And So It Begins... [Private: Jet, Avery, Lloyd]

Jet was nervous. He was never really called personally for a meeting with the School Board since he always took his missions from the mission board, meaning he had no idea why he was called in. It was strangely quiet in the corridor leading to the room he was to enter; it was as if he was on his death walk. Was he going to be expelled? As he approached he started to think about all the reasons he could be in trouble for and calmed down some, none of those reasons seemed good enough to expel him. Still, he felt uneasy. Placing his hand on the cool metal doorknob, he gulped and entered.

Immediately, he was blinded by the light in there. Why the hell was it so bright? For some reason, he was expecting a gloomy room but the intensity of the light was a much less pleasant alternative for the light sensitive guy. His sunglasses adjusted the filtering level quickly while he tentatively walked to an uncomfortable looking chair. “If it’s about Rossi stealing food from the kitchens again, it’s a freaking teleporting cat, not much I can do!”

Turning his head, he realized he wasn’t alone. It took him a few seconds to recognize Kei with his impaired sight, but his presence contradicted with his expectations of this summon. “Oh, hey… Are… We in trouble or not?”

Avery stared at her progress results through the small screen of her phone. As expected, her theories were at B's and C's while a few practicals were at A's. However amidst the satisfying aptitude grades was one glaring aspect that stood out like a sore thumb - Teamwork: D. She winced just like every other time she looked at it. She returned the phone to her pocket and simply continued to the School Board.

The gunslinger had a vague idea why she was called since one of the profs had already warned this was coming. So makeup class perhaps? Or private lessons? Either way, what she didn't understand was why in the School Board? It couldn't have been a mission since she just finished one recently.

Walking in the room, Avery paused seeing Kei and Shades inside. "Ha! You too? She blurted out with a small laugh but then looked at the guy in sunglasses in confusion. She'd understand Kei since he's as much of a lone wolf as every mysterious guy in pocket books. But Shades? She didn't peg him to suck at teamwork. Avery then turned towards the unfamiliar faces of staff members that were definitely not the ones who handed missions.

"So uhh.. is the huge fancy room really needed?" Avy asked the staffs as she made herself comfortable and pulled up a chair to sit and play with her hair while waiting for who knows what.

Lloyd had received a notification on his Scroll earlier this morning about a important meeting he was supposed to attend at the School Board. It was the first time the academy actively required his presence for something and he didn't know if it was good or not. Thinking about it a little, he felt like it could have been about what happened during his short stay in Vale and his whole missing arm situation. Feeling like there was no way he could not go see what this meeting was all about in the first place, he decided to go but not arrive early and take his time.

As he arrived right in front of the door he had to go in, he saw that it was slightly opened, letting him hear in the room that there was other people already in. Making sure that his coat was covering his left side beforehand, he slowly entered the room to see both familiar and unfamiliar faces. In all six person in the room, no counting himself, Lloyd recognize two of them. Avy, which only lead him to believe that it was in relation with the situation that happened in Vale; and Jet, who he met once and crossed path multiple times in the school but never really talked past the hellos. The others were unknown to him so he walked toward the girl and waved. "So why are we here? Anyone care to explain?"

Jet looked almost affronted for a moment at the idea of putting down Rossi. Granted, it was destructive a bit, attention craving and kept teleporting on him at the worst possible moments. But it’s also exceedingly adorable and cuddly, can never stay mad at it. Jet crossed his arms and shot the deadliest glare he could at Kei from behind his sunglasses. “My cat is awesome you’ll know.”

Anyway, he wasn’t in trouble, so that was good, but he was beginning to wonder why they were here. The arrival of Avery made him smile, her question made him shrug. At this point there wasn’t much to do other than wait. The last guy he remembered even if he didn’t know him much. He didn’t remember his name though, but he could not forget that funky hair color. Maybe he’d get the chance to ask if it was natural this time?

