The halls of the training center were filled with various students as Scott walked past. Training was over for the day, and all they had left to do was pretend that they were not fraternizing. A few might practice their skills outside of the virtual dungeons, but for the most part they made friends and gossiped.

The blue haired would-be superhero disregarded the way that everyone grew quiet when he walked past. Rumors about him were numerous, and most were not complimentary. Despite what Maxine said earlier, the students were focused on the idea that he was at fault for a lot of things that happened in recent days.

"Bet they're going to kick him out, now," said one girl after Scott walked past.

Several of her chatty little friends said similar things. Why else would a teacher need to see her student in her office after training was over for the day?

Alice's office door was already open by the time Scott arrived. He knocked on the door frame and she beckoned him to enter. Once inside, he noticed that both Alice and Maxine were seated on top Alice's desk with their arms crossed. He closed the door, and at their request he locked it as well.

A short uncomfortable silence ensued after that. Scott stood in the room and looked at the teachers. The teachers sat on the desk and looked at him.

Finally, Maxine sighed then reached over and lightly smacked Alice on the back of the head. "Get on with it already."

Alice growled at her friend and co-worker. "I was going to..."

Scott looked from one to the other, his eyebrow rising ever so slightly. "So... You wanted to see me?"

The pink haired vampire nodded slowly. "First, come here." She beckoned to him with her hand.

He blinked at her then said, "Alright..." before he walked over to her.

The moment he came within striking distance, she reached out and gripped his shoulders in a vice-like grip. Scott did not even have time to gasp before his body froze in place. Alice's eyes glowed with an awesome, undeniable, power.

"I release you. Remember everything that happened during our last meeting in this office," she said in an authoritative manner.

Despite being paralyzed, a sudden loud cry erupted from Scott's throat. The resurgence of pain and fear that had been hidden away from his conscious mind, overwhelmed the minor paralysis he was under.

He gibbered for a moment, but over time the gibbering calmed. The tears that trickled down his cheeks and the warmth that flowed down his legs subsided. After his breathing calmed, he was released from his paralysis. It did not take long for him to begin breathing heavily again, however.

"Why...?" he finally managed to croak out. He cared nothing for his current state, nor the state of Alice's rug, despite the fact that the contents of his bladder had slipped beyond the boundary of his shoes. What he wanted was an answer.

Alice merely looked at him. The reproachful look in his eyes was one that she could understand easily enough. The way that he seemed to be on the verge of screaming in rage, or fleeing the room, at any given moment was similarly understandable. What she did not understand was her own hesitance. This was not an unusual situation given the nature of the abilities that she had developed.

Finally, she opened the conversation by parroting what he had said earlier. "Why?"

Scott tried to control the anger welling up, but it was hard. "Yeah, why!"

The pink haired vampire quirked an eyebrow then said, "That's not a simple answer. It will take some time."

"I got time," said Scott, his eyebrows narrowing. He glanced over to Maxine. "You knew about this?"

The golden elf lifted her hand up then said, "I learned about it around two hours ago, just after you came to me for treatment."

"Before dinner..." said Scott. The image of Maxine sitting side-by-side with Alice after having learned what the vampire did was not one Scott would be able to willingly forget.

Maxine nodded to him. "Yes. Before dinner."

Alice took a deep breath then said, "The compulsion I placed you under, while well-meaning, was wrong. I apologize."

Scott blinked then looked at Alice. It was a special sort of look. It was the kind of look of humorous disgust one might have when a pretty girl breaks wind in a loud and obnoxious manner while riding in a crowded elevator. "You think an apology will make this alright?"

The vampire flashed her fangs. "You still don't get it, do you?"

He growled at her, and she growled at him in kind. They were like two dogs squaring off over the same bone of contention.

"Alice, sweety, you need to calm down. Remember that he hasn't had any real training or exposure, yet," said Maxine in a clear and gentle voice.

Scott glared at Maxine briefly. He was not certain why, but her words angered him.

A soft sigh escaped Alice's lips and she pulled back. "Yes, you are right."

