The truth revealed, anarchy ensues

What the hell?! Why had the freaking angel bothered to ask her if he was going to do it anyway? Clearly he must have some idea of how crude and invasive it was to have someone sit inside her brain and look out through her eyeballs, yet he claimed she was being completely unreasonable. Apparently angels didn't understand concepts such as 'privacy' and 'personal space'. She'd let him into her mind before when she'd had no other choice and his life was at stake; right now there was no such need. He knew everything she knew, and she could keep him updated without baring her entire soul for his curiosity.

I've learned a thing or two about barriers - I told you I'd figure it out myself. You try and punch a hole in mine and not only will it hurt us both, but our pal here'll figure out that this is an ambush. Tight-lipped, she listened to Shishigami for a moment, then continued. More to the point, I'll tell him. You take away my privacy and all bets are off.

She was at her limit. Not only was her life in peril a-freaking-gain, the ass who shared a mental link with her was threatening a full-scale invasion into her brain. The alleged angel, the supposed good guy. He'd ignored her telling him to stay away, and now he wanted to be in charge so badly he was prepared to risk the entire set-up just to rifle around in her skull. At least the villain walking beside her had been pretty up-front about his badness.

We'll probably be at the east entrance in five minutes. With ease, she sent a mental picture of the direction they would end up in - she hadn't lied about figuring out how to deal with the link. Last warning, angel. Stay out of my mind. It's not a nice place to be.

At this point, talking to the mercenary was a relief. Being able to spit out her vitriol at this stupid island and the utter freaks on it was a welcome break from having to keep her mouth - and mind - shut. "If we keep going, we'll reach the school fast - ten minutes if you want to take a detour, five if not. But if back-up's coming, you might want to wait first. If they don't know you're coming, you should be able to find what you need in no time. If they do... well, like I said. It's an island of mutants. Reinforcements would be necessary even for someone with crazy hands."

She shrugged, then, feeling a strong desire to blow up the entire island while she was on it and say goodbye to these ridiculous situations. "Your call."

Tien stared at the weasel as he talked. Had he taken offense at something? Of all people (so to speak), she'd expected him to be the most normal. Humans were the kinds who got insulted at silly things and started huffing and sulking. Often, they didn't even tell Tien what she'd done to upset them. After watching him owlishly for a while, she replied. "Of course I ignored you," she said, in a tone of voice that hinted that this was perfectly understandable and not at all rude. "You don't know any other fairies. That's why I wanted to talk to Sorcha, because she knows some."

The redhead, though, had spotted Naka and took off purposefully. Tien's wings spread and she held still as the shoulder-perch disappeared, a little like a skydiver when their parachute opened. After a few moments she flew down to Cyan and, without ceremony, landed on him. "Sorry," though she didn't sound it, "but if I walk or hover near the ground, people step on me. Well, they try, but obviously I get out of the way. It's tiring, though, and I can't talk properly when I'm trying not to die."

Immediately, the fairy resumed the previous topic without batting an eyelid. "You seem annoyed that I ignored you. Why? Sorcha ignored me but I don't mind. She had other things to think about and I talk a lot. I thought because you weren't human either you'd be less... less..." Here, her vocabulary gave out, and she used a word she had invented herself back in Muir Woods. "Less ploitzy. You know? Like a squirrel who didn't store enough nuts for winter. Ploitzy." In a language not made up by a fairy who needed words she didn't know, this equated roughly to cranky.

Was she like this with everyone she forged a mental link with? Despite how patient he was, he found it rather baffling as to how she could really be so unreasonable. Apparently, everything he said offended her. While he wasn't going to say anything, he considered that she was probably fortunate that it was him she forged this link with and not anyone else. He did not like to admit it, but the typical human probably would have smacked her by now for being the way she was. Regardless, he would simply have to find a way around the situation. Her foolish ways of handling the situation were quite understandable considering she was probably frightened, however. And he certainly did not want her life to be in danger.

Of course, he still couldn't believe she would honestly throw herself into the fire like that simply because she found his idea so offensive. He wasn't going to take any chances, because if she truly did as she threatened she put not only herself into danger but the entirety of the school as well. Then again, not allowing him to see exactly what was going on could pose just as equal a threat to the school. He could comprehend every language, whereas she obviously could not. That alone could cost them lives.

That was the reason he threatened her as he did. He was not going to allow multitudes of innocent students to be put in harm's way simply because a prideful teenage girl refused to cooperate. But for now, he would do things her way. Perhaps it wasn't too late to build rapport with her, perhaps later she would see things his way and actually work as a team with him. But until then, he would have to remain somewhat independent. It wasn't that he didn't trust her - quite the opposite, in fact - but even assuming her comprehension skills were as good as his own, two minds looking at a situation were always better than one. What could have been used as a powerful asset - her mental link - was only being threatened to be used as a liability instead. This was what truly disappointed him.

