Spectrum Intermission: Winter

This chapter takes place between 13 and 14

Intermission 1: Winter
Decem 14, 534 Post Bellum
Journal Entry #39

“It's been so long since I've written in this journal. The last time I wrote in this was when I decided to leave for Spectrum. I can't believe it's been six months since I ran off from my home. There are so many things you lose track of when you join here, and one of those is time.

The next five months after we got accepted were devoted entirely to physical training and conditioning our bodies to actually be ready to fight real threats at the our physical best. We were woken up at 5 AM every morning by our instructor, typically with some kind of air horn which at first I feared to be waken up by, but eventually I became desensitized to it and it just started to get on my nerves. It got me up pretty consistently, so I guess that the airhorn is doing it's job.

The first thing we would do is go for a 10 mile run, this was required by everyone who was enlisted by Spectrum and mostly a requirement for the 4 month physical training period. The entire run would take about an hour, though at first it took me more than an hour due to just not being used to it. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at how out of shape I actually was.

I mean, I thought I was healthy but as soon as I got about a week in I realized I'm kind of... weak. Eventually I was able to keep pace with Maria, I'm kind of surprised she spent so much time on her physical rehabilitation, but I guess when you have no family and spent all of your time cooped up in the hospital, all you do is run or work out.

The next thing was running along a pretty big obstacle course, it was full of things like jumps, swings, stuff to climb and sidle across to pretty much test your maneuverability. The first time I completed it.. I was in the bottom 20 with my total time. Keep in mind that there is currently 852 students at the academy so... that's pretty dismal to be honest. Maria eventually got into the top 40 times, since it's mostly a speed and agility test and she has that down pat. Jonah also scored as low as I did, though Gabriel managed to hit the top 100 as well.

After that, We do this weird thing called Yoga, it's mostly just stretching and breathing exercises. The rooms tend to fit about 50 people and ours is ran by a guy named Joseph Page, he seems excited about everything especially when it comes to doing glute exercises. Something about holding back the hands of time, that notion makes absolutely no sense and I wonder why they hire such eccentric instructors for all of these sections of physical training.

After that is sparring, we had wooden versions of our weapons made, though I swapped back to a straight sword when I realized that the Scimitar wasn't working out. Luckily for me, my fencing training is starting to integrate with the sword training I've been getting from Instructor Willows, I pretty much always win our little practice sword fights with other first year students, though sometimes I'm still surprised by how many different fighting styles people seem to have. It pretty much means I have to memorize each person's fighting style and how to beat them, which can be pretty mentally taxing and I'm sure no one else thinks about these things that much.

After all of that is EVEN MORE RUNNING, another 10 mile run to top it off. I understand that we need to be in fighting condition, but I was starting to get really bad blisters on my feet from just having to run constantly all day with only one break for eating lunch.

Maria's starting to get a little better, she still has her moments where she'll get mean or upset for no particular reason. She has this weird habit sometimes of not sleeping all night, just leaning against a chair and sipping a glass or water or a cup of coffee and not really looking at anything in particular. She's told me that it's mostly her not being able to sleep, though one or two times I heard her mumbling to herself, almost like having a conversation with someone who wasn't there. She doesn't seem to be getting worse or anything, so I guess you take the bad with the good.

She does a couple of things that seem just absurd to me if she's pretty much burning about 6 hours of workouts every single week. On top of that, every weekend she puts in about 2-4 hours in that fighting club she joined. At the end of the week, she's so drained I pretty much have to pull her out of bed. I guess the good thing that comes out of that is she just doesn't have enough energy to complain to anyone anymore.

Jonah is a bit odd sometimes, he seems a lot more solemn than he lets on. It's like as soon as he's done interacting with people he'll just sink his head and wander off somewhere alone for a couple of hours before coming back. I don't really know if something is bothering him because every time I ask, he'll just say everything is fine and thank me for caring. But how am I supposed to know what's wrong if he doesn't tell me?

He enjoys knitting club though, I'm really glad he's found something in his life that he can enjoy even when hes going through troubles like he is now. Otherwise, he's just been struggling with his physical training, apparently he was sick most of the time when he was a little kid and he grew up missing months of his school just not being able to leave the house. Luckily, his parents are both doctors and taught him a lot of stuff themselves.

Morgan is very taciturn with me, I don't think we've ever had a conversation longer than 2 or 3 sentences ever since that fight during our initiation exams. I could understand why with how irrational I got when she accused me of being a crook, but well.. You think one of us would try and patch it up already. I've tried but to be honest I'm actually a little nervous to do it, I keep thinking I'm just going to end up making things worse...

I'm not sure I've interacted much with Erika, though she seems very kind and helpful to her team and everyone seems to tolerate her pretty well, I would like to come hang out with her once all this physical training is done, to be honest I've been working out so much that every day has become kind of a blur in my own head consisting entirely of me running, it's absurd.

Florence and Robin come to visit us sometimes and both seem to be pretty enjoyable to hang out with. I am kind of jealous of Robin's bravado sometimes, I wish I could become as passionate as she is when it comes to dealing with other people's situations. I sometimes see her with me whenever I go to my history class for college credits. She keeps me awake after that one time I fell asleep during class and ended up with a piece of paper attached to my face. That doesn't seem to be a problem after autumn began when it started to get colder

Since winter kicked in, I realized that I didn't pack any winter outfits with me when I moved out of my dad's manor. I guess I assumed that the dorms were heated enough for me not to worry about it, but my hindsight makes me sound like a complete idiot. To be honest it would make me miss home if it wasn't so cold and dead where I've lived the past couple of years. But I digress, this isn't really the point of this journal.

Gabriel's sister's home was destroyed by invading Riftfallen, he got the phone call just this last week. His parents got a hold of him and requested him to leave Spectrum academy and he acceded to leave. He was very upset about the entire thing because well.. He spent enough time with us to actually consider us his friends. So unfortunately that leaves us one person short, but Ashley spoke to us yesterday about finding a new person to join our team. Apparently he's been here for about a year or so and knows what he's doing. He left his own team to join this one, but I'm not exactly sure why, so here is my reminder to remember to talk to him about this. If I forget, I'm stupid.

This entire thing is just a reminder to me that we're in danger nearly every single day by just being here while the black split in the sky looms overhead. You can have a normal day and then just have it ruined by what seems to be a natural disaster. It isn't ever out of malice, it's just... doesn't care what gets destroyed. Both this and what happened with Maria are only reminders of the times we live in now.

Oh, I forgot to mention the fact Maria is alive. I'm kind of wondering how I wrote about Maria's mood improving when I thought she was dead for two and a half years and that her being alive would be a much higher priority. It makes it sound like I found her corpse and it's behavior is 'better' than before. Well, Maria's alive. There, I said it. Maybe I'm just so used to her being not dead that I forgot I thought she was dead; Life is weird.

She really loves her cat.. Which she's called 'Cat.' She refuses to call it Snowy for some reason, even when I asked her to get it's nametag and collar she insisted on calling it 'Cat' instead of Snowy, luckily I superseded her and managed to get it's proper name printed on it's cute pink collar. Then I found out it was a boy... My bad. It's actually funny, Snowy climbs onto Maria's shoulders like a parrot when they are together, it's the strangest sight I've ever seen.

At first I missed my home, but eventually I got used to not having all of luxuries I got accustomed to, at first I didn't know how to live without all the things I was used to. People to clean up my room, cook my food, parcel out my day into a schedule, tell me where to go, tell me what to wear, tell me what to say... And all of that left in an instant, I still have access to my savings account, which is probably more than what most students have here since Maria never seems to have enough money for her own food some days without my help.

But after a while, it's been kind of freeing. For the past couple of years I knew that my father didn't really see me anything more than just my last name. As soon as he passed away all I would have is ownership of the company, but I'll still be living the same way I live now, with everyone picking everything best for me. I don't consider myself a rebel, but I don't think I could go back to a life where I don't get an option to decide how I live.

