Super Hero High: Prometheus Rising (IC, Open)

[Mighty Asgard]

Burton looked up from some of his Astronomy 102 lesson plans and saw Moreno framing the doorway

Yes, and it's something, well different. Come in have a seat..."

Burton hurriedly removed a pile of notebooks manilla envelopes and books of varying vintages from a chair adjacent to his desk.

Once Dominic had sat down he softly balled his fists and bobbled his elbows that were resting on the chairs arms, then tapped the knuckles together, then intertwined his own fingers, pursing his lips the entire time.
Clearly this was something major or something dear to his heart.

"I've been thinking. Here we all are in orbit aboard the most advanced space station... well..."

Burton swatted an imaginary fly.

"Look you've been up here longer than I have. We're in space, aboard a space station, and on the other side of this same orbit is the new ISS.
When's the last time anybody at this station has ever taken a field trip to do something other than to act as an NGO superhuman catch-all agency? When's the last time the students left the station for the purposes of hands-on and fun learning?"

Dominic sat down and listened to what Burton had to say. It seemed like this was a topic he had thought a lot about, and one that was quite important to him. The question he posed was a good one, but the answer to it was quite short and simple.

"There's never been any simple field trips," he said slowly, "not for anything other than what is essentially mercenary work." He sighed deeply and slouched back slightly in the chair, elaborating on his answer, "with the climate as it currently is, with all the hate and prejudice against our kind, I think Anderson's afraid to let any students go back planetside unless they're doing something sanctioned by a government. Without that protection, I think he's worried that someone would try to kidnap some of the students, to control their power. Sad to say, but I think I agree with him."

Tyler
When the kangaroo kid entered Tyler nodded at him, shooting him a small smile. He hoped that it was Kristian from last year, it would be nice to have someone to hang out with again, but he wasn't actually entirely sure. It seemed unlikely but not impossible that another person could have a similar mutation, and it wasn't very easy to recognize the facial features of someone who looked like a kangaroo. Declan seemed quite sure it was Kristian though, and judging by the response it might actually be him.

The vampire interrupted his good mood with some more bullshit, apparently ignorant of the way the world worked. "You don't get it, do you?" Tyler said to him, making no effort to hide how much of an idiot he thought the bloodsucker was, "there is no place that is neutral in this. Everyone is scared of us, and all nations want to make us into weapons for them. It doesn't matter if one, two, or fifty politicians go down in some scandal, because the public thinks we're dangerous and no one would get elected unless they played on that fear." He snorted again, "unlike you, we're actually people, and we shouldn't have to hide from our own countries. We shouldn't have to do anything, they are wrong, and they have to change."

[AETEN II]

"They won't change for some time. This will likely end up as the 'Red Scare' during the fifties in America or the Nazi hunts after World War Two. Nationalism succeeds in nothing but endangering your survival. Nothing is owed to anyone, all that matters is survival. Unless you are able to destroy the careers of the politicians making the bills, it is best to simply leave the country. You do not owe it any loyalty- politicians are but the puppets of those who fund them. Vengeance could always be taken against the politicians and those who funded them, but one would have to ensure they were not made into martyrs. But you must ditch this pathetic sense of patriotism. Nothing good will come of it. There is no duty besides that of to your family and the safety of the bloodline. Otherwise you should only serve your own interests and damn those that infringe on them." Erkenfried said with anger, incapable of understanding why these humans were so patriotic. This sense of nationalism didn't even exist up to around three hundred years ago, why it started he would never understand.

[Northern Dominus]

Dominic sat down and listened to what Burton had to say. It seemed like this was a topic he had thought a lot about, and one that was quite important to him. The question he posed was a good one, but the answer to it was quite short and simple.

"There's never been any simple field trips," he said slowly, "not for anything other than what is essentially mercenary work." He sighed deeply and slouched back slightly in the chair, elaborating on his answer, "with the climate as it currently is, with all the hate and prejudice against our kind, I think Anderson's afraid to let any students go back planetside unless they're doing something sanctioned by a government. Without that protection, I think he's worried that someone would try to kidnap some of the students, to control their power. Sad to say, but I think I agree with him."

Dominic had unknowingly fallen into a trap, albeit the good kind. Burton leaned in conspiratorally and spoke semi-softly.

"Who said anything about taking this field trip back to Earth?"

Before Dominic could ask why Burton tapped a few keys on the desktop computer, bringing up graphs, tables, charts, and a couple of star charts showing the relative distance between two spheres.
He gestured to the screen and scooted backwards in his chair.

"Go ahead, take a look."

Even without the tertiary study and training that Burton had, it wouldn't have taken Dominc long to figure out that what he was looking at was a rather complex plan. Separately the charts and schematics detailed terminal and escape velocities, burn times, a modification to the existing shuttle types that were available, psychological profiles of students and teachers that the health department made available, ratios and statistics for provisions, and other seemingly random bits of information.

However the giveaway was the star charts. Up close the two disproportionate spheres were clearly the Earth and the Moon represented at a scale distance, and the small lines around them indicated various orbits depending on the launch origin.

Burton waited for a moment, let the scope of it all sink in before he queried Dominic.

"So, what do you think?"

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell, Makoto, and Sakura

Bramwell sat there, listening and planning as he listened to Erkenfried's response. He continued to plan for it, even as he prepared to keep the accusation of goal-post moving ready. Something changed in Bramwwell, Makoto, and Sakura when Erkenfried mentioned that he would have liked it if the Third Reich did not collapse. Makoto became furious enough that random objects started levitating around a five-foot area of Makoto. Sakura just stopped in place with a look on her countenance that suggested that she was now significantly more uncomfortable in the class. Bramwell burst into laughter the moment Erkenfried said his statement into a state of hysterical laughter. At the time, Bramwell assumed that any self-identified nazi was insincere, either participating in a historical re-enactment or just being sarcastic as part of a comedic parody along the lines of Mel Brooks' work. As Bramwell tried to pay attention to the work, his inability to read tone, incessently cheery, self-perpeptuating laughter, and gag-reflex tried to interrupt him to ensure he would never understand the tone of it.

