~*~
Loners and Late Night
~*~

Now let's take a closer look at a rather unique group. A set of individuals who do not really hang out together, might not even necessarily like each other, but still fall under the same category due to a shared lifestyle. These are the ones that just seem a little... off. Like that one student over there that always eats lunch by themselves. The outcasts, the undesirables, the personae non gratae. The ones you wouldn't even so much as poke with a ten-foot pole. The social pariahs.

The Loners.

Some of them you'd never even guess their standing (or lack thereof) in society just by the look of them. Take Belle for example. A charming mademoiselle who hails from the land of berets and baguettes. A+ name choice there, cuz the girl is smokin'. Her dad is some crackpot inventor who spent most of his life trying to cook up the next great thing to revolutionize some industry or another, but kept coming up with dud after dud after dud. But like Edison, he didn't call it repeated failure, he just called it finding 10,000 different ways it didn't work. All it took was finding the one way that it did. And when he found it, hoo boy, did he hit the jackpot. He became a billionaire and household name practically overnight. So you can imagine when Belle enrolled here how she must have looked like the goose that laid the golden egg to the Princesses. Beautiful? Rich? French? She checked off all the right boxes and they immediately claimed her as one of their own. But they soon learned that you shouldn't always judge a book by its lovely cover.

Here's the thing. Behind that fair facade, Belle is… well, I'm afraid she's rather odd. She's a bit of a chatterbox, you see, but not so much when it comes to her fellow human beings. No, she's more likely to get into rousing discourse with a desk clock, or this candlestick, or that teacup.

To make it worse, she's telekinetic. That's right, she moves shit with her mind. So how exactly does that make it worse? Think about it - suddenly her inanimate friends can become quite animated. Just last week, she got busted for being out after curfew just so she could break into the kitchen and use her powers to put on a big song and dance number with all the silverware and fine china. I wish I could say that was only the first time.

To be fair, I don't think the chick is certifiably insane or anything. It's not like she expects the household appliances to talk back. It's just that before her ol' papa hit the bigtime, he had a bit of a reputation as a flop and a loon, which did nothing for Belle's social life. Growing up a rather lonely child, girl had to deal somehow. So what if she shoots the breeze with a feather duster from time to time? There are by far worse ways she could have coped. Needless to say, Belle's stint with the Princesses was rather short lived, given she turned out to be not really "their sort of people." But I get the feeling the breakup was mutual. She seems happier going it on her own again.

Shifting gears, let's now discuss the curious case of Alice Liddell. At the tender age of seven, this dainty English miss is the youngest mutant to grace the halls of this absurd little academy. Tis a tragic tale, this one. Seems her folks kicked the bucket not too long ago in a devastating house fire. Little one took it hard, for now she does naught but stare off into space, never so much a peep out of her. I tried to cheer her up once, but tyke didn't even crack a smile. Doubt she knew I was there.

Between her brain being out on perpetual holiday, an older brother who's all she's got left but hardly gives her the time of day, and not one soul here anywhere near her age, is it any real surprise the kid has no playmates? Only things that come close are this pair of plushies that are with her everywhere she goes. One a white rabbit in waistcoat, the other this creepy as all motherflippin' hell purple cat with pink stripes. Though come to think of it, the feline has been MIA lately. Then there's the Princesses, but it'd be a stretch to call them "friends." They think her adorable, like a doll. Treat her like one too. Playing dress up, doing makeovers, you name it. Alice doesn't seem to mind though. Then again, she doesn't seem to be quite all there.

But if she's not there, where oh where could our dear Alice be? This is where her ability comes in. Illusion manipulation. Making you see what is not there. Basically, nothing is what it is because everything is what it isn't. And what it is, it is no longer. What it's not, it now is. Clear as mud, right? Put it another way. She fabricates a whole world around you and from what I understand, it's a total trip. We're talking full on eight straights of fucked up, taste the rainbow psychedelic trip. In her world, animals are proper gents decked in dapper suits, flowers wax lyrical, and teapots perform symphonies. Truly a land of wonder. Is it any wonder, then, that Alice has gotten herself lost in it? That'd be my guess anyhow. Thought she couldn't use her own powers on herself, did you? Think again. And when reality handed her lemons, I don't blame her for finding a new reality. Okay, maybe it is a bit bonkers. So what?

I like to think we're all mad here.

Speaking of mad, our next outsider takes the cake. His name is Stitch. At least, that's what we think it is, based on that one time he said "I am Stitch." However, his english is not exactly top notch. He speaks (and I use that in the loosest sense of the term) twenty different languages and counting, among which I've heard Spanish, Chinese, Hawaiian, and some gibberish that I don't even think is really a language. It gets hard to follow with his tendency to jumble all those different lingos together. So when he declared "I am Stitch", he could have been saying his name… or he could have just been trying to tell us he was hungry in that bizarro made-up vernacular of his.

Now his story is a big ol' question mark. He just showed up outta nowhere one day. Word around campus is he's a foreign exchange student, but no one really seems to know where from. The faculty act like they have the inside scoop, but honestly? I'd bet my beloved guyliner they're as much in the dark as the rest of us are.

Truth is I don't even think he's actually a mutant. What I believe we have here is a close encounter of the third kind. That's right, my compadres, I'm talking aliens. Don't laugh, I've seen the antennae. But he only has them sometimes. Dude's also got four arms. Sometimes. See, Stitch here is a shapeshifter. Play-doh class. You know… open a can of imagination? You can make anything with that crap, and same goes for Stitch. I mean, the guy prefers to walk around in the form of this little blue koala-but-not-really sorta thing, for crying out loud! Never seen his regular human form… if he even has one. I'm onto you, spaceman. Or maybe... spacedog? He does like to walk around on all fours from time to time. And scratch his ear with his foot. And eat things he shouldn't. Yeah, he's a weird one. Probably why most peeps tend to steer clear.

Saving the best for last, we come to Adam. Adam is… well…

How about this. Take a journey with me now and you can just see for yourself.

You know that feeling when you're woken up in the middle of the night to your whole room quaking as if giants are playing hopscotch next door while the soul rending roars and howls of some unholy monstrosity wrought from nightmares tear through the air, leaving goosebumps on your flesh?

No? Huh. Must be just another one of the many perks of living at Yen Sid's twisted little nuthouse of a school.

Lucky me.

