Young Writers Society

Dimitri | Training Room B

“Now, let’s see what you kids can do.”

The look in her eyes. When they landed. On. Him.

He promptly looked at Dove.

“Alright, Steel Man,” Bri said, sauntering over to him with the chest piece on already. After putting on her gloves, she spread her feet and held her hands palm-up, opening and closing her fingers.. “Come on. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Dimitri eyed the suit unfolding before his eyes, covering her entire self with what would seem like tough metal from the untrained eye. Well, not untrained. More like… normal.

He cast another wary look over to Dove, and thankfully, she seemed to have been watching them from a distance. While Dimitri’s father, Colossus, was in perfect control of himself, Dimitri was a sort of weaker version. The battle hunger that Colossus had for his father was not easy for a gentler nerd like Dimitri to really know how to fully handle. Dove had been his safety net for most of academy. He wasn’t sure what he could do without her.

“D, man…. Hey, D-Man!” Bri clapped her hands, and Dimitri instantly looked over to her. “Suit up!”

“I’m afraid you wouldn’t withstand an attack from hundreds of pounds of steel,” he said. “Not in that, anyway.”

“Try me,” Bri said firmly, then sighed. “I order you as team leader to suit up and give me your best shot.”

Dimitri took a deep breath then, holding it, he willed his body to obey his orders. He could feel everything in his body move in ways it wasn’t supposed to. His skin hardened, his general size grew, and his mind…. His mind was losing it. Beforehand, one look at Bri’s suit told him which circuitry was used where and how she built it, the programming involved in making it function the way it does, and even so much as the potential it could have if upgraded. Now, however, all he could see was a tiny target standing in front of him. He couldn’t analyze a single scientific fact about it.

Except that it could crunch beneath his foot.

Bri held out her arms. “Come at me, bro!”

Dimitri focused, not wanting to give it all he had. He clenched his metal fist, standing still for a long moment to ready himself. Bri would probably have barked another order if he hadn’t made his move like he did. Dimitri lunged but only managed to punch the spot in which she previously stood.

“Over here, tinny!” she sang.

Dimitri felt himself grunt, rumbling much deeper in his throat than when he was a human. He didn’t want to give into Steel, especially when training against a friend, if one would allow him to say. The chances of Steel fully losing it was only 50/50, but he was particularly worried about the 50 that could… be trouble. He hoped to Thor, Odin, anyone up there watching that Dove wasn’t too distracted.

He turned around, preparing himself for another attack, when rockets of energy pounded into his chest. Dimitri lost balance, getting thrown back a ways before catching himself and trying to push forward. He struggled, but he made progress, moving closer and closer to the battering energies of Bri’s suit.

“Ha!” Bri said, putting her arms down. “You’re quite a tank, I must admit. I’ve got better aim with darts than I thought.”

Dimitri didn’t register what she said.

He threw himself at her, and he could just feel her brief moment of panic as she sidestepped his attack. Once again, he pounded the floor. He spun around, Dimitri silently hoping that arena damage wouldn’t be counted against him.

Bri had apparently flown out of the way as she was now hovering above the ground, her hands pointing down in position to keep her up. Steel didn’t stop to think through the physics. He did, however, think it was the sort of move a weakling would make.

A weakling, Steel had thought. But Dimitri would never call her that.

He jumped at her. She flew up again, but he had managed to latch on to her foot and drag her down to the ground. She shot him instinctively in the eye with a ball of energy. As Steel recoiled, Bri dashed out of his grip and back away.

Steel didn’t sit in agony for long, though. He stood up, eventually towering over her once again. His blue eyes seemed way more menacing than they had been before the fight.

Bri breathed heavily. “You’re definitely a tough opponent. You nearly pulled off my suit’s leg, which isn’t exactly fantastic, but you’re good—woah!” She jumped back again as Steel lunged at her for the umpteenth time. “We’re just training, D. No need to lose it—woah-kay!”

Even though one foot was malfunctioning, Bri forced herself to fly high up above and out of Steel’s way. She yelled some sort of order at him, most likely one to stop him, but it didn’t register. She said something again, this time shooting another ball of energy to get his attention. Steel didn’t twitch. He snarled up at her, at the height, and bent his knees for a big leap into the air.

Steel didn’t like to lose.

Laila Hardy | Halls

The little blue charm that Dove had given Laila was securely laced around Laila's neck in a small chain. She wasn’t sure if it worked but had fully intended to find out exactly what kind of power it had that could suppress her bad luck.

She raised her head to find a familiar face in the hall. It was that rude book-nerd freshman who scowled at her in the cafeteria. A smile crossed her lips and she decided to scare the kid as well as test her charm.

Rumors about her had a bad reputation of saying that she somehow possessed the touch of death. The bad luck never really killed anyone though, it just created bad luck. Death was a tragedy; bad luck was merely everyone sitting in front of her during middle school failing a math quiz and people tripping when she crossed their path or they crossed hers. Sometimes the bad luck was mean and caused injuries. The only time she caused serious bodily harm to a person was once in her life and that too, was the first time she discovered her ability.

It wasn’t all just up to the roll of dice though, her mother had the ability to control it and Laila believed that ever since that bus accident, she’d somehow had been holding back the tail of the bad luck beast from biting anyone like that again. But it was still risky.

Laila had avoided those who were close to breaking bones. Bri had fallen down some stairs and Addy almost got hit by a light fixture. Dimitri…he was one of the few who, despite her having an effect on his abilities, had chosen to enter her circle as a friend.

