Herculean Academy:
The Top School For Aspiring Superheroes
The Top School For Aspiring Superheroes
"The measure of a man is what he does with power." - Plato
Arc 1: Welcome to HA
Oh god...that was adorable. Really, did she take lessons on how to be adorable or something? Because she was doing a good job of it. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond. She was afraid she would end up saying something stupid next. She couldn't very well tell Anastasia she was being adorable...so, she defaulted to being a jerk. Again.
Smooth Alexis.
"Pfft," She smugly scoffed. "I don't care about that. I've seen worse than someone drinking blood. Takes more than that to scare me off." Alexis replied to Anastasia, finishing the last of her food. "Really, a Vampire doesn't really scare me at all." Well... that was partly true. She had seen worse, but she tried to forget about it for the most part.
Alexis said vampires didn't scare her... So... Anastasia didn't scare her?! Marvelous! This was great! Ooh Anastasia felt so happy right now that she could actually hug Alexis right now!
But wait... Maybe Anastasia just misheard Alexis... She better double check.
"Really?!" Anastasia replies, suddenly a lot more cheerful. "You, you actually don't mind me being a vampire?" She asks to Alexis in a cheerful yet also shocked kind of way.
"Nope." She said, folding her arms, a smug grin on her face.
Ooh yes! Yes, yes, yes! Does... Does this mean she just made a friend? Like, a proper, real friend? Ooh this was just so great... She could just... Anastasia would...
Anastasia drops her fork and embraces Alexis in a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She nearly yells out in joy.
That smug grin lasted all of two seconds before she was wrapped in an admittedly very comfortable, please, hug. Not that she'd ever admit that to anyone. The look on Alexis' face had to be priceless as the vampire suddenly hugged her. She was close to Anastasia. Close enough for her to admittedly want to possibly try hugging her back. She was surprisingly soft...
Yeah, NO. Not happening. NOPE.
"W-what do you think you're-" She shouted, quite loudly, struggling a bit to get out of the hug. "G-g-get off!" She shoved Anastasia off of her, her face completely red from a mix of embarrassment and annoyance. "Y-you can't just go hugging people you don't even know! Really what the hell is your problem!"
You stupid, stupid idiot! What the hell were you thinking?! Ooh I know, you weren't! Just a few moments ago it was obvious that Alexis didn't want to touch you. From what you know now that wasn't because you were a vampire so that means that she probably just doesn't like it. And what do you do? You idiot!
Anastasia looked down in embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry... I just... I just wanted to show you my gratitude for... Well for not being afraid of me." She mumbled at Alexis.
"W-well don't do it again! Don't even think about doing it!" She shouted, standing up from her seat. She was certain quite a few people were staring at them now. Not that she particularly cared at the moment. She wasn't sticking around for any of them to say something. "In fact! I'm leaving! I'm going back to the dorms." She huffed, turning around and leaving, face still a bright shade of red, ignoring any protests from Anastasia should she have them. Really...what the hell was her problem?!
Anastasia got up from her chair at the same moment that Alexis was walking away. She caught up with Alexis in only a few seconds. "Alexis, wait a second, please..." She practically begged. Anastasia was halfway in the motion of grabbing Alexis' shoulder, but considering the response she just got by touching Alexis... Well, Anastasia decided not to. "Please Alexis, I'm sorry..."
Alexis stopped walking briefly in response to Anastasia, but didn't face her. It was obvious she wasn't really impressed with the apology. "Whatever," She replied, arms still folded, barely giving Anastasia a glance over her shoulder. "I'm going back to my dorm." Without another word, she walked off and left the cafeteria and Anastasia both.
As Alexis walked off to the dorms Anastasia was thinking about what had just happened. She really messed this one up didn't she? What was she even thinking... 10 seconds earlier it seemed like Alexis wouldn't like physical contact and what did she do? She hugged Alexis. Anastasia felt so stupid.
Anastasia decided to head for the dorms as well, it wasn't like she would have anything to do here now anyway. That's when she heard some of the students making fun of her. One of them made his way to her. "You know, if you want to hug someone you can hug me. I wont mind it at all..." He said with a grin on his face, quickly glancing over to his friends before spreading his arms.
She was tempted to just take his head right off with a well placed right hook. However... She thought of a much better way to vent her frustration...
Anastasia put on a kind smile and looked down at him, he was slightly smaller then her after all. He looked like a jerk, his face already gave that much away. Anyway, Anastasia accepted his embrace and hugged him back. "It's good to see that there is always a gentleman who would help a lady in need." She brought her mouth close to his ear as she seemed to apply a bit more force on keeping the guy in place. "I was dying for a snack."
Before the guy realized what was going on it was already too late for him. Anastasia tore into his neck with her teeth, taking a piece of the skin with it. She was careful not to actually kill him, only to euhm... make a statement. Eugh, even his blood was horrible. He must have been inbred or something.
As the guy was screaming at the top of his longs Anastasia released him. She looked around in the cafeteria again and was satisfied to see that none of them were mocking her anymore. In fact, a lot of them seemed to look like they were afraid of her. Normally she would have hated that look, but now it was better to be feared then to be mocked... Plus, this had been an ideal way to vent some frustration about the whole Alexis thing. Anastasia would try talking to her again tomorrow. For now though, she would head to her dorm and possibly try and explain this all to her roommate...
