these things at the same time would be to study in public, and what better place for that than a library? It was with that spirit that she reacted when she saw Andy, who seemed to be working on... Something. She figured she'd say hi and hope she wasn't bothering too much in doing so. Pulling up a chair across from the young girl's mini dragon horde of books, she gave a wave and said, "Heya! How've you been? We need to do another movie night soon!" A part of her was sure that was clunky or somehow too direct, but Andy felt like a direct kind of person.

Andy looked up a little startled. "Oh, hi" She smiled brightly. "Yeah, that was fun. I'd be down for another movie night." Andy sighed and leaned back in her chair happy for this excuse to look away from the books and notes and attempts at making words make sense. She rubbed her eyes. "What brings you here?" It was a dumb question. Why would anyone come to the library but for study material? She was surprised at how well-used the library was, and it was not a small one either. There were a lot of books here of all sorts. That reminded her she needed to ask Mads for help with some magic stuff for the Eldritch Magic class.

Mary Sue blinked for a moment, realizing that the correct answer to that question was not "To maximize her capacity for studying and socialization". Instead of saying something like that, she instead rubbed the back of her head and said, "Well, honestly I was looking to see if we had any records on the previous Contests of Champions." She admitted, not wanting to make it seem like she was trying to talk about team things with Andy per say, "I figure the best way to know what to expect is to see what winning teams have in common, you know?" With their team practices, Mary Sue felt like she was in good enough shape, with a solid enough grasp on what she could do with her powers, so now she wanted to hone more and more of the non-physical things that would lead her to success. "What about you?"

"An essay about a geological epoch." Andy shrugs, she shifts some of the books so there is room at the table for Mary Sue. "Yours sounds more interesting, and probably more interesting than writing about sandstone." Andy smiles. "I don't know much about the history of the Contest. Other than the Young Avengers were the winners last year." Andy thought they might have been the winners the year before that too, but she didn't know for certain. "It's funny, I'm normally super competitive and would be diving headfirst and fully into something like the Contest. But because of school..." She waves her hand gesturing to the books in front of her. She frowns a bit, trying to consider how to explain how little schooling she really had had before coming here. "I don't know I want to do well in classes and graduate." Andy's goal for coming to this school, other than spending time with Zari, was to learn how to protect her mother...or maybe better put the world from her mother. She didn't plan on becoming a hero. She had one job, to keep Selene from escaping her prison. But her whole life couldn't really be dedicated to that. She needed to eat.

Mary Sue rested her head on her left hand for a moment, and gave a small hmm. She wanted to do well at everything, and a part of her knew that she couldn't but the idea of not pouring everything she could into all her goals just didn't fit right in her head. She understood prioritization though. "I think..." She started to say, and then paused to think. She wanted to help Andy, but she also wanted to make sure any advice she gave wasn't tailored to her own interests. she wanted to tell her to focus on the competition, because that's what was important to her, but she knew in her heart that that wasn't fair. "I think you need to focus on the things that will make you happy in the long run. I want to be a hero and I want to save people, and I think for me that means the Contest is like, super important." She said carefully, "But! I also spend a lot of my free time studying, and if you ever want a study partner, maybe we could help each other out." She offered, smiling.

"I appreciate that." Andy smiled. "I don't care about being a hero. I'm here mostly 'cause of Zari. The Contest is cool and all, but because of it, I'm getting behind in classes. After this, I have to read a hundred pages, work on a presentation for Ancient History, and do a practice sheet for Geometry. All of my previous schooling did not prepare me for this." A major understatement. Andy smiled a little. She hadn't smiled a lot when thinking of her life pre-Zari. She found humor in the changes at least. "What are you studying? I know we aren't in any classes together." Andy probably wouldn't have even noticed Mary Sue if not for being on the same team. Was it weird that students in different years were on the same team? There weren't a lot of freshmen who had made it this far even.

"Uh, normal classes are CS, Art, American history and Philosophy." She said, blinking for a moment. It always struck her as weird that she had to focus on America so much, but so much of modernized superheroics really did center around the actions of that country. "The more interesting ones are Combat, Strategy, energy constructs, super heroics, and gymnastics. What about you?" She had felt like she'd learned quite a lot from her more specialized classes than her normal ones; something about the amount of self discovery she had to go through to really be comfortable with the mechanics and utilization of her power.

