The Prologue

The sun lazily crawled along in the sky, its rays filtered by the Dome overhead and the looming buildings all around. People carried on with their daily lives, after all, this day was no different from any other from them, it was just a Wednesday in November, artificial snow made by the Dome drifting around. However for a select group, today was the beginning of a new life.

Here, in Dome #23 Fortis City, a decently sized city named after a politician long since dead, a group of people had gathered together for a chance at joining a team renowned in the tournament leagues, the Red Dawn...


The lights flickered on in the room as the door slid open, their dull florescent glow illuminating the small auditorium. A tall winged man stepped into the room, carrying a small disk in his hand. His appearance was an odd one, numerous scars lining his features, his eyes a vibrant amber, wings raven black, his shirt appearing as if it was constantly in motion, almost like a sea of crimson and black covering his torso. He strolled past the rows of seats, down towards the terminal at the bottom that was quickly coming to life.

-Good day Aru- The A.I of the computer chimed out in the tone of a middle aged woman.

"Blah."

-Is something the matter?-

"New recruits. We got a fair number it seems. We'll have to weed out the crap ones."

-Ah, do you have their information for me?-

"All in this disk." He stated calmly, waving it at no one in particular as he reached the terminal, inserting the disk and getting to work, the names of the recruits flashing across the screen as the information was uploaded. As everything was processed and prepared, Aru walked back up the rows of seats and sat down in one.

"Now to wait.."

As soon Aru took a seat, a voice apparently coming from one of the chairs began to talk to the dark winged man.

"Boy, Am I glad you picked that other seat! Your ass would have crushed poor little me!"

Just after saying that, said chair apparently began to take life, quickly shifting from it's original form, transforming into something like a human.... Except that his whole skin and body was made of silver colored metal and luster... Also, it lacked legs. Jaeger always found sliding with a blob-like bottom to be far more practical than legs.

Snickering a little, he knew that if only a little bit, he must have startled Aru, he slided towards him, sporting his usual mischievous grin. "So boss... Expecting much cannon fodd-erm... recruits today?"

Instead of a spoken answer though, Aru simply glared at him. Rolling his eyes, Jaeger began to slide away from him and towards the terminal "Yeah yeah.... I know the drill, geez!"

Once he was there, He leaned on the terminal, finally shaping his legs and trying to look as "Human" and serious as possible, if only to resemble something of a respectable "Teacher". He also began to wait, apparently not knowing who Aru was.

A dark haired child roams the populated streets that overflow with creatures and machines. In the sea of people, one could see the bright red tassel that hung from a tall white spear that a single child carries. It was the only item in view that would let anyone know that its owner existed in the tightly enclosed streets. As the youth moved through the crowd, the red tassel would bob along with the movement of its owner’s footsteps; it shifted fluidly as they walked and seemingly left an imaginary trail of crimson in the air.

The crowd continuously disperses and reassembles as the citizens of Dome #23 Fortis City busied themselves with their daily routine; it was an endless sea of people. The red tassel that seemingly floated in the air soon left from public view as the child removed itself from the streets to enter a building.

Tomi found an empty lobby upon entering the building. Perhaps it was left unattended for the moment, but the child didn’t stay long enough to find out. After a quick survey of the room, the youth wandered down the halls; it looked as though they knew where to go, but the only hint Tomi had was the distant echo of voices. It wasn’t loud enough for anyone to hear the conversation, but it was enough for anyone to pick up in a room of silence. The hallways seemed to darken as the child traveled deeper; a single room was soon illuminating the dim hall and Tomi chose to investigate it in hopes that they had arrived at their destination.

Before stepping foot into the room, the child found that the spear they carried exceeded the height of the doorway. Wordlessly, Tomi tilted the spear back and continued forward into the auditorium. In the dull glow of the faint lights, one could see the listless expression the child wore as its eyes studied the room. They didn’t greet the other two inhabitants of the room, but their gaze fell upon the two for a moment and it would’ve lead them to believe that the child acknowledged their presence.

Tomi sat down near the center of the auditorium and rested the shaft of its spear against their shoulder with its bladed end gleaming in the air as they waited for something. Anything.

Oh but today was going to be exciting. It felt like it had been a long time since the team had accepted new recruits, and in Shai's mind, it was about time. Maybe it was that she just enjoyed new people, maybe she enjoyed taking on new students, maybe she just enjoyed showing over her skills and seeing new faces watch in awe. Either way, this artificially blustery morning wasn't going to to just pass by like any other November day.

She walked in silently at the back of the auditorium, looking around as though she was the last one there. She wasn't. There wasn't anyone else there except Aru and Jaeger, but she knew that that would likely be the case. Such is the trouble of arriving early, she supposed.

She nearly laughed aloud at Jaeger's latest transformation. He was trying to look serious, which simply did not suit him at all. Besides, he just wasn't Jaeger if he wasn't dragging his ass along the floor. Just like Aru wouldn't be Aru if he looked "normal"; it just didn't work with who he was.

Looking again, she noticed a child sitting in one of the chairs. Even with that spear, he'd practically blended in. So she would keep a facade, just like Jaeger and just like Aru.

She walked slowly down the steps to the row behind Aru. It was difficult to not acknowledge him, but instead she sat a few seats away from him and crossed her legs, waiting.

