The STRANGE: Origins

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Jaggerjack applauded Sam in his head as Sam took a seat near the back. He walked through the shadows to keep attention away from himself, never looking up. He wasn't genuinely sad, but he was sure everyone would feel sad for him after his performance...and he wanted that feeling to keep going, for the sake of his performance's effect...wait, was that a small tinge of actual sadness that he felt? What was that from? Regardless, Sam silently sat and kept to himself, though he could not stop grinning. He felt proud of himself. He had put the performance together almost last minute and -though Jaggerjack had helped with much of the dialogue- came up with script himself. The idea of housing something else inside of him, something malevolent that sought to claim his body as opposed to share it like Jaggerjack was a scary idea. Even scarier was the idea of that same being killing Sam to claim the body. However, what had the most effect was the idea of losing Jaggerjack. Sam could not remember when he and Jaggerjack first bonded, but they have always been together. Jaggerjack, though he was supposedly a god, claimed to be under Sam and that he was some kind of "guardian." Sam constantly felt Jaggerjack's presence within his soul and almost constantly heard his voice. There was never a time that Jaggerjack wasn't there. So if Sam woke up one day...and Jaggerjack wasn't there, just like in his performance, he wasn't sure how he would react. Or if Sam was the cause that Jaggerjack was gone...Sam shivered and stopped entertaining the thought. He had acted too well and fooled even himself. He smiled to himself as the next performer walked onto the screen and Jaggerjack continued to applaud their performance. Sam was sure that he would get a good grade and that the students enjoyed the performance, but overall? He was just glad that Jaggerjack, a deity who was supposedly shown many performances as a tribute, enjoyed it.​

'Glad ya liked it, ya flamin' furball.'​

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"Oh, god," Sam gagged as he saw Anya's performance. His stomach churned as something attempted to fight his way up. 'Not again, man,' he thought as he held a hand to his mouth. It wasn't her self-mutilation that was making him want to hurl chunks (though that definitely contributed), but the fact that Sam was now in his normal clothes. You see, when a flaming leopard god of the sun that lives inside your soul erupts from your body like a volcano going through puberty and he comes out wearing his own clothes, your own clothes have to go somewhere. The denim jacket, white t-shirt, and brown pants that Sam wore were part of his "default appearance," along with his neck-length faded-colored hair and the tattoo on his chest. No matter what state he's in when he transforms into Jaggerjack, he would always revert to this current state when changing back to Sam. His theory was that the outfit was what he was wearing when he first bonded with Jaggerjack, back in the 'forgotten life.' It made trying new hairstyles difficult, ya know? However, if Sam was wearing a different outfit when transforming -such as the props that he had on during his performance- where would those outfits go when he changed back?​

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He held back the chunks and continued to watch Anya, commenting on how 'over the top' it was...and that's coming from the guy who had a sun-born kitty god control a flame in a twisted parody of Sam's appearance and then blast fire over the audience. What was her point? She could heal? Congratu-frickin-lations. Mr. Blood was ugly? Yeah, piss off the guy who could throw you in the White Room.​

'You are highly missing the point, Master Samuel.'​

'Oh, there's an actual point? Thought she just had some horror fetish she was livin' out. Or maybe she just thinks she's a frickin' rebel, ya know?'​

'...Indeed, the point is officially over your head. Why else would she feign being both Blood and dead?'​

'I'm telling ya, Jaggy. Horror fetish.'​

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Sam clapped a couple of times when the performance was finished, but still thought his better despite him missing the point entirely. Sam didn't understand why the other students were freaking out. Obviously this was either related to her powers or just an act. No way that she would really-​

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"Goddamn it! The hell did I do now?!" The A-Class cried out in exasperation as he was 'sentenced.' Seriously, what was the big deal? It's not like he transformed into a guidance counselor and then ripped his own face off. Maybe it was a mistake, but then why did the others also get called? Regardless, Sam stood up and walked towards the aisle. "Look, if this is about Jaggerjack spitting fire over everybody, it was all his idea. What am I supposed to do, say 'no' to a god?" He asked, waving in his arms as he neared the soldiers. "I mean, ya think he would liste-HEY!" He quickly fell to the ground as a wave of electricity barely missed him and struck the guards. "The hell?!" Something was going on. Students were screaming, electricity was flying, and something...something was fighting its way up his esophagus. Now that Rendium was in his vicinity, it was a lot harder to hold back the vomit. "Look," he told the soldiers as he stood up, "I ain't got nothin' to do with th-" Before he could finish, that Aiden guy came out of nowhere, strong-arming one of the soldiers before making his way around them. Sam ignored Jaggerjack's yells in the back of his head as he prepared to explain the situation...but then the vomit came. "Blargh!" Sam crouched over as a ball of fire escaped his mouth and landed in front of his feet; it was the prop glove that he had worn to imitate claws. This is what happened when Sam's outfit was different than his default when he transformed: the material would eject itself from Sam's insides in the form of a fiery vomit. Neither Sam nor Jaggerjack knew where it came from, but theorized that it had something to do with the fact that matter couldn't be destroyed or created, only changed. As the ball of fire landed near Sam's toes, Sam kicked it in surprise...right at one of the guard's face. "Oh, crap. Man, I'm sorry. That was not what I was tryin' t-GLBRHG!!" And next came the prop shoe projectile vomiting itself straight at another guard. Sam's throat, tongue, lips, stomach, and lungs were burning. Jaggerjack was made for firebreathing, not him. As he grabbed his stomach and looked at the two soldiers that he had involuntarily attack, he realized that there was no easy way out of this situation. Taking a step back, Sam shrugged. "This is gonna be worse than when I didn't have a hall pass, ain't it?"​

