Princess Arizella never was one to be intimidated--Imp's snarl only elicited a look of consternation. When she swiped the contents of her desk onto the floor and Imp and Trouble mutually vacated the room, Arizella did not react. There was a silence before Sage spoke--nobody else had understood how that could possibly be offensive. Did Imp hate books? She seemed the type.

Arizella's favorite mug lay smashed on the ground, over a heap of student papers and her lunch container, which had popped open, spilling chicken soup on the floor under the papers. Arizella betrayed nothing.

The class listened, uncomfortable in their seats. When Sage had finished speaking, they realized no one else was moving or saying anything. There was another pause, and then Princess Arizella smiled and said, in a voice sweet as could be, "Sage, could you see to your friends? They seem upset about something."

***

Imp and Trouble scampered up the ladder to the hatch, popping out onto the shore of Phoenix Island. Storming away, they found themselves walking through the small woods on the island. Cutting back and forth between the trees, the two felt a sense of freedom.

Or, well, they did for a moment, anyways. Then in a harmless flash of light and hellfire, Hellbinder was before the two of them. He looked the part of an academic--one with pentagrams on his elbow patches and a red streak in shock white hair--although as everyone knew he used to look quite different, all leather, chains, and spikes puncturing out his own skin.

He said nothing, instead looking down sternly at the two of them.

***

There was a certain flexibility to the floor underneath Hunter's knees, a peculiar flexion to the world about him. The face followed him down, and it began babbling in reverse at him, spitting up what seemed to be brackish water as it did.

Hunter fell through the floor, instantly submerged in water without any warning at all. Looking up through the water, he saw the underside of some sort of an underwater chamber, wide and more or less rectangle-shaped. In the surprise, he had already lost much of his lungful of air.

OOC: Alright, what do y'all do? :)

Sage, defeated, simply nods and gets out of his seat to go look for Trouble and Imp.

Ooc: Murdered absolutely murdered.

But also do they find them? or am I just too far behind? I like to imagine Sage is jogging around school looking for them.

Trouble meets Hellbinder's gaze head on, the anger still roaring inside of her.

"This is supposed to be a school for heroes, yet some of the teachers here are bullies." Trouble snarls. "I'm not going to sit in a class listening to a teacher be passive aggressive and rude to Imp."

Trouble gets closer to Hellbinder, standing almost chest to chest (if they were the same size) staring into his eyes without flinching, subconsciously making sure Imp is behind her ready to protect Imp if needed. "Are you going to do anything about it?"

OOC: Trouble be mad, and I am already apologizing for the actions she may commit. She doesn't even have angry marked she's guilty-

Imp is very angry, very petty, and very ornery, but she isn’t stupid (all the time at least). And some part of her gets it- she’s the odd one out, the freak. It’d be one thing if she got kicked out of this school; might as well live up to expectations, right? But it’s another matter entirely if Hestia got in trouble on her account. Hestia at least has a chance to be something more than what she is.

So, she steps between them bringing her hands to Trouble’s shoulders; Both to soothe her and to try and get her to step down.

“Hestia, no. Not worth it.”

She turns to Hellbinder.

“No be angry at Hestia. Imp’s fault, Imp leave and knock over teachers things. Hestia… Hestia follow.”

OOC: damn, I can’t believe Imp has a soft spot for her adoptive sister, who’d a thunk?

Hunter doesn't question his situation, insane as it is, right now he needed to not drown. He swims up towards the chamber to find a way in. OOC: Is this a moonpool sort of deal? Or just the bottom of something?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:44, Fri 08 July 2022.

OOC: Mini-update for introducing our new player. :D

Hunter cannot perceive Piper.

Hunter swam around the bottom of the chamber, searching for purchase, some way in. He found no way in, and the burning in his lungs steadily increased.

***

Meanwhile, Piper found his way through the secret underground forest facilities which the upperclassmen used, when he suddenly heard the sound of strangled breathing from inside the chamber he was about to enter.

Piper, prepared for the worst and sunder in hand, slowly opens the secret entrance and finds a fellow student laying in his secret hideout. Piper let’s out a relieved sigh and checks on his fellow student.

“Can’t believe this, Hunter fucking Graves, mister perfect, having an acid trip in my hideout?!” he chuckles “You seem to be having a bad trip buddy, do you need some help?” Piper reaches into his ragged patched pouch and pulls out a small well groomed mouse with a pompadour “hey Dreamer, find me a stretchers worth of rats please; you get extra treats tonight” he tickles the mouse’s chin then gently places him onto the floor.
After that he goes to Hunter’s side and checks him for lucidity by waving his hand in Hunter’s face, “Hey there buddy, you ok?”

