Chapter 1: New Faces, New Mission

[stardust]

Stardust lifted her head when she felt someone step inside the elevator with her. It was the blue-haired, tattooed, pierced freak who was just with them in the briefing room.

"Oh," There was boredom in his tone. "It's you." Stardust's face turned solemn. Who does he think he is? she thought. It was obvious he was treating her like she was some cadet or something. He was just a newcomer. If it was to legal to kick him out of the elevator, she would've done that in a heartbeat. It would make the elevator descend much faster.

"Know your place, newbie." she hissed, crossing her arms and scowling at the glass window.

[miyavi]

Sho's answer was immediate and without pause.

"And stop calling me names, freak."

[stardust]

Stardust stopped and looked at him. Freak? She exhaled. Who the heck is the freak here?

/Now Stardust/ Diwata butted in.

Averting her eyes from the guy, Stardust tried to exercise patience. "Just don't talk to me."

[miyavi]

He shrugged turned away, muttering to himself.

"Like I'd want to. Why bother with someone like you?"

[stardust]

The elevator ride was short. As soon as Stardust heard the "ding" of the elevator's arrival on the first floor, she didn't waste anytime and headed for the door, purposely jabbing shoulders with Sho on her way out.

/Stardust/ Diwata said. /Must you greet ALL of your new teammates like this? You always give them bad impression and whatnot, that's why you have a lot of enemies/

Don't make me unjunction you again, Stardust replied, briskly treading her way around the corridor to get to the infirmary. She felt her heart skip a little faster the moment she caught sight of the corridor leading to the Infirmary. She hoped that Reese would be okay.

***********
I'm going to make an ST post, but meh XD *lazy* It's time for teh charries to do some random stuffs and whatnot. ^.^ Go cherish this FREE time while it lasts. >)

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze smirked and looked away. So Tomoe had taken a chance and done something different. She was the one that did the outrageous and unthinkable this time. Blaze figured she couldn't hog that kind of thing all the time, even though she knew nobody could compare.

"So that's why you're back on the team... you went though all this effort so that you could re-join this mission?" Blaze loosened her stance, "That makes sense. But don't think you're off the hold. 'Cause I'm gonna be testing you to see if you're still Tomoe or not." Blaze gave a satisfactory smirk.

The two walked to the elevator.

"You don't know how much you've missed," Blaze suddenly blurted to Polaris as they went, "First of all..."

Blaze began talking about everything that had happened, from Stardust and Reese's romance to "Jun not being so bad, she's the only one that has a brain in the mission," to the encounter they had with David and the others at April's apartment.

"Reese being in ICU.. I don't know what's gonna happen with Stardust. Little freak slapped me when I got on her case about him," Blaze told Polaris. Then she hesitated. Should she tell Poaris about her suspicions regarding Reese?

Blaze decided better of it... it was risky to tell someone what Blaze believed, even though the two were best friends. She knew the consequences if she was wrong. Consequences besides utter humiliation, anyway.

[Polaris Lyn]

"Little freak slapped me when I got on her case about him."

Yeah, sure Polaris had heard everything, but there was only one thing stuck on her mind as they boarded the elevator.

Amaerick...and INFINITY?!?!

She couldn't help it. She busted into insane, Blaze-like, gleeful laughter, partly because of the idea of Reese Amaerick and Stardust Infinity being together romantically, and partly because of belated relief that Blaze hadn't snubbed her. Blaze looked a bit bewildered, having snapped out of her quiet reverie just a few moments before. Blinking away the tears of joy in her eyes, Polaris heaved a deep sigh, her stomach aching.

"Sorry," she apologized to Blaze. "I was thinking about how freaky and paranoid their kids would be if those two ever got together."

She sighed again, then turned a thoughtful gaze to Blaze, who was deep in thought again.

"You're hiding something," Polaris stated, knowing it as simple fact. "There's something you're not telling me. I can see it on your face." She shrugged and crossed her arms in her typical thinking pose, turning her attention to the elevator doors in front of them. "Tell me when you're sure you can, alright?"

[miyavi]

The pinkhead purposely slammed into Sho on her way out the elevator, anger radiating from her in waves. Sho could practically imagine her aura, a dark, fierce fuschia, pushing away anyone who dared come near.

He laughed. What a weirdo.

"Aa," he said to himself, speaking aloud, "she's boring one minute, pissy the next. That's not a good combination."

A female cadet glanced at him as he sauntered down the stairs from the elevator taking a left at the bottom and heading down the aisle. He flashed her a grin and she blinked, flushed, and hurried away. Another cadet, struggling with a Fire spell, caught a glance of the blue-haired figure in white, and waved. Sho raised his left hand in greeting, light glinting of the silver ring on his ring finger.

