The Coming Darkness

Coming out the entrance, Eos pushed open the door - not realizing someone was coming in on the other side. The door smashed into whomever was entering inward, the awkward thump causing the blonde do realize exactly what she had done. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" She looked at the boy she had hit with the door and took a step back. "I'll uhm..." Holding the door open she backed out of the way to let him through - by the looks of him she wasn't someone she wanted to mess with further. Maybe if her brother was around, but not on her own. "Sorry, again."

Enzo nodded. Originally, he was going to look for Volitaire, but if he was in trouble, they would know. He hopped over the small river, hoping his clothes would dry off before he got to the school. There was no way he'd strip down infront of those two again. "Let's go, then." He said, content with the outcome of the forest fire mishap.

On the way back, Enzo figured Silver had been in the forest longer then he. "Silver.. Do you have any idea what caused that fire?" He asked, as they came up onto the school grounds.

Volitaire decided to abandon them. He was getting a little tired of the iron bunker and longed for the waters outside. He left the mess hall and went to his room, he scavenged through a clothes basket and found another white shirt. Artizle and Montesque was so immersed in their conversation they didn't even notice Volitaire made it outside. He climbed out of the bunker and closed the hatch. He turned to the waterfalls nearby and sat down at the rivers edge. He kept his knees close up and rested his arms on them. "If I'm going to be stuck trying to heal this wound, I may as well try to enjoy myself in my own boring way..." He buried his chin into his arms and blew out his nose. Enjoying the quiet.

JD couldn’t offer anything to disperse the fire- honestly. After all that trifling complaint he couldn’t much help beyond just making sure that no one else caught a flame. After that finished he splintered off from the group in hopes of finding Silver assured that she was somewhere in this mess- and also assured he might vomit in his mouth if he hung around Enzo and Sasha’s near-flirting for any longer than he had.

Unfortunately breaking off from the group happened to be a terrible idea because he inevitably got himself turned around twice (alright three times), and ended up nowhere. That led him to being alone with his thoughts for an explicit amount of time which in turn was probably worse than getting lost in the forest to begin with.
The crisp call of voices alerted him to the other’s presence and inevitably back to Enzo, Sasha, and- hooray- Silver. “Alright I’m never going in that damn forest again. I feel like bloody Hansel when I do, and unfortunately I don’t stuff bread in my pockets like a fatass to find my way back.” JD nearly hissed, but he smiled afterwards- glad to see everyone else.

Jacen walked into the the main building holding his left cheek, and recalling what just happened...
Cute girl, door hits me, and now I need to find the office...and it's only been a little over 5 minutes. Yeah, this place is nutty as hell.
He adjusts his hat and looks at the brim inspecting for any marks or damage.
If I wasn't wearing this backwards, we would've had serious problems. Too bad she ran off though, I could've asked her how I navigate this damn place.
Jacen walks towards a sign on the wall, 'Visitor sign in is upstairs.'
He stood there for a second with a dumbfounded expression before starting up the stairs...
Nice...reeeeaallllllll nice. He muttered.

Silver glanced at Enzo and responded to his question. "Nope, no idea what started it. I was kind of wondering if you would know, but I guess you don't." She sighed. Could it have been Voltaire's father? She saw him playing with fire, but she wasn't sure, and she didn't want to bring it up unless Voltaire was there to explain himself.

Then JD popped up out of seemingly nowhere. Silver smiled at him, as he seemed to have had his own little adventure getting lost among the trees. She still felt bad about just leaving him like she did before, but she needed to find her swords. She figured he would understand.

That was close. Letting out a sigh of relief, he seemed to ignore her for the most part - which was good. It was funny, Sasha seemed to look to Eos for lessons in femininity, but Eos really would love to learn a thing or two about being tough from Sasha. Maybe then she wouldn't get nervous when she was alone.

She watched him walk away and then closed the door, walking out toward the courtyard. For some reason, she felt like the best place to find them was out here - at least one of them. Her wide honey eyes searched around, growing more worried by the second as she saw the sky was blacker than usual.

Enzo shook his head. The mystery firestarters really started to bug him. Before he could say anything else, JD showed up, and some distance away, Eos had, too. He smiled. I see.. everyone's still okay.

He saw a figure move behind Sorcerers from the corner of his eye. Huh? who was that? He decided to investigate, leaving Silver and Sasha to the very entertaining JD and Eos. He walked around the corner and saw Enki on the floor, surrounded by the same thugs that had been bullying students in school, ever since they had got back from the Gaze. Enki opened his eye and saw Enzo. "Sky! Get out of here..!"
He urged Enzo. "No, I'm not leaving you!"

