+Anima the Roleplay part 2 (Because part 1 was burried alive.)

Amanda wrote down a reply as quickly as possible, hoping the teacher wouldn't notice Ramone, having no doubt in what he intended to do.

'Yeah, that's true. Might have to cut this short.'

She quickly handed the note back to Antha, gesturing at Ramone behind her. The teacher turned around.

"What is it, Ramone?" she asked.

Amanda glared at him, but there was no way she could win with this guy.

"Uh, Amanda and Antha were passing notes. Just thought I'd let ya know," he said, crossing his arms.

"Could you be more immature?" she snarled at him under her breath.

He leaned uncomfortably close to her, still smirking.

"Do you wanna find out?" he whispered, the smirk in his voice, some sick threat behind it.

"Is there something you want to share with the class, Amanda? Antha?" the teacher asked.

Amanda faced the front again, and shook her head meekly.

"No, Ms. Jameson. Sorry," she said, glancing at Antha for any ideas.

"Alright, now if you would please dispose of your conversation until after class. You should all be taking this a lot more seriously than you are," said the teacher, who was apparently about launch into one of those terrible lectures about maturity. The class groaned. How wonderfully ironic.

Amanda sent an apologetic glance at Antha, before attempting to do her work from the previous day. This was already starting out horribly...

((Aly, 1.))

Yeah...

Kyrine didn't know what else to write, so she handed the note back with her wimpy reply. She handed the notebook back after glancing at their teacher to make sure he wasn't looking. She wasn't in the mood to get in trouble for passing notes.

She looked back down at the history notes that she was supposed to be taking, and saw that in all this time, she had only scribbled down a few things. She internally groaned, and hurriedly wrote down more.
-----
Carter could feel his energy draining, but he kept fighting because he could tell that Aidan was on his last leg. He kept fighting, kicking and punching, despite blood in his mouth and aches all over his body, because he had to prove to himself that he could win this. He was so close... just a little more....

((Aidan=/= (does not equal) Lee from ITE...))

The girl nodded, and handed back the note, attempting to take some of the notes off of the board as well.
-----
Aidan kept fighting, as hard as he could, but it was beginning to be no use. His chest sent up sharp pains with every short gasp of a breath he could manage, and he coughed blood and his body was racked with terrible pain. Combining with yesterday's fights, with... Caresa, and with Carter before, it was becoming too much. But he could not just stop and beg for mercy. He was on the ground now, arms up before him in one last attempt at defense, but he waited for unconciousness, for something out of the pain, which might have been deserved. He started this, he was what Carter told him... he groaned, trembling slightly from the pain, and closed his eyes. In spite of everything, he mostly didn't want to lose, but the futility, the fruitlessness, seemed to be catching up to him, feeling like it was pushing him closer and closer to some inevitable end. He awaited unconciousness in hope because he didn't want to feel it all anymore.

You win, he thought, as everything went black.

Antha looked at her desk guiltily and shot a dirty look to Ramone. Why did he have to rat them out? If anyone was being immature it was him not them. She looked at Amanda and wanted to say sorry, but she didn't want to get them into any more trouble, so she turned back to her work.

Ramone only smirked to his desk, seeing Antha out of the corner of his eye. He might have been immature, but as long as he was completely owning Amanda today, he might as well make it complete. Or at least better. She couldn't be good at everything. Even though she flew through her classes with A's, and more A's, she couldn't possibly be great at all of it. And every chance he had to show it, he would. Not to mention, she was one of those zoo-insect loving, Beasts-defending freaks. It made her all the more worthy of his harrassment. It was a dance they'd done since early in middle school, and not even senior year would cure him of it; rather, it gave him reason to top all of his previous actions toward her.
-----------------
Amanda mouthed sorry back at Antha, and turned back to her work. Alright, now it was time to focus. Amanda never loosened up, especially during school; this was her time, this is when and where she needed all her concentration, 100% right, 100% of the time. Yet she could feel her grades slipping with every missed second of yesterday's schoolday...

Roger had come to the hospital to make sure no evidence of Owen's existence. While walking the halls of the hospital he began to reminisce about Owen. He had agreed so willingly to the project, putting his life on the line for this. Now that he was dead, Roger had to wonder what it had accomplished. He thought about the day before.

(The following is a flash back.)

