Just a bite

Nice skirt.
She'd heard it many times before, in many different iterations. He'd always say it to girls on the street, whenever they went to go do some kind of mission or pickpocket some rich asshole on the west side. It didn't even matter if there was a guy with who he targeted. Nice skirt, he'd say, and there would usually be a skirmish where she had to back him up. She hated him. He was too invested on other things, distractions too off topic. He was only good for his skills, and even they were expendable. It was that day, a few months back, when she hugged Alfie and Helen and Gregory and Alfie cried and she punched him for giving so much of a shit. And in the moment she gave Cayden a hard shake of the hand, her eyes met his in the moment, and she said, Don't follow me. And he smiled. She should have known to never trust a smile. She should have killed him. How clueless the others would be without them. They were the fists of the group. Without either one of them, they were nothing.

Nice skirt. The voice had stuck to her like a magnet. She didn't turn around, but her fingers spread over the table, and it shot up to meet them, half of it hovering over the ground as she closed her eyes and breathed. She rarely showed emotion. She rarely let herself go. But finally finding this prick, and in the way he approached her, made it difficult.

She would have already killed him if they were alone.

Arbor wached him sit, watched him put his feet up. She raised her hand, the charges in her fingertips flipping, and the chair Cayden sat in suddenly flew backwards, landing on its back in a clatter. People turned to look. Arbor didn't say anything to the stares. "I've been looking for you," she told him, simply, unfazed by any emotion. She crossed her arms over each other on the table. "I told you not to follow me here." She'd get him outside, get him there and kill him. He was no use to her. He proved himself no use to the others.

"Let's end this, then." She stood up, the chair scooting from under her as she pressed her fingers to the table. She found him, and now it was time to get him out of her way. She uttered the same words that she'd told him a few times when they'd first met. The same words that had gotten her her fair share of bloody noses and black eyes. When her mom didn't do it, she had a second source. Well, not anymore.
"Fight me."

Damn life is really boring. She thought to herself with a sigh walking the the cafeteria. Nothing had been going on recently, and she barely saw anyone during school days. Recently, the girl had this...empty feeling and had no idea why. Was it cause of him, the boy that had met her after the formal and taken her to his dorm? Cayden Hawke, the person she spent the most wonderful night of her life with? What ever it was, it was starting to get really annoying, itching at her thoughts every moment of the day.

She opened the door quietly slipping in, looking around at all the students walking about. She wondered why everyone brought books and backpacks to the place of food but shrugged it off. They must have something to do with all that stuff. Glancing around a bit lost in thought, she spotted Cayden. Sudden joy and excitment filled the girl until she saw a familar girl next to him. She looks pissed. Pepper wondered what the two were up to. Half curious, half angry she walked over to the two. "Hello Cayden. Long time no see." She said with a her usual timid smile and snapped her head to the girl. "You're that girl frol the courtyard who was looking for him, right?"

There was a jolt of panic as students around them began to scream, and the lunch ladies looking on from the counters nearby. They shouted expletives and dialed their phones, shouting for them to cut it out, but were already halfway to the back door when Arbor screamed, shaking her hand wildly. It itself had not caught the blaze, having pulled away seconds before it got to that point, but it was a vermillion. There was a strange pull and push in the tips of her fingers, an uncomfortable throbbing with the pain, and the chairs and ceiling and everything metal began to fly, swirling back and forth as Arbor held her hand. The sprinklers came on, but immediately flew off their caps, sending straight blasts of water onto the floor. One was nearby Arbor, and she stepped back to it rapidly. She doused her hand, and the catastrophe stopped.

Drip drip. Only Cayden and this girl stood. They were practically alone. She remembered Alfie, how he spared her money when she was prepared to rob him, their first encounter. What would he do without a strong arm beside him? What would anyone do? Arbor reached into her pocket and pulled at a penny, gleaming from the water that had drenched her vest.

She clapped her hand around it, and pushed it through her palm until it lined up with her thumb. Her thumb began to shake as she focused all her magnetic energy into it. This was what she trained for, what she almost killed herself with trying to master.

For Alfie, for Helen, for Gregory, for mom.

She switched the charge, and the coin burst from her hand like a bullet from a gun. The burst of wind it gave made Arbor stagger, but it was already flying in Cayden's direction, who was only half a room across from her.