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Alexis made her way back to the Dorm. Ugh. That had been a disaster. Really, why couldn't she have just been a little nicer?! Especially right there at the end. She could have been just a little less harsh. Ugh, she was terrible at this...Anastasia probably either hated her or was crushed by her behavior. She seemed to be a bit...shy, for vampire. Well...at least, she'd go back to her Dorm and Kitty would probably be there. They could talk about...nerd stuff. That was something she was good at.
Thankfully, it didn't take her long to reach her dorm. She walked in, grumbling a bit and expecting Kitty to be there. It was a bit odd to her, that she wasn't there but she didn't particularly care much at the moment. Probably was just still eating or something. She was feeling a bit...agitated and didn't exactly feel like talking anyways.
so, she plopped down on the bed, pulled her headphones over her ears and was soon off in her own little world.
Aah… That shower had been refreshing, just what Mishka needed. She stepped out of the shower compartment and started to dry herself with a towel. She thought about how her first day at Herculean had progressed. To be honest, it was quite boring. Why did she have to go here again? It’s not like there will be some hidden gems locked away in an American school.
When she was in the middle of her train of thought she could hear the door of the dorm being opened and someone dropping themselves on a bed. Great… that must be her new roommate. It was at this point that she realized that, although she had already unpacked everything and stored it nicely in the closet, she forgot to put some clean clothes inside of the bathroom… Well, this was absolutely perfect.
Mishka tried to cover herself up with a towel, or actually two of them since one was to small to completely cover her up. After she did this she walked over to the door and opened it. She saw a girl laying on one of the beds. In Mishka’s eyes she looked small but she would probably be just above average in terms of height.
The girl was facing another part of the room, though she might have spotted the door opening in the corners of her eyes. Mishka didn't really care that much though, she just walked casually to the closet she had her stuff in, at the other end of the room, and didn't try to contact this new roommate as she walked past her.
Alexis, being completely absorbed in her music, and own little world, wasn't entirely aware of someone coming out of the shower. Sure, she heard them - she had good ears, even with her impossibly loud music blasting through her headphones. However, she assumed it was Kitty - or maybe Aspen that was doing the moving.
So, when she finally opened her eyes to talk to Kitty, she was a little more than surprised to find another girl. An almost impossibly tall girl, to be exact - even taller than Anastasia, walking past her.
Alexis momentarily panicked. Who was this girl? Had she walked into the wrong room? No...couldn't be. Her stuff was in here...but then where was Kitty? Alright Alexis..play it cool...yeah, like that was gonna happen.
As Mishka walked past, Alexis gave her a somewhat suspicious glare, but elected to not say anything. The hell was this chick, and why was she in her and Kitty's room?
Mishka got some of her clothes out of the closet. Nothing really special of course, just a sleeping attire in the form of a t-shirt, sweat pants and of course some underwear. From her bed the girl would only be able to see Mishka's backside. If the girl was paying close attention to Mishka's right shoulder blade she would notice a 13 being tattooed on it.
Mishka turned around once she finished getting her underwear and pants on, she still had the shirt hanging over her right arm. She saw that the girl was glaring at her and from the looks of it she seemed to be a bit hostile, or at least suspicious, which was understandable. Looking at her, the girl kinda reminded Mishka of an overly protective puppy, ready to pounce at anyone trying to annoy it
Mishka let out a heavy sigh. This girl was probably going to cause some trouble. Better get some ground rules up. Mishka tried her best to pull off an innocent smile as she started talking. "So, I take it you're going to be my new roommate?" She asked, her Russian accent was easily recognizable. "Not that you would probably care but considering we're going to be roommates for the rest of the year I think that we should lay down some ground rules, da?"
After saying that she walked over to her bed and gently laid down on it. The bed seemed to be protesting to the intense weight suddenly getting tossed unto it because it was creaking very loudly once Mishka got on it. She looked over to the girl as Mishka put away the shirt for now. "Let's start with a rule which I would really appreciate you following: Your stuff is yours, my stuff is mine. Let's not touch each others stuff without each other's consent, alright?"
"Ooh," she added, "my name's Mishka in case you were wondering. What's yours pup?" Yes, she did just call Alexis a pup.
The accent...well, she was finding it a bit annoying but meh. She was just being petty or something. Whatever. The main point...no touching each others stuff. Oh sure...she'd agree to that. What she wouldn't exactly agree to...is being called a 'pup'. Seriously, the hell was that even supposed to mean?
"Okay yeah. The name's Alexis. Not Pup. Call me that again, and you're gonna need a hearing aid when you walk out of here. Got that? Alexis."
Alexis continued to glare at Mishka. Well, if this was supposed to be her roommate...then she'd have to live with it. Though, she was gonna ask what happened to Kitty. Maybe the school messed up the rooms or something.
Oh well, not her problem.
Mishka put her hands behind her head as she looked up at the ceiling. Okay, this "Alexis" didn't like to be called names. A smile formed on Mishka's face. This one isn't afraid of a little confrontation here and there. This could be a fun roommate after all.
"What's wrong with being called a pup? You don't like dogs?" Mishka said as she turned to face Alexis, the bed creaking loudly as she did so. Ye, that's gonna be a problem with sleeping for most roommates. Not only that but the bed was also way too short considering that her feet were sticking out for a couple of inches. Anyway, back to Alexis. "Would you have preffered me to call you a kitten?" She smiled at Alexis. She obviously meant that as a joke and not a provocation, though she didn't know how Alexis would take it.
