First Day of School [Open][NR]

Cala had realized something a few days before the start of the new school year: she had never gone. Ever. When she was growing up women weren't allowed in schools; they were meant to stay home and learn to keep the house, learn basic life skills, and just enough to know that they weren't being scammed when it came to handling the little bit of money they were given to buy food and other things to keep the house running.

Yeah, school? First timer. Not that she was unprepared, she had lived long enough to learn things on her own, and the Cobweb was always buzzing with information.

But, she was excited. She had taken a few placement tests so the school knew where she was at, falsified some records so it appeared as if she had gone to elementary school, middle school, and had done a grade or two of high school. So, she was all set.

She had even indulged herself; gone shopping for some new hoodies, hats, pants, shorts - since there was a handbook and all of that fun stuff on what she was allowed to wear and what she wasn't that she had to abide by. Of course, the hair thing was going to be an issue, as were her mismatched eyes - since the school swore they were freaky contacts. But, whatever. She'd deal with that when it came to it.

So, the first day was around, and her schedule was in the pocket of her black jeans; the usual Pikachu hoodie on, with a black t-shirt underneath that matched her black sneakers with yellow laces. Purple hair was back in a ponytail, with her bangs hanging down the sides of her face. Makeup was nothing more than some mascara and a little black eyeliner. Fingernails were painted black with yellow lightning designs on each one.

She was currently headed up the sidewalk; though she wasn't walking, and instead was rolling along on a skateboard, moving expertly around anyone and anything that got into her way, mismatched gaze scanning the crowd as she distinguished the different cliques. This was going to be interesting... that was for sure, especially as several of the female cliques seemed to notice her... oh yes, this was going to be interesting indeed.

This was going to be an interesting year. Last year he was basically nobody; a dweeb to fit in along with the rest of the nerds and zeros. He was unnoticed and under the radar for the most part, but with everything that had happened in the past month or two while on summer vacation, he knew this wasn't going to last long.

Matt didn't even have to go to school anymore, but it was best to keep up appearances. A grin was on his face since he was totally prepared for bullies and jocks that liked picking on smaller weaker looking kids. It took about 3 seconds to change out of his armor behind some nearby buildings after gliding most of the way here, revealing the new Pikachu hoodie he'd bought to match Cala. Underneath was a black T-shirt grey cargo pants and black sneakers.

If you went to Edge Academy, sooner or later you found yourself in one of the cliques. Rich Kids, Jocks, Bullies, Nerds, Goths, Emo's, and Zero's. Matt, he fit the bill for more than one of the cliques, such as the Nerds, Goths and Zeros, and in his position he was generally identified as a Loser. But this year, already hearing several kids talking about The Vigilante while making his way through the ocean of children out front of the school, he knew things were going to be different.

Matt bumped into Stretch while walking, and he had to do a double-take. Stretch was somewhat shorter than Matt, and was a tad on the over-weight side. He was dressed in a big red T-shirt that often made him the victim of Kool-Aid man jokes, blue jeans and white sneakers. Stretch wore a pair of glasses that magnified his eyes and made him look somewhat comical. "What are you doing here? It's not like you even HAVE to go to school anymore now that you're a big shot," he said.

"Gotta keep up appearances," Matt told him. "If I just disappeared that wouldn't look right, and if someone started digging and found out i'm downtown now, it wouldn't take a genius to put 2 and 2 together and start figuring things out, right?"

"Right, right. It wouldn't be the same here without you, and now that you're superman it's gonna be funny to see Bort and his boys mess with you now, eh?"

"Very interesting..."

'Well, that didn't take long at all...' Cala thought to herself as she spotted a yellow Pikachu hoodie and the back of Matt's head. She had been wondering if she was going to see him here or not, and it seemed her question had been answered fairly quickly.

A grin swept across her face as she skateboarded way through that last few people that separated them, ignoring both muttered and loudly spoken comments. With her grin still in place she hopped off her skateboard as she came up next to him and held it under her arm. "Fancy seeing you here, handsome."

She found herself wondering how he would react to seeing her here of all places, especially with all of.these people around. She could already hear several "freak" comments being made and couldnt stop grinning - if they only knew how true their statements were they would never sleep again.

