Atari High

Charlotte's Theme, Innocence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50thNS5bWA8

Charlotte was walking to her Junior homeroom, up the stairs on the second floor. She knew there were elevators, which were faster when the school was this deserted, early in the morning at 7:15. Her mother worked as a Freshman teacher at Atari, so she was always here early. It was somewhat of a good advantage, because now she didn't have to rush & she was always on time.

Depending on how many other teacher-kids were at the school, she'd hang her backpack on the back of her chair, take her guitar case up two more flights of stairs to the Extracurricular Music room, and practice chords & melodies. Today was one of those days.

Her guitar was seemed heavier today, because she had stayed up late the night before finishing homework. She climbed up the last step on the stairwell and stood at the top. There was an extra door on her right. When that get there? She wondered. Maybe my mind's just playing tricks on me. Charlotte shrugged it off and walked on through the hallway which was still dark. She flicked on the light switch & almost screamed at the dark, massive shadow at the other end of the hall.

Charlotte shivered, closed her eyes. "It's not real, it's not real, it's not there. Just keep walking." She let out a breath, still shaking, and carfully walked on. She realised the figure was infront of the door she wanted to go through. She could see the "Music Room" plate on the door, just behind the monster. She held her breath and reached for the doorknob. She turned her head to watch the monster back away and disappear between the walls. Recovering from her sight, she opened the door and sat on a stool.

Relaxing, she took the guitar out of its black case, laid the case on the floor. Charlotte placed her fingers over the strings.

I wonder when I'll ever stop seeing this insane things...

Preston was driven to school early that morning by his mother. It was nearly 6:30 A.M when they were parked in the front parking lot. Preston was barely able to keep himself awake as he hoisted himself out of the passenger seat, and opening the back door to get his backpack, full of all the equiptment he would be needing. He leaned in the front passenger seat window, and smiled to his mom. "Thanks for the ride mom. Don't worry about picking me up though, I'm going to sign up for track and then I will probably walk home. I could use the work out." His mother nodded her head in reply, wishing him good luck on his first day as she drove off.

At that moment Preston thought of last night. Despite the large red markings on his chest and side from the flames, he could have said last night never even happened. It was amazing how he was able to play it off with his mother as to why he was out so late, he had told her he was trying to make new friends for his big day today. She fell for it hook line and sinker, and he was free to go to bed. He had barely gotten any sleep, what with the pain and everything that had happened, but he still felt wide awake as he stared at the big school. Being unconcious for most of the previous night, he didn't know there was a plan to meet with their savior after school today, so he had planned on signing up for track.

He wore a blue hoodie, much similar to his yellow one, and a pair of sark blue jeans, with a lighter spot in the knees, and a pair of black Nikes to go with the outfit. He shrugged his backpack on so it felt more comfortable, and marched into the school.

He was amazed to see the amount of people that were there already. School didn't start until 7:00, so he wondered what they could all be doing here. He made his way through the crowd, easily avoiding people compared to last night. He took a small piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it, noticing that his homeroom was one of the first on the first floor, given his last name and the alhabatized order of classrooms.

He entered his classroom a half an hour early, looking down at the paper to see the first class he had was going to be Earth Science, and that didn't bother him much. He was greeted by a cheery looking plump man, about in his mid-30's. "Good morning. My name is Preston, Preston Amada." The teacher chuckled, and then stood to shake his hand. 'An early bird, I like you already Preston. Your seat is going to be in the third row, fourth seat. There should be a sticker with your name on it. I'm Mr.Pullock, by the way. I expect great things for you, Amada.'

Preston rolled his eyes as he made his way to his seat, teachers were already calling him by his last name. He plopped his backpack down on his seat, and unzipped the big pocket, pulling out a big yellow binder that he had scribbled, 'Science' across the front of, and then he put his bag in the basket on the underside of his chair. Unzipping his hoodie, he looked as a couple more students entered, both girls, and they began talking to Mr. Pullock, not even noticing Preston. He had taken off his hoodie, revealing a yellow undershirt with the words, 'Never Lose Hope' written in red across the chest, and sat down after hanging his hoodie on the chair, and wincing in pain as his side burned when he sat.

After a moment he looked back up to the white board, the words, 'Welcome Back Students' platered in big shiny markers had invaded the blankness of it, and Preston stifled a laughter.

It was close to seven when Xavier pulled into the parking lot, yet again across the street from his actual destination, thankfully, Atari High only sat across the garden.

The garden that lead to Atari was filled with flowers of all different colors, and thanks yet again to the minds of 8-Bit, they stayed in bloom year round, even during the winter snow. He sprinted across the brown cobblestone walkway that cut in the middle of the flora, realizing that he must have been the only one with the cahoonies to show up late on the first day.

“I’ll be alright, so long as he’s not my homeroom teacher…so long as it’s not him…I’ll be safe,” He keep that optimism all the way through his trek.


