Episode 5: Sensitivity Training

Normally, I would post a special episode right after every fifth episode buuut…I'll reconsider.

Unsurprising to others, Rippen didn't actually teach, and only told his students to express their artworks in their own manner. Of course, whenever they did, he would always fail them. Penn and Verge always liked to annoy Rippen with their wacky ideas, and it was Verge who told the redhead to paint on the ceiling and it was Penn's idea to draw paint himself in a godly form. The art teacher didn't seem to care either way, so the fourteen-year old boy just went at it. Boone already started sculpting a centaur version of himself and Sashi went for simple abstract art.

That morning, the heroes were working on their masterpieces when their teacher suddenly said, "Class, I want you to remember that trying is pointless, and that you're not good enough to succeed. Ever."

"Is he speaking out of personal experience?"

The class laughed, not even bothering to know who said that. Penn laughed as Verge, the one who spoke out, and her small head popped out. She did a tiny fist bump with him and smirked at Rippen.

The part-time villain, who knew exactly who the voice belonged to, squinted his eyes at the fairy.

Verge squinted back, as if having a silent conversation with him. You can't call me out because I'm not your student.

One of these days, Divergent…

Suddenly, Boone seemed to drop his bucket of clay and it splattered all over Sashi's canvas. The hotheaded girl was instantly fuming. Boone clasped his hands together. "Okay…so that may have been my fault…" He smiled apologetically.

But Sashi was not so forgiving. She leapt up, kicked her foot at Boone's statue, and the head fell off its horse body.

The brunette boy shrieked his usual girly shriek as he knelt to the floor. "Centaur Boone, no!" He sobbed as he held the broke statue's head.

Rippen didn't even look swayed as he spoke. "That's it, Sashi, Boone, V—Penn, report to principal Larry's office."

"Wait, what did I do?" Penn exclaimed, seeking justice.

"Do you claim you weren't the one who made that terrible remark at my attempt to lecture the class?"

Penn opened his mouth to speak and immediately closed it, sighing as he got off his elevated ladder. Verge patted his hair from her position. "Sorry, Zero," she whispered. She glared at Rippen once again as the heroes left the room. You snake.

Rippen only smirked. Ha. Ha.

Once they were out, Verge quickly flew out of Penn's hair and slipped through the hole of his locker. She tinkered in there for a few seconds before opening the door. She flew back to Boone and handed him an orange candle labelled "In Loving Memory" and "Centaur Boone (Monday 8:32am-8:51am)". It had the statue's picture on it and everything.

Boone sniffed gratefully at the gift. "It's perfect," he whispered, bringing out a match to light the candle.

Penn and Sashi only stared in shock. "How did it only take a few moments for you to put that together?" Penn asked, dumbfounded. "And why was there even a candle in there? And—"

"Shhh Zero, I don't tell you everything."

They arrived at Principal Larry's office in short time, who was sitting behind his desk sorting out some pamphlets. The small part-time minion nearly lit up when he saw the heroes. "Hi Penn! Hi Boone! Hi Sashi! Hi Verge! Come outta there you little rascal, this is a safe environment!"

The fairy did fly out of Penn's hair and grew to human size but she was still reluctant. "I don't have my vest today—"

"Sit down, sit down!" The four went to do so, with Verge sitting at Penn's right. "I don't often get guests! Well, I technically do, since Rippen's always sending people here. And come to think of it this isn't the first time I saw you four here, also I'm pretty sure you were here yesterday—"

"We're here," Penn interrupted hastily. "because Sashi destroyed Boone's artwork."

"Not after he destroyed mine first!" the brunette yelled, standing up from her seat.

Boone only hung his head over the mourning candle. "I didn't even get to finish the right arm…"

"You know this reminds me of a story!" Larry piped up, as Sashi sat back down to look away angrily with her arms crossed. "I was in the cereal section of a supermarket and I found that in one of the boxes, you could get a free tattoo! I dug through six boxes and still couldn't find that dang temporary tiger fighting a dragon tattoo! Then the clerk said, 'Sir, you need to pay for those before opening them? Also, those are boxes of cat food also, this is a dream—'"

"I don't mean to change the non-subject," Penn interrupted again. "But shouldn't we be talking about why we're here?"

