Crystal Hall, Monday late morning, Dec 17th, 2007

“Finals SUCK,” Melissa complained, flopping her head down until her hair nearly landed in her lunch plate. She caught herself at the last moment and went intangible, just long enough to continue dropping her head without ruining her hair or food. “They really suck.”

“Tell us how you really feel?” Amy suggested, barely even looking up from her own lunch, which she continued to eat.

“At least it isn’t zombies,” Sapphire pointed out with an amused smile.

Melissa groaned. “I’d rather be facing zombies than a math test… Math…”

“Sucks,” Alyss finished for her blonde friend. “I think that’s established.”

Amy smiled in amusement while the others chuckled. She looked up, then spotted the three remaining members of their group coming towards them, each holding their own food tray.

“Hey,” Chris announced as he took a seat. “Did we miss anything?”

“I think that depends on what you aimed for,” Monkeywrench added as he took his own seat beside Chris. “Personally, I always aim to be the best.”

Darqueheart snorted as she joined them as well. “You mean the most annoying.”

Sapphire gestured to the blonde girl, who was still complaining under her breath. “Melissa was just complaining about finals.”

“So,” Chris asked as he glanced around the table. “Does anyone have anything interesting planned for the week?”

“You mean, other than finals and making plans for Christmas?” Amy asked. She shook her head. “Nope.”

“I think finals are enough,” Darqueheart added.

“And I think they’re way too much,” Melissa chimed in. “They’re cruel and unusual punishment.”

Monkeywrench held up his hand, as though waiting to be called on in class. “I’m working on a few things in the labs… After my combat final, I figured I could use more stuff.”

Alyss looked up and offered, “I’m putting the final touches on my project car. It should be ready to debut tomorrow.”

“Cool,” Chris responded, giving her a curious look. “I want to see what you made.”

“Good,” she responded with a chuckle. “Because I want to show it off.” Then she shrugged. “Whateley has the best garage facilities I’ve ever seen. Normally, it would probably take a few more months to finish.”

Monkeywrench nodded his own agreement. “When you’ve got a bunch of devisors and gadgeteers, you’d have to have the best stuff. If you didn’t, we’d just end up making our own anyway.”

Darqueheart looked up and then paused, her eyes looking past Melissa at someone who was coming up behind them. Her expression made Amy follow her gaze to the rapidly approaching teacher.

“Miss Imp,” Amy greeted the art teacher.

“Hey,” the Imp responded in a cheerful tone.

“Hey,” Melissa exclaimed, immediately brightening up. “What’s up? And what is that you’re wearing?” She pointed to the floppy maroon hat that the teacher was wearing.

“This old thing?” the Imp responded, reaching up to touch the cloth headwear. She had a mischievous look in her eye as she answered, “It’s a raspberry beret.”

Alyss immediately perked up at that, looking like she was barely holding back a laugh. “The kind you find in a secondhand store?”

The Imp grinned at that. “Indeed. Exactly that kind.”

Alyss gave a knowing nod, adding, “I thought I saw you come in through the out door.”

This time, the Imp laughed in delight. Then she told Alyss, “You have great taste in music.”

“And you have great taste in headwear,” Alyss responded with a chuckle of her own.

Amy looked around the table at her friends, then back at the teacher. “Can we help you with something?”

Melissa gasped. “I bet you have a secret mission for us…”:

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Darqueheart started to respond.

However, the Imp was already nodding. “Oh yes. Something like that.”

This immediately got everyone’s attention. “What do you mean?” Amy asked, giving her a suspicious look.

Chris looked even more suspicious. “I bet she wants to do a snack run for her.”

“Not a bad idea,” the Imp responded with a thoughtful look. “Not a bad idea at all…”

“But that isn’t why you came over to us,” Amy thought aloud. “Is it?”

“Nope,” the teacher agreed, her expression turning a little more serious, though not by much. “Actually, I’d reserved some time in the arena for a bit of training, when it dawned on me that you kids could probably use some extra practice yourselves. So, I thought, if you were interested, you could take my slot. I’ve already got a mission designed and everything.”

“That sounds awesome,” Melissa exclaimed, looking like she was about to jump to her feet and start dancing. Then she paused and gave the Imp a suspicious look. “It’s not zombies, is it? I’ve had enough of zombies.”

“We all have,” Chris agreed while everyone else nodded in agreement.

“That sounds great?” Alyss said. “But why give it to us?”

“She has a good point,” Darqueheart added.

The Imp hesitated a moment, her eyes darting to Melissa and Chris before she answered. “Honestly, Shenanigans is officially categorized as a group of trouble magnets. You all have a tendency to get into a bit more trouble off campus than the average student and need more preparation in how to get out of it. That’s one of the reasons you’ve been accepted into Team Tactics early.”

Melissa gave her an offended look and quickly protested, “But I’m not a trouble magnet…”

The Imp gave her a flat look, then held up a single finger. “You went out searching for a known supervillain, as awesome and amazing as she is. You framed her for a crime, tagged her logo all over town, and eventually even started to hang out with her.”

“But that’s different,” Melissa grumbled.

“That definitely sounds like Melissa,” Sapphire agreed.

The Imp held up a second finger and continued. “You were kidnapped by Jack Ass…and Pair of Dimes…and what was the name of that one lady? Oh yeah, Remedy. And lets not forget about the Redcoat or Triangle incidents…”

“Oops,” Melissa squeaked out, looking chagrinned.

“I didn’t realize you’ve been kidnapped so much,” Sapphire offered.

“I guess that Triangle thing could mark us as trouble magnets,” Amy reluctantly agreed.

“Speak for yourself,” Monkeywrench said with a grin. “I prefer to think of myself as a CHICK magnet…”

The Imp gave him an amused look, then asked, “Shall we talk about the Captain Kazoo incident, from before you came to Whateley?”

Monkeywrench looked horrified for a moment, his eyes darting back and forth between his friends. “Ixnay on that, please…”

“Now THIS, I have to hear,” Darqueheart said, giving Monkeywrech a curious look. He winced at the way the others were all looking at him.

“Same here,” Alyss added with a smirk. “Captain Kazoo?”

“Nothing to worry about,” Monkeywrench quickly assured them. “Just a minor misunderstanding.”

“Anyway,” the Imp said, taking mercy on Monkeywrench. “I thought that you lot could use a little extra practice, which is why I’m offering you my slot in the arena. It’s Wednesday afternoon, after classes.”

Alyss nodded thoughtfully. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re in.”

“It is a good opportunity,” Amy agreed. “And it might give us a little head start for that kind of thing in Team Tactics.”

“Good,” the Imp responded with an evil grin and a swish of her tail. “Then I’ll see you all Wednesday.”

Once the teacher was gone, Darqueheart cautiously asked, “Am I the only one who thinks we might have just made a big mistake?

Monday late afternoon, Dec 17th, 2007

Traci Hoffman paused at the door to the room, straightening up and making sure to clear any emotions off her face before she stepped inside. Her group of ‘friends’ were already present and waiting for her.

“About time, Starbright,” Gravmax said.

Drama nodded. “We were just waiting on you.”

“I was unavoidably delayed,” Traci said as she took a seat and looked around at the others.

Gravmax was in a sour mood, which was no surprise considering his showing during the combat finals the previous week. He’d been completely and totally humiliated by Porcelain of all people, someone who had been considered a campus joke until then. Everyone had been mocking Gravmax since then, and it would be a long time before he lived that down.

Iron sat beside Gravmax, and he was also in a bad mood due to his combat final. Like Gravmax, he’d lost against someone he’d been expected to defeat, though his embarrassment was still far less.

Off to the side, Drama shared the same bad mood as the other two, even though she’d won her own match. Her problem was that Porcelain, the crippled GSD girl who’d humiliated Gravmax so bad…was her roommate. Drama didn’t get along with the girl at all, and then to find that the girl was not just a freak, but a dangerous one…”

Traci shuddered, sharing Drama’s concern over that revelation. After all, she herself had picked on Porcelain a time or two. It had just been a little harmless teasing, but that freak…that SCARY freak…might not see it that way.

In the middle of the room was Exquisite, the beautiful, haughty, and currently unhappy leader of their little group. She didn’t say a word at first, though her gaze locked on Traci, the annoyance at her being late clearly visible.

Traci gulped, hoping that Exquisite didn’t try to punish her for her tardiness. The other girl was a bit of a sadist, with a pain inducing power to match, and she was always looking for an excuse to hurt someone.

And then there was Kraken, the large and muscular boy who was the only person in the room to be in a good mood. He was playing some game on his phone, seemingly unaware of the general mood around him. Then again, he was also a masochist and enjoyed being the target of Exquisite’s attacks. His current happiness just might be because she’d taken her anger out on him.

Together, their little group was called Denouement, which was a French word that meant the final resolution of a plot, or the place in a story where everything finally came together. It had been Exquisite’s idea, which made sense because it was completely pretentious...just like the girl herself.

“Your recent failures have embarrassed us,” Exquisite stated, glaring at Iron and especially at Gravmax. Her voice dripped with scorn. “You’ve hurt our reputation as a group and made ALL of us look bad.”

“I didn’t know the doll girl could do THAT,” Gravmax protested. “Nobody did.”

Iron nodded agreement, then added, “And Aegis is a lot tougher than you’d think. He’s better at fighting than he used to be. A lot better.”

“You know,” Traci pointed out cautiously. “I heard that he’s been getting private lessons from one of the teachers.”

“Irrelevant,” Exquisite spat out. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. What’s important is that you’ve set back our goal of respect and supremacy in this school.”

Everyone was silent for several seconds before Drama suggested, “We need to do something about that… Something to make up for these recent…setbacks.”

Exquisite smiled, though it was not a friendly smile. “That is precisely what I had in mind…”

Kraken looked up and asked, “You want me to beat down that Porcelain girl?”

Gravmax straightened up at that and he grinned. “Yes. She needs to pay.”

“Indeed, she does,” Exquisite agreed. “But not quite yet. She will be one of our next targets though, but for now, we need to take care of our unfinished business.”

“Shenanigans,” Traci stated while several of the others nodded.

“One of them beat Iron,” Gravmax said. “And as a group, they keep getting in our way.” Still, from his scowl, it was clear that he would have preferred that they focus on avenging his combat final loss instead.

“We’ve already hit them a couple times,” Traci reminded them. “What do you have in mind this time?”

Exquisite’s smile darkened even further, silently promising pain and suffering. “This time,” she explained in a deceptively calm tone, “we break the group entirely. We target their weak spot and tear their group apart.”

“Their weak spot,” Drama mused aloud. “You mean, that monkey boy freak?”

Gravmax snorted as he added, “What kind of idiot throws bananas?”

“The furry one is their weakest fighter,” Exquisite continued with a smirk. “But I was considering an even deeper weakness… Roulette.”

“Roulette?” Iron asked with a frown. “She’s got a LOT of tricks up her sleeve.”

“Not easy to take down at all,” Gravmax reluctantly admitted. “I mean, you never know what the hell she’s going to pull out.”

“And I think that is the point of her name,” Iron added with a nod.

Traci hesitated a moment, then pointed out, “But she’s also got that burnout thing.”

Exquisite laughed, though it was a cold and cruel laugh. “Exactly. As we’ve seen, all it takes is enough stress…and she goes into a burnout. I myself have proven that I can trigger her with a good burst of my power…” She held up a hand and sparks shot between her fingers. “I’m certain that I can trigger one of her burnouts at a time and place that suits us.”

“And what good would that do?” Iron asked. “We already know we can take them down one at a time.”

“But this time,” Exquisite explained patiently, as though talking to children, “we take them down permanently. All it takes is one burnout, in say, a flooded tunnel…” She gave Kraken a knowing look. “And her own medical issues will do the rest.”

“Wait,” Drama gasped, her eyes going wide. “You’re talking about drowning her?”

“With one of their own dead,” Exquisite continued to explain, sounding quite proud of herself, “especially the one who seems to be their leader…the rest of the group is sure to disband.”

Gravmax stared at Exquisite, adding, “Or at least be too distracted to get in our way.”

Exquisite didn’t say a word to that. Instead, she just sat there with a cruel smirk on her face, one that sent chills down Traci’s spine.

Crystal Hall, Monday evening, Dec 17th, 2007

Chris Matthews looked down at his now empty plate, having already finished his dinner. Then he looked around the table at his friends, being careful not to let his eyes linger too long on Darqueheart.

“I still don’t get why the Imp is paying so much attention to us,” Amy said. “Teachers don’t normally set random groups of students up for special training sessions.”

“It’s because we’re that awesome,” Melissa answered with a grin.

Darqueheart laughed at that. “I think that it has more to do with the fact that she’s already been giving you and Chris some special lessons.” She looked at Chris, who blushed but tried not to show it.

“That is true,” Sapphire agreed with a nod. “And she likes you and Monkeywrench too.”

Chris nodded at that. “Well, whatever her reason, I’m happy for the chance to train in the arena before we have to do that Team Tactics thing next month.”

“The extra practice will be good,” Alyss said. Then she looked at Amy and asked, “But are you sure you’re up for it? I mean, you just got out of the hospital the other day.”

Amy shrugged and finished the last bite of her dinner before answering. “I’m fine. You know, I always recover pretty fast from these burnouts.”

“Until the next one,” Sapphire stated, giving the purple-haired girl a look of concern.

“Hey,” Melissa abruptly asked. “Does anyone have any interesting plans for Christmas?”

Everyone looked around, shrugging as they did so. “Just spending time with the family,” Chris answered.

“Same,” Alyss responded.

Melissa nodded, practically bouncing in her seat. “I’m gonna spend Christmas with my dad, and my aunt, and…my dad’s new girlfriend.” She suddenly looked a little evasive.

“Yeah,” Amy added, suddenly looking a bit self-conscious. “Spending time with…my mom.”