"Hey Roger, we done?" Owen asked, huffing and puffing on the treadmill. Roger had attached electrodes to Owen's body, to monitor his performance. Roger was watching the results from the little computer corner, with the monitors.
"Depends Owen, you think you're about to keel over?" Roger said jokingly.
"Give me a couple seconds and I'll be there." he said, laughing slightly in his deep Irish accent. Roger laughed, as well, spinning in his chair to face Owen.
"Alright, you can stop." Roger said, with a little bit of an amused smile.
"Oh thank be to Jesus." Owen said, breathing hard. Slowly, the treadmill came to a stop. Owen pulled off the electrodes and left them dangling from the machine. He hoped off and then started to walk over to Roger, who was retrieving the printouts of the test results.
"So what's the verdict doc?" Asked Owen. Roger flipped through the sheets, examining each one meticulously.
"Well we're getting expected results mostly. Your control rising. But there's something else too you're becoming stronger, faster, and more powerful than any normal person should be." Roger said. Owen got a large grin.
"Well of course I am. I am Owen *last name forgotten* you know." Roger turned to look at Owen and rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean. And I should have probably picked up on it from the three hours straight of treadmill running." Roger said, and turned back to the sheets, and started flipping through them again.
"Physically you're doing great." He said, scanning the results. "But something is going on somewhere in your head. It may have adverse affects on you physically as well at some point." Roger said, before hearing a deep and heavy coughing. Rodger turned to find Owen covering his mouth with his shoulder, with the other hand on his stomach.
"Owen!" Roger yelled, and ran over to Owen, who was now cringing while he coughed. "Owen! Are you alright?" he persisted, though Owen couldn't answer. "OWEN!" he yelled. Owen pulled his arm away from his mouth, and blood began to pour out with every cough.

(No longer flash backing.)

Roger's train of thought ended when he heard some noise coming from further down the hall. Roger rand down the hall and turned the corner to find one of the Crusaders, and a bloody fisted Carter in the hall. "What the hell did you do!" He yelled.

Aidan lay limp on the floor, his arms still across his chest as if he could still protect himself, as if it would do him any good, with his sharp, short breathing, even in unconciousness. And it was gradually slowing...

The animal-person's hands were not hands, but claws, paws of a creature that could not possibly be human. All the child did was touch the animal. He shouted, "Aaron!", as loud as he could, chased after him, only to be frozen in fear as he came to his brother's side. And he stumbled backward as the creature eyed the child, an animalistic fury in its eyes. Aidan could do nothing but stand as far and as close as he could. He couldn't remember what else happened, but carnage unfolding right before his eyes, blocked, except for the blood that splattered upon him, the fear, but the creature never turned toward him afterwards. It raced into the forest, an undistinguishable (sp?) humanity, horror in its eyes...

When Jade heard his and Caresa's name called, he shuddered internally. He hadn't noticed that Caresa was in his class till now, and while he had been longing to see her again, he had been dreading when he would. He wasn't sure what to say, or if he should say anything at all depending on who was around, but Jade got up from his seat, and walked to the center of the class with Caresa, and noticed that the entire class was watching them, waiting to see what they would do. Whether the rumors of their love were true or not, and he needed to prove that it wasn't, if he was to survive. All the privacy to their romance had been stolen from them, and now the world was watching them constantly, waiting for him to slip up. None of this showed on Jade, he was, as he always was, a blank slate.
"Good morning Caresa." He said, attempting to be pleasant.

"Good... good morning, Jade," Caresa replied, tentatively, attempting to match his 'pleasant' and nonchalant tone. She knew what he was doing, and part of her wanted to ruin it all, but she couldn't. He wouldn't be Jade if he didn't... well, if he didn't act like this. She glanced at the door, still waiting for Mr. Monroe and nearly wanting to get this over with. Or not... it was Romeo and Juliet after all. Perhaps this would be one of their few chances to express themselves to each other again. The night before replayed in her head, all the pain and the joy all over again.

Antha mouthed back 'It's ok.' She was just glad that they weren't in trouble. But she still found it hard to concentrate. Some days were worse than others for her and today was one of those days.

((Pageclaimofawesometasticalness!))

Carter, who had been looking down at Aidan in disgust, looked up when he heard Roger's voice yelling at him. He saw Roger running toward him and looked back down at Aidan. He was laying in a pool of both his and Carter's blood. Carter felt blood running from his nose, dripping off his hands, pooling under his skin to form bruises.

