Chosen- Started.

Spoiler

That would be great. Just PM me or something if you have any ideas.

Ava

After I finish wrapping Ree's wound, I start to eat my protein bar. I unwrap it and begin to chew. I am about to say something to Ree when I hear Dharius start to use his smart mouth again. “Lay off and try helping us for a change.” Ree says. Dharius will not listen to Ree. He will not listen to anyone but himself. I want to control his mind so bad, but I am so mad.

“I will be right back.” I say.

“What are you doing, he could hurt you.” Ree says grabbing my arm.

“He is not going to touch me, he is a coward.” I shake his hand off and walk.

I walk over to see Dharius is yelling at Arcadia. “Just shut up, you can not do anything anyway.” He yells at her. I can see tears roll down her face.

“Are you trying to make everyone hate you? What are you proving to everyone by making her upset, that your a jerk? I know that you lack with people skills, but this is kind of pathetic.” I spit at him. “You are telling her she is not helpful, but you are of no use to us either. You are just a coward.”

Stanley


"Think we can chip it away with a sword?" I suggest. Maybe there is a weak spot in the stone, just like with the monsters, and it will only take a few moment to whittle it away.

"Idiot, do you realize how long that would take?" Attitude-guy comes out of nowhere and observes the slab with us. "I think we should leave it," he adds. "They can't have anything great in there."

I sigh and finger the goggles I still have in my pocket, tuning Attitude-guy out. I'll just need to deal with him. I don't want to start a bunch of drama, even if I am probably the only one who can do any damage in a fight with a dude as tough as him. Ignoring him even when he starts yelling at someone, I feel the rock over. Maybe there's a button to push or a hole or some way we can pull the rock... Wow, now a bunch of people are yelling. Goodness, what's going on? I turn and see chaos. Arcadia is crying, tears rolling down her cheeks and collecting at her chin. Ava and Ree are in attitude-guy's face, calling him a jerk and a coward and such. At least I learn his name - Dharius. The short fellow stands there, stony-faced, the whole time they are chewing him out; the only part of him that moves is his right arm, which keeps balling up into a fist like he's ready to subject Ava to a wicked uppercut.

I rub the back of my neck. How could I have spaced out while he was yelling at a girl? Who even does that? Especially Arcadia. Ugh. If only I hadn't been space out, I would have killed him, and hard. Maybe I will now... No, Ava and Ree have pretty much taken care of him and everyone is turning back to the wall. I kick at the floor. Why hadn't I defended Arcadia? Dangit.

Arcadia hovers at the edge of the group, staring miserably at her shoes. Shooting a death glare at Dharius (even though he isn't even looking at me) I move next to her.

"Are you okay?" I ask, still rubbing my neck. She sniffs and nods. I consider saying something like "Hey, sorry I didn't beat him up for you. I wasn't paying attention!" but I decide that's too lame. I lift my hand to pat her on the shoulder or something, then withdraw it. That's just too "Good job, sonny boy". Gosh, how do girls comfort each other? This is too hard. I retreat to inspect the rock some more.

Allie is running her hands along it, looking thoughtful.

"Any luck?" I ask hopefully.

"Nope."

"Well there must be something." I stare at the wall as if I can intimidate it into moving away. I look to my teammate's faces for clues. They all look blank except for Dharius, who's stormy expression has switched to one of... Smartness, I guess. He is looking above the rock, near the ceiling. Following his gaze, I see a section of rope. That's all. No way to reach it, no levers to pull, nothing that I can see. I'm just as stumped as before, but Dharius appears to be hatching a plan.

Dharius

Dammit, how can Arcadia be that stupid? If she's not going to help, then she just must abstain from talking. I see her eyes start to get wet... Great, now we have just another whiny girl in the group. Whoever chose Arcadia was a total idiot.

Now a blonde guy comes with me. He's taller by some inches.

"Hey, why don't you leave her alone?" he yells at me. "It's not like you've actually done anything, either, except throwing your weight around, so why don't you lay off everyone else and try helping for a change?"

My body is full of fury and adrenaline, but when I'm about to respond, Ava comes at me yelling, too. My anger towards the blonde dude is so big that I don't listen to her, until I hear she says "...you are of no use to us either. You are just a coward.”

I close my hand in a fist. This is it. Ava and the other guy stop shouting and go to the closed cabinet. I look at them, swearing in my mind; if I could kill them, I would definitely do it. But then something attracts my attention. There's a rope in the ceiling, but I don't see anyway to reach it. Maybe that's what we need to open the wall. But, how? An idea starts forming on my mind, but there's something I must do first...