Mishka noted Alexis' headphones. It was a nice one and they were pretty loud, considering Mishka could here Alexis' music from here... Kinda. She couldn't really make out what kind of music it was, only that it was noisy. "So euhm, Alexis, correct?" Mishka said as she kept looking directly at her. "What kind of powers do you have? Or do you not want to share that with little old me?" Mishka said with a smirk on her face.
Kitten?...heh. no.
"Alexis. That, is my name." She growled at Mishka. "Not Kitten, pup, or...whatever the hell other animal you can come up with. It's Alexis. Call me another name...and I really will blow your head off." The current glare she was giving Mishka, was an obvious enough sign she was not joking.
She didn't like this Mishka chick one bit. Of course, that could have been partly due to the realization that Kitty wasn't going to be her roommate. She was looking forward to that, actually. First time she had looked forward to any interaction with another human for a long time.
Ah well. She'd just have to live with this chick.
"Soundwaves." she harshly replied to Mishka, pointing to her headphones when asked about her abilities. "I can amplify and control them." And that was all the info Mishka was getting. She didn't feel very...talkative at the moment. I fact, she kind of wanted to take a shower and grab her laptop and chill for the rest of the evening.
Mishka kept smiling at Alexis as she responded. Hmm, soundwaves... It must have been a twist of fate that of all the people she could be roomed with it should be with someone who uses soundwaves. A smirk formed on her face for just a small moment. Ooh how I'd love to fight her... But that's something for later, not now.
All things considered, she could have had a much less interesting, or reasonable, roommate then this Alexis. Mishka was still smiling, it was abit of a lazy and relaxed smile, a smile which someone has when they're comfortable with the situation. There was something about this Alexis which Mishka recognized. Something which made her connect with her... But she didnt know what that thing was.
"Well, for someone who uses sound as their power it doesn't seem like you're really much of a talker." She said as she stretched herself, before turning on her belly and resting her head on her arms. "Just so you know, if you need any help with schoolwork or anything, I can help you. All you gotta do is ask."
And with that, Mishka was ready to go to sleep.
Pfft. Schoolwork. Like she'd actually give a shit about schoolwork. She'd just do whatever was necessary to get by, then get out of this place. Sure, this place was better than that lab, but it was still some stupid thing she didn't like. But whatever, she wasn't gonna dwell on it.
"Yeah yeah, schoolwork. Fun, sure yeah, I'll totally do it. Now leave me alone." With that, she got off of her bed, and walked over to where her laptop was. She hadn't touched it, or the rest of her things since she got here, but it'd be good to see what she could...uh, find out about this place.
This place better had wi-fi or something. Chances were, she was gonna be at this all night.
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Anastasia was walking down the hallway with a lowered head. She shouldn't have done that to that one guy... Sure he was mocking her, but was nearly killing him really the proper way of dealing with that? Of course it was you fool! Don't pity him! No one mocks with a member of the house of Tepes and gets away unscathed! Ooh great, that's back too...
Eugh, she probably needed some rest. Anastasia wondered if people would still be willing to talk to her after what had just happened... She probably broke a dozen school rules with that action. If someone with a fixation on rules found out about this... Well then Anastasia was going to have trouble, that was guaranteed.
Aah, her room. Anastasia opened the door to her room and she expected Olivia to be in there... But Olivia wasn't there... And neither was her stuff... But there was someone else in there.
The person in question was standing at the far end of the room, with their back to Anastasia. Whoever it was, clearly either had no fashion sense whatsoever or was really, really, into military uniforms. The uniform in question was black in color, with very little color aside from the white gloves that she wore. The uniform was short cut, coming to a stop just below her waist. She wore black combat boots that came up to her knees, with black stockings covering the rest of her legs.
Whoever this person was…clearly didn’t like many colors on the color spectrum. Even her hair was long and black, but looked incredibly well kept.
At the sound of the door opening, she turned her head slightly – just enough so that Anastasia would be able to see her pale skin and red colored eye. For a brief second, the other girl simply silently observed Anastasia. Unknown to the vampire…she was silently gauging the girls emotions. She seemed…confused? But there was also the ever so subtle faint hit of fear there. Someone had been up to no good…well, this would be fun then.
Ziska turned to face the other girl, a small frown on her lips. The first thing that was noticeable…was the eye patch covering her right eye. The second, was the fact she kept her right hand behind her, as she talked to Anastasia. The left, she held in front of her as if inspecting it for any offending spec of dust or dirt that dared to stain her glove. The air of superiority and arrogance she gave off could almost be cut with a knife.
“I suppose you are my roommate this year, nein?” She asked, frown still apparent, not meeting the other girls gaze. She walked slowly around the room, clearly inspecting the place for any sort of anomaly. “You look as though you were expecting someone else?” She continued, finally deciding to give Anastasia another look. She had a heavy German accent, bad enough to be to the point where someone might have a bit of trouble understanding her.
“Shouldn’t be surprised I suppose…the staff here are not exactly the most competent of people. I mean their vice principal can’t even do anything without relying on those…toys of hers.” She continued, her disdain for the faculty and management of HA obviously clear.
The girl finally ended up at a small table – whether it was standard furnishing or she brought it herself was a mystery. Either way, there were two seats and two conveniently placed cups of tea. The uniformed girl took a seat in the chair facing the door.
“But that matters not.” She said, looking at Anastasia from her seat. “Why don’t you tell me…vat mischief you were just up to?”
It was clear, that was not a suggestion.
