R.E.M. - Reality, Existence, Mentality

[Argenteus]

"I'm not certain, I didn't know them well, but I believe it was a girl named 'Hua'. I'm certain she was there to witness my death, but she may have came in later. I think I saw her in the classroom though." he said to the boy, who had asked about the person in the classroom.

Time began to slow again. A time jump? Some kept moving normally, including his two companions. But instead of the jump occurring, time didn't stop slowing until it was fully stopped. Droplets of dark liquid fell to the earth, which he felt shake below him.

Those who Percieved the jump and backstep were still moving, which he took as an opportunity.

The pain was gone as he shifted into action mode. In his element. All the distraction of the past, all the suffering that came of it, all was pushed to the side in the name of freedom of thought.

"Move! We need to get out of the school, gathering those who Percieved along the way. Something is going down. History won't repeat it's self! And -" He said, gesturing his companions Chase and Devon along, scanning the corridors for those still moving.

"And one more thing: We have to get to Chris and Michael at any cost, Chris is at the eye of the hurricane. Save him or we lose, I'm sure of it." he continued.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world, understand?" he finished, looking at the boy with a bit of amusement. This kid was a comic book fan, surely he had seen Heroes and would get the joke.

 

[Piercing Light]

The school hallways were as normal as they always were. Students bustled about, rushing to their homeroom classes before they received a dreaded tardy tally. Considering the state Shizuka had seen the school in, this normalcy felt almost surreal even still. She tried not to worry about it, but the safety of her friends kept weighing heavily on her mind. That suited man was clearly dangerous, and she had no reason to believe he would not attack again. She also had no clue what his motives were. Dismissing him as a lunatic didn't seem like the smart thing to do, he knew about... Shizuka stopped in the halls, then sitting on a ledge by a row of windows displaying the outside. 'Just how much did he know?' She wondered. Evan, David, and her had special... powers of some kind, who was to say that this man didn't as well? She still got the vibe that the man was connected to some sort of organization, though she was only going on a hunch due to the fact that he seemed organized.

"...Oh forget it." She resigned, opting to wait until she met David and Evan during lunch. This all seemed too complicated for her after all. Right as she pushed off the ledge a shrill scream careened inside her ears. Instinctively Shizuka covered her ears, cringing at the unpleasant cry. Along with that, the ground began to shake as if it were being torn asunder from below. The windows nearby couldn't take the force, they shattered. Shizuka screamed as the shards of glass were flung in her direction, she covered her face in an effort to protect herself. A sound reminiscent of something hard hitting metal was heard, and Shizuka felt the glass simply bounce off of her bare skin. "Huh?..." She blinked, looking at her arms. Her skin had taken on a metallic sheen, protecting her from the glass. She had never changed the structure of her own body before, it was a little scary, and yet she was glad it happened when it did.

"What... how..." Shizuka had looked outside. The sky looked as if it's ocean of pure blue had been soiled by the blood of a murdered god. The rain was black, as if the clouds had been infected by a malignant evil. And the spires, they appeared to be symbols on a biblical scale, intimidating in their scale and mysticism. The scene did not stay in motion for long, as another cry blasted through the air, and everything froze. Shizuka couldn't believe what was happening, it was unfolding right in front of her, and yet she couldn't believe it. She sprinted down the halls in a veiled panic, turning a corner she bumped into a fellow student. The male student simply fell over stiff, like a statue. Looking down the hall she saw more people in the same condition, frozen still.

Shizuka's breath quickened, and she cried out for anyone to hear. "Hello!? Can anyone hear me!... please..." She waned, quickly feeling unsettled among the frozen students and staff. She was alone, and it was maddening.

 

[Orion]

Liora felt the ripples first, before anything else. She always had a knack for that, sensing the subtlest changes in the environment before their effects were truly felt: the warming of the air before a brilliant dawn, the smell and pressure in the air before rain. As the wave of changed hit her - moved through her, really - it struck her at an angle, entering along her front-left and finally passing through her rear-right, letting her quickly guess its source. The place she dreaded: Jefferson High.

Since yesterday - yesterday? the other today? she wasn't sure - she feared she'd tumbled (at first chaotically, with the destruction of the school) down some rabbit hole and ended up (quite calmly, waking like almost any other morning) in some Groundhog Day scenario. The whole thing disturbed her greatly, especially when she found the ashen box Belhor had given to her that day by her bedside. She couldn't stand the thought of returning to school on a day like the other, but with her foreknowledge (god, she was so ill-equipped to refer to these sorts of events, and she'd consumed all sorts of media that dealt with alternate realities and time travel, but even then she wasn't sure that's what was happening here) she felt bound to apply it in some meaningful way to change the course of things.

Ultimately, she denied herself a visit to school, however that would be reported or recorded she cared not. She walked an easy circle around the school, a spiral very slowly descending inwards from an initial radius a couple of kilometres away from the school, trying in some way to reconnoiter the area and discern the events that had occurred leading up to the other day's disaster. Even as she turned to face the new threat, she was met with a presentation from the already-acting forces: The school looked to have been raised up, perhaps on a hill, but soon it turned out the entire school - in several chunks - was rising out of the ground, and the rest of the ground around it following suit, as though the pieces were all connected by invisible string and the school was the centrepiece of it all, being pulled up by the hand of some angry, strange god, for the sky turned red and black rain began.

Liora dreaded what was in store, but knew she had to act, and so began her ascent.

 

[Kazem]

David ran inside the school, feet hitting the ground hard and legs pumping. Frozen students littered the hallways, and more than one was knocked down by David as he rushed by. I'm close, someone is alive and moving, someone to make sure I haven't been thrust into Limbo and damned to an existence in this still life. They could kill me, twist me, make my blood run cold, but any company in this madness is wanted company. David's feet swiveled as he turned a corner and he put his foot down hard as he braked, stopping just short of knocking over Shizuka. David's eyes stared at her, eyes unblinking until he saw her chest move, her eyes blink and signs of life overall evident.

