Tempest "Spazzy" McGee's Story

Tempest watch the fight with a sort of twitchy boredom. Then again, she was always twitchy. Either it was popping fingers, bobbing knees, or involuntary muscle spasms caused by the electric currents that constantly bounced inside of her body. The two on the field below would be interesting if they would just GET A MOVE ON ALREADY.

Her father always did say that she needed to work on being more patient.

She decided instead to scope out the various hoity-toity spectators around her in the stadium. Her hands twitched. It would be so easy, almost too easy, to nip a coin or two here, a pocket watch there, and, if she wanted to show off, maybe even the gold buttons off of a gentleman's suit. While not a kleptomaniac, Tempest did have a history and a habit of picking pockets of the rich. And she was the best.
The rest of the street kids all stepped aside and watched with wonder whenever Spazzy McGee would work. She'd even stolen the buckle off a cop's belt once. Her anxious hands rubbed over the smooth metal of it as it sat on a black ribbon around her neck. That was her crowning achievement.

Now here she was, about as far out of her element as she could be. What on earth was the daughter of two factory workers doing at an event for the Gallus Academy?

Trying not to stick out like a sore thumb, that's what she was doing. And apparently succeeding. Her best beige trousers and the borrowed green blouse and black boots managed to fit in for the most part. Looking right in front of her, she probably shouldn't have worried. There was some girl who had metal body parts. The people around her seemed kinda weird too, but not that weird.

"Now isn't that interesting," she mused.

Unfortunately, the small yippy lap dog of some fancy lady behind her chose that moment to bark like it had been set on fire. Tempest jerked, startled and the tenuous control she always kept on the lightning that housed itself inside her momentarily broke. She watched in absent horror as a bright white arc leaped from her body towards the metal girl she had just been looking at earlier.

"Oh, crap!"

"Hey..." Scarlett was quietly talking to Mykeisha, but she didn't whisper. "Sorry for whatever I did earlier, I didn't mean to disturb you in any ways... I might make you a necklace for apology, it can be even a friendship necklace! We can become friends! We can have adventures together, talk about triple rainbows, dragon fireworks, magic spells and many more! You know? The guy, who threw the punch over there is my friend, he can be your friend too!" Almost every apology from Scarlett to a stranger required friendship later. "My name is Scarlett Nightforest, what's yours?"

A loud dog bark and zapping sounds took the attention of many people. "What's going on?" Scarlett asked, but the many people, who separated her from Piper didn't let her know yet.

Piper was fast. This was something she prided herself on. Over the many years she spent training with a blacksmith who had a tendency to throw things at her and then yell: 'think fast.' she had developed the skill. But when you have a bolt of white electrical who knows what. You can only react so fast. And that's what Piper did.

Upon hearing a bark and turning around only to be faced with a bolt of white sparks Piper managed to slam her foot on the ground and bring up a rock wall. The only issue was that electrical currents travel and she happened to be touching the wall thanks to her foot. The result. Well the rock absorbed most of the shock but what wasn't soaked up ran into Piper's body and toward the metal as electricity tends to do. She let out a yelp and immediately ripped her metal arm off tossing it away and watching as it sparked angrily. Groaning she held onto her stump of whatever was left of her arm.

It felt like it was burning. She'd been lucky though... The electricity had gone for her arm had it gone for her eye she'd be fried... Literally. But she wasn't taking any chances. Piper slowly moved her good arm up her body still burning from the electricity that had gone through it. And slowly she unscrewed and removed her metal eye along with the leather that kept it firmly in place. She set her metal eye in her pocket and pulled out an eye patch. When her eye socket was covered with the black material Piper stood and glared daggers at the people who were staring. Whoever had done that... She would have there head.

Slamming her foot down harshly on the ground so the wall would be pulled back into the earth. "Who... The hell shocked me?" Piper knew she could not resort to her bow with her metal arm currently spitting sparks and smoke threatening to send whatever electrical currents it still held into the person who touched it... But bow or not she could use light magic and earth magic still and she was pretty good at it, and she'd been in enough fist fights that she could hold her own. Needless to say whoever had shocked her better have a damn good explanation or she would burn up there body in light magic fire.