"Mother ape ass!" I hissed as I jolted awake and fell flailing out of bed, crashing face first into the garbage dump that was my floor. I groggily pushed myself up, rubbing my head as I watched the walls around me give another violent shake followed by the distant, haunting sounds of snarls and guttural growls. "Shit. Again?" I sighed, then hopped up to my feet and charged out the door.

I skidded to a stop in the middle of the dark hallway, eyes swiftly picking up every detail. Several doors around me were open, some enough for other students in their PJs to poke a head out and look around, others merely cracked an inch so an eye could peek through. They were all curious as to what was going down, even though they already knew. We all did. Curious, yes. But not brave enough to actually leave the relative safety of their bedrooms. Nope, only I had the honor of being so bold.

Or maybe the term I was looking for was stupid. Eh, I always get the two words mixed up.

Another thunderous bellow could be heard, closer now. My head whipped in its direction as some of the other students squeaked and slammed their doors shut. I took off down the corridor, running directly towards the source. I burst through the doors at the end of the hall and into one of the academy's numerous common rooms, where I immediately had to put on the brakes.

It was either that or suffer crashing headlong into a tangled mess with Riku.

I stopped just barely in time, the rug rumpling beneath my feet. The prefect had his back to me but as I came banging through the doors, he spun around and jumped back. One look at him and it was pretty obvious that he too had been rudely awoken from his beauty rest. He was in a faded tank top and sweats, with his pale hair sticking out every which way. His face a mask of surprise at first, it quickly contorted into a scowl as he snapped, "The hell do you think you're doing? Get back to your room!"

Ignoring him as I tried to catch my breath, I panted, "The Beast at it again?"

He huffed, narrowing his eyes. "Don't call him that, he doesn't like it. You-" He stopped mid-sentence as he looked at me. Like, really looked at me. Then he hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dude, you could have at least put some pants on."

I blinked, then looked down at myself.

Heh. Oopsie.

To be fair, I wasn't completely naked. I know that's what you're thinking though. Sorry to disappoint. Get your minds out of the gutter, horndogs. No, I at least had the decency to have been sleeping in a pair of boxers. It was all I had on me, but it was better than nothing. They were black with flaming ninja stars printed across them. Because everything's cooler when it's on fire. Duh.

I smirked as I looked back up at Riku again, giving him a saucy little wink. "Don't act like you don't like it."

He pinned me with a death glare, then jabbed an index finger towards the set of doors I had just come barreling through. "Leave. Now."

"But I want to help!"

He snorted dryly. "I've seen the way you help," he used air quotes here. "No thanks. I'd prefer not to have this room burned to the ground."

"Jeeze, that was one time and it wasn't the whole room, it was just one rug!" I snapped. He gave me a dull stare. I scratched the back of my head, muttering, "Okay, and a coffee table." More staring. "...and maybe a couple of couches." One of his eyebrows arched. "Alright, fine, it was the whole damn room! But come on, man, you know what a powerhouse Beast is. You need me."

As if to emphasize my point, there was another howl, louder this time and punctuated by a crash that made the ground quiver under us while the doors on the opposite side of the room jerked and rattled. Unfazed, Riku shook his head. "No. You're a civilian and have no business here."

I rolled my eyes. "Listen to Johnny Fucking Law over here. Alright, officer, I'm gonna need you to stop polishing that imaginary little badge of yours for one second and just admit it. You need all the backup you can get."

"Goddamn it, will you just-"

"Let him help."

The new voice, though soft and calm, cut off Riku's words as efficiently as an X-Acto knife. We both snapped our heads around towards the owner. For the first time, I noticed Naminé was sitting on one of the large, plush sofas in the room, decked out in flannel pyjamas patterned with little gold, five-point stars. She held a pencil in hand that flew across the pages of the sketchpad settled on her lap. She did not acknowledge us. She did not even look up as another angry roar shook the walls, nor as the crashes and thumps drew nearer and more frequent. The girl didn't so much as flinch, just remained ever diligently focused on her work.

Artists, man. Their devotion to their craft can be intense.

Frowning - rather petulantly, might I add - Riku took a step towards her. "But Naminé, he can't just-"

"Let him help," she repeated, eyes still glued to the paper. There was a bit more force behind her words this time, but they were still somehow just as serene.

He opened his mouth in another attempt to argue. Only now did her gaze flick up as she shot him a look. And just like that, Riku shut his trap. Because his mama didn't raise no fool. He knew when he was beat.

That's Naminé for you. Cute but deadly. Tiny but fierce.

I grinned triumphantly and stuck my tongue out at Riku. Face pinching, he sighed and rubbed the nape of his neck. "Fine. You can…" he paused in thought, then snapped his fingers. "Go get one of the professors."

"What?!" My hands balled into fists. "Lame! No! I-"

And that, my friends, was the precise moment that all proverbial hell broke loose.

For that was the precise moment those doors across the way exploded off their hinges as two tons of muscle, fur, and pure frigging unbridled rage plowed into the room.

The Beast, as he's not-so-affectionately known as among the student body, is a living, breathing Tower of Terror, standing somewhere between twelve and fifteen feet in height. Hard to say the precise number. No one exactly wants to grab a yardstick and ask him to stand still long enough to let them measure. You tend to get that kind of reaction from people when you're some sort of animal. Or, to be more accurate, all sorts of animals. The Beast is some crazy mishmash of creatures, a jigsaw where all the pieces don't quite fit together. There's a little bear in there, some gorilla, tail of a wolf, fangs of a lion, tusks of a boar… hell, he even has one massive, scary set of horns that would put Babe the Blue Ox to shame.

He tore across the common room like some grisly bullet train of the damned and straight towards Riku and me. The two of us leapt apart in opposite directions, just barely getting out of the way in time before he rammed into the wall behind us, all but smashing it to rubble. With a deep grunt, the Beast backed up and turned, claws scraping against the floor as he shook debris from his face. When he opened his eyes once more, it wasn't me they zeroed in on. Nor was it Riku.

It was Naminé.

Still just doodling away. As if she didn't have a single care in the world. As if a wrecking ball in giant hairy hellspawn form hadn't just set its sights on turning her into roadkill.

Crap.

Unleashing another deafening, blood curdling roar, the Beast charged towards her. Her blue eyes snapped up, locking onto him as a tiny frown settled onto her lips. She rose to her feet, swinging an arm out in front of her, the pages of the art book in hand rustling and flaring out like wings.