In the silence of the auditorium, it was easy to hear the mechanical whirs and clicks of an approaching robot. The side doors opened ungracefully, and the robot had to spin and twist a little to get through the small doorframe, but it rolled into the auditorium without too much trouble.

Upon entering, it stopped and a tuft of steam was expelled from a pipe in its head. It scanned the room, making small noises of various ticks and clinks, as it waited there, otherwise unmoving. It was about 8 feet tall with treads as its source of movement. It was made of a conglomeration of various scrap and clearly not a normal robot from the assembly lines. Its large chassis was always warm and giving off various whirring sounds, even when still. The oddest thing about this robot, though, was the 6'2" man who was sort of attached to its back.

"Oh just choose somewhere already." Were the first words out of the man's mouth and, although quiet, were easily heard through out the silent auditorium. The robot obliged by rolling up a few rows and stopping again next to a seat. A sharp click was heard as all of the restraints helping the man stay attached were withdrawn and the man nimbly landed on the ground, able to scan the auditorium for the first official time.

'Well, seems I'm one of the first to arrive. And clearly the loudest. Ah well, too bad for them.' The tall man ruffled his messy blond hair before reaching into his oil (and other substances) stained blue-green jumpsuit and pulling out an ultratool*.

"T-4, initiate standby mode." The man barked quietly to the robot, and it once again instantly followed orders, causing its whirring and ticking to nearly cease. After taking another few seconds to look around the auditorium again (and stare for a few seconds at the metal elemental), the man opened the main hatch of the robot to reveal a very intricate mess of wires, gears, and other various mechanics. Frowning slightly for a second, the man poked around inside, looking for something known only to himself.

*Ultratool: Created in the 2480's, a type of putty that could be molded into the shape of any tool needed and instantly harden in that shape to be used however the user needed.

If doors had have been shut, they would have flown open in a rather showy manner when Lucan kicked at the open air where the entrance into the auditorium was, then jumped into the air and clicked his heels together. Landing he pirouetted, the top hat that had been precariously titled to the left while resting on his head falling off, along with the any illusion that may have existed that this was a normal man. Once done he promptly burst into song, harmonizing with an imaginary quartet, and promptly poking his head into Clive's business when everyone was actually getting involved in his rather beautiful singing. Grinning widely at Clive, he started to whistle before his tone changed completely and became quiet, cold, and serious. Then he spoke and Clive should have been wishing that he had never entered the room. "Remember me, Or this phrase, both of us are important. Remember that the world, no matter how diverse, does not accept things they don't want to, and they will kill... well, whatever they want too." here he became jolly-sounding again, and honestly appeared to have a personality disorder. "Oh, wait, no, that's the fictitious world in the book I recently read. Hey, out of curiosity, do you want to die?"

Lucan didn't wait for an answer, instead choosing to slap the other man on the back, and take to hysterics. After an entire minute of laughing, Lucan jumped to his feet, deciding to stop the charade and boldly introduce himself. Strolling casually up to the front of the room, he bowed slightly, before speaking in his true voice, which was neither jolly nor cold, but instead sounded oddly tired.

"Hello, to the five of you in this room, I am Count Lucan, I do hope you enjoyed that little show I put on, I bet I had you all thinking I was insane. In fact, I bet you still think I am, don't you? Well, that just makes you too stupid to see through the charade, doesn't it? Your idiocy astounds me, quite sorry you have to suffer through it."

Now coming off as more of a pompous ass, Lucan took a seat in the farthest upper right corner of the room, all on his own, and giving off an air of loneliness and in all likelihood thoroughly confusing everyone in the room. Now alone and seated, Lucan began to hum an extremely old orchestral peace that no-one had likely heard for years, and if they had it lost it's value to Lucan and he would promptly forget it. Humming along, the extremely odd man contemplated ways to toy with everyone in this room, for it was just too fun!

(For the purpose of replying, assume Lucan's wearing a rather large darkly shaded cloak, under which is hidden a rather nice Tuxedo, that you would have only seen a glimpse of during the pirouette.)

The doors whirred open with barely the click of footsteps on the ground to accompany them. A man stepped, standing about six feet high, jet black cloak billowing in the air behind him. Sticking out over his left shoulder is the wickedly shaped blade of a scythe, and the end of the shaft sticks out near his right hip. His face is hooded, although the light in the room shines off his pale chin.

The seems to glide towards the middle of the room, making the most imperceviable sound with his footsteps. Gold specks under the dark of the hood flit back and forth to each face as he walks around. Once in the middle, he reaches both his hands up and takes down his cloack. His skin is pale, almost vampiric and glowing. His eyes are as black as his cloak, except with flecks of gold that set them apart from any other. His greasy black hair is thrown around haphazardly, but for the most part sticks straight back except for two bangs that hang down near his ears. The only distinctive feature is a scar running in an S down from his left ear to his left jaw.

Drawing himself up to his full height he says, "Vieth. At your service." A sudden cold eminates through the room, although through years of training he does not flinch at the feeling. As the feeling subsides, Vieth turns to look at everyone in the room before putting his hood back up, and then moving towards the leftmost wall, where he leans back against it, awaiting further instructions and arrivals.

Clive's tinkering with his robot was interrupted as he suddenly heard someone break out in song. He pulled his head up and out of the chassis, narrowly avoiding colliding with the thick metal that encased the robot. As he turned to look, the odd singing man bounded up to him and promptly stuck his head into the chassis of the robot, startling Clive.

