[IC] Herculean Academy, The Top School for Aspiring Superheroes: Prologue

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Alexis Sinclair~

After listening to the VP's speech, Alexis wasn't entirely sure what she should be doing at the moment. She could try talking more, but what exactly was there to talk about? She wasn't good at the whole 'socializing' thing so much. Even when she had others around that shared similar interests, she really was pretty clueless at making small talk. She wasn't really too into this Scorpio guy either. Really, what kind of stupid name was that anyways? So, instead of talking with him, she decided to plop herself down on the floor next to the others.

She pulled her headphones around her ears again, deciding to get lost in her music again as she waited. She had no desire to get to know this Scorpio guy, or interact with anyone else for the moment. Really, Alexis was just about socialized out. Right now, she really wished she had a computer or her DS on her. She could distract herself by playing some games. So, Alexis waited for something to happen for now. She wanted this stupid meet and greet to end, and end fast.

~Meredith Hillard~

"Yeah, Meredith stopped the fight by pulling the emergency breaks. Because that was just a brilliant idea, wasn't it? Anyway, like Meredith said, one girl broke her arm because the anti-teleportation cuffs she was wearing stopped her from breaking her fall when the train stopped, and another ended up with some glass stuck in her hands. I patched them up just fine, so they'll be alright."

"Well what was I supposed to do!?" Meredith whined, flailing an arm towards Dorian as she pointing a finger at him. "I couldn't let supers fight on the tram! They might have gotten more students hurt! Besides, it's standard procedure to stop the tram during a fight! So suck it Mr. Grumpy pants!" She continued to pout, giving Dorian the biggest set of puppy dog eyes she could as she looked at him, before giving a huff followed by a giggle.
"So when do we eat? I think dinner is in order right?"

Meredith turned to the source of the voice with a curious giggle, folding her hands behind her back as she spun on her heels. She gave the student who spoke a brief look over, before giving him a friendly smile. "Dinner, dinner! Yes, dinner would be lovely! I am feeling a bit hungry myself!" She said, pulling a bundle of four asparagus from her jacket. How she kept all those vegetables in there was a mystery. "Maaaaybe~" She said to Sam. "You should have brought some snacks!" To emphasize her point, she bit the top off of all of the vegetables. "Shee? Shnacks are alwaysh a good ting!"

She chewed, swallowing the asparagus quickly as she turned on her heels, back to Mr. Loser lost pants and the VP. "Kid has a good point though! We should get moving soon! Get everyone to their rooms and stuffs!"

[Classified]

Dr. Isaac Archer

“Well, how do you like that? Hemingway enjoys a drink or two before noon, and he’s celebrated by millions. Reginald Wagner has a shot, and all he’s treated to is the disappointed scorn of his oldest and closest beloved colleague. I suppose the cat’s out of the bag, then. You’ve caught me at my worst, my friend. I suppose I must seem quite the cliche. Oh, what is it that Poe was oft to say about the monkey on his back? ‘I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and…" Reginald trailed off.

Isaac stayed quiet as he watched the man, sometimes he was never quite sure what he was saying, there were a lot of quotes from books he'd never read and authors he had never heard of before. Isaac decided a while ago when they first met that he would rarely enter the mind of his friend unless he felt it was truly necessary. Right now, he seemed as if he would talk to there was no need for Isaac to use his power as he respected privacy...to some extent.

Isaac watched as Reginald got up from his seat and walked over to the window, the way he walked made Isaac think Reginald had only had the one drink, he hoped he had. After a moment of silence he spoke,“She’s down there, is she not? Your granddaughter, I mean...?”Isaac paused, he knew Reginald was drifting away from the matter at hand but his granddaughter and the other children were the reason he had visited.“Oh never mind. Where are my manners? By all means, Doctor, do come in. Might I offer you a drink?”

Isaac finally spoke, declining the offer. "No thank you, Sir," Isaac spoke softly. He paused for a couple of seconds before returning to his original purpose,"She is, Aspen is her name. Injured slightly during the trip here but nothing Dorian couldn't fix. Handsome young man, that one, just like me in my youth", he chuckled. I can see him charming the ladies, he even got my Aspen to let him attend to her injury and she's usually not good with strangers especially ones that look like...you know...lab coats...," He trailed off unable to finish the sentence properly. "Anyway, the new kids are here, they've already had the pleasure of meeting Miss Meredith, Dorian...and I believe the Vice Principle should be meeting them soon. I wondered whether you want to come down and introduce yourself, I haven't yet but I'm going to have to and of course Aspen has no clue I was going to be here and she's not seen me yet," He babbled unsure what to say next, he waited with uncertainty for his reply.

[XxFellsingxX]

- Vice Principal Nina Smith -

Nina raised an eyebrow as Miss Meredith explained the cause of their tardiness. A fight? Well, she supposed such a reaction wasn't unjustified. Waking up in a train full of people you didn't know, your memories likely still foggy thanks to the effects of the drugs, surrounded by children all possessing strange powers and wildly different temperaments... No, not unjustified at all.

Still, she was the Vice Principal, and she had to make sure that these new students learnt how to behave.

She watched as Miss Meredith and Sir Dorian had a little spat over their earlier actions and she gave a small sigh. "It doesn't matter," she said, calmly. "What matters is that everyone got here relatively unharmed." As she spoke, she glanced over at Kitty, her arm in a cast, and suppressed the urge to grimace in sympathy with the girl's pain.

"We should get moving soon! Get everyone to their rooms and stuffs!" Miss Meredith spoke again and Nina turned to look at her.

Nina smiled in the direction of the alien teacher. "Right you are," she said. She looked over the students. "Well, follow me, all. I shall show you to your dorms, let you get settled in. And then..." She glanced over at Sam Damon, a student who had proclaimed he had been hungry. "And then we shall take you to the cafeteria to get some food in your bellies. All of you must be quite hungry, I presume." With that, she turned on her heels and started making her way towards the school entrance, expecting everyone else to follow.

---

- Cheol Akiyama -

It took a while for Cheol to recover his vision, shutting his eyes several times and shaking his head. When he could finally see, he looked back at the little group that had gathered around him, all who seemed to have been less effected by the bright flash than he had. He then glanced back at the Vice Principal, who was headings towards the school entrance.

With a small sigh, Cheol slipped his mask back in his shoulder bag, surprised none of the newcomers who had approached him and Kitty had brought it up. Then again, a kid holding a creepy Japanese mask was probably the least weird thing they'd all seen today.

Cheol looked back at the group and gave a friendly but nervous smile. "Guess we better follow her," he said.

