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xseedgames · 8 years ago

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2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #1

It’s time for our first 2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza! We’ve got a bunch of these we’ll be posting over the holiday break, so please look forward to them. Now, let’s roll right in!

We have answers from:

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Liz Rita, QA Tester Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Has selling your games on PC worked out for you so far? I know supporting the PC platform is a relatively recent choice for XSEED. - @Nate_Nyo

Ken: Being on PC has been great for us as it allows us to reach anyone anywhere in the world regardless of region or console. We were probably one of the earlier adopters in terms of bringing content from Japan to PC as we first published Ys: The Oath in Felghana on Steam almost 6 years ago in early 2012.

Brittany: I love working on PC. The work involved is greater than working on console, but I feel like it's a bigger learning experience, too. For console, the developers normally handle the graphics after we translate them, and they do all the programming and such. For PC, everything falls on us. I wasn't that experienced with Photoshop in the beginning, but I think I've gotten a lot better with it over the years. We can also receive updates instantly, and since I talk with our PC programmer through Skype, it's easier to suss out our exact needs and think of ideas to improve the game or bring it to modern standards.

Question: What non-XSEED games do you praise the localization for? - @KlausRealta

Brittany: Final Fantasy XII. I love everything about Final Fantasy XII's writing. I'm also a big fan of the personality in the Ace Attorney localizations. I'm still playing Yakuza 0, but you can feel the passion of the localization team in the writing. There are some projects where you can tell the editing was phoned in, and then there are games where it's obvious it was a labor of love. All of these games have a color I aspire to.

Tom: Probably going to be a popular answer, and not an especially surprising one, but I've got to give props to Lost Odyssey. It's hard to deny the timeless quality and absolutely masterful English writing that went into basically every line of that game's massive script, with the many short stories being of particular note. That game really does represent an inspirational high bar that I think most everyone else in the industry will forever strive to reach in their own works.

For a more unexpected answer, I've also got to give mad props to Sega for their work on Monster World IV. As a Sega Genesis game released digitally in English for the very first time less than a decade ago, I guess I was kind of expecting a fairly basic "throwaway" translation -- but instead, the game boasts a full-on professional grade localization that's easily up to all modern standards, brimming with charm and personality. It's really nice to see a legitimate retro game being given that kind of care and attention in the modern era, and it makes it very easy for me to recommend (as does the fact that the game is actually quite fun, and is sure to be enjoyed by anyone who's played through all the Shantae titles and really wants to try something else along similar lines).

John: I played Okami on PS3 earlier this year (before the remake was announced), and I was awed by how skillfully the team handled text that is chock full of localization challenges like quirky nicknames, references to Japanese fairy tales, and regional dialects. I was especially amused to see a reference to "kibi dango," the dumplings Momotaro uses to bribe his companions in that famous story. We dealt with the same cultural reference with STORY OF SEASONS: Trio of Towns.

Nick: My go-to response is always Vagrant Story, because it’s the game I credit with getting me really interested in a career in localization. Before that point, I had enjoyed games for their story and characters, but hadn’t realized just how much the specific word choices and tone contributed to a reader’s perception of a story as a whole. The gents behind VS’s localization would go on to be industry luminaries, with Rich Amtower now calling shots in Nintendo’s Treehouse department and Alex Smith being synonymous with the highly regarded prose of Yasumi Matsuno’s games – including the cool and underappreciated Crimson Shroud for 3DS, and Final Fantasy XII, which as anyone who’s played it can tell you is a stellar localization. Having spent a lot of time with FFXII’s “The Zodiac Age” remaster this year, the care and attention to detail put into the localization still blows me away. The unique speech style of the Bhujerbans (with...Sri Lankan inflections, if memory serves correctly) sticks with me, because I knew that I myself would never have been able to pull off something like that so deftly. I guess you could say Vagrant Story started a lineage of games that’s always given me something to aspire to as an editor.

Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve been playing this year, also has a very good localization, especially considering the reams of text that go into an MMO of its size and scope. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and his team have done a bang-up job giving life and personality to the land of Eorzea, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how the localization has changed in subtle ways as time has gone on. The initial “A Realm Reborn” localization sort of cranks the “regional flavor” up to 11 with heavy dialects and vernacular, but in subsequent expansions, they kind of eased up on that and have found a good mix between grounded localization and the kind of flourishes that work well in high-fantasy settings.

And, while I haven’t played it in a number of years, I remember Dragon Quest VIII having a really great localization, too, with ol’ Yangus still living large in my memories. Tales of the Abyss was fantastic as well, and both DQVIII and Abyss delivered some really brilliant dub work that showed me how much richer one could make characterization when the writing and the acting really harmonized. I still consider Tales of the Abyss my general favorite game dub to date. The casting is perfect, with not a bad role among them. I also want to give mad props to Ni no Kuni’s Mr. Drippy, just as a perfect storm of great localization decisions. Tidy, mun!

Question: How hard is it to turn in game signs and words to English for Japanese? Is it as simple as going in and editing text? Or as hard as creating a whole new texture for the model? - @KesanovaSSB4

Tom: We refer to this as "graphic text" -- meaning, literally, text contained within graphic images. How it's handled differs from project to project, but the short answer is, yeah, it involves creating a whole new texture for the model. Sometimes, this is handled by the developer: they'll just send us a list of all the graphic text images that exist in-game and what each image says, we'll send that list back to them with translations, and they'll use those translations to create new graphic images on our behalf. For other games, however (particularly PC titles we're more or less spearheading), we'll have to do the graphic edits ourselves. When the original PSDs or what-not exist for the sign images, this is generally pretty easy -- but as you might expect, those aren't always available to us, meaning we'll sometimes have to go to a bit more trouble to get this done.

John: The best practice is to review graphic text very early in the localization process because it takes effort to fix and can throw a wrench in schedules if issues are discovered too late. On occasion, it is too difficult to change ubiquitous textures, especially those that might also appear in animation. This was the case with "NewTube" in SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash, which the localization team wanted to change to "NyuuTube" to make the wordplay clearer to series fans.

Question: With the Steam marketplace becoming increasingly saturated and being seen as a greater risk to publish on in recent times, what does XSEED plan on doing in order to remain prominent and relevant in the PC gaming space? - @myumute

Ken: It is indeed getting harder and harder to stand out as hundreds of new titles are releasing on Steam each month. We are working our way towards simultaneous release across all platforms to help leverage some of the coverage from the console version to get more attention to the PC release, so hopefully that's something we can accomplish soon. For PC-exclusive releases it continues to be a challenge, but at least they have a long tail and even if it's not an immediate success at launch we know it can continue to produce sales for years to come.

Question: What was your favorite film that you saw in 2017, and why? - @Crippeh

John: I'm way behind on movies this year (haven't seen Disaster Artist, Phantom Thread, or Get Out, for example), but recently I've enjoyed both Star Wars and Lady Bird. I expect I'll watch my favorite film from 2017 sometime in 2018.

Ken: Wind River. Mainly because of Jeremy Renner's performance and how many quotable lines he had.

