Photon

[Nemo]

The class was by and large completely dumbfounded. The man that entered was a titan of individuality, standing at least a full foot over anyone else, with a build that could probably bend metal and a face that could make babies cry. Or play with the pretty silver baubles in his ears. One of the two.

"I have but one." a woman, undoubtedly the teacher, with her shock of red hair, freckles, and intense green eyes that could give Jax a few more piercings said as she approached him.

"... Did you sign up for any credits in the arts or speech? Ten points for originality." She smiled at him, then bore her eyes into his skull, threatening to set his skin on fire. "Say hello to Mr. Gardener, class."

The room remained silent.

"Its a bit of a full house this hour, but we have one seat open - Right in the back... over there." she speared a finger to the corner, where one seat lay open right beside a woman with bright, creamy-pink hair in a sea of black, headphones pumping softly around her neck.

Atsuko looked up - she knew what "an open seat" meant. She was about to have a neighbor. She'd by and large ignored his speech - she had a habit of ignoring people that had to make speeches - but now that she saw him... well, how could she ignore him now? He was so... so... deliberately disregarding of everything japanese culture held dear and true to its heart, so uncaring of what anyone else thought. So... obnoxiously obvious and loud.

Hell, she liked him already, in that I hope you get attacked by the kendo club kind of way. Just the same, she politely moved her things under her desk, then moved her desk a solid foot further into the corner.

[Raron]

Jax merely grunted in agreement as he looked around the room. He realized some were disappointed, some were dumbfounded, others were even fearful he once again made the conscious choice not to care... mostly. It was true that deep down in his heart of hearts he sometimes wished... sometimes wanted to have more friends. People to share his interests, people to show his creations, people he could trust... but he was far past that. He had discovered too many times that humans were not worthy of too much trust, his mind and body carried the scars of that. He ignored the brief musing, the brief stab of longing and wandered over to the desk.

His bag was quickly located to his right side on the floor, the boxed lunch shoved into his desk, and his eyes peered over to his neighbor how had so kindly given him room as he reclined as best he could in his chair... it really was not made for someone his size. He realized he was probably lucky they found a uniform that fit him. Must have taken some doing indeed. He sneered at someone watching him too closely and reaching down picked out his english book out of his bookbag, flipping open to a random page to show something close to willing he blinked for a moment. First he was bewildered, then irritated and then highly amused as he gazed upon a "correct" translation within the book. The corners of his mouth lifted in a actual smile, there was a mocking edge to it but it was genuine enough. As he smiled some of the anger, the sheer aggression seemed to ebb.

"'All ya bases are belong to us'... explains a lot it seems..."

He barked out a brief laugh and seeing the glare from the teacher shrugged an almost apology. As he sat a fragrance began to emit from him, it was not the smell of sweat or B.O. that most might have expected... it was nothing nearly that organic smelling... rather despite a clean 'suit' and a recent shower the scents that began to waft to the nostrils of those near him were more... artificial. The scent of hot oil, the wafting scent of iron melting, the pungent scent of copper so close to blood, and a light hint of gasoline. These smells poured forth to those with sensitive nostrils as he glanced over to his neighbor at her desk.

Details popped farther into his head. He looked her over, not the look of a perv filing away her details for fantasy fodder... truth be told solo time did not have as much appeal to him with a female alien creature attached to his right hand... but rather someone trying to understand this strange person seated next to him... she seemed to want to be left alone, ignored... and yet her hair... he hair that bright bright pink that dragged your eye to her. Despite that she was so ordinary in dress, no details, no customization, no alterations besides a pair of headphones in her ears. But... despite this... he could hear the music blaring...

The music was not techno enforcing a mindless beat, it wasn't pop... it was metal... he could hear it, feel it, sense it speaking to him, his head almost of it's own volition began to move to the beat, his fingers tapped a tattoo upon the desk as his foot bounced. He looked at her and he smiled.

"Gotta admit, ya may have some more style to ya soul then ya pretend."