"Scott, I crossed a line when I compelled you. My teaching methods are aggressive, but in my own way I thought it would be a good idea," said Alice. "I was wrong."

"What about ripping my finger off and beating me half to death?" he asked her. "Just going to ignore that, too?"

"Why would I apologize for physical chastisement of a student? I did my job as an educator by putting an insubordinate boy in his place." Alice's cold eyes drove her point home. She admitted she was wrong to compel him, but beating the hell out of him was merely a teaching method.

"You!" snarled Scott. He started to lung forward, but her eyes flared bright red once more. His body froze in place. He had absolutely no capacity to defend against whatever she was doing. His rage was slowly beginning to be replaced with a growing sense of hopelessness.

Alice sighed then clasped the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "I am not good with apologies. I have always known that about myself."

Maxine sighed then reached over and patted Alice on the shoulder. "You should stop beating around the bush, sweety. You're just frightening, him."

The pink haired woman nodded upon hearing Maxine's words. "You're right, of course. Besides, I have said that I'm sorry. It's time to move past that."

She released Scott from his paralysis once more and he staggered in place. He panted heavily and then started to back away. His anger and fear were practically tangible things at this point. They hung in the air around him, like an invisible aura of chaotic emotion.

"So, are you going to quit?" asked Alice.

He stopped backing away. Scott slowly stood up straighter and tilted his head to the side. "Quit?"

"Yes. You've had the shit kicked out of you, and your true mind subverted by the will of another," said Alice.

"No," said Scott. His eyes narrowed. "I want another teacher, though."

"Denied," said Alice. "I'm your teacher for as long as you are at IDEA."

"Fuck you!" snapped Scott.

"When you're strong enough," said Alice, her eyes blazing. "If we can get through this maudlin melodramatic bullshit, and you can pull your head out of your ass first."

"Wha—?" Scott leaned his head back then eyed her like a dangerous lunatic. "What in the hell makes you think I'd want to do anything like that with you?"

Alice laughed coldly then made an imperious gesture. "Please. Every time you come near me, your heart beats faster. My nose is sensitive enough to smell your obvious arousal."

The laugh came again, warmer this time. "I can sense your eyes on me, how you stare at my ass..." Her cheeks became slightly flush and her chest heaved upward a bit. "It's obvious that you want to come up behind me, grab me by the hips and just—"

Maxine rolled her eyes then leaned over and smacked Alice on the back of the head again. Alice flinched then looked to the blond elf. "What was that for?"

The elven nurse shook her head. "Honey, just tell him everything so you can stop sounding like a demented stalker."

"This is hard for me, OK!" snapped Alice. "I don't do apologies!"

"Sweety, apologies don't sound like badly written erotica," suggested Maxine. "Just be honest."

Scott's left eyebrow twitched spastically. He did not know what sort of drugs these women were on, but they obviously needed more of them if they thought this was a normal conversation.

Alice sighed loudly. "Full disclosure makes me feel so dirty..."

Maxine elbowed her gently. "Get on with it."

"Fine!" snapped Alice, before she turned to look at Scott once more. "Let's discuss everything."

Scott nodded slowly. At this point he did not know what the hell to do, but simply walking out the door was not an option. He wanted answers, even if he was not certain of what the questions were.

Pink hair whirled around as Alice whipped her head and then placed her hands to her hips. "I have been looking for someone like you for several years now."

"I remember that much... now." said Scott in an accusatory manner.

Alice nodded to him. "Good. The moment I realized the possibility of your potential, I exercised my rights to claim a student."

"What's so special about me? I remember you saying something about my resonance potential or something," asked Scott.

"Yes," said Alice. "What you don't realize is that if your potential is reached, you will be one of the strongest and most durable men on the planet."

"Well, yeah... I kind of did realize that..." said Scott. It seemed logical that surviving so many trials that he reached that point would make him powerful.

Alice mumbled something then made a coughing noise. Maxine reached over and helped her get the words out by smacking her on the back of the head again.

