School for superheroes/mutants/things

[Prof. Cinders]

OOC: Right. Two threads suggesting the same thing probably means someone's actually got to make it, so yeah! Superheroes/mutant thingummies to superschool. Yeah.

BIC: The cloaked figure trudged to the end of the road, humming tunelessly to itself. The bus stop was waiting for it, looming drearily at the curb, glaring at her with its eyeless sign. The figure sighed, its cloak bulging - with what? Probably the wind, but there wasn't any today.

The bus soon arrived. It was bright blue with an orange stripe running along the side, and someone had tied a bed to the bumper. Someone was fast asleep in it, but who it was was concealed by the covers. The figure sighed, stepped onto the bus as it stopped, and took the cloak off of her shoulders. Here it was safe.

The features of her - for it was indeed a girl - face were unique, with an oriental lilt to her otherwise blue eyes, and a pale complexion contrasting greatly with her dark hair. What was most remarkable was not her face, however, but her wings. They were huge. Black feathers grew from between her shoulderblades, filling the aisle with loose feathers. The other inhabitants of the bus ignored her, grooming their own feathers, or trying to keep their slime from glooping up the seats. Several were even sitting on the ceiling, chatting to each other while glowing a faint purple.

The girl sighed again, smiling this time. Home sweet home, she thought, and sat next to a winged boy, whose feathers were blond. She grinned at his idle expression, and proceeded to stare out the clouded window as they made their way to the next stop.

[Rosie]

Before long the bus started to slow down again and it appeared to stop in the middle of nowhere. Trees cowered over the road, patched of light shining through the thick canopy. The bus’s doors opened, letting in the cold air. A few moments passed with nothing happening before a small girl stepped out from behind a tree and cautiously approached the bus. The girl was wearing no more than rags and her white hair was knotted and dirty. Her skin was very pale but grubby too. Her pale and bewitching eyes flicked around the bus, the irises hardly differing from the white eyeball itself. She had bare feet, caked with mud, which took her to a space on the ground, on which she promptly sat down. The girl had not been around civilisation for so long that this would be an experience in itself. Inquisitively she looked around the bus at the many other people. They all had powers like hers but they seemed to be in more control of them. She remembered the past, the scream that she’d had in her head for the past years and tried desperately to block it out.

[Chloe]

A few stops later, the bus pulled up in front of a large, iron-wrought gate, behind which a gravel path twisted up the slope to the doors of Whitley Mansion. Moments later, the doors flew open; a slim figure in blue burst out, closely followed by a middle-aged couple, both of whom were rather red-faced.

"I'm warning you, girl - one more step and you won't be coming ba-"

The girl in question had turned at her father's voice - suddenly, the fountain next to the mansion exploded, most of the water finding its way onto the man's immaculately ironed suit. With a final splutter of rage, he sprinted down the path; but the girl grabbed her suitcase and, screwing up her eyes in concentration, vanished.

The bus started down the winding road again, oblivious to the irate man chasing after it.

With a slight squelching noise, the girl reappeared in the middle of the bus and collapsed onto the nearest seat, her hand clasped tightly to her suitcase. She stayed asleep for the rest of the journey.

[Prof. Cinders]

The dark winged girl watched the few more recent inhabitants of the bus as they got on, and, in one case, teleport on, with little interest. She'd seen it all before, it happened every year, yadda yadda yadda... But this was the first time she'd been on the bus as a student. she sighed, and pulled the cloak closer to her out of pure habit.

The bus stopped at a few more, quite lonely stops, before finally pulling up outside a large dusty red building, its bricks glistening with some sort of mist that circled around it. It was four storeys high, with a single tower rising above the rest from the centre. The roof was a deep black, so black that it seemed as though there was a hole in space where the roof should be, sucking up the light energy. The girl looked out of her window, admiring the view, before taking her cloak and few belongings into her arms. The bright blue doors of the bus swung open, letting her fellow students exit the bus and behold the building. The people who had previously been hovering by the ceiling teleported out, a flash of brief purple illuminating their paths, and most of the winged students flew over the gates as they creaked open. The girl, however, stayed on the bus for a while longer, watching those who appeared either very tired, or reluctant to leave the safety of concealed windows. In particular, she watched the girl who had teleported abruptly onto the bus. She was still asleep. The girl walked over to her calmly, and tapped her on the shoulder. 'Time to get off,' she muttered, trying not to provoke anything - she had had enough experiences of that from older students, who had deemed it appropriate to try to tear out her wings.