"And how exactly," Verge started, her wings fluttering as she squinted. "did Sashi's situation remind you of that?"

Larry just shrugged, a smile still on his face.

"I can tell you!" Sashi said loudly, glaring at the person beside her. "Boone is like a moronic tornado ruining everything in his path!"

"Again, that didn't really relate to my question—but right, Penn's question, that's fine I guess."

"You know Sashi," Larry began, leaning on his table. "Let me tell you a little story. This one time I was on the football water boy squad. No one would try my homemade water. Said they only wanted regular water. So that's what I gave them…"

The tone of his voice at the last sentence made Verge shiver. "What's your point?"

"I learned to overcome my anger by learning how to express my feelings!" The principal took one of the pamphlets he had been sorting earlier and handed one to Sashi. "I got so good at it that I now teach a workshop: 'Dare to Care and Share with Principal Larr…y'!"

Sashi sighed in exasperation. "Let me guess. You're gonna make me go there for detention, aren't you?"

"Don't be silly! I'm makin' all of you go!"

Verge cleared her throat. "Riiight but I'm not a student? So…"

"You better go too, or else I'm never letting you hug Tony again!" He said it so cheerfully, it was hard to tell it was a threat.

The four exchanged worried glances just before the bell rang.

"Time for your second period!" Larry sang. "Ya'll better get going. " He made them stand up and pushed them out of his office. "See you four tonight, at the gym!" With his final word, he slammed the door.

"Huh," Penn said blankly. "Guess we're going."

Boone shrugged. "Good thing we don't have work today?"

That night, the four heroes were seated cross-legged on the gym floor, along with other schoolmates and even adults they didn't recognize. A wheel was placed somewhere not too far from the circle they made. Verge was seated in between Penn and Boone, and was tugging at her red vest nervously. Penn was the first to speak up. "You know, Sash, maybe this isn't gonna be as bad as you think. It could actually help you!"

"A, I don't need help, and B, clearly no one else wants to be here either."

Just then, the lights dimmed, the people in the workshop began cheering, and a sudden spotlight was pointed at the gym's seats. Larry was at the very top, and he seemed to be attached to a rope and had a shiny red cape behind him. He also had a mini mic hung on his ear – the ones they use in theaters and plays – and he spoke into it as he jumped off the seats and flew down to his class. "Welcome to Dare to Care and Share with Principal Larr…"

"…Y!" The crowd cheered loudly for the small man, but Penn and Sashi looked confused.

Verge pouted and crossed her arms. "He could've asked me to handle special effects. Or help him fly down here easily. Everyone would've loved it."

Penn looked to his right and looked even more confused. "Uncle Chuck, Aunt Rose. What are you guys doing here?"

"Larry's helping us with some issues we're having with the Chinchilla," Uncle Chuck replied.

Aunt Rose picked up the small animal and cooed at it. "Who's an emotionally complex the Chinchilla? You are!"

The Chinchilla very clearly wanted to get away from her. Penn and Verge exchanged looks. "Can't blame him for anything," she remarked. The redhead h=nodded solemnly.

Larry pressed a button on a keyboard nearby and suddenly had a mic in his hand now and for some reason, began singing to a beatbox beat.

"In a funk, and you don't know why

You get so mad you wanna cry

How would you like a slice of baloney pie?

Let's talk about our feelings!"

"Let's not," Sashi grumped. "And never say we did."

The principal just rushed over to the wheel from earlier. "It's time for the Wheel of Feels and our first exercise! Aunt Rose?"

The woman stood and went to spin the wheel happily. "Ooh, so exciting I can't stand it!"

The wheel landed on the words "Nose to Nose".

"Ooh, nose to nose!"

"Is that literal?" Verge wondered aloud. She suddenly grabbed Penn's head and pressed her nose against his.

Penn's cheeks instantly turned red and he pulled away, covering his nose. "Verge!"

"Are we done here?"

