Good Morning Miss Bliss

Chicago sucked. They took too much pride in their terrible pizza, everyone couldn't stop talking about Micheal Jordan, and at any moment you felt like you were going to get murdered. Still, it wasn't New York.

The leader of the New York resistance who sucked the least in the assault and made some attempt to clean up the mess walked down the graffiti filled streets carrying a briefcase hanging just at the bottom of her thick overcoat. Buried beneath the tied coat, Bliss wore a sweatervest over a white button-up shirt with a pleated plaid field hockey skirt hanging just above her knees. A pair of red suede boots beat gently across the concrete in front of the school Bliss found a temporary position with as a substitute teacher for girl's gym.

In her earlier years in high school, Bliss excelled in participation at softball and field hockey. Her on the field exploits never amounted to anything, but boy did she get to watch those games from really close. Still Bliss would take charge of leading some girls through awkwardly stretching and talking about boys for forty minutes or so while she tried to locate the gifted girl she heard about. The exact details of her powers still remained a mystery, but Bliss needed to find out before the people whom Bliss stole this information from found her.

Bliss strode through the halls approaching the gym and pushed the doors wide open. A wide and diverse collection of students filled the gymnasium, but they turned their attention to the five and a half foot tall Japanese woman tossing her brief case onto the bleachers as she untied the belt around her overcoat and tossed it over her arm.

"Are you a transfer student?" A girl with braided hair resting along the collar of her gym uniform asked.

"I'm Miss Bliss..." Bliss unzipped her boots and removed them to reveal her knee high sports socks. "I'll be subbing while Mrs. Martinez while she is on her leave of absence..."

"Bitch couldn't hang." Another girl spoke with an undeserved arrogance.

Bliss tied up her tennis shoes while she kept herself in check. "Well, I'm sure you've done plenty to earn that 'Swag' you kids all love..."

"Done more than you Konichiwa." The cocky girl didn't even realize the inherent referential joke. She just wanted to rattle Bliss.

"You're Miss Hubbard right?" With her shoes tied, Bliss pulled her hair back into a ponytail and walked to retrieve a cart.

"I'm that famous."

"No, you have an undeserved ego stemming from never having worked in your life and you look down on people in the way only a political architect would diminish people's lives. Also, your name is on your bag J-Lo, now lets play lacrosse." Bliss pulled out a stick from a cart and gestured for the rest of the class to do as she instructed.

"I'm going to beat your eyes round Bliss." Overshadowing Bliss by about five inches, miss Hubbard grabbed the stick and turned suddenly to bump into a much smaller girl. "Outta the way Nose Bleed."

"Excuse Miss Bliss..." Standing among the crowd of girls funneling through to get their stick and goggles, the five foot two blonde looked nervously at Bliss. "Can I be excused from this activity? Or keep score?" Avoiding eye contact, the girl stared at Bliss's vest without breaking her tone.

"It looks like theirs an odd amount of girls, so you might just be an alternative if someone gets hurt."

"So, you dress like guys would still want to take a shot on your dried up eggs just to not play." Surrounded by a phalanx of her personal gang, Hubbard stretched her back with the lacrosse stick.

Bliss tried to remedy a situation she personally exacerbated. "I'm a little too old to give in to peer pressure."

"You're telling me. You're in a high school dressed like a pedo."

Bliss bit down on the back of her mouth. "Suit up." She spoke to the timid girl. "There's an even number of girls now."

Even as the day just started already the wheel of fate moved in action. A number of bad intentions and twisted fate lines would convene and bones would break before the day ended. Cameras in the gym kept a close eye on the interaction on the court and fed directly to group with less than pure intentions, but they stayed away from Bliss or the big mouthed ruffian. They set their gaze on the small, meek blond nervously holding her lacrosse stick.

Two weeks. That's how long he had been in Chicago. Granted, it wasn't as bland as spud-chugging Idaho, but that's like saying Jeffery Dahmer wasn't as bad as Albert Frish; they both turn the suck knob all the way to elleven, and he just so happened to be in one of those two places. On top of all that, because of a previous misunderstanding, he had to go to even further extremes to lay low. He had stolen a fedora and a pair of sunglasses about a week back, which made it easier to conceal his unique hair color, as well as his stitched eyes. He still wore his black leather trenchcoat with matching pants, boots and gloves though, which was a bit of a gamble, but he didn't want to get rid of them. Thanks to these additional, temporary accessories, he....well, he still looked weird, but at least he looked moderately weird, as opposed to the Hot Topic/Silent Hill bastard child he normally looked like.