"Oh, shit."

Tempest's first instinct was the same at that moment as it had been for the rest of her life when she had been in trouble; run like hell and hope you don't get caught. The problem was, this wasn't just a pilfering gone wrong. Somebody had been honest to god hurt because she couldn't keep a lid on it.

She ran down towards where the rock wall that had sprang up from nowhere, thankful that it had seemed to pop up as her lightning struck. Maybe they had been spared the worst of it? A charge like that would have burnt the crap out of most people, if not killed them out right. Heaven only knew what it could have done to somebody who was in contact with that much metal.

The girl had removed her arm, and Tempest looked at where is sparked on the ground and back up to the burnt flesh of the stub it had been attached to. A stab of guilt suckerpunched her in the gut. And by the livid look on the girl's face, guilt might not be the only thing that would hit her.

"Oh... Oh, Jesus H. Christ. I'm so sorry about that," she supplicated. It may have been on the slightly awkward side, as Spazzy didn't exactly have a lot of practice apologizing. The general response she gave to people who got shocked by her in the past was along the lines of "Suck it up, pansy."

"That was a complete accident," she continued, "I normally keep control and have better awareness than that, but that stupid dog startled me into letting go. It only came to you because you had so many conductors on you already."

Her hands twitched nervously and a tic started in her right cheek with a small spark. It annoyed her to no end that her powers responded to her emotional state. Couldn't hide a damn thing. She tucked a lock of blue-streaked brown hair behind her ear and pulled a small piece of thick copper wire from her pocket.

"I can, uh, I can remove the charge from that," she muttered gruffly, gesturing to the limb on the ground. "I'm a higher conductor and it'll run right back on the copper."

Piper reminded herself to breathe. Yes breathe. Deep calming breaths and to not hurt someone who'd just been sweet enough to apologize and not just leave or laugh. Closing her red eye she took a deep breathe. "It's fine... And yes please... I'm afraid it shall have to be repaired anyway but I work at a blacksmith so it should not be to much an issue." Casting a sideways glance at the arm she began thinking of ways she could replace the arm immediately. She could always use a mix of her earth based abilities and her maker magic that went with being a higher class to create a temporary replacement but... She'd never done such a thing before. Then again if any electricity was pulled out she might be able to repair any damage. "Sorry if I seem snappy... Not everyday a dog nearly causes you to get fried..." Piper managed to pull a smile when she caught sight of the dog. So that had been the source of the high pitched bark she'd heard.

Tempest smiled, though it probably came out more like a grimace, and knelt down next to the disembodied arm. The charge was still present, and the mechanics of it were probably burnt crispy. Such a shame. The scrap metal of it alone would probably fetch enough to feed her Papa and three sisters for a week.

She wrapped the copper wire in a coil around the arm's wrist and concentrated. If she changed her charge to negative, the currents would come flowing right back to her body along the wire. It took a bit of focus, but she felt the direction of the charge in her body go from leaping out of her fingertips to drawing into her core. With a sizzle and flash, the remnants of what the arm had picked up zapped themselves back into her body.

Pulling out a handkerchief, though where she came from they were called "snot rags", she gently picked up the limb and unwound the wire, making sure that it didn't come into contact with her skin. She sort of awkwardly thrust it back into the girl's flesh hand and quickly pulled away before they could accidentally touch.

"My name's Tempest," she muttered, lower class accent bleeding through, "Tempest McGee. But most people call me Spazzy."

"Is hysterical laughing a tradition in arena fights?" Scarlett questioned something, that wasn't really directed at anyone specifically. "Kaine seems calm and confident, though... I can sense his victory." She smiled.
"Hey, you!" A girl approached Scarlett. "It was you, who made the lizard prank! I didn't know it wasn't a real lizard until some witnesses told me!" The girl came closer to Scarlett, her glare was angrily nailed at her. "I have a maniacal lizard phobia, and you had to joke with this?" "Wait!" Scarlett quickly started making excuses. "I had no idea! I swear! It was a break and I was bored..."
"So, I almost died, because you were bored?" The other girl quickly and angrily interrupted Scarlett. She groaned in rage and jumped over Scarlett, who moved before she was attacked by the crazy woman, who ended up on the floor. "I didn't mean to, OK?" Scarlett replied. "Let me watch my friend's game!... Wait... Are you alright?" "My leg hurts!" the other girl replied.
Scarlett quickly knelt next to the woman, who grabbed the dark-haired woman by the throat. "Joking! It didn't hurt!"
While choking, Scarlett started squeezing the woman's wrists so tightly, the blood couldn't reach her hands. Scarlett's throat was finally free.

