"Cat Ears."

"Huh?"

"I'm glad you came back," Ral grinned.

"You sound sappy. Shut up," Jace snapped.

"C'mon Cat Ears. You can't hate me just because I'm glad I can annoy you again," Ral laughed. He moved one of the curtains aside, "By the way did you like the lion I got you while you were gone?"

"It's bigger than the tiger," Jace snapped, "Of course I didn't like it!"

Ral laughed, "Alright Cat Ears. Whatever you say."

Jace rolled his eyes, "If security comes blowing through that door you and I are both dead. We can't mess up the plan for tomorrow."

Ral nodded, "I know. I know. I'll be quieter now."

Jace rolled his eyes, "Are we done after tonight then?"

"Yeah. Nothing more to do than push the principal over the edge," Ral confirmed.

Jace nodded, "Alright." He climbed out the window and went to the roof of the building. I'm more than done with this. Hopefully after this everything will mellow out. However, I doubt it. We attract trouble like a magnet. He sighed, "Oh well. At least we can take care of ourselves as well as everyone else."

The next day Chandra volunteered for punishment in place for Alice. No one had expected Alice to get in trouble but that was how it had played out. Instead of dishing out punishment himself the principal had security do it.

"A whip?" Ral looked surprised, "That's new."

"Probably because she bent a baton with her head last time," Yuri muttered.

Ral snickered, "Yeah." That had been amusing. The principal had looked appalled.

Chandra watched security calmly. The man was hesitant but was still going to do as he was told. Ral knew however that Chandra had other plans. She dodged but let the whip wrap around her arm. Blood started running down her hair from where the end had connected into her flesh. She grabbed it and pulled it out of the man's hand. Her eyes went from calm to burning rage in an instant. She unwrapped the whip from her arm and cracked it extremely close to the guard, "Really?! You're a grown man aren't you? If you can't take a whip what makes you think kids can?!"

He shrugged and stepped away from her. His eyes were wide with fear and understanding at the same time.

Her eyes narrowed angrily and she tossed the whip at his feet, "Then WHY?! Why do it if you know it's wrong? Why dish it out if you can't take it? Why let it continue if you know that someone could die?"

He shook his head, "I-I don't know."

"You're a security guard. You're here for our safety and yet you are the one threatening that safety," she turned on her heel and jumped off the balcony without another word. The students dispersed.

Jace hovered for a moment before leaving. He hurried into the principal's "office" and climbed into the ceiling. He watched the man pace back in forth with an almost insane look in his eyes.

"Fine. If it's war those animals want then it's war they can get," he snarled.

Hades watched silently from the corner.

Jace smirked. Kurai. Tell the others that war has been declared.

Of course.

Jace slid away and out of the building. He no longer had an interest in being in the building. He hurried across the courtyard and into the dorm building. His paranoia demanded that he check everything to make sure that they were as prepared as they could be. Now that war had been declared he and Chandra would be a distraction to get security out of the dorm buildings so they weren't caught in the halls when the dorms unfolded into the battle stations they'd been designed into. Thanks to Zack they now had everything they needed to make it successful. Yes Ral's recent obsession with mini guns had been indulged. Each dorm had two. However the four students, Isabelle, Yuri, Derek, and Jenny, that were in charge of the guns were told to aim up. If they aimed up then the bullets would just slightly fall short of their target. The bullets were also not made of metal. They were an extremely hard foam as well as being blunt. The idea was to prove a point and not kill their opponents. Most of them were just following orders anyway. However since the Black Lotus had been sharing the videos Lotus recorded he doubted he'd bee able to get much in the way of back up. There was unfortunately the possibility that whoever ran the military shared his views. Jace didn't know much about how the country was run. He didn't care. He'd be gone before he had to do anything about it.

Lotus dropped into his room, "War?"

Jace nodded, "Yep."

She shook her head, "Finally. He'll be gone by the end of this."

Jace nodded, "Yeah." Not that I'd wish death-never mind. Hopefully somebody kills him. That somebody won't be me but he just shouldn't exist.

"So tonight then?" Lotus asked.

Jace's eyes narrowed, "Actually..." Kurai what's going on?

Well...security is extremely active suddenly.

What do you mean?

The principal is rounding everyone up outside the school and is presumably going to have Hades kill all of them one by one. Of course he is still in his camera room.

Jace's eyes narrowed, "Go outside." Tell Ral to play the song. I'll bring down the dorms.

Of course.