Since the lack of an ability to read tone was omnipresent, he resorted to paying attention to the words and sentence structure to understand what Erkenfried was saying. Bramwell's conclusion was that Erkenfried was not being serious, and that Bramwell had just been insensitive enough to not notice that he was a parody. Bramwell concluded that no person could be that open in their percieved stupidity without the presence of a soon-to-be Darwin Award, camera, or anonymity. For this reason, Bramwell's laughter was only prolonged and made louder with every point made, becoming such a powerful laugh that his chair retreated to the floor with him following in turn. At this point, he was likely to assume that Erkenfried was a "Stealth Parody". Bramwell was even considering spending time with Erkenfried because he thought Erkenfried was going to take Mel Brooks' place and turn Nazis, with the addition of nihilists and vampires, into walking punch-lines that could never be taken with any amount of academic sincerity.

"Bramwell, I know it is okay to laugh at Erkenfried's statements, as I can understand the comedic value. The problem is that Erkenfried is not trying to be funny. Unless his deadpan is a compliment to his capabilities to keep a straight face spite of what he is saying, I do not think he is being comedic," Makoto thought as she looked around the class-room.

"That is Senator Smith to you and potentially President of the United States of America, which will be United States of Americanada once I am elected! You are to be Vice President Makoto so you may cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate and lead the Vice-Presidential Action Rangers once I get that Constitutional amendment passed to make the Vice President useful," Bramwell thought as he laughed and rolled in hysterics.

"You are a self-professed horrible judge of sarcasm. I am not the best judge either, but I can still understand enough to comprehend that Erkenfried is not a wry humorist that could make for a nice friend," Makoto.

"He is just a deadpan satirist. Just as many people mistake Stephen Colbert for an actual pundit, I am a victim of Schwarz's Law. I mistook the straight-face farce that is Erkenfried for a psychopath. He is a walking parody of narcissism, vampirism, amorality, bigottry, and supervillains that talk too much. This is the first time I have ever understood when somebody was being sarcastic. It is wonderful, to finally be able to understand that a co-worker's jeremiad is not serious. Do you always feel this euphoric when you understand that somebody was being sarcastic for a majority of the time you worked with them? It is relieving," Bramwell thought as he finally ran-out of oxygen to keep up his laughter, forcing himself to take a break to regain his oxygen before retaking his seat.

"That is it. I am abandoning all pretenses of professionalism. Erkenfried is a jerkass who is exactly the type of jackass a parody would base himself-upon. He is not sarcastic, and I doubt he even understands the concept. He probably reads The Onion as a news source and considers Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of 'Starship Troopers' a fantastic war drama. I do not want you to be disappointed when you see that Erkenfried is not being sarcastic or when he acts out of spite. You are only going to be disappointed and run back to me," Makoto thought before the conversation was continued.

[Corrian]

Eventually during the debate, Cassie managed to stop being embarrassed at what Caitlin said out loud to the entire class, and regained her sitting position on her chair, out of her overly slouching, 'shrinking' position she had got into. She hated how embarrassed she got at praise, but she couldn't help it.

During the conversation, she shook her head quite a lot, wondering why everything couldn't just be a casual, peaceful debate. Debate's always downgraded into pointless, endless arguments, on everything she saw. Real life, the internet, everything. It was absolutely pathetic in her mind. Of course, she would never say that out loud, because 'pathetic' was a hard word in her mind, and it could be used in a way to insult people. But one particular part of the conversation made her chime in.

"Guys....Just so you know, Corrian, where I'm from, hasn't passed any similar law......So there's a country that could be safe...." Cassie said, but quietly, so she may of been hard to hear. As more eyes turned to her again, she shrunk in her seat again, and gave them all a shy smile, and look. "My country tries to do what's best for everyone......even if they go to some extreme's" She continued, but that was pretty much all she said. She wondered if they'd pass some sort of law similar to that, but not in the same realm. For one, Corrian had no military. Her only concern was how jumpy the Corrian government seemed to be at anything related to weapons, and superhuman's might count. Though, she still felt like, since they were human being's, they'd compromise in some way and do what was best for them.

[Orinon]

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."

Markus nodded at Jenkins.
"Lead the way," he said, following him from the hanger bay. Abigale, meanwhile, nodded, spun on her heel and stormed off towards the shuttle. Once inside the ship, she pulled off a panel on the floor, revealing the shuttle's newly installed slipspace drive. After several minutes of work, Abigale succeeded in removing a key component: the drive's energy moderation core. Without it, the drive would simply continue to build energy and eventually explode. Smiling, Abigale stuffed the core into her jacket and exited the shuttle. As a afterthought, she looked at where the shuttle's jump drive was located. Shrugging, she jumped from the shuttle and walked towards the hanger's elevator.
"Take me somewhere where I can access infomation. Without a horde of noisy students," she said to the security guard that followed her.

While Abigale was busy ensuring that her technology would not be stolen, Kara was humming a small tune. After a moment, she gave a small gasp, then smiled.
"Gravity here is around 12% lighter then on Terrva. Interesting... Can I have access to whatever you guys have in place of the extranet?" she asked sweetly. "I want to study your planets history. Compare it to my home's, and find similarities and differences."

Josh, meanwhile, sat with his back leaning against the shuttle. He held in his hand a rather beaten photo of his family. There was him, his twin sister Goltia, Abigale, Markus, his parents and...
"Grace..." Josh said. The Sarvannain girl was his best friend, and like a sister to Goltia.
"And now both are gone..." he muttered. Sighing, he pulled his knees close to his chest and rested his head on them.

