Jessie shakes her head urgently. "I wasn't presuming that! You said you were teammates! Maybe you had to talk superhero business or something." She frowns when Sam freezes at Gui's comment, then adjusts her seat so that Sam can move to wherever she feels most comfortable.
After a brief but uncomfortable silence, Jessie turns to Gui. "Is that, um, a French accent? Sorry if I'm wrong."
"All of the above. Please," she adds as an afterthought. "Did you train with people before Daedalus? They stopped having me train with other assets; they had them train on me for a while until someone got hurt. There was a block on the other assets so I couldn't ever see their data; tell me if I shouldn't ask for you to share, okay?"
She hears the slightly rising notes of her tone and pauses to find her equilibrium again. "My task is- I'm here to keep my team safe. Especially the greens and- Did they do your eyes too?"
"I was tested," Scythe says flatly. "I... it's hard to think about what it was like before Daedalus. A glimmer of intense trauma flashes across her eyes before she forces it away by focusing on Andromeda. "Carlos breathes too loud. Ne'veah wastes energy and telegraphs her actions with her tail. The Slaughterbots have a lot of blades on them so it's hard to get in close without taking a hit, but they don't cut deep enough." Her voice is fairly flat in affect as she speaks until the end, when she crinkles her nose and tilts her head as if listening for something.
Distractedly, she asks, "Who did what to my eyes?"
"You think in weaknesses. That makes sense when you keep growing back from what they do you, and most of what you're working with are speed and very sharp blades. Their strengths are less important than how you eventually win. My program was different; they use my eyes to-"
She pauses.
"Are you trying to not be a weapon? I really want to want something else, but it's... Challenging. Talents and an acceptable purpose aligning is- Feels very good."
***
Chloe Parker my young: It's boring here without heroes
Chloe Parker my young: But my dad thinks it's safer
Chloe Parker my young: Did the Killer Robot try to take over your school?
My Phone: It was more of a class assignment
My Phone: The robot wasn't that strong anyways
My Phone: It was clever though which is better.
My Phone: I always hated the tests that were just about how much you could lift or what you could break. They were boring unless they were poorly designed and then they were dangerous
My Phone: so should I visit so things won't be boring or stay away because I'm dangerous?
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Chitin's head swivels back and forth. "No idea how they got it. And before careful what you ask for. If you fight one of the bigger models, you may regret it."He leans in. "And I don't know about cutting loose. If that was a real fight, I think Andromeda would have caused a lot of casualties." He gestures to the shredded and partially collapsed faux buildings.
"Bigger models?" He asks having figured the one they fought was a 'big' model and slightly gawking st the fact they come in bigger models. Then again he had fought something much bigger already so it shouldn't surprise him. "Might be necessary to train against something big like that eventually."
Looking around the faux battleground Indarius nods with an uneasy agreement. "Her collateral is a work in progress. It's already caused some issues for the team, but I'm not sure how to get through to her on the matter. She takes a the job got done and we won mentality to it a bit, which kinda scares me. I mean if the goal was only ever to win then imagine if I'd picked up 'all' the f$$*ed up spells when I was learning."
Realizing he'd probably made the mood too serious he nudged Chitin's shoulder with the back of his fist. "But hey we both kicked ass out there today so props to us huh. You can really take a hit, the way you had those blades sliding off you with those sick deflections. Gotta learn that myself, still pretty new to the close up combat stuff so any pointers would be awesome."
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, clear one condition if they treat you like a perfectly normal person and mark potential if they praise your power or abilities.
Indarius avoids what he's seeing from Sam, Aqua, and the other girl and steers himself towards the eest of the Hardkncoks crew settling down with a protein heavy meal. He looks over what everyone else is having as well, curious to see how Ne'veah's changes altered her pallette since she was the only one she knew before Daedelus.
"You know meat just hits different now, like before it was good but now it's great. Though there's a weird twang to everything from the store that I never noticed before."
He cuts into his steak and gives folks time to remark or not. "Wonder if the classes are always gonna be that intense and just mock battles?"
Landing a bit away from Mortal Peril as to try, unsuccessfully, to draw less attention Indy heads into the shop causing the chine to go off. He hadn't been to this shop, and reminded himself that he'd need to visit some other old haunts of his for other reasons. But today was a casual visit well mostly he was also curious about the supposed magic incident. But in the meantime he paced around the store, keeping his tail and wings mindfully close or wrapped around hin so as to minimize the chance of breaking anything by simply existing.
He was wearing some very loose sweats, and a blank gray shirt with the back mostly stripped out, some of the only things that managed to fit his new physiology these days. He mindlessly picked through the new booster packs with his eyes and squatted down to check out the individual cards for sale.
Gui laughs a good honest laugh. "Relax... do not teke everyting so serious!" Grabbing his sandwich, he adds to the girls. "When in doubt, assume I am joking, ok?"
"I am from Canada, so yeah, my accent is French-like but not dat bad I tink... I will get better in de coming months I tink." He then takes some time looking at Jessie before adding. "And why would you need to be sorry about it? You are curious. Dis is healthy. How are we suppose to learn if we can not ask?"