[glow=green,2,000]You weren't being friendly. I hardly believe "freak" is a term to use when meeting someone for the first time.[/glow]

"Just reciprocating what I felt from her," Sho replied, strolling into the library, and Zephyr quieted. Sho grinned, a wicked, gleaming smirk that rivaled Seifer Almasy's. Having a Guardian Gorce moonlighting as his conscience made for interesting conversation.

Not like Pinko the Demented Witch. When she wasn't boring, she had a stick up the rectum. And Sho dislike both qualities.

"Sho!" Aislinn Vera, the current librarian on duty, called his name, and he turned his sky-blue head. "Hi."

"Yo," he replied, winking. Aislinn beamed. "I think you know what I came here for."

"The new Timber Maniacs are right over there." Aislinn pointed, and Sho nodded his thanks before dropping himself gracefully into a chair and pulling a magazine towards him. He placed his sneakered feet onto the table, turned the first page, and settled in. He still had a while before the Headmistress came a-calling.

[ST]

Sho

As you flip on some of the pages of Timber Maniacs, a cute, petite face catches your eyes. It was a little schoolgirl, just around her preteens--dark haired and had passive wide brown eyes. As you read further, you found out that her name was Larucea Khan. It turned out that the girl was much older than she looked. She was actually in her mid twenties, though her total physique didn't look like a day past 14. What kind of women do Timber Maniacs surround its fetishes nowadays, you thought. Apparently, she was currently working for the governor of Timber, Mayor Arland, and had been very famous for the extraordinary things she could do.

Suddenly, your reading was interrupted when you feel a looming figure over your head. Turning to look at the person behind, you found yourself face to face with a tall, buff SeeD. There was another skinny tall SeeD beside him, probably a posse of some sort.

"Well well, if it isn't Mr. Technicolor..." His lopsided grin widened. "You took the issue that I wanted. I want it back." The other SeeD beside him smirked.

[stardust]

The peppermint scent of the infirmary lingered in the air. Stardust got paler the moment she stepped inside where Dr. Kadowaki greeted her at first glance. She led Stardust to where Reese's cubicle was upon the pink-haired's request.

"We might transfer him to the nearest hospital in a few days," the old doctor said. "He has suffered multiple injuries, and he lost a lot of blood." She placed a hand on her pocket. "He has been stabbed, fractured, and bruised all over. It's a miracle that he's still breathing."

Stardust wanted to answer but it seemed like her whole attention was glued at Reese's current condition. This wasn't a funny at all. Laying unconscious on the white mattress, there were tubes all around him that led to different monitoring machines. An oxygen mask was covering his nose and mouth, showing nothing but his pale cheeks and closed eyes. There were bandages around his torso and temple. There were bruises here and there.

What happened here...?! She wanted to say out loud. Was this the so-called business that he was telling her last night? Who did this!?

"He didn't have to have bandages. A simple curaga could've closed all his wounds, am I right?" Stardust tried to sound optimistic but was brought down when the doctor shook her head.

"It's not that easy. He seemed to have been exposed to an unknown kind of spell. His body repels any kind of soothing magic and translates it to pain, worsening his injuries."

Stardust found it difficult to swallow. Her heartbeat picked up.

"If this keeps up, he might not be able to surviv--."

"Is there anything we can do?!" she insisted, starting to sound distressed.

"I'm afraid not that much," Dr. Kadowaki glanced at Reese. "I've done all I could do to patch him up. All we can do is pray and wait for positive results." There was no hint of hope in the doctor's tone at all. It was obvious that she was trying to lighten something that was really complicated.

Stardust pressed her palms on her forehead. This isn't happening...not again... Wasn't she just laughing with him last night? How did everything come to this?

/Stardust.../

"We found out something, Ms. Infinity." Dr. Kadowaki said afterwards, but the girl didn't seem to hear her. "The way we found Reese was exactly the same when found Laice when she got dumped by DotNA." Stardust lifted her head. "Garden caught the distress signal coming from a DoTNA airship hours ago. It's like they wanted us to find them."

Stardust's forehead wrinkled. Her lips parted slightly. "What did you just say?"

DotNA..?

[miyavi]

"Well well, if it isn't Mr. Technicolor..."

Sho blinked, only a bit surprised at the sudden loss of light, and tilted his head back to catch an upside-down glimpse of a familiarly ugly face.

"You took the issue that I wanted. I want it back."

Sho blinked, head still tilted back. "Aa," he said, his Deling City accent lilting his low voice, "you must be blinded by my so-called 'Technicolor' hair, Sergei, because there's a stack right over there of the issue you wanted." Without looking, he gestured somewhat lazily in one direction. "Or maybe this is your ridiculously obvious way of picking a fight with me." Sho's brown eyes then slid to the tall, skinny boy that stood behind the bully. "And wipe that stupid expression off your face, Imani. You look kinda constipated. Been having too much of the cafeteria food, haven't you?" He nodded sagely, bringing his head back down and ignoring the steady reddening of both Sergei's and Imani's faces. "Anou, those creepy sloppy joes will do things to your digestive tract."

