Saint Joseph School

A computer screen lights up the darkened dorm room. The sounds of typing keys break the silence. Angelique DuBois, known as the hero Sapphire Angel, sits at her computer and types up a few emails, while finishing up her homework for the day. Since coming to SJS, her life has been filled with drama and adventure, more than she would have ever thought possible. She looks back to her sleeping roommate, Faster Pussycat, hoping to not wake her up, at this late hour. Angel smiles a bit, glad that Pussycat is sleeping soundly, and then looks back to her monitor screen, to go back to her typing.

When she goes back to her emails, she notices a new message from someone that she doesn’t know. She looks at the email address strangely and whispers to herself, “Who the devil is Bloodthirsty13?” She curiously opens up the email message and reads it. Her eyes widen in shock, then quickly turns to make sure that Pussycat is most definitely asleep, and then rushes to turn back around in her seat to read the email more.

“It took a lot of strapping down and tying up of resources to locate you, my dear girl. I hear that you have been foolishly trying to locate me, as well. I had hoped that meeting you in person would mean that you would bring to me my favorite pet, Detective, but since you have such strong determination to seek me out, I will arrange a special meeting for just the two of us, tonight. It will give us a chance to finally get to know each other. I would also appreciate the hospitality to come from you as well, by not bringing your rude friends along. Although, I did rater like the love pats from the large kitty cat at the club, when a few of them followed my pet, as he was coming to see me.

“Meet me in Bloody Bay, at midnight. I’ll be in the cemetery, close to your Longbow Base. Don’t worry about how to recognize me. I’ll find you. By the way, love… I like the new look. Black leather seems to suit you.

-Mistress“

Angel sits back in shock, after reading the message. She whispers to herself, “Oh god… She’s been watching me… all this time…” She turns back to Pussycat, who turned on her side, curled up away from the bright light of the screen. She turns back to delete the message and turn off her computer. She moves over to her closet and quietly changes into her newest look that the Mistress so fondly spoke of in the email, then looks back to Pussycat, hoping that her rustling around didn’t wake her. She quietly sighs and opens the door a crack to see if the hallway is being monitored. When no one is looking, Angel sneaks out of the dorms and flies off to Bloody Bay for her impromptu meeting with the Mistress.

Once the landing at the Bloody Bay base, she flies to the cemetery she hopes is the one that she was asked to meet at. She touches down and looks around. She begins walking, hoping not to attract the attention of the Circle of Thorn Mages that continuously dig up the graves for their dark magic. As, she walks, an eerie, yet alluring voice calls out for her.

“Don’t worry, love… they aren’t paying attention to you.”

Angel turns around quickly, finding the Mistress standing behind her, dressed in blood red fishnets and hardly anything else. Then just as Angel was about to strike out at the Mistress, black tentacles rose up from the earth beneath her, holding her down from flying away, and the Mistress smirked to her. The Mistress raised her hand to Angel slowly, and sent out a dark miasma of pain, slowly forcing Angel into an unconscious state.

Angel struggled to heal herself, briefly enough to hear the Mistress’s evil giggles.

“Don’t worry, my pet… this will only hurt… a very… very long time….”

. . .

Crap, things are never easy around here.

Agreed....God i hate Vampires So much

Soulsaver wrote:Crap, things are never easy around here.

it gives us something to do in our off hours.

True. very true.

The cat was awakened as the door closed. She stretched, and let out a long mrrrowl, and blinked her eyes at the dim light. Sapphire was gone. Probably to the bathroom, she thought, and rolled back over to fall asleep again. But as she began to drift off, she got one of those feelings. She felt as though something was very, very wrong. And it hit her: Sapphire's closet was open, her boots gone. No way was she lacing those boots up for a trip to the ladies' room.

The realization made the cat sit upright. She didn't even pause to grab her jacket as she headed out the door. So, without a stitch on, she stole out onto the street. It was one of the few holdovers she had never really addressed since she came to Saint Joe's: her disdain for clothes when she wasn't being forced to wear them. Covered in fur, it wasn't like she was really naked anyway.

She sniffed at the air. Luckily, Sapphire had been to Pocket D's that night: the smell of her perfume and cigarette smoke lingered. Tracking by the smells of her, the cat made her way across rooftops and jumping over alleys. She scrambled over walls and balanced across phone lines. She could not help but notice that she was crossing over some very dangerous territory, the streets she avoided. Brutal looking gangers lingered below, luckily oblivious to the shadow that passed over them. Looking ahead, the dim glow of the War Wall filled the night. And in the distance, she saw a helicopter lift from the street below. The Longbow emblem was emblazoned on the side.

Bloody Bay.

