Kobalt sighed as he tucked his hands into his pockets, all he wanted to do was go for a walk through the woods as the leaves changed color. So how the hell did he wind up in the middle of a cemetery? The fog had settled low on the ground cutting off visibility below Kobalt's knees and the wind blew hard, pushing his red duster up in the air behind him. The night air pushed through his duster and the black suit underneath, chilling him to the bone. Determined to find his way out, Kobalt began walking through the cemetery, hidden leaves crunching beneath his feat as he walked along what little of a path he could find through the tombstones. As the wind howled Kobalt felt himself getting lost as he walked, he barely knew where he was in the first place but now he couldn't find his way back to the forest path he had been on before. After longer than Kobalt would've cared to admit he gave up trying to find his way out. The cemetery just seemed to go on forever, and all the tombstones looked the same with the words weathered off of them. He stopped in his tracks and lifted his head up to the sky, late as it was at night the full moon shone down filling the cemetery up with a cold light.
As Kobalt stared up at the moon a new howl pierced the night, not the wind this time but the sharp howl of a wolf. And very close wolf at that, Kobalt head it loud and clear as if he had been standing next to the very wolf the howl belonged to. The air shifted before him and Kobalt ducked as the fog before him parted and a mass of fur shot past him. A hand instinctively reached into his duster and pulled out a large silver pistol, taking aim at the mass as it landed behind him. But as he aimed down the sights he hesitate, and the creature rose before him. Pushing itself off the ground it fully revealed itself to him, dark red fur covered its entire body, its breath visible as it passed through an elongated snout, and when its blood red eyes locked in with Kobalt's he felt a pang of recognition. The beast stopped dead in its tracks and rose to stand on its hind legs, it made no motion towards him but Kobalt could hear a low growling emanating from the beast. His instincts told him to keep his pistol raised as the two stared one another down, neither one making a move nor backing away.
That is until the sound of hooves on stone filled the air, and Kobalt turned his pistol towards the source. Out of the fog emerged another dark figure on horseback. Wearing a dark riding suit with a long cloak and a large collar, Kobalt was half pressed to call what mounted the horse to be a man. For there was a dark void where his neck was, and no head above it. Carried in the crook of his arm was a carved jack-o-lantern with wisps of green flames in its eyes. It reared its steed and Kobalt could feel the eyes of the pumpkin boring into him.
"A werewolf, a vampire, and a man devoid of his head in the middle of a cemetery?" A voice cackled from the pumpkin, sounding eerily familiar to Kobalt's ears. "Perhaps this is the beginning of my latest jest, I had not expected this when I set out tonight."
"Set out for what? What are you doing here?" Kobalt asked, leveling his pistol with the pumpkin head.
"You may relax my friend," the horseman said leaning over in his saddle and peering at the werewolf "My dear brother, is that you?"
In a moment of disbelief, Kobalt turned to face the werewolf once more as it let out a low, almost angry sounding bark.
"You gave me quite a fright you know." The horseman chuckled "Didn't I warn you not to leave the hollow?"
The werewolf let out a harsh growl in response, its eyes narrowing in on Kobalt.
"Now now, just because you can smell him leagues away doesn't mean you have to hunt him down." The horseman chided "If anything, killing him would make the smell worse."
"But it would remove yet another monster from this world." A feminine voice rang out from the shadows, this one sounding even more familiar than the horseman's. The wind picked up briefly and Kobalt saw the fur stand up on the werewolf's back as it settled back down to all fours. Even the horse seemed agitated, stomping its feet as if it wanted nothing more than to gallop as far away as possible.
"Three monsters together in a cemetery," The voice called out again, this time from a different direction. Whoever it belonged to was moving, and fast. "A same your graves haven't already been dug."
An uneasiness washed over Kobalt, the woman spoke with such callousness and assurance that it almost didn't fit the voice it belonged too. He was about to call back out to her with a question when a series sharp whistles pierced the air, he didn't even have time to react when he saw the bolts burst through fog. The horseman was first, a bolt flying into the pumpkin head causing it to explode as it continued on into his chest. As the bolt pierced his heart he fell out of his saddle and the horse ran off into the night. The sound of its hooves drowned out by the pain in Kobalt's shoulder, as another bolt had nestled its way deep into his flesh and his whole body roared in pain. He reached a hand up to remove it, but as he touched the bolt his palm began to burn. Pulling away he took a closer look, the bolt was solid metal and shined in the moonlight as the clouds gave way.
