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[John]

‘I’m back.’

Was all that ran through John’s head as he stepped back into the school. Seemed some remembered him. His wounds and the way he had been re-infected with Brimstone. But his dark red eyes burned bright as ever, his tan skin visible under his red coat, behind his white muscle shirt. His gloves and black pants as kept together as usual. His boots still tied with the laces tucked in. Oh yeah, even the white hair was still there. Only thing that was different was he seemed to have shallow breathing.

He decided to walk around a bit, knock a few punks out, the usual. The enforcers seemed… Busy. Oddly enough. But he ignored it and moved on.

[chihiro]

It was like de ja vu, walking back into the school. Chihiro was no longer a high school student...so what was she doing here? Looking for employment. Or rather, an internship. Anything. Out in Pennsylvania she had been a certified tattoo artist at Valekin's shop, but she was in Long Beach now. She had a chance at a new beginning. Did she still want to be an art teacher like she had years ago?

She was about to find out.

Dressed professionally in a pair of dark pants, a black long sleeve shirt and white puffy zip up vest, her long black hair pulled back into a single french braid, her disheveled bangs falling over her left eye to hide the hair-thin scar running from her temple to her cheekbone, the graduate stood outside of the main office twidling her thumbs, waiting for the art teacher she would be interviewed by. Or something.

Her gaze drifted about the crowd, a few familiar faces, some she hardly remembered. Among the bustling youth, a shock of white hair caught her gaze. It was like seeing a ghost. "No way.." She breathed to herself, eyes widening slightly. All of her friends at some point had up and left her back in her days at Long Beach, and she had little expectation of ever seeing any of them again.

"John?"

[John]

John’s ears picked up familiar foot steps… He questioned his rationality in the fact he was expressing emotions now a days. He would turn as he heard his name. Yep, heard it. His eyes narrowed as he scanned and then spotted that girl, Chi. Seemed she remembered him well enough. And well for the few people John actually took the time to talk to Chi was remembered in his mind. . . Then in his head it hit him about his recent self given mission… But he couldn’t straight out ask her.

His eyes where less solid than she mite remember. He had grown soft in the hospital which he slightly was uncomfortable with. He would walk to here with a stoic expression. He’d get within a foot or so and begin to speak.

“Hello, Chi. It’s been a while.”

[chihiro]

Chi had had very few friends at her years here at 259, the closest of which being Max and Aureus. But they were both gone. Chi had been friendly with Atticus, but he'd left too. And Saint, though she hadn't seen him in ages. John had been there after her ideal with Karel, giving her a sort of outlet as she had drunk her way into a stupor. She didn't know if he considered them friends, she'd never asked, though they had run into each other on multiple occasions with some regularity before she left.

And he remembered her name, that counted for something right?

"That it has. How've you been?"

Something was different about him, but Chi couldn't put her finger on it. Time changed people, and she knew that more than anyone. Gingerly her hand rested over her abdomen, a subtle but self conscious gesture. She wasn't even showing, it was only a little over a month, and her vest was poufy on its own. Time changed people, making them hard and cold, or soft and vulnerable, depending on what it put them through.

[John]

John saw her hand movement, but thought nothing of it other than a typical John thought. Which was that she had got into a fight and got hit pretty hard in the gut causing her discomfort? Or maybe seriously injured and was just not showing it. Yep, not such a bright light is he? He’d scratch the back of his head for a second and growl a little, not angrily, just more of a discomfort sound. He wasn’t used to talking like this.

“I’ve been good. A few bumps here and there, but good. Ever since that day at the assembly when that enforcer captain made a custom doorway for me, using my body, it’s been a little more than difficult.”

He’d shrug and lean back on one foot. He thought for a second and decided he should practice his social skills. A question to ask would be?.... Great, he had no idea what to say.

“Um. Yeah, I’m not good at social things.”