The cat had heard the stories of Bloody Bay; how Screaming-Mimi and a few others, Sapphire included, had met with some serious trouble there. Why go back? Revenge? Or maybe she was meeting Detective for another late-night patrol. She did that a lot, and she even seemed to think no one noticed. Least of all Soulsaver, who was supposed to be her botfriend. But it was slowly becoming certain; the trail of Sapphire's scent led the cat closer and closer to the helipad.

The Longbow Warden seemed suprised by the cat's arrival. Or perhaps it was her appearance in general. But he stifled a grin, and said, "you just missed the transport. It'll be a few minutes."

The cat nodded and began to pace around the landing pad. The warden frowned. "Actually, miss," he said in an authoritative tone, "you could wait over there, so the chopper can land swiftly." He gestured off to one side where there was a waiting area.

The cat growled in protest, but complied. Moments were ticking away. The scent in the air was almost gone now. It would be much harder to track Sapphire in the bay anyway, with all the seawater and rotten fisf cluttering up the smellscape. So time was of the essence.

Finally, the sound of the chopper returned. As it swooped in to land, the cat reflexively bent her head, even though she knew the rotors were far above. She ran to the ramp, passing some battered and bruised heroes who were on their way back. She dodged in between them and into the helicopter. One of them said something, but she had to let it go. She didn't want to; the cat wasn't in the habit of letting things slide. But Sapphire was more important right now.

As the chopper lifted off, the cat was tossed around the hold. She let out an embarrassingly audible meow. "You might want to sit down, ma'am," said one of the Longbow agents. The cat nodded, and sat on one of the long benches in the hold. Looking out the window, she saw Paragon City begin to fade into the distance. She idly began to pick her small, sharp teeth with one of her claws.

The cat was suprised with herself. Why was Angelique so important to her, anyway? What'd she really done? She had offered to let the cat into her quad, but what was that? Just idle generosity. Was it the attention, the occasional small scratches behind the ears that Sapphire gave to her when she thought the cat was asleep? It was nice, but no. That wasn't it either. So what was it? The cat couldn;t quite put her finger on it. Lost in thought, she was startled when the chopper thumped down on the Bloody Bay landing pad.

Urgency flooded back into her every nerve, and she leapt from the chopper and sprinted across the pad. She sniffed the air again, but found no trace of Sapphire's scent. Desperate, she leapt up the rocky shore and across the overgrown lawn of an abandoned house. With a spring, she was on the roof. Always checking the air. But still nothing. The cat growled low and long. No sign. No way to track her further, or at least not in the dark of the middle of the night.

With a snarl, she turned back to the landing pad. Sapphire would have to fend for herself tonight. Tomorrow, the cat would ask her what crazy idea had led her to come here alone in the first place.

Angelique sits at her computer, typing away at the keys of the keyboard. Every so often she picks a thermal insulated cup, sipping at it's liquids contained within. It's around 3am, on a school night, and she is still up, looking very awake and almost bored. She moves her mouse around the screen, logging on to her normal instant messengers, when a name pops up on her screen as having just logged in.

Marie> Hello, my dear. How have things been going?

Angel> Interesting, actually. Everything has gone right back to normal around here since I got back. The only thing that seems to be different are three particular guys.

Marie> Is one of them who I think it is?

Angel> hehe... yeah, he's going through another change... But here's the kicker... He's supposedly dead already and his body is now the host to an alien life form.

Marie> you've got to be kidding me? lol

Angel> No... and you'll love this one... When the alien leaves, it's going to take his life, too... it said it would only give him about 45 minutes of life before expiring... So, I made a proposition to this thing...

Marie> Oh, do tell... *smirks*

Angel> I will probably need your help with this one. Can we meet up and talk about it?

Marie> Of course. Our usual place?

Angel> No. I'll probably get followed out there. I'll meet you in PO, at the door. When can you be there?

Marie> there is still a few hours left of nighttime, how about right now?

Angel> No good... I have a test in the morning on teleportation. I need all the energy I can get to stay awake during the day. I'll meet you tomorrow night.

Marie> Just after nightfall?

Angel> that works. I'll see you then. We can play catch up then. Hey any word from L?

Marie> No, why?

Angel> No reason... just curious if he's asked about me to you or not.

Marie> hehe... Oh don't tell me you are interested in him now... lol

Angel> No, I just... you're mean. We'll talk tomorrow night.

Marie> Ok, dear. Good luck on the test... *smirks*

Angel> Oh, as if it really matters to you if I do good or not.

Marie> I do care. I care about all my friends. I sincerely mean that I want you to do well in school. You need to graduate and move forward after that. Nothing has changed for you, well... not entirely.

Angel> lol... yeah, I know... Thank you, btw... I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.

Marie> good evening, my dear Angelique. Until tomorrow night.