[Spirit of Hope]

Ocean

Ocean nodded as Dominic got up and left the cafeteria. He quickly finished eating his breakfast and cleared the table. Standing up he looked around wondering what to do. After a few moments thinking he decided to head up to the teachers wing and see if his belonging had been delivered to a room. He stepped out of the cafeteria and once again boarded the elevator, taking it up to the teachers floor. Stepping off he noticed that the floor was orderly and clean, which was pleasing Ocean didn't like dealing with messes, especially other peoples messes.

Soon enough he found his handful of belongings placed with in an empty room. It wasn't much just to large bags and a suitcase. He quickly began to unpack, clothes either folded and stored in drawers or placed back on clothes hangers and hung in a closet.

After that was the handful of random items he had acquired over the years, his college diploma, a few medals, a letter from some grateful combat troops, and a picture. Once everything was out of the bags and packed away in the room Ocean headed out to the teachers lounge. He could sit around for a little bit and rest, after that it might be worth his while to meet with the headmaster and figure out what his class schedule would look like in the future.

[Mighty Asgard]

Dominic had unknowingly fallen into a trap, albeit the good kind. Burton leaned in conspiratorally and spoke semi-softly.

"Who said anything about taking this field trip back to Earth?"

Before Dominic could ask why Burton tapped a few keys on the desktop computer, bringing up graphs, tables, charts, and a couple of star charts showing the relative distance between two spheres.
He gestured to the screen and scooted backwards in his chair.

"Go ahead, take a look."

Even without the tertiary study and training that Burton had, it wouldn't have taken Dominc long to figure out that what he was looking at was a rather complex plan. Separately the charts and schematics detailed terminal and escape velocities, burn times, a modification to the existing shuttle types that were available, psychological profiles of students and teachers that the health department made available, ratios and statistics for provisions, and other seemingly random bits of information.

However the giveaway was the star charts. Up close the two disproportionate spheres were clearly the Earth and the Moon represented at a scale distance, and the small lines around them indicated various orbits depending on the launch origin.

Burton waited for a moment, let the scope of it all sink in before he queried Dominic.

"So, what do you think?"

Dominic was puzzled to say the least when Burton said that he hadn't been talking about a trip down to Earth, so he quickly moved over to the other side of the desk when Burton asked him to. The screen showed many advanced calculations, lists, and a chart showing the earth and the moon. Dominic suddenly realized what Burton was talking about.

"You want to take the students on a trip to the moon?" he asked.

Of course there didn't seem to be any reason why they couldn't. There weren't any people on the moon, so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone attacking them for being different, and with the technology available to the school it seemed like it should be perfectly doable to pull it off. It would certainly be an experience for the students, something they would probably remember for the rest of their lives, and he would very much like to go as well. As long as the worst of the students stayed at the school, and they all observed the proper safety protocols, it would be entirely safe.

"I think that would be a great idea," he said after a few moments of contemplation.

Markus nodded at Jenkins.
"Lead the way," he said, following him from the hanger bay. Abigale, meanwhile, nodded, spun on her heel and stormed off towards the shuttle. Once inside the ship, she pulled off a panel on the floor, revealing the shuttle's newly installed slipspace drive. After several minutes of work, Abigale succeeded in removing a key component: the drive's energy moderation core. Without it, the drive would simply continue to build energy and eventually explode. Smiling, Abigale stuffed the core into her jacket and exited the shuttle. As a afterthought, she looked at where the shuttle's jump drive was located. Shrugging, she jumped from the shuttle and walked towards the hanger's elevator.
"Take me somewhere where I can access infomation. Without a horde of noisy students," she said to the security guard that followed her.

While Abigale was busy ensuring that her technology would not be stolen, Kara was humming a small tune. After a moment, she gave a small gasp, then smiled.
"Gravity here is around 12% lighter then on Terrva. Interesting... Can I have access to whatever you guys have in place of the extranet?" she asked sweetly. "I want to study your planets history. Compare it to my home's, and find similarities and differences."

Josh, meanwhile, sat with his back leaning against the shuttle. He held in his hand a rather beaten photo of his family. There was him, his twin sister Goltia, Abigale, Markus, his parents and...
"Grace..." Josh said. The Sarvannain girl was his best friend, and like a sister to Goltia.
"And now both are gone..." he muttered. Sighing, he pulled his knees close to his chest and rested his head on them.

The headmaster quickly excused himself and headed down with the elevator, leaving the visitors in the care of the guards. Jenkins watched as Anderson left, then urged Markus to follow him out of the room and into the elevator. He remained silent for the duration of the trip, since he was rather bad at making small talk, simply showing Markus to the gym a few floors above. It was mostly empty since most students were in class, the only other occupants being a couple of kids playing basketball at the far end of the large room. There was enough space that they wouldn't be in the way, so Jenkins didn't bother about them.

"Your test is simple," he said, turning to Markus, "you will have to subdue me without resorting to lethal force. Obviously we can't use lethal force against students, so this test has that same limitation. You may begin when you want." He simply waited there, standing casually at attention and seeing what Markus would do.

The guard escorting Abigale had taken a different elevator up to the library. It was the only place on the station where there were computer stations set up for public use, and until she got her clearance as a teacher she wouldn't be able to access the computers in any of the offices. Fortunately the library was largely abandoned, only a couple of students quietly making their way between bookshelves or sitting by the computers, so she had little reason to be annoyed at their presence. "This is the best I can do, currently," he said to her.

Meanwhile, back in the hangar bay, a German guard named Hansel Dietrich was scratching his head at Kara's request. "I assume that the extranet is a network of servers that you can access with the help of a computer," he said with a light German accent, "we have something similar, we call it the Internet." He looked over the platform that projected her hologram, "but what kind of connections do you have? I'm not entirely sure how to hook you up to it."

Another of the guards had stayed behind in the hangar bay to watch Josh, but the alien boy hadn't actually done anything other than sitting down near their spacecraft so he did his best to give him a bit of space. He stayed near Dietrich and Kara, pretending to be engaged in their conversation while keeping an eye on Josh.