[kitsuneflare88]

Kazumi let her teacher Mr. Larson go about his lesson on advanced mathematics. She kept her head down covering her eyes wishing very much that she could skip school. All these subjects she had been through in her worlds school, granted the schools had been in large megalopolises that were just too big to imagine.

Kazumi sighed heavily as she coughed a moment as she did she could taste a small amount of blood in her mouth and sighed heavily. tapped the desk with her mechanical fingers, a few moments before she sighed more her mind going back into her past.


She had grown up in another dimension with technology miles above what this one had. Though it was more in a state of chaos, the cities were huge they could stretch on for many hundreds of miles. they were elegant and beautiful but they had their hare of problems like high crime rates, corruption ect.

She had been injured in a terrorist bombing when she had been younger, this caused her to be operated on and have her arms replaced with mechanical ones. Her family had been killed in the bombing and she swore to avenge them so she joined the corporation that had saved her life. And then things continued from there.

The rest of her life was spent as a covert agent, assassin, and spy.

She sighed and stopped reminiscing about her past, and looked out of the side of the school seeing the city. She kind of wished that things would never follow the same path her world had.


She sighed hoped that that would never happen, she chewed on her tongue a moment before falling fully asleep not hearing anymore of mr. larsons lesson and nothing more involving the school. She wished to retreat into the resesses of her mind undisturbed.

[Nemo]

Largely, Atsuko did her very best to ignore Jax. It wasn't that she wanted to be rude to the man, that wasn't it - Sure, he was flamboyant and obnoxious to her japanese sensibilities... but he WAS a new student. Her phone again buzzed away, the implant in her inner ear humming annoyingly, making her briefly lose concentration on the drawing at hand.

With a snap, the tip of her pencil broke off, and she paused out of sheer annoyance. Right about there, Jax managed to steal her attention. He was... looking at her. She was used to gawking - she was a strange girl, after all, pink hair was nothing normal, even in japan... but this was different. This had nothing to do with sex. Coming from a man like Jax, she could hardly believe what she felt from him.

He was analyzing her, sizing her up before he spoke - and he was not a pussy. Something about him just tipped her off about him, telling volumes of strength well controlled. This giant of a man had a lot more to him than met the eye... but she couldn't for the life of her put her finger on what.

Before he even spoke to her, before she let on that she was hearing him, she met his gaze.

When he said his piece and smiled at her, she, without breaking the stare, put the broken pencil tip into her mouth, and bit down. The wood splintered in her pearlescent teeth and snapped off into her mouth. Without a pause, she twisted the pencil once and spat the broken tip, producing a jagged, but sharpened, pencil and setting to drawing once again, breaking her gaze last.

Metal pounded away around her neck, its beat making little hairs on her neck shake and pulse with the sound - she wore expensive headphones, things with subs and trebs that covered the whole ear, encasing every inch in blissful sound. They connected to a device somewhere in her shirt by a white cord, dissapearing into her uniform.

((more later ~w~))

[Raron]

Jax watched in mild amazement as the tip of the pencil was bitten off with the mouth of the girl he was gazing upon. As she spat out the tip and he watched it hit the floor his left eyebrow went up and the judges within his brain grudgingly held up a pair of eights for her performance. He had to admit she was much more impressive then he thought the locals would be. He had heard tales of conformity and worrying about the 'eye of the public' and such nonsense but if this girl was any indication then this land was gonna be far more fun then he thought. His lips spread in a quick sincere smile.

"Ya know. I think I am gonna like it here."

The rest of the morning was fairly uneventful for Jax. The usual bulls#$t as he put it. Teachers blinking at him in amazement or fear as he entered the room. One teacher almost called security when he walked into the class, the gym teacher had just thrown his doctor's note over his shoulder when Jax had informed him of his physical inability to swim. Jax had responded to the man's doubt by simply stepping into the pool and sinking to the bottom, flipping him off from the bottom of the pool where he didn't drift, or float. Just... stood there without a sign of buoyancy. After walking to the side and climbing out he was allowed to spend the period watching the other swimmers. He wasn't too resentful towards the teacher. How was he supposed to believe that Jax was unable to float. It was odd... granted it was because of excess metal in his spine but that was another story for another day.

