This is Algebra

[Horo]

There was a sign was on the door:

"class meets out-side"

Horo cracked a smile as she read the sign on the door. She preferred to be outside in the open air rather then locked in a small box of a room. Retracing her steps through the building she found herself back under the blue sky. She felt a pulse wave ripple through the ground and followed it to the source.

Giovanni was standing with a group of students. His arms were folded across his chest and his eyes seemed to shine in the sunlight. Horo weaved her way into the group and towards the front.

"Giovanni! It's so good to see you!"

Giovanni looked down at the small child he had brought to the academy less then a month before.
"Hello Horo. Call me professor while we are in class."

Giovanni looked out over the crowd of students who had finally assembled and smiled.
"We have a good lot it seems. I am Professor Giovanni Veyous. I recently retook my mantel as a math teacher here, but for years I have been finding and bringing powerful and dangerous students to the academy. I am not your average teacher. Do not expect to take a written test. I don't teach like that. This is math, it is exciting, fun and interesting!"
He laughed and placed his hand on his forehead. "Ok, I'm lying about that last part."

Giovanni took a few steps back from his class and lifted his hands up. "In truth though, I teach math differently. You will be using your powers in this class, now lets get started."

Giovanni began to wave his hands like a conductor, using his power of pulse to divide the class into three small groups. He then gave each group a letter: M, X, and B.

"This is how we play our game. I am going to think of a number. Groups M, X and B are going to have to work together to create that number. Group M's number must multiply Group X's number and then group B will have to add to that number. Your entire group must decided on a number before presenting it to another group. You group must together decide on a number but only one member may present it to another group. If you don't add input you will receive a worse grade. You will have three minuets to find a correct combination." Giovanni took a seat and began to float in the air. "The number you need to create is: 42. GO!"

Giovanni allowed the groups to work for a few seconds. "I forgot to mention. The longer you take the more students who go to the dead pile." as he spoke he lifted a boy from the B group a girl from group M and another from group X and tossed them to the side. "If you end up in the dead pile you will get a failing grade for the assignment."

Horo began to panic. It would be easy alone but to have all three groups decide on a combination it would be hard. She looked around and raised her hand, but the group was chaotic. She raised her voice other the others and shouted. "We need to make a system! Everyone, one at a time!" Horo was in group B, it would be the easiest group to be a member of. "Let the other two decide then come to us. Can we agree we will add the amount that will give us an end result of 42?!"

[Rikka]

Students spoke to one another as they attempted to figure out why class was being held outside. A girl with brown hair and eyes with jeans and a short sleeved shirt stood on the outskirts of the group. Shifting her feet slightly she looked around not completely sure she was happy with this arrangement. Here eyes were drawn to the man who called himself their teacher. As he introduced himself she blinked and immediately decided she wanted to drop the class.

Ash wasn't a people person and would rather be learning from a book then integrating herself into society. Looking cold and distant as ever she ended up in group M. Setting Mizu, the black and white chimera, on the ground she looked at the puppy. "Mizu go find a place to hide. I will come find you when class is over." She had tried to leave the young chimera in the room this morning, but had managed to stick to Ash the entire time. Now though she wished she had brought Snow, Rue and Shiro. They could keep an eye on the young chimera, especially since she knew not everyone had great control over their powers. Mizu looked up at Ash and shook as she stuttered something incomprehensible. "No." Mizu shrank and moved closer to Ash. The girl sighed and picked up the Chimera again before walking over to her group who was panicking as they raced against the clock to get a number.

Speaking up finally the girl looked at them all and her group went quiet over the coldness in her voice. "Keep it simple. Were group M so we have the first number! Use 40 then group X may use 1 and Group B can add two." Several students gave the girl sneers as they tried to refute what she had said but couldn't. Several students questioned her logic and wondered if it could be that easy. "Fine if your so smart you present it to the other group." Ash stared the person down causing them to back away as she turned and moved toward group X. Mentally she wanted to go hide in a corner not wanting to be part of this. "May I speak to the leader of the group?" Ash glanced up at the teacher as she noticed he was floating above them before she could looked back at group X Ash spotted three little spots running across the court yard.