Ooc: I’m gonna describe piper a bit! Piper's most noticeable by his Burger King crown that he wears everywhere. Most of pipers clothes can be described as tattered ragged and unkept. He usually wears a large patched jacket. He always carries around a green patched satchel where he keeps a number of rats lovingly referred to as R-force. Piper is short and has terrible posture. His color pallets he uses a lot of dark greens and greys

Just when Hunter felt the last breath escape his lungs, the surface above him shone from within, and that same face, his father's face, pressed against the surface. It was speaking against the seemingly plasticine surface, but Hunter could not hear.

***

Inside the chamber, there were several seats and electrical equipment installed in the side of the rosewood wall. This was the chamber where they simulated high-G spaceflight. This chamber was actually capable of liquefying a regular human being, in order to train students capable of withstanding dramatically higher G forces.

When Piper finally walked around Hunter, he found the over-achiever's eyes rolled back in his head. This is when Piper finally registered the rigidity of Hunter's body as he stood perfectly straight, the sweat beading on his face. This wasn't a drug trip.

Then Piper heard a voice, that of Doctor Starlight:

"This, students, is our artificial spaceflight chamber. Here, we'll begin by doing a series of tests to cat- Piper, what did I tell you?"

Before Piper knew it, Doctor Starlight was on him, pulling him by the ear towards the door.

"And who did you get mixed up in your delinquency, now? Young one?"

***

Hellbinder listened quite closely to what Trouble and Imp had to say. He looked down at Trouble as she interrogated him. He scowled.

Then Imp started speaking, too. His gaze wandered too steadily to fix on Imp.

Imp spoke, and after a moment Hellbinder responded, saying, "I have no earthly clue what either of you are talking about. More importantly, a class of seniors are having a mock battle--you should consider leaving the forest."

Suddenly, laser vision crackling across the ground and a senior speedster dodging through the area--he was looking back, and didn't see any of the three in his way.

OOC: Hey, Imp, Trouble, tell me how you defend yourselves from this one. :)

***

Sage popped out the hatch, looked about. Behind her, the water. Ahead of her, the path back to the beach. To the right, the beach stretched on and up to the rock cliff, and to the left, the beach terminated at the dock, and a path leading in to the main grounds. In front of him, Sage saw the woods.

No sign of Imp or Trouble from here, but Sage knew that they had apparently been ejected from class.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:30, Sat 09 July 2022.

“Hey teach its not what it looks like! That kid is having a seizure or something like that!” Piper protests, but in case Doctor Starlight is being extra dense today he speaks to Caliban “hey dude, I might not get out of this pickle in time to help Hunter. Go and lead Beautiful Dreamer’s men to take Hunter to the infirmary.” Ever duty-bound the albino rat leaps off of Piper’s shoulder into the same trap door they entered, awaiting reinforcements.

Sage sighed wishing they could go back in time to the 80s before all this shite happened but alsa he was stuck in the here and now.

Weighing her options she decided to first check for tracks. He realized very quickly that there were far too many footprints in the sand and that they also had no idea how to track, so that idea was quickly scrapped.

In the end the two smartest options seemed to be either going up on the rocks to get a better vantage point or going back to the main grounds. Sage figured it unlikely that they simply wandered into the woods.

Not knowing what to do he pulled out a coin,

heads he goes to the main grounds, tails she heads towards the rocks.

Heads

OOC: Guess who is going to the main grounds!

Imp immediately reacts by tackling Trouble out of harms way. As they fall, Imp will use her monstrous morphology to create a chitinous shell around the two of them that generates from the quills that run down her arms.

OOC: Imp rolls to defend.
Imp rolled 4 using 2d6+1 ((1,2)).
Kill me. On the bright side, she now has enough potential for an advancement.

Trouble grabs Imp as Imp tackles her, twisting herself around so her back is now towards the danger. She pushes off the ground, focusing her strength in her legs, jumping as high as she can.

OOC: Trouble rolls to defend - Trouble rolled 11 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,5. bro I also want to clear a condition goddamn I rolled high-

Hunter could feel his consciousness beginning to slip... but he couldn't die here. Summoning the last of his strength, he calls out from under the icy water.