"I can finally get laid!" cried Alice suddenly. Her face froze immediately, and her lower lip started to quiver. The room remained silent for quite the awkward space of time afterward.

Scott coughed once then drew his hand down his face before he said, "You did all this... You kicked my ass and brainwashed me... Because you want to get laid?"

"I wouldn't put it that way exactly," said Alice after composing herself a little.

"How would you put it, sweety?" asked Maxine with a warm smile.

Alice eyed her critically then pursed her lips. "So helpful."

"I try," said Maxine lightly.

Alice huffed loudly then turned to Scott. "I became your teacher because you are the best hope I have of ever developing a relationship with a man. That's not really the reason why I did what I did, though. At least, not the only reason."

His expression shifted slightly. He still had an incredulous look about him, like he was not sure if he had heard her right. "What other reason is there?"

Alice sighed then hopped back up on her desk. "I really did think it would help you, long term. I was also angry about your attitude."

"How was beating the shit out of me and making me forget supposed to help me at all? Especially, long term?" he asked her in an angry and accusatory tone.

"Well, in the short-term compelling you would allow you to get your answers and keep you from getting all moody. There was a chance this would ruin your ability to finish training and get to IDEA." said Alice.

"And the beating?" asked Scott.

"The beating would remind you that mouthing off to people capable of rendering you into a gore strewn bit of coleslaw without batting an eyelash is something to avoid," said Alice.

"A beating I would not remember, would teach me that?" he asked with a snort and a shake of his head.

Alice snorted. "You act like I reached inside your brain and stole your childhood or something." She crossed her arms over her chest then blew out an annoyed breath. "What I did to you is extremely light compared to what you'll have to deal with in dungeons, or those at IDEA who focus on psionics and magic."

"I'll have to deal with more of this shit?" asked Scott, his eyes widening.

"Are you kidding? Most dungeons have at least one monster or another that can doom gaze or perform some form of mind rape," said the vampire. She leaned forward and then said, "There are low-grade vampires in D-Class dungeons who would not hesitate to do what I did. The difference is that they would tear your throat out while they made you think that you were having a lovely time."

"Oh, so this was all for my benefit... Yes, why thank you." said Scott sarcastically.

Alice growled at him. "Look, that right there! That's part of the problem!"

Scott leaned away from her then snorted. "Yeah, of course it's my fault."

The vampire threw up her hands. "What the hell do you want from me? I honestly feel bad about what I did! What more do you need?"

"I don't know," said Scott. He stared at her. "I just don't know."

Silence reigned after that. Neither of the people in that room seemed to know what to say. It took time for them to process things.

Maxine decided to speak up. "Scott," she said, while looking toward Scott. She turned to her co-worker. "Alice."

"Yeah?" the vampire and the wanna-be superhero said at the same time.

The golden elf smiled. "You are both making this really complicated."

"Well, yeah... It's not simple," said Scott. Nothing about this fucked up situation was simple.

Alice merely kept her own counsel while waiting to see what her colleague had to say. She did not have to wait long.

Maxine pointed to Alice, but looked at Scott. "This silly bitch has no idea what a social grace is, or how to use one."

Alice squawked loudly for a moment, much like an enraged chicken. How dare Maxine say such a thing!

Scott nodded, but then it was his turn to hear something unflattering. Maxine pointed at him then turned to look at Alice. "This dumbass has never had to do anything for himself outside of meditating in his room, and masturbating to drawings of women who claim to be heroes but dress like colorful whores."

"Seriously, he probably doesn't even have the common sense that nature gave a cabbage," said Maxine in continuation.

"How come my thing was longer than her thing?" muttered Scott. Maxine had said quite a bit about him, and he could have done without the mention of his masturbatory actions. How had she known that about him, anyway?

Alice murmured, "I'd hope that it would be."

Scott blinked slowly as he realized what she said. "Was that...?"

The vampire sighed then nodded. "A sad attempt to lighten the mood? Yes."

