Welcome to Gaia! ::

Three hours later, Con was in a hotel suite in a much better part of Chicago, hunched over his laptop at the little desk the hotel provided. Though he'd pretty much gone on the straight and narrow since his business had picked up six years ago, he still retained a few of his less-than-legal skills.

Computer hacking remained one of those skills. It was only too easy to hack into Bobbie Joan Tulsa's files, easier yet to pull up all her data when it came to the orphanage, the adoptions, the foster programs. He even managed to fish out the sealed juvie records, the police reports on sightings.

He sifted through the files, reading every word, admitting it to memory. Hell, he thought with some frustration, she really had been everywhere. He ran through all the sighting reports, his eyes widening as he went through each one.

Boston, Ohio. Little Rock, Arkansas. Atlanta, Georgia. New Orleans, Lousiana. Helena, Montana. Dallas, Texas. Hollywood, California. Lansing, Michigan. Seattle, Washington. Omaha, Nebraska. Deadwood, South Dakota. Miami, Florida. Albuquerque, New Mexico. Saint Paul, Minnesota. Annapolis, Maryland. Cheyenne, Wyoming. Kansas City, Kansas. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hell, even Juneau, Alaska and Toronto, Canada, Mexico City, Mexico. And, as the last place she'd been spotted, Boise, Idaho.

Most of them were major cities, and he'd always been a city boy. While she had always been one for solitude, for quiet, he'd always been for the rush of crowds, the noise, the scents, the smells. It was one of the few things they'd never seen eye to eye about. There was no doubt she'd been looking for him, but where was she now? She hadn't surfaced in weeks.

She'd skipped around, too. One coast to another, north to south. She'd wanted to find him, but she'd wanted no one to find her. She'd always been clever. If she'd gotten caught and put into juvie, then she'd wanted to.

He pulled up the juvie record, skimming through it. Good behavior, he saw. Gotten out four months early on good behavior, and then she'd gone under. He didn't like thinking of his girl in a cage, behind bars in a little cell. A pixie was never supposed to be caged.

On a sigh, he leaned back in the chair, rubbing at the tension at the back of his neck. Closing his eyes, he could remember her as she'd been before he'd left her all those years ago. Small and delicate, but with subtle muscles beneath the pale skin. Eyes wide as an owl's, so innocent and naive, somehow remaining that way, at least to him, even as she fought, just as he'd taught her. Even when they'd gone cold and hard with concentration, there'd been that innocence beneath the surface.

And they'd lit up, with something more than love, when she looked at him. She'd smiled for him, as she had for no one else, had reached for him, trusting him absolutely. And when she'd wrapped those skinny arms around his neck, he'd found his contentment.

And sometimes, when he'd questioned whether or not she'd be able to make it on her own, he'd watched her with the others. And his doubts had disappeared. She'd developed a ground eating stride, had used it to get from Point A to Point B with no fuss, no muss. Her eyes had been cooly dismissive towards those around her, carefully blank towards those who'd ruled her future.

He'd laughed only around him, and the smile had reached her eyes as she reached out for him. And he'd left her. Knowing that, knowing he'd left her behind, so intent on his own dreams, his own future that he hadn't really thought of hers...it filled him with a shameful guilt, had him leaning over his computer once more, sifting through the files for some clue, some lead...something.

The limo was flashy. Probably more flashy than what most students of Unwelcome Boulder would use, but Guiseppi had never been exactly normal. He stared across the long car at the tall, large, and generally threatening-looking person who sat directly across from him, face looking somewhat displeased. "Can you not shave properly?" he demanded, eyeing a series of razor cuts on the man's neck. "It completely ruins my image."

Ah, his image. An important thing when you were anything like Guiseppi--after all, when you strike more fear for your image than your physicality, you must do everything you can to maintain it, to improve it. And Guiseppi certainly had never been one to strike fear for his size or physical appearance as a general rule. He was average height, and closer to skinny than lean. He barely met any of Unwelcome Boulder's standards for physical education. He didn't care for it.