He had to refrain from going on his nightly prowels too, things were too hot to go fishing for trouble, what with the extra cops rolling around. So, there he was, making his way down some sidewalk in Chicago, Illinoise, attempting to keep a low profile, when he was suddenly blindsided, having been struck in the back of the shoulder blad by a passing teen. No Name had almost lost his balance, but managed to correct himself by extending his hand out to the stone wall on the right of him.

"Sorry mister!"the young girl shouted, scrambling away in a hurry, with a back pack in tow

No Name watched as the teen, who looked as pale as a ghost within the Rogue's unique sight, watched the girl scramble, before vanishing into the darkness of the void. That twelfth yard. The very limit, the edge of No Name's unique vision where everything in the world came to an end, as if he were in his own little world. That's about when he saw a portion of a sign along the stone wall, leading to the edge, where the boy had vanished from No Name's sight.

'-igh School' read the portion of the sign that No Name could see. So, in other words, he was just outside of a high school.

"....Huh."he thought, as a strange feeling of nostalgia crept over him

With each step his leather boots made across the pavement, another familiar sound echoed within his mind. He heard the sound of locker doors opening, and closing, opening, and closing. He heard the tittering of teens, gossiping away about the various people on campus. The sounds of lessons being taught; math, geography, science, and cooking. Echoes of a past, all so familiar to him, and yet, as he came up upon the High School sign, and touched it with his glove covered hand, he felt a sense of sadness, and longing, but all these emotions were not entirely his own, or so he chose to believe.

"....Maybe a little detour wouldn't hurt..."he thought, rounding the edge of the stone wall, leading into what seemed like the front of the school,"Just walk around....and...well, see if something comes to mind, I suppose."

No Name made his way across what he quickly found was the school's parking lot, as blazing white cars came into view, like 3D models without textures. Eventually, he found the front entrance of the school building itself, and, albeit nervously, after looking around with caution, pulled open the door and walked in. More and more familiarity came rushing into his darkened mind. His eye brows relaxed, and he felt a sense of calm, as if the problems that were once prominent in his mind, had faded away, just from being in the school. He passed a few lockers, as well as a few students, whom took a quick look at him, and then began to whisper amongst each other, and began to secretly point at No Name.

"Who's he?"one of the students had whispered

"Is he a teacher??"another asked

"Look at his peircings, so weird!"said another, mistaking the wire in the Rogue's lips for a peircing of some sort

In his mind, he couldn't help but chuckle. It was an odd feeling, this nostalgia he was recieving from all around. If only he knew why it was coming up. Still, if there was but one thing he wished from this pleasent little detour, it was color. Everything around him, the bulletin boards, the students, the classroom doors, the tile floors, everything was white and black with no textures.  Other than that, he was starting to enjoy the little detour. Better than running from cops, that was for sure. Still, didn't hurt to come up with an alibi or two, in case school personnel came up to him and asked what he was doing on the premises.

She was alone in a place of darkness, a place of shadow... a place of water and storms. There she was, on a lonely island of loose stone and dirt. Every time she was here, the island grew smaller; ever since she came to America, a storm raged here, slowly swallowing up the island as the water level rose.

The waters around the island churned and raged, the black skies above lit up with lightning. Xia sat, clutching her legs, her face in her lap as the thunder crackled around her. Another flash of lightning and particularly powerful peal of thunder, and Xia looked up to come face to face with herself.
Her dragon self.

The dragon strode mightily around Xia, around the dark structure she could barely perceive. Its long body flowed like water as it moved. Xia tried to get up, tried to get away, but it seemed as though the stone steps fell away into the dark wilderness, and she always found herself trapped there, face to face with the dragon.

“Get... get away...” She said, closing her eyes and clutching her ears, falling to her knees.

“Xiaaaa.... How can you tell me to go away, when you call me again and again and again?” The dragon took a heavy step with each utterance of the word, causing more of the stone to fall away, slipping down the hill on slick mud. The dragon’s voice echoed and reverberated, as if repeating many of its words.