And from those pages, birds flew out.

I shit you not.

Dozens of them. No, hundreds. A whole goddamn murder of crows burst forth from her sketchpad and launched themselves at the Beast. Their caws echoed around the room as their talons tore at his face and their beaks pecked at his eyes. With a surprised snarl, his paws scrambled and he blindly veered off course just enough for Naminé to casually side step out of his path of destruction.

I released a breath I had not realized I had been holding, hanging my head in relief.

The girl has always appeared so small and fragile. It can be easy to forget sometimes what an effing badass she really is.

The Beast was now spinning and twisting about, swinging wildly at his winged attackers. Every now and again, his claws would rip through a handful of the birds, leaving nothing but torn and tattered bits of paper fluttering down to the ground in their wake. As he turned to slice out another hole into the black, feathery cloud engulfing him, I realized for the first time that there was something clinging to his back.

Wait. No, scratch that. Someone. A rather familiar someone, in fact, with long and very distinctive blue hair, a jagged x-shaped scar across his face, and yellow eyes.

Eyes that were glowing as brightly as that big, full moon that was hanging low outside the windows.

Of all the prefects present, he was the one that made the most sense. True, the others were powerful in their own right and could take care of themselves. But one mistake, one slip up on their part and that was it. Lights out. Game over. One blow from the Beast that they were even half a second too slow to dodge and they'd go crunch like an empty can of Coca-Cola. Saïx, on the other hand, could not only take the hit, but he could give as good as he got. Especially when going full on berserker mode, fueled by sheer moon-driven madness.

That was probably the reason why the Beast had taken his sweet time crashing our little party here in the common room. Saïx has been trying to wrastle the big brute into submission. Obviously, that plan failed and so it had been on to plan B: ambush.

While the Beast was distracted with tearing the last of the crows to shreds, Saïx reached out and grabbed hold of his horns. Then baring his teeth into a feral smirk, he yanked back hard and steered the Beast face first into the nearest wall with a booming crash. Cracks spiderwebbed their way out from the the point of impact as Saïx leapt off and landed on the ground, squatting low as he watched his opponent. The Beast emitted a rumbling huff as he pulled himself from the sizable dent and turned to Saïx, face twisting in animalistic rage as he let loose another earsplitting roar that whipped Saïx's hair back and made the whole room quake.

Yeah, that whole running-the-Beast-into-the-wall tactic? Big fat no-no. Only seemed to be pissing him off more.

In the blink of an eye, the Beast had pounced, but Saïx was ready for it. He dived out of the way, rolling and coming back up in a crouch, eyes gleaming eerily as they never left the monster. Quick to recover, the Beast lunged again. Saïx leapt straight up over him, stomping a foot down on his face and using it like a stepping stone to launch himself behind the behemoth.

This was some real live David versus the Goliath shit unfolding right here.

The Beast whirled around, a low growl resonating within his chest, his jaws wide, ready to bite down into Saïx's skull and rip it clean off his shoulders. With a derisive snort, Saïx threw his hand up to block and Mr. Not-So-Friendly-Giant sank his razor sharp teeth into the flesh of his arm with a sickening crunch. His sleeve stained a dark, blotchy red, but he didn't cry out or even wince. In fact, he chuckled.

That's right. Fucking chuckled.

Because if you haven't figured it out by now, Saïx was a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

With a sneer, his free hand curled into a tight fist. Then he struck. Crack! Right square between the poor big lug's eyes. The Beast howled out in agony, releasing Saïx's arm. No time to celebrate small victories however. Not when the next second, a paw the size of bowling ball (and guesstimating twice as heavy) was smashing into Saïx's side. He was flung into a nearby grandfather clock that immediately exploded into kindling.

A blow like that would have knocked most people out cold, if not straight up snuffed their pathetic little life out. But Saïx? Dude coughed, then looked up, blood streaming down his face from a gash across his forehead.

And his lips twisted into a little smirk.

Again. Boy was a little cray.

Okay… lotta cray.

"Now!" he shouted.

So you might be finding yourself asking, what's "now" exactly? Here's a hint. It had something to do with those shadows gathered around the Beast. And I don't mean that in a poetic literary sense. Shadows had physically moved to surround the brute. And at Saïx's word, that gloom suddenly lit up with dozens of glowing amber eyes.

Can you say creepy?

"Okay!" Riku yelled next to me before gritting his teeth and thrusting his hands forward. "Go!"

With that, they attacked. Little creatures of pure darkness with twitchy antennae and nasty claws. The Beast gave a shocked snarl as they leapt at him. He tried to fight them off, crushing one here, biting one clear in half there, but there were too many. They swarmed him to the ground and soon all you could see was a writhing mass of shadows dotted with empty, unblinking eyes.

"What are you still doing here?" a voice hissed beside me, making me jump. I looked at Riku, who was glaring at me out of the corner of his eyes. His hands were still raised towards the Beast as he concentrated, skin pallid and temple slick with sweat. It wasn't easy for him, keeping that leviathan floored. Controlling this many Shadows was taking its toll on him, and this was by no means a permanent solution.

My gaze drifted to his shadow - not one of his minions, but the real deal, the one actually cast by his body. It seemed to shift and twitch slightly, independent of him. And was it just my imagination, or did it also now have a set of faintly glowing eyes that seemed to be watching me hungrily?

"I, uh…"

Crap, what had I been about to say? Got a little distracted by the freaky shadow fiend eyeing me like I was some kind of Happy Meal.

Giving myself a shake to regain focus, I locked eyes with Riku again. "Put me in the ring, coach!" I demanded, slamming my fists together and igniting them like torches. "Just lemme at 'im! I'll K.O. that punk in two seconds flat! He'll never know what-"

"Enough, clown!" he barked, though it was half-hearted. There was a tremor to his hands now. He was already exhausted. "Do what I told you to do! Go get some member of the faculty or-"

Another enraged roar and the dogpile of Shadows exploded. The little guys went flying everywhere, forcing me to duck so as not to get beaned by one. Then I looked up to what little remained of their now ex-heap.

The Beast was free once more.

Or, at least he was… for like a grand total of zero-point-four seconds.

Then a hand roughly the size of an SUV came rushing out of nowhere, slamming into him and pinning him against a wall with a loud whump!

...you think that's weird? Shit, I live here and even I was arching an eyebrow at that one.