[Chloe]

The girl's eyes flickered open, revealing bright blue irises that matched the azure highlights in her jet black hair. She looked up at the dark winged girl and nodded curtly. "Thanks," she said quietly, using her right hand to push herself off the seat and support her as she hobbled down the aisle.

It was just after she got off the bus that she noticed her other hand, still clutched stiffly around the suitcase handle as if it were welded on... Ohhh, sh*t. The girl came to an abrupt halt just outside the building as she tried to prise her fingers off the suitcase; after several half-broken nails and quiet oaths, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes once more.

A pale blue light surrounded her hand; the girl exhaled sharply as she lifted both shaking hands to her face, checking the left one for any abnormalities. "Well, it's not too blue," she muttered to herself - then promptly fainted on the steps.

[Prof. Cinders]

The girl watched the other get off shakily, and stopped herself from gasping in what seemed like sympathetic pain when she fell over. Her hand flew to her chest, and she closed her eyes to stop sharp pangs ringing through her body. 'Ah,' she muttered, opening an eye to see if anyone noticed. Seeing the girl in rags, she attempted a smile. 'We'd better go,' she said quietly her voice low and choked.

[Rosie]

The girl let out a slight agreeing noise and stood up. She had no bags or other belongings, just what she stood in. She's had no time to pick up anything when she's fled....

"Thunder" the small girl said, extending her hand to the dark winged girl after she's stepped off the bus. She's decided not to use her real name as it seemed somewhat inappropriate, seeing as it did not reflect her true self. Thunder's expression was still and unmoving, showing no emotion. Her pale lips straight and eyes unblinking. Hopefully this way nothing would happen...

[Prof. Cinders]

The girl smiled uncomfortably at Thunder, slightly unnerved by the completely expressionless face presented at her. 'L... Athear,' she responded, correcting herself mid-word. She'd abandoned her first name after she'd discovered its source, but still used it on some occasions. It seemed she wasn't the only one though. She could sense the painful past of this girl as she took er hand in a strong shake, almost wincing. 'Well... We'd better go and help... her,' she continued, gesturing at the girl collapsed on the steps. Her voice had recovered to a veiled, hesitant, yet exciting tone, and the pain seemed to have vanished from her structure.

Athear opened her wings, and pushed off lightly from the ground. She glided softly over, landing nimbly at the unconscious girl's side. She bent over, her wings tucking themselves behind her, and touched her shoulder. 'Are you ok?' she asked calmly, trying not to flinch at the lingering pain.

[Chloe]

A few seconds passed before the girl opened her eyes again, and carefully pushed herself up from the ground, taking care not to touch either of the two girls standing close to her. "Umm...hi," she said quietly, blushing slightly. "Sorry about that - second time today, wasn't it?" She laughed bitterly and slowly offered her hand, surreptitiously checking it over again. Pale. Skin colour. Only blue veins. Good. "Alyss," she said simply, her piercing gaze sweeping over each girl in turn.

[Prof. Cinders]

Athear reluctantly took a firm grip of the proffered hand, wincing at the pain she felt. 'Athear,' she replied, trying to smile. 'Is something worrying you? You keep on looking at your hand - not that that wasn't obvious,' she added.

[Rosie]

"Thunder" the girl said, stepping forward and taking Alyss' hand. The air was still and cold mirroring the small girl's placid eyes. "Maybe we should go inside" Thunder said, almost reluctantly, fearing her reaction to more people. She hadn't been close to this many in years...

[Chloe]

OOC: Lol! She only offered one hand...oh. She's gone and grown another one, hasn't she. Damn mutants.