Liz: Get Out for horror mindblowing amazingness, Spider-Man Homecoming for genuinely fun comic book movie, and The Shape of Water for Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro should always be a category.

That’s it! Stay turned for blog #2 later this week. Here’s a preview of the kinds of questions we’ll be answering:

Question: Have you ever considered selling the music CDs for your licenses stateside? - @LimitTimeGamer Question: If possible, would you please consider researching and localizing classic Korean-made PC xRPGs? - @DragEnRegalia Question: Do you have any interest in pursuing the localization of any of the large, beautiful Chinese RPGs that have been hitting Steam? Or are you focused exclusively on Japanese titles? - @TheDanaAddams Question: What inspired you all to do this kind of work in the first place? Also, what’s the story behind the company name XSEED? How did you all come up with it? - @TBlock_02 Question: What was everyone's favorite game(s) to work on this year? - @ArtistofLegacy Question: What's everyone's favorite song from the Falcom games you've released so far? - @Crippeh

#XSEED #Q&A #Localization

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circuitodenoticiasoficial · 5 years ago

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Competição teve o encerramento no fim de semana ==▶ https://n8qhg.app.goo.gl/xRPg #futebol #bolarolando #copadaamizade #socorro #aas

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draco-omega · 8 years ago

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Why ‘Roguelite’ is a terrible term

I could actually rant quite a bit about how the roguelike/roguelite dichotomy is functionally useless and seems to exist more for purism of labels than any helpful purpose.

As a descriptor, ‘roguelite’ is impressively unhelpful - anything that can lump FTL, Nuclear Throne, and Rogue Legacy into the same category tells you approximately no more than ‘Contains procedural elements but doesn’t look exactly like Nethack’.

Genre labels are no more than descriptors - helpful shorthand to tell someone a little about the game - and every single one of them is fuzzy around the edges. Some of them are even fuzzy in the middle; Etrian Odyssey and Undertale are both RPGs, for example, and yet are different in almost every meaningful way. Gatekeeping what does or doesn’t belong in a particular subgenre is not only a lost cause, but also unhelpful for the main thing labels are actually good for: telling people something meaningful about how a game plays.

And in this role, a one-word label can only ever be a starting point. If you want to distinguish the Etrian Odysseys from the Undertales or the Nuclear Thrones from the Rogue Legacies, you’ve always needed to say more than one word - no matter how fastidiously you try to refine its definition. ‘Old-school 1st-person dungeon crawler in the vein of Wizardry' or ‘jRPG with bullet-hell-based combat and a world that responds meaningfully to player choices’ already paint a much clearer picture than any number of xRPG labels ever could and there’s always the ever popular “Like [game X] crossed with Dark Souls” (Hint: Stop saying ‘ Like [game X] crossed with Dark Souls’ unless you’re talking about Salt and Sanctuary or Hollow Knight or something)

And regarding roguelites, I personally think that terms like ‘roguelike platformer’ (Spelunky) or ‘rhythm roguelike’ (Crypt of the Necrodancer) and what-have-you are far more useful than roguelite ever could be and barely any longer (and also conveniently removed from all the elitism that genuinely surrounds the roguelike/roguelite dichotomy).

But most importantly: don’t worry about whether a game fits any precise list of criteria to ‘qualify’ as a roguelike. Worry only about how well whatever you’re calling a game communicates its content to whomever you’re describing it to. That’s all labels are good for, anyway.

#Roguelikes #Roguelites #Video Games #Draco Weighs in on Endless Internet Argument

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freakuotes · 8 years ago

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"No importa que tan malvado..." - Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry)

http://freakuot.es/XRpg

#frase

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aussie-eva · 10 years ago

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[stands next to the food table, looking very undecided about what she should do, the floor is also very interesting for some reason, as she keeps looking down.]

#xrpg #xrpg starter #{someone's feeling awkward and out of place}

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bruisedwing · 10 years ago

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Confessions || Power Pair (Plus)

the-rxgue

Deanne shouldn't have been surprised to see Marie in the hall, but she was much more distracted than normal. Jacen caught on immediately to who she was--probably because he hadn't gotten out of her mind since he arrived--and decided to make a detour on the way to Jubilee's room.

Go on, he projected to Deanne, nudging her. Just get it over with, Twelve.

Dee smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes, red from crying minutes before. "Uh, hi, Marie."

#the-rxgue #power pair #xrpg #jacen #the rxgue: confessions

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xseedgames · 8 years ago

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2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #2

Our second 2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza is here! There will be more next week, but for now, we have some answers from:

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Have you ever considered selling the music CDs for your licenses stateside? - @LimitTimeGamer

Ken: That's not really a business we're looking to get into, with the exception being when we've already printed soundtracks as part of a limited edition release and have some leftover. Music licenses are always tricky, and even if the publisher we licensed the game from completely owns their own music rights, they can self-publish digitally on iTunes worldwide so no need for us to get involved.

Question: If possible, would you please consider researching and localizing classic Korean-made PC xRPGs? & Do you have any interest in pursuing the localization of any of the large, beautiful Chinese RPGs that have been hitting Steam? Or are you focused exclusively on Japanese titles? - @DragEnRegalia & @TheDanaAddams

Brittany: The main reason we focus on JP > EN is because we're mainly an office of Japanese to English speakers, and we can verify the quality. We haven't completely ruled out the idea of other languages in the future, but we can't do anything to guarantee these games will be accurate yet. If we hired a person to localize games into a specific language, there's no checks-and-balances system in place for us to know we're investing in a project people will be happy to play because it's the best quality we can offer. Personally, I would hesitate to expand outside of JP > EN localization regularly until we've gained more experience as a company.

We've done a few instances of EN > FIGS, but since our games usually are very text heavy, even this is difficult. I would want to experiment with smaller games first. Hopefully, there will come a time when we can expand beyond JP > EN on a regular basis, since I’ve noticed some badass-looking games outside of the EN/JP languages. I also like the Korean developer Cheritz, who did Mystic Messenger. Jaehee will always be the love of my life.

Ken: We are definitely looking to expand where we source games from in the future and not just limiting ourselves to Japan. Definitely lots of good stuff coming out of China, Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia these days, and we're big fans of Western indie games too. You will be seeing a lot more variety of games from us in the future, but that doesn't mean that we'll be giving up on our staple of games from Japan - they will be in addition to those.

Nick: I figured I’d field these not because I have any special ability to get XSEED to license a game (we’re all free to suggest games for consideration, which is pretty cool), but because prior to working at XSEED, I actually did localization for Korean and Chinese F2P MMOs.

There’s a lot of game dev talent in places like China, Korea, and Taiwan that we in the west are only tangentially aware of due to their games market being significantly different from ours. To generalize a bit, outside of Japan, Asia doesn’t have a strong lineage of console development, as existing consoles haven’t been widely available in most of those countries. Rather, PCs are where people in Asia play their games – online games in particular, with net cafes being popular places to log in and play.

