A/N: Wow. It's been a while, hasn't it? *dodges rotten tomatoes and various shoes* Okay, okay. Now that you all have gotten the violence out of your systems, I think it would be nice to get on with the story, don't you?

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters that I didn't make.

Angie P.O.V.

No mercy…

Alfred's words echoed in the back of my mind as the timer began to tick down again. Mercy was a funny thing. We could receive it, but we couldn't give it. How fair was that?

"Adam," I whispered. Said dragon boy whipped his head around to look at me. "Come here."

He grimaced and flew over. We began a small mock battle and carried on our conversation.

"What is it, Angie?" He snarled. I guess that was the best I would get from him. "We're supposed to fight if we don't want to get punished."

"Oh, but we all be punished eventually." I whispered and smiled a sad smile. "No one is safe anymore."

Adam faked a lunge and a small amount of smoke came from his nostrils. I flinched slightly and encased him in purple energy.

"Alfred is planning something." I muttered and faked a punch. "Something huge. He's planning something so large and revolutionary that we are powerless to stop it."

"What is it?" He asked, momentarily forgetting about his anger and resentment towards me.

"I'll tell you later." I turned. "Meet me in the park at midnight."

I released him from his purple prison and raced to the other side of the Gym. I stood near Rose and narrowed my eyes in on the fireball heading towards my face.

I flipped to the side quickly. Alejandro was trying to get revenge on me from the last round, I guess. The fireball he sent out flared close to my head and I could smell a slight odor of burning hair. I set up a small purple orb around myself and walked to the metal contraption that Rose was connected to.

"Angie!" Rose whispered. "Don't try to end the game too early! You know Alfred hates that!"

"And you know that I hate Alfred." I whispered back. "He knows that too. He should be grateful that I even showed up."

I pressed the large red button on the locking mechanism and watched as Rose was released. The timer stopped and the game was over.

Angie, Alfred's voice rang over the earpiece. You know we don't like to end the game with the opponent still conscious.

I ignored his voice and walked over to Alejandro. I held my hand out to him in a gesture of peace. He glanced down at my hand and frowned. I slowly lowered my arm once I realized he wouldn't shake my hand.

"You're the villain." He muttered. "La villana. Why would you want peace between us?"

"I'm not the villain here." I looked at the floor but kept my hand in place. "Talk to Adam and Jeremy. Tell them to lead you to our meeting later."

I turned on my heel and left the Gym without a second glance.

If I can get through to those three, then perhaps I'll have enough support to start a little rebellion. With Ron's smarts, we can build a device to give others immunity against Alfred's powers. The real trick will be carrying out the plan without getting caught by Luke or Phillip.

"You saw her!" A deep voice shouted from around the corner. "She's not like the others!"

I ducked into an empty classroom closed the door. I pressed my ear against the wood and strained to hear the rest of the conversation.

"You know the saying, bro." A different voice said. "Once a villain, always a villain."

I froze as the shadows of Speed and Lash walked in front of the door. I crossed my fingers and held my breath.

"What if she didn't choose to be a villain?" Lash asked. "What if she was forced like we were?"

Speed sighed and leaned against the door.

"Let's not talk about Gwen right now." He muttered. "Let's focus more on Angie, or should I say Amethyst? "

"Don't call her that." Lash growled and I heard a loud thump against the wall. In my mind's eye I could see him pinning Speed against the door and holding a fist in the plump boy's face. "Only I can call her that."

"Okay, chill." Speed soothed his friend and let out a sigh of relief once he was let go. "What did she tell Alejandro earlier?"

"Something about a meeting with Brisingr and North." Lash responded and his voice began to fade as they continued walking down the hall. "I'm going to stick next to those guys to see if I can listen in on it."

I was about to be in the clear and push the gate open when I felt a tickling sensation in my nose. Obviously the room I was in hadn't been cleaned in a while.

"Oh no." I whispered and the tickling became a slight burning sensation. "Please, no!"

All of my pleading failed as I let out a seemingly loud sneeze in the quiet hallway. I froze in place as I strained to hear if Lash and Speed would come back.

"Did you hear that?" Lash asked and ran back to the hallway. Speed made it there long before the stretchable boy and began to scope the hallway out.

"Shit." I whispered. There was no possible way I could get away without them finding or seeing me. Hopefully I could just sit tight and they would go away.

I pressed myself into a small dark corner of the room and kept quiet. Eventually, Speed and Lash left muttering about how they must be hearing things. I waited for several minutes until the bell rang and I was sure that no one would see me emerging from an empty classroom.

I made my way to the lunchroom and to the Patroller's table. I smiled at Rose and gave a polite nod to Ron, Sabrina, and Juliet. Luke and Phillip ate by themselves at the other end of the cafeteria. I sat across from Juliet, who was sitting next to Rose. I lifted an eyebrow at the light blush on Juliet's cheeks. It was no secret that she has a crush on Rose. I just can't believe that Rose couldn't tell.

