Super Hero High: Prometheus Rising (IC, Open)

[Northern Dominus]

As I went falling to the mat, I shoved off with my left leg, kicking it hard upwards to join my right. While it didn't do anything to keep me on my feet, it did allow me to land along my shoulders, and immediately roll backwards, back onto my feet. I wasn't expecting Burton to accept the blow like that. As hard as I'd kicked, it must've hurt him quite a bit. Though tossing me backwards like that was really quite ingenious. I'd have to try something different next time.

I moved in like I had last time, sitting just outside his reach before darting forward and throwing my fist at Burton's stomach. I fully expected, and counted on, him to grab my arm, at which point I intended to draw in close and sweep my leg into the backs of his knees.

To her credit getting flung by her leg hadn't really fazed Tara as much as Burton was hoping. Clearly she was beyond what he could teach her in basic defense and would have to be moved up to the more advanced self-defense classes ASAP.

She also apparently learned from her mistakes, somewhat, but was a bit headstrong, because this time she came charging in with a body blow. Same angle, same semi-committed loading of the legs that foretold a backup plan of sometime.

However Tara wasn't the only one capable of variation.

As he did before Burton half-stepped and presented a shoulder-on profile to Tara, this time while simultaniously sweeping down with an inside forearm block. He continued the big sweeping motion with the blocking arm, only this time he opened his stance back up and stepped into Tara as he was clearing her arm out of the way.

Any intent she might have had was suddenly cut off by the feeling of a couple of knuckles pressing ever so gently but assuredly into her jaw. The sweeping block had masked a short-armed uppercut, a quick vicious blow that basline human boxers could deliver with assured knockout power.

Burton let the moment freeze right there for a moment letting the class and Tara take it in before dropping the balled fist and giving her a pat on the shoulder before addressing the class.

"Concept two; Active defense.

You can't just simply block and block and hope the other person will tire themselves out. The best way to defend yourself is to inflict enough pain or disorientation that assaulting you is a risky or clumsy affair. When you block a blow or grab, follow it up with a strike, throw, joint lock, eye gouge, crotch kick, whatever you can do to inflict some sort of damage you do it and do it as quick and as hard as possible."

By this point Burton had his back semi turned towards Tara while addressing the class. Rolling his neck slightly he again went to the balls of is feet, this time subtly shifting back and forth on them.

"If you think you still have something left you can try again, that is if you're up to it."

[Spirit of Hope]

Dominic
"It certainly keeps things from getting dull, at least," Dominic chuckled in response to what Ocean had said. "Personally I would prefer that we only train people who would use their gifts to promote good in the world, but apparently one of the organizations that founded the school was some sort of villain support group or something. From what I understand the school still gets a sizable portion of its funding from a fund they set up."

Ocean

"Well if a villan organization is donating money that is certainly a reason to allow villains to come here." Ocean replied, "Plus I think even a villain who knows how to control their powers is better than someone who doesn't know how to use their powers. And their is just the chance that something will convince them to turn good, however unlikely."

He was beginning to finish his breakfast, and was beginning to wonder what he should do next. Certainly he wasn't getting paid to sit around, eating and talking. Maybe after this I can try and find the Headmaster, inform him of my arrival and find out what he needs me to do, ocean thought idly. For now though he could sit and talk.

[Camicon]

"If you think you still have something left you can try again, that is if you're up to it."

Damn it! I thought to myself, as I backed away again and tried to figure something out. Something that would get through Burton's defences. Both times, he'd turned his body, and both times he'd counter-attacked with his arms. How to exploit that? When he opened his body, he used his forward-most arm to direct me, and his other to actually initiate his counter-attack. Could I feign an attack, and then exploit his forward-most arm? Would he fall for that? Probably not. Anything too complex wouldn't work. Best to keep it simple, but unorthodox.

Perhaps...

With a plan in mind, I started moving forward again, in the same way I had both times previously. Just when I was outside of his reach, I dart inside, opening up like I was going to launch a kick. I even started moving my leg forward like I was going to. Instead of kicking at him, though, I changed the direction of my foot mid-air, slamming it into the ground inside Burton's defences, pivoting on it and bringing the rest of my body in close. I brought my hands up the inside his shoulders, and clapped them down tightly.
It was a common technique in wrestling: keeping your arms inside your opponent's for maximum control. Aided by my slimmer frame, he would have trouble getting his own arms inside. I didn't much care if he did or not, because I didn't plan on trying to wrestle with him. Instead, I quickly pulled myself in close until we were mere millimeters away from each other, before he could land any punches or knee's.

While kicking my heel into the back of his calf, near the knee, I snapped my brow forward into his face. If executed properly, he would tumble down to the mat together with a broken nose.

[Northern Dominus]

Damn it! I thought to myself, as I backed away again and tried to figure something out. Something that would get through Burton's defences. Both times, he'd turned his body, and both times he'd counter-attacked with his arms. How to exploit that? When he opened his body, he used his forward-most arm to direct me, and his other to actually initiate his counter-attack. Could I feign an attack, and then exploit his forward-most arm? Would he fall for that? Probably not. Anything too complex wouldn't work. Best to keep it simple, but unorthodox.

Perhaps...

With a plan in mind, I started moving forward again, in the same way I had both times previously. Just when I was outside of his reach, I dart inside, opening up like I was going to launch a kick. I even started moving my leg forward like I was going to. Instead of kicking at him, though, I changed the direction of my foot mid-air, slamming it into the ground inside Burton's defences, pivoting on it and bringing the rest of my body in close. I brought my hands up the inside his shoulders, and clapped them down tightly.
It was a common technique in wrestling: keeping your arms inside your opponent's for maximum control. Aided by my slimmer frame, he would have trouble getting his own arms inside. I didn't much care if he did or not, because I didn't plan on trying to wrestle with him. Instead, I quickly pulled myself in close until we were mere millimeters away from each other, before he could land any punches or knee's.