Chloe: But I hope they're all as nice as Yeoman
Chloe: I have to work tonight but we can hang out tomorrow night
Chloe: I'll introduce you to Beebee
[b]"...Uh. Hi?"
Indarius would look up to see an Asian girl addressing him. Her lanyard informed him that she was an employee named Chloe. She wore a T-shirt with a black cat and a white cat with moon symbols on their heads and comfortable jeans. "...You're that guy. The magic guy? Did Ang- uh, Andromeda send you here?"
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The magic guy... wow that's almost insulting
Looking to Chloe with his glacial blue eyes Indarius stands thought it looks like he's purposely half standing to make himself less imposing.
"Indarius, but.. yeah I suppose I am a magic guy. Andromeda didn't send me no. I was here to look at the newest booster packs for Magic and maybe see if I couldn't sniff out any traces from the um.. 'magic stick' used in the robbery last week."
He looked around, "Wouldn't happen to know about either of those would ya?"
"I mean, we carry stock on MTG. I haven't really played myself since Universes Beyond Masters." Chloe tucks some of her straight black hair behind her ear. "But if you want some older stuff, there's like everything down to Ixalan we have for sale. We also got some unopened fifth edition packs, but those are about sixty dollars a piece."
"Oh, yeah, it was like..." Chloe thinks, before gesturing with her hands in front of him. "About this long. And had some kind of weird glyphs. And did a couple different things, freezing me in place and making my friend want to follow the guy. You have any idea what that is? And...do you mind if I get a picture for the store? We need to drum up business and if this is going to be the store catering to superheroes that's going to help keep us afloat."
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He was attentive about the prices but he seems to focus in especially once Chloe tells him she was subject to the attack herself. His fin-like ears, a new feature with this shapeshifted body to help make him look more appealing to the normal person, perking up.
"The, hmm, wand we'll say. Did you get a good close look at it? Could you maybe draw the glyphs for me? Or maybe the store camera caught a good shot of it. And your friend who was also subjected to the same wand, but it had a different effect? Could you arrange a meet up with them as well, here perhaps?"
He momentarily dodges the question about a picture just for now, but promised himself he'd circle back with an actual answer later.
"I...cameras are a no go. They glitched out." Chloe says, frustration in her expression. "I could...actually, uh...if you're interested, I'm planning to meet them for bowling tomorrow, if you want to come and follow up. I mean, I'm pretty sure a guy like you can probably roll a ball down a lane?" She suggests nervously.
"I mean, if you want to invite anyone else - I'm sorry, I'm maybe being a little too forward, but you're the fourth member of your team I've met and I kind of want my best friend to stop saying I'm exaggerating..." She fidgets with her left ring finger. "And she might know more about the wand. Though maybe you know more about this Star Pharaoh the robber was obsessed with..."
"You think in weaknesses. That makes sense when you keep growing back from what they do you, and most of what you're working with are speed and very sharp blades. Their strengths are less important than how you eventually win. My program was different; they use my eyes to-"
She pauses.
"Are you trying to not be a weapon? I really want to want something else, but it's... Challenging. Talents and an acceptable purpose aligning is- Feels very good."
Scythe sniffs at the air, then turns back to Andromeda. "I'm trying to be... me. I don't know what I want, except I don't--" She sniffs again, more on edge.
"I don't want to go back." She suddenly bolts, running at top speed down the hall until she reaches the exit of the dormitory and then takes flight!
What do you do??
""I am from Canada, so yeah, my accent is French-like but not dat bad I tink... I will get better in de coming months I tink." He then takes some time looking at Jessie before adding. "And why would you need to be sorry about it? You are curious. Dis is healthy. How are we suppose to learn if we can not ask?"
Jessie looks a little defensive. "Well, some people rip your head off for the tiniest mistake. Or use it as a reason to get away from you if they're uncomfortable. Sorry for being sorry."
Realizing he'd probably made the mood too serious he nudged Chitin's shoulder with the back of his fist. "But hey we both kicked ass out there today so props to us huh. You can really take a hit, the way you had those blades sliding off you with those sick deflections. Gotta learn that myself, still pretty new to the close up combat stuff so any pointers would be awesome."
Chitin hardly budges when Indy nudges him. "Thanks? It's not like it takes special training, though. If you've got armor that's tough enough to tank a hit, then good, right? And I dunno, I think it's just instinct to have the blades slide off." He points to Indarius's scales and spines. "I think yours is more to break blades than let them slide off."
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Indy's eyeridges cock.
'Weird way to ask for me to continue an investigation, Maybe Sam was onto something about teenage girls and dragons? Doesn't seem super worried about it which is weird, no camera evidence, but Andromeda wouldn't report to nothing and Chroknight wouldn't have lied about the robbery unless...
Shuffling those thoughts back he nods slowly, "Um.. well if it's to continue investigating the robbery. I don't see how it could hurt. I haven't bowled since I was like.. eight and well." He pushes a clawed hand out from behind his wing cloak.
"Haven't tried since the super strength and talons came in heh. But if you're sure your friend'll be around and willing to answer some questions."
Back to the star pharaoh though, "I've never heard of any kind of Star Pharaoh. Anything you found out from the uh obsessions? Sounds to me like the perp may have talked about it alot if it was obsessive."