I grab the blonde's shoulder and turn his face to mine. Then I punch him on his right cheek, releasing all the fury. I use the confusion to hit him twice, one time on the face and the other on the stomach. The guy grabs his abdomen, full of pain, and before he attacks I kick his face, throwing him to the ground.

"F***ing fool" I croak, while spitting on his face which has a small quantity of blood, all over the mouth and nose.

"Ree!" someone screams. Now I know his name.

Anyway, time to open the cabinet.

Leo

Watching all of them I smile. This group was interesting. I held a labeled bottle of liquid addressed to me in my hand. I uncorked it and drunk the liquid. My energy came back and I smile wider. I look at the stone wall where the commotion was. A few people got drug out of the room by guards, but I noticed the rude guy looking at a rope.

"Let me try something," I say. Sheathing my sword, I found small holes in the wall that were big enough for me to climb. I started climbing up the wall.

"Be careful!" someone shouted. I nearly lost my footing, but continued up the wall. I climbed to the top and saw the rope. Carefully, I unsheathed my sword and started to slowly saw into the rope. Sweat dripped down my face. I managed to cut through the rope without falling, and something happened that I expected.

The wall shook and pebbles rained down. "Get Back!" I shouted. The others got out of the way, just as the wall collapsed. Inside on the back of the wall, was a pulley mechanism.

Ava

After I pop off at him, I just walk away. I needed to get my anger out. I consider using one of the shots the doctor gave me, but I leave it in my pocket. I hear Dharius says he is going to kill Ree and I in head. Reading peoples minds is like listening to them talk. There thoughts go off in my head. He comes over randomly and just punches Ree. He is thrown on the ground. I turn back to him and look up at him. I am small compared to him, but I am not afraid of him. I would be if I had no powers, but I do so what is the point? “If you were going to kill me I am sure you would have done it by now.” I say I hold the glare he is giving me. I can feel his breath on my face. I step back a few steps. “So if you can kill me, why haven't you.”I ask.

Stanley



I cannot believe what is happening in front of me. I just can't believe it. Dharius turns out of the blue and starts beating the snot out of him. That is it. Ava is still talking to him, asking him why he hasn't killed her yet. She may as well be asking to get herself killed. I tap her shoulder and when she turns to look at me I gently push her out of the way. Stepping over Ree's body, I kick Dharius square in the chest. He stumbles backwards a few steps and I follow up my attack with an uppercut. The guy is almost off his feet but then he heaves himself forwards, regaining himself. We stare at eachother for a moment: once again I am overwhelmed by the intensity in his gaze. I want to whip him, really whip him. Maybe I can even shoot him or stab him or something. He would heal anyways. Too bad I left my rifle over by the food cabinet.

It appears that I haven't learned anything from the last time I spaced out, because the next thing I know Dharius is burying his head into my stomach. I hit the ground hard, every bit of air being driven from my lungs. My head smacks against the tile and everything starts swirling. A concussion - just what I need right now. All I can hear for a few seconds is a high-pitched ringing noise. Before I even have a chance to breath in, Dharius is on me again. He straddles me and punches my face one, two, three times. I can taste blood; I'm prety sure I'll be losing all my teeth if he doesn't kill me first. Faintly, I can hear all the girls screaming their heads off. Anothe punch, this one hitting my ear, nearly unhinges my jaw. Darkness clouds the corner of my vision. I need to do something. Mr. Fox!

Drawing in a painful breath, I shift into fox form. Dharuis slams his fist into the tile where my head used to be, and he rears back, cursing. I use the opportunity to wiggle free and slip behind him. I return to Stanley shape and scramble up, ignoring the fact that the room is spinning and the light appears to be flickering on and off. I force myself to focus on Ree, bleeding and moaning in pain, and Arcadia, who is watching with her hands to her mouth. Looking at them gives me a fresh rage; How dare he?

This time it's me who attacks, stumbling forward half-blind, aiming a punch at his big stupid nose. He catches my fist but I am ready with the other one, hitting him in the ear with every ounce of stregth I have. Feeling his grip loosen slightly, I tear my hand free and get him again in the side of the jaw. I manage to pop him in the shoulder before I feel knuckles connecting with my eye socket. I stagger back and for a moment we stare at eachother, both spitting out blood. It's obvious that he wants to end this fight now, and with me writhing on the floor. Back at'cha, buddy! The world starts swirling again; I don't know if I can actually beat him. Dizzy as I am, could knock me over with a feather.