Enki's callout had turned the bullies attention to Enzo. "Oh, it's BRK." One of them acknowledged. "Let's kick his ass too, He hasn't spend any of his team money." Altogether, they nodded in agreement. Enki was already down for the count, and Enzo realized he had not used his hyper mode against them. Why?

As they closed in on Enzo, he clenched his fist and closed his eyes, blocking out everything on the outside. His mind was blank, and empty, as if it were floating in an infinite black abyss. He felt the win-

BAM!


Enzo opened his eyes to see himself put in a trashcan next to Enki, his face sore from the punch he had just taken. The bullies had left already, taking whatever money Enzo and Enki had. Enki looked to Enzo, and Enzo to Enki.

Spoiler

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs71/200H...uu-d3kugr0.jpg
The two of them laughed light-heartedly. sounding nearly the same.

"Thanks for backing me up, Sky."

"N-no problem."

"We're best friends, right?"

"Yeah."

Jacen walked into the office and found a lady sitting at the desk.
"Hi, I'm Jacen Eirsith. I'm a new student here, I guess. Do you know who I see abou-
"You can just use the kiosk, dear. Enter your name and you'll receive your dormitory and welcome packet. Everything else will be sent to your room this evening. Once you get your key and ID card, head out and enjoy yourself around campus. We'll handle your belongings, and get your dorm ready. Since you're new here, you'll be in a single room until you're placed in a team."
Jacen turned his attention to the kiosk and did as the woman said. Jeez...bitch didn't even let me finish my sentence. At least she's somewhat easy to look at.
The machine blinked and produced an ID card and room key for him.
"So what now?"
"You can put your bags on that cart over there. I'll get everything handled. Head to your building around 6 and everything will be set up, but for now take a walk around the campus. Talk to some people."
Jacen set his bags on the cart and adjusted his headphones. Looking at the clock, he noticed it was barely after 2PM. Confusing him due to the amount of dark clouds that surrounded the area.
"Well, thanks for your help...I'll be on my way now."
He started for the door and grabbed the handle, he stopped when he heard the lady clear her throat.
"Oh, and one last thing dear...welcome to Sorcerers." She said with a sincere smile.
Jacen walked out of the office shaking his head...wondering what could possibly happen next.

He began to frown, growing a bit frustrated. He sprang up and kicked a rock into the water. "Fuck this.." He said in a calmer tone. He touched his burn and winched at the sting. "If I'm going to be on house arrest, I'm doing something productive... Once he said that, Artizle hopped out the hatch and turned to find Voli over by the river. "Nice job slipping by. You'd make for a good Metal Gear cameo." "Nngh..enough of your jokes. Train me. Now. I'm sick of sitting around." "It hasn't even been a day yet and you're already angry." Volitaire nodded. "A burn that big would be a large inconvenience. Are you sure?" Shadows slithered from the tree behind Artizle, they lashed out. Artizle pulled his sword out, the blade hitting the light sparked, in that same moment he held back the shadows. "Not a lot of choice, Jesus.." He hopped back, letting the shadows have his sword. He made a copy and stood by the rivers edge. He dashed forward, his sword skidded the water. Volitaire waited for Artizle's attack. "Good.." He said in a sinister tone.

JD smiled rather charismatically towards Silver, and then laughed a bit. “Whatever- I’m usually more direction-minded than that. So why did you run off and leave me? Was your other boyfriend burning up in the woods?” There was no inflection of distrust or a negative attitude, but he was just idly joking as he did- always.

About that time Enzo sprung from the group as he usually did when JD came around- he wondered if he just had bad timing or if the other boy had a polar opposite magnetic charge to him. “Bloody- where did that fire come from anyway? Sort of sporadic considering everything was copacetic a bit ago. To quote a multitude of Jedi: ‘I have a bad feeling about this’.” It was then he glanced at Sasha and Silver. “Everyone alright?”

Silver brought out her swords, feeling the need to explain why she left. "Well, I had remembered that I left these here a while back, so I needed to find them. Lucky for me, I did. However, they look like they have been used..." Silver thought in the back of her mind if she ever caught anyone using her swords without her permission, she.. Would be rather upset, to say the least. "As far as I know, everyone is fine. As for where the fire came from, no one seems to know." She frowned, wondering in the back of her mind if Voltaire was still resting like she told him to. Probably not.

