The last chord faded away. Hayley relaxed, and lowered the guitar. She looked around, the Battlefront members were all siting still with thoughtful expressions. "What do you think?"
"It's-" Mike started.
"It isn't going to work," Winnie broke in. She shook her head dismissively as she propped her feet up on the principle's desk. "Girl's Dead Monster is supposed to serve as a distraction, remember? How are you going to distract anyone when you're playing some sappy love ballad?"
Hayley hesitated, regarding her friend. Then she nodded. "Ok, it's fine. I'll trash that one."
A sigh went up around the room.
Winnie promptly ignored it, and turned to indicate the projector screen behind her. "All right, moving on. The new guild is still being constructed, so we are currently running on a slight weapons deficit. In response, our next mission will be a covert one, we shall infiltrate Angel's domain!"
The Battlefront members began to mutter, eyes brows rising.
"But… the last time we tried that, it was terrible!" Luke recalled with horror. "I mean, I got torn into 7 different-"
"Silence," Fred hushed with authority. "I know how our last venture ended. But, this time, things will be different. We have… this guy!"
Winnie leapt up from her chair, pulling up by the scruff of the neck a scrawny boy, who had apparently been stuffed under the desk for dramatic purposes.
It worked. "What the heck, how long was he back there!" Harry cried.
"Not cool Winnie, not cool," Emmanuel moaned, sitting back down.
Elliot stared at the newcomer curiously. "He has glasses…" he noted, pushing up his own spectacles.
"This is so stupid…" Hannah grumbled.
"Meet Leonard, " Winnie pronounced, as the boy walked around the desk, fixing stray hairs back into his perfect bowl-cut, reaffixing his thick framed round glasses to his face, the glare from the projector utterly hiding his eyes behind the glass. "I picked him up from the diversion division; he's a genius with computers."
"What, and this joker's going to help us get in to Angel's domain?" Emmanuel hissed skeptically.
"Ha!" Jake cried, eyes gleaming with dangerous glee. He jumped, halberd flashing, and soon stood poised, weapon inches from the newcomer's still figure. "Is that so, pipsqueak? Well then, let's see what you're made of!"
"You don't have friends, do you?" Mike said quietly.
Jake didn't hear him in his bloodlust "There can't be anything someone like you could do-"
Leonard began to speak, the incredible syllables flying from his lips like winged chariots, sophisticated gods of war.
"3.14159265358979323846264338…"
Jake stumbled back, mouth agape, face twitching as he tried to comprehend what he was hearing.
"…32795028841971693993751058209…"
They could almost see steam pouring out of Jake's frazzled brain as he dropped his weapon, and brought his hands to his stricken face as he fell to his knees. Leonard only moved closer, continuing to speak all the while. "…749445923078164062…"
"Sweet Malt Balls!" Richie cried in astonishment. "Is all that Pi?"
"H-hey, give him a break!" Harry entreated, moving towards the dueling pair with outstretched hands. "Give him some mercy, he's only a moron-"
"Exactly," Fred snapped, folding her hands. "The major problem we face is, we're all morons."
"That isn't really something a leader should tell her followers-"Mike started to argue.
"So," Fred continued," we need someone who's actually intelligent, if we're going to be successful. In our last attempt, our lack of intelligence was made extremely apparent. And so, the hacker, codename: Leonard, will be joining us.
"But, isn't that his real name?"
"Yes but," Leonard spoke suddenly, thin voice quavering. "I actually go by the name, Christ!"
They stared at him for a moment. "Hey, do you think we could ask Asher and the others to make a trampoline?" Harry asked wistfully. "I've always wanted a trampoline."
"Idiot, how's that going to defeat Angel," Emmanuel snorted. "Make your own trampoline."
Mike scratched his head thoughtfully. Angel's domain? What on earth could that be like? A vivid image appeared in his mind's eye again, but instead of seeing him free-falling out of an airplane, he was staring in awe up some grandiose castle, a soaring fortress positioned on the peak of a summit, a heavily fortified, beautifully made structure looming down at all below.
Mike frowned. "But… why do we need a hacker to infiltrate Angel's Domain?"
"Because Angel's Domain is run by a computer," Harry explained. "We don't know why, but that's how it seems to work."
What… a computer? The image in Mike's imagination changed from a medieval castle to a massive mechanical hulk, humming and beeping with unknown functions.
"The operation will commence tomorrow night," Winnie continued, "So make sure to prepare yourselves. Hayley, I'll need Girls Dead monster to schedule a concert that night, we're going to need a massive distraction if we're going to manage to get in undetected."
Hayley leaned back on the coffee table. "Understood."
