Heather continues to sit on the stairs and read her book.

---

Lotus had caught up to Li only for him to do some fancy wall jumping. Once he reached the top Lotus let out a sigh before manifesting her claws and beginning the climb. As she reached the top she spoke.

"Li, Why are we taking this detour, it-" She stopped herself as she saw Adi "Nevermind. I understand now. Why can't we just let our defenders deal with him? I mean that is their one job." She walked over and sat down a slight distance away from the two.

"Li if you need me just say something okay?" Lotus decided to watch the upperclassmen to learn from them rather than jump in the fight.

---
Id stood and dusted herself off shouting a couple of curse words to Ego. She stood looking around as she did she saw Alice zip overhead.
"Where do you think she was headed in such as hurry?" Id asked her Phoenix "We should find out." With that Id began walking in the direction Alice went. Ego let out a screech before taking off into the air keeping a watchful eye on his companion.

Tsubaki had immediately prepared herself when Max returned, calling forth all the water at his disposal, but after a while lowered her guard once again. She didn't need to be as prepared as he seemed to think he needed to be, standing directly in front of the door and drawing a sigil wasn't sometime incredibly hard to do, as long as she had at least few second of warning for the later. She though about asking Max if he could use her help, but ultimately decided that she could anyways and that it would be better not to disturb him.

---

Wow, waiting, while awake was a woefully worse experience than doing it while sleeping. Derrek honestly didn't get why people did it so often, and was at least a little confused why he was doing it now. Sure he had said he'd try, but if his suspicions were true and they had already lost, there was really no need. Then again if they had, surely someone would have told him right? Yep, waiting truly was a crapshoot.

Adi and Li immediately turned to the fast approaching Alice. It was quite clear that she had intended to muck about in their little game. Looking over to Adi, Li's eyes alone were enough to let the boy know that a temporary truce had been levied between them as they faced the third party opponent.

"We have incoming company," beckoned Li to Lotus and her faithful tiger. "Prepare yourselves!"

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The bolt of spectral green lightning flew by Logan's head. Evelyn was mildly relieved that Damian had joined her and was prepared to fight. Together, she knew that they would be able to overpower the sniper. All she needed was some cover as she took flight


(Make your next posts so that I can actually trigger the main plot event of this chapter finally and introduce Thai's new character. Someone contact Thai to let him know please~~)

Logan's eyes widened as a bolt of lightning flew past him. Now that Damian had entered the fray, and Daniel was quite possibly out of commission, Evelyn was going to be a much greater problem. Were she alone, the Scot would've been able to keep her pinned down indefinitely, but now it was only a matter of time before she found an opportunity to retaliate. Logan hastily aimed his gun at Damian and fired. The chances of the shot hitting were almost nil, but with any luck, it'd make the boy duck for cover and take the heat off Logan. More importantly, it would deter Evelyn from leaving her hiding spot just yet. Hopefully. After firing, Logan immediately dispelled the rifle and dashed toward Damian's position. With gun out of the way, he was making good time, and he would be free to summon something else if needed.

Having loosed a bolt, Damian hoped it may have rattled Logan, discouraging him from trying to return fire. The gunshot that followed dispelled that and immediately caused Damian to crouch and cover his head, a response that wouldn't have done much good really if the shot were lower considering how open he was. He was fortunate enough to hear it hit the ground near him. Then, realizing the silliness of his reaction, he straightened and prepared to fire another bolt, only to realize Logan was on the move. Rather than wait, Damian summoned his axe, charging towards the approaching Logan with a grin. He felt he had a much better chance in close combat, barring any unforeseen martial arts training his opponent may have had.

Logan raised an eyebrow as, rather than attempting to blast him from afar with lightning, Damian took out his axe and charged at him. A daring strategy indeed. As the two closed in on each other, the Scot clasped his hands in front of him, but made no other moves. It looked rather silly, actually. He waited until they were but a few meters apart, and only then did his claymore appear in his hands, extended directly in front of him, the tip of the blade but a mere couple of feet from Damian's chest. At the same time, armor appeared around Logan's upper body, ready to protect him during the impending collision.

