Academy of Heroes 2

[Devour]

The changes to their expressions were obvious. Some were fine, but it was those who were the most vulnerable--the most shy, who would be hurt the most by the knowledge she could see so clearly into their minds. To see the hurt in Francene and Sidnee's eyes, and to know that few others in this group could never treat her normally again, it was a twisting knife in Naomi's gut. One that she had felt many times before.

But she fought back against that feeling, hardening her will like iron. She fought against the lump in her throat and the blood that rushed to her cheeks, angry at herself for letting her own feelings have such a terrible effect on her. She would take that feeling a thousand times before she lied to these people's faces. It was not what a leader did.

With incredible strength, Naomi walked to Anna's side as if nothing was wrong. "That's a great idea." She told her with a bright smile. "I'm starving. Why don't we let the military make all of our preparations, and we have one last delicious meal before we head out?" For a moment, she considered asking the General's permission to do so. But the second she decided to ask, she learned he would have accepted without hesitation. She decided to say nothing to him instead.

To Isalah she said, "Ten seconds is not enough warning. We'll still need scouts! Francene, your drone will be incredibly useful to us. And besides..." In saying the words that came next, the barest hint of Naomi's true feelings slipped through. "I've got enough to worry about already..."

The next few moments were decided in a rush. The General began organizing the movement to outfit the class of heroes as best as they could. Francene asked by a soldier to follow him to one of their high-tech drones, a hasty dinner with the best food they had immediately ready was prepared, and the students found themselves with a few moments of freedom. Sitting together somewhere on a blanket, eating away from the rest of the regular humans, they had a few moments to be at peace and do what they wanted.

It would be the last time they were truly safe and at peace for a very long time.

[Boomerang]

Sidnee had barely picked anything to put on her plate. Two slices of bread with butter, a glass of water, and a small chunk of meat was more than enough for her frail body. She ate silently, at the edge of the blanket they had been sat upon. She had to admit, the food that they cooked was rather well made. If she had more of an appetite, she could have eaten a few plates. She chastised herself; now wasn't the time for selfish gorging, she needed to be as ready for the battle at hand as she could. With her logic, eating too much would prevent her from being at that peak state of preparation.

[MrSkully]

Angel squinted a little, and pretended to put her 'gun' in an imaginary holster. "Just because I like ya doesn't mean it's over yet, sheriff." The girl tried to make her voice sound deeper, but haven't quite succeeded, especially considering that snicker on the end. She remained quiet when everyone was discussing strategy. Not because she didn't care or understood something, but simply because she had nothing to say. Strategies including groups simply weren't quite her thing, so it was better to leave such theorizing for others.

She frowned deeply at what Naomi said, the confession definitely sparking some reaction and thought process inside her head. "That...kind of sucks actually, ya know the punchline of the joke before somebody even finishes it." was how she commented it, a smile reappearing on her face, nonetheless the hints of her initial reaction still somewhat visible underneath. When Naomi approached Anna, the girls kind of exchanged places, Angel now standing next to the table and a map. Taking the opportunity, she discretely snatched the red pen Naomi put aside, and hid it in her pocket with an innocent smile.

As they left for dinner, it became obvious Angel did not intend on eating whatever the military was to prepare, as she began making her own food from ingredients that were brought. Not quite surprisingly using a lengthy silver feather rather than a knife, she began making sandwiches, bread, cheese, tomatoes and meat all in absolutely perfect esthetic slices, as if every piece was to be used in some sort of a comercial. Angel also thrown in some lettuce and salt and pepper as well as altered an ingredient every now and then for variety. Making a whole plate of said sandwiches in record timing, the girl eventually placed it on a blanket with a quiet, almost shy "Ta-da", among other food for others to eat as well. They presented themselves a little poorly in comparison to other dishes around, but at least it was something filling, but still very light on the stomach. Sitting herself on the edge with her legs crossed she began nibbling on one of her creations, eyeing others around her. After a moment, her eyes brightened and she reached into her bag, pulling out...a notepad. She put it on one of her thigs and began hastily scribbling with one hand, holding the sandwich away from the pad in the other, bitting on it every now and then. Every few seconds she would stop whatever she was doing to look up, before lowering her head back down. She was humming something and in fact, using the pen she just 'borrowed' as well.

[Arch-Angel]

Anna was very pleased when they were taken over to get food. There were so many options, but that was to be rather expected. There's nothing like giving someone a good meal before they're shipped off to never come back. Regardless, Anna gathered what she wanted and found a nice place to sit right next to Sidnee. Her rucksack hit the ground with a muffled thud, and Anna was quick to put all of the food she had gathered inside of one of the pouches, save for one apple. Though the only food she had gathered was an armful of apples. It would probably come off as rather impressive to those who saw just how many apples she was carrying over, perfectly balanced in her arms. It had to be at least twelve.

After a few moments of watching Sidnee, Anna took a bite of the one apple she saved for herself and then discarded it. She found herself still staring at Sidnee, eventually finding it in her to speak up, "You have very pretty eyes." Her smile was absolutely genuine!

