They were just about to make their way to the basement, but before them was a wide spiral staircase that curved downward like a road that led all the way to Decorous’ basement.

Before Reia could jump and slide her ass down the middle handrail, someone bumped and brushed right past her—now she couldn’t really get a good look at his features and she was about to throw a smart remark, but instead bit her tongue hard when right behind the terrified boy was a bundle of long black tentacles, five in total, almost string-like and as flexible as a noodle, these tentacles came up like and grabbed the boy, wrapping around him like wires entangled in a vacuum cleaner’s brush.

It was only then that Reia got a look at his facial features, his brown eyes and parted dark brown fade gave away exactly who he was. He squinted in absolute regret, bit down hard to stop himself from screaming. But the shame and embarrassment came out all over his face in red.

It was that kid who had snapped a photo of Reia a few days ago.

Camera dude…Yeah, that’s what she would call him.

He was then pulled down the stairs and disappeared around the curve, leaving the Starlights to just scratch their heads.

And he certainly needed help, but for the briefest of moments her toes in her boots trembled and she was stone still.

Did it matter what he did?

She knew there shouldn’t have been any grudge.

“Uh…are we heading in that direction?” Blanket said.

“Yeah.” Reia answered, the staircase seemed to swirl downwards eternally.

“Maybe we could go around the other way, it looks kinda busy over here.” Purah suddenly tried to convince them all, but…

“Don’t be like that, Purah, this is a perfect chance to show these pricks that things are changing. Like, we all saw that! That’s something my friends have to deal with.” Caroline was ready for war and from her pockets she withdrew a red lollipop.

“Reia!” Maila ground her teeth “We need to help him!”

Silently thanking Maila for getting her head back into focus.

“Okay! Let’s go!” Reia said, taking the lead and with a burst of energy jogging down the staircase and when the stairs ended, she dropped off the last step, she found the student, contained in tentacles and literally hung over a boiling silver cauldron—yes a whole entire cauldron. While another kid kept it lit, his hands shaped like a pistol and spewing fire onto the base of the cauldron like a flame thrower—it was a miracle nobody had burned the school down yet.

The victim’s mouth was gagged with the slimy black tentacle, looking at it almost made her gag. The knight with a laceration scar cut horizontally under his right eye had an arm that was what Reia could simply only describe as a black mound of sticky plant vegetation grown out almost like an enormous vine, it stretched out far in the air holding the victim in place like his feet at least 6 feet off the ground. She counted three bullies and the bullies each held a diamond symbol on their armbands on top of their battle uniform, meaning they were from Deck 52.

Reia didn’t really know names like that, she came to Decorous to absorb as much information to become a knight as possible. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even care to learn.

Again everyone heard the familiar high pitched screech of laser, the same one that came when she manifested photons, this time it signified her attack, as she molded it into her signature photon sword and in a single slash cut and burned right through the tentacles like a hot knife through mac & cheese.

“GAH!” The boy shrieked like an injured feline, his black tentacle limb detached from his body. gravity did the rest of the work, the tentacle splitting open, and green liquid falling out of it, but the victim was freed and left gasping for life, his face a bright pink and finally, she could see his fade and he did quite the commendable job of not showing his pain, he fell with an oof.

Maila was at the victim’s side in seconds, then hauled him over her shoulders as Caroline, Purah, and Blanket both stood in front of the confused Deck 52. The dude who lost his arms bared his teeth like an anglerfish, his wrath directed at Reia, as he looked back and forth between her and his arm.

“No way! This isn’t actually happening…Reia Welsh? The crazy photomancer who attacked one of the monkeys last week? You’re really playing Miss captain-save-a-scrub?” the kid with the slimy inhuman arm went on,“Oh? And now you have goons with you?”

Reia just flicked her weapon and pointed it, her simmering-hot blade right in his face.

“Ar–are we the goons?” Blanket anxiously looked over at his clubmates

“I’m no goon.” Caroline retorted with veracity.

Reia tilted her head and mocked the slimy armed kid “You’ve heard of me, so you know what we’re about…okay, so this should be easy.”

But the tentacle arm bully, who also had a clean dark brown shaped-up goatee, was not happy “No! I have no idea what you’re about or what you think you’re about! You want to save weaklings? Save knights who can’t even put up a freaking fight and try to defend themselves?!” The dude’s arm slowly contorted and retracted before regenerating and stretching out and resting on the ground. “You’re clubless outcasts! Why’re you getting involved, just mind your damn business! Besides, this matter… is…personal.”

Personal?

“Where in the code does it say you can bully your friends?” Reia began, referring to the kid who’d, unfortunately, become a victim.

Silence….then

“F-friends???…”

That seemed to be a trigger word, the three boys muttered among themselves.

“…that's master Rivers’ granddaughter.”