Daniel snuck away from the fight and returned to the same hill. He was disappointed that Evelyn had wasted his energy, but he had learned a bit about the nature of her abilities. He began to meditate, gathering magical power from the spiritually rich island.

Alice perched herself upon the tower, laughing at the three of them. Sorbet began to circle above them as she charged at Li, claws ready to gore the underclassmen.

Seeing that Damian was going to take out Logan, Evelyn prepared herself to take flight and join the battle against the Scot. Her senses however, told her that she had to put her attention elsewhere as she noted Daniel was attempting to amass energy as he had done before.

"Fool me once" she said as she flew towards the boy and landed lightly behind him as he meditated. She had to admit that she impressed that he had taken so well to meditation. Evelyn recalled the time when she first taught Damian to meditate and listen to what his senses were telling him so that he could find the lamp. She wondered if it worked the same for the Vitri, surely the sensations that they felt were different than those of a Spiritorum. As a Spiritorum, all her spiritual senses were very tangible, she could see, hear, and almost touch the energies around her. What she had read about Vitri however were that their senses were akin to looking through a pair of glasses while in a glass box: their spiritual sight was impressive, but everything else around them was dulled.

Bringing an end to her reminiscing, Evelyn dealt with the problem before her as she would with anyone in the midst of a good meditation; she knocked him over the head.

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Damian's axe grazed off of Logan's reliable armour as the boy stepped away to avoid the tip of the claymore. Had he merely been rushing ahead empty-handed, he would've come to a very sharp end.


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Waiting for Id/Lotus

Logan's eye flicked to the side as his arm slid past Damian, narrowly missing as the boy's axe glanced off his mail. The Scot dispelled his sword and attempted to wrap his outstretched arm behind his opponent, simultaneously pivoting on his heel and driving his knee toward the boy's abdomen.

Heather sits on the stairs and continues to read a book.

--

Lotus glared at Li with a unreleased and disapproving look.

"You waited for me to sit down. You stood there heard what I said...and then waited for my butt to hit the ground before asking me to stand up and help you....Rude." As Lotus continued to rant she stood brushing herself off and then let out a big sigh.

"But I guess since you can't use your powers, I have to fight Alice...Again." Lotus turned to face Alice. She wrapped her hand around the hilt of her katana waiting for Alice to make the first move.

--
Id arrived a little late to the party. Id was on a neighboring building that was slightly taller than the one everyone else stood on. Seeing everyone having, what appeared to be, a stand off She couldn't help but smile. She quickly sat on the edge before pulling our some of the ingredients for s'mores. she continued to sit on the ledge and feast while watching the fight unfold.

Daniel winced as he was whacked over the head. "..."
He turned around and narrowed his eyes at Evelyn. "What do you want from me?" He said as he stood up and pulled his glass orb from his pocket.

Alice reached Li and tried to slash him with her enormous claws.

Logan's knee connected with Damian's abdomen, drawing a pained and surprised grunt from him. Knees in Apollon were more painful than he expected and Damian considered he may have made a serious mistake as he doubled over for a brief second. Rather than swing at Logan, he backpedaled, reaching into his pocket with his free hand to palm his bauble. He practically carried it everywhere now. With small jolts, he charged his bauble twice, making sure to release his axe shortly before he charged it.

"No you don't!" Logan said as Damian broke away from him and began fiddling with a small object. The Scot didn't know what he was up to, but he quickly summoned his dirk and threw it end over end at his opponent, then moved to close the distance again. However, as he rushed forward, he saw Evelyn fly off in the corner of his vision.

That's... that's no good. He thought as he watched her chase after Daniel.

OOC: I'm sorry, I kind of wrote us onto a path that was wayyy too long for what I wanted.

Alice in her fused form was as frightening as they recalled, though now that she had a young phoenix as well, it seemed that the girl would be unstoppable. Nevertheless, the makeshift alliance forwent their current combat training to deal with their club president. They were determined not to go out without putting up a fight.