He came out to a small clearing, able to see the tops of the school's towers in the distance easily. He was close now. He took a short moment to rest against the side of the tree. He was able to comprehend that there was plenty of time between himself and Cass that he would still make it in time. He disliked needing to rest, but it would do him no good if his body fell to stress by the time he made it to the school.

He needed to perfect his plan anyways. Cass had showed him where they would likely end up, but without seeing the full vision for himself there were some places he needed to estimate or even assume. Plus, reinforcements were apparently on the way. But again, since he didn't know exactly what this intruder had said, for all he knew there was key information left out. He had no idea what kinds of abilities these intruders had, but according to Cass Tatsujin had some extraordinary abilities of his own. There was no telling what anyone else had.

He prayed that he would not be too late.

Miles shrugged at Sorcha’s question since he didn’t feel like answering that at the moment. Miles walked over to a tree and sat underneath it. He would just sit back and watch the training for now. It would be his chance to observe what these people were like with their powers. Miles looked at the fairy taking to Cyan while flying around. They were having their own nice little conversation, it seemed like the fairy had wanted to talk about nothing but fairies for the time being.

Meeting this so called neighborhood of fairies would be an interesting experience though. They might know of creatures and resources that he had never seen before. Together as a group some fairies might actually pose a threat to a person in a fight. So many things he wanted to know, but that would have to wait for another time. A collection of Cyan’s might be just as interesting as a group of fairies. He didn’t know what to technically classify the weasel. It was known that Tien was a fairy and there were others but he had never heard of green talking weasels. Miles closed his eyes and leaned his head back against his new spot. Sorcha had really seemed upset by Suze earlier but it was probably just something that would pass.

“So many unanswered questions,” Miles said under his breath. Miles just looked at Naka Sorcha and watched them talking. There wasn’t any reason for him to move at the moment so he just sat back and relaxed against the tree. He thought he saw Suze slip a bit but just brushed it off as his imagination. The girl was actually okay to be around, so Miles really didn’t see Sorcha’s problem with her. Miles made a little flame in front of him to see how long it would stay without him losing control.

Cyan spoke to the fairy on his back, "Oh, it's no problem. It's not like you're heavy or anything. I know what it's like, 'cause people step on my tail all the time. It doesn't hurt or anything, but it's really annoying when you're trying to walk." Cyan was slightly surprised by her next comment. "Annoyed?" He asked, "Not really. I was just caught off gu-wait." The weasel turned his head enough to see Tien. "Did you say Ploitzy? That's...actually pretty awesome." Cyan thought the made up word was positively adorable. "But, yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes humans can be really uptight. You just gotta' get to know them, that's all."

Cyan turned toward Sorcha, "You let me know when I can be of service. Until then, I've got something I'd like to practice as well," he said before addressing the fairy, "Hey, you want to go flying? I'm about to, so you might want to hold on tight or get off." Cyan gave the fairy time to act before taking off, this time successfully doing so on the first try. Man, flying was fun.

Sorcha took her position a few feet away from Naka, prepared to get into her fighting stance when a jolt of intense pain exploded into her brain. The waves of energy certainly didn't come from inside of her, this much she knew.

She dropped her sword and fell to her hands and knees. Hanging her head, she clenched her teeth to prevent herself from crying out. She did manage to whisper loudly to Naka "pain...blast...mind" The pain seemed to immobilize her for a few seconds. As soon as she fought through the haze that was created she moved her head down further and put both of her hands on the sides of her head. The left was all that was needed to negate the mental power being used on her, but she needed both hands just to steady herself.

As soon as her hands hit her head the pain stopped. She knew then that someone had mentally sent a blast into her head. She slowly turned her head to look at the assembled group. She saw Miles sitting under a tree and looking at them. Cyan and Tien were hovering in the air communicating about something. Suze, was standing there looking at her and Naka as well, but she seemed to be focused on her. She slowly stood up and stumbling slightly looked at Naka,"Somebody up there just sent a blast into my head, it hurt like hell, my question is who. Did you see anything off?"

So she had two candidates. She knew for a fact that it wasn't Naka, and pretty confident that it wasn't Cyan or Tien. Although she thought, she didn't really know Cyan, he just didn't seem the type. Yeah, she was leaning towards the Suze girl. She looked again at Miles and squinted her eyes at him, then back to the innocent looking girl. It was one of the two but the million dollar question was why?