“…the rumors are true…why’s she with them?”

“Relax, relax! They’re clubless!”

“You see this? A clubless nutcase just sliced my arm off, Agni!”

“It’ll grow back…we need to call for backup, let VP know we got the troublemakers the monkeys told everyone to be on alert for.” the one named Agni, with the fire affinity, replied.

“Maybe we should get our hits in on you.” Maila said softly, and the steel in her eyes causing ‘sir tentacle arms’ to take a step back next to his friends.

Blanket went over to the downed kid, who humbly accepted his outstretched hand that brought him back to his feet…though the kid stumbled a little.

“Hold on…there’s five of you, three of us!” the dude with the deformed arm said, though she could see his disgusting excuse for an arm twitching and slowly growing.

“Should have thought of that before you did what you did, Melvin here’s told me what happened!” Blanket pointed right beside the kid who nodded his head but remained quiet “Give. Back. His camera!”

“What! He owes me bigtime, huugetime! It's my camera now and it's mine because of the bullshitery his ass tried to pull on me! Hey, I’ll tell you what he did too!” And the boy clenched his human hand into a fist.

“I-I don’t think anyone asked...” Caroline seemed just about ready to start swinging.

“Why do you guys act so stupid when the roles are reversed?” Purah said, “You can dish it out but can’t take it. I don’t feel bad. And neither do my new friends.”

“Okay…So what did he do that could possibly be deserving of squeezing his eyes out of his socket?!” Reia demanded.

And Tentacle-kid raised his human fist and chomped down before saying “He stole my girlfriend!”

Everyone got quiet.

Oh…really, that’s what happened to him?

Yeah, that still didn’t actually justify any of his actions.

Purah and Caroline looked at each other and then started laughing “How do you steal someone’s girlfriend?” Purah stated in mock curiosity.

His girlfriend chose to be with another guy, she wasn’t stolen.

“It's. Not. Funny! A man being betrayed and having his heart shattered is not freaking funny! Okay?!” He pouted then spat on the ground like they weren’t inside of a school or anything.

Caroline exaggeratedly fell onto Purah’s shoulder “I think you’re a wee-eebit young to consider yourself a man.” She pinched her fingers together for emphasis.

Now the tentacle kid really began shaking with anger when his friend with the fiery finger and the other dude with the buttchin yet surprisingly masculine face started dying laughing.

“I’m four months from sixteen!” There was a lot of passion in his voice.

Purah and Caroline’s laughing intensified. Maila still looked ready to hit him, but Reia’s calm demeanor probably kept everyone from pouncing.

“Dude…you don’t get to torture people because they” Reia quoted with her fingers “ ‘stole’ your girlfriend.”

You can’t steal a person—an individual—not in that sense anyways, she wasn’t a possession.

“You don’t understand!”

“Sounds like she may not want to be your girlfriend.” Blanket affirmed, nodding “I mean…what do I know though?”

“I didn’t steal your girlfriend! You just didn’t take care of her. Okay? And now she’s our girlfriend” Melvin, the knight who moments ago had been getting his insides mashed, spoke up and sounded like a confident asshole “Yeah, you were a terribly unfit boyfriend–I heard about the incident with the baby powder and the —gaawwk—“

Suddenly the angry kid’s arm regenerated rapidly, then rocketed out and wrapped around itself Melvin’s neck and he held him up and shook like he was a helpless puppy.

It was all a chaotic mess, though luckily for Melvin, Maila came through and swung a mighty punch into the supposedly heart broken tentacle kid.

It wasn’t too bad, he only flew all the way to the far end of the hall and hit the floor.

Though, immediately after the dude with the flaming finger,Agni, kangaroo hopped right over her squad firing off a gallon’s worth of flames down at them causing the Starlights to disperse.

His butt-chined friend made a wild dash to escape for the stairs, but when Agni landed, a wave of wind slammed right into both of them, as Caroline did a pulling motion with her hand and caused them to fly backwards right back in the Starlight’s line of sight.

Leaving them to just land on the ground with a poof, their tentacle-armed leader already lying with his pelvis facing the ground.

Reia took the opportunity to do a slow approach-walk, leaving tentacle dude to just angrily bang his head on the floor, while his two friends scrambled to their feet, only to find themselves eating the floor again when Caroline swashed them back with an air-blast.

The Starlights surrounded them.

Purah, of course, did what Purah did and surveyed the surrounding area, using whatever sensory ability she had to try and make sure that they were the only ones around. Though Purah typically just glared at anyone who rubber-necked way longer than necessary—most got the message.

“Hurry and give back the camera.”

Tentacle dude went on “You mess with the school hierarchy and then you stop a man from exacting his justified revenge—denying me my lost honor when shit doesn’t even involve you! How haven’t you had your skull stomped in yet?!