Lotus proved that she had done much training in her time spent mourning her father as she prepared herself for the impending assault. She drew her katana and gracefully bounded into the air with her cat-like reflexes, meeting Alice's extended claws with a solid "clang" as spiritual energies clashed against each other. Her eyes took on a feral form as she acrobatically flipped to avoid the fused-girl's counter strike as she swung her claws where Lotus had been moments before.

In the meantime, Li and Adi had been coordinating their movements to attack after Lotus had dodged. Adi launched Li into the air, his foot extended to kick her. Sensing his approach however, Alice backhanded Li, striking him in the chest, and caused him to tumble backwards onto the ground.

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"What do you want from me?" asked Daniel as he stood up with his glass orb. Evelyn crossed her arms with a stern expression, though her impassive demeanour fell away to frustration as his question struck a chord within the girl.

"I just – I just want you to stay down!" she yelled, instantaneously surprising herself with her own outburst. She stepped backwards, looking straight on as if she were looking at herself in the mirror. "You don't understand..."she said coldly "To constantly live in the shadows of others...no matter what I do...I'm never good enough! Everyone says I'm great, that I'm powerful and skilled." She tightened the grip on her glaive "If that's the case, why do I always get beaten by our enemies when it matters the most?! I cannot be a liability. I will NOT be a liability!"

"I don't have time for this" she said finally after a moment of silence, as she put her hands together and a brilliant flash of light exploded from them.

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Logan's distraction was successful, for it provided him with just enough time to rush forward and strike Damian as he took the time to dodge the thrown dirk. This however, did not work in his favour ultimately, for as he rushed Damian, he loosed the charged up energy from the bauble in the general vicinity, shocking the young Scot.

Damian panted while leaning over the incapacitated body of Logan, sort of stoked that he had defeated him, though kind of surprised that he did, as well. It was definitely going down as one of his hard-won battles for sure.

"Come on, let's get back to the others." Damian looked up to where the voice had come from, seeing Evelyn floating in the sky above him. By the looks of the expression on her face and the icy tone with which she spoke to him, Damian knew that she was not in one of her better moods. Of course he knew better than to ask any questions, and he did as he was told, the two of them reconvening with Li and Lotus as originally planned.

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Tsubaki and Maximilian stood in an uncomfortable silence, or at least, it felt as such to the foreign exchange student. Max on the other hand had shored up great walls of ice around their defensive position. It would be no easy task for the other team to make their way towards them. And yet, something felt off.

His abilities having grown over the last semester, Max knew enough to trust his gut. He let his senses flood about like a pool, feeling the movements of everyone's energies around him like ripples in a pond. His expression became grim as he sensed what was taking place, Alice was in her fused form for some reason, and Evelyn's aura seemed turbulent like before. In truth, he cared very little about this little game that they were playing, but if something was happening to Evelyn then he would look into it. Without saying anything he began to walk back in the direction he had arrived just moments before.

"Wait!" exclaimed Tsubaki almost hesitantly "I mean, where are you going?" she asked softly.

"Don't worry about it," retorted Max sharply.

"But what about the tower?" she asked while looking up to the lone building where its keeper waited.

"Look" he replied "You can keep playing Miss Rachel's game, but I don't care," and he continued to walk away, though stopped and said over his shoulder "You were fine by yourself anyways" and left the perimeter.

Biting her lips anxiously, Tsubaki watched helplessly as Maximilian left her alone again. What was so important for him to leave his position. She looked up at the tower, then back to where Max had gone, then back to the tower again. Tsubaki sighed.

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"Stay on defense junior Acula," advised Adi as he helped Li up from the ground. It was quite frustrating that Miss Rachel's powers inhibited the two most capable of handling Alice in this form. Again, it reminded him just how dangerous their "mentor" truly was. Still, he relished the notion of a challenge, and he was not about to go down without a fight. Lotus and Dot took turns trading blows against Alice while Adi took Li to a safe location, taking both team balls into his hands and running out into the open. Alice quickly spied the student, releasing a powerful blast of air at Lotus and Dot, as she dived towards Adi.