It's all thanks to my butler, Alistair; who probably acted more like a father to me than my own dad ever since he divorced my mother and bent the rules so they couldn't take any of his claim. He got me out of there, gave me my bags and gave me places to go. Because of what happened to Maria, I felt like I should do something that felt more real... defending others instead of sitting behind the scenes, ignoring everyone and everything like they're ants on an anthill.

My therapist told me that these were originally to help me cope with my life issues in a clean and timely manner, but as I was writing this I kind of wondered why I continued to write them.

Sometimes at night I do think that maybe being in Spectrum will kill me, it keeps me up and makes me restless in my bed until I'm forced to get out and walk around until I calm down. I guess that's a fear everyone here has, but at the same time we're the only people with tools to help stop them. A new doctrine was passed with heavy financial backing by my own father to make it so these tools can only be used by people affiliated with Spectrum, Sometimes I feel like I'm writing my own memoir instead of a journal...

I'm still not 100% sure about how Rosewall treats weapons. Back when they had much looser laws, we nearly erupted in a civil war after the Astrians invaded, and suddenly these weapons used to combat Riftfallen were stripped from anyone who owned them. Maybe I don't know enough about ethics to actually comment, there are professionals for these things and I'm just some rich girl trying to fight alongside with a bunch of people willing to risk their lives.

Today is the day our physical conditioning ends and we enter specialized combat training. Apparently Ashley is going to introduce us to the new team member along with showing off something that is supposed to be the entire reason the Ash weapons allow us to fight off Riftfallen, it's pretty interesting to see that in action, but it's also really exciting for the possibility to use it myself.

I should stop here, Maria's annoyed that we're going to be late to go see Ashley.

Things to do:
Meet sister and mother
Think about job after Spectrum
Buy clothes that aren't REALLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR WINTER – Priority.
Help Maria find hobby that doesn't involve punching strangers in the face. – Also a priority."

BONUS JOURNAL
Maria Journal Entry #1
Decim 15, 534 Post Bellum
Journals suck.

What am I, twelve?

Spectrum: #3

You talk too much.

Chapter 3: Siblings

The bright morning sun glowed through the shutters of the window, and onto Maria's face. It shined straight onto her face, making her eyelids uncomfortably bright. She groaned, covering her eyes with one of her hands as she slowly climbed out of the bed she was in. The floor was hard and cold, as she noticed she had no shoes on. Her head began to throb some, she groaned and gripped her head firmly. Instead of hair, she felt cloth around her head, as if all of her forehead was bandaged. She walked to the window, pulling down the blinds and turned around to inspect the room.

It was oddly sterile looking, but she could tell this was some sort of hospital. It wasn't the one in the city, since she recognized that one like the back of her hand after 2 years of rehabilitation. This one was much bluer in color and the rooms were smaller. After being in that hospital for so long, she started to dislike being in one. Always having to have her bandages changed by some nurse she didn't even know, always wearing those thin, loose gowns which made her feel more exposed than she'd ever want to be.

She looked up, there was a small TV attached to a piece of metal bolted to the ceiling that was just showing the current weather. Since it was summer and they lived in Rosewall, A continent further south than Astra, a place known for being a frozen over wasteland 80% of the time... Summer was hot. She walked over to a counter and grabbed a paper cup to fill it with water using the sink. Her mouth was dry, like she sucked on a cotton ball in her spare time.

She quickly drank it down, before pouring the cup full again and drinking it some more. She crushed the paper cup in her hand and tossed it at a bin halfway across the room, It missed. “That never works...” Maria muttered to herself. She looked down, looking at her body and noticing that she was dressed in the typical blue loose cotton gown. A band of plastic was wrapped on her wrist. M. Roth, followed by a bunch of numbers and code that the staff probably knew was written on it. She grabbed her shoulder, slowly spinning her arm around to stretch it, she felt the back missing from her gown to expose her back and shoulders, but wraps around near her waist, she could tell from the slight throbbing pain her burn scars get when they contact open air.

She hated wearing the gown, so she began sifting through desks and bins to see if she had any clothes, but they were missing completely, so all she had was the gown for now... The growled to herself, walking over to a chair and taking a seat. When suddenly, there was a knock on the door. She stood back up, slowly walking to the door and cracking it open. Lily stood on the other side, holding a small bouquet of flowers. “O-oh! Maria, you're awake!” Maria arched an eyebrow at that, wondering why that's so strange. “Is that a surprise?” She said, pulling the door open and letting her in. “Yeah it kind of is... The doctor said you'd be out for 3-4 days. And you're up in two! So that's something.” Maria crossed her arms, trying to hold the gown still since it was only hanging on by the sleeves and a rope around her waist. “Two days?” She said, surprised. Lily nodded. “Yeah.. you were out cold and they had to stitch you up. They said the medication would knock you out for a while.” Maria blinked a couple of times, trying to process that. “How badly was I hurt, anyway...?” Lily set the flowers down, placing some clothes on a nearby desk.

“Well, if there wasn't healing magic here, they said you would need about 17 stitches for the cut on your head and the ones inside of your mouth. Also you had a moderate to severe concussion, one of the nurses told me on my last visit.” Lily answered matter of fact, walking over and picking up her bouquet again. Maria walked over, grabbing the clothes and inspecting them. They seemed like the clothes she brought when she moved in. Lily spoke over her shoulder as Maria held up the blue colored shirt.

“Your shirt and tie had blood all over them, it's hard to get the blood out so we've been washing it constantly. Your jacket is back at the dorm.” She said, handing Maria the flowers. Maria inspected it, it was a mixture of yellow and white flowers. “Those are Chrysanthemums. I thought they were pretty, so I bought them for you.” She said with a sheepish smile. Maria gave them a sniff, looking up at Lily.

“You know, Chrysanthemums are usually used at funerals, right?” Maria observes, Lily blushed from embarrassment, taking them back from Maria's hands with a bit of panic. “OH GOD I am so sorry! Uhh... I didn't know that. THIS ISN'T A FUNERAL!” She said, panicking a little bit. “It's whatever” Maria said, trying to brush off her losing her mind. “I don't mind, I guess... Thanks for my funeral, Lily.”

Lily still looked embarrassed, Maria looked up at her, still holding onto the bouquet. “I need to get dressed.” Maria stated, Lily suddenly snapped back to normal, nodding some and exiting the door. Maria turned around and began to take off her gown to get dressed. Lily was about to close the door, but wanted to look one last time. She saw Maria's bare back. Her skin was kind of ashy, but most of her back was actually a deep red looking scar. She knew that Maria went to the hospital but she didn't know the burns would still have those massive scars all over her back and shoulders. She closed the door as Maria got her clothes back on.

The door swung open, Maria took off some of the bandages on her head, leaving only the ones on her forehead. Her messy mouth length hair covering some of her face once again. She was dressed in a blue dress shirt and loose black denim jeans. She also got her boots on as well. Lily smiled at her, walking away and down the hall as she spoke. “Alright, good. Let's get to the courtyard, Sienna said we needed to meet some people. Maria followed behind, but she was trying to shake off how dizzy she felt now that she was walking around. Eventually stumbling over her two feet and falling face first on the linoleum. Lily gasped, running back and lifting her back up. “Are you alright?” She asked her. Maria rubbed her head and groaned, standing back up and leaning slightly on Lily to stay supported. “Oh yeah... Just not used to walking yet.” Maria responded, though she knew she must have been more injured than she assumed she was at first.

They walk together out into the courtyard, a pretty standard grassy field with sidewalks and a fountain at the center. Morgan, Sienna and Robin were all seen sitting on a bench near the fountain. Sienna and Morgan both stand up to meet them both. “I'm glad to see you back, Sis.” Sienna said, walking up and ruffling Maria's hair just to make it look a little messier. Morgan chimed in with a comment of her own. “Hey, those flowers for me?”