"Am...am I dreaming? Am I insane? Time has stopped, the earth has been ripped open and the lack of stability...it's madness. But please, tell me if this is in my head, or if this is true."

David's face was of concern. Fear of his mind slipping away, worry towards his perception of reality being skewed. Isolation meant freedom. Terrible, terrible freedom. Unrestricted by society, laws, governments, councils, rules, courtesies. This let things fester, feelings grow. The shock paused the change for a time, but prolonged solitude would eventually bring it on. David knew, he felt this feeling before. Not the full-blown insanity, but the threat of it. His mind has wandered too many times when empty, thinking of ideas, of a bigger picture. Of how humans think, or how we corrupt, how we survive, how we kill.

And almost everyone he knew was frozen in place as the Earth broke around them. He wanted someone there to keep him from going insane, and his face and eyes reflected this out to Shizuka as he waited for an answer. She's moving, breathing, alive, sane. Am I saved? Or, what if she says this is a dream? What does it mean? The end of the world represents me being too stressed and failure results in a break-down? Or is it a vision? This is no normal dream, but it's just too surreal. Please, answer. I'm slipping away, I feel the urges, the burdens being lifted up from me and letting my mind corrupt itself.

Answer me, please.

Before I lose myself.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Chase wanted to point out that Batm DID in fact have the fact that his parents consume him. It's what made him Batman, after all. She also wanted to say that he had some psychological disorder like all of the villains in Gotham, but somehow this didn't seem like the time to get into this. Besides, she liked to be on the sideline more often than not, and Crate was doing a decent job running off the important stuff. They chatted for a bit while her boss, Miss Pearl, came from behind her. Crap. She had already forgotten about her.
"M-Miss Conner! Is it true, then? Is you're mother--"
"Yes, ma'am." Chase interrupted her. I plan to visit her as soon as they allow visitors, but for now I'm just going to..." Chase paused mid speech. Miss Pearl had seemed to be frozen on her last word. Somewhere between "mother" and "is". It was almost comical, and Chase probably would have laughed if it didn't creep her out so much. "Err...Miss Pearl? Are you alright?" She waved her hand in front of the middle aged woman to no affect.

Then all hell broke loose. Ditching her boss and opting instead to rush outside with her two young escorts, the part-time librarian was greeted with absolute stillness, and small areas of land rising from the Earth.
"I knew it." Chase breathed. "I lost my mind. Yesterday really was yesterday and now I'm in a coma of some sort and this is my mind unraveling itself." Climbing on top of a rather sizable chunk of concrete that had decided to hang just about the ground instead of flying to the heavens, she took a glance at the now frozen student body. Then looked at Crate and Devon. "But then why are you here?" She reached to her cheek and pinched as hard as she could. Nails hurt. "Or this is all real." She said, hopping off the now slowly ascending piece of concrete. "Can't get away from reality that easily," she said sighing to herself.

The trio began to make their way out of the school, and though she intended to let one of the two boys (who seemed much more into the whole Apocalypse thing than she was) she found it difficult to slow down enough to actually keep them ahead of her. She seemed to just dash ahead of the two no matter what she did.
"Are you two out of shape or something? I swear, you wouldn't last ten minutes in a zombie--"

"Hello!? Can anyone hear me!... please..."

She stopped suddenly.
"Hey, was I the only one to hear that?" She asked the other two, who were lagging behind. She glanced around and saw a PE coach about to munch on a rather disgusting looking doughnut. to be fair, it probably wasn't covered in dirt and concrete when he bought it. She reached around his neck and undid the whistle necklace and was about to bring it to her lips before stopping. She almost put her bare lips on some whistle who belonged to a coach stuffing his face with chocolate sprinkled doughnuts. Gross. She rubbed the whistle against her shirt hoping to rid of whatever germs it held then blew into it. The whistle's blow ran throughout the school, reaching the ears of whoever could hear it.

Chase turned to the two teens who were now behind her. "Power in numbers." She said, moving the whistle between two of her fingers. "If there are others out there, I'd be more than happy to meet up with them."

 

[Argenteus]

As they made their way down the hallway, Chase was overtaking their considerable speed. She was moving faster than anyone he knew, could probably outpace an olympic runner by quite a bit. And she was trying to stay behind them, by the looks of things.

​That's a differentiation. Michael did something weird too, but it didn't seem effective. Chris has mastery over time thusfar, and surely power beyond that. Not to mention all the other weird shit that went down in the classroom. The signs all point the same way -- we who perceive are special in more ways than one.

Chase had taken a whistle and called out with it.

"Good thinking, but a whistle isn't a very clear signal. It could mean anything, and will only travel so far. Better idea:" he said as he darted to the main office of the school, not 20 feet from where they were. He knew that the outdated phones in the office had a connection to the school's intercom system and could broadcast a message across the entire school's speakers. Written on a post-it note on the phone was the number for such. He dialed it and spoke.

"Any who are still thinking, breathing, not frozen despite your surroundings: You are not insane. Come to the administrative office of the school. This is Charles Barrel speaking, most of you know me as Crate. Me, Ms. Chase, and another kid are awaiting you."

That message would have been sent throughout the school over the speaker system: Nobody in the school wouldn't hear it, and few in the immediate area outside of it.

"That ought to do it." he said to Chase with a wry grin.

"That's against the rules." said an old janitor to him, full of contemptuous amusement.

---

Elvis Smith had taken the past 2 months off - he had accidentally-on-purpose broken his leg going down the stairs, mostly for the pain but with the time off as a nice side effect. The school had even paid for it. He had, of course, refused pain meds. The leg was now fine to walk on, but it did have a pleasurable bit of pain.

