VarionusNW

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel

---

_Mourning

A profound tiredness seeped through Allison. It was the sort of bone-deep exhaustion that seemed an insurmountable obstacle to consciousness. Despite this, the aberration remained upright, even if only barely. Using the shard had taken a lot more out of her than she had expected. She would have to keep in mind the extent of the powers she was stopping in the future. For now, she needed rest.

Her legs felt like jelly, refusing to keep her upright without mental effort. Her sweat soaked clothes clung uncomfortably to her body, made only worse by the wishalloy covering them. Her breathing was deep and strained, her body trying to reclaim lost energy. Overall, she felt as if she had just run a marathon. She just wanted to curl up on the ground and sleep, to let the exhaustion consume her for a few hours, and now that the battle was over that seemed more of a welcome prospect. Of course, Allison had more important matters to attend to.

A voice calling itself Ethan commanded everyone towards the drop-off point, and an APC screeched to a halt nearby. Allison's legs would have to carry her a bit further. Before she began her trek, Allison allowed herself a moment to look at the remains of the battefield. There was, of course, the corpses of the two subnaturals, fresh from Zoe's wrath, helped to their doom by Allison and her accursed blade, which had long dissipated. Allison's classmates littered the battlefield in various stages of consciousness. Allison hoped that there were no dead among the unconscious, for once. She didn't need more death in her life. No... that would be a selfish way of thinking about it. Allison didn't want them to die. She needn't factor her own suffering into the mix.

Amongst the receding spires of stone, Allison was able to notice a familiar blonde head lying face-down on the ground near to what Allison presumed to be an enemy that had been killed before her arrival. It was Savannah, and she wasn't moving.

Allison scrambled forward as fast as she could, her movements a series of stumbles and tripping, as she made her way to the young girl, exhausted. As she approached, the scene became more clear. Savannah's head was bent at an impossibly angle, her body contorted in similarly inhuman fashion. Savannah Churchill was dead.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." Allison muttered endlessly, as she lowered her shaky hands to what remained of the child. She had been an angry little girl, but Allison would not have hesitated to call her a friend, despite the relative few times the two had interacted. And now she was gone, another child ripped away from the world. "No, no, they can save her." That precursor, Benediction, he could bring Savannah back to life. No... why would he? He had left other students to die, why would he care about a single child? "I... I have to t-try." Allison spoke beneath her breath with a shaky, broken voice.

Allison's hands reached under the corpse and delicately flipped the girl over, well, as delicately as shaky, tired hands could be. She realigned Savannah's limbs and neck as best she could, and lifted the body from the ground. Allison's legs did not appreciate the extra weight, but she forced them to bear it anyway. She wasn't just going to let Savannah rot on the ground. Allison forced herself towards the APC in a series of strained, stumbling movements.

She approached the vehicle in silence, trying to avoid looking at her allies, or the corpse that was once her friend.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel|Zoe Fletcher

---

_{Collab with @Lasrever}

A brutal screech pierced Allison's ears. She had made a horrible mistake in entering the anti-gravity field. A mindless eruption of asphalt spikes ripped apart the ground beneath the unlucky aberration. Several spears of earth brushed up against Allison, prevented from harming her only by the wishalloy that she had wisely applied earlier. If it wasn't for the strange material, Allison would have been skewered.

Allison attempted to find purchase among the jagged spires, though she found herself being lifted and dropped by what remained of the gravity mage's power at complete random. Even without having sight of her, it was clear she was dying. Despite the sporadic gravity, Allison was able to reorient herself, and find the source of the spikes. The blonde girl had been injured by Siena, who had been tossed aside by the sudden storm of stone spears, and had surrounded herself with the things, forming a stone cage of sorts.

There was a clear course of action for Allison Revel, and her hand itched to execute it. She wasn't too far from the stone cage, and a well placed cut could easily shut down the enemy subnatural. Before she made her move, though, Allison's conscience bled through her blood-lust. She felt awful for the two girls who stood against them, despite the fact that they had injured Allison's allies and destroyed what was likely once a very nice town. Maybe in a better life they wouldn't have had to fight, and none of them would have to die. Allison swallowed her thoughts, pushed off of a mass of stone, and summoned the shard.

The brilliant blade stood at it's full length, a massive shard of broken glass that seemed to glow a deep purple, though gave off no light. Allison still didn't know how to feel about the thing. It was a blessing and a curse, and it reminded Allison of the worst parts of the last few years. At least she could rest in the fact that it could not kill. Yes, that was a job for other hands to be bloodied with. Allison was just the enabler. She only had to cut through stone, pass through flesh, and ignore what would come next.

While she'd been keeping an eye out for spikes, Zoe definitely hadn't expected the sudden burst from the concrete. She felt something contact her stomach, or rather, the alloy covering it, and glanced down to see a spike straight through her target. Another in her arm, though she wasn't exactly sympathizing. As the field became erratic, her grip on the other aberration tightened, suddenly a case of hanging on for dear life. Once the movement finally slowed down, she glared down at her victim in anger.

"Last chance. Just stop fighting, and I don't have to kill you."

There was something disappointing about all this, and the idea of hurting the girl didn't appeal as much as she'd hoped. It just wasn't as fun when it was completely one-sided; Even David had been stubborn enough to provoke her. But this? This was pathetic.

The spike-user was a much more immediate threat. Through the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Allison, apparently on her way to take care of the same thing-- But Zoe was keenly aware that the other girl's powers weren't about to kill anyone while she put herself at risk. Close enough not to bother with the radio, she called out to her teammate.

"Allison, how long can you keep that thing up for?"

The shard hit. Allison's breath left her all at once, and it felt as if she had just been hit by a truck. That was the price to pay for stopping someone's power, especially one as out of control as this. Allison came to an awkward stop, fighting the half-gravity. She kept the shard in the enemy as best she could, a shaky arm, unreliable ground, and floating making that relatively difficult. Thankfully, though, it seemed that Allison's effort was worth it, as the spires of stone had begun to recede.

"I've got about 40 seconds left." Allison responded to the nearby voice, her words split between heavy breaths.

Not long enough to waste time. The spike user would probably be pissed once the effect ended, which settled things for Zoe. Couldn't stand around and do nothing if it risked Allison's life as well.

"Transmit. Field's going down, so try not to stand anywhere too dangerous. Over."

With that, Zoe drove her hand into the throat of the girl underneath her, almost instantly decapitating her. She was trying to ignore just how much blood she was covered in, but at this point it felt like a lost cause. Wasn't sure if it made her feel better or worse that almost none of it was hers.

As the gaps in the cocoon continued to widen, she ripped a hand from the newly-dead corpse and threw it towards the spike girl. Watching it fly through the air, even Zoe had to admit the tactic was more than a little fucked up, but if it made contact, she could affect the girl through it. Wouldn't take her long to destroy their final remaining enemy if it worked.

What remained of the gravity field disappeared completely when the source's head came off, and everyone still within dropped heavily onto the spikes. Long black hair and half of a black X remained on the skewered body of the gravity manipulator while her head tumbled unceremoniously against the spikes as it fell, finally landing under a loose netting near the bottom and slowly buried as the tips of the spikes began crumbling. Allison's blade had cut off the power projecting the material into the warped shapes, and everything cracked and groaned ominously.

The dismembered hand bounced against the edge of the spike cocoon's opening, dangerously close to missing. By dumb luck, it slipped inside, dropping against the blonde's arm as she pawed uselessly at the strangely intangible blade piercing her left leg.

Zoe breathed a sigh of relief as the hand made contact before quickly focusing her power on the girl. There wasn't time to experiment or try to do anything more efficiently, so Zoe just stuck with what worked. The spike-maker's brain broke down within seconds, leaving her to the same fate as her gargoyle companion before Allison's power wore off. Dead before she had a chance to do anything about it.

notes

Gravity manipulator and spike maker are both dead.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel

"If it gets to be too much, you can take it out on me."

"No." Allison gritted her teeth, fingers digging into the underside of the seat again. She let out a deep sigh, releasing her grip along with it, placing her arms on her legs in front of her. Allison stared at the ground, leaning forward, keeping the tentacle-armed girl out of view. "I appreciate it, but no. I can handle myself. I'll be fine." Allison didn't know if she was telling the truth or not, she just didn't want to hurt Kusari, even if it wouldn't harm her.