Sienna flicked Morgan on the head with a finger, making Morgan respond by rubbing her head and glaring at her a bit. Maria looked down and noticed she didn't ever set down the bouquet. She smirked some, walking over to Morgan and placed them in her arms. “They're used for funerals, Have fun being dead.” She said deadpan. Morgan chuckled a bit and held them in one of her hands. Sitting back in her bench as Sienna gestured Maria to come take a seat. “We're waiting for people, come on and sit down.” Maria nodded, getting out of Lily's grip and walking over to sit on a bench as far away from Morgan as possible. Lily sat with Maria, since she didn't want to even bother talking to Morgan.

“What people are you talking about?” Maria wondered aloud. Sienna smiled a bit as she explained to all four of her subordinates. “Well, you know that most teams are assigned 4-8 members. But teams are also assigned with something called a 'sister' team. This team is supposed to work closely together with your team. Occasionally for missions, you'll have a team member from the sister team added if they specialize in something the original team doesn't have.”

Maria rolled her eyes at the idea, but Lily seemed excited. She hopped out of her seat and exclaimed “More people!? This is gonna be so cool...!” She hopped on her feet a couple of times, looking at Sienna as she became curious. “Do you know who they are?” She said, but Sienna only shook her head softly. “They're just names on a clipboard at the moment. We're supposed to meet here very shortly.”

“Convenient, ain't it?” A woman said from behind the fountain. She wandered out in front of the small group of girls. She had long, well kept black hair going well past her shoulders and reaching her lower back, bangs draped on each side of her face along with a black eye patch covered one eye. She wore a white dress shirt along with the complimentary white instructor coat and white dress pants with black slip on shoes. She appeared to be a couple of years older than most of the people here. Maria could guess she was probably in her mid 20's.

“Oh. There you are, Ashley!” Seinna remarked. The woman crossed her arms and walked over to take a seat in the bench adjacent to Maria and Lily's. “A pleasure to meet you, Sienna Roth. My team will arrive shortly.” Sienna nodded, but commented as well. “What was the hold up?” Ashley sighed some, leaning over to the side to see if they were walking into the courtyard yet. “They got annoyed that I wanted to skip lunch to meet up with my sister team, So I let them eat their sandwiches in peace.” Sienna blinked a couple of times. “...I actually forgot about lunch.” She said flatly, slightly dumbfounded by forgetting a thing so obvious.

“You can have it after this, I'd rather not be delayed twice in a row.” They all looked up as they heard voices shout from a distance. “We're done!” Said a boyish sounding one. “Weee! I'm a bird!” Said a somehow MORE childish but at the same time, slightly deeper sounding one. A slightly deeper male voice states flatly. “Birds flap, you're pretending to be a plane, not a bird.” A quiet female voice responded to that. “Maybe he's a combination of a bird and a plane?” The deeper voice male brushed it off. “That's just absurd.”

Maria leaned back in her chair, inhaled the warm summer air and just spoke just under her breath. “And here comes the stupid...” Leaning back and glaring at the partly cloudy blue sky shining in the light of the late morning sun. The 4 other students arrived and Maria got out of her seat to inspect them over. They stood in a line shoulder to shoulder, arms behind their back as each one gave a bow.

The first one was a kind of small looking guy. He was still taller than Maria but he had a pale and sort of withered look to his body, like underneath his school uniform he was built like a twig. His face was friendly and looked like an actor for someone cast as a prince in a school play since he had kind of a girly look to him with his chin length bright gold hair framing his face. He wasn't Maria's type but she could see the appeal others would have for him. He had bright blue eyes and bowed his head first. “Jonah Delaney. It's nice to meet you all.” He said, introducing himself.

The next was also a guy. He was dressed in the alternate color school uniform for the guys. A white suit with a red tie, a black dress shit underneath it with black lined lapels. His hair was a complete mess. He his hair was a brownish red color, but it was very long and messy looking, as just a huge mop of long hair draped all over past his shoulders and upper back. His skin has a slightly more tan tone to it, He also had brown colored eyes and a kind of goofy grin plastered on his face. “I'm Gabriel Caine! I love meeting new friends~”

“Is that really his name!?” Morgan said between the chuckles she broke out into. “You belong in a comic book or something...” She added.
“I love comic books!” He replied excitedly, his eyes gave off a head in the clouds look, and Maria quietly wondered how many times did he hit his head falling down the stairs as a baby. Jonah commented at him shouting like that. “Buy them later, Man. We have stuff we need to do.” He said, bumping Gabriel's shoulder with the back of his hand. “Fiiiine.” He said disappointed from not being able to get comic books.

The next was a girl, she had long ginger hair pulled back into a low ponytail and fair colored skin. She seemed just short of Morgan, but looked a bit less athletic overall. She was wearing a waistcoat over top a dress and long skirt combo. She looked at the floor, hands twiddling together some. “E-erika Wolfe... Yeah...” She said, quietly it was obvious that she wasn't good around new people. She quickly turned around and walked away to take a seat on the fountains edge, not really looking at anyone else.

Jonah shrugged from her acting like that, quietly explaining to the rest of the group. “Oh... She's just shy with new people. She was like that with me as well until yesterday. Then I found out she loves racing slot cars and we hit it off.” Erika looked back, quietly sighing to herself. “I heard that, you know...” Jonah chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and sighing. “Sorry!”

The last was slightly taller than the rest, a boy with medium length brown hair parted to one side. He was dressed in a waist coat with frilly sleeves to his shirt along with the standard burgundy colored pants. His green eyes shining as he gave his own bow. “I am Florence Goldshore. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Lily turned to him, eyes lighting up with curiosity. “Did you say your last name was Goldshore..? Like... House Goldshore?” The boy nodded. “Though, after the national government got established all we have is the name and the manor we reside in.” Lily squeed a little bit and grinned like a doof at him. “Yeah, that's pretty lame. But I still always wanted to meet royalty!” She said enthusiastically, but Florence just tilted his head at her. “But, you've already met royalty,” He explained, though she just looked confused by that.

“My older sister is on your team.” He added, pointing to Robin. Robin smiled and walked up to give him a hug. “I'm glad you made it here safely.” Robin said. He was even taller than her, but to Lily that brought up one question. “If he's your little brother then how old are you two?” The boy released the hug and looked at her. “I'm 15.” He quickly stated. Robin added onto that with “I'm 22.” Suddenly Sienna looked a bit shocked, Morgan walked up to eye at them both some

Morgan chimed in. “Isn't 22 a little old to be a student?” Robin scoffed at that. “I'm still in my prime, I have another 20 or so years before I'd actually be over the hill” Sienna looked at the floor, sighing some. “I thought the teacher was supposed to be older than her students! I'm only 20...”
Robin laughed and patted her on the back in response to help her cheer up. “You probably are still more experienced than I am.

Sienna nodded, before cleaning her throat and standing up on the fountain, it was still a bit wet so she slipped on her way up, but steadied her balance. “Now, the reason why we're all meeting today!” The crowd of boys and girls gathered at her feet. Everyone except Maria, who was just sitting on the bench and looking like her usual self. Also known as being insanely grumpy. “We got the requisition documents today, we can go to the armory and pick out weapons!” Maria looked up with a sigh. “That's it?” Sienna glared and continued. “Well, we were going to do an exam today to test your teamwork skills. But since you got injured we have to do a rain check.” Maria rolled her eyes, and Florence raised his hand. “Yes, Florence?” Sienna said, taking his question.


“But I have my own weapon, why should I get a second one?” He asked, but Sienna just smirked at that. As that question was the 5^th most popular question in her instructional instructor instruction manual... err.. handbook. “Well.. Allow me to get long winded for this one.” She said, clearing her throat in preparation. “The weapons crafted by the companies that craft these weapons have to use a special material. This is known as Crimisanium Ash, or Ash for short. These were found from the bodies of the monsters that we've managed to defeat so far. But Ash is quite similar to the Ash found from the bodies of the cremated or the burnt husks of trees and can't be turned into anything alone. This must be either synthesized into an amalgamate material or heat treated into an alloy.” She explained thoroughly.