[Zoldyck]

Anastasia Tepes

Anastasia had been at the rear of all of the new students for some time now. She had been very nervous about talking to anyone, this was the first time she actually saw other people. At the moment she had a slight feeling of regret for coming here. Why did she even come here? She had never really seen other people, let alone talk to them. And even if she were to talk to them, how would she aproach them? Just walk up to someone and introduce herself? Or would that be seen as weird?

She looked around nervously, most of the people were having a chat with each other. They probably met in the train before, if only she hadnt slept through the entire ride... Wait, what was that sweet smell? It smelled really good, was someone preparing a snack? Well, since she didnt know what to do anyway it wouldnt hurt going after the smell would it? The smell eventually brought her to a group of students who seemed to atleast vaguely know eachother. One of them had a cast around her arm and another girl had bandages on her arm. Ooh crap, that wasnt a snack at all, it was their blood... Good thing she hadnt walked up to them and asked about the sweet scent, that would have been embarassing.

Then she noticed something she recognized. The girl who had a cast around her arm had Pokemon stickers! Although Anastasia wasnt that knowledgeable in Pokemon she atleast knew something about it. Hmm, maybe she could start her conversation with that girl, or anyone from that group atleast. She gathered her courage and walked up to the group. She opened her mouth and was about to say hi when the VP started talking.

"Well, follow me, all. I shall show you to your dorms, let you get settled in. And then we shall take you to the cafeteria to get some food in your bellies. All of you must be quite hungry, I presume."

And just like that Anastasia lost her courage all together and looked down at the ground as she kicked up abit of dust. Dammit, so close to starting a conversation... Ooh crap, I am actually kind of close to them! Please dont let them laugh at me, please...

[Nightmare Bunny]

[color=00a99d]

Dorian Lost

Dorian sighed. It didn’t matter… yeah, the VP was right. Meredith always got on his nerves, but... it was his duty to the school and to the children to be the bigger person.

Well, let it never be said that Dorian Lost didn’t do his best. Maybe he should have stayed a superhero after all.

“Alright,” he sighed, and briskly walked over to the students. “Well, what are you waiting for? You heard the VP, we’re going to the dormitories! Follow Vice President Smith!”

He clapped his hands together, and started herding the students in the direction of the dorms. Christ, why was he the one who always ended up doing the manual labor? He wasn’t even a proper teacher! He was a nurse!

This certainly hadn’t been in the job description.

“Your bags and personal belongings will be in the dorm rooms when you get there. You won’t have much time to settle in before we take you to the cafeteria, but we’d at least like to show you to your rooms, so hurry up!” he snapped.

As he directed the students towards the doors, he noticed an older looking girl hovering on the outskirts of the group. To be honest, she wasn’t very hard to notice— she was clearly the tallest person in the room. She looked uncomfortable: definitely a new student, then. After thinking about it for a few moments, he realized with a jolt where he had seen her face before.

Anastasia Tepes, the vampire halfling. She seemed to be staring rather intently at Aspen Archer and Kitty Lee— oh shit.

He had no how good her control actually was, and it definitely wasn’t a good idea to just leave her to her own devices around the two injured girls while they weren’t sure. After all, she wouldn’t be the only vampire at Herculean Academy, and they’d had students get attacked by their vampire peers before.

As the other students filed towards the door, he tapped her on the shoulder. Okay, granted, he had to reach up a little –he was at the normal height for an adult male, and she really was tall— but. Whatever. “Excuse me,” he said. “Anastasia Tepes, right? As I said earlier, I’m Dorian Lost, the school nurse here at Herculean Academy. I’d like to talk to you briefly about your, ah… circumstances, in private. Follow me. Don’t worry— we’ll catch up to your little friends later.”

--------------------

Kitty Lee

They were going to see their rooms? And they were going to get their stuff? Kitty perked up, suddenly a whole lot more excited about the situation. Maybe they’d brought her DS. Man, she really, really hoped they’d brought her DS. She wasn’t sure whether she could live without her DS.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. She’d be able to live without her DS… but her existence sure wouldn’t be as fun! Plus, she was really hoping that she’d be able to play Pokemon with Alexis and Graham. Like, reeeeally hoping that she’d be able to.

As Mr. Dorian started to herd them towards the door, she obediently let herself get caught in the wave, looking around for her friends. Graham was getting to know the new guy, Scorpi-something, so instead she turned to Alexis—

Oh. Alexis had her earphones in. Well, okay, she probably didn’t want to be talked to. Cheol, then!

Cheol was younger than her, wasn’t he? He could use some, uh, guiding in his life! Right!

Never mind, of course, the fact that Kitty was probably one of the least mature people in this whole group.

Nevertheless, she fell into step with the younger boy, flashing him a grin. “Soooooo~” she sang. “What do you think, so far? This is pretty cool, huh? And they promised us food! I mean, isn’t it great?”

The way to Kitty’s stomach was her heart, after all. Wait, no— the way to her heart was her stomach! Right, that was how it went.

Vaguely, she registered Mr. Dorian falling behind to talk to a really really tall girl (wow, that was really tall! How had they not noticed this girl earlier?).

[DaDrummer676]

Tony Hart

Tony chuckled at Kitty's reaction, it was a nifty trick. He silently thanked the nanites in his body that allowed him to create the pen tip. Nan0 signed the cast and grinned, "hope that heals well." he moved to let Graham sign Kitty's cast next, noticing he seemed to be a little peeved. He wondered what had set him off. He was about to ask when a new guy showed up. Besides the bad ass accent, he ask had a pretty cool name.

“Toooony, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal.” Graham started, turning to the human swiss army knife. “What’s the uh...whole sleeping situation around these parts? Do we just pick a bush? Or are we all in a big ol’ room, Full Metal Jacket style? If we need tents, I think I’m shit outta luck. Actually, if we need anything, I’m shit outta luck.”

"Your stuff is already in your dorms that the headmaster chose for you. And Im pretty sure we will be getting roommates soon enough." Then, right on cue, the VP showed up in a blast of light. Tony squinted his eyes, man that really got annoying sometimes.

Nina smiled in the direction of the alien teacher. "Right you are," she said. She looked over the students. "Well, follow me, all. I shall show you to your dorms, let you get settled in. And then..." She glanced over at Sam Damon, a student who had proclaimed he had been hungry. "And then we shall take you to the cafeteria to get some food in your bellies. All of you must be quite hungry, I presume." With that, she turned on her heels and started making her way towards the school entrance.

Tony stretched, and if you listened closely you could hear a few mechanisms shifting. "Well then! Lets get this show on the road shall we? I want to get back to my dorm and finish this project I've been working on...