After Allison answered, she registered the message from evac team. She checked the map. The collector was most definitely close. Hopefully it wouldn't come for them, but if it did, she would be able to numb her stigma for a little while.

Despite that, the close proximity of the machine put some fear in Allison's head, fighting with the stigma for dominance over her thoughts. Kusari's ability didn't inherently add all that much to a fight, besides immortality and monstrous limbs. She'd likely fair relatively well, what with the whole inability to die thing. Allison, though, had an ability that could possibly defeat each machine in a single stroke. If there was fighting to be done, Allison would have to be willing and ready to join in, and oh was she ready.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel

Allison stepped away from Kusari as fast as she could, barely acknowledging the girl's words. Allison's stigma was a heavy, burning weight on her body and mind,seemingly exasperated by the situation. It wasn't at it's worst, certainly, and it wasn't unbearable, but the suddenness with which it crept into her mind at full force had startled the brunette into punching a wall.

She paced the floor of the diner, broken glass and debris crunching underfoot. Allison didn't try to think about any one particular thing, just anything but her stigma. She focused on the number of shards of glass still hanging in the frames of broken windows, the toppled chairs, the APC as it moved along its path, Lily slumped in her seat, the fire of lasers and the struggle of a Dragon in the distance, anything.

Allison didn't count the number of times she had passed Lilianna, though, upon considering that as a good pointless thing to focus on momentarily, began counting. It was 15 times rounding the entire interior of the restaurant, passing the girl in the booth seat at each count, before Allison sat into the same chair as before, fingers digging into the sides of the thing, arms much too tense.

Allison was sure she seemed ridiculous. That ridiculousness became more obvious as the silence in the diner grew, allowing the sounds of the surrounding struggle to seep in, the clanking of machines seeming too close for comfort. Allison needed to focus on that, listening to those monstrosities. If one of them really was too close, it would be best to know immediately, instead of waiting for the girl who's too absorbed in her own sick fantasies, and trying to ignore them, to realize what's going on.

Allison's eyes searched the surrounding area, her thoughts ablaze with terrible things, her hands itching to summon the shard.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel|Lilianna Brandt|Kusari Bloodworth

collab with @Piercing Light @Kyrisse @VarionusNW

---

Another battle? Already? It had barely been a week since they were forced to fight each other, and not much longer since they were forced to fight monsters. USARLIN was as ruthless and unfeeling as always, sending children with barely any training into a combat scenario. That's just how things were, they were so hurting for reinforcements that they were willing to send group of misfits that nearly killed each other last week. These truly were trying times weren't they? Trying times that called for ruthless leadership.

There had to be another way. There had to be something better than sacrificing children for the "greater good of humanity". What about the greater good of those children? Why imprison people and force them to fight? Doesn't that just encourage more of them to work against you? There had to be a better way. What was the true evil in all of this? The government, enslaving innocent people and using them as weapons, or the mindless monsters and those who fight against the government? Was there a real answer?

We are all monsters

The briefing droned on around Allison Revel, the screen in front of her glowing with the unpleasant reality of the situation. The group of misfits was going to be fighting whatever that thing, no, whatever that person had became. The idea that the mechanical monstrosity housed a person was baffling, though it was something Allison chose not to focus on.

Allison would be grouped up with Kusari Bloodworth and Lilliana Brandt. Healer group. Basically, it was up to her and this Kusari to make sure that Lilliana wasn't taken out, and that the healer could get to people without being harmed. If Allison recalled correctly, Kusari was the girl from last week's first battle who had lost an arm, immediately to replace it with a tentacle. With being able to grow new limbs that fast, it made sense why she would be chosen as a bodyguard. As for Allison's purpose, that was pretty obvious, it would keep her from doing something reckless whilst still making use of her.

---

Eventually, the briefing ended, and the students were taken to the dining hall. Allison had 7 hours of "freedom" before they would be taken to the battlefield. There was a lot that she could do in 7 hours, the first priority of which was to find the two girls she'd be working with and introduce herself. Allison spent a good few moments glancing around for Lilliana, who she had met briefly on her first day, though gave up after finding no obvious sign of the girl.

Kusari, on the other hand, was probably the easiest person in the whole gang of misfits to spot. She sat alone at a table, seemingly sulking in her loneliness. That would have to be put to an end. Allison quickly grabbed herself a plate of food, eggs, toast, and some sort of jam, and sat down at Kusari's table, directly across from her.

"Kusari, right? I'm Allison." The brunette extended her arm across the table, offering the lonely-looking girl an awkward hand shake. "Nice to meet you."

Kusari looked up from her food to see a hand outstretched towards her. It was Allison Revel, one of her soon to be partners. Kusari glanced at the girl's hand, and then to her own grotesque arm. "Yeah that's me... Ya know, the last girl that shook this hand ran off shortly afterwards." Kusari chided herself, her mouth forming a sardonic grin. She used her left hand and balled Allison's hand into a fist. "How about this?" She said, making a fist with her left hand and bumping it against Allison's. "That's more fitting for soldiers about to go to war anyway, right?"

Right, weird claw. Allison accepted the fist bump, and shook off her absolutely wonderful first impression. "Soldiers. huh?" She said contemplatively as she pulled her arm back, adjusting herself in the seat. "That's the last thing I ever thought I would be. Though, I think they see us more as just weapons." She sighed, taking a bite out of her food, the gloomy silence hanging for a moment. Allison didn't let the dead air hang for too long, though, as her own words hit her. She didn't want to let this turn into a philosophical discussion about the less than ideal situation they were in. "Anyway... since we'll be working together today, I thought it would be a good idea to at least talk a bit, get to know each other so that we aren't running into a battlefield working with complete strangers."

Allison looked the tall girl over whilst speaking. She seemed sad and frail, wrapped in an almost impenetrable gloom. Though, if the footage from a week prior had anything to say, it was that Kusari was anything but frail, nearly indestructible even. Her mood, though, seemed to be the most fitting of all of the people Allison had met thus far, a depressing aura to match a depressing situation. Allison had half a mind to sink into a similar depression, to return to the odd wallowings that had plagued her since she arrived.

That isn't going to help anyone. I need to keep moving, keep talking. Being depressed isn't an option, not when there's only 7 hours. Allison's eyes floated to the arm next, the bulky, inhuman limb that sat where Kusari's right arm should be. Of course, Allison was unnerved by this, it was unnatural, odd, and painfully grotesque. She shook it off, refusing to let her disconcertedness fuel any disdain for Kusari. It was out of her control. Probably.

"Also," Allison continued, "I don't really know too much about your ability, and I assume you don't know that much about mine, either." She chased her words with a sip of water.

Kusari let out a sigh as she noticed Allison glance at her right arm. The girl was obviously bothered by it, yet she was still making an effort to try and know her. Allison didn't want to know her, but she didn't know that yet. Kusari pondered the idea of blowing her off now, for all she knew Allison would be the next to die on this mission.

"I... Can heal from just about anything. And uh..." She raised her clawed hand and touched the crimson metallic fingers. "I guess, um..." She didn't want to talk about this, not because she was ashamed but because she honestly had no idea what was going on with her body and it scared her. "Well, you saw the footage from the flag capture game." She lowered her arm and looked to Allison. Kusari was aware that she wasn't doing a good job hiding her shitty mood, she'd always been bad at it. So she tried harder.

"So what's your superpower? Besides looking cute in a tank top." Flirting must be her defense mechanism at this point. Allison's clothes weren't even impressive. She wasn't lying about thinking she was cute, however.

Allison blushed, releasing a slight surprised chuckle. She wasn't expecting compliments, especially from the sad-looking girl across from her.

