Raymond McHale's Story

Raymond quickly sat up with a heavy exhale as if he'd been participating in an extended breathing contest and the first thing he did was examine that contents of the bowl he had been clenching tightly in his right had " oh thank god..it was just a nightmare " last thing he remembered was passing out in his flat, one bedroom dumpy apartment after smoking one too many bowls by himself and in his nightmare he had completely run out of weed. He breathed a sigh of relief because he could still feel a dime sack in his pockets and there was plenty of resin packed in the bowl to get him by before he had to burn the last of it so everything was perfect, but then he began to look around frantically for his lighter and realized he was no longer in his own apartment, instead he was surrounded by a bunch of strangers in some kind of dreamscape the lead him to believe he still dreaming or still hardcore tripping.

He quickly scrambled to his feet, dusted the ashes off his pants and made his way over the few strangers that were awake, he still reeked or marijuana and his eyes were bloodshot. " Am I still tripping or am I still dreaming? " he asked surprisingly coherently which made him think he was most likely still dreaming because as far as he could tell he had come down completely from his previous high.

What the? His brain felt groggy, like the times he'd stayed up far past his self allotted bedtime or tried to do too much in one day straining body, mind, and soul. How long had been sleeping on the floor, again? And, wait-... Voices? Familiar somewhat at that, and yet-... Reality returned with a short, unpleasant jerk. From laying on the floor, in flash he was up to his hands and knees, fighting the dizziness plaguing him from moving so fast more or less upright. He sucked in a breath of fresh air, unaware that he'd been holding it, with a gasp. They'd been running from an /it/, and then falling. He'd been expecting a face-plant on cold, hard concrete not somehow this cool, smooth marble-like material, he was very confused. Chyme like clinks echoed and became noticed by his ears, seemingly falling directly underneath him, as well as a growing painful itchiness on his face. Crows, his glasses. A long fingered hand came up rubbing gently but determinedly away shards that hadn't fallen off yet and left-over powders of the destroyed black plastic 'sunglasses', noting the new collection of cuts across the bridge of his nose, his cheeks, and oddly enough above his right eye by his temple. He didn't even want to think what his mother or father was going to say to him after he came home without them, he was terrible with the things and it was the third pair this year already. But something in his gut told him the demise of his glasses, was rather unimportant in the scheme of things. Alright, set priorities straight. Monster attacking, clearly not in Central Park anymore, and a whole bunch of teens crashed on the floor around him. Something was happening, though he wasn't quite sure what. Wonderful.

A girl was talking at first, others following soon enough in answer, and his brain was able now to comprehend what she was saying but not at the same time, maybe it was the echoes fault, likely. He glanced up, new cuts stinking as he narrowed his eyes wearily, as they made their unfocused trek about the room. "Explain, please." He rumbled, briefly. Wanting to know what was going on, What had happened, etc; from the verbal point of view that he didn't have.

Dorian brought himself slowly to his feet, still trying to wrap his mind around what had just happened. So no one knew where they were, not even the strange girl who'd known what that monster was. And he was most definitely not tripping like the boy who probably hadn't been at the park probably was. His brushed some non-existant dirt off of his pants. The light was the only thing that stood out, even if he had no idea where it was.
"I have no idea what's going on," He said bluntly and then added in his same, cold tone, "I think we should go." Then, without checking to see if anyone would follow him, started towards the light.

Try to be the hero. Land flat on your back. Nice.

First thoughts were never what they should be when the circumstances called for them. Chandler first noted that he would be late to work, if he would be able to show up at all. The coffee shop wouldn't have been open too much later anyway given the time of day, but the manager had said she needed help cleaning the machines in the back. He was always willing to help out.

Judging from his surroundings, the coffee shop and his manager were far away. He would lose another paycheck.

Meanwhile, the others around him seemed to be asking the right questions. Seemed to be. Chandler couldn't be sure of course. He noticed his Ipod and headphones were missing, most likely in the hands of a punk kid now, and that Central Park had vanished from beneath him. Chilled (from fear? anxiety? excitement?), he stood up, brushed off his jeans (because that's what they did in the movies) and glanced around the rest of the group that were waking still.

One of the girls he had tried to save was asking about some light, while a young man decided to walk toward it. Never mind the rest of the teens on the ground. One of them was even a little kid! Chandler ignored the light and its followers. He wanted to make sure everyone was safe first. That monster, though he hadn't processed fully the dire situation since if cut off so quickly, might still be around.