While kicking my heel into the back of his calf, near the knee, I snapped my brow forward into his face. If executed properly, he would tumble down to the mat together with a broken nose.

Internally snickering, Burton's amusement might have played out ever so slightly at the corners of his mouth. He had intentionally half-mocked Tara, part of the lesson to be sure but also partially a test to see if that contained fury of hers could be poked with a stick.

Apparently it could.

When she came in this time there was no pretense of backing off just in case and Burton had prepared to roll with whichever blow she threw and counter accordingly. Howver the second her heel went behind his leg and her hand went to his shoulders, Burton shifted tactics rapidly working to counter the pressure just below his knee that would inevitably take him off of a vertical base.

As Tara's head scythed in a hand shot up between her arms and planted itself behind her jaw and pressed itself against her trachea. Simultaneously his other hand grabbed one of her wrists in a vice like-grip and tugged violently, turning her arm into a lever. Even the sweep of the leg was turned into an advantage with Burton pushing off of the mat with his free leg and rotating his entire core, first with the shoulders then with the hips.

The two of them spun in mid-air and ended up with Tara slamming back-first to the mat with 240 pounds worth of Burton Malik coming down on top of her stomach, albeit not fully, Burton didn't want to injure students on the first day after all. Through the entire chain of motion he had maintained the grip on her wrist and still kept an arm across her throat, not choking in any degree but putting enough weight behind it to make movement more labored.

Suddenly he let go with both hands,locked one of his hands with the opposite wrist, reared back and drove an elbow down with murderous force apparently aimed for Tara's head.

There was a loud BANG! as Burton's elbow hit the mat...

And then Burton stood up and removed his arm. The elbow had been aimed for the mat and the worst Tara suffered was a little bit of forearm sweat. Burton stood to the side and held a hand out to Tara, and when he pulled her up she was pulled in close to Burton.
"Good job, let's move you up to the advanced class but watch the whole anger leading the way thing. But good job."

Before letting her go and clapping her shoulder.
If the class wasn't wide-eyed and in shock at the speed and viciousness of the blow that came ever so close to Tara's head hopefully they were listening.

"Concept three; Maintain momentum.

What I am teaching you in this class isn't sport-fighting. You don't get points for controlling the ring or demonstrating technique or any other silly judge-based scoring systems. Once you've reacted to an attack and actively defended yourself from it use that momentum you gain and keep hitting your assailant or applying pressure to a joint or even throwing them while maintaining control of a limb. Psychological combat is also a factor here, so if you're nervous chatter away, insult or cajole them, or even be nonsensical. When the brain suddenly feels the need to work in multiple ways, even for a split second, that creates an opening.

If you internalize these three concepts and apply them, if you utilize them with your own natural self-preservative instincts, and if you work on your personal technique to emphasize all of the above, then as you've seen you can defend yourselves from superhumans who are faster and even more durable than yourself. Make no mistake however it requires plenty of repititon sweat, and a bit of pain, but everything you learn the hard way here will be something that may one day save your life out there.

So... any questions?"

[Mighty Asgard]

Kara smiled and nodded.
"Thank you," she said. Markus smiled, then nodded as Jenkins requested their weapons. Shrugging, he pulled a second pistol from a holster in his jacket, then a combat knife from his belt. Holding the weapons up, he tossed them into the bin.

Abigale, meanwhile, glared at Jenkins.
"If I find so much as a dent on my blades, I'll make sure you die slowly," she growled. She then reached into her jacket and pulled out two short katanas. Then, she pulled out, in quick succession, several throwing knifes, combat knifes similar to Markus' and a small scythe. Then, pulling her hands up her sleeves, she pulled out two smaller knifes, before finally reaching inside her jacket and the black shirt under and pulling out a small pocket knife. Tossing the final blade onto the pile, she tsk'd and turned away.
"I'll wake the idiot up then?" she said to no one in particular. Markus sighed.
"She means her older brother, and my younger brother. We kept him in cryo because... Well, he's gonna try to kill Abigale," he explained. He then looked at Abigale's pile of weapons and picked up one knife. "Hang on... This one's mine... Why does the bitch have it?..."

During this, Kara happily hummed a catchy tune, while pulses of light ran down her body. Mostly a systems check, but also taking a general scan of the station.
"Don't want Markus getting lost, after all..." she muttered to herself. Looking up at the man in question, she quickly looked away and rubbed her wrists in a very shy manner.

Jenkins wondered why one girl would need so many weapons, it hardly seemed necessary to carry more than one or two blades to achieve whatever one would want to use them for. Her threat about killing him if her blades were damaged was largely ignored, he interpreted it more as a roundabout way of saying that the weapons were important to her. It still warranted keeping a careful watch on her though, in case she actually was the kind of person who would try to murder someone over something so small. When the two of them had put all their weapons in the box, including the knife Markus had picked up again to examine, Jenkins put the magazine and the gun Markus had handed over earlier in there as well and locked it.

"I would recommend," he said as the doors opened behind him, "that you keep your siblings from fighting if you want to make a good impression on the headmaster."

Headmaster Anderson entered the room followed by four armed guards, the doors sliding shut and locking again behind them. The guards all held their rifles at chest level and always pointed at the floor, to indicate that they weren't threatening the visitors but were prepared to use their weapons at a moment's notice should it prove necessary. Compared to the others the headmaster stood out quite a bit, not only did he not carry any weapon but he was also dressed in a regular black suit rather than the uniform all the guards wore.

"I am Fredric Anderson," he said simply, stopping next to Jenkins, "the headmaster of this institution." He glanced at the small holographic girl for a moment before turning back to Markus, "I understand that you wish to seek sanctuary here, and would offer your service in exchange. To decide if I should let you stay or not I need to know two things: What are you seeking sanctuary from, and what exactly can you offer us?"

