DarkLight

((I'll lead them to Jacob and co. to speed things up a little)) Danielle rolled her eyes at the Orre-native before turning her heels back to the corridor once again. Just what is up with Henry and not bothering Evan? Does he really not care about Ryan at all? Or is Henry hiding something from them? The coordinator rolled around her mind as she followed her Murkrow silently through the open air. After a short walking trek, Danielle spotted the three familiar faces. She waved an arm, hoping to get their attention. "Hey you three! Mind if we join you?" Danielle's three Pokemon wasted no time for introductions; they just ran (or in Avis' case, flew) straight for the lunch line hoping to grab some food before their next matches. Of course, once they did get their food, one of them will be calling obnoxiously for Danielle to pay but, for now, the humans will have some peace to catch up.

I may be off, but my deck might have a tiny chance at No. 66 if I can pull out Infinity quick enough to disable it? Please correct me if I'm wrong, since I'm not familiar with the new stuff yet.

71 Almost as bad as 70

"I hope so, Lana, but I don't want to leave him out of the picture just yet." Danielle replied before turning to Henry. "Hey, relax~ I wasn't planning on lying anyway. Rosie - I assume? - heard Jacob and Mareek arguing. Things turned sour and Mareek knocked over a chair before Jacob stormed off. And both Lana and I were about to follow Avis to find them. If you want, you can come along with us. If not, we will be on our way~" Zared gave a nod towards the battle screen as Slade's match ended. So his master's next battle is drawing closer and closer; they really need to get a move on for lunch then. He walked briskly towards the corridor and uttered an impatient bark towards the humans (and Corona), gesturing in the direction that Avis flew to. Haven't they heard of the walk-and-talk skill before?

{Zander and Ken} Arial turned her eyes away from Luna's scene, giggling again as Zander appeared flustered once more. "Crystal beasts, eh?" She questioned, eyeing Zander down from head to toe. It looked like she was checking him out or something. "Yeah... that definitely suits you to a "T" alright! As for me though..." The green-eyed girl then placed her tablet carefully on the table in order to pick up her gray, messenger bag from the floor. She then pulled out a light green, satin deck box and took out a card in a sky-blue sleeve and showed it off to the two boys. The said card contained a picture of a fierce-looking metallic snake. "Cyber Dragon is the name of my game! I love this deck to death after seeing its original duelist using it!" She then paused, realizing that was about to fangirl and gave an embarrassed laugh. "A-Anyways, what about you... Um... I just realized I never knew your name Mister I-Make-the-Best-Cookies-in-the-World. Haha... I'm Arial Longshire, by the way. Maybe you have heard of that fashion designer brand called Aros? My parents own it..." She scratched her head, hoping Ken wouldn't mind the slip up.

@Commander: I don't know whether I should wait for Lana's response to Danielle or not before I address Henry; that's why I didn't make a post despite being here reading everything.

40 Damn, Flare got it so bad.

Danielle shook her head as she picked up her frightened Larvesta. After Corona calmed down with a few soft words, the coordinator turned her attention back to Lana. "Nah, from what Mareek told me earlier, this involved everyone that was in the waiting room, including myself." She then began walking to the door, stopping to allow Lana and Zared to follow her with ease. "And I'm sure by the time we catch up to them, they will be all buddy buddies again thanks to Avis." And then Avis appeared in front of her face with a satisfied grin. "All good out there?" Danielle simply asked. Avis crowed happily before she zoomed out once more to lead the way. "Anyways, I guess I better fill you in from the beginning. It'll make sense once you hear the whole story. So, remember back when that herd of Donphan almost ran us over and how Evan disappeared? Well, several... Bad omens have appeared since then..." Danielle proceeded to explain to Lana why they were worried about Evan's behavior and his potential alignment with this unknown organization. She also told her roommate the information that made them all come together in the first place - Kage's received vision about Ryan's death.

{Zander, Ken and Luna} "Hmm... That makes sense." Arial replied after she swallowed a bite of her first cookie. "My brothers and I had stopped going there for a while because we started going to different schools. And, when we do, I wouldn't be surprised if we happened to miss one another." The green-eyed girl then giggled as poor Zander blushed profusively and Ken exploded in laughter; what a cute sight that was. Arial continued to watch as the Sugar Prince attempted to bring the conversation back to a friendlier, non-embarrassing tone. However, her attention was distracted yet again when Luna decided to "help" Zander with his woman troubles by sauntering over to Minerva. Arial didn't know whether to thank God for having Luna gone, or pray for God to safeguard the redhead's sanity. "Oh boy, I like to see how this plays out..." she said sarcastically as she finished off her first dessert. Neverthless, Arial did watch the scene unfold over by Minvera's desk, taking a few nibbles on her second cookie that Zander didn't take from her hands.