[Ogo]

~Reginald Wagner~

"No thank you, Sir. She is, Aspen is her name. Injured slightly during the trip here but nothing Dorian couldn't fix. Handsome young man, that one, just like me in my youth"

Reginald smiled at this. Dr. Archer was nothing if not graceful about his age. Perhaps there was a chance that even he could follow the other’s footsteps, head into the realm of old age with purpose and dignity, not allowing the beast that is Time wrestle control from him.

Then Reginald’s thoughts hit the bottle, his mind refusing to let him dream for even a moment. No, Wagner knew his place in the world.

But this Dorian Lost…

Reginald hadn’t spent much time around the lad. Perhaps the occasional word in passing. His opinion on the man was…

Well, to put it bluntly, Dorian struck Wagner as a bit of a punk. As much as the man preached keeping an open mind, to judge a man not on his appearance but his actions...well, Wagner always had been more of a ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ kind of fellow. Perhaps he would attempt to break ground with the lad. As an old professor he had once said, “The youth are a bottomless new well of knowledge and curiosity. Rotten, useless knowledge and curiosity, but still new.”

I can see him charming the ladies, he even got my Aspen to let him attend to her injury and she's usually not good with strangers especially ones that look like...you know...lab coats...,"

The Esper Program. Reginald frowned. Not because he had full knowledge of the program and all it entailed...but because he didn’t. Despite not searching, few things escaped Wagner’s sight. The Esper Program was one of the few. He had seen legions of realities, countless ‘could-have-beens’, and more than his fair share of ‘what-ifs’

But the Esper Program had never featured in any of them. Not that he hadn’t seen the people involved or the location, of those he saw plenty. But the program itself. It was new. It was something that never was, something that shouldn’t been, but something that existed now. Or did, at least.

It was something which Wagner had never seen. Uncharted territory. It troubled him to no end.

"Anyway, the new kids are here, they've already had the pleasure of meeting Miss Meredith, Dorian...and I believe the Vice Principle should be meeting them soon. I wondered whether you want to come down and introduce yourself, I haven't yet but I'm going to have to and of course Aspen has no clue I was going to be here and she's not seen me yet,"

Wagner’s eyebrow perked up. A meet-and-greet with the students, then? Shake a few hands, tell a few jokes, then everything’s right as rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

Four letters. Four repetitions.

He shook his head and grinned.

“Absolutely. Why, nothing would grant me more pleasure than looking out at a sea of bright faces, each one more likely to snooze during one of my lectures than the last.” He nodded his head and waved the hand not holding the glass. “Of course, my friend. Let us be off.” The man sat down his drink, straightened his tie, then moved to join the Good Dr. Archer.

Off to shape the minds of children. For the better or worse, Wagner had not yet decided.

----------------

~Graham Turner~

“Your stuff is already in your dorms that the headmaster chose for you. And Im pretty sure we will be getting roommates soon enough."

Welp. That solved that mystery. Apparently he wouldn’t have to tap into his inner Bear Grylls. Which was good. He didn’t have his own production crew tailing him around waiting to wait on him hand and foot. Sadly.

"I might have a lot of stuff in me pack, but ye can bet I sure as feck didn't bring anything like what this guy is talking about. Camping I can do, just not without gear."

As the pack hit the ground, Graham was reminded of a time way back in the day when he, as a wee wittle baby, knocked over one of Grandma’s lamps and it had shattered. He was scolded pretty fiercely at the time. His father got really angry and took him to the bathroom. He yelled a lot then pulled his hand back really quickly and…

And…

Nope. Gone. Whatever brain-train might have been down that particular lane of thought-track had been swiftly derailed. The next thing that Graham could really recall was playing in the backyard that summer. He had to wear a cast like Kitty, because his arm was broken. He wasn’t sure how exactly he broke it, but it had to be sometime around the lamp incident.

Wait. What? What was Scorpio saying now? Graham had totally spaced.

"...sand miles. Ay, mate, what's your name? And what kind of powers do ye have? I've never met anyone else with powers til now."

Oh! A question! And a personal one at that! Glorious! Now Graham could avoid the embarrassment of admitting he had basically nodded off.

“Little ol’ me?” Graham started, slathering his own accent on the words to a ridiculous degree. “Why, they call me Graham. Graham Turner. I guess I’m a pet vet without the whole tools or surgery part. I touch sick or injured animals, then they ain’t sick no more.” He paused, stretching out his arms. Dropping the accent, he continued. “What about you? I mean, I got the name part. Can’t say I’ll ever meet another Scorpio. Err...a person named Scorpio. I’ll probably meet another Scorpio. Waaay too many people into that whole astrology/horoscope mumbo-jumbo. Annnnywaaay, what do you do?”

Almost immediately after he had finished, the adults started calling for everyone to move into the school. To their rooms. Tony added his voice into theirs. Somebody rather familiar asked about food, and food was promised. Alright then. Graham could get down with that groove. He started off to the door, forgetting that he had asked Scorpio a question. But only for a moment. Still, Graham felt like shit. It’s not cool to treat someone like that. And after zoning out? Nah, brah, not excusable. Turn around and stop being a little shit.

So Graham listened to his brain which had FINALLY grown a brain stem and organed up.

He stopped, rather suddenly, causing the poor bloke behind him to just barely swerve to avoid a collision, turned and right beyond Scorpio was the nurse fella.

And.

What.

No.

That’s not fair.

That’s just not fair at all.

Please.

Somebody.

And for not the first time that day, Graham Gavin Turned belted out a cry right in the middle of a lake of his peers.

OH COME ON!!! THAT’S NOT EVEN...SERIOUSLY?!!”

The Murse was speaking to someone alright. Someone that made even Tony look like an ant. Tony, the guy whom Graham thought stretched forever into the sky, a regular New York skyscraper. But this person? This GIRL for crying out loud… did she ever stop? Graham would need an elevator just to look her in the eyes. He didn’t normally mind being short, but this was just ridiculous.

But Graham’s jealousy left as soon as it came when he realized what he did. He, being the loudmouth he is, had just shouted for no reason, right? Those around him, they’d be able to see what, rather who, he was referring to. That’s almost worse than ignoring Scorp. If this girl was uncomfortable with attention...even if she wasn’t, she was talking to a nurse.

IDIOT. Idiot. IdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiot.

Graham turned as quickly as he could, and forced out a powerful laugh. “HAHAHA, GOTCHA!” He managed through that laugh. If nothing else, he could try to make himself look like an annoying ass. People tend to ignore annoying asses. They’d just think he was being obnoxious and carry on towards the dorms.

Hopefully.