Suddenly, Dharius runs forward. Though I raise my fist in an attempt to stop him, I'm slower now and he catches it in a lazy motion. Having me caught, he kicks me and I flail backwards; it's a miracle I manage to keep myself up. I know what I need to do to stop this. My knife. I still have my knife.

Dharius steps forward. It's not hard to see the triumphant glint in his eye. I may be a good six inches taller than him, but my head is swimming from smacking the tile and he knows it. He is going to finish me. Lowering his head, he charges like a bull. I brace myself for impact. Just before his skull collides with my stomach, I whip out my knife and sink it into where his neck meets his collarbone. A collective scream rises up from the rest of my teammates. The knife slides underneath the clavicle as if it's cutting butter. Dharius screams blasphemous words and crumples, his momentum disappearing. I take out my knife and stab him again in the stomach before stepping back.

That's when it hits me. I just stabbed a man... I just stabbed a man twice. This is what finally makes me sink to the floor. I can no longer see anything except a blinding white light, or hear anything except for tinny voices yelling things. I'm dimly aware of the fact that guards are rushing into the room, separating Dharius and I and carrying us off somewhere. The medical ward, I suppose. Whatever happens to the others is beyond me.

I stabbed a man. I stabbed a man. Sure, it was sort of self-defense. Sure, Dharius has probably already healed himself. Sure, he had it coming. It doesn't matter: all that matters is that I took a knife and drove it into someone else. The pain in my head becomes secondary to this fact. I stabbed a man.

It's all too much. I close my eyes and let my awareness slip away, fading into a comfortable darkness.

Spoiler

Sorry for the monster post. Dharius and Stanley are probably going to be the best of friends from now on :p

Ava

After seeing Ree get punched and Stanley beaten up, my head starts to spin. I should have been the one to take the punch in the face, not Ree. I was the one who pestered him. Then Dharius got stabbed. Words cannot express how I am feeling about it. I am not surprised at all, but I do not think it should have happened. I am not happy about it, but not upset either. I look over at Stanley laying on the ground and rush to him. “Can I have a little help here please?” I yell. He is passed out and is beaten up pretty bad. Vega and a few others run over and work on him. I have no idea what to do. I get up and walk over to Ree. His face is bloody and he was spit on. I grab some water and a lot of napkins. I walk over and sit beside him. I wipe the blood from his face. “I am so sorry. That should have been me.” I say.

“I do not think Dharius would hit a girl.” He said trying to smile.

“That would not surprise me if he did.” I say. I wipe all the blood off and then just sit down. Now we need to hope Vega and the others know what they are doing to make sure Stanley wakes up.

Ree

"Any luck?" Stanley asked. He kept looked back at Arcadia strangely.

"Nope."

"There must me something..." Stanley muttered. He looked up at the ceiling.

"Maybe-" I began, but suddenly I staggered back as an iron grip closed on my shoulder. I felt myself jerked away from the others and nearly fell as I was turned around.

The guy's fist slammed into my face, and I grunted as I jerked to the side from the force. I barely managed to stay on my feet, and what felt like a cannonball hit my nose, and then something slammed into my stomach, into my wound. Agony. I cried out, staggering and grabbing at the area. Another jolt of pain in my face made me shout again. I fell, still clutching at my side.

He snarled something at me, and I heard my name from somewhere, but all I could focus on was the pain that was all over me. My side was on fire; I wanted to scream. I tried to focus on breathing. Breathing wasn't painful, right? No, scratch that, breathing was painful when your side was torn open.

I heard talking, and then shouts and thuds. Someone was shouting something about 'Dharius' - that must have been the punk's name. There was a scream and a horrible sound. I opened my eyes and saw a bunch of scientists and guards everywhere, holding the punk back and catching Stanley as he fell. Stanley had a bloody knife that he dropped as he passed out.

Ava was shouting something, and then she came over to me. Everything was blurry and dizzy, but I saw that much.

"I am so sorry," she said, wiping my face. "That should have been me."

"I don't think Dharius would hit a girl," I mumbled. I wasn't even sure what I was saying, but I knew most guys wouldn't hit a girl.

"That would not surprise me if he did." She sat down as she finished wiping my face. I hadn't realized how bloody I'd been, but I saw blood all over the napkin she had, and - was that spit? So he'd spat on me too.

Everyone was watching Stanley as he was carried out by a guard. A couple of them came over to where we were.