36 Someone get the next number quick.

{Avis' view} It felt great to be out of the stuffy building, especially after that whole mess. Avis allowed the air currents to whisk her up into the light blue sky without any interruptions, adjusting her flight feathers ever so slightly whenever a stray wind attempted to drag her off course. Once she felt the air begin to thin out, the tiny crow realigned herself so that she was hovering like a children's kite, except with no strings attached. And so the game begins. Who will her keen bird eyes spot first? Her eyes strayed left and right, attempting to locate either a redhead or a brunette. The cold air chilled her to the bone as she gave an occasional flap of her ebony wings, but she has learned to ignore that side effect as soon as she took her first flight lessons. Ah, such is the life of all bird-like Pokemon. Amidst the small crowd of humans and Pokemon (since most of them are probably still in the stands), the Murkrow had spotted Mareek and Java quite easily. Red is such an easy color to spot in daylight; no challenge for her there. She was about to return back to Danielle when a waving movement caught her attention a little ways ahead. Oh? Jacob and James are over there? What perfect timing! Avis zoomed over to Jacob and James' location and circled overhead, indicating that she had spotted them. With a loud caw, the Murkrow then began making her way back to Danielle and Lana. ((I'm waiting for Lana's response, so I'm not posting Dani's point of view yet))

Oh don't worry, I saw the reference alright. I'm just going to let the others figure it out by themselves xD

{Zander, Luna, Ken} 'Oh, what now? I was just getting to the good part too.' Arial whined to herself as she heard Zander snap his fingers. She looked reluctantly to face the bejeweled teen, ignoring his attempts to impress her with his wealth. Arial has seen enough of those in her parents' workplace. Nevertheless, she decided to address the guy more politely; it did help that Xander's attention grabber didn't choke her like Luna's did. "Hey, thanks, Zander! You are right on the money! Ma and Pops got this for me for my birthday since they saw that my old one broke down. Kinda surprised that they even noticed, to be honest..." She quickly shook her head to clear away that thought, not wanting to dwell on her parents' continuous absence from home. "Hey guys! I figured that with all this gloom and doom going around over Tenjo's death, you all could use some sweets to perk you up. Baked them myself, courtesy of the Sugar King Sweet Shop. Best sweets in Heartland, if I do say so myself. You too loverboy." Arial's eyes lightened up as Ken offered some of his cookies to them. She remembered how fond of Sugar King Sweet Shop she and her brothers were when they were little. They would go there almost everyday after school just to pick up a few candies before going home. What the chances that she would meet someone who knew how to bake those delicious desserts here! After Luna took a cookie, Arial picked one up delicately herself. "Yo, thanks a lot! You have no idea how obssessed I was with these. Used to go there all the time with my bros before we went our separate ways.." "He's right! These really are the best cookies around. I wouldn't call him loverboy though. All he did to me was brag about how rich and famous his father is. Booooooooring!" Arial resisted a chuckle as Luna complained about Zander. 'Despite being annoying, she's got guts, I'll give her that much.' After taking a nibble of her cookie, the chuckling teen pick another one up from Ken's tin with her other hand and offered it to Zander. "You want? They really aren't bad."

Chim, Danielle will follow Lana out if you want her to. As for Avis, whoever wants to interact with her can say something, although I think Mareek would be closer to her than Jacob or James?

"Hey Jacob! Made another quick work of your opponent, I see~" Danielle grinned before addressing her teammate. "And no, not at all Lana! We were just waiting for you so we began having a friendly chat. We were talking about--" Danielle was then interrupted by the loud crash of a chair. She then heard Avis uttering a worried "crow" as Jacob and Mareek bickered over the Evan issue. Before Danielle could even get a word in, she saw one of her best friends stormed out, an angry computer program trying to slap Mareek across his face, and Mareek apologizing to them before he also left the room. The coordinator gave a heavy sigh before facing Lana. The poor girl was probably frightened if anything. "Welp, so much for a friendly conversation. Do you want to go after them and grab some lunch ourselves? I'll fill you in on the details as we head there." ------------ "Mur..." The mischievous bird uttered before she glanced at Corona and Zared. Corona crawled back to Danielle, shaking a little from the shouting and yelling. Zared looked a little reluctant to follow suit but, seeing as the battle was almost finished anyway, he sauntered back and awaited Danielle's instructions. Unlike his female teammates, the Mawile was not too affected by the arguing; it's not as if he could do anything about it, after all. With that done, Avis took off and flew out of the room, hoping to find either Mareek or Jacob.

