Aberrant: Mutant High - Life According To Revenant Ch. 1

[Warren Verona]

The walls were five feet high. Packed to their limit with the toughest and most reinforced snow winter could provide. A snaky maze of tunnels and walls were all around in the expansive acreage of the Academy's fields.

Snow Wars. That's right, the idea was a simple one. Build a fortress, make your ammo, and survive the grizzly hell that was two teams of ten pelting snow balls at each other from opposite ends of the battlefield. You got tagged three times, you were out.

Competition was rough, Warren was alone against three, but every purple ball of snow he threw blasted holes in their walls the size of grapefruits. No one could know the superhuman agility he possessed was saving his hide, but once things devolved to using their powers to try and tag him, it was no holds barred.

Kilo smashed his fists into the Earth and snow rippled up like a white wave of powder. The big guy had his back and stole the attention of his three assailants from him for just the time he needed. He ran up the big guys back and sent himself soaring over the wall and onto the roof of an ice tower where he let fly a snowball that seemed small, but carried a charge that caused the rippling energy to expand to the size of a bowling ball.

Fear and panic gripped the opposing team's expression as it landed right in the middle of three of them and exploded, taking half their walls with it.

"Gloom! Sonja! Smurf! You guys are out!" Glacia exclaimed, playing referee for this particular match. "Nice dive Smurf, way to try and take one for Sonja! My hero!"

Warren laughed and reveled in his victory. Then the world got dark and he felt the tower leave his footing. He flew up, off and back several feet, digging a trench in the snow as he slid. The snowball connected harder than anyone could have guessed and the small kid, by the name of Tyler, tough he'd taken down the evil mutant snow bomber.

Kazuo slipped back into hiding, no one saw it was him that hurled the beast of an ice ball at Warren, and if the little feral kid Travis got the credit, who cared? He just wanted to see if he could slam that asshole in the face from such a great distance.

For a moment, Travis, the three year old feral, was a god among mutants.

Owww...

"Revenant!" Glacia slid over to him gracefully, skating on the surface of the snow like ice. "You're... -no hard feelings- OUT!"

The game continued on. Tyler didn't last ten seconds afterward, but his bolstered mood of taking down the Snow Bomber allowed him to resign his place on the team with much dignity and respect.

Glacia was well on her way to shaping the arena for the next battle. Warren's nose had stopped bleeding and he was adjusting the tightness of his fingerless leather gloves.

Ever the loner, he even separated himself from the others as they wound down and recovered for the next match. Tyler ran around, bless his cute lil' heart, talking about how when he grew older and joined the G.I. Joes he'd still write everyone and be their friends.

Warren smiled at the boy, his claws black as death and the red and black quills that covered his body had to be taped or tied down to prevent him from impaling himself, or others. He's a good kid. Soak it up, Pup, you earned it.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis caught sight of the match and walked over, observing the proceedings and the wind-down tactics employed. Hmm... Revenant was there... perfect.

And besides, it was worth taking his mind off the meeting with Drumm.

So as people waited for the arena to be remade, he strode over.

"Mind if I come in for Round 2?" After he got a yes, he carefully slipped over to Revenant. "I must admit, that was impressive fighting on your part. Even if Kazuo seems to have gotten the last word in on the lunchroom brawl."

[Warren Verona]

"That's your 'hello'?" Warren looked at the guy through narrow eyes and an expression the mingled between confusion and a scoff. "I don't know you, kid. Piss off."

He went back to his business and took a moment to crack his neck as he waited for Glacia. He just wished it didn't take her ten or more minutes to do it.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis bit his lip and decided to go give it some time, at least as he saw it. "Curtis... from chat. I was hoping to ask you on something, but... feh. Never mind. I'll just add I've been assigned to your team."

He turned and walked away and began scrutinizing the growing glaciers as they slowly formed into massive fortresses. Rather beautiful, artistic and strong, to be sure. But, nothing is invulnerable, and Curtis studied the fortress of the opposition, and easily detected a gaping weakness.

Not that anyone else could see it. But at one point of the base, a couple of Revenant's exploding balls, and the structure's gate would shatter down fast.