The morning sped on and in time Jax returned to his home room for lunch. Word of the new student had spread and he watched in a grim satisfaction as students and faculty alike stepped out of his way in the hallways, as his head banged lightly to the music pumping through his head. He might not have the headphones on but the music still blared in his soul. He observed some of the students obviously talking about him. Some fearfully, some with an odd interest, and a group of male students in their senior year glared at him menacingly. He had just sighed inwardly at that. It happened at every school, someone thought the new kid was just some poser and tried to put him in his place they thought he belonged... well he would explain things later.

He returned to his seat at lunch and pulled the boxed food out of his desk and placed it none to tenderly atop it. Ripping it open his eyebrow once again shot skywards. He was... mildly surprised to say the least. Within the box was a beautifully arranged lunch of native cuisine. It was not something slapped together at the last minute. The savory scent of the food rose to his nose and he spent a moment just enjoying the sight of the food. He himself didn't care much for what food looked or tasted like. In the end all it was was food but the sight of this was artwork and he did appreciate art. The line up of the vegetables, the glaze upon the egg rolls, the tiny bottle of soy sauce to the side. It was almost worthy of framing. He made a note to consider being a tad nicer to the agent who made this, an artist was to be respected... also to find out why she went to all that trouble.

With a shrug he grabbed one of the egg rolls and ignoring the set of ornate chop sticks to the side he stuck the end of the roll in his mouth and chopped down with a vengeance. Masticating he admitted the food tasted even better then it looked. He would have to find out what the hell an artist of her calibur was doing with that bunch of sticks in the mud. There was only one thing the meal needed. Besides which... he was supposed to get to know his fellow students...

"Hey, anybody here got any hot sauce?"

[kitsuneflare88]

Kazumi spent the morning in class not really paying attention to anything the teachers said and sleeping through most of the day. Her math was easy and nothing worth listening to. The second class had been science, though she had been banned from all the science labs due to a "Few" Explosions and "extra" credit experiments.

Kazumi sighed to herself and then had to go to physical education durring third period. Alot of the senior girls, talked about the strangest thing in the world. A boy in the freshman class, not only was this boy completely against all of the Japanese tradition. He apparently couldn't float at all. "Thats a new one." she said to herself after one of the girls mentioned this.

"thats not all kaz.." Nari whispered to kazumi who wasn't in a suit mainly because her doctor had refused to let her swim. After all when you loose 90% of your muscle in a fire and have to undergo a special prosthetic surgery just to have functionality.

"the rude....(japanese curse) he flipped the teacher."

Kazumi had to try hard not to suppress the laugh to herself. She smiled happily at the thought. "americans..." she muttered to herself doing her best to not laugh. With thtat her friend turned and went for to the lanes for her practice race leaving kazumi to disapear from sight.

Then class resumed as usuall and kazumi was nowhere to be seen she had probably gone off the grounds. at least most the teachers assumed that, though really she just went to the roof for some peace and quiet.

She hated school why did the stupid liason have to send her to highschool again. Granted she was only in her late teens, but she had gone through school already at age 12 or so. She bit down on her tongue and lazed about on her back eventually falling asleep. "talk about boring." She said to herself as she lazed there for the rest of the class not caring to show up for any more of classes.

[Nemo]

Atsuko was a machine. English class was one thing she enjoyed - the nuances of the english language, as obnoxiously numerous as they were, reminded her of martial arts - it followed rules, but it was subjective. That said, she attacked her studies of that language like a beast. She wasn't the best speaker of it, but she tried very hard. At least in the teacher's opinion, that was what really, really mattered. She was an A- student in that class.

The other classes didn't give her trouble - she worked hard, but she often ended up doing her homework an hour or so before class, always one sequence from the front... Which was, while irritating to some of the teachers, alright... considering she still got the message and was, by rumor, taking care of some sick family member, working for the military on some strange project, eating babies, or whatever else people thought she did to occupy her time.

Pum pum pum pum...