BIC: Alyss shrugged nonchalantly. "I haven't used my powers since last term. Just out of practice," she replied, before smiling briefly at both the girls and leading the way into the building.

[Prof. Cinders]

Athear raised an eyebrow, assembling everything she saw of Alyss' powers together. Teleportation. Healing. Maybe a psychic? she thought, spreading her wings once more to follow the girl. She looked back at Thunder, and a small smile crept onto her face. 'You can borrow some of my clothes, if you want!' she called back good-naturedy, lifting her bags slightly to indicate that she had plenty of spares.

[Rosie]

Thunder managed to smile slightly at the generous offer and suddenly became aware that she was the only one without any proper clothes. It had been years since she'd had proper clothes and a bath, unless you could a freezing cold natural lake. These... people... seemed to have a lot of skills, compared to her and they had a lot more control over those as well. Both of these girls had obviously been to the school before, and seemed almost at home, but Thunder felt a long way from the forest she'd learned to call home. Reluctantly she dragged her feet after the other girls, up the cold stone steps and into the entrance hall.

A large, high ceilinged room met her eyes. Large, ornately carved, wooden beams lined the ceilings and stone statues rested on the walls, each depicting a different power. There seemed to be hundreds of the figures lining the hall, but less of the real beings in the centre of the room. Some of them were talking happily but others were looking stunned into silence. Some had wings, others had a strange glow to them but the rest could have been normal people. But they weren't. That's why they were here.

Slowly Thunder walked to the group, which a taller figure seemed to be trying to make quiet...

[Prof. Cinders]

Athear entered the huge entrance hall, landing beside Thunder. ''Kay, hope we have the same dorm then!' she said happily, shrugging off the familiar forboding feel.

The large figure at the front of the crowd threw her arms in the air, and screamed in a largely magnified voice, 'QUIET!' The hall bounced her voice around, causing Athear to remember the first time the headteacher had done that. They had had to replace the old windows with reinforced plastic. The crowd promptly fell silent, most of them surprised at the unnaturally loud outburst. 'Thank you,' the headteacher said, at a normal volume now. 'The older students will be along in a second to show you to your rooms. Please wait here IN SILENCE.' Mutterings began around the room, and Athear looked to Thunder and Alyss, grinning slightly.

Soon, as the headteacher had promised, older students filed silently into the room. Several were in groups, and those who were glowing slightly seemed to pulsate with psychic energy as they sent telepathic messages to each other. They lined up in front of the new students, and were directed to take a group of five each. Athear, Alyss and Thunder were put into a group with two boys - one with what looked suspiciously like natural red hair, the other with a hissing laugh and slitted eyes - headed by a silent, psychic boy emitting a blue glow. They were led through long corridors and up winding staircases to a single dormitory, and were left to explore and claim beds. As soon as the door shut, Athear made her way quickly to a the lower bed of a bunk. Placing her bags at the end of this, she arranged her wings carefully and lay down on her side to rest.

[Rosie]

Thunder followed the others into the room. She watched Athear take the bottom bunk of one of the beds and the boys rush to the other bunk bed, at the far end of the room. There were a few high windows in the room and one large one, almost running from the ceiling to the floor. Long, heavy curtains hung limply beside it, midnight blue in colour. The window was west facing and as it was nearing evening a wonderful sunset had started to light up the sky. Orange light flooded into the room, staining everything it touched. One final bed lay almost next to this window.

Tentatively Thunder prodded the mattress. It was soft and full, much different to the hard forest floor, and the bed of decaying leaves she had slept on for years. Next the small girl flung the window open. It didn't matter how cold it already was in the room, the girl thought that she might suffocate if she stayed in there for one minute. Another joy of living in a huge forest; severe claustrophobia.