She sneaked behind the freshman and tapped him on the shoulder. His eyes widened at the very sight of her and he yelped, stepping back. “W-what do you want?”

“Sorry, thought you were someone else,” she lied.

He looked at her askew and turned away. He swallowed and walked forward cautiously as if he was preparing himself for a surprise attack, looking left and right.

Oh, for the love of Bastet let this work! Laila watched with her breath held. The kid safely made his way across the hall. He paused, observing at his hands and then ran them up and down his body and through his hair. A smile extended across his cheeks as if he was a man who had just cheated death. He turned and looked at her, confused.

Laila grinned and exhaled with relief. It worked! She swiveled around, locking her hands together and stretching them over her head. She had no idea how she was going to repay Dove for this magical life saver.

She walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. As long as she kept the charm with her at all times, she didn’t need to worry about causing harm to her teammates. The only problem was controlling the ability once she took it off for missions.

Laila sighed and closed her eyes, bathing in her renewed confidence. When she opened her eyes, she bumped into someone.

“Oh, sorry!” Laila said, a little more loudly than she had intentioned. She blinked when she realized it was Addy. They were both put into Will’s team but hadn’t actually spoken to each other since the light fixture incident.

“Laila, oh. Hi.” Addy smiled.

“Hi…” She scratched her ear. This was awkward…

Addy Ellis | The Hallway

"Hey, Laila." Addy gave Laila her warmest smile. "I hear we're going to be on a team together!"

"Uh... yeah." Laila was fingering a necklace that Addy had never seen her wearing before- not that she and Laila were exactly BFFs, but she usually noticed that sort of things, people's favourite earrings or a guy's go-to belt. The necklace seemed out-of-place on Laila and Laila clearly thought so too.

"That's great. I'm sure we'll have loads of fun- I mean, I know it's work, but work can be fun if you try hard enough. I was just talking to West- how well do you know the rest of the team?"

"Um, not really at all," Laila said. "I've never really talked to most of them."

"Well in some cases, you're lucky. Was roommates with Rachel Wayne for a year, girl, you don't want to get on her bad side!"

Laila paled but Addy laughed. "It's our enemies I'm worried about. Wayne may be slightly... how to put this nicely... well, psychotic, but even she wouldn't attack a teammate on the field... right?"

Laila shrugged. "She might, if I cause her bad luck."

"You just channel all that bad luck at the opposition and you'll be fine. You know any of the others?" she asked, trying to be as kind as possible. Laila seemed so nervous, as if waiting for some bad to come of the conversation. But then, Addy could understand- she didn't want to hurt anyone. And she respected Laila for that- loved her for it, even. Goodness knows she must have been the only female inhabitant in the school who tried so hard to refrain from causing damage.

Laila shook her head at the question and Addy nodded. "I happen to know that West and Heavy are having an eating contest in the cafeteria, how gross is that? But I don't know, you see them, they see us, that's the majority of the team together right? We can bond or something." She began to drag Laila along by the arm.

"Are you sure that's a good idea-"

"My ideas are always good ideas!"

"Is that proven fact or speculation-"

"Proven fact. Proven by The University of Ellis."

"That's not a real place-"

"Yes it is, it's Ivy League, in New Orleans. Jeez, way to disrespect my hometown."

"I'm sorry."

"Jeez, Laila, I'm kidding." Addy smiled again and let go of Laila's arm. "Come on. Have a little faith. That necklace- one of Dove's?"

"How do you know?"

"She has, like, a hundred of them. It working?"

"You're not dead yet."

"A fact I am very thankful for. Come on. Let's go see the others."

"And do you know our leader? Will McCoy?"

Addy sighed. "Not a lot. West says that every girl on campus is guaranteed to fall in love with him."

"I don't really go in for... dogs." Laila wrinkled her nose and Addy laughed out loud, the sound reverberating along the hall.

"Good. We'll prove West wrong yet." She slipped an arm through Laila's tentatively, and involuntarily looked up to check that the light fixture was still in place. "And I'm totally going to bet him a month's worth of smoothies and Champion Toast on it."

Sorm | Training Room B

Sorm had just been getting into the swing of things (literally with how enthusiastic Atalanta was with the rag doll upswinging-downswinging-everywheretheswinging routine she had going, and he was the doll) when Dimitri came trampling through all steely-like, putting an end to the playing of dolls by trampling the doll. Not that the doll was hurt. Sorm was a very resilient creature, and a little stomping on top of some high-swinging was all good fun to him. It was like square dancing, only more violent!

Sorm was about to congratulate Dimitri on his excellent footwork when he noticed that the man of steel hadn't noticed him because he was too busy noticing Bri who was too busy trying to stay out of reach and alive with a damaged suit. His blitzschnell brain going into overdrive, Sorm determined that a) Dimitri was in a killing mood, b) Bri was the target of the killing mood, c) teamwork was important for success, d) Bri was a very much female team mate, e) killing teammates was bad for the teamwork, f) Bri was looking and smelling very pretty today, g) Bri might appreciate a savior right now, and h) helping Bri out would be a great way to get her to like him more (not that she didn't like him already; he was irresistibly good with the women after all). Besides, Atalanta was already getting in on the fun, which meant less fun for Sorm.

So, out of the bottom of his generous heart (which was a bit more holey that it probably should have been), Sorm mustered up some righteous indignation on the behalf of female teammates everywhere and tackled Dimitri the next time he rampaged by. Which was a split second later. And it wasn't so much a tackle as it was a splat-and-stick-to-the-steel. But at least Sorm's mouth was free!