“I... I never wanted to... I just wanted to help...” Xia said, but the dragon’s snout pushed her down.

“Help the mortals? Help those weaklings, those hairless APES?” Dragon!Xia’s voice echoed with wrath, like thunder, and it knocked Xia down. The dragon’s snout pushed itself into Xia’s face.

“They are people!” She protested, wielding her limited strength against her more powerful self. It was not so much a punch but a feeble slap.

“They are vermin upon a world that belongs to us!” a voice like thunder, and the dragon circled around, taking more of the structure with each step. The temple crumbled, its gardens losing more plants.

“I am one of them! But also one of the dragons... ” Xia muttered weakly, the dichotomy of her being always a point of contention. She rushed to salvage a vase filled with a flower, only to have it crumble to dust.

“You cannot be both. You will become one of us soon, the more you call upon me.” The dragon said, and Xia peered at her hands... her scaly, clawed hands.

“Why...?” She asked, tears in her eyes as she tried to rub off the scales, which only spread more around her.

“The half-born are the bearers of change. The half-born serve. Time is running out Xia. Darkness is coming to this world, and we will be there to bear witness to it... to see this world consumed by fire and shadow.” The dragon declared, slinking off back into the distant darkness, into the storm.

“...What do you mean?” Xia asked, slowly getting up, trying to cling to her dragon.

“Fire and shadow... the storm shall herald... Fire and shadow...” A flash of lightning, and the dragon was gone.

Real world

The entire neighbourhood around the campus was rocked by a minor tremor, originating from the school itself. Windows were rattled, lockers shook, classes fell silent, and the lacrosse game came to a most abrupt halt, as people were tensing to evacuate at the slightest sign it would become an earthquake.

Breathes were held, then relieved as sighs, as it proved nothing. Activities resumed. The fair grounds on the campus became lively again, the stringent security of the entrance slightly relaxed to permit visitors to visit the fair.

Xia awoke to the tremor herself, having fallen on the locker room floor, dressed for today’s Lacrosse match. The wall clock was kind enough to inform her of her tardiness, and she staggered and rushed to the game court. She emerges from double doors, exasperated, catching everyone’s eye for a moment before the game would begin.

“Ma’am! I’m so sorry I’m late.” Xia apologized vehemently to Bliss, identifying her as a teacher even without knowing her name. She had grown to 6’10” now, and just kept growing, given how she filled out her uniform so quickly since enrolment.

“Xia! Oh thank goodness...” Some of the players were relieved, the tallest member of the student body having arrived.

“She’s late, we’ve already called teams.” Hubbard retorted, not wanting to go around with Xia on the opposition.

Xia stood out in a way a young, awkward teenager didn’t want to- Xia was extremely tall, and not lanky, but muscular and athletic. She hunched slightly and wore glasses, but without them she’d probably outshine these other girls like an Amazonian princess.

“I’m very sorry ma’am. I’ll be the water girl until I get a chance to play.” Xia said, apologetically, still shaken from her dream, appearing outwardly to be missing sleep.

“Poor Xia must’ve been working late at her job after helping with setting up stalls for the fair.” Some of her friends said, though it was met with scorn from those who were not her friends.

“I know, she works as a waitress! I mean, how on earth is she even in this school? And why does she help with the stalls, is she some kind of labourer??” one said, with long blonde hair- it was surprising to some that those who began as Xia’s friends turned sour. A few months ago they had gone to L.A. together, but jealousy and pettiness seemed to run rampant with the school’s ‘elite’.

“You shouldn’t talk about Xia like that. She’s not like you, she has character.” Another friend said, a dark haired one said.

“She might be tall, but she’s a wimp. I could take her.” Said another former ‘friend.’

“Don’t you know all Chinese girls know kung fu?” Said a friendly Vietnamese girl.

“That’s just a stereotype.”

“I’ve seen her taking lessons Hubbard.”

“Whatever. Just Play!”

The game went on, while Xia brought out the table and the water dispenser, while arranging all the girls’ water bottles by team, though a bit sluggishly. Xia was indeed only half-there, her gaze seeing far places beyond the lacrosse court.