Ray had arrived through the flash of light just in time to catch the man's supposed explanation, he checked himself from head to toe even though he was sure he didn't have any stones or jewelry whatsoever and was about to raise his hand to protest to the whole " destiny " proclamation and that is when he saw it, a ring with a large red stone set in it's center that he knew he never had before, hell he hadn't even felt it's tight grip on his finger all this time. He then put his hand down and continued to quietly listen to the man speech, until he finished that is.

He marched over to the man and placed a hand on the man's shoulder while shaking his head as if chastising a child " Whoa whoa whoa, you might wanna' slow down there buddy, all this talk of destiny and stones and cyclopes or whatever you called them is starting to sound a little far fetched. And you called us " earthlings " you expect us to believe we where just magically taken to another planet, or did ya beam us Scotty? " he asked as he used his free hand to punch the man playfully, even though the evidence was all around him his mind wouldn't let him accept something as crazy as this, especially with him involved because spectacular things simply did not happen to him, there was absolutely nothing special or heroic about him.

He then looked back at one of the blond chicks and gave her a look that had are you retarded? written all over it " No! This guy is clearly lost one too many marbles because there is no way in hell I'm apart of any destiny, unless you need someone who can screw any and everything up then I'm you're guy "

She seemed speechless, and every ones words seemed to clump together into her head and she almost seemed dead set on not understanding. First, the cat.. or man could turn from the shape, and now he was going on about some warrior trapped inside stones. Stones.. She thought, in almost an eye opener, looking down at her diamond. She was about to speak, until a boy seemed to arrive suddenly and question in almost a bad cop manner, the cat man.

She couldn't believe what any one was saying, the girl from the tree seemed to kind of under stand, the other girl seemed like she was intent on trying her best to understand, and the boy seemed like he was ultimately set on believing none of this was real.

Waiting until the boy stop talking, she cleared her throat a bit and finally asked the strange cat man "Where did these stones come from? I mean, I was found in a basket with mine." Maybe it wasn't her real parents who had left it with her, but now maybe she might find out the mystery of it. She still really didn't believe what any thing that was happening was true, but what else could she really do at this point?

When his rather widely based question answered by a vague answer and suggestion of what they should do from the same stranger whom had told him that some weird stuff was going on in the park and had then preceded to drag him along behind away from the screeching, hissing danger, Falke remained silent, weary but thoughtful. Alright then, fine... Go where? He pushed himself fully upright from his hands and knees, rolling stiff shoulders. Noting his walking stick wasn't with him anymore either, wonderful. Blearily he scanned his surroundings, ignoring the mild stings from the various cuts on his face, focusing on the general direction the others echoing, then abruptly disappearing footsteps, were heading. This was just weird. He hesitated before following /blindly/. Listening closer, he heard a soft humming sound in the direction the other teenagers had headed, it was bright, high, and an alien sound to his ears. And then someone mentioned light. Right. Sure, walk through the humming light to whatever lay beyond, sounded reasonable. Not. And weren't you often told never to walk toward the light in the first place? Yea... Reluctantly though, he forced himself to move closer, out of the base human nature of preferring not to be left alone in a strange, particularly unwelcome place, after just having their morning's shattered by the screams of a other worldly beast. He frowned, eyes narrowed as he sightlessly tried to size up what was just in front of him. The humming was louder now this close, and he had a feeling of in-between from it rolling around in his gut. "Here goes nothing..." He muttered to himself, now alone and the last to head through. Hesitantly he stepped forward, the light seemingly liquid pressing against tightly against his skin, and then nothing...

The second time he woke up, he'd landed on his back, and slowly he shoved himself into a sitting position with a low, nearly inaudible groan. Okay. He really could deal with a little less of this brain meddling, teleporting, whats' ever you'd call it, nonsense. Blinking, he glanced around. Nostrils flared. He felt soft greenery tickling between his fingers, very overgrown grass. The air seemed cleaner, gentler. Well, where ever they'd ended up this time, it wasn't anywhere close to Central Park, or even New York for that matter. And then there was the matter when his brain finally caught up and was able to process what his ears were hearing from the others talking around him... The gist he got was; a talking cat, turned into a man, so cat-man, Haru, not a dream this is real folks, destiny, special stones in their jewelry, month warriors, and cyclopeans. Okay, okay. Wait, what?! Falke just sat there, not bothering to get up just yet. Trying to process all the information, story, really crazy dream, etc, he was getting with some success. But he continued to stay silent, not jumping to conclusions or trying to call wolf at once. He flicked his eyes toward the general direction the voice of Haru, the cat-man, whatever, had spoken from, quietly and patiently waiting to listen more.