He had been in the teacher's lounge, which connected right to the office, having a cup of coffee both during the time jump "yesterday" and today during the time freeze. He hated the teacher's lounge - it wasn't that he didn't want to rape, torture and kill adults, but it was so much more fun to imagine doing it to kids. And he had done it to kids. With a smile, he recalled a few nights ago, his first hunt since the broken leg.

He had been running through the forest like an animal, the scared cries of children had given him a massive erection. The kids - twins, a boy and a girl - were not 6 feet ahead when he darted toward them. He broke the wrist of the boy in a pull, and dislocated the girl's shoulder. Starting with the boy, he had removed the child's pants and bitten off his genitalia in two bites, chewing them for a long time and finally swallowing them. With kitchen knife in his pocket, he cut marks into the child's flesh and drooled all over his face, diving in and kissing it sensually. He finished him off with sodomy, and finally cut off his head before taking a short break to torture the girl.

Finally, when he was ready, he raped the girl and cut out her eyes from her head, opening his own anus and inserting them. He cut open her gut and let the entrails spill out, and left her in the forest to die of blood loss or whatever it would be.

Back to the present, he had found time paused, and gotten great amusement at this. He had of course noticed all the events - even Chris' changes too small to be noticed by most - and figured their cause back to Chris. This was even before he had discovered his own abilities.

He walked out of the lounge, and found a few useless kids there. Crate had used the intercom while time was paused.

"That's against the rules." he said with all the amusement he could muster, and letting a bit of contempt creep in. Chase was too old, but the other two...

No, taking from the school would lead back to him easily. Take from far away, and you survive. Break the platform below you and surely you'll fall to the earth.

 

[OmniChaos]

"Fascinating..." The Smiling Man tittered in delight as he watched the world warp and change; watched as it became unnatural to the human eye. A large, black spire tore from the ground not twenty yards from his right, spiraling like a screw being drilled through a plank, and reached up greedily to the blood-red sky. To what most found to be hell, the man saw paradise. "Truly."

The Smiling Man felt a shift in space occur around him, like a ripple in reality, and then he saw them. "The Suits" or "Agents" or whatever the pitiful people of that town called them, about twenty of them. They had appeared all around him and Chris, cutting off any escape route for the two to take. Not like the Smiling Man needed an escape route against such simple fools. But still, he thought he'd humor them. Might at least get a chuckle or two out of it.

"Interloper," a cold voice sounded. One of the Suits walked past the others and into the enclosed circle, a man much older than the rest. The Smiling Man assumed him their leader, assuming, again, that these so-called agents functioned in that manner. Considering what they actually were, the Smiling Man found the fact that they had a distinguishable leader fairly odd, as well as quite interesting. He would have to look into it further once his current observations were completed. The man's face grew stern, dragging the Smiling Man's attention away from his internal thoughts as the Suit continued. "We're here for the boy. Don't interfere."

The Smiling Man tittered, amused. "Or what? Praytell!"

The Suit to the leader's left vanished from where he stood in the flutter of the eye, reappearing in from of the Smiling Man with his fingers locked around his throat. He squeezed hard, trying to break the man's throat, or at least his crush his windpipe. Unfortunately for the Suit, he picked the wrong person to try to attack. The Smiling Man let out a gleeful titter as a harsh force struck the agent from his front, tearing his fingers from the man's throat and sending him flying far off into the distance, well out of sight.

"Will you be next?" the Smiling Man asked, as he lifted a second Suit off the ground with his telekenetic force. The agent kicked and squirmed fruitlessly, and every attempt to warp to safety was blocked by the Smiling Man's telekenetic power, which he used to actually control the confinds of the Man's space, preventing him from bending it around himself to warp. A look of terror came to the Suit's face—one that he had never seen expressed on their face before—as the realization of what was about to happen must have sunk in. "Would you like to play 'airplane?' It's quite fun. Aye, that it is. Here, let me start."

The man was flung high into the air at an incredible velocity, becoming nought but a speck from the ground. Then, with a dark laugh, the Smiling Man began to bring him back down. The Suit rocked back down toward the earth, far surpassing his terminal velocity and accelerating still, caught in the Smiling Man's power. A terrified, screeching scream rang out as the man approached the ground, and the Smiling Man could help but find amusement in how this man, so cold and callus, now crying a siren of terror. How death did so show people's true colors.

Just as the man was about to strike the ground, the Smiling Man made a sharp turn and sent him flying toward the school. The Smiling Man tittered as he manipulated his power once more, causing the Suit in flight to explode into a mass of blood, guts, and splintered bone. The agent's remains retained his momentum and struck the side of the school—just outside Michael's room, exactly where a Suit had attacked previously—like a shotgun, ripping large chunks of the building apart, and causing some pieces to disintegrate into a shower of splinters, all of which floated upward, caught in Chris's pseudo-anti-gravity.

"Now, is that any way to treat the one that helped you back in?" the Smiling Man tittered. "Without me, you would still be stuck outside. Aye, blocked by Chris's heightened defences. However, in the state he's in now, he couldn't maintain that barrier. You're welcome. Quite."

"Then why stop us?" the older Suit questioned. "Why stop us from killing the boy?"

"I've still a use for him. And until then, you can't have him."

 

[Ðari]

Evan's short strum through the halls had gone interrupted as the sound of a cry had split into his skull, the savagery was overwhelming. The ripples, he felt them before anything else beating into his head as his blanket was being trampled causing a strain on Evan similar to the shifts before. He dropped down to his knees, not because of the tremors, but because he had to appropriate himself with the anomalies counteracting them with his mere presence.

The student's pupils had dilated so incredulously tiny he'd felt like he just went blind. Only able to see a thin line, a layer of light that he could touch, as if to pull apart in two separate directions. The throbbing just wouldn't stop, it was driving him nuts, as he pulled with the might of his concentration he grabbed this manner of light source and tore it open as he would a sliding closet door.

