[IC] The Promise - Second Star to the Right, and Straight on 'til Morning.

[SepticGentleman]

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Written with @JunkMail

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IT’S TIME.

Moments after the Headmaster’s orientation speech had concluded, Freaky-D elected now to be the prime time to initiate his introductions in the most presently available way possible. He positioned himself to drop down from the ductworks onto a random table below. His helmet, his gloves, and the strips on his shorts all came to life in an instant, displaying his default aesthetics - the big toothy grin, the crosshair eyes, and the hazard stripes all. He readied himself, and then descended, landing directly on top of a table with four new students sitting at it - a shaggy-looking, somehow fishing-oriented dude (@JunkMail), a skinny pale chick just radiating heat (@He Who Walks Behind), a goth-seeming girl wearing a very stylish shock collar (@Silver Carrot), and a rather grungy-looking miss who looked a little more pleasantly surprised than the other three (@levinfist).

One out of four’s not bad at all!

D held out his hands and shook them vigorously while a bit of fanfare played from his helmet. The four students seated around him had little time to react to the sudden presence of the absolutely ridiculous-looking fellow now standing on their table before he began playing the song House of Fun, by Madness.

“A toothbrush and hairspray, plastic grin,
Miss Clay on all corners has just walked in-”

“What in the goddamn-” A guard standing a ways away said as he noticed the intruder.

“Welcome to the House of Fun!
Now I’ve come of age,
Welcome to the House of Fun!”

D danced merrily - lots of kicking back and forth with his arms tucked in - as the song played from his helmet, avoiding stomping on any food placed on the table, or kicking anyone’s head by accident. As this continued, some of the guards began to mobilize, one of them approaching faster than the rest. There definitely wasn’t enough time to get through much more of the song, but some sad things in this life just have to be accepted and left behind.

“Welcome to the lion’s den!
Temptation’s on its way,
Welcome to the House o-”

“Hey!”

The song stopped playing. D’s helmet immediately began playing a rapid alarm sound, with the surface turning black and displaying a series of bright yellow exclamation marks spinning around. He turned to face the guard who had called him out, and then became absolutely, perfectly still.

“Who the hell are you?” The guard called out.

“I'm the invisible man…” D replied, playing the first line from a song by Queen. Unamused, the guard continued approaching him, stun baton out and ready.

“Incredible how you can…”

D moved his foot next to a small plate of mini-sandwiches situated before the unkempt male student.

“SEERIGHTTHROUGHME-”

D’s foot then launched the plate directly at the guard’s face, bits of sandwich flying everywhere as the guard reeled back - not necessarily injured, but definitely taken aback, and more pissed off than before. It was at that moment that other members of the security force began to hasten their approach, ready to apprehend D with apparent hostility.

“Stop that man!” One of the guards called. At this moment, the Headmaster elected to speak up herself. “Students, help them!”

Archie, without thinking much of his plan and having somewhat overcome his shock at someone falling out of the sky and basically into his lap, reached forward and grabbed Freaky-D just below his heel. He was met with the ceasing of D’s dancing, followed by his quickly turning to meet Archie with a surprised expression displayed on his helmet, along with another rapid alarm.

Bad touch, BAD TOUCH, STRANGER DANGER-

D’s foot reactively collided with Archie’s unfortunately positioned bitch-boy face, in what was really just an attempt to shake his hand off that escalated into an admittedly overzealous counter. Archie was knocked backwards, falling out of his chair, clutching the spot on his cheek where the steel-tipped boot had made its impact. D proceeded to perform an outstanding 8.5/10 backflip off of the table. He then began running like a madman away from the scene, weaving through the cafeteria tables, dodging past all the students, jumping on more tables in the process. The guards were in hot pursuit - others a little more room temperature - as D made his way towards the nearest exit, into the school’s hallways.

“After him!” The Headmaster instructed once more to both security and students at once, as she was escorted off stage and away for the sake of her own safety. A good chunk of the present students decided to do as she said, possibly to aid security in subduing the runaway fool, possibly to just get out of the cafeteria because they absolutely did not care, or possibly to just watch the chase unfold - maybe even help D out, if fans of his happened to be present.

Now this - this was a great start to D’s campaign of nonsense aboard the Promise.

[Luminous Beings]

Lynn

If one had been paying attention only to Lynn - and this was unlikely, given the freakish helmet man that fell from the rafters and crashed onto their table (knocking Lynn's plate into her lap and sending her silverware scattering away; a split-second later, Lynn reached for a knife that was not there), they would've seen Lynn light up. Quite literally - her eyes and hair began to glow brightly for a moment, and any thought of the power-monitoring nanotech in her veins was ignored. Lynn was up on her feet and ready to throw down but he was moving along, and even Lynn couldn't see anything particularly malicious in his behavior. He looks like they sent an astronaut up here but they let Hot Topic run his wardrobe instead of NASA.

What the hell? He still deserved an ass-whooping for startling her. Lynn would've started swinging, but they played by different rules here. I'm not getting the Spoons treatment on day one, Lynn told herself, forcing her curled up fists down to her sides. Still, Lynn figured they couldn't get mad at her for self-defense, and she kept her eyes on the -

...no. What else was going on? This seemed an awful lot like a distraction. Lynn scanned the room, looking around. Was this just some lone wolf fuckery? She figured it might be some kind of orientation stunt, but that helmet looked awfully expensive to be a prank. Lynn had seen (and, perhaps, participated in) enough street hustles to know this set-up. Wave one hand at somebody and pick their pocket with the other. Lynn looked around the dining hall but saw nothing. This could've been a pretty good excuse to flood the place with security if they were trying to make a move on Spoons or something, but she figured that couldn't be it, because the security here was woefully incompetent. Lynn considered flooring the prankster just to show them up, but that would've meant doing the security a favor, and Lynn was not about to be seen as, considered, or even fall vaguely into the realm of narc-dom.

Lynn looked back (missing Archie's attempt to apprehend the helmet man) to see Archie take a mean boot to the face. Lynn grimaced. She'd taken one or two before. Lynn, with the sort of law degree that comes from being arrested, also knew that qualified as assault with a deadly weapon. Aim below the waist, bro. Hurts more and they can't pin attempted murder on you. Lynn did bristle up at that. She and Boat Farmer and Spoons and the Cranky One weren't exactly buddy-buddy, but Lynn, for a myriad of reasons, wasn't going to let anybody come on in and kick around the top dogs and scamper off. Lynn moved to melt that helmet into his skull but he was already gone. Christ, Boats, you got your ass beat by a tap dancer. That kick did look pretty serious, and there was no way this place had competent help coming. As long as this guy kept making a joke of them, the more she got a feel for what the Promise's security was like. So far, she wasn't terribly impressed. The steel boot wasn't a cool move, but Lynn figured she might've done the same in his position. I wouldn't have gotten grabbed, though, and also I wouldn't be dancing.

Lynn moved over to Archie, coming around the table. Her hair flickered rapidly, yellow and red, and her eyes glowed softly. There was a faint light pulsing from her skin in rhythm with the hair, but Lynn didn't push things further. She was staying under the radar, but if she got a hand on the Helmet man, he was going down. Have fun tap-dancing with rubber melted to your feet. He was farther down the table, though, and Lynn wasn't concerned about him coming back. The cafeteria was in pure chaos, which Lynn did find amusing. Lynn, given the height differential, had some difficulty reaching up to Archie's face. She also couldn't remember his name, which was unfortunate. "Hold still," she told him, her tone completely devoid of bedside manner. "You're going to be fine."

This was a boldfaced lie. Dude took a steel boot to the face. Lynn figured he might be concussed at best or starring in inspirational hallmark movies about people who spent ten years learning how to walk again at worse. Or, maybe whatever parahuman tricks were up his sleeve made him tough like her. Lynn looked into his eyes and grunted for a minute, making her own flare up for a second. His eyes didn't dilate. Lynn had picked up that trick a while back, given the disturbing propensity for head trauma in the last crew she ran with. "Okay, Fish Boy. You're fucked. Lay down before Daft Punk comes back and curbstomps you or something." Lynn put her hand on the side of his face and kept her heat at a steady, low level, figuring that might help.