She got off of the fountain and continued to speak. “These Crimisanium Ash infused weapons allowed the people who used them to learn special abilities, such as controlling their natural energies and using it as a force known as Pulsing. It also let us figure out that each person is tied to an element of the world, and can be cast as a kind of spell to use. This would be impossible otherwise, but Ash isn't a miracle substance regardless of what people tell you.” She slowly approached Maria and looked down.

“Being in contact with Ash for too long, or being subjected to too much magic can cause Ash poisoning. This is 100% fatal, but if you manage to get a small enough dose... You get blood red eyes and nearly paper colored skin instead of every part of your body bleeding internally all at once.” She said, pointing at Maria as an example. Maria just looked away at the ground, crossing her arms, she felt a bit insulted, but just didn't want to make a scene.

Seinna continued to explain, slowly walking away from them and gesturing with one hand for all of them to come along. They formed a line and began to walk just behind her along the sidewalk. Slowly passing by all of the school buildings along the way. “To get back to your question, these new weapons are sold to use and get infused with Ash to make it a little easier to hold back the monsters. That's why you need the new ones in the first place.” Florence nodded, walking just behind her. “I guess I kind of get it...” He said. Sienna looked back at him with a smile “If you have any questions, go ask Maria. She's kind of a big history nerd once you get to know her.” He nodded, but kept quiet.

Jonah walked beside Maria, looking her over before talking. “So uhm... How are you doing miss?” He said meekly, Maria looked back at him and shrugged her shoulders. She reached up to take the bandage off of her head, throwing it quickly into a bin just to have it miss. She groaned, running over and slamming it into the bin before running back. “Just want this day over with already.” She muttered annoyed at her suddenly large group she had to be with. Jonah looked at her forehead, noticing that it looked to be freshly cut, yet somewhat healed over. “Where did you get that cut?” He wondered aloud, Maria answered flatly. “I smashed my head into someone else's over and over again.” He cringed gently and made an eek like sound, turning away from her and looking at the floor. “What's bothering you?” Maria pinched her forehead at that, she didn't want this guy to play amateur psychologist with her, she didn't even know him in the first place.

“Too much to talk about.” She said, with a slight groan at the end. Jonah awkwardly rubbed his arm and looked up at the sky, the fluffy clouds slowly drifting overhead. “Sorry for asking...” He said, not really sure what was the best way to actually talk to her. “I just want my weapon so I can go lay down.” She said to him, walking slightly faster to walk beside Sienna and ignore pretty much everyone else.

They arrived at the armory, it didn't look like a huge building at first, but when Sienna opened the doors, they were proven wrong. All that was above ground was just the staircase TO the armory.


Sienna once again began to explain. “You get one weapon for free, if you ever want a second weapon you have to buy it. Next week we'll get you guys your own personal armor, but first we'd have to get everyone’s measurements so they fit.” She pumped her fist and started walking down the stairs. “So let's get started!” The actual entrance to the Armory was pretty tightly guarded. There was several fully armed people dressed in armor standing at the door. And you could only assume there was going to be more inside as well, giving out weapons to people has a high potential danger and they're there if anything goes wrong.

One man walked up in front of Sienna, and she quickly pulled out her student ID. He nodded some and stepped aside. “Take your time, everyone.” He said enthusiastically, and the whole group headed inside. The entire group began to walk the aisles, each one had weapons propped up against the wall or standing on a stand attached to the ground. The variety was pretty impressive, and it had pretty much every type of weapon you could want. Lily walked along with the entire group, her jaw hanging slightly open. “Wow... This is really impressive for an armory.” Maria gestured them to walk a little faster, breaking away from the group so they could look for weapons themselves first.

“So, Maria...” Lily lead into her question with a feeling of curiosity. “Did you pick what you want your weapon to be yet?” Maria shook her head at that question, her head cocked to the right to see all the weapons in one row. “Nothing has interested me yet.” Lily nodded and began to ponder to herself. “I imagine you using something cool... How about a scythe?” She asked, Maria sighed and shook her head. “Those are farming tools, Lily.” Maria commented, looking at the floor for a second. “Wait, they are?” Lily asked, Maria looking at her and giving a nod. “Yeah, and as soon as we fight evil demonic grass I'll consider it. But since we're not... Hell no.”

Lily began to giggle a little at that. Yeah, this Maria was a lot more bitter and cold than her old self but Lily always appreciated Maria's ability to say something absurd with a straight face, she enjoyed her random deadpan remarks on the stranger thoughts she'd tend to have.

Lily kept walking with her friend, when something catches her eye. It was a blade with a dramatic curve, it looked like it was more for slashing and almost not for stabbing at all. This piqued her interest. So she reached out to pick it up. She lightly swing it through the air once or twice and began to inspect it. “I think that's called a Scimitar.” Maria observed, Lily nodded and smiled. “Honestly I think this might be a good start.” Lily said, Maria tilted her head slightly and quickly retorted. “I thought you were good with a Rapier.” Lily nodded and pointed her blade toward the floor, finding the sheathe it belongs in and slowly strapping to her waistline while she replied. “Fighting Robin made me realize something. While fencing is a very flashy sport and learning is good for sport... I really doubt how successful I'll be. It was like my attacks had no power behind them no matter how many times I made contact... I want to try something different.”

Maria shrugged her shoulders and sighed some. “Whatever makes you feel better, I guess.” She said, reaching out for a weapon she saw while talking to Lily. It looked like a spear until she had it in her hands. Usually a spear has a pointed, yet short blade for stabbing. But this pole arm looked like someone placed a sword on the end of a long rod. She slid her hand along it and looked it over. Lily went to peer over her shoulder, noticing a small latch near the hilt of the blade. “Oh... there's a switch!” She said, gently twisting it to one side, and suddenly the blade fell off, clanging against the ground.

Lily's eyes widened from being shocked and surprised, yelling in a panic. “OH GOD I BROKE IT. I am SO sorry, Maria!”

Maria looked down and noticed something about the detached blade. “Hold on a second” She stated, slowly bending down to look at it. When it wasn't attached to the glaive, it seemed to be just a longsword. It had a hilt with a cross shaped guard on it and a deep red handle. “The blade seems to be detachable...” She said, grabbing it and lifting it up to reattach it to the end of the pole arm, when suddenly she felt dizzy.

It was like there was a massive ringing noise in her ears, suddenly her skin felt cold but she broke out into a sweat, her vision began to blur and a sharp pain formed in her head. She shrieked and dropped the blade, backing away quickly and tripping backwards, landing flat on her back. Her breaths were heavy and her eyes were wide open. Lily ran over, bending down to grab onto Maria. “Maria! Are you alright!?” Maria kept breathing, slowly the panic began to fade. “My head started to hurt... But it's going away now.” She said, groaning and standing back up, rubbing her sore head. “Maybe you still have that concussion...” Lily stated, gently lifting her hand to Maria's forehead to check if she had a fever or anything. Maria reached over to the carrying case of her weapon, noticing that she can twist the hilt and cause it to telescope into itself for compact carrying. She placed the blade and the folded up pole all into the carrying case and strapped it to her back.

“We might as well see what everyone else has picked out.” Lily said, sheathing her blade on the new scabbard she had wrapped around her waist. Jonah was inspecting a sword and heater shield, Morgan opted for a heavy two handed sword that was strapped to her back. Robin was carrying a longer partisan spear than Maria's, Gabriel found bladed cat o' nine tails, Erika found a huge battle axe even bigger than Morgan's claymore, and Florence found a different bow and arrow to use.

They lined up in front of Sienna, she smiled at all of them and nodded. “Alright, so all of you have your weapons. Unfortunately you cannot always have them with you, you'll need to put them into storage at your dorm until you actually need to use them. After this occurrence anyone caught with a weapon on campus will get fined or suspended depending on how you act because of it.” She stated, placing her hands on her hips and looking at all of the people, Ashley gesturing her team to move out first, leaving Sienna's team as the only ones who were with her.

