Amber POV
"Since when is pizza a breakfast food?" Skye wondered aloud, rolling her eyes and putting a couple slices on her tray. Date shrugged and poured cereal in a bowl. Spencer cleared his throat and spoke with the false air of confidence of a person that is pretending to know what they're taking about, even though it makes absolutely no sense.
"Since prehistoric times, actually. Did you know that cavemen used to eat pizza all the time? They called it..." He proceeded to make a series of grunting and snuffling noises that made me laugh.
Date grinned and poured milk in his cereal, shaking his head at Spencer's antics.
"Were they cavemen, or pigs? Sounds like you're rooting for truffles." Spencer mock glared and wagged a finger at him.
"Don't mock the cavemen, Date, they invented fire." Skye laughed and picked up a carton of milk.
"And AIDS." I clutched my aching stomach with one arm and balanced my food with the other as Date coughed into his fist.
"Now that is something they could've kept to themselves."
We all sat down and Skye shook her head ruefully, taking a bite of her pizza.
"Don't be ridiculous, Spencer. Obviously the Elves invented pizza. Nothing this good could be created by humans and Faunus alone."
Elves...
"Hey guys?" When I had their attention, I voiced my concerns. "Did you hear what Oobleck said about Elves? The thing about being able to project their consciousness outside of their bodies?" Date nodded.
"You think that's how the Orchid dodged all of our attacks at once." I nodded, giving a relieved smile.
"Yeah." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"But Skye ended up getting her attack to connect when she was distracted, so I assume she has to concentrate for it to work." I grinned.
"Oh good, you thought of that too." Skye took another bite of pizza and said,
"But didn't you hit her a few times when you fought her one on one, Amber?" I nodded.
"Yeah, though I think she was just underestimating me," I mused, absently stirring my yogurt cup. "But she was more careful when she went up against all of us."
Someone set a tray on the table next to me and sat down.
"Which means that not only are we fucked because the Orchid's an Elf, but also that since she's a student here, she knows we know that she's an Elf so she'll likely lay low until we're off guard, at which point she'll decimate us."
Spencer snorted. "Well good morning to you too, Dante." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Sorry, I seem to have left my manners behind this morning." She blinked slowly. "And my energy. What's up with you guys?" We all shrugged.
"Not much." Was Skye's answer.
"Not too much." Date replied.
"Meh." Was all Spencer said. When she looked at me, I shrugged.
"Just trying to figure out who the Orchid could possibly be." Dante smirked.
"Funny you should mention that, I heard quite the interesting theory from team KING who, by the way, was the only other team to come into contact with her."
None of us moved for a long moment.
"So...you have a suspect?" Dante snorted.
"Hell no, there's no way it's who they think it is. I just said it was interesting." Skye bit a chunk out of the crust of her pizza, then frowned.
"So who do they think it is? And why is there no cheese in this crust?" Dante spooned cereal into her mouth and chewed.
"S'funny cuz they shushpect dere own team leeder." I stared at her blankly and she swallowed. "I said they suspect their team leader." Oh. She got more blank stares.
She facepalmed and laughed.
"I keep forgetting you guys are new." She cleared her throat. "I'm ninety percent sure we went over this before, but team KING is the school's top team out of all four years. Their leader is Karissa Mauve." She said the name like she was spitting something nasty out of her mouth. "She's the most uptight, annoying perfectionist in the entire school. Seriously, it's cute for some people, but it's not working for her."
"Wait," I said slowly, trying to figure out how to articulate my thought. "How do you know the Orchid is a student?" She directed her piercing cerulean gaze at me.
"Think about it. Not only did she know that your initiation was that day, she also knew that there was another team that was there to help with the initiation. That's not information that anyone outside of the school could just easily obtain." Spencer leaned back and took a swig of milk from his carton.
"Okay, that seems plausible, but if the Orchid is a student, then she must know she can't hide forever." Dante nodded.
"Yeah, which why we need to figure out her motive and stop her before she reaches her endgame. There's also a significant chance that she's working with Spectra." Date cocked an eyebrow.
"Catwoman spandex lady? That Spectra?" Dante grimaced.
"Yeah. She's been bothering me on and off for the last twenty chapters." I frowned.
"For the last what?" She ignored me.
