Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cassie looked over at Chris. She was glad that he didn't get himself killed... still he wasn't exactely her favorite person right now. She didn't really go up to him as much as keep her distance.

"What is it that you need to warn me about Chris?"

*Chris trembled when he saw that Cassie didn't come to him. But he had no one to blame but himself.*

Ares...he's bankrolling the Purifiers out of revenge. Because after you gave up being his Champion, he can't directly affect things on campus. I'm his message...I think he wants you to hit the Purifier camp.

*Chris sunk to his knees, his strength gave out again. Chris hugged himself to cover the wound in his chest. If she didn't know about the amulet then she wouldn't go. He'd rather die than put her in that situation.*

Don't do it. It's a trap of some kind.

::Wally turned his head left and right.::

"Did we just get ditched?"

Cassie! Wait! *Runs after her.*

"You should be with Chris! Any idiot knows he still loves you and you love him. He only broke it off becuse he's a total boob."

"Besides. Like he said. It's a trap. For YOU!"

*Smirks at her.*

"But not for me. And a certain red headed speedster I know."

"Oh. Wally" *Said sensitively.* "You didn't think I was talking about you, did you?"

"Uh Sorry Waly It's far to dangerous for you, until you get your eye sight back. I would hate for anything to happen to you."

*Hold his cold hand*
"You've got the chills already. Stay here where it's safe."

"Jessie Quick and I will get the Stone back in a Flash."

"We're all upset over what Ares has done to us. But we need to focus. This is Not a revenge mission although he deserves it, The amulet is our main goal. Search and Seizure."

*Witchblade reacts strangely to Wally, Hissing creating small tendril. Dani Lets go of his hand and Witchblade retracts. Shaking it off she continues thinking it was just some pent up resentment or hostility...*

"I'm sorry Wally, confronting Aries when he has a trap set up is Not a good idea. Jesse and I are in and out."

"May after we all are back at 100%, both mind and body, we can finally take out Aries once and for all... and when that happens he wont know what hit him ... "

Cassie didn't want anyone else getting hurt.. she was upset enough that d**k was following her. She went into the church which seemed to be holding some type of public sermon. She looked at the seats and sat down d**k sat down next to her.

"Cass.. are you sure about this?"

Cassie nodded as the sermon began.

::By the time Wally had ceded to Dani's insistance he stay behind, Chris had vanished, leaving a trail of greenish liquid in his wake. Which was gross and pretty damn grimdark. Dani ran off to try to find Jesse, leaving Wally standing, alone. He sighed.::

"I'm going to have to do this all the hard way, I suppose..."

::He started making his way back to the dorms, only to be stopped by a strong hand on his shoulder.::

"Wally West? I'm Mister Hellstrom. We need to speak."

::Wally paused, then turned and put a smile on his face.::

"Hello, Mister Hellstrom. I'm glad you found me. It's been sort of chaotic today, but I wanted to talk to you, too."

::Hellstrom raised an eyebrow.::

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, something strange happened earlier today and the more I think about it, the more I thought I should tell someone. You see, this morning I went to talk to Doctor Sampson at Special Services, but Miss Harkness was there instead. She asked me if I had seen Raven. But when we were going to leave to find Raven, Miss Harkness just vanished! I know that you Mystical Arts teachers are all pretty mysterious, but it still struck me as strange."

::Hellstrom slowly removed his hand from Wally's shoulder, and looked down at his fingers.::

"Wally, I think it is important that you come with me. Quickly now. Doctor Strange and Doctor Nelson should also be alerted to this-"

::Wally reached out and grabbed Mister Hellstrom's hand.::

"I think YOU need to come with ME right now, Damian Hellstrom."

::Mister Hellstrom vanished. Wally turned his head and felt around him.::

"Mister Hellstrom? M-Mister Hellstrom? MAN these Mystic Arts teachers are weird..."







-----------------------

Inside the pocket dimension of Azarath, Raven frowns as another powerful master of the mystic arts appears on the tiny chunk of land that wound its way through the aether-realm. Damian Hellstrom stood up, ran a hand over his eyes and sighed.

"Raven Roth. Agatha Harkness. Where are we?"

"We are in Azarath, the dimension I was born in." Raven explained, as she directed the two teachers to follow her on the tiny, floating path in the nothingness.

"Wally West sent me here? He should not have that sort of power. He should not have any mystic abilities at all!"

Agatha gave Hellstrom a grim look and tightened her shawl around her shoulders.

"No, he should not. And to make matters worse, the portal back has been locked with a morphogenic incantation. It shifts and changes every second. It will be impossible to break on this side in less than a thousand years."

"Damnation."

Hellstrom punched a fist into his other hand.

"I hadn't raised my defenses yet - he took me by surprise."

"My fault."

Raven crossed her arms in front of herself and squeezed herself, even though it wasn't particularly cold.

"I invited Wallace here to meditate. To befriend him. I-I like him. But his friends came in and distracted me, and I lost control of something...something he had no defense against..."

"I think you should tell us all about it, Raven."

Mister Hellstrom reached out into the darkness, sending a spark of himself to investigate Azarath as the three sat down and Raven told the teachers her story.

"You have to understand...if no one stops him, he will doom the entire Earth..."

------------------

::Wally was getting pretty tired of people just up and vanishing, leaving him behind, but something in the back of his head told him not to worry about it. There were preparations to be made for tonight. First, he had to meet Ares, the old God, and see how powerful he was.

No, that wasn't right. He had to meet Ares to stop him, get his friend's pendant back and save Cassie.

Then, he had to finish gathering all of his disciples...no, his Peeps, that's what they were called...and they all had to sneak off campus to show up for the Church for Human Purity rally tonight. For their counter-protest.

Then, he had to make the sacrifice.

...sacrifice? Oh, that's right. A sacrifice to the Path of Trigon. A way to show those Church of Human Purity people that the kids of Hero High weren't the bad guys. Sort of a symbolic sacrifice. Yes, that was it. That was the most important thing.

As long as the sacrifice was pure, everything would be all right in the end. Wally made his way toward the school entrance, amazingly following Chris's path despite being sightless, on the way to his first objective - Meet Ares.::