Tension Rising - Main thread [Fight or Flight]

Quite suddenly, Emily jolted to life, eyes darting around nervously. Jon's eyes widened in facination. So his ability was more useful than he'd first thought.


"What happened?" she asked, obviously noticing how unnaturally quiet and slightly dim things now were. Jon explained the idea of a time bubble to her with eager swiftness. What Timestorm had shown him was amazing, and opened up a whole bunch of different possibilities to him. Finally, he would be able to show others exactly what his power was like. Finally he wouldn't have to constantly activate and deactivate his power and exhaust himself so rapidly. Finally, if he so chose, he would be able to fight fairly, and he wouldn't feel like he were cheating death every time he fought. He couldn't help but break out into a wild grin.


"So how do I do it then?" he asked.


"Well, don't take this to be a cliche, but really all you have to do is believe," Timestorm explained, and Jon laughed. "If you believe that you can bring something into the time bubble, then it will be brought in."


"Just like the other one. Sounds fairly simple, actually," Jon was already scanning around, looking for something which he could demonstrate on.


"It's not," came Timestorm's curt reply, "Because this is a much greater level of belief than before. Think of your power like driving a car. Activating your ability takes only one push, like turning the ignition key. But to get the car to move, you need a constant force on the peddle, and thus your ability needs constant, fully founded belief. This isn't just emotional belief either; unless you're lucky this extends to a strength of belief only rarely exhibited in humans."


Jon felt his smile droop. He supposed he'd been naive to expect everything to come so easily, but the prospect of gaining power so easily had been a dazzling one. Still, he now found himself questioning Timestorm. His knowledge of Jon's power seemed almost too extensive, too specific. Jon wasn't exactly doubting his tutor, but was merely curious and wanted to iron out some of the chips in Timestorm's explanation.
 
Sen Harper


Sen frowned slightly at the mention of being in pain while breathing and moving. The mentioning of not having a major artery cut made her wince slightly, thinking about the hell that could have caused. She was reminded of what Jon had mentioned the day before, about stopping time to help them. It was tempting to tell Zach but wasn't sure if he would even believe her about it something she barely believed herself. "Yeah... I got really lucky..." She muttered softly before glancing back to the class.


"I'm not sure if there will be something other than just the assessment though..." She replied to his question about ditching the rest of class. Being just outside the class didn't bug her much, she was away from the crowd but close enough to at least know what was going on. The last thing she wanted was to be called up to demonstrate something else or receive some kind of evaluation only to no be around to hear it.


@Alex Phalin
 
"You said before that only the person who activated the time bubble could interact with it," Jon questioned, "so how then were you able to bring Emily into it?" The Emily in question was still stood there, listening to their conversation, the blank expression on her face evidence that everything was going slightly over her head.


"I am an exception to the rule," he stated blankly, "because I am dimensionally sensitive. The patterns of activation though are largely the same between most dimensional powers, hense why I know so much on the subject." He practically just read my mind, Jon thought. "I am sorry if I've given you the impression that things would be relatively easy, but that is not the case, and hence why I've asked for you now."


"What about me?" Emily asked, softly, "How do I fit into this?"


"I was reading your file the other day," Timestorm turned to her, his movements unnaturally smooth and almsot unnoticable, "and in the courtyard yesterday I couldn't help but notice your state. You're struggling to control your powers at all, aren't you?" She didn't answer, looking away weakly. "There's no need to be ashamed; I'm sure many other students are in the same boat. It just turns out that your lack of control is more inhibiting than theirs."


"That doesn't make me feel any stronger..." she muttered, clutching onto herself.


"No, but that is why you are here now. You will have noticed the silence, no? And how everything seems unnaturally dimmer. These are the perfect conditions to reaclimatise yourself to regular hearing, and then building up control. After all, you've been in less pain here, haven't you?" Silence again. "Thus I can train the pair of you together in tandem. That is, if you're willing to help each-other."





Jon looked over at her, and smiled. "Makes sense to me, and if it helps her to stop being in pain then I'm more than willing to help." Emily twitched slightly, as if she was about to say something, but stopped herself and withdrew, her lip curled resolutely.