Assuming the girls had some experience with lacrosse, Bliss went straight to the opening face-off against Hubbard. Giving a strict glare and letting out a snort, Bliss started to go down for the ball when Hubbard head-butted her goggles into Bliss's forehead. Stumbling down put Bliss in a position where she could only watch as Hubbard attacked into the back field with a quick release to land in the back of the net.

"1-0." Hubbard tapped her stick against the ground as she walked by. Bliss pulled herself up and looked back to a Vietnamese girl flipping her stick in her hands.

"Ball." It came at the request of Bliss. Darting forward with a burst of speed, Bliss saw one of the girls who Hubbard hand picked moving forward with a low stick. The ensuing blow forced Bliss to pass up to the girl who asked to be excused earlier. Looking like a deer in headlights, she initially dropped the ball before cradling it in net. Her trepidation in getting back up saved her from a nasty body blow swinging over her head and sending an aggressive brunette tumbling to the ground.

"I'm going to kill you Alice." Hubbard charged towards the small blond without a care that the ball had flown to Bliss. As Bliss turned to shoot on the goal, Hubbard landed her stick against Alice's right shoulder. A hint of shock and disgust came over all but the most cliquish of girls, but before Bliss could set things right a tremor shock the gym.

A few screams came from the squeamish girls who fell to the ground out of lack of balance. Bliss pressed her stick against Hubbard's stomach to push her back while she looked a harsh stare. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" The five inch size discrepancy didn't phase Bliss, but before Hubbard could follow up her body positioning with a crude comment, a giant of a girl arrived with an apology.

Bliss turned around and looked on with something of shock. No call from any school officials canceled the class, so the only thing to do was to finish the game. "Alice, go sit down; I'll take you to the nurse in a minute. You can take her place." Bliss tossed the lacrosse stick and goggles to Xia while the multitude of rumors swirled about her past and the low status of her standing at the prestigious school.

A small, but noticeable smile came across No Name's stitched lips as he walked around the hallways of the school, lost in a mist of nostalgic bliss as he took his time walking around, enjoying the atmosphere...but then, he heard frantic stepping, followed by the sound of someone shouting. The Rogue turned to the sound, and quickly came face to face with an adult woman about five-foot-six, wearing what looked like a school security uniform. Strands of her long curly hair hung in front of her face, and she began to huff and puff, having seemingly some trouble catching up with No Name.

"I said to stop!"she wheezed,"*Cough* Now, who are you, and what are you doing here?"

Great, so now he would have to speak to this person, which meant activating his powers, which also meant that it would most likely freak her out and cause her to do something drastic, still he had to do something. It was about then that the tremor coursed through the school, catching the security guard's, as well as No Name's attention. He however, quickly decided to take the oppertunity to sneak away, but the woman noticed this from the corner of her eye, and had grabbed the Rogue by the sleeve of his jacket.

"Answer me! This is a private school for young girls, now what is your business here?!"she demanded in a stern tone

The frontal lobe of his brain began to itch in agitation. Without many options, he calmly allowed his soul to roll over his body like a moving, flickering fire, which covered his shoulders, his back, and his arms. The woman immediately released her grasp, and double backed while bringing up a gun.

He calmly held up his hand in an attempt to calm her, while his soul flickered, transfering his thoughts into words in her ears, sounding like a raspy, decayed whisper,"I mean you no harm. I just wandered in here, just trying to-"

The woman screamed, and fired two rounds into his face, and one into his neck. He shuddered from the pain, but the pullets did not completely penetrate his flesh, but one did shatter the left lense of his sunglasses. (5 durability)

"Freaking OW!!"he hissed, his soul flickering eratically as well while he covered his eye that had been shot at, while also gently massaging his slightly bleeding neck,"Will you put down the gun! I'm not trying to-"

Panicking, the woman quickly pulled out a tazer from the back of her belt, lunged forward, and activated it, sending 600 jolts of electricity into No Name, who began to dance like a ragdoll being shook vigerously by a four year old having sipped espresso, mixed with nine table spoons of sugar. Eventually, she stopped tasering him, but watched as he toppled back first onto the hard tile floor.

As smoke billowed off of him, momentarilly laying still, before his muscles tensed, causing him to twitch all over. "O....ow...."