{Monika} Arial nodded solemnly as the shy girl voiced her opinion, munching on the rest of her lunch all the while. Unfortunately for Monika, the green-eyed girl really didn't get too far into her research to tell her any more. If only Arial could find more time... And as if by some lucky coincidence, something happened to catch Monika's eye. 'A Constellar monster? So that's your deck of preference huh?' Arial gulped down the rice and grinned at Monika's giddiness. "No probs, mate. I'll see if I can find some more stuff while you help him out!" {Slightly Arthur, Anna, Gawyn; Luna and Zander are present too} With that, Arial took back her precious tablet, eager to get back into researching when, in the corner of her eye, she saw someone near that window. She managed to get a glimpse of Lane's body tumbling out before she noticed the same bluenette that happened to pull Lane back before. That's odd; why wasn't he worried? Then again, she didn't hear any cries of pain... Arial gave a small salute with a grin to Arthur as he went by her. 'Well, since he isn't panicking over that guy's fall, I guess it's all good. If that's the case, maybe I should try it some time! It beats running down the stairs, that's for sure!' The tomboy grinned at that thought until she saw Anna and Gawyn leaving the classroom nonchalantly as if nothing happened. 'Hey... Wasn't Professor Reinier worried about the window-jumper before? Why is she so silent now?' Arial tilted her head, confused by the turn of events. It's almost as if Anna forgot about it or something. But what responsible professor wouldn't care about her students' safety? "Man, what a weird first day this is turning out to be..." Arial commented, shaking her head slightly. With that, she put her empty lunch box back into her bag and directed her eyes back onto the tablet in front of her once more, shifting down the list of searches.

And damn, things just hit the fan when I'm busy in rl... Oh, I can't wait to get back and respond properly~

{Monika, then Luna (and Zander)} Before she had a chance to respond to Monika's question, Arial turned around abruptly as Anna Reinier yelled at Lane, believing that they were in trouble or something. When she saw that the crisis was averted by a bluenette, the tomboyish teenager returned her gaze back to Monika, rolling her eyes at the foolishness. She honestly has no idea why Lane would do such a thing like that. Okay, not having Professor Tenjo as their homeroom teacher is disappointing, but it certainly didn't require suicide. Life was too fun to give it up so easily! "What a weirdo..." she muttered before addressing Monika's concern properly. "Aaaannyyways, of course I wouldn't mind talking about it. It's not like it's a secret or anything. Those duels though... I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect anyone to be interested in illegal duels. Many seemed to have dismissed them immediately when those words left our dear professor's mouth." She chuckled, scratching her head nervously. Being around boys for most of her life, Arial was not as smooth of a talker with girls as she is with the boys, especially shy girls. She always felt more restricted in her speech when she is talking to girls. "But, to answer your question... Yes, I believe it could happen." Arial grabbed her tablet from her lap and showed Monika the webpage that she was looking at. "From what I just read, illegal duels are unregulated duels that take place in secrecy. The reason they are in secrecy is not because they are unregulated, but because each duel is a fight to the death, literally. Underground dueling was a prime example of this; each duelist has to wear a set of electrodes that delivers electric shocks whenever a duelist loses life points. And they both cannot leave the duel arena, which is surrounded by a huge metal cage, until one of them is defeated." Arial paused, taking a deep breath before she went on. Her voice had grown a little more somber, though, as if she was sad about the next facts. "It was rumored that the Kaiser was a participant of these at one point in time. Since he was in perfect health before he became "Hell Kaiser" and after he went back to using his regular deck, the only reason that could explain that heart condition he had during that in-between period was because of those electrodes..." "By the way, this is some good shrimp." "Oh, I'm glad you liked them!" Arial answered, not realizing it was Luna that had complimented her. Food stealing was a typical thing with her brothers at home. "I still have some if you -- Wait a minute!" She flipped back to her desk and found herself face to face with several empty tail shells... And an obviously satisfied Luna. Arial's shock and disbelief slowly turned into annoyance. Normally, she would care less about someone stealing her lunch, but since this girl almost scared the s*** out of her before and not even apologize for it... "Oh, you're welcome." Arial replied with noticeably less enthusiasm than before, trying to keep her cool as much as possible. "You could have asked me if you wanted some, I would have given you a piece..." With that, she popped another piece of sushi into her mouth, desperately trying to distract herself from blowing up by chewing and refocusing her thoughts back to Monika's question.