Scarlett grabbed the other woman's arms and ran to the end of the audience crowd. People around her had no idea what shoved them out of sudden. Scarlett left the girl and ran back to Neku and Mykeisha. "There are so many people here, it will take time until she finds me again. I think I saw Piper talking to a girl, but I'm not really sure" Then Scarlett went silent, because she didn't want to cause any more disturbance.

Piper caught her metal arm with ease. "Oy, don't mutter... I barely heard you and I wanna be polite..." She gave a crooked smile and pulled out a screwdriver. "Name's Piper Bandenged...But people call me Pip... They say Piper Bandenged sounds to much like a higher class name... And considering I no longer live there they prefer just callin me Pip... I don't mind... But call it cute and I will throw a boulder at you." Piper's voice betrayed her threat making it sound more funny then anything. She looked over her shoulder at Kaine. She hoped he would just hurry up and pound his opponent into the ground already... But until then she would have to settle with the joy's of trying to repair her arm. Using the screw driver she opened it and waved away the smoke. "Hmm... Seems my arm did not take much of a beating as I though..." She smiled a little and began removing parts and adjusting gears.

Tempest grinned crookedly.
"Pip, huh? I like it. Reminds me of a kid I used to hang out with. The little bastard was always so chipper. And as for boulders," Her grin grew wider, "Well, you could throw one, but I doubt you'd actually hit anything."
It was true. Spazzy's hands weren't the only quick things. After her powers awoke, she had to spend nights dodging lightning as it struck from the sky, or be struck herself.
She coughed a little as smoke rose from the opened arm, waving a hand in her face. Seriously, she should be used to breathing crappy air by now, after growing up in the factory district. Her sister came home coughing up cotton fibers from the textile mills all of the time, and her Papa had the early symptoms of the Black Lung from shoveling coal in the furnaces for so long.
"Glad to see that it survived. Afraid I wouldn't have the fundage to pay for any damages," she said with a wince.
Tempest glanced out at the duelists. "You know one of them?" she asked with a jerking gesture of her head. Didn't most of these Upper-Crust types know each other anyway?

Piper looked over at Tempest. "I made this my self... I would never feel comfortable making someone pay for it... Besides... I work at a blacksmith..." Piper smiled and continued to tinker with certain things but it was hard only using her one arm as she had not done that sense she built her arm. Piper was so focused she barely heard the girls next question. "Yeah... Well..." Piper smirked. "Only the ones that game here from the lower district like myself... Oh an one traveler..." Piper pointed to Kaine. "He's the traveler... Girl who was in the ring before him is a girl from the high class district like myself who somehow wound up in the lower district... She did not say anything about it but... I can tell because of her magic... Then there's Neku who was one of the first to be in the rink... Oh and blondy Evan who fought Neku..." Piper grinned and pointed at herself. "I'm gonna fight too... I'm kinda hopping il get matched up against one of my parent's friends son or something... I want them to see me out there... Kinda hopping that they will see I survived without there money or stupid arranged marriage." Piper's words came out like venom as she spoke of her parents but she blushed soon after.

"Sorry... I ought not ramble... But when your parent's disown you because you saved someone at the price of your own arm and eye... Then you kinda hope to rub it in there rich bloated faces one day..." Turning away from the rink she returned to her arm. She would have troubles fixing it in a place like this... She needed the use of more tools or at least a spare arm to hold everything down... Piper's irritating grew until she sighed and slammed her foot against the ground causing some earth and rock to envelope her foot and travel up her body until it reached her stump and grow off the end and into a makeshift arm... She could not really move it and it was crude in design but it would work. Using her makeshift arm to hold the metal one she really got to work on checking everything inside.

