Jace stood between Chandra and Onyx while Kyle stood next to a young man, probably seventeen. His sea green eyes widened with surprise, "Damn. At first I didn't believe Kyle but seeing you guys I totally believe you're at war. Damn." He smiled, "Zack by the way." His clothes were almost ragged and well worn. Probably more because he liked wearing them than because he didn't have any money. In a city that had a hotel that was run by a vampire that had more money than he knew what to do with going without wasn't exactly something anyone truly knew.
"Chandra," Chandra nodded.
"I met him a little while ago when the second principal was causing trouble and Rick and I were out at lunch," Kyle explained.
Chandra nodded.
"So...Kyle says you guys need help? What with?"
"Everything," Onyx shrugged, "But weapons would be nice and materials that will be specified later."
Zack nodded, "Alright. I doubt you guys can store all of it there though." He looked at his earth manipulating friend, "Lead the way to the abandoned warehouse. You guys can house outside allies there as well. No one in the city dares to approach the school anymore so the warehouse is the best place. There's all sorts of storage places in there."
Kyle nodded.
Chandra shrugged indifferently. The kid was probably at least a little annoying since he was Kyle's friend but they would need all the help they could get.
"According to Kurai, everything's done," Jace muttered. He hated playing messenger but it's not like they had much of a choice. Kurai knew full well Chandra's opinion of him. She knew telepathy was an asset but she would more than likely kill him for getting into her head now that Jace was there. Like Tina the principal couldn't know of his existence. He'd taken to hanging out on the roof of the boys' dorm building. There weren't any cameras that looked up so he was able to remain unseen up there. He was fast enough that all the cameras could catch of him was a blur. As were all the experiments. Hades knew he was there. Jace was somewhat surprised that the kid hadn't told the principal of his existence yet. His eyes narrowed. Fear is an amazing motivator but so is compassion. He has to care otherwise he would've said something. He almost smirked.
"You're thinking hard," Onyx noted.
Jace shrugged, "Just making observations." He cocked his head to the side, "We'd need to be able to modify the entire buildings in order to follow through with Ral's plan."
"Kyle, I need you to make a system of tunnels. One leading from one dorm to the other. This one will be for bringing supplies into the school," Chandra said.
"Who knew you could actually be a tactician," Jace muttered.
"Shut up," Chandra glared at him.
"At least you haven't changed," Jace smirked.
"Yeah and? You're still an astronomical pain in the ass."
"I'm cute," Jace shrugged.
"According to what? Your ego?"
Onyx shook his head, "Let's not start fighting down here. I'm sure the city would appreciate it if we didn't cause an earthquake."
The two turned away from each other and continued walking.
Zack glanced at Kyle, "Do they do that often?"
"Often enough that pretty much everyone is completely resigned to it," Kyle smiled at his friend, "It provides some very interesting entertainment."
"You still have to give me that ring by the way," Chandra reminded him.
"Not until you give me the medallion."
"I'm not giving you the medallion."
"Then the ring is mine," Jace shrugged.
"It is not yours. It's some ancient relic. You can't go claiming it as your own!"
"Then give me the medallion."
"No."
"Why not?" Jace asked.
"Because...damn you," Chandra glared at him.
Jace smirked, "You can't tell me I can't claim it as my own and then tell me I can't have the medallion cause it's yours."
"Shut up," Chandra snapped.
Zack started laughing.
"Everyone misses it when they don't," Onyx added, "If those two aren't arguing then it's absolutely crucial that they work together. That doesn't happen often."
"We're right here!" the two planeswalkers snapped in unison.
Kyle burst out laughing, "That was priceless!"
"In all seriousness though, the medallion and the ring are going to have to wait," Jace said evenly.
"Who knew you'd put us before your ticket out of here," Chandra smirked.
Jace glanced at her through narrowed eyes, "Keep talking and it won't happen again."
Chandra looked at him with a confident look in her eyes, "Really? You'd just up and leave. Right now?"
"Well...damn you," Jace looked away from her.
"I'm amazed. Even in the middle of a crisis you two are still arguing incessantly," Onyx shook his head.
"Maybe they have a plan," Zack suggested.
Chandra started laughing.
"We...we don't usually bother with plans," Jace admitted sheepishly.
Zack's eyes widened, "Then what about the whole 'let's turn the dorm buildings into battle stations as inspired by Star Trek' thing?"
"That wasn't us," Chandra shook her head.
"That was Ral," Jace added.
"After watching Star Trek?"