"Cover your ears, we're going loud!"

As he pulled the distance of the blanket outward, he slammed his hands together, and it pulsed even farther, a vibration echoed through the halls as the sound of Evan's clap was pulling everything back in order. Greeted by an amplitude of serenity, Evan's veil began to push well beyond its standard range and swell outward beyond the walls of the school and even touching the sky. The area around the school, soon began to pull itself in motion, negating adverse effects, anomalies, and even physical objects. Correctness, even deaths that occurred were becoming undone.

The teen was on hands and knees, with a grind of his teeth. He'd been pushed by his resistance to the shifts long enough, it was time he did the pushing back. As he got on his two feet, he stumbled as he was walking, clearly able to see this white visible line, a veil that covered about 43% nearly a semi-circle. A thin line that only Evan could see as if it were some manner of control panel to adjust his blanket, the effects looming over the other students to whom were now mobile, likely about to flip their lids when they traveled beyond the school's main gates (that's about how far the blanket is covering).

Walking on his own now, he hovered through he halls that were now moving lively as ever, they appeared a certain color to him. The students possessed a natural ionic field, normally someone with electromagnetic power could see this, with Evan's blanket in somewhat of an outrageous state, he could vividly weed out the normal students from the ones like him, like David and Shizuka. They possessed color where the other student's did not. Evan's frantic pant, he searched halls upon finding David, his natural field is such disarray as he was panicking. He'd taken him by the loose ends of his shirt, briefly slamming him into the nearby locker.

"Listen to me...David." he whispered as he panted. "I don't know how to explain it David, the shifts, or even whats happening to us that remember...but the people are moving now, because I'm somehow projecting a blanket over the entire school that is neutralizing all anomalies right now. I saw you...you were breaking the very ground beneath you just now, and look around you. The floor is completely repaired, you aren't shivering uncontrollably either. The students are resuming their day, try not to draw anymore attention to yourself. There won't be any dystopia as long as you have me with you. Now take a deep breath...and we'll think of something. The farther I move, the more areas I can revert back...I kinda need a hand...i have the biggest headache imaginable, but I'll manage. I have a feeling we should find Chris"

A message played over the intercom, after the students started moving again thanks to Evan.

"For the love of...oh my god." Evan face palmed.

The hall way was filled with a combination of gossip and laughter as it was assumed Charles was pulling a prank on them, having snuck into the principle's office to use the speaker system. In a way Evan could not help but somehow feel responsible for his ridicule, though this quickly perished as he stood up, leaning on David a bit before he could walk on his own.

They came to Shizuka's side to reassure her of the situation, yet again another outbreak crafted by manner of shift. So much more sinister and veracious than the last, the push is something that Evan felt directly as an inconsistency that hammered against his blanket until he hit back.

"Shizuka, hey take a deep breath, try to relax. I think this is as close to a controlled normal as we're going to get. We're going to locate Chris, call it a hunch, but when Mr. Russell was killed yesterday...I could vividly see where the vibrations of the shift came from like an overflowing dam that shattered. It's definitely Chris...thanks to him pushing against me without realizing it, I've found the on and off switch...er, so to speak."

__________

The janitor as it stood, took to his more natural element and trailed at a distance. He sat in a squad car of campus security, having commandeered the vehicle by paying off one of the guards. Reading a newspaper, and holding the walky in his hand, he radioed over as "Officer Davis". Waiting for a response, Chris broke into an unusual conversation with some random stranger.

He seemed alarmed, confused, these were things that Justin wrote in his notepad. He was to study him, right of course. The very of nature of Chris Russell's own well being was shrouded in mystery as it stood. Justin rolled his eyes, and notice things go awry as the boy shrieked nigh helplessly. A normal day, following his unusual manner had been plunged into the excrement of hell. The ground shaking, left Justin to immediately get out of the vehicle, stumbling on the street.

"I don't think we're in kansas anymore!" he shouted in a mild delirium. Once he'd gotten his footing ok, he'd darted forward to complete his task he had been assigned. Looking over again at Chris, he seemed to be shaking, the grip of his scream seemed to give the ripples through the air intent and direction.

"I guess this is why they want him..." he stopped, his hand becoming a blade the shape of a pendulum. Something like this weighed 120 lbs or more easily, a paper weight for Justin. "Its not personal, but I need you-"

Justin pulled his arm back, as he did this several men in suits came into the fray, appearing all around the yard where the student Chris and the stranger were. Adamant in their pursuit they fell upon him and the immobile chris (im assuming Chris hasn't reacted because he blacks out or goes cold when his effects are still consciously taking effect?). Justin's eyes were very keen, sharpening more with his observational skills. That stranger had to be like him, those men in black were being veraciously brutalized one by one as their assault was in vain. The blood that floated upward in the zone of anti-gravity was a rich sight, Justin even licked his fingers for a second.

He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but for the time being he leaned against the car, before a spire bore out of the ground to cause collateral damage.

"Ugh...I'm not paying for that car! Thanks asshole, fucking perfect!" he said throwing his arm back, whipping up a bladed current of air to lacerate straight through the black spire, causing it to lean over and draw attention his way. He palmed his face, "Crap..." he threw up the middle finger without a second's hesitation, the next thing that happened was fairly difficult to explain. Reality was being...corrected in a very finite range, the men that were just utterly eviscerated by the stranger were put back together. The rain that had fell in reverse, had stopped and there was a gigantic hole in the sky, where the shade of blue turned purple then red. As Justin had turned around, the car was repaired, but just beyond it everything else was in turmoil, virtually going to shit. It seemed this part of "reality" was in a safe zone.

