Welcome to Gaia! ::

The man who was the recipient of Zephyr's message smiled. "Score! I knew I was right. While you're doing that, there's some school business I offered to help with." From where ever the man was, he teleported back to his computer room for a few minutes. He examined the dialogue running across the screen, nothing was abnormal.

He walked away from his computer, and opened a solid wood door that led out of his office. When he returned, he had a thick 8x10 envelope in one hand and a cup of ice water in the other. He sat back down at his computer, eyes readjusting to the light (or lack thereof). He set the cup down on the floor next to his chair and opened the envelope, pulling several sheets of paper out.

"Ah, the list of new students," he said, removing the paper clip and leafing through the pages. The names were in no particular other. "Koslowski, Zeras, Woods, Mitsuhashi, Astra, Rinaldi, Galivotti, Akakios....." The list went on for about another fifty names. "Jeez, even after it was destroyed, school still goes on." Of course, since the man was one of the key people in rebuilding the school.... With his connections and deep pockets, he could do almost anything for almost anyone.

The man leaned over and began entering the names into a database. The database contained as much information as he could dig up regarding all the students of Mystic Fountain High School over the past five years, and in his spare time he would track down records of students who had attended long ago, some records up to twenty years old. Today, the names he entered would be sent to a LEO satellite that would dispatch magic-enhanced robotic messengers to each of the prospective students. Perhaps extravagant and unnecessary, but this man always enjoyed making a lasting impression on people. Preferably good impressions.

While the computer was taking care of business, the man sipped his water and left the office again. In the light of the hallway, it could be seen that the man had white or light blue-gray hair, and hazel eyes.

"When I went," the man said, "There were about six thousand students, not all of them full time. This year, we only have seventy new students. One hundred and twenty three graduated last year. It's not a stretch at all."

"Besides, outdoor classes are fun. For me, anyways. I can't begin to count how many alarms I've set off...." He turned around and looked up to face his brother. "I'm an Enlil, I believe in working as efficiently as possible. Now, going in alphabetical order, the first newbie we should visit is an Athena Astra. Do we send a letter or make it personal?"

He flipped a switch and the lights turned on, revealing an office with a ceiling of exposed steel rafters and pipes. A keycard on the desk had the name 'Ialo L. Enlil' on it. Nine out of twelve consoles were currently powered off or asleep, and the holographic projectors were dim, in a power-saving mode. Blue Storm 005 had yet to make its daily report.

Ialo looked his brother up and down. "Bah, you're not that scary. I've seen worse at the local hair salon." He printed off some papers from a large laser printer behind Zephyr. "Those are Miss Astra's records, you're coming with me for a personal visit, and that's that." Ialo headed for the door of his office, preparing to leave. "And if anyone messes with you, they'll get Tasered by me." Of course, by Taser, Ialo did not mean the electric dart gun, but rather summoning a lightning bolt to cremate the unfortunate target. "Or if they mention Saint George."

"Oh well, get ready for the screams brother."
He walked across the metal floor, passing Ialo and getting to the door; the joint structure in his legs was more efficient. He hit a switch near the door, causing the lights to dim out as they prepared to shut down. As he turned the handle he looked behind him to his brother, saying something. As he turned back to the open doorway, a tall, dark figure stood before him.
"OH SHI-"
He was thrown backwards with a great deal of force, crashing into Ialo behind him and brutally smashing the pair into a computer console on the far side of the room.
The figure that stepped inside was in heavy shadow due to the dimmed lights, but a mask could be seen adorning his face. It was rather strange, and only the right eye had an opening. It seemed as though the mask revealed parts of the face, but it was noted that the bottom jaw had some sort of concealment jutting upwards over the mouth. This protrusion itself looked like the bottom jaw of a, albeit very distorted, human skull, as did the rest of the mask. Teeth jutted upwards from the protrusion in multiple directions, and also from just beneath the eye on the upper part of the mask. Each bit of this strange facial attire was bleach white.

Thanks to his training over the past few years, Ialo had just enough sense about him to teleport out of the way. He hated to lose a computer, but thankfully the machines were sentient and could defend themselves and assist their masters. Such was the case here. Metal tubes hung down from the ceiling and picked Zephyr up before turning to the intruder, green optic sensors glowing slightly. Ialo clenched his fists and lightning sparked for a second before disappearing.

It was Blue Storm 005 that answered Kai's call. "Hello." 005 delegated some of its tasks to 002, 004, 006, and 007. "The number you are trying to reach is currently is a shady situation where physical, collateral, and possibly a smidgen of psychological damage is possible. Press one to if you think I should help. Press two if you think I should beam you over there. Press three if you think Ialo needs to gets a life."

The satellite groaned when Kai entered his choice. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me...." it mumbled. The machine glowed brightly in the sky, and it began to shift. Seams appeared and others disappeared, other sections folded in on themselves and still other areas expanded and folded out. When 005 was done, there were eight solar panels, forming wings. lethal-looking telescoping apparatuses were at the base of each "wing". They charged, violently glowing and sparking, radiating an intense amount of heat. "Bwahahahaha......" Blue Storm 005 laughed evily. Just because it was an artificial intelligence system created for the purpose of collecting data didn't mean it couldn't have fun once in a while.....

It forgot to hang up on Kai.

"Aw s**t, that's not fair!" 005 whined. The laser weaponry powered down. "You suck Kai!" Not that Kai ever mentioned his name, but 005 did have an excellent tracking system. "Don't you know the saying, 'When the master is away, the computer will play'?" At that moment, 010 was drifting by. Pooling their power, 005 and 010 created a pale yellow beam that shot straight down to the old school and hit Kai. The silver-wing glowed and disintegrated, and was 'rebuilt' and appearing down the hall from where the commotion was. "Instantaneous data transmission eff-tee-double-you!" 005 cheered.

((I love these satellites! They're so funny! They just write themselves...))

"I reject!"
Zephyr's wings shot out from his back, his massive wingspan nearly bridging the room. He beat them forwards with all his might, sending a whirlwind of dust and papers flying at the figure.
Oddly enough, when struck, the figure blew away like a mountain of sand.