Darqueheart suddenly looked at her with an almost predatory expression. “You’re looking kind of evasive there… I bet you have a boyfriend back home…”

Alyss snorted while Amy looked a little more awkward. After a moment, Amy admitted, “Girlfriend, actually.”

Chris blinked. “Really?”

Amy nodded, giving a defiant look. “Is that a problem?”

“Not at all,” Chris quickly assured her.

“Nope,” Monkeywrench added.

Melissa’s eyes widened and she leaned forward, demanding, “What’s her name?”

“Kara,” Amy answered self-consciously. “The whole long distance relationship is a bit hard, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her again.”

Meissa looked like she was about to ask more, but Alyss interjected, “I don’t think this is the place to talk about Amy’s personal life.” She gestured around the room. “A bit too many ears for that kind of private discussion.”

“Good point,” Chris agreed. “Anyone else have plans?”

“Pretty much the same as everyone else,” Monkeywrench said with a shrug. “Just going home to see the family.”

Darqueheart scowled and stared down at her empty plate. “I’ll be staying here.” When everyone looked at her, she became defensive. “I don’t have a home to go back to.”

Everyone was silent for a moment as they all knew that Darqueheart’s family situation was a sore subject. Chris winced, wishing that they’d remembered that sooner.

“If you want,” Sapphire offered. “You can come stay with my family.”

“What?” Darqueheart asked in surprise.

Sapphire shrugged. “One of my neighbors back at Home is a teleporter, and was going to bring me back for vacation. She won’t mind bringing one more, and I’m sure my mom would be happy to have you…”

“But…?” Darqueheart started, awkwardly gesturing down at herself. “I might scare…”

That just made Sapphire giggle. “My mother is a very large snake woman,” she reminded Darqueheart. “And all my sisters are snake girls…” She paused, gesturing down at herself and wryly admitting, “Honestly, you look like you’d fit in back Home a lot more than I do anymore. I think you would like Home.”

Darqueheart just stared at her for several seconds before quietly asking, “Are you sure?”

Sapphire nodded. “Absolutely.”

Chris smiled, seeing how touched Darqueheart was at the offer. She looked like she actually had tears forming in her eyes, which was something that he had never seen from her before. Then he stared back down at his plate, happy for Darqueheart, yet disappointed that what he’d had in mind would have to wait a little longer.

Tuesday late morning, Dec 18th, 2007

A deep rumbling sound filled the air though Chris Matthews couldn’t see the source. At least not yet, though he knew that was soon to come.

Chris stood just outside the door of a large garage where students could work on their project cars. At the moment, the garage doors were still closed.

“What kind of car do you think Alyss has?” Melissa asked curiously.

“No idea,” Chris responded with a shrug.

Monkeywrench chuckled. “I just have a hard time imagining her with any car. I mean, her feet won’t even reach the pedals.”

Amy chuckled beside them. “You know, there are ways to adjust for that…especially here at Whateley.”

“Good point,” Monkeywrench agreed.

Alyss had told them that she had finally finished her project car and that she wanted to show it off. She even asked them all to come to the unveiling, and all of Shenanigans had made it, except for Sapphire. Unfortunately, Sapphire had been caught up with something for one of her classes.

Chris looked at Darqueheart, who remained silent, though she continued watching the garage door, waiting for it to open. He quickly looked away, before she noticed him staring at her. Instead, he glanced around to see who else was ready for this unveiling.

There were a couple other students present, mostly from Poe. Breakdown, Kayda, and Alyss’ roommate Knockoff all stood together, talking amongst themselves. At the time, Mr. Donnor, the vehicle shop teacher, stood off to the side with a look of anticipation at the upcoming revelation.

“You know,” Melissa said impatiently. “If this takes much longer, I’m gonna go over and take a sneak peek.”

“We are missing our lunch for this,” Monkeywrench added, glancing at his wrist as though checking a watch.

Amy just smiled patiently. “And knowing Alyss, it will be worth it.”

Just then, the garage doors opened up and the deep rumbling noise grew even louder. That was followed by Alyss slowly driving out the entrance in her new car.

The main body of the car was an old school Volkswagen Beetle, painted black but with a symbol on the door, which looked like a ‘cute’ skull with a purple bow. This resembled one of the hair clips that Alyss sometimes wore and was something that Chris thought of as her logo.

And while the top of the car looked like a fairly normal Beetle, the bottom half looked anything but. Alyss had turned the Beetle into something of a monster truck with tires that were each around four feet tall.

The engine rumbled loudly as Alyss hit the gas and rolled out. She waved at them from the window, looking quite proud of herself. She looked like she was having a blast. In fact, Chris didn’t think that he’d ever seen her quite that happy.

“Awesome,” Chris said with a nod of approval. “Well worth the wait.”

“Think she’ll give us a ride?” Monkeywrench asked eagerly.

Chris snorted. “Forget a ride. I want to drive it.”

Alyss drove around the parking lot a few times before finally stopping and hopping out of the car. She was grinning from ear to ear.

“I love the garage at this school,” Alyss exclaimed. “They’ve got tools and resources that any mechanic would kill for. Outside Whateley, it would have taken a lot longer to finish this thing.”

Alyss proudly showed off her new car, eagerly explaining what she’d done to it. Chris zoned out a little at that point since cars and engines weren’t really his thing. He noticed that the more technical Alyss got, the more everyone else tuned out as well.

Chris took a deep breath, then stepped up beside Darqueheart. “Um… I have a question…”

Darqueheart gave him a curious look, one that was just a little suspicious. “If this is about the specks of glitter in my hair…blame Trixie.”

“No,” Chris responded with a quick shake of his head. He looked at the others, noticing that they were all distracted by Alyss’ car and other things, so he took another deep breath and quickly blurted out, “Will you go out to dinner with me?”

“What?” Darqueheart asked, staring at Chris in surprise and even a bit of disbelief.

“Would you have dinner with me tonight?” he asked more slowly, sure that his heart had never raced that fast. Then for clarification, he added, “And I don’t mean in the cafeteria…”

Darqueheart’s eyes widened. “Are you…? Are you asking me on a date?” She didn’t look like she quite believed it.

Chris nodded and gulped. “Yeah.”

Her eyes narrowed and she gave him a suspicious look. “You’re not messing with me?”

“No,” he told her, trying to look as serious and sincere as he could. Chris knew that Darqueheart had issues because of her appearance, so he didn’t take her reaction personally. “I am completely serious. I am asking you on a date.”

Chris stood motionless, terrified of what she might say next. Either a yes or a no would ruin his nerves, though for completely different reasons.

After several long seconds, Darqueheart nodded and gave him an odd look. He suspected that if her skin hadn’t been pure black, he would have seen a blush. “Sure,” she finally answered, her voice shaking just a little before she quickly added, “But if you’re messing with me, you’ll regret it.”

Crystal Hall, Tuesday late afternoon, Dec 18th, 2007

Traci Hoffman glanced at Drama and Iron, who were the only other people sitting at the Denouement table for dinner. She opened her mouth to say something, then immediately changed her mind and closed it.

Ever since Exquisite had told them about her plan to get rid of that annoying Shenanigans group, Traci had been thinking about it. She’d been thinking a lot about exactly HOW Exquisite wanted to do that, and those hadn’t been pleasant thoughts. In fact, they left her with such a sour stomach that she’d barely eaten any of her dinner.

At that moment, Traci wondered if she’d made a mistake by joining up with Exquisite and the others. When they’d first come together, their alliance had seemed like a great idea. They all wanted the same thing…to be popular and influential in the school, and that would require allies and a plan. Exquisite had offered both. But now…

Traci had always known that there were three pillars which would guarantee a great life. Beauty, popularity, and wealth. That was simply how the world worked. If you had beauty, you could get popularity, and if you had both of those, then it was easy to acquire the wealth.

As an exemplar, Traci had the beauty part well in hand. The popularity, however, was more challenging than she ever would have thought. It had been easy to become popular in her old school, but Whateley was different. Now she had to start over…as a Freshman…and without any of her old connections. And to make it worse, there were a LOT of other exemplars at that school, ones who were even more attractive than she was, and were more competition than she could deal with by herself, hence her need for allies.

Traci scowled, thinking about her goals and wondering if this price was worth it. If she did this… If she crossed this line, there would be no turning back.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that Exquisite was on a dark path, and she was leading the rest of them down it as well. This was a path that could lead to greatness, to achieving everything she’d ever wanted. And all it would cost was getting her hands dirty in a way that she never would have considered.

Of course, Traci could say ‘no’ to Exquisite…in theory. In reality though, that was a lot more difficult. After all, she was part of the group and if she went against them now… Well, not only would she lose all of her allies, but there would undoubtedly be other consequences as well.

And that wasn’t even taking into account, the fact that Exquisite was downright scary. That girl was…intense. There was a reason that everyone else in Denouement was afraid of her, whether they’d admit it or not. Well, maybe not Kraken, but he actually liked pain.

“Are you both okay with this?” Traci quietly asked, glancing around to make sure nobody was close enough to easily eavesdrop. “I mean, with the plan?”

Iron merely grunted and looked at her, his expression unreadable. After a second, he looked back down at his dinner, not saying a word. Silence was unusual for the boy, so it spoke more than any words could. However, Traci couldn’t quite tell exactly what that silence was saying.

“Of course,” Drama answered in a dismissive tone.

Traci looked at Drama, careful to hide her contempt. Drama was a mousy looking brunette, who looked just like some of the girls Traci used to tease and even bully back in her old school, yet she always acted like she was queen of the school. That was the reason so many of the students mockingly called her Drama Queen.

“It’s smart,” Drama said with a smirk. “And we’ll finally get those losers out of our way.”

Those words were just a little more aggressive than Traci would normally expect of the other girl. Traci suspected that a large part of this was Drama doubling down in order to compensate for how worried she was about her roommate.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Drama assured her.

Traci found herself nodding in agreement as her worries faded away. Drama was right. There wasn’t anything to worry about. Exquisite was smart and ambitious, and she knew what she was doing. All Traci had to do was follow her lead and she’d get what she wanted.

It wasn’t until several hours later, while she was laying in bed and drifting off to sleep, when her worries returned along with the realization that she’d been the victim of Drama’s power.

Tuesday late afternoon, Dec 18th, 2007

“About time,” Jon exclaimed proudly. “You finally got a girlfriend.”

“She isn’t my girlfriend…yet,” Chris responded with an exasperated sigh. “We’re just going on one date.”

Chris Matthews looked at his friend Jon, better known by some around the school by his codename of Voodude. Jon was smirking, looking quite pleased by the situation.

“Well,” Jon said, “It’s about time you finally got a date then.” Then he leaned forward and asked, “Hey, do you think you could set me up with Monkeywrench? I be his fur would be really soft to pet.”

“I don’t think Monkeywrench swings that way,” Chris responded with a roll of his eyes. “Besides, I think he has a thing for Sapphire.”

Jon merely nodded at that. “She’s hot too. Do you think they’d be interested in a threesome?”

Chris chuckled at that and shook his head. “I don’t know how you can be so interested in damn near everyone. It’s got to be exhausting.”

His friend smirked in response. “You’re just jealous since I never hit on you.”

There was a moment of hesitation before Chris awkwardly admitted, “Well, I’m not sure whether I should be relieved at that or insulted.”

“Definitely insulted,” Jon assured him with a grin. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on.”

With another shake of his head, Chris just looked at his friend and wondered about him. The two of them were almost exact opposites, so it sometimes confused him about how they had become friends at all. Still, he was glad that they were.

Jon was an odd one, openly flirting with and even hitting on nearly everyone on campus, regardless of gender or GSD severity. In spite of that, Chris suspected a part of that was just for show since there was no way that Jon was as experienced as he claimed. In fact, Chris suspected that Jon had a lot more experience with fantasies and wishful thinking than with the real thing.

“You know,” Jon told him with a slightly more serious expression. “You do have some interesting friends.”

“You can say that again,” Chris replied, giving Jon a flat look. When Jon didn’t say anything more, he added, “They’re all crazy.” Then he chuckled. “Well, maybe not Amy. She’s pretty normal.”

Jon burst out laughing at that. “Dude, you haven’t heard her talking about how she grew up…”

Chris blinked at that. “What do you mean?”

“Her mom is a high level devisor,” Jon explained slowly. “With Diedricks. I’ve heard Amy tell some wild stories about things that happened around her house when she was a kid.”

Chris paused for a moment to consider that, then nodded along. “I remember that a couple weeks ago, some devisor accidentally dropped a disintegration ray in class, and it went off…burning a hole through the wall. Amy didn’t even blink.”

“Yeah,” Jon agreed. “Pretty normal stuff for her.” Then he puffed up a little and added, “You know, she’s a Poesie in exile. Once she gets tired of that whole Hawthorne thing, she’ll be back to the best cottage.”

“Great,” Chris joked. “I have two Poesies on my team then… And all you Poesies are crazy, which means that I’m really the only normal one on my team.”

Jon gave him a sympathetic look. “You have my pity, man.” Then he added, “Because being ‘normal’ is totally boring.”

Chris rolled his eyes at that. “Well, I’d love to keep chatting…but I have much nicer company to spend dinner with.” He grinned at his friend before turning to walk off, adding, “And much cuter.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Jon agreed. “And don’t do anything that I wouldn’t.”

Whitman Cottage, Tuesday late afternoon, Dec 18th, 2007

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Darqueheart nervously exclaimed. “It’s going to be a disaster.”

“No way,” her roommate, Mina, said. “It’s just a date. It’s going to be fun…”

“Something will go wrong,” Darqueheart protested. “I know it will. Something ALWAYS goes wrong…”

Darqueheart sat on her bed, firmly clutching the stuffed rabbit named Missus Flop. She was so nervous about her upcoming date that she was on the verge of hyperventilating.

“Why did Chris ask ME out?” Darqueheart asked her roommate.