Said colossal hand was attached to an equally massive arm that stretched across the room and straight out of that artbook held up within Naminé's grasp.

Don't ask me how something that big was getting through that tiny ass sketchpad. It just was, okay? Mutant juju ain't exactly a science. It follows its own rules.

The Beast growled, claws angrily digging into the massive fingers holding him in place. They ripped and frayed just like paper under his assault, but the hand as a whole held firm. Still, it wouldn't last. Not for long.

I huffed in frustration, rounding on Riku once more. "Come on! If you would pull your head out of your ass for one damn minute, you would see that-"

"Axel!" he yelled.

I shut up, narrowing my eyes at him. Then I looked to Naminé, whose full attention was going into keeping the enemy pinned. No help from that corner. Saïx was prepping to jump back into the fray when the Beast would inevitably break free again, so no help there either. Not that I had expected it. That bridge had been burned long ago.

With that conjured hand looking more and more like a battered and torn piñata by the second, it seemed I had little choice.

Curling my lip with a soft tch, I snapped, "Fine!"

Fucking prefects.

Even as I turned to go, Riku was already summoning a fresh wave of shadowy canon fodder to throw at the Beast. I left all that madness behind, bursting through those doors once again and sprinting with all that I had down the hallway.

Everything was a blur around me as I ran. The walls, the doors, any students not hiding in their rooms, all of it. None of it was important. I had one thing on my mind.

Teachers.

Teachers, teachers, teachers… where the hell were all the teachers? Fuck if I knew. Having spent most of my time in this school avoiding teachers like the plague, I didn't know the first thing about where to look for one. For fuck's sake, the Beast wasn't exactly being quiet at the moment. Bet you everyone could hear the racket he was making for miles. So unless every single last teacher on the grounds had gone abruptly and inexplicably deaf as a stone, they had to know already, they just had to. So why were they suddenly and mysteriously AWOL?

I pushed the question to the back of my mind and focused on the task at hand. Find a teacher. Any teacher. Maybe if I just kept charging around the campus blindly like a bat outta hell, I'd end up running smack dab into one.

As Lady Luck would have it, I took a corner a little too fast and almost did accidentally crash into someone from behind. It was no teacher, however.

"Snow?!"

At the sound of my voice, she spun around to face me with a sharp intake of breath. My feet scrambled as I struggled to avoid a head-on collision with the girl. I did, if only just. Then I hunched forward, hands propped on knees, catching my breath as I stared down at my bare feet and asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to find out what was causing all that noise. It sounds like someone's taking a wrecking ball to the building. What-"

"You need to get back to your room. It's not safe and-" I finally looked up at her.

She was wearing this cute little nightgown number in a powder blue. It looked silky, shimmering slightly even in the dim hallway. Instead of the braid that she usually wore her hair in, it was down and doing this sort of soft, smooth, wavy thing. The moonlight made it gleam like finely spun silver.

It… looked nice.

"What?" she asked suddenly, eyebrows shooting up her forehead.

I blinked and echoed, "What?"

"You… said something about my hair?"

...crap, I said that out loud?

Goddamnit, mouth. You're gonna get punched later. That's right. Pow, right in the kisser.

I was luckily saved from having to make any sort of response however as I watched her cheeks suddenly flare up like a couple of stoplights. She averted her gaze upward and raised a hand, blocking her line of sight to-

"Um," I cocked an eyebrow. "Are you… avoiding looking at my boxers?"

"...no?"

She'd hesitated.

I crossed my arms, eyelids drooping. "How old are you? Twelve?"

A tiny scowl twisted her lips, her eyes still boring holes into the ceiling overhead. "Where do you think you are? A Macy's changing room?"

"Your comebacks suck."

"Your face sucks."

It was official. She was, in fact, twelve.

I snatched Snow's hand that she was still holding out as a makeshift censor bar, pulling it down as I used my other hand to flick her in her forehead. "Grow up, it's just underwear!"

She finally looked at me again, gaze narrowing as she opened her mouth. But whatever she was going to say died on her tongue as her eyes widened and all color drained from her face. I realized she was no longer looking at me, but past me.

That's when I heard it behind me. The very deep, very heavy breathing of a very large creature.

It was then I realized that I had forgotten something extremely important.

Fun fact: the Beast isn't always just some gargantuan cartoon Tasmanian Devil throwing a noisy tantrum, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake. That's just a good ninety-nine percent of the time. The other one percent, he can actually be quite sneaky as he stalks his prey, not alerting them to his presence until it is too late.

Unfortunately for Snow and me, this exact moment fell under that one percent.

I slowly turned to come face to giant, furry, fanged face with Lord Angry-McFuzzy-Pants himself.

Fuck. Me.

Neither Snow nor I budged an inch. Because if there was ever a time that called for no sudden movements, this was it. I couldn't see her face, but I imagine it was a perfect mirror of my own look of abject terror. We just stood there, doing our best impressions of statues as we watched him watching us. The nostrils of his enormous snout flared angrily as his eyes flicked back and forth between us, possibly counting the thousand and one different ways he could slice and dice us into mince meat.

And then I had to go and do it. I had to open my big dumb mouth.

"Elsa," I said in a hushed, tiny voice, hesitantly raising a hand to gesture towards the Beast, "meet Adam. Adam," I swept my hand back towards Snow, "this is Elsa."

Because introductions are important, yo. And only proper etiquette. Duh.

Everything seemed to freeze. One second, the silence was almost deafening, as if time itself was holding its breath. The next, a cataclysmic roar erupted from the Beast's maw that had the very walls trembling and nearly knocked Snow and me off our feet. His paw blurred as he took a swipe at us that would have crushed every damn bone in our bodies. I ducked into a crouch, pulling Snow down with me, feeling the heavy swish over our heads as his claws narrowly missed us. Then I sprang back up, Snow's hand still in mine as I yanked her along behind me, running as if our lives depended on it.

Since, ya know… it pretty much did.

"What was…" Snow puffed out between breaths as we raced down the corridor, glancing over her shoulder. "Is that… Is he a-"

"Superfreak?" I supplied, nodding and keeping my eyes straight ahead. "Yup. Just like you and me."