He turned calmly back to Roger and said, "Taking care of vermin-loving trash." And with that, he turned away, slowly leaving Aidan and Roger behind.
-----
Kyrine was still trying to catch up on notes, even though she knew that it was no use. She would just have to get them from someone else who had this teacher. She sighed and set her pencil down, rubbing her temples. This was already a long day, and she was only in first hour.

From that point on, until he reached his early teens, Aidan looked on the +Anima with great fear. Every one of them was muderous and violent in his eyes, even when they weren't. He would see kids at school, and wonder, were they one of them? But as he grew older, his fear turned into bitterness, bitterness into hate, and at 14, he became aware of what he could do about it.

The Crusaders. When he began to have knowledge of them, it was just after his family had moved to a new church, one with, oddly enough, less of a condemning message about the +Anima, which internally angered and disappointed Aidan. They were killers. They were unnatural. Some part of him was telling him they should be destroyed. And that's what the Crusaders did.

Yet, the murders before had gone too far, in his eyes. Were they not only sinking to their level if they killed? And it was wrong, even in the circumstances. Sometimes, he confessed, he felt they were justified. But most of the time, he did not. So when the old Beasts leader went down the year before, and Jade took over the group, the gang seemed to suit him more, even while his reasons for joining were different than the rest of them.

Fighting, in spite of its temporary satisfactions, however, had adrenaline that seemed to only last throughout the fight, and only seconds after. The rest of the time, it would drain him. He would go home late at night, he would force himself back to school, and put up a tough front, but he felt nothing like that. Only when he thought of what it was doing to the +Anima would it make him feel slightly satisfied again. And that never lasted, at least, not until the next fight.

His parents worried about him, they wanted to help him, wanted to know what was wrong, but he was sure they knew; they just had to be in denial. What else could Aidan be doing that would get him this messed up all the time? They didn't appreciate what he and the Crusaders did; his mother even once attempted to have a conversation about it... it didn't go very well. He closed up, he walked away, did everything he could to avoid such a conversation.
But it was hard not to see how drained he was becoming from it.

It was hard not to feel it now, even in the blackness of unconciousness. Aidan subconciously watched all those fights all over again, between him and the many nameless, faceless +Anima, and how he won, and lost, how it had all been black and white... he walked through the memories like he was watching them all on a million little television screens, each one vague and blurry, yet so memorable.

His wounds bled, his breathing was sharp and uneven now, chest trembling with every breath, purple bruises blooming on his arms, his chest, his back, his face, his head...

Roger gritted his teeth at Carter as he walked away. "I thought you were'nt like the rest of them!" he yelled after Carter, and walked over to Aidan, and looked down at the once again battered and broken body. "Turns out you're worse." he muttered, and picked Aidan up from the floor. He couldn't just bring him to the doctors here, because they would record his arrival. So there was only one place to take him.

Somehow, Roger snuck Aidan out of the hospital, and got him into his car, dressed his wounds, though he would at some point need real medical attention, but he could hold until a little later. For now he needed to go and check the room. Roger set the child locks in the car, and gave Aidan some morphine. He would be out for a while now.

As he walked in, he remembered when he had come in only a couple days ago.
___

"Can you tell me what happened mister Reagan?" The blond haired man asked. Roger shook his head. There was a doctor standing in front of him, and Roger sat, staring at the ground.
"He was just on the treadmill, working out." he said, lying only slightly, and then looked up at the doctor. "Do you know what's wrong yet.?" he asked. The doctor shook his head.
"No, not yet. But I need to ask you, is Owen a +Anima?" he asked. Roger shook his head. "No. not that I know of." he said. The doctor got a worried look on his face.
"We'll keep you posted on his progress, mister Reagan." he replied.
"Thank you Doctor..." Roger began.
"Hans, Hans Gretil." he said, and smiled.

The strange mirrors of memories that had once been flickering became bright and clear again. Aidan felt himself shifting, his pain dulled, but still unbearably present, in his brief semi-conciousness. He heard some words, muddled and quiet, but he didn't acknowledge them. Soon, he felt a new floor beneath him. Still moved, still touched. His ribs were the worst, but he didn't allow himself to respond. Soon, soon after, there was a pain somewhere else, and then... the worst wasn't replaying in his head anymore. So he felt like he was going into a deep sleep, mind emptied of needless thoughts, finally able to rest from all of this, blackness again, but good this time.

((Thanks for posting, Nattie.))

"I thought you weren't like the rest of them!"

Carter's fist clenched again as he heard those words yelled at him, but he didn't have the energy to give a sarcastic reply. Even now, each step he took was dragging more than the one before. He just needed a place to rest, but he couldn't stay in the hospital because Carter didn't want to be found by a nurse.

He miraculously found the doors to the hospital without running into anyone. Wearily looking around, Carter decided that he would just walk to the park across the street and rest on a bench or in a tunnel or something. Just somewhere where Carter could lay down and close his eyes for a few hours.

Reaching a tunnel where he would remain partially hidden for a while, Carter climbed into the tunnel that used to feel so much larger. It was cramped, and his legs were going to stick out, but Carter didn't really care because he was too tired.
-----
Kyrine glanced at the clock, trying to remember when class got out. She tapped her pencil against her lips, wondering if it was too early to start packing up her stuff.

An officer sat in her car, a few blocks from the hospital, observing the street for any suspicious activity. Things had been a little hectic the past couple of days, thanks to the recent clash between the Beasts and Crusaders. She was not pleased with all the activity in this town. It wasn't good for these kids to be acting like this, +Anima or not. Sighing, she pulled up a little closer to the hospital, and parked across the street. Her gaze wandered to a park, a child's grounds in the middle of downtown Humbleton, where she was sure brawls of the angry teens had broken the supposed safehaven's peace before.

Huh. Legs sticking out of tunnel. It could mean several things... Cautiously, she stepped out of the vehicle and started for the park to inspect the tunnel. What she found was a boy, probably not much older than a freshman in high school, who looked like he'd gotten some of the worst end of the brawl the other day. She wondered why he was there and not in the hospital.

She knocked gently on the side of the tunnel to see if he would respond.

It was a cold clear day, and Carter was pumped. What he was pumped for, however, he wasn't sure. Carter looked around, wondering what was going on, when he heard a knocking. Confused, he turned around, only to find nothing. He turned in circles trying to find the source of the noise, but it couldn't be located.

Suddenly, Carter opened his eyes and sat up quickly, hitting his head on the ceiling of the tunnel. He swore loudly, wondering briefly where he was. He remembered as he looked at the cop who was staring into the tunnel.

Crap.
-----
Kyrine looked around the room to see if anyone was packing up, but they all seemed to be doing their work still. She sighed and looked down at her pathetic notes, deciding that if she was stuck in class for another who- knew- how- long, she might as well get notes done.

The officer winced a little at the boy's head hitting the tunnel, but that and his swearing at least proved he was alright.

"Well, hello there. Sorry about your head. Any reason why you're crashing in a tunnel right now?" she asked him, taking a few steps back, to let him out if he would, and crossing her arms casually.

"I'm crashing in a tunnel because I'm tired and my house isn't near here," Carter replied stiffly, not willing to give too much information away to the police officer.

He noted her take a few steps back, and realized that was probably her signal for 'get out of there right now.' Carter wasn't sure which he wanted to do more-- get out of the tunnel because it was uncomfortable, or test the officer's patience by not getting out. He decided to take his chances with upsetting her.

Also crossing his arms casually, Carter noticed that he didn't look so casual crouched over in a tunnel with his arms crossed. He didn't really care, though, because he was trying to make this cop angry.

((Forgive my pathetically tiny posts. D:))

"Alright, I'm not going to try to take you in or anything, I just want you to get out of the tunnel," the officer replied calmly. She had high patience in situations like this and had learned to be calm in all situations. The boy was just a truant kid, maybe even sent home recently, and he obviously had his reasons for not heading out. She just wanted to help him get where he needed to be, but his cooperation was an entirely different story.

Jade watched Caresa, and began wishing that there was no class to watch them. Nobody to see their feelings, but the private romance was over. The entire school was watching now, after all, Crusaders didn't help +Anima, it didn't work that way, that's why he needed to keep up this charade.

"I hear you've been hospitalized for a while. How severe were your wounds?" he asked. Disabling any rumors that he visited her, which he had. Without waiting he continued.

"It's too bad you came back. When we get rid of rats, we hope they stay gone." he continued. Ending any rumors that he had found peace with +Anima, which he was considering working on.

"Oh, and don't think much of what I did for you. Once I don't need to worry about gang appearances I'll be taking that blood I gave to you back." he said, obliterating all word that Jade loved her, which he did. Jade gave her a half smile.

"Just you wait." he said, and headed for the door, as Mister Monroe came back with scripts, he held one out to Jade, but he pushed the sheets into the teacher's chest.