"There you are!" she shouted with glee as her phoenix flew overhead. She swiped at Adi he adeptly dodged the fused-girl, kicking out with his legs as he moved to keep her hands away. Instead, however she grasped his leg in a strong vice grip, keeping his one leg off of the ground while the other tried to remain balanced.

"What's going on here?" Alice and Adi looked over to see Evelyn, eyes aglow, and Damian with his charged bauble. From the perspective of the new arrivals, Li was nowhere to be seen, and Adi had both team balls in his possession.

"Junior St. Augustine, wait!" Though Evelyn had already conjured four wisps had commanded them to assault her target. Spinning like a log and curling his arms inward, Adi was able to break free and withdraw from the distracted Alice's grip as the wisps pelted where they had both stood. Before even the smoke could settle, Alice lunged forth from the cloud heading towards Evelyn with her giant claws.

Evelyn twisted straight down toward the ground, landing in a crouch and looking up where Alice now floated. Damian in the meantime had loosed a bolt of green lightning which struck her squarely in the back.

"Oh wow," said Alice and Phora, not quite sure who was in control "It seems that even more want to join the fun...Guess it's time to take off the kiddie gloves. She raised her hands and suddenly a dark cloud descended upon the group, and they watched as the winds picked up speed and began to surround them. It reminded Evelyn of the wall that Alice had made when they were under attack at Miss. Sullivan's house.

"There's no flying out of this one" spoke Evelyn grimly as the only opening above was sealed by cloud cover. Lotus, Dot, Evelyn, Damian, and Adi were trapped in some sort of cyclone box, and it soon became quite apparent that their supply of oxygen was also being limited as they found it harder to breathe.

"Alright," said Id with her mouth full "I guess we should step in or something" she said as she stood up, stretched, and sucked the marshmallow off of her fingers.

Ego flew overhead as Idelia ran towards the cyclone. It was definitely a lot bigger in person, which was cool, and yet mildly frustrating that she couldn't yet successfully fuse either. Loosing fireballs at the cyclone proved to do nothing as Ego tried to stop the swirling mass of air, for the fireballs were whisked away into nothingness as they approached the rapidly spinning air.
Flicking her lighter, Id swished around the "liquid" from her flask in her mouth and breathed heavily. Surprisingly, the stream of fire seemed unnaturally powerful, perhaps a side effect from her failed summoning, or perhaps due to the oxygen-rich air around them. Regardless, it was just enough for her to grab Alice's attention, who directed her left hand at Idelia and commanded a smaller wind sphere to from around the girl. Ego quickly flew towards Alice to prevent the attack though Sorbet flew towards the adult phoenix and began to annoyingly pelt it with small ice pellets.

The smaller sphere spun much faster than the larger cyclone, for Alice intended to take the minor nuisance of Idelia out first. Grasping for air, Idelia's eyes water as she felt herself reaching the point of incapacitation. It was a psychologically thrilling and scary experience, for it was nearly the same thing that had happened to her when she had fought Dominic in the pocket dimension before Christmas vacation. She was determined to stay conscious, but it was growing more and more difficult as each second went by. Idelia by this point had collapsed to her knees as she clawed at her throat to take in air.

Ego could sense his partner's struggles, and knowing that he did not have time to deal with the annoying phoenix hatchling as well as Alice, he turned and flew directly toward the sphere, hoping to pierce it with his beak and rescue her. His first attempt was unsuccessful, bounding off of the magical cocoon. The second time he attempted to claw at it with his talons, again unsuccessful. Finally, in the heat of desperation he screeched sharply, exhaling a cloud of thick smog and snapping his beak shut to ignite the smog.

There was a loud explosion, and Alice put her hand down. "One down, four more to go," Alice said gleefully. She caused the winds to pick up on the major cyclone, now able to focus on them alone. All she would have to do is pick up the balls from the incapacitated bodies by the time she was finished.

"This. Is. Kickass!" yelled a new voice from the ground. Rising from the cloud of smoke that still lingered, the glowing form of Idelia fused with Ego was a sight to behold.