 

[Kazem]

Evan's sudden pull and push had David against the lockers, the bump helping bring his senses back into alignment. Evan's words brought David's fears to rest, and enough of a hold on reality to keep his mind focused. He could feel Evan's heart beat quickly, his panting making the exhaustion obvious. Breathing in and closing his eyes, David opened as his usual self, eyes drooped and face free of any sort of tension I guess I'll have to just be me until we find Chris.

Out of the intercom spouted what would seem like the usual garbled noise of announcements to most people, but to David the noise was unbearable, a horrible echoing and screeching, eyes spinning from the distortions bouncing down the hallways and ears put to their limit. Keeping in mind the other students, David could only cringe and wipe an wet eye after the torture was over, leaning over to whisper to Evan. "I think I know how that headache feels now."

Helping Evan stand straight while he straightened his posture, Evan helped pull Shizuka back to reality and David apologetically rubbed his closed hand on his chest with a shrug and half-grin. Evan revealed he didn't exactly know everything about his new ability either. "Well, we know to find Chris now, but we need to know how to find Chris. Since he probably remembers everything like we do, he isn't in Mr. Russell's room due to obvious bad vibes from 'yesterday'. I don't know if he's there or not, but can we go outside? My ears are taking all of these voices like swings of a baseball bat. Having said that, whispering would be much appreciated. That, or standing about twenty feet away. Saying my name to get my attention would be nice too, as you can see I kinda have to deal with some interference. Evan got a reality dome, I got dust blowing and ears that could quite possibly hear a fly fart in Africa."

David paused as he said this and hung his head, shaking it twice and bring it back up in a sort of disappointment with himself. "Well, let's go outside and see if I can't pick something up. Sound good?"

 

[Endless Warrior Sora]

"Move! We need to get out of the school, gathering those who Percieved along the way. Something is going down. History won't repeat it's self! And one more thing: We have to get to Chris and Michael at any cost, Chris is at the eye of the hurricane. Save him or we lose, I'm sure of it. Save the cheerleader, save the world, understand?"

Was that...a Heroes reference? Devon smirked as the trio stumbled their way out of the Library and into a hallway, he asusmed they were going to go find Chris and Michael, although he wasn't sure how much good that would do them. That thought was unsettling, especially given the fact that the entire school's gone half crazy.


"Are you two out of shape or something? I swear, you wouldn't last ten minutes in a zombie--"

"Hey! I resent-"

"Hey, was I the only one to hear that?"

Come to think of it, Chase was pretty fast. What was she an olympic sprinter or something? What kind of librarian doubled as The Flash?

"Yeah I think I heard it too..." He mumbled as Ms. Connor retrieved a whistle from a frozen gym teacher.

"Power in numbers. If there are others out there, I'd be more than happy to meet up with them."

Crate didn't seem to like the idea as much as Ms. Connor did. Since they were near the main office of the school, Crate retrieved the phone from there, connecting it to the intercom as the teenager and the librarian followed.

"Any who are still thinking, breathing, not frozen despite your surroundings: You are not insane. Come to the administrative office of the school. This is Charles Barrel speaking, most of you know me as Crate. Me, Ms. Chase, and another kid are awaiting you."

A little obvious? Yes. Would it be effective? Hopefully.

Devon tried to shrug off the "another kid" portion of the little speech. Sheesh, if he didn't know his name he could ask...or pay attention during yearbook photos...

"That's against the rules."

Devon turned to see a man dressed as a janitor addressing the trio. About what? He had absolutely no idea. He was definitely getting a bad vibe from this guy. Adjusting his glasses on his face, he lifted an eyebrow at the janitor.
's
"Uhm...I'm sorry, whats against the rules?" He asked with complete sincerity. He had no idea what this guy was talking about. Regardless, the darkened sky above the room began to take on it's normal hue. The hustle and bustle of the high schoolers resumed once more. This was a little disappointing, but overall relieving. Forgetting about the creepy janitor for a moment, Devon walked over to a nearby window and observed that only the school had been exempt from the crazy apocalypse like weather.It was almost like a protective dome or barrier. Retreating from the window the teen closed his eyes and massaged his temples.

"I swear this school is more random than Deadpool comics..." He muttered to himself.

 

[Argenteus]

The janitor, Elvis smirked at the boy. "Hello, Devon - AKA another kid." he said, giving Crate a quick look at the end. "My name is Elvis Smith. I'm sure you both are aware that students using the intercom is against school policy. I could have you suspended for that. But I wont - I'm interested in seeing how this plays out."

The intercom message had played just a moment before time had returned to it's local course.

Elvis walked over to a free seat in the front office, with 2 next to it, and gestured for Chase and Devon to take a seat. Crate - being the coordinator of this little get-together - would have to remain standing.

Chase can run at great speeds, and she's not even trying yet. So the rest of them are beginning to discover what they can do. I imagine Crate and Devon will discover soon enough.


---

Crate said nothing regarding the remarks of the janitor, and found that time resumed shortly after the intercom message had played.

Good thing it didn't play after - people would think I was playing a prank, and I'd be kicked from the school. No chance to make contact with the others.

So he thought as he stood, waiting for anyone to arrive. The kid had - as expected - recognized his "Heroes" reference. According to Mr. Presley, the kid's name was Devon.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Chase eyed the janitor. There were rumors about him flying throughout the staff, but nothing concrete. She didn't trust him, and when he appeared she had unknowingly stepped in front of the two younger boys. The janitor--Elvis--had said that it was against school policy for students to use the intercom. Chase bit her lip at this and hesitated before speaking up.