One of the first bits of localization work I ever did in my career was for the F2P MMO Dream of Mirror Online, for which I handled seasonal quests and ongoing localization (the base game had already been localized before I got there). The developer of that game, Softstar, has a cool, long-running Wuxia fantasy RPG series in China known as Xuan Yuan Jian, one installment of which is available on Steam right now. Wouldn’t it be cool to release an anime-style wuxia adventure RPG here? As a fan of drama, martial arts, and sweet swordfights, it would be pretty rad.

Personally, I’m totally up for dipping our toes into games like this as a company, but there are some extra challenges to taking on Chinese or Korean games that we haven’t had to contend with during our work on Japanese titles.

Perhaps most important is establishing audience interest in these titles. Even if we find cool Chinese or Korean games (and I’m sure we could), if we don’t sense a market demand for those games, it doesn’t make sense to expend the effort to publish them. That’s not a statement on their quality; it’s an issue of market awareness. Japanese gaming has an advantage for us, in a sense, in that it’s been pervasive in Western culture long enough that the names, language, and even history of Japan seem less strange and foreign to Westerners now than they were 20-30 years ago. We’ve come to have a taste for Japanese games and culture, one could say. That sort of natural predilection doesn’t currently exist for games from elsewhere in Asia. I think that a good game’s quality will be self-evident enough that it can become well known, but it would take considerably more work to make people aware of and interested in a cool game from China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, or elsewhere than it would if that game were from Japan. And given that XSEED’s marketing and advertising resources are admittedly smaller than we wish they were, licensing and localizing a cool Asian game for a Steam release could prove difficult if we couldn’t connect the game with enough of an audience that would appreciate it. Before you nay-say me, look around at the amount of Chinese or Korean games currently available in the Western market that aren’t MMOs or mobile games. It’s...not very many, is it?

Not to say we’re not interested, of course! There’s a huge amount of potential in games from Asian developers, and an ocean of possibilities to explore. But I think, before that happens, we have to either find a game we think would be a pretty sure thing our fans would enjoy, or see that there’s a demand here for these games. If you’re interested in seeing XSEED work on Chinese or Korean games, do feel free to write us, especially if you have suggestions of titles you think are particularly worth checking out or that you think are very “on-brand” for XSEED.

Question: What inspired you all to do this kind of work in the first place? Also, what is the story behind the company name XSEED? How did you all come up with it? - @TBlock_02

Ken: The company was founded by former members of Square Enix USA, including its president at the time, Jun Iwasaki. Other smaller Japanese companies would often ask him to publish their games in the West, and even though we came extremely close to starting a separate "Square Selections" publishing brand to distinguish our own titles from third-party titles, we were always just too busy working on Square Enix titles to have the resources to work on anybody else's. Once the new company was formed and the name finalized (we wanted our new business to grow and foster from an initial small "seed"), it was only natural to reach back out to the publishers in Japan who needed a way to release their games in the West.

Question: What was everyone's favorite game(s) to work on this year? - @ArtistofLegacy

Brittany: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. I was very emotionally connected to that game, and its text is something I think I'll be proud of for years to come.

Tom: Zwei: The Arges Adventure, hands down. Most fun I've ever had translating anything.

John: I had a lot of fun with the PR-side of STORY OF SEASONS: Trio of Towns (the Capy comics and marriage candidate intros), though significantly less fun with QA for the DLC.

Question: What's everyone's favorite song from the Falcom games you've released so far? - @Crippeh

Brittany: Can’t choose a legit favorite, but it took me, like, twelve hours to beat the Finale dungeon in Trails of Cold Steel II and I still listen to Phantasmal Blaze regularly.

Tom: I'm actually not a big fan of the Trails games (blasphemy, I know!), but I absolutely adore "Cry For Me, Cry For You" from Trails 3rd. One of my favorite Falcom vocal themes of all time. As far as non-vocal themes go, I've always had a soft spot for "The Depth Napishtim" from Ys VI, "Harlech" from Xanadu Next, "Casino" from Brandish: The Dark Revenant, and basically the whole soundtrack to Zwei: The Arges Adventure.

That’s it for now! Next week, we’ll be answering questions like:

- Ever consider making a podcast/commentary for one of your games? My favorite Twitch stream from XSEED was the Trails in the Sky the 3rd stream followed by Xanadu Next. - The PC port diary thing from CS PC was fantastic. I really liked a kind of…behind the curtain look at what goes into a PC port. (I'd be similarly curious for the localization process overall.) Do you plan on doing more of those for future games? - What are the requirements/makes it likely to get hired as a translator? Would self-taught people stand a chance? - Are there any games you've worked on in the past that you wish you could go back to and do differently a second time around? - What does the first day of a new project look like? What kinds of things are done right off the bat?

See you guys next time!

#XSEED #Q&A #Localization

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axdailybugle · 10 years ago

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Team Wolverine | Para

Cole was still riding the post-production high. They had two more shows to go before their months of hard work came to a close. He was sitting inside the dining hall--the room that reminded him most of Hogwarts--in lounging clothes, the Grease T-Birds attire already abandoned to the costume racks in Professor Wagner’s classroom for the night. While shuffling a deck of cards in his hand, he glanced about at the scarce number of peers who’d also taken up lounging in the dining hall before his eyes locked on Eva. He’d gotten up from the bench and was about to walk over to ask her if she’d want to play a game with him when Logan’s voice boomed throughout the room, startling the teen.

Logan actually had plans to head to bed early tonight. He’d been all the way up in Pembroke, lying diagonally across the bed that he shared with his fianceé with his hands tucked behind his head. Despite being very conscious, his eyes were shut while his ears took in the white noise from the floors below. The urgent sound of Professor X’s voice piercing through the muffled student voices caused his eyes to snap open. As soon as he’d heard that the Brotherhood was descending upon them, Logan sprang from the bed, snatching his ribbed tank from the ground to throw back on with his dark pajama pant, and then sprinted out of the room to the stairs as the Professor continued giving instructions to him and the other teachers on the grounds. Knowing that he, amongst the staff, had the best defensive chances at the front of the school, he went there, growling under his breath at the sound of students’ voices coming from the dining hall. He knew they were welcome to be in there--so long as students were inside the mansion at this hour, he and most others on staff were more lenient with the curfew. But tonight he’d been wishing that they had been more abiding. Overhead, his hypersensitive ears could hear Kurt vanishing and reappearing along MacTaggert Hall, urging several female students from their room. It hadn’t distracted Logan, however, from filling his lungs and barking out from the dining hall threshold, “Hey, listen up! All ‘a you get up ‘n follow me now. It’s an emergency.” The second he finished this, the mansion’s front doors exploded open, nearly flying off of their hinges while Brotherhood members. Logan quickly spun around, exercising his size advantage to barricade the room’s primary entrance; several members hurried past him to further invade the school, including Mystique, but before he could pursue her, a young girl with a feline physique surprised him, springing out in front of him and swiping her short, razor-sharp claws across his face. She spent a number of seconds scoring his tank and exposed skin as much and as quickly as possible. Logan staggered back, into the hall, and while his initial thought was to shield his face from further maiming, he forced his own claws out and made to retaliate. She smartly took advantage of his removal from the entrance and immediately darted further inside the room to attack some of the students, simultaneous to the sudden appearance of another brotherhood member who quite literally appeared out of nowhere. The last to weasel their way into the room had been former X Institute student, Pyro, throwing a threatening enough flame directly at the entryway.