"Alright, come on, now," one of them said gruffly, grabbing me and hauling me to my feet. I staggered; my side still burned.

"Wait- I don't-" I stammered, but they took me off towards who-knew-where. What were they doing? Why was he so rough? Was I in some sort of trouble for fighting? I hadn't actually hit Dharius... had I? I didn't remember very well. I hoped Stanley was alright. I hoped Ava was alright. I hoped... I wasn't sure what I hoped, so I just staggered on instead, trying not to fall on my face.

Spoiler

Apologies for the large post. I got kind of carried away there...

Arcadia

"Stanley!" I shout as he falls. He doesn't respond, and I know he's unconscious.

I stand there, stunned. It was my fault the fight started, and I caused three people to get hurt. Granted, Dharius had it coming, but still. I initiated it.

Guards come over to haul Stanley out of the room, and I see that he's unconscious. I run forward without thinking, and I block their way.

"I'm going with you," I say firmly.

"You'll see your friends soon enough," one of the guards shooed me away.

"NO! I'm going with you. It's my fault that it happened."

He sighs and looks me up and down, a sour look on his face. "Alright, Princess, we'll take you with them to the infirmary. But don't get in our way."

I follow them all the way to the infirmary. They put Dharius in a room somewhere further down the hall and while Stanley and Ree share a room. I watch them get to work on Stanley and Ree, bandaging their wounds, stitching up Ree's previous wound, and running some small tests. Ree is awake, but he doesn't talk at all, groaning and wincing occasionally as they dressed wounds.

At last they finish and leave, and I run over to Stanley's bed. He's still unconscious. I start to cry again, feeling guilty.

"Wake up Stanley," I whisper.

"Is he still not wake?" Ree asks, wincing as he tries to prop himself up.

"No."

"It's been over a half hour," he says nervously.

I pull over a chair and sit next to Stanley, taking his hand in mine.

"Stanley, it's Arcadia. You're in the infirmary with Ree," I tell him, tears still falling. "You've got to wake up."

I continue to whisper to him, about how we all thought he fought bravely, and how grateful I was that he stood up for us. After about five minutes, I feel him squeeze my hand back, and I see his eyes fluttering.

I run over to Ree who dozed off. "Ree! Ree, he's waking up!" I say in an excited whisper. Ree's eyes fly open and he smiles.

I hear a groan from Stanley and run back over to him.

"Ugh, where am I?"

"The infirmary. And I'm here with you," I say, relieved to see him awake.

Spoiler

Well I think I would understand it more if it was the other way. I think we should put it to a vote.

Ava

I begin to pace around the room. What are they going to do to them? Is Ree going to be okay? I keep worrying myself. I know that if I keep doing that, I am going to start to freak out. I just walk around the room and try to breathe in and out. Why is Ree worrying me so much? I don’t know what it is, but I like being around him.

I shake my head to clear out all the thoughts in my head. I walk over to Vega. “Do you know when we are actually going to go on this planet?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “Does anyone?” She asks. I shrug my shoulders. I do not really understand what we are going there to do. I consider asking around, but that means going near Dharius and I would rather not. I am very mad at him. I am mad at myself to. I should not have blown up on him, but I do not he should act that way. I know he is just trying to get attention, but giving it to him is the exact opposite of what I should do. I am just going to stay away from him and mind my own business.

Vega

"Do you know when we're actually going to the planet?" Ava asked me.

"Does anyone?" I remarked. I just shrugged at Ava, a little confused myself.

That was a good question, though. When were we going to the planet? These "tests" couldn't be that important. Besides, there were already three of us in the infirmary, after only half a day at the...lab, or whatever this place was. Now that I thought about it, Arkyle would probably be safer than this lab, especially for the spies.

"Hey, doc!" I called, getting the attention of one of the scientists. "When are we going to Arkyle?"

"Not for a while," the scientist replied. "We're not done with testing yet."

For some reason, his response made me really, really angry. Why were they keeping us here? And how did they justify these awful "tests?!"

I jumped to my feet and shoved the scientist, pinning him against the wall. "Listen, buddy," I snarled. "There's iron in blood. I can give you an aneurysm by snapping my fingers. This is ridiculous! I'm sick of these 'tests'! Let's just go to the planet and get it over with!"

"Alright!" the scientist stammered, shaking so hard that his glasses started sliding down his nose. "Just a few more days! One, maybe two."

"Fine," I growled, letting him go. I stalked back to where I had been sitting and slumped down, muttering to myself.