[center][b][color=007FFF]Abel Fulgurate – Grimm Studies[/color][/b][/center]

Abel managed to pay a patchy attention at best to both Robert and his teammates, instead focusing on the aquatic monstrosity the class had been tasked to slay.  Predictably, RPGD's leader was the first to take the proverbial plunge, dashing onto a pad and then taking time to call out a bet of all things.  “How did this man ever beat me?” questioned the guardian in a depressed mutter as the Megaladeus delivered unto Robert a ruthless tailslap.  The others, unfortunately, seemed to be following his example in terms of strategy, since the second to attack -Cobalt- lasted only a second before tumbling into the pool from Abel's perspective.  At this, the guardian groaned.  He, too, was a pretty big guy, and admittedly not all that smart either, but somehow he'd thought of not trying to balance on the little floating pads and placing himself in the perfect position to become chum.  

Abel continued watching, waiting for an opening to throw the Ampere in for the kill, while Cobalt tore a gash in the Megaladeus's side.  Bone armor aside, sharks were not renowned for their external durability, having only cartilage for skin.  Though the wound bled profusely, sifting through the water and hinting at the possibility of visual obstruction, it did not cause the Grimm to go berserk.  The moment that Sangue leaped into the fray marked the moment Abel realized that his heart was pounding, and the sight of BASL's swordswoman flubbing her rescue of Cobalt and delaying chowdown a mere second or two longer made him realize that he couldn't afford to simply stand at the sidelines and wait to attack—not while there were people he needed to protect.  Lowering the Ampere, he ran past Sepia, who didn't seem to understand the immediate danger of the situation Sangue and Cobalt were in.  Having produced and activated a water grenade, he lobbed it at the Megaladeus, bopping it on the nose and screwing up its electromagnetic sensors just long enough for the grenade to sink and explode.  The resulting current pushed Cobalt and Sangue to the edge of the pool, and Abel knelt with hands extended and great strength ready to pull them both up.  This came not a moment too soon, for the Grimm snapped its jaws closed in the spot occupied by the two teens just a second before.  [i]If I hadn't helped them up, I would have been in a perfect position to impale it.[/i]  “Fighting it one at a time is suicide,” he snapped, not really sure if the Megaladeus -with its dulled teeth- could kill, but phrasing his sentence morbidly anyway for effect.  “Sharks are vicious but dumb,” he continued, louder so that others like Robert could hear.  “If we can get it to bite something, like a shield or a pad, it'll be open for attack.”  His eyes tracked the dark shape, returned underwater now that all had left its domain.

[center][i]Infirmary[/i][/center]

The inside of the machine was still, dark, and quiet, save for the constant electronic hum that reverberated though every molecule of the blond boy's body.  He tried to remain still, but could not keep himself from shivering.  Beneath the unseen and immutable eye of the scanning device, he felt exposed and bare, just as he had so many times before.  Now, however, this process of probing within him felt most scary than ever, for any second, any second now, they could find [i]it.[/i]

“What's this?”

[i]Oh no.[/i]

Around him, the air began to stir, vibrating in time to his quickened heartbeat.  They'd seen it.  Somehow, the rays coming from the dark, metal tube around him had pierced through flesh and bone and found [i]it[/i], and carried those images through little wires until they appeared, a catastrophic and revealing mural showing the nurse and the headmaster looking with that calculating, learned intensity over her shoulder, [i]it[/i].

Only one thing would remedy the situation.  The boy labored to open his mouth, pulling on the elastic strings that pierced hid lips, and sucked in a stale, metallic breath.  The next instant, he let fly the captured air as a single, high-pitched whistle, one the entire medical wing could likely hear.  Afterward came a thorough and tranquil calm, stiller than the grave, except for a tiny muttering, synthesized from air: [i]”And the rest is silence.”[/i]

A few moments later he began the lengthy and difficult process of removing himself from the scanning machine.  Afterward, though he didn't need to, he walked over behind the device anyway, nursing his new bruises and scrapes with shaking hands.  In crumpled heaps there lay the nurse and Ozpin, almost sleeplike if not for the odd positions of their limbs.  A wave of guilt flooded over the boy, and the air around him manifested the sounds of sobs.  Through them broke a new voice, one not from his semblance: [i]do it, boy.  If you don't keep Beacon quiet, I'll tell the Phoenix you've been misbehaving.[/i]

Still sniffling, Jay nodded in muted terror.  He crouched over the unconscious bodies, pulled open his mouth, and breathed out a singularity of sound to reside beside them.  [i]”Nothing more than malnutrition,”[/i] the singularity would repeat, over and over, in a droning, voiceless tone that could pierce the ear and prick the brain.  [i]”Nothing more than malnutrition.”[/i]  Leaving it behind, the boy sidled over to the display screen for the scanning bed.  On it was an x-ray of his torso, and he could see within the picture something he hadn't seen for a long time.  Quickly, he looked away, shuffling out of this room and into the next to find a bed and lay down.

Though its influence flowed through every fiber of his being, and projected forth the tempo of his soul to move the silent air, Jay didn't want to be reminded of [i]it.[/i]