Rahne wasn’t as hyped as everyone else after the musical, not to say that she wasn’t excited after they performed, but she was exhausted, only hyped to get back to her room for some much needed R&R. She was changed out of her Frenchie outfit and into something more casual, she was moving through the halls, just focusing on making it to her room without getting too much attention drawn to herself. But it seemed like she wouldn’t get the chance. There was a feeling that Rahne couldn’t shake, like something bad was just waiting to happen, she thought it was nerves for the performance, but when she drew closer to the entrance hall she knew it was far worse than that. Hearing the front doors burst open, she dropped everything she was holding and ran for the front entrance, already hearing a din of voices shouting, some shouting for help, others shouting instructions to the students. She could pick out Professor Logan’s booming voice easily, and for the moment, it was the only voice she recognized, so it was the voice she moved towards. Trying to distinguish which mutants were from the school and which ones were attacking was a challenge in it’s own, but she saw a face she recognized. One that she hoped to never see again. Pyro. Her hands clenched into fists at the sight of the young mutant, so it was the Brotherhood that was invading. She should have guessed. Luckily, his first attack wasn’t aimed at her, because that fire looked like it would take out any mutant unlucky enough to be in it’s path. He wasn’t the only mutant who looked ready to attack anyone in their near vicinity, Rahne wasn’t sure what to make of one, she looked normal, but the other one? Well, where Rahne was wolf-like, this mutant was cat-like. Her eyes bounced between the two, fighting instincts rearing to go, unsure of which one to go after, at least two of them looked like they were immediately dangerous. But Rahne knew who she would go after, last time she met Pyro, he talked about recruiting her, right before belittling her. Guess it was time to show that she could handle one Brotherhood punk with an inflated ego. Praying to any god that would help her, Rahne felt herself shift to a form between wolf and human, a guttural growl coming from her lips as she glared the enemy mutants down.

The lounge these days seemed much busier and rowdier than it had previously, Eva wasn’t sure if it was just her feeling different or if that was actually fact but it had caused her to avoid the room in order to avoid the large crowds. She had found peace in the Dining Hall, which was where she now sat, her head tilted to the side as her pen danced across the paper in front of her, a letter to her brother. She knew she could quite easily call or email, but she wanted to write and tell him details of everything, and writing made it all feel somehow more personal. Everything was going incredibly well for Eva, her grades were between good and excellent depending on the subject, she had friends and she was genuinely happy. The only small issue was her Danger Room sessions. Eva wasn’t a fighter, she hated the very concept and often froze when confronted with conflict, no matter how many times Professor Logan shouted, or talked to her nicely, she just couldn’t be violent towards another person. Her powers too were an issue, she was terrified of them. Her research into the possible effects of time travel had made her extra careful and she very rarely used her powers, other than by accident, something else which made Danger Room sessions unbearable for her. Looking up from her letter to think for a moment, her eyes met Cole’s across the room and her lips curled into a smile. Seeing him stand and start to head her way, she quickly finished the sentence she was writing and slid the letter into her bag. Logan’s powerful voice suddenly boomed through the room and Eva jumped, a startled look appearing on her features as she looked over to the source of the voice. The crash of the main doors exploding open made her jump again and suddenly she was on her feet, she clenched her jaw and swallowed fearfully, not really wanting to see what was coming. She watched in horror as the Brotherhood came pouring in and she froze as she saw her professor get slashed across the face by a cat like girl, she saw others literally appear out of nowhere and she felt her whole body start to tremble, her legs started walking backwards without any thought from her, moving away from the newcomers, her complexion got even paler than usual and her dark eyes were wide with fear.

Logan’s temper was threatening to get the better of him as he felt the severed skin on his face and arms rejoin. He couldn’t be bothered by the sting so much as he was by Thornn and Pyro. The latter proved a more immediate threat with the likelihood of burning the room down and everyone in it. He knew he had to disarm the boy but had to be smart about approaching him, lest he end up singed. From Pyro’s former days at the school, Logan knew that he’d possessed a device strapped to the inside of his wrist--a modified lighter that Hank so brilliantly fashioned up for him. Destroying it would reduce him significantly as a threat but he didn’t have time to think on it much longer. Thornn was lunging at him again, seemingly determined to turn him to ribbons but Logan forced his own claws out, prepared to return what she’d given him. She darted about, pursuing him and retreating at the last second, driving his blood pressure up and his patience down while he picked up on her childish tactics against him.

Cole had taken one step in Logan’s direction, prepared to abide by the professor’s instructions but a large, quick ball of light poppedin front of him, making him instinctively step back. A moment later, a woman appeared where the light had been. She lowered her chin while keeping an uncomfortably seductive gaze on Cole as she purred, “Hello, handsome,” to which Cole dropped his brows low and jerked his head slightly to one side, not taking his eyes off of her. After he odd greeting, her expression turned vicious and quickly launched a boot-clad foot at the middle of his chest, causing him to fall back into the long row of benches behind him. Generally, he wasn’t one to willingly fight a female but he also never put up with anyone taking hits at him, outside of Danger Room training. Guess this is what that’s for he thought to himself as he quickly got to his feet. He sprang at her to tackle her down but she’d leaped out of the way, lifted her hands and vanished with the return of the strange light. Slightly bewildered, Cole regained his footing and quickly looked around for her. With his speedy panoramic scan of the room, he’d seen Rahne--looking like he’d seen her a few months ago--and felt a twinge of panic, knowing what he knew about her when she was in her more canine state. He saw a number of classmates take off in fear after Pyro shot a thick stream of flames into the room. He saw Logan being occupied by a scantily clad cat-girl who was looking at him like he was lunch, and as soon as his eyes fell on Eva again, he saw his initial adversary, Astra, reappear directly in front of of his brunette comrade.

Everywhere she looked Eva saw something she really didn’t want to, she’d never seen Rahne in her wolf form, only heard about it, the actual sight was equal parts awe inspiring and terrifying. The sight of Cole jumping forward towards a strange bright light was extremely unnerving, she had no idea what was going on. She instinctively narrowed her eyes as there was suddenly a bright light right in front of her and she heard a pop not dissimilar to the sound her own bubbles made when she used her powers. She instinctively backed away, colliding with a table behind her within a couple of steps. The next thing she knew the light was gone, and there was a tall dark haired woman before her, she looked older to Eva, more in line with the age of some of the professors. Any hope Eva had of this being some kind of school prank vanished. “What’s the matter sweetie, lover not a fighter?” The woman crooned at her. Eva’s only response was an incredibly scared nod of the head, but out of the corner of her eye she saw someone heading towards her, all she had to do was buy some time. Suddenly her feet were off the ground as Astra grabbed her top and lifted her, Eva squealed in terror but her mind was suddenly filled with the memory of her fight with Jacen, the punch she’d delivered and the bubble she’d held him in, she had to find that bravery again somehow, but it wasn’t forthcoming. The older woman’s face twisted into a snarl as she purred, “Well I guess you’re going to have a really bad evening.”

