Echoed Halls [PLOT / OPEN GROUP ONE]

Man. Take away the blankets, the ruins and debris, the cages, the murders, the hostages, this was the kind of place she'd always wanted Beata to be. Even before she'd first laid eyes on it, this was what she dreamed, some kind of glittering, marble palace, all glitz and glamour and no substance. This wasn't the way she'd envisioned her European vacation, but this whole trip was just one bead on the rosary of disappointments that had led her here, all the things that had failed to live up to her expectations.

Fuck. She'd always been such a spoiled brat.

Addison rubbed her hand down the grip, remembering the sensation of cold steel piercing her skin, her organs being squeezed. If anything like that happened again, there wasn't any just waking up. Why did she sign up for this? She shifted the bat around her palm as she pressed down the hall, half-ready to bolt back the other way. Excitement, maybe? Danger, adventure, that kind of thing?

They hurt my mom.

That was mostly it. She also knew it'd piss her off if she ever found out she volunteered, and that was the final motivation she needed. Addison stopped at the other end of the hall as the four men and women in black suits came into view, passing her bat from one hand to the other, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth.

Just pretend it was the Summer Tournament.

At the opposite end of the hall, among the others donning black clothing stood a tall figure holding a sword just as tall as he was. A seemingly bored look was on Cenek's face as he simply stared down the hallway. Sure, he'd have prey, but would they even present much of a challenge? His gaze drifted over at the small, baseball bat-wielding girl. Seriously? Did they just let her come along so the little shit wouldn't feel left out? The thought crossed his mind to just go and kill her at this very instant, but instead Cenek glanced at his black suited companions first. As much as he'd certainly want to, perhaps he shouldn't have all the fun to himself.

There was a man leaning against the wall, appearing a bit uncomfortable in his thick, black, woolly coat. The warmth was making him a bit drowsy. Egil's stomach was crying out for food. A specific food. However, at the moment he couldn't satisfy it; the job had to be done without any casualties. After a few minutes of discomfort, he finally shed the garment with visible irritation. How long did they have to stand here? Movement down the hall caught his eye and he slowly turned his head towards the girl approaching them. They sent her down here with a bat? Just a bat? For a moment he doubted his decision to send his own son to the wretched school. But - there was always a but to situations like these - his son was not stupid enough to sign up for these "missions". He was safe, for the time being.

Still keeping his eyes on the hostages, he yawned, opening his mouth unnaturally wide. His body slowly began to change as jerked his head to Cenek. His face was becoming conical in shape, his arms shrinking, his legs melding together, and the white of his eyes disappearing as the iris expanded. Go ahead. Surely they were going to fight this girl. His only hope would be that she wasn't friends with or son or anything like that. He hoped she wasn't, he wouldn't approve of him being friends with someone so stupid as to bring a baseball bat to a fight like this, even if she had a power.

She froze at the other end as their heads snapped toward her. Addison shifted the rubber grip around in her palm, swallowing back her nervousness, suddenly not feeling so brave as she had a moment before. They looked... unamused. Almost bored. And oh god, what was he doing with his mouth? The girl slapped her hand over her mouth to hold back a gag, but she pressed through it, forcing one foot in front of the other.

Just do it.

Her pupils dilated. The hall seemed to blur and stretch as her gift triggered, steadying into slow motion, and then she was running straight toward them, screaming her head off.

Blue eyes pierced the shape of the young girl from the far side of the hall. Admittedly, the sight was enough to break her solemn stare and pull giggle from her. When Nadia had heard they were sending students after them, she'd always imagined those who would be a bit more, oh - what was the word - fierce some? In the slightest of intimidation. She finished her laugh behind the tips of her nails, her heels making a soft click with each-step as she paced forward to meet their guest, whispers of frost tracing her feet, her gaze unwavering.

The moment she'd caught the funniest moment from the girl, her hand fell to the ground, palm slapping against the marble and frost blooming out from beneath them, covering the floor in a shimmering gleam.

