Spectrum Act 2, Chapter 10: The Tower, Part 5.

Spectrum: You know, For kids.

Chapter 10 The Tower, Part 5

Maria quietly climbed up the central stairwell of the skyscraper, a metallic set of stairs wrapping on each wall, before turning each corner roughly every floor. The sound of her boots clanging against the metal of the stairs didn't help the dull throbbing Maria felt in her head. Even if the cuts on her lips and forehead stopped bleeding about half an hour ago, they were only just barely scabbed over and could be busted open once again. She gently rubbed her head to try and rid herself of the dizzy feeling she felt. She turned the corner to head up past the 20^th floor, but she stopped only when she realized that the staircase had a massive iron plate welded to block the way.

“...Really?” She muttered to herself, slowly rearing her hand back to form the black carapace around her left arm. Maria's magic was kind of strange, once she did some research on it. She uses something called “Primal Magic.” Something that is similar to every person who has Ash tainting their bloodstream like hers. She can't use traditional elements, which means she'll always be at a disadvantage when it comes to range. Her abilities enhance her physical attributes, making her faster, stronger and more durable. But at a cost, it burns through her stamina extremely fast to use Magic. Typically in combat club, Maria can go about 25 minutes in a fight before her legs give out, but if she used her Primal magic, she can only go about 5.

She also can access various attributes of the Riftfallen who poisoned her, giving her phoenix like features such as talons, and what she could possibly assume to be wings at one point or an another. Maria quickly reared her fist back, smashing it straight through the wall as it was wet paper, before gripping onto it and slowly ripping it downward enough to get her second arm in, ripping a hole she could fit through in the metal slab welded to block her path. She took one step forward as the talons faded to smoke on both hands, dipping in only to realize at the last second the staircase was completely removed for this section, it was so clean it was almost intentional.

She crouched down, looking over the edge and grabbing a small piece of what she would assume to be rubble, tossing it over the side and watching it as it nearly careened 200 feet to the bottom of the stairwell. “...Yeah, not doing that again.” She said, standing back up and slowly backing through the hole in the metal sheet, turning and slowly pulling the door open leading into the rest of the building. As she walked through, she felt the strength fade from her legs, making her stumble forward. “I'm using this Primal thing too much...” She mused to herself, curling her fists tight and pushing them into her pockets as she stumbled until she forced herself up against the inner wall, sliding against it to help prop her weight and help her balance.

She slowly approached a door leading to a hallway, slowly pushing it open and stumbling her way through it. It was dimly lit as it didn't have any windows leading to the outside. She wasn't any closer to finding another stairwell and she knew it. She muttered quietly as Gale appeared by her side. “You really should talk to me more.” He remarked, Maria looking up at him as she turned to her side, walking backward to get a better look at him. “What, do you get off by the sound of my voice?” Maria asked him, but he just sighed in response. “No, I'm not even sure I'm capable of such a feat.” He stated as a fact Maria didn't want to imagine.

“When I'm in public I don't talk to you because I don't want to sound like I'm talking to myself... People think I'm insane enough, I don't want them to think I hear voices in my head.” She explained herself, he reached up and stroked under where his chin would be. “Fun thing to think about, what if you arejust imagining me as a coping mechanism, and really are insane?” He added, Maria just paused wide eyed in silence. “...Good point.” She admitted, continuing her backwards stride.
“Door.” He flatly stated, Maria tilting her head as she kept walking. “What?” She wondered aloud. “DOOR!” He shouted as Maria smacked her back and head into the door, as the door was slightly ajar, it popped open and she ended up falling flat on her back. “...Fuck.” She muttered to herself, a light chuckle echoing from across the room. The room was very stripped down, being just a couple of concrete pillars and concrete floors. Maria could only surmise that this room wasn't finished, or Spectrum is re-purposing it for some other option.

Standing above her and just across the room was an effeminate man. Effeminate enough to make Maria pause for a second to think about what she was looking at, he had long, somewhat styled black hair draping over his shoulders off to one side, a stripe in his hair dyed red. His black standard Spectrum armor, which was covered by a long, silver coat. And his gloves had metal that went over his fingers to form claws. Attached to his belt was oddly, an umbrella. It was a modern umbrella, not the typical wooden handled parasols you'd see in a picnic catalog, but with a more composite black grip.

His eyes were red, and his skin was somewhat dark, indicators he was also infected with Ash Syndrome at one point of his life. “Greetings.” He said softly, slowly pulling his umbrella and placing it on the ground so he could lean on it. The fabric was a simple red color with white swirls on it. “All you have to say?” Maria said, dusting herself off and trying to recompose herself from the worst door entry she's ever taken part in.

“Do you always do that?” He asked, placing the umbrella on his shoulders as Maria grumbled, looking away. “No... It was an accident.” She tried to play it off a bit, but he shook his head. He didn't have a smug look on his face... Actually, Maria had no damn idea the look on his face. “You know the rules.” He said, twisting the handle of his umbrella to reveal that inside the handle, at the press of a button, was a long sword. He drew it, spinning it in his hands and brandishing it toward her. “A fight, then..” Maria said, taking a deep breath as she slowly drew both of her blades to meet his stance with hers. He inspected her face, noticing the wounds, her lack of balance in her stance, along with her deep breaths.

“You're wounded.” He observed, showing a strange lack of using too many words. “I'll let you pass, if you wish.” He offered, lowering his blade, but Maria just growled, clenching her blades tighter. “None of that chivalrous bull crap, please.” Maria bounced his offer off, taking one or two steps forward to only realize her knees shook from her lowered stance, she had no power... That was usually her major advantage, her explosiveness. “Well, how many cards do you have on you?” He asked, Maria dug into her pocket, pulling them out and placing them between her thumb and index to show she was brandishing two.

“I have only one to wager, but are you sure you have a partner I can fight...?” He asked, somewhat concerned. It was less that he had to fight a girl and more he had to fight a wounded one that was bothering him. “I want to do this myself...” Maria muttered, scanning one of the cards to put it on the line, and he reluctantly accepted the duel with his own wager, keeping his Parasol strapped to his side, his other hand raised in the air, the metal plating on his gloves having a strange cat's paw pattern. “Uhh... Dude. Why the cat gloves?” Maria asked, dropping his guard. He just shook his head a couple of times, not using the opportunity to attack. “I like cats.” He added, before charging at Maria.

He was clearly much fresher than Maria was, his movements were sharp and on point, even if he seemingly lacked power thanks to his somewhat light 5'7 frame. Their blades clashed, Maria's faltering strength able to still match him in a clash. “You need a better battle cry...” She mentioned, since the fight hasn't really picked up yet. “Like... 'Let's do this' or 'Stabbing time,' I like cats is kind of shitty.” She criticized, but he just sighed, breaking the clash and taking a step back. “Kind of a bad time, don't you think...?” He mentioned, before launching a deep stabbing motion at her with his narrow, but sturdy blade, Maria's legs only kicked in at the last second, stumbling to the side and rolling on her shoulder. But by the time she stood up, he leaped onto one of her shoulders, his other boot kicking her square in the face. Maria gasped, falling onto her back as he spun around to strike another blow, but Maria quickly bashed it aside with one of her arms. Sparks began to fly from his blade scraping the concrete. Maria rolled away from him, quickly leaping onto her feet until one of her legs buckled, forcing her on one knee.