School. He didn't have one of those back in Yokuchi. Granny, Mom and Dad home-taught Holeman everything he'd known. Since making the cross over to this world he read up on and saw much of School on TV and in books. Holeman liked learning new things, and although he was already smarter than most adults he wanted to give it a try. What better place to learn something but at School?

Holeman didn't want to look too weird, so he bought a pair of sunglasses to avoid having to wear his Du-Rag over his eyes. Holeman was reported to have an "eye condition" so the glasses were "prescription." He was dressed in his dark blue Uchiha shirt with the large collar, red ankle length pants and red sneakers. The kid placed scores just good enough to land him in the classes with the older kids, something they would probably make fun of him because of, but he was prepared for bullies.

He landed after flying to Edge from Sunset, dispersing his storm cloud out of view of the public. Holeman made a promise to himself not to use any abilities unless he really had to. He didn't see any reason he would, for the moment, and while pulling on his bookbag attempted to blend into the crowd of kids in front of the school before the bell for 1st hour....

School here I come!

Amaranth had never been to school; really no reason behind it since her mother had taught her mostly everything she knew, and the rest she had taught herself by spending many hours in the library or in her lab studying one thing or another. But, school was a great place to learn other things too, social interactions and all of that fun stuff. Stuff that books just couldn't teach you. Sure, she was social enough with the fact that she owned her own island, and was always with one person or another - mostly Holeman now. But, still... it was something she wanted to expericence.

So, her mother had pulled the right strings and had gotten her enrolled after several placement tests - which had shocked most of the teachers who had looked at them, or so she'd been told by her mother later on. She had memorized the handbook that the school had given her since she was a 'first timer' in an actual school, and realized quickly that her new outfit she liked to wear was a no go.

So, she had settled for a white band t-shirt with a red hoodie over top. Black cotton pants covered her legs, and her feet were snugly in some white sneakers. Her black hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and her bangs hung slightly in her face, barely covering her silver colored gaze. The ponytail kept the rune on the back of her neck hidden for the moment. The same rune which was currently giving her the knowledge that Holeman was nearby as she walked up the sidewalk. She gravitated in his direction as she tugged on her backpack to keep it in place, moving through the other kids as she did so.

Matt looked surprised somewhat, but Stretch just stared to drool while staring like he was in a daydream. Some of the kids around were saying things, probably because of the yellow coats they wore, or because they looked like they belonged to a group of losers by their standards, and ordinarily it would bother him, but now the words didn't mean much of anything.

"Ummmm what are you doing here? You...couldn't you like, teach classes here?" Matt asked, pushing Stretch's mouth closed while they made their way towards the entrance. "By the way my staring comrade here happens to be Stretch, the guy i'm always talking to? Stretch, Cala. I'm sure you know that just fine by now, you pervert..."

Cala's grin turned mischievous as she continued to ignore the comments and snide remarks being made by what was to be her 'fellow peers'. Or so the handbook called them. She had read it enough times to have it easily memorized; and while it didn't say anything like "don't eat the students" or "keep it /vegetarian/ Cala" she was pretty sure that the momentary flash of a picture in her minds eye of the whole lot of them covered in blood wasn't something she should do.

So, she kept her focus on Matt, and his friend Stretch as she was introduced. She gave a friendly nod of her head and a smile. "Hello, Stretch." She then shifted her attention back to Matt for the moment as they began walking. "To answer your question... Well, I woke up a few days ago and realized that I've never been to school before. It wasn't something I was allowed to do when I was /younger/. So I figured I might as well make up for the experience now. Did a few tests, forged a few documents... and well, here I am."

Her grin turned almost wicked. "I can see already how much 'fun' it's going to be... apparently I've already been labeled, and it's only been five minutes.", she said with a chuckle; an obvious sign that the 'freak' comment that kept being thrown around didn't bother her in the slightest. She was a freak after all, something that shouldn't exist outside of horror films, fictional books, and nightmares. But, she did. And it was almost pathetic that she was blending in so well with the rest of them... like a cloaked wolf among sheep. Good thing she didn't plan on eating them..... yet.

Some of the kids were already saying things. Holeman didn't mind or listen much. All of this was expected at a gathering this large. There was always going to be bullies or someone talking about someone else, it was just how things were. As long as no one tried touching him then people could say what they wanted...

