Spectum Chapter #15: Ephemeral

Just when you thought Spectum wasn't going to get any more depressing.

Chapter 15: Ephemeral

Morgan, Erika, and the Goldshore's were heading back to their dorm room, they passed Maria's team and Sienna stayed behind them for a short while as Morgan went back inside to take a rest. She went into her dorm room, now renovated for quite some time as she slid her long claymore into it's sheathe and put it back into the closet. Erika popped the door open as Morgan began to do some stretches after practicing how to use Pulse for the last couple of hours.

“Damn... I can't believe Sienna had us up at 4 AM to practice.” Erika commented, hanging her axe up onto a rack and taking off the strap she needs to carry it around on her back. Erika used to barely be able to hold it. Now that she's gotten used to it, while to be honest, she wasn't capable of swinging it like it was like a huge axe shaped balloon, she could actually use it properly now. “Well that's one thing Sienna has going for her as an instructor, she beats her regimen into your forehead so hard people mistake it for a tattoo.” Morgan stated with a chuckle, taking off her leather jacket and hanging it up on the coat rack.

“Discipline is second nature to progress.” Sienna commented as she pushed the ajar door open enough to swing it wider. Her long, wavy red hair framed by a black beret resting on her head. She hung instructor jacket on one shoulder and leaned onto a door frame. “Yeah, I know that Sienna... Just I need sleep or else I'll start looking like a sick cat.” Erika added, Sienna shaking her head lightly as Morgan checked the mini fridge near her bunk bed for a soda, only to be disappointed since they didn't restock it just yet.

“So... Did you talk to Maria?” Morgan asked, Maria had this look on her face when Sienna showed up that was almost like disgust, it was clear that they haven't spoken since Maria quit the team. “I don't think I can.” Sienna replied, looking at the floor. “As soon as I looked at her, she glared at me with eyes that... made me think she's not my sister anymore.” Sienna admitted, she didn't think her decision would cause such a rift between her and Maria, but Maria was a different person than the little girl who just wanted to be an adult like everyone else.

“The couple of weeks I had with Maria made me realize that she's pretty damn tough for a little pipsqueak like her. Maybe a little too tough for her own good... She could use you to help her soften up.” Morgan turned to, Sienna and slowly walked up, her long and rough shoulder blade length hair lightly swaying with her steps. Sienna quietly sighed and shook her head once again. “I guess so.. I just don't think patching up is even an option anymore.” She opened up to Morgan, but Morgan lightly shook her head, placing her hand on her shoulder as she tried to attempt a heart to heart. “People her age get defiant with everyone, it's kind of second nature. I think all you need to do is listen to how she feels for a little while, it might do you both some good.” Morgan attempted to incite some courage back into Sienna, Sienna giving a faint smile and nodding some.

Sienna didn't look like she shared traits with Maria, but she realized that both of them had a similar aspect to their personality where they looked tougher than they really were. Maria would play the role of a furious, brash and sarcastic antisocial dick, she was really just looking for something she could care about and protect since she lost everything powerlessly. While Sienna would try to play the cool leader who makes all the tough decisions without looking back, but deep down all she was just a pile of self doubts and self set standards. 5 months taught her all this by being around her all the time and learning how she thinks, along with spending every weekend with Maria in the fighting club. “I'll try, Morgan... Just no promises.” Sienna said, turning around and walking off back to her own dorm room since tea time was about to begin.

Morgan shook her head and sighed, turning back to Erika who was just watching both of them speak. “Do you want to get breakfast?” Morgan asked, Erika giving her kind of a big grin along with a nod. If there was one thing they both enjoyed, it was warm food. Spectrum actually had an alright cooking staff, it was probably better than anything either of them got while they were in school. “Sure thing, Morgan! Let me get m-” She was cut off by a loud ring tone coming from the pocket of Morgan's leather jacket.

“...Do you mind if I get that?” Morgan asked, Walking up to her coat and pulling out her cell phone. It was just a cheap, foldable phone for phone calls. There were more expensive ones on the market for sure, but Morgan wanted a phone and not a tiny computer she can poke with her finger until it gets covered in fingerprints. She flipped it open and quickly hit the button without checking the caller ID before she spoke. “Hey there, Morgan speaking.” She answered, before the voice on the other line shocked her.

“Hey, Morg.” The voice spoke, it was somewhat wispy sounding even though it was deep. She understood who it was almost instantly from the sounds of it. “N-Nick!? Holy shit dude, Where have you been? It's been like 9 months now...” She said, speaking as a sudden weight got taken off her shoulders. Nick gently sighed and continued to speak. “Yeah, I'm sorry, Morgan.” He apologized wholesomely but kept speaking before Morgan could ask more questions. “I'm outside of Spectrum, can we please meet in private?” This question he asked confused Morgan, they've never been secretive around each other since they were little kids.

“Why?...” Morgan asked, but didn't heard any reply. “Nick...? Bro?” She said, shaking the phone to see if it was dying on her, but it most surely wasn't. “Shit.” She said, closing the phone shut as Erika stared at her out of confusion. Morgan grabbed her jacket to put it back on, since it was still very damn cold outside and she didn't want to feel it on her skin. “What was that about?” Erika asked, but Morgan quickly rushed past her and out the door of the dorm room. “Something came up, Sorry Erika.” She spoke in a rush, walking down the hall and heading down the stairs before going outside. He didn't seem to be on campus at a glance, so she walked down the sidewalk and up to the front gates.

The metal bar swung open and the hydraulics whirred to push the gate open for her as she approached it, she walked out onto the sidewalk and looked both ways down the sidewalk to see if she could find her brother. She began walking to the left of the school as she continued to look around for him. There was a small alley on a gap between fences two of the houses on the same road as Spectrum. And suddenly a hand was placed on Morgan's shoulder which yanked her into the alleyway with him. “What the fuck!?” She exclaimed as she was quickly turned around to see the familiar face of her elder brother.

He had long black hair like hers, but it was greasier looking, but more combed than Morgans somewhat frizzy looking mop. His skin was pale, with dark circles around his eyes as it seemed like he's been spending many nights sleepless. He was wearing a trench coat with a collar up past his neck and nearly covering his mouth, along with a pair of cargo pants and boots as well. “Sorry sis, this is important.” He apologized once again Morgan glaring at him as she punched him gently in one of his shoulders. “What's with the stalker get-up, Nick?” She asked at the strange attire, she knew he didn't dress like that at all.

“Unfortunately this is a necessity.” Nick replied, he was always down to business and if he was wearing something so suspicious, there had to be something up with him.

“So what was with the absence?... Why are you here?” Morgan asked out of confusion as Nick looked at the floor with a feeling of shame suddenly washing over him. “Look... This is the last time we'll be able to talk to each other. I'm leaving for good.” He finally said, Morgan looking both shocked and surprised as she grabbed him by the shoulders to stare him in his eyes. “What do you mean by that?” She asked, Nick sighing softly as he looked up at her. “Look... I know you and I were never the most savory people to be around. We're both not innocent, but... I recently got myself into something I don't think I'm able to leave.” He confessed, but Morgan just looked distraught and confused by that, leaning up to look at his face to tell he was being honest.

“What the hell does that mean? You know I hate this ominous crap, Nick...” She complained, but he just sighed quietly and slumped his shoulders. “I guess I'll just have to explain myself the best I can for you, Morgan.” He continued, looking around silent to see if there was anyone who followed him around. “Have you heard of Silent Fall?” He asked, but she cocked an eyebrow at that. “I heard them stealing from a metalworking factory about a month ago, what about it?” She wondered, He sighed and looked at the ground. The slight shiver up Morgan's back began to feel heavier as she began to speculate in the right direction.

“I'm a member of Silent Fall. I have been one for about 2 or 3 years now...” He admitted, though he didn't seem particularly proud of it. Morgan seemed shocked, is that why he hasn't been able to see her as often anymore? Was he too busy blowing up buildings and dealing dope to speak to her? “Are you serious? Is that why you left the orphanage when you were like.. 16? You decided to become a terrorist AND a criminal?” She asked, clearly upset by this. He nodded just a bit. “Please, hear me out, alright?” He pleaded, as Morgan sneered, crossing her arms over one another as she listened. “It wasn't always terrorists... We were just a gang working for the syndicate, we would just gofer packages between two places and I'd get money for it.” He continued, Morgan just blankly watching as he spoke.

“But this new guy people call Wolfe became the boss a couple of months ago.. and I swear he might be completely out of his goddamn mind. He broke us away from the syndicate and has us robbing people, assaulting them and destroying buildings. It's been hell but he's spouting his anti-cooperation bullshit and people are starting to believe him and get behind his cause.” He spoke, shaking his head. “I wanted to quit.. but the last time someone quit they found him in a back alley with his throat cut and over 47 stab wounds to his chest.”

Morgan looked upset, lightly placing her hand onto your shoulders and looks up at him. “So... You can't leave or they'll off you?” He nodded a little bit. “I'm so sorry Morgan, I just.. I don't want you to worry about me anymore. Please just think I'm dead, at this point I think I'm pretty much damned if I do and damned if I don't.” He pleaded, but Morgan sighed and let go of him. “Are you serious...? We've been through so much shit together, can't you just tell somebody or go to the authorities?” She asked, trying to help him think of a more rational solution.

“Unfortunately, they're not bound by jurisdiction, I think all that would happen if I went to protect myself would be they would have massive collateral in killing me, potentially killing others. Or even worse... People might start to come after you instead.” He spoke calmly with a somber tone, looking at her as he tried to hold back the tears. “I couldn't forgive myself if they hurt my little sister for my mistake. Me leaving is the best for both of us. So please, don't think of me too often to save you the trouble of grieving if I blow myself up or get arrested, I'm so sorry... I'm going to leave for good.” He said, heaving a bit and placing his mouth and nose in his sleeve to keep himself composed. “I'll miss you so much, Morg... Have a good life, okay?” He finished, before turning around and slowly walking away. Morgan growled out of frustration and started to shout at him as he tried to distance himself.
“Nick... please stay here for a minute.” She stated to try and get him to stay, but Nick broke out into a run, using his speed to break away from her and leave her in the alleyway. She broke into a slower run in hoping to get him to stop “NICHOLAS! TURN AROUND YOU STUPID FUCK!” She broke into yelling at him, though he didn't even turn around to hear her. “I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP, I'M GOING TO BUST IN THERE AND SAVE YOUR SORRY ASS MYSELF! YOU HEAR ME YOU SON OF A BITCH?!” She shouted, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth. Her hands and legs started to shake a bit, tears rolling down her face as she realized he was too far away for her to catch. She could go get her motor scooter and see if she can chase him down, but who knows where he would have went when she did.

Morgan bit her lower lip and turned around, lowering her head and slowly walking back to the academy, trying to be quiet so she could calm herself down. “Sonuvabitch..” She muttered out of frustration, walking underneath the walkway of the second floor of the dorm room as a voice rang from behind her. “Morgan? Was that you who was yelling?” She asked in her gentle but somewhat proper sounding voice. Morgan turned around and was met with Lily's face. The side of her face having three faded claw marks running down the entire thing, her light blonde neat and proper looking twin low ponytails to her shoulders as she glared with her bright eyes. “...Yeah.” Morgan replied flatly as she tried to sound like her typical self, low and stoic with a bit of her self confidence thrown in with good measure.

“Are you okay...?” She asked with concern, Morgan doesn't usually shout so loud Lily could hear it from the parking lot. Maria and the rest of the team just went back to the Dorm, but she stayed out for some final practice before wanting to head inside when she heard her. “I'm fine.” She said, looking at the floor and trying to hold back a sigh. “You don't look fine... You're crying.” Lily pointed out, and then the very soft wind blowing on her face felt cold just to confirm that little fact. “I guess I'm not fine, then...” She tried to joke, but Lily stepped up another step so she could be closer. “What's wrong, then?” She asked, Morgan turning away and gesturing Lily to come walk behind her as she spoke.