[Corrian]

Cassie tried her hardest to keep track of what was going on, but she was having a hard time focusing on everything that was happening so quickly. She was beginning to worry if she could ever learn at this rate, it being so hard for her to focus on what was going on at all. Seeing Tara pretty much get defeated with ease worried her, because she knew that Tara could kick her butt with ease, which meant that if she got in contact with someone like Burton, she was screwed. At what Burton said to them, she simply nodded in understanding, even if she wasn't sure any of this would process in her mind very well. It was like her mind had a resistance to learning anything that involved violence.

Honestly, for her, seeing Tara again get her ass handed to her worried her even more. Watching the whole thing made her tense, and afraid, but she tried to hide it the best she could. And at Burton's explanation of Concept Two, she visibly twitched in discomfort and shook her head. She had a feeling that a typical teacher wouldn't get much appreciation for telling the class to 'inflict as much pain as possible', and that made her uncomfortable just talking about the subject of pain and inflicting as much pain on others as possible, even in defense of yourself. So she had to calm herself by taking a deep breath, and looking away for a moment.

Again, seeing Tara get completely wasted with what seemed to be little effort worried her, and each time it happened, she started to get shakier, and more worried, because that was just how she was. Clearly Burton was good, and Tara had demonstrated to her that she was pretty good as well. And there was a high chance that there were enemies they might encounter with the same force. Which made it even less likely for her to accept ever going on a mission, and she'd just stay on the ship.

What really startled her though was the elbow bang onto the mat, to indicate what would of been Tara's head in a normal situation. Which, it was already clear that Tara would of likely been suffocated to death in a normal situation by Burton's arm, and maybe even squished by Burton's weight, before the elbow to the head would of even occurred. She tried to avoid imagining what that would even feel like. Though, she had a feeling she had felt what an elbow to the face would feel like before, mainly in her car accident. Which was likely even worse, really.

Now, listening to his new explanation of "Concept Three", she shook her head again at the fact her life came from one hell to the other. She had escaped her parents, especially her dad. But now she gained not one, but two abilities people would love to exploit, and she had to actually learn this stuff instead of ignoring it and trying to avoid it. Not that some of this wouldn't of been useful before. So far it was implied to be as damaging as possible when causing pain, to disorient them more. Now she was being told that, if she was nervous, which was pretty much how she was all the time, that she should insult people to keep 'talking'. She really wasn't liking this whole concept that she had to learn now. She wished she could just hide on this space station forever, but she doubted that would be possible. When he asked if they had any questions, her only response was to shake her head.

Caitlin
Caitlin on the other hand was enjoying the whole thing. Sure, she reacted to the more 'brutal' parts as you'd expect, realizing how much Tara, who seemed to be an experienced fighter, was getting her butt kicked. But it just interested her. She tried very hard to study it all, and absorb everything Burton said, because this was exactly the type of training she was looking forward to. It would prove useful in a fight if she encountered one that was different then 'running through a building, dropping a flash bang, running out, coming back in and tasing someone", which she expected to be very likely to occur sometime in her life. But even with this actual interest in training, she couldn't think of any questions to ask, and kept quiet, preferring to just keep quiet and continue to absorb what was going on.

[AETEN II]

Erkenfried grumbled as he was forced to put on leather gloves with thick pads on the fingers- apparently the school was somewhat worried about him gutting a student like he did to a dummy on his first self defense class. That was quite enjoyable- but it sadly lacked the lovely spray of blood in one's face. Such a mist was a sign of good execution of an attack and with a lack of this, it was unusual and difficult to tell if damage was done. Of course, what also unusual was the lack of dying, as Erkenfried was a vampire, he was used to being able to easily dispatch humans. Now he'd have to rely on his knowledge of the human body and aim for the weaker spots on whoever was his sparring partner was. He now started running the anatomy charts he knew so well through his head- neck, windpipe, ears, kidneys, knees, carotid arteries, and over and over again while he awaited his sparring partner. He would ensure that victory would occur for the sake of his predatory reputation. Even if he had to play dirty. Besides, it was unlikely that someone would notice he was pinching the carotid artery. Very. All he had to do was quickly smash his hands on the opponent's eardrums to briefly stun them, then quickly close distance and get that damn artery. A lack of blood to the brain would cause weakness and he could then pin them to the floor. Hopefully they weren't too skilled in martial arts though, or knew about the tricks to stun a human and knock them out.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell, Makoto, and Sakura

As Makoto dozed-off, Bramwell and Sakura watched the fight with interest, if not excitement. Bramwell was interested in learning a martial art that would be less lethal, though which one or hybrid, he did not know. He needed something that did not require his chestnut cane. As the fight went on, Sakura already was thankful Burton did not call her up. The demonstration was a reminder of the general regulations on competitors. There may have been disagreements over semantics and goals, but they still payed attention. Bramwell did not hold any complaints about the idea of causing pain to enemy combatants, as his primary concern was that he was trained too extensively on the usage of pernamently damaging force rather than any worry of pain (something he assumed to be distinct from damage), as he was looking for something more defensive and less-than-lethal but still pragmatic. Bramwell was still confused on the subject, and still had trouble comprehending if he just trained too-little with other options within his purview. He still had plenty of thinking to do, though some need for dialogue about it would take some time to fulfill.

[Orinon]

Jenkins wondered why one girl would need so many weapons, it hardly seemed necessary to carry more than one or two blades to achieve whatever one would want to use them for. Her threat about killing him if her blades were damaged was largely ignored, he interpreted it more as a roundabout way of saying that the weapons were important to her. It still warranted keeping a careful watch on her though, in case she actually was the kind of person who would try to murder someone over something so small. When the two of them had put all their weapons in the box, including the knife Markus had picked up again to examine, Jenkins put the magazine and the gun Markus had handed over earlier in there as well and locked it.

