The room the young man had stepped into caused a chill to run down his spine, there were no windows to allow the sun light in; the only light in the room was a small desk lamp that caused an eerie glow around the large man that sat behind the desk. Try as the young man might, he could not make out any definite facial features of the man at the desk. Another silhouette of another man was standing next to the one behind the desk, his hands placed behind his back; and red lenses shone through the darkness.

"Have we any reports on where they've taken him?" The man's dark slick voice cut through the air around the younger man.

"Seems he's been taken to the south city, sir." The young man stuttered around his words as he shifted on his feet.

"I see… Does the fool think he can keep him from me there?" The man's voice clung to the young man's ears like a bad nightmare.

"Um… I'm unsure sir... But we have been given word that he has finally merged with his Bit." The young man stiffened as the man behind the desk stood.

"That is wonderful news." The older man chuckled, placing a hand on the man's shoulder who had been standing beside him.

"Soon, we will have our prizes then, Dickenson can't keep them away from me any longer." He cackled, sending shivers down the young man's spine.

"Morning guys." Ray greeted as Tyson and Max came down the stairs, for once he had been the first to rise in the dorm and had beaten the other boys to the first floor.

"Morning Ray." Tyson yawned out, rubbing the sleep from his brown eyes. "Didn't think you'd be up so early."

Ray shrugged, holding his books to his side. "I actually slept pretty well last night." He smiled then eyed Max's cheeks where he had clawed away his flesh. "How… How are you feeling Max?"

"Oh, I'm fine Ray. Please don't worry about this too much, I've had worse." Max chuckled out, touching the scars on his cheek. "I actually think they're rather cool."

"Totally, makes you look like a bad ass." Tyson agreed eagerly. "Should we wait for the others or head out now?"

"They already left, I don't think they went to the cafeteria though." Ray frowned a bit as he followed the other two boys to the door of their dorm, nodding his thanks to Max as he held the door open for him.

"Why do you say that?" Tyson asked as he walked with his hands folded behind his head.

"Well, I didn't hear them go towards the cafeteria. They were heading to the office, but once they got inside I couldn't hear them anymore. I can't even hear their breathing." Tyson blinked a few times as if he was trying to understand what Ray had been telling him.

"You can hear that well?!" Tyson shouted in shock.

Ray nodded. "Since I merged the other day, I've been able to hear everything going on around the school. Its kind of annoying really, there's some things I don't want or need to hear either." He gave a coy smirk and the other two nodded in understanding.

"But since last night I haven't heard anything from inside the main building, when before I could." Ray frowned again as he climbed the stairs beside the other two boys. "And there's one person I haven't been able to hear either." He paused his walking, his frown deepening.

"Who?" Tyson and Max asked in unison, turning slightly to look at the neko-jin behind them.

"Wyatt."

"You can't be serious sir, not after all the crap he's pulled since Ray got here. You're just going to let him." Dickenson held a hand up, silencing Tala's tirade.

Dickenson's beady little eyes seemed to gleam from behind his round glasses, a stern frown on his lips under his white mustache as he pushed himself out of his leather chair behind his desk.

"I'm sorry Tala, but this is out of my hands now." He said once clearing his throat, his tone wasn't stern, but it gave the impression that there was a weight behind his words.

"You know the rules, as does Bryan." He paused and shifted his beady eyes to the lavender haired youth beside Tala, Bryan didn't flinch under the elder's gaze, if anything he looked rather bored.

"As I was saying, on top of losing your promised position Bryan, you will serve two weeks of detention and cleaning duties." Dickenson said after clearing his throat once more, Bryan shrugged his shoulders while Tala turned his attention to Wyatt.

The brown-haired youth was standing beside Dickenson's desk, a white bandage was wrapped around his nose and he had a smug smirk planted on his face as his brown eyes beamed in delight. As Tala's icy blue stare fell upon him his smirk grew wider, as if challenging Tala to do something.

"I'm really sorry it's come to this Bryan, but if you fall out of line one more time… I'm afraid… I'm afraid I can't help you, the Capitol will be called, and you'll be sent off to another school."

"What?!" Tala hissed, his fists clenching tighter and his knuckles turned white. "Sir! You can't be serious!"

"I'm more than serious Tala." Dickenson said, giving the red-haired teen a pointed stare in hopes of getting his point across. "My hands are tied in this matter, so please Bryan… Please behave from now on, I do not wish to see you go and neither do your friends."

Bryan simply shrugged his shoulders once more. "Fine by me sir."

"Thank you Bryan, you may all go now." Dickenson said and watched the others leave before he wiped the bead of sweat from his forehead.