The music in her headphones blasted on in that steady beat throughout the day. Her phone's link to her inner ear occasionally made a little, distinctive drone sound... but she ignored it - in school, she tended to do so... And if it were an emergency, there'd be a

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzzt

Atsuko froze mid-stride and her world snapped back into focus. She went from student... to soldier. At last, she answered her phone, putting her finger to her ear as she excused herself from class, bright pink hair spilling around her as she picked up her bookbag, shooting her teacher a look.

"Bathroom, sir - Its urgent." and with that, before being told she could go, she simply left. The janitor's closet - he was at lunch - would be perfect for this.

What she got was an image - a message for a mark, in a standard format, plain as day and obvious in her mind. It.. it was...
-----------------------------

Atsuko knew just where to find Kasumi. She'd eaten lunch with the girl on more than one occasion, after all. The pink-haired protite was an image of dire seriousness, wearing a face she had only when she was on the job, when all mirth was out of the picture, all emotion tied neatly in a cute little box in the corner of her heart. This serious look... Kasumi had seen before.

"Kasumi... Answer your damn phone." she said, in a low, calm tone. She was quiet on the roof, but there was no question whether or not she could be heard. "We have an emergency on our hands - level three, Kasumi. It looks like we're getting out of class today." For Atsuko to actually skip class mid-hour, to take her lunch break EARLY, it must have been important.

[kitsuneflare88]

Kazumi was laying back against the wall half her lunch gone as she sat there on the roof. She heard the pattering of footsteps and caught the familar scent of atsuko on the breeze. "What phone....Ohh...." She paused for a minute as she looked down at her bag and noticed she hadn't even put her earbud phone on as it was hanging loosely off of the shoulder bag.

"That phone." She said in a slightly annoyed tone of voice. She just wanted in a way a small amount of peace. "ohh well should be fun." She said grabbing the ear bud wrapping it around her ear and inserting it into her ear.

She tapped a small part of the phone and activated the receiver so the stupid thing would stop shaking around on her sensitive ears.

Kazumi's demanor changed from soft student to sudden preadator. Her whole attitude seemed to change. Her stance and posture had an air of confidence and there was something as if she enjoyed the hunt. She opened her back pack and dug around inside it. There was a soft hum as she pulled a small object that reasembled a pencil case.

There wer a series of clicks and wirs as she bent the thing around till it resembled its original state. It was one of her regenerative nano pistols, it was just like kazumi to always have a weapon of some kind on her person somewhere.

It hummed slowly to life and glowed with an eerie blue. She put the object into her jacket and gave atsuko the i'm ready to go look.

[Raron]

The lunch was... interesting. Jax quickly found the sadly no one had any hot sauce but a quick inquire allowed him to procure something called wasabi paste which he had to admit packed a good punch even to him, but odder to him was the fact that as he ate people were... engaging him in conversation. Tentitively at first as if they were afraid the mere act of speaking to him would cause him to fly into an insane rage if disturbed but the questions while a bit annoying weren't that big a deal. He vaguely wondered where the pink haired girl had got to but listened with half an ear to the conversation directed at him.

"So your not from a military family?"

That had been the first question tentatively raised he supposed it was fairly obvious for some strange reason that he did not in any shape way or form come from a military upbringing."

"Nah, I'm here on business only."

They had smiled, they had found his response amusing it seemed. It had been the truth, the complete bold faced truth, not something his bosses would want him getting into the habit of telling but the advantage of the truth over a lie is no one would believe the truth making telling it so much more effective. Or as his father would have put it... "If it done be 'tupid and it works it ain't 'tupid."... he did still loath the man.

Other questions included wondering if he worried about open flame with all that hairspray he used. He considered this a smart question and informed them he actually used a blend of hair gel that he was hooked onto back when he did a summer as a roadie it was fireproof and... he didn't get much farther. In fact it seemed this comment got more reaction then it did most of the time.