Indarius takes a bit of pride in the compliment, "Well turn it aside, break it, probably worked great in the old times when steel crafting was pretty shoddy still. But I think modern metals might require a bit more finesse like you do. But I mean I've sort of shaped myself a bit with this to be more uh.. personable so probably more luck in the straight up tanking the hits when I'm fully me and not made up me."
Scratching aimlessly at his shoulder scales as his mind is sent back to how things worked in the fantasy world with the magic weaponry.
He tuts for a moment, "Hey I think everyone's about to go to get something to eat after the showers, you're welcome to join at our table dude."
"No, just that apparently it was too soon or something. Got a lore dump from the guy who sold it to me. He's like some big threat that's only come around twice before, in the 40s and 80s. I'm guessing alien. But with magic?"
Chloe shrugs but smiles. "You can just come for questions or to hang...whatever you like. I think if you can still topload a deck without tearing sleeves you can roll a ball."
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"Hmm I'l have to see what I can find. Any images would be good to put preventative measure out for the wand I mean, in the odd case he comes back to try again. But a reoccuring space pharaoh alien with magic, yeah I've got nothing off the top of my head at least."
He snickers at that, though there's a hiss to it for sure. "Ah what wonders a tiny bit of telekinetic spellwork can do. Anyway, you can count me in, weather for questions or just to be there to show your friend you aren't kidding. Least I can do for your help in the matter. Now I think I owe you a shop picture."
Scythe sniffs at the air, then turns back to Andromeda. "I'm trying to be... me. I don't know what I want, except I don't--" She sniffs again, more on edge.
"I don't want to go back." She suddenly bolts, running at top speed down the hall until she reaches the exit of the dormitory and then takes flight!
She's chasing her fleeing target before she knows what she's doing, cannoning up into the air with a dull boom, seeking a good vantage point on where Scythe is running to, and then just doing her best to keep her average pace close to her roommate's.
"Some people suck." Gui counterpoints and bites his food. "And we are all better off without dem in our lives. Like bullies, dey just have as much power over us as we give dem."
Chitin nods his head slowly. "Yeah, I'll think about it. But you could also sit with us if you want. Me, Cygnus, Carlos, and sometimes Ne'veah. We're calling ourselves the Hybrids. You'd fit in with us since we don't, like, fit in with anyone else."
Scythe isn't trying to evade Andromeda, she guesses, because the metal-winged girl beelines to the large structure that houses the high-tech practice rooms. She lands on its roof and perches over the ledge, staring down at the service and repair crews working on the restoring the Rumpus Room from its earlier damage.
The panel vans are white and nondescript, but the crews have jumpsuits with a stylized "M" on them. Andromeda can see Scythe trembling as she stares at the repair crew.
What do you do?
Jessie gets more crestfallen, not being comforted by Gui's approach toward bullies. "Until you go to a school for kids with superpowers, and then even the bullies have powers."
She takes a bite of her sandwich and chews thoughtfully.
"When I was e kid, I was bullied e lot." He tells the girls. "I was alweys de smaller and skinnier in my classroom and, on top of dat, I have two dads. It was e Catolic school."
"It went on for e while and when my powers started to appear, it was even worse, because I could not control it. I was de skinny gay weirdo of de school."
"I was miserable and no one wanted anyting to do with me. I wanted to quit school, but my parents could not afford for me to be homeschooled or whatever. De teachers would not or could not help eider." He shrugs and then proceeds to eat his sandwich for a while.
"Den, during e winter break, I have spent some time with my aunt and we watched de whole Pirates of de Caribbean trilogy. I know you might call it e lie, but someting with Captain Jack Sparrow hit me. He was smart and if he did not like de rules, he would bend dem. When he could not do someting himself, he would trick oders into doing it for him. And he would not give up." In his hand, a compass appears and starts to spin, until it stops pointing at Sam. He looks at her, and raises his eyebrows in fake surprise, before shaking it and making it spin some more.
"I tried to do someting similar against my bullies, and it slowly worked, but hey, it was progress. Tinking about it now, I figure perhaps what really happened was dat I slowly stopped seeing myself as en easy target and became more secure of myself." The compass stops at Sam again before he closes it off and makes it disappear.
Andromeda lands on the roof near Scythe with a bit of a thud. She doesn't look at her before she starts to talk, just hoping she'll hear it if Scythe takes wing again.
"Hey. Sorry. I don't really know what I even want to say here. I'd sort of stopped wanting things for a long time. Each thing I wanted was just another handle, and they had a lot already. And then, when Gui... I didn't want the team to break me out or let me join; I didn't know I wanted that. I was a weapon, pulling ships out of the sky, but he saw some other part of me anyways, and I just... I realized how badly I didn't want to stay. I knew it wasn't safe to go; I knew that people might get hurt. I probably would have hurt more people if I'd stayed then they'll hurt because I left, but honestly, that wasn't what I was thinking about when I chose.
"I needed to be different. I needed it more than air. They won't get me back."
She risks a sideways look at the other weapon's face. "Your they won't get you back either."
