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[hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟛, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥   / /   𝔻𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕆𝕗𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕖   / /  𝟚𝟙𝟜𝟘[/color][/center][hr]
Commander Kardos had cleared his notes from her desk by the time she returned, the meticulously organized sheets of paper tucked under an arm as he waited for her leave to depart for his own office. Director Zhang waved him away, eyes on her own pile of paperwork Greten had sorted for her. The USARILN West transfers.

No doubt Kleinfelder had sent her the worst of the students he could pass off as reasonably battle-worthy. And she'd have the distinct pleasure of dealing with every single one of them on top of all the issues plaguing her Institute, least of all the 20 subnaturals they kept sedated underground.

Hector had been recently returned to his chamber after his little tantrum as well, and when Miranda was solid enough to be of use again, she'd have him clean up the dead monsters mucking up the underground hallway. The boy's carrion-eating creature could regain its strength and she wouldn't have to waste resources attempting to rid herself of five hallways' worth of monsters with varying resistances to normal disposal methods. 

If the creatures had lasted longer than a week before dissipating, she would have sent them to the same bunker with the Primordial for study. But a copycat puppet using Menagerie's power wasn't worth the effort. The government already had plenty of information on the real Menagerie's power.

So she had murdered the perpetrator herself. With Hephaestus's experimental weapon, she could do that. "The Dreambreaker," he had called it--a prototype gun that could temporarily disrupt a mage's connection to the source behind their powers. He had only created one, and she had been the one chosen to test the weapon. How fortuitous, then, that such a perfect opportunity had fallen into her lap so soon after its arrival.

Then the universe threw its punchline and the weapon had only partially worked on the intruder--a sign that either the prototype was a failure or there was more to the matter than simply Dreamcatcher working in the background. Something she'd have to let the crafter know in yet another report to fill out.

The first report would have to be sent to the Department of Defense, detailing the particulars of the incident. And her [i]oh so unfortunate mistake[/i] in announcing Menagerie as the perpetrator. Yes, [i]quite[/i] an unfortunate mistake. 

It had, of course, been intentional.

And they certainly couldn't blame her for making the assumption. It wasn't like the USARILN directors were supposed to know the truth. Her reliable source was the only reason she had been made aware.

And now the Death and Taxes forum was aflame with speculation and panic. The news would leak across the USARILNs and stir events just enough. A Precursor rebelling. True or not, it was sensational. Any attempt to correct the issue afterwards would simply look like a cover-up. And so things would begin to spin. She could only hope she was ready for what she had started.

Between revealing Menagerie's death five years ago and revealing the top secret existence of the elusive subnatural code-named "Bogeyman," she wondered how exactly the government planned on handling the chaos she had [i]innocently[/i] unleashed upon them. When the news inevitably leaked to the public, she would either cement her position or lose it entirely. Right now, those odds were 50/50. And she had every intention of changing that.

But not now. Now she needed rest and relaxation to prepare for the storm on the horizon.

In the fight against Bogeyman's puppet, she had fired two shots, each one strong enough to rumble through a good portion of the facility, denting even the material beneath the walls. Two quakes, and there wasn't a body left to dispose of. Just the remains of soldiers and monsters that died fighting.

Naturally, the event had tired her out. Even if the exhaustion seemed exaggerated.

The Director rubbed her temples slowly, willing the headache to go away. There was too much to handle at the moment and she couldn't afford to waste the time dealing with something as bothersome as an exertion headache.

If only events had been kind enough to oblige.

[color=f7976a]"When I said these new kids were different, I didn't mean they could be deployed immediately!"[/color] Rosa's voice cut through the quiet humming of the room's computers and the muted thrumming noise of Hephaestus's control cube.

The Director looked up at the staff member standing in the open doorway of her expansive office, a fretting Greten in the background trying to persuade the excitable woman to leave. Rosa's power was in full effect, the lines so thick around her eyes they almost looked like a half-mask.

[color=f7976a]"You wanted to see them in combat and combat came to us. Two birds with one stone. And now you're here angrily shouting at me because you hate that this method yielded results."[/color]

Director Zhang stared placidly at the other woman, knowing that this close Rosa's power could catch every little nuance of exhaustion and irritation--among other things--on display both physically and mentally.

