Welcome to Gaia! ::

So he couldn't sleep. No surprise there, right? Instead, Hartley decided to devote his energy to something constructive....breaking into the metalworking laboratory.

He brought the "mouse" with. He suspected - strongly- that it wasn't a mouse but a baby rat. It had a pointy head and twitchy whiskers and something about it that said 'rat' and not 'mouse.'

Whatever it was, he had to do something to keep it from eating all of his musical compositions. So it sat on the table eating sunflower seeds and pooping while he broke open the metallurgy cabinet and pulled out the jewelrymaking supplies.

He put the 'incident' with Wallace out of his mind for the moment. What was more important was teaching those football players a lesson. Maybe he shouldn't have cared that they threatened Cassie and apparently attacked Chris Powell, but...well, he did care. So there. It was time to put them all in their place.

Opening up a small, velvet bag, he poured out his swag from a couple weeks ago; the rare Symphonic Sapphires. Each one meticulously cut; each one capable of something amazing no other gem could do...it could store a harmonic vibration in it's core. It could be, almost, a musical gem.

Almost.

Hartley decided that the baby rat's name was Louis as he started to work with the tools. Step one was easy for him and he'd already done it weeks ago...each of the Sapphires was 'programmed' with a vibrational pulse. A pulse that could be turned off and on with a certain song...and render the wearer of the Sapphire open to being commanded.

Step two required help from Hero High's resident gemologist...the one person on campus who knew more about jewels and gems than anyone else, teacher or student...and fortunately, she was just as interested in what Hartley was doing as he was.

"OH. MY. GOD. For waking me up at 2 in the morning, Hartley, this had better be good."

People didn't realize that Lisa Snart, like her brother, had one area of genius expertise: she knew gems. She knew the powers that gems had and she knew how to use them.

"Hey, Lisa. See you got my message."

"Yeah, yeah, blah blah, revenge football team. I wouldn't normally want to get involved with this, but I am SO PISSED at Len right now. I TOLD him to leave my boyfriend alone!"

Hartley was reasonably sure Powell wasn't her boyfriend anymore, but decided not to argue the point.

"THERE IS A RAT ON THE TABLE."

It was a statement of fact, no 'eek,' no stereotypical screaming. Hartley nodded.

"Billy thought it would be funny to give me one, I guess."

"Well, I know Len and the gang call you Pied Piper, so I guess that makes sense."

Lisa sat down next to the rat and sighted the gems. Her eyes lit up and she licked her lips.

"Are those..."

"Symphonic Sapphires, yes."

"Hartley, I am IMPRESSED. That's a nice score! Oh, and the color and clarity! Expert cut!"

She admired one by holding it up to the light.

"Careful. I've already 'fixed.' them."

"How so?"

"They're programmed to give off a harmonic pulse if the song 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' is playing nearby. It renders the person receiving the pulse into a trance."

"Oh, brilliant. So, the question is...how are you going to get the football team to wear some pretty, sparkly gems, right?"

"Yeah, and that's where you come in."

Hartley held up the jeweler's tools.

"The football team are going to be getting their team rings a little early this year."

Lisa smiled.

"You are SO lucky I'm pissed at Len right now."

The two got to work, manufacturing a set of rings for the entire football team. It took hours, but Lisa's gem knowhow and Hartley's aptitude with tools meshed, and by 7 am, they were out of the lab, right before Doctor Magnus walked in to start the day.

Hartley couldn't keep a smile off his face as they headed to the boy's locker room and put the rings on Coach Cage's desk with a forged note.

Bart walked around campus.. He hoped he didn't do anything wrong by telling Clark about Linda.... Bart thought that Clark already knew... yesh.. this time was so confusing. He saw the football team practicing and backed away from the field.. The last thing he needed this morning was to deal with them. Bart then bumped into Helena.

"You never came to practice yesterday!"
"I was busy besides I never agreed to help you an.."

Before Bart could finish Helena yanked him by the collar and started dragging him away..

Achilles finished football practice and stood in the locker room with the other hopefuls, waiting to see if Coach Cage would award any of them with one of those shiny, shiny rings.

True, Achilles had missed three games because of his journey, but he had returned and Cage had promptly booked him and Len into taking turns in games playing their position, and both did remarkably well.

And yes, Cage is a big ol' softy...plus the fact that the parents of the players footed the bill for the rings didn't hurt matters when it came to deciding who got a ring...and thus he begun to hand them out to those eager hands.

Moments later Achilles stepped into Mysia's stable, looking the ring over.

"A tad garish for a sports reward." He mused. "But then again, it could be the norm for this age."

He slipped the ring onto a finger and proceeded to get Mysia fed.

Billy yawns mightily and stretches...and rolls over to promptly fall out of bed.

THUMP!

"Ow! Sonofa...!"

Billy rubbed his forehead and shook off the remnants of the sleep in his system.

"Dang it...why do all three of us hafta share one bed! It's not like there isn't two in this room! And someone had grabby hands...."

It was not easy. What he had to do, it was not easy.

Since the disastrous collision with Dani and her friends in his costumed identity, Robert had made it his highest priority to avoid her until he could collect his thoughts and figure what exactly had gone wrong. He attended classes, but was quick to disappear in the crowds, avoiding both boy and girl dormitories. He rarely stopped by his room, but when he did, he was always glad to find that his roommate had remained quite gone, collecting and depositing books and papers when he could.

He was not a machine, and needed food and rest. He never went to the Black Hawk's, having considered that a place synonymous with Dani. He gathered food and drink from markets and small stores when he could, purchased with his money but kept his head down, trying his best to avoid looks. He slept randomly, but most times, within his storage container. He could not allow Dani to find him. Not yet.

Not until he found the real kidnapper.

"I have a couple of classes, and then maybe we could hang out a little?" Or a lot, Teddy was fine with either. Teddy gently rubbed Billy's forehead with his thumb, and he gave him a little kiss. "I could go for a macchiatto."

Chris:

*Chris returned to from his room from classes. Despite the attack by psychotic football players, the last twenty-four hours had been great. Evidence found, analyzed, and a suspect identified. And the making out had been great. Too bad that he had a roommate now or she could have stayed the night...ugh...his roommate.

Chris fired up his laptop and started researching the Kravinofff family. Their crest was on the spear blade and he wanted to see if they could have anything to do with the attack on Dani and Robert.*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clark:

::Clark searched back and forth across campus but couldn't find Linda Lang, the supposed Kryptonian girl. Imagine that there was another Kryptonian on Earth! Karen was here of course but another one would be wonderful! After losing Conner...::