Sam listens, cocks her head at the compass, blinks as she scans data in her mind, then her eyes widen just a fraction. For a moment, she does something odd for her, worrying her lower lip in her teeth. There is a flash of confusion, as the young woman has no ideas for the first time in her life, but it is clear she enjoys talking to Aquarelle, which is odd since conversation is archaic and slow.
Turning back to Jessie "I considered eliminating them all" those darks were before the readjustment, the darks of sobbing, screaming, hating. "But then I stopped caring so I stopped being 'fun' to them." her matrix says something making Sam's eyes narrow slightly, about what Jessie actually said "Is there someone we need to consider-" eliminating came to mind again but she changed it to "- correcting?" her threads pause and look almost eager.
Sam might not care anymore but she does not like bullies.
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Scythe's predatory eyes are so focused on the tech crew that Andromeda isn't initially sure that she heard her. The Bull's noisy landing had drawn some attention by the crews, who take wary glances at the two former experiments but continue their work.
Scythe stands up abruptly, her face hard as she looks at Andromeda. "We won't have to go back. They're here."
Jessie stares at the spinning compas and arches an eyebrow at Gui's mock surprise when it points to Sam. She looks back to her sandwich as he finishes his story. "Yeah, you seem secure in yourself," she agrees, looking at him out of the corner of her eye then turning to look at Sam.
Her question about bullies at Daedalus who might need "correcting" has Jessie frowning as she thinks. "Not... really. It's sort of a vibe. No one's bullied anyone that I've heard, in the 'shoving you into a locker' or 'stealing lunch money' way. But the more powerful you are, the cooler you are. It's, like, a law of nature."
When lunch is over, Jessie pulls Gui aside and out of Sam's conventional earshot. "Okay, I'm just going to say this. Sam's my friend, and I can tell that you're into her. She... probably won't pick up on the regular clues so you need to watch yourself. Don't. Hurt. Her." She looks serious. "Hold still." She reaches up to pluck a plump spider off Gui's shoulder.
Andromeda immediately accepts what Scythe told her. "I thought I might have to tear this place down. Should I start now, or is there more you want from Daedalus first?"
Scythe at first looks ready to throw down, but Andromeda's question makes her pause. "More I want?" she parrots, turning the concept over in her mind. The realization of the inevitable consequences of destroying Daedalus strikes her face. "Y-- yes."
She looks back over her shoulder at the stately buildings covered in ivy and the well-tended courtyards. "I want," she says, as if the concept of wanting for herself was still foreign, "I want... to go to school. For them to keep their promise."
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Chitin nods his head slowly. "Yeah, I'll think about it. But you could also sit with us if you want. Me, Cygnus, Carlos, and sometimes Ne'veah. We're calling ourselves the Hybrids. You'd fit in with us since we don't, like, fit in with anyone else."
"Well thinking about it is better than nothing, so I'll take it. I can come over and eat with you guys, not sure Ne'veah will like me so much. But I'll give it a shot. It's interesting to have a like group that has to go through the same like stuff ya know."
Was he into Sam? It was just some banter, but then he looks back at Sam. She is cute, in her own way.
"I like to tink she is my friend as well and I have no intencion of hurting her." He freezes a bit when she removes the spider from his shoulder. "But anywey, I tink neider me nor her are ready for anyting like dat. Not yet, at least."
He shrugs. "Sam is different, special in her own way. I do not know if she is even into dating, and even if she is, she might not be into me, or we might want different tings..." He looks back to Jessie. "To many unknowns, but I will take care, ok?"
Andromeda nods and looks forward again. "It's a good promise. Okay. You watch for their weaknesses; I'll watch for their strengths. Neither of us forget who they are."
Jessie's eyes bore into Gui intently. "Okay. I thought you were-- well, nevermind. Good. We'll, ah, see you around, then. Okay?"
Scythe nods once, as if she'd been given a mission. She drops from the roof of the rec center and lands hard in front of one of the repair crew startling him. Her wing blurs, her hand strikes like a snake and there's the sound of tearing cloth. The stylized "M" on his lapel is now in Scythe's hand and the tech is clutching his chest in a near panic.
She takes flight one more time, saying to Andromeda, "Come on," as she whizzes by. Scythe circles the campus twice before dropping like a stone out of the air, only pulling up in time to buzz the flagstone path to the boys' dorm. She skids to a halt at the double doors and shoulders them open.
Scythe heads straight to the common lounge where a handful of the male Daedalus students are busy with the available games like air hockey and Infini-station.
Valence is at a table set up with colorful hexagonal tiles and little game pieces. Scythe slaps the piece of fabric down in front of him, startling the other players. He doesn't seem as alarmed at the intrusion as he calmly looks at the letter. "Where'd you get that, Scythe?" he asks.
"From a work crew. A minute ago."
"And no blood on it. Surprising," he says as he turns it over. "Why are you interested in Manticorp?"
Scythe's hands clench into fists. "I remember them. From the island. They're here."
Valence shrugs. "So? What, do you think they're going to strap a helmet on you again? They did that so you wouldn't murder them." The other students at the table are frozen with various expressions of astonishment at the conversation.
The metal-winged girl slowly picks up the cloth and stares at it, trembling.