"Hey! Hey huy! Tuff guy!" Sorm shouted into Dimitri's ear. "Hy'm all fur killink tinks, but killink teemmates, schpeschially beeutiful terrifyink vimmin teemmates, is nicht gut! Is machen die killink everytin elsche bit lesch fun, ja! Hyu lischtnink to me?! Hy—Mhy hat!!!"

Now, you should know that hats are of great importance to Jägers. They're a mark of status, you could say, with the bigger and fancier hats the best ones, and no proper Jäger is ever seen without his for long, so for a Jäger to lose his hat only for it to be trampled upon by a careless troll... well. It's a rather socially traumatizing experience for a Jäger, and Jägers tend to deal with trama rather... interestingly.

And so Sorm, being every inch a proper Jäger, promptly began shedding tears of indignation and began chomping down on Dimitri in order to vent his grief-fury over his precious trampled headgear.

AT | Training Room B

The problem with this place was, you couldn’t get a proper fight in without a hitch. Either someone came to ruin your fun because drawing blood was apparently some big human no-no, or urgent stuff happened. And by ‘urgent stuff’ AT meant ‘people going berserk/mindcontrolled/whatever was cool on Tuesdays’.

Add volatile Bri to that unalterable fact, and you knew you were in for trouble. Really, that Steel hadn’t crashed the party earlier was already a miracle.

“Wow rude!!” Atalanta told him anyway when he barged in, and slashed at him to try to redirect his attention away from their fearless fallible leader. The dulled edge of her training sword made a half-hearted cling against the metal carapace, and meekly bounced off, leaving nary a trace of ever having been acquainted to it. It was all very awkward, or would have been, had AT been the sort to let such things stop her. Instead she readjusted her grip on the hilt and pounced again, this time aiming for a less armored target.

By which of course she meant the head, which, granted was not so much less-armoured as just plain more attention-grabby. That was fine! And the point of that whole exercise. Having been upgraded from ‘absolutely irrelevant’ to ‘minor annoyance’ on Steel’s radar, she slid out of reach as a heavy hand came to swat in her direction. “We’re going to have to work on your speed, big guy!” she commented, ducking back in to hound him and slow his advance. “You know, the enemy won’t stand still for you to hit them.”

“Bit less talking, bit more hitting the rampaging guy please?”

AT spared a second to grin in Bri’s direction. Had to leave some of the fun to Sorm, after all! And Flygirl looked quite annoyed, fighting her stabilizers and weaving stutteringly in the air. Almost made a troll want to rip her right open, down to the circuitry. “So polite today, Bri! You should try that more often!”

The whine and glow of a laser charging up rose in her direction, warningly. She cackled with delight, turned her back and returned into the fray.

What was that noise? Oh. Sorm? AT glanced down. Looked back at the desolate Jäger. Glanced back down. Carefully took a step to the side. “Whoops. Sorry!” And then it was back to Steel, her blade near useless but shining, her teeth bared in delight at the challenge. She spared a glance at Sorm, then past him. Couldn’t see Dougie, which might actually mean he was doing his job! Or had gotten stomped on, maybe. By accident. Steel was really way too focused on Bri, this was ridiculous. AT was going to have to discuss this with Dimitri later! Perhaps with brownies at hand. Chocolate made every uncomfortable discussion easier, she’d tested that on Will a while back with conclusive results.

But anyway! They had to calm Steel down first. Preferably without anyone getting killed in the process.

“Doooove? You alive? I think this is the part where you mind-whammy him.”

Dove L’Roth | Training Room B

Dove had put an alarming amount of focus on Dougie, until she heard the sound of metal beginning to crunch and felt her heart sink. She looked up to Bri barely flying above the field and Steel ready to take another jump at her.

Without even thinking, Dove raised her hand and formed a wall, stopping him from reaching Bri and sending Steel back to earth, nearly right in the middle of Ata and Sorm’s fight. Dougie had made a break for it as soon as she’d gotten distracted, which just got her to jump up and pay attention to what was going on from above the field. Magic stayed around her hands, just waiting for another possibly-dangerous attack.

Dimitri wasn’t regaining control. Even as everybody else began attacking him, his attention wasn’t diverting from Bri. Dove could feel his battle rage even from where she was.

Ata was just grinning at the challenge of Steel. “Doooove? You alive? I think this is the part where you mind-whammy him.”

She inhaled. Steel was getting ready for another jump at Bri, which meant tossing everybody off and doing more damage. Time to end this.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

She flung her arms out and blanketed the area in magic, freezing everyone in place so she could deal with them one at a time. She lowered Bri down far enough away from the group she’d have time to get her bearings. Detaching Sorm was a bit more difficult than she planned considering his current emotional state. Ata was easy to move away. She’d gotten used to this.

Which only left Steel.

He was now in a bubble, not down from the rage because he could still see the others around him. He wanted to stop them. End this. And nothing would keep him from doing that.

Dove inhaled and focused the rest of her magic on him. She closed her eyes and put more of her soul into the spell, darkening the bubble and touching his mind.

“Dimitri, stop! It’s me.”

William West| Cafeteria

“You-” West gasped for air. “Win this round, but I’ll be back next time.”

The Heavy let out a monstrous laugh. “Little baby man will never beat The Heavy,” the giant piled another batch of sausage onto his plate. “Now go, before your little stomach go boom.”

“Oh yeah? You think you ca-” West dashed away, barely sliding into a bathroom stall before his inside poured out. “

“The Scout can’t even hold down his food!” the large man laughed through his sausage.