[Northern Dominus]

Dominic was puzzled to say the least when Burton said that he hadn't been talking about a trip down to Earth, so he quickly moved over to the other side of the desk when Burton asked him to. The screen showed many advanced calculations, lists, and a chart showing the earth and the moon. Dominic suddenly realized what Burton was talking about.

"You want to take the students on a trip to the moon?" he asked.

Of course there didn't seem to be any reason why they couldn't. There weren't any people on the moon, so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone attacking them for being different, and with the technology available to the school it seemed like it should be perfectly doable to pull it off. It would certainly be an experience for the students, something they would probably remember for the rest of their lives, and he would very much like to go as well. As long as the worst of the students stayed at the school, and they all observed the proper safety protocols, it would be entirely safe.

"I think that would be a great idea," he said after a few moments of contemplation.

Somehow Burton knew that Dominic would be into this proposal, massive as it was. It was because Dominic was like Burton; neither was willing to view the students as others would have, as living weapons. He had seen the potential in some of the young minds and Burton was counting on that to help him make this pipe dream a reality.

For the first time Burton smiled. A little mischievously but it was a good sign.

"Good, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks these kids deserve a chance to be more than superhuman soldiers. If we want to prove that I'm gonna need help.

First you'll need to help lobby the idea to Anderson. That means at every official meeting we get, the more people know about this the more ground support we can get, and the less often he can potentially refuse. Also, and I know this is going to be a bit off but we have to include the major space agencies on Earth. NASA, FKA, ESA, JAXA, CNSA, I can take care of that since I was in NASA's astronaut program before the war broke out.

The other thing I need your read on is the students that would be the right fit for this program.
I have a list here, take a look at it and tell me what you think. At most I'm thinking maybe four can go."

Burton tapped a few keys and clicked the cursor on one particular box which flipped to the forefront. It was a simple text document, a list of students, some obvious choices and some which might have been surprising.

Academy Lunar Trek candidate list
Charlotte Cutter
Victoria Glen
Tara King
Tyler McDermid
Raymond Mullins
Jay Padelecki
Rachael Redwood
William Robinson

"I've consulted the psychological profiles in the student's records as well as gathered my own first-hand impressions of some of these students, however you've been here longer so if I'm missing something or if there's a student that I neglected to consider I need your input."

[Mighty Asgard]

Dominic
When Burton further elaborated on his plan Dominic listened attentively, nodding occasionally to show that he was following along, and when he showed the list of students he thought would be appropriate to bring along Dominic looked it over. Right away he spotted a couple he felt would be dangerous to bring along.

"I think both Rachael and Tyler are too dangerous to bring along," he said, "and I suspect Anderson would make the same judgment. And I think it might be unwise to let Jay go, since he relies on echolocation to orient himself, which might work rather poorly on the moon." He paused for a moment to look at the other names, seeing no one else he had any objections about. "Rachael shows clear signs of not caring for the wellbeing of others, and even seeking to harm people for no other reason than because she can," he clarified, "and Tyler hasn't shown the level of control over his power that would make me comfortable with letting him go along on a trip like this."

"But," he continued after another moment of silence, "why do you think we need the help of those space agencies? From what I understand our stuff is more advanced than theirs, or that's what I hear everyone say at least."

Tyler
When the vampire started ranting about patriotism Tyler just sighed at him, since he clearly didn't understand the issue. But it was rather futile to hope that a monster would understand basic human rights, clearly the bloodsucker had no concept of anything other than pure self-serving egotism. And little GI Joe was laughing his ass off for some reason, going so far as to fall out of his seat. Sometimes Tyler suspected that Bramwell actually had some sort of mental deficiency, which made him feel like a bit of a prick when he didn't have any patience for his oddities, but that feeling was usually replaced by annoyance as soon as the twerp opened his mouth again.

"It's not about patriotism," he said, ignoring Bramwell's fit, "good old Uncle Sam can fuck himself for all I care. It's about the basic rights that all humans have, and the government is trying to take those away from us. That is unacceptable, so they have to change. It's a basic case of them being wrong, and since they are wrong they must change, whether they want to or not."

[Northern Dominus]

Dominic
When Burton further elaborated on his plan Dominic listened attentively, nodding occasionally to show that he was following along, and when he showed the list of students he thought would be appropriate to bring along Dominic looked it over. Right away he spotted a couple he felt would be dangerous to bring along.

"I think both Rachael and Tyler are too dangerous to bring along," he said, "and I suspect Anderson would make the same judgment. And I think it might be unwise to let Jay go, since he relies on echolocation to orient himself, which might work rather poorly on the moon." He paused for a moment to look at the other names, seeing no one else he had any objections about. "Rachael shows clear signs of not caring for the wellbeing of others, and even seeking to harm people for no other reason than because she can," he clarified, "and Tyler hasn't shown the level of control over his power that would make me comfortable with letting him go along on a trip like this."

"But," he continued after another moment of silence, "why do you think we need the help of those space agencies? From what I understand our stuff is more advanced than theirs, or that's what I hear everyone say at least."

Objections to Tyler and Jay were one thing. Tyler needed a bit of coaching regarding his powers to be sure, and Burton was reasonably confident that some sort of solution for Jay could be engineered with a scan of his brain as well as reverse-engineering and adapting a bit of kit that he had in his personal armory.

However he knew Rachel would be an obstacle, but he hadn't counted on Dominic being that short-sighted. That had to be addressed first.
"Really Dominic? You're going to come down on Rachel? And if you had taken a bounce the wrong way like she had what's to say you couldn't have ended up like her? Even before the war Mexico City was pretty damn rough. It could have happened to me, I lived in south Baltimore until I was 9, there were months that went by where every night wasn't accompanied by gunshots at some point or another.

Clearly she has issues, but nobody has bothered to challenge her either. It's easy to simply just sweep her under the rug and just tolerate her behavior, and if you received the same treatment I'm pretty sure you'd develop a complex or two. No, she's intelligent and she's not being challenged, so maybe if she had a brass ring to grab perhaps she's start to mend her ways and make it stick."