"ONE LAST PUSH, ABSOLUTION!"

The mech suit forms around Hunter, it's radiant light cutting through the chilling depths. Hunter launches forward, using everything he has to break through the surface.

OOC: 02:26, Today: Ironforged Hunter Graves rolled 6 using 2d6 ((4,2)).

Finally, some fucking potential. (I curse, Hunter doesn't.)
This message was last edited by the player at 06:28, Tue 12 July 2022.

The air was running out, and Hunter's vision was getting cloudier by the second. The blue of the surface above faded, and Hunter felt his body becoming heavier as he began slipping away.

"ONE LAST PUSH, ABSOLUTION!"

The voice rang out through time, and Hunter's armor erupted over his body, insulating him from the cold. Hunter erupted through the surface.

He erupted through, into the ice. Hunter knew he had been here, frozen in time and place for a very long time. From his place, Hunter stood triumphantly in Ironforged, emanating a bluish light over the wasteland. Many visitors had come to him over time, and they had come to call him The Obelisk. Now, a visitor came to Hunter, clad in thick clothes.

Their figure was slight, and they walked slow across the frost. Hunter knew, somehow, that he could halt the stranger's approach.

***

Trouble launched Imp and herself through the air on powerful legs, coursing high. Below them, a sound like a bullet whizzing by underneath.

Then, a massive collision against the shell Imp had formed around the two of them, splitting the shell and sending the sisters in two directions. As the two pulled themselves off the ground, they saw two others here.

First, a blond girl in a bright green suit with a cape. She rose up in the air slowly, nearly ominously, energy crackling at her eyes. Imp and Trouble knew her as Falcon.

The other, clad in black and blue, the speedster known as Speedball.

He spoke first. "You're gonna regret getting in the way. We were going easy because we're in a Club, but I don't  know you, and that could have hurt Falcon. Put your dukes up."

With these words, Speedball blitzed Trouble, vanishing from his spot in an all-out attack.

***

Sage walked up onto the main path into the school grounds, perhaps wagering that they went to their dorm. They got some distance down the road when Hellbinder appeared out of nowhere with a flash. He menaced down at her, as if judging whether or not to attack at precisely this moment.

He didn't look like Hellbinder, but the bright flash and the hellfire which rolled around his form was familiar to Sage, as he had seen Hellbinder on the news often in his youth.

***

Doctor Starlight did not waste any time in responding to the issue, letting go of Piper's ear and rushing to the side of Hunter.

"Do you know what happened, Piper?"

Suddenly, a chorus of shrieks from outside as the rats began pouring into the room from all entrances, surging up to tip Hunter over. (It helps, being in a forest filled with all sorts of wildlife.

"Oh, hell! Piper, do you know where the infirmary is from here? Please, direct the rats, quickly. Out of the way, students!"

Sage froze in place not knowing how to respond

A meek “hey...” escaped their lips

Was this really Hellbinder? They were unsure, after all they had never truly met him in person and only really knew him from the news.

Sage readied herself for a fight unaware of why she was being menaced however she was still scared shitless having known people who died during the incident.

“U-um I-I’m pretty sure your um uh Hellbinder Mr. Hellbinder. H-however I’m not sure why you're here I-I was given permission to leave class um I was told to go try and locate my two friends who left in a bit of a hurry.”

He continues to stubble over his words

“ I um was hoping that they might be… have gone back to the school. So I-i’m not causing any trouble or anything I don't think...”

OOC: I was told that I was allowed to pierce the mask to see what's going on and given the failure conditions either way I rolled an 8 so my question is What do you intend to do?

Sage Finch rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,1.

OOC: Just a mini-update for the results of that roll there:

As far as you can tell, he means to talk to you. Now, that could be for a threat or for some other reason, not that Sage is likely to understand what other reason there might be.

"Of course I know where the infirmary is teach, don't worry I've got it!" Piper puts his mask of confidence as Caliban jumps on to his shoulder again. "Alright bud, you remember where the infirmary was right?.... Ok, I'm gonna need you to lead these rats there.... Of course I remember where it is... no you should lead them because you uhhhh... need the practice"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:27, Wed 13 July 2022.

Sage shakily lowers their guard, for a moment.

“S-so why exactly are you here?...”

_{OOC: mini update}

Hunter took in the wasteland before him, breathing in what seemed like the first time in forever. His gaze fell upon the stranger, his face shrouded by a cloud of icy breath. A loud creeeeak echoed through the expanse as Ironforged began to come alive again, for the first time in ages. Ice fell from the mecha as it moved. Hunter pointed out from the cockpit at the figure closing in.