Mina just grinned and suggested, “Maybe it’s a plot to make you drop your guard so he can embarrass you…”

“What?” Darquehart gasped, glaring at Mina. “Chris wouldn’t do that… He’s too much of a goody two-shoes…”

“And there you go,” Mina added smugly. “He must really like you then.”

Darqueheart snorted. “He’s not very bright then.”

After relaxing a little, Darqueheart set down her stuffed rabbit and then got up and reached for the horn polishing kit that she’d put together. If she was going to go on a date, she wanted to look her best, and that meant cleaning and polishing her horns first.

“Just don’t let Tink know,” Mina suggested, glancing towards the door of their bedroom. “She might try to paint your horns again…to help.”

“Yeah,” Darqueheart nodded agreement. “Thankfully, I think she’s on detention…because there is NOTHING scarier than Tink trying to be helpful.”

Mina nodded emphatic agreement as she added, “And let’s get your nails done too…”

Tuesday early evening, Dec 18th, 2007

The restaurant was small and plain, one of several similar restaurants scattered across the campus, mostly run by students as a way to get away from cafeteria food on occasion.

Chris wished that he could have brought Darqueheart to someplace a little nicer, someplace that served food a bit more impressive than burgers and shakes…even if they were really good burgers and shakes. But unfortunately, that would have meant arranging a weeknight trip into town, and that wasn’t feasible when everyone was about to leave campus for Christmas break.

Darqueheart sat across from Chris, looking nervous yet acting as though she wasn’t. He could relate since he was every bit as nervous, though seeing that she shared this feeling helped him to relax a little.

“You know,” Darqueheart said a little awkwardly, “A couple of my friends in Faction Three told me this was a bad idea.”

“Really?” Chris asked in surprise.

“They thought you might try to hurt me,” she explained with a wry smile. “I mean, embarrass or prank me…”

Chris gave her a look of horror. “I’d never do that.”

Darqueheart smiled, which was something that he wished he could see more from her. “I know. That’s why I said yes…”

“I’m glad you did,” Chris admitted. “I was kind of afraid you’d turn me down.”

She hesitated a moment before quietly admitting, “I almost did. Honestly, this is the first time anybody has EVER asked me out…especially since I manifested.” There was another pause before she bitterly added, “Not many people want to date an ugly freak.”

Chris winced at those words as though they’d been a physical blow. “You’re not ugly,” he snapped at her angrily. “And you’re not a freak.” He paused, suddenly feeling self-conscious about admitting how he really felt. Still, he decided that since he’d started, he should finish. If nothing else, Darqueheart deserved to hear the truth from someone. “You’re actually really cute.”

“Cute?” she gasped, looking surprised by that idea.

“A little exotic,” Chris told her with a blush, “but still very pretty.”

Darqueheart just stared at him for several long seconds as though waiting for the punchline for a joke. When none came, she gulped visibly, then self-consciously reached up. “But I have horns…”

“They look good on you,” Chris assured her. “Especially since you polished them…”

Her eyes widened even further and she whispered, “You noticed…”

Darqueheart stared down at her partially eaten burger, then quietly said, “I’m not used to people saying nice things to me. It’s…embarrassing.” Then she smiled nervously and admitted. “But nice.” She shrugged and let out a sigh. “I mean, my own parents didn’t want me anymore…”

There was anger in her voice, along with bitterness and grief. Chris clenched his hands, wanting to reach across the table and give her a hug.

“I can understand that,” he quietly told her. He took a deep breath, not used to sharing how he felt about this subject. But she’d been honest and open with him, so… “My own parents threw me away too.”

“What?” Darqueheart asked, looking confused. “But you’re going home for Christmas…”

“I’m adopted,” Chris told her. “My adopted parents are great, but… My real parents didn’t want me. I don’t even know why.” He gave a self-conscious shrug. “I don’t have any idea who they are…or even what my original last name would have been. It’s…frustrating.”

“I can imagine,” Darqueheart responded. “But at least you have parents who accept you.”

“I’m lucky that way,” he agreed with a sad smile. “I just wish you could have been too.”

Chris reached out and touched her hand, which was sitting on the table, putting his own hand on top of it. For a moment, Darqueheart looked like she was about to pull away, but she didn’t.

Neither of them said a word for nearly a minute, and when Darqueheart finally spoke, it was as if she was trying to break the awkward silence. “My real name,” she quietly told him, “is Colleen.”

“Colleen,” he tested the name out. “It’s nice…”

Darqueheart…Colleen gave a nervous smile. “This is the first time that I felt like Colleen in a long time.”

Dickenson Cottage, Wednesday late morning, Dec 19th, 2007

Traci Hoffman sat on the edge of her bed, staring down at her hands. She was procrastinating and she knew it. As much as she disliked it, she knew what she had to do now.

After muttering a curse, Traci finally picked up her phone and dialed. Seconds later, a woman’s voice responded with, “Hello?”

“Hello, Holly,” Traci greeted her sister with a grimace.

Holly was a superhero, a member of the Liberty League over in Lake Michigan. As Super Star, Holly had a perspective that might be useful, but as Traci’s big sister, she was bound to be annoying about it.

“I need some advice,” Traci said as though the words were physicaly painful.

There was a long pause before Holly’s voice responded, “It’s about time you asked for my advice. I’d be happy to share my experience.”

The tone was smug, which was what Traci had expected. She bit back what she wanted to say, and got to the point instead so that she could get this over with.

“My…group…wants to do something that’s…” Traci paused, unsure of exactly how to phrase it. “Questionable.”

Traci scowled. Questionable was putting it lightly. Questionable was a good description for some of the things Denouement had already done in the name of achieving their goals. But this… What Exquisite wanted to do was something else.

“What do you do when someone on your group might be getting you all into trouble?” she asked.

“We had someone like that on my team,” Holly answered. “Adonis. We thought he was up to some pretty sketchy stuff, but we weren’t sure. I mean, we had suspicions but no real proof…”

“So, what did you do?” Traci asked hopefully.

Holly shrugged. Traci couldn’t see that over the phone, but she knew her sister well enough to picture her shrugging before giving an answer.

“Oh, we never really got to the point of doing anything,” Holly admitted. “I mean, a couple of us talked about it…about starting an investigation to get proof one way or another. But then, he got himself killed, so the problem just kind of vanished.”

Traci just stared at the phone for several long seconds. “So, you’re saying that I should just ignore things until the problem takes care of itself?”

“You’d be surprised how often that works,” Holly agreed.

“Thank you for the advice,” Traci responded, not sure if her sister would get the sarcasm. Sometimes, Holly could be a bit oblivious to other people.

“Anytime,” Holly told her in a cheerful tone. “Well, I’ve got to get going. We just got an alert about some new villain…”

“Good luck with that,” Traci said with a sigh as she hung up the call. She sat there for a moment, then muttered, “That’s not the worse advice I’ve ever heard.”

Whitman Cottage common room, Wednesday afternoon, Dec 19th, 2007

“So, how did it go?” Stryff demanded. “Was he as big of a doofus as I predicted?”

Darqueheart stared at her friend, wondering how she ever thought the girl was shy and quiet. Sure, that was how Stryff came off when they first met, but once the blue-skinned girl got to know her, her personality nearly reversed.

“Chris was nice,” Darqueheart said defensively. “It went really well.”

“Really?” Stryff asked a little skeptically. “He has a reputation for not liking people with GSD…”

“He has a reputation for being an idiot and jumping to conclusions,” Darqueheart corrected. “And he’s getting a LOT better about that stuff too. Honestly, I think he just wants to be a hero and tends to get carried away.”

Stryff nodded at that, then began to smirk in a way that concerned Darqueheart. “So, you’re planning on playing Catwoman to his Batman?”

That made Darqueheart nearly choke. “Hey,” she protested. “It’s not like that..” She squirmed uncomfortably in place, sure that she would have been blushing if her skin color allowed it. “He’s not a hero…yet…and I’m not a villain.”

The blue-skinned girl shrugged using all four of her arms in the motion. “Come on… We both have…edgy looks…and names. You do darkness magic while I do chaos and entropic magic. Face it, we’re both destined to be villains, whether we want to be or not. That’s just the way the world works. Sooner or later, some hero, cop, MCO agent, or news person is going to see us and declare us to be villains…and then it becomes official, whether we earn the title or not.”

“Maybe,” Darqueheart reluctantly admitted. She’d heard too many stories of that kind of thing happening to other mutants, especially to those with GSD.

“But just because you’re a villain, that doesn’t mean you actually HAVE to date some hero,” Stryff said, pointing to the pin on her shirt, one of a smiley face with horns and a tail. Everyone in the Imp fan club had a pin like that. “You’d NEVER see the Imp giving in to THAT old trope.”

Darqueheart snorted and shook her head. “Are you trying to convince me that I should date Chris, or that I shouldn’t, because you’re sending mixed messages.”

Stryff just smirked and pointed all four of her thumbs back at herself. “When you have a name like mine, it pays to keep people guessing.”

“Whatever,” Darqueheart told her with a roll of her eyes. “Either way, I’ve got to get going. The Imp set up an arena match for my team, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Good luck then,” Stryff said with a smirk. “And say hi to Chris for me.”

Wednesday late afternoon, Dec 19th, 2007

Alyss looked around the arena setting, seeing that they appeared to be in the middle of a city. This immediately reminded her of her combat finals match the previous week, though there were definite differences.

During her combat final, the city had been old and decaying, more ruins than actual city. What she saw this time, was a new and modern city, all nice and clean. And instead of the brick buildings that she’d seen then, these ones seemed to be mostly concrete and glass. And of course, this time, there were no zombies.

“What do you guys think?” Alyss asked her friends.

“Considering who set up this match,” Amy said with a thoughtful expression. “I expect that it should be…interesting.”

“And fun,” Melissa added with a broad grin.

Melissa ran her hand over her jacket, which was bright red and doubled as body armor. A moment later, she reached into a pocket and pulled out a couple smoke bombs, though she only held them at the ready.

“She said we just have to find our opponent and defeat them,” Chris stated as he looked around carefully. “So, I expect that we’ll have to find a supervillain…”

Darqueheart snorted at that. “Or a superhero. Remember who set this thing up.”

“Good point,” Amy agreed. “We should expect anything.”

“Like a giant clown,” Melissa exclaimed with a grin. “Clownzilla…throwing giant pies at us.”

“I think we’ve had enough of the giant pies,” Alyss pointed out with a shake of her head.

Sapphire looked around with a worried expression. “I hope it isn’t a clown. They’re creepy…”

Alyss looked at the blue haired girl, taking note of the blue scaly cloak that she wore. Sapphire was from a family of snake girls and had been one herself until she manifested. To hear her call clowns creepy… It was not quite what she would have expected.

“Or a giant cat,” Amy muttered with a visible shudder while readying her coil gun.

Chris hesitated a moment, then suggested, “Maybe, it’s the Imp.” When everyone looked at him, he shrugged. “Coming in here to fight us herself… It just seems like something she might do.”

“Totally,” Melissa agreed. “That would be awesome.”

Alyss chuckled at that. “Whoever our enemy is, I don’t think we’ll find them by lollygagging around here.”

“Ah, there you are,” a voice suddenly called out. “My opponents…”

“What the fu…?” Alyss started as she snapped around.

Off to the side, a figure had just emerged from around the corner of a building, and he started casually walking towards them. His appearance was…unexpected.

The man stood over seven feet tall, not including the extra height added by his helmet. Alyss’ first thought was that he looked like some kind of viking or barbarian warrior who’d been given power armor. He wore what appeared to be power armor over most of his body, which was a bright purple color. On top of that, there was a wide leather belt and a furry cape which could have been the pelt of a large wolf or bear.

“I stand corrected,” Alyss said in disbelief.

In addition to the power armor and leathers, this strange figure wore a helmet which matched the leather and cape far more than the power armor. It was the stereotypical helmet that people usually associated with Vikings, the kind with animal horns jutting out from the side and pointing upward, but one of the horns was broken off at the base, leaving only a single horn on one side.

His face was open and exposed, revealing a rough face with a short black beard and a patch over one eye. And then to add to the odd appearance, this man was casually eating what looked like a candy bar.

“So, you lot are to be my opponents,” the man announced, looking disappointed. “I can’t say as I’m impressed… You lot look like you’ll all go down with one swing of my axe…”

“Go ahead and try it,” Chris announced as he took a step forward.

Their opponent chuckled. “At least you have stones…” Then his expression turned serious. “But I’ll not be facing you in battle until you prove yourselves worth the effort of staining my axe…”

With that, the man dropped his candy bar and wrapper to the ground, then he flew straight up into the air and out of reach. A second later, he was gone from view entirely.

“So,” Monkeywrench mused. “I guess this means that we have to fight our way to the boss…”

“Looks that way,” Amy responded.

“Figures,” Darqueheart said with a sigh before teasing Sapphire, “But at least he isn’t a clown.”

“No,” Monkeywrench added with a broad grin. “But that might be the second phase of the boss fight.”

Alyss looked down at the abandoned candy bar, getting a good look at the wrapper. The words ‘SOYLENT GREEN’ were clearly written on the side.

With a wry smile, she said, “It’s people…”

“What’s that?” Amy asked.

Alyss was about to explain the reference when the other clues suddenly came together in her head. She groaned at the real joke, knowing that none of her friends were likely to either catch or understand it. Still, at least she was able to appreciate the Imp’s humor, even if none of the others did.

“Should we follow him?” Chris asked, pointing in the direction that the purple clad man had flown in.

“Might as well,” Alyss agreed.

Nobody disagreed, so they began walking in that direction. However, they’d barely gone a hundred feet when new people suddenly appeared. They rushed out of doorways, emerged from around the corner of nearby buildings, and even burst out of some shop windows. In mere seconds, they found themselves surrounded by several dozen people.

Each and every one of the newcomers was dressed differently, and none of them in a way that could be considered fashionable. One man wore a football helmet and shoulder pads, while having a baseball bat clutched in his hands. Another man wore a black leather jacket and chains, while swinging a lead pipe. A large and muscular woman was dressed in a neon green leotard that looked like some kind of wrestling outfit, and she held a knife in each hand.