Burton took a deep breath for a moment. As a teacher it was his job to advocate for the students and sometimes he did it a bit forcefully, causing him to reign it in almost physically.

"As far as the agencies, they were working on some pretty advanced stuff before the war hit. But there's another reason they should be involved; publicity. The world needs to see baseline humans and superhumans working together, reclaiming what's been lost to the ages, that sense of world unity as some of Earth's own set foot on the moon. Those baseline humans need to come back with stories about these kids and their instructors, positive ones.

In short, this needs to be public because the students need that kind of publicity. I don't need to tell you the problems stemming from the superhuman supremacy movements around the world. Sooner or later one rogue government will push back and push hard, and that will be the tipping point if there isn't some sort of collective knowledge of what this next generation is capable of and what they mean to the world."

[Kershya]

A private room somewhere at the infirmary

Antonio's in a coma with life support attached. The heart monitor shows a very low but still beating heart. On the next bed, Gregorio would wake up soon since he's stirring and groaning. Tobias, who made a third body just to watch over the two, is sitting down on a chair with a baseball bat with the words 'IN CASE OF OUT-OF-CHARACTER MOMENT: APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD' painted on it. Gregorio suddenly jump out of bed and glared at Tobias.

"<Where am I? Who are you? Are you of the Inagawa-Kai?>" He shouted in perfect Japanese as Tobias just sighs and whack him with the bat.

"This is the fifth time Gregorio. Just stop being crazy already. The last time, you thought you were a cardinal looking for the Pope about something, and the one before that, you thought you were some bisexual hermaphrodite dancer with six breasts." Toby said as he drag Gregorio's unconscious body to the bed. "At this rate, you might need a cast for your head. sigh. Why do I get the crazy ones." He rhetorically ask.

[Ularn]

"Right guys," Scott interrupted, "Freddie, we're talking about getting rid of the Act, not your twisted little efforts to sound superior. Stay on topic or I'll mute you again."
The 'mute button' was something Scott had come up with in a previous lesson after the vampire started getting on his nerves. Once Erkenfreid made it clear that he had nothing worthwhile to contribute and was simply going off on another masturbatory rant about his species' purported superiority, Scott had taken to keeping his iPod connected to a speaker dock on his desk and pressing play to drown out the little prick's voice whenever he started going off topic. It had the desired effect sooner or later, since apparently Erkenfried gave up when he could not enjoy the sound of his own voice, and it entertained a lot of the other students. As far as Scott was concerned, none of his lessons were for the vampire's benefit and he failed to care less about whether such conduct counted as bullying. You had to be human for human rights to apply, and since the lawyers were still debating simply on whether Scott fit those criteria, he could be certain 'Freddie' was right out of the ballpark. That had not stopped him fantasising about keeping a gun in his desk drawer and turning off the suppressors during one of these lessons.
"Bramwell, stop giggling," he continued, "Now, we're not considering running away from the Act as a viable long term goal. For one thing, there're too many superhumans for us all to hide. For another, no person should be forced into becoming a refugee, which is what they'd be if they were pressured into fleeing to one of the dwindling number of countries which hasn't adopted this legislation yet. Rachael's shapeshifters idea could actually work in some countries, except there aren't enough of them and it doesn't solve the problem of why these laws are being passed in the first place. Let's try again..."
The discussion and debate carried on like that for the next few hours and gradually most of the class had joined in the spitballing session. No grand epiphanies were reached but Scott had not expected there to be. They were dealing with issues which had baffled civil rights campaigners for centuries and there was little chance that a solution to bigotry could be found by thirty teenagers in two hours. On the other hand, they had discussed the utility of every method of protest they could think of, from marches and demonstrations to education to outright terrorism, weighing up the merits and failings of each. When there was only two minutes to go until the bell, Scott said, "Right guys, I think we're just going to call it quits there. Remember the mission sign-up sheet's by the war memorial, but your acceptance is still going to be dependent on your good behaviour, so anyone who's been arsing around for the past few weeks and wants to go has three days to get their act together.
"I also just wanted to say that it's been a great experience for me teaching here. I don't know if this class is going to continue after I'm gone, but I hope I've at least managed to get you thinking about some things you might not have done otherwise, and hopefully I'll bump into some of you further down the line." He grinned, "That's it; get lost!"
As chairs were pushed back from tables, he added, "Rachael, I still need to see you," and tapped the intercom switch on his desk, "Staff announcement; Could Miss Redwood come to room three-fourteen please? Thank you."

[Nfhd]

Will had enjoyed the discussion they had had in Scotts class. He had kept a low profile due to his heat exhaustion, but now that they were leaving he felt energized to get out. He had also been working on ways to lower the charge up time of the pressure sphere. He wanted to see if he could maybe hang out with some friends and practice powers, or work on homework. He decide that Bramwell would be his best bet so he walked over to him.

"Hey Bramwell, Do you want to hang out after class?" He asked with a slightly energetic tone.

[Mighty Asgard]

Objections to Tyler and Jay were one thing. Tyler needed a bit of coaching regarding his powers to be sure, and Burton was reasonably confident that some sort of solution for Jay could be engineered with a scan of his brain as well as reverse-engineering and adapting a bit of kit that he had in his personal armory.

However he knew Rachel would be an obstacle, but he hadn't counted on Dominic being that short-sighted. That had to be addressed first.
"Really Dominic? You're going to come down on Rachel? And if you had taken a bounce the wrong way like she had what's to say you couldn't have ended up like her? Even before the war Mexico City was pretty damn rough. It could have happened to me, I lived in south Baltimore until I was 9, there were months that went by where every night wasn't accompanied by gunshots at some point or another.