"You... tell me... where am I?"

OOC: 01:42, Today: Ironforged Hunter Graves rolled 4 using 2d6 ((3,1)).

Dream sequences are great for potential, apparently.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:43, Wed 13 July 2022.

Imp makes a split second decision and slams her fists to the ground. As they make contact, she uses her morphing ability to try and spread her flesh out far and change the immediate terrain into something hostile, alien, and inhospitable to attacks from the ground and sky.

The ground becomes a mess of teeth, muscle, barbed trees with grasping hands, and a floor made up of gaping maws. Only the branches of the “trees” provide a safe hand hold. She stands ready and on guard in the middle of the twisted growth.

She hopes to shield herself and Trouble from an immediate attack and to use the terrain in Guerilla-like fashion. In all honesty, she’s trying to morph the playing field to suite their strengths.

OOC: Today: Imp rolled 11 using 2d6+3 ((3,5)). LETS GOOOOOO

OOC: The terrain will not spread to Trouble--at least not before Trouble has to deal with that speedster. :)

Trouble shifts her focus of her powers from strength in her legs to forming spikes on her forearms, putting her arms up in front of her and bracing herself against the ground. She can't out-speed a speedster, but maybe she can can out-think one.

OOC: I think this is unleash? I had a really good roll last time so clearly this one is going to be bad, let's see. Trouble rolled 7 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 3,1. Okay uhh ... not as bad as I thought it would be due to my plus 3. I'll let you tell me how the effect is unstable/temporary :)

Accompanied by the rat swarm, Piper and Doctor Starlight rushed out into the underground hallway there. There was just one problem: Piper and his rats had seemingly no clue where to go.

"Piper, I'm...you clearly don't remember the way from here, so I'm going to give you some advice--as a hero, when you can't do something, you shouldn't lie and say you can."

He didn't say the next part--that this could get people killed, that this could affect Hunter--but that meaning hung in the air after he spoke. Doc stepped to the front, saying, "Now, follow me, let's not waste more time."

Doc took Piper around the bend.

***

Hellbinder leaned in, scowling down at Sage threateningly. After what seemed like an eternity, he merely said, "See to it that you do not leave classrooms often. You are free to move about, but technically, the teachers are also free to bring in a truancy officer."

Hellbinder started marching--goosestepping, really, he was an awful ominous and obviously evil bastard like that, you know, this was probably the sort of thing he did back in his days of killing kids--anyways, he started marching around Sage. After another pause, he said, "Who were your friends, child? The godling and her sister?"

***

Hunter found that Ironforged no longer moved, either of its own volition or by his own action. Hunter himself was frozen solid, and as he tried to move, some deep taboo inside Hunter's own mind held him fast. Yet in the impulse which he tried to act out, something happened nonetheless.

The frost about the outside of Ironforged rumbled and cracked, and began moving down as if being carried by the mech's frame. The stranger reacted immediately, stepping back quickly and moving out of the way of the frost as it shambled across the way.

To Hunter's surprise, his words slipped from his mouth as whispers in an alien tongue, playing out over the wasteland.

OOC: You can, of course, try to move again if you like, and I would support such a thing. :D

***

Trouble grew he spikes in her arm, shielding herself from the immediate effects of the blitz. This worked to defend her, however the impact of the repeated strikes from the speedster shifted Trouble around, throwing her back and out of the range of Imp's flesh forest, and completely outside of Imp's field of vision.

Speedball bounced back off of the last hit, and said, "Not bad. I just need to find the weak spot, though, don't I?"

Speedball rushed again, feinting high before sliding in low with a kick meant to sweep Trouble's legs out from under her.

Meanwhile, Falcon lifted into the air. Power continued to crackle at her eyes, and she immediately tested something on this flesh forest which had grown under her, choking the forest and several trees. Her eyes flashed several times, and flame crackled against the flesh forest. She waited to hear if there was a pain response.

Hunter attempted to move, to say anything, but he remained still. In his mind, he yelled out to the stranger before him, but his mouth did not budge.

OOC: 19:36, Today: Ironforged Hunter Graves rolled 6 using 2d6 ((3,3)).

Farming potential right now. It's not much, but it's honest work.

OOC: The stranger spends Team to help you, bringing the Team pool to 0. :)