Sasha was slightly annoyed when Enzo left, but she had figured that it was his choice to and that she had no say in it. Once again, the annoying blonde appeared. Sasha smirked at his question, "Of course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?"

Artizle kept his blade in the water, once close enough he swiped upward. The water jumped next to his blade and splashing Volitaire's face. He brough his sword back down, slicing the drops of water in the air. Volitaire wrapped chains around his wrist and blocked the slash. Sparks flew off and he pushed the blade away. He weaved the shadow behind Artizle, it gripped his leg and held him to the ground. "Unfair!" He slightly turned his blade and let the light catch it. The shine lifted the shadow away and he proceeded to Volitaire. "Nicely done." Volitaire pulled his blade from a opening in the ground and parried Artizle's strong attacks. Artizle lifted his foot and kicked Volitaire's sword into the air. "Grr..!" He charged a spatial distortion and pushed Artizle in his abdomen. The force of the push threw him into the air. Volitaire coiled his chains to Artizle, he sprouted wings and pulled Artizle down, and flew up. He then kneed Artizle in his chest. Artizle bended light around him and tossed apparitions of swords at Voli who blocked them is a forced rift. When they landed Artizle picked up his sword and slashed the air, a crescent white light followed by cut winds flew to Volitaire. He warped to a shadow in the forest, and waited patiently. Artizle kept his stance and looked around. It was hard finding Volitaire in his element, especially if he suddenly vanishes. Green and black balls of fire shot at Artizle. He jumped out the way and the blasts hit the rock wall across from the river. Artizle shot another crescent wave in the direction of the blasts. Trees were cut down diagonally in unison. Volitaire, in the shadow that was under the midair Artizle conjured chains from both his wrists and whipped them at Artizle. He blocked them with his sword. Artizle looked up at the sun and let the light shine on his blade. The light was enough to blind Volitaire, in that instant Artizle vanished and reappeared next to Volitaire.. He swung his blade, but was stopped by Volitaire's hand grabbing Artizle's wrist. "Good, good...you're learning."

It was then that Eos saw Enzo run off through the distance and around the side of Sorcerers. "Oh, Enzo..." She realized that he might be just the person she should speak with. "Oi! Wait up!" Keeping an arm wrapped tightly around her books she ran after him waving her arm - but lost track of him around a corner.

She wandered around until she finally came upon Enzo - but why was he in a trash can? And so was Enki? Running over she looked at both of them and tried to help them out. "What on earth happened to you two?"

Both Enzo and Enki were stuck in the trashcans, and upon seeing Eos, they both fell over in surprise. Fortunately, it freed them from their tin prison. "N-nothing!" Enzo said, standing up. Not only were there bruises on his body, his clothes and hair were wet. He was a complete mess. Enki got up and brushed himself off. "We were talking.. about those rings." Enki brought up quite the subject. What were the rings about?

Instead of playing along, Enzo wanted to know what the deal was with the rings. "Enki, you know about these?" Enki nodded in response. "I would tell you, but it would be best if all of the ring holders were together." "Yeah.. sounds good." Enzo replied. He walked over to Eos, but kept his distance so that his bruises weren't well shown. "What's up, Eos?"

Jacen stood outside the door and took off his glasses, feeling his stomach going on empty he looked around for a vending machine or anything of the sort so he could get a snack. He spotted a sign on the wall with directions to each room.Classroom, training room...ahh, cafe...on my left? He looked over and saw a sign reading cafe with a few people inside of it . Jacen sighed before facepalming and putting his glasses away. Gettin real tired of this bullshit...
He walked inside and decided to grab a hot tea and some pastries. Shocked that he found a place with a respectable tea variety. English breakfast, keep it simple. I'll have to come back though...they have more than 3 varieties of tea. Bout time. Jacen grabbed two good sized danishes from the bakery section and went up to pay. "Is there anything else? The female cashier asked him. "No, that's it...how much?
"1.50 Jacen went through his wallet and gave her exact change before taking his food and sitting at a table by himself that was close to the window.
Damn, that was it? I woulda thought this would be some starbucks shit. Money wasn't an object to Jacen, considering his upbringing...but he was pleasantly surprised. After being on campuses full of starbucks and other high-priced hipster shit...it was a nice change of pace.
He put his headphones on and gazed at the snow descending from the dark clouds.

They both landed with a sudden crash and it only sent Eos into more of a panic. "Ah!" Reaching out she kept her hands out in case they tripped while coming to their feet. Raising an eyebrow she looked at Enki, "Why the heck were you guys in trash cans then?" Scratching her head, the whole situation was just confusing.