No traction. She might as well have been trying to run on clouds, bottoms of her soles slicking against the sheet of frost, pinwheeling her arms. Addison twisted as she fell, slamming back on the ice and sliding across the floor, her bat spinning away from her as it jolted out of her fingers.

That didn't go as planned.

From a distance, two other students took shelter behind pillars, both releasing hail upon hail of arrows. Aleta's shots were neater, and well polished compared to Adrian's. However--it was only fair as she had a great teacher in her brother. Whom had objected against her going at first but relented as she argued the same point that he had for going to the battle. Now, she held a fire to her dark eyes, ducking back behind the pillar for a moment to check on the other members of their group.

Adrian, on the other hand, was just glad he managed to get very far with his arrows. He had gotten a few tips from the girl that he went there with. Her name, he forgot to ask, but it didn't seem important at the time. They had managed to communicate quite well despite his lack of talking. The dark haired boy peered around the pillar and let loose another arrow. Maybe playing support wasn't so bad after all.

Time snapped back to regular speed the moment Jon grabbed her by the arm, just before she went slamming against the floor. Nausea flooded her gut as everything lurched back to normal, dipping behind a pillar as she heard the sudden crack of a gunshot.

Holy shit. Somehow, the presence of the gun made it that much more real. Addison grit her teeth, clapping her hands over her ears, sinking down further against the column as a volley of arrows went sailing down the hallway. Without her power, she was just a girl with a bat... Her eyes flicked over to the bat on the other side of the hall, lying abandoned on the floor, swallowing back her nervousness.

Okay. This was going to be a bloodbath, but okay.

Trey poked out from behind one of the marble columns and scanned the surroundings. There was no way in hell they were going to defeat the men in black easily. He had heard stories about them, mostly from Connor and the destructive plans they had for the school. Now they were here, and it was up to the students to save the academy. Trey closed his eyes, his hand reaching up to his temple as he took a deep breath in sensing the sorts of metal around the room. His other hand reached behind his back where the Metal Jo Staff was strapped to his back. This was not going to be an easy fight, not to mention he didn't have the slightest of everyone else's powers.

Child's play.

A giggle slipped through her lips as she watched the simple baseball bat go skidding across the ground. For Beata's finest fighters, one might have thought they'd come at least a bit more prepared. It was actually quite disappointing. The next boy to approach, one that seemed only vaguely familiar to her, at least had something of a decent weapon on him.

Nadia stood unflinching. It didn't matter what he had. Such inventions were no match for their powers alone. She lazily lifted her hand, ready to raise a wall across the frozen tile between them; thick enough to halt, or at least derail, any shot fired their way.

The flash of pain in her shoulder had hit her before she'd realized what was coming on. "M-Mitä?!" She screamed in disbelief, reaching for the fresh wound with her arm and near doubling forward. Fury and adrenaline kept her standing strong. She'd never felt so warm in so long, her icy touch gone.

It was impossible. They had serums to halt the use of gifts, but it was theirs to control only, used on the Sofians left remaining. How? She longed to know but there was little time to wonder. The woman slipped a few sleek blades from her coat, black as night, and sent them flying through the air with the swing of her bad arm - aiming for the baseball bat girl, dipping for cover shortly after.

As soon as gunshots started to ring out and he and his allies began to be bombarded with bullets and arrows alike, Cenek ran for the nearest pillar, narrowly deflecting an arrow that came a little too close with his zweihander. He was considering the idea of shapeshifting and rushing the little shits when he witnessed Nadia try to erect a barrier of ice, and fail. From the safety of his pillar he tried to grow claws, to no avail. He didn't know how they did it, but it looked like he wasn't going to be shapeshifting anytime soon. No problem. For now he stayed in cover, sword at the ready. Maybe he'd get lucky and one of them would pick a bad pillar to move up to. If not, well, they only had so many bullets and arrows. When they ran out, the massacre would really begin.