He returned his attention to the rather interesting article about Larucea Khan, but blinked when Sergei's large, meaty fist slammed into the table his feet were propped upon.

"Aa." He nodded. "Let me guess, you want your fist to meet my face?"

Sergei let out an angry bellow, sounding, to Sho's amusement, somewhat like an angry warthog, and aimed a punch in his direction. Sho, through years of training, nimbly pushed himself backward using his feet, his chair landing on the carpeted floor. Imani was above him in a blink of an eye, a booted foot ready to crush Sho's nose. Rolling aside, Sho narrowly missed the attack, and rose to his feet in one fluid movement, his eyes riveted to the article in his right hand, his free hand held out, palm up, like an invitation to a dance. He raised his gaze briefly to the two SeeDs, and he winked.

"Aa, let's dance."

Imani attacked. Sho stepped back as a glint of silver steel came out from the SeeD's long sleeves, the knife narrowly missing the front of Sho's jacket.

"Aa, be careful!" Sho said teasingly, dancing out of harm's way. "This is a library book!"

"Freak!" Imani yelled, thrusting the knife towards Sho's abdomen.

Sho free hand shot out, grasped Imani's wrist, and twisted; Imani screamed when a wet-sounding pop permeated the air. The cadets in the library appeared suddenly, as if called by the sound of battle, and Sho caught a glimpse of Aislinn looking on, a frown etched upon her pretty features. Sho grinned, a feral smile of a warrior, and, still holding on to Imani's wrist with his left hand, kicked up in an inward arc, his shin making contact with the side of Imani's face.

The metal guards that wrapped around Sho's shins met Imani's cheekbone, and something cracked. Imani howled in pain and he fell to the side, his howls increasing in volume as Sho yanked at his dislocated forearm. Sho release his attacker's wrist, and Sergei appeared from his right side, punching wildly.

Sho dodged, once, twice, three times, and on the third time, after ducking Sergei's patented right hook, Sho's feet left the air in a backwards somersault, his right foot connecting with Sergei's chin. Sergei reeled back momentarily, dazed, and fell to one knee. Sho landed neatly on the balls of his feet, then rushed forward. A couple of steps forward, and then Sho whirled around, his foot coming up and then slamming down upon Sergei's shoulder. The axe kick brought Sergei down to both knees and Sho let out a sharp breath as he let the momentum carry him around a second time, his second spin kick landing a blow on Sergei's temple. Sergei went down with a yell, blood sputtering from his mouth in small rivulets. Sho moved back, bouncing on the balls of his feet, and then Aislinn's voice cut through the awestruck air.

"Sho Miyavi!!"

Sho glanced up guiltily, and raised his hands. "Aa, they were the ones that started it, and I just--"

"I don't care if they threatened you at gunpoint!" Aislinn looked murderous. "I swear, if you ruined one page of the 'Timber Maniacs' issue, I'll shoot you myself!!"

"Hah??" Sho blinked, realization dawning, and then grinned, causing a few girls in the crowd to blush. "Aa, Aislinn, you should know me better." He held out his right hand, his thumb keeping the page on the article he was reading. "Not a single scratch. Anou, can I borrow this issue, though?? Dumb and Dumber didn't let me finish reading."

Aislinn scowled. "Bring it back in pristine condition, Miyavi, or I'll shove bullets so far up your--"

"Duly noted." Sho winked.

Aislinn let out a derisive snort. "And by the way, you're cleaning up this mess." She gestured to the fallen bodies.

Sho's jaw dropped. "But I didn't do anything!!"

Aislinn's gaze was sharp enough to cut through adamantium. "You should feel grateful that I didn't report you for misconduct. Take them to the Infirmary, or it's the Disciplinary Room for you." She stalked away, and the crowd dispersed, murmurs about the fight filling the air.

Sho frowned, shoving the rolled-up issue of "Timber Maniacs" in a pocket of his jacket. "Aa, lousy bums..."


Sho sighed, shifting the heavy weight of Imani's body on his left shoulder and securing his grip on Sergei's collar. It had been a tough job, carrying these two from the Library to the Infirmary, but he was there.

Sergei grunted softly, his body dragging on the cool marble floors. It was easy enough to hoist Imani over his left shoulder, but Sho wasn't about to break his back carrying Sergei's girth. So, with much glee, Sho had simply dragged the bigger man through the halls, much to the amazement of the students and chargin of the half-asleep Sergei.