“Do you know how it feels to have something important taken away from you?” She asked, Lily looking somewhat puzzled as she looked over one shoulder as they spoke. “Uhm... Not recently.” She replied, expecting Morgan to jump on her about being a rich girl once again. “...It hurts, Lily.” Morgan stated bluntly, her long hair starting to cover her eyes from how low her head was sunk. “Never let it happen to you, you'll never be the same.” Morgan warned, Lily lowering her brow as she pouted out of concern. She reached up to grab Morgans shoulder, forcing her to lightly stop in her tracks.

“Morgan... I wanted to apologize about how I've been treating you... Hitting you was a big mistake and I felt like the 5 months we could have known each other was squandered by our petty grudge.” She stated, Morgan lightly lifting her hand to brush Lily's off of her own shoulder. Lily frowning some more as Morgan started to walk once again. “Morgan... Please... I realized I never want to be in a position to help people and choose not to do it. If I did that, I don't deserve to be here!” She pleaded with Morgan, who just gave her more silence.

“I want to be your friend! I want to help you in anyway I possibly could... I failed to be there for Maria when she needed me, but at least let me be here for you just so I can do something in my life that isn't sitting on my thumbs! Please, Morgan!” She shouted at her, but Morgan just stopped and turned to face her. “...It's fine, Lily... Really.” She spoke quietly to calm her down. “You can be my friend, okay? Just stop sounding so wussy...” She said, trying to add a little of humor at the end of it since well... It was her style of doing things. Lily smiled but shrieked as Morgan suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. “Eep!” She stammered, Morgan sighing and letting go of her after a couple of seconds.

“Thank you, Morgan...” Lily said with a somber smile, Morgan giving one back as she slowly walked back to her dorm. Morgan continued with the silence as she popped the door open and slowly scanned the room, before pulling Lily behind the staircase so they could talk without being interrupted. “So... Why where you yelling so much?” Morgan frowned, looking at the ground a bit. “My brother decided to leave me for good, because he got into trouble with unsavory folk.” She said, Lily looking concerned as she lightly began to pace the floor. “And he's okay with that?” She asked, Morgan looked away and sighed.

“No, he's not okay with it. He feels trapped and I want to help him get away.” She replied, Lily looking up and smiling at her as she stopped her pacing of the floor. “I'll help you the best I can, okay Morgan?” She replied, Morgan smiling a little at that as they shared a friendly nod at one another. "You know, I'm sorry too." Morgan added to Lily's apology from before as she looked up at her face once again. "I was being too hard on you and was trying to use you as a springboard for all my problems with corporations. You're just a person and I need to see you as one." Lily smiled a little and bowed her head to respond. "I'll forgive you to-" She was cut off by someone walking behind the staircase with the both of them.

As it turns out, it was the angry, short, redhead of a girl, Maria. Her eyes as big as figurative saucer dishes as she spoke to the both of them. “I don't know what the hell you two are doing, but it's currently nacho hour at the cafeteria, so you two better hurry the hell up and come with me so we can all have nachos in a big... nacho group.” Maria said with the utmost of seriousness, Morgan and Lily just stared at her out of confusion as Lily piped in to ask a question. “...Nachos?” She asked, and Maria got a shocked look on her face out of surprise. “What the hell do you mean by 'Nachos?' Nachos are nachos! We need to get some fuckin' nachos!” She complained at Lily, Lily still just not sure what Maria was talking about.

“Uhh.. I don't know what Nachos are...” She said, Maria gasping and grabbing her by the forearm. “Okay, fuck explaining this. I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU SO MANY GODDAMN NACHOS!” Maria shouted as Lily stumbled away behind her and back out the front door. “You're squeezing my hand too hard!” Lily shouted before giving a kind of girly yelp. Morgan wiped the last couple of tears out of her eyes and released a sigh of relief, as she slowly began to walk behind them.

“Eh... I guess I could use some nachos.” She said, closing the door behind her from the completely random interruption by Maria and all her rudeness.

Spectrum #13: Class Act, Part 2

I'm back and schedules will slowly return to normal, thank you everyone who decided to be patient.

Chapter 13: Class Act, Part 2.

The smell of charred flesh filled the air as cold vapors of carbon dioxide spew from it's cold, plastic maw. Dousing the flames of hatred and cooling the very air itself in a dense fog akin to the cool nights of the north country. The fog began to settle as it formed a chill down to the very core of your soul, a feeling that was never felt before in the beautiful crimson eyes of the young female...

In actuality, someone just sprayed a fire extinguisher onto the pan of burning meat. “Miss Roth! What is the meaning of this!?” The man holding the fire extinguisher shouted at Maria, currently clad in an apron covering over her chest, it had singe marks on it from being so close to the flame.He was wearing a white double breasted chef's jacket along with a toque draped on his head. He had a huge curly mustache and appeared to be entering his 40's if one could guess.

Maria looked down at the charred remains of her food sitting on the stove, the burns singed away the wallpaper on the back and the smoke was slowly being sucked away by the fume hood. It was probably the only burnt one of the rack of brushed steel stoves lining each side of the wall. “Uhh... The meat didn't act like I thought it was going to...” Maria complained, sounding unsure of herself.

“Well, not only did you mess up your heating element, you've damaged the wall, and the stove itself! Why did you turn it up so high?” He said, his hands on his hips as he expressed indigence for the new recruit. He knew it was her first day, but he didn't expect a disaster as big as hers to show up on recruitment day. “Well Mr. Stevenson... The meat wasn't heating up fast enough and I thought it would help.” She explained meekly, trying to shrug off the stares of other students who looked at her in fear.

“...And you didn't warm the pan up first?” He asked, confused by how she decided to even join advanced cooking when she didn't even know that very basic thing. “Well... I didn't think you'd have to. I turned on the burner, put the oil in and tried to cook the meat like you asked me to.” Maria said, trying to justify her actions to the instructor.

“And yet you turned the burner all the way up, igniting the oil.” He chastised, Maria sighing a bit and looking at the charcoal that was her meat. “Yeah I friggen know already.. I tried to put it out, though!” She complained, but he wasnt hearing any of it and raised his voice. “YOU CAUSED AN EXPLOSION BY THROWING WATER ON IT!” He shouted, Maria blinking and raising a finger as she spoke. “Actually, I think it was a conflagration.” Maria observed, but that seemed to just enrage the cooking instructor even more.

“I don't care about semantics, You lit a bunch of things on fire!” He declared, but Maria started to grow annoyed, furrowing her brow as she glared at him. “Look man, it's mostly wallpaper damage. I'll clean up and we can reset the te-” The sprinklers spraying the entire classroom cut her off, quickly getting her and everyone else wet and just made Maria even more unhappy. “...Damn it.” She commented, looking up at him and placing her hand onto the now wet stove.

“You're going to have to pay for both the fire AND the water damage, by the way.” He explained, but Maria just pulled her thin lips into an even bigger frown. “Look, Miss Roth, maybe advanced cooking isn't for you.” He observed, Maria quickly pulled her apron off and stuffed it to his chest, making him quickly grab onto it and jerk back as she turned to walk away out of the classroom. “Fine, I concede.” She admitted, closing the door behind her as Cassandra chased after her out of the door, Maria started walking down the white and red colored halls as the white haired girl caught up to her. “Oh don't worry, Maria... There's always regular cooking!” She said, trying to cheer her up.
“I'm not sure I'd be allowed anywhere near a stove while I'm still here.” Maria commented as she walked up to her own locker, twisting the combination and popping it open to pull out the schedule for other elective classes. “I guess that could be a problem...” Cassandra commented, Maria waiting for some students to pass before pulling it open and reading it over. “Do you know what other hobbies do you have that you could turn into a class to join?” She asked, Maria slipping through the pages. “You know, I didn't realize I didn't have any interesting hobbies until just now...” Maria admitted from embarrassment, looking away and flipping the next page as she kept looking at classes she wasn't interested in.

“Hmm.. Maybe just pick a random one and hope for the best?” Cassandra suggested as they continued to walk one of the long hallways, Maria stopped walking as she inspected one club opening that she recognized. “Those assholes who grabbed your hair... What club did they say they were going back to?” Maria asked with curiosity and an agenda, Cassandra looking at her concerned as Maria kept glossing through the pages.

“Why? Isn't that whole ordeal over now...?” Cassandra questioned, wondering what Maria was planning on going to do. But Maria just looked up at her with a pretty serious glare on her face. “I need to go and talk to them in private.” Maria said somewhat menacingly, but Cassandra gently shook her head. “It was the fighting club, but... couldn't we just report them to faculty? They'll get an indictment, or something.” She countered to try and dissuade Maria for whatever she was going to do. Maria just shook her head as she slid her hand along the pages of the book until they stopped at the fighting club. “Unfortunately for you, I made up my mind already.” Maria commented, closing the book and tucking it under one arm as she broke out into a jog and starting to outpace Cassandra's walking.

“Wait! Come back..!” Cassandra shouted at her, but by the time she called out, Maria was already lost in the crowd of students crossing between classrooms. “Don't do anything crazy...” She said in defeat, clearly quiet enough for Maria to not even hear her. Though she just assumed Maria was going to ignore her anyway.

Maria went down the stairs to the room the fight club was being held, a fairly large room on the first floor with a sign on it that said 1-08. She grabbed the door and twisted it open to find a pretty large facility. The floors were made of polished wood, with blue mats resting on it for sparring or working out, on one side was what appeared to be a full boxing ring. There were students in rows jumping rope, along with an older man in his 40's punching and kicking on a heavy sandbag to practice various different combos. When the door swung open and smacked into the wall behind Maria, He looked at her with a big goofy grin.

“Well hello there! Welcome to my special fighting club... for fighting!” He said through a thick accent. He might have been from Ingrand, the country to the south which was known for being... lively to say the least. The semi-old man walked up to the short grumpy teen, hands on his hips as he looked down at her. “What brings you here?” He asked, Maria glancing around the room to see that girl she confronted earlier, but not seeing her just yet. She might be in a different area, since it was a pretty large gym.

“I'm looking to join your fighting club.” Maria stated calmly, the guy kept his goofy grin as he walked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder and pushing her forward just a bit. “Oh, then you should pay close attention to what I'm gonna tell you!” He said, not being able to keep his voice below shouting level.

“Back in my day, I was a bouncer at a club! Then I became a boxer and punched a lot of ass! Then I joined Spectrum and kicked a lot of ass! Now I'm here, Teaching people how to hit people in the ass.” He explained, leaving Maria completely confused. “Uhh... I'm not sure that helped me.” She trailed off, not exactly sure what he wanted to hear. He walked in front of her and crossed his arms. “Well I'll give you the simple version.” He said, preparing to explain, his hair was shaved completely bald to possibly cover up the fact he had a receding hairline, he had tanned skin and a blonde stubble on his face to match his light hair color.

“This is a club for ass kickers, a club made for ass kickers to fight other ass kickers when we're not fighting Rift Fallen. If you wish to join, I'll get the papers and sign you up, but then we'd need to begin initiation.” He said, walking away from her and heading to another door, but not before turning to face a random man who was just standing and watching the scene going on. “Two hundred push-ups, Jeffery!” He demanded in a surprisingly commanding voice. Jeffery sheepishly nodded and dropped to his stomach to start doing push ups as the strange man closed the door behind him to grab paperwork.

“Yeah... Sebastian is weird, he knows a thing or two about fighting though.” A girl commented behind Maria, who quickly spun around to come across a familiar face. It was Morgan, sporting a black eye, her black hair in a shoulder length mess and strapped into a rough ponytail. “Morgan, why are you here?”

Morgan slung her backpack over one shoulder and grinned at the shorter girl. “Oh, as soon as I heard this club was an elective I joined pretty much immediately. If you were going to join, what took you so long?” Morgan asked her, giving a yawn and stretching as Maria replied. “I went to the cooking club and they asked me to cook up a streak; I made fire instead.” She said sheepishly, crossing her arms. Morgan gave a chuckle to that and patted her on the shoulder. “Eh... Cooking was never my thing, either.” She said to try and console Maria for her massive failure, but Maria lightly pulled her hand off of her shoulder and looked up at her.

“Off topic, I know. But why did Lily attack you?” Maria asked from nowhere, Morgan sighed and looked at the floor for a second while Maria continued to stare her right in the face. “I just.. hate the types who have the potential to help people out and just squander it. Maybe it was just an assumption on my part.” Morgan replied rationally, as Maria reached up to stroke her own chin.