"It doesn't work like that, dum-dum!" Larry sang. He made Verge stand and placed her beside a random girl. "Eyes are like mouths. Let them do the talking! But uh, don't let them do the eating. Truuust me on that one."

Penn was with Aunt Rose, Boone was with Uncle Chuch, Sashi was with the Chinchilla, which then lead Verge to meet someone new. She sighed as she faced the girl before her, and she recognized her as one of Penn's classmates. She had brown hair, small eyes, and big glasses. "Uh, hi," Verge said awkwardly.

"Hello," the girl said in a shy voice. She smiled politely. "I see you often, but never in any classes."

"Oh, uh…" Verge rubbed the back of her neck. "It's a long story…"

"You're always with Penn too."

"Zero? Ah yeah! We're best friends! We work together too. And—"

"Are you his girlfriend?"

The word turned Verge's pale skin to color a bright pink. "What? No!"

The girl sighed. "That's good."

This caused the fairy's lips to curl a little. "Good…?"

Something in her chest caused her a bit of pain, but before she could dwell on it any further, she heard sobbing, and Verge looked over her shoulder and saw Chuck and Boone, bawling their eyes out. The two girls blinked at them. "I'm pretty sure they were just staring at each other…"

"I guess that's how this works," Verge sighed. "Larry, can we move on?"

"Sure Vergie!" the principal said cheerfully. "Why don't you spin next?"

So she did. Verge spun the wheel and it landed on the words "Emoti-Sculpt".

Moments later, every had their own buckets of clay and were making their own works of art. Boone was happily creating another Centaur Boone. Verge, who was making a sculpture of her on top of a hawk victoriously, sighed as she read the name on Boone's statue. "You spelled centaur wrong again."

"Sometimes I use clay to sculpt my feelings!" Larry cut in. "The rest of the time I use it as peanut butter."

Penn, who was at a table with a sign "Free "PB" + J sandwiches", was chewing on one and gagged. He spit out his bite and Verge secretly summoned some water for him to drink. He choked out a "thank you" and it was Boone's turn to spin.

The words landed on "Nose to Nose" again, but this time, Larry said, "Let's do a mix up! Be in a group of four and try to act as them!"

"Huh?" Verge scratched her head. "So like…hi I'm Sashi and I have the habit of fighting with everyone, being mean, and losing my temper everytime someone messes with me."

Penn, Sashi, and Boone blinked at their fairy friend. "Accurate," Boone coughed.

"Aaaand swap back roles!" Larry called out.

Verge shook her head. "I can't do this."

"What?" Penn protested. "Unfair—"

Sashi looked annoyed as she sighed and said in a bored tone, "Hello, I'm Penn Zero. Let's take a moment to admire my hair."

Penn looked annoyed. "Okay, I have never asked you to admire my—"

Boone hummed and he and Verge both nodded simultaneously.

The redhead threw his hands in the air exasperatedly. "Ha, okay, one time and that's suddenly who I am? Fine." He began speaking in a deeper, dumber voice. "Hi Sash, it's me Boone, and I—"

"Boone! You're over twenty minutes late!"

Boone's friends were all shocked to hear he did a perfect personation of Sashi's actual voice. "Wow!" Verge and Penn said together.

Penn smiled. "You sound just like—Ah!"

He moved back a bit when Boone held up a fist towards his face. "Don't change the subject, unless you want me to change where your nose sits on your face!"

"Sorry, Sash…"

"I don't want you to be sorry! I want you to be smarter!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" Penn wiped Boone's saliva off his face. "I'll be smarter!"

"Hey, lay it off a bit there," Verge started.

Boone only glared at her, still talking in Sashi's voice. "You always stand up for Penn, Verge, don't go standing up for him too!"

"Hey!" The fairy pouted and crossed her arms angrily. "Real Sashi wouldn't fight with me!"

Real Sashi was looking a bit sad now. "I don't really sound like that, do I?"

Penn looked sympathetic. "You don't spit nearly as much but, yeah."

Boone shrugged, also looking apologetic. Verge just looked away and rubbed the back of her neck. Sashi did the same, and sadly rubbed her arm.

