Dust Up

[Demi Smith]

The Arena had been set aside for students to train in the rougher part of their powers. Doubtless some students came there to harness their abilities, to develop skills that they'd been struggling with for years. Here they could practice, possibly even with a real life person. Maybe they would someday be able to rejoin society and be productive or something, like so many before them.

Others would come to show off. Here was one place the Academy didn't mind letting students cut loose. You could strut your stuff, show off your abilities to their fullest potential. Nobody would reprimand you, if anything, they might praise you for your progress. Plus, anyone in the arena could just about be considered "fair game." After all, everyone knew what an arena was for, right? Yeah, fighting, exactly.

For Demi, the Arena might as well be Heaven.

The moment she heard she could go there, she'd arrived. The dirty, dusty girl looked small in the center of the large place, surrounded by seating and everything. Yet she never felt more in place. She took a deep breath, enjoying the smells, feeling that here, here she could almost feel at home. Demi closed her eyes then. She spread her arms out wide. Then she rolled them forward. Her hands began weaving an intricate pattern, one gesture flowing into the next. A few punches in, and Demi's feet began going. She practically danced and darted about the arena floor. Her feet and hands moved in a near constant flow, each liquid movement all but pouring into each other. She looked free, almost beautiful.

Then she started to focus, pulling dust along with her. Soon the whirling girl had a gathered cloud about her, covering her. She began to laugh, but stopped as she heard something else... someone else. Demi snapped to attention, a hand outstretched, dust gathered around it. "Who's there?" she demanded, her voice harsh. She could feel a flush that had come onto her cheeks and, well, she definitely didn't like it. Not one bit.

[Grayson Sawyer]

It had never occurred to Gray to check out the Arena because she always associated the place with violence and pain. Mostly on her but just generally, it just exuded this scary vibe that she felt she should avoid.

But her trainer had told her to go for the sake of getting her used to the pain and to regulate her bone reconstruction every once in a while.

She of course thought it was dumb because she could just plop them out into her trash bag every few hours or so and be done with it. But to actually use it offensively? What if the other person got seriously injured? Did the trainer think of that? Of course not. Gray obviously knew better.

But it didn't change the fact that she was now already at the Arena, staring at the person in it. The girl could not have been much older than Aaron, her kid brother. And it looked like she was the only one there.

Should Gray leave? She should, shouldn't she? She decided to but in her haste to turn around and leave, the tail of her untucked shirt snagged at the gate, causing it to swing out with her and tugging her back against the edge of the door.

A loud squeak that echoed through the Arena was heard and caught the attention of the girl. "Sorry! Don't mind me! I'm just stuck." She mumbled to herself and tried to get the thing out of the gate but it looked to be completely stuck. "Damn it." She bit her lower lip before looking at the girl. "Um...hey, could you help me?"

[Demi Smith]

Great, not only had Demi been seen, but she'd been seen by one o the wusses at the school. She growled with frustration, feeling all the more embarrassed. The stupid-head at least hadn't been dumb enough to ask what Demi had been doing or call it "pretty" or something. However, it did seem like the idiot had gotten beaten by a door.

And if anything proved Demi's opinion of these people right, it was that right there. She rolled her eyes as the wuss started making excuses, even outright stating that she was stuck and everything. Defeated by a gate. What a pathetic excuse for a mutant. Then Demi felt eyes on her, and she looked.

"Why? Can't beat a gate?" asked Demi, snorting. "You're kinda pathetic, aren't you? It's okay though, most people here are," she looked away for a moment, then back at the girl. "Why should I help you anyway? You got stuck, so you can get unstuck," she shrugged, then dug her foot into the ground. She did want the other girl gone. Then she could get back to what she was doing. Demi dug her foot into the dirt, frowning, trying to figure out if her desire to get the girl gone outweighed her desire to help the idiot.

[Grayson Sawyer]

The words that came out of the little girl's mouth betrayed her innocent, though dirty, looking face. The saying was right. You can never judge a book by its cover! Aaron would never be this harsh.

"Um...beat? An inanimate object? Um...okay." She frowned as she tried to untangle the shirt, which only aggravated the situation, it seemed. She somehow got it even more tangled. How in the hell did that happen?

