Just Another Day [open to everyone]

Montare had been laying on the ground mostly silently, only groans coming from him. Hoping that the diamond girl was the focus of Kayla's attention, he tried to get away from her. However, he only managed to go a few inches before he gave up on trying to move; he was already in enough pain. Montare tried to ignore what Kayla had said, but he couldn't get the words out of his head.

"Bitch!" he huffed, getting up. "What can you possibly gain from this?" he yelled, a few paces away from them. "Just to prove who is stronger? And for what? Satisfaction?" he wouldn't give up that easily.

Another boy rushed in to try and push them apart, but Glittergirl only threw him to the side like he was a ragdoll. There was something funny about tossing a guy to the ground while preaching against violence, but Kayla didn't smile. She just stared into those cold gemstone eyes, her gaze never wavering. Diamond. Cool, colorless, crystal formed from pure carbon, the toughest substance on earth. So she'd been right to assume that much.

Electricity's strength was that it burned you from the inside out. Getting hit wasn't just getting hit. You could end up paralyzed from the voltage, or your heart could stop, or your organs could burst. If Cassandra had been a normal person with a normal body, she would've been jolted the moment she grabbed Kayla's wrist, but the natural voltage coursing through her skin didn't even make her blink.

Normal electricity would be useless on its own, and maybe glassgirl knew that, and maybe that's why this walking ice sculpture thought she was so invincible. When you couldn't feel pain, and you could stomp around glittering in the sun, it was probably easy to think you were untouchable.

But she had more up her sleeve than sparks.

For the last few months, ever since she'd come back from the mission in Japan, she'd started carrying random scrap in her pockets. Spare change. Bottle caps. Arcade coins. Metal could be propelled through the air with electromagnetism, and the kinetic energy could punch through steel beams and reinforced concrete at three times past the speed of sound. Even something as small as a quarter could work.

That was her ace-in-the-hole, her killshot. If this girl wanted to fuck with her, she just needed to flick one at point blank, and...

Would she die? Shatter? Lose a limb? Would it even hurt her?

Kayla wasn't sure.

She didn't know why she hesitated. It'd be so easy to bring her hand out of her pocket with a nickel between her fingers, but she didn't. Kayla had killed someone with this before. Another person shouldn't have been so different.

The other kid from before was screaming at them. Of course it was about seeing who was stronger, and of course it was about satisfaction. What was so wrong with that? It was the other girl that hated the idea.

"You probably didn't hear me right, so I'm going to make it more clear." Electricity arced behind her head, zapping in the air. "Get out of my way or I'll kill you."

She still didn't move her hand from her pocket.

Louis thought for a moment. He didn't want to give up, and look like a loser. But would like to live. "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." he said, staring into her eyes.

OOc- XD please don't kill Louis! I have a good plot for him later.

She didn't know what Louis was trying to say. Did he steal that line from a movie or something? It seemed like a good thing to say to somebody about to jump off a roof, but right now, it was just background noise. Maybe he was trying to comfort Montare. Kayla had forgotten all about about the person she'd zapped, her eyes still locked on Cassandra's. The brunette clenched her teeth against the crushing pain around her wrist, not wanting to give the diamond girl the satisfaction of seeing her in pain.

If she thought Kayla would back down with her tail between her legs, then she really was stupid.

Diamond girl stomped on the ground, making the courtyard quake under her feet, but Kayla did her best to stand firm, even when dirt came raining down on her hat and shoulders. "I really hate smug preachy fucks like you," she muttered as the dust began to clear. She'd known her fair share. Her voice was strained from the pain. "You think you're a superhero, but you're just a thug like everyone else." Types like her pushed people around to feed their ego. They would say they were doing it for all the 'right' reasons, but they looked down on pathetic pieces of shit like Montare just the same as she did. If anybody respected him, they'd let him find his own feet, his own strength, instead of swooping down to rescue him like he was a damsel in distress. That was just the truth. It was a dog-eat-dog world.

The simple truth, if anybody could see past the curtain, was that Cassandra wanted gratification. She didn't care about helping Montare. A forced apology would just be empty words. What she wanted was to bend Kayla to her will, to break her pride, to try and frighten her into backing down to make herself feel righteous, and strong, and like she was hot shit. It was the same as mugging a person in an alley or throwing a punch because of a funny look. The excuse was just an excuse for the same bullying.

There was one thing that Kayla had swore to herself, and that was that she wouldn't break, wouldn't bend, and if she got knocked down, she would stand back up again. Pride was everything she had. Diamond girl thought she was untouchable, that she could dominate her and everyone else, and she would break the bones of every single god damn person in this school if it made her feel more like a knight in shining armor. And if there was one kind of person she hated, it was self-righteous, snobby, pretentious bitches. "So shove your apology up your ass. I'm going to tell you again. Get out of my way or I'll kill you."

Her fingers clasped tight over a coin in her pocket. It wasn't a lightly given threat. Her eyes burned cold and angry into Cassandra's. There wasn't any guarantee that it would kill her, but the quarter under her thumb made her heart race like she had a bomb. After four or five kills, you'd think that something like this would be routine. But before, it had been kill-or-be-killed. This time it was a school skirmish with a classmate. They'd played soccer with each other. "Don't make me say it a third time."

