The Mortal Strain

[Red Glacier]

Rex

"One can only control shadows when they understand them, and one can only understand shadows when they see what the shadows are." he puts a hand on Rex's shoulder and they appear in a class room and time was frozen.

Many shadows were where students sat in desks and a female figures shadow burnt into the wall of the class. Malice put a hand on a desk

Malice: "You won't feel their pain now. But it helps understand them, in time you will be one with these shadows and many others and they will aid you in many things. You must talk to the shadows and work with them to gain their aid." he rubs the shadow for a while "Hmm. Just think Rex. How it must have felt to wake up as a innocent child and being secretly targeted for destruction......How he woke up with dreams and hope in his mind, plans to play games and an eye on his future. All destroyed in an instant, cut down, everything he fought for ended in this desk along his friends and enemies in one bright flash. Of all the things he could have become, this was his fate."

________________________________

Roland

The fireball hit the barrels but it only made one heat up. Scud looked at this and laughed

Scud: "Too many games, child." he shoots Gauss rounds at Roland and they pierce through half of the concrete block and almost break it. he fires the auto cannons again at Roland now that he was exposed.  

[Roland Karloseth]

"Gah... this is all so new to me, I don't freaking know what the hell to do!" Roland exclaimed. He looked at one of the barrels, forming another idea... "Can I do that yet? Am I strong enough? Things could go wrong quick if I'm not... Still, I seem to be fireproof as well... Hrm. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Or lost. Lets give it a go." Roland dashed and took cover behind one of the oil barrels and looked at Scud with a defiant sneer on his face before hiding behind the barrel completely.  

[Red Glacier]

Roland

as Roland ran to the barrel he fired his gauss rifles then his railgun and missed, then he shot his auto cannons and they miss Rol but hit a barrel behind him and fuel leaked outs onto the ground. he gave a discerned hum and just looked at Rol behind a different barrel "Are you serious?" he walks toward Rol. "You know, getting me to shoot the barrel in front of you may have been good in theory but you forget that you aren't shrapnel proof, the pieces of barrel would tear you to shreds" he steps in the oil on the ground without knowing it  

[Roland Karloseth]

"Be that as it may, that's not completely what I had in mind," Roland said, and ignited the fuel on the ground and dashed away, hiding behind a different blockade as he waited for some sort of explosion.  

[Red Glacier]

Scud: he looked at the ground and saw the barrel stack "hmm." he said in interest

the barrels exploded and in a massive boom and fire with debris flying everywhere many pieces of the building were blown apart and on all sides the outside was exposed and soon the rain extinguished the flames.

Scud: he gets up from a pile of debris and sheds his guns that were all destroyed, his armor was torn up beyond belief and soon began regenerating. "Very good Roland. Good to know you can learn in the face of death. Very good way to use your abilities, but thats not the extent of your training. Your powers are triggered by rage and though rage is your ammo so to say, its not your weapon, its how you use it and channel it into your powers."  

[xDarkPisces]

Rex held his head in his hands, feeling the desolation around him. Softly, as if out of fear that he might break it, he placed his hand against the wall, feeling the everlasting shadow of the child. "I..." He listened hard, clearing his mind as best he could, but it was all so fuzzy and unclear. Rex couldn't make out a definite sound over the garbles.

Suddenly, like turning the tuning knob on an old FM radio, his mind began to clear. He heard laughter, soft at first, but it grew louder and louder, until it seemed to surround him in dark classroom. He could hear the smiles in their voices, as they lilted and pitched from some unheard joke or game.

Then the laughter was gone, or rather it was drowned out by an inhuman rumbling. The sound grew and grew, just like the laughter, but more violent, sending tremors down Rex's spine. He began to shiver a bit as the rumbling hit a roar and swept over him. The heat was intense, though when he squinted through slits in his eyelids, he saw no fire. The laughter had turned to screams, screams of agony and terror, anguish and disillusion. Then, all was silent, and Rex looked to Malice.

"I heard them... easier this time, it was... clearer... but I still can't make out words... This is frustrating," he kept his voice level, though it had a distinct shake to it, caused in part by his fear and in part by his empathy for the victims of his thoughts.  

[Red Glacier]

REX

"You would think sense they are in a different language it wouldn't matter but, shadows do know. Every shadow has a story to tell like a book. Listen and they will tell you what you want to know."  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Angie took a deep breath of the fresh air in the wild life room, enjoying the purity and clarity it gave to her mind. She could hear the sounds of water falling, as Haze said, which also helped to calm her. She'd gotten a little shaken up with seeing actual evidence of her powers. But then, everyone had. Hers seemed to be the least dramatic, the least important. She sighed, frowning as she thought about what X said. "I suppose that would be nice."

...mark..fro...irth...

She froze, hearing a voice, but... Haze didn't react at all. And it seemed to be inside her head... Angie looked around uneasily, wondering what was going on.