Andromeda, what do you do?
Chitin gives Indy the location of a small campsite and fire pit at the end of a short trail through the woods that adjoin the Daedalus campus, and the day and time of their next get-together.
If he chooses to attend, the Hybrids already have a fire going in the pit and most are seated on the benches arranged around the fire. Ne'veah, however, is lounging on a low branch of a sprawling oak tree on the edge of the campsite.
"Oh, good! You came!" Chitin exclaims to the group when Indy arrives. "There's raw steaks in the cooler, if you like that. Just give Carlos a warning because the thought of eating meat makes him sick."
Carlos gives Chitin a growl that's interrupted because it looks like he throws up a little in his mouth. Cygnus tries to stifle a giggle, though Ne'veah doesn't try to hide her laugh.
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Chitin gives Indy the location of a small campsite and fire pit at the end of a short trail through the woods that adjoin the Daedalus campus, and the day and time of their next get-together.
If he chooses to attend, the Hybrids already have a fire going in the pit and most are seated on the benches arranged around the fire. Ne'veah, however, is lounging on a low branch of a sprawling oak tree on the edge of the campsite.
"Oh, good! You came!" Chitin exclaims to the group when Indy arrives. "There's raw steaks in the cooler, if you like that. Just give Carlos a warning because the thought of eating meat makes him sick."
Carlos gives Chitin a growl that's interrupted because it looks like he throws up a little in his mouth. Cygnus tries to stifle a giggle, though Ne'veah doesn't try to hide her laugh.
Indy shows up still in his humanoid form, the subtle tension of a held breath ever present while he's like that. He laughs a little nervously at Carlos's reaction to the steaks. "Yeah glad I could make it, sorry for the weird introduction back when we did our tour." He runs a hand through his quills, "Tim's dad and I have uh.. bad history heh."
He takes a seat near the fire pit a very subtle mist seeming to burn off his exterior as he sits down. "This is a really nice place you've got set up it's really nice getting away from the cramped confines of Halcyon proper for a bit." Bouncing his leg and tail a bit nervously since he's never been good at new groups he ventures to ask those gathered about something unrelated to their powers. "So uh.. what classes are you all in, or studying? I know we mostly share the Hardknocks combat class. I'm trying to go for a medical degree as well."
Andromeda doesn't touch Scythe or offer any kind of physical support or restraint. Her eyes are locked on Valence instead. "That's how you think about organizations that muzzle people? You aren't handling this well or being smart. Also, you're being an a#+$*+&."
She pauses for a beat. "Scythe? He's not an asset, but he's not the target."
"What's going on here?"
Chroknight syncs up to the normal flow of time to look at Scythe, Valence and Andromeda. They tilt their helmeted head, see the stand off and decide to pitch in. Standing up with a tray that's stacked up with the maximum amount they can get away with carrying.
"So do you have a super high metabolism too? I'm always hungry. Why don't we all sit together and have a meal and see if that takes the edge off, hmm?" They suggest to Scythe.
Valence laughs dismissively at Andromeda's accusation. "I'm being an a#*~#~!? Because I'm not getting worked up about one of the world's biggest tech companies showing up, probably to repair the damage you caused?" He smirks as he lets that sink in.
Chroknight's interruption helps Scythe avoid whatever confrontation was about to happen, though she still grips the piece of cloth tightly in a trembling fist. She glares at the Janus for a moment, giving Chloe the unnerving sense that Scythe is seeing through her mask somehow.
The metal-winged girl steps back and looks at Andromeda, seemingly ready to leave with them to get a meal. "Nice to finally talk with you, Andromeda," Valence adds. "Next time, how about not coming at me with all those assumptions, huh?"
"So uh.. what classes are you all in, or studying? I know we mostly share the Hardknocks combat class. I'm trying to go for a medical degree as well."
Ne'veah laughs lightly. "'Dr. Dragon! Dr. Dragon to the ER, stat!'" she says into her cupped hand to mimic an intercom.
"That's not very supportive, Ne'veah," Cygnus says softly.
The girl in the tree scoffs. "It's still funny. Imagining a big ol' dragon stomping around a hospital?"
"We get enough of that from the normies. It shouldn't come from us." Chitin says. "Besides, the ADA was specifically expanded to include extreme or extraordinary physiologies. So we all can pursue traditional professions."
Ne'veah doesn't say anything else, but drops from her branch and selects a raw steak from the cooler while glaring at Chitin. She then springs back up into the branches which start to creak under added weight as she shifts into her larger panther form.
Carlos shudders as the giant panther begins to tear into the steak. Blocking his face from the nearby feasting, he turns to Indy. "So, uh, Indarius. You, ah, were teammates with Caio, right? Are we, like, cool?"
"...You know, a little empathy for someone clearly hurting goes a long way, dude," Chroknight points out to Valence, before guiding Andromeda and Scythe over to a free table to sit down. They blur briefly before Scythe has a tray of her own show up topped with all the fare available, plus some protein bars and a reusable water bottle.
