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The school’s gym was in fact a converted ballroom, which meant it was quite big. Not quite as big as the gymnasium back in Gravesfield mind you, the ceiling was lower and the walls were still covered in ornate wallpaper. In fact, if Luz had to guess, it was smaller by a good few yards. The chandeliers above gave the impression that the conversion wasn’t quite done either, a stray ball that went a little too high would easily hit them. If the translucent bits hanging from them were glass, anyone directly below would be in serious trouble. If they were real crystals however, they’d probably be better off, not great, they would still be heavy and sharp, but falling glass usually meant a trip to the emergency room.

The staff, thankfully, seemed to be aware of this risk, for while the students met in the gymnasium, the actual class was being held outside. Stan led them (calling him Grunkle was still weird), and had them meet in the forest near the front of the school. “Alright, you all-” he stopped when he noticed the newcomers, “Most of you know how this works. One lap around the property and no powers allowed until you reach the halfway point, ya got it?” “Yes Grunkle Stan,” the majority of the class said in unison.

“Alright! Now, you all go at the same time, try not to kill each other when you do! Start stretchin’, ya got five minutes!”

Luz held King closer to her chest as she looked around. This was a bit less formalized than what she had expected, the others seemed to be doing their own preferred warmups with no real cohesion between them. Hunter had already made it to twenty-something with his push-ups and showed no sign of slowing down. The odd part was that they were all expected to run at the same time, at every other school she had attended, they would have gone one at a time. Then again this course seemed a lot bigger than anything her old schools could have managed.

“Yo, squirt!”

“Eep!”

She squeaked and nearly jumped out of her shoes at the sudden gruff voice being directed at her! She turned away from her thoughts to see Stan standing in front of her.

“Yer the new kids right?”

“Uh, y-yes sir.”

“Alright, hate ta do this to ya kiddo, but her little furball’s gotta stay here,” he said as he pointed at King.