Clearly she has issues, but nobody has bothered to challenge her either. It's easy to simply just sweep her under the rug and just tolerate her behavior, and if you received the same treatment I'm pretty sure you'd develop a complex or two. No, she's intelligent and she's not being challenged, so maybe if she had a brass ring to grab perhaps she's start to mend her ways and make it stick."

Burton took a deep breath for a moment. As a teacher it was his job to advocate for the students and sometimes he did it a bit forcefully, causing him to reign it in almost physically.

"As far as the agencies, they were working on some pretty advanced stuff before the war hit. But there's another reason they should be involved; publicity. The world needs to see baseline humans and superhumans working together, reclaiming what's been lost to the ages, that sense of world unity as some of Earth's own set foot on the moon. Those baseline humans need to come back with stories about these kids and their instructors, positive ones.

In short, this needs to be public because the students need that kind of publicity. I don't need to tell you the problems stemming from the superhuman supremacy movements around the world. Sooner or later one rogue government will push back and push hard, and that will be the tipping point if there isn't some sort of collective knowledge of what this next generation is capable of and what they mean to the world."

Dominic frowned when Burton first explained why he wanted to bring Rachael along, and then why he wanted to involve the various space agencies. It seemed entirely unwise to bring a vocal sociopath along if it was a mission intended to improve the general view of superhumans. And he very much doubted that she would ever be able to change, he had dealt with her kind long before he became a superhero, people who reveled in hurting others, and he had never heard of any of them changing their ways.

"I don't agree with you about Rachael," he said simply, "she is a bad egg, rotten to the core. She doesn't just hurt people to lash out, she seems to actually enjoy it. If you want to recommend her to Anderson I can't agree with it, but the rest..." he paused for a moment, "the rest sounds good. Cooperating like that would make a strong statement, show people that we are no different from them. Anything that creates a more positive image of the empowered population would be very welcome, heaven knows we could use some good press."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

By the time the class was done, Sarah had taken in quite a bit of information, though she wasn't exactly sure about what to make of it. Deciding not to dwell on these thoughts for too long she stood up from her seat and then left the classroom. She still wasn't sure what to think of Scott's departure but she simply hoped that fortune would smile on him wherever he went. She did think he deserved at least that.

Stepping out of the classroom, she thought about what to do next, and decided to pay a visit to the war memorial. She wasn't particularly psyched about going on the mission but she didn't want any of her classmates to run any danger either, and her power could certainly help if they sustained injuries during the mission. Besides, there was always the chance that it would simply turn out to be a mission that went by just as easily as she heard the previous one had. And, though it was the last thing on her mind, the money was yet another factor, although a small one.

Thus, she went to the war memorial and signed up for the mission.

---

Raymond, on the other hand, hadn't really listened to much of the conversations going on in the classroom, though he did chime in occasionally. He found it hilarious whenever Erkenfried got shut down by Scott's Ipod, though, and in fact had failed to hold back a few laughs here and there when it happened. By the time the class was over he had started to participate a bit more actively and pay more attention. So when the class did end, he stood up from his seat and walked out of the classroom, wondering what he was supposed to do next. He decided to simply lean on the wall and pulled out his coin before playing with it for a bit. As he did this an idea entered his mind, but he kept silent about it. He needed a big, open area to try it anyway.

[Nakarisaune]

By the end of the lesson, Rachael had only spoken three times, the third of which to inform Bramwell that he was not a hyena. Not up to her usual standard, admittedly, but she was too busy trying to figure out how best to commit suicide before she was sent to jail. They'd know by now, surely, and all the evidence would go against her, and she'd die in prison some time in seventy years.
She'd nodded her support when anyone suggested terrorism, and she'd gladly have been a part of said terrorism herself. Apparently tsunamis weren't too pleasant, and it didn't seem too far a stretch of her powers once she could actually control them further than pouring water on people. At the more twee and optimistic suggestions, she'd just raised her eyebrows. Like that would work. Surely fear would make the superhumans near-invincible. No matter how scared the regular humans were, there was no real way for them to fight back. Then it would be the superhumans holding power over the normal people, not the other way around.
Most of the time though, she'd sat and shivered with her head on her arms. The tiredness was replaced by fear now. At the end of the lesson she just remained in that position, waiting for that inevitable accusation.

---

Roxanne smiled to herself and slid a sketch underneath a pile of paperwork. She hadn't been very busy recently, and most students who visited left with such unhelpful advice she doubted they'd return. She'd started sketching again on the back of any paperwork, especially the most important stuff. She made sure it was all hidden before leaving.
"Hey," she said once she arrived, "What's wrong?" She noticed Rachael, who looked up timidly. "Is she in trouble?"

[Corrian]

Cassie listened to the conversation in mostly silence, not really having anything to add to it, during the whole entire 2 hours. It didn't help that she was quiet anyway. She realized that being a politician listening to this kind of stuff all day had to be boring as hell. She tried focusing as well as she could, but even she felt herself nodding off once. If she took place in the conversation, that would be a different story. But at the same time she wanted to actually hear some of the good suggestions, so she forced herself to stay up as well as possible. A few of the suggestions that had been mentioned disgusted her, and had actually made her angry, which seemed to be hard to do for Cassie. Even then, she kept quiet, not wanting to piss people off or make her own anger boil up more.

After the 2 hours, and the mention of the class finishing, she seemed to perk up, due to getting sleepier during the class. Which didn't help that she still felt quite tired after her crappy nights sleep, which made a long debate hard to stay awake through. At the mention of the mission, she pretty much ignored it, because she had no interest in signing up. Sure, it was a supposed Chupacabra chase. But that wasn't going to make her go, when it could be less dangerous. She knew there was still the possibility of something going wrong, and she'd rather just stay out of it.

