Seed Of Speed

The next morning, Diego sent off two of his clones to classes while his true body met up with Moonfall outside the small building that lead down to the Catacombs. Her hair was in its trademark pigtails and she was had opted out for a sleeveless tan shirt, tan, short shorts, and tied, leather boots that came up to mid-t.h.i.g.h. Despite her young age, her body was petite and fit with signs of a.d.u.l.thood in her developing curves.

After mentally admonishing himself for checking out a girl that was clearly underage, Diego smile and waved as he walked up and said, "Good morning, senior-disciple sister."

"You're late, junior-disciple brother! We must hurry, or the others will leave us behind!" she scolded with a stamp of her foot.

Diego scratched the back of his head as he looked away since he could not deny it, but breakfast this morning had turned out to be something that tasted like bacon and fluffy, scrambled eggs. He may have gone a little overboard with the shaman student's privilege of unlimited meals… still worth it though. Using his [Speed Clone] ability for extended periods of time always left him ravenousness, so he was trying to prevent that, or so he told himself.

Moonfall let out a dramatic exasperated sigh after a moment of silence then grabbed his arm and dragged him into the building. Diego chuckled as he allowed her to tug him along. When he had found her last night at Shadowbolt's tower and asked her if he could go with her to the Catacombs the next day, she squealed so loud and high-pitched that he was sure if there had been glass in the room, it would have broken and then talked his ear off about what he needed to know.

They walked down five flights of stairs before entering a large, empty room except for an elder sitting behind a desk and a ring of green stones. The walls, however, were anything but b.a.r.e as hundred on runes were carved into the stone. Each one pulsed with its own unique color, creating a cosmic, rainbow pattern of lights.

He opened his eyes at the sound of their footsteps and nodded. "Five hundred pellets each, apprentices," he said.

"I'm paying for both of us," Moonfall replied with a sigh, holding out her jade token.

Diego chuckled uncomfortably and apologized again, saying, "I'm sorry, senior-disciple sister, I just went a little crazy last night."

"It's fine, junior-disciple brother. Treat it as your gift for earning your name, Brightmelody," Moonfall said, giving him a smile.

The elder waved a black token across her green one and said, "You are free to enter."

Moonfall tucked away her token and walked around the desk, disappearing as she stepped across the ring of stones. Diego followed after her and felt the same twisting pull that he had when he had entered the other pocket world. What he was not expecting was entering in a large common room, filled with apprentices and adapts, and even fully equipped with lounge furniture. Against the far wall, there were four stone archways with a glowing azure mist pouring out of it the center and had an elder standing next to each.

Diego walked after Moonfall as she looked around frantically for the other members of her group. She must have found tham as she suddenly turned and headed straight for a group of four people, two in the martial uniform and the other two were in the apprentice shaman uniform. All four of them were male, and the two apprentices made clear signs of checking out Moonfall, which made his brotherly, overprotectiveness flare up as he glared at the two men.

"Magmapunch, why is Galesurge here?" Moonfall asked.

"You were taking so long that I decided to ask him to join," one of the apprentices said with a smirk.

"But I already paid you to include my junior brother! We made a deal, Bernu!" Moonfall snapped angrily.

"I left room for you, but I don't like the way he is looking at me. I might be willing to let him join, but it will cost have of his share of the profits," Magmapunch said with a sleazy grin.

Moonfall was ready to explode, but Diego placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a kind smile, "Don't worry senior-disciple sister. If they don't have enough room for me, that's fine. I'm sure I can find another group to go with."

She flashed him a quick smile with a nodded then turned back to the group and growled, "If you don't have room for my junior brother, you don't have room for me! We will just find another group!"

Magmapunch laughed and gave Galesurge a smirk before announcing in a loud voice, "Magmapunch squad looking for another support shaman, and if we run into whichever group partners with these two, expect a raid!"

"You are going too far, Bernu!" Moonfall shouted with a stamp of her foot.

"You should learn now that your looks will only get you so far," Magmapunch snickered and walked away, towards the small group of shamans that were making their way over after his announcement.

Moonfall wanted to start a fight right then, but Diego tapped on her shoulder with a finger and shook his head. "Don't worry so much, Moonfall. Have you forgotten our secret weapon?"

Instantly, her eyes lit up as Diego pulled out his ki'ta from his storage space. Since Magmapunch had called the pair, a number of eyes were watching them and some of those snickered at the sight of the instrument in Diego's hands. It did not bother him one bit as he had a clear understanding of how rare his 'Soul Singer' abilities were. No one here would know what he was, if they even knew what a 'Soul Singer' was.

Diego confidently walked to the center of the common room, drawing more people's attention and mocking stares, but he just smiled. After this long, he was starting to understand his bardic abilities and, while he might not have the skill yet, he knew he could create what he wanted so long as he focused his will.

"There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn

Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Young people speaking their minds

Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down…"

Red Tracy's "Stop Children What's That Sound" rang out through the common room silencing all of the talking as everyone, even the elders, found themselves drawn towards Diego's singing. As he finished the song, the only thing that broke the silence was the alert, ringing in his ears.

::{Siren's Call} created::

With a big grin on his face, Diego introduced himself, "Good morning, fellow apprentices of the Konto Sect. I am Brightmelody, disciple of Grand Master Shadowbolt and a Soul Singer, and this is my senior-disciple sister, Moonfall. Since Magmapunch refused our prior arrangement, the two of us are looking for a group to take us in."

Diego words seemed to return everyone to their senses, and several groups hurried over to him in hopes of recruiting him while other apprentices just made their way over to introduce themselves, so that he might remember them later. Although he was nearly swarmed with people wanting to shake his hand and such, he still took the chance to glance over at Magmapunch and his group. It was very satisfying to see the disgruntled look on the arrogant apprentice's face while the two martial apprentices looked at him with aggrieved expressions.