Anastasia had been quietly observing this girl. The longer she looked at her, the more she felt annoyed by her. This person just walked into Anastasia’s room and without even properly introducing herself was now outright demanding to interrogate her?
This cannot do… This cannot do at all! How does she dare! You are Anastasia Tepes! How would your father react to this scene? He would be ashamed that you let someone talk to you like this!
Usually Anastasia would try to ignore the voice. But this time… It had a point. This girl, this human, was making demands to her. The nerve of that girl… Anastasia clenched her fists for a moment as she looked defiantly into this girl’s eye.
Then… she relaxed. She well, since this girl was already getting under Anastasia’s skin… Let’s try and get under her skin as well. An arrogant smirk formed on Anastasia’s face. She kept boldly looking into the girl’s eye, Anastasia’s pupils had narrowed to the point where they were barely even visible. She straightened her back and lift her head up slightly, making it look as if Anastasia was looking down at this girl.
Anastasia slowly approached the chair at her end of the small table where she then sat down, crossing her legs over each other. She looked at the tea and… Well it didn't impress her that much and a little scoff at it. She then turned her attention to the girl in front of her. “And what gives a mere animal the right to talk like this to a superior being such as myself?” She said in a mocking tone.
Anastasia has spend years observing her father deal with humans. This was, according to him, the only way to talk to them. As they were nothing more then livestock. Anastasia disagreed with him... But she would not make that known to this snob.
Ziska didn't show any sort of emotion when Anastasia refused to talk. In fact, a small smile formed on her lips. How quaint. This girl thought herself better than she was. Wonderful. She'd have to be sure to show her who she should be answering too.
Ziska picked up one of the tea cups, bringing it to her lips as she took a sip. Hmph. She didn't know who this girl was, but that momentary fear she felt earlier was even smaller now. Replaced by anger, probably. Well...she'd have to rectify that.
"My...aren't you rather hostile." She replied, placing the teacup back onto the table. "And here I was being perfectly reasonable. Shame really...now I'm going to have to do something rather unpleasant." Her voice took quite a darker tone as she spoke.
She was quiet for a moment, though a semi-annoyed sigh escaped her lips as she folded her arms beneath her chest.
"Really...this could have been so much easier and so much less of an arger...but I suppose some people just like doing things the hard way." As she spoke, she reached into her coat sleeve, and pulled out an item...that looked suspiciously like a riding crop.
"Now,"
As she spoke, she played with the crop, fiddling with the handle in one of her hands, and making sure to draw Anastasia's attention to the item.
"Why don't,"
She pointed the head of it towards Anastasia, a small smile forming on her lips, though Anastasia probably wouldn't see it.
"We try this,"
Unbeknownst to Anastasia, she was using her own abilities through this entire conversation. It was subtle, and Anastasia probably wouldn't even be aware that she was doing it. What was she doing? Well...she was attempting to make Anastasia deathly afraid of the crop. A trifle task, for her.
"Again."
Odd, she felt a slight tingle of... fear for it. Why would she suddenly develop this illogical fearful emotion of this riding crop? Or maybe it wasn't the riding crop but just the horrible accent this girl had. No... definitely the riding crop. Maybe that was where this girl got her powers from? It would explain her irrational fear for the thing... That was probably this girl's power... To use the riding crop to make people fear her. Well... Anastasia knew just what to do about that...
She slapped the head of the crop against the table, making quite a loud noise as it did so. If everything went as planned, Anastasia should have jumped out of her seat from the action.
"What mischief, were you up to, hmm?"
As the crop slapped down on the table Anastasia started flailing wildly around and started yelling. "No please! Not the riding crop! Don't hurt me!" She looked away as fast as she could, only showing this girl the side of her face, slightly covered by her hair. When she looked back at the girl Anastasia had a wicked grin on her face.
Anastasia let out a chuckle. "Was that the reaction you were hoping to achieve? Because if it was... Well then I am afraid that your powers have let you down and that you failed. I hope that doesn't harm your faith in your abilities though. Not everyone can use a trinket to try to intimidate someone." Anastasia faked a pout and was heavily implying that this girl's power came from her ridding crop.
Anastasia kept pouting at the girl in front of her as she was grabbing the cup of tea this girl had prepared for her. Anastasia drank it with the most innocent look on her face she could pull. After taking a sip of it she looked a little bit disappointed at it. "Hmm, it's not the best cup of tea I ever drank, but it's alright. I hope you were going for that cause then you succeeded." She said, still with the innocent look on her face.
Ziska let out a small chuckle. That was a feat, that was hard for anyone to achieve through normal means. Usually, she wore nothing but a frown or blank, serious expression. However, for the briefest of moments, a small chuckle escaped her lips and a small, clearly amused smile appeared on her face.
It lased only moments before her expression returned to normal. Ziska gave Anastasia a look from where she sat across the table. "Hmph. Really, I don't expect a commoner to have good taste, but you could at least be polite enough not to insult the one who made the tea." People absolutely had no manners or sense of decorum nowadays, did they? Oh well...
"But it does seem as though my abilities seem to have failed. Oh dear, I suppose that means I'm at a disadvantage here." She said, standing up. Her words seemed sincere, but the way she spoke made it clear she was not going to be giving up in the slightest. The other girl obviously thought the source of her powers was the crop.
Well...she was going to be in for a nasty surprise. Ziska quietly walked over to the bed she had obviously claimed as hers without another word to Anastasia, leaving the crop on the table. She picked something up off of the bed before speaking.