Turning around she saw one of the boys fling open one of the wardrobes and exclaim "It's full of girl's clothes!" He spun around to look at Thunder. "I believe these must be yours." It was the bright red headed boy. He smiled at her but she only fixed him with a cold stare and went to inspect the clothes. As she got closer she realized the room was warm up this end. Thunder assumed he must have a fire based power and chose not to say anything. Turning her attention back to the clothes her white eyes rolled over them with interest, Surely enough they were girl's clothes and her size. And even more astonishingly she person who had picked them out seemed to have quite a good sense of fashion, in Thunder's eyes. Picking out a white pair of trousers and shirt she strode into the next room, an en suite bathroom, to change. She hadn't had a new set of clothes in years. Not since it happened. A broad, true smile came onto her face, but she quickly squashed it. Inside she was screaming with delight. Walking out of the room she threw the tattered jeans she had been wearing next to her bed and walked back to the window. The clouds that had dotted the sunset before had suddenly cleared, leaving a picturesque sunset melting slowly into the deep blue twilight.

[Prof. Cinders]

Slinging one of her bags closer to her with a foot, Athear picked out a book and settled down to read. Her wings shuddered as a breeze blew through the window, and a wave of heat reached her end of the room from the flaming-red haired boy. The pages of the book were yellowed and old, and almost emitted the happiness of the characters. Turning over onto her back, the winged girl re-arranged her wings to a more comfortable position and turned a page. The next week was going to be... interesting.

[Chloe]

OOC: Sorry, I'm really not up to my best at the moment, everything's going pear-shaped and apple-shaped and whatever.
BIC:

Alyss followed the others quietly and climbed up to the top bed over Athear's. No way was she going to attempt flight after the afternoon's events. After unpacking her nightclothes, she carefully made her way down again to deposit the rest of her belongings in the top shelf of the small chest of drawers by the bunk bed.

[Rosie]

Thunder grabbed the sheet from on top of her mattress and pulled it off, bundling the soft duvet on top of the now bare mattress as she did so. Carefully she placed the soft pink sheet on the floor and lay down on it, ignoring the stares coming from the other side of the room. Her matted hair made the perfect pillow and a comfort which reminded her of the forest. The cold floor mirrored that in the forest and the wooden feeling reminded her of the protective sculptures which carved themselves around her in the dark

In a way she couldn't explain Thunder felt like she was abandoning the forest, leaving it alone, unprotected for the first night. But slightly more importantly Thunder felt alone, like she had done so long ago when she'd entered the forest, the first time away from home. The ceiling in the bedroom was bare plaster, not the colourful mess of leaves that she had loved so much in the autumn. The room was large and open, no trees to sit against and watch the sun slowly become obscured by their thick trunks. The owls hooting their mournful song had comforted and fascinated the small girl, but now it was silent, lifeless, alone.

[Prof. Cinders]

~Next Day~

Athear woke up with a yawn, her face plastered to a page in her book. Sitting up, she pried the half-dry ink from her features and went to the bathroom to wash. Her wings ruffled themselves behind her as they shimmered in the rising sun's light, preparing for the brief shower ahead of them.

Three minutes later, a robed girl exited the bathroom with only the aintest traces of ink left on her cheek. Stifling further yawns, she got dressed under her covers, highly aware of the boys waking up on the opposite side of the room. Finally, she threw the covers onto her pillow and threw her mattress from her bed. Searching under it for the usual morning traps and pranks, the bewinged girl discarded a whoopee cushion, several mousetraps where her nose would have been if it had not been stuck in a book, a psychic-activated fake spider hiding underneath Alyss's bed and the various wire-sprung nets littering the floor. Second years. Pretty basic. There's got to be something more cleverly concealed... she thought to herself silently, glaring at the ceiling. Then she saw the trapdoor. Making sure no one was in the way, she flew up and triggered the switch. Silly string, multicoloured paint, water balloons and various hues of brown-coloured goo tumbled onto the floor, which triggered a series of nets that would have left the victim dripping and tied to the corner of the room. 'That's that, then,' Athear muttered, smiling at her work.

[Rosie]

Thunder watched the winged girl deal with the many traps around the room. She would have to watch her back in this place if she didn't want to make a complete idiot of herself, if she were to keep her past a secret and separate from her present.

Having woken a while ago, Thunder had watched the sunrise and allowed her mind to churn over the many conflicting ideas in it. What was going to happen to her if she couldn't control her powers? What would happen the coming day? What would happen if her past came back and consumed all of her feelings? Would it happen again?