The Atari High Anthem ((special thanks to Tobinator for this one))

Ashe came through the doors, with all the speed and force of a freight train from hell behind him, Xavier couldn’t help but take a look at the familiar scenery. The buffed to perfection marble tile, complete with the school monogram of two dragons twisting together, The giant diamond shaped light over head, the staircases, the hallways, everything; for a minute, he almost felt sentimental, realizing that this was his last year at Atari--- but then, a sneering voice that shook him to the core scrapped all of that, and instead made him remember why he was so happy to get out of here.

“Wallace! Late on the first day!” The voice cackled, and a bony hand that was cold as ice rested itself atop his broad shoulder, “You know, that’s detention!”

“Mr. Volt…heh…I still have five---“ Just as Xavier thought there was a ray of light, the bell signifying the start of the day resounded. For the young man though, it was more like the bell of death.

The man, whom Xavier identified as Mr. Volt, hobbled over in front of him, allowing Xavier to get a good look of him. Mr. Volt was old, very old, and bitter, very bitter.

His hair was all but gone, save for a few gray patches that he couldn’t stop clinging too, he dressed every day in extremely tacky polyester suits, this one today was a neon green. His pale skin was riddled with liver spots, and his beady black eyes could pierce through your soul. Given Mr. Volt’s age though, he made it around the building considerably well, you could always see him roaming the halls for delinquents when he wasn’t terrorizing his own class.

“Good news for you, I’m in a nice mood, so I won’t give you detention.” Volt grinned, showing his extreme lack of teeth, and his one gold one in the front.

“What’s the catch…?” Xavier was wary of the man’s sudden generosity, he never knew Volt to give a kid a break. Especially him, Volt and Xavier have had a long, painful history.

“Nothing, nothing at all, I’ll see you in homeroom Wallace, I think we’re going to have oodles of fun this year heeehee!” Volt strolled away, leaping into the air one time and clicking the heels of his brown gators together in a sick fit of joy.

"Nooooooo!" Before he followed his teacher, Xavier stood in that spot for some time, wallowing in despair.

Lilli: Looked up to PReston as he came rushing over to her, seemingly going to have a little more confidence in asking her to be his partner, but he seemed to be tripping all over his words. She smiled a little. "Sure, we can work together." She looked down at the three papers that had been placed in front of her. She skimmed through the questions, they seemed to have nothing in common with the notes that they had just taken, and that pissed her off. "Dammit." She growled.

Preston: Nearly hollered out in happiness when she said they could work together. He reached for an empty seat, pulling it over to where she was, and then sat down, writing his name on the top of the three papers they were given. Then he he began to look at the questions themselves. They seemed a little tricky, but he was sure they would pull through.

After about 15 minutes of working, Preston put his pen down, letting out a sigh. "There, done. Sheesh." He looked through the papers once more, and then smiled, happy with himself. "We make a good team." He chuckled at his own humor, and then his eyes traveled around the room. He saw a girl that looked very familiar, and it made his heart jump. She was one of the girl's from last night. Wow, so she was alright too, that was good. He felt bad for her when he saw who she was working with, so he waved happily in her direction.

Lilli: Groaned as she wrote down the last answer they had deciphered together. The last sheet wasn't as bad, it was a word unscrambler, and that only took a brain stem to figure out, she could have done it sleeping. She looked up at the clock, and it was almost time to change classes. 'About damn time.' She thought to herself, looking away from the clock and then to Preston, who was busy waving like a little loon over to...that asshole from the start of class?! No, that couldn't be, he had stuck up for her, and told him to walk out in front of traffic. She noticed the girl he was working with. 'Damn, she must have been desperate.' She thought, but then realized it was one of the girl's from the previous night, and it made her feel a little sorry for her, having to work with him.

Mr. Pullock: Raised his hands and called for the students to stop what they were doing, and move their chairs back to where they were. Then they were to pass their papers to the front before the end of class, which was only a few minutes away.

Preston: "Well, it was nice working with you." He said, putting the chair back where it was and then moving back to his own seat, which had been abducted by none other then Victoria. She smiled at him and gave him his chair, and then turned to sit in her own seat. Preston double checked to see if there were names on his papers, and then handed them to the boy in front of him, turning around and collecting another boy's and doing the same.

Lilli: "Yeah, you too." She tried to smile, but he had already turned and went back to his seat. Damn, he was pretty shy, although he didn't seem to be when he stuck up for her. Weird. She handed her sheets up to the boy in front of her, a stocky fellow with a blue jersey on. She didn't have to worry about taking Cameron's, he had personally brought his sheets to the teacher. 'Creepy little bastard.' She mocked in her head, watching as Cameron went back to his seat, a smug look on his face.

Mr. Pullock: After waving goodbye to all of his students, promising they would have more fun in the days to come, he left the room, waving happily as he did so.

Preston: Watched as the teacher left, pulling out his schedule and seeing that there next subject was going to be english. That was simple enough. He rummaged through his backpack until he swapped the yellow binder with a similar red binder, only this one had 'English' written on the front of it.