...ortal. Wo....just o... r min... ...en? ...tryi... ...ou someth....nt!

She felt a pulling sensation on her mind, as the disjointed words filtered in and out of her head. She couldn't make heads or tails of it. Ortalwo? Just ormine? What on earth did it mean? "Um, yeah, lets go right now," she told Haze hurriedly, hoping to distract herself from the odd voice in her head. She hoped she wasn't going crazy.  

[Red Glacier]

ANGIE

"hmm, something going on in that head of yours? Its normal for star atters." he took her hand gently and guided her through some thick woods "Really, lots of things are going to happen to you...and all of us so really its ok if something goes on, really if there is something abnormal going we actually appreciate it when people tell us about it" he nodded to her trying to talk more so she would be more comfortable.

"I'm going to make a guess from you looking around earlier that you heard a voice? if so then most Star Atters experience that in their early stages." he laughed a bit "I remember when it happened to me, I was one of the first Star Atters mind you, but when I started hearing voices they threw me in the loony bin for a week because they thought my powers consisted of schizophrenia" he laughed a bit more in exuberance "But its ok. They figured out it was typical Star Atter behavior, so no more loony bin" he continued down the path  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Angie looked at him with shock. "Hearing voices... is normal........ Um. Ok..." She tried to take a minute to absorb that bit of information, but it sat uncomfortably in her mind as she followed him to the waterfall. "And why is this?"  

[Red Glacier]

Kerrigan_dragon

Angie looked at him with shock. "Hearing voices... is normal........ Um. Ok..." She tried to take a minute to absorb that bit of information, but it sat uncomfortably in her mind as she followed him to the waterfall. "And why is this?"

"Well, in theory, our powers take a section of our mind and think separately from the mind we think and do with, So when our powers are thinking we hear it thus making different voices. So your powers are a part of you that will try and talk to the rest of you. Open your mind and see what it says"

he guides her to an area that vast and beautiful, there were small flat green islands between a network of rivers and waterfalls with rich trees surrounding it from the highest islands to the lowest, mist of water flowed everywhere from the mighty crashing of water onto rocks at the end of waterfalls.

Haze: "This is my favorite place. It helps me relax....c'mon" he takes her hand again and guides her up to the midsection islands in the middle of everything "Here, what do you think?" he said cheerfully  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

"It's absolutely beautiful here," Angie exclaimed, looking around in delight. The light spray of the water did much to sooth her jitters from hearing the voice. "Thank you." She sat down and closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath in. "I guess I'll try opening my mind..." She let herself relax and tried to get used to opening her mind and awareness...

Finally! the voice exclaimed joyously. It was a rich, resonating tenor that shook her being from the very core. It held a terrible beauty in its words, a beauty so great that Angie felt like she was being crushed by the sheer weight of his words. The words were heavier on her mind than anything she'd ever felt before; they scalded and burned her. Soon it became a flood of these terribly beautiful, painful and awesome words which made her mind spin with agony and joy, made her cry out in pain. First good piece of advice I've heard you given all day. It's your blood that stops you from hearing me; if you were a normal human, then I'd have no problem. You get it from me, I'm afraid. Or rather, delighted, I should say. You have no idea just how delighted I am to finally be able to talk to you, my little Vangie. Oh how I've waited for you...

Angie could no longer bear the pain, tears were streaming down her face from the sheer effort of keeping conscious, and she shut down her mental barriers as soon as there was a pause in his speech. She curled up in a ball and rocked back and forth to stop herself from weeping further, her face pressed against her knees. "And is this voice supposed to hurt me like liquid iron, filling every crevice of my mind and burning it? Make it so I simultaneously weep from pain and from the deepest heartfelt longing, a longing I cannot reason why I feel, no matter how much I twist my newly scarred mind about the subject?" Angie took a deep breath and gulped down more tears. She hadn't even realized that she'd felt this longing until she started talking about it, but the instant she did, she knew it was true. Every fiber of her being was consumed with pain, but also with an aching longing that the voice had awoken in her. And she didn't know why. It just made no sense. Nothing made any sense.  

[Roland Karloseth]

Roland came out from behind the blockade after he saw that Scud had no weapons. He tensed up a bit as he asked "So... what now?"  

[Red Glacier]

ANGIE

Haze: "ANGIE" he rushed to her and held her tight "Not that I myself have seen.....What was it saying? Is it saying anything more?" he stroked her head gently trying to ease her pain.

_________________________

ROLAND

Scud: "Now, We see what triggers your anger besides silence." he walks over to Roland and stares down at him "So tell me, what angers you more then anything?"  

[Roland Karloseth]

"THAT'S gonna be a tough one. It's really tough to get me truly angry, I just usually get... irritated, but that's it." Roland said. It was true, he tried to roll with things. It made his life a little less stressful. Roland thought back to earlier this morning, the incident with the dude who wanted him to steal something. "I suppose being belittled makes me angry... but never as angry as I was. I've never been that angry before."