"I can summon a blade, up to 6 meters in length. It cuts through anything that isn't alive, phases through things that are. It also stops the abilities of those who I cut through, for as long as it's in them." She paused, sipping at her water. "I can only summon it for a minute at a time. Takes three minutes before I can summon it again." Allison glanced at the monsterous arm again. Maybe the shard could effect Kusari's ability in a way, possibly reverting her limb to human. She wasn't sure on the idea, and even though Kusari didn't seem the biggest fan of the arm, Allison didn't want to bring attention to it at the moment. She put her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand, before adding "And you're kind of cute, yourself, in a way." She wasn't joking on that aspect. There was something sort of alluring about the white-haired girl, something precious about how frail she looked, as if she would fall apart and disappear if Allison looked away. Though, that preciousness was easily contrasted by that damnable arm, though there was some charm to that too, or so the back of her mind told her.

Hearing what Allison's ability was, she immediately thought that it may prove useful against whoever was controlling the machines. If she could stick them with her blade, wouldn't the entire metal giant fall apart. She let out an audible hum, dismissing the idea. Allison would need to get too close to that thing, and they were meant to stay back and provide support anyhow. Kusari blinked, as the next thing Allison said suddenly registered. She let out a cough, and ruffled the hair on the back of her head. The habit was so ingrained she didn't even realize she was doing it with her clawed arm.

"Jeez, I can give em but I can't take em very well..." She mumbled to herself. Maybe she should find a new way to diffuse tension. "Thanks. I haven't exactly been feeling very... Human lately." She said. Allison was the second person to complement her, in spite of the fact that she was growing disgusting limbs at an alarming rate. There was something different about the way Allison said it, however. She should keep a mental note of this.

"That's understandable." Allison picked at her food, letting silence fill the air between her and Kusari. She hesitated to speak, though clearly having something to say. "Well... um, maybe my ability might have some sort of an effect on yours? I don't know if it'll work, but maybe it'd revert your limbs to normal? It couldn't hurt to try, right? If you want that, anyway." Allison was sure she wasn't suggesting it because she didn't want to see the inhuman limb, besides, Kusari was clearly not a fan of it either. Maybe giving the girl an option to revert her limbs to normal would give her the chance to open up more. Though, what if it didn't work? There was a chance of it, Allison barely knew how her ability worked, and hadn't done much ability cancelling. Ernie had been the second person she'd ever done it to. Either way, if Kusari was up to testing it, it would be some sort of an insight into Allison's odd ability.

Lilianna stumbled into the cafeteria half wet from the rain outside. She shook the water off --- at least some of it --- and stashed her umbrella into the bin where other similarly wet umbrellas were before she wandered in. She looked around at the familiar and unfamiliar faces around. Another battle, more people dying...but another chance to quiet down the---

Give them pain. Give them something to cry about.

Make them scream.

Make them wail.

Make them ask for mercy.

Ever since she had used her powers in Ground Zero, the voices had quieted down but not for long. A day or two and it was whispering in her head again, coupled with the disjointed memories, she was unable to sustain sleep again. What she did in Ground Zero had been horrible and she really didn't want to do it again. Maybe being in a real battle is better? Monsters to hurt. That's better, right? Or I could die. That would suck. But then that would mean I won't be able to hurt anyone anymore. Is that better? It was the first time she ever posed a question--or questions--to the voices in her head. Who knows? Maybe they had answers.

But they didn't. It just merely continued whispering things about hurting and destroying.

She wandered absentmindedly towards the table Kusari and Allison were sitting at. The small blonde had no idea if the two girls were her teammates---she really should start taking note on who's who---but she reached out for a chair anyway. "...maybe it'd revert your limbs to normal? It couldn't hurt to try, right? If you want that, anyway." She caught the last part of what Allison said and briefly wondered what they were talking about, her eyes wandering towards the claw Kusari had for an arm. Wow...

But this was not the time to be staring at something...cool. Especially when the owner of the strange arm didn't look too happy with it. "Hi. Sorry to bother you guys," she greeted cheerily. "I hope I got the right table. Allison and Kusari, right?"

Kusari's right eye twitched at Allison's proposal. She didn't know what to say. She'd had the chance to reattach her right arm, but she choose not to. As much as she hated it, she needed this revolting arm. She was weak without the monster side of her body, in battle the most she could do was be mangled as a meat shield. If she reverted her right leg and arm, she'd just have to cut them off again, and that wasn't something she wanted to get into the habit of doing. Kusari broke out into a cold sweat, and clenched her right arm to her body. There was also one other thing, if Allison used her blade on her then wouldn't she lose her healing ability? There was obviously no danger of dying here, but the thought alone sent a shiver down her back.

"Maybe. Another time?" She let out a cough to clear her throat. "I'd rather not have to cut them off again today." She said, going back to eating her food. The air was suddenly silent, thankfully Lilianna came to sit at the table before it could become awkward. "Right. I'm Kusari, that's Allison." Kusari answered simply. She munched on her food, thinking.

"Lilianna." She said, trying to get the girl's attention. "You can transfer wounds between people,
right? If you or Allison are hurt, no matter how badly, I want you to transfer the wounds to me. Also, if things get too dangerous,
you should leave me behind. I'm pretty sure nothing can kill me, so don't worry about that." She pulled out her cellphone, she then remembered that she had planned on getting new phones with Hazel. She decided to talk to the quiet girl about it later.

"Give me your numbers, in case we do need to split up."

Lily looked from Allison--and vaguely remembering her--then to Kusari, not really undestanding their conversation and not really willing to ask. It's got nothing to do with her anyway. When she was addressed and asked about her power, she nodded. "Transfer to you. Okay."

Gotta remember not to magnify when transferring to her, she made a mental note and ignored the voices that said otherwise. There was no way she was gonna hurt a classmate. Besides, if I need to I can always transfer to the monsters in the field. It'll be--- Her thoughts came to a complete stop as she watched Kusari pull out her cellphone and asked for numbers. She thought of her cellphone with the cracked screen back in her room. She had only turned it on once ever since she got to USARILN East and she had left it in her drawer. That and she had no idea what her number was. "I...uh...don't have my phone with me and well, if I did... I don't even know my number," the small girl admitted sheepishly.

Allison hadn't expected Lilianna to show up so suddenly, halfway through a piece of toast whilst Kusari made clear who was who. Allison didn't get a chance to respond to Kusari declining the offer. She hadn't considered the girl wanting to keep the arm for the battle. Kusari asking Lilianna to transfer all wounds to her also made sense, given her regeneration, though the idea of it still unnerved Allison. Kusari's ability made wounds a non-issue, but she still felt pain. Horrible.

"That's fine. We've got seven hours. There's plenty of time to go get it." Allison, truthfully, had left her phone in her room as well. She didn't realize how often the device would be necessary. She would have to carry it on her person from now on. "Don't have mine, either." The brunette continued. "Never had a cell phone before, didn't think to carry it on me. Though, I think I've got the number memorized." She finished off a piece of toast before rattling off the digits to Kusari.

Memorized... Lily thought as she turned her attention to Allison, a wondering look on her face. Must be nice to have memories.

"I could, maybe, run back to my room and get it?" she suggested.

Kusari let out a sigh. "Just how many people here have never used a cellphone? I expected it from Hazel, but..." She shook her head and put her phone away after entering Allison's number. "I can get your number later on the way to the mission Lilianna." She said. She went back to eating, finding that she didn't have much else to say. She thought back to the mission briefing, and wondered just what kind of mage would have a power so self destructive. She supposed it was possible for an Aberration, but to that scale?

"This thing we're fighting, you don't think it's an animus, do you?" She barely knew what an animus was, as far as she knew it was simply an Aberration that had indulged their stigma too much and became a monster.

"I don't know..." Allison said, leaning back in her chair. "Maybe? I don't really know how you explain an ability that powerful, otherwise. Could it just be someone with an out of control ability?"

Lily nodded and sat back on her chair, contemplating whether to eat or just stay where she was. Deciding that it was probably better to stay awhile and converse with the two girls that were her teammates for this next mission, she tuned into their conversation. "Whatever it is, we'd need to put it down. I wonder if we can do it..." she contributed. To be honest, she was actually looking forward to another battle. A chance to use her abilities and put the voices to rest again--not that they weren't tolerable but she missed being able to think without them cluttering her mind.

Neither of them had much of an idea about what they were about to fight, as expected. Kusari crossed her arms, wincing as her claws poked her skin. She grit her teeth and tapped her foot in annoyance. "If we don't do it we'll die. So I'd suggest you don't even consider that an option." She said to Lily.