Lilli: Didn't really bother to say a goodbye to the teacher, the whole class had done that enough. So she simply began preparing for her next class, which appeared to be English. The next teacher walked in. She was an older woman, with white, poofy hair and a flowery dress on the swirled around her heels happily as she marched into the classroom. She seemed nice, hopefully.

((I’m gonna make it so Xavier can run into everyone now, I’m smooth like that.))


(( Xavier))




As he walked down the halls of the third floor, his mind flashed back to last night.

The images of the chimera, and their struggle against it, was still extremely vivid, he could even smell the flames the beast let fly. At all of this, he grimaced. Xavier wondered what all of them, that is, all of them that were present that night, would do now. It wasn’t like they could just act like none of that ever happened, the choice of blissful ignorance was pretty much thrown out the window the minute they all laid eyes upon the beast.

With that, Xavier stopped his pilgrimage, and instead, look down at his palms. With narrow eyes, he focused on them hard, trying to recall the sensation of having fire and ice at your fingertips.

The young man let out a distraught gasp and almost fell on his rear when all of a sudden, his palms erupted with the elements from before.

“So it is real…” Xavier said to himself, as if there was any doubt in his mind about it all before. He stood there, just like that, staring at his hands, which were now surrounded by fire and ice on either one; that is, until he heard foot steps, coming from somewhere down the hall behind him. Quick Xavier the man with the linebacker’s build spun around with some kind of grace and shoved his hands into his back pocket—not thinking for a second that his rear end could light on fire…or freeze.

“Oh, Xavier, perfect timing,” With some hint of annoyance in his face, Xavier looked the voice’s way; it was the Junior’s teacher Mr. Miller. “Not too busy these days to have a chat with you’re favorite science teacher are ya?” Even if he did tell the teacher the truth, he was pretty sure the man would proceed to chat anyway.

“N-not at all sir…what’s up?” Xavier replied, a tad bit nervous.

“Well, to be honest, I need you to do something for me, a couple things actually, it’ll get you out of class though,” Mr. Miller didn’t wait to hear the student’s answer, and instead, held up a folder he had previously tucked underneath his arms, it was bulging with poorly organized papers. “I need you to deliver these to a few rooms for me, they’re notes about the class camping trip this weekend—“

“This weekend?” Xavier chimed in, normally the camping trip wasn’t until the end of April.

“Yeah, I was surprised too, turns out Principle Iori has something else planned for the end of the month, so he wants to get the camping trip out of the way as fast as possible.” Mr. Miller shrugged, “So could you be a pal and hand these out? Every homeroom…and some extra ones to the nurse and faculty office should be enough,” He spoke like that was a simple task. Xavier sighed.

“Fine, fine…just…leave em on the floor.”

“Eh?”

“The floor, just leave em’ on the floor Mr. Miller. I’ll get em in a sec…” The teacher looked at Xavier cautiously, before cracking a goofy grin.

“Aaaaalright….fine. I’ll play your game. You’re doing me a favor anyways. Sheesh, I need to grab some coffee.” He chuckled, before leaving the folder on the ground, and continuing his hurried walk towards presumably the teacher’s lounge.

“Geez,” Xavier quickly pulled his hands out of his back pockets, and to his delight, and surprise, the elements were gone. “Hrmm…whatever. I better go hand these out…I’ll try the nurse first.”

· * *


Xavier was whistling a tune as he entered the first floor hallway that held the nurses and faculty office, and, to his surprise, Preston Amada.

“Preston!” He called out, hoping he would hear him so he didn’t have to yell anymore. “First day and you’re already in the nurse?” Images of the night before flashed in his mind, specifically the images of Preston’s damn near heroic acts. “It’s not from the night before is it?” Xavier asked concerned, inching towards the white double doors to the nurses’ office.

“We’re all probably feeling it…but you…man. You didn’t wanna take off?”

“Damn…” Was all Xavier could say as Preston showed him his injuries from last night, at that moment, the bruise on his side seemed insignificant. “Eh, at least you know that you’ve got an admirer.” He joked, referring to the girl that sent him here. All things considered, Preston seemed to be adapting pretty well. Atari wasn’t the easiest place to get used to, especially if it’s your first time in public school.

"Is that how much homework I have to look forward to when I'm a senior?"

Xavier shook his head, “Nah, it’s bad, but not this bad.” He laughed and rubbed his neck, situating himself against the wall next to the door.

“Mr. Miller, one of the junior’s teachers stuck me with his dirty work, psh. It’s about the camping trip this weekend, sounds fun, but it’s really just a snooze fest.” He dug into the folder, removing one of the stapled sheets, and handing it Preston’s way. “One down.” He shrugged.

Xavier glanced at his green watch, third period would be starting soon and he hadn’t even started the task.

“Hrmm…Browne’s probably getting suspicious…” Even though he was on official teacher’s business, he wasn’t sure what Browne, or whoever the next teacher was would say about his absence. And then, a light bulb went off in his mind.