“Never live it down,” West muttered, sneaking out the back of the cafeteria. Once outside he sprinted to the dorm room. He saw two things at his door. One was a note from Addy, he balled that up into his pocket, and the other were some dead flowers.

“Love Daisy Mayonnaise” was scribbled on a note. She was a girl who kept leaving random things from West. He had no idea who she was, part of him thought it was Doug being a jackass, but it was nice.

“Hey Will, I got another mystery gift from Daisy. Actual Daisies this time,” West barged into Will’s dorm. “Who is this kid, and why is he bruised and bloodied and wearing a shirt three times too big for him? And can I have some ice cream too? ”

“This is Tyler, he touched Wayne by accident.” West suppressed a chuckle. “And no, ice cream is for winners, sausage vomit.”

“Already? I hate the internet.” West picked at the dead flower petals. “Speaking of Wayne, when is our debrief? I wanna see--” Will shot him a glare and pointed at the kid. “the plans for the party?”

“The party can wait, I want to make sure everyone is settled in first.” Will quickly hid his packet. “And like The Doctor says, there is never any time you can’t waste.”

Dimitri Steel | Training Room B

Steel roared.

He flung at the troll who jumped at him as well. Pesky little twigs poking at him. He stopped in his tracks and run his back against the wall. One of the parasites jumped off rather quickly, but the other one’s grip only weakened once rammed. Steel swept his arm back into the Jaeger for good measure before observing his original target once again.

Sorm jumped on him once again, saying some sort of gibberish Steel couldn’t make out of he tried. Steel, however, bounded toward Bri again, carrying that extra weight with ease no matter how irritating it was.

Steel bent his knees again, eyes on his target.

He bent lower, feeling the effects of Sorm’s weight already.

He lunged.

And stopped. In mid air.

He could still see Bri, though. Right in front of him. So close, yet so far away. Steel raged at whatever obstruction was keeping him at bay. He watched furiously as his target was pushed further away, and his rage distracted him from noticing Sorm’s weight lifted from his back. Steel didn’t like this one bit. His muscles tensed incredibly as he tried to break free of whatever was restraining him, but to no avail.

He was suddenly engulfed by a dark bubble, and he dropped to the ground inside. Instictively, Steel rammed the side of the ball. He did it again. And again.

Then his target was gone.

The walls darkened until it was completely solid. Steel couldn’t see a thing. He couldn’t see his target, and he can’t win without a target.

“Dimitri, stop! It’s me!”

Steel shook his head as if some bug crawled into his ear.

“Dimitri!”

He growled and doubled over, hands on his head. What was that—

“Dove.”

“Yes, Dimitri.”

Steel’s grip loosened. He didn’t have any interest in fighting what wouldn’t budge. He slumped to the floor, his eyes drifting far off into the dark Netherlands of his prison. Dimitri breathed heavily, hands of steel losing their grips. “Dove.”

The bubble dissolved. Dimitri put Steel away, his engineered uniform unscathed from his transformation. He looked up, eyes alert, at the nearest person – Bri. She crossed her arms. “I can’t tell who would win: You or the Hulk.”

Will McCoy | Armory

Will was walking laps around the armory, imagining the gear his teammates would want to take on their first mission. From the newspaper article, it didn’t seem like a hard mess to fix. Just aliens. Will remembered his first alien invasion handled back in Sophomore year, a semester before he was supposed to even be on a task force team. He was the worst hero imaginable back then, stumbling around the seniors’ feet and getting in their way...constantly. The doors swept open behind him, and he turned around, seeing the smiling Headmaster walk in, hands pressed together in a fan of fingers. He took wibbly-wobbly steps into the armory and stood in front of Will, nodding.

And they just watched each other for far longer than Will felt comfortable with. After a bit, The Doctor produced an apple from his coat pocket. “Would you like to take this with you? Nutrition, metabolism, heroics. You know.” He smiled and placed the apple on the table, looking at the large display of the map of Greendale, Ohio. “Are you ready for anything, Will McCoy?” He held out his fingers and began counting. “Aliens, psychics, demons, paintballs--they’re all possible! Anything is possible, in fact, and I want to know for certain that you know that as well.”

Will waited a moment before shrugging. “I guess, I mean.” He sighed and fell back into a chair. “You have no idea how nervous I am about this. It’s my first mission as a leader, and--”

“I know well and good that you’re nervous, Will McCoy, but nervousness is no issue in the slightest. Your ability to work through your nerves is the issue...or non-issue, if you’re confident.” He comically looked both ways before pulling another object out of his coat pocket. It was a small mechanical stick with a light bulb on the end. “This is a sonic screwdriver. Good for opening...well, anything, really. Get creative with it.” His eyes narrowed. “But bring it back in perfect condition! If not, I may have to share juice with someone else in leadership class.”

Will took the screwdriver and nodded, staring at it.

“Now stow that somewhere in your suit until the time is right.” The Doctor walked backwards towards the door, hand lingering over the Assemble button. “And Will,” he said, smiling at him once more, “I know you’ll do famously.” And he pressed the button, activating the teleporters assigned to Will’s teammates, bringing them all into the armory in five streams of blue light. When Will jerked his head back to the door, The Doctor was gone.

“What, we’re Power Rangers now?” West stumbled out of the light with a toothbrush in his mouth, spitting on his S’s.

Wayne narrowed her eyes, arms crossed. “Will, we have unfinished business. You stole my prey from me!” Addy and Laila stayed quiet, both peering up at the mountain-sized Heavy II standing in the middle of everyone with an enormous grin on his face, sausage hanging from his lips.