The small girl strode over to her wardrobe and searched through the draws underneath the main hanging section. She found jumpers, underwear and a few hair bands and hairbrushes. Picking one up she stuck it into her matted hair and tried to pull out the knots. Before long she gave up, having nearly pulled out a huge lump of hair. Grabbing the brush sharply she threw it across the room where it gave a satisfying thud as it hit the wall. Felling disappointed and angry she looked at the boys, who were staring at her as if she had just grown an extra head.

"What?" she barked sharply before striding back to her corner of the room.

"Girls..." the snake like boy hissed quietly before turning back to his own belongings.

[Chloe]

Alyss woke with a start, carefully peering over the rail of her bunk to check Thunder wasn't about to let another hairbrush fly. Looking across the room, she saw why the angry girl needed it and smirked before jumping off the bed and landing gently next to the full-length mirror. No blue. All clear then. It was just a precaution: she already felt fine, better than fine! She could almost feel the tension from the previous day slowly flowing out, revealing a smiling, carefree girl whose happiness lay in the present, unhindered by the past.

Beaming, Alyss headed for the door - then stopped, one step away. The red-headed boy sneaked another glance before quickly turning his head to the window.

Alyss's eyes shone silver.

On the other side of the school, a couple of fish-morphers yelled in angry surprise as the pond they'd been practising in drained itself upwards, forming a glittering arrow that sped around the red walls and smashed through a window on the third floor.

Alyss giggled at the soaked boy and, stepping over the ruined trap, slipped out and made her way to the dining hall.

[Prof. Cinders]

Athear dried her wings thoroughly from the spalsh-back of Alyss's attack, glaring after the girl in anger. The boy's hair seemed to bristle in his own rage, evaporating most of the water as the heat began to rise - before the snake boy touched his shoulder in restraint. The two boys made their way out of the room, grabbing towels from the bathroom as they passed it and making their way to the dining hall. The winged girl stuck her tongue out after them, and grabbed her own towel to dry herself.

Finally completely dry, down to the last feather, Athear thundered down to a lone table in the corner of the hall. Talk was spreading around the first years that a monster lived in the central tower of the school, howling at night and terrorising the winged students with brief attacks. This didn't improve Athear's mood, of course. Most of the rumours were ungrounded - even if the howls had occured in her time there. Most believed that a gryphon lived there. Athear knew better.She dug into her breakfast half-heartedly, concentrating more on the gossip than her cereal.

[Rosie]

Thunder, on the other hand, didn't look to bothered about being splashed the water. Merely shrugging she walked down to the dining hall, following the string of other people going in that direction. The small girl sat next to Athear and Alyss and smelt the food on the table interestedly, looking with particular interest at the porridge. It appeared to be some kind of gloopy mixture. Thunder flinched at the smell of the hot, oaty breakfast, thinking it smelt more like dirt than some sort of food. I can see I'm not going to get on with the food here she thought to herself I'd rather eat conifer bark than that... thing she added to her thoughts, remembering the first and only time she'd eaten the gritty bark of a conifer tree. Instead Thunder chose some more familiar looking food, namely an apple and a pear too, but finding them not as fresh as she was used to. There was something different about food that was just off of a tree that tasted fantastic to Thunder.

[Prof. Cinders]

Tipping a further torrent of cereal into her bowl, the bewinged girl scowled at her breakfast. Gryphon. Right. Even the slimeballs know better than that, she thought to herself, her muscles bunching beneath the glossy black feathers, causing them to ruffle themselves angrily. The cereal somehow tasted bitter, unlike the usual chocolate flavoured rubbish she'd scrounged from dustbins over the summer. At least that had satisfied her hunger. These... cornflakes tasted like cardboard. Soggy cardboard, at that. Oh well. Home sweet home. She pushed the half-emptied bowl to the side, instead taking a slice of bread. Borrowing the hot air emanating from the next table, she fanned it over the bread to toast it lightly before taking a large, reluctant bite out of it. 'Bit soft,' she muttered, looking sidelong at the toast.