"Though it'd be narrow minded of me not to consider the possibility that the Orchid is an outsider who was contracted by a student to stop the initiation for whatever reason." We all thought about this for a while.
"That seems highly unlikely." Said a soft voice from behind me. I leaned back and looked up, catching sight of smooth pale skin, the underside of someone's jaw, and colorful strands of hair.
Dante glanced at her.
"Morning Cal. What do you think?" She paused and shrugged, sitting next to Dante two seats down from me. She turned sideways and leaned her elbow on the table, resting her cheek on her palm.
"The Orchid seems rather strange." Dante snorted.
"Huh. You don't say. I'd had never come to that conclusion on my own." Cali ignored her sarcasm and picked up a strawberry off of her tray. She bit off the tip and pursed her lips.
"She appears to work alone." Dante folded her arms.
"What makes you say that?" And just like that, we were invisible.
"She took out team KING." Dante pondered this for a moment.
"You think she did it so she wouldn't have to worry about them and team FATE? Because she didn't have backup?" Cali shrugged.
"Maybe." Dante rubbed a lock of hair in her bangs between her thumb and forefinger.
"I don't know..." Cali picked up another strawberry and bit off a chunk before swallowing delicately.
"It's what I would do." Dante nodded.
"Yeah, me too. It's the easiest way I can think of." Cali looked directly at me, and I was once again distracted by her luminous, color shifting eyes.
"What would you do, Amber?" I thought for a moment, then admitted.
"Probably the same thing." She nodded and turned to Skye.
"Thoughts?" Skye looked a bit surprised at being included, but recovered quickly.
"Well, it goes without saying that everyone at this table would probably get rid of team KING first, but I'm more concerned by the fact that she has what seems to be a sort of telekinetic power and can see 360 degrees around her whenever she wants to. That'll make it pretty damn hard to sneak up on her."
"You did it once." Spencer pointed out. Date nodded.
"Yeah, and it's thanks to that, that we were able to defeat her...if you can even call it that." Skye scoffed like it was ridiculous, but her cheeks reddened a bit.
Dante began tapping out a rhythm on the table. Four beats, a pause, four more beats, and repeat.
"So we're dealing with someone, an Elf to be precise, who works alone, is nigh impossible to sneak up on, has tele-fucking-kinesis, and is smart, but deliberately takes the easy path to throw us off. Sound about right?"
Everyone nodded.
"Pretty much." Dante sighed.
"All of this on top of the fact that Spectra can be practically anywhere she wants at any time she wants."
"Damn straight, sugar cheeks." Dante yelped and fell over backwards, away from the strange woman sitting across from her, next to Skye.
She was wearing a gleaming white mask with red symbols carved into it, a black skintight suit with a red swirl on the chest, and nothing else.
Dante sprang up and snarled.
"Get the fuck away from me." The woman cocked her head and when she spoke, she sounded hurt.
"Why? What have I done?" Dante scowled.
"You're stalking me and constantly saying very sexually explicit things to me while I'm trying to sleep!" The woman said nothing for a while.
"Okay, besides that." Dante growled and Cali tugged her sleeve.
"Sit down, people are staring." Dante glanced around and glared at a few people, but sat down.
"Go away, Spectra."
Spectra sat still, then her shoulders slumped and she sighed.
"Fine, I just wanted you to know that this Orchid chick has nothing to do with me." She sounded like a sulky four year old who's been told she can't have a treat as she stood. She paused and leaned toward Cali, as if scrutinizing her. "Uh, do we know each other?" Cali shook her head.
"Not personally, no." Spectra didn't seem convinced.
"Hmm, okay." She twirled and bounded gracefully up onto the table. No one so much as glanced in her direction. "I bid you adieu, sweet Dante, and I eagerly await the day that you allow me to make sweet, sweet love to you." Dante grunted and folded her arms stubbornly.
"Fuck off." Spectra giggled and stretched languidly, reaching for the ceiling.
"I cannot wait for our next kiss, then we'll see how your attitude is." She stepped off the table, and sank into the floor.
Spencer gaped at the spot she'd passed through. Skye shook her head incredulously.
"That was our antagonist?"
Yes, folks, I updated again. It was much harder this time because I had to do it all from my iPod. And it didn't exactly help that it was fucking up the entire time, either. I hope you're grateful. Please excuse any major errors, I'll fix any I find and update as soon as possible.