"So um hi. I'm Gray. Nice to meet you." She waved from her spot as she wrestled with the shirt. "Might as well introduce myself."

[Demi Smith]

Wow, just, wow. This girl was a whole new level of pathetic. Demi stared, her brows raised in disbelief, nearly laughing. She kept getting more and more tangled. Seriously though: who sucked that much? It was a gate. She even waved and introduced herself, further proving her idiocy.

"You're an idiot," said Demi. She stalked forward, bits of dust and dirt falling behind her as her focus shifted. Demi quickly scanned the gate and the shirt, her eyes flicking about, noting everything. She raised a hand, gathering dust and dirt into it, letting the mass spiral in it for a bit. "Hold still," she said, grinning. She figured she could either blast the girl off with a good spray or damage the gate enough to get her out. Well, Demi supposed she could rip the shirt off too, which would work.

Naturally Demi was going with the "blast her off" as the first tactic. she was going to wait till she got close though: a solid spray took a fair amount out of her, and that was even if she didn't need to bother with range.

[Grayson Sawyer]

Gray heard the girl say something but she wasn't paying attention so as she tugged again at her shirt, she called out a "What? Did you say something?" She asked.

Seeing the smaller girl walk over to her, Gray almost walked away. Her body was already starting to turn, causing the gate to follow her movement.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Gray asked as her hand clutched at the gate. Oh yes, she was pretty afraid of a girl practically half her size.

[Demi Smith]

"I said you're an idiot!" repeated Demi, speaking louder. She'd started moving closer to, her eyes and head swiveling slightly as she looked over the entire setup. Looked mostly like the girl had just gotten stuck on the gate or whatever. Probably be just as easy to walk up and unhook her or something.

But where was the fun in that?

"I'm gonna blast you off that thing," said Demi. She slapped her hands together, dust and dirt flying off her. Grinning, Demi pulled her hands back. She'd finally come within a few feet of the other girl. Demi seemed to realize that she'd been standing there, grinning and all, and then realized that she needed to concentration for what she was doing. the grinning could come later.

So Demi stepped back. She took a deep breath. Her feet shifted, scraping against the ground, picking up more dirt. The girl's eyes focused on Gray, finding the shirt. A nod. Then Demi stepped forward, flinging her hands out, sending a solid blast of dust and dirt streaming directly at where shirt and gate met. The blast should be enough to knock the girl loose, might bend the metal, would probably tear or rip the shirt...

[Grayson Sawyer]

Gray's eyes looked sharply at the younger girl, a small pout shaping itself on to her lips. "That's a mean thing to say." She mumbled through her pout before she tried to pull at her shirt once more. Huffing in defeat, Gray looked up and sighed.

The other girl's next words had Gray's eye widening before she looked down again at her shirt. Maybe she could afford to rip her shirt. There was no way she would let the other girl blast her off the gate. That was insane!

"Wait, oh God no wait." Gray panicked and before she knew it, she was tumbling away from the gate, half her shirt ripping away from her. "Oh my God." She covered her exposed front with her arms crossed over. "Thank you." She looked around to find the remainder of her shirt.

"I mean, you could have just helped me unhook it but thanks!"

[Demi Smith]

"True thing to say," said Demi, not quit mumbling and grinning all the while. She still did what needed to be done, though it looked like the girl's shirt would be a little worse for the wear. Serves her right for wearing something made by pathetic norms. Demi's clothes didn't rip that easily.

"You're welcome," said Demi, her lips curving as she fought the urge to start giggling at the sight of the idiot struggling to pull what remained of her shirt down and cover up her body. That was something else Demi didn't really get. Wasn't like boys and girls were all that different, really.

That wasn't something just for the idiots here though: lots of Demi's own people thought that way. Hence why Demi wore clothes like a normal person (though there had been a rough few years when she'd been younger). Which meant that, while still fighting the giggles, Demi could figure what the other girl needed: "You want me to get a towel or something? They've got a bin around here somewhere."

The way Demi said it, towels were clearly a foreign thing that had only been experienced in the abstract. You know, like unicorns.

[Grayson Sawyer]

Gray's eyes looked sharp as they trained on the younger girl. She couldn't tell the younger girl what she thought; which was she needed to learn a bit of manners. Gray being Gray, it was left unsaid.