[Horo]

Giovanni waved his hand and tossed another three students into the dead pile. With a smile he began humming a tune. "2 minuets 15 Seconds left."

((Note. the students can fight aginst him and the tossing into the dead pile. That is where the power use comes in.))

[mockingbird]

When hearing the professor say ‘dead pile’ and ‘you fail’, a boy with dark black hair with light blue eyes wearing black pants and shoes with a deep red short sleeved shirt and rings that had small spikes surrounding the outside on his thumbs, began to worry, trying to think of a way group X would help find the solution. “So we have to multiply group M’s number? Guess we might as well see what they come up with.” Mockingbird muttered loud enough for his group to hear startling a couple people that stood toward the outer edge of the group in front of him. He sighed as he began to play with his wallet of throwing cards, What fun would that be to use a simple solution? Perhaps we could just use something more entertaining. Maybe 7.5 for fun? Mockingbird smiled deep in thought. I almost think I look the most normal here, even with my rings and dark cloths. It’s a little strange about the people here though. I wonder what he meant by ‘using your powers’.

Seeing someone approach group X, he sighed again, and shut out his previous thoughts. With a smile, he began to act as innocent as he could, he said “Hello, I’m Mockingbird. Does your group have any ideas? Could we perhaps use 7?” as he thought more about the cards he was holding.

Hearing the professor say a time limit, Mockingbird looked up, noticing that he was floating in the air. Well that’s abnormal isn’t it? I wonder how he does it. he thought to himself taking out his notebook to write down details about the strangeness of this school. After finishing, he noticed the girl was holding something that looked like a dark ball of fur in her hands. “What exactly is that you’re holding? Actually, never mind that for now, we keep losing people and it will be more difficult so what did you come up with?” said Mockingbird focusing on the brown haired girl once more.

[Stein]

River read the sign on the door ‘Class meets out-side’ *Oh dear, how am I supposed to hide in the corner if there’s no good corners to hide in? I guess I’ll just have to really quiet* River traced her steps back to the courtyard and stood in the back corner of the gathering of students.M? X? B? T-this is very confusing…w-w-why are there letters in math? H-hey Arthur, why are there numbers in math? She asked the air, before asking her teddy bear Arthur.

When the students were sorted out she got sorted into group X, oh d-d-dear. T-there are a lot of people in this group…w-w-what if one of them tries to talk to me? She murmured cowering behind the group so that the teacher couldn’t see her, she was cowering behind Mockingbird.

‘Class meets out-side’ “Interesting…I wonder why we’re meeting outside, maybe so that he can be a ‘different kind of teacher’ Oh well, let’s go find out, come along Damu” ”Can I run around in the grass…and dig holes?” Stein smiled ”You can run around maybe, you’ll have to ask the teacher, but you can’t dig holes.”

Stein walked back down the hallway and into the courtyard. When Stein entered the courtyard she immediately walked straight to the front of class and stood there, looking very bored.*Interesting, how is the teacher floating, must be one of his abilities* Stein thought to herself as she wrote something in her notebook
Damu ran up to the teacher and said ”Excuse me, am I expected to participate in this assignment as well? Or may I go run around the courtyard?

When the teacher sorted them into groups and explained the assignment she was sorted into group M; when he created the ‘dead pile Stein sighed. ”Great, I’m surrounded by idiots and I’m may be penalized for their incompetence. Oh well, let’s see if we can get the group to work together and complete this quickly.” Stein said as she walked around the group. She then reached up with her left hand and clicked her screw 3 times towards the back, she then proceeded to list of approximately 20 different solutions to the problem. She was standing next to Ash when the arguing started and someone tried to refute Ash’s logic, which was correct. Stein looked over at the little chimera Ash was holding and smiled at her causing the little chimera to inch further back into ash’s arms. Stein watched Ash walk towards the other group and ask to speak to their leader. *let’s see how this plays out* she thought to herself as she pulled out another notebook and begun to write down her observations of the chaos. She spotted a boy talking to Ash he looked quiet on the exterior, but he had a glint in his eyes that spoke of a very active brain. A trickster, or another scientist perhaps, reaching out with her metal affinity she felt how much metal he had *7 metal rectangles, throwing cards perhaps, and a fighting staff. He looks jumpy, he must be agile. I’ll talk to him later*