It only took a second for Clive to regain his composure though, and he reached around to the side of the robot and pulled off a rather large pile of junk that magically stayed together. It was quite large, made up of seemingly random pieces of junk all somehow connected together in a way that only made sense to Clive. It was also quite heavy, but he didn't care because he was about to promptly whack the crazy man on the top of his head and hopefully knock him out.

As he was about to swing it around though, the man pulled his head out of the chassis and addressed Clive.
"Remember me, Or this phrase, both of us are important. Remember that the world, no matter how diverse, does not accept things they don't want to, and they will kill... well, whatever they want too."

Clive only had time to blink confusedly as the man suddenly changed into an even louder, happy tone. "Oh, wait, no, that's the fictitious world in the book I recently read. Hey, out of curiosity, do you want to die?"

Clive's answer was swallowed as the man slapped him on the back and started laughing hysterically. It took another few seconds for Clive to comprehend this man and his psychotic behavior before he remembered the weapon he was still holding in his hands and aimed to whack the psychopath over the head with it.

Of course, the other man then decided to get up and walk towards the center of the room, making Clive's swing miss him entirely. Grumbling slightly, Clive took a few seconds to make sure no parts from inside the robot were stolen by that man as he was introducing himself.

Finding nothing stolen and now having heard the man introduce himself, Clive stuck with his conclusion he had formed only seconds after the man's arrival: he's a nutter. Sighing slightly, Clive turned back to the robot and continued his tinkering around inside, entirely missing the new arrival until his voice rang out and Clive felt a chill run up his spine.

Peeking around the robot's midsection slightly, Clive looked at the mysterious cloaked figure leaning against the wall. Frowning slightly, he turned back to the robot. 'This will be an interesting group.'

Tomi remained seated as four more people entered the auditorium one by one. The child turned its head upon seeing something in the corner of its eye; it was a female who had gathered into the room after Tomi had. Again, the youth didn’t murmur a single word to her but, instead, stared at her quietly as she moved through the room. It didn’t look as though she had noticed the child at first but upon another glance of the room, the female’s glance fell upon the spear wielder. Tomi just stared back at her owlishly before she broke eye contact to seat herself.

Upon hearing the clanks and hum of machine outside the auditorium, the child turned its attention to the entrance again. It didn’t know what to expect and was caught off guard over seeing a large metal beast carefully adjusting its position to fit though the door frame. At this day and age, it wouldn’t be odd to see machines move and act human but it was the first time in Tomi’s short life that they have seen one of that size. The child’s eyes grew wide momentarily in surprise and wonderment as it gazed upon the robot. In that short moment of childish innocence, Tomi’s mouth opened and let out a soft word. “Ah.”

The child was so focused on the large piece of machinery that it failed to see the man clinging behind it. Tomi made a move to get up out of their seat but stopped when they heard a voice from behind the robot. “Oh just choose somewhere already.” The youth suddenly lost its innocent expression and leaned back in its chair with another dull look upon its face. It was almost as if the child was disappointed. They remained silent as the young one’s eyes followed the robot’s movements as it rolled along the rows and stopped next to an empty chair. A man leapt out from behind the large piece of machinery and barked an order at the robot before opening a hatch to peer down at its insides. A single thought crossed Tomi’s mind as it watched them. It must be nice to have one…

No sooner had the robot and its mechanic arrived, another male followed them into the auditorium. This one chose to enter musically with a song and dance shortly after gracefully leaping into the room. It was… awkward. Tomi’s gaze never left the count as he suddenly changed for a darker mood and began to converse with the mechanic. The child could hear his words but didn’t understand them at all. It confused them though the youth failed to show it. The odd male then spoke out to all of the inhabitants of the room with a tired tone in his voice. “Hello, to the five of you in this room, I am Count Lucan, I do hope you enjoyed that little show I put on, I bet I had you all thinking I was insane.” Tomi understood that much, but any words spoken after that were lost to them. The youngster didn’t know how they should feel about this man yet. It was too soon to judge.

The last of the four seemed almost normal compared to the last one who entered. It was another male, but his entrance wasn’t as extravagant as the other two. Dressed in a hooded clock, he strode to the center of the room and removed it to reveal his luminous skin that hid beneath it. "Vieth. At your service." Tomi only stared at the man as he introduced himself politely and then moved himself to the left side of the room.

Its gaze lingered a little longer on Vieth before looking up at the terminal in front of the room and the silver humanoid that sat next to it. Tomi gripped the shaft of its spear tightly, causing the tassel to bob slightly in the air from the small movement. Were they who the child was to be working with?

A trio of young people entered the building, two females and one male. The guy seemed taller then the other two, with jet black hair and dark eyes. His hair reached his waist and was in a long ponytail covering his blue cloak.
Alex looked around for anyone else that might be there to participate in tournaments, sizing up people and guessing their abilities. The building itself showed no indications of where they should be meeting with the Red Dawn group. “Ok, so I guess we should look main hall?” Angela asked, Alex agreed and looked up to see what Izelia thought of it only to watch her stride off ahead of himself and Angela, apparently having a good idea of where the hall was. Alex sighed deeply, he didn’t really know if she could be trusted and only tolerated her teases because Angela befriended her.
Angela started pacing a bit faster to keep up with Izelia. Alex kept his set distance behind Angela, making it perfectly clear that anyone with smart ideas about Angela, would be meeting him first.
Izelia looked back and grinned, “You should try to keep up, Bodyguard boy!” she yelled. Angela sighed, “Oh come on Izzy! Don’t start here, we haven’t even gotten into the hall yet!” Alex yelled back at Izelia, “I’m right where I belong, making sure so-called friends can’t backstab us.”