Rajani wasn't any more sure about this month warrior thing any more than anyone else, and possibly even less sure. While she was gone, what would happen to her father and her younger brothers? She went to the store to get some medicine for her youngest brother when she was spirited away. Anxiously, the young Indian woman twirled her opal necklace. Would her brother still be there when she got back? She shuddered at the thought. The faster this thing was over the faster she could get home.

Despite fears for her family, she didn't argue with the strange redhead like two of the boys. Destiny wasn't something that could be escaped, but she wished she wasn't the only one on this adventure, or that it would wait until her brother was better. Timing of destiny also wasn't something that could be controlled either. She whispered a prayer for her family's safety to her own goddess and accepted the bag of money that forementioned redhead, Haru, was passing out. She was tempted to ask where he got it from but thought that would be rude, so she just said, "Thank You." Her English was heavily accented, but she thought she spoke carefully enough to be understood.

Looking around the barracks style room, the dark brown eyes located a little brown-haired girl hiding in a corner and two other boys. One boy was blind with scratches on his face and the other boy was the blond one who didn't want to believe Haru. Rajani was cautious of both for she wasn't used to spending time with boys her age unsupervised, but they couldn't go alone.

Remaining careful, the stocky young woman approached the little girl first, because it felt more comfortable. "Hello. My name is Rajani. Do you want to come with me?"

The next morning was ushered in by Haru sweeping through the room, waking the teens up in with awkward nudges of the shoulders.
Tallyho finally opened her eyes which were still weak from sleep. Her locks were fanned out about the pillow, with random strands jolting up from her head in the most rebellious fashion they could muster.
“Hurry up and get your stuff together, and come down to the lobby,” Haru said before the hinges on the doors whined and the sound of Haru hustling down the stairs beat thuds through the room.
Tallyho slid out of the bed and caught her balance on weak legs before she stretched a bit.

"Of course they're worth my time. It's my duty after all," Ryou smiled, finally setting Karma down to put his full attention on the month warriors' answers. To his credit, his grin didn't even shrink by one molar as negative answer after negative answer was given.
"I practice Tae-Kwon-Doh," Dorian finally answered when it seemed like no one else was going to speak up. He wasn't actually sure if Ryou would know what that meant at first, but from the way the man perked up, it was apparent that he did.
"Really? What belt?"
"Black belt."
"Excellent!" Ryou beamed, looking well and truly pleased that at least someone had thrown or would admit to throwing a punch in their lives. Dorian just hoped that he wouldn't hug him.
"All right! Thanks for that bit of information, everyone. Now the tour can officially begin. Follow me and, please, don't taunt Karma. She's lived at a training Academy since she was a baby. It's just not wise. Now, let's go!"
With that, Ryou spun around and began to lead the way around the Academy.

While the Academy was not extremely large, as the tour revealed, it had a lot to offer. It was one interlocking building but with a variety of different, large rooms, much like any university or even a mall. Ryou pointed out an armory, a dojo, the library("Only if you have my, Karma's, or one of our elite student's permission. Same goes for the armory," Ryou had warned as they passed by), the dining hall where meals would be served("Come when you're summoned because we don't serve after meal hours . Usually a bell rings when it's meal time"), and a number of other room before he stopped, once more outside the maze-like building. Dorian had a terrible feeling that he'd get lost in the building and they'd never hear from him again.
"These are the dorms for our students. The East dorm is for the boys, West for girls. Simple, right?" Ryou said cheerfully. "You'll be staying on the bottom floor of each dorm where all of our new students stay until they progress through the ranks."
He then pointed at a building a small ways apart from the Academy building.
"That is where I, Karma, and a few others live. If you need help, don't be afraid to pop in. Now, you lot should go get settled, all right? Your rooms are the ones with open doors. Meet me out in the court yard in an hour at the latest."

