Colin's posts

Vyran was silent as she said what she did. His smile remained, but she could see that his eyes were NOT smiling.

"...it appeared that there has been a miscommunication." he said.

"I did not ask you to come with me, nor did I invite you to come with me." he told her.

"I ORDERED you to come with me!" he then said more loudly, his eyes now filled with anger, and his smile turning into a scowl. Lightning flashed once more, and the thunder now sounded like it was directly overhead.

"And come with me, you SHALL!" he finished, as he lurched forward, far more quickly than she expected, and grabbed her wrist, his grip almost crushing it.

"You will no longer continue to evade your inevitable fate." he then told her, his tone dark and ominous.

The man rose again, and looked her square in the eye.

"My name is Vyran." he replied. "My last name is not important." he then added, putting his hat back on.

"I am an acquaintance of your father." he then said. "I'd been searching for him, and yourself, for a very long time." he explained.

"But finally... my search has come to an end." he went on.

"Come with me." he told her, extending his hand.

"I dare say, there are matters that we must... discuss." he continued, a small smile on his face. "And I'm sure you have questions about your father." he then went on.

"I can answer them."

As the tear formed in the air, the clouds darkened considerably, and thunder echoed in the distance, as flashes of lightning illuminated the surrounding area.

The tear then grew bigger, and widened considerably, revealing a shadowed figure standing in front of what could only be described as a time-space wormhole tunnel.

The shadowed figure then stepped out of the tear, and was illuminated by the ambient light, as well as the flashes of lightning that were growing more frequent.

His hair was short and jet black, and it was well-trimmed and maintained. His blue eyes seemed to be bottomless pools of water, just begging to be dived into. His cloak appeared to be made of animal hide, prepared in such a way that it was a gorgeous brown, with luxurious white fur lining the inside... and it highlighted his broad shoulders. His shirt was a dark grey, his pants as black as his hair, and they were tight enough to show his muscle definition, without being so tight that they were leggings or an undershirt.

This was all finished off with smart-looking shoes with no laces, but appeared to be made of exquisite tanned animal hide... and a hat that seemed like a more fashionable Robin-hood style hat that was a deep forest green, with a crimson red feather to the side of it.

He was silent for a moment, before taking his hat off, and bowing to her.

"Calysta Icesska, it is an honour to make your acquaintance." he said, his voice silky and smooth.

"I think I did it." Jackson replied.

"I'm pretty sure I found what can help us." he told her, handing her the book.

"It's all outlined here." he went on, as she opened it and looked through it. "Scribblings and rants, as well as highlighted passages and such." he explained.

"It's not an outright plan or anything, but I think this is enough to convince the headmaster to let us search for the real evidence, or get him to do it himself." he told her.

"I'm pretty sure we just saved the future, Sierra." he then finished.

"Eh?" he mumbled, as he looked at it closer.

"The Art of War?" he asked.

'Looks like this has been opened and closed a lot of times...' he thought, seeing the spine crease. 'Looks like it's the only one here that's been well-read.' he added mentally.

He then took it out, and opened it... and froze.

"....this is it." he muttered.

"Eureka!" he exclaimed, before tucking the book under his arm and racing to the cafeteria.

Jackson watched her go, and then sighed.

"Right." he said.

"Guess I have something to do now." he mumbled.

With that, he made his way to the classroom in question, and looked at the books on the shelves.

"Time to search."

"..........." Jackson was silent as he heard that.

"Fine." he said.

"I'll go to the classroom now." he told her.

"See what I can find." he said further.

"Where and when do you want to meet up later?" he asked her.

"Just so we can... y'know... coordinate this."

The two of them left, and Jackson looked at Sierra.

"So." he said.

"From what you said, and your tone, it seems you've given up hope." he commented.

"So what now?" he asked.

"We can't let this happen again. Yet it seems we're powerless to stop it." he continued.

"What do we do now, murder him??" he asked incredulously.

"Even though he hasn't done anything wrong yet?"

"Yes, that is correct." Hank replied.

"You ARE free to look at the collection of books in his classroom." he told her.

"However, I do not want to hear of plans to enter his private quarters." he then warned.

"Of course, headmaster." Jackson responded.

"I promise you will not hear of such plans." he vowed, before looking to Sierra.

"Shall we leave, and let the headmaster get back to his rest?" he suggested.

"Ah, ah!" Hank interrupted.

"I cannot condone any invasion of a teacher's privacy, if I know for sure it is planned." he said, with a small wink.

"Ah, yes." Jackson replied.

"Our apologies for interrupting you." he said, before looking to Sierra.

"Come on, we must go." he told her. "We need to get back to sleep, and not think about going through with the plan you have just hypothetically proposed." he went on.

"All right?" he asked with a smirk.

"He loved/loves keeping journals." Jackson replied.

"Apparently he wants to leave an enduring legacy, which means having physical records, and not just digital recordings and such. Also, far more private than the latter." he reasoned.

"There is logic to that." Hank commented.

"And it seems that he loved/loves hiding his records in other book's bindings. As in, having a blank copy of a book made, and then writing within that." Jackson went on.

"So if we can look at his collection of books, we might find the proof we need." he reasoned.

"I might know." Jackson replied.

"Oh?" Hank asked.

"Jayson was revered after his death, and the army he spawned did everything as he would have." Jackson said. "Including security measures and codes and such." he went on.

"Because they thought they broke my brain and spirit, I heard many things about him, like what he preferred, little things about it, and all that." he went on.

"So I can make some very reasonable guesses as to where that info may be, and how to get at it."

Hank just nodded.

"That is the better plan." he said.

"However, we need proof." he told them.

"Solid proof he is conspiring against us." he said further.

"We'll get it." Jackson responded.

"We'll prove it, and he can be dealt with accordingly." he said, conviction in his tone.

Hank seemed to freeze when he heard that.

"....you've met Clancy?" he asked.

"He's always such a recluse..." he said further.

"Very well. Let us discuss this." he told them.

-About 30 minutes later-

"So you're saying that Jayson is the one that will betray us, and cause the ruination of this school, and mutant/human relations." Hank said.

"Yeah..." Jackson muttered.

"I always thought he was so trustworthy." Hank sighed.