"I would recommend," he said as the doors opened behind him, "that you keep your siblings from fighting if you want to make a good impression on the headmaster."

Headmaster Anderson entered the room followed by four armed guards, the doors sliding shut and locking again behind them. The guards all held their rifles at chest level and always pointed at the floor, to indicate that they weren't threatening the visitors but were prepared to use their weapons at a moment's notice should it prove necessary. Compared to the others the headmaster stood out quite a bit, not only did he not carry any weapon but he was also dressed in a regular black suit rather than the uniform all the guards wore.

"I am Fredric Anderson," he said simply, stopping next to Jenkins, "the headmaster of this institution." He glanced at the small holographic girl for a moment before turning back to Markus, "I understand that you wish to seek sanctuary here, and would offer your service in exchange. To decide if I should let you stay or not I need to know two things: What are you seeking sanctuary from, and what exactly can you offer us?"

Markus listened to Anderson, then opened his mouth to speak. He was cut off, however, by a small explosion, followed by a somewhat desperate cry.
"Abigale you little bitch! I'm going to kill you!" came a rather angry voice. A moment later, a dark blur dashed out of the shuttle, before solidifying as Abigale, sliding to a stop beside Markus.
"Called it," Markus said. Abigale growled, then ducked as a small bolt of energy sailed over her head, somewhat karmicly smashed into Markus' cheek. As the former ONI agent swore and covered his newest burn, Abigale grabbed four throwing knifes and flung them at the shuttle. A moment later, a teenaged boy surrounded by a glowing storm of energy exited the shuttle, and was promptly pinned to its side via knifes through his clothes.
"Ahhh! Abigale! It's your fault! You got Grace taken! You let Goltia stay behind!" Joshua Moyle raged, tugging at his clothes. Abigale then grabbed one of her katanas and blinked forward towards Joshua, before pointing the weapon at his throat.
"I didn't know they were coming, and even if I did, there wasn't much I could do to stop them. As for Goltia, I know she'll find Grace," Abigale said coldly.
"Fuck you! If you had let me go with her-" Josh was interrupted by Abigale twitching the katana and cutting his cheek.
"If I had done that, you would get both of you killed! You're too emotional, Josh! Too violent! Too out of control. That's why I stopped you. Now, are you going to calm down? Or do I have to make that cut a matching pair?" Abigale said, her voice never changing from its cold tone. Josh glared at her for a moment, then the aura around him faded, and he slumped, suddenly feeling very weak, and held his hand to his cheek. Abigale tsk'd, then yanked the throwing knifes out of his clothes and walked back towards the welcoming party. She then tossed the weapons back onto the pile.
"Sorry about that. He has some unresolved issues that we needed to iron out," Abigale said, looking at Anderson coldly. If the depths of her red eye were burning with bloodlust earlier, they now were cold, calculating.

"As I was saying," Markus said, continuing as if he was never interrupted., "We're running from... Well.."
"We're running from a lot of very angry people who would like to see me, and the rest of my family, lynched from a very tall building," Abigale said, her gaze never wavering.
"What she said. As for what we can offer..." Markus stopped and thought for a moment.
"I can help with station administration. Well, I could really do anything you tasked me with. Just don't expect me to do heavy lifting," Kara spoke, earning a snort from Markus and a small smile from Abigale.
"I suppose I could put my brain to use. A teacher, maybe. Something in Science, I would think," Abigale said.
"And I suppose I could work in the security staff. Bit of a waste of my training, but I can't think of anything else," Markus said, who was rubbing his left wrist unknowingly.
"Markus, you're rubbing your arm," Kara pointed out. Markus looked down, then stopped the motion and shoved his hands into his pockets.

[AETEN II]

"I seem to be without a sparring partner, is there any human willing to fix this issue? Any harm that comes to you of course is of your own fault. I advise you cover your stomach from instinctual attacks." Erkenfried both asked and noted, although his comment on the stomach was to hopefully ensure that the opponent left their neck and head open and vulnerable to a quick attack that would easily dispatch them with no serious harm. So long as the carotid artery was left open and/or they didn't protect their knees, he would avoid the possibility of losing. Those who fought fair lost. All he hoped was that the teacher didn't notice his tactics.

[Mighty Asgard]

Markus listened to Anderson, then opened his mouth to speak. He was cut off, however, by a small explosion, followed by a somewhat desperate cry.
"Abigale you little bitch! I'm going to kill you!" came a rather angry voice. A moment later, a dark blur dashed out of the shuttle, before solidifying as Abigale, sliding to a stop beside Markus.
"Called it," Markus said. Abigale growled, then ducked as a small bolt of energy sailed over her head, somewhat karmicly smashed into Markus' cheek. As the former ONI agent swore and covered his newest burn, Abigale grabbed four throwing knifes and flung them at the shuttle. A moment later, a teenaged boy surrounded by a glowing storm of energy exited the shuttle, and was promptly pinned to its side via knifes through his clothes.
"Ahhh! Abigale! It's your fault! You got Grace taken! You let Goltia stay behind!" Joshua Moyle raged, tugging at his clothes. Abigale then grabbed one of her katanas and blinked forward towards Joshua, before pointing the weapon at his throat.
"I didn't know they were coming, and even if I did, there wasn't much I could do to stop them. As for Goltia, I know she'll find Grace," Abigale said coldly.
"Fuck you! If you had let me go with her-" Josh was interrupted by Abigale twitching the katana and cutting his cheek.
"If I had done that, you would get both of you killed! You're too emotional, Josh! Too violent! Too out of control. That's why I stopped you. Now, are you going to calm down? Or do I have to make that cut a matching pair?" Abigale said, her voice never changing from its cold tone. Josh glared at her for a moment, then the aura around him faded, and he slumped, suddenly feeling very weak, and held his hand to his cheek. Abigale tsk'd, then yanked the throwing knifes out of his clothes and walked back towards the welcoming party. She then tossed the weapons back onto the pile.
"Sorry about that. He has some unresolved issues that we needed to iron out," Abigale said, looking at Anderson coldly. If the depths of her red eye were burning with bloodlust earlier, they now were cold, calculating.

