Act 1: Into the Light
Chapter 2: Game on
En, or Yura Seizou as he fucking hated to hear come out of people's mouths, hadn't exactly had the best trip on his way to Atlas. Being taken from his correctional school in the middle of class to see his stuff already packed for him pissed the guy off beyond belief. He hadn't even gotten to choose the belongings he wanted to take with him! He scratched his forehead that displayed two black lines that each went down and passed the center of his eyes before angling inward on his cheeks. En sighed as he laid there on his bed, wondering what the hell he could even do. He sat up from his bed as he felt the pendant around his neck. Said pendant happened to be a small circle with a hole in it and had some writing in Japanese on it.
His room was simple, in the same format as everyone else's, but he had thrown his clothes in a pile in the corner next to his desk and had filled a bit of his shelf with books. Some of the most recognizable books among them being Alice in Wonderland, the OZ series, and another fantasy book series that had never finished for some reason. Whenever he'd try to look into why the book series stopped, he'd always be met by the same article of the pro hero Vox talking about how he wished the series had continued and how the author was very close to him. He had eventually given up hope on trying to figure out what happened but still found himself rereading a book in the series almost every single week.
He walked over to the pile of clothes and grabbed a black long sleeve shirt, underwear, Jeans with tons of rips on them, and topped off with the same baggy white sweatshirt from the day before. After quickly getting dressed, he grabbed a book called "The New Age: Part Twelve" which was from the author that seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, and sat down to read it on his bed after propping a pillow against the wall to lean on. He opened the book to the first page as always and found the author's note for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
"To my dear sons, I can only hope this message and book will make up for the time I will lose here on this Earth. I love you both, and don't forget that."
En stared at the message as he kept sitting there. He always felt like the message was directed at him in a way. Like in some special way this guy was acting like the father he never had. But he knew deep down that it was never his message, and that somewhere this man's kids were reading the message with tears or some sort of grief. But to hell with them, he had a book that he was going to sit here and enjoy. He would've had a much larger focus on the book if he didn't have whatever the fuck his classmates were doing outside his dorm screaming their heads off.
'What the hell are they even doing over there?' En thought to himself before shaking his head and slowly losing himself in the pages of the book.
"COME ON! I WAS RIGHT FUCKING THERE!" screamed a six-foot two-inch tall teen sitting on a couch facing a TV holding a controller with a noticeable American accent. He put a hand on his chestnut brown hair and groaned as he dropped the controller on the couch. He closed his dark blue eyes and put his hands on his freckled face as he groaned. "I was RIGHT at the finish line! God fucking dammit!" said the boy and his quite muscular body covered with a white cotton t-shirt under a large white hoodie which itself is under a blue running jacket paired off with a pair of khaki pants as he sunk into the red couch.
"Come On Johnny, it's not that bad." said another six-foot five-inch tall male teen with a Brazilian. Unlike the now named Johnny, this boy was endowed with a much more strange appearance. The scales that covered his body were black with a sort of metallic glint, with the ones going from his neck to his pelvis being of a type of dark silver, and large dragon wings on his back were dark-red in the wing membrane. The dragon tail behind him was sat long the couch to his left opposite of Johnny so that he could have space and his head was just like that of the mythological dragon being above his neck, with a pair of palm-size dark silver horns growing forward from each side of his head, and his eyes having a reddish-orange tone. The redshirt and beige shorts he was wearing were specifically tailored to his mutations.
"Dude, I was right at the finish line before that banana peel fucked me over!" Johnny groaned, "This is why I would always play some other stupid fighting game instead of a racing one." He sat up from the couch and moved to the edge of the cushion. "Is there something else we could play Lucas?"
The dragon put a clawed finger to his chin and crawled down to the ground to open a cupboard that the TV and console were sitting on. Inside was a variety of video games on the top shelf, ranging from survival horror games that were decades old to open-world games that were just a bit younger. On the bottom shelf was a variety of board games that had long since gone into the public domain. What one would've called "Monopoly'' almost two hundred years ago would now have at least fifty different versions of the singular game. Due to Lucas' heritage from Brazil, he had even seen an off-brand color card game just called "One".
Eventually, Johnny got impatient and outright started to ask what was taking him so long.
"Well, there's quite a lot of games down here. It's kinda hard to choose…" Lucas said as Johnny rolled his eyes and crawled onto the floor next to him. They both eyed the board games more than the video games surprisingly.
"So what about we just play… Bankrupt?" Johnny asked, pulling out a box with the picture of a man in a suit with a monocle on the front of it.
Lucas thought for a moment as he glanced over at the other games. "Yeah, I don't see why not." He said as the dragon mutant moved over to the ground across from Johnny with the board game between them. The other teen opened the box and folded out the cardboard to reveal a gamepad with rectangles along the edge with one of the corners saying bankruptcy with a police officer blowing a whistle. As Johnny read the instructions he had pulled out, a look of confusion came across his face. "What's wrong?" Lucas questioned.