He responded by calmly waiting for her, hands crossed together, his blade resting on his shoulder, almost as if he was hesitating. “Come on, man...” Maria complained, shouting to him as she stood back up, pointing one of her swords directly at him. “Don't half ass this unless you want your head cut off! Don't goof around in combat...” Maria shouted at him to get him to be more serious. His eyes began to glow as he lowered his stance. “So be it.” He said, breaking into a charge at her, his rapier tucked against his chest as Maria broke into her own pulse assisted charge straight at him.

Maria crossed her blades downward in an X formation to try and force him to either dodge to the side or force him to take the hit, but he tucked his head just past it, sliding on his knees and forming his own Primal armor around one of his hands, smashing his fist right into her stomach. A dull crack echoed throughout the room as Maria felt a sharp stabbing pain in her chest. Her entire stomach and chest tightened as she bent down into the fist. “G-ggh..” She rattled in pain as she realized she couldn't speak. Blood beginning to splatter from her mouth and onto the ground as she collapsed over his fist, buckling her knees and collapsing to the floor to make another raspy gurgling sound.

“Oh no...” He winced, taking a couple of steps back in shock as he might have just shattered her ribs with his strike. He dropped down onto his knees, rolling Maria onto her back. Her mouth was open, but her tongue and mouth was red from the blood leaking from it. “I uhh... didn't know using Primal magic hit that hard!” He said, with a panic in his voice, Maria's armlet turning red and beginning to ring to state Maria was unable to continue. He ran over, twisting her arm enough to see the writing on it. “Maria...” He said to himself, trying to remember her name, before reaching into her pocket to grab one of the cards.

“I'm sorry, Maria.” He said, pocketing the card and hastily making an exit from the room they fought him. Maria rolled onto her chest, pushing off of the floor as she coughed up even more blood. “THAT ASSHOLE.” Maria shouted, the sounds echoing about the room as she propped herself against a wall. The pain in her chest was so severe she couldn't even press her hand against it without shrieking in pain, so she wasn't even going to try. “You alright?” Gale said, manifesting back to float beside her. Maria felt more of her blood leak from her mouth as she spoke, her voice raspy as she struggled for air. “No I'm fucking not, Gale.. I think... that fucker... just broke my ribs.” She said between heavy breaths.

“He knew you were hurt, it looked like he just wanted to burn though the rest of your Pulse and finish the fight early.” He explained, Maria glaring up at him. “But you might have been so low on Pulse already you couldn't take the hit.” He observed, Maria lost the strength in her legs to stand, gently taking a couple of ragged breaths before looking up at him. “Well look who just became a detective..” Maria chuckled, before leaning back onto the concrete pillar she was resting against. The sharp sting turning into a dull throb, as long as she sat still, the pain wasn't going to get any worse. “Well... What's the plan now?” Gale asked, as Maria undid the zipper to her armor, revealing her black tanktop, as she tried to relieve the pressure on her ribs. “I-I'll be fine.. I need to lay here for a minute.” Maria said, trying to get in a comfortable position.

“You're acting a bit more reckless than usual today, is something wrong?” Gale asked her, perching on her shoulder as she felt her vision began to blur. “I overestimated myself again... Shit happens.” She tried to brush it off, as she heard a chuckle come from her peripheral vision. A man with a black hat, in Spectrum gear approached her. “Damn, Julen did a number on you.” He commented, before clutching at Maria's throat, slowly lifting her up on her feet, before going even higher to make her dangle off the ground, she grabbed his arms, squeezing him tightly on his arm as he reached down to dig into her pockets. “Card should be in here somewhere.” He muttered to himself, Maria too weak to do anything about it.

He grabbed her key card, letting go of Maria to make her dump to the floor in a mess. “And that's our meal ticket...” He said with a grin, bending down and drawing his blade, slicing her across the face with one of his dual daggers, blood leaking across the bridge of her nose and cheeks as he stood up with a chuckle. “Thanks bitch, see ya!” He said, before turning his back to her. Before Maria slowly stood back up one more time. “HEY!” She shouted at him, adjusting her chest a bit before drawing her blades once again, even if she was in a bloody heap.“You leave this room and I'm going to fucking kill you.” Maria nearly hissed at him with her still ragged voice. He turned to her with a sigh, one of his hands rubbing his forehead out of annoyance “And of course I get to rob the crazy one, do you have a deathwish?” He asked, frowning as he drew his second dagger to her.

“I ain't scared of you..” Maria replied, charging her broken body at him, but he responded by just stepping aside as Maria slashed overhead at him, falling right onto her face in a pool of her own blood. The tall, auburn haired man sighed to himself, slowly walking to her to scan her card into her own armlet, before taking it for himself. He then walked into the other room to leave the girl be. Julen, the boy who previously fought Maria leaned against a pillar on the other side of the door in the room he entered, approaching him with a disgusted look on his face. “I hope you're proud of yourself, Chris.” He reprimanded, but the taller boy just gripped onto Julen's shoulder, squeezing it hard enough for it to hurt. “Oh quit bitching, I just won us a promotion.” The taller man known as Chris replied, patting him on the shoulder as they walked off together to climb up the tower.

Because of Maria's armlet going off, and Jonah not being anywhere close to her at the time, two medical staff ran into the room about 15 minutes after the whole ordeal was over. One a woman, one a man. The woman rolled Maria onto her back, looking her over as she pulled out a small satchel of medical supplies. “What happened to you?” She asked, the man behind her calling in a crew to help extract her, even telling them to unlock the elevators to make getting her to a medical tent even quicker than carrying her down the stairs.

“Got robbed..” Maria replied, coughing more blood out as the woman began to wrap her chest up and tighten on the ribs so at least she could be taken down more safely. “I'm sorry, miss. Your exam is over.” She replied, gently standing up to talk with the man as they were prepared to take Maria to get help. Maria felt her eyes began to well up with tears until the bit her bottom lip so hard it bled once again. “Not again...” She growled to herself over her own failure, this was the second time she's failed her exam, and had to rely on someone else to finish for her.

“I don't want to be overly critical, Maria, but... clearly you doing things on your own isn't working out.” Gale added, suddenly pecking at her cheek once or twice like a bird looking for rocks to put in it's gizzard. “I know.” Maria replied, crying slightly, but maintaining enough composure to not dry heave or sniffle, she reached her hands up to her face, lightly running through her own hair to cover up her own tears. “I'm a colossal fuck up, I get it.” She muttered, slightly chuckling at the whole situation. “I just... screw up everything.” She added, breaking out into a weak laugh, like someone just told her a joke. Gale frowned at that, watching at the two technicians left the room to await for more help. “You know that isn't true.” Gale replied between Maria's strange laughing. She slowly slid her hands on the smooth, hard pavement, rolling onto her chest and slowly falling asleep from being overwhelmed in pain and exhaustion.  

Spectrum: Act 2, Chapter 6: The Tower, Part 1

I had writers block for a while, but luckily I persevered. Happy 30 chapters of Spectrum!