"No," Jace shook his head, "He hasn't actually seen Star Trek. He just thought it would be the easiest way of describing what he was thinking of."
Onyx stared at Jace, "Seriously?"
Jace nodded.
The blue haired boy rolled his eyes and shook his head.
Jace resisted the urge to smile. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that. He couldn't remember the last time he'd actually smiled before coming here.
Kyle sighed, "We're here. Do you want me to blow a hole in the floor?"
"Sure," Chandra shrugged.
"Wait!" Jace shook his head, "I wouldn't. It might be abandoned but announcing our presences would still be bad."
"So...quietly and gently put a hole in the floor?" Kyle asked.
Jace nodded.
"Well, looks like we know who really keeps everyone alive," Zack teased playfully.
Chandra glared at him, "Hey!"
Jace snickered and got punched in the arm for it. He looked at her indignantly, "I didn't say anything."
"You snickered and he would be broken in half if I poked him," Chandra motioned to Zack.
It took the seventeen year old a moment to pick up on the underhanded insult. When he did he looked at her indignantly, "That wasn't cool."
"I'm surprised it took you so long," Chandra smirked. Her smirk turned into a smile to let him know she was kidding.
"Alright," Kyle changed the positioning of the earth around them so there were stairs. Jace and Chandra were out first, skipping every other step.
"God you guys are fast," Zack shook his head.
Chandra shrugged.
Jace ignored him in favor of looking around. The room was mostly empty but there were plenty of empty bins where things or even people could be stored. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, "In the event we do make allies we need to tell them about the tunnel. That way they can actually come to our assistance."
Chandra nodded, "And they can bring whatever supplies we can't store when they do."
Jace nodded, "Yeah."
"However, we don't necessarily have allies," Onyx pointed out.
"Well," Chandra looked at Jace, "There's always Elspeth and the others."
"I'd rather they stay out of it," Jace shrugged.
Chandra shook her head, "They're getting involved."
"Fine," Jace continued to look around. Elspeth would be helpful. She is after all a skill healer even without access to mana. "What about the Black Lotus?"
"They're taking care of those that cannot fight," Onyx said.
Jace nodded, "Okay."
"So...what kinds of weapons would you guys need," Zack asked after a moment of tense silence.
"Ral mentioned a mini gun," Jace said evenly.
Chandra stared at him, "A mini gun?"
Jace nodded, "When you're dealing with someone that sees non humans as less than animals but wants to make weapons out of them things tend to get interesting."
"I love how he says it like the request is nothing out of the ordinary," Zack said to Kyle.
Kyle shrugged, "They've obviously dealt with worse than a principal that wants war."
"I'll see what I can do," Zack promised.
Chandra nodded.
Two weeks passed. The plan was going smoothly. The student body was mellowing out as directed and Michael and David's pranks occurred less and less. Jace watched a security patrol pass beneath him. He was in the ceiling of the hallway they were patrolling. Each guard was armed with semi automatic guns, tasers, and live ammunition. Jace shook his head, "You'd think this was a prison." The principal truly believes that instilling fear within the student body will get them to be obedient. I don't think he could be more wrong but he wouldn't do it if it hasn't worked in the past. His eyes narrowed. Imagine his surprise when he watches the student body comply to his wishes only to unleash their vengeance upon him. He couldn't help but smirk as he imagined the principal's shocked face.
The student body was split into three teams. Each team was only ever active at night. One was in charge of modifying the girls' dorm while a second was in charge of the boys' dorm. A third group was in charge of bringing in supplies from the warehouse. Zack had so many contacts. Jace was amazed but the public school kid had gotten them everything they'd asked for plus much much more. Everything was stored in the warehouse. Zack had all of his friends from his school helping him out as well. He met the third group, led by Rick, halfway between the warehouse and the school campus through the tunnels. Chandra had Yuri and Kyle set up lights within the tunnels so they weren't in the dark. Ral was in charge of the boys' dorm group while Isabelle was in charge of the girls'. Jace and Cain spent the entire night every night going from one dorm to the other to check anything one of the students needed them to.