"Ok," she nodded weakly, with a glance to the pair of them.





"Good," said Timestorm, poker-faced as ever, "then let's begin."
 
Gray seemed a little unsure at Thomas' newfound glee.


"Eh... I don't know if I like the sound of that laugh." he said with a nervous chuckle.


"Maybe I should add 'fight fairly' to the rules, knowing your penchant for nut-kicks." he teased a bit, smirking.


@Metaphysics


---


Mark smiled when she brought the food, and once again his stomach gave off a loud rumble.


"This is perfect, thank you." he said, smiling. He dug into his food, eating surprisingly quickly. After a few moments he paused so to not make himself sick.


"I'm glad you're doing better. I was worried when you were in the infirmary." He smiled a little, scratching his head.


"I wanted to be there next to you, but they wouldn't let me."


With a little smile he took another bite, sighing happily. It was nice, just spending time with her like this. Some peace and quiet was nice.


In fact, it was a little too quiet.


"Wait a minute... When does class start?"


@Silent Justice


---


"Yeah, I guess you have a point. Maybe I shouldn't ditch out either." he said, sighing a bit. Truth was, he was in a lot more pain than he let on. Every step was agony, every time he breathed he could feel the stab in his side jolt him with pain. He wanted to tell her the truth, but he didn't want to worry her. Poor girl had enough to deal with.


He grinned a bit and playfully ruffled her hair. "Don't know about you, but I'm perfectly content with staying out in the hall for right now. It's way too damn loud in there."


@Shura
 
And then, to Jon's surprise, the teacher simply turned and began to walk off down the corridor. The pair glanced over at eachother and Jon shrugged, preparing to call out to him. But then, without turning around, he began to rattle off instructions to them.


"Jon, when I disappear round this corner, I want you to hum loudly. Let the vibrations consume you, focus your entire being on them, try to calm yourself completely. Emily, try to change the volume of his hum for yourself, quieten it down, feel around with your ability. Then you will begin to learn control, and Jon can find out how to clear the area."


Jon frowned, and then suddenly twigged what exactly he meant. "Wait, you're talking about the fog stuff, aren't you?" Well that explains why it's been absense these last few days, he thought. Still, it added another hurdle to his learning steeplechase, and he wished it was all so much more simpler.


"Correct. I cannot teach you how to do it, you must learn to feel it for yourself." With that, he was gone, and Jon immediately turned to Emily.


"So should I start humming now?" he asked, and she shrugged indignantly. "Sorry, sorry. It's just all a little weird." Taking a deep breath that he wasn't sure he even needed in frozen time, Jon turned away and untensed his body. Standing straight and tall, he adopted the ready position, a focussing technique taught to him in his time in the youth theatre. They too used to hum, as a way of warming up vocal cords ready for projection. He'd have grinned at the irony of using the technique for such a more serious purpose, but now he was completely focussed.


Batting away any stray thoughts, Jon stared blankly ahead, and began to hum.
 
"Uh, I'm not sure..." Madison said as she ate her waffles. Crapcrapcrap did I accidentally make both of us late for class? Damn it. That was probably why it was so quiet! "I think it may be right now!" She said, finishing her breakfast as fast as she could without getting sick. "Let's go." She said as she stood up, leaving her plate, and left the room, heading for the gym. Hmm... They said more power practice... Maybe practicing his power will also help him out of his little depression.


@Alex Phalin
 
Nikolas


During all the commotion Nikolas had actually missed a student who had been trying to get his attention. "Yes?" He turned to the student as he went on about how late he was. "Not a problem, just hit the dummy with the best of your ability. Don't destroy the school in the process though, it is damaged enough. Just go up when you're ready." He smiled a friendly smile. "I apologize for not responding to your question sooner." Nikolas did feel bad for ignoring the student but given how a couple different people had been trying to get his attention it was easy for him to skip over someone by mistake.