"YOU WERE A ROADIE?"
<"HE WAS A ROADIE?!">
"What band? Was it Garth Brooks?"
<"No way! Had to be something heavier like AC/DC or something right Garden... I mean Jax...>

A girl had blushed when saying his name?... He didn't know if this was just a Japanese reaction to saying his name informally or something more but either way it was unexpected... a bit... flattering. He had figured by now someone would have had gotten torches out and been burning effigies of him in an effort to banish the evil that was him from the room... not holding an impromptu Q&A session. Sure they seemed reserved, a bit intimidated but... they were responding to him... that wasn't a bad thing at all was it?

He was honestly baffled. He was as far from a native as he could be and yet they seemed interested in him, seemed enthralled by what he was saying. He didn't really know what was going on but he figured it was acceptable. Maybe he would tell them the band name... just to see what their reaction would be.

[Nemo]

Then, a pair of hands landed heavily on Jax's shoulders. Despite their femenine shapes, these hands were full of all sorts of uncomfortable strength that said interesting things like 'don't you dare move an inch' or perhaps in Mr. Gardener's case 'We at last found the straw effigies to burn, but realized we'd prefer the real fuel for the fire instead.'.

And then, everything exploded.

The entire building shook down to its foundations as very suddenly, the old labs, abandoned though they were, caught light spontaneously, sending roof tiles and cement sailing into the air in a clusterfuck conflagration that might have, in Tokyo, been mistaken for... well a lot of things. Peaceful silence never had a chance to recover before the emergency alarms went insane, and everyone in the cafeteria began the evacuation procedure.

Everyone that is... except for Mr. Gardener, and those two strong hands holding him down, fingers digging into his shoulders painfully. It wasn't clear, really, why nobody stopped to question why this was - the people who were talking to him just got up and left, no questions asked, and the teachers left the three people in the room alone. In seconds, the fruit of practiced drills and keen direction, nothing was left in the room but discarded things, tables, chairs, two women, and Mr. Gardener.

Without further ceremony, Jax was lifted. With no quiet politeness, he was hurled down the length of the long school table by those strong femenine hands. With no quiet culture, a grenade - a flashbang, by the weight and appearance of it, bounced happily after him.

Atsuko jumped onto the table and started to walk down it after him. Her expression was cold, her eyes watching the result of their opener with some interest. If this was just some powerful, normal demon, he would be ended right then and there. But if it was a Devil... lets just say she was making a tactical choice, doing like she did.

[Raron]

Jax wasn't entirely sure what was up. When the two woman had grabbed his shoulders he had thought he had broken some taboo, or maybe they were representatives of the local government or the local fashion committee... or both. It would not have been the first time given his usual mode of dress. His refusal to go by social norms tended to put off people in charge... The firm grasp was something he was expecting, maybe followed by a death threat or an attempting attachment of a neck tie... he was not expecting the explosion which shook the building like jell-o nor was he expecting to lose hold of his seat and to be accelerated down the length of the school table, He impacted with the ground and was barely phased by the collision with the unforgiving floor tiles... the signature sound of a grenade on the other hand...

"#$&*!"

Was the only word to escape the lips of Jax as another voice... a female voice from another unknown direction exclaimed.

"FLASH! EYES!"

Jax on pure and simple instinct jerked his foot under him and lifted his head as far away from the sound as he continued rolling, any other type of grenade he would have reached out, taken hold hopefully and thrown it back, but if he was blinded now it was all

BOOOOM

His world was a bright flash of pain and a vibration of sound that shook his brain and rattled his world in addition to the bright flash that even with his face looking away and his eyes shut lit up his world. He laid where he had fallen for a moment, the world spinning around him, his eyes looking at a slight blurring all around him and he shoved down his need to hurl. He didn't know if his new found friends were screaming or talking or anything, all he heard was a painful ringing in his ears the permeated his being. All these sensations creeped into his brain and set his rage levels clear up to seven at least.

For a moment more he laid still... and then his head snapped up glaring with unbridled rage at the two girls. He recognized one of them as the pink haired girl with soul. He recognized her even through his teary eyes and his dizziness. She was not wearing a boys uniform the last time he saw her. There was a girl next to her dressed in the more traditional garb. It was an odd picture but that didn't really matter as his vision turned a slightly blurry red. He was jet lagged, had been forced to attend another new school, was actually getting along with people for once and then had been thrown and nearly blown up. He was freaking PISSED.