Under this principal PE had turned into a soldier training hour. The students were forced to run even when they couldn't anymore. If they collapsed then there was a good chance they'd end up in "punishment balcony" of the cafeteria around lunch time. It wasn't just running either. Grueling physical activity was a daily requirement. Every student had a PE class now at the end of the day. Jace often watched the students on the track field from the roof of the school building. The librarian would allow the students reprieves in the library and had pass cards with perfectly forged teacher signatures that she'd give out to the students if they wanted a quick break from the horror that class and school in general was becoming. Of course rules dictated that a student could not spend more than fifteen minutes in the library with a pass card. The principal still hadn't gotten around to installing cameras into the library as the previous principals had seen no need to do so. Of course that was thanks to a little bit of minor memory manipulation thanks to Kurai. The demon did everything Jace instructed of him which left Jace a little unnerved. He was however not going to miss the chances to make things easier for the students that came up, even if he had to use Kurai to do it. He was becoming more and more certain that Kurai had lied about allying with the archangels but at least he wasn't being difficult.
Jace watched another round of security pass him by. The halls were patrolled constantly. A security patrol passed under him every two minutes. Every single patrol was armed in preparation for a student, mostly Chandra, to resist them. Xerxes had been strangely missing this entire time. That particular circumstance led Kurai to believe that Xerxes was the true force behind the principal. Hades was constantly at the principal's side and was in charge of taking down anyone security couldn't or anyone that dared to attack the principal. The principal had turned the security camera room into his office instead of using the office that was meant for the person that held the principal title. So far as far as the principal knew everything was going according to plan. Extensive use of illusions kept the students from being caught at night. Said illusions were mostly generated by Claire and her friends. She taught the humans that followed her the use of illusions for other purposes but they made good use of the ability now. Luckily she had both male and female followers that basically made a network of magical energy, working together to create insanely powerful and realistic illusions. Tessa, Alice, and Lilianna worked together to generate a plan for the best case scenario as well as the worst case scenario. Chandra and Lotus stood on the rooftops of the girls' and boys' dorms respectively and watched out for Hades and any incoming security. Everyone with telepathic abilities created a mental communication network. Jace shook his head. Who knew such a dysfunctional student body could unite so easily. Michael and David were now seventy times more serious than he'd ever seen them. Their pranks were now used to cover someone's retreat should it be necessary and set up more like a system of traps should security figure out what the student body was up to. The finishing touch to setting up the traps was a lever on the bottom floor of either dorm building. It would cause all the triggers to become active. That way the traps would only activate should it be necessary. The entrances to the tunnel network were trap doors under each bottom floor fridge. Kyle had a hell of a time plunging through the foundation of the buildings but managed to keep them stable while doing so.
Ral had agreed to play Michael and David's trouble song should they actually go to war. Jace thought it was ridiculous but Ral reasoned that it would give enough of a warning for security, who was only following orders, to decide whether or not they actually wanted to fight. The plan was the song would play and then the dorms would unfold but only if it became necessary. Ral had managed to discover an alloy that made nearly anything indestructible. The students had lined every single wall of the building with that alloy. Every three dorm rooms held a device of Ral's design that once activated would create a shield around the dorm buildings and the space in between. Every three rooms would once they were done. Jace sighed, "Now we wait." He dropped from the ceiling and shot past the security patrol. They whirled around but saw nothing. He smirked. Let's see how easy it is to prove a point. He skidded to a stop and shot back towards the patrol.
"Keep an eye out for what-WHOA!" The leader of the patrol just managed to get out of Jace's jump. Jace flipped and shoved him forward with his hands. That shoved him backwards into the next security guard. He caught himself on the man's shoulders, unbalancing him and rode him to the ground.
"Shoot it!"
Jace leaped into a security guard and disappeared into the ceiling.
"Damn monsters," the lead guard muttered as he fixed his jacket. Jace smirked and teleported behind the man, "Do you really want to see what a monster can do?" He leaped away from him and disappeared around the corner.
The guard whirled around just as Jace slid into the corner, "Dammit."
"Sir, whatever it is, it's inhumanly fast," one of the guards said, "I doubt we'll be able to hit it."
"Whoever said I was an it," Jace appeared behind the guard that had spoken and knocked her feet out from under her. He rose slowly to his feet and looked at the rest of the patrol. A second patrol was running up to them. Jace was nearly positive that the extra patrol wouldn't matter. He looked at the leader of the patrol and flicked his ears, "And who said you had to look human to be capable of compassion and love? Who said appearance even mattered? Look around at the men and women that follow you. Do they all look the same?" God I sound like Chandra. He shrugged, "I guess you get to decide what happens next." He shot past the stunned man and down the hallway. He couldn't be traced back to the student body because he'd never been seen before. He slowed to a stop and shrugged indifferently. Both patrols had heard everything he'd said. Maybe now they'd be on more even footing. If security was reluctant to fight then the principal wouldn't have an immediate fighting force.