"Silver, you didn't expect me to come after you with anything less did you?" the woman spoke up as the sound of her walking towards them was only amplified by the silence now felt throughout the world. Her black boots were the first thing Kobalt saw as she emerged from the fog, knee high over a black body suit combined with a harness. In her hands was some kind of crossbow Kobalt had never seen before. But it was her face that sent shivers up his spine, calm and serious with sharp bronze eyes and long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail.
"Nickole?" Kobalt asked, his voice barely a whisper as the name clicked into place with the woman walking towards them.
If she heard him she didn't say a word but instead merely kept walking as if she had all night. The werewolf on the other hand looked at her with a visible rage in his eyes, it threw its head back and roared instead of howling and charged off towards Nickole with its fangs bared. She merely sighed as she leveled her crossbow with its head and loosed even more bolts into it. The beast fell over, dead in its tracks as Nickole kept walking, her pace calm.
"Perhaps he should've listened when I said silver." She added with a shake of her head, now mere feet from Kobalt. "Not that it would've mattered."
"Nickole what the hell is going on here?" Kobalt asked finally finding his voice again. Something was very wrong with all this, but for the life of him he couldn't place it.
"Nickole?" she asked, a hand reaching for something behind her back. In a flash she pulled out a large sharpened piece of woods and dashed forwards.
"Who's Nickole?" she asked, driving the stake into his chest.
"AHHH!" Kobalt screamed as he sat upright on the couch, the last images of his dream playing over and over again in his head.
"Woah you okay man?" Tristan asked somewhere off to his side.
"Yeah, I think so, just a weird dre—Ah!" Kobalt screamed again as he turned to face his teammate. In his place was the horseman from his dream, right down to the pumpkin in his hands.
"Holy Aura, dude you sure you're good?" Tristan asked, his head slowly becoming visible.
"Why the hell are you dressed like that?" Kobalt nearly yelled
"Dude did you hit your head again?" Tristan asked surprised "It's my costume."
Costume? Kobalt thought for a second before everything came back into focus. Right, October 31st, today was Halloween. And JADE had insisted on throwing a costume party for the few teams staying at Beacon. Tristan was going as the Headless Horseman, using his semblance to make his head disappear. Justin was going as the wolfman, and Kobalt looked over to see him with his hair down in a mess and the cheesy whiskers Carmen had drawn on his face to match the fake fur he was wearing.
"Right, right sorry." Kobalt sighed "Weird dream, I think I drank too much of that pumpkin tea earlier."
"Must've been one hell of a weird dream." Tristan chuckled "You don't even wake up like that from your flashbacks."
"Tell me about it." Kobalt laughed in agreement suddenly realizing someone was missing "Hey, where's Nickole?"
"Your girlfriend's in the room trying to fix her costume." Tristan smiled "Why you weren't thinking of—"
"Being a good boyfriend and going to give her a helping hand?" Kobalt suggested, trying to imply he wasn't in the mood for that kind of joke.
"Sure we'll go with that." Tristan winked, as Kobalt pushed himself to his feet. "Try not to be late, Count."
Kobalt rolled his eyes as he left the lounge and made his back to the dorm room. Entering as quietly as possible he spied Nickole in her corner of the room, not even seeing him as she turned her head to the mirror to try and see the back of her costume. Sure enough she was wearing the same outfit she picked out in the store with Kobalt, and the same one she was wearing in his dream. Fortunately there was no crossbow this time.
"Damn zipper." She muttered as Kobalt slowly closed the door.
"Need a hand?" Kobalt asked calmly as he walked up next to her. It took everything he had to not laugh as she jumped at the sound of his voice suddenly appearing so close to her.
"Kobalt? Damnit don't do that." she told him, playfully shoving his and barely managing to keep up an act of being upset. "But since you're here could help me with this stupid costume?"
"Sure what's the problem?"