<Marie has logged offline>

Angel sits there, slightly smiling and shaking her head. She closes the window and program. She shuts down her computer and heads to bed. Just as she was about to settle in, she quickly jumps up and finishes drinking from her cup. She whispers to herself, "That would have sucked if Cat had found that sitting out."

She walks over to the sink and opens the cup up to rinse out any remnents of the liquid. She watches the water wash away the red colored drops, leaving no remains. She chuckles slightly, then begins to wash it by hand, and rinse it once again. She puts the cup in the rack of clean dishes, then climbs back into bed, and quickly falls asleep.

Angel sits at her computer screen once more, doing her homework. Rob Zombie's Living Dead Girl is playing on her computer’s media player, making her smirk a bit, when an instant message pop up on her screen, that makes her smile more.

Marie> Hello, my angel

Angel> Hi there! What are you doing on here... and at this hour? Aren't you usually asleep at this time?

Marie> I was about to head to bed right now. I wanted to check up on you. How are things going on your end?

Angel> Just as planned. With an extra bonus. We will talk about it later. You'll enjoy this, when I tell you later. I have to get back to this homework. I've got a deadline on this telepathy report. You've helped me a lot with that, thank you.

Marie> Anything for you, my angel. You know that.

Angel> Yeah, I know. Ok, I need to go. I'm almost done. I'll contact you later about what's going on. Take care, Marie. *sends a cyber hug*

Marie> *returns the hug* Alight, Angel. We will talk again later. Good afternoon.

<Marie has signed offline>

Angelique smiles and closes the chat window. She does the finishing touches on her report of The Effects of Mental Telepathy on Normal Society.

“Save. Print. And I’m spent…” She giggles and reaches for her cell phone. She begins dialing a number and rests the phone against her ear.

“Hey, beautiful. You wanna come over, hang out, and watch some movies? We could make it a Matrix marathon, or possibly a horror movie marathon… Yeah, bring him along. You know he’s welcome over anytime. I love hanging out with him, too. Tell him not to worry. Adam won’t be here. It’ll just be the three of us.”

She smiles at some thoughts that just crossed her mind, and then she listens to phone once more.

“Ok, I’ll see you in a few then? Cool! If you want to grab a bite to eat beforehand, that’s cool, or we could always go out as a group later. I’m sure we could find something really easy around here.” She lets out a slight giggle.

“I’ve also got snacks in the mini fridge that I just put in for myself… Ok, I’ll see you in a bit, then. Bye, sweetness.” And with that, she hangs up her phone and starts to clean up a bit.

A few minutes later, a knock at the door. Angel bounces over to the door and smiles as she opens it to a smiling Kali and Jaygo. Jaygo is giving a slight smile, seeming more amused at her giddiness, than anything else. She opens the door to them, watching them walk in, and then closes the door behind them. She hugs Kali, seeming very glad to see her. Kali gives her a strong, lingering hug in return, with a small peck on the cheek. Angel giggles then quickly hugs Jaygo. He wraps his arms around her, seeming to linger in her arms, as well. The threesome has gotten to be very close friends. She bounces over to the TV, then turns to speak to the duo.

“Ok, Matrix or monsters?” she looks to them for suggestions.

“Either one, you pick, Angel” Jaygo pipes up. Kali nods in agreement.

“Its whatever you want to watch, Angel.” Kali says smiling, holding onto Jaygo’s hand.

“Ok, I just thought that if you didn’t like what I chose, then we could change it, but since you don’t mind either… I’m putting in Van Helsing first. We can pick another afterwards.”

“Figures” Jaygo smiles then turns and kisses Kali on the cheek. She smiles to him, having been caught off guard, then quickly kisses his lips.

Angel turns back to them, after starting the movie, and chuckles. “I would say get a room, you two, but that would be kinda stupid, huh? Ok, I have the bed, computer chair, or floor to sit on. I’m just going to lie on the bed. It’s big enough for all of us, to snuggle into.”

She bounces onto her stomach and pats the mattress next to her, to Kali. Kali giggles and bounces onto the bed, just as Angel did, resting on her head on Angel’s shoulder. Jaygo chuckles and shakes his head a bit, watching the two girls. He walks over and steps onto the bed. He casually walks to the headboard and flops down sitting between the two girl’s feet. Angel reaches over and takes Jaygo’s shoes and tosses them against the doorframe. He chuckles once more and pulls Kali’s off, doing just as Angel did, making a pile of shoes by the door.

The movie starts, and the three enjoy a quiet night of monster movies and snuggling. Angel thinks to herself of the little family that she has created within the school, and the more yet to come. She lets out a devious smirk, rubbing her foot on Jaygo’s arm and tilting her head onto Kali’s shoulder, just as Kali begins to do the same to his other arm. Jaygo reaches over and begins tickling Angel’s foot. She giggles and tries to swat at his hand with her foot.