Two of the nearby classroom doors opened, and a few teachers stuck their heads out to see what the commotion was, when the officer quickly shouted at them to stay back inside, that it was too dangerous. As this happened, No Name slowly, but surely, started to recover from the pain throughout his body. As he sat up, the security officer aimed the gun right at his face, and told him to remain on the ground.

Instead of following her orders however, he sent a small blast of energy at her gun, wrenched it from her hands, and tossed it down the opposite end of the hallway via his power, and then "shoved" the security officer away with another, but less focused blast of energy. He quickly hopped onto his feet, and began to run. Where he was going? He honestly didn't know, he just knew he didn't wanted to be tasered again.

Darting through hallway after hallway, turning at every possible corner, he eventually came across a set of double doors, one with a small plaque that read "Gymnasium". Without really thinking about how things could possibly get any worse, he flung the doors open, and immediately dove right in, stumbling upon a lacrosse game in progress, while the bullets still clung to his body, and his soul still flickered.

Yep, should've gone elsewhere.

Alice took to the bench to massage her shoulder, Xia absently leaving an ice pack on her head instead. “Gee... thanks?” She said, applying it to the problem area. She tsked, this being the first time she saw Xia in not so good condition. Come to think of it, Xia never gets tired at sports...
The tall girl gets herself into the game, putting on the goggles. Her team groans as their would-be star player staggers tiredly onto the court. Xia’s allies pat her on the arm and ask if she was alright. Xia nodded, and she assumed a game stance.

“Okaaay... our goal’s that way, alright?” a friend pointed Xia in the right direction, and the game continues. Two of the rougher players on the opposing team try to body check Xia, only to have her nonchalantly plow through them.

“Oof! Man that felt like being run over by a truck!” she said, slowly coming to her feet.
A whistle is blown, and the match coach signs Xia. “Foul.”

The game continues with Xia simply plowing through another player, until the opposition wise up and harry Xia with lacrosse sticks instead. Still, she still had the presence of mind when the ball gets close to her, and she catches it with her lacrosse stick, and tosses it over their heads.

The ball goes flying right through the net and towards No Name’s face just as he entered with security personnel right behind, the sickly dragon girl’s uncontrolled strength launching it at high speed (str 7).

Bliss would rather be someone who subtlety exploited her telekinesis than a loser. Just when the ball looked to be going towards any opposing girl, Bliss would cross between them and send the ball towards herself. It may look like a few lucky bounces, but Bliss would finish it off with a flick of her wrist and a steady bracing of the stick at just the point of release. Between Bliss' subtle cheating and Xia's ability to take a beating from jealous school girl cemented their ability to take a strong lead over an increasingly irritated Hubbard. While Xia pulled away the attention of the entire gym by almost conducting at least involuntary manslaughter in the direction of a new comer and his parade of security, Hubbard gripped up and broke her stick against Bliss's right knee. "Oops."

Bliss hobbled over and fell hard with her hand against the lacrosse stick. Her finger rolled under the weight while Hubbard walked away under the confusion Xia created. "Get back here." With no confusion swelling around Bliss, she through her stick to the ground and followed after Hubbard with a limp. "That's assault you know."

"Trust me." Hubbard pressed her height over Bliss. "I know what assault is."

"Well then let's get the process started." Talking up to a seventeen year old with the attitude of a sociopath a decade in the future left little in the way of delicacy for dealing with this situation.

"Fine, principal loves my dad." Hubbard tossed her stick into Bliss's chest and pressed her back before walking out of the gym, completely unphased by the level of discord sewn by the recent arrival.

"Miss Bliss..." Alice said with her hand over her face. "I don't feel normal."

When Bliss put showing up a seventeen year old over caring for the well being of a often bullied girl, she assumed nothing bad would transpire. "What do you mean normal?" Bliss put her arm on the girl's shoulder and tried to make eye contact. A grimace came over Alice as she gripped her knee in agonizing pain. "What's wrong? Did you hurt your knee?"

"No..." She started to cry. "You did."

The pain between Bliss's knees eased up until it completely faded away. This poor girl took her pain into herself. Luckily Bliss found the girl she hoped for, but with the commotion of the gym, she felt confident so did others who wanted her. "Let's go to the nurse's office." Bliss helped Alice up and acted as a crutch for her. "Before anything else happens." Bliss took Alice through the girl's locker room to avoid the commotion of the gym.