The girl's eyes went wide as she nearly lost track of the man charging at Kaine, his speed truly remarkable. She clutched her hands together tightly due to suspense. "Don't you dare lose to someone like him, you bastard...!" she quickly uttered, now biting her lip. How would Kaine react to something so fast, so deadly, and while in such a weakened state? That answer was given just as soon as it was asked...

Kaine's expression did not change, already in the middle of reacting to Yurishi's attack as soon as he started his swing. He quickly stepped to the side, along the same path the blade was taking, until he ended up close to Yurishi, and brought his right leg up into a kick that connected its shin with the wrist of the hand that was holding Yurishi's blade, causing the swing to stop short; the fact that the interception even managed to hit having been because Yurishi was stuck in his position, due to the force of the swing, therefore not having enough time or leg room to dodge it. And that's when it happened. Kaine saw it again. The thing he had been looking out for all this time. Yurishi's eyes were indeed quick, and practically all-seeing... But that was why they were also not perfect. In that fraction of a second, Kaine saw Yurishi's eyes lock onto his leg, as if by reflex... This meant that Yurishi was incapable of seeing any other of Kaine's muscle movements for at least another second, which gave him the opportunity he needed to strike. Not wasting that second, Kaine thrust his right fist fast and hard into Yurishi's trachea, instantly stunning the man, causing him to choke. With that, Kaine planted his right foot onto the floor once again, and jumped at his opponent with a left knee colliding with his chin, the same place Kaine had struck earlier in the match, now causing even more damage to the wound.

Yurishi's body fell backward; still conscious, but definitely in a lot of pain, which made Kaine end the whole thing once and for all with a final attack. He brought his leg up high above both him and Yurishi as the latter was still a couple of feet above the ground, until he brought it down as hard as he could, his foot smashing into that of his opponent's face, which made it look as though he were stomping him into the ground as the back of Yurishi's head slammed into the cold, hard surface of the ring's stone floor, the impact so great, it literally cracked beneath him. "HAH!!!" yelled Kaine, the utterance having escaped his throat out of pure adrenaline and emotion, the cry meeting at the same time as the impact of Yurishi's head...

The entire tent which housed the tournament was dead silent. No one moved. No once even breathed. It almost seemed as though Kaine had killed his opponent, until he finally lifted his foot off of the poor guy's face, whose nose was now horribly broken, along with a couple of teeth. The only sign of life from Yurishi being a spurt of blood from his mouth as he coughed in anguish, falling unconscious, breathing heavily even in his sleep.

Kaine took a step back, now just towering over his fallen opponent, wearing a simple expression on his face. Not happy, not angry, just normal. He blinked, and his approving smile returned just before the crowd erupted with loud cheers, all of the spectators seeming to have loved witnessing such a brutal display of violence the likes of which they haven't seen...since the last tournament. If Alois had announced Kaine's victory, no one knew, as the tent was simply too loud at the moment. Kaine merely just stood there, not taking his eyes off of his now unconscious opponent, having had a lot of fun fighting him. The match was over.

"That wording sounded a bit dark for you," Neku replied to Scarlett with a grin. "but personally I disagree, if Kaine teases Yurishi too much, he might stop showing off and start trying to do real damage. Remember, he hasn't even unsheathed that blade."
"Kaine is way too experienced and battle wise for making such a mistake." Scarlett replied to Neku. "If the blade, or anything else was a problem for him, he wouldn't bother to tease Yurishi."

Scarlett went silent when she witnessed the last final attacks and defenses. She instantly grabbed Mykeisha by the shoulders when Kaine's foot collided with Yurishi's face. Her expression formed a grimace when the sight instantly made her imagine the pain Yurishi had to endure. It was shocking for Scarlett to see someone as cheerful and kind as Kaine to display such a violent action... and enjoy it. She expected the slaughter she was talking about earlier, but she would admit - that surprised her.

Silence froze the whole audience, including Scarlett. Yurishi didn't make any move, not even a sign that he would get up. That would mean... "He won..." Scarlett whispered and grabbed Neku and Mykeisha by the hands.