"Uhhhhh, I don't get the rules of this game…" Johnny responded, to which Lucas then facepalmed.
"You're telling me you've never played Bankrupt?" The dragon asked with a sigh.
"No…" Johnny said as he went quiet and packed the board game back up. After putting the box back, they yet again found themselves looking through the multitude of games at their disposal. Both were fairly clueless on trying to find a good game that they both knew how to play, and it likely would've stayed that way if not for a voice to interrupt their search.
"Hey, wh-wh-what are you guys doing?" came another voice with a hint of a Singaporean accent and a small stutter.
Lucas looked behind him to see the source of the voice in a five-foot tall teen with messy brown hair that gradiently turned black as the tips of it just barely touched shoulders with small grey horns protruding from his head through the mess of hair. His eyes were almond-shaped, and magenta in color. His clothes wreaked of comfortability as he was wearing a white sweater with black windbreaker pants. His body language conveyed a sort of unease that Johnny then saw as he turned his head to see the fellow student as Lucas had.
"Eh, we're trying to find a board game to play. Wanna join? Johnny quickly asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going.
"Oh, yeah… sure I'd be wi-wi-willing to join." The teen replied rather quickly as he sat down next to the other two students. "And sorry for not introducing myself, but my name's Blake." Johnny and Lucas both gave a sort of nod fashion as Blake joined them in the search for a board game to play. With the added person, and another mind to help in the decision process, they ultimately decided on the card game; 'Color Switch'.
Considering the easy concept, Johnny was very quickly taught the rules as Blake and Lucas explained it. Essentially the card dealer was to give everyone eight cards, and whoever culled their cards down to nil by placing it down when the color adjacent to the card was up would win. There were also special cards to swap the color from the four that were available. Along with others that would add even more cards to the person next in line for their turn.
What followed was Johnny getting absolutely destroyed in every conceivable fashion as Lucas and Blake started to continuously laugh their asses off. From the teen thinking he was going to win, only to be slapped by a plus-four card, along with a color switch card right when he was about to win again was what honestly made these sort of board games fun to Lucas. Considering his draconic appearance wasn't exactly handled well by his classmates as they started to come in when he was younger, this was a fairly nice change of pace all things considered.
Blake however was laughing too hard to even try and think as Johnny yet again found himself with another plus four card. His self-doubts of being there at Atlas having whisked away to the back of his mind as his laughter to hold. The fun he was experiencing was something he had been worried about if one of his classmates had something even remotely related to an aquatic quirk. In a way, he was happy with what he was going through right then, or at least he would've if Johnny hadn't gotten his revenge and given him a plus two card.
Kaoru hadn't exactly had the best trip to Atlas all things considered. Sure she had been able to pack all of her things in advance, but the girl had packed quite a bit as she stood in the middle of her room still decorating it. Said dorm was a bit barren at that moment aside from her tatami bed, posters strung all across the lilac walls, and a Peace Lily plant on her desk. She looked through the boxes as she placed her laptop on her desk and put some of her books on the shelf.
Kaoru was of Japanese descent and was five-foot and six-inches in height. Kaoru's hair was wavy, almost messy-looking midnight black hair that was cut into a shoulder-length, A-line bob. Her downturned, hooded eyes were a warm, chocolate brown, and were set into a round face with a straight nose, thick, arching eyebrows, and thin, bow-shaped lips that were the lightest shade of pink, almost as if she was wearing lip gloss. She was thin, almost sickly in a way as she stood in the middle of her room sifting through boxes.
She was in her own little world as she went on a sort of auto-pilot as she unpacked everything. Her thoughts going back to her parents at home, and if they were truly doing alright without her there with them. However, soon her thoughts were interrupted by the screaming of another individual outside of her dorm room, followed by an eruption of laughter from two others. Her head turned to her door. She rubbed her neck that was covered by a white turtleneck sweater as she got a bit nervous. Kaoru snuck over to her door and cracked it open. Outside of her door near the middle of the commons area were three of her classmates playing what seemed to be a game as they sat in a small circle on the ground.
They looked like they were having the time of their life as they kept bickering with one another. As she looked back at her room, Kaoru could tell she had made tons of progress in regards to unpacking everything. Wanting to get familiar with her classmates, and seeing how she'd be with them for quite a while, she decided to leave her dorm and approach the group in hopes of getting familiar with everyone.
"Hey, you guys mind adding another player?" said Kaoru as she approached the group of three. Said group turned their attention to her and was silent for a second before getting an actual response out.
"Sure, we're always open to more people!" said Lucas with a large jovial tone as he moved over to the side to make room for the girl. "You know how to play Color Switch right?"