"They had my permission to use the intercom," She said defiantly. "I don't know why you of all people were able to move around the school during this...time lapse, but you have undoubtedly noticed how odd and dangerous the situation was. It was for that reason that I extended the permission handed by me by the school to allow Crate to use the intercom." She almost added in a statement about how creepy the janitor was, but decided that it would probably make the rest of her professionally sounding short quip to lose it's meaning. She instead stepped behind Crate and Devon before placing a hand on either boys' shoulders. "And I think it'd be best if we all stood, thanks." Just because they were all in the same boat didn't mean that this Elvis had to cooperate with the trio. He had an air about him, one that gave the librarian a chill. She'd rather have them be ready for flight around Elvis instead of letting him have total control of the situation.

 

[Piercing Light]

Shizuka did as Evan suggested, and took in a deep breath. She had a lot to take in, and just like the air filling her lungs at the moment she did so slowly.

'So, Chris really is the cause of this. I hope those screams I heard weren't from him, I'd hate to think he were in trouble again... Oh who am I kidding, it had to be him. And if it was him, just what could he be feeling to cause the world to change like this? We have to hurry and find him, he shouldn't be alone right now while we wait here in Evan's safety bubble. Hm, I'm still not even entirely sure how this whole 'negation' field works, it seems too complicated. But it's reversing whatever is happening out there, so that's good enough.

Shizuka let out the breath, already feeling more at ease. David spoke up, evaluating their methods for finding Chris, and telling them of his condition. This reminded her that while Evan and David's abilities were out in the open, they had no clue of what made her so special. Like them, she still wasn't quite so sure what the extent of her powers were, it was only a few minutes ago that she discovered that she could alter her own body. What good would these abilities do anyhow? They wouldn't help them find Chris, and she wasn't a fighter. If the situation demanded it she would show them, otherwise she saw no point.

"Umm, didn't Evan say he would be able to find Chris?... Or did I hear you wrong?" She turned her eyes to Evan, lightly scratching her cheek in minor confusion. She was far out of her element here. She wanted to be of help, but any ideas that popped up in her head seemed like a fool's errand. "A-anyway, I think we should head outside as well. I don't think Chris is inside the school right now, if he were there would be a bit more commotion right?.... At least I think so.... At any rate we need to get a move on!" Shizuka paced forwards, walking towards the exit to the school.

 

[Argenteus]

"Did they, did they? As I recall, Charles decided to use the intercom as you tried a simple whistle taken from Pillsbury Doughboy over there, with no consultation with you beforehand. Really, you were moving faster than an olympic sprinter, so you couldn't have provided permission. And don't try to lie and claim the intercom was your intention from the beginning - I know better.", the janitor said.

Elvis widened his grin a bit. "But I won't press the issue. But I must insist - sit down," he said, with a pleasant tone at the end. They were expecting a fight - did they really think him so foolish? "And in return I'll tell you exactly what is going on. You of course are exempted, Charles. Someone needs to greet our... guests."

Chase is too old for my tastes normally... but it would be so much fun to make this bitch suffer that I might make an exception. A librarian goes missing - who's to know? There will be no trace of her left to find. He thought. His lips just faintly contorted from their broad grin - if you noticed it, you'd call it the most evil look you've ever seen. One of scheming and sadism, and with a definite stank of perversion.

Mr. Smith was standing exactly between them and the exit. The office was empty - an abnormality, but it was usually like this about this time of day - and if they tried to escape he could knock them to the ground faster than they could say "Painless".

 

[Ðari]

Evan's legs were beginning to feel like jelly. This exponential range and increased effect of the blanket being constantly pushing around the exterior of the shift, was only enough to put the school in an effect free time capsule. His pants began to slow down as he needed to slow his heart down, apart from the resistance he was still receiving this was very much new to him. He was having something of an anxiety attack as David did just moments before.

"I can find him..." Evan said weakly, "David, I should be able to walk now, thank you."

His eyes began to dilate again, effectively in the center where a blind spot was forming. It began to expand, his vision rather than blur began to invert the halls. The students, average ones were a very neutral and blue color. Evan's own hand seemed white, and around him Shizuka and David were an orange, he blinked to make sure he wasn't loosing his mind. Through the walls that the blanket encompassed, four more inside of the building towards the administrative offices. Outside, several men similar to the single one from yesterday.

"I think he's outside, more of those suited mystery men from yesterday are..." he paused, one of them outside had smiled. There was also a volunteer campus security guard possessing the same glow as the rest of them. Though Evan was struck with bewilderment when he was examining the reconstruction of a car that had a spire run through it.

"...this is just too weird...Lets go help Chris, if there are suited men by the entrance, then its no coincidence we'll find him near them again."

He broke into a mild jog, as he panted it was all he could do. The halls were alive for the most part, hearing the students moving again, seeing their group move just a little bit faster. It was similar to how the hall monitors would chase down vandals. In their luck they didn't see any. Evan found this to be strange, that no matter where he looked, there was a thin line that floated directly in front of his face, when he pulled it apart before his blanket had expanded. Given the increasingly bad headache he was suffering now, he'd either collapse or be forced to turn it off.

The main doors were made with glass apertures, as the students were walking about and the around the halls in the early hours, they headed for the main doors. Sure enough, they could hear the sound of banter and conversation being initiated. Evan's heart began to beat faster now, more people meant more interference he was responsible for. He clutched his head as he fell to one knee. His other hand hovered in his front desperately reaching to reduce the range of his blanket to a mere six yards extending on all sides. On both hands now he panted, but was at far less a strain from before.

'Who is that man?? I feel like my head would've exploded just now!'

Suspicion was only natural, as he reduced the size of his blanket, to cover only himself, David and Shizuka. He could be sure the men that were restored to their original state were very much dangerous, as they sat in between the lobby Evan's headache was relieving itself, but the toll taken was evident. As his vision was on the smiling man near a collapsed Chris, he saw the situation for what it was, that he may be protecting him, that from what he saw he was not human either.