The next six days were nothing short of pure torture for the unskilled, untrained month warriors. Ryou had definitely not been lying when he said he wouldn't be giving them special treatment. From sunup to sundown, the new month warriors were put through a series of physically demanding exercises, running up and down the Academy's mountain, climbing steep rock walls, sparring(and always, always losing) with higher-ranked Academy members. The activities were occasionally modified for different month warriors- mostly by making things a little easier for Maris since she was so small- but not by much. There were group activities as well that collapsed within the first ten minutes because none of them managed to work together.
Ryou was not impressed. He didn't give up on them, didn't berate them, but he was clearly not pleased with what he had to work with. They were flabby, weak, and spoiled Earthlings in comparison to the hard-working students already attending the Academy. Even Dorian, who did have some fighting abilities and was one of the more physically fit of the group, could barely finish most of the exercises, so it was impossible to imagine any of the others doing much better. Some people collapsed on the mountain runs, some refused to climb or do the exercises, they refused to work together and, when they did, it dissolved into petty squabbles and people refusing to listen to each other.
At the end of the week, no one had improved much if at all. Really, half of them refused to do what they were told, so there was no surprise there.

Dorian was exhausted. Not only that, but he was sore, his very bones seeming to ache after the physically demanding week, and he was almost completely fed up with not only this training but most of his so-called team. There wasn't much time for bonding since, after the first day when that had dissolved into an argument and then an awkward silence Ryou had called it off for the week, and they were all generally too tired at the end of the day to do much more than finish dinner(where they were given some sympathetic looks by students since they'd all been where the month warriors were) and go to bed. There were a few people he kind of liked. Tallyho, Nia, Autumn, Falke, maybe one or two others... But, on the whole, he hadn't really gotten very close to anyone. On another note, he hadn't seen the man from the armory since that night.
On the morning of the seventh day, Dorian pulled himself slowly to his feet, body aching, and made his way to the court yard where Ryou was standing. Ryou, surprisingly, seemed more relaxed today than he had been since the first day of training.

Falke greeted Dorian in turn with a simple, "Hello." Stifling a yawn himself by biting his lip, feeling just plain wrung out by the events of the day. As the other mentioned heading off to bed, he dipped his head slightly with an acknowledging nod and a simple, if non-verbal way of bidding the other boy goodnight. The words following the last statement, surprised him enough that he blinked blearily stunned. Okay. That was... He felt his shoulders drop suddenly, relieved. Even though he particularly disliked his disability if only being slightly noted verbally most of the time, he wasn't one to throw a fuss and truthfully he was thankful that Dorian helping out. "Thank you, and... Good night." He hummed softly, politely. Turning to the left, walking through the open door and gently shut it behind him. Before flopping down on the uncomfortable floor, hoping for some rest before the 'morrow came, and the 'real training' began....

The last six days where absolute terror, and nothing short of it. His lack of gracefulness, coordination, and knowing exactly where he was going by sight, played a part in sometimes not being able to finish the tasks they'd been given at times or mostly just finishing them barely (after running into things, or tripping and falling a great many names, or...). But despite the near constantly throbbing and aching of bones and muscles, he believed himself to be doing a little better each day, or at least had to believe that to keep his sanity this far into the game (completely ignoring the fact so far that their so called 'team', wasn't able to function as one, or any time soon at that it seemed). On the seventh day, Falke awoke early just like he did every other morning, no matter how late it had been or how much stressful work they'd gone through he just woke up right on dot. He slowly got dressed, struggling on a shirt and stuffing on a pair of leather boots he'd bought in the town a week ago exactly, as he waited quietly in his little room for others to start moving and start heading out before he himself followed to the fountain they met at every morning before going out to complete the brutal training once again for the seventh day in a row. However he was surprised, if feeling mildly relieved, when they where told that they weren't doing a training lesson today. Okay, fine. The catch? Ah. A history lesson didn't sound too bad, and well, he was all for getting to know Aires a little better, and keeping out of those 'troublesome situations' that could pop up with the natives, all the better for keeping alive certainly.

Falke sat in the first seat he ran into upon coming through the door. Yes. Literally. It wasn't that he was trying to be defiant and not sit up closer to the front, or at the very least besides some of the more tolerable of the group's members, and/or wanted to sit in the back being a loner, it was... It was just easier that way. Simple as that. As he eased down into his seat, he tilted his head listening as the door re-opened and a person with a soft, elegant tread strode in and up to the front, stood their for a moment (likely, he assumed, sizing up the lot of them), before speaking. He listened quietly, politely, and most of all - respectfully. It was nice to have a break from the grueling days of work, but he was keen on still learning this history lesson, and quite possibly using it to save his neck later on.