Louis didn't say anything but just took a step or so back. He watched them, bewildered. Sometimes he wished he had extreme powers like his younger sister, so he could actually stop them. Instead of acting like a sitting duck.

OOC- Don't ask who she is, I will create her after Louis takes the test.

Inside, there was a maelstrom of conflicting emotions that Kayla couldn't explain or define. Buried underneath the cold fury burning inside her chest, in the lightning that whipped around her like lashes, there was a hesitation. Not fear, at least not fear of getting hurt, but something like it. Reluctance. Would you shatter? Diamond glittered like glass, but it was harder than any other substance on earth. Pure carbon. Her grades were shitty in most of her classes, aside from all the behavioral stuff, but she knew that much.

The pain had never mattered. She'd broken her ribs, her wrist, her nose, she'd been burned and punched and kicked, she'd been bitten by flying wolves and clawed by giant talons, she'd been doused in acid. That wasn't what made her hesitate in those few short seconds where she might've gotten the upperhand. Kayla didn't have any time to think about it.

It was just the slightest squeeze of the wrist, and there was a sickening crack! that made her scream out in pain. She bent backwards, stumbling around, but couldn't escape the cold iron grip. Cassandra was as hard and immovable as a mountain, and trying to wriggle away was like trying to slip out of a steel claw.

People usually got three strikes, but pain and rage and impulse all took over her mind, and Kayla could only see red when she threw the coin out of her pocket in one fluid motion. It went spinning end over end in the air, and with her free hand, she flicked it as it came back down.

It would've just taken one hit between the eyes to end it all, or at least blast diamond girl thirty feet backwards and through a stone wall, but for reasons she didn't understand, she shot it up into the sky.

The air seemed to darken around them as a laser-like spear of electricity went shooting out from the tip of her finger. It cut through the sky like a knife and the courtyard shook from the shuddering aftershock, thunder rumbling from a slight delay. Ten seconds later, the coin's path was still imprinted in the air in an orange afterglow.

Kayla's free hand fell to her side, and she spat out each word between pained, panting gasps. "Back. Off. Or. I'll. Kill. You."

She didn't even flinch.

It was like she was carved out of ice. Was she that arrogant? That confident she could survive something like that? That was everything she had, and... What if she could survive it? The thought froze her in place, but her racing thoughts were interrupted by another hot stab of pain down her arm. Kayla gave a sharp cry and slumped to her knees as Cassandra finally released her from the crushing diamond grip, fire spreading through her mangled wrist.

There wasn't any human warmth in the finger under her chin. She looked up, staring hard into those impassive crystal eyes, a burning rage building in her heart. Mongrel... I'll kill you... Her wrist was an ugly bruised red and purple where the diamond girl had grabbed her. Electricity sputtered weakly across her twitching fingertips. I'll kill you... The arrogance laced with every word, the smug preaching, the sneering look on her face. Some people thought they were so invincible. Maybe she was one of them, most of the time. But right now...

The diamond girl, her tormentor, just walked away like she was nothing. Kayla didn't move from the ground, just stared down at the bricks. Ignored. She was just a nuisance to be swatted down and then forgotten about like she'd never existed. Like a fly.

Kayla staggered to her feet, her injured arm swinging limply at her side. She swayed where she stood, electricity rippling down her body, breathing hard labored breaths. Her back was turned to the other girl as her uninjured hand went into her pocket.

Her fingers clasped around a quarter.

It would be so easy to turn around and use it, but she didn't move.

She gave the coin one last squeeze before letting it go.

It was always so cute, he thought, when he had a girl so giddy and impatient that she had to send him an Esper message the moment he'd turned right around the corner. Preston smiled down at the screen of his sleek phone, a smile that might've seemed innocent on the outside, but those who knew him better would've easily been able to see the coyness hidden underneath. His newest catch was a year her junior, one of those preppy, hipster types who could always find the sweetest things to say. In the sweet, summer afternoon, it was almost impossible to expect anything to go wrong. Alas, whilst he'd been sending the girl a short message back, a grisly scream pierced the air of the courtyard.

The Autumn froze in his tracks, turning his head towards the source of the sound. In the corner of his eye he faintly the dim lights against the brick walls flickered, and in the back of his mind, he knew what would be coming shortly next. He shoved his phone back into his pocket, quickly turning towards the center of the courtyard and starting a brisk walk over. He'd hardly put one foot forward when he saw it - and felt it, fucking Christ. Lightning cleanly split open the air, almost blinding him, and creating thunder so damned loud it's echo shook the entire fucking building.

'Shit.'

A strange feeling of uneasiness rushed through him as he picked up the pace, finally getting to the source of the commotion. It was a group of people, including a guy and a girl that looked as lost as she was. There was some asshole crumpled down on the ground and a diamond chick (who reminded him vaguely of that one lady from Atlantis), the look on her face being proud enough to compete with his own ego. The one closest to him, her arm limp, swollen, and rippling with electricity, he knew her all too well.

What the hell had happened? It was clear that lazer canon had did little else that go up like a firework, and Pikachu was looking as if she were ready to fall back onto her ass at any second. His eyes narrowed, staring past his roommate and at the diamond girl instead. "You bitch." He spat, just loud enough to be heard. It was hard to tell, and if one didn't outright no any better, they might've thought he was talking to Kayla. "What the fuck did you do?" Miss Preppy-Hipster might've had to find a place on the backburner for a bit.