 

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◘ Ｉ ＷＯＮ'Ｔ ＬＩＧＨＴ ＴＨＥ ＦＩＲＥ， ＢＵＴ Ｉ ＷＩＬＬ ＮＵＲＴＵＲＥ ＴＨＥ ＦＬＡＭＥＳ ＯＦ ＲＥＢＥＬＬＩＯＮ ◘​

When Madam Lumia had announced that the next act was Anya Kurse, Nix had left all other things from his attention and focused on the stage. Anya was not the artsy type, and Nix knew that, so the fact that she'd quickly and willingly gone up to the state meant - to him - that something interesting was about to take place.

And it did.

A smile spread over his face as he watched her obviously-rebellious performance, and he was almost jealous that he wasn't the un-subtle type, the person to split the reality like that, to make such a large, bold statement. It was pretty great. And then she collapsed. Nix watched as the crowd parted by an invisible force and guessed that it was little Ghostie going up to the stage.

Before he could make any other movements, heavy steps entered the room and looked at the doorway. The lights had come on and there were four school security agents standing at the door, making quite an entrance. One of them pulled out a list, and Nix had a feeling he knew what was on it.

"Dean, Holson, Kurse, Logan, Moon, and White; you are sentenced to the white room by orders of your headmaster."

Nix didn't move and looked to the other students who were now at least making a two-feet-in-diameter circle around him. Despite his normally cool demeanor, Nix didn't think he could go to the White Room - and if he knew better ( which he did ), they weren't just going to the White Room. They'd broken at least ten school rules, and the biggest one of all that was probably going to have their asses.

Just then, the Littlest Shrimp took a run for the stage and created a wall of electricity that no security was going to get through, but the Rendium they had with them might. He considered his options; he could go with the guards and suffer a lesser punishment than those rebelling at the moment, he could tell the guards to suck his dick and not move from his spot, he could go behind the wall of electricity with the girls, or . . .

Nix looked up at the ceiling. The very center of it was made of glass, and . . . He grinned, but this was pretty dangerous.

"Hunter, think fast." he whispered, thrusting forth his hand and shooting a ball of ice at one of the guns the guards held. What did ice do to Rendium? He didn't know, come to think about it, but the gun froze over, and then the guard yelped and dropped it. One of the other guns was aimed at him, and then it shot. He took a breath and jumped out of the way, students yelping and screaming, not wanting to be hit with the weakening substance.

Nix didn't take off as fast as he wanted to, but with a good, strong kick, he was up in the air, the room being barely big enough to house his free spirit. Another bullet of Rendium shot at him and he almost fell out of the air, causing students to panic, and him to feel his stomach drop, but he focused all of his energy into staying up and then shot through the ceiling window, the glass shattering against his head and cutting him in a few places.

A few minutes later, he landed on the roof of the school, collapsing against one of the walls, panting heavily. Damn that Rendium . . . He just hoped he was able to rest long enough to get away from this part of the school.

 

It was like watching a black and white movie with only the black, and with all the sound blurred. That's all Anya was getting from her surroundings right now. Even though she was so out of it and unsure of what was going on, she was intrigued and knew that the next few moments would decide her fate. Whatever a fate that may be. She had no regrets though about what she did. That's just how it was. She knew the entire area around her was filled with action. She could tell that much. ...So were the others resisting? She knew for a fact before that security would have been coming, their performances had been filled with subtle rebellion. Anya's own performance had just been the icing on the cake. Even if she hadn't have performed, security would still have been there - just not for Anya too. ...It'd take a few minutes for her regeneration to heal her enough. If she was thrown into the White Room now, then she'd bleed to death. How long would they be able to hold out? Security would surely have Rendium with them. Anya tried to do a head count. There was Nix who Anya didn't see being taken out so easily whatever he might be doing. There was that girl who Anya didn't know much about, but she seemed so... airy that she'd likely be useless in a fight. So that counted her out. The blue haired spark plug would definitely put up one hell of a fight, Anya was sure. That arrogant idiot N-class guy would likely also put up a good fight since Rendium didn't affect him. And the guy with the God inside him, Anya wasn't really sure. If he actually tried in a fight, she had no doubt he'd likely be powerful, but somehow she got the feeling that he'd... just not do it. Regardless, these next few minutes would seem like the longest of her life as she waited to fall into her fate. She wasn't scared though, if anything, such a thought was a thrill to her.