Hayden


Hayden turned to the graduate who had been complimenting him. "Thank you, but it can be hard to control that form though, it seems to have a mind of its own." Which, it in fact did have a mind of its own. He was not entirely sure how his ability changed merely due to a bite mid transformation but that is what happened. It certainly makes him miss the days where he was able to be the only one in his mind or even have a good night of uninterrupted sleep. At first Hayden had so little control over the transformation that he couldn't control it for any more than two minutes, with much training he had dramatically increased it from two minutes to twenty, although the longer the duration the harder it got to fight it off, so it really depended on how exhausted he was.


@Prizzy Kriyze


@Robin man
 
The instant he began, he was aware that beside him, Emily had winced in pain. It was only a slight movement, only the smallest of sounds, but it was enough to throw him off. He found his eyes focussing once more, and down the far side of the corridor, thick tendrils of wispy whiteness had began to creep towards him. Eyes flashing with slight panic, he began to hum even louder, higher, but the vague hissing of the fog, and yet the impossibly similtanious silence it exhuded, overpowered his hums. He felt Emily's eyes boring into his skull, and the world began to sway around him. He heard his mind fizzing, and giving up his hopes of focus, he heard Emily scream and let his own wailing voice join her...


Their screams echoed away into normality, and they stood, breathing heavily, bent over double, taking in massive gulps of air in the vain hope that oxygen would be the medicine to their fear.


"What... what was that?" she gasped.


"The very fabrics of the time-space continuem," Timestorm's voice, calm and proper as ever, hit them from behind, and the teacher strolled up towards them.


"That's almost vague enough to fit into a sci-fi," Jon muttered wryly, finally calming himself down.


"But vague as it is, that's how things stand," Timestorm began to elaborate, "It's hard to do so, but think of time as a galaxy-sized mural. The fogs, as you describe them, and the threads that hold it all together. In standard, free-flowing time, people cannot see them, but they are always here - it is like the mural is whizzing past too fast for people to comprehend the specific fabrics, but when time is frozen, the thread is visible. Yet it wants to correct itself, and thus why it advances on people who realise its existance... Actually, that metaphor was horrible. I should stick to science and philosophy."


"It did the job well enough," Jon smirked, now trying to relax Emily through joking about, "Though it really does shed a knew light on 'the fabrics of time'."


"I apologise for the lack of warning," Timestorm began to pace, apparently not appreciating his humour, although thnakfully he heard Emily chuckle slightly, "but I thought it best that you learn from experiences and mistakes. That is how the human mind best develops after all, and that is why those who have experienced pain often end up stronger. I do not wish pain upon you, but the concept is still there. Thus, if it's not too much trouble for you, then I would like you to repeat the process a couple of times now. With Winford's permission, I will allocate a time every day where I can supervise you with this, private tutoring if you were. Do I make sense?"


"Yes." Surprisingly, Emily was the one to speak up, far more powerful and self-sure than Jon had ever heard her before. "I want to go back to normal life, a life without having to constantly be on the edge through this pain. And if this is the best way, then I'm going along with it."


"Well, as long as you're ok with facing the fog then I'm fine too," Jon smiled, and she smiled too.


"Excellent," Timestorm nodded, already turning to walk off once again. "Then now we can repeat the process."
 
Sen Harper


A small frown still curved her her lips slightly as she watched Zach lean heavily against the wall. He wasn't exactly the picture of health. She remembered there being a small clinic apart from the infirmary inside each building and figured a short absence probably wouldn't be noticed. "Demonstrations might take a while..." She muttered, "I think there's a clinic in this building, they might have something to help with the pain at least." She smiled slightly. As much as she might not care about people in general she hated to see those she considered friends in pain. "I'll help you find it if you feel up to it."


@Alex Phalin
 
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Mark blinked, quickly finishing off his food. Once he was done he followed her through the hall, cursing under his breath at being late. At least he was able to have a nice breakfast with her. He smiled a bit at that thought, his face flushing. It was nice.


Once they reached the gym, he heard sounds of people practicing inside. Sure enough, they were late. He saw two students out in the hallway and tilted his head a bit. He had seen them during the fight, and he noticed that both of them had been injured. He felt a pang of guilt when he saw them, once again being reminded that he was useless in the fight.