“You know…I do so love swords.” She commented, as she picked up her blade. She made the sheathed blade quite noticeable to her roommate. “Unlike useless people, you can always trust a well forged one.” She held the object in both hands, inspecting the sheath as well as the handle. "I know, I know…a sword in this day and age.” She said, satisfied with her inspection. She started walking towards Anastasia.
“But really,” She was behind the other girl now, her back was to her, though she wouldn’t be able to see that. “A good, well forged blade is something I would trust any day over a…human.” The sound of the blade unsheathing filled the air. If she had played her cards right, Anastasia would be sweating bullets by now…although, she had already proven to be quite resistant to her normal methods.
So she decided to take this a step further.
Ziska quietly turned to Anastasia.
“Ah…I seem to have gotten a bit off topic.”
As she spoke, she pressed the side of the blade, against Anastasia’s neck. Not the sharp edge…no need for an accident, but the cold steel against the girls neck would more than likely have the desired effect, she hoped.
“Now…are you going to tell me what mischief you were up to? Or am I going to…do something even more unpleasant?” She pressed the blade against Anastasia’s neck. Her tone was serious. If Anastasia didn’t fess up to what she was doing…then she’d have to…well, use her trump card. She had never actually had to use it before. Most students by now would be terrified.
Ooh, so the ice queen can smile? Good, cause else this was going to be a long year with her as Anastasia's roommate. Unfortunately she just had to ruin it by calling Anastasia a commoner. How does that mongrel dare to call you a commoner?! This insult can not go unpunished! Well, Anastasia was the one to really start with the intentional insults so she kinda had it coming and she knew it... But she wasn't going to admit that now of course.
The girl stood up and walked to her bed. Hmm, she left her little trinket behind. Was this a bluff or something? Or did this girl have another item from which she drew her pow- Ooh for crying out loud! Where did she get that sword from?! What's next? She's gonna summon a bear in here as well?
Indeed, the girl had just hidden a sword next to her bed, as you do. And to make matters even worse, she started a monologue... After one look at the sword's sheath all the pieces of the puzzle were finally aligning in Anastasia's head. This girl possibly had some rather extreme ideas about how to deal with people she judged to be inferior. Ooh, and the clothes didn't tip you off? Shut up...
As the girl kept going on about her sword Anastasia got an odd feeling. She caught a faint smell of a certain metal she would rather not encounter.
The girl had now walked behind Anastasia and... Did she just compare her to a human? Anastasia chuckled, even though she had tried to suppress it. Ooh my, this girl is gonna have a big surprise waiting for h-
Anastasia's left eye started twitching as she felt a burning sensation on her neck. The last time she felt that... She made contact with a silver object. She knew it, the sword was made out of silver. She smelled it earlier. Anastasia wanted to scream out of the top of her lungs... But she didn't. She was able to control her impulses. She tried to remain calm, even though her brain told her to run away as fast as she could. Anastasia could only barely make out that the girl was still trying to force her to talk about what happened in the cafeteria. A single drip of sweat traveled over her forehead.
After taking a deep breath Anastasia responded to this girl. "Get. It. Off..." She said while gritting her teeth.
"Now!" she exclaimed in a voice which almost seemed demonic. She also pulverized the tea cup she had in her hand. The steaming hot tea was flowing over her hand but she didn't feel anything of it... The pain in her neck was worse then anything else...
"Now why...would I do that?" Ziska asked. She didn't know what was going through Anastasia's head, but she had gotten the effect she wanted from her. Letting someone's fears run rampant was so much fun to watch. Whatever was going on though, it seemed Anastasia was quite afraid of the sword. She could in fact, almost smell the fear coming off of the other girl.
"You haven't been very cooperative with me, so why would I want to help you, hm? You even broke one of my favorite tea cups." She continued, pressing the edge of the blade harder onto Anastasia's neck. "Really, you've been nothing but a troublemaker since you walked in here." She paused for a moment, letting the sword just sit there before continuing.
"I really, really, do not like troublemakers. I shouldn't let you go so easily...but let's make a deal. You tell me what trouble you were getting into...and I'll make this thing disappear. Don't worry...since you are a first year, I'll be lenient and not tell the vice principal."
This girl... She had no idea what she was messing with. It took all Anastasia's restrain to not attack her. Doing that might be a costly mistake as it could result in Anastasia's early demise... But with the current pain she was experiencing she couldnt think straight.
She hissed at the girl as she pushed the sword closer against her skin. This was going to be her roommate... This! Why couldnt it just have been someone, anyone else...
Anastasia's breathing was slow and heavy, her left eye still twiching. "You know what? Fine." She answered annoyed and clearly in pain. "If you really want to know so badly. I didnt do anything special, but I would gladly show it to you up close."
Anastasia didnt move though, she was too afraid that the sword might actually cut her. If that happened... Well, she couldnt think about that now.
Laughable. If this girl thought she was going to simply trust her, then she was mistaken. She wasn't removing this sword until she got her answers. Perhaps she was being stubborn, but letting a scared cat out of a cage was always a terrible idea. Something she had learned the hard way after she had first gotten used to her abilities. Fear was very useful for control, but it could also make people act very...unpredictable.
"For the sake of not repeating myself...what purpose would that serve? You just admitted to being up to something, so really, you've just dug yourself into a hole." Ziska slid the blade along Anastasias neck, a bored sigh escaping her lips.