Act 2, Chapter 6: The Tower, Part 1

Maria was wrapped up in her covers on her top bunk, not fully asleep, but not fully awake. She just felt like she was just resting her limbs, magic training has been hard on her and all the other members of her team. Even if Maria couldn't use real magic like her other teammates, she learned a couple of cool tricks so far with how her powers work. She heard the doorknob twist open, pushing open hard enough to bang against the wall. “Gooooood Moooorrrrniiinnng!” Ashley shouted in the room, only to be met by tired groans and sluggish movements. Maria began to roll to the side, before grabbing the mattress to halt herself from falling out. “Did the sun happen yet...?” Lily asked, her eyes blurring as she looked up at the window to see the dull blues of nautical dawn fill the windows, the sun nowhere in sight.

“We need all of you up early, the Promotion exam is today!” Ashley announced with both pep and excitement in her voice, which was completely at the wrong time of the day to even feel such feelings. “Come back in about three hours, until then... Bite me.” Maria responded, burying her head back under the covers to make what was pretty much a Maria shaped mound under the blankets and adamant to fall asleep. “We have no time, shorty.” Ashley said, yanking the blankets off to reveal Maria hugging her knees to her chest in a fetal position. “The helicopter is going to take off in half an hour, and I need all of you dressed.” She said, Maria slowly sitting up, one eye half closes as Lily lightly slid out of her bed, still in her nightgown.

“I will eat your face.” Maria mumbled, not entirely awake enough to know what she's saying, sliding out of the top bunk and dropping onto her feet with a dull thud against the smooth, wooden floor. “Good luck with that.” She said, ruffling Maria's hair as she started looking through the clothing door. From the doorway leading to the second set of bunk beds in the dorm came Jonah and Caleb following in line. Jonah rubbing a sore spot in his shoulder as he slept on it wrong. “There is no way you can be this awake, this early.” Jonah muttered, slipping on a pair of pants, hopping on both legs to get it over his waist. “Are you a robot?” He asked her, semi seriously. She just grinned and patted him on the back. “No, I'm just amped up on about three cups of coffee.” She responded, Jonah just raised his brow at her, considering it a reasonable answer through his messy wad of bed hair, as he hasn't washed or combed it just yet.

Everyone got dressed within five minutes, Maria opening the door where they stored their weapons to only find them absent. “...Uhh... Where's our stuff?” She asked. “I actually had everything loaded on the helicopter just after you all went to get dinner, your combat equipment, weapons, armor and armlets are all there.” She said with a grin, Maria sighing as she slipped on a hoodie to combat the morning cold, even if it broke dress code with her suit underneath of it. “Why do we need a helicopter to go to an exam?” Lily asked, slipping into her school uniform with an extra pair of leg warmers to make up for the fact under her knee length skirt, her legs were exposed.

“Well... We're heading to Silverton.” She said with a bit of gravitas, before hearing it just fall short on everyone. “...That's a city, right?” Maria asked, tossing a bag over her shoulder which had a bottle that she could refill with water. “It was the capital of Rosewall, Maria.” Ashley added, gesturing them to come walking down the hall with her now that she was better dressed. “I didn't go to Silverton when I got my promotion.” Caleb said, putting his hands into his pockets as he turned to step down the stairs just behind Ashley. “This is a culmination of a 4 year project, we typically used the Arena for the exam... but we feel like the students at Spectrum need to work in an environment that feels more like it does when they go on a mission, instead of some kind of strange game show that involves fighting a bunch of weird looking stuff, wearing colored outfits and navigating a stupid, made up temple where one of the challenges was to arrange a golden monkey.” She explained.
“I think I would have liked the golden monkey.” Jonah mentioned, Ashley just lightly sighing as she pulled the double doors open so they could continue to follow her. “Silverton was the Capital of Rosewall roughly 25 years ago. Spectrum was barely a thing and the counsel wasn't a thing yet, we were still presided over by a king. The king and his castle resided in Silverton, which around the time the attack happened, had a population of over 2 million people.” She said as they walked past the fountain, heading to the back end of the hospital where the helipad was located. “But because Spectrum was only an idea at this point... The towns didn't really have the best ways to counter Riftfallen if they attacked besides trying to defeat them.” Ashley said, Maria walking up a bit faster to hear what she had to say, hair and hoodie covering all but one eye and the bottom half of her face.

“Then one of the biggest Riftfallen attacks that has ever been seen happened. Buildings were toppled and people were killed. They all rushed into their cars, but there was an issue.” She said, walking up to the helipad, watching the other teams climb on theirs and awaiting the pilot to give her the ok, they still had another 15 minutes to wait. “The town was a coastal town, there was only one highway into the city so all the people panicked, rushing down that road as fast as possible to get out. One car accident near the front of the pack sent the whole dense traffic slowed, more and more accidents began to pile up and eventually it halted. People were stranded, but there were too many to rescue. They robbed eachother, starved and became thirsty. Over 782,000 people were killed over the length of 1 week, making it the largest mass grave in human history.” Ashley finally admitted, Jonah and Lily's eyes grew to the size of figurative saucepans as they both gasped at the same time.

“Sounds like a nice place to live.” Maria said, brow raised with a flat, sarcastic tone. Ashley just kind of glared at her slightly from the random comment. “It would be funnier if this wasn't a real thing that a bunch of people died in.” Ashley replied, Maria cleared her throat, looking away when she realized she didn't have a comeback. “So, what about our weapons, why would you ship them to Silverton before we got up?” Jonah asked a sound question, Ashley raising a finger some as she nodded. “Ah, you see I have to take your weapons in to be dulled before the test, I'll explain more later.” She said with a smile, hoping that would stop their questions. “Well.. Where's team Solstice?” Jonah asked, Ashley looking up in the air and pointing at the horizon. “They're being taken to Silverton, you should be able to meet up with them soon.” Ashley stated, Caleb crossing his arms over his chest as they all heard the sound of an approaching helicopter slowly land just behind them.

“Well, looks like our ride is here.” Lily said, walking up as the double doors in the back popped open, revealing a ramp they can climb up into. This helicopter was a bit bigger than the ones they normally do missions in, she only assumed it was for the equipment they had packed in to make sure everything arrived safely. The doors opened in the back as the rotors began to slow down so no one would get decapitated if they decided to play a spontaneous game of basketball underneath a helicopter. The co-pilot, operating the door and gesturing for the five of them to head inside. They complied quietly, the insulation of inside the helicopter, but it was still loud enough to have them speak up over the sounds of the helicopter.

“So...” Jonah trailed on the awkward silence, just loud enough to speak over the loud whirring. The room lit by a dark red light, broken by the dim sunrise peering through the pilots window. “Why are we going to go to an abandoned city, just to get a promotion exam?” Jonah asked, rubbing his pale blonde stubble. “Isn't it a bit.. extravagant?” He mentioned, Ashley patting her hands on her thighs before leaning back a bit. “We have less permits and regulations we have to abide by, it's quicker and simpler and no one really has a title deed on an abandoned skyscraper.” Ashley explained, Jonah raising his brow. “A skyscraper...?” He asked confused by the fact they managed to get an entire skyscraper devoted to this cause.
“Yes, a skyscaper.” Ashley replied flatly with a light chuckle, Lily furrowed her brow as she bent forward just a bit to glance at Ashley face to face by looking around Maria. “Isn't that a bit.. Shady? We're using a graveyard for a training center...” Lily mentioned out of concern, Ashley had the response in mind even before she finished her sentence. “Well, if someone dies in a house, is that house off limits for anyone who wishes to take residence?” Ashley asked, Lily rubbing her chin with a bent finger as she thought it over. “It's been over 25 years since it happened, the dead were identified and buried, I think it was about time we went over to fix the place up.” She justified, Lily just leaning back and sighing as they let the helicopter drift along on the extended ride over the mountainsides and beaches of Rosewall.