Cole felt the adrenaline coursing through him from the various altercations taking place around them but his gaze had been fixed on Eva and Astra. He produced one clone to watch his back while his hands came down on the table in front of him and he swung his body across the other side, treating the tabletop like a pommel horse. He landed rather quietly back on the hardwood floor and approached Astra from behind. She stood only a couple of inches shorter than he did but she seemed oblivious of her surroundings which benefitted Cole as he threw his arm around her neck quickly and flexed. “Let her go,” he demanded while pulling his arm toward himself, driving it further against Astra’s windpipe. The elder woman gasped and attempted to shake him off but Cole locked his free hand around his arresting arm’s wrist as Astra shoved Eva while letting her free. Cole’s next plan had been to push Astra, hard, away from the two of them but the woman held her now free hands up and vanished again, causing Cole to double forward slightly into the empty space in front of him. Irritation carved deep in his features as he quickly looked about but with his clone watching his back, he quickly went over to Eva. “Hey are you okay?” he quickly asked.

Eva kept her eyes firmly on the older woman’s, stoically refusing to let her eyes flick to the side to see who the approaching figure was, and find out whether they were friend or foe. “I-I-I’m used to b-bad days,” she stammered as a response to Astra’s comment, still trying to keep her distracted, “I have them a lot.” Eva’s eyes were slowly starting to well up as the panic and fear completely took hold but the next thing she saw offered a glimmer of hope. A strong looking arm wrapped itself around her assailant's throat and she heard the familiar tones of Cole’s voice. Initially Astra’s grip intensified but as she gasped she threw Eva through the air like a rag doll, Eva felt herself tumble before landing hard on the edge of one of the long wooden tables and skidding off and landing in a heap on the floor. She winced in pain as she shifted and tried to sit up and cried out as a sharp pain shot through her arm as she put weight on it, she felt a similar sensation as she put weight on her left leg, but not to the same extend. By the time she was standing, Cole was by her side asking if she was ok. Her gratitude for being rescued was replaced by an intense feeling of guilt for needing to be rescued. “I’m s-s-so s-sorry,” she mumbled to him, her voice cracking with the emotions she was feeling.

Any initial high Rahne might have felt during this fight was quick to wear off, or she thought it did. She didn’t really have time to think about whether or not she was feeling any adrenaline. Or whether or not she regretted provoking Pyro, although, the cut on his arm was a comforting sight. It was the only attack she was able to get on him, a lucky one. Lunging to the side, she felt the heat from the fireball at her back, a little too close for comfort. Rahne was a close quarters fighter, and a damn good one, but Pyro wasn’t giving her another chance to get close, keeping her at bay with his power must have been easy for him. She could hear the fights around her, part of her wanting to abandon this fight and help her friends, but she knew Pyro could cause more damage if he was left to his own devices. It killed her to hear them but not be able to help. “You should be paying more attention!” Pyro’s voice caused Rahne’s thoughts to snap back to the fight, rolling to the side to dodge yet another pillar of flame. Too slow she mentally yelled at herself, bracing herself for any consequences for her delayed reaction. Feeling an intense heat on her arm, she quickly yanked her arm close to her, clenching her teeth to avoid yelping out in pain. “Don’t they teach you anything here?” Risking a moment to asses her injury, Rahne mentally kicked herself for being caught off guard. Her jacket got the worst of it, the flames just grazed the skin of her arm, enough to hurt like a bitch, might even earn her a scar, but, luckily, not nearly enough for her to worry about at the moment. “Maybe I was wrong to think you were strong enough to be in the Brotherhood.” Blinking back tears of pain, she growled at the teen, lowering her stance, rearing to pounce in any direction. “I’ll make ya’ eat those words, John.” Rahne noted his scowl with a small grin, he was easily agitated? That might help her. He kept his distance, as he had this whole time, but Rahne was thinking of how to get past that fiery defense of his. “What’s wrong, Pyro? Are ya’ afraid t’ fight me one-on-one? Where’s all tha’ ‘Brotherhood bravado’ now? Is someone afraid o’ the big, bad wolf?” Well, that got a reaction out of him. Instead of moving to the side, Rahne took a risk and lunged at Pyro, ducking just under the flames, no doubt earning her some singed hairs, but it got her close enough. Slashing with her good arm, she felt Pyro’s shirt tear under her sharp claws, but that was it. He surprisingly quick on his feet and moved to dodge her attack. “Damn.” Moving to avoid any counterattack he might have planned, she glared him down from afar, once again in that all too familiar stand-off. This fight was going nowhere if she wasn’t able to keep him from making those flames.

Logan watched Thornn leap in the air, bearing her claws out as though she had no fear for his own set. He knew that she couldn’t retreat from a midair jump, which invited his chance to level her. In the last moment, he retracted the trio in his left hand, balled it up in a fist and thrust it hard, up into her stomach. Thornn’s eyes went wide and she barely made a sound as he knocked the wind out of her. When Logan withdrew his fist, she staggered back and he kept true to his private promise, slicing three parallel marks across the right side of her burnt copper complexion before she fell back, held herself and attempted to fill her lungs with air again enough to hiss and moan in pain. She’d have to be someone else’s problem for the team being, however; Pyro’s flames were distracting him and seeing one of the other students attempt to best him, knowing they wouldn’t heal well if he managed to singe them, further drove Logan to helping them. Despite his mass, Logan was plenty agile and quick on his feet. To his fortune, his former student had his back to him, so the elder man increased his speed and bowed his head when he’d been a few meters away from ramming the top of his metal-coated cranium into back of Pyro’s neck. The boy’s blond head reared back as groaned in pain and fell to his knees, his hands instinctively reaching for the back of his head--exactly as Logan had been counting on. As he righted himself, he gripped his thick fingers around Pyro’s wrist and felt an urge to squeeze just a little more, knowing full well that enough pressure would pop his wrist out of place. Instead, he forcibly twisted the boy’s wrist around so that he could get a quick gander at the contraption fashioned for him after he departed from the school. “Heh, betcha can’t go pick one’a these up at a liquor store, bub,” sassed Logan, right before exposing a set of claws and swiping it across the device’s trigger. It sprang apart and lighter fluid squirted up across Logan’s fingers. The elder man stared at the colorless fluid--his face growing stern with disgust from the smell, and when he looked to Pyro, the boy’s face was full of fear of his new vulnerability. Immediately after retracting his claws, he switched hands, simultaneously punching the boy’s chest while grabbing a fistful of his shirt and hoisting him to his feet, and then off of them. “Seems Sinclair’s gotta bone to pick with ya,” he gruffed, not looking over his shoulders at the young wolf girl. “So I’m gonna do ya a one time favor and let ya go. She can deal with y--” His words cut off as though someone abruptly crushed his windpipe. Over the commotion in the dining hall and through all the colliding noise around him, he heard a familiar voice calling for him from upstairs. It was one of few voices who could stop him dead in his tracks. Grinding his teeth, Logan dropped Pyro without warning, shot a look over his shoulders to Rahne and told her, “All yours, kid,” before bounding away from the hall and up the north end staircase.