River watched the groups react while she silently stood where she was and waited for this to be over. River was looking over at group M and spotted a short girl walk into the crowed and was standing slightly behind the tall darker girl. This girl was wearing a lab coat and a screw through her head and there was what looked like Frankenstein’s last project walking behind her, before the puppy-thing ran off towards several others that were running into the courtyard. At this sight River snapped “N-n-no, not a scientist. I-i-i-i have to hide, but where can I hide? As she finished that sentence she turned around and started running back towards the main building, intending to hide in one of the empty classrooms.

[Horo]

Giovanni smiled and looked down at Damu. "No little one, you don't have to participate. You're not on my roster. Now instead of running around, would you like to fly?" Without waiting for an answer Giovanni lifted Damu off of the ground. "Now you just have to run." Giovanni had created an invisible floor of air for Damu to walk on. He then took notice of the students starting to work together.

Horo walked around group B getting everyone's opinion. She came up with an idea. "It would be good if we selected a leader who would make decisions on behalf of the group." another student chimed in. "That's not allowed by the rules!" Horo quickly weaved through the people and stood at the boy's chest. He was much taller then Horo but her glare made him seem as small as a mouse. "He said we all had to have a say in the number! If everyone votes to give one person power, it is the same as a republic or a presidency! You say is reflected in the elected official's!" The students thought for a moment as Giovanni lifted another from their ranks. "Now all in favor of electing someone, raise your hand!" A majority of the people did so. "Now all in favor of electing me?" A few hands dropped but the majority still was for it. If it got them the grade they didn't care.

Horo walked over to meet with the members from the other groups. "Hello. I'm Horo, group B has selected the number 8. What numbers did your groups pick?"

Giovanni lifted River up and pulled her back towards the class. "Miss River, you don't have permission to leave the class at the moment." He placed her on the ground below himself and dropped next to her. "Do you have a problem?" Giovanni lifted some more students from their groups, including Stein and Horo and started moving them towards the dead pile.

Horo began to lash to the sides. "No! NO! NO! NO! NO! Professor!" Horo wiggled and reached down, grabbing a onto another student's hair. The student Horo had grabbed was then also lifted from the ground. "NO!" Horo climbed down the student's body and grabbed onto a rock on the ground. The extra student was dropped and the pull on Horo was strengthened, pulling the rock up with her. Panicking she tossed the rock at Giovanni, and then she and Stein (along with the other student from group X) dropped to the ground.

Giovanni began clapping. "Finally! Some students who didn't want to be dead! Three students from the dead pile can come and rejoin the class as intermediaries. The revived students can travel between the groups and discuss what numbers are too be chosen. Except for Horo. You cheated, you can't elect an official to make all the decisions, go to the dead pile."

Horo's eyes opened wide as she was cast out of the groups after saving her skin from being cast out of the group.

[Rikka]

Ash blinked as a boy with black hair, ice blue eyes, attire much like her own. Giving a formal bow she stood up straight again and looked him in the eyes though her brown ones seemed cold and dark due to her shyness choking all other emotions. "My name is Ash O'Shea. You may call me Ash." As he spotted Mizu the chimera hid within her arms. Her fear was amplified by the little white haired girl staring at her with a smile. She still didn't like Stein. The woman was scary with all her stitches.

Ash glanced at Stein beside her then the girl with wolf ears and a tail came bounding forward. "My group would like to keep things simply with using the number forty. Which then leaves your group, Mr. Mockingbird to use one, and your's Ms. Horo to add 2. Of course we could work with your numbers if you like." Ash jumped slightly as Horo was lifted into the hair, along with Stein. Distracted Ash watched the display as Horo threw a rock at the teacher in order to escape. Quickly enough a male ran forward to take Horo's place as the students in the dead pile were allowed to come back, but Horo was banished to the deadpile for cheating. It clicked in her mind what he wanted them to do. Fight for their right to have a grade. Interesting. Knowing that the time was counting down she looked back at the two males. "So shall M do 40 while X does 1 and B does 2? Its simple and correct."