Lynn blinked. Why am I doing this? I should just let him seizure out or something. Lynn chewed on her lip for a second. She didn't care about these people, you know, and she wanted to make that clear - but, at the same time, it...well, truthfully, Lynn couldn't really find a good justifiation for why she was doing it. Part of her, for a second, thought that Archie looked like Megan or Clarita had, with their bruises and scrapes, small and shaking, but that thought flickered out of her mind as quickly as it came. This guy was strapped up when they brought him in. He was a threat, and she was helping him. That pissed her off, and she wasn't about to let people say she was being a little bitch by helping someone out. Time to clarify that.

"Hey, you two," she said to Amelia and Natalie. "One of you go sort through the pile of dipshits that run this place and find a doctor." Lynn turned and saw a girl dressed entirely in denim. "Hey, Denim," she shouted to Keaton. Gimme your jacket." She looked back at Amelia. "You too. We gotta, like, prop his head up or some shit." Lynn had absolutely no idea what she was doing, but that was not about to stop her. For a moment, she figured she should probably take off her own hooodie if she was asking these two to do the same, but that was not happening if Lynn could help it. She knew they couldn't let him fall asleep, though, or he would die. Not that Lynn was particularly concerned - that meant there'd be one less contender for king of the mountain. But, Lynn thought, and this thought bore a sneaking resemblance to the shrink, He's really only been nice to you, and helping him doesn't make you look weak. Oh well. Time to sort that out later.

"Hey," she told Archie, looking down at him. The smell of smoke began to drift off her. "Tell me, like, who the president is, or whatever. You still alive in there?" Lynn contemplated telling him that if he stroked out and started shooting laser beams or lightning bolts at her, she was going to hit him a hell of a lot harder than that guy did, but she figured that may not be necessary. She kept one hand where the boot at had hit, and the other at her side, fingers dancing, light flickering around them. Lynn alternated her glances between Archie, where the Helmet Man had run off, and at the rafters. You won't catch me off-guard again.

[levinfist]

Amelia

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Amelia frowned as she saw Lynn glance at the window at her mention of teleporting. She know what she was thinking. It wasn't like the idea had never occurred to her either. She had thought about it the moment she heard she was being sent to live on this stupid gilded bird cage in space. But the precision and control needed to fling herself all the way from orbit and reach the ground without over or undershooting, and controlling her momentum enough to not be a crater on landing was far beyond what she knew how to do now. She gave Lynn and genuine sad smile and shook her head. "Sorry," she muttered quietly. "That kind of trip would probably kill us."

As the headmaster began to speak, Amelia turned and fixed her an unmoving scowl. So. Now I have a face for the authority here. Lovely.She thought to herself. Amelia had to admit, she did have quite a strong aura to her, one that seemed to be scaring some of the other students into submission. Amelia stood firm in her scowl though. She had no intention of breaking down here. She did smirk at the mention that the whole world would be watching. Good. She hoped they would see the message she was going to try and send. She got a good look at the head of security's face as well. She had a bad feeling they would be seeing each other.

And then someone she never dreamed to see again up here slammed down onto the table right in front of her.

Amelia's scowl of resistance shifted into a bright smile of awe. "HO. LY. SHIT." she declared brightly. She didn't even need any prompting, she eagerly shook Freaky D's hand when he turned to her. Of all the people who might be an ally in tearing the system down, she never in a moment dreamed that she might be able to call on her idol.

She was shaken from her reverie when Archie was kicked right in the head though. She winced at the blow, as if she could feel it herself. That wasn't going to feel good. Amelia's own instincts in making getaways kicked in, as she got a glance through the exit where D was making his breakaway. She groaned as Lynn focused on her. No no NO! I can't be looked at right now! she screamed in her own head. "Fine. You get blood or anything else on it you're cleaning it." She quickly pulled it off and tossed it to Lynn. It seems they both needed expediency, as she darted off.

Using the distraction of Freaky D, Amelia backed herself into a corner behind the crowds, and focused her mind on the image of a corner down the hallway he had been taking off down. The familiar tingle her body would feel kicked in, as whatever weird quantum process she could do took effect. In the space of what was maybe less then half a second, Amelia's body condensed into a strange energy, almost a scar in the space she once occupied, before vanishing all together. Her vision whirled and spun, everything blending together, before she suddenly appeared behind the corner of where she pictured in her mind. She ducked into a restroom, sticking her head out, and motioned to D when he appeared. "Hey! You've got an escape plan right? Somewhere to hide? Need help?"

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie Ellis

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---

Natalie turned away from the conversation and took notice when the presentation started. She immediately noticed that the woman on stage first spoke inside her head, before talking normally. Natalie hoped she wasn't a mind reader, before realizing that she'd probably read everyone's file anyway and already knew about Natalie's past. However, when Dunbar looked over to her table, it was as if she had been looking right at Natalie when she said 'studied'. A chill went down Natalie's spine, but she tried to stay optimistic. This was still a school. Surely the days of Project Lion were over to never be repeated again. Learning control did sound much more appealing. If Natalie left the Promise in full control of herself, she'd be able to live a normal life again. The past two years that had been robbed from her would no longer have a bearing on her future. She'd be free. Overall, what Dunbar went on to say put Natalie's fears to ease. Now, she was looking forward to it. Looking forward to making friends if she could manage it, and looking forward to having something resembling a typical education.

Then Cara, the station's AI spoke. Natalie made a note to ask her about her room and timetable later, as she didn't have a phone, or any clothes. Hopefully this was also a problem she could so something about. The AI then introduced all of the division heads. Natalie took particular note of Elizabeth McCoy, Fry Owens and Susanna Castillo. Those are the three she'd probably be dealing with the most. Once that was all over, Natalie turned back to the table, and actually started to eat some food for a change, but less than a minute later this brief moment of peace came to an end.

A man in a large round neon helmet landed on their table. Natalie almost jumped out of her skin and stared up at him mouth agape like a deer caught in headlights. The light on her collar turned orange and started to beep rapidly. She continued to watch the bizarre and chaotic scene unfold with confusion and anxiety, as she noticed that Security had noticed and were starting to convene at their table. She made no motion or reply when Freak D offered his hand, still petrified in place. The only movement was her her eyes darting to the hand, then incredulously back at him. She continued to watch him fight off the guard, but when he kicked Archie in the face, her own face twisted and contorted into a mask of rage. Her mouth was snarling and her eyes were wide and bloodthirsty, and locked on Freaky D's fleeing form. In that brief moment, that lasted less than a second, she looked more animal than human, and it was clear to anybody who looked at her, that she had intent to kill. But no sooner had she stood up than her collar light turned red and she started to twitch and spasm, collapsing on one knee and putting her hand to her neck. The light turned orange again, and she started to pant heavily. Evidently getting shocked wasn't much fun.

By the time the light turned green, and she had both calmed down and recovered from the shock, Lynn was next to Archie, and trying to attract her attention. Lynn was asking her to find a doctor. Luckily, Natalie had taken note of Fry Even's name and appearance, so shakily got to her feet and approached the stage, heading right for Fry.

"Excuse me!" she called out to him. "We have a boy here who might need medical attention!"

[SepticGentleman]

and Amelia

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Written with @levinfist

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AaaaaaaAAAAAHHHH-
TEETH SNARL, WHAT’S UNDER THE BED,
SORE HEAD AGAIN, CAN’T PAY RENT-

They Come to Get Us, by The Death Set, played from Freaky-D’s helmet as he darted through the hallways, away from the pursuing mixed crowd of security guards and new students. As he made his merry way with no clear destination, he couldn’t help but notice how antiquated the school interior looked in contrast to the station’s outside. Rigid stone hallways with smooth tile floors, glass side windows and wooden paneling, multicolored decorations that looked like they belonged in cheap museums rather than a school - this whole facility looked like it was ripped right out of the early 2000s. Not what he expected of a hyper-advanced orbital station, but hey, he wasn’t an architect, so who was he to judge?