"Where have you been?" Rose leaned across the table in full-on ranting mode. "I was worried sick! I thought Luke had gotten you, or Alfred, or Phillip, or-"

"Rose!" I cut her off. "I'm fine! I just took a walk down the hall to calm down after what happened earlier."

Rose dropped the subject, painfully aware of how haywire my emotions were at the moment.

"So." Ron butted in and looked at me. "About the device?"

"I was thinking that we could create some kind of mind protection chip." I explained. "Once we get the party started, we'll need to keep everyone on our side."

"You're right." Ron looked out into space. "Perhaps we could take a look at the monitors that are installed in the mind readers and, somehow, reverse the polarity of it."

"Keep their thoughts in and protected, instead of public and influenced." I nodded, finishing our plan. "The question is, how will we get our hands on a chip?"

"I have an idea…" Rose muttered and glanced across the cafeteria at our old table. I followed her gaze and locked eyes with Lash.

I felt my cheeks redden and I dropped my eyes to the floor. When I looked back up, Lash was looking away and had a slight smirk on his face.

He's still pleased that he has that effect on you after all this time.

I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped no one would see the blue color swirl in my irises. When I opened them, Rose was looking at me with a worried expression.

"What?" I asked in a harsh tone. Alarmed at my sudden change, Rose shook her head and turned to Juliet. The two began a quiet conversation and left me alone for the rest of the lunch period.

I raced out of the cafeteria before the bell rang and turned down the first hallway I could find.

"Angie?" Lash called after me. "Wait up! I've been looking for you!"

I panicked and began to walk faster, almost running through the halls. I ignored his calls and hoped that I could get away in time.

Lady Luck was not on my side as I felt a pair of stretchy limbs wrap around my waist. Once he touched me, my worry and stress fled. There was no Alfred and no Luke. There was only me and him.

I shook those disturbing thoughts out of my brain. I'm falling for him way too fast. I need to take a step back and think about my feelings.

"This brings back memories, doesn't it?" Lash muttered against my head. In the midst of my inner musings, he had pulled me against him and into an empty room.

Why are there so many empty rooms?!

"Lash." I whispered.

His head perked up, like a puppy that just saw his master after a long trip.

"You should let me go."

His hopeful eyes dimmed and took on an almost sinister light.

"Not until I get my revenge."

Crap. I had forgotten about that.

Adam P.O.V.

That's strange.

During lunch, Rose had been staring at Jeremy. I'm surprised she wasn't staring at Alejandro. Ever since he and Tabitha broke up (for reasons unknown), Alejandro had been getting closer to Rose. Of course, I could never point out the fact that I was right about her feeling for him. An angry Rose has thorns. Thorns that like to shock you.

Then Angie glanced over and made eye contact with Lash. She even BLUSHED. Once she looked away, Lash turned to me.

"She still has the hots for me, doesn't she?" He smirked.

I growled in response and he dropped the subject. After a while he left and followed Angie somewhere.

Jeremy and I also left and went to our next class. Along the way, he complained about his powers.

"I mean, COME ON!" He yelled exasperatedly. "I can move stuff with my mind, big whoop! What am I gonna do, bang a villain against a wall until he or she passes out? No."

I laughed and pictured Jeremy doing such a feat. He would probably bring a book or something to read while the villain is being slammed into objects in the background. Eventually, we got to the subject of lunch. Jeremy stopped walking and looked me in the eyes.

"Why was Rose staring at me?" He whined.

I shrugged.

"Knowing Rose, it can't be good."

Jeremy's face paled and he glanced behind us and around the hall.

"Relax!" I chuckled. "You know I'm just fucking with you."

Jeremy glared his prima donna glare and put his hands on his hips.

"Jerk." He muttered and turned away from me.

Suddenly, he was grabbed by a pale-white hand and was pulled into a nearby closet. I spiraled around and nearly tore the door off its hinges. I growled at the strange hero in the room. I had seen him around Rose and Angie before, this skinny, black haired, emo-looking student. He was also one of the Patrollers.

"Why did you grab him?" I snarled. "His thoughts haven't been out of line!"

I could have sworn I heard Jeremy mutter something about "not yet they haven't". I ignored him and grabbed the skinny kid and pinned him against the wall. In a flash, a huge distortion of air rush towards me and I was knocked back. Unfortunately, I collided with Jeremy and knocked him out.

Sonic waves. Damn it. And the only one who could help me was unconscious.

Double damn it.

I snarled and attempted to grab Jeremy and run for it, but the door slammed shut.

"Fuck." I muttered. There were only two ways to get out of this predicament. I could knock the guy out or knock the wall down. It was more likely that the wall would go before the guy.

