Welcome

[Smedwicks]

It was still early in the morning, just a few hours ago Naomi and Alenni had gone to Transcendence Island to screw with them. As well as Alenni's attempts at causing some damage in the school, Naomi managed to complete her purpose: kidnapping a student to hold as a hostage. And not just any student, Daniella Mosby, who Naomi had bullied quite a bit, which made it even more satisfying to use her as a bargaining chip against the academy.

Ever since her escape from the academy and leaving Alenni behind, Naomi had constantly beeon the run. Of course, running along rooftops was difficult when her hostage was squirming around. Naomi reached a particularly tall building and stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

"As long as I have you, Transcendence isn't gonna think about coming anywhere near me," Naomi said with a grin as Daniella stared at her nervously. The young girl tried to speak, but due to the tentacle wrapped around her face, was unable to speak. After a few moments, Naomi stood up, starting to walk around the roof, looking around, thinking about where to go to next in the city.

[Ubermann]

Eve rolled over, half awake, and was jolted into full awakeness when she realized Daniella was gone. She sat up in bed, looking around.

"Dani?"

Maybe she had gone to the bathroom? Though having to get up in the wee hours of the morning to use the bathroom seemed somewhat out of character.

Eve got up and quickly slid into her jeans and pulled a t-shirt over her head before heading out into the hallway, down towards the bathroom. The tiled room could not have been more empty.

She went back towards her room and noticed with distress that the door was still locked. Dani had not left through the door... but she wouldn't go out the window. A fall of several hundred feet onto the rocky beach was all one would find outside the window.

This left only one conclusion in Eve's mind.

In a moment, Eve was outside the building, flying as fast as she could go towards the city.

Call it luck or whatever you like, but from above the city, Eve spotted Naomi, pacing around a rooftop, Dani held securely in her tentacles.

Invisible and insubstantial, Eve dove in, flying faster than she ever had before.

Grabbing Dani, Eve flew straight through the rooftop onto the top floor of the building.

"Wait here." she whispered to Daniella before flying straight back up and becoming visible in front of Naomi.

Before Naomi could react, Eve had smashed her palm into the older girl's nose with every ounce of strength she had, then phased straight through her, ending up behind Naomi.

[Smedwicks]

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. As Daniella suddenly disappeared from Naomi's grasp, Dani felt relieved, but Naomi was red with rage.

"Where did you go!?" she screamed.

Meanwhile in the air, Dani, while relieved, had her eyes wide, "Eve...?" she asked.

"Wait here."

Before Daniella could say anything, Eve was off, presumably to beat up Dani's former captor.

Naomi was seething while on the rooftop, but before she could really do anything, she suddenly felt a strong pain in her nose, getting hit by Eve. Naomi held onto her nose, looking around, not seeing the younger girl.

"Time to cut my losses and run..." Naomi mumbled to herself as she started to run towards the edge of the rooftop, then jumping off. She swung down into a nearby alleyway. She started walking through, hoping Eve wouldn't follow her down.

"Guess I'll just have to think of a new plan to get back at that school..." Naomi mumbled, still holding her nose as she walked through the alley.

[Ubermann]

Eve chased the now-bleeding Naomi to the edge of the rooftop, staring after the fleeing girl. She was heaving with anger almost as though she were breathing heavily.

After taking a moment to calm herself, Eve dropped back through the roof to where she had left Daniella.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get here a little sooner." She said, forcing a smile. "Let's go home."

Eve lifted her roommate in her arms and drifted upwards into the empty sky. For most, it would take at least 45 minutes to get from here to Transcendence, being limited to the streets and traffic of Seattle, followed by the slow moving ferry to the island. But Eve could just fly there in a straight line. When she went all out, it was less than 5 minutes from downtown to the academy.

"Don't talk now. Just sleep." Eve said as she lowered her roommate into her bed. "I'm going to go tell Thespian what happened."

"No need." Thespian's voice came from the doorway. "Silent panic is just about the loudest thing you can think. Makes for an amazing alarm. I was up and alert the second you realized she was gone. You girls just keep your window locked and don't worry about this too much. I'll take care of it."

Eve sat down on the edge of Dani's bed.

"Make the best of what's left of the night. I'll excuse you both from your classes tomorrow to recover and relax. If you need to talk, you know where to find me." Thespian said as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Eve mocked letting out a long breath and let herself fall over backwards, leaving herself lying over Daniella's legs.

[Smedwicks]

"I'm sorry I couldn't get here a little sooner. Let's go home."

Daniella nodded as she was quickly taken back to their room at Transcendence.

"Don't talk now. Just sleep. I'm going to go tell Thespian what happened."

Dani mumbled quietly with a nod. She lied down on the bed, not saying a word and her eyes wide open. She closed them for half a minute, but then opened them again, not able to sleep.

"No need. Silent panic is just about the loudest thing you can think. Makes for an amazing alarm. I was up and alert the second you realized she was gone. You girls just keep your window locked and don't worry about this too much. I'll take care of it."

As Thespian came in and spoke to the girls, Dani's gaze wandered over to her, staring at her silentl. She knew what she was saying, but couldn't find the ability to say anything in response. Dani closed her eyes momentarily, hoping to fall asleep, but still eluded by it.

"Make the best of what's left of the night. I'll excuse you both from your classes tomorrow to recover and relax. If you need to talk, you know where to find me."

Dani nodded, her eyes still closed. She opened them just long enough to see Eve lie down, and a small smile crept on her face. She reclosed her eyes, hoping to fall back asleep.

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, Naomi continued to run through the alleys, not knowing that Eve had given up the pursuit and had left. She cursed to herself. This was supposed to be her victory! She was supposed to win! But instead she was stopped by her victim's girlfriend.

She stopped in another alleyway, unsure of where she was at this point. She panted a bit, recovering her strength from all of the acrobatics she had been doing. She turned around, noticing an older woman standing there, who started to walk over.

"And just who the hell are you? Are you really going to test your luck by walking over to some girl in some alley?" Naomi said threateningly.

"Sorry sweetie, but you already lost," the woman told her, smirking. Before Naomi could attack, she was stopped. What she didn't know was that the mysterious woman's shadow was what was stopping her, holding Naomi's shadow so Naomi herself couldn't move.

"What..." Naomi mumbled, confused as to how she was being held down.

"Now just hold still dear, this'll only take a minute," the woman said, taking some shadows from the nearby garbage cans and dumpsters and transforming them into ropes. She walked over to the struggling Naomi, and quickly bound the girl up and set her next to a wall.

"And now for the final touch..." the woman mumbled, taking a small shadow in order to create a piece of paper and a pen. On the paper she wrote, "You're welcome" and set it in one of the ropes that bound Naomi.

"That should do it. Come on shadow, we're leaving," the woman said as her shadow quickly reattached itself to her, and the woman walked away, with naomi in complete confusion as to what had just happened.