• XXX not sure yet XXX

    Part 1
    School is a Hassle

    After all the noise of the storm, it was now deathly silent in the halls. The only movements were six silhouettes moving silently between the shadows. Two streaked down the girl’s hall, while the other four moved down the boy’s hall, splitting up into their respected rooms. They all made it into their beds before anyone knew better.
    The two girls didn’t get so lucky; they got caught just before they entered their shared room. The Overlookers were not happy, to say the least.

    * * *

    The next morning, the wakeup bell rang through the clear morning reverberating from every corner of the Elnyse Academy for Heroes grounds. In every room the occupants were getting out of bed, well everyone except Takeo Inslayth.
    “Oi, Takeo! Get your lazy butt out of bed!” his friend Kairlix yelled at him and kicked his bed. Takeo muttered something into his pillow, but otherwise ignored him.
    “No use,” said his roommate Dark, as he stepped out of the steaming bathroom tousling his long purple hair with a dark towel. “Whenever we…”stay out” late he doesn’t like to be woken up…” They then both shared a smile.
    “Well then I guess that there will be quite a bit more bacon for us,” said Kairlix in a loud voice. “And more pancakes as well!”
    “Though I guess breakfast will be quieter without someone jumping around and shouting!” said Dark in a still louder voice. Takeo got up, picked up his pillow and chased Dark around the room. Finally he tackled him and shoved his pillow in his face and took Dark’s towel.
    “I’m going to take a quick shower,” he said over his shoulder and shut the door.
    “Well, that was fun…” came the muffled voice of Dark. Kairlix just laughed until Dark slapped him upside the head.
    When Takeo came out of the bathroom, Kairlix and Dark had already departed to the Dining Hall. He shook his dark brown hair out his eyes, spraying the walls with water in the process. Since he didn’t feel like walking down alone he decided to pick up their newbie friend L, who like him preferred to sleep in after a long night of dangerous escapades in the nearby towns, his room was down the hall opposite the Dining Hall.
    When he arrived at L’s room he knocked on the door. His roommate James opened the door.
    “Hey, is L here or did he leave already?”
    “Sorry, L left with Kairlix and Dark.” Most people at Elnyse knew their names because they were all infamous.
    “Thanks.” He waved goodbye and walked towards the Dining Hall. He felt slightly dejected because there was no one to talk and joke with. Feeling hungry he took a short-cut to get to breakfast faster.
    There was a path behind one of the few tapestries in the Elnyse Academy, the only problem was that you had to go through it and then you were in the girl’s hallway and then you had to find the second part behind another tapestry. Being in the girls hall was the most dangerous part for him, the rules were very strict about boys being in the girl’s hall and visa- versa.
    He entered the first part and went through to the end, where it was covered by a tapestry as well. He peaked out to make sure the coast was clear. When he was sure, he sprinted across to the other part.
    Once inside he sighed and tripped. He hit the floor and rolled. He was sure there were no cracks or anything to trip him up in the pathways. His hand moved around to see what he had tripped on. The first thing he touched was a leg. Instinctively his hand recoiled. After he had calmed down a bit, he reached out again. It took him only a matter of seconds to find the leg again. When he did he felt it up to see if the rest of the body was there. That was when he got kicked in the face.
    When he finally came back to it, he had tears in his eyes and someone was calling his name.
    “OH CRAP! I’m sorry Takeo are you all right?” He knew the voice, but his mind wasn’t registering it at the moment.
    “Um…I think so, I might have a headache later…”Then he realized whose voice it was, it was Daimikun Migoto’s! “Dai, what are you doing here?!”
    “Me and Eureka got caught coming back last night…they beat us to try and find out who else we were with…”Her voice started to crack. “They chained me to this wall here; otherwise I would have gotten out of here…” She had started to cry.
    “Hold on,” said Takeo in a reassuring voice. “I’ll get you out of there in a couple minutes.” He took out his lock pick kit and went to work on the cuffs that held her hands; he had only been working for a minute when there was a “click!” and Takeo felt her arms fall. “There you go.” She hugged him and he hugged her back, he felt tears fall on his shoulder.
    He picked her up, he walked and she hobbled down to the other end of the path. When they reached the end they were very near the Dining Hall, so they went there. When the two of them sat down at the table where their friends were sitting; their friends looked up from their food looking startled,
    “What the hell happened to you?!” Exclaimed L. Dai’s jet black hair was covered in cobwebs, her clothes had rips and her arms had cuts and bruises all over them. Dai explained to them what had happened while Takeo got himself and her food (Takeo had pancakes, bacon, eggs and a suicide mocha, while he had gotten Dai waffles, low fat yogurt with strawberries and bananas and milk) he set down the two trays. He started to dig into his food. Dai started after she had finished with her tale.
    “So do you know what happened to Eureka?” asked Kairlix concernedly.
    “No…after they had finished with me they took her off somewhere. She was being a bit…overly…uncooperative…”she stopped mid-bite, to stop and think about it. “I hope they don’t hurt her too much.”
    “Have you seen yourself?” asked Takeo surprised. “That reminds me, since our classes don’t start right after this we have to treat your arms.” He was looking at the cuts, “These look pretty shallow, so we can just put some disinfectant on it and wrap it up…”
    “Then we can look for Eureka, right?” Kairlix asked, his blonde hair had fallen over his eyes, but they could all tell he was about to cry.
    “No worries mate,” said Dark suddenly, putting his arm around Kairlix, “We’ll find our darling before we have to fight in the arena.” (The arena was the building where every group had to find a group of monsters. Each group was made up of 6 friends. The groups were made at the begging of each year). They all nodded.
    “Thanks guys…” his eyes glistening he walked over to the bathroom. They watched him and looked at one another.
    “We can find her right?” asked L, who was still new to there group, his black hair stuck up everywhere. They all looked right at him.
    “For friends we can do anything!” said Takeo, “Plus we have your sharp-shooting eyes.” They all smiled at him and he blushed. “Lets finish up here and then we’ll start our search near the science building.”