“Hey! I’m trying to watch the movie, here!” she giggles to him, not turning around. Kali laughs and turns to look at Jaygo, wondering what he’s doing back there. The two smile at each other, then go back to watching the movie.

((Whoa, Jaygo+Kali=Item?))

((Yeah... Saw that coming from Kali's posts...))

((lolz, I had no idea! I should read more apparently. ))

Sapphire Angel rushes into her dormroom in Quad 4, after being spotted by her younger brother in the hospital, where her friend Annie lay. She immediately begins packing a small suitcase.

"I need to leave. Too many people are going to get hurt."

Obsidian Seraph sped across the school grounds and waited by the girls' quads, hidden in the cloak of shadows he generated, a half step out of the mortal realm. Soon his hunch paid off, and Sapphire came back to her quad.

He waited till she entered the quad, and stepped up to the door that Sapphire had left ajar in her haste. He opened the door fully and leaned against the door frame. He spoke as he dropped the shadows from around him, and waited until Sapphire turned around, a gasp escaping her lips. "Time to answer for a few things, sis." He spat out the last word, his ire evident as his red eyes blazed, energy escaping in wisps over his brow.

Oby spoke as he dropped the shadows from around him, and waited until Sapphire turned around, a gasp escaping her lips. "Time to answer for a few things, sis." He spat out the last word, his ire evident as his red eyes blazed, energy escaping in wisps over his brow.

"Tone, I don't have time for your lectures. I need to leave. I'm not doing anyone any good being here anymore. Annie's in that bed because she was trying ot make sure that I wasn't going to hurt anyone. She was worried about me and followed me through Dark Astoria. There is so much fog there, that she didn't see the building that was in front of her, as she was flying. She gave herself a concussion. Adam and I took her back to the school and hooked her up to the machine. I healed her as much as I could. I passed out, I think, from over doing myself with the healing. But, I did everything I could think of to back sure that no one lost Annie."

She goes back to packing her stuff in a suitcase, while speaking.

"Is that what you wanted to hear? An explination as to why Annie was in the infirmary?"

"Is that what you wanted to hear? An explination as to why Annie was in the infirmary?"

Seraph scoffed, "No, I had a pretty good idea of what happened, not specifics. I didn't come here for explanations or 'a lecture', I came here to show you something."

With the last word, Oby sped across the room, and grabbed his sister's wrist. Before she could blink or shut her eyes, he willed the shadows of fear around them.

Sapphire whipped her head around, ready to yell at her younger brother, and was startled at the change she saw. The normally smooth, stone skin started to darken, and sharp angles formed along his features, becoming more like the stone from which he took his namesake. The red of his eyes poured out from under the crystaline brow. His voice was still his own, though, when it poured forth from a mouth, in it's molten red that contrasted sharply with the black skin. "Time you saw consequences for your actions."

The real world winked out, and Sapphire started to see images of things, things she'd rather not have...

The hospital room where she'd left Annie resting comfortably was in a state of chaos, doctors shouting over the clammoring of alarms, Kris staring in muted horror, looking down on her friend. The view pulls closer, and Sapphire can see the monitors showing flatline. To her astonishment, Annie sits up, looks at the monitors and then Sapphire. "If you hadn't done these things, I'd still be fine. Why did you do this?"

The image fades, and another takes its place...

Sapphire stands amidst the ruins of St. Joseph's School, friends and faculty all destroyed. Her mistress stands amidst the ruins, with other vampires behind her. "You did well, my Angel. Oh, don't be so sad, you had to do it, or they would have revealed your secret. This will make a fitting home for our family though, won't it?"

The image changes, showing the families of the SJS students, all grieving over lost sons and daughters, each in turn looking up at Sapphire. "Why did you do this? Our child was your friend.

The image changes again...

Sapphire's Mother and Father sit crying, as they see Antoine with an axe in his hands, tears running down his face. Their father puts a hand on his shoulder, "Please, Antoine, that thing is not your sister. It took over and trapped her. Please, give her peace." A figure lies on the floor, dressed as Sapphire did, but in much darker colors, and an aura of malevolence is felt from it. With the cry of a boy who's soul is being torn, Antoine lifts the axe and swings...

Reality snaps back as he will the shadow of fear to subside. He looks down at Sapphire, huddled on the floor. He's seen the effect of the fear he can bring before. He can't use it on someone that's a friend, didn't know if it would work tonight, not if his sister was untainted. It had worked, he had his answers. He looked down on Sapph...no, not Sapphire, on the creature at his feet. "I want my sister back. You've got a month to find a cure, or I give her peace." His jaw tightening in an effort to hold back the flood of emotion, he turns and walks out the door.