Even if it was inside a metal box covered in whirling blades going so fast you couldn't see them, Rosewall was close to the northern tip of the western continent, just slightly south of the northern tip of the eastern continent. It enjoyed the temperate and varied weather because it wasn't far too north or south to get stuck in a permanent climate, time passed as the sun rose, shining it's dawn golden light on the helicopter as it flew 200 miles southeast to Silverton. The helicopter slowly drifted down, the engines turning off as the doors opened up when the pilot flipped the switch, the doors opening to a bright, shining sunlight that was so bright all of them had to cover or close their eyes, as the light actually hurt.

They all stepped out in a single file line, Ashley was the last as she dropped two large boxes on the ground with a metallic rattle. She reached down, unlocked the locks on the metal boxes and pulled both of them open. “We had to modify your weapons for the context of this test. We've been running Lidar around this general vicinity and it seems like there isn't enough Riftfallen in this area to show concern, so it shouldn't be an issue.” She mentioned as Maria grabbed one of her swords, running her thumb along the blade. It was dull as a kitchen knife, when typically if she pushed too deep against the blade, it would slightly cut her thumb.

“Why steal our stuff and modify it so it can't cut anything?” Maria asked, confused as she strapped the belt around her coat wrapped waist, sliding both blades into them with a metallic rattling. “Well, the test you're about to do involves fighting other students with your weapons.” Ashley stated as she dug through her side pocket to pull out two small plastic cards. “Catch.” She added Lily caught the card in her hand, the other one smacked Maria in the head. Jonah quickly swiped the card off the ground, pocketing it as Maria reached down to grab it. “There we go!” He said with a grin as Ashley chuckled. “Hold on to those two cards, you'll need them.” She stated, turning to the helicopter. “There is a huge skyscraper near the center of the city. You will use your natural navigation skills to get there yourself within the next three hours, or else the doors will close off and the test will begin.” She said, the helicopter rotors whirring as they started up once again.

Maria was sliding the straps of her arm communicator along her forearm, now with a nifty little fingerless glove attached to it for aesthetics. Inside the metal boxes included their impact resistant armors they typically used for missions. “Why do we have to find our way there? Wouldn't it make more sense if you just.. landed us there?” Maria mentioned, Ashley getting against the helicopter, placing one leg on the rail as it started up a strong headwind to begin liftoff any time soon. “Navigating to the objective without a map is part of the mission! I'll be transported there by this helicopter while you have to find it yourself. Bye!” She said, hopping inside of the helicopter once again, closing the doors as it began to lift into the sky and set off toward the eastern sunrise in the heart of the city, quickly being covered up by the skyline of tall buildings. “What an asshole...” Maria complained, grabbing her armor and folding it over her arm. “So now what?” Jonah asked, Maria began to walk up onto the sidewalk.
The buildings had this strange faded look to them, like someone left a photo of them in the water too long and the color began to wash out. The wooden signs showing what each shell of a store used to be was faded from the paint wearing off and the weather making the wood rot and look dilapidated. “I guess we'll get dressed in our fighting gear and venture out.” Maria calmly stated as she pushed the door to an abandoned laundromat to get her clothes on. The ground was littered with clothes, some of children, some of adults. She kicked some of it aside in a wide enough place to where she couldn't be seen, before putting her armor on.

Minutes later, everyone was geared up in their black and grey standard issue uniforms, Maria's long red scarf hanging off the shoulders of the short sleeved black top. “Do you think the streets are safe...?” Lily asked, nervous as she slid her rapier into the scabbard on her left side, adjusting her short hair so it didn't cover both of her eyes from the fairly strong winds. “They better be safe, if we have to walk around with our weapons having no edge to them.” Caleb replied, stretching with both arms behind his back.

“You said your dog could fight a couple of months ago, Caleb... Why didn't you bring Sasha with you?” Maria asked him half jokingly, he tilted his brow up at her, putting a hand onto his hip. “Why didn't you bring Snowy?” He answered the question with a question, much to Maria's annoyance. “Well Snowy is different, he's like.. 9 pounds tops and well... he's a cat!” She answered, Caleb shrugging a bit as he adjusted the shield on his left arm to make sure the straps weren't too tight. “And I lied about Sasha being able to fight with me. I thought it would be fun to embellish the truth like that.” He admitted with a light chuckle, Maria just glared at him because of how unimpressed she was at his lie. “That sucks, Caleb. I would have paid to see a fighting dog.” Jonah mentioned to try and lighten the mood some, to no avail.

“That slight excitement followed by disappointment is what I live for, Jonah.” Caleb mentioned as they started to walk down the long, barren street. The sun was starting to rise enough to see just a bit more, even if they weren't in direct sunlight just yet thanks to the buildings blocking the light enough to force them back into the shade. They continued south along the road until they hit an intersection splitting left and right. Parked at the intersection were remnants of cars, the bodies so rusted the paint color could barely be recognized, all the parts such as the wheels and the radio were already pilfered a very long time ago.

“How are we supposed to get there without a map!?” Lily shouted from exasperation at the fact this city was quite big, and unlike Riverside, she didn't recognize any landmarks. If this test took place in Riverside, she could probably find this skyscraper like she could find the back of her hand. She's driven threw it, flown over it, and even stood atop the highest building in the whole city. Not only was she lost, but this city was BIGGER than Riverside, and almost completely barren for over 2 decades. Jonah walked across the street and around the side of an abandoned apartment complex. “Caleb, give me a boost.” He said just loud enough for Caleb to hear the order, he jogged off behind the building as well.

“Just what are they...” Maria muttered, lightly patting Lily on the shoulder to come follow her. When they went around the corner, they saw Jonah standing on Caleb's shoulders as he reached up to grab a ladder. On the side of this ten story apartment complex was a fire escape, but the ladder was still coupled against the lock. Jonah was standing atop Caleb's shoulders as he searched for a way to lower the ladder down. “Any luck, dude?” Caleb asked, his voice a strain from holding another fully grown adult atop his shoulders. Yeah, Caleb might have had about a 5 inch height advantage over him, and weighed about 40 pounds more.. but feeling his boots pushing against his shoulders was quickly making them ache.
“Hold on!” Jonah replied, smashing his shield into the lock and sending the whole ladder down, the bottom smacking onto the asphalt with a metallic thud. “Got it!” He said out of excitement. Maria walked up to Caleb as he backed off, Jonah gripping the ladder and climbing onto the first set of stairs on the fire exit. “What the hell are you two doing...?” Maria asked as Caleb took a leap onto the ladder as well, climbing up it. “Apartment facilities tend to have fire escapes like this one,” Jonah mentioned, patting the railing with his shielded arm. “We use this to climb to the roof and we can get a good look at the skyline.” He said with a smile, Maria just stared up at the two males atop the ladder, before realizing that it was a pretty sound idea. “Ohhhh...” She trailed off like a dope, climbing up on the ladder swiftly, with Lily following in tow.

They all quickly climbed up the zig zagging stairs and along the side of the building, the windows showed the empty rooms and halls, either disheveled, or completely barren. The four approached the top of the building as they nearly approached 100 feet in the air. Caleb doing an athletic leap to grab the roof ledge, which was just under10 feet above the final set of stairs. He pressed his legs into the creases of the brick, pulling himself over and leaning a hand down to help the others up. Maria took a leap up from behind the two others, grabbing his hand and pulling herself up with ease.