So did that mean he wouldn’t give back the camera?

“Well, they certainly tried…almost worked out pretty well for them too…” Reia winked.

“If he doesn’t get him back today, he’ll get him tomorrow…why delay it?” Agni said.

And, of course, the three Deck 52 dudes agreed with each other like they were some sort of enlightened scholars.

“Well, you see what you just did to Melvin over there —” Reia pointed, looking over at Melvin but ceased her words as she watched Melvin down the remains of a vial containing a gray fizzy drink, Reia brain became a glob of jelly as she observed Blanket just silently watching with grinning eyes “Blanket! What the hell are you doing?!”

Blanket took the empty vial from Melvin who just sort of dropped right where he stood, leaving the other Starlights to look over when his head made a thud with the floor “Well…he said he was feeling a bit down, lost his Newspaper club association, and got attacked for the first time in years. So, I gave him something that’ll boost dopamine, is all! And get this, he’s new to this! Oh man, he’s going to be zooted!”

That’s why his club members weren’t protecting them?

Reia glared at him then gave a suspicious squint “Static Juice!? Freaking Static Juice, really?!”

“Yeah, but that shouldn’t matter, he’ll be a super happy camper, look I’m sure this was a really traumatizing experience for him—”

But Reia interrupted, “So, we’ll fix that by giving him a drug addiction?!”

“Yeah, you could’ve slid that my way instead.” They all gave Caroline their silence undivided attention in that moment, and that was the first time she saw Caroline go tomato-red in the face, then they all just disregarded it completely. Reia would just pretend she didn’t hear that.

“Is he okay? He Sorta– he hit his head really hard!” Maila said, covering her mouth.

“Let’s wrap this up before one of the sentinels decide to start doing their job!” Purah reminded everyone.

“So, we’re gonna beat them up right?” Caroline asked.

“No really, is he okay, he’s foaming from the mouth.” Maila’s voice was growing in concern.

All eyes went to Melvin, who was laid out on the ground, doing exactly what Maila said he was, spazzing and foaming from the mouth.

“He’ll be fine.” Blanket waved a hand “That’s—uh, normal….”

That reply Made Reia’s eyes go a bit wide.

And it was there that she had to question if her very own friends were okay in the head?

“That’s normal?” This just made Maila cringe “If that’s normal, then maybe I shouldn’t ask what an abnormal reaction would look like.”

“Are we going to teach them a lesson or not?” Caroline was eager to hit someone, but Reia just allowed her photon sword to fade with a quick exhale.

Whoosh.

“No, let them go. We have things to do—there is always tomorrow, and I won’t forget.”

This surprised the Deck 52 knights as much as it did Reia herself and her soon-to-be-founded Starlight Disciples. Melvin was still on the floor and Caroline though not in agreement muttered ‘whatever’ and the three Desk 52 knights pushed to their feet.

“You’re a bunch of dames and a random dude trying to stop the natural order of things—I say you’ll all crash and burn! Because guess what: I’m going to get Melvin back for what he did!” he curled both his human arm and tentacle arm “The Purple Monkeys are already plotting to beat y’all down. I’ll put it frankly, you’re all going to get dumped when our president and VP hear about this—and they already don't like you or any bullshit you’re on about, Reia Welsh!”

“Tell him I said if he has an issue, he can come talk to me. Now go, scram! We have business to finish and you’re cutting into our period time, dismiss yourselves!” She waved them off, leaving them to look at her in anger—clearly the three were not used to being put at the bottom of the totem pole.

But at the sight of the five Starlights, they did as they were instructed and walked in the opposite direction.

“Mh…that was easy. I didn’t even have to fight anyone...”, Purah commented, though still making sure the deck 52 kids didn’t try anything, as Melvin began just aggressively coughing like he was going to spit up his own lungs.but then he sat up and laid there in a daze for like five ticks, before looking up over to Blanket with massively dilated pupils…

”I never felt like this before…” Melvin said.

“Good feeling or bad?” Blanket leaned over and gave a hesitant smile.

–That was a major red flag in Reia’s head.

Melvin gave his hands a proper look over, like seriously this dude didn’t blink or anything “…great…feeling…What’re we doing here again?”

But Blanket ignored him and grinned “See, I make great stuff. Taught by the best…”

“Can he stand?” Reia asked, walking over and gently grabbed him by the wrist with Blanket’s assistance, and lifting him to his feet, he stumbled but nonetheless was stable on his two feet.

“Yeah, he should be fine, I didn’t give him that much. He can even go to class like that.”

Reia didn’t like the idea “Go to class like that?” and she gestured, jabbing an index at Melvin

“Yeah... Why not?”

Melvin happily stared at the ceiling, his pupils dilated and she couldn’t tell you the last time he blinked.