"This has gone on long enough. If you continue to refuse to cooperate, then i will simply tell the Vice Principal you attacked another student...which I do believe is grounds for suspension or expulsion...either one, depending on the circumstances."
Hearing that the girl standing behind her is threatening her with "making up" a reason was hilarious to her... And she didn't hide that fact.
Anastasia laughed at Ziska. Not a chuckle or a soft laugh, no, it was almost as if she was cackling. For a moment she did not care about the sword burning into her skin. This was just priceless. This girl had no idea what had just happened... Well, time to break the news to her.
"You know," she said as she was still laughing, "that would have been a great threat... But the thing is that that is exactly the thing I did." She turned around and looked Ziska right in her eyes. Anastasia's red eyes gave off a dim glow as she opened her mouth and showed Ziska her teeth. "You should have seen it. If I applied a bit more pressure I would have taken his head off!"
She had a wicked grin on her lips. Even though she still was in a lot of pain, she would still remain grinning at Ziska.
A poor attempt at intimidation. There wasn't that many things that she could be intimidated by, and this little trouble maker was far from it. More importantly...it was what she said that concerned Ziska.
Taken...his head off? Ziska frowned at that. Did she just admit to almost killing another student? She seriously needed to take this girl to Nina, then. Getting in a fight was bad enough, but almost killing someone...she pressed the end of the blade hard into Anastasia's neck.
"You...nearly killed another student? Is that what I just heard?" She wasn't going to just let this go. If this student nearly killed another on the first day here...then there was no doubt they were going to cause further trouble in the future. She would like to...end that before it began.
"You're coming with me, whether you like it or not." She harshly continued. "I will not be having one student almost killing another. Stand up. We're going to go see the Vice Principal."
Anastasia kept laughing. This girl was really thinking herself to be quite the law around here, didnt she? Pff, it’s not like Anastasia had anything better to do really. This had been a fun distraction. “Ooh yes… Sure… I’ll just follow you.” She said with a grin.
Anastasia slowly got up out of her chair and looked down at the girl and her fancy sword. It looked and smelled like silver… Though oddly enough this girl didnt really seem like she was informed about Anastasia being a vampire. So… How did she know about Anastasia’s weakness.
No matter… Anastasia kept grinning as she looked down at this girl. “You’ll trust your back to me, wont you?”
Trust...her back to this girl? Like that was happening. She wasn't going to be letting this girl out of her sight at all. After that comment about almost taking someones head off, she was going to be quite cautious around her. At least, until she had a better grasp of this girls abilities. Not like a direct attack against her would work, though.
"Not happening." She said, walking around Anastasia, sword never moving from her neck. She was careful to continue to press the blade into her neck, just hard enough to be uncomfortable. "You are going to walk in front of me, from here until we get to Vice Principal Nina. Now walk."
She gave Anastasia a little shove, ushering her forwards out of the room.
Annastasia raised her hands in the air. "Okay okay... Dont be so pushy..."
Thankfully, it seemed the other girl was going to cooperate now. Good. She liked it when people followed orders and didn't needlessly complicate things.
And a few minutes later they were sitting in the Vice Principal's office.
They must have been quite the sight, walking into Nina's office with Ziska holding Anastasia at the end of a sword. Confident, that Anastasia wouldn't dare to try to do anything in the presence of the Vice Principle, she pointed to one of the seats in front of Nina's desk. After Anastasia took a seat, she did so herself, sheathing her sword in the process.
Nina sat opposite the two girls, back straight, arms folded on the desk, a faint smile on her features. She hadn't expected anyone to visit her, and had been busy sorting out a living space for Deia, as well as looking through the files once more.
"Well, girls," she said. "Is there something I can help you with?" Her voice was calm, gentle.
"Ooh no, we just happened to walk in here with her Pointing a blade on my throat because we felt like that is a good way to get to know each other as roommates. Isn't that right mongrel?" Anastasia said to the girl who brought her here.
Mongrel? Oh please. Could she not come up with a better insult? By now, she was feeling quite a bit annoyed, not that it was obvious for anyone to see, though. Oh well, down to business.
"Vice Principal," Ziska started. "I have reason to believe my roommate here attacked a student earlier today. As she said "If I applied a bit more pressure, I would have taken his head off. I was not present at the incident, however, I do believe the victim would have likely sustained quite serious injuries."
She was calm when she spoke. It probably wasn't the first time she had done something like this.
Nina's expression remained calm the whole time Ziska was speaking, and after the girl had finished, Nina didn't reply right away, instead scrutinizing the two girls for second. She then nodded her head. "I see," she said. She stood up from behind her desk and began pacing round the office. "Do you have any proof of this, Miss Seighild?"
Proof? She didn't need 'proof' Anastasia said so herself. And if Nina had any competence as a leader, she'd call the infirmary and check and see if anyone was attacked earlier.
"Aside from her telling me herself...nein, I have none. Although, if you were competent at your job, you would have called the infirmary to see if anyone was injured in an attack before doing anything." Her tone, was as harsh as ever. Obviously, she had very little respect for Nina and her so called authority.
Nina stopped her pacing for a moment and looked round at Ziska, seemingly unphased by Ziska's tone. "I will do that just now, thank you," she said, sitting herself back down on her chair and reaching for the phone on her desk. She dialed a number and held it up to her ear. "Hello?" she said. "This is Nina Smith. I would..." She paused. There was a sound coming from the phone like a frantic voice. "Hm?" Nina frowned. "What are you...? Pl... please calm down." She listened a moment, her face becoming grimmer and grimmer each second. "I see. Thank you." She put the phone down and for a moment was silent before looking at the two girls. "I have to go to attend to something, girls," she said. "Can we continue this conversation later?"