Amaranth was nearby, but why would she be? What could she possibly coming to a school for? While wondering this he sat on a bench near the front doors to the main building, peeling open a bag of chips Jr gave him this morning before he left. Holeman had never tasted the things before, and seeing the Angel constantly stuffing his face with them, Holeman thought they must have tasted pretty good.

He put a few of the chips in his mouth and crunched them, nodding his head. "Not bad," he said with a grin. When Amaranth would eventually come closer, he asked, "Sooo, come to show the rest of these kids how smart you already are, huh? Maybe even the teachers yeah? Competition of brains? Cause I don't see really any reason why YOU of all people would be going to class..."

Amaranth watched as he opened a bag of chips, moving closer until she sat on the bench next to him. A small smile appeared on her face and she shrugged. "Nah, it's just... I've never been to school before. I was always home schooled, mostly, and what I didn't learn from my mom I found out in books and stuff. I wanted to see if I could learn anything new. Plus, maybe I'll use the time as some recruiting or something... weed out the good ones and offer them a job if they prove themselves enough."

She then giggled. "You remind me of my Uncle Junior with that bag of potato chips." She reached into her book bag and pulled out an apple. She rolled it over in her hands looking at it; the skin of the thing was green, indicating it was a Granny Smith apple. She thought of all of the candy and junk food she used to eat; and how one day she had just stopped, somewhat due to her grandfather's words about what would happen if she ate too much sugar, and somewhat due to stomach ache she had given herself on many occasions.

"Why'd you decide to come to school?", she asked Holeman curiously as she looked over at him before taking a bite of her apple; the bite making a soft snapping noise due to the apple being ripe and fresh. She chewed her bite quietly while awaiting a response.

She was going to be going here normally? That didn't sound like a very good idea...Stretch was all for it, and had even begun to get red in the face at this chance to oogle the hot vampire girl with his own eyes instead of images on a screen. He looked disappointed but mostly worried while having to close Stretch's mouth again.

"Umm...I don't mean to be a spoiler, but, do you think that's a good idea? I mean, people saw you running around with The Vigilante on camera. The girl with the crazy animal hoodies, remember? If you start hanging around me here too, somebody somewhere is gonna start figuring things out. 'That kid in the armor is really a school geek named Matt Black from the Suburbs.' Then I could be given away, and things might come down hard on my grandparents. What if some maniac goes after them or something?..."

Matt scratched his head. This whole super hero secret identity having a crazy 400 year old vampire girlfriend thing was beginning to get too complicated.

'Hmm.. he has a point.', she thought to herself as she tilted her head. "You're right.. .but I can fix that really fast....", she said with a grin. And then she all but melted into the crowd, becoming one with them. She moved through them, headed to one of several secluded spots where she knew there were no cameras or any other annoyances around for what she was about to do.

She allowed her senses to fully focus, paying very close attention to double check that no one was around before she started to work her magic. Being a vampire it was very simple and easy to change her appearance, it was something that she become very good at over the years: especially when she had freshly been turned and tended to make a mess out of her dinner without concern as to who was watching. Happy that no one was around she quickly removed her Pikachu hoodie and stashed it behind a bush. As she did so her hair began to change, going from purple to blond, starting from the roots and moving to the tips. After another moment of concentration her eyes even changed colors; combining both the sea green and the purple until both of her eyes matched - a funky mixture but different nonetheless. Even her skin tanned slightly, losing a lot of its paleness until her flesh had a sun kissed look about it. She then did a quick flip of her multicolored laces, turning them from yellow to pink. Another moment and she removed the quickly chipping nail polish on her fingernails, and then added some decorative rips to her black jeans. All in all the whole process took about 60 seconds or so: but her appearance had completely changed.

Happy with her new appearance she moved back through the crowd, coming up beside Matt once more. She suppressed her grin and gave a soft chuckle. "How's that, handsome?", she asked with a sly grin.

Vampire Physiology:

These chip things were pretty tasty, so he continued to crunch down the bag. "It looks interesting on the shows that are on the TV device here, so I thought i'd come to see if it's like that for real," he explained "Besides, I was home schooled back in Yokuchi, we never had anything like this."