Andy smiled, she didn't know what CS was and wasn't about to ask. "I'm taking, Classic Literature, Geometry, Physical Science, and Ancient History for the standard classes. Then the fun ones as you put it are, Elemental Manipulation, Advanced Battle Strategy, Eldritch Magic, and Combat 301." Andy leaned back a little bit thinking. "I can help you with Combat and Strategy. I don't think I could help with any of your normal classes." Her last American History class had taken in while going to Northwood and that school had not been ..uh...good. "That is if you want help from me. I mean." She tacked on quickly. Not wanting to assume that Mary Sue wanted or needed her help. "Mads has been helping me with Eldritch Magic." She wasn't certain why she added it, but it was her way of saying she was happy to get help. That she wasn't afraid to ask. Help was sometimes needed and there was no shame in that. Andy had learned that when the Drummonds had taken her in.

Mary Sue's interest was peaked, "Honestly, I'd be interested in hearing what's covered in Eldritch Magic." She said, her tone incredibly curious. Magic was a thing that she knew existed, but hell if she knew how it worked. "I'd love to get a hand with Combat, I just... still not used to fighting." She admitted. "But, maybe I can give you a hand with Classic Lit. I kind of read a lot growing up, there's a good chance I've at least read anything you're working on in class." She offered. It was true, after all; one advantage of an isolated childhood is that there's lots of time to read.

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Life had become so much recently, and Mary Sue was beginning to be worried that something would have to give sooner or later. The was what she wanted, but god it was a big ask to have her squeeze four extra hours into her schedule. Being pulled from class sounded so cool on paper, but when you realize that the work doesn't go away because you aren't there to do it, it becomes the exact opposite of that. Still, she persevered. Her stress was high, but she was barely rested for this. To call her on edge would be an understatement, but it made her more alert, or at least she hoped. This year was turning into a trial by fire, but she hoped that surviving it would burn away the parts of her that weren't enough to begin with.

Taking a step outside of her dorm, she let the door close quietly, wanting to not even risk waking her roommate, for fear of some spited reprisal. Cutting curfew, at this point, was actually not that uncommon of her, if only because she often found herself out late studying. Taking a deep breath in, she started her way down the hall, and slipped into the stairwell, not wanting to take the elevator down for fear of running the risk of alerting anybody that she was out of her room. She needed this extra practice time more than anything; it was essential to her team having the slightest chance of winning against the Young Avengers.

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Zelda was still not entirely too sure what to even do at this point. This whole contest thing was insanely weird and she didn't very much like the idea of it. To her it just seemed like it was kind of stupid, but that was just her opinion on it. Going into a weird training program or something in order to practice and train for it? That also struck her as weird. Yet here she was, going to see about doing that since the rest of her team wanted to do it.

"I mean I guess, this still seems odd to me..." she muttered, all ready to go despite very much not fully wanting to. Seeing Diana head out, Zelda let out a slight sigh and followed along after her. She wasn't even sure this would even be worthwhile, since odds were, they still were going to lose the contest. So why go out of their ways to actually be more of a spectacle to people and screw up and lose in front of other people? Oh well, she was here now, might as well hurry to the gym and join everyone else.

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Zari was super excited to get into the Framework again! Of course, she'd keep an eye on what she was doing this time, last time was more of her seeing about how much she could actually accomplish and get away with. This time she should probably keep things a bit more realistic, even though that was truly the first time she actually felt like a half-Asgardian. Since there she literally was a god and could accomplish anything that she wanted as long as she thought it. A technopath was very dangerous in that sort of situation.

She was all set to go, and she skipped along down the hall and to the gym where everything was setup. The instant she was in the room, she went right over to Andy, "Hiya Andy, ready to see what's in store for us? Cause let me say, I'm going to probably end up holding back a bit so it's more fair. Since as previously pointed out, I tend to actually be fairly powerful in the Framework, all of that code and all just waiting to be messed with. I kept glitching the system. But since that is a situation that likely will never easily repeat itself. I'm probably not going to do that," Zari said with a smile, rambling a bit as she spoke.