“Some kind of gang,” Chris announced as he looked around.

Alyss snorted. “Only if you’re talking about those weird themed gangs that you sometimes see in movies and TV shows.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “And they’re all from different themed gangs.”

“And they’re all armed,” Darqueheart pointed out.

“Yeah,” Alyss agreed, taking note that Darqueheart was right. Every one of these newcomers was armed with simple weapons. Pipes. Chains. Knives. There was even one man with a spiked rubber chicken. “And that’s all pretty random too.”

Amy chuckled. “Like someone used a random generator on the thugs we’re facing.”

“At least they’re all different,” Melissa pointed out.

Sapphire let out a sigh. “Whatever they look like, can we just deal with them already?”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Monkeywrench agreed with a grin.

Monkeywrench wore a bandolier across his chest, with a dozen apparent bananas strapped to it. He casually pulled off one of the bananas, then reached into a large pouch on his belt and took out what looked like a round red fruit.

“Is that an apple?” Melissa asked in surprise.

“Nope,” the furry boy responded with a mischievous grin. “A pomegranate, also known as a grenade…”

And with those words, Monkeywrench threw the pomegranate right into the middle of a group of thugs and it suddenly exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. Seven of the thugs went down with various levels of injury, though the furry boy continued his assault by throwing the banana, which exploded into a spray of liquid that coated the ground. Several thugs rushed forward and stepped on this spray, only to slip and fall.

“The banana peel grenade gets them every time,” Monkeywrench exclaimed.

As soon as Monkeywrench made his move, everyone else charged forward as well. Alyss reached a man who was dressed in some kind of pastel jumpsuit and wielding a machete, then picked him up and threw him into a woman with a motorcycle helmet, knocking both of them into the small cluster of other thugs behind them.

Alyss glanced at her friends, seeing that Amy was opening fire with her needle gun, firing tiny flechettes which were probably coated with Sapphire’s venom. Sapphire, on the other hand, was simply spitting out a spray of her venom, causing any of the thugs that were hit with it to stagger and trip as their bodies started to go numb on contact.

“This isn’t much different than fighting those zombies last week,” Chris announced as he blocked a lead pipe with his arm before punching the one who’d swung it.

“A bit more colorful,” Monkeywrench added.

Melissa laughed as she zapped one of the thugs with a stun gun, then teleported a short distance away to hit another one. “You get a tase,” she exclaimed. “And you get a tase… EVERYBODY GETS A TASE!”

Darqueheart didn’t say anything, though her actions spoke loud enough. A wave of darkness spread out along the ground while inky black tentacles rose from this darkness and grabbed at the thugs, pulling them down into it.

Alyss rushed forward and simply charged through a mob of thugs, taking them out with her impact alone. They were all weak compared to her, about the level of an unstilled normal person. In spite of them being badly outnumbered, they still managed to defeat all the attackers in just a few minutes.

“You know,” Monkeywrench mused as they looked at all their defeated foes, “I might have to create a cherry bomb to go with my arsenal…”

“You know,” Alyss pointed out. “Between your pomegranate, that pineapple grenade you used in your combat final, and your usual bananas, you’re starting to get a full fruit salad.”

Melissa quickly pointed out, “Just be careful, or you’ll dilute your entire theme…”

“Good point,” Monkeywrench responded as he reached for another banana on his bandolier. “I wouldn’t want to risk that.”

Amy just gestured in the direction that they’d been heading before the recent ambush. “Shall we continue?”

“Yes,” Darqueheart responded with a deep scowl. “Let’s get this over with.”

Chris just shrugged. “It’s good exercise.”

A minute later, Monkeywrench abruptly announced, “I’m getting a real sense of deja-vu here…”

“More enemies,” Sapphire added, pointing out the obvious.

Just like before, new opponents were starting to step out from around the building corners where they’d previously been hidden from sight. More of them rushed out of doorways and alleys, until once again, they were surrounded by these new thugs.

Alyss immediately noticed some differences between the current group of opponents and the one they’d faced before. Previously, all of the thugs had been dressed randomly, and they’d all been carrying simple weapons. These new thugs were dressed differently, or at least more thematically, with a consistent Mad Max or post-apocalyptic aesthetic.

She quickly glanced over the thugs, taking in the leather clothes, the chains and spikes, and most importantly, the weapons. The weapons were definitely an upgrade over what the previous thugs had used. She saw chainsaws, flame throwers, even someone with Molotov cocktails.

“Welcome to round two,” Melissa exclaimed.

“I just hope they’re more challenging than that last bunch,” Chris added as he flared his PK shell so that it glowed a bright gold for a moment, just enough to make a statement.

“Show off,” Darqueheart teased him, smiling a little as she did so.

Then, so as not to be outdone, Darqueheart muttered something under her breath and made a brief gesture with one hand. Suddenly, her shadow seemed to come alive and rushed up her body, giving a swirl of darkness about her that lasted a couple seconds before fading away.

Chris looked like he was about to say something when the thugs attacked. A man with a chainsaw charged straight at Chris, who just barely avoided being hit. He punched his attacker, who staggered back a little but didn’t go down.

A wave of flame came rushing at Alyss, who tried to get out of the way but failed. The man with the flamethrower was swinging it in a wide arc, catching Alyss and nearly hitting Melissa, who barely teleported away in time.

“Damn it,” Alyss cursed as her dress burst into flames. Her manifested material was flammable, much to her current annoyance.

Alyss tore her dress off before her hair could get more than a little singed. As it was, she suspected that she’d have a red mark on her cheek from a mild burn, at least for a few minutes until she healed.

“You ruined a perfectly good dress,” Alyss exclaimed, though she didn’t really mind the loss of the dress. It would only take a couple seconds to replace and had been doomed to disintegrate on its own anyway. However, what she was annoyed by, was being forced to undress in public.

The apparent ten-year-old glanced down at herself, thankful that she’d planned ahead. Instead of being naked, or even in her underwear, she was fully dressed in a thin black bodysuit that covered everything from her neck down. This was the costume she’d made in costume shop, or at least, something to wear underneath whatever costume she manifested, which was fireproof and would give just a little more protection from bullets.

Alyss threw one of her ebidium bracelets at the thug, hitting him hard enough to break his ribs as he flew back, losing control of his flamethrower in the process. The flames shot out to the side, spraying two of his own people before he hit the ground and stopped moving.

“Anyone else want to mess with my dress?” she demanded.

Chris yelped in pain and Alyss snapped around, seeing him on the ground and holding his arm. Something had gotten through his shell, but Alyss couldn’t tell what. Three of the thugs were advancing on him, though Sapphire leapt at them from the side, spitting out a spray of her venom.

A Molotov cocktail flew through the air and was about to hit Chris, but a black shadow wrapped around him and pulled him back just in time. Darqueheart released Chris and sent another wave of darkness out along the ground, attacking one of the thugs that was still approaching.

“Thanks,” Chris told Darqueheart, looking chagrinned as he got back to his feet. “These guys are a lot tougher than those last ones.”

“We need to shake things up,” Amy announced, pulling out a gold metal sphere the size of a softball. “I’m going to throw a ricochet grenade… Whatever you do, don’t look at it. I put a ‘look at me’ enchantment on it, so that should get their attention.”

Amy threw her ricochet grenade, which hit one of the thugs in the chest and then bounced off, shooting through the air until it hit a wall and bounced again. It kept flying through the air, bouncing off one obstacle after another, seeming to get just a little faster after each bounce.

“You’ve got their attention,” Alyss said, watching the thugs more than the bomb. When she’d glanced at it, it had taken a bit of effort to tear her eyes away. The thugs kept their eyes fixed on it, leaving them all open in their distraction.

“Ribbon,” Amy said, using Alyss’ codename. “You’re the toughest one here, so you need to get their attention on you.” Amy looked to Chris and Sapphire. “Aegis and Sapphire, you watch her back and keep them from sneaking past her.”

“Sounds good to me,” Chris said.

“And me as well,” Sapphire agreed.

Amy looked to Monkeywrench and Darqueheart. “You two focus on crowd control. Keep them off balance as much as possible.”

“And what about me?” Melissa demanded excitedly.

Amy gave her an almost evil grin. “Get up to a little mischief. Hit them from behind and keep them distracted.”

“Aye aye,” Melissa responded, snapping a salute.

“And what about you?” Monkeywrench asked.

“That’s easy,” Amy responded as she holstered her needle gun and held up her coil gun. “I’ll be hitting them for as much damage as possible.”

Just then, there was an explosion as the ricochet grenade finally went off. Alyss looked over and saw that it had detonated while in the middle of a group, tearing several of the thugs apart in the blast while several more had been knocked back and injured.

“GO!” Alyss ordered.

Alyss ran forward, snatching up the ebidium bracelet that she’d previously thrown. She jumped up and kicked one of the thugs in the chest, then grabbed another and threw him into his friends. Chris and Sapphire had come up behind her and were guarding her back as Amy had asked.

“HEY!” Melissa yelled out from the other side of the group. “OVER HERE!”

Several thugs turned to look at Melissa but she teleported away. She appeared behind another thug, only to grab his pants and yank them down. He swung his chainsaw at her, but it only passed right through her. The girl made a show of sticking out her tongue as she ran off.

“EAT HOT BANANNA!” Monkeywrench yelled as he threw a couple of his banana peel grenades. They exploded into bursts of liquid that settled all over the ground. Several thugs immediately slipped in these pools and fell down. “Now, I really wish I had my POO launcher…”

“Less talk,” Darqueheart told him. “More fighting.”

Darqueheart held out her hands and muttered a quick spell under her breath. A wave of darkness spread out from her hands and covered several of the thugs, leaving them completely blind inside.

“Good,” Amy announced as she fired a shot into the dark cloud. A moment later, there was an explosion inside where Alyss couldn’t see. “You set them up, I’ll knock them down…” The shadows faded, revealing three thugs laying motionless on the ground.

Alyss continued charging at the thugs while Chris and Sapphire followed behind her. Sapphire spat out a spray of venom that caught two more thugs, causing partial paralysis wherever it hit and slowing them down. Chris was more direct, simply punching one as hard as he could and taking him out.

Further back, one of the thug women was about to throw a Molotov cocktail when it suddenly exploded in her hand, engulfing her in flame. Melissa appeared a short distance behind her, holding several rocks which she’d been throwing.

“Ouch,” Melissa exclaimed. “That’s gotta hurt.”

“I almost feel guilty for this,” Alyss said as she looked over motionless thugs that were sprawled out along the ground. With a critical eye, she noted that if they’d been real people, there would have been blood. As it was, she didn’t see a single drop of it on them. “Almost.”

The current strategy was working, and in only a few more seconds, the last of the thugs went down. He was face down on the ground with Melissa standing over him with a stun gun in her hand and an almost evil grin on her face.

“Shocked that a girl beat you?” Melissa teased her fallen opponent.

“That’s the last of them,” Chris said as he looked around.

“Yeah,” Monkeywrench agreed. “But what do you want to bet that there are more of them up ahead?”

“No bet,” Alyss said.

Alyss formed a new dress to replace the one that had been destroyed. It wasn’t necessary, but she felt a little more comfortable with it on.

“I’m gonna go scout ahead,” Melissa abruptly announced.

Everyone turned to look at the blonde girl, and Alyss was a little startled to see that she actually looked serious for once. That was not an expression that she saw on the girl very often.

“If you’re going into a dangerous area,” Melissa explained, “you should do as much research as you can ahead of time. Be prepared and plan an escape route or three.”

From the way she said it, Alyss suspected that she was repeating something that she’d been told. And considering who Melissa took private lessons from, Alyss was pretty sure that she knew exactly who had given her that particular advice.

“A good idea,” Sapphire said with a nod of approval.

Amy looked at Darqueheart. “You have some kind of stealth power too, don’t you?”

Darqueheart hesitated for a moment before shaking her head. “I can blend into shadows and become extremely hard to see…but there’s too much light here for that.”

“It looks like it’s just you then,” Amy told Melissa. “Are you sure you’re up for scouting alone?”

“No problem,” Melissa responded before turning and hurrying off, vanishing just a couple seconds later.

Chris looked around before saying, “I guess we hang out here until she gets back.”

“We should probably duck out of sight until she gets back,” Alyss pointed out. “They might have their own scouts.”

Monkeywrench nodded enthusiastically. “Or wandering monsters.”

“Good point,” Amy agreed wryly.

They moved to the side and hit inside an alley entrance, while keeping watch for any threats. It took nearly ten minutes before Melissa returned.

“I found em,” Melissa exclaimed, pointing down the street. “About two blocks away… I can’t tell how many there are because they’re spread out and guarding this building.” She scowled for a moment as she continued to report in a serious tone, “Two guys at the door, six that I could see patrolling around it.” Then she shook her head. “And these guys have guns and radios.”

“Could you get inside the building?” Amy asked.

Melissa nodded at that. “Yeah… I only checked the bottom floor since I wanted to be fast… Looks like an office building with a couple guys inside too…”

“You said they have guns,” Alyss said. “What kind?”

“I don’t know,” Melissa responded. “Hand guns, I guess.”

“Better than machine guns,” Chris added.

Monkeywrench snorted. “Each group keeps getting tougher, so I bet the next group will have those…”

“Not much different than when we fought the Triangle,” Chris reminded them.

Sapphire looked around the group and adjusted her blue scaled cloak. “So, what do we do?”

“If they’re spread out,” Darqueheart suggested with a thoughtful expression. “Maybe we separate them and take them out one at a time.”

“And if they have radios and guns,” Alyss mused, “then we’ll probably have to hit them fast, before they have a chance to shoot or call for help.”

It took another couple minutes of discussion, but they had a basic plan and were ready to go. They made their way towards the building that Melissa found and saw exactly what she’d reported. Two men in suits standing guard at the entry, while other men in suits patrolled around it.