The long, black haired Girl ahead of them smirked. Taking a drag from her cigarette, she turned to face them and began to walk backwards as she shouted back at Alex, "Feh, as if I could backstab you while walking IN FRONT of you, stupid!" Izelia had took a licking of mocking Angie's bodyguard ever since they met, it was fun to see him get angry but unable to do anything in front of Angela. Crossing her arms while she waited for a retort, (she would have put her hands in her pockets normally... except she was wearing a pocket-less gray sports pants and a Black Tank top.)

" Uh... Iz? look ou- " Angela replied first, but her voice was quickly overshadowed by Alex's louder voice," Oh, YOU know what I mean, Ize ".

" Iz? " Angela spoke again, But Ize didn't listen, scoffing at Alex, "Bah, shut your trap, Guard do-"*Bonk!* With a rather loud noise, Ize's head collided with the door frame of the Hall's entrance, "Shit!" She spouted angrily as her cigarette also fell to the floor.

" Oh.. I should've warned you 'bout the door... " Alex replied, chuckling, almost laughing at Izelia, who's face twisted into a rage filled contortion for a moment, disfiguring her normally pretty, if rough looking face. Argh! I'm gonna kill that idiot! no... wait, it's not a big deal, Dammit, Ize, they are your friends! Keep yourself together! Quickly calming herself, her face returned to normal as she acted as if nothing had happened, stomping her fallen cigar with her sneaker and entering the hall door, which had slid open ever since she hit her head in the frame.

The shortest of the group sighed. She wore a dark pink dress that looked like it was made from an expensive and strong material. She had long black hair and blue eyes and looked very pretty.
"I tried to warn you Iz." Angela was always trying to keep the peace between Iz and Alex. “Now can we go inside please? And both of you stop fussing.”
Inside the meeting room there were a number chairs, some even filled. Angela spotted a metal man, a small kid and even a guy with big black wings. Soon she would be fighting in the tournament, it couldn’t be far away now, Angela felt excited. She looked around the room, She wondered if she would see her brothers in the next couple of days.
“This is a good place to sit.” Iz suddenly said and let herself fall on a chair. “We can see everything from here.”
Angela nodded and sat down behind her.

Rathe had never been to Fortis City before last night. It seemed so similar, though, to the other cities that he didn't really think much of it. A few pretty faces on the street, others who would walk stony-faced to their little jobs, buildings upon buildings upon buildings. He'd been traveling for such a long time that only a few places actually stuck out in his mind, and those were usually due to the...ahem...'experiences' he had while he was there rather than the area itself.

He had nearly gotten himself lost trying to find the building where he was supposed to be meeting other recruits to this team. He had an address, but no means of knowing where the streets were. Sure, he could have asked someone for help or consulted a map, but he decided that wandering would be the best way to go. Maybe he'd see more of the city, learn more of its layout, meet a few people, during that time.

By the time he had arrived at the building, Rathe had that he would check the weather before making any decisions on whether to wander or to ask for directions. Damn, he hated the cold. He had very little natural resistance to it, always shivered until his teeth clattered like castanets. The snow was just the icing on top of the cake for him. He went into the lobby and the first thing he noticed was a wonderful heating system. Aaahh, that feels much better, he thought as he shook his head wildly from side to side, trying to loose the snow from his hair. Somehow, dripping like a wet dog didn't appeal to him, and it likely wouldn't make the best first impression.

He strode down the halls, making sure to take his time looking at where he was going. Rathe had a decent memory for these kinds of things; if he could memorize the building a bit before he even had to start things out, that might save him from potential embarrassments later down the road.

Eventually, he hit a large room with dozens and dozens of chairs, a small number of them occupied. I'll assume that this is where I want to go. Everyone was so spread out...shouldn't they be working to get to know one another? They'd be on the same team, after all. It only made sense.

Hands in his pockets, he walked down the stairs to just past where the chairs ended. A rather shiny individual was standing at the front of the room who Rathe could only assume would be one of their trainers or their leader. He'd heard of the three of them, yet knew nothing but their great abilities as leaders. He didn't even know their names, though he figured that they would hear all of that once everyone was present and accounted for. So he gave the silvery man a small wave and a grin before looking back at the rows and rows of chairs and the people occupying them.

A group of three who seemed like they all knew each other; the ladies looked cute, but he wasn't one to move in while a male 'friend' was there with them (he'd found too many overprotective 'friends' in the past who were more than willing to smash his face just for looking). A kid alone with a spear; obviously wouldn't be there if he couldn't fight. A robot and a fellow with some sort of tool. Someone who looked like they were attempting to look like the Reaper; he despised people who tried to make themselves look mysterious. A man who looked like he was humming the most important thing in the world; he looked like he was conducting a symphony with that intense concentration splayed out on his features. A winged creature who looked quite comfortable with himself and his surroundings. Shrugging imperceptibly, he figured he might as well sit with Wings. He looked strong, certainly, and it was always important to have strong allies.