He didn’t wait to see. Graham pushed forward, assimilating into the crowd, leaving his friends and poor ignored Scorpio in his wake.

He’d explain later.

Now it was time to catch the one-way express train out of Embarrassment City. Next stop, Regretsville. Thank you for choosing Douchebag Railways.

[TheHangedMan]

Way behind everyone else, three figures appeared. The first two were adults, obviously working with the government or some other powerful organization, judging by their clothes. The third and last figure, however, was something to stare at.

She was a small, fragile looking girl, with hollow, dark eyes and an expressionless face. Her hair was long and tied into a strict single braid. She was dressed in a pastel yellow straight-jacket that covered her from the neck down, and her hands were cuffed with large metal contraptions. She was bound in chains to a wheelchair, which was thick, iron-bound, and had complicated machinery slapped here and there. There was no one pushing the girl - no, the 'wheelchair' seemed to be moving fine by itself.

They had a serious look about them as they approached the body of students, their charge in tow. Most students avoided them, clearing a path were they could easily go through. The trio stopped in front of the Vice Principal, or rather the duo stopped and the third one stopped after them.

The oldest looking member of the group approached Smith, getting a clipboard from the woman next to him. He nodded in greeting. "Good day, Miss Smith. We are agents for the government, tasked with delivering a certain . . . VIP to your school," he said silently enough that only the students with the most gifted ears could hear him, and even then he was careful with his words. "Given the enormous threat it presents, we have been ordered to share with you a few guidelines on handling it."

Handing over the clipboard, the paper on it read:

Esper #1020467-D - Highly Classified / Need-to-know-basis ONLY

File no. 1

Previously involved with the EPIMETHEUS meta-criminal organization as their single greatest trump card. Caused the disappearance of the 'FIREBIRD' superhero team, teleported the entire safe containing millions of dollars worth of gold from a Swiss National Bank, and disintegrated the mountain-base of team 'ANTHEMA'. Retrieved during 'OPERATION: BEACH EAGLE' by team 'FALCON' and recommended to undergo reformation.

Known as 'Deity-class' as it is the only esper with the ability to warrant such a classification. It is fair to say that it DEFINED the class.

Temporarily given the name 'Deia Ticy' for the duration of its stay. May be subject to change depending on the situation.

Its power is constantly growing, and every month it is recommended that its be subject to intense electrical charges to stem its growth. Other methods that can achieve this effect are permissible, however it's been noted that this is the most effective method.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to release it from it limiters or its wheelchair. Similarly, NO ONE is to have SKIN CONTACT with it. Doing either will trigger its powers and allow them to be released in full. Under this state, it is considerably unstable mentally and is extremely subject to vocal suggestions. Should this event occur, have no one speak at all and get it strapped to its limiters ASAP. If neither of these prove possible, then you are given permission to terminate it.

It is RECOMMENDED that whoever is in charge of handling it not grow attached to it in any shape or form. Unnecessary feelings could lead to clouded judgement, as well as LOWER any mental barriers one could have against Esper #1020467-D.

Her status and origins are to be kept under STRICT LOCK, and only people on 'the-need-to-know' should be kept in awareness. As such, those that discover her status and origins must either be moved into 'the-need-to-know' list, or otherwise be subject to mental reformation.

You are to submit a report on her status every three months. Failure to do so will become subject of discussion, as well as the immediate transfer of Esper #1020467-D

The government agent bowed and left, leaving his aide and Deia with Smith. The aide kept her face straight, while the small girl stared blankly at Smith.

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Alexis Sinlcair~
Aleixs watched the other silently as she continued to listen to her music. Not much else was going to happen, it seemed. Well, that was perfectly alright with her. It wasn't until the student body started moving that she took her attentions off of her own thoughts. She stood, with a bored sigh as she removed the headphones from around her ears. Where were they going? She had completely missed whatever was happening. Oh well, she'd ask Graham.

"OH COME ON!!! THAT’S NOT EVEN...SERIOUSLY?!!”

...or not. She blinked once, a bit perplexed as to why he was shouting so goddamn loudly. She followed his gaze to where a Giant of a woman was standing...Well...Alexis didn't entirely know the words to describe how she was feeling about this girl from first impressions. Her first thought was 'hot damn, she looks good' followed by her mouth having trouble working as she attempted to find a sarcastic comment to make to graham for being such an idiot. Instead, she was looking at the tall girl that was standing not so far away from her. She was...well, one of the most beautiful girls she had seen in ages. Maybe she should go ask her, her name...

...dear god, what was she thinking?! No, no no no no! That was not happening. She wasn't seriously...no. Just no. She shook her head violently followed by slapping the sides of her face, as if an attempt to wake herself up. She tore her gaze from the mysterious girl before she followed after Graham, rather quickly as she tried to focus on something else. She quickly walked over to Graham, her face a shade of light red as she walked up behind him. There was an easy way to get her thoughts off of something else.

Well, she would have, if Graham had seemingly disappeared on her. With a brief grunt of exasperation, she started looking for Kitty. Thankfully, it didn't take her that much effort to find the other girl.

"Kitty!" Alexis called out, as she approached. "Well, that was a waste of time." She grumpily said, turning her face slightly to the side to hide the redness in her cheeks. "So what's goin on? I was kinda...busy with my music and stuff." Well, she was. The tall pretty girl came after that.

Goddamn it brain, stop going there. Just focus on Kitty's pokemon stickers.

~Meredith Hillard~
"Right you are, Well, follow me, all. I shall show you to your dorms, let you get settled in. And then...And then we shall take you to the cafeteria to get some food in your bellies. All of you must be quite hungry, I presume."

"Yep! Hungry! I could eat a whole person right now!" Meredith giggled a bit loudly, as she followed the VP. She probably wasn't joking either. Her snack time because of this little incident was cut short. Not to mention the energy she expended scaring the students. She was feeling a bit on the peckish side. Still, she had nothing better to do, currently, so she'd help the VP herd the little kitties and then join them in the cafeteria later. Besides, she did want to keep an eye on that Alexis girl...She seemed like she was going to be a bit of a handful to keep up with. With a happy little spring in her step, she followed right alongside VP Nina.

[NarcissisticPotato]

It was rather unfortunate that the passengers in Olivia's carriage were taken off first as she could not spot a lot of people that she knew. She recognised Tony, and hesitantly remembered the events of only a while beforehand in which she woke up to find herself practically glued to the poor boy! That must have been awkward! Or maybe it wasn't awkward whatsoever and it was like one of those cute scenes from western romance films that drags two hot characters together and ends up with the boy falling head over hee-

Olivia, this is Houston, get back down here.