"Cute!" exclaimed Alice, not particularly frightened "I bet you –" Though before she could say anything, the fused phoenix-human flew towards Alice and elbowed her in the stomach. Immediately the cyclone around the others dissipated, though it was difficult to tell who was incapacitated and who was not, for they were all on the ground.

"Oh, so you wanna play like that, huh?", smirked Alice, her teeth suddenly appearing as the threateningly sharp fangs that Phora displayed. She waved her hands and blew a powerful gust of air at Id, who deftly spun through the air to avoid it.

In turn, Idelia conjured a fireball in both hands, she did it half through instinct, though once she saw what she had done, she couldn't help but smirk and say "Let's raise a little hell" She fired the fireballs rapidly, releasing one after the other. What Alice had in power, Idelia was able to make up for with speed. The two girls rushed at each other, bouncing off each other with as they clashed claws with talons. Still, it was only a matter of time before Idelia's energy reserves would give out, and so Alice used enough energy to draw her out, rather than expend it taking her out completely. All she had to do was wait.

"This game is over"

The ground began to rumble as all the fountains in the vicinity bubbled violently, and water began to seep up from the ground below. The water rose into the air, forming a torrential stream that spiralled around Sorbet. On instinct, the young phoenix froze the water, though as a result, encased itself in ice and plummeted to the ground solid.

Maximilian slowly walked through the carnage of the plaza, water still springing up from the ground with every step that he took; this was only the tip of the iceberg for a Naturae. He looked over and saw both Evelyn and Damian shakily getting up, and he turned his attention to Alice. Raising his hands, Maximilian raised the water around him and thrust it towards Alice.

As if taking a silent cue, Evelyn raised the palm of her hand and released a powerful beam of light, as Damian released as much of electricity as his energy reserves would allow towards the water, and Id continued her fireball assault.

With a brilliant flash of light, Alice and Phora's fusion was brought to an end, landing on the ground with an audible thud.

"Yes," spoke Miss Rachel suddenly "The game is over, but the war has barely begun"

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The next few weeks were oddly silent, Miss Rachel had not called for any club meetings, nor had there been any sort of spiritual phenomena that required their intervention. Alex, feeling rightly overwhelmed by the Apollon experience, chose to learn how to control her powers under the guidance of Miss Shields, rather than join their paramilitary-child-soldier unit. School had otherwise returned to its monotonous routine, though the days seemed to go by quicker as the SDU members had learned to bond as friends even when not fighting the supernatural.

Evelyn had been avoiding Daniel, partially embarrassed by him witnessing her moment of emotional weakness, and also because she was generally annoyed by his presence. Rather, she found solace in her friend Bernice, who, as always, seemed to know the right thing to say whenever Evelyn wasn't feeling herself. Meanwhile, Evelyn had encouraged Bernice to Skype with her mother more often, while the international super star was on tour.

Still, most of them could not shake what they had heard Miss Rachel say. What did she mean that the war had only begun? What war were they in? Rather than meet in the club room or the s****, where Miss Rachel and Sir William were bound to lurk, they decided to meet off campus at the tea shop Tea Tyme. The shop was small, though large enough to fit all the club members, as they brought several tables together to have their unofficial meeting.

"So," said Fiona breaking the ice while everyone else drank their beverages "Since Miss Rachel is sketchy a-f and always keeping us in the dark, we need to talk about this war thing....Any leads?"

Alice and Phora chatted and giggled, discussing the finer points of the ridiculous battle at Appollon. In particular, they found the memory of Sorbets unfortunate defeat especially amusing, and the cartoonish cruelty the underclassmen displayed would've been great greeting card material, had they taken pictures.

"Sorbet do the thing again!" Phora said, so Sorbet fluttered into the air before encasing itself in a block of ice, falling to the table with a loud thud. The pixie laughed and unfroze her friend, picking it up and rubbing it's soft feathers against her cheek. Alice smiled and took a sip of her drink, before looking over the others, stopping at Adi, who was next to her. She nervously fiddled with her earring, trying to catch his eye.

Daniel tried to pay attention to the subject at hand, but it was difficult when not even Alice was paying attention. He flinched as something struck his head - a paper football. He glanced around for the source of the projectile.