“You send big lights to make with taking Heavy from good food.” His grin dropped. “Good food iz better than smelly armory.” And then he shrugged. “But mission is better than good food.” He looked around. “Scrawny wolf man, tell me now where are guns?”

Will couldn’t help grinning at his team. He’d definitely played darts into the best team for him. So mixed, mashed together from unlikely places. But that’s how Will liked it. It felt natural. “I’ve wanted to say this for a really long time,” he said, grinning like a kid watching cartoons. “Team...suit up!”

Will(iam) McWest | The Bloody Place...somewhere

“It looks like the aliens beat us.” West ran over to a nearby bench, examining what he thought was a puddle of blood. “It’s paint.” he zoomed over to another spot. “It’s all paint.”

In the distance there were several gunshots. Will’s head perked up, he heard something else. “Someone’s coming. Hide.” The group ducked for cover, watching as an elderly came into view.

“I think he went this way!” someone yelled and the old man, visibly out of breath, tried to hide behind a bush. Soon after three college aged kids entered, wearing what looked like chess boards for armor and guns in hand.

Hey,” one of the boys pointed to a bush, where you could just see the top of the the old man’s back. They

“I’m going in,” Will whispered into his mic. “Standby for word.”

Will rolled out from his table, staying low as he ran to the elderly man’s aid. He was about ten feet away when the three assailants got to the bush, guns up and ready. “Stop!” Will shouted, tackling one of the three to the ground. West was in next, grabbing the gun from his hand, and sweeping the leg of another, but even he was too slow to get to third. The shot was quick, piercing Will right in the temple. .

“...Is this paint?” Will spat, pink fluid leaking into his mouth. Without hesitating he grabbed the gun from the third kid, emptying the canister and letting a pile of paint pellets fall to the ground. “What the hell is going on in this place?”
Wayne popped out of a tree over head, knocking the final gunman to the ground. “I don’t know, but it’s pissing me off.”

“Heavy want to know why they use leetle girl guns.” The monster poked his head from his hiding spot, a miracle in its own right.

“West, do a quick run around the school, see what you can find. The rest of us will set up shop in one of these buildings, and try and get communications up with the school.”

“You got it, captain,” West said before speeding off.

West quickly learned that they were at Greendale, a Community College, so they were in the right town. And there were people, mostly in pairs or small groups, roaming the campus. West would run by, and several pellets of paint would follow in his direction. It took a bit, but he soon found some readable posters, most were covered in paint, about what was going on.

“Will, I got it, heading back to you now,” West folded the flyer up and turned back.

_______________________

“I like what you’ve done with the place, the vending machine is a nice touch,” West said, climbing in through the window. Their base was simple, a few desks up against the door, a couch and a vending machine, most likely brought in by The Heavy.

“We can talk decoration later, tell us what you found.” West nodded, placing his flyer on the table.

“GREENDALE SPRING FLING! FOOD! MUSIC! AND A GAME OF PAINTBALL ASSASSIN!!!!!!” was plastered in a flamboyant font.

“Probably some big prize, I overheard a conversation about priority registration.”

West nodded. “We’re in a school full of idiots, pretty much.”

Wayne swung by on a tight wire, hanging lights on the ceiling, “Sounds like home to me.”

“Still, we need to evacuate,” Will got up. “If the Doctor sent us here it means this is the drop zone.”

“How do we do that, Mr. Leader?”

Will turned around, arms folded behind his back and pink paint still dripping from his face. ”We pwn them all in paintball.”
“Pwn? Are you thirteen and playing CoD?” West laughed.

“Damn right I am, noob.” Will glanced at Laila and Addie, keeping eye out the windows. “Laila, get ready to make some poor kids really unlucky, and Addy, pay attention to the really good players. Figure out some cool slow-motion moves.” Will turned to the vending machine.“Heavy can you shoot these guns?”

The large man laughed. “Heavy can shoot these in sleep.”

“We only have three guns right now, and barely enough ammo for them. Wayne, you and West are going gunless with me.” Will turned the flyer over and grabbed a pen off the floor. “We’ll divide into teams and take the school in parts. Laila, you’re with me. Addy you’re with West, and Wayne you’re with Heavy.”

The Heavy walked over to Wayne, smiling wide. “High-Five, Spy Girl!”

“Don’t push it, sandwhich head.” giving a glare on par with Batman himself.

Bri Stark | What's left of Training Room B

If Bri had learned anything, it was not to start team training in a suit that was only ten percent finished.

She had thrown together parts of her old suit, with the gloves and chest plate she had been working on, and now nearly all of it was in shreds. She pulled the remnants off, tossing it into her gym bag, and straightening her black t-shirt as she turned to face her teammates.

"Well," she said, eyeing everyone sitting in various states of exhaustion on the Training Room floor. "At least we know we can decimate a Training Room in less than twenty minutes." She grabbed her gym bag, slinging it over her shoulder. "Starting tomorrow I wanna see Steel Hulk and Turtle Dove over here working with the...Sorm to work on Tank control." She sighed, turning to her remaining teammates. "Captain Small Talk and Troll Girl, we'll...figure something out."

With that she turned and left, taking a turn out of the door toward the workshops rather than the dorms and ignoring the excited, yet slightly maniacal laughter of Atalanta that echoed behind her.

Bri had a lot of work to do if she was going to get her team in operating shape before their first task force mission of the year.