[Aquila]

Isaiah spooned the soup to his mouth, using bread to mop up whatever was left. He quickly ate and excused himself, making his way to the firing range, crossbow case in hand. Once at the gun range he started off with a simple choice, the 9mm. Popping in a magazine, he slid the sleeve back and opened fire. After unloading a magazine into a dummy set in the range, the boy quickly cleaned the gun before place it back where he found it and picking up an assault rifle. Back from his time as a mercenary, the boy developed a liking for the quickdraw magazine. Quickly unloading the bullets in controlled bursts before simply flipping the magazine to load the other on and unloading another magazine. He went gun by gun, refamiliarizing himself with each weapon. Holding a gun in his hands brought back memories he'd rather leave behind, but they were nostalgic ones, the warm, worn grips, the smell of gunpowder, and the blast of bullets followed by the clinking of their casings. The boy could feel it coming back to him as he simply continued to swap guns and practice his precision, following the routine of emptying a magazine, then disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling the firearm.

[SpacePunk]

Theo, happy to be eating, didn't wait to sit down to begin eating. If they were going to die, they may as well do it on a full stomach. The whole death thing still didn't seem real to them yet. Even tho they were about to begin their mission, it still didn't seem real. Like, they knew they were going to have to shake the surreal feeling soon and focus, but for now, they were just going to enjoy their food. They decided to walk around and see what was what while they ate.

They walked past Isaiah, who was fiddling with guns. Theo wasn't a fan of guns, or death, or killing, but all were necessary in this case. After killing those people before the academy, they tried not to fight without a reason. Of course, being in a super hero academy, there was plenty of reason to fight. Theo watched as Isaiah swapped guns and did various gun things to them. "Jeez, you're kinda like, a gun expert, huh?" Their mouth was full of food, and they tried not to spit.

[Aquila]

The boy paused, then slowly reassembled the rifle he was holding and placed it down. He breathed in then turned to look at Theo with a smile. "Nothing that dramatic, I dabble. Learned most of it on my travels abroad, security guards can get pretty bored during their escort missions." He chuckled, "Understanding one weapon makes understanding the others easier, like learning how to play the piano in a way." In a sick and demented way... The boy walked back and put the gun back, walking back to the empty stand where all that sat now was his long black case. He opened it and pulled out his crossbow, pulling the bows into place and locking them shut. He plucked the strings and his smile softened as he was answered by the melodic tuned note. Isaiah screwed in the crank then winded the string back before using the crank to lock it in place. He attached the optics scope before slotting in a bolt. "However, this is my weapon of choice, silent, deadly, and" It took him a mere second to aim then fire, the bolt released with a thwip and burrowed its way in and through a dummy. "Can punch through most conventional armors like stabbing a pencil through paper." A dangerous glint reflected in his eyes but it disappeared as soon as it appeared, replaced by a more sorrowful gaze, as if he was ashamed by his reaction. Isaiah looked away and coughed, "I can also coat it in my poison which is helpful." He fiddled with the bolt. "Personal preference 'n all I guess."

[SpacePunk]

Theo watched him bring out the crossbow. Now that was something they could be down with. Theo finished their food and watched in awe as Isaiah released the arrow into the dummy. "Dude, that's fucking sick. Honestly, I'd choose a crossbow over a gun simply for aesthetic purposes. 'Course, I don't need weapons. My body generates plasma so I just throw that shit. Well, technically, everyone generates plasma in their blood...but I mean like, space plasma. Though you know that from the classroom, I guess...Sorry, I lowkey have anxiety and start rambeling when I'm nervous."

[ErrorBlender]

Francene came back to the picnic group, a plate on her hands and a quadcopter drone flying a bit overhead. Looking around to sit, she found herself pulled to the quiet side of Sidnee but when she approached, Anna had already come around and spoke to her. She fidgeted in place before deciding to sit down on her own, nearest to Angel. She had taken her favorites, macaroni and cheese and some sides of veggies. She sat in a lotus position as she scooped the golden goodness from her plate. If there was one thing she did look forward to each day back in the organization, it was lunch. While they people were cold, unfeeling, bordering inhumane, they did serve good food. Perhaps that was a way to keep them in line? Francene shook her head softly.

She allowed the drone to land beside her, petting it on the camera as if it were a pet. She tried not to think about the impending doom that was coming after this. So she stuffed her mouth with another spoonful of macaroni. She then noticed Angel's sandwiches and thought if she should go ahead and ask for one. She blinked before looking to her drone as if to ask should I? Looking closer at Angel though, she noticed she was jotting down notes? Curiosity piqued, Francene stood up and set down her plate and made her way to the winged ally.

"Hi..." Francene said, her voice a mix of being unsure of herself and embarassment. She tried to muster the courage to ask about the notes but she fell instead to something else. "Can.. can I have a sandwich?"

[Boomerang]

Sidnee had noticed that Anna had sat next to her, but chose to ignore the possibility of human interaction as long as she could. She was quite amazed that Anna had carried so much weight on her own; then again, it was an academy full of people with supernatural powers, and super strength usually fell somewhere in that category. Sidnee kept taking little bites of her bread and meat and occasionally glanced back to Anna. It wasn't long before she realized that Anna was staring. This resulted in what had to be one of the most uncomfortable staring contests Sidnee had ever experienced, because she simply couldn't find the words to say.

Luckily, Anna started the conversation for her. "Oh, uh..." She had never really gotten a compliment about her eyes before that wasn't backhanded or a bold faced lie. "Thank you! I like your eyes too." Was that the right thing to say? It probably could have been worded better.