He led his pursuers through turn after turn, half-trying to shake them off and half-trying to just screw with them. Some of the students seemed to cheer D on - that was certainly a welcome gesture. Before he arrived, he had this awful feeling that absolutely no one would want his annoying ass up here. The vast majority still don’t but, hey, you gotta work with what you have.

D turned another corner, back into the stretch of the hallway he’d started down. He’d outran his pursuers for just a moment, but no doubt they’d circle around to find him once more. In that quick instant of wondering what to do next, the restroom door next to him swung open, and out popped the grungy miss from before. In that brief moment of surprise, the song stopped - with an audible, unnecessary record scratch.

“Hey!” She said, “You’ve got an escape plan, right? Somewhere to hide? Need help?”

“Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” D responded, pulling a voice clip from The Dark Knight. Despite that, he was very much pleased to meet a fan in the middle of this self-inflicted mess.

“I see him!” A voice came from further down the hallway - a student had spotted D, but couldn’t see Amelia’s head since the bathroom door was obstructing view of her. Several guards rounded the corner seconds after the alert.

Narc!

D didn’t hesitate any further, retreating into the restroom alongside Amelia, if only to buy several precious seconds before the crowd barged in after him and tore him limb from limb, like a pack of bloody savages. Certainly a possibility.

Amelia pulled D into the bathroom, and made towards a stall. “You came in from the rafters above the cafeteria, right? Were there any air ducts in there? Anywhere you could make your escape with unseen?” Amelia was beginning to realize she may have made a hasty decision. Making getaways back home had been child’s play, but that was because she knew it by the back of her hand. She had just gotten here. There were a few places she could maybe-

And that was the sound of someone kicking the door open.

Amelia dropped her voice immediately. “Shit, we’ll work it out later.” She scrambled onto the toilet. “Get up here with me, and shut your eyes now!”

‘YEE’ flashed on D’s helmet in dim yellow letters, as he followed her command. After that, his helmet went back to his default face, but still dim. Amelia couldn’t see it, but he was excited for whatever she was about to do. This was one of the rare occasions he wasn’t on the receiving end of a parahuman’s powers. Come to think of it, this was actually the first time ever.

Amelia wrapped an arm around his shoulder and played it risky. “I feel like this is the theme of the day, but try not to vomit,” she muttered quietly. Her mind drifted to one of the classrooms she had seen down the halls, and spread her focus to include D. And then leaving behind only the strange scar in space for a moment, they were gone.

[levinfist]

Amelia

And

---

THUD! Amelia and Freaky-D suddenly appeared in a closed classroom closet very ungracefully, shuddering the shelves and knocking things to the ground with their sudden unceremonious arrival that defied the laws of space-time. Amelia tried to get a look around in the sudden confusion, banging her head on a shelf by mistake. “Ow, fuck..” she said quietly, not that it mattered compared to the sudden rucus their arrival caused. She finally got her bearings after a few moments, realizing their situation. “Well, you can open your eyes. We’re here. Wherever….here is.” Amelia wasn’t too surprised they had missed her target, but it could have been far worse. At least they were definitely out of sight of the mob that had been chasing them for the moment.

A maniacal laugh sounded from D’s helmet as all the lights on it and his clothes came back to life. He spun around a bit, as if disoriented, before rearing up his foot and slamming it against the closet door. The sound was rather loud - possibly a bad thing, but oh well.

“Honey, I’m home!” He said, with a voice clip taken from Pleasantville. But instead of a perfectly empty classroom, he and Amelia were met with a rather unexpected scene - a man wearing Promise staff clothes, tied up in a chair, beaten and bloodied, and an unassuming woman standing next to him. Right behind them, written on the large whiteboard, was a message - ‘WELCOME TO AP BIOLOGY!’

The four of them just stood in silence, looking at each other in disbelief.

_{“I heard something! In that classroom!”} A voice sounded, from not too far outside.

Not taking any time to properly assess this new situation, D opted to search for an immediate escape instead, and turned his head towards the nearby windows with the blinds down, hopefully leading out into the open run of the station. If not, well… improvisation was nothing if not exciting. He patted Amelia’s shoulder for a job well done, suddenly deciding this should be where they part ways. He then took a running start and crashed through the window, laughing like a madman with a deep, heavily synthesized voice all the while.

Amelia, meanwhile, had been simply standing their, stunned by what she was seeing before her. She had always suspected that one day she would be in this kind of situation, but she never expected it would be on her first day, of all times. Still, when presented with the scene of some woman apparently interrogating this member of promise staff, she had to admit it.

Amelia Nelson had officially seen too much.

While D leaped out the window, Amelia took a far different approach. She slooooowly and carefully stepped back towards the closet they had entered from. “Yeah, um. You can ...keep doing what you’re doing. I’m just gonna…bye!” Amelia stepped all the way back into the closet and slammed the door shut behind her. It was still cramped, but she would only be there for a moment. With D out of harm's way ...sort of... Amelia bamfed back to where she started this mess before everything went to hell; back in the corner of the cafeteria. She wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed since her little adventure, so she went looking for her table of degenerate friends to check on Archie.

@JunkMail

[Ceta de Cloyes]

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S Y E D

---

---

Goodbye Auntie, Syed thought to himself idly, looks like I won't be back for a while, huh? The intimidating sight of the shuttle that was supposed to take him to his new life way up beyond the clouds was the final nail in the coffin for his confidence. It really drove home just how huge of a journey this was. Of course he'd known that when he first agreed to the offer, it didn't get bigger than space after all, and at various points along the way to the shuttle he'd had the same inkling, but staring at the titanic feat of engineering that was a spacecraft and knowing he had to get on it? That was an entirely different kettle of emotion.

For the hundredth time Syed shot a nervous look to the man beside him; tall and dark, hidden behind a uniform suit and dark shades. He was an American, a handler that had picked him up from Vancouver General and then accompanied him on his flight to the States, and from there to a local Parahuman Department where he'd had to stay until the next shuttle to The Promise was available. Fortunately it wasn't a long wait, but Syed had never left the Metro Vancouver area, much less somewhere as far as the United States, and now to actual space? A whole wealth of new experiences he hadn't expected had left him reeling, he still hadn't managed to recenter himself and now the next step was already upon him!

He wasn't ready. What am I going to do? He fretted, not at all put at ease by the handler's blank stare and steady stride.

Syed had been poked and prodded, teased and tested, interviewed and interrogated, whole slews of uncomfortable preparations for this trip. He'd long ago regretted his decision and attempted to back out, but that wasn't an option anymore; both he and his aunt signed the appropriate forms, though she'd been on painkillers and he'd been told the trip was the least troublesome option. Now he knew it meant least troublesome for them, because they got to wash their hands of him completely, meanwhile Syed reached greater depths in his understanding of the word uncomfortable. He wondered frequently at what point discomfort became torture, he was fairly sure his current anxious state fit the definition of tormented perfectly.

In the end, Syed didn't 'do' anything, he just followed along, continuing to listen to direction like some kind of well trained dog, to distracted and nervous to even consider causing any sort of trouble. Though whenever the staff asked his name, the handler had to answer for him. His tongue was in stasis mode. Again.

Then the man left him without so much as a gesture of goodbye, simply turning around and leaving him with a group of other young parahumans to be ushered like sheep into the shuttle. After that things went a bit... weird. He mostly disregarded the chatter in favor of staring blankly ahead, focused on things only he could feel. The rush of energy all around him was... It was hard for Syed to think of the currents as just energy, their movements and pulses were so much like living creatures he was still privately convinced that the currents were alive, so when that explosion of power generated by the liftoff roared around him, it felt almost like he was sitting atop some draconian titan preparing to eat him. He went very pale, very quickly, and quickly joined the ranks of the Vom Squad, throwing up what felt like every meal he'd eaten in the last month, and then a bit of dry heaving because not even being empty pleased his stomach.

Finally there was orientation, and food that he mostly couldn't bring himself to eat. Sometime later he snapped back into focus, his discomfort from the buzzing energy currents and whatever weird gravitational forces were keeping him upright passing just in time to regain actual clear and intelligent thought for the introduction of the AI, which was... so cool. It was probably the only part of this whole thing that was actually exciting without even a little bit of wariness attached.