They both leaned down as Lily took a leap, a much more delicate leap into their hands, pulling her up with little struggle thanks to her fairly light body. Jonah hesitated a bit, rubbing his arm nervously as the other three awaited him to leap up himself. “We have about... 2 hours and 40 minutes before they close the doors, Jonah. We better get a move on.” Caleb stated, leaning down a little bit to make the jump easier. “Don't you think I know that?” Jonah declared, rubbing his messy blonde hair. “I just... Gah.” He struggled to find the right words for the feeling he was getting. “Move it, dipshit!” Maria barked at Jonah, he shook his head with a sigh. “Fine.” He said, leaping just high enough for Maria and Caleb to pull him up as well.

Jonah slid onto the roof before standing up to wipe the dust off of his black jacket. “Now was that so hard?” Caleb asked Jonah, patting him firmly on the back in a reassuring way. Jonah snapped around and backed away just a bit, glaring at him. “I'm not in the mood for camaraderie, Caleb... Back off.” He muttered at him, Caleb just shrugging his shoulders and running across the roof to the other side, crouching down a bit to inspect the skyline. “Hmm... What skyscrapers do we have around here?” Caleb wondered aloud, Maria walking up and holding a hand to her brow to block the light as she looked as well. “What about that huge ass one?” She mentioned, pointing to the largest one smack dab in the middle of more modest sized ones.

“I'd assume that'd be the ideal one.” Caleb said, before leaping across the rooftop onto the apartment adjacent to it. “WOAH! Who said we're going to be leaping from roof to roof like idiots?” Jonah said out of surprise, crossing his arms together as Maria quickly pulled off the same leap. “I don't want to get lost on the roads!” Caleb shouted, breaking out into a run and leaping down to the next building, using his pulse as brakes so he didn't break his legs. “Just use Pulse if you think you can't make it.” Maria said as she leaped down as well.“I'll go after you, Jonah.” Lily said with a smile, Jonah sighing some as he looked back at her with a more friendly look on his face.

“Well, at least someone gives a shit about me.” He said, before leaping across the rooftop as well.

Spectrum: Act 1 recap

This chapter is to remind you guys (And me) of the current plot.

Spectrum Recap: Act 1

Maria Roth's parents were killed just after she got back home from school, when a Riftfallen Phoenix like creature burned down her home, she narrowly escaped with her life as she was placed in a hospital for the next 2 years to treat both her burns and the Ash Syndrome, a disease only people who get Ash, a magical artifact inside all Riftfallen inside of her bloodstream.

Maria; Who is now 15, gets out of the hospital and is sent to a boarding school, where she didn't make any friends, she heard of a school called Spectrum, a place where teenagers and adults can learn to combat the monsters themselves, since you have to be either a member of Spectrum or the Military to gain legal access to weapons, Maria joins for the sake of vengeance.

Her sister Sienna, a 5 year veteran at the school realizes that Maria is joining the academy and speaks to the higher ups to get her on her team, along with Maria's childhood friend and heiress to a large weapons manufacturing company, Lily Sterling, a somewhat tomboyish girl, Morgan Leland and a member of the house Goldshore, a remnant of the former collection of small fiefdoms that took up Rosewall before a counsel took over.

They hold a small fighting tournament using sword like weapons to gather information about how each one fares in physical combat, after losing two times in a row, Maria challenges Morgan to a fist fight instead, which the brash Morgan accepts wholeheartedly. Maria manages to win even with the size disadvantage thanks to a mixture of her recklessness and perseverance, but she pays the price and gets injured.

She wakes up to Lily in the hospital 3 days later, who helps her out of the hospital and lets them meet their sister team, a second team who will do missions the most often with them. This team had Jonah Delaney, a somewhat meek, but smart kid. Gabriel, who was friendly but also somewhat of a headcase, Erika Wolfe, who was friendly but quiet. And Florence Goldshore, Robin's younger brother and somewhat of a naive boy.

Sienna also introduces the other teams instructor, Ashley Willows; a woman missing one of her eyes. Thanks to Maria's injury, the exam was postponed a couple of days until she recovered from her head injury, but they are still able to get their weapons. Maria gets upset over her lack of funds and walks off after getting her weapon to go rest.

Morgan makes a quick detour to her old orphanage she grew up in, using some extra money Lily gave her to buy some food and donate it to them out of kindness. The kindly woman running the orphanage displays concern for her, but also notes her brother is seemingly missing. Morgan reassures her and leaves to go back to her dorm, where Robin tells her Maria is sleeping. Morgan complains to Robin after learning of her motivations that she was only in Spectrum to protect her brother, who seemed eager to go that she isn't motivated.

A week later, Maria has a nightmare and wakes up to realize that she was seeing a small apparition of a phoenix. This phoenix, named Gale, is a manifestation of a small amount of Ash from the phoenix after it partially possessed her as a last resort before it's defeat. It has somehow regained some aspects of his old personality and seems apologetic, Maria snaps and attacks it, partially destroying her room before storming off, where she finds Jonah. Jonah tells her to go eat to make herself feel better and she promptly agrees. She meets an Astrian named Cassandra and they get to know each other, sharing a sandwich before meeting up for her exam.

The exam is to retrieve a trophy hidden inside of a temple buried into a mountainside, they are given armbands that will extract them from the area if they're too wounded to continue. They get placed into pairs and everyone leaves in intervals of a couple minutes. Morgan and Lily, known to argue a bit about politics are paired together and it is nearly an hour of uncomfortable silence.

Morgan insults Lily over her inaction and the ethics of her father, Lily is insulted and it turns into a fight where Lily reveals that she was used to being bullied like this. Robin eventually shows up to stop the fight from getting any more violent, and Lily storms off wanting to quit. After leaving, Lily finds Maria, who convinces her to continue with her team instead.

Lily, Jonah and Maria are walking down the forest path before coming across a river, they attempt to cross it and are moderately successful until Jonah misses the rope and is carried downstream. Gabriel and Erika then arrive to come and help them, and they team up together to get to the temple. The sun sets and they are forced to camp for the night, Maria struggles to sleep and it awoken by the sound of Riftfallen wolves stalking the camp.

She warns the rest of her team and a skirmish ensues, everyone gets lightly wounded sans Maria, who's attempt at a gambit left her with a massive gaping wound in her arm that forces her vital warning to activate. This forces Maria to extract from the mission and leave the total group to 7. Lily gets a huge scar on one side of her face, but is still able to continue.

In the morning, they all arrive at the temple and head inside, they decide to split up in the labyrinthine temple to get each artifact, Robin and Lily leave together to discuss their lives and find it for themselves. They manage to get it, but it turns out that from the heavy rainfall the entire underground temple was really a sinkhole, and they were forced to hurry before it could collapse with them inside.

After waiting, everyone manages to get their relics and head back home safely.

Maria gets out of the hospital one night later, still quite wounded but able to walk, Sienna comes to meet her, but she's acting suspicious. Sienna asks Maria to come with her to Maria's dorm so they could discuss an issue together and Maria reluctantly accepts.