[chihiro]

Chihiro cringed when he mentioned that assembly. It was a bit of a fuzzy memory to her. A lot of fighting, chairs being thrown, a lot of chaos. She'd even heard a kid had died from that disaster. But, man, a doorway? Yikes..

"That must've hurt quite a bit."

She agreed, shifting her weight from one foot to another. She wasn't all too good with being social anymore either. When she was younger she was like a butterfly, flitting about comfortably to any situation. Maybe it was because she had so much to hide, she couldn't even remember what it was people talked about anymore. Eh.

"I guess that makes two of us, then."

So now what?

"So..do you still go here?"

Stupid question alert! But then again, she didn't and here she was standing outside the main office. She couldn't remember how old he was, or if they were the same age. It didn't hurt to ask, right?

[John]

John raised an eye brow, she was acting way different than usual. Seemed some things have happened to her. His ears picked up commotion from around him which meant it wasn’t that private of a conversation. That made him uneasy, he looked around as he answered.

“Yeah, I’m still a Junior.”

He decided to turn and motion for her to follow. She would probably understand his issues with being in the open like that. He’d just walk outside the front door is all and chill at the steps. A question had been developing and it finally came to him to ask.

“You seem different.”

Yes it was an out of the way question but he asked it in a way that it was a statement. Hinting at his curiosity to what may have changed her.

[chihiro]

He was younger than her? Chi hadn't known that, but then again, she'd never really asked. It seemed like forever since she'd been a junior, but that in turn only made her feel even older and out of sorts. With everything, Chi wondered why she had chosen to return here, when she could have easily gone anywhere in the world. Amuri Chihiro had ceased to exist once she'd exited these doors...but maybe that was the part of her that was missing.

It seemed the art teacher was running late. Understandable of an artist...always sidetracked. She followed John outside, moving to sit on the steps, curling her arms in her lap.

"You could say that.."

She replied, pursing her lips in an uneasy thoughtful way. Was she different? Well of course she had changed a lot growing up...but different now? Different again? Was it due to her coming back to reclaim her old self, something she had once tried to throw away...or was it...?

She hadn't said the word since her meeting with Kiyoshi and Valekin. They had recommended that she take her leave, she would need a far safer environment if she was going to take care of...

[John]

“Well it has been a long time, I guess change is uncontrollable.”

John spoke up noting her reaction to what he had asked. He would need time to explain the things that happened to him, and considering neither of them had anything to talk about, time… Was not such a valuable thing.

“Well… Ever since then I’ve been recovering from some, old wounds. I’ve uncovered things that may change the views on this whole system Asiv set up. A long time ago he told me the reason he went and created these drugs, and why he needed me and the other S.H.C.P to take part in it. But this guy, Warden Barker insisted to test it on those people at the correctional facility.

Turns out the first ones to get tested, where actually the current enforcers running around. Barker took these drugs to a whole other level, keeping his true meanings towards using these things from Asiv. Asiv was being blinded by his dreams coming true and Barker knew this. The only thing he didn’t expect was me finding out. The enforcers got to me before I could get to Asiv and warn him, then Barker told Asiv I was trying to stop his dream, which is why I was punished.”

John took a deep breath and closed his insanely dark red eyes for a thought recollection.

“Asiv wanted to use the brimstone formula to make a drug that could cure disease, disability, and improve the over all physical ability of the human race. Barker is using them for his own little god complex. ‘I create super beings, that do whatever I want them to.’ He says. Jeeze.”

He would then open his eyes. Yep, great idea, he seemed to have accidentally ranted.

[chihiro]

"Brimstone?"

Chi had been tracking that drug for Valekin! She didn't learn much about it herself other than the odds and ends she picked up from the information she gathered, and by the tone of her voice, he could tell she was interested. Asiv had created the drugs? And a man named Barker had administered it to inmates for testing...she logged the name into the confines of her mind in case anything more about this man revealed itself.