    * * *

    After they all finished eating they headed out. They first stopped at their group base, she wasn’t there. They picked up their weapons. Takeo strapped his katana onto his back, Dai belted on her falchion, L picked up his sniper, Dark put his pistol into his shoulder holster and his kunai holder strapped onto his leg, and last Kairlix picked up his prized gunblade. They were ready to search any and everywhere.
    They searched every building they had access to; the science, math, English, and history buildings had all turned up nothing; they hadn’t expected the Overseers to put her in any of those places, but they had to check.
    Done with checking the main buildings, they moved to the more restricted buildings. They checked the office, the janitors building, and even all the restrooms.
    “Damn it!” yelled Kairlix, punching a wall so hard that his knuckles started to bleed. “Where do those creeps live anyways?!” His green eyes were shooting every which way. Takeo put a strong arm on his shoulder.
    “Calm down. We’ll find her mate.” Kairlix’s breathing calmed a bit, but his eyes were still shifty. “I think they live above the arena…”


    * * *

    Nobody liked the idea that they had to enter the Arena without permission, to find their friend. The problem was that no one had ever been in any of the building other than the stands to watch matches, so no one knew where they would have to look. They also didn’t want to run into any monsters.
    “It’s the only place they could be that we haven’t looked…” said Takeo. With a sigh they started walking, towards the Arena. When it started to rain they didn’t mind. When it started to thunder Dai got scared and held Takeo’s hand. When the lighting started to strike, no one liked it. When a one of the buildings caught on fire Takeo ran.

    During the run he nearly lost Dai’s hand, but he didn’t let go. When they reached the building Takeo let go of Dai’s hand.
    “Hold my sword, I’ll be back,” he yelled over the roaring flames. With that he ran into the burning building.
    The inside of the building was in ruins; the walls were blackened and burning and the windows had shattered. He soon started to cough because of all the smoke. He pulled his shirt up over his nose and started to search the rooms for people.
    The room that he was in had no one, but the second room had two people who looked like they had been hacked apart, the smell of the burning flesh made Takeo nauseous, he stood transfixed, soon he realized: his shoes were starting to melt, the ceiling was creaking, it was getting harder to breathe, and there was a girl screaming above him.
    He didn’t know the voice, but he ran up the burning stairs, ignoring the biting flames, he turned right following the screaming voice to a small room at the end of the hall. There a door stopped him; but not for long. He kicked the door down and rushed in. The first thing he noticed was a flaming demon brandishing a sword, the second thing he noticed was a younger curled up in a corner screaming.
    Not thinking clearly Takeo rushed the fire demon and punched it, burning his knuckles in the process, grabbed the girl and jumped out the window. Just as they made it out of the window the building crashed down into a bunch of rubble. Since they were two stories up, Takeo had a quick glimpse of his friends before they crashed into the ground, he saw feet rushing towards him and then everything went dark.