“Alright, we'll start the exam once we know Maria is fully recovered from her head injury.” They all nodded in response. “You guys should head back to the dorm and store your weapons, that's all you need to do for today.” Morgan walked forward, folding her arms. “What about that lunch?” Sienna laughed a bit and scratched her long red hair a little bit, slightly embarrassed from forgetting. “Oh, right! Well before you guys head back, Lily and Maria need to pay for your lunches.”

Lily reached her hand into her side pocket, pulling out more than enough money for a lunch and giving it to Robin. “Here ya go, Robin.” She said with a smile, Robin took it from her and bowed her head just a bit. “I appreciate it, but it's more money for a lunch than I was thinking. If you want, I could get you something while I'm there.”

Lily gave a light nod. “That would be great, thanks.” She turned to Maria, who was currently looking at a wall covered with racks of weapons, tapping her foot. “Well? How about my reward?” Morgan commented, hands on her hips. Maria growled and looked at the floor, muttering quietly. “What was what?” Morgan said teasingly, raising her hand to her ear and leaning toward her.

“I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY! Okay? I just... don't.”

Lily frowned a little, pulling out her wallet and giving a bit more money to Maria. Maria slid it into her hands and inspected it. It was once again.. way too expensive for lunch. Did she just not know how much lunches cost in general?

“Now give it to Morgan, Maria.” Maria glared at Lily, a look of confusion on her face. “IF YOU WERE GONNA GIVE IT TO MORGAN, WHY GIVE IT TO ME?” She shouted, stomping the ground with one foot. “Well... So you could give it to Morgan!” Maria just planted her face into one palm, Morgan reaching for the money and pulling it from Maria's hands with a “Yeeee-oink” coming from her mouth.

Maria groaned, walking past the entire group, arms pumping from the sheer amount of annoyed exhuming from her. “Don't spend it all in one place, dick.” She said, slamming the door behind her and heading back to the dorm on an empty stomach.

SPECTRUM Chapter 2: Lashing Out

Everyone gets their ass kicked.

Chapter 2: Lashing Out

The gymnasium wasn't just a normal sports gymnasium. It happened to be way too big to be some kind of sports arena. The top of it was open, the ground looked like solid stone, with white paint denoting certain markings atop it. Instead of bleachers, they were stadium seats. Each side had a large screen resting on top of it. Some big events must have been held there or something. The group entered up the stairs and through a tunnel, underneath the seating on one side. Sienna led them to a circle near the center before stopping all of them. “We're here.” She said, walking off to a small rack set up earlier and pulling out four wooden swords.

“This will be what you fight with. They're not sharp or anything, but I still wouldn't want to be hit in the head with it.” She spoke, throwing each of the swords at one of the girls. Morgan and Robin caught their blades, Lily dropped hers, and Maria got smacked upside the head. “We're going to have a small fighting tournament,” Sienna stated, looking at Maria grumbling and rubbing the slight bump she just got on the head. “Each of you will have a fight with each person one time. We'll tally the scores when we're finished, and the person with the worst score will pay for the lunch of the people with the highest.” Maria sighed at that, she didn't even have any money on her at the moment. So either she'd have to cook the lunch herself, or figure out how the hell to get the money if she loses. This game just got much higher in the stakes, clearly.


Maria raised her hand again “Who goes first?” She asked. Sienna responded casually. “Well.. Whoever wants to go first, really.” She began to slowly pace back and fourth between all four of them. Maria stepped forward, placing the wooden sword in her hands and resting it on one of her shoulders.


“I'll do the first couple of fights.” Maria stated eagerly, even with her stoic voice, everyone could tell she was pretty driven to not pay for lunch. Sienna grinned at that, pointing at Robin and having her step forward. “Alright! Robin vs Maria! Let me tell you the rules.” She said, guiding both of them into the circle, Maria and Robin standing on each side of it.

“This circle is 14 feet wide, if you fall outside of it during the fight, you're the loser. If you fall and cannot get up for 10 seconds, you'll also be the loser. The fight will continue until one of those prerequisites are fulfilled.” She raised both of her hands, crossing them over one another. “Are you two ready?” She said, her voice much louder than usual. It seemed like Sienna was kind of excited to be hosting this mini tournament. Both of them nodded and Sienna lowered her hands to signify the fight was starting. Robin spoke up, bringing her arm to her stomach and giving a courteous bow.

“I wish you the best of luck, Maria.” Maria sighed and crossed her arms, remarking with a quiet “Whatever...” They both slipped into a fighting stance, Maria holding her blade laxly on one side, not putting up any kind of guard. Robin held her blade out and upward, looking like she was more prepared to block something. They slowly circled one another, before Maria quickly dashed in for an overhead strike. Robin quickly reacted, crossing her blade against Maria's and making a hollow strike sound as it was blocked. Maria quickly took a step backward, evading a quick counterstrike from Robin. She dashed to one side to try and flank her, and even if Robin spun on her feet to keep up, Maria was surprisingly elusive.

Maria quickly struck her blade into Robin's side, making her grunt a bit from the sudden shock of pain. But Robin quickly responded with a swift strike on the back of Maria's shoulders since she tucked down for that dash. Maria slipped on her feet, landing right onto her chest and face against the solid stone ground from feeling it topple her balance. Maria quickly composed herself and got back to her feet, she was expecting Robin to take the initiative and hit her while she was down, but she was in the exact same position as before, it seemed like she wanted this fight to stay as fair as possible. 'Is she looking down on me?' She thought to herself, she would have totally hit Robin if she got knocked down... Is she trying to be courteous, or rude? She got back into her stance, but saw Robin broke out into a charge, instead of going on the defensive, Maria tried to trade strikes.

Robin struck Maria hard onto her shoulder, so hard it actually began to sting and feel numb for a couple of seconds, Maria pushed into the strike, using the momentum of Robin's dash to smack her firmly on the chest. Robin winced, but stayed focused, stepping back and ducking low to land a spinning blow on Maria's leg, causing her to almost trip once again. Maria caught herself this time, pushing off a leg to make a quick leap a couple of feet away, before spinning around and making a blind slash at the air. She missed, but Robin once again charged in, this time landing a combo. Her chest, arm and side were all hit as Robin smoothly connected these moves together. Maria growled in pain, gritting her teeth and reaching up to swing and smack Robin upside the head.


It actually connected and a quick gasp of pain came from Robin. She shook her head a couple of times to recompose herself as Maria leaped in for more strikes. Jumping into the air and bashing her on a shoulder, before ducking back down and smashing her weapon into Robin's thigh. Maria backed off again, looking down to notice that Robin was standing only a couple of feet from the edge of the circle. If she could topple her, she would win this match. Maria spoke out under her breath, panting between breaths as she was starting to get worn out.

“Just one more...” Robin responded, hearing what she just said even if it was spoken quietly. “I'm right here you know, give me your best attempt.” Maria growled before charging her, and Robin quickly smacked her weapon on the side of Maria's neck, using some quick footwork and pushing Maria to the edge instead, Maria stopped her momentum, noticing her position, but she was in a pretty terrible spot to maneuver. Robin cornered her in one swift step. Maria decided that the only way out of the situation was to turn on some major hurt.

She began to swing as hard and fast as she could, some hits whiffed, some would firmly strike Robin on her chest, shoulder or the side of her stomach. Just swinging a barrage of hits left and right, hoping the offense would make her back away so she could reposition. But Robin just gave a straight glare at Maria, she was somehow shrugging off all those wild hits thrown her way. She responded with one swift, upward strike. It smashed into Maria's chest so hard the breath escaped her lungs, toppling backward and falling onto the ground, just outside of the ring. That hit Maria so hard she was dizzy, even her ears were ringing, but through the haze, she heard Sienna yell. “Robin wins against Maria!” Robin turned around and smiled at her instructor, before turning back and extending a hand. “You're quite intense,” She said to Maria, offering to help lift her up. Maria sighed and got back up using her sword as a crutch. Robin continued. “And you fought bravely, I commend that.” Maria responded with “I don't need this...” She skipped the handshake, just hobbling back to the rest of the group frustrated at her loss. Morgan gave a friendly chuckle from seeing how that fight turned out.