Blinking back her confusion, she caught herself staring at Tony and picking up on a few precise details from earlier. What does one normally expect when lying against a guy? A good question but most would not answer the hum of a cooling fan or the occasional beep. Granted, he was still a walking hot water bottle but it was still a little strange. Plu- food? Her eyes narrowed, flicking from side to side as her ears perked up, much like a gazelle that was happily chewing away on grass before BAM! Lion gets 'em. She didn't like those documentaries but that was irrelevant - her stomach rumbled. "And then we shall take you to the cafeteria to get some food in your bellies. All of you must be quite hungry, I presume." She recognised Miss Smith at the head of the pack; this was good, she would lead them to the food!

Why was she so hungry? The simple answer would be that she still had Lepus activated and usually that changed her personality to something more... animalistic. Instead of the silly, complicated emotions of humans, her mind focused on the basics - safety, food and water, a den, oh and mating! Yeah... that's why she never really activated Lepus whenever she was with other people, especially members of the opposite sex. Then again, she had been known to flirt with members of the same sex. Unfortunately, she wasn't even thinking about the effects Lepus had as it was already in full swing.

Olivia was just in the process of sidling up to Tony to start chatting him up a conversation when the group's attention suddenly switched to another girl. Olivia allowed her eyes to trail over her and her lips settled into a pout almost immediately. With a few quick comparisons between Olivia's chest and the other girl's, she worked out that this girl had more feminine charm once her long, model-like legs were factored in and also the fact that she was a bombshell. The only possible thing that could make this worse was if she was blond. She had white hair so, by the very limited powers of deduction, Olivia worked out that it must be an incredibly light shade of blond. Well whoopdy-fucking-doo.

Her plans were quick, precise, and incredibly stupid but hell, she had Lepus activated so her brain had the processing power of a well-made toaster. "Bonjour!" She greeted the shy looking girl as she cancelled her movement to Tony and instead, moved closer to the woman. Her womanly charms weren't lost on Olivia, however, as she smiled brightly at her. "You look new here! Don't worry, most of these guys didn't know each other before this morning! I'm Olivia Octavia Delacroix. You are?" Anastasia should have been thankful that she didn't become subject to Olivia's superb pick-up lines. That was her plan (or Lepus Olivia's plans) - eliminate the enemy from the inside.

[Zoldyck]

Anastasia Tepes

As the student body started moving Anastasia felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw that it was Mr. Lost. What could the nurse want with her?

“Excuse me, Anastasia Tepes, right? As I said earlier, I’m Dorian Lost, the school nurse here at Herculean Academy. I’d like to talk to you briefly about your, ah… circumstances, in private. Follow me. Don’t worry— we’ll catch up to your little friends later.”

Anastasia looked bewildered at Dorian. Did she already do something wrong? Excuse me sir but I dont think I understand you. What do you mean with circumstances? I didnt do anything wrong did I? If I did then I would like to appologise, I had no idea I was breaking any rules. Her cold and aristocratic english accent made everything she said seem like it was meant sarcastic. This was not her intention ofcourse, she just didnt know how to talk differently. She bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground as she waited for Dorian to respond.

Then, out of nowhere:

OH COME ON!!! THAT’S NOT EVEN...SERIOUSLY?!!”

What was that? What was happening? Anastasia looked up at the source of the cry. It appeared to be a young boy with red-ish hair and glasses. She saw him staring at her for a fraction of a second before he turned around and pretended to be joking. Whatever his intentions were, she had now caught the attention of several other students. For a tiny fraction she felt a jolt of anger rush through her. What did that guy mean? Was she that weird or did he just want to mock her? Well if that little punk wanted to make fun of her or tought she was weird, well then she would show him!

Anastasia was about to yell back at the boy, who was now doing his best to get as fast as possible through the door. Well, maybe next time. But was it justified to be angry? After all he only yelled out something that maybe didnt even have to do with her... Maybe it was just her own insecurity. Well, let's forget about the boy for now, mister Lost seemed to be serious so lets not get angry now over such a small thing.

Just as she was about to turn back to Dorian Anastasia got approached by another person.

"Bonjour!"

Anastasia looked up and saw a girl aproaching her, she was smiling brightly. Well, she sure seemed in a good mood, maybe she could borrow some of that to Anastasia? From the looks of her she seemed to be a student. Well, maybe this could be a future friend... Anastasia remembered what her father told her, to never trust anyone...

"You look new here! Don't worry, most of these guys didn't know each other before this morning! I'm Olivia Octavia Delacroix. You are?"

But she seemed so nice! Nothing could be wrong with someone who was this nice, right?

Anastasia swallowed before putting up a smile and responding. Hello, my name is Anastasia Tepes, pleased to meet you. She made a formal bow towards Olivia. Altough she was very nervous talking to a person around her age her anxiety wasnt noticable in her voice. Sure this might be a new experience for her, but talking to someone else isnt one of the hardest challenges she ever faced... Or was it? Slowly she started to become more nervous. What should she do now? Ask her something, tell something about herself?

Instead Anastasia setteled with a smile, a badly forced one at that and to the observant spectator one which gave away what she was: She bared her teeth.

[XxFellsingxX]

- Cheol Akiyama -

“Soooooo~” Kitty said in a sing-song voice, falling into step behind Cheol as they followed the Vice Principal closer towards the building. “What do you think, so far? This is pretty cool, huh? And they promised us food! I mean, isn’t it great?”

Cheol glanced at her, still feeling a little shy but far more comfortable around her than he had been originally. He nodded his head, smiling at her slightly. "It's certainly pretty interesting," he admitted. He glanced forward at Nina. "Not sure what I feel about the Vice Principal though. She seems a little..." He paused, searching for a way to describe it. After a moment of struggling, he shook his head. "I don't know. She just seems a bit weird." He then looked over at Dorian and Meredith. "Then again, all the adults here seem a bit weird, don't you think? Not like any teachers I've ever met." He shrugged. "Then again, I suppose it's different here than it is in Japan."

He looked back at Kitty. "But yeah, I'm looking forward to some food," he admitted. "When was the last time any of us ate, anyway? How long were we asleep for?" Voicing these questions and concerns to Kitty may not have been the best choice as she seemed the most easygoing of all the kids here. After all, she'd just broken her arm and she still unbelievingly perky. Then again, she also seemed like the easiest to talk to.

"Kitty!"

As Cheol finished that last sentence, another girl, the one with the headphones - Alex or something? - had called out to them and pushed her way up to him and Kitty. He was a little annoyed with her interruption but didn't say anything. Besides, perhaps she might have something important to say about all this madness. "Well, that was a waste of time," Headphones Girl continued. "So what's goin on? I was kinda...busy with my music and stuff."Cheol noted the weird way she paused during that last sentence, but decided not to comment on it.