Getting to his feet in a single angry motion and despite the rage echoing in his soul he still found the control to make a few comments.

"Well thing one and thing two as much as I appreciated the view I saw from down there on miss two I am afraid that don't make up for THROWING ME AND TRYING TO BLOW ME UP YA DAFT @*&*ERS!... so before I beat ya brains in with my bear hands I have this to say... Look at ya partner now look at me now look back at ya partner now back to me. I am not ya partner I'm flipping ya off. Now look at the ceiling..."

Not wasting a moment Jax drew back his foot as he leaped at the table they had threw him over and lasted out with his steel toed boot the bottom of it smashing into it hurling it's mass at a surprising turn of speed directly between the two girls. Jax was enraged but far from stupid, rather then take them on at once he was trying to split them up a bit as he rushed his pink haired 'friend'. His hand darted out as he ran and grabbed the remains of his lunch which he launched as a projectile at the girl in the skirt as he brought back his fist powered by rage at the woman who had betrayed him... well not really but she had seemed like an interesting person unlike so many people he met and to have her go against him so fast more then irrated him.

[kitsuneflare88]

Kazumi smirked to herself knowing at least the boy wasn't a demon, since he had survived her flash grenade. She jumped back with surprising speed considering she was in a skirt and that made fighting much more difficult.

She saw the projectile remains of jax's lunch she dropped to all fours ducking underneath it. Obviously she was a skilled marital artist because there was no wasted movements. she sprang up after the projectiles had passed. She reached inside her jacket and flung something that was flashing a bright red.

It was a small item and round completely alien to any technology that was possesed here. It was beeping ominously and quickly heading right in jax's and atsuko's direction. If anybody were to guess it was another bomb or grenade of some kind.

It went off with a soft bang and released smoke everywhere, it was a thick green kind of smoke. It smelled absolutely terrible something akin to gasoline. If breathed in it would cause itrritation of the throat coughing, and difficulty breathing and seeing. It was some form of tear gas it would seem.

Kazumi was playing things safe for several reasons, the first is so she didn't hurt anybody namely atsuko with careless bombs, and 2nd she didn't want to draw the kind of attention that was akin to fedral agencies ect. Granted the explosion in the labs was one thing but random craters in the lunchroom was another. Kazumi covered her mouth and nose backing away from the thick smoke. She didn't worry to much about atsuko being caught in tear gas as it was less than lethal.

[Nemo]

A few things became apparent to Atsuko when Jax reacted like he had, lack of vaporization aside. Chief among them was that Jax was not a demon. She made no other assumptions, but his rage fell upon deaf ears - she heard something from a comic book: A sequence of angry characters. A wolf's eyes burned in upon him, judging him, taking it in almost like how a predator watches prey. This was not far from the truth.

He was fueled by rage. This was a weakness. When he jumped onto her playing field, Atsuko was supposed to have the advantage. She'd done her best to judge his ability to move - it was such a shame she had underestimated him a little. Even if he wasn't a Demon, a Flashbang should have put him into a harmless state long enough for her to have done something about his tendency to breathe. He charged, she responded in kind, teeth clenched and bared in a low hiss.

She was a blur of pink, and collided with his fist dead on with her own in a clash that cracked the desk, hardened muscle and bone colliding at a train's pace with like. From that alone, both learned volumes of each other. For one thing, that they were almost exactly equals in physical strength considering the cards they were putting on the table at the moment.

When the second grenade - a green-spewing teargas grenade hit the table and began to spew its contents, Atsuko broke the lock and pushed Jax away. The pink-haired 'traitor'... was she smiling? Perhaps this would be a very, very entertaining fight, after all! The American didn't strike her as one who gave up, she couldn't ask for better fire support than Kasumi, and she had greatly desired to cut loose a bit for a while now.

This was rapidly turning into a good day.