The bag of chips was snatched out of his hands by a large looking boy wearing the school team jacket. He looked athletic, probably being on the football team, and sported some average sized muscles, but to someone of Holeman's small stature he'd resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger. Holeman only grinned some as the bag was forcefully yanked from his hands. "Thanks new kid, don't mind if I do," he said, and the stooge began to stuff his face.

Holeman decided to send a message to the stooge and the two others with him, cracking their knuckles and looking toward him and Amaranth. He wasn't going to hurt them, too badly, just something to let them know "Don't fuck with me." He stood up from the bench dusting his hands off before taking a crouched stance, winding his arms to his right side. While doing so, blue colored Chi could be seen gathering between his opened palms that were touching at the bottoms. The Chi formed a sphere. When it was the size of a basketball, Holeman threw his arms toward the big goon, launching the sphere with a ZOOM sound. The sphere slammed into the goon who watched wide-eyed and created an explosion of blue. It send the goon flying backwards off of his feet, and the chips flying out of his hands. Holeman slid across the sidewalk and caught the bag, putting several more into his mouth while returning to the bench. Adjusting his sunglasses he noticed that he was getting many strange stares but he didn't care.

Hadoken:

"That's what I thought, too. Though I hope some parts that I kept seeing in shows aren't the same..."

Amaranth's focus changed from Holeman to this 'bully' that had appeared as he snatched Holeman's chips; or so that's what he looked like to her. Just like what they looked like on TV, some larger kid with an ego complex because he was bigger than someone else, trying to pick on what he perceived as weak.... Right, this was going to be funny, she wa sure of it. She knew from Mitsukai's memories and thoughts that Holeman wasn't a push over, she also knew from first hand experience due to the several jobs they had completed together. So, she was sure that this bully was about to be in for one hell of a surprise.

She watched Holeman stand and take a familiar stance, even though she hadn't seen him take it before in this life. She watched the Chi gather in his hands before he launched it at the kid, who then went flying backwards. A giggle escaped Amaranth before she could cut it off and she lifted her right hand to cover her mouth. She then watched as Holeman slid across the sidewalk to catch his bag of chips before returning to the bench.

Amaranth could only shake her head and giggle again. Surely that would teach those kids not to mess with him again; if they were smart that was. But, some people needed taught a lesson a time or two before it really stuck. "Silly bullies... they should really watch who they choose to pick on.", she said softly as she found herself wondering if she too would have to deal with the inevitable bully eventually. She was sure she would... and like Holeman she would put them into their place when the time came.

This was going to be one weird school year. He wasn't going to put up with the bullies this time around though, more than prepared for anyone. With a crazy girlfriend in the mix there were bound to be episodes. Matt had to remember to go easy since his strength was many times that of an ordinary person.

Cala disappeared for the moment. He and Stretch made small talk about the VOL station and how it was fully up and running. Zapping something and making a huge burning hole in the ground was now as simple as a few button presses away. When Cala returned, looking totally like someone else, Matt had to blink his eyes a few times, while Stretch was red in the face, unable to take his eyes off of her. "Well. That's...not bad at all, Cala..."

Matt's attention was diverted to a zoom sound. He turned just in time to see a blue explosion, and one of the Jocks go flying off of his feet. Alot of other kids were looking in that direction too. "Wooah," he said. "Who the hell did that? That was awesome."

Cala grinned, but even that was slightly different - far less psychotic, and no hint of fangs. Last thing she wanted was some idiot to see her fangs and go running off to start up a mob with their torches and pitchforks... actually, did mobs use torches these days? Or did they just use flash lights? Focus Cala, focus.

She turned her attention towards where the commotion had come from and spotted Amaranth sitting on a bench through the mass of bodies. "Huh, must be a friend of Amaranth's... she's over there with the kid."

"Well, well. Look what we have here girls. Looks like the new girl in town came from a Freak Show."