"That's all the time we have for today guys!" Larry announced. "See you all for the next session!" He waved a hand happily as everyone began piling out of the gym, including the four heroes.

Sashi was quick to get home. "I need some re-evaluation…"

"Good night, Sash!" Verge called out, but she wasn't sure if Sashi heard her. She and the two boys glanced at each other nervously.

The next day after school, Sashi made an announcement at the zap platform. "I think you guys are gonna be pleasantly surprised! I've battled old, angry Sashi into submission."

As she pressed her palms together and close her eyes, Boone was attempting to blow a huge bubble with his bubblegum. Penn immediately got out of the way and ducked to avoid being hit, but Verge was still listening to Sashi. "New, calm Sashi is in total control of her—"

"Ah!" The quick second she saw the huge bubble, Verge moved out of the way and it hit her boot, later splattering all over Sashi. The Japanese girl clenched her fists and her face was distorted into an expression of weird anger, as she tried to keep a smile on her face.

Boone smiled sheepishly. "My bad!" He moved closer and started chewing the gum on her hair.

Verge fake-gagged. "Ew, Boone. Ew."

But Boone only chewed. "I like new Sashi."

Phyllis didn't care and zapped them.

When they were surrounded by water, Verge was almost afraid, but then she saw her mermaid tail and golden skin. Boone was holding a pearl in his claws as Penn hooted as he swam about in his fish form. "Haha! Hoho, yeah! It's great to be back in Oshcacapapoopalop!"

Sashi was already looking mad. "It's pronounced—" Suddenly, she stopped herself and whispered. "Nope…gonna let it go." She smiled widely and laughed lightly. "Let's just get to the mission, buddies!"

"Great! Right after a bathroom break."

As Penn went off to be confused at the bathroom signs, Verge put a hand on Sashi's shoulder. "Look, Sash, it's okay to learn when to be calm but don't lose sight of yourself."

The girl only maintained her smile. "What are you talking about? I won't! I'm still me! The new me!"

Boone shook his head and tapped Verge's head with his claw. "This is one of those moments when the character learns the moral at the end of the episode!"

Verge frowned. "Uh…okay?"

"Never again…" Penn swam back to them, a regretful expression on his face as he came out of the comfort rooms. "Sash, just check the Specs…"

"Okay!" Sashi pointed at Boone's claws. "We have to place that magic pearl in a shrine deep in the sea cave before Rippen and his army stop us! Pretty straightforward, so let's do this quick."

"Hello!" Everyone jolted back when a giant fish stepped out of that sea cave, and everyone found him pretty recognizable. "How it's goin'?"

"Oh great!" Penn said in fake enthusiasm. "It's Rufus…do I even wanna know what you're doing out here?"

"The tale leading to my happening upon this place is a long and storied one!"

"Ha-tut-tut! I'm gonna cut you off right there, 'cause we don't have time for this."

"No," Sashi suddenly said. "It's better to hear people out! Maybe he has valuable information!"

"Thank you!" Rufus said happily. "It—"

"Well, good night." Verge somehow pulled up a lounge chair, lay down on it, and began snoring soundly. Penn, Boone, and Sashi exchanged looks.

Rufus kept his story up for a long time. He just kept dragging on and on and it seemed like he was getting more boring by the minute. Eventually, the other three fell asleep right beside Verge's chair. When he finally finished, Penn shook Verge awake as Sashi kept her smile.

"Very good…now can we go?"

"Oh you won't be going anywhere!" The quartet turned to see Octopus Rippen, Giant Squid Larry, and the octopi army with their weapons, gathered around the heroes. This caused Verge to bolt straight up. "Octopus people, attack—"

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over them and a giant shriek sounded out. A shark monster appeared out of nowhere and began chasing the heroes and the army. Everyone was yelling as they tried to swim away as fast as they could. Sashi and Larry seemed to be lucky, but the shark swallowed Penn, Boone, Verge, Rufus, and Rippen whole. They all yelled as they fell in and stayed inside the shark's stomach together.

"Oh no!" Verge cried out. "I thought animals loved me!"

Penn only sighed. "Well. We're still alive."

"Hopefully Sashi and Larry can save us!" Boone prayed.