Adam - a.k.a the Beast - was one of many shapeshifters in attendance at our school. Bulldozer class. And no, I don't mean that in the way that he actually turns into a bulldozer. I mean that in the way that you damn well better get out of his path if you don't want to be flattened like a pancake. Boy's got some serious anger management issues to work out, if you couldn't tell. That's what triggers his transformations into Beast mode. Poor guy has no control over it. Like me, he's one of Doc Aq's patients, tho I'm pretty sure he needs the help more than I do. Usually he's kept on prescribed happy pills so he stays his normal, harmless human self that won't hurt the other students. But every now and then, he gets it in his head that he's got it under control and stops taking his meds. That usually ends up going just about as well as it was going right at that second.

His incurable case of the Grumps was why he wasn't exactly Mr. Popularity around school. Everyone was too afraid of becoming his next meal if even just the tiniest thing set him off. Plus, the dude wasn't exactly a joy to be around even when he wasn't sporting fur and fangs. Guy was a total asshat.

I had to wonder as we ran how he had caught up to me. What about the prefects? Hopefully, they were okay and not nothing more than bloody smears decorating the walls now. But I couldn't worry about them at the moment. Nor could I worry about finding a teacher. Now I had a new mission: save the girl.

And, no, this wasn't some stupid macho bullshit. Thought you'd know me better than that by now. I was very well aware that Snow was perfectly capable in a fight, given our little midnight joyride adventure hardly a day ago. But a few street level, muggle born thugs were one thing. The Beast on the other hand? This wasn't about white knights and damsels in distress. This was just common sense. This was survival.

Her hand felt as cold as ice in mine. No, seriously. There was actually bits of ice beginning to form on my fingers and knuckles. Doubt the girl even knew she was doing it. She was more preoccupied with a lil ol' life threatening situation, ya know? I willed some heat down my arm and into my hand, melting the ice before it could spread too far, but otherwise paid it little mind.

The ground trembled beneath us. I could feel it even as my feet barely touched the ground, we were running so fast. It was from the impact of the Beast's paws as he charged after us. And it was getting stronger by the second. He was closing in on us. Fast.

Just as I could feel his hot breath tickling at our backs, I grit my teeth and took a abrupt sharp left down a new hallway and-

CRASH!

Suddenly the Beast was no longer behind us.

I blinked.

I… actually hadn't expected that to do jack shit.

I chanced a look behind us and that's when I noticed it. The solid trail of ice being left in our wake. Looking down, I realized whenever Snow's feet hit the floor, frost crystallized and spread. It hadn't been enough to slow the brute down when we were running in a straight line, but apparently the big sucker couldn't make turns as quickly as us because of it. Instead he had slipped and hurtled into a wall, giving us some much needed breathing room.

Alright, Snow! You go, girl!

But the victory party would have to wait. The Beast had already recovered and was charging after us again. Dude was a freaking tank. But now I had an idea. An exit strategy. Just keep making turns, let the ice do its work and eventually we'd leave this loser in the dust. Zig and zag, that's all there was to it. And for a while, it worked too. We were making some headway, putting some distance between us and the big angry furball. But then it happened.

I zigged when apparently I should have zagged.

I zigged us right into a dead end.

Letting out a hiss through my clenched teeth, I skidded to a stop, Snow stumbling beside me. I glared at the tiny alcove before me. The only bit of decoration "brightening" the place up was a portrait taller than me of Headmaster Yen Fucking Sid himself, glaring those beady little eyes of his back down at me. And let me tell you, his wrinkly ol' mug was just about the very last thing I wanted to see right now.

Okay, so maybe I don't know the campus layout like the back of my hand exactly, but I sure as hell knew my way around well enough not to get myself cornered in a goddamn dead end. This shouldn't have been here. Which meant only one thing.

The stupid school was punking me again.

"Seriously?!" I snapped, slamming my fist against a wall. "Is now really the time to be pulling this crap, you pathetic heap of crusty cement and moldy wood? I hope a whole army of termites eats you for breakfast, you-"

"Are you... yelling at the building?"

I froze mid-tirade at Snow's question and turned awkwardly to face her. She had one eyebrow crooked as she blinked at me a couple times.

Heh. And the award for "Looking Batshit Crazy" goes to...

Right. Now wasn't the time for my little blood feud I had going on with the frigging Winchester Mystery House here. We had to make like a bread truck and haul buns. Shifting my grip on her hand, I turned to bolt out the way we had come.

Too late.

The Beast came charging round the corner, scrambling furiously to come to a halt as his claws slipped along the frost coated floor. The sight would have almost been funny, if it weren't for the fact that we were watching our impending doom on ice. Having steadied himself, his murderous eyes focused on us now as he huffed and puffed from the chase. He loomed before us, straightening up to his full height and filling the entire hall, leaving no room to escape past him.

Well, balls.

I pulled Snow behind me, placing myself between her and him as I threw my free hand out in front of me. Fire sparked to life and began to swirl around my forearm.

We weren't gonna go down without a fight.

But boy, we could really use a miracle right about now.

Thankfully, it really is true what they say: Ask, and ye shall receive. A miracle did arrive. And it arrived in the form of a chipmunk suddenly coming out of nowhere and barreling itself into the side of the Beast.

Okay, so it wasn't really a chipmunk. It was Sora. Your remember Sora, right? Goofball with the stupid hair and cheesy grin? Yah, that guy. He was such a shortie though, you could see where the mix up in perception came from, especially when he was standing right next to the mountain of fur and muscle that was the Beast. Well, not so much standing as football tackling.

Normally, a runt like Sora would have had no chance knocking over something of the Beast's magnitude. But maybe catching the big brute by surprise was just enough to tip the scales in his favor. Maybe the kid simply got lucky and hit him in just the right spot, like a pressure point or some crap. Maybe the stars and planets from up on high in the heavens aligned just so, allowing the phenomenon to occur. Whatever it was, Sora sent the Beast flying down the hall, hitting the floor hard several yards away.

Sora rolled and sprang back up to his feet, only struggling a tiny bit to maintain his balance on the ice. He then turned his gaze towards us, eyes darting back and forth between Snow and me. He pointed a finger down the hall in the opposite direction of the Beast. "Go! Get out of here! Fast!"

Yeah. Sure thing, buddy. I'll get right on that.

Not.

Already forgetting about us, the prefect returned his focus to the Beast, moving to close in on him. Heating my naked feet to melt the frost beneath me as I walked, I stepped out of the alcove just enough so I could watch the action unfold.

Man, where's the popcorn when you need it?