“But you don't really know if Lily is that type or not.” Maria replied honestly, Morgan putting her hands on her hips as they stood across from each other, just in front of the door so no one could hear them. “That's a possibility, but when you're the daughter of a mysterious dude who runs a conglomerate you kind of make the assumption she's been groomed to his agenda...” She stated, Maria glaring up at her and sighing. “Look, I've been her friend for like.. 7 years now, She isn't like that.” Maria contested, not actually raising her voice for an argument once in her life.

“I need time, Maria. Don't force us to reconcile just because you don't like it.” Morgan replied firmly, Maria looked away as instructor Sebastian came back into the room with a clipboard and pen in one hand, spinning it around and handing it to Maria. She started to quietly observe it as he spoke. “You'll need to sign these papers, it's pretty much telling the school board that you're okay with people caving your face in with hilariously hard kicks.” He explained, Maria just looking dumbfounded when she stared up at him, hand grabbing at the pen while she just felt the wave of confusion wash over her.

“...Excuse me?” Maria said incredulously, Sebastian placing his hand on his hips and giving a hearty laugh. “It's a fight club! You're supposed to get kicked in the face.”

Maria just blinked and slowly slid her head back down to look at the contract, a bunch of small print legalese she didn't even want to bother reading into. “By the way, Maria. It's pretty true, I got kicked in the face like eight times.” Morgan chimed in casually, but Maria just stared at her like she'd just gone mad. “Morgan... You need to get checked for a concussion.” She said, before popping the cap off of her pen and quickly signing her name on the dotted line. “I'm in.” She added, before handing it back to Mr. Ritters. He looked it over, pulling a small pair of spectacles from his pocket to see the fine print.

“Wow, Ms. Roth... Your hand writing is terrible.” He casually snarked at her, Maria glaring up at him and watching him fold the paper up and setting it aside on a nearby table in quiet annoyance. “I'll process those later,” He said casually, Maria giving him an unblinking stare while he used one of his hands to wipe off his nose, before placing his hands on his hips. “Welcome to the fighting club... What brings you to the ring, Weasel?” He asked matter of factly, Maria lifting a brow and tilting her head slightly from the confusion she had. “...Weasel?” She questioned, He chuckled and pat her on the shoulder. Maria quickly grabbed his hand and lightly pulled it off. “Yeah. You're small and fierce like one of those weasel types! I think it fits perfectly.” He tried to explain, though Maria didn't even want to bother with an argument.

“Yeah... Whatever.” She shrugged it off, crossing her arms over her chest and looking to the floor. “I was uhh... looking to improve my fighting.” She said to try and cover up the fact she wanted to join to call someone out. Sebastian frowned at her and shook his head in disappointment. “Nuh uh, little missy.” He said, bopping her on the head with his hand like she was some kind of dog who just piddled on the carpet. “You didn't look me in the eye, so you're lying.” He deducted with his strange moon logic, Maria stared up at him nonplussed as she admitted the truth. “Fine, I want to beat someone up without getting in trouble.” She said with a hint of humiliation in her voice.

There was a lull in the conversation, before he suddenly made her jump with his loud response. “Good enough to sign up!” He shouted boldly, Maria reaching up to try and quell the ringing in her ears. “Jeeze... Really?” She asked incredulously, not believing that was literally all the reason she could need to join. “Yep, just tell me who's ass you wanna kick and we'll set up a little quickie-fight for the two of you.” He said enthusiastically, Maria blinking a couple of times and looking around. “Is there an 'Elaine' here?” She asked, and instructor Sebastian just pointed to one side.

There stood the girl lightly jumping ropes with quite a bit of finesse. She had caramel colored skin with dark brown chin length hair and sharp green eyes. She probably was taller than Maria but that isn't a surprise to the disgruntled redhead anymore. She was clad in a black tank top and a light white pair of sweat pants and quietly counting to herself as she jumped rope. “Just head over there and challenge her to a fight, she's never said no before this.” He commented, Maria gulping slightly and getting enough resolve to walk up in front of her as she jumped the rope.

“101...102...103..” She muttered with each jump, it was surprising that should keep up with how fast she was skipping, but when she laid eyes on Maria, she stumbled and got tripped up enough to almost stumble. She sighed and balled up the jump rope into one hand before throwing it aside. “Damn it, You threw off my rhythm...” She complained, looking up at the short angry redhead currently glaring daggers at her. “Oh, you're the kid from earlier.” She stated flatly, Maria tilted her head slightly and shook her head. “We're gonna fight.” Maria replied coldly, not really wanting to mince words with the jerk she met earlier.

“You must be pretty brave to follow up on what you said, and you need even more guts to challenge me on home turf.” She commented with a small sense of respect hiding under her disdain.

“Yes or no?” Maria asserted, Elaine snickering a little bit and putting her hands on her own hips. “Wow, you mean business.” She casually mentioned, Maria glaring up at her as she talked. “There has to be something in it for me before I give any of my time, kid. What's it gonna be, Money.. a dare...?” She asked, Maria shrugging her shoulders before replying. “Loser quits the club.” She declared calmly, the girl grinning a bit in her over confidence. “Now we're talking!” She replied with a grin, walking over to the boxing ring and shouting at the redheaded male she was with earlier. “Hey, Eddie! Get me my gloves.” She requested of him, he walked over to a small cupboard and promptly grabbed a pair of padded 6 oz gloves that covered the knuckles with a layer of padding, but allowed the fingers to stay free, along with that pair, he also slung a second pair in for Maria that bounced off her head when they smacked firmly into them with a skilled toss.

“OH YEAH! I love impromptu fights!” Sebastian shouted, quickly running his way into the four sided boxing style ring and getting in between both of them. “Look ladies, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right.” He said, looking between the both of them as Maria slipped her gloves on. She gently punched her own fists to feel their fit, it was slightly loose on her hands but nothing too serious. She took a deep breath to calm her quickened heartbeat while she observed her opponent as she warmed up.

“Alright you two. No elbows, no headbutting, no hitting the groin, no grabbing the ropes. This will be for three rounds of 3 minutes. As there are no judges in this impromptu fight, if this fight finishes at the third round then this will be considered a draw.” He explained the rules to them both, they both nodded their heads as he left the ring to stand upon the apron. “Each side will have a coach for advice and throwing in the towel if need be, you can win by knocking your opponent out, making them submit or getting knocked down three times total, if you're down for 10 seconds without defending yourself, you'll lose.” He continued, before turning to address the 15 or so people attending the class that day.

“HEY! WHO WANTS TO BE THE WEASEL'S COACH?” He shouted to all of them, Maria groaned and reared her head back at him to shout. “You dick!” She muttered sharply, and Morgan raised her hand for her.”I'll do it!” She replied with her somewhat deep female voice, climbing up the corner and grabbing the turnbuckle. “Alright, that's good enough for me.” He replied to her demand, turning back and looking at them both. “And... Fight starts with the bell!” He announced, grabbing an electric timer of the small timekeeper table. Along with that, he grabbed a small black hammer used for striking the bell resting just beside it attached to a small chain. The bell rung out nice and clearly as Maria suddenly charged out of her corner.

She shouted and caught Elaine off guard, shoving her to the ropes using her shoulders by spearing her firmly in the stomach. This was enough to make the heavier girl smack into the back of the padded turnbuckle as Maria reared up her punches, spreading her legs and planting firmly into the ground to launch upper cuts at Elaine's face. She growled and swung like a wild animal as Elaine pulled both of her arms up to guard the punches. Her fists smashing into her arms and making both Maria's fists hurt from smacking into the forearms, and the clear bruises on the forearms from the punches making it tender.

She lurched back and planted a boot into Maria's chest, forcing her to backpedal and not fall over, as that would count for a down. Elaine reared back for a haymaker, but Maria quickly slipped to one side to deliver a sharp hook to her liver. “That's right, Maria. Be a tiger! LITERALLY BECOME A TIGER!” Morgan shouted at her, but the sentence seemed like complete nonsense as Maria backed away from Elaine to glare at Morgan. “Morgan, what the hell does that even mean!?”

Maria sighed and turned back to suddenly get blindsided by a running kick to the jaw by Elaine, her head feeling like it just nearly got pulled apart by the force, she got launched forward and landed on her face after sliding a few feet. “Down!” The instructor shouted, heading back into the ring and pointing to Maria as she rolled onto his stomach and slowly pushed herself off the ground, shaking her head as the ringing in her ears began to fade. “3! ...4! ...5!” He counted roughly each second, she lightly slipped her finger between her lips and pulled out to check for blood, but there was none. Before quickly getting back onto her feet and putting with Elaine's nearly instant dive toward her.

Maria dipped a right hook and landed some jabs, bouncing on the toes of her dress shoes to try and begin to circle her with jabs, hoping to get her to turn her shoulder and land a straight to the face. She fell for the bait and shifted her feet to turn and face Maria, but predicted the swing and duck it to land a hard body blow to Maria's stomach. Maria groaned as she felt her feet lift slightly off the ground, dropping onto her feet and getting smashed in the side of her head.

She began to stumble off to one side, feeling like she was about to fall before realizing what just happened, planting her foot wide and crouching down to keep standing. Suddenly, Elaine stepped in for an uppercut as Maria leans her head away just fast enough for the glove to only graze her chin and nose. She couldn't even breathe a sigh of relief as Elaine spun her hips to launch a high roundhouse kick at her. Maria deftly grabs the swinging leg and grabs it under her arm, causing it to firmly slam into her side. “Screw you!” She growled and shoved her leg to force her to fall onto her back, Maria collapsing ontop of her and quickly scrambling to land mounted punches to her face.

Maria grabbed her by the head and smashed her dominant hand; her left hand straight into Elaine's face over and over again until a small amount of blood began to spill from her mouth. Suddenly, the bell rung and Mr. Ritters grabbed Maria by the shoulders. “Round's over, cupcake.” He commented, Maria spitting onto the mat underneath her and walking back to her corner, where she see's Morgan awaiting her. “What the hell was with the tiger comment?” Maria asked as she walked back to her corner for the 90 second break. “Well... I was messing with you.” Morgan stated outright, Maria glaring daggers at her as she promptly reached down to pull out a crunchy chocolate candy bar from her pocket and unraveling the wrapper to take a bit out of it. “Mhhh.. Chocolate rice bar.” She said serene by the melty crunch of a cheap vending machine candy bar.

“Really? A chocolate bar?” Maria complained at her, she nodded and glared at her. “Hey, coaches always have chocolate on them, it's tradition.” She argued, but Maria quickly swung and smacked the chocolate bar out of her hand, having it fly through the air and smack on the floor, some of the pieces falling off of it and touching the floor. Morgan looked unamused by this altercation as she glared at Maria. “...I'll resent that.” She replied firmly, before slinging a towel onto her shoulder and leaning up to inspect Maria's face. “How bad are you roughed up?” Morgan asked, Maria shook her head and crossed her arms. “That kick to my face hurt, but I'll live.” She replied, leaning back as Morgan rubbed her shoulders some. “So uhh... advice on how to beat her in under 2 rounds?” Maria asked, Morgan looking up at her and watching her talk to Eddie.

“Well... She has the reach and power advantage, but if you stay REALLY close, she can't use her full swings anymore.” Morgan observed, Maria nodding and standing back up to get ready for the next round. “And don't forget to be crazy.” She added as Maria walked back to the center as a student got ready to ring the bell. “Don't worry, I'm always crazy.” Maria commented jokingly as the bell rung. Elaine charged out of the gates for Maria but she responded by quickly ducking her punch and landing her own cross-counter at Elaine's full running speed, drilling her in the jaw and forcing her onto her knees as she slid onto her back. “Down!” Sebastian shouted as she looked at her spilled on the floor.

Maria turned her back and was getting ready to lean back against the ropes to wait until she got up, but before she got there, a sharp pain started to grow in her right arm. She quickly clutched at her forearm and doubled over to hiss in pain. The punch she just landed hurt her arm pretty easily before a suddenly burst of clarity formed in her head. 'Fuck... It's the wound I got from the exams, It hasn't healed yet...' she thought to herself, looking down and notices small drops of blood forming on the clean white bandage.