Of course what little comfort he drew from that went tumbling out the window and directly into the cold void of space when a figure fell from the sky- or rather the ceiling. Thankfully said figure, who was a self-proclaimed madman as far as Syed could tell, didn't land near him. Syed was just beginning to doubt the intruder was real, thinking this was probably the first in-person example he was going to get of another parahuman's power, an illusion designed to undermine the authority of their new handlers, when the guy was grabbed around the ankle, leading to said grabber getting kicked in the face. Not an illusion then.

Syed surprised himself, cracking the barest hint of a smile at the byplay. He wished he could kick people in the face who touched him unexpectedly. It was a true case of Tom and Jerry-esque cause and effect. The smile was quick to fade though as the situation... escalated? That kick couldn't have hurt that much could it?

The room lost all sense of control in short order, the kicked boy's companions were checking up on him, feeling vaguely like a nest of kicked snakes to Syed's senses, meanwhile a large majority of the new students and personnel vanished in pursuit of the troublemaker. Oddly it was comforting in a sense, he'd worried this would be a cold and oppressive prison in the void, but it was clear to him now that there was a precarious balance that was almost normal. The parahuman students were more powerful and volatile than he'd first believed, not to mention their numbers, and the authority figures were stony, but not tyrannical. He could see them fulfilling their roles as teachers. Most of them anyway, a few were more scowly and he couldn't meet their eyes.

Syed took the opportunity to fade to the background; the students who'd been sitting next to him had eagerly followed security out of the room, leaving him alone, and the rest of the room's focus was elsewhere. He had some space to breathe, finally. If everyday was like this he might actually manage to make it through to the end. For the first time since arriving, the tension between his shoulders lessened, and he felt he might actually bring himself to speak - if he wanted to, which he didn't.

What he did do was relax enough to really study the group at the center of it all, the two girls were hot currents to his senses, and he wasn't entirely sure if the magic hair was real or some kind of mind-trickery brought on by his ability to sense her energy getting it's wires crossed in his brain. The boy was... different. Syed had no other word for it, his energy was just... different, not like a human's, but not not like a human's either, if that made sense? Unconsciously he stood to get a better look with his eyes, taking a step closer before realizing what he was doing and freezing up, hovering at the distant edge of the trio's claimed space. Hadn't there been a fourth there earlier? Not important- he needed to evac ASAP: retreat, retreat, retreat!

His expression remained blank, apart from biting his lip that is, but the way he stood with his arms crossed and a few slow-careful steps back revealed his nerves. Needless to say, his tongue was frozen again.

This is why he never let himself relax, because as soon as he got comfortable he went and put himself somewhere he didn't want to be. It's also why he needed to stop listening to his powers, it only ever distracted him...

Speaking of distractions, how 'bout that AI huh? He withdrew his phone and responded to the AI's message:

_{< hey cara, sorry to bother u, but i just wondered if this stuff is normal here??}

Oddly, while he'd never bother another human with his worries and desire for assurance, he thought of the AI differently. Perhaps he had some preconceived idea about them, or maybe his power's effect on his perception of things had something to do with it, but Syed rather thought Cara sounded very friendly and unlikely to be offended.

[JunkMail]

Archie

---

Few in the world had felt rage.

Not the trite anger one feels when they get beaten at a video game, or the irritation when something goes wrong that day.

No, rage was a black, bubbling feeling that carves a hole in one’s chest and makes you sick, that demands a way out, that makes you want to pick up a rock- not a weapon, a rock- and beat someone until they break. To swing and swing and swing until there's nothing left but shattered bone and pulped flesh.

It's a feeling that demands vengeance. It demands violence. But most of all, it demands understanding. That the world could be fair. Or that this is what you get. Or that one wasn’t so different from the rest. It wants to make the other person understand that they deserve it.

Archie felt rage.

His parents were never good people. His mother was the more insidious of the two. She didn’t have the resolve that dad did, so she lashed out with words. A special kind of evil, it was. Then she left. When she walked out, Archie felt rejected and worthless. After all, mother knew best.

His father was just like any drunk- always drinking, always squinting, always sloppy. Yeah, just another of a thousand. That was dad. He was mostly harmless, or was, until he had gone out and gotten himself killed and left him alone in the world as a child.

Archie, laying on the ground, felt it. The rage. The sanguine reds and blacks that accompany that sick feeling, deep down in your gut. The feeling that made his muscles shake and his heart pound. The pressure behind his eyes. It wasn’t fair. Why him? Why pick him for everything? Huh? He hadn’t done anything to deserve what had happened to him! He was seven years old! They should feel this. They should be the ones hurting. They should. They should. His chest burned. He heard words being spoken to him, but they were all wrong. All he heard was the words of his neighbors turned captors.

Bitch.
Coward.
Worthless.
Stupid.
Idiot.
Animal.
Freak.

It all came rushing back. His vision swam from the concussion, and when he looked at the strangers trying to help him he saw only the familiar faces, whom had hurt him.

Archie felt force on his person. Heat and throbbing in his head as if he had been shot again. Hands holding him down- as if they were going to hurt him again. No, he would not have it. He wouldn’t let them hurt him again. A scream tore from Archie’s throat, and his hands flew up and grabbed Lynn’s arms with strength that was unbecoming of his size. He was yelling still- in agony, and in rage. Archie felt his jaws begin to break. The screaming continued and he forcefully shoved her off of him. He rolled onto his hands and knees, his screaming being abruptly silenced by the contents of his stomach exiting his body through his nose and broken face, reduced to a gurgle. Everyone around him stepped away, either by reflex from his vomit or out of fear for his health. Was he having a seizure?

Archie struggled, his back arching unnaturally upwards as his very muscles became uncomfortably tight. His arms came upwards to his face, desperately scratching with what was rapidly becoming less nail and more claw. He filleted himself, slicing through skin as his eyes themselves changed. He kicked wildly with his legs, thrashing his broken body and rending muscle from bone as they lengthened and reattached themselves. He closed his eyes, curling in on himself, suffering through the torture.

As soon as it came, the pain faded away. Slowly and steadily what was once Archie swelled and rose to its feet now an enormous, unnatural amalgamation of man and beast. There were no guards left, and thus no nullifiers. Most of the students were all alone. The behemoth craned its neck over mammoth shoulders, overlooking those that remained. Its gaze fixated on Lynn, recognizing her scent. I won’t let you hurt me again.

It reached over, grabbing an entire table with one enormous hand and ripped it from it’s bolts. Metal groaned and tore against the force, and the entire piece of furniture was hurled towards the small group of remaining students with indiscriminate aim. The giant was lashing out, trying to hurt them like it had been hurt, itself.

---

@He Who Walks Behind@levinfist@Silver Carrot@Ceta de Cloyes

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie Ellis

---

---

Natalie turned when she felt Archie's inhuman scream. At first she thought that it was something similar to her freakouts, but it soon became apparent that this was incomparable. Archie was in pain, and something was happening to him. His body was changing. Now she understood why he had been restrained on the shuttle ride over. Though not as easy to trigger as Natalie's own psychosis, his transformation was much, much worse. Natalie felt something she hadn't felt since Project Lion; fear of somebody else.

Archie emerged from the metamorphosis a giant, freakishly built lizard. Natalie looked around for nullifiers, but they had seemingly all chased after that intruder. He had a lot to answer for. First making that entrance, and being very lucky that Natalie was wearing this collar or he'd be dead for sure. Second, for being doubly responsible for this situation, both by kicking Archie and drawing away the guards. These thoughts were mixing with her fear and creating a powerful cocktail of negative emotions. Natalie's collar was already orange and beeping.

That's when she saw it rip the table up, and throw it at a group of students. There was no time to waste! She had to stop it! Ignoring Fry completely, she rushed over and made it in the nick of time. She caught the table with both arms, pushing back and completely negating the force with her own strength, before setting the table down. She looked back to make sure the rest of the students were okay, but the moment they saw her face, some of them recoiled. The dangerous, animalistic, bloodthirsty look was back in Natalie's eye. For once, she wasn't trying to fight against her own rising heartbeat. Archie had to be stopped. She knew what it was like to lose control and she'd want him to stop her if the tables were ever reverse. She was only semi-aware, however, that she was almost losing control herself. At least this time, she reasoned, her psychosis had a singular outlet. A single target.