Though he didn't see as many students as there appeared to be in his sight, No Name knew that a good many eyes were watching him in shock. Though he was an inch away from having his nose shaved off by a flying ball from some rather large girl, he flinched more from having more eye witnesses that would more than likely tattle on No Name for running around like a freak when the cops finally arrived. He could also faintly hear a young girl scream, somewhere in the blackness of his limited sight, most likely due to the bullets, the trickles of blood, and probably the stitches over his exposed, shut eye, and his soul that billowed, and looked much like a green bon fire. A feeling of ice water dribbling down the inside of his ribcage came up, a feeling he felt every once in a while, when he was stupid enough to try fitting into society, and ended up making little kids or even innocent adults scream in terror at his appearance: the emotion was guilt.

He felt guilty making other people afraid of him, specifically when they were law abiding citizens. He couldn't care less if a group of criminals were terrified of him, though. Innocent people on the other hand, they made No Name realise that while criminals were ugly on the inside, he was ugly on the outside, and because criminals and No Name both killed people, albeit for different reasons, he could tell that people placed him on the same level as Charles Manson.

He calmly began to dissipate his soul, bringing it back into his body, and then slowly, carefully began to bring up his hands, trying to show that he meant no trouble. He watched a young woman, most likely a teacher, quickly cart away one of the girls who seemed to be crying, but whether the girl was crying from being startled by No Name himself, or something else had happened to cause her to cry, the rogue wasn't entirely sure.

No Name started to slowly back away, but turned when he quickly heard footsteps coming from out in the hallway, followed by the double doors being wrenched open. He turned to see the security guard from earlier, but this time she was accompanied by two others, and all three had guns.

"Put your hands up, and get on the ground."the officer from earlier said through gritted teeth, then added as she trained her gun at No Name's forehead,"Slowly."

He damn well wasn't ready to surrender, but the officers didn't need to know that. His soul began to billow out again, which startled the officers at first, but he gave them an almost reassuring wave with both hands, making them think that he was still complying with their order. The rogue kneeled down with one knee. He then leaned forward, and slowly aimed his hands at the two officers on either side of the leader, but made it look like he was about to place his palms on the ground. When they started to lower their guns, that's when he fired. The two lackeys were blasted out of the gymnasium, unconscious, but still alive. The third was startled so badly, that she had fallen backward and landed on her rear. It was then that No Name pivoted on his heels, and took off running for the nearest door, the locker room. He had just grabbed a hold of the handle, when the officer had gotten lucky, and clipped him in the shoulder blade before he ducked into the room.

This wasn't a move born from desperation. No Name actually wanted to be in the locker rooms, for he remembered seeing the teacher take the one student into the room. If he wanted to get out of this mess and escape without anymore bullets in his body, he would need something that the officers wouldn't shoot at: hostages. He didn't like the thought of it, but he would make absolutely sure that no harm would come to them. Still, for extra measure, he used his soul powers to grab a couple lockers, ripping them from the walls by the door he had entered, and used them to barricade the front of the door so that it would take the cops longer to get in.

He quickly saw the woman with the student halfway across the room, nearing another seperate door. So, using his soul, he took a few quick steps to close the gap between them, and spoke to the teacher bluntly,"Alright, I'm gonna spare the important stuff. I'm ugly enough as is, and their bullet's aren't exactly helping any. I don't care out of the two of you who's willing to do so, be it one or both of you, but one way or another, I need someone that they aren't going to shoot."

Just in case they decided to fight or run, he raised his right arm, and aimed it right at the young girl, charging up a small ammount of his soul's energy, engulfing it with his green essence. He wasn't going to harm her, but he still needed to make a point all the same,"I'm not going to harm anyone. Once I get out of this place, I'll let you go the moment I feel the heat of the out door sun. All the same, no one can say no. You can try to run or fight, but I will get a volunteer by force if necessary, and if it comes to that, I'll be taking the one that'll put up the least ammount of effort. So, what's it going to be?"

He let what he said hang in the air so that it would sink in. There was no immediate rush, since the lockers in front of the door would take more than a small female security guard to knock them out of the way. In other words, No Name had plenty of time for them to decide.

