Writing High School Hell

[Andrew]

[size=1]Dude!

Was this seriously written by the same girl who dropped so low as to ask me (of all people) for inspiration? In any case, bravo, bravo to you D, that was expertly written and kicked all sort of Áss! Don't stop now, it can only get better!

[Note: Yay! Super-Saiyan Andrew = Teh Bóllócks!][/size]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Andy, quit running yourself down man. I keep telling you, I know nobody else who writes DBZ as good as you do, seriously man, it's Toriyama level stuff.[/SIZE]

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#8B008B]A feral Raiha; who knew? You know, while I was reading this I thought that Vicky would've been the one to just go out by herself on a suicide attempt. But then again, it's always the ones who know how to disguise their craziness that tend to go on suicide attempts.

And like Andrew said, it was written amazingly. I just can't believe Sella turned out to be some sort of mutated "The Faculty" alien. Well I guess I did see that coming but not as gruesome as you described her. In any case, great installment.[/size][/color]

[Chaos]

...I like how Neil taunts her as he stands there about to pass out. Haha.

[Arcadia]

You know, before I write a fight scene I always get very excited and think, "This is going to be so awesome!" And then I sit there for a while and realize it's much harder than it looks. So kudos for some good fights and creative liberty!

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]?I?ll fight with you.?

[i]Will walked forward with me, his body repelling the flames even as the other had to rise above the burning. I was dimly aware that while I couldn?t speak, I was seeing, smelling, and hearing far more than I?d ever before. I could sense Sella?s pheremones drifting across my olfactory nerves like a manure pile. Vicky?s gave me the sensation of a runner?s high, and then men all were easier just to shut off entirely. I was getting closer, smelling the sweat of a fighter nearing the limits of his strength, when Connor joined myself and Will silently, his blade drifting along bethind him. He was coming along with his own version of teleporting, which he slowed down and sped up as we moved, avoiding the scorch as well as I expected. Neil and Gavin waited, both knowing better than to try and mix their own ki with anything I could dish out.[/i]

?I vote we make this all short and to the point."

[i]I felt my claws grind into the loose ground, my fingers twisting rocks into gravel. Connor stopped a safe distance from Sella, even as Vicky fell back with Andrew close behind, to not get caught in the crossfire. I rose up on my hind legs, feeling more and more like an animal or an Ifrit and less and less like a sentient being. Wings of fire still twisted over my back, illuminated now that it was night, blazing brighter than any aura. Smoke trailed upwards to disappear into the stars, but it was all lost on me. I only know these things because of Gavin after all. Will cast an eye over my body, which was apparently rippling and contracting with energy and he quickly stepped around so that Connor was between both me and him.[/i]

?Hurry up! Before she can?t change back!?

[i]I cupped both hands and accessed the fire blazing around my body, sucking it into my fingertips. Whipping my limbs up, and then down towards the ground, I felt Will preparing his own attack, with Connor doing the same. Both were pulling energy from within, although Connor?s strength felt magnified beyond his normal strength. I pricked both of their minds with mine, and they winced equally, saying nothing, but instead sealing off their attacks. At the signal Connor plunged his sword down into the ground, Will grabbing the hilt as well, as I slammed both hands down on the ground, my thumbs nearly touching the blade at each side. Magic and ki twisted around one another, and then exploded upwards beneath Sella, who for some reason had remained earthbound since she had transformed. I felt my lungs contracting and then realized that I was howling with glee. Chuckling even as my throat contorted and nearly threatened to choke the sounds off.

The earth beneath Sella had warped, the fire of my magic converting the rock beneath the field to magma, solidified by Will?s attack, turning into raw diamond. Impaled and covered in fire, burning from within, Sella writhed and twisted, her Godzilla like shrieking drowned out by the sound of Saiya-jin laughter and a feral?s howling. Seeing my enemy fall, I charged, my limbs covering themselves in flame without my command, even as I went for her neck and sunk five claws from both hands into her throat. My hind feet dug into the diamond as best they could, and I scrabbled against her flesh, severing as many strands of sinew and muscle I could find. Hanging on to both her body and whipping around to avoid flailing, I ducked just as the sound of a whistling ki beam approaching. Neil and Gavin had fired the same attack at the exact same moment, further weakening her body.[/i]

?Boom headshot!?