However, his powers and the ease with which he used them was his saving grace, placing him among the top students at the school. As such, he was allowed many more luxuries than some of the newer people. Hell, even some of the people who'd been there longer than he had were jealous. He knew it, and he exploited it. It made him feel good to know that he was better.

They never figured this out, though. The second one of Guiseppi's special custom-made Italian loafers touched the ground outside the limo that belonged to... extended family... his whole countenance changed. While he very much missed the sun when he was at school, being a Mediterranean-born boy through-and-through, he was as happy here as he'd ever been.

A bright, happy smile lightened upon his face as he walked in an elegantly careless way he'd mastered over the years up to the school.

The limo exploded behind him when he was safely inside. He couldn't have people knowing where this school was, and he'd never really liked the driver anyways. The other was a sad casualty. With some more training, he may have had some promise. Ah well... That didn't matter now.

Guiseppi pouted good-naturedly. "But what would be the fun in that?" he asked Grady, before turning to Tor and smiling brightly. "You bet! I worked on my tan while I was waiting for the subject." He pulled up the jacked of his suit a bit to prove it.

Indeed, his skin was noticeably darker. The white pallor that it got because of the sunless weather at school was lost, and a healthy golden hue had taken over. He didn't skip a beat when he spoke, obviously unaffected by the people from the limo.

For a moment, though, he glanced around, then his voice dropped somewhat. "Something freaky's going on," he said conspirationally. "I don't know what it is, but I plan to find out."

BJ had heard the explosion from her room, and had decided she didn't want to know. Because she didn't, and because she'd been awake too damned long, she locked her room up tight again, taking precautions against a certain fellow Shadow Runner by duct taping the inch-wide space between the door and the floor, effectively locking out any unwanted pests, especially dark haired, sarcastic pests named Torin Wheeler.

Content-and thankful the room was big enough not to start up her claustrophobia-she dropped down on her mattress, accepting the chill in the air with a shrug and turning so that she was laying, fully clothed, on her stomach. She toed off her boots, heard the knife in one clatter to the ground. She reached back, took the knife from her waistband and slid it under the mattress, in easy reach.

With a long sigh, she let herself drop off, and was asleep in moments.

"Mystic Fountain..." Tor kept his voice equally low, and sighed. "When the hell can't major s**t be traced back to that branch? That Headmaster takes in all sorts of psychos, worse than us. At least we're united in our mission. They're always off doing whatever the hell they please...Tell me more." He said, and offered a twinkie he'd smuggled out of BJ's room without her notice.

Raven was sitting out on her balcony within her dorm. She'd already finished her assignments and training for the day, and was left alone in the silence of her room. Watching the sky, she felt a sense of emptiness. Her desire to fly was ever growing within her, but she knew that she couldn't from her many attempts before. Never the less, her wings spread in silent hope that one day they could be great and glide across the open sky. The murmuring of her daggers could be heard at her side, and she smiled at their chimes of conversation. She had to try, just one more time.

Standing up on the ledge of the balcony, she expanded her small wings as far as possible. Silent as a bat she leaped into the air and began to fall a short distance. Her wings finally took control and she glided a short distance, only to then lose control and fall the rest of the way down. Landing in front of the entrance with a loud and painful crash, she got herself up and dusted off. Trying to maintain some dignity and hide her sadness she walked over to the entrance entered it to climb back up to her room. She saw other people around though, and was unsure of herself as she walked inside the door. Raven looked like a mess from her fall, and hoped no one would mock her.

Raven's ears detected the sound of footsteps outside the school and was already watching the door when it swung open to reveal a tall and blurry figure in Raven's vision. After a couple of seconds her echolocation revealed his more precise features that were hidden in her blurry vision. He looked tough enough, she supposed he could make it in this school. To make against her though, that seemed more unlikely to her. She watched carefully as she heard his weight press against the wall and he remained silent just as she did. Growing ever curious she quietly approached through the shadows, becoming one with the very darkness. When she was close enough to the elf's side she stopped and revealed her body. "Let me guess, your the new guy eh?" She asked in her usual accusing tone. Raven was never one to hide her true self, even to strangers that seemed just as mysterious as she could be at times. She propped her hands on her hips as her crimson eyes looked up at him warily.