"This damn zipper won't go up." she said turning around so he could see the zipper on the back of the costume was stuck about halfway up her back. In her fumbling to get it up Nickole had gotten part of her costume stuck in the track. Kobalt quickly righted the problem and pulled the zipper up to the collar.
"Thanks devil boy." She sighed, finally relaxing as her costume was taken care of.
"Devil? I thought I was supposed to be a vampire." Kobalt raised an eyebrow
"Dressed in red? Maybe, I don't really know scary stuff." She said
"Well it said vampire when I picked up the costume, maybe if it came with fake teeth." Kobalt shrugged "So what are you supposed to be again?"
"Oh I don't know, the character from that new Scarlett…whatever movie." Nickole shook her head. "I think she's supposed to be some spy, or maybe a monster hunter."
"I'm gonna go with monster hunter." Kobalt laughed "Aren't spies supposed to be more inconspicuous?"
"Yeah and?" Nickole asked
"Well maybe it's just me, but you kind stick out in an outfit like that." He went on
"Oh is that veiled attempt at a compliment?" she laughed
"Maybe." Kobalt smiled, earning a small peck on the cheek. "Come on, Jazz is probably done setting up that party by now."
"Jazz and a Halloween party, why am I shuttering about that?" Nickole asked
"I'm sure it will be fine." Kobalt insisted
Turned out Jazz had actually done a pretty good job setting up the party in one of the larger lounges in the dorm building. It was mostly filled with cheesy Halloween decorations to try and add a theme to an otherwise normal party, but apparently with Dore's help Jazz had gotten a glass pumpkin from Atlas that emitted fog and used it to serve punch. It certainly made the snack table an interesting area to hang around, though at one point in the night Kobalt found himself pulled away by Jazz for some kind of drinking game. Since Jazz was the only other person of age he hadn't expected her to set up something along those lines. Of course, the skeleton girl had no idea how high Kobalt's tolerance was and at one point became convinced he wasn't actually drinking. Not one to be called a cheater, Kobalt then proceeded to down far more shots than he probably should have in such a short amount of time. Resulting in Jazz calling it quits before she ran out of liquor.
Taking a moment to unwind, Kobalt looked across the party to see what everyone was up to. Jazz, having tucked her booze back in her bag to keep it safe, had joined the small group still bobbing for apples which consisted of Dore and Amy. The former of whom clearly didn't understand the Halloween bit of the costume party and came dressed as a military officer. The suit was so accurate Kobalt was pretty sure it wasn't a costume but just something she owned. After some insistence, Dore had let Jazz paint her face so she at least looked like a zombie officer. Amy on the other hand had used her crystals to make herself look like a purple version of some cartoon movie princess. Kobalt wasn't sure what the character was from, but the crystal gown and cape certainly looked like something out of a fantasy. On the other side of the room Carmen, dressed like some kind of robot with an electric cord as a tail, was redrawing the whiskers on Justin's face after he lost them bobbing for apples himself earlier. It looked like UMBR had cleared out, apparently Marigold had gotten them into a party downtown so the party was now missing the comic book superhero team they had dressed up as. Finally Kobalt spotted the rest of his own team chatting by the door. Tristan had given up keeping his head invisible at this point, mostly due to Amber insisting he make it visible after he jokingly suggested kissing the pumpkin he was carrying. In contrast to every other costume at the party, which was either store bought or homemade, Amber was wearing a very high end witch's outfit. Apparently she had borrowed it from her school's production team. Together the couple was chatting with Nickole, who had been left alone after Jazz dragged Kobalt away for her game. After the couple had left Nickole came walking back over to Kobalt, clearly glad to see him free once again.
"Finally escaped?" Nickole asked as she walked up to him "I'm not going to have to carry you back to the room am I?"
"I'm fine, maybe a little dizzy after the last few shots." Kobalt admitted "That should pass in a bit, where are the old farts heading off to?
"Amber doesn't know where the bathrooms are." Nickole said
"I really hope that's not an excuse to disappear for the night." Kobalt sighed
"I'm sure we'll see them again." Nickole laughed "Unless you want some excuse to disappear for the night too."
"Are you trying to take advantage of your intoxicated boyfriend." Kobalt teased
"Please out of the two of us I'm the least likely one to try that." She waved him off.