Three slightly larger chimera's race forward and started to slow as they reached Ash. A paint splattered white one and a brown and cream spotted one slammed into the back of her legs as they forgot to slow down. Ash stumbled slightly before repositioning herself.

[mockingbird]

Wonder why she seems so distant. Especially with that girl with the white hair next to her. Watching as more students got picked up, including the one Ash seemed nervous about, Mockingbird began to get more worried and curious, especially about the girl with the screw through her head. As he watched this occur, he once again brought out his notebook, starting a new page about this new girl with a screw through her head. Well this is getting more interesting isn’t it? Wonder why she has a screw through her head and what’s with all the stiches? Anyways, back to the problem. So the rules say we can’t elect a leader then. thought Mockingbird as he watched Damu run around in the air. “So we probably should hurry.” He muttered under his breath, glancing up at Giovanni. He quickly looked at the members of group X, “What number should we use? Remember, we have to multiply against group M’s number.”

From throughout the group, Mockingbird heard various answers, the most common being 1, 7, and 40. Well, we have numbers but too many. What to do now? . Lost deep in thought, he didn’t notice a young boy walk up to him until he finally spoke, “What’s your group’s plan?”

Mockingbird, startled, quickly drew a throwing card out of the wallet instinctively, crouched down, barely stopping himself moments before throwing it toward the boy. As he sighed, shaking his head from being startled he replied, “Don’t startle me again. Now just be quite while my group figures our number out.”, feeling his skin once again go from the hot feeling to the normal, nice and cool feeling he was used to. Once more, Mockingbird looked at his group and smiled, “We have three options 1, 7, and 40. Raise your hand to choose one of these.” As he called out the numbers, hands would raise then fall, leaving only 1 being the most common between the three. Well, we can’t really complain with that. Hopefully it will work. It does go with Ash’s idea

Mockingbird turned back around to Ash and the new boy, “Well, guess we will use 1. What about you group B? What number will be your group's?”

[Stein]

Stein felt herself being lifted up off the ground ”*Sigh* Figures, people always pick on the person who’s different." Stein pulled out one of her scalpels and threw it at Giovanni, aiming so that it’d pass by his ear, but ultimately miss. After throwing the knife Stein was dropped and the screw in her head turned 4 more clicks “Pe, O fpmy esmy yp fp yjsy shsom.” Stein said, standing up and rubbing her head while recalling her knife towards her. Stein noticed that Mockingbird had pulled out a notebook and started taking notes when she was lifted up Interesting, he is a fellow scientist, or just enjoys observation. “Question.” she said looking at Giovanni “When you sorted us into groups M,X, and B and told us to calculate MX+B did you intend for us to calculate the slope? As in Y=MX+B? Or were you just using a bad pun?”

Damu felt himself being lifted up and got a very funny, puppy like expression on his face “Thank you, I’m gonna go say hi to the other Chimera’s now.” and with that he turned around and started running towards the other Chimera’s. However, he miscalculated his trajectory and ran face-first into the boy who’d been talking to Ash. “Lookout!!!!!!!!Damu yelled as he went hurtling towards the boy. Damu regained his composure and found himself floating in front of the boy’s face, he licked the boys nose and said “….Hi! I’m Damu, what’s your name?” as he proceeded to roll onto his back, looking at the boy upside down.

When Damu went flying into Mockingbird, Stein flexed her hand, and was ready to use her affinity if he threatened Damu in any way.

River was set down and stood there for a minute, hugging Arthur to her chest. When Giovanni asked if she had a problem she said “They’re coming to get me, they’re trying to find me….I don’t like science, I don’t wanna-“ Rivers sentence was cut short by the scalpel whizzing past Giovanni’s ear; She screamed and was off running again, the direction didn’t matter, just away from the science girl.