[i]I hear that?s what Neil shouted anyway, but I was too busy shredding whatever my claws would reach. And eventually it worked out. Her head burst from her mangled neck and fell, only to be consumed with fire. I leapt off her body and landed in the field that was slowly burning itself out. Shaking all over, I felt my chin touch the black earth and saw Vicky and Andrew both flat on their backs, returned to normal, looking up at the crescent moon, now visible. Nearby I could see the white ashes that had been Warlock drifting away in the light breeze. Connor was resting, leaning against his sword, stuck vertically in the ground from before. Gavin and Neil both were sitting, knees crossed, arms folded. I could sense Will?s approach and feel his hand on my shoulder, which by now had completely gone out.[/i]

?It?s time to come back to your original form.?

[i]With a blink, I lifted my head up to see him standing over me, then turned and saw Gavin rise to lean over me as well. He put a hand on my cheek and I blushed, or at least would?ve if my skin had shown it. I caught his scent, and purred once, before hunching over, my spine snapping under the strain of reverting. With a sickening crunch, my bones reshaped themselves into humanoid ones. My claws retracted as I stood, totally devoid of clothing, but my skin returning to its normal tattooed self. Gavin held up my chin for me and I stared into his eyes, mine becoming the same white, empty pupils I?d always had. He laughed aloud, then pulled me against him, one last wrench of my hip straightening me out completely. Vicky rolled tired eyes and looked away.[/i]

?That?s gross you know. Absolutely disgusting.?

?Oh go away, you?re just jealous because you can?t reform your entire anatomy.?

[i]I turned and stuck my tongue out at her, shaking hair out of my eyes and clinging to Gavin?s shoulders. Connor tilted his head back until his head was resting on the hilt and looked up at the sky, his eyes glancing over Sella?s skeletal remains.[/i]

?I have no idea about you guys, but my mom?s going to massacre me for this one.?

?That and we completely forfeited our security deposit.?

[i]Neil looked up from his crossed arms, an odd expression on his face. Andrew looked despondent. Then he turned and sifted his hand through the charred earth.[/i]

?Warlock should be happy now. If we?d lost, he would?ve tormented us all.?

?No ****. We?d be better off joining him then that.?

[i]Vicky spread her arms out, laughing to herself. I almost did the same, but then paused. I crossed my arms over Gavin?s and closed my eyes.[/i]

?I think he?d rather we lived to lay the hurting on anyone else as ****** up as Sella.?

[i]Will smirked, his a mirror image of Neil?s. They spoke at the same time, even as I snorted at them.[/i]

?Word.?[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Well Vicky and Andy might have become Super Saiyans, but I got my girl and that's more than enough.

All joking aside, I'm kinda sad that this is the end of it, or at least the end of the current arc. The final fight with Sella was great, really brought back memories of the old school RPGs we did back in V3 and V4 with Andy, Craig, Neil, Warlock, Flash and everyone else.

So what've you got planned next ?[/SIZE]

[Andrew]

[size=1]The end? Seriously!?

Aww man. Sure I'm disappointed but that's certainly been a great pleasure to read I must say and a very satisfying end! Huge amounts of love and respect to you for keeping me, the king of laziness, interested for such an extended period.

Do thrill us with your fabulous writing skills again sometime soon in the future! ^-^

And cheers Gav, much respect for the compliment. I'll try to finish for your sake![/size]

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Do not panic, there will be a sequel of course thanks to Gavin. And an epilogue is required as you might imagine. But not for a day, I'm quite drained you know.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Ah, so we are going on with that project eh. Well hopefully everyone who's been so glued to this will get in gear, oldies particularly and join and be able to write their own adventures.

And no worries Andy, it's a great story, finish it when you get the mood to do it. Writing that way always yields the best results I find.[/SIZE]

[Raiha]

[i][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]So all things considered, I suppose we allowed ourselves to heal better than most humans would’ve. We found the remnants of Warlock’s ashes and gave them to his parents, who were a lot more forgiving of us than we were of ourselves. As for the remaining bones of Sella? My father took them and as for what he did with them, I can’t say. Mom told me not to ask, so I didn’t. Vicky and Andrew’s families were over the moon about their “ascension” and none of us did anything to disabuse them. Will’s mother cried and said that she was so proud that he’d proven himself as a warrior. Neil and Gavin’s families were to be honest, just grateful they weren’t dead. And Connor’s mom helped us find a couple new places. The dryad always had it going on, and this was no exception.