Anastasia got up out of her chair as she looked at Nina. "I think that would indeed be the best course of action miss Vice Principal." She said with a, very well faked, friendly smile. Anastasia looked at her roommate as she kept smiling.
"I don't believe we have properly introduced each other." Anastasia said to Ziska. Anastasia straightened her back and looked down at Ziska. "My name is Anastasia Tepes, heir of the Tepes family and daughter of Alucard Tepes." She made a cordial bow to Ziska.
Why did she do this here and now? Because this was a great opportunity to at least learn something. There were at least three possible scenario's in Anastasia's head. Either Ziska would refuse and thus show Nina who of the two girls here is the hostile one. This scenario could also turn out in the way that Nina would not notice. In that case Anastasia learned that Nina was indeed not as competent, as Ziska said earlier. Because what principal cant multitask... And the final possibility would be Ziska introducing herself. Which would make Anastasia know who she was dealing with... Except for her being a German who was a control freak... Talk about stereotypes...
“I really must protest,” Ziska replied when asked if they could continue the conversation later. To her, if she simply left things alone here, then Nina would likely just either let it go, or forget about it! That, was not the way someone should run a school. Especially with such a serious offense as attacking another student. “However…It seems as though something happened in the infirmary.”
Well, if that was true then Nina should go investigate and see what happened…although, she could easily do both. Ziska frowned, obviously not pleased with the outcome of events, even less so when Anastasia went to introduce herself. She did not care for the name of some troublemaker.
“Very well. I’ll let this go for the moment.” She said, standing up from her seat after Anastasia introduced herself. “However, Miss Tepes, I will not tolerate any trouble in my presence. If I find that you attacked another student…I will deal with you myself.” Now…since that was out of the way, she supposed it would only be polite to introduce herself.
“Ziska Seighild.” She introduced herself, her displeased frown still not leaving. She wasn’t bowing to this…Anastasia Tepes. “Now…I suppose if we’re done here then we should return to our dorm.”
Hmm, she didn't learn anything new. What a shame. Well, except for the name of this girl of course. Ziska Seighild... Sounded like someone was a bit too much into old German folklore. Anyway, besides that this girl showed that she was used to get what she wanted as well as being to proud to show some humility by giving a cordial bow.
Ooh well, back to the dorms, now there was a good thought! If only Ziska hadn't dragged her out of there 5 minutes ago, then they could have saved a lot of time. "Yes, back to the dorms... Great Idea!" Anastasia said. She walked right past Ziska and once she got outside of the office she went straight for her dorm.
Once Anastasia got there she quickly got her sleeping attire on and sat down on her bed facing the door. If that Ziska would try anything funny then Anastasia was ready to instantly pounce at her.
Thankfully, it didn't take them long to get back to the dorms. Anastasia had ran ahead of her, probably so she could get up to even more mischief...well, whatever. She would simply have to deal with this troublesome girl then. She contemplated giving Anastasia a taste of her actual power, but decided against it. She would only use that, if absolutely necessary. No need to...do something so drastic yet.
Ziska walked into the dorm, a bit surprised to see Anastasia had already changed into something to sleep in. Well, she wasn't going to be sleeping. Not because she wasn't tired...quite the contrary, she was feeling a bit exhausted, though not that she'd ever let anyone else know. She wasn't going to be sleeping, simply because...well, sleep was never...pleasant for her.
"I do hope you were not expecting me to attack you or something." She said to Anastasia as she took a seat on her own bed. "I said I would let this go for now...so you have nothing to worry about. Although," She started. "If I may ask...aside from the obvious...why were you afraid of the sword?" Well, aside from the obvious fact that she could have easily taken her head off with it, and her ability to make someone afraid of the smallest thing...she was simply curious as to what Anastasia thought the sword was.
Right... As if Ziska didn't know why it had hurt Anastasia so much. Anastasia laughed sheepishly at Ziska. "Ooh, of course you didn't know." She said in the most sarcastic tone she could give her and considering her accent, this wasn't that hard to accomplish. "You just happened to press a silver object against the skin of a vampire. Ooh ye, that would totally not hurt her or anything."
Her expression had now changed to a more serious and angry look. She figured that she couldn't close one eye with Ziska around her... So she just had to keep her eyes on her until the classes started. Anastasia didn't need sleep anyway, she could just drink some blood and revitalize herself. This Ziska on the other hand looked like she was just an ordinary human, she wouldn't be able to hold on to this for multiple nights.
"Well I wish you a good night's rest." She said in a faked friendly tone. "Don't worry though, I will be watching over you from here."
Silver? Vampire? Well...that would certainly explain a few things. No, her sword was made out of regular steel. Not exactly the strongest of materials...but it got the job done.
"Well...I hate to tell you this," No, she really didn't actually. "But my sword is made out of regular steel. You conjured up the silver all on your own." She replied with an obvious arrogant smirk. It was fascinating what the mind could come up with on its own, if someone was afraid of something.
"But it really doesn't matter. I am perfectly fine, sleep is something I require very...little of, if any at all. So please, go ahead and rest. I do not need looking after."
...tonight was going to be a long one.