She started to clutch it as Elaine slowly stood back up, putting her fists back up at the count of 8. “You hit pretty hard for someone your size... But I still hit harder.” She stated to try and taunt Maria, who weakly balled her right hand into a fist while her left one clutched much harder. She has no choice but to swing left punches or else her wound will open again. She leaned in and tried to follow Morgans advice and get too close to her so she couldn't swing full punches. Maria threw a faint with her right before landing a sharp hook straight in the chin, but any other punches she would through were blocked once again by a full guard. Maria dipped down and tried to swing another punch at her stomach, but Elaine responded by hiking a knee upward and bashing it into Maria's temple.

Maria's head got smashed backward, standing her up and feeling like her head was in the clouds. She lightly began to stumble randomly around the arena, but was still seemingly able to keep her balance as Elaine launched herself in for the killing blow. Maria shook her hair and gained enough composure to grab her arm and slam her into the ground face first, then grabbing her arm and pulling it up to wrap both of her legs around her neck to try and choke her out and yank out her arm at the same time.

“GIVE UP, DAMN YOU!” Maria shouted with a dizzy slur in her voice, yanking firmly to try and dislocate Elaine's shoulder, but she just groaned and slowly got onto her knees, making Maria's legs lift slightly into the air. She then got onto one knee and lifted herself back onto her feet, Maria dangling off while trying to keep hold of her arm and neck. She then began to slowly walk to the center of the ring, lifting her arm straight into the air with Maria still grasping onto it. “...SCREW YOU!” She shouted back at Maria, falling forward and slamming Maria straight onto her back. She screamed in pain but only tightened her grip on her head and shoulder, forcing Elaine to stand back up and smash her into the mat once again with a dull thud.

Maria was getting her back smashed into the ground from a 7 foot drop over and over again, so on the second time she was slammed, she was forced to let go. She slowly clambered back onto her own feet, since that didn't qualify as her getting knocked down, but the slamming knocked the breath and some of the consciousness straight out of her. She struggled to put up her fists, but tried her best to fight her off. Elaine was fortunately hurt as well, trying to adjust her shoulder and neck to shake off some of the soreness, but the bell rung once again and Sebastian stood between them once again. Maria limped back to her corner, which Morgan grabbed a nearby stool just before Maria collapsed into it.

“That was insane.” Morgan commented, Maria lurching over to try and catch her breath. “F-fuck...” Maria coughed out, trying to get rid of the sharp pain in her lungs. “My body is giving out on me.” She continued, rubbing her arm and shaking her head. “Another three minutes and we'll draw, if that's any condolence.” Morgan expressed, But Maria pulled the stool out of the ring and growled as she turned to face her opponent. “I'm going for a win, not a draw.” Maria replied, standing up and rubbing the soreness out of her neck.

“Well, you could try punching yourself in the face over and over again to confuse her!” Morgan commented, but Maria didn't even bother to look at her this time since last time she just got kicked firmly upside the head. She walked to the center of the ring before the break was over. Elaine was sitting in her corner as Eddie tended to her sore shoulders. “You hanging in there?” He asked her, She just looked up at him and gave a chuckle. “She's tougher than I thought... But this still shouldn't be a problem.” She commented, standing up and stretching just a bit as the bell rang and they met up in the center of the ring.

Maria was forced to keep her right hand on the defensive, making all of her jabs completely useless since she can only throw a straight with her other arm unless she swapped her stance around. Elaine through a rough punch with her weakened shoulder, making it falter and allowing Maria to dip under it, plowing an uppercut firmly into her chest that was hard enough to make her back off a step. She pulled her left hand back and smashed her fist firmly into Elaine's face. Elaine gritted her teeth and smashed her fist back into Maria's face, but Roth returned in kind. This turned into a punching contest in the center of the ring, where each person threw their best left to bash each other in the face.

They reared fully back for each slug until each one had a swollen up and blackened eye on the same side of their face, Maria backing off and trying to flank her by charging to one side and smashing her fist into the side of her head, but Elaine quickly spun around and smashed a back fist into Maria's face. Maria groaned in pain, but pushed through the stinging feeling in her face. She leaped up and wrapped her arms around the back of Elaine's head, pushing her head down and drilling a knee straight into her face.

She pushed her forward, leaning her into the ropes and bashing her knees over and over again into her chest as she kept trying to overpower Maria and get herself free of the constant wall of kicking. She pushed Maria onto her back, but Maria quickly rolled into her shoulder and stood back up. Elaine dove in to land another knee, but Maria pushed it aside with an open palm, reaching up to smash her into the stomach with her forearm. She leaned up, taking a quick swing on the face but using just perseverance alone to shrug it off, nailing her again and again with hammering lefts as she tried to not use her right arm.

Elaine pushed her off, kicking her firmly in the stomach and forcing her to bend down so she could try to bash her in the back of the head, but once again Maria eluded the strike and backed off into a free corner. Elaine grinned and charged at her, but she tucked her head and bent her knees down in response. Elaine couldn't stop thanks to her own momentum, and was forced to watch Maria dip back up and slam a punch straight into her jaw. This rattled her hard, forcing her to stumble backward step by step to keep her balance from toppling backward. Maria took this as an opportunity, running up and leaping to smash her knee straight into Elaine's chin with enough force to send them spilling onto the floor together. “They're both down!” Sebastian shouted when both didn't follow up on that attack, Maria smashed the back of her head into the ground below and was just as shaken up, so she stumbled on her feet and clutched the back of her head as Elaine was stuck on the floor.

“5! ...6! ...7!” He counted her out as Maria turned around to walk back to her corner, pretty sure that it was finished until she was shocked by what she heard. “9... She's back up, Roth!” He said, Maria turning around and quickly getting back into her fighting stance as Elaine made a mad dash at her, smashing her fist into Maria's face and pushing her back into her own corner to begin to wail on her.
Hooks, uppercuts, straights, smashes, body blows came in flurries against Maria as she got rattled in the corner, she pulled up a block and tried to take it, but felt like she was fading out. She couldn't even see where the punches were coming from. All that she knew was her legs were getting heavy and she was becoming less and less able to feel the dull pain from each strike growing collectively on her. She slowly began to sink her guard as she got pummeled.

'DING' sounded the bell, as it signified the end of the final round, Sebastian pulled Elaine off of Maria as Maria leaned back into her corner to keep herself standing, her vision slowly coming into view as she observed Elaine speaking to her instructor. “Sorry, time out means a draw.” He replied to something Maria was still too woozy to understand at first. “Really? She dropped her guard! I thought it was over.” She complained, but he shook his head. “I'm sorry El, this was a draw, not a victory.” He rationalized calmly, She sighed and walked up to Maria, pulling off her own gloves and extending a hand. “Look kid, I know you wanted to defend your friend and all.. but it's a bit much for just some insult tossing.” She mentioned to Maria, Maria pulled off her own gloves and took a deep breath, gently shaking her hand for only a brief second.

“Everything isn't black and white, Elaine... Cass was an orphan and was raised by Rosewall parents instead. “Elaine spit a spot of blood onto the floor as she sighed. “You guys need thicker skin, I got shit talked all the time when I first moved here since my parents were originally Gebyrian.” She complained, trying to make it sound like it was less malicious. Maria knew about Gebyria, it was to the southwest across a pretty big ocean, it was pretty much a huge mixture of desert, jungle and islands. All of it hot as hell and unpleasant to live in. “Look, I heard from Cass about what happened to your dad... It's fucked up, but that doesn't mean every Astrian killed your dad...” Maria tried to reply, Elaine looking somewhat frustrated and looking at the floor.

“I'm old enough to realize that, kid.” She replied resentfully, looking up at Maria. “I respect you for actually wanting to fight me, but don't try to pull this PSA preachy bullshit on me. I did it because it made me feel better, okay?” She ranted at Maria, returning a dissatisfied glare at the Gebyrian as she replies. “At least give her a chance, okay?” Maria asked, but Elaine just sighed to herself and exited the ring to leave the club for now. She hasn't lost, but she at least needed some time to cool off. Maria gave a sigh of relief as she turned to walk up to Morgan. “Hey Roth, Good fight.” Morgan said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out another chocolate bar from her hand and holding it out for Maria.

Maria smiled a little and grabbed the chocolate bar, inspecting the wrapper a bit as she replied. “Wow, thanks Morg-” She got cut off, as Morgan swung an uppercut at her hands to punch the candy bar, making it fly through the air and land somewhere behind her. “W-wha!?” Maria stammered from her own confusion. “HOW DOES IT FEEL!?” Morgan shouted at Maria to spite her over the destruction of her previous chocolate bar. “YOU HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TASTE THE SHAME OF LOSING YOUR CHOCOLATE.” She continued, but Maria just blinked and looked completely confused at her. “Bad...” She replied, pouting at her as Morgan started to break out into a laugh and pat her on the shoulder. “Well... Training starts next week Roth, see you then.” She said, grabbing her chocolate bar on the ground , putting it back into her pocket and leaving the room as well. Sebastian walked up to speak with Roth last.

“Your papers still need to process, so you should just head home for now.” He explained, Maria nodded and exited the ring, leaving the club and heading back to her dorm to rest. Hours later, Jonah was walking back to the same dorm room with a repaired dark red scarf wrapped and folded over his arm, twisting the knob and heading inside to quite a strange scene. Maria was sitting in front of a small television resting on a nearby desk, sitting on a reversed chair and resting her arms on the front of the chair as she watched a man on the television. He was fat and depressed looking as he quietly was trying to make nachos using cheese sauce and chili and put it into a small microwave to the left side of him. “So then we uhh.. put.. the cheese stuff in the microwave... and uhh.. Be careful because hot things are hot.” He stammered, hitting buttons on the microwave and turning it on so it began to quietly hum and rotate the bowl.
“Ya know... I might have put too much cheese in there since... I'm horrifically alone and I assume that anyone watching this is gonna microwave by themselves. Don't microwave this much cheese unless you're going to sit alone and... I don't know, watch a movie or something.” The fat man said on the TV, Jonah walking up beside Maria to look at her, her face was in a dull trance glaring at the TV like she just saw a war crime on the television. The cat climbed up in front of the TV and curled up against to start falling asleep, Maria suddenly snapping out of it to look up at Jonah.

“This is the saddest thing I've ever seen.” Jonah commented, staring in pure shock as this strange man continued to cook in just behind the small white kitten. “I have been watching this for 3 hours.” Maria said, her voice flat and empty as that man's soul as she stared blindly at the lights flickering through the cat's fur. “May I ask why?” Jonah requested, Maria leaning back and shaking her head quickly to try and break the emotional monotony. “Uhh.. Lily found out from Cassandra I got banned from the cooking class for 6 months, so she bought me a TV and EVERY COOKING DVD she could find. Every single one is hosted by this guy named Butterburg... He's this fat lonely guy who owns a pizza chain in Rosewall or some crap.” She ranted at him, he placed her scarf onto her lap and smiled down at her.

“The people at the knitting club were so nice, they even helped me fix the scarf and even made it fireproof!” He said with pure enthusiasm, Maria lifting the scarf and looking it over, running the smooth fabric over with her thumb to realize that the ratty frayed scarf was now smooth and silky. “Wow... This is actually really good.” Maria admitted, lightly curling it around her neck and having it hang off her shoulders. “Glad you like it.” He replied with a smile. “So what were you doing today?” He asked, Maria leaning back and rubbing her still sore face as she looked up at him. “Well.. I joined a fight club and got to punch someone's face.” She spoke brazenly, though he just looked confused at her. “What? I thought you joined a cooking club.” He argued, but Maria shook her head and sighed. “Uhh... I made fire instead of food.” She admitted sheepishly, looking up at him and watching his reaction.

“HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” He stammered in confusion, She just placed her chin into her palm and sighed some. “Uhh.. Don't underestimate how bad my failures can be, I guess.” She commented, Jonah facepalming and looking up at her. “Well.. just be ready for training next week, they're gonna run us raw with how much they're going to make us work out.” He warned, Maria stood up and turned to face him, crossing her arms together and nodding.

“I'll be ready.”