~ The security team were slowly gaining ground, but it wasn't easy to make progress at all. Frida's electrical storm was keeping them at bay with surprising efficiency. Then there was Aiden, whipping around all of them so fast that they could barely touch him. Samuel kept fúcking up and sneezing flaming whatever at them, and Nix had flown sky high. However... this wasn't the first signs of rebellion that STRANGE Academy had ever dealt with. Already waiting on the roof in case of such an event, a team was able to corner Nix and capture him with the use of Rendium - such a powerful tool. Next up was Samuel, he was bought down quickly, but it didn't seem like he was even trying to resist anyway. With them out the way, a team was able to make it close to Frida, and she too was efficiently dispatched with the use of Rendium, although she still resisted to the very end, kicking and screaming and scratching and biting to the point that they had to sedate her by force. With all of them dealt with, the next issue was Aiden. He'd be the biggest problem since Rendium did nothing against him, but with sheer numbers they too were able to overwhelm him, although with a cheeky smirk, the way he acted was like he gave up trying in the end, like he had better things to do. Now it was eerily quiet in the room. No other students spoke, and... there were only two left to find. Security didn't waste anytime and were upon the stage in an instance. In truth, they didn't know where Alice or Anya had vanished, but this team was efficiently trained. They knew how to deal with suck situations. There was no way inside the stage, but if you were a student at STRANGE Academy, that didn't always mean a thing. So the team broke apart Madame Lumia's precious stage and sure enough, again with the use of Rendium, the invisible duo were revealed and easily restrained too. It was over like clockwork. Efficient, and precise, this is how STRANGE Academy was able to keep in control of any situation.~

...All of this roughly took the space of five minutes. It wasn't enough to fully heal, but... because of the time the others had bought, Anya would live again to fight another day.

 

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◘ Ｉ ＷＯＮ'Ｔ ＬＩＧＨＴ ＴＨＥ ＦＩＲＥ， ＢＵＴ Ｉ ＷＩＬＬ ＮＵＲＴＵＲＥ ＴＨＥ ＦＬＡＭＥＳ ＯＦ ＲＥＢＥＬＬＩＯＮ ◘​

Okay, so coming to the roof hadn't been the ideal thing to do - but if Nix were honest with himself, it'd been the only thing to do. How could he have known that there was going to be - Scratch that. He should have known, but he let himself get too excited. The better move out of his previous three options would have been to just go quietly, but then again, where was the fun in that?

For a long moment, when he had been cornered and apprehended, he was afraid they were going to do something drastic, like clip his wings, but they only shot at him a few times and the snowy whites folded themselves. Cuffs were around his wrist and rope was around his torso. What a great situation.

This time, he went quietly. The long walk was filled with students in the halls staring and him looking straight ahead, keeping his eyes forward and his chin up. There was no reason to be ashamed; Nix was damned proud of himself, despite being caught. He wasn't one to make trouble or do outwards . . . anything, but this was different. Things were getting different.

At the door of the White Room, the rope was cut and the cuffs were released. The guards were going to push him in, but he walked before they could touch him. His entire body sagged - or it felt like it - but he found his way to a white desk and slumped down into it, setting his head on his forearms.

He was a little surprised that they were only getting an hour's worth in the White Room - and that the White Room was the full extent. Or . . . If it wasn't, he didn't know.

"Well, that was great fun. I think we'll get ace grades on our projects."

 

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The effect was almost immediate for Frida Logan. Everything felt heavy - her eyelids, her breathing and even her own weight. Everything also felt very surreal and dream-like which made her movements and thoughts incredibly slow and sluggish. She could barely keep herself up. There were two guards by her side, who carried her slightly rather than escorting because her feet would drag and she would fall over. Now, they barely touched the floor with the two guards lifting her by her arms and the belt around her waist. Her head hung down as they traveled from the classroom to the white room. Everything was so... fuzzy.

She blinked and looked down at the floor below her, as her feet dragged on. There was no shadow being casted, so she figured she must have been the first one to be taken out of the classroom. This didn't make sense to her. She blinked hard once more. Frida knew she would have fought back more for this - to be taken to the white room first in line? No, there must be some mistake. She slowly raised her head, with some difficulty, to look at who might be ahead of her. There was no one. She bore a confused expresson before hanging her head down again. How did she- oh right. She did put up one hell of a fight. Everything just happened so fast - she must have forgotten.

Frida was the one on stage and making sure the security wouldn't be getting anywhere near Anya or Alice. She had this huge wall of electricity that spat out little shocks to make sure the armoured men stayed away. Hah, that was one great feat of power. She smirked slightly remembering this. People must have feared her even more so now. However, even with her constant power surges the Rendium's exposure creeped onto the stage - but that didn't stop her. She gave it ever ounce of her power. The wall had fallen by then, but she kept at it. She fired constant electric shocks straight at the men. They hit, for sure, but her power must have been weakened already by the Rendium and how she already used so much of it. A loud crash distracted Frida for a moment, and she saw Nix fly out of the room through the glass on the ceiling. That's when she thought, ' Oh yes! Escape! 'but that was also when she got hit by the first shot of Rendium. She immediately turned to the direction where the shot must have came from, saw the guard and sent a shock right at him. It was weak, but it hit him. Unfocused and distracted, the men got closer. She sent shocks at them but by this time the Rendium had entered her system and eventually deprived her of her powers. She then attempted to run, but they got their hands on her and she couldn't go anywhere from there. The rest of this became very fuzzy again to Frida. Recalling it became very flash-back-montage and only random things that she did seemed to pop in her head. She bit a guy. She screamed. She kicked a couple men - one to the face. She got shot by Rendium again, this time, almost point blank. Then she kept kicking people and biting them. Then there were more shots at a very close range. Screaming. Kicking. Biting. Then there was this one last pang of pain before everything just went blank. Darkness. Everything just happened so fast. Too fast. She was good, but the school was better.