Quickly shoving those feelings back he stepped into the gym, wondering what they were supposed to do.


@Silent Justice


---


Zach tilted his head a bit, smirking. "Yeah... I think that might be a good idea. I'd like to actually be able to get some training in." he admitted.


"It's funny, It's not my first year here, but I never found out where those clinics are. Never got hurt last year."


He turned and glanced over at the two late students, grinning a bit. He wondered why the pair was so late... Probably a morning make-out session somewhere quiet. He chuckled a bit to himself and turned, hopefully going the right way.


"Lead on."


@Shura
 
Mica wandered into the room where everyone was demonstrating there powers and stood off to the side, both hands resting on his cane while he watched. Some of the demonstrations were impressive, others weren't as impressive, but overall they seemed to be strong. He was curious if there was any point to him demonstrating his power, so he simply waited to be asked to do so.


@Anyone important, idk who's actually here.
 
"So, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Madison asked to anyone who could answer as she entered the gym with Mark. "Practice our powers on those dummies?" She asked, assuming that that was probably the answer. She figured that those dummies were probably there for a reason. She thought for a bit about how exactly she should demonstrate her powers. When she was done deciding, she put a portal right above and right beneath one of the dummies, trapping it in a portal loop. Then she got rid of the top portal and immediately replaced it with one facing sideways, sending the dummy flying into the wall with its momentum. She smiled at Mark as the dummy popped back into its original position. "I guess it's your turn," She said, gesturing to the dummy.


@Alex Phalin


@Anyone else in the gym
 
Sen Harper


Her frown curved into a slight smirk as she nodded. "I read over the map a few times when I didn't have much else to do." She shrugged before leading the ya down the corridor back to the main hall. She moved at a slower pace as not to rush Zach keeping beside him for the most part. "I'll be cool to train and practice again though... Ya know.. With you the life being threatened part."
 
Malcolm nodded. "I see. Well I'm impressed. And takes quite a bit. Even though I'll forget by tomorrow if I learn something new, so you'll be able to impress quite often it seems like" He looked over and saw a girl that just got in. "Welcome to class. You're trying to hit the dummy with your strongest hit. You'll go next. Sound good?"


@Godman873


@King Of Imagination
 
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Alec nods at the professor."I'm sorry, but my performance will be affected by the fight a while back. I overexerted myself, and can't reach full power again just yet." He excused himself, as he knew he wasn't really in the best position to show off his powers right now. "Just give it my best shot, huh?" He said silently to himself as he walked away from him.


A girl with some sort of portal power sent a dummy flying into a wall, just before Alec stepped up. He looked at the girl and let out a "Wow! That's cool!" to her, before facing the dummy and pulling up his sleeves. "How am I supposed to top that.." He whispered resigningly, before starting to channel energy in his arms. His eyes widened as he noticed how clearly his nerves were glowing, creating that crack-like pattern on his arms, even though he was damaged. It wasn't as powerful as when he was with Claire, but it was stronger than he could do before, even when he was at full strength. Perhaps his nerves grow back stronger when they're damaged?


He paid no further mind to it, and small vortex-like spirals of smoke-like purple energy starting seeping out of his hands. He grunted lowly, and quickly put his hands together in front of him, firing an unusually large blast at the dummy. It hit the dummy and exploded like a purple firecracker on impact, creating a rather large hole in the dummy, melting and singing it all over. He looked at it with interest as it plopped back into his usual form, before falling to his knees as he felt pain like a thousand needles piercing his arms. He shouldn't have done that.


After a few moments of grunting and gasping, he stood back up, and walked away from his position, holding his right arm, which still burnt like fire, with his left hand. He approached the portal girl, who was standing with some boy, because he simply couldn't hold back. She just happened to be the only person he saw use their powers against the dummy, so of course Alec couldn't keep himself from asking her about it. "Hey, was that you with the portals? That was so cool! How do they work? Are they exhausting to use?"