He walked back up the stairs, preparing to sit with Wings when he saw someone who'd been hidden behind his wings. Hellooo. A woman sitting by herself. Now Rathe simply couldn't have that. It was...ungentlemanly. Grinning, he walked a row past Wings and sat down right next to the woman. She didn't look all that strong; he figured that today was all about weeding through the recruits to get the best that they could and she simply did not look like she would be making it through round one. Perfect. Extending a hand to her, he introduced himself as Rathe while trying not to leer.

Aru rested in his seat, arms behind his head, feet propped up on the seat in front of him, his eyes closed the entire time, even so the dull glow of the lights shined through his eyelids leaving him staring at white instead of black.

Annnd 3 more... well at least they seem normal compared to the last two. Well I hope the other two are taking note of everything.

He slid his feet off the chair, his boots making a soft thud as they impacted the ground. He leaned himself forward, his arms falling to his side as he finally opened his eyes and glanced around, his eyes falling on a child. He stared at the child darkly for a bit before their own gaze suddenly fell on him. He stared for a few more moments before contorting his face into a silly expression. The child didn't laugh.

Urk... what's with this kid?!

Aru quickly looked away, his expresion now sullen. "Tough crowd..." He muttered to no one in particular. He watched the newest man walk past him and take a seat by Shai.

Ohhhh boy, heh, that man is a dead man walking.

He leaned back in his seat and whispered to the man, "Careful, you don't know what you're messing with. You're likely to lose a limb." A mischievous grin on his face.

Tomi noticed four more people entering the auditorium. A group of three joined the growing crowd before a man with bright long hair did. The group, which consisted of a man and two ladies, seem to have been quarreling before they arrived; the child heard their muffled voices bickering in the halls that announced their arrival. Once they entered, all three of them sat next to each other. Seeing them like that made something stir in Tomi but the expressionless look upon their face didn’t falter again.

The next person wasn’t very extraordinary compared to everyone else. He came in normally, walked to a seat normally, and sat down like any normal person would. Unlike everyone else, this man decided to mingle with another person in the room by choosing to sit next to the first female who arrived and trying to introduce himself to her.

The child was staring intently on the man with long hair who came in last but was soon distracted by another male. The winged man turned his head towards Tomi and the youth felt his gaze upon them. Looking away from the long haired man, it returned the stare to the winged man and felt a little uneasy. What did he want? There was a moment of stillness and silence between them before the man made a move. Surprisingly, the male made a silly expression that calmed the feeling of unease residing in Tomi’s stomach. The child didn’t laugh nor show any facial expression at the winged man, but Tomi did smile on the inside as any young child would. Maybe.. this will be fun after all.

Their silent conversation didn’t last long. The man with raven like wings turned his attention to the other male with long hair and seemed to whisper something to him. Tomi looked away as well, returning its gaze to the terminal and silver man in the front.

Shai watched the new recruits file in with great interest. She gauged them all, wondering about their personalities and their fighting styles and whether they would focus more on physical combat or the arts. Lucan seemed the most outwardly intriguing so far. She was unsure how much of that performance was simply that: a performance. He seemed as though he was either more himself than anyone else in the room or that he was equally disingenuous. In any case, he and his billowing cloak certainly had piqued her interest. He looked like he was a switch, one who would use both the arts and weapons training, though his airy demeanor made her think he'd have more of a slant toward the arts. Lovely.

She observed, sinking back in her chair to avoid others watching her while she watched them. Aru's wings hid her pretty well from sight for the majority of those who sat further in front. The man with the robot brought a few questions to mind - why did he have a robot, and why was he bringing the aforementioned robot with him? And did he BUILD that robot? The benefits of having someone who was mechanically-minded on their team were pretty staggering. He'd be a weapons man, no doubt in her mind. A man who was good enough with his hands likely wouldn't have the patience to work with the arts.

The one fellow who walked in with the scythe seemed like he was more of a silent killer. He was very pale and rather tall, though not so tall as Aru, and sat by himself. She couldn't place him completely, though judging by the magnificent scythe in his hand, he would want to make good use of Jaeger's weapons training. Looking at those who had already arrived, it seemed as though this would be an unsociable group, she huffed silently. That was no fun.

The group of three that walked in looked like they were all very close. Perhaps the group wouldn't be entirely antisocial, though she wondered whether the group of three would be able to branch out past their friends. The women looked like casters, while the man looked like he'd probably do a bit of both with more emphasis on physical combat.

The one in the hat with the long hair seemed like he would focus more on weaponry, though she didn't see any weapons on him. Perhaps that meant he was going to focus solely on the arts? Or maybe he just kept his weapons hidden. She wasn't sure, he didn't really give her enough to work with. Until he decided to sit next to her, anyway.

She felt like rolling her eyes after Rathe's introduction, mostly because he had a rather lewd gleam in his eye that would only spell trouble, but managed to keep them open rather wide. She saw Aru lean close and whisper something to him, but her eyes never strayed from Rathe's face. A smile spread across her features, widening into nearly manic proportions. She felt almost as if she were barring her teeth rather than smiling, really. "Hello!" she said jovially, her voice purposefully breathy and light, yet dripping with regality. Holding her chin high and keeping the manic grin, she introduced herself. "I am the Crown Princess Ce'Nedra of the Arbors and I speak for the trees!" She held his gaze for another beat before turning back to face Jaeger.