She felt another surge of pain, this time through her entire side followed by this cool feeling touching the skin on that side. Almost like it was comforting the pain. Then she realized she was on some floor. A white floor. Then it all made sense. She grunted, raising herself up to sit... close to properly. She sat with her legs folded to her sides, and leaned forward using her hands to support her weight - which still felt heavy. Everything felt heavy, still. She took a few deep breaths for a moment before looking up at everyone around her. She was still a little dazed and everything was still a little fuzzy but she could make out that she was with the people who joined in her performance - her group - along with the Sam guy and Anya. She didn't exactly know what to do. Everything was silent - but her mind was still blank and she still couldn't find the energy to move. It was like someone just sucked all the electrical energy out of her - which is actually kind of what they did.

"Well, that was great fun. I think we'll get ace grades on our projects."

The petite teenager looked up at Nix with a what-the-hell expression but ended up even chuckling at what he said and rolling her eyes away. Jokes aside, Frida found it really odd that this was all that they were getting. Sure, this was already too much for her - being deemed powerless but in comparison to what they all just showcased? That was just... strange.

 

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[/url]Alice listened silently to the fight going on above her, her heart pounding fast as she just hoped they could hold them off for long enough. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she watched Anya's body heal what seemed to be agonisingly slowly when it was actually pretty quick. The fight didn't last very long, the noises made it clear who had been taken down, with radium in play they didn't stand a chance. If only there was someway to take radium out of the question, without it they'd stand a much higher chance of escaping. She listened as she heard the last person be taken down, it wouldn't be long now. She was right. Soon after she felt it, it was like nothing she'd ever experienced before, every single cell in her body seemed to be objecting to it. She felt sick and dizzy and really not good.​

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Moments later the stage was ripped open, momentarily blinding her from the sudden light. She felt arms grab her and pull her out of the stage, she might have actually thanked them quietly in her dizziness, there was no way she'd of managed to get out on her own feeling like this. She looked over to Anya and almost smiled as they took her away, the girl was still hurt but it was obvious she'd healed enough to survive. Mission accomplished. They were never going to win this fight but they'd managed to save a life and that's what mattered. As so she put up no resistance to the guards, well except stumbling a bit from the effects of radium but she couldn't help that. It was pointless to fight now and injure herself, she was better off saving her strength for when they had better odds. ​

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She looked at the guards holding her to see who they were, ah, there was John, he was alright, he had a good sense of humour but was terrified of spiders. Looking to the other side, she saw Ted, he annoyed her as he seemed a bit stuck up and pretentious but she did enjoy watching all the other guards doing impersonations of him. She knew most of the guards by name at least, not that they knew her. She'd figured a while ago it might be fun to watch the guards without them knowing and by now she had an almost full index of them.​

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She was brought to the white room to see the others, which surprised her, she'd expected more than that. Unless maybe they figured they could just throw them in there until they figure out what to do with them. However she heard Nix's comment and giggled, "Oh yeah, they loved them so much even the guards wanted to see them" She spoke quietly, smiling but she collapsed on a chair, this room taking it's toll on her body.​

 

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"Look, I'm tellin' ya, I didn't mean to-" before he could explain his actions, Samuel found a soldier grabbing each arm and slamming him onto his back. As he cried out in pain, he heard Jaggerjack roar in his head. The red in his eyes intensified, his skin's temperature rose, and the seal on his chest started to tingle as Jaggerjak attempted to break through...but Samuel would remain himself unless he willed the transformation. Fortunately, Sam knew better. For some reason, he was grouped together with the rebellious students. He just had to explain himself to Mr. Blood; he didn't mean anything by the performance, it was just a flashy Shakespearan monologue. Unfortunately, however, Sam felt the Rendium take effect and Jaggerjack's presence began to fade into the recesses of his mind. "Ya know, if I could get just one minute, maybe even 45 seconds, I could tell ya exactly what-Hey!" One of the soldiers grabbed him by one arm and jerked him up before twisting the arm around his back and slamming him against the wall. "Ugh! What's with the brutality, man? I ain't even resisting!" Sam growled as his face was pressed against the wall. The A-Class student groaned out some choice words as his hands were placed behind his back and handcuffed together with something...cold. 'Oh, no...not sapphire.' His body temperature fell fast and Jaggerjack's voice was completely gone. The handcuffs were embedded with sapphires, poison to Jaggerjack. Sam couldn't transform as long as he was in contact with it...though normally, he could still communicate with Jaggerjack. "Rendium and sapphires? Guess we're playing hardball," Sam growled as he watched the other students get apprehended (though with more difficulty than himself). As they were being led away, Sam decided to stop trying to explain himself. They brought sapphires...they came specifically for him. There was nothing about his performance that could have suggested a rebellious attitude, like the performance of the others... so it must have been something else. His show of powers, perhaps? Endangering others? The school should know that Jaggerjack is in complete control of his own flames; it was how he was able to fight the 'Demon,' by molding the flame into its shape and controlling its movements. The students were never in any danger...so why the brutality? He knew. Sam definitely knew. He just never bothered to actually put thought into it: he broke some rules so he was being excessively punished to put him in place. He remembered his last trip to the White Room, where he met that Lex kid. His own words rang in his head: "Don't fight the power and nobody gets hurt."​