Sienna is worried about Maria's mental state, as her disposition is different from 2.5 years ago and it seems like she doesn't have a sense of personal safety, so she offers an ultimatum. Maria will leave Spectrum and go back to her school where she is safe, or Sienna will report her for mental issues and force her to leave instead. This upsets Maria, who then slaps Sienna and storms out of Spectrum in a rage presumably to rather quit than be kicked out.

Maria, now more calm and somber decides to visit said school to reminisce, before heading to her parents graves as she hasn't gone there before. Gale manifests and they discuss how his possession works, him revealing that since he technically possessed Maria, her being a living creature and possession being the main way Riftfallen tend to manifest, theoretically possible. Decides to tell her that he considers his lack of actions penance for him ruining her life.

Before returning to her boarding school, Maria decides to go look at her home one last time, even if it was rebuilt and repainted. She gets the feeling to explore the basement, since she's never been inside anymore. She finds the tattered remnants of her mother's scarf, and Ashley in a car who revealed that she's been following Maria at Sienna's request. Maria decided to go back to Spectrum under Ashley's team, instead of Sienna.
Lily also leaves Sienna's team to be with Maria, leaving them with Jonah and Gabriel, Maria's weapon is confiscated and she inherits Ashley's old weapon, named Sangris.

A couple of weeks later, Maria and her team decide to go eat lunch together, when Maria stops someone from bullying Cassandra. They have idle chat about school live and electives when Maria reveals that she's having some major money issues and doesn't want to rely on Lily for everything. Cassandra mentions they have an advanced cooking club that offers discounts and Maria gets psyched to join it.

Maria fails the cooking class horribly, so horribly she gets kicked out. Cassandra offers some condolence but Maria finds out a bout a club for people who like to fight, and as a boxing fan, Maria decides to join it. She finds Morgan as a member and a strange teacher named Sebastian Ritters manning the whole thing. The woman who was bullying Cassandra earlier said she was going to be there, so Maria challenged her to a fight as soon as she saw her.

The fight is vicious, but thanks to Maria's built in toughness and the anti-advice of Morgan, the fight ends in a draw and Maria gets to stay. Then thanks to Lily, she gets a pet cat, Snowy, along with a set of depressing and hypnotic cooking DVD's to watch to help her be more self sufficient.

Physical training begins and after 5 months of work, their training begins on using their weapons Pulse ability. Pulse being the main way to combat monsters, Gabriels sister dies in a Riftfallen attack, and is forced to leave Spectrum to be with them. Caleb, a childhood bully of Jonah joins the team in his stead and to Jonahs protests, and they continue their training after Morgan's team leaves.

Morgan gets a phone call just after training by her brother, Nick, to meet him outside of the school for a private conversation. Nick reveals to her that he was working for the Rosewall syndicate, but ended up being intimidated into joining a terrorist offbranch of the syndicate and was afraid to leave, saying that it'd be best for Morgan to consider him dead. Morgan gets upset as he walks off, but Lily encounters her and they make up for their spat over 5 months ago, Maria gets nachos.

A week later, Maria has her birthday just before the end of the year. After training, Maria heads back inside to find that her sister brought her a cake and wished to speak with her. We find out that both sides felt bad about the entire situation with Maria leaving the team, and also decide to try and make amends even if the situation was still rocky between the both of them, Lily gets Maria a cat sweater.

Morgan asks the head of Spectum, Chancellor Steele to consider assistance for saving Nick from being in the terrorist organization, Silent fall. But she is disappointed to find out that he only asks her to recuse herself and have him go to jail instead. They get an emergency signal and are requested to join their first mission.

They are briefed that while they aren't strong enough to wipe out the riftfallen in the area, that they could run evacuation on people who were currently trapped in a mall. They get on the helicopters and are deployed in the area. The mission goes smoothly until a mother reveals she left her son and husband in the mall, Maria decides to go get them.

The husband is dead, but thanks to her and Gale, they manage to get the boy to come with her after she finishes off some stragglers by herself. They are forced to sneak around the alleyways due to a resurgence in Riftfallen as Lily gives them a distress signal and requests for help, Maria too trapped to help her.
Lily attempts to stop a robbery of a store, only to find out that Maria couldn't come and she was vastly outnumbered. The leader of the robbers reveals that he is Wolf, the leader of Silent Fall. He explains his motivations and promptly knocks Lily out using his goons, and Lily is extracted from the mission. Maria encounters a huge group of monsters and tries to lure them to fight her in small groups while issuing a distress signal.

Help arrives and Maria and her team manage to get back to the extraction point with the boy safe, Maria goes to check on them before leaving herself.

3 days later, Caleb adopts a dog named Sasha and tells Maria to come see him and Jonah for a surprise later, Maria goes to pick Lily up from the hospital. Lily was disheartened by her lack of ability, and Maria is forced to attempt to give her some confidence. They head back to the dorm to a surprise party with drinks and ice cream, but are forced to sit at the kids table as a prank. Maria gets mad and leaves as Lily notices that Morgan is missing.

Morgan, later that night goes downtown to meet the leader of the syndicate, Stella Rousell. She explains that the leader of Silent Fall is a man named Elliot, and offers her a cell phone in exchange for her assistance in saving her brother, as Spectrum won't lift a finger for her. Morgan agrees before leaving to await her phone call to reveal what exactly she's going to do.

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 #12: Class Act (Part 1)

This chapter will be the last one before a short hiatus. I need to deal with some at home issues and come up with some new material for the next major story line. Thank you for your patience. :)

Chapter 12: Class Act, Part 1

The alarm began to ring as Maria was snapped out of the first night she's had without any nightmares. She groggily shook her head, she groaned and rolled over to try and turn off the alarm, but instead went careening over 6 feet to the floor with a loud thump. “Ow...” She groaned in pain, but the slam caused Jonah, sleeping underneath of her to quickly wake up in shock. “WHAT THE HELL!?” He shouted in surprise, looking down at Maria on the floor. Maria sighed and dusted herself off, throwing the blankets that went down with her back onto her bunk.

A small, white kitten with green eyes walked up to Maria and bumped his head against Maria's leg. Jonah got out of bed and revealed his blue full body pajamas with pictures of white roses on them.”You alright...?” He asked out of concern, but Maria shrugged her shoulders. “It happens... Is that a cat?” Maria replied, as Lily and Gabriel got out of their own bunks on the other side of the dorm room.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that! That happened while you were gone yesterday, Maria. I thought maybe our dorm could have a pet or something to lighten up the mood. I know you lost your cat in the accident n' all.” Lily said, immediately contradicting her previous statement of lighting up said mood. Maria reached down to pick it up, staring at it face to face as it gave a friendly meow. “At least it looks cute enough.” She commented, the cat leaning up to bump it's nose against hers.

“What should we name it?” Jonah asked, Lily smiling and pointing her finger in the air as she spoke. “I was thinking... Snowy.” She suggested, Jonah looking at it with a squint and poking it with it's finger. “I was thinking something cool... Like Onyx.” He commented, Maria pulled it into her arms and it curled up as she looked at him nonplussed. “Onyx is a black gem, Idiot.” Maria corrected, staring down at it. “I know that... I was trying to be ironic.” Jonah complained, annoyed by Maria not being phased by his special sense of irony.