[color=f7976a]"We lost two of them! And Bradley and Joseph!"[/color]

[color=f7976a]"You're the only one who bothers remembering the names of the faceless."[/color]

[color=f7976a]"Where is this going to lead? How many are you going to kill for your goals?"[/color]

[color=f7976a]"As many as I need to. You included if this pointless argument doesn't end now."[/color]

Rosa crossed her arms, staring at the Director with both her eyes and her power.

[color=f7976a]"This isn't different, you know."[/color]

[color=f7976a]"...I [i]know[/i] I don't have a choice. They have to be stronger and we can't waste time coddling them anymore. Time and again we've seen real combat strengthen powers. It's effective. It works. For an entire year, we watched Lawrence Ellison, and only twice did you see the trails of power expand. So tell me I'm wrong. Tell me forcing them here didn't work. Look, Rosa, and you [i]tell me[/i] it didn't work."[/color]

Rosa breathed in, trembling as she looked at something far above them, seeing something that was and wasn't there. She had felt it moments ago, but now she [i]looked[/i], and it seemed even more prominent. More present than it had ever been before.

[color=f7976a]"It worked,"[/color] she whispered. [color=f7976a]"Beyond belief."[/color]

The Director's eyes narrowed. [color=f7976a]"What do you mean?"[/color]

[color=f7976a]"I said they were different,"[/color] her eyes tracked something rapidly across her vision [color=f7976a]"because I've never seen something like this before."[/color]

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[hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟛, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   ℂ𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖𝕟 ℂ𝕦𝕝𝕡𝕒𝕖 𝟙   / /   ℕ𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕟 𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕣𝕥𝕤   / /  𝟚𝟙𝟝𝟘[/color][/center][hr]

A long, wide truck rolled at a leisurely pace towards the decimated battlefield, filled with soldiers now freed from guarding the underground containment chambers. Behind that, a large tow truck followed.

[color=f7976a]"Suppression module: on,"[/color] the cuff's automated voice announced as the new trucks came to a stop.

20 soldiers stepped quickly out of the truck after it pulled to a stop, several of them surrounding the dragon while the others pulled out stretchers from within the vehicle and loaded the dead bodies onto one of the original three trucks. Several more were assisting the sickened soldiers and the last four headed towards Shane's group, weapons aimed at the veteran subnatural as waves of light blue hexagons continued rolling off his mist-wrapped body.

With a half-hearted smile, Shane raised his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. 

A moment later, he released the hold on his magic and, consequently, the buffer of the armaments. The crystals around him dispersed soundlessly.

Before even a second had passed, Shane collapsed with a choking gasp, unconscious before he even hit the floor.

The soldiers continued aiming at his prone form, eyeing the mist around his torso suspiciously. When it seemed like nothing more was happening, two of them picked him up carefully and took him towards the longer truck that had recently arrived.

One of the remaining two looked down at the injured girl and the unconscious blonde boy, motioning for several of the other soldiers to move them as well.

With their weapons trained on the students, they didn't seem concerned that many of the kids were injured or potentially dying. Fair trade for the subnaturals' lack of concern over their dead comrades.

When the injured had been moved into the larger truck, the soldiers ordered the rest of the students inside with quick shouts of [color=f7976a]"In!"[/color] and pointed guns. Similar orders echoed at Chris, who was ushered at gunpoint onto the platform of the tow truck and bound with chains made of that same transparent material so often encountered at the Institute.

Within the main vehicle were several paramedics at the ready, armed with basic medical supplies and empty gurneys. Several of the soldiers spoke with two of the paramedics--a young man and woman pulling on gloves in a corner. They nodded at the soldiers and picked up several white boxes, heading out to help the four poisoned guards. Separately. Away from the subnaturals.

The injured students were transferred from the stretchers to the gurneys lined tightly against the walls of the truck and, once everyone had filed in, the larger truck moved out with the tow truck following close behind, leaving the rest of the soldiers to return in the three smaller trucks.