“You feel up to helping me out? I gotta deliver to every room, but my teacher doesn’t know I’m gone, you mind coming with me so I could drop you off along with these papers? You’re supposed to be the nurse’s office anyway, I could just say I was showing a new student around.” He hated involving Preston in his illicit activities, but it was necessary; the last thing Xavier needed was another detention with Volt.

“We’ve got a ways to go though…you up for a hike?” He grinned, hoping the freshman would agree.

((lol smooth @Nightmare Train))

“We’re gonna hit the freshman rooms last…so we’ll go on up to the Junior classes I guess.” Xavier said, scratching at the top of his dome with his index finger. “You would think Miller would have at least handed em’ out to his own home room…” The duo just finished handing out extra papers to the faculty office and nurse, and were now walking up the stairs on their way to the second floor.

“Sorry to drag you into all of this man, I already got one detention today, I just can’t—“ Immediately, his voice cut off, catching glimpse of an particularly cheesy looking suit turning the corner above the steps. “Phew…” Xavier exhaled all of the breath he took in upon seeing the figure pass by, thankfully he hadn’t seen them.

“Voltron…he’s the worst teacher here…I think he’s just bitter or something.” He shrugged, “Probably would have gave me a suspension for just being in the halls…and you for association. I think he’s got it out for me…” Xavier frowned. “Lesgo…before he comes back.” Hopefully, he wouldn’t be one of the chaperones for the camping trip this year, he was one last year and it was a nightmare.

The first homeroom the two students arrived at was Mr. Miller’s, though through the window he spotted Miss Duncan, she was nice enough, so she wouldn’t give Xavier much grief for, lack of a better word, farting around. So, putting on his winning smile, Xavier knocked on the door.

“Delivery!” He hollered, again, with a little too much happy.

"Xavier Wallace, I thought I got rid of you last year," Miss Duncan teased, Xavier chuckled, stepping inside the class, some of them were gawking at him as if he had multiple heads on his shoulder, it made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Aha. Nah, you know I couldn't stay away from your beautiful face Miss D." Xavier joked right back, not missing a beat. He looked Preston's way, not wanting him to feel unwelcome he motioned for the freshie to come on in.

“And who's this? You’re corrupting one of the poor freshmen, are you?” She was on a roll today, Xavier thought with delight, even though she taught his least favorite subject, she was still one of his favorite teachers from last year.

"What can I say, I want someone to pass my legacy of evil on too when I leave, heh." He grinned, and walked over to Preston, putting his arm around his hand on his shoulder in a friendly fashion. "This is Preston Amada, I'm showing him around while I take care of some business from the office, " The student stepped closer to his old teacher, revealing the folder that was previously situated discretely under his right arm.

"It's about the camping trip, you know it's been scheduled to this weekend?" Xavier shrugged, Miss Duncan grimaced at his information, taking the folder from him as he passed it her way.

"I heard about a change in the schedule but so early...? Oh well, Xavier would you do me a favor and hand them to everyone in the class?" She neatly seperated just enough for her class from the giant mass inside the folder, setting the rest onto her desk until he was finished.

"Sure thing. The more time out the better,"

"Hm?"

"N-nothing Miss Duncan!" Xavier laughed nervously and proceeded to head down the rows, politely passing the kids papers, most of them looked at him cautiously, some though made conversation, and he conversed right back. It wasn't until he saw a certain familiar face that he came to a stop, with his cheeks adopting an extremely rosy overtone.

"Yo..." Xavier stopped beside Aemyle's desk, he didn't even realize she was in the class until now. "You feeling better from last night?" He rubbed his neck with his free hand, laughing in an awkward manner.

Could you sound any creepier?

"How's Atari treeting ya?" He put on his trademarked Wallace-Nice Guy-Grin, "Mr. Miller didn't give you too much trouble did he?" Xavier realized he was bombarding her with questions, but he was trying not to get caught in any 'awkward silences'.

“Tell me, why do some people seem to idolize me? It confounds and mystifies me,”

At the question, Xavier crossed his arms, first, realizing how odd It was for someone her age, and in her position to speak in such a proper manner, and then, actually getting to the question itself. He leaned himself up against the desk behind him and looked at her thoughtfully.

“Well…you’re a star on the rise. People love that. Not to mention that you’re music is pretty sick…it’s got a different sound then most people…and…” He laughed, deciding against the last bit he was going to say. “You sound like you don’t approve, life in the spotlight when you’re so young must be hard huh?” He looked at the girl a hint of apology in his eye. From somewhere behind him, Xavier could have swore he heard someone clear their throat, and then, Miss Duncan called out to him.

“Xavier? Don’t you have other classes to deliver to? This stack seems quite large—“

“Ah…right right…sorry Miss Duncan,” He laughed, handing Aemyle one of the stapled packets of paper. “I’m going to try and get everyone from last night together at lunch, there’s a courtyard down on the first floor, tons of flowers there, you can’t miss it. That’s where we’ll meet. Is that cool?” He couldn’t stick around to hear her answer though, the period was winding to a close, and he had to get all the papers passed out before lunch, which was now only one period away.