The rather sarcastic response to Gray's gratitude left Gray squinting at the sincerity at the offer to provide a cover for her bare midriff.

"Oh...that would be...that would be great. If you could direct me to the bin," she hesitantly approached the gate that had bent slightly, peeking in at the Arena. "I can't say I've been to this part of the campus before."

[Demi Smith]

The idiot kept looking and sounding like an idiot. Big surprise. Demi snorted as the idiot agreed to get a towel or whatever. Demi looked about for a moment, trying to remember where the towels were herself.

"I haven't been here that long either," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the other girl, "but that doesn't mean I can't operate a gate." With that, Demi walked forward. She figured that the idiot would know enough to follow her, and she really didn't care if she did or not. Little clouds of dust flew up with each of Demi's movements, and the terrakinetic made certain that they formed little swirls before vanishing. She figured she might as well try to practice still.

Wouldn't take long to reach the bins. They could look for towels or what have you when they got there.

[Grayson Sawyer]

Gray pursed her lips, pushing them upwards when the younger girl continued to mock her. This was fine, she convinced herself. Just because she didn't act like Aaron didn't mean Gray had to be rude. She was helping her out, that was enough to warrant politeness.

She did follow the girl as they went into the place Gray had planned to be earlier before she chickened out.

It was so big and overwhelming that Gray couldn't help but stare at her surroundings long enough to lose sight of the younger girl. She hurried along to the only place she could think the girl would have gone to and sure enough, she found her.

"Were you training by yourself?" Gray asked, though only realising how dumb her question was after she asked it.

[Demi Smith]

Demi kept moving, one step in front of the other. She smirked as she actually heard the idiot girl following her. Ha, she'd so known it. not like the other girl had much choice in the matter: it was follow Demi or not find anything.

"Yeah," she said, turning her head as she answered the question, "like, I was practicing my forms and perfecting my technique. I want to make sure I'm in top form before I take on anyone else," Demi nodded. Though technically she had taken on a few people. It hadn't been really official though. No, what she really needed was a trainer to help push her. Shame that there didn't seem to be any bad enough dudes around.

"Here's the bins," she said, tapping one. Demi wasted no time in popping it open; she'd already been distracted from her training enough as it was. The dirty girl hoisted herself over the edge, peering into the tub. Then she leaned forward, soon letting out at "what the heck is this?" as she pulled a stuffed animal out and sort of tossed it at Gray.

[Grayson Sawyer]

"Oh." Gray nodded, feeling kind of inadequate that this kid, younger than her by just a few years probably, was a lot more motivated to be in shape ability-wise.

When the bins came into view, Gray hurried her steps, ready to grab at a towel but instead, she was thrown a stuffed animal that looked something like Aaron's toys. She fumbled a bit with the thing when it was thrown at her but once it was steady in her hand, she stared at it and then up at the girl, shaking her head in confusion.

"What's a stuffed animal doing in the Arena?" She asked as she approached the bins to find the towel herself. She dropped the toy back into the bin and rummaged through until she found one. Tentatively sniffing it, she found that it didn't smell anything awful so she wrapped it around herself and looked down. It looked so dumb but at least it covered her.

"Did you want the toy?"

[Demi Smith]

"How should I know?" retorted Demi sharply. She didn't have the first clue why there was a bin of stuffed toys at the arena. Wasn't like she'd been around for the great stuffed animal epidemic, where they'd practically invaded the school or something. In fact, most of the current students hadn't even gotten to experience a plushie manifestation yet.

The next question had Demi snorting. "Why would I want one of those?" she demanded. She dove in, coming up with one and looking at it. It seemed to be some kind of bear, done in this strange green color that Demi knew that no bears could ever possibly be. "They didn't get the color right or anything. Plus, these are, like, all blasphemous and stuff. See, let me show you..." she began twisting and turning, looking for the tag that indicated that the toy came from China.

Because everyone knew that there were no mutants in China.

"They're all made by humans and--- and where's the stupid tags?" Demi frowned and then tossed the bear to the side, diving in to pick up another. Still no tags.... but didn't they all have them? Ugh, this was just another of those stupid things that Demi didn't understand. There were just so many of those...