[COLOR=GRAY][INDENT][indent][color=#ffffff]“That went better than expected.”[/color]

The words hung in the air, a smug tone behind them as the pair of women exited from O’Neil’s office before walking towards the rear of the Administrative building. Maya’s face was covered in a triumphant smile but Teresa Torres wasn’t sharing the same sentiment.

[color=#ffffff]“We’ve but won a battle, Maya.”[/color] Torres scolded, [color=#ffffff]“There are plenty more to win before the war is over.”[/color] She motioned with her chin towards a door. Opening the door, Maya secured the empty room before placing her hand against the wall. Reaching out with her powers, she erected a sound proof barrier around the room before nodding towards Torres.

Lifting her phone to the side of her head, Torres waited for the voice on the other end to speak first.

[color=#ffffff]“Speak.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Pacific Royal folded the minute their certifications were gone to the primary programs. We have permission to bring more of our people onto the island. I would suggest sending a pair of Arms in addition to the Foot.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Then everything is as I have foreseen it. Is there anything else you need?”[/color] The voice of Nakamura Yoshi asked from the otherside of the phone.

[color=#ffffff]“Can you spare the Fist?”[/color] Torres asked. There was a pause on the other side of the line. The steady sounds of inhales and exhales before the click of a tongue as her answer came.

[color=#ffffff]“I will make it so.”[/color][/indent][/indent][CENTER][COLOR=dimgray]
[sup]________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][/COLOR][img]https://i.imgur.com/y5ZRxZi.png[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=silver][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]The Southern Plateau[/I] - [I]Dundas Islands, Pacific Ocean[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=silver][b]Welcome Home #1.057:[/b][/COLOR] [I]A Terrible Idea[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][COLOR=dimgray][SUP][sub]____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/SUP][/COLOR][INDENT][sub][color=silver][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]None[/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=silver][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]A Pacific Royal Welcome[/I][/right][/SUP]
[INDENT]The pair of Minotaurs emblazoned with the Blackjack emblem were waiting to be unloaded. Laden in the beds of the pair of trucks were tents and coolers, both essential parts of the annual excursion to the Southern Plateau. 

The automatically erecting tents the students were accustomed to didn’t require a lot of effort and even included cots within them. Some students struggled with the weight, but the tent itself did the work once they were placed and the lever pulled. The tents were the same issue as those used by H.E.L.P.’s field agents, capable of surviving anything short of a nuclear blast. They were even climate-controlled, which was probably for the best considering that Blackjack had both extremes covered between the likes of Calliope and Lorcán.

Looking out over the center field, Tad surveyed the construction site where this year’s Homecoming Trial was to be built. Generally, the Trial was only run by freshmen who needed to be placed in a House, but often the students who aided in its construction were rewarded with the first run through. Considering there were a handful of his team members whose Trials were interrupted by Hyperion, Tad was sure they’d relish the opportunity to put together the course. 

Beside Blackjack’s campsite was the one belonging to Team 78 or Firebird. A smaller team than Blackjack, they were overseen by Tad’s fiancé, Jessica Friend.

[color=#ffffff]“Jess!”[/color] Tad waved to his wife-to-be, [color=#ffffff]“Hey, I haven’t seen you all day!”[/color]

Greeting with a small peck on the lips, Jess smiled up at Tad.

[color=#ffffff]“Oh well, I knew we both had early mornings so I wanted to get a jump on my day and you looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to wake you on my way out.” [/color]She looked around him at the campsite that had yet to be constructed.

[color=#ffffff]“Ah,” [/color]She mused knowingly, [color=#ffffff]“I see Blackjack is being Blackjack again.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“They’ll get here in their own time.”[/color] Tad replied with a smile of his own, [color=#ffffff]“They always do and they’ll be bringing the party with them. I’m sure by now at least half of them have some cockeyed plot to save the school from the [i]scary[/i] Foundation.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Always main character energy with that lot,”[/color] Jess laughed as she pointed to a tent situated on the midpoint between the two campsites. [color=#ffffff]“I’ve gone ahead and set out our tent, you should be able to keep watch on your rabble from there.”[/color]

She turned, her hand guiding Tad’s line of sight back to the construction site.

[color=#ffffff]“And Robert was looking for you earlier, wanted to start picking your brain about where your crew would be best used. Said I wasn’t as familiar with their abilities, but that they’d be a handful no matter what.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Way to set expectations, dear.”[/color] Tad muttered with mock hurt. [color=#ffffff]“I’ll go see what Robert needs, if you happen to see any of Blackjack, could you ask them to start setting up. Maybe Banjo will be more receptive to you.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Shut up, Tad, yer mother was a bloody ‘amster and yer father smelt o’ elderberries.”[/color] Jess retorted, doing her best attempt at the younger student’s accident. [color=#ffffff]“Honestly, I don’t know how you put up with it, I probably would have put in for a transfer by now.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“I have you,”[/color] Tad cooed, [color=#ffffff]“That’s how.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Shut up, Tad.”[/color] Jess laughed as Tad turned to walk towards the Trial site.