Jace watched Lotus disappear down the stairs. Once she was safely out of the building he went over to the closet. Inside Ral hid his computer. Jace put in the code that would activate the battle stations. He jumped out the window so that he wouldn't be crushed in the transformation. So much for having to draw security out of the dorm buildings. They're all in the school still. He met Lotus outside and watched. The entire student body was herded outside. Instantly those that could fight and win against security did so while the others darted towards the battle stations. Jace could hear the Black Lotus assassins speeding down the streets in their evacuation semi trucks. They had modified semi trucks for evacuation purposes because one could hold plenty of people. The entire city could fit into the semi trucks the assassin's guild had managed to acquire. His eyes narrowed. The moment the entire student body was inside the outer reaches of the barrier Ral activated it. Onyx instantly knelt on the ground near his duffel bag and opened it. He turned it upside down and shook everything out of it.

Jace stared at him, "How much do you fit in there?"

"All of this," Onyx shrugged.

"And you haven't died yet how?" Erin asked.

"It's got a few enchantments on it," Onyx shrugged again.

Now lying on the ground in front of him were more than enough weapons. He handed one to Michael and one to David. The nurse had profusely protested to their participation in this but they were here now, having been rounded up by security. The principal ordered an open fire. Luckily the barrier held. The students managed to get prepared before the barrier fell. However that was the only purpose the barrier held. It wouldn't hold up forever.

The Black Lotus arrived and indiscreetly drove through the wall that surrounded the school. Zack brought their allies up through the tunnels and the former staff of the school gathered between those loading onto the trucks and security, more than ready for a fight. Jace shook his head. The first principal was the last demon hunter on the world and had killed multiple as well as beings less powerful than that. The second principal was a part of an assassination organization that was supported by the government, nearly all of security had defected to their side but the current principal had suspected as much. Jace had taken great pleasure in the absolute shock that he saw on the principal's face as the man walked into the courtyard. His forces stopped shooting when he appeared.

"It's a little different in person isn't it?" The second principal asked callously, "You overstep your bounds by doing this."

"They're the ones that asked for war," the principal motioned to the student body that was gathered.

The first principal raised an eyebrow, "There's obviously no changing that mentality."

Jace glanced at Ral, "How much longer is the barrier going to hold up?"

"Well, now that they've stopped shooting at us, it should last long enough to get everyone that won't be fighting safely to the Black Lotus hotel. It should also give Elspeth and the others time to at least be close by."

Jace nodded, "Good."

The principal glared at the student body that had outsmarted and outmaneuvered him, "Kill them. They're all monsters, less than animals."

The military grade force the principal now had opened fire without a second thought.

Hades followed the principal into the camera room obediently. He watched the events unfold over the man's shoulder. The camera's didn't necessarily pick up on some of them. He watched two mini guns come up out of the floor of each dorm room. One girl, Isabelle, could warp the paths of the bullets with a look. She was an Ascension City kid. They all had very intriguing abilities that had no real explanation. Many believed it was experimentation and then the abilities were passed down from one generation to the next. Hades didn't necessarily doubt that but he didn't know. He didn't know a lot of the kid's names. He just knew the ones that caused the most "trouble". Michael and David were acting as battle medics. The nurse had argued against them being rounded up with the other students but the security replacements were unwilling to listen to her. She was currently lying unconscious on the floor of her office. Or she was last he knew. He wasn't surprised that Jace was fast enough to block bullets or dodge them. The fact that Chandra was was more than surprising to him however. Of course with her abilities over fire she might maybe be able to augment her speed. He doubted it was that though. She had an innate inhuman speed that he didn't understand. The fighting was basically stale mated.

"Call in the Inquisitors," the principal ordered.

Hades swallowed nervously. Inquisitors? Are they really necessary? They'll kill everyone. He watched anxiously as the Inquisitors approached the battlefield. There were nine of them. There were usually ten but one had died and had yet to be replaced. It was rumored that the lead Inquisitor wasn't completely human herself, possessing some unnatural ability that no one had actually seen in action. Usually Inquisitors were female. The sole reason being the fact that something about female anatomy took better to the genetic and physical augmentation an Inquisitor went through. However there were three male Inquisitors.

Hades had never met an Inquisitor but had heard plenty of horror stories. He had no intention of meeting one on the opposite side of a battle field. Instantly the Ascension City students became apprehensive. The Elendeth kids of course had no idea what an Inquisitor was. He started to chew on his pinkie fingernail nervously. I hope they can handle it.

Inquisitors. Beings specifically designed to destroy an experiment after the Rogue Experiment escaped the second time.

Jace cursed. He could see them. There were nine of them. He wasn't sure the majority of the students could survive a fight with one of them. Suddenly he heard Chandra snarled, "Let the Lotus take care of them."

Jace nodded, "Can you?"

"The more powerful will be able to," Chandra nodded. She leaped forward before Jace could question her anymore.

Don't die moron. Jace knew she'd probably find some way of returning the insult to him but he didn't care. He was a little too busy to worry about her being her normal self.