"Do you have..." he said, his words trailing off. He coughed once when she looked toward him and asked him what he wanted.

He turned his head to the side. "Are you a... uh... trap?" he asked slowly, curious about the situation.

"What?" asked Alice, confused. Her eyes widened a moment later and she snorted. "No! I'm not a ... No!"

"Hey, just checking..." said Scott.

"There's that common sense issue that I mentioned earlier, sweety," said Maxine.

A short, nervous, smattering of laughter echoed through the room as some of the tension broke. A difficult conversation between people who had serious issues with each other at the moment led to a chance to continue forward by the simple act of asking if Alice was born with a penis, and Maxine's commentary.

From there the conversation dipped into short spurts of random discussions. Scott asked for clarification about some things. Maxine used humor and wit to keep them from trying to eat each other. Alice, for her part, slowly began to accept that she needed to back off a bit and work on her people skills. She was not on the battlefield at the moment. Unrelenting ultraviolence and mind rape were not the only ways to end a discussion, or acquire a boyfriend.

The subject eventually moved into territory that caused Scott to become concerned once more. "A dhampir?"

"Yes, there are several kinds but that is the name given to aberrant vampire hybrids," said Alice.

"I almost became some sort of weird mutant because of your blood?" he asked her. "Are you serious?"

"It seems so. There is no real way to know if it will happen when someone is given a vampiric infusion. There have only been two cases that I know about, but infusions have been used thousands of times," said Alice.

Maxine waved her finger at Scott. "Physical wounds are easy to heal with vampire blood. The more powerful the vampire, the higher the healing potential. Premium grade vampire blood is an amazing ingredient for health tonics and medical items."

"So, what would have happened if I had changed into a dhampir?" asked Scott.

"Depends on the kind you would have become," said Alice. She took a moment to compose herself before she explained the eventualities of being a dhampir. "There are essentially three types of dhampir."

"The daywalker kind?" asked Scott. He was aware of the lore for the vampiric hybrids. Movies, comics, and games had them in spades at times.

"That's the one most would hope for, yes. Most of the powers of a vampire, but none of the weaknesses," said Alice. She looked at Scott and shook her head. "It is also the rarest. We only know about them because of the vampires that we have met who live in some of the higher class dungeons."

"Oh," said Scott. He could have possibly accepted that sort of fate. Live forever, be sexy doing it. That was not so bad.

"The only ones that I have seen from transfusions on earth were the second category. They had some of the powers of a vampire, but also some of their weaknesses," said Alice. "One of them had the compulsion abilities and flight, but could not go out in the sunlight. He was bound to the darkness like a low-level vampire soldier. He did not have the craving for blood. Drinking it steadily will make his abilities stronger over time, however."

"And the second one?" he asked her.

"That one had the physical powers of a vampire, and could have lived forever. She was a raving blood-starved beast, however." Alice closed her eyes briefly then took a breath. "We had to put her down."

Scott placed his hand to his face then took a breath. "I see." He did not know what to think about that. It sounded like he had a fifty-fifty chance of having had cool psychic powers, or becoming a murderous monster that needed to be slain.

"The third type... well, those are the abominations," said Alice.

He blinked then looked her in the eyes. "Abominations?

"Yes, they have only been seen in dungeons where there are vampire controlled territories. They cannot stand concentrated sunlight and look like hideous asymmetrical mutations," said Alice. "The vampires consider them failures."

Scott laughed suddenly, not a happy laugh. It was a broken manic thing. The two women in the room looked to each other briefly then back to Scott.

Once the crazed laughter died down, he shook his head then grunted. "Kicks my ass, force feeds me her blood to keep me from dying, almost turns me into a twisted abomination, and compels me to forget..."

"Scott..." said Alice softly.

He raised his hand. "Fuck it. Don't apologize again."

He stared at her, his eyes narrow, and his jaw firmly set. "Stop telling me how sorry you are and prove it."

"What...?" asked Maxine.