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As they reached the White Room, one of the soldiers unlocked Sam's handcuff in a not-so-gentle manner and shoved him into the room. Before Jaggerjack could speak up, the large amounts of Rendium in the White Room assured that the Jaggerjack was silenced...though at least Sam could now feel his presence. "Thanks so much for the escort," Sam muttered to the guards as he rushed past the others and chose a seat in the back corner. He quickly sat down, placed his feet on the desk, pushed the chair back on its hind legs, and crossed his arms. He narrowed his glowing red eyes and scowled at the others. "Hope y'all are proud of yourselves," he told them all.​

 

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◘ Ｉ ＷＯＮ'Ｔ ＬＩＧＨＴ ＴＨＥ ＦＩＲＥ， ＢＵＴ Ｉ ＷＩＬＬ ＮＵＲＴＵＲＥ ＴＨＥ ＦＬＡＭＥＳ ＯＦ ＲＥＢＥＬＬＩＯＮ ◘​

Although he had a gotten a full night's sleep, Nix woke up the next morning feeling exhausted. Staying in the White Room for that long had taken a worse toll on him than he thought it would. At least it didn't make him completely immobile, he imagined someone like Frida would be worse of than himself.
Nix rose at about dawn and dressed, taking his morning flight ( that was shorter than normal ) just a little while before classes started. Today was Wednesday; Health and Gym day . . . He didn't mind these days, but after being so tired, he wasn't sure how well he was going to hold up.

After some walking and lots of yawning, Nix found himself in the boys' locker room. Some of the others looked at him as he changed into his athletic wear, but he didn't pay much attention to them. After dressing, Nix quietly slipped into the large, open-roof gym. He decided a few laps around the track would do him good. After stretching, he took up low flying and running, alternating between laps.

 

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White.

It was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. The tiny teenager was filled with panic and she immediately pushed against from where she was laying to hoist herself up. She was completely alarmed until she realized that she wasn't in that horrid, terrifying white room but in fact, she was in a room filled with color. She was in her room. Safe in her room. She looked down at the pillow beside her, it was the white thing she first saw when she woke. She growled at it for a second then grabbed it and threw it across the room before slumping back down, face-first into her soft bed. Turning her head to the side, she realized it was already getting pretty late and that she probably needed to get ready.

'It's gym day. Why am I not excited?'

Rendium was probably the answer. It was as if it was still attacking her system. She didn't feel like moving at all - she felt like rotting away. This was incredibly odd because 1) this was the electrifying Frida Logan being taken to account and 2) it was gym day, her most favourite day of the entire week. However, yesterday had been probably one of the worst days of her life. They were in the White Room for a while, all of the students. They didn't talk much with one another - at least, Frida didn't, she didn't exactly have the energy. She remembers taking a while before she could even stand up to take a seat. They used so much force to sedate her yesterday but then again, because she used so much force to fight them off. Her awful day didn't end in the White Room, because the Rendium took so much off of her, she couldn't even make it back to her room alone. Guards had to help her out and drag her back to her room - which was the biggest punch to her ego, as one could imagine. Students saw her being dragged back to her room, even after spending time to possibly get the Rendium out of her system. People she's made fun of or hurt definitely looked at her with smirks on their faces and lines of mockery. She felt all eyes on her and heard all the little murmurs, along with picking up distinct words like 'wow' and 'look at that' and 'serves her right'. Once they brought her to her room, the little girl remembers getting dressed for bed incredibly sluggishly and crying until she couldn't remember anything more but waking up.

She groaned before rolling on her side and sitting up, she pressed her middle fingers into the corner of her eyes. Her eyes were sore from crying last night and all she did was take a deep breath before going to her bathroom and freshening up. She got out of her pajamas and into some undergarments then brushed out the tangles in her blue hair and put them into pigtails and brushed her teeth and moisturized her face before applying her thin coat of lip gloss on her soft, little lips. She sluggishly moved over to her closet and grabbed the PE uniform, pulled the shirt over her head and slipped into her black shorts. She put on white socks and wore running shoes. Now, usually it would take her about 10 minutes to get ready for gym, but today she was still so drained and had no motivation to move it took her a good half hour. She went over to her side table, grabbed her bag which she slung over her shoulder and sulked out of the room. She knew people were glancing at her when she walked out but she was in no mood for any interaction, not even to zap anyone away. She kept her head hung down and she began walking towards the gym.

It was probably just in her head but she could still hear the murmurs 'Oh look little Frida Logan not so super anymore.'