A little more than half of the crowd within the auditorium were conversing amongst themselves while others, like Tomi, were left in silence. Perhaps they should get acquainted with each other since it could end up that they should go in battle together. Hesitantly, the child scooted off the chair it was sitting with a troubled look upon its face, leaving its weapon leaning against the abandoned chair. With a single step forward towards the big robot, Tomi felt the uneasiness return. The machinery awed the kid like a new toy but it belonged to someone else and the child couldn't bring themselves to start a conversation with the mechanic yet.

A quick change of mind lead the youth to move towards the back instead. Tomi wasn't sure of what it should be doing back there but they came upon a lone top hat sitting on the floor near the doors. It was Count Lucan's, wasn't it? Faintly remembering the odd man dancing around as he entered, the youngster picked the discarded article of clothing and walked to where its owner was seated. He was all alone in his corner and seemed to be humming to himself in good humor. Tomi felt less uneasy around this particular individual for some reason; perhaps it was because they couldn't understand the eccentric male's actions.

Wordlessly, the child held out the top hat to the count with a quiet stare.

Jaeger had been remained in his same position the whole time as more an more people entered the hall, why was, quite frankly for him, very uncomfortable and boring. But it was always worth it. It also gave him plenty enough time to watch and amuse himself with the Fresh meat that arrived. Most looked peculiar, but still boring to him, after all, once you have seen lot of weird people trough almost a century, even the oddest ones like Lucan seemed common for Jaeger... Then again, he could always try and make things more fun... providing they could keep up.

As he watched all the new people, he also groaned to himself. So far only two ladies had showed up, and though both of them were quite the lookers. One seemed to have that tall man follow her like her shadow, which was pretty annoying... And the other bombshell didn't seem to have a very amicable face... That was also a bummer... Not that had ever stopped Jaeger. Hell, not even Shai could keep him in line, and heck if shai wasn't something else. Which made her specifically, all the more interesting. Thinking about that, he glanced at her just in time to overhear her reply to one of the newcomers that looked to try and compete with him. Shai's answer, quite frankly, almost made him broke his whole facade and burst out laughing. But as amusing as it was, he couldn't afford blowing things up just yet...

Clive had ignored the other's entrances after the crazy guy and had instead kept working on the robot. He was determined to find that part that was loose and causing a small circuitry malfunction. Finally, he found the part and quickly fixed the problem with ease. Pulling his head out of the chassis, he squished the ultratool into a flat shape and slid it back in his pocket. He also snapped his smorgasbord of a weapon back onto the robot, before tapping twice on the robot's cranium. "Tech-4, start wake up routine."

With that, the robot hummed back to life, its whirring and clicking starting back up. Smiling to himself, Clive finally looked around the auditorium, seeing it nearly twice as filled as before. A group of three were a few rows below him and some long haired guy was over with the wing-man and the girl seemingly hiding behind him. Clive also noticed the small child over by the nutter, holding out his hat. 'Hmm... I suppose I could call that man a mad hatter.' Chuckling slightly at his mental joke, Clive turned to the front of the room and stared at the metal elemental. Taking one glance back at the robot to make sure it wasn't going to move anywhere as it warmed up, he strode down the isle.

Clive stayed at the bottom of the stage and looked up at the quicksilver man. "Am I right to assume you are a metal elemental? Otherwise, all my schooling will have been for naught, but that wouldn't be the first time I've come to that conclusion."

Jaeger's attention fro Shai was soon shifted thanks to one of the newcomers. The blond tech guy that had arrived with a big-ass robot was now talking to Jaeger. Well, it took them long enough! they usually start asking me questions far sooner... Though his question is the same as always....

Staring firmly at Clive, almost as if he was glaring, Jaeger Sarcastically replied. "Me? a metal elemental? Nooooo! of course not! I'm a water elemental that got high on chrome! clearly!" Despite his comment, Jaeger kept staring at Clyde with a very serious face. Even though he was crying of laughter on the inside.

Aru blinked blankly for few moments at Shai's response to Rathe's greeting before bursting out in laughter, rolling forward and smashing his head into the seat in front of him.

"GAH!" He cried out, everyone looking at him in surprise, Shai howling with laughter as she hopped over the row of seats and landed on his back, causing him to smash back into the seat. He collapsed in a heap on the ground, holding his forehead as Shai cackled at him.

"Why so mean imouto-chan?" He whined at her.

"Because I wuv you, pookie bear." She cried out, beaming at him as he got back to his feet. She promptly hugged and clung to him. His face was one of anguish as he tried to pry her off. He finally managed to pry her loose, causing her to fly backwards and land in a heap on Rathe. Aru gasped for breath, one hand on his chest, another on his knee, before sitting down like nothing happened.

Shai called out to the back of Aru's head, "Aww, don't you want to cuddle?" before making herself comfortable. She had landed on Rathe, which was amusing in and of itself. She did a complete 180 with her response to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in close like they were lovers until her nose touched his. "Hello there, big boy, have we met?"

The look on his face? Priceless. He looked like someone had just shat on his award-winning poodle.

Rathe was...unsure of how to respond. Who the hell was this chick? And Wings, was he just as fucking insane? Maybe he'd come to the wrong place. Maybe he just wasn't cut out to be a part of this team. But then he really hadn't decided to come train with this team because he wanted to fraternize and make new friends. He wanted the training that he knew the team would have. So insane teammates aside (if they were even a part of the team after today - he was certain that the trainer at the front of the room would have something to say about Ce'Nedra's and Wings' craziness), he was going to stay. Because damn if he wasn't going to get what he came for and damn if anyone would stop him.