The Beast has pushed himself up off the ground once again and was now pacing slowly around on all fours, like a caged wild animal. He emitted a deep growl as Sora inched cautiously closer to him, hands held up in a placating gesture. "Easy there, big fellah. It's alright. It's okay," he soothed. As he spoke, Sora's whole form began to gently glow. He was trying to use his powers on the Beast. Give him the warm fuzzies so he'd calm his shit and Adam could come back. "No one wants to hurt you, and you don't want to hurt anyone, right? Just breathe, buddy. Breathe. Calm-"

Apparently the Beast wasn't exactly ready to start singing Kumbaya.

A snarl tore out from between those deadly set of teeth and he lunged at the kid. Sora's body seemed to act on its own, quickly dodge rolling out of the way. As he came back up onto his feet, a blinding flash shot out from his hand. It formed a blade of pure, golden light just in time for him to raise it up and catch the Beast's fangs, parrying the bite he had been trying to sink into the kid's shoulder.

The two glared at each other for a second, the Beast's chomper's still clenched around the gleaming weapon. There was a sizzling sound and the smell of burnt hair as thin wisps of smoke rose from the Beast's snout. The blade wasn't meant to be touched by anyone but Sora and burned like a mofo. Props to the furball for not giving a flying fuck.

"Alright, big fellah," Sora said, narrowing his eyes, "I tried to be nice, but you asked for it."

We're not even sure how much the Beast understands while he's going all shaggy Mr. Hyde on us. Adam never remembers much. But he didn't seem to take too kindly to Sora's words and I swear his roar could have ruptured ear drums. The instant his blade was free of those vicious pearly whites, the prefect ducked and rolled across the floor through the gap between the Beast's legs. Coming out behind him and springing back up to his feet, he arced his glorified glowstick around to slam it into the monster's thigh.

The leviathan bellowed in a mixture of pain and anger, whirling on Sora and lashing out with his claws. The prefect leapt back out of the way, narrowly missing getting straight up gored. Blocking a second slash from those lethal claws, he flipped his blade around underhand and swung it upward, smashing it into his opponent's jaw. Another agonized snarl.

It was clear Sora's attacks hurt. But they seemed to be doing nothing to slow the big guy down. If anything, it only seemed to be adding fuel to the fire. The big, fluffy rage machine fire.

And as the two of them continued to exchange blows, I once again found myself wondering…

Where all the teachers at, yo? Like, seriously. I was beginning to think they were a myth, like the Loch Ness Monster. Or Bigfoot. Or Shia LaBeouf.

Then it happened. Sora tripped up and let his guard down for a split second. The Beast zeroed in on the opening and lunged for the kill. But suddenly, a flaxen rope came flying out from the darkness behind the monster and whipped around his ankles. It pulled taut, yanking his paws out from under him and sending him crashing to the floor, millimeters short of ripping Sora limb from limb.

I squinted. No... not rope…

Hair.

Yards of it. Miles of it. Like the Energizer Bunny, it just kept going and going.

The Beast rose up once more, despite his feet still being entangled. He was in a blind fury, a mindless goon on a mission, raising his claws overhead in another attempt to lacerate Sora to bloody ribbons. But a second lock of blonde tresses shot out from the shadows, lassoing his wrist and jerking it back, away from his prey. Before he could even so much as twitch, a third tendril had whipped out, restraining his other hand.

The owner of the hair stepped forward, revealing herself to be none other than little Miss Doesn't-Know-The-Meaning-Of-The-Word-Haircut herself, Rapunzel. Surprise, surprise. She had fistfulls of her hair wrapped around her hands as she pulled back hard, struggling to keep the behemoth at bay.

"Down, Fluffy," she ground out through her teeth, giving another forceful tug. "Bad Fluffy! No biscuit for you!"

If Adam didn't like being called the Beast, I'm sure he'd be positively tickled about the nickname "Fluffy."

"Whew," Sora breathed, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand and stumbling slightly as his body relaxed. He beamed, "Thanks Punzie! Perfect timing!"

I whooped, "Alright! Go team! Way to kick butt!"

With a start, Sora spun around to face us again. "Wha- Why are you guys still here? I told you to run!"

I blinked and looked to my side, realizing for the first time that Snow had stayed to watch the show as well, peeking out from behind me. I also realized for the first time that our fingers were still laced together. She seemed to become aware of it at the same time as she suddenly gasped and yanked her hand free, clutching it to her chest.

Christ, when would the girl learn her powers wouldn't hurt me?

Shrugging it off, I scratched a spot behind my left ear as I looked at Sora again. "Riku said I could help."

He crossed his arms as he stared at me, eyelids drooped.

"What?" I shrugged. "It's true!"

Sorta.

He was about to say something to that, but then stopped as he looked me over. His head tipped to one side and his brow furrowed.

What was he…?

Then it clicked. I rolled my eyes and snapped, "Oh my god, all you babies act like you've never seen a pair of friggin' boxers before!"

Sora gave a snort, shaking his head. "Actually, I was just thinking I had the same pair."

I cocked an eyebrow at that. "Seriously?"

"Yup. Only mine are blue instead of black."

"Neato! Hey, boxer bros!" I held my fist out to him.

He grinned, bumping his knuckles against mine. "Yeah!"

Snow facepalmed.

"Not to spoil this Kodiak moment," Rapunzel grunted as the Beast thrashed about, dragging her with him by several inches as she dug in her heels, struggling to keep him restrained, "but Sora… lil help maybe?"

"On it!" he called, running towards the Beast before dropping down to slide beneath his slashing claws. Picking himself back up on the other side, he joined Rapunzel and grabbed onto her hair with her, adding his weight to holding the big guy back.

As for me, I took a step towards the Beast. That's as far as I got before I felt cold fingers on my arm. I turned to look at Snow, who retracted her hand quickly, wringing it in the other. Her worried eyes flicked from me to Big Ugly and back, before she whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Relax," I smirked, giving her a wink. "He's all bark, no bite now. Watch."

Looking at the Beast once more, I continued my approach, stopping about a foot away from him. He was still struggling against his silky smooth shackles, but his claws wouldn't budge even the barest inch closer to me. It was a good thing he seemed to have it out for me in particular at the moment. If he realized he could just whirl around and pounce on the prefects keeping him entangled, that'd be no bueno.

I grinned up at his snarling face. "Hey, Beast ol' Buddy," I cooed, waggling my fingers in greeting. "I'd shake your hand, but seems you're a lil… tied up at the moment."