“Wow.. Robin beat your ass.” The amusingly remarked, hoping that Maria might see some humor in the situation. Maria said nothing, just taking a seat on the ground beside Lily and Morgan instead. Lily then commented “You did really well, Maria...” Maria rubbed her shoulder to ease some of the pain, looking up at Lily quite nonplussed. “Then why did I lose?” Maria stated to Lily, but Lily just smiled reassuringly, it was hard for Lily to ever get mad at her. “You have two more chances, don't act like its over.” She said, ruffling Maria's hair in her left hand. Maria just sighed to herself in frustration.

Sienna pointed to Lily and gestured her to come over. “Lily and Morgan will fight the next one.” Lily nodded, walking into the circle, Morgan following and heading to the other side. Morgan chuckled to herself, commenting to Lily. “Oh this is going to be fun... Beating up a hypocrite for a bit.” Lily sighed, shaking her head a couple of times. “I'm not going to even bother commenting on that one... Lets just fight.” She said frustratedly at Morgans accusations. Lily held out her blade nearly straight, getting into a stance that almost looked like she knew what she was doing. Morgan bounced back and fourth onto each leg, before shifting her weight down and gripping her sword with two hands. Lily took a deep breath, waiting for Morgan to make the first move. Morgan launched into the air with jump, slamming her sword downward against Lily, who tried to knock it away to parry it, but she didn't have enough strength, the blade bashing her right into her shoulder hard enough to make her slide back a couple of feet. Morgan following it up with a heavy strike right into her stomach, forcing her onto one knee as she smashed the sword into her back, Lily bounced off the ground once before smacking right back into it, groaning in some pain, before noticing Morgan was going for another overhead blow, she rolled onto her side and quickly stood back up.

Morgan took another swing, but Lily shifted backward to dodge it, going in for two compact swipes at Morgan's chest, it was quick enough to make an audible snapping sound as she swung the blade, Morgan quickly shoved her back so she couldn't land any more of the combination, before taking another big swing, this one whiffing through the air. Lily realized that she couldn't afford to keep getting hit with how hard Morgan could swing that wooden sword, if she got nailed hard enough she could either lose her balance or get knocked straight out. So she kept to her strategy, every time Morgan would go for a swing, she'd try to flank her and land a couple of hits, hoping the damage would build up and chip away at Morgan's stamina. And for the most part, it was effective. Morgan got more frustrated and her swings became more predictable, thus safer to dodge. Her breathing started to get heavy from all the movement Morgan had to do to keep attempting attacks, while Lily would continuously duck in and out to hit and run her way to her own victory.

'She must be tired enough to actually fight, now.” Lily thought to herself, diving in to see if she could land a final blow, when all of a sudden, she heard a ringing sound. The entire stadium was sideways, and she was laying on her side against the cold, hard stone floor. In the distance, she heard “And Morgan beats Lily!” She shook her head and sat up, having no idea what happened. All she could see was the black haired girl walking away, setting the sword on her shoulder and grinning like an idiot. Lily sighed, getting up and walking over to Maria. “What just happened?”

Maria looked over at Lily, as Maria had enough time to recover her stamina. “It looks like you got your head caved in by Morgan when you went for that final blow. It sounds like you had a blast.” Lily sighed at Maria's explanation. “I don't even remember getting hit...” Lily said quietly. “Well if it makes you feel better, I remember you getting hit.” Maria responded with a flat sarcasm to her tone. “Lily crossed her arms, one of her hands reaching up to rub the welt on the side of her head. “That doesn't help at all, Maria...” Lily remarked, kind of missing the boat on Maria's jokes.

Sienna walked over to the side and pointed at Robin. “Since Morgan seems pretty eager to go, we might as well get her second fight out of the way.” Robin nodded, heading into the circle. “I'd be honored to have my second fight with you, Morgan.” Robin said, giving another bow. Morgan smiled and spun her sword in her hand a couple of times. “Save the formalities, Robin. It's just a fight, not a banquet.” Robin chuckled lightly, giving a grin to Morgan.

“Respect is the highest honor you can give someone you're fighting.” Morgan shrugged at that, reaching up and scratching the back of her head with a free hand. “If it's the highest respect, I wouldn't be giving it out to everyone.”

Robin nodded some, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a hairband, pulling her hair into a ponytail before wrapping it into a loose bun of golden brown hair to keep it out of the way for the next fight. “Yes, but I consider m-” Maria cut off Robin's speech with a loud heckle. “Oh my god, Shut up and fight already!” Maria shouted, hands over her mouth to try and make it louder. Robin sighed and shook her head, saying quietly under her breath. “Kids...” Morgan responded by shaking her own head. “Yep... Kids.”

They both got into their fighting stances, both opting to hold the weapon by two hands. They slowly circled one another, waiting for the other to strike. Morgan approached, going for a heavy overhead swing, but Robin tilted her blade to the side, quickly making them clash and effectively blocking the move. Robin responded by knocking the blade aside and smacking the sword into her side.

Morgan swings from one side, and Robin blocks it again. Before pushing Morgan back a couple of feet with a quick shove. “Wow... you actually are going to face me and not just run all over the place.” Robin retorted, not breaking her sharp gaze at Morgan.

“I'm a fighter, not a ballerina dancer.” Robin lunged at her with several strikes to the chest and shoulder, before Morgan countered with a heavy blow to the side that made Robin wince. The fighting continued, Morgan's attacks were vicious but Robin kept a tight defense, either blocking or parrying her attack, or exchanging hits. Morgan’s hits retained their power, but began to slow in pace thanks to Robin's constant focus on negating damage and whittling her down with hits. Over and over again, sharp counter strikes continued to whittle away at Morgan's power and patience. Annoyed, Morgan began to ramp up her assault once more, pushing forward with her attacks to make Robin's blocks cause her footing to step backward so she wouldn't lose her balance.

Morgan ducked down, spinning and striking at Robin's legs with enough force to actually cause her to fall, Robin quickly got back up onto her feet, but Morgan took the advantage. Slashing upward, smacking her right in the chin, making her fall straight onto her back, just outside of the circle to signify her victory. “Two wins in a row for Morgan!” Sienna shouted, Morgan raising one of her fists into the air as she walked back to the bench. “How 'bout that?” She smirked at both of Maria and Lily. Maria just stood up and walked right past her without saying a single word, and Lily did the same.

“H-hey! At least pay attention...” Morgan complained to no one, Lily helping Robin back onto her feet so they could fight next. Robin walked over to sit on a nearby bench, rubbing her chin as it was quite sore at the moment. Sienna grinned seeing Maria and Lily step up to the plate, they both had a pretty big loss and were looking to make their record at least break even. “Alright! Childhood friend combat it is. Lily Sterling vs Maria Roth!”

Lily smiled at Maria, who was adjusting the cuffs of her coat, unbuttoning both of them and blowing some air to move her bangs out of the way. “I hope you do your best, Maria.” She said, giving a little bow. Maria just glared up at her, “Do you think if I hit the other side of your head hard enough, your ears will stop ringing?” She said sarcastically. Lily sighed, placing her hands onto her hips.

“Does everyone have to come up with some weird comment to tell me before I fight?” She wondered aloud, since it was the second time this sort of thing happened.

Maria without a moments delay answers. “I was legitimately curious. Now let's go.” She said, lowering, holding her weapon somewhat in front of her, but low to the ground in a fighting stance. Lily responded by going back into her fencers stance, the fight begins by Maria shouting and dashing toward Lily.