[Raron]

His ears still screaming in pain, his eyes burning not only from the blinding flash but now starting to water and burn farther from the effects of the green gas he snarled as the world turned to blurs as his hand ached and his head spun. He processed things remarkably fast, the girl was strong, way stronger then she should be by any stretch of the imagination, her friend was clever, a little too clever. When opponents were clever and strong the only alternative was clever... Jerking his body back from the painful smoke he shook his head trying to clear his vision.... it wasn't working too well but he could pick out which blur was which at least. At least he would know who was punching him repeatedly in the face. Well... if they to affect vision Jax could play that game as well.

A grin slowly suffused his face as he reached up and slowly detached the chains dangling from his face purely by feel, each motion slow, easy taking his time counting on natural caution that the two seemed willing to give into. Jax knew well and truly that he was giving them time to plan and maneuver but that was fine. His body was already getting his hearing back at least, a positive side effect of near continuous exposure to much to loud music. Logically this should have resulted in deafness by now but his body seemed to work by different rules then most. He could make out sounds... and he shook his ringed hand to let his friend know that he was getting better. A subtle piece of body language and probably unneeded with her constant monitoring of his vitals.

"Let there be life..."

With that cellphones in desks started to ring, laptops hidden in back packs bypassed normal shutdown and started to blare music, pocket games turned themselves on and announced the evidential domination of the human race by their machine masters and digital pets simultaneously pooped virtual feces. A roitious stream of sounds opening themselves to the world... and then the lights started to flicker themselves a morse code blip of bad bad words that his little copilot had learned from far to much time spent with Jax. Not bothering to taunt Jax charged once more... at the nearest closed door. Not bothering to open it he let momentum and sheer power plow through it, sure the shards of wood cut into his body some even through his cloths but right now he needed something... time. Just a fraction more. His turn of speed was impressive but he was willing to bet it wasn't enough. He kept charging instead... at the windows in the hallways. Charged to... and through.

His body hurtled through the shattering glass but without the suicidal crunch that might be expected, as he hurtled he reached out and grabbed onto the passing window frame shaped blur which fortunately turned out to be a window frame, as more cuts opened over his body his vice grip held on and gravity and various other forced changed his course to a more downwards and curved path... curved down towards the buildings.

"NOW!"

Trusting his partner more then he had ever trusted anyone else Jax released his hold on the window and crashed through the windows of the hallway directly below the windows he had just crashed through. In one smooth movement Jax had gone down a floor. Turns out there were still some people in the building as he heard gasps of surprise and shook. With an explosion already happening once Jax turned towards the sounds and roared.

"WHATCHA GAWKING AT! RUN YA @^&HOLE!"

A short intake of breath and the sound of fleeing feet meant people were taking his advice, clearing out. Good. He didn't need the distractions as he kept going. Only taking a moment to take a pair of shades out of his jacket pocket he charged towards his destination and muttered course correction from the occasional loudspeaker meant he was on the right course. Once more a door was in his path and once more it met it's violent demise before Jax. His vision was finally coming into focus as he gazed upon his goal. The chemistry department. With a sneer he lashed out with a steel toed boot at a nearby gas outlet for the Bunsen burners, under the onslaught it gave at once and the famililar scent of gas started to flow into the air, twice more he lashed out at the nearest outlets and with out a sound he reached into his pocket and took out a lighter as the gas began to gather, lighting a smoke and letting the scent of burning tobbaco raise he took a deep puff and as the inevitable arrival of the two pursers came to pass he waved and tossed the cig in the path of one of the outlets... and flames burst into being like a wild thing. The oxygen and gas mix was not enough for an explosion but enough for a burst of flame and heat and light.

It was near blinding but sunglasses helped and as the ceiling caught ablaze Jax grinned at the anarchy, the chaos, the insanity. Before it had been their battleground. Short of a construction site this was the best he would get to making it his own and for the third time he charged letting the flare of light, the burst of chaotic heat pass over him as small fires burst upon his clothing and he lashed out once more at the pink haired girl who seemed so interesting.