Lily shrugged. "There's always that possibility of dying whether we have a positive outlook or not. But I suppose being positive is better, right?" She looked from Kusari to Allison then back to Kusari. Her eyes fell on her claw for a few seconds before she averted her gaze, not really wanting to offend by her staring. "I suppose everything will turn out okay if we all worked together," she added.

"Yea." Allison immediately straightened, seemingly imbued with a sudden hopeful confidence. "Besides, it'll be our job to keep everyone alive. We can do this." The trio continued conversing for a while, discussing the upcoming battle, among other things. Eventually, though, they parted ways until the battle called them back together.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

『ℤ𝕠𝕖』 『𝔸𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕟』

---

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟠, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔹 / / ~𝟙𝟠𝟛𝟘

---

_{Collab with @Lasrever and @VarionusNW}

Standing outside Allison's dorm room, Zoe was surprised by how uneasy she felt about this. Honesty was always something she stuck by, but there was a difference between that and actually... Well, actually looking for the discussion. But maybe Fred had a point this morning, about needing to trust the others, needing them to trust her. Didn't change the fact that it was a massive pain in the ass. And that she wasn't sure about being strong enough for it. But trying to fix things a little seemed like a good middle ground.

Still, she wasn't too bothered by what this one thought of her. Well, she was, but she figured it couldn't get too much worse in terms of making an impression. When she thought of it like that, it really wasn't too tough to deal with. After all, out of all her classmates, Allison had ended up in the same group as her twice when she'd lost it, even if she had barely been conscious the first time. So it made sense that Zoe owed her an explanation. That, and being in the same building meant that she was easy enough to find. Her expression serious, Zoe knocked firmly on the door and waited for the girl to answer.

Allison sat quietly at her desk, staring intently at the small brown notebook, worn with age and full of ripped and torn pages. She re-read the section she had just added over and over again, as if trying to eek out some secret meaning from the series of words. She closed the notebook suddenly, placing it on top of a similar small notebook, though with a black cover, next to her phone in the middle of the desk. Her eyes glanced down beside her, to where a box sat, containing the new pair of shoes she had bought earlier. They were cheap, and much the same as the pair she had before. It was a shame that her shoes had been destroyed by Hazel's power, but at least getting a replacement pair came cheap. Allison could've probably requisitioned a new pair, but by the time she thought about that, she had already bought the shoes. A knock at the door interrupted Allison, who quickly got up to answer it. Allison had no clue who it could be.

Allison opened the door slowly to see Zoe standing in front of her. Images flashed in her head of the girl unconscious on top of Gregory, who's face she had melted. Why was Zoe here? The sensible part of Allison said that Zoe was probably just here to talk, though somewhere in her mind she cooked up the idea that Zoe could possibly be here to melt her face off. As dumb and unlikely as the latter prospect was, Allison was afraid of it. She looked visibly nervous, giving herself a moment to compose herself before speaking.

"Oh, hey Zoe. What's up?"

"I'm not here to attempt a murder, so you can stop that." Zoe looked slightly irritated at Allison's apparent fear, though most of it was just frustration. Zoe realized that it was probably a reasonable reaction, but was she that much of a loose cannon? Well, probably, but that didn't mean it wasn't annoying. She sighed. "I just wanted to talk things out. After Monday, and I guess the first day too. You know, 'cause I keep flying off the handle."

After a moment, she gave Allison a questioning look, sharpness returning. "So can I come in, or would you rather I just stand out here and do it?"

"Oh, right, of course." Allison moved to the side, ushering the other girl into the disorderly room. She shut the door as soon as Zoe entered, and offered Zoe the chair by the desk, before taking a seat on the bed herself. "Alright, what's up?"

Taking a seat, Zoe frowned. Part of her figured the girl wouldn't bother confronting her about anything, so she decided to just get straight into it. "First thing's first, I'm here to apologize. Which isn't something I do often. I screwed up yesterday, so I'm making an exception." Leaning back in the chair, she glanced over at Allison, seeming almost irritated as she continued.

"That, and apparently I need to trust you guys more or help you trust me - something like that. So here I am. If there's anything you want to ask about, I'll answer. To an extent." She looked away from the other girl - considering they weren't friends, this whole idea wasn't exactly comfortable for Zoe.

Allison wasn't sure what to make of the girl. She seemed irritated, uncomfortable in the situation. Allison assumed that her guest wasn't exactly used to apologizing, and respected the gesture, despite the strained air she felt still lay between them. She knew that Zoe didn't hate her, but Allison still felt nervous talking to the girl, not because of what Zoe was capable of, no, but just some odd feeling.

"I'm not really the one you need to apologize to, but thank you." Allison looked Zoe over, trying to figure out something else to say, letting the room fill with silence for a moment. "For those first few moments yesterday, I thought you were a monster. Something unfeeling and horrible, willing to kill anything and anyone for any reason. Exactly what USARILN would want, right? I don't know when I realized I was wrong, but I think it had something to do with Ernie stabbing me in the eye. At that time I thought we were all monsters, ready and willing to play a sick game for selfish reasons, justifying anything we did. But... maybe I was wrong on that, too. Maybe there is something redeemable about us. We aren't just tools for killing. We're people, and that alone makes me hopeful. I don't know why you did what you did to Greg, and I don't think I want to know, but I think I can understand on some level."Her hand rose, fingers brushing against the X marking on her neck as she spoke. "I want to trust you, and I think I can. I know you're capable, and I don't think you're a bad person. Even then, I don't really know much about you. The only times we've been around each other has been in battle. Not too great for first impressions. I guess what I want is to know you better, Zoe."Allison looked into Zoe's eyes, staring intently, unwavering. "The you that isn't fighting."

Zoe watched Allison with a wary expression as the other girl started to speak. The first part was what she'd expected, and to a certain extent what she'd wanted, but still wasn't exactly nice to hear from somebody else. More because of the idea that she was what these people wanted her to be - though maybe there was an element of truth to it. It was the last part that gave her pause.

"Me? Okay, not what I was expecting." Well, she had said she'd be honest. Couldn't really take that back after making the offer. "I wouldn't mind. Ask away. Don't know that you'll get all the answers you're looking for, but I'll try."

She shrugged, figuring she may as well attempt. Wasn't sure where to start. "I'm not sure the me that's not fighting is that different. Well, I am, but not-" Zoe frowned again. Yeah, she really sucked at this. For someone that thought of herself as honest, it was almost embarrassing how bad she was at being open with people. "I've got a pretty short fuse anyway. And I won't lie, I've done some things I'm not exactly proud of before this. Obviously never melted anyone's face... Listen, is there anything specific you want to know about me? Or do I just, like, ramble until you're happy?"

Allison looked on as Zoe tried to speak. The girl clearly wasn't used to talking about herself. Allison guessed that she wasn't much of a people person. "No, no, sorry, that's not what I meant." Allison shook her head as she spoke. "I don't want to force you to tell me your life story, or anything. especially if you don't want to." Allison spoke tenderly, aware of Zoe's clear short temper. She came her to work things out, and setting her off was the last thing that Allison wanted to do. "I just..." She paused, thinking on her words. "I want to get to know you, slowly. Maybe we could hang out and talk, or something? I don't want to force anything on you, obviously, and I don't want you to be more open than you want to, but maybe we could be friends?" Allison stared down, kneading her hands as she spoke. "When I say I want to get to know you, I don't mean just having you list off facts about yourself. I want to talk to you, and learn more about you through interacting with you. This is the longest conversation we've ever had, and the second time we've actually spoken to each other, right? We are strangers." She rose her head, looking at Zoe, letting silence hang for a moment. "You know what.? You're definitely a better fighter than me, maybe we could do some training at some point, teach me what you know, make me a little less incompetent, or something." Allison added that last line suddenly, though she felt good suggesting some way to hang out with Zoe.

"So that's it." Ah. Zoe wasn't sure if she'd been hoping she could just answer a couple questions and that would be it. Not that she particularly minded the idea, but it wasn't the easy, immediate solution she'd been hoping for. And there was always the risk of losing it which was just as terrifying as ever. After a moment, she nodded, smiling slightly. "Okay. I think I could deal with that, on one condition. If I tell you I'm having a bad day with the whole stigma thing and I want you to back off, you do it. For your own safety and mine, especially if you actually plan on being friends. That sound fair?"