Spectrum #7:To The Wolves (Part 1 of 2)

This chapter was so long I HAD TO WRITE TWO CHAPTERS FOR IT. What the shit...

Chapter 7: To The Wolves, Part 1

Maria continued to lead the group through the forest, carefully observing the map and constantly trying to reference her position with the map. She heard the rushing sounds of a river and quickly looked for a river on the map, finding one about miles from the school, and about a third of the way to the temple from their starting point.

She stepped through a clearing and saw the large river she just saw on the map, she tilted back to shout at Jonah and Lily. “River's here! It's bigger than I thought.” She claimed, Jonah walked from the clearing along with Lily, Jonah gently rubbing his cheek as it was covered with slightly red covered bumps. “If I knew it was mosquito season I would have brought some ointment or something...”

Lily giggled at that, her mouth stopped bleeding, but she had a red stain on the corner of her mouth. “Mosquitoes are attracted by smell, right? You must be sweating a bunch or something.” Lily jested, Jonah glared at her and stomped his foot. “Oh quiet, you! I don't smell!” he said, infuriated. But Maria just shrugged her shoulders and looked over the river. “Lily, Remember to not sleep anywhere near him.” Lily quickly saluted with a “Yes, Ma'am!” Jonah snapped back at Maria for saying that. “H-hey!”

Maria looked at the river and crouched down to place her hand in the water. The fast flow of water cover her hand and pushed firmly against it, she looked up and the water was flowing fast, though it wasn't shallow enough to cause white water. “It looks like this river might be tough to wade across.” She calmly observed before standing back up. Jonah walked up just behind her and looked over her shoulder, watching the water move by at the fast but steady pace. “Does that mean we should go around?” He asked, Maria shook her head and pulled her backpack out, shuffling through it's supplies.

“No, but it gives me an idea.” Maria began, wrapping a rope around her wrist and pulling it out. “Do either of you have any experience swimming?” Lily answered first, sounding a bit unsure. “N-not really...” Jonah replied just afterward. “Nothing that says I'm good at it.” He remarked, Maria shrugging her shoulders. “I'm only okay at swimming,” Maria replied, hefting the rope over her arm and onto her shoulder. “I was gonna ask if either of you knew how to tie a knot, but since it apparently doesn't matter who crosses, I'll assume I'm the only one for now.” She commented, beginning to wade into the water as it flowed to her ankles.

“I'll complain about that comment later, But how do you plan to get the rest of us across?” Jonah asked, with a hint of annoyance still in his voice. Maria just took a deep breath before turning back to look at both of them. “I'll swim across, tie this rope to a tree and throw it to you as you swim across, it should help you if it gets too hard.” She calmly stated, they both just nodded and without a warning Maria just quickly dashed into the water. Getting past her waist and nearly to her head as the flow of the current began to topple her off of her feet.

She felt her head dip below the water for a moment as she kicked forward and lifted her head to take a sharp gasp for air. She began to quickly kick her legs and cycle arms, pushing her forward through the strong stream. She was quickly being pushed downstream, but she was slowly approaching the other side. The water began to get even rougher, jostling her about and forcing her to roll a couple of times as she kept kicking forward. Eventually she was nearly a hundred feet downstream, but made it across, grabbing onto some nearby rocks and standing back up. Her coat and pants were wet, and she was nearly completely out of breath. She grabbed onto her knees and started to cough and inhale deeply as a voice shouted to her from a small distance away.

“Maria, you okay!?” Jonah shouted, she looked up at him, brushing the wet red hair from her eyes. He looked diminutive from just how far away he was. Maria was shocked that the river actually pulled her that far away. She just assumed she was a weaker swimmer than she thought. “Yeah, I'm good! Hold on a second!” She said, running along the waterline back to face them. Once she lined up, she gazed across the river and tried to guess how far apart she was to Lily and Jonah. She felt like the fifty feet of rope might just be long enough to throw across, but now wasn't the time for measurements. Maria spun around and tied the rope to the tree, making sure to use a tight knot so it didn't slip.

“Alright, guys. One at a time, run into the water and I'll toss the rope! Grab it and drag yourself across the rest of the way!” Maria shouted over the sound of the running water. Lily and Jonah nodded, looking at each other and discussing quietly. “Should I go first, or you go first?” Lily inquired quietly, Jonah chuckled and crossed his arms. “I'll let you go first, I don't know how well this will turn out, I wanna gauge my chances.” Lily sighed and walked forward to stand at the edge of the water, Maria nodded at her. “Take my backpack with you, alright?” Maria implored, Lily looked down and inspected Maria's open survival pack. She zipped it shut and placed it around one shoulder.

She dove into the water, backpack tightly gripped to her shoulder and side as the water was quickly getting past her waist. Maria lurched her arm back and tossed the rope as hard as she could upstream, the rope uncoiling as it splashed into the water. “It's in the water, Grab it!” Maria shouted, hoping Lily would hear her.

Lily flailed and came up for a quick breath of air. She looked to the right of her and couldn't see the rope, she leaned up to swim a couple more feet when suddenly, she felt something glance her leg. She took a gamble and plunged her hand deeper into the water, feeling the coiled rope texture sliding along her leg. She quickly grasped at it before lifting it to her arms and grabbing onto both. She slowly pulled herself along it before she realized that she was being dragged downstream fast enough to make the rope tense up and drag her to the waters edge. She quickly tried to stand up once she felt like the water was becoming more shallow, but stumbled and landing onto her hands and feet.

“The water is way faster than I thought...” She commented, looking up to Maria as she reached down to help Lily back onto her feet, taking the backpack and putting it back onto herself. “Yeah.. That shocked me.” Maria commented, before walking up to the rope tied to the tree. Slowly pulling and wrapping the rope back on her arm as she looked over for Jonah, who was standing in the same spot he was just before. “Jonah, go for it!” Maria shouted, Jonah hesitated for a brief moment before diving into the water.

The sudden surge of water surprised him, he flailed for a couple of seconds as the currently lifted him off his feet, He began to spin and kick his feet to get himself to tread. He gasped and finally got upright, but he was being quickly pulled downstream. Maria launched the rope into the river and hoped he could catch it. The rope splashed and slowly began to pull downstream. He gritted his teeth and tried to swim for it, but he realized that the rope was still attached to the tree, and he was being pulled away from it. He swam harder, trying to get closer to the rope but all that happened was he drifted further away. He gasped, running out of energy and began to tumble around the water. “H-help!” He shouted.

“Shit...” Maria muttered. Running to the rope tied to the tree and untying it with a brief struggle, She quickly grabbed the end of the rope and used her other arm to coil it over and over around her other shoulder. Finally finishing, she pointed downstream. “Lily, Chase him! I'll try and get the rope to him!” Lily nodded and began to run down the water line, watching out for rocks as she tried to catch up to Jonah, who nearly was one hundred feet away from just turning away to untie the knot.

The river was quite fast, Lily had to actually break out into a run to keep pace with it. Maria followed behind, running just past Lily and eventually catching up to Jonah, who was trying to paddle closer, but kept being pulled away by the fast current. “Catch!” Maria shouted, launching the rope just in front of him. But she realized the river was actually beginning to widen, even though that meant the water was shallower, it also meant he was farther away. It missed by just a few feet, she growled, keeping the run as she coiled the rope back up quickly around her arm.

Jonah coughed and sputtered as he tried to look back at the two girls chasing after him down the river. Maria launching another coil of rope down the river, making sure to grab onto the other end. “C'mon, grab it!” She shouted, and he reached out for it, but it slipped away from his hand and Maria was forced to pull back the rope. “Damn it!” Maria cursed, picking up the pace and beginning to run at her full tilt. Slowly making past Jonah, but Maria wanted even more distance. She wanted to be far away enough to jump in and swim after him. She made it almost one hundred and fifty feet ahead as she began to heavily pant from how exhausted the sprint just was. She ran back into the water but noticed there was another splash just close by.

“I got it!” A male voice said, swimming toward Jonah who was still panicking from being whisked away from moderately fast water. Maria stopped and watched the boy swim, he seemed to be pretty alright at it, his dark chestnut colored hair was familiar enough for Maria to recognize him. “Gabriel!?” He grabbed onto Jonah's collar and dragged him through the water, swimming back to shore as Maria launched the rope at him, he was able to quickly grab it and pull himself along with Jonah ashore on the other side of the river. Jonah was panting quietly, laying on the ground coughing up excess water as Gabriel stand back up, giving a friendly salute.

“How the hell did you find us?” Maria wondered aloud, Gabriel gave a giggle as Erika walked up along side him from leaning against a tree, her huge waraxe attached to her back, her ginger hair dripping wet from clearly crossing the river. “Oh, you must have been walking a little faster than us, We got to this river and had to cross. Gabriel was just about done as we heard you guys yelling.” Erika explained trying to wring her shoulder length hair from all the water. Gabriel nodded, walking up and patting the handle. “Getting Erika's gigantic axe across was really hard, but we did it.” He said, excitedly. Maria nodded and looked down at her, she was completely soaked in water along with everyone else.

Her suit jacket was drenched, and her dress shirt was uncomfortably transparent, even if she wore just a black tank top underneath of it. She sighed and pulled off her jacket, wringing it out of the water as she talked to them. “Do you guys have towels?” Maria asked, Gabriel just shook his head. “Nope, We'll have to air dry.” Maria groaned at that, opening her backpack and checking to see if everything in it was still intact, luckily, the backpack was pretty waterproof and nothing even got damp. She took the canteens attached to it, filling both of them with the clean, flowing river water before closing off both caps.

She sighed and put it back on her shoulder, undoing the tie around her neck and just letting it hang off to dry. She gestured everyone to follow her, which they did, Jonah still quietly panting as they walked. The breeze from the feeling of their wet clothes drying off made everyone get a chill, Maria's skin felt damp, numb and cold, Jonah started to shiver as they walked. Maria slung her jacket around her shoulders as they walked deeper into the forest.

Lily walked up to Jonah, gently rubbing a shoulder to see if she could help him warm up a little bit, he looked at her with a smile as she looked back up at him. “So, Jonah... Tell us about yourself.”

He appreciated the question, giving a light nod as he spoke aloud. “Well, Lily. I'm super distantly related to Claire The Unifyer. She helped the 5 kingdoms gather together to fight off the Astrians over five hundred years ago.” Lily nodded at that, jaw dropping a little bit. “Oh, that's super cool!” Jonah chuckled a bit at that, quickly replying. “Yeah, but that was 5 centuries ago, so it's a very distant relation.” He mentioned, She nodded some more, legitimately curious and listening to what he said like she was a lost puppy.

“Her son became a doctor, and took the Oath Of the Sworn Doctor to always treat a patient. His son became a doctor as well.. and onward through the generations all the way to me. My father is a Surgeon and my Mother a Dietitian, Hell, I think my uncle is also a Doctor. ” He clarified, Lily nodding again with a look of curiosity. “What kind of doctor?” She asked, Jonah laughed awkwardly and looked at the ground, quietly mumbling something. She leaned a little closer, not exactly hearing that. “Could you say that a little louder?” Jonah sighed and kicked a small rock aside as he was walking, “Fine, he was a Proctologist, okay?” Lily blinked a couple of times, and heard a Chuckle from Maria up ahead. “Your uncle is a butt doctor then?” Maria said mockingly, Jonah looked flustered, pointing at her as he complained.

“Hey, butt doctors are just as important as any other doctor!” He loudly exclaimed., and Maria just sarcastically chuckled. “...I meant Proctologist, that's supposed to be an official title! Don't try and defame it or anything!” Maria grinned at him. “Butt doctor.” She quickly quipped, Jonah just sighed and sunk his head in defeat, before looking back at Lily. “They wanted me to be a doctor as well, but I can't handle gore and I have a lingering feeling I'll leave some Forceps in a guys stomach or something if they put me on a surgery team one day...”

Lily chuckled at that, but then picked up her pace to walk next to Maria, She inspected her face and noticed that the stitches in her forehead were gone. “Hey, When did you get your stitches removed?” She asked, Maria shrugged her shoulders and rubbed the bumpy scars on her head. “I asked for them to be removed the day after I left the infirmary. So that'd be... about 4 days ago?” Maria answered, not entirely sure because she'd been passing in and out of consciousness from the nightmares she's been having.