The four boys walked out of the office, Wyatt bringing up the rear and closing the door behind him with the same smug smirk on his face. The other three already rounding the corner for the stairs, Kai leading ahead of Tala with Bryan behind them. Wyatt took his time, reveling in his victory as the other three disappeared down the flight of stairs.

"Now, for the cat." He muttered darkly under his breath.

Tyson paused momentarily as the three missing boys came and sat themselves at the table, all with trays of food. Tyson took notice of how rigid Tala's back was and swallowed the food before speaking, taking one quick glance around the table.

"There you guys are, where were you?"

"Don't worry about it Tyson." Kai said smoothly, eyes downcast as he picked at his food with a scowl.

"Okay… Um, well…" Tyson seemed to be at a loss for words, unsure of where to steer the conversation now. "There's been rumors that the scouts are going to be coming at the end of the month."

Ray paused for a second from taking another bite of his grits and looked over at Tyson beside him. "When did you hear this?"

"It's been talked about sometime before you got here, sorry I forgot to mention it earlier."

"Oh…" Ray's hand tensed around his spoon, remembering what Kai had told him about the scouts and what that might mean for him and the others. "How does that all work out?"

"The school will have an assembly, line us all up and whoever they're looking for will be called up." Tyson shrugged. "Last time the only people they took were Kenny and Eddie, sometimes they don't take anyone and other times they take ten to twenty of us. It all just depends on where your stats are, you should be fine though, since you just got here."

"He's not going." Tala cut in, his voice cold.

"Why not?" Max asked looking up from his food for the first time since the others had arrived at their table.

"Because the Capitol doesn't know he's here, not yet at least." Tala explained, crossing his arms over his chest. "Dickenson said they don't know yet, and he gave us instructions this morning not to let Ray go. Yes, the scouts are coming but not at the end of the month."

"When then?" Tyson and Max asked, Ray just watching quietly as his heart rate began to slow at the prospect of him not having to be at the assembly.

"Three days." Tala said, pushing his tray of untouched food away and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Is that where you guys were? Why didn't Mr. D send for us all then?" Tyson asked.

"Don't worry about it, Tyson." Kai repeated in a sneer, his red-eyes alight dangerously.

"Geez, alright… Sorry I asked." Tyson mumbled going back to his food while Ray looked over at Kai and stared at him, sensing something was wrong with the way all three boys had been acting since they got back to the table.

Deciding to steer the conversation a bit more, vowing he'd get his answers to his other questions later, he cleared his throat.

"If the scouts are coming in three days, then does that mean we won't have our challenge, Kai?" He asked, faking an innocent smile.

Kai's brow arched a bit as he looked over at Ray, looking as though he could already guess what the other was thinking.

"No, we won't." He said calmly. "And because of that, do not go accepting anymore offers." He narrowed his eyes at the younger teen.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Ray said, flicking his wrist at Kai's words. "Bells about to ring, I'll see you guys later." He said and dashed away from the table and out of the cafeteria, leaving a gust of wind in his wake.

The boy's day went normal as could be expected, Tyson was too preoccupied with worry about the scouts coming to really pay attention in any of his classes. Max did his best to avoid the pointed stares and hushed whispering behind his back about the scars that marred his cheek, some others even coming up to him to warn him of keeping his distance from the neko-jin. Bryan went about the day like the news from that morning didn't bother him in the slightest, while Tala's muscles had yet to relax and he glared at anyone who glanced at him. Kai was left to be himself, sitting in his classes doing the work and listening to every word the teachers said as the day passed on.

Ray, with all the noise from the other rooms and the other teachers talking, was having a hard time in all his classes. Unable to focus with the extra sounds and voices in his head, he was feeling suffocated once more inside the school and it was driving him mad. Even the classes he had with Tyson, Max, and Tala did nothing to help him. With Tyson by his side in math class, they were both bound to fail at the end of the year. With Max he heard every word the other boys said around them, and wordlessly apologized to his blonde friend for having attacked him. With Tala, the red-head seemed more distant than before towards him and it felt as though he was purposely avoiding talking or making eye contact with him during their entire period.

Ray's shoulders were slumped forward, and his speed had diminished with the weight that seemed to have been placed upon his shoulders. He had been hoping that he wouldn't have had a repeat of his first day of school, but as the day dragged on that's how it was beginning to feel. Even more so when he bumped into someone, not having been paying attention to where he was walking and with the extra noise in his head from around the campus he lost his balance and fell back onto the grass.

"Sorry." He mumbled, rubbing his backside as he stood and dusted his pants off.