Kaoru smiled as she sat down in the space Lucas had made for her. "Yeah, me and my mom would always play it when I was sick in my bed," She said as Johnny started to shuffle the cards and deal eight out to each of them. "If you don't mind me asking, what's all of your guy's names?" The girl asked as she eyed her cards. As everyone responded with their names, Kaoru felt more and more comfortable as she sat there. There was a keen sense of calm over everyone as they sat there, but right when Kaoru was truly feeling comfortable, another student made their presence known.
"Oi! The fuck is going on!?" came a voice with a heavy French accent, and as everyone turned to see the source of the voice, they were met with a quite strange sight. At a first glance, you would think you would have seen a girl, but upon a further glance, you would have realized that it was in fact a boy. Said boy was thin, extremely thin, and had a very lithe build. His skin was incredibly pale from what they could see, as he was wearing a very baggy black sweatshirt with the phrase "Nobody will do it for you." embroidered on it in a sort of bold font. He also had quite baggy dark blue jeans with a rip on the right knee. that covered everything but his head. His facial features were quite slim, with pronounced cheekbones. His hair was tied into a ponytail, and was rather long, with some grey intermixed with its pitch-black color. The most glaring feature he had however was the yellow eyes with a black slit in the center.
"Well, we're playing color switch. And… well, you wanna join?" Johnny responded with a very cautious tone. The new teen clicked his forked tongue and contemplated for a moment if he really wanted to associate with this little group. On one hand, he never really got along with other people that easily as his 'home' had seen to that. On the other, he was going to be spending god knows how long with these people. After a few more seconds of contemplating his situation, the teen made his decision.
"Fine, and before you ask, my name is Florian. I've had enough fuckers ask and hearing the same question over and over again is getting god damn annoying." came out of his mouth as he sort of forced himself in the circle in between Johnny and Lucas. After he got his cards, he quickly found the game to be rather easy as they took turns laying down cards. Eventually, after a few minutes of bickering, Florian found himself actively bored out of his mind as he sat there. Before long a little idea edged itself into his mind as he smiled, his fanged teeth gleaming as he silently laughed to himself.
Kaoru took note of his quiet laughter as she eyed her cards and admittedly thought it was a little suspicious at first. But she put it to the back of her mind as she continued to play and lay her cards down. The same cycle continued around and around as Johnny yet again found himself being the center of what he claimed to be a collective assault, a conspiracy against him you could say. Lucas chuckled as he laid down another plus four card for Johnny, said target slammed buried his face into his hands, and groaned as he sat there in the circle. After grabbing four more cards, his eyes were drawn to Florian. After two turns he had seemingly lost three cards. Now Johnny wasn't stupid by any means, so it didn't take him having to be a genius to know something was up at least. Besides, unless some random house rules were at play, it was quite literally impossible for Florian to have lost his cards that quickly. Lucas's attention was also drawn to Florian once it was the snake boy's turn. Lucas had been able to spot it due to his heightened senses, but there was a sort of blur around the snake's arm. It was so quick, that you'd think it was a smudge in your eye or something along those lines. That's when the suspicion started to edge on the dragon's mind. He wasn't cheating, right? As for Kaoru, her mind was a bit preoccupied with the fact that she was kind of stuck in between a bunch of people she didn't know. Her nerves were heightened just a tad bit more since she was going to be spending months, years, decades with these guys? Well, scratching the last part, she had to realistically look at the situation as it presented itself to her. She was stuck with these guys for a while, albeit she was a bit nervous, her anxiety over the whole ordeal was sort of coated by a vague sense of optimism.
Florian however, was quite the opposite in his mood at that moment. All he could think was about how either stupid or blind these guys were. The cards he was slipping was like child's play, with his mutations making it so much easier than it'd take for someone else. Sure, the dragon guy looked a bit suspicious of him, but hell, the guy probably couldn't count the number of good thoughts on his hand. Let alone how many times he had probably contributed to a conversation. But, when he turned his head to look at Lucas, there was a sense of hostility in his eyes. On the outside, Florian paid no mind as he laid down another card, but internally he was laughing his ass off. Doing this sort of stuff always got the best reactions, so when he did win, he'd be the victor on top of a mountain made of lies and deceit. Honestly, though, he wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a stupid game, after all, if someone was as idiotic and toxic enough to threaten someone's life over any form of a game, they must've really had something wrong in their lives.
Lucas laid down his card as he continued to eye Florian. Sure, the dragon had heightened senses due to his mutations like Florian, but his game sense over Color Switch was telling him something was wrong without his dragon-like features needing to tell him otherwise. "Hey Florian, mind grabbing us some snacks from the food line?" asked Lucas, obviously with a plan starting to formulate in his mind.