    * * *

    The first thing Takeo became aware of was that he was being picked up. The second thing he was aware of was that some one was holding his hand. He half opened his eyes to look around. Dark and Kairlix were holding him aloft and carrying him over to a bench, L had the girl on his back, and Dai was holding his hand; he squeezed her hand weakly. She gave a start and looked down at him.
    “Oh. Your alive, are you?” she looked at him almost angrily.
    “What’s wrong Dai?” He asked quietly, because his throat hurt.
    “I’ll tell you what’s wrong! You could have died!” she started to cry. “Why were you so stupid?! There was the chance that no one was in there!”
    “Dai…” Takeo didn’t know what to say he just looked at her. Then Dark and Kairlix suddenly dropped him.
    “Oh s**t!” He hit the ground on his shoulder, then he looked around. L, had put down the girl and was already in his sniping position, the other three had their weapons at the ready as well.
    Before he could ask what was happening, he noticed a strange glowing from beneath the rubble of where the Science Building had once been.
    “Anybody know what that is?” asked Dark from the corner of his mouth.


    “Um…It might just be a fire demon that was in that building…”answered Takeo.
    “And you didn’t mention this, because why?” asked L.
    “Because: 1) I’ve been out for a bit…
    2) When I finally came back to I got lectured by Dai on how to stay alive
    3) Shut up newbie!”
    “Sorry, didn’t mean anything…” said L in a hurt voice.
    “Don’t worry about it…” muttered Takeo, who was in a dark mood. “Dai, Hand me my sword.” He sat up and pushed himself off the ground. His legs were a bit shaky and he stumbled for a second before Kairlix caught him and stabled him.
    “Don’t be stupid you’re still injured; you can’t go rushing back into battle!” she was looking at him with amazement in her eyes. L looked at him in awe.
    “Please just give me it back…” he said this gently, “I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself.” Kairlix let him go and he fell backwards and landed on his back.
    He started to try and get up again, but Dai sat on his chest.
    “Don’t move! We’ll take care of this!” She stood up and crossed over to where the other 2 were standing.
    “Hey, L.” Dark called back.
    “Yeah?” L asked.
    “The three can handle this thing. Take care of that girl. Okay?”
    “Sure thing.” He knelt down in front of her. “I’m still here as back-up. You got that?”
    “Yep,” replied Dark. Dark, Dai and Kairlix all took out their weapons and got into their fighting stances.
    “Hey, Dai!” called Takeo to Dai, she looked back at him. “If you are planning on fighting and you’re not going to let me, at least use mine. Please.” She hesitated a moment, then she put away her own falchion and pulled out Takeo’s katana, she threw him his sheathe; he deftly caught it in his right hand. She swung back around to face the pile of glowing rubble.
    The pile started to glow brighter and brighter, until they had to avert their eyes because of how bright it was. All the rocks started to melt and it caved in with an explosion of dust. They all held their breath waiting to see what would emerge from the hole that was now in the middle of the collapsed building.
    Suddenly, there was a flash and out jumped a seven foot demon made almost entirely of fire and magma. They stared in awe until their eyes started to water. Dai was the first to recover, she stepped forward, but before she could do anything flames shot up six feet into the air across her path; she stopped abruptly.
    “You are not worthy to fight me yet my young darling.” Said the hideous creature in a soft voice, “but you might make a nice snack!” with that he jumped over the high flames, the ground shook when he landed within two feet of her. She staggered, before she could catch herself, the flaming demon rushed her. She screamed.
    Takeo could do nothing but watch. Before the thing could touch Dai, Kairlix fired his gunblade, making the thing stumble off course slightly, and then he ran in and slashed it. By then Dai had regained her balance and joined the battle.