Mike walked along the river steadily. He'd spent the remainder of the morning practicing his shooting; he really thought he was getting the hang of it. Well, getting the hang of it as long as his target was a motionless bush, only 20 meters away across the river.
He wandered back up the spiral staircase to the school, stepping up the firm metal steps as he hefted his weapon thoughtfully. He still couldn't really remember heads or tails of what he'd been like while he was still alive. But… well, the memories he was making now, he thought they'd do a good job.
"Mike!" a voice called out. He turned around to see a group of the guys, Harry, TK, Emmanuel, and Jake, cavorting towards him. An arm was thrown around his shoulder, and before he could protest, he was being drug along with them.
"Where are we going?" he called as they made their way further into the school, passing classroom after classroom full of lecturing teachers and bored students.
"Hush. We've got important things to attend to," Harry replied sunnily.
"Live and let die," agreed TK, moonwalking alongside them through the pools of sunlight streaming in through the windows.
Mike looked around curiously as the bell rang, and the chattering NPC's spilled out all around them.
Emm grunted in annoyance, and tried to create a path through the throng by waving his arms dramatically. But it'd take more than a rhino's charge to deter students desperate to leave their classes, and they were quickly swamped in the crowd.
"Crazy, crazy on you!" TK exclaimed, throwing his hands up as he spun in place, most people moving around him tactically.
There was a giggle. Turning, , they saw a pretty girl dressed in the uniform of the normal students chuckling at TK's antics. Noticing his audience, TK smiled, and broke into an elaborate routine, dropping to spin around on his hands, feet spinning.
"What's up with him?" a guy asked, putting his arm around the girl as he stepped up to join her in watching the spectacle. "I didn't know this school had a dance team."
"TK just really likes to dance," Mike explained, stepping towards the couple so he could be heard in the cacophony of those who had been forced to go over an hour without speaking. "And sing… and jump, and spin, and… I don't know, I just think he has a lot of energy."
The young girl laughed again, tapping her foot in beat with the rumbles that ripped through TK's spinning body. "He certainly is talented. "
Her boyfriend's brow furrowed. "Hey, I can dance to, you know. I-"
"Oh come on Henry, you can do the robot, that doesn't count."
As the crowd finally dispersed around them, she smiled at his stricken expression. "Kidding, dear. You have a very romantic robot."
Mike grinned at them, feeling the familiar comfort of normal topics of conversation sweep over him. "Does this school have any school dances?"
The short-haired guy nodded. "Sure, I think there's one soon. You guys should all come and dance, it'll"
"FOOL!" Jake howled, jumping forward, swirling his halberd with deadly intent. "HOW DARE YOU IMPLLY I'D DO SOMETHING AS WIMPY AS DANCING, HUH?" He thrusted forward with the weapon, its glimmering tip stopping inches away from the guy's chest.
Mike's mouth fell open in shock, he watched as Harry and Emmanuel struggled diligently to hold their "friend' back, as Jake spouted increasingly creative profanities at being restrained.
Mike turned back to the couple. "Look, I can explain…"
He trailed off. Something was definitely… off, about their expressions. They looked back at Jake, with his quivering blade, not with shock or fear, but a form of dazed confusion. As Nick watched, it solidified into annoyance.
"Sheesh, no need to point like that," the guy huffed as the two headed off. "Some people just don't know manners."
Mike watched them go, twisted. His group once more set off, down a different hall, one lined with a variety of colorful painting of animals from the art department.
"What happened," he asked, looking down. "They acted like they hadn't been seconds from death."
Emmanuel nodded. "It's because their NPC's, idiot. Normal students. Do people point battleaxes at kids in normal school?"
"No… At least, I don't think so."
"Of course not. It just doesn't compute. Instead, they see something that would normally exist. It's like, I don't really care to think it through, but I guess you could say that they are human, but not all of one. "Emm scratched his head. "They probably just thought Jake had made some offensive gesture. Whatever, it doesn't really matter- What the, who the hell is this?"
They had wandered to the gym. In the clearing outside the entrance doors, a small girl was hard at work, died-pink hair swishing as she stepped from one bulletin board, leaving behind a trail of identical posters, glaring with their flamboyant colors.
Mike read one carefully. "Girls Dead Monster, gymnasium A, 10:00 Tuesday. Be there for a night of debauchery, skullduggery, and underhanded rocking out."
With a zing, the pink-haired girl appeared before them, eyeing them perkily as she rocked on her heels. "Yup! We're going to have a concert tomorrow night! It's amazing, because concerts aren't allowed at this school, unless it's a designated event. But, GirlDeMo directly advertising it! The teachers can't let them get away with this! Hi! I'm Julie. Can I help you?"