“Come Young Preston, we have things to do!” Xavier bellowed as he hurried out the classroom to continue his paper-passing quest.

Back in the classroom, Jayx was still staring dreamily out the window when the bell for third period chimed.

"Well students that's all for today please remember what I taught you and take mental notes of all of the material we covered including the word problem and---"

Does he ever run out of steam? He grumbled as Mr. Browne finally took his leave of them. Next up was Physics, with a...Mrs. Eri. She must have been new because none of the students had ever heard her name before. And they had all been here for four years, most of them anyway.

"Gooood morning class <3" From outside came a sultry, sensual sounding voice, and for a minute all the male students in class broke out in a sweat.
And then, the lights all cut off, causing them all to gasp in fear.

When the lights came back on, only moments later, a young, curvey brunette woman was sitting atop the desk, a devilish smirk upon her face. All the girls groaned, while all the boys fell silent in awe.

"I'm Miss Eri, the Mrs. on your schedules is a typo <3" She chuckled clapping her hands in delight.

She's a cougar...[i] He deducted.
[i]Hooot momma! Odd salivated.
Oh my...Kid, don't look! Karen advised.
Huh? Kid was confused.

Jayx herself didn't seem too fazed by the display as she still held her usual glazed look she adopted during any other class period. Miss Eri took notice of this, and clearly didn't approve.

"You, freckles. You've got something to say?" The teacher spat, a tiny vein popped in the corner of her forehead. Jayx calmly shifted her gaze her way, and shook her head.

"No ma'am."

"Hmhm...a smart ass hmm?" Clearly Miss Eri didn't mind breaking a few rules of conduct. "....Fine. I'll just give the rest of the class double homework tonight for your incolence, how does that sound class?" They all groaned in agony, casting Jayx serious death glares. The freckled girl looked back at them with a sour, but unfazed expression.

Do you have any normal teachers? He asked, exhausted already.
"I dunno...." Jayx sighed deeply, waiting for the lunch bell to finally ring.

Charlotte finally made it to Atari High. She climbed the stairs and walked through the doors. Not many people were moving around. She guessed it was during a class. She looked at her watch. It was close enough to lunch that she thought about not walk up two flights of stairs to her junior classroom. But hey, why not? She might see someone she knew from the night before. If she was lucky, she'd meet them on the way to lunch.

So she did make take the time to walk the stairs, stepping quietly as if not to break the school's momentary silence. At the top of the stairs it seemed as if it was already half-way through the school year. Spotless. It always would be. Charlotte continued a bit longer down the hallway, but decided it was so close to lunch it wasn't even worth going into her classroom. She stopped and slumped against a wall, and waited, humming to herself a quiet melody.

Jayx watched as Joel scurried down the halls and towards the first floor, apparently he wasn’t as depressed as he looked. She shrugged, assuming that her attempts in making a new friend had failed—she wasn’t all that focused on the mission anyway.

What’s for lunch Jayx?Kid asked, cheerily.
Bologna and ketchup of course! Jayx thought back, a grin appearing on her face as she strolled through the students and marble halls to the first floor cafeteria. It would only take her a few minutes to grab some grub, she was sure the meeting wouldn’t even start by then.

· * *

“Courtyard’s empty as always…” Xavier said as the two of them entered, it truly was a serene place, the sunlight from above always seemed to hit the cobblestone and surrounding flowers just right, complimenting the student’s meals as they munched away on whatever they may have at the six large white picnic tables.

“Couple familiar faces though.” He laughed, watching two students from his class conversing after one of them ran into the other; he noticed them as Naydelle and Joel. Mostly, he knew them by name only, though Xavier had a few conversations with Joel here and there, as well as with Naydelle, they were at least on good terms he thought.

“If they heard what we were all chatting about…it might not hold too good of consequences…” He mumbled to Charlotte, leaning a bit her way, “Let’s head to the one furthest from the entrance. The seat was right by a memorial tucked away in a particularly healthy patch of white flowers. It was for a student that had passed away his freshman year—she was a senior, her name was Cheryl Vans. Xavier didn’t know her personally, but she was said to have been very bright; one of the brightest to ever have graced the school.

Xavier leapt on the top of the bench, letting his feet rest on the actual place where you were ‘supposed’ to sit, he found this almost ten times more comfortable.

“Phew…looks like we’re the first one’s here. Aemyle, Jayx, Young Preston, Jack, Dan, that chick with the beret, blondie…” The giant of a student frowned, trying hard to think of anyone else that may have been present that night. “I think that about covers it.” He looked Charlotte’s way, grinning goofily. “Pop a squat miss. If I know Jack and Dan…they’re definitely gonna be late, Jayx is kind of spacey…so she might even get lost,” He shrugged and laughed hard to himself,

“We made good time, might as well relax…” Xavier scratched behind his ear, a lazy glint in his eye. “Jayx said dreads’ name was Demetri…his power…it was out of this world.” He held his left hand high into the sky, just in front of the sun. The young man left it there for a long while, a quick flash of cool blue light appeared and disappeared from it.