Well that escalated quickly. One moment they were standing there giving angry stares and the next, the room exploded into literal chaos. Students screamed and ran out the door, chairs and tables flew into the air and the sprinklers turned on. Who knew how long it would be till prefects made there way over and she had no idea what to do. She looked to Cayden, seeing the girl had hurt him, though she could tell he was okay for now.

With out any warning and out of almost complete fear and anger, Pepper accidentally transformed. The dragon's head burst through ceiling, and she gave an earsplitting roar. At that moment, she had no clue what was really going on. Per usual, her thoughts were soon overwhelmed by the dragon. She tried, tried so very hard to not lose control again, though he effort wasn't as affective as she wished. Her claws dug into the to cafeteria floor, smashing and cracking the floor beneath her. The beast's tail slammed a table and some chairs across the room and lights flickered on and off from the destruction all three of them had caused.

Whether hot or not, they were still metal, and a wave of the palms let them glide harmlessly past her. They landed in the wet spots created by the uprooted sprinklers, sizzling and sending small rings of smoke into the air. Arbor only heard them, saw the last wisps of clouds they sent into the air around her. She was focused on Cayden. His sadistic look, his sadistic comment. Her glare tightened, but she said nothing. She wasn't much of a monologist. Another coin flip, and she prepared to flick it to him, to blow the whole place up. As she was ready to launch it, however, the girl suddenly grew. Arbor dropped it as she staggered backward. She hadn't really noticed Pepper in the trance of battle, but now she'd become something. She didn't know what that something was, but it looked huge.

What's this? Arbor let her hand trace the back of the picture, examining the calendar tear-out that accompanied many of its kind across the wall. They were above his computer, where he typed away absentmindedly, his eyes glued to the screen as he went to push the smudged lenses further up his nose. What's this, she asked him monotonously, checking the Hello Kitty watch she had stolen from some first grader a few weeks prior. A dinosaur, he answered. He enunciated: Stegosaurus stenops. She gave it a final, dull-eyed scan. Aren't you a little too old for this? she said. No, they're bad ass, he replied. You may be the strongest person alive, but that thing will kick your ass.

Arbor peered up at it, its head poking through the ceiling. That thing was definitely bigger than a stegosaurus.

Dragging her head out of the inside of the roof, the dragons was able to see again. The room was half dark from the lights going out, and the windows gave little light. Regaining her bearings, Pepper looked around remembering Arbor and Cayden. No...Don't...Let it...Take over! The girl's thoughts flickered on and off, competing with the dragon's.

Bam!

Something flying at the speed of light, smacked into her jaw sending her head flying towards the ceiling. Once again, the white dragon's head smashed through the cafeteria roof but this time, it enraged her. Bringing her head down close to the ground, the dragon's gaze snapped towards Arbor. Taking a step forward, she slightly opened her mouth, releasing a bit of smoke. With warning, the dragon opened her mouth and released her flames straight at the girl. After she threw her first attack at the girl, the large white beast charged forward. Claws crumpling the ground under her, tail smashing into object left and right, nothing would stop her. Honestly, she knew it was Cayden who'd shot her in the jaw, but this bitchy girl was her first priority. She would deal with Mr. Cool later. Snapping her pearly white teeth just a few meters away from Arbor, only meant to scare the girl, she gave a challenging roar.

//hehehehe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuOOTI7FYK4 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOWav94syLc ?

Arbor was rarely one to show emotion. She was always the one to command the fight, to lead the attacks and knock down opponents. It was what she did with Chip. It was what she did with that Kaya girl. She never showed weakness. She couldn't show weakness.
Despite this, as the dragon roared in her face, the girl stepped backwards. She tried to show a certain calm, her mouth straight as she held her arm up to the force of the dragon's vocal blast. She lowered it, however, to find her hand shaking. Her hand hadn't shaken in years. She watched it for a brief second, one that felt like an eternity as glass shattered in the room below her and her mom threatened to climb the stairs and meet her, yell or hit her, We need more she'd shout, we need more, where was Alfie, where was Cayden? She watched her arm shake helplessly. Then, helpless no more after a second of losing herself, she made a fist.
No matter how large this thing was, it had a weakness. She learned that from the gangs in Wisconsin, big burly dudes who didn't care if they beat up or killed a kid. It wouldn't be the first time. There was always a weakness. The bigger they were, the harder they'd fall. Yes, the weakness was there, it was right in front of her. The small girl reached into her pocket, possible to generate a magnetic forcefield or torrent of electronics flying at the monster, but she removed her hand and revealed...a penny.