[color=#ffffff]“Robert!”[/color] Tad called running up to the indicated figure. Robert was a behemoth of a man, probably one of the few on campus taller than Blackjack’s own Katja. Two small horns protruded from his forehead while pointed ears accented the lower canines that extended from his bottom jaw past his upper lip. Braided jet black hair hung down to his waist while a jagged scar stretched over one of his brilliant bright green eyes nearly down to his lips and a neatly trimmed stubble beard. Depending on the light, his dark skin often took on a greenish hue.

Impressively strong, Robert was an engineering graduate student who had been leading the Trail Construction for the last two years. It was almost humorous to see Robert in a dress shirt tightly wrapped across his barrel of a chest, the top three buttons left open to allow him some movement in the rolled sleeves. The muscles in his legs may as well have made his slacks into yoga pants as next to nothing as left to the imagination.  

[color=#ffffff]“Thaddeus Finch.”[/color] Robert replied, his baritone rumbling out over the plateau. [color=#ffffff]“Just the man I was looking for.”[/color] He replied with a hearty laugh and a pat on the back that nearly sent Tad face first into the dirt beneath him.

[color=#ffffff]“Well you and maybe that Katja,”[/color] He added with a wink and elbow that again threatened to send Tad flying. [color=#ffffff]“I don’t suppose your valkyrie is around.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Not yet.”[/color] Tad replied apologetically with a weak smile. [color=#ffffff]“Jess said you wanted to go over a few things.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Yeah, you have twelve on Blackjack right?”[/color] Robert asked.

[color=#ffffff]“That’s right, though after today’s big news, I’m not sure that’ll be the case. Some of them might have gone back to their dorms to pack.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Eh,”[/color] Robert chuckled lightly,[color=#f3f3f3] “H.E.L.P. always comes out on top, I’m not too worried yet. It’s just politics.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Says the guy with an accredited degree.”[/color] Tad replied a bit too coldly. Robert raised an eyebrow, taking his hand off the almost comically small tablet before gesturing towards himself.

[color=#ffffff]“It’s not like I was going to find a job outside this island, Thaddeus.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Uh, yeah I’ll have to concede there,”[/color] Tad replied, his voice trailing off as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. 

[color=#ffffff]“Your team, then?” [/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Right-o, yeah we have twelve. Barnes, Baxter, Cahors, de Léon, Galahad, Hisamatsu, Kruger, Mitchell, Penada, Roth, Tyler and a Banjo.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“You have a banjo?”[/color] Robert asked.

[color=#ffffff]“We have [i]the [/i]Banjo.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“If you insist.”[/color] Robert replied,[color=#ffffff] “It’s not that remarkable of an instrument, personally, I am more of a fan of the sitar.”[/color] 

[color=#ffffff]“No, the Banjo who stood up to Hyperion. He’s a student.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“I am not familiar with this student.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Troublemaker, pushes the rules as far as he can, kind of a rabble-rouser and all-around pain in the ass.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Thaddeus,”[/color] Robert replied before placing a heavy hand on Tad’s shoulder. [color=#ffffff]“You’re describing a teenager.”[/color]

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Tad re-composed himself.

[color=#ffffff]“Barnes has wings and can fly. Baxter has enhanced optical capabilities. Cahors, honestly I’m not sure, but her abilities are seemingly quite destructive. Her file has a lot of red in the ledger. There’s de Léon, she’s a cryokinetic while Galahad can multiply so he’s basically a one man workforce of a fabrication machine. Hisamatsu has arachnid physiology, web-spinning and the like. You’re already familiar with Kruger-”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Not as much as I’d like to be, you should introduce us.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Ignoring that.”[/color] Tad responded,[color=#ffffff] “Mitchell can teleport, Penada saps powers, Roth manipulates heat to a variety of effects, Tyler copies powers and Banjo can augment his physical state to become stronger.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“Send Kruger and this Banjo to work on the foundation. I could use Barnes and Mitchell for supply runs. Get Roth on the structural, along with Cahors and send Tyler with them in case he can use his abilities to copy either of them to expedite the process. I could use Galahad to fill a couple of positions. Put Baxter, de Léon and Hisamatsu on the interior theatrics.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“That just leaves Penada,”[/color] Tad replied. 

[color=#ffffff]“Put her with the three inside. They’ll need to come up with some kind of theme.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“When I did it back in 2015, it was themed around surviving a robot taking over the world. ‘Era of Epitome’ or something.”[/color]

[color=#ffffff]“That-”[/color] Robert looked Tad dead in the eyes. [color=#ffffff]“-Is terrible. Do not let them do anything like that.”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]