She started to stride fast purposefully towards Archie, Lynn and the others. On the way, her collar turned red and shocked her. Natalie growled and snarled, before reaching up and tearing the collar from her neck with her bear hands. The broken pieces of it fell to the floor, and the red light died. Now the teachers and staff that were still there could see there were two unrestrained, violent super-strong beasts loose in this room.

[Luminous Beings]

Lynn

Lynn barely had time to react before Boat Farmer picked her up and hurled her - Lynn would have been worried, but as per usual, she was a bit floatier than the laws of physics would normally suggest she be, which was a nifty skill Lynn had. Given her size and tendency to shit talk larger individuals, she had a history of being thrown around. Lynn rolled without much damage, the force radiated off as heat as she went. Lynn stood up, watching Archie freak out.

"Alright Fish Boy," she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Let's fuckin' dance." Explained why they had him locked down. Spoons caught a table the same way Lynn figured she tended to catch verbal trauma and put it down. Least she had someone still on Team Vaguely Human.

Lynn turned to see the kids remaining in the cafeteria.

Kids. A lot of them young.

There was no choice at that point. She would have anyway, but she was really in this now.

She took off her hoodie, revealing the white tanktop underneath, tucked into her jeans. The tanktop was an extra small and still hung off her frame a bit, her arms thin and wiry, the black wings of her phoenix tattoo stretching from underneath the shoulder straps into visibility. Lynn was quite literally half the height of Archie at this point, the beast stretching and bursting out.

"Oy! Spoons! Kick the fuck out of him before he's up and angry!" Lynn said. She turned to the terrified group of teenagers and kids. "Hey, all of you," Lynn shouted. As she did so, she began to fuel her power, letting the air around her rush in. Her hair bust in flame and her eyes began to burn to match, a golden light that flickered around her as heat started to roil off her form. The smell of smoke and charcoal came off her, which she was hoping for. She wanted Archie's nose on her and none of those little brats. "Get out of here and find something to bar the door shut. Someone call for help if any of these worthless security officers are still around." Her false flag theory was starting to hold a little weight, after all.
If Spoons could buy her some time, she might be able to melt the doors shut and trap Boat Farmer in here. That, of course, would pose some problems for them, but not too big a problem. Lynn may not have paid much attention in school, but she had, by academics or necessity, learned a few things about biochemistry. The first was that everyone needs oxygen, and big motherfuckers need it a lot more than little motherfuckers. If they could dance around this guy, Lynn could smoke him out eventually.

Lynn lay her hoodie down gently beside her and watched Spoons for a minute. She'd ripped off her inhibitor necklace, which made Lynn wonder what it did in the first place. "About time, Spoons!" she shouted, hoping to draw Archie's attention as well. "Now that your nuva ring is off, go ahead and fuck him!"

Lynn took a minute to assess her surroundings. If this really was him, it was a bad sign, but Lynn figured it wasn't. He was way too much of a puppy dog to be in the driver's seat right now. That hopefully meant he was stupid, which was good. Stupid and big was a lot better than smart and big. Lynn had gotten her ass whipped by both, and the latter tended to be far more painful. This was also about as perfect a situation as Lynn could ask for. There was no way she got in trouble for beating the fuck out of this thing, given that the security had vanished into thin air, and she also maintained mad street cred with everyone for doing so. Win-win.

Now Lynn wasn't going to deny Archie was turning into one big motherfucker. But Lynn had fought big before. Maybe not this big, but pretty big. If you have over five inches on someone in a fight, in Lynn's book, the rest was gravy. She was going to have to get in close the same as if he was only six feet tall. So that was familiar territory. Lynn took a deep breath and smoke began to curl off her, her tanktop singing and burning along with her jeans. She was burning bright now, the air around her heating like a convection oven. Lynn didn't know much about lizards, but she was pretty sure snakes had like heat-seeking vision or something, and she was operating off a similar principle. She glanced up at the sprinklers. We'll make them work for us. Let's cook this bastard. Superheated water was only a friend to her in this room. A lot of steam would help - and big guys didn't like slipping and falling very well. Lynn thought. She had to be careful with her powers, and had learned a long time ago to notice what was around her before she really lost her cool - a punch or two was fine, but this was going to take some big guns, and Lynn didn't intend to asphyxiate herself in an airtight room or blow herself into space because of -

Ah. Lynn turned and glanced over at the kitchens. French fries. She didn't care how tough those scales of his were. Lynn's brain was scrambling to put together a haymaker he'd feel tomorrow.

Lynn jumped up onto one of the tables, some thirty feet away from the beast. "Ay Spoons!" Lynn shouted. "Get your fuckin' dancing shoes on. Get him in there, alright?" she shouted, pointing towards the kitchens. That was away from the kids, and towards the place where Lynn had a bit more firepower. Lynn turned to Archie, letting her fingers dance and limber up. She hoped Natalie had more guts than she had at lunch. Lynn figured she was at menopause levels of rage right now, which is what Lynn was hoping for. They needed to trip Big Ugly up long enough to let the munchkins scramble off.

"Hey Rainbow Fish!" she shouted, making her form as bright as she could, her semi-digested meal wicked away for calories, the air around her getting hotter. Lynn's hair began to glow intensely, bright yellow at the edges and a flickering blue at the roots. "You're missing a fuckin' scale!" The hard plastic of the lunch table beneath her began to melt, which was what she wanted. Sparks burst off her shoulders, the phoenix tattoo burning white. Then she hopped to the next one and started moving towards the next table, eyes on the lizard. Away from the munchkins. Look at me, you big ugly lizard. I bet those eyes aren't heat-resistant.

[SepticGentleman]

---

Jumping out of a window was always a spectacular display. All the plastic blinds were down on every available one, but D managed to push through with enough force to leave them in a half-snapped mess. His exit was accompanied with a burst of glass shards flying outward, down to the grass lawn surrounding the school facility. Thankfully, the AP Biology was only two stories up - he’d done plenty of drops that high before. He landed with a roll on the grass, and then propped himself up. He took a quick look around to see if anyone was still following, which looked to not be the case. Then, he took in the view of his surroundings.

The Promise’s interior was stunning. A wholly artificial stretch of what could be a whole town on Earth, surrounded by such grand architecture and feats of advanced engineering. The ring surrounding the station was absolutely massive, filled with lush greenery and flowing waters. Bridges connected both sides of the ring together, and the glass paneling above them gave way to the vast emptiness of space around them.

Truly, this station was an outstanding marvel of man’s technological prowess.

And D had come to fuck all of it up.

With the chaos in the school building behind him, he elected to get a tour of the station proper before security inevitably decided to go after him once more. He chuckled, in that deep and synthesized voice of his, and headed along the pavement towards the sideways concourse of the station.

His thoughts wandered back to the grungy miss for a moment, and he hoped he didn’t leave her in that bad of a situation - then again, she was a teleporter, so she could certainly take care of herself. He’d hoped to meet her again at some point! And, perhaps, get her name. That’s something that didn’t occur to him during the whole fiasco. And that other guy - the one getting his ass beat by the woman? Should he have stayed to help him out?

Nah, he was in a hurry. And the guards were seconds away from entering the classroom so, they’d have it under control in short order. Definitely. Probably.

Positive outlook!

And so, Freaky-D went on his merry way.

[JunkMail]

T h e P r o m i s e

---

Arianna was more shocked than she was anything else. A man that looked like he wore Pac-Man on his head had busted in, and then... busted out. The woman he had been with had taken one look at them and had ran. A wise decision, she mused.

Her form shifted, taking on Amelia’s appearance, down to the finest strand of hair. Her eyes narrowed, and she made the shape of a gun with her fingers, pointing it in the direction of the door that Amelia had left through. “Pew.” She said, her thumb coming down to meet her index finger.

_{“I heard something! In that classroom!”}

Arianna frowned, and turned to the man she had been interrogating. He was slumped in his seat, unconscious. “Looks like our date will have to continue elsewhere.”