"Got to hydrate and eat healthy. Ever since I got my powers I've been putting away like five thousand calories a day. Though I think that I don't age normally either because it's been waaaaay too long since I've needed a haircut. You need more calcium, Crater," They add, a pint carton of milk suddenly in front of the Bull. "Nutrition does a body good. And it's one of those things that you can usually control about yourself."
There's a series of odd clicks coming from Chroknight's helmet, each time punctuated by something on their tray vanishing. "I got nervous about removing the helmet to eat, but then realized that unless your vision is nearly omniscient then slowing time to chow before closing the helmet to talk works well enough."
They tug gently on their left ring finger. "I...was it okay to interfere like that? Sorry, I'm just not certain if I've bullied myself into something that wasn't any of my business. Just...you know, see someone get brushed off about her captors is crap I can't deal with at all."
It was nice to sit down with a fellow superhero with a similar face, even if she was probably not Korean. "I know it's hypocritical of me to ask anyone personal details, but do you know anyone else here in Halcyon? Friends or family?"
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Indy shirks a bit at the 'cat' calling and responds in what he thinks is good jest, "Uh.. well hopefully they don't assume my name is just dragon heh. I guess I'd be fine with people referring to me as The Dragon doctor, almost sounds like a bad T.V. series."
He lets Carlos have his attention, "Oh, uh yeah and I mean so long as you aren't trying to kill me or like do anything that I'd need to ya know stop then yeah we're cool. Um... let's see werewolf stuff right so were you in with like Lua? That entire situation is a bit of a blur." He clutches his hands remembering the night vaguely.
"Things were a lot back then. But so long as you're not doing villain stuff anymore I don't see why we can't go for a clean slate, if you want."
He looks around the group, "So, what professions would you all like to go into?"
Scythe is quiet but attentive as Chroknight offers a bit of health advice and how they use their powers to maintain anonymity. When she's asked about family, Scythe just shakes her head.
Carlos growls when Lua is brought up. "I came here with her from Brazil because I could speak English. Lua commanded me to take Caio's woman to get him to lose control over the wolf... but the pink-haired cadela changed me." He shudders under the weight of old pain and humiliation.
"I heard she is dead now, so I am stuck like this for all time."
Ne'veah doesn't stop until her meal is completely consumed, but everyone else gives the moment a bit of silence.
Eventually, they start answering Indy's question. "I had always wanted to be an engineer," Chitin says. "I was good at math, and I liked knowing how things worked."
Cygnus sighs. "I wanted to be an actress. Mainly stage, with a dabbling in movies." She frowns. "I could probably get something on Behind the Mask, but then I'd be typecast as just a hero freak and wouldn't be taken seriously as an artist."
Carlos doesn't add anything, and Ne'veah remains in the tree, even though she shifts back to her regular form.
Andromeda bristles at Chroknight's sudden intrusion, even within the purely visible spectrum, spikes and shards flicker and ripple the air.
She tries to leash them, tries to just follow the tin can's perfectly good advice and drink the stupid milk. But when she goes to take a sip the section of sheath she'd peeled back around her mouth snaps back, messily bisecting the carton.
Damnit.
The milk sizzles away where it stays in contact with her sheath for too long, but some of it soaks into her sweats and splatters around the table anyways.
She stands up with as much dignity as she can muster. "Tin can, if I find out you save scummed for this, I am taking it out of your hide. Scythe, I'm gonna change and maybe shower. Let me know if there's anything else I need to add to our lists."
Scythe frowns as Andromeda leaves. "What does save scum mean?"
After a bout of spring rains forced most of the students to spend their free time indoors, a bright and warm day has brought most of the student body outside to stretch figurative and literal wings. While some are content to lounge in the sun, others find more physical activities. A pickup game of basketball creates the rhythmic sound of dribbling punctuated by the sound of the ball hitting the backboard, while fliers soar overhead in their own aerial games. Still others take advantage of the warm weather to try out the campus' swimming pool.
The idyllic scene is interrupted by a flash of light as a glowing white circle appears in the air! A figure descends from the circle as if it were a portal, standing on a floating platform bristling with jagged spikes. The figure's flowing cape and sinister mask are unmistakable -- this is Shard, leader of the Chosen!
The white disk disappears as Shard floats above Daedalus, surveying the campus imperiously. Students gawk at the notorious champion of metahuman sovereignty but he takes no aggressive actions. Instead, he throws his arms wide once he has the attention of the vast majority of the students. "Greetings, my young Chosen!" he says in a resonant voice that commands attention. "I am so encouraged by seeing you all together, embracing your gifts, learning and growing so that you can take your rightful places as the leaders of humanity! You will all be the harbingers of a metahuman utopia, no longer servile, or the subjects of experiments by lesser beings, but the gifted being trained by the gifted to truly reach your real potential!"
You see the faces of the various students, their initial fear of attack turning into something else as he heaps praise on them and their possible futures.
What do you do??
Archie wipes some sweat from his forehead as he holds the basketball under his arm. He leans over to the closest person.
"Who the hell is this guy, and what's his major malfunction? Some sort of superhero Malcolm X wannabe?" he whispers.
"Wait, Andromeda - Dammit. Not what I wanted," The Janus admits as they watch the Bull take off. They look at Scythe, shrugging their shoulders.