[Warren Verona]

Round two took slightly longer than the first. Warren didn't make it to 'last man standing'. Under Sonja tactical advice the team was ordered to remove him as swiftly as possible. She quickly changed her tactics when, as they focused on Warren, his team was laying waste to their fortress's walls. She got him though, but not before her team has suffered too many losses to recover and win the match.

The score was tied, 1 to 1.

Tothe surprise of most, Revenant was a gracious loser. Most expected the bully to threaten the livelihood of anyone who much as thought about lobbing a snowball his way. In the end however, he simply played the game. Although he played it to win and did so in an incredibly militants 'no mercy' attitude, when he was tagged out, he exited the field and no more was said about it.

The guy didn't even trash talk, which was almost intimidating all in itself. He was silent, efficient, and his aim nearly perfect... almost like he'd been trained to handle this sort of game, and handle it he did; with ruthless efficiency.

Dutifully Glacia set about constructing a new arena. Sliding about the surface about the surface of the snow like a weightless faerie of winter, graceful and majestic.

Once again he sat alone from the groups, having claimed a picnic table all his own, he sat on the table and waited for the area to be finished.

[Curtis Shane]

Curtis bit his lip and walked around, pacing in frustration. Obviously, he'd been a bit unfair to Revenant, to top the frustration of the morning and the fact that talking to Revenant wasn't likely to happen...

Damn it, he realized, evading this would only make Rev less than respectful of Curtis, having no balls or something like that.

So he walked over to the picnic table, semi-calm, and tried with as must courage as he could muster to ask "Can I talk with you for a bit?"

[Warren Verona]

Through his narrowed eyes and long hair Warren saw him approaching. Christ, this guy fallin' in love? he thought as he leaned against the table, arms folded and waited for the arena to be completed.

"Talk." He said calmly, his voice carried a ton of malice to it. Curtis wasn't bleeding yet, which was a good sign.

[Glacia]

Ice, snow, control over these things was simple and easy, and in some ways fun. While folks often avoided her in the winter, in games like this, they sought her out and asked her to help. Mostly because she turned it from being simple snowball throwing into a much more interesting game.

And while she enjoyed playing games herself, she was more then willing to be the referre on this one, sense it was sort of unfair for her to actually compete. After all, she could throw dozens of snowballs, raise walls of ice in seconds, and even liquify the very air.

At the moment, she had created another group of forts this time, out of a since of a certain whimsy, she had given each fort a theme.. dragon, unicorn, gargoyle, gryphon.

"Ok, On the count of zero, the game starts again.. three, two, one..zero!"

[Curtis Shane]

Round 3 proved to be interesting. It soon came down to Revenant and Curtis versus Sonja, Smurf and Kazuo, and both sides were on their last legs. Finally, Curtis noticed a weak point to the structure of the gargoyle forts, and all three opponents were within close range of the resulting fallout snow.

Curtis realized this had to be used quickly. "Rev," he shouted, a finger point to the spot intended. "Hit that spot with a exploder!"

Revenant glared but did throw an exploding snowball. The wall collapsed within moments, and by the other foes could get out of the radius, Curtis and Rev had tagged them all. Victory.

Afterwards, Curtis flushed and nodded to Rev. "Sorry if I seemed brusque. Just wanted to make it work when it was best."

After they'd walked off, Curtis asked Rev, "How do you get through life? How do you see the world?"

[Warren Verona]

He was still following him. Warren didn't know why, but the guy seemed to be really interested in talking with him. He stopped and turned around, looking Curtis dead in he eye and sticking a finger in his chest a few times for good measure. "You yell at me again, and I don't care the reason, I'll paste you."

"How do I get through life?" He repeated the mutant in front of him who seemed capable of doing pretty much anything, even surviving a harrowing athletic competition despite not possessing any athletic ability at all. "I don't understand the question to be honest. Day by day I suppose."

He decided to humor the guy. Warren squinted a bit to prevent snow-blindness from setting in. He had to admit, as cold as it was, there was nothing prettier than acres of fresh powder on a clear winter day. "I see the world as a sick, twisted, and violent place filled with people who're afraid of me because I'm more powerful than they are. I can do something they can not, and they're either jealous or scared, can't say I care which. Either way, they mean to make my life a living hell, so I'll make sure I give em' one hell of a fight before they take me down."