Cole’s

brows furrowed in confusion, “Sorry for what?” he couldn’t help asking though he doubted now was the time listen for an answer--not when there were fights and ambushes happening around them. Over his shoulder he’d heard his own voice from his clone rapidly holler, “Look out!” but when Cole turned to look, he’d been kicked in the ribs. The initial shock and sting made him stagger and almost double into the side that had been kicked, but the adrenaline coursing through him allowed him to ignore it for the time being as Astra cast him a wide, shameless grin. “Better leave your girlfriend alone and focus on me, handsome,” she insisted before making another move. Thinking fast as he pivoted out of the way, Cole tried to think of a way to stop someone who’d been like trying to catch smoke. She continued to attempt to get cheap shots in but the time she’d reappear, either he or his clone had been attuned enough to warn the other in enough time to block her. The more he fought while trying to keep close to Eva, the more he was learning and realizing just what was allowing her to teleport--her hands. She’d broken and thrown items from the dining table at him and his clone, causing him to gain minor cuts along his forearms but the separation from his clone allowed him to sustain it and the kick to the ribs separately for the time being. Eyes narrowing slightly, Cole continued to attempt to wear her down, or rather hoped he was wearing her down, as he parried her and thought of a way to bind her hands. If he could keep her from disappearing and reappearing long enough, he might be able to knock her out or render her useless until something else could be done. He just wasn’t sure ‘how’ yet.

Rahne wasn’t one to ask for help, even in a situation like this, her parents always said she was too stubborn. Besides, her little fight with Pyro was more than just protecting her home, it was personal. Meeting Pyro before made her doubt herself, made her question Xavier and the school after everything they did for her. And now he was here, attacking her home and friends directly. That wasn’t something she was going to let slide. Rahne’s mind raced to think of various plans, but all of them disappeared when Professor Logan appeared, apart from seeing him before all hell broke loose, Rahne didn’t keep tracks on him, and apparently, neither did Pyro. He seemed to be regretting that now. At the mention of her name, Rahne’s features mellowed out a bit, appearing more human as she watched the exchange between the two. “Thanks, Professor.” Rahne gave Logan a nod and watched him leave before turning her attention back to Pyro. “Hey, come on, we are all mutants here, right? We are all fighting for the same thing. A mutant like you? The Brotherhood could use you.” Pyro looked at her, trying to keep that bravado going. Rahne only responded to with a small, wicked grin. “I thought I wasn’t strong enough for your Brotherhood.” She rolled her neck to the side, punching the inside of her hand, a cliche gesture, but it got her message across. “I don’t need fire to beat you.” Pyro took up a fighting position and Rahne could see the destroyed lighter that was strapped to his wrist. “Aye? I bet tha’ fancy lighter o’ yours really helped.” Striding up to Pyro, she found confidence in herself that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Pyro threw a punch as soon as Rahne was close enough, but it was expected and Rahne dodged it with ease. Ignoring the now throbbing pain of her burned arm, Rahne grabbed Pyro by his shirt, having turned almost fully human at this point. Some might have taken the gesture as overconfidence, but her slip-up in the Danger Room with Cole was still fresh in her mind, she didn’t want to risk that side of her coming out again. She fought the urge to look for Cole, she saw him after the musical so he had to be nearby. “Worried about someone else? Typical coming from one of Xavier’s. You should still be focusing on me, wolfie.” That got her attention fully on the mutant in front of her, Rahne scoffed, drilling her knee into Pyro’s stomach before pushing him away from her, watching him stumble back, trying to regain his balance. “Oh, I’m goin’ t’ have fun with this.”

Eva opened her trembling mouth to reply to Cole’s question but before she had chance to utter a single word her friend was gone. She watched in wide eyed terror as Cole received a kick to the ribs and stumbled away from her. She had to do something to help, but she had no idea what. Her brown eyes watched the scene unfold in front of her, as Astra appeared before Cole and then disappeared after making a cheap shot only to reappear before his clone and do the same, and the sequence continued. That’s when she spotted a chance. Astra was predictable, always changing between Cole and his clone and her timing seemed to always be, Eva started counting the seconds between the older woman disappearing and reappearing, Eva’s timing had to be perfect. She narrowed her dark eyes and focused on the Cole nearest her, where she thought Astra would appear once she’d finished her latest attack on his clone. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a shadow prowling cat-like along the nearest wall, but she ignored it, she had to focus. There was a bright light from Cole’s clone’s location and Eva counted in her head, throwing both hands out in front of her as she counted ‘7’, her right arm protested with a shooting pain running the length of it but she pushed the pain aside. Her dark brown eyes turned electric blue with the activation of her powers and a sound like a crack of thunder echoed around the room, followed by a bright blue flash exactly where Eva had intended. The perfectly timed spherical time bubble appeared out of nowhere and inside it was a completely unmoving Astra, held frozen in time the instant her teleport had completed. Eva let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, “I did it,” she mumbled, but she could feel her control slipping due to her panicked state of mind. “I can’t hold it!” She shouted to Cole, the panic clear in her voice. She wasn’t sure if Cole knew enough about her powers to know he wouldn’t be affected by the bubble as he wasn’t in it’s area of effect when it was activated. “Grab her! The bubble won’t affect you.” Eva couldn’t say any more as all of her concentration went on maintaining the bubble, she saw Cole understandably hesitate but then had to close her eyes tight as she concentrated even more. Eva held the bubble for as long as she could, her features twisting into a grimace the harder she tried, there was a loud ‘pop’ sound and she knew the bubble was gone. Eva’s eyes snapped open and she looked forward, hoping she’d given Cole enough time to act.

Cole felt himself growing frustrated even further as the parrying game--or at least Astra seemed to treat it like a game--continued between them. Thanks to Professor Wagner, he used to think that teleporting seemed like a cool power, but now all he wanted to do was dropkick Astra. He and his clone kept meeting her attempted attacks defensively until Astra appeared inside of a large bubble directly in front of Cole’s clone. Cole and his clone bore identical looks of surprise as the elder woman’s menacing expression and raised fist remained frozen. He heard Eva shout and both he and the clone looked back at her before turning a wary eye on Astra, or more so, the bubble surrounding her. He knew Eva could manipulate time but he also knew that she generally wasn’t in the best control of it. by no means did he want to end up trapped in the past or thrust into the future but taking the chance seemed like the only opportunity he’d have at besting Astra. His clone spread its arms and threw its weight toward the bubble at the same time that it popped; it all happened very fast but by the time Astra was able to move again, the clone’s semi-muscular arms were locked tightly around the woman, arresting access to her hands as it tackled her to the ground. The clone’s shoulder absorbed most of the impact from the tackle and Cole knew he’d feel it later but for the time being he’d quickly looked around for something to keep Astra’s hands restricted in case he was unable to consciously keep his clone present to detain her. His eyes locked on a gold rope that loosely bound one of the dining hall window drapes open. Darting past Eva with a quick, authentic, “Way to go,” his fingers worked fast to undo the loose knot and bring it back to work with his clone. His clone forcibly repositioned Astra’s hands behind her back while Cole began winding the rope between and around her wrists, unaware of the feline female prowling from behind them.