She’d never actually tried any drugs—well with the exception of medical herbs and whatnot, but she’s certainly heard of kids going to class high and for the most part, nobody would ever notice.

But she could see multiple things going wrong here. They never got Melvin’s camera, and they just had a skirmish with Deck 52, Reia was really pushing her luck.

“Remind me to get his camera, please .” Reia said to Purah, palmed her own face, then turned to Melvin with her hands on her hips “Okay, where do you have class or are you free this—” but before Reia could finish her question Melvin had already wandered off and began counting the numbers of each of the old laboratories, “Where’re you—“ Reia stopped herself and just silently watched him.

Melvin was in a world of his own, and refused to hear a single word Reia uttered.

Blanket and Purah ran over, grabbed him and brought him back over, while Reia had to hug herself and pretend she wasn’t angry with Blanket.

“Trenchcoat’s clubroom is around the corner…um, I think now’s a great time to go over any plans.” Maila suggested, bringing them back to their mission.

Damn.

They really didn’t have a plan, she was just going to run in there and demand they give back Sebi!

“Caroline, I know you have something useful to tell us about the Trenchcoats!” Reia said.

Caroline did a weird shudder/shake that was more of a display of irritation than really anything else “Like…they’re a bunch of weirdos who walk around and think they all look cool and edgy.”

“You said that earlier.” Both Reia and Maila said at the same time.

“Okay… not what I thought I’d be good for, but, their President’s name is Asher Mantle…weird kid obsessed with…well, obviously wearing Trenchcoats over his uniform. But…this dude …this dude likes to dance. Even gives out applications to kids to try and recruit people onto his dance squad and all .”

“…that’s it?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s got some really strong telekinesis!”

“Why wasn't that the first thing you told us?” Purah immediately commented.

“Well…I didn’t think it was so much of a problem.”

“Telekinesis…” Reia had never fought anyone who had a telekinesis affinity, it was a rare affinity in its own right.

“Yeah, so if they decide to fight us along with their numbers—we’ll lose. So I mean, realistically as much as I want to go berserk in their room, we do sort of have to play it all… diplomatically.” Caroline’s words came out like they made her want to gag.

“We don’t need to pick a fight, we have our words.” Maila affirmed.

Yeah, it would’ve been easier to just go in attacking the Trenchcoats, guns blazing, but even Reia could see that her five wouldn’t stand a chance against a large and established club.

“They won’t just give up Sebi…” Blanket explained “plus they do diplomacy way-way different than you’d expect.”

“You mean they don’t talk and offer propositions in attempts to get an even trade deal?” Reia asked.

“No that won’t work, I said this already! They play games, their diplomacy is unorthodox and competitive! There’s talking but there’s also, competitions, competitive games and all that! Oh and the small thing where we’re not even an actual club yet—they’ll laugh at us!”

This raised Reia’s curiosity “What type of games?”

“Any type.” Caroline said, with her pinky rubbing her nose.

“Card games, board games, shared hallucinogenic induced games, games made for the arena! All that you can name.” Blanket explained, still struggling with Melvin who kept trying to wander off to who knows where. “Look, we’ve come far. I see how committed you guys are, and I appreciate this gesture so much…but maybe at the moment we’re not ready yet?”

Meaning they would have to play this tight, everything they did and said needed to be perfect. The Trenchcoats were weird, they probably ate cereal with a fork or something random like that— and truthfully her team of five should expect tremendous hostility. Still… Reia had a plan in mind.

“We’re ready, don’t worry! I have a plan!” Reia said, looking directly at their blonde friend. “Caroline! You, you’re up!”

Throwing her head back between Purah and Blanket, Caroline pointed to herself “I’m up?”

Reia put a hand on Caroline’s shoulder “You’re our key to getting Sebi back—you’ll be our diplomat!!”

Unfortunately, Reia seemed to be the only one who thought this was a good idea and it showed in how everyone looked at her with the, ‘Reia you just said something crazy-stupid again’, look.

“No hear me out, this is how we’ll do it…” Reia said, as the rest of Starlights circled around her to hear the good word.

**

With the plan understood the Starlights remained around the corner, their backs against the wall as the Starlights (and Melvin who at some point had fallen into the floor—asleep) lined up, their destination and on their left, right on the wall they leaned up against.

Caroline thought Reia’s plan was stupid and she was as vocal about it as a howler monkey stuck on a factory conveyor belt. So yeah, everything was running smoothly.

But Reia was solid on what they needed done!

“Why do I have to do it? I don’t know anything about bargaining or freaking-being diplomatic! He probably won’t even like it!” Caroline kept repeating something along those lines.

Reia nearly laughed, she thought Caroline was just being extra “That’s fine…we’ll see.”