"Sounds fair." Allison let out a sigh of relief, happy to have established a chance at friendship with Zoe. "I guess we can out some time later this week, or something, maybe? Whenever you want."

"Sometime, anyway. I'm kinda trying to figure some things out this week for, uh, obvious reasons." Zoe paused, still conflicted. Turning down a chance at friendship seemed like it'd raise more questions than answers, but she couldn't help worrying about her own control. Had to be cautious about this. "Pretty sure I might need to go into town and get stuff at some point, so I can tell you whenever I decide to do that." Town was safer. There were people there, enough that she'd be stopped quick if she lost it. But until Zoe was sure of herself, she didn't want to risk it quite yet.

"Alright, sounds good." The room returned to silence, and Allison made a half-hearted attempt to fill it. "Well... anything else you want you talk about?"

"I was going to offer you some advice. About the fights." Zoe paused for a second, before continuing. "It's gonna sound like stuff I need to learn for myself, too, but there's some subtle differences. I'd wait, but you never know when we're gonna get dragged out again. Shouldn't take long." She looked straight at Allison, appearing confident for the first time since entering the room as she tried to gauge whether the other girl was willing to listen.

"I definitely need some advice. Advise away." Allison leaned forward, listening intently.

"At the start of both fights you've not really been doing much. You look around the battlefield, see everything that's going wrong, and it seems like you're not sure what to do. Experience fighting should help with that, but you could stand to keep it simple." Zoe sounded matter-of-fact as she spoke, although most of it was only based on what little she'd seen of the girl. Two fights didn't make a strong base for any argument, really, so there was a pretty good chance she'd be completely off the mark.

"Don't try to sort out everything at once, you won't get anywhere. One thing at a time. Be aware of what's going on around you obviously, but focus on doing your job properly first. Better to do one thing well than to try and do ten and fail every one of them. Make sense so far?" From what Zoe had seen, Allison took a while to do anything in their fights - most of this was based off of the first one. She'd had a lot of time to actually think about what went on out there.

"Yea." Allison kept listening. She didn't have any reason to interject, and was enthralled by Zoe's advice so far.

"Second thing. Stop running off alone. In the first fight, you ran off and almost got eaten - which isn't fun, speaking from experience - and from what I saw on the video of the second fight, you jumped down by yourself at two people whose powers you didn't even know. If that was a real fight, you would've gotten yourself killed." It took a lot of effort for Zoe to try and be civil about this kind of thing. Just had to think about it a little more. Seeing how close the others came to getting hurt frustrated her, knowing that there wasn't much she could do about it.

"You're reckless. I get that it sucks feeling like you can't do anything, but the solution isn't to give up on self-preservation just to try and make a difference. Again, it's a case of actually thinking things through. Your ability can be useful without throwing your life away." Zoe was aware that this all made her sound like a massive hypocrite, but she ignored it. Wasn't quite the same situation anyway. "That's all I've got for now. Any questions?"

"No. You have some good points there." Zoe was right, and her advice definitely made Allison think. Allison had been reckless in those fights, and in her attempts to do something, she ended up nearly getting herself killed. She acted in the same pattern, standing around panicking, and then almost dying trying to actually do something.

Though she tried to focus on the advice, Allison's mind suddenly began to drift to the items she had left on the desk.

"Thanks for the advice, really. Though, I've got some things I need to get back to." Allison stood up, slowly moving towards the door. "Talk more later?"

"Sure, no problem. I'll leave you to it for now." Zoe grinned, standing and turning to walk out of the door. As she opened the door to leave, she glanced back. "Thanks for hearing me out, by the way. I didn't really expect it."

With that, Zoe walked out, her smile fading as she headed back to her own dorm. For now she still had to be careful, and there were too many things she didn't understand about herself. But if nothing else, at least that had gone a lot better than she'd hoped.

Hunger Games - Let no Fool be Unfooled

Let's give some representation to card games.

A Cat Snake

Blue-Eyes White Dragon

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel

How long had Allison been laying there? Minutes, hours, days? Was the fight over? Did they win? Did it even matter? Time passed slowly, Allison focusing on the sound of her own shallow breathing. Her focus was broken when a message blared from her cuff. It was over, a healer was coming, and they had won.

'Was it worth it?' Allison didn't know the answer to her own question.

Suddenly, Allison's injury began to feel tight. The remnants of the table leg were removed from her eye in an instant, allowing her to close her eye. She kept it closed as it healed, trying to keep her mind off of the odd feeling of her eye regenerating. Allison attempted to pick herself up, but was thankful when she was lifted into a stretcher. Before she knew it, she was being lowered into a cot back in the observation room.

That game was a massacre, exactly what Allison was trying to prevent. She could've stopped it. If they had just given up, no one would have gotten hurt. Why did she even fight? She wasn't really interested in the prize. She fought. She allowed this to happen. She didn't need the victory. She didn't need the prize. She wanted to prevent suffering.

'I'm a good person, right? At least I try to be.'

'Absolute 9: Good people don't exist.' Allison's mind fluttered to the little brown notebook that still resided in her room. She had crossed that one out some time ago, as if ignoring it would make it any less true. She was always an optimist...

Why did she do it, then? Why did she fight? Why did she jump down to fight the other team? Some messed up sense of justice, or something more petty? Revenge? Her stigma? That seemed to be most likely, her stigma.

'Absolute 2: People are selfish' That's all it was, selfishness. Allison prioritized herself over others, and because of that, she ended up with a table leg in her eye. Selfish and horrible, just like everyone else.

Allison eventually pushed herself into a sitting position, legs hanging from the cot. She realized that she had yet to open her eye since it had been healed. She slowly willed her eye to open, her vision in that eye returning as clear as ever. She got her vision back as quickly as she had lost it. Her hands crept up to her face, feeling around the now healed eye, brushing over the drying blood and other liquid that had once been inside her eye. Allison was sure she looked like an awful mess.

Allison's self inspection was interrupted by someone calling to her. Ernie, the guy who had stabbed her in the eye.

"Sorry about your eye. I got the wrong person."

His words did nothing to console the girl, in fact, his insincere statement made Allison more angry than his actions had. She could forgive the attack, at least somewhat, as it was her fault for going after them, but for Ernie to so nonchalantly state that he meant to stab someone else in the eye...

Allison was ready to yell at the boy, but stopped herself, remembering the rest of the battle. Sure, she could call Ernie a monster and a horrible person, but that wouldn't change anything. Besides, just about everyone else committed a similar action. Were they all as remorseless as Ernie, though? Allison hoped not.

"You still stabbed me in the eye." Allison spoke coldly to him before quickly turning away from him. Allison tried to get Ernie out of her mind, staring at the floor. She was still wearing Brent's shoes. She looked around for the boy who had struck down Hazel, finding him calling out to Lawrence. She removed Brent's shoes, and stood up, though she seemed to be quite shaky. She grabbed the shoes, and walked over to Brent as quickly as she could, dropped the shoes in front of him. "Sorry about borrowing your shoes, Brent." She said meekly as she walked away, towards the bathroom. She needed to wash the blood off of her face.

@ERode@banjoanjo

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel | Lawrence Ellison | Hazel Baker | Zoe Fletcher

Emma Halwell | Brent Roless | Ernest Mars | Savannah Churchill
Gregory Irving

---

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 ℤ𝕖𝕣𝕠 / / 𝟙𝟠𝟘𝟚

---

_{Collab with @VarionusNW @Snagglepuss89 @GreenGoat @Lasrever @Diggerton @ERode @banjoanjo @canaryrose@Zombehs}

Jesus Christ, does nobody try to negotiate?

Lawrence didn't know exactly what had been going on in the room next to him, but he could get the gist of it. They found someone, things got violent, and three-to-one odds won out. From the sound of the call their opponent made near the end of the scuffle it was Gregory they had found- which meant Lawrence had been searching for Sophia.

So far in vain.