Upon opening her eyes, the scene before her made Eva smile, creating and maintaining the time bubble had taken a lot out of her but it had worked, the teleporter who had attacked her was now held tightly in the arms of one of the Cole’s, she couldn’t tell if it was him or his clone. She started to hobble towards them, her ankle still refusing to take her weight and her smile broadened as she heard the praise from Cole as he went to fetch the rope from the curtain, the praise really meant a lot. He was back with his clone working on tying Astra up before Eva got there, the whole time she walked she had the feeling that she’d forgotten something, something she should be focusing on. It was too late by the time she saw it. The feline prowler she’d spotted in the shadows earlier was already in the air, her pounce already in effect and her razor sharp claws extended and glistening in the light. But Thornn’s leap wasn’t aimed at Eva; the cat-like girl’s target was Cole. Acting on pure instinct, Eva jumped, her body collided roughly with Cole’s and he was knocked backwards to the floor with a bump but he was out of harm’s way, which had been Eva’s intention. The bared claws which had been bound for Cole’s neck struck Eva’s side and penetrated deep into her body, Eva howled in agony as the attack struck. The agile Thornn was able to twist in time to land a second attack across Eva’s back, leaving more deep gouges in the young Australian’s already battered body, the wounds across her back weren’t as bad as the first strike had been, but Eva still screamed in pain as the sting took hold. Both of Eva’s hands went straight to her side, to the site of the most extreme pain and her fingers were instantly covered in a warm fluid as blood flowed freely from the deep wounds. But Cole was ok, that’s all that mattered to Eva. With a bravery she didn’t know she possessed Eva turned to face Thornn, who had landed gracefully on her feet nearby. “Is he rrreally worth dying forrrr sweet-pea?” Thornn asked, her rolled r’s sounding like a malicious purr rather than a cute one. Eva coughed once and blood sprayed from her mouth before she managed her response, “They all are.” Her mind was filled with the smiling or laughing faces of all her friends at the institute, and as she said the last word, Eva threw her arms out in front of her, her bloodied fingers splaying and she focused on making another bubble, she heard a pop but her vision swam before her eyes and she couldn’t make out what she was seeing, she had no idea if the bubble had worked. Eva felt the strength completely leave her body and she fell to her knees, she could hear voices around her but it sounded like she was underwater and she couldn’t make out the words. Despite her situation, the only thing she could think about was how she could help her friends more and she hated the fact that she couldn’t think of a way.

Cole was in the midst of tightening the rope ends into a knot but before he could finish, he’d been knocked over, shocked, upset and then shocked again as he saw Eva dart in front of where his back had once been and attempt to take on the cat-looking teen. He saw the blood pool through Eva’s clothes and heard her cry out in pain. “Eva!” he’d called out Thornn questioned her martyrdom. His voice wasn’t particularly loud, nor was he more than a few feet away from where she had fallen, but there was heat behind his demeanor. He’d withdrawn his clone, wishing he’d been practicing his cloning of someone with a more useful power, but contained his natural strength and combative abilities to fight Thornn. Her claws were intimidating and her wild demeanor was unsettling as well, but despite stinging from the cuts he was quickly obtaining and adding onto with the ones he’d retained from his clone, he’d stayed on his feet and managed a few hits in on Thornn. She seemed to be aware of the rib injury Astra had given him but he kept blocking and managed to shake her attention from him after delivering an unforgiving fist to her gut, compounding the painful blow Logan had given her earlier. She backed off, hissing a string of profanities at Cole but he didn’t care what she had to say as she retreated and looked for another victim. His cinnamon irises flickered to Astra who was writhing on the floor in attempts to free her bindings but Cole quickly returned his attention to Eva. Blood was trickling down his triceps and forearms and his ribcage ached on one side but he ignored it while trying to get a response from Eva. “Hey, Eva can you hear me?” he asked, keeping calm and thinking fast on trying to stop the blood; his sweatshirt was off and being pressed against the largest gash while trying to coax her into answering him.

The fight with Pyro was taking it’s toll on Rahne, his previous shock at being rendered powerless had seemed to wear off as the fight drew on, and the teen could hold his own in a fight. The two found themselves at a standstill, staring the other down, waiting for someone to make a move when her attention was ripped from the fight by a scream, not like the screams of fear. This one was pained, and familiar. Eva? Rahne’s heart dropped, turning to look in the direction of the scream, blinking back tears. While she wasn’t super close to the aussie teen, Rahne treated her like a friend, and in truth viewed Eva as such. She wasn’t sure if the scream belonged to her friend or not and she even took a step towards the scream, part of her dying to help her friends, but she was stopped in her tracks as her hair was yanked back. Crying out, Rahne’s hands flew to the back of her head, Pyro pulling her backwards. “You are bad at keeping focused.” Rahne glared at him. “Go t’ hell.” Pyro simply smirked, throwing Rahne forward. Tumbling to the ground, Rahne hurried to get to her feet, only to receive a swift kick to the side, effectively knocking the wind out of her. “Come on, thought you had more fight than that.” Pyro knelt down to her level and Rahne felt his fist collide with the side of her face. “Stand up and fight!” He pulled his arm back, ready to hit her again, but Rahne caught his fist with ease, a growl coming from her throat as her form changed again, becoming more wolf-like as her anger grew. Standing to her feet, she pulled Pyro with her, not releasing her hold on his fist, claws extending as she glared him down. There it was again, that look of fear. Rahne drew her hand back, sharpened claws ready to tear whatever they were aimed at to ribbons, and they were currently aimed at a certain Brotherhood hothead. Rahne swung but pulled her hand back at the last second, Pyro flinching at a blow that hadn’t come yet. Her hand shook with anger, very fiber of her being wanted to do it, to hurt him, as much as she could. But Rahne couldn’t do it, she wasn’t a killer, and she wouldn’t sink to his level. She wouldn’t let her friends see this side of her. Not while she still had control. Taking a deep breath, Rahne quickly swiped a claw across Pyro’s cheek, drawing a thin, but deep cut which already started to bleed. “Ya’ are lucky tha’ is all ya’ are gettin’.” Her features returned to her human form, face still twisted into an expression of rage. “Tha’ might scar. Look at it next time ya’ feel like attackin’ this school.” Pulling her arm back, she put all of her anger into one punch, feeling more than a little satisfaction when she knocked that surprised look of Pyro’s face, watching him collapse. The only thing keeping him from laying sprawled on the floor was Rahne’s grip on his arm, which she promptly let him fall to the ground. Letting out a sigh, Rahne stumbled back, reaching out to grab something for support.