Blinking, he realized he'd just had an internal monologue. Ce'Nedra was still sitting on his lap and cozied up to him like she had all the cards in her hand. But he just didn't do crazy chicks. Not unless their craziness extended to nymphomaniacal tendencies, which he could deal with.

"You...just introduced yourself." He was trying to decide how best to get her off of his lap. Based on what he had just seen, the girl could cling like her life depended on it. So he grinned uncomfortably and tried to remove her arms from around his neck. His eyes widened when he saw that they would not budge. "Um. Do you mind?" he asked as he tried tugging with more force, his brows furrowing. Why wouldn't she let go?

All of a sudden her arms dropped, she slinked off his lap, and sat down next to him with the exact same look on her face as she had worn before he'd sat next to her to begin with. He...he just wasn't going to even try with her again.

Adjusting his hat and calming himself down a bit, he scanned the room again. His eyes fell once again on the two lovely ladies sitting with the one guy toward the front of the room. After a moment of thought, Rathe decided that he would look into that at a later point in time.

"Me? a metal elemental? Nooooo! of course not! I'm a water elemental that got high on chrome! clearly!"

Upon hearing the obviously sarcastic remark, a thin, sly smile spread across Clive's face, and it didn't go away despite the quick commotion caused by the wingman and hiding girl. "Perhaps you should lay off the chrome then. You're looking a little dense."

Lucan stopped humming, and looked at the silent child, who by all means appeared far more interesting then the mechanic Lucan had been toying with, and had successfully alienated. After a few seconds of simply observing the child, and everything about it and it's rather large spear, Lucan took notice of the hat. He then stared at that for a moment, and frowned. He had forgotten about the hat- and it was his favorite hat too- alas, no reason to dwell it now. Leaning forward in his seat, Lucan neglected to take notice of the rest of the room, instead looking into the child's eyes for a few moments before ruffling the child's hair and smiling kindly, "Why, hello there! I've already told you my name so I won't repeat myself. It's nice to meet you, little one."

Lucan's hand fell from the child's now efficiently ruffled hair to the aforementioned top hat, and circled the brim of it once before picking it up gently end lightly placing the top hat on the child's head. Not surprisingly it was too big a fit and slid down the child's head covering it's entire face until the brim caught on it's noise. When the child raised the hat upward with his hand so it could see, Lucan was gone, or rather, he was standing right behind Tomi. Resting a hand on the child's shoulder Lucan spoke one playful word, "Boo."

Chuckling casually the cloaked man sat down in front of the child once more, looking the kid up an down before a sullen expression slid across his face and the tired tone conquered his voice. Then he spoke again. "You look nice in that, yes, yes. Very nice... You're a good looking kid, nice spear too. You know... You remind me of before... Before my family was no more. You see, terrible things happened to me not so long ago, unpleasant and terrible things. My wife you see, was sick and trying to get over her parent's recent passing away, while I found myself out of a job and we were just surviving by my teenage child's work income, he told us he made money working at a nice store downtown... But no, that wasn't it. One day, the kid didn't come home, and I ended up waiting until the next day until looking for him, had to tend to my wife, after all. So I went to the store to ask if he'd been around, and what do you know? The address of his place of employment led to one of the underground fighting tournaments, and he'd died in the infirmary there an hour before I had arrived." Lucan let out a light sigh, before winking at the kid and smirking, as if to say 'and this is where the story gets good'.

"So I got right sad, but I couldn't do anything so I started strolling home, however halfway there I stumbled across this bloke in a top hat, who was yapping to his friends about how he had picked off this right scrawny kid last night, and he described my kid in detail to his buddies, and how he had killed the child. So there I got right angry, and lunged at him. The man hadn't been expecting it and I caught him off guard, and shoved him off the guard rail on the bridge we happened to be on. The man fell to his death, his top hat the only thing still on the bridge. In shock I grabbed it and ran away, completely astonished at what I had just done. Once home I cried for maybe an hour, my son was dead and I had killed man, and it was about to get worse. at seven o'clock that evening, a gang of men who had all been friends of the man I had murdered, all came to my house, over powered me, and killed my wife. And it was there I had snapped, somehow I killed everyone of them, went completely insane, and ended up in an asylum for a year or two, I don't remember how long, I try to repress my time there." Smiling, Lucan patted the top hat on the boy and stared at the boy's eyes a moment before remembering how good the top hat looked on the kid. "You should keep the hat, and don't object, I insist." Nodding at the kid, Lucan indicated he would not be taking the hat back.

"Anyway... Enough of my trip down memory lane, you haven't told me your name, or in fact even spoken a word; so who might you be, little one?"

Neil Bialystok felt uncomfortable, entering the auditorium. For the most part, his problem was little hindrance, he was rarely accompanied by anyone who didn't speak his language, literally. But here, in a place where interaction with foreigners (Because to Neil, he was always the native and others the foreigners) was necessary, Neil's problem was very big. Interaction was often hindered if the two interactors had no idea what the other party was saying.

To avoid such a problem, Neil had phonetically learned a single phrase the evening before. Addressing the winged man Neil knew to be a teacher, Neil managed to spit out, "My name is Neil Bialystok."