The ball smashed audibly into the wooden court floor, leaving a hole, throwing debris and wood chips around and bounced up to the ceiling, going through the thin acoustical material, never to be seen again in this universe... though this was the least of anyone's worries. Xia watched as the commotion unfolded, and her inner voice focused her, making her alert to the danger. The newcomer had a most unsettling appearance, and a homeless person's scent. He closed off the doors with lockers and crossed the gym, taking miss Bliss and the girl hostage.

Now someone was in trouble, and Xia, ever the responsible hero, followed behind them. She had everyone's scent and eventually found them in the lockers, where a hostage situation was now unfolding.

"...You don't need to hurt anyone. I'll go with you, let miss Bliss and the girl go." She offered No Name.

"Xia! no! Don't do it!" The girl pleaded.

"It's alright." It wasn't a risk to Xia's well being to be a hostage. Whatever the telekinetic could muster she would not be endangered... and if he proved to be a villain, then she'd have to deliver a beatdown. She almost relished that last thought, and didn't think twice if the opportunity so arose. She did not find it unusual to think of the chance for violence.

"Let's just be calm about this..." Heat rose from the energy around the stranger's fist and blew into Bliss's face. "And put the hostilities to the side." Without any room to maneuver Alice's body behind her, Bliss wrapped her arms around Alice's chest and pulled her close. The trauma of the day began to win over the emotionally fragile girl.

"This wouldn't of happened if you had just taken me to the nurse." Alice stuttered out in fear.

"Don't be that girl Alice; no one likes that girl." Bliss kept hold of the small girl while she tried to negotiate with No Name. "You can't just take one of us. I would normally just say take me, but I need to make sure this girl gets help and I need to be with her."

Bliss tried to hold Alice's hands steady, but the trembling reverberated all through her chest. "Why can't he just take one of us? I don't want to..."

"I'm not letting you go with this guy or out there on your own, because it's too dangerous." A small reassurance to the small girl from Bliss.

"It wasn't too dangerous when you wanted to beat Hubbard at lacrosse."

"Alice this is why you get bullied, calm down." Pushing away the troubling counter leverage from her position, Bliss continued to try and put forth a strong front against the man terrorizing the school. "You can take it..." Bliss held the girl tighter as shouting came from classmates outside the door. "Or you can deal with them by yourself."

"He's not going to tie us up is he?"

"No..." Bliss bit her lip in frustration at just about everything within at least four senses. "He's not even thinking about that."

He seriously began to wonder if he had a "Kick Me" signed taped to his back. It was just one bad thing after another, and nothing good came from being in this school. Shot in the face and shoulder with bullets, tazed by security, hunted like an animal on the run, almost bitch-slapped by a rogue lacrosse ball, and just when he thought he was going to get out of this hell hole of a private school, some sort of gargantuan pre-teen busts down his blockade and sticks her nose in where it didn't belong. Slapping his forehead in disbelief, he tried to massage out the piercing head ache that twitched and writhed in his skull.

He turned to the walking freight train and hissed in anger,"Seriously?! What did I do to deserve this?! Jesus tap-dancing CHRIST, please tell me who or what I pissed off by coming into this school!!"

Practically ignoring the teacher and her student, he lost himself within his own anger as he continued to verbally unload on the tall girl before him,"All I wanted to do was walk around, and find out why I had these memories in my head! Is that too much to ask, string bean?!"

His soul almost engulfed him completely like a raging bonfire, billowing and flowing. He whipped around and faced the teacher again, whom he pointed at accusingly with his index finger,"And don't even think for a minute that I don't know that I look freaking strange! I can understand why people get frightened by my appearance alone, but that's no damn excuse for your security team to shoot me in the freaking face, IS IT?!"

"This is total horse-YOU KNOW WHAT?!"he shouted at no one in particular,"I'm sick of this crap! Lady, teacher, I don't know what your name is, but you are going to walk your smarmy-arse back out there, and tell that trigger happy bimbo out there that I don't mean any damn harm, capice?!"

Waiting for a reply, he angrily crossed his arms over his chest, and furiously tapped his right foot on top of the ground.

Xia listened and was rather taken aback by the man's rant. His motives precluded any malice, though his actions spoke of someone who was quick to resort to violence. Xia weighed whether to take decisive action, but given the unknown potential of this newcomer, she could only try and be diplomatic. She asked him a question to divert his attention from the teacher and Alice.