Maria slashed a couple of times, once high, twice low. Lily dipped backward, leaping over one strike before sidestepping around the second. Maria quickly turned on her heel and dashed again, taking a flying leap at her for the next attack, but completely whiffing it once again to Lily's footwork. She dashed one more time, which shocked Lily when she noticed Maria's crazy swing and movement speed. Making her assault a constant barrage of attacks and moves. All Lily could do was retreat, even if Maria wasn't hitting much, it seemed like getting too close to her was dangerous. She noticed that Maria was trying to corner her by putting her in a position where she couldn't sidestep her attacks without leaving the area. So when Maria ran in for the next attack, she did the only thing she could, smash her sword into Maria's leg. She instantly stumbled past her and went careening out of the arena, landing face first out of the ring with a thud. She quickly stood back up and was about to step back into the ring when Sienna stopped her. “Lily wins in under a single minute!” Maria looked shocked, but gritted her teeth to shout in frustration. “THIS IS A FARCE!” She said, screaming. “You need to restart this right damn now...” She demanded of Sienna to start that fight over, but Sienna shook her head.


“Sorry lil sis, you fell out of the ring, there's nothing I can do.” She said, sounding a bit sad she had to tell this to Maria, but it was still true. “S-she tripped me up! We should start over...” Morgan began to break out laughing at Maria's colossal screw-up. “Sienna sighed softly. “Sorry Mary, that's two losses.” Maria stomped at the ground once or twice, muttering various profanities as she returned to sit with Robin and Morgan. “Wow Maria... You just totally blew it.” Morgan commented to her, Maria turned her head and shouted at her. “YOUR MOUTH IS MOVING. STOP THAT!” she said, seeming to forget some of the basic conversational skills she used to have.

“Pfft.. Whatever Maria.” She said with another laugh, Lily crossing her arms and waiting for Robin to walk up for the next fight. “It seems like you've had formal training, Lily.” Robin observed, walking into the ring, her sword currently slipped under the belt just above her skirt, Lily nodded gently. “My father set me up with an instructor for a couple of years, once he learned that I wished to join Spectrum.” Lily replied. Robin drew her sword and Lily got into her combat stance.

“I'd like to inform you something about combat,” Robin remarked to Lily, Lily's expression unbroken. “No matter how much footwork and swordplay you learn, a real fight is more about being adaptive and efficient. There's no room for flair or panache, you need to stay practical. Who taught you how to fight?” Robin asked, Lily inspected her sword a bit more before looking at her. “Cyrus Laurence, Fencing gold medalist and one of the best swordsmen in Rosewall.” Robin smiled some. “Ah... that makes much more sense. That man probably learned how to fence for points.. but it's still not an actual fight.” Lily growled slightly at that, slashing the air with her blade. “He taught me well, I'll show you how much I trust his style...”

Robin nodded, and the fight begun. Lily spun her sword a couple of times, before lunging at Robin. Robin responds by firmly guarding, but Lily spins her wrist for a quick second smack. It was very light and Robin didn't even react to it. Lily leaped back a step before launching another lunge, but the blade was swatted down by Robin's before Lily could even react.

Robin quickly swung the blade back upward, smashing just under Lily's chin. She groaned and had her head launched back, before stumbling away to recompose herself, but Robin decided to follow up, lunging in to get a couple of free hits in. Lily felt the stinging of the blade hitting her flesh, and quickly picked up a guard, constantly blocking Robin's blade with her own. Wooden clacks echoing through the area. Lily dashed under one of her swings, spinning and landing two hits while twirling on her toes. But Robin quickly swung to the side, turning on her heels instead of toes. The hit was hard enough to send Lily onto her back in the center of the circle.

Robin allowed Lily to stand, getting back into form before they both dashed at each other. Lily swung low to hit Robin in the stomach, but Robin swung and sharply stuck on the side of her neck. Nearly instantly causing it to welt and bruise. She didn't hit anywhere as hard as Morgan did... but it felt like Robin was whittling her down with hits at the exact moment she wouldn't want one... She took every opportunity to strike, waiting patiently for each one to show itself. Robin's face showed incredible focus, just glaring at Lily's body motions like a hawk. Lily was forced to take the defensive once again.

Robin stood completely motionless, blade ready to strike, but not reaching out for a blow. Lily began to dance with her feet, taking any opportunity to dash or sidestep just in case Robin comes after her, since two can play at that game... but it just didn't happen. Robin waited to strike and it felt like she'd be here for an eternity unless she take the risk. Lily gulped, dashing in to strike. But as soon as she did, Robin lunged in as well, striking her firmly in the stomach hard enough to cause the air to escape her lungs. She groaned and tried to shift her weight back to escape, but her legs slipped from the constant forward momentum. Taking the full blow and just backing away normally instead.

Robin jumped on that opportunity, Dashing in and landing more and more blows onto Lily. She got more focused and began swaying her body, hoping to land some hits, but the swings were so relentless that ant hit she landed was too light, so he was forced to back away... She backed away more and more, and suddenly Robin stopped attacking. Lily stood there confused for just a brief second before looking down...

Her leg stepped over the line, She just lost. Lily sighed, looking at the floor disappointed, before Robin took her hand and smiled at her. “You did much better than I expected.. But don't ever feel like you can't improve on what you have so far. As soon as you think you're done, you've given up on learning.” Lily smiled at that, shaking her hand gently and quietly giving her a “Thank you.” between her heavy gasps for air. Sienna applauded the both of them as they returned to the nearby bench, Maria getting up and walking back into the ring for the last match along with Morgan.

Morgan smirked a little bit at Maria. “You ready to be 0 and 3, Roth?” Maria just glared at her, quietly responding with “I'm not going to lose again.” Morgan chuckled. “Oh really?” She bemusedly asked. “I learned how to fight against people on the street, so I know what I'm doing. You just picked up a weapon, probably for the first time. There's a reason you're inexperienced.” Maria smirked at that, throwing her sword away, it bouncing a couple of times before sliding to a stop. “You're right, actually. I never used a weapon before,” She said, taking off her jacket and tossing it aside, leaving her in a long sleeved white blouse and a black tie. She loosened the tie and punched her fist into her other palm. Morgan grinned at that, tossing her weapon away as well, balling her fists some.

“Oh... So THAT's how you want to fight, it's your funeral, kid...”

“I am NOT losing again...”

Maria spread her legs wider, dipping down and pulling her fists up to her face. One arm was leading, and the other was pulled farther back, Morgan just had a looser stance, her fists up as well. Lily noticed this and looked over to Sienna. “Is this alright for them to do?” She asked her, Sienna sighed. “Looks like it's going to happen regardless.” Lily looked over and nodded, Robin speaking up to comment. “Maria seems to be using a pugilist's stance. I didn't know she was that type...” Lily commented on that statement. “Is Morgan also using a pugilist style?” Robin shook her head. “I think that's just something a brawler would use...”

Their conversation is cut off as Maria dips in, ducking her head to quickly land a short one two combination into Morgans stomach. Morgan swung at her, but Maria quickly dipped her head backward, swinging another punch at her face. Morgan shook her head, Maria didn't really hit too hard, but her punches had a sting to them and were fast as well. Morgan swings a heavy haymaker upward at Maria, but only glanced her face as she backed off, bouncing on her two feet just a bit to get ready to make another dive. Morgan gestured her to come at her again, and Maria dived in, this time swinging a hook at Morgans face. But Morgan blocks with one arm, squeezing on it so she gets slightly delayed in pulling away and drilling Maria in the side of the face with a wild hooking blow. Maria’s head snaps to one side, before tucking in, swaying her head and landing a hook into her side. It wasn't a super heavy punch, but Maria was trying to wear her stamina down.

Maria was shaken up by how hard that hook was, but honestly it didn't seem like she cared. She grit her teeth as her ears rung, and Morgan took a swing at her stomach. It was like she got hit with a sledgehammer, all the wind bashing out of her stomach, it was actually a hard enough punch to make her briefly lose contact to the ground from it lifting her. Morgan then swung an elbow onto Maria's shoulders, smacking her into the ground, but Maria rolled into it, ducking off to the side and getting recomposed. “Want more?” Morgan asked Maria. Maria chuckled a bit and smirked at her. “Keep trying.” Morgan dove at her, pushing off with her legs and quickly closing the gap, smashing Maria in the side of the face, before Maria began swaying through the punches. She suddenly leaned up and clocked Morgan with an elbow of her own. Morgan growled in pain, rubbing her face as Maria followed it up with four punches into the chest and then the face. Morgan stomped down on Maria's foot, making her grit her teeth and stop her swaying, Drilling her in the side of the head hard enough to knock her down.