Although her eyes did flash to her ring, she hadn't paid much attention to it since earlier. It was all a mystery to her, and she'd be willing to accept any information. But she couldn't let talk of the rings side track her - her eyes focusing back up. But Eos caught a faint presence of physical pain from the two of them, more so in Enzo. Sighing she looked at him with curious eyes, "You know you can't hide wounds like that from me, right?" Brushing her fingers through his hair, to push it back she saw a pretty big bruise right on his forehead.

"Let me help you, and then you can help me..." She kept her hand against his head and closed her eyes - that familiar warm glow emanating from her palm. It was a small spell to temporarily absorb his pain and speed up the healing process. It was similar to her euphoric kiss that would numb the victim - but Eos learned how to channel similar energy through her palm while reading in the library today.

Pulling her hand away she gave him a serious look, "Can you help me find Volitaire?" There was a pleading in her voice that was impossible to ignore.

"Help yo-" Enzo's mind went abliss, the healing on his head had refreshed at a quick pace, and it almost felt like he was dreaming. He snapped back to reality once his wounds had started to heal up.

Volitaire? What does a healer want with a Necromancer? Nevertheless, he accepted her favor. "Sure, come on." He also beckoned Enki to follow, which he probably would have done anyway. They headed into the force, Enzo on one side of Eos, while Enki on the other. They didn't feel totally safe in the woods with the fire.

They eventually made it back to the spot Enzo was at last time. He saw both Artizle and Volitaire sparring. "He seems busy to me.." Enki commented.

Volitaire pushed Artizle back. His hands were coated in a deep black aura. He jabbed them into the ground, it cracked with the force and the aura seeped through the cracked. Undead flew from the ground and charged for Artizle. He drew a second sword and swung at them quickly. One jumped for him, he stabbed it through its chest and tossed it off his blade. The next ran for him, he casually made a horizontal slice that cut it in half. The last ducked and tried to take him down, Artizle cross chopped the zombie and it fell to his blades. Once he looked up a rippling wave followed by a black split in the air came for him. He crossed his swords and blocked the blow. Silver dust came off his blades as if the rupture was eating away at his blades. When the rupture calmed he put the blades at his sides and stopped. "Someone's near!" Artizle turned to his left and assumed a cautious stance. Volitaire turned and summoned his spell sword, and had chains ready in the other. He felt something also.

JD smirked. “Oh I shall forever be the mistress to your swords.” A hand went to his forehead and he feigned exasperation in the most soap opera of manner. He offered a tight frown when Silver stated she didn’t know, and Sasha added- once again- nothing valuable to the conversation. “Ah well- I’m not some do-gooding teen that has a primal need to unmask a bloody villain. I just wonder why any of the school authority hasn’t shown up- rather negligent of a place of study to ignore a raging fire outside their bounds. ‘If the kids get toasted alive that is their own fault’. For shame.” It was then he clapped his hands together as if a bright idea had dawned upon him. “Why don’t we round everyone up, find out if we have any friend-ka-bobs, and inevitably go have lunch? I’m starving.”

Following Enzo and Enki closely, the blonde kept up with little to no trouble - despite her surroundings. There wasn't much sense behind why Eos wanted to see Volitaire - simply because she just needed to see him. She was a clingy, co-dependent girl who usually fell back on her brother, but in light of recent events she turned to the only other person she thought might actually really care about her.

Finally, they came to a clearing and Eos caught sight of Volitaire with someone unfamiliar - but never the less, he didn't seem like an enemy. Relieved that her dark haired companion hadn't been engulfed in flames, she ran ahead, quickly closing in on him and wrapping her arms around him without a word of warning. "Voli..." She spoke against his chest before pulling away to look at the burn he had received. "Oh my- what happened?!" Her instincts to tend to him were kicking off at full blast - but a strange aura was coming off of him, this causing her to take a small step back and look into his eyes. "Are you... okay?" It suddenly dawned on her that she had only seen him briefly since they came back from The Gaze, but he really made no attempt to speak with her.

Could he possibly be avoiding me?

Artizle chuckled to himself and decided to casually walk away. He'd probably pester Volitaire about it later. On the other hand, Volitaire found himself himself embracing Eos when she ran up to him. He felt bad having left her, and it would be a lot to explain. The burn, and his sudden disappearance. "It's...a lot to explain...I told your brother why I've been gone but I guess he hasn't told you yet, and the burn...that's a whole other story all on it's own." He gave her a reassuring smile, so she a least knew he was okay besides the burn.