Evan pointed through the door at the figure, "That guy next to Chris...he's..." he was cut short, finally collapsing over to his face. Not a twinge of movement, rather he was fatigued.

 

[OmniChaos]

"So then you intend to protect him, Interloper?" the gray-haired Suit questioned, his cold voice showing the slightest hint of amusement. "If indeed you do, I must regret—for you, that is, for I am most pleased by this outcome—that you have utterly failed."

The Smiling Man turned to find Chris no longer crumpled into a reality-altering ball of tears behind him, but now floating upward into the bleeding sky. Above him hung a large black tear in the sky, accompanied by an eerie, mosquito-like buzzing. This tear in the sky—in reality—drew in the affliction, purifying a small ring of sky around it into a light blue. Chris rose toward the tear, his mind and powers now acting upon their own accord, as four agents disappeared from the ground and reappeared atop the floating rubble around the boy. "Have I now? You seem quite confident. Quite. Aye, quite overly-confident."

The Smiling Man lifted his right palm high into the air and then brought it down upon the earth. In a violent shock, a multitude of golden chains, each tipped with a large spike, erupted from the ground, ripping the intricate school walk designs asunder. The chains slithered through the sky like a great many snakes with a speed of a lightning bolt. The chains bore deeply into the four men instantly, holding for just a moment. Then the moment passed and the chains violently tore, ripped, shredded, and sliced through flesh and bone, cascading their blood upon the people below.

Chris disappeared into the tear that hung above, which closed soon after, leaving a fading blue spot in the sky where it once held. With Chris gone, the black rain, which had held frozen in mid-air, now fell in torrents. A great spire tore upward through a nearby building and rose easily seven hundred feet higher than the rest. From this spire oozed blood, which trickled down the side slowly.

"The Sanctuary will not save him from us, Interloper," the gray-headed suit commented. "Know that we will break through."

"I most highly and unperturbedly doubt that," the Smiling Man tittered. "Your powers are insignificant. But by all means, if my words are not enough to reveal your folly, proceed with the Caucus race."

~*~​

"Chris! No!!!" Michael watched helplessly as his younger brother disappeared into a giant black thing in the sky and was then just gone. A feeling of dread consumed him as he ran through the backalleys near the school. Chris just couldn't be gone. He couldn't. Not after everything Michael had done—everything he had sacrificed—to ensure his protection. No, he would refuse to believe it. He denied this reality its right to be.

As he turned the corner, a giant spire tore through the building to his right. Bricks and debris fell from the sky and, with an unnatural serenity about him, moved to dodge them. Bricks fell to his left and right, each just missing him, and glass fell around his footfall. A large wall collapsed upon him, but with an unnerving calm, he stopped as the wall crashed down around him and as he passed through the open window that fell alongside the wall. Before the dust had a chance to settle, Michael was again off.

He reached the school as a group of those agents vanished, leaving in their departure a strange man who had stood at the middle. Michael never stopped to think they were attacking him or that he was protecting Chris. He simply saw a strange man standing amongst his enemies and concluded him a threat.

"You goddamned bastard!" Michael cried, drawing a small, silver pistol from his coat pocket. He raised the gun with both his hands and trained it firmly on the Smiling Man's head. "Give me back my brother!"

"God-damned? How amusingly fitting." the Smiling Man tittered. "So the White King cometh. Or are you Red Queen?" The man clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and then widened his smile ever so slightly, but ever so noticeably. "But I believe Michael will do, aye? So praytell, Michael, just what do you hope to accomplish with that gun? Killing me? But what of your precious students? Dare you place their lives in danger so readily? Or perhaps—"

"Shut up!!!"

The Smiling Man tittered.

"Bring me back my brother!" Michael cried, his eyes set aflame by the embers of rage. "Give him back or I swear to God above that I will bring every last bit of hell down upon you!"

 

[Endless Warrior Sora]

Using her skateboard, she rolled through campus, aimlessly. Hua could feel the rumbling of the ground as a large spire erupted not to far from the school. It was then she decided she wouldn't run away. Whatever was happening, she wanted to get to the source. She was just entirely too curious. As she skated through a hallway, she encountered a group of three. Around them was a sort of barrier...almost like a dome. But inside that dome everything was normal. And one of them just passed out! Jumping off her board, she grabbed the nose and tucked it under her thin arm and ran toward the group.

"Hey! Is he okay?" She asked to no one specifically, but the entirety of the group, her face contorted with concern. Should she touch him? Maybe she could veiw his history? See what happened to him? She debated within her mind to do so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chase had tried to diffuse the situation, but the creepy janitor guy had responded quite...unpleasantly. Devon didn't like the way the janitor responded to her...at all. In fact he didn't very much find the janitor himself very likeable.

"But I won't press the issue. But I must insist - sit down. And in return I'll tell you exactly what is going on. You of course are exempted, Charles. Someone needs to greet our... guests."

Charles? That was Crate's real name? Devon had forgotten it, so used to hearing the teenager be called Crate. Where did Crate even come from? Devon's eyes squinted into an aura of caution. He felt himself becoming suddenly defiant. A trait that was definitely new to him.

"And what if I don't? How do you expect us to even trust you?" He sneered. His heart was racing. He wasn't used to questioning authority. Especially authority that was so...mysterious. And all around creepy. But the air the man gave was one Devon wasn't comfortable with. He wasn't just going to follow his orders.

 

[Argenteus]

Elvis gave the boy a wicked smile. "If you don't sit down... Well, I'm not telling one so rude anything of what I know. You want to know the truth - of why time stopped, what makes Chris so special, and why Chase can run so fast - then I suppose if you sit down I'll forgive your past rudeness. On the other hand, if you continue to stand..."

His mouth straightened and creased into a mild frown, but he spoke with a cheery tone.