[Horo]

Stein's words caught the attention of both Horo and Giovanni. Horo tried to escape the dead pile to investigate but was trapped by the professor's powerful pulse skill. "I didn't know you spoke the language of the Anulupis Stein, correct? I myself am versed in the language as is the little Anulupis in the dead pile. You should do me a favor and make friends with her." Giovanni reached his arm out to the side and caught River with his hand as she tried to escape again.

"River, stay a while and let's talk." Giovanni looked back to Stein and nodded. "You are absolutely correct Stein. It is the equation for a slope which I think I will soon have my answer."

The boy returned to group B and discussed what Mockingbird had told them. They decided to use the number two and sent their envoy to Giovanni. "We have our numbers." the envoy started. Giovanni looked egeraly at the trio. "And they are?"
"40, 1, and 2" Giovanni smiled and called out to the class. "Correct! Now what we have just done is learned a very important lesson." He looked out over his class. "In this class, nothing is as simple as doing one problem. The world in dangerous and you will have to defend yourself and your rights or you will end up dead like those in the pile who I selected at random. It was a shame that none put up a fight until Stein and Horo, but let it be a lesson for all our future out of the classroom projects. Now all in the dead pile, rejoin. I'm feeling generous so you won't receive failing grades for today. Take a minuet and re-balance your teams."

Giovanni smiled at River as the other students mingled. "River, I won't let the scientist get to you, ok? How about you be my special assistant? Here I'll put you in a safety bubble so the other students cant harm you or your furry friend." As Giovanni spoke a bubble appeared around River. He tapped on the outside, "See. Now they won't be able to get you and even if that tried I wouldn't let them. Now as my assistant I need you to go to my class room and get the black clipboard. Can you do that for me?"

Horo ran from the dead pile over to Stein once she had the chance. She instantly began speaking in her native tongue. "Upi dqrsl yjr msyobr asmhishr? Are you an Anulupis like me?" Horo took a moment and used her pulse abilitites. She sent felt Stein with it, but it wasn't the same feeling she got when feeling her father or Giovanni. "No, you're not an Anulupis. How do you know my language?" Horo looked Stein over with a deep breath. Using her power to fell anything was a challenge and drained her. She quickly felt her control loosen and her form shift into pure human. Her tail quickly receded and her ears fell flat into her hair before vanishing. "Damn... I lost it..." she muttered to herself.

Giovanni looked over the crowd and announced his next task. "This time, I want the class to break up into a smaller groups. Each group should have less then seven people. Find the answers to the next few equations I have and send an envoy to me. You may choose your own groups. You will have five minuets for these problems, solve them within your own groups. Make your groups now, time will start when the equations are posted."

[Johnathan]

Erebus continued to sleep in a nearby tree.

((Horo says, now it is a complete sentence))

[Rikka]

Ash let out a silent sigh of relief as they were allowed to regroup. Watching the girl with wolf ears and tail come running up and speak to stein she tilted her head. Deciding she must be excited over someone who spoke her native language Ash moved back to her group. Stepping over Shiro as he raced forward she let out a whistle calling him back.

Grinning happily that they had found Ash and Mizu, Shiro raced back over to Ash and jumped around her feet, followed by Rue. Snow on the other hand had more dignity and followed behind more slowly. He was a bit mad with Ash that she had thought to leave them in the room while they were sleeping. From now on he was gonna sleep on her stomach this way she couldn't get anywhere without waking him.

Ash looked back at Snow and knew he was sulking. Trying not to laugh over it she listened to Giovanni and simple moved to a clearer area happy with her little group. She and her chimera's made up a group of five. Crouching down she placed Mizu on the ground as she waited for the equations. She wanted to get them over and done with.