Marcus smiled as he approached the entrance of Sorcerers. He had been out of work for a while and was absolutely ecstatic when the school had accepted his application to teach. The sheer excitement of it all was making him rather nauseous as he stood in front of the grand doors to the academy. "Well," he said, pulling his trademark flask out of his front pocket, "to new beginnings." He rose the beverage to this school, and lightly clacked it against the frame of the doors, as if to give a toast to it. With a quick shot of his whiskey, he was ready to go.
He slowly opened the door and stepped into the foyer. As he entered, he took his time to look at the beauty of the place. Everything, right down to the light fixtures, were tremendous works of art to him. He look down at the floor, noting how clean and shiny it was. For almost five minutes, the tall soon-to-be teacher stood there, his face pulled into a childish-grin, staring at the ground beneath his feet. He was in one of his infamous 'day-dreams' again.

She quickly responded, "Do you need me to help you? Does it sting?" Her eyes wandered over his visible chest in a frantic. But once again he spoke to her in a calm, cool tone - the tone he almost always had.

"You're always so relaxed about everything... you need to be more careful." Looking up into his eyes, she chastised him - if not simply for his knack for getting himself hurt, but for leaving her as well. "Oh.. well... JD..." She looked down and thought about the dramatic event that had happened early that morning and trailed off, figuring that wasn't something he needed to hear about.

Enzo was dumbfounded when he saw Eos acting so odd with Volitaire. He tilted his head as they talked. "So Voli and her too?.." He said lowly, not loud enough to be heard by the couple. He was surprised at how fast his friends got to know each other. "Well, Volitaire seems to be okay..." He said, and turned towards Enki. "..Let's head back now." Enki nodded in agreement, and the two of them walked back to the school.

While they were walking in the forest, an unknown presence was approaching. Enki stopped, and Enzo did soon after. "What's wrong?" Enzo asked. "Someone's-" "Enzo!" cried out a familiar voice. Enzo turned to the direction of which the voice had come from. He made out a tall figure.

That voice... Dad?!

Volitaire tilted his head when she mentioned JD. "Don't worry about me, it does sting a bit but...not too much. I did get some help with it earlier. But never mind my injury, what about JD? You seem troubled." He twirled his finger in a lock of her hair as a attempt to try and relax her.

"Excuse me sir? Can I help you?" asked the receptionist, noticing the man gaping at the floor. He did not respond. "Uhm...sir?" she said again, nudging him softly, his head rose from the ground to meet her gaze. "Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, hello, my name is Marcus Tormod. I'm the newest member to the faculty." He cocked his head a bit and smiled, "I was told to make my way to reception, to receive my information book and welcome package. The place is so magnificent, I guess I got sort of distracted." He chuckled a bit, maintaining the same friendly smile. A confused look came across the receptionist's face, but she returned the smile. "Of-of course, right this way." She led him to her desk, and handed him the information packet, his name was printed on the front. "This includes a list of schedules, a map of the campus, your key-card, and teacher ID. I marked your room on the map. It's in the east-wing." She extended her hand to him, and he grasped it, giving a firm handshake. "Your orientation begins tomorrow. In the mean time, feel free to explore the campus, and become accustomed to the layout. Welcome to the team!" He gave her hand a final shake and smiled, "Thank you!"
As he made his way around the campus he looked at his map, "Ugh, I'm starving." He thought to himself, rubbing his stomach. He then spotted 'The Café' on the map, which was right around the corner from where he was. He entered it, and a wonderful smell of fresh baked pastries hit him. He made his way to the counter attendant, purchased a couple of cherry-cheese danishes and took a seat, munching happily on his meal.

Silver crossed her arms. When are you not starving? she thought to herself. She smiled, trying not to giggle. Making oneself laugh too much will make the others think you're crazy, she always told herself. Though, finding all the others would be a good idea. "Why don't we head back to the school and see if we can find anyone else?" She looked back in the direction of the school, wondering where exactly everyone else was.

"But here, let me..." She knew it would sting to put direct pressure on his wound but it was the only way. "Sorry..." She stressed while focusing her energy through her palm once again in a short burst - just like she had done with Enzo. She could feel the warm energy from her body center at her palm and then shoot into him, absorbing into his muscles. "There."

Her eyes wandered as she realized it'd be impossible to avoid what happened - considering she was so easy to read. "I just don't know... he's getting worse... and... " Her eyes glossed over as she tried to blink away incoming tears, "It's not his fault but..." She looked up into Volitaire's eyes, "I'm scared."