"Okay, we can just keep talking, nobody else from the school needs to get involved." Xia closed the doors and resorted the barricade with her bare hands.

"But first of all, I'd like to know... who are you?"

"If that's the only way we can settle this than fine." Bliss resorted to acting just as stubborn as the man throwing around threats. "Alice..."

"Can I just go to the nurse?" Alice tried to free her hands from the grip Bliss continued to exert as Bliss grew more irritated.

"Stop interrupting while I tell you what to do." Bliss scolded the trembling girl. "Go to the nurse, but be careful." The lockers fell and were rebuilt all within a matter of seconds. Bliss turned her attention to Xia in a mixture of annoyance and relief. "I might need those moved to fulfill my part of this..." Bliss fought between snarky comments and helpful information. "Bargain." Her words lived to the latter while her tone fulfilled the former. Alice hobbled off under her own weight trying to keep a strong face. "I'm going to go talk to security about not firing indiscriminately at people for coming in off the streets, and when I get back you better be ready to go back to whatever institute or shelter you ran away from."

Not wanting to live up to her part of the deal in its entirety, Bliss began to formulate some convoluted scheme in favor of the man who complicated her plans getting what Bliss thought he deserved. Right now all she could think of ended with gunshots and a chalk outline, but maybe jailtime would do him some good. The time she spent waiting for the lockers to move reminded her of how little she cared if No Name managed to come out of this a better person; Bliss just wanted to get back to her plan and find out who wanted Alice and what they needed her powers for.

Outside of the hallway, a few masked men in utility suits moved through an open back door into the teacher's lounge. The ruckus spreading through the school made their job easier than they could have imagined. "She's in the nurse's office." Hubbard stood against the wall with her arms crossed. "I can't believe my dad's paying you to do something this simple. I could've done this." As the men moved towards their destination, Hubbard sweetened the deal. "If you get me the dragon lady in the plaid skirt, I'll have my dad double what he's paying you. Her name is Bliss."

His thoughts gave way to a growl, and as the giant teenager asked him as to who he was, he clenched his fists closed, turned toward the student once more, and focused hard to quell his loose soul,"I am a nobody. I have no identity to call my own." he said as calmly as he could in the dread whisper that he called his voice, and went further in explanation,"People have taken to calling me "No Name" because I often tell people that I have no name, however. Call me what you want, it makes no difference to me."

No Name's demeanor perked up a smidge when he heard that the teacher would agree to his terms, but that wasn't saying much. In fact, he became even more annoyed when the teacher told him to head back to the shelter he ran away from. So, he decided to correct her in a calm, but still quite aggitated manner. Using his soul, he picked himself up, hovering off of the ground, and headed toward Bliss, and hovered around her until he came face to face with her,"Hey, don't get hoity-toity with me, lady. I clean up the streets of piss hole-cities like yours by blasting the flesh right off the faces of criminals, while the cops just give a slap on the wrist."

He then landed on the ground, pointed a finger at her, while with his soul he removed his sunglasses so that she could stare him right in the stitches. His hand wafted with his neon green soul,"And further more, just because I'm without a home, doesn't make me a bum."

Once he was done, he turned his attention to the lockers. He grabbed one of the lockers with his power, and gently slid it to the side. As he calmed down a little, he thought back to that girl that limped away, and remembered Bliss having said something about the girl being in danger.

Again, he turned to bliss, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion,"You said that girl was in danger? What kind of danger?"

She listened to No Name's answer, and found it odd. "No Name..." She thought he was joking, or perhaps he had no memory of himself. He also described his own actions to Bliss, his treatment of criminals coming off poorly on the more law abiding dragon girl. She had little trouble vocalizing her disapproval. "...You... you are a vigilante? Taking the law into your own hands isn't the way to make things better... you're just a murderer."

Xia weighed the situation, seeing as Bliss was already handling it as any good teacher would. Xia didn't have to stay, and her presence would likely only intimidate No Name more. She moved to help with the lockers, but No Name had it covered as well, moving the other locker that barred the way.

"I'll... just go now. It seems I'm not wanted here." She looked around and followed after Alice.