“Let’s get those patrols first,” Amy suggested, looking to Darqueheart. “You’re up.”

Darqueheart moved off to the side, keeping low and trying to stay out of sight. Once she was in position, she waited until one of the thugs on patrol walked near her, just out of sight of his friends. Then she struck.

A long black shadow stretched out from Darqueheart and reached her target in a couple seconds. He didn’t see the shadow rising behind him, not until it suddenly wrapped around him like a thick black tentacle. It quickly held him in place, his arms fixed to his side, and clamped over his mouth before he could scream or call out a warning. Then his feet were yanked out from under him and the shadow pulled him back towards where Darqueheart was hiding.

At the other side of the building, Sapphire got into position and waited. Once another thug walked past where she was hiding, she leapt out and charged him with all the speed an exemplar 4 could bring, taking him down before he had a chance to react. She quickly pulled his limp body back and out of sight, then readied herself for the next patrol.

Suddenly, the guards at the door answered their radios and immediately jumped to attention, drawing their weapons as they did so.

“Someone spotted us,” Alyss said, glancing to Amy.

“On it,” Amy responded, firing a shot at the two guards from her coil gun. The grenade round hit the ground in front of them and exploded, slamming both thugs back against the wall.

Alyss ran for the door, barely paying the downed thugs any attention. She slammed into the door with her shoulder and smashed it in, opening the way inside.

The sound of gunfire immediately filled the air and Alyss felt something smack into her shoulder. It felt like someone had punched her, or at least, like someone with a lot of strength had punched her. A quick glance down revealed the hole in her dress, though the bullet hadn’t gone through her inner costume much less her skin.

A quick glance around revealed that this did indeed look like an office full of cubicles, just like what Melissa had described. And also as she’d described, three armed thugs were spread around the room, all of whom were pointing their guns at her and shooting. Alyss felt several more rounds hit her.

“So, you’re the kind of assholes that like to shoot at little girls,” Alyss said with a deep scowl. She made a show of cracking her knuckles. “Too bad for you.”

A second later, Chris burst into the building, just in time to see Alyss throwing one of the thugs all the way across the room and into the far wall. The other two thugs were already down, though one of them seemed to be partially embedded in a wall.

“What took you so long?” Alyss asked, making a show of brushing off her hands.

“Sorry we took so long,” Monkeywrench said as he came in behind Chris. “Traffic.”

“We took the wrong turn at Albuquerque,” Melissa announced as she suddenly appeared beside Monkeywrench.

Then Amy stepped through the door, adding, “And we had to take care of one of those guys out there.” She gestured back the way she’d come.

Darqueheart and Sapphire quickly joined them, then without a word, they began moving up the stairs. Alyss took the lead with Chris behind her. Sapphire remained at the back, ready to deal with any surprises from the back end.

“I should scout ahead,” Melissa protested.

“Too late for that sneaky stuff,” Chris pointed out grimly. “They might not see you coming, but they might start shooting down the hallway at any moment.”

“Yes,” Darqueheart added wryly. “So, hide behind the tiny little girl.”

Then, just as Chris had warned, bullets began flying down the stairway. Alyss held her arms in front of her face to keep from getting shot there, but otherwise remained standing to soak up as many of the bullets as she could. Chris remained behind her, flexing his PK shell and blocking more of the shots, though the impact was still having an effect on him.

“Good thing they’re not using anything more powerful,” Chris said with a grimace.

“I’ve got this,” Monkeywrench announced, pulling out a bright yellow boomerang. “My bananarang should take them out no problem.” He threw it up the stairs, then winced. “Damn, I missed.”

Amy just fired a round from her coil gun and there was an explosion, followed by a moment of silence. The gunshots were no longer coming.

“The coil gun might be overkill in here,” Amy said as she slung it back over her shoulder and drew the needle gun from her holster. “And I don’t want to burn through all my rounds too soon.”

“A bananarang?” Melissa asked Monkeywrench. “Really?”

Monkeywrench shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

When they reached the top of the stairs, they saw the gunman who’d been shooting at them, laying motionless on the ground. From the damage to his clothes and the wall nearby, it seemed that Amy’s grenade round had worked perfectly.

Another thug appeared from down the hallway, opening fire on them. Melissa suddenly vanished, reappearing right behind him, where she promptly kicked him between the legs. He dropped to his knees, and before he could even hope to recover, several flechettes from Amy’s needle gun appeared in his chest and neck.

“This batch is coated with something I bought from Bunsen,” Amy said, gesturing to the thug who collapsed the rest of the way to the ground. “All it cost was two batches of brownies.”

“The special kind?” Melissa asked.

Amy chuckled as she shook her head. “Nope. Turns out, he just likes good brownies.”

“Should we search the floor?” Sapphire asked.

“There might be more of them hiding in those rooms,” Darqueheart pointed out, indicating the closed doors.

Melissa poked her head through the nearest door, not bothering to even open it. Her intangibility made such considerations unnecessary.

“Empty,” Melissa announced before running to the next door and repeating this. “Nothing here…” Then on the third door, she stuck her head through, only to immediately yank it back out as the sound of a gunshot came from within. “There’s someone in this one…”

The door swung open and a gunman leapt out, shooting at Melissa though his shots went right through her. Once he stopped shooting, she let out a breath and teleported back down the hallway, appearing behind Alyss. Amy had already fired off a burst of flechettes and the man quickly dropped.

“Even more effective than your venom,” Amy told Sapphire.

Sapphire merely shrugged. “Perhaps, but I don’t have to trade baked goods for my venom.”

Monkeywrench picked up the bananarang he’d thrown just a minute earlier. “We should probably check the rest of the rooms so they don’t come up behind us.”

“Here we go again,” Melissa muttered.

Once they confirmed that there was nobody left on that floor, they began moving up the stairs again to the next floor. A couple thugs were waiting for them in an attempted ambush, but Melissa teleported behind one and shoved him down the stairs while Amy shot the other.

“How many floors are there?” Chris asked with a look of annoyance.

“Five floors,” Amy answered. “I counted when we were still outside the building.”

“And we’re on floor three,” Sapphire pointed out.

“I just don’t like fighting on these stairs,” Chris grumbled. “Because I haven’t been able to do any fighting so far.”

Alyss snorted. “And I’m being used as a wall.” She shrugged. “Right now, our job is to keep everyone else from being shot, because we’re the ones who can take it. We just have to deal with it until we get into a spot where we can do more.”

“Speaking of which,” Darqueheart said with an evil grin. She muttered something under her breath and then shadow began pouring up the stairs, one step at a time. A few seconds later, there was screaming from another thug as she grabbed hold of his leg and pulled him down towards them. “There are ways to be useful.”

“Hey,” Monkeywrench exclaimed. “I hear someone coming up from below…”

He looked down the stairs, then grinned. A moment later, he had two of his banana peel grenades in hand and threw them down below.

“That should slow them down,” the furry boy said.

There were nods of agreement as they continued going up. It didn’t take long before they heard a loud ‘thump’ and a yelp of pain as someone slipped and fell down the stairs. Monkeywrench made a show of buffing his nails on his shirt and then smugly examining them.

It didn’t take long to clear the remaining floors and to then reach the roof. As soon as they stepped onto the roof of the building, they were met with three armed thugs, all of whom already had their guns pointed at the doorway.

“I have it,” Darqueheart said while she and the others took shelter behind Alyss and Chris.

They’d expected this particular greeting, or at least something like it, so Darqueheart had already begun spreading her shadows out along the ground ahead of them. It took little more than a snap of her fingers for the shadows to attack all three of the thugs at once, wrapping them up in inky black tentacles and holding them still long enough for Amy to shoot them with her needle gun.

“Very good,” a voice announced from the other side of the roof. “You lot have proven yourselves worthy of my axe.”

Alyss looked over and saw their real opponent, the armored man who’d first met them in the arena. He casually took a bite of another Soylent Green bar and then tossed the remains to the side before reaching for the large double-sided axe that was strapped to his back.

“Big boss battle,” Monkeywrench exclaimed, throwing his bananarang at their opponent and hitting him on the chest. The weapon bounced off, though it did leave a nice scratch on the armor. “I REALLY need to upgrade my weapons…”

“No kidding,” Chris responded, giving him a flat look.

“Hey,” Monkeywrench protested. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

Darqueheart snorted. “Then maybe you can give HIM some of your love.” She gestured to the large man who was slowly walking towards them with his axe ready to swing.

“Not my type,” Monkeywrench quickly responded with a frantic shake of his head.

“Perhaps we should focus on the approaching enemy,” Sapphire suggested.

“I second that,” Melissa said as she vanished from view.

Melissa appeared beside the armored man and threw a handful of powder at him before she abruptly vanished again. Then she reappeared on his other side, throwing a smoke bomb at his feet and blinding him in a cloud of smoke.

“Itching powder and a smoke bomb,” Melissa said as she reappeared beside them. “Now, why aren’t you guys taking advantage of that distraction to attack?”

“Yes,” Amy agreed with a look of vague annoyance. “Why aren’t we?”

Amy holstered her needle gun since it didn’t look like it would be able to pierce the man’s armor, then she readied her coil gun. But before she could fire a single shot, the opponent stepped out of the smoke cloud, no longer blinded by it. And from the way he showed no reaction to Melissa’s itching powder, Alyss suspected that very little of that had made it past his armor either.

Alyss charged forward and punched the man, knocking him back several feet but not taking him down. She lunged for another strike but her fist slammed into the flat of his axe instead. He sneered and then swung it at her, forcing her to move back.

Chris rushed forward and punched the man, doing even less damage than Alyss had, though he followed it up by shifting his PK shell so that his hands formed a pair of PK blades. He slashed at the man, only to be forced back by another swing of the axe.

“Come, children,” the man demanded, giving them a flat look with his one good eye. “Is that all you lot possess? I’m disappointed.”

Amy called out, “I need a clear shot.”

Alyss glanced at Chris, then pulled him back, creating an opening for Amy. As soon as the path was cleared, Amy opened fire. The round hit their opponent in the chest and then exploded into flames.

“Napalm round,” Amy called out. “Followed by a grenade…”

“Back,” Alyss warned, taking several more steps back.

Amy fired her grenade round, but their purple clad opponent simply swung his axe and hit the grenade, causing it to explode a little early. His armor was now charred, but he was clearly not down or even close to it.

Sapphire quickly rushed in and spat at the opponent, sending out a spray of her neurotoxic venom. He shifted position so that the liquid hit his back and shoulders which were protected by his armor. However, Sapphire followed up this failed attack with a swing kick, hitting him in the thigh and knocking him to the ground.

“Good one,” the man announced as he quickly got back to his feet. “So, you lot do have some fight in you after all.”

“We need to keep him off balance,” Amy pointed out. “Monkeywrench. Darqueheart.”

“On it,” Monkeywrench responded, pulling another banana peel grenade from his bandolier. But before he could throw it, the opponent floated up into the air until his feet were nearly ten feet above the roof top. “Come on, that’s cheating.”

The man gave a deep laugh at that. “No such thing in war.” Then he smirked, “And you lot should know better than to discuss your plans right in front of the enemy you intend to use them on.”

“Good point,” Chris said, looking up with an expression of annoyance. Then he had an idea. “Hey, Al…Ribbon. You think you can throw me at him?”

“Sure,” Alyss responded with a shrug and an exasperated sigh. “But what did he just point out?”

Chris looked chagrinned. “Oops.”

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Alyss responded as she picked Chris up and threw him right at their opponent.

The opponent moved to the side, easily avoiding Chris, who hit the ground on the other side of the roof and came rolling to a stop. However, while he was avoiding Chris, he hadn’t noticed the black tendril that was rising up from the ground, right beneath him, not until it grabbed his ankle and began pulling him down.

Just before he hit the ground, the man swung his axe and cut through Darqueheart’s shadow. But before he could take advantage of this momentary freedom, Alyss leapt up above him and came down with a heavy punch that drove him right into the rooftop.

“His axe,” Monkeywrench warned.

Sapphire rushed in and snatched the axe from the man’s hand before he could even get back to his feet, then she casually tossed it over the edge of the building. He snarled and held out one hand which glowed for a moment before a beam of energy shot out of his palm. Sapphire quickly shifted position so that the blast missed her, though barely.

Monkeywrench pulled a banana off his bandolier, though this one looked a little different from his other ones. This one had a red stripe painted around it. A moment later, the banana hit the armored man and exploded into a burst of liquid that sprayed all over him.

“Make him slippery,” Chris said with a look of annoyance. “Now it will be harder to hold onto him…”

“Not exactly,” Monkeywrench corrected with a smirk.

The liquid on their opponent was starting to bubble and foam up, a reaction that Alyss hadn’t expected.

“I can’t move,” the man exclaimed in surprise. He was back on his feet but he seemed to be struggling to move at all.

“Something new I’ve been working on,” Monkeywrench proudly explained. “It hardens…to trap people in place a bit.”

The opponent grimaced and fought against the now hardened foam, causing it to start cracking. Pieces broke away and he suddenly pointed his hand at Monkeywrench and fired another blast of energy.

Chris suddenly leapt in the way, his PK shell glowing gold, with most of the glow focused on a small area around his arm that almost looked like a shield. The blast hit the PK shield and knocked Chris back, but it wasn’t able to penetrate.

“Damn,” Chris grumbled. “I think I may have strained my shoulder a bit with that one…”

“Thanks, dude,” Monkeywrench responded, his voice shaking a little. “I was almost toast.”

“Keep him busy,” Amy ordered, keeping her voice low so their opponent couldn’t hear her. “I’ve got a finisher…”

“Got it,” Chris said, fixing his gaze on the purple man.

“No,” Melissa said with an evil grin. “I’ve got it…”

With that, Melissa vanished from view. A few seconds later, a puff of green smoke suddenly appeared in the opponent’s face, right before he began to cough and gag. Melissa came back into view right beside the man, though she quickly ran away.