"As I was saying," Markus said, continuing as if he was never interrupted., "We're running from... Well.."
"We're running from a lot of very angry people who would like to see me, and the rest of my family, lynched from a very tall building," Abigale said, her gaze never wavering.
"What she said. As for what we can offer..." Markus stopped and thought for a moment.
"I can help with station administration. Well, I could really do anything you tasked me with. Just don't expect me to do heavy lifting," Kara spoke, earning a snort from Markus and a small smile from Abigale.
"I suppose I could put my brain to use. A teacher, maybe. Something in Science, I would think," Abigale said.
"And I suppose I could work in the security staff. Bit of a waste of my training, but I can't think of anything else," Markus said, who was rubbing his left wrist unknowingly.
"Markus, you're rubbing your arm," Kara pointed out. Markus looked down, then stopped the motion and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Anderson didn't exactly look impressed by the small fight that erupted between the two younger refugees, it hardly spoke in favor of letting them stay if they were going to behave like that. The guards slowly returned their guns to a more relaxed position, having raised them at the two fighters in case any of them tried to assault anyone else than each other. Jenkins looked just as calm as before, though he felt mildly insulted by Markus' insinuation that he was actually too good to work in the guard force. Of course it was possible that the man was skilled enough to back up those words, which Jenkins looked forward to investigating if the headmaster gave him the opportunity.

Anderson first turned to the small machine on the floor, and the hologram of a girl it showed. "Jenkins, what is this?" he asked simply, wanting to know what the device was before dealing with anything else they had said.

"An artificial life form, she calls herself Kara. Constructed with electronic warfare in mind but apparently capable of other things as well. Abigale built her, I believe." Jenkins' response was quick and to the point, delivered without any unnecessary detail.

"Your circumstances are not too different from what many of our students have faced, running from people who want to hurt you," Anderson mused, and then looked contemplatively at the small hologram for a few seconds. "Well... Kara, I will see if there is any work you might do in non-essential systems." When he had finished speaking to Kara he turned to Markus, "we could always use more men to guard the station. Before I give you a job you will need to be tested, however. Jenkins handles such things, and if you pass his test I will gladly hire you." Jenkins nodded in agreement. "And I guess that your brother," he turned to look at Josh, "would enroll as a student?" He again glanced at Kara before turning to Abigale, "I would gladly give you the opportunity to hire on as a teacher here, if you pass the required exam. But I would also like to know if it is true that you... constructed her?" he gestured at Kara, "and if so, would you be willing to share your knowledge of technology with us?"

[Northern Dominus]

Everyone appeared to be in a daze for the first lesson. This was good, it meant that mostly they had blanks slates to go from but had enough sense to throw their own variations

Apparently only one student wasn't overwhelmed slightly.

"I seem to be without a sparring partner, is there any human willing to fix this issue? Any harm that comes to you of course is of your own fault. I advise you cover your stomach from instinctual attacks."

Which probably meant that Erkenfield hadn't paid attention or participated to the extent that other students had, meaning in the future he would be rewarded with "special" attention during class if he didn't change tack very quickly.

"If one of your classmates is willing to stay after class and work with you or pair up during your own free time Erken, then yes.

That's it for todays lesson class..."

Everyone shifted to go and Burton waited until they were all standing before shutting off all of the vests suppressors and continuing.

"Just remember this: today is the easiest day of the class. It only gets more difficult from here on out...

...but it also gets more fun.

You did well today students, keep it up. Just hang your vests neatly and you're free to go. Some of you I'll see later for Astronomy. Others, same time next class."

Burton watched the students go through the motions of hanging the vests up, grouping into their respective cliques and heading out before sitting down and pulling out the tablet PC from his bag. Granted he had plenty to put away but some notes needed to be taken at that moment.

Some students had displayed obvious prior training and would most likely be bumped up to a more advanced class, like Tara. Although she was a bit headstrong she did have prior training and could throw variations on the fly, she just needed to be exposed to more complex and urgent situations without the benefit of any sticks to use to evolve her unarmed combat prowess, something she wouldn't get in the basic class.

Others like Jay Caitlin Bramwell and Sakura he logged as enthusiastic and noted to possibly encourage them to explore distinct martial arts to give them a broader knowledge base to work from. Jay especially seemed to gravitate towards the notion that his blindness wasn't a disability and indeed it was not, he just needed to find avenues around it.

Then there were other students like Cassie and Erken that he noted as needed specialized attention. Cassie had a shyness issue that probably extended beyond the class so a bit of positive confidence-building was in order to help her develop a bit.
Erken on the other hand needed a different kind of attention. He had clearly displayed egomanical tendencies couplied with an aristocratic sense of entitlement. Mixed with his vampiric powers, he was a liability at best and at the moment Burton was toying with drafting an official request to remove Erken from self-defense classes until he demonstrated a level of maturity that satisfied his requirement that he wouldn't unduly harm another student.

That was all down the road however. With those and a few other notes logged, Burton got to the business of rolling up the mats and putting dummies and pads away. This too in time would also fall to the students and soon, but today was a lot to take in as is.

[Nakarisaune]

The demonstrations had been interesting, sure, and it was nice to see that Tara had been actually hurt somewhat, or at least appeared to have been. Rachael had never liked Tara; she seemed too much of a goody-two-shoes that beat people up when no-one was looking. So she watched with a smile, ignoring the technicalities of what Malik was demonstrating and attempting to explain. She was too tired to listen right now anyway, even if she had been more interested in what was happening.
She was glad the class was over, though, because it meant she didn't have to spend any more time hanging around corners pretending to be waiting for a go at punching dummies. They weren't even real, so she couldn't get much satisfaction from destroying them. However, Roxanne had told her the next class would be Scott's last one, which Rachael wasn't looking forwards to at all. It would just be more crap about why heroes were awesome and why saving lives made you so, so awesome. It was all lies.
She hung her vest up, sighed, and slowly walked out.