 

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[/url]Alice never set herself an alarm, she always found that forcing herself to wake up meant that she was working against her body and she just ended up feeling more tired and deflated than she should. However if she managed to get her body to wake her up at the right time and her body clock was surprisingly good, then her body was ready to get up when she was awoke and she was working with it.

This day, she managed to wake up at an okay time but it was pretty obvious her body was determined to work against her. The radium had taken it's toll on her body and drained her of her usual bounce. She did not want to get up, her body felt awful, her head throbbed and to top it off today was her least favourite day of the week. She hated gym. She hated it so much. She wasn't particularly unfit, her dancing kept her active as well as the fact she never sat still. That didn't seem to make any difference though, they always seemed to make it torture for her and push her way past her limits. Her body shouldn't have to go through that week after week, if she improved they just raised the bar. She did not enjoy gym at all when she was feeling well. Today, she was not feeling well.

Somehow, after simply laying in bed for ages, she managed to drag herself out of bed. It was times like these she was grateful that she never bothered with makeup or any of that nonsense. As she got ready, ever so slowly, the events of the day before were fresh in her mind. Did she regret her actions of the day before? No. She didn't, she'd rather enjoyed it in fact. She didn't like radium but considering what they'd done she'd been surprised how little they'd done. Unless they had more planned for their group, that was pretty likely in fact. What could they have in store for them? Her PE kit seemed so much harder to get on than usual, she dropped her toothbrush into the sink as she tried to clean her teeth and her brush snagged in her hair.

For the first time in a long time she walked out of her room. Walked. Not skipped, bounced or ran. Not hopped, pranced or galloped. Not jumped, slid or bounded. She walked, her feet dragging with every step. She was silent, that in itself wasn't so strange but the bubble around her where there was no sound was almost eerie. Yet despite her punctured atmosphere, she wasn't defeated, each step was a new victory. She was determined, there was no doubt about that. The ball had been set in motion, what happened now was up to them.​

 

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Anya awoke the next morning, the events of the previous day a blur in her mind and yet crystal clear up until a certain point. She was still here though. Alive. Somehow, she'd survived the results of her performance and then the aftermath of being thrown into the White Room. ...That's right. The others who had been called out had fought back and resisted. It had bought her enough time to regenerate her wounds enough before her powers had been cut off by Rendium. ...Anya traced slender fingers along her face and her gut. The gashes that had been there were gone now. However, by the time she'd been thrown into the White Room, she'd not been perfect. More so from the condition the White Room left her in, as usual. She wasn't in best condition at the time, and going into the White Room when she was in perfect condition was still hell at the best of times. Yesterday was just nasty. Of course, Rendium was a weakness to nearly anybody unless you were of N class, but Anya was probably one of the ones affected by Rendium worse than nearly anyone else in the whole academy. Anya's body was essentially her power itself. Her cells having been designed to be in a constant state of flux to give her her incredible abilities was her blessing, and unfortunately even more of a curse when it came to Rendium. Because Rendium had such an effect on people with powers, and Anya's powers were tied directly to her very cells, when she came into contact with the stuff, her cells would pretty much shut down, almost like they were hibernating. No matter how many times Anya experienced it, it didn't get any better. It felt like she was dying. Albeit, that had never deterred her from any of her actions before which had thrown her into the White Room before. Maybe she was just defiant? It was probably more than just that. Regardless, if it wasn't for her survivalist nature that had been encoded into her DNA and her regeneration, she'd definitely die from the Rendium within a few moments. It was an odd mix, her powers were what caused her to react so strongly to Rendium, and yet the nullified effects of her powers were what kept her barely going even if it rendered her into a near dead state.
The White Room was approaching the border heavily... if there was any more Rendium to be exposed to, Anya knew that even she would not survive.

The rest of that day wasn't in her memory. She'd been dragged out of the White Room and chucked into her room to the floor and left there. Once the Rendium was out of her system and her cells started functioning properly again, she'd regained consciousness, and because her powers were now flourishing again, overtime the pink unhealed scars tracing over her dark-toned body completely sealed to leave her in her unblemished state. The night had been restless, but it always was.

Standing up, Anya stripped off her clothes and went to the shower. The feeling of hot water felt good after yesterday. She stood there for a few minutes letting it just wash all over her. Once done, she stepped out and made her way to the towel rack. The mirror caught her attention as she moved past it. Stopping to regard herself, she stared deep into those yellow eyes of hers. Why did she exist? She'd been created for a purpose. Part of her genetic programming drilled it into her that she was designed to be perfect. But was that all?
Anya looked at her body. Well defined, unblemished, strong and beautiful. She wasn't vain, and she wouldn't even describe herself as any of those things. But that's how she'd been designed to be. Droplets from her body hit the floor as she stood there. Why the Orange hair though? And the yellow eyes? Had her creator chosen those things specifically? Had they just happened? Some other reason? Most likely the second or third, not that Anya completely cared, yet still pondered. She thought of Nix. He too was like her in that regard. Then again, so was the blue haired spark-plug (if that was her natural hair colour - that is).
Finally she dried herself and changed before heading off. It was Gym class today. Could have been worse considering. She'd still have wanted to skip normally, however after yesterday, Anya knew better and that she should comply for now. It wasn't that she was giving in, but she was being smart. She needed to bide her time again. Things were changing rapidly. She didn't even need to look hard for it. Especially after yesterday, change was in the air more than ever. Something would happen soon now. She needed to wait for that chance. And again, there were worse classes than Gym class. It gave her the chance to cut loose officially without breaking any rules.