“Hey, is it alright if I asked you something?” Lily wondered, Maria looked at her and folded away her map, tucking it under her arm. “Go ahead.” Maria responded. Lily took a deep breath and just got it over with. “Why did you do that to our room? Like.. the curtains were sliced up, the dresser got totaled and there were holes in the walls.” Maria was taken aback by that, but slowly just looked at the ground as they walked. “I don't think you'd understand. So it's none of your business, Lily.” Maria quietly dismissed her, the ghostly bird perching on her shoulder and quietly speaking just afterward. “Maybe you should apologize, Maria.” Maria scoffed a little at that comment, sliding her hands into the pockets of her pants.

“What does that mean?” Lily inquired, feeling slightly upset for Maria not telling her. “It means exactly what I said, Lily.” Maria interjected, crossing her arms and looking away. “You wouldn't get it, it's weird.” Lily frowned and shook her head. “Can you not brush me off, Maria? I need to know if you're okay.” She said, frustrated. Maria just glared at her in response. “I told you everything you need to know, Lily. It's complicated and I'm sorry it involved me screwing up the room... I couldn't tell you more unless you wanted to think I was insane.” She said, walking away from her before going back to checking her map, Lily just sighed, slowing back down to walk along with the other 3 members of her group.


The sun slowly turned a pale orangeish red as the dark forest canopy grew darker, the light underneath the trees began to fade into an almost night like darkness, the only light was the orange sunlight shooting between the gaps of the leaves. Maria stopped and turned to the rest of the group to make an announcement. “We're running out of daylight, but I have some good news.” She started, looking around for a nice clearing as she spoke. “We've made it just about 2/3rds of the way to the temple, another 6-7 hours of walking and we'll be there.” She said, Jonah sighed in relief and stretched as he gave out a yawn. “Oh thank goodness, My feet were getting blisters...” Jonah said, relieved from his yawn. Maria nodded, but continued to speak. “But we're losing sunlight and we don't have a light source, We're gonna search for a spot to camp for the night.” She said, folding up the map into her pocket as she looked around.

Maria turned away from them and issued a simple order. “Find an open enough spot for us to sleep.” They nodded and broke away from her, beginning to search the area for a place to rest. She began to walk underneath the trees and quietly began to pick up sticks and branches, carrying them under her arm. Along with that, she found some fuzzy remains of a dead tree which were very dry and bundled up, and she put that into her hand. She kept gathering sticks until she head the distant yell of Erika just a couple hundred of feet. “Found a clearing!” Maria looked up, noticing that the sound came from the left, so she began to head that way. “Everyone, Over here!” Erika shouted indiscriminately, trying to get everyone to head over to her directly.

Maria walked over the thick tree roots into a small clearing, the canopy opened up to reveal the slightly star filled twilight sky, several small clouds drifting overhead. Jonah arrived next. “Oh god, finally a place that isn't one hundred percent tree.” He said, taking a seat in a patch of grass and yawning. Lily and Gabriel arrived next together, sitting beside each other on the grass as Maria stood up. “Well.. I might as well ask if any of you know how to make a fire?” Maria inquired, with no reply. The silent became kind of awkward, Maria sighing and taking a seat. “Guess not.” Maria placed the bundle of sticks in a patch of flat dirt, grabbing a small log along with a stick. “Welp, I saw this on TV, it shouldn't be hard.” Maria said quietly to herself. The bird interjected, standing atop her head and peering down. “I'm not sure that's how you do it...” He commented, Maria just sighed, grabbing the stick and rubbing it between her hands on the piece of tinder resting atop the log. “Hush up already.” she said, under her breath as she tried to get enough friction to light a fire.

But even after 5 minutes of straight twirling her hands back and forth like an idiot, she didn't even see any smoke. On top of that, her arms were starting to get tired, she growled in frustration, grabbing the stick and throwing it aside, causing it to careen and smack into a nearby tree. “OH FUCK THIS!” She shouted, standing up between the other four. “Do any of you have any ideas to light a fire?” Erika raised her hand, Maria turning a shoulder to look at her, and in her hand was a small metal lighter.

“I forget I have this, sometimes.” She quietly commented, Maria scowled and walked up, taking the lighter out of her hands and inspecting it. “Is it full?” She nodded, “Yep, my dad gave it to me before I moved out so I'd think of him. He's kind of a smoker...” Erika commented with a chuckle. Maria just sighed, flicking open the cap and seeing inspecting the spark wheel, before shaking it a couple of times to confirm. “Great, now I feel stupid.” She bent down to the woodpile, flicking the spark wheel and causing the tip to set ablaze. She leaned down near the ember, but her hands began to shake. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand up and she quickly closed the lid. She sighed, standing up and tossing the lighter towards Jonah with a “Catch.”

Jonah was surprised, catching it just barely and looking at it. “Why can't you light it yourself?” He asked, Maria just walked over to take a seat next to Lily. “That doesn't matter.” She said, trying to brush him off. Jonah shook his head and bent down, lighting the fire quite easily. Sighing and taking a seat in front of the campfire. He glanced over to Maria, only to notice she was about ten feet farther back than when she was previously sitting. “What's with you, Maria? You're acting all weird..” He mentioned, Maria looking at the floor and mumbling to herself. “What was that? I didn't hear you.” Jonah said, leaning up to see if he could hear her. “I DON'T LIKE FIRE, OKAY?” She shouted across to him, Lily looking away with a soft sigh as everyone else just kinda looked at her.

“Fire doesn't bite, does it?” Gabriel added with a smile to try and reassure her a little. “You don't know fire like how I know fire.” She replied, leaning against a nearby tree before starting to explain. “Lily didn't bring her sleeping bag, so one of us will have to just not sleep in one.” Lily awkwardly chuckled as Maria brought that up. “Yeah... my fault! I kinda... acted irrationally.” She explained, Maria trying to act like a calm leader while huddling up in a fetal position, clearly displaying her commanding sense of leadership. “I'll keep watch, you four can sleep.” Jonah frowned a little bit at Maria opting for an all night watch duty. “That's a bit crazy to just stay up all night to keep guard, everyone needs sleep y'know.” Maria stood up and stretched her back just a bit, putting on her coat.

“I'll live.” She responded tersely. They just agreed and began to set up the sleeping bags, sitting onto them as they talked. Eventually after nearly half an hour, Maria managed to sit close enough to the fire to not require shouting at her as Jonah leaned forward with a grin. “Well... Since we're setting up to get to bed. Maybe we should share scary stories!” He said with the excitement of his dormant 12 year old personality, even if he was nearly 18. Lily smiled, raising her arms with enthusiasm with a big grin. “I've never done that before! This will be really cool.” She said with the stupid grin on her face, Maria shrugged her shoulders as Jonah scooted up to the fire. “I'll start.” He said, clearing his throat.

“There once was a cabin... deep in the forest.” He started, leaning up so his arms rested onto his knees as he gave quite the smug smirk. “Did it have plumbing?” Maria interjected, her voice a dull monotone. Jonah sighed, shaking his head and looking up at her. “Maria, that doesn't matter in this story.” Maria shrugged her shoulders. “It matters to me, if he doesn't have a well or something he'll just die of thirst.”Maria said, it was pretty clear she was just being a sarcastic jerk, not actually interested in the story or anything. Jonah looked bemused, before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. “I dunno, he lives next to a river or something.” He explained with a throwaway answer, but immediately Maria snapped back. “Does he even purify the water? Man, he'd have so much Cholera in his system..” Jonah gritted his teeth at that, clearly annoyed. “Maria, shut up and let me continue the story.” He implored, but Maria just shrugged again.

“Alright, good.” Jonah started, going back into his storytelling position. “He was at his home, when a phone began to ring. He went over and picked it up... and there was a voice. A raggedy, upset kind of voice. He said... 'Where are your children?' He wondered what he meant by that... First of all, how did he know he had children? Second... How did he know this number? Well, here's your answ-” Jonah was interrupted by Maria with another sarcastic quip. “How the hell did he get a phone connection in THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST?” Jonah just face palmed by Maria's attempts to pick apart or derail the story, he just sighed and stood up. “Okay, screw the story. Let's just go to bed already...” He said, nonplussed, Maria gave a chuckle and shook her head. Walking over to a nearby tree and slowly climbing up it.

“What are you doing, Maria?” He asked, Maria balancing on a low, thick branch and leaning against the trunk. “Being up here means I can keep night's watch better, also there will be less insects to mess with me.” She explained casually, but he just frowned. “it's because you're afraid of the campfire, isn't it?” Maria growled at that and looked away from him. “How bout shut up?” She said, trying to brush him off.

He just sighed and got into his sleeping back, and eventually everyone else began to as well. Things got quiet except for the whispers, the sun faded and the starry night sky began to shine, covering everything in faint moonlight except for the orange glow of the campfire. Even the whispers began to settle down as people actually fell asleep in their sleeping bags, even if they didn't have a tent. Maria pulled her weapon out of her bag and lightly rested it on her lap as she sat up on the tree, hovering just about ten feet off of the ground.

The bird once again stood on her shoulder. “I think you have nice friends, Maria.” He said, trying to sound chipper with his super calm, gentle voice. Maria sighed, looking at him and his softly glowing orange eyes, and see through body. “I don't really consider them my friends, I barely know them.” She contested, her voice quiet enough not to wake anyone up. He chirped some, surprised that Maria didn't want to try smacking him upside the head. “But you know Lily, isn't she your friend?” He asked, curiously. Maria looked at the floor and sighed. “I knew Lily, but I don't know her. She might want different people in her life and I wouldn't even know it.” He sighed some and looked around. “Well... That Jonah boy seems nice, when you aren't completely ruining his scary stories.” Maria gave a slight chuckle at that. “Well... I think he's okay. He's sort of a wuss though.” She commented, looking at the bird, she was too tired from walking nearly thirty miles in one day to actually be angry anymore.

“Why did you do that, anyway?” He asked, trying to groom at one of his wing feathers, even though he was intangible and it didn't actually matter, he seemed to realize that soon enough as well. “I'm just not a fan of scary stories.” She replied, the bird just responded with a flat “Oh.” She sighed and leaned back against the tree trunk. “It's gonna be a long 48 hours, sitting here waiting isn't going to make it go by any quicker.” She said, he looked at her and tilted his head some. “Well... You could always talk to me, if you want.” He said, hoping that was enough to convince her.

“I still haven't gotten past the fact you killed my parents.” Maria said, lifting her knee up just high enough to rest her arm on and rest her chin in her hand. “I mean it, Maria. It was just an accident, I couldn't control myself anymore.” He explained with a voice tinging of sorrow, she sighed and leaned back, looking up at the stars. “It's not that I'm calling you a liar... But you still were the culprit, my feelings stand.” She replied, crossing her arms and closing her eyes for a brief moment.

“I'm still sorry...” He said, leaning up a little bit to look at her. “Whatever, bird.” She said, reaching up and scratching her head a couple of times before yawning. “You can just call me Gale, instead of bird.” He started, hopping back down and perching on the branch in front of her. “So... Why didn't any of your family adopt you after you lost your home?” He inquired, giving another chirp as he slowly gazed down at everyone else sleeping. “No one wanted to bother, I guess. I knew my uncle could have adopted me but... He was weird and barely talked to me, he could barely stand seeing my dad in the same room as my sister.” She explained, looking up at him as he looked at the area curiously. “Did he tell you that?” He asked, but Maria just gently shook her head.

“No, but I could see it in his eyes and his sudden shift in attitude whenever dad was brought up. Dad hated him just as much, he always took away my TV when I told him I went to go see him... Anyway, he was too focused on raising his perfect little daughter then having to worry about a second one.” She clarified, trying to shuffle into a more comfortable position on the tree. The bird looked down with a sigh. “Oh... I see.”

Maria yawned, looking around for any threats while she talked. “So... What are you?” She asked casually, he looked up at her and tried his best to explain. “Actually, because my original body died, a lot of memories died along with it. I do know a little bit and will try my best to explain” He replied.