[mockingbird]

With a look of surprise at Damu, Mockingbird replied, “Hello. I’m Mockingbird. What are you doing flying around? Be careful not to run into people.” Mockingbird became distracted as he heard Giovanni spoke once more. He began to smile as Giovanni said their answer was correct, but the smile left quickly as he realized that girl with the screw in her head wasn’t speaking English. She just keeps getting stranger and stranger doesn’t she? Maybe I could ask her to be in my group to observer her closer. When Mockingbird glanced over at Ash, he noticed the little creatures that were running around earlier. He sighed and looked around for someone else to team up with. Finally he noticed the girl with the screw wasn’t in a group yet, cautiously he began to walk toward the girl. As he walked over to the white haired girl, he began to smile again, thinking about everything that had happened. If everyone in this school is as interesting as Ash and this girl, then this could be entertaining to create some chaos. Finally he stopped a couple feet in front of the white haired girl and said “Hello, I’m Mockingbird. Would you like to be in a group together for the next problems?”

[Stein]

River nodded her head “Yes Sir.” she said as she turned around and walked towards the school building. Stepping uneasily at first, nervous of how the bubble would respond. She entered the building and found Giovanni’s classroom; River slowly grabbed the clipboard from the desk and walked back out of the classroom, on her way back to the Courtyard.

Damu looked at Mockingbird and cocked his head before flipping back onto his feet and running over to Stein and regaining his spot in her lab coat pocket and changing his mind again and floating beside Stein.

“Ejsy? Pmr Zpzrmy.” Stein said turning the screw 5 clicks towards the front of her head and pulling out a notebook “Interesting, a new language, and you said it was Anulupis? Sorry, I’m Eris Kieranstein, Stein for short.”She said extending her hand to Horo. “And the reason I was temporarily able to speak your language is because I’ve modified my brain with this.” She pointed at her screw “It modifies my brain so that I can better learn, but I’m not sure where this language came from, perhaps I picked it up from a book I’ve read recently. You’re of the Anulupis species. Interesting…how do your ears and tail work?”

Stein, seeing Mockingbird not hurting Damu, relaxed her affinity and flipped to a new page in her notebook before responding. “Hello, just call me Dr. Stein. And, yes, I would love to be in a group with you.” She said smiling a little sadistically “Horo, would you like to join our group as well? It could be...riveting” What interesting specimens these 2 will make. One has unusual anatomy, probably shape shifting. And the other one has very quick reflexes, probably good with knives...I wonder what affinities he has.Stein turned back to her notebook and begin writing down notes again. “Hey, Ash, would you like to join our group? Stein shouted towards Ash.

[Horo]

Giovanni sighed. "Excuse me, Ash. Your Chimera don't count as students in my class. You must find a group or I will place you into that one." Giovanni pointed over to some students using their powers of smell and fire like mad men. Making eye contact with them caused their antics to die down for a moment before resuming. "Ash, I'm sure you wouldn't want to be with that lot."

Horo bounced with excitement! This girl could speak her language, even if she didn't know what it meant. That was super cool! She took a deep breath and calmed herself down before taking Stein's hand. "It is nice to meet you Stein. I am Horo." The thought of being interviewed gave her chills. "My ears and tail? Well it is more then just them. The Anulupis have a natural affinity to a power called pulse. It allows us to control the vibration of atoms and molecules. The Anulupis can use this to transform from our native forms into the humanoid form that you see now." Horo took a few steps back and took a deep breath as she focused her mind to holding the half transformation. Her eyes sprouted back and her tail returned from above her butt. "This is the normal state I stay in for training. It is a 'half-transformation' but quarter may be a better... better... what is the word... prefix! Yeah. It takes focus to stay in this state. For me at least. Giovanni won't teach me more pulse until I can do this without issue."

Giovanni flicked a rock at the back of Horo's head, causing her to jump and lose her transformation again. "Still not there pup." Horo rubbed her head and sighed. "Giovanni is a master of the art, even though he isn't an Anulupis." Horo turned to Mockingbird as he approached. "It is nice to meet you. I'm Horo! I guess we are a group now. Hey by the way, vote for me for Class President. I need the experience if I'm ever going to rule the world."

Giovanni looked around. "Come on now, find a group."... Wait... Giovanni looked around and checked his roster again. "Where's Manco?"