"We were just talking about how weird this whole place is," Cheol informed her. "I mean, not like I expected a school for superheroes to be normal or anything, but it's still kind of strange, wouldn't you say?" As if to confirm what he was saying, two government agents and a girl in a straight jacket and a wheelchair appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and approached the Vice Principal, causing Nina to pause.

"Aaaaaand now we're a whole new level of strange," Cheol muttered, staring over at Wheelchair Girl.

---

- Vice Principal Nina Smith -

Nina stopped in her tracks as the two government agents, putting up her hand to signal to the others behind her to also come to a halt. She took the clipboard from one of the agents and pursed her lips as she read over the file.

"I see," Nina muttered, something strangely cold in her tone. She was forcing herself not to look at the girl strapped in the wheelchair, for she knew that doing so would awaken some long locked away instinct that she had to trying to suppress for a long time now. She could sense the girl's eyes on her, though, and it made lifting her head up to look at the agent extremely difficult. "I understand," she said. "Though, considering she's now one of my students, I would ask politely if you could kindly desist from call her an 'it'. We don't tolerate that kind of attitude here." As she spoke, it was notable that crystal on her staff had started to flicker a light red, though this only lasted for a couple of seconds. "Now, if you please, I shall transport her with the rest of my students to the school. We're on a tight schedule as is."

'Besides, you'll scare the students,' she thought to herself, but didn't dare voice this.

[TheHangedMan]

The agent, once Nina finished speaking, gave a stiff nod of the head, turned, and proceeded to walk away from the crowd. The aide remained, however, and gave a stiff nod of her head.

"Before I depart, Miss. Smith, a few reminders are in order: One, she is not to be paired with anyone in a dorm and asides form i- her classes, is to be kept in strict isolation. Two, someone is to keep her under guard and surveillance during the nights, and she is to be strapped to her bed to prevent her from moving - or escaping. Three, an agent from the government will be on hand to assist with these tasks, just in case there is no one available to work on them." Left unsaid but definitely implied was that the government agent would be observing the Academy's own staff when interacting with Deia.

"Finally, it is in our best interest that we once again remind you, Miss. Smith, to not get too attached to i- her. Remember what she is capable of, and the threat she represents. We do not treat her as a human, because doing so will help us grow attached to i- her. Now, she may be one of your students, but take note that we brought her here only because the team that rescued her recommended it, citing your schools excellent track record, to re-appropriate her use. If it turns out that they were mistaken in their claims, we would like to remind you that there were other methods thought up for putting Esper #1020467-D to good use, and we will not hesitate to fall back on them. That is all I have to say."

The agent said all of this in a completely business-mannered tone. Once she finished, she did not wait for Smiths' response, and much like the agent before her, turned on her heel and left. Once she got passed the crowd of students, she suddenly disappeared - obviously, the woman herself was a meta-human.

Now only the small girl in the wheelchair was left. The tiny thing stared wordlessly at the principle, and suddenly, there was a flash of energy that pulsed into the Vice Principles' mind. It wasn't harmful in anyway, and it was weak enough that it could easily be ignored, even by people without any training, but it conveyed a sense of feeling.

A slight sense of curiosity, mixed with fear, and a great deal of confusion. All of that came from an expressionless Deia, in the form of a psionic pulse.

[Nightmare Bunny]

Dorian Lost

Oh Christ. First the girl didn’t even know what the heck was going on, and now Olivia Delacroix was trying to intervene in the situation.

For the record? Yeah, Dorian totally didn’t buy that crock of too-friendly bullcrap Olivia was spouting. He’d seen the aftermath of this sort of situation. Hell, he’d been the one who’d had to awkwardly pat the last girl this had happened to on the back.

Why did students insist on making his life so hard? What had he ever done to them?

And now she was baring her fangs. Whaaaat the hell.

He hated dealing with kids. Hated it. HATED IT.

He sighed, exasperated. “Olivia, you’ll have a chance to talk to Anastasia later, got it? Anastasia, come with me. You’re not in trouble, so stop making my life harder. Now, follow me. Christ. Is that honestly that hard to understand?”

He turned on his heel and started off in the direction of… elsewhere. “The longer this takes, the longer it’ll take for you to get to dinner, so hurry up!” he snapped over his shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a very young-looking girl in a wheelchair. Aaaand a straightjacket. Welp. Okay. That wasn’t a good sign.

--------------------

Kitty Lee

"It's certainly pretty interesting," said Cheol, looking at Nina. "Not sure what I feel about the Vice Principal though. She seems a little..." He paused, then shook his head. "I don't know. She just seems a bit weird."

Kitty hummed in agreement. “Oh, totally! I mean, she looks like, uh… some kind of wizard! Like, uh… Yuna from Final Fantasy 10!”

Okay, maybe that was pushing it a little.

Cheol looked over at Dorian and Meredith. "Then again, all the adults here seem a bit weird, don't you think? Not like any teachers I've ever met." He shrugged. "Then again, I suppose it's different here than it is in Japan. But yeah, I'm looking forward to some food. When was the last time any of us ate, anyway? How long were we asleep for?"

Kitty looked over as well. Huh. “Weeeeellll,” she said, remembering Aspen’s treatment. “I think Miss, uh… Meredith? I think she’s pretty scary. Like, she can turn into a super creepy monster thing. Mr. Dorian’s super angry all the time, but he’s not so bad. I mean, he gave me Pokemon stickers! He’s kinda like, uh—” she leaned in to whisper in Cheol’s ear. “Like Alexis. Shhh, don’t tell her I said that!”

She took a step back, and then boom! Alexis! "Kitty!” she said. “Well, that was a waste of time, so what's goin on? I was kinda...busy with my music and stuff."

"We were just talking about how weird this whole place is," Cheol said. "I mean, not like I expected a school for superheroes to be normal or anything, but it's still kind of strange, wouldn't you say?"

“Mmm, nothing too important happened,” Kitty agreed, nodding. “We’re on our way to the dorms to, uh… get settled in or something?” At that, Kitty perked up. “Oh, I really, really hope they brought my DS! Oooh, and my laptop! Hey, wait, if they didn’t, do you think they’d let me teleport home to get it?”

Also, they were getting left behind. She walked a little faster, just in case.

[Ogo]

~Graham Turner~

To the left.

Graham shot to the left.

Right.

Back to his original side then.

Big dude straight ahead. Stop and redirect.