So she headed to her destination, along the way, getting glances everywhere. Word had clearly spread. Anya kept up her poker face, maintaining blank emotion as she moved through the corridors. She didn't linger. She had no reason to anyway. Nobody to talk to, and nothing to distract her. But then... There was the blue haired one in the distance, and she seemed to be getting similar treatment in some ways, albeit, Anya was always regarded with fear. The reaction to 'Blue' was the opposite in this case.
'Oh look little Frida Logan not so super anymore.' A student nearby murmured barely out of ear shot. It was at that point that Anya had stepped towards him and 'accidently' brushed/shoved past him with surprising force and knocked him to the floor.'What the fúck?! Watch where you're going bi- uh..."
Anya stared down at him with blank eyes, cutting him off with her expression alone. "Finish that sentence." She waited for a few seconds, not breaking her eye contact with the guy for even a split second. After hearing nothing from him... "Didn't think so."
She turned her back on the student and continued on her way.

 

​

​

When some guy bumped into her, she kind of lost balance and had to step away, fumbling at her feet. She had not fallen. She decided not to mind it, with no energy to do anything or say anything. It wasn't worth it, and she wanted to save as much of her powers right now - especially with gym next. She was about to take a step forward, but then she heard a very familiar voice come from the man behind her. ​

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"My bad." ​

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She turned to face him. She was right. It was that Hunter guy. The one with the white hair who joined yesterday. The non-power user. She grunted and rolled her eyes. Him again? Why was he always around nowadays, it was so annoying. People already saw her with him yesterday - in a group presentation. Frida Logan with some guy who doesn't even have any powers. Gross! Wasn't yesterday enough already? Was the universe just there to hurt her since yesterday? She grunted, looking up at the tall man with a drained, leave-me-alone expression. She didn't utter a word, but simply stared at him with the grim face. She shook her head slightly, and rolled her eyes again, turning back to continue walking until he came to interupt again,​

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"You're pretty blue. ...Get it? Your nickname could be Blue. So it's like I called you pretty. But..."​

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The bluenette stopped at her tracks, eyes widening at the words she heard. She felt like she was going to vomit. What did he just say? Had he lost his mind? She turned to him with the most confused, disgusted expression. She stared at him again, lips pressed together as she swallowed hard to try and keep how disgusted she actually was inside. She breathed out exasperatingly, unable to fathom on what the pathetic white haired man was going on about. ​

​

Frida stood on her tiptoes, and grabbed Hunter's neck with a hand, squeezing it as she told him sternly, "Look just because we all had that episode yesterday - it doesn't mean you can talk to me. You're just a pathetic wannabe power user. You try so hard, but trust me, you're never going to be special. You're not going to be anything to anyone." her tone was very direct and nonchalant, but also tired. She squeezed his neck in her hand tighter, he was only human. No matter how strong he was, this would hurt him - or at least give him a difficult time in breathing. "You're wasting my time, energy and oxygen. Don't look, come close or speak to me ever again." with her final words came a surge of electricity as she continued to tighten her grip. She let go immediately, and turned on her heel, walking away from the man. If he dared to come aft her she swore that she'd lose it.​

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The petite teen grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer and squeezed some into her hand. She pressed her hands together, sanitizing them. She wanted to take away the germs on her hands from touching the non-power user. More so, she just wanted it to be gym. She was honestly a little more energized with her encounter from Hunter. Fired up by rage and disgust. She was ready to prove everyone that Rendium wouldn't stop Frida Logan. As she walked to the bleachers of the gym and set her bag down, out of the corner of her eye she spotted the girl from yesterday. She was quite a distance away from her, but she was cool. It was the dark skinned girl from yesterday who pulled off the gruesome display. Seeing her made a small smile creep onto her lips. It was good she was safe.​

 

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"Damn it, I'm sexy."​

Samuel couldn't help but admire himself in the locker room. As other male students changed and left, whipped each other with towels, urinated, or -as in one case- pulled each other's shorts down, Samuel slightly twisted his body in front of the mirror to bask in his glory. There he was, fair skin, faded dark hair, glowing red eyes, but he wasn't dressed in his usual denim-wear. He was wearing his gym attire: a short-sleeved white t-shirt and a pair of blue gym shorts...that left little to the imagination. His gray sneakers tied tightly. The light colors of his clothes made his tan skin not stand out as much, but it was obvious that he was darker than most of the other students of similar complexion. Sam used to wonder if he was Caucasion, some mixture, or even of Arab descent. If Jaggerjack was some sort of Egyptian god, maybe Sam himself was Egyptian...or had spent enough years in the region to permanently tan his skin...could you permanently tan? ​