That voice... it made Cala want to take a cheese grater to the female's face it belonged to: this feeling of course was only doubled when she turned around to see that the body the voice was attached to was wearing a brand new cheerleader uniform: she looked like one of those preppy-run-the-school type of girls with their skirt hiked a little higher than it should be, and the V neck of her uniform a little too far down. The type who needed knocked down a few notches; but Cala had to remember that despite how agitating the girl was she was only human, so she couldn't go ripping her head off or any of that fun stuff. Cala raised a brow and put on a sly smile. "Well it looks like you just arrived from the sluts convention. At least I have some taste."

"How dare you!? You.. you, bitch!" The female moved closer, her group of three girls that had been standing nearby moving closer as well. "Don't you know who I am?!"

"Do I care would be the more important question; and I don't. I really don't care who you are. I do care however that your breath smells like ass and I suggest a tic tac... or a toothbrush, girly girl."

The cheerleader looked torn; as if she wanted to cry while at the same time she wanted to swing on Cala. Obviously she wasn't used to people standing up to her, let alone insulting her as Cala had done. She settled on running inside the building, face covered in her hands, with her little group of girls running in after her.

Cala ignored the look from the other students, some which were downright shocked she had said the things she had even while out numbered, and turned her attention back to Matt with a grin. "Looks like I'm not making many friends today.", she said softly with a chuckle.

His buddies came along and helped him back to his feet. The 3 boys gave Holeman wide eyed stares, to which he responded with just a grin. Holeman wasn't psychic but he knew he'd have to deal this them again, or individuals similar. "Gotta suck to get your butt stomped in by a little kid...Maybe it'd be a better idea to just leave em alone, yeah?" They responded with nothing but mumbles and things that couldn't really be heard, but Holeman could hear everything. Still he just grinned.

A cheerleader went running by in tears, followed by an entourage of girls who also looked like cheerleaders. While still shoving what was left of his chips into his mouth he watched, and could only shrug his shoulders at what was wrong with the girl. 1st hour was science, that sounded fun honestly. After that was English, then Math.

Amaranth's attention shifted off of the bullies for a moment who had made the mistake of picking on Holeman and onto.... was that Cala? Yes, yes that was Cala, and the Malkavian was already causing trouble it seemed, or maybe she was just lashing back at the girl in the cheer leading uniform. She couldn't quite think why the Malkavian was at school, unless she like Amaranth had never been before and wanted to know what the experience was like.

She watched as the cheerleader and friends went running past, the cheerleader obviously in tears, before she shifted her attention back to Holeman and the bullies with a soft giggle. She brought her apple up to her mouth and took a bite; the crisp flesh of the green colored apple making a soft crack of a sound as her teeth broke through the surface.

She simply watched, shaking her head. She figured that the bullies would come back again; they looked stupid enough to try after all. Before taking another bite of her apple she looked back to Holeman and grinned. "This definitely looks like it's going to be an interesting school year!" She pulled her schedule out of her pocket as another bite of the apple passed her lips, "What do you have first?", she asked after swallowing her newest bite of apple.

The head cheerleader, Britney Lawson. Eye candy. On the tips of every heterosexual male that went to Edge Academy's tongue. The envy of most all other female student. Who didn't want a shot with her? Even Matt once upon a time had a thing for her, though this was of course no longer the case.

Well, now her and Cala were going to be enemies, Matt could already see that and school hadn't even started yet. He rubbed his eyes in frustration, thinking all of this was starting to turn into a really bad idea.

Amaranth went here too? Hard to figure out why. She was a scientist, right? Maybe she was a teacher here or something. But at the current moment, Matt's whole focus had to be on whatever that blue stuff was. If it could cause explosions and throw people like that, maybe it was time to start learning some REAL super powers. Everything would help when it came to the rematch with the crime boss.

Stretch followed Matt while he went over to where the 2 kids were sitting. "Amaranth, hi. I didn't know you went here too," he said, waving with a grin. "What was that blue thing I saw over here?" Matt had himself a look at the boy next to her with the sunglasses and the red do-rag. He wasn't the strangest sight in the world but Matt knew there was more to that kid than met the eye. Stretch in the meantime kept staring at Cala with his hands in his pockets, fidgeting for something...

Figuring that she was likely going to get herself into trouble if left to her own devices she followed after Matt and Stretch over to Amaranth and Holeman. She glanced at the kid with the sunglasses and du-rag and then looked over to Amaranth and offered a smile and wave. Her and Amaranth had always gotten along, and she figured just because they were at school there was no point in acting any differently.