Graham came to a skidding halt. Good thing he did, or he and the human boulder in front of him would have...all who was he kidding? He’d slam into the guy and bounce off. Dude probably wouldn’t even notice, either. Right then. Where next? Ah. Graham wove in and out of the crowd, not exactly able to see over their heads, unsure of where exactly he was heading. He just wanted to get to the other side.

And he did.

Graham shot out of the crowd and stumbled a few steps. Right into the path of some suit-and-tie lady. Crap. Unlike Graveler back there, this chick might actually take a fall as well. Unable to stop his momentum, Graham closed his eyes and braced for impact.

Bracing.

Bracing.

Oh god, any minute now.

Bracing.

Brac-

Huh. Shouldn’t she have run into him by now?

Graham opened his eyes. Nada. Zilch. No woman, no crash.

Well. The boy stood horribly confused for a moment. Did she dodge out of the way? Those were some amazing reflexes if she did. He turned around, searching. Zilch. She gone, bro. But would that really be the weirdest thing he had seen today? Not even close. The boy was about to push his way back into the crowd, but he noticed they had sort of stopped. Why? He looked towards the front. The Vice Prinicipal looked like she was shooting the shit with a girl in a wheelch-

Straitjacket. Wheeled around.

Hannibal Lecter? Err...Hannibal Lecter’s daughter?

WHOA. NO. DON’T. JUST DON’T. NOT COOL, BRO. YOU DON’T DO THAT.

Graham actually slapped himself in the face. Hard. His reward? A throbbing red handprint on his face, and the confused stares of some of the students beside him. He didn’t notice though. He was too busy berating himself for being a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Great. So he couldn’t look to the front without guilt slapping him around. And the rear was, well, MAYBE preferable. No. After bringing forth potential social misery upon a poor unsuspecting girl, he couldn’t rightly go back that way. Well done Graham. Kudos.

He had to hide. Where to hide, where to hide? Was there a paperbag nearby that he could bury his traitorous head in? Nope. No luck. But he did notice something while he was looking around: Alexis, Cheol, and Kitty had just entered stage right. Well, he noticed the cast. Close enough, yeah?

Bingo.

The red-headed menace trotted back through the crowd, bobbing and weaving in all the right places, before ending up marching in step with the trio. He looked over, his guilt and worry still plastered all over his face like a billboard, and offered a shaky smile.

“Hola, peeps.”

[Zoldyck]

Anastasia Tepes

As Anastasia was still awkwardly smiling at Olivia she could hear an annoyed sigh behind her. Ooh right, mr. Dorian wanted to speak to her! Just as she was about to turn around to face him it seemed that Dorian's patience was running out.

“Olivia, you’ll have a chance to talk to Anastasia later, got it? Anastasia, come with me. You’re not in trouble, so stop making my life harder. Now, follow me. Christ. Is that honestly that hard to understand?” Well someone was having a bad day. Anastasia wondered what could have made this man so bitter. He then turned on his heel and started to wander off in a seemingly random direction. “The longer this takes, the longer it’ll take for you to get to dinner, so hurry up!” he snapped over his shoulder.

Anastasia quickly glanced over to Olivia. It's been a pleasure meeting you, please excuse me but it seems mr. Lost has something to discuss with me. She made a quick formal bow and turned around to catch up with Dorian. Olivia seemed like a nice person, maybe it could be her first friend? Anastasia was certainly hoping to quickly find a friend, or atleast someone to talk to on a regular basis. She just reminded that there would be roommates. Please let it be a nice person, and more importantly, someone who wasnt woken easily. Vampires are nocturnal after all, it meant that Anastasia was alot more active during the night and that could be annoying for her roommate(s). Thinking about making friends made her genuinly smile, although the smile might seem abit creepy to some random observer.

On her way to Dorian she had heard some commotion with the main group. Thanks to her superiour senses she was able to hear people whisper something about a girl in a wheelchair. She got kind of curious and almost wanted to walk up to her before she remembered that Dorian wanted to talk. She finally caught up with Dorian and they had become seperated from the group by now. She looked at Dorain with the same smile as she had while walking up here. You wanted to talk with me about something mr. Lost? Her voice sounded abit too excited for this kind of conversation. Was it because she had just talked to her first "friend"? No, that couldnt be it, it had to be something else... Ooh well, no concern for her now. A wide grin formed on her face while she was looking at Dorian and her pupils in her blood red eyes had become noticibly narrower and were starting to form slits. Did he already smell this good a couple of minutes earlier?

[Vec]

Paul Ray

Paul had started walking towards the main building when the Vice President of the academy suddenly showed up out of nowhere, greeting the new students. He stopped, leaned against a nearby wall and listened to her introducing herself before she turned to Meredith and asked her if the new students were in good condition. Paul almost lost it with her answer, "Nofing Dorian anf I coulfn't handlf. Tere waf a fight, I stopped it cush I'm aweshum." What can you do? She's funny when she's in a good mood, you can't deny her that.

Then, Mr. Dorian jumped in the conversation, "Yeah. Meredith stopped the fight by pulling the emergency breaks. Because that was just a brilliant idea, wasn't it?" Technically, I was the one who pulled the breaks...soooo yeah... YOU CAN'T EXACTLY GO AGAINST HER ORDERS AND EXPECT TO ESCAPE UNHARMED!! Paul wanted to say in his defence but opted to just play it cool and so started whistling a little tune.

"I couldn't let supers fight on the tram! They might have gotten more students hurt! Besides, it's standard procedure to stop the tram during a fight!" standard procedure my ass, just say you wanted to scare them shitless already... At that point, Paul was beggining to get bored by all the grown up talk. That's when one of the freshmen, who just so happened to be the one who wanted a piece of Meredith back at the train a while ago, asked about when they were going to eat dinner. Hearing that reminded Paul that he too hadn't eaten anything since lunch, making his stomach grumble, complaining about the lack of nurishment. "Kid has a good point! We should get moving soon! Get everyone to their rooms and stuffs!" of course she would agree, all she ever thinks about is food. They were both right though and plus, Paul wanted to be done with his living arangements. He wondered who would be his roomate this year, considering the two previous years he had the whole room for himself.

Paul started walking, following the students behind the V.P. who had offered to show them to their dorms and then take them to the school cafeteria. Paul could easily go to these places by himself but decided to follow along anyway. Paul heard a loud shout coming from the back before being pushed aside by a huge man dressed in a corporate suit, followed by a woman clothed in the same manner and behind her, "a kid in a wheelchair? What the..." Paul thought while looking at the trio pass by him and stopping in front of the Vice President. The man handed introduced himself as a goverment agent and handed a clipboard to the V.P. who took and read thought it, "I see. I understand. Though, considering she's now one of my students, I would ask politely if you could kindly desist from call her an 'it'. We don't tolerate that kind of attitude here. Now, if you please, I shall transport her with the rest of my students to the school. We're on a tight schedule as is." Huh, so she's a newbie as well? What did she do that constituted her being strapped onto that wheelchair with chains? Paul wondered.