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Suze inwardly snickered when she saw Sorcha fall to her knees. Devils Delight but that was funny. She so enjoyed others pain, and it was immensely satisfying to know she was the one who caused it.

When Sorcha put her hands on her head and she slowly turned to look at her Suze stared back at her. So, she thought, the brat had a way to counteract the mind blast. Hmmm, wonder what it was. It might prove very beneficial in the long run to find out. She then noticed that Sorcha looked at everybody in the group but seemed to look twice at her and the demon. So, the demon seemed a threat uh? That was interesting and proved to her that he would fall in line with her instead of the goody two shoes of the group.

But all in all, it really didn't matter to her if Sorcha thought it was her or not. The really important thing is that she had put some doubts into her head about Miles and maybe now she wouldn't be out to prove to everyone that she, Suze, was a bad egg. But thinking about it a little more, she debated on whether to make it look like Miles did it or to act all caring about something obviously happening to Sorcha. Well she theorized, Miles she wanted on her side so taking a deep breath she was going to bite the bullet and play pretend."Sorcha, are you ok? what happened?" She yelled as she headed down into the open space that Naka and Sorcha were.

Though the angel said nothing more, she could sense negativity from him, walls or no walls. She expected him to be warning the school of the impending threat, gathering numbers at the appointed place, and generally using the advantage she'd provided to the full. Had she been alone, she'd have attempted to warn the school herself - sure, she might have accidentally linked a few newbies into their mental web, but it sure beat dying in a failed attempt to warn them physically. With back-up coming and the assassin showing considerable power, it was common sense to Cass that her operative would be readying the school. Common sense to every human, really. Which is of course where her logic failed, but she had no time to think that far ahead, and merely listened to Tatsujin.

A grim sort of satisfaction spread through her. He'd refuted her other options in favour of arriving at their destination quicker, without letting reinforcements catch up first, nor taking a careful detour to disguise their approach. It meant that they would, indeed, arrive at the appointed place in the appointed time. Even if his suspicion got the better of him, though, she had an ace up her sleeve. Cass was a chess player; she thought ahead. Moreover, and something the damn angel would never understand, she was willing to make sacrifices to win the war.

"I've got some loose change," she answered, shrugging slightly. "I don't do jewellery." But the question reminded her of something else, and she engaged Fordren begrudgingly. He can transform objects into weapons and stuff. Maybe just metal; I'm not sure. Consider him armed at all times. And warn the people you've got, otherwise there'll be collateral damage.

There was no sense in asking him further about his powers or plans, mostly because of how insanely stupid that would be, but it was good to keep talking. It would seem suspicious and keep him focused on the threat she could pose, rather than a more abstract one. "Do you get paid for this? Or did you just wake up one day and think 'hey, this whole compassion thing sucks, I'm gonna kill people'?"

The weasel seemed to agree that humans were a terribly ploitzy species, which made Tien feel a bit mollified. She was trying to get to know them, but they were needlessly complicated. When Cyan announced his plan to fly, the fairy obediently released her hold on his fur and took to the air, watching him with pronounced interest. "Are you very strong?" she asked, looking speculative. "I always fly everywhere, so I get a bit tired if I have to walk far. Maybe it'll be the other way around for you? If you walk everywhere, you might get tired if you fly for very long."

Circling her roommate, she inspected his wings with an authoritive eye. "But you might have lots and lots of strength for no reason. A lot of people here do."

It was at this point that Tien turned to see Sorcha hitting the ground, and she took off in a pale blur, arriving at the scene with a suitably perplexed expression. She would have asked what was the matter, but her New Friend Suze was rushing over asking the same thing; Tien simply hung there, uncertainly, waiting for the answer.

Is there any indication at all as to when or if reinforcements of his are arriving? I wonder if it is possible for us to detain and question him in time. However, I would not find it surprising if he was difficult to interrogate. If this guy was as tough as Cass made him out to be, there was going to be trouble. He had already met more than one person on this island with unbelievable power for a mortal being. Especially a mortal being on this world. He wondered just how strong someone here could truly become.

He made it onto the school grounds, now. This would be the tricky part, however. He only really knew a few students here well enough that he could approach them. The rest of the people he 'knew' only because he had infiltrated the school in an attempt to retrieve information. However, the students of the school proved to be much more capable than normal students and his cover was blown rather quickly. He had no doubt that the school would be able to put up a good fight against any sort of invasion, but he truly wanted to avoid a small-scale war as much as possible.

Was that Nakata over there? Someone he knew?

"Master Nakata!" He called out, running towards him. "I must speak with you, it is urgent!" Despite the company he kept - no one that he knew, though - and despite the current state of affairs between all of them, he felt it necessary to interrupt considering the situation.