"Oh, calm down." The sonic blaster said. "My name is Ron. I have a very special assignment for your friend here."

I felt my upper lip curl and I had to swallow back a growl. Being violent wouldn't help me here. WWRD? What Would Rose Do?

"Does that assignment include kicking your ass if you don't tell me what's going on?"

Yup. That's what Rose would do.

Ron rolled his eyes and pulled a small syringe from his pocket. I flinched and moved back a step. His eyes zoomed in on my movement and a smirk danced across his features.

"Don't tell me." He chuckled. "Big, bad Dragon Boy is afraid of needles?"

I growled again. It's not my fault they hurt! I'm just lucky that I hardly ever get sick. I hate needles! Stupid prickly things from Hell.

Ron walked towards Jeremy with the empty syringe. I snarled and tried to move him out of the way, but with one wave of that needle, I was forced to retreat.

Ron placed the syringe at the base of Jeremy's neck and pushed the plunger down. Once it was all the way down, he pulled the plunger back up. Slowly, a small, round device entered the empty syringe and Ron then took the needle out and removed the small device.

"What the fuck is that?" I asked and edged my way over.

"This," Ron explained and placed a small Band-Aid on the area he pricked, "is the device that monitors your friend's thoughts."

I glanced at the small, bug-looking object and grimaced.

"They couldn't have picked a less creepy design?" I asked and poked it.

"Don't touch it." Ron snapped and pulled it away from me. "This is a delicate piece of machinery. It is designed to latch on the spinal cord and transmit the neural impulses to a nearby monitoring system. Once it's there, the impulses are coded into readable thoughts."

"…"

Ron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It's not my fault I could only understand half of what he said.

"The robot reads minds and sends it to a computer." He simplified.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?"

Ron face palmed and ushered me out the door.

"Surely you need to get to class?" He asked. "I'll take care of Jeremy and make sure that he gets fixed up."

"Why did you even need that thing?" I gestured to the device in his pale hand.

"You'll find out during the meeting tonight." Ron assured me. "Make sure you aren't followed and arrived ON TIME. I cannot stress how much tardiness pisses me off."

"Calm down, Drama Queen." I laughed.

"Shut up and go to class before I report you." Ron snarled and slammed the door. I could hear slight shuffling and then silence.

I sighed. I couldn't even get one last glimpse of Jeremy before the door closed. I don't like it when my friends are separated like this. I shoved my slightly depressing thoughts aside and walked down the hallway. Once I turned the corner, I caught sight of Lash pinning someone against the lockers.

"Lash." I called out. "Leave the poor sidekick alone."

Lash twisted his head around and smiled at me. Suddenly, he yelped in pain and pulled his arms back to himself.

"She bit me!" He yelled. "That little bitch bit me!"

"I can't BELIEVE I liked you!" Angie yelled.

Wait…Angie?

"You're such an insufferable pig!" She ranted and poked his chest. "You care about no one but yourself and you're so PERVERTED! It's ridiculous!"

"Angie," Lash explained calmly. "I told you I would get revenge. You should have been expecting this."

"THIS?!" Angie pulled aside the collar of her shirt to reveal a light purple mark on her neck. "THIS IS YOUR IDEA OF REVENGE?!"

"Dude," I said. "You gave her a hickey? Not cool."

"It was for me." He chuckled.

"I can't believe I thought you had changed." Angie whispered and turned away. "You're the same pig you always have been."

Lash shrugged and cheerfully whistled as he walked away. As soon as he turned around the corner, Angie's eyes flashed red and she punched the locker she had been pinned against minutes before. The locker door melted slightly from the energy that was encasing her hand.

"That…that…" She sputtered indignantly. "THAT BASTARD!"

I took a small step back and gave her some space as she ranted and punched the locker. Once she was done, she seemed to fully register my appearance.

"Oh." She said bashfully with a blush on her face. "My bad. Do you know whose locker this was?"

"Lash's." I smirked.

With one last war cry, Angie covered the locker in purple energy and ripped the door off.

"You are so getting detention." I chuckled. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"That's the idea." She said and walked away.

I stood there in an empty hallway next the remnants of Lash's locker and I scratched my head. How could she be furious one minute, then sad, then shy, then calm?

"I'll never understand women." I muttered and shook my head.

"BRISINGR!" Coach Boomer yelled. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THAT LOCKER?!"

"Fuck."

This is the last time I hang out with Angie when she's mad.

A/N: There you go! Chapter 2! Just so you guys know, I am planning to make a third installment of the Industria series. I just came up with that name. Just now. Aren't I awesome? Anyways, I'd like to thank those that reviewed! It warms my heart when I hear about how much you guys like the story :3

You know the drill. R & R, my minions.