Hashim was walking to his dorm after Botany when the first encounter happened. Just as they had suspected, Miss Rose had continued on with a demonstration of plants that could cause visible effects, and she gave an "impassioned" (according to Xavier and Jake) speech about how useful plants were. After that, he had had two more engineering classes that day. Toon had been interested, but they had quickly become boring. It was hard to wait for other people to catch up, so he had used his ability to read through the lesson plan for the rest of the semester in both classes. It clearly wasn't designed for him. Toon most certainly didn't need two whole classes of practice on a single equation.
Now Hashim was standing before three boys who had declared themselves "monitors". He didn't even know what that meant. He was asking Jake to come forward, but Jake wasn't responding, and Xavier was trying to get in at the same time. Hashim couldn't force Jake to the front without there being a high chance of Xavier interfering.
"So, what dorm are you in?" the lead boy asked. He had a few veins of green on his arms, likely a power-hungry freak. At least, that was what he thought. Until Toon recognized him.
This was James Callway, the third of the four students who were deemed "too destructive".
Hashim just shrugged and pointed ahead. He didn't remember the name of it, and Toon thought it was funny not to tell him.
"Getting smart with me, kid?" the boy asked, scoffing. "I could eat you for breakfast."
Then Jake decided to come out.
He looked up at James and cocked his head, then activated his ability.
"Could you?" he asked.
James just chuckled a little, and looked to his subordinates for support, wanting them to laugh with him. But they didn't give any. They were terrified. Even if Jake's power didn't do anything useful, it certainly was good for intimidation.
James scowled at him, saying, "Oh, sure. Just go ahead and take the coward's way out. Use your ability, see what happens."
James couldn't tell. He had had to look at the other boys to realize that Jake was using his ability. Then he must not feel Jake's ability. Jake asked Toon what tier James's ability was, but Toon still didn't respond. Could it possibly be higher than Twelfth? Most people could feel if someone near them activated an ability, especially if that ability was stronger than their own. It was possible that James simply couldn't feel abilities, but it was more likely that he just didn't feel abilities weaker than his own.
If that was true, then they had just been targeted by the most powerful person in the entire school. Maybe Corpse could beat him in combat. Maybe. But it would be a problem if his ability didn't take a long time to charge up.
Since abilities were measured by power output alone, it wasn't strange to see lower tier abilities triumph over higher tier ones if the lower tier ones could be activated faster, especially depending on the skill level of the participants.
This, in turn, had led to the development of the singular combatative sport being increased from one on one to the now more popular five on five. All of this information, Toon was happy to provide, but he still wouldn't tell Jake what ability James had, or what tier it was.
They weren't supposed to be able to access that sort of information about other students, but Toon didn't care. He had used his ability to view the files of pretty much every student here, at Xavier's request. Of course, that was information that even Toon didn't want to remember. After all, he didn't care about names, so he had kept track of the few he thought would be important, like Summer, James, and the other two whose powers were restricted, and had voluntarily forgotten the others.
"This isn't a fight you want to pick," Jake said slowly. It was hardly possible that Jame had been bullied into this, given his ability. Unless, of course, he was much more morally upright than his portfolio suggested. Which Jake, frankly, doubted.
That meant that James wanted something to do with their room, and it wasn't likely that there was another motive or mastermind behind him.
"Oh, I think it is," James said. "Stand down, kid. You don't know who I am."
"James Callway," Jake responded absently. He was wondering if he could let Toon out enough to check the other two's identities without them noticing. Not likely. But when Jake studied them to see if he could find out just how easily they could be distracted, he noticed they were already uneasy enough. Maybe he didn't need Toon. Perhaps just using James's name was enough.
"Who told you that name?" James asked, narrowing his eyes. Jake could feel a slight pressure building up, frustration starting to boil over. Jake had accidentally walked onto a landmine in James's personality. Within the first few exchanges of the conversation.
Xavier broadcasted amusement and a mocking tone, and then Toon decided to finally be helpful. By telling Jake exactly what he had done wrong.
Callway is his legal name, Toon supplied helpfully. He changed his name to Dark Eye, and he hates when anyone uses his real name. His mother hasn't been seen in years.
Jake fought the urge to roll his eyes. Now Toon said this? After Jake had already made the mistake? Jake wasn't that surprised, actually. Toon was mischievous. But he was a little angry. This was serious, after all. They didn't know how long James's self-control, even enforced by rules, would last. He seemed unstable enough already.
Having that much power... But not being able to use it. It would drive anyone mad.
Apparently, though, it would last long enough to walk away. For, after one more threat, that was exactly what James did.
"Watch your back, kid," one of the goons muttered as he walked past Jake, intending to shoulder him, perhaps to the ground, but Jake stepped away, pivoting, and then forcefully planted his feet, able to stop his instinctive counterstrike only with Hashim's help.
The boy scowled at Jake, not paying heed to his tense, combat-ready stance, instead just spitting on the ground and jogging after the other two.
What just happened? Hashim thought, curious at Jake's response, but mostly about the interaction Jake had had with James.
I think we're being targeted by the school's version of the mob. Was Jake's reply.
Things could very well start to get bad after this.
They had to make sure they were prepared at all times. Otherwise they might find themselves up against a threat that they couldn't handle. Jake sighed. They needed to get back to their dorm before anything else happened.
Luckily, Jake had no more incidents most of the way back. And then there was Xavier. There was a solitary girl walking down the path opposite them, looking a bit drunk, and Jake hadn't been paying that close of attention, so when Xavier's power suddenly surged, Jake was barely able to push him down.
And, for better or worse, that put Toon in charge, because he had been providing instructions to Jake at the time, making sure that he could go more than five feet without losing his way. Really, was he the only one of them who could remember simple directions? It sometimes seemed that way.
But it quickly turned out to be quite a bad thing, because Toon hadn't been in control for more than three seconds when he bumped into the girl, and the sudden contact both distracted Toon and boosted Xavier, giving him control.
Hashim almost immediately shut them all out.
Toon swum around in the darkness of their mind with Hashim and Jake, all three of them steering clear of the corner where Corpse brooded.
None of them wanted to be around when they couldn't get control from Xavier. In fact, Hashim had discovered he could do this when they had first arrived here and none of them could overpower Xavier. It was a similar situation. When Hashim couldn't force Xavier out of control, he pushed on something else instead, and then this had happened. Since then, Hashim had been able to do it at will. Hashim thought it might be useful, but it concerned Toon.
Why should Hashim have the power to do that and not him?
Because you would abuse it, was Jake's amused response. Now, he wasn't wrong, but it was still annoying. None of them were supposed to be consistently stronger than the others.
None of us except for Hashim, Jake reminded him. Toon frowned. What was that memory? That thing that Jake had? What was he talking about? It was almost...
NO.
It didn't come from Hashim. It came from Corpse.
Toon immediately launched himself towards Corpse's corner, entwining their minds and trying to force Corpse to reveal the information.
It was difficult, to say the least. Corpse's mind was the strongest, Toon knew that, but he had thought maybe with a surprise attack he could do it. He still couldn't overcome Corpse's mental block. It seemed that Corpse wasn't surprised. Despite having almost no warning of the attack, he was still ready.
But why did Jake know whatever it was, and not Toon? Was it from the earlier days? There was something going on here. With them. Their minds.
And Toon wanted to know what it was.