"HE WON!" Scarlett's voice exploded along with the massive cheers of the crowd. "KAINE WON THE GAME!" Scarlett bursted in the same hysterical joy as the one after Neku's victory. "DID YOU SEE THAT? I TOLD YOU SO! HE WON!" The hysterical manner remained, but the mood quickly shifted from joyful to panic. "YURISHI MUST GO TO THE HOSPITAL INSTANTLY!" Then her mood shifted to happiness again. "KAINE STILL WON! AAAAAAAHH!" It would be a rarity for Scarlett to have been trough a hysterical cheer without hugging someone, so Neku, Mykeisha and a random stranger found themselves in her powerful embrace.

Soon after everything, Alois announced the next contestants, which were Zen and Zaku. "Hey! Neku!" Scarlett finally broke the group hug. "Isn't Zen your master?"

Piper smiled when Kaine won. The crowd was going wild and Piper once again wondered where her friends happened to be... Was Neku drinking? Scarlett she was ok right? And Kaine... If that idiot got hurt she was going to scold him! Turning back to her arm Piper huffed. It would not be working back to full potential... The metal had gotten scorched and the shock seemed to have melted a few of the much smaller and thinner pieces of metal. Piper smiled to herself despite her broken arm. This day was turning out to be oddly fun despite her growing worry and protectiveness over her friends increasing. She really hated having to watch them fight from the sidelines... That was not how she worked. At all! But she would watch for now...

The young red-haired girl timidly clutched Kaine's hands with her own, and all was seeming well as he felt her magik begin to thread through to meet his own, until some woman shouting after Scarlett manage to slam right into the two of them, effectively startling and disrupting the easy flow that she was sending through Kaine's hands. What happened next was so intense and apparent that not even the two currently fighting wouldn't have seen it. A loud bang, like the sound of two large forces colliding straight into one another resounded throughout the area, with a magnificent aura that bloomed around the two who were tightly clasping hands. The effect only lasted for a second, but needless to say, Kaine was instantly taken aback. His earlier smile was immediately replaced with an a serious scowl of concentration, which only lasted a few seconds before his left eye twitch into a tight wince of pain as he sounded a strained groan to match it.

"Whoa...!!" Kaine felt the girl's energy, and it was indeed unstable, but that wasn't the only thing... She had a lot of it, and it was one of the most dangerous types... Scarlett then chose that moment to ask if they were alright, which Kaine merely gave her a tensed "Mm-hm...!" in reply, trying to concentrate. Still hanging onto her hands tightly so as not to let the after effects of the energy loose onto the area around them, Kaine's body strained against the force of the collision; the sudden action having set his own energy's balance off, which made his counter against it a little late. It was overpowering him at the moment... The unstable energy spread up his arms, and into the frame of his shoulders. The next moment, Kaine's left knee buckled slightly, forcing him to hunch awkwardly. "Arrgh...!! DAMN...! Haha...you're pretty awesome...!" Kaine couldn't help but give her a pained smile as his voice shook; he thought her energy was spectacular, despite it being so dangerous.

His injury was getting worse, and the grading effects of the type of magik that her power decided to choose for her began taking it to the next level as blood started staining the shoulder area of his white shirt, slowly blotching more and more until it was gently running down his ribcage, staining the rest of his left side as it went. In fact, the only way this could have happened from the type of wound that Kaine had, was if its nature was changed by Alchemy, however...this was magik... Now breathing heavily, it was obvious that the girl must be very frightened, as were the people around the two of them, friend or not. By the first sight of blood, people were backing away, not wanting to get involved in the incident. Now realizing he wasn't thinking too clearly, that it was a mistake to try something like this with an injury of that level, Kaine groaned once more.

Finally, just as things weren't looking too good for him, he felt his own energy match the girl's, and he thought to bring his class power into effect, in order to stop the pain from forcing him to relinquish his hold on her hands, but decided against it as he felt his magik balancing itself with the after effects of the girl's. "Alright..." he said with an exhausted exhale. "I'll slowly bring it down... J-Just hang on..." And with that, the pressure they could both feel between the two of them finally eased more and more, until Kaine let go of the girl's hands, by which, his body decided to give out, forcing him to his knee as he breathed heavily while propping himself up with one hand. It was incredible; the starting explosion of energy didn't even last for more than a second, but the aftershock from the whole thing was so lasting! Kaine hadn't ever felt anything like it... Was this how his own energy felt when he first had to train it? He was now wondering what Piper's felt like -- there were so many powerful energies around him; it was overwhelming him with excitement.