"I didn't save scum. I mean, that's sort of...my time powers mean that I could rewind my personal time to get a do-over, is what that means. I've used it...very little." They shift uncomfortably.
"There's a built in limitation. Uh. Something I've tried to do. There's consequences. So I try to limit my powers to avoid that. Stay under the radar. You haven't seen a scary wraith lately, have you?" They ask Scythe.
Chroknight finds themself moving without really thinking about it. It took only a few moments before they understood what was happening here. They built up more than enough momentum to leap high enough to reach Shard up in the air.
"No." Chroknight states simply as they drop kick the super villain in the face.
Trap or test? The real Shard wouldn't take a risk like this just to give a speech, right?
Her implants didn't give her enhanced vision; they didn't let her see anything she couldn't already see, but what she saw, she noticed, and what she noticed she could run against a list of memoranda and plans from the D.O.N.E.
She would see what didn't fit.
Sam knows the success of any battle requires properly accessing the situation. Plan then react. Especially against someone of the Shard's power.
She sits on her bench, legs still folded under her, typing away on her tablet, a second after he appears. Wasting that second annoys her, but shock has still a hard thing to edit out.
Collecting all known recordings, data on attacks, and speeches, feeding them into algorithms to predict next actions and verify them being real
She is lightning quick, but still feels safe in that no one would---! A temporal crack (heard only in the new sensors she's been designing) makes her look up to see 'THEM' attacking!
Sam's stomach had a quick bubble, as her mouth dropped, then tore her gaze back down, HOPING her analysis shows it is NOT the real Shard.
The unexpected presence of the notorious supervillain has some in near disbelief. However, Chroknight simply acts.
The temporal warrior launches at Shard after accelerating themself through their chrono-power. Chroknight moves in a blur, picking up speed and leaping high in the sky to engage the leader of the Chosen on his floating platform. But as they reach him, a jagged spike lances out and impales them through the stomach!
Time stutters, and they try again from a different angle but this time the spike catches them in the chest! Another time, and another, and each time Shard is ready with one of his signature jagged spears to impale them!
Fully exhausted from the repeated attacks, Chroknight ends their assault with a successful kick to Shard's face, but with a lance jabbed through their shoulder causing them to dangle helplessly before the villain!
"I come to welcome you all into my fold and this is how I'm greeted?" he hisses. "And by one who hides their face from their brethren?" Another spike lances straight upwards, catching Chroknight's mask and ripping it off their face as he lashes out at any vulnerability. Shard leans in, pulling off his own cowl to look Chroknight in the face. His chiseled, rugged face is contorted in an ferocious sneer as he studies every faced of Chroknight's face!
From the ground below, the students don't get a good look at Chroknight's face, but it's quite clear that no one but Shard and his deadly powers could have withstood an attack like that! Andromeda decides that just the observation is confirmation enough, and that he is no doubt the most dangerous threat in the area! Statian's algorithms also conclude that this is the genuine Shard, and her information tells her that regular humans are in the most danger since he callously believes they have no worth!
"Let 'em go!" a youthful but forceful voice shouts as Johnny flies up to Shard's level!
"An example must be made!" Shard retorts while still keeping Chroknight dangling from one of his lances. "We are all one family, but insolent children still must be punished! I will not kill this one, but lessons must be learned." The ground everywhere ripples under Shard's power and small spikes start to form, getting ready to become large and deadly!
What do you do??
A thread taps Sam's ear where she keeps her team's coms in. "
Andromeda, I've analyzed his shard patterns, factoring in environmental conditions and entropic decay with and without quantum dissonance..."
"... there is a twenty seven point two three eight percent chance if you follow this evasion model, you can get Chroknight away from him before they provoke him into something much worse."
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Chloe is scared. Not of Shard, but of the situation he's put her in tearing through Chroknight's faceplate. If Andromeda or anyone else sees her face...she has to get out of this. His reaction times were insane to be able to still catch her up in the air like this. She steadies her breath and glares at Shard.
"Make love, not war." She grunts out before doing something crazy. Grabbing him by the cloak, and pulling him in to plant a kiss on his lips. She was hoping the outrageousness of the act would provoke him to drop Chroknight.
Gui raises his eyebrows. "Very determined, uh? And torough" His last words might have seen odd, at least until he points out. "Is dat e mask beneath de helmet?"
Yes, there was, a plain white mask covering Chroknight's momentarily exposed face.
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"S%~# man so even you were just under her control." He shakes his head, "If I'd have known... sorry for what happened back then man, Lua was pretty Eff'd up. I was just too late stripping her of her powers.."
After the awkward silence, with no clapping, when everyone starts to answer the what they want to do question Indy nods. "I think we can all still pursue what we want. We can't let what we look like dictate what people think about us. Our transformations our differences, they make us all great in our own unique way that noone can copy and I think we should be proud of that."
Indarius had been playing a game with some of the other fliers when Shard appeared. He banked in a slow large circle around the supervillain for a good while trying to figure out why the showboating bastard was here. I mean he wasn't causing any harm obviously. Then Chroknight had launched themselves up into the air at Shard and got impaled.
"Chro!"