Not that there was much in the room he was in to search. A couple pieces of furniture and a houseplant that would hide nobody. The stairs were complete trashed- to what end he could only guess. One of the healers had to have done it, maybe the one his team had just subdued. Still, the other could still be down there. So it was with his ears that Lawrence did most of his searching, straining to hear the other team- or their healer- down below. Neither of which were reaching him.

The Arbiter had resigned himself to guard duty- rather than cramming himself into the same room everybody else occupied- when Determination quite literally crashed through the ceiling. Messy, loud, and annoyingly unexpected.

"Hazel, get rid of that thing!"

Lawrence, now halfway through the doorway of the room, called to his teammate on the floor. There weren't many other options at the moment. He didn't know if Allison could affect it, he probably couldn't, and Zoe looked to have her hands full with their team's healer. For his part, Lawrence kept his eyes moving between the stairs, terrace, and the new hole made by the arrival of Emma's summon. On guard for the first human opponents to show up and avoiding the chaos of the quickly overcrowding room.

There was no time to waste. Ernie blanched as Emma's summon plummeted through the roof, littering debris throughout what seemed to be a bathroom. It was all so stupidly sudden. No time to think. No time to be afraid. No, there was plenty time to be afraid.

More clawing in his chest. The space was too enclosed. Not enough exits, too many dangers. And that screaming. Ernie knew that tortured sound well. Team 3 was not messing around. Even with his durability, there was way too much risk. He looked to his team, a brief apologetic expression before he spoke.

"I'm gonna corner them," he excused himself hurriedly, and leapt down onto the top balcony before he could hear any objections. Sure, he was basically running away but he didn't give a shit. Being outside was a good place to start. No bone-breaking mages out here. Maybe he'd be able to slam some doors in the other team's faces before they caught sight of him.

Brent hadn't expected Emma to be so aggressive, what with sending her tank minion out ahead and just crashing through the roof. Nor had he expected the tortured screams of a male sound almost at the same time. Chills ran up his spine, before he tried to reason with all that. Tank dude hadn't just fallen onto someone. It must have been Lawrence or the healer. Probably the healer.

The screams continued.

Shit, definitely the healer. Brent slide the blades off his rollerskates, discarding them and reducing those badass skates to mere shoes. Sticking his feet into them, he let out a deep breath, before rising once more. Another silver explosion, and steel plates emerged on his shoes, improved with the concept of protecting his feet in mind. A weapon next? No, this was still supposed to be...

The screaming didn't cease.

...just a game.

Ernie ran off by himself and Brent turned to Savannah. "Go help him with that, yeah," he gestured. Emma could relay orders from Savannah's phone as well. But should he run into the hole that the tank made? Or should he stay back to protect Emma? Or should he go for the cornering method as well? Brent grimaced.

No hesitating.

"Emma, pull them all towards the tank and have it spin around or something. I'll get closer. Spot the screamer and all."

With that, Brent ran towards the hole in the roof. Hazel shouldn't have the power to see through walls as well, right?

When Emma had her tulpas thing just charge straight into the battle and punch through the roof like a badass, Savannah was a little impressed. Right up until the moment that screaming began coming from the room. Had Emma's roof smash crushed someone? It sure sounded like that, and being crushed produced a not-so pleasant sound. Savannah flinched at the sound.

Savannah nodded at Brent's instructions. Although she didn't think jumping off of the roof onto the balcony was the best idea, it certainly was better than standing around and doing nothing. Savannah, doing a running jump, ran off of the rooftop and jumped onto the balcony below with her eyes squinted shut. Luckily, she landed on the grass instead of the pavement.

When she landed, she scanned the surrounding area for the person she was supposed to be helping. It took a short second to find him, but when she did, she hurriedly rushed over and gave a short "'Ello."

Emma nodded at Brent’s command, but she hesitated before relaying it to her Tulpas. The screaming, the violence, what the hell was happening? Wasn’t this a friendly game? Wouldn’t getting hit by Determination hurt the others? Was this really all right?

The voice in her head told her it was. The voice in her head told her it was good. So she did what Brent said. Determination rose from the rubble he had created as Love appeared him. She went for her phone, ”Pull them in, Love! Determination, pummel them!”

What the hell is this game?

Hazel snapped to action the moment Lawrence shouted out that order.

Activating her ability at once, she swatted the tulpa into pieces. Emma's creatures. From what she knew of Emma, she needed to be close to actually be able to issue orders to them. So if the thing came from above, then the summoner must also be above somewhere. Pushing Allison off, Hazel stood up, pushing her ability to her maximum range, before cutting diagonally downwards, slicing clean though the roof, down the top floor, and into part of the middle floor, separating a piece off the building. Assuming there wasn't something else affecting the cut part, it should slide towards where the other team's safe point was, though she had no knowledge of that. With the diagonal cut she made, the cut off piece of the building should slide off before crumbling once it hit the ground, hopefully stunning or slowing down Emma long enough for them to retrieve Gregory.

More than a little worried about the increasing levels of destruction and with Hazel's leg-breaking coming way too close for comfort, Zoe was quickly realizing that she did not want to stay in this room. Needed to move Gregory as well, and fast, which would've been easier if someone hadn't decided to break his legs. She grabbed one of the hands he'd brought up to protect his face. No powers yet, just trying to get his attention as she spoke.

"Listen, I'm getting you out. Nothing else needs to happen if you cooperate - Piss me off, and things only get worse." She was still smiling as she made the threat. Knew fine well any more injury was unnecessary too, but she hadn't had this perfect a chance in ages! Trying to keep her mind on their objectives rather than her own entertainment, Zoe stood up, preparing herself to try and lift the 'healer'. It was a gamble to let go of him, but she had to if she wanted to move the guy by herself.

For how loud he’d screamed just moments ago, Gregory stopped rather abruptly as he tried to breathe through the pain. Unfortunately he was still conscious and not out for a nap, and he yanked his hand away the moment someone tried to grab it. Biting back the first things that came to mind when whoever it was spoke, it didn’t really do much to change his pained expression.

“I think I’ll take worse,” he spat as the house seemed to shudder from whatever the hell was happening. Between going down two floors conscious or unconscious with a pair of broken legs? Not really a hard decision. Sides, if he wasted more of her time than maybe the other team would be able to do something. As she stood, he turned his head to look into the other rooms and forgot about his pain for a moment as a chunk of the building began to fall away and crumble.

If he'd expected Zoe to be bothered by his reaction, Gregory was sorely mistaken. Without another word, she knelt down, powers active over her whole body, and dug a knee into his stomach. Grabbing the side of his face tightly with one hand, she watched as the flesh began to melt, turning red under her grip. The cuff on her leg started beeping, and she knew what that meant, but she'd only just gotten started. No way was she dropping it this early - she'd gone way too long without sating her Stigma, and it showed.

Ignoring the beep, she continued with her attack, digging her fingers deeper into his cheek. Within a matter of seconds, she felt her fingers meeting bone, showing no sign of stopping her assault. There was no question that Zoe was genuinely enjoying this, but she'd gone way too far. She barely had time to register what was happening, just felt her nerves explode with pain as a powerful electric shock ran through her body, her vision going black.

Emma felt the ground beneath her feet move. She wobbled as the building begin to slide, her footing threatening to lose itself. She felt Determination and Love‘s demise at the hands of Hazel. This must be her counterattack, she realized. It looked like the ‘keep demolition to a minimum’ rule was out the window. Emma couldn’t help but wonder if Hazel was actually trying to kill her, after all, this seemed a little excessive. She became acutely aware of the fact that she didn’t have time to worry about Hazel. Her panic would be clear to the spectators, ”Shit, shit, shit!” she cried out as she tried to maintain her footing.

Instinct took over. On the other end of the roof, which she identified as safe footing, Love appeared. ”Pull me to you!” she called.

He didn’t hear her over the sounds of the crumbling building, apparently, as he made no move to help. Before Emma could come up with Plan B her feet came out from under her, sending her toppling down the sliding roof. She went over the edge before she could find something to hold onto.

A scream escaped her mouth as she fell, the ground rapidly coming closer and closer to her. Once again Love appeared, this time below her. ”CATCH ME!” were the words that came out through her screams.