@Godman873


@Silent Justice
 
Mark gulped, trying not to look nervous. He knew he was going to suck, and probably get laughed at... Quickly shaking his head, he suddenly had a look of determination. No! He wasn't going to make an ass of himself this time. Everyone else had a good grip on their powers, so why couldn't he?


He stepped up and took a deep breath, heat waves starting to appear around his arms. After a few moments he balled his hand into a fist, flames suddenly erupting from his hand. The blaze grew to nearly the size of a basketball before he threw his hand forward, launching a fireball into the nearest dummy.


The blast hit, sending a shockwave of heat through the gym as the dummy's top half was turned to ash.


He grinned a bit, and it took a full ten seconds before he realized that he had burned his hand pretty severely. Normally he would have freaked, but he was pumped with too much adrenaline to let that stop him. He walked back over to Madison, a huge grin plastered on his face. After that explosive display, he seemed in a much better mood.


@Silent Justice


---


Zach followed her, listening. "You're just full of surprises. No wonder I like you." he said plainly, grinning a bit. After a while he yawned a bit. "Yeah, it'll be nice... I'd like to get some actual training in, preferably with less knives." he joked. It was nice of her to show him where this place was, if he had thought about it he already would have gone.


@Shura
 
Mica nodded, a grin on his face. "Of course. Though, I'm not really a student here anymore, I'd love to demonstrate my," he laughed, "strength." He stepped up to the dummy drew back his cane, and gave it a good thwack, but dealing no real damage. He smiled, "Oh, let me try that again." He drew back his cane, this time casting an illusion, and when he hit the dummy, it seemed to explode in a violent, loud manner. He laughed. "There, that's better."


@Robin man
 
Malcolm applaud. "Nice control over that fireball. Most people have a hard time with that power. And that's a nice burn on your arm." He had his fair share of burns in his life. His left calf was scared from burns from person that controlled fire a few years ago.


@Alex Phalin


Malcolm looked over at the person he just talked to. "Oh you're a graduate?" Then he saw the explosion. He applaud again. "Impressive explosion. A tad bit over kill for a dummy I think. But what do I know. I might forget tomorrow."


@King Of Imagination.
 
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Madison was breathing heavily, and there were drops of sweat on her forehead. "They work, by, uh, working, I guess. I don't know the exact science of it. And yeah, it is tiring, especially when I put alot of things through it, or the same thing a bunch of times. Your power is really cool, too. " Madison smiled and watched as Mark demonstrated his power on the dummy. He was doing great! So much for not being able to control his powers very well. "You did great!" Madison said, not noticing that his arm was burned. She walked over and hugged him, happy that he was doing so well.


@Alex Phalin


@Prizzy Kriyze
 
Sen Harper


Sen smirked slightly "I like to know where I'm going." She shrugged making her way down the hall recalling the map in her head. turning down on of the other corridors. "Yeah, maybe we can come up with some more combos." She smiled. They two came to a set of double doors which had a small red cross above them.


The two entered into the sterile but fairly welcoming small clinic that had two nurses and the usual line of medical equipment and the like. One of the nurses mentioned being able to patch Zach up with a bit of healing. It wouldn't be a full heal but enough to make it easier to move and function. With Zach in good hands Sen figured she would head back to class instead she missed something important. She took her time getting back to class as to not aggravate in injury. She probably should have taking the offer to have her stab wound heals but she could deal with it.


Sen managed to make it back to the classroom not missing a whole lot. She slipped back into the classroom lingering by the door and leaned against a wall intend of the doors since the doors didn't exactly seem stable.
 
Boris' arm made a slight *crack* sound as Kojiro hit it. However, Boris seemingly pays it no mind.


"And if you beat robot to pieces again, you put it back together!" He mockingly said. "Now, I can understand why they call you Julian. But tell me, what is power? I highly doubt you don't have power, after all."


Boris took a deep sigh, and scratched the back of his head. "But who am I to just ask about power, without introducing power of my own!"


Boris laughs heartily, before continuing. "I can build stuff. The kicker is, I have to be drunk for it to work properly. And the drunker I get, the better my machinery gets. Robot's name is Mannequin. I made Mannequin when I had 6.5 promille alcohol in my blood. Which is a lot, and usually lethal. I'm Russian, though, so I'm used to it."
 