“It’s fart spray,” Melissa exclaimed with a giggle. “Trixie made it, based off her stink bomb…”

“Ouch,” Darqueheart said with a wince.

“Yeah,” Monkeywrench agreed. “Trixie makes the best stink bombs, so…”

“Instant distraction,” Melissa said as she rejoined them.

The opponent continued to cough and gag, still fighting against the hardened shell from Monkeywrench’s attack. However, the shell was mostly broken and now falling off in pieces, leaving little to still hold the enemy in place.

“You lot are more tenacious than I gave you credit for,” the man said with a grimace. “That just means I’ll have to tenderize you good before I eat your livers…”

“Eat our livers?” Melissa exclaimed. “EWWWW.”

“With some fava beans and a nice chianti,” the armored man added with an evil smirk.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Darqueheart stated.

A thick shadow was forming around Darqueheart, and with a quick gesture from her hand, it began moving along the ground towards their opponent. He raised both his hands, ready to fire another blast, though Alyss positioned herself to block when he did so.

Alyss looked past their opponent and saw Amy coming up behind him. She’d dropped her weapons and now held a glowing blue ball of energy that crackled with sparks. She grinned, recognizing Amy’s energizer ability. It was a little slow to charge up since she had to gather ambient electro-magnetic energy, but it could also pack a nice punch.

Amy hit the armored man from behind, slamming her glowing sphere of concentrated electro-magnetic energy right into his back. There was a burst of light and sparks as it came into contact, frying the man’s armor in an instant.

Their opponent stood there motionless for several seconds with smoke leaking out of his armor. His expression was now blank as he appeared to be unconscious. Then, he suddenly moved.

“Look out,” Monkeywrench warned.

But instead attacking, the enemy simply fell forward, landing face first on the ground. There was no further movement.

“Did we get him?” Sapphire asked.

Melissa held up her stun gun. “I’ll make sure…”

Alyss snorted. “That little thing doesn’t have anything on what Am…on what Roulette just hit him with.”

Amy came over, keeping a wary eye on their downed opponent. “I’m just glad I could use that power for something more than charging batteries.”

Monkeywrench pulled out his bananarang and gave the downed man a suspicious look. “He’s going to jump up and do a surprise attack,” he warned. “They always do that in the movies.”

But then, the Imp’s voice came from the intercom somewhere above. “Good job, kids. You did it. Now come on in for your debrief.”

“Okay,” Monkeywrench said with a shrug. “I could be wrong.” He suddenly snapped around and raised his bananarang to throw at the opponent. “Or am I?” The body still didn’t move.

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

Alyss stepped into the briefing room with her friends, still caught up in the conversation that they’d been having ever since they finished defeating their opponent.

“Your energy ball thing was awesome,” Melissa said for the third time. “POW! Sparks fly and he’s down.”

Amy looked rather pleased by that. “I was just lucky that I’m in energizer mode today. That power is especially useful against something like power armor.”

Monkeywrench smirked and added, “You could say, it’s super effective.”

“I think that is what she just said,” Sapphire pointed out.

The furry boy let out an exasperated sigh. “Come on, I was making a Pokemon joke…”

“If you have to explain it,” Alyss pointed out, “then it’s not funny.”

Then Alyss turned her full attention to the briefing room and the two people who were already present, waiting on them. One of them was the Imp, the architect of that particular arena match, while the other was Gunny Bardue. She remembered the way he’d gone over her combat final in thorough detail after she was finished with it and knew that this was going to be a similar experience.

“I don’t think this is going to be a quick overview,” Alyss quietly told her friends.

“And you’re right about that,” Bardue responded with a scowl. “Take your seats, because we’re going to be here for a bit.”

“But this isn’t part of any class,” Monkeywrench protested. “I mean, I didn’t think we would be graded…”

Bardue snorted at that. “This might not have been one of our official matches, but it was still good training, and I aim to make sure you all get the most out of it.”

“What he said,” the Imp added casually.

The eccentric art teacher had been humming a tune when they came in, and she’d only stopped long enough to make that comment. Once she did, she began humming again. Bardue gave her a brief look of annoyance but otherwise seemed to ignore her. Alyss admired his self-control.

Alyss recognized that old familiar tune, though she hadn’t actually heard it in years. Back when her kids were a lot younger, her youngest, Rich, had gone through a phase where he’d loved silly songs, and this was one of the ones that he’d frequently played over and over again. The memory brought a faint smile to her face, even as this confirmed her suspicions about the Imp’s in joke for the match.

“We’re going to go through your entire match, step by step,” Bardue told them while the Imp continued to quietly hum. “We’ll cover everything you did right, everything you did wrong, what you could have done more effectively, and how you can prepare for the next time.”

Just then, the Imp abruptly broke out singing the actual lyrics.

“It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater.
One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater.
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater.
Sure looks strange to me.”

Wednesday late afternoon, Dec 19th, 2007

Time was running out and Traci knew that she didn’t have much more of it to think about her options. She had to make a decision now. Act or don’t act. Stick with Exquisite and achieve her goals or turn her back on her team and her own interests.

It should have been an easy decision. All Traci had to do was go with the flow and she’d be one step closer to achieving the adoration and power she deserved. But in spite of that, in spite of knowing the smart choice, she still hesitated.

“All I have to do is wait,” Traci reminded herself. “It will all work itself out. I’m just worrying over nothing.”

However, in spite of her own words, Traci didn’t really believe that. Sure, that had actually been Holly’s advice, and in the end, that fact was what made her decision.

“I’ll be damned if I ever take HER advice,” Traci announced with a dismissive snort. “I’d NEVER live it down.”

Traci let out a sigh, relieved that she’d actually come to a decision. Now, she just needed to follow through with it…and deal with the consequences. However, she tried not to think about that and instead focused on making the short journey to Kane Hall.

Once Traci reached the security offices, she went to the man at the front desk and announced, “I’d like to report a planned murder.”

“Another one?” the security officer asked with a dismissive sigh. “Do you know how often we get those reports? You kids always exaggerate everything. Every little thing is suddenly a conspiracy…”

Traci scowled and clenched her fists as the anger rose, though she managed to keep her powers from flaring out of control. As it was, that security officer was lucky that she hadn’t flared up and blinded him for life.

At this rate, Traci thought that she’d probably be more effective just by warning Roulette about what Exquisite had planned. The idea of dropping it in her hands and letting her take care of herself was kind of appealing, but Traci had no intention of approaching that freak unless she had absolutely no other choice. After all, she still had a reputation to protect.

“Exquisite,” Traci started to explain, only to suddenly have another security officer immediately turn in her direction.

“Did you say Exquisite is involved?” the second security officer asked.

“Yes,” Traci answered, relieved that this man seemed to be taking her a lot more seriously than the first.

He gestured for her to approach and said, “Come with me…” The officer led her down a hallway and to a closed door. He gave the door a quick knock, then explained, “You aren’t the first student to bring this to us.”

“What?” Traci asked in surprise.

A moment later, the door opened and the security officer gestured for her to go inside. She stepped through the doorway and then froze, seeing Samantha Everheart sitting behind a desk, while right across from her was someone far more familiar.

“Iron?” she blurted out, stunned to see that her teammate was already there.

Iron stared at her for a moment, then nodded with a grim expression. “Some lines,” he stated firmly, “should not be crossed.”

Wednesday evening, Dec 19th, 2007

“I am exhausted,” Sapphire complained. “And I think that briefing was even more tiring than the fighting.”

“Yeah,” Amy agreed with a sigh. “Bardue is…thorough.”

“You can say that again,” Sapphire responded, only to pause and stare at her for a moment.

Amy blinked. “What?”

Sapphire shook her head. “Sorry. I suppose that I have been spending too much time around Melissa and Monkeywrench, because I expected you to repeat yourself.”

That made Amy laugh. “Those two are rather predictable that way.”

Amy shifted the backpack that held all of the gear she’d brought with her for the arena. It was lighter than when she’d gone in since she’d used up so much of her ammunition, but as tired as she was, it felt heavier.

She looked ahead, thinking about how much further it was to Hawthorne. It had only been a few minutes since Amy and Sapphire had said goodbye to the others and started towards their cottage, so they had much further to go than she would have preferred at that moment.

“If only I was in my exemplar mode,” Amy muttered with a sigh.

Just then, Amy noticed something from the corner of her eye. She turned and looked, seeing that someone seemed to be following them from a distance, though she couldn’t tell who it was. They were wearing a hoodie that helped to hide their face.

Amy was immediately suspicious, but she also felt a growing curiosity about this person. Who was this person following them and why? She wanted answers, and the only way to get them was to ask.

“What’s going on?” Sapphire asked. “Where are you going?”

“I just need to find something out,” Amy said as she walked towards the suspicious person. However, that person abruptly turned and began walking towards the nearest entrance to the tunnels. “You’re not getting away from me that easily.”

Amy began walking faster, determined to catch up to her target. She wanted answers. She NEEDED answers, and she was going to get them.

“What’s wrong?” Sapphire demanded.

“Someone was following us,” Amy answered as she hurried down the steps into the tunnels. “And I’m going to find out why.”

Sapphire hesitated a moment before attempting to follow, only to suddenly trip and fall flat on her face. She let out a grunt of annoyance, realizing that there was something wrong with this…with the whole situation. There was something wrong with the way that Amy was acting, and there was also something off with the way she’d suddenly lost her balance. It was as if…

“As if I suddenly got heavier for a moment,” Sapphire hissed suspiciously. “Right when I was off balance…” She narrowed her eyes and looked around. “Gravmax.”

When Sapphire didn’t see anyone, she continued to follow after Amy, wondering if she might have been wrong about her suspicion. However, that doubt faded when she was halfway down the stairs and suddenly felt herself become far too heavy again, just as she was taking a step. Off balance from the sudden shift in gravity, she tumbled down the steps.

“Gravmax,” Sapphire called out as she quickly scrambled back to her feet.

Gravity was back to normal, and if she didn’t know better, she might have just thought it was coincidence, that she’d just lost her balance for a moment. However, as an exemplar, she didn’t lose her balance that easily, and certainly not twice in rapid succession. She’d felt Gravmax’s power before, and that was exactly what this was, though it seemed he was using it in short bursts rather than just slamming her with gravity like he normally would have.

Sapphire saw someone down the tunnel, and though it could have been Gravmax, she couldn’t tell for sure. The figure disappeared around a corner before she had a chance to get a better look. Then Sapphire looked around and realized that there was one other missing person.

“Where is Amy?”

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

Bethany Farrow paused and looked back down the tunnel in the direction that she’d just come from. She wanted to make sure that Roulette was still following her.

“I don’t want to lose her,” Bethany muttered to herself, knowing that she also had to make sure that Roulette never actually caught her either. At least not until they were in place.

With that, Bethany stretched out her empathic powers, projecting a sense of nearly overwhelming curiosity at her target. It hadn’t taken much to make Roulette so curious that she ignored all common sense and followed Bethany into the tunnels without backup.

Between her empathic ability luring Roulette into the trap and Gravmax slowing down anyone who tried coming after them... Their plan was sure to work.

“Curiosity killed the cat.” Bethany said with a giggle. “Or at least, it will soon enough.”

Bethany smirked, thinking about how everyone in that school underestimated her, mockingly calling her Drama Queen as if she wasn’t capable of being subtle or using finesse. Well, she’d show them all, starting with that purple-haired pain in her rear.

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

Sapphire ran back the way she and Amy had just come, looking for any of their other friends. They’d all separated to head in different directions, but it hadn’t been very long.

To Sapphire’s relief, she saw that Melissa and Darqueheart were still making their way back to Whitman, and they were taking their time about it. If they’d gone any faster, she would have found them too late.

“Amy needs help,” Sapphire blurted out as soon as she reached her friends. “Amy went into the tunnels…and she was acting strangely.”

“Strangely, how?” Darqueheart asked, looking vaguely confused.

“She said that she saw someone following us,” Sapphire started to explain.

Melissa immediately demanded, “Was it the stalker club? They’re always following me, especially Geist…”

Sapphire gave her a flat look. “No, I do not believe this was the Cadet Corps. Gravmax stopped me when I tried to follow.”

“Gravmax?” Darqueheart repeated, her expression turning hard. “So, Exquisite and her people are messing with us again.”

“Probably,” Sapphire agreed. “I didn’t actually see Gravmax, but I recognized his power. He hit me with it when I tried following Amy into the tunnels.”

Darqueheart grimaced and suggested, “We should get everyone…”

However, Melissa cut in, “I don’t think we have the time for that.” She looked back the way Sapphire had come, then explained, “If she’s in trouble, then she might need help NOW.”

“Good point,” Darqueheart agreed, looking to Sapphire. “Then lead on.”

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

Amy hurried down the tunnel, trying to catch up with the mysterious figure. She had to know who that was. She had to know why they were following her. She had to know what was around that next corner.

Something was wrong. Amy knew that something was wrong, but all she could focus on was finding the answers to these questions.

Then she abruptly stopped, wanting to know what was down that hallway but holding herself back. It was hard, a lot harder than it should have been.

“This is like a devisor fugue,” she whispered in realization. It was like when she got so caught up in building a devise that she lost track of everything else. “This isn’t normal…”

Amy reached to the bracer on her forearm, the mode shifter devise. She didn’t like using it. It was dangerous to use since it could cause her to go into a burnout, but at the moment, it might be exactly what she needed.

“Please give me psychic mode,” Amy muttered as she activated the devise. If she could get her package deal psychic mode, then he might have the power she needed to fight this off. “Time to spin the wheel…”

She felt a surge of pain rush through her body as the devise triggered the shift to her next mode. When the pain faded, she staggered for a moment, knowing that the shift had worked…but not quite as she’d hoped.