Maria rolled over, standing back up and quickly continuing the assault. Slamming a knee into her gut to give her a similar reaction to Morgan's earlier gut punch. Morgan was briefly stunned, and Maria took the opportunity to give a heavy overhead swing, cracking her straight into the jaw. She got knocked for a loop, stumbling around just a bit before shaking her head. The vision of Maria looking blurry as she dashed to continue the onslaught. Landing fast punches into her stomach and rib cage, before landing a leaping hook into her chin, causing her to stumble and fall onto her side. Maria looked like she was backing off, but ran up to slam into Morgan's stomach with a kick while she was on the ground. Hard enough she slid away and coughed loudly from it.


She released a shout of pain as Maria kicked her again and again, Morgan, sick of this grabs her leg on the fifth kick, standing back up and holding her by the leg. Maria gently hopped backward so she couldn't be toppled over. Maria put up a guard, but Morgan just punched straight through it. Smashing her in the face a couple of times before lifting her leg high enough where falling over wasn't an option anymore. Maria fell flat on her back, Morgan diving onto her and beginning to slug her over and over in the face.


Maria grit her teeth as her face got nailed from the same side of her face over and over again. The heavy punches smashing into the side of her, it started to feel kind of wet, and she noticed that she was bleeding out of the mouth, a red stain forming on the gray colored stone underneath. Maria was getting just pummeled on, Lily covered her eyes from how violent this was getting. “They're out of their minds, someone needs to stop this!” Sienna sighed, it was a cringe worthy sight, but she still wasn't sure she could stop this without causing a huge rift on day one. She replies to Lily. “I'll stop if it goes too far... I promise.”

Maria was still getting drilled, but her head was starting to get fuzzy. The only sound she was hearing was the ringing, and the pain slowly dulled into a numbness. Her vision began to tunnel.. Right on Morgan's angry face. Maria suddenly snapped back into consciousness, blocking her punch with on arm and gripping firmly onto Morgan's head. Shouting loudly and smashing her head right into Morgan's. Morgan shouted in pain as Maria lurched back and started slamming her head over and over into Morgan's skull. The dull thud sound was horrible to hear, and both were shouting in pain, but Maria wanted Morgan to get the hell off, so she just smashed her head into hers over and over. The pain was still dull, but she could feel her head rattle with every heavy hit. Morgan finally backed away, rubbing her head from just the sheer amount of pain that was. Maria, felt her legs quiver. Those headbutts hurt her way more than it did Morgan, but she got off and that's all that Matters.

Morgan suddenly looked shocked, Maria looked at her confused until she lost sight in one eye, she groaned and started rubbing it to see again. Once she pulled her sleeve away, she noticed it was now soaked with fresh blood. She was busted wide open from all those headbutts and the warm, wet substance began to pour in a crimson mask over the rest of her face. Morgan commented, still surprised but not wavering in confidence. “Damn, Roth... You're not afraid of anything are you?” Maria took a couple of breaths before shouting back at Morgan. “I. AM NOT. LOSING!” Maria lifted her hands over her face, sliding up it to wipe all the blood off at once. Her bangs being pulled back to reveal the huge gash right in the center of her head, her face still looking kind of red from the leftover blood, she clenched her blood soaked fists and gestured Morgan to come at her again.

Morgan dove in, slamming a punch into her stomach. Maria coughed up another large amount of blood and began to stumble. Morgan landing more and more punches to her face, sides and stomach to cause her to waver, but not fall. Maria swung wildly at the air, missing more and more as Morgan piled on the punches. Maria got more desperate, her swings getting heavier and wider until she hit a strike against Morgan. She turned her body toward her, she realized that she couldn't go on the defensive anymore. She felt her body beginning to give up on her and she needed to get Morgan down before she ran out of energy. She took Morgans punch, before returning her own. She no longer backed away from Morgan, instead leaning into the punches so she had a shorter swinging arc.

Morgan began beating down on Maria, but Maria would trade a punch for every single one Morgan gave, before it literally turned into them just standing in the middle of the circle, trading hooks back and fourth. Morgan would slam Maria, Maria would drill Morgan,this would go back and fourth over and over again. Morgan beginning to bleed from the mouth as well, but much less blood than the red fountain Maria became. Maria leaned even more into the punches, pressing her body so close to Morgan's that they touched, smacking her in the jaw with one hand, and the side in the other. Morgan pushed back against her and returned her own punches, before pushing Maria away. Maria stumbled back to near the edge of the circle, stopping just before it so she couldn’t fall over.


Morgan backed up to the other side, panting deeply from all the punches they were trading. “Sorry kid.. it's over.” She said, lunging down to dash in, ready to strike Maria and knock her out of the circle. But Maria met Morgan with a surprise. Leaping up just high enough to smash her knee right into Morgans chin. It was such a huge hit that it almost like Maria just kicked her head off. She ran into that with ALL of her momentum, along with Maria's jumping momentum just caused a train wreck of a hit. Morgan shouted in pain, standing up and gripping her face from just being absorbed by how much that hurt. Maria shouted at her. “I WILL NOT LOSE!” She said, diving in to land hooks left and right on Morgan's face. Her head swaying left and right with little resistance to Maria's tired, but passionate punches. Maria felt like she was on the brink of passing out as well, but she needed to hold on for as long as she could. She just swing left, then right, and then left again. Just constantly barraging her with punches, Morgan slowly backing away, but she wasn't focused enough to reposition.

Maria ducked down very low, before leaping up and slamming a huge uppercut into Morgans already damaged jaw. She got sent slightly upward before falling back like a cut down tree, smacking into the ground... and just outside of the circle. Maria noticed this, gasping in shock and then raising her fist into the air. Leaning her head to one side to spit a bunch of the blood out of her mouth.. It tasted like copper and it was awful. She turned away, slowly stumbling back to the bench, before taking a seat on it and lurching over, breathing shallow, pained breaths.

“That was viscous...” Lily muttered, surprised by how savage and out of control that fight just got. “Maria... Are you out of your mind?” She wondered. Maria couldn't talk, just breathe in sharply. Sienna walked over to Morgan, who was slowly getting up. She actually wasn't in as bad of a condition. She just walked over while holing her head, looking down at Maria's hunched over form and sighing. “You are possibly the most insane person I've ever met, kid... But you at least know how to kick some ass..” She said, walking away from the whole group.


Sienna went after her, trying to get her to stop. “Wait, you're both hurt! We need to get you to the physicians and healers..” Morgan looked back at Sienna, shaking her head. “I'll go see them when I think I need it. Take your sister there right now, Crazy girl needs it..” She said, slowly leaving. Robin helped Maria up onto her feet, as she lost all of her strength, Lily pulling Maria's arm over her shoulder, Robin grabbing the other as her feet slid along the ground. Sienna started to walk with them.

“Well... When we get Maria to the nurse, I'll start making notes about what you guys need practice at.” Lily nodded and sighed. “Sienna..?” She said, Sienna replying. “Yeah...?” Lily looked down at the floor, looking visibly upset. “Maria's different...” She stated, her voice somber and a bit upset. Is this what the death of her parents turned her into? She's nothing like she used to be, and it was actually a bit frighting to see her teenage friend only a couple of years later not even caring if she spilled blood all over the place just to win a petty fight. Sienna nodded, and gently rubbed Lily on the top of her head. “Yeah... She's nothing like I remember. But she has you and me in her life again... Maybe she can get better.” She acknowledged, finally getting to the office, stopping just before they head in. Lily sighed, looking at the bloody pulp Maria turned into, and then looked at the automatic doors of the clinic. “I hope so...” Lily said, still unsure of herself.


“We can do it, together.” Sienna affirmed, the door swinging open and both of them walking inside with Maria, as Robin turned to head back to the dorm.