After that, there was a brief exchange in words between the V.P. and the other agent before she too left, following her partner. "Well that was certainly awkward... I wonder what's her story" Paul thought before he raised his voice, "Um, about that dinner..."

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Alexis Sinclair~

"We were just talking about how weird this whole place is, I mean, not like I expected a school for superheroes to be normal or anything, but it's still kind of strange, wouldn't you say?"

Eh, she personally didn't have any strong feelings one way or another, other than mistrust towards any place that would drug people and then bring them to some secret location that was probably underground. That just spelled trouble right there. Still, it wasn't so bad since she had met Kitty and Graham. They seemed to be pretty cool people, unlike a certain jerk face on the train.

“Mmm, nothing too important happened, We’re on our way to the dorms to, uh… get settled in or something? Oh, I really, really hope they brought my DS! Oooh, and my laptop! Hey, wait, if they didn’t, do you think they’d let me teleport home to get it?”

"Probably not, Kitty." Alexis replied rolling her eyes. No way in hell were they ever gonna let them leave this place, at least not without supervision if that. That other place...you couldn't go anywhere without being watched constantly. But that was something she didn't want to think about, so she focused more on Kitty and her mentioning a DS. "Hey, I hope they brought mine too! Oh, and my computer. If they didn't bring my computer, I'ma be upset! I built that thing myself." She smugly said, sounding rather proud of her accomplishment, walking a bit faster to match Kitty's pace, though they soon caught up with the rest of the student body which had stopped for some reason.

“Hola, peeps.” Graham said, showing up almost from nowhere.

"Yo, Graham." She greeted him. "Go run off after shouting like an idiot?"

~Meredith Hillard~

She stopped walking when the VP did, taking a cautionary look at the two government agents. They looked like your cookie cutter suits to her. Probably couldn't even handle one of the new students here if things came down to it. Well, at least they'd probably be fun to toy with if she ever felt like messing with them. Still, who was the girl in the wheelchair? And why was she in a straight jacket? That didn't look comfortable at all! She had been in one before. It didn't hold her for long, since she just turned her arms into bony swords and shredded it. Too bad she couldn't do the same. Sometimes, she felt sorry that the humans didn't have complete control over their molecular structure.

And then she remembered how tasty they were, and how difficult it would be to eat one if they weren't so helpless.

With a curious look, she elongated her neck slightly to get a look at the clipboard over Nina's shoulders. A lot of boring techno babble she didn't care much for. She did spot the designation they had given her. Wow, how...cold even for the Suits. She had half a mind to say that if anyone was an it here, it was her! And she didn't go around eating people like some ravenous monster...well, not usually.

And then came the Psionic pulse. It wasn't directed at her, but she knew one was directed at the Principal. Her kind may not be telepaths, but if another one was near, they could communicate vague feelings and ideas, locations and emotions. She had never done it with another of her kind since she was the only one on the planet - hell, probably the only one in the entire space quadrant or whatever, but still. it was actually the only way most of her people communicated, since living under water mostly made it hard to talk.

"Hrmph~ What a rude suit! Treating this delicious looking little girl like a monster!" She said, bringing her neck back to its normal length, looking at the girl. She had half a mind to go over there and give the wheelchair bound girl an affectionate little pat on the head, but even she knew better than to do something that stupid when she didn't know who or what the girl was capable of. "So what are we gonna do with her?"

[Ogo]

~Reginald Wagner~

Clop.

Clop.

Clop.

“So what are we gonna do with her?”

Wagner sighed. Well, that would be Meredith. Was she trying to scare yet another poor student? Why she was even allowed on the campus, Wagner would never know. Surely she put everyone in danger. Although, she wouldn’t be the only one. It seemed like half the student body and many of the staff were a massive threat to everyone and everything around them. Why gather them all in one place? What was the reasoning behind that? Surely it would do better isolate those? To minimize the chances of a catastrophic incident taking place.

But that decision was not Wagner’s to make. Nor was it his place to really think about.

He turned the last corner and strolled down the final bit of hall. And voila. Before him stood Vice Principal Smith. And the Hillard creature. And a long tail of students.

Yet they all appeared to stop before a small girl in a wheelchair. Smith and the girl were eyeing each other. Rather odd, he had to admit.

Or was it?

Wagner’s interaction with the vice principal was rather limited, as was it with Hillard. He hadn’t the best feel for the two women, if one could truly consider Hillard a woman. Still, he had no qualms with either of them. Wagner turned to share his confusion with Dr. Archer, but the man was no where to be seen. Had Reginald shaken him during the trip there? Unlikely, but not impossible. Oh well. The doctor would catch up.

Wagner shrugged and turned back to the group. The students seemed, well, rather unruly. He could understand. It was getting on in the day. And surely they had to be hungry and tired, what with the school’s barbaric method of transporting them. Why, they might even be prone to riot.

We wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Although, Wagner wouldn’t intervene. Not much use in it, was there? Smith would handle what needed to be done. It wasn’t exactly her first rodeo. Instead, Wagner simply stood in the pathway, observing the students from the left, but not really thinking much. The alcohol was starting to do it’s job. The man’s mind felt a touch slack. He could feel warm tendrils caressing his skin, the small hairs on his arms standing straight up. His relief was finally kicking in. Just in time, too.

He would simply make his appearance here, be seen at least, then most likely slink back to his office and have some more of the drink. As long as he could retain a semblance of productivity, he could continue his drink. But should it come to it, should the drink begin interfering, he would kick it aside once more.

Right…?

[SrslyAnArtist]

Scorpio McRae

“Little ol’ me?” Graham said with that ridiculous accent. “Why, they call me Graham. Graham Turner. I guess I’m a pet vet without the whole tools or surgery part. I touch sick or injured animals, then they ain’t sick no more.” Dropping the accent, “What about you? I mean, I got the name part. Can’t say I’ll ever meet another Scorpio. Err...a person named Scorpio. I’ll probably meet another Scorpio. Waaay too many people into that whole astrology/horoscope mumbo-jumbo. Annnnywaaay, what do you do?”

"I shift into poisonous animals." He said. "Watch." he closed his eyes and concentrated. His form blurred, shifted, and then he was a king cobra.

"Sssee? i can alsso sshift into this," his form blurred once more, and his shape was that of a pale lion with black king cobra patterns in his fur. "I can't do a whole lot yet."