“Shit-what!!? Nobody has a better idea? Let’s go in there and start wrecking their room! Slamming ass, I don't care if they have 45 members all dug in there, I’ll blow them all out of their boots!” The blonde held out her palm causing a calm unnatural breeze to pelt everyone and everything in the hallway.

As much as she wanted to do that, Reia knew that they couldn’t—the consequences could be too severe, too counterproductive.

So they sent Caroline in alone, room U220, a former alchemy lab converted to a clubroom, homeroom of the Trenchcoats, and precisely where their target and friend Sebi the serpent was being held.

**

*>X<*

When Caroline entered the Trenchcoat clubroom, you could say that she entered quite uncontested. Of course, if all the stares and death glares meant uncontested, yeah most-definitely…

The room had no light with the exception of an arrangement of candles that sat strategically on the lab tables, there were like twenty students within the room, twenty trenchcoat clad bozos who Caroline somehow had to convince to compete against her soon to be club and the Trenchcoats. She saw their cauldron, burning off in the corner, a few feet perpendicular to the club’s president sitting at the spare teacher’s desk.

But she didn’t see Sebi.

This was for Caroline’s friends… straight and simple!

Reia’s plan had better work!

Her friends Alexander and Arthur, needed them to change the whole entire way students traversed the halls of Decorous—they had done so much for her.

They had worked so hard to become knights—and when they would talk about dropping out because they didn't have the will to go through another year of abuse. Caroline couldn’t sit down and just let them make such a drastic decision! She specifically had another three years at Decorous and she intended for things to be different by the time the next year started, for her friends. That’s why she was working with Reia, working to make this Starlight club a reality!

But back to the stupid Trenchcoats.

It was quiet, kids begrudgingly moved out of her way, ceasing whatever activity they had partaken in. And everyone moved out of Caroline’s way up until she spotted Asher, he was this glasses-wearing, extremely bulged, and muscular dude who would much rather float than walk anywhere. Yeah, dude that was the president of the Trenchcoats.

As soon as she approached, there was a wall of three students who jumped right in front of her, giving Caroline no time to avoid and she bumped them and was promptly shoved back. They didn’t attack or anything—not like they would anyone else who was clubless, she guessed that was one perk of being the granddaughter of the school’s head dean. Not that she wanted any bias leverage over anyone.

Immediately she recognized the three, and she knew they meant business

One person was a kid from her history class Graham Alden- a pale, prematurely bald, missing one arm axe-wielding mana absorber— his strength increases as he steals and consumes his opponent's mana. Last time Caroline remembered speaking to him, he was in serious need of mouthwash. Oh yeah, she had also heard that he’d been promoted to secretary of treasure recently.

Another was the pure white-haired girl Kate Forerunner - a tan-yellow skinned poison specialist, who could literally produce a deadly pale poison from beneath the crevasses of her fingernails. There was this circular burn scar that laid over the center of her pink lips. That was all, Kate was extremely dangerous.

The last one was a dude by the name of Turner Dragnoph, his face was covered in bandages from the nose down and he held a simple dagger in his hands at all times, but apparently could manipulate that specific dagger’s dimensions and duplicate it when in battle.

All of them were clad in black trench coats.

“Hey, don’t touch!” she shoved back “I’m here to see Asher! Yeah, you guys know who I am damn it! Show me Asher! I need to talk to him!” She pointed her arms through the crowd and right at her target “I see you, Asher! I can see you sitting at that teacher’s desk, for shit’s sake!”

Graham’s handle was long and he pumped the ground causing the room to tremor, she didn’t want to admit that she almost lost her balance “Caroline Rivers, you can’t barge in here and make demands, we’re not doing that, what’d-you-think-this-is?!! State your business!”

She really didn’t want to speak with sir tuna breath, but despite the urge to cover her nose she looked him dutifully in the eyes and said “That serpent, the black one you acquired recently from a student—a friend of mine, actually.”

“Serpent? What student did we earn this serpent from?” Graham said, but it was apparent he knew what she was talking about, Kate even shifted uncomfortably.

“His name’s Blanket and you took his serpent!”

“We won it fair in square…actually.”, Graham corrected.

“Regardless, I’m here to get him back! And I need to talk to your president, yeah Asher, right now!” And in an attempt to get Asher’s attention, she pushed a pile of papers on his desk right off with a quick shift in the room’s wind speed “Asher! Let me through!”

“You idiot girl, you can’t jus—” Graham was just about to disregard everything she had said, though Asher had different plans.

“No, go on, let her talk to me! I want to hear what she has to say. If it's straight bullshit, oh yeeaah, we’ll toast her, duh. Master Rivers’ grandbaby or not.”

Psst, she could care less.