"Should watch where you're going, you mangy cat." Dunga sneered, upon hearing the other boys voice Ray inwardly groaned and cursed himself.

"Just leave me alone." Ray bit out, picking his books off the ground. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you." He said as he turned on his heel to leave, his hair wrap snapping behind him.

"Too scared to stand up for yourself now that you're actually alone for once? You have to rely on those pathetic friends of yours to fight your battles, is that it? The pussy is actually a great big chicken?" Dunga taunted, the other two emerald eyed boys standing behind him snickering.

"I never asked them to fight my battles for me." Ray bit back, his anger mixing with his other emotions.

Any other day he would have simply ignored Dunga and the other two, but as he had been subjected to the whispers about him and the others all day it was leading him to his breaking point.

"Really, that's not what I've seen. I challenged you and you go running off and tell your buddies about it, just to get out of it to fight Kai."

Ray grit his teeth, spinning back around to face Dunga barring his fangs. "I did no such thing! If you must know, Kai attacked me to get that stupid piece of paper you gave me! He nearly choked me out just to get it, and I didn't ask for him to take your place. If you want to fight me so badly then what are you waiting for!?" Ray growled out, his pupils slitting.

"Ooo, touchy today, are we cat?"

"You don't know the half of it!" Ray bit out. "You don't know me, you know nothing about me and what I've done or who I am! All you've done is allowed your prejudice blind you because I'm a neko-jin, well guess what! I didn't ask to be me, I didn't ask to be born, so why don't you just get off my case!" Ray seethed, his fists clenching as he willed himself to control his anger.

Jolts of lighting were already surging down his back as he could hear Driger roaring in his mind, as if begging him to unleash his powers. He pushed the tiger down, trying to keep his calm about him, yet it was slowly fading and even more so when Wyatt came and stood beside Dunga and the others with a smirk on his face.

"We're not blinded by prejudice, it's quite simple why no one likes filthy mongrels like you." Wyatt began, his high-pitched voice nasally due to his broken nose. "All your kind is good for, is bowing down to us humans and accepting your places beneath our feet. No good has ever come out of a human and neko-jin being friends, and it's only been proven since you got here. Look what you did to Max, and now what happened with Bryan because of you."

Ray's anger doubled and then washed away slightly as he lowered his hands, his fists unclenching at his sides. "What about Bryan?"

"You didn't hear?" Wyatt asked in a high-pitched laugh. "Because of you, he's to serve detention for two weeks, he lost his promised position and if he steps out of line again he'll be shipped off to another school."

"But… But what did I do that caused that?" Ray asked blinking.

"It's simple really, you became friends with him." Wyatt shrugged, Ray shook his head.

"That can't be it, what happened?" Ray growled out, clenching his fists once more. "More to the point, what did YOU do?"

"ME?! YOU DARE TRY TO BLAME ME! Look at my nose YOU FILTHY ANIMAL!" Wyatt's face reddened as he shrieked out, pointing to his nose. "Because I was concerned for Kai, Bryan decided to punch ME in defending YOU! You put Kai in the emergency ward, and they weren't concerned for HIM AT ALL!"

"I fail to see how any of that is actually my fault."

"Then you are dumber than I thought!" Wyatt shot back, his face as red as a tomato from his anger. "Everything would have been fine if you just stayed wherever it was you came from, but NO, you had to weasel your way into this school somehow. Weasel and weed your way into our lives, because of you my nose is broken, and Kai won't speak to me now because of YOU!"

Ray had to suppress his laughter, shaking his head as his anger washed away from him completely at the child before him. He stood upright, clutching his books to his side.

"Listen kid, I'm not going to apologize for coming here since it was out of my hands anyways. As for Kai not talking to you, that's not my problem either. It's not my fault he's an asshole, then again he must be smart enough not to want to hang around you anymore." Ray shrugged his shoulders, his voice sounding bored.

"How dare you say that about Kai!" Wyatt screamed out. "You don't know him like I do!"

"You're right I don't, I don't know anyone really. Once again, that's not my fault kid. As fun as this has been though, I'm bored and tired so if you'll excuse me." Ray said as he turned on his heel again to leave, finding it useless to keep talking to the child.

"Don't you turn your back on me you filthy animal!" Wyatt screeched out as he lunged for Ray's back.

Ray hardly moved to the side, catching Wyatt's wrist in his grip. Lightning ripped across the sky and the thunder shook the school grounds, Wyatt looked up with terrified brown eyes into Ray's harsh golden ones, noticing his pupils were slit and his fangs bared.

"L… Let me go!" Wyatt cried out as he felt Ray's grip on his wrist tighten, the hand he was using emitting a lime-green glow under the skin. "I mean it, let me go! You don't know who you're messing with you filth!"