"Is that what you think of me?" Kobalt raised an eyebrow "That hurts a little bit you—"
Before Kobalt could finish he was abruptly cut off as the lights all went out with a sharp thud and a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the halls. As moonlight crept in through the window the source of the voice suddenly dawned on Kobalt.
"Was that—" Nickole started as Kobalt raised his hand with flames lighting the room up further.
"Tristan." Kobalt cut her off, already dashing out the door and down the hall.
Everyone in the lounge quickly followed him out as he rushed to nearest bathroom hoping everything was alright. When Kobalt rounded the corner into the dorm's lobby his heart dropped, as the blue light from his fire cast a dim glow before him, Kobalt began to wish he hadn't thought to light up the hall. There, lying on the floor was Tristan's body, his head violently severed at the neck and rolled on the ground next to him. The pumpkin he had been carrying around was smashed on the floor and blood flowed from his neck coating his suit and the ground a dark red. Amber sat with her back to the wall and the most horrified expression Kobalt had ever seen, eyes wide and her mouth open in a voiceless scream. When Nickole and everyone else reached the lobby there were more than a few stifled gasps as people saw the scene before them, their scrolls lighting the rest of the room more clearly. Taking a brief moment for his friend, Kobalt's grief quickly turned to rage and he forced himself to become laser focused as he slowly walked over to Amber.
"Amber, are you okay?" he asked, kneeling down next to her. Amber's eyes didn't move, they didn't leave their attention on Tristan's body.
"Amber." Kobalt spoke calmly as he put a hand on her shoulder, the physical contact seemed to bring back to life and she turned her head to Kobalt before falling into his shoulder and sobbing. She was shaking, hard, as if she had been left in the cold with no clothes.
"Amber I know this is tough, but I need you to focus for just a second." He said as she pulled away from him. Her brief nod was enough for him to continue. "Did you see what happened, who did this?"
Amber nodded her head again before briefly shaking it as if in disbelief.
"I-it was like a shadow." She choked out "It crept off the wall, and the next thing I knew the lights went out and, and…"
She broke down again, sobbing into her own hands this time as Kobalt kept his own firmly on her shoulder. Nickole had walked over to them at this point, and Kobalt saw she was trying to maintain a calm look on her face. Trying and failing, her eyes were as wide as Amber's.
"Hey guys, what's that?" Jazz asked in the distance. Kobalt looked over to Nickole and motion to Amber. She seemed to pick up on his thought pretty quick and took his place next to Amber, wrapping her arms around the poor girl. Kobalt stood up and walked over to Jazz, raising his hand to light the area she was now pointing to. On the wall in front of him, written in still dripping blood was a clear warning.
The horseman now properly lacks his head.
I pray the rest of you are real instead.
"Nickole, get Amber and everyone else back to the lounge and lock the doors." Kobalt said, the calmness in his voice startling even himself. "Jazz you're with me. And someone call a professor."
"Yeah give me moment." Dore breathed, tuning her scroll's light off as she started dialing. "That's not right, I don't have a signal."
"What?" Kobalt asked, pulling out his own scroll. Sure enough he didn't have signal either, one by one everyone left checked their scrolls and shook their heads.
"We're right next to the CCT, how do we not have signal?" Amy asked
"Everyone back to lounge now, Jazz cover me while I take care of the lobby doors." Kobalt said again, keeping himself as focused as possible.
"What are you talking about?" Jazz asked as he walked over to the entrance to the dorms. Using the fire on his hand like a blow torch, Kobalt melted the doors together.
"What are you doing?" Jazz asked again
"This is one of the only ways out of the building." Kobalt told her "All the dorm rooms are locked via scrolls and none of the windows outside the rooms open. The only other way out is the roof."
"So were going up there to do the same thing you just did here?" Jazz checked and Kobalt nodded "And then what? We'll be locked in here with someone who can ignore Aura and kill a Huntsman in training. We can't even get our weapons."
"Everyone save Amber can fight with their semblance, they stay safe while we check the roof. And then we hunt." Kobalt added bitterly
"Hunt?"
"This bastard killed my friend." Kobalt said approaching the stairwell "He's not getting out with his life."