She rounded into her workshop and threw her gym bag onto an empty workbench. “JARVIS, bring up my teammates files,” she said as she slid into a spinning computer chair set at a desk with five monitors mounted to the wall around it.

“What do we say, Miss Stark?” the AI’s voice said over the workshop’s sound system.

Bri groaned. “Please, JARVIS. Bring up my teammates files, please.”

“Very well, Miss Stark,” he responded, the profiles of her teammates flashing onto each of the screens. “Let me remind you, an excellent leader is often a polite leader. Perhaps your father is not the perfect example.”

“Thank you, JARVIS,” Bri said. She leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the desk, and began reading over the extensive files the Academy kept on each of its students. Of course, She stayed like that for hours, mulling over strategies and battle pairings as she committed each word of each profile to memory. Sometimes, it really helped to have a stellar memory and genius IQ.

“Working hard or hardly working?”

Bri let her feet drop from the desk and spun around to see Dimitri standing at the workbench she’d dropped her gym bag on. He’d pulled out her ruined chest plate and gloves and was inspecting them.

“Reacquainting yourself with Casa Stark?” Bri asked, standing up and sauntering toward the workbench. She came to a stop opposite Dimitri and took one of the gloves in her hands. “I do know what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s a simple fix, I’m just…”

“Impatient?” Dimitri offered, a slight smile on his lips.

Bri laughed and let the glove drop back to the table. “S’not my fault the Headmaster assembled task forces so early this year. I’d have had a better suit for training, and not just this mangled compilation of my last three suits together.” She turned and took a few steps back toward the computer monitors, crossing her arms over her chest and examining them again. “I’ll have the latest Stark Industries masterpiece together before our first mission.”

“I believe you,” Dimitri said. There was a pause before he spoke again. “Messing around in the school’s restricted files again?”

Bri chuckled. “If they didn’t want me to see it, they ought to have hidden it better.”

“There’s not much you can hide from an evil girl with a 180 IQ.” There was a clank as a metal toolbox landed on the metal workbench and Dimitri pulled out his tools.

“200,” Bri said. “They tested me again last summer. Still doesn’t measure up to Dad, though.” She glanced over her shoulder, eying Dimitri as he poked around at her chestplate with a sonic screwdriver. She had to admit, for a guy with an IQ that paled in comparison to her own, he knew a hell of a lot about robotics and machinery. “Wanna know what they say about you?” she asked, nodding her head toward the computer screens.

“I’m probably better off not knowing,” he replied, a light grimace passing over his face for a short moment. A small, playful smile returned to his lips. “I’m sure you couldn’t suppress the urge to see what they say about you, though.”

“Volatile, impulsive, doesn’t play well with others,” she said. “You know, the works.” She turned back around and went back to the table, dragging a cart piled high in metal pieces along with her. “Alright,” she said, taking one of the gloves again. “Let’s see if we can take a pair of hands and a chest plate and see what I’m really capable of.”

Addy Ellis | Greendale Community College

Like a kamikaze, Laila strode into the midst of the students and ripped the charm off her neck like it was a pin on a grenade.

A Palestinian kid in a cammo's gun went out of control and pummelled one of his fellow students, a black guy in football pads, who let out a shriek and began to shoot randomly at all the other students, and in the midst of the chaos Laila stood, smiling a little to herself.

"Addy!" West waved at her. "Come on."

It was hard to keep up with West running, but Addy did her best. "We'll head over to the science labs. There's bound to be more people over there. Also a good chance that we'll get to smash stuff."

"Shouldn't we, you know, avoid causing damage?"

"But smashing. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't like the sound of that."

But Addy didn't look him in the eye, too busy paying attention to a group of six students shooting each other and taking turns to laugh and cry in pain. But the large majority of the paintballs went straight on the ground.

"Who does Will- think- I am?" she panted. "That I - could learn- anything- from these- idiots?"

West glanced at her. "I forgot you get mean on missions. Okay then. Go on. Show them how it's done."

The next part, as Will had asked, occured in slow motion.

He tossed her the gun and Addy caught it in her right hand, using her left to swing over some railings, bouncing her left foot off a wall and sailing through the air, sending one- two- three- four paintballs- each to the sternum of four individual students. She landed on her left hand, did a one handed cartwheel onto her feet, spun, shot again to clip one student on the shoulder, throw him off balance and fall into the other, sending both sprawling on the ground. She jumped onto a wheelie-bin. backflipped over to grab the second boy's gun as the two made a run for it and looked at West expectantly as time sped up once more.

West snorted. "I don't need that crap."

"Fine then. I'll just have two."

"Sure you can handle it?"

Addy gave him her best 'puh-lease' look and cocked the guns- or would have cocked the guns, were they cockable. They weren't. Which really ruined her image a bit, so she just pouted extra hard. Which she was very good at, due to watching too many re-runs of America's Next Top Model.

"Okay. Fine. Just don't snap your fingers at me." In the silence, they could hear another group approaching from around the corner. He put a finger to his lips and they pressed themselves up against the wall. "I'll show you," West hissed, and as the group appeared, West disappeared. Okay, not completely. Not, like, Dougie style (which to be honest, freaked Addy out a little, and if it had been anyone but Dougie she would have been worried that he was watching her get changed and stuff). But West was a blur. A blur that was hitting people, moving out of the way of paintballs that Addy herself could barely see, which then spun into more students. He basically caused chaos- as Laila had, until all the ammo was gone, the kids were very confused and running away. West stopped, not even out of breath.

"And that," he said, flicking his hair, "is how it's done, gun-girl. Come on. We have smashing to do."