{Monika, slightly Luna and Zander} 'How fascinating!' Arial thought as she slipped a piece of shrimp into her mouth. 'If this is really true, that could explain why Zane had that brief hiatus to recover from heart complications.' She pressed the "Back" button on her screen and continued to scroll down. 'But is this also the reason why he went to Cyberdarks--' The sudden loud bang on the table has completely crashed her train of thought. Arial jumped in her seat and almost choked on that same piece of shrimp at the same time. After a few sputtering coughs and gags, Arial turned to the source of the disturbance - Luna - and gave her an annoyed glare. If it wasn't for another person -actually, make that two people - coming over to introduce themselves, Arial would have railed on her for almost causing her untimely death. So much for a peaceful break... "Arial Longshire." The green-eyed girl said curtly to the bejeweled teen. When she noticed that his attention was diverted to Luna, Arial lowered her glare and turned to face a softer, feminine voice that seemed to echo right behind her. Arial blinked for a moment; why would she want to talk about their deceased professor? Well, might as well go along with it, it's not like that girl will leave her to her research. "Hey there, uhhh, Monika, is it? I'm free to hear to you out until class starts again. So what's up?" Arial responded as cheerfully as she could.

Like Commander said, I don't mind waiting. For me, I have a midterm to study for so I won't be around much either.

298 @Turbo: Basically~ They also have reset bombs

My oh my. That might be a reason for why Arial was disappointed as well

{Anybody still in the classroom} A girl with bright green eyes and long, wavy brown hair had sighed after Professor Reinier finished her last comments for the day. It was not due to sadness nor shock, though. Arial Longshire was actually more disappointed than anything else; she had heard good things about Professor Tenjo and was really enthusiastic about this class. But noooo, of course someone had to take him away before she even got the chance to meet him. "Well, so much for relying on "Rate My Professor" to breeze through class," she groaned as the students sauntered off to who knows where. After giving them a brief glance, Arial scratched her head and rummaged though her bag. With a few good tugs, she pulled out a small box that contained her lunch and an encased tablet. "Well, it's nothing a good, quiet lunch and some wifi couldn't fix!" She exclaimed as placed a shrimp sashimi in her mouth. Arial then waited patiently for her tablet to boot up, chewing the piece of sushi slowly to savor the flavor. The young girl had considered getting up and joining her fellow classmates, but the thought of "illegal duels" had caught her interest. As soon as her screen had lit up, Arial placed another piece of sushi in her mouth and cracked her knuckles. 'I wonder... Wasn't there a rumor with illegal dueling a long time ago...?' With a few swift strokes of her fingers, Arial was soon on the Internet reading down a list of searches that contained "underground dueling," "illegal," and "Zane Truesdale." The girl was so engrossed into her reading that she barely acknowledged Klive's loud whistle, nor anybody for the matter. One could easily sneak up and see what she was reading...

294 If an admins want to help, he/she usually post a number, so we can continue xD

Seeing that the subject was avoided, Danielle decided to focus back onto their main subject. When Mareek brought up the new people, Danielle instantly bursted out laughing. Poor Avis was forced to take flight and find another perch for the time being. "S-Sorry, Mareek, you actually made me remember something funny during the opening festival. Y-You see," she paused, trying to stifle her laughter, "Slade and I bumped into a guy named Pierre after we left the Fortune Teller. He was riding on a Ponyta and was making a grandiose entrance that could rival Claude's. Pierre decided to come over and introduced himself, noting that he is a Kalosian and a new student here. But the way he was showing off though..." Danielle giggled once more. It was obvious that she couldn't take Pierre seriously. Once Lana approached them, however, Danielle managed to regain most of her composure, giving a cheerful wave to her roommate. "There you are Lana! We were waiting for you~" She got out of her seat to give the shy girl a hug. "You were amazing out there by the way. I'm sure those guys and gals would think twice when they mess with you now!" Avis was finally able to land on the arm rest of Danielle's chair; it was not as comfortable as a human's shoulder, but it would do while Danielle was bouncing all over the place.