She hummed, her form shifting back to her own once again, she reached out and touched the man and melded over his form, shifting again to take the appearance of his unharmed state. She seared through the restraints, and stood up.

“This way!” She called, her voice no longer her own. Several guards rushed into the room shortly after, and she pointed towards the window. The guards and security were on it in moments. Arianna and her victim walked away.

Archie

_{♫ ♫ ♫}

---

Seeing that the table had been caught, the behemoth pounded the ground in frustration in an act that was reminiscent of simian rage, his fists leaving dents in the floor. It roared, a terrible combination of man and... something else. The girl with the group illuminated brightly, becoming an impossible to ignore red and yellow spot of heat in his vision. He snarled, grabbing another table and slinging it towards Lynn with a vengeance- intending to snuff that annoyance out.

The reptile’s attention shifted and it was on Natalie’s case in an instant- its more primordial nature electing to stop her before she reached the rest of the group. The giant leaned forward onto all fours and rocketed towards the woman in a flurry of claws and teeth, the power behind his claws gouged deep, ugly scrapes into the floor as he bum rushed her. He raised his arms as he came upon her, heaving his gigantic upper body and bringing the two tree trunk sized appendages down on Natalie- attempting to crush her where she stood.

---

@He Who Walks Behind@Silver Carrot

[SepticGentleman]

---

A tall gentleman, dark-skinned with a rough beard and short dreads, dressed in a Promise security officer’s uniform, scanned the immediate area before him. He pressed the button on his communications earpiece and spoke.

“This is Radvi. Patrol unit 15 has arrived at last known location of subject, over.”

“Copy, any visual?” Came from an officer on the other end of the line.

A team of five Promise security officers had mobilized towards the shopping district that Freaky-D had headed to mere minutes after the debacle at the school. A piece of the station cut out for recreation and capitalism, with stores and food courts spread over multiple floors, all going on for a decent stretch.

The officers were all on separate vehicles - very advanced, almost ATV-looking, sleek build with two front wheels and a single back one. Designed for easy maneuvering through high-traffic areas.

“Negative…” Officer Radvi replied, “No sign of him.”

“He’s got a giant head that’s as red as a stop sign, he shouldn’t be hard to spot!” The other officer responded.

“Well we don’t-”

_{Wah-oh!
Wah-ah-oh!
Wah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-oh!}

“What the fuck is that?” One of the other officers in the patrol unit said aloud. They all looked around as the sound of song quickly became louder, as if approaching. Once it was loud enough to be right next to them, sailing over their heads went Freaky-D from the next floor up, now strapped into a pair of roller skates with bright red wheels. He went flying off the top of an escalator with downright absurd speed, landing nigh-perfectly and continuing his escape.

“We have visual, in pursuit!” Radvi yelled. He and the four other officers immediately began chasing after D on their vehicles. How he was able to reach that kind of speed on roller skates, they had no idea. But they were quickly catching up to him.

Up ahead was a ramp leading upwards to the next floor of the district. Sloped to allow vehicles to access them. D was heading right for it, with no sign of slowing down. He wasn’t gonna be able to maintain his speed going uphill, absolutely not. Or so Radvi and the other officers had assumed.

Components on the sides of D’s skates activated, extending outward and jutting in the opposite direction he was heading. Red lights began emanating from within, quickly turning orange, and then much closer to yellow. A blast, and then D was accelerating up the ramp, almost lifting off of it completely once he reached the top. The boost gave him a bit more distance between himself and the officers.

“What!?” Radvi called out in disbelief, as he led the pursuit up the ramp, attempting to catch up to his target.

People wandering around the shopping district quickly moved out of the way as the chase continued through the second floor. He made for another ramp, once again activating the boost modules built into his skates. The next floor up, he drifted towards the railing. Once he was right up against it, he crouched and made a leap over the edge, the song he was playing having cut out. The officers hit the brakes on their vehicles as they caught up to where D had jumped off, Radvi immediately dismounting his to look over the edge. There he spotted D having landed on one of the connecting bridges running to the other side of the station ring, skating past the few people who happened to be crossing it at the time.

“Damn it!” Radvi called out, immediately returning to his vehicle. The officers rode back to the ramp they’d taken before, descended, turned around, and headed for the bridge. But in the short time it’d taken them to reroute themselves, D was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey!” Radvi called out to the closest civilian on the bridge, “Did you see where the man in the red helmet went?”

“He jumped off!” The woman replied, pointing behind her and towards the artificial wilderness below the bridge. Radvi ran forward and looked over the edge, as did two of the other officers, while the other two observed over the opposite side in the event their target had decided to switch direction.

“I don’t…” Radvi began, stopping halfway. He couldn’t even spot that bright red head through the thick brush below. It was as if D’d just up and vanished. Conceding to his moment of defeat, Radvi hit up the other officer with his earpiece again.

“This is Radvi. We lost him.”

“You what?”

“He jumped into the brush. We can’t spot him from up here. We need to get a search going as soon as possible.”

“God damn it!”

The other officer cut the comms, leaving Radvi and the other four members of his team standing there with nothing to show for all their effort. He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing, and then rearing his head back in disappointment.

_{“What the fuck...”} He muttered to himself.

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie Ellis

---

---

Natalie heard Lynn, but the only indication she gave that she had done so was a quick, confirmatory nod. Her eyes never left Archie, who chucked another table at Lynn and then immediately gunned it for Natalie herself. Looking back on this incident in years to come, Natalie would remember thinking 'good' at this moment. It's a source of secret shame for her. Surely she must have felt some fear. But the truth was, at this moment, Natalie had gone way past the point of feeling fear.

When the beast tried to bring its arms down like two clubs to crush Natalie, she caught them both, and gripped them tight. The lizard could struggle all it wanted. She was slightly stronger than it, and it wasn't budging very much. Natalie then angled the two of them so that Archie's back was facing the kitchen, then started to push. Even with her strength, she didn't make much progress against this wild behemoth. Frustrated and snarling, Natalie stopped pushing, and instead pulled back and down, and brought her own forehead to meet Archie's. Her inhumanly thick skull, combined with the almost two tons of force that was put into that headbutt, must have had some small stunning effect on Archie. Natalie then let go of the beast's arms and punched it square in the chest with all her might, hoping to propel it into the kitchens if pushing it wasn't working.

[JunkMail]

Archie

---

The great beast had never been stalemated, or even exceeded in strength before. It panicked as it slowly lost ground, attempting to struggle out of Natalie's grip use its natural weapons rather than raw strength. Before it had the chance, it was pulled down once again and directly into powerful headbutt that made the giant see stars. The lizard stumbled backwards, one of its hands coming up to cradle his damaged and now dented snout, but it had little time to recover. Natalie threw a wild punch that caused the beast's feet to leave the ground.

It twisted in the direction the punch had been thrown, propelling it backwards some. As it turned, eight hundred pounds of pure muscle sailed through the air like a runaway train and collided with Natalie. As the beast had turned and fell it's enormous tail had careened into the woman as collateral. The blow hadn't been on purpose, as thus the force propelled the petite girl more than it crumpled her, but its weight alone qualified it as more than a glancing blow. She sailed through the air in Lynn's direction, now a third projectile sent the poor girl's way.

Archie hit the ground with a groan, the front half of its body having flown through the double doors of the kitchen but not yet entirely inside it. It took a moment to heave its massive body upright again, and stood on shakier legs than before. As it turned to face the two again, it sported a fist sized indent on the left side of it's chest to match the crumple on its snout. It shook its upper body, and violently yanked its shoulder on the its injured side back. There were a few sickening crunches, and the beast feel to its knee, but the warping on its chest had disappeared. It was healing, but the process was obviously taxing and somewhat painful. It would slow the goliath down, but not for long.

---

@He Who Walks Behind@Silver Carrot

[levinfist]

Amelia

---

Amelia had warped into the cafeteria expecting medical staff crowding around her former table, her jacket acting as a rest for Archie's head, maybe someone carrying him out to whatever passed for a nurse's office here. Maybe she would have to answer a few hard questions about her sudden disappearnace, but that was nothing she couldn't handle. Which is all why when she appeared in the room, she took a few moments to dust herself off, taking deep breaths, before looking up to walk towards where the group had been.