"Sashi and Larry, if you can hear me!" Rippen yelled. "Sashi's in charge! I repeat, Sashi is in charge!"

"Dude, seriously?" Verge rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, they all felt like the belly of the shark monster was shaking. "Ah!" Penn yelped. "What's going on? Feels like we're moving up!"

"Sashi is in charge! Do you hear me Larry? Sashi is in charge!"

"Argh, what's going on out there?!" Verge punched at the shark monster's stomach walls once and instantly pulled her hand back. "No…I have a code too…never hurt an animal unless necessary…or let Sashi do it and just complain."

"Is that your actual code?" Penn joked. "Don't worry, she'll get us out of here…I hope."

"Either way, you guys will fail the mission! And I'll win!" Rippen began to laugh maniacally.

The merfairy squinted her eyes. "Does Rippen count as an animal?"

Boone shrugged. "Technically, right now, yes."

Ripped squinted at Verge back. Nice try.

I hate you.

I also hate you.

"Oh what a journey I have gone through to get here!" Rufus proclaimed. "What a tale to tell my people. What warnings I must bestow—"

"Quiet, Rufus!" Penn said, annoyed. "Geez, forgot you were here."

"I know you're an animal, but please shut up…"

All of a sudden, they felt another force entering the shark's stomach, and a bright-smiled, Giant Squid Larry beamed to see all of them. "Oh, hey fellas!"

Simultaneously, the five said, "Hi Larry…"

The body began to move more, and it felt like they were back in the water. "Progress, progress," Boone mused.

"Hold on guys…" Penn held a finger up. "Yep. Looks like we're still in here."

"I hope Sashi knows what she's doing," Verge sighed.

"She does!" Larry reassured. "I saw her talk to that three-eyed seagull! She was in total control!"

"Say what now," Rippen deadpanned.

The shark monster's body began moving again, and suddenly Sashi's angry grunts and noises became louder. "I hear her!" Penn cheered.

"It sounds like she's in the shark herself," Verge's eyes widened a bit, clearly amused.

"Incoming!" Boone cried out.

A force seemed to push the heroes and villains straight tout of the shark monster's belly and back into the water where they could be free. Verge gasped for air (er, water). "Hoo, that was so much worse than being stuck in a cage."

"Haha, we're free!" Larry cheered. He then grabbed Rippen. "Hug alert!"

The part-time villain was eager to break free. "Oh—Larry, no!"

"See?" Sashi said in satisfaction, swimming up to them. "It's not about never getting angry. It's about when to get angry." She winked knowingly, causing her friends to smile.

Verge tackled her in the water and went it for a big hug. "Proud of you," she beamed. Sashi hugged back willingly. When she pulled away, she held her hand out. "Okay, Boone! Just give us the pearl and we can return it to its shrine!"

The Wiseman suddenly looked embarrassed. "Ohhh, right….Miiiight've left it in the shark…"

Sashi glared at him immediately. "Boone!" Before she could hit him, she took a deep breath and spoke calmly. "It's okay, an honest mistake by a friend is a time for calm…"

"Though, I think it's time for you to get angry again," Verge heard the mean shark monster's remarks about Sashi's attempt to be reasonable, and smirked as she gestured at the same monster, who was rubbing her head.

Sashi got a glint in her eye. "You're right, Verge. Defeating my enemies is a time for anger!"

"No! Not in my brain again—!" Sashi beat around in there for a bit until the monster spat her out with the pearl. Penn, Verge, and Boone grinned and followed her into the shrine, where she placed it in its proper place.

The pearl glowed brightly, completing their mission.

"Hey, nice use of judgement, Sashi," Penn praised. "And brain punching! Haha!"

As the heroes got zapped back to their world, Verge ruffled Sashi's head while still flying over her head. "Thought I lost my girl best friend for a sec."

Sashi pushed her hand away and smirked. "Never."

I was supposed to put this chapter off for another day but eh HAHA I really need to get a lot done quickly. Hope you still enjoyed!

Also…should I continue drawing my designs for Verge in my deviantart account? Idk it's kinda a hassle for me…whew