“Anything’s possible eh…”


((As I spy through my word document I see someone calling my name! I kind of switched it around just a bit, to have Aemyle show up near the courtyard))

Through the glass doors ahead of him, he laid eyes on a familiar face—Aemyle. The lunchtime rush was tearing the poor thing apart.

“Xavier!”

He heard her holler from outside, and he leapt up with all the grace of a ballerina.

“Aemyle!” He let out, jog-walking towards the doorway, passing up the two students from earlier, who, Xavier spied with some kind of joy, appeared to be caking as he nicknamed the act of flirting.

“Sheesh…they almost got ya…” The fellow in glasses laughed. “But it looks like ya found the place alright.” He grinned the Wallace grin.

· * *

Demetri was somewhere in the back of his Dimensional Shop, his arm held it’s total length in front of him, his palm was placed firmly against the brick wall in front of him. The dread locked man let out a steady breath.

“Alright—“ His eyes immediately began to glow vigorously bathing the space in front of him with a soft golden light, around his palm a wispy black aura appeared, it spread across the entire wall forming a tall rectangular shape. “Dimensional Gate…open.” He commanded in a firm voice, and with a dull flash, a white door appeared.

“Very nice. This should definitely be the brat’s speed. Heh! Nice job Demi…”

As Jack walked by, with a certain face on, Xavier stared him down with a sour expression—laughing as he did so. Somehow, he felt like he was thinking something smart.

“Might as well follow him though.” Xavier shrugged before motioning for Aemyle to follow him to their table. That made four of the nine present in last nights affairs, things were coming together nicely. “I just hope everyone got the memo…” The young man grimaced before plopping himself back on the top of the table with a sleepy glint in his brown eyes.

“I heard from one of the kids in class that we’ve got some cougar for third period. Sounds…interesting enough, eh?” He looked at Jack with a goofy smile, “Hrm?” Aemyle had a blank look on her face as she took a seat on the bench, right beside Charlotte. She turned to the boys with her head tilted sideways, apparently confused by Xavier’s terminology.

“Cougar?” The alien asked him, she had studied the vocabulary of the world, but she had never ran into cougar, unless their teacher was a wild animal, which she highly doubted.

“An older woman that preys on young, attractive men like me and Jack here…well. Mostly me.” Xavier replied with a joking tone. “Man…home school must’ve been rough.” He remarked, for once, he realized how unappealing that lifestyle would be.

· *

Jayx finally emerged from the cafeteria, munching happily on her bologna and ketchup sandwich. Some of the kids in the hallway cringed at her meal choice; she just thought they didn’t know good dining.

“Courtyard…courtyard…” She said in a sing-song manner, passing by the glass windows of the flowery area, and stepping through the door. “Oh.” With a smile she spotted four of the faces from last night and casually began a stroll over to them, wondering if the ‘meeting’ had started. There were two other people, separated from Xavier and the others, she noticed the boy from earlier that she tried to converse with, and another girl from her class—she didn’t know either one of their names though, so she kept on walking.

”I was taught well enough” The singer told him, she had a tone in her voice that made him smile. ”I’m doing well now am I not?” Xavier nodded; he’d give her that one.

At that moment, Jayx came to join the group, the remains of a sandwich being stuffed in her mouth. He gave her a nod, and waved for the freckled girl to pop a squat on the bench.

“That just leaves the freshies right?” Xavier looked around, and as he spoke a meek looking student was walking towards them, he cheeks grew red and she couldn’t bring herself to speak to the table of upperclassmen, instead, giving them a polite, silent wave.


Aemyle seemed to know her from somewhere, but for him, it was taking a bit longer to process the small girl’s identity.

“I remember your face,” She spoke with certainty. Though she knew it to be true, she wished for the blonde to voice her confirmation for the sake of those who might not have seen her, “You were there last night, were you not?” She asked the newcomer, and at that, he looked back at her again with a harder stare.

Xavier looked at the blonde haired girl with an assessing glance; she did look familiar. Was she there last night, one thing was certain, she wasn’t fighting with them. He was sure of that.

“Yeah, she’s right…if you were there then you must have been a part of all the chaos hm?” The senior couldn’t blame her for not fighting last night—any normal person would have done the exact same as her and stayed behind. Maybe him and the others who fought were just crazy…it was hard to tell.

“We’ll wait a little longer for the others. I don’t want to start this without them.” Xavier glanced at his watch, wondering where Preston and the girl in the beret could be.

“What’s you’re name hm? I’m Xavier.” He asked the blonde girl, wanting her to feel welcome. They were all in the same boat after all.

((note: Sorry Tobi and Fruity, I dragged Lilli and Preston along, so as to speed things up a bit))



Speculation


"Well now...it looks like everyone's here."