Florian's eyes squinted as he frowned. "Fuck no, get some yourself you dumbass," he said as a sudden onset of anger came across his face. How fucking dare this big fucking reptile bitch ask him to do something as fucking trivial as grabbing fucking FOOD. IT was right fucking next to him for god sake! Was it that hard to get his meaningless ass off the ground and grab good? Maybe it was a bunch of fat under those scales instead of actual strength? It didn't matter as Florian continued giving Lucas what seemed to be the most malice-filled stare the guy had ever experienced in his life. And all of this was just over a simple question to get some food.
This total overreaction knocked Kaoru out of her sort of auto-pilot phase as her eyes widened at the small scene. Johnny's suspicions were also starting to be heightened as he eyed Florian and sort of tilted his head. Almost in an attempt to adjust his focus in a way to see past the heavy anger on Florian's face and into his mind. "...Damn, okay…" was all Lucas said as he raised off the floor and towards a metal container with drawers next to the food line. After grabbing a few bags of chips and a box of crackers before walking back over to the circle and sitting down.
Blake had been silent the entire time, his eyes dashing between everyone as they spoke. His posture reflected his silence as his shoulders were a bit scrunched together like he was stuck forever shrugging. Blake felt like he was stuck in the middle of a war zone, so he was staying quiet, and so far it was giving him the win. He had around three cards, Florian five, Lucas six, Kaoru eight, and well… Johnny pretty much had the entire deck in his hands. He had the facial expression of someone who just had their legs chopped off and was still processing the fact he was never going to be able to walk again. Blake had been watching Florian himself, and he knew something was up, and since he had been paying more attention than Lucas, he had caught around five blurs of Florian's arms moving. Honestly, he couldn't tell how much had gone by.
This time, when Blake had gotten a plus two card he reached to grab a card from the quite small draw pile courtesy of Johnny. When his fingers made contact with the draw pile, a small drip of a black liquid came out of his fingertip. In a seemingly controlled manner, the drop traveled down the pile and slipped itself in between the cards. Blake internally smiled a bit, his quirk would probably be able to prove if his theory was correct. Unknowingly to him, this 'theory' had already been a heavily accepted possibility amongst everybody among them if they discounted Florian. After a few more turns in the circle, Florian had been given a draw two card. Blake sort of smiled a bit as he watched the snake mutant, who happened to also have a devilish smile on his face, pick up two cards. When another blur hit was caught by Blake's eye, Florian had already been down to one card.
"HAH, FUCKING IDIOTS, I'M GOING TO WIN!" Florian basically screamed out as he looked at the singular card in his hand. The snake mutant had a color change card, so he could make any play he wanted. But he damn well made sure that he was going to rub his victory in their faces. "You all fucking suck at this game!" he exclaimed as he saw Kaoru place down a yellow seven card. She looked somewhat discouraged, but to her, the fun she had didn't make her care about Florian's words. When Johnny was reached, with what seemed to be twenty cards in his hand, he just looked up.
"Shits bitchin…" he said as he placed down a plus four card and smiled over to Lucas. The dragon mutant sighed and drew his cards before looking over to Florian.
With one giant exaggerated motion, Florian slammed down his final card and screamed "Paint it black baby!" he smiled as his head rotated around the circle eying them. "Fuck all of you, that was the easiest shit of my life!" Florian said as he threw his arms in the air. However, Blake was getting annoyed, and initiated his plan. Suddenly, Florian felt a quick small pulse of pain and quickly stood up without thinking. That's when the cards started to fall out of the rip in his knee and he was left standing there realizing what he had just done. Everyone just sort of stared at him and sighed. "Listen, It isn't cheating if you weren't caught," he said as he crossed his arms and the black drop of liquid rolled out of the pile of cards back over to Blake.
Johnny dropped his deck to the ground and gave a small chuckle. "Sure it is man, sure it is." was all he said as he stood up and walked over to his dorm before entering it. Everyone soon followed suit, and Florian found himself standing alone with the pile of cards on the floor and the box they belonged to. His cocky smile soon turned into a frown as he looked at the mess before him. Hell, even the dragon had left out some wrappers from the snacks.
"I'm not cleaning this shit up…" he said to himself as he walked away. But, he then found himself groaning before rushing back haphazardly throwing the cards into their box, and the food in a trash can.
This was going to be one hell of a time…
Well, that's chapter two!
Firstly, I'd like to apologize for this taking so long to get out. I haven't exactly been the best mentally or physically recently and I hate to use that as an excuse. As for teacher submissions, most, if not all when I checked were accepted with people through Discord. So currently I don't plan to release the list here.
However, I'd like to thank you for reading the story so far. Life has been rough for a lot of people close to me, and one specific person that isn't here anymore. Just thank you for reading the story, your feedback and encouragement means the world to me.
Anyways, see you all in the next one. Please stay safe, and always keep your loved ones close!