And as ordered, Graham, Kate, and Turner all stepped aside, allowing a path forward. Everyone still burrowed their eyes into her, but Caroline held her head high and approached the desk, Asher held his hands folded and clasped together, his coat unbuttoned.

“Caroline Rivers…thought you said we were a bunch of delusional losers.”

The collective ‘grrs’ made Caroline roll her eyes and huff “Yeah, I said that.”

“And you dare step into my clubroom? For crying fuck, you guys hear her?”

And like good yesmen, the entire Trenchcoat congregation let out a few laughs.

“Don’t act like I’m not here! I still have half the mind to hit you!”

At some point Kate had appeared next to Caroline, forcing Caroline to look up to her like she were a tall radio tower , Kate then whispered “I suggest you be very polite. Your grandfather’s pass in this school can only get you so far.”

She never asked for any sort of pass! Or any sort of weak bullshit of the sort. But Caroline forced herself to bite down her words.

“Give me the word, I have a great idea on how to teach a lesson, you feel? Let’s tie her to one of the pony bender’s stallions and let it run rampant—” Graham suggested.

“Tie me? I’d like to see you try…” and with the clutch of her fists a burst of wind went out in all directions—again she was just testing the waters. But this proved to have all attending Trenchcoats to turn to her pointing their weapons or charging whatever sort of magical attack or spell they assumed would work best on Caroline.

“Nobody do a damn thing! I’m chatting with her, let me be freaking diplomatic, alright!” The Trenchcoats obeyed, no longer holding offensive stances. Asher then pulled out a vial of what she immediately recognized was filled to the brim with Static Juice, he gently placed it on the table, opened it up, and drank the whole thing “What is it that you want to speak to me about, go on. Remember if its stupid, we’ll teach you the value of time and the consequences of wasting ours!”

Looking at him like he was insane, she went on and answered “You know, I almost don’t want to do this. I’d rather just start hitting you dirty megalomaniacs one by one!” Caroline shouted.

Asher tilted his glasses and looked at her like she was a real brainiac, “Oh please, you don’t even know what ‘megalomaniac’ means! You’re trying to sound cool…but go on.”

She slammed a hand on the desk, Asher looked down at her fist and then back right into her eyes with his head tilted sideways.

“Listen and listen up good! I’m here on behalf of Reia Welsh and the Starlight Disciples!” And that immediately caused the murmurs of concerned students to dance all around “You’ve taken our friend’s serpent and we want him back!”

That for sure had his attention.

“…Oh, you’re with the photomancer. I heard she was starting a rebellion, attacking people for no reason, and causing all sorts of problems. A Troublesomely little violent girl, perfect for you, huh, Caroline? So you’ve decided to just up and join some dead-end hooligan's little movement? Choices made in your first year can’t be taken back! And I assure you, Reia and her fools won’t last another month.” Asher raised his eyebrow so high Caroline thought it’d rocket off his face “Do you really think VP Kayo or the Purple Monkey’s president will just let you scrubs run amuck and do shit-whatever?”

Asher was someone she wouldn’t mind hitting, sometimes it was hard for her to remember that battling someone with his high-level telekinesis would leave a reasonable sum of injuries for her.

“First off, we’re not scrubs!” Caroline raised her finger to make a point “And I don’t care what those idiots think, we’ll worry about them later, Asher, my club choice isn’t up for conversation either! This proposition you’ll personally appreciate, so just listen up, alright!”

With an open mouth, Asher locked eyes with Caroline with a look that said: you’re stupid.

Graham growled like a furious tiger, stomping his axe, “Watch how you speak to our presi—“

But Asher calmly overruled “No, it's fine… continue. I want to hear her, dude.”

Caroline wasted no time “I represent the Starlight disciples, future club that you and all the other clubs will be hearing a lot about! I’m here to bring Sebi back where he belongs. We the Starlights say: we’ll beat you at any fair game!”

The assembled Trenchcoats all looked at each other like Caroline had just said something that struck up an inside joke between the group. Laughs and chuckles bounced around her ears to her irritation.

Asher cleared his throat ”And... what do I get when my team wins? What, you guys are gonna clean up the papers you knocked on the floor?” His hands went out to the papers like they were some sort of engagement ring she soiled and Caroline just scratched the bridge of her nose “What do a bunch of wannabes have to offer us? Do you know why there aren’t more startup clubs? They all get slapped out before they can even become official—it's a cycle! That is what always happens! And the same will happen to y’all!”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that …these are the terms my squad agreed to… if you win, not only will we let you keep Sebi, but we’ll all practice and join that—nice little dance team you’ve got going on.” Caroline shivered.

Like a balloon, Asher’s pupils inflated and his lips parted, he was going to immediately reply but stopped and took his time, mulling and probably fantasizing ”My team? T–the Funky Knee Busters?” Asher said, his bottom lip trembling…as to why... she couldn’t tell you.