“The burns caused on your back by me contained ashes directly from my body. Ash in the body causes Ash poisoning usually, but you didn't have enough to die. When Spectrum tracked me down and killed me, I was still close enough to transfer a small portion of my soul to the remains left on your back. I'm very weak and can't interact with anything, but I still have my consciousness.” He clarified, Maria nodded and unzipped her blade to inspect it. Pulling her sword out as he talked. “Though, I was dormant, grabbing that blade awoke your magical abilities. I took a very small amount of it to manifest myself, It's why you got dizzy when you grabbed it the first time.” He continued, walking up and looking up at the tree, before flying atop to perch right on Maria's head.

“That still didn't explain just what you are.” Maria criticized, he nodded and began to talk once again. “All I know is that when I fell from the rift, I grew insane. Many of my brethren fly into a blind rage once they arrive here. But being held within your soul I'm so weak that I'm able to retain my old personality, even if I don't remember what was on the other side of that rift.” He chirped, flying back onto her shoulder. “That good enough?” He asked, Maria didn't reply. He looked at her and realized she just quickly fell asleep after several hours of sitting in a tree, so he decided to let her rest.

A couple hours passed, Maria not moving from being deeply tired and trying to get some rest, Gale panicked and whispered to her to wake up, even if it meant that she would have another nightmare as soon as he spoke. “Hey... Wake up! Somethings wrong...” He said, worried, Maria began to sweat and shake, before waking up with a shriek and careening her out of the tree along with the weapon on her lap and smashing right into the ground underneath. “Ow... Okay, I'm up.” She said, still tired. It was still night, but it was pretty clear that a couple hours have passed. “There are beasts nearby... I can sense them.” Gale said, glaring around the area, Maria dusted herself off and looked around.

Fear stuck her immediately as soon as she looked into the forest, there were pairs of red eyes surrounding the campsite, the flame slowly beginning to die as she locked eyes with them. She heard one of them quietly begin to growl. Maria leaned down to pull her sword from the bag, holding it in her right hand as she slowly walked over to try and wake the others. “Shit... this looks bad.” She said, before running down to shake Jonah's shoulder.

“Huh..whuh...?” Jonah said, in a haze, groggy and starting to rub his eyes. “Maria.. it's not even morning yet...” Maria grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly pulled him up to stand up with her, even if he stumbled just a bit from the sudden move. “We're under attack, wake the others.” Maria stated, Jonah suddenly snapped back to being fully awake when she said that. “R-really!?” Maria gave a quiet nod and pointed over to wake the others. Maria holding out her blade in preparation for the attack of whatever was hiding in the forest.

“We're in for a long night...” She said, not breaking her stare away from them in case that the fight began.

Spectrum: Chapter 6

Sadly "Female Protagonist Fight" isn't as fun sounding as "Catfight"

Chapter 6: Porcelain Facade

Lily climbed up the hill just behind the school, reaching the top and seeing her teammates standing around and conversing together as the morning sun shined it's brilliant glow. Jonah sat by himself, Robin was speaking to her little brother, Florence. Morgan was adjusting her blue bandanna around her forehead, wrapping it on her hair to keep her long hair from getting into her eyes. Maria was laying in the grass somewhat asleep, Sienna and Ashley were talking besides a couple of backpacks laying on the ground. Erika was quietly speaking to Gabriel, who was trying to make a whistle out of a blade of grass.

“I'm here, everyone.” Lily stated with a smile, surprised that she was the late one. Ashley grinned at her, adjusting her eye patch and lifting one of the backpacks on the ground and tossing it her way. “Glad you made it, take this.” Lily nodded and lifted up the backpack, it seemed study and made of a durable olive colored canvas. This was less of a school backpack and more of the rugged survivalist type.

“Everyone, line up!” She said, everyone slowly broke their attention away from what they were doing, walking in front of the two female instructors and standing shoulder to shoulder. Ashley and Sienna began to grab the other three bags and tossed them at the feet of the entire group. “These are essential for what's going to come up next.” Ashley said, her voice stern but informative. “I'll allow my co-instructor, Sienna Roth explain what's going to happen next.” She said, backing up one step and letting Sienna have the floor.

“Every member of this class has taken part in a couple of fights between each other to test and gauge your strengths and weaknesses.” Sienna started, pacing slowly back and fourth through the entire group of students. “But that isn't all that's required to be a functioning member of Spectrum Academy,” She continued, stopping and turning on her heel, placing her hands in front of her and looking up at the whole group. “The second half of what you need is actually two things. Adaptability and teamwork, these are essential in forming a proper team as communication and decision making are what wins fights on the battlefield, not just combat skill alone.” Seinna continued, peering from left to right with her sharp eyes.

Ashley nodded, stepping up as Sienna gestured to her, her voice was deeper and had a sense of commanding to it as she spoke. “Many people sign up for Spectrum in hopes to help, or get recognition or fame, some people even sign up because they hear we pay them. Those people aren't welcome here, we need warriors, we need fighters. We need people not afraid to put their lives on the line to defend the people of this world every single day they're capable of doing so. This test is designed to weed those with selfish ambitions and foolish goals out of our system.” She added, pointing to the floor and gesturing with her finger. “Open the bags at your feet.”

All of the students looked down at the bags, some of them reaching down to undo the buttons and pull it open. “In each of these bags are several things. Two sleeping bags, a map, two thermoses, A first aid kit, and two vitality trackers. The vitality trackers will go on each student's arm. It's a combination heart rate monitor and GPS device designed to let us know if you ever happen to become injured or in grave danger. It was also designed to keep track of your hunger, thirst and sickness levels thanks to very slight changes in your skin.” She explained, each of the students attaching it to their arm while the instructors spoke. Lily adjusted the straps on hers to make sure it was snug, but not overly tight. She unfolded the map to take a quick glance at it.

“Your mission is to take you and one partner of your choice through the Elmsworth Forest to the north to retrieve one of four trophies hidden in an underground temple at the base of Mt. Firewind we've called the Pradgarth Depths.” Maria quickly asked, putting on her own armband, before undoing her tie around her neck. “Like... Relics in the temple?” Sienna shook her head and raised her arm to point at her. “Nope, we put the trophies there specifically for you to take them.” Maria rolled her eyes and shrugged, putting her arm on her hip and leaning to one side. “Well that makes it more boring.” She quipped, but Ashley quickly corrected her. “Actually, it's quite treacherous. It's a 59 mile hike over forests full of wild animals, steep hills, rivers and a pretty dangerous temple that might possibly have creatures dwelling within it. With the rift wide open like it is, an attack can happen at any time and we need you on your toes.” Ashley lectured Maria, tapping her foot and shaking her head as Maria just shrugged her shoulders.

Sienna continued for Ashley as Lily zipped up her backpack, pulling it over one shoulder. “You have 72 hours to get to that temple and retrieve one of the trophies. If your vital tracker shows signs of you being injured or ill or if time runs out; You will be extracted quickly via Helicopter, you will not be promoted, and you will be placed in our basic training program unless your teammate succeeds.” Lily raised her hand to ask a question. “What's that?” She asked simply, Sienna began to pace the eight students, looking up and down at them. “It's pretty much standard basic training, but you will not be sent to any missions and you will have to forfeit your weapon until you are ready to take this test again, that time is a minimum of 6 months so do not take this lightly.”

She placed a hand on Lily's shoulder and smiles at her, Lily smiling back as she nodded and went back to pacing the group. “You can choose your own partner, if you find anyone else while in the forest, you're free to travel with them. But getting the trophy is a guaranteed pass for both you and your partner, even if one has been extracted.” Ashley stepped aside and began to walk over to a nearby chair as Sienna finished, as she began to talk in her place. “Once you're done finding your partner, we will send each of you out at random intervals, your countdown starts when YOU start, not when anyone else does. Keep that in mind as you find your partner.” She said, finally going quiet as the group began to talk to each other.

“So... We have to pick a partner of our choice...” Erika said to Lily, looking around as people began to group up already. Florence quickly ran to his older, yet somewhat shorter sister, but that was a given, Morgan just crossed her arms and waited as the people began to thin out. She looked over a shoulder and noticed Maria was quietly speaking to Jonah just behind Erika's shoulder. “Did you think of who you wanted to be with?” The ginger haired girl asked, her voice somewhat quiet from being so timid around a big group. Lily shook her head, her brow furrowing a little bit. “To be honest, I'll just pick whoever doesn't get picked. I feel like we'll most likely turn into one big group anyways.” Erika nodded and looked over to see Gabriel approaching them both. “Hey there, Missies!” Gabriel said with a bright smile on his face, pulling out a hairband and pulling his long chestnut red colored hair into a loose ponytail.

“Hey there, Gabe.” Erika said with a smile, Gabriel waved happily at them both and stopped in front of the. “Hey Erika, hey Blondie.” Lily blinked a couple of times before speaking up. “My name is Lily, you know.” She said, clarifying.

“Oh, I forgot. My bad!” Gabriel apologized, bowing his head and rubbing the back of his head. “It's kind of a coin flip when I forget stuff like that.” Lily huffed quietly at that. “Obviously.” She said flatly, tilting her head and addressing him proper. “Well, did you want to ask us something?” Erika spoke up, looking at him.
Gabriel began to fiddle around with his whip, currently curled up on his belt and a bit tangled, clearly you don't want a tangled whip when you have to pull it out to use later or it'll be absolutely useless. It was almost like he picked an impractical weapon. “Well, I wanted to ask Erika if she wanted to be on my team.” Erika looked at him and smiled. “Sure thing, Gabriel!” Gabriel grinned at that, hugging her tightly and lifting her off the ground. “Awesome! We're gonna get this done in like 4 hours!” Erika chuckled, before dropping back down onto the ground.

“That's a bit... Overzealous.” Lily commented, Gabriel just stuck her tongue out at her for a bit. “Well, Gabe and I need to get ready, good luck in finding your partner, Lily!” Erika said, walking off as they both went to sit down on the grassy hill, either discussing strategy or comic books, she had no idea about which one from how far away they were. Maria seemed to finally pick Jonah as her partner, probably because she didn't want to speak about her going bonkers and messing up the room earlier today to anybody who she happened to live with.

She looked around and smiled at the three teams, before looking over to see Morgan leaning against a nearby pine tree, watching the pines sway in the gentle summer winds. Lily swallowed her pride, She didn't like Morgan, but she would tolerate it until they find Maria or someone else in the forest. It wasn't going to go too wrong, was it?

She began to approach Morgan, opening her mouth to speak, but Morgan quickly cut her off. “So, you did the same 'wait and see' strategy that I did, huh?” She asked, Lily nodded gently and crossed her arms, leaning away from her. “Y-yeah... I felt like we'll find other people quickly.” Morgan nodded at that, standing up and walking right past her, not even looking at her as she spoke. “Let's just hurry up and find other people when we go, okay? I want this to be brief.” Lily looked at the ground and sighed some. “Fine, I guess.” She replied, walking just behind Morgan and standing shoulder to shoulder as everyone else lined up.

“Alright!” Ashley said, standing up and clapping her hands together once. She strolled over to the front of everyone and rolled back the sleeve of her white jacket. “Welp, Looks like now is a good time to start, We've done enough talking.” She said, pointing to Morgan and Lily. “You two go first, the next pair go in 15 minutes.” They both nodded, but Morgan just started to walk down the hill almost at nearly the next moment. “Just follow me and keep quiet.” She said, bemoaned. arms behind her head as she gave a stretch. Lily just double checked her scimitar. Just to make sure it was still in there snugly, which it was.

They began to walk through the forest, it was oddly quiet between the two of them, nearly no words were spoken and all Lily heard was the cracking of small pine needles and branches underneath her feet. The trees slowly thickened as they headed into the forest, it didn't seem like there were any trails or pathways cut through anywhere, but there was a clearing she could walk through. Lily guessed that it could have been a deer herd all traveling the same routes.

The sky slowly got covered by the canopy of trees, as the forest grew more varied, the only light that would occasionally break through was enough to give shadows with the shape of leaves filling the rest of the residual light. There was occasionally an animal to look at, or a thicket they had to walk past. She assumed as they headed farther away from civilization the paths would get more and more rough and unsteady.