Dimitri | Bri’s Workshop

“Where did you get that, anyway?”

Dimitri looked up from the chest plate. Bri indicated the sonic screwdriver in his hands. Dimitri spun it in his fingers before continuing to use it on the chest plate. “I presume you are inquiring about the sonic screwdriver.”

“…Yes. Yes, I am.” Bri made a lolwut face before removing another wire within the glove’s arm.

“The Headmaster lent it to me,” Dimitri said. “They’re rare devices. In fact, I thought it was one of a kind.”

“I think it is…. Why did he let you borrow it?” Bri asked. A twinge of jealousy seemed to spark in her eyes. “Only he knows how to make them at all, and no one else knows how to really use them either. I’d definitely like to try one.”

Dimitri detected the hint in her words, and he smiled. “I was looking for Connie because I hadn’t seen her in days. I located her in the Headmaster’s office.”

“…The Headmaster’s office.” Bri stated. “What in the world was she doing there? I’m starting to wonder about your programming skills.”

Dimitri chuckled more from personal memories than Bri’s words, but he didn’t delve into it. “I could only under-exaggerate the Headmaster’s friendliness. But I noticed his sonic screwdriver. Asked about it. He demonstrated it on Connie, he surprisingly let me try it out, and at that point, he offered for me to use it. I’m obligated to return it to him, however.”

“When did he want it back by?”

“He didn’t say,” Dimitri said. He looked up. “He only said I would know when I was done, and he wanted it back by then.”

Bri looked only a tad surprised by that. It certainly sounded like the Headmaster, though. Vague.

“I expect I’ll return it to him tomorrow, however. I shouldn’t get used to it, or that would convert my habits into new ones which I would have to revert from later. Quite a hassle, but it’s certainly a delightful instrument. One certainly could get used to it.”

The small-talk continued off and on. Bri always seemed to be quite a conversationalist, which made it easy for Dimitri, someone who preferred to work quietly. Listening was much easier than talking when getting things done, which seemed to be the opposite ideal for his team leader.

Dimitri picked up the chest plate and knocked twice on the center of the chest. Bri looked at him. “What exactly are you looking at?”

He looked up at her, then back to the chest plate, then back to her. Sadly, he had no good excuse for knocking on the chest plate. “I was only thinking. Your father’s suit used to require a particular powered source and shield to protect his heart, and it was located right here. I wondered if maybe we could put something useful in there for you since your heart condition is perfectly healthy – or so I presume.”

“You can bet your steel heart it is,” Bri said and walked over to inspect the chest plate. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, it could be a… battery pack or a sort of back-up generator. But it could also be extra space for hologram projections or computer storage for your information database.”

“Or just a shiny emblem to make me look cool?”

“…Orjust a shiny emblem to make you look cool,” Dimitri admitted and set the chest plate down for continued maintenance. “Could I use a computer here for programming?”

At that moment, the door opened up and a huge bird flew into the lab. Bri immediately dropped her tools and bounded around the workbench. “What in the name of – hey!”

“Connie!” Dimitri said with surprising firmness as he stood up from his stool, ignoring his team leader ducking beneath the insane toucan flying into her workshop. The cat immediately stopped in mid-run and pranced over to Dimitri at the sound of her name. She sat in front of him. “Stay.” He looked up at the toucan now flying circles above them.

Bri was a bit mad, however. “JARVIS, get this bird out of here immediately—Oh!” A robotic arm of some sort lifted a butterfly net and started waving madly up in the air. Bri ducked again over by Dimitri who was a bit traumatized by the whole scene.

“Stop trying to capture it,” he finally said. “That bird’s not just any bird.”

“It’s a pest!” Bri snapped. She reached for her glove. “I’ll shoot it down—”

“Ah!” Dimitri promptly took it back. “No, it’s Will’s. Or West’s. Someone’s. He’ll behave. The real question is…” He looked down at Silicon the Cat who was still seated on the floor in front of him. JARVIS obeyed Bri’s cautious command to stop trying to catch it. “Why were you chasing Sam?”

Connie blinked.

Bri huffed as Sam settled down next to a window far away from them – or, more specifically, Connie. “JARVIS, remind me to put a ‘No Pets Allowed’ sign on the door.”

“Of course, Miss Stark.”

“Sorry,” Dimitri muttered. “Connie gets rambunctious sometimes.”

Bri cast a fierce glance down at the cat before returning to her place at the workbench. “Couldn’t you just program her to not be so insane? At least in my workshop.”

Dimitri smiled. “I suppose I could work that in if you wish.”

“I wish.” She paused. “Why is she such a crazy cat? She’s a computer.”

Dimitri’s face turned more serious at this question. “My mother helped design her. I won’t be changing anything of Connie’s personality.” He turned back to the chest plate, and he was just starting to aim the sonic screwdriver at the chest plate again when it occurred to him. “Why is Sam here? Isn’t Will’s team already on their mission?”

Bri nodded and muttered, “They left ten years ago…. More or less,” she added at the confused look he gave her.

Dimitri looked over at the toucan then to Connie. “If you snuck into their room and released Sam from the cage, we’re going to have a serious talk about your new fascination with birds.”

Connie’s tail thumped the ground, glowing eyes watching him innocently.

He sighed. “Come here and help us out, then.” Connie jumped up on the counter. He indicated some wires inside the arm, and Connie helped him hold some out of the way so he could get in deeper in to the plate.

Bri pursed her lips at the thought of the toucan still perched in her workbench. “JARVIS, is there some way of getting that bird out of here?”

