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*How did Chris feel? Neglected...lonely...jealous...*

Worn down. Bart kept me going though. He's...a strange kid. But nice.

...

How's Wally?

*Chris smiles sheepishly.*

Psh...what? No...nope...not in a million years.

*He stuffs some Hawka fries in his mouth so he won't say anything stupid. Stop being a jealous, needy prat, he thought to himself. He swallowed the fries.*

Bart? The guy that was just here before you. We were playing Street Fighter. I mentioned setting him up with Dani but he wasn't interested.

Six teachers gathered in the darkened secret room behind the detention hall. Six pairs of glowing red eyes in the darkness.

Reed Richards.
Diana Prince.
Namor Mackenzie.
Raven Darkholme.
Steve Rogers.
John Jones.

Diana Prince stood.

"Checkmate has taken over the school. Lord's force of mind has bent the faculty to his will. Does this change our mission?"

Raven stood.

"No. The Path to Trigon remains clear."

"What of our host bodies? Does Lord suspect anything?"

Steve Rogers stood up.

"He only cares about his own agenda. He does not sense a single thing wrong with any of us six."

"Then, how do we proceed?"

Namor crossed his arms in front of him.

"We let him do as he wishes. It matters not who is in charge of this school. All that matters is preparations for the Gathering. For now, we remain in the background. It is as if we are not even there at all..."

John Jones glowered in the darkness.

"Trigon grows impatient. If this Lord interferes with his plans, than we shall have to reveal ourselves taking care of him."

Diana shook her head.

"No. I believe that we can make arrangements, using our host bodies, without raising Lord or anyone else's suspicions. We can use the children of this school as tools to unseat him. For now, Lord must believe that we are under his influence."

The other five in this dark council nodded their agreement.

"For now, we will remain in the background. But soon, each of us should start preparing the student body to overthrow Lord...and then when they are distracted with their victory...that is when the servants of Trigon shall strike!"

The teachers quickly dispersed, and no one in the school was any the wiser that Trigon's evil influence was hiding in the undercurrent of the Max Lord takeover.

It had been so fun and quiet...he should've seen things weren't meant to last like that..

Robert had just returned from Blackhawks, sort of quietly walking along with Dani and her friends, the one outsider amongst a group of such close friends. That wasn't true, there was Wally, but he seemed to be so "familiar" with people he apparently he just met...didn't he? Still, he walked alongside the group as they headed back to the school, where he clearly gravitated towards Dani, walking right beside her, close but yet still distant as he wasn't sure of her signals...or his own. He was still perplexed by what he felt around her. His activities left little time for that kind of social life. He'd worked with girls before, Diana Adams for one, but there wasn't anything between him and her...in fact, he always thought she and Jerry had a bit of something. But still...

When they returned to campus, the group quickly began to splinter off, Cassie for one to run a doggie bag to Chris, while Robert gently excused himself, and said he'd see everyone later, heading towards his dorm...that was until he saw some armed goons begin to march male students from the dorms. He'd been pretty lucky not to have been seen and greeted with either goons or bullets, but Robert was quick to react and pressed himself to the corner of the dormitory he'd just turned when he saw the scene play out.

Scowling, instead of going right in to bust heads, he ran to the school's wall and climbed over, to get "geared up". That was then...

...Now here he was, having made the trip to and from his special container, it was The Terror who clung to the shadows as another group entered the boy's dorm to make another sweep for any lingering students. Grinning, he slipped right in after them, shutting the door behind him, loud enough to make the guards turn as they faced a figure in black, and a biker's helmet, cracking his knuckles, as its deep voice challenged them.

"I don't like guns...and I don't like those who use them."

"Shoo-"

But the Terror was upon them, cloak swirling and gliding about as he moved as he didn't hold back his fury. As Robert, he had to be careful with his strength. As the Terror, on the other hand...

With quiet approval, his punches slammed into their bodies, arms and legs bending into directions they were not meant to bend as sickeningly wet cracks and crunches met, bullets roaring only briefly as Terror overtook them, taking such dangerous toys from them. What had been trained agents now laid in a heap, alive but would never be the same after this. The Terror pressed a beat heel right into one of the invader's hands as it tried to use a sidearm, grinding it until the sickening little pops and crunch of the little bones with the man's hands were just shattered fragments. Now, what to do next...Right.

"Anyone else left in here?" boomed his disguised voice, looking around carefully. If a student answered, he get some answers. If more armed grunts showed up...well, then he'd get more "practice"...

Soldiers poured into the infirmary..

" Mandatory meeting in the auditorium! NOW!!!"

Cassie went up to them..

" But these students are all sick or injured..?"

" All must attend! NO EXCEPTIONS!"

They tried to grab Cassie but she tossed them like rag dolls... then they started firing.

" Chris I can hold them! You get everyone outta here.."

Cassie deflected the guns with her bracelets..

The Magic Club of Hero High was in the midst of their weekly meeting, led by Jennifer Kale, when the soldiers raiding the rest of the school grounds charged towards the Mystic Arts building.

Yet in one move they proved they had not been debriefed on the very nature of the structure as one soldier grabbed the door handle of the entrance and pulled and a violent backlash of sorcery struck him and sent the man flying into his comrades, scattering them like bowling pins!

The soldiers started to get their footing when a few kids peeked outside of the second story window where the meeting was being held...

"What's going on?" Billy said as he leaned out in between Jennifer and Cadaver when a soldier shouted from below.

"Up there!"

Never minding now that sorcery was involved, the soldiers drew up their plasma rifled and opened fire!

"Get down!"

Jennifer grabbed Billy and Cadaver and jerked them away from the window, even though the blasts ricocheted off of the magical shielding of the building!

All of the magical students rushed up in a group!

"What's going on?"

"What's happening?"

"Someone get Mister Hellstrom and Miss Harkness!"

Wally was already sitting politely in the auditorium, wondering just why the heck nobody else was there.

"Hey, kid, there's a meeting in the auditorium."

Jack looked up at the guard standing in his doorway. "Oh, ok. Why do you have a gun?"

"I dunno, they thought you guys wouldn't go."

"So you'd have to shoot me?"

"Uh yeah...I guess."

The two looked at each other, and Jack shrugged his shoulders, heading out of his dorm room. "Well, don't worry. I'll go. Beats math class anyway. I hope there's a hot chick there."

Jack headed down the hall to the sound of bullets, which was ridiculous. He headed into the auditorium and looked at the other students there with mild shock. "Can you believe that people and dumb enough to risk getting shot over going to a meeting? Is this a short bus school or what?"