–Wait, they’re called the what?!

“Yeah, totally! The—Funky Knee Busters.” Caroline said.

See, when people made names like that it made it hard for her to keep from bursting out in laughter.

Even Kate, Turner, and all the other Trenchcoats had to cover their mouths.

“That’s, hm, a hard bargain. But, Caroline, it just doesn’t seem like enough, I'd like to add another condition to my side! Along with everything else, if we win, you all join the Trenchcoats and dissolve any talk of this new club business. End of story.”

“That will have to be decided between you and my president, I'm simply on emissary duty, dude.”

And the room immediately fell dark, there was something about mentioning Reia that seemed to either rile kids up or it would cause some sort of negative response.

It was dumb to Caroline, Reia was actively making Decorous at least a little better.

“Where is she?” Asher was suddenly stern and to the point.

“Close.”

Asher wrinkled his nose, “Close?” and the Trenchcoats surrounded them all mimicked president Asher’s confusion.

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“Okay! So, then bring her in here! Come on, Caroline, no need to wait let’s get this deal going! Hey, Graham, Turner, Kate, on your toes!”

The three Trenchcoats in question stood with their heads held high, and Caroline, shrugging and thinking what the hell then turned around and shot an airblast at the door, opening it wide, and immediately the Trenchcoats surrounded her and Asher’s desk.

Maybe Caroline could’ve just walked over and opened the door…

Asher waved a hand and frowned “Numsacks, if she were to attack I’d put her in the dust! Calm down, she's just trying to look cool!”

True.

Then Brown hair that fell just to the bottom of her neck and brown eyes, all on top of a symmetric pale face came into vision. Reia walked in calmly, though clear business was meant to be done —followed by Purah, Blanket, Maila, and even Melvin. And if Caroline thought all attention was on her when she entered, when Reia entered there was a silent outcry among the Trenchcoats.

Like some criminal had just entered and ruined the entire party’s fun.

They formed their opinions off of a rumor that they just accepted because the entire school believed it.

To them, Reia was a troublemaker. You could try as hard as you wished to convince these clubs that what they were doing is wrong, but ultimately, to them, Reia was still in the wrong.

Caroline couldn’t help but shoot the crowd of Trenchcoats a grin.

And with that Reia strode in, head high, eyes almost unblinking and curves that to Caroline made Reia look like a mature and seasoned lady, someone she felt comfortable following. Funnily enough, had that typical resting bitch face that other people complained about—but according to Reia, it was just her normal face.

Well, Caroline liked the way she looked.

Reia came in and walked right up to Caroline and Asher with nothing in her eyes but business

It was like, in those short few seconds, all those present were quiet. Caroline observed Reia and Asher, both of the two presidents were 4th-year students and neither of them would break eye contact. As if it was some sort of unspoken eye staring contest.

And though none of them broke eye contact, or rarely blinked for that matter, Asher adjusted his glasses and stood to his feet “Reia Welsh, self-proclaimed president of some dead end club. Purple Monkey’s VP Kayo forced a lot of clubs to downsize because of you…”

“President of the Starlight Disciples.” Reia corrected “and I’m not here to talk about anything I’ve already done or whatnot, I’m here for business. Now, have you agreed to our terms?”

Caroline bit her lip “There are additional conditions that he wants in order to make an agreement, and… I didn’t want to make any agreements without your approval.”

Reia considered this, and Caroline found herself unable to read her. See, Reia was someone that was just always hard for Caroline to read—and she knew people.

“Oh, new conditions? President Asher, was my offer not good enough?” Reia said.

“No.”, Asher said bluntly “I’d rather have a few more hands around, it’d give us an edge over Deck 52. If we win, you all join our club and be a part of my Funky Knee Busters. That’s it, you’ll be Trenchcoats and we’ll be plus six. Sounds simple and clean, yeah?”

But really she knew he was truly excited about having an actual dance squad.

And did he say plus six? Was their sixth Melvin? But he wasn’t in their club, he was definitely with the Daily Decorous.

“Right okay…if that’s so then, along with taking back Sebi we’ll also—.” but Reia must have blanked out, she rubbed her chin and looked lost.

Asher was patiently waiting, Caroline wanted to say something, but didn’t quite know what to say herself. Both Maila and Purah didn’t look all too sure either, Maila just played with her black curls while Purah shrugged, but seemed to be hostilely glaring at Kate and Graham.

But Blanket had the answer “That shipment of Static Juice you guys got earlier today, yeah we want that.”

What?

“We?” Reia said, looking back.

“Yes, we!” Blanket reinforced with a wink that Reia understood was him begging, and although Reia didn’t seem all that convinced she nodded her head.