“Perhaps asking it to return to its master, Miss Stark.”

“…It’s not a parrot.”

“I could always try catching it again.”

“Sam! Hey, Sam!” Bri marched over toward the bird. Surprisingly, the toucan didn’t go anywhere, but it did watch her very carefully. Dimitri laughed silently at the mere fact she was forced to give orders to a bird, but it had apparently worked. She opened a window, and Sam the Toucan left the building. She returned and gently thwap’d Connie with her screwdriver. “No more birds.”

At that moment, Stark pulled a screen over to her spot and turned it on. It was a movie as Dimitri had identified – a scene in Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom where the man was being sacrificed to the goddess, Kali. Yes, Dimitri remembered this movie very well.

Bri’s face was, oddly enough, a light shade of pink, and she quickly turned the movie off.

Sorm | Rubble

Sorm sat despondent in the remains of Training Room B near the remains of his trampled hat. He gently picked it up, brushed off some rubble, and carefully assessed the damage — it became apparent that his precious headgear would never be the same again. Its horns would never rise as proudly as they once did for the wrinkles and rents in the felt, and it was quite smashed askew so that, once Sorm had punched it back up into a three-dimensional semblance of a hat that fit on his head, it was woefully crooked in appearance.

Or was it?

Sorm looked at the battered biretta. The inklings of an idea began coagulating in his mind. When he looked at it from this direction, his hat looked quite daring, even dashing, and the women liked daring and dashing. Besides which, birettas usually had a tuft of some sort, which his had always lacked since that one incident with the fluff-craving constructs. He could take his hat even further in the direction of daring by transforming it into a hat the likes of which the world had never seen!

Inspiration flowed into Sorm's inspired brain, and the plans began flowing. There was one student who had a very nice turban pin he'd admired for some time; the pin would make a perfect addition to the hat's sparkle and height. And then there was one girl who always had the most lovely ribbons in her hair...

Sorm smiled a Jäger smile, fitted his soon-to-be-improved hat on his head, and set off on a hunt for the perfect materials, looking forward to the fun times to be had attaining them.

Will McCoy | Cafeteria

“Will! I - am - going - to - strangle - you!” Laila was high-stepping her bolt across the commons area, paintballs flying at her like a hail of bullets. As she reached the covering of the breezeway, she tucked and rolled, landing agilely on her feet. Much like a cat. Will was circling their tiny rest area, barking as bullets shot past, splattering on the walls. “So what’s the plan?” she asked as she slid down the wall, taking a breather.

Will turned his back to her, shifting back into his human body and pulling on the clothes he’d carried in his teeth on the trek over. When he stood up and looked at himself, he found an enormous pink splotch on his belly. “Damn!” He looked down at Laila and shrugged. “Fangirls, one day, will have a field day with this story.” With that, he pulled off the paint-splattered shirt and tossed it in a trash bin outside the breezeway.

“Not so sure about that, Will.” She stood up and cocked her gun. “Once you get smashed with a paintball on your skin, you’ll have plenty’ve hell to pay.”

“Yeah. I’ll bet you twenty bucks I don’t get hit a single other time.”

Laila, of course, didn’t hesitate to take up a sure bet. Before Will could turn around from watching the others outside, she’d grabbed his hand and sealed the deal with a shake. “So let’s go.” She nodded towards the cafeteria where the lights were cut, save for one in the center of a very large tent complex. Laila squinted her eyes and peered at a ventilation system feeding into the tent. “I have an idea,” she said, grinning. “A very sinister idea at that.”

Will knelt down to meet her gaze, nodding slowly as he saw her plan. “Yes,” he said. “Yes, perfect.”

After they’d ambushed an unsuspecting black woman who dropped to her knees and prayed for deliverance from her enemies, Will snatched up her two guns and left her tied up in a bathroom stall. They returned to the dark cafeteria on the other end, picking off a couple of pudgy guards silently. As Laila shot them, Will swept in and carried them away before they could scream. When he dropped them in a storage closet and they saw that a...werewolf...thing...had kidnapped them, they clutched each other like babies, and Will smelled the distinct odor of piss on the floor.

He returned to Laila, then, hobbling to get his boots on right. “Remind me later to get the headmaster to make some wolf-fitting clothes for me.”

“I don’t think boots work like that,” she said, focusing in on the air shaft. “Did you take care of the boys?”

“Sealed up and scared into a gay moment, yeah.”

“And I got the bucket of paint that you asked for.” She held up her prize, a metal gallon of Sassy Pink #7.

“Perfect,” he snickered, sliding his foot under the door to pull it open silently. “Ready?”

“Ready,” she affirmed.

“Three...two...one...” Something caught Will’s ears, and his head perked up, craning to see the source.

“What is it, boy?” Laila asked instinctively before catching herself and exchanging strange glances with Will.

“I heard...a cape.” He twisted his torso around, getting on all fours while sniffing the air. His body slowly began to change, blue tail slithering out of his back. As the wolf prowled, something dropped to the floor inside.

The two instinctively jerked to attention, catching sight of one of their own legends crouched in front of them in the cafeteria.

Laila’s jaw dropped, and she stood straight to attention, hitting the send message button on her intercom system. “Batman...”

Will stood, head tilting to the side curiously as he watched one of his idols before him. “That can’t be.” His eyes narrowed and he looked at Laila. Just as their attention left him, Batman vanished into the shadows. Will bit down on his lip and shook his head. “We’ll find out what he’s doing here later. Right now,” he grinned, “let’s win us a paintball war.”