[Orinon]

Anderson didn't exactly look impressed by the small fight that erupted between the two younger refugees, it hardly spoke in favor of letting them stay if they were going to behave like that. The guards slowly returned their guns to a more relaxed position, having raised them at the two fighters in case any of them tried to assault anyone else than each other. Jenkins looked just as calm as before, though he felt mildly insulted by Markus' insinuation that he was actually too good to work in the guard force. Of course it was possible that the man was skilled enough to back up those words, which Jenkins looked forward to investigating if the headmaster gave him the opportunity.

Anderson first turned to the small machine on the floor, and the hologram of a girl it showed. "Jenkins, what is this?" he asked simply, wanting to know what the device was before dealing with anything else they had said.

"An artificial life form, she calls herself Kara. Constructed with electronic warfare in mind but apparently capable of other things as well. Abigale built her, I believe." Jenkins' response was quick and to the point, delivered without any unnecessary detail.

"Your circumstances are not too different from what many of our students have faced, running from people who want to hurt you," Anderson mused, and then looked contemplatively at the small hologram for a few seconds. "Well... Kara, I will see if there is any work you might do in non-essential systems." When he had finished speaking to Kara he turned to Markus, "we could always use more men to guard the station. Before I give you a job you will need to be tested, however. Jenkins handles such things, and if you pass his test I will gladly hire you." Jenkins nodded in agreement. "And I guess that your brother," he turned to look at Josh, "would enroll as a student?" He again glanced at Kara before turning to Abigale, "I would gladly give you the opportunity to hire on as a teacher here, if you pass the required exam. But I would also like to know if it is true that you... constructed her?" he gestured at Kara, "and if so, would you be willing to share your knowledge of technology with us?"

"Of course. I would be more then happy to give you that information," Abigale said. Inwardly, she smiled evilly. She would give them the ability to create AIs, but not the flashcloning technology that smart AIs required. Kara, meanwhile, bounced up and down happily.
"Oh thank you, thank you! You have no idea how boring it is having nothing to do! I've been computing the number pi for the last week!" she said happily. Markus then nodded as Anderson spoke to him. He looked past the headmaster and at Jenkins.
"Ready when you are," he said. While the conversation had been happening, Josh had got to his feet and walked over. When he was spoken to, he nodded.
"Thank you," he said softly. He then knelt down beside Kara and started softly talking to her.

[Corrian]

Caitlin had pretty much ignored what Erkenfried said that sounded like he hadn't payed attention to class at all. Instead, she payed attention to the more important aspects of class. There was an actual "awwww" of disappointment coming from Caitlin when Burton announced that was it for today's class, but she got up anyway, and listened to what Burton said after turning off their surpressor's. The fact it was supposed to get harder pleased her, actually, and she smiled. Though, she hadn't had plans to be part of the Astronomy class, even though she pictured an Astronomy class being pretty epic when you were actually IN space. She simply hung up her vest as directed, gave a nod to Burton before leaving, and headed out of the class

Cassie
For Cassie, the surpressor's being turned off wasn't exactly an instant notice, since her powers were more in the background, and not instantly noticeable when they came back on. It helped they weren't majorly a part of her life, either. Honestly, she wished they weren't a part of her life at all, but that was another story. She didn't feel like her powers had made her life any easier then it already was.

Now, when it was mentioned that this was the easiest day of class, she wasn't too happy, and twitched again, worrying about what was to come, and how much it'd affect her. Mostly with making her remember crappy thoughts she preferred not to remember, though. Or just having punches and kicks thrown her way.

As she was hanging her vest, she listened to the part about the Astronomy class. Now that was a class she was looking forward to. Space always fascinated her, and an Astronomy class in space sounded rather awesome in pretty much any possible means of awesome.

Then, she was about ready to head out the door, and had actually reached the door, lost in thought, before she had come to an abrupt stop and stepped out of the way of the crowds leaving the classroom. While she had been lost in thought, she completely forgot something that she liked to do, even if she was shy, and it was harder for her to actually offer it then it seems like it should be.

So, she walked back over to where Burton was cleaning up. "Need help cleaning up?" She asked in a quiet, shy way, while absentmindedly tugging at the bottom of her shorts as if she was trying to make the legs of the shorts magically expand to cover her more. She then started to rub her arm absentmindedly as if she was cold, but obviously she wasn't. It still seemed like she was shaky and having bad nerves like earlier in the class, as well, but it was hard to tell why she was having issues exactly.

[Terintania]

Jay kind of had no freaking clue what had happened in the demonstrations with Tara. He did actually manage to catch the basics, though. When Burton said that was the end of today's class, he looked slightly disappointed, but not massively. Since his vest was already off, he didn't really notice the vests being turned off. When Burton said that this was the easiest class, he looked very slightly alarmed, but the look didn't last long. He took his vest off and hung it up as told, thinking about astronomy class. He would have loved to be a part of it, but he knew it would also be stupidly pointless for him.

He hung around a bit after everyone else was leaving. He noticed Cassie offering to help, which is what he had planned to do. "I'll help, too, if you want," He said to Burton, then added,"If I can...." After all the other students were gone, Roady padded over to Jay and sat down beside him.

(Charlotte)
Charlotte let out a loud groan of annoyance at the class being finished. "Fiiiine," She said, putting her vest back. She hadn't gotten to hit a SINGLE thing, and it pissed her off. She then turned on her heal and headed off, turning into a cat mid-step.