And then she saw what was going on.

Ho.
Ly.
Shit.

Amelia's experience at ditching cops, security, and other people who were not her friend, allowed her to quickly clamp her mouth closed before letting loose a hail of expletives regarding the current situation. Her instincts kicked in, as she assessed the situation. Natalie and Lynn seemed to be fending off whatever this giant lizard thing was, which was good enough for Amelia. She might have had some skill at self defense, but nothing that would matter against actual Godzilla over there. The other students seemed to be making a break for it, and Archie was nowhere in sight. All of this led Amelia to one conclusion.

The rafters were her friend right now. She needed elevation.

Amelia made a break for one of the overturned tables. She needed a hard break in line of sight right now, and that was exactly what she asked for. She dropped into a slide, grabbing her discarded jacket as she skidded behind the table, and stopped for a practiced moment before suddenly disappearing from existence. Up on the rafters above the action, Amelia suddenly materialized once more. She went to put on her jacket, when her hand touched something...sticky. Pulling it away, she saw the telltale sign of vomit. And that was what broke through the silence.

"Oh come on, really?" she couldn't help but exclaim. She sighed, leaving it hanging on a rafter next to her while she kept watch over the fight.

[Luminous Beings]

Lynn

Lynn, for a brief moment, had a wide, childlike smile as a table came hurtling towards her - This is the most WWE shit I have ever seen - before ducking down. Well, ducking down isn't completely accurate. Lynn let her momentum slip and and she fell, knocking everything off a table as she fell and hit the bench of the table next to her. Fortunately, Lynn was a small target - the table hurtled a good foot over her, the beast's tremendous strength arcing it just a bit too high. Lynn scrambled back up, the spilled soda on her tanktop hissing and curling off in steam as the fabric quickly became littered with burn spots. Lynn's clothes looked like someone had put out a thousand cigarettes on her as her hair and eyes burned brighter, a flickering golden corona forming around her. For perhaps a foot around her in every direction, there were the rippling waves of a heat mirage as Lynn pushed herself harder.

Lynn jumped onto the next table, approaching the doors of the kitchens. Natalie, she had to admit, was putting an industrial grade can of ass whooping upon that thing. Lynn figured she might be a trifle nicer to her in the future, but this was in no way a concession that Natalie could beat Lynn in a fight. As is so depressingly common in life, Lynn's kindness bit her in the ass - at the moment that Archie got staggered back, Lynn turned to make sure all the kids had gotten clear of ground zero.

She looked back and saw Natalie hurtling towards her.

For an instant, Lynn didn't care - if you cool down, the lizard will kill you - but Lynn couldn't go through with it. She braced to grab her and turned her heat down as much as she dared, taking Natalie square against her chest. The force threw her into the kitchen doors, which Lynn had very wrongly assumed were both opened. At the outbreak of the hostilities, one of the cooks had managed to lock one before seeing Archie hurl a table and flee in terror.

The door edge hit Lynn, cradling Natalie in her glowing arms, square in the left shoulderblade. Lynn screamed and fell to the ground. Her slow falling hadn't been able to completely mititgate just how much force Natalie had hit her with - much less when she was containing her powers to not burn the girl's skin off.

Lynn managed to pull herself up shakily, only the roots of her hair glowing like embers, and looked at her left arm. Her shoulder was torn out of socket, hangling limply and loosely. She tried to wiggle her fingers to no avail. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!

Lynn, breathing hard and struggling to stay upright, looked up at Archie. Christ, Natalie had put a haymaker on him. Lynn had no time to make sure Natalie's spinal cord didn't look like a pretzel from the impact, and less to care about burning her. She grabbed her with her right hand and pulled her back into the kitchen, wheezing from the effort. "Natalie," she said, her voice ragged, a chainsmoker's gasp. "Please listen to me. If you do not get into that walk-in freezer right now, you are going to fucking die." Lynn staggered back over to the kitchens. They'd left everything on in panic, which is what Lynn was praying for. Lynn had spent a fair amount of time in kitchens - washing dishes was a good way to earn some cash under the table, and hanging out with Cesar, she'd -

Lynn gritted her teeth. She knew that she was very likely going to die now. You dumb bitch. You stupid, slow bitch. I can't move my arm. She was not going to die thinking of Cesar like some absolute coward. Lynn scanned the top shelves for the gallons of grease and began to let herself heat back up. She didn't have enough left in reserve to go as powerfully as she had before - especially with her body working to fix her shoulder. It wouldn't be usable in time. Lynn managed to clamber up onto an oventop, shoes' rubber burning and melting from the heat, and pull three gallons of peanut oil down off the top shelves. She frantically looked around, flaming hair falling down into her face. Knives. Lynn grabbed all the kitchen knives off the magnetic strip and began dropping in the grease cookers, then fumbled with the oven switches, turning them to the highest heat possible and throwing the doors down. She glanced out the window, where Archie was pissed.

"Please go in the freezer," Lynn said, to herself, or Natalie, or maybe God, she wasn't quite sure. Lynn cursed as she fumbled to open one of the gallons with just one hand. She grunted and began to pour it on herself. Lynn's hair immediately whooshed into an intense blue, and the fire alarms in the kitchen went mayday. Sprinklers began splashing water down, colliding with Lynn's superheated aura. Steam started to fill the kitchen, intertwined with smoke as her outfit curled and blackened. The ovens began to heat supernaturally fast, hot air bursting out into the kitchen air. All the grease cookers began to bubble violently, grease splattering viciously as water came into contact with them. Lynn, too, was splattering and sputtering, her fire too hot to put out - for now - and splashing grease onto everything around her.

Lynn backed herself into a corner, hoping that the lizard would come through the doors they had. She grabbed the gallon of grease with her good hand and splashed a bit at her feet. The other two were on the ground, oozing out grease onto the ground. Lynn gritted her teeth and forced her power down, down. This meant the pain from her shoulder was blinding, unmitigated by her phoenix form. "C'mon," Lynn said, shaking from the exertion. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Lynn blinked her eyes, aware but unperturbed by the smoke and steam that was filling the kitchens.

Please be in that freezer, and please don't go after the kids.

Lynn put the gallon of oil down and grabbed a metal pot, banging it against the oven next to her. It began to glow red hot around the rim, denting like paper on each impact. "C'MERE BOAT FARMER! I GOT A TREAT FOR YOU!" If reptiles were like sharks, Lynn figured, he was coming after the wounded prey. Around her, water evaporated into a steam a foot from touching her, sapping Lynn's strength a touch more with each drop. If she stopped holding herself, it wouldn't have been as difficult, but this was a situation requiring precision, which was not exactly Lynn's forte.

Lynn threw the pot down and got ready. There was about a fifteen second window where this could work. She had been in some pretty bad scrapes before - none so bad as this, she had to admit, but enough to keep her nerve. And the positive side was if she couldn't stay gutsy for long, it wouldn't matter. At least I won't die cold.

[Silver Carrot]

Natalie Ellis

---

---

Natalie was strong, but she wasn't a fighter. The tail caught her square in the chest, luckily. If it had hit her in the stomach, her ribcage wouldn't have been able to take the blow, and she's likely need urgent medical attention to live. However, as the blow was against her ribcage, the only damage she'd get from it was a large and ugly bruise. The pain, however, did make the next several seconds a blur she can't quite recall. The next moment she remembered, she had been pulled to her feet and into the kitchen. The blow had snapped her out of her violent episode, and she was once again measured and rational. She heard Lynn telling her to get in the freezer. She felt Lynn's skin burn her own, nd she saw Archie recovering and healing from the blow. He'd be up soon. And Lynn evidently had some kind of heat power which she was about to use. Natalie didn't need telling twice. She headed straight inside the walk-in freezer, making sure there were no stragglers inside the kitchen as she went.

[JunkMail]

Archie

---

"C'MERE BOAT FARMER! I GOT A TREAT FOR YOU!"