“Damn,” Amy cursed, feeling trace amounts of essence starting to build. She was a mage, not a psychic. Then she paused again and smiled, “But that does seem to have broken whatever that was…”

Amy looked around the tunnel, no longer feeling that obsessive curiosity. She was still curious, but more than that, she was angry. Now that she was thinking straight, it was obvious that this was some kind of an attack on her.

“Talk about deja-vu,” she muttered, looking around the tunnels again, this time expecting someone to jump out and attack her.

This whole situation reminded Amy of a previous one, one where another group of students had come after her and her friends in these tunnels. Exquisite and her group had used the tunnels before, and Amy had no doubt that they were behind this as well.

“Come on out, Drama Queen,” Amy called out, knowing of only one person who could cause that kind of obsessive curiosity and who would also have reason to mess with her.

Amy reached into her backpack and pulled out her needle gun and her last couple coil gun rounds. These would have to do for now since she was low on ammunition after that arena match.

Once Amy was ready, she continued forward, down the tunnel she’d previously been racing down. However, this time she went slowly and cautiously, expecting a trap but being ready for it. She had barely gone any further when she saw what seemed to be the intended destination.

Up ahead, there was an intersection of funnels where the ground dipped quite heavily. The whole intersection was flooded with at least a couple feet of water. But what really caught her attention were the three people standing in front of this pool.

“She was right behind me,” Drama told Exquisite while Kraken just stood back, looking bored. “She should have been here already…”

“What I want to know,” Kraken commented, “is where are Iron and Starbright. I thought they were supposed to be here too.”

“Iron was supposed to be here, with us,” Exquisite explained. “Starbright was supposed to stay back with Gravmax and keep anyone else from following.”

“We don’t need everyone to just take out one cripple,” Drama said in an exasperated tone. “I lead her here and you take care of her. Simple enough.”

“Then we make sure she gets too much water,” Kraken agreed impatiently. “It looks like she got lost in the tunnels, had a burnout, and then drowned. Simple. I know the plan.”

Amy bit back a gasp of surprise, not wanting to give herself away. However, it wasn’t easy as she was shocked at the realization that they weren’t just trying to beat her…they were trying to kill her.

For several seconds, Amy was tempted to open fire and hit them with everything she had. But then, she realized that one against three would not be in her favor, especially not when one of those three was Kraken. As a high-level exemplar, he’d be able to shrug off anything she threw at him.

Just as Amy was about to turn around and head back, Drama exclaimed, “THERE SHE IS!”

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

“This is where I lost Amy,” Sapphire explained with a guilty wince. “She’s in trouble and I couldn’t help…”

“You tried to help,” Darqueheart reminded her. “And you’re helping now.”

“Yeah,” Melissa added emphatically. “Not your fault that Gravmax got in the way.” Then she looked to Darqueheart and added. “Now, do your tracking spell thing…”

Darqueheart rolled her eyes since she’d explained this before. “It isn’t a tracking spell. It’s more like…radar. I can use the shadows to map out the tunnels nearby…”

“Okay,” Melissa responded with a roll of her own eyes. “Then do that.”

There was yet another exasperated eye roll as Darqueheart muttered the spell and made several gestures with her fingers. Then she started off into space for half a minute before nodding.

“I’ve got a vague map of the nearby area,” she explained before apologetically adding, “It works better where there are more shadows and not very good in the light…so its kind of splotchy and blurred in places.”

Sapphire nodded impatiently. “But does it show you where Amy is?”

“No,” Darqueheart reluctantly admitted, letting out a sigh. Then she perked up a moment later. “But there is someone standing around down that tunnel…” She pointed down one of the tunnels. “And I think it might be Gravmax.”

Sapphire gave an evil smile at that, revealing her fangs. “Then I suggest that we go ask him where Amy went.”

“I second it,” Melissa exclaimed.

The three girls hurried down the tunnel while Darqueheart directed them where to go. It didn’t take long to reach their destination, where they saw Gravmax leaning up against a tunnel wall. As soon as he saw them, he stood up straight and glared at them.

“What did you do with Amy?” Melissa demanded.

Gravmax just smirked. “Who?”

Sapphire hissed and started moving towards him again, deciding that he was going to tell her what they did with Amy…or else. She hissed at him, making sure to reveal her fangs in a threatening manner. A lot of students seemed to be intimidated by that kind of thing.

“Watch it,” Darqueheart warned.

Suddenly, everything became unbearably heavy and Sapphire dropped to her knees. She struggled against the increased gravity, though she knew it wouldn’t do a lot of good. Gravmax’ power was too strong for her to completely break free of.

“Damn,” Darqueheart exclaimed, pressed completely flat on the ground and struggling even more.

This reminded Sapphire that while she was an exemplar and had extra strength to help her, neither of her friends had that. This gravity was hitting both of them even worse than it was her. But then, Sapphire realized that she didn’t see Melissa.

Gravmax abruptly let out a howl of pain that quickly became high pitched, right before he grabbed his crotch and dropped to the knees. A moment later, Melissa appeared behind him, pulling back the foot that she’d just used to kick him between the legs. And without a word, she shoved her stun gun right into his neck, earning another shriek before he spasmed and went silent and motionless.

“Take that,” Melissa snarled furiously before looking up at her friends. “These jerks keep ambushing us in these tunnels and I’m sick of it.”

“Me too,” Sapphire agreed as she got back to her feet. She looked over at Darqueheart who was also getting back up now that Gravmax was no longer using his powers, though she was slower about doing so. “But unfortunately, I don’t think Gravmax is in any condition to answer our questions.”

“And I think he peed himself,” Melissa said with a look of disgust as she backed away. “Ewwwww.”

“Don’t worry,” Darqueheart told them with a determined grimace. “My shadow map found a small group of people…and I think one of them is Amy.”

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

Amy opened fire with her needle gun, knowing that it was completely useless against Kraken and that wouldn’t be very effective against Exquisite either. Drama was the only one of the three who wasn’t an exemplar, which was why Amy focused the spray of flechettes at her.

Without waiting to see if she’d actually hit her target, Amy threw one of her two remaining bomblets and it exploded into a thick cloud of smoke. The smoke screen wouldn’t last long, so she turned and ran back down the tunnel.

“GET HER!” Exquisite yelled.

A blast of energy hit Amy from behind and a surge of pain burned through her entire nervous system. She screamed from Exquisite’s attack and collapsed.

“Lucky shot,” Drama said. “I couldn’t even see her through the smoke…”

Amy looked back and saw all three of her attackers emerging from the smoke. Drama was limping badly while one of her arms seemed to hang lifelessly from her shoulder. Several flechettes stuck out from that arm and from one leg, proving that Amy had managed to hit her. And with Sapphire’s venom coating the needles, Drama was obviously feeling their numbing effect. Not that it would do much good.

“She isn’t burning out,” Kraken observed.

“Not yet,” Exquisite responded with a cruel smirk. “I’ll just have to hit her again…repeatedly if necessary…until she goes into a burnout.”

“Then I toss her in the water,” Kraken nodded. “And give her a bit more for good measure.”

Amy cursed as she scrambled back to her feet, or at least as she tried to. Exquisite blasted her again, resulting in another surge of excruciating pain while her body spasmed helplessly.

Suddenly, the dark corners of the tunnel darkened further and began to spread out like spilled ink. Amy saw this and immediately realized what was happening. A faint smile formed, though she tried to keep her opponents from seeing it.

Black tendrils abruptly rose from the inky shadows and began wrapping around Amy’s opponents. At the same time, she felt someone helping her to her feet, though she didn’t see who.

“Come on,” Melissa urgently exclaimed in her ear. “We’ve got to go while they’re distracted.”

“Yeah,” Amy agreed, staggering away as quickly as she could with a body that felt like it was made of rubber.

Amy grabbed her last bomblet and threw it right at Kraken since he looked like he was about to blast her with water. It hit him in the chest and exploded into a napalm spray that immediately burst into flames that clung to his chest.

Kraken yelped in surprise and staggered back, blasting himself with a wave of water to put out the flames. The flames, as well as his antics with them, drew Exquisite and Drama’s attention, creating even more of a distraction.

The large exemplar snarled in anger and threw out his hands, firing off a blast of ice chunks that shot down the tunnel like a shotgun blast. Melissa let out a yelp as a chunk narrowly missed her, returning to visibility as she did so.

“I wish Alyss was here to deal with Kraken,” Melissa announced.

“Me too,” Amy agreed, glancing back nervously.

“Careful,” Exquisite warned Kraken. “It has to look like an accident…not an attack.”

“Too late for that,” Drama pointed out. “We need to cut our losses…”

Exquisite charged forward, firing several blasts of her energy. Melissa teleported away while Amy dove to the ground to avoid being hit again.

Sapphire burst out of a patch of darkness and slammed into Exquisite from the side, sending the other girl flying into a wall. Then, Sapphire followed that up by spitting out a spray of venom that made Exquisite cover her face to avoid being splattered there.

“We need to go,” Darqueheart said as she stepped out of a dark patch and helped Amy back to her feet again. “I don’t want to fight Kraken down here…”

“You’ll pay for that,” Exquisite exclaimed, firing another pain blast and hitting Sapphire, who promptly dropped to the ground. “All of you will.”

“Come on,” Drama tried urging Exquisite, who seemed too angry to listen to her. “It didn’t work, so lets go…”

Just then a voice yelled, “SECURITY. “EVERYONE FREEZE.”

Amy looked back and saw four people in campus security uniforms emerging from one of the side tunnels. She recognized one of them, an attractive blonde woman, as Samantha Everheart. And though she didn’t know the three who were with Everheart, Amy was sure that she’d seen them around campus.

“I can’t believe we got lost in the tunnels,” one of the unidentified security officers muttered in annoyance.

“Shhh,” one of the others told him.

“Everyone, stand down,” Everheart ordered, clearly not talking to the men who were with her.

Exquisite snapped around and immediately fired another of her pain blasts, hitting one of the security officers, who immediately dropped to the ground with a howl of pain. As soon as she attacked, Kraken followed her example by sending a wave of water at the security officers, knocking all of them but Everheart off their feet.

Everheart raised her weapon, something that Amy immediately recognized as a devisor energy rifle, very similar in design to many of the ones in her mom’s armory. It fired a blast of energy that hit Kraken in the chest. He stood there for a brief moment before his expression went blank and he dropped to the ground. Everheart immediately followed this up with a second shot at Exquisite, who collapsed the same way her teammate had a moment earlier.

“Devisor stun blast,” one of the security officers commented rather smugly. “It can even drop some bricks.”

“Did you see that?” Melissa gasped.

“No,” Darqueheart responded with a sarcastic snort. “I completely missed it.”

Everheart stepped forward, her weapon still raised. “When I order you to stand down,” she announced in a firm tone, “you stand down.”

Drama’s hands shot up over her head in clear surrender.

Crystal Hall, Thursday late morning, Dec 20th, 2007

“I wish I could have been there,” Chris said, feeling guilty for not being able to help when his friends were in trouble. “I would have…”

“I know you would have come, if we’d had time to get you,” Darqueheart told him, glancing to the others for support. “We just didn’t have time.”

“Yeah,” Melissa agreed with a nod. “I wish we could have had you guys there too…”

“Things were a little…close,” Amy admitted with a shake of her head. “If it hadn’t been for you…” She looked to Darqueheart, Sapphire, and Melissa, “I would have been in deep trouble.”

“And if it hadn’t been for security showing up when they did,” Darqueheart added with a deep scowl. This was clearly a grudging admission. “If security didn’t show up, we all would have been in trouble.”

“You can say that again,” Sapphire said with a sigh.

“If security didn’t show up, we all would have been in trouble,” Melissa and Monkeywrench both exclaimed at the same time. Then they glared at each other and simultaneously said, “JINX.”

Alyss chuckled and gestured over her shoulder. “Jinx is sitting over there somewhere.”

Chris snorted at that. “I didn’t realize I’d joined a comedy troupe.”

Amy chuckled in response. “We’re called Shenanigans…so you should expect some.”

“Very true,” Darqueheart added with a wry smile. “Maybe we should have called ourselves Team Badass instead.”

“That would have been awesome,” Melissa said with a broad grin.

“You know,” Alyss said, her expression serious. “I was thinking after last night, we should do one of those situation reviews…like what Bardue did with us after our arena match yesterday.”

“That’s a good idea,” Darqueheart agreed.

“There are a lot of things we can improve,” Amy admitted. “Both in preparation for future matches…and in case of real trouble.”

“The kind that keeps finding us all,” Sapphire mused. “The Imp called us a bunch of trouble magnets, and last night just seems to prove that.”

Amy nodded. “We talked about this a bit with Bardue and the Imp, but I think I need to improve my weapons a bit more… Or at least, keep more rounds on me.”

“My bananarang isn’t the game changer I’d hoped,” Monkeywrench admitted. “I should practice with it…and get more weapons. I already knew that I need to improve my repertoire for a real fight. I’m thinking, that for the next arena match…I should use my Poo Launcher. I can change out the load…maybe make it into a glue gun or something.”

“No exploding barrel to throw?” Alyss asked him with a chuckle.

Monkeywrench grinned. “Not a bad idea.”

“Steel toed boots,” Melissa blurted out. “So, I can kick harder.”

“And maybe some better weapons,” Chris suggested for her. “That stun gun was pretty cool, but maybe something a little easier to deal with…”

Monkeywrench quickly suggested, “Like those taser gloves you had.”

Melissa’s eyes went wide. “Zappy gloves…” She grinned in anticipation. “I really need some new ones, since my old ones broke…” Then she added, “And Imp has been trying to teach me how to use throwing spikes so I can get a bit more range too…”

“And I was thinking about asking Nacht for some advice,” Darqueheart said. “Maybe even some tutoring. She’s probably the best erebeal mage on campus.”

“Good idea,” Sapphire told her with a nod of approval.

“What we really need,” Chris suggested thoughtfully, “is radios…”

“That would be awesome,” Melissa exclaimed. “Then we can listen to cool music while we fight, and maybe get our own soundtracks…”

“Not that kind of radio, you nitwit,” Darqueheart told her, though it was more of a gentle teasing than the sharp insults she once would have given.