"Ray, let him go." Kai called as he approached, heat radiating off of him. Tyson and the others coming up behind him, making sure to stay out of his heat waves.

Ray's eyes glanced up quickly to lock onto Kai's threateningly and held them in a glare. "You knew about Bryan? You knew what this piece of shit did to him and you didn't tell us?!" Ray growled out.

"What Bryan did was on his own, so he has to face the consequences for his own actions." Kai answered coolly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Don't bullshit me Kai!" Ray yelled out, his grip on Wyatt's wrist tightening when he felt the younger male trying to squirm away.

"Kai help me, get this mangy mutt off me!" He pleaded, reaching out with his free hand to the older teen.

"Why should I?" Kai asked, hardly sparing the younger boy a second glance.

"Kai?" Wyatt blinked, his voice quivering in a hush whisper.

"You got yourself into this mess, I told you to leave Ray alone and like Bryan you have to face your own consequences." Kai said, barely flinching or changing his tone.

"Kai please!" Wyatt tried again and only got a snort in return.

"Hn, you're not worth my time kid." Ray spoke, and released Wyatt's wrist walking over and standing beside Kai and the others. "Come near me or my friends again and I'll break every bone in your body." He threatened to the still trembling teen on the ground nursing his bruising wrist, as if to prove his threat another bolt of lightning tore through the sky and the thunderous roar shook the school grounds.

"You… You filthy animal… You don't know who you're talking to, my father is the president! All I have to do is call him, and the military will come and take you away and put you down like the animal you are!" Wyatt shouted, before he could properly stand to finish his threat, Kai's arm came out and knocked him back. Wyatt's body crashed into Dunga's, sending both boys toppling over one another across the court yard.

As Kai straightened himself back from his attack Ray let out a whistle, causing the red-eyed teen to narrow his eyes at him. The heat waves around Kai intensifying, though they stayed around his body.

"Guess you do pick sides." Ray said through a toothy grin, Kai rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Good one Kai!" Tyson and Max cheered, jumping in the air and high-fiving each other. "Watch out!" Max yelled as a stream of fire shot out towards Kai's back.

Tala dashed ahead thrusting an arm out in front of him, shards of ice shooting out from the palm of his hand freezing the fire.

"Ozuma." Tala growled, and parted his legs slightly in a fighting stance as said teen's Bit form of a black leopard in purple body armor swished its tail agitatedly.

The leopard growled and dashed forward, initiating the fight. Tala didn't flinch, lunging out himself as his body transformed into his white wolf, the heat in the air chilling slightly as the two animals collided. Bryan went to step in and Ray held an arm out across his chest, shaking his head to him.

"You've already dug yourself in a hole, let us take care of this." He said, and stepped forward as Wyatt and Dunga untangled themselves from one another. "So, which one do you want?" He asked as he came up to stand next to Kai.

Kai simply shrugged his shoulders, the red glow of his bit in the center of his chest shining through his shirt and school vest. Ray smirked, his own bit glowing lime-green under the skin of his hand as the sky above them turned black from the impending storm. Tyson and Max came up to their sides, a light blue glow emitting under Tyson's ball cap in the center of his forehead while the entirety of Max's back glowed deep purple.

Across the field as Dunga and Wyatt stood, they both called forth the power of their Bits. Wyatt's a pure white glow off his right shoulder, while Dunga's yellow glow came from the center of his stomach. The other emerald eyed boy with green hair stood beside them, his own light-green glow coming from the center of his face.

A crowd of the other school boys all ran to the courtyard, forming a ring around the two sides chanting and shouting as they threw their fists in the air. Lighting tore down the sky, striking the ground by Ray's feet and once it left he lunged forward at Wyatt, the others following behind him as Wyatt's side came towards them to the center of the courtyard.

Chapter 11: Birds of a Feather Flock Together

"Sir." Kai spoke up, his voice cold and it snapped Dickenson from his ramblings. "I feel we're getting off track, aren't we? You gave me a job, that's all I'm doing." His back was now tense, and he leaned into the back of the couch, crossing his right leg over his right as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Just tell me why you asked to talk to me, the real reason."

"Yes… Of course." Dickenson said, blinking a few times and wiping his brow once more. His straightened his back in his chair, leaning over his desk as he set his arms across the top and folded his hands together before him. He cleared his throat, making eye contact with the teen across the room from him.

"He is on the move now." His voice carried around the room, strong and more put together than it had been previously. Hinting at the severity of what he was saying, watching Kai closely noticing that his jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed.