Critical X(Private)

"Told you she was batshit! BATSHIT!"
"Would you shut up?"

Two voices cut into their training, followed by three boys running through the forest and jumping over fallen logs. Two, Xanthus had already come across. Liz's slackers. The blond and brunette stopped when they spotted the man who had knocked over a redwood in one second flat. The Bald boy with them stopped as well, apparently confused.

"So.... Are you here to wake her up?" the dark skinned boy asked. The one who had earlier claimed they would 'abort' their mission of finding food.

"Idiot, they're obviously training separately." the bald boy snapped. He was shorter and his voice a bit higher. Puberty haddnt even apparently hit him yet.

"Move it you're in my way he's so dead!!" Yelled Rei running forward and swinging her now flaring sword at Xanthus. He flattened her easily and the blade went flying and stuck into the tree inches from the other rookie's faces. "Ow... this isn't fair!" Cried Rei as she lay there on her stomach with Xanthus practically crushing her back sitting on her. "Life isn't fair and until you can best me you're far from being ready little girl." Said Xanthus.

The dark skinned boy blinked. "Holy shit man- go easy." he said, frowning, though not making a move to help Rei up. Not with Xanthus pinning her down.

The blond frowned and looked to the bald boy beside him before running off, getting the feeling that Xanthus wasn't about to help them.

"Hey-!" The bald one frowned, going to run after the blond only to have the brunette stop him.

"So," the dark skinned boy looked at Xanthus frowning. "Can you help us now? That crazy woman's going to kill everyone in our class."

Xanthus just got off Rei and said, "What nonsense are you going on about you three?" Hearing a loud scream he blinked as Joel ran by crying, "Get them off me!!" Several skeletons were chasing after them. Rei grabbed her sword and swung at them saying, "Leave him alone you bone heads!!!" "The hell is Liz doing now?" Asked Xanthus confused. He looked at them and said, "You three explain yourselves. What the hell is going on?"

[The blond is gone lol]

The Islander laughed a bit nervously. "Well, see, we wanted a break right? So we thought if we got the teacher to fall asleep, we could all go to sleep too..." he said glancing to the bald kid beside him. "So we kind of convinced baldy here to knock her out with some chemicals he made."

"Don't blame me! This is YOUR fault!" the bald boy glared daggers at the dark skinned boy. "You're the IDIOT who had this idea!"

"Yeah yeah- anyways--" the dark skinned boy frowned. "She's totally crazy. She's attacking us all in her sleep and I mean hard core! She's totally lost it! She killed two of the others just by touching them! If it weren't for Mike--- hey where is he?" he looked around for the blond.

The bald kid shuddered, recalling the flesh literally melting off the others. "Michael trapped her to the spot with roots." the bald kid reported. "So we could run."

"Wait if flower boy ain't here whose holding her no- oh shit we're in trouble." Said Xanthus as Liz appeared to be sleep walking and she was up. Back in the halls everyone else was unaware to the disturbance in the training area.

Rei had finished smashing the weaker skulls in of the skeletons thus freeing Joel from their torment. She returned only to see Xanthus and the other two bolt by. "Hey where you going!" Rei yelled pissed at them. "Talk later run now!!" Yelled Xanthus and Rei screamed taking off as even stronger skeletons came running her way.

Liz didn't walk so much as drifted, her skin taking on a paler than usual hue, almost see through. She herself seemed almost skeletal, drawing up undead beings as she moved, some clamoring together to form larger abominations. The trees around her seemed to dehydrate, shriveling and dying. A rosary around her wrist was floating there, no longer pulln down to lay against her skin from gravity. Her arm was bleeding, the drops escaping her skin turning into strange solid needles, flying forward and lodging themselves in tree trunks. The kids hadn't lied- she had apparently lost it in her sleep.

"Com'on." The dark skinned boy grabbed Rei's wrist, helping her over the tangled roots of the indoor forest floor.

----

Michael hurried out of the elevator, looking left and right for anyone who might be able to help. Not too far he felt a pretty strong power. So that way it was. Left. He turned left and took off, full sprint, following it to a tall man, currently sitting down with a none to happy expression on.
"S'curse me." Michael panted, having run full speed. "You're strong, right? Kinnda-" he had to gasp for air from running through the forest and halls. "Need a hand, down in the training area."

"You're not supposed to be in this area." Said Kena who was sitting there with him. The two had been involved in a chess game. Akira sensed it suddenly and said, "It's fine he did the right thing finding someone. Something doesn't feel right in that area. Let's go Kena and the two got up rushing that way fast.

Rei screamed as something grabbed her ankle and she cried, "Let go of me!" Kicking the corpse she got free and ran after the others. Akira and Kena had come in seeing half the forest decayed and dead. "It feels like Liz but has she gone mad?" Asked Kena. "No idea but let's find her and take care of this before it goes into the halls." Said Akira hearing a few loud screams.

Michael had sank to the floor, panting. He'd done his job and gotten help.

--------------------

The dark skinned boy waited for Rei, moving her infront of him, moving her into the elevator after Akira and Kena came out of it. "Running, remember?" he reminded her, attempting to make light of the fact that she had fallen twice.
--------------------

By the time they found Liz, she was sitting like a glass doll in the arms of an undead golem. Her arms were crossing in her lap, head head leaning against the decomposing flesh of the golem as it trudged through the forest, upturning more undead creatures in it's wake.

The ex-nun was all but radiating with the dark energy. It was flowing out of her, draining herself.

Her face looked almost entirely skeletal and the flesh on her hands and feet had become translucent as well, dimly glowing with an eerie green light. Still, over the bone you could see the outline of skin. Her eyes were closed, and occasionally a drop of water would float from her face and splash lightly against the flesh golems face.

The two of them froze looking at her stunned. "She got put to sleep but the question is how and we best wake her up fast." Said Kena. Akira knocked a few more boney skeletons away with ease and the two of them just rushed. In one swift moment they knocked the golem back by kicking it. Kena distracted the big ass bastard while Akira held Liz in his arms. "Wake up!" He yelled slapping her sharply.

It took a couple rough shakes and two or three sharp slaps before the woman's eyes flew eyes, bright yellow.

She took in a startled gasp of air as her eyes opened, like someone who had forgotten to breathe for too long. The color almost immediately returned to her skin, and her eyes back to normal.

The golem didn't disintegrate upon her waking up- though was no longer animated. The massive corpse simply crumpled to the ground, no longer being fueled, as did the lesser minions she had created in her sleep.

Akira could feel the woman's heart racing through her ribs. For a moment she was disoriented, looking both terrified from the lingering nightmare and confused as to what had happened. She shook like a leaf, flailing once she realized she was being held. "No!" she cried, still half in her dream world.

Liz had been like this when she first arrived, though she had been much weaker at the time. Her powers had grown so much over the past years, it had gone from a couple of reanimated mice running around and her crying in her sleep to her fueling an entire onslaught. If history was any good reference point, it would take her at least an hour to calm down.

Xanthus finally deemed it safe to return to the training area. Only to find Liz dumped into his arms and Akira just walked off after that. "You three scram I don't want to see you at all. And Rei you're off for today I need to take this woman to Joel." Said Xanthus leaving. Once he took her to the medical area Joel was startled at the shape she was in. "What happened?" He asked worried. "Her trainees knocked her out to sleep. I don't know if it was a very good thing either." Said Xanthus. "Those boys of hers are fools. She can't sleep at all otherwise her powers go out of whack. Worse it could kill her if her creations turn on her what the hell were they thinking!" Said Joel. Xanthus lay her down and sighed saying, "Maybe I should take them they won't dare pull that shit on me."

Joel was fast to check Liz's heartbeat and vitals. "If it weren't for the Critical X she'd be dead. Her blood pressure is out of the roof." Said Joel horrified. He seemed to be quite angry as he went to work giving her an injection to at least bring the blood pressure down. Xanthus pulled up a chair and sat there wondering what the hell those boys were thinking.

Akira meanwhile had grabbed the two of her students after talking with Zane. Both boths were handed cleaning supplies. "Get to work for your negilence you're going to be cleaning for the next few weeks and are suspended from your training." Said Akira.

When Liz was dumped into his arms the shaking woman grabbed his shirt like a frightened child, crying quietly into his chest, trembling all the while.

When he lay her down on the bed she didn't want to let go of his shirt. It took him a moment to ease her off to lay on her own, hyperventilating and red faced. She hugged herself mumbling something quietly. It sounded like a prayer.

She flinched but didn't pull away as Joel set to checking her vitals. After the injection it took her a few minutes to at least begin breathing regularly, if a bit deeply still. Some how during the course of moving her from the training room to the medical room she had unwrapped her rosary, and was slowly shuffling the beads through her fingers.

---------

"Is she going to be okay?" the dark skinned boy asked, concerned for his teacher. The bald one said nothing, wondering the same.

Michael sat with Rei, frowning with his chin in his hand. His own training would be suspended now thanks to his teacher being out of commission. He looked over at Rei and frowned. "... Looks like you've been busy." he commented, eying her bruises.

Xanthus felt bad so he just let squeeze his hand as she lay there rattled up. He didn't even flinch seeing as human strength was so weak to begin with. Joel finished up and said, "I have to get back to work are you going to stay here with her?" "Yes it's best she has someone familiar around her when she gets her head together. Last thing we need is her screaming bloody murder seeing nothing but white walls around her." Said Xanthus. "Of course." Said Joel softly as he left the door closing.

"I do not know she was in bad shape when we got her free but you'll should be lucky you ain't being locked up for this." Said Akira .

"Yes I have he's rough but it really is effective. I just need to get quicker and timing my attacks right." Said Rei smiling.

"We've been learning less how to fight and more how to master our powers." He admitted, leaning back in his chair, watching the other two boys walk off to go begin their cleaning duty. "I swear if they killed the teacher, I'm going to kill them." he added frowning.

Michael was about 17 years old, tattoos on both arms. He looked like someone who had had a hard upbringing, but seemed to at least have his priorities straightened out. Unlike his classmates.

"So, what can you do?" he asked raising an eyebrow at her.

--------

After a while, Liz seemed to have gone into a sort of trance, rather than sleep, staring at the wall, still buttering her soft prayers, moving from one bead to the next. At least now Xanthus had an idea as to how she rested if she couldn't sleep.

She muttered flawless Latin, having been tough by the church, her other hand still holding his, every once in a while giving it a squeeze.

It was strange to see the typically teasing and happy-go-lucky woman so upset. It didn't suit her.

"I really don't know... Xanthus says I'm special because I'm the only person in this whole place that can only use a weapon to channel my power. But it's a pretty nasty fire when it does come out and that's about all I can do..." Said Rei watching the people come in and out of the cafeteria. Joel came walking in and there was another man behind him. "Finally came out of your hole Kai." Called Rei to the man behind Joel. "Ha... ha.... very funny Rei, it's very rare I leave my work station." Said Kai waving her off. Rei laughed and looked at Michael and said, "Don't ever step foot in his office unless you want to get lost. When Xanthus took me there to put me on the records it took us a half an hour to find him among the damn archives. You need a map just to find your way through that vast area."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "So he's a record keeper?" he asked, dipping the carrot sticks he had bought into the dressing. "Joel's the doctor, I know that. He's been having to give me an IV about once a day." he frowned, sipping from his glass of water. "Apparently my powers suck the water out of me or something."

"Get your facts straight kid. Not just in charge of records but of registration communications as well meaning I give out jobs to the people working here. I keep an eye on our region. If there's an attack I'm the one who warns the hunters in that region." Said Kai. "Yes and alas you earned the title the biggest nerd in the whole organization. I heard you used to work on Joel's team a while ago." Said Rei. "Yeah till the Critical X fucked me up pardon my language but I was exposed some how and nearly died. Now I refuse to go near the stuff as I didn't get any good out of it." Said Kai as he gulped down his coffee.

Xanthus meanwhile was still with Liz when the door opened and he expected it to be Joel. But instead it was another man whom he did not recongize. Seeing the cross around the guys neck the first thought was the church was butting in again. "I'm afraid you'll have to leave." Said Xanthus frowning. "So its true about your kind they're not very friendly after all." Said the man. "Just who the hell are you to talk like you know me?" Snapped Xanthus standing up.

"The name is John I'm a priest at the church the woman whose laying there used to be a part of. Initially I came to see if she was still alive but how did she end up like this is the question?" He said looking at Xanthus. "It doesn't concern you she's going to be fine in a week or so she just needs to relax." Said Xanthus.

"If nothing good happened, what did happen?" Michael asked blinking. He looked to Joel. "I was under the impression it either killed you or made you stronger."


-----

Liz stopped muttering when his hand left hers and blinked a couple of times. Her eyes seemed a little foggy, though much less so than when she had first been brought into the room.

Her fingers resed idly on the rosary, the skin on their tips slightly tranlucent. She was recovering. It wasn't something that was going to take no time at all.

Still in her little trance though, she seemed aware of her suroundings, frowning as the two bickered.

"Well one thing for sure I'm glad I didn't end up like the poor girl over there with cat ears." Said Kai pointing at Kaya who quickly jerked her hood over her head. "That was mean you think she asked to look like that!" Said Rei. "Wasn't trying to be mean anyways it gave me the power she has I could have become an oracle and yet at the same time the person originally in charge of what I'm doing now kinda quit so I took up his job." Said Kai.

John just ignored Xanthus and went over placing his hand on Liz's forehead. "I said leave otherwise I won't stop Zane if he rains holy hell down on you for being here!" Said Xanthus. "He knows I'm here and I'm sure he's watching me. I did not come here for any other reason then for what I said now calm down." Said John looking at Xanthus.

"Noone's mentioned an oracle to me." Michael blinked. "What's that entail?" he asked curiously, biting into another carrot stick.

"It's when someone can see into the future and predict the death of people." a voice answered Michael. A short man sat down at the table, his long hair pinned back. Or was it a female? Really, it was hard to tell with the baggy cloths and facial features. "They're right some of the time, wrong others- and with cases like me are somewhere inbetween."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? An' who're you?"

"Yuki." the new arrival said simply, sipping their tea. Yuki the Biomancer. The only hunter to go down in rank, after surviving a vampire feeding upon them.

-------

Liz's frown deepened and she seemed to snap out of her trance, smacking John's hand away, shaking her head. "Don't touch me." She said, shifting to sit up.

Rei didn't know what to think of this person who shoved up."Um hi I guess anyways I'm starving still Xanthus hasn't let me eat for a week. That big jerk says its best to stay light on my feet and a full stomach does not help." Said Rei getting up and going over to the counter. Coming back she sat down and looked at the others and sitting there in awkward silence.

Michael was still staring at Yuki when she returned. ".... Are.... Are you a guy or a girl?" he finally asked.

Yuki blinked back at him, like it was an odd question to ask. "Well, what do you think?"

Michael blinked. "Er, is that a trick question?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yuki scoffed and picked the coffee back up before walking off.

Michael looked to Joel. ".... Was that a guy or girl?" he asked frowning.

"Not my place to say." Said Joel and Rei laughed and said, "With clothes like that I feel sorry for when Yuki fights. I learned the hard way when Xanthus set mine on fire one time. Oh wait that was me whoopsie." She went back to her food and a hand rested on her shoulder a voice saying, "I know you're just faking that smile..." Rei jumped up as Kaya appeared behind her.

"Look I know you had it rough growing up but everyone here is your family now so there's no need to be so secluded from everyone. Nobody is going to hurt you." Said Kaya softly. Rei just backed up and said, "So how many here are mind readers like you..." "No you got it wrong I saw your past when I checked you over that day." Said Kaya. "Its my own business and nobody else needs to know." Said Rei before she turned and abruptly left the cafeteria. Kaya looked sad as she said, "I didn't mean to upset her..."

Michael frowned. "I'm sure she'll come around?" he attempted to sound reassuring before getting up as well. He would follow her and make sure she was alright.

He caught up to her in the hallway and walked along side her in silence. "Sorry-" he said when she looked at him. "But I don't really know anyone back there so...." he frowned slightly. "Here." he said looking off to the other side, offering her a white rose. "People here are invasive." He said simply. "They pry more than they need to."