Sam shrugged it off and placed his right foot on the sink, his shorts hanging a little too low. Wow, he couldn't help but look at his calf muscles. He could see a few guys snicker behind him through the mirror as they walked out, but so what? He was sexy and he knew it. If they wanted to make a comment, Sam could show them why he was in the "Advanced" Class. After all, Advanced...meant better. As he continued to stretch, he felt his muscles ache slightly. It seemed that the Rendium was almost completely wore off. Because the element affected Jaggerjack instead of Sam, and Advanced students generally fared better against Rendium anyway. However, he could still feel it, albeit faintly. Not to mention the doubled effect of the sapphires, Jaggerjack's weakness.​

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In his head, Jaggerjack was going over the previous night's events. The god did not like how Samuel was treated, nor did he like how Sam was no longer worried about it. Sam, on the other hand, didn't see it as a big deal. He wasn't a troublemaker like the others, he simply broke a rule. Sure, the force was excessive...extremely excessive, but Sam had long since made his peace with the school's policy on rule-breakers. He simply had to stay in line...he didn't like it, but what could he do? He'll just hold off until graduation.​

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"Now let's play ball," he mused as he finished stretching and left the locker room. Despite his confidence, Sam wasn't much in the arena. Sure, he was tall, but Jaggerjack was the one with the physical advantages, not him. Placed in competition with the other students who had some access to their powers whereas he had none without Jaggerjack (aside from glowing eyes) did not make for an easy competition...but Sam enjoyed it nonetheless.​

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◘ Ｉ ＷＯＮ'Ｔ ＬＩＧＨＴ ＴＨＥ ＦＩＲＥ， ＢＵＴ Ｉ ＷＩＬＬ ＮＵＲＴＵＲＥ ＴＨＥ ＦＬＡＭＥＳ ＯＦ ＲＥＢＥＬＬＩＯＮ ◘​

It wasn't difficult to tell that the other students in gym were mostly avoiding the group that had ended up in the White Room, but it was irritating to know that they were talking behind their backs. Nix wasn't one to start fights, though, so he forced himself to take it in stride and ignore them. He had obviously judged the lot of the school wrong, and he felt silly for that.

Laying on his stomach on one of the beams high in the ceiling, Nix gazed over the gym and saw the six faces he was looking for. They all seemed pretty out of it, but prolonged exposure to Rendium did that to you. Yesterday had definitely altered his views of some of them, but others . . . Not so much. He was growing particularly fond of Sparky and Anya, they just seemed bold as brass and were aggressive where he was passive.

Things were normal, for now, but something was probably going to happen to them soon. Things were probably going to change, radically. Exciting and scary, when he thought about it. He watched a student be bumped into the ground by Anya and gave a tired smile as the reaction played out. He wondered how scared other students were of them; it wasn't really something he thought about, being able to see over everyone in the crowd.

"Holson," called one of the coaches, and he leaned over the beam to see, "Get on down here, we're about to start!" He blinked and then sighed, not really willing to play today. His energy was only at half capacity. Oh well.

Nix rolled over, going onto his back, but the beam was too thin for the movement. Just before he could be on his back, the beam disappeared from under him and he was falling. With another sigh, he adjusted his body and then landed, knees bend and feet slamming into the floor, causing an echo of the loud sound to ring throughout the room for several seconds. Nix straightened himself up and looked down to the now-cracked gym floor.

"Oops." he let out nonchalantly, and then walked to another side of the gym, waiting for the game to start.

 

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[/url]Alice looked unhappily at the course they would have to complete. This wasn't going to be fun. The first half she was fairly confident about, her abilities meant that most of the course was going to be irrelevant to her, she could walk straight through the obstacles in her way. It was the second half that worried her a lot, without her powers to protect her, it would be tough. None of the obstacles from the first half would hurt her but she would tire. She wasn't out of shape but this was still going to be tough.​

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She slowly made her way towards the board, allowing a lot of people to go before her, she was in no rush to find out. When she finally managed to get through to read it, she skim read down to find her own name. Team 14, that was okay, plenty of people would go before her, allowing her to watch and figure out what was in store for them, giving them chance to prepare. It also gave her chance to recover more from yesterday's rendium exposure. Her partner was called Samuel...Samuel..did she know him? The name seemed vaguely familiar. But where from, she was certain he wasn't R-Class so she must have come across him this week. Of course! She grinned as she placed the name to a face. He was the A-Class guy who had like that fire god inside him and had done that performance yesterday. He'd been in detention with them too, though she wasn't certain what he'd done wrong, his performance wasn't that rebellious compared to theirs. Either way, his fire powers could be quite handy and he seemed in shape, she just hoped he didn't mind holding hands.​

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She skimmed the crowd until she found the boy she was looking for, he wasn't that bad looking now come to think of it but she'd never been one to pay much attention to boys looks. She approached him, being careful not to bump into anyone in the hustle and bustle all around her. "Um, hey? Samuel? I think I saw your performance yesterday, it was good. But anyway, I'm Alice and I believe we're partners for today. I hope you're okay with that." She spoke as quietly as usual but in a way he wouldn't have trouble hearing her. She gained confidence as she spoke, doubting her words less as she went along, she smiled at the boy and just hoped that she'd got a nice partner.​