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Alec smiled. "Thank you!" He looked down at his right hand, which only twitched when he tried to move it and frowned for a split second. It hadn't really been worth it. He looked over as some boy with fire powers demonstrated his abilities. He looked as his fireball hit the dummy, and the similarities of their powers struck him. His psionic energy worked somewhat like fire, but it wasn't the same. Still though, maybe they could learn something from each other.


"Hey, nice power." He said to the man with the singed hand, before looking around the room. His eyes stopped on an enormous man. His curiousity got the better of him, and his legs moved themselves towards the giant. He stopped next to the man, and simply stared up at him for a good few seconds. "Holy wow, you're big..." He blinked a couple of times, and added, "Is that your power?"


He leaned his head over to the side, and noticed the man next to him talking about drinking lots of alcohol, being russian, and machines. He noticed the robot with him, and his eyes widened. He (quickly, without waiting for any answer from the giant) rushed over to the alcoholic russian. "Is that a real robot? Wow! I've never seen a robot like that before!"


@PicaPirate


@Silent Justice


@Alex Phalin
 
<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_09/Brittany_originalcrop.jpg.35b0877d3e53032d86250142765478c8.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="29148" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_09/Brittany_originalcrop.jpg.35b0877d3e53032d86250142765478c8.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p> Brittany stood outside of the taxi as the driver retrieved her luggage from the trunk. The overcast morning threatened rain by noon as a light, northern breeze teased through her long, brown hair. Her green eyes scanned the vista in front of her as she sighed with contentment.


Brittany had returned to Winford Academy.


She paid the driver with a significant tip and nodded her thanks to him. The older, immigrant-looking man grinned with thanks at the extra cash and returned to the driver's side of the cab. Brittany looked away, and back toward the campus as the yellow car revved it's engine and pulled easily away from the curb.


Iren will be so surprised, she thought. Giddy, like a child anxious to open presents, Brittany raked the wind-swept hair away from her face as she pulled the gym bag strap over her shoulder and grasped the handle of the wheel-based suitcase.


As she approached the administration building, Brittany could see the damage done. It wasn't nearly as severe as she had expected, but then Brittany knew the school had very talented people working for it and the repair work would be at an unusually accelerated pace.


Beyond the administration building, Brittany spied the ruined gymnasium. So, the stories were true, she thought as she recalled hearing that the main assault had been targeted there. She wondered how many students had been hurt or killed in the attack; based on the condition of the gymnasium, she feared the count was high. None of the news outlets reported a number – the next of kin had yet to be contacted before Brittany had caught her flight – so she wasn't sure just how bad things had been.


The familiar walk to the administration building was covered in casual, comfortable steps. Brittany ascended the stairs and walked to the main office. The receptionist there remembered her and with a warm smile, nodded her welcome.


Brittany signed to the woman by pointing her first, three fingers at her: her pointer, middle and ring finger. It was her signal to those who knew her that she wished to speak in their mind. The receptionist nodded in agreement.


{{Thanks!}} Brittany spoke into the other woman's mind. The receptionist showed no surprise at the telepath's touch; she had spoken with Brittany like this before. {{Is Iren available? I'd like to get started right away.}}


@Shura

 

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<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_09/Kiara.jpg.d480a67f0fb94f79bf7b45a12ccddc1f.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="29151" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2014_09/Kiara.jpg.d480a67f0fb94f79bf7b45a12ccddc1f.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p> Kiara showed her limited talent when it came to attacking the practice dummy. Certainly, her talent was nowhere near as extravagant or as powerful as many of the other students who plied their skills at the targets.


She shuffled to the back of the room and leaned against the wall. Across the way, Kiara watched as those in the other group continued their various assaults on their own targets. She spied Teru who appeared as disinterested as she was with the displays of their fellow students.


Casually, Kiara walked over to the other side of the room where Teru stood. "Some kind of display, huh?" she asked him. "Do you really think that these teachers can help us to improve on our skills, or is this really all for show?"


@PicaPirate

 

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