As soon as he mentioned the part related to him leaving, which she knew about, she frowned. She liked Scott as a teacher, and didn't want him to leave. When he told them jokingly to get lost, she smiled, and stood up, but didn't immediately head to the door. Her first reaction of what to do was to go up to Scott and give him a hug, and she frowned. "You're a great teacher Scott, don't let anybody say otherwise. I'll miss you teaching us. I hope whatever your plans are after you leave that you succeed in it. You deserve it" She said to him, and seemed to actually get teary-eyed at the fact he was leaving and what she had said to him. And she kept hugging him for quite some time, wanting him to feel like he would actually be missed, and because of the fact she was enjoying giving someone a hug for a change. It had been too long since she felt the comfort of a friendly hug that it was hard for her to actually stop hugging him.

Caitlin
Unlike Cassie, Caitlin had actually joined the discussion during the whole thing, making her own points, why she thought the terrorism method was retarded, why she thought other methods were good, and so on, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the debate, even if it went on for a long time. A long time being 2 hours. She never seemed to really get bored. There was her getting annoyed though, even if not majorly. She managed to keep her cool, and discuss whatever was going on calmly, instead of completely tearing into people for suggestions terrorism to 'make them want to change the law'. That seemed like the perfect way for them to want to CONTINUE to keep the law, so she saw no reason why that would be a good method whatsoever.

Now, when it was time to leave, she stood up, remember to stop by the war memorial to sign up for the mission. Even if she felt that the existence of the Chupacabra was a load of bull, any mission to help, even if it seemed weird that the school was being troubled with it, was fine with her. She expected the mission to end with them finding absolutely nothing noteworthy, pretty much like any of these hunts in existence ever had happened. Money was always good too, but she wasn't greedy with it. She just wanted it to put into a possible college fund, if that was really even important these days, or just for buying stuff or keeping stored somewhere.

Caitlin smiled at Scott's last little speech. As she was about ready to 'get lost', she stopped when she realized Cassie went over and actually hugged Scott. That made her day, and she smiled brightly. She barely heard what Cassie said, but what she had heard made her smile even more. Before leaving, she decided to add her own words in. "Good luck Scott. You will definitely be missed" She said to him, smiling and leaving the classroom with one last wave back to Scott, who was still being hugged, before she wandered off to the war memorial and signed up for the mission.

[Northern Dominus]

Dominic frowned when Burton first explained why he wanted to bring Rachael along, and then why he wanted to involve the various space agencies. It seemed entirely unwise to bring a vocal sociopath along if it was a mission intended to improve the general view of superhumans. And he very much doubted that she would ever be able to change, he had dealt with her kind long before he became a superhero, people who reveled in hurting others, and he had never heard of any of them changing their ways.

"I don't agree with you about Rachael," he said simply, "she is a bad egg, rotten to the core. She doesn't just hurt people to lash out, she seems to actually enjoy it. If you want to recommend her to Anderson I can't agree with it, but the rest..." he paused for a moment, "the rest sounds good. Cooperating like that would make a strong statement, show people that we are no different from them. Anything that creates a more positive image of the empowered population would be very welcome, heaven knows we could use some good press."

Subtly nodding Burton started closing out windows on the desktop computer, making a mental note to copy information and send it to Dominic when he had a moment.

"Alright, well let's worry about which students could potentially be considered after we introduce the idea during the next faculty meeting which is....whenever it is, I don't have that particular schedule in front of me.
I say we because, well, I assume you want in at this point. I certainly can't go it alone, I don't have Anderson's full favor like you or Scott does, and as much as I like Scott unfortunately he's been a bit...preoccupied let's say.

Besides, you and I appear to be on the same wavelength here. These students need to become more than intelligent bio-weapons, they need to become people. This separation is hard on them and it isn't doing the public any good to see this severance as outsiders.

Of course if you don't want in on this you don't have to be, and I'll bear no malice of course."

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell, Makoto, and Sakura

In the class, the trio maintained a presence. Makoto maintained a persence through Bramwell, focusing on Socratic questioning of students who proposed morally questionable means for a civil rights movement. Bramwell focused on using historical context to deconstruct usages of such things as terrorism and assassinations for social movements of any kind and their generally poor effects for the goals of the groups that had done so, providing such comparrisons as the setbacks of the P.L.O. versus Ghandi's leadership of India's independence movement. This was after Bramwell had picked himself-off the floor from laughing, stopping namely because he was having trouble inhaling from the euphoric laughter. Bramwell only got more focused because the conversation had perpeptuated itself for two hours before Scott decided to put an end to the conversation due to time constraints. He did not laugh as hard any-other time Erkenfried spoke, though he did so whenever Erkenfried said something Bramwell thought to be just wry, satirical sarcasm. It was clear he did not consider anything Erkenfried said to be of any seriousness, and was a victim of Schwarz's Law. Sakura continued to work and listen, remaining a silent presence. After the class ended, Sakura was not planning to join the mission for the still present reason of Makoto being incapable of organized movement or speech. Bramwell was thinking about joining the mission and talking with Cassie about an idea he had been contemplating for the past few days, preferably when the schedules do not contradict eachother. Makoto had a different idea in mind.

"As much as I want to get what I guess is a jackass taking advantage of those ridiculous chupacabra myths and new powers, there is something more important that I can actually do currently. Bramwell, there is something I need you to do," Makoto thought after the class ended. With a quick exchange of words, the three proceeded to Scott's desk in an organized fashion, Makoto paying close attention to Scott.

"Mister Kerr, there is something I have to ask of you on behalf of Makoto. She wants you to voice your criticisms you had for her participation in the simulation. She wants you to not restrain yourself in your language," Bramwell, in a professional manner, said as Makoto looked expectantly at Scott. Sakura looked as though she was ready to slowly step away if Scott became angry or demanded space.

[Camicon]

When I heard about the new mission, a hunt for the 'Chupacabra', my mind started running wild with possibilities. I'd have to get Cassie to sign up with me. Aside from the fact that it would be good for her to get off the station, and into the outdoors, her powers of Clairvoyance could prove invaluable for tracking the beast, especially if we ended up in a jungle of some sort. Though, I couldn't very well walk out of Scott's last class, especially with Fry ranting and raving about how his shit didn't stink. It was just too funny when Scott 'muted' the arrogant sociopath. The first time, I'd fallen out of my chair with laughter. It still made me giggle madly, though I was now able to carry on with the conversation when Scott did end up muting Fry.