'Allison' stood up and slowly made her way along the row of seats she was just watching the matches from, passing by peoples' legs without even bothering to pardon herself as she followed Evan's lead. They made their way down the long steps of the spectator stands, eventually reaching the ground floor. As they continued on, they passed by several people, among which was a short young girl fixing an interesting golden arm that was held in place by a rock-formed pillar. Close beside that girl was a taller, thinner woman who couldn't seem to stand still completely, every now and then a small zap of electricity would conduct between her fingertips, whether involuntary or by choice, Allison didn't know -- nor did she care. However, her eyes were currently glued on that magnificent metal arm, the likes of which she had never seen before, as they walked. This made her appear as though she were nothing more than a young child; attracted to whatever pretty thing caught her ignorant eye. Her head's position lingered in the girl's direction as her body kept walking after Evan, until she bumped right into his back, which startled her out of the daze she was in with her head snapping back to him.

"S-Sorry..." she said, taking a couple of steps back. It began to get a little crowded; more so than that of the spectator stands, which Allison looked back up at. They were looking more and more comfortable at every step she and Evan took towards the ring's side. Choosing to keep her eyes forward, so as not to have a repeat in clumsiness like before, she continued on, brushing by people as she went. 'SERIOUSLY getting far more crowded than I signed up for here...' she thought. Although, as luck would have it, they finally reached the railing that separated the crowd from the contestants' area of spectating, and it was like a whole world opened itself up to Allison. She stopped, looking left and right as she took in just how much space there truly was. It almost gave her an uneasy feeling; as though she were the elephant in the room, and everyone was watching her. Sure, she didn't like crowds, but they did do their job at concealing her presence from most idiots who thought not to look for her through more professional methods. Her current situation however, with certain people already knowing she was there, that tactic no longer made a difference, and so she brushed off the feeling she was having, choosing to be grateful for the opportunity that Evan had presented to her.

They finally walked along the railing's pathway until they were standing right in front of the ring. Allison could smell the mixture of sweat and blood, as well as Earth dust coming from the stage; likely do to the accumulation of previous fight results. This smell didn't really bother her any, as it wasn't something she hadn't smelled before... After taking a moment to get her barrings over their new location, she looked passed the two current contestants and instantly locked her eyes back onto Kaine. From her position, it appeared as though she were merely watching the match and nothing else. This was perfect -- far better than where she was before. Without taking her eyes off of her target, she leaned slightly to her right, where Evan was standing beside her, and thanked him rather simply, raising her voice slightly above normal so he could hear her over the crowd noise and what was going on within the ring.

Neku laughed, "That's what I'm doing here, back in my hometown," Neku watched the match but talked as if he was remembering his past, "my training is almost complete, all I have to do is complete my mission here, and then I'm a full fledged master." he smirked, "I could have an apprentice and everything, the way of a true sage."

Evan snapped back fully to reality and was being thanked for the spot by Allison. He said it was no problem. "So Allison, you sound a lot like someone else I know." Evan saw Zaku's scythe, and was surprised because this was the most emotion Zaku had shown in all the time he'd known him. "So why are you here Allison?"

Zaku reared back for a rushing attack, but Zen threw his hand up. "I cede." Zaku was caught off guard, he lost his scythe and spoke in anger to the old man, "WHAT?!, what's wrong with you, fight me!" Zen smiled but only said knowingly but only loud enough that only Zaku could hear, "I know what happened, a passing messenger told me of rumors, of the island burning down." Zaku lost his anger and was replaced with a look of astonishment, Alois announced him the winner, he didn't notice. "I was actually surprised to see that you survived, your father always told me what a strong little one you where, but let your lust for vengeance consume you, and you'll become worse than the one you seek to destroy." Zen walked from the ring, but Neku didn't see where he went, as usual. Zaku walked from the ring, and thought to himself 'Foolish old man, what does he know of my family and me,' he walked over to a side of the ring with as few people as possible. 'He couldn't possibly understand what I want."