A small coin, no different than the one she used on Cayden.

She lined it up as she did with Cayden, and to the dragon's open mouth it flew from her hand. It was, of course, a penny. And to a dragon, this was nothing.

What was this girl planning... with a penny? Well, only fate could tell, the dragon had no time to prepare for this "attack." Yet another thing was soon shot towards Pepper's mouth and shooting down her throat. A horrible stinging pain was next, most likely from the coin that sliced down the back of her throat. The white beast stumbled backwards, tail smashing more tables and chairs. Arbor either had incredible aim or luck was on her side for the small zinc coin was wedged in the dragon's windpipe. Making a gurgle noise, she started chocking, not able to breathe. A coin?! I will not be defeated by a coin! She was infuriated by the arrogance of this girl but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't budge. She tried and tried, breathing fire attempting to melt the coin, unfortunately had no luck. Fuckin'...Shit... She had to change back before it was to late.

In an instant, the dragon was turned back to a girl. Pepper used the Heimlich maneuver on herself while she sat on her knees and was soon freed from the wrenched coin. She coughed it up with a little blood from her skinned throat and gasped for air.

"No!" She smashed her fist angrily to the ground and got ready to transform again. This time, she focused hard on her power. Instead of turning into her huge, original white dragon, she successfully turned into her new, smaller dragon about the size of a good seized horse. It worked! Now it'll be easier to move around and fight. The white dragon gave a viscous snarl. Let's just hope it lasts as long as I need it. This needed to end. Pepper ran forward, ramming her head into the the girl's gut.

The crash coming from the now ruined cafeteria was quite hard to ignore. Especially for the Autumn prefect. He quite literally flew around the corner, and landed on his feet with a thud. Leo took a moment to take in the damage done to the cafeteria. It was always a wonder how the administration was able to fix such extensive damage. His blue eyes wondered across the scene before him. A majority of the students had already ran away, others had stayed to watch. Giving them a fixed gaze, the prefect waved them away. He didn't want them to be caught in the crossfire of whatever was happening there.

The sound of a snarl caught his attention, his head snapped around to see a horse sized white dragon. It didn't take him very long to figure out who it was. 'Had she lost control over her power again?' A frown crossed his face at the thought, eyes following the movement of her limbs. She looked like a cat ready to pounce. 'Wait! Is she going to attack another student?' He thought in shock, taking action before she could actually leap. Wings propelling him forward, the prefect landed just in front of Arbor. Holding a hand up a flat plane of light stopped the dragon's headbutt. Leo flinched from the impact, yet held steady.

Once the pressure lessened, the prefect let down the shield. The headbutt continued into his stomach, although not even half as strong as the initial impact. Yet it still knocked the breath out of him, hitting his diaphragm and left him gasping for air for a long moment. Quickly doing his best to collect himself, the prefect put a hand on the dragon's head. He forced himself to even his breaths and push the calming feeling into Pepper. It had worked before, why shouldn't it again?

Pepper slammed into someone, but for some reason it didn't feel like what she thought it would. Instead of ramming that someone to the ground, they held their ground. Looking up to see who it was, it was none other than Leo, the prefect. Having a bit more control over the smaller dragon's mind she was actually able to think without competing for her thoughts. Seriously? Why does he always come at the wrong times? She hated how she was always so embarrassed around him and would've done something about it if he hadn't used his angel thingy on her. Pepper suddenly felt a bit calm and moved her head away from him. She took a few small steps back, cowarderding like a dog, tail between her legs and head low to the grown. She would never have done this but for some reason she couldn't help herself from submitting to the "angel." Maybe because dragons were technically creatures of evil and pets of Satan, so having an angel call upon peace within her was a bit much for the creature's soul. Though, if she was her normal size, his power would probably not have worked so well, and that would've been very unfortunate.

Arbor was surprised that the coin actually hurt the beast. She paused, watching the dragon choke and wondering if it was worth the effort to detonate the coin. When it landed in front of her, however, she realized how much a mistake it was to hesitate. She began to compress it, the coin shrinking and bending in on itself, but she had waited too long and raised here arms to brace for an attack. An attack that never came.

No longer focusing on the penny, it popped unceremoniously, harmless except for the loud sound, the two pieces that few in directions where no one stood. She lowered her arms to see what happened, and focused on Leo. She remembered that kid. He was there from when she destroyed the library.

She stepped backward. He wouldn't be apprehending her.