"Daniel would be perfect for Romeo. He's been ogling Juliet ever since she walked in anyways." he said, and an embarrassed Daniel Gram flushed red. Then Jade pushed past mister Monroe and left the room. Jade needed to ind angel boy anyways, and he didn't have time to waste in Drama, but he knew he would miss the time that he could waste with Caresa.

"Well since you're not going to take me in, I don't see why I need to get out of the tunnel," Carter replied, not even bothering to keep the snotty tone out of his voice. In fact, if anything, he made it even more snotty than than he really should have, but Carter didn't care. He was tired, and she was interrupting his sleep.

Unlike the police officer, Carter didn't have the patience to remain calm in situations such as this. In fact, there was rarely an occasion when he was calm. He wasn't afraid to show when he was angry-- even if people thought he overreacted quite often.

I wonder what will happen if she makes me get out of here... Hm... if I don't, she could take me to the station as a truant and call my parents... It didn't seem like the best option ever, but as usual, Carter didn't really care.

Antha sighed and raised her hand. After asking to use the bathroom she left the room. She did have to use it, but she didn't want to go straight there. Antha wanted some time to think as well. She was feeling more and more distracted these days. The whole Anima+ thing was bugging her. Antha wished she wasn't one, but it was impossible to just wish it away.

Finally entering the bathroom she went to a stall and locked herself in. After going she just sat there unsure of what to do now.

((sorryifthisiswaaaymelodramatic.justsaying.))

"I hear you've been hospitalized for a while. How severe were your wounds?"

Caresa looked at him, perplexed. He knew. He was with her, the whole time. Why would he ask her something like that? She almost responded, when he continued.

"It's too bad you came back. When we get rid of rats, we hope they stay gone."

She stared him in the eye, as her breath caught a little, realizing just what he was doing. Why was he saying this, doing this after all they went through yesterday.

"Oh, and don't think much of what I did for you. Once I don't need to worry about gang appearances I'll be taking that blood I gave to you back."

Everyone was watching them intently, some surprised at Jade's words, and even those who weren't, couldn't turn their ears and eyes away. Much better than a confusing, cliche scene from Romeo and Juliet they'd been avoiding all throughout drama.

Caresa couldn't look away from him either. How could he do this to her? To everyone? She bit her lip, and she had to turn away now, as she blinked back tears.

"Just you wait."

And at that opportune moment, Mr. Monroe stepped in. Caresa could barely watch, something burning in her chest, as Jade pushed the scripts into his and started for the door.

"Daniel would be perfect for Romeo. He's been ogling Juliet ever since she walked in anyways."

She saw the boy in the corner of her eye as he blushed, but it didn't matter. Her face was red, her eyes were full, and she wasn't about to let the class see her cry. She had never felt like this before, so betrayed, with such pain and maybe even anger. She headed for the door as fast as possible, pushing through and blindly after Jade.

"Why?" she shouted, as loud as her tear-filled voice allowed. Was she suicidal? What on earth was she doing? This was not the time or place. If Jade wanted to keep up his image, she should let him. He needed it, this was who he was... she had to accept it. But every fiber of her being denied it. It was so much to sacrifice for him, to even acknowledge her as a person. So much more to love her. But that was just it... maybe it was too soon. But she couldn't let it go.

She stalked over to him in the empty hall, and grabbed his sleeve.

"Why, Jade?"
-------
In spite of her learned patience, the officer didn't appreciate Carter's tone of voice. She decided to get serious now.

"What's your name?" She started, pausing to look into the tunnel again. "You know, I think your best option right now would be to get out of that tunnel. It seems like you don't have anywhere else to be right now... except, well, maybe school," she continued.

Carter put on a fake-innocent look and stuck out his lip. "I'm sorry, but... I was abandoned as a child. I'm homeless and I've just taken to this park. I don't go to school." It was probably the absolute worst lie he could have chosen, but Carter really wanted to see how this lady would react to such a blatant lie. He didn't really care if he got carted off to jail because they couldn't hold a minor for truancy, and he wasn't too scared of his parents finding out. They would just assume he was acting out again. He would probably be grounded for a couple of weeks, but would that really stop him from doing anything? No. The thing-- or rather, person-- he was least looking forward to was Jade. Jade would probably lash out at Carter for 'drawing attention to himself' and 'pulling an idiot move.'

And then there was also whatever punishment Jade would think of. He'd probably have Carter do something humiliating. Carter sighed, thinking of what his best option would be.