“Well, let's see what Maria thinks!” Lily suggested enthusiastically, Maria held up the cat eye to eye and stared at it. Her moody red ones meeting with it's green eyes of vacant stupidity. It meowed again at her and kicked it's feet some more. “How bout... Cat.” Maria stated with a completely straight face. Everyone else in the room just quietly face palmed. “Maria... That name sucks.” Jonah said with the most disappointed voice imaginable. Maria put the cat down and shrugged her shoulders, even while everyone couldn't even bother to look at her. “What...? I'm not that creative.”

Lily sighed and turned to Gabriel next. “Well... We haven't asked you yet, what do you think?” She requested of Gabriel, Lily picking up the cat to gently pet him in her arms. Gabriel started to scratch his chin as he fished for ideas. “Lord Tiberius Meowsby The Third.” Everyone look dumbfounded for a second, before Jonah cleared his throat. “Uhh... All in favor for not using that name...?” He asked, Maria raising her hand and quietly saying “Aye.”

“It was only just a suggestion!” Gabriel commented, chuckling to himself and walking over to his clothes drawer to get his uniform out. Maria sighed and rolled her eyes before heading to the drawer herself. “Oh crap...” She said, turning around and looking away. “What is it, Maria?” Lily asked, Not sure what her problem was this time. Maria crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked away. “I didn't buy a replacement outfit after I got out of the hospital.” Maria explained, but Jonah quickly responded by pulling open the drawer and digging around a little bit. “You can wear my jacket and pants, Maria. Florence left his old ones in here and I could just wear those.”

He explained, Maria blinking a bit as Jonah pulled out his school uniform, handing it to her. “These might not fit on you, but they'll do for now.” He commented, Maria grabbing it and holding it up in front of her. “What do you mean it won't fit?” She asked, but Jonah just looked at her face to face. “You're like 5 inches shorter than me, Roth. It'll be kinda loose on you.” He replied.

Maria sighed and tossed the jacket over her shoulder, grabbing her good shirt and his pair of pants and going into the bathroom to change. Jonah shook his head and took out Florence's pair for himself, folding it under his arm as Maria got the pants on, which were kind of baggy due to the height difference. Her jacket was longer than her waist, but she seemed to struggle when it came to buttoning it up. “This doesn't fit my chest...” She complained, but Jonah looked confused. “Doesn't fit your chest? But isn't it supposed to be loose?” He asked, But Gabriel lightly bumped Jonah on the shoulder, and it suddenly dawned on him what that really meant. “Oh!... Sorry Maria... I didn't expect that to be a problem for you.” He said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head since he didn't know how else to address it.

“I'm not tiptoeing around the subject.” Maria commented, still trying to button the last button for her jacket. “They're really impractical, get in the way and I hate them with all of the hate I can muster.” She said, commenting about the fact she's happened to develop a larger than average chest over the past couple years. Lily, suddenly embarrassed by that looks away as she commented. “That never was a problem for me...” She said, shamefully, but Maria just glared at her. “I actually envy that.” She said, before giving up and just leaving her coat unbuttoned, and not even bothering with her tie. “Screw it, this will have to do until I get my clothes fitted again. I'm getting no money this month so I have no choice but to improvise.” She replied, but Lily just frowned at that.

“You're not get any money this month...?” Lily asked with a hint of sadness to her voice, as Jonah walked into the bathroom to change his clothes out as well. Maria crossed her arms and sighed. “Yeah, I got fined for wrecking the other dorm room and it left me in the red.” Maria responded, Lily frowning and pulling out her overly thick money clip once again. “Don't worry, I'll help you out.” She said, trying to grab the right Geld note to give to Maria, but Maria walked up and placed her hand over Lily's to get her to stop.

“I don't really want your pity, Lily.” Maria asserted to reject Lily's offer. Lily just looking slightly puzzled by her actions. “I'm trying to help, it isn't pity... how else are you going to get any food? Or replace your coat?” Lily observed, Maria shaking her head and releasing her hand from atop Lily's. “You have me on the food bit.. But at least let me buy my own coat. I want to feel like I have at least some semblance of responsibility.” Maria explained, Lily nodding and pulling a small note and handing it over to her to pay for lunch later. “If you need my help for anything, Just ask.” Lily replied, But Maria spun around and started to head for the door.

“Also, you need to go down to a pet shop and get the kitty's name ingrained on a tag. We're going with snowy.” Lily added as Maria opened the door and turned back to face the three of them.

“I'll be at the cafeteria.” Maria said, closing the door behind her. “Does she always cut off conversations like that?” Asked Gabriel. “No clue at this point.” Lily sighed, walking into the restroom after Jonah came back out to get dressed next. Maria went down the stairs and out of the dorm to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. The sky was still overcast from the recent cold front that brought all the rain along with it. She opened the doors and began to look around for a seat to take, once again finding the white haired girl sitting in a corner, but now flanked by a red haired boy and a dark skinned girl.
“Hey, Snowy.” He said with a mocking tone, Leaning his hands on the table as she quietly tried to eat her breakfast. “Did your Clan Chief tell you to come out of your igloo and move to the academy?” He assumed, The darker skinned girl giving a chuckle at that and leaning over to watch her eat. “Nah, she must be one of those espionage types.” She replied to his comment. “Watching her enemy behind enemy lines before wiring back to their leader about everything we're doing.” The boy shook his head and shrugged her shoulders. “Nah... They're probably too busy dancing around a campfire to do espionage.” The young man countered, the dark skinned girl chuckled and leaned in closer to Cassandra. “Well, what's the story? Why are you here?” She asked, Cassandra quietly bit into her sandwich once again as she tried to ignore them both.

The girl got impatient and scowled, grabbing Cassandra by her white hair and giving it a firm tug in her direction hard enough to get her to stand up and not let her hair get out. She winced and inhaled through her teeth as she looked up at the slightly taller girl. “Are you deaf or something? Tell me why you're here?” She said in a somewhat threatening voice, Cassandra sighed and quietly responded. “I have nothing to say to you.”

The brown haired girl gritted her teeth, but also had a kind of smirk to it as she reared back her fist. “What was that? I think you need to speak a little louder.” Cassandra was about to speak as she closed her eyes, getting ready for a punch when suddenly a voice shouted at the group of three from across the table. “Hey!” Maria shouted, glaring at them both as she walked in to them grabbing her acquaintance's hair.

The green eyed girl looked up at the angry redhead with a chuckle. “The hell do you want?” She said sarcastically amused. Maria stormed over around the table and grabbed the taller girl by the forearm, squeezing it firmly in her grip. The girl swung a punch and Maria quickly caught it in the other hand. The brown haired girl releasing Cassandra's hair from her hand as Cassandra quickly sat back down in her chair, looking away from them both.

“For both of you to fuck off.” Maria replied, The girl chuckled and placed her hands on her hips. “Oooh, Shorty has lip on her. And what do you expect to do about it?” She mused sarcastically, Maria grabbing her firmly by her tie and tugging her to eye level. “Listen up, You're gonna turn around and you walk away and leave both of us alone.” Maria barked at her, nearly close enough to bump their foreheads together. “Or I could make your teeth a fond memory.” She added as a threat, the brown haired girl responding by pushing her off, even if Maria pulled the tie off with the movement.

The red haired man spoke up as Maria glared sharply at the taller girl. “Just forget this crap, Elaine... We have a fighting club meeting in an hour.” He responded, The girl shrugged her shoulders and then spat at Cassandra, the saliva smacking one side of her face. She quickly grabbed her sleeve and wiped it off without saying anything, looking down more at the table. “You're both lucky.” She commented conceitedly, before turning around with the red haired boy and walking away.