When the class was over though, I made a point of saying goodbye to Scott, shaking his hand and parting with a 'Don't let them make you their bitch, back on Earth'. I was almost certain that Scott's mind was heavily preoccupied on how he could avoid getting yanked around by the SHPA, once he was away from the safety of the station.

I waited for Cassie at the door, though on the other side, so she didn't see me until I had swooped in, linked arms with her, and started guiding her towards the war memorial.

"Come on. You're going to sign up for that new mission with me."

[Mighty Asgard]

Subtly nodding Burton started closing out windows on the desktop computer, making a mental note to copy information and send it to Dominic when he had a moment.

"Alright, well let's worry about which students could potentially be considered after we introduce the idea during the next faculty meeting which is....whenever it is, I don't have that particular schedule in front of me.
I say we because, well, I assume you want in at this point. I certainly can't go it alone, I don't have Anderson's full favor like you or Scott does, and as much as I like Scott unfortunately he's been a bit...preoccupied let's say.

Besides, you and I appear to be on the same wavelength here. These students need to become more than intelligent bio-weapons, they need to become people. This separation is hard on them and it isn't doing the public any good to see this severance as outsiders.

Of course if you don't want in on this you don't have to be, and I'll bear no malice of course."

"I do want in on this, as I said I think it's a good idea," Dominic replied, then closed his eyes to think for a moment before looking back to Burton, "I think there's a faculty meeting in three days, so we can pitch the idea then." He looked down at his watch, "but now I have to get going, or I'll be late for my class, and that wouldn't set a very good example for the students." It might seem odd that a man who could instantly be pretty much anywhere would be worried about being late, but he much preferred to walk whenever he could. And of course it was always dangerous to teleport to a location you couldn't see, if someone else happened to be where you wanted to appear things got messy.

"See you later Burton," he said as he hurried out.

Tyler
The discussion during Scott's class was rather interesting, even if the vampire tried to take every opportunity to rant about how his kind was somehow superior, but when it was over Tyler wasted no time to loiter in the classroom. He and Scott weren't all that close anymore, so he didn't feel like engaging in some fake emotional farewell or something. As he headed out he noticed that Cassie had hugged Scott though, which was very surprising because she usually seemed very shy around people. It was good to see that she seemed to be getting more confident in herself, he thought, because no one should have to go around and be nervous about simply being near other people.

Immediately after leaving the classroom he headed down to the war memorial to sign up for the upcoming mission, hoping that he would actually get to go this time.

[Terintania]

Jay had stayed quiet through most of the class, just listening and rolling his eyes at Erkenfried. Once the class was over, he gave a wave to Scott and headed out. He headed for the war memorial, but had some issues due to not really knowing where it was. He eventually found it, with Roady's help, and stood there 'staring' at it for a bit, trying to decide if he should actually sign of for it. His echolocation had been working well recently, and he had Roady to help guide him....But if his echolocation failed, that could cause issued. He wrote his name, figuring that if the teachers or headmaster or whatever thought it was a bad idea, they just wouldn't accept him to go.

[Ularn]

Scott was a little taken aback by some of the farewell gestures he received - especially from Cassie; he had barely heard a word from her in any of his classes until now. He tried to point out to some of them that he would still be on the station for three more days but the class emptied quickly before he could get the phrase out coherently.
Once it was empty, he saw Roxanne leaning in the doorframe and sighed as she greeted him and then asked, looking at Rachael, "What's wrong? Is she in trouble?"
Scott shook his head, "You should probably take a seat," he said and they all lowered themselves into a trio of chairs in the classroom, away from Scott's desk. Scott looked at them silently for a few seconds and then finally said, "I've got some bad news."
"While we were in Kildare, there were some civilian casualties. The MoD and Irish police did not want to release the information until they'd informed the families. I just got an email from Captain Harman who commanded the operation..." he trailed off, looking both girls pointedly in their eyes while feeling wholly inadequate to the task of telling them what he was about to. He had no idea how to break this news and no idea how either of them might react either. Roxanne had only mentioned her father a few times but Scott suspected their relationship had been complicated and Rachael was anyone's guess. But there was no-one else he thought he could have do it instead and eventually Scott found words.
"Roxanne, Rachael, I'm very sorry, but your dad died during the Kildare raid."

[Corrian]

After she had finished hugging Scott goodbye and giving him a wave, she headed out the door after the rest of the pack, with no specific goal in mind. But to her surprise, Tara was right there, and she let out a gasp in surprise. Then, she seemed to be confused what exactly Tara was doing, linking arms with her and instantly taking her off somewhere. Was something wrong that she was trying to protect her from? Was there a group of creepy boys hanging outside the classroom that she was trying to avoid her bumping into and getting harassed by? Or was she just pulling her somewhere to discuss something?

Her thoughts were answered pretty quickly and it was none of the above. But, it was something that wasn't all too pleasing to her. Suddenly she looked scared, but she didn't try to pull away from Tara, because she seemed to almost always go along with everything. Either that, or she didn't want to fight her way free from Tara. So she still went along with her.

"I don't want to go" She whined, frowning and looking sad. "I want to stay here, where it's safe" She said to Tara. Even if it was only chasing after a Chupacabra, she didn't want to go. It could get dangerous, and as far as she knew, that could be a code name for some enemy, and not even a Chupacabra in the first place. If that was even real. So she would protest against going, because that's just how she was with the idea of going on any of the missions. Especially since she no longer trusted Earth, now that she had powers. She preferred it up here, where they actually cared for people like her, and didn't despise them, and generalize them all into a category of being dangerous, even if she was still afraid of her own kind and seemed to be cautious of everyone she met until she knew them better. And even then, she was still cautious of them.