“Alright! If my club, the Starlight Disciples, win in whatever fair competition of your choosing, we will not only take Sebi back but we’ll require…” Reia gulped and it looked like her next words were painful to say “…your entire shipment of Static-juice.”

That sounded like a lot of drugs, and Caroline promised she’d only take a little when they won.

There were silent gasps, Kate, Turner, and Graham were forming a circle around Caroline and the Starlights.

That’s when Kate just walked over and moved to put her toxic hands on Caroline’s shoulder, but before Kate could, Caroline felt it through the air, and from the corner of her eyes Caroline could see a green-white substance dripping from Kate’s fingernails like melted honey, but Caroline knew damn well that the substance was some deadly poison, but she moved like a viper. Caroline had milliseconds to respond and all she could do was evade. After that, she went straight for a wind-enhanced punch, but before she could, Purah was behind Kate, Dagger already pressed to her throat—this of course caused Kate to freeze, so Caroline ceased movement in all her muscles.

Pause.

Caroline then looked over to Reia, who had summoned a light sword to her hand but just stood holding it up and at any moment ready to use it on their president, and of course, Reia never broke eye contact with Asher, while on the other hand, Maila found herself surrounded by the Trenchcoats of all genders and sizes and there was a lot. Graham and Turner both ran to Kate’s aid but were cautious so as to not cause a chain reaction of attacks.

Caroline gulped but looked Purah in the eye, and slightly nodded her head at her. Purah just gripped her dagger, keeping them all in a weird deadlock.

“Everyone chill the fuck out!” Asher called

out, vein bulging on his forehead—but what made everyone’s heart really stop was when for the longest second, every single object in that room not held to the ground jumped about six inches, “We’re good, we are okay! Calm yourselves! And for the record I could flip every object in this room 180 degrees at any moment, if I’m in trouble all those ceiling tiles will come hurtling down! They pose no danger, we’re in control!”

Ceiling tiles?

Nobody moved, Caroline, was looking at Kate, giving the pale-headed girl a look down from head to toe, both like statues “I dare you.” Caroline whispered, not breaking eye contact.

“Kate, it's okay! Everybody chill for crying-fuck, we’re doing this our way! The Trenchcoats way! How we always handle things!”

Still, no movement.

Caroline, of course, looked over to their president, who just stood in front of Asher, it was like they were having their own silent conversation without a word spoken and nobody else was privy to what exactly they were saying.

Raising her free hand, Reia finally agreed “Chill.”

And that was all that needed to be said for both Purah and Caroline to drop out of attack mode and calm themselves... thus all the Trenchcoats did the same. Finally leaving a battle-ready Maila alone to sigh, Blanket was nowhere to be seen through all the chaos, and wow…they just left Melvin leaned up against the back wall, fiddling with his hands and pretending to take a photo with an invisible camera. Surely he was still exceptionally inebriated.

“Okay”, Asher made a circle on the desk with his two indexes “so this is happening. Your best five versus my best five, no takebacks, my choice of game.”, of course, Asher was just confirming to which Reia nodded.

“Yeah, shoot, let’s hear it.”

Asher smiled, “Castle. We’re gonna play Castle.”

Many things have been decided over a game of castle.

All of the Trenchcoats murmured, and a few of them even smiled.

So let’s talk Castle quickly, Castle was one of those games that a knight would get introduced to in primary school while at recess. To be short, castle was a game that you played when all ten players were induced with Hubble potion which made all participating parties share the same hallucination of some vivid and complete area made solely for their game.

In castle, the stadium is just one huge narrow lane, in any place decided by the potion brewer, where only the lane emitted light. Well, the goal was to destroy the other team's castle, of course, but each team’s castle is protected by a tower with its own turret that will shoot any player who steps into its towerline and surrounding area. Also, there was the problem of each team spawning an infinite army of elves within an interval of seven armor warriors who only came up to Caroline’s waist.

Most knights knew how to play castle, so even Caroline couldn’t help but feel a jolt of energy at something so familiar.

“We’ll do it!” Reia answered, because who at this point wasn’t confident in their Castle skills, with the exception of maybe Blanket?

“Take your five players, you have fifteen minutes before we start handing out cards and cups of Hubble. My five will do the same… and my friend Lexi will see you all for details, she's our brewer and gamemaster, so you’ll need to write down what positions you want to play.”

Lexi? Reia didn’t really know which of the Trenchcoats was this Lexi girl.

Anyways, naturally, every game of castle could be changed ever so slightly in the brewing process—your role or position was determined by choice at the last moment before the brewer finished the potion, usually, this was done when the player writes their name on an index card with the description of the role on it. The cards would then be dropped and dissolved into the pink potion before all ten players are given a cup or vial of the Hubble potion and have to drink it in order to hallucinate the game.

Simple and easy.

TBC

*>X<*