"... Then I suppose I'll have to write you up for insubordination." he said in a tone both cheery and creepy enough that he could have been speaking of rape and murder. He toyed with the idea -- Nobody would notice the loss of 3, unfortunate students whose bodies never were found. He nodded internally.

The boy's heart-rate was accelerated, he could tell. Smith tried to flow into his informational mindset. Become aware of all of it. The sensual urge to rape and kill the three dragged him back into his human mode, which he resented. Still, he pulled from his memory banks that this kid was not usually one for defiance. But Devon was one to defy the one whom it would be most dangerous to, it seemed. Interesting.

The man allocated a portion of his awareness to the confrontation between Michael and the Smiling Man. Chris had disappeared, which Smith contemplated the meaning of. He returned his full awareness to the three. He could simply review the events later, as even those events he didn't allocate conscious awareness to would be logged into his banks.

---

The janitor had threatened to write Devon up for insubordination, with a tone that spoke of other things. The man sickened him, and the most frightening part was that Crate couldn't tell exactly why he sickened him so. This was a very creepy man, granted, but Charles wasn't one to run scared like a kid.

Time to listen to my gut, I think.

"Don't call me Charles. Neither of them are sitting down anywhere near your sorry arse, and if you make a move to stop us leaving, Chase will call 'Rape!' and we'll all testify that you grabbed her, were unzipping your pants, and pulled away as she cried out. It wouldn't exactly be an inaccurate claim going by your intentions, would it sicko?"

---

Elvis smirked internally. Humankind's ability atintuition always fascinated him, perhaps it was worth investigating. In truth, it was probably the driving force behind his more impossible abilities, the knowing of things he could not know within the bounds of senses.

"There are a few problems with your plan, assuming I were the creep you think. Ein, this uniform has no zipper on the pants. Zwei, the camera footage would show otherwise and you'd all be in serious trouble -"

"It'd buy us enough time to escape you!" Crate shouted.

"And drei -" he continued, ignoring Crate's outburst. "I could break all 3 of your windpipes before word one escaped them, and be out of the building before anyone came near. I have ample access to the security footage, and would never be found out. I would violently rape you in succession before cutting off your dicks and forcing them down your throat, for the men. The woman -- Well, slow torture would be sufficient for her, maybe cutting off her breasts. Now I have no intention of doing this, as I am not said sicko. But do you want to put that to the test?" he said. He had a calm politeness to the speech, but it was counterpointed by a wicked cheer.

 

[Kazem]

David stood still for a second, mind completely blank before refocusing on the situation. Following Evan and Shizuka, he arrived soon enough to see Evan drop down to his hands. David tried speaking, but his voice was silenced. A second attempt brought about the same results, with a third thought of but not executed. Evan finally collapsed right before finishing his description of the man standing near the body on the ground that was apparently Chris. The situation as a whole was insane already, so when Chris started to rise up and continue ascending up towards a rift in the sky, David's mind simply refused reasoning and switched to observing. The suited men, golden chains, blood, another spire, even more blood. So much blood. In the air, pumping through veins, the thought of it being splattered throughout the town when the chaos resumed, cars crashing, buildings being torn asunder by the spires.

Thoughts that brought a reaction with them, one that you had to experience over and over again to get used to. The smell, metallic and piercing. David glanced away from the man to find another student with a skateboard had joined the trio. Her concern was obvious to David, but his mind was still observing, not explaining. David took a moment to see that Evan indeed had the two vital sets of periodic disruptions coming from him before kneeling down next to the new girl, recognized as Hua when he got a closer look at her face. Patting her shoulder and waiting for her to look, David gestured towards Evan before flashing his hand, index and thumb touching with the rest extended. He then gestured for silence with his index pressed against his mouth and a nod before finally using his index and middle fingers to first point towards Hua's eyes and then the man who appeared to have a grasp on the whole situation.

Looking there himself, he saw Micheal standing there with a gun pointed towards the mysterious and evidently dangerous man. Micheal's emotional demands shook David, both figuratively and literally, and tension filled David's chest. The environment now somewhat stable, spires not rising and rain, though black, finally falling, David started to return to himself. Coughing at the impact of the stench coming from what was left of the agents and the great spire nearby, he could only watch as the two stood there. David once tried to be heroic only to have the whole event become non-existent, and heroism at this point was out of the question. One does not come between he who has lost something that represented everything and he who can take everything, notably life, from something, using abilities not fully understood, without either a death wish or full preparation to withstand the fury one or both could deliver. David was not up to the task, and he doubted Hua or Shizuka felt different, and so he knelt there as the stench spread through the air and the two men stood there, both currently capable of preforming inhuman deeds.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Chase rubbed her eyes. This conversation was going nowhere besides a path that showed Elvis in a different light, not that they needed to see the path in order to distrust him. Most other employes working in the school already avoided the man when they could, and now she saw why. Even if she assumed he was just saying things to scare them into obeying them, normal people wouldn't go into the same amount of detail as he just did. Force feeding phalli and chopping off breasts? Gross.

And what was that about herself being a fast runner? If anything the other two were just really slow. She hated running, after all. She waved a hand in front of her face.
"Just talk. There's something bigger going on then your jumpsuit not having zippers, and I'd rather not spend the last day on Earth in a school's intercom room arguing with a janitor." Already he had at least confirmed what they had speculated. Something huge was going down, and they weren't the only three to be involved. Chris was somehow "special" and children were so out of shape that in comparison she looked like a five-star athlete. Not the most typical end of the world, but if Chris and the janitor were involved, along with the student body trio, it stood to reason that there were others. How far did this go? Has it only effected the school and those in it, or was the whole world really on pause? Either way, if there were others around, why has Elvis decided to only pursue the trio? Chase's mind outlined these thoughts and stored them in a "conspiracy" file, right next to the thought of her British landlord actually being a French Spy. They both had one common theme; you can't trust them.