Gavin and I moved into a small cottage with two bedrooms. The others, including Vicky, got a place similar to the one Sella fired, only this one was made of stone not wood. I understand Vicky is getting serious with Andrew, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, although Will has a friendly rivalry going on with him for her affection. Who knows? I tend to not think about it too much. Besides, I got my degree, Gavin got his, while everyone else sort of did the college thing at their own speeds. Besides, we had to finish up quickly. I was pregnant after all. Didn’t I tell you? It’s been two years since Sella died, and while I still train every morning, dance in the afternoons, and sleep with my husband at night, I still think about it. I wonder what we’d been thinking, starting a family, but then again, what better time?[/i]

“You do realize how insane that sounds, right?”

“Quiet Vicky, you’ll upset the baby.”

[i]I spent a lot of time thinking, just as Gavin spent hours mediating, reading, and working. On what, I didn’t ask. Of course when things got too quiet, Neil or Andrew would come bursting up with some sort of problem on their hands and we’d have to help. The most serious one was when Vicky severed four of Andrew’s fingers in a friendly game of ‘Knife’ and I had to reattach them with the new magic I’d been perfecting with Will’s help. Regardless of what Gavin had to say about it, Will was the most able to help me focus my thoughts and my energy. Why even ask? Besides, I was the one just through my first trimester and not showing at all. So I set my hair on fire less often, and I expended a lot less energy during training, but oh well.

Seriously? I didn’t mind the pregnancy. My dad cried, my mom ranted that I’d better not kill it on accident, and Gavin’s dad gave him the manly shoulder grab. It might’ve put a crimp in my plans to become even more powerful as a feral, but whatever. Sometimes we visit the gang’s house, just to see what’s going on and to hear their feedback on names for the kid. So far Neil’s suggested ‘Arano’ and Andrew suggested ‘Locky.’ I’m not sure what they’re going to do when it’s a girl, but I’m sure I don’t know either. Vicky’s suggested that if it’s a girl I pay tribute to Connor’s mom and name her Leila, but we’ll see what we see. Gavin’s got this crazy male Saiya-jin father-son Freudian nonsense going on that I’m generally ignoring, and I’m starting to wonder if there are ways I can tell that don’t involve me visiting a real human doctor. All it’s going to take is one twitch from the baby, or one little power jolt and six thousand dollars worth of equipment will be ruined. I can only wonder if it’ll have a tail, and if it’ll have real eyes. Gavin leaned over my shoulder.[/i]

“It’s going to have a tail. It’ll have pupils. Trust me.”

[i]At that point, I shook myself out of mental reverie and paid attention to Gavin instead. He leaned over and kissed my cheek, damp from the mist. We were both standing in the garden behind the house, which was serviceable for a family of three, but somehow always managed to contain the cacophony of sound and the insanity of Saiya-jins and assorted aliens running through it whenever there was a get together. I warned Gavin we shouldn’t have bought that stupid propane BBQ, but did he listen? Of course not. Every time someone was over, my plants were upset, the vines shrank back nearly into the house, and I had to spend hours coaxing roses back from where they’d burrowed into the fence. I turned to Gavin and nearly stamped a foot at him.[/i]

“This time, I say we don’t let them back here.”

“Oh have a heart sweetie, you’re nearly to the fourth month. We have to celebrate!”

“The only celebration I want involves you, me, some cider, and light jazz.”

[i]Gavin raised an eyebrow at me and I smiled back at him prettily, seductively. I put an arm up, around his shoulder and leaned in for a small kiss that rapidly became a longer, deeper one. Our lips parted and he gave me a look, breathing a little faster than normal.[/i]

“...I guess I could get into that.”

“You bet your ass you’ll be getting into that.”

[i]I smirked at him with all the charm and arrogance my mother had imbued me with. We leaned against each other and walked back inside, where I’d get breakfast, and he’d start making the beds. Hardly what you’d expect for a family of aliens, but we’re working on that. Later on Will or Andrew plan on showing up. And god knows I’ll have to mentally prepare myself for that. Maybe Vicky will drop by and we can discuss the nursery. Connor’s sworn that he’s going to forge the baby a sword but I warned him that if he does, I’ll show him exactly which end to hold. Who knows anyway what the future will hold?[/i][/FONT][/COLOR]

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#8B008B]A baby? That is, by far, the most unexpected thing yet! Girl, you keep pulling things out of thin air and yet...it all fits so well together. I can't wait for the next part of Hell. =][/size][/color]

[Andrew]

[size=1]Aww, I'm really sad to see this go. Especially after such a nifty epilogue.

I only hope that Gavin is serious about this follow-up and doesn't take his sweet ass time delivering.[/size]

[Gavin]

[size=1][B]Small Town Hell[/b], coming to the Adventure Square soon.[/size]