[Nemo]

Atsuko coughed a little and fought through the discomfort of the green smoke, trying to keep her eyes on her target. Her eyes met his bleary gaze, and She almost felt bad she had taken on Jax with Kasumi's help - not that she didn't value her help, not that she didn't need it either, it was a stupid warrior thing: Jax was a worthy opponent, the first she'd really had since... well, since she'd done something similar to Kasumi, once upon a time. It seemed unfair, but hey, it was in her job description.

Just the same, Atsuko felt like a bitch for putting him in such a position - she'd not even managed to punch him in the face yet and he was a drooling moron from the flashbang and the smoke. She stood like a statue as she stared through the smoke at him, his green hair remarkably hard to see through green smoke. Then, everything went insane, all at once. It started with unusual energy. Her senses screamed at her, her body aaaached... like how she felt around some of her older 'siblings' - the really old ones.

"Let there be life..." he said, she was fairly certain, her world taking on that crystal clarity of premonition. She forced herself to remain calm, taking steady breaths and ignoring the throbbing discomfort of a Monite's energy being used. It wasn't here... not with her, not in the room, but Jax's own energy, human by her register, was suffused with it. She'd never heard of this kind of thing - wasn't energy like her's, let alone a Monite's, debilitating to humankind?

She registered the pulse of energy before its effects became apparent. The world exploded in cacophony - every laptop, every virtual pet, every cell phone, each and every cooking device in the kitchen went suddenly insane, activating at their noisiest settings possible. It was so loud, the room vibrated, the green smoke wisping away to nothing in the violent vibrations. Atsuko held her ears and felt her world go white, both from the pain of all that noise and from the surge of... what the hell was that white energy? It hadn't been visible, no, but it entered her body and tormented her senses. She'd never felt anything like it.

The energy didn't last - it had done its thing and made noise to mask Jax's escape, and as soon as it had passed, Atsuko rallied her energies and with a roar of rage that sounded wrong coming from her throat, like it should have come from a monster, she gave off a crackling nova of blue light that hugged the ground and dispersed into the room. This had an effect a lot like an EMP shockwave - everything went silent again, and the room was shrouded in darkness, tiles falling from the ceiling.

Atsuko panted, teeth clenched, her eyes glowing from blue that shone deep within, crackling with blue electricity. A rumble, an angry sound, came from deep within the schoolgirl's body. Jax was nowhere to be found. The pink-haired girl seethed and panted from rage and exertion, teeth clenched tight, white-knuckles clenched. They'd planned this so people WOULDN'T get hurt, so they'd basically be alone in the cafeteria. What now?

She reached up toward her ear as she took off like the wind. Bounding from table to table to wall to floor in rapid succession, trays and backpacks flew with the motion of her body, but she was bounding out the door and down the hall where he'd gone by the time they even hit the ground. Kasumi might have recognized the look on Atsuko's face. She'd once been on the receiving end of the Protite's fury... but Atsuko had little time for memories.

<"What was that energy just now, where did it come from, and can you track Jax by it?"> she spoke in rapid japanese while holding a spot behind her ear where her implant was.

A reply took a couple seconds as she found the shattered window, perching a foot and looked down and around. Smoke rose around the backdrop of people getting out of the building in practiced precision, rallying to keep each other calm and spirits up. She allowed herself a little smile at the look of it - so familiar to her. She wished she could be there with them, instead of being the very cause of their alarm. Such was life.

<"We picked up White photons just now, spliced with blue. We've got a rough idea where the real source is, but Jax isn't a part of the energy, even if he's linked into it. As for him, he's not far he's just in the science labs..."> there came a pause as she jumped from the window, dragging herself to follow Jax's path.

Muscles crackled, blue lightning shooting up her arms and legs. To save people now, she had to pull out some stops. When her feet met floor, she sprinted as fast as her feet could carry her, taking corners across the wall. Her implant spoke again, nearly ignored.

<"Go get him, tiger...">

Jax wasn't hard to find at that point. Sliding underneath the flames of the gas fire, and kicking up before even stopping, she was suddenly in front of him, both feet forward, giving him a dropkick for an opener, with all her momentum behind her. Hit or miss, she'd land on her feet.