Nickole was starting to wonder if the shaking was Amber or her at this point. Everyone had returned to the lounge the party had been in and Justin had locked the doors, but no one was talking. The silence was haunting, the only sounds to be heard were Amber's now slowing sobs. She hadn't let go of Nickole since she wrapped her arms around her back in the lounge, not that Nickole could blame her. She had watched Tristan get beheaded, the fact that she was this put together was nothing short of a miracle.
"Good news gang, lights might be out but it looks like power is still on." Amy said off to one side of the room, her scroll plugged into an outlet. "We can charge our scrolls at least."
"Better than nothing." Dore sighed "But did anyone else bring their charger?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Mine's back in the room." Justin said
"Same, I grabbed Jazz's out of her bag." Amy added
"We should go back to our room and grab more." Carmen suggested, her voice almost a whisper.
"We should stay here and keep safe." Justin countered "Wait for Kobalt and Jazz to come back and figure out our next move."
"If all our scrolls die from us using the flashlights on them we won't even be able to see whoever's doing this." Dore interjected "I'll go with Carmen to grab our chargers so we at least charge a couple of scrolls at once."
"Fine but get back quick." Justin caved unlocking the door.
"Our room is directly above the lounge." Dore reminded them all "It won't take long, and if anything happens you'll hear us."
"Be careful." Nickole warned, still keeping Amber close to her. Dore and Carmen nodded as they left the room.
"Justin, how are you holding up?" Nickole asked, if Amber was this bad she could only imagine how Justin was doing. When he turned to face her she got her answer, Nickole had never seen such quiet rage in his eyes before. If he found the person who killed his brother, Nickole had no doubt he would turn into the wild animal he was dressing up as.
"What is even going on right now?" Amy asked, sliding down against the wall "Why don't we have any signal? How did someone kill Tristan so quickly with his Aura up?"
"Someone's playing a game with us." Nickole realized "The writing on the wall, the way he died, whoever did it probably broke his Aura in a single hit."
"If that's true then what chance do we have?" Amy asked
"Kobalt's got this under control." Justin said
"He did seem surprisingly under control." Amy noted "How is he not freaking out about a murderer?"
Nickole and Justin briefly shared a knowing look, one simple murderer wasn't much to Kobalt.
"I think it's safe to say Kobalt's seen—" Nickole was quickly cut off by the sound of a loud thud directly above them and a voice broke out franticly.
"Carmen!" Dore shouted loud enough to be heard through the floor "Carmen!"
"I've seen my share of dead people." Kobalt answered Jazz as they walked down the hallways searching for anything that mind help them find the killer.
"That's why you're still calm?" Jazz asked
"That and the fact that I'm not going to stop until I find this guy." Kobalt added turning to face Jazz, almost positive that the look on his face was barely what one would call calm.
"How do we find a shadow?" Jazz shook her head "This doesn't make any sense."
"Everything makes sense, we just don't know all the facts yet." Kobalt told her "That's our focus right now, finding out whatever we—"
"Carmen! Carmen!" A voice rang through the halls sending shivers up Kobalt's spine. One look at Jazz told Kobalt everything he needed to know about what she was thinking, her eyes went wide for the briefest of seconds before she took off running.
"No no no no." She begged, running ahead of Kobalt towards her room. She threw open the door as soon as she reached it and raised a hand to her mouth to cover her scream. Kobalt walked up behind her to get a look in the room, flat on the ground and covered in scorch marks was Carmen. Dore was hovering over her, pressing her hands into Carmen's chest trying to preform CPR. By the time everyone else ran up from the lounge Dore had fallen back in exhaustion with tears in her eyes. No one said anything, they all just looked into the room in horror as Dore tried to compose herself.
"We just came to get chargers." Dore mumbled "Then all of a sudden her tail was stuck in outlet and…"
She couldn't go on, but it didn't take much for Kobalt to piece things together. Dore must've tackled Carmen to the ground to try and save her. But it was too late, Kobalt cursed himself for not making sure everyone stayed put in the lounge. Raising his head from Carmen Kobalt saw another message on the wall, this one burned into it.