“Weh?! No! I’m not leaving Luz!” the little demon squealed. “Kid, this is an obstacle course, she’s not gonna be able to carry you and run it at the same time. Plus it’s a bit too big for someone yer size anyway.” “I’ll ride on her back! I’ll hide in her hoodie! I’ll-” “I got candy!” Like a magician, he pulled out two large handfuls of sweets from seemingly nowhere, and King’s eyes widened. “But… but… I can’t leave Luz… she’s-” “Hey, King, buddy, it’s okay,” the girl in question interrupted, her voice soothing, “It’s just going to be for a little while. Plus you’ll be spending the day with the other little kids soon, one class away from me’ll be good practice for that.” He let out a tiny whine and she kissed him on his skull. “Just for one class, and I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.” He hesitated, but then nodded with a small noise of affirmation and sat in the grass by Stan’s feet. The grown man then knelt down to hand him a piece of hard candy, that appeared from seemingly nowhere by sleight of hand. It reassured Luz enough to turn away and start her stretching. As she was finishing up her stretches, she was surprised to hear someone running towards her. She looked up and smiled as she recognized Tulip, who looked rather excited. “Hey, Luz!” “Hey, what’s up?” “You remember those friends I mentioned this morning? Well one of them wants to meet you.” “They… do?” “Yeah, I told them about you and they wanted to say hi before class started.” “Oh, uh, o-okay, sure! Where are they?” “I loom behind you!” Luz let out a small yell and jumped in surprise, turning around so fast she almost made herself dizzy. The first thing she registered was that the person had the same face as Tulip, to the point she thought they had to have been a twin the redhead had failed to mention. The second thing, though it probably should have been the first, is that they were made of metal. This new person had a cocky smirk as she soaked in the details of their appearance. While their face was the same, barring a single eyebrow slit, they also had a shaved head, with a few needle-like strands of hair, and holes in their earlobes. They wore a black t-shirt that had the sleeves ripped off, jeans, a little black bracelet and brown boots. “S’up? The name’s Lake,” they asked, with a metallic ring to their voice, like they were speaking into a soup can. “Whoa…! What… I… ahem, lo siento. Hi, I’m Luz.” “So you’re Tulip’s new roomie, huh? I thought you were supposed to have a living stuffed animal with ya or somethin’.” “Y-Yeah, well I mean, I am her roommate, along with King,” she pointed towards the little demon, Stan seemed to be showing him a magic trick, “He’s too little for the obstacle course so he’s staying here… also he’s a demon.” “Oh, huh, that’s cool.” “Yeah… um… can I go ahead and ask the obvious question here?” “Hehehehe, you wanna know why I’m made of metal right?” “...that was actually my second question. My first one was why the heck do you and Tulip look exactly alike?” “You wanna tell ‘er or should I?” Tulip interrupted, resting her arm on Lake’s shoulder. “Eh, I might as well,” they smirked before looking at Luz, “I used to be her reflection.” “Reflection? As in like…?” “Yup, I don’t have a reflection anymore,” Tulip grinned, pulling out a small pocket mirror and held it up, showing only Lake, “I’m like a vampire! Bleh! I’m gonna suck your blood!” “You can try, you’ll never be able to bite through my skin!” The two of them laughed, and Luz tried to restrain back her own giggles. “How did you two even meet?” “Remember the Train I told you about?” “Uh huh?” “One of the cars was the Mirror Car, and inside, you could switch places with your reflection, one thing led to another and I helped Lake escape the Mirror World.” “We went our separate ways after that and eventually I got off the train with the help of my friend, Jesse.” “Oh… uh, is she here or…?” “Well, first of all, Jesse’s a boy, and second no, not yet. His parents want him to finish out the semester at his current school before sending him here.” “What, why?” “I ‘unno, adults are weird.” Before anything more could be said, Stan called out, “Alright kids, get to the starting line!” The students scrambled to the starting line, it was drawn in the dirt with yellow chalk. A few of them crouched down, like the professional runners she sometimes saw on TV, while others were simply standing. She didn’t know which she should do and didn’t know who to ask. She also didn’t see Hunter anymore, there must have been too many people between them. “On your marks!” Stan loudly proclaimed, “Get set!” He pulled out a blow horn. “GO!” The horn rang loudly and spooked a flock of nearby birds. The gaggle of students began to run, Luz had no idea where anyone was, and decided following the group as best she could was the safest option. The first obstacle was very simple, a large downed tree that laid across the path, she could see the others vaulting over the trunk with ease. Some were getting a lot more air than the others, it was rather impressive to see! She managed the jump with a semi-awkward landing on the other side, and she could see the next obstacle. It was a steep wooden incline with a series of small ledges for footholds and three lengths of rope hanging from the top. At the base, there were three lines forming as the others got ready to climb. She looked up and could see Hunter disappear over the top, how the heck was he so fast?! It took no time at all for her to reach the front of one of the lines to begin her climb, and she was happy to find it wasn’t quite as hard as she had been expecting. She looked to her left and saw Tulip reaching the top, who looked back, noticed her and grinned, geturing for her to hurry up. When Luz joined her, she looked down the other side and saw that there was another incline on the other side, one that was made of colorful foam and wasn’t nearly as steep as the one they had just climbed. “I love this part,” the redhead smirked before sliding down with a loud, “Woohoo!” Down below, Lake was standing at the bottom, as if waiting. When their double reached the end of her slide, they helped her up, the two said something and then the bespectacled girl looked back up to the summit. She quickly waved for Luz to come down, followed by the former reflection doing the same. They were encouraging her to follow them. She smiled to herself a bit before sliding down. Her roommate was right, it was fun! Then the two helped her to her feet and they started running again. This whole thing was turning out to be fun already! Further ahead, Hunter was having different thoughts. He thought it was insultingly easy. Now, he knew not everyone was as athletic as him, he was the Golden Guard after all, excellence was expected of him in everything he did… but by the Titan this was child’s play! There was no challenge to it! Where were the traps? The spiked pits? The swinging axes? Sure this wasn’t the castle but they could have set up something! Were humans too fragile for that? He had left the human and her little rat in the dust at the very start, followed shortly by just about every other student he could actually name. He hadn’t seen that loud-mouth MK yet though, had he gotten ahead of the group or something? Were there others who had gotten ahead of him as well? Whatever, he’d overtake them all eventually, he couldn’t fail at this. He had to reach the end first. His suspicions were proven right when he reached a rope ladder that led to a series of large platforms built into the trees. When he reached the top, he could see someone up ahead. The witch frowned and ran faster. He caught up to the kid as he was crossing a suspended bridge that hung between two of the trees. The stranger was going a bit slower, clearly trying not to lose his footing as it swayed softly. Down below, Hunter could see a net, set up to catch anyone who might fall. His eye twitched. This was getting very insulting. He grunted and ran again, gaining ground on the boy on the bridge and pushed past him, feeling a tiny prick of pride at the success. He could hear the kid yell out in surprise when he did but he didn’t pay him a second thought. Once he reached the halfway point, he’d use Flapjack to catch up to whoever else might be left. Or at least, that was the plan. Instead, he found himself having to put actual effort to run faster, the boy from the bridge was also fast, and able to keep pace. There was still some distance between them, but Hunter had no doubt he’d make a move to close the gap soon. He cursed his luck before looking ahead to see there was one platform left. The way to reach it was by crossing a series of small, wooden platforms that were suspended by a pair of wires strung between the ones built into the trees. He would have to jump to reach them, if he was lucky he might be able to skip over some if he had enough momentum. He made it to the first few with ease, after only a few jumps, he realized he was losing speed. Taking a risk, he skipped over the next one entirely and went straight for the one after it. He made it, but he needed a second to regain his balance. Feeling emboldened, he jumped again, skipping another platform, but this time, he couldn’t regain his composure in time and fell to his knees. He panted as he looked down below, seeing the net again. “Hey, you okay?” the boy called. Hunter looked back and got his first good look at him. He was surprisingly mundane-looking, with neatly combed black hair that was parted on the side, big blue eyes and very willowy. He was dressed in a blue jacket with the sleeves rolled up, just below the elbows and zipped up halfway, showing a white shirt underneath. He also wore blue jeans and blue and white shoes, overall, he was perhaps the most boring-looking human he had seen yet! But there was also something weirdly familiar, he just couldn’t place it. He chose not to answer the question, instead jumping to his feet and decided not to repeat his prior stunt. Instead, he simply returned to taking them one-by-one, he had to keep his lead! The last of the large platforms ended with a tube slide, one that curved and left Hunter’s body so filled with static that it tickled his nose. He didn’t look back to see if the boy was still right behind him, he had to assume he was. Well he wouldn’t let him catch up! No, he had to prove he was the best, he had to focus on reaching the end. The second his boots hit the dirt, he took off running again. He considered dispelling his cloak to cut down on the drag but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t explain why but he just couldn’t send it away, not yet. Up ahead, he spotted a large sign along the side of the path, and written in sloppy white paint were the words “Halfway point! Powers are allowed now!” This made Hunter smirk. Time to prove why he was the Golden Guard. “Flapjack!”