"Look, forgive and forget... that just isn't happening," said Scott. "I may be trying to become the sort of person who can save anyone, even the shittiest person alive. But I'm not there, yet."

Scott continued before either of the others could say anything. "We might eventually get along or something. Who knows we might even become friends in the future if I can ever get the taste of hypocritical bullshit out of my mouth."

Alice visibly flinched at the way he had said it, but she could not deny it. Plus, it seemed he was willing to move on from here. "How can I prove it to you?"

"Two things," said Scott while lifting up two fingers. "You have to do two things."

"Those things are?" asked Alice casually.

He held up one finger. "First, you have to keep your promise to me."

"Promise?" she asked. She did recall her promise to him, but wanted to be certain he was speaking about the same thing.

"Yes. You promised to do whatever it takes to help me reach my potential," said Scott. He rotated his finger around making a funnel motion. "You just can't compel me without my permission. That's the rule for the first one."

"Fair enough," said Alice. "What is the second proof?"

Scott smiled. "Show me how to keep people like you from fucking with my head."

"You want to learn to block compulsion?" asked Maxine. "That's actually quite difficult to achieve. You'll have to do a lot of research and training."

"Works for me," said Scott. "If monsters in the dungeons can use mind-control and other things, I want to be able to resist them."

Alice nodded to him. "That is easy enough to agree too, however there is one issue."

"An issue?" Scott squinted at her. "What kind of issue."

"In order to develop innate resistance to abilities such as compulsion, you have to be able to compel others. If you do not know how it is done, you won't be able to defeat it properly when it happens," said Alice.

"I don't want to warp anyone's mind," said Scott. "There another way?"

"You could always practice on monsters, sweety," said Maxine.

Scott nodded once more. He did not necessarily want to be the sort of person who mind-fucks other people, but if practicing on monsters is allowed he could just consider it to be something of a crowd control skill. "Fine. What do I need to do?"

Alice shook her head. "The first thing you have to do is generate the custom attribute, charisma."

"I need another stat? Why?" Scott looked to Alice and then to Maxine. "How do you even do that?"

"Charisma is a specific quality that inspires devotion in others. Some think of it as the attractiveness stat, but really it relates to force of will and personality," said Alice.

"Doesn't mental acuity have something to do with will and personality?" asked Scott. "I mean, that's what I had heard."

"That's the base stat from which it is derived. Someone with extra-ordinarily high mental acuity can resist some forms of compulsion naturally. That is not good enough to defeat higher-level compulsion, however," said Maxine

"In order to develop your charisma to the point that you can actively train it, you must practice imposing your will on things," said Alice.

Maxine spoke up. "Try something simple like intimidating a low-level monster."

Scott nodded but then bit his lower lip. "How can I do that? I mean is there a way to train intimidation?"

Alice's lips spread into a slightly predatory grin. "Oh, there are ways. Shall I teach you?"

He eyed her curiously for a moment. "Well, I suppose that would be part of proof number two..."

Alice's smile shifted to a slightly friendly one. "Good. We will go over the basics tonight then, and tomorrow you will spend your time training."

"Sounds good," said Scott.

Maxine chimed in, however. "Do be sure that you don't let this cause problems with your normal training. You only have three requirements left to face. It might be best to finish the easiest one of them as soon as possible."

"Yeah, I need one more item so I can have full item slots. That's what you mean?" asked Scott.

The golden elf nodded at him. "Yes, the party function will be enabled sometime this week. After you complete a few party missions, you'll only have the final training to go through."

"Alright. Fair enough," said Scott. He did not want to give Alice any credit for her actions, but she had inadvertently helped him out with his training. Her blood increased his stats to the point that he had already cleared the minimum one hundred requirement for all of his base stats. It was the most difficult hurdle for most potential students since development points were difficult to come by early on.

Alice reached her hand out to Scott. "So, shall we begin practice?"

Scott looked her in the eyes for a moment then reached out and took her hand. She had done terrible things to him, but in the end he either had to deal with it and move on, or quit and go home. Scott had no desire to quit, and so... a new training arc began.