Poor girl, perhaps she too needed to recharge
Come now friends, your killer is still at large
"Everyone get back to the lounge and stay there." Kobalt ordered "I need time to think, and we need to stick together."
Everyone slowly shuffled back down the hall, everyone but Dore and Justin. Kobalt walked over to Dore and offered her a hand up.
"It's not your fault." Kobalt told her, as he pulled her to her feet. "There was nothing you could've done."
"We were alone, there was no one else in the room I checked." Dore muttered "How did he…"
"I don't know, but I've got an idea." Kobalt told her "I just need to think."
"Right, right." Dore nodded quietly before looking over at Justin. "Come one Justin, we should get back."
Justin didn't say anything, he just looked into the room with his eyes fixed on Carmen. When he finally looked up he turned away from Kobalt and Dore and walked the opposite way down the hall. For once Kobalt knew exactly what was going on in his head, it was the same thing Kobalt was thinking but probably less focused. Find this bastard.
"Let him go." Kobalt sighed, pushing Dore along. "He'll come back once he cools off."
By the time he got back to the lounge Kobalt had noticed something else, Tristan's body was missing.
"So what's the plan?" Nickole asked him as he walked to the back of the room after locking the door. "You said you needed to think."
"Remember more like." Kobalt told her "I don't know what's going on, but I'd bet Black Knight is behind all this somehow."
"So you're going to force yourself to remember stuff?" Nickole asked "You sure that's a good idea?"
"It's the only one I've got." He sighed, sitting on the floor and closing his eyes. "Keep an eye on things for me, I'm gonna black out for a bit."
"Yeah, yeah you got it." Nickole said putting a hand on his shoulder before walking away. As her footsteps faded and the noise of the room was drowned out, Kobalt relaxed his mind and tried to bring up memories of any Black Knight operatives who reminded him of tonight.
Nickole took a deep breath as she stepped away from Kobalt, for at least the moment everyone was safe. Definitely not calm, but safe. Jazz was still in shock from seeing Carmen on the ground and Dore was mumbling something to a sobbing Amy. Justin was still gone, Nickole figured he'd do something like this eventually. And Amber was sitting in the corner by a window. Worried most about her one normal friend, Nickole started walking over to Amber to check up on her. That was when she noticed Amber was whispering something to herself.
"…too far, he thinks Black Knight is doing this." She whispered "People are freaking out."
Nickole froze the moment she overhead Amber talking, something was off. She slowly approached Amber, but she had suddenly stopped talking as Nickole got closer.
"Hey how are you holding up?" Nickole asked
"I'm getting there." Amber breathed "Is Justin okay? He stormed off didn't he?"
"Yeah, Kobalt doesn't seem too worried, neither am I." Nickole said "Justin can handle himself and he'll be on guard."
"Yeah." Amber sighed "I think he's having a harder time dealing with this than I am."
"I'm not sure about that." Nickole told her "You look like you're still in shock."
"Maybe I am, I really can't tell anymore." Amber said, pulling her legs up to her chest.
"Hey, we'll find out what's going on." Nickole promised, partly warning Amber. In the back of her mind, Nickole was starting to wonder how good of an actor Amber really was. She had been almost too convincing earlier. But at the same time, she had never left Nickole's sight since Tristan was attacked.
"I hope so." Amber said staring at the ground. "I just want this night to be over."
"You and everyone else." Nickole nodded "This has got to be the worst Halloween I've ever—"
Of course the moment Nickole opened her mouth things got even worse, before she could finish her sentence a series of thuds and the sound of breaking glass interrupted her. It was close enough that even Kobalt couldn't ignore it in his focused state. His eyes shot open and he burst out the door, trying to find the source of the noise. Everyone ran after him, following him up the stairs and into KNGT's dorm room. He nearly ripped the door off its hinges as he entered the room, only to see Justin impaled on his own spear. Blood ran from the wound and his mouth, it looked like it had just happened a few seconds ago. His eyes were still open and wide in shock, his mouth hung open letting the blood flow freely out of it, the only thing keeping him upright was his spear. It took everything Nickole had not to scream as she watched Kobalt walk over to their friend. Kobalt quickly closed Justin's eyes and was about to turn around when something stopped him. He slowly raised his hand to Justin's chest and closed his own eyes as he sighed.