The automatic doors to the Infirmary opened silently, and Sho strolled through, still dragging Sergei. "Aa, Dr. Kadowaki," he called, glancing around. "I've got some patients for you."

---

Anou, was the fight alright? *is worried* If it's not, feel free to edit it out...

[ST]

Bun, usually you're not allowed to name and control the NPCs unless you got permission from somebody to control them (then it's perfectly fine), but your fight scene was okay since I don't think it changed any plot and it was fun to read ^.^ It's just that ST's need to write for the NPCs or you might accidentally change some plot without knowing it.

---

Sho
Miss Kadowaki, Dr. Kadowaki's daughter, runs up to you and groans.

"Miyavi, were you fighting with these two again?? Hyne, these two were just release this morn-- BLEVINS!" Miss Kadowaki suddenly yells, jerking her head back, "I told you not to cast cure on yourself, the poison will seal in!"

Miss Kadowaki looks back at you with a clear look of strain upon her face, "Dr. Kadowaki is treating a patient in ICU right now. Go put them on some empty stretchers over there, " she points, "You're off the hook but next time I don't care who started it, you're all getting Quad Duty." With that she runs over to Blevins to stop him from casting cure.

As you walk over to put the two men on the stretchers, you see someone standing by an ICU cubicle with pink hair and you know it's that girl you were fighting with in the elevator. You wonder what she's doing in the infirmary.

[miyavi]

I knew it would be something like that. *bows & scrapes* Sorry about that, but I felt like a little skirmish wouldn't harm the plot in any way, and I won't do it again...and besides, Sho did it! *runs away* 0.0

Sho - *sputters* NANI?!?! *throws a shoe* BAKA!!!

---

Sho threw Imani off his shoulder, and the skinny boy landed with a soft thump on the bed. Getting Sergei onto his bed was bit harder, but Sho finally managed it. After dusting off his hands, Sho searched into his pockets for a stick of gum ( if you can't already tell, his hoodie has many pockets ) as he walked up right behind the pinkhead he had met in the elevator earlier. He turned to look at what she was staring at and saw a body there, bruised and battered beyond belief. An oxygen mask prevented Sho from seeing much of the mysterious patient's face, but he could see closed eyes and pale cheeks. Sho frowned.

"Eyeliner-Wearing Metro Kid's a good name for this guy," he mumbled to himself. He shrugged to himself - this guy was none of his business - and turned away, finding the once-lost stick of gum and unwrapping it, then folding the stick in his mouth. He headed for the exit.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Bun, it's ok! I was just letting you know. Besides, this whole 'delay at the garden' is all free time, so don't worry about it XD It was an awesome post too ^.^ and you’ll get to control more NPCs in the future, mwahah >D

---

"Tell me when you're sure you can, alright?" Polaris said as she and Blaze went down the elevator.

"yeah..." Blaze scratched her shoulder, "it's not important. Listen I gotta go change and stuff, some asshole threw me into a pile of ashes and my clothes still smell like soot. I'll be at the training center later," she said to Polaris and left for the dorms.

When Blaze got to her dorm and opened the door, she sighed at the sight of familiarity. She felt like she hadn't been home in ages. It was just this morning that Xu told them that they had successfully retrieved the emerald, yet it felt like a month had past since that time.

Blaze fed her fighting fish while unwrapping the dirty grey bandages from her arms and applying fresh new white ones. After she changed into new clothes that looked exactly like her old ones, she picked up her laptop that Garden gives every student and sat cross-legged in her bed with the laptop resting snugly in her lap.

"Defenders of the New Age moles," she typed into the search bar. She wasn't expecting to find Reese's name or anything, she wanted to find out more about moles, seeing as Laice was a mole and ended up insane. A bunch of links popped up and she clicked on the anti-adel sites.

"It is rumored that the dotNA do not take betrayal lightly." Blaze's eyes scanned the page, ".... probably killed or tested on."

tested on?

"Defenders of the New Age tested on," she typed back into the search bar.

"The Defenders of the New Age claim to want to bring nothing but helpful and advanced technology to our world. They are currently working on a formula that will stop a person from aging. They claim that once the ‘side effects’ of their formula are worked out, they will release the product to the nation.

However, Anti-Adel mobs are protesting in the streets, arguing that aging is a natural process and demanding to know how the dotNA have tested their product. They want to know what the side effects are and how lethal.

The dotNA have declined to offer any more comments besides the fact that they promise not to release the product until it is safe.”

Blaze sneered. This was typical of the dotNA. She figured that the article didn't help at all, this was stuff the dotNA spewed out all the time.

[ST]

Polaris, Jun and Rayden

Just as Blaze leaves, the elevator dings open and Jun and Rayden step out. For a moment, you three look at each other, unsure of what to say.