Xavier began, looking around at everyone's faces. There was still a considerable amount of time during the lunch hour, so there was no reason to cut corners in the conversation; he wanted a full grasp on what happened that night, from everyone's vantage point. "Now, let's start off shall we?" He got up from his perch on the table, and walked over to the one directly in front of the group, there he popped another squat on the table top, this time able to look at all of them.

"I wanna to start from the very beginning. How all of this started." Xavier crossed his arms, a solemn expression appeared on his face; it was time for business. "Recently in 8-Bit, ever since January multiple incidents have occurred, normally, no city is without it's cases of crime and vandalism...but these are no normal problems, even by 8-Bit standards." He paused, "The Unexplained Phenomena. The footsteps nearly identical to a prehistoric T-Rex last month, the mass floating tables in February, and more recently, the pandemonium last night in the shopping district. They're all strange that's for sure, but they all have at least a few things in common." He held his hand up and rose his index finger, beginning to count off.

"One: They all shouldn't be possible, " He rose his middle finger next, "Two: for incidents of such large scale, there was nothing seen to have caused all of these. Just what could have left such gigantic footprints in the street...and leave no trace?" Xavier posed the question to them, but he wasn't necessairly looking for an answer just yet, instead, he continued his monologue, moving onto the events of last night specifically.

"Last night though, 8-Bit news arrived at the scene of one of these Phenomena right as it was happening: Chase Horion, the red head, was in the shopping district, reporting on some strange wailing coming from a deserted alleyway." The student's face quickly shifted from solemn, to upset, some memories from last night were hard to remember. "He tried some...dance to try and calm the 'spirit', and we all know what happened after that. A stream of flame, and a force that hit them like a freight train ---"


"Hey! Don't talk about me like I'm not even here!" There was a rustle from deep inside Jayx's bag. As the eyes of the group shifted from Xavier, to her, she felt her face grow beat red; 'uh-oh' she thought. The next instant, a cute, blue monkey with a snake for his tail leapt out of the brown haired senior's bag.

"Moe! Get back in the bag! You're not supposed to..." But Jayx’s commands were too late, the chimera was out of the bag and into the fray.

"My name's not Moe! It's....well...I can't really remember..." The former chimera stood on the cobblestone between Xavier's table and the groups with a smug look on his face. "If you're gonna talk about me, at least do it in my presence, jerk." He spat, his comments aiming towards the large fellow with the glasses.

"You...I thought I was imagining all of that. But it looks like dreads really did shrink you." Xavier was looking at Moe with a curious gaze, though he wasn't supposed to be here, it would help to have the creature in question here to speak on his existence.

"That bastard did more then shrink me! He rewrote my whole code! I can't even remember what dimension I'm from!" Moe stomped hard on the ground a furious tone in his tiny voice. "I bet I was a prince, maybe even a king!" The tiny chimera's eyes twinkled with a dreamy spark. Jayx giggled at the sentiment. "What're you laughing at freckles?"

"Man...you're still butt ugly. I thought babies were supposed to be cute." Xavier remarked, causing Moe to deliver a whole slew of curse words his way, which is way too vulgar to list in this passage. As the little creature finally ran out of breath, he decided to dig back in to the matters at hand."You said Dreads 'rewrote' you're code right? Meaning you're basically like a baby huh?" He didn't give Moe time to reply, "So you don't remember why you went ape shit last night? Sheesh...doesn't that beat all..." Xavier rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a discouraged sigh as he did so.

"Look, all I remember is a voice...it pissed me off and I just wanted to fight. That bastard Demetri left me that much of my original memory...nothing else." Moe looked at the ground, somewhat remorseful.

"A voice? Could it be like the one we all heard? Then why would that same voice give us powers to fight Moe, if he already..." Xavier let out a frustrated grown.

"This makes absolutely no sense...let's just get back to going over last night...like...the time stop. It happened just before I heard the voice, was it the same for you guys?"

** *

Back in the cemetery, Demetri was elated at Don’s willingness to come through; it saved him a lot of trouble.

"Fine you seem like a fun guy and I'm dieing to know what is behind that door,"


Dreads nodded, “Good answer…now,” He looked back at the rest of them, Joel, and the girl, who hadn’t introduced herself yet, seemed to be at a sort of crossroads. The red eyed student was extremely hesitant to follow Demetri, yet, at the same time, a part of him looked like it had desire to follow him.

"Now Joel thats not what you should be saying to her, sumthing more like I'll protect you from anything on the other side of the door, or sumthing more heroic. Oh oh I know, come see the mysteries of the world with me. Hmmm that one was a bit cheesy,"

Don urged his friend, which prompted the man to crack a bit of a laugh; the kid had the makings of a comedic genius. However, all of this hesitation from Joel was irrelevant if both Demetri’s gut, and his scanner were correct; which they always were. The girl, though dormant, already has signs of Gatekeeper ability. He wanted to keep it to his self until later, but time was of the essence.