He drew his staff from his cloak and held onto it tightly. He waited until he was safely past the sign before igniting his teleportation spell, immediately jumping forward several dozen yards, leaving streaks of yellow magic behind him. He cast the spell again, and then a third time, putting a considerable distance between him and the human. He continued with this strategy, and wondered if he would be allowed to actually fly on his staff to the finish line. Would he get in trouble for not doing it right? Better not risk it, plus, this way he could prove himself further by sheer physical capability alone. Though he did spot a few rings suspended just below the canopy, so some students were clearly meant to fly through this part. Any further thoughts he might have had were interrupted by the sound of… something? It almost sounded like ringing metal, but there was something more to it, something he couldn’t identify. Hunter hadn’t had time to think on it further, nearly maniacal laughter followed the strange sound and it was approaching him from behind, fast! He looked over his shoulder, with only a split second between him recognizing MK and the young man’s look of excited enthusiasm turning to immediate regret. He then plowed into the young witch at a speed no magic staff could possibly match, sending them both tumbling across the forest floor. They only stopped when they crashed hard into the trunk of a tree, Hunter first and then MK landed on top of him. Hunter’s vision was dark for a second, possibly even two, before it slowly faded back, accompanied by a series of color-changing dots, fuzz in his brain and a ringing in his ears. He let out a groan as he began to make out voices, the face of the boring-looking human was leaning over him in concern, MK had somehow already bounced back and was looking at him in worry. The dazed boy tried to move only to let out a harsh grunt as a sharp shock of pain shot out from his left shoulder. He tried moving it again only to growl in his throat when he was greeted by a tingling that spread from the joint and up his neck, while his arm and hand were entirely numb. Yup, dislocated. It was far from the first time this had happened, he’d had countless injuries throughout his life. Be it from training, during his missions or from uncle Belos’s outbursts, pain was like an old friend to the young witch, an overly familiar one. His thoughts were disrupted when he recognized a small weight on his chest, and a small, high-pitched sound, the only one that was coming in clearly. “Flapjack…” The cardinal was sitting on his chest, a look of concern in his one big eye.