His head snaked forward in a blur of motion, fangs snapping loudly at my fingers just as I hastily pulled them back.

"Are you insane?!" Snow hissed from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder at her, grin twitching wider. "Just a bit."

Then I heard it.

Snap.

It was soft. Tiny really, barely even there. You almost wouldn't have noticed it at all.

Snap.

But it was enough to make my poor heart all but splutter and putter out right then and there.

Snap, snap.

Haltingly turning to look at the Beast once more, it was as I feared. Strand's of Rapunzel's sunny tresses were beginning to break under the strain. It was only a few so far, but the numbers were increasing at an alarming rate.

Note to self: Buy Goldilocks here some extra strength TRESemmé for brittle hair next Christmas.

Addendum: If I live that long.

Gulping, I took a step back, raising my hands submissively. "Dude. Big guy. Not cool. You're gonna cause some major split ends that way."

Not seeming to give a crap about proper hair care management, his muscles visibly bulged as he pulled harder against his restraints. It seemed he had found his second wind. His third and fourth too, by the looks of it. Whatever it was, he was seriously hulking out. Abruptly, he tore one arm free, clumps of honey locks still clinging to his wrist. An angry huff erupted from his nostrils before he raised those miniature machetes he called fingernails above his head, preparing to make confetti out of me.

And then there was ice.

A whole giant ass wall of the stuff, filling up the entire corridor in front of me, just a hair short of my nose. The psycho mega tribble had been blocked off on the other side.

I spun around to see Snow, hands outstretched in front of her, panting and with a slight tremble to her frame. Frost was slowly creeping and crackling its way out from beneath the soles of her feet, while bits of frozen white fluff floated down to the ground around her.

I reacquainted myself with this delightful little thing called breathing - it seemed I had forgotten how while my life had flashed before my eyes not two seconds before - then broke out into smile. "My hero."

She stared blankly at me for the space of a heartbeat. Then she looked down and shook her head, a quiet chuckle escaping from between her lips.

A booming crack suddenly split the air, making us both jump. Looking back at the glacial barrier, a fracture had formed in it dead center and was slowly, jaggedly spiralling outward. A monstrous, distorted shape could be seen through the partially transparent wall of ice. There was a pause, then it rushed at the wall again with another thunderous crack!

The goddamn wookie on steroids was trying to ram his way through.

"No!" Snow pushed past me, mist and snowflakes dancing around her hands as she slammed her palms against the cool surface. Immediately the temperature dropped by several degrees and I could see my breath fogging the air in tiny puffs. The fissures in the ice began to seal and the wall seemed to expand. She was trying to strengthen it against the assault.

The hallway and ice quaked as the Beast collided hard with the makeshift roadblock once again. It bulged and more deep cracks erupted across its surface. Still Snow fought to keep the shield intact, but the fissures were forming faster than she could repair them.

Then, with one sudden final slam, the whole thing burst into thousands of tiny glistening shards that rained down on her as the Beast came flying through.

Snow stood there, frozen, mouth hanging agape and staring up at him like a deer caught in the headlights. I didn't blame her either.

She thought herself a monster. And maybe she was - who's to say? But it had to be utterly terrifying, realizing that you're not the scariest monster out there to go bump in the night.

Alright. It was now time to do the thing.

The knight in shining armor thing.

I dove at Snow, knocking her down just in time, feeling the whoosh as the Beast flew over and past us. We hit the ground hard and I grunted on impact.

Sugary sweet candy canes swirling in creamy hot cocoa with a faint tang of vanilla. That was it. The scent that flitted across my senses suddenly, subtle and teasing, mingled with something else. What exactly, I wasn't sure, but whatever it was, the smell of it just made me want to bury my face in it and start purring like a freaking kitten. As she shifted about beneath me, I realized the scent belonged to her. Snow.

She rolled onto her back, wincing as she recovered from the fall, before opening those baby blues to blink up at me. I grinned awkwardly back down at her, chuckling weakly. And I swear, my voice cracked. Liked a goddamn blotchy faced preteen talking to a crush for the first time.

"Axel!"

Rapunzel's voice. I looked up, seeing her down the hall, hair coiling and whipping around her, ready to lash out. Beside her, Sora threw his hand out to one side, his blade of light rematerializing within his palm once more before he charged towards me. I looked over my shoulder towards the opposite end of the corridor, seeing the Beast had flipped a u-ey and was bull rushing back in our direction.

Oh. Right. So not the time.

With the big guy closing in quick, I propped myself up on my elbows and twisted around, thrusting my hand up. Molten flames exploded from my palm, crackling gleefully as they ignited the air and engulfed the Beast. He lit up like a disco on Saturday night, and the resulting roar shook the school's very foundations.

I watched the raging inferno with a grimace. Nothing against Adam. Guy wasn't all bad. He could have his moments… one of which was most certainly not when he was trying to make me go splat like a bug on a windshield. But it was him or me, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be m-

The Beast abruptly came hurtling out of that fire, sailing through the air, claws gleaming savagely and aimed right at my sorry hide. His fur was singed and smoking a bit, but other than that he seemed fine.

Huh. So apparently the monster fuzzball was flame retardant.

Add that to the night's ever growing list of things that were one hundred and ten percent bullshit.

Sora was swiftly closing the distance, with Rapunzel not too far behind. Unfortunately for Snow and me, the Beast was closer and about a bajillion times faster. It wasn't hard to do the math. So I just squeezed my eyes shut, held my breath, bypassed the first four stages of grief and skipped straight on to acceptance.

I, Axel Moyasu (hereinafter referred to as His Grace and Majesty, Grand High God King of Fire and Badassery), being of sound state and mind, do hereby bequeath all my worldly holdings to one Roxas Anbruch and one Xion Atigi (hereinafter referred to as Thing One and Thing Two, respectively).

To Thing One, I leave my collection of WINNER ice cream sticks, seven (7) in summation. May they serve you well, little dude.

To Thing Two, I leave what fortunes I've accumulated in my brief albeit glorious existence, net worth seventy-eight (78) munny. Wait… crap, I bought that ice cream bar at lunch the other day. Make that seventy-three munny. Sorry, kiddo.

Correction, Thing One, you get eight WINNER sticks.

Lastly, my most valuable possession, my pride and joy, my pair of firetruck red Converse All Star high tops, I leave to… no one. Fuck that, they're mine. Bury them with me. In fact, bury Thing One and Thing Two with me as well. I'm taking them with me to the next life.