"Hello Amaranth. Decided to go to school to I see!" Cala's hands went behind her back, fingertips lacing together and remaining so while she balanced on the tips of her toes. It was almost like she couldn't keep still - and thankfully due to her being a Malkavian she never had to worry about being too still. That was always one of the worries when vampires tried to blend in, they were just too still, or too fast... Cala at least had perfected the art of fidgeting enough to look human, though that was mostly due to her short attention span compared to her actually having practiced.

Cala then paused as a random thought popped into her head; would Amaranth even know who she was? She did just super change her appearance after all... oh well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it. Her purple and green mixed gaze turned to Stretch for a moment and then to Matt, and finally to the kid sitting next to Amaranth, as she too wondered what that blue stuff had been and where it had come from.

"Oh that was me, sorry," Holeman responded first, finishing what was left of his bag of chips. "Some muscle head bully thought it was a good idea to steal the little kids chips, but never figured that kid could defend himself. Oh, and I have science first hour, Amaranth."

Holeman couldn't read this guy's mind, or get any sort of reading off him. It was strange, and made him frown somewhat. He'd never been blocked from looking inside of someone's head before, what was this?

There was the fat boy next to him, Stretch he was called. He didn't have the same blocks on his mind. The two of them were good friends, and had been since they were very little. Stretch was an "Operator" for Matt, who was really the guy he'd seen on the TV thing, that super hero called "The Vigilante." This revelation made him grin. Holeman was able to also see the situation that Matt was in with 2 former residents of Amaranth's island that was partially the reason he was hired into Amaranth's grandfather's Company, and after a long childhood of bullying, being looked down upon and tragedy, it looked to be exactly what Matt deserved. He could also see that he and Cala, the blond girl here, were close, and that she also worked for The Company. Holeman would keep Matt's secret, and now felt comfortable enough to tell him about what he just did.

Telepathy:

"It's not magic if that's what you're thinking, with enough practice even ordinary people can do it. It's a Chakra attack I call Hadoken. Where i'm from, we call what you call Chi Chakra. When you learn how to manipulate your own Chakra, some people like me can cause it to become solid." While explaining this, he caused a small blue sphere of Chi to appear in his right hand the size of a tennis ball. He held it up to show to Matt, Stretch and Cala, but not high enough for anyone else around to glimpse. "See? It's easy for me cause i've been doing this since I was a baby, but even you can do it with enough practice."

Chi Manipulation:

Amaranth looked over to what she presumed was Cala - due to the girl having not changed her scent when she changed her appearance and therefore she smelled like night blooming roses with a small hint of vanilla added in, Matt, and Stretch, as the trio walked over. She offered up a friendly wave and then brought her apple back up to her mouth, having the thing almost gone by this point. She bit off another piece and chewed as her silvery gaze turned to Cala when she was spoken to.

She nodded in return to the Malkavian's question, choosing to wait until she swallowed her food to respond verbally, "Mmhmm, I wanted to see what real school was like, so I decided to come."

Her gaze then switched over to Holeman and she grinned, glad to hear that he had science first hour as well. "Sweet! That's my first class too. I wonder if we have the same teacher.." She dug around in her pocket for a moment until she pulled out her schedule. She unfolded the the thing and then laid it out flat so she could see, locating quickly what she was looking for.

She noticed the blue glow out of the corner of her eye and found herself mildly distracted. She could remember many times in the past of seeing that move used, mostly from Mitsukai's memories, which were now her own. "I wonder if we're in the same science class...", she wondered out loud after a moment of staring at the blue chi.

Bullies were no surprise, Matt thought the grew from the floors of the gym locker room. Let's go pick on the new kid, he's puny, right? Now they knew that was a bad idea. Matt listened to him describe the the move he just did; it was a projectile attack he called Hadoken? It involved pulling out and manifesting Chi into physical form and attacking people with it. Could that have been that red ka-me-whatever thing that Xan the crime boss hit him with? Matt decided that he had to learn how to do that.

"Anybody can learn, huh. Can you teach me?" Matt asked. "Something like that would come in handy. I already know a lot about Chi from my Martial Arts school, but the Master never showed us anything like that. I wouldn't abuse it or anything like that, Amaranth will vouch for me, yeah? I work for her grandfather. I even helped her out on her island."