Suddenly she stopped falling. She was now floating in the air, suspended by the grace of Love’s power. She took a long breath.

That was actually kind of cool…

There were many sounds by the time Brent made it over to Determination's hole. The sound of something splattering into scraps. The sound of the high-pitched beeping of the cuffs. And...the sound that a massive telekinetic blade made when it diagonally sheared off a part of the building, sending Emma down with it. He gaped at that sudden display of destruction, at how easily it had cut through everything, at how Emma was now in freefall, before Love manifested, saving her just in time.

What remained now was most of the roof being pretty much destroyed. He couldn't spot Ernie and Savannah. He was pretty sure that what roof remained contained Allison below. Probably Hazel as well.

Good grief, when did a 'knife' equate to a 'fifteen meter death scythe'?

Despite himself, Brent smirked, almost laughed, before recalling just how dangerous of a location he was in. Do they give up on the roof? Yeah, at this point, there were two property destruction maniacs on team 3, one of them just got tazed for that reason, and he was pretty much alone at this point. So...how did he do this?

"Emma, Savannah, Ernie," Brent said, as softly as he could into the phone, "Get off the house immediately. Go shout into the first floor, telling Sophia, if she can hear, that an x-marked person has gone crazy and is fucking shit up and this goddamn administration doesn't actually care if they collapse the building. Probably gonna collapse it soon. They still have Greg up here with them, but at this rate, I think it's definitely better to challenge them on the ground than up above."

"Oh, and Emma? That was some clutch shit. Get down before Hazel force-chokes you though."

He'd really rather not have to drop into the gang of bone-breaking psychos down below...but if that's what it took to buy enough time for Emma to get out, that's what he'd have to do.

Ernie hadn't seen the giant blade materialize. He had been making his way to the door, only to see a diagonally-angled purple knife shear through the building and head directly towards him. With a loud yelp, he threw himself to the right and felt a slight breeze on his left leg. The ground began to tremble and shift. One side of the balcony had been split off and he and Savannah were starting to fall away from their destination.

"Ah, fuck!" Ernie gasped, clinging desperately onto the grass.

He looked back at Savannah and saw her struggling with the unsteady terrain too. The tiny girl wasn't going to have any powers to save her from the fall. And he had nothing to lose from helping her. Seconds before the balcony became impossible to stand on, Ernie sprinted unsteadily to the girl and enveloped her in a bearhug.

The world turned sideways.

Gravity pulled Ernie onto his back as he slid backwards into the banister. The fall only lasted second before a jolt shook them both. The severed building section had hit the ground and was continuing its fall sideways. The world lurched even more. Another crash. They fell through the shattered banister and onto the concrete below.

Ernie took the brunt of the fall with his back and felt all the wind get knocked out of his lungs. Shards of the banister glass littered down onto the pair, though they were only minor irritations compared to the scale of what just happened. He only dared to open his eyes once the sounds of crashing debris stopped. With a groan, he sat up and released Savannah, pushing her off to the side so he could catch his breath. His durability had saved him once again. A quick inspection showed no major injuries. The back of his singlet had been torn to shreds, however, and he needed to get the glass shards out of his hair. And then there was his leg. The bottom of his left pant leg, including the flag and part of the top bit of his boot, had been cleanly slashed off. Somehow his actual leg was completely untouched. He grimaced at the lost point but was thankful that they managed to get through that particular incident. He heard Brent's voice whisper through Savannah's phone and answered with a silent nod. They needed to keep as much distance between Team 3 and themselves as possible. Finding the other healer was a good use of time in the meanwhile.

"Watch out for the glass," Ernie muttered and brushed himself off as he stood up.

This wasn't going to end well.

Savannah hadn't seen the knife form, but she had noticed when it had cut off part of the building. And, which she quickly noted, was the side she was located on. She threw herself to the side with a high-pitched scream in order to avoid the purple knife. The ground trembled and moved, much like the balcony was falling off of the building, which is what it was doing at that exact moment.

"Holy SHIT!" Savannah screamed, trying her best to keep her grip on the unstable terrain.

What kind of idiot had come up with the brilliant idea to slice through the fucking building?! If Savannah had remembered correctly, the staff had specifically told them to keep destruction to a minimum. Well, that was thrown out of the window the moment someone cut through the building.

Just as Savannah was about to scream in terror at the ground falling beneath her feet, Ernie ran over and wrapped her in a large hug. Great. We're hugging before we die. Just great. Just then, the balcony decided to completely separate itself from the house, prompting Savannah to involuntarily hold on tightly to Ernie and squint her eyes shut. If she were going to fall onto the ground and die, she didn't want to see the ground.

Despite her efforts not to, Savannah screamed as they fell through something. The banister? She wasn't entirely sure, since she refused to open her eyes as they rapidly fell towards the ground

When they got onto the ground safely- Thank god for that- Savannah lost her balance and fell onto the ground. She was dimly aware of the glass on the ground as she breathed heavily. She pushed herself to her feet, brushing the glass shards off of her clothes.

"Who in the hell's bright idea was it to cut off the building?!" Savannah began. "I don't remember the aim of the game being 'KILL EVERYONE! It's a total free-for-all, have at it!' Not three minutes into the game and some fucking idiot decides to cut the balcony off of the house! The fuck?" the young girl ranted, clearly seething.

"Shut up and stay quiet!" Ernie hissed. His patience had been completely shredded by the events happening around him, "You saw what happened to the building. Do you want them to hear us and do it again?"

"Jeez, sorry. But it's not like the person who cut through the building can cut off a piece of the Earth."" Savannah retorted.

Anger flared through Ernie. "Stay quiet," he repeated lowly, "Or I won't be there to save your sorry ass next time you fall from the top floor."

He pushed down the rest of his irritation and trudged towards the door. He tried to push it open only to find that something on the other side was jamming it half shut. That was the final straw. With an enraged grunt, he pulled out his tomahawk and savagely hacked at the door. Splinters and wood chips flew with the careless motions. There was no thought behind his swings, only a release of frustration and anxiety. It was clearly just a makeshift venting method, but one that still barely managed to be productive for the two of them.

Everything was happening so fast, and Allison seemed to be little more than a bystander. Part of the building was sliding off, Hazel had just annihilated whatever fell through the roof, Zoe had been shocked, and Gregory was nearly dead. Allison had been pushed off by Hazel, and stood up just as Hazel broke Greg's legs. Allison had half a mind to tackle the girl, to scream at her, even to punch her, but was stopped only by the continuous flow of events.

What was even happening? This was supposed to be a game, a competition. It was quickly turning into exactly what Allison had wanted to avoid, and it was all her team's fault. At least Zoe wasn't going to be melting anyone else's face for the time being. If luck and time were on their side, Greg would survive.

Allison couldn't let this battle turn out anything like the previous, she couldn't let it become a massacre. This battle needed to end fast and without any more major injury. The girl's mind fluttered back to the portion of the building that was now tumbling to the ground, and those who might have been caught in the fall. Allison hoped that they had miraculously not gotten hurt in the fall, but expected much worse. More importantly, though Allison wasn't really sure on that distinction, there was at least one or two members of the other team ripe for the picking down on the ground.

Allison started towards the door of the room, turning around just as she passed Lawrence.

"Hazel, get Greg and... Zoe to the safe zone" She spoke Zoe's name tenderly, as if saying it wrong could cause her pain. "Join me at the rubble when you're done..." Allison hesitated. "And don't injure anyone else if you don't have to." She looked towards Zoe and Greg before spinning around and rushing to the new edge of the second floor, which left a sizable drop to the floor below.

That feeling had been building up ever since Hazel had first broke down the toilet wall to grasp at anything inside, but with the destruction of a whole section of the building, she could ignore it no longer. A sense of elation was filling up her mind, quelling the ever growing noise coming from her stigma, but also feeding her need to destroy more.

Hazel simply nodded at the command, grabbing both Zoe and Gregory with a projected fist, before going towards one of the more open area of the top floor.