“So... How about that inheritance?” Morgan commented out of nowhere. Lily's suddenly turned her head to look at her, furrowing her brow once again.
“Excuse me, what?” Lily asked, perplexed by what she meant. “Your fathers inheritance details hit the news a year ago.” Lily shrugged some and turned away to keep walking. “I'm not sure that's anything important, Let's keep going.” She said, but Morgan gripped her shoulder firmly enough to convince her to stop. “For me, it is.” Morgan replied, slightly perturbed by Lily trying to brush her off. Lily sighed and turned to her as she still felt confused. “What do you mean?”

“Your father has a trillion Geld empire on his hands and a complete monopoly on the Ash weapons market, shutting down other sellers by calling their goods 'Illegal' for not being sponsored by the military and Spectrum like he is. His inheritance involves pretty much pumping all of his money into two things, the military force and YOU. You're getting 50% of that wealth when he dies the government isn't going to tax any of it because they're in his pocket and benefit from him.” Morgan clarified, both of them stopped walking and turned to face each other. “Where did you learn that?” Lily asked, feeling unsure about what Morgan might do next.

“We're talking about one of the biggest money transactions in history, Lily. It was covered by the news as soon as the details were leaked.” Morgan shook her head, pointing a finger at Lily as she spoke. “But that isn't what I care about. I care about WHO and WHERE it's going to.” Lily frowned at that, crossing her arms and looking at the ground. “You and your father have all this money, but all you do is fucking sit on it or use it to strengthen the military and Spectrum. People in destroyed neighborhoods could USE that money... But your family just sat on it and we had to wait until the SYNDICATE actually helped fund the rebuild.” Lily scoffed, a look of agitation forming on your face.

“YOU took money from the Syndicate!? They murder people and sell drugs! They steal from my fathers weapon shipments by pepper spraying the driver and then raiding the whole damn thing, they even kill the witnesses. People took money from them to help rebuild the houses?” Lily asserted, leaning forward to yell at the raven haired woman. Morgan glared down at her and laughed mockingly. “They still responded faster than you or your father did.” Lily gritted her teeth and shouted back at Morgan as she walked away. “I didn't know people were that desperate, I would have helped them if I did.”

Morgan stopped and began to laugh at that, looking back at her and shaking her head some, not believing this girl. “But you didn't. You sat there and pretended like you were blind to the whole damn thing. Intention isn't action, Kiddo.” She remarked, Lily looking even more frustrated. Lily raised her voice, barking back at her. “What do you mean by that!? I would have helped if I knew how.” Morgan growled, turning around and pointing firmly against her chest hard enough for it to sting. “You don't ever fucking help ANYBODY.” Morgan started, looking straight pissed off now. “You sit there and twiddle your thumbs and hope for the best, or completely ignore the problem altogether. You have the potential to actually help these people, yet you do NOTHING.” Morgan exclaimed, pointing at her chest again to make her feel uncomfortable, backing up one step as she talked.

“You're just a trust fund baby. You don't have to work for ANYTHING to get a good life, it just fell into your lap because your dad capitalized on a tragedy to make a profit.” Lily clenches her fists from that, but refused to say anything to that. “And all you do is procrastinate on it, you were probably raised by him so to be honest, as soon as he's croaked you're just going to be the exact same as he is.” Lily growled and began to walk away, deeper into the woods. “That's enough out of you, let's just find the damn temple.” She said, her voice trying to hide how irate she was.

“Hell, you already did that to Maria, didn't you?” Morgan asked, Lily's jaw dropped and she looked back at her.
“Don't involve Maria in this, please.” Lily quietly demanded, but Morgan shook her head and began to walk back up to her. “No, because Maria is a walking example of your ignorance.” Morgan started, her voice had a certain smugness to it. “Maria was your FRIEND. Her parents were killed and she got put in the hospital, and now she's crazy and smashed up our dorm just 4 days after sending HERSELF to the infirmary. Do you know what would have probably made her much more sane?” Morgan asked, Lily looked at the forest floor again as she talked. “IF HER FRIEND SHOWED UP TO SUPPORT HER!” Morgan proclaimed, Lily just bit her lower lip, not even looking at her.

“You couldn't even do that for her, you failure.” Morgan said scathingly, Lily began to cry just a bit as she talked, turning around and walking away. “Wow, you don't even have a response, you coward.” Lily stomped her foot, turning around and roaring at her. “SHUT UP!” Morgan quietly walked up and spat right in her face. Lily began to shake, before shouting and lunging toward her, smashing her elbow into Morgans face, sending her backwards and having them both smack into a nearby tree before spilling to the ground.

“Shut your damn mouth!” Lily said, punching Morgan, who was still quite shaken right in the face. “You know absolutely nothing about me!” She said, speaking between each punch. “I had NO FRIENDS except for Maria! I was ridiculed and insulted every single day! My father barely even fucking spoke to me! I was ALWAYS alone ever since mother took my sister with her!” She said, decking Morgan just repeatedly, blood starting to come from Morgan's nose and mouth. “I grew up pampered but in the end no one would have given a shit if I wasn't his daughter. My only friend growing up was Maria because everyone else would beat me up and insult me!” She explained, grabbing Morgan by the tie and smashing her head into Morgans, making her dizzy for a second.

“I didn't see Maria because I didn't want to see her die. She was in critical condition and was poisoned by Ash, I didn't want to see the only person in the world who actually gave a fuck about how I feel die miserable and in pain, okay!?” Lily yanked Morgan's tie, pulling her closer. “Or is that not okay for you!? Am I just a coward because I didn't want to see anyone suffering? I admit you had me on not donating to neighborhoods in need... but that was because I just didn't know how bad or desperate it got. I WOULD HAVE HELPED IF I KNEW!” She said, punching her in the face once again.

“IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!? Or do you wanna keep insulting me!? I can take it! I've heard much worse from everyone for my entire life! Everyone makes assumptions about me like they know who I really am... but they don't even know me!” Morgan snarled and elbowed Lily in the face, making her stumble onto her back as she got up. Morgan grabbed the collar of her dress and lifted her to her feet, before slamming a knee into her stomach and forcing her to double over and slamming her elbow in the back of Lily's head, making her slam into the ground.

“What is going on!?” A voice shouted from a nearby clearing. Morgan looked over to see who said that, and saw that it was Robin, along with her little brother Florence. Morgan said nothing, Lily slowly standing back up, rubbing her face and looking at her hand to notice that her face was beginning to bleed. “Robin ran up to them both and grabbed onto Lily's shoulder to help stand her up, making her face Morgan. “Look, I might not understand what you were talking about, but if you two are fighting this needs to stop immediately, we're a team! We can't just keep fighting each other.” She contended, trying to diffuse the situation.

“You're not my mother, Robin.” Morgan murmured, rubbing the blood from her mouth on her forearm. Robin frowned at that, but let it pass. “Do they always do this?” Florence wondered. Robin shook her head and sighed. “I don't rightly know, I've never seen them fight before.” Morgan sighed and began to walk again.

“Let's just go.” Morgan demanded, walking along the pathway they found, Florence slowly walking behind them both. Lily eventually began to follow, and things got quiet again except for when Florence would point out how beautiful the forest naturally was, with its natural earthy blues, greens and browns.

After an hour, Lily stopped to speak. “Wait, everyone.” Lily quietly inhaled and walked between the three other members of their small group, taking off the backpack and placing it on the ground. “What is it, Lily?” Florence asked her, wondering why she dropped the backpack. “Well... I quit.” Lily quickly stated. Robin frowned, walking up to her and rubbing her shoulder. “You don't need to quit, honey...” Lily sighed, gently turning away from Robin. “Lily reached down to grab her own canteen, but nothing else. “I know what I want, Robin. I give up.” She said, slowly walking the direction from whence she came. “You can keep the backpack, Morgan.” She said, slowly disappearing into the forest.

“What the hell was with her...?” Morgan said under her breath, gesturing for Florence and Robin to follow her.

Lily walked alone, she felt sad and dizzy, but just picked up the pace so she couldn't think about it. Looking straight at the floor the entire time but occasionally looking back up to see if she was heading the right way. She walked and walked quietly through the forest as she began to talk to herself. “Is delaying all I really do?” She shook her head and slowly walked over to a nearby tree, leaning against it and slowly sliding down into a sitting position as she hugged her skirt clad knees.

“I don't know anymore...” She sighed quietly, burying her head in her palms and stares at the ground quietly. She felt like she lost all of her energy along with her motivation, She just wanted to sit there until the sun set, she wanted to make sure everyone at least passed her so she could just quietly head back on her own. After about an hour of just sitting there, her fog was suddenly cut away with a voice.

“Lily?”A female voice said to her, Lily looked up and saw that Maria and Jonah were looking down at her. Maria walking forward and crouching down. “M-maria? How did you find me?” She asked, still feeling quite upset. Maria reached her hand out and Lily grasped onto it as she pulled her back up to look at the shorter redhead. Maria smirked some. “You're wearing a white dress, I could see you from like 1000 feet off from how badly you stand out.” She nodded and chuckled some. Jonah looked at her and walked up beside Maria. “Hey... she's bleeding, Maria.” Maria looked down and noticed that her forehead got cut open, along with some blood coming out of your mouth.

“What happened?” Maria asked, gently patting her on the shoulder to tell her to come walk with them. “Something happened... It's a long story.” She briefly explained, Maria nodded to that and she kept walking. “And what at you planning to do now?” Lily looked at the floor, rubbing her arm nervously as she explained. “I'm going to forfeit.” Maria frowned at that. “You shouldn't quit.” She stated bluntly. “At least not just yet.”

Lily shook her head some and wiped another tear from her eye. “What else am I supposed to do? Maybe I'm not cut out for doing all of this.” Maria stopped Lily, grabbing her on the shoulders and looking at her straight into her green eyes. “I'll listen to you and see how I can help.” Her voice was kind of soft and stoic sounding, but Lily quietly just stared at her face as it dawned upon her. Maybe Maria hasn't changed as much as she thought. She quickly hugged her tightly, instead, Maria not really hugging back but not pushing her away either. “Thanks... Maria.” Maria smiled and gave a reassuring nod “Don't worry about it.” Maria said, letting Lily keep hugging her. “Just follow me for now, alright?” She let go and nodded “Alright...” She said as they ventured deeper into the forest together with Jonah following just behind.

“So, what happened?” Maria asked simply. Lily sighed to herself, crossing her arms over her own chest as she looked at Maria and Jonah. “We got into a fight.” Maria sneered at that and shook her head. “What a bitch...” She commented, but Lily shook her head. “She had a point... But I couldn't take the constant insults. And I just launched at her and started to hit her.” Lily explained, Jonah looked surprised by that, walking a little faster to look at her face when he talked. “Wait, YOU hit HER?” He asked, she just nodded and sighed. “I'm not proud of it either, Jonah.” Maria unfolded the map as she spoke, checking their directions again.

“She was upset that me or my father never preformed any acts of charity... she has a point. I mostly didn't think people were as desperate as I thought... But my father has a different story altogether.” Jonah nodded as Maria began to check for any upcoming hazards on the map. “Ever since mom divorced him, he just buried his face so deep in his business the only person who actually spends any time with him is his advisers. I never hear more than a sentence from him... He didn't even care that I was joining Spectrum or anything.”

Jonah nodded and looked a little sad at that. “Yeah... Charity is nice and all but your dad doesn't even seem to want to have anyone around, I don't think anyone's going to get money from him while he's still breathing.” He stated, Lily shook her head and sighed. “I'm going to do my best to help people when I can... I don't want to come up with excuses.” Jonah sighed and looked at her. “Charity isn't supposed to be out of obligation, Lily. Charity is out of kindness for your fellow man, only donate if you feel like you want to help them, not because you feel like you just want to save face.”

Lily nodded gently. “That's what I'm going to try and do when I get the chance.” Jonah smiled at that as Maria cut into their conversation. “We're about 3 miles out from a pretty big river, We have to cross it or else we'll have to head 30 miles to walk around the lake it feeds into.” She stated as a matter of fact, Jonah spoke up to ask a question. “How wide is the river, do you think?” Maria shook her head some. “I don't really know, just wanted to give you guys a heads up” She said, folding up the map and placing it back into her backpack and taking a swig from her canteen while they continued to hike.