Having recovered fully from its wounds, the reptile turned its attention onto the ever annoying red dot that had appeared and remained in its peripheral vision throughout its time wrecking havoc. It snarled, and pounded the ground once more in frustration. This was the one that had started this- at least, it thinks it is. This annoying red woman had been the first thing it had seen when it had come to. It must've been the cause!

It roared, an ugly and savage sound tearing through its throat. Thus far it had only thrown things at the girl, having more pressing issues to deal with such as taking a beating from the other girl and taking out its frustration on the world around it. But now it was clanging things together. The metallic, tinny sounds was really beginning to rub it the wrong way. It was time to deal with the annoyance up close and personal- it seemed too stubborn to go away from a distance. He could smell the adrenaline, and the he could hear the pain in her voice. She was injured- it was time to finish the job.

Archie lurched forward on all fours, his massive limbs pumping like pistons and carrying him across the room at breakneck speeds in Lynn's direction- into the kitchen.

---

@He Who Walks Behind@Silver Carrot

[Luminous Beings]

Lynn

This is the stupidest thing I've ever done. I could've run. I could've left Spoons and gotten clear, I could've -

Archie came into the kitchen, angry and hulking. Whatever damage Natalie had put on him was still there to some extent, but he was already licking his wounds pretty well. For a brief moment, one that Lynn would have difficulty admitting to herself happened afterwards, she thought deliriously that she had seen Clarita running out of the cafteria, or that Cesar might take off the lizard head and everyone would come out laughing, but that moment passed.

The one advantage of this thing being twice Lynn's size and easily forty-five times her weight was that it took a while to build up momentum. Lynn always got smoked by the taller guys on a straightaway, but she could dart and duck around them all day. Lynn pressed herself back into the tile, the dull whoosh of the flames around her in her ear. She waited as Archie came into the kitchen, having to slow down for just a second to change direction. That was one thing, at least - he wasn't going for Natalie, or whatever scrappy little fuckers were dumb enough to hang around in the cafeteria still. Just a second to pick its speed back up. All she needed. All she needed. This was the first time Lynn had gotten a really good look at the thing. This close? Fifteen feet away? It was tremendous. It was massive. Lynn felt nothing short of utter horror. God it could eat me. It could rip my arms out. It could -

Lynn snapped herself back to reality. The lizard was ten feet away now because she'd screwed around, and Cordelia Lynn Holmes was not about to go out whimpering and shaking.

Lynn spared one second to glance down at her useless arm. "Ka-boom," she said, her voice hoarse.

Lynn inhaled sharply, and on the exhale, put all the strength she had into her fire. There was a strange sucking noise in the room as all the oxygen immediately whooshed in. The burning aura around Lynn burst up a good two or three feet, melting a hole in the ceiling above her as the oil in her hand ignited. The air pulsated off her, rippling out and turning the entire kitchen into a convection oven, rattling the cabinets and sending pots and pans clanging off the shelves and racks. As it did, the ovens began to burn as hot as their wiring allowed. The fryers shook violently against their metal frames, their frames glowing and bending and warping. The water, both from the ceiling and idling about as moisture in the air, turned to steam in a split second, and there was a brief acrid smell as Lynn's clothes were seared off her. Lynn's feet were no longer wearing shoes, but some puddle of melted rubber and cloth that, even amongst everything else, sent up a particularly awful reek.

Then came the fun part.

The oil Lynn had spilled all over the floor - oil that so happened to be underneath Archie at this present moment, as all ten feet and two and a half tons of him barrelled towards her - caught.

Everything was fire. The air, the ground, Lynn, the metal in the room, everything that was not literally water. The metal fryers, oven coils, and all the metal in Lynn's immediate vicinity went white-hot for an instant, immediately cooling back down to red as Lynn's supernatural haymaker passed. Lynn flared white herself for a moment, something blindingly bright and sharp as all her senses were numbed to heat and sound. For a second, she burned like a star. Just a second. There wasn't enough oxygen, or fuel, or enough Lynn. Somewhere, Lynn's plan of dropping knives in the fryer came to fruition, as red hot blades - or, rather, pieces of them - exploded out across the kitchen, knocking holes in cabinets, the ceiling, putting a dent in the fridge, and slicing into Lynn's side (she did not feel this - unsurprisingly, it was cauterized rather quickly). This was compounded by the shrapnel of everything else that exploded, which was quite a number of things. Lynn had not anticipated there being as much oil in the cabinets as there was. She hoped at least some of it hit Archie, with enough force and heat to slice through his side. All of this happened as more water rushed into the room, and whatever wasn't converted into steam splattered the grease further, egging the fire to spurt and explode further. Lynn's power meant everything flammable became more flammable, and everything not flammable had an asterisk next to it that said partially flammable. Everything that could boil boiled more easily and everything that could blow up just needed a mild suggestion instead of proper ignition.

All the oil met Lynn met the fryer grease met the open air and a forty five foot plume of flame blasted out the window of the kitchen, liquidating the nearest table and charring the ones after. Whether by an active part of Lynn's supernatural subconscious, or lucky positioning, or divine intervention, Lynn's hoodie was spared. The heat and fire that blasted upwards briefly liquefied the metal ceiling, along with the lightbulbs, wiring, and everything else above the oil fire. With Lynn's presence - and her powers - removed, they were rapidly cooling, but even the purely-non-parahuman thermal energy left in the room kept a few drops of everything that had been above them dripping down, hardening on the floor. It didn't need to be parahuman hot in there. It was still really fucking hot in there. Lynn had just gotten the ball rolling.

Lynn had a brief momnet of lucidity as she realized the ringing in her ears was her eardrums exploding from the noise. She could not see anything through the steam and smoke. To indulge in a cliche, Lynn was not entirely convinced that she was still on the mortal plane. It certainly looked a lot like hell.

She blinked around, struggling to move, but most of her body was not cooperating. Her head was spinning and her arm wasn't working. Was it not working before? Molten plastic dripped off her fingers. The jug. Lynn blinked. She was no longer in the kitchen. Lynn was almost certain she had been in the kitchen a moment before. She had, in fact, blasted herself through the kitchen wall into the storeroom, where a few industrial sized containers of food were idly blazing around her. There was too much smoke and steam and fire inside the kitchen to see if she'd even fucking scratched Archie or not. It would be just her luck that the lizard was fireproof.

Get up. Get up you fucking bitch. Lynn heaved and pushed herself up, and then it happened. Lynn threw up ash onto the ground, something clotty and dry and black. She gasped for air, Christ she couldn't breathe - but only smoke came out, her eyes watering as the bitter taste flooded her mouth. Lynn thought she said no, but her lungs wouldn't work. Lynn began to shiver, and she could feel the heat of her hair die back down. Her leg wasn't holding her weight, and wouldn't bend to help her stand up. She looked down at her arms, which were covered in charred something or another. The entire path from where she'd been, some thirty feet in front of her, to where she was, was covered in ash and soot. Well fuck me. Nothing ends easy. If she hadn't kicked up enough smoke and ash to blind that thing, it was not exactly going to have a difficult time following where she went. Unbeknownst to Lynn, her back had not taken the force of being thrown through a wall so easily, and there were a number of deep lacerations that made her phoenix tattoo a rather avant-garde piece at the present moment. Lynn managed to put all of her weight on her good arm, pulling herself an inch at a time behind a sack of corn. Lynn pushed herself as far against the wall as she would go.

I'm not going to die shivering. Stand up. Stand up! She felt small, she was naked and cold and she couldn't even stand up. She was pathetic. No wonder the lizard thrashed her. Stupid. Stupid! Lynn managed to turn herself around against the wall and looked down, trying to pull her legs under her and sgrab the bag of whatever was next to her to pull herself up.

There was half of a butcher's knife, still red-hot, sticking out of her right kneecap.

Lynn reached to grab it, thinking that it shouldn't be there, she should yank it out. She reached out. Why is there plastic on my fingers? she wondered. She tried to grab at the blade but her hand missed it. She missed it so badly she slumped over.

"Oh," Lynn murmured. She blinked. There was a warm breeze from the next room over. She was shaking. But that warm air coming in - that was nice. She was getting cold.