With all four of them now in the room, the board members started to talk. Wait, four of them? The following words served only to confirm his suspicions: They’re being sent on a super-secret group mission! Jet started to get excited about it even, until they finally told them what they were actually here for. A bit shocked, Jet didn’t say anything and just looked around at his new team members. He knew very well how Avery and Kei fought so he was perfectly fine with them. He didn’t know about that Lloyd guy, but according to RPG cliché # 13 “The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.” So he can’t be bad.

Kei’s panic attack was actually funny to him. “Heh, don’t ask me, I’m perfectly fine with this personally. Besides, KLAJ isn’t a bad team name at all so nothing to complain here.” With a smile, Jet leaned back in his chair. They were a pretty badass team, he didn’t know that many people in the school but he couldn’t think of any other combination of students that could overcome them in pure battle ability. Not that he was thinking that much of himself or that low of everyone else outside of those present but… Yeah he kinda did a bit… Maybe he was spending too much time with Avy? Nhaaaa!

Avery gasped playfully at Kei's accusation. "And I have power over the academy... how? As you can tell from my 'you too' with a pronounced question mark at the end, I'm as clueless as you," she stated. Her confusion increased even more at the arrival of Lloyd. Returning his wave, she continued to stare at him as he moved next to her. This person was one hell of a team player so why was he here? Something told Avy this wasn't what she thought it was.

When they were informed that Lloyd was the last person they needed, Avery's senses raised in alarm. There were four of them. Exactly four. And as the elderlies introduced themselves, 'Council of Team Appointment', her mind filled with so many expletives she already lost count. It didn't take a genius to know where this conversation was heading and she didn't like it at all!

After hearing they were going to be in a team, Avy continued to stare at the three elderlies. She cleared her throat and tilted her head in confusion. "I beg your pardon, I think I misheard you say we're going to be in a team or something stupidly unnecessary and overbearingly inconvenient like that," she said with a smile, words flowing with deadly sarcasm.  Though as one of them opened their mouth to confirm, Avery quickly placed her hands over her ears as she finally broke down. "No! No, don't say it! I don't wanna hear it! I'm not listening-- Noooo!" She slumped on the table as she heard the confirmation anyway.

Avery sighed, pondering over her 'teammates'. The word was enough to give her goosebumps. She didn't have a problem with them; they were skilled hunters. Too skilled in fact, that she couldn't help but glare at the council members. "Some amazing group you got here. No duster, no healer and our friendly fires pose more threat to us than actual grimms. Bra-vo," she said with a sarcastic smile before going back to glowering on the table.

Apparently Lloyd was the last person that everyone was waiting for in order to proceed with the very important announcement from the three persons that introduced themselves as members of the School Board's Council of... Team Appointment? Lloyd scratched the back of his head as he listened to the three that seemed to have rehearsed there speech with the way they were delivering the news that all four students in the room were, in way simpler words, forced to be part of a team together. Lloyd didn't know too much of what to think of this situation in all honesty. Sure being part of a team would break his hermit cycle and he'd probably spent more time socializing, but he barely knew who the other were. The one he was closest to was Avy, but they didn't quite share the most awesome experience together lately...

He listened to what the other had to say on the matter, remaining silent so far. It seemed like Jet was fine with the idea, but both Kei and Avy seemed pretty against. It seemed that for the cloaked guy it was more the idea of lead the group that horrified him, which Lloyd understood perfectly as he wished for never having to lead others as it was too stressful for him. But it was Avy's reason that made him think more as she was right on the fact that the team would lack serious variety if none of them were Dusters or had an ability to heal. Lloyd realized that by this knowledge Avy must have known the other or at least fought against or alongside them to know what they were able to, which made Lloyd feel left out a little, not enough to actually complain though. He just felt all three of them knew each other more than him which made him question his place in the team itself.