"If Barker started the drug use on enforcers, how did it get out to the mainstream?"

Aureus had used Brimstone, she'd seen his picture in the information she'd gathered from the park nearly a year ago. When she confronted him, he appeared to be little more than a shell of his original vibrant self. Careless, aloof...did Brimstone take your mind as well?

"But with every boost comes a crash, hai? What are the side effects?"

[John]

John looked at Chi with a sideways glance, she had questions and since he dumped out all that on her, she disserved answers. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out one of his cans of the original brimstone and held it out. Visual help as it where.

“Side effects are as follows, an extreme addiction, in some cases people that have tried to quit have died. The withdrawals are so painful it actually feels like your whole body is being ripped apart on the inside.”

John put the can away then pulled out the little injection canister of the red colored drug. He’d explain what he knew of these.

“This is what Barker came up with, well one of the things Barker came up with. These things have the enhancement without the addiction, but the attraction to the power is what gets you. From what I know, you take more than three and you Over Dose and your in a world of hurt.”

Then John put that away and closed his eyes again. For more explaining.

“Well it seems Barker was selling to an outside source, and that source sold to another third party, so on and so forth. It just got out like most things do. A disease if you ask me.”

[chihiro]

Chihiro recognized the first canister, the Brimstone. Afterall she'd seized quite a few of them, handing them over to Valekin for testing. Addiction, death? My, now wasn't that pleasant? She watched as the canister disappeared back into his pocket and he withdrew a second smaller one. A modified Brimstone? Without the addiction..

These facts found themselves attached to Barker's name in her mind. Barker was a power hungry fool who corrupted Asiv and wanted to build a powerful army as ambitious as he was. He just kept ranking higher and higher on her 'people to watch out for' list.

But now...the question that waged on her mind..and after a moment of silence, she spoke..

"Why do you have these drugs, John?"

[John]

John opened his eyes, seemed it was a question he had once again put himself into. He took a second and looked at her. He decided to do some more explaining.

“A while back when I was a freshman I was rather power hungry, so I agreed to join Asiv. He gave me brimstone, and I willingly took it. Now I’m heavily addicted to it. The other drug I have so I can even the playing field against the enforcers at the correctional facility. Though that is the only one I have it’s the best chance I have of bringing Barker to his knees.”

And that was the truth the other thing he was given was an amulet that symbolized his alliance with Asiv. Some others like Winters and Keith had these things. So it was down to that. Since that was about all he could think of to explain why he had them.

[chihiro]

Chihiro frowned as he admitted to having an addiction to these drugs. She wasn't pleased about it, but like he had said, withdrawal could end in death, and that too was pretty uncool. She pursed her lips, looking out over the steps for a moment as she remained silent. She was disliking Brimstone more and more with everything she learned about it. And with her dislike of the product, grew her dislike of the man named Barker. He had taken something that was aimed to cure illness, or whatever it was Asiv had originally thought, and was making monsters.

"Is there anyway to stop?"

She asked, her voice soft with thought. She wasn't looking at him, but out over the grounds. Her mind kept drifting from her work with Valekin, to Aureus, who she hadn't thought of in months. But she knew he had taken the drug, and the more she knew about the drug, the more she could understand the things in her life, past and present.

[John]

John frowned. He wasn’t sure if he should answer that one or not. He couldn’t bring himself to look directly at her so he also looked at the grounds, as if scanning for something. He finally just decided to explain it.

“A long time ago a man named Jyo Mashima told me a lot of things about Brimstone. I took that information and learned, he taught me a lot of things, and I was able to quit Brimstone once… But as the days went on it was obviouse I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself anymore. To match Barker and his goons I decided to take Brimstone again. I don’t have that much left right now, so I may have to try and quit again. You know me well enough to know I don’t ask for help… But I need it. Not from drugs, because that has failed already, I need help from other people.”

Yeah, that was John’s out of the way, um way of asking Chi for help.