His heart begins to beat faster as he beats wing towards Chroknight and Shard. The urge to defend Chroknight and the school, people who shunned him yes, but also a scant few who actually accepted him as he was pushing him to act. The fire within like when he finally accepted his lineage and stood against Drake to defend the rest of First Class boiling up in him. His quills rattled, his wings ached, he had to defend them, to be the bigger threat, to defend his place in the world.
Indarius wizzed past Johnny who seemed to stop a safe distance away, a trail of icy mist flowing in his wake as he yelled out against Shard to draw his attention and in doing so let loose a freezing breath of icicle filled death. The roiling mist cover soon expanding as Indarius reveled in his true magnificence, not the humanoid form he kept around the school, not the reduced form he used to navigate the school on the first day, but all of Indarius. The eleven foot tall, twenty seven foot long, flying sepent covered in glittering silver scales bolstered by arcane wards that would shrug off large arms fire. All charging through the air towards Shard with an unforgettable terrifying aura permeating the space between and around
"Let Go of My Friend!"
Digits watches Chroknight's gambit, grinning. Keep him on his toes. I like it!
Digits fiddles with their portal gun and–if it looks like Chroknight could use it–remodulates it in a way that they hope will destabilize Shard's portal (at least for a moment), distracting him.
A small shiver of delight flows through Andromeda's veins as Shard hits a steady unblinking red.
It's not like you weren't curious to see what he was like...
A column of force tears out of the ground in front of her, almost involuntarily called forth by the song of her rewired instincts. She doesn't bother trying to actually grab the tin can, just shatter the spike holding them and get them some distance from Shard.
"Everyone in advanced combat or lower get as far away as you can!"
The earth around her trembles and cracks. She drives supporting tendrils deep into the earth around her as it trembles and cracks, readying to resist whatever storm Shard throws at her, and bracing herself for her next towering blast!
Archie stands there watching these strange events unfurl. He watches intently, after seeing the mystery man's powers he finds Shard in his memory and remembers who he is and what he does. Then Chroknight just attacks him.
Archie thinks that was odd, he didn't see any point of attacking the guy who wasn't technically threatening anyone, but he can see her motivation and understands it, but it's ironic nonetheless that the person with endless time was a little too hasty.
"Everyone in advanced combat or lower get as far away as you can!"
Who's she to give orders, Archie thinks to himself. Archie slowly backpedals away from the battle, as Andromeda destroys the massive column of spikes he crafts a metal umbrella to protect himself from raining shards. He claps his hands together and a dupe steps out behind him and holds the umbrella for him.
"Always nice to have a backup option. I wonder if he's invulnerable to 300 Blackout supersonic rounds." He mumbles to himself.Archie carefully crafts four SIG 550 Sniper Rifles and then three more dupes, they all arm up . Him and his dupes check the rounds, then as stealthily as can be, they walk backwards as far as possible until he reaches a spot far from Shards line of sight, him and his firing squad check their scopes and trains it on Shard. And then they wait.
Chroknight's unexpected planting of a kiss directly on Shard's lips produce the intended effect -- the supervillain is caught off guard as he quickly pulls away!
Aquarelle's quick thinking throws an illusion over Chloe's face in time to protect her secret identity, just as Indarius roars in full draconic fury! The dragon descends on Shard, who throws up a barrage of spikes in response to Indy's savagery! Screams erupt from below as students flee in every direction away from the monster!
The true power of the leader of the Chosen goes on display as the landscape suddenly comes alive with deadly spikes! Indarius feels a hail of spears assault his wards, breaking through and slamming hard against his scales. Thoughts of Smaug and his fate invade Indy's mind just as a massive lance is thrown towards him! It's intercepted by Johnny, who catches it fully in his chest as he's driven hard against Indy's bulk!
Andromeda gets a course from Statian to go rescue Chroknight, and she blasts off! Her telekinesis wrecks the ground around her, which is unfortunately covering the campus' water main! Water sprays everywhere and turns the already-churned ground into mud almost instantly. Chroknight is easily knocked free!
Shard is swift, however, deftly evading the worst of Andromeda's attack. His shattered platform reforms underneath him and he zips away from the battered dragon and follows Andromeda's trajectory. The jagged spikes fly after Andromeda and form a crisscross lattice that ensnares her, freezing her in place, and additional spears anchor Indarius! "Are you quite finished?!?!" he shouts in outrage. "Look at the destruction you have wrought! This is your school!!" He makes a sweeping gesture at the campus, its green and immaculate lawn now a crater thanks to Andromeda's takeoff and its hedges flash-frozen from Indarius's breath, as he undermines others' beliefs.
Shard's ferrokinesis presses the spikes against Andromeda's sheath, forcing her into a rigid pose. He grabs her by the nape of her neck and hisses into her ear. "You've quite the talent for destruction, don't you? I have it as well. There's little I can do except tear down and destroy. You see? That's why I'm driven to empower others to make this world better. And to ignore the petty rules that the insects have put in place. What about you? Do you want to do more than destroy?"
Phalanx readies some long-range solutions to the Shard problem as he finds himself a sniper's post and arms himself and his dupes. From his vantage point, he sees that Johnny is limp, still impaled on one of Shard's spikes!
What do you do??