"Hey," Tempest, asked, "You knew the guy that won right? Do ya... Do ya wanna go see how he's doing?"

From the looks of things, that arm wasn't going to be functioning anywhere near what it was supposed to be. Her spine tickled with the sensation she had learned to associate with being watched. There was nothing a thief dreaded more, and one as good as she had learned to be cautious and accurate with gauging whose eyes were upon her.

Hazel green eyes darted through the crowd, landing on some girl with white hair and a hood on. Spazzy's eyes narrowed. The girl was staring at Piper's arm like it was some kind of shiny new toy in a store window. Her first instincts were to guard and hoard, like she would when some other up-and-coming newbie would think that he could hit a mark before she could.

She couldn't stifle a chuckle when she saw the girl run right into the back of the guy she was supposedly following. Serves her right. She looked back at Piper and frowned a little.

"Look, I, uh, I know you said that you wanted to fight... I feel like I owe you something for not only ruining your mechanics but taking that away from you too. Is there... Is there anything I could do to fix this or repay you?"

Her pride screamed in protest of the offer, but her honor wouldn't be swayed otherwise. There wasn't much else she could do at this point except throw herself onto a stranger's mercy and pray that her sponsor wouldn't find out. If he knew, he'd surely pull her funding and send her right back to her family. She couldn't do that to them.

And if it meant brown-nosing this girl to keep her instability under wraps, then so be it.

Piper blinked at Tempest and smiled gently. "Oy... Chill out." She smiled softly. "I got my own issues with magic... While I got near perfect and precise control of my earth magic..." She held up the crude replacement arm she'd made from rock so she could at least fix the other. "My light magic flares out of control it's wicked powerful like white fire but... I loose control so easily..." Piper looked at her metal arm in defeat she'd just give it to one of her friends when it was her turn to fight. "So point is don't worry bout it..." Piper turned her head and gave a grin. "Now let's go find one of my friends so I can tell them to hold my arm while I beat up some rich kid."

Piper stood tall and proud and spun on her heels as she marched into the crowd leading Tempest. As they walked through the crowd Piper called out a name once and awhile. She was short as hell so really her search required people looking for her instead of her looking for them. "Oy! Kaine! Scarlette! Neku! Zhu! Blondy!" Piper looked around growing more and more frustrated as people nearly ran her over and pushed her about with annoying ease. Oh how she wished she could simply use some of her earth magic to make a tour or light magic to force people to notice but those would be much to disruptive. Dang it all! The woes of a short person!

Scarlett was surprised when Zen surrendered. She really wanted to know why did he give the victory to Zaku just like that. "Maybe Zaku needed it more than Zen for some reason... and Zen knew that..."

"Oh my goodness! Did you hear that, guys? Did you? Did you?" After each sentence Scarlett's voice was raising more and more in excitement. "I'll be back!" She didn't seem to use her class power, but she still quickly disappeared in the crowd.

"Hear what?" Saphire asked in confusion. "W-why did the master surrender?" She asked, apparently not being able to receive answers trough her extra senses.

"LOOK WHO'S HEREEE!" Scarlett came back to the others while holding Piper trough the waist like she was a puppy.

Evan ignored every other thing "Allison" said, but did understand all of it. 'Ask her now,' Virgil suggested. "Why'd you lie, about your name." Evan stood and wiped away some more blood that leaked from his nose. He took his right glove off and pinched his nose and leaned forward to try and stop the bleeding. A birthmark in the shape of a shining sun could be seen on his hand, though slightly covered by a line of blood coming from a bruised cut on his knuckle. "You called it on those thugs, but they're gone for a while, and I heard them talking about you though, about how Allison is an old cover."

Neku smiled at Scarlett's energy. She was eager to learn, and seemed to have the spirit of an adventurer. Neku considered that maybe she was apprentice material if he did become a sage. "Well long time no see Piper," Neku said happily. Zhu cawed with joy, "You've missed a few things, and wait," Neku looked around her, "Where's Evan, didn't you go looking for him why didnt he come back with you?"