[Ularn]

Scott was in his classroom, watching the students of his last ever class filter in. The rule he had set up initially about not entering before he arrived had been relaxed after a week but in this case he had arrived before any of them anyway. On the other hand, they knew where his classes were now and so they arrived presently without his needing to use the intercom.
"Right gang," he said once it looked like everyone was present who should be, "Like I told you last week, today's my last lesson before heading off to pastures new, so let's keep it fairly casual, since if any of you fuck around I'm probably not going to have to handle the detentions, so happy times!"
Scott was genuinely smiling. As much as he had moaned about the students and the school management, there were times when he didn't completely loathe the job in its entirety. As he looked over his final class he realised that there were at least a few aspects of The School he would miss.
"Anyway, so today we're talking about the British Super Human Protection Act of Twenty-Thirteen and the myriad of similar legislation it's spawned in other countries. Last lesson I told you to read the Act before the lesson because if you haven't then this'll probably go over your heads but hey," he grinned and lifted his hands over his head, palms open, in a gesture of mock resignation, "In three days that's not gonna be my problem any more. Now, anyone not got a copy of the Act with them?"
Several hands went up. Scott picked up a stack of photocopies from his desk and launched them across the room at the target pupils. "Now basically," he began in an informative tone, "the SHPA is a heap. of. shite. It's not only one of the most offensive pieces of legislation to have been passed by a civilised country since South Africa under Apartheid, it is also one of the most poorly drafted pieces of literature ever written. Section One; subsection one of the Act reads 'For the purposes of this act, a 'super human' refers to any person who has natural abilities exceeding those of homo sapiens.' Anyone here think they can spot the problem with that, bearing in mind that so far no clear scientifically discernible difference has been found between us lot and 'regular' humans? Genetically, most of us are identical to other humans as far as anyone can tell, but for some reason we can shoot fireballs or fly or what have you,"

[AETEN II]

Erkenfried walked out of his class after hanging the vest back with the others- but for the gloves, he ripped them off and didn't bother to remove them from the floor. He hated the things, as they denied him the joy of truly maiming an opponent. Surely they had one here with healing abilities that could repair any damage he did to a human.
But now there was another class starting, and Erkenfried walked in and took a seat before answering the question.

"Homo sapiens are easily defined by the average of their species. Their usual running speed is twelve kilometers per hour, the average lifting strength hovers around a hundred and fifty pounds, and death can be induced very easily. Anything above this average to the extreme is superhuman, and obviously manipulation of the surrounding environment is not characteristic of you humans. It could be easily defined, the only area for confusion is those who have above average traits that are near supernatural, but not quite at that level. Are they to be classed as mutants, or a new evolutionary path for your species? But besides that any fear is foolish- humans are too weak to be able to oppress every single one of their species that possess exceptional powers. Besides- those with psychic abilities could easily manipulate the minds of the masses and ascend the political ranks. I wouldn't be surprised if with your ever-more-present abilities you humans swung into an era of totalitarianism, ruled by those that warped the minds of those under them. As usual for us- this will make more a most interesting event to watch." Erkenfried said as he answered the question and began to drum his claws on the wooden desk.

[Ularn]

Scott snapped his fingers and pointed at Erkenfried. "Good answer from the enemies of mankind!" he drawled, mimicking the voice of a game show host, "Tone down the creepy factor next time and maybe we'll stop trying to kill you all."
"Freddy's pretty much spot on," he continued, addressing the entire class now, "The definition given in the Act is so vague that under it Usain Bolt could be classified as a Super Human even though he's just - just a ridiculously good athelete. Furthermore, the fact that all of us - Freddy and Chram excluded - still count as homo sapiens according to all accepted scientific reasoning, means that our own abilities, unusual as they are, still fall within the abilities of human-kind. According to the SHPA, either Usain Bolt is a superhuman, or none of us are.
"Anyone think they can come up with a better definition?" he asked, rising out of his seat and scanning the classroom.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell, Makoto, and Sakura

As the new class went on, there were thoughts running through the trio's minds. While Bramwell and Makoto worried about Scott's blood alchohol content, Sakura worried that the harangue would end in violence. They were honestly surprised by the percieved lack of restraint within Scott and the new disregard of tact. Bramwell almost instinctively raised his left hand to answer the question, even if Makoto insisted for him to avoid drawing attention out of paranoia about Scott's state of mind. Even then, Bramwell still left a seat open for Cassie to join the four-person table he sat at for odd reasons.

[Nfhd]

Will had enjoyed the self defense class and had found the tips Burton had supplied to be very useful. He had put away his vest and for the past 20 minutes had been trying to think of ways to apply those tips to fighting style. He had been taken out of his musings by the blunt, offensive, and hilarious remark the teacher had made. It wasn't that he hated vampires to a fault, he just enjoyed the how unpolitical correct it was. He decide it was time to start seriously paying attention to this class since things could get interesting very fast.

[Camicon]

"I don't think a specific definition really matters all that much." I said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but under the SHPA, the government can circumvent normal legal proceedings. If they wanted to, they could toss someone with 'powers' into a maximum security prison, and leave them there for the rest of their lives. There wouldn't be any trials, and the person in captivity would have no legal channels through which to gain their freedom, except those offered specifically by the people imprisoning them. Either you play by their rules, or they're allowed to do whatever they want to you. If you're exceptional in any way, they can act against you under the provisions of the SHPA, and the SHPA allows them to do so without even proving that their actions are necessary or warranted. Somebody like Einstein, Hawking, or Bhor, could be exploited by the SHPA because they're so much more intelligent than everyone else, even though there's no evidence that they have 'super-intelligence'.