"Where's Tristan?" Kobalt asked, opening his eyes and staring at Justin.
"Kobalt what are you talking about?" Jazz asked
"Justin. Where. Is. Your. Brother?" Kobalt punctuated each word with a hard emphasis
"Kobalt what is going on?" Nickole asked, a bad feeling creepy over her.
"This is what's going on." He all but roared, reaching around Justin and gripping the other end of the spear. With a quick tug and the sound of ripping tape he pulled one end of the spear out and tossed to towards Nickole. When she caught it she saw the huge mass of duct tape that had held a plastic copy of Justin's spear on his back.
"Where is he?" Kobalt asked "The longer this takes the worse it's going to be."
"Somewhere in the room." Justin sighed as his eyes opened back up and he stood up on his own, taking the long end of the spear out of his chest.
"Everyone stay still." Kobalt warned, pressing his hand to floor. Before anyone could ask a flash of blue light pulsed from his hand and pushed everyone a good distance away from him. The only thing that was out of place was the sound of something hitting the already broken mirror, shattering the glass once again. Kobalt slowly walked over to the mirror and reached out with both hands grabbing onto something and lifting it up before throwing it into the wall next to him. As the wall was dented, Tristan suddenly appeared against it, held at his collar by Kobalt's iron grip.
"I know you love jokes pal." Kobalt muttered angrily "But this?"
"You have got to be kidding me!" Nickole vented "You planned this whole thing didn't you?"
"Well, maybe a little." Tristan smiled sheepishly "I had some help."
"Who else?" Kobalt asked, his voice not wavering from his quiet rage for an instant.
"I'm not about to oust my lovely assistants." Tristan tried
"So Amber for one." Kobalt rolled his eyes.
"She had some friends make the fake head we used for my scene." Tristan admitted
"Our scrolls?" Kobalt checked
"We switched 'em all to airplane mode when you weren't looking." Tristan shrugged
"Who else?" Kobalt pressed again
"Sorry, not telling." Tristan insisted
"Justin?" Kobalt asked, not turning to face the other clear perpetrator.
"Dore and Carmen." Amber sighed before Justin could open his mouth.
"Seriously?" Tristan asked his girlfriend
"I told you this was too much." She shook her head "If you had just popped back into the lounge after a few minutes it might've been fine. But you went way too far."
"Was this supposed to be funny?" Kobalt asked
"Well, maybe a little." Tristan squirmed
Kobalt sighed as he let Tristan go before bringing a hand up to his head and shaking it in clear disgust. When Kobalt finally lowered his hand everyone let go a breath of relief. Only for Kobalt to wind up and punch Tristan square in the jaw, leaving him with a huge bruise and if Nickole were to guess a broken bone.
"Okay so here's what's going to happen. First, you're going to clean up the mess you all made pulling this stunt." Kobalt started "Second, every Friday for a month were all going to the most expensive restaurant we can find, and the five of you are paying for everything we order. And lastly, Tristan you're running laps every morning before class every night after class and whenever the hell I feel like telling you to. Got it?"
"Got it." Tristan gulped
"Good." Kobalt breathed "Jazz how much of the liquor do you have left?"
"About half the bottle why?" Jazz said, finally shaking herself back into focus.
"Because I need a drink." Kobalt said, heading back down to the lounge. "I swear if anything else happens tonight Tristan, I'm kicking your ass from one end of Beacon to the other."
A/N
Sorry for the lack of updates on KNGT proper, school and work just hit the proverbial fan the past few weeks and my focus has been shot. Between that and the multitude of stories I'm working on it's taken time to make any real progress on anything. Bright side is I have a decent amount of time off from work and school, a few more days a week than I'm used to for either, so hopefully I'll be able to dedicate all of that time to finishing and editing chapter 49 of KNGT.
Hopefully I'll also have the prologue of Debts and Bets ready to go soon as well. And maybe even a minor tease of the Fate/Stay Night fic I'm working on.
In the meantime; comment, critique, tear my work apart and point out all the glaring flaws if you feel like it. Just try to be constructive, I can't fix anything if all you do is slam it. I'l see you next time!