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][/center]
[hr][center][color=silver]𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟛, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥   / /   ℍ𝕠𝕤𝕡𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 ℂ   / /  𝟚𝟚𝟙𝟝[/color][/center][hr]

With the exceptions of Chris, who was taken to a separate wing on the ground floor of the hospital, and Shane, who was wheeled to a different floor, the new students were all shoved, prodded, and thrust into the same long room Gregory occupied, recently cleared for the new arrivals at the Director's order. The nurses and doctors quickly set to work checking on injuries and cleaning them out, while uninjured students were left to wait in what looked like a entertainment corner of flatscreens, comic books, and video games. Several of the soldiers marked the foot of Christmas's and Lilianna's beds with blue tape and the hospital staff focused on the two of them first, hooking Christmas up to an IV drip before sending interns off to get information on the healers.

While that happened, the same soldiers cuffed Sander's hands and legs together with the suppression cuffs from before, dimming the surge of his powers and locking down movement enough to give them ample response time should he prove himself more trouble than he was worth.

Before long, the hapless interns returned with several folders of information and one of the doctors quickly scanned through the pages before ordering a blood transfusion for Christmas. 

Normal procedure went out the window when they hooked up five bags of blood to several veins along Christmas's body, and it wasn't long before a nurse withdrew some of Christmas's blood into a syringe and quickly injected it into Lilianna without a word of warning or acknowledgement.

The effect was immediate. The shimmering glow around Lilianna's body indicated the transfer had been quick enough and the slow repair of the girl's injuries meant there was significantly less work for the staff. With sighs of relief passing through the crowd of medical professionals, they settled back into a more relaxed routine, caring superficially for several of the worse injuries and making sure particularly threatening wounds were clean and bandaged.

When most of the preparations were complete, several of the doctors discussed waiting periods before withdrawing more of the healing blood and it was decided, based upon the notes provided, that several hours would be sufficient.

That done, they left the room of subnaturals to their own devices, assigning one nurse--Alissa--to watch both Christmas and Lilianna. She was the same nurse who had taken pity on Gregory before and when she noticed him in the room, she offered a quick wave and an apologetic look, inclining her head gently at the poor boy's condition after having just left the hospital several hours ago.

She might have even said something, if Benediction hadn't passed through the room in a flock of guards.

Dressed in a black turtleneck sweater, slacks, and polished dress shoes, the Precursor's bored expression didn't change as his ruby eyes flicked from student to student. 

A scoff. A quick glance at his watch. A roll of his eyes.

He waved a bright hand through the air, lighting up the entire room in an array of white pinpricks of light that healed the students' injuries completely, disintegrating even the IV needles in their arms. The tubes of blood and IV fluids leaked out onto the glossy sheet vinyl floor in his wake, but if the Precursor noticed, he didn't care.

With a stifled yawn, the closest thing the world had to a benevolent god walked out of the room, exiting through the door on the other side while patting his hair and clothes to make sure the flight over hadn't mussed anything important.

Within minutes, Alissa had called for a doctor, but news that Benediction had arrived was already on everyone's tongues.

[color=f7976a]"You're all cleared to go,"[/color] a female doctor with black hair in a bob cut and a gratingly sweet voice announced to the room before walking briskly in the direction Benediction had gone. 

Alissa remained, cleaning up the mess Benediction had left behind.

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[hider=OOC Interaction Tags/Notes:]
[@Snagglepuss89][@GreenGoat][@Piercing Light][@VampireOracle][@ERode][@Kyrisse][@Diggerton][@Deathmyster][@dragonmancer][@RedDusk][@Baklava][@Chasers115][@Lasrever][@PapiTan][@Riffus Maximus][@Holy Grail][@VarionusNW][@Zombehs][@canaryrose][@banjoanjo]

Next post considerations:

1. Week-long timer is back. Time skip coming up. Three days. You may write events up until Sept. 7, 2020: 0900.

2. Anyone who's actually turned in their exams/requisition sheets will have it considered in the coming update.

3. DnT forums are completely gone. Any character who checks during this time period will only find an error page.

4. Anyone wishing to interact with NPCs (instead of your fellow players for some reason) should let me know when, since NPCs will be found in different locations depending on day and time. We'll collab for those interactions.

5. School grounds and surrounding town are completely free to explore. Let me know where you'd like to head in town and I'll give you the general atmosphere of the place. If players do wander into town/certain parts of the school, I may throw some small events around and offer collabs.

6. Chris has no injuries on transforming back and everyone's too busy flocking to Benediction to care when he leaves the hospital, though a few eyebrows might raise that he's walking out naked, so try clothes, but no pressure.
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