"And it's pretty obvious how they determine whether or not somebody has 'powers', or not, when they're toeing the line on physical ability. Usain Bolt had to train his ass off in order to reach the level he has. If you put in obvious effort, if it took time to reach that level of ability, then people are going to look at you and say 'Wow! What an amazing person! Look at how hard they tried in order to be that good!'. It's different for people like me, because I've never had to try in order to reach it. It's not like I've been a slouch my entire life, but I've gone from benching my body weight, to more than triple that, in less than two weeks. While there are women that are still able to lift more than me, they also weigh about twice as much as I do, and spent years training in order to reach that level. It's my lack of effort in achieving that level of ability that differentiates my strength as a 'super-power', versus 'natural' human ability."

[Ularn]

Scott gritted his teeth and wobbled his hand in a 'so-so' gesture. "You're sort of right, Tara," he said, "The Act basically expands on existing terrorism legislation so that people can be detained almost indefinitely where their powers create a danger to the public - that's in Section Six. Again, 'danger to the public' isn't properly defined but so far it's often been taken to mean anything from a lack of control over your abilities to having so much control over your abilities that you might pose a threat anyway. It's based on the possibility of harm rather than whether or not the individual actually has any intention of causing harm. Also, there is a court process available, but it's not been utilised yet since all the superhumans against whom the Act's been used so far are indisputably dangerous people. There would've been no point in me trying to argue I wasn't dangerous when I'm ranked as one of the most powerful pyrokinetics in the world and the fact that I have no intention of blowing up in front of Buckingham Palace is irrelevant as far as the Act's concerned.
Of course, in most cases there's also a few exceptions. Newly discovered superhumans can be sent up here, and those who have adequate control of their powers can be given the option of military service. As far as her majesty's government's concerned, better they have control of their 'dangerous individuals' than Iran or North Korea does.
"As an analogy, this would be like the US government locking up all gun owners who've never been trained in their use, as well as those who are such good shots that they could shoot someone from two kilometres away, before first giving them the option of going on a training course if they can't use their guns or joining the army if they can.
"As for your explanation of Usain Bolt; its not a bad way to explain the difference between a world class athlete and a superhuman. You're right that he's obviously worked extremely hard to reach that level of ability; harder than any of us have with our powers. But effort alone isn't the key distinguishing factor here. Some people are born more intelligent than others; some have better fitness or healt coded into their genes. Bolt's a fantastic player at the game, no doubt, but the genetic playing field was probably tipped in his favour to an extent, just as it is with ours. The problem with the Act's definition of superhuman isn't just that it doesn't take effort into account.
"Anyway," he concluded, "You're right in that the Act is basically a flimsy rubber stamp to grant a semblance of legitimacy to what the government wanted to do anyway. So," he breathed, "if the Super Human Protection Act Twenty-Thirteen is a horribly written and morally disgusting collection of ink and paper, can anyone here suggest why is still got passed, and then got upheld by the European Court of Human Rights, and even has the majority support of the British public while other countries are putting their own versions in place? I'll also take any other suggestions for a better definition of superhuman."

[Mighty Asgard]

"Of course. I would be more then happy to give you that information," Abigale said. Inwardly, she smiled evilly. She would give them the ability to create AIs, but not the flashcloning technology that smart AIs required. Kara, meanwhile, bounced up and down happily.
"Oh thank you, thank you! You have no idea how boring it is having nothing to do! I've been computing the number pi for the last week!" she said happily. Markus then nodded as Anderson spoke to him. He looked past the headmaster and at Jenkins.
"Ready when you are," he said. While the conversation had been happening, Josh had got to his feet and walked over. When he was spoken to, he nodded.
"Thank you," he said softly. He then knelt down beside Kara and started softly talking to her.

Jenkins thought for a moment, then answered: "I believe the gym is currently not occupied by any class. If you do not mind we could do the test now."

"It will take a few hours to deal with the paperwork to officially register you as employees or students of the Academy," Anderson said, "but until then you are free to access the public areas of the station." He gestured at the guards who had followed him in, "they will escort you. We've recently had issues with the security, and I wouldn't want you to be mistaken for intruders."

Tyler
After spending the morning sleeping in, an advantage to already having completed basic self defense classes the previous year, Tyler had headed to Scott's class. Apparently his last class, because he was going to quit his job. Rumor had it that it was because the headmaster didn't like that he brought Roxanne back to the station, but that seemed unlikely since she had been named the new counselor. It was probably something else, but he had no idea what. Rather than thinking about things he had no control over he turned his attention to the discussion at hand, about the bastards in the English government who had passed a law that let them oppress anyone who didn't qualify as a regular person. The US hadn't even passed any new laws to achieve that same effect, they just made new guidelines that anyone with powers who didn't do what they said was considered a potential terrorist as per the Patriot Act, and then they could hold them indefinitely.

"The definition doesn't matter," he said, "they just want a legal tool that lets them imprison or enslave anyone who isn't a baseline human, which is exactly what those kinds of laws gives them. That's probably why it is so poorly written, because they want to have a lot of room to do whatever they want while still operating entirely within the law." He snorted angrily, "and they can do it because the general public is too fucking scared and stupid to realize that not all superhumans are trying to kill them, they just associate us with those filthy bloodsuckers and think we are just as bad."

[Procastitania]

Declan immediately felt his power unblock itself when the suppressors shut down at the end of self-defense and smiled. "Glad that's over," he said as he removed his vest. He had been mildly interested during the demonstration, but he doubted his body could work at a high enough level to compete with any of that. Overall, the class had been fine. He had talked to people, and learned about fighting. Now it was time for Scott's last class.

Declan walked into the room with everyone else and took a seat. Scott was talking about the stupid act that controlled superhumans. Off the top of his head, he couldn't think of a reason for the law. He decided that he should at least contribute to the conversation a bit.

He rose his hand, and called out, "This will be a short, simple response, but as far as the government is concerned, a superhuman is anyone they're afraid of." He thought for a second. "That actually answers the second question too. The law was passed because people are scared of what we might do."