“If your hesitation is about involving your lady friend…it’s ill founded,” Demetri began, almost coldly, “When I said all four of you were coming with me; I meant all four of you.” The fourth being the boy who had yet to bring attention to his appearance. “That girl’s as supernatural as all of us here; though her ability still lies dormant.” He waited to see their reaction, though honestly he just wished they would come on; his body was still drained from his feats the night before, and he was dying to get some shut eye before Jayx and her crew came.

"Uhm..." She couldn't stop herself from asking, "What is he..?” A flustered Nym asked, which only served to fuel fire to Moe’s constantly angered flame.

“One ugly mother—“ Xavier was cut in mid sentence by the beast in question, who was now on top of the table, staring up at Nym with big, proud eyes.

“I am,” The chimera began with a tone of arrogance, “A noble creature of the finest blood, a chimera! My name is…” Moe frowned, “Morris Von Zan! Yes, but you may call me Moe, like these fools do…and you are…?” It seemed like the tiny thing took a liking to Nym, and perhaps her meek persona. The whole display by the creature made Xavier sick to his stomach.

“Tch, don’t let him bother you Nym. That’s the chimera from last night, or did you not see that part?” He wondered, seeing how she wasn’t exactly fighting along side them, “Anyways. Moe…what does it mean really, when you said Dreads ‘rewrote’ you? I have an idea but…” At Xavier’s question, the boisterous figure spun around on his…paw? So that he could face the ‘fool’.

“It means, that he changed my make-up! My power level, my memory all of it!” He looked at them all blankly, “What, you mean you don’t know about that stuff here?” Moe sounded astonished. “Sheesh, what kind of backwater Dimension did I end up in?” The chimera mumbled with a dull shrug, the statement only made Xavier more and more curious-- there was a lot he didn't know.

“Power level? Sounds like a video game,” Xavier laughed just a bit at the idea, “This would be a lot more easier if it was a game…so, you’re at level one now huh?” He asked the chimera, playing along.

“Yeah, yeah. Just like all of you idiots,” With a dancer’s grace, Moe spun back around to Nym, an innocent, youthful gleam in his eyes, “Nym…would you please help little old me get big and strong again? Pretty please?” Xavier could have sworn there were tiny sparkles floating around the chimera as he spoke.

“We’re at Level One?” Xavier frowned, “What the hell does that mean?”

((can somebody do me a favor and add to the archive from where I left off? I can't copy and paste such a large amount of text from my phone. Many thanks.))




"Do you know how we're supposed to level up Morris?" Nym asked the chimera, poking at his stomach. Moe looked at all of the student's faces, did they really not know the answer? With one hand stroking his hairy chin, and the other crosed underneath, the tiny creature began to explain.

"Well, since you asked so nicely Nym, I guess I can tell you," Moe remembered the bare essentials of his knowledge, perhaps that was also intentionally left behind by Demetri? "It's simple really, the more you practice your techniques, like in training or in battle, you get stronger! I trained for centuries to get to my level...and then..." A furious look crossed the chimera's coutenance, yet again remembering the reality of his situation. "There was another way to get stronger too...but I can't remember...I guess Maverick didn't want me to remember..." He shrugged.

The more Xavier listened, the more and more things sounded like a classic RPG; a concept he was extremely familiar with. Once Moe completed his run down, he couldn't help but feel some excitement from it all, it looked like his wish for action had been fulfiled.

"Doesn't that beat all? This really is like a video game." Xavier smiled a bit, watching as Dan whipped out his gameboy, proceeding to play what looked like Super Mario. That's Dan alright...playing games at a time like this... Coming up for some air, Daniel gave Moe a glance, posing yet another question for the tiny fellow.

"Hey Moe, do you remember what the voice sounded like?" The student with the multicolored hair asked.

"Tch...the aloof bastard, how could I forget?" Moe scoffed, aparently holding no love for the enigma, "He sounded really...slippery, like a snake, he made my scales crawl." The statement prompted the chimera to look at his now, scaleless body--well not counting the reptile he wore as a tail.
"Snakey huh. Sounds about right. The voice I heard was the same way..." Xavier frowned, it looked like they were at least getting somewhere. "The period'll be over soon." He glanced at his watch, only fifteen minutes were left during the hour. Across from him, Dan had a face on that just screamed 'I'm thinking'. Looks like the plumber in the red hat was good for a little more than just saving princesses.

“ Hey, you know how in super Mario bros. they have se paths that are right in front of you, but you can’t see them. Well maybe all our answers are right in front of us, yet we just can’t see them clearly.” For the ramblings of a man whom had just awakened from a three period nap, they were pretty insighful.

"Hrmm....maybe you're right," Xavier let out an exhausted sigh, the lack of answers was exhausting, but at least they uncovered a decent bit. "We just need a pair of glasses so we can see better..." He shook his head, and looked up towards the giant clock on the wall behind the others on the back wall, "Fifth period's right around the corner...let's break for now, but we'll all meet back up in the first floor lobby?" With an exaggerated grunt, Xavier hopped off the table.

"Hrmm...I'm gonna have a packed car again aren't I?" Gas money was not an necessity, even for the son of a well to do lawyer.