…this bequeathing business seemed to be going on for a while. The Beast was taking longer than expected to punch my ticket. Honestly, I thought I would have been meeting my maker by now. Slowly, I eased one eye open to see just what exactly the hold up was.

The Beast was still airborne, barely inches above me. But he now had absolutely zero momentum. He was just kind of… floating there. In midair. Like a balloon. A supremely ticked, jumbo, hairy balloon.

I squinted up at him with a frown.

...what, pray tell, the fuck?

We made eye contact and his chest once again started rumbling with another low growl, but it was cut short by a new voice shouting, "Enough!"

The voice was small but powerful, slicing through all other sound and leaving dead silence in its wake. It had come from behind the brute and I leaned to one side to look past him, seeing that it belonged to none other than…

Shit, it was Belle! Batty, nutso, looney toons ol' Belle. Only she looked scarier than the Ninth Circle of Hell, her face twisted into a harrowing scowl, her brown hair loose and flying wildly all over the place, and her eyes friggin' ablaze with this ethereal white light. It was then I put two and two together. She was the one that had disconnected the Beast from gravity. She was levitating him.

Yeah, that made way more sense than the wookie spontaneously developing the power of flight. Who would be dumb enough to get such a silly idea in their head? Certainly not me. Nope.

Lips set into a grim line, she raised a hand and with a flick of her wrist, spun the Beast around to face her. A small grumbling noise of confusion escaped him as he was tipped forward and down to her eye level, all while still kept harmlessly aloft. She took a step forward, stalking slowly towards him. Eyes now locking on her, he began to snarl, but again was silenced as she jabbed a finger into his nose and snapped, "Shush!"

That's right. The girl freaking shushed him.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" she told him, her tone dangerously soft. "You're nothing but a big bully! Haven't you ever heard of picking on somebody your own size? And since no one here even comes close, don't do it! Period!"

It was actually kind of funny. Watching this wee mouse of a brunette in a yellow, oversized fleece nightshirt and matching wool socks, one hand curled into a fist planted against her hip as the other hand wagged a stern finger, scolding this nightmarish creature that had to be at least three times her size as if he were some child that had been caught red handed stealing from the cookie jar.

And the craziest part? The Beast was just sitting there (well, floating rather, I guess), taking his lumps and looking thoroughly chastised. The scene had seemed to shock everyone else into a standstill. Snow just watched wide eyed and unblinking from the floor, while Sora and Rapunzel had skidded to a stop beside us, utterly dumbfounded.

Belle fell silent and took a moment to let her words sink in as she glared at the Beast. Then she released a heavy sigh and her expression softened. She reached a hand out and, seemingly unconcerned about the all too real possibility of losing said hand, rested it against his cheek to gently pet the fur there. And he let her, only flinching slightly in response.

When she spoke again, her words were a soothing murmur. "I know you've had it hard, Adam. I do, I really do. But you're hurting people. You don't want to do that, right? You're going to have to be strong. You're going to have to stop going off your medication, understand? Can you do that for me?" He hesitated for a beat before leaning his massive head into her palm, like a ginormous puppy. A small smile ghosted over her lips. "Good. Now, you must be tired after all that. Rest, Adam. Go to sleep. Things will be better in the morning, okay?"

There was a long pause that seemed to go to infinity and beyond. But then, finally, the Beast hung his head and, just like that, he slowly but surely began to shrink. The fur receded, the fangs and claws vanished, and the body began to take on a more normal, human shape.

There were no powers involved that were forcing the change. Just some good ol' fashion tough love and a firm but reassuring voice. As simple as that. Who'd of thunk?

Soon the Beast was gone altogether, replaced with a teenage boy. He had Fabio good looks, what with the flowing blonde hair, lean rippling muscles and chiseled features. He was the picture of exhaustion. Guess going on a rampage and decimating the campus could really take it out of you, go figure. His blue eyes drooped wearily as he mumbled, "I… I just… wanted to feel… something…"

Belle hushed him with a light "shh" as she took a seat on the ground, tucking her feet beneath her. With a wave of her hand, Adam gradually began to sink to the floor as well, his head coming to rest in her lap. The otherworldly light faded from Belle's eyes and her hair fell to frame her face as she delicately stroked her fingers through the golden strands of his mane. At last, his heavy eyelids closed and sleep claimed him.

And then it happened. The unthinkable. The unimaginable. The impossible. Finally, after everything was said and done. Finally, after all the dust had settled and cleared. Finally, finally…

...a teacher showed up.

I half expected Nessie to make an appearance right then and there too.

Author's Note: Eek, already at the last of the chapters I had ready to post, it all went by so fast ;_; My heart, it breaks! But it was so much fun!

Once again, MUCH praise and MUCH worship to the marvelous and magnificent Arisa Kiryuu for being a superb beta for this chapter! Thank you, my wee rutabaga! Also, special thanks to NatsuRay (aka Arisa Kiryuu), Spiderfan626, SoraKairiRikuNamine, and Mr. Spinner for being so generous as to take some time to leave their reviews! *bow, scrapes, worships* I am not worthy!

Hoped you all liked the Loners! Alice is the one I struggled the most with, but am also quite happy with the result! Went a lil darker with her - I think I drew from a mix of Disney, Lewis Carroll, and American McGee for her xD I have something quite fun for her in mind... but you won't get to see it for a while, sorry!

Holy shiiiiiiit, this whole scene was insanity xD I loved writing it and giving everyone their 15 seconds in the spotlight to be badass. Also looOooOooOoved writing Axel's commentary on it all xD Hope you all liked it as much as I enjoyed conjuring it up! Oh and just like with Atigi, there's a story behind Rox's last name Anbruch too, for anyone who wants to waste some time digging and translating and trying to puzzle out the crazy inner workings for my mind xD Still, Atigi is my MASTERPIECE.

And that's it for this round of updates for Svarog Dx My brain is already churning up the next chapter, BUT I must make my rounds to my other stories also desperately waiting for updates. Split Ends is up next, I left that one on kind of a cliffie, so bet some of you are happy to hear that xD

Thank you so so sooooo much for reading, I super duper appreciate it! If you have any comments, friendly feedback, or are just liking the story thus far, please make my day by letting me know in a review! Catch you at the next update, lovelies! Much love, peace out, word to your mothers, so long and thanks for all the fish!