He placed his right hand over the little bird and rubbed his cheek with his thumb, assuring him he was fine. “I’m okay buddy.” He sat up slowly, his body was aching and sore all over, he was going to have some nasty bruises later but he was considerably lucky otherwise. A dislocated shoulder was easy enough to fix, after years of tending to his own injuries, he had it down to a science. Once he was upright enough, he used his right hand to lift his numb arm, he could vaguely hear the humans saying something to him. The one he didn’t know the name of had one of those scroll-things out, what was it called again, a phone? He brushed off the question, as well as concerned voices of the two humans before carefully guiding the bones back into the socket. A crackling sound that was similar to gravel filled the air, his own tightly restrained yowls of pain reverberated in his throat. After a moment, he lowered the arm, flexing his hand gently in a test. Pins and needles still covered him from the tips of his fingers up to his neck but he had done it. The fuzzy feeling in his brain was taking its time to dissipate, but that was fine, he just had to get back up and finish the obstacle course. He pushed off with his right hand, his feet stumbling under him before his balance returned. He took a few staggering steps, let his spinning head have a moment to slow down, and started running again. He could hear the two dark-haired boys calling after him, but he disregarded it. Just had to keep running… The rest of the course was a blur, he didn’t remember how he got through it all or how long it took, just that one minute he was running and the next he had passed the finish line. He was leaning against a tree, using his uninjured arm as support, with Flapjack chirping at him in worry. He took the moment of peace to let the disorientation untangle itself from his brain and felt his awareness shift back to normal. By the time MK and the boring-looking human had made it across the finish line, he was only mildly dizzy and smirking at them like he’d accomplished some great victory. In his mind, he had, he had finished the course first, he proved he was the best, proved he was worthy of being the Emperor’s right-hand man. Not that either of them knew that about him, but… it was important. He didn’t know why, it just was. He ignored their questions, asking if he was okay, that he had taken a hard hit but that was ridiculous. He suffered far worse back in the Emperor’s Coven, this was nothing. “Hunter?” He grunted. Of course. The human was here now too. He hadn’t seen her finish the course, but she was with two others with her and-okay that one had metal skin, he’d have to ask about that later-and she was looking at him in concern. “What happened to you? You look… rough.” “Tch, this is nothing,” he said, speaking up for the first time. Flapjack chirped sharply in something akin to a protest. “Dude, you dislocated your shoulder,” the unnamed boy said, it was the first time the young witch had bothered to really pay attention to his voice, “You are definitely not okay.” “He did what?!” the human exclaimed, her voice becoming high-pitched, “Shouldn’t we be getting Dr. Lake or-” “It’s fine,” the witch interrupted, “I already put it back in its socket. It’s fine.” “...you did what?! You know how to do that?!” she put her hands on her head in disbelief, like it was some impressive thing. “Of course I do, I wouldn’t be the Golden Guard if I couldn’t handle simple injuries like that on my own.” “Hunter, a dislocated shoulder is not simple! I just- that is so messed up!” “Maybe for you humans, but this is perfectly normal for-” “This isn’t even normal among other witches! None of my friends back on the Boiling Isles ever had to do that!” That statement caught him a bit off guard. Okay, maybe it wasn’t normal for civilians but still… “Oh yeah well… th-they’re not members of the Emperor’s Coven, now are they?” “Putting aside the shoulder thing, you still look like you got hit by a truck!” “I don’t even know what that is!” “It’s a type of car!” There was a pause, Hunter could feel his frustration growing, and he could see a strangely similar look on the human… but it wasn’t the same. He didn’t know what it was. He didn’t like it. “Uh, actually,” MK piped up awkwardly, “He was hit by me because I made a dumb mistake with my powers… and we crashed into a tree. Ehehe… seriously dude, you’re a mess, you need to see the doc.” “I don’t need to see anyone, I’m fi-” “YOU CRASHED INTO A TREE?!” “Why are you yelling, human!?” “You have at least five scrapes that I can see, you probably have internal bruising and who knows what else?!” she exclaimed, “You need to-” “WOULD ALL OF YOU CALM DOWN?!” The voice made all of them stop. They all turned to see Steven running towards them, looking both frustrated and worried. He took a few deep breaths, like he needed to calm himself. “Steven! Buddy! Just the man we need!” MK exclaimed in delight, “Hunter here got a bit uh, banged up. Think you could give us a hand here?” He looked Hunter up and down and now he had a concerned look as well. “...I’d say banged up is putting it lightly. What happened exactly?” “Too long to explain, just do your thing please!” He gave MK a sideways look before stepping closer. “Hunter, are you okay?” “I’m fine.” “...no offense but you look like you got trampled by an angry mob.” “Shouldn’t you be worrying over MK? He went through the same thing I did.” “MK is… uniquely hardy. I’m not worried about him right now.”