He was already excited to have a chance at learning how to use an actual super power, a power that anyone could use with the right training. An attack made of his own natural life force energy. After mastering the basics perhaps he could create his own unique finishing move...

Cala listened as Amaranth spoke of her meaning behind wanting to go to school and couldn't help but grin; it was the same as her own after all. She found herself wondering what classes they were all going to be in - especially with how brainy she knew Amaranth to be, she had seen some of the experiments that Amaranth had created after all, including that adorable but powerful pink thing she called Mew. Yup, Amaranth likely had no more need to be there than Cala herself had, other than the experience of actually going to a school.

Her attention shifted to Matt as he asked the kid with the sunglasses if he'd teach him and brought up Amaranth vouching for him and about the work done on the island. That day had been fun, and lots of memories too. She found herself wondering if there were more werewolves lurking around that island that needed a good ass whooping, she wouldn't mind doing it at all again, especially if it meant more time over there on the beach.

She kept herself balancing on the balls of her toes, swaying from front to back slightly while maintaining her balance, keeping up the human facade, and finding herself wondering if anyone was paying enough attention to realize she hadn't breathed in over five minutes - likely not, but still... she took a deep breath, the mass mixture of scents assaulting her nose as she did so: perfume, sweat, food, nature itself... and was that blood? She turned her head and looked over to her left where the smell had come from, her eyes falling upon a kid with a bloody nose. Yup, that was blood. She stared for a moment before shifting her attention back to the group.

"That day on the island was fun.", she said as her grin grew.

Holeman never taught his trademark attack to anyone, but that wasn't to say that he wouldn't. He continued to grin while trying to visualize Matt using the Hadoken. It was good that he already knew about Chi; that would make teaching it to him easier. Holeman would teach him how to harness his own Chi and the attack at the same time, he had no problem teaching him. The guy was a hero. He'd done a ot to help out everyone since he'd joined The Company, and there was a rematch planned with a crime lord? That would be really fun to watch. With the Hadoken in his arsenal Holeman thought Matt would win for sure. He motioned for him to come closer.

When Matt would get closer, in a hushed voice Holeman said, "The Vigilante, that hero guy with the black armor and the red V on his chest? I know that's you. I know you have something on you that can block out stuff, so I couldn't read your mind but I read your friend's. Don't worry though, I can keep a secret. I'm not even from this dimension so who would I blab to? Ha haa!" Holeman smiled some, dusting the last of the chip crumbs from his hands. "So listen... Manipulating your Chakra, or Chi, it can be hard for an ordinary person, but easy for someone like you, who's been training since you could walk. You have to reach down inside of yourself and pull it out. It takes a lot of concentration at first, but as you start getting used to it, it gets easier. When you can make a small ball like this one I think you'll be ready." Holeman gave the sphere in his hands a squeeze, causing it to poof into a blue colored mist that vanished like smoke after a while.

Amaranth grinned at Cala. Only someone truly crazy would consider being scratched by a towering fur covered beast as fun. But then again, they had accomplished their task rather well. Chuckling Amaranth spoke up, "Well, if you ever feel like wrestling with those monsters again.... some more have broken loose again. Really need to hire a better set of security guards for that factory.... they're slacking." And eaten, but that was besides the point.

She focused her attention from Cala and back onto Holeman, Matt, and Stretch as she listened to Matt and Holeman talk. She nodded when he said she could vouch for him, because indeed she could - they had done an excellent job in ridding her island of those fur covered beasts.

She then listened as Holeman explained how he could hear from Stretch's thoughts who Matt actually was; a slight frown fell upon her face. While the majority of humans lacked the ability  to read minds, other creatures didn't, and for the right price most people were willing to spill things that were otherwise secret. She knew Holeman wouldn't, but who else could read Stretch's mind? That was definitely a loop hole, one she figured she could fix later on - if Stretch trusted her enough to allow her to put in place a mental block so no one else could read his mind like that. But, here wasn't the place, too many distractions, and far too many witnesses. It was definitely something she made sure to make a mental note of later on, so she didn't forget.