Realizing that he not thought past this point, Neil stood awkwardly, mutting Polish profanities at himself. He walked away, feeling very stupid.

Tomi didn't smile or laugh as the Count ruffled their hair and placed his top hat onto its head; upon hearing a 'boo' after adjusting the hat so that the youngster could see, the youth didn't show any surprise either. There was no emotion on its face. The child could only stand there and stare straight at the Count Lucan as he told a story of his former life with, what he said was, his deceased wife and son. Tomi didn't utter a word but felt that this story hit it close to home. There were several familiar things between the life the child was living now and the things the Count said had happened to him. All Tomi could do was listen intently to the words spoken with hints of remorse. Whether or not this was all true was hard to say, but the youth believed every word of it. Why would the Count share such personal memories to this child?

It wanted to return the hat to the Count; after all, he did say that it was his favorite top hat. It would be the right thing to do but seeing that Lucan didn't want Tomi to object to this gift, the child didn't put up a fuss. Any child can appreciate a present. In this case, the dark haired child graced the Count with a rare smile upon its face in thanks.

"Tomi." It spoke curtly as though it wasn't fond of speaking at all but the healthy flush on its cheeks told that it wasn't uncomfortable around the Count. "Thank you for the hat."

It would now become it's new treasure.

Jaeger's attention from the blond techie was disrupted momentarily by the rather loud racket Aru and Shai made. Awww, not fair! why are they the ones hogging all the fun? Still, seeing how things quickly settled back, he turned his attention to the man in front of him, which was smiling slightly as he responded to Jaeger's remark with a surprisingly witty response.

Not to be outdone, Jaeger couldn't help to drop his serious act for a moment. A small grin shifting on his metallic face "Oh my, is that so? then again, you would know about being dense, wouldn't you?" His small jab at the man was rather evident, after all, he's the one that started with the obvious questions. Still, this was better than had to have remained still like a statue as he had been doing so. Hopefully it wouldn't be long until they could finally start, but at least now he had the not-so-dull techie to entertain him.

Rui poked his head into the room.

"Ehh? So many people already? Am I late?" He asked to know one in particular. But truely he hadn't know there would be such a turnout, and the look like a odd bunch of people too!

His eyes were instantly drawn to the robot. The one sitting on the floor that is, becuase the child over there clutching the hat seemed to be doing a good impression of a 'bot herself. Smiling to himself he took another look around the room. Wing guy, metalic man, scary guy with sythe, A techie, Two gals with a dark haired guy acting like he was thier personal shadow, another girl who was grinning at a rather bemused red hair man, a guy muttering in polish. Well at least they didn't look like a bad group of people.

His eyes finally landed on the pointy-eared character who was grinning at the child with the hat. Rui half expected the fellow to pull a lollipop out of his cloak and give it to the kid, while he ran away to make bacon out of it's grandmother. Well, there goes the neighbourhood! He thought cheerfully, entering the room.

I wonder how they see me? Rui wondered absently, carefully avoiding making eye contact with any of them. Self conciously, he tugged on the soft brown material of his gloves. He wasn't very tall, only about 5'6, and was wearing his street clothes, which made him feel rahter unimpressive next to some of other in there room. The only notable thing was that he was carry a rather large something over his shoulder. The something was a odd shape and at least 5 feet long, but it was hard to tell anymore as it was rather obscured by the fact that it was loosely wrapped in a what appeared to be a white bedsheet.

Setting the something on the floor next to a empty chair, he sat down. He had the slight inkling that perhaps this wasn't the best way to find out the answer to his question, but it was a bit late to be second-guessing himself now so he settled for listening in on the banter between the techie and the shiny metal fellow

Izelia had spent the firsts moments since she sat to close her eyes a bit to relax herself from her almost-angry outburst. Becoming upset like that for such small things was not good. Specially since that was not the way she had been trained. After a few moments, thanks to said training, she managed to get her mind cleared of the anger that was bugging her.

While still in this somewhat calm state, she tried to put in use another trick she learned in her Dojo: sense the spiritual energy around her. She did this in the hopes of measuring the people in that room better using this method.... But she wasn't really that skilled, so she only picked up some random energies, but it was hard to define who emanated them and how strong they actually were.

A tad annoyed, Ize decided to drop it and opened her eyes again, taking a better look of all the people there. They looked rather diverce... and many didn't have the looks of orthodox fighters. But then again, what in this time could be called orthodox? The tattoo in her right arm didn't make her look like one either, or so she felt. Also, it was until now that she noticed that apparently all this time, Alex had been standing right behind and in between her and Angela.

"Hey guard boy! It's all well and good that you take your job of protecting Angie so seriously. But you can focus only on her, I don't feel like having another shadow, having my own is more than enough." Her message to Alex was very clear at this point of knowing each other. It wasn't the first time That Alex looked like she was protecting both of them, and frankly, this annoyed Ize quite a bit. She didn't want to have a man protecting her. It made her look weak, and she didn't need it, she was pretty capable of taking care of herself.

Looking away from Alex trusting he would try and look less than a lap dog here. She then grabbed a black, octagonal nunchaku held my a thin, metal chain that had been tugged in one side of her sweatpants. After looking at them for a moment, she smiled and began to twirl them and make some basic spinning movements with them while seated. Doing this was far more fun to her than not doing anything but stare at the people there. She was still getting used to how different the twirling felt from one hand to the other. Then again, something told her she would never get used to it completely.