The witch paused, glanced at the grass below and quietly muttered out what happened, even crashing into the tree. The older boy listened, sighed and nodded. “I see… okay, hold still, I’ll patch you up.” “You don’t have t-” He never got to finish his sentence, as Steven took his hand suddenly, raised it up and gently kissed him on the knuckle. Hunter felt like his face caught fire. He could hear the human making a strange squealing noise. His brain took far too long to catch up with his body and he immediately pushed the other boy away, making a sound that wasn’t a scream but not coherent enough to be words. It still managed to convey the only question on his mind. “What are you doing!?” Steven, who had fallen back on the ground and was now sitting on the ground, looked up at him in surprise… and then looked horrified. “O-Oh! Oh my gosh! I am so so sorry! I-I wasn’t thinking-” “Clearly! What kind of-of… I-I don’ t know what to call you but what made you think that was okay!?” “Just check your wounds!” “My wo-what are you-” He looked down at himself and his eyes widened.

Every small scrape, cut and bruise he had gained from the crash now had white sparkles dancing over them, and all of them were now slowly closing or fading away. “W… What the…” “I uh… that’s… another power I should have told you about sooner,” Steven said awkwardly, “I… kinda have healing powers. Well… healing spit.” He stuck out his tongue and pointed at it. “But people here get a bit grossed out if I just lick my hand and slap it against their open wounds.” Everyone’s skin began to crawl at the thought. “So I started do the kiss thing instead… look, Hunter I’m sorry, I-I should have-” “No! No-no… it… it’s okay… you just… caught me off guard… really off guard.” “...do you feel okay now?” He did. A lot better actually. He wasn’t even sore or achey. He nodded but refused to make eye contact. His ears were still burning. “Well, if he’s okay, we should probably head back inside,” MK piped up, pointing his thumb over his shoulder and towards the school, “We finished pretty early, heck, Stan ain’t even here yet. I wanna get in some extra time for Art class.” “...did you just say art?!” The human turned fast, faster than he thought she was capable of! She certainly hadn’t moved that fast when he threatened her back home! “Oh yeah, that’s next on the schedule,” the young man piped up, “We either have that or Music every other week.” Steven made a strange sound, like he was trying to clear his throat but at the same time trying not to say anything. “Why every other week?” “I ‘unno, all I know is it gives us more time to work on our assignments. Either way, you guys comin’?” “I can’t, Stan’s watching King and I have to go get him.” “Oh, don’t worry! They’re probably on their way over already, Stan drives this… uh… darn it what’s the English term for it again? Gāo'ěrfū chē… Gāo'ěrfū chē… Gāo'ěrfū chē in English…” MK seemed to be rolling something over his tongue, trying to remember. “...you mean the golf cart?” Steven piped up and the older brunette snapped his fingers. “Yes! Xièxiè nǐ! I-I mean thank you! Any Stan drives one of those to get to the end of the course faster, they’ll be here before you know it!”

She smiled in relief.

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#infinity trian