Her body was so heavy, how could she hold her own weight, she wasn’t that strong. Eva fell sideways, already on her knees it wasn’t too much of a fall, but the floor never came to meet her. Instead she felt an arm wrap around her and halt her fall. There was a voice, it sounded close, why was someone close to her?, they had a fight to win and other people to protect, at least she thought they did, she wasn’t sure of anything any more. The confusion took hold and suddenly Eva was scared, her whole body trembled and her breathing was short and sharp, causing an intense pain in her chest. Where was she? What had happened? Nothing made any sense. She felt a soft dabbing sensation on her injured side and tried to look at who was with her, her head rolling slightly on her weakened neck muscles. “C-Cole?” Though she was confused, she knew what she wanted to say, thinking of her friends before herself despite her ordeal, “fight? Get… cat, help… Rahne… Don’t… me” She was looking right at him but her eyes were unfocused and unseeing and there were tears streaming from them and down her paler than normal cheeks. Her brown eyes kept rolling back as her mind threatened to make her pass out but she didn’t want to. Every time she tried to move Eva felt a shooting pain from somewhere which caused her to wince with the pain, she couldn’t hold it off any longer, her eyes rolled all the way back and her entire body went limp as Eva’s whole world turned into dark nothingness.

Cole held the sweatshirt firmly in place against her bleeding side while staring sternly at her weary face. “Eva, you’re bleeding out on the floor.” He almost added, If I walk away, you could die, but he bit back from saying as much and instead brought his gaze back to where his hands were applying pressure in attempt to stop or at least slow the bleeding. “I need to get you to the infirmary.” A moment later, he’d pushed a clone out from his back and it stepped a short distance away, more in the middle of Rahne and Pyro’s fight, and where Cole knelt by Eva. His clone saw Thornn knocking a student out before rounding and turning her attention on him once more. She darted fast at him on all fours, feet chasing hands from the opposite side of the dining room. Cole’s clone took a ready stance, fists tightly clenched as though he were preparing to punch her. When she lunged at him again, however, Cole’s clone shifted his weight back before swinging his right leg with as much force as he could muster. He’d let out a bit of a grunt from the impact of his ankle connecting hard with her head, not unlike the way he might kick a soccer ball across the field. Thornn’s head whipped to one side while the rest of her body was jerked out of its agile pursuit. She fell fast, head first into a table end with a sickening smack before crumpling onto the floor a few feet from where Cole’s clone stood. There’d be some regret in having done that, in the form of a sore ankle, but he knew it’d be worth it if Thornn didn’t get up again tonight. The clone scanned the room while attempting to avoid putting much weight on his right foot but he spotted Astra standing on two feet--the drapes rope sitting in messy coils at her feet. The clones eyes grew with a wide glare as it spat, “Dammit,” the moment Astra’s hands went up. She vanished and seconds later, reappeared in front the clone but hadn’t geared up for a fight. Instead she quickly crouched by Thornn’s wirey frame and waved a lone hand before them. A second later, the two vanished behind a quick, bright light.

Rahne leaned heavily against the wall, her burned arm pulled close to her chest, after the fight, all the adrenaline left her and the burn was really starting to hurt now. More than she thought it would. She glanced over at Pyro, exhausted. She wasn’t expecting him to put up as much of a fight as he did after he lost his lighter. She only hoped that her punch would keep him down, even if he didn’t have his flames he was still a threat to the school and it’s students. The thought of the other students made Rahne remember the scream, Eva, she pushed herself off the wall, heading towards her friends when a bright light behind her grabbed her attention. Looking, she saw the girl from earlier, holding a very defeated looking tiger woman. How did she get there so quickly? And I never saw her pass me. Rahne’s question was answered as the girl grabbed Pyro’s shirt and disappeared in another flash of light. Rahne’s shoulders slumped, all that trouble, and they still got away. Dammit. Clenching her teeth, Rahne shook her head, moving as quickly as she could to where her friends were, seeing Cole before she saw another Cole with Eva. One was a clone, she knew that, but she wasn’t sure which. Probably the one kneeling next to Eva. “Oh my god.” Rahne brushed right past the Cole closest to her, running to Eva. “Eva?” Her hands hovered over Eva, but it seemed like Cole had the situation handled as much as he could. “She’s-we need t’ get her t’ the infirmary.” Rahne shrugged off her jacket, flinching a little as it slid over the burned arm before handing it to Cole so he might use it to help stop the bleeding. “Now.” She looked Cole over quickly, he didn’t look as injured as Eva. “Ya’ alright?” She asked, turning her attention back to Eva, Rahne’s mind already racing in an attempt to figure out a way to move their friend.

Cole saw the flash of red hair from his peripheral and quickly glanced over to see Rahne beside him. The commotion around them seemed to have settled down. Any other students seemed to have taken off or were unconscious and he just wasn’t aware; feeling somewhat less en guard, he withdrew the clone that had knocked out Thornn while listening to Rahne’s panic. “I know,” he told her while feeling the blood seep through his sweatshirt and warmly stain his hands. “I can but...I’m just not sure if I’m gonna make things worse if I move her. I don’t know how deeply that cat chick got her.” When Rahne asked about his wellbeing, Cole shot a look at the shallow cuts haphazardly scored across his forearms with drying blood left in their wake. He’d been breathing shallowly to avoid feeling the bruises he knew were forming along the left half of his ribcage but he told her, “I’m fine.” Unsure of how to get a hold of Professor Wagner--the only person he could think of to get Eva to the infirmary quickly and safely--Cole looked to Rahne’s offered jacket and then grabbed one of her hands to guide it and her jacket directly over the wound while he moved his bloodied sweatshirt out of the way, “I’m gonna carry her there, as quickly as I can. But...can you hold your jacket here while I do it? You’ll have to press kinda hard but I think we can both get her there, fast, without too much more blood loss.” I hope, he thought to himself. Hanging his sweatshirt over one shoulder, Cole quickly moved to Eva’s other side, slid his hands under the base of her neck and the backs of her knees and counted to three so Rahne would know when he was getting up. After securing his grip, he wasted no time speed walking to the dining hall’s main entry/exit; he passed the open double doors of the school--barely hanging on one hinge each--and rounded the staircase down the hall until they arrived at the infirmary. Professor Worthington was nowhere in sight to his dismay but there were mostly vacant rooms at least which had been a mildly good sign in Cole’s eyes. He headed into the nearest room and laid Eva onto the bed as carefully as possible. “I...let’s just keep applying the pressure and try to get her conscious. Keep talking to her and all that.” It hadn’t crossed his mind until minutes later for him to send a clone to look for Professor Worthington. He didn’t know what he--or rather, his clone--would come across along the way but he had to try and find the man, for Eva’s sake.

#LHowlett #XRPG #wolflikexeyes #aussie-eva #cookiecuttercole #XRPG event #x event

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