“Good idea,” Amy said with a thoughtful look. “If we had radios, we’d be able to split up and coordinate better in the arena…”

“And call for help when we need it,” Sapphire added, clearly referring to the night before.

Chris nodded, though he was slightly annoyed that they’d taken the words out of his mouth before he could explain his thoughts. Still, he was glad that they were taking his suggestion seriously.

“We do have two devisors,” Chris pointed out, looking to Amy and then Monkeywrench. “Maybe you guys could make something…”

“Good idea,” Alyss said with the others nodded agreement.

“My specialty is chemistry and chemical dispersal,” Monkeywrench reminded them. “Radios aren’t really in my wheelhouse.” Then he looked to Amy. “But Amy specializes in electromagnetic fields, so this should be right up your alley.”

“True,” Amy reluctantly admitted, though she didn’t look happy about that. “But I’m only a part time devisor. Do you have any idea how long it would take for me to come up with something good, much less make a bunch of radios?”

“And she already needs to work on her gear,” Sapphire added in Amy’s defense.

“I can ask around the labs,” Monkeywrench suggested with a thoughtful look. “There are a few people around who work with radios, so I’m sure I can get one of them to make something for us.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “But it won’t be free.”

“Nothing ever is,” Darqueheart snorted.

“Now then,” Amy said, trying to get back on subject. “What else can we do to prepare for Team Tactics…and for whatever else Exquisite’s people try next?”

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

Chris stepped out of the Crystal Hall cafeteria, thinking about the conversation that he and his friends had just had. For all of lunch and then some, they’d talked about how they could improve.

There was absolutely no doubt that he could up his own game even more, though he was still unsure of exactly how. Adding holdouts might work, and so would paying more attention to Sensei Ito in BMA. He’d learned a lot in that class already, even if it had taken him awhile before he’d been able to put any of it into practice.

Of course, most of Chris’ improvements had come about because of his lessons with the Imp. She might have been a supervillain…and a particularly crazy one at that, but she really knew what she was talking about when it came to using his powers. Maybe she could help him learn even more new tricks.

“I don’t want to be left behind again,” he muttered with a shake of his head.

Chris paused and looked over to Darqueheart, who’d left the cafeteria at the same time he had. After a moment, he moved closer to her, trying to gather his nerve for what he wanted to say.

“Darqueheart,” he started to say to get her attention, before saying, “Colleen.”

That immediately got her attention. “Yes?” she asked just a little nervously.

“I had a real good time the other day,” Chris told her. “I was hoping we could do it again.”

Darqueheart…Colleen gave him a self-conscious smile. “Me too,” she responded while her devil tail swished back and forth behind her. “How about…tonight?”

Chris grinned back. “That would be awesome.”

Colleen stared at him for a moment, smiling as she did so. Then she abruptly leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, surprising Chris completely.

“Then I’ll see you tonight,” Colleen told him before she hurried off, practically skipping as she did so.

Chris reached up and felt his cheek where she’d kissed him, giving a nervous yet dreamy smile as he did so. “I can’t wait.”

Thursday afternoon, Dec 20th, 2007

Traci looked around the room where Denouement was meeting, or at least, those who were available. There were two notable absences.

“Exquisite and Kraken are still being held by security,” Gravmax announced, “and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be released anytime soon.”

“I’m lucky they let me out,” Drama said with a look of disgust. “Those two idiots attacked security. I didn’t fight them, but they still kept me locked up overnight.”

Traci nodded at that. “Attacking security was a pretty bad idea.”

Of course, the whole situation had been one major bad idea, though she didn’t say that aloud. Instead, she and Iron shared a quick glance.

From what Traci knew, Exquisite and Kraken were both in some serious trouble, but not nearly as serious as they should have been. Security didn’t have any proof about the attempted murder, and the story that everyone else in Denouement was sticking with, was that they were just trying to prank a fellow student. The only real evidence security had, were Traci and Iron’s words…which apparently weren’t enough.

However, Exquisite and Kraken had both attacked the security officers, and the school was taking that pretty seriously. From what she’d heard, there was talk of serious detention as well as possible expulsion.

“I can’t believe Exquisite is blaming me for that,” Drama said with an angry sneer. “She told security that the reason that she and Kraken attacked them…was that because I made her.”

“She’s throwing you under the bus to save herself,” Iron pointed out grimly. “Not a surprise. We’ve all seen the way she operates. She’d turn on any of us the moment it helped her.”

“I can’t argue with that,” Gravmax admitted. Then he glared at Iron and Traci. “And where were you two? If you two had been there, then we might have finished this off before security ever arrived. Before those Shenanigan idiots got there.”

“Yeah,” Drama added. “This could have been a success.”

“Iron and I were on our way,” Traci lied, “but security detained us. We couldn’t even warn you that they were on their way.”

“Yeah,” Iron agreed, giving Traci a knowing look. “They already knew about what was going on…or at least had some kind of suspicion.”

“All those security cameras,” Traci added with a nod. “They’re all over this damn school.”

Drama abruptly stood up and announced, “Well, I’m done with Exquisite. I’m already facing detention, and with her telling them that I’m behind it all…” Anger flashed over her face and for a moment, Traci suddenly felt angry as well. But then Drama pulled her power back. “I might even get expelled.”

“I’m out too,” Traci said. “This alliance isn’t working the way Exquisite promised us, and as this proves…we can’t trust her. None of us can.”

“She’ll throw us all under the bus,” Iron agreed. “I’m out too.”

Gravmax stared at him, then let out a sigh. “You’re right. This was supposed to be our big chance…but instead we keep getting humiliated.”

With that, all four of them began heading for the door. There was no need to say anymore because they all knew that Denouement was over.

The Village, Thursday evening, Dec 20th, 2007

The Imp sat at a table in the Flying Blue Squirrel pub, having a drink and a small bite to eat while going over her lesson plans for the winter term. She already knew which classes she was going to be teaching, but she still needed to figure out exactly what she was going to teach over the term and in what order. Some classes were easier than others.

“How to crack a bank vault might be a little too advanced,” she mused to herself as she reluctantly crossed off one of the items on her list.

A moment later, she noticed Elizabeth Carson coming through the door, which wasn’t an uncommon sight. However, the fact that Carson was walking straight towards her table definitely caught her attention.

“Christine,” Carson greeted her, indicating that this was casual rather than official business. “Do you mind if I have a seat?”

“Not at all,” Imp responded, closing her folder and moving it aside to make more room for the other woman. “So, what’s up?”

Carson sat down and got comfortable before saying, “I received an unexpected phone call today.”

“Oh?” Imp responded curiously, waiting for Carson to expand on that.

“I was contacted by an old acquaintance whom I haven’t spoken to in years,” Carson explained. “And he was calling to confirm that you actually work at the school.”

Imp frowned as she considered all the reasons that someone might ask Carson about her, and most of them weren’t good. “Anyone I know?”

Carson looked Imp straight in the eye as she calmly answered, “Doctor Miracle.”

The former villainess tensed a little at that name, but simply responded with another, “Oh?”

“He said that you recently performed a task for him,” Carson continued, still looking calm and casual though her eyes were fixed on the Imp with the same intensity that they had on countless students before. “Something about recovering some stolen property, though he didn’t clarify any further, other than to say that he was grateful to you for doing so.”

For several seconds, Imp just stared back at Carson, wondering how much the other woman knew and how much she should admit to. But then, she let out a sigh, seeing where this conversation was going to go…where it needed to go.

“His power item,” Imp admitted with a scowl. Normally, she wouldn’t divulge details about a job that she’d been hired to pull, but Doctor Miracle had contacted Carson first, and he had already given the basics. “His magic scepter. He called in an old favor, from before he retired, and asked me to get his scepter back for him.”

Carson’s eyes widened at that, and for the first time, she actually looked surprised. “He lost that years ago…” She shook her head slightly. “You have no idea what that means for him…”

The Imp shook her head. “Actually, I do.” She gave a wry smile. “He explained it to me.”

“I’m pleased to hear that he has it back,” Carson said a few seconds later. “But I must admit, what I’m really curious about now is…how in the world did YOU end up owing a favor to HIM.”

“That,” the Imp responded with a deep scowl, “is a story that requires a bit more privacy, and something a lot stronger to drink than this.” She gestured to the glass of beer on the table.

Carson stared intently at the Imp for several long seconds, then she abruptly turned and called out to the bartender, “Bring us two glasses from my reserved bottle.”

The bartender pulled out a bottle from behind the counter and poured that into two tumblers. Without a word, he brought them over and set the glasses down on the table.

As soon as the bartender had left, Carson said, “Devisor grade scotch.” Then she made a show of pulling a devise from her pocket and setting it down on the table. The Imp immediately recognized the privacy field generator, which was guaranteed to keep anyone from listening in on their conversation, or even reading their lips. “Now, about that story.”

The Imp took a sip from her glass and felt it burn going down. Devisor grade meant that it could get her drunk, regardless of her regeneration. She nodded appreciatively and set the glass back down, though she didn’t release it right away. Instead, she swirled the contents a little while she organized her thoughts.

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away,” the Imp began, then added, “About fifteen years ago, in New York…I had a bit of a thing going on with a hero…” She sneered as she said the word ‘hero’. “It was the usual thing. I pull a job, he tries to stop me, we banter a bit, then I escape. We did the usual dance a few times.”

“I’m familiar with your banter,” Carson interjected wryly, a reminder that she and the Imp had once met under similar circumstances.

“Yeah,” Imp agreed with a grin. “The usual. Well, anyway…this guy took it personally. He had a real temper…and he held a grudge. And one day, he sees his opportunity and jumps me.”

The Imp passed at that, scowling deeply. There was no sign of her usual mirth. Instead, there was an old and deep-seated anger, a sharp bitterness that Carson had rarely seen from the woman. That alone gave the headmistress a good idea about the identity of this ‘hero’ the Imp was talking about.

“I wasn’t pulling a job or anything of the kind,” the Imp explained, her voice catching a little as she did so. “I could almost understand it if that had been the case, since you assume certain risks with the job. But I was actually on…vacation. I was taking time away from my usual career, and was a bit lost in thought so didn’t see him coming…”

At this point, the Imp took a drink from her scotch and then just stared into the glass for several long seconds. She was so tense that Carson wondered if the Imp might accidentally break the glass.

“He beat me mercilessly,” the Imp finally continued. “Probably broke at least half the bones in my body. And then, once he was done…” She looked up and met Carson’s eyes. “And then, whether to finish me off…or because he thought he already had and just wanted to get rid of the body…he threw me into the river.”

“T Rex,” Carson quietly said the hero’s name. “That was Roland Williams, wasn’t it?”

The Imp nodded at that, not surprised that Carson had figured out that part. After all, Carson definitely knew about the grudge the two of them had, if not the full story behind it.

“Yeah,” the Imp agreed with a sigh. “Barney.” Then she shook her head and added, “Doctor Miracle was the one who pulled me out of the river and healed me. He was the one who saved my life.”

Carson nodded faintly. “Hence, the favor.”

“Hence, the favor,” Imp agreed.

She paused at that, knowing that she could stop the story right there and Carson would be satisfied. However, there was more that needed to be said. There was more that she had to tell Carson, and if she didn’t do it right then, she might never do so.

“There’s more,” Imp said a few seconds later. “More to the favor…and to my feud with Barney.” She took a deep breath, then added, “At the time…I was pregnant.”

Carson’s eyes shot even wider than before, and this time, there was a flash of rage that didn’t quite make it to the rest of her face. “I see,” she said, her voice carefully controlled though she gave Imp a look of intense sympathy. “Now, I can understand your issue with Williams.” She shook her head. “Louis told me that you blamed him for losing your child, but I had no idea…”

The Imp shook her head. “No… My baby…” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “My baby survived.” Carson gave another look of surprise, but she continued. “Doctor Miracle was able to save my baby, and THAT was why I gave him the favor…”

“Then,” Carson started thoughtfully.

“I gave birth to a healthy baby boy,” Imp told her with a faint smile, though it quickly turned sad. “But after what happened…I knew that I couldn’t keep him. My life was too dangerous. I had too many enemies and there was too much risk of him being killed…” She let out a sigh, then quietly explained, “So, I gave him up for adoption, knowing that I’d never see him again. The best thing I could do for him was to get out of his life and give him a chance at a normal life. A safe life.”

“That couldn’t have been easy,” Carson said with a sympathetic look.

“You have no idea,” the Imp muttered. Then, she took a deep breath and abruptly said, “You have a daughter, here at Whateley. I heard that she died and then came back…”

Carson hesitated for a moment. “Yes. Losing Shelly was one of the most difficult experiences of my life. The fact that she came back was… Well, for lack of a better word…a miracle.”

“That’s exactly how I feel,” Imp quietly said. Then in a clearer voice, she explained, “I recently discovered something… I didn’t go looking for it. It just landed right in my lap, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear a mangler was involved.”

“What are you talking about?” Carson asked with a suspicious look.

“My son,” the Imp told her with a strange expression, one that seemed stunned and delighted at the same time. “The baby I gave up and never thought I’d see again… I found out that he’s HERE…at Whateley.” She paused at that to take a sip of scotch. “And he’s one of my students.”

Carson just stared at her, once again surprised. She took a sip from her own drink before asking, “Who?”

“Aegis,” the Imp answered with a wry smile. “The same kid you asked me to tutor.” She shook her head. “Turns out, there’s a reason our powers are so similar.”

“That’s…,” Carson started, only to pause and shake her head. “No wonder you’d suspect mangler involvement.”

The Imp stared down into her glass. “He doesn’t know…and I have no intention of telling him.”

For several seconds, the two women just stared at each other in a moment of shared understanding. Then as one, they both picked up their glasses and downed the remaining contents in a single gulp each.

The End