That thought made Lloyd wonder on what this Team Appointment group based their decision though, like how did they know that they were skilled individuals like they said? "Hum, question here. You seem like you had your eyes on us for quite some time if you can tell how skilled each of us are. How's that? Spying on students? And I think that we also should have our words to say on the matter, right? Like you can't really force us to be part of a team if half of us seem to be against, can you?" Lloyd was afraid to be wrong for some reason and that they actually had the power to do so. Seems like it was more than half of the students that weren't okay with this team idea.

Jet was still smiling through all this. All the negativity from his team members was actually somewhat amusing to him, but they’d work through it, that’s what teams do. The fact he was the only one with a positive look on the whole thing made him realize he was going to have to be the mediator or something like that. Well, if that’s how it is… At least he wasn’t leader.

In a way he could agree that there wasn’t much variety in their team. Well he didn’t know about Lloyd but since Avery mentioned it, guess the guy was another person with physical weapon proficiency. To be honest though, Jet didn’t mind, even preferred it considering his condition. Also, Kei did use Dust in the last hunt anyway. As for healing… well they could always buy a ton of medical stuff. He knew already that Avery was pretty afraid of friendly fire and he remembered a few times where he came close to being hit, so he wasn’t surprised when she mentioned it as a potential issue. They’d have to work on that at some point, she’d have to start trusting herself and her partners. Accidents happen but it’s never been either of their fault.

Jet turned to Avery after she was done talking. “Well those are good points but I personally think we’re going to be fine. If anything, this team is probably the only composition that could work when we include loners like you and Kei. Would you rather be teamed up with a Duster you don’t know and with whom you have no idea if you can even work together? They checked on us as they said and they know we work well together, I think that was a bigger factor in the formation of the team than the actual balance of our fighting styles.”

As Kei left, Jet also got up, preparing to leave too. “Well team, normally I’d go for a high five buuuuut you don’t seem to be in the mood, so I’ll hold on to it. Hey! High five! HJFV! With our last names! That’s pretty cool for an alternate name.” With a smile, the black haired guy waved at the other two and walked out. “See you soon, team HJFV!”

[EXIT]

Avery turned to Kei with a look of surprise and then disappointment. All this time he had been her favourite person as she found his cynicism entertaining but with just those few words she lost all respect. The fact that she never disclosed her background information to him meant he was a judgement piece of crap who outright downplayed her achievements. And this is supposed to be our leader?

Nonetheless, Avery remained silent as she continued to listen to the council's explanation. Her eyebrow twitched at the mention of expulsion if they failed to comply. So they were practically forced to work together? If there was one thing she hated the most, it was being told what to do. Her eyes shifted to Shades guy.

"No, I would like a team where I don't have to worry about accidentally killed from behind. The purpose of a team is to merge skills to compliment each other. In this case, we'll only get in each other's way." Avery paused as she glanced at the elders. "But then again, what do I expect from a mediocre school? They have a team council too lazy to do their jobs that they just clump random people together without considering repercussions. Excuse me."

Avery stood up and didn't wait for the council to finish what they're saying as she walked out. Being rude was the least of her concerns as she found what the council did worse. Her worries right now was how to not be a deadweight to this 'team' once they're called for a mission.

[Exit]

Lloyd was at this point only glaring at this council. He would have been crossing his arms but yeah... can't do that with only one, but he did had a stance that showed how against he was to that mentality of those. "Have you listened to yourselves? "Not forcing us, heavily suggesting" and "don't have a choice in the matter" plus threatening us of expulsion. You should make up your mind on what you really want, because at this point you won't really have team in this school, just groups of students that'll end up leaving." He wasn't happy about being forced into a team, but it seemed that Avy was the one hating this idea the most. He was at least glad to see that it was because she feared hurting them than feeling like none of them were good enough teammates for her taste. But still, a lot of negativity in the room and not much could be done right now.

As everyone had left the room, Lloyd soon followed but it seemed like everyone went their own separate way. Sighing as this whole situation in which none of them could do anything without probably getting all four of them expelled, the two tone haired guy slowly made his way to his dorm room, hoping that they wouldn't need Team KLAJ anytime soon.

-EXIT-