Anastasia did not reply to Ziska. All Anastasia could think about now was how she could have fallen for that stupid mind trick Ziska pulled on her... Well, there was a silver lining though. Now Anastasia knew Ziska's powers, at least to an extent. Ziska was able to mess with your mind, litterally. That was what she had come to know now. Anastasia had already presumed that Ziska knew she was a vampire so in her mind she hadn't really lost anything by revealing that.
Anastasia just kept glaring at Ziska, not moving an inch.
Tonight was going to be a long night indeed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later... In a dorm far far away...
Mishka opened her eyes without too much effort. She was well rested and she had little effort waking up. As she got out of bed she could practically hear the bed giving off a sigh of relief. She looked over at where her roommate was sleeping... How could she still be sleeping? It's 5:30 in the morning...
As Mishka looked at Alexis she saw that Alexis was in a very deep sleep. She must have gone to bed only a few hours ago. Well, she figured it would have been rude to wake Alexis up right now but she didnt really want her roommate to miss her first day at school. So Mishka did what every responsible roommate would do and set not one, but two alarm clocks for Alexis. One would go off at 6:45 and the other at 6:46. Mishka figured that this would give Alexis enough time to prepare.
Mishka went on to change her clothes from sleeping attire to her go to clothes for daily things. This was her official first day on Herculean as well, although she had a tough first year behind her in the form of the National Center of Super Human Training and Research back in the Motherland. Ye, they didn't really have such fancy names back there.
Mishka made sure to cover up most of her body with clothes. That's easier said then done, considering not just her length but also her impressively muscular physique. She was covered in scars and didn't want anyone else to see them if she could help it. Yesterday was just an unavoidable incident.
Mishka had decided that she would go out and explore the school grounds a bit to try and get familiar with it.
Almost an hour later Mishka was only just discovering how large this facility actually was. Considering it was all underground, it was quite impressive and you didnt even realize that you were underground anyway. The facility was build in a massive dome. There was a sky projected on the top of the dome and a vast mountainous landscape on the sides, giving the impression that they were actually not in a massive cave.
As she was walking around Mishka had kept track of time in her head and acording to her calculations Alexis would wake up in 3...
2...
1...
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE-
SCREEECH
CRASH
“GODDAMN IT!” Alexis’ shout could be heard almost through the entirety of the girls’ dorms, amplified by her own abilities. The remains of an alarm clock lay across the room, shattered into tiny pieces of machinery.
“What the goddamn…” Ugh. Her head was pounding like she had a hangover, (not that she had ever drank anything, but if her mom was anything to judge by…) She had intended to sleep well into the afternoon. However, some little shit head decided to set a nice little alarm clock. Considering she couldn't hear Mishka anywhere in the room, she assumed it was her.
Well, at least the offending alarm clock was easy to deal with and she could go back to sleeping. She pulled the covers back over her head and-
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
Oh fucking hell.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
The bitch set two clocks. Annoyed beyond the ability to sleep, she shot straight up in her bed, and gave the alarm clock a glare, her lips curling into a snarl. She walked over to it, grabbed the object, and threw it against the wall hard enough for it to shatter.
She was not cleaning that shit up. That was Mishka’s fault.
…speaking of Mishka....where was her new roommate? Next time she saw that jackass, she was going to give her a proper introduction with her fist.
...later. For now...shower. With a yawn, she headed into her dorms restroom. Just a quick shower to help wake her up from the...what time was it?...fuck it. She didn't care. She couldn't have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep thanks to Mishka.
She didn't take too long in the shower. Just long enough to wake up a bit and be an acceptable level of grumpiness. She stepped out a few minutes later, for once, glad to have taken a rather hot shower. She normally could go days without a decent shower...but meh. She needed that.
Now...what to do? She sure as hell wasn't going to class. Nope. Mishka was gonna have to come through that door and drag her there if she wanted her to go that badly. So...what to do? Well, she could do what she normally did and spend all day on the internet. That was always fun...or she could practice uhm...her other skills. She found out last night, she could in fact, get into the schools computers...they were heavily encrypted of course. More encrypted than she could do with at the moment. Still, it was fun to try.
...meh, internet it was. She walked over to where she had left her laptop, and opened it, and was momentarily confused. This...this wasn't her laptop. So that meant...Mishkas?
"Well...why not mess with her a little bit, then?" She commented to herself. Getting into the laptop would be easy enough. Basic stuff...lets see...start the computer in safe mode...command prompt...there we go.
Soon enough, she was logged into Mishka's account. Of course...she'd have to do something about the password. She did a simple, quick and dirty hack by resetting it. Lets see what's on her computer...
The wallpaper...a valley? Pfft. Well, at least it wasn't that stupid default microsoft one with the hills. What should she snoop around in first?...oooh. Internet history. She clicked on the browser that was pinned to the toolbar on the screen. Surprisingly, her history was clean, much to Alexis' dismay. Oh well...she probably deleted it.
After closing the browser and going back to the desktop, she noticed a file. Normally, she wouldn't have paid all that much attention to it...except for the fact, it had an odd name, and that when she clicked on it...she discovered it was heavily, heavily, encrypted. Beyond anything that she could do at the moment.
"Well...that's odd..." She commented, as she opened the command prompt. She tried a few basic commands, but came up short. Whoever set up the encryption...was very, very, good. She would have snooped more, if she had the time, but she didn't know how long Mishka would be out. So, she reset the password and put the laptop back where she found it.
For the next few hours or so until lunch, she'd just chill on her laptop with her music and headphones.