He could hear it from his position, the voice of an unfamiliar female, speaking to the silent Hazel. Greg and Zoe could no longer move. Why? Electrocuted and violently knocked out? He bit his lower lip. They would be walking out soon, the telekinetic berserker and the house-cleaving girl. Was Lawrence with them? He didn't know. A brunette exited first, and Brent tensed, his heart rate accelerating violently, but he forced himself to remain still. If they turned around, he had nowhere to hide, even if he flattened himself against the roof. But at the same time, they had no reason to turn around. Neither Hazel nor the hypothetical Lawrence spoke up. And thus, Allison didn't turn around, even though Brent stood up tall on the roof of the house.

Was it Lawrence next? Or Hazel? And if so, what would he do?

Leap down and try to grab as many flags as possible? No, he'd be splattered instantly. He's not Marcus.

Leap down and cut into her shoulder with the machete? No, that'd be excessive.

Remain on the roof and shoot them? No, he can't ensure that he'd hit a non-lethal part of their body.

Leap do-

Hazel's head emerged, and Brent stopped thinking. Even if he was shocked to unconsciousness, he could take Hazel down with him. Zoe was already unconscious. Allison's power didn't help them transport people. And Emma, their VIP, was still unharmed.

Don't hesitate.

He raised his arms, interlocked his fingers, stepped off the roof, and, falling, bashed Hazel on the head.

This was just a game, but three of his teammates already almost died. And between like and dislike, he disliked that.

Brent didn't even get to see Hazel fall when the cuff beeped and tazed him unconscious.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Allison Revel | Lawrence Ellison | Hazel Baker | Zoe Fletcher

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ℂ𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 ℙ𝕠𝕤𝕥 / / @VarionusNW@Snagglepuss89@GreenGoat@Lasrever

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𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 ℤ𝕖𝕣𝕠 / / ~𝟙𝟟𝟝𝟝

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As their group arrived at the house, Zoe looked up at it with a serious expression. So, they were trying to force a close-range fight. Made sense considering the powers everyone was working with, although it meant it'd probably be a pain trying to avoid a confrontation. Still, if they didn't decide on some sort of strategy, they were screwed regardless. Taking a step back, she looked up at the building. Three floors, it looked like, with some sort of terrace right above them - that wasn't too much. Wasn't much at all, actually.

"Hazel, your ability's kind of like telekinesis or something, right? Are you able to, uh, lift people? Or things?" She looked at the girl questioningly. "Or is it just straight-up punching shit?" Honestly, Zoe hadn't really understood what half of the girl's explanation meant earlier, but no way would she admit that with the cameras on. She already felt enough like a dumbass without anyone else figuring it out.

"That is correct," Hazel replied. "However, I do not know if I can lift people or things. My ability had always been telekinetic impacts."

That was to say, she had never did anything of the sort before. Perhaps she could propel someone or something through the air if she hits them hard enough, but she had never did anything like lifting something before. The house the team had been brought to would be child's play for her to demolish, especially considering what her primary purpose was in that other facility, and how they trained her. All she needed to do was break the points bearing the building's weight, and it would crumble to the ground.

But that was beside the point. Focusing on her mental image, her arms disappeared completely, the air around them wrinkling visibly with a sort of a purplish hue.

Hazel blinked.

Huge purplish arms floated above her, a copy of the mental image she was focusing on. This was certainly something new to her. Moving one of the spectral hands lower, she climbed on it, and started jumping up and down on it.

"Yes. I can lift objects."

Lawrence nodded in response to Hazel, even if he wasn't the one she was speaking to. His eyes were upward, studying the same terrace that had caught Zoe's attention. If Hazel could get them up there from the beginning of the match...

"Well, we really have two options, don't we? I don't know if the people who set this up counted on one or both groups being able to just skip to the top of the building, but if they didn't... Well, the chances that our healer is on the bottom floor is pretty slim. So, I think we should definitely take this opportunity to go straight to the top. Main issue as I see it is whether we went to split up into two groups to help hunt for the healers, or stay together to watch each other's backs when a fight breaks out."

With a shrug he added:

"If we lose our healer and can't find theirs we're screwed. If they manage to catch us in two small groups and wipe both out separately- we're screwed. They said minimum demolition, so I don't think busting from one floor to the other to help each other is an option if we're separated. I vote we stick together and keep our ears open."

"I second that." Allison stared in awe at the girl floating on massive purplish projections of her arms. Hazel was clearly the most indispensable asset to the team, and it was obvious that their best bet would be to stay near her. If they all stayed together on the second floor, they would have a decent chance of survival, at least more than splitting up.

Zoe shrugged. "Fine with me. If one of them's seriously giving us trouble though, I can break off and take them out of the game." She smiled coldly. She'd likely lose her flags, but she could do a lot of damage if she got the other team by surprise. It sounded like a fun prospect. For now, though, her own team needed to figure out the rest of what they were doing.

She nodded to herself. "So, healers. If we find Gregory and he's easy enough to move, Hazel can lower him down the same way we get up. If he doesn't cooperate, I'll just push him off the terrace. 'Break a leg', right? I'm sure you guys can talk him round, though." A hint of disappointment crept into her tone at the prospect of missing out on leg-breaking but she didn't dwell on it for too long. "Any issues with that?"

Lawrence nodded in response to her, eyes still upward. Truthfully, he had no problem with breaking Gregory's legs if it came to that- incredibly painful and unpleasant, but not fatal and they had healers who could deal with him afterwards. Main issue was if they needed to rely on him later on the guy might hold a grudge...

"We'll call that a last resort, but no disagreement here. A broken leg or two won't kill him, but we can't say for sure that he wouldn't land on his neck either."

Allison paced around, staring at the ground, occasionally glancing up at the building.

"And what's the plan if the other team rushes up the stairs and we have to fight immediately? I mean, we're going to have to fight them eventually, but how do we deal with them? We know what everyone but Ernie does, right?"

At Allison's question, Zoe sighed. "Kills me to admit it, but with me and Lawrence on the team we'll probably get our asses kicked. Protecting Hazel is gonna have to be priority number one. If they take her out, that 'probably' turns into definitely."

"If we can get everyone into a room, one of Hazel's hands could be used to block the door, buy us some time. Savannah, Lawrence can just hit in the face with a clock or something - she's weak anyway but it stops her from being a pest. Allison, your blade-thing should be able to handle Brent if you can destroy his equipment. Ernest, we'll just have to make things up on the fly. The problem here is Emma. Her summons might fuck everyone over if we're all in the same place."

A dangerous look appeared in Zoe's eyes as she thought it through. "I'm not going to be much help playing defensively, but if she needs to talk to use her powers then I can cut her off. Only need a second if I can get my hands on her." Zoe looked at them. Ideally she'd take a back seat here, but with the way her Stigma was going she'd end up attacking someone regardless. Best to make it someone on the other team. "I know we said we'd stick together, but even if I get taken out, me for her sounds like a pretty good deal. That's all I've got."

"You should be able to melt her sommons as they come if you go full strength on them- I don't remember them being that resilient. I think we should save Allison's ability to disable Ernest, at least until we know what we're up against."

He took a step towards Hazel then, folding his hands behind his head in as relaxed a manner as he could. If his team was set on winning then he'd do what he could, but he wasn't too invested in the outcome of this game. The point was working together, not winning.

"I agree that Hazel takes second priority to the healers, but I wouldn't count out any of our powers, even mine. I can think of a few tricks to at least buy us some time."

With a shrug, he added:

"If worst comes to worst I think I can hold them off for a bit to buy you guys some time to regroup. Let's just hope we can get those healers before they can."

"Depends if the things count as organic or not." Zoe shrugged, considering Lawrence's words. "But if that's what you'd rather do, I'll follow your lead - planning isn't really my thing. Throwing out ideas here more than anything, but if you think it's best to stay defensive and hold them off then that's what we can do. It's just-" She cut herself off, pausing with a reluctant expression.

"Truth is, it's hard enough to keep things together right now, never mind once the fight's started. If we're all fighting in a group together, there's a chance I might, uh, change my mind. So to speak. Might be a good idea to keep an eye on me." Her pride hurt at the admission of weakness, but she didn't want to put anyone else at risk without them knowing. "If you guys can deal with that, then I guess we've got our plan."

"Alright then. I guess all that's left to do is wait." The group passed the remaining time in relative silence.