“You forgot your tie, dipshit.” Maria commented, slinging the fabric so it smacked the back of her head. Elaine growled and grabbed her tie and balled it in her fist as she left the cafeteria with the boy. Maria sighed and the anger faded from her face as she scooted the chair back beside Cassandra to sit right next to her. “So... How often does that happen to you?” Maria asked, lightly rubbing on the back of her shoulder for a second before turning to the table.

“More often than I'm okay with...” Cassandra said, her voice trembling slightly from being upset. She lifted her hands up to rest her chin on them, looking at nothing in particular.

“Well... Do you know that brown haired bitch?” Maria replied, looking at her as Cassandra reached up to fix her pulled hair back into it's natural position; a shoulder length layered/curly look. “Elaine's dad was killed by Astrians in the war 20 years ago, I overheard that one time in a conversation.” She answered, frowning just a bit as she lightly traced circles on the table. “That doesn't mean every Astrian killed her dad, I don't get why people aren't over that already” Maria commented, but Cassandra just gave a soft chuckle and looked up at the florescent lights slightly flickering. “Yeah, but it's not that easy.” She replied, sounding deflated somewhat.

Maria leaned up and put her elbows on the table to look a bit at her face. “What do you mean?” Maria wondered, tilting her head slightly as she listened to Cassandra. “No matter how much you want it to happen, Maria. The world will never change the way you want it to.. The push and pull of one person against the world is pretty negligible.” She explained, Maria sighing and leaning back in her chair in frustration. “Ugh.. whatever I guess...” She shrugged off, not really sure as how to reply to that as the door suddenly opened and three familiar friends came walking in shoulder to shoulder.

“Hey! Over here!” Maria shouted, raising one of her arms and swaying it around to try and get their attention. They quickly noticed and approached the nearly empty table, Jonah, Lily and Gabriel all sitting down together. “Hey, who's the friend?” Jonah asked Maria, looking at the white haired girl with curiosity. She seemed kind of pretty to him, but she didn't look like she was in the best of moods either.

“Cassandra, she's more of an acquaintance really.” Maria explained, the room was filled with chattering that all blended together in the echoes of the gray painted walls of the huge cafeteria. Maria quickly stood up and grabbed her tray, turning around and eyeing the food area. “I forgot why we came here for a minute...” Maria said with an awkward chuckle. Jonah quickly shouted over her shoulder as she was preparing to walk off, making her step stutter. “Hey, Get me an omelet while you're there, too!” He requested, Maria looking back and giving him a semi-annoyed glare. “Am I your waitress now? Get your own damn omelet.” Maria snapped back, before calmly walking off to get her own food. Jonah just looked down and sighed in disappointment.

“Why does that never work?” Jonah asked himself, before Gabriel lightly patted him on the back and gave him a reassuring grin. “It's okay, Jonah. You'll acquiesce an omelet from a random girl someday.” He said, Jonah just staring at him and blinking a couple of times. Gabriel had this habit of saying weird stuff to try and lighten the mood, though he wasn't entirely sure he was always like that. “Ooookay then.”

Gabriel finished his small espresso and stood back up. “Actually, I forgot to call my sister. I should go n' do that” He said, quietly walking off as Maria got back to the table, now a folded egg and cheese omelet next to a glass of milk. “They charged me 5 bucks for an omelet, it's nuts how much they gouge you here...” Maria complained, using her plastic fork to cut into the side of the fluffy omelet, quickly starting to eat it, speaking whenever she swallowed. “How much does it cost to make a damn omelet? I bet it's like 50 cents for like 2 friggen eggs, a Geld for the salt and pepper shakers and you can reuse those...” She ranted on, Cassandra looking at her and giving her a smile.

“Actually, if you're part of the Cooking Club you get a 20% discount.” She stated, Maria dropping her plastic fork onto her plate in pure shock from this serious revelation. “For real?” She asked, Cassandra nodded. “On top of that, if you're in Advanced Cooking you get a 40% discount, but I just make all my own food instead.” She said, and Maria's jaw hit the proverbial floor.

Maria looked seriously at her, lowering her brow and glaring at Cassandra. “This injustice must be rectified... Tell me of this mythical Advanced Cooking Class.” She said very melodramatically, causing a groan from pretty much everyone else on the table. Jonah leaned back up and gave an amused chuckle. “100 years ago called, Maria. They want their vocabulary back.” He said, sarcastically. Maria growled and stood up, slamming her hands on the table.

“YOU WILL NOT STOP THIS FOOD RELATED RETRIBUTION!” Maria shouted, causing students from other tables to stare out of her from pure confusion. “Uhh.. Maria, you're causing a scene...” He remarked quietly, trying to get her to calm down. “I AM LOUDER THAN YOU!” She shouted to try and prove a point. Possibly a point that didn't even matter in the long scheme of things, since she was currently making a fool out of herself.

Cassandra shrugged off Maria's loud confusing antics and explained. “Well... The school requires you to pick a minimum of 2 electives. Those are side activities you can do between your combat training, it goes from life skills like cooking and sewing, to hobbies like playing chess or tennis. There are also classes you can take instead that actually give you credits for when you go into a college. I'm taking a college credit course along with advanced cooking.” She finished, looking at everyone else sitting along with her, she wasn't used to talking so much around so many strangers.

Everyone started to converse among themselves to discuss the possibilities. “Awesome! I was the leader of my sewing club back in high school... I could join them again!” Jonah said with a casual enthusiasm, Maria kind of glaring down at him out of pure curiosity and slight disdain. “You're really devoted to the sewing thing, aren't you?” She remarked, Jonah staring up at her and cocking a brow. “Well, that means I could get your scarf fixed while I join.” He explained, Maria suddenly turning around her opinion on the issue. “Oh, you should totally do that.” She said flatly, Jonah gave an amused sigh as Lily started to speak up.

“College credits seem kind of beneficial... “ She said quietly to herself, as Cassandra continued the role of explaining things to the younger freshman of the school. “You could probably find a lot of pamphlets about it up at the front desk. Keep in mind you have 4-6 hours of physical training for the next couple of months, you should build around that schedule.” Cassandra clarified, finishing her sandwich and rolling up the baggie she put it in into one of her palms.

Maria stood up, pulling her hands from the table and stuffing them in her pockets, she was wearing a sly grin on her pale face as she turned to look at the door. “Well I know where I'm going.” She stated eagerly, walking away from the table and toward the front door. “I'll be seeing you guys once I get a discount!” She shouted to everyone else. Lily looked back at everyone else and rested her chin on one of her palms, going up to adjust her eye patch a little bit once again. “I think that was the first time I've ever heard Maria excited for anything.” She commented, Jonah nodding his head and leaning back for a yawn.

“Yeah, but we should get our food...” He complained, they were talking for nearly 15 minutes and didn't even bother to start eating anything, Jonah slid his chair back and got up, only to be surprised by Maria standing right in front of him. “Woah! I thought you just left?!” He exclaimed, Maria nodding some as she looked down at the table.

“Yeah, I forgot my omelet.” She said slightly dumbfounded, grabbing her food off the table and wrapping it up in a napkin before she turned away to walk off. “Okay, for real this time.” She said as she left once again.